UK iTunes topped by home-made album

@Mike

My $1000 price point was more of a pointer to where you can actually make things sound (sound quality and dynamics wise) as good as a "professionally" recorded album. Good music doesn't have a price point at all, I totally agree on that, polished turds and all, which I also noted. I also agree with other posters that the high rank is probably mostly fueled by the free song. On the other hand it's still positive as people obviously bought the whole album instead of just downloading the free track and be done with that.

But yes, I did miss your point a bit and ranted on on my own, sorry about that. It's just that I think musicians (or "amateurs" if you like, though being a "professional" has nothing to do with the actual musical qualities, but anyway) today have so many ways of producing music and reaching an audience for (almost) no cost at all which I think is a fantastic thing. Still I hope the live scene won't suffer too much.

I thought that since this is an Apple blog, surely the *point* of this story would be that because iTMS offered Kate's song for free, it helped her album to top the charts, rather than the debate whether this is all a PR stunt or if it's been recorded on consumer/prosumer gear?

@blip

I think you miss my point. I don't care WHICH DAW it was recorded too.. I am wondering if it was recorded WITHIN that 1000$ price range you set.

The fact of the matter is great music recorded on a crappy cassette deck will still sound better than a polished turd.

To know if this was a PR stunt or not DOES matter because it would be (one of the) first record recorded on consumer or prosumer gear which made it to the tops of iTunes charts.

*THATS* the point of the story. No one is debating that you can't make great music for less than 200$.

I bought Kate's CD when it came out last week. It was £10 at HMV, with 10 tracks in it. On the back, it says "produced and mixed by Tim Bidwell". Tim owns a recording studio which he's built himself. The Guardian has a write-up on him: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2045384,00.html

And we know why it's called Tim's House.

I'm not sure why you folks are going on about what defines a home-made recording and about how this is all a PR stunt, and that people are buying her music because it's cheap, etc. Chill out. Seriously. Buy her album and have a listen. Maybe then you'll appreciate her talent; people will pay for talent, regardless of its price.

"Recorded some music at a friends house"
The 'friend' was a highly regarded producer. The "bedroom" was his bedroom studio. The album is about as DIY as the kaiser chiefs.

Rant: On

Does it matter if this was recored with Pro Tools (LE), Logic et al or not? Absolutely! Why? Because these professional tools are widely available to *everyone* for a (comparatively) small fee.

What's so fantastic nowadays is that bedroom musicians, with not even a fraction of the budget any of the record companies, can make music in anyway they like, be it hi-fi, lo-fi. $1000 practically gives you everything you need to make fantastic sounding music (it does not, however, give you talent - maybe some newfound freedom to realize things not easily done with a previous setup). Nowadays the cost of producing a CD at a record company is PR, PR, PR. Anyone remember Bob Dylan's outburst on modern music? "It's got sound all over it" He was ridiculed for saying that, but even if it isn't the whole truth, it's true by a large enough margin. Take the average one-hit-wonder and look at the dynamics of the song. Probably compressed to hell and back so sound *loud*. It will mostly be hard to pick out any layers instruments etc as it's on many occasions a muddy withces brew of sound. If feel sorry for the professional sound engineers out there who are asked not to make it sound good but loud... (Of course there are big name artists sounding fantastic, that's not what I meant. I'm looking at the general

Thanks to the software revolution, cheaper hardware and the power of internet people can make the music they want and even get a name and reach even more people with their music if they are so inclined.

So even if this all would be a PR-stunt the truth is that we *can* make great music at home nowadays. Prince's home studio isn't needed at all.

Of course no gear (software, hardware etc) and all talent might yield results anyway, whereas those with all gear and no talent will have a much harder time.

Rant: Off

Good call on the price. That only goes to show what happens when the labels get out of the way. Yes, they are filters and there are too many musicians for me to know where to start, but it is safe to say that the labels can't be relied on to sign musicians for reasons that are valid for me.

WHY has no-one mentioned the fact that a big part of her success on iTunes might be due to the steeply discounted price of the album? It costs just £4.74, whereas regular ones are £7.90+. Obviously a lot of people downloaded it, but we don't know how much the price affected their decision.

Do we know if this is recorded at a friends house with like Pro Tools LE, Logic etc? Or at a friends house who happens to own a HD3 rig and a couple iso rooms in his basement? 90% of Prince's most recent album was done at his house....

Please God, let this be true and more often.