We met Jim when we needed to put some vocal tracks over an existing backing track.  He is very welcoming and helpful.  Our first time in his studio and we were hooked.  Next time we needed to do the same thing, we went back to Rooster Studios in Homewood Illinois.

Not only does Jim operate the studio with his staff helpers, he also organizes small house concerts in the studio.  That’s where we got to see Matthew Bailey perform.  That’s where Jim also hosts food drives and other charitable events.  You can also throw a party for your kid over at the studio and he will videotape and arrange all sorts of goodies for your special birthday person.

We highly recommend Jim and Rooster Studios.  He even plays guitar and also writes songs.  He’s on MySpace - so just Google Rooster Studios and if you’re in the neighborhood, give him a visit.  Tell him Songs2Share sent ya’!!!  That’s Roberta, Matthew and Jim in the photo taken at the studio.

Big Music Will Surrender, But Not Until At Least 2011
Michael Arrington
TechCrunch.com
Sunday, March 8, 2009;
I had a surprisingly candid lunch conversation last week with a big music label executive, and a good part of our talk focused on the future of music. I asked the usual question: Why are you guys so damned clueless? Your business is disintegrating before your eyes, and all you do is go for short term cash gains (lawsuits, mafia-style collection rackets from venture backed music startups, etc.). The long term costs are horrendous - an entire generation or two of young music lovers feel no remorse at outright stealing music. Particularly since most online streaming is now free, it’s hard to understand why downloading or sharing songs should be a crime.

His response: It’s all part of a master plan. The labels fully understand that recorded music, streamed or downloaded, is going to be free in the future (we’ve argued this relentlessly). CD sales continue to decline by 20% per year, and the only thing that’ll stop that trend is when those sales reach zero. Nothing will replace those revenues.

They also understand that recorded music will largely be little more than marketing collateral, meaning that the Internet services being sued today for copyright infringement will be embraced in the future as ways to get the word out on hot new music. These services pay for the privilege today (either through high streaming rates or in court), but in the future they’ll be the ones getting paid by labels. Think radio payola at a whole new level, and there won’t be any more talk about social networks giving stock to labels and artists. Money will flow the other way, as it should.

By 2013 (maybe as early as 2011) it’ll make sense for the labels to finally reorganize their business models around the reality created by the Internet and person to person file sharing services. No longer will the labels be tied to revenue limited to sales of master recordings - by then most or all artists will be under 360 music contracts that give the labels a cut of virtually every revenue stream artists can tap into - fan sites, concerts, merchandise, endorsement deals, and everything else.

But until then, he says, the spreadsheets and financial models dictate that suing customers and partners just makes too much sense. Venture capitalists have directed hundreds of millions of dollars, via their litigation-mired startups, into the label coffers. To some extent those payments will continue, although the big payment days are likely over. Apple still sends a lot of money to the labels for paid downloads, and sites like MySpace Music, Imeem, Rhapsody and Last.fm pay big streaming dollars. Until CD sales really stagnate, all those revenue streams bring in more money than facing reality.

For most industries, embracing old revenue streams until they are completely petered out is a great way to open the door wide open to competitors with more innovative business models. But the Innovator’s Dilemma problem doesn’t necessarily apply to the music industry. The big labels have a lock on talent, and there’s no reason to believe that new artists won’t continue to strive to lock themselves in to one of them.

What this means for us music consumers - don’t expect much to change for the next few years. But sometime in the next decade we’ll see a real renaissance in how music is distributed and consumed. And who knows, a decade after that we may have all forgiven the music labels.

Source:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030800726.html

Every monday I’m going to give you 3 creative ideas for any project that might tickle your fancy.  Need a friendly muse - come by and read them.

Monday Inspirations—Here are 3 monthly ideas for song lyric, poems, instrumental titles, photos, video, short story or anything they inspire you to create.  Use the title if you like & make something! 

1. The Hidden Factors—Hidden factors are emotions/thoughts/events you get from making a certain decision.  There are hidden factors walking in an ice storm.

2. Mama Crow—When I strip chicken skins or cook a turkey, I throw the scraps outside for Mama Crow.  She’s a big black crow that has little baby crows.  We’ve got a children’s song titled Mama Bird if you need one.

3. The Dosage—Do you watch TV, take pharmaceuticals, alcohol, smoke, toke, flirt, text message, etc = what’s your dosage baby!!!  Are you a love junkie?  What is the dosage that gets you off.

Thursday, February 12, 2009 

iTunes streaming service rumored Category: Music Apple is believed to be wrapping up a new feature in iTunes 8 that will allow users to stream their iTunes video purchases directly from the company’s servers for playback anywhere, anytime without eating up local storage. Dubbed iTunes Replay, the service would allow iTunes shoppers to build out their digital video collection without worrying about the space needed to store the often hefty media files. It’s unclear whether Apple plans to charge for the service, which is said to support both iTunes Movie and TV show purchases. One of the main complaints users have with video purchases on iTunes is that they are forced to either throw away their files after watching them, or find a place to store the large files either on their hard drive or by burning them to DVDs. By storing their video content for them and allowing users to stream it for viewing as often as they want, Apple would essentially be offering a media center alternative. iTunes Reply on other devices The iTunes Replay service could also improve the experience of the company’s Apple TV set top box, allowing users to stream purchased media directly from Apple’s servers without ever syncing or copying files between Apple TV and a computer running iTunes, and without filling up the devices’ limited hard drive space, which currently tops out at 160 GB. The ability to stream purchased content directly would also benefit users of mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPod touch, which have an even greater limit on local storage capacity but already have the ability to stream QuickTime content directly over the air. Amazon’s Video on Demand (formerly known as UnBox) and the Instant Watch service from Netflix already provide video streaming, but both involve DRM hurdles erected by the studios that complicate the experience, as they are typically viewed through a web browser (although Amazon has an appliance partner deal with Tivo, and Netflix has partnered with Roku and the Xbox 360). Apple’s mobile devices, iTunes and Apple TV already accommodate the DRM protection the studios demand for playback of their content, meaning that no new layers of complication are necessary. Additionally, Apple has a wider selection of video content to choose from in iTunes. The disadvantage to streaming video content rather than playing it from a downloaded file is that users will need to maintain high quality Internet bandwidth throughout playback, or face interruption as the stream is buffered. Streaming playback of HD content also typically requires better than DSL (1.5 Mbps) service. If Apple continues to offer both downloads as well as streaming video on demand, it will remain differentiated from streaming-only services like Netflix Watch Instantly in that users on a slower Internet connection will be able to download HD titles in advance and watch them via local playback, or even unplug their Apple TV and bring it and their downloaded content to a location without Internet service for viewing. Apple gearing up for new streaming traffic iTunes Replay would arrive on the heels of last month’s report that Apple has shifted its online content delivery strategy to include a provider in Limelight Networks, joining longtime Apple partner Akamai Technologies. Having two different providers could help greatly optimize the delivery of streaming content to the millions of customers who use iTunes. Frost & Sullivan analyst Dan Rayburn connected the change to Apple’s booming digital download business, which he said is growing at a “crazy” rate. “We already know that no CDN [content delivery network] has unlimited capacity and can only handle so much traffic at any given time,” Rayburn said. “If you are Apple, using more than one CDN is just smart business.” Source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/11/apple_prepping_itunes_replay_ on_demand_video_service.html

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Video is here to stay.  Shoot your band or yourself performing at
as many venues as you can.  These videos have marketing potential. 
We are signing videos into our new video catalog so contact us if
you have some.  We’d love to view your work.

The Future: letter from Bob Lefsetz

There’s too much music made by too many people and performers are frustrated they’re broke and listeners are completely overwhelmed. What’s going to happen?

Hit music will survive. Even if the definition of a hit is a shadow of its former self. There won’t be as many sales, few people will even be aware of the track and the act will not be able to tour, or, if so, very briefly (did you catch the gross for the Jonas Brothers movie…ALREADY has-beens?)

Making it is so difficult that most “musicians” give up very early in the process. It’s easy to write and record a song and distribute it. Everything that was difficult yesterday is easy today. You just fire up GarageBand, select some loops, create a track and upload the result to MySpace and you’re an “artist”!

Well, no. You’re someone who’s recorded a track that most people don’t care about, probably because it sucks. But what if it’s good?

It almost definitely isn’t. But, if it were, most people STILL wouldn’t care, because they’re not aware of it. So, we’ve got two halves of the pie, quality and awareness.

Let’s start with quality. You can be a supernova like Picasso, incredibly good from the start. But it’s almost impossible. Usually you’ve got to experiment, practice, go down the road to dead ends until you finally come up with something good. And most people don’t have the patience for this process. Everybody wants instant fame. And instant riches. And it’s easier than ever to be instantly famous, but it doesn’t pay well. You can be on a reality TV show and be broke and working as a waitress. Furthermore, fame doesn’t possess the ogle value it used to. We make fun of the famous. As for riches…they’re almost unreachable. Which is why most “artists” give up.

It was easier in the nineties. The formula was simple. If you were incredibly cute or beautiful you got a record label to sign you and put a ton of money behind you, filming an expensive video for ubiquitous airplay on MTV and paying radio stations to play your record. The system was easy to figure out. Even though there was a winnowing process, which frequently had little to do with musical talent. Today? If you can get a label interested, they want to pay less and own more and success is a fraction of what it once was. Which is why if you want to be rich and famous you start a Website. Unless you’re truly a musician.

A true musician HAS to play. The money is secondary. As is fame. Sure, you want both, but you’ve got no choice. And now, with the field separated so clearly between the wannabes and the true devotees, we can start to see the future of the music industry. Those who see themselves as musicians are going to practice and play for Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours, building an audience all along the way, and eventually a great portion of the rest of the public is going to wake up and pay attention.

Mutt Lange started off doing sound-alike records. Reg Dwight recorded demos. So many of the stars of yore paid incredible dues. So when they were finally foisted upon the marketplace we were stunned by their talent. “Your Song”? A classic still performed today. A Jonas Brothers track? That’s an exercise in finance, based on marketing. Just like no one wants Hanson anymore, in a few years the Jonas Brothers will be a nostalgia item that does a fraction of their present business. The boys have got experience in promotion, in acting, but in music? Their musical history is very brief, they’ve got very little in the way of chops. Rather than practicing in their basement, they’re busy performing in throwaway Disney pics.

You don’t have to be thirty to get enough experience. Those piano lessons your parents make you take count. As do all those rehearsals in the aforementioned basement. And no matter how good your musical skills, performing is a separate talent completely. Like an NBA player with enough games under his belt not to choke in the playoffs, you’ve got to perform enough to be able to hit every note and keep the audience in the palm of your hand. So when people drag their friends to your show, they’re mesmerized.

Everything you hated is essentially gone. Looks-based music. Formulaic radio. Usual suspect writers and producers. They all still exist, but suddenly they’re the sideshow. The real money is in the bands that play live. But people really only want to see the dinosaurs in quantity, because they’ve been at it so long that they’ve not only got a catalog of great tunes, they’re great on stage.

Walk into the wilderness with me. If you believe in yourself, you’re never going to give up, you’re going to play until you make it. And believe me, if you put in all that time and no one is paying attention you will give up, that life is just too frustrating. But if you’ve got talent, you’ll see signposts along the way, enough positive feedback to keep you going.

So, maybe we’ll have a vibrant music scene in the future. When the old game plays down to nothing (and Terra Firma just wrote down their EMI investment), and the new music-based acts have enough hours/time/practice/performance under their belt to gain a head of steam. Instead of being worked on a track by a street-teamer looking to get ahead, a true friend will hip you to something that blows your mind to the point where you’ll have to tell everybody else you know.

The opportunities are not only in playing, there are giant holes in infrastructure as well. These new acts need managers. Organizations akin to labels to run their businesses. Even concert promoters to believe in them and showcase them live. None of the old farts want anything to do with these developing acts, because the payday is so far away, and a trickle at first.

We could be on the verge of a renaissance. But it could take five years to start to come clear and ten to burst into a supernova. Practice, practice, practice. If you’re truly good, you’ll find an audience. But remember, it won’t happen instantly and you’ll struggle as opposed to living the high life. You’ll be driving a rickety old van as opposed to flying first class. But when the money starts to come in, it will POUR!

Yes, you want to get paid. But even more, you want people who are touched by your original music, who NEED to go to the show. Which will be cheap. Because you’ll want a big tent, you’ll want to include everybody. That’s the Net ethos. The old boys are about being exclusionary, whereas today’s kids know everybody else in their entire town!

The audience is waiting. Listeners want something great to pop up on their radar, that they can believe in. It’s human nature. Think of listeners, not executives or gatekeepers. You can write the script. We’re ready for you!

Source:

Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

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Everybody can write poetry.  They teach us that in grade school.  Anybody
can write a song.  

If that song releases some pent up emotion or demon or lovely feeling,
then writing the song is a good thing.  I do agree songwriters and
performing artists need to practice, practice, practice.  And I also
believe the cream rises to the top.

So keep at it and your songs will improve just as you performance skills
improve.

~ Roberta  

Matthew Bailey is a kind, generous and very talented guitarist.  He sat in our front room and spontaneously came up with the melody to a song our vocalist Tia was working.  In the studio he laid down two guitar tracks for her with no expectation of compensation.  After she put her vocals to his guitar work, a great song titled Two Left Feet was completed.  She is so proud of this song.  It is the first studio recording of her own song material and we are very thankful for Matthew and his participation.

Karl & I went to see Matthew’s solo performance over the weekend.  Above is a photo of Matthew and I taken at Rooster Studios in Homewood, Illinois on February 28, 2009.  He recently sent in an MP3 and we’ve got some ideas about a song he’s working.  Welcome to the party Matthew.  Cheers ~

By ANN SANNER 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sheryl Crow, will.i.am,
Herbie Hancock and other entertainers on Tuesday urged Congress to
force radio stations to pay performers when their music is broadcast.Satellite
radio, Internet radio and cable TV music channels already pay fees to
performers and musicians, along with songwriter royalties. AM and FM
radio stations do not pay performers’ royalties, just songwriters.”People deserve to be paid when somebody else uses their property,” Hancock said.

He and the other musicians, including Dionne Warwick and Patti LaBelle,
appeared at a news conference on Capitol Hill on behalf of the
musicFIRST Coalition. The group is pushing legislation that would
require radio stations to pay musicians royalties similar to those paid
to songwriters.

The National Association of Broadcasters, who
oppose the measure, said a fee would put thousands of radio jobs at
risk. The association also argues that stations drive listeners to buy
music and concert tickets.”NAB welcomes an honest debate over
whether radio stations or the record labels have historically been a
‘better friend’ to musicians,” Dennis Wharton, the organization’s
executive vice president, said in a written statement.Hancock said people tune in to the radio because of the music.”

Just as radio promotes music, music promotes radio,” he said.Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced bills that would make radio stations pay the artists when their songs get airtime.Advocates say the bill accommodates smaller commercial stations, which could pay $5,000 per year. Public radio, college stations and other noncommercial stations could pay $1,000. Larger stations’ rates would be set through a government regulatory board, which would determine the fair market price for the use of the songs. The smaller stations could also choose to have their rates set by the board.Warwick said she hasn’t been compensated while her songs played around the world for 48 years.”I think now is about time that I do get paid,” she said.

Source:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/
ALeqM5j1ZJA4WuleAOdPKPSiKiCll6287gD96I7IN81

Guilherme Schroeter is an award winning classically trained pianist from Brazil.  He is on our Creative staff and helps out when we need some compositional critique & suggestions.  He recently took up residency in Los Angeles.  Here is an interview with Mr. Schroeter taken from his agent’s website.

March 1, 2009 - Sunday 

SCHROETER IN LOS ANGELES !!!! (INTERVIEW)   We talk directly from Los Angeles, the ”mecca” of the entertainment Mr Schroeter is our guest, and we try introduce him into many venues. Mr Schroeter, what you feel about been in Los Angeles? - I feel very honored to be on this fantastic city. I attended to the Hollywood music awards, where i was so warmly received, and also I want congratulate with the fantastic organization of the event. You guys are awesome! Is your first time here? - Yes, is the first time I come here What artists that impressed you more? - I love to be in awesome jazz bars, and what impressed me is a Jazz band called “SANTANA BROTHERS”. Mr. Santana played his vibraphone with great skills, and all musicians very skilled in play Latino Jazz, New bossa, and standard jazz. Was a great moment to me when I talked with him, ever for brief moments. He is (as well all band musicians) certainly a legend, a great musician.  What your plans, here in Los Angeles? - My plan is meet musicians, show my music and collaborate in many fields that i currently work, like film (i wrote 40 themes for film) , pop (more than 150 songs in diferent styles) and classical (224 works already produced right now) What places you visited / played that most impressed you? - CHATEAU MARMONT have an excelent Piano.I played many songs (film, classical and more)  and the people enjoyed so much.  Also CROWNE hotel have a nice piano, amazing. When i start play the room was empty, but after I play people started come to listen me. Was a great moment. Very impressed with the HOLLYWOOD BOWL, is a excelent venue to perform. But what really I enjoyed was perform my songs on WELCOME CAFE, A ESPECIAL MOMENT TO ME. The lady that manages the place was very nice, as well the artist that performs there. I found many talented artists in Los Angeles, as well many jazz bars /grills with nice comunity and well organized to show great music, like  Jax Bar & Grill,  Vibrato Grill Jazz and Steamer’s Jazz Club Thanks mr Schroeter for this opportunity - Welcome   Ana Maria Suazo is Award winning Manager, critic, promoter, producer, webmaster