The Digital Divide Blues

As I progress toward reopening my recording studio in L.A., I'm beginning to see a pattern emerging in creative technology...the ever escalating cost of updating & replacing computers and software!

The digital revolution has affected Hollywood twice. In the beginning it was an opportunity for artists to realize their dreams at a sliver of the cost of renting out old-school tape machine studios. And so all us indie producers jumped at this wondrous technology. Digital was supposed to be an affordable alternative to the old school way of recording and editing music, and it was, for a time. Most of us didn't get rich off of it, but we all invested ($$$) into the phenomenon anyway, with the hope of finally being able to even the playing field, alongside big time studios and multi millionaire producers.

Suddenly you had underground artists like Moby, Creed, & David Grey, recording full albums in home studios, and eventually selling millions of copies. Hip hop artists from all over the globe could affordably give a real voice from the ghetto without "corporate imaging". MTV and major record labels were only too happy too jump on this cheaper bandwagon (the new artists were doing their groundwork for them by recording and pre-marketing music to DJ's & Fans, saving them time & millions of $$$!), and encouraged the entire industry to make Mac computers & software like Pro Tools the "new standard" of recording. Everyone was gettin' majorly paid except for, you guessed it, Mac & Pro Tools. Or should I say, not enough. The potential windfall from overpricing the "new standard" was too temptuous a sin to resist.

Today, the cost of Mac computers and Pro Tools software & hardware and their counterparts is nearly equal to or more than the cost of analog machines back in the day. What's worse, computers and software versions are made obsolete every 2-3 months by "updates". A $5000-$10,000 investment in new hardware/software is not unusual every 2-3 years!

And so, once again, it's a rich man's game: big business wins again. And the music producer without a Sony or Universal record deal yet? Well, he's been cancelled out of the equation, back to begging for free recording time at multi-million dollar rental studios (now computerized!) in order to have a competitive sounding CD to shop around, indebting him before he can even sell disc one. Or he can try to giveaway inferior mp3's made on cheaper gear.

Welcome back to the plantation....look, its just over the "digital divide".... : )