“Brevity is the soul of wit”
— Shakespeare, as Lord Polonius in Hamlet
Unfortunately brevity is not my strength.
But I’m trying.
We’ve been working to craft the mission statement for CASH as well as find a way to describe our efforts in less than an hour conversation. I wrote a few paragraphs (below) that don’t accomplish either of those goals, but hopefully start both on their way. So consider it a really early draft, but here goes:
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33⅓ is a number etched into vinyl and into our hearts as a link to a bygone era in music. It wasn’t just a play speed, it was a technological baseline that musicians could count on when it was time to release their music to the world. A release could be upgraded to a picture disc, a gatefold. It could be backed by the most PR dollars or airplay. But making it spin at 33⅓ was a constant that all artists could rely on to make their music accessible to all.
CASH Music is trying to create a similar technological baseline by building open tools and services. We are a nonprofit and all code is being written as open-source, and will accessible to all either through a hosted service or by taking the code and setting up a new server. We feel that artists should all be able to release, promote, and distribute their music in the ways that their audience wants to consume. We also strive to provide education and case studies, so artists can make informed decisions in the use of any digital-era tools, ours or otherwise.
We’re not trying to replace any industry or service. CASH Music is simply trying to provide a solid foundation upon which all artists and listeners can build while participating in the new music landscape.
Alas, Brevity is also the soul of Wisdom. I enjoy your posts but feel you’ve fallen into the trap of circular logic. While 33⅓ served as the constant of the past (ok there was 45 too), there’s no reason it can’t be today. It was such an established constant that we sent messages of humanity out into the cosmos using that very technology in the form of gold plated analog discs on Voyager I & II. (actually they were 16⅔…but that’s besides the point) The point is that anybody that’s able to spin these discs and stick a cactus needle in the groove can catch the latest tunes from Bach or Chuck Berry. The digital revolution has turned consistency on its head. I’m just old enough that my first computer used 5.25″ floppys and 64k of RAM… I recently came across some of these discs from my college days and laughed. Even if I could find a drive to put’em in, the CPM operating system would pose a much bigger problem…. There’s the prescience promised by some and the flexibility of open source promised by others. What they don’t take into account is the realities of the future. Do we live like the Jetsons yet? If development is all your worried about, than any evolutionary or revolutionary set of tools is OK by me. Just don’t count on, or use these tools as the foundation of the results. Todays best tools (operating systems come to mind) can be tomorrows foundation of sand. How many different music and video file formats can you name….Ironically, what is probably the most popular format(AAC) forever locks your art into IP owned by someone else…Look what’s happened to DRM in just the past few years. As part of the CASH call-to-arms should be the goal to insure the future permanence of all the art it helps foster.
Thanks for your time.
Posted by Jarl Salmela on August 8th, 2009.
HI Jarl — I basically agree with you on the importance of preserving recordings, though you’ve hit upon some of my worries about using this analogy to explain CASH — we’re less focussed on preserving recordings as we are on creating sustainability for artists. Right now the simple ability to make music as a vocation is in danger and you can’t deny that digital distribution is a key to an artist’s livelihood no matter how ephemeral the file formats might be.
You’re far more knowledgeable than I when it comes to hardware and recording formats. I’d love to have a proper conversation sometime about it all, but it seems that any format is pretty fleeting but we find ways for music to endure. After all it wasn’t recording that preserved Bach, rather sheet music and performance. And Chuck Berry’s great career is preserved, but tapes erode, vinyl warps, and grooves wear flat. But the fact that he built a career that endured keeps his work alive both in recordings and as a inspirational backbone for rock today. So while I agree that we need to preserve recordings, I see a greater threat to music in the trouble facing musicians as formats and audience behaviors continue to change faster than our industry can adapt to.
Give me a ring or send an email when you’re back in Cambridge. I’d love to sit down sometime and learn a little more from you. I’d love nothing more than to see vinyl thrive again, and things from simple USB turntables to laser-read LPs all get me excited — but it’s a world a little too far from me to really understand.
Posted by jvd on August 9th, 2009.