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Youth Ensemble of Atlanta – creating “issue-based musicals” Way more pics after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »
Last December I recorded a solo chamber work for bassoon and piano in my office/studio with one of my former students as a personal favor for composer Carl Paul Vollrath. The acoustic piano I have there needed a tune, so I played the digital keyboard instead. The track was shipped off to MMC Records and I was very honored when they decided to include it on a sampler of new music by classical composers. The track is available via:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Musicscapes-Vol-1-MP3-Download/11206480.html or
http://www.mtraks.com/artist/various_artists/release/84202-musicscapes_vol_1
I’m also finishing up the liner notes for Dr. Vollrath’s upcoming release featuring Richard Stoltzman on clarinet. Scheduled for release next month, the project consists of 2 CDs of clarinet music (recorded by Bob Lord at MMC). If you’ve ever written liner notes for your own music, you can imagine how tough it is to summarize someone else’s music. What I ended up doing was writing a layman’s analysis of the character and form of the pieces. It’s descriptive enough to encourage folks to listen (and hopefully buy the printed music).
It’s really tough being a classical composer in this age; ensembles generally are very conservative with their programming choices and if you noticed the program the New York Philharmonic took to North Korea, you’ll see what I mean. Dr. Vollrath retired from teaching recently and is devoting all the time and resources he has to these recording projects.
Think about this for a moment. Would you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to see some of your life’s work recorded? This situation is absolutely amazing to me! Carl gives away many of his compositions to performers in hopes of having them performed; unfortunately, few are. It’s not a quality issue, it’s a glass ceiling that classical composers have to find a way to break through.
It works out great for the labels; think of them as the audio equivalent of a “vanity press” (those publishers who will publish a certain number of copies of your book for a fee). But for Dr. Vollrath, these compositions are his “children” and no price is too great in order to see them come of age. He has already released a 2 cd album of piano music and one cd of chamber music for trumpet and horn. I won’t begin to speculate how much these projects cost.
I’ve known many musicians who would play anywhere simply for the joy of sharing their music (gratis). Classical composers are ’up the creek without a paddle’ because they cannot realize their works without the cooperation of other like-minded performers. Either you get really good at writing grants for arts enrichment, playing political games and courting rich patrons or you do what Carl is doing; –focus on the music and do the best that he can. You’ve got to admire someone who has spent a lifetime of disciplined composition for the sheer love of the art, perhaps never knowing when or if the notes on the page will ever be heard. Putting your soul down on manuscript paper because this music that no one else hears is welling up inside you and has to be released. That’s creating art for art’s sake.
Piracy Czar? Are you kidding me? I thought we already had one of those…
According to the 2008 press release archive on the RIAA.org site, the following universities have been targeted for pre-litigation settlement letters.
January 10th: (18 universities)
Arizona State University (33 pre-litigation settlement letters), Bowdoin College (11), California State University, Monterey Bay (25), College of William and Mary (15), Duke University (16), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (19), Mount Holyoke College (15), Rhode Island College (22), Saint Mary’s College of Minnesota (13), Stanford University (15), Texas Christian University (14), University of California, Berkeley (26), University of California, Los Angeles (26), University of Connecticut (25), University of Iowa (24), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (22), University of Texas at Austin (50), and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (36).
February 21st: (12 universities)
Boston University (35 pre-litigation settlement letters), Columbia University (50), Drexel University (33), Indiana University (40), North Carolina State University (35), Ohio State University (30), Purdue University (28), Tufts University (20), University of Maine System (32), University of New Hampshire (32), University of Southern California (50), and the University of Virginia (16).
On May 6th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the PRO-IP Act which strengthens laws against illegal downloading, allows for seizure of property involved in the commission of said crime and gives new enforcement measures to investigators. Billboard.biz quoted David Israelite of the Nat’l Music Publishers Assn:
“This bill will go a long way towards making sure law enforcement agencies have what they need to get the job done,”
According to Mark Hefflinger of DMW Daily, the bill also-
The bill, which passed unanimously in the House Judiciary Committee last week, would also establish a White House-level piracy czar — dubbed the Intellectual Property Enforcement Representative — to coordinate law enforcement activities. (emphasis mine)
David Utter at Webpronews succinctly summed up the situation last year when the act was first getting off the ground:
More bureaucracy, another well-connected insider getting a sweet gig to graze at the taxpayer trough (we’re betting whoever gets the new IP Enforcement Representative job will have a big media background), and absolutely no impact on foreign counterfeiting whatsoever appear to be the salient points of PRO IP.
But Heaven help the first college kid busted under PRO IP for MP3 trading. It’s going to be brutal.
Folks, this is a strong piece of legislation that kicks the Intellectual Property Rights game up a notch; –it’s not just national in scope, it defines an international effort to set up rights and enforcement measures. I predict that given the success the music industry has seen so far, within a year we’ll see an astronomical increase in pre-litigation settlement letter mail-outs. And those won’t just be going to college campuses.
From the ASCAP EXPO/conference in LA:
ASCAP’s Bill of Rights
for Songwriters and Composers:
- We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate.
- We have the right to license our works and control the ways in which they are used.
- We have the right to withhold permission for uses of our works on artistic, economic or philosophical grounds.
- We have the right to protect our creative works to the fullest extent of the law from all forms of piracy, theft, and unauthorized use, which deprive us of our right to earn a living based on our creativity.
- We have the right to choose when and where our creative works may be used for free.
- We have the right to develop, document, and distribute our works through new media channels while retaining the right to a share in all associated profits.
- We have the right to choose the organizations we want to represent us and to join our voices together to protect our rights and negotiate for the value of our music.
- We have the right to earn compensation from all types of “performances,” including direct, live renditions as well as indirect recordings, broadcasts, digital streams, and more.
- We have the right to decline participation in business models that require us to relinquish all or part of our creative rights—or which do not respect our right to be compensated for our work.
- We have the right to advocate for strong laws protecting our creative works, and demand that our government vigorously uphold and protect our rights.
Add your name to a piece of music industry history! You can electronically “sign” the actual ASCAP petition here:
Slate Magazine’s William Weir made some good points with Tuesday’s Music Box column: Read the rest of this entry »
Audiogeekzine.com inspired me to echo his post about Before The Music Dies, one of the greatest documentary reflections on the current state of the music industry. It reveals some of the dirt that goes on behind the scenes that the general public may not realize. The clip below illustrates how the industry can “create” a pop star from someone who has NO MUSICAL TALENT! The Eryikah Badu quotes are priceless, but not necessarily safe for work.
The other movie is a documentary tribute to one of the most amazing recording engineers ever to have walked the planet; Tom Dowd. Not only was he one of the atomic scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project, but he pioneered stereo recording and built one of the first eight-track recording consoles. The synoposis of Tom Dowd and the Language of music reads:
A long-time engineer and producer for Atlantic Record, Tom Dowd was responsible for some of the most important R&B, rock, and jazz records ever made. In his own words, Tom Dowd relates how he went from working on the Manhattan Project, while still high school age, to recording some of the greatest music ever made over the last half of the 20th Century.
This guy produced some of the greatest recordings of all time and I learned so much from just watching him interact with the musicians. His discography reads like the Who’s Who of 20th Century Popular Music. It reminds me just how important it is to get the right team behind the musicians. Tom was the best. He passed away on Oct. 27th, 2002. He was one of the most important pioneers of our industry and we owe a huge debt of gratitude for showing us how recording should be done.
Youtube clip follows the break…
First Tracks is having a songwriting competition and I think you should enter something.
You have to hurry; the contest closes on Feb. 27th, 2008. Here are the basic rules:
1. Must be U.S. Resident.
2. May be individual or band (up to 4 members).
3. All songs must be entirely original and the recording less than 1 year old.
What do I win? Well…you get a choice of $20,000 cash or an EP commercially recorded, produced and distributed by Decca Records.
Who are the judges? You are! Just like American Idol…sort of. There are 3 rounds of online public voting, then a 4th round where the Decca brass and A&R folks get a vote (they’re actually voting in round #3; the public has the final vote!).
Interested? Go here.
My wife and I didn’t go to the Grammy Night viewing party with the Atlanta Chapter this year. Good thing, too; -’cause I’m sick as can be with bronchitis/flu symptons. I will probably not make it in to work tomorrow, and I really hate missing another day of school.
Anyway, enough of my whining. You can view the awards list here, with the winners highlighted in RED.
Congress passes a higher ed funding bill that requires colleges & universities to deal with the illegal downloading on campuses. (webware via future of music blog).
John Mellencamp demands John McCain stop using his songs for campaign events. (WTOP via future of music blog).
Gerd Leonhard (MediaFuturist Blog) recommends a book predicting what the future holds for the music industry.
Hometracked shares some Vocal EQ Tips.
Protooler shares a link where you can get PDF files to make your own ProTools shortcut stickers.
Guitarflame asks “where do you find your music?”.
Listenerd shares a link to a company that has used pitch to MIDI conversion to create a version of Guitar Hero that is usable with real guitars Plus, it also offers a teaching mode to help you learn new songs. Cool!
Music Row reports that Warner Music Group’s head is under investigation by French authorities for insider trading. Bad, Edgar, Bad!
Musicthing has posted the strangest accordian equipment review ever. (I’ve never seen an accordian do anything like that!).
Seth Godin’s post on deciding what to make could speak to musicians. Rewrite it yourself only with a focus on making music.
Good Musician shares tips on how to get young children interested in playing an instrument.
I’m not originally an Erykah Badu fan, but after seeing her on Before the Music Dies (a great video!!), I had to catch this review of her new music video on Killed by the Video Star’s site. As I watched it, my grins turned to guffaws…she’s probably one of the most intelligent artists out there today! I won’t give away the cool stuff, but it’s a real trip down memory lane in the spirit of RHCP’s Dani California vid.
It’s been a crazy week; can anyone tell? But I found some great things to share!
Indy Mogul – the perfect site for anyone interested in starting out in filmmaking or animation using no-nonsense (and low budget) tricks and tips. These guys are serious; they just got back from Sundance Film Festival and video blogged a bunch of it! They also have video tips for how to do special effects(like ripping the beating heart out of a victim “a la Indiana Jones & Temple of Doom”). I’m sure you can use that soon… (Thanks Audiogeek Zine)
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may soon have to police your downloading habits. This is due to increased pressure from content owners to control illegal downloading. If only the RIAA had thought of this sooner… (Thanks, Future of Music Blog). In the meantime, the European Courts say that ISPs don’t have to disclose file sharers (via Hypebot); so if you can’t catch the birds, chop down the tree?
Marc Cohen’s Ad-supported Music Central reacts to the Qtrax fiasco. Good one, Marc!
Andrew Dubber discusses the boundaries of the new music industry (or lack thereof). (New Music Strategies).
Guitar Flame shares a video from what has to be the world’s youngest fingerstyle guitar player. Nice one.
ProMedia reminds us how to use the Xpand! plug-in as a metronome in Pro Tools.
Protooler reviews a free online sound source (did someone say “Free?”) for film, radio and tv sfx.
Wire-to-the-Ear makes me feel 100 years old as he shows y’all how we used to do things.
Didn’t find anything interesting, yet? Then check out my wife’s latest zombie video review…
An Urgent Message from NMPA regarding your rights:
Original source =(http://womb.mixerman.net/showthread.php?t=6404). Also at: http://nmpa.org/aboutnmpa/presidentscorner.asp . Bold and Italic emphasis = mine.
On Monday, January 28, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) begins the hearing that will determine mechanical rates for every songwriter and music publisher in America. It will be the most important rate hearing in the history of the music industry because in addition to setting rates for physical products, rates will be set for the first time ever for digital products such as digital downloads, subscription services and ringtones.
The National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) will be representing the interests of songwriters and music publishers and will be fighting vigorously to protect those interests to ensure that musical compositions are compensated fairly.
On the other side of this fight stands the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Digital Music Association (DiMA). Both the RIAA and DiMA have proposed significant reductions in mechanical royalty rates that would be disastrous for songwriters and music publishers. This is literally a fight for the survival of our industry.
To give you an example of what is at stake, the current rate for physical phonorecords is 9.1 cents. The NMPA is proposing an increase to 12.5 cents per song. The RIAA, however, has proposed slashing the rate to approximately 6 cents a song – a cut of more than one-third the current rate!
For permanent digital downloads, NMPA is proposing a rate of 15 cents per track because the costs involved are much less than for physical products. The RIAA has proposed the outrageous rate of approximately
5 – 5.5 cents per track, and DiMA is proposing even less.
If you find that troubling, it gets worse. For interactive streaming services, which some analysts believe will be the future of the music industry, NMPA is proposing a rate of the greater of 12.5% of revenue, 27.5% of content costs, or a micro-penny calculation based on usage. The RIAA actually proposed that songwriters and music publishers should get the equivalent of .58% of revenue. This isn’t a typo – less than 1%. And DiMA is taking the shocking and offensive position that songwriters’ and music publishers’ mechanical rights should be zero, because DiMA does not believe we have any such rights!
The initial hearing will last four weeks, with the three permanent Copyright Royalty Judges hearing arguments Mondays through Thursdays from 9:30 am – 4:30 pm each day. At the conclusion of the initial hearing, there will be more discovery, followed by a rebuttal hearing in May, and a final decision expected on October 2.
The NMPA will be spending millions dollars in this proceeding to protect the interests of songwriters and music publishers against the much larger record labels and digital media companies. And although we face such an enormous fight, we have an incredible advantage – we represent songwriters, without whom the record labels and digital music services could not exist.
Please forward this to anyone who is involved in the songwriting and music publishing industry.
We will be sending out regular updates as the CRB progresses to keep you informed. Through your networks, we hope to reach the vast majority of the industry. If you did not receive this directly, and would like to be added to the master NMPA communications list, please send your contact information to Jamie Marotta at jmarotta@nmpa.org.
As always, we appreciate your support of the NMPA which allows us to wage this fight on your behalf.
David M. Israelite
President & CEO
National Music Publishers’ Association
http://nmpa.org/home/index.asp
Remember the review I did of Eye Music Network?
Here’s the glimpse of their music video player that I couldn’t share before…(because I was having embed problems w/ Edublogs.org). Enjoy!
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Here’s the embed code (after the jump)
A quick comment from Ms. Cara Duckworth, spokeswoman for the RIAA:
Regarding our college initiative, a university’s role in reducing the level of piracy on its campus cannot be overemphasized. We have consistently said that the more proactive a school is in the education of its students regarding its IT and enforcement policies, the offering of great legal alternatives so that students can have access to their favorite music (at deeply discounted prices or even for free), and most importantly, implementing effective technology that helps protect the integrity of its network, will lead to fewer instances of violations and fewer instances of hearing from us–a win for everybody!
The RIAA wants the universities to offer cheap/free music downloads to students! I concur!
The RIAA wants universities to educate their students about IT policies! I concur!
The RIAA wants universities to utilize appropriate technology to curb the illegal file sharing. I concur!
Why aren’t we doing these things already?
Hear 2.0 reminds us of the cyclical nature of the music industry. (ad-supported music).
Media futurist predicts a songwriter’s strike due to the failings of the Performing Rights Organizations (PROs). I believe there’s a good chance he’s right about this; –the industry and the courts still haven’t gotten a good handle on a digital world without borders.
A lot of bloggers are pointing to the end of the record labels. I read with interest the post about “Digital is more than just the Internet“ from New Music Strategies. The point is well taken; –the industry was not prepared for the wide open spaces and changing formats/distribution methods. Change takes time and the folks who made a living off the status quo were slow to see the handwriting on the wall. But don’t rule them out yet.
Seth Godin published some new music lessons for the industry to think about. (hypebot, our digital music).
The Digital Rights Management experiment apparently failed, so the labels will have to come up with something new(our digital music). My bet=look out for digital watermarks that track the tracks (Listenerd).
The RIAA is probably not dead. (Mashable via Listenerd). I know my job continues to change incrementally. The same can be said for the industry, even though change can be painfully slow (and those who do not change are condemned to fade away).
Finally, we’re all here for a purpose. Look at Louis’s post and contemplate the future. What changes do you need to make?
For you plugin-heads; a free Vintage meter! (RTAS, VST & Direct X). (thanks to the Womb board). Plus a list of more FREE RTAS plugs!
Happy Sunday!
Peace,
J
(Click on image above to see full-size.)
I checked my email this morning and found an invite to join Eye Music Network for free…and I remembered these folks at the Atlantis Conference. So I went and signed up.
Impressions:
1. The streaming is really fast! I’m on my office connection (at a university) and have been used to waiting 15-30 seconds for the average stream to begin. These videos load almost instantly! A nice surprise, but would it continue at these speeds once 100,000 more people joined?
2. Interesting variety. Here’s a Ozzy video…
http://musicroom.eyemusicnetwork.com/video/b0ade2d026/I+Don%27t+Wanna+Stop
Let me know if you have any playback issues!
3. It is ad-supported. As a member you can select your favorite videos and embed them into your facebook page or blog; i.e. a personal “video boombox”. I could see how some folks would really enjoy this if: (1) they could upload their own media, and (2) more artist videos were available. Their player is supposed to be embedded below (after the jump), but apparently they have some technical issues with my blog host or the wordpress GUI.
*UPDATE* - They contacted me and said a fix for this was in progress! YAY!! How’s that for good customer service!
Guess what Santa’s bringing the media industry this Christmas? An affirmation that intellectual property has specific ownership and rights that supercede what some say is a public’s right to free content. Read more about USB’s acceptance of DRM checks for video content. This means that Hollywood and multimedia developers can hope for a brighter future (unless you believe a hack is already being developed).
Read more about USB and DRM here:
What happens if the pirates win?
Didn’t landowners once plant gold in mines in order to get a good price?
Worthless claims were made to appear rich and rewarding with the sprinkling of a little gold dust to show prospective buyers. “This practice became so common that purchasers were always on their guard,” writes Hubert Burgess in Anecdotes of the Mines, “and it was necessary to exercise much ingenuity to deceive them.”
Tom sent me this link and at first glance I thought it was a good deal. I don’t have an Itunes account and don’t plan on it, but if you’re so inclined, you can take advantage of some free songs (their choice, not yours). Of course, they hope you’ll browse around and find something you’d really like…then you’ll have to buy from them! This is what happens when my wife goes into an antiques store…
34 free songs
A $33 value, free for you.
Download the album free on iTunes
http://www.tunecore.com/freealbum
I wonder how much some of those bands were charged to get their songs “Packaged” with Vai and Marillion?
If you have spare time, of course….
Dr. J & 2 of 3 of his mad elves…
Give yourself some SAX this weekend!
The Grammy Nominations are announced… and my nominee didn’t make it!
Here’s a short guide to advertising online. (Million Music Marketing).
Musician’s Notebook offers advice on blogging for bands.
The RIAA may be afraid of targeting Harvard students due to 2 faculty members specifically and the Harvard Law School in general.
New Music Strategies has suggestions/software to help you “Git ‘Er Done”.
peace,
j
From another blog, check out this Radiohead promotion summary post here:
The public no longer respects the duty and role musicians and other artists fulfill in society. They don’t see the need to pay us for our work, just like the industry didn’t when it started ripping us off decades ago.
And that is why out of all Radiohead’s fans, only 38% didn’t steal from the band, and just because they offered the choice doesn’t make it right.
Then I remembered a Jonathan Savage post that you probably missed and thought it would be appropriate here:
Creativity – in the form of the arts, music and thinking more imaginatively about subjects – are an important part of an all-round education, says the select committee report. But there have been fears that schools, under pressure to focus on academic standards, could be neglecting such areas. And the report by MPs concludes that more should be done to protect these areas of creativity.’
A full report of their deliberations can be downloaded here.
Creativity gets no respect unless its marketed; if we continue to give it away, we devalue it. Conversely, if it is in short supply, there will be high demand. This is generally described as “law” in the field of economics. Remember when people give away things at grand openings? Radiohead is a marketing experiment. At least I hope that’s all it is.
Are we to get a list every month of universities who allow this downloading/P2P sharing to continue?
I’m wondering who’s on our list?
From the RIAA site :
In the tenth wave of this initiative, the RIAA this week sent letters in the following quantities to 16 schools including: Boston University (40 pre-litigation settlement letters), Brown University (12), Central Michigan University (28), Columbia University (43), Dartmouth College (22), Duke University (27), North Carolina State University (38), Princeton University (10), University of Chicago (14), University of Connecticut (26), University of Maine System (34), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (14), University of Pennsylvania (16), University of Tennessee-Knoxville (32), University of Texas-Austin (50) and Yale University (11).
Download (from Gearwire) Malcolm Toft on music technology.
Music Thing’s Top 10 Christmas Music Gadget Gifts (If price is no object).
Cellyspace Beta lets you compose your own ringtones. *UPDATE* It costs to download ringtones or to send messages, but bands who create ringtones for their fans can earn a commission on each one downloaded.
*My advice: –learn to use this site ASAP!)*
Hypebot ponders the future of DRM-free downloads.
Harmony central reports that a California company called Novatunes will reinvent the album with their upcoming site launch; they will sell only packaged downloads.
MediaFuturist reports that Text is dead; the future is Videoweb Content.
The Good Musician has a curious post seeking comments on a guitar performance by John Williams.
Finally, you higher-ed types out there should read Louis’ thoughts on Educational Lovelessness.
Make it a good day.
-j
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From http://rcrdlbl.com/ :
All of our downloads are free and legal, but we’d ask that you not rehost the tracks on your site or use them in any way that might be considered commercial. Since this is an ad-supported venture the best way to support what we’re doing is to visit the site on a regular basis and/or to embed one of our widgets on your blog (you may have noticed the little modules on the right). The whole point behind the widgets is that we want to make it easy to grab any element of the site, from streaming music and tour dates, to photos and videos, and embed it in your own site or on your OS X Dashboard. We’ll be adding compatibility with more platforms soon.
\Thanks to Hypebot\
First build an audience and give up your music for free. When you have an audience, then start thinking about money.
-Gerd Leonhard (Interview with Gerd/Wicked Whammy)
Digital Audio Insider shared an interesting interview from
Cory Doctorow (Via Kottke.org). Check this statement out:
And the ethical reason /for allowing free sharing on the ‘net/ is that the alternative is that we chide, criminalize, sue, damn our readers for doing what readers have always done, which is sharing books they love—only now they’re doing it electronically. You know, there’s no solution that arises from telling people to stop using computers in the way that computers were intended to be used. They’re copying machines. So telling the audience for art, telling 70 million American file-sharers that they’re all crooks, and none of them have the right to due process, none of them have the right to privacy, we need to wire-tap all of them, we need to shut down their network connections without notice in order to preserve the anti-copying business model: that’s a deeply unethical position. It puts us in a world in which we are criminalizing average people for participating in their culture.
So copying is the new culture and the main reason for computers? Bah!
Gerd Leonhard’s MediaFuturist has a wonderful video interview about the price of freedom on the Internet. What if your employer fired you because of some comment you made on your facebook page?
Most importantly, someone at Dallas Baptist U. is spending too much time playing Guitar Hero…
(thanks, Listenerd).
A very nice 3 page article on the birth and state of China’s music market comes from the UK Register via MediaFuturist. Happy Reading!
Many are claiming that Itunes, p2p and the internet have ended the record label’s reign as the controlling force in the market. I’ll pull my head out of the sand just long enough to comment.
Here are a couple of salient points:
1. Technology is the culprit and the solution. The ease of Internet distribution and the hurdles of providing legal protection for intellectual property in a Core2 world has created the dilemma the industry faces. If the RIAA and the courts solidify the boundaries and technology enables control of distribution, the labels will recover. Otherwise, control will be the pipe dream Prohibition turned out to be.
Americans have given a vote of indifference to music subscription services and have sided with the iPod/iTunes model. Morris obviously needs to find a way to overcome this problem if subscription services — thought by many executives to be labels’ saving grace — are ever to take off. The Morris plan is Read the rest of this entry »
Name your own price for 11 issues and 11 CDs from Paste Magazine. Thanks to Hypebot.
What am I supposed to make of this? If I were David Bowie, I’d be upset. Trent Reznor sent me this email about a new project that circumvents the record labels in a Radiohead-like move. You can give your email and download the album at high-quality file rates next week or give your email and download it for free in lower quality file rates. In either case, there is no middleman (something they’re obviously very proud of) and the track I heard on his myspace page sounds very NIN (I’ll leave it for you to decide if you like it…).
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