Marc Perrenoud, jazz pianist
Geneva, 6th April 2020
The Internet is NOT the backbone of our society – this is what we are realizing today. At best, it is a crutch. Telecommuting, teleconferencing, is something that sooner or later gets on absolutely everyone’s nerves. The virtual only makes sense if the non-virtual chooses to make it so.
What is exciting is to measure the economic weakness of the web. The print media, for example, set up expensive online sales platforms for “web journals” only to see their revenues plummet. As for music, streaming completely finished off the business. Somewhere along the lines, it’s good to realize this, “for real”. Depriving musicians from playing live deprives them of all income. A record can be a hit on the online platforms with 40-50-100,000 plays per week, bringing in just enough to cover the Spotify subscription. So yes, the argument of hands-on promotion comes back in full-effect .. and yes, it is tiresome.
It could be time for festival directors to become more professional. By that, I mean: It’s not because you listened to Kurt Cobain when you were fifteen, or your father offered you a Miles Davis box set that you listened to twice, or you served a few beers at a festival and smoked a joint with a trendy American bass player that you understand something about music. Music is indeed what it’s all about. No one would get on a plane with only aviation enthusiasts in the cockpit, you also need a someone who knows how to land the thing at night in a cross wind.