Since moving to New Zealand in 2000 I’ve had the pleasure to have worked with one of the most helpful and talented producers in the country, namely Kerry Adams. Kerry goes by many names including Tech, Bromide Dub, Compressor Kid and.. well the list goes on. His latest project has just been launched online and is the pilot from a series of “production tutorials” called “The Technical sessions“. Head over to The Proof website and check it out, this first episode focuses on the procedure for setting up a tone arm on your turntable. As Kerry points out it’s a question he gets asked regularly and he takes us through a great 5min rundown of the different types of cartridges and the basic concept behind setup.

The idea now is to get some funding or sponsorship for the rest of the series so if your interested in helping out then just let Kerry know, I’m sure he’d appreciate it. The fact that Kerry learned how to use the video editing software and put the whole thing together on no budget just shows what you can achieve if your passionate about what you do and proactive about getting yourself out there. Make sure you check out the tracks on his page too, the opening track on the pilot episode is a remix Kerry did of one of the Bluevibe studio tracks, Believe. With a few tracks being signed to some overseas labels and big plans ahead for The Technical sessions lets hope that Kerry gets some funding to really take his projects to the next level.

There are a huge number of local NZ artists taking it to the world with no assistance from local funding bodies who’s primary mandate is to focus on the local commercial market. Maybe it’s time to broaden the scope of funding to focus on the individual artist and their markets both locally and overseas. For many artists creating a sustainable income must include tapping in to their genre based markets overseas. Lets look a little deeper at encouraging local artists to have long term careers, not market driven blips. Ok rant over, props to Kerry and make sure you check out the pilot, well worth supporting some local talent taking it to a world stage.

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Some would say that the CD is already dead as a means of delivering music but I think the final nails are being driven in to the coffin by some innovative ways of selling digital downloads. A month ago I read a great review of a company called Discrevolt who sell customised cards which have a code on them which can be used to download files. These files can contain music, artwork, anything associated with the album or EP your selling. I thought it was a great idea (although they don’t currently sell the cards in to New Zealand) and could be used with any product you wanted to sell to your fans. So the question is what do your fans buy that could have this download code added to it?

Loop recordings have jumped on the idea and will be selling a t-shirt/album for the new Yes King album to be released on May 20th. It’s released in conjunction with Amplifier which is a NZ based download site so I’m assuming that they will be providing the codes to grab your download. I’ll post more details as I get them or maybe somebody from Loop could jump in and give us the full technical rundown.

The real question for you is “what do your fans buy?”. Are you a teen punk band who’s fans will buy anything with your name on it? Are you a techno producer who’s fan’s are in to minimal gadgets and flash headphones? Are you a country band who’s fans buy… errr … I dont really know much about country fans, but you get my point.

I collect toys and robots and miniature synths and would kill for a Platinum Pied Pipersrobot playing an SH101 with the download code printed on it to download the new album! There are lots of labels selling vinyl with download codes as part of the package but just how creative can you be with this sort of idea?

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Just a quick post this week with a list of links to my favourite music industry websites. These are the sites I subscribe to using their RSS feed through google reader, if you read quite a few blogs and don’t use RSS then you should really check it out. It just means that I can scan through a huge amount of information quickly and save all the interesting articles in one place to read when I actually have time.

So here’s the list of blogs who always deliver excellent content and some great insight in to the workings of the music industry. Take a look and get involved by leaving a comment. It’s great to have a conversation with these guys through comments because you can take the articles subject to a whole new level. If you have any suggestions for other music industry sites then just let me know by, well, leaving a comment.

Coolfer - Coolfer is a New York-based blog that covers music and the music industry. Started in August of 2003 as a way to expose the fledgling blogosphere to the insights of a person within the music industry, Coolfer.com has grown to become a respected and widely read source of news and opinion.

Newmusicstrategies – New music strategies is written by ex-pat Kiwi Andrew Dubber and is a must read for any artists with an interest in how to make the most of the online environment. After publishing the “20 things” e-book Andrew is now running through a list of the 100 most frequent questions he gets asked about the industry.

Sivers – this is the blog of Derek Sivers, founder of the ever expanding distribution company CD Baby. Great articles from a man who started one of the most successful online distribution companies, Derek jumps from very practical to thought provoking, always a great read.

Musicmarketing – “How to Sell More Records, Get More People to Your Shows, and Make More Money in the Music Business…”.

Knowthemusicbiz – “KnowTheMusicBiz.com is an online community for emerging artists, musicians and music executives. KTMB members can find, exchange and contribute valuable information about the business of music plus get advice and insight from industry thought leaders”. A great site which has a wide range of articles sourced from all over the web.

Musicthinktank – This new blog is fast becoming a great source of information and opinion. Contributors include Anthony Volodkin from Hype Machine, Andrew Dubber, Bruce Warila from Unsprung Media plus other music heavy weights.

Digitalaudioinsider – “Digital Audio Insider is a blog about the economics of online music distribution, from the perspective of a self-released, indie musician.”

Bob-baker – Bob Baker, author of several fantastic books on music marketing also publishes this blog. Always worth a read.

Kurb Promotions – Kurb is the only NZ based music industry blog and always offers food for thought on the future of the music industry. Just don’t take some of the articles too seriously, devils advocate can show up every now and again! Well worth subscribing to.

If you publish or subscribe to any similar blogs then drop me a comment and let me know.

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This week I’m spreading the word about the Soul Sides music blog, now some would say that everybody should already know about this amazing blog but it’s a wide wide web out there and I still talk to people who haven’t checked out Oliver Wang’s site.

Soul Sides is the first music blog I think I ever read on a regular basis and still enjoy because of it’s depth of knowledge and diverse approach to music blogging. The articles are always fresh and it’s been interesting and to see the blog develop over the years and still manage to keep one step ahead. Oliver has now started to write (amongst other things) more in depth articles based around a “box set“, the first focused on Aretha Franklin and the new one looks at Latin boogaloo, you can check it over at Uber.com.

Most of the musicians/producers/dj’s I know have an amazing level of knowledge around their style of music and don’t really think about how to maximise their opportunities for income generation (except being able to tell me which label my favourite artists released their first bootleg on and where I could buy it). Blogging can be a great way to move towards earning a living from your knowledge and passion and looking at how Oliver has done it could be a good start.

I’ll be posting a few articles in the future on music blogging and focusing on some of the bloggers who have used their blogs to start labels, release compilations and generally make more creative opportunities for themselves.

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This week I took some time out to attend the NZMC “warrant of fitness” seminars. There were 6 seminars covering topics ranging from international touring and the future of the independent labels. All in all I thought it was pretty good and some of the speakers managed to give some practical insight in to some of topics discussed.

I’ve been to a few of these things and they’re usually pretty similar in what they’re trying to achieve and the actual outcome. Most kiwi bands want to find out how to get their music in to overseas markets, they’re looking for specific answers and advice on how to do it and although there are always a few stories about the speakers experiences there aren’t any “answers” for these bands. Why is that?

It seems that one of the most used phrases through all the seminars was “it depends!”. Depends on the band, the country, the music, whether the stars are aligned in Jupiter!! Now this may seem a little vague but I think it is actually an honest answer to very specific questions.

We’d all like to buy the book titled “this is exactly how to make it in the music industry” but as we should all know, it doesn’t exist. There used to be a system by which major labels would attempt to break a band in a country, processes and plans which, if you threw enough money at it could mean that you got enough exposure to sell some records but I think that those days are quickly coming to an end. What I mean is those processes and plans are changing and developing in to something quite specific to the individual band, not just the related genre or country.

You still need a plan but it doesn’t have to be as rigid and cash dependent as it used to be, especially for the indie artist and especially in New Zealand. For most bands this isn’t anything new, you already know this, it was just surprising that the seminars didn’t really get in to any new and innovative ideas about strategies and specifically digital strategies. There were countless questions about this topic with little or no discussion and certainly no answers.

I took note of some of the questions related to the “future of the industry” and “how to get on to hype machine” and I’ll be writing a few posts on those topics. I certainly don’t have all the answers because, well, I’m still working with sites like last.fm and hype machine to see how to get the best from them so I’ll be giving some of my experience, pointing to some really great online articles and generally helping you to work it out for yourself.

I want to thank the NZMC for putting these seminars on as they are really important and always inspire a response from the people attending. Some walk away with some good ideas and others walk away realising that they really have to get out and talk to people and work it out for themselves.

I just wanted to quote Mike Holdsworth when asked about the future of the music industry and independent labels. “It’s currently in a state of flux but it’s a really exciting time!” Mike actually gave out some good information over the last 2 days but this little gem was a classic, thanks for the insight Mike!

I’d love to here what you thought about the seminars and what you got out of it, what topics do you think should be covered by future seminars?

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It’s been a big 2007 at the Bluevibe studio, I’ve been working out just what I’ve been doing locked away in the studio for the last 12 months. What’s this got to do with Warner music and Radiohead you ask? Well I’ve been spending quite a bit of time this year looking at the music industry, getting involved with a few different blogs and generally trying to decide my next steps in getting my music out there. This article from Mashable is one that really stuck in my head and made me think about the current environment and what that means for musicians and labels.

Warner music group made less profit last year than Radiohead did from their strategy for the new album! Check out the article on Mashable for all the info. but it basically says that Warners spent so much on legal and industry fees that they had $5 million profit. Now I’m not really a fan of the major labels and it really makes me quite happy to see those figures. It doesn’t mean that we can do it all ourselves and see the cash come rolling in, there are only a few bands in the world who could have used the Radiohead strategy with any success. What it means to me is that all this talk of “New strategies”could actually be more than just talk and speculation. It could actually be turned in to something more concrete, a next step forward for the independent producer. Here’s to 2008 and all the exciting prospects it holds, and now back to trying to finish the music!

Warner Music Group: Going the Way of the Dodo

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RCRD LBL is a new hybrid record label/blog, still in it’s early stages but has some cool articles and links to a wide range of music from around the web, worth keeping an eye on as an interesting model for a label and for now I can check out releases and get free music from Warp and Kompakt, nice.

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