The Eye of the Hurricane

It’s hard out there, I know it don’t look it… Hayes Carll

Services that stream music with little or no cost to the listener are making a play to become the future for casual music listening. The heavy hitter in this bunch, Spotify, rolled out to the USA a month ago and the reaction has been extremely positive, which is fairly surprising when I really look at who is saying they love it.

As a music fan, who wouldn’t love it? Music for little to no cost… sounds perfect to me. However, looking at reactions from those in the business (granted most are still music fans), I’m really shocked that no one seems to pick up on the fact that this will kill anything left of income from music sales.

Bring on the visuals
Key point: the number down the middle is the number of sales/plays needed to make minimum wage.

Even though this chart is a year old with some infered figures, the information is relevant. In a nutshell, for musicians (and their business counterparts), it shows that more people listening to your music does not mean that you make more money/success. That model has been dying for a while, but Spotify is the finger slowly pulling back the trigger.

What does this mean for artist and their business counterparts?
You have to come to terms with declining music revenue and figure out a different way to make money and define success. Lesfetz says that the future is tour and merch, but I think he’s jaded towards established acts. Smaller, more independent, acts are going to need to get creative.

I’ll go on record as saying that if Spotify doesn’t get shut down, a year from now album sales/release charts will start becoming pretty irrelevant. Musicians last hope will probably be in Apple, that has a HUGE vested interested in making money off the iTunes store… It’s what sells their devices. With more money than the government they can buy out Spotify, Last.fm and Pandora as if they were paying a yard man. iOS 5/cloud services are coming this fall and I don’t expect them to go down without a fight. Keep in mind that fight may include shifting gears to a streaming and royalty payout service that would make that last pink dot in the chart look small.

What does this mean for music lovers?
It may mean less music from our smaller independent guys. If it costs $10K – $50K++ to make a produced record, how do they get their money back? Right now either a label picks them up or they do it themselves and repay it with album sales. Either option is damn near impossible when albums don’t sell. Just making an album becomes a high risk investment that probably won’t be made. How many of you would drop the smaller $10K on a 50/50 investment… let alone on what I think will be a 20% chance of breaking even at best? Musicians have to eat and need a roof over their heads just like the rest of us human beings. How can they even begin to make the jump to full time music if we don’t recognize that we play a part in their lives?

…Unreal. It’s Sketchy out there. Thanks to everyone that keeps us afloat. ~Dustin Kensrue (via twitter on the chart above)

We are ALL part of a music scene that is changing the world. Fans need musicians to break out of the mainstream formulas, write honest songs and sing from the heart. Musicians need fans that will listen, let the music drop in their soul and support what they do.

“…support what they do.” That’s what really changes for everyone. Musicians are figuring out “what they do” in a time where albums sales are dropping. Fans are figuring out that “supporting” now means things like Kickstarter, Patronism, house concerts, LP’s or higher door fees.

“support” and “what they do” is what the change to streaming music really boils down to. Ignore it to the detriment of music we love.

UPDATE: There is a Part 2. Be sure to Read It

The independent music industry is slowly following behind the independent film industry when it comes to “fan funding” projects through services such as Kickstarter and the like. However, it looks like a new player has jumped in and taken a slightly different approach by letting fans do more than support only a project.

Patronism lets you sign up and support the artist directly, on a monthly basis, from anywhere to a $1 to anything you want. So you’re not funding an album but more of a career… or as they put it, you “Make Music Happen”. For your contribution, you generally get access to all kinds of stuff that the artists make available to their supporters. I’ve been seeing things like all of their albums available for download, rough mixes of new albums, unreleased songs, more raw thoughts than the prettied up things that have to go on facebook, full show recordings and even some videos.

I think it’s way to early to tell if this model is going to work long term. I think at it’s core it’s a win for both fans and artists, as long as everyone is realistic about what can come from it. I think if an artist signs up expecting that this will pay their bills and make them rich, then they might be a bit disappointed. Not to say that it can’t happen, but the real win here is that it’s connecting artists to fans that really love what they do.

I hadn’t planned on making this post so soon. I’ve been supporting artists on Patronism for a few months and wanted to get a real feel for how this can benefit or if it’s just another PR thing that musicians have to do because someone else is doing it. So consider this just a primer for a more in depth post to come, but at the moment I’m feeling like this could be a good thing.

So now on to what sparked me to write 400 words and not just tweet something out. Little Brave put together a video as an invite to her Patronism page and I really love it. Combine music & film and it’ll catch my attention every time… do it in a creative way that isn’t a music video and I’m inspired. This is one of those latter cases…

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented towards a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. (source)

something, something hashtag #youth #market #simple #variations #existing #themes

I just want to be sure we’re all on the same page for what makes it “pop music”. There are alot of folks out there playing it and writing it, but I guess they don’t know it… or maybe it’s the fans that don’t know it.

Pop Texas Music. Never thought I’d see it, not when this scene was born from everything that “pop” isn’t. What we need to realize is that the bands playing pop texas music are different from those that started this movement… and that is really an OK thing. Spending time comparing the two is like comparing David Cassidy to The Rolling Stones… both good in their own right, but why even bother?

Our scene is growing and we need to stop shaking our heads in disbelief or disagreement. We should get back to supporting what we love.

#reminder #youth #market #simple #variations #existing #themes #spade

I just surfed to a blog of a 15 year old kid that tout’s himself as a film “production” house. What? No, really… what? Right after I pulled my fist out of the screen I realized that it’s not this kids fault. He loves making movies and wants to be taken seriously… he’s 15… he has high hopes of doing it for a living one day. Dreaming big.. I’m all about it! But not in any life should a 15 year old kid with a camera/laptop ever equal a production company.

Do we have so little respect for our craft that we’re willing to assume a title just to be legitimate?

He doesn’t become legitimate just by calling himself “Whatever Productions”. Instead, he’s watered down what it means to be a production house, which directly effects the production houses that have put in the work and turned out the quality product. Personally, I think it’s the industry’s fault for not holding these guys accountable… for not setting the bar for how things are done. We should encourage newcomers into the craft, but never at the expense of watering down the guys we look up to as heroes.

Now replace all that I just wrote about “production” with something like “musician” or “band.” We’re in no hurry so take your time and let it sink in… Ouch. Hmmm. I probably just offended alot of people or worse… maybe I didn’t offend anyone.

I realize that when you play music you are by definition a “musician”. And by definition this kid above “produces” films. Let’s not have an internet fight about that, but instead lets cut through the bullshit for a second and get to the heart of the matter… that there comes a point in every person’s career where a line is crossed and you have put in the work, earned the respect of your peers and are furthering the craft of what you do. When you cross that line and become a skilled craftsman, your title is now defined by you… it’s not just what you are called.

Tattooing is a trade that takes this idea seriously. You start out by becoming an apprentice and learning for years before a Tattooer says you are good enough to be called a Tattooer. It’s never your call… always theirs. What if being a musician required that?

I know the film or music business isn’t changing anytime soon, but maybe I’ll just started calling people “That guy that sings” until they can prove that what they are doing respects our musical heroes and strengthens the craft. The bar is never raised by adding more of something, it’s only raised by increasing the quality of it.

The brass tacks here is respecting your craft or trade. Never be afraid to do what you love, but have the respect and humbleness to say that you’re learning, you’re playing and working your ass off to become a “musician”.

__
P.S. If you’re still offended that I might not call you a musician… that’s OK. Feel free to call me “that guy that types things” until I prove myself a “writer”. I’m cool with that.

Buddy Holly. Everyone knows his name and everyone knows that he’s regarded as one of the greats of all time even though he only live 22 years. Just 22 years… what a sad loss. Most people know him for the song “Peggy Sue” and maybe a few other, but you should really dig into his entire canon of music. You’ll now get that chance on June 28th when a tribute album comes out.

I’d heard about this tribute “Rave On Buddy Holly” months ago and dismissed it as just another announcement of new bands using an old great name to further their career. In fact, I barely scanned the list of performers. And what I really missed was the fine print of “artists were free to explore radically new interpretations.” Which honestly, could be really bad… but in this case is REALLY, REALLY good.

Don’t make my mistake.. look over these songs and names closely:

1. Dearest – The Black Keys
2. Every Day – Fiona Apple & Jon Brion
3. It’s So Easy – Paul McCartney
4. Not Fade Away – Florence + The Machine
5. (You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care – Cee Lo Green
6. Crying, Waiting, Hoping – Karen Elson
7. Rave On – Julian Casablancas
8. I’m Gonna Love You Too – Jenny O.
9. Maybe Baby – Justin Townes Earle
10. Oh Boy – She & Him
11. Changing All Those Changes – Nick Lowe
12. Words Of Love – Patti Smith
13. True Love Ways – My Morning Jacket
14. That’ll Be The Day – Modest Mouse
15. Well…All Right – Kid Rock
16. Heartbeat -The Detroit Cobras
17. Peggy Sue – Lou Reed
18. Peggy Sue Got Married – John Doe
19. Raining In My Heart – Graham Nash

Lou Reed is doing Peggy Sue?!?! She & Him doing Oh Boy?! I know there are some Kid Rock naysayers out there, but Well.. All Right is perfect for him and some have said that it’s the best Kid Rock tack he’s ever put out. Justin Townes Earle, The Black Keys, Modest Mouse… you get the picture!

The turning point on this, for me, was hearing a track off the album by Florence + The Machine covering “Not Fade Away”. If the others do half a good of a job as she did with this song, this could be the best thing to happen to music all year. I’m so proud that Buddy Holly is going to be getting the attention he deserves with the new age of music lovers that only know him by name.

And now sit back and enjoy “Not Fade Away” by Florence + The Machine. It’s got a New Orleans blues feel to it that is beautiful.

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P.S. Here is The Black Keys doing “Dearest“