Armed with just her cello and a small box of electronics, Zoë Keating is a one-woman orchestra. She records layer upon layer of cello, her feet dancing over an array of pedals to transform her solo performances into multipart works.

This is a pretty good start, and this video from Wired gives a bit more information:

To date, Zoë has released an EP titled ‘One Cello x 16′ and an album titled ‘One Cello x 16: Natoma’, in addition to work with other groups. More information on these albums and links to where to buy them, including iTunes, are on her site here.

I’m still kicking myself that I missed seeing her while she was playing here in Melbourne at the Corner in March this year, but will definitely catch her on the next tour!

Make sure you check out her music, you won’t regret it.

I’m from a punk rock band, it’s all about getting your music out any way you can – you don’t make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can’t make money these days because they haven’t come onside with the way the world is going, it’s their own problem.

This hits a bullseye with the way things are moving in terms of music and its distribution and monetisation. The record company is dead, face it. Before recorded music, people made money through performance. With the advent of recorded music, record companies came to dominate the scene with their control of the marketing and distribution channels and exacted a huge fee from anyone involved. Now we are coming around again to where recorded music is taking a back seat to other aspects of the music industry.

The ubiquity of cheap or free downloadable music, whether it be illegal downloads through P2P services or legitimate online distribution models, such as that used by Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, is slowly strangling the record companies. Their bastions of distribution and marketing have been eroded by the open nature of the internet and they are not moving to adjust their position. With cheap bandwith for distribution and social networks such as MySpace and Facebook for promotion, the record companies are losing their grip on the artists and the consumer. In fact, they are quickly becoming the enemy of the consumer.

As McDougall puts it, ‘If they can’t make money these days because they haven’t come onside with the way the world is going, it’s their own problem’. Instead of making films defending an outdated business model, their energies would be better spent working out where they can add value in the industry and to the punter. Instead of ruthlessly defending a failing market position, they should be actively seeking a new position in the emerging markets. Now is the time. Start looking at performance promotion, online distribution, merchandising, endorsements, special editions, all types of other value-adds; these are where the new dollars are.

Give the music away, seriously. Let it act as promotion for these new products. The music will find its way out there anyway. The money is still there, find a new way to take it.

The record industry needs to come to terms with a new product, or else be stuck with the equivalent of trying to sell VHS tapes and 8-tracks to a consumer who despises them.

Usually, I would include my thoughts on why this could be a bad thing, but I don’t really have any. This is pretty good on all counts. This is echoed in the article, where Kimberlee Weatherall, a law lecturer from UQ among other things, who said that “the downsides are limited, given that DRM doesn’t prevent
people from copying and distributing music.”

The only real catch is that the tracks cost a little more (about 30% more). Still, that has to beat buying every track again when you want to play the file on something other than iTunes or your iPod.

They also have a new single, ‘Snakes on a Plane‘ on their site. Speaks for itself really…

Kylie Minogue’s Australian promoters today announced new dates for her Showgirl tour, shelved last year following the pop star’s cancer diagnosis.

The 2004 Grammy winner will kick off her 20-date national tour in Sydney on November 11 this year, with six Melbourne performances scheduled for December 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 17.

Here’s hoping that there is a second show put on.