Cliff Chenfeld, who is a Co-CEO of Razor & Tie and Kidz Bop and a contributor to Huffington Post, offers a list of almost 50 pieces of music — the term “album” seems more and more antiquated — that he liked this year.
The tips are good, I’m sure. This part of his intro is particularly interesting:
There is an amazing amount of good music being made now, probably more than ever. However, I wish more great music was released. The turbulence of the music business has led to fewer opportunities for major mainstream success and has caused artists to focus on maintaining a loyal on-line audience. There are a number of incredibly talented artists who are probably reluctant to write for a broader audience because of fear of alienating their loyal fan base. We could use more ambitious artists who want to make powerful, memorable music for the larger public.
In a way, this echoes the rationale behind this site (though I tend to deal with older material): The way music is distributed today leads to fewer serendipitous accidents in which folks stumble upon music they love. Indeed, the list itself is a case in point: I doubt that many people would recognize more than a handful of the artists Chenfeld mentions.
