Lee Jarvis 2.0

Dubspot DJ and Production School present Ableton Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour

2009-11-03T21:07:00.001-06:00

Dubspot and Ableton present the LA stop of their "Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour"
Workshops & Panel Discussions Featuring World-Class Artists
@ King King in Hollywood - Saturday, Nov. 7 and Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009 (daytime)

Dubspot, New York’s premier DJ and electronic music production institute, announces the Los Angeles stop of their Ableton Live 8 U.S. Sessions Tour. This unique series of interactive workshops, Q&As and panel discussions features a diverse pool of world-class artists as well as Dubspot's top-notch instructors sharing methods for the studio and the stage, centered around the powerful music software Ableton Live 8. Special guest workshop presenters for the Los Angeles weekend include Scientist, Daedelus, Kid Beyond, Justin Boreta, Christopher Willits, Thavius Beck, and Peter Kirn, along with the Dubspot crew. The LA session will be held at King King in Hollywood (6553 Hollywood Blvd / map) on Saturday November 7 (11:00am - 7:00pm) and Sunday November 8 (noon - 8:00pm), 2009. For details and registration please visit www.live8tour.com.

Check out their previous tour stop in NYC, and hear one heck of an endorsement from legendary DJ and producer Richie Hawtin.

This truly unique educational experience is intended to help both aspiring as well as established artists. Each day is organized into five "sessions" designed to develop a diverse range of production and performance skills, while enhancing creative abilities. Saturday sessions focus on production. Sunday sessions focus on performance. Tour workshops showcase how far-reaching the capabilities of Ableton Live 8 are by covering a wide variety of compositional, programming, mixing, and mastering issues. Topics include drum-programming, instrument and effect rack management, sequencing, automation, creating melody, harmonic awareness, mixing and mastering principles, sound stage management, synth programming, PA/DJ hybrid setups, controllers, live instruments in Ableton, efficient set management, looping, routing, licensing, and much more.

The tour involves pioneers of electronic music, along with new blood, to provide a more complete experience and perspective of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. In addition to the special guests lined up in each city, expert Dubspot instructors will present personally developed production and performance strategies in a dynamic interactive workshop environment.

The Los Angeles event is the third stop in a series of Ableton workshops that Dubspot is presenting in 8 U.S. cities. Next up on the tour is Austin, with the event to be held at The Parish Room on November 14th and 15th. Presenters and performers at the Austin event include Francis Preve (Different Pieces, Fap 7), Christopher Willits (Ghostly International, Overlap.org), Daniel Wyatt (Sonica Media Group, Atlantic), Jon Margulies (Heatercore, Hobotech), Barry Cole (Spot Music & Blue Mountain Music Publishing), and Michael Hatsis (Track Team Audio).

Again, the LA session will be held at King King in Hollywood (6553 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028; 323-960-5765 (map)) on Saturday November 7 (11:00am - 7:00pm) and Sunday November 8 (noon - 8:00pm), 2009. A weekend pass costs $195; a Saturday or Sunday day-pass costs $110. For details and registration please visit www.live8tour.com.

For more information on Dubspot, please check out www.dubspot.com

Lee Jarvis.

Lost My Dog present ‘Connect’ Event at Swag Records, London

2009-11-01T11:32:00.003-06:00

Lost My Dog ‘Connect’ is an opportunity for budding DJs, producers and anybody with an interest in the dance music industry to meet and learn from some the UK finest underground House artists, alongside LMD label bosses and record shop staff.

Lost My Dog has teamed up with legendary record store Swag Records, based in Croydon, London, who have been long-time supporters of the label and who introduced artists such as Nathan Coles, Harold Heath and Nick Dare to LMD.

On the afternoon of Saturday 7th November you can hear sets from Rhythm Plate, Giom, Pete Dafeet, Nick Dare and Terry Francis as well as get their advice on music software, hardware, production tips, DJing and learn how they got their first break.

Also in attendance will be Lost My Dog label bosses Najan Ward and Ian Straker who will be giving advice on how to approach labels, things to consider if you are interested in starting your own label and all aspects of the dance music industry. And of course the hugely experienced Swag Records team will be on hand to talk to and serve up the latest hot 12”s. If you’re looking to work in the dance music industry this is a rare and free event that should definitely not be missed.

Date: Saturday 7th November 2009, 12:00 – 18:00

Location: Swag Records, 42 Station Road, West Croydon, London, CR0 2RB

DJs / Producers:
Rhythm Plate / YSE (Lost My Dog, Winding Road)
Pete Dafeet (Lost My Dog)
Giom (Lost My Dog, Aroma, Blackcherry)
Nick Dare (Lost My Dog, Reform Recordings)
Terry Francis (Fabric, Wiggle)

LMD Label Bosses:
Ian Straker
Najan Ward
Pete Dafeet

plus
Liz, Paul and the Swag Records team.

I hope some of our UK Music Jobs members can check it out!

Lee Jarvis.

(Image via Lost My Dog Records)

New Music Seminar - Chicago '09

2009-10-26T13:41:00.004-05:00

The New Music Seminar is about "seeing the music business and your opportunities a new way". The event was originally held from 1980 - 1995, and after a long hiatus, was revived this July in New York, featuring speakers and panelists from a variety of music companies, websites, institutions and backgrounds.

The Chicago event on October 6th was attended by artists, managers, label owners, and other individuals wanting to learn about the new evolving industry, and hoping to hear advice from inventive young music companies and long-time veterans who can acknowledge the recent changes and struggles of emerging artists and indie labels. Contributors such as Lou Plaia, the co-founder of Reverbnation, Michael Spiegelman, head of Yahoo! Music, Paul Resnikoff, founder and editor of Digital Music News, and Martin Atkins, author of Tour:Smart. Certainly enough interesting people and ideas for me to attend and report back here for our Music Jobs members.

Founder Tommy Silverman started the day with some shocking statistics. Although, he did point out that they should only concern you if you are on the board at one of the majors. The fact that only 110 albums released in 2008 sold over 250,000 copies that year is not an issue for a new independent artist. What it does enforce is something I've tried to help people with for some time, and that is re-evaluating your idea of success. You are not going to get scooped up by a label and go platinum. You CAN work hard and earn a living form your music, and if we are all in it for the love of the art, shouldn't that be a more than reasonable level to consider success?

However, one statistic that you should pay attention to, is that of the 105,575 albums released in 2008, only 5945 sold more than 1,000 copies that year. This is the line of obscurity that you want to vault over. With a good strategy and understanding of the new music industry, you will sell enough albums and earn many valuable fans for you to reach this newly defined success.

Michael Spiegelman delivered a keynote focused on the tools that Yahoo and other services can provide to help an artist publish, market, engage, sell and monetise effectively. He emphasised the need to find relevant tools and fans, and how you can pull this information from the internet via different traffic sources, and how to act upon it using analytics. When asked by the audience what he saw as the latest in disruptive technologies, he replied that the cycle has moved from the initial surge of new ideas to a 'maturity' time, where we figure out what is sustainable and build a business model on top of that. In other words, the abundance of new websites and technologies over the last few years will slow, and some lesser ones will be brushed aside, as stronger ideas are built upon and emerge into a key part of the future industry.

The fist panel session was probably my favourite, for the fact that they shared some great advice, stayed focused on the topics at hand and made sure what they were saying was relevant given the audience. Emily White, of Whitesmith Entertainment pointed out the importance of communicating directly with your fans, and how you can do that with the help of Google Alerts and social networking tools such as Twitter. I couldn't agree more with this, and Lou Plaia backed this up by saying that the more you do now and try to generate your own attention the more power you have further down the line - not just for bargaining with labels but the awareness of how this all works is healthy and will help propel you further by maximising any opportunities you come across.

The panel discussed the idea that 1000 "super fans" are something of a milestone to aim for, as these super fans are the people who are likely to spend around $100 a year on your work. This would give you a total income of $100,000 per year, and lead you to making a living from your music.

David Hazan, Chief Marketing Officer at The Bizmo encouraged artists to be creative in terms of merchandise offerings, as one ticket, one T-shirt and one album doesn’t equal $100 bucks. He offered that one band had handwritten lyrics and notes, which they uploaded as PDF, and their "super fans" paid for access to that premium content. This idea had the added bonus of no distribution costs, therefore earning the band good money.

To be honest, the next two panels lost the vibe a bit, as a result of lacking direction. Several long rants from panel members about their own achievements did not help. Some of the saviors were Ariel Hyatt of Cyber PR and Corey Denis of Reapandsow, both sharing great advice on social networking for musicians. DJ veterans Steve 'Silk' Hurley and Bad Boy Bill had some interesting points, sharing a different angle having been in electronic music, and therefore seen a different market for singles, EPs and mixtapes over the years. If only they could have fit in more comments instead of a majorly ill-fitting (and misguided) panel member spouting not only incredulous ideas, but contradicting himself, often within the same poorly structured sentence.

The final session was where Martin Atkins stole the show. Impervious and humble advice, shared with clear and concise translations for the entire audience, and demonstrated with a sense of humour produced great effect. I'm a Martin Atkins fan anyway, and if you ever choose to buy any music industry book at all (which you should), it should be his Tour:Smart masterpiece.

Overall, the seminar was interesting, and it was great for me to hear some speakers that I respect for the first time, but overall it was lacking something. I would prefer a closer connection with the industry experts, more interaction from them with the audience, and a working Wi-Fi network ;-)

I look forward to the event evolving in the future.

Lee Jarvis

(Cross-posted at US Music Jobs, the premier online community for US music industry professionals and jobs in the music industry)

Seminar photos (c) Lee Jarvis 2009.

Lee J the DJ Oct'09 - New Studio Purchase / New Remixes / New York DJ and Production School

2009-10-26T12:27:00.008-05:00

So, I decided to finally start posting some happenings of my own musical career. Just once a month, you'll get a brief update of any projects I'm working on, upcoming gigs, people I've seen perform live, exciting industry stories that have come my way and other various personal ramblings. (I also have a DJ Lee Jarvis Facebook fan page for more regular updates and feedback).

Lee J the DJ Oct'09

New Studio Purchase
I've had a busy month with moving house, but that lead to a new room for my studio, and so to a new pair of monitor speakers to be purchased. After some research, some friendly suggestions and some budget planning, I had a shortlist of the KRK Rokit 6s, the Mackie MR5s and the Alesis M1 mkIIs. I had used the Alesis before back in the UK, have always loved the sound of Mackies, and the Rokit series came very highly recommended. My local Guitar Centre had all 3 in stock and ready to demo, and off I went. Unfortunately, whilst I was preferring the sound of the Mackie MR5s, I didn't know if the 5" cone could recreate the necessary bass frequencies I worked with within electronic music....

...and so I blew my budget and went for the MR8s instead :)

New Remixes
And so, with my new toys installed, I got to work on some production work, completing several remix projects. I have a remix of Chemars' Funky Thang out on Deep East Records on November 25th, and also a remix of Rob Davy's Bout Dis due out next year. Stay tuned for samples and links.

I've just had another remix released on UK label Lost My Dog. Listen here:-

Danny Stott - Bunker (Lee Jarvis' Secret Kelvedon Hideout Remix) (320promo) by Lee Jarvis

OUT NOW! Buy at Beatport / Stompy / Traxsource / DJ Download / Juno Download / Primal

New York DJ and Production School
Finally, I went to New York this month and met with a leading DJ and Production school called Dubspot. Dubspot is an innovative electronic music production & DJ institute. As one of the first Ableton Certified Training Centers in the world, DubSpot has become the premier music school for both experienced & aspiring artists alike. Most importantly, Dubspot is a growing community of musicians, visual artists, DJs, audio technology professionals, industry veteran producers, & enthusiasts of all genres who all have one thing in common - a passion for music.

Dubspot have an incredible selection of top class equipment, truly talented tutors and a work team with an amazing attitude - to the school, their students and music as a whole. I'll be reporting more on them in coming weeks as they are involved in some exciting projects and I see them as one of the best in their field in the US.

That's it for October, see you next month!

Lee Jarvis.

Scotland Yard Gospel Choir in road accident

2009-10-02T14:46:00.002-05:00

A few weeks back, I attended a Tour Smart crash course weekend (please do read that post after - lots of great info!), and at the end of the last day we were treated to an acoustic set by Chicago based The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir.

The name doesn't really give anything away; no British police force themed-costumes, and certainly no gospel choir in sight as they were setting up. The band were a great mix of rock n roll sound and great lyrical content, from melancholy to laugh-out-loud funny, and they topped off a great weekend. Here is a short video for a song called Wicker Park, which was written by members Mary Ralph and engineered by Mark Yoshizumi.

Opportunity School - Wicker Park from sygc_love on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, last week the exciting young artists were involved in a bad road accident, resulting in most of the members being hospitalised and their van and all equipment destroyed. It was announced yesterday that all 2009 tour dates have been cancelled, and that the Halloween show at Sub-T is now a benefit for the band. We'll have details on more benefits next week.

From the press release: "Alison Hinderliter, Jay Santana, and Ethan Adelsman were all released from the hospital last night with minor injuries. Elia Einhorn was held overnight with injuries to his head and neck, and is expected to be released tomorrow. Mary Ralph has a broken pelvis and collarbone, and will probably be moved to a hospital closer to home. Mark Yoshizumi was airlifted to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn last night with injuries to his head, back, and neck. He is in serious condition, but making progress."

If you want to help the band with the extensive costs of this accident, you can donate simply via paypal - follow this link this link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=8469029, or if you would like to purchase any of their music, all the info you need is here http://www.bloodshotrecords.com/album/and-horse-you-rode. You can also help by passing the news on to friends / contacts.

Regular updates will be posted at the band's label blog Bloodshot Records

The Music Jobs team send our best wishes to the whole band.

Lee Jarvis

Tour Smart Plus! A weekend crash course in everything a DIY musician needs to know

2009-08-28T11:08:00.002-05:00

Tour:Smart is the brainchild of Martin Atkins. The ex- Public Image Ltd / Nine Inch Nails and Pigface drummer has applied his decades of experience and educated vision of the new music industry to a book, a DVD, and a series of crash-courses / seminars / discussions / school-events designed to aid musicians on their journey through the industry.

I don't know how to describe the latest offering, Tour:Smart PLUS!, it is essentially a four year long educational course crammed into one 48-hour whirlwind weekend. It was intense, energising, humbling and motivating. Starting with learning from other band’s mistakes of touring, to learning to print your own merchandise, to filming and editing your own videos, and then what to do with them in the crazy online world of social media. This is as complete a course as you could find, without all the fodder of the ways the industry used to work or hiring other people who then get in your way (and cause you costly mistakes). It is the nitty-gritty of what YOU need to do to propel YOUR career forward; it is about taking responsibility, creating plans and leaping into action.

There is no magical guide to make you famous in six weeks, the music business is a long and dirty road, but with a hand from Tour Smart you will have all you need to prepare and inspire you to take this road, and start eating up the miles.

As I said, I could not even begin to regurgitate the learnings of last weekend, but here are just a few key snippets that were delivered by Martin in his own passionate way, and how they resonated with myself.

“The Music Business is Participatory...”
As a musician, you have to not only practice and record your music, but promote, network, hack, sell, distribute, tweak, market, deliver and everything else in order to create your own success. Sitting back and waiting to be ‘discovered’? (LINK) I’ll tell you now that it is not going to happen.

“Beware of Smokescreens...”
Hardware or soft synths? Cubase or Logic? MP3, CD, Vinyl or cassette tapes? Getting caught up in these arguments is a waste of time. Use what works for you, make your music, get it out there. Using your music wisely is far more important that the software involved.

“Free is the New Black...”
Giving your music away is pretty much essential. However, you shouldn’t be doing it just because other artists are, but because there is a lot to be gained. Collecting emails in return is often the simplest idea, but so much more can be created and retained, from remix competitions to treasure hunts, all in the name of promoting awareness of your music and your brand. Which leads nicely into...

“Sell the Space Around Your Music...”
If fans like your (free) music, how else would they like to relate to you and how can you monetise that? Live shows? T-shirts? DVDs? Skateboards? Coffee Cups? Music fans often want to be part of a community, and anything that they can wear as a badge to say that they are part of your support will appeal to them. Of course, the individual items or events will depend on your (sub-sub-sub-) genre of music.

“Data Driven Decisions...”
This is not about trial and error. There is something to be said for going whole-heartedly into a project, but you use the data you have to make smart decisions, and then commit yourself. Fanbase details can be collected and dissected in ever-more inventive ways, such as Google Analytics, Youtube Insights, mailing list tracking and good old at-the-venue discussing with fans.

Although just the tip of the iceberg, each of these points should give you and your career something to think about, and for further elaboration, I can’t recommend enough getting in touch with the Tour Smart Team.

Lee Jarvis.

(Cross-posted at US Music Jobs, the premier online community for US music industry professionals and jobs in the music industry)

Class photos (c) Lee Jarvis 2009.

Hey Mr "DJ" / tastemaker / aggregator

2009-08-21T15:26:00.001-05:00

I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, and his words have always resonated with what I try to with music and social media. Well, he recently posted a video blog with the title "Hey Mr DJ", describing the way that DJs aggregate all the music that is out there and deliver it to you for one particular time of day or mood or party. He then uses the term "DJ" in a broad sense to describe the way that people are always looking for interesting content (not just music, but videos, wine facts, triathlon information, etc), but with the incredible amount that is floating around in 2009, people also need a recommendation system to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Many online streaming sites have various genomes / genius bar devices, but I believe that music fans connect better with real people, hence the rise of the DJ over the last 40 years. I have been a DJ myself for sometime, and believe that I have a knack for choosing records from the millions that are out there from around the world, and playing them to the right people at the right time. As an extension of that, I recommend albums and artists to friends and strangers via my online social networking profiles (such as Twitter or Facebook). Vaynerchuk takes this one step further, and suggests that there is great scope for those who can disseminate any kind of niche information from the web, and provide a place that people with a common interest can easily discover and connect.

This kind of tastemaking is, in essence, what we are doing here at music jobs. We offer not only direct job opportunities, but also select pieces of music industry news, single reviews, festival reports, UK music events, advice on your music career, being an independent artist, band promotion, the future of music, copyright issues, music marketing tips and much more!

The purpose of this post is not only to point out how we are here to help you with your search for that perfect music job, but to also point out that maybe you can do something of similar nature. Maybe you know everything there is to know about 18th Century string music, and so maybe you could make yourself the go-to source, not only creating your own content, but feeding out to other sources and narrating on similar articles across the web. Think about it - find your niche, and run with it! You can even start off by posting some interesting topics in our forums and see how many views they gather!

Here is Gary, with his video...

Gary's original blog post is here, and if you are into social media and general web inspired banter, then I suggest you watch as many of them as possible!

Aside from our music industry forum and music industry blog, we share a lot more in our Twitter Feed or Facebook Fan Page, so feel free to follow and connect with us on there, for all your music career resources.

Lee Jarvis.

(Cross posted at UK Music Jobs - the UK's premier website for networking with music professionals and jobs in music)

The "Death of the Music Industry" (again?!)

2009-08-17T09:12:00.009-05:00

The music industry is always being prematurely written off. Thankfully, some people are there to point out that it is still alive and kicking. Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies recently shared an interesting graphic on music sales. (Image via the NY Times)

Dubber goes on to share that people are dissecting the information incorrectly, that the graph does not necessarily show the end of the line for music sales. (As Dubber states, we will not even go into the wild misconception that the record industry is the same as the music industry).

The issue that it only shows the last 35 years means that you cannot see that music sales started a lot lower than is hinted at. Add to that the fact that music sales are more fragmented than ever before; there always used to be one leading format that people collected, now there are many more options to receive your music fix (CD? iTunes? mobile download?). Lastly, any rate of decline will not be constant until it reaches zero. Of course music sales will never reach zero. It will (and has) plateau off into a more reasonable steady rate. There will be more peaks and other declines I'm sure, again possibly linked to a new format discovery and replacement cycle, similar to CDs in the 90s.

Yes, people use illegal P2P file sharing sites. Yes, streaming is a big reason people may not buy or even steal music anymore. But let's not (continue to) get carried away now. Pessimists and those whom misunderstood the bigger industry have always been touting the "death of the music biz", and yet more artists are making a living from doing what they love than ever before. I've been to see more concerts this year than ever before, bought more CDs and downloads than I have for some time, and am finding more new talent every week. The music industry is going through an amazing transformation, and looking at one partial figure (declining music sales over the last 10 years) is indeed, looking at it wrong.

I totally agree that it's not the industry declining right now, it's the end of an unrealistic spike in physical sales. Much of this past revenue was going to the major labels' fat cats, and their decisions on artistic direction would be to make them further money, not to help the industry or music scene blossom. That is also one reason for the inevitable decline; people grow tired of their bland, commercial, overrated, over-hyped decisions. People needed new inspiration, yearn to discover new sounds, and the answer was the internet! Where we are going from here is maybe uncertain, possibly fragmented, and definitely exciting :)

Lee Jarvis.

Lollapalooza Weekend - Full rain and shine 2009 review!

2009-08-13T10:02:00.002-05:00

It's my first summer in Chicago, and so my first chance to experience the legendary Lollapalooza. Having recently come back from Glastonbury in the UK, I wasn't to be daunted by the size and scale of the site, but really like the way they maximised the time and space of Grant Park by having two stages at either end, so as soon as one band finishes, the next one has already sound checked and can start immediately after. You could simply shuffle around, turn and face the other stage and not break from the music for a moment if you so wished.

Friday began... well, wet. Crystal Castles were my first point of call for some electronic-vocoded-rock, and the only reason I left a good set from them was to go and check Fleet Foxes. I’m glad I did, as they put in a great performances, including acoustic numbers and their popular hit 'Mykonos'. After grabbing a few friends, we headed to Thievery Corporation, and the rainy Chicago sky couldn’t dampen the electric atmosphere and carnival spirit from them and their guest vocalists, including the gorgeous Lou Lou. Beer next, and then a strange performance on the Vitamin Water stage inspired us to get over to the headliners early for a good spot. Kings of Leon were my choice, having been a big fan for a while now. Their 'Only By the Night' album shows so much growth within the band, their sound richening and judging by the sales, reaching more diverse crowds and truly breaking them into ‘worthy festival headliner’ territory. A great performance from the whole band, with Caleb’s voice sounding as amazingly gravely as the studio recordings. Although not the official Lolla afterparty, Smart Bar was hosting Dave Pezzner and Mark Farina as part of OM records’ 15 year anniversary celebrations, and so it was our choice of late night haunt. It was also the cause of my late start on Saturday morning, having overdosed on amazing house music til 4am.

I did arrive just in time for the Arctic Monkeys, and just as they were stepping it up a gear, thrashing through their chart successes and getting the (now dry and humid) crowd jumping around nicely. Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair was playing a DJ set in the Perry’s garden area. I’ve always been a fan of theirs, and his musical selection was right on the money, with disco rhythms and lush vocals enlivening my tired feet for a while. More friends and more beer led to a sample of Lykke Li and, being a little unimpressed by her, onto Diplo. Diplo blew us away, with his mix of... well, whatever it is people describe Diplo, Switch, Herve and co. as these days. Bass-heavy Fidget, Ragga, Baile Funk, Classic House and more were all thrown into the melting pot to devastating effect on the crowd. With such an epic set, I was ready to head off for a live act, when Bassnectar stepped up to the decks. Within minutes I was blown away yet again, even with the bar set so high by Diplo, the OM Records artist dealt a mixture of rib-cracking Dubstep, Drum and Bass and House to the audience, who were packed in until the very end. The URB warehouse afterparty provided yet more of the same until the wee small hours for all ages of bass-hungry party people.

Sunday saw the sun finally break through, and then beat down on the (estimated) 150,000 Lollapaloozers. The festival organisers responded by handing out thousands of bottles of free cold water, setting up giant fans spraying a fine mist onto public walkways, and the local fire department spraying a not-so-fine mist into the air near the North stages. Top marks for that, and also for the selection of Chicago food available, of which I sampled Connie’s Pizza and Adobo’s Tacos. A great change from the usual greasy fodder offered at shows, and a nice tip-of-the-hat to such a food-loving city. The morning began with the Kaiser Chiefs, followed by a friend’s recommendation of Dan Deacon. Not knowing what to expect was a good thing, as the 30-or-so-piece party orchestra of tubas, guitars, trombones, bongos, laptops and more was a pleasant surprise! Encouraging party games in the crowd during the set was genius too. After getting down to Vampire Weekend, we stayed in the area for a good place at one of my personal highlights, Snoop Dogg. Playing a lot of material from his first album was unexpected, but fantastic for me, being a long-running fan. Getting down gangsta-style with Bert and Ernie was a highlight too. A outstanding hour or so of MSTRKRFT led us into to the headliners of Jane’s Addiction. Being Perry Farrell’s festival, he has played several times over the years, and fully deserves too. He is a great frontman, and Jane’s put on a superb show, each of the band members being talented in their own right. To see them all perform on their ‘home turf’ (they are actually from LA) was a fantastic finale to a blockbuster of a weekend.

Lee Jarvis.

Feel free to check out some Lollapalooza videos at the Lee Jarvis Youtube channel

All photos (c) Lee Jarvis 2009.

(Cross-posted at US Music Jobs, the premier online community for US music industry professionals and jobs in the music industry)

Spotify to hit the US?

2009-07-31T13:50:00.002-05:00

The music streaming app that is currently taking the UK and Europe by storm is looking to set-up in the US in the very near future. (This may well help create music industry jobs in the USA, so keep checking the Jobs Board!)

Founded by two Swedish entrepreneurs, Spotify has over six million tracks available to stream, and gives users the ability to create, save and share playlists, offering greater interaction and discovery. They are working with US music publishers and labels to evolve a deal to enable them to offer the same service here. Having dealt with many of the key companies regarding European licenses, it’s a very real possibility that they will be operating here soon.

The relatively new start-up (October ’08) is hoping to launch it’s desktop application in the US by the end of this year. However, even greater potential could be reached if they are approved as an iPhone app. The issue there? It could be so good as to make Apple’s iTunes virtually redundant to millions of music consumers.

Spotify derives revenue from a number of audio commercials during playback (current EU advertisers include Nike, Ikea, H&M and more), or a monthly fee for a premium service with no commercials, greater audio quality and extra premium-only content. The monthly fee is currently £9.99 in the UK (approx $15), and word is that the mobile app would only be available to those who subscribe to this.

People are becoming excited about the possibility of a real contender to iTunes, and as a fan of aiding music discovery, I really hope that Spotify will push forward with the licensing deals. They provide a great service, and user word-of-mouth will ensure a global success.

Lee Jarvis.

(Cross-posted at US Music Jobs, the premier online community for US music industry professionals and jobs in the music industry)

What is the Rock Band Network?

2009-07-23T09:48:00.003-05:00

Independent artists benefit from a more level playing field; MTV Networks creating opportunities in music.

MTV and Harmonix are to launch the Rock Band Network later this year. The Rock Band Network is a platform that will allow bands to upload their music for review by the Rock Band game creators, and possibly available as part of the game’s store, tapping into the wealth of publicity and revenue created for musicians by the Rock Band brand.

The system was devised in part to help expand the content available to the gamers, something which the limited staff was struggling to find the time to provide. And so recording artists will have the opportunity to add to the 700 tracks already part of the program by taking the stems from their original masters and creating MIDI tracks for each instrument, before sharing it with the Rock Band Network community.

Here is a short video from the people over at Joystiq, explaining the idea and the process.

There’s also a lot more detail at Billboard if you want to get into the bones of it all.

So, exciting times! Yet more ways for independent artists, studios, labels, bands, managers and many more music professionals to create their own successes, and find work in the music industry. Best of luck!

Lee Jarvis.

(Cross-posted at US Music Jobs, the premier online community for US music industry professionals and jobs in the music industry)

Glastonbury 2009 (belated) report

2009-07-16T16:40:00.005-05:00

Like all my greatest music festival reports, it's late ;)

The trouble is, where do you begin with Glastonbury....? The huge international guests? The breaking bands playing in every nook ad cranny? The sheer size and scale of one of the UK’s largest music events?

From the off, the atmosphere was electric. We arrived a day before the acts officially began to settle in, and every hour or so a wave of cheering soared across the campsite. I never realised that people enjoyed pitching tents so much. That certainly set the pace, and the exploration begun. The first official band was Massimo Park, and they kicked off the proceedings with a combination of their hits to get everyone in the mood. Moving on, the Greenpeace Airport made me feel slightly guilty about my June/July schedule (ORD - LHR - ORD - SNA - SFO - ORD), but I soon (kinda) forgot when I realised there was entertainment (and cider) available there. The Little Tremors had a great intimate crowd with them, and their lively music aided a summery afternoon perfectly. Heading over to The Park we found an explosive Zane Lowe vs Mike Skinner set that even an impossible to enter tent and the first drizzle of rain failed to dampen. Kings of Leon’s ‘Sex is on Fire’ and Switch’s ‘A Bit Patchy’ being two major highlights. We then went to catch a friend-of-a-friend recommendation, The Gentleman's Dub Club, who served up tight grooves, big bass and a party atmosphere with great crowd control, completing a fantastic opening day of music.

Friday kicked off with breakfast at The Whip, although I felt they failed to recreate the energy of their dance-rock-hybrid hits as a live act. Heading over to meet Deepgroove and Paul Woolford, the audience was a bit sparse in the various dance tents (it was still only 1pm), and so an early lunch and a walk over to the Pyramid Stage ensured we had a great spot for N*E*R*D. This is where the unbiased report wavers, as I’ve been a huge N*E*R*D fan since their first album, and consider their songs inspiring for some of my own projects. In other words, they were one of my highlights. The whole band was tight, people were up on stage busting out their best MTV moves (apart from one guy who thought the music was perfect to can-can along to, hugging with Pharrell). A short (wet and muddy) walk to peek in at Skream and Benga totally destroying a now packed Dance Tent was swiftly followed by a memorable performance by Crazy P in the Guardian Lounge.

The class acts are so diverse and in such quick succession, it left a great impression on me as Glastonbury being a very complete festival. I somehow managed to get a great spot as Jason Mraz in the Acoustic Tent, in amongst the screaming 13 year-old girls, and along with very talented supporting musicians, he moved the crowd along very well. A short stroll via the Glade Tent to check out the live electronic dance grooves of the Bays (this time without Jimpster, but with the added vocal magic of Beardyman), and I was ready for my Friday night highlight. Q-Tip. Being 20ft from the front was a great help, and the latest album never leaving my playlist meant that I had a fantastic end to a hectic day. Inspiration overload was complete.

VV Brown and Watermelons. Not her new band, but an unexpectedly satisfying start to my Saturday morning, my hunger filled (for both new music and breakfast respectively). It’s not that I was expecting little of VV, simply that I had only discovered a track of hers accidentally about two weeks prior, and I didn’t know what to expect from a new, young act, and was pleasantly surprised. Failing to get anywhere near the Rolf Harris tent(!), we went back to see Dizzee Rascal at the Pyramid Stage. Having been around for a while now (we were discussing if he was past his best. Your thoughts?), there were many a shout-along lines we could join in with. Another venture to The Park on a friend's recommendation brought me to the sounds of the Beatbox Orchestra, doing battle with DJ Yoda, supplying backing for Jarvis Cocker, and a whole number of crazy things I never thought I'd hear!

I decided to get some rest, before a sunset show with Bon Iver, surrounded by campfires and enjoying every second of their acoustic folk-rock soundtrack. Refreshed, fed and watered, I headed over to explore Shangri-La, the after-hours crazy dace village of Glastonbury. Small streets and stalls fought for my attention, and provided all kinds of weird and wonderful Glasto moments, whilst meeting new friends and failing to find old ones (James! Buckers!) in the Mad Max mirage.

Sunday I wanted to explore more of the site, and may have missed the wonders of Status Quo in doing so, but I wanted to see more of the Glastonbury spirit, so I wolfed down a veggie breakfast from a Juke Joint with people passed out in the stall next to me, and headed over to the Green Fields. Free fruit, A Wishing Tree, pedal-powered music machines, and a general explosion of creativity was on offer to keep us entertained. The sun even came out to grace my shoulders with a (still visible) tan-line. A short walk through the Circus area, full of (psuedo)naked art classes and 1920s boxing matches, and we were ready for our next music fix, that being The Destroyers. I don't know if you've ever seen a 15-strong group of musicians charging around to gypsy-folk-fused-with-samba, but I strongly suggest you do. Mr Scruff over in the dance tent helped things get moving along nicely into the evening.

Our final night was yet another memorable one. The anticipation of the big finale was so huge, that we got to the main Pyramid Stage for Blur very early, leaving me with enough time to try and finish all my whisky so as to not have to carry it home (I succeeded). I had missed out on seeing Blur in my high school years, and having only recently re-united, this was a great opportunity that I didn't want to miss. Much singing along to Girls and Boys ensued, followed by much jumping along to Parklife, and an emotional Damon Albarn taking charge of the crowd, tens of thousands strong, and leading them into a non-stop A capella of Tender, prompting two deserved and appreciated encores.

To sum up, my first Glastonbury was a real eye-opener, and I'll make sure that it won't be my last.

Lee Jarvis.

(Cross posted at UK Music Jobs - the UK's premier website for networking with music professionals and jobs in the music industry)

Unconvention Manchester... Saturday afternoon Sparkle.

2009-06-10T17:24:00.005-05:00

Saturday afternoon was an action-packed discussion focussing on small independent promoters, and touched on their relationships with bands and artists, as well as how they conduct their work in the ever-changing music business.

It was clear from the start that it is an entirely different market for small and large festivals; the smaller events offer their shindigs as a platform to meet people and network as well as an exposure to new art and music on many levels. Moderator Howard Monk, of live music promotion The Local, asks if the panel feel that they can deliver a lot of value for small amount of money, especially in relation to bigger festivals. The panel certainly agrees, and enjoy the fact that they can be a little more leftfield or off-the-wall by booking a bunch of artists yet to earn a nationwide audience but who may go on to play bigger stages.

Anna Moulson shares that The Great Escape like to try and support local Brighton acts, and that as Brighton has strong, healthy music scene then the Brighton people appreciate and support that fact. The idea of a local scene that fans embrace is an appealing one, but one that has certainly declined in recent decades, with the UK being a small island and people being able to travel greater distances to concerts with relative ease. I’d be keen to see if this may be a resurgence in certain cities and towns, as it certainly seems strong in Chicago, especially coming from my native but saturated London scene.

The struggle for small promoters is to offer quality artists reasonable fees and minimal demands. Having discussed several ways that less scrupulous promoters will avoid and even exploit such difficulties, my experience of both holding events and looking for gigs in London kicked in, and it occurred to me that promoters wanting credibility and longevity have to stick to their beliefs. This is true even during the tough times when “mr promoter down the road” is pulling in more people and possibly making more money (/breaking even). ‘Paying to play’ and ‘Battle of the Bands’ style events are sometimes a necessary evil for artists, but long-term relationships will not develop, and ultimately no-one becomes a fan of those event brands.

It is a tough call for artists to make when offered gigs with unfair pay and conditions, but one that should be given different conditions each time, re-evaluating their ‘position’ in the market and how much ‘clout’ they have, along with considering any positives or opportunities could come as a result. Secret Garden Party's Freddie Fellowes offered that boutique festivals can sell tickets based on the strength of their brand value, therefore becoming an attractive prospect for indie and new bands yet to develop a huge following. Not piling on the pressure is a great way to build a relationship with the artists.

Discussing which types of promoting events work, both panel and audience chipped in with stories of posters creating an appealing front, relevance of text messages and success in various online and printed listings. However, the split in the audience response regarding which marketing types attract our attention, say to me that you still have to cover all possible areas in any marketing plan. Supporting any online work with a good offline strategy, be that word of mouth or handing out flyers etc, is a crucial part of developing this all-round attack and improving your chances of reaching your target market. You know how a funny sticker in a venue bathroom attracts your attention and the next day you Google the band? Yep, that’s how it works. Vijay Nair shared that there is an increase in the use of mobile phone permission-based marketing India clubs. Open bluetooth tactics, plus direct visual aids for text services are becoming more popular, as they can then be targeted to specific areas, and several business are looking at how to pull further data from current databases.

We moved on to the subject of secondary ticketing, and whether the promoter panel were developing any new interesting strategies to prevent re-selling (and touting). Jay Taylor describes how he goes to eBay and report sellers charging ridiculous fees for tickets. He also earned applause by stating that he has approached ‘touts’ outside and confronted them during the act of selling, often asking the punter “How much did that tout charge you? 25? i’ll let you in for 20 and buy you a beer”. A great idea, obviously completely impractical, but amusing nonetheless.

On a final note, when asked what was the best ‘item’ for a band to send to various promoters, the panel was a little split, with some people getting so many emails and links that a CD and half decent press pack will gain more attention. Others have cluttered desks and hate the excessive paper and plastic that a physical demo causes, so a personalised email has more value. My final piece of advice here would be that when you approach press / radio / club contacts with your music, you should offer “Would you prefer a CD or a link to an mp3?”, removing the option of a “no, thank you”.

And so, with that information-overload finale, Unconvention Manchester came to an end for me. I had to hop on a train and miss the last few bands performing at the Blueprint Studios that evening, but managed to buy a cake or two on my way out. Similar to supporting new indie artists by buying their CDs and T-shirts, I firmly believe in supporting great events like this by purchasing the BBQ lunches, pies and cakes, alongside several pints of bitter, cider and (predictably), coffee the following morning(s). The team put on such a great event and I am already hoping to return next year. Here’s to Unconvention Manchester 2010 with pies, cakes, and a bright future to offer the independent music industry.

Lee Jarvis.

Unconvention Manchester... Saturday morning sleep-in

2009-06-09T02:50:00.010-05:00

Saturday morning, like so many mornings, began well. I awoke at 9am, got myself a glass of water and... promptly fell back to sleep. Being late for the 'Bands as Enterprise' panel was not good move - it was one of the most popular of the weekend. Lack of being able to get a seat and plug in my dying laptop meant a lack of notes on my behalf, and with Martin Atkins on the panel, there were plenty of golden nuggets of information worth re-publishing.

Luckily, several other attendees did just that, and I was even able to catch up on the parts i'd missed via the wonders of technology and Twitter. This is probably also a good time to share links to fellow unconvention-ers and their websites, projects and Twitter handles, so here we go....

"Don't give up your day job - just keep going until you get fired."
- Steve Lawson via Twitter

"Live contracts are a red herring. You need an audience to get paid."
- Steve Lawson via Twitter

"At the moment it feels a bit like 1977 again."
- Just Press Play blog

"You need fans before you need the guy that is the laywer for The Eagles."
"Build momentum, before you start thinking about business structures."
"If you can sustain you can succeed. You will need to focus and make choices. When your bet on everything it will blow up in your face."
"The moment you have the leverage to get the deal you think you wanted, you don’t need the deal any more."
"There simply is NO ONE WAY to ‘monetize’ making music. There are a million different ways. Find the way that suits you."
- Dutch blog Lopend Vuur (Dutch for 'Walking Fire')

Also, I'm happy to share this video from Unconvention organiser Ruth Daniel (great work, and thanks for an awesome weekend, Ruth!)

Martin Atkins at Un-Convention Salford 2009 from Ruth Daniel on Vimeo.

After a short while, Martin's passion and knowledge of the music industry, as well as his no-holds-barred attitude is obvious. Even Andrew Dubber has to agree that he can see why people have described Martin Atkins as "New Music Strategies with swearing".

After checking out the other Unconvention attendees linked above (all knowledgeable and passionate also), I strongly suggest you research Martin's Tour:Smart website and purchase his Tour:Smart book, as it'll teach you more about touring and the dynamics of a band than I could hope to summarise in this post ;)

Lee Jarvis.

Unconvention Manchester... Friday Afternoon Fieriness!

2009-06-07T14:05:00.006-05:00

‘The Modern Role of Collection Agencies’ was a heated debate on what the collection agencies are doing to collect and manage their data accurately, and how to simplify the processes of applying and maintaining correct accounts for artists.

Granted, the societies have to deal with huge numbers but simple and secure systems should be in place, and the data should be automated from there to the respective departments. One unfavourable point that was raised, and was the cause of much criticism throughout, was that of escalating admin costs for the societies - a valid point when they deduct their admin fees from members’ royalties and operate as a non-profit organisation.

Steve Lawson offered a constructive and educated view, raising both that there is “little sense of you [the PPL / PRS] working on our behalf” and that “accountability and transparency are key critical points now and moving forward”. Again, the issue of expenditure was raised, with reportedly 200,000GBP spent on the PPL website without members’ consent. The PPL say that they sent every one of their 38,000 performers a letter inviting them to attend and contribute to the annual performers meeting, and it was also web-streamed, to which one long-term member said that he received no letter or email invite, and the fact that the PPL were using the postal service and were reliant on pieces of paper to communicate in 2009 was crazy.

The discussion almost ended in a bit of a Stalemate, with PPL and PRS representatives feeling that they are doing enough to move the payment and communications systems and admin fees forward and downward respectively. There were a number of fiery interjections debating about the efficiency of the organisations, and many audience members have varying contact, unsolved payments problems and were ultimately dissatisfied with some of the societies’ answers.

I managed to throw in the last query, which was a change of topic, welcomed by the moderator at that point(!), being: In developing nations, i.e. India, Thailand etc. there are millions of mobile phones / devices are being sold, and therefore there will be millions of music downloads and streams as a result. How do you plan to retrieve data and ultimately collect royalties in these new emerging markets? The PRS rep was keen to point out that they would be limited by the respective parties in those countries, where many associations exist but laws are often vague, rarely followed, and never enforced. Every foreign agency, the PPL has a reciprocal agreement with to collect foreign royalties, and the PPL guy will be travelling to numerous places in Africa and the Caribbean and starting to develop relationships with various artists and organisations, by starting at a grass roots performing level and hoping to build from there.

I think that some of the best comments came from the audience in this section of the conference, and the key point that stuck with me was that people’s perception is an obstacle for the companies to overcome so that more performers feel that they should join them. Attending events such as Unconvention and listening to audience feedback may be one way that they can move forward in this respect.

Lee Jarvis.

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Unconvention Manchester... Friday Morning Fun!

2009-06-06T07:34:00.010-05:00

The day kicked off on a very different level to yesterday's panel. Andrew Dubber of New Music Strategies is moderating a panel of artists and label owners with the topic: Outside The Box.

Thinking outside the box should not just be interpreted as inventing a crazy publicity stunt to sell more records. The 'box' in this case is what is left of the traditional music industry. The one that was lining the pockets of many non-musicians for the last 70 years. Diverting away from the box, means taking advantage of new technologies and access that is available in the modern digital world. There is no 'new model' that artists follow; just because The Arctic Monkeys were discovered via Myspace doesn't mean that you should operate that way. Sure, Myspace can be part of your arsenal, but being aware of productive and popular sites in general can help you create your own plan of attack. Of course, tying it all in with a good OFFline strategy, be that touring, printed publicity, giving away CDs outside other concerts, creating a buzz so that your fans partake in word of mouth, or all of the above.

It was very interesting, encouraging, and somewhat indicative of a new generation of musicians, to hear the whole panel's interpretation of success: making a living from music. Not trying to sell 100,000 records and go on a 50-date tour of the US, but being involved in music, being happy, composing, sharing and creating ways to draw income from their passion. If they draw enough to pay rent and eat, they will be satisfied. Of course, there's nothing wrong with building on this and working hard to move further forward /upward /onward (/inward? /outward?), and Abigail Seabrook commented that she constantly re-evaluates her connotation of success as her career moves forward. Indeed, it should be a fluid thought, and the idea of an ever changing business plan, with no finite date was put forward as an example of the extreme.

The panel discussed some of the advantages of not being 'in a box', with many artists loving the control that they have over their own career paths. If your next album wants to be weird and wonderful, you can do so, because you are not trying to regurgitate your last works or re-create *insert popular band here* for your major label puppet-masters. Steve Lawson points out that being unique and pioneering your own sound, style and character can lead to many opportunities. If no-one else plays 18th Century popular music live on harpsichord and cello, then Lady Georgianna are in a strong position for anyone involved in that market. Choosing your niche has always been an important part of finding your musical sound, and now it is just as important to consider that when presenting and promoting yourself - not least so that your target market can discover you.

Does the internet favour the remarkable? A great question from Dubber, and one that brought out many an adjective from the panel. The internet can certainly favour the industrious, the cheap, the curious and more. Conversation favours the remarkable (Stef Lewandowski) and with the internet being many ever-evolving conversations, there is an element of 'yes', there.

A certain amount of overexposure in the online world can possibly deflate the 'Rockstar myth' of artists (read part of my Berklee Music assignment "Internet Music Promotion" for more), but at the same time, people crave authenticity; new media is a great way to create that. Prioritising what works for you and finding your own median is the key to help you connect with effectiveness.

Where does the 'fun' part of Friday morning kick in, I hear someone at the back ask.... Well, being at such a positive and intimate event means that I have met many people that are willing to share, offer and possibly most importantly, ASK for information. Connecting with people (some I'd previously 'known' online, others never before), has been a great influence and motivator. Top marks to the whole team at Unconvention Manchester for just about everything to do with the event. Heading outside for some sunshine (yes, sunshine in Manchester!), some great acoustic bands and a BBQ added to the 'extended family' feel greatly.

I also saw one of the most fun bands I've ever seen at the lunchtime Graveyard BBQ; Louis Barabbas and the Bedlam Six. The afternoon food and music was a really nice touch to the event, and a nice informal place to further network or unwind with new friends.

The afternoon panel was a heated debate, engaging representatives from the PRS/MCPS and the PPL, as well as many audience members. I'm still writing that blog ;)

Check back for the rest of the show soon!

Lee Jarvis.

Unconvention Manchester... Thursday Opening Thoughts

2009-06-05T07:47:00.008-05:00

Thursday afternoon got off to a great start, meeting up with a couple of people whom I've been in contact with but not met before in person. Putting faces to blogs and tweets is always a nice thing, and at a relatively small event like this, it is easy to go around and introduce yourself to new faces too.

The artist's panel on Thursday afternoon was a lively one. The discussion seemed to start from building a buzz around your music / band / etc, touching on PR companies and if they offer value for independent artists. Cutting through the networking and get those CDs to the all-important ears of magazine and radio tastemakers is an crucial matter. Personally, I would say that if you are truly dedicated to your niche genre then you should already have been in touch with these people directly. You listen to the specialist podcasts and shows with similar sounding artists, go direct, send an mp3, send a CD, chase it up, meet the people at shows and events, build a relationship DIRECTLY with your industry peers and the job of PR companies is not only defunct , but you can do a better job by being genuine and approachable.

The topic of musicians 'working' for 'nothing' was brought up; in other words, free downloading. I have to say that I think a couple of the artists missed the point of how to reap not only useful information but also indirect revenue from free downloading, be that legal or otherwise. Some of the older artists (no offence, but there is a certain amount of generational differences relating to how to conduct your online strategies), were sticking to the old mantra of 'if you don't pay for the musician's music then they will not / can not make any more music'; believing that you cannot build a successful project from giving your music away for free means that you should re-evaluate your ideas of 'success'. Success is not just about selling records anymore. If you do not consider other factors such as building extensive mailing list, concert ticket sales, a busy gig diary, steady merchandise sales and a strong online presence (be that youtube views, twitter followers etc), then you are missing out on great opportunities to build your reputation and career. As an independent artist, you should relish the fact that you can distribute 10,000 digital copies of your song for the same cost as distributing just 1. The tools and advice are all available online to help you promote your music to an immense audience, and you should try and learn to see success in the fact that if, after giving away 10,000 copies, some of those will pass onto friends, create further fans and so on, to the extent that your music can reach more people in more places than ever before. Just because you don't receive a measly sum from a profitable record label in return doesn't mean that you are not achieving results (many of them tangible, too). Following the artists panel, I stuck around for a few of the bands, chatted with the Un-convention Belfast contingent for a while, and then headed off for dinner.

On a side note, I didn't quite expect so much swearing at the discussion - not that i'm adverse at all, but our venue for the discussion is The Sacred Trinity Church in Salford(!) Then again, I had been drinking beer throughout.

Stay Tuned for Friday's thoughts :-)

Lee Jarvis.

I'm back! ...and I'm off again, to Un-Convention Manchester

2009-06-03T16:48:00.004-05:00

Apologies for a lack of blogging recently, a number of reason, and all music-related so I'll fill you in...

I've been DJing a fair bit, at a label showcase in a warehouse in Chicago, a fun trip up to Madison, Wisconsin, and then back to Chicago again for my debut at Smart Bar. That soon eats away at your working / sleeping regular hours. Then I flew to London, and tomorrow I'm on a train up to Manchester, then over to Newcastle and back south again. phew.

But, all is well, and tomorrow will see the start of Un-Convention Manchester, hence my continued travels. The Un-Convention way of thinking is something I latched onto very quickly, and why I am so excited to head along and get involved with the like-minded folk there. In their words, "Un-convention is a new music industry event. It’s about being independent. It’s about facing up to the current changing music scene and looking for innovative and creative solutions. It’s about discussion, debate and most of all – meeting new people with different perspectives and sharing knowledge, experience and contacts". You can see why I'm so keen to get there ;-)

You can still buy tickets and I strongly suggest you get along to any part of the event that you can, even if it's just one day panel or networking, although if you can't, then check back in at the blog here, or follow my Twitter or Facebook updates, as I'll be attempting to document as much of the idea-sharing, trend-mongering and ground-breaking collaborating as possible.

Oh yes, and there will be cake.

Lee Jarvis.

Future of the Music Business presentation

2009-05-06T13:32:00.003-05:00

(screenshot)
I've discovered a great keynote presentation from the Leadership Music Digital Summit, where Mike Masnick of Techdirt shares the details of Trent Reznor' and Nine Inch Nails' recent ventures, and how he believes they are pushing the music industry forward.

"That's great", I hear you say, "you're always going on about NIN, but we can't afford to do this or have as many resources". Well, Masnick also shares how other musicians are using similar ideas and implementing them in their own careers. It's not about copying what Reznor thinks, he's a pioneer and can do things on a grand scale thanks to selling million of albums, concert tickets and merchandise items. But you can learn to think outside the box; detach yourself from the idea that music is a product that you must sell via a record label. Experiment, and think about all the revenue streams, technical possibilities, and other perks and positive impacts that you can generate from your music endeavours.

It's only 25 minutes long, so grab some coffee and head over to the US Music Jobs blog post to check out the video...

Lee Jarvis.

The Camden Crawl = Discover Indie Artists + Networking + Free Music!

2009-04-23T19:47:00.003-05:00

Culture, music, beer, sunshine. This weekend sees one of the ultimate offerings of all these elements under one roof. And by roof I mean ‘district’ of London. And when I say sunshine I mean more beer.

The Camden Crawl is a two day event spanning Friday 25th and Saturday 25th April, showcasing 150 bands, artists, poets and film pieces across 40 venues, ending up on Saturday Night at the Roundhouse with performances from Kasabian and Madness.

As a preview, the lovely people at The Londonist have compiled a collection of free, legal mp3s from the majority of the bands performing. There’s 65 free tracks to download, so you can select your favourites, share the love, and make sure you don’t miss out.

Before this starts to seem like a big promotional ploy or sponsorship for event or website, I’ve no affiliation with either. My reasoning is that music discovery has changed. You don’t hear ‘new’ bands on national radio anymore. Up and coming artists aren’t getting the support of CD sales that they used to, and so live events are becoming extremely important for both performer and punter. Yes, the internet is a great source of new music, but you need a very good filter or the patience of a saint to wade through the endless streams of average (and below) music.

Why the Camden Crawl? Why not? It’s today, you have nothing better to do, and the free download taster just tops it all off (oh, did I mention the beer?). Head over there now and buy your tickets before it’s too late.

Unfortunately I won’t be there this year, but you can certainly thank me at future events. I accept beer, in case you’re wondering.

Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at UK Music Jobs Blog Music Industry News, Career advice and Job links

Pirate Bay trial: The verdict, and the future of P2P sites and the ‘pirates’

2009-04-17T12:25:00.001-05:00

To bring everyone up to speed, there has been an ongoing case in Swedish court that the four owners and heads of Peer2Peer (file sharing) site The Pirate Bay were in mass breach of copyright laws, not just within the music industry but also regarding movies and video games. The case has received a lot of attention and also incredible support from torrent and P2P websites and their users. Roger Wallis, who spoke in favour of The Pirate Bay at the trial, received a colossal amount of floral tributes, sent to his wife at their home.

The verdict was announced today, and all four men (Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, and Carl Lundström) received 1 year in jail each and fines totaling $3,620,000. The prosecutors were aiming for much higher compensation, although their calculations are often very misguided; 10,000 free transfers of your song does not mean you lost 10,000 times the sale price of that record. Do they take into account the people who downloaded a few free tracks and then bought the actual album? I thought not.

Having said that, I am not in favour of people setting up software allowing the public to trade music and other files for free without artists' consent. Let alone the people who shoot their mouth off, claiming "all music is free" and the like. Yes, all music is probably available for free if you wanted to find it online, but I am in favour of letting the artists (and the copyright owners) make that decision, controlling and profiting from the distribution of their work in some way, be that financially or by building their contact list. As content creators, that is their choice, and one of the reasons I am a huge fan of Creative Commons licenses.

People are using over-stretched analogies such as 'if you hold the P2P site accountable then you must also prosecute ISPs'. There are also many, many comments across the web from people claiming it is a sad day and that there is no way this should have happened. I'd like to hear them come up with a solution, as to how artists can retain control of their work, be compensated where appropriate, and how they will be able to fund and market future creations and music projects.

You can't really go and prosecute the millions of end users who take the music and other files. The RIAA have tried and failed more than 35,000 times, receiving nothing but bad press, fueling angst and probably instigating further file sharing. If there was a system in place by the websites to charge the users a subscription fee, then maybe that could work, and they could then reimburse the labels and artists. But they have not chose this route. So, do you hold the P2P sites and owners viable? Maybe. If their business model does not compensate the artist in any way, then I think they should be charged somehow. Governing bodies should aim to control this cause though, rather than react to the aftermath. The P2P sites could avoid legal wranglings themselves by striking up deals with labels, but as they are sworn enemies, how about independent artists? If the artists can register their music with a site and give permission to distribute and share globally then the P2P sites can still aid the discovery and sharing of new music and building of artists careers, which they are so fond of using as their mission statement.

What will the devastating effect be on the music industry? Not much. For a start there will be months of appeals, more uneducated blabberings in the press, and probably more flowers. 'Pirates' will continue to vent and despise the major labels and government prosecutors. P2P file sharing is rampant, and as much a part of a schoolkid's daily life today as dolls, toy cars and baseballs were decades ago - it's not going to disappear. Major labels will continue to push in this wrong direction instead of focusing their efforts on restructuring their business models, and to get to the route of the problem, that is that they have mistreated musicians and music fans for many years now. Creating value, authenticity and transparency within their brands should be at the top of their agenda, not 'hire more lawyers'.

Who wins? Neither side. Certainly not the Pirate Bay owners (lend me $905,000 will you, mate?), and not the labels who struggle to recoup a few million bucks when they have just spent the same amount on forcing untalented acts into their hit-machine mould, only to be forgotten by this time next year. There are some people out there who have a collection of thousands of unpurchased songs that they will hardly listen to who think they are on the winning side. Congratulations, you're very clever.

Who loses? Artists. Artists may move to gigging like crazy in order to subsidise the record sales gap in their revenue compared to previous years. Which is fine if they are able to do so and the people who listen to their music online genuinely like them and willingly support them when they come to town.

So do me (or more accurately, the music industry) a favour. Find a new, upcoming artist / band / rapper / DJ-producer from your iPod collection who is performing in your town this weekend, and go out to see their show / gig / concert. Use the $15 you just saved from purchasing their album... you will then be giving something back to the industry that you 'care about' so much. Heck, you may even have a good time. Yo-ho-ho.

Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at US Music Jobs Blog - Music Industry news and career advice

NINJA 2009 - A lesson in tour promotion

2009-03-31T12:33:00.003-05:00

NIN does it again.

Trent Reznor has a great project called NIN|JA 2009 , giving away a 6 track EP from three different bands (Nine Inch Nails, Jane's Addiction and Street Sweeper) to help promote their extensive summer ’09 tour.

Any readers of my blogs know that I’m not just a Nine Inch Nails fan, but a huge supporter of Reznor’s music strategies. Giving your music away in order to raise awareness and generate future revenue, in this case, ticket sales. The idea worked very well for the Ghosts I-IV album last year, where releasing the first volume for free download not only resulted in $1.6m in first week sales (of physical CDs, deluxe boxsets and digital downloads), but also helped contribute to a hugely popular 2008 tour of both South and North America.

Obviously NIN are a globally famous band, but that’s not to say that lesser-known artists can’t use the same idea to help raise awareness. Imagine how impressed any venue booker would be if you could help sell out a show. Not to mention that while you have a captive audience, a well placed and stocked merchandise table will help recoup any ‘losses’ of giving away a free download or two.

Making money because of your music instead of directly from it is a lesson that many artists can learn from.

Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at US Music Jobs - The premier online community for US music industry professionals

Tough Times....

2009-03-27T11:23:00.005-05:00

Is the music industry in serious decline or is it booming? Well... both.

‘Economy’, ‘Credit Crunch’, ‘Recession’. All very real to some people, but at the same time as the job cuts, the music industry is reaching more people who are consuming more music and more artists are making a living from it (some are even selling downloads and merchandise by the truckload). So what IS going on?

Forward thinking music 2.0 businesses that should be expanding are being forced to cut back. Sirius XM laid off 50 staff including some disc jockeys, Pandora had to cut their team from 140 to 120.

These businesses are thriving in one sense, with more members, fans and subscribers every day - Pandora also stated that their listenership is ‘growing rapidly’ - and yet they are still struggling to fund their staffing costs. I think that this is because their ideas and business models are sound, but the market and industry as a whole is just not ready for them. Not just yet. The ones that aren’t adapting are looking even gloomier; Time Warner is expecting to cut 1,250 jobs across the media and entertainment sectors following it’s recently reported fourth quarter loss.....

Read the full article over at the UK Music Jobs Blog.

Lee Jarvis.

I will stop buying CDs...

2009-03-20T15:16:00.006-05:00

...soon. Millions of consumers are already asking ‘Why would I get up from my computer, go down to a (musically speaking) uncaring Best Buy(US)/ Tesco(UK) store to find they don’t stock the album I want, and I can’t listen to anything else that I want to try, when instead I can search, try and download a great album online within minutes?’. Why indeed, hence the insane uptake to digital downloads and the equally insane decline in CD sales. At the end of the day, for the majority, convenience wins.

I’ve continued to buy CDs instead of individual downloads because I love holding the album in my hand and reading the inlay while I listen to it for the first time, and it pretty much costs about the same.

But I can see the day approaching when I stop buying CDs. My love of music is stronger than ever, but my physical purchases have already decreased and I have also cutback on downloading tracks as the option to stream has become more widely available and more convenient for me. The reason I would stop buying CDs altogether is not that I want my entire music collection based on my mobile device / laptop (although my life is becoming evermore online and technology based), but I will stop buying them when the ‘music like water’ concept really takes off and a wealth of music from major labels and independents is available to me anytime anywhere.

David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard talked about it in 2005. Jim Griffin talked bout it with Warner in 2008. I really hope that someday soon we will see something like this become a reality. I love CDs and the aspect of buying a physical product, and I’m sure I will continue to on special occasions (Michael Jackson boxsets?) or for gifts for other people (nothing says ‘I love you’ like an online subscription receipt, right?), but as someone who consumes music and is often consumed by it, how could I resist...?

I see this type of consumption as being extremely popular with general music fans, as the appeal of being able to listen to all the music they already know and love is a great one, and they can then also experiment a little with new artists without the risk of purchasing a disappointing album and feeling cheated. I see most people struggling with the ‘music like water’ comparison as it sounds a little too futuristic or idealistic, but it would be easy for the average consumer to adapt to this situation if they simply compare it to their internet, cable or mobile phone packages, most of which offer a similar ‘unlimited access’ usage for a set monthly fee.

The big convenience difference between an ‘Ad-supported Streaming Model’ and the ‘Utility Model’ is that you are required to be online to stream music, whereas once you download music via the ‘Utility” service you are free to play it anywhere and on a variety of formats and devices.

There is also a licensing issue that differs the ‘Utility Model’ from physical and digital purchases, and that is that some people will want the freedom to burn a copy to a blank CD and play their favourite music in their car, or give a copy to their friends. This is something that is technically illegal to do from physical products, but with the ‘Utility’ service, the current relative copyright laws would be suspended in exchange for a licensing fee, paid by the ‘Music Utility Bill’. With this in place, recommendations and discovery can flourish, having a huge impact on the way music is uncovered and shared, creating and aiding successful music careers. Something that surely all artists and writers can be excited about is the opportunity to be known and appreciated to a wider audience and being financially compensated via the licensing fees.

For me, this is also one of the biggest reasons why I cannot wait for the ‘music like water’ train of thought to catch on; a digital world where sharing music can be encouraged instead of penalised, and is truly beneficial to both fans and artists alike.

Lee Jarvis.

(photo credit JaulaDeArdilla)

The future of remixing?

2009-03-12T15:27:00.006-05:00

I have recently discovered the genius of Kutiman and his incredible Thru-You project. He has created brand new songs and videos by remixing various unrelated Youtube music clips. I'm just hoping that the music industry (Youtube, PRS, various labels etc) will share my view that this guy is a huge talent and not a criminal for doing so.

After my recent Creative Commons post (or maybe just before, I can't remember!), Lawrence Lessig appeared on the Colbert Report, and in between the usual top-notch humour managed to instigate a remix frenzy of said interview with various dance beats. Colbert (knowingly) fuelled the fire further by explicitly stating that people did NOT have his permission to do so. After the huge publicity that generated for all parties he (and Comedy Central) also went on to create his own remix.

This was a great example of the kind of fun and creativity that people can generate and share with a bit of open-mindedness. Kutiman takes this to another level with the amount if skill that he has to craft these videos and tracks, and any clued-up label scout should snap him up for some kind of project. As Merlin Mann says over at 43 folders, "somebody will figure out (and publicly admit) that Kutiman, and any number of his peers on the “To-Sue” list, should be passed from Legal down to A&R". This really could be the future of remixing, and is a culture that should be welcomed, and talent nurtured. Copyright is still a major issue for the old-school players, whereas the new wave of talented, forward-thinking artists and companies are embracing a new way of discovering, creating and remixing that is the future of the industry. Artist must learn to make income from several revenue streams - i.e. make money because of their music, not directly from it, and be prepared to use it as a promotion tool (Giving it away and Going Indie).

Out-of-date copyright laws need to be changed, and the shift in power that we are already seeing towards a sharing yet respectful culture should be embraced from all parties. Those resistant to it will be left behind (and lose millions of dollars in the process *cough* major labels *cough*).

I thought i'd share some of the Thru-You project videos here for you to enjoy. Please add your thoughts in the comment section below :)

Lee Jarvis.