technoculture203-09

This post is largely in response to Robz' earlier post about prosumers saving the New Zealand music industry. He talked about how technology can lower the amount of money a film needs to gross to become a success, and I believe this is true even outside of New Zealand, and even outside of the film industry. It also works in the music business. For example, The Format, an indie-rock band from America, was dropped from their record label prior to the release of their second album because the label didn't like what they recorded. So instead, they released the album on their own and ultimately distributed it for free because there was no overhead involved (the record company allowed them to keep the rejected songs, and thus paid for them to be recorded). With this method of self-distribution, the band was able to expand their fan base and sell out shows nationwide, all while not seeing a dime from their record company. Much of the technology they used to master and distribute the album was self-developed, so in agreement with what Robz posted earlier, the lower overhead brought upon by new technology can do wonders for music and film.