Tea with Hungry Lucy, Episode 113 ends with a performance of "Shine" (originally from the album, "To Kill a King"). This version is just electric piano, hammered dulcimer and Christa's delicious vocals. Rather un-electronic for Hungry Lucy. Before the performance, though Christa goes on a rant about a newly opened local "restaurant" that the pair visited on their Sunday of attempted creativity boosting. War-N and Christa take a personal trip down memory lane and tell us about the apartment from hell in which they used to live. in the "other people's music" segment, War-N talks about trip-hop pioneer's Portishead and their very challenging, but rather clever new album "Third". CB & War-N also talk about MP3 vs. CD vs. vinyl.
Do you still buy vinyl, or is it ancient history?
Any Twitter-folk out there? Why not follow War-N's ramblings? It's fun. You can point and laugh.
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Portishead - Machine Gun (Live on Jools Holland)
In this week's Tea with Hungry Lucy War-N & Christa share a preview of a new song (working title: Pajamas), likely title "The Best Day of Her Life". We get to hear the original noisy piano recording, and the newly arranged music.
This week's Tea with Hungry Lucy is high on the insanity meter! A mix of emotions this week as Christa and War-N talk about the therapeutic benefits of making music as well as the confidence struggles it can sometimes bring to the surface.
Queen of new media and talented vocalist of Lovespirals, Anji Bee, has featured Hungry Lucy (and our video for Harvest) on her latest Chillcast video.
Time to return to my ongoing musings (or endless rant, depending on your viewpoint) on what I'll call "music freedom".
I came across a wonderful article by Andrew Dubber (via Derek Sivers) entitled "Should I Be Worried About Piracy?". Andrew thoughtfully and eloquently explained the point I've been trying to make for some while.
Instead of battling hard against this new consumer power to copy and share music...why not embrace it?
Hungry Lucy has been doing so now for about 1 year. Aside from my peace of mind (in which I place great value) we have seen greater interest in our music and, yes, a gradual but steady increase in paid (yes paid) downloads. Granted, I have no evidence as to what has caused this. I quite firmly believe, though, that our "please copy & share" attitude is at least partially to blame. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I don't worry about all those lost sales anymore, and that...is priceless. ;)
Remember the days of sharing mixtapes ... well, it's back and on the interweb. A new service called Muxtape allows you to upload MP3s (up to 12 per "tape") and then share the URL. Anyone viewing your muxtape can listen to your "tape" online (streaming only).
Check out a Hungry Lucy muxtape I just made:
http://hungrylucy.muxtape.com/ (feel free to share the URL)
After some live video stream experiments and slight techie issues, take two of TWHL #108 is ready for your ear holes. This week, Christa & War-N talk about their future plans for live video streams, performances and all. W & CB also talk about the making of the Softly video in the basement with a baby pool ... fer reals (video here in the show notes)! War-N asks for comments on his latest blog post on the value of music. Christa's OPM pick for this week is Diamanda Galas in all her delicious vocal glory. Sadly, all the pimping of Halou was lost in take 1, so we'll just pimp Halou here in the show notes and wish them mucho congrats on their just completed US tour!
So, what's on YOUR mind? Thoughts, concerns, ramblings??
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Diamanda Galas - "Gloomy Sunday"
Hungry Lucy (yeah, us) - "Softly"
Lately I've been thinking and talking to others about the value of music. It's a topic that comes up a lot in the discussion of free music downloads. Many in the business of selling music argue that the act of allowing music to be freely downloaded (e.g. Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails) reduces the value of music. By establishing a set price for music, music sellers are saying, "This is how much the music is worth." By their argument, allowing people to download music for free is saying, "This is worth nothing".
I've always thought "value" is like "beauty" ... surely it is determined by the beholder or consumer. If I find a piece of music that enhances my mood in a manner that I find desirable, it has great value to me. If that same piece of music is offensive to you, and you would rather stick sharp objects in your ear than hear it again, it has no value to you. Value is subjective, as opposed to objective.
It's much easier (in my opinion) to find music that appeals to you these days. The vast "interweb" is awash with little corners of music that tickle your fancy. No longer do you have to rely on a marketing push from a handful of sources to learn about what's out there. You can go and find the music that is of value to you. Me thinks that it's the handful of sources that are freaking out about all this because what was once a large pot of gold being shared by a few is now being shared by many smaller sources. People are spending their money in places where the get the greatest value to them.
The fact is, the world is changing when it comes to making and selling music. Many parts of the old music distribution chain will not be necessary in the future. Some are already feeling he effects in a big, big way. I truly feel for the people (yes, they are people folks) running these parts of the chain. Many (but not all) are hugely passionate about music and have found a way to make a living doing what they love. I see nothing wrong with that at all. But, as the landscape changes they can dig in their heals and cry "foul" ... or rekindle that passion, get excited about the possibilities and adapt for the future.
As an artist, that is what I have tried to do ... adapt. As a listener, I'm excited about all that musical goodness just waiting for me to find it!
A quote that really struck me ... Michael Arrington of TechCrunch stated,
"Recorded music is nothing but marketing material to drive awareness of an artist."
I guess music has no value to Michael.
For the record: I am happy for people to freely download and share Hungry Lucy's music, videos and podcasts. Doing so allows for word-of-mouth discovery as well as letting people know we respect them. In return, I think people will respect us and ultimately support our music by buying it (if it has value to them). I have seen this to be true time and time again. That said, I trust that people respect the decision of other artists who do not grant such permission. I think they will come around eventually ... until that time ... please don't steal.
Peace.
- War-N
This week Tea with Hungry Lucy is all about War-N & Christa's trip to New Haven, CT to play at The Blacksun Festival. While a fun time was had by all, W & CB came to some realizations ... listen to find out more.
So, what's on YOUR mind? Thoughts, concerns, ramblings??
DOWNLOAD the episode #107 MP3
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Seabound/Iris 2008 tour promo video
It's time for Tea with Hungry Lucy! This week Christa is a bit under the weather, sadly. War-N & CB do have a brief chat though and tell us about their trip to see & hear the wonderful Sia perform in Detroit (along with opening act Har Mar Superstar). A fab show indeed!! Christa tells us about the next installment of the "Life with HL" video series (#003) that should be up at www.hungrylucy.com by the time you read this. Also mentioned were two great films ... "Juno" and "La Vie en Rose" (about the singer Edith Piaf).
Questions, comments ... random thoughts?
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Sia in Dayglow
Edith Piaf - "Non, je ne regrette rien" (for Mum)
