More and more local communities are developing mini-SXSW's. Here's Nashville's.
Next Big Nashville: "Q&A with NBN creator and producer Jason Moon Wilkins: Q: What is the purpose of the event? A: 'The inaugural NBN was conceived and executed in three and a half weeks in 2006 as a way to celebrate what was a banner year for Nashville's rock/pop/indie community. It was originally meant to be just a one-night party, but it quickly grew into a three-day festival that drew nearly three thousand people. Obviously, this year has expanded exponentially, which is a reflection of how dynamic Nashville's music scene is at the moment. The basic reasoning behind it was that it seemed like we needed an event like this and the artists, the industry and the city as a whole have overwhelmingly agreed with that assessment. It's a truly exciting time to be a part of the music community in Nashville and to be living in such a vibrant and growing city. More than anything else, I wanted to build an event that echoed that excitement. Nashville is evolving and expanding beyond its former image into something more cosmopolitan and eclectic but still decidedly southern and I wanted to create a musical reflection of that.'
Is this a showcase/industry event or a public festival?
A: "It's both. It's an easy 'one stop shop' for any out-of-town or in-town industry professional interested in what is happening in Nashville's music scene at the moment. It's also a chance to showcase the growing community of industry professionals who work outside the Music Row mainstream but whose work helps tie Nashville to the international arena. And it's an opportunity for Nashville music fans to see their favorite acts play together in a festive and communal atmosphere and hopefully to be introduced to their new favorite band along the way.""
Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Is this a good scene?
Here is a review of an underground music festival in Baltimore. I'm not really sure if it is meant to be a good review or not. You decide.
Pitchfork Feature: Live: Whartscape Music Festival: "But enthusiasm is one of the only real unifying factors at Whartscape: Performers ranged from the folk and lo-fi beats of Lizz King (who hopped around on a sprained ankle as big as an orange) to the shoegaze synth-punk of Videohippos (who played in front of three projection screens) to West Coast spazz legends xbxrx to, well, a band like Santa Dads, who wallowed in a 20-minute prog-folk number with a whole faux-liturgy to go along with it; it was like a nursery school doing a rock opera. Dig a stroke deeper though, and the connections are clear: Baltimore's foreboding landscape and rotted-out, no-bubble depression is just the place for a bunch of wayward kids in neon avoiding the bodice of career, pulling shifts at Whole Foods between their self-directed studies in the occult. The filmmaker Jimmy Joe Roche, who screened videos on Friday night, told the Baltimore blog Butter Team, 'The wizards of Baltimore and Wham City deal powerful magic, we'll need it soon, the dawn of this post-postmodern age is upon us.'
There's no sense of cool, there's no spiritual sobriety. There are a lot of very bright colors. There are machines modified to blare industrial light at changes in synthesizer frequency. "
Pitchfork Feature: Live: Whartscape Music Festival: "But enthusiasm is one of the only real unifying factors at Whartscape: Performers ranged from the folk and lo-fi beats of Lizz King (who hopped around on a sprained ankle as big as an orange) to the shoegaze synth-punk of Videohippos (who played in front of three projection screens) to West Coast spazz legends xbxrx to, well, a band like Santa Dads, who wallowed in a 20-minute prog-folk number with a whole faux-liturgy to go along with it; it was like a nursery school doing a rock opera. Dig a stroke deeper though, and the connections are clear: Baltimore's foreboding landscape and rotted-out, no-bubble depression is just the place for a bunch of wayward kids in neon avoiding the bodice of career, pulling shifts at Whole Foods between their self-directed studies in the occult. The filmmaker Jimmy Joe Roche, who screened videos on Friday night, told the Baltimore blog Butter Team, 'The wizards of Baltimore and Wham City deal powerful magic, we'll need it soon, the dawn of this post-postmodern age is upon us.'
There's no sense of cool, there's no spiritual sobriety. There are a lot of very bright colors. There are machines modified to blare industrial light at changes in synthesizer frequency. "
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The blurring of genres
Bang on a Can - Music - Review - New York Times, 6/5/07: "When Bang on a Can was founded, the purpose was to provide a home for music by Mr. Gordon, Mr. Lang, Ms. Wolfe and their colleagues: an eclectic post-Minimalism that openly acknowledged an indebtedness to rock, jazz and a variety of world-music idioms. Two decades later these composers still haven’t entirely entered the concert-music mainstream. Still, this year’s marathon indicated that they may have achieved something even more meaningful.
It wasn’t just that contemporary-classical adherents shared space with alt-rock fans here. Rather, what seemed clear was that Bang on a Can has played a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries among new-music composition, the pianist Vijay Iyer’s sophisticated modern jazz, the Uzbek folk ensemble Mashriq’s eloquent meditations and innovative post-rock experimentation from groups like he Books, Clogs and D�lek. The prevailing tone was that if music is made with originality and integrity, these listeners will come."
It wasn’t just that contemporary-classical adherents shared space with alt-rock fans here. Rather, what seemed clear was that Bang on a Can has played a central role in fostering a new kind of audience that doesn’t concern itself with boundaries among new-music composition, the pianist Vijay Iyer’s sophisticated modern jazz, the Uzbek folk ensemble Mashriq’s eloquent meditations and innovative post-rock experimentation from groups like he Books, Clogs and D�lek. The prevailing tone was that if music is made with originality and integrity, these listeners will come."
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Creating a music promotion business from the ground up
How a college student went from club booker to full-time music promoter.
Promoter helps rock scene thrive - Chico Music Guide, 5/16/07: "Devil Kat Rock Productions founder Katie Perry has always been passionate about music, but it wasn't until she moved from Redding to Chico to attend college that she found her ardor for music promotion.
'I love rock 'n' roll,' Perry said. 'I honestly think I would be entirely lost if I didn't do this.'
Perry is a music promoter who promotes, stage-manages and books various music talents, both local and national, to perform in Chico and Redding. Since starting in 2002, she has had a full calendar of shows. On top of her 40-hour-a-week day job, she pumps out another 30 to 50 hours under her alter ego Devil Kat Rock Productions....
'Having shows is like rolling the dice, I really don't know how many people are going to come,' she said. 'Some people are going to talk shit and critique - telling me how I should do things - these people are generally the ones that don't get off their asses and do something.'"
Promoter helps rock scene thrive - Chico Music Guide, 5/16/07: "Devil Kat Rock Productions founder Katie Perry has always been passionate about music, but it wasn't until she moved from Redding to Chico to attend college that she found her ardor for music promotion.
'I love rock 'n' roll,' Perry said. 'I honestly think I would be entirely lost if I didn't do this.'
Perry is a music promoter who promotes, stage-manages and books various music talents, both local and national, to perform in Chico and Redding. Since starting in 2002, she has had a full calendar of shows. On top of her 40-hour-a-week day job, she pumps out another 30 to 50 hours under her alter ego Devil Kat Rock Productions....
'Having shows is like rolling the dice, I really don't know how many people are going to come,' she said. 'Some people are going to talk shit and critique - telling me how I should do things - these people are generally the ones that don't get off their asses and do something.'"
Happenings in Baltimore
This is an excerpt from a long article on an art/music collective, its performance space, and how it gave rise to much of the current indie music scene in Baltimore. It's quite a good profile of how a group of friends can have a significant impact on a community.
Feature: Wham City Doesn't Want To Take Over The World--But It Just Might Anyway | 5/16/2007 | Citypaper.com: "... Wham City was a rented industrial loft space squatting somewhere between Mount Vernon and Charles Village. (Its members have requested we don't divulge the exact location in print.) In its first incarnation, it was often filled with garbage. Smashing plates in a sink with a baseball bat was a popular activity when bored. But especially after it moved one floor upstairs in the same building, it was a crucial local space for "music shows, variety shows, TV talk shows, video productions, theatrical productions, lecture series, potluck dinners, photo shoots, fashion shows, [and] dance parties" in the words of Wham City member Adam Endres. Wham City united many young people in the Baltimore art and music scenes who maybe didn't even know they needed uniting
In fact, the Wham City collective is but one spiky tip of a massive, tangled ball of creativity currently lurking just under Baltimore's liquor-licensed layer of legit bars and venues, galleries, and theaters. Bands are multiplying like sui generis bunnies in little warrenlike warehouses all over the city, and they're being formed by folks either too young to be squatting and making a racket five years ago, or not even living in the city, or both. These bands do intersect occasionally with the city's longstanding free improvisation/noise crews, but with their vestigial connections to punk rock and their continual reification/recycling of the pop-cultural junk they grew up on, they're not really experimentalists. They're making pop music that bends at various wonky, acute angles.
And though the music is the loudest and most obvious manifestation of all this energy, you can feel it in everything from local T-shirt designers to zine makers to video artists to sculptors to performance-art shenanigans yet to be named. More often than not, they're the same kids in the bands. Wham City has been, if not quite at the center of all this attention, certainly a central node.
Since you can hum along to some of it, the indie-music world outside Charm City is taking note of Baltimore's young underground. National media outlets have started to glom onto Wham City and its satellites as another installment of the Baltimania that's given us a hundred half-assed articles on club music and The Wire in the last 18 months. Just a week ago, Deacon was featured in the The New York Times, where he was hilariously described as a 'sensitive electro-party rocker.' Baltimore bands recently swarmed the annual South by Southwest music industry clusterfuck in Austin, Texas; Deacon played no less than five shows that weekend.
Locally, evidence of this explosion is increasingly easy to find on the records released by labels such as Wildfire Wildfire, Creative Capitalism, and recent Washington transplant Carpark (which is sucking up Baltimore bands at a quick clip); at exhibitions and performances at Current Gallery; at the biweekly Are We Not Men? dance party at the Depot; at the Talking Head club until its closure; at shows in the artist-riddled H&H Building; at house parties and one-off loft gatherings; at Baltimore institutions of 'high' culture like the Walters Art Museum; and at Wham City itself, until recently. See, all this celebration comes at a strange time, because Wham City, as it was, is no more.
All illegal venues live on borrowed time; last September--after a string of shows plagued by assholes pulling fire alarms, smashing windows, and setting fires--Wham City was forced to stop holding shows following alleged complaints by the fire marshal to the building's management and threats of eviction from the building's owner. The collective rallied and is hunting for a new, potentially legit, space, but at the moment there's a feeling that the local arts community has lost something important just as its intensity is peaking.'...
The collective initially formed around six friends, but its ranks have swelled to include anywhere from 16 to 24 people in Baltimore, and 11 of them are here today. It's two days before everyone has to be out of the building for good....
Stranded in a city where they knew almost no one, the Purchase kids developed a drunken bunker mentality, holed up in the space that would become Wham City with no phones, blowing what little money they had at the local liquor store, and destroying personal property when boredom threatened.... [But, as the article explains, things got better.]
The past six months alone have already seen a Wham City theater night, a cross-country tour, sundry live shows around town (and their attendant poster art), two episodes of in-house talk show The Ed Schrader Show, several records released by various WC-related bands, a gallery exhibition, a museum showcase, various videos, two issues of Catatac (a traditionally folded-and-stapled zine published by Kate Levitt, Mark Brown, and Kevin Sherry that's full of contributions from Wham members), and a bunch of stuff not yet ready for prime-time consumption. "I know of at least two board games that are being developed," Connor Kizer says. Sure, not all of it needs to be documented, but the irrepressible, overwhelming mass of stuff that Wham City churns out is always impressive."
Feature: Wham City Doesn't Want To Take Over The World--But It Just Might Anyway | 5/16/2007 | Citypaper.com: "... Wham City was a rented industrial loft space squatting somewhere between Mount Vernon and Charles Village. (Its members have requested we don't divulge the exact location in print.) In its first incarnation, it was often filled with garbage. Smashing plates in a sink with a baseball bat was a popular activity when bored. But especially after it moved one floor upstairs in the same building, it was a crucial local space for "music shows, variety shows, TV talk shows, video productions, theatrical productions, lecture series, potluck dinners, photo shoots, fashion shows, [and] dance parties" in the words of Wham City member Adam Endres. Wham City united many young people in the Baltimore art and music scenes who maybe didn't even know they needed uniting
In fact, the Wham City collective is but one spiky tip of a massive, tangled ball of creativity currently lurking just under Baltimore's liquor-licensed layer of legit bars and venues, galleries, and theaters. Bands are multiplying like sui generis bunnies in little warrenlike warehouses all over the city, and they're being formed by folks either too young to be squatting and making a racket five years ago, or not even living in the city, or both. These bands do intersect occasionally with the city's longstanding free improvisation/noise crews, but with their vestigial connections to punk rock and their continual reification/recycling of the pop-cultural junk they grew up on, they're not really experimentalists. They're making pop music that bends at various wonky, acute angles.
And though the music is the loudest and most obvious manifestation of all this energy, you can feel it in everything from local T-shirt designers to zine makers to video artists to sculptors to performance-art shenanigans yet to be named. More often than not, they're the same kids in the bands. Wham City has been, if not quite at the center of all this attention, certainly a central node.
Since you can hum along to some of it, the indie-music world outside Charm City is taking note of Baltimore's young underground. National media outlets have started to glom onto Wham City and its satellites as another installment of the Baltimania that's given us a hundred half-assed articles on club music and The Wire in the last 18 months. Just a week ago, Deacon was featured in the The New York Times, where he was hilariously described as a 'sensitive electro-party rocker.' Baltimore bands recently swarmed the annual South by Southwest music industry clusterfuck in Austin, Texas; Deacon played no less than five shows that weekend.
Locally, evidence of this explosion is increasingly easy to find on the records released by labels such as Wildfire Wildfire, Creative Capitalism, and recent Washington transplant Carpark (which is sucking up Baltimore bands at a quick clip); at exhibitions and performances at Current Gallery; at the biweekly Are We Not Men? dance party at the Depot; at the Talking Head club until its closure; at shows in the artist-riddled H&H Building; at house parties and one-off loft gatherings; at Baltimore institutions of 'high' culture like the Walters Art Museum; and at Wham City itself, until recently. See, all this celebration comes at a strange time, because Wham City, as it was, is no more.
All illegal venues live on borrowed time; last September--after a string of shows plagued by assholes pulling fire alarms, smashing windows, and setting fires--Wham City was forced to stop holding shows following alleged complaints by the fire marshal to the building's management and threats of eviction from the building's owner. The collective rallied and is hunting for a new, potentially legit, space, but at the moment there's a feeling that the local arts community has lost something important just as its intensity is peaking.'...
The collective initially formed around six friends, but its ranks have swelled to include anywhere from 16 to 24 people in Baltimore, and 11 of them are here today. It's two days before everyone has to be out of the building for good....
Stranded in a city where they knew almost no one, the Purchase kids developed a drunken bunker mentality, holed up in the space that would become Wham City with no phones, blowing what little money they had at the local liquor store, and destroying personal property when boredom threatened.... [But, as the article explains, things got better.]
The past six months alone have already seen a Wham City theater night, a cross-country tour, sundry live shows around town (and their attendant poster art), two episodes of in-house talk show The Ed Schrader Show, several records released by various WC-related bands, a gallery exhibition, a museum showcase, various videos, two issues of Catatac (a traditionally folded-and-stapled zine published by Kate Levitt, Mark Brown, and Kevin Sherry that's full of contributions from Wham members), and a bunch of stuff not yet ready for prime-time consumption. "I know of at least two board games that are being developed," Connor Kizer says. Sure, not all of it needs to be documented, but the irrepressible, overwhelming mass of stuff that Wham City churns out is always impressive."
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The Arcade Fire likes churches
5/14/07, Pitchfork Feature: Interview: The Arcade Fire:"Pitchfork: The Arcade Fire seems drawn to churches, both as performance spaces and as inspiration. Can you talk a little bit about the churches in your life?
WB: ... Most buildings aren't really built with acoustics in mind, and small churches definitely are. Voices need to carry. But also just architecturally-- there's something going into the architecture that's very inspiring.
Pitchfork: Sure. And even taken out of all religious and spiritual contexts, there's something peaceful about being in a church. Church is one of the few places left in America where there's no noise, no television, no radio, no advertising. It lends itself to contemplation.
WB: Right, the purpose of the building is totally different than, like, an office building. It's designed to have an atmosphere. If you think about it, if you've ever been to a Catholic service, it's practically a laser light show. It's very dramatic, very theatrical. The outfits they wear, it's all designed to be impressive."
WB: ... Most buildings aren't really built with acoustics in mind, and small churches definitely are. Voices need to carry. But also just architecturally-- there's something going into the architecture that's very inspiring.
Pitchfork: Sure. And even taken out of all religious and spiritual contexts, there's something peaceful about being in a church. Church is one of the few places left in America where there's no noise, no television, no radio, no advertising. It lends itself to contemplation.
WB: Right, the purpose of the building is totally different than, like, an office building. It's designed to have an atmosphere. If you think about it, if you've ever been to a Catholic service, it's practically a laser light show. It's very dramatic, very theatrical. The outfits they wear, it's all designed to be impressive."
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Mexico City and indie rock
Los Dynamite Noiselab Mexico City Rock - New York Times, 5/13/07: "Thanks mostly to the downloadable avalanche of globalization and the rise of MySpace the current independent rock scene is full of artists who may be from Mexico City but sound as if they could be from New York, Stockholm or Paris....
The debut of MySpace in 2003 couldn’t have come at a better time for the Mexico City indie scene. In the 1990s major labels could still afford to be interested in a diverse swath of rock and alternative acts, but by 2003 they were no longer signing bands whose sales weren’t projected to reach gold in their first month or who weren’t easy matches for telenovela soundtracks. In response a string of indie labels emerged to fill the void, and suddenly it seemed that there were more bands than ever. There were more young people making music on home computers, more places to play (galleries and storefronts as much as clubs) and more international acts — like the White Stripes, which made Mexico City a heralded early stop on a 2005 tour — coming to town.
Most in the scene agree that the watershed moment came in 2004 with the appearance of Reactor, a taste-making, state-supported radio station. Unlike previous Mexico City alternative rock radio ventures, Reactor made breaking independent and underground bands from Mexico as central to its mission as playing the latest from Franz Ferdinand. 'If a band has a strong following, we take notice,' said Raúl David (Rulo) Vázquez, the station’s lead programmer.
Everything, then, was in place for an indie explosion. MySpace just struck the match.
'There’s always what we call the Mexico City lag,' said Luis Arce, a member of Chikita Violenta, whose debut album, 'The Stars and Suns Sessions,' was recently released on Noiselab. 'In the U.S. there was the college rock boom — Pavement, Sebadoh, even Nirvana — and now in Mexico City we have our own version of that. This is our own ’90s indie boom, just a decade or so late.'...
'In previous generations the goal was to present yourself as part of the city, to define the city and express the city,' said Jorge Hipolito, a veteran of the Mexico City scene who works at Noiselab. 'Now that doesn’t matter so much.'...
One particularly controversial result of Nafta has been the growing number of young bands choosing to sing in English, even if the members don’t speak it particularly well. Most of these bands claim that it’s not a bid for crossover success, but a direct reflection of their musical upbringing. 'We’re more comfortable singing and writing in English,' said Mr. David of Chikita Violenta. 'We’re proud of being from Mexico, but this is the way we like to do music. It would be dishonest for us to sing in Spanish.'"
The debut of MySpace in 2003 couldn’t have come at a better time for the Mexico City indie scene. In the 1990s major labels could still afford to be interested in a diverse swath of rock and alternative acts, but by 2003 they were no longer signing bands whose sales weren’t projected to reach gold in their first month or who weren’t easy matches for telenovela soundtracks. In response a string of indie labels emerged to fill the void, and suddenly it seemed that there were more bands than ever. There were more young people making music on home computers, more places to play (galleries and storefronts as much as clubs) and more international acts — like the White Stripes, which made Mexico City a heralded early stop on a 2005 tour — coming to town.
Most in the scene agree that the watershed moment came in 2004 with the appearance of Reactor, a taste-making, state-supported radio station. Unlike previous Mexico City alternative rock radio ventures, Reactor made breaking independent and underground bands from Mexico as central to its mission as playing the latest from Franz Ferdinand. 'If a band has a strong following, we take notice,' said Raúl David (Rulo) Vázquez, the station’s lead programmer.
Everything, then, was in place for an indie explosion. MySpace just struck the match.
'There’s always what we call the Mexico City lag,' said Luis Arce, a member of Chikita Violenta, whose debut album, 'The Stars and Suns Sessions,' was recently released on Noiselab. 'In the U.S. there was the college rock boom — Pavement, Sebadoh, even Nirvana — and now in Mexico City we have our own version of that. This is our own ’90s indie boom, just a decade or so late.'...
'In previous generations the goal was to present yourself as part of the city, to define the city and express the city,' said Jorge Hipolito, a veteran of the Mexico City scene who works at Noiselab. 'Now that doesn’t matter so much.'...
One particularly controversial result of Nafta has been the growing number of young bands choosing to sing in English, even if the members don’t speak it particularly well. Most of these bands claim that it’s not a bid for crossover success, but a direct reflection of their musical upbringing. 'We’re more comfortable singing and writing in English,' said Mr. David of Chikita Violenta. 'We’re proud of being from Mexico, but this is the way we like to do music. It would be dishonest for us to sing in Spanish.'"
Alternative venues for indie music
Music venues have been closing in NYC, but shows in non-traditional locations are doing well.
New York Night Life - New York Times, 5/11/07: "'Anything is a venue,' said the promoter Todd Patrick, known professionally as Todd P. For six years he has made it his mission to program music in far-flung places, from divey bars in Greenpoint to Lutheran churches to private lofts. Now New York’s alt-location guru, he has recently expanded to work with bands on the verge of stardom (Animal Collective, which he booked in 2005) and even nationally known acts (Oneida, Trans Am) at large clubs like Studio B in Brooklyn, winning the attention of the music industry.
But Mr. Patrick’s hallmark remains the cheap, on-the-fly, do-it-yourself concert, promoted through his Web site (toddpnyc.com), his e-mail list (13,000 strong) and MySpace, blog and newspaper and magazine listings. Essentially a one-man band, Mr. Patrick, 31, has interns who work the door (ticket prices rarely go above $10) and stamp hands (he only does all-ages shows) while he helps set up.
'Because the idea is about D.I.Y., I like to show the strings,' he said. 'I want people to come to the show and see me build the P.A. system, see that there’s nothing glossy about what we’re doing. I think alternative venues are a great way of doing that. It just kind of throws it off. If a club is the quote-unquote appropriate place to see music, why do people have so much more fun in a warehouse?'...
Nearby, interns counted the door money; Mr. Patrick takes 10 percent before expenses (security, interns) and the rest goes to performers....
Along with low overhead other common traits of this scene include out-of-the way locations (a long walk from the subway is common), online promotion, candles instead of spotlights and a high tolerance for graffiti: GlassLands, where the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed as part of a video shoot, has two rooms where anyone can scribble on the walls, markers and paint provided. Many places lack proper licensing; Mr. Patrick switches locations often to avoid the authorities. (Don Pedro is a legal establishment with a liquor license; the loft space was not.)"
New York Night Life - New York Times, 5/11/07: "'Anything is a venue,' said the promoter Todd Patrick, known professionally as Todd P. For six years he has made it his mission to program music in far-flung places, from divey bars in Greenpoint to Lutheran churches to private lofts. Now New York’s alt-location guru, he has recently expanded to work with bands on the verge of stardom (Animal Collective, which he booked in 2005) and even nationally known acts (Oneida, Trans Am) at large clubs like Studio B in Brooklyn, winning the attention of the music industry.
But Mr. Patrick’s hallmark remains the cheap, on-the-fly, do-it-yourself concert, promoted through his Web site (toddpnyc.com), his e-mail list (13,000 strong) and MySpace, blog and newspaper and magazine listings. Essentially a one-man band, Mr. Patrick, 31, has interns who work the door (ticket prices rarely go above $10) and stamp hands (he only does all-ages shows) while he helps set up.
'Because the idea is about D.I.Y., I like to show the strings,' he said. 'I want people to come to the show and see me build the P.A. system, see that there’s nothing glossy about what we’re doing. I think alternative venues are a great way of doing that. It just kind of throws it off. If a club is the quote-unquote appropriate place to see music, why do people have so much more fun in a warehouse?'...
Nearby, interns counted the door money; Mr. Patrick takes 10 percent before expenses (security, interns) and the rest goes to performers....
Along with low overhead other common traits of this scene include out-of-the way locations (a long walk from the subway is common), online promotion, candles instead of spotlights and a high tolerance for graffiti: GlassLands, where the Yeah Yeah Yeahs performed as part of a video shoot, has two rooms where anyone can scribble on the walls, markers and paint provided. Many places lack proper licensing; Mr. Patrick switches locations often to avoid the authorities. (Don Pedro is a legal establishment with a liquor license; the loft space was not.)"
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Music is happening in Denton, Texas
PopMatters Music Feature | Could Denton, Texas, be the nation's next hot spot for indie rock?: "Is Denton ready to elbow aside the flashier, bigger cities of Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston and, yes, Austin, to take its place atop the Texas-music food chain?
Could it be a town on the verge? Is the next Seattle or Omaha (home of Bright Eyes and the whole Saddle Creek label scene) brewing right up Interstate 35? ...
There are some who would say that Denton, home to an estimated 104,000 people and three universities, including the well-regarded University of North Texas with its acclaimed music department, already has a national reputation as a music mecca. The considerable roster of past and present Denton residents lends credence to the notion. Artists such as Roy Orbison, Norah Jones and Don Henley have spent time in classrooms on the UNT campus (see story on this page)."
Could it be a town on the verge? Is the next Seattle or Omaha (home of Bright Eyes and the whole Saddle Creek label scene) brewing right up Interstate 35? ...
There are some who would say that Denton, home to an estimated 104,000 people and three universities, including the well-regarded University of North Texas with its acclaimed music department, already has a national reputation as a music mecca. The considerable roster of past and present Denton residents lends credence to the notion. Artists such as Roy Orbison, Norah Jones and Don Henley have spent time in classrooms on the UNT campus (see story on this page)."
Monday, April 30, 2007
Denver indie labels
Denver has seen an explosion of talented indie bands in recent years and this article mentions some of the local labels working with them
The Denver Post - Local bands in tune with indie spirit
The Denver Post - Local bands in tune with indie spirit
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Festivals and sponsors
Although SXSW is arguing that they are trying to limit day parties so that the best acts don't just play corporate parties, that's not a very viable argument. SXSW has already gone on record saying this is an event for industry people, not fans, so having corporate day parties pitched to fans shouldn't be an issue.
Rather, SXSW, like the Olympics and other sponsored events, is trying to maximize the value it provides to paid sponsors and to limit ambush marketing.
However, as this blog entry points out, eliminating the unofficial day parties will likely eliminate opportunities for many bands to play. And a free-for-all, like Burning Man, may be more in keeping with indie music.
South by Southwest Festival - Reviews From the Music Festival in Austin, Texas - New York Times: "MAR. 18 | 5:40 PM
The Fort By JEFF LEEDS
... the Fort isn't affiliated with SxSW, officially. It's a project of the Fader magazine and other corporate sponsors: the big one is Levi's, but there is also signage for Microsoft, which kindly left out free stacks of Zune coasters to replace those shiny plastic discs people have been using. Anyway, the Fort is a leading example of what might be called the "shadow" SxSW, a sprawling array of private advertiser-backed parties that run day and night here in bars, clubs and temporary spaces built alongside the festival's official showcases. There are so many of these events -- sponsored by magazines, record labels, blogs and digital-music companies -- that a visitor to Austin last week could see many of the festival's major attractions, including performers like Amy Winehouse, without registering for the convention at all.
It's a tricky situation. The parties, collectively, give more bands chances to be seen (at least by whomever the advertisers choose to put on their guest lists). But SxSW has built a huge, reputable convention and festival, winnowing down its official performers from thousands of applicants -- maybe a modest imprimatur, but a genuine one. So does that mean the advertiser parties are parasitical, diluting the convention? Or do they create a symbiosis that lets more artists be seen and heard by more people?
It's a tension that hangs over all manner of arts events, from the Sundance film festival Park City, Utah, to the electronic/dance-centric Winter Music Conference in Miami.
But this year SxSW's annoyance with the proliferation of advertiser events has turned into a quiet crackdown. In particular, festival veterans point to a little-noticed lawsuit SxSW filed in a Texas court last November against Jelly NYC and LIVEstyle Entertainment, two New York event promoters who had planned to stage an day party or similar event at a downtown club called Speakeasy, a bit more than a block away from Sixth Street, the strip of bars and clubs at the heart of the festival. According to the lawsuit, the promoters were pitching advertisers on the idea of creating an event there called the "Concert Series at SxSW" and seeking a main sponsor who would pay $200,000 to be part of it.
SxSW sued the promoters for alleged trademark infringement. But the legal papers indicate the festival organizers want to do more than simply keep such corporate-backed events at arm's length. SxSW did not only ask for a court order preventing Jelly NYC and LIVEstyle from mentioning the festival by name in their marketing materials; organizers asked the court to block the promoters of "sponsoring, producing or participating in" any music event at all in the entire county during the running of the official SxSW. (The promoters pulled the event).
Critics suggest that SxSW is being overly protective and is actually reducing opportunities for artists to attend the festival, since the advertisers sometimes pay the way for bands to come; SxSW doesn't.
Roland Swenson, one of SxSW's three principals and its managing director, said he finds it odd that advertisers would accuse him of heavy-handedness. "We have these billion-dollar corporations that come in and cast themselves as the young rebels," he said. "They're not really willing to acknowledge that we created this environment that they're here to use for their own purposes."
Mr. Swenson said the advertisers ˜ many of which hold invitation-only events ˜ run counter to the "egalitarian" spirit of SxSW, where anyone who pays the registration fee has access to its events. An even bigger concern is the festival's continuing ability to book the best performers for its own official showcases.
'Frequently, the big fight for us is over the talent,' he said. 'What we are worried about is South by Southwest turning into an event where the acts that are most in demand only play these private corporate parties. If it turns into that, then why would anyone sign up for our event?'"
SXSW
music festival
indie
Rather, SXSW, like the Olympics and other sponsored events, is trying to maximize the value it provides to paid sponsors and to limit ambush marketing.
However, as this blog entry points out, eliminating the unofficial day parties will likely eliminate opportunities for many bands to play. And a free-for-all, like Burning Man, may be more in keeping with indie music.
South by Southwest Festival - Reviews From the Music Festival in Austin, Texas - New York Times: "MAR. 18 | 5:40 PM
The Fort By JEFF LEEDS
... the Fort isn't affiliated with SxSW, officially. It's a project of the Fader magazine and other corporate sponsors: the big one is Levi's, but there is also signage for Microsoft, which kindly left out free stacks of Zune coasters to replace those shiny plastic discs people have been using. Anyway, the Fort is a leading example of what might be called the "shadow" SxSW, a sprawling array of private advertiser-backed parties that run day and night here in bars, clubs and temporary spaces built alongside the festival's official showcases. There are so many of these events -- sponsored by magazines, record labels, blogs and digital-music companies -- that a visitor to Austin last week could see many of the festival's major attractions, including performers like Amy Winehouse, without registering for the convention at all.
It's a tricky situation. The parties, collectively, give more bands chances to be seen (at least by whomever the advertisers choose to put on their guest lists). But SxSW has built a huge, reputable convention and festival, winnowing down its official performers from thousands of applicants -- maybe a modest imprimatur, but a genuine one. So does that mean the advertiser parties are parasitical, diluting the convention? Or do they create a symbiosis that lets more artists be seen and heard by more people?
It's a tension that hangs over all manner of arts events, from the Sundance film festival Park City, Utah, to the electronic/dance-centric Winter Music Conference in Miami.
But this year SxSW's annoyance with the proliferation of advertiser events has turned into a quiet crackdown. In particular, festival veterans point to a little-noticed lawsuit SxSW filed in a Texas court last November against Jelly NYC and LIVEstyle Entertainment, two New York event promoters who had planned to stage an day party or similar event at a downtown club called Speakeasy, a bit more than a block away from Sixth Street, the strip of bars and clubs at the heart of the festival. According to the lawsuit, the promoters were pitching advertisers on the idea of creating an event there called the "Concert Series at SxSW" and seeking a main sponsor who would pay $200,000 to be part of it.
SxSW sued the promoters for alleged trademark infringement. But the legal papers indicate the festival organizers want to do more than simply keep such corporate-backed events at arm's length. SxSW did not only ask for a court order preventing Jelly NYC and LIVEstyle from mentioning the festival by name in their marketing materials; organizers asked the court to block the promoters of "sponsoring, producing or participating in" any music event at all in the entire county during the running of the official SxSW. (The promoters pulled the event).
Critics suggest that SxSW is being overly protective and is actually reducing opportunities for artists to attend the festival, since the advertisers sometimes pay the way for bands to come; SxSW doesn't.
Roland Swenson, one of SxSW's three principals and its managing director, said he finds it odd that advertisers would accuse him of heavy-handedness. "We have these billion-dollar corporations that come in and cast themselves as the young rebels," he said. "They're not really willing to acknowledge that we created this environment that they're here to use for their own purposes."
Mr. Swenson said the advertisers ˜ many of which hold invitation-only events ˜ run counter to the "egalitarian" spirit of SxSW, where anyone who pays the registration fee has access to its events. An even bigger concern is the festival's continuing ability to book the best performers for its own official showcases.
'Frequently, the big fight for us is over the talent,' he said. 'What we are worried about is South by Southwest turning into an event where the acts that are most in demand only play these private corporate parties. If it turns into that, then why would anyone sign up for our event?'"
SXSW
music festival
indie
Monday, March 26, 2007
How Omaha created The Faint
riverfrontitmes.com, 3/14/07 - Whether they're playing all-ages venues or arenas, indie superstars the Faint make their fans dance, dance, dance.: "The Faint developed such sensibilities in Omaha, during a period (1995-'99) when, thanks to a paucity of all-ages venues, the city's available gigs for nascent bands were mostly house parties.
'Everything came out of a scene as opposed to anybody trying to get record deals,' Petersen says. 'It was just, 'Hey, there's this show happening in a couple weeks, they need a band, let's be that band.' A stage is very much a barrier between the band and the audience. When you're at a party, everybody's one foot away from each other.'
Other than the first concert he ever saw (Night Ranger, with Weird Al Yankovic opening), Petersen's earliest live-music memories involved local acts. He discovered the city's do-it-yourself scene after stumbling across a hardcore bill at a polka ballroom.
'It was like, 'Holy shit, this whole world exists,'' he says. 'It sparked my interest in seeing music in a different way, as opposed to 'music is what I hear on the radio.' Well, there's a whole lot of other kinds of music too, and a whole lot of people just like me playing it. That's probably more profound than any big concert I've ever been to.'
In 2002, after years of gigs at 'crummy all-ages venues,' the Faint became a 'big concert' band, opening for No Doubt in what Petersen calls a calculated experiment 'to see how the other half toured.'
'It was positive in that we learned a lot from it,' he says. 'Unfortunately I think we learned everything we needed to know after three shows, and we'd signed on for two-and-a-half months. It's really hard to play to people who just don't give a shit. It beats you down. Thankfully we were doing our own shows on their days off, and those kept us going. It was like, 'This is why we do this, suck it up.''"
music scene
Omaha
'Everything came out of a scene as opposed to anybody trying to get record deals,' Petersen says. 'It was just, 'Hey, there's this show happening in a couple weeks, they need a band, let's be that band.' A stage is very much a barrier between the band and the audience. When you're at a party, everybody's one foot away from each other.'
Other than the first concert he ever saw (Night Ranger, with Weird Al Yankovic opening), Petersen's earliest live-music memories involved local acts. He discovered the city's do-it-yourself scene after stumbling across a hardcore bill at a polka ballroom.
'It was like, 'Holy shit, this whole world exists,'' he says. 'It sparked my interest in seeing music in a different way, as opposed to 'music is what I hear on the radio.' Well, there's a whole lot of other kinds of music too, and a whole lot of people just like me playing it. That's probably more profound than any big concert I've ever been to.'
In 2002, after years of gigs at 'crummy all-ages venues,' the Faint became a 'big concert' band, opening for No Doubt in what Petersen calls a calculated experiment 'to see how the other half toured.'
'It was positive in that we learned a lot from it,' he says. 'Unfortunately I think we learned everything we needed to know after three shows, and we'd signed on for two-and-a-half months. It's really hard to play to people who just don't give a shit. It beats you down. Thankfully we were doing our own shows on their days off, and those kept us going. It was like, 'This is why we do this, suck it up.''"
music scene
Omaha
Friday, February 02, 2007
The true live music business model
Some of the talk coming out of the Music 2.0 conference is that major labels can't afford to do artist development (including tour support) unless they get a percentage of tour and merchandising income.
Major Label Executives Express Continued Frustration, Mood Sours — Digital Music News: "In a previous era, labels gladly financed marketing initiatives for artists – including tour support – without receiving direct returns from areas outside of the CD. That approach is now becoming a critical problem, though a clear plan has not emerged to broaden the business. 'We’re going to have to get good at all of these ancillary revenue streams and see what works,' said Ring, while Ken Bunt of Hollywood Records pointed to a far broader approach that included 'touring, merchandise, mobile, DVDs,' and a large host of other areas. 'We could monetize file-sharing tomorrow, but it would just be one small part of the puzzle,' Bunt said."
Live Nation is planning to create a music venue site to bring together its own venues and competitors to market to concert goers and offering ticketing. Live Nation, in essences, wants to develop a database of live music goers.
Live Nation Concocts MySpace of Concert Websites — Digital Music News: "Live Nation is now tinkering with a new concept online, one that will give consumers more comprehensive live concert information. The company is now inviting competing venues to not only list their events, but also build their own pages within the site. 'It's like MySpace for venues,' said Live Nation executive Scott Fedewa..."
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
1. Marketing to the current group of concert goers is not enough. If Live Nation and other venues want to make money, then need to find ways to expand the number of people who go to see live music.
2. Major labels and even indie bands don't really have significant experience tapping into live music. Major labels and independent labels have been in the recorded music business. Sure, signed artists and indie artists tour, but both have still focused on recorded music.
From my observation, there is only one group of bands that really understands the live music market -- that's jambands. Their business models have always been driven by live music, tape sharing among fans, and relatively little exposure through radio or music reviews. It's been largely driven through word-of-mouth. While the indie/hipster segment of the industry has generated press about the viability of avoiding the major label system, in reality, their business has been more like a junior version of the major label system than the true DIY model that has existed for several decades within the jamband community.
live music
Music 2.0
Major Label Executives Express Continued Frustration, Mood Sours — Digital Music News: "In a previous era, labels gladly financed marketing initiatives for artists – including tour support – without receiving direct returns from areas outside of the CD. That approach is now becoming a critical problem, though a clear plan has not emerged to broaden the business. 'We’re going to have to get good at all of these ancillary revenue streams and see what works,' said Ring, while Ken Bunt of Hollywood Records pointed to a far broader approach that included 'touring, merchandise, mobile, DVDs,' and a large host of other areas. 'We could monetize file-sharing tomorrow, but it would just be one small part of the puzzle,' Bunt said."
Live Nation is planning to create a music venue site to bring together its own venues and competitors to market to concert goers and offering ticketing. Live Nation, in essences, wants to develop a database of live music goers.
Live Nation Concocts MySpace of Concert Websites — Digital Music News: "Live Nation is now tinkering with a new concept online, one that will give consumers more comprehensive live concert information. The company is now inviting competing venues to not only list their events, but also build their own pages within the site. 'It's like MySpace for venues,' said Live Nation executive Scott Fedewa..."
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
1. Marketing to the current group of concert goers is not enough. If Live Nation and other venues want to make money, then need to find ways to expand the number of people who go to see live music.
2. Major labels and even indie bands don't really have significant experience tapping into live music. Major labels and independent labels have been in the recorded music business. Sure, signed artists and indie artists tour, but both have still focused on recorded music.
From my observation, there is only one group of bands that really understands the live music market -- that's jambands. Their business models have always been driven by live music, tape sharing among fans, and relatively little exposure through radio or music reviews. It's been largely driven through word-of-mouth. While the indie/hipster segment of the industry has generated press about the viability of avoiding the major label system, in reality, their business has been more like a junior version of the major label system than the true DIY model that has existed for several decades within the jamband community.
live music
Music 2.0
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Basement venues in Boston
An article by someone who hosts shows in his basement.
My house the music venue - The Phoenix: "Within weeks in either direction of me moving into my house, nearly every small, independent-minded concert venue in the city of Boston was shut down. Art spaces, a record store, other houses, and even a small bar ceased hosting bands. Allston’s Reel Bar, Re: Generation Records, the Lilypad in Cambridge, and a house known as the Cuntree Club were all casualties of the same period of under three months. Necessity, as it turned out, was the mother of five Finnish men as old as my parents playing Discharge-inspired hardcore at my house.
When the dust settled and the information about my basement started to reveal itself, the various operators of some of the venues began to come to us with show proposals. A friend who booked shows at the now-showless record store knew a band called Diswar, who were on tour with Kohu-63. It evokes the sequences in old sitcoms where split-screen telephone conversations would go on and on, with each new person hanging up and calling someone else.
Even when the venue climate is relatively barren, bands from Boston can always get local shows — it’s not so easy for bands from a few states away to keep their finger close enough to the city’s pulse to know who to ask and, for the time being, my roommates and I have no problem hosting them.
The long and the short of it: I like basement shows and I like music — that’s why I’m willing to enter this situation and go to bat for all these people. I think a lot of my friends and a lot of their friends are doing interesting and fun things musically. I’m more than willing to break the law so my friend Brian, his high-pitched voice, and his acoustic guitar can sit on a PA speaker and cover 'I Wanna Be A Homosexual” by Screeching Weasel.'"
He makes reference to an early article that discusses the concept in length.
It came from the basement: "Bloodstains Across Somerville is one of a handful of rental-house basements in the area that moonlight as live-music venues. Some of the rawest rock shows in town are performed in DIY places like this, beside dusty furnaces, cylindrical water heaters, and laundry hampers. They’re accessible only through crawlspaces and creaky back doors, down peeling-paint bulkheads and wobbly wooden staircases. The best, most frenetic, in-your-face shows in town sometimes happen quite literally underground, sometimes only for an audience of 30 — in craggy-walled, cramped, dingy cellars situated in cheap-rent districts like Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, Brighton, Allston, and Somerville."
live music
clubs
indie
Boston
My house the music venue - The Phoenix: "Within weeks in either direction of me moving into my house, nearly every small, independent-minded concert venue in the city of Boston was shut down. Art spaces, a record store, other houses, and even a small bar ceased hosting bands. Allston’s Reel Bar, Re: Generation Records, the Lilypad in Cambridge, and a house known as the Cuntree Club were all casualties of the same period of under three months. Necessity, as it turned out, was the mother of five Finnish men as old as my parents playing Discharge-inspired hardcore at my house.
When the dust settled and the information about my basement started to reveal itself, the various operators of some of the venues began to come to us with show proposals. A friend who booked shows at the now-showless record store knew a band called Diswar, who were on tour with Kohu-63. It evokes the sequences in old sitcoms where split-screen telephone conversations would go on and on, with each new person hanging up and calling someone else.
Even when the venue climate is relatively barren, bands from Boston can always get local shows — it’s not so easy for bands from a few states away to keep their finger close enough to the city’s pulse to know who to ask and, for the time being, my roommates and I have no problem hosting them.
The long and the short of it: I like basement shows and I like music — that’s why I’m willing to enter this situation and go to bat for all these people. I think a lot of my friends and a lot of their friends are doing interesting and fun things musically. I’m more than willing to break the law so my friend Brian, his high-pitched voice, and his acoustic guitar can sit on a PA speaker and cover 'I Wanna Be A Homosexual” by Screeching Weasel.'"
He makes reference to an early article that discusses the concept in length.
It came from the basement: "Bloodstains Across Somerville is one of a handful of rental-house basements in the area that moonlight as live-music venues. Some of the rawest rock shows in town are performed in DIY places like this, beside dusty furnaces, cylindrical water heaters, and laundry hampers. They’re accessible only through crawlspaces and creaky back doors, down peeling-paint bulkheads and wobbly wooden staircases. The best, most frenetic, in-your-face shows in town sometimes happen quite literally underground, sometimes only for an audience of 30 — in craggy-walled, cramped, dingy cellars situated in cheap-rent districts like Mission Hill, Jamaica Plain, Brighton, Allston, and Somerville."
live music
clubs
indie
Boston
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Think: Local, Local, Local
This blog is all about developing local music scenes. Noise:Floor is a multi-media concept about local music.
This blurb also talks about the future of local media.
Let me take this a step further. Local media needs to highlight their local talent as much or more than they do national/international talent.
It has been happening here in the Denver metro area. There is an unprecedented amount of coverage of local music.
And it is warranted. There's an explosion of local talent.
But there's still a bias toward bands that are going to break away from the local scene and make an impact nationally or internationally. There's more buzz about the bands that are being checked out by major labels and about bands being invited to the most prestigious festivals.
Perhaps a true local focus will equally tout talented bands that have no interest in leaving the area.
The Consolidation of Local Media - SeekingAlpha: "None other than The Kraft Group and Pallotta's The Raptor Fund have ponied up $20 million of investment capital in Plum TV, the network of local stations in high-powered markets like The Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Aspen and Vail -- 6 stations currently, with two more awaiting FCC approval.
"Media powerplayers Robert Pittman [Time Warner's (TWX) AOL] and Tom Freston [Viacom's (VIA) MTV] also led the round. While not yet public, a group this smart must know something. In the end, who really wants the 'pablum' of mass produced media in an age of consumer control and customization [think Starbucks (SBUX) and Apple's (AAPL) iPod, where the consumer controls everything about the end product]. And, who really wants the YouTube antics of candyies dropped in Coke bottles (except for momentary entertainment value and a good chuckle).
"Perhaps the future of media -- and the investment dollars that follow it -- will be refocused on local markets and local communities. Like MTV and Freston's vision earlier, Plum is really about influence, not reach. Do more 'eyeballs' matter? Or do the RIGHT eyeballs matter? Most savvy marketers vote for the latter. So do Kraft, Pallotta, Freston, Pittman.
"Consolidation of local media -- while keeping the local content -- may be what the likes of ClearChannel and others ultimately missed."
denver music
music scene
indie
economic development
music festival
live music
clubs
creative class
Denver
Colorado
This blurb also talks about the future of local media.
Let me take this a step further. Local media needs to highlight their local talent as much or more than they do national/international talent.
It has been happening here in the Denver metro area. There is an unprecedented amount of coverage of local music.
And it is warranted. There's an explosion of local talent.
But there's still a bias toward bands that are going to break away from the local scene and make an impact nationally or internationally. There's more buzz about the bands that are being checked out by major labels and about bands being invited to the most prestigious festivals.
Perhaps a true local focus will equally tout talented bands that have no interest in leaving the area.
The Consolidation of Local Media - SeekingAlpha: "None other than The Kraft Group and Pallotta's The Raptor Fund have ponied up $20 million of investment capital in Plum TV, the network of local stations in high-powered markets like The Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Aspen and Vail -- 6 stations currently, with two more awaiting FCC approval.
"Media powerplayers Robert Pittman [Time Warner's (TWX) AOL] and Tom Freston [Viacom's (VIA) MTV] also led the round. While not yet public, a group this smart must know something. In the end, who really wants the 'pablum' of mass produced media in an age of consumer control and customization [think Starbucks (SBUX) and Apple's (AAPL) iPod, where the consumer controls everything about the end product]. And, who really wants the YouTube antics of candyies dropped in Coke bottles (except for momentary entertainment value and a good chuckle).
"Perhaps the future of media -- and the investment dollars that follow it -- will be refocused on local markets and local communities. Like MTV and Freston's vision earlier, Plum is really about influence, not reach. Do more 'eyeballs' matter? Or do the RIGHT eyeballs matter? Most savvy marketers vote for the latter. So do Kraft, Pallotta, Freston, Pittman.
"Consolidation of local media -- while keeping the local content -- may be what the likes of ClearChannel and others ultimately missed."
denver music
music scene
indie
economic development
music festival
live music
clubs
creative class
Denver
Colorado
Saturday, November 25, 2006
How to attract the hip, the affluent, the well-educated
I moved to Boulder in 1991, so I have been living the lifestyle written about in this New York Times article for more than 15 years. Boulder is all about smart people working and playing hard.
And it has always been this way. People come to Colorado during the boom times: gold and silver in the 1800s; oil and real estate in the 1980s; high tech in the 2000s.
And when the inevitable busts come, people like it here so much they decide to stay, even if they have to switch careers to do so. Denver Mayor Hickenlooper is just such an example. He came to Denver in 1981 as a geologist working for a petroleum company. When the oil bust came, he stayed and started Wynkoop Brewing Company, the first brewpub in the Rocky Mountains. The Wynkoop group grew to eventually include seven Denver restaurants and a brewpub in Colorado Springs. Then in 2003 he became Mayor. (You can read more about it here).
In 1999, I started writing about the Colorado venture capital/high tech/start-up scene for Courtney Pulitzer's CyberScene, ColoradoBiz magazine, and eMileHigh.
One of the founders of eMileHigh was Brad Spirrison. He came out from Chicago to start it and hired me. When the dot-com bust hit Colorado and the money ran out, we folded eMileHigh and he returned to work at the parent company in Chicago.
Still, we always had a vision of mobilizing Colorado's wealthy young entrepreneurs into a lifestyle/cultural/business/political force. Brad called them "the progressive leisure class."
It's happening now. Colorado went Democratic this year in part because young dot-com millionaires funded progressive agendas.
As for lifestyle, the action/winter/outdoor sports part of Colorado has been part of the culture for decades, but the music scene is now exploding as well.
Personally I haven't seen a lot of cross-pollinization between the wealthy young entrepreneurs and the local indie music scene yet (they are more likely to go to SXSW than go to the local clubs), but having a hip local scene is still good to have to draw others to the area.
The next step is to have more money following into the local music scene to support and grow it. The rich Colorado movers-and-shakers who made their money in the 1960s-1980s bought sports teams as hobbies. I'm hoping the rich from the 2000s buy clubs and sponsor bands instead.
Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young - New York Times: "Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, 'the young and restless,' as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade. ...
"They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication....
"In addition to Atlanta, the biggest gainers in market share of the young and restless were San Francisco; Denver; Portland; and Austin, Tex. The biggest losers included Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles."
creative class
Denver
Atlanta
music scene
economic development
indie
clubs
live music
And it has always been this way. People come to Colorado during the boom times: gold and silver in the 1800s; oil and real estate in the 1980s; high tech in the 2000s.
And when the inevitable busts come, people like it here so much they decide to stay, even if they have to switch careers to do so. Denver Mayor Hickenlooper is just such an example. He came to Denver in 1981 as a geologist working for a petroleum company. When the oil bust came, he stayed and started Wynkoop Brewing Company, the first brewpub in the Rocky Mountains. The Wynkoop group grew to eventually include seven Denver restaurants and a brewpub in Colorado Springs. Then in 2003 he became Mayor. (You can read more about it here).
In 1999, I started writing about the Colorado venture capital/high tech/start-up scene for Courtney Pulitzer's CyberScene, ColoradoBiz magazine, and eMileHigh.
One of the founders of eMileHigh was Brad Spirrison. He came out from Chicago to start it and hired me. When the dot-com bust hit Colorado and the money ran out, we folded eMileHigh and he returned to work at the parent company in Chicago.
Still, we always had a vision of mobilizing Colorado's wealthy young entrepreneurs into a lifestyle/cultural/business/political force. Brad called them "the progressive leisure class."
It's happening now. Colorado went Democratic this year in part because young dot-com millionaires funded progressive agendas.
As for lifestyle, the action/winter/outdoor sports part of Colorado has been part of the culture for decades, but the music scene is now exploding as well.
Personally I haven't seen a lot of cross-pollinization between the wealthy young entrepreneurs and the local indie music scene yet (they are more likely to go to SXSW than go to the local clubs), but having a hip local scene is still good to have to draw others to the area.
The next step is to have more money following into the local music scene to support and grow it. The rich Colorado movers-and-shakers who made their money in the 1960s-1980s bought sports teams as hobbies. I'm hoping the rich from the 2000s buy clubs and sponsor bands instead.
Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young - New York Times: "Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, 'the young and restless,' as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade. ...
"They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication....
"In addition to Atlanta, the biggest gainers in market share of the young and restless were San Francisco; Denver; Portland; and Austin, Tex. The biggest losers included Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Los Angeles."
creative class
Denver
Atlanta
music scene
economic development
indie
clubs
live music
Monday, November 20, 2006
The limits of Internet star-making
I have this theory that there's no money in Internet fame, which is going to shoot a lot of business models.
The standard music story these days is that some unknown band or artist posted songs on MySpace or videos on YouTube, generated a million plays, and got signed to a major label deal.
The thinking behind this is that all of this visibility is a sure sign that the masses have spoken: that they really like this band/artist. Labels are interested because the band/artist has already been test-marketed. The same concept was embraced in the early days of MP3.com, but people found out that rising to the top of those charts meant relatively little in the real world.
What we have seen both in the past and now is that when fans are able to listen to music for free or watch videos for free, they often do not then go out to buy an album or go to a show.
In fact, I will postulate that Internet visibility is a negative when compared to more traditional forms of music marketing.
The very fact that there are unlimited opportunities to showcase yourself on the Internet means that the barriers to entry doing so are nil. Sure, only a few attract the attention of millions so it is a small group, but since videos featuring geeky/weird/bizarre subjects can outdraw those involving better bands/artists, avid MySpace/YouTube patrons already know there is often a disconnect between talent and visibility.
Here's an example: Marbles Lost Blender Co Mixes Up YouTube "If anyone doubted the wild, wonderful things a marketer can do with a phenomenon like YouTube, they can suspend that disbelief by turning to Blendtec. A $50 demonstration of sheer blending power attracted six million viewers in just five days.
"After all, who wouldn't want to watch a man in a lab coat and goggles drop 50 marbles, or golf balls, or a crowbar, or a rake handle, into a blender while teasing the viewer with questions about whether those things can really be blended. "
In contrast, appearing on television or radio is not an option open to everyone. Those bands/artists who get the opportunity have added to their status level by having access to a relatively scare commodity.
This then filters down to fans. The higher the status of the band, the better the bragging rights to those who attend the band's concerts. For a fan to say he/she went to a concert of band with 200,000 fans on MySpace means less than to say he/she went to a concert of a band who has been seen/heard on TV. Getting your song in a popular TV soundtrack greatly trumps racking up lots of Internet plays because only a limited number of songs can get played on TV.
The lack of recognized filters for popular Internet bands lowers their cachet. And since increasingly fans seem to go to concerts to increase their own status (through taking photos, sending text messages to friends, and through blogging), they want to associate themselves with high status bands.
So when labels sign popular Internet bands on the assumption that those bands will become gold and platinum sellers, they have it backwards. They need to break bands the old-fashion way (through radio and TV and touring) and then use the Internet to enhance the marketing of those bands. If the Internet popularity comes first, it's likely the fans won't be inclined to take the next step and buy in significant numbers either albums (they'll just listen online or find a way to get the music for free) or concert tickets (because the cool factor won't be there). They will be aware of those bands, but won't necessarily be motivated to spend money in pursuit of them.
In other words, bands that generate attention in an entirely free medium do not necessarily maintain that attention when people are asked to part with their money. Not only has the Internet devalued recorded music (by training people to expect it for free), it is now devaluating status. If anyone can become a "star" on the Internet, it doesn't mean much.
The Internet is for exposure. But exposure without filters just turns the product into a commodity.
MySpace
music promotion
YouTube
radio promotion
indie
live music
record labels
fame
internet marketing
The standard music story these days is that some unknown band or artist posted songs on MySpace or videos on YouTube, generated a million plays, and got signed to a major label deal.
The thinking behind this is that all of this visibility is a sure sign that the masses have spoken: that they really like this band/artist. Labels are interested because the band/artist has already been test-marketed. The same concept was embraced in the early days of MP3.com, but people found out that rising to the top of those charts meant relatively little in the real world.
What we have seen both in the past and now is that when fans are able to listen to music for free or watch videos for free, they often do not then go out to buy an album or go to a show.
In fact, I will postulate that Internet visibility is a negative when compared to more traditional forms of music marketing.
The very fact that there are unlimited opportunities to showcase yourself on the Internet means that the barriers to entry doing so are nil. Sure, only a few attract the attention of millions so it is a small group, but since videos featuring geeky/weird/bizarre subjects can outdraw those involving better bands/artists, avid MySpace/YouTube patrons already know there is often a disconnect between talent and visibility.
Here's an example: Marbles Lost Blender Co Mixes Up YouTube "If anyone doubted the wild, wonderful things a marketer can do with a phenomenon like YouTube, they can suspend that disbelief by turning to Blendtec. A $50 demonstration of sheer blending power attracted six million viewers in just five days.
"After all, who wouldn't want to watch a man in a lab coat and goggles drop 50 marbles, or golf balls, or a crowbar, or a rake handle, into a blender while teasing the viewer with questions about whether those things can really be blended. "
In contrast, appearing on television or radio is not an option open to everyone. Those bands/artists who get the opportunity have added to their status level by having access to a relatively scare commodity.
This then filters down to fans. The higher the status of the band, the better the bragging rights to those who attend the band's concerts. For a fan to say he/she went to a concert of band with 200,000 fans on MySpace means less than to say he/she went to a concert of a band who has been seen/heard on TV. Getting your song in a popular TV soundtrack greatly trumps racking up lots of Internet plays because only a limited number of songs can get played on TV.
The lack of recognized filters for popular Internet bands lowers their cachet. And since increasingly fans seem to go to concerts to increase their own status (through taking photos, sending text messages to friends, and through blogging), they want to associate themselves with high status bands.
So when labels sign popular Internet bands on the assumption that those bands will become gold and platinum sellers, they have it backwards. They need to break bands the old-fashion way (through radio and TV and touring) and then use the Internet to enhance the marketing of those bands. If the Internet popularity comes first, it's likely the fans won't be inclined to take the next step and buy in significant numbers either albums (they'll just listen online or find a way to get the music for free) or concert tickets (because the cool factor won't be there). They will be aware of those bands, but won't necessarily be motivated to spend money in pursuit of them.
In other words, bands that generate attention in an entirely free medium do not necessarily maintain that attention when people are asked to part with their money. Not only has the Internet devalued recorded music (by training people to expect it for free), it is now devaluating status. If anyone can become a "star" on the Internet, it doesn't mean much.
The Internet is for exposure. But exposure without filters just turns the product into a commodity.
MySpace
music promotion
YouTube
radio promotion
indie
live music
record labels
fame
internet marketing
Sunday, November 19, 2006
How to get on college radio
This article isn't directly related to music scenes or live music, but it is the best discussion I have seen on the workings of college radio.
I've never been quite sure why you have to pay a promoter to get your music on radio, and whether paying one will produce tangible results. This article suggests that radio airplay is hard to come by unless you have the right label support behind you.
The Bwog: "A band or label employs a promoter to push its albums to radio stations and handle press. Promotion comes at a steep price—around $1,000 a month on the cheaper end—and bands that can't afford it don't have anyone sending free CDs and records to stations, and thus aren't getting airplay before their albums are released.
"WBAR doesn't have the money to buy 50 or even 10 new records a week, and neither does almost every other college radio station in the country. Instead, they rely on freebies bestowed by the promoters. In short, the stations need the promoters to be able to play music and the promoters needs the stations to play their music. It seems like a happy symbiosis, but it depends totally on a third party—CMJ.
"Chris Baio, C'07, and Chas Carey, C'08, are the college rock directors at WBAR. They sort through up to 100 albums per week, deal with nagging promoters who want their artists to move up in the charts, and process the new acquisitions. When I asked Baio how he chooses what to add, he told me it's often a 'superficial choice' based on cover art, press releases, a few minutes of listening, and a feeling of what the DJs will want to play. As for unsigned or unpromoted bands? 'There is a glimmer of hope, but it's unlikely,' he said."
cmj
music promotion
radio promotion
college radio
indie
I've never been quite sure why you have to pay a promoter to get your music on radio, and whether paying one will produce tangible results. This article suggests that radio airplay is hard to come by unless you have the right label support behind you.
The Bwog: "A band or label employs a promoter to push its albums to radio stations and handle press. Promotion comes at a steep price—around $1,000 a month on the cheaper end—and bands that can't afford it don't have anyone sending free CDs and records to stations, and thus aren't getting airplay before their albums are released.
"WBAR doesn't have the money to buy 50 or even 10 new records a week, and neither does almost every other college radio station in the country. Instead, they rely on freebies bestowed by the promoters. In short, the stations need the promoters to be able to play music and the promoters needs the stations to play their music. It seems like a happy symbiosis, but it depends totally on a third party—CMJ.
"Chris Baio, C'07, and Chas Carey, C'08, are the college rock directors at WBAR. They sort through up to 100 albums per week, deal with nagging promoters who want their artists to move up in the charts, and process the new acquisitions. When I asked Baio how he chooses what to add, he told me it's often a 'superficial choice' based on cover art, press releases, a few minutes of listening, and a feeling of what the DJs will want to play. As for unsigned or unpromoted bands? 'There is a glimmer of hope, but it's unlikely,' he said."
cmj
music promotion
radio promotion
college radio
indie
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Independent record stores thrive in some cities
A good article on independent music stores in Austin and how they have done well by serving niche markets.
Independent music stores are an important component to a strong local music scene.
In Austin, niche indies rule: "It appeared to be the end of the era of the independents.
"But not in Austin.
"Waterloo Records & Video and Cheapo Discs, the big boys of the local independents, continue to thrive. Much of the CD traffic in Austin for Tejano and Latin music stayed at smaller stores, many of them also offering clothing, phone cards and Spanish-language movies.
"And during the past two years, Austin has seen an explosion of indies. Filled with vinyl, CDs, T-shirts and collectibles, half a dozen stores have popped up — Sound on Sound Records and Backspin Records in the north, Snake Eyes Vinyl in the east, and End of an Ear and Friends of Sound Records south of the river.
"What do all these shops provide? Old-school, music-nerd customer service. Few employees. Plenty of vinyl, both cheap and collectible. In-store performances that cater to a customer base that's built by strong word of mouth.
"And, most importantly, they each fill a niche that serves segments of the music-happy Austin population.
"Seattle, another city with a strong music scene, also is bucking the national trend of independent record store closings. Ruben Mendez, a former Waterloo employee now at the similar Sonic Boom Records in Seattle, says the indie stores are thriving in his town, citing business expansions and new openings since Napster launched the downloading craze in 2000."
music scene
indie
Austin
record store
Independent music stores are an important component to a strong local music scene.
In Austin, niche indies rule: "It appeared to be the end of the era of the independents.
"But not in Austin.
"Waterloo Records & Video and Cheapo Discs, the big boys of the local independents, continue to thrive. Much of the CD traffic in Austin for Tejano and Latin music stayed at smaller stores, many of them also offering clothing, phone cards and Spanish-language movies.
"And during the past two years, Austin has seen an explosion of indies. Filled with vinyl, CDs, T-shirts and collectibles, half a dozen stores have popped up — Sound on Sound Records and Backspin Records in the north, Snake Eyes Vinyl in the east, and End of an Ear and Friends of Sound Records south of the river.
"What do all these shops provide? Old-school, music-nerd customer service. Few employees. Plenty of vinyl, both cheap and collectible. In-store performances that cater to a customer base that's built by strong word of mouth.
"And, most importantly, they each fill a niche that serves segments of the music-happy Austin population.
"Seattle, another city with a strong music scene, also is bucking the national trend of independent record store closings. Ruben Mendez, a former Waterloo employee now at the similar Sonic Boom Records in Seattle, says the indie stores are thriving in his town, citing business expansions and new openings since Napster launched the downloading craze in 2000."
music scene
indie
Austin
record store
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Will MySpace take over live music?
My immediate reaction to this press release was that these online broadcasts will become another marketing tool for well-funded major and indie labels rather than anything that will benefit true DIY artists. Presumably there is a fee to use this service, a fee that is beyond any band with a limited budget.
On the other hand, if this turns into a money-making venture for all who are involved and, as a result, trickle-down opportunities are given to a greater number of talented bands, I will be pleased.
MySpace Launches Two Live Music Programs Spotlighting Video Webcasts and Instant Messaging: "MySpace.com, the leading global lifestyle portal, announced today the official launch of two new programs, 'MySpace LIVE!' and 'Hey, Play This…' incorporating live video web streaming, instant messenger, and user profiles to create unique, live experiences for the MySpace community. The launch of 'MySpace LIVE!' and 'Hey, Play This…' join MySpace’s existing community music and film programs including Secret Shows and The List which engage the global network by coupling site functionality with offline events.
“'With a diverse user community and massive social platform, MySpace is a natural fit for live, interactive content,' said Josh Brooks, VP of Content and Programming for MySpace. 'MySpace LIVE!' and 'Hey, Play This…' add a new dimension to our music community and we hope to develop future original programming and partnerships that focus on the live experience.”
"'MySpace LIVE!' will be the first live broadcast program on MySpace and allow users to submit MySpace messages to the fans and bands attending the performance. The first "MySpace LIVE!' event will feature Paul Oakenfold in Miami at Club Space on Saturday, November 18 and will be exclusively broadcast on MySpace at http://myspace.com/sidekick3.....
"'MySpace LIVE!,' will include an on-site message ticker allowing users at home to send comments and text messages in real time to on-site attendees. Event attendees are encouraged to take photographs and video from the evening to create their own 'mini clips' of their personal experiences to share in the MySpace Video community. Anyone interested in attending the event receives complimentary admission by clicking on the RSVP form at http://myspace.com/sidekick3.
"MySpace’s second live program initiative, 'Hey, Play This…,' will utilize MySpace instant messenger and a live webcast to give the opportunity for the community to interact with top artists at an exclusive music performance. The first 'Hey, Play This…' event was hosted by MySpace and featured Ben Folds live in Nashville on October 25 with a limited number of MySpace fans on-site at the unique, acoustic performance. Event attendees requested songs for Ben while the online community sent instant messages, comments, and requests for the artist."
MySpace
live music
indie
On the other hand, if this turns into a money-making venture for all who are involved and, as a result, trickle-down opportunities are given to a greater number of talented bands, I will be pleased.
MySpace Launches Two Live Music Programs Spotlighting Video Webcasts and Instant Messaging: "MySpace.com, the leading global lifestyle portal, announced today the official launch of two new programs, 'MySpace LIVE!' and 'Hey, Play This…' incorporating live video web streaming, instant messenger, and user profiles to create unique, live experiences for the MySpace community. The launch of 'MySpace LIVE!' and 'Hey, Play This…' join MySpace’s existing community music and film programs including Secret Shows and The List which engage the global network by coupling site functionality with offline events.
“'With a diverse user community and massive social platform, MySpace is a natural fit for live, interactive content,' said Josh Brooks, VP of Content and Programming for MySpace. 'MySpace LIVE!' and 'Hey, Play This…' add a new dimension to our music community and we hope to develop future original programming and partnerships that focus on the live experience.”
"'MySpace LIVE!' will be the first live broadcast program on MySpace and allow users to submit MySpace messages to the fans and bands attending the performance. The first "MySpace LIVE!' event will feature Paul Oakenfold in Miami at Club Space on Saturday, November 18 and will be exclusively broadcast on MySpace at http://myspace.com/sidekick3.....
"'MySpace LIVE!,' will include an on-site message ticker allowing users at home to send comments and text messages in real time to on-site attendees. Event attendees are encouraged to take photographs and video from the evening to create their own 'mini clips' of their personal experiences to share in the MySpace Video community. Anyone interested in attending the event receives complimentary admission by clicking on the RSVP form at http://myspace.com/sidekick3.
"MySpace’s second live program initiative, 'Hey, Play This…,' will utilize MySpace instant messenger and a live webcast to give the opportunity for the community to interact with top artists at an exclusive music performance. The first 'Hey, Play This…' event was hosted by MySpace and featured Ben Folds live in Nashville on October 25 with a limited number of MySpace fans on-site at the unique, acoustic performance. Event attendees requested songs for Ben while the online community sent instant messages, comments, and requests for the artist."
MySpace
live music
indie
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