heute:pop:blog.  

I’ve been thinking/talking/blogging a lot about getting rid of all my CDs and records and how I feel I don’t need want to own any physical data carriers any more. It’s easier said than done but I’m on the right course.

Stefan Glerum seems to share my view and published some brilliant illustrations on his blog about vinyl records specifically and the obsession of finding (and owning) records: crate digging. Check them out yourself, this is special.

I had a few days now to recover from Popkomm (and more importantly the weekend that followed the conference). I’ve been asked a lot “so how was Popkomm?” and probably never gave the same answer twice. In summary this is probably what I was trying to say:

It was yet again less busy than the years before. If you’ve followed my tweets you would have seen that I kept complaining about it. After thinking about it a bit more the fact that there were less people attending probably wasn’t a bad thing: it is totally fine that those events become smaller and in a way they might even improve if they are more intimate. Nevertheless it was very unusual to be at the British stand (which was put on by AIM only this year and not the BPI any more) on Thursday afternoon at 4.30pm and seeing only 40 people standing there. At that time you would normally have about 300 people there drinking their (hopefully) well deserved beer.

As I posted here before many of my UK and US contacts didn’t even make it to Popkomm this year. One common explanation for that was: Midem is happening in three months so one might as well go there only and meet everyone. When you have to travel over from the States this makes a lot of sense.

It was only when I went to the Soundcloud launch party at Picknick last Friday night that someone pointed out to me that there were hardly any labels at Popkomm. I realized that I only had a few conversations about music at the conference – it was mainly about the business around it. Again, this is not a bad thing but it makes me feel less party of a creative industry. When I unpacked my bag on Sunday I had two CDs in my hand – when I first went to Popkomm in 2003 (this was still in Cologne) I came back with bags full of CDs and records. Were those the better days? I’m not into nostalgia so I’m going to say no: those times were just different.

There are some great gigs happening at the time of Popkomm but when you look at the events that are happening at the Kulturbrauerei you start thinking that some of those seem a bit ‘forced’. In regards to the line up of many of those gigs you can imagine that the promoters are sitting there thinking they have to fill all those venues because it is Popkomm time and therefore some gigs are a bit random. In addition to the official Popkomm events there are of course other great parties happening all over the city but I suppose that’s Berlin…

So how was Popkomm? I enjoyed it. The conference will have to find their place in the market as they are competing with other events more than ever but if they are clever they will be able to stay relevant in the future. They maybe weren’t this year.

1. The Decemberists ‘O New England’
2. Efterklang ‘Redrop’
3. TV On The Radio ‘Love Dog’
4. Frightened Rabbit ‘Set You Free’ (N-Trance Cover)
5. Gentle Touch ‘Pieter Van Den Hoogenband’
6. The Mountain Goats ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’
7. Deastro ‘Wind Powered’
8. Parken ‘At Helvete Med Himlen’
9. cassettes won’t listen ‘paper float’ (styrofoam x-911 remix)
10. The Teenagers ‘Homecoming’ (Gentelmen Drivers Rave Mix)
11. Holy Fuck ‘Balloons’ (Foals Cover)
12. Justice ‘Planisphere’ (Part 1)

You can listen to all this here.

1. TV On The Radio ‘Love Dog’
2. cassettes won’t listen ‘paper float’ (styrofoam x-911 remix)
3. The Tough Alliance ‘Take No Heroes’
4. Of Montreal ‘Gallery Piece’
5. Herman Dune ‘My Home Is Nowhere Without You’
6. Slow Club ‘Apples And Pairs’
7. I’m From Barcelona ‘Music Killed Me’
8. Daphne ‘Losing My Religion’
9. Stereolab ‘Neon Beanbag’
10. audiossey ‘Room 414′
11. The Teenagers ‘Homecoming’ (Gentelmen Drivers Rave Mix)
12. Chicks On Speed ‘Wordy Rapinhood’
13. Neil Young ‘Heart Of Gold’

You can listen to all this here.

I went to the BBC the other day for a quick radio interview: Rory Cellan-Jones asked Matt Mason and myself a few very broad questions about digital music and it’s effect on music owners. The odd thing was that I didn’t actually meet the two in person but we were all in three different studios (Matt was even in New York). Nevertheless I enjoyed it, you can listen to it here:

So what’s going on? A recession? A real one or just one that gets newspapers excited? I’m too cynical to get get concerned about these issues until they really effect me or I can see other people affected.

Then I looked at my schedule for the upcoming Popkomm conference in Berlin and noticed it is still strangely open. Either I am becoming less popular or the companies I normally catch up with at this conference are not attending this year. The latter seems to be the case: lots of emails from people saying that they will not make it this time. Those are often Americans and it looks like they want to safe a few dollars by not making it over to Berlin. Will be interesting to see if the American companies that brought over 30+ people and took out huge stands the last few years will do the same next week.

When I the also read about IODA laying off people maybe it’s time not to take all this seriously. It feels like the time for investment in digital music is slowly over and people are looking for the R in ROI. 

(I actually hope it’s just me getting less popular.)

I went to the Digital Music Awards last night together with Dave (who gave me his spare ticket, thanks for that) and this is my verdict: What a soulless event. I’m all for celebrating yourself but last night the no one even attempted to ‘award’ themselves for the work they have done but it was just an excuse to get drunk on the expense account.

Someone made a very interesting point though: he felt that everyone he talked to was only about the marketing and promotion of the music and not interested in the music itself. It reminded him of the way the music industry was acting like back in the 80s. We agreed that the people we saw in the Roundhouse last night are the corporate part of the industry of the future: everyone who was there last night is about innovation and the change of the music industry in the context of ‘digital’ but in 10 years time those will be the decision makers big companies that will slow down innovation.

In other words: last night they were wearing suits for the occasion but they’ll be needing those every day in a few years time.