The Berkleemusic blog network brings together music industry professionals, music educators and Berklee faculty to discuss topics and current events relating to the music business, music production, songwriting, music theory, performance and online education.
Here is another interview from my vaults, previously published in 1989 in Mix magazine and in Japan’s Sound & Recording. Clocking in at 4000 words, much of this interview has never been seen. This year Herbie celebrates his 70th Birthday, and is still going strong.
Herbie Hancock in his studio. Photo by Mr. Bonzai.
Both Picasso and Hancock mastered traditional forms and styles at an early age, gained critical acclaim, and went on to shock their followers with innovation and abstraction. Picasso used found objects in his collage and sculpture; Hancock uses concrete sounds and found samples in his music. The rules were broken as the rebels drew from international sources and freely mixed. Both artists make us rethink our ideas of reality and open our doors of perception, yet they both make us feel comfortable in the twilight zone between art and life.
Barely out of his teens, Herbie Hancock became a leading force in the heyday of 60’s jazz. The jazz crowd is a tough audience and he won them over, in his work with Donald Byrd, Miles Davis, and the cream of the serious contenders. Compositions such as “Watermelon Man” became worldwide standards. His first film score was for Antonioni’s 1967 breakthrough Blow-Up. Herbie came on strong, then took jazz to new levels of cool fusion. In 1973, his Headhunters album defined jazz funk, and in following years he has swung easily with his old fans and new. The Eighties earned a best original score Oscar for his ‘Round Midnight music and a best concept video MTV award for “Rockit”. A master with many forms, he has consistently taken the newest technology and made it his own.
If you would like to learn more about the incredible ascent of Berklee scholarship honoree Herbie Hancock, click Hancock, Herbie_MrB_1989 for the PDF.
In the face of insurmountable odds I feel a competition is in order.
Here’s a pretty telling graph – Recorded music sales over time since 1999. This is the truth.
If you are trying to make money selling recordings, or producing them you are selling into a market that is auguring into the earth. If you are a pure-play label – either cash out soon and go home before it’s really too late, or start writing a new business plan. It is time for you to start over.
If you really want to do 360 deals, then get the capacity, personnel and expertise to actually produce results or you are toast. Todays nimble entrepreneurs and emerging music service environment is going to eat your lunch. Specialization is in, generalization is out.
If you are a record producer or engineer, create other products to produce. Broaden your horizons. What are you going to be a producer of? What “insanely great” product can you create?
If you think you can survive in the recorded music business, find something else to sell. Simple as that. There is no recovery from this decline. Sure songwriters and publishers can still make money licensing for film, TV and new media (like ring tones), but the engine that has driven the music business for the past 60 years has run out of steam.
Recorded music as a propellant into prosperity is no longer viable.
Accept this fact, move on and adapt. Use this as a jumping off point. Reinvent yourself or your business.
This has been my mantra for the past 6 or 7 years. If this RIAA graph above is not evidence enough, then I don’t know what is. If you think being signed by a “record label” is your ticket to ride, then nice to have known you. Enough already. I can’t believe how many people still want this. American Idol?
And if you are the RIAA, and think trying to preserve recorded music as a “business” is a sound investment, I would advise you look for another job, and soon. Gaming Soundscan to count T-Shirts as a way of propping up the numbers and thinking everything is ok is self deception. Look around you.
This is the truth people. Recorded music sales are going to end as a viable business driver ’cause it is just not working anymore and is an outmoded concept of what music was all about. “Digital” tracks are not going to cut it as they have been conceived thus far because it is just the same thing in a different form. Fixing music in time makes no more sense. Music is more fluid than ever. Subscription revenue and streaming licenses are not going to support anyone when they are optional. We need something new, something bold.
We have to dig deep here. This is a time to be honest with ourselves. What is your music career all about anyway? How are you going to survive? What are your goals and your dreams? How do you define success? You can’t eat passion and you can’t spend perseverance. What is your business plan? What is your marketing plan? We need some new ideas. What are you going to do?
It is too easy to say that a 360 model is the way to go. 360 for who? You or the “label”? What do you really need? Who is actually going to provide the services required? What does the team look like? Where is the value, talent and capital going to come from? Who is going to back your vision?
Think you have it figured out?
I am going to put together a team of people to search for the best new music business plans for musicians, songwriters and producers. In the coming weeks we will put this competition together and announce it officially at SXSW or sooner. Details will be forthcoming on how to enter, who the judges are and what the prizes will be. I promise you it will be worthwhile and interesting.
Here’s a quote from perhaps the most startling book proposal cover letter I’ve ever received:
“Dear Managing Editor,
Music is a creative process, so why can’t a book on learning music be as creative. [sic] The books currently out there have no imagination, no passion, so serious, so boring….”
Well, thanks a lot, pal. I’ll try not to take it personally!
He has a point, though. And modesty aside, I think that this applies to other publishers more than it does Berklee Press. So many authors learned their craft from older music theory textbooks that were more formal and teaching in a more didactic style than much of what we’re seeing now, and there is still a sense among some that this is the way textbooks “should” read.
Personally, I think it’s a preference that hinders learning. Something I love about Berklee is that its trappings of academia are generally relatively loose and real, so that we can get down the real business of learning to create music. First groove, than dictionary. Rock ’n’ roll! I hope that spirit is evident in our books.
One of the best courses I ever took was a comparison of counterpoint and harmony textbooks, at New England Conservatory. We gathered up a half dozen or so leading books on each to topic, and compared them, side by side, in terms of how they presented the exact same material.
The differences between them were vast—to the point of being comical. Some authors used convoluted sentences and words a zillion syllables long to present the concepts. Others used much simpler language. Some wrote endless paragraphs, others kept the language short and showed practical examples.
Some were clear and useful, and therefore inspiring. Others were so intimidating that they made one want to give up music entirely. It was easy to like some more than others.
I’ve found, as an editor, that such clarity often comes through revision, and the ability to revise and accept edits comes from a place of humility, security, and a genuine desire to write something useful, rather than to create what is essentially a vanity piece. It’s often counter-intuitive, but even big concepts are generally best expressed with small sentences and common words. This isn’t often how things come out, in first drafts, but it should be the aspiration of all writers, and especially all technical writers. Leave the more arcane words to fiction writers and poets, whose job is to paint pictures, rather than to those of us who are trying to explain the difference between, say, a mode and a scale.
Striving towards clarity doesn’t mean that you have to abandon your authentic voice. In fact, clarity helps to reveal it. It can be helpful to consider the differences between the characteristics you actually want to preserve and those that are really a distraction. If I’m a New Yorker writing about, say, upper-structure triads, it would be pretty silly for me to think that it would be critically important to my style that I use the colorful swear words that come so naturally to me in my harmony text. Better than I aspire towards revealing my subject as clearly as possible, and just have faith that the essence of my soul creeps in somehow, through the lines. It will. It’s more difficult to conceal it than to reveal it.
Humor in writing can be tricky. Some people are naturally funny and entertaining, but when they try to tell a structured joke, it falls flat. Some people are naturally quiet, but then when they write, their inner Robin Williams becomes mysteriously unleashed. And some funny people sit down to write and the opposite happens: they clam up and become dry. I’ve found good luck interviewing such people, and then transcribing their natural way of communicating into the written word. Often, they’ll say, “Now don’t put this in the book, but….” I seldom listen to such advice, and what they say next (often edited!) may give a book its distinctive voice.
Some writers can pull off humor better than others. A number of Berklee Press writers are really funny: Jon Damian (The Guitarist’s Guide to Composing and Improvising, The Chord Factory), Mr. Bonzai (Music Smarts), Michael Farquharson (Writer, Producer, Engineer), and others. Their entertaining-yet-informative books are held dear by many. That said, there seems not to be much evidence that sales are any different for such books compared to other books of similar pedagogical quality in the same genres that are more straight ahead.
Humor can also break things up, in any circumstance, drawing people away from the depth of the material so that they can then return to it refreshed. That said, most of our best-selling books won’t make you giggle even once. What they have going for them, though, is clarity and depth and a genuine desire to present material in a way that’s easy for the reader to absorb.
Often, this means showing rather than telling, as I’m sure your high school writing teacher told you. Or, as Frank Zappa said, “Shut Up ’n Play Yer Guitar.” Even better than a joke, an example similarly serves to give your reader’s brains a rest from one form of communication and shift to another. This aids reading comprehension and learning generally.
In that spirit, here’s an example from my former life as a software interface consultant (mercifully, a brief digression). In 1996, while consulting to a U.S. government agency, I found a window in a software product with this text as its title:
“Create a dump of searchable criteria for purposes of isolating geographical regions that contain specific elements within their core samples.”
It was followed by a list of chemicals. My suggested edit to replace the above sentence? One word:
“Find.”
The project manager, also the writer of the original sentence, was annoyed at me for taking what he perceived as the character out of his writing, and claimed that the scientists who used the database were used to thinking in a certain way—that their culture as intellectuals was such that they really preferred more detailed descriptions of things. I countered that they probably just wanted to find their @!!$& Magnesium.
We field-tested it, though, and he found the results alarming. There were scientists who had been using his database for more than ten years who actually never knew that the page’s functionality existed—didn’t know that such searches were possible, because the language on the screen was so confusing. Tens of thousands of dollars had been spent creating the initial version of that aspect of the tool, but it went unused because of bad writing. Most alarming: the project manger ultimately decided not to change it, because he still wanted the look and feel to be culturally compatible with his user base, and he thought that this was priority. Our tax dollars hard at work….
The sentiment is common, though, among some writers. They are experts in their fields. They want to be formal and exacting in their presentation, and the result is the kind of book our would-be author is complaining about: books that people keep on their shelves in order to feel smug, or buy because they make them safe around an obviously superior intellect, or assign to their students in order to be intimidating, but such books tend to remain only reluctantly read, and unloved, and aren’t really well understood. On the flip side, it’s why The Elements of Style is so beloved, despite some of its wacky preferences: the book is a delightful read, which especially at the time it was published, was rare in a book about grammar.
Personality in writing is generally a subtle thing. It generally has more to do with big-picture ideas and very subtle use of language, more than mechanical issues such as length of sentences or chapter structure. A good editor can help alleviate some of the distractions from writing while preserving the writer’s distinct voice.
Forcing personality into writing can become clumsy and distracting pretty fast, and I recommend that it not be a conscious priority. It’s the topic that really matters most. When writers try to be genuine and clear, their personalities generally shine through—or at least, the aspects of their personalities that our readers find most helpful.
“As you look through all of these, some patterns emerge. They’re not about getting a fee on every transaction or every listen or every stream. They’re not about licensing. They’re not about DRM or lawsuits or copyright. They’re about better connecting with the fans and then offering them a real, scarce, unique reason to buy — such that in the end, everyone is happy. Fans get what they want at a price they want, and the musicians and labels make money as well. It’s about recognizing that the music itself can enhance the value of everything else, whether it’s shows, access or merchandise, and that letting fans share music can help increase the market and create more fans willing to buy compelling offerings. It’s about recognizing that even when the music is shared freely, there are business models that work wonders, without copyright or licensing issues even coming into play.
Adding in new licensing schemes only serves to distort this kind of market. Fans and artists are connecting directly and doing so in a way that works and makes money. Putting in place middlemen only takes a cut away from the musicians and serves to make the markets less efficient. They need to deal with overhead and bureaucracy. They need to deal with collections and allocation. They make it less likely for fans to support bands directly, because the money is going elsewhere. Even when licensing fees are officially paid further up the line, those costs are passed on to the end users, and the money might not actually go to supporting the music they really like.
Instead, let’s let the magic of the market continue to work. New technologies are making it easier than ever for musicians to create, distribute and promote music — and also to make money doing so. In the past, the music business was a “lottery,” where only a very small number made any money at all. With these models, more musicians than ever before are making money today, and they’re not doing it by worrying about copyright or licensing. They’re embracing what the tools allow. A recent study from Harvard showed how much more music is being produced today than at any time in history, and the overall music ecosystem — the amount of money paid in support of music — is at an all time high, even if less and less of it is going to the purchase of plastic discs.
This is a business model that’s working now and it will work better and better in the future as more people understand the mechanisms and improve on them. Worrying about new copyright laws or new licensing schemes or new DRM or new lawsuits or new ways to shut down file sharing is counterproductive, unnecessary and dangerous. Focusing on what’s working and encouraging more of that is the way to go. It’s a model that works for musicians, works for enablers and works for fans. It is the future and we should be thrilled with what it’s producing.”
The music industry is being reinvented before our very eyes. Learn how it is developing from today’s entrepreneurs including Ian Rogers from TopSpin, Steve Schnur from EA, and Derek Sivers and how you can capitalize on the changing opportunities.
MPN is my latest project and an online service for music business people and music and artist managers creating the future of the industry. MPN provides online music business lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice, career and business planning tools and thousands of specially selected resources designed to help you achieve success in this ever changing industry. MPN gives you the tools, expertise and guidance to help you get organized and take your music career to the next level. Learn from industry experts, set your goals and realize your vision.
Hello all, this is usually where I post cool stuff about Ableton Live, but I have really been getting into the Alchemy sample manipulator by Camel Audio. It is just an amazing program with a huge range of sonic possibilities. Once you master all the parameters and possibilities in Live’s Sampler, it will be time to think about moving on to something that offers even more control.
For a traditional sampler, creating true-to-life sampled instruments, Native Instruments Kontakt is the way to go. While Kontakt has some awesome sound design tools, Alchemy kills it in that regard, and I find the Alchemy interface easier to deal with. The the constant scrolling required in Kontakt gets tiresome fast. Anyway, here is a great video on Alchemy if you are thinking of making a purchase:
It is great to see successful artists rally around causes bigger than declining record sales or online piracy. The Green Music Group, founded by Guster’s Adam Gardner and his wife, environmentalist Lauren Sullivan along with Sheryl Crow, Willy Nelson, Dave Matthews Band, Bare Naked Ladies, Linkin Park and Bonnie Raitt and others is organizing to bring about widespread environmental change within the music industry and around the globe.
The newly formed coalition is focused on transforming the music business’s environmental practices in the areas of:
GMG is a large-scale, high-profile environmental coalition of musicians, industry leaders and music fans using our collective power to bring about widespread environmental change within the music industry and around the globe.
Leading by example, Green Music Group facilitates large-scale greening of the music community, and magnifies the work of national nonprofits, all while building a vibrant community committed to environmental action.
The broad support of our founding members paired with their leadership as environmental stewards enables GMG to inspire millions to action by:
1. Creating an engaging online community of musicians, music industry leaders, and music fans all committed to addressing our greatest environmental concerns.
2. Facilitating large-scale greening of the music community through touring, venue, and label standards, resource development, green grants mentoring, and viral video and public service campaigns.
3. Providing environmental nonprofits with a megaphone for their cause, allowing them to expand their reach and support base.
4. Creating a sustainable green music guild to support and inform the efforts of the music community and position leaders in the music industry as voices for change, working to shine a light on the most pressing environmental issues of our time.
I personally plan on getting involved in this and bringing Berklee along with me into the project. We already run a very environmentally friendly online music school that avoids many of the traditional and costly expenses such as buildings, heat, transportation, and lodging involved in face-to-face schools.
I am hoping to encourage the Green Music Group to explore alternative experiences to touring such as online shows, virtual studio sessions and other ideas that can cut the costs and waste out of touring while still preserving a great experience for fans and artists alike.
Learn from Grammy award winning producers like David Kershenbaum and Phil Ramone and leading publishers, A&R reps and music supervisors on the secrets of being a successful musician, producer or songwriter.
MPN is my latest project and an online service for songwriters, music producers and independent music publishers. MPN provides online music business lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice, career and business planning tools and thousands of specially selected resources designed to help you develop yourself as a successful industry professional. MPN gives you the tools, expertise and guidance to help you get organized and take your music career to the next level. Learn from industry experts, set your goals and realize your vision.
I still remember when I was playing music in high school, traveling around with our high school stage band to competitions around the state. Each band would play two or three songs, show off their top soloists a little and then wait eagerly for their score from the judges. I have a lot of great memories from those competitions, mostly centered on the wacky personalities of the kids in the band, or moments where the music came miraculously together in a way that none of us quite anticipated.
The strange thing is that I have almost no memories of which competitions we won or lost, what the scores were, or what our overall standings were at the end of the competition season. I could tell you about the piano player who always managed to arrive only seconds before taking the stage, or the young drummer who was so good he would leave the whole band stunned by his two bar drum fill– so stunned that everyone missed their entrance after the fill. But I couldn’t begin to tell you anything about the scores or the results.
Even then, I was of the belief that competition and music didn’t really belong together. Of course, there is a natural kind of competitive spirit among musicians that is healthy and inescapable, the kind that you hear between Bird and Dizzy Gillespie in a bebop recording, or between gospel choir soloists, each pushing the other to new heights of creativity and virtuosity. You even hear that kind of healthy competition among superstar artists trying to match and improve upon ideas launched by others, the way Brian Wilson and Lennon & McCartney and Jagger/Richards each strove to adapt and expand upon each other’s innovations in the Sixties. But the kind of competition that involves formal judging and scores and trophies has always struck me as an attempt to turn art into sport– which is silly and immature at best, and damaging and dangerous at worst.
So I’m not a big fan of the Grammys. But as a true music business weasel, I could hardly let a philosophical objection stand in the way of a chance to support the artists and writers with whom I am fortunate enough to work, particularly French artist/writer/producer David Guetta and his songwriting and production collaborator Frederick Riesterer (”I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas, “When Love Takes Over” featuring Kelly Rowland). So for the past several days, I’ve been soaking in the LA sun, shaking hands, and schmoozing with several thousand other “fierce competitors”, courtesy of the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). I can’t give you a backstage peek, or a sighting from the red carpet, because I wasn’t there. But if you’re wondering how it looks from Section 112 in the lovely intimacy of the Los Angeles Staple Center, or from poolside at the Mondrian, here’s the good, the bad and the ugly…
The Bad
Music has become a spectacle.
Most of the performances on the Grammys made very clear that the people now responsible for promoting and selling music to the general public have absolutely no belief whatsoever in the actual power of music. Storm-trooper dancers, trapeze acts (although Pink’s vocal was incredible), three-dimensional computer graphics, and mid-song costume changes all testify to the fact that none of the powers that be in the music industry believe that an audience would actually be interested, much less enraptured by a lone person with a guitar, or a lyric that truly resonates emotionally. Thankfully, performances like Dave Matthews proved just how unnecessary all of the smoke and mirrors actually is.
There’s something ironic about the Grammy’s annual appeal for more music education in schools, while at the same time the show itself is wasting a prime opportunity to educate a mass audience about music. By supplying circus acts rather than concert performances, the Grammy show cheapens and detracts from the very artistry it’s supposed to celebrate.
The Ugly
Who pays for all this?
While it’s fun to get a pat on the back, it’s less satisfying when your wallet is being picked at the same time. The truth is, while the music industry looked alive, if not always well, last night on television, it will look a good deal less healthy six months from now, as major record labels edge closer and closer to utter extinction and the bills for Grammy week start to come due. Looking at the line of limos outside the Staple Center, or the schedule of industry parties that reduced LA to a music weasel version of spring break, one had to wonder:
Has anyone added up the cost of this?
Of course, NARAS is quick to point out that the Grammy Awards offer an unmatched promotion opportunity for those artists featured (about twenty or thirty on the televised show). Clearly, the function of the Grammys is far less about rewarding artistic achievement than selling records. And in fact, many acts, from Bon Jovi to Pink to Dave Matthews, did indeed see sales jump after the show. But how much? And for how long?
If one were to tally up the tab for the cost of the actual show, the cost of taking artists off of tours and out of recording studios, the price for all of the record label parties and events, the total bill for all of the hotel rooms, airfares and dinner tabs, and the expense of hundreds of working hours wasted by executives fielding calls for Grammy invites, cajoling their way onto guest lists, or lobbying for nominations and votes, the Grammys would need to boost sales by millions of records in order to come close to being a profitable investment for the record industry.
Last I checked, nothing is boosting sales these days by millions of units. Given the struggles that artists are up against these days, they might have preferred that those in the industry spend their time and money building up developing acts, rather than congratulating the most successful ones.
The Good
Music is going global.
This was a big year for France in particular, with the success of David Guetta in the pop and dance market as well as The Phoenix, who won “Best Alternative Album”. But there was also Andrea Bocelli, the work of Moroccan- Swedish producer RedOne on Lady Gaga hits like “Poker Face”, Brits like the Ting Tings and Adele, and so many others. This global approach to music, with collaborations like Guetta with the Black Eyed Peas, RedOne with Gaga, or Bocelli with Mary J. Blige, reflects both the influence of the internet, in which the borders between countries and artists are erased, and the increasing pressure to surprise audiences with something slightly unexpected. There’s no question that a musical melting pot makes life more interesting for listeners and artists. It also helps sell records around the world, rather than in just one territory.
Dreams still come true.
Taylor Swift may have hit some wrong notes in her vocal performance (ouch), but her acceptance speech(es) definitely rang true. As corny as it sounds, a Grammy Award still represents the fulfillment of a dream for many young artists, and it’s exciting to be reminded that despite all odds, and all of the negative factors in the industry today, those dreams truly are realized by at least a handful of people each year.
During my time at Sony ATV Music, I had the honor of working with producer Rob Fusari–already a well-established and very successful record-maker, but one determined to move into the “artist development” business. Three years later, his work with one young artist, Stefani Germanotta, resulted in the creation of Lady Gaga. I first met RedOne back in 2000 or 2001– he would move to Sweden, and then back again to New York, before he found his big break with Kat Deluna and “Whine Up”. Again, while I was at Sony ATV, my colleague in the Nashville office, Arthur Buenahora, was developing a 14 year old singer/songwriter named Taylor Swift.
The success stories trotted out by artists in their acceptance speeches are not fairy tales of overnight transformation. They are real stories of people who made something happen with their music. If they sound a little too simple, it’s because the real story would be too long and frustrating and too full of ups and downs to fit into a thirty-second clip. If they sound like fantasy, then you’ve never seen the hard work and financial risk that the artists themselves, and the producers, executives, lawyers and managers behind them put in, when few believed in the potential pay-off. If the stories sound corny, it’s only because you haven’t lived the process and seen the ugly side of survival in the music biz.
For the first time this year, I had the opportunity to attend the pre-telecast Grammy Awards, at which countless awards are given in genres ranging from children’s music to classical music to bluegrass. I had expected it to be a bit tedious, given the number of categories and the obscurity of some of the artists involved. I was surprised to find that it was actually an inspiration. It was a celebration of real music-makers receiving recognition for a lifetime of work and training. The performances showed genuine artistry, and needed no bells and whistles to be be entertaining. The speeches were full of sincerity– with thanks to families and spouses that had sacrificed everything to allow an artist to pursue his or her dream.
Most of all, the room was infused with a feeling of family. This was the music community celebrating each other’s work, across genre boundaries (which don’t exist much for musicians anyway). It was what the Grammys are supposed to be. Granted, it wasn’t the Super Bowl. But then again, music was never meant to be a game.
Greetings from Berlin, Germany. I’ll be spending the month of February here with the generous support of the Newbury Comics Faculty Fellowship, that funds innovative projects undertaken by Berklee faculty members. I’m here to learn about the electronic music and multimedia performance scene here in Berlin, and I’m hoping to share some initial observations in the coming weeks.
To start things off, I’m attending the CTM/Transmediale festival and conference. The CTM festival is focused on electronic music and related forms, while Transmediale is a conference that provides "critical reflection on the role of digital technologies in present-day society." Together, these are two important events that explore current electronic practice, featuring international artists and speakers.
I arrived Wednesday January 26 and used the first few days here to get settled into my apartment, the time zone, and of course… the weather. Berlin ist kalt…
The opening event of the CTM Festival on Friday night cut to the core of the festival’s theme, "Overlap," with a multimedia concert that featured three very different approaches to blending sound and video. First up was Berlin-based artist Jacob Kirkegaard who’s work "focuses on the scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time, sound and hearing." His piece, "Sabulation" explored the resonances inherent in the sound of wind using field recordings and video from the Singing Sands in the deserts of Oman. By using various microphone techniques, Kirkegaard was able to capture the sound of this environment in totally unexpected ways. The accompanying processed video, in black and white, presented images that gave the impression of a kind of ancient, living sculpture.
Transforma: Operators
Next up was the Berlin-based video performance collective Transforma. Their piece, "Operators," featured studio footage they had shot for the piece, and then processed in real time for the performance. Sound artist Markus Hübner contributed a rhythmic, beat-driven score that provided a tempo reference for the piece. The pulsing images of an industrial work environment and a human "operator" posed the question of who was in control, man or his work.
The highlight of the evening for me was Japanese artist Hiroaki Umeda and his piece "Adapting for Distortion." This really cut to the core of the aesthetic I’m looking to explore here in Berlin. Umeda is a multidisciplinary artist who is well known as a dancer and choreographer. In "Adapting for Distortion," he explores the relationship between projections of simple geometric shapes and bursts of all sorts of noise. He did a masterful job of building tension and release by structuring the complexity of the images in juxtaposition with the density of the noise bursts. The noise elements came from different sources, with a variety of timbres and durations. Overall, while the piece had a minimalist, futuristic feel, along the lines of (no pun intended) Tron, it had a sophisticated, organic sense to it, and Umeda as the central figure, struck a balance as the sole human figure, adding shadows to the projected light and reacting to the bursts of noise.
Adapting for Distortion
While most of the music being presented at CTM is in a club setting, this evening’s event served good introduction to the types of multimedia pieces currently in vogue here in Berlin.
When writing a score in notation software, I do most of the work on the computer. A few years ago one of my grad. Students at the University of the Arts asked how I composed. I told him I sketched the piece on manuscript paper and then created the score in notation software. He said, really? Why not do it all in the software so you can take advantage of copy and paste? That was good advice. Ever since then, I create several scratch staves at the top of the score, often just a treble and bass staff. Then I compose the melody, bass line, counterlines and some of the harmonies and chord symbols. I then can copy and paste these ideas into the score and save time.
BTW, be sure to use the instant copy command that is used in both Finale and Sibelius. Select the source material, hold down CTRL (Win) or Command (Mac) and click the mouse in the destination bar. It saves a lot of time. The highlighted portion is not lost so you can do this multiple times throughout the score.
Scketch Staves
So, when I am creating my sketch and there is going to be harmony in a section of the entire score, I place the chords in one voice of the sketch score. Then, use Explode to push them into the specific part of the arrangement. Here are the steps:
1. Enter the block chords in the sketch part.
2. Select them with the Selection Tool.
3. Press the shortcut the number 2 or choose Utilities > Explode Music.
4. Make the appropriate settings in the Explode Window – how many staves, and where to place the notes. Finale does the rest.
Band-in-a-Box Plug-ins
The second time saver that I find very Helpful in Finale is the Band-in-a-Box plug-ins. These are borrowed from the www.pgmusic.com program Band-in-a-Box and work best as follows:
1. Enter a melody in the Sketch part
2. Add the chord symbols
3. Select the source material
4. Copy it to the first part, in this case the 1st trumpet.
5. Select the source material.
6. Choose Plug-ins > Scoring and Arranging > Band-in-a-Box Auto Harmonizing. I often use the Drop 2 when scoring for a group of instruments. For more information on drop 2 voicings check out: http://www.outsideshore.com/school/music/almanac/html/Music_Theory/Jazz_Voicings/Drop_2_Voicings.htm
7. Create the settings to place the three new voices in the parts starting with trumpet
The screen shots in this post are in trasposed view in Finale. You can also view a transposed score in concert pitch by selecting it from the Document menu.
Also, if you own Band-in-a-Box, the program has many more options that can be experimented with for auto-harmonizing. If you like one, in band in a box, save it as a MIDI file and import it into Finale.
Use Sparingly
Use these tools sparingly. They are not going to make your arrangements instant masterpieces. You still have to develop the ideas, orchestration, unison passages, etc. However, if you want to harmonize a section, Explode and Band-in-a-Box auto harmonizing are great time-saving tools. You can also experiment with different voicings and choose the best one for a particular passage.
What time saving scoring and arranging tools do you find most helpful in Finale?
Here are some ideas that you can use as a musician, band or artist from Music Power Network from artists Kelly Cha, Jill Sobule and J the S. There are a lot more videos like this on the site.
MPN is my latest project and an online service for independent musicians and bands. MPN provides online music business lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice, career and business planning tools and thousands of specially selected resources designed to help you achieve success as a self-sustaining artist in an ever changing industry. MPN gives you the tools, expertise and guidance to help you get organized and take your music career to the next level. Learn from industry experts, set your goals and realize your vision.
One of the questions I had after attending the NIME conference in June 2009, was on how new performance technologies made it to market. One innovative manufacturer, Keith McMillen Instruments has been developing interesting new interfaces for the last few years. At NAMM 2009, he showed the K-Bow, a bow for string instruments that allows a player to maintain their traditional playing technique while transmitting control information used in an interactive electronic performance. Richard Boulanger, a colleague in the Electronic Production and Design at Berklee, premiered a pioneering composition for cellist Kari Juusela this year using the K-Bow, and both composer and performer were enthusiastic about the result.
This year, McMillen was showing his latest product, Soft Step, at the NAMM show. Now why would anyone get excited about a 10-key footswitch controller? As a guitarist looking for more complete control in interactive, live performances, I’m stoked. I recently picked up a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI foot controller, which is a solid, well-built device, but it’s big, bulky, and decidedly old school MIDI in it’s approach. The Soft Step weighs in at a little over a pound and at 17.5″ x 4,” it will fit in most backpacks. This is very good news if you’re a laptop performer. It’s made of a carbon composite and is surprisingly sturdy.
Berklee Alum Barry Threw show Soft Step
While form factor is the practical side of the device, the Soft Step takes things a bit further. Instead of just momentary contact or on/off switches, each of the ten backlit pads offers five degrees of motion, each of which can send separate control messages. The device connects to the computer using USB. Mapping and scaling of control values is easy using the software interface. MacMillen was showing a working prototype at the NAMM show, and he hopes to ship the product in Spring 2010.
There are times when writing music when we don’t want people “tapping their feet” to the music. We don’t want them to know where beat 1 is. “Why,” you might ask, “would we want to do that?” One reason is so that the music sounds more natural and human instead of the regimented feeling of a predictable beat occurrence. To feel like it was conducted instead of sounding like the players were following a click in their head phones. Another reason is to give the listener a “suspended” feeling so that they can’t anticipate what is coming next (or at least where it will be placed at least!). This is often done in film scores and dramatic writing in general. In my case, I used the idea of suspending the forward movement and dismissing the sense of where beat one occurs in an orchestration of a song I recently recorded.
The name of the piece is called, “Memory.” The song it came from was written by Chee Yih Lee. Now, one could simply conduct the section in question and while doing so use “rubato” (no steady time) and a lot of accellerandos and ritards to achieve this illusion. With the recording of “Memory” a very real problem presented itself though that is unfortunately all too common – not enough string players because of a limited budget. The way writers often get around the problem of “not enough strings” is to hire a small section and then record several “takes” or “passes” of them playing the same notes each time but on different audio tracks. In the mixing stage they are combined to get a fuller sound. So, in theory, if you have ten string players and record them three separate times playing the same exact material they will sound like thirty players, right? Not quite. Nothing can replicate the sound of thirty strings in the same room. BUT, it sounds far better than ten, that’s for sure. On with the story….
Since I only had ten strings (6 vln, 2 vla, 1 cello, 1 bass), I needed to record them three times for a fuller sound. Each “pass” or recording of those ten strings would have to be recorded with the same exact timing to be able to layer them on top of each other correctly. The problem is that you can’t conduct exactly the same way twice. This is where the click comes in. By using several meter changes, I was able to keep the listener from having a sense of where beat one occurs. Take a look at the pdf below to see how I laid out the measures in the intro.
Note that the measures are staggered in this case between 4/4 and 5/4. The entrances happen in the same spots except for the last one. By the time the listener has a chance to get a sense of predictability, the last entrance occurs. This technique allowed me to place a specific, even click through the intro (easier to conduct) and yet it still feels natural – like the music is floating.
Another contributing factor to the sense of suspension/ floating is in the high pedal point, also known as a “wire.” This high pedal point also holds the energy in one place and keeps the music from moving forward to quickly. I’m sure you’ve heard this device used in films quite often – typically creating mysterious, or even scary, feelings in the listener.
Below is the full score for “Memory.” Feel free to post any questions or comments you have.
Hey all, I have been playing with my new APC40(which I am totally in love with), and thought I would show you some of the ways to navigate the session view with the keyboard and a dedicated controller.
Thank you to those of you that alerted me that the links and downloads weren’t working. After a little investigating with the tech people involved with maintaining the site, I found out that the files attached to the posts did not migrate to a new version of the editing software that had been recently installed. The tech people said they were going to look at why this happened, but instead of waiting for an answer I re-uploaded the files. They all seem to be working.
The site is a little “clunky” in that when you click on a link, usually highlighted in red, it takes you to a “comments” page. If you click on the red link again, usually at the top of the page, you are then either taken to the audio file or the pdf is then downloaded.
Thank you for subscribing to the site. I’m hoping to put something new up this weekend as I just thought of a couple of ideas to present. If any of you have topics you would like me to explore/offer my thoughts (opinions!) on, please feel free to post them here or send them directly to my e-mail:
This week I am sharing you a pedal that should be a staple in everyone’s tone shaping arsenal.
The Blackstone Mosfet 2SV3 is manufactured by Jon Blackstone in New York. This pedal has been a part of my life for the past 3 CDs. I In addition, I recently released a live performance DVD, Live at Bose II: The DVD. All guitar solos on this concert film were played using the Blackstone Overdrive.
One of the neatest looking pedals and with great tone to match, the Blackstone gets first prize in the overdrive category for the most useful features in a small space. This pedal is a 2 CHANNEL OVERDRIVE PEDAL in a box the size of an MXR phase 90.
The BROWN channel I use for my Robben Ford-esque lead and boost tones. The RED channel I use for more saturated overdrive settings at one end of the spectrum, or at the other end for crisp rhythm crunch. In addition, The RED channel has two settings; one best for single coil, Strat-type pickups with a full,fat low end, and the other with less low end for Les Pauls or guitars with humbucking pickups. So we might easily consider the pedal a 3 channel pedal!!!
At first glance, on the front panel are 2 footswitches, one is Bypass (on/off) , the other is to toggle between your Red and Brown channels. A closer glance reveals countersunk controls that can be turned with a finger tip, finger nail or guitar pick. These 5 controls are for:
Brown Channel gain
Brown Channel volume
Red channel gain
Red channel volume
Mid cut (I had Jon modify my mid cut to be a hi-cut; more useful for my applications)
The advantage to these countersunk controls is obvious…set the pedal how you like it, create your signature tone, and leave it, with no worries about settings accidentally changing in transit, while in a gig or pedal bag. I have had my Blackstone OD set at the same settings very long periods. Once in a while, if I feel adventurous, I change the setting and leave it for another year..etc etc..you get the picture, Signature tone: Creating a sounds that you can take with you to each gig, that become the voice that folks associate with your playing. The Blackstone in that respect is not just another average overdrive pedal, but a dynamic instrument that becomes a part of your tonal signature.
In addition, for tone tweaking, there is
an internal presence control
an internal gain control that works in co-operation with the presence control
two optional exchangeable capacitor plugs.
So the bottom line is a highly tweakable pedal that can give you sounds from Robben to Satch at the tap of your toe.
The most amazing feature of the Blackstone Mosfet 2SV is its ability to clean up completely between 10 and 7 on the volume knob of your guitar. Yes folks, I am 100% serious about this. Many try to claim this but I will testify to authenticity with this pedal.
I have owned previous versions of this pedal that required that it be the very first in your signal chain after your guitar, in order to facilitate this feature. In the latest version of the pedal, Jon has added an internal buffer switch, that allows you to place the pedal anywhere in your signal chain and still have access to this very dynamic feature. Often I keep the pedal in the “on” mode and then turn my volume up to take a solo. Very much like a good ol’ tube amp.
When I first stumbled across this pedal many years ago, I read Jon’s tutorial on overdrive on his website, complete with waveform explanations, demonstrations, and audio clips, and wave diagrams. After reading, there was no doubt in my mind. Here is a pedal manufacturer that understands the Quest for Tone!
My first Blackstone OD I purchased used, soley based on the wealth of info on Jon’s website. Of note was the last paragraph. I was tired of getting lost in the cymbals during a guitar solo, so when I read, “Distorting the guitar is a very subjective thing. Probably every pedal preamp or amp out there no matter how it sounds is the perfect thing for somebody out there. But if “fizz” or “plinkiness” bothers you and you want something that inspires expressive playing, check out the Blackstone”. Well that pretty much sold me!!! The Blackstone has been a part of my arsenal of tone creating machines ever since. To clarify, I consider it part of my instrument, since I use it dynamically as a main contributor to my overall sound.
The pedal is handsomely crafted with a powdered black finish and a metal label with engraved writing, reminiscent of retro machinery.
It really does not come any spiffier than this for a pedal. The inputs are all on the top of the pedal, one of the golden rules of best use of pedalboard real estate. The pedal is true mechanical bypass and a 9v battery will last you 30 hours!! That amounts to something like seven 4-hour gigs…! It will run with the standard 5.5 x2.1 center negative 9v DC adaptor also.
At a retail price of 225.00 the Blackstone Mosfet OD 2SV3 brings multiples of that value to your tone! 10 Stars and more for sure..
For more information check out Jon’s website and read the tutorial about the science of overdrive. You just might find yourself smiling. Somebody understands!
Here are some clips of me using the Blackstone Overdrive in performances through the years.
Here’s just a quick report on this past weekend’s NAMM show in Anaheim, California. Watch this, it’s the next best thing to going to the show. Well, actually, probably better than going to the show because you don’t have to deal with the crowds. Hopefully, you’ll find this video both informative and entertaining. Some of the highlights include the Korg Kaossilator, Akai MPC20, Max for Live, and Teenage Engineering’s OP-1.
Also, here’s a more extensive look at what I think is one of the coolest new products, the Ableton and Serato Bridge. The ability to mix your Live multitrack sessions straight into your Scratch DJ set is impressive. The ability to save your DJ set as an Abelton Live multitrack session is downright amazing! I’ve been dreaming of a product like this for years, ever since trying to multitrack DJ sets in order to tweak and overdub new parts after the fact. This really takes DJ “mix tape” productions to a whole other level. I can literally see a cottage industry of entrepreneurial music producers offering DJ “mix tape” production as part of their services. And, I’m pretty sure it could be a very lucrative side business.
After what was perhaps the worst year in memory for the musical instrument industry, the 2010 Winter NAMM show rolled into Anaheim, California January 14-17. NAMM is the premier US trade show for musical instrument manufacturers, and while the fortunes of individual music technology companies ebb and flow, there continues to be interesting products on the horizon. While several major players like Apple and Native Instruments no longer attend trade shows, stalwarts like Korg, Roland, and Yamaha still continue to use NAMM as a showcase for new products. In what’s perhaps a sign of the times, many smaller music technology companies sat this show out, or opted for private, more informal meetings in lounges and coffee shops. So for me, NAMM 2010 was more about talking to people than seeing things, and in some ways, that human connection made this year’s show all the more satisfying. Over my next few blog posts I’ll report on some of the things I observed at the show this year.
Each year at NAMM there’s always one centrally located booth that serves as a reliable rendezvous point for music tech geeks to meet. While in past years this has been the Didgidesign booth, the torch passed to Ableton this year, and the booth they shared with Cycling 74 was this year’s hub for many at the show. In many ways, this was symbolic of the change the industry is experiencing. Avid, the parent company of Digidesign, is phasing out the Digi brand identity. Since they had nothing new to show, their booth was mainly a set up for private meetings, largely devoid of products, and the name Digidesign was nowhere to be found. A well-placed source confided that at the corporate feeling was that the majority of customers really identify with the name “Pro Tools” as the brand identity for that particular family of products, and the Digidesign moniker had little relevance to both new and future customers. Expect about twelve new products from Avid in the coming year, and your new M-Box will clearly be an Avid product.
While one industry goliath is clearly consolidating, Ableton is becoming more of a presence. They’ve done this not by expanding their product line, as is usually the case with any manufacturer, but rather by opening their product architecture and partnering with other companies to extend Live’s capabilities. At this year’s NAMM, Max for Live was a reality, and in the six or so weeks since it was officially released, there’s been a flurry of activity as scores of MAX gurus and aficionados adapt their signature patches for use in Live. Included in the Max for Live release are patches from the stash of Ableton co-founder and electronic music pioneer Robert Henke. While the buzz around Max for Live may be substantial, the truth is that Max programming is not for everyone who uses Live. The value of this collaboration to most users will really be the open architecture that allows forward thinking hackers to expand the capabilities of Live according to their own muse. I expect to see a cottage industry of MAX for Live developers to spring up this year, offering any user access to additional tools that will bring both utility and innovation.
The big new news for Ableton this year was their collaboration with DJ stalwarts Serato called The Bridge. While Live has always had the basic functionality needed by a digital DJ, there’s really a cultural difference between DJs and live electronic music performers that’s defined the tools for each. Some artists, like Richard Devine who’s all over Native Instrument’s Traktor for live performance, can migrate between these tools, but by and large, a DJ’s point of reference will be decks, hardware or otherwise. The collaboration between Live and Serrato respects this and provides users a bridge between their respective programs. Serrato decks show up in Live, and a DJ set done with Serato can be saved as a Live session with three stereo tracks, one for each of two decks and one for a bounced mix of the two. Included here are all effects and realtime moves, so in essence, a DJ set can be further refined or serve as the starting point for a completely new hybrid work. Over the years, Ableton has become a tool that provides a platform for both spontaneous creation and refinement of musical ideas, and this year’s developments expand the scope of users who will benefit from this.
NAMM 2010 Demo of the Bridge
Tight integration with performance controllers is now a big part of Planet Ableton. The AKAI APC40 and the Novation Launchpad, that were released last year, each have a slightly different design approach. While the APC40 provides a complete control solution for both clip launching and mixing and effects, the Launchpad is a more portable device optimized for launching clips in the heat of battle. At a fraction of the size and half the price, the Launchpad has been very successful with performers, but a big complaint has been the lack of faders. AKAI unveiled the APC20 at NAMM that addresses this with the addition of eight fades to a set of “launch pads.” All of this is good news for anyone using Ableton Live, as this is only the start of what will be a number of hardware control products that will be coming out in 2010.
Alright—mark it down in the “Believe It Or Not” column. This interesting newsflash first appeared in one of my favorite industry newsletters, A&R Worldwide:
Fan-Financed UK Band Lands Multi-Album US Record Deal
Leaving aside one obvious question (isn’t every band essentially “fan-financed” to whatever degree?), the following story stood out like a flower in a mineshaft, sprouting up in the middle of news about more corporate layoffs and the ever-falling fortunes of the music industry. You don’t hear many stories like this one:
Scars on 45, a UK based band began making waves on the website Slicethepie back in 2008. The site provides an opportunity for music fans to provide ratings and reviews for unknown bands that they are passionate about, and then to take it one step further by actually getting involved. With enough positive response, a band can reach the “funding” stage, at which point they can raise funds directly from their fanbase to record an album. In return, the fans who choose to invest receive shares in the commercial success of the record. Fans can invest anything from 1 pound (GBP) on upward. Through Slicethepie, Scars on 45 managed to raise 15,000 pounds (GBP) to help record their debut album.
As it turns out, “Beauty’s Running Wild”, the fan-funded track on the album was subsequently featured on “CSI-NY”, and attracted more than 50,000 website hits within days of airing. This in turn attracted the attention of Alexandra Patsavas, a leading music supervisor best known for her work on “Twilight: New Moon”, “Gossip Girl”, and “The O.C.”. Patsavas brought the act to her label imprint, Chop Shop, which is distributed by Atlantic Records.
Great news for the band of course. But if you think this is a success story for Scars on 45, check out the even better ending to the tale:
Those who invested in the band through Slicethepie back in 2008 hit the jackpot. When the band was signed, a buyout clause was triggered and shareholders were bought out at a 50% premium to the then market-price—representing a whopping 800 percent return on their investment!!
Not too many people had investment returns like that in 2009. What’s most interesting though is that not many music companies, big or small, had returns like that. While “professional investors” like Guy Hands are going bankrupt after sinking billions of dollars into EMI; while investment bank-backed publishing companies are struggling just to stem losses, this group of music fans managed to turn a 1 pound investment into 800 pounds—without having to do any work! Slicethepie CEO David Courtier-Dutton was quoted saying, “We are delighted for both the band and their fans which, in this case, have truly been instrumental in their success. We believe that consumer-driven filtering has an increasingly influential role to play in the face of the music industry…” With an 800 percent return on investment, it certainly does. Count me in.
What’s interesting is that the success of this Slicethepie venture highlights several very useful concepts when it comes to investing in the music business—ones that seem to often slip by the more high-rolling music execs and investment bankers. If you’re looking to acquire music for your publishing company or record label, here’s a few principles to keep in mind:
1. Buy low. Sell high.
The problem with most big-bucks investors in the music industry is that all of them are looking for the same thing: hits. They want big-name artists, well-known catalogs, songs that are on the charts. In fact, most of the investment-backed publishing companies have avoided new artists all together. They focus solely on catalog purchases.
The problem is, when you’re buying hits, you’re paying the top price for something that in most cases, has only one direction to go. Established superstar artists can’t usually get much more super—they can only fade. Songs at #1 today can’t go any higher. What seems safe is actually the most risky investment you can make—you’re paying top dollar for something that is already at its peak. Whoever found Scars on 45 in 2008 was buying at a fire-sale price. That’s where you get a bargain, and it’s also where you find the big pay-off.
2. Bet what you can afford to lose.
One has to assume that no one who made the initial investment on Slicethepie.com was betting his or her grocery money on a new, unknown band. I’m confident that no one was taking out a loan just so they could buy a piece of Scars on 45. The problem with most large-scale investing in the music industry over the past five years is that the investors have taken out massive loans (and hence, have massive interest payments) or they’ve invested other people’s money, people who quickly grow impatient if the ink starts to turn red.
The sad, ironic and inescapable truth of the speculative bets made in the music business every day is that the worse you need the gamble to work out, the more likely it is to fail. Maybe it’s because investors who can’t afford to lose tend to over-think, throw good money after bad, or chase the popular trend a little too late. Maybe it’s just the way the world works. But don’t put your money in the game if you can’t afford to lose it. Better to bet one pound if that’s all you can afford, than to take out loans to bet a hundred thousand pounds. Ask the guys at Terra Firma.
3. Bet on things that people like.
This has always been a pretty good formula for success in the music industry. It’s amazing how few people do it. Clever as it is, the concept of Slicethepie and “fan filtering” is really not that much different than old-school music entrepreneurs who would check out their songs with local audiences, get a DJ to spin their records in the clubs, ask the local retailer what people were buying, or see who was getting the most applause at the talent show. In my book, “The Billboard Guide To Writing and Producing Songs that Sell”, Daniel Glass, the president of Glassnote Records talks about being a young DJ, and seeing Prince, Barry White and others in the DJ booth, watching the dance-floor reaction as they tried out new mixes they were still working on in the studio. Daniel himself uses web activity as a major gauge for his own signings at Glassnote, which led him to artists like Secondhand Serenade.
It’s always easier and safer to give the audience what they want than to create something and then convince the audience that they should give it a chance. Certainly, great art has been created with either approach. But the average hit rate is a lot higher with an approach that watches what audiences are responding to, and then puts money into giving those audiences what they like.
4. Bet with your ears.
Most professional investors in entertainment, and even a lot of music executives, bet more with their eyes than with their ears. They watch sales chart action, or look at past financial records, or watch what others in the industry are doing, but they never really listen to the music. Clearly, part of knowing what the audience wants (concept #3) is watching reactions and tracking audience response. But once you see what’s happening, you still have to listen.
Some things look good on paper for reasons that have nothing to do with the music itself. Perhaps the appeal of an act is not really rooted in their music, but in some other social phenomenon. That’s okay if you’re the record label, but you wouldn’t want to buy that song catalog. Maybe something is flying up the charts because a savvy manager is spending a fortune on radio promotion to make a stiff look like a hit. It’s been done. You can use your eyes to do initial research. But if your ears tell you differently, trust ‘em. In this business, they’re the only real friends you have.
5. Don’t be afraid to cash out.
As every gambler knows, there is a time to hold ‘em’ and a time to fold ‘em. The great thing about the Slicethepie venture is that if a band is signed, the initial investors are in a sense, forced to fold up and cash out. It’s likely the biggest favor they’ve ever received. The truth is, the odds are stacked against a band like Scars on 45, as talented as they are. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that Atlantic will never make money on the band—it happens with alarming frequency. But for the initial investors, the game is over, and they’ve won.
If you’re running a small publishing company, there will be instances where you will build a writer up from nothing, only to see a larger company swoop in and woo him or her away with the promise of untold riches, the moment that writer has his or her first big record.
Most of the time, that’s just fine. You will have that writer’s first big record, for which you probably paid relatively little. On the other hand, the big company will have spent far more than they should, and will usually wind up with a songwriter who never has another song as big as that first hit. In many cases, you’ll get a call a few years later from that same writer, now dropped from his or her big publishing company, and eager to come back to where his or her first success originated. When you’re a small player, you play for small victories. When you get one, take it and don’t look back. Put your energy into finding the next undiscovered jewel.
My friend and Berkleemusic student David Sherbow posted this list of income streams on his blog and it got picked up by Hypebot as well. This is a pretty comprehensive list of the different ways that musicians can make money.
The artist music business model has been in flux for years. The record deal dream that most artists sought is no longer the viable alternative that it once was. The leveling of the music distribution playing field by the Internet is virtually complete. Terrestrial radio is on a path towards destruction that even the major labels can’t compete with. People now access and download music from multiple sources, usually for free. D.I. Y solutions are everywhere, but for many artists hard to integrate into their daily lives.
Where does this leave the average independent artist? At the beginning. Every artist wants to know how they can make music, make money and survive to write and play another day. Here, in no particular order, is a list of possible income streams.
• Publishing
• Mechanical royalties
• Performance Royalties from ASCAP and BMI
• Digital Performance Royalties from Sound Exchange
• Synch rights TV, Commercials, Movies, Video Games
• Digital sales – Individual or by combination
• Music (studio & live) Album – Physical & Digital, Single – Digital, • Ringtone, Ringback, Podcasts
• Instant Post Gig Live Recording via download, mobile streaming or flash drives
• Video – Live, concept, personal, – Physical & Digital
• Video and Internet Games featuring or about the artist
• Photographs
• Graphics and art work, screen savers, wall paper
• Lyrics
• Sheet music
• Compilations
• Merchandise – Clothes, USB packs, Posters, other things
• Live Performances
• Live Show – Gig
• Live Show – After Party
• Meet and Greet
• Personal Appearance
• Studio Session Work
• Sponsorships, and endorsements
• Advertising
• Artist newsletter emails
• Artist marketing and promotion materials
• Blog/Website
• Videos
• Music Player
• Fan Clubs
• YouTube Subscription channel for more popular artists
• Artist programmed internet radio station or specialty playlist.
• Financial Contributions of Support – Tip Jar or direct donations, Sellaband or Kickstarter
• Patronage Model – Artist Fan Exclusives – e.g. paying to sing on a song in studio or have artist write a song for you
• Mobile Apps
• Artist Specific Revenue Stream - unique streams customized to the specific artist, e.g Amanda Palmer
• Music Teaching – Lessons and Workshops
• Music Employment – orchestras, etc, choir directors, ministers of music, etc.
• Music Production – Studio and Live
• Any job available to survive and keep making music
• Getting Help From Other Artists and Helping Them - Whatever goes around come around. – e.g. gig swapping, songwriting, marketing and promotion
Many teachers have found that notation software is an excellent medium to encourage composition and to reinforce theory and other concepts. Are you and interested in finding ways to integrate music notation software in the curriculum? There are some articles, lesson plans and books that are available to help.
Lesson Plans and Web Resources
Some excellent notation lesson plans are located on the http://www.soundtree.com/lesson-plans site. All of the articles here are written by practicing music educators. I have several articles on notation software on this site and there are others. Each article includes the necessary resource materials for the lesson.
The Vermont MIDI site, www.vtmidi.org is the longest running site that has been dedicated to student composition. I have been following this site for years. There are some archives of student work and some lesson plans by educators located at http://www.vtmidi.org/AtoC.html
If you are looking for elementary/middle school notation lessons, than check out Karen Garrett’s site at http://www.musictechteacher.com/lessons001.htm. Karen has posted her lesson plans and materials that can be downloaded on a variety of curricular areas including using Sibelius notation software.
By the way, If you are an elementary teacher and interested in technology, check out Amy Burns blog http://amymburns.musiced.net/
Both Finale 2010 and Sibelius 6 have worksheets that can be used to enhance the teaching of music notation software.
TI:ME, Technology for Music Education www.ti-me.org has more than 500 lesson plans on music notation software. The database is only open to members and is located in the “Members Only” section of the website. The annual membership cost is $40 per year. This is rich resource of lesson plans on all software applications in general and music notation in particular.
Method Book
I am one of the co-authors of a new series by Alfred Publishing, the MusicTech series. There are currently three books in the series and one is dedicated to music notation software entitled Composing Music with Notation. The book comes with a CD that contains all of the lesson files and it is a turn-key solution for integration notation into the curriculum. It I available from all of the typical music book resellers. http://www.alfred.com/alfredweb/front/ProductDetail.aspx?itemnum=%20%20%20%20%2025565&pubnum=0
Are there other resources that you use when working with students and music notation software?
Here is a list of 9 trends and challenges that were recently published as part of an overall report on Digital Music by Redwood Capital. You can download the entire report here. What I find most bothersome about all of this is that it is a very backward looking, rationalization and justification about the collapse of the recorded music business and the fantasizing about protection of the label’s assets and proliferation of the traditional business model. While it may be a good snapshot of some of the major issues the industry has faced and a good way for people to orient themselves, this is hardly the way to think about the future. No wonder the investments made in music startups over the past decade or so by the VCs and Investment Bankers have not panned out. If this is the way VCs and investors look at the world of music, I got to tell you, we are all in a lot of trouble.
I have pitched and have had many deep discussions with investors over the years about the music industry and have learned one thing that is holding the entire industry back. Investors say they care about the music business, but when it comes right down to it, they don’t care about the musicians. Not one of them would bet on a new label or artist driven business model. They all wanted to back technology or distribution, but not musicians. Pathetic.
I have taken the liberty of annotating some of these “treneds and challenges” below:
1) Rampant Piracy Continues
Despite a decade of aggressive attempts by the industry to reduce illegal downloads and peer-to-peer file sharing and preserve what remained of the old model, the biggest challenge facing the industry is still the fact that consumer attitudes towards paying for music have been forever changed, especially amongst the ever-important younger demographic. This places tremendous pressure on industry players to provide the consumer with an experience that exceeds that which can be achieved illegally and for free. The solution likely lies in packaging music with other products and services that consumers expect to pay for, such as mobile phone service, Internet connections, ringtones, concerts, merchandise, etc., and taking advantage of improvements in broadband speed and access to provide a service that can’t be replicated for free. - Certainly this is true for recorded music and something that we predicted nearly 8 years ago in our book on the Future of Music. However you cannot expect a healthy market when you have to “package” what you are trying to sell with something else as the primary means of distribution. New forms of music experiences would certainly trump “bundles”.
2) Strategy of Major Labels
Despite numerous attempts to cut out the labels as middlemen, and the potential damage they have done to their relationships with the public after years of suing their customers, the major labels still have tremendous clout in determining the fate of the various new distribution models and emerging companies. While backing by the major labels by no means guarantees any degree of success, opposition from the labels is an obstacle that is extremely difficult to overcome. That being said, many of the larger players today began without the blessing of the labels, but once they became too big to ignore the labels were willing to make a deal. – Again I would argue this perspective assumes that the existing music, the existing catalog is more important than the new music, or the music yet to be created. Tens of millions of dollars have been wasted and countless hours of negotiation sunk into trying to secure licenses to existing major label content by many companies trying to recreate the distribution model for an asset class in severe decline. I will go out on a limb here and say that the new music matters far more in the future than the existing music, and that licenses from the major labels are far less valuable than the labels think they are. Perhaps an order of magnitude less.
3) Legal Complexity
Many US copyright laws were written when the only form of music distribution was printed sheet music and as such, obtaining the proper licenses from all relevant content owners is extremely complex. Given the relative youth of the digital music industry, the law is being written and applied haphazardly and has been difficult to interpret. International differences make it difficult to offer consistent products on a global basis. For example, currently Pandora is legal in the US, but illegal in the U.K, and vice versa for Spotify. Developing a business plan in this environment is extraordinarily difficult. – Of course this is true if you are building a business based on catalog. New labels and music companies that are forming to support new artists can completely eliminate this issue by creating licenses for their content that bundle all the rights in one global license that can be easily acquired. By using this strategy, new content businesses can outrun old content business and begin to take over the landscape.
4) The End of DRM
The recent decisions by the labels to finally eliminate digital rights management for many applications should represent a landmark change for emerging growth companies in the music space. This greatly reduces a longstanding barrier by allowing compatibility of content and devices across platforms. By decoupling content and devices, consumers can now download a song from their choice of providers and listen to that song on their choice of devices. - Excuse me but the labels had nothing to do with the elimination of digital rights management. That was eliminated long ago when people began trading MP3 files while all the attempts to distribute “legitimate” digital music failed. This is just the labels saying uncle.
5) Mobile Strategy is Critical
Whereas it has been extremely challenging for content owners across all digital media sectors to monetize online content, consumers do not expect mobile content to be free to the same degree because they have been conditioned to pay for such services. Therefore, we believe that online models that don’t have credible mobile strategies will continue to struggle, and killer mobile apps will prosper. We believe that one of the primary reasons for MySpace’s acquisition of Imeem was Imeem’s mobile capabilities. - Here I agree with the basic premise that a mobile strategy is critical, although have yet to see one that works. Do people really want to listen to music on their phone? Is that the killer app? I expect that something far better is around the corner, more integrated into your life at the moments where you can and want to listen to music. The damage being done to people’s hearing by the “Ear Buds” sold with the iPod and nearly every other mobile listening device is limiting the experience and holding back the growth of mobile music more than anything. MP3 sound like crap. Ear Buds are destroying people’s hearing. No wonder hardly anyone wants to pay for digital music. Anyone who focuses on improving the sound quality of mobile listening will find a explosive opportunity.
6) Dominance and Importance of the iPhone
With iTunes’ almost 70% US share in digital downloads, and the iPhone quickly taking market share in the smartphone category, alliances with Apple and/ or apps on the iPhone have become critical to success. Rhapsody, Spotify and Sirius have all launched iPhone apps in the past few months, and MOG’s is expected shortly, and this should give each an important boost in marketing their products. Without the iPhone app, customers would have had to spring for another device to use those services. With customers hesitant to even pay monthly service fees, adding a hardware requirement would have been an insurmountable obstacle in reaching a large customer base. We believe that Apple has been smart in its willingness to approve apps even from services that compete with iTunes. – I love my iPhone, I think it is the coolest thing ever invented. But I also know that worldwide, the iPhone is just a speck on the landscape of mobile phones. Will Apple really dominate this space over time? I doubt it very much. The vast majority of people cannot afford to buy Apple products.
7) Importance of Wireless Broadband
The widespread availability of broadband in the home and the office in the past decade has enabled computer-based downloading and streaming to develop entirely new methods of discovering, purchasing and listening to music. Many of the previously mentioned business models revolve around this experience. However, the next frontier for the developing models is to take the experience mobile without frustrating consumers. Now that consumers have accepted that cell phones are also music players, the market for mobile music has dramatically expanded, given that 139 million smartphones were sold worldwide in 2008 (Source: Gartner). To date, while streaming services such as Rhapsody and Pandora are a great way to listen to music at one’s desk, the experience on a mobile phone is mediocre at best, given dead spots and dropouts, and in the case of Rhapsody, low bitrate streaming. We suspect that many early adopters have tried these mobile services, only to get frustrated and go back to listening to MP3s on their iPods. Spotify’s and Slacker’s ability to cache playlists may prove to be a good workaround until wireless broadband availability and quality catches up. – I am a firm believer that you do not have to worry about storage and bandwidth, that they will always expand faster than you think they will. Agreed.
8 ) Consumers Remain Willing to Pay for Exciting New Technologies and Products
Consumers have proven that they are indeed willing to pay for new products and technologies that enhance the music experience or provide new uses for music. The tremendous initial growth of the ringtone market is one example. US ringtone sales grew from almost zero in 2002 to a peak of $714 million in 2007, before dropping 24% in 2008 (Source: SNL Kagan) as consumers ultimately figured out how to create ringtones on their own for free. iTunes has created new value added products that sell at a premium, such as iTunes Pass, which automatically delivers all new product, including exclusive extras, from a specific band to its fans, and iTunes LP, which adds album art, videos, and other extras to an album purchase. Shazam is another good example. Shazam is the second most popular music app on the iPhone and claims 50 million users. Shazam is a unique technology that enables users to use their mobile phone to identify and tag any song they hear in public or on the radio and immediately purchase the song. The app is so popular that Shazam is now charging customers $5 for the premium app, and is limiting free users to five tags per month, and its usage is accelerating. - Completely agree. This is in line with my basic premise that the new stuff matters far more than the old stuff, and if you can deliver a unique experience to a fan, especially one that is fun and sounds incredibly great, they will eat it up.
9) Convergence of Models
Most streaming services also offer the ability to purchase tracks either with their own ecommerce model or with links to others, most often iTunes and Amazon. To date, most ecommerce models have not offered streaming services, likely out of fear of cannibalization as well as licensing requirements. We believe that as streaming catches on with a broader audience, the e-commerce players will have to offer both. Apple is now more likely to move in this direction with its purchase of Lala, and increases our level of confidence that the streaming model is the wave of the future. - I believe as we wrote about in the Future of Music, that a utility model is the only way to make money with recorded music in the future. Until music become always on and always available and feels like it is free to you, the market will continue to decline. It is not so much the convergence of models but the ascendance of a model that will work. The broadband mobile carriers are the ones that can make this happen. It is a winner take all business strategy for the company with the balls and commitment to bake paid media distribution into their basic business model.
We’re seeing the future— all over again. Just when the music industry had finally started to almost get the hang of selling mp3s on iTunes (even if we still haven’t figured out how to sell music from around the world, which blows my mind) the weather shifts and suddenly our new technology is dead.
“Gone is the MP3!” all the headlines are reading, and indeed, for the first time, the sales growth of digital track downloads dropped drastically this year, from a growth rate of 26 percent in 2008 to only 8 percent in 2009. Apparently all of us who were waiting for legal downloading to make up the revenue lost to the death of the CD had better find a new dream to embrace, because this once-new technology appears to be over before it began. What once was the future now appears to be officially “past”.
What makes it official of course is Apple– as we all know, it’s Steve Jobs’ world and we’re just living in it. When the big Mac shells out money to purchase the start-up venture Lala, with its whopping 100,000 person customer list, something must be bubbling. As we enter a new decade, it now appears that bubbling sound is the music stream, which is bringing you the next big thing:
Cheap music!
Uh… wait. Don’t we already have cheap music? NO! This will be cheaper still!!! While iTunes, that old-school relic of yesteryear, still wants to sell you a download for a dollar, services like Lala will allow you to stream the same song once for free and then give you unlimited access for 10 cents a track. The hitch of course is that the music doesn’t really “belong” to you. It’s more like a library book that you never have to return– which is close enough to ownership for me. Rather than shelves of CDs (like your grandparents have) or iTunes folders full of MP3s, the listener can access a full collection of music from the Web-based “cloud”, for either a per-song fee, or perhaps a monthly subscription (as in the Spotify model).
In a perfect illustration of the new technology approach to finance, Lala, a company started with $35 million of venture capital (provided in part by Warner Music) generates revenues under $10 million dollars, but is purchased by Apple for somewhere between $17 million (not too great a deal for Warner) and $85 million (which seems completely inexplicable). The general consensus is that Apple did not buy the company with the intention of replicating Lala’s current business model, but rather using the start-up’s technology and executive talent to launch their own Apple streaming service, which if they do it really well, could render iTunes obsolete.
Interestingly, the one hitch in Apple’s plan, and the one silver lining for the music industry, is that the current music licenses allowing Lala to offer legal music streams are not transferable as part of the sale. This means that Apple will have to re-negotiate the licenses with the major labels and publishers before they can launch their new service– a prospect that has label executives digging in for their last real chance to save their industry (and their jobs). While it would appear that the general licensing framework on the publishing side has already been laid by the recent agreement with the DMA (see the blog “Triumph or Turkey”), both the labels and publishers are determined to protect their interests within whatever business model Apple eventually constructs. If songs downloaded from iTunes will now be kept in a permanent online “locker” from which they can be streamed at any time on any device, labels will want a higher price per download, a fee for each stream, and a cut of any fees that Apple gets to increase the size of the locker. Publishers will expect a “mechanical” royalty for the stream, as provided in the new DMA agreeement, and ASCAP and BMI will certainly consider the “stream” a performance.
That’s all good– provided the model catches on. Not too surprisingly, the jury is still out on that one. So far most streaming models have proven very popular when the music is free, but far less so once that whopping 10 cents per track price tag is attached. Subscription models have not caught on either. Spotify offers a premium subscription at 10 GBP per month. So far, only about 10 percent of their customers buy in.
The inescapable fact is that until these services become profitable, the money for music-makers and music licensors will be pretty paltry. On the positive side, Apple has proven quite adept at figuring out how to make money off of music. The danger is that the new streaming service kills off iTunes, which is just starting to make some real money for the music business, and replaces it with something that earns ten percent of what iTunes did.
In general, it’s hard for me to be overly optimistic about the technological trend. First, we replaced the CD, which sold for as much as $15-20, with a product that sold for a dollar. Now we’re poised to replace the service that sells music for a dollar with a service that sells it for 10 cents. That’s not a great direction for music publishers, music labels, artists and songwriters to be headed. Given the precarious position of major labels like EMI, collection organizations around the world, and the thousands of small and large music publishers who saw as much as a 30 percent drop in income last year, we MUST collectively drive a hard bargain with Apple. That won’t be easy. Then, once an agreement is in place, we must continue to take legal action against unlicensed services that undercut Apple and other legitimate business partners.
If streaming is the future, and it likely is, then we need companies like Apple to make that business profitable. We also need to see a fair share of those profits. Otherwise, our vision of the future will indeed look a lot like a cloud– gray, ominous and full of hot air.
I just wanted to post a quick note here to inform you about a few things:
1) A new semester for berkleemusic.com starts today. You can still sign up for courses this week.
2) NAMM is happening this week in Anaheim, CA. I’ll be there, most like on Thurs and/or Friday. If you’re going to show and would like to meet up, drop me a note here and we’ll try to make it happen.
3) I’m working on a new course for Berkleemusic about using Virtual Instruments and Effects in Pro Tools. It should be ready for next semester (starting in April). This is just a little teaser. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about it here soon.
It’s hard to believe after posting about this licensing opportunity more than seven months ago, the Season Premiere of 24 will air this Sunday night, January 17 at 9:00pm EST. I’ve been told that two Debbie and Friends cartoon music videos will be playing on a TV that Sutherland and a young girl will be watching together.
This is just one example of what an exciting time it is for musicians to find licensing opportunities for their music. I am proud to say that I was able to put this opportunity together because of all that I have learned from our Berkleemusic instructors and their courses in music production and music business.
I hope this story will inspire more of our Berkleemusic students to monetize their song catalogs through licensing opportunities.
Please tune in this Sunday to see Debbie and Friends’ children’s music videos on 24!
This is my first post in 10 months. I have had some personal and physical challenges, but I am back close to 100%. I plan to post a couple of times each month with information on notation software.
There is a lot to discuss in the world of notation software. Both Finale and Sibelius have new versions since my last post. This post will focus on the Sibelius 6 upgrade.
Sibelius 6 upgrade
I have been using Sibelius 6 since it came out and I find it to be an excellent upgrade, well worth the price. I am often asked if it is worth the price to upgrade to a new Sibelius version. The answer is YES. BTW, you can download a fully functioning demo of Sibelius 6 from the www.sibelius.com website.
Magnetic Layout
The most significant new feature is the Magnetic Layout feature. Sibelius will automatically move objects to avoid collisions. And it does an excellent job of automatic page layout. I have been using the feature with my scores and worksheets and find it most helpful. I still do find myself using Engraving Rules to set the staff and system spacing, but overall this is a huge new feature.
New Kaypad: Jazz Articulations
The other new feature I really find helpful is the new Keypad layout, Jazz Articulations, which includes repeat bars and other features. This works amazingly well. For example, if you place a repeat mark from the Keypad (not the symbols menu) it will automatically play back the previous bar (or bars if you are using the 2-bar repeat). This is a great feature for any part in a score, jazz or not. No more copying the notation to a voice and hiding.
Chord Symbols
The biggest change that I have found is in the chord symbols. At first, I was not impressed. I liked using the right-click to access the chord suffixes. This feature has been removed. However, after spending a few months entering chords, I am getting much more comfortable with the feature. Sibelius does an excellent job interpreting what you enter as a chord and there are many options that you can adjust in the Engraving Rules > Chords.
The chord symbols still do not playback (one of my requests) unless you run the Realize Plug-ins feature. Hopefully, this will appear in the next upgrade.
Other new Features
Comments – There is a comment feature that is most helpful for sharing comments. However, it can not be sared with pre-Sib. 6 users.
Live Tempo allows you to enter tempo changes and ritards by taping a computer key.
The versions feature is helpful. I have not gotten into this feature other than revert back to previous versions.
Scanning – The free version of the scanning software that ships with Sibelius works much better. It recognizes triplets. I’ll discuss scanning in a future post.
Audio Score – Sibelius 6 ships with a free application called Audio Score. I will review this is a future post.
