Filed under: iTS, Odds and ends
UK iTunes topped by home-made album
23-year-old Kate Walsh recorded some music at a friend's house at a cost of a few hundred British pounds. Now that album is topping charts at the UK iTunes store. "Tim's House" currently holds the number three spot for top album sales and has received dozens of glowing reviews for its ten tracks, ranging from "[B]eautiful, calming, floaty, inspired and emotional" to "Stunning Album!". Helping to move the album into the public conciousness was the "Talk of the Town" track, which was recently featured as a UK iTunes Single of the Week.
The 30-second samples I listened to certainly don't sound like they were recorded in somebody's basement.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Marek said 4:01PM on 4-10-2007
I read that the "home-made" album is just a pr move.
Reply
Mike Schramm said 3:58PM on 4-10-2007
Awesome.
Reply
loki said 4:11PM on 4-10-2007
Another sign of the decline of the major labels. Music is about the art and the artists who truly love doing what they do.
Reply
myke said 4:10PM on 4-10-2007
it was even number one for a few weeks
Reply
Josh L said 4:22PM on 4-10-2007
Search her name in mininova.org she was on david letterman, so apparently she isn't entirely this hometown girl, its totally a pr move.
Reply
James Smythe said 4:21PM on 4-10-2007
The first line of her official bio proudly states that "Unlike most of her peers, Kate Walsh doesn’t have an iPod or a Walkman." This is, I believe, the very definition of Irony.
Reply
Whatevermort said 4:21PM on 4-10-2007
This first line of her official bio states that "Unlike most of her peers, Kate Walsh doesn’t have an iPod or a Walkman." This is Ironic.
Reply
moog said 4:32PM on 4-10-2007
What does being on Letterman have to do with her origins?
Reply
vistet said 4:35PM on 4-10-2007
Kate Walsh on Letterman is an American actress , from Grays Anatomy. Wrong country , right name..
Reply
vistet said 4:39PM on 4-10-2007
Kate Walsh on Letterman is an American actress, from Grays Anatomy. Right name , wrong country..
Reply
D said 5:17PM on 4-10-2007
Well, PR move or not, it was probably recorded where she says it was. Which I guess proves that you don't have to own a recording studio to create good music.
Only I'm not sure how that was different say, 20 years ago. You could still get a decent tape multitrack, and record a decent album that way. That's what a lot of people are doing nowadays, actually. Everyone is sick of pristine digital sound (film vs. digital all over again). It's just a matter of distribution and knowing the right people.
How the album was recorded has little bearing on that. White Stripes' Elephant was recorded on an 8-track. Liars' last album was recorded in an abandoned Berlin radio studio.
Reply
Bob Cartwright said 5:30PM on 4-10-2007
What's the big deal? Paul McCartney recorded his first solo album in his house over 35 years ago.
Reply
bradvert said 6:36PM on 4-10-2007
Good recording equipment is much cheaper now than it was 35 years ago for Paul McCartney, who had plenty of Beatle money to foot the bill.
And the White Stripes still had to tour and build a real-world fan base before making it big. This is cool because it's an example of someone hitting the mainstream without 'normal' agent representation, distribution, contracts, touring, etc...
http://futureofobjects.blogspot.com/2007/04/homemade-music.html
Reply
Yrian said 6:59PM on 4-10-2007
Please God, let this be true and more often.
Reply
Mike said 9:23PM on 4-10-2007
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....
Reply
Nic said 9:28PM on 4-10-2007
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.
Reply
quandmeme said 9:45PM on 4-10-2007
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.
Reply
blip said 5:37AM on 4-11-2007
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
Reply
Behemoth said 6:59AM on 4-11-2007
"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.
Reply
Joey said 11:21AM on 4-11-2007
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.
Reply