Let’s take me, for example. I run HEY WTF Records, and we’re really big into making cassette tapes.

There’s definitely an illusion that the cassette label/purchasing world is a super-cool niche to operate in. Sure, it’s nowhere near having the resurgence that vinyl (records) has experienced over the past few years, but there are still a number of labels selling out of their releases and gaining significant fan bases. I live inside this: I get tapes from other labels, I have a tape deck next to my desk and some 79 tapes to listen to. I totally buy into the cassette counterculture.

This is important: your customers need to know that you’re one of them, that you identify with them and know their needs and are supporting the same movement (or niche) they are. You can’t lead a group that you aren’t a part of- a brit can’t be President of the US and Trump isn’t going to (successfully) sell maternity clothes (but you never know what that guy is gonna try).

However, sometimes you need to wake up and snap out of the illusion to realize what a myth you’re living, in order to expand horizons, stay grounded, and make good business decisions. 

Remember how I said cassettes were way smaller than the current vinyl world? Yeah, well, according to Bob Lefsetz (music industry pundit and ranter extrodinare), vinyl sales only account for about 1% of overall music sales (and I’m sure he got that number from somewhere, but I’m too lazy to look it up and I’m supposed to be reading a book about ADD right now not blogging oh the irony).

CASSETTES ARE TINY. So while yes, I need to be happily bubbling along in the fairy tale world of the super-niche, the niche of the niche of the market, I also need to open my eyes. Even if we captured 100% of the market would we be making big bucks? Six figure salary bucks? Nope.

So what to do? Expand.

You need to be in touch with both the illusion and the reality of the niche.

The post the illusion and the reality of the niche appeared first on ryan lucht.

So without further ado, the 7 roles I take on as HEY WTF’s Head:

Management: Everything from project management, to managing the rest of our team, is my job. I’m in charge of making sure things move forward, deciding where to go next, etc. etc.

Finance: Not only do I keep track of our money, I’ve also provided most of the capital for the company thus far, and I’m the one that transfers money between accounts and makes payments and deposits and the like

A&R: There’ll be two more people helping me with this in the Fall, but right now I’m responsible for finding artists to release on the label, getting in touch with them, writing/signing contracts and handling almost all artist relations

Digital Music Maven: I stay up on all of the latest music industry news, and make sure our music and artists are everywhere they need to be: whether it’s a new streaming service, or artist profile-type site.

Social Media/Branding: Most of our Facebook posts and Tweets are from yours truly, as are the Spotify playlists and anything that communicates our brand, pretty much. The exception to this being our Instagram- Sara takes most of those (although I’m on there infrequently as well).

Sales: I’m the one getting our tapes into stores, working on digital distribution, and trying to break into the retail world with our apparel line.

Anything else, really: Who knows what else I might be doing- developing radio promotion tactics to pass on to the rest of the team, learning new skills to apply to the venture, writing a business plan and pitching to an investment board, and developing our release calendar for 2013 are all things I’m currently working on.

So there’s a TON of work that goes into my job with HEY WTF. I intend to start using this site as a blog again, both about running HEY WTF and about my infrequent musical endeavors, so keep an eye out here for more writings.

-R

The post The 7 Roles of Being HEY WTF’s “Head” appeared first on ryan lucht.

A little more than half an hour ago I saw Rae off onto her flight to Chicago where she’ll stay for a bit before heading home to Indiana. It’s pretty sad saying goodbye for a little while to a really beautiful presence in your everyday life.

So now I ate my dinner and am sitting at Gate 32, Terminal C. There’s a flight leaving for Dallas in 25 minutes. Three older men with grey hair in business atire are sitting next to me telling each other fun stories about when they were younger- paying a cabbie $20 extra to pull off an amazing action-movie-esque car ride to the airport in Dallas through completely stopped bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I’m having an imaginary conversation with a stranger in my head. Introducing myself. “Hi, I’m Ryan. I’m a student and an entrepreneur- I go to Northeastern for Music Industry and I run a record label that releases music on cassettes.” Do I seem interesting to other people, or am I just another boring normal person? Rae and I noticed that this woman sitting across from us at her gate was totally creepin on us. I said “Well, yeah, we’re interesting people. We’re famous for a reason.”

Break is going to be quite a creative workload for me- I’m tasked with reworking, mixing, and mastering the ∆s beat tape and should at least be started with the mixing phase on Photogenesis, which will come out on HEY WTF early 2013. On top of my own stuff, I’m really excited to mix Alexa’s album and get together with Mike and Kevin and jam, and maybe I’ll write some songs on the side. Oh yeah, and I wanna nail down some of that Charlie Brown Christmas album on piano.

I think I’ll sit here, write the HEY WTF christmas card, and start this social media course and work on preparing HEY WTF for investment.

So much to do, too much time away from Boston…

The post Hi, I’m Ryan. aka random airport writings appeared first on ryan lucht.

people r always getting weird about money. be chill! – Grimes

If you read my blog, you’ll know that I recently discussed why I’ll no longer be charging for my music. Everything will be fully available for free download on at least one of my many profiles (usually Bandcamp for official releases or Mediafire/Soundcloud for everything else). I think I summed up the way our artist-fan relationship should work pretty well in the closing paragraph of that post:

I trust that by making music that you all can connect to and experience something with, I’ll win you over as my fans/supporters. And as fans and supporters, you’ll contribute monetarily when you can. But that relationship starts with ME giving YOU value- the experience that I can bring about with my art. And then we’ll talk money.

Well, what happens when that day has come and you feel compelled, motivated, or otherwise inspired to contribute to my work? You can do so both monetarily or with your simple support as my loving fans.

Bandcamp- On almost all of my Bandcamp releases, you have the option to pay more than $0.00 to purchase the album. This is an easy, straightforward way to “pay what you wish” for some of my music, and I appreciate the contribution.

Flattr- Flattr is an exciting way to make microdonations (literally as small as a few cents) to anything I create. The way it works is this- you sign up with Flattr, and deposit a small amount of money into your account (just a few bucks). You set an amount to be sent out to the things you “Flattr” each month, and then go ahead and click the Flattr button all over the web! At the end of the month, your money is divided among the things you’ve flattered, and I get money. You can Flattr me on any blog post, my Soundcloud, my Tumblr, and elsewhere coming soon. 

PayPal- Wanna kick it old-school? You can send me straight up donations via PayPal. You can find a Donate button on the right-hand side of every page.

Now, all that being said there are other ways you can help me out that don’t have to do with money! Here’s a list of places where you can find me/follow me/subscribe and become a fan to show your support:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• MusicHype
• ReverbNation
• Mixcloud
• YouTube
• Tumblr
• Soundcloud
• and etc.

Equally as important however, is just telling your friends about my music and stuff. Post a link in your Facebook status, tumble it, tweet it, you can even blog about it if you have such an avenue.

Also, feel free to spread my music to as many piracy outlets as you’d like. Yes, this is my official blessing.

Alright, I think that’s all for now. Thanks for your interest in supporting my work, I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, and it enables me to continue creating.

Much love,

R

The post How You Can Contribute to my Works appeared first on ryan lucht.

They see music as some sort of video game- quests to complete, experience points gained to level up. Gotta learn how to make that dubstep bass sound, or play that rock groove on “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, or how to play Call Me Maybe on the piano- these are all the “achievements” of the game. The goal? To level up, to be the best, to progressively accumulate skills, tools, experience, and eventually kick ass. Naturally, the fruits of such labor is formulaic, unoriginal, and stale.

This isn’t music. Music is not a video game. It isn’t a competition. It does not live in a pre-programmed world, and there is not a clear path of quests, achievements, and leveling up. It’s not about “getting good”- it’s something deeper.

I’m sure if you asked these gamer-musicians what their goals were with music, you’d get something like: “To be the BEST DRUMMER EVER”, or “To get famous making electro house music”, or “to pick up chicks”. Keep pressing, and you’ll be surprised to find that they’re dumbfounded to come up with anything meaningful. Being creative, being expressive, eliciting emotion, and conveying a message through music is nowhere on their radar.

And without those creative, expressive, and emotional elements… Well, I already said what that is. Formulaic, unoriginal, and stale. And not in the true spirit of music making.

Young, aspiring musicians- wake up. Stop treating music like a video game, and start realizing it for what it really is. Have fun.

The post Music is not a video game. appeared first on ryan lucht.

Then I realized, that’s not the right attitude at all. After all, I’m not into making music for money, and I don’t want to fall into that mindset. Even worse, that was a professional stance I had while in private/as a person, I’m all “Rah rah piracy! It’s great! And it won’t kill the music industry!”

On top of that, every day I find more and more amazing music online, some far ahead of where I am as a producer, songwriter, and overall musician, all going for free. What kind of pompous jerk am I to charge for my substandard music then? This isn’t me riding on myself, it’s just being honest- I have a long way to go in my growth and learning. I put out music because I have things to say, ideas to share, and because I’m not precious about it- I’m not freaking special or something, I’m open and honest and put out what I have when I have it. The world won’t wait 5 years for me to suddenly get better.

You’re along for the ride with me. Starting now, my music is all available for full download and ownership for free. This holds true for Photogenesis (when it comes out) and a long-form composition I’m working on right now (stay tuned!)

Of course, you can still pay for it if you’d like. I’d be honored. It especially means a lot when I spent a considerable amount of money to make a recording possible, so thanks.

I trust that by making music that you all can connect to and experience something with, I’ll win you over as my fans/supporters. And as fans and supporters, you’ll contribute monetarily when you can. But that relationship starts with ME giving YOU value- the experience that I can bring about with my art. And then we’ll talk money.

Enjoy!

<3,

R

The post To free, or not to free? appeared first on ryan lucht.

Here’s a particular favorite quote of mine from his book Effortless Mastery:

Here is a very simple test to prove that music is not that important:

Go to the kitchen and get a plastic bag. Place it over your head, tying the opening snugly around your neck so that no air can get through. Now, let’s count to one hundred. By the count of twenty, let me ask you: how important is music? Are there any ”burning issues”? Is Charlie Parker important? By the count of 35, would you be debating whether or not bebop was the real music? By 54, no doubt you would be contemplating whether music should swing, or whether free jazz really is where it’s at. At 73, the question would burn in your consciousness; ”Is Cecil Taylor for real?”

I think you get the point. The only thing that’s really important is your next breath. We lose sight of reality very easily because of the little dictator in our heads: the mind. Our mind is always feeding us messages: ”I must sound good;” ”This is the right music, that is the wrong music;” ”This is valid jazz, that is politically correct jazz” (yes, we have that these days). Or it sends us messages like: ”I’m not supposed to play really great, because I’m a woman,” or ”I’m white,” or ”I’m European,” or ”only guys who live in New York can really play,” or ”I’m too old, and I can’t learn to play any better.” The mind is always supplying a steady stream of these illusions of limitation. They don’t happen to be true, but they prevent you from seeing or hearing truth.

The post it doesn’t matter if you sound good appeared first on ryan lucht.

Check it out and purchase it for only $2, in any format you’d like, here. Here’s some blurbs about each of the tracks on the album!

1. Sfrawls: I’ve already written a whole “Story Behind” post for this track, so go ahead and read that here.

2. Church: The organ samples that appear on Bros (the track from Photogenesis) were recorded at my lifelong church home of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Long Valley, NJ. There’s a cabinet in the spare office situated outside the back of the sanctuary, where several pieces of equipment are kept. Among them- a supply of blank cassette tapes, a small mixing console, a serious cassette deck, etc. I took an unlabeled, presumably blank tape, put it in the deck, and pressed record, then walked into the sanctuary to record the organ. When I got home and transferred the tape to my recording session for Bros, I found that the tape had a previous occupant- a recorded speech or sermon that Pastor Tollefson had apparently given some time ago. I can’t tell if the recording was done live, or if this was him practicing, and I have no idea when it was recorded. But while listening to it, I said, hey- this is great stuff. Let’s build a piece around it. I already knew that my church home would make a great inspiration for a Photogenesis track, so I got to work finding a musical home for it to reside in. I decided on a sort of “chillwave”-esque vibe, educated by the sounds of Toro y Moi or M83 or similar artists. I built a simple synthesizer/gated drum groove, and added the recording of Pastor to it. An NES drum machine plugin and brief, truncated sine wave synthesizer solo added some new elements to the groove late in the track, and I loved the strange juxtaposition and aesthetic it created.

3. Look to the Sky: This is my recording/version of the bossa nova tune by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Originally recorded on the beautiful album “Wave” with orchestral-like accompaniment (arranged by the great Claus Ogerman), it always had a spaced-out, beautiful summertime vibe. I decided to take the sort of ambient music I was creating with my piano and electronics and apply it to this classic. I synthesized the chords that make up the tune and gave them a drone-type texture, then loaded them into a sampler for me to trigger while performing the melody and solo live on the piano. Besides the texture change, this is pretty straightforward: Head -> Solo -> Head out. Standard jazz form.

4. Money is the (sq)Root of Evil Meditation: Another track that I’ve already written about quite a bit. This version is slightly changed and edited from the version that appeared in the Black Dogs Handmade in Bradford installation and is on my Soundcloud. It was also remastered.

5. Gretchen Ross: Donnie Darko is among my favorite movies of all time. I know, sometimes it gets overhyped and elevated to cult status, but I have so many reasons to love it- the 80s soundtrack, the carefully constructed plot and science fiction elements, the dark humor, and Gretchen Ross. It’s not so much about finding actress Jenna Malone attractive, it’s more about how much I love the dynamics of the relationship between Gretchen and Donnie. The film’s composer Michael Andrews did an all-around stellar job scoring Donnie Darko, and his “Gretchen Ross” cue is one of my favorites from the entire movie- so beautiful, and so simple. This is my interpretation of the piece- forgoing the choir element and changing chord progression to repetitively focus on only the first two chords. The track starts as a drone, and gradually regains definition to focus on the piano sample (almost like a mirror image of M/M/M) before adding ambient synthesizer pads, a Moroder-like pulsing 8th note bassline, and finally, expansive and gigantic drums. Euphoria.

Well, there you have it! That is, in a nutshell, Negative Film: The Photogenesis B-Sides. It’s an awfully short EP, clocking in just above 10 minutes, but there’s a lot of ideas I’ve shoved in there and some interesting soundscapes. I hope you enjoy it!

The post Negative Film: The Photogenesis B-Sides appeared first on ryan lucht.

So it looks like the Kickstarter project won’t be successfully funded. Bummer, eh? Maybe a little too ambitious…

But that’s besides the point. Just because Plan A didn’t work out doesn’t mean the music isn’t going to get to you and sound amazing and be very professionally done.

So what’s next?

Well, I’m currently showing the album around to a couple ambient music record labels, in hopes that somebody will take it under their roof and give it the release it deserves. So, fingers crossed, maybe Plan B will work out.

But even if that fails, the album will still be mixed, mastered, and released, even if only digitally. I’m not sure if there’s something in between a record label release and last resort, but it may end up with me going to a local studio and mixing it with somebody in the area, before sending it off to another professional for mastering, completely self-funded. Followed by a digital-only release.

Thanks for your continuing support, and I still can’t wait to share Photogenesis with you

Love,

Ryan

The post So… what now? (The Future of Photogenesis) appeared first on ryan lucht.

The new, free download is here. 

If you’d like to pay for it, I’ll have a PayPal donate button on this site soon.

To read more about the release, click here.

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