Response to my Last Newsletter Editorial (23rd June issue)

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There was the guy who made his album out of all fart noises and he made millions. So, that goes to show you how things work :D

I've made $1.40 in my entire music career and I'm loving every minute of it!
 
VomitHatSteve said:
I just like that the barrier for entry for those guys that Lt. Bob is talking about is lower.
Yeah, it's tough for them to be heard through the noise, but I'm glad their stuff can exist so easily. Maybe decades from now somebody will stumble across a Greggor the Terror youtube video (or something) and be inspired to start a sweet punk band. (Because, I'm sure the concept of "punk" will grow even MORE relevant in coming years! But I digress)
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If anything I hope my music discourages people from doing music.
 
Allow me to throw out a few thoughts...

One common thread in many of the posts I read is: "I play the music I want to play, I don't care if nobody wants to hear it."

Guess what, Bucko...NOBODY DOES WANT TO HEAR IT!!!

And we wonder why everybody is spending time on Facebook et al instead of listening to music?

And isn't it wonderful how Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson are able to write all of their own songs, produce all of their own records, set up distribution to the retailers, arrange all of their marketing and publicity...all without the benefit of a record company! Oh wait, they do have record companies to do all of that!

BTW: I Googled "Justin Bieber" just to verify the spelling of his name. Do you know that dude has a net worth in excess of $100 million dollars. Sure, he made a lot of that from performances, but I'm reasonable sure a fair-sized chunk of that came from record sales, which means a pretty nice wad of cash going to record companies.

Now, the first week's unit sales of Bieber's latest album are more like a pre-90's first hour's sales, but people are buying music, but only music they like.

I posted this next bit on another thread, so let's make it this weekend's assignment, okay, kiddies? Make a list of your ten favorite bands. Then go to a mall and ask 100 people of all ages how many of those bands they've heard of.

At the end of 1964, do you think there was a single person in the US who hadn't at least heard of The Beatles?

Sure, the opportunites to make money from music are far more limited than they were in the past, but it still all comes down to the same old same old...Play music that people want to hear, and they will come to hear you play it, and they will want to buy your recordings.

It's just that simple...
 
bdenton said:
Allow me to throw out a few thoughts...

One common thread in many of the posts I read is: "I play the music I want to play, I don't care if nobody wants to hear it."

Guess what, Bucko...NOBODY DOES WANT TO HEAR IT!!!

And we wonder why everybody is spending time on Facebook et al instead of listening to music?

And isn't it wonderful how Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson are able to write all of their own songs, produce all of their own records, set up distribution to the retailers, arrange all of their marketing and publicity...all without the benefit of a record company! Oh wait, they do have record companies to do all of that!

BTW: I Googled "Justin Bieber" just to verify the spelling of his name. Do you know that dude has a net worth in excess of $100 million dollars. Sure, he made a lot of that from performances, but I'm reasonable sure a fair-sized chunk of that came from record sales, which means a pretty nice wad of cash going to record companies.

Now, the first week's unit sales of Bieber's latest album are more like a pre-90's first hour's sales, but people are buying music, but only music they like.

I posted this next bit on another thread, so let's make it this weekend's assignment, okay, kiddies? Make a list of your ten favorite bands. Then go to a mall and ask 100 people of all ages how many of those bands they've heard of.

At the end of 1964, do you think there was a single person in the US who hadn't at least heard of The Beatles?

Sure, the opportunites to make money from music are far more limited than they were in the past, but it still all comes down to the same old same old...Play music that people want to hear, and they will come to hear you play it, and they will want to buy your recordings.

It's just that simple...
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Lol for real. You can't be serious. That was easily the most absurd post in this thread. Play what they want to hear? Yeah, okay, I'm gonna get right on writing some teenie bop tunes, and I expect you to buy them all. Get your wallet out. :laughings: :facepalm:

I have more respect for someone that does his own thing and makes nothing than the corporate run cookie-cutter pop divas you mentioned in that ridiculous post. How many records have you sold while appeasing the masses? I mean, that's what you do right? Play what they want to hear? Come on dude, for real. :wtf:
 
bdenton said:
Allow me to throw out a few thoughts...

One common thread in many of the posts I read is: "I play the music I want to play, I don't care if nobody wants to hear it."

Guess what, Bucko...NOBODY DOES WANT TO HEAR IT!!!

And we wonder why everybody is spending time on Facebook et al instead of listening to music?

And isn't it wonderful how Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson are able to write all of their own songs, produce all of their own records, set up distribution to the retailers, arrange all of their marketing and publicity...all without the benefit of a record company! Oh wait, they do have record companies to do all of that!

BTW: I Googled "Justin Bieber" just to verify the spelling of his name. Do you know that dude has a net worth in excess of $100 million dollars. Sure, he made a lot of that from performances, but I'm reasonable sure a fair-sized chunk of that came from record sales, which means a pretty nice wad of cash going to record companies.

Now, the first week's unit sales of Bieber's latest album are more like a pre-90's first hour's sales, but people are buying music, but only music they like.

I posted this next bit on another thread, so let's make it this weekend's assignment, okay, kiddies? Make a list of your ten favorite bands. Then go to a mall and ask 100 people of all ages how many of those bands they've heard of.

At the end of 1964, do you think there was a single person in the US who hadn't at least heard of The Beatles?

Sure, the opportunites to make money from music are far more limited than they were in the past, but it still all comes down to the same old same old...Play music that people want to hear, and they will come to hear you play it, and they will want to buy your recordings.

It's just that simple...
Click to expand...

I would wager that the girls freaking over Beiber are horny for him, not his music. Unfortunately you need to have the looks to go with the music. In the olden days we only had album covers to give is a glimpse of the stars.
 
There's no respect for music anymore and it's like anything - once it's gone it's not coming back. It should be interesting to see where the biz goes in the next 20 years.... I predict Billions of friggin awful Youtube videos.
 
This is where nusic is headed quickly....lucky for Lt Bob....not so much for everyone else....
 
When I read your editorial, I thought that you were really just offering observations on the way you see things changing, and not necessarily advocating any kind of change in particular. I was surprised then to see a response that stated that you were promoting something, when I took it to be far more objective. Maybe I missed something though.

I personally don't really think about or care about any connection between music and money or music and the music business. Music will be fine whether or not there is a successful business model surrounding it. It is at least possible that music could actually thrive without the constraints of business considerations. Unlike most industries, the product here is something that millions of people do simply for the joy of it, and I am confident that this will continue regardless of what formats are used to share it and how much money people are making off of it.

I think that the proliferation of inexpensive, higher quality gear is inherently good. More egalitarian or democratic if you will. I don't in any way long for the good old days when decent gear was out of reach to all but a few. I don't understand the idea that the higher costs of the past somehow filtered out the less talented or less deserving. It merely filtered out the less wealthy.

I am ok with sifting through a lot of music that I don't like or that is horribly produced in exchange for finding at least some quirky, unique, unfiltered homegrown music that would've never seen the light of day in years past. I would always trade sub par production values for a song I really like as opposed to top notch productions of watered-down-lowest-common-denominator music.

So, as both a listener and someone who occasionally makes music, I don't really care if the music industry "dies". If big changes are coming, I say bring 'em on. Life is too short.
 
There are still bands that gig a lot...but there are also a lot of "bands", or at least wannabee bands that constantly break up and reform, and keep playing the same stuff that all their competition is playing, and they are willing to play cheap.
Also, bars/clubs ain't what they use to be, and owners of smaller venues certainly don't want to pay a lot, so that certainly helps NOT to draw better/more serious bands.

Hey...everyone wanted recording/distribution freedom...the Internet and the personal studio was promoted as the new path to being your own record company and "making it"...so ain't much of a surprise that everyone can now churn out a CD in their basements.

But you know...bands still gig and artists still get record contracts...and some even go on to become major players...so it's not like that has really changed. There's just way more people doing it than ever before, so the competition is greater, and the effort required to break out is bigger.
Some people sulk about all of that and complain about how shitty things are and say they don't much care about even trying, but I think it's often more a case of reality sinking in that the music biz for artists/performers has and always will be a younger man's game....now more than ever.
So if you want to be a competitive performing artists...you have a small and short window of opportunity to get that going. Once it passes, you can't get it back, and at that point you have little choice but to reevaluate your goals...or satisfy your passion on a more local/personal level...
...but I don't know of too many younger musicians who started out shunning any thoughts of "making it"! :D
That's just what folks say once their train has left the station.

In most cases if you are still doing what you were doing musically when you were in your late teens/early twenties...and you haven't it "made it"...you probably never will. Your only option is to change/adapt your goals and look for other options as you get older...or be satisfied with more private/personal achievements.
But don't blame the music biz of today....it's always been hard and the deck has always been stacked against you.
It ain't got nothing to do with more people churning out CDs, especially if most of them suck.
I mean , if you are THAT good, and you are still in your "youthful prime"...you can find opportunities.

Anyone know if there's another train....or was that one the last one? ;)
 
In my early days, I had one and only one goal: play to big crowds. They didn't have to be my crowd. They didn't even have to know who I was. I just wanted one gig where I got to play in front of a big captive audience. I got to do that many times opening for touring bands. Still do. I also liked the idea of not fitting in. Playing the wrong kinds of clubs. I got booted out of many urban hick bars for playing punk rock. That was always fun. It wouldn't be fun now because hauling a drum kit sucks, but it was fun back then. Those are the moronic kinds of goals that I had. Money, fame, acceptance, fans, etc never mattered to me. It still doesn't. I just want to play. I'm actually happier just banging around in the garage with my bandmates than I am doing actual gigs. I'm of the opinion that people en masse are stupid, and if a lot of people like you, it can't be a good thing. It means that a lot of stupid people like you. You appeal to stupid people. I don't want that.
 
While I don't remember any younger musicians who started out shunning success, I really don't remember anyone talking about it either, I'm talking like high school in the 80's or whatever. Lots of bands forming and breaking up...playing keg parties or whatever. Not that I was privy to everyone's innermost goals or anything, but clearly everyone I knew was learning to play and jamming with others purely for the enjoyment of it. It was fun...and that seemed to be enough.
 
miroslav said:
OK...so now I know of....one. :D
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It was a lonely time playing psychobilly punk in the late-80's/early 90's. We were like a drunken bad version of the Stray Cats on speed. People had no idea how to book us or what to do with us. It was apparent very early on that there was no chance of anything I like to do becoming "successful" by mainstream standards.
 
Greg_L said:
It was a lonely time playing psychobilly punk in the late-80's/early 90's. We were like a drunken bad version of the Stray Cats on speed. People had no idea how to book us or what to do with us. It was apparent very early on that there was no chance of anything I like to do becoming "successful" by mainstream standards.
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There were a good number of punk bands ahead you guys that started out probably with that same perspective...and then ended up pretty darn mainstream...wanted or not.

I'm not saying we all had realistic notions of making it when we were younger, I'm just saying that in our youth, most musicians do consider that they maybe have the stuff...that they had something offer...and that's what IMHO pushes a lot of young bands to go forward.
Sure, there are those "garage bands" that quickly realize they just-plain-suck...but that's a different thing.

I think most every musician had or has the "twinkle of stardom" in their eyes at some point...and it's most often in our youth. That's all I'm saying.
Sure...you can still find more serious success beyond your twenties, but the difficulty curve gets REAL steep, and so that's why the "twinkle of stardom" fades away quckly with growing age................
 
miroslav said:
There were a good number of punk bands ahead you guys that started out probably with that same perspective...and then ended up pretty darn mainstream...wanted or not.

I'm not saying we all had realistic notions of making it when we were younger, I'm just saying that in our youth, most musicians do consider that they maybe have the stuff...that they had something offer...and that's what IMHO pushes a lot of young bands to go forward.
Sure, there are those "garage bands" that quickly realize they just-plain-suck...but that's a different thing.

I think most every musician had or has the "twinkle of stardom" in their eyes at some point...and it's most often in our youth. That's all I'm saying.
Sure...you can still find more serious success beyond your twenties, but the difficulty curve gets REAL steep, and so that's why the "twinkle of stardom" fades away quckly with growing age................
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I figured, with that band, we had two possibilities. First, the realistic route was that we'd be nothing more than a party band for the weirdo scene, which is what happened. Or the longshot route which was that we were so out there compared to the music of the time that the sheer uniqueness of our sound and style would make something happen. That didn't happen. Lol. We were pretty good though all things considered. We were fast and tight and played real deal vintage equipment. But with songs like "I'm a Corpse", "Fetus in a Frenzy" and "Party With a Space Turd" it was a virtual lock that there was no chance at success. :D

Out of all the bands I've been in, including my current band which is marginally successful at the local level, that psychobilly band was my favorite. That was a good time. Lotta good memories from that time period.
 
Greg_L said:
But with songs like "I'm a Corpse", "Fetus in a Frenzy" and "Party With a Space Turd" it was a virtual lock that there was no chance at success. :D
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You should have moved to LA.....success would have been imminent! :D
 
miroslav said:
You should have moved to LA.....success would have been imminent! :D
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We had one gig in LA. We played mostly the gulf coast area - Houston, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Tampa, etc. Our one Cali gig was a last minute thing. We piled ourselves and our gear into the bassists suburban on a thursday to get there by sat nite. When we got to the gig, it had been cancelled. This was way before cel phones or anything so we had no idea. After damn near burning the building down and threatening to murder the promoters entire family in order to at least get gas money back home, we got some cash and went home. That was my one and only trip to Cali. I was there for a few hours tops and barely even remember it because we were all pretty fucked up. Most of what I know about that trip was what I've been told by the other guys.
 
heatmiser said:
I don't understand the idea that the higher costs of the past somehow filtered out the less talented or less deserving. It merely filtered out the less wealthy.
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I come and go on this one as I obviously benefit from it in the present and got hit with it in the past. My original argument was that when I was getting into music, it was expensive (and that's not a good/bad thing, it just is what is is.. or was..) and that served in some sense to filter out those that didn't actually want to be there enough to pony up, and those of us that did, well we found a way.

Now that everything's cheap, well perhaps I'm conflating things that shouldn't be, but I'm not seeing an overall improvement in the average standard of music, or perhaps I've just entered a terminal "Get off my lawn!" phase... :laughings:

And I've been hanging out in Noobs forum for too long advising people with $100 budgets to stretch to $150... arrgh.. :)
 
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