There’s an ultimately boring article on Wikipedia in today’s “New York Times”. For those scoring at home, the article focuses on editing, with the primary controversial topic being Scientology.
I’ll leave the details out, if you’re that interested, you can click through. But what got me to write this was the sidebar, wherein the genre of Panic At The Disco was delineated to be one of the controversial topics.
I’m thinking Panic At The Disco’s fifteen minutes of fame are just about up, but a synapse fired when I was reading this article and I realized, Wikipedia is just like Google, a dominant resource.
I was sitting in the audience at the L.A. Acoustic Music Festival enraptured by Natalie MacMaster and I started to wonder, what exactly is her story?
I didn’t go to her website, which probably wouldn’t render too well on my BlackBerry anyway, I Googled her Wikipedia site and clicked through and started reading.
Turns out she does 250 dates a year. Fascinating, since she just had a baby in February and already has two other kids… When is she home?
And the wealth of information on Bruce Cockburn was truly exhaustive. Drilling down to his honorary doctorates… And I didn’t even know that Jimmy Buffett did Cockburn songs!
If you go to the act’s website, you get Flash animation, you get hyped, you get sold. Sure, you might be able to listen to some music, but the band’s site is not a good place for basic information. You end up with a history that reads like a corporate bio and tour dates and maybe a message board. Whereas when you go to Wikipedia, the site loads just about as fast as Google and you get the raw information.
In other words, make sure your act has a Wikipedia entry!
Unless you want to build mystery. Then you should have neither a Wikipedia page NOR a website. But that twentieth century game is rarely played anymore. Acts complain they can’t break through, not that their privacy is in jeopardy. Therefore, when you launch a new act, you should create a Wikipedia entry!
If the act is brand new, keep the entry limited. If the entry doesn’t fit the act’s status, it ends up looking like hype and it is ignored. If you’re creating your own Wikipedia entry, think of it as a true encyclopedia essay. They might have a page on the Beatles, but Haircut 100 would get just a few lines. But at least online, every act is entitled to an entry!
If you’re lucky, you’ll become big enough that fans will start adding and changing your Wikpedia page. Don’t worry about accuracy. Mistakes make it look like you didn’t write it, they make fans feel superior, wanting to make corrections or just feeling closer to the band than those editing entries. The key is to have a presence, a starting point, where a newbie can get up to speed, can find out who you are and begin his fandom.
SECTION FOUR: SITES WHERE YOU CAN UPLOAD YOUR BAND’S MP3s OR VIDEOS
Double Stereo
PO Box 4397, Austin, TX 78765
PH: 512-825-9108
Sal Silva III sal@doublestereo.com www.doublestereo.com A free digital music platform for bands, and record labels (no sign up or membership fees). Our core business is music promotion, digital music sales and merchandise order fulfillment.
MoFro Music
Dave Creel david@mofromusic.com www.mofromusic.com It is a place to share bands, reviews, compositions, mash-ups, re-mixes and anything else music related. Anyone and everyone is encouraged to submit whatever it is they have to share.
Music Forte
931 W. 75th St. #137-261, Naperville, IL 60540
PH: 888-659-2867
Greg Percifield greg@musicforte.com www.musicforte.com As a social network, we’re unique in that we cater to only musicians and music enthusiasts. We’ve also taken a very intricate approach in seeing that our network is powered by the musical soul. This means that you’ll discover music and services that are relevant to you in a myriad of ways.
WaTunes.com info@watunes.com www.watunes.com A revolutionary music service that helps independent artists get their music into online music stores like iTunes and eMusic entirely free.
CreateSpace
100 Enterprise Way Ste. A200, Scotts Valley, CA 95066 info@CreateSpace.com www.createspace.com Join our Community for help, advice, or to throw ideas around and collaborate with other musicians. Distribute your music on Amazon.com and other sales channels as an audio CD or MP3 download. Set the list price for your audio CDs and choose from a selection of royalty plans for your MP3 downloads. Use our online tools to set up your titles — they’re free! Since copies of your titles are manufactured as customers order, you’ll never worry about inventory and set-up fees.
PRS for Music http://www.prsformusic.com Exists to help businesses and community groups get access to some of the world’s best loved music, while making sure that songwriters, composers and publishers are rightfully rewarded. We’re proud to work for the future of one of the UK’s most vibrant creative industries. Let’s help the creators keep on creating.
BANDIZMO.COM contact@bandizmo.com www.bandizmo.com The free music site dedicated to the exposure of unsigned bands and independent artists. Allows songwriters and bands to be found through detailed genre-driven search engines. It’s free to join, free to use and has relationships already built with numerous record companies.
myZOOZbeat.com feedback@zoozmobile.com www.myzoozbeat.com ZOOZbeat is a gesture-based mobile music studio, simple enough for non-musicians and children to immediately become musically expressive, yet rich enough for experienced musicians to push the envelope of mobile music creation. myZOOZbeat.com enables users to save the music they create with ZOOZbeat on the iPhone and iPod Touch as MP3s, and share them using Facebook and Twitter. Users can also listen to songs uploaded by their friends, and to special featured and recent songs from users around the world.
ZOOZbeat Latin feedback@zoozmobile.com www.myzoozbeat.com ZOOZbeat is a gesture-based mobile music studio, simple enough for non-musicians and children to immediately become musically expressive, yet rich enough for experienced musicians to push the envelope of mobile music creation. ZOOZbeat Latin allows the creation of songs with Samba and Tejano rhythms.
SongCast
2926 State Rd. #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223 info@songcastmusic.com www.songcastmusic.com One of the World’s largest distributors of independent music. We have deals with iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon, Emusic and Napster, allowing us to put our artists’ music in front of millions of music buying consumers. With SongCast, you can start selling your own music on these major retail sites right away. We also provide you with customized code to link your MySpace and other websites directly to the stores. Your fans will easily be able to find and purchase your music online. Combined with the power and social phenomenon of sites like MySpace and Facebook, it is no longer necessary to give away your musical freedom to a major record label.
MyMusicSite.com
339 5th Ave. #405, New York, NY 10016
PH: 646-670-6611
Brad Turk bturk@mymusicsite.com www.mymusicsite.com An online music community helping independent artist sell, promote and create ringtones with their music.
Music Gorilla
12407 Mopac Expressway N. 100-312, Austin, TX 78758
PH: 512-918-8978 FX: 212-258-6394
Alexia info@musicgorilla.com www.musicgorilla.com Exposure to major labels, indie labels, film studios and publishers.
Boost Digital
Level 6 220 Pacific Highway CrowsNest, NSW 2065 Australia
PH: +612-9460-1400 FX: +612-9460-0044
Graeme Logan graeme@boostdigital.com www.boostindependentmusic.com MP3 music downloads store for independent & unsigned artists & bands to sell, host, promote & download all MP3 music online. A MP3 store to buy & sell all independent & unsigned music online
JukeBoxAlive
311 Montford Ave. Asheville, NC 28801
PH: 828-232-0016
Will Cumberland cumberland@jukeboxalive.com jukeboxalive.com Our Advanced Jukebox Player protects your music from being digitally downloaded, yet allows fans to hear your music online. This creates exciting possibilities for you to present yourself to new audiences without being ripped off.
The Ontario government took aim yesterday at U.S. entertainment giant Ticketmaster by introducing a new law that would block companies from charging scalpers’ prices for tickets to concerts and sporting events on resale websites they own.
The proposed legislation follows an uproar over Ticketmaster’s relationship with a subsidiary ticket resale website, TicketsNow.com, that allows people to sell tickets above face value. A class-action lawsuit filed in February alleges that Ticketmaster diverts tickets to TicketsNow to sell them for a higher price.
Attorney-General Chris Bentley said yesterday that he has heard “loud and clear” from consumers in Ontario that they are not getting fair access to tickets for their favourite events. What the legislation would do, he said, is make it illegal for primary and secondary ticket sellers owned by the same corporate entity to sell tickets to the same events at higher prices.
“It’s the foundation for fairness,” Bentley said at a news conference.
“There’s a perception out there that if you benefit from both sides of the equation there’s not only a perception but a real concern about fair access to tickets.”
Individuals could be fined up to $5,000, companies up to $50,000 for breaking the proposed rules.
Ticketmaster could not be reached for comment.
But the proposed legislation would do nothing to stop brokers and agents corporately unrelated to Ticketmaster from reselling tickets at inflated prices on TicketsNow. Officials at Ticketmaster have said TicketsNow is open to anyone reselling tickets. They have also said TicketsNow is being singled out for the widespread practice of reselling tickets above face value.
New Democrat MPP Peter Kormos said the legislation does not go far enough. Ontario already has anti-scalping laws on the books, but these are rarely enforced, he said.
What the government should do, he said, is put a cap on the fee resellers charge, say at 6 per cent of the face value of a ticket. “The legislation will do nothing to protect consumers from being ripped off by corporate scalpers,” he said.
Artists from Bruce Springsteen to Charley Pride have lashed out at TicketsNow and other online resale sites for charging fans inflated prices for concert tickets.
Bob Runciman, interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives, said his party will likely support the legislation but said it’s unfortunate that Premier Dalton McGuinty and his government appeared to be in the dark on this matter.
“It had to be left to Bruce Springsteen to bring this to his attention,” he said.
Bentley said he drafted new legislation after officials at Ticketmaster declined his request to follow practices already in place in Alberta and Manitoba that bar the company from benefiting in the resale of tickets.
“They would not take that approach in Ontario,” he said.
The last time Bentley bought concert tickets was for a Britney Spears concert. But he quickly pointed out they were for his daughters, now 22 and 24, and that he did not attend.
Music BC
#530-425 Carrall St., Vancouver, BC V6B 6E3
PH: 604-873-1914 FX: 604-873-9686 http://www.musicbc.org A non-profit society dedicated to providing information, education, funding, advocacy, awareness and networking opportunities to nurture, develop and promote the spirit, growth, and sustainability of the BC Music community.
Forget the Pirate Bay trial, forget P2P piracy and cease and desist letters. They are now the sideshow. We’re moving from ownership to streaming. Spotify is king here, but it’s not the only one. There’s MySpace, there’s iMeem and the pay granddaddies, Rhapsody and Napster. Streaming is better than ownership. All of the foregoing are licensed by the major labels and numerous other rights holders. Can these outlets generate enough capital for the rights holders to garner the revenues of yore? Doubtful. iMeem is on the ropes right now. But that’s irrelevant. Bottom line, people are becoming accustomed to being able to access everything whenever they want. The old model of buying individual items will not evaporate overnight, but it will start to fade, just like the CD, which was the last physical vestige of this paradigm.
But, philosophy aside, sales just suck. In eight weeks, Bruce Springsteen has sold 483,803 albums. An absolutely horrible figure. Bruce is fine, he’s got a guaranteed contract. The man who made this deal, Andy Lack? He was neutered and then left the company. Sony is holding the bag, it’s Sony’s problem that they’re upside down on Bruce’s new album. Nothing seems to make a difference, the Super Bowl, all that press, people just don’t want Bruce.
But he can sell a bunch of tickets.
U2 is doing better than Bruce. They’ve got a cume of 693,310. But this last week, their third on the chart, showed another 42% drop, they sold 76,317 albums. Not exactly chicken feed, but there’s no way they get to ten million, there’s no way the label takes everybody out to CUT and orders thousand dollar bottles of wine on this revenue.
Kelly Clarkson is still number one, but she only sold 90,393 albums, after selling 254,671 last week. Her sales are declining. Everybody’s sales are declining. To look to music sales to make your income is to be absolutely horrified. They’re going in the wrong direction.
We can delineate why, but you know, it’s not a secret. You can get the stuff free and you’re not beholden to just a few acts. No one can dominate. It’s every man for himself. Green Day is debuting their new video on MTV. Do labels still make videos? Does MTV still play them? Isn’t that like saying they still make Beanie Babies, or Hula-Hoops? Videos are a passe fad, late twenty first century relics, now it’s about the music once again. And the trappings are not enough to sell the music. Otherwise, Scarlett Johansson’s album wouldn’t have stiffed. Running a record label is bad business, which is why companies want 360 deals. But the label is no longer the dominant player, the focus is now on the act itself. How does the act itself break through?
I’m not saying the act, the musicians themselves, have to do all the work, but they’re no longer slaves on the plantation, they’ve got to take their destinies into their own hands. Rather than look for a fat cat to dump a bunch of money on them, they’ve got to start from the ground up, by themselves, no one’s got that kind of money anymore, you’ve got to start with AWARENESS!
Don’t see it as free music. That’s referencing the old game, where music sales were the main source of revenue. That hasn’t been true in years. Most acts make the lion’s share of their money on the road. How are you going to get people to come to see you?
Sure, radio still has some power, and television too, but they’re waning in influence. You reach fewer and fewer people, many of whom don’t care. And if you’re trying to get them to buy your record to check you out, you obviously don’t surf the Net, because everything is available free, to hear online!
Think about this. You used to have to purchase the record to know what you were getting. Now you can test drive everything first. But why bother to buy after test driving? If the dealer lets you keep the car every day, why bother to own it? That’s what streaming is. Granted, now you can only stream efficiently on the lot, in front of your computer, but that’s going to change, as 3G wireless penetration expands, as 4G makes its debut. You’ll be able to stream your music anywhere. And then the game will change. It’s how are you going to get someone to LISTEN to your music?
After a label sold a CD, it didn’t care if the buyer played it. The label didn’t care if the buyer threw the damn thing away. But in the future, it’s going to matter exactly how many times someone plays your tracks. THAT’S how you’re going to get paid! It’s not about a good come-on, it’s about ultimate delivery!
How can you get someone to spin your tracks so much, so many of them, that they’ll bond with you and not only want to come see you perform, but buy your merch. Online streaming payment is now low, if it grows dramatically, it will be slowly. Piracy will not be the problem, but overall revenues will. So see the game not as getting someone to pony up the bucks for your tracks, but to listen to them!
In this transition period, let everybody stream all of your music, whether it be from a third party site or your own. It’s your only hope of breaking through the clutter. Sure, you can sell your music too. Some people still want to own it, others want a souvenir. But don’t get hung up on recorded music as revenue stream. True revenue comes way down the line, when you’ve established a body of work and a fan base.
Are you getting this? It doesn’t pay to be a one hit wonder. All that money the label spends? It reaches so very few people, only a fraction of whom want to own, and a tiny slice of whom want to see the act live, usually once.
You lamented the decline of artist development at the label? Don’t worry, artist development has come back! It doesn’t pay to jam.
Don’t worry about driving your SoundScan numbers, worry about getting people to listen. It’s not about money, but time. How can you convince someone to burn three or four minutes of their time checking you out. That’s why you’ve got to be really good, because with so many options, both musical and other entertainment varieties, people make decisions very quickly. Good isn’t good enough. Your track has to be GREAT! Otherwise, people will click over to something else, their time is too valuable. Don’t ask for patience, deliver something so appealing that people will be drawn to it, and will tell everybody they know all about it.
And people are looking for great things. And one person can start a conflagration. One unpaid fan will tell everybody how great you are, if you truly are that amazing. They won’t want compensation, they won’t sign up for a street team, they’ll do it because their lives have been enriched.
That’s the game. How can you make the life of the listener better. Not how can you extract dollars from his wallet.
The major labels have been preaching their model, speaking of their woes to an ignorant mainstream media for a decade. All the while, the game was changing, off the radar. The tipping point has been reached. The major labels have lost so much of their power, they’re never going to regain it. It’s about a bond directly between the artist and fan. The fan pays you, not the label, not the bribe-able gatekeeper. Be nice to the fan. Make it easy for him to check you out. Deliver something that will get him through the night. And the day after.
Monday Inspirations—Here are 3 weekly 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!
10. Creepin Decibles When the volume in your head or outside your head starts getting louder, and louder and louder and pretty soon, you need to turn it off. OFF. Silence. Stop the creepin decibles before they blow my eardrums my mind my future. Then a little lullaby song starts up ever so softly, and you’ve got more creepin decibles.
11. Radical Rampage Teen angst, pre menstral syndrome, bad boss blues, my baby done me wrong and I’m on a radical rampage song. You can twist it up positive if you like. “I’m finally taking a stand for …. against…. This is me and you better listen up bucko!” I feel a little, radical rampage coming on+++
12. Our Mary Poppins
You can be our Mary Poppins. Float on down and lift our spirits. You can be our Mary Poppins. Teach us how to fly… Do you have a Mary Poppins? I do. She taught me how to dance.
I don’t remember how I first met Ritch Esra. I’m sure it was in e-mail, but I don’t remember the content of his missive. But I’m sure it was nice. Ritch is always nice, and enthusiastic and insightful. We’ve developed a friendship. We go out to dinner at least once a year with Michael Laskow of TAXI and Ritch forwards me exclusive information on a regular basis. Which is probably why I agreed…
Suddenly, I remember how I met Ritch, he invited me to be on his radio show, broadcast to students. You might not be able to get me to do this today, especially the part about driving to Burbank, but we develop special relationships with people who are there for us in the beginning. My list had a fraction of the number of subscribers it does today. If someone was tracking me down to give me an opportunity to spread my message, I was accepting the offer.
Last year I spoke at Ritch’s class at the Musicians Institute. Because of our history, because of the relationship. Which is why I listened to this Seth Godin interview. I might have skipped it if someone else had posted the link, I certainly wouldn’t have listened to the whole thing. If Seth Godin HIMSELF had told me to listen to the interview, I wouldn’t have. I don’t like promotion from the act itself. Even though I know Seth a bit. I’d say to him “Why are you working me?” Is that our relationship, where you use me to get ahead? My friends don’t market me, don’t hype me, don’t work me. Maybe if Seth had sent a friendly note, explaining why he thought I’d be interested in the interview, I’d check it out. But this is sensitive ground. Especially when someone already has traction. We’ll help the up and coming, if we know them personally. Bottom line, if you’re up and coming and I don’t know you, I owe you nothing. And if you’re working me, you’re violating our friendship, I won’t view you in the same way ever again.
Furthermore, I listened to entire clip because I figured I might run into Ritch and he’d ask me about it, or e-mail me and want to discuss it further. Let’s be clear here, Ritch was not asking me a favor, he made an assessment of who I was, what I was interested in, and sent me a targeted link. He doesn’t do this every day, rarely, in fact. So, based on our friendship, I listened.
Anyway, the first half of this lengthy interview with Seth was ground I was quite familiar with. Then, when speaking about Tribes in the latter half of the conversation, Seth spoke about permission marketing, the relationship with the fan.
How do you build that relationship? How do you get people interested?
By doing something great. Seth unleashed his book, “Unleashing the Ideavirus”, online, for free, a decade ago, and gained fans that way. He didn’t compile an e-mail list and spam people, he focused on the work. And then using the distribution platform of the Web, he allowed people to pull it, for free! To the point where people implored him to print a hard copy, that they could buy, they wanted to own it. Is your music so great that it will draw its own followers? If not, you’re going to have a hard time in the new universe. Listeners have unlimited choice, they don’t care that you’re broke, went to Berklee and have invested a ton in equipment. They’ve got no preexisting relationship. Your calling card must be your music. The number of friends you’ve got on MySpace, your stunting, they might garner passing interest, but a listener might wonder if you’re better at marketing than music. And so many of today’s wannabes are. They’re computer-savvy, they’ve grown up online. But they haven’t practiced their chops in their bedrooms alone, they haven’t spent endless hours in the garage. So, there’s nothing at the core.
And once you’ve got a fan, once they’ve found you, you’ve then got permission to contact them. But here’s why I’m writing this, Seth said your tribe is people who would be DISAPPOINTED if they didn’t hear from you!
Think about that. Kind of like a girl you met at a bar, at a friend’s house. You exchanged phone numbers, e-mail addresses. You sent her a note, a text and…SHE DIDN’T RESPOND?
You wouldn’t shrug your shoulders and not give it another thought. You’d wonder, WHAT HAPPENED? Did she lose her phone? Does she not have computer access? Did she get in a car accident? When you spam me, telling me about your project I’m not interested in, I don’t wonder if your mom has grounded you, if you’ve been in a car accident, I DON’T KNOW YOU AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU! Whereas if a week went by and I didn’t get an e-mail from Ritch Esra, I’d wonder… Did he go out of town? If two weeks went by and there was no e-mail from Ritch, I’d e-mail Laskow, I’d do a little research, DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?
Today’s acts dun you for notice, and then when they’ve made it, they remove themselves. Whereas a relationship must be nurtured, and CONTINUED! Once you’ve got the relationship, you must KEEP IT UP! To make an album every three years is ridiculous. You’ve got to release a track, a demo, a video, SOMETHING for your regular fans. They’re starving, you’ve got to feed them, to keep up the relationship. Believe me, the guy who doesn’t hear from that girl doesn’t think about her every minute of the day THREE YEARS LATER! He’s on to something else.
The old model was limited product pushed down people’s throats.
Today’s model is endless product available to those who want it.
That’s another thing Seth said. You can’t try to reach everybody, only your tribe, only those who are interested. They’ve got enough money to support you. That’s what the overpriced vinyl and books and CD packages are about. Feeding the fan frenzy, not the casual buyer. The true fan will pay ten bucks for the album at iTunes, he doesn’t need to buy “No Line On The Horizon” for $3.99 at Amazon. Those sales are almost meaningless. Not only do they cannibalize those of the fans willing to pay more, the casual buyer enticed at this price is not going to buy an exorbitantly-priced concert ticket. (The casual fan would be better off getting free access…)
Point being, are you growing fans or just another SoundScan statistic? There are not enough album sales for the SoundScan statistic to be truly meaningful. You’ve got to branch out, sell more to the tribe, your fans, who truly care. If you’ve got a fan club it shouldn’t be primarily about getting good seats to the show, but providing more of what fans truly want, communication, product and access.
Your tribe is enough to support you. As long as you have reasonable expectations. A klezmer musician may never reach 100 million people, but can sustain a career and a life, because of the passion of klezmer fans. He can’t complain that he doesn’t fly in a private jet, he must change his direction if he desires to do that. Then again, he might just have a fan who’s that rich and is willing to put his Cessna at the musician’s disposal.
It’s amazing what friends/fans will do. But they won’t do it for everybody.
Don’t collect e-mail addresses, collect FANS! Don’t spam people, don’t give people what they don’t want, it’s hard enough navigating this world of endless media. Instead, hope your music is good enough to infect fans who will spread the word for you. Not because they’re getting a reward, street teams are passe, but because they love your music and they want their friends’ lives enriched.
I know, I know, this is not how the major labels do it, this is not what they taught you in business school, you’re impatient. Well, welcome to the real world. People only need great. You’ve got to be great. And even if you are, you won’t be an overnight success. But people are looking for great, and when they find it, they tell everybody they know.
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Songwriters Will No Longer Be Paid Like They Used To
This interview with Seth Godin done by David Hooper over at Music Marketing is excellent, excellent.You know about the Tribe—right?Well, if you are making or trying to make money in the music business you should know about this new concept.Here is the link to this interview…..
Really excited about this one.In fact, it goes with what Seth is talking about in his interview.Getting in front of the microphone.So let’s do it!!!An S2S Concert Party has been booked at the Roberts Gym, IL 60962 on June 28, 2009 to coincide with the County’s Sesquicetennial.We’ve got 4 artist contracts out with 3 verbal confirmations.We are setting it up.More details in next newsletter.
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Where To Submit Your Music, Photos & Video……………………………………..
Songs2Share is in need of a new WebMaster.If you’re a whizz at web building/coding, understand how WordPress blog site works and love music, please apply.We’d like to add another feature at the website…..
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!
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.
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.
