[FA Worldmusic] SXSW musings

[Brad Powell]

this is one of the liveliest threads i've seen  here for some time!! my 
comment on influencing the media (coming from the digital revolution 
world i inhabit) is to /be/ the media. With the current crop of Internet 
and digital media tools -- displacing and/or enhancing the traditional 
music media's role is a very reasonable proposition.
 
ideas for this:
collectively the North American World Music Coalition (ok - let's call 
it the North American /All/ Music Coalition) establishes a web presence 
where /all/ of you (including the artists out there) contribute and 
upload content. What this would look like: Pitchfork Media style blog 
postings,   Myspace-like pages for artists and venues,  Youtube-like 
videos posted and, of course, e-commerce enabled video and audio players 
so that downloadable music products can be sold from every page.

with proper incentives for every member of the coalition (producers, 
managers and artists) to contribute, you would create a very diverse 
collection of user-generated content. (for example - stephanie could 
pre-publish chapters of her next book) (we could be having this 
conversation on the NA/A/MC blog) (Carlos and our friends at the North 
American /All/ Cinema Coalition could be posting their latest video 
clips and trailers)

then, for next year's SXSW, invite all those hipster audience members to 
bring their video cameras and shoot and upload the best shows that they 
ran into -- and invite everyone else to rate and rank the videos and the 
artists. (give away prizes for the highest ranked video...) now the 
hipster audience members are the new music journalist taste-makers...

afterwards, start telling /this/ story to mainstream media and see what 
happens

we know how to do this -- we have the technology
;-)

b
--

Brad Powell
President & Creative Director
Calabash Music
--------------------------------------------------------------
(1)617.459.4063 - office
(1)617.797.1491 - mobile
(55) 11 3323-5953 - Sco Paulo

skype: calabashmusic

www.CalabashMusic.com
tune your world








Stephanie P Ledgin wrote:

>Hello,
>Although extremely pressed for time, I felt I had to jump in here for a
>moment. Dmitri has touched upon something I have all but "screamed out" to
>the general folk and bluegrass communities within which I work primarily.
>That is, the statement he made re: "change the views of mainstream America"
>etc., but also expanding that statement to "change the views of mainstream
>media."  I have often said it is from within our own folk worlds that we
>need to break out of the "I, me, mine" mentality and learn how to market the
>music to the mass, mainstream audience, but specifically to the media. I
>feel it is the media that holds us back when they resort to or rely upon
>words that continue to pigeon-hole or stereotype the music. For example, the
>"hillbilly" image of bluegrass and country music. Or the dollar value of a
>folk music concert vs that of, say, rock music.
>
>We (the folk community/folk media) must learn to market in a language that
>is enticing to those outside our box. With my first book, Homegrown Music:
>Discovering Bluegrass, I did just that, kept it very open-minded and
>accessible and it sold out its first print run within three months of
>release, unheard of. Yet I find it very interesting that there remain those
>within the music who scoff at it BECAUSE it embraces a whole other approach
>and audience. For me it has proved that a niche music can appeal to a
>broader audience and that marketing is key. It's all in perceptions.
>
>Thanks for listening. Just my two cents.
>
>Stephanie P. Ledgin
>Music Journalist-Photographer
>"2005 Intl. Bluegrass Music Print Media Person of the Year"
>
>http://fiddlingwithwords.com
>
>PO Box 628 / Pittstown NJ 08867 / 908-735-7925 / ledgin at ledgin.com
>
>Author/photographer
>--Homegrown Music: Discovering Bluegrass. Foreword by Ricky Skaggs
>--From Every Stage: Images of America's Roots Music. Foreword by Charles
>Osgood
>
>COMING SOON!!!
>--Discovering Folk Music (Praeger 2008)
>
>Member, IBMA Board of Directors
>Member, EBMA
>Founding Member, The Folk Alliance
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