JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Industry Message Forum What is music worth?

I guess my brand will be southern fried chicken in a cast iron skillet, I could go back to "Plate Of Cookies" any day though.

Jim,

I think the fact that you look like Iggy Pop, could be a cool brand. Get "Iggy With it!"

MAB

Marc, maybe you should have said a younger, much better looking version of Iggy Pop. Jim is too nice of a guy to insult like that.

(Just in case Iggy Pop is lurking here: Sorry man, no offense intended.)

LOL!

Somehow I doubt that Iggy fans would be attracted to my particular style of music. Plus, I keep my shirt on during shows.

I made an exception once, when some dimwit poured out a coke over my keyboard and the shirt I had on was the only thing near that could soak it all up; since that show I make a habit of bringing along a towel... if not for myself, then for the keyboard!

Hey, as weird as it sounds, I actually kind of meant it as a compliment. Have you SEEN Iggy Pop? This guy has taken like every drug on earth, probably a pin cushion for heroin needles and he walks around without a shirt and is RIPPED! The guy has the same body now as twenty years ago. Really weird. Look at him next to Keith Richards or even Amy Whino.Man this guy is like the Charles Atlas of drugged out poster boys for abuse.
Jim, if that is your picture you have that same facial structure, kind of chiseled features. That was what I was talking about, kind of the guy us old fat guys wish we were.
Our band in the 80's were playing a huge college in Alabama and kept noticing channels on our PA shorting out. This was a HUGE Board we were using. It was outside and there were like a sea of people there. Finally we saw through the crowd to where our sound man and two roadies were in a fight with some of the college kids. They had been pouring beer into our board and shorting out everything. Really makes you want to kill somebody. I don't know that we ever got paid back for that. We had a law suit for years.

MAB

The picture is me, alright! One of the more unfortunate features of my "brand"

Now, if only I was as ripped as Iggy as well...

ps: Thanks for the compliment, MAB!

Folk is really yesterday's pop... if songs were not popular they wouldn't survive for several hundred years before they were written down.. "Fanny Blair" would be a fine example... about a man hung for child molesting in 1795.. belived to be innocent by most at the time... The song was first recorded as written down some 50 years after the event.... How many traditional songs are there that fit that category? They didn't survive just because there was nothing else to sing.... but because they were popular...

I see so many folks trying to be "big"... folk who believe that just doing or making a living... is failure because they are not big.... or they are so busy comparing themselves to the freaks of nature that have more talent than any one person deserves ...

I find it sad they cannot take pleasure in doing for the sake of doing knowing they are doing the best they can, and cannot take pleasure knowing they make others happy for doing what they do.

Can they exist side by side?... can any completly different neighbours exist happily side by side?... sure if they work at it and respect each others differences.

cheers

I tooled around with music before the net trying out a few different styles. Some better then others.
I came to the internet to learn more about different styles.
Blending them together to see if I can make them listenable.
I can not do much outside of a given style that is simply played and constucted.
So I hash and flim flam out different influences together so I can do that more interesting, prose oriented, professional cd I was out to do to begin with. Trying to catch up with the knowledge so the smallest influence on those handful of recordings I intend to stand on are not wasted.
Seconds count in a song.

Usually on the net at sites I notice that unless someone has a few songs in a docea and considers themselves learned, looking for that site to settle in to that they are not laughed off on, they are considered less serious.

I am typically with a younger, more impressionable genre then many on here, even though I post in the general pop/rock category, since I am out to learn different influences in that context, though non-commercial..
I only want to make a recording of what best represents me.
There are a lot of "professional recordings" I would not post giving mine away.

I have that more formidible cd I would like to do.
At the same time, there seems to be more passion in the less organized type of music that most listners would reject.

So you pose a good topic.

Music is not math.

I originally wanted to pick up the instrument as a release and for my musician friends that inspired me.

But there is so many avenues and cross turns once it becomes more then something of a release and shtick.

Hi John,

That article didn't surprise me at all, The internet is not a cash cow for music sales ..period. Marc is right on when he says all musicians and artists are going to have to create other streams of income and learn to work for a lot less in the current environment.

Yes there are a few success stories and the so called experts, who normally have something to gain in your believing it is possible, are quick to point them out. What they fail to point out is, that for the couple success stories they are highlighting, there are at least 100,000 very good musicians and artists who are wandering aimlessly around the internet looking for directions to the Highway of success.

The internet is a great sounding board, it is a great way to have your efforts evaluated by the world wide market, it is a fantastic way to get exposure to a world wide audience and gather a following much quicker than ever before, however statistics gathered by unbiased consumer advocates, show time and time again the void in the new world order is in distribution and sales, mostly sales.

They point out what we all already know, too much free music, piracy, file sharing, and the voodoo stigma that's attached to putting your credit card information on the internet all contribute to the difficulties of selling music on the net.
The new industry is trying to combat all these things in what seems to be a fruitless effort. I believe it will be at least 7 to 10 years before we see the internet as a viable solution to sales and distribution.

These are things that we can not control nor can we afford to spend time worrying about. Artists ask time and time again, how can they continue to invest thousand of dollars into making CD's that don't sell, I don't have an answer for that, but maybe the eventual reality will be , don't make CD's. Do single sales, digital delivery only, and you can cut your expenses drastically.
Maybe the answer is what Radiohead did with their last project, allow everyone to download the entire CD digitally through your website, and ask for donations if they liked it. If you only liked 2 or 3 songs, then donate 2 or 3 dollars, or a dollar, or .50 cents, donate what ever you thought it was worth, if you thought it was worth nothing then so be it. I can tell you judging from the number of downloads, and the average donation of $4 per transaction they probably grossed $800,000. That's a lot more money than they ever saw at EMI ( who they were still in debt to when they left ), and when you factor in the fact that they didn't have to print a cover, buy CD's, jewel cases, print a label, and an insert, and they didn't have to pay to ship it to the open market, a lot of that $800,000 was pure profit. Now they benefited a lot from the publicity that EMI paid for over the years, and the average unknown won't probably see those kinds of figures, but that case points out that those who can be innovative can still find a way to make a pretty good living via the internet.

The best thing you can do as a songwriter is keep working at writing a great song, it's not good enough to be pretty good in this business. It's all about writing a great song. If you can write one great song, every other song you ever wrote will be come a lot better in the eyes of the industry and the public.

Most of us don't write songs to become rich, we do it because it's in our blood , it's what we do. Many of us would find great satisfaction in just making an average living making music and knowing that the music we made had an effect on the lives of others in some way, shape,or manner.

That's what it's all about.

Billy

This one's for Jim...

Iggy Pop Only One Allowed In Grocery Store Shirtless

ROFL! Thanks Mark!

And the moral of this picture? If you don't want to have your ass checked out by creepy white guys, KEEP YOUR FRIGGIN' SHIRT ON!

I bet some of these opinions have changed since 2009.

John

This is why I am trying so hard to save this message board. The history here from REAL PEOPLE (before A.I. bots!) is priceless. Most of the history of the internet has been wiped out. Only mainstream corporate versions and narratives will be available to talk about music in the 1998-2018 era of DIY. This is important. The raw, real talk about music, being able to release it yourself etc. only has happened 1 brief time, just as the same era saw true free speech of regular people posted for the world, without censorship or forced narratives. But now the corporations and governments have regained complete control of the internet and sadly they have wiped out nearly ALL the history. Large message boards have systematically been deleted around the world. This is a rare living (barely) example. If this goes away, the last remaining first hand look at this era by Indie Musicians will be lost forever. There are a couple others here and there, but it's all fading away. I think it is worth saving from all these wonderful people who contributed to the trolls we battled. Ironically, I discussed this with Chat GPT and I was shocked at the argument and supporting facts it made on how important this era was and why it is important to archive these historical documents for historians. Imagine only having the same old lying media and agenda guided narratives to fall back on in 10-20-50-100 years. Never before have we had an era where everyday regular people openly conversed, shared their experiences and navigated through a burst of artistic freedom. Saly those doors have been slammed shut behind faceless corporate censorious social media sites.

Brian

Spot on Brian!

Best, John