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YouTube killed off the Live Album?!

Do you remember the good old days when rock artists would break into the mainstream by releasing live albums? You know, albums such as Frampton Comes Alive or Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan. According to Rob Cox over at Slate’s Big Money site, artists stopped releasing such albums for one single reason: YouTube!

Which is bizarre, considering the last break out live album Cox could think of was Jane’s Addiction first release 22 years ago. (Which, was neither a hit nor live, it never hit the Billboard charts and it was a studio recording the label dubbed an audience onto to cover up the roughness of the recording. Which is the exact same thing Guns ‘N Roses did with their first release, Live Like a Suicide. Anyway….)

So exactly how did YouTube kill off the live album 18 years before it even started?!

In my personal opinion, the live album died because of MTV. The masses got used to the idea that a “live performance” should sound exactly like the studio recording. Notice how the death of the live album coincides both with MTV and with the rise of singers lip syncing to backing tapes during concerts.

Update May 28, 2009:

Tech Dirt picked up this story on my suggestion. They seem to miss the point that YouTube could not have killed off the live album, because live albums have been dead for about two and a half decades.

However, upon thinking about it again, I’m not entirely sure MTV is to blame. If you think about the history of recorded music, a break through live album is quite rare. If you think of Frampton’s as the first and the Talking Heads’ as the last, we’re talking about a time period of less than a decade.

I think the break through live album has more to do with awful studio production techniques during the late 70s and early 80s than anything else. If you consider how lame Cheap Trick’s studio albums were, prior to Budokan, you have to ask, “What the frick was the producer and band thinking?” The only way it makes sense is if the bands and producers thought that rock was dead. That the only way they could sell music was by rejecting rock and going pop.

However, those initial lame records didn’t sell. So obviously the plan wasn’t working. So upon a release of a rocking live album, fans would take an interest.

What happened is that because of these break out live albums, producers realized that rock was not dead and started recording albums as if they were rock. That’s why bands such as Van Halen or the Red Hot Chili Peppers never recorded a live album, they didn’t have to.

And let’s not forget that radio does not break out new talent nowadays, live or otherwise. Radio is controlled by large multinational corporations and DJs and local program directors cannot decide to play a particular song unless a group of MBAs at corporate crunch the numbers and give the go-ahead. Which, obviously, never happens.

So, once again, YouTube didn’t kill the live album. The live breakout album was an anomaly that corrected itself.

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Let the Market fix the Automobile Dealer Crisis!

An automobile dealer recently wrote a letter to the editor about how unfair it is that his dealership is being closed. It’s getting a lot of non-mainstream right-wing press. Even a local radio station read the letter on the air and complained about how Obama is destroying the free market in our country.

God I wanted to call in. I completely agreed. But not for the reasons they would think.

What most people do not know is that the automobile dealership market in this country is not a free market. It is controlled by a patchwork of state laws, making it against the law for anyone to sell a “new” automobile other than a dealer. That’s why you can’t simply go to Saturn’s website and buy a car directly from Saturn. You have to subject yourself to the dealer. It’s the law. Who pushed for these laws? The dealers of course. (Wouldn’t it be fricken awesome to be able to get on the web and buy the car you want with only the exact features you want and have it shipped right to your house, without ever having to talk to a car dealer!!!!)

Of course these laws do more than make if more difficult and costly to buy a new automobile. They also make it financially impossible to start a new automobile company. Merely coming up with a new and innovative idea for an automobile and then building it is not enough. Because, even if you succeed in building that new and innovative car, it is against the law for you to sell it as new. If you want to sell it as new throughout the united states, you’ll need a dealer in every state.

So I agree with the poor dealer who had his business protected by the government for the past several decades. Let’s get rid of all those state laws requiring us to buy new cars from dealers and let the market decide who wins and loses. The dealers certainly could not complain about that, right?

Update – 7/9/09:

Some people want proof that these laws exist. Here’s a quote from a Wall Street Journal opinion piece:

I had a dream the other night. Shopping for a new car, I logged on to a manufacturer’s Web site. I found the model I wanted and clicked on my options. Days later, a deliveryman showed up with the car and the relevant paperwork.

But then I woke up, back in the real world, where the only way to get a new car is to go to a dealer and haggle with a salesman who keeps ducking out to “check with the manager.” In the real world, my dream — ordering straight from the factory — is illegal. State laws forbid anyone but a licensed local dealer to sell new cars.

Update – 10-11-10:

A great piece at the Volokh Conspiracy explaining another aspect of the anti-competitive nature of dealer laws.

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Are we in the Last Days of Copyright?

Nora Ephron, who started her career in print media, recently spoke at a panel about the future of filmmaking and said,

“We’re in the last days of copyright, if you want to be grim about it….Stop it. I dare you.”

Does she honestly think that Disney and Viacom would ever let copyright die? Is she completely ignorant about secret meetings to make copyright even more draconian? Doesn’t she realize that copyright is so fricken prevalent in our lives that it’s practically impossible to go an entire day without infringing a copyright?

Nora, copyright is neither dead nor dying. The simple reason as to why there’s so much infringement going on nowadays is because copyright law has been stretched so far to your advantage that nearly every citizen in this country is technically a criminal under the law. Are you happy now?

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