The Quietus | Opinion | Black Sky Thinking | Black Sky Thinking: Coldplay give away new single

Black Sky Thinking: Coldplay give away new single Luke Turner, April 28th, 2008 18:15

By Luke Turner

So Coldplay join the list of artistes clamouring to give their music away for nothing. Next week, they'll put out a 7" of 'Violet Hill', the first single from the forthcoming Brian Eno-produced Viva la Vida album, on the cover of the NME. Quite remarkable, really, when in the most recent issue NME editor Conor McNicholas wrote in his 120 word ’editorial’ that the paper was turning a corner away from mediocre indie music. Then again, weird new EMI boss Guy Hands has probably unlocked the secret bunker where they store all big new records so the cleaners won’t leak them onto the internet, and let McNicholas in for a listen. Perhaps his famously acute music taste has heard that Eno has pulled a belter out of the bag... and there we were thinking he spent the sessions sat there nodding his magnificent bald dome, fiddling with a few buttons, and thinking of the extension built of human skulls he’s going to have bunged on his mansion.

Giving away your music for nowt is this year’s climate change, megastars paying lip service to a serious issue while at the same time doing something entirely counterproductive. Coldplay, members of the Sunday Times rich list all, hardly need the few pence you’d glean from selling the 7”. As artists, it’s no loss. For all their faults, Coldplay don’t exactly seem like the kind of band who are going to give much of a stuff if their album doesn’t sell quite as many million copies as the last effort. Look at Chris Martin, bouncing Apple on his knee and gazing adoringly at his famous actress wife as she gives Madge a hand stretching the skin back over her face. You think he’s really bothered about how his music gets out there?

From the NME perspective, the tie-in and the choice of the vinyl seems to be an odd move. Your average Coldplay fan will pick up a copy on CD along with their wholemeal linguini (no loss of sales for the band, then), while NME readers in classrooms across the land are going to have to hide the seven inch inside a copy of Razzle to avoid the scorn of their peers. It smacks of desperation to use the Coldplay name to add a few thousand sales to one issue, rather than regrouping to redefine the paper’s identity in the face of plummeting sales.

This weary process ignores a far bigger issue. Instead of doing something sensible like, say, abolishing the worthless and devalued CD format which the music industry used to cut off its own head, and concentrating on vinyl and high-end downloads, they stick to these nonsensical, desperate publicity-hunting stunts that do nothing to ignore the central fact that while it’s all well and good for these massive acts with established fanbases to go around throwing their music to the wind, the true talent (that the likes of Eno ought to be supporting) remains unfunded.

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Chris Moran
Apr 28, 2008 6:23pm

Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.

Chris Moran

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B'dum B'dum
Apr 29, 2008 12:57am

Even if legal digital music were all FLACs, I'd still be unwilling to pay, I want something physical.

a return to vinyl is looking stronger each year.

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Neil
Apr 30, 2008 11:18am

It's an interesting question but I'd have to disagree with you about getting rid of cds. Vinyl will always remain on the fringes and will do well there but is never going to be that big a player. Downloads will of course be the format of choice for most people. My opinion is that if the cd is allowed to die that it will lead to a far more casual music audience and the whole format of an album will disappear and the single will be the dominant force again. So I think cds have to stay around for those of us who want to hear albums as they're supposed to be heard rather than pick and choose songs off albums.

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Musiclover
Apr 30, 2008 2:19pm

Please keep cds (and vinyl) alive - 128 bit mp3 is the work of the devil!

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thesvenhunter
Apr 29, 2008 8:24am

...or we could all follow Hadouken!'s example and use USB!

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mark e
Apr 29, 2008 10:55am

"abolishing the worthless and devalued CD format "

whoa there luke !
some of us still like cds.
honest.
the glut of these "limited 7" singles" are this seasons Pokemon cards aren't they ?

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mark e
Apr 29, 2008 10:57am

ps : svenhunter - the usb thing was pretty cool idea expect for :

- came in a great big crappy cardboard box.
- shabby 128 bit rate mp3

if you want to pay legally for an mp3, at least lets have some audio bite in the bytes.

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Ned R.
May 1, 2008 3:32am

Can we not keep Coldplay CDs and vinyl alive? I would feel much more assured about the future. (Yes, I am simple.)

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thesvenhunter
Apr 29, 2008 1:46pm

Cool in a gimmicky way like beta band jelly sweets or aphex twin chocolate coins yeah, but not aviable medium for the regular manufacture of recorded music for consumption by the filthy masses, i.e. me.

I don't understand why anyone likes CDs, I'm sorry, but I have come to hate and despise them, and I didn't even grow up with vinyl as such. A CD case is not a pretty thing, and all that horrible 'jewel' case plastic crap - don't get me started on that. They scratch way more easily than vinyl and generally by their crappiness and smallitude encourage one to treat them without respect and even if you don't seem to mysteriously deteriorate.

I don't find there to be a significant difference beetween CD and hastily downloaded MP3 quality, at least not so much that I'd pay for soemthing I'll have for ten years max, and, if I actually play it a lot, more like one or two.

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mister laurie
Apr 29, 2008 2:17pm

CDs are cool.
I like mine.
Vinyl is nice and all
and big 12" sleeves are nicer artifacts, trunuff

But CDs sound better and are better
and they do not scratch more easily than vinyl.
That is cobblers.
Neither format is indestructible but

in the 1800s when I used to buy LPs, those motherfuckers had to be treated with kid gloves cos they got scratched very easily, very quickly and very permanently.

See, I could sing you the entirety of George Best by The Wedding Present (don't tempt me) but included in my rendition would be the skips and hops that were inflicted on it on day one by my butter fingered and drunk friend.

Annnd unless you, or your dad, had sickeningly expensive hi fi equipment, made by Japanese turntable robots from the future,
then
pretty much everyone agreed CDs sounded better. And they still do.
That is why vinyl died out.
Almost.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd
much as I love and still buy 7" singles for largely aesthetic/nostalgic reasons
and hate CD singles cos they are alas, not cool;
unless you are DJing, then the MP3 is a much more obvious format for a single (song).
Wayyyyyy less fiddly.

The one thing vinyl does trump CDs with hands down is in constraints of time.

In conclusion
Boo too long albums
Blow jobs to 35 minute LPs
A big kiss to 7" singles

Digital is nice but
Remember kids for a pop song
itunes MP3 are about 3M
phat MP3s are about 8M
full fat WAV (ie CD quality) files are 35M

so...............

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sarah stilettos
Apr 29, 2008 9:57pm

CD vs. vinyl in terms of the sound is obviously a matter of preference, then - I get literally no pleasure out of listening to CDs at all. It's like 'I know this is my favourite music, so how come I'm not actually enjoying it?' My turntable is a super cheapo mtt1 and I got the stereo for my birthday when I was 13.

As for 7" singles being 'this seasons pokemon cards', I'm currently fighting the battle to persaude everyone they're not, I think it depends how you use them. The reason they're brilliant to me is that I really do wear them out and enjoy doing so, but I've recently learnt that some people buy them despite not even owning turntables, simply because they are nice collectables. Weird.

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thesvenhunter
May 1, 2008 4:56pm

I find CDs only marginally more condusive to experiencing an album in its entirity. I have a skip function on my remote and a 21st century attention span.

Still - maybe that margin is a pretty large one, come to think of it; there's an album I'm playing to death at the moment (Spiritual Front - Armageddon Gigolo) and I've had it on mp3 for 2 years, always assuming the 1st track was the best and only really good track, after an unmemorable first listen ages ago.

Now I find out, finally, not only is the whole album brilliant but that track wasn't even the first track, iTunes hadn't figured out the playlist properly.

Oh, and I found out the lead singer looks like John Robb, but that's irrelevant.

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Melnyk
May 7, 2008 2:11pm

Really enjoyed this - mirrors two of my recent posts (The Price of Free and Death of the Compact Disc).

Music Week reported yesterday on the "highly successful" Coldplay give away - apparently the even more exciting marketing Next Big Thing happens in third week of May. I've cleared my diary in anticipation.

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