DubMC

World Music for Newcomers, One Web Writer Casts a Broad Net, by Megan Romer

Megan Romer wears two hats. In part one of this two-part installment, she wrote about the "tribe" that has formed around the GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance. In this, part two, she talks about a totally different approach to developing audiences for global music.

About.com, the outlet for whom I write and am solely in charge of world music content, is a New York Times company and consistently ranked in the Top 15 (not percent - the actual number) of most-visited websites in the US. "Guides," as we writers are known, are highly trained in Search Engine Optimization, web-friendly writing, e-commerce, metrics tracking, and so on.

So what does this mean for the world music community? Nothing at all. I don't write for the world music community. Die-hards have wonderful, dynamic websites that they can visit to learn more and dig deeper into obscure genres and old favorites, analyze industry news, keep track of various goings-on... there are several, all of which are great, all of which I spend a lot of time at: World Music Central, National Geographic World Music, Soundroots.org, DubMC, and so on. Those are the websites that are written for and by people like you and me.

My website is different.  I see it as my job to harvest the ripe, low-hanging fruits, those that are ready and waiting to be picked: people who saw Celtic Woman on TV and kind of liked the pure Irish stuff, but aren't quite sure where to start if they want something that isn't too rough, etc. People who like Bob Marley, but are completely baffled by the huge variety of reggae (and offshoots) on the market and definitely know that they don't like Beenie Man but aren't quite sure who they might like. People who saw the Edith Piaf movie and want to buy a CD but aren't really sure which one. I see it as my mission to turn these people into fans, however briefly. And it works. I have the metrics to prove it. I know that people have purchased lots of Karan Casey CDs because I told them that they'd like her if they liked Celtic Woman. I know that people are buying the wonderful Afroandina Christmas CD because they, like me, are dead tired of Jingle Bell Rock, and want a little something different. I know that people are more interested in the World Music Grammy Nominees than, in my opinion, they should be.

And that's okay! So what if 95% of them buy a single Ladysmith Black Mambazo CD (because they like Christian music and want to hear more of it from around the globe) and never buy another world music CD again? Even if 1% of them go on to see Soweto Gospel Choir live, and then perhaps attend a festival where LBM are playing, and hear Toumani Diabate for the first time, really enjoy it, move on to Toumani + Ali Farka, and from there move on to Vieux Farka, and so on, we're doing great. Every one of us discovered world music somehow -- very few of us (especially those of us who are of the Caucasian Persuasion) were raised on anything much world-ier than Harry Belafonte and Pete Seeger's version of Wimoweh. Perhaps Paul Simon or Peter Gabriel got us hooked. Maybe we heard Cesaria Evora on NPR, or picked up a Putumayo CD at the gift store.

My website doesn't necessarily create demand -- often it is more of a service. You, new world music listener, might like this CD. It's not too out-there, you'll relate, you'll dig it. Hard-core fans might not say it's the best, but I've been where you are, and I know that you'll find it accessible. But I do try to write with an emphasis on the importance of expanding your horizons, learning about other cultures, etc., which hopefully translates occasionally into a slight sense of obligation and need. I try very hard not to be pedantic or know-it-all-ish... I spend a good portion of my blogging time trying to make myself seem human and even sort of "normal," so as to try to get newbies to relate to me in a way that they wouldn't be able to if they actually knew what a blowhard I am in real life. And it works. My traffic continues to grow, and I continually see metrics that show me that certain types of sales are on the up-and-up. I feel good about what I do, even though I've gotten a fair bit of flak for it from my snobbier friends, and even from certain managers, bands, and publicists who can't understand why I won't spend my time reviewing their super-obscure CD when instead I could be devising new ways to push people into the Ladysmith-Soweto-Toumani chain that I described earlier.

The market needs expanding, and is totally expandable, but I think that universal expansion strategies simply won't work. A multi-pronged strategy is the only way to go.

The one thing I know for sure, though, is that the snobbiness has GOT to go, at least publicly. We (as a world music community) should be encouraging our tribe to spread the word in positive ways, instead of making blanket statements like, "anyone who thinks that Ravi Shankar is the best sitar player in the world is obviously too stupid to get past the Beatles and do some exploration on their own." Let's think of ways to do better, to foment positive-diacritical messages, instead of negative-critical ones. We bear a huge responsibility as an industry, and hold enormous power in our ability to truly change the face of culture as we know it by introducing and creating positive inter-cultural dialogue and cross-pollination, and we need to do it. In-fighting doesn't seem to be working, nor do the "I know more than you" pissing contests that seem all-too-regular... I think if we all took the other approach (in a rational, businesslike way, not in the hippy-dippy way that we sometimes lean towards), we'd be doing ourselves, our artists, and the world a huge favor.

A Festival Tribe: The Grassroots Case Study for Self-Market Growth, by Megan Romer

When DubMC launched a conversation about entrepreneurial approaches to global music, Scott Southard of booking agency International Music Network, applied Seth Godin's notion of "tribes" to the world music field as well as calling for dissolving traditional roles and practices in the music industry. Now we turn to a two-part article by Megan Romer, who wears two hats (marketing director, Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance, and guide to world music, About.com). Here in part one, Romer explores the concept of "tribe" for her festival audience and challenges booking agents to walk the walk regarding booking fees and audience development.

I tend to look at the idea of "spreading the word" from two different directions, as my two main gigs leave me interacting with two fairly disparate market segments, neither of which are "die-hards" or part of the "tribe," necessarily. So I'll take this one by one.

At the GrassRoots Festival, we've managed to build a tribe around the festival itself. By creating a festival with a truly grassroots feel, eschewing corporate sponsorship and private-interest funding, as well as most grant moneys (we have partaken in some of the county tourism funding a few times, in bleak economic years), we have complete artistic and programming freedom. More importantly, though, our constituents feel as though THEY are the owners of the festival, not that it's owned by Budweiser or the Park Foundation or whoever else. This sense of ownership leads to an intimate sense of community, which translates to an absurdly high rate of repeat attendance (well over 90%).

Economic impact surveys and other market analysis reports we've done, alongside anecdotal evidence and other less-formal analysis, indicate that our crowd is largely middle-aged, middle-class, and middle-income folks, many of whom have some sort of positive association with, but who are not part of, the countercultural movement of the sixties. It would be remiss to avoid stating that the majority of our audience caught wind of the festival conversation due to our founders and perpetual host band, Donna the Buffalo, who tend to tour within both the bluegrass and jam-band circuits, though their sound is decidedly Americana-rock (with reggae and zydeco influences), and not necessarily "jam-band" or "jam-grass." Their own fan base is enormous, extraordinarily dedicated, and highly self-organized. The majority is middle-aged, middle-class, and middle-income, though they (known as "the herd") definitely represent people from all walks of life. Older and more discerning than fans of, say, Phish or Widespread Panic (though there is certainly some crossover), they are a solid, expandable (and expanding!) market. This is our core, and the "tribe" to whom we cater the most carefully.

Because we have these dedicated fans who would buy tickets to the festival even if we, say, programmed a lineup of 80 bands whose names started with the letter D, our programming choices become much easier. We have the freedom to book the best, not just the most famous, which is why we have, for example, Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys perform each year. Never heard of 'em? Neither have most people. But ask any Cajun musician who the best accordion player in Southwest Louisiana is, and they'll tell you that Mr. Walter takes the cake. If we were a different festival, and one who had to make programming decisions based solely on draw, we'd probably be booking some very different musicians on a regular basis, but we are able to book less-famous musicians who are equally as talented, and "break" them to our audience on an annual basis.

I think that festivals and venues that have a solid, built-in crowd have a responsibility to make bolder and more important booking decisions. The crowd is there. They're clearly interested in music, and not the Top 40 kind. They're ready to be entertained. People like us don't need to, and therefore shouldn't, book acts like The Wailers - shadows of something that used to be great - when we could be exposing people to Tinariwen instead (something we did on their very first American tour). Substituting draw for quality tends to be a vicious cycle that too many festivals and venues fall into, and they are never entirely able to pull free.

One thing that makes it very difficult for small, non-profit festivals, is the refusal of certain agents and managers to look at us as a market expansion opportunity, and instead see us simply as yet another gig. We can't pay what highly-funded major institutions can, so we are often overlooked or simply turned down by some agents. We can offer a built-n crowd of nearly 15,000 people, the majority of whom are die-hard music fans who are actively seeking new things to listen to, the majority of whom say in surveys that they will buy a ticket for any band who they've seen at the festival - and yet we get quoted $25k for virtually-unknown-band-from-wherever. If agents want to truly help their artists, they need to start realizing that certain outlets will provide enormous market-expansion opportunities, even if they can only pay 2/3 of what a wealthier outlet may provide. As an agent (or band, manager, label, publicist), one should ask, "which is better - a guarantee of $5k for a wedding or an 80% door deal at the hottest, happeningist world music club in a cool neighborhood in a cool city?" or "which is better - $15k to play at University of X, where events are poorly promoted and attendance tends to be slim, but endowments allow for big fees, or $7.5k to play at Festival X, where there are 10,000 new people just waiting to absorb something new?" Do we want a fat paycheck now, or long-term success? I hear a lot of agents talk the talk, but most don't yet seem to be walking the walk.

Back to the market segment, these GrassRoots folks really take care of themselves, and they do the hardest work in bringing their friends into the fold. My struggle of recently is to figure out ways to really empower them, to let them keep their tribal mentality going all year 'round, and to figure out ways that they can do the marketing for me. Because I know that we'll probably sell enough tickets to squeak by no matter what, this gives me a fair amount of freedom as the marketing director (a similar freedom that the artistic director has), and I get to do a lot of creative brainstorming, which is great fun for me.

One of the initiatives that I've come up with recently and will be rolling out shortly is to create a Kiva.org lending group. Simple? Absolutely. Ridiculously, even. It costs nothing, takes virtually no time, but allows our constituents, who tend to be socially progressive and culturally-minded, a chance to connect with each other without input from me. Will it work? I have no idea. It could have zero benefit, for all I know. But it's the sort of non-marketing that I'm trying to move toward. Hopefully a few dozen people will sign on, and every time they get their monthly loan repayment, they'll remember that they're a member of the GrassRoots Kiva group, and it'll be in their mind when they see a similarly-minded friend at a concert that weekend. Facebook, MySpace, etc. - they're all great, especially for disseminating info, but they don't create the sort of fundamental empowerment that is really needed to spread the word. There are better outlets, and we just need to keep our eyes open for them.

Read Part 2 here.

Have We Reached the Tipping Point of World Music?

Two recent articles suggest a change in tone in media coverage about World Music. In "State of the World: How Globalistas Are Tearing Down Cultural Barriers," Exclaim Magazine's David Dacks argues this month "World music is no longer 'other folks' music'; this new world is multi-polar. Bands find themselves with greater diversity of fans than ever before, as the choose-your-own-adventure of online music leads passionate appreciators to choices they'd never considered. World music has evolved beyond a take-your-medicine embrace of cultural 'otherness,' it's about recognizing the multiple levels of cultural exchange — even the shallow ones — that are redefining the idea of 'mainstream.'"

Meanwhile, last week rock critic Will Hermes argued in the New York Times, in an  article titled  "Changing Sounds of Africa," that "...African artists are using digital technology to create musical hybrids and distribute them globally. At the same time Western fans of rock, rap and electronic music are using digital access to discover sounds that push familiar buttons in novel ways. Together these factors have helped dispel the notion of world music as a folk-rooted category geared strictly toward older listeners. Congolese acts like Konono N°1 and Kasai Allstars, for example, working with European producers and artists (like Bjork, who recorded and toured with Konono N°1), have connected their hypnotic, urbanized traditional music to Western fans of techno and psychedelic rock."

I have argued for years that global and cross-cultural music -- in spite of the pitfalls of the concept and term "World Music" -- will continue to be viable commercially and culturally, and better yet find growth in North America, regardless of what it is called. The Internet and other emerging connecting technologies, an increase in human migration (and thus a more diverse America), global urbanization (which brings people of diverse cultures into closer and more frequent interaction, and, in spite of fears about fuel prices, significant increase in global travel all converge to create a society that will discover and embrace a variety of global and cross-cultural sounds. It is inevitable. And I would argue further that it is not only the most extreme cultural hybrids that integrate hip hop, rock, or electronica that will find growth. Even traditional and folkloric music forms will thrive. And sometimes they will thrive in unexpected ways. Like the Korean communities in Queens, NY that dance to tango or the Chicanos in Southern California with Brazilian samba bands. Does anyone really think world music in America will die out when the white people of America die out? Quite the opposite.

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

BBC World Music Awards Are No More

According to this article in Saturday's Guardian newspaper (U.K.), the BBC is no longer giving out their BBC World Music Awards.