In my previous post on the future of listening to music, Futurist Magazine senior editor Patrick Tucker commented on how rapid advance of technology would ultimately lead to an evolution of cochlear-implant-like devices, and that content would be directly beamed to these devices in your head. During a WFS Annual Conference session on the End of the Written Word, Mr. Tucker referenced similar devices, and how they will eventually supplant the optic exercise of reading.

He also, rather ominously, declared that a major challenge to this process would be the ability of marketers to blast unlimited sales pitches for products to your brain in perpetuity. The only defense could be to simply turn the device off. Not the most efficient model. I asked Mr. Tucker if hitting the off switch was the only option, how could you be marketed to for the products you actually wanted, like a new album from you favorite band?

We would have to make conscious choices about what data streams we wish to subscribe to, pretty much the same way make decisions about what RSS feeds we like today. This means you would have to know a great deal about what you wanted to listen to in order to learn more about it, which is a Catch 22. However, I’m sure service-providers will pop up offering to find music for you in accordance with a list of stated preference.

The more interesting question might be, what other stuff will slip through the filter? Take the failure of the do-not-call- registry. I’m on it, but I still receive solicitation calls all the time. It used to be just nonprofits I had given money to. Today I get calls from banks looking not to “sell” me something but to “inform” me that my time is running out to act on some special offer. The idea of Bank of America, the Sierra Club, and the DCCC all talking in my head while I’m trying to listen to music bodes well for future musicians that can deliver music the really old-fashioned way, live [my emphasis].

So while constant touring is a major source of income for many acts, in the future, it will also be their most trusted marketing effort. Good news for DC fans and venues alike.

I attended the World Future Society’s annual conference this past weekend at the Washington DC Hilton Hotel. Seminars and panel discussions ranged on a variety of topics (PDF of the conference program), from examinations of emerging energy technologies to the future of the religious right. One panel in particular, the End of the Written Word, was especially interesting. Four experts discussed the recent shift away from traditional writing, and its implications for, well, the future.

Since the digital age has transformed how we seek and consume music at least as much as it has impacted the written word, I contacted one of the panel members. I asked Futurist magazine senior editor and WFS Communications Director Patrick Tucker his opinion on the future of music consumption. His generous and insightful response is below:

Within the next thirty years, we’ll become more comfortable incorporating wireless technology into our biological functioning. The success of the today’s cochlear implant provides a great example of how willing we already are to explore electronic enhancement related to auditory stimulation. Cochlear implants are small devices that doctors surgically insert near the skull to improve hearing in the impaired. Today, Cochlears are used solely for medicinal purposes, but there’s no reason why a similar gadget couldn’t be wired to receive phone calls, email, or download music. Because most of what we call hearing occurs not in the ear but in the brain this music wouldn’t have to pass through the ear, it could be directly targeted to new neuron groups [my emphasis].

In the future, we’ll become more adapt at targeting our sound (music) neurons and getting them to fire and spark in all sorts of interesting ways. The notion of making “music” by sending sound waves from radios, through the air to peoples’ ear drums will come to seem as quaint as using a coffee can and fishing wire to make a telephone call. Instead, we’ll send sound or music over a radically-improved version of what we today call the Internet in the form of data. In other words, future downloadable music will contain notes, sounds, and rhythms that would be imperceptible to us today.

We literally cannot even imagine what it might sound like, but some recent neuroscience breakthroughs may give us a clue. According to a study performed by Lizbeth M. Romanski and Patricia Goldman-Rakic, there are three types of auditory neurons. One type (phasic) responds only at the onset of noise and then resets; on a line graph this would look like a spike. Another type of neuron (tonic) has a long sustained response to stimuli; this would look like a wave. A third type of neuron (phasic-tonic) has a strong initial response, followed by a less intense, wave response. Most classical music, unbeknownst to the people that composed it, primarily affects the second type of neuron. If it’s successful, it creates a modulating emotional response in the listener. Dance music targets the third neuron type. What is the 4 on the floor beat pattern, after all, except a series of high intensity jolts re-arranged into rhythmic wave? Now imagine being able to hear, distinguish, and appreciate a dozen different types and pieces of music all at once, along with liner notes and visual displays. In terms of what the liner notes might look like, the outtakes and bonus features that come packaged with todays DVDs will serve as an ancestor.

Curing a hearing disorder, however, is entirely different than improving upon otherwise perfect hearing. For all our technological cleverness, we understand very little about the miracle of the thinking organ, least of all how to augment a design that’s far superior to anything humankind has ever come up with. We are, however, learning more all the time and in the next thirty years, we may finally be able to put our vastly improved neurological understanding to the test.

Heady stuff indeed. And Phasic-Tronic is just lying out there for an aspiring DJ or group to appropriate as a band name…album title…

Soon, I’ll post our conversation regarding the future of music marketing.

Thanks to the folks at Idolator for letting us know that “Rockin’ in the Free World,” Dusty Horwitt’s in-depth story about the trials and tribulations of the Rockville band Hotspur, received an honorable mention in this year’s edition of the Best Music Writing series. Horwitt tells a heck of tale, and I’m not just saying that as the guy who edited the piece. Please do give it a read.

Hotspur’s next local show is Aug. 16 at Jammin’ Java.

Photo of Hotspur bassist Dave Cooper by Darrow Montgomery.

We reported recently that Liz Phair will be coming to the 9:30 Club in late August to perform Exile In Guyville. We wrote that tickets go on sale this morning. Well I checked in with the 9:30 Club. The show wasn’t listed on its website. I checked in with Ticket.com. The show was listed on its website. But it stated that tickets weren’t going on sale until tomorrow July 24.

An hour or so later, I hit refresh on Ticket.com. It then told me tickets go on sale July 31. So when do Liz Phair tickets actually go on sale? Or are they already bought by scalpers and I just don’t know it?

At 10:58 a.m., I hit refresh a second time. Guess what Ticket.com says? Phair tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.

It’s about the polar opposite of dropping by a local record store to pick up some analog goodness, but at least it’s not iTunes: eMusic, the DRM-free, indie-label-only download service, got a serious overhaul today, adding integration with various Web 2.0 sites to its user interface. Now, related Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia content show up on band or album pages, and it looks like they’ve added new functionality to point users to similar stuff they might like as well.

These are welcome changes—eMusic has long been the leader in legal download services in terms of bang for the buck (and it’s really not even close), but their interface left a lot to be desired and it was always a challenge to find the good stuff and get information about things that looked interesting. They’ve still got a long way to go (the message boards are ghettoized from the rest of the site, and even the official blog, 17 dots, is completely separate), but this is a step in the right direction.

From Friday’s Reuters story, Labels up volume on vinyl releases to meet demand:

It may have seemed like a fad at first, but the resurgence of vinyl is now turning into a nice niche business for the major labels. With EMI’s announcement that it would reissue eight classic albums in the format, all four majors are now onboard the vinyl bandwagon.

and

Universal Music Enterprises will release 20 albums on vinyl this month and an additional 20 at the end of August, while Warner Music Group will issue 24 to 30 albums from its catalog and 10 to 12 new releases from September through the end of the year, according to executives at those companies.

For vinyl aficionados and purveyors, the resurgence of major label vinyl production may seem like too little, too late.

Local reaction ranged from Som Records‘ Al Budd calling the move ironic “Since the majors have been pushing CDs for 20 years while telling consumers vinyl was obsolete,” to Kalani from local label Gypsy Eyes believing it will eventually bring in more listeners, saying, “It’s fantastic. Vinyl’s sound is so much better then other available formats”

“The resurgence of vinyl has made me very happy and I love seeing people, young and old, buying more and more records. I think it’s great that EMI and other major labels are going to be releasing more titles on vinyl.
Unfortunately, they tend to be rather expensive and I think that limits their accessability,” added Red Onion Records’ Joshua Harkavy.

Harkavy continued. “I think it’s funny when labels reissue records that are widely available as original pressings, usually for less money. I don’t like to stock the high priced LPs that EMI and most other major labels release. I prefer to stock the independent labels who can offer a much more affordable product. Overall it’s a great step for the music industry and the music fan.”

Personally, I think the one-two punch of releasing on vinyl and including a free digital download of the release is an act of simple brilliance by bridging audiophile needs with iPod culture. If the major labels can swing that type of transaction, they may stave off extinction yet.

I know, I know…I’m supposed to give my business to local independent record stores. And I do. But when you work downtown just below Dupont Circle, and you need to grab a CD on your lunch break, what choice do you really have besides the Borders Books & Music at 18th & L?

Thus it was with a heavy heart that I went in the other day and saw the three frontmost CD racks standing empty—and with signs offering the fixtures for free to any taker. Yup, they’re cutting back their selection.

“It’s not just us,” said the clerk working at the information desk that afternoon. “It’s every other store in the country. We go the same direction as the market, and right now the market is sitting at home downloading music off their computers.”

Just because it was inevitable doesn’t make it less of a bummer.

With the release of the Faraquet singles compilation, Dischord has announced that it will offer the record in a digital format and expects to launch a full-on digital site soon:

“This album will represent the first Dischord release to be available in the digital MP3 format directly from the Dischord Records website. Our new “digital” website will launch on or before June 30th and will feature digital downloads of every Dischord album from our catalog as well as free album downloads with 12″ vinyl purchases.”

The label joins other indies who have started selling digital releases like Merge and Thrill Jockey.

Sasha Frere-Jones notes the laying off of a music reporter at the Times. He makes the argument that music reporters are almost more necessary these days than music critics–the business is free fallin’ (ugh–a Petty joke), bands are coming up with new ways to earn a living, no one can figure out how to get a kid to buy an album anymore, etc.

You can read his take here.

In the comments, the folks at Smash Records mention that tomorrow night, June 12, the store will host a screening of Vinyl Scrapyard. The film, a documentary about the decline of the indie record store, is directed by Billups Allen, a former Smash clerk and Darkest Hour bassist. John Metcalfe profiled Allen in City Paper in 2003, following the publication of his first novel, Unfurnished.