What I learn from the front line of the new music industry.
Where people, art and technology meet.
I'm proud to be a part of the first fan funded independent record label Alamo Music Ltd founded by the band Hope and Social.
Please say hi: www.twitter.com/bendenison
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Come Dine With Us
For a similar experience, I recommend you click play and listen to Eurospin while you take a flick through a photo diary of our unforgettable Come Dine With Us event.
Eurospin is the song 100 of us recorded together, live, with a full wine bottle orchestra, after diner, on that special night.
The photos are by the far too talented and wonderfully human www.3bmedia.co.uk boys. If you want to know anything about photography, or need a photographer for anything, I urge you to go to them first. They are far too ace.
Oblique Strategies And Jammy Dodgers
I was thrilled recently to be asked by Emma Bearman to guest blog on the fabulous arts and culture site The Culture Vulture. (It's in the top 24 arts and culture blogs in the UK don't you know.)
I was comfortable with the topics we agreed on: new music industry, social media and social participation. I fully expected to bash something reasonable out in good time, but the combination of self imposed time pressure, writing on demand, producing content that needed to be broad yet insightful, and content which would sit in formidable company on the Culture Vulture site, proved to be a some what of a challenge.
With the deadline looming I realised I needed something to snap me out of it, to steer my mind back to a productive way of thinking. I needed more than a Jammy Dodger or two.
I looked no further than my trusty deck of Oblique Strategies. But this time, I didn't even need to open them. I looked up at the perfect black box of inspiration, and boom, I remembered Brian Eno's exquisite metaphor about the record industry equalling whale blubber, and my whale blubberyfied brain solidified on a blog structure.
Thankfully, Emma enjoyed the post and has asked me back to write again.
Hopefully I wont need my Oblique Strategies next time, but if you do...there is an Online Random Oblique Strategy Generator, but please, this is powerful stuff, use it with care.
You can see my post in all its glory on the Culture Vulture site here.
I'm happy with it.
Emma sums it up thus "Have fun + Make Art is the way Hope and Social Roll. Ben Denison reveals how bands are jettisoning traditional music industry models and involving everyone in having a bloody good time with them along the way."
Q) What is cooler than a Lazy Susan?
A) Thats easy.....a Lazy Susan with a stylized record player and LP lazer engraved onto it. Oh yes.
This Lazy Susan speaks for itself really, you can see some of the bands reaction below.
10 Reasons To Make Art Not Merch
It comes from Glen Hansard’s humble but inspiring Oscar acceptance speech for Best Original Song in 2008.
The guy had the whole world’s ear for a few moments, and he chose those words; “Make art! Make art!”
It’s a phrase which should be at the core of everything you do as a musician.
Not the idea that you should keep making art and one day you will win an Oscar or "make it big", whatever that is. Please. Rather it serves as aide memoire that to make anything other than art is a waste of your time.
Art Cant Be Wrong
It has become clear from my work with the band Hope and Social that if you make art, and only art, you can not be wrong.
What do I mean by that?
To thrive in the new music industry, amongst other things, musicians need two things:
- To have a niche appeal
- To offer unique goods or experiences that cant be reproduced easily that people actually want
If you make art, and only art, in everything you do, then:
- You will not be a clone, you will be you, and get this, you have niche appeal!
- You will be creating unique goods or experiences that cant be reproduced easily that people actually want, and you will make more money.
- You will feel happy, alive and inspired
- People around you will feel happy, alive and inspired
- You will become attractive
- You will become interesting
- You will be the catalyst for creativity
- You will generate word of mouth and content galore
- You will add invaluable context to your music
- You will never run dry of ideas
Bin The Merch
To me “merch” is a dirty word. It conjures images of cheap and nasty shapeless t-shirts, thrown together tour posters and badges for badges sake, all produced as an after thought. This stuff is so incredibly patronising to the music fan.
The first thing to apply the “Make art! Make art!” principle to is your merch. Its simple, make art, not merch, because who wants merch?
Of course the more people you can involve in creating art, the more fun it is. This principle is at the heart of everything we do with Hope and Social. Have a look at the fun we are having making a song and a video with a blue jacket and a stamp.
In my next post (update, here: What is cooler than a Lazy Susan?) ill provide a case study of some really special art we made for a recent Come Dine With Us event where we turned the studio into a French bistro, and invited people down to eat, drink and make art. The night was a huge success and the art/merch we made to sell on the night raised just under half the funds required to produce the upcoming second Hope and Social album alone.
But for now, here is Glen to remind you what you do best:
"Fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up."
