When Technology Means Independence

by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer –

If there is one thing technology has done for regular music fans over the last 10 years, it’s made them more independent. Or at least less subordinate to the labels, the music press, TV, and radio – the traditional bastions of control of almost all access to music and musicians just a decade ago. Now with YouTube anyone can be a content contributor or a program director, and you hardly need the print mags to discover new music or catch up on your favourite bands. You don’t need an A&R man, or a music critic, or a TV boss telling you what you are supposed to listen to, when, and how. Read more

Ordabai, Alissa

Biography

Alissa Ordabai is a freelance music journalist living in working in London, UK. She prepared for her career by studying art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and later doing a post-graduate course in music and sound technology at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, also known as Paul McCartney’s Fame School.

Having abandoned her one-time intention of becoming a copyright lawyer (despite graduating with a law degree from the University of London in 2006), she is now a full-time journalist. She travels extensively, one day interviewing an American band in New York City, the next day flying to Moscow for a rock magazine’s staff meeting, and the next day returning to her hometown of London to catch an up-and-coming underground band at a local venue. Read more