Music and the Internet
80 articles
Report by Alan di Perna, Musician, June 1994
MUSIC, OF course, has always been interactive. People dance to it, make love to it, sing along with the lyrics and figure out the chord ...
How Technology Will Kill The Music Biz
Special Feature by Frank Broughton, i-D, June 1994
In the future, there will be no record companies or record shops. In fact there will be no records. Instead, sound will be transmitted straight ...
Future Sound of London: The Future Sound of Technology
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 25 June 1994
For Brian Dougan and Gary Cobain, THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON is the medium for pushing the frontiers of studio recording, live performance and video ...
Report by Michael Goldberg, Details, July 1994
In the future, when you can dial up any album through your TV set, you won't need record stores — and musicians may not need record ...
Future Sound of London: London Calling
Interview by Andrew Smith, The Guardian, 8 July 1994
Two years ago Future Sound Of London changed the course of dance music. Now they are changing the way rock bands tour... ...
Techno! Techno! Techno! Techno!
Report by Stuart Maconie, Q, September 1994
New! From the makers of Betamax, the eight-track cartridge, and the Sodastream™ — more faddish hardware that'll be redundant within six months! Or will it? ...
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 18 November 1994
Despair not: I have seen the future of rock'n'roll, and its name is Internet ...
Future Sound Of London: Future Pop
Report and Interview by Andrew Smith, The Face, January 1995
When Future Sound Of London played live in New York last month, they were at home in London, connected to the venue only by a ...
Elvis Costello, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Why Are Records Too Long?
Report by Roy Trakin, Musician, November 1995
And other odd twists of the CD revolution. ...
Porno for Pyros' Perry Farrell (1996)
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages Audio, 17 April 1996
The Porno for Pyros frontman talks about his upcoming ENIT Festival and the ecological angle that involves tree planting, craft beers and the "spirits" of heroin and cocaine. He also looks back at his involvement with ENIT's hugely successful predecessor Lollapalooza – and how he became estranged from it. Lastly, he considers, slightly optimistically, how technology is going to change the music business...
File format: mp3; file size: 60.2mb, interview length: 1h 02' 39" sound quality: ***
Brian Eno Before And After Pop
Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 13 July 1997
BRIAN ENO has a theory. Actually, Eno has lots of theories — the 48-year-old, English-born musician probably leads the rock 'n' roll league in this ...
Essay by Mark Dery, Musician, August 1997
Will concert and club dates survive in the Internet age? ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Rock's Backpages Audio, 11 December 1997
America's foremost Utopian on the songwriter's job: on originality and plagiarism; the process of writing and realisation; on revisiting his old songs on With a Twist; on the emerging Internet and how it will change the way artists and songwriters work... and the tyranny of the long-form CD.
File format: mp3; file size: 34.2mb, interview length: 35' 39" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Prince: An Audience With The Artist
Interview by Michael Goldberg, Addicted To Noise, August 1998
THE SECURITY GUARD in suit and tie who is watching the closed door to The Artist's upstairs dressing room on The Tonight Show set in ...
Todd Rundgren: Out on his Todd again
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Webb, The Independent, 19 February 1999
Todd Rundgren is a pioneer. His eclectic albums were the benchmark for a decade, his innovative studio techniques one step ahead of the music industry. ...
Conjunction Junction: The All-Music Guide Wants To Make Scrabble out of Babel
Report by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 24 February 1999
THE ALL-MUSIC Guide bills itself as "an ongoing project to review and rate all music" – emphasis on the all. ...
The Byrds, Roger McGuinn: Roger McGuinn Interview
Interview by Stephen K. Peeples, unpublished, 2 April 1999
AUTHOR'S NOTE, Oct. 11, 2014: The following is an expanded version of my Roger McGuinn interview, a shorter version of which was first published at ...
Interview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 July 1999
Once he was undisputed heavyweight champion of the rap universe, booming apocalyptic conspiracy theories from some of the most earth-shattering hip-hop albums of the last ...
The Beastie Boys: Illin' Communication: The Beastie Boys and the Net
Interview by Jason Gross, Yahoo! Internet Life, August 1999
SEEMS LIKE A long strange trip for a band that started as a hardcore unit in 1980 to become a bestselling rap trio for a ...
David Bowie: "Now Where Did I Put Those Tunes?"
Interview by David Quantick, Q, October 1999
He took Sly Stone's drugs. He thought Bing looked like a little orange on a stool. He named his son Duncan and is madly in ...
Report by Charles Bermant, The Seattle Times, 20 February 2000
FACE IT: THE 1960s was the best time for rock 'n' roll. David Crosby, who was in the middle of it all, calls it "an ...
Report and Interview by Larry Jaffee, Medialine, March 2000
Palm Pictures Embracing DVD, Web Delivery ...
Interview by Jason Gross, Yahoo! Internet Life, April 2000
2003 NOTE: WHILE IT'S commonplace now for artists to put their material up for fans to preview, it wasn't three years ago, which should show ...
Report by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 10 May 2000
At Pho, a Thousand E-mails a Month Track the Great Digital Debate ...
Napsternomics: The Pop Solution to Downloading
Comment by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 2 August 2000
HERE'S THE smallest of Napster's ironies: the service shut down last week by Judge Marilyn Hall Patel, then granted a stay of execution by the ...
wire200.net/minehost: Brainwashed.com
Profile and Interview by Rob Young, The Wire, October 2000
Webmaster Jon Whitney controls Brainwashed.com, a central hub for music's outsider tendency, hosting sites for World Serpent, Tortoise, Kid606 and more. ...
Column by Jason Gross, The Wire, December 2000
Jason Gross finds MP3 newsgroups are the way to sidestep Napster. ...
Comment by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 February 2001
It's been a bad week for music fans — but a good week for the industry. Adam Sweeting on why the CD swindle has to ...
Cowboy Junkies take the indie route
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 7 May 2001
IT'S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to imagine Margo Timmins as a bad-tempered diva. The angel-voiced singer of Canada's Cowboy Junkies has always been a point of calm ...
Blue Rodeo: Going Indie on the internet
Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 7 May 2001
IMAGINE YOU'RE in a rock band that is wildly successful at home in Canada, but only mildly so in the United States. Canadian sales of ...
Rock's Backpages: The Memory Bank
Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, MOJO, Fall 2001
Websites: Rock journalism now has its own archive. Edward Helmore thinks that's a good idea. ...
Thomas Dolby: Techno Beatnik: Thomas Dolby
Profile and Interview by Hank Bordowitz, unpublished, 2002
MY WIFE AND two-year-old huddle over my wife’s iMac. Billy, the two year old, giggles uncontrollably as the computer makes boinging and slide-whistle sounds, ...
At Indie Music Shop, A Guide via MP3s
Report by Marc Weingarten, The New York Times, 16 May 2002
...
Robbie Williams: Robbie's £80m deal puts EMI on new path
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 5 October 2002
Record giant's move into entertainment business on wider front highlights changing situation at a time when classical market is faltering ...
Report by Toby Manning, The Guardian, 15 February 2003
Since the advent of the unholy trinity of internet, MP3 and CD burner, the music industry has gone into piracy tailspin. Toby Manning feels like ...
Lou Reed: The Artist on the Biz
Report and Interview by Larry Jaffee, Medialine, March 2003
AT THE 45th annual Grammy Awards ceremony last month, Lou Reed was introduced by his co-presenter of the Best Pop Song category as a "true ...
The Thrills: Filesharing etc.: Money Pit
Comment by Pete Paphides, The Guardian, 11 October 2003
Who are the victims of music filesharing? Peter Paphides reveals the real band of thieves ...
Last Christmas, I gave you my chart
Column by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 26 November 2003
Caroline Sullivan is appalled by this year's efforts for the Chrismas No 1, but finds some consolation in the thought that next year the singles ...
Frank Zappa: We Need a Frank Zappa for the 21st Century
Comment by Larry Jaffee, Medialine, January 2004
A TRIBUTE TO Frank Zappa was one of the highlights of Surround 2003 at the conference's awards show Dec. 11 at the Beverly Hills Hilton, ...
Jonathan Ive: The Father Of Invention
Report and Interview by Sheryl Garratt, The Word, March 2004
In a world where computer technology is a religion and its curvy iconography is changing everything, a shy 37-year-old Englishman is the newly-elected High Priest. ...
Julian Cope, XTC: The Old Boy Network
Report by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, June 2004
GETTING DITCHED by a major label is not always the end of the line for the big stars of yesteryear, as Terry Staunton reports ...
Comment by Louis Barfe, The Spectator, 24 July 2004
Louis Barfe believes that record companies have only themselves to blame for falling sales ...
The iPod: Rise of the Machines
Report by Edward Helmore, Q, March 2005
This is the untold story of Apple's iPod — the gadget that ate the world and saved the music industry. We're all pod people now. ...
Out of tune: Customers suffer in the music download war
Report by Angus Batey, The Times, 26 March 2005
This month, a group of unnamed people became the first casualties of the UK music industry's war on internet piracy, when the British Phonographic Industry ...
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 3 October 2005
Why insist on 50 minutes of music when you could have a perfect 10 — or better still, a single? ...
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 November 2005
When You Can't Really Function You're So Full Of Fear, A Digital Downloader Is Something To Be ...
Report by David Sinclair, The Word, March 2006
Internet phenomenon MySpace provided the Arctic Monkeys with their fast track to fame. It's now adding a million users every week and guess who's just ...
Sandi Thom: Smile… It Confuses People
Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 12 June 2006
EVEN WITH everyone now claiming to have been "discovered" on the internet, the story of latest overnight-online-success, twenty-four year-old Sandi Thom, is still pretty fantastic. ...
Marillion: How To Thrive On A Fish-Free Diet
Profile and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 21 April 2007
THERE ARE no goblins guarding the gates to Marillion's secret lair in the rolling depths of Middle England. No cackling old crones casting spells on ...
Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith: Elliott Smith et al: It's All Too Beautiful
Report by Graeme Thomson, The Word, June 2007
Pale eulogies on fan sites are giving even obscure dead musicians a career in the afterlife. But does the net build an idealised version of ...
Comment by Phil Sutcliffe, Yahoo! Music, 16 July 2007
THAT PRINCE CHAP, he does like to lob a spanner in the music-industry works. It's record shop chains he's upset this time. They're calling him ...
Black Eyed Peas: Will.i.am: Peas In Our Time
Interview by Angus Batey, The Times, 10 August 2007
The Black Eyed Peas' frontman Will.i.am tells our correspondent how "happy" music took him from the ghetto to the Top Ten ...
Radiohead: OK Computer: Why The Record Industry Is Terrified Of Radiohead's New Album
Comment by Andy Gill, The Independent, 5 October 2007
Radiohead are the latest — and greatest — band to shun the conventional CD release. Their new album is available online — and you don't ...
Interview by Mark Paytress, MOJO, February 2008
Four years in the making, In Rainbows is both tortured and triumphant… Here, for the first time, is the unexpurgated inside story of the album ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, July 2008
THERE IS a certain grim irony to the news, announced last week, that Metallica’s latest album Death Magnetic will be released in September in a ...
The iPod and iTunes: Buy Three Get Nine You Don't Want
Comment by Johnny Black, Rock's Backpages, March 2009
IT STARTED — the slow realisation — when my wife bought me an iPod for my birthday. ...
Book Review by Danny Goldberg, Truthdig, 26 June 2009
STEVE KNOPPER'S Appetite for Self-Destruction is an entertaining, well-written attempt to chronicle the economic decline of record companies, but his thesis echoes conventional wisdom that ...
Todd Rundgren: Hello, it's Todd
Interview by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 1 July 2009
WE CAME UP with our own theme for Cityfest this year — namely, second acts or second chances. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said there are ...
The Thrill Of It All: The Advent of MP3 Blogs
Essay by Nick Hornby, Observer Music Monthly, 6 September 2009
MY FIRST NOVEL, High Fidelity, was published in 1995, and shortly afterwards, I embarked upon my first American book tour. I took with me a ...
Gimme Some Truth: Music reference works in the digital age
Comment by Alex Ogg, Rock's Backpages, October 2009
REMEMBER WHEN content was king? It was one of the enduring myths of the tech bubble alongside stratospheric growth projections, the paperless office, etc. But ...
Not Not Fun label: New Age Outlaws
Profile and Interview by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, May 2011
Britt and Amanda Brown are the husband and wife team behind LA's Not Not Fun label, focal point of a networked international underground that includes ...
How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans
Comment by Wyndham Wallace, The Quietus, 24 May 2011
While the industry continues to blame illegal downloading for its financial woes, it's musicians who are paying the price while being forced to work harder ...
Prince: "I'm a musician. And I am music"
Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 23 June 2011
RINGTONES ARE EVIL. Islamic countries are fun. The internet is like "a carjacking", where there are no boundaries. Prince on being pop's "loving tyrant" ...
Lana Del Rey Takes Her Place On The Internet's Sacrificial Altar With Born To Die
Review by Maura Johnston, The Village Voice, 2 December 2011
IN ANOTHER era, Lana Del Rey would just be another pretty pop singer with a second-rate voice and big, unrealized ambitions, a major-label footnote maybe ...
The Beautiful South, The Housemartins: Paul Heaton: "Armed Revolution Is The Only Cure"
Interview by Rob Hughes, The Word, June 2012
Baleful tunesmith, habitual cyclist, pub-owner, radical — Paul Heaton puts a foot on the ball and surveys the pitch ...
James Bay: The new noise bubble: are critics' choice awards for new artists a blessing or a curse?
Comment by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 1 January 2015
Awards such as the BBC's Sound Of 2015 can be vital in helping new artists break through and get noticed by fans — but can ...
Taylor Swift: Apple royalties U-turn: is Taylor Swift the most powerful woman in music?
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 22 June 2015
Viewed as an advocate for artists and a game-changer, almost no other pop star could have made the corporate behemoth roll over. ...
"The Best Things in Life Are Free": Downloads, Streaming, You Tube and Mags
Comment by James Musker, Rock's Backpages, November 2015
THE AGE OF INSTANT access is upon us. We are currently living in a world where it's difficult to avoid sensory overload, as there seems ...
Ben Ratliff: Every Song Ever/John Seabrook: The Song Machine and other new books
Book Review by James Medd, New Statesman, 13 May 2016
The digital revolution has turned pop into a world of smart playlists and surprise albums. Yet the way we engage with music remains remarkably similar. ...
Drake: Streaming is skewing the pop charts
Comment by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 7 August 2016
Drake's 'One Dance' was No 1 for 15 weeks. The charts are stalling and need a rethink ...
Tommy Boy At 35: Tom Silverman Talks Hip-Hop's Most Iconic Indie Label
Retrospective and Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, Genius, 18 August 2016
A history of the brand that brought the world Afrika Bambaataa, De La Soul, and Queen Latifah. No account of early hip-hop industry is complete without ...
Essay by Simon Reynolds, Pitchfork, 19 October 2016
From the Residents' freakish Beatles sendups, to Spinal Tap's meta-metal escapades, to the gastronomic goofs of "Weird Al", a chronicle of those who have turned ...
Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 6 August 2017
He doesn't have a record label, but he's huge on Instagram and gets mobbed "like Justin Bieber" in Russia. Lil Peep tells Lisa Verrico why ...
Charli XCX: LGBTQ+ production company launches with alternative music video for Charli XCX's 'Boys'
Report and Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 9 December 2017
YOU ALREADY know the song — the ubiquitous 'Boy' (pipped to the top spot in our tracks of the year by SZA's potent 'Drew Barrymore') ...
Arlo Parks: On The Rise: Arlo Parks
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 28 January 2019
18-year-old South Londoner Arlo Parks puts identity and generational anxiety at the heart of her affecting, soulful left-field pop. ...
Data, Driven: Spotify Under Surveillance
Book Review by Angus Batey, The Quietus, 30 March 2019
An academic team's look under the hood of the music-streaming giant arrives as worries over Silicon Valley snooping go mainstream. Angus Batey surveys the bookshop ...
Tessa Violet: On The Rise: Tessa Violet
Profile and Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 3 July 2019
The colourful, quirky Tessa Violet channels her love of music into a unique electro-pop sound and ambitious aesthetic. ...
Streaming: The Inessential Collection
Essay by Mark Sinker, The Wire, January 2020
The explosion of music streaming platforms in the 2010s makes Mark Sinker yearn to get back off the grid ...
Cher Lloyd is bigger than the bullshit
Interview by Pip Williams, The Line of Best Fit, 4 May 2020
Cher Lloyd cannot think of anything worse than taking up breadmaking in lockdown. ...
Why technology is making record companies richer
Comment by Lisa Verrico, The Sunday Times, 21 February 2021
It should give artists control, but the major labels are more powerful than ever. ...
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