It’s NZ Music month coming up again in May and we’re going to be putting on a series of four seminars this year for all you musicians out there who want to learn more about the music industry and how to really get your band to the next level in New Zealand. I’m working with the Creative People’s Centre to organise these seminars and we’ve put together a great program with some key music industry speakers so make sure you check out all the information and register early as numbers are limited. Here’s the full rundown with all the dates and speakers, David McLaughlin will be chairing all the seminars and we’ll also be recording them to post on the CPC website.

7th May – What Every Musician Should Know – Vital issues every band and musician should make sure they are on top of.

Speakers:
Petrina George – APRA
Mark Roach – PPNZ
David Ridler – NZonAir

14th May – Developing the Business of Your Music – A discussion of the kinds of issues you should start to consider when you are ready to get more organised and professional in what you do with your music and how you run your career in the music industry.

Speakers:
Mark Kneebone – Isaac Promotions – Chairman IMNZ
Teresa Patterson – Chairperson – MMF
Ashley Page – Page One Management (ex head A&R Warner NZ)

21st May – Key Music Industry Contracts – An explanation of the key issues to be aware of in the most common agreements encountered in the music industry including, Recording Agreements, Publishing Agreements, Live Performance Agreements and Management Agreements.

Speakers:
David McLaughlin

28th May – Licensing and Publishing Explained – A discussion of what exactly the publishing and licensing of music involves in today’s music industry as well as the benefits involved and issues to be aware of.

Speakers:
Savina Kim – Native Tongue Music Publishing
Paul McLaney – Mushroom Music Publishing

Head over to the CPC website or Facebook page for more information, we’re also putting on an all day music jam over at the Depot Artspace in Devonport to celebrate music month. We’ve got all the backline sorted, just bring yourself and your instrument of choice and we’ll make some noise, nice.

This morning I was running through my RSS feeds and came across another great post from Andrew Dubbers New Music Strategies blog. The post was an interview with Stuart Price, intellectual property lawyer and Managing Director of Birmingham’s Young & Lee Solicitors who offered his top 5 tips for independent music business’s. Having access to good legal advice is really important for any artist, particularly when your looking at signing any type of deal which relates to music copyright and ownership. I’ve known quite a few artists who have signed away the copyright to their music without really understanding the implications. Legal advice can be expensive so I thought I’d let you know of 2 sources of free legal advice for musicians and artists.

The NZ Music Commission offers free legal advice to musicians and is worth looking in to if your looking for help with a range of legal issues. Check out their website or simply give them a call on 0800 469642.

Another option is the pro bono legal advice offered by The Creative People’s Centre and McLaughlin Law who provide legal advice and guidance to those involved in the creative industries. Now as you probably know I’m currently the website manager for the CPC website and have worked closely with David McLaughlin on the CPC project for the last 6 months. I’ve had quite a few of the artists I work with get together with David to look through contracts or discuss copyright issues and they’ve always found it really helpful.

You should really consider both of these options as a starting point if you ever need help with any legal aspects of your career as an artist. You know it makes sense!!

Things have been pretty quiet here on the Bluevibe studio blog for the last month, mostly due to the fact that I’ve completed the project management for the new Creative People’s Centre website. This is a project I took on about 6 months ago as project manager and with the help of the amazing Catch design and the staff at The Depot Artspace we’ve just launched the first stage of the site.

The latest in a series of seminars I’ve arranged through my work with bands at The Depot Artspace is being held on November 28th at the Masonic Tavern in Devonport. This time we’re focusing on funding your latest release and DIY options for funding your music career.

The Depot Artspace presents a one day seminar aimed at independent musicians who want to learn more about funding their next musical project. The morning session will feature presenters from NZ On Air (Emily Upston), Creative New Zealand (Gretchen La Roche) and the New Zealand Music Commission (Alan Holt) who will outline their funding policies. This will be a rare opportunity to "demystify" the funding process and gain an insight in to the support and advice offered by 3 of the major music funding agencies in New Zealand.

The afternoon session will consist of a panel discussion focusing on "DIY funding options" and "music as a career" with discussion topics including "how to fund your first release?"; "how to approach a sponsor?"; "how you can have a long term career as a musician?"; "do I really need a record label?".
The panel members are key local industry figures and artists including Chris Chetland (Kog transmissions), Mark Kneebone (IMNZ, Isaac promotions, Tardus music) and Rebecca Caughey (Funktion music, manager Shapeshifter and Ladi6).

Date – Friday, November 28th – 1030am to 400pm
Seminar cost – $5
Venue – The "Iconic" Masonic tavern, Devonport, Auckland
Seats are limited so please email your details to seminar@depotartspace.co.nz to reserve your place.

For more information
http://www.mypsace.com/cpcnz

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!

For the independent labels and artists this could mean that you stand a much better chance of getting in to the charts if your primary channel for music sales is direct to fans. On the flip side this could also mean that the big international acts will dominate the top slots in the charts when they play those big gigs at the Vector arena. It will be interesting to see how this is administered and what impact it will have on the chart once it is implemented.

It couldn’t find any evidence online to say NZ is the first country to implement this kind of response to the changing music market, it seems the UK and US charts haven’t implemented this yet and I would guess they never will due to the sheer number of venues and acts involved.

Here’s a few possible implications once this gets up and running, let me know how you think it will impact on music sales and if you even care about the NZ music charts.

• Roy Ayers will reach number 20 in the album charts after selling CD’s at his show in Auckland in October, nice work Roy!
• Ddub dominate the charts in 2009 after playing a 88 date non stop tour of NZ!
• Small collectives of musicians band together to put on regular tours and constantly feature in the charts after selling low budget compilation CD’s at their gigs.
• Bands spend less money on traditional marketing channels to launch their Albums and instead focus on building a strong social media presence so they can mobilise their fans to attend their live shows and buy their CD’s. (you should be doing this already)
• Bands stop playing in-stores and just play proper gigs!
• Mixtapes by talented local hiphop artists get the recognition they deserve.
• Dance music promoters begin to setup record labels and sell music direct to a captive audience.

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 .

I’d like to thank Bec’s for her contribution to the day and the depth of information and advice shared. The full podcast is 85mins long and well worth listening to as it covers topics from the changing role of the artist; writing press releases and bio’s plus a step by step guide covering how to put together a marketing plan for a tour.

Make sure you don’t miss out on the next podcast by either signing up for the Bluevibe studio newsletter or subscribing to the RSS feed. The next podcast features Lauren Clough from Maiden New Zealand Entertainment taking us through a detailed plan of how to launch an album in to the New Zealand market. The final installment focuses on digital promotion and features Matt Turner from Kurb promotions .

***** Update: you can check out all the recordings from the seminar over at the new Creative People’s Centre website. *****

You can also listen to this seminar online over at the excellent online radio station Jam radio . This series of podcasts will feature in a new monthly show I’m putting together for Jam radio focusing on the music industry with advice for musicians covering a range of industry topics and a few interviews with local musicians and industry figures.

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.

“Promotions and publicity for independent musicians – The Depot Artspace presents a one day seminar aimed at independent musicians who want to learn how to promote their music in New Zealand. Speaking at the seminar will be a selected number of key local music industry figures who will share their experiences and answer your questions on topics including tour promotion; publicising your next album release and how to promote your music online effectively.”

Rebeca Caughey – Funktion Music Media
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.

Lauren Clough – Maiden New Zealand Entertainment
Maiden New Zealand is a music marketing & promotion company set-up in May 2007 by former EMI Label Manager Lauren Clough.  Lauren mainly works alongside independent NZ artists to promote their music through radio & video play, marketing, publicity, album releases and touring.  Artists currently on the roster include The Black Seeds, Sola Rosa, Iva Lamkum, Cornerstone Roots, Tahuna Breaks, The Midnights, Andy Lovegrove & Flip Grater.  As well as working with artists, Lauren also does publicity for music festivals, NZ Music Awards, APRA Silver Scrolls & NZ Music Month and will shortly be moving into artist management.

Matt Turner - Kurb promotions
Kurb is an online promotion company specialising in digital music marketing and artist management.

Date – Tuesday, July 22nd – 915am to 400pm
Seminar cost – $5
Venue – Kerr street Artspace, Devonport, Auckland
Seats are limited so please email your details to seminar@depotartspace.co.nz to reserve your place.

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.

So here’s the plan at the moment:

• Myspace – many people think myspace is dead as a way of finding music fans and specifially music buyers but it’s a platform which still needs some attention. I’ve really only been using myspace so far to find collaborators which has been really successful but now I’m going to start building up my network of music fans.
• Last.fm – I have an account but haven’t really been using it so I’m really going to start spending some time getting to know a few of my neighbours and getting involved in the community.
• Facebook – I have my Bluevibe studio page but haven’t really started to push it yet. I need to learn a little more about how to make the most out of the facebook community before getting things going.
• Coopr8 – a great music community out of the UK with some real music lovers on board. This is a niche community site which I’m going to be spending some time on to build up a network for the EP.
• Voeveo – I currently sell my ring tones through Voeveo but they also have a social aspect to the site which I’ll spending more time getting involved with over the coming weeks. I also won a promotion package last month with Voeveo and will be working with the team there to promote the EP.

As you can see focusing on some of the social media sites I’m currently involved with and really making an active contribution to the community is something which I’m hoping will help to build a good level of awareness around the launch of the EP and my music in general. Social music sites should be seen as part of your digital promotion strategy but I actually feel that your music sales should be a secondary consideration behind the huge number of other benefits you will see from being involved in sites like last.fm and Coopr8. Discovering amazing independent artists and supporting the music you love should always be the driving force and not clocking up as many friends as you can find! Call me naive but it’s the real personal interactions which will help the music scene and your career both online and off.

I’ll be posting about the full promotion plan in a few weeks and will be getting a few local experts on board to help me put my plan together. Finding fans for my music in New Zealand will mostly be done through some of the more traditional methods and will consume the larger part of my small budget for this release. I’ll be talking to a few people about how to get really creative with your cash when it comes to promotion and outlining a few of the ideas for you here. If you’d like those posts delivered direct to your inbox then subscribe to my blog and just sit back, relax, listen to some hiphop!

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.

Dave Hooper from MusicMarketing.com is setting up a new section of his excellent blog and is giving away free advice to musicians who subscribe to his mailing list. Not only is this a great opportunity for bands it’s also an excellent way for Dave to generate content and get more subscriptions.

Dave will be talking one on one with the “winners”of this offer and sharing his advice with his readers. This looks like a great idea and I’m really looking forward to reading the results, I’ll be subscribing to see if I can get some advice on the release of the new Bluevibe studio EP which is actually one step away from being finished, finally!

It will also be interesting to see who actually gets the free advice? It would be great to see bands from all over the globe, from different genres with different demographics of fans. Will selling an album to punks in the UK be different than selling a dub album to New Zealand fans?

If you write your own blog this type of direct connection with your audience could be a great way to give something back to your readers, create some content and expand your email list all at the same time. As a blogger asking questions of your readers should be something you actively do and I think Dave is taking this to the next level by offering this kind of interaction.