Well for one there was actually music on television. Good music too.

Yes because there were independent labels & magazines promoting things and getting things heard about. And if you go back to my original post I think those things are the first casualties in all this because there's little money in it and because the majors now have such a stranglehold on what gets played.

And just supposing that what you say does work, where are all these great unsigned bands here? I don't see any threads about them. I don't see any people saying 'hey I checked out this great band who's stuff is online here, check it out'. In fact I've only ever seen it happen a handful of times in all the time I've been on this forum and even then the response tends to be minimal.

In theory it might work, in practice it doesn't.

Off topic but Urban Time Traveling Blues im impressed! Great Album!

I was impressed :thumb:

I can't say that I recall it being that much good music broadcasted on TV back then. And even if there was, we're still talking the mainstream selection. The internet has singlehandedly opened up a whole new channel broader than any previous broadcasting counterpart. It's not so much about comparing what we had then and what we have now, it's more about what we didn't have then which we have now.

Im not disagreeing with you at all, I was simply just pointing out one instance were music was easier to find a while back before the internet.

Those independent labels & magazines were surely pretty local phenomena. I was all but cut off the 'underground' musical world as a young rascal before the internet started to take off.

And as for the money issue: The accessibility of the net today has more or less eliminated the money factor alltogether when it comes to spreading your own music, or other's music that you've stumbled upon and wish to gain attention for. And once again, the fact that the mainstream channels - like always - have been more or less exclusively occupied by the major companies doesn't take away the vast independent scene that is alive and well and living not least online.

I can't speak for everyone else but if I was to sit down and actually count the bands/artists that I discovered thanks to my online activities, it would exceed the amount of "offline discoveries" tenfoldly, if not more. Think about all the recommendations that actually are posted only on this forum.

The mainstream music that was broadcasted back then was probably containing more quality stuff than it does today. (Although I wouldn't know since I haven't been in touch with mainstream channels for ten years or so). So I'll give you that.

But they weren't local though, that's the point.
They were highly organised with a proper distribution centre (Rough Trade) where anybody from a independent label could come along and get their bands distributed nationally and because of the success of this distribution lots of this stuff got mainstream airplay & media coverage.

There might be an independent scene but it's much more fractured, disorganised & small time, with everybody trying to get stuff heard good or bad. You can only do so much on the internet with no money. You can't promote or tour and that's what you really need to do to get a proper fanbase. Not just have someone download your album, listen to it once or twice and then forget about it because they have another 100 albums to listen to.
Like I said before, it makes everything more disposable & rarely gives people time to develop or build.

Yes but are they unsigned bands or bands who are signed & have records out?
If the latter is the case the only way it's easier is that you don't have to pay for it if you don't want to. You could probably find most of your online discoveries in a large record store just as easily.

What might bode well for future music are those eclectic directors who actually give a damn about their soundtracks - interesting, possibly even very experimental bands who might not get a leg up commercially can get a song or two on some surprise hit/cult film and their fanbase triples.

I guess as long as people give a damn about movies, interesting music will always get a chance to shine.

My old music teacher always told his students if they wanted to make money in the music business to go into film scores. He said thats where the future in big music money was. I kind of believe him .

Be that as it may, but as a fan you still had to be dedicated, probably much more than today, to grasp what was going on in the scene. And besides, you cannot deny that the distribution is simpler today than ever, as well as the means of gaining knowledge about all kinds of bands.

Your choice of words reflects your attitude on this issue. I'd say diverse and niched rather than fractured. Isn't it great that I have 100 different albums to listen to rather than about a dozen? And from a musician's point of view, isn't it great that I can record my compositions with the aid of a computer, mixer, microphones and certain hardware all cheapened by technical development, something that only 20 years ago was simply impossible for me to achieve? And in addition, upload it on dedicated websites for distribution and share it with friends and potential listeners? Sure I won't make many bucks on it but then again, that's not what I primarily try to achieve either and since the cost of making the music is so low over time I don't really have to make any money on it.

Both.

But I still have to acquaint the bands/artists I'm going out to buy one way or another. I don't go to a record store and randomly pick a few records to see if they're any good, especially not regarding the pricetag.

Autotune. Nuff' said.

Already done, the Gibson Robot guitar. Why learn to tune it yourself when a machine can do it for you!


http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...YngwFgqd8VseRg

The best thing about any of this is the fact that people in small dots on the map far away from anything that still yet to have to learn to drive will actually know music beyond the mainstream at the moment instead of years after the fact. This is from someone who was stuck in one for many years well before the Internet age. True, there were the Late Night Radio shows (or, the token "Alternative" blocks stuck on Sunday Nights), the Libraries where could meet up with a like mind if you were seriously lucky, and the odd family shopping trip to the nearby City, but life for someone in living in the Country who was into music before the Internet was mostly a pain.

To be fair, I have very fond memories, but you have to admit that things are better in a way.