I was in a different mood on Friday than the previous day. Having little sleep and a few cans of Red Stripe causes me to feel dopey, and I did hardly any networking to speak of.

Instead I hear about on-line digital business models. Not very rock +roll, but exploring the subject was the main reason I had come to the Great Escape. A panel comprising of representatives from YouTube, PRS, Spotify and media-tracking company BigChampagne held a narrow discussion on such a diverse and complicated topic, mainly because there was consenus in identifying access over ownership as the key element. The convention was full of praise for Daniel Ek's Spotify service, a P2P music streaming service with a two-tier ad-based and subscription model. Unlike previous file-sharing clients, Spotify is favoured because it is actively seeking to obtain deals with the labels to share the revenue. With Spotify, it is possible to obtain a single download, but it mainly caters for an access model, where you only listen to the music without wanting to keep it. This represents a profound paradigm shift that represents hope that the industry is beginning to effectively harness digital revenue. Mind you, at 11:30am with a bit of a hangover, I wasn't quite ready to hear about 'paradigm shifts'. I later learn that Mr. Ek is only 25, despite looking like he is in his late thirties, and while I suppose that Spotify is likely to yet break-even it seems like I have a lot of work to do if I want to see success in my own website idea (and I'm 26).

The most interesting part of the day was a debate, in the style of a show-trial, with the motion "Are record labels relevant in a digital age?". Unsurprisingly, in a room full of people likely to work for or with a record label the motion was not carried, depsite a very weak case by the defense. The prosecution side called two interesting witnesses who brough case studies of DIY success, most especially the case of Ari Hest, an artist who had previously been signed to a major, who setup his own indepenant subscription service after his contract ran out. He decided to release a song a week, and backed the music up with blog content, user-interactivity and exclusive content, such as signed items. The frequency of the releases gave rise to the name, 52. While I find the prospect of releasing a song a week daunting as an artist, and perhaps a little gimmicky, the idea exactly matches my concept for releasing our band's material via subscription, charging small monthly amounts to build a sustainable cash-flow, building a relationship with the audience. Ari had aimed for 1,000 subscribers but received over 2,000, reportedly earning more in that year than the three-years working with a major combined. I wonder if Ari might have had more success if he released the songs less frequently and kept the service running for longer. Nonetheless, its reassuring to hear that the direction we're going in to support the band is seemingly the right one.

In contrast to the insightful discussions throughout the day, I was completely bored by the bands I mistakenly chose to watch. I decided when I began this blog that I wouldn't write about bands that I don't like, so even after visiting five venues in Brighton tonight I can only report on The Charlatans, whom were better than I had expected in the intimate Coalition basement on the seafront. The Great Escape is a new music festival, so I had expected to be unmoved by some acts, and I know music can take time to grow in appreciation. Maybe it was the comparison with the Blue Roses and Ian Archer show the night before, but nothing I saw was anything special, unfortunately. One headline act played covers all night, which I didn't quite understand. I think that to win over an audience with a new act, assuming that you've never heard them before, a band needs either impressive musicianship (which doesn't mean the keyboardist hitting a tom-drum, or a cow-bell, or some shit like that), a strong charisma (not apologising all the time for being shit) or a good song (an arpeggiator isn't a hook). Unfortunately, most of the songs I heard were dreadfully slow-moving; songs that stay on the same chord for 4-8 bars, switch to another chord for 4-8 bars, looped back round again. Too much indie-rock seems to have neither the groove nor any beautiful melodic song craft. Every song is in 4/4, a bass line plays each beat, the songs plod on. Maybe a contrived quirkiness is attempted, possibly with a silly small guitar, or on-stage props. Mashing the strings, cymbals and keys together to make lots of noise, contrasted with small acoustic sections, is enough to earn a meaningless caption such as "power-folk that invades your psyche like racous lepracauns", but its all the same bollocks.

Maybe I'm just tired. My back is hurting, and I've drunk less that the night before, so that I notice more closely the clumsy blokes who incessantly walk into me, stand in my view and fart.