[vimeo id=”58809695″]
Sometimes, we need to have important issues delivered to us in easily digestible bite-sized servings, so that we may take in the real problems facing us today. This teaser for the film “Unsound” perfectly demonstrates the impact of the digital age on the music industry. You need to watch this teaser from beginning to end, and then try to admit that you weren’t left a little shaken.
The Unsound teaser really does paint a harsh landscape after the digital A-bomb hit the music industry. I feel that we’re still in the fallout phase where people are shellshocked, and left picking through the debris, trying to make some sort of sense out of what is left. Change came, all too rapidly to most, and caught many with their pants down.
The picture painted in the trailer is bleak – a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic scenario with established artists left wondering if there really is a future, and new artists worried that the personal sacrifices needing to be made to establish a career are a step too far. It used to be enough to just sell music, but nowadays music is just a vehicle to perform live and sell merchandise.
I’m grateful for the digital age. It has allowed me to establish an all new career as a writer, photographer, and video maker without any formal training at all. The work is hard, and the income derived isn’t a patch on what it would have been had I been a time served practitioner of the assorted crafts in a pre-digital time. But this is an age of opportunity, one that needs to be embraced if people are to survive and subsequently prosper.
What do you think?
This isn’t a subject we’ve really touched on before, but definitely falls within our technology remit. So how has the digital age effected you musically? Have you suffered or capitalised on the ease with which music can be made and distributed? Have you embraced the technological challenges and opportunities? Have you been able to unleash your inner DJ or producer when previously you wouldn’t have had any chance of being noticed? I’m interested in the opinions of old-timers like me, as well as the young bucks too.