Music Business Blog by Jason Feinberg

I stumbled across my old profile page from when i was a DJ and Music Director at KUNV, the radio station on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas where I spent 3 of my 5 college years. This is from February 12, 1997. Pay special attention to how fast a computer rocked my world…

NAME: The Reverend MC Satan
SHOW: The Still Hour
WHEN: Sunday, Midnight – 2 A.M.
STYLE: Gothic, Industrial, Darkwave, Experimental…

But my friends just call me … when they need computer advice.. hehe

A Description? But of course… Pretty much a gothy, computer geek, internet spod…

I discovered the magic sounds of the Rock Avenue … while trying to get the Misfits played.. around..1990?

I’ve been paying my KUNV dues since … August ‘94.. Music Director September ‘95 – January ‘97.

The best thing about being a KUNV DJ is … forcing people to listen to kinds of music they are unaware of, whether they like it or not! I push the buttons people!!

The worst thing about being a KUNV DJ is … 4,791 requests for the *same* Dead Kennedys song every night.

The music I love … Older goth, newer non-cheese goth, some industrial, newer ethereal stuff… finally getting into Projekt artists..

The absolutely greatest bands are … Sisters of Mercy, Fields of The Nephilim, Corpus Delicti, Lycia, Christian Death (most Rozz and even some Valor..), Prick, Cranes, Death In June, Current 93, Cure, Skinny Puppy, etc… Links to most of these bands to come soon

5 Necessary Albums… Fields of The Nephilim “Elizium” – Sisters Of Mercy “First and Last and Always” – Death In June “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust” – Christian Death “Catastrophe Ballet” – Neil Diamond “*ANYTHING*”

The most overrated bands are … Any “punk” band whose members were 6 when the Germs and The Clash were in existence..

The song lyrics I live my life by … “I can wait a long, long time before I hear another love song…” – Sisters of Mercy — “You need yourself to set yourself free” – Wail Of Sumer

In my youth I had … A Cure poster and a Minor Threat tape… More computer knowledge than toys… A lot of stuffed animals…

Hey, it is incredibly deluxe … when code compiles with no errors, when i have food in my house (and/or stomach)

It TOTALLY pisses me off … when hosts and gateways don’t respond… when i forget the “;” at the end of a line… when my major gets pushed back *another* year…

My problems stem from being denied … a good computer in high school… I could have become a computer geek 4 years earlier!!

I am most influenced by … a little red angel that sits on my shoulder…

I have this recurring dream … that every time “Cradle Of Love” by Billy Idol comes on the radio, a small dog bites my arm and won’t let go until the end of the song…

My unusual behavior … is never seen becuase I am usually at home on my computer…

I socially interact … through the internet… telnet vivid.net 7979… look for seraphim… hehehe…

My fantasies and uncontrollable urges … tend to have to do with C++, Pentium 200 Mhz, and Sabrina Satanna!!!!!!!

Occasionally, I suffer hallucinations … but then I remove my head from inside the screen and my finger from the socket…

My philosophy is … 1) It’s all about intent… What do you *intend* to do? That’s how to judge a person. That is how to judge yourself… 2) You can learn anything, you can do anything.. that unused 93% of your brain must be good for something…

According to the UK’s Guardian Unlimited Blog, 58% of music in the US is not paid for.

It’s an interesting read, one part I found quite interesting (and logical, and telling, and an opportunity for those that are open to it) is:

The New York Times’s Bits blog quotes Russ Crupnick, who runs NPD’s music service: “The number of people who do peer to peer in 2007 versus 2006 has been stable,” he said. “The number of files taken per users has increased significantly.” This is because of the shift of many users from Limewire to BitTorrent, which makes it easier to download whole albums.

Also VERY interesting:

Apple iTunes digital music sales are still 10 times that of AmazonMP3 on a unit basis, but differences in their consumer demographic profiles are telling. According to NPD’s initial consumer surveys, 64% of the AmazonMP3 unit sales were traced to males compared to 44% for iTunes. AmazonMP3 showed unexpected strength among young adults (consumers aged 18 to 25), but only 3% of their customers were teens (age 13 to 17). In contrast the iTunes Music store sold nearly a fifth (18%) of its music to teens. It should also be noted that iTunes has a strong franchise in gift cards used by teens, and Amazon has a relatively small base of teen CD buyers.. Read the whole article here.

So my company is promoting the new Asia CD “Phoenix” (available 4/15/08). It’s the original supergroup lineup and is exactly what one would hope the output would be.

The band is streaming a live concert the night of release, and via some simple flash code anyone can embed it in any website or blog. This is some seriously intelligent use of the web and digital assets. We’ve been reaching out to rock and progressive sites/blogs, and we’re getting people to embed it. It’s great – the site has awesome content that is pre-built and easy to add, their visitors get to see a live Asia show (branded as “brought to you by” the site), and we get widespread exposure.

Here’s the code for anyone that wants to embed it or check it out:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0" width="425" height="355" id="SyncLiteFS" align="middle"><param name="movie" value="http://lite.SyncLive.com/SLLiteWeb/home/Player/SyncLiteFS.swf?showid=20068&autoplay=true" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://lite.SyncLive.com/SLLiteWeb/home/Player/SyncLiteFS.swf?showid=20068&autoplay=true" width="425" height="355" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" name="SyncLiteFS" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /></object>

And here it is in action:

I’m a sucker for lists, especially when it equates to a music playlist I’d want to hear. I’ve recently redefined myself as a drummer (after being a guitarist for 18 years), so I am listening to as much of the drum essentials as possible.

This site has compiled what they feel are the 100 Greatest Studio Drum Performances, and I have to admit it’s a pretty solid list. The whole thing can be seen at that link, but here’s the top 20:

1. Moby Dick – John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
2. Toad – Ginger Baker (Cream)
3. Ticks And Leeches – Danny Carey (Tool)
4. 21st Century Schizoid Man – Michael Giles (King Crimson)
5. La Villa Strangiato – Neil Peart (Rush)
6. Erotomania – Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)
7. Cobwebs And Strange – Keith Moon (The Who)
8. Tarkus – Carl Palmer (ELP)
9. Hot For Teacher – Alex Van Halen (Van Halen)
10. Heart Of The Sunrise – Bill Bruford (Yes)
11. Jesus Christ Pose – Matt Cameron (Soundgarden)
12. Fire – Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix)
13. Aja – Steve Gadd (Steely Dan)
14. Space Truckin – Ian Paice (Deep Purple)
15. By-Tor And The Snow Dog – Neil Peart (Rush)
16. A Quick One – Keith Moon (The Who)
17. Wipeout – Ron Wilson (Surfaris)
18. Dharma For One – Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull)
19. Rosanna – Jeff Porcaro (Toto)
20. One More Red Nightmare – Bill Bruford (King Crimson)

What do you think? Agree, disagree, what’s missing??

I’ve registered for and will be attending both Digital NARM and San Fran MusicTech 2 in San Francisco in May. I like to mention these conferences as much as possible as I cannot emphasize enough how useful they are to people at almost all phases of their music business careers. So much of the networking starts (and re-energizes) at these events. It’s not rocket science – you get a bunch of music biz people in the same room and magic happens. Not every conference is right for every person or position, but in the big picture I’ve never come home from a conference without meeting people with shared interests.

Check out the conference pages here:
NARM
SF MusicTech

If any of you are attending, please let me know!