BBE Mix Series: Best of Perception and Today Records - Mixed by DJ Spinna and Chris Read

I know many of you bitch and moan about mixcloud posts (myself included) because you can't download them. With all your bitching and moaning in mind, I thought I'd post this mix anyway because you can rarely go wrong with a Spinna and Chris Read mix. There are two ways to download the mix however. You can buy it or you can get your hacker geek on.  Description of the mix below.

Perception Productions, a New York based label that ran from the late 60s through until 1974, was a strangely eclectic affair. Its roster stretched from a radical Afro-American poet through to the pop band King Harvest whose hit ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’ became a massive hit for the UK band Toploader a couple of decades later. The inbetween points covered jazz, funk, vocal harmony soul and proto-disco. In fact distilled down into this compilation the label provides us a view of Manhattan’s black music scene of the period, from the established greats to the fresh young things who would make their mark in the coming years.


Tracks from the compilation were selected by DJ Spinna and Chris Read for this mix.

8 comments:

Mattj said...

If Peeps are onto it enough to be here listening to good music surely they can work out Add-ons in Mozilla.
Two words, well one really DownloadHelper, collecting fine beats from Pipo since 2009.

Eric Nord said...

If a DJ doesn't want people to download a mix for free... OK, then I get why the person would use Mixcloud. But that doesn't mean it's good to offer a mix stream-only.

I also think a lot of DJs use Mixcloud because they simply don't know any better.

The reason why we have such a strong mix scene right now is because people can DOWNLOAD mixes. That is the basis of the community and it provides a great promotional platform for DJs.

Imagine if Pipo ONLY posted links to Mixcloud... people would stop checking his site! (no matter how good the mixes were)

Yes, it's true that we can grab the 128kb/s files using offliberty. I'm actually OK with 128kb/s. Yes, savvy people can figure out how to get a crappy file. It's not about me and whether I can get a 192kb/s mp3... it's about the scene.

This is simply a message to DJs: DLs will spread your music A LOT further than streams. It's in your interest, as a DJ, to offer a DL. 99% of DJs will make more money getting your rep up and doing live events, than you'll ever make off selling mixes.

Eric Nord said...

great mix, btw. :-)

Anonymous said...

http://offliberty.com/ let you dl almost everything...

JAH WISE EQUALITY said...

YAY!

Chris Read said...

The choice of stream vs DL is different depending on the circumstances. For the majority of my mixes I give the option but streaming is definitely taking over DL in terms of popularity and more importantly, for people like me making the mixes and sites like this distributing them, it's legal and the artists featured on the mixes are getting PRS payments when they're played. In addition, sites like Mixcloud where the mixes are hosted are becoming the DJ's shop front - it's increasingly the case that promoters are much more likely to book a DJ with the proven popularity of 1000s of Mixcloud followers or plays than off the back of an email with a DL link.

In the case of this mix, it was commissioned by the label to promote a compilation of the tracks featured. The label has paid to licence the material contained in it and cannot be seen to be giving away that music nor would it make commercial sense to do so.

Anyway, enough economics... Hope you enjoy!

Eric Nord said...

Hey Chris!

Thanks for the backstory. It's a GREAT mix and my criticisms are definitely about Mixcloud and not the mix itself.

All the reasons you mention are good reasons to use Mixcloud, assuming the listener fits the Mixcloud user type. I also like the idea of getting money to artists... but I'm skeptical that the checks are significant for 99.9% of artists.

My ultimate problem with Mixcloud is that it reduces the likelihood that a mix will be archived for posterity. I know that may sound odd. But that is one of the main reasons I collect mixes. This mix is a great example of how a mix can serve as an "ark" for lost music. Often a mix is the difference between extinction and recovery.

Most DJs, whose mixes are worth preserving, recognize that relying exclusively on Mixcloud is a risk. What happens if Mixcloud shuts down? What if Mixcloud starts charging a fee to listen?

I agree that streaming will become more and more popular. And unfortunately, that means music companies will start to regain more control over the music. This has the potential to create more revenue streams for artists, but it also has the potential to create archival barriers.

Let's face it, the last 10 years of internet lawlessness has enabled fans to rediscover thousands of lost, out-of-print, and obscure recordings. Mixcloud is just a company that has its own interests (and archiving the music is not one of them). If Mixcloud goes out of business... all that music will be gone... POOF! (Just like Megaupload... remember them?)

Meanwhile, the people who care about the music and want to preserve it... we are forming a backbone from which people in 20-30 years can rediscover the classics. We might seem like greedy, selfish music hogs when a mix first comes out. But check back in 20-30 years: members of this community will be the only place one can find many of these great mixes.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Nuff respect for the great mix! :-)

Chris Read said...

Hey Eric,

Of course man - didn't take your comments as criticism at all. Glad you liked the mix and appreciate the kind words. Seeing as there was a bit of discussion I thought it was important to give my take on it all... Partly because I'm interested in other people's views but also because I have been considering for a while dropping the download option and making all of the mix type stuff I do 'legitimate' for a while now.

Mixcloud of course has an agenda of sorts - it's paid for by ad revenue but I've got to know some of the people there personally and they're also extremely passionate about music and what they do.

You're right that artists aren't being paid particularly well from streaming revenue but the built in features that allow listeners to buy the songs they hear in mixes definitely do make a difference to sales on iTunes etc. It's less relevant for old / out of print music, but important for artists releasing new music.

In terms of the archiving point, I have to say I'd never really considered that in quite the way you put it. You make an interesting point.

Anyway, the important thing is that we all enjoy the music!

C