<nettime> Todd Rundgren interview

[Alessandro Ludovico <a.ludovico@agora.stm.it>]

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Interview excerpted from 'Neural', Italian magazine about the digital
culture at large,
web: http://www.pandora.it/neural/  mail: a.ludovico@agora.stm.it
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Todd Rundgren is one of the first music 'stars' that decided to sell his
music on his own, through special subscriptions, and deliver the stuff ia
cd-r and the web.


AL> What are you future plans in terms of compositions?
TD> I plan to keep writing. Sometime songs evolve quickly, sometimes slowly.
Something always comes out.

AL> Do you really think music delivered through the web could change the
artistic life of numberous valuable small bands, that could then break free
form the major's executives fears and hypocrisy?
TD> The Internet is about greater choices for everyone - not just people
who listen to music, but people who make it as well. Many artists might
still prefer to do things the 'old' way, but that is their choice. At
least there is an alternative now.

AL> Your disbelieve in copyright protection is interesting. How far do you
think it could be stretched? Copyright only for an entire album? No
copyright at all?
TR> People should be paid to write and perform good music. They should also
be free to give music away. Many artists are discovering that recordings
don't pay for themselves as well as a healthy touring schedule of live
performances.

AL> The new media are multiple for their own natural characteristic, so how
much 'visual' will have to be the future music?
TR> The audience has decided they want to see and hear everything. That
doesn't mean that an artist has to give them everything. Still, it is very
difficult to keep music from being visualized if it is visionary
music.

AL>  Do you think that the more the music delivered through computers (cd
recorder, mp3 player, etc.) is uncorporeal, the less is an object, mutating
into a pure flux of data? Or, otherwise, it have to be more
physical, and so we need the plastic, the printed cover and the scratch to
compensate these invisible playing data?
TR> The thing we do best is the thing we least like to do: change. Music is
a liberal art and the music business is a conservative enterprise.
Something has to break at some point. I think we're watching it now.
Music is not a product - it's a service.




Alessandro Ludovico
a.ludovico@agora.stm.it
Neural Online - http://www.pandora.it/neural/

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