Entry 10

Not much to report here today, played Leicester last night at the aforementioned Musician venue. I will say that the folks that turned up were very nice, and an interesting phenomenon was, being that the venue was a bit off the beaten path (as you might tell from the photo in the previous entry), the folks that did turn up were there because they wanted to be, which is a nice idea i think. There's obvious points of contention about that, ie, your music should be for everyone, music shouldn't be so exclusive and scene-y, sure, i pretty much agree with that, but its nice when you're made to feel welcome by an audience, simply put.

Some thoughts:

How do you tour as a band, solo act, duo or whatever incarnation of your art you might do and make a living out of it? I think the question isn't a new one but its becoming more pressing these days. It costs an awful lot to put a band on tour. It involves transport (petrol, hire or vehicle maintenance, a driver if you're really doing it proper), lodging, food...Thats not even considering getting the gigs in the first place, which usually requires an agent, and then all sorts of other things that go into actually being a band, like having a manager, paying press people, radio pluggers...its actually even more boring than that sounds...and then there's the actual playing of music, believe it or not.

The odd thing is: the time we're living in is one of HUGE upheaval, and the whole structure of all that is endangered. I think its mainly because it operates on the premise that this all pays off somewhere along the line: people buy your record, in mass quantities. Obviously, thats changing. I kind of feel two ways about the whole download thing. I found this today. someone has posted my EP up as a rapidshare file. pretty fucking funny, i thought---it hasn't even been released properly. there's no way around this kind of thing. and downloading is already there, as an option, always---people are already used to it. and its not hard to get whatever you're after, if you're willing to trudge through a few rapidshare or torrent pages. i've enjoyed pirated material before, programs, music, books, its all over the web. and i've felt somewhat entitled, as most people probably do, as everything always seems so expensive, and i also rationalized that i also spent plenty of money in my friend tom's record store. now i feel a little less anarchic about it. i have a greater appreciation of whats at stake for the artist. i remember when mark volman (from the turtles) gave a lecture at indiana university and broke down how much of the $18 for a new CD actually goes to an artist---less than a dollar, and thats after the label has recouped their loss.

You know I believe there's a happy ending to this---as the massive record companies begin to leave the equation, not being able to adapt to a smaller, tidier more intelligent economy, i think i see a brighter, smaller future on the horizon. the idea of the long tail, and that us smaller folks can actually carve out a living by selling our own music on our own terms, to people who really want it, for a fair price. it sounds good, doesn't it?

I dunno. just thoughts. in all honesty there's the lingering of the notion that one day it might all just be really easy, but like most fantasies, its probably not the thing that would make you happy...hmmm.