|
July 27, 2008
I was thinking today that perhaps some of you might wonder why I cover artists like Alanis Morissette, Madonna, Aimee Mann or Cyndi Lauper on CEV when they obviously don't need the help of a site like mine to make a success of themselves. For one thing I enjoy some of the music that these artists make and I don't mind sharing that information with others who might want to know if the music that is being released is worth having in their collection. I might remind you that just because an artist has a record label behind them and thousands and thousands of dollars being poured into marketing their latest release it doesn't mean that release is worth having. But that isn't why I cover the major female artists who have "made it" in the music business.
Times are a changing as the old Bob Dylan song says and that is more true now than ever for the music business and of course for the major labels who are going through a rather brutal lesson in what happens when you aren't in touch with where the industry is headed. More and more you hear about major artists who are forsaking the major labels to pursue an independent method of distributing their music. Look at Radiohead giving their CD In Rainbows away for whatever a person felt it was worth as a digital download. Eventually it was released as a CD and went on to critical success but the idea that any major artist would offer up the fruits of their labors for whatever fans were willing to pay was a bold step. But as the old music business model continues to deteriorate I'm sure it won't be the last time you will see these kinds of experiements to see what will work in this brave new world.
Back to my point. I cover these "superstars" because they make good music on occasion and because they stand as a reminder of what is actually possible for your career with some lucky breaks, talent and hard work. I also think that in the coming months and years that these artists like Radiohead will begin to evaluate just how it is that they want to connect with their fans and how they want their music distributed. Up to this point in time it has always been the record companies that decided how music was distributed whether that was on LP's, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD's but now that isn't necessarily true anymore. Now an artist can conceivably record their music at home, burn copies on their computers and then sell them via the web from their websites or through websites like CD Baby.
I think that as an artist you need to be watching the indie artists to see how your peers are handling their music and distribution but you also need to keep an eye on the major artists to see how they are handling the changes that are reshaping the landscape of how they are marketing their music. Catching the wave of change while it is still small enough to hop on is easier than waiting for it to turn into a tidal wave and then trying to find space to squeeze onto it. In many ways major artists and indies alike will be learning at the same time how the digital world will change how it is that they make a living with their music while recognizing that the old rules simply do not apply to a world where folks can download your music at will off of the internet.
So even though the major artists don't need my help I still like to listen to good music regardless of the source. Major, indie or completely unknown doesn't matter to me and if music is good I will find a way to get my hands on it and these days there are many ways to do that besides having to go to a record store and buying a physical copy. I don't think that the record labels have learned yet that suing the fans is not going to win you any popularity contests and it will leave a bad taste in the mouths of the many legitimate fans out there who go out and faithfully buy the latest releases from their favorite artists. So in my mind we are all in the same boat in this new world and the sooner we all learn to row together the sooner that everyone can get a fair slice of the pie. I am hoping that in this new business model it will be easier for even an indie artist to make a success using the same methods that major artists use.
July 21, 2008
The good thing about this past weekend was that it started off better than
last weekend which had my website host being down for several hours right
off the bat so I'm already in a better mood. You might wonder why you
don't see a lot of posts here during the week and that is because like
many this website is a work of pleasure and I have a day job that takes
care of my income. Most days I'll do a little tweaking during the week
to the website but major changes and blog writing tends to wait until
the weekend. Unfortunate but true.
As of late I have been
following links on MySpace pages and writing down names from my
listening on Pandora and the likes. I am amazed at the never ending
trail of new names and talents that I find on these treasure hunts.
Most of us have a good grasp of the bigger names that represent women
in music on a national level but when it comes to just how many women
out there that are making music independently and posting to sites like
MySpace etc. I don't think that everyone quite has a grasp on that. At
least not until you start sifting through the links that you run across
on each artist's page and then following those with each page leading
to other links and other artists. I think that CEV has a pretty good
artist's links page but after what I have seen I think that I still
have a lot to do to represent many of the women that I have seen out
there on the web.
The problem that many independents have is
that they are pretty much a local act. Maybe traveling around to nearby
cities and states to do live shows to build up a name recognition but
still local just the same. They leap on the web in hopes of sowing the
seeds of recognition to a larger audience but the web is a big, big
place and just putting up a website is no guarantee that anyone will
ever find it. Some are web savvy enough to market themselves (search
engine placement, key words, meta tags etc.) as much as they can and
hope for the best. Others probably wonder why they are not being seen
without a clue as to why people are not beating down the doors of their
website.
I have no illusions from what I have seen that there
are not super talented individuals out there that I have not run across
yet simply because there are only so many hours in the day to wander
around this huge thing we call the internet in search of women in
music. What I am hoping to do with CEV is to continue to add listings
to the artist's website links page and to start adding descriptions of
the music so that readers of CEV will know what kind of music they are
looking at when they see a link on that page. I have been adding links
to the MySpace pages and will go even further time permitting but for
now a main website, a MySpace and maybe even a CD Baby link is what I
am going for.
I know that CEV is just another drop in the
bucket in terms of the web as a whole but I think what makes one
website succeed over another is the drive and determination to make the
website a place that surfers would come to for a particular reason. To
find new artists and new voices that you haven't heard before or to
read interviews with many of the artists who create this music are just
a couple of reasons that I am giving for surfers to find their way to
CEV. If you'd like to help by contributing links of great women singers
you have run across then I encourage you to send it along to me so that
I can share it with the readers of CEV. I know that everyone is in
competition of a sorts to gain that same recognition for their own
career but I think that it would benefit everyone as a whole to bring
more attention to the wide variety of great women singers, songwriters
and musicians scattered across America and around the world.
If
you are a writer and would like to share your experiences of becoming a
singer, songwriter or musician and what it took in terms of dedication
and talent to get to where you are then send that along as well with
the understanding that it may well end up published on CEV if it would
inspire others to push their own careers into high gear. I am always
looking for article submissions and information about the music
business in general and being a woman in that business in specific. I
know this is a blatant appeal for material for CEV but again I see CEV
as a gathering place for those who want to see this music thrive and to
help all those performers out there who deserve to be heard gain a
little platform for their music. That doesn't sound like such a bad
reason to be making blatant appeals now does it? Anyway until next time
drop me an e-mail through MySpace or simply by using
editor@cuttingedgevoices.com Looking forward to talking to more of you
as time goes on. Take care.
Michael Foster, editor
Cutting Edge Voices
July 11, 2008
Communication is for everyone...
Well we have made it through the first few days of this week after the nice 3 day weekend over July 4th and boy has it been a grind. I always look forward to coming home and spending some quality time with my websites and the friends that contact me via the website and now the MySpace page as well.
I figured I'd explain how some of the CD's that get featured on CEV make it up there. Most of it is simply by my spending lots of time surfing MySpace pages and wandering around the net looking for sounds that appeal to me. Yep, I do have to like most of the music that I put up on the site. That is one of the perogatives of running the website is that it reflects my tastes in music that I have built up over the years that I have been listening to music and working in the music industry.
I think that what makes this an acceptable standard is that I have very broad tastes in what I like so that I can listen to just about anything unless (and this is a big unless) I don't hear good production, musicianship or a good voice in the songs I am listening to. That tends to shut me down real quick when it comes to what I listen to. And that is even more so when the lead song on the CD doesn't grab me or shows poor production or talent. The way I understand it is that the first few songs on your CD are the most important when trying to get reviewers or perhaps those who play them on their radio shows to listen to the rest of the CD and even go on to play or review them.
So other than that quick off button in my brain connected to what I mentioned above I am very tolerant of just about any kind of music. I'm not a big country fan so you won't be seeing a lot of country featured on CEV and even though I like classical music I don't necessarily want to run a website about it. Again it comes down to personal preference when it comes to what goes onto the site. Now what do I like. Depends on my mood but I like everything from October Project to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. From Stevie Nicks to Bonnie Tyler (remember her?) From Til Tuesday (Aimee Mann) to Siouxsie & the Banshees. So in a word I'm easy with the one exception mentioned above.
Now some of the other music that gets featured is more from the marketing perspective of the music business. Artists make available to me their music listen to through .mp3's or I get the physical CD in the CEV mailbox so I actually get to sit and listen to the whole CD. There are the occasional record labels or promotional companies that send in the all male band or the solo male singer and right off the bat I know that the company has never set foot on CEV because if they did they wouldn't have wasted their money sending me something completely irrelevant. Don't get me wrong. I listen to lots of male singers and bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Steely Dan, Donald Fagen, Police etc but that has nothing to do with CEV so many times the music ends up in the trash can.
And some music gets featured on the site simply because I stumbled upon it via a press release or on Amazon.com when they their lists of what is coming up in the next few months in terms of releases. I don't always get to hear it but based on the reputation of the artist I feel sure that the music will be pretty good. So the idea that I want to emphasize here and that you will hear again in the future is the word "communication". We live in an age when our words can travel around the world in a matter of minutes if we send them out in such a way that everyone wants to read them. Life is busy there is no doubt about that but you the artist via your music and I the writer via my website want to share things with others that we think they will find interesting. It is even more important for you as the artist because if you are lucky then you will be able to derive your income from something you love doing. Ahh the great American dream. To do work that you love to do.
The key to making all of this work is communication between the artists and the fans, between the writer and his readers and between the artists and the writers who write about their music. Networking works if you put energy into it. Answer your e-mails, update your website, put things on your website that folks want to see and on and on. How I find music sometimes is that the artists talk to me, let me know what is going on and many times I do interviews with them so they can share their triumphs and their struggles up on CEV. Communication. Marketing is directed communication but still it is letting everyone know about what you are doing.
We live in a society that everyone seems to want to share everything with everybody. Not always a good thing all the time but essential for those who want others to see or hear their ideas. CEV will prosper as the artists talk to me and I talk to the readers letting them know what I like and what they should explore if they get a chance. I look forward to creating a place here and on CEV that will allow a free flow of information both from myself and from the artists (keep me in the loop) about what they are doing, what is new, what is upcoming etc.
The music that ends up on CEV is there because I know about it and because I feel like I can truthfully tell others that they will love it and that they should run out and buy (download) a copy right away. Use the e-mail address on the left to let me know what you think of my views or to offer your own in rebuttal or in agreement with what I have written. Be nice though. Constructive criticism is always called for and attacks will always be rude and most likely not responded to. I've been around long enough to know that I can't ever make everyone happy but differences of opinion can lead to some intersting discussions and discoveries.
Let me know what you think. Communication is a two way street. Otherwise it is just a monologue and not a dialogue.
Michael Foster, editor
Cutting Edge Voices |
