Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson performs in 2005. – Photo: Andrew Kendall.

“If you haven’t got a scene you’ve gotta’ set your own scene” said Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson at 31:40 and “keep your ears peeled” for song ideas said drummer Nick Hodgson at 51:00 during their interview below with Steve Lamacq on BBC Music:

Tom Silverman has made his entire career in the music industry. Circa the early 80s he founded Dance Music Report, the New Music Seminar (NMS) and Tommy Boy Records, now Tommy Boy Entertainment, whose roster includes hip hop staples De La Soul, Naughty by Nature, House of Pain, and more. WE+PR, the public relations team who works with NMS, set up a phone interview for me with Silverman, who had tons to say about the music industry. Stream the full interview—all 55min—by pressing the play button to the ←left—or on Bandcamp.

Our interview took place on January 20, 2011. Later that night he would fly to France to attend MIDEM and I would drive with my dad to Philadelphia—fearless of impending snow—to see my cousin Sharon headline at Johnny Brenda’s. On the phone that afternoon, Silverman told me about some of his early experiences with Tommy Boy Records, thoughts on the current state of the industry, and about the then upcoming New Music Seminar in Los Angeles—NMS LA 2011 took place last week (February 14–16).

If you remember I’d attended NMS NYC 2010 last summer and had heard Silverman speak to the summer crowd inside Webster Hall. I can tell you he is extremely passionate about what’s right and wrong in the music industry, which you’ll be able to hear yourself as our conversation heats up through the interview. Below I’ve transcribed a few select moments.

08:00 Silverman: We aren’t selling records—we’re selling perception. The perceived value of music is 100 percent arbitrary.

09:30 Silverman: He [Steve Jobs] has to work with a gigantic lead time and drop new products every 3–6 months like we drop albums. We haven’t thought about the obsolescence of music [in the way that Jobs thinks about Apple's product lifecycles].

15:45 Silverman: [On iTunes] every time somebody coverts from buying songs to buying an album [Soundscan] deducts it from buying singles. It acts almost as if those singles hadn’t been bought. So if I bought two singles from an artist last year and then I bought the album this year, then that artist gets minus two singles. So that’s also had an impact. In 18 percent of iTunes sales, album sales are ‘complete my album’ sales, and with some artists it’s a lot more than that. So every time somebody completes an album it’s a minimun of one song, but most usually it’s two songs that are minused out. That’s had a major impact in turning song sales backwards, not because less songs are selling, but because single songs are being coverted into albums and then being deducted from singles.

16:45 Silverman: What’s happening right now is catalog sales are dropping off in singles and they’re slowing down substantially in albums (digital albums) because people have already rebought their collections in MP3 form—in digital form.

25:05 RVE: If you’re going to advertise anywhere I don’t know why you would do it anywhere besides Facebook—because of the way you can target stuff. [...] Say you’re in a rock band in New York City. You could target an ad on Facebook to people that like the Smashing Pumpkins that live in New York City that are between the age of 20–25. [...] I wouldn’t advise anyone to buy ads on Google. I know Google makes all this money from ads but I never click on them—I have clicked on Facebook ads.

34:10 RVE: I was reading about [Pablo Picaso] on Wikipedia and there’s so many things that correlate to the music industry. [...] They said the total number of artworks he produced is estimated at 50,000 which is a lot of pieces of [art] but he didn’t sell most of them. He had most of them in his possession when he died. He only sold the ones that he needed to sell to make money. The rest of them he kept because…I guess he just wanted to keep them or was just to busy making art. He wasn’t really concerned with it. I wonder if today if he’d be like taking pictures of it and uploading pictures of it to Flickr…or you know? Also they said that his art has been stolen more than any other artist in the world. [...] He’s pretty much referred to as the most famous artist.

35:35 Silverman: There’s influential art and there’s popular art. Just because it’s popular it doesnn’t necessarily mean that it’s important but it does mean something. Margaret Mead, the famous cultural anthropologist, said “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world—indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” The point is it’s always a small group of people that make all the change. [...] Kind of like Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash all in the Bronx doing hip hop and nobody else in the world was doing hip hop—it changed the whole world really but it came from a 5-mile radius.

36:45 RVE: People would probably want me to ask about what you said in the Wired interview last year about most albums being just “noise” from “hobbyists” that clutters the marketplace. I mean I think that came across as kind of like a negative outlook to a lot of people, but I was thinking, aren’t really—I mean a hobbyist is really someone that just does something for pleasure. I think it has sort of a negative connotation [...] but aren’t the hobbyists the ones really driving musical innovation, or don’t you think they’re playing a big part in that?

37:30 Silverman: It doesn’t seem like they are. I always believed that they would be but it doesn’t seem like they are. Why isn’t any of that stuff breaking through? I mean if it’s that fantastic, it’s findable, everything findable, somebody’s got to discover it, and the word needs to spread. Why isn’t all this fantastic, creative, amazing art coming out musically through the web where everything is available accoding to the long-tail theory.

38:00 RVE: You want to think the cream will rise to the top.

38:03 Silverman: And it’s not happening. In fact not only is it not happening, it happened more before there was an internet than it’s happening now. I can tell you when Afrika Bambaataa came out with “Planet Rock” it rose to the top and I had only one or two employees working with me and we ended up selling 600,000 twelve inches. The cream rose to the top better then than it does now.

39:00 RVE: People like choices. Me, I don’t want to hear something that’s like everything else. I want to find [music] that’s different, the stuff that’s cutting-edge, and the stuff that’s changing. I mean there’s so many like generic…I mean there’s a lot stuff that just sounds generic. When you find something that’s really unique, really good, then it’s awesome. The more people you have making music the more likely that’s going to happen.

39:40 Silverman: Definitely there’s five times as many people making music now than there was 10 years ago. There should be five times as many great pieces of music coming through than ever. But the opposite is true. [...] In 2008 there were 1,500 releases that sold over 10,000 units. In 2009 that number dropped to 1,300. In 2008 there were about 200 artists who broke 10,000 for the first time. Less than eight of them were DIY artists that broke on their own or on very small indie labels. [... ] Eight artists breaking on brand-new or on their own labels is pathetic!

41:50 Silverman: Using samples, moving around samples, and working with Garage Band is kind of like the musical equivalent of color by numbers. [...] You don’t have to be able to play an instrument really. You don’t have to be an amazing engineer. You don’t have to go into a studio and know how mic’s work. Anyone can do it. It’s a two-edged sword. On one edge it gives power to the people and on the other edge it gives power to the people who have no abilities.

42:50 RVE: I’d rather have a world where anyone can make music. [...] I think stuff gets filtered by people’s friends. I think people say “hey did you listen to this?” I think that’s still going on but I think it’s going on Facebook and in text messages—I think it’s still going on in person too but it’s also happening on Facebook [...] because it’s easy to share stuff. I think the stuff that’s getting shared more is the stuff that has more readily available in a “content” format.

48:25 RVE: Every TED video that gets recorded goes on YouTube and is available for free…why not do that for NMS?

48:35 Silverman: You know what if I could charge $5,000 like TED charges for people that come and have a waiting list then I’d put everything up there [on YouTube].

48:55 RVE: The way I see it though it doesn’t cost you anything extra to put it on YouTube, right? Wouldn’t it be free promotion?

49:02 Silverman: If we put it on YouTube and people see that then they don’t have to come to the conference. Then it does cost me something because our numbers will go down even further and we won’t be able to afford to do the conference.

49:17 RVE: The New York one [last summer] sold out, right?

49:20 Silverman: It sold out but it sold out at such a low price. [...] It’s a marginal business. Let’s put it this way. Nobody makes money at the New Music Seminar.

52:50 RVE: I just feel like instead of listening to those baby-boomer generation executives I’d rather listen to their kids because I think that’s where you’re really going to learn stuff.

53:03 Silverman: I hear you but nobody’s going to pay to hear their kids talk [at NMS].

// NMS NYC 2010 and NMS LA 2011 both sold out. I think unleashing all the keynotes on YouTube would increase attendance—do you? Who’d you like to see speak at the next NMS?

There’s a lot of green—as a whole music consumption on the web is clearly increasing. One contributing factor to that is that the percentage of people that have internet access is growing. Notably extreme growth occurred for SoundCloud, OurStage, Bandcamp, Grooveshark, and ReverbNation. It’s understandable why SoundCloud is rocketing—it offers rock-solid tools, widgets, community, and an API. In summer 2010, SoundCloud launched a Creative Commons search page. Like Indaba Music, SoundCloud is heavily geared towards electronic music and producers. IMO electronic music is growing faster than rock and has more room to evolve. In my analysis of the 2009 heat map, I referred to Grooveshark as Jaws-like and this year was another feeding frenzy. Grooveshark now gets more visits than Last.fm. But let’s zoom out and view the bigger picture:

In February 2010, Sysomos reported that approximately 31% of YouTube videos are music—roughly one out of every three. The YouTube Music area on the map below represents this 31%. Its size is roughly equivalent to 3x everything else combined. Compared to YouTube, Grooveshark is a minnow. You want pop perspective? According to the Compete data, ladygaga.com had more visits in 2010 than any other artist, and although her traffic decreased 55% over the year, she still gets 5x as much traffic as nin.com. According to data from Next Big Sound, Lady Gaga videos got played 45 million times on Vevo* in December 2010. Dividing that number by the 2 million unique visitors that Compete estimated for Vevo that month tells us that the average Vevo user watches 23 Lady Gaga videos per month. Scream now if you have to. Who had the most visited website at the end of the year? I thought is was going to be paramore.net, who with over 400,000 website visits in December 2010 had Eminem, Bieber, and Gaga all beat. But it was taylorswift.com who had the most, with close to 600,000—that’s like half of Bandcamp right there.

Bonus tracks: Right now The Pirate Bay gets as much traffic as MTV.com. Based on its current trajectory Pandora will soon surpass The New York Times. The most popular music magazine online is Rolling Stone—2.2M visits in December 2010. The most popular music blog is Pitchfork—1.4M visits in December 2010—like two Hype Machines. NPR is in the same ballpark as Last.fm.

Update 3/20: Based on requests to add additional sites to the heat map, there is now an alternate edition on page two that includes 8tracks and We Are Hunted rather than Thumbplay and Deezer. All are now on the data table. Regarding Lady Gaga’s 45 million plays, Colin—presumably Colin Willis from Next Big Sound—commented that Next Big Sound’s Vevo play count included Vevo plays from YouTube and therefore the 23 Lady Gaga videos per month calculation is inaccurate.

Get On Bits.

Digital is the bomb. When I say ‘get on bits’ I mean get digital. Get on YouTube. Get on Facebook. Get indexed. Become bits. Bits outlive memories. Legacies live on bits. ‘All we are is bits in the cloud.’

Bring Me The Horizon singer Oliver Sykes pushes the edge of the Vans Warped Tour 2010 stage in Dallas, TX.
Photo: earlylove/Flickr

YouTube it.

In 2010, YouTube takes the cake as being the sweet spot for music. Their fact sheet reads currently that “people are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube” and that “52 percent of 18-34 year-olds share videos often with friends and colleagues.” Vevo, which launched in late 2009, saw screaming growth through 2010 largely due to its integration with YouTube. It’s pretty understandable why video is so engaging—it combines multiple senses: sight, hearing, and—if you’re pressing a keypad or touchscreen—touch. Triggering the brain from multiple angles makes for strong communication and vivid memories. Video influences people. Last month in Wired, TED curator Chris Anderson and Jon Chu talked about how access to free online video accelerates innovation. Chu used the example of kids who learned dance moves by watching videos of other dancers, “Kids in Japan are taking moves from a YouTube video created in Detroit, building on it within days and releasing a new video, while teenagers in California are taking the Japanese video and remixing it to create a whole new dance style in itself. This is happening every day. And from these bedrooms and living rooms and garages with cheap webcams come the world’s great dancers of tomorrow.”

Live is unique.

Seeing a live show is an experience—it’s not a product, but that’s not to say that it can’t be captured on one. Ask Aderra, a company who “records live concerts to flash drives and MicroSD wristbands which are available to the audience immediately after the performance.” Their USB drives can also be used to access exclusive content on the web. It’s important to realize that experiences have more intrinsic value than products.

Cut the intro.

Get right to the hook. Two time lessons in 2010 were seconds and clicks. At NMS NYC 2010, Jay Frank (@futurehitdna) said that artists have, “10 seconds to engage someone—to impress them.” He said to “clicks to content,” because the more clicks it takes, the more it’s bye-bye attention span. In a way this explains the addiction to YouTube, whose videos are one mere click beyond Google search results. “Anything more than two clicks and you’re missing out on the majority. … Impress them fast.” If you’ve made it this far into the post, you’re a champion, and deserve a video for the rest of the ride.

API breakout.

Expect to see more mashups based on music APIs. Most notable IMO are mashups built on APIs from The Echo Nest and from SoundCloud. The Echo Nest is a data-driven startup that launched in 2008. Its platform is in use on MTV Music Meter, MOG All Access, Indaba Music, Bandintown, exfm, and more. Based on data from Compete, web visits to SoundCloud were up 850% in 2010. A number of apps—many mobile ones—support integration with SoundCloud. Keep Grooveshark on the radar, their web visits were up 235% based on Compete, and unofficial Grooveshark API documentation is available on APIshark. The Grooveshark library is also accessible through the Tinysong API. Spotify too has potential for a mashup explosion. See the API list: 30 Music APIs.

Mystery tour.

There are several events/ticketing services out there beyond Ticketmaster/Live Nation, such as Eventful, Songkick, Ticketfly, and Live Music Machine. Ticketing is mysterious and because of that I think less music startups have gone in its direction. But live music is really what music is all about, and I think we’re going to see a lot more action in this space, especially when more people have smartphones and are using location-based apps. But the question I’m asking about ticketing is, ‘what could possibly stop Facebook from wiping away the entire online ticketing industry with an official ticketing service within Facebook Events?’

Brainmelt.

I’d like to write about licensing, but it’s just so boring and complicated, still, in 2011, and this article is already way to long for the YouTube Generation. I do think something about the licensing needs to change, especially in the U.S. where “WTF is SoundExchange?” is the typical reaction, and many musicians believe that receiving payouts from rights organizations is a straight-up myth—it’s not, but setting it up may melt your brain. For now what I think is worth knowing is that the majority of money that SoundExchange pays out comes from Pandora. So if you’re on Pandora, then you definitely want to be registered with SoundExchange. If you’re asking “how do I get on Pandora?” then read this. First, push to the end of this article. You made it this far. I promise you it’s worth it.

Born free.

If you asked Austin Powers what he thought about the internet, I know exactly what he would say..: “it’s freedom, baby, yeah!” His nemesis, Dr. Evil, would be saying “throw me a frickin’ bone here!” Who would you rather be? Free is the nature of the internet and what makes it such an advance. If you’re not embracing that free spirit, then you’re in the wrong industry. It’s like the accelerated innovation I mentioned at the start of this rap. Everyone is building on each other’s work. It’s human nature. Pablo Picasso would tell you that “good artists copy—great artists steal.” Picasso didn’t become famous by making a few great paintings. He became famous by making thousands of them. He only sold the ones that he needed to, keeping the rest in his possession, and nowadays I can’t help but wonder if he’d be getting them on bits. Really it comes down to more than creating fresh music, but being innovative on every front, and living it. That, my friends, is art. // @ryanve

Go to Pirate Bay and search your band’s name.

• Zero search results = Basically you don’t exist.
• Torrent(s) with 50+ seeds = You’re definitely on the right track.
• Torrent(s) with 500+ seeds = Highway to limousines and vodka.

I’m sure by now I’ve already offended someone, but I assure you it’s an oh-so-effective indicator. On Pirate Bay, SE = seeds, LE = leechers, and both are sortable columns towards the right side of the PB interface. A seed a.k.a. seeder is someone who has the entire torrent. A leecher a.k.a. downloader is someone who has part of it. The more seeders there are, the more exponentially available the torrent becomes. [see BitTorrent Vocabulary.]

The number of seeds and the overall size of the swarm are the most defining metrics. Browse Music (or specific genres) and sort by the number of seeds to see what has the most. In the screenshot below I’ve done it, and as you can see it paints a pretty good picture of what’s hot right now.

Most Popular Music Torrents 2010-12-15 – link

Less than an hour ago when I took this screenshot the #1 music torrent, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West, had 6,993 seeds. Now, minutes later, it has 7,528 seeds. With that many seeders, the downloads are like lightning—approx. <2 minutes for the entire album. For perspective, compare Kanye to the #1 movie torrent, Inception (2010) which right now has over 20,000 seeds. I can’t remember ever seeing a torrent with that many seeds. P2P is anything but dead. The surprise to me here was that Mumford and Sons are the sole rockish act as hot as the mainstream mayhem.

• details: newmusicseminar.com
• date: February 14–16, 2011
• city: Los Angeles, CA
• venue: Sheraton Universal

Tip: Use promo code NMSLAB2399 for the 2-for-1 partner discount on the registration page. The $175 early-bird rate is available until November 26 when the price jumps to $245. Student rates are also available. The five main panels are The Music Business Isn’t Over It’s Just Beginning, A&R in the New Music Business, Touring in the NEW Music Business, The Creative Quartet, and The Breaks.

NMS NYC 2010 last summer: View the entire photo set here. Read our conference news coverage here.

Opportunity: Last summer I attended and covered the New York seminar but really, can Los Angeles handle me? I’d like to team up with 1 or 2 people in the LA area who’d like to to attend the seminar as press and help provide coverage for us to post here during or after. If interested please email me.

Update 12/7: Confirmed NMS Players

• Andy Gadiel, Founder/President of JamBase
• Ben Campbell, CEO of OurStage
• Brian Carpizo, CEO of Eventric
• Bryan Calhoun, VP New Media of SoundExchange
• Chris Vinson, Founder/CEO of Bandzoogle
• Courtney Holt, President of MySpace Music
• Craig Kallman, Chairman/CEO of Atlantic Records
• Dameon Guess, Jakprints
• Edward Donnelly, President of Aderra
• Eric Garland, Founder of Big Champagne
• Ian Rogers, President of Top Spin Media
• Jason Flom, Chairman/CEO Lava Records
• Jay Frank Sr. VP of CMT
• Kelly G, Music Programming at BET
• Martin Atkins, Author, Tour: Smart; Invisible Records
• Megan Jacobs, Booker for The Roxy LA
• Michael Doernberg, Founder of ReverbNation
• Pete Edge, President A&R of Jive Records
• Richard Ellis, Founder/President of 12 to 20
• Ted Cohen, Managing Partner of TAG Strategic
• Tim Westergren, Founder/CEO of Pandora
• Tom Jackson, Live Producer at OnStage Success
• Tony Van Veen, President/CEO of Discmakers and CD Baby

“I play it like I stole it and the guy I stole it from is about to break down the door and take the guitar from me.” –Chris Dinardo, SLeuX guitarist.

The building used to be a bank. But in December, 2004, when I first met Chris Dinardo, the sign on its door read “SMR Studios.” Chris, and two of his hard-rock bandmates, from DownNeck had opened the rehearsal/recording space there in Garfield, NJ and were running their own record label, Saturday Morning Records. I discovered the newly-opened studio via Craigslist—when nobody here knew about Craigslist—and I knew Chris could be trusted when he told me he knew who Matt Skiba was. Inside SMR, walls were decorated with brilliant paintings by Paul Jach, who rented space upstairs. Their engineer Jamie ate voltage and loved Primus almost as much as Chris loves KISS. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like recording vocals in a vault.

But years passed, and it was a strain for the rest of the original DownNeck to keep focus on the SMR venture when they, unlike Chris, had proverbial day jobs. (One we suspect was CIA, although he won’t admit it, and the other may have built your house.) The studio closed and DownNeck split. Chris, who had studied TV/film production and broadcasting, needed a better way to fuse creativity, music, and video production, so he decided to start his own company, NeverImage Entertainment. His latest music project SLeuX came about last year, which Chris started with James Donovan, DownNeck’s singer in their later years. Chris is no stranger to the NYC/NJ underground scene or to indie music business, and he had a lot of great stuff to tell us, so let’s cut right to it.

Tell me more about your vision for NeverImage. I mean, when you were starting it a few years back you saw it as an entertainment company rather than a traditional record label. Are you taking on other artists with NeverImage?

CD: I think with the way things are today you can’t be a traditional label and survive. With NeverImage we’re doing albums but we’re also able to get into other areas like film, video, DVD’s, webvids, and whatever else we feel like doing. The key is to have an artist own what they do content-wise and have the vision to present it. NeverImage started as a home for me and my friends to have place to put out their stuff, my crazy projects, and stuff I produced with other artists. Now with the release of SLeuX it’s a nice way to start off what we’re going to do in the future. We’re not taking on artists, but with that said, I’ll never say no to a good idea.

You mentioned producing a video for every track on the new SLeuX album. Awesome. Is that still the plan? What’s your approach on that?

CD: Well we got two so far…10 to go…(laughs). It’s a task, that’s for sure. I know five songs on the album have video treatments. The approach is as footage is collected and ideas get filmed, we’ll put the videos together. There’s no time frame, but we’d like to have all of them done before the next album comes out…(laughs)…in 2023.

Old school vs. new school—who wins?

CD: Old school recording, performing, and music wins for me. The new school way of the music business wins over the old school model.

Dinardo lies amidst his influences, who include KISS, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Quicksand, Rush, Dinosaur Jr., and The Misfits: “If you don’t own at least 5 things in this pic ya’ need to reconsider your taste music n’ DVD’s.”

Tell me about the lead up to SLeuX and the production of the debut album.

CD: Well we went in wanting to give the music justice. We wanted to record old-school style on 2-inch analog tape. We had 22 songs. We wanted that down to 12. For the production I wanted a sound like Rock and Roll Over by KISS. I realized pretty quick that I wasn’t Eddie Kramer either…(laughs)…I wanted the musicianship to jump out…I wanted guitars up. I wanted to play the fuck out of the guitar on this record. So many new guitarists play two strings and don’t know what the hell they are doing. I play it like I stole it and the guy I stole it from is about to break down the door and take the guitar from me. I wanted harmonies. Character-driven lyrics. We definitely achieved what we set out to do. People are gonna dig it.

You imposed at least one rule on SLeuX so far: don’t make the same song twice. Are there any more…or is that the only one you need?

CD: Yeah, never say no to a musical idea without trying it or feeling it out. It’s no fun making the same song over and over,or getting held down in one sound. It’s exciting because when someone brings a song in it could be anything in any style. It may never even have a style. You have to take the song where it should go and that could be anywhere. To me that’s where the fun is—creation.

Dinardo, on surviving the industry: “It’s like you’re playing a football game and the rules keep changing every minute. It’s impossible to navigate. But if you make your own playbook and play by your own rules it makes things easier.”

With the industry in hyper flux, how are you adapting on the business side? What are you doing the same/differently now with SLeuX and NeverImage?

CD: It’s insane. The way the music business is now, it’s like you’re playing a football game and the rules keep changing every minute. It’s impossible to navigate. But if you make your own playbook and play by your own rules it makes things easier. I love the way the music business is. I think if you are an artist who can create good songs, have a decent idea of promotion and kick ass live, you will be fine. Business-wise we have ideas on this release. We haven’t decided the exact route yet. We know it will be on iTunes first before it’s anywhere else. Then we’re gonna get crafty with the actual CD. Not too many people buy CD’s but we want to make it special for the ones who still do. I’m hoping to have it released as a CD/DVD and keep it at a low price. We do all the DVD production in house so it lets us keep our stuff low in price. We’re not into over pricing anything we do.

What’s your take on free media, P2P, and alternative pricing like pay-what-you-want?

CD: I don’t have a take. Everyone can decide how they want to present their music. An idea might be perfect for one artist and a disaster for another.

What’s one thing that’s wrong with the music industry, and one thing that’s right?

CD: What’s wrong is artists looking at getting signed as the be all end all. It’s not. Every deal is different for every artist. You have to make it on your own before anyone invests in you. Hard work pays off. The thing that’s right is artists can have total control. As long as you have tunes that people love you’ll be okay. Trust your vision.

What’s the SLeuX album called?

CD: It’s gonna be self-titled. But like everything with SLeuX, it’s subject to change. The thing that won’t change is NeverImage. I will be involved in several projects in the future and NeverImage will be the home base for everything. I can’t stop making music and I see myself being in several different projects. I love what I do. Music is my passion. Plenty of good shit is coming from the NeverImage camp—stay tuned.

Dinardo has a mysterious affinity for anything silver. I recommend you ask him about it via Twitter @DiNardoSleux or, even better, in person on Saturday, November 27 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ, where SLeuX will be performing their entire debut album live for the first time. Also performing will be The 33rd Revolution, Lowdown, and Object 7. I’ll be there too, because, “It’s going to be one hell of a party, and you don’t wanna miss it!”

Considering what is already be done with modern audio devices, it’s far from a stretch. For the best quality, I think it would need to start from the source, the master recordings, which could be released in full dynamic form. Do you think it’s possible? I do. Do you think it’ll happen? Audiophiles would love it, but what about the general listener?

Imagine a stereo that had a slider on it for compression, where a listener could slide anywhere on the compression spectrum from full dynamic range to max loudness. What issues do you think come into play? Who should control dynamics? Rather, what industry standards need to be morphed, and which ones needs to be muted?