This article mentions that there are a group of affluent music fans who want to attend festivals, but want to minimize the hassles involved. Offer them good parking, clean bathrooms, a nice place to stay, a VIP bar, and they will pay for those extras.
Older, wealthier fans go VIP at music festivals - Music - MSNBC.com, 6/12/07: "... access to a real bathroom, enjoy free and discounted food and drinks and then he’ll be driven to a hotel 30 miles away from the festival site in Tennessee....
Bonnaroo draws 80,000 people to a farm in rural Manchester, 65 miles south of Nashville, but not all of them want to sweat through four days of music under sometimes inclement weather, crammed into the crowded tent city....
At Lollapalooza in Chicago’s Grant Park, private cabanas on the shore of Lake Michigan cost more than $32,500 for a party of 30. Air-conditioned viewing stands were available for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Bonnaroo artists will perform a private show for VIP guests on opening night Thursday."
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
The experimental music scene in different countries
A discussion of experimental music and jazz in Philadelphia, France, and the rest of Europe.
The Paris Experiment :: Music :: Philadelphia City Paper, 6/7/07: "[Jack] Wright finds a similarity in the explosion of young, enthusiastic improvisers in France, playing anywhere they can, from established venues to house shows, similar to what's happening now in Philadelphia, with one important exception — the makeup of the audience. 'The audiences that I experienced there were pretty much mixed, with children and older people. It wasn't a 'scene' audience like we have in Philadelphia. There was always a lot of curiosity because this music was completely new for these people.'"
The Paris Experiment :: Music :: Philadelphia City Paper, 6/7/07: "[Jack] Wright finds a similarity in the explosion of young, enthusiastic improvisers in France, playing anywhere they can, from established venues to house shows, similar to what's happening now in Philadelphia, with one important exception — the makeup of the audience. 'The audiences that I experienced there were pretty much mixed, with children and older people. It wasn't a 'scene' audience like we have in Philadelphia. There was always a lot of curiosity because this music was completely new for these people.'"
Concerts in the Apple Music Store
Leaving New York: Goodbye Apple Store And So Long SoHo - Gawker, 6/11/07: "I'd of course heard of the Apple Store having concerts. But since I'm usually only in Manhattan from 9 to 6, Monday through Friday, I never actually happen upon these things. So this was the first time I'd seen a concert at the Apple Store, and it was totally a spectacle. There weren't just bouncers, there were security people there. The people who were there for the concert looked different (younger) than the people who were there to shop. Some hapless dude looking for a laptop bag had made his way upstairs, and the security force was all like making that direct pointing and 'outta-there' thumb motion usually reserved for mosh pits. A security guy at the top of the stairs escorted the hapless geek downstairs.
The clerk returned with my screen cleaner and rung me up from a handheld, wireless register (had not done this before, must say it was pretty cool). While she was doing this, I looked to the front door of the store. Owen Wilson and a friend (or dealer, perhaps) were being shown in and were heading right upstairs to the show.
So when the Apple Store has a concert, not only do they have bouncers and security staff, they've even got a VIP protocol. I was reminded of last summer, when I saw Lansing-Dreiden play at the 'Starbucks Salon' (also in Soho, just down the street from the Apple Store). I remember when I went to shows at venues that didn't sell grande chais and laptop screen cleaners. Surely those kinds of places still exist, and surely that's where new bands play, and where new music fans go to see them. Those are the kinds of places I went seven years ago, when I first moved here, and surely they still exist."
The clerk returned with my screen cleaner and rung me up from a handheld, wireless register (had not done this before, must say it was pretty cool). While she was doing this, I looked to the front door of the store. Owen Wilson and a friend (or dealer, perhaps) were being shown in and were heading right upstairs to the show.
So when the Apple Store has a concert, not only do they have bouncers and security staff, they've even got a VIP protocol. I was reminded of last summer, when I saw Lansing-Dreiden play at the 'Starbucks Salon' (also in Soho, just down the street from the Apple Store). I remember when I went to shows at venues that didn't sell grande chais and laptop screen cleaners. Surely those kinds of places still exist, and surely that's where new bands play, and where new music fans go to see them. Those are the kinds of places I went seven years ago, when I first moved here, and surely they still exist."
Selling music venues for real estate value
Live Nation has been trying to sell off some of its music venues -- primarily the ones that are worth more as real estate than as a venue. But there have no offers for the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Indianapolis.
The beat goes on at Verizon center -- Indianapolis Business Journal, 6/9/07: Live Nation is interested in selling only for redevelopment, not to another promoter, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a trade publication covering the concert industry. Bongiovanni expects the company will be willing to wait to get its asking price, which local brokers say is about $100,000-per-acre too optimistic.
So far, Live Nation has sold an amphitheater in Nashville, Tenn., and is exploring the sale of others in Columbus, Ohio, and Tinley Park, Ill. In a phone message, a corporate spokesman said no transaction has taken place for Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville. A local CB Richard Ellis broker who is marketing the property did not return phone messages.
'Maybe they keep Indianapolis because they can’t find anybody to come up with the money,' Bongiovanni said.
The sale strategy is designed to generate cash for a company that has struggled since its 2005 separation from San Antonio-based Clear Channel. Another reason is a changing concert industry. These days, fewer acts sell enough tickets to justify shows at large venues such as Verizon, which has 6,000 reserved seats and room for up to 18,000 on the lawn.
Amphitheaters also provide only seasonal revenue and don’t offer the tiered, high price seating potential of enclosed venues. Smaller concert venues are in, and Live Nation is betting on that business. In Indianapolis, Live Nation manages shows at the Murat Centre and the Lawn at White River State Park."
The beat goes on at Verizon center -- Indianapolis Business Journal, 6/9/07: Live Nation is interested in selling only for redevelopment, not to another promoter, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor in chief of Pollstar, a trade publication covering the concert industry. Bongiovanni expects the company will be willing to wait to get its asking price, which local brokers say is about $100,000-per-acre too optimistic.
So far, Live Nation has sold an amphitheater in Nashville, Tenn., and is exploring the sale of others in Columbus, Ohio, and Tinley Park, Ill. In a phone message, a corporate spokesman said no transaction has taken place for Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville. A local CB Richard Ellis broker who is marketing the property did not return phone messages.
'Maybe they keep Indianapolis because they can’t find anybody to come up with the money,' Bongiovanni said.
The sale strategy is designed to generate cash for a company that has struggled since its 2005 separation from San Antonio-based Clear Channel. Another reason is a changing concert industry. These days, fewer acts sell enough tickets to justify shows at large venues such as Verizon, which has 6,000 reserved seats and room for up to 18,000 on the lawn.
Amphitheaters also provide only seasonal revenue and don’t offer the tiered, high price seating potential of enclosed venues. Smaller concert venues are in, and Live Nation is betting on that business. In Indianapolis, Live Nation manages shows at the Murat Centre and the Lawn at White River State Park."
Marc Ribot: The Care and Feeding of a Musical Margin
A detailed article about the need for subsidies for music clubs -- particularly jazz and new music clubs.
Marc Ribot: The Care and Feeding of a Musical Margin - All About Jazz, 7/7/07: "The market is failing as a means of funding downtown new music venues. The venues have either abandoned new music booking priorities (like Knitting Factory did at the end of the '90s), switched to being subsidized by musicians (like Tonic and the above mentioned new venues are doing now) or both. Musician benefit concerts and recordings, once a 'special' situation, are being normalized as a means of funding....
New music composers of the '40s through the early '60s didn't expect to make money through the live performance market; many taught to earn a living. John Cage's income wasn't based on packing a nightclub with door-fee paying, drink-buying customers; many of his history making premieres were attended by fewer people than attended an average gig at CBGB. He was supported mainly by commissions and performance fees, by grants from private and public foundations. In experimental jazz, things were much the same, although less generously funded; avant gardists through the '70s played a 'loft' scene not known for generating big bucks. Cecil Taylor worked as a dishwasher while developing his history-changing style. And when he was able to quit his day job, it was due to the backing of mostly European, subsidized festivals....
The idea behind European public arts subsidies, the reason why NYC jazz/new music artists for at least the last 40 years have played Paris, Cologne and Zurich many more times than they've played Hartford (and how many have ever played Des Moines?) is a doctrine called “the European cultural exception”, a set of government policies based on the concept that, even within a market economy, art/culture is to be treated differently from other commodities."
Marc Ribot: The Care and Feeding of a Musical Margin - All About Jazz, 7/7/07: "The market is failing as a means of funding downtown new music venues. The venues have either abandoned new music booking priorities (like Knitting Factory did at the end of the '90s), switched to being subsidized by musicians (like Tonic and the above mentioned new venues are doing now) or both. Musician benefit concerts and recordings, once a 'special' situation, are being normalized as a means of funding....
New music composers of the '40s through the early '60s didn't expect to make money through the live performance market; many taught to earn a living. John Cage's income wasn't based on packing a nightclub with door-fee paying, drink-buying customers; many of his history making premieres were attended by fewer people than attended an average gig at CBGB. He was supported mainly by commissions and performance fees, by grants from private and public foundations. In experimental jazz, things were much the same, although less generously funded; avant gardists through the '70s played a 'loft' scene not known for generating big bucks. Cecil Taylor worked as a dishwasher while developing his history-changing style. And when he was able to quit his day job, it was due to the backing of mostly European, subsidized festivals....
The idea behind European public arts subsidies, the reason why NYC jazz/new music artists for at least the last 40 years have played Paris, Cologne and Zurich many more times than they've played Hartford (and how many have ever played Des Moines?) is a doctrine called “the European cultural exception”, a set of government policies based on the concept that, even within a market economy, art/culture is to be treated differently from other commodities."
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."
The growth of mid-sized venues in NYC
Here's a bit of an overview of Bowery Presents, a promoter that has grown enough to take on Live Nation and AEG in NYC.
Bowery Presents - Concert Industry - Music - New York Times, 6/7/07: "It started with the 250-capacity Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street, which opened in 1994 for $250,000, some $35,000 of which came from the maxed-out credit cards of Michael Swier, one of the Bowery Presents partners. Four years later came the 575-capacity, $1 million Bowery Ballroom, and in 2004 the company began booking Webster Hall, which fits 1,400. Last year it acquired Northsix in Brooklyn, which will open in September as the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and the 3,000-capacity former Exit dance club on West 56th Street, to reopen as a rock hall in October."
Bowery Presents - Concert Industry - Music - New York Times, 6/7/07: "It started with the 250-capacity Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street, which opened in 1994 for $250,000, some $35,000 of which came from the maxed-out credit cards of Michael Swier, one of the Bowery Presents partners. Four years later came the 575-capacity, $1 million Bowery Ballroom, and in 2004 the company began booking Webster Hall, which fits 1,400. Last year it acquired Northsix in Brooklyn, which will open in September as the Music Hall of Williamsburg, and the 3,000-capacity former Exit dance club on West 56th Street, to reopen as a rock hall in October."
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Rap-Vermont style
Yo, Vermont, What Up? These 3 Dudes, for Starters - New York Times, 6/2/07: "The rap, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL7uW4TYqbs, pokes fun at Vermont institutions and stereotypes like dairy products and snowplows.
“Green Mountain State, where we roll on skis, don’t mess with our cows or we’ll break your knees,” go the rappers, who perform under the name X10."
“Green Mountain State, where we roll on skis, don’t mess with our cows or we’ll break your knees,” go the rappers, who perform under the name X10."
Melbourne losing music venues
Live venues hit rock bottom | Herald Sun, 5/31/07: "WITH the number of live venues dwindling fast, Melbourne's music industry is on the verge of a crisis.
Melbourne's live venues seem to be dropping like flies, Melbourne losing two rock rooms last week alone.
The 1880-capacity Palace will close in two weeks to make way for the $300 million redevelopment of the St Kilda triangle site.
And Fitzroy's Spanish Club, which holds about 500, will close on June 23 after a long stoush with residents, council and liquor licensing....
That means Melbourne will be without a 1800-2500 capacity standing-room live venue for the foreseeable future, with the Forum the closest candidate at 1500.
"
Melbourne's live venues seem to be dropping like flies, Melbourne losing two rock rooms last week alone.
The 1880-capacity Palace will close in two weeks to make way for the $300 million redevelopment of the St Kilda triangle site.
And Fitzroy's Spanish Club, which holds about 500, will close on June 23 after a long stoush with residents, council and liquor licensing....
That means Melbourne will be without a 1800-2500 capacity standing-room live venue for the foreseeable future, with the Forum the closest candidate at 1500.
"
America's 40 Best Music Venues
Paste Magazine :: Feature :: America's 40 Best Music Venues: "Sometimes it’s the view—you’re at Denver’s Red Rocks, your eyes darting back and forth from the band to the landscape, and the music seems changed by the surrounding beauty. Sometimes it’s the history—a young band, onstage at The Fillmore, stands on the shoulders of the giants whose music helped reshape the world. Sometimes it’s the sense of discovery—you’re at L.A.’s Hotel Cafe, and you suspect the night’s opening act is headed for stardom. And sometimes, like with The Bowery Ballroom in New York, it’s simply the fact that on any given night, you know they’ve booked another great show.
To help find America’s best music venues, we went to the experts—you. In addition to our many contributors scattered across the country and many of the artists driving from club to club, Paste readers nominated more than 500 different venues at PasteMagazine.com—from hole-in-the-wall rock clubs to elegant theaters, legendary halls to brand new bars, quiet listening rooms to rock extravaganzas.
We weighed history, setting, sound, character, comfort, atmosphere, vibrancy, uniqueness, and their roles in helping launch careers. Among hundreds of worthy choices, these 40 venues rose above their peers. Our picks for the best music venues in America follow in this special section..."
To help find America’s best music venues, we went to the experts—you. In addition to our many contributors scattered across the country and many of the artists driving from club to club, Paste readers nominated more than 500 different venues at PasteMagazine.com—from hole-in-the-wall rock clubs to elegant theaters, legendary halls to brand new bars, quiet listening rooms to rock extravaganzas.
We weighed history, setting, sound, character, comfort, atmosphere, vibrancy, uniqueness, and their roles in helping launch careers. Among hundreds of worthy choices, these 40 venues rose above their peers. Our picks for the best music venues in America follow in this special section..."
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