Contrasting opinions about the industry

I have always enjoyed reading guitar magazines, even before the days I play much! The "Big Two" here in US are Guitar Player and Guitar World (there are also Acoustic Guitar and Guitar Aficionado. And for a while I enjoyed Guitar One a lot, before it folded) GP is in general higher regarded with a broader spectrum while GW is more trendy with more focus on rock/metal/younger generation. GP vs GW is one recurring topic (they are actually owned by the same company NewBay Media since 2012 :P) Still, they maintained their own distinct identities and it's interesting to see how to differ on the same topic regarding the industry (published on the same day!):
GP's 99 Problems of the Recording Industry
vs
GW's 10 Reasons why today's Music Industry doesn't suck

One could argue they are not actually talking about the same thing: Music industry covers more than recording industry and includes music publisher, instruments, education and so on (the former actually mentioned the high tuitions of Berklee/Julliard) but both of them mentioned the impact of technology (download/streaming, DIY recordings, social media) I guess it's hard for a musician to become your good old rock stars who made a ton of money after releasing a hit record but on the other hand those with creative spirits will be heard these days as there are more channels or space to perform and promote.

Here is the irony: musicians don't get paid much by streaming services like Pandora and Spotify. At the same time, these companies are not making much either and their business models are being questioned (Spotify lost $78 million in 2012. Rhapsody had to cut staff last year.) I guess it takes a company as powerful as Google to be able to make money off music. In fact, it's troubling to see that Google is planning to shut out artists on indie label that didn't sign with Google from streaming their music videos on YouTube.

Finally, here is a local article about artists not being able to afford living in the bay area because of the "well-paid techies." The author doesn't seem to think a mid-level Python programmer is worthy of his 120k annual salary (Well, not me as I don't do much Python at work.) 

我的結他雜記: Acoustic Archtop

I came across this old Guitar Player magazine article from 2010 dedicated to this topic. I do own a Godin 5th Avenue acoustic archtop and was happy to learn more about the history and characteristics of this type of guitar. Also found an article about how to adjust the floating bridge on an archtop. Should be useful when I need to do so some day :)

我的結他雜記: effect pedal

我玩結他主要以Acoustic爵士為主，也玩Flamenco及古典，Rock則是偶一為之，所以對effect認識甚淺，用也是以distortion居多，不像老友玩chorus, flanger, delay玩到出神入化；當然，一個pedal價錢不是便宜，但原來自製也不算太困難，尤其是對讀過EE的朋友而言，Premier Guitar雜誌刊登了一個詳盡的指南，大家不妨參考參考。

另外，Guitar Player雜誌介紹五個multi-effect pedal，當中Vox的StompLab只賣$90樓下，值得慳儉的玩家留意。

NYDM/CADM Annual

What a cryptic title! Well, that's what I found when I was looking for a metal show to attend and celebrate my b-day. It's a 4-day festival and the most famous band is the death metal legend Possessed. I was unable to go that day though so I went the first day on which Short Fuse was the headliner (with Boudica, Bombs Overhead, etc, as openers.) To be honest, I have not heard of any of these bands before. I found some YouTube videos before going and was impressed. And I was even more impressed after hearing them live at Oakland Metro. The show featured a good variety of styles: grindcore, death metal, black metal. Also, there were interesting bass/guitar/keyboard work as well as female vocal. And I picked up a free EP "In Nomine Umbra" by black metal band IV Never More. Again, much better than expected and showed awesome song writing skills. I'm more happy listening to them than the more well-known yet commercialized bands out there.