the dotmatrix project

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is the new David Byrne / Brian Eno collaboration dropping on Monday, August 18th. And as exciting as that is for fans of the tandem, the release is only a small part of the news.

Ian Rogers‘ Topspin Media has developed a web platform for independent musicians to manage their music distribution, which has apparently standardized on a greater set of distribution features than what they provided Trent Reznor for his Ghosts I-IV and The Slip releases.

For this particular release, Byrne / Eno are providing a free track from the album — Strange Overtones — for the cost of my email address. Since I’m a fan, I’m more than happy to engage in such a transaction. And after listening to the single, I’m all over the album come Monday.

Strange Overtones

So how will I be able to get my hands on the full release? David Byrne explains:

[...] the music will be available on this Web site on August 18th, free for streaming and available for purchase as both a download and in physical formats. [...]

The NIN releases were so damn fair — both free and pay download options, a range of physical products at decent prices — and since the music was distributed directly by the artist, there was a tangible sense that I wasn’t stuffing the pockets of fat cat major label middle-men.

I’m not sure what Topspin’s business model is, but I highly doubt they’ll be making coin by taking > 50% of the gross.

With DMP’s current pace to release ~25 albums per year — all by local musicians with limited resources and online distribution know how — I’ve sent Topspin a note to see if our project might make for an useful and interesting scenario addition to their current platform development plans.

Crossing my fingers.

UPDATE: The full album, streaming:

I had an interesting lunch hour today, bumping into two local music heads who got me thinking about the “value” of a recording — both intrinsically and in today’s market.

First, I spent a few minutes rapping with Chuck Carroll over at Edward McKay on Battleground, after stopping by to put up a last minute show poster for tomorrow night’s gig.

Seeing all the CD’s in bins, with a packed parking lot outside and scores of young(er) people browsing the store, absolutely yanked my gray matter back to 1986.

Back then, I’d hang out at Crazy Rhythms record store after school, buying music either via stolen quarters from my Dad’s NJ Parkway toll jar or using up my meager allowance. If I was broke, which was the majority of the time, I’d just be lounging to check out what was new.

It was an experience just to be there.

Chuck, a manager at EM and a DJ at WQFS, happened to be available this afternoon to chat, so I on-the-fly pitched him a few distribution/co-sponsorship ideas about getting DMP compilation CD’s onto his shelves.

The Real World Blues

It’s not that Chuck isn’t into the concept of the project or a supporter of local music, but as soon as we started talking numbers, it became obvious that he had a hard time picturing an investment in more than just a few CDs at a time.

Before you comment, yes, I know this is 2008 and not 1988. FREE is a major part of our strategy to get the word out. But no matter the degree to which reality has camped out in my skull, there’s simply a draw, an indescribable allure, in making music available in a tangible format — particularly in an environment where two people can share in the vibe of the transaction of taking it home.

And that takes material production, which costs money.

So now that our online approach is somewhat standardized, I’m beginning to focus on the challenges surrounding the production and distribution of DMP compilation CDs — particularly, how best to collaborate with local institutions to make them readily available to people within the community.

The interesting angle of this particular business problem lies in figuring out how production costs can be covered with a barter approach, similar to how the media was created in the first place through the barter between artists.

Essentially, co-marketing each other.

What value can we provide a business for their percentage investment in the production of the CDs and their management of distribution to customers?

I’m thinking that if we can work with a number of supportive local businesses — coffee shops, book stores, bars, etc. — to offset the production costs, we can then divvy up the CDs to be made available in those same spots for either a low cost (a $5 CD where the profits go to the retail shop) or free with a swap of an email address (which we’d add to our Google Group or similar).

And all of this depends on how cool both the bands and the businesses are with the idea. I’m not interested in making coin in this process, but unless we find some hardcore music loving establishments, coin is what speaks to most businesses. And then once money becomes a part of the picture, the deal gets much more intricate.

We’ll see where this all goes.

Is It Live Or Is It Memorex?

After speaking with Chuck, I headed over to Earth Fare to hang another poster and ran into the venerable Kathy Clark. I mentioned my conversation with Chuck and that sparked a parking lot discussion about the live albums we’ve put out to date.

Kathy spent some time over the last few days reviewing the six live albums I brought to her show last Friday, and in the end, was only truly impressed by the Citified album.

It wasn’t the quality of the recordings that threw her off, but the actual performances of the bands on the recordings. A missed line here, not singing into the mic there, a bad fill in-between, you know, the realities of a live performance. Citified was by far the tightest band we’ve put on so far, so that aligned with her expectations of listening to an album.

I enjoy studio recordings just as much as the next music fan, but the studio creates a level of controlled perfection that’s hardly ever replicated at a live show — unless the band explicitly chooses to follow that creative line.

That said, the allure of a live album, to me, lies in the unplanned interactions with the audience, the fleeting moments of tightness that defies the very definition of a live performance and yes, the very warts that made Kathy cringe.

Photo by Stephen Charles

But I absolutely get where Kathy is coming from. I mean, would I romanticize these recordings in the same manner if I wasn’t as up close and personal with not only the show, but the bands and the entire process?

I don’t know. Probably not.

My goal in documenting and releasing this music — beyond exposing local artists to people who might never have checked them out in the first place — is to capture the realness of the show experience. But does the very process of recording live music alter the expected presentation of the art to a point where realness is no longer valuable?

Chew on that mind twister tomorrow night: Possum Jenkins w/ Tom Beardslee.

Paul Hunter’s video is beautiful. And Q could very well be dope… but I’ll never know.

Why?

So President Dupri (smacks forehead!) is going to give an unknown artist 10x the platform of a “regular artist,” instantly making them the voice of Procter & Gamble’s body spray everywhere.

Or more succinctly, we’re going to be mass exposed to artists. And not based on listeners pumping their credibility through a combination of music or ticket sales, 5 starred music videos, high numbers of track scrobbles on Last.fm or word of mouth (Jesus Christ, I can’t believe word of mouth was the last item in my list), but through commercials backed by the deep pockets of male perfume makers… after being hand picked by Jermaine Dupri.

It’s definitely a smart short-term bottom-line investment for TAG! — the unknown talent costs way less to represent and promote the brand than an established act, similar to reality TV, so Dupri can cycle through the “artists” who don’t pan out — but I’m already turning the channel.

I couldn’t possibly see a train wreck down the road. You?

photo by cordelia.

Runnin’ (Philippians RMX Instrumental)

As of right now, the 2 song drop w/ 3 remixes is going for $0.54 on Amie Street.

UPDATE: Video from eskay

photo by peaaacceeeee

This is some seriously crazy shit.

It’s American Brandstand: Marketers Underwrite Performers

[...] A decade ago, signing a record contract with a body spray company would have been unthinkable for most artists. But at a time when labels’ promotion budgets are declining, consumer brands can offer valuable exposure in print and television ads. Jeff Straughn, Island Def Jam’s vice president for strategic marketing, said that Tag might spend seven times as much promoting a release as a traditional label.

“When I started in this business 10 years ago, it was hard to get an artist to stand in front of a sign with a logo on it,” said David Caruso, the co-founder of Acme, the agency that negotiated the deal between Island Def Jam and Tag. “Now brands are engaging their audiences with content.” [...]

That’s what music is considered now: “content.” Stuff that can be packaged up and reused to provide value.

Call me old fashioned, but I like my serving of “the man” separate from my music.

Then again, it’s Jermaine Dupri at the helm, so you know the product is going to be crazy mainstream garbage anyway.

When I hear arguments about how artists “need” to get paid — as if there is only one breed of artist — and that this type of arrangement is the future of the music business, I tend to scratch my head and ponder the term “artist” as the signifier becomes unrecognizable to me.

Yes, I know that all music is not punk, anti-establishment, politically conscious, soul searching, etc. as well, but don’t you think there are any number of other artistic boundaries that a company like Procter & Gamble won’t be too psyched to cross through their association via funding?

It’ll be interesting to watch for where the lines are eventually drawn down at the factory.

This is moving us into a world where musicians are being placed on payroll to up the degree of cool that a product carries. Wow. Smells like teen spirit, alright. Man, Kurt Cobain must be rolling over in his grave right about now.

I’m actually intrigued to see what happens when the sugar daddy product line loses its “inherent relevance” to its audience. I mean, can TAG body spray always speak to the 16 to 24 demographic? What happens to the overexposed acts when the next freshness — say, DAB Douches — rolls into town?

The beauty of shit like this is that as certain people flock to the short route of overexposure and getting paid, a whole other mess of creative souls will press on even harder in the opposite direction — you know, working on their craft, becoming great performers and connecting with and creating community to make a living.

There’s always a tortoise and a hare.

Hip Hop is dead.

Or as Bob Lefsetz puts it:

[...] Every endorsement, every sponsorship, takes years off your career, just like smoking takes years off your life. Your audience needs to believe that THEY own you, not the man. That if you’re beholden to ANYBODY, it’s them! [...]

Except that with Hip Hop, “the game” is celebrated as much, if not more than the content or the musicianship of the actual artist.

The shit makes my head spin.

UPDATE: And the campaign hits TV:

I’m so not the target audience for this shit.

(via Nah Right)

Erica and Dima are pretty steamed over my post from last week where I stated that Kanye West didn’t care about Bonnaroo people. I also called him a Diva in passing, which probably didn’t help ingratiate me with fans either.

Since that comment thread is now completely steeped in spiraling emotion from all sides, I’m going to clarify my thoughts here. If this topic is a deader horse to you than Secretariat, please feel free to move on.

I want to share some of what Kanye has said on his own blog today to help me flesh out my thoughts (read the full post for total context. Sorry or the all caps, they’re not mine):

[...] I’M FUCKING HURT BY THIS ONE. ALL I CARE ABOUT ARE THE FANS. JUST SAY THIS OUT LOUD IN A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE, “KANYE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT GIVING A GOOD PERFORMANCE.” CAN ANYONE HONESTLY SAY THAT ????????? HAS ANYONE EVEN TAKEN THE TIME TO AT LEAST DO THE MATH??? BONNAROO SHOULD HAVE RELEASED A STATEMENT IN MY DEFENSE BUT SINCE THEY HAVEN’T LET’S BREAK DOWN THE WALLS ON THIS TRUMAN SHOW AND LET YOU KNOW WHAT REALLY OCCURRED!!! FOR OVER A MONTH WE WENT BACK AND FORTH ON WETHER OR NOT WE COULD EVEN FIT MY STAGE AT THE FESTIVAL. ONE DAY THEY WOULD SAY YES… WE’D SEND THEM OUR SPECS THEN THEY THEY’D SAY OK… THEN THEY WOULD SEND SPECS BACK THAT DIDN’T FIT THE STAGE. WE WERE OBVIOUSLY DEALING WITH FUCKING IDIOTS WHO DIDN’T REALLY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO REALLY PUT ON THIS SHOW PROPERLY. THEY TRIED 2 GIVE ME A TIME SLOT WERE IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE … I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHT SHOW DUMB ASS, IT’S NOT CALLED GLOW IN THE DARK FOR NO REASON SQUID BRAINS! MY PEOPLE WORKED OUT A COMPROMISED STAGE PLOT AND A 3AM TIME SLOT AND I AGREED. FAST FOWARD TO THE DAY OF THE SHOW. MY PRODUCTION MANAGER TRIED TO LOAD IN FOR 24 HOURS BEFORE I WENT ON STAGE BUT THE FESTIVAL WOULDN’T ALLOW US TO DO ANYTHING UNTILL PEARL JAM LEFT THE STAGE. PEARL JAM ENDED ONE HOUR
LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AT THAT POINT WE’RE RACING AGAINST THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AT 4:20AM DON COMES BACK 2 THE BUS AND TELLS ME, ” IT WOULD TAKE 45 MORE MINUTES TO PUT ALL YOUR PYRO IN!” I SAY I HAVE TO GET OUT THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. [...]

Ok, let me try to present my thoughts in context to those comments:

“KANYE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT GIVING A GOOD PERFORMANCE.”

That was not the indictment I heard coming out of Bonnaroo.

People that I know, who were there, told me that Kanye’s attempt to put on the “Glow in the Dark” show by any means necessary was the problem they experienced. No one I know or any quote I’ve read has questioned his desire to put on the best show possible. People are questioning his decision to force his production setup into a situation where the outcome could affect the festival experience in a negative manner.

Speaking of his production setup…

[...] FOR OVER A MONTH WE WENT BACK AND FORTH ON WETHER OR NOT WE COULD EVEN FIT MY STAGE AT THE FESTIVAL. ONE DAY THEY WOULD SAY YES… WE’D SEND THEM OUR SPECS THEN THEY THEY’D SAY OK… THEN THEY WOULD SEND SPECS BACK THAT DIDN’T FIT THE STAGE. WE WERE OBVIOUSLY DEALING WITH FUCKING IDIOTS WHO DIDN’T REALLY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO REALLY PUT ON THIS SHOW PROPERLY. THEY TRIED 2 GIVE ME A TIME SLOT WERE IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE … I HAVE A FUCKING LIGHT SHOW DUMB ASS, IT’S NOT CALLED GLOW IN THE DARK FOR NO REASON SQUID BRAINS! [...]

I understand that Kanye wanted to reach a different audience with his current production, but if Bonnaroo was having so many issues with the specs, why chance it? Either pull out all together or go with a toned down production setup, rock the mic and leave people wanting more. It’s not like he’s never rocked a set without the Glow in the Dark gear, right?

And I do understand that his whole show right now — set list and all — is dependent on interactions with this production. But if he’s that locked into his stage setup in order to perform, the decision to pull out should have been much easier to make. Similarly, Bonnaroo could have made the very same decision.

Obviously, the gig was important to both parties, so in the end his people pushed, Bonnaroo pushed back, they negotiated a reasonable solution that both parties agreed to and both proceeded to roll the dice of creating an uber headline time slot, which depended on everything running perfectly at 3am in the morning in order to come off.

[...] MY PEOPLE WORKED OUT A COMPROMISED STAGE PLOT AND A 3AM TIME SLOT AND I AGREED. FAST FOWARD TO THE DAY OF THE SHOW. MY PRODUCTION MANAGER TRIED TO LOAD IN FOR 24 HOURS BEFORE I WENT ON STAGE BUT THE FESTIVAL WOULDN’T ALLOW US TO DO ANYTHING UNTILL PEARL JAM LEFT THE STAGE. PEARL JAM ENDED ONE HOUR LATE!!!!!!!!!! AT THAT POINT WE’RE RACING AGAINST THE SUN!!!!!! AT 4:20AM DON COMES BACK 2 THE BUS AND TELLS ME, ” IT WOULD TAKE 45 MORE MINUTES TO PUT ALL YOUR PYRO IN!” I SAY I HAVE TO GET OUT THERE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. [...]

Reading his account, as a human being, I can totally feel for the guy. I absolutely picture him pacing around, losing his mind more and more as each minute passed and the chance for dropping a great performance slipped farther and farther away from his grasp.

That said, I have little pity for the business man Kanye West. He empowered “his people” to leverage his influence, genre expanding potential, etc. to negotiate the Bonnaroo people into allow him to take the stage following the headline act with this complicated setup.

Bonnaroo blaming Pearl Jam for giving the crowd what they wanted would have done nothing except send a message to all future potential headliners that their headline status doesn’t mean much in reality.

Both parties messed up big time. The show should have never happened, but the promoters wanted the crowd to experience Kanye West and Kanye West wanted the exposure of the crowd, so they both took the risk.

And the people who stuck it out til 4:15am suffered for it.

I’m going to append my previous post title to reflect this new found conclusion — in the end, neither party cared much about the Bonnaroo people.

photo by (michelle)

He can.

photo by metalhazetc

UPDATE: Title appended based on this post.

My main man, Billy D, hit up Bonaroo last weekend, so I figured I’d get the Kanye West story straight from someone who experienced the debacle first-hand.

Warning: A painful description of an out of touch artist lies ahead:

Alright Sean here is what happened.

Kanye West was supposed to play his show at the same time as Jack Johnson (around 8:15ish) but a few days before the event Bonnaroo sent an official email out letting everyone know that Kanye West had requested a later time so he could show his high-dollar stage and light show that was part of his “glow in the dark” tour.

The time that was available, as well as the space that was needed for his stage set-up, was the main stage (What Stage) at 2:45am on Sunday morning. This was a bit late but because most folks are up late seeing all the bands on the small stages it was not a big stretch for most fans.

Here is where it all falls apart.

Pearl Jam played an extra long set that went over an hour past their designated time. This would not have been a big deal because there have never been any bands play the main stage after the main act of the day until this year to accommodate Kanye West. Because of Pearl Jams overage it apparently started to eat into the time the Kanye’s crew needed to set up his elaborate stage and the clock was ticking… When 2:45am came and went m and my fellow Bonnaroovians started to get a bit nervous. Rumors were flying that he had canceled and then the huge screens to the left and right of the stage flashed a message that the show was delayed till 3:15.

The first round of boooooooos went through the crowd.

3:15am came and went and some people started to leave. I had committed to staying because I really wanted to see the show. I have seen many live hip-hop shows and was hoping that it would be worth the wait. The crowd became more and more restless and they flashed up on the screens “postponed till 3:45am” and the crowd went wild with boos again.

To make a long story short it kept getting postponed and when he finally took the stage it was 4:30am. At that point I was a bit bitter because there were so many bands like Ghostland Observatory and other hip-hop acts like The Coup and Talib Kweli that I had not gone to see just to see Kanye West… I made it through “Diamonds from Sierra Leonne” and the sun started coming up so I left.

All I could think is that I got what I deserved for putting Kanye West in front of “Boots” Riley”, shame on me… The funny part is that the crowd at Bonnaroo would have been just as happy to have Kanye West on the stage just rapping and pouring his heart into his music, but at the end of the day he gave us a visual tour de force when no one even cared.

Right on the heals of my last post about building community with live performances we get this shit. Talk about no respect for the people you’re supposed to be vibing with. Check out some of the fan comments on this Village Voice article about the experience:

Elle: I went to Bonnaroo and I can confidently say I will never, ever buy any of Kanye’s music again. He was blatantly rude, pompous and to be quite honest put on a horrible performance.

nick: [...] the best part? this is a glow in the dark show. by the time he was done, it was light out. his final song led to him laying back down on the stage like he was going back to sleep. then the lights turned off and the show was over. BUT! since it wasn’t dark… he was just laying on stage. he stood up and walked down a ladder. the worst-most-embarassing dismount ever. what an idiot. [...]

Jay: I was there– the guy sucks. I mean I have seen high school plays that were better than that crap. He has earned grammy’s??? I sure hope he was just having a bad night, otherwise the music industry is about hype and NOT performance. [...]

Todd: [...] i’d forgive him if he apologized even now for it instead of blaming the crowd (the drunk/whatever crowd of young adults that had been awake for the last 20 hours standing in fields listening to speakers larger than their apartments set on 11) or his staff or anyone else. i was in the front section and i just stood there the whole time shaking my head in disbelief as to how he could continue this pre-recorded-looking performance without even acknowledging us. [...]

Lori: [...] What made the other acts so great was their musicianship and connecting with the audience. Too bad an artist as talented as Kanye didn’t realize that’s what the Bonnaroo experience is about.

That’s what all live performances should be about, but I guess a Diva will be a Diva, on wax or in person.

Here’s more of the love from the Bonnaroo crowd:

photo by kentkessinger

photo by jsnoblit

photo by n8foto

Photo by Tanya Peterson

In between cutting up tracks, designing album covers and coming up with structured tagging approaches for our media files, I’ve been trying to reduce my explanation of everything that surrounds DMP down to an elevator speech.

It’s a great exercise in communication design and a hell of a lot harder than it sounds:

• There’s the collaborative angle of what we’re doing — bringing together disparate creative communities to work together leading up to a live event and beyond. Mad fun, growth and hyper-local networking.
• Then there’s the promotions angle — providing an opportunity for the same folks to record and create media that can be pimped into perpetuity online and within local, meat space environments. Opening doors for future opportunities.
• And there’s the exposure angle — presenting local, original acts to a community for zero cost, which reduces the barriers for enjoying local acts to absolutely nothing. Hell, the show is free, the photos and video can be experienced online and the live albums can be download for free. Broadening the market for live music.

And that only touches upon the most obvious angles of the project. So how the hell do I go about collapsing all that into a 2 minute, understandable, oral description that I can drop in an (imaginary) brief elevator ride for a journalist, potential sponsor or interested participant to digest straight away?

Eh… I stopped trying to force it, and instead jumped straight to a tagline to describe the essence of what we’re doing:

FREE. LIVE. MUSIC.

Take it as “hey! there’s free, live music over here” or go deeper with something along the lines of, “it’s time to free up live music for people to enjoy everywhere” or something more elemental like, “be free to live in music.” Any way you read it, it speaks to our core values and approach, but delivered outside the staccato context of a banner or poster can it communicate enough?

Probably not.

As chance would have it, I stumbled across a Techcrunch article today by Michael Arrington from October 2007, which presented a well thought out position on recorded music’s inevitable march towards being free.

While I don’t buy into the absolute take on recorded music becoming completely free — label music is being affected as such, but with the cost of recording a CD being so low now, anyone can create one for the masses of people outside of San Jose who aren’t yet close to being 100% digital — the conversation that ensued in the trackbacks and comment thread was thought provoking.

This one comment by an anonymous “Aaron” made me stop in my tracks:

As someone who has been involved in the live music scene - as a fan, performer, producer, stage manager, and mixer - I really hope this does cause labels and even more artists to push for performances as the ‘real’ medium of the music. There are millions of people who would download for free albums by artists they would pay up to a hundred bucks to see live.

I’ll probably buy Radiohead’s new album for five or ten bucks (hopefully 95% profit for Yorke and the guys)… but if I drive down to the Shoreline to see them live I’ll end up paying thirty to eighty dollars.

The byproduct of this, I hope, is that people will get more interested in local music. Right now, it’s a chore for most bands to bring anybody (besides friends and family) out to a show, and the better venues have a pretty harsh chicken and egg policy in terms of letting new bands in (you cannot play shows unless you can bring 100 people, you can not build up a fan base until you’ve played shows!).

If this can create a push for a larger emphasis on live shows, which creates a demand for national headliners to bring in more local openers, that could encourage people to go see the locals when they headline shows, thus exposing them to even more local bands and hopefully turning them into people who are fans of local music in general instead of just specific bands. [...]

Exactly… sort of… I mean, people will always gravitate toward certain genres of music and they’ll always have favorite musicians and bands, but if we can cultivate the bug of simply enjoying the experience of a live performance, then we’re doing much more than promoting individual bands, putting on live shows and creating art within the framework of a music industry gone awry.

Not to be grandiose, but we’re actually contributing to a movement; one dedicated to focusing the wandering eyes and ears of music appreciation towards live, local and original music.

If musicians can bring it to their performances, consistently, they’ll build their rep within their communities — both local in the meat space and online where they choose to interact. Those artists will be able to make a living off their art. And if that movement takes hold — artists making “a living” as essential components of their communities — we’re then talking about independent musicians having access to the production and distribution tools — once only available to large labels — at an extremely affordable cost. This continuing advancement of technology allows such artists to independently grow their community of fans, both online and off, near and far.

Since the aggregate of music fans seem to already be moving in this direction of supporting live performances — rather than purchasing the prefabricated products of label marketing divisions — the hard work of convincing people of the value of live music is somewhat behind us. The work remaining for next gen-labels is similar to what every stage performer attempts to deliver to their audience — the goods.

So back to work we go in both defining what exactly that means and then executing on our vision.