is this binding?

So as I was discussing an upcoming Ron Paul (I am NOT a supporter) march on Washington, my memory was jogged of another interesting march I have been hearing murmurs of in the music community. This August, as If our nation’s capitol didnt have enough else going on, there will be a Million DJ March on Washington. As a former turntablist, and consummate fan of DJ’s, DJ music, and the culture in general… this kind of sets off some mixed emotions floating around in my head.

First of all… as we all know, Million Whatever Marches rarely accomplish anything other than press coverage by TV news crews that would rather report on the event than real news and raising public awareness of a cause. What ever came about from the Million Man March? Anything? Well, other than great press for the movement, there was an influx of Black Male voter registration following the march. This may be the gleaming success story in the long litany of groups who have marched on Washington since the civil rights marches of the 60s (these actually worked!). The primary objective in most cases is to bring awareness to a cause though. The thing that bewilders me about the Million DJ march is WHAT CAUSE ARE THEY MARCHING FOR? Respect? My problem with this is where do you draw the line? When does it stop. Should the club owners that own danceclubs that promote music march on Washington?

My issue is, I have DJ’d for 15 years. Both Professionally and as an amateur.

I chose to DJ because I enjoyed playing music for the crowds of people who danced for me. Not because I wanted an industry to recognize and thank me for all that I do. Radio DJs are much in the same vein as club djs… most of the folks working in radio do so because the love what they do, not because they want recognition…

The following lines are taken verbatim from the march website.

“Labels and major businesses who reap the rewards of default publicity, need to pay more attention and give more recognition to DJ’s for the promotion they provide.”

This whole event seems to be an excessive abuse of taxpayer’s dollars. I certainly don’t want to foot the bill for crowd control and police presence simply to convince major business to say “Thank You for all that you do to a bunch of DJs.”

My Solution: In an effort to settle the debate on this and avoid the inordinate expense of such a rally, I am willing to help the cause by making the following statement on behalf of the recording industry (I am NOT in any authority to make this statement!)… hopefully hey will now call off this silly march.

Thank you DJ’s!. I am one of you, but I also work for a Major Independent Label (albeit Classical). I (we) certainly appreciate all that you do to help promote and support the music industry. I also appreciate the fact that (like me) you chose your career not because of major financial or social aspirations, but because you LOVE MUSIC and want to spread that love to all that are willing to listen. We love you for all that you are and all that you want to be (Jerry McGuire line). You truly are the Sunshine of our lives! Thank You again!

Now Hug it out bitch!

• Get Them All a-Twitter
  Everyone is jumping on the Twitter bandwagon now… I absolutely agree with this article though…
  (tags: New-Media Twitter)

• The Patry Copyright Blog: Happy Birthday Now Pay the License Fee
  We studied this tune in school.. Great explanation of the longtail and how important rights are…
  (tags: Copyright)

• Warner Music Group Plays with the Price of Music | Listening Post from Wired.com
  We’ve been kicking this idea around in the office for a while now… Does back catalog stand a chance with the sliding scale?
  (tags: Recording-Industry Warner Amie-Street Diginex Pricing)

• Digg - Radiohead won’t repeat ‘In Rainbows’ giveaway
  Seems that now it is popular to do, Radiohead doesnt want to play nice anymore… I wonder what lies at the bottom of this.
  (tags: Recording-Industry Radiohead Downolads MP3)
• A2IM Turns 3, Joins Independent’s Day Celebration
  Independents Day! Cute name…
  (tags: Music-Industry Independent Recording-Industry)
• Online music services could pay $100 million in royalties
  By Eric Auchard SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc’s AOL unit, RealNetworks and Yahoo Inc could stand to pay up to $100 million in royalties owed to thousands of songwriters and publishers, after a federal judge established a formula for…
  (tags: ASCAP Performance-Royalties Digital AOL OUCH!)

• Morgan Stanley’s March Internet Trends Report: Social Applications Dominating
  Great review of a new report by Morgan Stanley. Social Applications are rocking!
  (tags: internet socialmedia web2.0)

Now that I am on the broadcast kick, I am looking at all sorts of venues to expound upon the virtues of Classical music in film (specifically my classical music). In this process, I sponsored and attended the Nashville Film Festival, a local festival that has been given quite a bit of noteriety on the national scene. My experiences and comments are as follows:

* This is a great festival! The showings are organized and with only one venue, the schedule easy to plan around. I have learned tons about the indy film world in only a short week.

* Opening night featuring William H Macy! need I say more? Bill was in attendance to preview his great indy film, “The Deal”. This may have been an indy produced film, but nothing about it seemed independent. There was a stellar cast of characters including Meg Ryan, Elliot Gould and LL Cool J along with Mr. Macy. The plotline was fantastic and I laughed so hard my gut hurt. There was a meet and greet opening party at BMI afterwards where we all rubbed elbows, waxed poetic on the state of the film industry and vied to meet Mr. Macy. I succeeded!

* The panels were provocative, yet predictable. The Music Supervisors panel (of prime interest to me) featured a handful of heavy hitters from Hollywood. While most of what the talked about was interesting, it was not the first time I had heard it. It seems that there is still a real issue with filmmakers’ willingness to pay for quality music for their projects. It seems that unless you have a hit song, you are a bit dead in the water… this is disheartening. Other panels I attended included a panel on film financing and another about the process of taking an independent film into distribution. Not really compelling for a music guy, but interesting nonetheless.

* The closing party and film featured the Wrecking Crew, the background band famous for many of the fantastic recordings of the 60’s and 70’s and who were notoriously Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound.” Elbow rubbing and hububbing aside, the evening was a nice closure for the event. Many new friends had a chance to convene and reflect on the past eight days’ events. The Cannery Ballroom was hopping and there were good times had by all.

• UPDATE 1-Starbucks steps back from music business
  it seems that everyone is having difficulties staying solvent in the music game… at least they have bowed to Concord… they are certainly most capable of running that side of the operation
  (tags: starbucks Music Music-Industry)

• MediaFuturist: In music, the LongTail still won’t work without a head and a body: Announcing big changes at Sonific (temporarily going offline on May 1)
  WOW! This is so true! These are the problems every music startup faces today
  (tags: Digital Music Music-Industry DRM)
• hypebot: Only 42% Of Music Consumed In US Is Paid
  This does not come as a shock… and we wonder why we are in such a pickle.
  (tags: Digital Recording-Industry Music-Industry Downolads)

Just returning from NAB in Vegas, my mind is ripe with new and reinforced ideas about the broadcast industry. In my short two days attending functions and working my way through scores of exhibits, I came away with a few ideas about what is going on in this industry as it pertains to Music Licensing and the Music providers in the field.

1. IP TV is king
The hot topic around the exhibit floor was IP TV. According to Wikipedia, IPTV (IP Television) is a system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, which may include delivery by a broadband connection. A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks. There were loads of various back-end providers peddling their wares. As a general rule of thumb, more access is better for everyone. I dont believe that the proliferation of IPTV will actually bring more music revenues, but it does offer more people the chance to experience the production…

2. Music Library Competition is STIFF
In the realm of production music there is some stiff competition. Production libraries and falling prices continue to make my job more difficult as a licensing agent. This combined with the fact that major labels and publishers are now buying their way into the game with the purchases of companies like NonStop Music and others makes it ever so important that the independents learn to compete in this market. (Two of the most disturbing things I saw were companies named Gratis Music , and of course Royalty Free Music . com)… Disgusted.

We are going to have to start playing the game their way in order to compete (unfortunately). One great thing we have going for us is the fact that our music is actually performed by musicians, rather than midi keyboard and it appears that there is little competition in the Classical field. So this ought to be an interesting year as we embark on bringing in more content revenue competing with a mass market of inexpensive alternatives.

3. The NAB is an event to hit every year and to prepare for on the backend. For us, that means laying tons of infrastructure groundwork to create a real product to take to that market. It is no longer going to be acceptable to simply roll in saying “we’ve got a crapload of music”. The customer today wants to hear that music. They want to search that music and experience that music. That is where the good companies are separated from the greats in the industry. The same applies to anyone in the broadcast field… not just music libraries. This show is FOR REAL. It is the closest thing I have found to CES size-wise. I am looking forward to putting my gameface on and rolling into town with my guns-a-blazin next year.