catapult magazine

catapult magazine
 

discussion

the music industry

Default

grant
Nov 08 2002
05:42 am

The internet, Courtney Love, Ani Difranco and certain technological advances present challenges for a music industry that’s still structured according to a fifties and sixties model.

Labels typically act as loan companies that help artists pay for studio time, as long as it promises a return. This gives the label, which often cares only about profit, too much say in the final product. But now there are more Mobys, artists who can record anything they need to in their bedrooms or basements without needing a big budget or financial support from labels. Labels are still needed for mass-marketing, of course, but look what the marketing machine turns out these days: phonies like Alicia Keys while the real deals like Wilco get cast off.

The question is not IF the music industry has become irrelevant or WHEN it will crash and burn; the real question for Christians is how the industry should be structured now? Christians should be way ahead when it comes to reforming the industry, since Christian musicians and many Christian music listeners have been complaining about the limitations of Nashville’s CCM industry for decades now. What should an alternative to CCM and the broader music industry look like?

Default

kirstin
Jan 07 2003
06:21 am

i’m not sure it’s necessary to find a source of wealth to begin something like this. that might defeat the purpose of enabling and mobilizing people who are limited in the first place by a lack of funds.

what *cino could potentially offer in this area is a forum for researching and structuring basic principles that would enable these communities to survive. community living is a wonderful, idealistic thing, but sometimes when people get down to deciding whose turn it is to clean the toilet or do the dishes, everything deteriorates and ideals become less appealing. people can share passions—like music—but might not be able to live together.

how can we improve the possibility of success with the type of community being discussed here? would a set of basic principles, guided and informed by those who have experience living in community, be appropriate? how could a community be initiated without significant funds requiring an outside source?

Default

JabirdV
Jan 07 2003
06:59 am

I think mwooten bringing up L’abri is a good start. The Schaeffers created a community in Europe where anyone could come and no money was required, only participation in the work load. They had crops that they sold and other good that they made. Granted they did receive some funding, but not enough that would allow them to live on. A good book about the history and design of L’abri is the book “L’abri” by Edith Schaeffer.

Default

BBC
Jan 07 2003
12:19 pm

As somebody who lives in a kind of community (I live in a house with my family and my wife’ sister’s family) I can tell you that it helps a lot to have a shared vision, a committment to making it work, weekly planning meetings for who is cooking and which cars need to be where, and monthly finacial meetings so everyone knows how much money there is and where it is going. It helps to laugh and cry together now and then too.

For what its worth.

Default

joelspace
Jan 07 2003
07:09 pm

A friend of mine just told me about his experience working in a record store. For the first couple of years it was a Sam Goody store and they were told to put cd’s of their choice from different genres in their 5 disk changer to play during business hours. Then musicland (Best Buy) bought them out sent them 1 DVD a month to play instead. The DVD was 40 minutes long and played nsync/Britney spears pop all day long.

This is a huge problem!! It clearly demonstrates the company’s philosophy.

I think marketing needs to be thought of more educationally. Right now marketing is all business. Whoever has the most money gets their cd in the demo position or in the store DVD player.

Another point of concern: Grammy awards nominations. Almost all top 40 pop. They are really trying to cater to the mainstream. Instant success seems the only measure right now.

Default

JabirdV
Jan 08 2003
06:07 am

I hope you realize that all of the “Awards” are slanted by sales. The more sales, the better your chance for the award. Also note that the Awards are more of a popularity contest within the music comunity. If you are judging, and the contestants know who is judging, then it is in your best interest to get the cash cows up there. You might just work your way onto the next album and make a butt load of money your self.

When the Grammy’s come on I usually turn the TV off.

By the way, Overhang is still on my list of things to do. Hollywood kept me pretty busy this last quarter, but we are hoping things will slow down a bit for a month or so. Nice to see your still around, Joel.

Default

grant
Jan 08 2003
02:43 pm

Regarding the music community idea, I think one simple way of getting things started here on *cino is to set up the network portion of the site so that someone could say, “Hey, I just found a house for x amount of money in Michigan that could be used for a recording artists’ community. We should buy it within the next couple of weeks. Who’s in? Who can contribute financially?” Obviously this won’t work right away, but with enough people on here, that could be very effective. Of course, something like that would draw people to the site too.

And: This dialogue between several Christian musicians, including Common Children members etc., can easily happen at the Calvin College Festival of Music. Is that still happening, Mike?

Default

mwooten
Jan 08 2003
03:47 pm

Great point Grant. Yes, the festival of music and faith is still a go. Lots of wonderful artists will be there, and I am sure that many conversations will sound like the one going on throughout this post. I will be there and would love to have a time with any other member of cino who will be attending.

Grant, can we set up the room that you mentioned in your last post? I would love to begin moving towards these ideas that we talk about.

Default

JabirdV
Jan 08 2003
04:41 pm

OK the Festival Of Music And Faith is at Calvin…that much I got. When? Is there going to be video coverage? Does Jerry (one of the board members) know about it, and if so, is he goind to tape excerpts of it for the cable station? I want to catch what happens there, but most likely will be stock in CA.

Default

laurencer
Jan 08 2003
05:24 pm

mwooten: i’d definitely be interested to meet you, discuss some of these ideas more and attend the festival at calvin. perhaps we could even feature some things on the site here. do you have any contacts with the people involved? could we maybe interview bill mallonee? and, to reiterate jabird’s question, when is it?

jabird: i could probably work something out to borrow some equipment from jerry (we have in the past for *cino stuff) to tape parts of it.

grant: yes, i’m working on the network right now.

Default

mwooten
Jan 09 2003
05:56 am

The conference of Faith and Music at Calvin college will be held on March 28th and 29th. I don’t know what price is or who exactly will be there but I know that it will be some leading names in popular music. I will certainly be there and would love to meet up with a handfull of you all there. If you have more questions about filming etc you should contact Ken Heffner, he’s the guy making it happen. His email is kheffner@calvin.edu. You can also check out the page at the calvin website which isn’t fully functional but has some info. Just find the Student Activities page and there is some info there about it there.

I would also love to set up an interview with Bill Mallonee for you all. No problem at all. As I have said elsewhere, I will actually be on the road with him soon for his next tour. During our travels, I will be making some sort of doc. about the road/music/faith and all that bleeds to gray inbetween these topics.

I sent off an email to Ken concerning you guys and hopefully you will hear back with more info.

More soon…