Songs on the Small Screen: The decline of music television

April 25, 2015April 25, 2015 / James Fenney

The celebrated program “Later… with Jools Holland” has returned. Now in it’s 46th series, it is continuing it’s longstanding tradition of being the key UK television platform for both up-and-coming artists and big name stars. It has long been in the public eye and after many years of memorable performances it has become a key part of British music culture. The problem is that the show is the last of a dying breed. Britain’s other main music shows – Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test – are no longer with us. The former survives only in the form of an annual Christmas special and the latter is on the way to fading from the public’s memory. Continue reading →

Censorship and Radio Edits: What a Load of Bleep!

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015 / James Fenney

It’s something we’ve all experienced, sometimes going unnoticed and sometimes irritatingly obvious. You’re sat there enjoying a song on the radio only find moments of silence where offending words have been removed or that the song fades out halfway through. To be perfectly honest I find radio edits and music censorship to be an incredibly flawed and outdated ideal. Continue reading →

Tidal streaming service relaunch

April 1, 2015 / James Fenney

The music streaming service Tidal, which was bought out by rapper Jay Z, has been relaunched and rebranded as being owned by the artists. The co-owners of the business, including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Rihanna, Madonna, Daft Punk, Nicki Minaj, Deadmau5, Calvin Harris and Alicia Keys, hosted a conference in New York. Their aim was to create a better platform for music streaming which provided high quality audio and where a greater percentage of the profits go to the artists. Continue reading →

How to be a musical Great?

March 11, 2015January 29, 2026 / James Fenney

No matter what claims people may make, you can’t predict the future. It’s often difficult to tell what songs will top the charts on a given week, nevermind what music will be remembered for generations to come. There are some acts you would expect to last forever, I’m adamant that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ will one day be played on the surface of Mars. There are also plenty of acts that have defied all expectations and done exceedingly well – I bet Rick Astley’s bank account is looking pretty full right now! But what about modern music, what does the future hold? Personally I think the best way for an act to ensure that they’re remembered is to follow one of three paths: Continue reading →

Is there such thing as good music?

February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 / James Fenney

If you’re the kind of person to get into lengthy and heated debates about music, then you’ll be used to someone interjecting with a comment along the lines of “Music is an art form, it’s all just opinion and personal taste”. It’s the kind of remark that requires some thinking time and possibly some more lengthy discussion. Saying that it’s all based on opinion does then pose us with the question as to whether there’s even such thing as good or bad music. Short answer? Yes… but It’s not quite so simple as that. Continue reading →

‘Old’ music outsells ‘New’ music

February 8, 2015February 8, 2015 / James Fenney

Source: musicbusinessworldwide.com

In 2014 catalogue album downloads outsold downloads of new albums in the US. This is the first time in history that, over the course of year, old music has outsold new music. Now this is just the case for the American figures for downloads, but the above graph shows sales on all formats and it shows a worrying trend. At this rate new music will soon be outsold on all formats. Many would be quick to cite this as evidence that old music is simply better than modern music (a topic that I myself am bound to have a more in-depth discussion of at some point) but there are other contributing factors. It could be that people are more likely to use streaming services for chart music than older catalogue albums, or it could be that (since ‘old’ music in this study is defined as being released over 18 months ago) people need time to decide whether an album is worth buying or they are waiting until the price drops. Whether the cause is music quality, music cost, changes on how people listen to it or a combination of the three, it should be an alarming wake up call for the industry.

Islands in the Stream: Thoughts on Spotify

January 25, 2015January 25, 2015 / James Fenney

This week I had my first experience with Spotify. It’s taken me a while to get with the times but I thought it would make writing album reviews far easier (and cheaper!). The music streaming service has a rapid increase in users in recent years. Last year saw over a 50% increase in it’s usage and the start of music streaming’s contribution to the song and album charts in the UK. It’s easy to see why it’s so popular, a vast expansive library of music ready to listen to free of charge at the push of a button. It’s the next big step in the evolution of music, but what does it mean for the industry as a whole? Continue reading →

Back in Black: The Vinyl Revolution?

January 15, 2015January 29, 2026 / James Fenney

Photo by Elviss Railijs Bitu0101ns on Pexels.com

You cannot stop the progress of time. Trends change, technology advances, life carries on regardless. Music downloads are already on the downhill leg of their short lifespan thanks to the rise of music streaming services such as Spotify providing the masses with free access to a world of music at the touch of a button. But history has a peculiar way of repeating itself. There, lurking in the shadows, the vinyl LP record. You’ve no doubt seen them a lot more in recent years, the other day I counted at least 7 different places in my local town where you could by both second hand records and new pressing and reissues. Vinyl sales have reached an 18 year high with over one million units sold.

Continue reading →