#thecorrespondence

[cheesetaxevasion]

im alive and i have only one thing in my brain: two whumpees trying their best to be better for each other

okbye

[journeytothecenterofmyminduk]

THE RESIDENCE GALLERY @theresidencegallery Exhibition: The Correspondence Featuring: Klein, Morag Keil, Melika Ngombe Kolongo, Racheal Crowther, Nicholas Cheveldave, Rael Stone, Tiz Creel, Derek Mainella, Tabitha Steinberg, India Nielsen, Tom Hardwick-Allan, Jos Nyreen, Daniel Swan, Claire Barrow, Carson Foley, Barry Reigate, Kian Hardy and Joe Cheetham. As the world went into lockdown a distanced dialogue emerged. An urgency to retain a sense of connectedness in a culture of cancellations and postponed projects spurred a collaborative foot forward. This month TRG unveils a new collection, the culmination of a mail art project that began in early March. The exhibition presents the work of 18 artists who exchanged works and ideas, sustaining contact in the midst of far reaching distancing measures. Following a loose variation on the "exquisite corpse" format, artists sent each other partially finished works in concealed portions with the next artist developing the work. In a chain of participation and exchange, this communal act of making art played a relevant role in channelling these exceptional times. Taking cues from the rich history of collaborative mail art projects executed by the likes of Ray Johnson in the 60s; Matthew Higgs’ Imprint 93 project in the 90’s; Moyra Davey’s ‘mailer works’; and Raymond Pettibon & Marcel Dzama’s 'Forgetting The Hand’ project in 2015; the exhibition consists of a collection of 6 final works on paper and an assortment of postal materials that document the project. Artists sent works from all corners of the UK, to the US, and into Europe. Some artists sent works to friends, others to strangers, others used the opportunity to maintain connection with people where lockdown intensifies already precarious circumstances. For example, Barry Reigate sent his work via Carneys Community, an outreach program for disadvantaged and excluded young people in South London. 10% of sales will be donated to Carneys Community. A text written by Ella Fleck accompanies the exhibition. #theresidencegallery #thecorrespondence #exhibition #drawing #london (en London, Unιted Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCOQYWWFeO4/?igshid=f93qeq44snk

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Look! A new track from The Temper Trap FINALLY appears.

Enjoy the feeling.

~ The Correspondence

@theCMusic

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Warner Music Group to Look at Offers This Week

Warner Music Group's board of directors is said to be reviewing bids for the company this week. 10 investors have already put in bids prior to the review. Among the investors planning to buy all or part of WMG is ticketing agency Live Nation. Warner has been up for sale since January, and has yet find it's new ownership.

What is yet to be seen is how the different potential owners will affect the company and its ultimate fate and direction. Live Nation could do interesting things with the group, but some of the more private investors may be unable to cause any necessary changes to the company.

~ Zack Weinstein and Michael Rodino

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Seriously, We've got awesome rewards if you help us out. Just click the link.

http://www.feedthemuse.net/thecorrespondencemusic

~ The Correspondence

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The Privateer Manifesto: The Safety Net for the Music Industry?

Chris Holmes' has developed a new system called the "Privateer Manifesto," designed to change how we distribute and sell music today. Click on the picture to read the concept, and then read how Zack Weinstein and Michael Rodino felt about the idea.

Zack: Personally, I think this Chris Holmes' Privateer System is interesting and innovative, but is very idealistic, and a tad unorganized. 

He is certainly right when he says that the music industry needs to stop fighting the change it has been presented with. By continuing to actively put up a fight against piracy and file sharing, the music industry is making itself look like a stubborn old person. When a newly built brick wall (piracy and file-sharing) blocks the path to the prune juice, instead of working with the change and steering around the wall, this stubborn person jams their wheelchair headfirst into the wall, expecting to get through to the other side. Take a minute and picture that. You could argue that eventually the brick wall will crumble and fall to the ground. Unfortunately, this wall cannot be broken. Music piracy and file-sharing aren't going anywhere. Ever. And I'm glad that Chris recognizes this. I also agree with him in that I believe, in regards to record sales, the music industry will be more successful as a more personal, localized, and genre specific industry. Now, as for his business model, I am little skeptical. For it to work, he says that there needs to be an "artistic league of nations". Idealistic, but I think it is near impossible. There are too many artists, labels, genres, fans, tastemakers, bloggers, file-sharers, venues, promoters, manufacturers, clouds, services, and anything else you can imagine that involves music today to get everyone on board.  Regardless, hypothetically speaking, let's say enough people in the music industry are interested by the Privateer model, and it is put into operation. I don't think it can survive.  It's success relies on a few assumptions that have no guarantees:  1) People genuinely want to support the arts  2) So, they WILL pay for music  3) Then decide to re-sell that music on their blog/site, and hopefully make profit  As an artist, I do understand the fiscal woes of the arts, and I am more than willing to support them. However, I believe the majority of the public do not share my passion for music and its industry. Now that music can be completely free via the Internet, the money that most people would ordinarily use to spend on music goes elsewhere. And it will stay that way.  Everyone won't all of a sudden say, 'well they must have done a lot to get this music out, so I'll pay them for it.' No, that money is much better spent on a cheesesteak, or that new car, or maybe the gas bill. I may be willing to support the arts, but my neighbor, and his neighbor, and so on, most likely won't be willing to fork up the ten bucks it takes to download something that could be free. Again going into hypotheticals, let's assume that most people do genuinely want to give their money to the arts. And are incentivized by the possibility of making profit themselves. Whats stopping everyone from buying the music directly from the artist in attempt try to maximize their own profits by being a primary buyer? I think the intense competition and greed will be the downfall of this business model. Especially over the world wide web, where there are no rules or restrictions, this would prove to be overly competitive. So many people would be trying to re-sell the music for their own piece of the pie that no one would end up making any profit. So, in the mind of the people actually downloading music, why bother at all? There is no guarantee that there will be any profit anyway. Therefore, to the common music downloader, free music is much better, because, well, it's free. And it doesn't require the extra effort for something that is only has a small possibility of being beneficial to their own self-interest.  BASICALLY, in my opinion, the incentive for people to take part in the Privateer model is not good enough. For this to work, you need everyone on the same page. You need that "artistic league of nations". But I'm pretty sure most people won't be convinced.  In theory, The Privateer model could be very good for the music industry. But it relies too much on the consumer's participation. In the end, I don't think it would function for very long. Sorry, Chris Holmes, I think you are very bright, but you just got served. Or am I just crazy, and this is the remedy everyone is looking for?

Michael: I respect the Privateer system in one aspect, that it chooses to work with the new system rather than fight it. It's certainly the most adaptive set up someone has offered up to the industry to still be selling music. However, I think it's that one word that causes this system to cause me some duress. 

I think if Chris had introduced this system even three years ago, it would have a lot more weight. The number of active bloggers in the music industry was a much smaller number, and the great ones stood out and owned their market. Now, with the advent of tumblr and other microblogging systems, it's easier to start up a blog or website that has great content and a solid number of followers. However, the mass proliferation of these sites makes it impossible for any one of them to have any real priority or power. As for the three assumptions. Both one and two are valid and highly likely. No one wants their favorite artist to stop making music, and everyone would love to make more money. Not everyone wants to pay to do that, or thinks that they have the following to make that initial purchase worth it.  The biggest issue, in the end is that a free market of distributing music already exists. Artists have already adapted to the idea of free, with most new artists using bandcamp to give away their music, using it as advertisement for their brand, their merchandise, their shows and their fan loyalty. That music gives you your fans e-mails, their ears, and their future attention, but it no longer makes you money.  Chris has forgotten one crucial thing about today's music industry, nobody makes money selling music. Don't expect people to start paying for something they've decided they're never going to pay for again. Great idea Chris, but even you're too late for this one. Let us know what you think about the Privateer Manifesto, Good idea or bad idea? ~ Zack Weinstein and Michael Rodino

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Please, don't let it be in vain.

Recommend The Correspondence, because I'd like the interview I just did to get read by a lot of people.

~ Michael Rodino

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Thank You Followers

Here at The Correspondence we'd like to thank our now 101 followers for their support. Please keep reading and responding to what we're posting. We love to hear from you and even more than that, we're happy to see we're putting out articles, reviews and music you like. Be sure to let us know what we can keep doing to make The Correspondence your favorite source for music industry news and reviews.

Thanks again.

~ The Correspondence