While the goal* of plenty of artists is to be signed to a major the saying you should be careful what you wish for is proven in another great example of support that seems to have derailed a seemingly alright at worst band [my personal tastes would have the band in question, the twenty twos, rate fairly well from the little I heard on myspace]. How bad can it get, well “they stopped cutting the checks and/or returning our phone calls“. That’s fucking cold. via coolfer
*Now more than ever artists, with new options developing everyday, should be careful in defining what their goals really are - do you really want to be on a major, perhaps the specific one of some key influence, where that’s the only thing that will make you happy, or do you want access to promotional/distribution/whatever resources they have - and can you find them elsewhere now or another means of reaching the same ends. No point getting signed to your “dream” label only to lose your band completely in the end.
The Top 40 Bands in America - 2006 Edition As Voted On By A Bunch Of Effing Music Bloggers That Only Listen To Cooler Than You Guitar Based Indie Rock And Not Much Else
Pretty much sums up what you’ll find. That list was the inspiration for the Hottest Bands in Canada listing which in turn inspired the Hottest Bands on the East Coast poll currently in the works.
No need to wonder why there’s no Canadian bands at all either as they very clearly note: Anyone making music is eligible for the list, as long as they are American. NO FOREIGN BANDS.
From leafblower.com
While the government should be thanked for funding the programs noted in the previous post they should be careful where they go for funding of their own.
Heritage Minister Bev Oda cancelled a re-election fundraiser organized by a broadcasting executive, citing concerns Tuesday that the event would be negatively perceived. [from the CBC]
No shit! Even if the basic idea of taking money from the people you are suppose to regulate didn’t strike them as touchy, perhaps the fact that there was outcry for the very same thing when the Liberals were still in power earlier this year may have made them smarter but I guess not.
While this fundraiser focused on the TV industry, the first example was hosted by Doug Frith, president of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association, and Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.
By the way, Bev Oda, the Conservative’s Canadian Heritage critic at the time, accepted donations from the same groups.
Further Details/Good Source:
Michael Geist is the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He also writes a weekly newspaper column called “Law Bytes”. When it comes to legal matters, and I’ve found particularly copyright, I have found no better Canadian perspective than his and his blog is definitely worth checking when such matters are in the news. He covers the Oda matter in three different posts: Oda Cancels Lobby-Backed Fundraiser Pressure From Oda Fundraiser Grows Oda Funding Controversy May Derail Broadcast and Copyright Policy
The New Cultural Ambassadors is a good article from the New York Times [may need to register] on the availability of funding for musicians from various countries today and some of the issues such funding raises such as should the government even be funding musicians and what’s it mean for an artist to be taking such money.
The business person in me says if you can’t make money doing it without subsidies then to bad for you. The manager in me is currently working on grant proposals telling the businessman in me to shut it.
[Point of disclosure – From Here To There Records received a grant through the Emerging Music Business Program (link below) administered by the NS Government to start up – I think the businessman forgot about that].
The compromise my two sides reach is that governments should be supporting their cultural identity and the artists that develop such an identity. According to the article Canada has one of the best funding programs in the world, another great reason to be here.
I think any artist that can, whether in some further official capacity or simply via selection to receive funding, act as “appointed emissaries of their homelands” should be thrilled at the chance to do so. Who better to spread the word about Canada’s music scene [and Canada] than musicians.
The whole article is certainly worth reading but a few parts that stood out to me:
“In Canada, which has one of the most established programs, artists can apply for an array of grants or loans to finance up to 75 percent of recording costs, advertising, marketing or touring expenses.
Heather Ostertag, chief executive of Factor, the public-private Canadian agency that oversees music funds, said it controls a budget of roughly $12.4 million and handed out awards to one-third or more of the 3,800 applicants who sought support last year. Broken Social Scene and its label, for example, have been offered more than $140,000, she said.
TO many artists, even to many bands involved in these programs, federal financing may not initially seem very rock ’n’ roll. After the Hives took Sweden’s money, the band’s lead singer, Pelle Almqvist, fumed that tax-financed rock was “like working for the Man.”
Andrew Wilson, the lead singer of the New Zealand art-rock band Die! Die! Die!, whose trips to the United States helped find the band find a manager and a contract with the independent label S.A.F. Records, says he thinks that while the national subsidies may have strengthened New Zealand’s music industry, they have also bred complacency. “Bands are a lot more reliant on grants than they should be,” he said.
Besides FACTOR, Nova Scotia artists can also apply for grants through the NS Department of Tourism, & Culture [Heritage is in there somewhere too] if they are emerging. While exporting or export ready artists can get grants through Music Nova Scotia.
Wasn’t very interested in the Zune to begin with and nothing I’ve read over the past couple days since its launch will change my mind.
If not flat out bad, positive reviews are lukewarm at best.
Zune doesn’t work with Microsoft’s much touted new Vista operating system. Hypebot Warner Music Group technology guru Ethan Kaplan joined the chorus and gave the Zune store a lukewarm review on his personal blog. (blackrimglasses)
First day sales are slow. (Reuters) Indie Retail Reacts To Zune: “What A Joke.” All the above come via Hypebot
Fear and Loathing in Zuneland: The Social Has Been Canceled - a number of links from Medialoper
And I could probably continue this post for hours with similar links
Be interesting to see where the Zune is 6 months and a year from now
You can check out In-Flight Safety of Dead Daisy Records on MTV’s Overdrive. [had problems with that link in FireFox].
They perform a couple live tracks and are interviewed by someone who must have made a wish through some organization like the Children’s Wish Foundation to interview a rock band because I don’t understand how it was possible to let her otherwise.
Also check out an internet only track called “Kids” by Mardeen
Good night.
Inspired by and in response to the lack of East Coast acts on I (heart) Music’s Hottest Bands in Canada, v. 2006 [as well as their 20 Hottest Bands in Ottawa] I have been contacting reporters, bloggers, label owners and other industry folks to comment on who the hottest bands are this side of Montreal right now.
There was a surprising lack of anyone really from the East Coast in the Best Of poll - yet I’m aware of any number of bands that are worthy of being part of such a list. Numerous people in the comments for the poll commented on the lack of acts from these parts. Matthew of i (heart) music responded to my inquiry regarding the lack of bands with the following, in part:
I think the reason that so few Maritime artists were mentioned was because they’re so far away from the centre of Canadian media (and the bulk of the country’s population, too) that it’s hard for them to get noticed by people here.
Fair and true [and there was Sloan in the list as well as some Dependent artists - see the rest of the list]. [Aside: our label is called From Here To There Records in part due to the geographic barriers East Coast artists have to overcome].
He also mentioned that artists likely to get media attention from the East Coast aren’t likely to be indie darlings that bloggers/critics would likely be into - also true. I suspect that there will be a definite indie slant to the results of the East Coast poll as well so….
Here’s hoping some acts that appear on this East Coast listing might make it onto the Best Of Canada next year. Watch for the list in the not to distant future.
