A Proposal For A System To Replace Ordinary Record Merchandising (1983)

http://www.zappa.com/whatsnew/news/FZ-Proposal/index.html

by dsirijus • 14 years ago

150 26 14 years ago

davedx• 14 years ago

Wow, that's pretty visionary. Comparable with Tesla's smartphone predictions.

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

It is and at the same time it is not. I'm going to assume that Zappa knew a lot about the music business and just focus on the technical side.

In 1983 we were well into the BBS revolution and had 1200 baud modems (V.22 standard) making downloading of music files viable. There were BBS that had audio downloads around that time. Also, around that time the transmission of data via television became popular using teletext systems (which had started in the mid-1970s) and also direct data during programs downloaded to home computers (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3857212). Also, the CD had just been released (1982 I think) and so all the ingredients were there: digital music format, distribution via phone or TV.

microtonal3• 14 years ago

I think Zappa was very well aware of the technical side as well, being a Synclavier[1] 'geek' since 1982.

I do think it was quite revolutionary, since he is effectively proposing unlimited streaming of music at a fixed monthly cost:

The consumer has the option of subscribing to one or more Interest Categories, charged at a monthly rate, without regard for the quantity of music he or she decides to tape.

Sure, technically, it might be obvious. But, within the traditions and economics of the music business, such a proposal was quite revolutionary in 1983.

Or in Zappa's words:

We require a LARGE quantity of money and the services of a team of mega-hackers to write the software for this system. Most of the hardware devices are, even as you read this, available as off-the-shelf items, just waiting to be plugged into each other so they can put an end to "THE RECORD BUSINESS" as we now know it.

(I had to grin reading the word 'mega-hackers' ;))

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synclavier

humdumb2• 14 years ago

Blah, blah, home taping, blah, blah, CD's, blah, blah.

"Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar" :)

Some people miss Steve Jobs. I miss Frank Zappa. Genius.

microtonal3• 14 years ago

Indeed. His sardonic attacks on everyone, including himself, are priceless. And he was a great composer and guitarist as well... I still can't listen to We're Only In It For The Money or Overnite Sensation without bursts of laughter.

creamyhorror• 14 years ago

We require a LARGE quantity of money and the services of a team of _mega-hackers_ to write the software for this system. Most of the hardware devices are, even as you read this, available as off-the-shelf items, just waiting to be plugged into each other so they can put an end to "THE RECORD BUSINESS" as we now know it.

The call to disrupt, decades too early. The media landscape might look very different if Zappa had gotten somewhere with this.

microtonal3• 14 years ago

Yes, it's sad that he became to ill before his planned run for president. Although he'd have failed miserably, even the thought of seeing him debating with Bush and Perot is worth something ;).

ktizo• 14 years ago

He was nearly special ambassador to the West on trade, culture and tourism for Czechoslovakia under Havel, but the idea was stomped on by US secretary of state James Baker for Zappa insulting his wife. http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-08/roc0816b.htm

smoyer• 14 years ago

Sigh ... once you name your daughter "Moon-Unit" nobody takes you seriously anymore.

wonderyak• 14 years ago

As he always stated when asked about whether the names he gave his kids caused any issues: "Its their last name that gets them into trouble".

<3 FZ.

polshaw2• 14 years ago

It is easy to think of this from today as something like spotify or usenet, but in many ways it does not sound so far from MTV (1981) with PDC[0] and a PDC tape recoder.

He appears to describe a system of music streams which could be subscribed to (cable TV channels, streaming a winamp playlist), with an notification system that would allow a machine to tape a song (sort of like RSS/ the recording codes on VCRs[0].. this appears to be where the phone line comes in AFAICT; although that shouldn't have been necessary). I don't think he is describing anything that would use a computer on the client side, or have any 'on-demand' feature.

0. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_Delivery_Control

delinka• 14 years ago

I read this as absolutely on-demand. Re-reading, I guess I'm making assumptions, but radio-over-phone/cable (by 'radio' I mean the 'server' transmits what it transmits and you're stuck with whatever's on currently) seems kinda dumb.

Your push concept (I say "your" because it's really not clear in the article what "subscribe" means) is a step up, but I wouldn't want to get spammed with whatever "they" decided to send me today.

Call in, dial codes for the genre, artist, album, or song; digital recorder thingy that's been listening in hears the screech of the digital stream and starts recording. Caller hangs up, recorder maintains connection until "download" is complete. In this scenario, I'd suggest that "subscribing to interest categories" just means a shortcut (less dialing) to get to music you like. You subscribe to "Hard Rock" or "Artists Similar to Queen" and you just dial less to select something to record.

My logic here hinges on "...without regard for the quantity of music he or she decides to tape" and I'll concede I might have misinterpreted his intent.

polshaw2• 14 years ago

I agree it is very confusing to figure out the exact intent from the text.

In the model i suggested you would look up and input a code that referred to a song, and it would start the recorder when that song was played (working like traffic report alerts meets TiVo). No spamming.

By broadcasting real-time streams via TV you would get a bandwidth ~400 songs/day/channel (a big selection for the time). To me 'subscribing to interest categories' would be exactly like subscribing to a cable channel; and it would give you the legal right to that group of songs.[0]

It seems 'TV cable' was definitely a transmission method (very unclear if the phone was an alternative data vehicle or just for control), and AFAIK there was no way of doing anything on-demand with TV cable. To get similar quality of audio via the phone would have taken ages[1], tying up the phone for a long time (+ associated costs). The only problem with the streaming model is that you have to wait for a song to come around. But you would be able to get a newly released song right away on it's first play (and nothing was on demand at the time) so it wouldn't be a big issue IMO.

Occam's razor suggests the stream concept is most likely; it fits the existing models and technology much closer. It would have been technically simple to implement and vastly cheaper.

0. I think this is the real 'innovation' in this, rather than delivery method, which i'm not certain Zappa was 100% on.

1. i remember 128KB songs took ~15 minutes on 56K, so we are talking over an hour, even if we ignore the lack of MP3, processing/ temp storage requirements. Remember he talks about quality. Don't forget your landline was the only real-time contact you had with people who weren't in your road.

napolux• 14 years ago

Fuc*ing genius.

PeterMcCanney• 14 years ago

"Fondlement & Fetishism Potential [F.F.P.]" is term that should be added to the lexicon of any product designer worth their salt.

It should be included as a standard rating along with things like usability when developing anything.

crucialfelix• 14 years ago

In 1896, Thaddeus Cahill filed a patent on the “art of and apparatus for generating and distributing music electronically” and until 1914 he fed music signals down AT&T’s telephone lines with his Telharmoniums apparatus.

Elisha Gray transmitted music over a telephone line in 1876 . He also invented the first electronic music instrument in 1874, calling it the “Musical Telegraph,” for which he was awarded US Patent 166,096 titled “Electric Telegraph for Transmitting Musical Tones” on July 27, 1875.

http://didyouknow.org/gray/

Commercial service:

Wilmington, Delaware, is enjoying a novel service through the telephone exchange. Phonograph music is supplied over the wires to those subscribers who sign up for the service. Attached to the wall near the telephone is a box containing a special receiver, adapted to throw out a large volume of sound into the room. A megaphone may be attached whenever service is to be given. The box is attached to the line wires by a bridged tap from the line circuit. At the central office, the lines of musical subscribers are tapped to a manual board attended by an operator. A number of phonographs are available, and a representative assortment of records kept on hand.

3c for a piece, 7c for a grand opera !

Telephony, December 18, 1909

http://earlyradiohistory.us/1909musi.htm

Of course recording technology wasn't good enough to make copies, so these were not distribution services but rather stream on demand.

efields• 14 years ago

I was a huge Zappa fan in my late teens/early twenties. I don't listen to his music much anymore, but I still consider him a personal hero. Read his autobiography and you'll idolize him as much as I do.

I definitely read this piece before, maybe in his book, and it was one of many ideas he put forth that were totally ahead of its time.

Zappa was one of the earliest advocates for digital recording techniques, and was most likely one of the first "major" musicians to make the switch.

Likewise, he was mashing up his own tracks across different recording sessions across multiple _years_ before it was made popular by off the shelf cut-and-paste audio apps.

Steve Jobs, Zappa, and countless others expounded ideas that seem outlandish and impossible in their present time only to become obvious 30 years later.

The moral of the story is listen to the crazy ones, watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow.

humdumb2• 14 years ago

Someone correct me if this is wrong but I think Dylan's Infidels was the first digitally recorded LP. I should probably Google it. Anyway, that was released in 1983, the same year as Zappa wrote this.

robomartin• 14 years ago

I had the opportunity to work with Frank Zappa years ago. We enjoyed many long conversations during dinner. He was a really interesting man. Lots of, shall we say, unique, ideas. He had a particular distain for organized religion and politicians, placing both of them as evils that take advantage of the poor, gullible and uninformed. One night he proposed the idea of creating a new church that would take everything all the other religions said you could not do and made it OK. His words: "There's a market that is not being served out there".

sadga• 14 years ago

> the idea of creating a new church that would take everything all the other religions said you could not do and made it OK.

detailed in Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land

Also, Unitarian Universalism (a religion formed because Unitarianism and Universalism weren't broad enough!) is basically the most dilute religion. They have churches and services and community activities but no liturgy beyond a vague spirituality.

pimeys• 14 years ago

Zappa has been one of my favorite American thinkers (and musicians) for years. He and Hunter S. Thompson are both dead now, so what do they have left?

egypturnash2• 14 years ago

> [People today] CAN HEAR THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GOOD AUDIO AND BAD AUDIO . . . THEY CARE ABOUT THAT DIFFERENCE, AND THEY ARE WILLING TO GO TO SOME TROUBLE AND EXPENSE TO HAVE HIGH QUALITY 'PORTABLE AUDIO' TO USE AS 'WALLPAPER FOR THEIR LIFESTYLE'.

Given the way modern audiophiles have bitched and moaned about the sound quality of CD vs LP, the "loudness wars" in the mixing of pop music, the number of people who will happily listen to all their music on shitty laptop speakers, and the dominance of lossy compression… this part makes me want to reach back into 1983 and give Frank the patronizing pat on the head that you give to a small child who has said something wildly optimistic and out of touch with the real world.

(Also see "hardcore dubstep connoisseurs bagging on Skrillex for making a version that can be heard on crappy gear".)

ramboler2• 14 years ago

Read carefully. "[People today]..."

Things have changed since 1983. Back then people did know the difference. It was stilll an analog world and only the very beginning of digital recording.

People today _don't_ know the difference because the first thing they hear is lossy, loud digital, not acetate, vinyl or cassette. But if they were raised on analog, you can bet they would hear the difference.

egypturnash2• 14 years ago

Yes, this is partially my point. IF ONLY YOU KNEW, FRANK. Isn't he so cute thinking that high-quality reproduction will be a thing the average consumer will be clamoring for in the future?

A Proposal For A System To Replace Ordinary Record Merchandising (1983)

Related Stories