.Evolving Music.

Brian Zisk has done it again. After the wildly successful SanFran MusicTech Summit last February at Hotel Kabuki, he rallied the troops for round two of what I hope will be a regular event going forward. The first Summit, which I reviewed here, set the bar high. What a brilliant meeting of minds from the music and technology industries!

Through a mix of thought-provoking panels on new technologies, heated group discussions about the future of (online) music, and lots of giddy lobby schmoozing, this event provides its very diverse attendees with a plethora of opportunities to learn, contribute, and meet resourceful people.

Photo by Crazywanda. Some rights reserved.

For the virtual comment box, here’s a suggestion: How bout a list of attendees on the website? (Yes, there was a Facebook page you could RSVP on, but not everyone on the planet uses Facebook. Silly planet.) A simple list of attendee names, companies, and titles would be great.

The Web 2.0 Expo brilliantly created Crowdvine, a social networking site for their event. Here, you could create a profile, view other attendees and ping the people you wanted to meet. Consequently, my first day at the expo was consumed by meetings with some very cool people. Though randomly networking is great, it would be awesome to knows who’s gonna be there beforehand. Brian, whadya think?

My co-worker had the idea of placing RFID tags in everyone’s nametags so you could track people’s whereabouts throughout the day and find those you need to meet, but eventually we all agreed that would be too creepy…”Hey man! Saw that you were in the bathroom, so I thought I’d come introduce myself…” Ha.

At the Artist Activism Workshop Mike Relm, Chris Skarakis (founder and VP of Music at Fuzz), and moderator Erin Potts (Executive Director of Air Traffic Control) discussed how artists can be activists using new technologies. Very inspiring.

Mike Relm, whose live shows feature audio/video mashups “manipulated in real time with a turntable-like device” [Wikipedia] showed us a powerful Katrina video with vivid images, music, and video clips that he made to raise awareness of the disaster.

I so love where this trend is going. There are obviously a ton of ways to get involved in your community or on a more global scale, but musicians are in the perfect position to make a real difference due to their visibility. As much as we (and especially Actual) hate on American Idol, I have to admit I was impressed by how much money they raised during their Idol Gives Back special ($65 million or something, right?). At least they are doing some good with the massive captive audience they have…

But no matter how big or small your reach, there are always ways for musicians to get involved. And organizations like Air Traffic Control, Project Noise and Axis of Justice to help you on your way.

At the Record Labels and New Technologies panel, I walked in anticipating an hour of (big) label bashing, but was quite mistaken. Rather than harping on why big labels are evil and how they are all going to disappear, the consensus seemed to be that record labels are not going anywhere. They are, however, changing. Drastically. Whereas a new artist used to need a label to even get started, now the label has a very different role to play. Turns out that independent labels are actually doing quite well - at least the ones that have found innovative ways to market their bands online. Dave Allen, of the Gang of Four, pointed out that artists and their labels should keep the end user in mind and what most end users want is at least 1 free mp3, not DRM, and the ability to play music on different devices. Dave also has a great music blog, Pampelmoose. Check it out.

In between panels and meeting new people, we also ran into our friends Todd Tate (co-founder of Angry Coffee and now one of our rockstar MixMatchMusic beta testers), Hannes Hesse (the Bubblegum Sequencer guy), and my hero Tom Conrad (CTO of Pandora) among others. One of our guys was chatting with Vince Wilburn, Jr., nephew (and spitting image of) the late Miles Davis (and accomplished drummer and producer)! Seemed like a very cool guy.

All in all, another rockin Summit. Great job, Brian!

Evolving Music is about change. Evolving Music is about Mixing and Matching the talents and visions of different people - regardless of their age, race, musical background, geographic location, beliefs, or gender. Evolving Music is about working together in the spirit of collaboration, challenging convention, embracing new technologies, promoting transparency, and participating in the free exchange of ideas.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Barack Obama is a great example of these ideals. I think that Evolving Music could benefit greatly from his leadership. To all those who share the vision of a completely new music industry unencumbered by greedy record labels and a new musical landscape where musicians and music lovers alike have unprecedented opportunities to connect, create and discover music I say: Yes, We Can.

While other politicians inevitably get caught up in mudslinging and hate campaigns, Obama is consistent in his messages of Hope and Change. Not to mention that he handles criticism with dignity and humor (and in this case music):

I think we need someone like Obama to support this (r)evolution. He has a technology plan based on refreshing ideas like open and transparent government (imagine that!), aggressive support of broadband access, etc. The speed with which technology is emerging is mind boggling and we need someone who understands the digital age and its implications to keep encouraging the kind of collaborative and open-minded innovation taking place today. More and more, through social media and access to information online, “the people” (as trite as that phrase sounds, I feel it rings true here) really are becoming empowered and we need someone as young, hip, and savvy as Obama to lead the way down an entirely new path.

Last week I wrote here about the IFPI including a musician in their lawsuit against Pirate Bay that never wanted to, nor was asked about being included. Well that was pretty bad…but in a further nuisance to the case against file sharers, it turns out that one of the expert witnesses brought on behalf of the IFPI as a prosecutor’s witness to help quash Pirate Bay was actually a former employee. Of course, this conflict of interest wasn’t revealed by the IFPI to the court, nor by the witness himself. Why would they intentionally tell the court something that might hinder their case? In a brilliantly ironic case of Web 2.0 and technology undermining a legal case seeking to stop file sharing and technology, the conflict of interest was discovered on the witness’ LinkedIn account. If this entire case doesn’t get chucked out of court, I’m going to have to assume that something is broken in the Danish legal system…

Looping is clearly one of the fundamental aspects of digital music making. From watching friends play with Fruity Loops in college to seeing an ex-roommate perform a live looping concert for New Years last year, I’ve become increasingly interested in the magic of looping.

Thanks to one of my favorite bloggers, Eliot Van Buskirk of the Listening Post, I discovered this video of David Ford, in which he records his song “Go To Hell” - in one take - using looping and household kitchen appliances, in addition to instruments and a microphone. Badass.

A perfect example of the modern multi-instrumental recording artist looking for creative new ways to make music. He would do well as a MixMatchArtist. To compare this rendition to the original, click here. I think I like the homemade one better.

After exploring options for where musicians can sell their music online, I wanted to step into the shoes of the fans - the fans who would rather support their favorite artists and help them make more music by paying them directly as opposed to paying a label or music store.

I touched on it briefly in the 5 predictions for digital music trends post mentioning that “services like Slicethepie and Sellaband are paving the way for a more direct financial and emotional connection between creators and consumers”, but after discovering a few more services I think this topic warrants its own post. It’s one thing to buy a CD or iTunes single or a concert ticket. It’s another to just give money to the artist.

Here are the sites I’ve found (so far) that allow you to do so. They each operate a little differently. Some also allow you to make money while supporting the artist.

Sellaband
“You are the record company”
The Deal: The Believer picks an artist they like. Each artist issues 50,000 Parts at $10 each. Believers (fans) have to cumulatively raise $50,000 to get their Artist in the studio. Fans can withdraw their Parts and get their money back at any time up until they reach the 50K, at which point the Artist gets hooked up with a studio and an A&R person and the Partholders get to watch the magic happen. Advertising revenues and net profits from sales are split evenly between the Artist, the Believers, and Sellaband. And Believers can open a Shop to sell related products from their Artist and earn commission.

Slicethepie
“Help yourself to a piece of the music industry”
The deal: Every fan is a music label and can become “emotionally and financially involved at all levels of the music industry - scouting, breaking, investing in and influencing real artists” by sending them through the various stages of Slicethepie - Arenas, Scout Rooms, and Showcases. Fans listen to tracks, write reviews, vote for, and finance the artist by buying Backstage Passes, which give them exclusive access to the artist and the right to buy Contracts at a discount. Then, the Contracts (tradable on the Slicethepie Exchange) give investors a return over a 2 yr period.

CASH Music: A Coalition of Artists and Stake Holders
“A platform for engagement”
The deal: Not totally sure yet, as they are quite new, but in a nutshell it is “an open-source platform for the new, distributed music business” where artists and audiences can interact and support one another creatively. Projects are by invitation-only for now.

Calabash Music
“Tune Your World”
The deal: “Peer-to-peer microfinancing of new music projects.” Positioning themselves as “the leading international music download service and the world’s first fair trade music company”, they focus on international artists and even have a partnership with National Geographic, using Calabash’s catalog to access world music and put these artists in front of the 10 million monthly viewers of nationalgeographic.com. Pick an artist, make a minimum $15 sponsorship, and download advance copies of the artist’s recordings. Money is transferred to the musician once their goal is reached.

ArtistShare
“Where the fans are making it happen”
The deal: Around since 2003, ArtistShare is probably the oldest player in the field. In exchange for funding their favorite artists, fans receive “access to the creative process, LTD Edition recordings, VIP access to recording sessions and even credit listing on the CD.” Another cool feature is RadioShare, which allows radio stations to access music from ArtistShare.

As the music 2.0 movement continues to evolve, I will be watching with great interest to see which services become widely adopted and which trends prevail. Choose-your-price and pay-the-musician-directly are definitely two of the concepts I think will continue to gain popularity. And rest assured, among the many great features (including those that facilitate compensation for musicians) that will soon be available to MixMatchers, the ability to throw money in a tip jar to show some love for the artists you dig will be there.