Music

The Importance Of Realizing Your Content Is Probably Available Online For Free

April 7, 2009 11:25 am by Blaise Alleyne — Free Culture Music Technology —

This post originally appeared on Techdirt.

We talk a lot about how it makes sense for people to make their content available online for free and adopt business models that take advantage of that, rather than complain about “piracy.” While unauthorized file sharing is usually illegal, it’s pretty silly to pretend that it doesn’t happen or that you can stop people from sharing stuff they like with others. That said, artist Evan Roth has launched an “Available Online For Free” prank-style promo campaign for his new art exhibit (via Urban Prankster) by creating stickers that can be snuck onto products in a store to advertise the fact that… well, they’re probably available online for free. (“Available Online For Free” is the name of the art exhibit and the exhibition book is, not surprisingly, available as a free download.) While it’s probably not a good idea to go around putting these stickers onto products in a store (disclaimer: I wouldn’t recommend it — the pictures are kind of funny… but you likely won’t make friends with the store owner), the campaign is a pretty creative and humorous way of stating the obvious — anything that can be, will be available online for free, one way or another. Making your content freely available online doesn’t mean that you can’t still find ways to sell it, but you need to recognize that this is the lens through which a lot of people see products on a shelf. If you don’t realize that yet, you may be in for a lesson via sticker sometime soon…

Read the comments on Techdirt.

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Video: Last Kelly’s Korner

March 26, 2009 4:06 am by Blaise Alleyne — Free Culture Music —

Almost every month for the past four years, I’ve performed at the St. Michael’s College open mic. at the University of Toronto. It has an extremely friendly atmosphere courtesy of the supportive community of friends, musicians and music lovers. It’s a great place to try something new, or to goof around. For my last performance, I played two songs: one of my own (The Limit) and an Emilaise + JP Diddy medley.

The Limit

Beyonce, Jay-Z, Vitamin C Medley (honestly, not sure why I’ve uploaded this… I think I left my dignity at the door…)

Thanks Kelly’s Korner!

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Surprise, Surprise: Canadians Aren’t Interested In ISP Levies

March 19, 2009 11:25 am by Blaise Alleyne — Free Culture Music Technology —

This post originally appeared on Techdirt

Michael Geist points to two new polls released by Angus Reid Strategies, which show that Canadians are overwhelmingly against the idea of ISP levies. It should come as no surprise that 79% of people surveyed about the possible Canadian content levy on new media said it would be an “unnecessary and/or inappropriate fee that would end up being passed along to consumers.” In another survey on file sharing, 45% of people said that downloading music free of charge was just “what people should be able to do on the Internet,” while only 3% believed that downloaders are “criminals who should be punished by law.” 27% said that it’s something people shouldn’t be doing, but that “it’s not a big deal.” 73% of people thought that a music tax was “unnecessary and/or inappropriate” (which ought to disappoint a few Canadian creator groups calling for this sort of thing…).

The survey also found that those who download music are “often the most voracious music enthusiasts,” more likely to buy a CD in the next month (41% vs. 34% of non-file sharers) and more likely to have attended a concert in the past year (65% vs. 52%), which should, again, not surprise many people around here. This is just another bit of evidence that “piracy” is not a problem and, instead of pushing for ISPs to collect levies or act as copyright cops, musicians should focus on connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy. Though, somehow, I don’t expect the whining to stop anytime soon…

Read the comments on Techdirt.

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Engaged

March 15, 2009 1:48 pm by Blaise Alleyne — Catholic Music Personal —

The chamber strings pops concert was an amazing success. During my set, I played a new song I wrote for Heather as a surprise and proposed to her during the bridge.

This…
HHCS Pops Concert Blaise

plus this…
The Ring

equals engaged:
Engaged

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Singers, Songs and Strings

March 6, 2009 9:00 am by Blaise Alleyne — Music Personal —

Hart House Chamber Strings Pops Concert Poster

If I’ve been MIA over the past month, it’s because of a huge concert I have coming up next weekend. I play double bass with the Hart House Chamber Strings (HHCS) and for the past three years, we’ve done a pops concert in March with independent songwriters. The concert was started by Paul McCulloch, who was conductor when I was in first year. I played bass for the concert and talked to Paul afterwards about performing as a “guest” artist, so at the next concert in March 2007, I wrote out arrangements for my band (which, I think, may have recently slid from “coma” into “permanent vegetative state”) and we had the privilege of performing with the ensemble.

Last year, Paul left the group and I took over the pops concert. I was cautious about writing arrangements for songs I wasn’t terribly familiar with, so I only took on three artists — Robyn Dell’Unto, Jadea Kelly and myself. (I was playing violin with both Jadea and Robyn, so I was pretty familiar with their music.) We filled out the rest of the night with music from popular films. Like previous years, it was a lot of fun and a great success.

We have seven artists on the bill for next Saturday, March 14th — Mandippal (@mandippal), Dave Borins (@daveborins), Lucky Fonz III (all the way from the Netherlands, in town for Canadian Music Week), Robyn Dell’Unto, Pat Robitaille (@patrobitaille) and Peter Katz and myself. I play violin with Mandippal, Dave and Robyn regularly and am excited to write for them, and I’m thrilled to be working with Peter, Pat and Lucky Fonz. As always, I’m honoured to have the chamber strings play my arrangements, especially for my own songs. I’ll be on bass with the ensemble for all of the other artists.

So, if you’re in the Toronto area, this is going down Saturday, March 14th at 7pm in the Hart House Great Hall (Facebook event). Admission is free, and I promise it’ll be epic.

If you’re not in Toronto (or if you can’t make it), I’m hoping to get the video camera out… so, with any luck, I’ll have something to upload afterwards.

I promise to come back to life March 15th.

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#Twuneup Covers Edition

March 5, 2009 6:19 am by Blaise Alleyne — Free Culture Music Technology —

Last week, I attended the February #Twuneup — Covers Edition. #Twuneup is basically a monthly listening party (this was the second) run by a group of people in the Toronto Twitter community who share a love of music. There’s also lots of music sharing that happens on Twitter.

I found out about it too late to get a spot at the first one (space is limited), but this time I was quick to sign up. I was happy to learn that live performances were encouraged, so I busted out the T-Qualizer (perfect event) and played my cover of The Patient (Tool):

There were a couple other fun live performances too!

I also met lots of cool people. I first noticed @photojunkie last summer and I’d met him at #hohoTO, but the rest were new faces. @modernmod and @nicopop were the other organizers. I had a chance to meet @johnpapa, @alkerton, @rlangdon, @3rdparty, @pageby_paige, @zachaysan and lots of other cool people.

I had a great chat with @leilaboujnane (from Idée) and she gave me a Creative Commons sticker, before she even knew that I’m a CC BY-SA artist! I was going to put the sticker on my guitar case, but then I realized it had a clear background (black-on-black wouldn’t work to well). So… I put it on my guitar!

CC sticker on guitar

Rannie (@photojunkie) has photos on his site and Bev (@bev_w) has a Flickr set.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bevw/3329118749/in/set-72157614745156847/
(Photo by bevw)

Lots of fun! I hope to make it back in March.

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Despite Declining CD Sales, CD Baby Experiences Growth in 2008

February 12, 2009 2:42 am by Blaise Alleyne — Music Technology —

This post originally appeared on Techdirt

While CD sales dropped 14% overall in 2008, CD Baby — a popular online music store that lets independent artists sell music directly to fans — actually saw an increase of 2%. In addition to selling physical discs, CD Baby offers optional digital distribution through iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. and directly through their website. Still, almost 30% of albums last year were only offered as physical discs (though, some of these artists probably use other companies for digital distribution). While growth in digital sales was predictably larger (45%), even a small increase in CD sales in the face of the broader crisis is a sign that CD Baby is doing something right.

There are a few reasons why CD Baby could be having better luck with CDs than the rest of the industry. First, a lot of independent artists are discovered through live performances, and the CD has yet to be replaced as the standard format to sell music at shows. The credit card swipers that CD Baby offers artists accounted for $2.4 million worth of revenue last year (though, that includes sales of other merchandise too). Second, CD Baby seems to be taking advantage of the long tail, with minimal setup fees, minimal starting requirements (artists only need to mail in 5 CDs to start selling) and short-run duplication services, though they haven’t released enough data to confirm how distributed their sales have been. Lastly, great customer service and a sense of humour can’t hurt (e.g. an order confirmation email starts, “your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow…”). Although it doesn’t make any sense to base an entire business model on selling CDs, there’s still money to be made for artists and companies using CDs as part of their model.

Read the comments on Techdirt.

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Michael Jackson and Rihanna Both Get Sued Over a 1972 Tune

February 10, 2009 12:56 pm by Blaise Alleyne — Free Culture Law Music —

This article originally appeared on Techdirt.

At 75, an artist may be too old to write a new hit single, but that doesn’t make them too old to sue someone famous with a new hit single for a large sum of money over 10 syllables from a 37-year-old song. Cameroonian artist, Manu Dibango, is suing both Michael Jackson and Rihanna for copyright infringement over his 1972 hit, Soul Makossa. The complicating factor is that Jackson was already sued decades ago for infringing the tune in his 1983 single, Wanna Be Startin’ Something, and he had settled with Dibango, but now he’s under fire again for allegedly licensing the infringing bit to Rihanna for her 2007 hit, Please Don’t Stop the Music, without contacting Dibango to get permission. According to Wikipedia, Soul Makossa features a Duala chant, “Mama-ko, mama-sa, ma-ka-ma-ko-ssa,” while a similar sounding Swahili chant, “Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa, Ma Ma Coo Sa,” appears in both Jackson’s and Rihanna’s song. Dibango is demanding €500,000, and that the courts block the labels from receiving any money from the allegedly infringing tunes until the matter is resolved.

Dibango has a history of making great music, but more recently, he served as President of the Cameroon Music Corporation, where he was known for defending intellectual property rights and fighting piracy. It’s a real shame that you need to hire a law firm to make use of a catchy phrase from another song, but I guess that’s what happens when everyone is focused on “protecting” their rights, rather than on making music.

Read the comments on Techdirt.

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The Formula For Future Music Business Models: The Trent Reznor Case Study

February 9, 2009 1:58 pm by Blaise Alleyne — Music Technology —

On January 17th, 2009, the heroic Mike Masnick (of Techdirt fame) descended into a lion’s den wielding a sword of flame to guide a lost people to salvation. Ok, well, it didn’t happen quite like that, but it was pretty close. Just think music business conference instead of lion’s den, 280 Powerpoint slides instead of a flaming sword, financial success instead of salvation and the record industry instead of… no, I guess that part is accurate. Masnick gave a presentation on Trent Reznor and the Formula for Future Music Business Models at MidemNet in Cannes, Frances and, at only 15 minutes long, it’s definitely a must watch for anyone remotely interested in a future in the music business.

It’s a case study on Reznor, whose provided countless examples of these business models in practice, but Mike abstracts the common pattern in them all:

Connection with Fans (CwF) + Reason to Buy (RtB) = The Business Model $$$

(And no, it’s not about royalties, micropayments or forcing people to buy stuff!)

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Video: Cuba and The Patient at Kelly’s Korner

February 8, 2009 10:09 pm by Blaise Alleyne — Music —

My sister was kind enough to film my set at January’s Kelly’s Korner, a monthly open mic. at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. I played two covers. The first is a song written by a friend and inspiration of mine, Robyn Dell’Unto (a local singer/songwriter I usually accompany on violin). She didn’t know I was covering the song, but another friend texted her during the performance, so my secret didn’t last too long. I played her the video last Thursday and she didn’t hate it! The next video is the third acoustic Tool cover I’ve done, but the first to be recorded/filmed. There are a few rough spots as this was the debut of the cover, but it turned out fairly well.

Cuba (Robyn Dell’Unto cover)

The Patient (Tool acoustic cover)

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Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada
This work by Blaise Alleyne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada.