FRITZ KUNDLER

They say that the music industry has really changed, especially with the advent of the net. Well, if you take a look at how record companies have done business in the past one would be tempted to say it was a change that had to come.

Let’s take a look at how a deal for your average new music artist would break down. Mind you, this is the past were looking at so, if anything, it’s even worse for new music artists now.

  “According to Ronald Zalkind, in Getting Ahead in the Music Business (Schirmer Books), the expenses an artist incurs for record production often outweigh record royalties:

‘Let us now hypothesize an artists with initial record royalties, on the sale of 100,000 units, of $40,600. The artist has a personal manager who gets 20 percent off the top, which reduces the $40,600 figure to $32,480. The average cost of producing an album today (which is what our hypothetical artist ran up at session costs) is $75,000. This means that the artist owes the record company $34,400. Also, the artist receives a $10,000 advance against royalties as bare subsistence income on which federal, state. and local taxes were paid. This raises the artist’s outstanding debt, on his first release, to $44,400.

Now, let us suppose that the artist’s second album with the record company sells gold: The initial payout, less container charges, is $203,000. The personal manager gets 20 percent, which brings the artist’s take down to $162,400. The artist owes $44,400 from the first album, which further reduces the artist’s gold record income to $118,000. Finally, the artist spent $100,000 on the second go-round in the studio and took a $15,000 advance. With a gold record on the wall, the artist after two successful album releases, has only earned $3,000.’ “

The above quote is from Making Money Making Music (No Matter Where You Live) by James W. Dearing. (Writer’s Digest Books)

Is it any wonder so many new music artists are going Indie?

Listen to free online music without downloading        

 

Listen to music for free online without downloading 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to call your attention to our friends at Urockradio.net. You can see their broadcast in the widget and also our banner that proclaims we are sister stations. I know that’s what you usually call this sort of relationship between broadcasts but it’s kind of weird because we’re not actually sisters.

We are related, however, in our mission to bring attention to excellent new music artists and especially new music artists that might not have the full advantage of the Huge Media Machine, because they are producing something actually new in the way of alternative albums that doesn’t fit in with the cookie-cutter, cardboard cut-out, reinvention of the wheel that the media at large stuffs in our faces and calls new and original.

We believe that diversity, or at least being able to avail oneself of diversity is like a constitutional right. We live in a free society but a free society is only as good as the choices that one has. If you have no choices, what have you got? Nadda, that’s what you got! You have a political campain.

So go check out Urockradio.net and you will find even more great new music artists. Support stations like Urockradio.net and ours and support the new music artists by buying their alternative albums, otherwise thinking you live in a free society is like thinking you can really vote for the candidate of your choice.

Listen to free online music without downloading   

   

Listen to music for free online without downloading 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a very interesting interview with new music artist Judith Owen, who talks about her recording, ‘Creatures of Habit,’ as well as her expirences as a new music artist on Capitol Records.

 

 Interview with New Music Artist Judith Owen: Play Now | Play in Popup

listen to music for free online without downloading

Here is the interview with new music artist Vince Falzone, who has several alternative albums of new rock out. Vince combines great song craftmanship with tasty heavy metal-type guitar riffs. You can check out this new music artist on our broadcast and he also has a profile on this blog where you can get more onformation;

 

 Interview with New Music Artist Vince Falzone: Play Now | Play in Popup

The Unfortunate Incident are new music artists from England.  They combine rock, country, folk and punk into their own individual sound and have been quite turning heads their direction. This group of new music artists has performed all around England and has gained a reputation as an engaging live act. They are getting airplay on many radio stations and are a new addition to our broadcast. Their latest album is available now and you can find out how to get it as well as more information on this group of new music artists at their MySpace page; 

        

 

I will be posting more resources that new music artists can use in their music campaign. This particular resource is a membership site called ‘Meet a Producer.’ I have prevailed upon a collegue to sign-up in order to give us a full report and, so far, we know that the free membership allows you to kick the tyres on the bitch and the upgrade, which is cheap, allows you to contact the producers on their list.

Fair enough, I suppose. No guarantee as to what happens after that and such is life but, who knows, maybe this is the way some new music artist will meet their producer and start a whiz-bang music campaign. We will follow up with a more complete report card for this one later. They’re still in Beta, so it’s only fair to give them a bit of time to get it together.

If you can’t wait, here’s the link; Meet a Producer

Did it start back in the 60′s, this peculiar phenomenon of wearing music, rather than listening to it? For so many, music genre and style are really a function of peer association and identity crisis, which is all well and good until you ponder what sort of identity is being derived by following fashion.

Like the time traveling guy in H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine,’ once you get a bead on a slice of history larger than this week’s news, you get to watch the hemlines rise and fall repeatedly. And this is a fair cop on social progress in the west for things do swing like a pendulum from conservative to liberal.

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but pendulums actually don’t make much forward progress. Each swing in one direction tends to cancel out the last swing and they don’t end up going much of anywhere.

It makes it all the more difficult when each swing is presented and perceived as something completely new. Let me site a few historical examples to try and put this all into a better perspective;

There was a faction in Vienna that didn’t approve of Beethoven. They thought he was crude and low. These people were your parents.

When was the last ‘free love’ movement before the one in the 60′s?  It was just prior to Hitler taking over Germany. Opps! Another one of those nasty swings of the pendulum!

What other musical period is most similar to jazz?  The Baroque period of the 1600′s. The musical practice of the Baroque involved improvisation from chord charts and ‘swinging’ the rhythm, which came to be known as ‘jazzing it up,’ in the ‘modern’ era.

Were rappers the first ones to start writing dirty songs? Don’t make me laugh! The French have been at it for centuries.

Stop wearing music and start listening to it and you’ll have so much more good music to pick and choose from. You’ll find out that you’re not the first person in the world who’s had lots of pervy thoughts or who’s hated your folks or yourself.  That’s because people haven’t changed at all in the last thousand years or so.  You’ll also find out about the guys in suits who’ve been pushing your buttons to make their money.

I’m not sure how many folks in the states are aware that there is an Australian Idol; http://www.australianidol.com.au/  and far from being a poor second cousin, Australian Idol kicks butt all over American Idol. Just go to the site and check out a few of the archived shows.

The thing about Australian Idol is they let the contestants play instruments and perform their own music. They get treated like… musical artists. It makes American Idol look like Karaoke Night at the local sports bar.

As usual, anyone who has anything to do with the music business in the states is doing their level best to keep anything new and original off the radar. Blimey!

It was because the major record companies, otherwise known now as the Big Five, became so intransigent over their belief in a formula that would always work for them that the Indie scene arose. It is also why the Big Five are sinking into the tar-pits, just like that comercial where the two mastadons are shooting the breeze and wondering what that black ooze that they are standing in is and does it seem like they are sinking?

Wouldn’t it be funny if they were actually sinking and couldn’t get out?

The Big Five’s formula for success was that, if it worked once, it will always work. In fact, why even bother to try out new groups? Why don’t we just create our own groups, in accordance with the stats from our demographic research and make them trendy by absolute force of hype?

Small wonder that there is an Indie Music scene. The Indie Music scene hasn’t quite worked out a new business model to replace the old one but the part that has been worked out relies heavily on the Internet and radio stations on the Internet, so if you like Indie Music, support your local Internet radio stations;

Just a small while ago, Sound Exchange decided that radio stations on the Internet should be liable for the same royalties that satellite radio pays. While this seems fair to the artists who get airplay, it was made retroactive so that the amounts for major players like Pandora were in the millions. Smaller broadcasters were threatened with extinction.

A bill called the Internet Radio Equality act was lobbied for but, in the end, fees were raised for broadcasters. This row is not over by any means. It seems that getting something new across is always a bit of a battle. 

Some of the better known radio stations on the Internet charge artists for airplay. That is to say, by paying a fee or buying a certain number of plays, you are guaranteed airplay.

Excuse me, but what is this all about except business as usual? And just how does this serve the listening public who is looking to find ‘my music,’ on the Internet? It does not. It is, once again, the old business model of the notion of popularity being spoon fed to the public via force of hype. Do these stations that charge for plays really care? Only about the money.

Rest assured that, whatever is found on this broadcast, is there for one reason and one reason alone; it has been hand-picked by this DJ who feels that it is good music and, as such, belongs on this radio station.

again, it is the time for knowledgeable critics to make their voices heard as to what constitutes great music or not.