labels

Musicians aren't merchants.

We certainly learned that through Radiohead and Trent Reznor's separate experiments with choose-your-price album promotions.

In October, Reznor, the leader of the band Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead attempted to promote and distribute albums online without the help of a major record label. Both offered fans the opportunity to obtain the music for free. Both saw some success.

But they also illustrated that the music business is probably better left in the hands of businessmen. Musicians are not the new labels. Artists need someone to provide financial support and business acumen. If we end up ridding the world of labels, we'll only have to re-create them--in some other, probably more nimble form.

Last week, I interviewed Reznor about the online promotion of rapper Saul William's album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust. In that interview, Reznor said he was disappointed that only 18 percent of the more than 150,000 people who downloaded the album paid for it. He and Williams offered two options: pay nothing or obtain a higher-quality audio version for $5.

By backing Williams with his money, name, and know-how, Reznor essentially thrust himself into the role of a music label. That is, a music label with a lot to learn. The first lesson was that you don't always back a winner. A music company's fortunes can often rest on its ability to discover superstars. Profits generated by a few marquee acts have always kept the companies going while all the other performers break even or lose money.

EMI said this week that only 5 percent of its acts are profitable. This kind of prospecting requires a huge investment.

Reznor said he didn't get involved with Williams to profit, but acknowledged that he spent too much making the album and said he hasn't yet recouped his money. A record company can afford to make bad bets once in a while, said Chris Castle, a music industry insider who has worked as a vice president for both Sony Music and A&M Records. Musicians, even successful ones like Reznor, probably can't.

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You can finally chuck that stomper and paper label. Someone's come up with a standalone CD/DVD printer that can actually output up to 1,200dpi graphics directly onto your CD or DVD. We've seen disc printers featured in printers, but the Dymo DiscPainter claims to put a new spin on the process.

If you have $280 to throw away and a crate of discs to label, according to Uncrate, this little USB device is the way to go. It uses RadialPrint technology, which spins the disc while it prints everything in full color, directly on discs, from … Read more

Update 2:50 p.m. This article has been updated with user experience information on AIM integration into Gmail.

Gmail and Google Talk users can now chat with their AOL Instant Messenger buddies through the Gmail interface, Google announced today. Rolling out to all English-based users by the end of the day, the new feature will let you seamlessly jump from chatting with a Google contact to an AIM buddy without having to use two separate chat clients.

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Now, your pictures can speak for themselves.

Labels That Talk, from Kailua Hawaii, has come up with software that lets consumers print high-density bar codes on strips of paper that store recorded voice messages. Scan the paper with a cheap handheld scanner--or a cell phone with a built-in scanner--and it plays back a message. The strip of paper you see in the picture can hold about eight kilobits, enough for a ten-second voice message, said Ken Berkun, president and founder.

"We're trying to get it to twenty seconds," he said.

The idea is to let consumer enhance … Read more

If there's one thing that's never in short supply on Crave, it's odd trends. But here's one that we never saw coming: labels.

Not only can we make labels using only a mouse, as we learned a few days ago, but now we can include photos grabbed from Webcams as well. Seiko has released a software update for its "Smart Label Printer" that works with many Webcam models on the market today, according to Electronista.

One day soon we suspect we'll be printing labels without the label maker.

As a vinyl collector, I've always held Sub Pop in high regard. Not only does the iconic Seattle-based label release a lot of LPs, it doesn't charge an arm and a leg for them--I've bought some records from Sub Pop bands for the same price or less than the CD costs.

Last week, Sub Pop began selling MP3 downloads, and its catalog has rapidly expanded, now encompassing more than 200 full-length albums. The price is $9.90 and the format is 192kbps MP3, meaning they can be played on any application or device, unlike downloads from iTunes … Read more

It's impossible to guess what the mad scientists at Hong Kong-based Brando will come up with next, and all bets are certainly off when it comes to the mouse. Already, various manufacturers have combined the once-simple peripheral with everything from phones and keypads to hand warmers and back massagers.

But leave it to Brando to find the first "USB Label Mouse Printer" from Casio to distribute. All you need to do is write your message on the computer and transfer it to the mouse through its USB connection, and the little guy will spit it out on … Read more

Rob Sheridan, a designer who's worked in the music industry, has posted a 6,000-word diatribe bemoaning the shutdown of file-trading network Oink and predicting (and encouraging) the death of the major-label system. It's an entertaining read, and should be required for Guy Hands and anybody else in the executive offices of the major labels. And he's not the only one who's predicting the death of the label system.

I'm currently reading a fascinating book, The World Without Us, which imagines what the world would be like if humans suddenly disappeared. So here's my thought experiment: what if we woke up tomorrow to headlines that all four majors had decided to get out of the music business and had freed the artists from their contracts? What would the business of music look like?… Read more

I recently had the opportunity to conduct this interview with Jeff Owens, Label Manager for the Ghostly International record label. To give you some context, Ghostly International is an independent electronic music label based out of Ann Arbor, MI. They've been releasing music since 1999, and their latest release, Matthew Dear's Asa Breed has been drawing praise from tastemakers such as Pitchfork and Filter.

From my perspective, Ghostly is a unique example of an independent record label that is quickly adapting to today's bizarre and demanding music marketplace. Their music can be found everywhere from iTunes, to Borders, to MySpace. Ghostly also interests me because they are a rare combination of a cutting-edge music label that is still heavily invested in releasing their music on vinyl. In fact, their Spectral Sound sublabel has the distinction of selling the majority of their music in either vinyl or MP3 formats, with just a handful of releases on CD.

It's amazing to me that in the past thirty years we've seen the dramatic rise and fall of music formats like cassette tape… Read more