TeledyN

Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips told a Rolling Stone reporter of the group's plan to record and share a song a month instead of producing another traditional album. The always whimsical college rock elder mused on new possibilities, such as packaging the songs inside small toys. Most important, though, was a straightforward declaration of purpose. "We want to try to live through our music as we create it," he said, "instead of it being a collection of the last couple years of our lives.

Ok, enough of my gloating, and thank you all for catching up with my thinking, whatever your reasons doesn't really matter, the point is simply that if you are running a studio my friend, I advise you to drop your prices by 95% before next Tuesday, because all that extra mile production stuff you layer in to give the salon that exquisite sense of exclusivity is about to be jettisoned as just so much ungreenery. Your once lucrative boutique business is now box-store, like software, become a common thing that can be tossed together quite acceptably by a dilligent teen with two weeks practice and just as no one really cared about the fonts and kerning in a myspace page (or even if the text overwrote the image!) no one will care much anymore that the seinheissers were impeccable and the placements of baffles pure brilliance. It will all be postcard polaroids now, baby.

If everyone paid a penny every time they played a song on their computers without buying a single song, the record industry would be in far better shape than it is now. More listening doesn’t need to mean less money, even if it means less purchasing. But for some reason, that model is seen as “eating our young,” when compared to the pay-per download model, which is essentially the electronic version of buying an unbundled CD, cassette, or 8-track tape — all formats that have become considerably less attractive to most people as they increasingly listen on connected devices, if they listen at all.

Ha! Now ... where have you heard that particular price-point before? Seems I'm now only about 8 years ahead of Wired, I'd better watch myself. But back at that pretty penny, here is the truth the plastic disk vendors will not accept: the vast majority of people will listen to the vast majority of music only once at best they might keep it in regular play for a week or two until they grasp the lack of timelessness in it, and they, swoosh off it goes to the Cornfield, stuffed out in the la-la land of never to return until a nostalgic mood takes them. Piles of it, huge great mounds of it.

This is especially true today with all the totally well-meaning mp3 vending machines for the 'indie' artists, but dig, nearly no one wants to buy your mp3 for a buck and even ten for a dollar is pushing it. But ... if it was like radio-on-demand, pick a swath of catalog and pay so little you couldn't possibly exhaust your account, well then it makes sense to do a little sight-seeing.

This is the reason for the great success of the free MP3 as a loss-leading advert for your sound, as a calling card (business cards cost money to design and print too), clear illustrations of what you'd be like if they hired you for the service you provide. The trouble is, only those who can afford to front that kind of money will be in the position to sustain giving things away, and that makes it difficult for the newcomers. However, you up that to an almost invisible penny or two a play and who cares if they snatch the download for their ipod because you know they'll be bored soon enough and back tomorrow for a dozen more, maybe even from the same band if they dig it!

Here’s what happened…

Last week, a friend told me about a Craig’s List ad that stated an “unnamed network” was looking for children’s music to use in a “popular television series.” I responded, like hundreds of others, by throwing my hat in the ring with You Tube links to animated versions of my children’s songs with Debbie and Friends. Five days later, I have signed contracts with Fox Television to use two of my animated songs on their hit series “24″ in January!

I know “24″ is probably the last show you’d expect to find Debbie and Friends music. Our songs are written for the preschool set and their families. However, there will be a scene in an episode of “24″ next season with a young child watching TV, and that’s where my children’s music videos will come into play.

Notice the pre-requisites: first is the training and competence to produce a quality work, which probably goes without saying, and then second is the public sharing of that work, freely, openly, and in a collaborative effort with an animator friend, the essence of the One Track Universe her illustrated songs are given out, without restriction or expectation, on YouTube. Oh where is the 'Business Model' in that? and sure enough I will wager the actual return from all that effort was minimal, perhaps some casual feedback.

But the key thing is, Debbie was now primed and ready should the opportunity knock and the serendipitous then did indeed happen, the friend calls up with the tip to Craigslist. And only that. As we learn from The Roots Band blog, network TV is aching under increasing license fee pressures from the 'big' names, so they are actually eager for something new, and cheap, to fill these little incidental spots, walk-ons, embellishments, musical errata. But notice there was no knocking on doors, no lining up for hours for auditions or interviews, no active seeking or even any notion of Debbie casting a net expecting a catch. Sure, there was a hope, but dig, the 'hope' found her, through her network of friends and their networks of feeds, wearing, as McLuhan said it, humanity as a skin, as a sensory network. There's a tickle, there's a relay, there's a response to the itch. We don't scratch just anywhere.

And Debbie is ready to respond instantly, she can respond with skills, and with credibility and credentials of the best kind: actual public instances of her work as close as a mouse-click on her response letter. Done deal, the rest is just details.

via coreysmith.com

What caught everyone's attention was that this totally independent musician, with no record label, no radio play, no massive publicity campaign had grossed about $4 million in 2008. Now, of course, tour grosses (which made up the lion's share of that amount) are a bit misleading, as the venues take a cut of that, and there are certainly other expenses to be paid, but as a starting number it's still really impressive. Luckily, Corey is now sharing some more details about his path to success.

Corey recently did a fantastic podcast with CDBaby where he details how he went about building up a fan base and building up support, and it basically involved exactly what we discussed before: good music, a real connection with the fans, hard work through touring and careful targeting. While he jokes about the $4 million gross touring number, he does admit that his "corporation" (as he now has a support staff) netted over $2 million last year. Frankly, that's more impressive than the $4 million gross numbers. He notes, of course, that there are still expenses on top of that, including staff (manager, accountant, full-time salaried musicians who play with him, recording expenses and touring expenses -- especially in support of new markets, where the return isn't guaranteed). But, even with all that, bringing in over $2 million in topline revenue is really impressive for a musician without any additional outside backing.

One of the things that he discusses in the podcast is that what really got him started down this road was realizing that it could be done. He read Dave Kusek and Gerd Leonhard's excellent The Future of Music, and it made him realize "hey, this is possible." And that, alone, made a huge difference. It's amazing what you can do once you realize that something is possible -- and one of the great things we've seen in writing about Corey and numerous other musicians and their success stories is that they, in turn, inspire many other musicians who realize that it really is possible to do quite well despite the naysayers and the doom and gloom.

what we think, we become.

via keithlim.com

People were asking about what business models are working for musicians, and I started listing out some examples, and a loud gentleman in the front row yelled out that the business model that had to be at the center was selling music. I responded with what I thought was an important question: "Why?" and again people started yelling. Of course, no one answered the question, and then the panel shifted gears to another topic.

But, the reaction from the crowd on that question cemented for me one of the biggest reasons why some in the industry have struggled to grasp new business models. As I discussed in my NARM presentation a few months ago, selling music is just not a good business model, but it doesn't mean there aren't good, very profitable, music business models. It's just that selling music isn't a very good one. Instead, you need to learn to use the music (which still needs to be good, and is still the central reason why these other business models work) to sell something else -- something scarce, which can't easily be copied.

Some of you long-time TeledyN readers will remember all those many posts about the One-Track Universe where music was your vector, your broadcast channel communications wave connector straight to the heart of your fans and how it made no sense whatsoever to charge people to pick up the phone because you wanted to tell them about something important, or because you wanted to heal them, or lead them to dance together in joyeous celebration of their community of inter-life as humans. The vast majority, of course, thought me crazy, a handful did support the idea, some more tentatively than others.

Today the idea is mainstream Rock-Press fodder, the bread and butter of more artists than I can track. More and more have caught on to what I said about Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire and the sure fire way to totally obliterate the DRM issue by stepping beyond the copyright of the copy-able. Today we are on the edge of a world where live music generates more actual in their pocket revenue for artists than does the dead shadow of sound etched in billions of non-recyclable plastic disks.

So while I didn't get to be a direct part of the new music economy, I am delighted to see it playing out precisely to my plan, and delighted to see not only the new young and nothing to lose artists embracing a free-share mp3 business model, but also now among some name acts, even one or two household names, the idea doesn't just make sense, it is simply and factually the way it is.

 From what I have been able to find out, this is quite possibly the FIRST recording by the Sun Ra Orchestra (pre Arkestra). And while it has been widely thought to only have been released on 45 rpm, I have here what may be the ONLY existing copy on 78 rpm. The record is in good condition overall. ... I would probably frame this recording, rather than play it. I did play it through one time on a professional turntable with appropriate stylus... This asking price was suggested by a scholar in the field, but please feel free to make an offer that you think is fair. The following information was lifted (I hope with no problem) from Robert L. Campbell, Christopher Trent, and Robert Pruter. Thanks.

Billie Hawkins accompanied by Sun-Ra and His Orchestra

Billie Hawkins (voc); with Sun Ra (p -1, 2; Wurlitzer ep -2; arr); Art Hoyle (tp); Dave Young (tp); Julian Priester (tb); Pat Patrick (as, bars -1; bars -2); John Gilmore (ts); Wilburn Green (eb); Robert Barry (d); Jim Herndon (tymp -2).

RCA Studios, Chicago, around January 1956

G7OW-5168	I'm Coming Home (Sunny Lane-Beryl Orris) -1		Heartbeat H-3-45
G7OW-5169	Last Call for Love (Tom Seymour) -2		Heartbeat H-4-45

Our thanks to Freddie Patterson for locating the earliest known release by the Arkestra, though Sun Ra wasn't using that spelling in his publicity yet, and Heartbeat, which put out this 7 inch 45 rpm single in 1956, wasn't doing it either. The quality studio recording and matrix numbers are from RCA's Chicago operation; the matrix numbers are just a little earlier than those found on the first Arkestra single on Ra's Saturn label. Two trumpets are present, and Green is on electric bass, so this is the Arkestra after Christmas 1955.

The original labels identify Billie Hawkins as the artist and mention Sun-Ra and His Orchestra in small print underneath. All personnel were identified by rlc. In a 2003 interview, Seymour Schwartz recalled that Billie Hawkins was a sexually ambiguous male singer; Schwartz also said he wrote the tunes for the session (the “Tom Seymour” presumably refers to him, and his daughter's name is Sunny).

Now here's a phenomenon we're going to miss in the Digital Age, although I think most of the young bands these days are well aware of the rarities effect and as such, while they may give out their tracks for free on their blog, there's usually a 7" vinyl edition tailor-made for the futures market.

"really obvious stuff .. be where the FANS are .. use the data"

via @AtmosTrio and Wired tho it may be, this is it, this is the new music business, put succinct, no magic monkey dust, and no suits. All we're really doing is correcting that ugly anomaly of the plastic-units age, getting us back to the ancient idea of connection and relevence to people, or as @mattwilsonjazz put it today:

Blogs, blah blah blah!Philosophy blah blah! Go play for the people! Spread the message through sound! Unite a community!!