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Permalink Reply by Rick Millward on May 25, 2010 at 12:10am

Strikes me like Dinner Theater...13 million acts on MySpace...wow..Last time I checked it was just 8...what does it all mean? The internet coming of age as an entertainment medium. ASCAP will ultimately be able to track not just downloads but PLAYS and collect from ISPs?...Shorter songs...(OK...I'm working on that!!)..Branding (Lady Ga Ga...Taylor Swift, etc.) which costs big dollars in a saturated airspace but necessary to maintain visibility...Successful artists will probably need to churn out more product more often to satisfy a fickle, easily distracted fan base and nervous labels ready to pull the plug at the first hiccup?...I have more questions than answers at this point...

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Permalink Reply by Michael Lewis on May 26, 2010 at 1:59pm

I don't see a lot of difference between the basic concept of having everyone over for dining and drinks, turning your house into a Bistro and waiting on them verses doing live music at a nice restaurant. The difference is, while you guarantee that you are the house band and you aren't giving away music anymore, now you're giving away all the time and expense that goes into running a restaurant.

The worse part of it all is that the basic premise for success is getting everyone drunk so they can have a good time -- but we already do that too, at all the bars we play.

First of all I'm not one for the "get 'em drunk and they'll love the music" mindset. We don't need more drinking. All this has done is help promote the less-than-quality music mindset. When folks get drunk, do they want to hear a real pretty, well played piece of music? Not usually. Once they're getting drunk and loosened up, they want to rock -- the harder the better!

As a result, music that requires higher levels of training and skill (such as jazz), is no longer accepted by the mainstream. Drunk people don't carry about beautiful music! I had a music professor mention to me yesterday that jazz is no longer a viable form of business, it is only an art form now -- that's a true statement and it's a travesty!

I like the comment on the article... the guy named "Bob"... he says "It makes we wanna quit the music business completetly and use more of my precious time actually writing music and live my life." I think I agree. Some folks are so desperate to market their music for the purpose of being successful, that they are no longer musicians. If it's all about making money to you, then go get a job!

Personally, I'm a musician regardless of whether I succeed with my music or not. And no, I will not play for free and no I will not cave in to all the demands that I have to cater to the old "sex, drugs and rock and roll"so that I can be "successful!"

And for the record, my calendar is booked and I need to get back to the studio because I have paying projects to work on. I'm thankful that (at least for now) some folks still support those of us who have dedicated our lives to being musicians... second only to being people of integrity.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Trageser on June 10, 2010 at 7:32am

Awesome! Goes back to the key element of "putting on a damned show."

It's also great that there's a bunch of economic activity and marketable products here. To make the event pay for itself, you've got to run sound, film, and record it well; it might not be a huge gig, but someone got paid to make that work. Then you have audio editing and mixing as well as video editing. The products you have at the end are a song(s?) for your record, video for viral marketing on the internet (fans posting to Facebook "look what George and I did last weekend!" in addition to whatever you post yourself), maybe even DVD material at that quality.

Not every artist could make this work (some bands I really love but I would NOT like handling my dinner); it's highly dependent on your crowd, or your "tribe" as they call it, and your interaction with them. These guys have one member of the band out in the audience conducting; it takes a certain kind of relationship (or acting skill) for that to go over. Plus your space has to be awesome - probably won't work in a conference room (but maybe in a living room or basement?).

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Permalink Reply by Leonard Wolf on June 17, 2010 at 2:29pm

Music 3.0 - Meet the new boss - same as the old boss - unfortunately most musicians through the ages have never had it easy except the rare few that win the lottery or are have a timely and unusually clever approach and a ton of willpower -

good luck to all as we will need it same as ever

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