DubMC

Four Must-Attend Sessions for World Music Professionals, Friday, January 9, 2009

There are four sessions that world music professionals are strongly encouraged to attend on Friday, January 9, 2009 during the Arts Presenters conference in NYC. Here is a brief schedule followed by full descriptions.

 

BRIEF SCHEDULE

 

9:00 am - 10:30 am

Fresh Perspectives: Capturing Audiences through E-marketing (panel)

New York Hilton & Towers in the Sutton South Room (1335 Ave of the Americas betw 53-54th St.), NYC

 

10:30 am - 12 noon

A Changing America (panel about cross-cultural role of presenters)

New York Hilton & Towers in the Sutton South Room (1335 Ave of the Americas betw 53-54th St.), NYC

 

3:00 - 4:00 pm

Entrepreneurial Approaches to RECORDED Global Music: An Open Discussion

Sheraton Hotel in Conference Room D (811 7th Ave. at 53rd St.), NYC

 

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Entrepreneurial Approaches to LIVE Global Music: An Open Discussion

Sheraton Hotel in Conference Room D (811 7th Ave. at 53rd St.), NYC

 

FULL DESCRIPTIONS

 

9:00 am - 10:30 am

Fresh Perspectives: Capturing Audiences through E-marketing (panel)

New York Hilton & Towers in the Sutton South Room (1335 Ave of the

Americas betw 53-54th St.), NYC

 

What are the ways that people are most likely to learn about an event? How can we learn from their experience and expand on that to embrace the next generation in the performing arts? This session invites all members of the performing arts community to discuss ways of "capturing" young and new audiences who have grown up in the age of technology. Concrete examples show the success of e-marketing as a means to develop and reach new audiences nation-wide. Moderator: Anastasia Tsioulcas – American editor of Gramophone Magazine and a freelance writer/editor, New York City; Panelists: Mehmet Dede, Bookings & Marketing at Drom, New York City; Chad Herzog, Director of the Performing Arts at Juniata College, State College, Pennsylvania. A Joint Session of the World Music Coalition and Outdoor Festivals & Programs Presenters.

 

10:30 am - 12 noon

A Changing America (panel)

New York Hilton & Towers in the Sutton South Room (1335 Ave of the

Americas betw 53-54th St.), NYC

 

The face of America is changing rapidly. Presenters are increasingly facing issues of cultural difference. How does that influence marketing? How does that influence access? Who makes artistic choices as it relates to diverse audiences? How can Presenters play a cross-cultural role? How can Presenters help to "translate" the important elements to new audiences? How can we embrace not only the traditions but also current and future approaches to artistic cultural activity in the 21st-century United States? Ultimately, how can Presenters welcome new audiences and artists into our performing arts communities? Moderator: Dmitri Vietze, Director of rock paper scissors, inc. global music publicity firm; Panelists: Cathy Edwards, Director of Programming at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, CT; Olga Garay, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; Ben Auditorium at the University of Minnesota; Ted Russell, Senior Program Officer for the Arts, Irvine Foundation, San Francisco, CA. A Joint Session of the World Music Coalition and Outdoor Festivals & Programs Presenters.

 

3:00 - 4:00 pm

Entrepreneurial Approaches to RECORDED Global Music: An Open Discussion

4:00 - 5:00 pm

Entrepreneurial Approaches to LIVE Global Music: An Open Discussion

Sheraton Hotel in Conference Room D (811 7th Ave. at 53rd St.), NYC

 

This forum will be a highly dynamic, interactive facilitated forum focused on breaking new ground in positioning, marketing, and selling recorded and live performance of “global music” artists. This will not be an expert presentation or panel, but will utilize attendees in the room to brainstorm and identify new and innovative promising practices in developing new audiences and growing attendance at “world music” performances. This discussion represents a turning point in the field of global music from a model of scarcity to a model of abundance.

 

“World Music” as a performing arts field is still young. Many feel that it is a niche that has reached its saturation points. Yet, exciting new acts (as well as new agents and venues) continue to emerge which simultaneously challenge the notion of “world music” as well as push global sounds into new audience segments (jam bands, Broadway, rock, classical, jazz, hip hop, electronic, etc.). If you are not growing, you are dying. It is time to push global music and America into the mainstream. What will it take? Bring your questions and answers to this session. And get there early as it is going to be a packed session!

 

The same issues explored about live music impact the recording side of global music in America. This is compounded by the demise of brick and mortar retail, the confusion about music filters and curators in the current era, the flood of recordings available on the market, the accessibility of free MP3s, and the explosion of artist-friendly, web-based marketing opportunities. In this facilitated, open discussion, we, as a group, will brainstorm and identify innovative ways for artists and labels to market and sell recorded music, to leverage recordings to further market live music, and to be prepared for the new digital market that continues to unfold.

 

Hour One: An Open Discussion with Record Labels, Distributors, & Artists

 

Hour Two: An Open Discussion with Presenters, Agents, Managers, & Artists

 

Note to attendees: Whether you are on the live music side or recorded music side of the field (or both!), you are encouraged to attend both hours of this session so we can maximize expertise across the entire fields. This is a dialogue that happens rarely. This is a special interest session conceived and facilitated by Dmitri Vietze of rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

Unofficial Guide to World Music, Arts Presenters 2009

Here is the Unofficial Guide to World Music taking place in and around the Arts Presenters 2009 conference, compiled by rock paper scissors, inc., the global music publicity firm. The 15-page Guide is an Excel document. To download it as an Excel spreadsheet, click here. [Updated 01/06/09 at 4:45 pm]

Make sure to double-check all listings before planning your movements, as some errors and changes may occur. Thank you to everyone who submitted listings. If you have concert listing additions or corrections, you may submit them by 6 pm Eastern on January 2. We plan to post an update on January 6. Submit your listings using this form and sending it to melissa [at sign] rockpaperscissors [period] biz. [Update: no more changes or additions accepted, we're out of time. See you on the dancefloor!]

Stay tuned to this space for information about global music discussions taking place in NYC during Arts Presenters 2009.

IMN's Scott Southard says 'Destroy the Industy, Tear it Down:' A Q & A about Creating Demand for Global Music in America, part 3

This is the final installment of a 3-part Q & A with Scott Southard, director of the International Music Network (booking agency) about the state of the field, ideas for new directions, and specific practices in increasing demand for global music, in advance of "Entrepreneurial Approaches to Global Music: An Open Forum" on January 9, 3-5 pm, at the Arts Presenters conference. Read Part 1 or Part 2.

With the driving profit model of music shifting so drastically, what can be done to change the very terms of the marketplace for music?

One of the greatest challenges to keeping the marketplace strong is what’s going on in terms of artists receiving composer royalties from use of music on the Internet. I’m not talking about pirating music. The resource of using music on user-generated sites should be supported but there needs to be a business model that compensates the musician for use of the music. That is particularly critical to the world music community where rights registration in Third World countries is not a priority for governments there. But it should be for the First World user of that product.

The FCC recently considered the royalty rates for Internet use of music, which is still a fraction of what traditional broadcasters would pay. The difficulty because the Internet can’t be policed by national boundaries whereas the control over broadcasting distribution can. There needs to be an international convention established providing for composers rights. This applies to software distribution and literary publishing as well; all intellectual rights. The use of intellectual property on the Internet needs to have international treaties that will adequately compensate the author for their work.

There was a proposal back in the ’80s, when cassette tapes were first developed that a tax on the use of the tape was automatically collected to compensate artists through a general fund controlled by, I suppose, a trade organization. Something similar has to be done with the Internet. It would mean that part of your monthly subscription for an Internet service provider would be a tax. And then there needs to be a system that tags intellectual property so that the use of an individual composer’s music can be tabulated and a formula for distribution of the royalty tax can be fairly distributed.

When we met at WOMEX in Sevilla, I was complaining about everyone spending so much time on public policy, on immigration. They’re so focused on process. Certainly the immigration process is unfair, unwieldy, and too complex. But we need to spend a similar amount of effort on a far bigger issue that would compensate artists for their output. It would also create the revenue stream to not only supporting the generation of new music but also new programming models. So that art centers when asking to broadcast, as the Metropolitan Opera is now doing, would reach an international audience, a global audience on the Internet. Removing one of the barriers to that distribution model is making a funding system so that the composer’s rights are compensated for those broadcasts.

The overriding theme is: destroy the industry as we know it. Tear it down. Because we have to get rid of inefficient practices and misdirected investments on the basis of the 1980s business model that everyone built from. There is a completely new model in front of us. The longer we delay taking the risks and making those investments in building the new model the smaller and smaller the market will get. It’s going on right now as we each try to grab more market share out of a smaller and smaller market.

That may work for the large organizations or the very small individual organizations, the single person operations, who don’t have anything to lose, and can live very efficiently in their entry into the market. But what we really want to be doing is expanding the market so more of the smaller and midsize organizations that currently exist can continue to survive.

It’s an unfortunate fact that in the world music market that IMN is one of the big organizations. We’re only 14 people. We’re a very small organization. In our market, the larger organizations will survive due to opportunities of scale and political standing). It’s the small and midsize that will suffer the most. I want to support market development because a broader marketplace gives us give us a lot more diversity and potential for future growth. And most of us come to this industry not for the financial benefits, but for the personal rewards. And the most important thing is that a diverse healthy successful industry will provide us all with greater personal rewards as well.

Professionals in the global music field are ensouraged to continue this discussion at "Entrepreneurial Approaches to Global Music: An Open Forum" on January 9, 3-5 pm, at the Arts Presenters conference.

DubMC.comis the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

IMN's Scott Southard says 'Destroy the Industy, Tear it Down:' A Q & A about Creating Demand for Global Music in America, part 2

This is a continuation of a 3-part Q & A with Scott Southard, director of the International Music Network (booking agency) about the state of the field, ideas for new directions, and specific practices in increasing demand for global music, in advance of "Entrepreneurial Approaches to Global Music: An Open Forum" on January 9, 3-5 pm, at the Arts Presenters conference. Read Part 1.

Can you tell us about specific concert presenters that are programming in a way that you think will increase the market for live international music?

I think that the programming models at locations like Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Cedar Cultural Center (Minneapolis), and the Outpost (Santa Fe), are some of the best examples of bringing divergent audience interests together. By not being afraid to program classical, punk, and world music all on the same stage. In some instances, even on the same night. And I’d like to see more of that.

What do you think is missing from the way live music is marketed?

Taking risks. One of the things that stands out in my mind is that many in the arts presenters network are very good at coming up with collaborative solutions to policies and procedures. But they are completely territorial when approaching marketplace issues; to collaborate on commerce, sharing names and marketing dollars, and truly being able to contribute to expanding the marketplace.

Why not share lists? Why not imagine your artist rep or agent as your partner? Since you are both trying to build an audience for an individual artist’s career, and, in a macro sense, build a market overall; instead of the agent taking an adversarial approach to get the most money.

Let’s share the metrics of what makes success, to build the marketplace so the artists enjoy a better long term future.

Invest in embracing new technology and invest in ways to add value to the audience. Why not record concerts, if there is no record company. One problem is there isn’t a national radio broadcasting vehicle to get new music out there. The old model of media markets and control over artistic product is gone. There is an opportunity for new models. Take the risk: record the concert, then podcast or stream or give it away to your audience as a CD.

It may be the case that the cost of producing a concert results in having to charge $50 per ticket. But if the patron is going to spend that to see a show, give them more value than simply the show. If it is the chance to meet the artist, the chance to get a recording of the performance, or whatever other value-added experience you can think of. It’s about trying to create new ways to build audiences while building a viable market for performers.

In Europe, there is a broader acceptance of public and private partnerships where broadcasting performances through national media outlets is widely accepted. But here in the US, artists are often reluctant to give their performances away for broadcast. In Europe we’re seeing a lot more distribution of electronic media. As a result of support from the institutional level and from the artist perspective supporting granting those rights. You see more podcasting, more festivals and venues having their own website streaming performances.

Technology is not the only answer to building the marketplace, but it can be an asset we use to add value added experience. 

Read part 3 of this Q & A to find out Scott's thoughts on what could change the profit terms for the industry.

DubMC.comis the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

IMN's Scott Southard Says 'Destroy the Industry, Tear it Down:' A Q & A about Creating Demand for Global Music in America, part 1

As many in the field of global music prepare to attend the annual Arts Presenters conference in New York next month, we're thinking about what questions we should be asking each other to work together to advance the field. Rock paper scissors, inc.director Dmitri Vietze invites you to join a special interest session titled "Entrepreneurial Approaches to Global Music: An Open Forum" on January 9, 3-5 pm, at the conference.

In preparation, DubMC is posting a three-part Q&A with Scott Southard, director of the International Music Network (booking agency) about the state of the field, ideas for new directions, and specific practices in increasing demand for global music.

What do you think most restricts the growth of live international music in America?

There isn’t a one-pill cure to grow this market. And what might work in one segment of the market, might not work in another. But one of the biggest things missing right now is that the casual music-buying audience lacks access to information about new music that is coming out. NPR no longer broadcasts much music. Most major media outlets are news and talk. How does the casual listener find out about new music if radio does not broadcast it, if most daily newspapers don’t cover adult forms of music? So what do they do to discover music?

They can go to iTunes, but iTunes isn’t interested in selling world music to that small segment of an audience. They are selling pop records. Menus and resources available to expose you to new music in world music don’t exist in iTunes; it is not a priority. There are no strong present models that are user-friendly to the casual consumer.

There is an intimidation factor as well. Many of the emerging ecommerce businesses in the world music area take the approach that a geographic or generic categorization of an artist’s music is how the audience is going to approach it. Few people actually think, “Oh, I’m interested in Garifuna music as a genre.” The casual music audience doesn’t approach their music purchasing that way. It could be the person buying a Lucinda Williams record that next buys a Baaba Maal record. How do they make that jump? It’s an emotional connection. Yes, there is an academic consumer, the person driven by discovering a geographic or generic genre and then mining it for all its info for all its value. That is the marketplace we are already selling to. But we’re trying to find a completely new audience.

What lessons have you drawn from other fields that could be applied to the international music market in America?

The international music market is quite healthy when looking over the past 15 years. If you go back to the 1980s, there wasn’t even the generic designation of “world music.” We witnessed the success of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Gipsy Kings, Cesaria Evora, and Buena Vista Social Club kinds of phenomena; it has actually made extraordinary growth in that 20 years of time. But now that each generic discovery has been made and fusions of world cultures and different forms of music are becoming more prevalent, we have lost our ability to share the information and make that emotional connection.

Maybe the response is taking and applying Seth Godin’s Tribes. What he says is that in the new tech era, the new info marketplace, the phenomenon of social networking is about identifying tribal members. We’re no longer restricted by geography or profession, or ethno-demographic sets of boundaries. We are interest groups that operate like tribes that have diverse ranges of backgrounds, experiences, and demographics. What internet technology offers us is the opportunity to group together in these tribes.  And once the leaders of those tribal organizations are identified, once the leadership is formed, the tribe has the opportunity to grow and assert its influence and accomplish greater means. The world music marketplace is an amazingly devoted, articulate, intelligent tribe, which hasn’t found its leadership. And because it values democratic principles, it’s not going to be an individual or single organization. It’s going to be embracing these shared values, but we have to abolish the territorial practices of the 1980s business model, on which most of this industry has been founded. Why isn’t the publicist also a personal manager? Why isn’t the presenter also releasing recorded music? Why can’t the Lucinda Williams fan also enjoy Baaba Mal?

Read part 2 of this Q & A to find out Scott's thoughts on presenter models that help build audiences and marketing that creates new content.

DubMC.com is the brainchild of Dmitri Vietze and is sponsored by rock paper scissors, inc., global music publicity firm.

Speaking in Code, Living in Exile, and Crashing the UN General Assembly Stage

New Amnesty International Song and Video The Price of Silence Makes Urgent Call for Universal Human Rights

Laurence Fishburne, Stephen Marley, Natalie Merchant, Angelique Kidjo, and Aterciopelados Mark 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

click to WATCH MUSIC VIDEO

A young woman, scaling the Himalayas on foot, flees the Chinese work camp where she was born, her tiny son in tow. A boy, forced to fight in Sudan’s bloody civil war at age six, winds up in a refugee camp where he regains his dignity, but not his childhood. An outspoken singer is compelled to leave Zimbabwe in the wake of police intimidation at her concerts and a pervasive atmosphere of political and economic repression.

These are some of the real-life stories of the artists who created The Price of Silence, a collaborative project marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and produced by Link TV: Television Without Borders.