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An interesting introductory article from Jason Feinberg, summarizing the challenges facing the music publishing industry:
The pioneers of the music industry couldn’t have seen this coming in their wildest dreams. When publishers were selling sheet music in the late 1800s, the idea of people privately sharing their product, independent of location and physical constraints, would have seemed ridiculous. But now record labels have been decimated by the digital shift, and are rethinking their entire business model to survive.
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San Mateo County’s own Vintage Music Collective, playing really tight reggae and blues. And performing all over the place (Little Fox, San Mateo County Faire).
From their Facebook page:
Personal Interests: Making you dance. Being funky
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Polyphonic will invest in bands, who in turn will operate like startups, dealing mostly with contractors to handle various aspects of a band’s work, such as merch, tours, publicity, recording etc. They will share profits from their music and tours, but – and this is the really important part – they get to keep copyrights and master recordings. It’s about royalties, of course, but it’s also about controlling what happens to your own music, something that has troubled many artists, such as Tori Amos, Trent Reznor or Radiohead, when they dealt with major labels.Now, that sounds interesting… its about time entrepreneurial spirit met music in an artist-friendly way.
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There’s been a lot of concern among in the community of fans of small and innovative music webcasters like Pandora about royalties being set by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board - fees were set at rates which would have potentially put companies like Pandora out of business. With this new agreement, however, it looks like the industry folks have have relented a bit.
Details are in the NY Times article, but this pretty much sums it up:
“This is definitely the agreement that we’ve been waiting for,” said Tim Westergren, the founder of Pandora…
UPDATE: Tim Westergren’s summary is here. I really like those guys!
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In this 2008 blog entry, Kevin Kelly wrote posits that it should be possible for artists to survive on a modest (1000) number of “true fans” who would spend enough money per capita on their favorite artists to support each artist. The exciting idea was that this would make it possible for artists to focus on their art, even if it weren’t popular, and not live like a pauper.
A followup blog entry, “The Case Against 1000 True Fans” presents some sobering results: apparently such an artist doesn’t exist.
But is that still true? Are social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc allowing musicians to reach down the long tail and find the 1000 true fans among the hundreds of millions of music fans? That is, in part, what motivates me to write this blog. I see the potential micro-celebrities to become self-supporting simply through social networks and I want to highlight success stories, tools, best practices, and other advice for aspiring “1000 true fan”-style musicians.
So my question to readers is whether or not they are, or know of, musicians supporting themselves (either partially of fully) through a “true fan” model? Are you a true fan supporting a musician that you like? Do you know of resources for artists wanting to build a “true fan” network?
[Thanks to Adina Levin for the links]
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With a mere tweet, @keikotakamura, the lead singer (and chief conspirator) of Hope Squad announced that the group has renamed themselves The Shebangs. Which this author finds a little funny since the band is 50/50 male/female — doesn’t that mean the group should be called “The Theybangs”?
And yes kids, The Shebangs are on Twitter and Myspace.
Back to your regularly scheduled beatslacking…
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Is this:
Discuss!
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Just saw Jason from WSPC live at open mic at Angelica’s. Check out his band here.
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I’m probably not in the habit of discussing individual releases, but as a dad, this one is a special exception. I grew up listening to my dad’s Bob Marley albums, and now my kids get to hear the same songs, made perhaps a little more appealing for them (at 6 and 8). Definitely a must-have — and the songs are available to listen to for free online right now:
B is for Bob is a collection of original Bob Marley songs re-imagined for kids and fans of all ages!!
The international musical legend’s eldest son, four-time Grammy winner Ziggy Marley, executive produced the album, which bridges the gap between the timeless Bob Marley and a new generation of kids.
Bob Marley’s music touches people of all ages. With children in mind, Ziggy has transformed 8 of his father’s songs while leaving 4 of Bob Marley’s other masterpieces untouched.
Released just in time for summer, this is the perfect album for the entire family to enjoy!
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Online Breakbeat Radio station, and what appears to be a really interesting and active fan community around the music as well:
Full featured internet breakbeat station broadcasting over 60,000 minutes of the finest domestic breaks. Search our fast growing breakbeat music playlist and request your favorite breaks to be played on ubRadio! You may also dedicate your request to otherbreakbeat fans. Come join ubForums breakbeat forums, A great place to interact with your favorite breakbeat producer or dj. Also, Talk to other fans and members about your breaks music passion! Register and join the breakbeat music forums today! Check out ubLIVE breakbeat dj schedule for the full lineup of weekly live dj showsbroadcasting live audio and occasionally video only on UnitedBreaks.FM
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