And maybe that's what i will do. Take the songs i want, put them on another format and ditch the CD's. Of course you would have to prise my vinyl albums out of my dead hands... why is that? that vinyl should remain so sacred. Vinyl is sacred, there is nothing like getting a double album out and unfolding the cover, marveling at the images and reading obscure details like who manufactured the album and what studio is was recorded in... marvelous!

Is this not just the way we are now? we hold on to the sacred items that we would never part with and yet we want less and less of everything else. With so many bands, so many websites, so many television channels, so many youtube videos... we have to condense our media into smaller and smaller chunks. We simply don't have enough time to see everything.

And yet i feel i have watched pretty much everything there is to watch on television, which is why i don't watch it much anymore. Unless something new comes on which really takes my interest. And communication, so much social networking... it's why i like twitter, 140 character messages are just what the doctor ordered for weary networkers who just can't keep up the pace of it all.

What is my point?

Well it concerns artists, mainly artist pages on OMD's and elsewhere... FACT: the online surfer does not hang around, they may get to where you are and look for 30 secs and then there gone again and they may never return. So having the most complex multi-media/social networked/guestbooked/forumed nasa like website/page etc is a complete waste of time.

I remember for a while the Pink Floyd website was this hyper multi-media experience, maybe they thought it was part of their progressive image, anyway it's all gone now, they have returned to a simple interface. I myself designed websites 5 years ago that were so flash intensive it was almost like you became part of the program... It was 'Tron' become real...

If you need 140 characters to grab someones attention then you need 30 secs of music to autoplay and grab their attention right from the start. And an image that will stick in their head (just look at the photos of featured band Scarlet Blonde). Then you need them to download and share that information and make it spread out... that is what we are looking at here at AL. It's very much a chaotic picture at the moment, digital distribution, online promotion... eventually things will take form but right now it seems more and more companies are bringing out new websites that all try and suggest they have the next miracle tool... That is one thing you won't get here, overblown hype...