EQ Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 13)

“Not everything that can be counted, counts.” —Albert Einstein certifies a record as Gold when it “sells” 500,000 (the threshold for a Platinum record is one million). Other countries vary. In Canada, for example, Platinum status is awarded after only 100,000 units are “sold.” This partially explains all of Brian Adams’ awards. The official reason: These plateaus are based on population. Fewer people mean fewer sales, and so it would not be fair to have a threshold based on such hard numbers. How would this be applied to the hypothetical “Gold and Platinum Click Awards?” Do we take into consideration the entire population of everyone using the Internet? What about the fact that some (richer) parts of the online world have far higher bandwidth and faster servers, thus greater volume of downloads. So instead of population, should we be talking about megabytes-per-second (mbps) as a parameter for territory? HOW WILL THIS PLAY OUT? And who can we trust? The answer is probably not the RIAA, though they clearly have served a purpose, skewed as it may be. Still, who can trust them to set an honest threshold when they don’t even recognize a significant portion of the industry—namely, downloads of independent music. To quote an EQ reader (who inspired this piece), “Does an industry which is below the radar still need the radar?” iTunes has an objective ranking for what is moving off their servers. Big Champagne offers a chart of much of the P2P activity. Even garage band heroes CD Baby have a page for the artists that have sold more than a couple of dozen units through their site. So, I asked the forward—thinking RIAA (note the sar- PUNCH IN casm) how they are preparing for the future—excuse me, the present. They said, and I quote, “[It’s] certainly something we are giving a lot of thought to.” Cool. Keep on thinking about it. Ready your fiddles. I’m having a vision of the near future. I see an artist pictured with her best friend. The friend is her manager and Webmaster. The caption congratulates them for a “Gold Click Award” from Amazon.com for 500,000 play events. The two gals don’t mention the RIAA, Best Buy, or any label. They are thanking Facebook. They are 13 years old. Moses Avalon wishes to thank Jeff for the inspiration to write this piece and to direct readers to the “Letters to the Editor” forum on www.eqmag.com to further discuss this subject. “I’ve always liked a beauty with brains.” Josh Homme, Artist/Producer, Queens of the Stone Age SIGMA Active ribbon microphone The warmth of a ribbon mic at a fraction of the price. for a retailer near you, visit sontronicsusa.com www.eqmag.com JULY 2008 EQ 13 http://Amazon.com http://www.eqmag.com http://sontronicsusa.com http://sontronicsusa.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - July 2008

EQ Magazine - July 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Louis XIV, Four TET and Steve Reid, Can Your Record Go Gold in the Digital Age Tool Box Death Cab For Cutie Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Propellerhead Reason 4 Sony Acid Pro 6 EDAX Audio Labs VTP-100 M-Audio Profire 2626 Tape Simulator Shootout Tape Simulators Sounds Room With a VU: Infrasonic Sound Recording Company, Los Angeles, CA.

EQ Magazine - July 2008

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