This Happened

02022-07-24 | Music, Ottmar, Website | 2 comments

The post “Glorious Bench” was there and then it wasn’t. I received an email with the subject field “Mitigating a serious website hack”, but I didn’t get worried because Canton knows what he is doing. Things were done, most of which sound like magical incantations to me, the clock was turned back and I reposted the blog post. Everything should be fine, thanks to Canton.


I added some Luna Negra shows to the calendar. East Coast from 27 October to 6 November. Some favorites and a few new venues. If you are in New York, consider coming the show in Newark.


Read news about two rivers dear to me, the Rhine and the Rio Grande. Neither news was very good.

Less than a foot of water currently stands between European business as usual and a German supply chain crisis. Amid a record-breaking, continent-wide heat wave, the Rhine river has dropped to levels so low, that shipping on the waterway may soon become economically untenable or even impossible.

Gizmodo

A stretch of the Rio Grande near Albuquerque that supplies farmers with water and a habitat for an array of aquatic life is drying — an unsettling sighting of climate change’s effects in a populous U.S. city.

Washington Post


And last, but not least… I had an idea that I am really excited about. But perhaps you will feel meh about my fabulous idea–one can never know about these things in advance. While streaming services are amazing, and I subscribe to one myself, there is no doubt that they dilute the perceived value of music. Did you know that the amount of money a streaming service has to pay for each play is set by a judge in Washington? I mean, on one hand it is pretty cool that a song by the Rolling Stones or Marvin Gaye fetches the same amount of money as a song a completely unknown person recorded on his computer, and which no one has ever bought. On the other hand this is a capitalist country and how is it possible that a judge gets to fix the price? Can you IMAGINE the judge’s inbox? They would get lobbied so hard by every streaming service and the record labels and performing rights associations. Nightmare.

Get to the point Ottmar! Yes, yes, almost there. So I was thinking about doing something radically different. So different that I don’t know of anyone who has done this. Drum roll!

What if I said that once I reach 999 subscribers to the membership club, I am currently leaning towards calling it “Backstage”, I will no longer distribute my music outside of it? No streaming services, no sales on Bandcamp, nothing! The music would only be available from Backstage. Members would be able to download high def files of the music. They would be able to burn a CD for themselves and print a PDF cover that they can also download. The music would be exclusive to Backstage and wouldn’t be available anywhere else. I know, crazy, right!?

2 Comments

  1. Ira Lin

    I’ll sign up your Backstage once it becomes available. I love physical media, for me it is not just a collection of music , but also a piece of art, the way Criterion Collection packages for movies. But I’m running out of space for storage so I’m fine with HiRes music file, I purchased your Bare Wood 2 HiRes AIFF files from HDTracks (plus many others), and it sounds very good with my iMac Mini playing through HDMI connection to Amp. I noticed you removed your category from HDTracks ? I also like the Fete Business Card USB drive I got at your concert, that format does not pan out for you? Anyway, whatever you gonna name it, Backstage , Luna Gang Club….I’m here for high quality music.

    Reply
    • ottmar

      Thank you! I forgot about the USB Card. That could be a nice way to have a physical product. I think you may have bought the first Bare Wood album from HDTracks. They don’t have the second one. HiRes files are great once one is set up for them. :-)

      Reply

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