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Scott Timberg on Creative Destruction

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Billy Bragg: Taylor Swift vs. Spotify

November 18, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="El8ggTki0ehHooViWfWostAjBU7WfB0A"] RECENTLY, I've been puzzled over how to frame the Taylor Swift vs. Spotify fight. Having to take sides in that battle -- between a plutocrat popstar and an exploitative streaming service -- really makes me feel like I live in a dystopia. It's sort of an illusion of choice. "Maybe I should just ignore it?" crossed my mind a few … [Read more...]

Musicians Respond to YouTube’s Streaming Plan

November 13, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6BOXVutxAn6x54DqzWmGmpzRcmnqtSpG"] IT'S been on the verge of dropping for months now, but YouTube has finally announced its new music streaming service, which could perhaps crush some of the others. What will it mean for musicians, er, content providers, especially those without corporate backing? At this point we don't entirely know, but the group Content Creators … [Read more...]

Iggy Pop Rips the State of Music

October 20, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="rsTsrc9iWZyWOtGEurvcdQNW78Mrk5Dy"] TODAY I have a new Salon post that quotes an Iggy Pop speech in the UK, and tries to make sense of it. Well into the age of streaming, we’re still hearing from a few musicians – most of them promoted and even employed by the tech sector – that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Some resent the new arrangement, where they … [Read more...]

More Musicians Against Spotify

October 10, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xGXLuZLba3ZaZcAz5ytDQ3Clj72bbrjB"] MOST of the coverage of musicians opposing streaming services -- especially on this site -- has concentrated on indie and alternative figures like David Lowery or Thom Yorke. But the suburban center has staked its claim now that Jimmy Buffett has come out against Spotify. From a Business Insider story: At the Vanity Fair Summit … [Read more...]

Who Still Buys CDs?

September 17, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="xAHGZG01AXb2m1exlG5WmI0Swyjbu2cn"] BESIDES Luddites and hipsters? (I'm borrowing here from the stage patter of the young folk duo the Milk Carton Kids.) Turns out, Japanese people still buy CDs. A country famous for loving technology and novelty are moving into the future by acting like it's the past. From a New York Times story: Japan may be one of the world’s … [Read more...]

Alex Ross on the Physicality of Music

September 3, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="exXEgyg9vY0GhSt0xuo4Eqn9fO25Opza"] THE New Yorker's classical music critic is one of the least stodgy and most forward-looking of writers; he got in on blogging early and thinks classical music and digital technology are natural allies. But even he has reservations about the disappearance of records and CDs into the cloud. His new piece, about "The pleasures and … [Read more...]

David Lowery: The Internet is a Cargo Cult

September 1, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="6UAzCSm7AdyfFjCMRPoo70IpwVaaVVHl"] TODAY your humble blogger speaks to the musicians' rights advocate and gets into some new territory -- not just the way music streaming hurts artists, but the US government's complicity in the current mess, the feckless Department of Justice, and the irrational way people view the Internet in general. Here's Lowery in my Salon … [Read more...]

Blue Music Group Pulls its Catalog from Spotify

August 12, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Uqn0HoBDq7i0Zz0DVOVaIArJE9kt6RIf"] A FEW weeks ago I wrote about the difficulties the new regime of streaming were creating in jazz and classical music, and quoted one of the heads of the avant-garde Pi Recordings on how the label had chosen to take its music off Spotify, since the rates were so bad and cutting into their sales. He was glad he'd done it. The Blue … [Read more...]

“Is Spotify Killing Music?”

August 11, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="AJwkTxpSjSsEeL7n5JFPH23s6m8blcVb"] TWO descendants of Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck make a good illustration of what's happened to the lives of musicians lately. A new story -- co-written by yours truly -- up on TakePart looks at how musicians are being proletarianized, and I don't just mean the lyrics. The story -- written with Kathleen Sharp -- weaves between … [Read more...]

Jazz and Classical Musicians vs. Streaming

July 21, 2014 by Scott Timberg

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Q0kRrypSZofvO7Cl0jQKoVvntfv83bix"] WE'RE starting to hear a lot from musicians about how music streaming destroys their ability to make a living. So far, it's been harder to find out how it's affecting jazz and classical music. I tried to get into the subject with a new story for Salon. I speak to a number of musicians (including pianist Jason Moran) and … [Read more...]

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Scott Timberg

I'm a longtime culture writer and editor based in Los Angeles; my book "CULTURE CRASH: The Killing of the Creative Class" came out in 2015. My stories have appeared in The New York Times, Salon and Los Angeles magazine, and I was an LA Times staff writer for six years. I'm also an enthusiastic if middling jazz and indie-rock guitarist. (Photo by Sara Scribner) Read More…

Culture Crash, the Book

My book came out in 2015, and won the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award. The New Yorker called it "a quietly radical rethinking of the very nature of art in modern life"

I urge you to buy it at your favorite independent bookstore or order it from Portland's Powell's.

Culture Crash

Here is some information on my book, which Yale University Press published in 2015. (Buy it from Powell's, here.) Some advance praise: With coolness and equanimity, Scott Timberg tells what in less-skilled hands could have been an overwrought horror story: the end of culture as we have known … [Read More...]

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