Industry

NZ musician magazine have just announced that the NZ Album Chart is set to include sales of Albums at gigs.

"RIANZ have announced that to reflect buying pattern changes in the declining retail market, sales of music albums at artists’ gigs will from now on count towards the Official NZ Album Chart. Previously only traditional retail sales counted toward the chart, with online sales added about two years ago.

The new changes open up the chart rules around who is eligible to file sales returns, bringing artists themselves into the equation. Venue sales returns will have to be signed by the artist, the venue and the record company, with the sales figures counted as being made on the day of the gig and eligible for that week’s chart. Strict rules will govern how the returns from gigs are managed and CEO Campbell Smith says RIANZ have the power of audit over every return with some pretty severe penalties for falsifying sales information."

This could have a number of implications for those artists who actually care about getting in to the NZ charts as at present it only takes approx 20 album sales to get in to the top 100 Album chart! [click to continue...]

 

 Music industry seminar: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week I’m starting a series of podcasts recorded at a recent seminar I presented in conjunction with The Depot Artspace and The Creative Peoples Center. The seminar took place last month and focused on the subject of promotions for independent musicians. I decided to break the rather large topic of promotions up in to 3 specific areas; tour promotion; album promotion and digital promotion.

This first podcast features Rebecca Caughey covering the topic of tour promotion and marketing. Rebecca is the Managing Director of Funktion Music Media . She currently manages Shapeshifter and Ladi6 and is a tour publicist for artists such as Bic Runga and Brooke Fraser . [click to continue...]

Things are pretty busy down at the studio at the moment with the new EP and a few other projects I’ve got on the go. One of those new projects is a seminar for musicians who want to learn more about promotion and publicity. I’ve got some amazing speakers onboard for the day so if your in Auckland on July 22nd then come over to Devonport and check it out. I’ll be recording the seminar and will be making it available as a podcast for all those who can’t make it along on the day. [click to continue...]

Finding your fans is something that we all should be doing on a regular basis and one of the simplest ways is through the many social music sites. So here’s a quick outline of my plan for building up my network of fans before I release the EP. This only focuses on the social music sites that I’m currently involved with and doesn’t cover all the aspects of my digital strategy which will also include posting on forums, commenting on blogs etc. If you have any other suggestions for building up my music networks then let me know by adding a comment, any help is always appreciated and I’ll be posting about my experiences with these different strategies as we go along. [click to continue...]

It’s currently New Zealand music month and I wanted to ask the question “Is music a career?” Chris Knox actually got me thinking about this on May 1st when he was quoted in the media as saying “If you don’t have a passion for it there’s no point in doing it. Don’t think it’s a career, it’s a gift, a vocation, but it’s not a career.”

Now when I first heard him say it I was more than a little pissed about it. My other job is as an artist career facilitator at the Depot in Auckland helping musicians and audio engineers with, well, their careers. It’s a fancy title which basically means I help with anything from careers advice to business planning, arranging mentoring and work experience plus making a few industry connections for the artists. It’s a great job because I get to work with some amazingly talented people who are trying to make a living from their art. Some of them see it as a career, some don’t, most see it as something they just do because they love it and would like to make some money from it so they don’t have to go work in an office!

So back to Chris Knox, once the initial rage had worn off i spent a few days letting it settle in and wanted to ask you your opinion. Is music your career? Is it your vocation? Is it just something you do?

If it is a career then what are the factors which make you think of it as a career? Is it a career if you make money out of it? Is it a career if you spend every living hour writing, rehearsing, playing your music?

To be honest I’m still undecided what the difference is between a career and a vocation? Is it passion? Love? Commitment? Do nurses or doctors see their jobs as careers? Vocations?

I’m actually undecided on if it’s a career or a vocation (or some other word) but feel strongly that if your a musician struggling to make ends meet, living on the bare minimum so you can pursue your passion then other people should see it as a career or vocation, even if you don’t want to.