Indie Obsessive Temporarily Looks at the Economics of Music

     Both of today’s blog entries are directed to the economics of music. This is not our primary (or even secondary) purpose, so we promise not to return to the theme very often.

     Embedded below is a “teaser” from what is promised to be a documentary film entitled “Unsound.” According to the information at http://vimeo.com/58809695:

Directed and produced by Count Eldridge

Music by Zoe Keating, Count, and Album Leaf

Zoe Keating remixed by Count

Unsound: extended trailer rough cut from Count Eldridge on Vimeo.

Ticketmaster Is Finally the “Good Guy”

     In our general area of the world (and others), Ticketmaster is the primary seller of first-purchase tickets. That is, they sell the tickets used at the event by the original purchasers and the tickets originally purchased by one person but then sold to another.    

     On the one hand, we appreciate some of the features of Ticketmaster, such as a three-day return policy. And Ticketmaster is certainly more responsive to consumers than it was a few years back. On the other hand, it is tough to understand the mathematics of an additional $10 convenience fee on a $25 ticket. That’s a 40% mark-up. In the 1990s, Pearl Jam openly complained about the high service charges of Ticketmaster and the U.S. Department of Justice opened an antitrust investigation regarding Ticketmaster’s practices (the investigation did not uncover sufficient evidence to move forward with an antitrust proceeding). 

      Even with the charge of $10 for the "convenience" of buying a ticket, it is easy to justify siding with a first-purchase ticket company when that company is attacking ticket scalpers who are in the business of beating music fans to the purchase of a limited number of tickets, with the intent of selling the tickets to music fans at a premium that far exceeds the 40% mark-up. We have nothing against the people who stand outside a concert site and buy tickets from one person in order to sell to another. Those on-site scalpers provide a service and deserve some compensation. At times, fans of a band will travel to a venue, relying on these on-site scalpers for ticket opportunities.

      The scalpers who provide no value-added service are the ones who buy tickets on-line and then almost immediately try to sell them at a different on-line site. Probably without fail, an event that is a sellout within a 15 minute time limit will have plenty of tickets available after only another 15 minutes, because the scalpers’ only interest in the ticket purchase was to resell them.  

     Well, Ticketmaster has sued Higs Tickets, Inc. (along with John and Patrick Higgins) for copyright infringement. Clearly, we are on the side of Ticketmaster. The litigation was filed on October 16, 2013, in the Central District of California. Among the allegations are that the defendants are using bots to circumvent Ticketmaster’s security provisions, are exceeding the limit of 1000 “hits" per day, and are clogging Ticketmaster’s system with storms of requests.

Whistling Indie – Still Cool After All These Years

     At each of the last two Austin City Limits Festivals, a song that included whistling caught our attention. In 2012, Bad Books performed “Forest Whitaker” and explained that if they had realized how difficult it is to whistle on demand, they wouldn’t have included the whistle in the song. This year, it was Delta Rae that used a heavy dose of whistling in a song that was announced as being a new release, but we didn’t catch the name.

     In the 1960s, Otis Redding very effectively used whistling in his signature song (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay." Since then, hits such as the anthem ”Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (Bobby McFerrin) have featured the “instrument.” The focus of Indie Obsessive is on relatively current music, but to provide a biased (very biased) naming of a few other older songs with a whistle:

"Away FRM U" - Oberhofer

"Day Dream" – Lovin’ Spoonful

"Fatal Shore" - Andrew Bird

"Golden Years" – David Bowie

"GoodBye Stranger" - Supertramp

"Home" – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

"Jealous Guy" - John Lennon

"Let's Go Surfing" - The Drums

"Patience" - Guns N' Roses

"Pumped Up Kicks" - Foster the People

"Sissyneck" - Beck

"The Fishin' Hole" (theme to The Andy Griffith Show) - Andy Griffith

"The Whistling Song" - The Walkmen

"Tighten Up" – Black Keys

"Two Of Us" - The Beatles

"Walk Like An Egyptian" – The Bangles

"Wind Of Change" - Scorpions

"Young Folks" - Peter Bjorn and John

     With that background, here are the more current whistle-featured songs in Indie, again with a bias. We wrote about Trapdoor Social in February. For those of us who don’t memorize all of the blog entries, we need a refresher. To quote, ”Trapdoor Social is a duo from the Los Angeles area. Merritt Graves and Skylar Funk met because they both were in an Environmental Analysis program at Pomona College. They explain that the concern for the environment is channeled into the music, which they describe as “a driving, emotive alt-pop experience.” 

     "Away" by Trapdoor Social

     Twin Forks is a supergroup we were scheduled to see at Austin City Limits. Then, the rain hit and we instead saw a Dallas Cowboys game as “Plan B.” “Plan A” would have been our preference, but ya gotta adapt.

     "Cross My Mind" by Twin Forks 

     Fitz and the Tandums give us "The Walker"

     Switching gears from Indie Pop to Indie Western, K.S. Rhoads is based in Nashville, Tennessee. The song is "Harvest."

     In tribute to a good friend of ours (Pat B.), we include the song “Crazy Bird” by Wild Child. Pat has enjoyed the music of Wild Child for more than a year and is looking forward to their visit to San Francisco later this year. "Crazy Bird" includes whistling, horns, and a group yell - can it get more Indie? 

     We like a few songs by Parks, Squares and Alleys. But we are only including “Forest,” since it’s the one with the whistling.

     Michael Franti & Spearhead performed the song “I’m Alive” on David Letterman. It certainly looked and sounded like a good time.

     Here's another fun one - "Into the Wild" by LP. This one is currently being offered as a free download by LP's recording studio. The download link is CLICK HERE.

     Here’s something from Canada –  specifically, Calgary. "I Lost Myself" by Lauren Mann & The Fairly Odd Folk

     This is minimalism at its best – “5 Years Time” by Noah and the Whale

     It seems fitting to end this blog entry with a song from a band that ended. The band has disbanded, but the music lives on. The Middle East has the song “Blood.”