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Initially, the project was to be handled through Grand Royal only without Capitol Records' involvement. There was talk of selling it primarily through the web site, which gets thousands of hits a day. Later, when the project grew beyond Grand Royal, Capitol Records came in to give guidance. The Grand Royal title is Peter and Philip's second enhanced CD. The first was called Headtravel and featured techno-ambient music and trippy videos. Due to strange dealings with a couple of English djs/producers of the title, Philip made fast food money off the project. When I ask him about it Philip shakes his head, "I use that thing as my business card."
"I didn't expect it to pay off my credit card bills," says Philip. Multimedia is not a cheap business to get into; with the glut of people getting involved, there are a herd of working poor. Philip often mentions his credit cards, maxed out with computer equipment, and the fact that while he worked on Headtravel he was unpaid and living off unemployment checks.
What ultimately landed Philip the gig was a demo he did for a San Francisco vinyl store, Groove Merchant. Philip designed it as an 'online' record store, which had flava, rather than being a cold, credit card snatcher. The design offered users the ability to look through a stack of CDs, listen to tracks, remix a George Clinton song and check out sound and video samples from Paul's Boutique. The demo showed Ian that Turntable was right for the job.
The multimedia elite in San Francisco are a loyal pack of old dogs who hover
over free beer and finger food at various parties and
conferences. At the all-day "Music and Multimedia" conference in May,
representatives from major record labels and multimedia people
argue about style and content of the enhanced CD format. Industry standards and
marketing are also big issues.
The Fierlinger brothers have smuggled passes out the door to John Assalian, who is doing original digital video work for the Beastie title, and to myself. A multimedia house has hired several females in tight, shiny cocktail dresses to distribute discs to the older white guys who make up the majority of attendees. "Those savages hired strippers from the O'Farrell theater. I think I know that one," remarks Assalian.
In the evening, Philip bitches because he is demo-ing his project on a panel of other 'in progress' projects and still had to pay 30$ for his girlfriend to attend. The multimedia elite fill only 100 seats of the over 1000 or so available in the hall. Titles from other bands, such as the cranberries and Queensryche are quiet and moody, reeking of "Myst." Sting's upcoming CD-ROM features him wearing armor and walking around castles talking about his music style and philosophies.
Peter has made a pact with the sound technician to have the volume extra loud. On huge screens we are suddenly sweeping around G-Son studios. Peter explains the disc, while Philip plays the hotspots. The 'props' that he planted around the studio all contain samples. "Oh my god that's the funky shit," screams into the room. Philip clicks on a hotspot and Ricky Powell's Lollapalooza footage plays. Then they play Assalian's "Shake Your Rump" remix video. Assalian, disgusted with the scene, has already left, missing his jumbotron debut. While the QuicktimeVR of G-Son is frontin' with cyber-wizardry, the title's design has none of the 'cyberslick' that the other titles demo-ed have.
