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

by Denis Baldwin

This year’s Homemade Music Symposium played out over the weekend at the Ybor HCC campus, bringing together musicians, singer-songwriters, music industry professionals, entertainers, writers, photographers and most every other aspect of the music industry to discuss the state of music, the nature of creating and marketing musicians and give a taste of things to come.

Overall, the symposium was a great success. Saturday opened with “Poets of Popular Song, The Lyrics and Lyric Writers of the Great American Songbook,” featuring the piano work of Paul Wilborn and the 107-year-old Rosa Rio. After their performance, many of the attendees broke for the lunch while the rest of us sat at our tables and handed out free swag and met with people.

More pics after the jump:

As the day raged on, the crowd continued to morph. After noon, the rock kids all awoke and made an appearance, many to show off their demos and many more to attend seminars including “Marketing, Touring and Band Management” and “Alternative Media Promotion” with BrandTampa’s own Queen of Social Media Julia Gorzka. Classes on getting the most out of studio time, shooting a music video and a “meet the press” session provided even more value to those who came looking for help getting their music careers off the ground.

There was a good showing by all the key players at the vendor tables including Bay Area Beat, WMNF, Creative Loafing and Reax.

Here are some random photos from the event:

Denis Baldwin can be seen crashing events and taking photos all over the bay area on his own site, MyTampaLife.com.

“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

U2 persists as the biggest rock band in the world. No Line on the Horizon will likely flirt with platinum status in its first week of release — quite an accomplishment in these dire times for the music biz. There aren’t many acts left for whom pressing a new album is akin to printing money. When U2 hitched their wagon with concert behemoth Live Nation, the band received a load of company stock as part of the 12-year, $120 million deal. So confident they are in their continued success, I wonder if they’ve even checked Live Nation’s stock quote since the deal? (I did!  It’s down about 75%!)  I can only imagine how the Irish rockers feel about the proposed merger with Ticketmaster!

Given the mansions upon castles of cash this band raked in over the past few decades, there’s a certain understandable reluctance to revolutionize the way things are done. But music fans with even the most primitive knowledge of the health of the recording industry will laugh at U2 guitarist the Edge’s justification as to why the old business model is the way to go.

If you are currently drinking anything, I advise you put down your glass. Your ensuing spit-take may ruin your computer.

The headline of this article from British music tabloid NME announces the possibility of a second U2 album before the end of the year — kind of a big deal, but it’s just the gravy.  The meat is below — when the Edge was asked whether U2 would change things up a la Radiohead:

“My instinct is to stick with the record guys. They have to sell your records or sell the downloads, whatever it ends up being. To do that, first of all you’ve got to love and understand the music, and right now I’m not seeing any group that rivals the record labels on that front.”

I suppose if my band were closing in on three full decades of continued cultural relevance, still created music people gave a shit about, and still made money off album releases, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to bite the hand that feeds. But doesn’t U2 know that they are the exception to the rule? Are they so surrounded by yes men waiting for a trickle-down that they are utterly oblivious to their own business?

Maybe U2 thinks the recording industry will be greeted as liberators. After all, no one will ever love or understand their music as much as those burdened with selling it.