Omaha's rise to national attention

Here's an older article about Omaha and how it was talented, nationally-recognized bands (rather than strong local support) which put that scene on the music map.

I think it confirms my contention that a local scene needs one big breakout band before outside industry people take it seriously as a scene.

eOmaha.com: You're right at home.: "Among the national signs that Omaha rocks: The most promising act in town, Bright Eyes, was featured twice in Rolling Stone magazine in recent weeks, including a four-star CD review. Another one, Azure Ray, is on tour with Moby and featured on his latest CD. And two more, the Faint and Los Desaparecidos, just got off the road with No Doubt and Jimmy Eat World, respectively.

"Time, Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times have been calling. So have major record labels.

"One visit to the city, though, and you believe the musicians' contention that it could never be like Seattle during the grunge explosion of the early '90s.

"'We don't have a lot of the perks of other, bigger music scenes,' said Conor Oberst, the 22-year-old at the forefront of Saddle Creek with Bright Eyes ...

"No radio stations in Omaha play the Saddle Creek label's kind of music, which can be generalized as edgy, frayed songwriter fare derivative of punk and '80s alternative like the Smiths and Cure.

"There is not much in the way of clubs, either. Sokol Underground is open only when a band is booked there, which isn't even a weekly thing. Before now, Omaha's best-known musical export was the New Age jazz-rock outfit Mannheim Steamroller (rap-rockers 311 have ties to the city but generally are not considered local)."

And here is some more background info:

2002: The Year in Music: "If 2002 is remembered for anything 'round these parts, it will be known as the year that Omaha -- and Saddle Creek Records in particular -- emerged as the center of the indie/emo rock world."

Make Local Music Promotional Campaigns Easy and Painless for Venues

Nashville Business Journal: "The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau is launching a new advertising and marketing campaign to brand Nashville as the home to all genres of music - country, bluegrass, contemporary Christian, jazz and more.

"Deana Ivey, senior vice president of marketing for NCVB, spoke of the campaign at a meeting of the Nashville Advertising Federation on Sept. 27. She says the multi-year 'Music Calls Us Home' campaign is an important step in the branding of Nashville, a task to which the organization has devoted much effort since it rolled out the Music City Branding initiative in 2005.

"'We've done a good job at branding Nashville as Music City," Ivey says. "But it's a double edged sword...because people think we're just country music.'"
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What I like about this campaign is that it has developed ways to promote local music which should be relatively easy for venues to buy into. Here are some of the projects that fall under the Music City Brand Initiative:
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Brand Story [of Nashville’s diverse music heritage] and Brand Tool Kit for businesses [including brand story, suggestion booklet of how to incorporate music into business, CDs, window decals, etc]

Strategic partners: Coca-Cola · Southwest Airlines · Hartmann · Tractor Supply · Jack Daniel’s · XM Satellite Radio

New Pole banners – displayed throughout the city, will now have a consistency of look

The Branding of Demonbreun Street from the Music Row Roundabout to the Schermerhorn Symphony Center as “The Music Mile”

A new Wayfinding signage program – system of signs in strategic locations around the city will assist people in finding attractions and places of interest and emphasize our musical heritage

New “Live Music Venue” signs – these signs will be offered to establishments that provide live music 4 or more days a week. (NCVB will create maps and brochures so tourists can easily navigate the city's music scene.)

The Visitor Information Center at the Gaylord Entertainment Center will be remodeled into a wireless internet café, with outdoor seating and a stage for live music

In partnership with XM Satellite Radio, a monthly live-to-tape show on XM featuring Nashville songwriters, with the working title “Music City Connection: The Heroes Behind the Hits”
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Having watched a number of good ideas related to Denver's music community fall apart because too many people criticize and not enough offer to help, I think that the initial local music scene push should come from one person or entity committed to seeing it through. Lots of people will jump on the bandwagon after there are signs of success, but initially there tend to be lots of naysayers and it's better to have a program which they cannot discourage or derail.

If restaurants can attract people, why not music venues?

I just saw this. DenverPost.com - Your table is ready: "San Francisco has a population of 791,684 and 4,375 restaurants, according to the most recent figures available. John Cohen, executive director of Durango Tourism Office, says Durango has a population of 16,000 and 100 restaurants, which means San Francisco has a restaurant for about every 180 residents to Durango's 160. ...

"In less than a decade, Durango has built a gastronomic spectrum of Japanese, Italian and French restaurants, not to mention breweries, coffeehouses, a Mediterranean restaurant and one serving Himalayan. You can dine upscale, middle-of-the-road and downscale at such places as the Durango Diner, which is very much worth finding, if only for its green chile."

While Durango does offer skiing and other outdoor activities, it's never been considered one of the premiere ski areas in the state. And it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere when it comes to nearby population:

Albuquerque 215 miles

Colorado Springs 302 miles

Denver 333 miles

Grand Junction 169 miles

Phoenix 461 miles

Santa Fe 216 miles

Salt Lake City 413 miles

I think this shows that if you offer something people want, you can bring them in. I'd like to see more music venues become visitor-friendly.

It takes a bestselling band to launch a music scene nationally

One reason for my interest in local music scenes is that I am in the midst of seeing one develop here in Colorado -- or more specifically in Denver. (Boulder has its own music scene -- mostly connected to jambands, jamgrass, and the like.)

We've been waiting for our breakthrough for a long time, and it seems to have finally happened.

According to Matt Fecher (executive director/founder of the South Park Music Festival who featured many of the up-and-coming Denver indie bands at his festival a few weeks ago) there was lots of buzz about Denver at the last week's Americana Music Association convention in Nashville.

"[The Fray] are #1 on the iTunes bestsellers this week and they've pretty much single-handedly changed the way major labels look at Denver. i.e. labels actually care about Denver bands now. This week in Nashville, everyone was talking about finding the next 'Fray'.

"They are the new gold standard for rock/pop nationwide. it's pretty much as good as it gets in that arena, saleswise."

The Fray didn't create the Denver music. It wasn't like they were developing in a vacuum. We have a wealth of talented bands right now. But what they did do, and I think this is essential to becoming a recognized scene, is to break through at a national level. A scene can have tens or even hundreds of talented bands creating great music, but until at least one of them generates national press, the scene remains a localized entity.

By definition, if at least one band doesn't break away and attract fans across the country, there is no sense that ANY band within that scene is good enough to become national. The question in everyone's mind is, "If your scene is so good, why haven't we heard more about your bands? Sure, everyone loves those bands at the local level, but do any of them have what it takes to break out? If the best of the best is still local, that's all that you have."

But once a Nirvana or Bright Eyes happens, then labels, critics, and fans start looking for more talent. One band's success can legitimize the scene. Of course, then more bands have to enter the pipeline to show that there is depth to the scene and it's not a fluke that one band made it out.

Essentially, there is more power in having one very successful national band followed by lots of bands in the next wave, than to have hundreds of great bands at the same level, but none of them having a big breakthrough.

If bands were like cyclists, they would join together as a team, and pick their strongest band to lead the charge to grab the win and then find ways to pull everyone else along.

denver music
music scene
the fray

How to Run a Club

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to know what is involved in running a music venue. The owner of DNA Lounge in San Francisco set this up. It has a blog, a list of permits that the club had to apply for, etc.

DNA Lounge: Behind the Scenes

Here is one of the blog entries to show you what you'll learn:

So, yeah, still no kitchen. This may sound familiar to those of you who were following along when we went through the permit dance four years ago. Whenever you build anything, you need a bunch of inspections, and the last one is Building, who is (also) a meta-inspection, who looks at the signatures on your job card that say that the earlier inspections were passed.

Our other inspections are finished, and the building inspector comes out, and says, "Where's your fire inspection?" Our contractor says, "Where's the checkbox that says we need a fire inspection?" The inspector says "Oh, you always need a fire inspection." (And I say, "Why didn't our contractor know that?", but that's neither here nor there.)

Then we schedule a fire inspection. Three weeks go by. The fire inspector doesn't like our sprinkler heads (we need the kind that poke out instead of the flush-mount for some reason.) That means: we need to get someone out here to change them. Three weeks. Then we need to have Fire come back. Three weeks. Then we need to have building come back. Three weeks.

And this is how we've been perpetually two months from completion for almost a year.

You can't even pipeline these visits and schedule the inspector for the day after the work is done, because half the time contractors just fail to show up, meaning now you're late and have pissed off the inspector.

Its kind of insane how much this room has cost already, given that it's basically just a hallway with three sinks and a table.

Part of the screwage here is that, for commercial space, you're required to use licensed contractors. In your home, you can just get some Time-Life books and go crazy, and as long as you do the work right, you'll pass the inspections. But you aren't allowed to DIY in a business. It's a conspiracy of some sort, specifically designed to make my life suck.

And even if you were feeling like a scofflaw, it's not like a kitchen could just "appear" one day without that being noticed...

_________________________________

Anyway, assuming our kitchen ever opens, what do you think we should serve? What would you want to eat here? Think in both categories "dinner" and "snack".

We don't have a grill, or gas, or a hood, which means we are limited to things you can make without open flame or a vat of grease: microwave, hot-plate, and toaster oven, basically. (And a majority of the food needs to be prepared on-site, for permit reasons.)

Drunk people, of course, like the grease. But putting in the kind of exhaust hood we'd need for that would have been an additional $20,000! Shoot me.

It's been incredibly frustrating around here lately; I walk around and see thing I want to fix, or improve, or just change for the sake of variety, and it all costs money that we don't have.

Market Research Has Benefits for Live Music

Live music has often been a hit-or-miss business. Promoters don't know how many people will come to a show and how much they are willing to pay. Better use of databases would help predict who is willing to pay for what.

Concert Giant Sees Cutting Prices as Ticket to Success - Los Angeles Times "'Seventy percent of people didn't go to a concert last year, and even the average concert fan only attends about two shows a year,' [CEO of Live Nation Michael] Rapino said. 'We can grow this industry by lowering prices.'...

"Rapino wants greater control over the wealth of information Ticketmaster collects about fans' likes and dislikes. He envisions expanding innovative marketing programs that, for example, identify who might fork over $100 for a vintage T-shirt. Live Nation is already starting to mine its own database to create targeted ads for upcoming concerts, and potentially to sell products such as cellphone ring tones and DVDs. ...

"'When a fan buys a ticket, we learn an enormous amount about them: What bands they like, where they live, how much they are willing to spend," Rapino said. 'Someday, a fan will be sitting in a bar and his cellphone will text message "Sonic Youth are playing tonight. Do you want to go?" He'll buy his ticket over the phone and walk to the concert.'"

More on The Antifolk Scene

On August 12, I posted a blog entry about Lach and The Antifolk Scene.

{noise:floor}: One man created a movement and a scene

I just found an older article which gives more background on how he turned a club into a scene.

Columbia Article: "The Sidewalk was once just a run-of-the-mill restaurant/bar. Lach turned the grubby back room into a club where bands play every night to a packed house. Today, that back room, or The Fort, as it is better known, is one of the bigger draws in the East Village, especially for new musicians struggling to get a foothold in the New York music scene."

The music scene (and challenges) in Raleigh, NC

An in-depth article about rock clubs in Raleigh and how they are dealing (or not dealing) with the downtown environment. It brings up issues that clubs in other towns also face.

The Independent: Music: Rock & Roll Quarterly: Raleigh rockonomics: Keep the beat: "Rock clubs aren't part of conventional city planning, but they should be, even in conservative Raleigh. Economically and culturally, these clubs power the engine of the urban culture the city says it wants to create. And the clubs in Raleigh are contributing to a Triangle-wide music scene that's one of the most innovative and successful in the country. Several of these clubs have been around for more than five years, a remarkable accomplishment for small businesses operating on slim margins. They contributed early on to the rebirth of downtown, without taxpayer-funded financial incentive packages or big promotion budgets."

More on the decline of NYC as the center of the music universe

No date on this article, but since it was referenced in the article mentioned in my previous blog entry, I would guess it is at least two years old.

Although these aren't current articles, they do document a turning point in local music scenes. At the same time that these were written about NYC, Denver, for example, was moving into its own as a creative music scene. What was disappearing in NYC was being created elsewhere. Without the Internet, it's likely that neither Denver nor Omaha could have had an impact on national music.

I used to go back and forth from Colorado to NYC as a freelance writer for a number of national magazines. (I'd write at home then head back for meetings with editors.) I found that it was to my advantage to be from somewhere else. While I didn't have day-to-day interaction with editors, I stood out because I was from a different part of the country. They were always pleasantly surprised that someone from in the middle of nowhere could carry on an intelligent conversation.

For the same reason, I have felt musicians based in Colorado have a better chance of making it than those who move away.

The New York Hipster Exodus: "...there have been times when at least the common perception has been of a city particularly infused by a breakout cultural scene: punk in the CBGB seventies, art in the Jean-Michel Basquiat eighties, and most recently the rock-music scene lorded over by homegrown bands like the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Interpol.

“'Three years ago, when all that really kicked in, it was great,' recalls Asif Ahmed, 28, manager of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. 'But things got exploited and eventually watered-down. Now the hip scenes are the nonmetropolitan places, like Omaha and Oakland.'

"He moved to Los Angeles in July.

“'In New York, it feels like everyone is a manager trying to get a piece of the action,' says Ahmed. 'Plus, there’s the threat of the Empire State Building blowing up. And the cost of living is ridiculous.'

"As with any New York tale, real estate—its price, if not its combustibility—plays a role. 'As the city gets more and more expensive,' says [John Leland, author of the recently released book Hip: The History], 'more of the riffraff—the kid that comes to New York just to get his freak on—can’t afford to live here. But those kids are an important part of keeping the city hip, and each year more of them have to go elsewhere—even if it’s only to Brooklyn.'”

Shifts from New York to elsewhere

Here's an article from two years ago talking about the decline in importance of the NYC music scene -- and the rise in other scenes around the country.

Gotham Gazette: Has The Music Scene Died In New York?:

"When Bob Dylan moved to New York to make it as a singer-songwriter, he was acknowledging something that he helped define – the city was where pioneering musicians had to be. But if Dylan were starting out today, would he stay in Minnesota?

"For decades, the city nurtured the alternative music scene and the artists who bloomed – and crashed – here, in famed locales like CBGBs, the punk club on the Lower East Side, and the corridors of the Chelsea Hotel. The names of past heroes rattle off the pierced tongues of the cognoscenti: It was here that Iggy Pop held court, here that John Cale, after studying with Aaron Copeland, settled down on Ludlow Street and formed the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed. Patti Smith dropped out of teacher’s college in New Jersey and got her start reading poetry here at St. Mark’s Church. And it is here, of course, where Dylan sets his new bestselling book Chronicles Vol. 1.

"Neither the music scene nor the music industry has completely disappeared from the city. The major music publications Rolling Stone, Spin, Punk Magazine and newcomer Blender Magazine are all based here. The major bands still routinely perform in the many music venues here. For the past 24 years, the College Music Journal Network has sponsored its annual Music Marathon in the city, unleashing 10,000 artists, professionals, fans, and even some public officials onto daytime panels and nighttime concerts at over 50 clubs and local concert halls.

"But, even panelists at the latest Music Marathon itself made it clear they do not think New York is what it used to be, thanks in part to changes in the music industry as a whole."

Why Don't People Go See Live Music?

Rarely do most venues sell out. Even in a city of hundreds of thousands of people, it can be hard to get 100-300 to show up for a show. Even if it is a free show, they probably won't come. On any given night, chances are less than 1% of the population is out listening to live music.

So what's the problem?

Some possible explanations:

1. It's not necessarily a free evening. If someone has to pay parking, gas, and/or a babysitting to come out, then there are expenses involved. You've got to factor all of that in for the cost of the evening. Find ways to reduce those costs and you may have a competitive advantage.

2. Your venue and/or entertainment may actually be turning people away. If potential customers perceive that the evening will be unpleasant, they will not come. If they don't like the music, think it is too loud, don't like the venue, and so on, they will avoid coming.

3. They don't know about you. You can have the best event ever, but if people don't know about it, they won't come. So you have to figure out how to promote it: advertising, PR, word-of-mouth, internet.

Why Do People Go See Live Music?

In order for local music scenes to survive and thrive, fans have to come to shows. In order to create venues, shows, and promotions that work, I think we need to analyze why people will seek live music as opposed to all the other ways they can spend their time and money.

Here is my list of motivations [and possible alternatives to live music]:

1. To be entertained [alternatives: recreational activities, TV, games]

2. To experience strong emotions [alternatives: theater, church, movies, sports, sex, drugs]

3. To meet potential dates or to go on a date [alternatives: bars without music, singles groups, restaurants]

4. To tell friends (e.g., how they just heard the "next big thing", how they paid big bucks to see a famous rock star, how they were hanging out with cool people) [alternatives: anything that increases the perceived status of the individual, such as MySpace, a great car, plastic surgery]

5. To feel enriched (i.e., music that makes them feel improved/educated/uplifted) [alternatives: religious services, experiencing nature, self-help groups]

6. To be in the company of other people [alternatives: social groups, business networking groups, WIFI coffee shops, hanging out with family and friends]

7. Curiosity (i.e, wanting to check out something new) [alternatives: browsing online, travel]

8. Exercise (i.e., dancing)[alternatives: sports, fitness clubs]

Thinking of starting a festival?

There's a lot of planning involved in hosting an event or festival. Here's a checklist as a place to start.

Successful Events Establish Identity: "A successful event provides the community with a deep sense of pride. When residents gather in a comfortable environment, relationships form and strengthen, providing a platform for local governments to display their value and services."

One man's music festival

Home is where the festival is - Sunday Times:"Stuck at home with young children and unable to get to gigs, Neil McKenna came up with an ingenious solution. The music lover launched his own festival.

"From humble origins five years ago, the Darvel music festival in rural Ayrshire has grown from a handful of performances by local pub bands into a 12-day event attracting more than 30 acts from around the world....

"Despite its growth spurt, McKenna, 44, and his wife, Sheila, still run the event as a labour of love. They do everything themselves, from finding sponsors to arranging the PA system and the lighting, printing programmes, organising a liquor licence, transport and accommodation.

"The couple like to make the musicians feel at home, quite literally, by offering many of them a bed for the night at their comfortable Edwardian house on the outskirts of town....

"In a smart marketing move, McKenna insists that any band signing up for Darvel cannot play Glasgow, so that fans in Scotland’s biggest city are forced to make the 30-minute drive down the M77 to see their favourite acts."

Books about event and festival management

Festival & Event Management Booklist

How indie rock scenes develop

The excerpt below is part of a review of the book, "Site and Sound: Understanding Independent Music Scenes." Holly Kruse.New York: Peter Lang, 2003. 188 pp. ISBN 0820455520.

The review author is Sean Ebare, Simon Fraser University

Canadian Journal of Communication - Vol. 29, No. 3 (2004): "Kruse observes the close association of a genre ('indie' rock or pop) and independent music scenes, noting how these musicians see themselves as part of a shared tradition of music practice constructed in opposition to, or 'refusal' (p. 117) of mainstream modalities of music production and exchange. Kruse also finds that the gendering of activities common in the mainstream commercial music industry is also partially reproduced in independent rock music scenes, despite common Romantic claims to the contrary. As well, this section introduces her critique of Bourdieu: specifically, his observation of the relative importance of 'physical space' over that of 'social space' in the social construction of identity. Kruse argues that a unique feature of independent rock music scenes is the close social relationships that are extended over a wide (national) space, a phenomenon that would diminish the importance of physical space. Yet, she also observes that physical space plays an important role in narratives of independent music scenes, with many subjects telling of 'scene-defining spaces' (p. 129), such as independent record shops and pubs.

Bank's local music program successful

Branching Out - New York Times: "Originally ... Umpqua simply planned to offer free music CD’s to people who opened new accounts; it was part of an effort to woo younger customers. The bank worked with a Portland music marketing firm called Rumblefish, which put together what has become a 214-song library of tracks by local, relatively undiscovered talent in the markets where Umpqua operates. A test run in a few markets found that the new customers who wanted a free CD of promising local artists included not just young people but, basically, everybody. The program was rolled out across the entire chain, and Umpqua even sent Rye Hollow, a Portland band, on a five-city tour; it performed at several banks, as well as at a brew pub in Chico, Calif. Earlier this year, the bank started a Web site where anybody, customer or not, can listen to clips, put together a CD and buy it. (The bank splits the proceeds with the artists.) And in July, it began selling its own curated 12-track collection, 'Discover Local Music: Vol. 1, Sacramento to Seattle,' at all Umpqua locations."

Texas Music as a Radio Format

Radio and Records: "DALLAS--A group of Texas music industry insiders joined a pair of the genre's leading artists for a discussion about the state of the music at the R&R Convention 2006. At the 'Texas Music: Boon or Bane' session, panelists generally agreed that the Texas music scene remains a vibrant country music subculture, whose artists are gaining notoriety on a national level. ...

"While panelists agreed on how the music is being defined and shared similar opinions about growth potential, opinions were evenly split as to whether Texas music is the basis of a viable, competitive format.

"Stratton and Shane Media Services' partner, Ed Shane, says it is more of an attitude and an extra ingredient for country programmers' playlists. 'We're not at the point where Texas music could be considered a format, because there's still no consensus about what defines it,' he says.

"KFWR/Ft. Worth (95.9 The Ranch) PD Rick Lovett, whose station plays primarily Texas artists in what he terms a '60-40 mix of new and gold songs,' thinks Texas music is a viable format. 'We aren't at a place where there are generally accepted parameters and definitions about what a Texas music station is, but that's the beauty of the format -- it is constantly trying to figure itself out, which keeps it vibrant and keeps the listeners engaged.'...

"Dualtone artist Deryl Dodd commented that in Texas, he can remain true to the style of country music he plays without compromise. 'I've never wanted to play clubs where I have to play covers in order to excite people. I can do that in Texas, because the fans expect originality.'"

Ontario Funds the Arts

CNW Telbec: "The three-year $7.5 million entertainment and creative cluster partnerships fund was launched today ...

"The fund will help Ontario's entertainment and creative industries grow and move into new markets by promoting new content development, innovative marketing and distribution, and skills training. The industries include film and television production, interactive digital media, music recording, commercial theatre, and magazine and book publishing. ....

"Ontario's entertainment and creative cluster contributes more than $6.7 billion to the provincial economy and generates over 36,000 jobs. The cluster includes fast-growing new media industries (e.g. digital special effects and interactive digital special effects and interactive productions like video and computer games) as well as artists, authors, musicians and filmmakers. Over the next two decades, job growth is expected to surpass most of Ontario's other thriving employment sectors."

Sarah Thornton: "Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital"

Sarah Thornton: "Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital": "Using a rich combination of methods, Thornton paints a picture of club cultures as 'taste cultures' brought together by micro-media (like flyers and listings), transformed into self-conscious 'subcultures' by niche media (like the music and style press) and sometimes recast as 'movements' with the aid of mass media (like tabloid newspaper front pages). "

Books about US Music Scenes

Regional Music Scenes from The Bomp Bookshelf

Independent music subcultures

Here's a summary of an academic paper on "independent music subcultures." You can find links to the text of the paper, plus a bibliography, if you want to dig further.

Building nothing out of something - Andrew Mall

Rolling Stone's Best College Town Music Scenes

In 2005 Rolling Stone published the book, Schools That Rock: The Rolling Stone College Guide. Here are the 10 best cities. If you go to the article, you can get more info by clicking on each city.

1. SEATTLE

2. CHAPEL HILL/RALEIGH/DURHAM, NC

3. DETROIT

4. AUSTIN

5. NASHVILLE

6. ST. LOUIS

7. SAN FRANCISCO

8. ATHENS, GA

9. MINNEAPOLIS

10. PORTLAND, OR

Buzz doesn't always carry over from one place to another

Guardian Unlimited Arts | | MySpace and the Fringe are great at creating a buzz - but when it comes to art, the mob are rarely right: "Every year, the [Edinburgh Fringe] festival throws up a handful of theatre companies and comedians who become the talk of the town. While there are critics who contribute to this, word of mouth plays a big part. Stick hundreds of thousands of festival-goers together in a small city, all of them looking for a cultural fix, and they're going to listen to recommendations from the person they sit next to in the pub or the cab driver at the hotel.

"That may create an exciting bubble of gossip and rumour during the Fringe, but it doesn't seem to be a great way to locate work that can thrive in another environment. Sadly, what we're going to see between now and Christmas - as we see every year - is artists who have been the hottest new thing at this year's festival turning up in London and finding that their shows will be met with either a lukewarm response or total crash-and-burn."

CBGB and New York Rock

Rock Is Dead, Again: "Similarly, rock may never explode again the way it did with punk in ’70s New York. Now, with the impending departure of CBGB’s, one has to wonder about the state of rock music and artist culture in the city known for its counterculture musical heroes. Who will provide a venue where up-and-coming bands can take a risk and try out new material? What is the future of rock music in this day and age of increasingly popular, soulless corporate entertainment where the focus is on profit margins instead of creativity, originality or quality?"

Music Festival Drives Web Traffic

Liverpool City Council 1801 Website proves a hit with festival-goers: "Website proves a hit with festival-goers

"Revellers at this year's Mathew Street Music Festival sent visits to the Capital of Culture website soaring.

"The Liverpool Culture Company's site www.liverpool08.com saw a 67 per cent increase in interest for the month of August, notching up record-breaking results of 107,606 visits and 56,378 visitors.

"And it appears the rise is mostly due to music lovers surfing for information about the annual four-day Mathew Street festival, organised by the Culture Company.

"A surge in activity on the site is noticeable around the start of the bank holiday with pages displaying festival listings proving the most popular for the month and four of the top five key phrases people used to find the site relating to the Mathew Street festival.

"Nearly 25,000 people also downloaded the full programme featuring a map of the city, forthcoming event highlights and further information on Liverpool 08 while pages across the site were viewed 336,736 times throughout the month....

"Around 350,000 people attended the 13th Mathew Street festival to watch 75 bands across five stages ..."

The Lainson Cycle

I just had an online conversation with someone I used to work with at eMileHigh, Brad Spirrison. He's in Chicago and just started a column for the Chicago Sun-Times. Web still getting its feet wet when it comes to attracting ads

It's about trying to turn online video in an ad-supported medium. I remarked that it feels like 1994 or 2000 all over again (I was in those "how do we make money with content" discussions both times).

Now it's 2006. So I decided I will coin the "Lainson Cycle." Just as fashion and popular culture trends get recycled every 20 years, I'll postulate that Internet ad models will boom every six years.

In 1994 I was working part-time with the Apple Media Research labs in Boulder. The Web was still a new thing, AOL was the one major online network, and much of the rest of the online world was dominated by bulletin board systems. Apple had an experiment going with OneNet, which was an international link of bulletin boards. My job was to generate content to foster traffic and discussions. I was blogging back then. We just didn't call it blogging. The person at Apple who hired me was Scott Converse, who is now CEO of ClickCaster, a company producing tools to help podcasters.

OneNet worked on the principle that you paid a set fee per month and had a generous online time allotment. AOL was still operating on the pay-by-the-hour model. Those of us at OneNet said that wasn't a good model because it discouraged people from staying online, which was essential for them to become apart of the online community.

Speking of online communities, those were around in 1993-1994 as well. I attended a conference at Apple headquarters called "Ties that Bind." All the big online community people where there, including folks from The Well (which grew out of Grateful Dead fans wanting to stay connected), OneNet, the Boulder Community Network (one of the early public online resources in the country), online gaming creators/reseachers, virtual reality pioneers, and folks like Harold Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community. (Cyberspace communities greatly predate MySpace.)

Apple decided it wanted to duplicate AOL, and dropped OneNet in support of eWorld, which was short-lived.

At any rate, when I was having discussions with the folks at Apple trying to figure out what to do with the Internet, we were looking at a three-sided model -- content, users, advertisers. The same as today.

Apple closed up OneNet, moved out of Boulder, and I went on to do market research for sports companies.

Then in 2000-2001, I got back into online stuff, writing for CyperScene, Colorado Biz Magazine, and eMileHigh. Someone I knew online from the OneNet days, and who I then met in Boulder around this time, was Christopher Locke, co-author of the ClueTrain Manifesto. He was encouraging companies to start corporate blogs so that they could better relate to their customers and put a human face on what they did.

Someone in New York that I knew back then was Jason Calacanis (Jason Calacanis's Rise From Silicon Alley Cowboy to AOL Chief -- New York Magazine). Yet another was Nancy Evans, co-founder of iVillage. I actually knew her years earlier, during the pre-Internet days when we were both writing for magazines.

When the crash came, the advertising money dried up, and there was little incentive for any of us to keep writing about the scene.

And now it is back again. We're talking online communities, just like in 1993, and how do we monetize them. We are seeing a media frenzy about online companies, just like in 2000-2001. (Why is MySpace more of a buzz than world instability?) And presumably some of the biggest stories right now will disappear when there isn't enough money to support them.

Generating enough content is never the problem. There has always been user generated content -- for as long as there has been an internet. What has been in short supply are dollars coming in to support the costs of maintaining these online communities. The money that advertisers have to put into media and the amount of money that users can spend on entertainment and to purchase the goods that advertisers want to sell is more or less finite (unless someone figures out how to generate cheap energy and the world heads into new boom times). So we are always shuffling resources from one place to another.

What do you suppose we will be looking at in 2012?

Boom Times in Jackson Hole for Art and Music

From Cowtown to Art Hub: "'Even though there has supposedly been a downturn in the economy, it hasn't affected the galleries,' said Pamela Flores, president of the Jackson Hole Gallery Association and a fine art consultant at Trailside Galleries. 'If anything, I've noticed a definite rise in street traffic.'

"As incredible as it sounds, Flores says Jackson Hole is the fifth largest art market in the country. 'It's incredible,' she said. 'If people only knew the figures of each gallery and the amount of art that went out of here...

"The trend isn't limited to the visual arts. Performing artists have been enjoying the upturn in business, too. Calder rattled off a list of nearly a dozen musicians he knew of who were making a sustainable or even comfortable living off making music full time - including himself.

"'I've been in Jackson since 1992, and I cannot remember a time that it was so cool to be a musician here,' he said. 'There are more opportunities to play, people are into different kinds of music, and there's broader variety.'"

Learning from the MidPoint Music Festival

This is a very good article about the nuts and bolts of a music festival. The 9/17/06, Enquirer - MidPoint maestros committed

The MidPoint Music Festival in Cincinnati is five years old. It started "in 2002 with 150 bands playing in 13 venues to 10,000 people, and has grown to this year's total of 17 venues with 21 stages, hosting 280-plus bands playing to an expected 60,000."

It was started by Sean Rhiney and Bill Donabedian, who still run it on a volunteer basis, along with a staff of 13 other year-round volunteers (hundreds volunteer during the festival itself). Both have day jobs. Most of the year, festival planning only takes a few hours a week. For several months leading up to the festival, it becomes a full-time job in addition to their regular work.

Among the points in the article:

1. The festival has been able to run in one area, rather than all over the city, giving them a significant advantage over other music festivals around the country. However, venues disappear, forcing them to find alternatives. "'We've lost a venue or venues every year, so in some respects it's nothing new,' says Donabedian, as Rhiney chimes in to finish his thought ...

"'We've always had contingency plans. We've always had backup venues,' he says.

"'You're dealing with the bar business, which is not the most stable. You just kinda gotta roll with it.'"

2. The festival does not have a title sponsor because there haven't been offers big enough. It runs on a $100,000 budget with just $25,000 coming from sponsors. The rest comes from ticket sales.

3. The festival stays true to its area. "Brent Grulke, [SXSW's] creative director for music, says he's aware of MidPoint and praises its founders for sticking around past the critical five-year mark.

"'There are just mountains of festivals, and a lot of people try it because it looks easy, but anybody who actually does it finds out that it's quite difficult.

"'Particularly carving a niche. Every successful event is particular to a specific place and time, and necessitates that people recognize those qualities and promote them."

"'If people didn't want to come to Cincinnati or Austin, it would be almost impossible to do a festival because you have to depend on a viable local music scene with venues. There's no way to have a successful event that doesn't start with that. It clearly works in Cincinnati because there is a huge number of music fans who will go see talent and are educated, but I can't imagine to whose advantage it would be for SXSW to take over MidPoint.

"'When we do events, we want to run them. And that's the way it should be. They know Cincinnati and we don't.'"

4. They have found ways to keep costs down. "... the organizers increasingly delegate more duties to a back-end system that runs most of its operations, with Web-based applications that automatically deal with everything from musicians' submissions to judging, invitations, scheduling, and this year, creating bio pages for the event's panelists.

"By using existing venues, the pair has been able to circumvent the costs of paying police and EMTs to be on hand during their event, a bite that dealt a financial blow to this year's debut of the Desdemona Festival on the riverfront."

The importance of "authenticity" in venues

In Denver, certain venues have become closely associated with indie rock (most notably the Hi-Dive and the Larimer Lounge). A combination of the bands that have played there and continue to play their, the dive atmosphere, and the hipster audiences, give these venues a cache that bands seek out when trying to establish and maintain their indie credentials.

This article talks about venue authenticity in reference to a famous Toronto music club.

The El Mocambo Tavern and the Toronto music scene: "Despite its illusory quality, Allan Moore argues, pop audiences feel the need to ascribe authenticity to particular artists. The same can be said of the public spaces that prove so important in the history of pop music. Just like artists, they may win or lose their credits of that strange, volatile currency that regulates their fates: authenticity. Looking deeper into this matter, Andrew Scott here analyzes the final chapter of Toronto's rock temple, the famous El Mocambo."

Music and national identity

Here's an essay on music and national identity.

Popular music policy and the articulation of regional identities. The case of Scotland and Ireland: " To put this another way, because music is ubiquitous — we cannot avoid it even if we want to — it is accepted as a kind of public property: 'our music' is something which belongs to us, whether individually or because we are members of a particular nation or community. What is available for us to hear (whether as consumers in record shops or as audiences for radio and television shows or simply as citizens at work and play) thus becomes a factor in our sense of ourselves as members of a public."

When to send out emails

I send out email announcements to both fans and media. I've pondered what day and time to send them. I try to avoid weekends, on the assumption that some people only check email during office hours. For the same reason, I try to send them out to during daytime hours, fearing that they may become buried amongst other email if they arrive in the inbox during the nighttime. Also, for fans, I usually send out an announcement no more than two or three days in advance, on the assumption that people will forget if they receive a notice too far in advance.

Here's something I found on timing tourism notices.

iMedia Connection: Case Study: Newsletter Boosts Tourism: "In order to stand out, Travel Oregon used the first newsletter to test which day of the week was best to reach potential Oregon travelers. Traditionally, the period between Tuesday and Thursday was thought to be an optimal time; last year, however, an eROI email study determined that Monday appeared to be the best day to not only send email, but also the best day to generate clicks (individual recipients clicking on links). More recent data suggest that while the best day to send email varied by industry, weekends have emerged as an optimal time to maximize clicks. Given eROIs findings, TravelOregon's communications director, Kevin Wright, decided to 'split its 70,000 subscriber list into four segments and compare response to each in order to determine the best send day for the Travel Oregon Newsletter.'"

Cultivating Communities

Here is an excerpt from a book on community building. If you want to know more about how to create a community (like a local music scene), this will give you something to think about.

Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice

1. Design for evolution.
2. Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives.
3. Invite different levels of participation.
4. Develop both public and private community spaces.
5. Focus on value.
6. Combine familiarity and excitement.
7. Create a rhythm for the community.

Advice from a music promoter

Advice from Jacob Smid, of Emerge Entertainment, which staged the Toronto V Fest.

TheStar.com - Local promoter lands the big gig: "'It's a combination of things,' Smid says. 'The first one is experience and reputation. In this business, all you have is your reputation. Until you are in a position to call someone in L.A. who will vouch for you to three of their friends, it's hard to get anyone to take your calls there.'

"Today, Emerge has five full-time employees, including Smid. Another 200 workers will be contracted for V Fest, including technicians and stagehands....

"'The reality is that once you get bigger, it gets easier,' he says. 'The hardest thing is trying to pull off a club gig by yourself. That's a lot of work. When you have a big project and you have a lot of time and you can hire people who excel at what they do, it makes it easier.'...

"Risk, however, is in the nature of the business.

"'I always say that if you took your business plan as a concert promoter to a bank, nobody would ever lend you a penny,' Smid says.

"'The risk-to-reward ratio is pretty vast. It's very easy to lose $10,000. It's very difficult to make $1,000. But if you're overly cautious, you're not going to do 80 per cent of the deals. At the end of the day, you have to have an ear for the music and a gut feeling.'"

Culture within walking distance

As part of a new $750 million residential, office and retail development in Lakewood, Colorado (built on a site that was once home to an aging shopping mall) a 11,500-square-foot creative center, with exhibition space and a lecture hall, has been established.

What appeals to me about this is the idea that a cultural center was incorporated into the planning of a new mixed-used development and is supported in part by public funds.

Art galleries and concert halls are often developed with a grand vision, but for lots of popular music, there is relatively little thought about building and integrating a venue into the fabric of the community.

9/14/06 - DenverPost.com - A new intellectual and cultural community: "The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, the newest addition to the Denver metropolitan area cultural scene, can lay claim to at least one first.

"It seems safe to say that it is the only art institution, at least one with international ambitions, to be located down the street from a Foot Locker, Jamba Juice and Victoria's Secret in a suburban retail development...

"[Said executive director Adam Lerner] 'We need to figure out ways of creating high culture in areas that are not traditionally served well by cultural institutions.'...

"Lerner estimates The Lab will have a budget of about $750,000 in its debut year. About half its funding will come from property taxes and parking-meter fees via the Plaza Metropolitan District, which was created as part of the Belmar development."

Indigenous hip-hop in Bolivia

An example of music reflecting the issues and spirit of a local culture.

9/14/06 - Toward Freedom - Rapping in Aymara: Bolivian Hip Hop as an Instrument of Struggle: "At 13,000 feet, the hip hop movement in El Alto, Bolivia is probably the highest in the world. The music blends ancient Andean folk styles and new hip hop beats with lyrics about revolution and social change....

"[Cadena] believed hip hop was becoming more popular in Bolivia because anyone can produce the music, regardless of whether or not they know how to play an instrument. 'It’s popular in poor neighborhoods where people might not have a guitar. All you need is a pen and paper. You don’t need money. You can do it anywhere. People largely identify with it in marginalized neighborhoods, where people don’t have access to music lessons or instruments.' She also said it is growing along with the current political changes all around Latin America. 'It’s part of this regional protest movement.'"

Elvis and Dolly Market Tennessee

9/14/06, KnoxNews | No Silence Here: "KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton have made Tennessee’s tourism Web site a hit on the Internet.

"The Tennessee music icons were digitally paired in a TV commercial cruising down the road in a red sports car. Elvis is behind the wheel and Dolly is talking up Tennessee.

"'Let’s pick it up a little bit, honey,“ she tells the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. 'There are all kinds of things to do in Tennessee. But, next time, let’s take the pink Cadillac.“

"State Tourism Commissioner Susan Whitaker said people around the world are interested in seeing the Presley-Parton commercial, and that’s led them to Tennessee’s Internet link supporting the state’s $12.4 billion tourism industry.

"Tennessee’s site at http://www.tnvacation.com — the only place where you can see the commercial on demand — has become one of the most popular vacation Web addresses on the Internet, ranking in the Top 10 among more than 200 million sites on Google, she said....

"So far, the number of Web visitors is up 70 percent over last year, she said."

Music biz conference will return to Austin

AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 9/13/06 - Austin lands encore for music convention: "The convention that brought 20,000 music industry professionals to town in July will do an encore in Austin next year and in 2008.

"The International Music Products Association had planned to move the event to Indianapolis next summer.

"'When all was said and done, Austin delivered the right combination of facilities and after-hours entertainment,' said Scott Robertson, spokesman for the association. 'People came out of the show really charged about Austin as a destination for our industry.'...

"The decision is a big win for the city's convention business. Summer is typically a slow time for conventions, so the music products show is especially attractive. The July gathering generated an economic impact of $20 million, according to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The event allows 500 exhibitors to show off new products, from instruments to sheet music. Conference-goers attend seminars by day and hit Sixth Street by night.

"'It's a great piece of summer business, and it's a good fit,' said Roy Benear, senior vice president of the convention bureau. 'To have a show about music in a city that's all about music, does it get any better?'

"The convention was Austin's second-largest trade show this year after South by Southwest."

Converting churches to music venues

The Wall Street Journal (August 30, 2006) had an article about how Church of Christ, Scientist in Yakima, Washington was purchased and became the Seasons Music Festival. WSJ.com - When Churches Convert to Arts Venues

"The acoustical properties and central locations of old sanctuaries often make them ideal concert halls, but converted churches and synagogues find other performance uses as well. Across the Cascade Mountains from Yakima, Seattle's Town Hall, another decommissioned Christian Science church, functions as a cultural kaleidoscope. ...

"A few of the dozens of other church-to-performance-hall conversions:

• In Eugene, Ore., a massive former Baptist church houses the Shedd Institute's three performance halls, two dance studios, library and an array of community meeting rooms.

• The Old Church in Portland, Ore., held Calvary Presbyterians upon its founding in 1882, then Baptists until its declining membership had to put it on the market. Rescued from oblivion by community action in 1967, it became a performance hall presenting everything from writer seminars to concerts by Tuvan throat singers.

• Since 1992, the First Congregational Church of St. Louis, built in 1884, has led a new life as the Grandel Theatre.

• In New Haven, Conn., the Yale Repertory Theatre is in what was the Calvary Baptist Church.

• In British Columbia, the Victoria Conservatory of Music has two concert halls in the former Metropolitan United Church, built in 1894. The conservatory took over the church in 2000."

Saving old movie theaters

This article talks about how to save several classic Houston movie theaters.

HoustonChronicle.com - Eight ways to save Alabama, River Oaks theaters

The Boulder Theater, which was referenced in the previous blog entry, books a diverse group of events, which may be one answer.

Boulder Theater calendar

And here is a website devoted to saving historic Michigan theaters.

A music venue as a community resource

I just got into an online discussion about a venue in Boulder. It isn't open every night of the week. It's available for concerts, to rent for private parties, and as a movie theater. It is also the home venue for "eTown," the nationally syndicated radio show that is taped there.

The other person suggested that it is underbooked and surely the venue owners don't want that.

Personally, I'm not sure the goal is to have it open every night. By opening the venue only when there is a suitable event, the owner can keep variable costs to a minimum.

And by being primarily a music/community auditorium (with beverage service on the side and food only when it is catered) rather than a food/drink venue with music on the side, I think the result is a much better entertainment experience.

This gives some background on the Boulder Theater. "[In 1995] when it looked as though potential buyers might turn the Boulder Theater into a brew pub or pool hall or--worse still--office space, Doug Greene stepped in and paid $1.725 million for the 1,000-seat landmark, turning it into an unofficial community center that today hosts everything from concerts to debates to conferences for this Colorado city of 96,000 residents."

As you can see, the owner, who runs a variety of businesses, got it for less than $2 million about 11 years ago. There are condos going for that in downtown Boulder these days. I don't think the owner ever intended to keep the place fully booked, nor does he need to.

If you go to the Boulder Theater website, you'll see that the venue was purchased to be a resource/meeting place for the community -- not a rock club.

"New Hope Communications, purchased the theater in 1995, with plans to operate it primarily as an entertainment venue, while also bringing in non-musical and community events. Recent renovations have expanded the Boulder Theater's capabilities as a multi-use facility. It has featured top acts such as Tori Amos, Blues Traveler, Branford Marsalis and Johnny Cash, some of which have performed on E-Town, the nationally syndicated radio show that makes it's home at the theater. The versatility of the Boulder Theater makes it perfect for events ranging from meetings and conferences to live theater, private parties and concerts. Classic in design, with prime sound and an impressive tradition of the best in entertainment, the Historic Boulder Theater unites the past with the future in one exceptional space."

Similarities between concert promotion and running a restaurant

Jesse Morreale, who was a partner in Denver's Nobody In Particular Presents, talks about the similarities between concert promotion and being in the restaurant business, which is now his main focus.

If more bars and restaurants would think more like concert promoters, local live music venues might be more profitable.

Pollstar, 9/9/06 - From Concerts To RockBar: "'Nothing's harder than concerts,' he said. 'What I realized, after focusing on the club and then getting Mezcal open, is that there really isn't that much difference between doing concerts or having a nightclub or doing a restaurant.

"'It's about promotions and managing a venue. The only difference between the restaurants and the club and concerts is I'm promoting the same thing consistently, trying to figure out new ways to do it and keep the promotions fresh. With concerts, it was trying to figure out the marketing campaign for a different, specific thing each time,' Morreale said.

"'It's all promotions, marketing and managing people, costs, and labor.'"

More about the history of the South Park Music Festival

westword.com | Music | The Hills Are Alive: "A native of Indianapolis who grew up playing in hardcore bands and promoting shows, [Matt Fecher] reached for the brass ring when he decided to launch the inaugural South Park Music Festival in 2004. Several years earlier, Fecher's family had relocated to Fairplay from Indiana ... When Fecher's mom heard that the town was talking about putting together a festival, she alerted her son, then working as the co-executive director of the Midwest Music Summit and helping oversee IndianapolisMusic.net. Fecher volunteered his services that first year.

"'The town handled the back end of everything and let me book all the bands and do some promotions,' he recalls, 'so it was kind of a joint partnership with the town. Then it was kind of like, ŒHey, this could be for real.' There was a whole new staff of people, a new mayor and a new town clerk. So we put together a proposal for me to put on a festival in the town, and it seemed to work out last year and this year. There's still a major interface with the town, through the town clerk. They're still very, very supportive.'"

UK Liquor companies can target younger music audiences

Southern Comfort to target 18-24s with Mardi Gras push - Brand Republic: "The Lounge said campaign, called 'The Spirit of New Orleans Project', which will run from September to March 2007, will target 18- to 24-year-olds with drinks promotions and tasters, bar staff training and 'brand heritage sessions'. ...

"James Layfield, managing director of The Lounge, said: 'Experiential marketing is one of the best ways to increase understanding by engaging the audience, because it generates invaluable word-of-mouth between the target markets.'"

Branding Santa Monica

The town of Santa Monica wants to brand itself. The site provides a very good look at how to develop a destination branding campaign.

The campaign doesn't mention music as part of the strategy, but music immediately comes to mind for me. The first thing I think of when I say Santa Monica to myself is Sheryl Crow's song, "All I Wanna Do"

All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard

The second thing that comes to mind is the Hotel California. I stayed there a few years ago on a trip to LA with a musician friend who playing a number of gigs in the area. While it's the Beverly Hills Hotel that the Eagles featured on their album cover, Santa Monica's Hotel California has been there for more than 50 years. It's a charming funky hotel right on the beach

So in my mind, Santa Monica already has an image, and it is music-related.

Chicago overflowing with arenas

There really isn't too much to be gleaned from this article other than the fact that the various venue operators/promoters see opportunities to slice up the market by location, size of venue, and type of seating (indoor versus outdoor). I suppose if Chicago can drum up enough fan interest to support all of these venues, that's a good sign for other cities and for the music business in general.

Daily Herald, 9/5/06 -The Chicago rockopoly: Suburbs roll the dice with new music arenas : "During the past seven years, despite increasingly tepid national concert sales, six new arenas have opened or have been slated for construction within a 30-mile radius of Chicago. Each venue - including the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Toyota Park in Bridgeview and a possible Poplar Creek replacement - seats more than 7,000 and each expects to host six to eight large-name music acts next year.

"This trend looks only to expand an already vibrant urban and suburban music market that's populated by nine arena-sized venues, among them the 21,000-seat United Center in Chicago and the 30,000-seat First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre in Tinley Park.

"That means more than 250,000 seats for concertgoers when all venues build out, enough for everyone in Elgin and Naperville to rock out at once."

Music festival sponsorship in the UK

Here's an article which talks about the increasing popularity of music festival sponsorship in the UK. This quote below raises the interesting question as to whether it is better to sponsor sports or music.

Having spent quite a bit of time in sports marketing, I would say that it really depends on the target market. Sports sponsorships have been a popular way to reach male audiences, and I don't think that has changed.

What has changed is that more and more sports are being tainted by scandals, and some are simply boring to watch when compared for other forms of entertainment.

The category of sports sponsorship I am still very much in favor of is action sports: a young demographic, no links to steroid use, lots of free-form competitions which lend themselves well to creative sponsorships, and more acceptance of female athletes as equal participants. Plus music is often closely tied to these events, so you can simultaneously sponsor music and sports.

Business | How the summer rock festivals became one big branded beer tent: "During the 1990s, the heart of Carling's sponsorship strategy lay in football, helping it increase beer sales from 2m barrels a year to 3m. After 2000 it switched its focus to music and now sells 5.7m barrels a year. "

Who watches YouTube?

Lots of local musicians and fans have posted videos to YouTube. Whether or not you think your demographic frequents YouTube, there are still good reasons to use it: Free video hosting. If you host videos of your event on your own website, you'll most likely be billed for the extra bandwidth used to broadcast them. You might as well host them on YouTube and then provide a link on your own site.

Here's a bit of info on who watches YouTube, from a 8/30/06 Wall Street Journal article republished here: Portals: Will all of us get our 15 minutes on YouTube?: "Johan Pouwelse, a Delft professor who helped develop a peer-to-peer, video-sharing technology at Delft called Tribler (one that he says could help YouTube cut down on bandwidth costs), reports that 70 percent of YouTube's registered users are American and roughly half are under 20 years of age.

"The oldest active viewer apparently is geriatric1927, a 79-year old U.K. resident who sits at his PC in his study with headphones on and narrates memories of World War II. Ernie Rogers, a 23-year old from Colton, Calif., whose handle is 'lamo1234,' has watched more YouTube videos than anyone. ...

"The most devoted uploader is Christy Leigh Stewart, a 21-year-old college student who lives near Modesto, Calif., and who has so far uploaded nearly 2,000 videos. Nearly all involve Korean pop music, a passion of Ms. Stewart. Indeed, she says the main reason she spends to much time with YouTube is to drive traffic to hwaiting.net, a Korean-oriented Web site she runs with her friend Megan Hansen."

Using MySpace to market your community

Here is an article about how companies are creating personalities on MySpace to promote their products. USATODAY.com, 8/30/06 - Marketers get their mascots in on action at MySpace

A number of people have also created personalities to promote a city or a state. The first one I came across was this: Denver on MySpace

Most of the city or state personalities have been created by individuals with no official association with a tourism or promotion group. But a group could do it as well.

You can, of course, just put up a legitimate association MySpace page. But the personality pages can be fun if you can do them entirely in character. And to do that, generally either something funny or very sincere seems to work best.

Here's a list of brands on MySpace for ideas: Minds @ Organic: Brands on MySpace

A CD tour of your town

Members of the Duluth historical and tourism commmunities have created a CD, "Exploring Historic Duluth: 1870-1920," that can played in the car giving visitors a guided tour of town highlights.

The project hasn't been a rousing success yet, but the concept could be applied to music venues in a location. And rather than selling CDs, they could be sponsored (perhaps by the venues themselves) and then given away for free to visitors (perhaps at local hotels).

Duluth News Tribune, 9/2/06 - Tourism CD draws on Duluth's rich history: "It's low-budget: The CD cost $8,500 to produce, with $5,000 of that coming from a Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation grant. The Visit Duluth tourism office dedicated another $5,000 for marketing.

"But it's also slick: Producer Steve Horner recorded turn-of-the-last-century music behind Buehler's narration. And voice actors, all of them volunteers, portrayed pioneer newspaper editors, early settlers, Duluth's first mayor (Joshua B. Culver) and others who tell stories of the old buildings during 27 stops. ...

"The disc, according to Anna Tanski, the sales director for Visit Duluth, was intended to 'enhance the culture- and heritage-tourism experience in Duluth, to introduce people to Duluth's history.'The product certainly accomplishes that.

"'It wasn't really intended to be a big revenue generator,' she said.

"And so far, it hasn't been. About 150 copies of the $12 CD sold this summer. Even if the entire printing of 1,000 sells out, the revenue still would fall short of the investments made to produce and advertise the disc.'

"And that's OK, according to Tanski: 'Just getting it completed was a success. Hearing and seeing people taking the tour is a success.'"

Concert halls as an economic driver

The New York Times reports that five North American cities have unveiled new concert halls this fall, including Costa Mesa, CA; Nashville; Toronto; and Miami. In recent years Philadelphia; North Bethesda, Md.; Fort Worth; and Omaha have already done so. Altanta hopes to do so.
In Cities Across the United States, It's Raining Concert Halls, 9/3/06: "As concert halls have evolved into multipurpose destinations — complete with chic restaurants, bars and the inevitable education centers — local officials and business leaders have come to view them as a chance to revive a downtown or add luster to their city. Orchestra administrators see a draw for new audiences and a means of raising their group’s profile. Music directors envision a platform to artistic greatness. Orchestra members hear wonderful new acoustics. The music-loving public looks forward to more and better concerts.

“'There’s a sense that a concert hall can truly enrich a community,' said Deborah Borda, the president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. ...

"A look at how the new halls came into being reveals a pattern.

"An orchestra outgrows its old multipurpose hall. A powerful person steps up with drive and money. The planners woo local officials and donors. A celebrity architect is engaged. A large public relations firm begins an expensive campaign trumpeting the architectural and acoustic glories of the new hall."