Everything Is Broken

Broken Lines, Broken Strings

2010-08-30T02:49:00.000-07:00

Most artists and bands want to achieve success in the music business, for instance earning enough from travelling and playing their beloved instrument to quitting their day job. Good management is almost always necessary to achieve any measure of success in this tough business. Many musicians are intelligent and resourceful, and certainly have the capacity to manage their own affairs, but the artist that can handle all this and progress in his art without losing focus and/or sanity is rare.

The basic question is when do you need a manager?

The simple answer is....when you have something to manage. Sounds pretty obvious, but it is the most accurate answer I can give. Many artists and bands tend to seek management far too early in their careers, but others wait too long. Some artists and bands look for management to take over every aspect of the band's business so they can just "show up and play...". Even if the manager could do it all, bands must understand that the success or failure is solely the band's responsibility. Not the manager's.

The main reason an artist or band tends to seek a manager is because they want to be playing regular gigs as well as get extensive media attention to help promote the artist and their music. From the very first day, a good manager will be driven by an artist or band's achievements, which may be as simple as having a great song written or access to a decent PA or an opportunity to perform for an A&R scout. Any "successful" regional act will tell you that practicing and playing are only a very small part of the job of being in a band; meeting club owners, networking with other bands, and studying the music industry are just a few of many responsibilities. Remember, it's called the music business for a reason.

If you or your band is lucky enough to have a close friend outside the band with respect for the band and music, some computer skills, motivation to succeed, and basic business knowledge, you're in luck!

Most up-and-coming bands aren't in the financial position to pay a manager or even pay their rent for that matter, so be sure to respect the free labour you're receiving for what it is. Once your band is has established itself and written some material to perform live, utilize your resources to record a good demo tape, write a band biography, and have some professional pictures made. Basically, a killer press kit. Then, use those tools to help create some business to manage!

When you know you're ready for a manager and haven't got the full time to focus your attention on playing as well as your administrative duties, its essential to find the perfect manager.

Ain't No Use Jivin,' Ain't No Use Jokin'

2010-06-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

If you're a 'techno-luddite' like myself, then prepare for a grim future in the music department.

Now that music has become so easy to access it's difficult to take in. One certainly can't take in all of it and even taking in what you like would be more than a full-time occupation. Irrespective, record companies, internet sites, companies producing sound devices and a string of other interested parties are doing their darndest to force-feed their 'products' upon us. By 'products' I refer to anything to do with you listening to a song. The band, the individual artist, the record label, the merchandise, the sound device, the box-set DVD, the speakers, the earpieces and so forth.

I still have no idea what 'mp3' actually stands for. I know that it's a type of sound file and the type of sound file that my music is stored in. I know that an iPod plays mp3 files. I have only a vague idea of what a 'Blackberry' is. I assume that it's a 'fifty-billion-devices-in-one' affair with another ninety-billion apps. I know that an app is an application and in the computer world it's something that's added on which makes something do more.

Recently, however, I did stumble across a site that not only clarified my confusion but made the multitude of options' make sense,' if you will. Mini Systems has a vast array of sound devices to cater for all of your sound needs. Mini Systems only deal in quality merchandise which makes their prices much more than competitive and this quality of their is never compromised.

"People Sleeping, On Broken Beds...."

2009-12-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

As is the case with digital music, the vast majority of people who continue to enjoy live music don't really know what goes into the production and transmission of it....and why should they?

The beauty of digital music for ones' iPod is that once it is created and uploaded, the process is over for the musician. Yes, they may have spent countless hours deliberating over this issue and that issue, lost a few hours sleep and sacked a few drummers, but this nowhere near accounts for how much work goes into one live performance, let alone a tour.

I am hoping to share, from, experience, exactly how much goes into touring as a musician. There will be areas that vary or not apply.

I'm taking it as a 'given' that all venues, dates, times and accommodation have been arranged well in advance by your manager. The availability of band members, road crew and so forth should also be established. It is during this pre-tour phase that, while the manager is doing their promotional and organisational work, the band has their routine down pat. The band should allow a little flexibility re. times but only a little. Once a set list, or lists, is settled it should be firmly entrenched in your head. Any suggestions of deviations in the midst of a tour should be met with firm "No!"

On the day of heading off on tour everyone is abuzz. You should be abuzz. It's exciting stuff. This is a critical point for you and a point where things can go pear-shaped fast. Allowing more than enough time for getting to each venue may be all well and good as you to sit there reading tis and nodding your head in agreement but the hours spent hanging around to hit the stage is an easy time for one to be led astray. I don't need to elaborate. If, like me, you found hanging around tedious, go have a lie down. It's much safer and it's legal.

Sound-checks should be done as early as is considered reasonable by the venue. If your sound engineer is worth his salt they shouldn't take long. They may vary in length dependent on the acoustics of a venue. I found that after the soundcheck was a good time to try to sleep.

Ideally, instruments should be left on the stage and tuned-up. Your road crew will keep a close eye on them. If guitars are kept in their cases I guarantee that come show-time they won't be in tune and there's nothing worse than waiting for someone to tune-up during a gig.

I found that approximately an hour pre-gig was a good time to wake up. It was plenty of time to get organised and meet with the other band members but not long enough to start getting fed-up. The bands that I played in only did on long set but if your band do shorter sets I'd suggest breaks between sets of ten minutes and certainly no longer than fifteen minutes. Go backstage during these breaks. Again, your road crew will keep an eye on the stage.

After each gig is over, spend some time together as a band. Again, ten or fifteen minutes. Crowd members are inevitably going to want to meet you. This is something that I struggled with basically because I never knew what all the fuss was about. I am very much the same. Insults, I can retaliate to with a barrage of one-liners. Compliments are different. Irrespective, if logistics and time allow it is worth spending time with those who have gone out of their way and paid money to see you.

The majority of the time you will find that it's drunk people but it's worth putting up with as you never know who may be listening in. Be ever-vigilant that sober people are legit and any band-related matters should be redirected to your manager. Any comments not pertaining to music should be dealt with like hot coal; either not at all or carefully at best. Invitations to post-gig parties should be avoided.

After your post-gig socialising your next focus should be your next tour-date. Take this, distance and time into consideration and work your sleeping pattern around that. It takes a

little bit of adjusting-to but not as much adjusting-to as a constant hangover, lethargy, amnesia and insomnia.

Unless you're on Bob Dylans' "Never Ending Tour" it isn't going to last forever. It's a small sacrifice in time for a lifetimes' worth of experience and stories that you can actually remember and live to tell the tale.

"Streets Are Filled, With Broken Hearts...."

2009-11-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I was reading a local brochure through abject boredom and headed straight to the page advertising what used to be called stereos. Nowadays they're called players, which is fair enough.

I was immediately struck by two factors. The first was the visual factor that 'black is the new black.' Every player was sleek, shiny and black. The second factor that visually blared out at me was in small print below every single player. 'iPod not included.'

My initial response was my typical and self-confessed cynical one. "What a scam!" I shouted, leaving my children wondering if I'd perhaps forgotten to take my Lithium. Three seconds later I'd returned to my normal calm and objective self, weighing up the pros and cons of such a manouvre from a business perspective and it's a good move.

Trends have been showing for quite some time that the consumer is now opting for three devices to play songs on. Not a record player and a record, not a CD player and a CD, but a 'player,' an iPod and songs that are 'iPod compatible' and are downloaded from the internet. Three things that bring the business money instead of two. It's so simple it's brilliant.

From the consumers perspective this option is blasted at them in such a manner that, despite a 15% swing back to physical CDs purchases in recent months, these devices are small and slick, they look cool, they hold an unbelievable amount of songs, the sound quality is second to none and entire albums do not have to be downloaded. Additionally, the hassle of going to a record store is gone (even though one does have to leave ones' house to purchase download cards if purchasing via iTunes).

Does all of this sound too good to be true? Well, it is true but I'm not so sure that it's too good for all parties concerned.

Firstly, the younger generation are drawn to the flashy gadgets and easily accessible music of their favourite artists, be they The Jonas Brothers, Metallica, Robbie Williams and so forth but how on earth are they able to afford these ridiculously small but highly priced players? They are also given the impression that they are locked into the prices set by the likes of iTunes.

There is then the plight of independent musician who cannot afford the relentless siege-like advertising campaigns because they're not making massive amounts of money for the major players in the distribution caper. This is where I see big things ahead for Nimbit if they play their cards right.

Nimbit was only brought to my attention by my manager Haych Storm© and I couldn't believe my luck....or was it luck? Not only does Nimbit allow the artist set the price of albums and singles, the artist can choose the exact date and time of release, unlike iTunes. Additionally, liner notes are presented as submitted and material can be 'featured' and rotated as desired. Additionally, their store tracking is second to none and the sound sampling is equal to that of other major distributors.

I have been advised by satisfied supporters that downloading is a simple affair and that they found the PayPal option a real bonus.

The real clincher for me with Nimbit is that downloaded tracks are iPod compatible.' My only minor criticism is that I think Nimbit could benefit from highlighting this fact. Independent musicians can do likewise....as I have just done.

"Broken Words, Never Meant To Be Spoken...."

2009-11-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

When the new ReverbNation webstore finally arrived I couldn't believe what I was looking at. They have partnered with Audiolife to make the store possible, but not in the for people were led to believe. Admittedly ReverbNation did not directly state that artists would be able to sell directly from the site but they came as close as legally possible to it. I also noted with bemusement that ReverbNation has joined forces with Audiolife is to make this possible.

On the Audiolife site the musicians' material is accepted at 128kbs whereas at Reverbnation it is 256kbs. Why this is, I have no idea. ReverbNation has also added store widgets and banners with no mention of Audiolife on them. One could only assume that Audiolife are benefiting from the increase in sales as ReverbNation has much higher online visibility. The pricing options are the same as on the Audiolife site.

I was rather looking forward to the opening of the ReverbNation store and selling directly from there to my fans as it is one of my favourite sites but I won't be bothering. I sent a letter to my fans there when I started with Audiolife several weeks ago. I see no point in sending them a message offering the same material. Very disappointing.

It seems that of late iTunes seem to be getting left out of the picture. The recent announcement by Google that they would be making artists searchable directly from their toolbar has, from what I've read, been doing rather well. I noticed in the message received from iLike that iTunes was excluded from the partnership. ReverbNations' recent partnering with Audiolife also mentioned in their F.A.Q. that iTunes ringtones were not available at this time.

Apple has been conspicuous in its' silence on the music front. It has, however, been equally conspicuous in its' increase in emails promoting this gadget or that gadget all in very eye-catching colours. Has Apple conceded defeat as far as actual music is concerned and now focussing even more on flashy gizzmos?

This would't be as silly a move as it initially sounds. The younger generation devour these new gimmics as quickly as they are produced and they are produced at an astonishing rate. A teenager buying the latest mp3 player almost has to turn back before leaving the shop as a newer one has become available.

Planned obsolescence is a brilliant business strategy but it's parasitic and unfortunately people fall for it in droves. Perhaps Apple have realised that they're more suited to catering for musical devices. They certainly don't show any concern for musicians or any interest in artists input.

It may be well worth paying attention to Apples' future direction as far as music goes. There is too much money to be made for them to totally abandon it but if they intend to compete with genuine music sites such as ReverbNation, Nimbit and Audiolife then they need to be more pro-active, open and genuine with regard to the work that musicians put into their work.

"Broken Idols, Broken Heads...."

2009-11-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

Sooner than I expected, iLike and "other partners" are enabling Google to make it easier for music listeners to find, listen to and buy music. Sounds great, eh? It is great for listeners. For the independent artist it's not quite so great. By having ones' music on iLike doesn't necessarily mean that its' available for sale. To make ones' music for sale there the artist must pay to make it available for download by a major distributor.

For this musician it has been the cause of much gnashing of false teeth and heavy-duty decision making. The cost of putting out an album via the major distributors in partnership may not seem much to most, but to me it's not an option at the moment. Even if it were an option I would still not go down this avenue on principal.

After months of research on statistics I discovered that, unless you are a major act, you enter the realms of major distributors you basically vanish. I have, however, maintained my visibility on iLike by placing a full length track, "I'm Money" as a tongue-in-cheek free download. All other tracks are 30-second song-clips. I have posted a bulletin to iLike to this effect. I shall also be sharing the song-clips on Facebook and elsewhere.

I also noted in the press release with my usual cynicism that MySpace are involved in this "seamless integration." I also noted that The Kings Of Leon were used as the example of how simple this new search which can be done directly from the Google search box. My pet wolverine could find The Kings Of Leon. They're hardly 'obscure.' To add insult to injury, the alleged "seamless integration" currently seems to have come apart at the seams as I attempted to load my song-clips from GarageBand to then have transfered to iLike in order to share with my supporters elsewhere. Seamless indeed. I'm sure they'll have some outstanding yet paltry excuse shortly.

I also noted that there are problems accessing adsense. All within 24 hours of this major amalgamation......I don't believe in coincidences. Once these problems are ironed out, which I suspect will be very soon, people will have access to pretty-well every artist who has put some time & effort into marketing themselves. The downside, and statistics show this, that a big name act is light years more likely to have their material purchased purely because of who they are. Us independent artists will have our commercially available material streamed day in, day out.

So where does this leave the 'small fish' like me and so many other independent artists?

It leaves us having to make ourselves as searchable and visible on Google by maintaining a consistent profile, fresh and relevant updates and spreading the word amongst fellow musicians such as I am attempting to do. Google is the worlds search engine of choice. By combining this with Facebook, which holds the largest slice of the sharing market despite the bleating of other sharing sites. Make no mistake, it's time-consuming and despite the speed of the internet at transferring information it does take time to generate. Be patient and remain focussed and true to yourself. If any of these two factors go, then things go pear-shaped really quickly. It is time well spent.

It took me months of late nights, reading information that turned out to be hopeless but, as I do with my music, I work on the law of averages. Keep doing enough and someone somewhere will dig your work enough to buy it.

I was also looking for the most viable option to distribute my music. With the assistance of my manager, Haych Storm©, we finally settled on two distributors that I would HIGHLY recommend....something that I rarely do. Firstly there's Nimbit. They have a free account where digital downloads are sold and managed by them. It is somewhat time-consuming to set up but if you want to be professional, these things are a must. Their widhest & store tracing are second to none. There are no up-front costs but they charge 20% of the price of the album or single download which I think is more than fair. In addition it is you who determines the price.

The second distributor that we decided on was AudioLife. As well as offering mp3 downloads, it also lets the artist create 'on demand' CDs which you design yourself. They charge $5.45 for this on-demand service. Like Nimbit, you get to set the price. This also applies to merchandise, mainly assorted styles of T-shirts. They also provide the option of selling ringtones which serve 45 countries. They have had to set the price of $2.45 due to the variatios between phone servers (I checked the stats).

This leads me to my closing point in this entry. Fess-up, guys! You want to make a few dollars. All of those rehearsals, money spent on equipment, arguments amongst band members, travel and so forth don't have a set price but they DO have a price. Your music is worth something to more people than you realise. Getting people to reach into their wallet is akin to pulling teeth....unless you happen to be The Kings Of Leon.

As I mentioned previously, these things take time to generate. Hold that thought.

"Ain't No Use Jivin,' Ain't No Use Jokin'...."

2009-11-01T22:15:00.001-08:00

No sooner had I written about the analogy made between the internet and a pieces of wire which will inevitably become so intertwined by Stuart Reeman and I that they wold soon end up as one single (ideally) slicl piece of steel than Twitter has gone and made the unbelievably irrational move of disabling FutureTweets and RSS feeds.

I haven't read the whys and wherefores. I have neither the need nor interest. I do, however, suspect that many people who used these services as were intended will be a touch more than annoyed. I'm more bemused as I suspected that Twitter would go belly-up as quickly as it rose to near internet domination.

The likes of Google, MySpace, iLike and other sites clambering desperately for more pie must be breathing a sigh of relief. How long this will last is unknown as my cynicism tells me that the must be more afoot from the folks at Twitter.

I was hoping not to be writing this entry so soon but felt compelled to let folks know about it. I, for one, don't have time to sit at a computer day in, day out and wouldn't know the first thing about these miniscule phones that do a billion things in a nano second. I know for a fact that I'm not alone in this area.

So, as a musician, al that will be seen of me on Twitter will be very few status updates. The best chance of seeing them will be in blogs as the odds of catching me in real-time are practically nil.

For a site that prides itself on the sharing of information rapidly, this recent moves certainly seems a wee bit more than odd which is why, as mentioned before, I suspect they have some new gizzmo up their sleeve. Time will tell but for this writer, it won't make one jot of a difference to my music. I shall continue to put my song-clips there when I remember to and hope that somebody somewhere might hear them on Twitter.

If not there are more folks hear my material on my website & on ReverbNation.

"Broken Voices, On Broken Phones...."

2009-10-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

A few months ago Stuart Reeman and I were discussing the speed at which the internet was developing and how it would affect the music game. We were both left wondering how much 'further' it can develop. Speaking as one with very limited internet skills the word 'developing' when used in relation to the internet generally means condensing whilst making music sharing easier.

We began with the analogy of every site being a length of wire. As time progressed a certain length of wire would develop a branch, this branch being a new & improved piece of technology. The other pieces of wire predictably followed suit with their own branches. Each new branch became the focal point of each site leading to the starting point, the reason why the site was created, becoming obsolete.

We took this analogy further with each piece of wire becoming so intricate & difficult to distinguish from the next that they began merging with each other. This has been blatantly obvious over the past 12 months as sites are finally realising that they have become so bent out of shape that they are becoming paradoxically less popular due to overload. The converation between Stuart and I ended with, not a single piece of wire, but a small metallic dot that catered for everything. Time will prove us right or wrong.

Having read a few articles over the past week from various major players I detect a definite sense of panic as one organisation attempts to compete with another. As a musician I obviously focussed my attention on this area.

It has been announced that Google and Bing will soon be indexing Twitter. This seems to me to be a rather drastic course of action, particularly by Google who are by far the most popular of search engines, when one considers that Twitter is merely two or so years old.

Twitter has quite obviously given the major players quite a scare. The rapidity with which major pieces of information can be transfered with minimal effort in real-time hasn't been seen before. When Michael Jackson passed away, A.I.M. almost ground to a halt as it was unable to cope with the influx of information being transferred.

Twitter have also made it possible for musicians to share their music. Google are soon to respond by launching a music service which allows users to stream music from a vast collection of songs directly from their search window. Google is also partnering with the purely music-based organisations iLike and Lala .

For those who really enjoy their music this is a fantastic innovation but how does this affect the independent musicians who, like myself, are attempting to make a few dollars from what we enjoy?

In recent weeks I have received an annoyingly noticeable amount of emails from music sites asking for input. Until the past few weeks such emails were a rarity. The emails are similar in nature all saying how much us independent artists mean to them and how they will respond to every single piece of input. Were they not so irritating, I'd find them sad. Not only are we promised (yet again) the world but profile pages need updating as sites move along with 'our requests.' I don't know who made these requests but I certainly wasn't informed.

Then there are the 'bonus features,' the main one being able to put more songs onto a particular site. THIS, to my mind, is where the system is upside-down. The site draws listeners so it's gaining revenue. Listeners are getting to listen to free music. At the end of the day, the musician is getting little more than a 'virtual' thank you.

What solution is there? Plenty, but people would be leaving sites that had anything remotely to do with music in droves, which is paradoxical to what is happening now. Music is becoming more sought after than ever. This trend will continue as long as people can just happily listen to whoever they choose, as opposed to what the D.J. decides.

The control over what music one chooses to listen to is now taken for granted, as is the ability to listen to it free of charge. Take away either of these factors and the music caper would be more of a shambles than it currently is. The big guns know this and are in panic mode as they clamber for a bigger slice of the action.

The effect of this continued greed will obviously have a direct effect on musicians. How musicians react to this is obviously their own choice. Do they make their music so available to these major organisations that the need for people to actually purchase their music is nullified or do they take a risk and make their music scarce? Robert Plant, only this week, at the British Music Awards said of the industry when asked, "There is no music industry. It's all merchandise."

There are more ways of promoting ones' music than simply placing every song on every site possible. I have removed the vast majority of my music from most sites with still some to go but am maintaining my 'visibility.' The notion that people are streaming entire songs is akin to the notion that a band is playing my songs. It's a paradoxical notion; a compliment and an irritant at the same time.

Some folks may call this arrogant but I suspect any car saleseman who was asked by the same customer to take out a different car for a test-drive on a daily basis for a few years would agree with me.

This musician is for taking a risk. My material can be previewed in the Nimbit store (below) and also on my website, www.scotsbob.com where CDs can now be purchased. I have nothing to lose. Hopefully my supporters agree.