Yesterday Microsoft launched its new Media Tech 4.0 & King Crimson's "Live In Mexico City" became available for download. David Singleton was listening to it at home last night while I was trying to call him. There was so much traffic one of the servers crashed, apparently. (Adrian's studio computer has crashed big time, so I'm unable to access the DGM site & Guestbook). David has told me of the "how could DGM get in bed with Microsoft?" debate, to which he is responding directly.
Instantaneous electronic communication doesn't allow for reflection - the necessary time taken & invested in developing a substantial position on any topic - and consequently much of the instant commentary found on e-discussion sites is inevitably shallow. Mental knee-jerking, reactive, Pavlovian opinions shouted from the basement.
DGM is very happy to use Microsoft's technology to serve our business (& personal) aims. How could these aims be compromised by utilising superior formats for delivering music to hungry ears? David is posting his own response to the DGM site on this.
17.24 Adrian & I began at noon by listening to the P3 & P4 CDs from the forthcoming box set. Pat is very much the hero of P3 & makes a huge leap forward from P4 in his grasp of the e-drum technology. This is, after all, the current Crim rhythm section.
One of our internal questions has been the possibility of moving from Crim quartet to quintet, with Tony Levin joining Ade, Trey, Pat & myself. With the Seal tour cancelled, Tony has Crim-availability. My thinking and planning for the quartet is well determined, for music & business, while simultaneously having no idea at all what will happen. So my call is for Crimson to remain in its present quartet form for the next period. And I look forward to working with Tony in the future, who is currently preparing for a BLUE live release & planning a solo album.
Tomorrow Ade & I begin to look at areas, forms, structures & notes.
Frustration: Ken Latchney has been helping to get me online with my Thinkpad but we've been unable to get to the DGM website.
Declan Colgan is impressed with "Live In Mexico City". The details of how DGM Live is to operate are falling into place every day. My own first draft proposal is as follows:
DGM Live
DGM Live, in strategic relationship with Microsoft, are working together to improve the quality of music available through the net.
DGM Live, the new venture of Discipline Global Mobile, will be promoted by Microsoft to its 40 million users of Windows Media Technologies 4.0.
Benefits of Windows Media Technologies 4.0 include:
1. Smaller and better: files half the size of MP3 with superior quality;
2. Variable licence periods available for downloaded products;
3. Digital Rights Management (in compliance with the Secure Digital Music Initiative).
DGM Live presents performances of live music which enable audiences to make contact at a distance, in space and in time, with the unique conditions of particular performances. Most music made available online has, so far, been promotional. DGM Live pays royalties to artists for their performances.
I
DGM Live aims to legitimately meet the demandfor live performances which satisfy the requirements of the performer, the audience, the music and the industry.
Performers gain access to a wider audience, and are paid for their work.
The audience gains access to recorded live performance, legitimately, at a fair price.
The music is recorded and relayed with quality.
The market available to the industry is grown, without its existing markets being compromised.
II
The live performance of music is, potentially, the most immediate way of presenting music to its audience.
Any performance is governed by the unique conditions of that particular performance: the time, place and persons involved. Something is possible within the performance event which is not available in any other way, such as by listening to a studio recording or watching a promotional video. This is the power we recognise within live performance.
The growth and development of widespread bootlegging, the archiving of tours and "historic performances" of favourite artists, demonstrates the level of interest taken in live music, even where performances are poorly recorded.
III
BootlegTV.com & ConcertArchive.com
DGM Live is the umbrella company which organises the two sides of the new operation:
Bootlegtv.com = visuals + audio;
Concertarchive.com = audio only.
There are two levels of access: 3 day & forever;
There are two basic levels of pricing: current and catalogue.
"Current" is "Within one month of the performance".
"Catalogue" includes existing archives, including bootlegs.
The copyrights belong to the artists.
The DGM Live licence is for internet rights only.
IV
Advantages
1. DGM Live makes bootlegging superfluous and outdated. Fan, enthusiast and collector needs, catered for by the bootleg market, are met legitimately through DGM Live.
Our experience, and anecdotal evidence, suggests that most bootleg collectors buy legitimate releases of the same material when it is made available (and would prefer to do so).
We support the Secure Digital Music Initiative, to safeguard the rights of artists in their work. But our view is that concerns to find a watertight SDMI, to protect internet distribution, are overstated. Nothing on public release is "secure" where there is sufficient determination to make it otherwise, and CDs have been making digital audio masters available for 15 years.
Almost any audio / visual recording or broadcast, even movie, released into the public domain is vulnerable to bootlegging. Established and dedicated pirating on an industrial scale, as in South America, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, will probably continue until sufficient political will and global agreement make this unacceptable. But piracy has not prevented the commercial release of CDs, videos and computer games in unprotected (and probably unprotectable) formats.
Bootlegging will continue, on an amateur and commercial level, but this should not prejudice new forms of distribution.
2. The music market is "grown": DGM Live is a new sound carrying and distribution system which acts alongside records, video, radio and television, without replacing any of them.
3. DGM Live does not infringe on, or limit, the copyright and contractual interests of artists and / or record companies.
4. An unsigned act, with an established regional audience, may make its music globally available without signing to a major label.
5. A record company may promote its acts without undermining their market for CDs. Live performance is long accepted as a powerful means of establishing new artists and promoting established artists.
6. The broadcast of live performance has, until now, been a "promotional" tool. Now it is part of the income stream.
V
Likely Future Developments
1. Visuals.
In addition to Concertarchive.com live recording, visuals may accompany the music. The production value is simple, or "bootleg", which reflects live performance in the moment. For example, a simple one camera widescreen of the stage, or two camera shoot with close focus.
This is "Bootleg TV".
2. Live Broadcast.
The spread of fast internet access to major theatres and venues will accelerate live netcast.
3. Integrated Home Systems.
Concertarchive.com & Bootlegtv.com will accompany the widespread use of integrated home systems: computer + tv + sound station in surround sound.
VI
Each society invests in its music the values and beliefs of the culture. The musical life of any culture adopts its own principles of organising the profusion of possible sounds. These principles of organisation reflect, express and direct the nature of the culture, whether intentionally or otherwise.
The cultural life of any community is shaped by its technology. Conversely, the technology adopted by any community reflects its aims, aspirations, wants and needs. The First World of technologically sophisticated cultures, where computer and internet usage is commonplace and unremarkable, will increasingly develop forms and customs of cultural expression, experiencing and celebration.
Cultural events will be presented, and attended, in ways which are significantly shaped by digital technology.
August 9th. 1999
"Performance is impersonal yet intimate."
