A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity, Treating Fans Like Shit, Unsung Heroes

Eye Empire

“I know that all of you are wondering, what happened to Submersed? Well, the answers is… A lot.. This business and struggle to make it took its toll on the members… Two weeks before “Price of Fame” was slated for release, Tj, Kelan and Justin decided to move on with their lives and left SubmerseD. Garrett and I believing in “Price of Fame” made the choice to press on and see what could happen. Well, nothing happened… the single never had a chance… mind bottling… The fact is, is that a majority of our fan base is unaccounted for due to Burning, making it impossible for the labels to understand just how many people really support us out there… When it comes down to it now, SubmerseD no longer has a place on Windup’s roster and will be dropped shortly… I was trying to wait until things were a little more official before an announcement but you guys and gals are smart and I felt you deserved an explanation now rather than later”

The above is what Donald Carpenter, the singer of SubmerseD put up in 2008 on their MySpace page. Some people call it a whiny rant, however the truth of the post is hidden in the words “making it impossible for the labels to understand just how many people really support” the band. Yep, while Wind Up Records focused on the old business model of CD sales or mp3 sales as a band’s popularity, they ended up failing their artists. Piracy is a black hole that the record labels like to put in their financial reports back to artists that if something doesn’t sell it must be piracy’s fault.

Go on YouTube. The song “Never Again” has had 351,372 views. An acoustic version of the band performing “Hollow” has been viewed 178,498 times. People were listening to the band. Maybe not in the way they hoped or wanted, but they were listening.

For those people who don’t know about SubmerseD. They band was signed to Wind Up Records. Mark Tremonti from Creed/Alter Bridge worked with them. Guitarist Eric Friedman was a key ingredient in the chemistry that made “In Due Time” such a good album however by the time their second album “Immortal Verses” came out, Friedman was gone and the band was dropped by Wind-Up Records after its failure.

So in 2009, Eye Empire is formed. It was a pseudo supergroup of members who had label deals with other bands. The foundations come from Dark New Day members Corey Lowery and B.C. Kochmit. Vocals came from Donald Carpenter. Drums came from a range of other musicians.

So they go the Independent route, self-releasing their music through their website in limited edition 1000 runs. That way they compile an email list of people interested in purchasing their music. YouTube became a promotional outlet. That is how I came across Eye Empire. Their clip of “I Pray” has had 147,120 views. The song “More Than Fate” has had 81,729 views on the Eye Empire VEVO account, 46,447 on the Eye Empire You Tube account, 41,694 on a user/fan account and 72,508 on the Submersed YouTube account. In total, that is 242,378 views.

The band was making inroads and I always say that success comes to the ones who outlast the competition. In this case, the version of Eye Empire that people started to adopt as the definitive band is no more. From when the release of Eye Empire’s second album “Evolve” came out in October 2013 to April 2014, Donald Carpenter, the very reason why I got into the band was out. Lowery, Kochmit and Bennett said in a statement that Carpenter was trying to reassemble a former band which to me means SubmerseD. Carpenter replied with a philosophical “Starting over is always hard but it’s not the first time and I am certain that it won’t be the last.”

The hardest part of change is actually making the decision to change. Once that decision is made then the rest is easy. In relation to Eye Empire, I can relate to the driven aspect of some members not being in sync with another band member.

In the early nineties, I was in a hard rock band that was out-of-place in the Industrial Alternative Nu-Metal wasteland between the years of 1996 and 1999. It was a three-piece band. The drummer wanted to be big as Pearl Jam but didn’t have the work ethic. The bass player/singer was happy playing the club circuit week in/week out as it was a stable income.

Each three-hour gig got us $150 each. We used to play three gigs a week. So $450 in the pocket each week was a good little additional income for me on top of my normal full-time job. However, the bass player/singer and the drummer didn’t have any jobs. So their cash income came on top of the unemployment benefits they received. So our lifestyles were very different. While I had a mortgage, they lived at home with their parents. So the work ethic between us was very different because of the different responsibilities we had.

I practiced my guitar playing each day. The drummer didn’t even practice. The only time he played the drums was at band practice and then live. The bass player always started the jam sessions/live performances sober and by the end was getting pretty tipsy. So again, the drive between us as musicians was different.

I was married and looking to start a family. The drummer was single, in and out of relationships. The singer was separated and had two kids to two different woman. So our personal lives brought different responsibilities to the table.

The song writing was like this. If I wrote a song, I would bring it in complete, with music and lyrics. If the bass player/singer wrote a song, he would bring it in complete. And we jammed them without any questions. So you can see where the arguments would come from later on.

And you get this in bands.

The different work ethics, the different drive of the individuals and the different expectations that they place on each other and the band.

And I am thinking that Carpenter’s definition of success and fame is over exaggerated or over inflated.

Shinedown is one of the biggest rock bands right now and they play two to five thousand seat arenas. Is that a bad thing. Of course not. Maybe if Donald Carpenter was the lead singer it would be a bad thing.

So what about the songs on “Evolve”?

“Beyond The Stars” and “Live Loud” are real good songs. The stand outs by far. “Within” is a good merge of their Sevendust influence along with Muse. “The War Isn’t Over Yet” is an aggressive piece of music. “The Man I Am” is very reminiscent to what Donald Carpenter did with SubmerseD and to be honest it brings back a memory of Deep Purple “Soldier Of Fortune” for some reason. “Don’t Look Back” is reminiscent of “Animosity” era Sevendust. Another quality track.

The other half of the album borders too much on Sevendust. Which is a shame as the potential is there, however it will remain unfulfilled.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Emphatic

I was listening to the new album “Another Life”. Yeah I know it was released in 2013 and in today’s terms it is old. However once upon a time an album under 12 months was still classed as a new album.

Anyway, i am listening to it and i am not really getting into it. Then a riff that reminds me of the pre-chorus of the song called “Zero” by Smashing Pumpkins blows into my head space. The song in question is “Take Your Place” and I am hooked. It is track nine on the CD.

The only reason why I went this deep into the album was because the same experience happened to me on their previous album.

And finally the album is rocking.

“Forbidden You” comes after and the song “Pretty Handsome Awkward” from The Used comes to mind.

Then it gets even more aggressive with “Remember Me”. It’s got this Disturbed meets Black Label Society groove that is just the way I like it with a flourish of some shred. I had no idea it was the lead single when I listened to it. I found that out after I did some Googling on them.

It’s got a great line in it.

“When the stitches don’t hold and you start to bleed ‘Remember Me'”

It reminds me of the “Unto The Locust” theme from Machine Head, about how people come into your life and end up messing it up, before they leave and move on to another victim.

My ex-drummer was like that. In my mind I tried hard to help him but he kept on making the wrong choices and in the end he made his life difficult and everyone else that was around got dragged into his cesspool of trash.

And then the album ends.

The piece d resistance are the last three songs and I guarantee you that they will go unheard because if someone stumbles across Emphatic due to a playlist algorithm, they will be given the songs that a A&R person believes in. But the audience always has a different viewpoint. We make our own favourites.

We make our own soundtracks and our own memories. So after hearing the last three tracks, I decided to give the other eight tracks a re-listen. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. But I wanted to pay attention because of the story. You see, Emphatic has a story. And like the best TV shows out there, it is a good narrative.

Emphatic had a record deal with Universal which fell apart. They then recorded their album “Damage” with producer Howard Benson and they were set for a major push in mainstream rock with Atlantic Records behind them.

Then everything changed. Emphatic’s lead singer at the time,Patrick Wilson injured his larynx in a bar fight. No one is sure if someone hit him in the throat or tried to choke him. And timing is everything in music. In this case, it was the worst possible time, with the band starting promotion for their brand new album at the time.

Atlantic Records and Indegoot stuck around. They waited for Wilson to get better however he didn’t and Wilson officially quit the group and Atlantic then dropped them. Guitarist Justin McCain fell into a depression becoming the same person that Wilson became. Then came Toryn Green, formerly of Fuel via a Facebook reach out and eventually a new label in Epochal Artist Records came knocking.

This is how “Another Life” was born. They hooked up with Revolver Magazine (the standard Corporate Deal) to stream the album before it came out.

So with my renewed interest, I started to enjoy some of the other songs like “Time Is Running Out”, “Lights”, “Something’s Never Die”, “The Choice” and “Another Life”.

As I was doing more research I saw that Toryn Green is now out, due to the good old “creative differences” excuse.

And just recently, they signed to Pavement Entertainment and are set to release their new album in late 2014. It’s like the days of old, when bands released an album each year and musicians jumped from band to band.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Copyright, Influenced, Music, My Stories

Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance

It’s there Eighth album. Think about that for a second. How many bands out there had their biggest album on their 8th release. Just to put it into context. Metallica’s 8th album was “St Anger”. Motley Crue’s 8th album was “New Tattoo”. Aerosmith’s 8th album was “Done With Mirrors”. Black Sabbath’s 8th album was “Never Say Die”. Ozzy’s 8th album was “Down To Earth”.

There is a reason why this album is a classic album. The good old right place and right time applies, however there is more to it.

It molds the AC/DC style of rock, with the NWOBHM style of metal that Judas Priest was involved in, with the Euro Metal sounds of Accept and Scorpions, with the sounds of the new Hard Rock scene coming out from the U.S. It has so many styles and genres merged into one concise package. And the audience lapped it up.

It satisfied the audience that they built up with “British Steel” in 1980 and the “Livin After Midnight” fans.

“Screaming For Vengeance” also brought in a whole new audience with the lean and simple, “You Got Another Thing Comin”.

And when a band is faced with a deadline two things happen. They choke or they deliver. In this case, Judas Priest delivered. They found themselves needing one more track. And that last track was “You Got Another Thing Comin”.

And you know, the band felt that the more complex pieces should be sequenced earlier on and as it turned out, that buried eighth track called “Another Thing Comin” was the one. Radio picked up the track and started to play it without the label even thinking of releasing it as a single. It was the final years of when the actual DJ had the power to break a band with the playlists they created.

Tom Allom was in the producers chair again.

Again it is the one/two punch of “The Hellion/Electric Eye” that kicks it off. With the lyrical themes of “someone spying on us” and the melodic pedal point riff, you can easily place this song as a parent to the thrash movement.

The whole Orwellian “1984” theme of spy satellites and the invasion of privacy is so real today, with the NSA and other democratic Government agencies around the world spying on their own citizens. In 30 plus years, the world is exactly the “Electric Eye” and our civil liberties are being eroded a little bit at a time.

You think you’ve private lives
Think nothing of the kind
There is no true escape
I’m watching all the time

Yep, it sure sounds like 2014.

Even in “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin” there is a theme in there that was used to great extent by Dee Snider in “We’re Not Gonna Take It”.

“My life, I’m gonna live it up”

The teenagers of the Eighties were born to parents who were born during World War II or just after. Our upbringing was different. Live, work and die was the unwritten mantra.

So when we heard songs like “You Got Another Thing Comin”, “Cum on Feel The Noize”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “Shout At The Devil” and “Don’t Stop Believin” we connected with them immediately.

“(Take These) Chains” was written by Bob Halligan Jnr. If that name sounds familiar, it should. He co-write “Rise To It” with Paul Stanley from the Kiss album, “Hot In The Shade”. He also co-write “Don’t Close Your Eyes” with the Kix guys for the “Blow My Fuse” album.

“Screaming For Vengeance”

Tie a blindfold all around your head
Spin you round in the torture before the dread
And then you’re pushed and shoved into every corner
Then they lead you out into the final slaughter

This is what the Copyright industries and the powerful record labels have done. In order to protect their business models, they lobbied hard to get Copyright terms extended. They lobbied hard and went to the courts to challenge or kill innovation that challenged their profits. All done with a blindfold over the public.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Copyright, Derivative Works, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Bonfire – Fireworks

When I heard the “Fireworks” album from Bonfire I got the impression that they were superstars already. The album to me is a definitive piece of hard rock, melodic rock, heavy metal and euro metal all merged into one cohesive package.

I had a friend who had a friend who had a friend that made me a copy of the album on cassette. I had no idea who was in the band, who wrote the songs, who produced it and on what label it was on.

What I did know was the music. And the music was great. It brought Bonfire from the minors into the majors for me. And as much as the press labeled them overnight sensations, overnight sensations they were not.

Claus Lessman and Hans Ziller started to work together in a band called Cacumen in 1978. “Fireworks” came out in 1987. Yep, this overnight sensation was nine years in the making. And to top it off, “Fireworks” was Bonfire’s second album, and if you add the releases from Cacumen, this overnight sensation was a five album veteran.

And here is one for those copyright maximalist. In the late nineties, Lessman and Ziller had a six-year legal battle to get back the album copyrights of their pre-Bonfire band Cacumen. The court case finished up in 2004, with a win to them.

Yep, the companies that originally released the Cacumen albums ceased to exist. They did nothing with the music while they existed. However the people who still worked at those companies held the copyrights for those releases instead of the songwriters in the band. And when the band wanted them back, they fought tooth and nail to keep them.

I can hear people asking what is the sense for holding the copyright of albums and not releasing them?

The answer is plain and simple. GREED. The record label owners were waiting for someone to come and give them enormous loads of money for the Cacumen albums they still controlled. Thank god the courts saw in Bonfire’s favour.

The band for the release consisted of Claus Lessmann on vocals, Hans Ziller and Horst Maier-Thorn on guitar and Jörg Deisinger on bass.

Who you say?

That was exactly the same thing that I said when I found out the band member names.

“Ready 4 Reaction” and “Never Mind” are a great one/two punch to kick off the album. This is what the Eighties album delivered once upon a time. That knockout one/two punch. The great albums delivered even more knockout punches on subsequent tracks and to be honest Bonfire delivered a great album.

Both songs are composed by the band members and you get that Euro Metal Scorpions/MSG vibe immediately.

The lead break and the harmonies in “Ready 4 Reaction” provided an instant connection to me. How good is Hans Ziller. The Eighties was the era of the guitar hero. While other guitarists took the limelight and the instructional tape offers, Hans Ziller let the music do the talking.

Michael Wagener’s production is also crisp and clear.

If you are a fan of music that like genre’s “Ready 4 Reaction” well here is a new one for you, melodic speed metal.

Then the tempo goes into rock territory for “Never Mind” with the pinch harmonics riff that gives Zakk Wylde a challenge for who can do better pinch harmonics. And that lead break is another powerful piece of composition.

“Sleeping All Alone” and “Sweet Obsession” are both written by a songwriting committee like the current songs that make up the top 40 pop charts. Jack Ponti and Joe Lynn Turner this time are included as songwriters along with the four band members.

“Champion”

Some people hate him
but a winner never quits
when he’s rollin’ he’s a one man blitz – look out

Aint that the truth. Everyone hates a winner, thinking that it should have been them instead. People always think that they had the better song, the better look, the better story and so on. But the reason why people win, is that they never stop.

In the end, Bonfire was one of the thousands of bands that signed contracts stacked against them and of course they got ripped off. If you have read any interview with Hans Ziller and Clauss Lessman, they say the same. A small consolation is that Bonfire was not the only band who were ripped off. But it took its toll and Hans Ziller left the band in 1989.

And one more mention as it is not on an official Bonfire album.

Sword and Stone

It’s written by Desmond Child, Paul Stanley and Bruce Kulick. By the late eighties, Desmond Child was rock royalty. Riding high on the charts with hit songs from Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and Kiss.

“Sword and Stone” sounds like a lot of other songs that came before it and a lot of songs that came after sound like it, but, man, I tell ya, there is something about this song that just makes me play it on a regular basis.

You can hear the “Crazy Crazy Nights” and “Hot In The Shade” pop metal stylings in this song. It was originally a demo for the KISS album “Crazy Nights”. Paul Dean from Loverboy also used the song for his “Hardcore” album. But the Bonfire version is the one that I like.

It appeared on the “Shocker” soundtrack which to be honest is a pretty wicked soundtrack and having “Timeless Love” from Saraya coming after “Sword and Stone” it was another one/two punch.

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A to Z of Making It, Classic Songs to Be Discovered, Derivative Works, Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Tooth And Nail

The “Breaking the Chains” clip was all over MTV but no one was buying the album of the same name.

The band was doing an arena tour with Blue Oyster Cult and the label still wanted to drop them.

“Tooth and Nail” was Dokken’s last shot. The band recorded it and then they went back to their day jobs. Mick Brown and George Lynch went back to driving trucks while Don Dokken went back to buying, fixing and selling cars.

Then the album blew up.

Listening to “Tooth and Nail” today, thirty years since it was released, I can honestly say it holds up well. Everything that I loved about the album back then, I still like today.

Put aside the band politics and the legendary Lynch/Dokken wars. Just pay attention to the songs, especially the backs to the wall attitude that you can hear emanating from the speakers.

“Without Warning” kicks it off the one/two punch, with its ominius minor key build, before it breaks into the frantic “Tooth N Nail”. The song is written by Mick Brown, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson and it is a definitive piece of hard rock and heavy metal. To me , the song is up there in the same throne room as the work that Randy Rhoads did with Ozzy.

Desperate living, driving me mad
Writings on the wall
Crushed all our hopes and the dreams we once had
Just to watch them fall

What a lyric. It’s Dokken’s last chance. The hopes of a musical career was hanging in the balance. The writing was on the wall if they didn’t deliver and in desperation, quality comes. Dokken delivered a speed metal anthem to open up their do or die album.

And with the rise of the “Guitar Hero”, George Lynch really announced his presence, when he delivered a Randy Rhoads inspired lead break that is reminiscent to “Flying High Again”.

Also isn’t it funny how in 1984, the same theme resonated. It was always that “us versus them” attitude. The “We’re Not Gonna Take It” message of Twisted Sister. In this case, “Tooth and Nail” is a protest song against the record label that wanted to drop them.

“When Heaven Comes Down” is another Mick Brown, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson composition. This time they veer into heavy metal territory.

Ashes to ashes, sorrow and shame
Look at the future again
Angels in heaven walking the streets
Searching for someone to blame

Again, when you don’t have the pressure to write to a formula and when you throw everything against the wind, you end up with something great. In this case the subject matter is darker. It is not the usual sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.

“Into the Fire” is a Don Dokken, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson composition and this is more in line with the LA Glam sound hence the reason why it became a single.

“Alone Again” is a Don Dokken and Jeff Pilson composition and for a power ballad it is wicked. How good is that solo section? It is a song within a song lead break.

“Turn On the Action” is another speed metal song by the Mick Brown, George Lynch and Jeff Pilson composition.

“Tooth And Nail” was released at the right time of the hard rock movement and within 12 months it was certified GOLD for sales in the U.S. It paved the way for Dokken to become a household name.

By 1988, Dokken was at that next level of success. They were doing arena’s and selling them out but they imploded. It was selfish. After reading a lot of band biographies, it became clear that keeping bands together is a difficult job.

James Hetfield wanted to bring in a new singer. Then he wanted Lars Ulrich out. But nothing happened and Metallica remained in tact to go on to become the worlds biggest band. That wasn’t the case for Dokken. They splintered and never recovered.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Stupidity, Unsung Heroes

The Barrier Of Entry

It always pained me to talk about business models with the bands I was in, especially when the business started to change dramatically from the early two thousands.

The other members just believed that someone will find us, sign us up with millions and off we go recording and touring the world. They still had this view in 2010, when after another argument over business decisions, the band splintered apart.

So after I left, they signed a record deal with a small European label for the album that we just finished recording, and they had to pay $1500 Euro for that deal. WTF. After all of those arguments they still didn’t listen to me and they signed away my copyright to the songs that I had written to that label. Guess they just wanted to say to people that they had signed a record deal.

I contacted a lawyer who charged me $300 just for the consultation, however since the band was only a minor league band, it wasn’t worth pursuing in the courts and attempts at any mediation to have me set the record straight and get back my copyrights ended with further arguments and fisticuffs.

The songs in question are songs that I wrote for previous bands I was in and had them registered with a performing rights association years before my most recent band was even formed in 2008. So imagine my surprise when the performing rights association contacted me in 2010 saying that my ex band members have put in claims as songwriters. Even the bass player that joined after the album was finalised put in a claim for a 25% share of the songwriting.

The ugly truth of being in a band.

Just in case aliens are visiting the Earth right now, the “old record label business model” was to identify an artist, put them in the studio, release their recording on a format that a customer could take home and hope that it connects with an audience. That is what my ex-band mates wanted to happen to them in 2010.

This was the principle revenue stream for a very long time for the record labels. It was the sole purpose of their existence. Now that physical product is a loss leader. It has been reduced to an advertising tool to help the artist build a fan base and sell the live show.

Withholding an album from Spotify in the way that Coldplay or The Black Keys are doing is the wrong line of thinking in 2014. It’s back to the old paradigm of “windowing” and maximizing sales through physical retail or download stores first and then moving over to the streaming service when those sales die down. Windowing is still employed by the TV and Movie industry with zero degrees of success and a high rate of piracy.

However, Coldplay did release the singles to Spotify, so it’s no surprise that “Magic” has been streamed more than 55 million times on Spotify. To me, it seems that the recording industry is trying to re-create that “BARRIER OF ENTRY” around how they distribute new music today.

You see the music business once upon a time had a thing called “THE BARRIER OF ENTRY”. This barrier of entry was around which acts got picked up and which acts didn’t. This barrier of entry was also around which music was released and which music wasn’t.

Now the record labels could argue that this “barrier of entry” was the reason why the music coming out of their stables was of high quality. You know the model I am talking about, the one where the artist got lucky because they had some look that the label could exploit and by default they ended up getting a record label deal and the only way to hear all of their output was to buy an overpriced CD. And now those labels are not raking in the cash they used to get and they are blaming piracy.

Let’s look at three superstar acts today and how the show artists today, that the barrier of entry didn’t exist for them, because if you want it, you will do anything.

Metallica

“Kill Em All” was independently financed through independent record label Megaforce Records. Megaforce Records was founded in 1982 by Jon and Marsha Zazula solely to publish the first works of Metallica. The Zazula’s even had the Metallica guys living in their house because they believed in the music and the attitude.

Even Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” album was recorded and originally released in 1984 through Megaforce Records. A few months later, Metallica signed with Elektra Records who re-released the album.

Motley Crue

The first album “Too Fast For Love” was independently financed via their own Leathur Records imprint in 1981. Leathur Records was a small imprint owned by the band and their original manager Allan Coffman. It was actually Coffman that coughed up the funds for it all.

Elektra Records signed the band the following year.

Five Finger Death Punch

“The Way Of The Fist” was recorded, produced and financed by the band members themselves. Once the album was done, they ended up getting a small independent deal to release the album. In its first week of release it did nothing, but four years later, it was certified GOLD for sales in the U.S.

Only after those bands had proven themselves as viable options did the major Record Labels commit to them. Because they saw dollars and profits. Nothing else.

What all of the bands above had was a product that was ingrained with a cultural movement.

Today, we have musicians promoting themselves on Facebook, Twitter or other social media outlets and in reality they still do not have an actual PRODUCT that connects. Getting 10,000 likes doesn’t mean 10,000 fans if no one is talking about your product or sharing what your product with others.

Don’t blame piracy, blame the lack of product because there is so much product out there today, we normally don’t go back to something we checked out once and didn’t like.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Derivative Works, Music, My Stories, Piracy

Some Truths

Music is cultural. It was always possible to identify people’s musical tastes by the clothes they wore and the style of their hair. Our musical identity was a source of pride.

The definition of a casual music fan twenty to thirty years ago meant having a high music IQ and typically purchasing a seven inch single on a weekly basis. The definition of a casual music fan today means having a lower music IQ about who was involved in the song’s creation and focusing all on the song.

Nobody owes a musician a living.

What is valuable is subjective.

From the beginning of time, musicians always made money from public performances.

Copyright at its basic level ensures that people receive compensation for a valuable good that they spend time and energy to create. This creates an incentive to put more time and energy into producing new work. Longer Copyright terms do not benefit the original creator in any way whatsoever.

People start to create for the sake of creation rather than money.

Whether people want to admit it or not, every song that is written relies on some sort of connection to past works.

Piracy has never been the problem. The RIAA just found it convenient to blame Piracy. It was all a smokescreen to fool the politicians into action so that they can get control back over the distribution/gatekeeper monopoly they had.

Recording revenues never recovered because it turns out that most people just want the best songs and not all of the songs.

There is a big difference between getting paid a “living wage” and earning one. Just because a musician creates a song or records an album, it doesn’t mean that you need to get paid a living wage. You need an audience that believes that you have provided a service to them by releasing your music.

Music is a form of entertainment. It is not an essential service and today we take in entertainment in mega-doses.

Music is something people choose to do free and money is a by product of doing music.

A wage is something your employer pays you for doing your part in bringing him profit.

If you want a wage for playing music and you are not a superstar act, then you need to put in your 40 hours a week. Be a music teacher, gig every day.

Being paid is good, but being known is better.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Piracy

The Economy Of Attention Means….

Every corporation in power, when faced with the inevitabilities of competition, have a nasty habit of pushing backwards. They assume that by killing off any competition before it gets some momentum, that they have done enough to protect their business models. They assume that if they lobby or bribe hard enough and get even more draconian laws passed, it will give them more power to prevent any further problems down the line.

But change is eternal. It is progress and it cannot be stopped. Try as the corporations will, change always happen.

The recording industry built an empire decades ago based on the control of the media and the distribution chains. From time to time, different genres and social movements captured the public imagination and as is the norm, the record labels would swoop in, exploit the genre for what it’s worth, oversaturate the market with similar sounding bands and then when the market place was so diluted the labels would then move on to the new genre that is causing waves and repeat the whole cycle.

How quickly was PUNK abandoned for the NWOBHM. Then how quickly was the NWOBHM abandoned for the LA Glam Rock scene. How quickly was the rock scene abandoned and Grunge embraced. Then Grunge had a three-year reign at the top before it was abandoned for another genre.

Of course, that way of doing business was all based on the record labels controlling everything. So then comes a little thing called Napster and decades of record label control just blows up in their faces.

Teenage kids have now built a better system. The kids have built a system that sees artists having the opportunity to create and release music without gatekeeper approval. The kids have built a system that said to the record labels, we want music in these formats and we want it twenty-four seven.

And the system allows for the transitioning of power and control back to the audience and the actual creators. That is the problem the record labels have with the internet. The piracy is the argument they push forward, however the real problem is the lack of control and power they have over the distribution chain.

The audience will get the music they want in any way they want. Instead of putting up roadblocks, the record labels need to build bridges connecting everything together. Napster showed the recording industry that people want mp3’s to download and that they want to do it for free. Napster and the rise of peer-to-peer downloading showed the recording industry that people want to format shift their music files.

It should be the norm that in 2014, if a person still buys a physical CD or LP of the artists, that same person should be able to download that whole album via a download site that the artist controls. Coheed and Cambria did that with “The Afterman” releases. Amazon offers it via the AutoRip option however not all artists opt in.

It should be the norm that in 2014, if a person wants to download an MP3 rip of an album for free, they should be able to do it. If Pirate sites make so much money from advertisements, then why don’t the record labels provide the same service that they pirate sites provide and even reward those uploaders for continuing to spread culture instead of locking it up.

The audience wants to support the artist however they do not want to line the pockets of the record label bosses while the artist they love gets a pittance for their creations.

Let’s think about why record companies came into being. Printing records is expensive. Distributing music also used to be expensive. Hell, even recording used to be expensive.

Now, a single person can do all of this themselves for very little money.

Why do we even need record companies anymore?

Their sole purpose in this day and age is that they have the resources to still make artists visible. However Spotify showed the world that it can also break a super star. Lorde is a perfect example. She was the Queen of Streaming for over three months before the major label recording industry and the outdated Billboard charts came knocking.

And the economy of attention means that any artists that gets a chance to be heard above all the internet noise really has one shot to impress.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy

A Storm Of Record Label Investment. What About The Artists?

Yep the labels are at it again. Using money that should be paid to their artists to buy shares in another technology company.

Yep the labels are using the power that they have amassed by locking away copyrights for what seems like a lifetime to purchase shares in technology companies.

This time around Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment have each bought $3 million in shares in Shazam Entertainment on top of the stake they own in Spotify.

The record labels still scream that there is no money in the recording business because of piracy.

Yet, Universal Music has also purchased shares in Beats Music and when the Apple billion dollar purchase is complete, it will be even richer.

Yet, the labels spend artist money to go to court via the RIAA against pirate sites.

Yet, the labels spend artist money to hire a company to send down digital take downs.

Yet, the labels spend artist money to lobby hard, in other words pay, for politicians to write stronger copyright terms and enforcement.

Yet, a recent IFPI report shows that the labels invested $4.5 billion in artist and repertoire.

The question is, if there is no money in the recording business,then why would the record labels spend so much money on artist and repertoire.

Because artists are the lifeblood of the music industry. And it is artists that make the record labels money.

The record labels have purchasing power because of the artists.

The record labels have status because of the artists.

The artists have made the record label executives more wealthy than the best-selling artists.

So if the record labels own shares in Spotify and Shazam, does that mean by default, the artists also own those shares.

Of course the answer is no, but it should be yes.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories

A Clash Of Singles

Remember the days of purchasing an album based on a heavily marketed opening track and to find out that the album had 1 great song and 2 to 3 maybe 4 decent songs. And the rest were there as pure filler.

So the public, after being burnt so many times on purchases like these really took to the whole cherry picking idea when the mp3 became available. It wasn’t the artists fault, it was the fault of the greedy record labels.

And now with streaming, we have taken it up a notch.

Look at the streaming count of Journey.

“Don’t Stop Believin” is at 70.8 million streams on Spotify. Nothing else even comes close from Journey’s catalogue to that one song and how many albums have Journey released so far. A lot. But “Don’t Stop Believin” is the song.

It has also sold over six million digital copies and when it was released back in the early Eighties it didn’t even hit Number 1.

Bon Jovi have the usual suspects.

“Livin On A Prayer” is approaching 30 million streams and “It’s My Life” is at 21.3 million streams. “You Give Love A Bad Name” and “Wanted Dead Or Alive” are also up there. That is why “Slippery When Wet” was a strong album.

Name me the Journey album that had “Don’t Stop Believin” on it without Googling it.

I expect the fans of the band to know, however in 2014, I also guarantee you that a lot of people would not know that the album was called “Escape” and that the song goes back all the way to 1981. “Don’t Stop Believin” even though it wasn’t a number one hit, pushed the “Escape” album to Number 1. And it was a Blockbuster of a song. Just the way the record label liked it.

Journey was touring Australia a few years back and my work friend got tickets and asked me if I was going. I said that I am not interested in seeing Journey without Steve Perry. And their response was;

“What is it with me and my appreciation for guitarists”.

Here is a person, that purchased two Journey tickets and he didn’t know who Steve Perry was and I couldn’t believe that he actually thought that Steve Perry is the guitarist in the band. Your honour, I rest my case. But the truth of the matter is this, no one cares these days who wrote the song, who played on the song, who produced the song and so forth.

All they care about is THE SONG.

And music is a cultural beast. Nobody owes a musician a living, never mind the executives trying to keep enslaved musicians as cash cows. But if you create that song, expect a living.

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