Fashion Contrast

Is this for real or a hoax. Worth a watch either way.

Recently a few people have been getting fairly vocal or should I say simply been ‘tweeting’ about the Digital Economy Act which looks be little more than a slightly draconian approach to combating illegal music downloads. A large threat comes in how this law can mean your broadband connection can simply be disconnected if you are as brilliant blog Information is Beautiful suggests a ‘persistent pirate‘

Below is a fairly long and perhaps for some slightly non-understandable graphic to show how artists are being paid in this new coined ‘Digital Marketplace‘. What I can determine is that being a proper artist in this time means you almost need to go back to basics and make your own stuff and as long as possible continue to live to an almost “D-I-Y” style when it comes to recording and publishing your work.

I guess many artists are now seeing the potential rewards that a digital download campaign can bring in as an investment for the future of the band they are in. I say play the system for as long as you possible can.

This image is based on an excellent post at The Cynical Musician called The Paradise That Should Have Been about pitiful digital royalties. As ever, this was incredibly difficult to research. Industry figures are hard to get hold of. Some are even secret. Last.Fm’s royalty and payment system is beyond comprehension. (If you can explain it to me, please get in touch)
Note: these figures do not include publishing royalties (paid to composers of songs). The full spreadsheet of data does though. You can see all the numbers and sources here:http://bit.ly/DigitalRoyalty

For more information visit the original post here

Kong are a great band featuring members of the legendary Oceansize and I recently had the pleasure of watching them at my local venue. On first out of 3 bands hardly anyone was there and I could sense much to their frustration that more people should have been there, personally I didn’t mind too much as its great to see bands like this in such an intimate setting.

Kong – ‘Leather Penny’ from Brew Records on Vimeo.

If you are a fan of any kind of aggressive music – be that Shellac or even going to the more quiet aggression of Fugazi, you will like Kong…

As the NME puts it

“If you like Shellac and Fugazi, consider Kong the toxic shock syndrome version; they will more than likely please your ears but definitely give you a side of nausea. How do I know? Cos I’ve got a copy of their hideously good debut album ‘Snake Magnet’ playing right now. Check it out upon its release on July 13th or I’ll send a scary baboon round to your gaff to set your eyelids on fire. Just messing. I’ll send Kong”

Definitely one of my favourite shows this year – very loud, very heavy and those mask’s well there also pretty cool! There Myspace can be found here and if you like what you hear why not buy their latest release entitled ‘Snake Magnet‘ from here surely these chaps need to be bigger then they presently are…