Music Delivery in 2020

Today is October 14, 2020, the day that I pay my bills. I switched over to online billing a long time ago, and my statements routinely show up in my e-mail inbox. I log-on and pay my cell phone bill, my Netflix bill, and my internet bill. The bill for my internet seems a little high, so I look into things a little closer. It appears that the introductory rate on my music add-on has run out, and I am now being charged full price.

Social Media for Musicians

I am amazingly fortunate to have a young lady named Sarah Cicuto (@cicutoface) on my management team. She does all of my bands’ release writing, sponsorship proposals, marketing plans, one-pagers.. All of the stuff that I’m not nearly eloquent enough to handle. She is an invaluable member of my organization, and I cannot stress enough my appreciation for her time and effort.

Sarah and I were presented with an interesting circumstance last week. I had an artist telling me that social media sites like Twitter, Foursquare, etc. were not game changers. Essentially that they were not worth the time. I was decently appalled. I pride myself on the education of my artists, whom I constantly forward articles from Music Think Tank and 9GiantSteps, but this wasn’t enough. My artist thought the information was anecdotal, thought these sites offered trivial gains. The words used were, “marginally successful.”

If I was decently appalled, Sarah was fuming. She began talking in the third person. “Sarah is upset,” I read. “Let’s do something about this,” I said. Then Sarah went back to her day job, applying social media and engagement  plans for giant corporations. I thought that maybe we would do some research and send off an e-mail blast to my clients. Three days later, I got the following. It is a comprehensive article regarding social media and online presence. To say that I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.

I really think that Sarah nailed it. Here we have a wealth of information in language that any band can understand. After the jump, her article in full.

Today We Learn About: Led Zeppelin & the Blues

Baby, baby, I’m gonna bring it on home to you

I done bought my ticket, I got my load
Conductor done hollered, “All, aboard”
I’m-a take my seat, ride way backand watch this train roll down the track

Baby, baby, I’m gonna bring it on home to you

-Willie Dixon “Bring It on Home” (1963)

Baby, baby, gon’ bring it on home to you

I’ve got that ticket, I got that load
Join up, gone higher, all aboard
I’m-a take my seat, ride way back
and watch this train roll down the track

Gonna bring it on home, bring it on home to you

-Led Zeppelin “Bring It on Home” (1969)

The popular English rock band Led Zeppelin has been brought to court for their multiple instances of copyright infringement. These cases have settled out of court, but are outnumbered by the startling similarities that reside in the remainder of the band’s catalog. Through an examination of the blues as an art form and contemporary copyright law as it stood at the time of Led Zeppelin’s fame, it will be shown that the band went far beyond the tradition of shared concepts, rhythms, and structure that is present in the blues. Led Zeppelin has committed the unforgivable; they have not only taken ideas, lyrics, arrangements, melodies, and rhythms without any credit, but they have taken these musical elements from a population that has been historically exploited. Led Zeppelin is yet another in a long line of western light skinned appropriators that have taken what they deemed just from African-American culture without fair compensation. This practice has not been isolated to labor and culture, but expanded to creative works that are protected under internationally recognized laws. Called into question is the African-American community’s ability to combat such appropriation. Often the artists themselves are not responsible for litigation, but their record label or other representative who act of the musician’s behalf. We will examine this tendency and its implication for what can be seen as a broad, unrecognized cultural theft.

Today We Learn About: The Implications of Business on an Art Form

The music business is changing because the record business is changing. While touring, merchandising, and licensing continue to flourish, the sale of CD’s has diminished in recent years. While CD sales decrease, digital music retailers like iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody and eMusic set new revenue records almost yearly. Companies like Tunecore allow artists to become their own record label. A shift in revenue source, a focus on singles over album sales, the creation of new mediums for delivery, and the ease of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) distribution have drastically changed a landscape that for decades has relied on an unwavering business model. In changing times, a business model must change as well. Along with this shift in business model must come a shift in regard for the very art form that has driven the music industry forward since sheet music was sold from Tin Pan Alley. Likewise, a shift in regard for those who create this art must also take place.

Today We Learn About: Saltwater v. Freshwater Drowning

Most people are familiar with the term drowning. It has become known as suffocation and death caused by the filling of the lungs with water or other fluid.  But the type of fluid a person drowns in has a significant impact on the effects and processes that take place in the body.  For example, freshwater and saltwater drowning bring about differing processes within the body even though the end result is death.

Today We Learn About: Etruscan Religion

There is little evidence of Etruscan religion thus there are many differing opinions as to it’s definition, none of which are able to be proven. In her small section on the subject of religion in Etruscan Civilization, Sybille Haynes puts forward the idea that early Etruscan rituals took place outside and later temples were built in which to worship. Her and Helle Anderson share the idea that votive offerings were a large part of religious practice. Anderson seems very convinced that gods had very little to do with religion. Faith centered on deified ancestors.

Today We Learn About: The Roman Empire

All things must end, and the Roman Empire was no exception. The Roman Empire did survive in the form of the Byzantine Empire, then the Holy Roman Empire, but the glory days of Rome, the days of Augustus and Marcus Aurelius came to an end in 406. One of the theories Cahill puts forth in the beginning of his book How the Irish Saved Civilization is that the Empire fell so slowly that not even those who were living in it noticed, nor did many of them probably admit it when it did happen. Although we can certainly say that when the tribes of Europe continually invaded Rome that the Empire was dead, it was dying much before this. The theory that all empires must end and that Rome slowly fell out of power seems the most plausible. Cahill speaks of the evasion and harm of taxes, the collapse of the army, and the beginning of illiteracy being the slow murderers of the great Roman Empire.

Today We Learn About: Evolution of Presidential Power

Presidential power evolves because our country evolves just as our language, culture, science and technology make progress. The office evolved significantly between 1787 and 1809 as men arrived in office with a particular view of presidential power, only to have this view shift upon taking office. The Constitutional Convention alone saw the presidency change from a vaguely defined office as it was in the Virginia Plan, to specific and powerful as in the Hamilton Plan, which proposed an executive chosen by the electors that would serve for life with the ability to veto all laws passed by the legislature.¹ Washington believed himself to be, and acted as, the chief administrative officer of the entire government of the United States.² John Adams wrote “the other branches are imbecile”, and “the executive power is granted, not the executive power hereinafter enumerated and explained.”³ This view may explain why Adams made some of the decision that he did. Thomas Jefferson arrived in office as a Strict Constructionist, but greatly expanded presidential power through the replacement of federal staffers, carrying out undeclared wars, and committing the nation to the Louisiana Purchase amongst many other expansive uses of power.⁴ These men had specific views of the presidency that they sought to embody and each executed the responsibilities of the office in a different manner that usually changed over time.

Today We Learn About: The Development of Copyright Law

There was once a website that gave the user access to nearly every album ever recorded. These albums were available in all file formats, and they were free. The site had over 180,000 users, was easy to search, and housed a thriving community of music lovers. In October 2007 this site went offline. Word of mouth spreads fast on the internet and before too long it became clear that site administrator for Oink.cd, as the site in question was called, had been arrested by an International Federation of the Phonographic Industry task force for suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law.¹ News of this arrest surprised few since the site allowed users to connect their computers to the computers of other music fans in order to download the files housed on these remote computers. The site acted as Google does, allowing users to search for the music they desired. This activity made copyright infringement easy, and the site’s closure was inevitable.

Today We Learn About:

Through the years, the nature of light has been a question pondered by some of the greatest minds the world has ever known. With each passing generation of scientists, it seems that some new, seemingly impossible quality is discovered. These breakthroughs have at times come in bunches, but hundreds of years have separated new discoveries. One thing has always been kept constant however, and that is the idea that there will always be something new to learn, and some great mind to shine through the darkness to reveal another unforeseen quality of light.