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Synerdata Net Radio
Joined: 04/01/04
Location: Canada
Posts: 102
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The Proverbial Scene
The time rolls around when a new harvest is due, and I am naturally drawn to think about "The Scene", so to speak, as I turn my attention to focusing upon it, and then zooming in upon it, to arrive at an altruistic cross section of the latest work of the best independent artists.
There is the scene of each community site, and then there is the global scene of scenes, and then there is the existential scene, as it were, the conceptual scene, which exists within it's own internal fame, and collective extents, remaining decentralized and ethereal in the minds of the artist and other witnesses.
When I think of "The Scene" what comes to mind starts at mp3com (for some reason) and then it extends from there, and I am referring to the collective epiphany of that first great global gathering of musicians and music producers and commonplace music making folks, which witnessed it'self, and it witnessed just how many phenomenal artists there are that the big media companies are keeping the public from knowing about, and it was an experience of collective muscle, and an incentive to network and collaborate and bind together and to lift one another according to due merit, and raw talent, or hard work and seriousness as an artist, or dedication, and indeed, it was a collective epiphany.
In that shared first time global independent music community experience, it happened that, more than the general public, the artists themselves got to know large numbers of other artists, and became their patrons, and in this process, community, and "The Scene" was forming, overall, and also within each genre, and the best artists were known by the others, and each promoted who they like as fans, and the public was witnessing these dynamics.
In my own mind, initially as one of the artists, and then later, in producing my old fm-radio show directly from there, I came to arrive at a sense of community and of "The Scene" by my desire to hear all the best new music by everyone, which was finally possible upon the earth, so that I was visiting the sites of every new artist, and seeing all the art and reading all their writing, and hearing all their music, such that in my witness, the scene was thousands and thousands of outstanding artists in breadth, above and beyond those who were not attending to serious art presentation, and for example, if I said Vostek, or Bassic, the other electronic music artists all knew which I was referring to, and their work, and renoun within the community, and the community was made of the interactions of artists, whether just listening to one another's music, or collaborating, and playlists also built up the community, showing each artist which others are playing their music, forming visible bonds of appreciation and promotion and approval.
That's how my sense of the scene started, and up now, the scene is made (in my own mind) of every artist that I have harvested the music of , and I have anthropologically watched as new sites were made, like when ElectronicScene.com started, and then mp3com was destroyed, and one after another site was made and destroyed, and everything changed and the epiphany was evolving, and fading, and a new generation was rising up into the ashes of it, unaware of the epiphany, and unexcited about the promise the internet once held for all independent artists when it seemed the masses would finally be able to hear all the best artists without anyone needing sign a deal with some devil to be in the mass media and heard by the public.
I have followed all the best artists for over a decade, from one community site to another, and I have closely followed their sentiments about the experience of putting their music online, and I have watched as different artists have done various things to settle in (usually with i-tunes), and then basically, forget about the epiphany and promise that had faded, and cease further work. Some have shuttered their music projects completely to wipe out any trace of them (like bitstream dream did), while others continue going strong and doing ever better work, and nothing delights me more than to find an original mp3com artist up now with new tracks, and a vast back catalog, and like most artists of this caliber maintaining some central site with links to an array of preferred download community sites like this one, more often containing links broken half a decade ago to some non-existent sites of a different era.
Originally the station was based at the original mp3com, and harvested from there, and here, and rarely elsewhere, and then when mp3com was destroyed most of the artists clicked a link to automatically transfer to GarageBand.com, which I was fond of calling GarbageBand.com because the name garage band makes the artists sound unsuccessful and unprofessional, and the site was started by an old label executive, presenting issues, and so I instead followed the original mp3com forums and the artists in them to c|net which bought the name mp3com, and was about to open a new free music site called music.download.com, which the creator of epitonic.com invited the artists to help make, and so I was there and helped make a great site (for a while), and then after that site was destroyed the station moved it's base harvesting site to ArtistServer.com, after a careful review of the remaining sites. I was already here in 2002, and was about to move here in 2004, but decided to try the c|net thing, and so the default was to resume moving here from mp3com, for ElectronicScene.com was the best site, since 2001, and most here were at the original mp3com, and shared in the collective epiphany.
The last few years have been very hard on the global independent industry, where many sites were shut down, usually by the competition, which was getting rid of the big ones, while the smaller independent sites are fine, and I have watched, because I follow artists as they migrate, to follow their work, and I have witnessed many trends in the past 5 years or so, in relation to each artist's apparent diminishing "community" experience.
Each harvest now, I review all the new releases in electronic music and other genres here at ArtistServer.com, fairly comprehensively, and I have been averaging about 70 to 80 selected tracks each harvest, from ArtistServer.com, and where a radio show is 150 to 200, I have had an ongoing theme of touring other music community sites in each harvest, which has been very interesting, to say the least, to fill out each new evolving program.
It has, admittedly, become somewhat more difficult to harvest new shows, now that there are no big music sites of altruistic and independent parameters, and instead, there are smaller sites, among which ArtistServer.com is among the biggest and best established, and in these, there tends to be very little, or no community interaction, or interaction tools, and long gone is the collective excitement of the world's artists all being able to meet and listen and collaborate with one another, which initially had everyone talking at the same time, and each trying out the experience of putting music online and promoting it online at the same time, and together... Those days are gone, and were a one of a kind human evolution experience to fondly remember.
Indeed, up now, we know the limits which came to be imposed upon independent artists by media conglomerates, and we have all evolved, and some have continued to flourish, while others have faded away, like falling stars, passing in the night, and for some their static project pages stand like glorious tombstones in memory of a once exciting art experience, while other artists just keep on releasing new tracks in established tradition, or love for what they do, and why they release music, way up now, might be different for each.
In order to keep following "The Scene" as ethereally defined above, up now, I find I have to be innovative, and while still harvesting from one base site consistently so anyone can ensure they get on the air here very easily, I find I have to tour other sites, and also, I have to go directly to the stored URL's of long unseen finest artist sites, to fine them and their modern work, but I am still able to follow many of the best, who continue their work.
I find things much different up now, in terms of the experience of artist community, where old artists know, or know of, other old artists, and may still collaborate or talk, but where no one is attending to "all the things we can do together online" like in the past, having been there, done that, and up now, you put your music somewhere, and waste little more time, and there is the inevitable small haunting of musical netizens dotting the forums in any site that has them, but that otherwise, "the internet" as a collective experience is not new up now, and many of the mysteries and potential have already been monetized and tied down, and the experience of presenting music online has become something more personal, than widely public, where few are having any illusions about being signed or famous however talented, but where it is still important to any given independent artists to present their art, and to find it appreciated, even if only by relatively small numbers of people, and that importance would undoubtedly remain.
It's a lot of work reviewing the music and other art of hundreds of artists over a week or so, but it's worth it, even just to me personally, to hear all the best new independent music, and I have my excuse to keep doing it, being a stage manager at the station, and so I rather prize the vast archives of free music that a decade of hardworking artists have produced, that this is a fantastic scope upon the greater artwork of our times, and most of it, no longer available anywhere, but remaining as an anthropological record of the sounds of our times, and so I keep doing the work, and then mixing hundreds of tracks as well as I can, into each new harvest, into which I blend older tracks later on.
The station displaced my own music production for a large part, and I struggle to work on my own music, with the demands of modern life, which I suspect many can appreciate, and so I don't even know if I should call myself one of the artists anymore, though, mixing shows out of all the new releases has in itself been a serious compositional art, playing the cards I am dealt. My own experience has, as with other artists, changed over the years, and way up now, continuing has been more a matter of habit and tradition than anything else, but once the artists are all mixed together into a new show, there seems to be no lack of community, and the experience of hearing everyone making music together is too good to leave behind. Sometimes I find I really wish I could do more, but even in my own experience, running the station and producing this radio show and making music have become less important as life has presented greater things in the 21st century, to attend to... But where something is established, it's easy for me to keep going here, just like so many artists who just keep going.
I just wanted to write about the artist community experience and "The Scene" tonight.
Thanks for reading, and I do hope you will come and listen with us!
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Brillman
Joined: 10/08/02
Location: Norway
Posts: 136
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Synerdata Net Radio wrote:...
I just wanted to write about the artist community experience and "The Scene" tonight.
Thanks for reading, and I do hope you will come and listen with us!
Very well written story about your experiences of the musical output from the last decade based on the "digital revolution" via Mp3.com- Garageband-Electronicscene-Artistserver, etc.
Well worth reading and a lot of truth in your description of the "scene". You are, through your radio station, also contributing to the spreading of independent electronic music, albeit on a limited scale, so your effort is much appreciated.  Who knows, in the future musicologists may do research on what actually happened during this explosive period on the internet and how it actually changed the music industry ("the big 5") That is if they have´nt already? Thanks
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Synerdata Net Radio
Joined: 04/01/04
Location: Canada
Posts: 102
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Brillman wrote:Who knows, in the future musicologists may do research on what actually happened during this explosive period on the internet and how it actually changed the music industry
I thought what was happening was really important, truly historical and unprecedented, to track, but more than anything, I think, I noticed how the general public was never quite connected with (by mp3com), which needed to present finely groomed radio shows which were strongly promoted and worldwide, so the general public could hear the stars and get to know them, for the average person did not "review" new releases or browse unknown artists, and was still waiting to be spoon-fed in a traditional manner by the media, and it was mostly the artists getting to know one another, and being one another's fans, within each site.
I felt it was critical to finely groom shows and to make it easy for people to listen to the current state of the art in independent music with a single click, and to place that link out where the public are, and I looked for this both as an artist needing promotion, and as a music fan, who wanted to hear a thoughtful mix of the new releases on a regular basis to hear everything that's new and good, not just some of it. What was new however was the ability to do a radio show in where each track includes the artist download URL, connecting the music fans directly with the artists.
Now I look upon the (currently) 13 music archives here, of around 20,000 hand picked excellent tracks by thousands and thousands of artists, being a comprehensive cross-section of the true sound of independent music spanning the past decade, and I see how I have something which does not exist anywhere else up now, which is priceless, and a true record of the electronic "folk" music of our times by all the artists who once upon a time would have been signed, and the like, and I feel this great sense of responsibility now to keep this grand showcase going, both with new releases, and replaying the best music of the 21st century.
I was delighted when Cliff from Vostek was searching the net for a track he lost all copies of, and he found it listed in the archives, that I may send him a copy of his lost song, which type of thing actually happens a lot, where most of this music is no longer available for download anywhere, that after so many artists have worked so hard to make so much phenomenal music, for people to hear, I am ensuring people hear their work and keep appreciating it, while otherwise so many artists, and the sites they were at, are gone now.
The big media companies have pretty much wiped out the ability of artists to gain free easy high visibility before audience traffic numbers like those mp3com had, which in the end, is the thing any hard working serious artist was looking for, and so things have all settled down ten years later on, and I don't think any artists, even new one's, have any delusions of success via internet music community sites, and they basically understand labels stopped signing most "independent" artists long ago, to usher in the Japanese "limited fame" model to prevent the creation of any more superstars more powerful than their labels...
Up now, artists seem to put their music on sites like this because they are artists and this is a presentation venue, and so they perform, audience or no audience, they perform, and are available to be appreciated, and accessible by those who become their fans, but the labels pirated the pot of gold at the end of the mp3com reignbow, and have themselves to blame for it, and so artists make due with negligible exposure at any given "lower traffic" music community sites, and have adjusted to the realities of the corporate world which buys up any high traffic venues to limit public exposure to their competition. In this respect I find that those who are most active at music community sites are either true-blue ongoing artists who do it because they make art, or part-time artists and people noodling around, but there seems a general consensus and expectation that putting one's music at a music download site is not about to find one suddenly famous and getting a record deal.
I really do want people to hear the music of the best artists of our times... I have heard it all, and it's phenomenal, and what is played on commercial radio can not compare with all the music and culture the big media companies are preventing the public from experiencing and knowing exists. The music of the artists of our times is -our- music of our times, and it is NOT unimportant, and it IS important that our cultures can hear one another, and know what we truly sound like, instead of what some corporations have decided to deceive the public into thinking is the sound of culture in our time. The artists are the angels, who enlighten the people, and where they are filtered out of the mass media, the public is darkened, and loses interest in the insincere music products of corporate bottom lines.
I got your track "Check" into Harvest 86!
Keep up the good work Brillman!
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Brillman
Joined: 10/08/02
Location: Norway
Posts: 136
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Synerdata Net Radio wrote:... I got your track "Check" into Harvest 86!
Keep up the good work Brillman! 
Thanks man and keep up the good work yourself. I absolutely agree on your comment with commercial radio= it´s shit! At least here in norway. 
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Second Thought
Joined: 05/05/02
Location: Oh God knows.
Posts: 188
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I never signed up to mp3.com, there were about four other Second Thoughts and I didn't really have enough of a personal image to think of another artist URL to have (now I'd just choose Purlieu after my first album), so I joined Soundclick, which had bog all in terms of community, but offered hosting at least. So I suppose I missed the formation of the whole thing, but I was recommended over here in early 2002 by Christopher Sisk - Creature as he was known back in the day (who's just released his first album in nine years, incidentally) - and the place was so alive with people of all ends of electronic music (and beyond) sharing sounds and comments, it was wonderful.
In terms of community, it does still exist, but in a much smaller way. I've watched many artists collaborate and meet other like minded musicians through the array of Creative Commons netlabels that are out there - easily the biggest source of free independent music around now - I think I've mentioned before that most artists I know don't bother much with sites like this and Soundclick these days because they'd release an album through a netlabel to a wider audience and in a more 'complete' format.
In terms of individual tracks, Soundcloud has that market covered at the moment, doesn't it? The amount of discussion, criticism and sharing of tracks on there is wild, and it seems to be home to most stuff that's not on a netlabel. I miss the general banter of a forum, it's a more personal, intimate setting than simply clicking 'comment' or 'share', but sadly I can't see those days returning on a grand scale. That this place is like it is now is both saddening, but also encouraging to see there are still a few of us regulars left - and it has a place in so many people's hearts that we occasionally get people pop back to see how everyone's doing.
Drug use for children has for many an education and with obvious alarm to both parents on the increase almost yearly.
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Synerdata Net Radio
Joined: 04/01/04
Location: Canada
Posts: 102
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Second Thought wrote:I never signed up to mp3.com
Thank you so much for sharing your reflections with us, in retrospect.
I think that for everyone, the experience of music community, and of network presentation of the art, is perhaps uniquely different. Yours is a very interesting view of having -not- signed into mp3com at all, while still having released music online in the beginning with so many others. I suppose that for many artists, community never had anything to do with their releasing of music, and just getting it presented online somewhere has been their only goal, that others may hear it.
I suspect that, up in 2011, when speaking of community, it may be that I am more referring to "a phase" of human internet revelation and evolution, such as has passed when the advent of community networking became old news. Indeed there were times of vibrant and effervescent community activity at sites like this, and mp3com, and that in general, everywhere, it has largely become something artists have tried, and moved on from, where hosting music on the net has become mundane and generally unpromising and hard work, while some maintain some degree of community presence merely by choice that they would prefer to relate with other artists at their favorite hosting site on occasion.
I observe the apparent trend in the independent artist communities towards working more individually, or within their bands, and of tending towards packaging and selling their music in a much more tightly controlled manner, and also the best artists do not seem to be spending much time anymore releasing free music or haunting independent sites, though their projects continue, and they maintain CD's and iTunes for sale.
I find your comments about net labels very interesting, for I have not noticed a trend in that direction, though I have not spent much time at net labels, as such.
Indeed, I think the roll of the independent artist release site has evolved and transformed, and much of the potential it had to revolutionize the industry was dashed by the competition, and that in many ways, OMD sites have become the haunts of music hobbyists and for playful presentation of art among peers, die-hards, and those for whom such sites provide all the avenue they need for their presentation of their art.
Up now, it seems, it is not so much about community, and that there is this general standard of infrastructure, decentralized, and scattered, and generally low traffic, which persists, and serves each artist according to their unique individual needs and goals and aspirations.
For what it's worth, this thread is a fine community experience.
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Uncle Reg
Joined: 08/26/10
Posts: 98
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I love your novels !
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Synerdata Net Radio
Joined: 04/01/04
Location: Canada
Posts: 102
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Thanks for the kind words Andrew.
They are very inspiring.
I have been enjoying your tracks Cardiac Recoil, Humber Sceptre Overdrive, and Strange Road Home, in the latest harvest... Very groovy!
I find great pleasure in witnessing over the course of a decade, the evolution of the music production of those artists which have continued releasing music, while so many have wrapped up their projects, some of us just keep on going, for art's sake.
Keep up the good work!
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Uncle Reg
Joined: 08/26/10
Posts: 98
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It's what we do eh ?. One thing that surprises me is the work rate of some of the artists here.
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Synerdata Net Radio
Joined: 04/01/04
Location: Canada
Posts: 102
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Quote:...One thing that surprises me is the work rate of some of the artists here.
That is something that I am very aware of, everywhere, that some artists are very prolific, and the release rates they maintain. Some seem to just produce music continually, year after year, a little time spent each day. Some release one song a month. Some are seasonal and go in spurts. Some produce one project at a time, with years in between. Some only make a single presentation and are not heard from again. Some release music for a few seasons, and can then say they have been there, and done that. Some make music when they have a little free time in otherwise busy lives, often, not as much time as they would like to put into it.
Artists which really stand out to me are those who care about their art, and their audience, who take their being artists seriously, apart from any reasons they may have for producing art, and who make music because they are artists, and would continue doing so. In contrast, some artists are very casual, and it's just a hobby or outlet, and they do not work hard or try to maintain any standards, but may be very prolific, and their work also stands out because art is art, and they are making it, and people are hearing all their songs.
I sometimes sense some envy in myself for those who can't seem to stop producing one phenomenal track after another, like they have been touched by God, or something, and probably were.
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Uncle Reg
Joined: 08/26/10
Posts: 98
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I think AUX/Focalised/|David nailed it when he said something like .. "I had to stop for 5 years due to the intervention of work" . Personally, if i didn't do this, I'd be a screaming alcaholic with no purpose in life.. I really value the comments and appreciation i get here ... peers that i don't have in a small rocknroll market town in east coast scotland. I'm not one for blowing my own trumpet (or coding it) eg. listen to me i'm great you must buy this and love me.. promo aint my thing ..as Oscar Wilde said ' your work must stand alone.. if you have to explain or advertise it's not good enough' As you say, not all artists can make their art their primary goal and that's as is, but the likes of mr cocktail, Aux and Swerve tweeter and others just keep gettin' better because they are doing it .. always learning.. always listening..honing. I'm in the fortunate position where ALL i do is create tunes. Everything else is meat n potatoes. Reason5/Record/Ableton Live is powered up only after tea and ablutions and they go to bed just before i do. If it wasn't for people like Gideon and yourself I'd lie in a bath of my own tunes !. Some people have a fire that won't go out.
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Uncle Reg
Joined: 08/26/10
Posts: 98
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"I am more referring to "a phase" of human internet revelation and evolution, such as has passed when the advent of community networking became old news" end quote ...
I am soooooooooo glad that doesn't apply to musicians who want to entertain people. |Community networking tailed off because most participants had f'all to say. Americans are leaving facebook in droves .. though facebook deny it. Communication , for it's own sake, is banal and vapid. Artistserver are quite an unassuming bunch. "Check this" is 'bout as far as it goes. Personally.. I ignore tracks released with a whole load of streetspeak cliches.. dime gets a dollar they're derivative and bland. True new art has no description. The imperfect tool of language is just that !
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