Welcome to Just Plain Notes
Just Plain Notes: Volume 1.179, April 30th, 2009
Written by Brian Austin Whitney
Visit the Website: http://www.jpfolks.com
Mail CD's @ 5327 Kit Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46237
Copyright 2009 Just Plain Folks Productions.
Just Plain Folks Member Population: 51,997
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Would you like to join the JPF message boards? It's quick and easy. Just click this link and choose a password and user name and you'll be posting in no time! We'd love to hear from and about you.

To register: (It's a separate registration from JPF membership):
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?action=agree
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Just Plain Quotes:

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way." -Mark Twain

"What we call 'Progress' is the exchange of one nuisance for another nuisance. " -Havelock Ellis

"No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why." -Mignon McLaughlin

"Men of genius do not excel in any profession because they labor in it, but they labor in it because they excel." -William Hazlitt

"As creative types, we all know that there's a lot of things we simply won't do for ourselves. The powers that be tell us we can't do just about everything else without them and they aren't interested in helping us. The result is we end up doing nothing at all. Those days have got to stop." -Brian Austin Whitney

My Take:

First off, I got over 800 responses from my last editorial which was a rebuttal of an infamous John Mellencamp article he wrote as a promo excuse for his new album. (I'll link it below in the table of contents in case you missed it). I took a lot of heat from some for suggesting that President Reagan wasn't responsible. For that matter, neither was President Carter or Clinton. About 40 of the 800 responses were negative, but the rest were very positive and surprisingly vicious at times against Mellencamp. To make matters worse, I spelled his name wrong even though I knew better. Oddly enough only 1 person out of 800 even mentioned it. Ah well. I think the Mark Twain quote sums up my feeling on that. My apologies if I offended any grammar school teachers. I am sure it won't be the last time.

As the industry goes through it's death throws before eventually being reborn anew and better than before (because we all know that everything is a cycle), I've noticed more and more companies getting desperate to make a buck anywhere they can. Often when they realize that can't make money from customers anymore, they look to the other source for all their former success, the artist community, and hope they can shake them down for a few bucks instead. This latest crass tactic is to institute "pay for play" schemes of varying types for Internet radio airplay. Venues started doing that heavily in the 90's in some cities (and some still do) but it was a losing game. The people with the least money in this vicious food chain are the artists themselves. Any short term gain dries up pretty quickly. But they still try and for a while at least they often manage to rip off a significant number of artists for a significant number of dollars.

Do I really need to explain why paying for airplay is a bad idea? Sadly I do, because there are already people emailing me and posting our on message boards asking about it. So here goes:

1. You're not a multinational corporation. They used payola schemes to buy airplay probably going back to day 1 in the radio business. It didn't really work to sell enough music though. It became common in recent years for artists to have huge hits (due to paid airplay) and sell barely any records. It did succeed, however, in creating an endless run of disposable rock/pop stars and that is a valuable asset to a large corporation. But even that process got too pricey. They couldn't afford to buy success and neither can you.

2. Even if you were good enough to attract fans if they heard you on the radio your chances would quickly dry up because anyone doing business on the low level of the spectrum with prices that regular people could afford to pay will take money from anyone with any level of talent. Imagine how quickly someone, who might have surfed in to listen, would turn off the station when a series of really bad artists who bought airplay all led up to your masterpiece of a song? Ah.. I see the light bulb going off in most of your heads. Bad music comes from pay for play. Artists who think they can buy success without earning it would ruin the scheme long before you got your airplay.

3. No one of importance is going to discover you. Even if someone important was randomly listening (which never happens in real life, they are way too busy) do you really believe your music is so good that they will stop what they are doing and take an immediate interest in you? Do you know there are less than 1000 artists signed to a major label right now? If you're THAT good, you wouldn't be considering buying airplay in the first place. You'd already be getting legit airplay on terrestrial stations and you'd be too busy gigging and selling CD's to worry about shortcuts to success schemes.

4. You don't really want me to go on right? Whew... that's good. Oh... wait... there's someone out there still not convinced it's a scam. For those folks, please consider that on terrestrial radio it would be illegal to pay for airplay unless the announcer identified that you had paid for the play. They also have to make sure your play isn't reported as such to the PRO's so that they won't mistakenly pay you royalties. (You know, the people who actually pay YOU for legit airplay). If they didn't follow those rules, they'd be guilty of payola. How that might translate to Internet radio is up for debate. But since there are new royalties that pay the performers a royalty including the musicians unions, it would seem to me that there will be legal issues if you pay for play and those folks don't get their earned royalties because the station playing that music can't report the paid for play to the PRO. (I'd love to hear from some attorney types about this. I have lots of questions for you).

In the meantime, search the word "payola" on Google. The first page that will come up is Wikipedia. Take a look at that page. At the bottom, there's two links to documents in which the article is based on. The first is the agreement that we (myself and JPF) co-authored with our friends at the FOMC which the RIAA (who represents the major labels) signed in a promise to cease and desist on payola. In my opinion that wasn't because they suddenly felt guilty about doing it. It was because it was just too expensive and useless to keep going like they were going. Even they realized that buying radio airplay was a bad idea.

As creative types, we all know that there's a lot of things we simply won't do for ourselves. The powers that be tell us we can't do just about everything else without them and they aren't interested in helping us. The result is we end up doing nothing at all. Those days have got to stop. You can't buy your way to success. And shortcuts to success are a myth used by scam artists to separate you from your money (outside of being the next YouTube novelty which rarely translates to real success anyway because the next roller skating giraffe video will bump you out of the public interest).

You are going to have to take a hands on approach and work hard to reach some real life tangible goals and the success that comes with them. You start that process by learning how to do all the things yourself that people in the past have handed off to others. I suggest you learn how to create a loyal base of 5000 fans. You learn to serve them musically in exchange for 20 bucks a piece each year. You stop worrying about the Rock Star dream because frankly, if you can't generate 5000 fans, you'll never be a Rock Star anyway. And if you learn to do that, you might find you don't really need to be a Rock Star to have a wonderful life doing what you love. Stick with us. We'll continue to help you along the way. In the meantime, just say NO to paying for airplay of any kind, legal or otherwise. For that matter, heavily research anyone who wants you to give them money or promises success of any kind. People can only deliver services, not success.

In the meantime I am going to do a spell check to make sure I didn't spell anyone else's name wrong this time. No one is more brutal than an angry mob of spelling police.

Learn, Succeed, Thrive. We're All In This Together!
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Just Plain Notes Table of Contents:

We have some cool articles below including a helpful guide (it helped me) to choosing a computer Digital Audio Workstation. We've got updates on the awards (yes, we need more judges!) and an article from SongU.com founder Danny Arena on success being a moving target. We included them in their entirety so it's a lot of text, but no pesky links you have to click.

But if you're in to links, here's the newsletter on a webpage if you prefer: http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=716110&page=0#Post716110

Here's the link I promised above to last months newsletter:
http://www.jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/706848/page/1#Post706848

01. 2009 JPF Community Partner Sponsors
02. JPF Music Awards Moves To Round 4 Judging: New Judges Needed
03. Nashville or Los Angeles? Where should we do the 2009 JPF Music Awards?
04. How to choose a computer based Digital Audio Workstation by JPF Member Andrew Aversa
05. Success is a Moving Target by JPF Mentor Danny Arena of SongU.com
06. Brian's Big Idea Update and Call to Arms!
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2009 Just Plain Folks Community Partner Sponsors!

Disc Makers: Nobody makes CD or DVD manufacturing easier and no one delivers faster. When you need CD or DVD replication, short-run duplication, complete printing and packaging options, sturdy duplicators and printers, or affordable blank CDs and DVDs look no further. They've got it. They also now handle licensed merchandise for you (t-shirts, hats etc.). Mention you're a Just Plain Folks Member and get a $50 Discount off your initial CD Orders! Sign up for a free catalog and booklet on Mastering your Music at http://www.discmakers.com/jpfolks

TAXI: The world's leading independent A&R company, has been successfully helping Songwriters, Artists and Composers get their music heard and signed by top Publishers, Major & Indie Labels, and Film & TV music supervisors since 1992. TAXI, is your best bet! See them at http://www.TAXI.com.

CDBaby: The best place to sell your CD's or music files on line. They also have the best on-line hosting service called Hostbaby. Nobody else even comes close. See them at http://www.CDBaby.com and http://www.Hostbaby.com..

OurStage: is a purely democratic, game free online competition where the fans decide who's best in emerging music and film and rewards the winners with real opportunities through their partnerships with major music festivals and touring acts. You can post songs immediately and get in the running for monthly cash prizes of $5000 (5 of the last 8 winners have been fellow JPF members!). And it's all free! Visit http://www.ourstage.com/go/jpf and sign up.
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Peer Judge Volunteers Needed For 2009 JPF Music Awards

Thanks to all those who have gotten involved in this year's music awards screening. We have moved into Round 4 of our awards process (the final round before nominations) and would like to invite a new batch of judges to join our current roster to help us choose the "music that moves us" the most this year from the remaining entries. All judging is taking place on line so you'll need a fast internet connection and updated browser and flash software to do it.

What does screening involve/require?

In Round 4 judges will be voting on either albums or songs in one or more of over 100 genres of music. What we have left is the music that has moved the collective judges the most in the first 3 rounds. In most cases we need to whittle down the top 30-150 songs to the final 20 nominees and the top 10-25 albums to the final 8 nominees. Things are very tight and we have no idea who will get nominated in any category yet. Round 4 is critical to help us break the ties that remain. Once Round 4 is finished, we will take all the data from all round of judging and use them to determine the nominees. We hope to announce them by the end of May.

Each category should take between 1 evening and 1 full day of work time to judge at this point. So if you have an extra evening to tackle a small category, or a bit more time to tackle a large one or more than one, please email me with:

Your full name: (Judges ID's are kept confidential)
Your full address:
Your Phone Number (cell or home)
If you entered something, please include the artist and album name

Also, it is critical that you tell us what genres you are interested in judging. We ask that you avoid genres that include yourself and any close family or friends. It's okay to know some of the entrants (it's impossible not to if you are active in the music community). If you feel you are unable to be objective, please let us know.

Email me at: jpfolkspro@aol.com Please place "Peer Judge Round 4" in the subject along with your real name and contact information and what musical genres you prefer.

We will register you and send you specific voting instructions for Round 4. Judges who have helped out previously are also welcome to participate, but we will usually give you something different than your previous round categories.
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2008/2009 JPF Music Awards Update

We are finished with Round 3 as of tonight and are moving to Round 4. I want to thank the thousands of judges who spent 100's of thousands of hours screening the music whittling it down so we can continue this epic process.

We have set the date for this year's 2008/2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards. It will be help on August 29th, 2009. We are down to either Los Angeles or Nashville for the show and we need to know which of the two cities those of you who might attend would prefer? We realize that no one knows who will be nominated yet (including us) so that will obviously change matters. But some of you probably at least know which of the two cities you'd most likely be able to attend.

We have similar quotes from venues in both cities with some advantages on both sides and some disadvantages. We've never done the awards in the Eastern half of the USA and we've been told that Nashville is a much easier flight for people attending from Europe in particular (it cuts the flight nearly in half). People can also drive to Nashville from anywhere in the eastern half of the USA in 1 day. Los Angeles is our traditional home and therefore we have a much larger support base, our largest JPF Chapter overall (Orange County) and by far the most industry contacts.

So we're 50/50 on our end with different staff members and advisors split down the middle. So what do you all think?

We hope to have Round 4 done in May and then we'll announce the nominations hopefully by the end of the month. Final voting to produce the winners will take place between June and August, 2009. See the info above if you'd like to help out in the voting as a Peer Judge in Round 4.

We're really excited by what we're hearing in all the categories. It's going to be a banner year for great music in our awards process. We can't wait to bring you this year's nominees and winners!
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How to choose a computer based Digital Audio Workstation
by Andrew Aversa

Chances are, if you're reading this email, you're using a computer in some way to help you make music. Unfortunately for people like us, however, the computing requirements of musicians are not the same as those of gamers, visual artists, office workers, or any other kind of user. Mainstream publications like PC World or PC Magazine don't really address our needs. This guide is intended to help you understand which features and components are important for a DAW – digital audio workstation – computer. If you enjoy what you read here, you can find a full version of this guide as well as many others on my music business blog, SoundTempest (www.soundtempest.net)!

I. MAC vs. PC

Don’t buy into advertising hype or “common wisdom”. PCs and Macs can both be used to make great music. Here are some pros and cons:

PCs:
* Very flexible and deeply customizable; many configurations are possible
* Almost universally cheaper than Macs, especially in the laptop market
* Easier to repair and upgrade without 3rd party help

Macs:
* Higher resale value, especially for laptops.
* Capable of running Windows as well as OSX, whereas PCs can't run OSX
* Very strong warranties (AppleCare) and tech support (via Apple Store/Genius Bar)
* Better bundled software (Garageband, iPhoto, etc.)

If you're already used to Windows or OSX, then don't feel pressured to switch. Just keep in mind that Macs CAN run Windows as well with “Bootcamp”, so you can still use your favorite PC software on an Apple computer.

II. Laptop vs. Desktop

These days, laptops are very powerful and cheaper than ever before. My four year old laptop, which runs various host programs quite well, cost $2,200 – now, you can get that much power for $500. The key consideration here is portability. If you're using this for gigs or you move around a lot, then a laptop is the obvious choice.

Additionally, you get more money for selling a laptop when you’re done with it. On the other hand, desktops provide the best value when you're purchasing them, and you can get even more hardware flexibility. If you’re doing serious studio recording and production work, a desktop is probably your best bet.

III. Prefab vs. Custom (or “Where to Buy”)

While Apple computers are only manufactured by Apple and typically available in the same configurations and at the same prices almost universally, if you’re looking to get a PC, you have many more options. You can get a PC from a major manufacturer like Dell, HP, Lenovo or Acer, which give you a fair degree of customization, low prices, and decent warranties. These companies sell their computers online and in physical stores. The only downside is that your machine won't be truly customized for music and will come with lots of "bloatware" – software that you don't need and that slows the computer down.

Small PC manufacturers are another option, such as AVADirect. These companies usually only sell direct and mail-order, much like how Dell used to be. They will also give you great prices and solid service, but you can usually customize your machine even further. Lastly, there are DAW PC specialists, like ADK Pro Audio, Sweetwater and VisionDAW. These companies build computers exclusively for musicians. You'll get the best service at sites like these, as well as ideal customization and no bloatware. However, expect to pay a hefty premium!

You can also save money by scouting eBay or local “big box” retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart for discounted, previous-generation computers. Computer prices are always dropping, and the last generation is always much cheaper but usually only slightly less powerful than the latest and greatest.

IV. Hardware

Don't be fooled by salespeople when buying a computer. Here’s what each component means to you, the musician:

* Processor: Determines how much your computer can handle at once. A better processor means you can record more tracks simultaneously, run more plugins, record at lower latencies, and play back more samples. If you’ve ever gotten “pops and clicks” in a big project, a better processor will improve that. Note that the listed ‘speed’ of a processor is deceptive. A five-year old, 3.6ghz processor can be much slower than a modern processor which is listed at 2.4ghz.

* Multiple Cores: You've heard “dual-core” and “quad-core” by now, I’m sure. In general, you want more cores, but don't pay a premium just to double the number that you have; your computer won't be twice as fast. For example, generally speaking, a 3ghz dual core processor will perform better for our purposes than a 2.3ghz quad core processor. Of course, ideally, a 3ghz quad core would be fastest of all!

* RAM: The short-term memory of your computer is also very important for multitasking. Every application and plugin you load eats up your computer’s RAM. If you like to use a lot of orchestral or drum sample libraries, you can very quickly use up 2 gigabytes of RAM. Your operating system takes several hundred MB itself, too. The key here is to get a solid 4gb of RAM, since RAM is quite cheap in general. This is enough for almost anybody, but if you need to have the latest, biggest sample libraries, you'll want 64-bit software (Logic, Cubase 5, Sonar 8) and a 64-bit operating system (XP 64, Vista 64, Mac OSX) and more than 4gb of RAM.

* Storage (Hard Drives): The more space, the better! Storage is cheap these days. Get 7200 RPM drives if you have the choice, especially with a laptop. There are faster drives available, but they're not usually worth it. External (USB) drives are fine too, especially for backing up files, but internal drives are ideal because USB can be limited in its bandwidth. As for “solid state drives”, they’re very expensive and not quite practical for our uses just yet. Maybe in a year or two…

* Video Card(s): Unless you're playing flashy computer games or doing lots of video editing, almost any low-budget video card will suffice for music-making. A card in the $50-100 range will do just fine. You can even go for a “silent” (fanless) card, if the option is available, and reduce your noise a bit. Just stay away from computers boasting “Integrated Graphics” – this will slow down your computer.

* Audio Interface (Sound Card): This is not quite as important as you’d think for most of us. There are some great, cheap cards and interfaces out there. You can expect to spend between $100-200 on a solid interface. Brands like EMU, Presonus, Edirol and M-Audio all make good, lower-budget stuff. Stay away from consumer soundcards by brands like Creative or Turtle Beach, as these are not equipped for recording. When deciding between a USB/Firewire interface and an ‘internal’ one, go with the latter when possible, but if you need lots of inputs/outputs, an external is what you want.

About Andrew: Andrew Aversa (www.zirconstudios.com) is a freelance composer, producer, sample developer and blogger living in the outskirts of Philadelphia, PA. His music has been featured in shows like Heroes (NBC), Chopped (Food Network), and Skins (UK), as well as hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video games like The Wheelman and Super Street Fighter II Turbo: HD Remix. Under the alias “zircon”, he has released eight albums of music, one of which won “Best Techno Album” and “Best Techno Song” at the 2006 JPF Music Awards. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys sharing his knowledge with other musicians in communities like JPF as well as through his blog, SoundTempest.
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Success Is A Moving Target
by Danny Arena

Hall of fame songwriter, Don Schlitz, once remarked when receiving his lifetime achievement award in songwriting that there really is only one reason to "stay with it" -- and it's not the money or the fame. He said that if you chase the money, you'll likely be disappointed since you probably won't ever become rich doing it. And if you chase the fame, it's the same deal. You're equally likely to be disappointed because the majority of people don't even know the names of the songwriters. You'll only become relatively well-known in a very small circle. The truth is that you write for the joy of writing songs and expressing yourself in a way that you hope touches other people. In other words, there is simply one reason to keep doing it -- because you love it and you can't "not" do it.

And so it is that every year, a new "class" arrives in a music center all chasing the same dream. My wife, Sara Light and I moved from NJ to Nashville in the early 1990's. Our "class" arrived within a couple years of each other. We met at writer's nights, through mutual friends, songwriting events, or just around town. We were all nobodies to the music business but we quickly became somebodies to each other. Through the years, we've been through ups and downs together, winning awards and being out of jobs, falling in love, out of love, the birth of children and the death of loved ones. And no, not everyone stayed around. Many left. Some went home to live by their family. Others took better paying jobs out of state. One became a Rabbi while another a Minister. Everyone found their own path and chose what was right for them. And after this many years, for those of us who stayed because we couldn't "not stay", we know that each of us is only one phone call away from having a great year or one phone call away from being out of job.

Over the years, you go through ups and downs as you wind your way through this crazy business, often not knowing where the path is leading you and just going on faith. One of those "faith" moments was back in September 2003. Sara and I were attending the 2NMC Conference in Nashville. We were fresh off our Tony nominations for Urban Cowboy, SongU.com had just launched, and we were in the throes of getting our daughter Mia's adoption finalized and trying to get her home to the United States. At the conference, we had a little table set up for our new "company", SongU.com. One of our songwriter friends, Dave Berg, came walking by. We'd known Dave for years -- we were part of the same "class" And through the years we've supported each other as those who are part of the same class often do together. We've played on each others shows at the Bluebird, we've written together (most notably, Dave and I were writing over at Starstruck the day the tornado rolled through downtown Nashville). He's sung on some of my demos and Sara and I cheered at his record label showcase when he was going for an artist deal many years ago. Anyway, We hadn't seen each other for a few months so we began catching up. Dave mentioned he was in between staff writing deals (had just left Warner Chappell and was currently looking for a new writing deal). We told him we had just left Curb/Magnatone, launched SongU.com and were switching gears to focus on doing that and starting our family. At the time, SongU.com had just 24 dedicated members from the United States and Sara and I were wondering if we would be able to make this work or not. Dave didn't know where his next writing deal was coming from. So all of us were just going on faith that it would all work out the way it was supposed to (you have to do that a lot in this business).

A few months later, Dave landed a deal at Cal IV Entertainment. Sara and I juggled SongU.com, our teaching schedules and being new parents. We'd catch up with Dave at least a couple times a year, usually at an NSAI event or the ASCAP Awards show. By mid 2005, SongU.com was starting to hit its stride a bit and we now had a great group of faculty and coaches on board as well as a few hundred members from several different countries. We also had affiliations with several major songwriting contests where we donated memberships as prizes. One of our partner contests, the USA Songwriting Competition, sent me a list of their winners so I could distribute our donated SongU.com Membership prizes. I spotted Dave's name as I was going through the list. He had won a free SongU.com course. I knew Rodney Atkins had recently cut his song "If You're Going Through Hell" co-written with Sam and Annie Tate (which would go on to become a monster hit). So I laughed and quickly shot him an email. I told him I didn't think he needed the course, but we'd love to have him do a guest talk at SongU.com. Unfortunately Dave's Mac OS wasn't compatible with our voice classroom software at the time, so we said we'd stay in touch and try it again later.

As 2006 rolled into 2007, Dave got on a roll too. He landed a song on Keith Urban's album ("Stupid Boy" - Berg/Bryant/Buxton) which would go on to become a big hit, as well as Emerson Drive's "Moments" (Berg/Tate/Tate). Shortly after Sara and I moved to Franklin for sidewalks and a neighborhood for Mia, we noticed that Dave was playing out at a listening venue near our house. Sara and I got a babysitter so we could go out and see him play and congratulate him on his recent success. When we got to the door of the place, the waitress said, "we've got a large crowd tonight. There's a really big hit songwriter named Dave Berg playing". It was then that I knew Dave had reached a new level. We high-fived him and congratulated him on his hard work and success. And later that summer when the Wall Street Journal was interviewing me (SongU.com was starting to get some good press) for an article on how to break into the music business as a songwriter and wanted a couple of other names, I proudly told them to call Dave Berg.

A couple months after, Dave would go on to win the NSAI songwriter of the year award and then score another huge Rodney Atkins hit with "These Are My People" (Rutherford/Berg). In October 2008 he topped off an incredible run with the ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year Award. This is the highest award a songwriter can receive and it is likely on the goal list of every aspiring songwriter. It's a moment when you have finally scaled the mountain and are planting your flag on the top. To give you a point of comparison, the year my wife, Sara Light, received her ASCAP airplay award for writing "Home To You", Diane Warren won the ASCAP Songwriter Of The Year Award.

So what's the point? The point is that success doesn't happen overnight or in a few months or even a couple of years. It's a moving target that takes consistent effort over a long period of time. It's weathering ups and downs, lost holds and lost writing deals but never wavering in your determination to keep putting one foot in front of the other. And you do this not because you want to make a lot of money or have a room full of plaques and awards. You do it because you love the music business and you love to write and you can't imagine your life if you weren't doing it. It's not always easy (in fact, most times it's not). But if you love it -- it's definitely worth the journey. So keep the faith, keep climbing up the mountain one rock at a time. And most important, don't forget to look around and enjoy the view along the way.

Keep the faith...
-Danny

About Danny: Danny Arena is a Tony Award nominated composer who has worked as a staff songwriter for Warner/Chappell Music and Curb Magnatone Music Publishing. He holds degrees from Rutgers University in both computer science and music composition. He is currently an Associate Professor at Volunteer State Community College in Nashville and has been a member of the faculty at Vanderbilt University as well as a guest lecturer at the Berklee School of Music and Belmont University. He composed songs for the Broadway show "Urban Cowboy: The Musical" which was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and a Tony Award for Best Original Score. He is also the co-founders of the online educational website http://www.SongU.com which provides multi-level songwriting courses developed and taught by award-winning songwriters, song feedback and mentoring, one-on-one song coaching, co-writing, unscreened pitching opportunities and more.

JPF members only: Check out a recent SongU.com guest talk by award-winning songwriter and artist, Kacey Jones. To listen to the transcript for free, go to:

http://www.songu.com/Courses/GuestLectures/KaceyJones/transcripts/index.htm
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Brian's Big Idea Update:

I got some wonderful responses to my first two requests for this new program. We're not in a rush to move forward (I won't be able to do much until after the awards nominations are out), and we'd rather get the right people involved who are willing to communicate with each other frequently and help us expand and shape the program moving forward. Below I will include the original invitation to get involved. We already have members on every continent involved but we'd like to eventually cover the entire world. If you're interested, please read on!
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Brian's Big Idea:

I have always wanted to do more to bring together our grassroots music community. I do my best to travel as much as possible (we'll be visiting the UK and Ireland this fall) and I've actually met over 25,000 JPF members in their own hometowns over the past 11 years in 48 US States and 16 Countries. But I am only one man with limited resources and only so many hours in a day. So my big idea for today is to try and reach out beyond borders, beyond nationalities, beyond belief systems and connect with more of you in places I haven't and may never actually visit in person. I want to find at least 1 musician in every country around the world that I can extend my hand to, if not in person, at least via technology. I want to do away with the biases and the misunderstandings and the prejudices that all of us have built into our psyches and embrace real people living very similar human lives around the globe. And to do this, I need YOUR help.

My concept is this:

1. I want to connect with 1 USA musician/writer from every USA congressional district. I want this person to be someone that is open and willing to have an ongoing dialog with all their counterparts across our country and eventually around the world. This isn't political or musical per se. It's about music makers using that commonality as an excuse to come together.

2. I want to connect with 1 motivated musician/writer from every country on planet Earth. The short term goal is to open an ongoing dialog to learn more about how you are more similar to the rest of us than different, while still celebrating those unique qualities and characteristics gained from your own local culture and belief systems. In other words, I want to get to know you as a fellow human, and then I want to learn about what makes you and your country unique.

The long term goal would be for that person to help find representation across their own country (it could be political districts, states, provinces or anything else that would help represent all the diversity within and across your country). Because I am limited to English as my only functional language, I'll need to connect with someone who can communicate with me in English.

If we achieve these two goals, I want to parlay this larger widespread and all encompassing group of musicians into a communication and cooperation network that can actually do some good, not only for those of us directly involved, but to those of us we each reach in our own lives. Imagine how much we could do together? Since it's clear our politicians have a limited ability to truly come together, perhaps that notion is better left to the creative community to lead the way. Music and Art is at the root of most cultures.

I realize this is an almost impossibly ambitious idea. But so was creating JPF from scratch and seeing it grow to 52K members around the world with very little resources, and no real standing to start with in the music community.

There's no limit to how many people can participate from a given place as long as we find at least 1 in each location. Though we received Awards entries from 160 countries, I don't currently know many of those folks and have only visited 16 countries to date. We want to find real people who are sincerely motivated to make it happen and who will be open to projecting their own positive attributes on their fellow humans around the globe.

So who is with me?

If it's you, then please email me at jpfolkspro@aol.com with your name and contact info including where you live and if you're in the USA, what Congressional District you live in, and what you can bring to the table in terms of time and help on this project. Place "We're All In This Together (insert state/country)" in the subject.

Let's all share in something. We're bound to find we like and understand each other more than we might have expected.

Curmudgeons need not apply.
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Copyright 2009 Just Plain Folks Productions.
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Brian Austin Whitney
Founder
Just Plain Folks
jpfolkspro@aol.com
Skype: Brian Austin Whitney

"Don't sit around and wait for success to come to you... it doesn't know the way." -Brian Austin Whitney