Redirect your attention!

Jonatan — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:42:48 +0000

I’m moving homes to a new blog, hosted by Google, that doesn’t have silly transfer limits resulting in all my graphics and pictures being unavailable at the end of the month.

Carry on the journey for better theology, cooking and music at:
http://jonatanb.blogspot.com

From Droid Soul to Humanism

Jonatan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:35:02 +0000

This week’s Spotify playlist from yours truly. Please enjoy!

cylob: how will i die
luke vibert: sparky is a retard
luke vibert: eleventy one
t-pain: chopped ‘n’ skrewed (ft ludacris)
the-dream: kelly’s 12 play
christian walz: maybe not
favorite flava: favorite flava
little dragon: fortune
ryan leslie: out of the blue
damn!: i’m not going to live a day without you girl
veronica maggio: gammal sång
patti page: old cape cod

droid soul-humanism html-link
spotify link

Spotify Economics

Jonatan — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:29:09 +0000

There’s been some concern that Spotify doesn’t generate enough revenue for the artists. I’m not involved or affiliated in Spotify in any way (so I don’t know the workings of the agreements in place here), but I would like to contribute to the debate by a comparison.

Swedish national radio P3 has somewhere between 100 000 and 300 000 listeners on average: let’s say 200 000 for our example. P3 pays 100 kronor (€10) per minute. A typical song therefor generates about 350 kronor (€35). So if Spotify should generate the same amount of money then 200 000 individuals need to seek out and listen to the same track - or one huge fan need to listen to your song 200 000 times!

Magnus Uggla (Magnus the owl) is one of those who have been complaining claiming that 55 000 plays has generated “what a decent street musician makes in a day”. (För att läsa Ugglas inlägg, se:
http://ugglanyheter.blogspot.com/2009/08/den-nya-piraterna.html). Uggla goes further, he says that he’d rather be raped by Pirate Bay than buttfucked by Sony Music (yes, those are his words).

But what Spotify does is generate a small (yes, I grant him that) revenue per song played - but still it’s revenue. All the arguments about seeding promoting music… well, now you can both enjoy full length music and support the artist at the same time, no stealing necessary!

Uggla is a perfect example of someone who makes money off of Las Vegas like entertainment shows (krogshower) and big outdoor summer concerts, potentially also merchandise. So he’s not dependent on revenue from sales or airplay. Indepentent artists doesn’t have these venues, and if every play generates ever so small a revenue - I think it will ultimately be an improvement of the conditions indie musicians have been forced to live under, in the 21st century thus far.

To further the argument: So far radio stations like P3 have been paying to performing rights societies. But smaller stations drowning in paperwork often doesn’t pay - or like one example I heard about: The station took one random day of the month and multiplied that playlist by 30. So if you were played that day you got 30 times the money, if you (most likely) were played any other day - you got silch. Spotify digitizes the paperwork and everyone gets their tiny piece of the action, but exactly distributed according by plays. Also the “cassette/CD tax” that you pay when you buy blank cd’s, (off course) this doesn’t go to the artist that get their work pirated onto that CD. This is instead distributed according to the top 100 billboard for album sales. Again, a system like Spotify corrects this imbalance.

When I stuck my nose out saying that stealing isn’t cool some people maybe thought I was against change. I’m very pro-change - but I think one condition for succesful change is that both parties (with music that’d be listener and artist) is onboard with the change at hand. I see Spotify as this possibility.

We have yet to see whether or not you can live off of this type of music Revenues, potentially not. But if artists decide that the want to distribute music this way - or not - then this choice is ultimately made by the artists, and not for them by (for example) pirates.

Much love
Jonatan

Pluspoäng Anders Borg

Jonatan — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:03:13 +0000

I vanliga fall är jag inget fan av vår finansminister, Anders Borg, men när han häromdagen gjorde ett politiskt uttalande där han citerade Prince, då var det pluspoäng. Jag tänker förstås på “the banks are partying like it’s 1999, but it’s actually 2009″. Så torrt, så bra och roligt samtidigt. Tack för den: En funky käftsmäll till det kapitalistiska etablissemang han så ivrigt själv förfäktar. Det är inte mindre än att man blir både road och förvirrad.

Spotify 25/8

Jonatan — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:08:15 +0000

Today’s Spotify playlist

J Moss: Abundantly
Ryan Leslie: Valentine
The-Dream: Rockin that shit
T-Pain: Chopped ‘n’ Skrewed (ft Ludacris)
Nathan Fake: You are here (Four Tet Remix)
Metamatics: Allegro
Aquasky: Opaque
Seba: Blaze and fade out (ft Krister Linder)
Kings of Convenience: Know-How (ft Feist)
José González: Love will tear us apart
Boards of Canada: Zoetrope
Jonsi & Alex: Indian Summer

Open playlist in your own Spotify

What is Spotify? Think of an iTunes, with a LOT of the world’s music at your fingertips. Now imagine that you can listen to the entire songs. Spotify is financed by either using the free version which features commerical breaks or the premium version where users pay 10 euro per month for the content (commercial free).

I for one, who was early on the case critizing illegal downloading, will also be quick to applaud this service. Moreover, I will do what I can to make my own material available. The label’s involved have to approve this though, off course (this is what I will work on).

Best
Jonatan

New Single!

Jonatan — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:22:17 +0000

Out now on Exceptional Records;
Waveplant & Ernesto "(I Need A) Bassline",
please enjoy!

/Jonatan

Paternityleave

Jonatan — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:02:05 +0000

I think that’s the word. The thing is, there isn’t really any other leave than “maternity” in either the US or UK as far as I know. In the US you can stay at home (without pay) for a number of weeks (!), then you have to sort out your own finances (better have that american dream in the bag already). In Britain, you have (according to my publisher) four or six month with full pay, then an additional three or so with a heavily reduced (or no) pay. In Poland my friends told me they were lucky to manage to have six months instead of four, which is all you get. My daughter Elvira will be one year old in two weeks time (as dedicated followers of this blog will know). My fiancee managed to stretch her nine months by not taking all the days per week, so she went back to work two weeks ago. Now I start my half of our collective allowance of 18 months(!). So now, I’ll be with my daughter for an initial six moths, then resume my theology studies in mid January, and then take my remaining three months next summer.

And as for being the perfect housewife, as you know by know I do a lot of cooking already. But now I’ve also dove head first into baking bread. These baguettes are for lunch today.

Also, I try to look fabulous at least one day a week. =)

Yours truly,
daddy blogleg.

Someone said no to facebook

Jonatan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:29:13 +0000

I read an article by a 21 years old today who, he claimed, was probably the only guy his age without Facebook. He had a really interesting point that I never considered before, namely how Facebook is full of people at parties, at the beach, snowboarding in the mountains, all sorts of nicerys. No one is ever up there with their “drunk alone”-pictures and so on. In other words, it turns into a competition of who’s got the most fulfilling life, full of glamourous features and so forth. Interesting.

Makes me think about this blog, maybe you think about it too. Why am I writing so relatively seldom? Because that’s the frequency with which I’m doing “interesting” things? Not really. Some one called their weekdays “grå vardag”. I don’t have that (grey weekdays). Not that my life is full with social events, exotic travels and this, that and the other. BUT. I do have a life that to me is very fulfilling indeed. Also, I believe that everything we say and do is in a way a kind of exercise of power. If I say that I have dinnerparties every tuesday (I don’t), and drink champagne after my massage on fridays (I don’t), I attempt to make this a normality, something that “lesser” elements should also strive to achieve. To me it’s essential that my blogging, nor my music is something carried out in a way where theology, music and cooking is supposed to be normality or a standard to measure others by.

I appreciate that you stayed connected with me, through my blog. But make no mistake, I feel honored that you want to make my music a part of your grey or non-grey facebook or no-facebook everyday. That doesn’t mean that I expect you to value, prioritize or do, think and say the kind of things I prioritize, do, think and say.

Just a spin off from todays news paper.
Thanks for keeping on stopping by my place.
/Jonatan

BBB

Jonatan — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:52:53 +0000

The name of the venue tonight in Poznan is Blueberry Bar.
I hope to see you all there.

best
/Jonatan

Conceptions about Input/Output

Jonatan — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:02:25 +0000

In charismatic churches - in which I’ve got a history - there’s a tendency of talking about “being out in the world” (which is scary) which is kind of an unavoidable but unfortunate mission that requires getting “filled up” with sacralities within the church walls (through prayer, scripture reading and so forth). Clearly put, society is draining you and you need new input to enable output.

Many people involved in electronic music (or music over all, in fact) tend to think along similar lines. You need to listen to music (input) in order to be able to produce music (output). Otherwise questions like “what music do you listen to” in an interview trying to figuring out where someone is coming from with their music, seems pointless and/or maybe merely curious.

Now I’m gonna present my “line”. It’s not necessarily the right one, or the only one, but it’s my one. I try as best I can to listen only to a minimum of music within the electronic fields similar to my own. On the whole, I try to stay away from “bretheren sounds”. I don’t believe that constant input is necessary to ensure output. Not even interesting output, although cases like Michael Jackon and Stevie Wonder indicates that they would’ve maybe benefitted from having their finger at the pulse a bit more in recent years…

Maybe this is in ways a more interesting division today than class for instance (which is a fuzzy term that I’m not always convinced about, given how it came about and what it ment then); input vs output. I’m a person who needs very little amount of input in general in order to sustain a steady amount of musical output. The division of today is not whether you are a working class hero or ruling class villain, but whether you’re a full on producer, or if you’re a consumer. Or as in my case, a prosumer.