thinking: relating- celebrating :-)

As a music fan, I love it when I get to work with musicians on their websites.

I like it even better when I find a service that really helps musicians in practical ways. Bandcamp is that service.

The music industry business model which was really a distribution service has now been displaced by a huge increase in digital media and social technologies.

Musicians still need marketing and promotion but it is now possible to do much of this at a more of a grass roots organic level.

Most everyone knows about iTunes and if you are a musician I think you still need to be there. The real value of iTunes though is really that it is linked to a payment system that most people have access to so that is very convenient for music consumers.

However if you are an artist – it takes quite a while for payments and sales data to come through, pricing is locked and this doesn’t suit everyone.

So how does Bandcamp help with some of this?

” On Bandcamp, albums outsell tracks 5 to 1 (in the rest of the music buying world, tracks outsell albums 16 to 1).

On name-your-price albums, fans pay an average of 50% more than whatever you set as your minimum.”

I recently uploaded up 6 albums on Bandcamp for Luke Hurley and here is what we found out.

Bandcamp has a variable pricing system that is easy to use. The very first album that sold on Bandcamp sold for more than double the minimum price which is a big win if you are the musician.

For example you can still buy individual tracks at $US1 or equivalent but for an album we have set most prices at $USD8 or the equivalent of $NZ10. You may also choose to pay more. This makes it less expensive to buy albums when that suits.

1. Bandcamp also makes it easier to offer special pricing as it is more direct to the artist.
2. The share / social media embedded players are easy to use.
3. Another advantage of bandcamp is that it allows you to download other higher quality sound file types such as 320k Mp3′s, FLAC, AAC, MP3 VBR (VO), Ogg Vorbis and ALAC (so far.)  I don’t expect many people want those file types but it is a nice to have feature.

Bandcamp is very good for  sharing the music on facebook and your own websites.The Facebook share allows you to play a song in that page without taking you away from thre stream you are viewing.

Best of all though listening to the whole song before you buy beats 30 or 90 second previews on other sites.

Listen to the live Luke Hurley album Limited Liability

The stats off Bandcamp are also very useful for musicicans. There is even a stat for partial plays where the full track is not played.

And perhaps best of all – when there is a sale that $ is transferred directly to the musicians PayPal ( at the time of sale) and this makes them very happy.

There are also other complementary musiciaian services that you may use and I’d be happy to compare notes if you are looking for help.

One of the nicer things about getting older is being able to take a longer term perspective on the future.

More specifically; how our lives and those of our friends turn out based on decisions and actions in time past. It is a truism that we often don’t know or fully understand the significance of key events until much later.

The trigger for some of these thoughts was a long term wedding anniversary which is great achievement in itself but the what I really enjoyed was the opportunity to compare notes across a very wide sample of people ranging from 3 to 70+ .

In some case I talked with people I hadn’t seen in 30 years. With so many people it was a series of quick snapshots on what they or I had been up to and the results were often fascinating.

Marshall McLuhan famously said that “Predicting the present” was more difficult that trying to guess the future.

In answer to the question What Are You Optimistic About? Howard Rhinegold started his answer in this way (in a 2007 series.)

“The tools for cultural production and distribution are in the pockets of 14 year olds.

This does not guarantee that they will do the hard work of democratic self-governance: the tools that enable the free circulation of information and communication of opinion are necessary but not sufficient for the formation of public opinion.

Ask yourself this question: Which kind of population seems more likely to become actively engaged in civic affairs

— a population of passive consumers, sitting slackjawed in their darkened rooms, soaking in mass-manufactured culture that is broadcast by a few to an audience of many,

or a world of creators who might be misinformed or ill-intentioned, but in any case are actively engaged in producing as well as consuming cultural products?

Recent polls indicate that a majority of today’s youth — the “digital natives” for whom laptops and wireless Internet connections are part of the environment, like electricity and running water — have created as well as consumed online content.

I think this bodes well for the possibility that they will take the repair of the world into their own hands, instead of turning away from civic issues, or turning to nihilistic destruction.

In my life I’ve been far more motivated by causes and big ideas than anything else.

My Dad always used to say he wouldn’t know how he’d done till he sees how our children turn out. How is that for a longer term view? My daughter keeps me on my toes  and we are enjoying the journey of being engaged with the world around us and beyond.

I agree with Rhinegold and the idea that we can choose to repair the present and engage with optimism.

With recent events in Egypt still unfolding we can take heart that it is largely the youth of that nation who have called time on the tired old ideas of the past. (Linda Herrera)

“Some characteristics of this global generation are excessive communication, involving many people in decision making, multitasking, group work, blurring of public and private, sharing, individual expression, and collective identification.

Another important distinction between the generations is that the digital generation take what media theorist Clay Shirky calls “symmetrical participation” for granted.

In other words, they are not passive recipients of media and messages, as in the days when television and print media ruled, but take for granted that they can play a role in the simultaneous production, consumption, interaction with, and dissemination of on-line content.”

There is no doubt that the social connections and amplification of these ideas online has made a huge contribution to a far more optimistic future.

Got some sad new today. An young friend has passed away. He had been sick for a long time and it wasn’t unexpected but still a shock when it happens.

I had been looking at this video of Bruce Feiler who had a cancer and wanted to pass on some fatherly advice from his council of fathers.

The video is below. One of those pieces of advice was along the lines of.

“Everyone dies – but not every one lives. Live”

It sounds like a bit of a cliche but slowing down and smelling the roses, walking the turtle, soaking up every piece of enjoyment in the now – is a big deal; precisely because we don’t do that.

Having cancer and recovering is a very big deal and it brings life sharply into focus. I encourage you to watch the video. By the way my buddy who died this week – he lived well.

It is still very sad for his family and friends but he made the most of each day which is as it should be.

“Diagnosed with cancer, Bruce Feiler worried first about his young family. So — as he shares in this funny, rambling and ultimately thoughtful talk — he asked his closest friends to become a “council of dads,” bringing their own lifetimes of wisdom to advise his twin daughters as they grow.”

The other event of the day was a visit to a music recording studio in the country.  I’ve been meaning to visit the owner for a while and today was that day.

We used to work together 25 years ago and about 20 years back he realised his dream of having a creative space for musicians to record their songs and their stories.

The studio had been in the city for a few years and when the lease on that space came up the opportunity to move to the country was too good to pass up.

However  moving a whole range of handcrafted fixtures and fittings is not simple and when it is a recording studio it is more like a never ending puzzle.

Relocating has meant a huge amount of work and in that process the owner has come to value life even more.  It has been a labour of love where everything has been recycled, reused and re-instated.

Without going into details that rebirth of the studio is a triumph for him and his family and now a fantastic music recording space for musicians from around the world.

This was a reminder to me that you can have all the toys but there is no substitute for slowing down and taking stock of what we have.  Revolver Studios is a creative space in the country where time and relationships are valued beyond measure.

I reckon we will hear that in the music that is recorded and created there.  More than  ever when I reflect on these two lives I want to make every moment count and really live each moment in a way that counts.