Category Archives: Music Biz

How Technology Is Transforming & Challenging The Live Performing Arts: Ben Cameron Speaks At TED

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In this TED talk, Ben Cameron, who is Director, Arts, at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, talks about the state of the live arts and questions whether or not they can compete with the always-on Internet. He is immensely passionate about the professional performing arts and worries that they are being endangered and possibly even dismantled by technology. Within the whirlwind of 3 to 5,000 marketing messages that the typical consumer is battered with every day, he fears that the promotions for the live arts are being down out completely.

Worse still, Cameron argues that the biases of the web towards instant and anytime gratification have positioned the appeal of the arts to be inconvenient.

With consumers habituated to the notion that they can watch their favorite shows anytime they want and purchase things—having them directly shipped to their door—how are the live arts supposed to convince them to continue buying tickets in advance and to show up at a time and date that are ill-timed for their schedule?

These expectations of modern consumerism have conditioned people and have, in turn, raised the bar to a point that the live arts simply can’t meet, because they still come with a $100 ticket and set-times—that can’t be changed or TiVoed.

As well, he talks in length about the evolution of cultural intuitions and outlines how technology is reshaping the difference between the professional artist and the amateur. This is fantastic talk and it’s not to be missed: Continue reading →

The recording industry association’s media war, What’s your take on it?

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recording industry association 252x300 The recording industry associations media war, Whats your take on it?

The recording industry association’s media war!

Ever notice that there is a constant struggle between the recording industry association and the people who help keep them alive ( aka paying customers). The movie and recording industry association are the only businesses that seem to attack their customer base with lawsuits and are trying to block people’s use of media. How do you see it?

Copying music etc. is nothing new. For decades people with recorders made music available to everyone. If some one liked a particular tune they heard they can very easily record it and pass it along to their friends. Back in the day who’s to stop someone from recording a movie by setting up two VCRs and dubbing it. And now with new digital technology one can spread the media even easier and to a broader group of people over the internet.

Sharing is part of human nature. I can remember when I read a good book I would loan it to a friend or family member. The other day I had a great pizza at a restaurant now who’s going to stop me from recommending this pizza to someone. If we hear a good song we may want to share it with friends who you think will enjoy it. Millions of people do it every day and the recoding industry association hates it.

The recording industry has taken ridiculous steps to combat the sharing of media. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with companies protecting themselves from theft but I think they took their fight too far. We basically have no freedom over the products we purchase. Check out what the recording industry’s done for you.
The recording industry sued thousands of regular people for downloading music.
They even sued a single mother for downloading a bunch of music.
They claim they lost millions in sales but never mention anything about how much they loose when people buy used Cd’s or buy discs from garage sales it’s impossible to really come up with a number how can they justify this.
Youtube is now muting background music which is copyrighted.
So what this boils down to is that the recoding industry owns the content, you don’t regardless if you paid your hard earned money for the music or video. You could be sued for up to ten times what the stuff is worth. If you want to copy a tune you purchased tough S**t. You;’re breaking the law.

The recording industry is complaining about how much they are losing through file sharing but the blame isn’t exclusively on file sharing. How much are they losing when someone sells a CD at a garage sale or flea market. I know for myself a friend saw one of my CD’s at a garage sale and I made nothing on that sale but I got my name out there to someone who may not have heard of my band. It’s impossible to place blame on just the down loaders alone. Yet the recording industry is deliberately suing and judgments are passed with no real proof of the claims against people who are being dragged into court.
Only in America are there harsher penalties for illegally downloading music than robbing a bank.
Unfortunately this is the way it is right now. The recording industry is waging a war against you. What’s your take on it?

Taking Unpaid Gigs and what’s exposure.

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Gigs 246x300 Taking Unpaid Gigs and whats exposure.

Musicians get calls to play unpaid gigs all the time  for parties, benefit gigs or fundraisers, jazz gigs or rock gigs and even venues that are having like 5 bands playing and you get to play a 30 minute set. They say you can pass out cards and get comped drinks and maybe sell merchandise in the corner of the venue.

So what do you do? Do you take the unpaid gigs? I know for me if I take an unpaid gig and its a benefit I make sure that everyone is donating their time equally. The musicians are often asked to play for free for EXPOSURE but I think that’s BS.

I’ve seen many times the musicians are asked to play for free but the sound guys are getting paid and the food vendors or catering are getting paid so everyone except the musicians are getting paid. What’s Up With That?

There are 2 kinds of Exposure General and Specific.
This is an excerpt from an article by David Hahn at MusicianWages.com

Definition of general exposure:
There will be a room full of people, and there will be you. You will play your music. It will travel through the air between you and the people, and the people will hear this music. In this way you will expose yourself to these people, and it’s conceivable that they will care one way or another.

Definition of specific exposure:

There will be a room full of people that love the kind of music you play. They will resemble your target audience in every way possible. You will play your music and they will listen to your music. It’s very likely that many of them will want to know more about you, sign up for your email list and maybe buy an album.

I think musicians would die from exposure. After all most musicians have spent countless hours practicing and purchase expensive equipment and perhaps spent many thousands of dollars on a music school degree to play for nothing.

Leave comments here.. let me know what you think or should do about this and if you wanna read the entire article by David Hahn click on the link above to read on.

A Booking strategy that works!

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Getting your band booked in the local club scene can be a challenging task to say the least.  It’s hard enough to get your email or press pack noticed by the club booker, but once you get your foot in the door, there are still numerous factors that can dictate whether or not you actually get a gig.  It’s time to get strategic!  Here is a strategy you can use to greatly increase your odds of getting the gig all the while making the club booker happy! Read About The Strategy Here

If your band is an opening act then read this!

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I read this great post by Glenn Boothe owner of the Local 506 and 250 capacity venue in Chapel Hill NC. Glenn also worked for Island Records, Epic Records, Caroline Records and Sony Music Distribution.
He talks about the etiquette musicians should adhere to when their the opening act somewhere. I found this to be really right on. He talks about the band’s role in providing entertainment to early arrivals and helping the venue attract more bodies. One thing I think musicians should think about when booking as an opening act is to Plan Ahead and make sure that all details are worked out way ahead of time. Read More