Through the LCD clearly

Preface:
I adore Franz Ferdinand, I first became a moderate fan of their music while “studying” at the University of Stirling in Scotland. Back stateside I drove up to St. Louis from Springfield to see them play. On an impulse brought along a few bottles of Irn Bru (it’s a drink.. “made in Scotland, with rust from girders”). Long story short I was fortunate enough to meet them prior to the show.  They were nice guys seemed genuinely interested in what I had thought of Scotland, thanked me for the Irn Brus, and bothered to learn to pronounce my name.  One of my issues with people in entertainment or politics is that they have an over inflated sense of their self worth, so it’s nice to interact with a talented group and have them turn out to have personalities. To top it all off they put on a killer show , the last time I danced that long or with that intensity I tore the ligament in my left knee. This was just prior to the release of their second album and I was hooked.

Moving on to today:
Torrent freak had a piece on the band telling fans to “point their browsers towards Limewire, soon kiddies!”
The piece they are referring to is a cover of David Bowie’s Sound and Vision, I went through the official site but couldn’t find the quote. Torrentfreak and Aversion quote them as saying:

“Franz have covered David Bowie’s 1977 single Sound And Vision for a new compilation marking the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio 1. The album features contemporary artistzzzz covering a song from each year since the station’s first broadcast in 1967.

edit….The whole shabang doesn’t appear to be for charity so point your browsers towards Limewire soon, kiddies!”

Seems the producers of the project mislead the band or management as to the nature of the project. It doesn’t seem like something the BBC would do but one never knows anymore. The song they referenced is well worth looking up and giving a listen.

In a previous interview (which I’ve linked to a secondary source because of the original source’s nsfw nature) they stated:

“PLAYBOY: Some musicians aren’t very happy about the iPod.
NICK: I’m not quite sure.  I think if you’re in one place, it’s nice to have an actual album, a record sleeve, the lyrics.  So there will always be that element of wanting to own something and not just have a song on a hard drive.  But I know I travel a lot – and I’ve always liked to travel light – I don’t like to have a lot of posessions.  What I do is buy a CD and stick it in and rip it.  Then I can listen to it and have it with me even if I lose the CD or give it away.
ALEX: I like the idea that, because of downloading, people are going to buy songs only if they are good.  I think that’s a positive thing.  It means lazy bands aren’t going to get away with giving you one hit single and an album full of filler.  We like the idea that every song should stand up in its own right so you don’t have to listen to a song in the context of an album to understand it.  I suppose that’s why I’m sympathetic to the download environment.”

Interesting statement,
One of my friends in Stirling had been writing a paper on the changing nature of the recording industry and had asked us our opinions. I should get him to chime in on this but here are some of the selected bits we talked about.

“Jamie: Due to the digital downloading of tracks (Apple iTunes store is now the third most common way to purchase music in America) are we – once again – a singles, as opposed to albums, society?

Me: Unless a CD truly stands out,
Singles are the safer bet. I do think we’re headed that way.
A concentration on singles may well bolster the industry. If individual songs have to be good, instead of just tacked on the coat tails of better songs, we may start expecting higher caliber songs.

Jamie: Additional comments?
Me: I think downloading is the great equalizer.
Eventually the recording industry will dominate or hold the most beneficial distribution deals. Despite that, garage bands or musicians of alternative genres will have a means to get their music out to the world, and bypass the traditional routes of success.

We will of course have an influx of even more terrible music, but eventually sites and niche reviewers will start to wade through the rubbish and we may well have a musical golden age on our hands.”

I don’t know how the big recording companies feel on the matter. I know I’ve bought an album for one or two songs before (but have long since stopped).  I do like the tactile sensation of having a CD or LP but I’m not exactly able to throw on my Simon and Garfunkel LP’s on for a jog am I? In the end as with other aspects of media production the big companies know what they’re doing, have access to a better network of scouts and have perhaps most importantly hugely talented marketing/promotional machines so they will adapt and come out on top but for us fans it’s still a nice shift.

Indecently there is a new Franz Ferdinand album coming out in January and it would be interesting to analyze their CD vs. online Single sales.

Juard Van Dijkhorst