Flat Tires and Flat Notes

This morning I'm sitting at a Goodyear Tire place.  Last night after a Watson & Nash show at Nashville's Third & Lindsley, I walked outside, loaded my gear up and heard the words, "Bro, you've got a flat", come out of my manager's mouth.  Great!  Long story short, Joe, Claire, our manager and me changed the tire in the cold rain.  

Last night was a bit of a wash, but I figured it would be that way.  Don't get me wrong, we had a great show and a small fun audience, but it was an unusual night…Our drummer had unexpectedly been put in the hospital for heart stints due to 90% blockage in his main artery…(Luckily he's o.k.) but due to the last minute change, and our back up drummer being out of town, Joe and I decided to do a small intimate acoustic set,  just the two of us.  A couple hours before the show, weather men were urging people to stay home and off the roads, due to drizzle, low temperature and a chance of black ice.   It was also a Monday night.  We typically avoid performing on Mondays and typically do mid week and weekend gigs when in town but for some reason we accepted a Monday night spot.  Due to a low turn out, which has been a little out of the norm for us lately, we cut the show a tiny bit shorter and rocked out our best songs for the few that were there.  After a quick load out, we packed out gear beneath the drizzle and were about to hop in my Explorer…Flat.

So, I here at Goodyear.  They are patching the tire and the guy has just talked me into rotating and balancing my tires.  I always let the guys at these type places talk me into extra stuff.  He urged me that I really needed to have those things done and since I don't want to be back up here in a week getting an "I told you so" glance, I'll let them.  Plus, I worry that they may intentionally unbalance my tires so I have to come back…I hate to think like that but I do.  So, rotate and balance away.  Hopefully I'll be rolling in a few minutes.

State of The Industry Address

More so than in past years, it seemed as though a gloom, a general feeling of despair, had settled on the music industry in 2010.  You could read it on the faces of the music execs on the row.  Cautious and anxious sentiments fell from their tongues.  "I've never seen it this bad", was the typical line you'd hear behind closed doors.  Many would talk about artists that had been signed and were hanging in limbo, on permanent pause, because promotions money had dried up or because caution in approaching a launch would not allow forward movement.  My co-writers would stop by the house or the studio and bemoan the scene on the row.  "No one's cutting outside songs and even if someone would digital downloading has royally screwed any chance of making decent royalties," one said.  The climate was bleak.  Words rang true BUT are these challenges not to be overcome?


A few of my co-writers and producer friends, who get together weekly for a discussion about music and the state of the industry, were having lunch in a back room at the Boundry with hit songwriter and industry veteran, Ralph Murphy.  Ralph made the comment, "boys, technology is always gonna try to screw you." We all knew that he was referring, most recently, to digital downloading, both legal and illegal.  (For more on the effect of digital downloading and it's effects on the music industry, read my very informative article/blog on the Limewire Debate.) There, however, was a deeper statement that was being echoed.  Note:  Technology will ALWAYS try to screw you.   In other words, ipods and digital downloading are nothing more than another, albeit huge, bump in the road that we the creators and marketers of music face.  We've faced challenges before.  When video killed the radio star and the music industry shifted from a 'music first' oriented business, pre-wide ranging TV exposure (technology) to more of an 'image first or at best hand-in-hand' oriented business the industry adapted.  We fixed our artist's teeth and noses, made them lose weight and bought them cool clothes.  We knew that the fat girl was no longer allowed to sing on the big stage.  


In 2000 (yes 2000, that's over ten years ago), an article titled 'Flat Notes' by Beverly Keel, noted that 2000's sales dropped 2% from 1999's sales in overall market share.  The industry had experienced a boom in the 90s thanks to Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Clint Black and more than 30 other acts who earned gold and platinum records.  During that time period, when pop was losing listeners, country was gaining and had nearly 19% market share.  Country music had never before experienced the success it had in the 90s.  With the success came increased revenue and expansion.  Chances were taken.  New labels opened and countless new acts were signed.  Of course, living high on the hog didn't last, as it never does.  Those who did not keep a watchful eye open for anticipated trends and store up a little extra for that proverbial rainy day, began to suffer.  What goes up must come down! A couple major issues surfaced on the initial roll back down the mountain that began to hit heavy on the pocketbooks of the decision makers.  Due to a rise in the popularity of pop/rock music, consolidation on radio and the quality of new country music being questioned, sales dropped, labels began folding and mid level artists began to suffer.  In the 2000 Flat Notes article, Barry Coburn, then president of Atlantic Records stated, "The real problem has been the development of new artists who haven't been successful enough to recover the investment made.  The cost of launching new artists is at an all-time high.  The business model doesn't really work in this kind of environment, so we need to re-evaluate all of the costs of breaking new artists." 


Another major issue that came to play was digital downloading, especially Napster (In it's original free, non-pay form).  Napster, in it's original form, operated between June 1999 and July 2001.  Its technology allowed people to easily share their MP3 files with other Napster users.  SIDE NOTE: This form of sharing bypassed the established market songs and lead to massive copyright violations of music, film media and other intellectual property.  Although the original service was shut down by court order, the damage had been done and the way was paved for decentralized peer-to-peer file distribution programs, which are harder to control.


The industry, at the time seemed to reach it's lowest in 2000.


In 2001 the dark cloud of despair began to rise and an emerging breed of new successful artists including Lonestar, Keith Urban,  Sara Evans, Lee Ann Womack, Brad Paisley, Andy Griggs and SHeDAISY were pulling the industry out of the doldrums.  In 2002, Country Music racked up 76.0 million units sold, which was 8.4 million units more than what was sold in 2001.  4 of the top 10 albums sold in 2002 were country albums and country accounted for 11.3% of the albums sold that year. For the first time in history country music had a record 7 albums topping the Billboard charts.  


Ups and downs...Fast forward from 2002 to 2009. According to Chet Flippo in the article, Time for Hand-Wringing? Or Time to Cowboy Up?

(April 9, 2009) "Recent country music surveys show a lingering country devotion to buying CDs. But is it showing up on the charts? This week's SoundScan report shows that no CDs released in 2009 have yet sold platinum. Pop or country. Zero. None."  Good in one sense but bad in another.

It's true that CD sales decreased dramatically between 2000-2010 but keep in mind that sales of albums were pretty low pre-90s.  The 1970s saw a huge decrease in album sales and 1980 continued that trend, with 34 million fewer units sold than in 1979. Major record labels were hurting and as many as 2,500 people in the music industry lost jobs. Country music sales were briefly revived in 1980 thanks to the popularity of the film Urban Cowboy. The new "Nashville Sound" a.k.a pop-country tunes with lush string arrangements  and synthesizers was the rave. 


The main point I'm trying to make is the music industry has and always will face challenges.  It will have it's ups and downs sale-wise.   Our industry, like many industries is in a recession but we'll play, strategize and pull out of it.  


We'll change the rules.


***I personally feel that the labels need to ban together and boycott itunes and other digital sales outlets by removing their artists from those digital distribution formats.  Steve Jobs isn't concerned about album sales unless they start effecting ipod sales.  Sure some people will take a hit initially but the future increase of album sales by those who no longer are able to download the songs will justify the radical move.   This move will not work unless all the major labels are on board.  It would mean a complete re-thinking from a union mindset.  Seriously, what is the consumer going to do?  Don't fear that they'll just shift to downloading the 'indie' music that isn't under the control of the label.  They won't.  People want someone to be a gate keeper, they need someone to tell them what is good.  They'll feel they are being cheated out of quality by 'having' to download non-label, indie material.  They'll then begin buying CDs again.


***If an overall staged boycott of itunes and other dd formats doesn't work,  we must make it to where consumers can only purchase full projects (Why is this important?  Read my previous blogs that discuss songwriter's incomes and the effect declining royalties are having on the industry and the quality of music as a whole.)


***Sign fewer artists, bring back artist development and allow those artists to endure with time.  The 'sign as many artists as possible, throw them to the wolves and see who survives' mentality will break the bank.  Sign fewer artists, invest more into those artist.


***Sign talent over image.  Image can always be worked on.


***With fewer signings, give higher draws and require the artists to cut outside songs that they have no hand in writing, unless they have an absolute smash hit.

Can you guys drive the 800 miles, pay your own travel and cover the cost of your band at no expense to us?

Q&A:

For of all, these are opinions.  I don't have everything figured out.  These are only observations from my vantage point and do not relate to every scenario...

1. How do you make a living and pay your bills?

I'm diverse.  Everyone is different and has a different approach to how they support themselves on the creative side of the music biz.  Instead of putting all my eggs in one basket, I've spread them into many.  I wear the hat of a songwriter, writing not only for myself but also for other artists.  I also perform in a duo and travel, making money off concerts, etc.  In addition I produce projects for artists and do a little session work.  What I'm doing changes from week to week.  It's always music oriented and relates to one of those pre-mentioned avenues (Songwriting, Artistry, Production).  

2. Why doesn't super talented so-and-so not have a record deal?

A.  They may not want one.

B.  Talent is only part of what is needed to succeed.  One must also have a likable personality.  Artist persona on stage and off…and they may not have the backing, financing or already built-in fan base that labels have to see these days.

C.  Is what they are doing going to fill a need in the market?

3. I've had a number of older listeners ask me,  "Why do I have to listen to all these young cookie cutter groups on the radio that I don't relate to?"

Couple reasons…

You and others like you aren't buying the CDs/songs of the more mature, seasoned artists that you relate to.  The record companies aren't going to get behind and push something that isn't selling.  They'd lose more money than they already are.

It's easier for the college age band/artist to hop in a van and travel across the country to play a show for free.  When you're thirty+ and have a wife and bills to pay, you can't be as free and sacrificing with your time.  It's a shame because by the time many artists reach thirty+ they've figure themselves out.  They have a firmer grasp on the art of performance and songwriting but now they don't have the flexibility the younger up and coming artists do.  

Those are a few reasons you have to listen to younger,  less mature artist expose their views of life, liberty and the pursuit of rock-n-roll dreams through oftentimes ill crafted songs.

4. Why do all the songs on the radio 'sound' the same?  

Businessmen and corporations own and run labels, not musicians.  The bottom line is the bottom line.  If the companies know that the consumer is going to buy a certain product (even over and over under a different name and face) they will continue to produce that product.  It's too risky to take a chance on artists that don't fit the proven formula.

Remember, this is commercial music that we are talking about here.  NOT ART!

5. Do you get paid on every show?  

No.  …NO!  The following is a common question/Statement:  "Can you guys drive the 800 miles, pay your own travel and cover the cost of your band at no expense to us?  It'll be great exposure!"  Translation: "You are going in the hole on this one.  I hope there's some additional funds in the band account because you need to spend for the off chance that more then ten people (only two of who will remember you in a month's time) will show to the event that the promotor will forget to advertise.  

Note: I did the math on a $5,000 gig that we did recently. Here's the breakdown…(I also listed this breakdown in another post.)

Total the venue pays:  $5,000  (1/2 day travel/CONCERT/1/2 travel)

Our expenses: 

 -$750 to manager

-$750 to booking agent

-$900 to backing band members (3 backing band members at $300 each)

-$1,000 Van rental, trailer and fuel

-$200 Hotel

-$150 Food

Artist take home pay:  $1,250  

That's when you're fortunate enough to get $5,000+ gigs.  MOST clubs pay less than $500 to the artist/band and MOST festivals pay less than $1500.  Do the math.

The Death of Music As We've Known It

Eighty five didn't seem that long ago/Flying paper airplanes out my bedroom window/E-Street band playing loud and clear/Down Bound Train ringing in my ear-Watson & Nash

Somewhere around 1982-83, my small but growing music collection was equally divided between LP albums, 45s and cassettes.  I'd inherited the best of 1950s pop music, mostly my parent's old  45s  and a huge collection of LPs dating from the early 60s through the late seventies from my two older brothers.  My musical repertoire  consisted of everyone from Little Richard and The Everly Brothers to The Beatles and Neil Diamond.  I also had a steady diet of smaller acts like Huey 'Piano' Smith and Cozy Powell.  As long as I can remember I was in love with both music and lyrics.  I enjoyed the mood that both conveyed.  I was also in love with the experience owning albums, those musical worlds created by various artists.  With my recorded player blasting in the background, I'd pour over LP liner notes and gaze at the colorful album artwork.  I wanted to know everything I could about the recording artist and the players on their team.  Billy Joel and Elton John were heros of mine.  I remember memorizing the names of the band members and studio players on their earlier albums.  I could identify their 'licks' even if they were playing on other albums.  I can't forget those sunny summer days, with my bedroom window open, smell of honeysuckle winding through my red carpeted bedroom and Dobie Gray's 'Drift Away' playing in the background.  The scent of the outside world met the smell of the freshly ripped plastic that I'd torn off my latest album find.  The white painted walls of my room were filled with fold-out posters that I'd found inside of albums I'd purchased.  Laying across my dark blue bed cover were open album  covers and their inner sleeves pulled out so I could read the lyrics while the records played.  Owning an album, something tactile,  seemed to connect me  with the singer/songwriter on the other end.  The unveiling of a new album of one of my favorite artists was an experience that bordered on the spiritual for me.  Smell, touch, visual, sound.  I'd save my $5 weekly allowance up so I could walk the aisle of the music section in our little local department store and make my next selection.  Once purchased, I wouldn't just drop the needle on the radio hit.  I'd let the album play, side one, track after track, then side two.  I'd hoped to discover something intriguing and moving hidden around whatever 'hit' had been pushed to us over the radio waves.  Again, the album as a whole was an experience.  

By the mid eighties, around age ten, I'd started my own formal music lessons.   Amidst learning scales and exercises on the piano, I'd listen to my album collection and pull out various 'riffs' that I'd found here and there on different songs and incorporate them into my own elementary studies.  Without this vast landscape of musical offerings to emulate I would have probably stopped my interest in formal music education at the scales.  The printed lyric on the inside sleeves of the albums greatly influenced the small poem-songs that I'd began to write.  I could see the words jump off the page that were moving me as I listened to these songs.  …but the print got smaller.  

Remove the needle from your record player, pop in a cassette tape and fast forward a few years to the late 80s.  I'd started buying cassettes to replace my albums.  All my friends were getting Jam boxes and walkman devices…You couldn't play a record on those.  You needed a cassette!  I have to admit that I was, at that point in my life, more apt to fast forward to the hit.  Still, I'd accidentally land on a 'B-side' (or whatever we were calling it) and fall in love.   By 1989 my friends parents began to purchase them CD players.  CD players?  I remember being confused on how we were supposed to play our records in these CD players.  I was confused.  At the time I thought they were devices that just made your older records sound better.  Seeing that it was a completely different medium of playing music, I stuck with my collection of LPs and cassettes.  I'd already invested in this huge collection of music that served me just fine and CD players were still a bit pricey at the time.  While hanging out at friends houses listening to music, we could migrate directly to the 'main' song.  No more fast forwarding and rewinding, getting there too early or late and having to listen to one of the unknowns.  You could also put the song on repeat or if you were at a rich kid's house, he might have an automatic disk changer, where you could go to your favorite song on a different disc…Allot easier than getting up and dropping the needle on the record player to your favorite song or having to change out and re-sleeve your albums.  By the time I was sixteen I owned my own CD player.  The majority of my musical purchases were still cassettes, primarily because the 1990 Ford Tempo that I was driving had a cassette player and no CD player.  Even with the changes from album to cassette (we'll forget about 8-tracks) to CDs you still got something tactile.  You could flip the lid on a CD case, fold out the artwork and read the liner notes.  You could still enjoy the images from the pricey photoshoot.  Tactile.  Touch, Visual…Experience.  

I was in college in the early nineties, when the internet bloom hit.  I didn't spend too much time back then on the internet because our only provider was dial up, even in my college town.  During this time period, I'd also lost a little bit of interest in what was happening in the commercial music world.  I'd taken the route of studying music at the University and had my head wrapped in Wagner scores and Bach Inventions.  I'd traded my musical experience of being an outside spectator for becoming a performer and creator of music myself.  Claiming both Piano and Trombone as principal instruments in college, most of my time was spent studying scores and memorizing sheet music for countless performances.  Symphonic, jazz and chamber music was my daily regimen.  While my eyes and ears were lifted away from the pulse of commercial 'radio' music a change was taking place.  

Technology will eventually screw those over who make their living in entertainment and the performing arts.  Enter mp3 player!  You could now download your music directly from the internet.  Labels were scratching their heads.  The writing was on the wall.  Downloading would eventually bankrupt the music industry.  The industry recognized that legislation would need to be passed to protect the artist, songwriters and labels.   Before the industry could get the foundation laid to build a shelter from the impending storm Napster (in it's original form) entered the scene.  Everyone from college kids to housewives in Texas were filling their computers  with hundreds and sometimes thousands of free downloaded songs.  No attention was given to how this was affecting the pocketbooks of the songwriters and artists.  No one cared…but there was still hope.  People were still buying CDs.  True, they were on the decline but people were still buying them.

Somewhere along the way the world got smaller and our attention spans got shorter.  There was a huge shift in our consciousness, in the way we connected to our world.  Dial-up was replaced by cable modems and DSL.  Our computer kept getting faster.  The world was and still is, at our finger tips.  We can now shop, play games, conduct business, date, read books, watch movies, listen to music and even live second lives all online.  The experience of owning various tactile products, such as CDs and books, have been replaced by the ease of having your whole world exist in one thin 19 inch flat rectangular device.   The arts and entertainment, while initially experiencing the gains of using this device as a means of easy exposure are now suffering at it's fingertips.  Illegal downloading has a choke hold on the music industry and it's face is turning a deeper shade of blue.  Be sure to read the blog I posted on November 9th entitled 'The LimeWire Debate'.   Digital Downloading has forced the industry into a position of breaking 'tracks' instead of 'acts'.  Gone are the days of watching a single artist develop through the years and mature in their sound.  Gone are the days of musical experimentation with artists.  No more Elton Johns, no more Billy Joels…A hit has to be produced immediately and mass marketed and if it doesn't stick, the artist is gone.  There is no time or money to allow the first album to do 'just o.k.'  The artist has got to knock it out of the park their first time up to bat.  There is no artist development.  Artist development was done in the old days.  Those days are gone.  If the framework was the same in the late 1960s early 70s, Billy Joel would have released 'Cold Spring Harbor' and would have been dropped from his label because it wasn't a big enough hit.  We would not have 'Piano Man', 'Just The Way You Are' or 'Uptown Girl'.  Elton John would have been dropped after 'Empty Sky' and we wouldn't have 'Crocodile Rock', 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' or 'Candle In The Wind'.  Very few artists are truly allowed to grow and get to the great stuff.  So many extraordinary artists are being lost under this new system.  There are too many artists some deserving, many undeserving being sent through the turnstiles.  Those with a relative hit and the money to market it continue on while The Beach Boys are sent home.

A whole generation is coming up void of that magical 'experience' of devouring an album note by note, line by line.  It is rare that a culture is created around an album.  Say farewell to the days of concept albums like 'Dark Side of The Moon', 'Pet Sounds' or 'Sgt. Pepper'.  It's sad.  I hope we can somehow get back to that old all encompassing aural, tactile experience of owning a collection of songs released by a smaller, more select group of artists.  I hope the industry figures out a way to market the experience again.  

The LimeWire Debate

My sister-in-law 'Facebooked' me yesterday to ask me what I thought about the LimeWire debate and the Federal Courts 10/26/10 decision.  She was offered a 'Bring LimeWire Back' t-shirt and heard arguments for bringing it back.  Curious as to what I thought, she asked my opinion.   Being both an artist and songwriter, who has been active in the music industry since the late 1990s, I have a unique perspective on the issue.  First, let me clarify that I have nothing against free downloading of music if permission has been obtained from the artist/songwriter, label or representative of those parties.  Allowing the free downloading of a few songs off a project or a 'previously unreleased' song that may not appear on the artist's project(s) is a great means of promotion, again, provided that the parties involved in the creation consent.  What I firmly believe to be unethical and immoral is illegally downloading the intellectual property of someone who depends on royalties for their livelihood and who has not given permission for the download.   

Concerning LimeWire, they were, to my understanding allowing downloads of intellectual properties (music/songs) to those who used their software, without the express consent of the creators of those intellectual properties.  For those of you who don't know, LimeWire is a free peer to peer client program that runs on operating systems supported by the Java software platform (Mac and Windows).  Peer to peer file sharing emerged after the widespread adoption of internet service, and has now become one of the most used file sharing methods, especially for music and films.  

On October 26, 2010, Judge Kimbe Wood, a US federal court judge, issued an injunction forcing LimeWire to prevent "the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality" of its software. A trial investigating the damages necessary to compensate the affected record labels is scheduled to begin in January 2011. 

Many people have this 'stick it to the record label'…'Take back music' mentality that is ill informed.  They view file sharing of songs/illegal downloading as only affecting the major labels and wealthy artists.  Those who support the illegal downloading of music speak of how this is somehow benefiting artists and songwriters. Those in support of LimeWire argue that 'sticking it' and downloading regardless of whether or not permission was obtained  will force the labels to fall and music will somehow be better because of this. Nothing could be further from the truth.   What will happen is that songwriters will suffer the most, artist will have to tour relentlessly with no rest or downtime to create new music, recording artists will primarily be composed of 25 year olds and younger, (with labels closing) the music that is produced will consist of music by those who are wealthy or who have obtained the wealth from outside sources, to promote music to the masses and the selection of 'good' music will narrow. Songwriters will more than likely suffer the most, as they make most of their income from royalties gained from mechanical sales and licensing of songs (not from artist ticket sales).  Speaking at a number of music industry conferences, I've lately made the comment, "I glad I'm both an artist and a songwriter because if I were just trying to make it as a songwriter these days, I couldn't." 

Proponents of LimeWire state that LimeWire's closure will not only effect file sharers around the world, but will open the door for legal action and injunctions against any file sharing software, service, or user.  This is stated as if it were a bad thing and as if illegal activity (downloading without the express permission of the intellectual copyright owner) should be tolerated because it raises too many questions about other potential infringements.   If peer-to-peer sharing software, companies, etc.  are negatively impacting the livelihoods of the creators of these intellectual properties, shouldn't there be investigations and lawsuits?

Advocates state that peer to peer file sharing may help artists increase record sales by obtaining fans that they otherwise might not have been reached.  They state that when music is not paid for and rather, 'shared' there will be an increase in CD sales and concert attendance.  They state that similar artists or genres of music may benefit as people look for similar acts.   It's true that file sharing may help a few artists, but these artists are primarily previously established label artists with financial backing and artists who are able to obtain financial backing to promote a project.   The musical landscape will continue to be dictated by the elite.  Non-label investors will dictate what style music is backed based on personal preferences.  Not only will MAJOR labels suffer but INDIE labels will also suffer.  Many outlets for 'fringe' acts will no longer exist.  Smaller (newer) acts who are unable to obtain support to tour and record will 'burn-out' before gaining a grassroots following large enough to support their income/expenses.  The musical landscape will consist of artists who are under 30 and single (without a consistent tour line up of at least 250 dates year after year artists will not make enough financially to support mortgages and families).  Subject matter of songs will thus, never mature.  If the system collapses new music will consist of a very few good artists/songs and a whole lot of ill-produced, poorly recorded and mixed songs that lack structure and direction.  Remember most of the music that you hear and enjoyed today (most-not all) have come from artists who came through the major label system or their sound was inspired by emulating a major label artist's sound.  Without labels, there will be a certain digression.  Crafting of songs will fly out the window because those making music will be those who don't "have to produce great songs" to make a living from music.  Plus, without tour support from labels or backers (most of whom recoup their investments from record sales) artists will make peanuts at their live shows.  Especially if the artists tour with bands/are bands.

Do the math, imagine you are an artist who is fortunate enough to get $5,000 from a venue to come do a concert…Which is very uncommon for non-label artists:

Total the venue pays:  $5,000  (1/2 day travel/CONCERT/1/2 travel)

Our expenses: 

 -$750 to manager

-$750 to booking agent

-$900 to backing band members (3 backing band members at $300 each)

-$1,000 Van rental, trailer and fuel

-$200 Hotel

-$150 Food

Artist take home pay:  $1,250  

That's when you're fortunate enough to get $5,000+ gigs.  MOST clubs pay less than $500 to the artist/band and MOST festivals pay less than $1500.  Do the math.

Oh, oh, but you are going to sell CDs and merch at the club venue.  Yeah, but not enough to really make a dent in your ever accruing travel and production debt for the project that you are trying to sell.  Remember, most people aren't going to purchase your CDs because no one listens to CDs anymore…You say sell them a card containing a code where they can download your songs?  Why would they want that? They've already downloaded the songs for free.  Tee-shirts?  Woo!!! That's going to add a lot to your budget.

PLUS, even if giving away away music helps the artists, it hurts SONGWRITERS and their families who are dependent on mechanical and performance royalties for income.

Currently, songwriters make a whopping $.091 per song per album sold.  The rate may be a percentage of a cent higher at the point in time that you are reading this…So let's go with an even $.10, best case as a future statutory standard mechanical royalty.  The artist goes out and sells 100,000 CDs (It's more likely that an indie, non mass marketed, artist will sell less than 10,000 in a year). So, in a best case scenario, if the artist sells 100,000 CDs the songwriter (if he/she is the only writer on the song) will make around $10,000.  

Imagine, if the fan already has the album for free.  What incentive does the consumer have to purchase the CD?  The artist's star power?  Without label or big money support most artists are going to be traveling as B-level artists…and who cares about getting their autographs?  No one is going to buy the CDs and the few who may, will not make that big of a difference financially. So, in turn, SONGWRITERS SUFFER.

File sharing/illegal downloading will DEFINITELY HURT songwriters.  I've already seen this hit my own pocketbook. I've consistently had song cuts for ten years now.  Music that I've written has appeared on numerous projects.  These songs have been with both major and indie artists, on the charts and projects that were on Billboard.  Though I continue to have songs make it onto projects my royalties are smaller and smaller.  I firmly believe that the decrease in my royalties and my songwriter friends' royalties  are directly linked to illegal downloads and the idea that 'music should be free'. 

The site www.bringlimewireback.com states:   "When world famous musicians start working at McDonald's because nobody buys their records or attends their concerts (cause they got it free on Limewire) we might change this stance."  That's such an ignorant statement.  Musicians who are 'world famous' are in the position because of the record labels.  The 'label' system hasn't crashed and burned completely.  Artists are still getting funding and are making royalties off of CD sales, even though CD sales have plummeted.  (Those are the major artists).  The label system is burning though and YES it is causing some signed artists to have to get other jobs.  Don't get me wrong, John Mayer isn't having to go to work at Burger King but you'd be surprised at the number of new signed artists (to major labels) that I know who moonlight as baristas at Starbucks or who work as waiters to pay the bills.  Why?  Labels can't pay out advances like they used to because of illegal downloads and the death of the CD.  These are not hack acts that I'm talking about that are working second jobs, these are guys who take off from their waiter and barista jobs to tour in the U.S. with other bigger acts and who fly out to Europe to do shows, who have a huge following but who can't make ends meet and have to work part time jobs, red-eyed, just to get by.  It's a shame.  Does the average consumer of music know this? No!  Not unless they live in Nashville or L.A. and wonder why the girl working behind the counter at their favorite coffeeshop looked a lot like____________.

www.bringlimewireback.com petitions people to get behind their cause and states:

"(Their) petition is simple, it will show the record industry that a large number of people value free file sharing services, and that some people care more about the music than the money."

There's this idea that we're sticking it to the labels and that it only hurts the label and helps the artist.  That is simply not true and even if it were, who made LimeWire Robin Hood that they could steal from the 'rich' (most of whose employees are not rich).

The average consumer (average person who downloads) isn't downloading hours upon hours of INDIE bands.  They don't want that.  They are illegally downloading music produced and promoted by MAJOR LABELS.  If you are a person who's 'shared' music, go look at your playlist.  Are the majority of the artists making up that list MAJOR or INDIE? My point is if the listeners are supposedly 'not into' the music the majors have 'thrusted' upon us why are they illegally downloading major label music?  Aren't those listeners making the statement "We are into your music but we want to take you down because you've created music that we are into but say we aren't."  That statement is about as confusing as the hypocritical 'anti-big label' sentiment.  I'd rather they just say, "We want something for free and we don't really care who it hurts or helps."

 Illegal downloading will only serve to help a handful of fortunate artists and will eventually make music worse.

The main point though is that the supporters of LimeWire really don't care about whether it hurts the artists/songwriters/labels/managers/agents/promotors or not.  It really doesn't matter to them.  The supporters are getting something for free and they want to continue to get something for free.  Music is also not deemed as something 'worthy' enough, in their eyes' to pay for.  Even if it is deemed worthy enough, the 'free-downloaders' would rather have something for free than pay for it. 

Again, let me clarify that I have nothing against free downloading of music if permission has been obtained from the artist/songwriter, label or representative of those parties. 

Holiday Hysterics and a Cup of Hot Chocolate

Venti Signature hot chocolate resting near the edge of my laptop…Bing Crosby crooning Christmas tunes over my left shoulder…the sound of a cappuccino maker cutting through the high pitched laughs of three petite scarf necked, soy latte drinking Brentwood soccer moms. Ang, the store manager, has just shot me a smile and wave as she leaves for her lunch break. I nod to a few of the familiar faces that frequent my favorite of establishments. Tis the season to be jolly! I’ve settled into my usual spot at the back of the Nipper’s Corner area Starbucks near my home in South Nashville.
The Christmas season is one with such mixed emotions for me. I enjoy the time spent with family. I love the drinking of eggnog and wassail, reflecting on the true reason for the season, the opening of gifts, the singing of carols and watching 1950s Twilight Zone reruns that are, for some reason, always shown between Christmas and New Year. Although there are such great feelings surrounding the holidays they also bring a bit of sadness and melancholy reflection.
Two of the saddest things that I have to endure during the season are the song ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ and watching the face of someone who opens an unwanted Christmas gift. ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ and unwanted Christmas gifts can depress me until the end of January.
‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ evokes images of lonely old souls sitting in their solitary nursing home rooms, wearing pointed little silver party hats, confetti in hand with no one to throw it on but themselves and Dick Clark’s Rocking New Year’s Eve playing in the background on a tiny wood paneled TV (complete with erect, yet bent, antennae). Plus, since Dick had his stroke a few years ago and you can’t quite understand the numbers he’s counting down, it’s even sadder.
Unwanted Christmas gifts are the worse. A good friend of mine, who happens to be more into musicals and macchiatos than football and beer told me of a gift his father gave him. He relayed to me how he was sitting in front of his dad, who was beaming over the wrapped gift selection. “You’re gonna love these”, his father had said. My friend gently unwrapped his gift, so as not to ruffle the pretty paper that covered the box. He lifted the ‘prized gift find’ from his father out of the box. …Tools.
“What the Heck am I going to do with tools? I’ve hinted to dad for the past three months that I wanted to get into painting and needed an easel and palette” my friend said while shaking his head.
I quipped back, “Maybe he thought you could build them with your tools.”
Sad, sad, sad.
I’ve remedied the unwanted gift in my own life. This may seem a little selfish and it is but here’s what I do: I tell my family DON’T get me a gift unless you see it on the list I e-mail to you (or unless it’s something you know beyond a shadow of a doubt I’ll want…everyone likes a few surprises). I list the type of jeans I want, if you are going to buy me jeans…34/32, 514 or 511 Levi’s. Books…get me a Barnes and Noble book card instead. Shirts…don’t go there…they will be returned or wind up on eBay and I don’t wear sweaters. If you think it’s safe to buy me music, I probably already own the CD or can get it for free from the label. I tell them precisely what I want…a certain microphone or software program, a gift card to J. Alexander’s or new reeds for my accordion…anything else may make me cry. O.K., that’s an exaggeration…and yes fam, a few surprises are good but unwanted gifts do have a stronger emotional effect on me than most people.
Now to the issue of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’, I’m at a loss what to do about it. I’ve tried to get it banned from being played on local stations. I’ve asked managers in the shops and restaurants that I frequent to remove it from their playlist. They will sometimes. Although I put forth a tremendous amount of effort to rid myself of this sappy tear jerking Christmas downer, strains of the melody will inevitably at some point during the season infect my ears. When I was in college, years ago, I made my spending money by dressing up in a tux and performing as a dinner pianist at the Holiday Inn just outside Troy, Alabama. My repertoire consisted primarily of songs from the 1930s, 40s and 50s, as our clientele was mostly ‘blue hairs’. Without fail, each Christmas, someone would stick a twenty in my tip jar and request ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ and I’d have to play it. Once I had an old lady try to set me up with her grand daughter if I’d play it. A few times I debated telling the patrons to choose another song or take their tip back but I knew the song and wanted the money.
Christmas can also, sometimes, bring out my anger. I’m an easy going guy and I have, over the years, matured to the point where I, for the most part, keep a tight lid on irritable emotions. Again, I say, for the most part. When I think of the holidays in conjunction with losing it, one instance always comes to mind.
A few years ago I was out finishing up my Christmas shopping and had just made a stop by Kroger to pick up a few groceries before returning home. I had been standing in lines all day, doing some serious maneuvering in the heavy holiday traffic and was overdue to be at home sipping a hot cup of tea. I’d put my groceries behind my seat, backed out of my parking space and made my way to the parking lot’s little side street turn lane that entered onto the road. While sitting waiting for traffic to clear for me to jet across the street, I began to hear the sound of a car horn blaring behind me. Honk, Honk, HOOOOOOOOOONK! “What the heck”, I thought to myself. There was no way I could possibly pull out into the street. Traffic was zooming by both ways. Honk, honk, honk!!!! The horn was blowing again. I gritted my teeth and before looking in the mirror I reached for my door handle. I snapped.
Without thinking, my Suburban was flung into park and I jumped out, slamming the door behind me and rushed toward the driver side window of the offending party. As I approached what I saw was a young thirty something year old woman with big ‘I watch Desperate Housewives and live in a condo near Franklin’ sunglasses, wearing a jumpsuit, cell phone to her ear behind the wheel of a new silver Lexus. I glared at ‘Little Miss Thing’ and gave her the absolute best inferno faced ‘do not move, do not even breathe or I will slam a baseball bat through your windshield’ look of intimidation that has ever been given to anyone. I raised my fist and banged on her driver side window. I was fuming. She cracked the window slightly and I verbally laid into her. I’m certain she’d probably wet her Versace jumpsuit at this point. After not-so-politely asking her what her problem was and spewing a few venomous choice phrases, I yelled an angry “Merry Christmas!!!”, and then walked back to my car.
I immediately felt AWFUL. I couldn’t believe that I was now ‘that crazy guy’. I couldn’t believe I’d let someone get the best of my emotions like that. I wanted to vomit because of my reaction. At that time, I was also helping lead music on the worship team at church. It was Saturday. I thought, “Crap…what if she shows up at church tomorrow morning and there I am using the same tongue that I’d lashed her with to praise God”. What a pathetic tool I’d allowed myself to be. I thought to myself, “Never again will I react this way.” Holding to my word, I’ve never done anything like that since. Now, I must admit that I have flipped a guy off for tailgating my car…not a wise thing to do…but that has been the only occurrence I can think of in the past 3 or 4 years. I won’t allow the holidays to drive me into hysterics anymore. I choose to stay off the roads during the month of December when I can. It’s the safest thing for me to do.
As I take one final sip of my signature hot chocolate, I can hear the first strains of Perry Como singing ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ over the sound system here at Starbucks. Best thing for me to do is grab my keys and head to the Galleria for a little holiday shopping.

-Shay
http://www.watsonandnash.com/
http://www.shaywatson.com/

Midwestern Musical Mishap

It was early winter 2004, the whole week had been a dull, dying gray and the three of us were bundled up like Eskimos on an ice fishing expedition. We were on the last leg of a tiresome Midwestern tour. We’d made it to the little town, situated about an hour and a half north of Alexandria, Minnesota the day before. The concert promoter had put us up at the small log cabin of a local concert worker. We’d rested a good bit that day, before our load in and sound check, catching up on some much needed sleep.

Although sound check had gone well, tensions were still running high in our little acoustic ‘country meets pop’ band. We were approaching our fourth and last year performing together. Internal problems amongst our trio and a bad experience with a new record label had sealed our doom. Although we had seen the end approaching for some months, we decided not to cancel any shows. We had set our egos and personal feelings aside the best we could and decided to plow through that last month and honor our commitments. New York, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota then home to Tennessee.

So you can fully understand the extent of our volatile situation and the debacle that ensued, it should be known that, this ‘farewell’ concert consisted of an audience made up almost entirely of former prisoners, drug addicts, prostitutes and reformed alcoholics. We had been involved with various causes and often found ourselves performing benefit concerts and special events. Such was the case that particular night. It should also be noted that the concert was to be aired live on the local television station. A church, which worked in prison outreach and one of the main sponsors, had an hour worth of air time each Sunday night. They had dedicated this hour to our concert.

One of the ex-prisoners, who’d been brought in as our cook for the evening, prepared for us a nice Italian meal he’d apparently learned to make while doing time up near Fargo. He was a really sweet guy, soft spoken and had the most gentle demeanor of any man I’d ever met. His red cheerful face, chubby build and bowl cut hair added an extra degree of charm. I still found it hard to believe that he was out of jail, on parole, for repeated armed robbery charges. After eating we were ushered into our green room to hang out until show time. We were relaxed and confident that the ‘on air’ hour long concert would be pulled off without any hitches. We were very well rehearsed, our gear and instruments had been checked, all stage equipment and television cameras were running smoothly. We knew it would be a great night.

Our group was introduced and promptly hit the stage at 7 on the dot, smiling and waving to a packed house and did I mention, live TV cameras? The bawdy crowd was clapping and cheering loudly. I glanced around the room and saw a few of the folks that we’d met the day before. They were standing amidst a group of tattooed and pierced biker types. This group was integrated into a larger gang of younger teens and college age kids who wore mostly gothic black jeans, shirts and hair. In addition to that portion of the crowd I could see an equal number of more conservative Midwestern farm workers and townsmen. Our audience was definitely an eclectic mix.

We grabbed our instruments which consisted of a guitar, mandolin and my big upright doghouse bass. One, two, three, four…First two notes: Boing…Bewoing…Snap!!! The chords we were strumming were suddenly and severely out of tune. “Whoa, stop guys…uh…something’s up….uh”, could be heard echoing over the PA. One of my trio partners was nervously smiling at me while awkwardly clearing his throat into the mic and then telling our live audience, "we’re having some technical difficulties". I looked across the stage at the guitar which was strapped to him. …Not one, but two broken strings! Next I quickly looked over at our other trio partner, who was already lifting his mandolin strap over his head. He’d also somehow managed to break a mandolin string on the down beat. Two disabled instruments rested in the more than capable hands of both my bandmates.

Now here’s the first kicker: the spare guitar had a string missing. It was broken at an earlier show and for some reason we forgot to restring the guitar.

Second kicker: no spare mandolin.

My first trio partner looked at the audience then me, then back at the audience and said, “Folks, I’ll be right back.” He promptly turned and walked of the stage. The second of my trio partners, who loves observing these type situations, shrugged, looked at the audience, smirked at me and leaned into his mic said, “Shay, tell ’em a story or something.” With a little wink he whispered, “We’ll be back, Keep ’em occupied,” as he too exited the stage.

All that was left in front of the room full of ex-prisoners and television cameras was a microphone, my upright bass, and me. There was no piano to jump on and play as a back up plan…Just me, the bass, and a microphone. At that moment I vowed to myself that there would always be a keyboard or piano somewhere on stage that I could jump behind and perform on. I glanced at the small digital clock that we kept beneath our center stage monitor. 7:05 pm. What was I going to do? Sing a capella and pluck a couple bass notes here and there? I couldn’t do any of the songs in this type set up alone. There was nothing to accompany them with. Since songs for the time being weren’t an option, I thought “tell stories.” Temporary brain freeze. “Tell them about some road experiences,” I thought…yeah…wait, I suddenly couldn’t think of any…

After an uncomfortable ten second pause of me staring at a sea of faces hungry for a performance, my mouth went on auto pilot. I think I told stories about growing up in South Alabama, worm fiddling, greasy pole climbs and fishing on the Gulf of Mexico. I’m not sure. What I am sure of, is that each passing second felt like an eternity. That warm hazy sensation that causes your mouth to go dry, your palms to sweat and the stage lights to suddenly feel brighter washed over me. There was also a sudden black pounding behind my eyes. The shakes kicked in and I grabbed tighter to the microphone. Words were coming out of my mouth and I think they were making sense. Sentences would begin, trail into thousand colorful connected phrases and somehow wrap back around to a coherent ending.

I glanced down, 7:20 pm… “Where the heck, where were those guys,” I thought to myself…Fifteen minutes had passed. “Uh, so…we found this great restaurant today down on the square….” I think I talked about what I ate there. I’m sure the owner was glad he got about ten minutes of advertising on live TV. Our live TV audience received a detailed description of Lumberjack Jim’s Hickory Smoked BBQ. About seven additional, and may I add excruciating minutes later, my two trio partners emerged smiling, instruments strapped on, new strings, tuned up and ready to play. One of the guys leaned into me and whispered, “Sorry it took so long. We had to find the strings, then one of them broke again while we were tuning.” It was now 7:27 pm. I’d rambled for almost twenty five minutes on live television, no commercial breaks.

The studio audience and those watching at home got an abbreviated, but phenomenal, performance. My earlier ramblings and thirty minutes of our best songs got us an authentic rousing standing ovation. I’d like to think my 'on the fly' stories had something to do with the applause, but that’s probably wishful thinking, to say the least. The actual performance was one of the best we’d given in our three and a half years together. Somehow we pulled the night off.

At times, I get a little concerned that a video will surface of me nervously regaling the audience with stories of my younger years in the Deep South. I guess that will be o.k., if it happens. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be in my mind. One nearly toothless lady with shrunken in eyes and an eagle tattoo told me after the show, “I enjoyed listening to you talk. That accent of yours really made them river stories you were telling us come alive.” I hope she wasn’t just trying to ease my embarrassment over the situation.

Anyway, tonight is the first installment in a series of new blogs that I’ve decided to write. I feel somewhat like I did that night 5 years ago when I had to ad lib tales of my early life in the panhandle backwaters of South Alabama. Where do you start??? I’ve never really written blogs before. I’m more used to wrapping my thoughts up in a two minute and fifty second framework of rhymed couplets. The challenge of having a full blank page, actually screen, to type on and a much broader canvas should prove to be a nice little diversion from my norm.

So, expect a few life observations peppered with colorful stories of music, marriage, moogs and mandolins amongst other things. If you’ve read this far, I thank you for your time and bid you a congenial, “Welcome to my blog.”

-Shay
http://www.watsonandnash.com/