Five years ago, any music industry conference would feature hours of discussion about how to get your compact disc into the hands of DJs on FM radio, or tips on how to press and package a CD that wouldn’t get buried on the desk of an A&R executive at some major label. A lot has happened in five years. On Saturday, June 13 and 14, Hillsborough Community College and The Artist and Writers Group hosted the Second Annual Homemade Music Symposium in Ybor City, and in the combined 18-plus hours of discussion, commercial FM radio was not mentioned one time.

Instead, Saturday’s daytime programming included panels and workshops like “Alternative Media Promotion,” “Marketing, Touring and Band Management” and “How to Get the Most Out of a Studio Session.” Panelists included bloggers (Bryan Childs, Ninebullets.net), social networking specialists (Julia Gorzka, Brand Tampa) and local media (Lee Courtney, WMNF; Curtis Ross, Tampa Tribune; Julie Garisto, St. Pete Times as well as Creative Loafing’s Leilani Polk). Mr. Courtney was the only radio personality in attendance. (Tampa’s 88.5 FM is a community station that still allows their DJs to play CDs – they even sometimes play records.).

The Homemade Music Symposium’s goal is to educate nascent and struggling musicians in the ways and means of the music business and industry trends. It also included out-of-town industry folk and special keynote speakers – this year, it was Tunecore’s Peter Wells and Tony Michaelides, a local author from Manchester, UK, who’s colleagues and contemporaries include Factory Records’ Tony Wilson, David Bowie, U2 and The Stone Roses.

Conference attendees were mostly solo singer-songwriter types, with a sprinkling of MCs, publishers and managers as well as other local bloggers and marketers looking to get involved in the music scene or learn about new media. There was a lot of talk (maybe too much) about Twitter and Facebook, and of course the familiar geographical gripe of how Florida is difficult to tour/break out of, because there are no surrounding states (The closest top 10 market is Atlanta). A good portion of the crowd was visibly older, some dressed in flowery shirts and flip flops, and plenty of eyes glazed over when the topics inevitably circled back to “Tweeting” and social networks.

Sorely missing from the panel of experts, especially on the panel labeled “Area Record Labels and Artist Managers,” were representatives from the handful of local Tampa imprints, namely ADD, New Granada and 24 Hour Service Station (Geri X, Win Win Winter and The Beauvilles). 24 Hour owner Marshall Dickson stated that he would definitely be involved next year, but that this time around he just had “too much on his plate.” The only current label owner in attendance was Ivan Pena, who runs Mohawk Bomb Records (Soulfound, Ascending to Avalon and Rise of Saturn). Pena seemed optimistic about the Tampa Bay music scene, and about the fast-changing online industry, but insisted that artists need to tour incessantly and start treating their band like a business or risk failure.

The “Music Critics” panel, unfortunately the last session of the day, seemed to be the most pessimistic. One girl in the crowd asked for suggestions on how to become a music writer. The entire panel discouraged her. It may be in fashion for music writers to be moody and begrudging, but one would think their passion for music could somehow keep their chins up, not to mention grateful that they still have jobs in the age of Rotten Tomatoes and aggregated, user-generated reviews at Amazon.com.

As with any conference, the nighttime showcases are the payoff – a chance for attendees to party and an opportunity for the out of town industry folks to see what musical talent the surrounding area has to offer.

On Saturday night, Tampa’s New World Brewery featured performances from Rebekah Pulley, Lorna Bracewell, The Skull and Bone Band and 10th Concession. Crowbar hosted a Mohawk Bomb showcase and The Roosevelt had planned a “green” concert featuring some area hip-hop favorites like Dynasty and powered by a generator that ran on vegetable oil. Early Saturday, word had gotten out that the generator had broken during a run-through and that the Roosevelt showcase was cancelled.

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Sunday’s activities were mainly centered around The Bunker in Ybor City, which is home to the Tre Amici coffeeshop, REAX Space, a few art galleries and the neighboring Ybor City Museum.

Some of Sunday’s workshops included “DIY Sound Recording Techniques” at REAX Space as well as “Tips on Promotional Photography” (hint: no brick walls or train tracks) and “The State of The Scene” discussion at Tre Amici.

This talk was moderated by event organizer T. Hampton Dohrman and featured Courtney, Joel Cook (REAX) and yours truly. It began as a polite enough re-cap of the weekend and what could be done differently in years to come and escalated into a microphone free-for-all on how Tampa needs to publicize itself to become the next Austin or Seattle.

Singer-songwriter Emily Roff planted herself in front of the microphone and made a case for a large music festival that would draw thousands of people from all over the world. When some crowd members yelled, “What about [Tropical] Heatwave?” (referencing the annual music fest hosted by WMNF that typically features performers from the blues, folk, Americana and world beat genres), Roff shrugged. She’d never heard of it.

Beauvilles frontman Shawn Kyle made a spirited appearance at the discussion, only half-jokingly announcing his 2012 bid for city council and bemoaning the lack of attention the local media and concert promoters give to area college campuses (USF, UT, Eckerd, SPC, etc.).

What did come from the heated discussion was a summation of points that included the following:

1. The internet has replaced FM radio as a highly-coveted media outlet.

2. Musicians must treat their music as a business.

3. Musicians should treat Tampa and St. Petersburg as two separate markets to avoid saturation. (This point was argued)

4. Even though recording and distribution has become decentralized, quality recordings and the packaging and presentation of materials is still very important (maybe even more so).

5. Bands must tour out of market (once they have established themselves regionally).

6. With the decline in the sale of actual recorded music, musicians must learn to diversify their content/revenue streams to include audio, video, performances, merchandise, ringtones et. al. and utilize networks and messaging to stay in touch with fans and followers. (See the content model here).

7. Music criticism is dead. (This point was not argued).

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Here are some photos from the weekend:
Photos by Kelly Hickman | Photos by Denis Baldwin

“Doing a Radiohead.” Big-box exclusivity deals. “360″ contracts. These and other new business models are side effects of the digital media revolution — a paradigm shift caused by the MP3. The days of $15 CDs are all but dead. Long live the $10 digital album and the 99-cent single, both still dwarfed by everyone’s favorite method of acquiring music: illegal downloading. I think in hindsight, considering the events of the past decade, the recording industry would have been happy for a fractional dip in revenue built into the transition from brick-and-mortar stores to iTunes, but factor in music piracy and the numbers aren’t even close.

Bottom line: recorded music is not worth what it used to be, and count Pixies mainman Frank Black among those who understand. In an interview with Britain’s NME about his newest project, Grand Duchy, he makes several very interesting points about the devaluation of music:

I think what has to happen is everyone has to get used to making less money and have to charge less money. Everything’s got to get cut down to more of a $5 world. People will say, “Oh yeah, I’ll pay five bucks to see that or for a T-shirt or a record.”  I think it’s gonna become more of a five-dollar world than a $25 world, $50, or a $150 world.

Perhaps anticipating negative feedback applying the above comments to the Pixies’ upcoming Minotaur boxed set (pictured right — is that male genitalia on the cover?), Black rationalizes:

“I realize to some people I may sound like a hypocrite because the Pixies are getting ready to release a box set. I think the limited edition version retails for [$495].  But that art already exists–the demand for that particular product has been researched by the people putting it out. If people don’t buy it, we’ll all be fools.

I think Black’s key sentiment is here:

“I think everyone should sell whatever product they want to sell for whatever price they want to sell it for, but ultimately the market will dictate what it is and people will have to charge less money for everything. Record companies have been overcharging people for way too long and now this is the trouble that they’re in. They created this situation because they were just a little too greedy.”

The Pixies are touring Europe this summer – their first shows since 2006.  The debut album by Grand Duchy – Black and his wife Violet Clark – is entitled Petit Fours and came out in February.

“Debaser” from T In the Park, 2006

Over the last decade, there has been much talk and figures to support the fact that the heyday of the music industry has passed, or at least shrunk.

For example, the Top 10 selling albums of 2008 totaled 19 million units, including digital sales. In 1988, the 5 top-selling album alone sold over 26 million units (George Michael’s Faith, Dirty Dancing Soundtrack, Def Leppard’s Hysteria, INXS’ Kick and Michael Jackson’s Bad).

Did music lose its appeal? Does Lil Weezy not hold a candle to the King of Pop? Do bands today suck more than those of the 80s? What gives? I am sure there has been some kind of “lack of quality” perception from some old timers and music critics, but for the most part I think its about greed and lack of following supply and demand.

Major labels have been handling digital albums with the same basic strategy as their physical albums. Due to the rampant adoption of digital music, there is a different paradigm for the supply and demand for music that they have not adopted yet. Costs structures are different. Operating costs are different. Distribution is different. So why don’t they get this yet?

Their basic strategy has been: blanket the world with as many quick blitz promotions as we can and try to charge as much as we want for it. 20 years ago, CDs and cassettes were expensive to produce. Also, recording technology was expensive and cost-prohibitive for independent artists. In addition, record stores were specialty shops and not part of conglomerate department stores and MTV spoon fed you the images and rockstar lifestyles. It was a solid formula with a high cost of entry for small players.

Now, CDs are cheap to produce, anyone can buy Pro Tools and digital retailers will sell anything you have. Plus, MTV still sells reality TV lifestyles  and they don’t play music videos.

It seems music costs less and — based on the RIAA’s figures of music pirates — is demanded just and much or more than in 1988. So why have CD prices barely dropped? Why have digital album prices mimicked physical prices?

Record labels have been trying out different price points on different online retailers to see what the most is people are willing to pay for a digital album. The defacto rate for a single track has been $0.99 almost everywhere, with slight variations on some Websites based on specials, promotions and popularity. Amazon has been offering special $0.79 singles. For digital albums, you can pay as little as $1.50 and as much as $15.

Digital-album sales continued to gain ground on physical CDs, with sales of 65.8 million downloads accounting for about 15.4% of all albums sold during 2008, up significantly from the 50 million digital albums sold in 2007, which comprised 10% of that year’s overall sales total. CDs, meanwhile, represented 84% of all album sales in 2008 with 360.6 million, down from 90% (449.19 million) in 2007.

Of course, digital music’s most notable growth came in the form of individual-song sales, which for the first time crested the 1 billion mark, setting a Nielsen SoundScan record with 1.07 billion digital tracks sold in 2008. That number is up 27% from 2007’s digital-track sales, which totaled 844.2 million.

Also, the 80/20 rule applies to music purchasing. 80% of money comes from about 20% of the music purchasing population. The thing is that the age of the 20% changes depending on music trends, distribution and the current economic state. So instead of blanketing and having a shotgun approach, focus on creating fanbases and grow them individually. Keep artist rosters small and not bloated for tax purposes.

Even though the RIAA has announced that they will stop suing people over illegal downloads due to being a strategy that “isn’t working for them,” according to a Rolling Stone article and a major-label source, I don’t anticipate people to pirate less albums because of it. But I do anticipate the majors using the piracy as a reason to charge more for music, thus ignoring the basic tenets of supply and demand.

Enjoy. Share.
Ivan

About Ivan
Ivan Pena has an Advertising degree from UF, 8+ years in corporate and consumer marketing, 10+ years in graphic design and promotions. Ivan is also the leader of the group Soulfound and runs his own independent record label, Mohawk Bomb. In 2008, Ivan was named one of the Top 30 Under 30 by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. Check Ivan out on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ivanpena

Mohawk Bomb Records, the award-winning, Clearwater-based independent record label, announces its release schedule for spring 2009.

Soulfound “Live at Zen Recording”: features 5 songs performed live at Zen Recording from their “Is a Rock Band” album, released in September 2008. There are 5 video companions to the songs available on Soulfound’s YouTube channel. The EP will be  available as a digital release on February 17, 2009.

No Lip Vol. 2 Compilation: This 14-song eclectic mixed bag of Rock music anthems is the second release in Mohawk Bomb’s No Lip series. Although leaning towards Punk and Pop Rock, No Lip pulls samples from the Florida, California, Texas, Ontario (Canada), UK and Australian music scenes as a survey course of the caliber of independent music. Profiles on each of the contributing bands will be posted on the label’s Website at www.mohawkbomb.com over the next month. The compilation will be available for sale online after February 24, 2009. Physical CDs will be passed out as free giveaways and sent to music press around the USA.

Mohawk Bomb Records is a new kind of record label, focused on sharing all music with the World using social networking and Web 2.0 technologies.

Last week, I wrote about my acquisition of a new turntable, my first since the early 1990s, and pledged to do some comparisons between CDs and LPs, which is a heated debate in the audiophile community (with most audiophiles, I’m told, favoring vinyl).

First, you should know that I am not an audiophile, nor even an aspiring audiophile. But I do want my home system to sound as good as it can within my budget. Even if you’re not all that concerned about the fidelity of your stereo system, it’s still an interesting discussion, especially since the LP is making a comeback in a boutique sort of way. Just this fall, major labels have begun to issue back titles on high-grade vinyl.

Using those titles, of course, would be the best comparison test against CDs, and the publicist at EMI Capitol tells me that a 180-gram vinyl copy of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds is on its way to me. Until then, we’ll use available materials.

Namely, an old standby for me: Miles Davis. I chose his tune “Eighty-One” from the 1965 album E.S.P., which features his great 1960s band: drummer Tony Williams, bassist Ron Carter, pianist Herbie Hancock and saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

I grabbed a barely-used vinyl copy from my long-ignored closet stash of LPs, and pulled out the CD. Synching the disc and record up was easy enough, but I immediately ran into a problem, which puts a major caveat into this debut listening test.

The turntable produced a seriously audible hum at substantial volume. So, uh, that’s gotta be figured out.

But onward anyway.

Switching back and forth proved a task, because the CD came in much louder, requiring me to increase or decrease the volume after a switch between the two, which in turn caused a several-second delay in comparative listening.

After awhile I got the hang of it. Here’s what I found:

There clearly is a difference between the CD and LP listening experience. (I was counting on it, or else my purchase of a new turntable would’ve been largely moot.)

The CD version of “Eighty-One” was sharper, brighter and more finely detailed. The LP version was warmer and rounder. The LP’s sound had more depth compared to the CD’s comparatively up-front sonic plane. The acoustic bass on the CD was terser; I could hear Carter’s percussive snaps. On the LP, the bass was more of a drone. Similarly, Williams’ ride cymbal sparkled on the CD — maybe even a bit too much — while the LP relegated it to more of a background role.

Overall, I more appreciated the ensemble parts on LP and the solos on CD, not exactly practical for listening to Miles.

So which was my preference? Each one had its merits, but if I were forced to keep just one, right now, it would be the CD player.

But … I suspect that’s partly because I was using a fairly high-end CD player and an entry-level turntable with a stylus that costs in the $50 range. What would the difference be if that stylus cost $100, or $150? My guess is that the sonic detail would improve and the warmth and depth would stay.

Uh oh. I see how this works. A $50 stylus just won’t cut it. Guess I need a better one.

But not right away. I’ve got to get that hum sorted out, and get some brand-new high-grade vinyl in here, then test some more.

I gotta tell ya: This is fun. To an extent, the actual music takes a backseat. My ears homed in on specific sounds rather than absorbing the entire piece of music. But it was just an exercise, and it really raised my concentration level. Hey, I can always sit back and just let the music wash over me. Which I’ll do — on both CD and vinyl.

If you’ve read this far, you probably are interested in the equipment I used, so here ya go:
• Pro-Ject Debut III turntable
• NAD 5100 CD player
• B&W 683 speakers (which I love)
[the above were purchased at Audio Visions South in Tampa]
• Sony STR DA2000ES receiver