Town Hall Meeting
Don’t worry– we’re not going to talk about Obama’s national health care program, or listen to angry senior citizens rail about the end of the world as we know it. But given that I’m on vacation this week, it seemed a good time to do something I’ve meant to do for some time now, and that is to make sure that those of you who frequent this blog have a chance to not only hear from me, but also to benefit from the insights of each other. One of the things I enjoy about this blog is to be a part of a music community, and to hear your opinions and insights into the various facets of the music industry of which we are all a part.
Some of your comments have raised very interesting questions, some have inspired subsequent blogs, and all have added to our discussion forum here– and I thank all of you who take the time to fire off a supportiing argument, a related question, or an angry diatribe (yes, there’ve been a few). I always look forward to hearing what you think. And I also feel that it’s worthwhile for all of you to check out some of the comments from each other, so I hope you’ll take a minute to do that this week.
There were a couple of very insightful comments on the recent “Too Close for Comfort”– check out Keith Monckton-Smith and CJ’s responses. Also, be sure to take a look at Ritch Esra’s comment on “Talking Loud and Saying Nothing”. Ritch is responsible for the Music Business Registry, which is something I recommend to everyone. It’s my industry bible, and I wouldn’t survive a day without it– if you aren’t familiar with it, be sure to check out all of the different directories they offer. There were a lot of lively comments about “Talking Loud and Saying Nothing”, which raised a question that originated with an interview that Lava Records President Jason Flom gave at the AIMP luncheon. Jason asked “Where have all the musical geniuses gone? Why has this generation produced so few, if any, musical geniuses, while the Sixties and Seventies for example, produced such a vast array of artists in that category, from the Beatles and Stones, to Dylan and Van Morrison, to Led Zeppelin and Sly Stone?” It was a good and interesting question, and solicited plenty of opinions from all corners.
The other blog that seemed to strike a nerve was “What’s So Strange About It”, which actually grew out of a comment made by Big-A, which first turned me on to Tech N9ne. Clearly, Tech has a lot of fans out there, both for his work as an artist as well as his indie business approach.
Finally, have to give a special shout out to Brandon Keeley– one of the most frequent contributors of comments in this space. I always enjoy hearing Brandon’s clever, insightful and well-written thoughts.
Thanks to all of you for checking out the blog regularly, and weighing in when you agree, disagree, or just want a little clarification on what was said. I always look forward to staying in touch. Hope you’ve all had a great summer. Enjoy the holiday!
Are you gonna give a preview inside your new songwriting book on Amazon.com so we can see what its like?
I just wanted to leave a comment to show some love here. I found this blog back in Nov / Dec of 2007 right around the time my wife and I were deciding if I should quit my day job as a QA manger for an electronics co. and pursue music full time as a writer /producer.
In looking for music opportunities, I randomly found this site and there was a blog about pitching music outside of the US in order to increase placement chances. Thinking globally instead of only domestically. There was also a mention to “MIDEM” as being an excellent place to network and a place where you could “schmooze” with all of these int’l industry types. My wife and I made the decision that I would quit my job and we took my Christmas bonus and our mortgage payment and funded /planned a trip for me to Cannes to attend the event. On Jan 7th I gave my 2 weeks (basically 3 weeks) notice that I would be leaving the company. Jan 25 2008, was my last day and I left for France the following day. Midem was an amazing experience however, I didn’t know anyone and really didn’t understand what I was really doing there. I also didn’t have much time to arrange meetings (which is something most people do well in advance before arriving)with professionals who could mutually benefit from meeting me. But I was there hoping to sign a deal or make something happen, anything really. Well I met a handful of industry professionals (one in particular who I just recently signed a 6 song licensing deal with after 1 and a half years later) while I was there and had a good time (though on a shoestring budget) the EURO was pretty steep against the dollar.
I just kept remembering something Eric said about high school in comparison to the industry. He said “How do you expect to be In the industry if you don’t go to where industry people gather?” Just like high school. You had to GO to school and then you made friends. Well, I didn’t sign any deals while there but I did get a lot of information including the 2008 Midem guide which listed all the exhibiting companies as well as all participants. A couple thousand at least.
Anyway, I returned home with a few new contacts and a great experience, but no deals. We were not discouraged though because one thing it did for me was allow me to realize a few elements in my game that needed work, like mixing for example. I noticed much of the music I heard there had great stereo imaging, was very compressed, and possessed excellent clarity. So, I went to work investing in tutorials from studio engineering pros and I started really bringing my game up.
I also researched about 500 companies that handled the type of material I was writing from the MIDEM guide. About 200 were a good match. I contacted all of them, but only about 35 even returned a response, of that 35 only 1 (a digital content aggregator) offered me an opportunity to aggregate my material on itunes, amazonmp3.com, a few other online music retailers.
Out of 500 only 1 deal on the table. LOL but we were grateful to see some results and we kept pressing on. We always believed this was for us, well about 7 months later, while checking my myspace acct, I noticed an ad to remix the Big Mac’s recipe into a :30 second jingle for McDonald’s. I entered and won the national big mac chant contest hosted by McDonald’s and Myspace and my music was featured in a national TV ad campaign for Mickey D’s!! Here’s the headline
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/south/epaper/2008/07/22/0722bigmac.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=75
Here’s the commercial
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=39568260
Anyway, a lot of awesome things have happened since then, including enrolling my wife Abi in the Berklee School of music online classes and taking your Music Publishing 101 course. I just wanted to thank you and to share a little of our story with everyone.
We feel as though you are providing key information on this blog, and we stay dialed in. Thanks for sharing so much! Through this amazing experience we have learned that everything worth while takes time, but the “Good things come to those who wait” saying needs to changed.
Remember good things don’t come to those who wait, GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO DON’T SETTLE!!!
Keep patiently and progressively realizing your worthy ideals my friends!
THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING ERIC!!!
Cheers,
Jay & Abi Harper
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