Brilliant! really original take on the whole thing, music without the artist, very well thought out. (By the way Eoghan, I see you haven't censored the Crazy Frogs, man..er..
froghood, Cluas is gettinng a bit risque these days!
)
The only thing I think Brian hadn't quite thought out was Musicians should give away free real-tones and spread their tunes virally. Sounds good, and will help promote an artist but I can't see too much incentive unless you're a "copyleft" artist, who just wants to get their stuff out there and isn't worried about money. You could say that its a way to promote an album, but I don't see the concept of buying entire albums fitting in too well with the disposable culture of folks who buy ringtones. Also the ring tone is a fashion statement, so the tune needs to be either recognisable to everyone around in 10 seconds flat, or immediately attention grabbingly gimmicky. Not too good a scenario for an unknown independant artist.
Would Blue Monday have been just as good if it were released as a ring tone? Well if it were released today maybe, but on an early polyphonic phone it might have sounded a wee bit crap. Now, don't get me wrong Blue Monday actually stands up quite well as a
song even without the signature thumping bass line and drum pad fills as this laid back semi-acoustic version shows: http://www.flunkmusic.com/bluemonday.html ...the thing is like a lot of dance music it get much of its character from the machines used to create it. Also phones don't have subwoofers, Blue Monday is best heard (and felt) LOUD with the bass doing strange things to your internal organs. It'd still be good as a ringtone, and like Kraftwerk tunes, ideally suited, but it wouldn't quite have had the same impact as it would on folks hearing it on a club soundsystem in the 80s.
Overall though, great piece Brian, its the mutts nuts, no better still, the amphibians genitalia.