Rumors of the media industry’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. To clarify, anyone who nay-said an aspiring musician’s chances in today’s industry didn’t know what they were talking about. Finding success has merely become the practice of shifting your state of mind. In order to keep up with an ever-changing industry (a harsh environment to grow up in, but one hell of an opportunity), we must keep ourselves open to a focus in constant flux.
The state of mind that makes the most sense in today’s music business is this: Own everything you produce, produce often, promote, and create relationships. I’ve outlined a detailed plan for myself in order to help myself achieve my desired goal, which is to get music that I write played over radio or other relevant mass mediums:
If my timeline begins on the first of January, 2011:
• My First track will be completed on January 22nd, 2011.
• My Second track will be completed on February 12th, 2011.
• My Third track will be completed on March 5th, 2011.
• My Fourth track will be completed on March 26th, 2011.
• My Fifth and final track will be completed on April 16th, 2011.
• The demo will be submitted for copyright registration by April 23rd, 2011.
• In the event of a local following, official “Release” of the demo may occur on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011.
• In the event of a lack of following generated by performances and blog work, digital and physical distribution of the demo will commence on a Tuesday, April 26th, 2011.
• Appropriate follow-ups will be made post-commencement.
The plan cycle will start over 4 weeks after the Tuesday of the commencement of distribution, and always on a Sunday, following the same increments of time and always ending on a Tuesday. The estimated timeline is approximately 16 weeks and 3 days from beginning to end. I even have financials figured out, including membership fees for Performing Rights Organizations as artist and publisher, potential legal fees, and physical distribution costs.
This will keep me on track, as I am prone to procrastination and plagued by an unnatural lack of commitment. Looking forward, I hope to establish a reputation within the media industry and hopefully use that reputation to get my foot further in the door and potentially involved in an area outside of writing and performance. I love being an artist, but I can feel that someday I’ll just have stop for want of solitude or relaxation… or most likely a break from the twisted emotional torture that is the inspired soul of an artist. When that day comes – or in the spirit of clinging to youthful fancy, if that day comes, I’d like to remain in the industry and keep myself relevant and up to date.
I don’t want to grow old and be a square. Ya dig, bro? So, I have to be prepared to take everything tomorrow will dish out with an open mind. The future is difficult to predict and adaptation is a circumstantial beast. I’ll be headed in whatever direction the industry moves in until I find myself leading the industry.
“Move with the industry” is a rather vague platitude to live one’s life by, so to put it to practice, the artist has to apply this industry focus method to their specific roles within the industry. For example, my current roles include writing, composing, performing, and audio engineering. These are the biggest media industry-related constants in my life. Looking to the future, I think publishing will probably be a big constant in my life as well. Hopefully performance rights, licensing, and royalties will also be some areas I need to watch. I would eventually like to make touring a part of my life, but touring is synonymous with unpredictability. I find that intimidating.
In order to achieve the kind of success that sees a touring artist collecting royalties, I need to be able to maintain myself. The most critical aspect of artist maintenance is financial. Keeping costs down is a matter of budgeting. As an artist, I can make everything myself. I’m even experienced with recording and mastering – I own plenty of recording equipment, and it’s free for me to use! Making a release that goes beyond a disc in a jewel case will be no problem. The key is in creativity and abstract perspectives. Touring is the expensive part of the start up scene; gas prices are higher than planes fly, and forget flying because plane ticket prices are higher than gas prices. There are risks that come with the road as well: financing, scheduling, health, and morale are all vulnerable to failure. However I keep costs low, I can’t cut costs by sacrificing production value. On the contrary, I need push the production value through the roof and explore my innovative side. In the end, the most important element of a growing star is its ability to stand out.
That’s what all this is really adding up to: ultimately, I need to decide how I will make myself stand out as an artist. This is crucial in the quest for stardom, a fan base, and prestige. I’m not saying that I aim for fame, because indie is trendy, and I’m perfectly content with the small-time scene. What I am saying is that, even in obscurity, giving one’s artistic side uninhibited control over the production of their image is going to reveal some unique and captivating qualities. These qualities are essential in pushing one’s self to the forefront of the public’s popular context – the “in crowd” if you will, while remaining “authentic”.
So what qualities do I possess that will make me stand out to the subculture that I cater to (my niche)? I truly hadn’t considered it before, but upon this first consideration of the matter, this is what I came up with:
1. I know myself to be very acutely tuned to my own predictability, which I loathe. This keeps me spontaneous and exciting. Spontaneity and excitement are attributes worth following an individual for.
2. My work is visually oriented. Even the song lyrics I write are almost completely composed of metaphorical visuals (while remaining clear to the intuitive listener, I assure you).
If I commit myself to artistic expression in every facet of my artistic medium (performance, recording, production distribution, etc.), my shows will be unforgettable, my tracks will be anything but tedious, and any physical product will undoubtedly retain some advantageous peculiarity. Sweet dreams are made of this – a distinct outline of the hipster’s modern Christ. I’m obviously romanticizing excessively, but only for the sake of intrigue and [admittedly] to fill my word quota.
Despite my digression, the fact remains: I possess qualities that set me apart from the indifferent ocean of bands sitting just beyond my doorstep. In identifying and applying them, I am taking a smart first step into a world where artistic integrity is leveraged against a faulty formula for success. As I don’t foresee the abandonment of my artistic integrity, it will be my commitment to this state of mind that determines my level of success.
Download The New Rockstar Philosophy and take it for a spin.
Visit my solo project's Bandcamp site, and download a single for free.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Ethics of a 21st Century “Going Dutch”
On the first of January, in 2006, a group of liberally minded individuals banded together for the first time in history to bring piracy into the political agora when the first Pirate Party was established in Sweden. Since that time, the ranks of privateers have grown considerably, now embedded in over twenty countries and with seats in the European Parliament. Mind you, these pirates aren’t your stereotypical high seas, treasure-nabbing “Arrr-sayers.” On the contrary, you probably know at least one. Even you, yourself, may be one of them! You see, the booty that these pirates are interested in plundering is digital media. Though it is a topic brimming with controversy, may there be an ethical foundation to this movement?
The Pirate Party would argue that, indeed, this is the case. It is a group firmly founded its convictions – that the modern copyright system is corrupt, the current patent system is out-dated and abused, and that personal privacy is an undeniable right. This is part of their declaration of principles, and for these reasons, members of the Pirate Party believe that all information should be freely exchangeable. This certainly sounds noble. Why, then, has piracy received such retribution from the likes of the RIAA, MPAA, FCC, record labels and studios, and artists the world over?
Speaking of retribution, the media industry’s response to piracy in recent years nearly rivals that of Captain Kidd’s 19th century war on piracy for the British East India Company. In May of 2006, the physical host of online file sharing-mecca The Pirate Bay was raided and, in April of 2009, the sites operators were found guilty of accessory to crime against copyright law. While The Pirate Bay remained operational (largely in thanks to a duplicitous political runaround provided by proactive members of the Pirate Party), in October of 2010, the popular peer-to-peer networking utility LimeWire finally followed its predecessors into the darkness. In an aggressive joint retort, Arista, Atlantic, BMG, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony, UMG, and Warner filed a court order to cease and desist the uploading and downloading of copyrighted works. Within a matter of weeks, the United States Senate approved the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, giving the Department of Homeland Security the demonstrative power of indiscreet government action.
You can almost hear the whipped and weary lamentation of illegitimate file connoisseurs the world over, but resistance has always fueled innovation and this dark hour is no exception. After the fall of first-generation peer-to-peer networks like Napster and Kazaa at the turn of the millennium, file sharers turned to clients like LimeWire, and Ares. As these tools are stifled and snuffed out, their communities are becoming more and more tech-savvy; torrent files and programs like Vuze, BitTorrent, and Transmission are becoming desktop staples. Online Digital Rights Management is being phased out as quickly as it arrived on the scene, less than a decade after it’s mainstream debut. In its heyday, DRM was circumvented on a regular basis. Even today, anti-piracy victories are short-lived; just days after LimeWire’s shutdown, a rogue programmer released a hacked “Pirate Edition” of the company’s software that has come to be known as ShareWire. If history is any indicator, I think it’s safe to assume that no matter what initiatives are set in motion, the power is always with the people, and the people of the 21st century are decidedly going Dutch.
Back to the plight of the Pirate party: Is their cause legitimate? The Pirate Party’s Declaration of Principles opens with the assertion, “We wish to change global legislation to facilitate the emerging information society, which is characterized by diversity and openness. We do this by requiring an increased level of respect for the citizens and their right to privacy, as well as reforms to copyright and patent law.” The Pirate Party admits in their own declaration that copyright is intended for the good of society. Copyright was developed to encourage the creation and sharing of new ideas. Their philosophy deviates from conventional opinion in that copyright, for its contemporary intents and purposes, has been precariously distorted. They maintain that modern copyrights inhibit information’s natural ability to spread and grow for the benefit of society and propose a return to a less strict copyright system. After all, incentive for innovation should exist; creators and inventors – pioneers, if you will, must have a logical motivation to drive forward the universe of knowledge and art.
Are the labels responsible for shuttering LimeWire justified in their actions? How could adversaries of this noble movement exist? The ugly truth of the matter is that not every media pirate is a Pirate Party Pirate. Like Black Bart in the Golden Age of Piracy, many online file sharers simply steal stuff. If the world were as ideal as Thomas More’s Utopia, the Pirate Party would have a sound peg leg to stand on, but this is not the case. Individuals can pour their entire livelihoods into projects like James Cameron’s Avatar and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now, and find themselves in the wake of legendary success with no compensation to show for it. Perhaps this is why net neutrality has been met with such contention; in an ideal world, the ability to access any online content regardless of the content’s nature or the end user’s intentions would usher in a new age of knowledge and growth, but in the hands of our sweetly twisted modern society, that kind of power would smother the financial motivation for creativity and invention and stunt any real growth humanity has left to look forward to.
Maybe someday our children’s children will be have the chance to use Spotify. The day may finally come when future generations are united in a justifiable economic appreciation of the arts, and the days of file sharing are buried deep and lost to the annals of history as sounds of The Beatles emanate from every corner of the streaming-cloud interactive universe of tomorrow. Perhaps someday all media will be public goods, inspired by the same altruism and community spirit that sustains today’s Pirate Party, and Starfleet officers will zip around the galaxy in nacelle-powered starship-class vessels.
TWEET ME!
The Pirate Party would argue that, indeed, this is the case. It is a group firmly founded its convictions – that the modern copyright system is corrupt, the current patent system is out-dated and abused, and that personal privacy is an undeniable right. This is part of their declaration of principles, and for these reasons, members of the Pirate Party believe that all information should be freely exchangeable. This certainly sounds noble. Why, then, has piracy received such retribution from the likes of the RIAA, MPAA, FCC, record labels and studios, and artists the world over?
Speaking of retribution, the media industry’s response to piracy in recent years nearly rivals that of Captain Kidd’s 19th century war on piracy for the British East India Company. In May of 2006, the physical host of online file sharing-mecca The Pirate Bay was raided and, in April of 2009, the sites operators were found guilty of accessory to crime against copyright law. While The Pirate Bay remained operational (largely in thanks to a duplicitous political runaround provided by proactive members of the Pirate Party), in October of 2010, the popular peer-to-peer networking utility LimeWire finally followed its predecessors into the darkness. In an aggressive joint retort, Arista, Atlantic, BMG, Capitol, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Motown, Priority, Sony, UMG, and Warner filed a court order to cease and desist the uploading and downloading of copyrighted works. Within a matter of weeks, the United States Senate approved the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, giving the Department of Homeland Security the demonstrative power of indiscreet government action.
You can almost hear the whipped and weary lamentation of illegitimate file connoisseurs the world over, but resistance has always fueled innovation and this dark hour is no exception. After the fall of first-generation peer-to-peer networks like Napster and Kazaa at the turn of the millennium, file sharers turned to clients like LimeWire, and Ares. As these tools are stifled and snuffed out, their communities are becoming more and more tech-savvy; torrent files and programs like Vuze, BitTorrent, and Transmission are becoming desktop staples. Online Digital Rights Management is being phased out as quickly as it arrived on the scene, less than a decade after it’s mainstream debut. In its heyday, DRM was circumvented on a regular basis. Even today, anti-piracy victories are short-lived; just days after LimeWire’s shutdown, a rogue programmer released a hacked “Pirate Edition” of the company’s software that has come to be known as ShareWire. If history is any indicator, I think it’s safe to assume that no matter what initiatives are set in motion, the power is always with the people, and the people of the 21st century are decidedly going Dutch.
Back to the plight of the Pirate party: Is their cause legitimate? The Pirate Party’s Declaration of Principles opens with the assertion, “We wish to change global legislation to facilitate the emerging information society, which is characterized by diversity and openness. We do this by requiring an increased level of respect for the citizens and their right to privacy, as well as reforms to copyright and patent law.” The Pirate Party admits in their own declaration that copyright is intended for the good of society. Copyright was developed to encourage the creation and sharing of new ideas. Their philosophy deviates from conventional opinion in that copyright, for its contemporary intents and purposes, has been precariously distorted. They maintain that modern copyrights inhibit information’s natural ability to spread and grow for the benefit of society and propose a return to a less strict copyright system. After all, incentive for innovation should exist; creators and inventors – pioneers, if you will, must have a logical motivation to drive forward the universe of knowledge and art.
Are the labels responsible for shuttering LimeWire justified in their actions? How could adversaries of this noble movement exist? The ugly truth of the matter is that not every media pirate is a Pirate Party Pirate. Like Black Bart in the Golden Age of Piracy, many online file sharers simply steal stuff. If the world were as ideal as Thomas More’s Utopia, the Pirate Party would have a sound peg leg to stand on, but this is not the case. Individuals can pour their entire livelihoods into projects like James Cameron’s Avatar and Taylor Swift’s Speak Now, and find themselves in the wake of legendary success with no compensation to show for it. Perhaps this is why net neutrality has been met with such contention; in an ideal world, the ability to access any online content regardless of the content’s nature or the end user’s intentions would usher in a new age of knowledge and growth, but in the hands of our sweetly twisted modern society, that kind of power would smother the financial motivation for creativity and invention and stunt any real growth humanity has left to look forward to.
Maybe someday our children’s children will be have the chance to use Spotify. The day may finally come when future generations are united in a justifiable economic appreciation of the arts, and the days of file sharing are buried deep and lost to the annals of history as sounds of The Beatles emanate from every corner of the streaming-cloud interactive universe of tomorrow. Perhaps someday all media will be public goods, inspired by the same altruism and community spirit that sustains today’s Pirate Party, and Starfleet officers will zip around the galaxy in nacelle-powered starship-class vessels.
TWEET ME!
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