Third birthday: Bon Anniversaire!

Today marks the third birthday of the Vive Le Roq music blog, so Bon Anniversaire to us !

The number of posts we're featured has increased over the years we've been around  from 24 in total on our first year to over 200 last year. To give an idea on what that kind difference means, I'm on schedule to have as many posts this month as I managed the whole of 2012.

The last couple of years have seen the music industry undergo massive changes. In the retail sector, it's not been so much The Times They Are A Changin' as It's the End of The World As We Know It. One thing that has remained constant though is that there's been a huge amount of great music being released.

There are arguments that the record companies are becoming more selective in what they release, less willing to allow artists to take chances and less willing to sign artists that are not immediate commercial propositions.

But that's always been the case. The music business has always been a volatile mix of art and business, an arena where quality is too often measured in commercial success rather than artistic merit. But regardless of this, quality acts have existed and great music has always come out and it still will.

One positive change that has certainly come around because of the internet is that music is more available than ever. Acts may find it harder to compete and to make a living, but by the same measure the costs of getting your music heard are lower than ever. Acts no longer have to wait for the record company to knock at their (virtual) rehearsal studio door before getting their music released and heard.

Similarly the geographical restrictions that once meant you had to actually be outside the UK before you heard much from beyond our linguistically and culturally limited  soundscape have been swept away by the internet. Our horizons are as open as we want them to be.

I'm optimistic about the future and I'm sure French music will be a significant part of the world's musical landscape in the decades to come.

Anyway, thanks for coming around, hope you enjoy the music as much as I have done, and onwards into the next year.


Merci et à bientôt

jk