I recently heard a spot on NPR's "The Business" where The New York Times music business columnist Jeff Leeds was bemoaning the imminent demise of the music business and I was left feeling fairly uninspired and uninformed.

Yes, we all know CD sales are down and that online purchases and music publishing/licensing are supposedly not offsetting this decline (I respectfully disagree). Old distribution models are gone: Tower Records and Wherehouse went Chapter 11/12. And there's far fewer Major Labels out there (Last count 3). Artist Development was alredy a thing of the past. But most of what we're hearing is coming out of the halls of the failed Majors and their commercial lobby/trade association the RIAA. These guys use to spend a million dollars on a single video and a couple months of radio payola and we're expected to think the end of the world is near?

What about indie labels? You know, the ones like Starbuck's Hear Music (who's releasing the latest Paul McCartney album) or Brett Gurewitz's Epitaph offshoot Anti (which boasts a healthy artistic roster including Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, Tricky, Merle Haggard, Elliott Smith, Neko Case, Blackalicios, etc). Yeah, they're some of the big fish in the indie pond but I'm sure there's many more examples that I'm not thinking of at the moment, all of which lead me to believe that there's still plenty of talent and amazing new ways to promote and distribute that talent without all of the excess and greed of the past.

I think we're back to the 1950's business model of A-sides or the DIY era of punk rock circa 1978-1982. Nobody's buying albums anymore because 1) They've already been burned one too many times with the "hit" single tease and 2) Thanks to digital downloads, you can cherry pick the cream of the crop and not worry about the chaff. This reality puts everybody back to square one: write, record, produce and distribute great songs and you've got nothing to worry about.

I still think there's a place in the digital world for albums (Pink Floyd's "The Wall," or "Dark Side of the Moon" are good examples). Concept albums can be great but they're not the standard and how many of them are there? It's no longer about a body of work and people aren't going to wait 2 years for you between albums... Focus on one great song at a time and worry about your legacy later.

What is a podcast and how can I make one?

The difference between a "podcast" and "streaming audio" (ie an internet radio broadcast or online, playable mp3) is that a podcast is enabled with an RSS feed allowing people to not only download it but subscribe to future editions. The primary advantage of this is the convenience of having the lastest version download automatically to your computer and the ability to play the podcast anytime/anywhere (kind of like Tivo but for online audio/video).

Making a podcast is really easy, especially if you're already set up to record (ie recording software, microphone, mic pre-amp, the usual...). Once you've recorded, edited, and mixed down a "show," the trick is converting your stereo mix/bounce to a compressed file format such as MP3 or AAC (MP3 is the most universal). A few things to keep in mind when you're creating this: bandwidth (generally 64 to 128 kbps) and ID Tags (Name = Episode number, Artist = your name, Album = The Show's name and website, Comments = brief description, Genre = Podcast). The former helps ensure accessibility but also affects quality, the later is a listener courtesy and for easy indexing.

The next step is an RSS Feed: converting your MP3 into a podcast. If you're computer savvy and ambitious you can hand-code your feed but I would recommend using one of the multitude of software and online services available to simplify the process (ie FeedForAll, Libsyn, Garageband 3, Podifier, Cyberears, etc).

Last but not least, you need a server (and again, bandwidth should be a consideration because podcasts are notorious hogs). Some of the services mentioned above also provide hosting, there's also a good site called Okay to Play that offers a comparison chart... use your judgement. If you've already got a website, for simplicity's sake and budgetary reasons it's probably best to integrate and host your own podcast. Also don't forget the online registries and promotional element (Podcast Alley, Audiofeeds, Podcast 411, iPodder, etc.

There are obviously way more details than I either have the time or space for in this article but for more info check out podcastingnews.com.

Whew! Thought this was going to be a short one this month... thanks for making it through! -h