"Cable TV for music"?

[Gentle Giant]

Check this interview with Todd Rundgren, in which he opines about the future of music labels and how music should be made available on the Internet. It sounds interesting but I'm so old school that I don't think it would satisfy me.


As musical pioneer, Rundgren trailblazes an industry in transition

By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff, 7/29/2003

Todd Rundgren is best known as a classic pop songwriter. And while it's hard to imagine contributions more valuable than ''Can We Still Be Friends'' or ''I Saw the Light,'' Rundgren's ground-breaking work in computer software, music videos, and Internet delivery has made him a true pioneer in the now-explosive interface of art and technology. Among his list of innovations: the first interactive television concert (1978), the first computer color graphics tablet (licensed to Apple in 1980), the first music video to combine live action and computer graphics (''Time Heals,'' 1981), the first interactive album (''No World Order,'' 1992), and PatroNet, the first direct artist subscription service (1998).

Rundgren -- who's produced dozens of albums from Meat Loaf's ''Bat Out of Hell'' to XTC's ''Skylarking'' -- is also a regular on the tech-talk circuit, speaking about his theories and developments to companies such as Apple and Xerox. He comes to the Somerville Theatre on Thursday for an uncharacteristically lo-tech show: guitar, piano, voice, and an evening's worth of rarely performed gems from throughout his 35-year career. We took the opportunity to chat with him about the state of the art and what might be in store for the music industry's future.

You're both a great songwriter and a diehard techie. Where's the common ground?
The common ground isn't as rare as people think. Computer skills and music are very mathematical. Songs are divided into measures and beats. If you become a serious musician you have to have a little calculator in your head. Most every computer programmer I know either plays an instrument or is a huge music fan, and it's usually the CEO. That's probably why all the companies fell apart; they spent too much time playing music.

Where do you stand on file-sharing, free downloading, and artist's rights?
These issues get smashed together because of the [Recording Industry Association of America's] facetious representation they're also on the side of the artists. Labels have never done anything for artists they weren't forced to do. They had to be forced to start paying royalties. What we need is cable TV for music, where you can download all the music you want for $20 a month.

Will fans accustomed to getting their music for free be willing to start paying for it?
Most listeners would be happy to subscribe to a gateway to a world of music that would benefit the artists, as well, because there is a huge fringe surrounding the tiny percentage of artists that get on the radio. On the Internet, everyone is able to participate. If people don't know you have a record it doesn't get sold, but the Internet can point you to artists you might never have known about. I believe people would pay for that.

Is the music industry as we know it doomed?
It's time for the labels to go, in the sense the way they've done business is based on a commodified model, and they've no experience in a service model -- which is what the Internet is. Only someone like J.Lo needs the labels, because she can't go out and build an audience from scratch with the quality of her singing. The future for real musicians is, was, and always will be performing.

Tell me about PatroNet, the world's first direct artist subscription service, which you started in 1998.
The idea's designed to help nonmainstream artists gather and service an audience. The annual subscription provides the basic underwriting for recording new music, and allows fans to download songs as they're created.

Your 1981 album, ''Healing,'' is one of the great concept albums. Songs are woven into a whole almost to the exclusion of individual tracks. How do you feel about the current singles-driven structure that's the basis of Internet subscription?
The album artist -- of which I was one -- was related to the form of the record. That's over. Now you can do a two-hour piece or a five-minute piece of music. I think there are artists making all kinds of music and PatroNet or the Internet doesn't require thinking in any particular musical terms.

When and why did you become interested in computers?
I was about 12 or 13, and I wanted to build a robot, a robot pal, and a robot needs a brain. I started learning, teaching myself. Fifteen years later, personal computers became available, and I went out and taught myself to program one. I have to say I spend more time on the computer than on any other single thing, including music. I don't write music the way I used to. After 35 years, you don't have as many ideas.

[mke]

Originally said by Todd Rundgren
Only someone like J.Lo needs the labels, because she can't go out and build an audience from scratch with the quality of her singing.

HA!

I don't get the cable-TV for music statement, though.