Podcasts from the "What's the Future for Musicians? Summit by the Future of Music Coalition

The Future of Music Coalition just posted podcasts from their "What's the Future for Musicians Seminar" held at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk (back in September). We were in attendance and took part in a few of the discussions and can tell you first hand that it is well worth your while to take the time to download, listen and learn from them. In addition to the Chicago Summit, they have also posted the podcasts from the NYC Summit. Download them all. Good stuff.

Podcasts of Panels and Topics of discussion include:
(Chicago Sessions)
Music 2.0: How musicians can use technologies to promote and distribute their work
Health Insurance Advice for Musicians
New Revenue Review
Podcasting/Webcasting
The Greening of Music
Special conversation with the Numero Group
What is Net Neutrality, and why is it important for musicians


(New York Sessions)
Music 2.0: How musicians can use technologies to promote and distribute their work
Health Insurance Advice for Musicians
New Revenue Review
Podcasting/Webcasting
International Touring
What is Net Neutrality, and why is it important for musicians?
Policy Overview
Creative License: A Conversation About Music, Sampling and Fair Use



On a bit of a side note, many of the interviews that we conducted for our documentary, "Chicago's Promoters' Ordinance Kills Independent Music" were shot there. If you haven't yet seen the documentary, you can find it here.

Enjoy.

Support Independent Music or be force-fed CRAP!

Below are some pix of the event:

The New Mu$ic Capitol? / Chicago Music Commission: Panel Discussion

If you are a part of the creative community in Chicago, this should be of great interest to you. This Thursday, the Chicago Music Commission (CMC) is hosting a panel discussion focusing on the recent study, "Chicago: Music City" [PDF], released by CMC and University of Chicago. If you are not familiar with the CMC, they hold monthly panels dealing with a wide range of subject matter, as it pertains to musicians and the business of entertainment. They have several of their past panel discussions available for download and there is vast amounts of actionable knowledge right off the bat.


THIS EVENT IS FREE TO ATTEND.

Hope to see you there.

Below you will find more info pulled from their newsletter.
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Chicago: The New Mu$ic Capitol?

CHICAGO MUSIC COMMISSION TO PRESENT
LANDMARK PANEL OF CHICAGO MUSIC MOVERS AND SHAKERS
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On Thursday, January 24, the Chicago Music Commission will convene a diverse panel of experts for a groundbreaking public conversation on the economic opportunities being generated by Chicago¹s growing music industry. The event will take place at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph Street at 6 p.m., and is open to the public and free of charge. Never before has a panel of such caliber come together in public to discuss Chicago¹smusic industry, its future, and its impact on Chicago¹s economy at large.

The CMC is convening the panel in response to publicity surrounding the recent publication of the CMC¹s groundbreaking economic impact study "Chicago: Music City" [PDF] , conducted by the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago. The study exposes the strengths and weaknesses of Chicago¹s music industry in comparison with those of other North American cities. Along with co-authors Dan Silve and Sarah Lee, Lawrence Rothfield, faculty director of the Cultural Policy Center, will summarize the study¹s findings to open the event and the panelists will address the steps Chicago must take to be recognized as a world-class music city.

The panel of experts will include industry leaders representing many facets of Chicago¹s music economy, including media, promoters, venues, performers, educators, government, urban planners, record label owners, trade associations, recording studio executives and music industry unions.


Confirmed panelists to date include:
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Shala Akintunde
The Movement Worldwide (Producer and Performing Artist)

Martin Atkins
Invisible Records, Columbia College

Julie Burros
City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs

Laura Chmielewski
City of Chicago, Department of Tourism

Kenard Karter
WGCI Radio

Rita Lee
Nu Face Entertainment

Gary Matts
President, Chicago Federation of Musicians

Jerry Mickelson
Jam Productions

David Miranda
Univision Radio

Rich Moskal
Chicago Film Office

Shawn Murphy
ASCAP

Paul Natkin
Photo Reserve, Inc.

Heather M. Nelson-Beverly
Entertainment Attorney

Henry Perritt, Jr.
Co-Chair, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Task Force ³The Global Edge: An Agenda for Chicago's Future²

Lawrence Rothfield
Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago

Alan Salzenstein
DePaul Music Business School

Chris Schneider
Pressure Point Recording Studios

Michael Yerke
Live Nation, House of Blues

Dan Lurie of the CMC will moderate the discussion.

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³Chicago: Music City² is the first serious comparative study of music industries and music communities in the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S. The study provides an accurate portrait of music¹s power in influencing Chicago¹s economic health and will serve as a benchmark for measuring the future growth of the city¹s music community. The authors found that Chicago¹s music community is a significant economic engine:

-more-

· Chicago has the third largest number of music businesses among its peer national competitors

· Chicago has the third largest music-related workforce, with over 53,000 people generating over $1 billion in payroll

· Chicago¹s live music scene generates $80 million in revenues‹dwarfing better known scenes such as Austin (known as the ³Live Music Capital of America²)

· It is an ³omnivore¹s paradise² with affordable and diverse music offerings, and an aggregate concert capacity larger than any other city besides Los Angeles

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The Chicago Music Commission is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation
founded in 2005 by a group of concerned Chicagoans dedicated to heightening the local, national and international visibility of Chicago music; nurturing Chicago¹s vibrant music community; and organizing and advocating independently on behalf of the Chicago music community in the government and private sectors.

The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago was founded in
1999as a joint initiative of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and the Division of Humanities. The Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago is an interdisciplinary research center and nationally recognizedleader in the emerging field of cultural policy research and education. Its mission is to provide research and inform policy that affects the arts, humanities and cultural heritage.

Taste the rainbow ... or at least the red and the blue.

Just ran across this fun bit, detailing the listening and entertainment behaviors according to political bent (liberal vs conservative). Scroll down for the fun or click here. for more in depth stats.

- Out of 15 musical genres, conservatives were more likely than the rest of the respondents to listen to only two of them: country and gospel. What genre are they least likely to listen to, compared to the rest of the respondents? Not punk or hip-hop, as you might expect, but world music. World music is also the music genre where we see the greatest difference between conservatives and liberals.

- Conservatives are the least likely group to listen to jazz (34% vs. 44% vs. 53%) and reggae (8% vs. 20% vs. 26%).

- Over 90% of conservatives said they never enjoy reggae, electronic music or Latin music. Over 95% said they never enjoy world music and punk music.

- Liberals, on the other hand, are more likely than other respondents to enjoy almost every music genre, including world, punk, Latin, hip-hop and rap, blues, reggae, electronica, R&B and soul, jazz, folk and traditional music. Rock was the most popular genre among liberals (67%).

- Although all political types claimed they enjoy classical music, moderates were the least enamored with it (55.5% listen to it compared to almost 62% of the rest of respondents). Moderates also showed their distaste for folk & traditional music (72.5% said they don’t listen to it, compared to 62.4% of the rest of the respondents), and they joined conservatives in their distaste for world music (90% said they don’t listen to it, compared to 71% of liberals.)

- Moderates’ favorite music is rock (58%). Conservatives’ favorite music is classical (60%) followed by country (56%) and rock (55%).

ARTISTS : MEET THE FUTURE...

In the latest blow against the so-called "major labels", the much hyped release by Saul Williams/Trent Reznor, has built and improved upon the Radiohead model. While it certainly and by no means the only way to go, commercially, it looks like THE leading contender for a viable, working model in the future of independent artist music distribution.

While the industry remains so far out of touch , they may finally have no other choice but to answer the call if they wish to remain relevant.

The truth is, from an independent artist perspective, who really cares what their fate is - as they have never represented the artist (or the listener) to begin with ... their time has come and is long past it's due date - any artist worth their wieght in dog crap already knows this.

Here is how the Saul Williams/Trent Reznor release is structured: For the cost of your email addy, the listener is allowed to download the entire album (CD artwork and booklet included - yippiiieee) in 192k/mp3/DRM free format! For $5, the listener can choose between 360k/mp3 or the lossless FLAC file. For listener AND artist, this is a win/win situation ... listeners unfamilar with the artist, the free model gets the word out (which leads to more potential sales), while the paying customer gets what they actually pay for. Considering there are no distro, manufacturing, shipping, warehouse and/or inventory cost associated with the download model, the $5 price tag looks to be right on target. Kudos to Trent & Saul for following thru and helping to map the future.

Many thanks to the good folks at TheRecordIndustry.com for the massive amounts of info.

and as always ...

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MUSIC OF BE FORCE-FED CRAP.

Your ol' pal,
JaGoFF
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