Dok (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cyberinsekt) wrote,@ 2008-09-05 23:05:00 |
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Diatribes - Dissection#4
There's nothing more tragicomic than a vanity press. The author pays once with all the hours spent writing, then again for publication costs, and then the inevitable third payment as they rescue a shed full of books from being pulped. It's an ugly, greedy business that preys on human weakness, and a brilliant source of dark humour, never better realised than in Foucault's Pendulum. Incidentally, in the ever ethical musical business, a vanity label means something else entirely: it's the name given to a label run by a recording artist, one where they're allowed to indulge their artistic sensibilities.
These days, alternative publishing routes may be putting the old vanity presses out of business. Texts published as PDF files, or print-on-demand services may be spoiling the old punchlines. But in music, the humour is getting ever richer. The old vanity presses have an interesting analogue in netlabels, but this time the joke runs the other way. With vanity presses it was always the author left out of pocket; with netlabels it's the publisher. They exist solely to show the refined tastes of one person. It's the same ego trip, but this time without any pretence of talent. I less than three netlabels.
The sad irony is that there's actually a fair amount of really good music that gets released this way. The overwhelmingly fishy smell of netlabels is a barrier to this ever being properly heard - though admittedly, a smaller barrier than if it were never published in the first place, which may often be a distinct possibility. Here's a group that could surely get a "proper" contract if they so wished. The duo of drummer Cyril Bondi and saxophonist Gael Riondel play a jittery, skittish free jazz, with producer D'Incise adding electronics that only add to the sense of disquiet. It's tense but very rewarding music. Dissection#4 is taken fom Diatribes' album Mémoires Disséquées which can be found at Zymogen records.
It's easy to laugh at netlabels, but really they're no more outlandish than listener-supported radio in the US. It's just that they have far fewer listeners, and their studied artiness means that they will never overcome that barrier without grants from funding bodies, the ultimate ego reward for their curator/publishers. Maybe, somewhere along the line, some of those euros will find their way to adventurous musicians like Bondi and Riondel. But I wouldn't bet on it.
Diatribes - Dissection#4
There's nothing more tragicomic than a vanity press. The author pays once with all the hours spent writing, then again for publication costs, and then the inevitable third payment as they rescue a shed full of books from being pulped. It's an ugly, greedy business that preys on human weakness, and a brilliant source of dark humour, never better realised than in Foucault's Pendulum. Incidentally, in the ever ethical musical business, a vanity label means something else entirely: it's the name given to a label run by a recording artist, one where they're allowed to indulge their artistic sensibilities.
These days, alternative publishing routes may be putting the old vanity presses out of business. Texts published as PDF files, or print-on-demand services may be spoiling the old punchlines. But in music, the humour is getting ever richer. The old vanity presses have an interesting analogue in netlabels, but this time the joke runs the other way. With vanity presses it was always the author left out of pocket; with netlabels it's the publisher. They exist solely to show the refined tastes of one person. It's the same ego trip, but this time without any pretence of talent. I less than three netlabels.
The sad irony is that there's actually a fair amount of really good music that gets released this way. The overwhelmingly fishy smell of netlabels is a barrier to this ever being properly heard - though admittedly, a smaller barrier than if it were never published in the first place, which may often be a distinct possibility. Here's a group that could surely get a "proper" contract if they so wished. The duo of drummer Cyril Bondi and saxophonist Gael Riondel play a jittery, skittish free jazz, with producer D'Incise adding electronics that only add to the sense of disquiet. It's tense but very rewarding music. Dissection#4 is taken fom Diatribes' album Mémoires Disséquées which can be found at Zymogen records.
It's easy to laugh at netlabels, but really they're no more outlandish than listener-supported radio in the US. It's just that they have far fewer listeners, and their studied artiness means that they will never overcome that barrier without grants from funding bodies, the ultimate ego reward for their curator/publishers. Maybe, somewhere along the line, some of those euros will find their way to adventurous musicians like Bondi and Riondel. But I wouldn't bet on it.
Diatribes - Dissection#4
