SOCAN gets in your hair...

SOCAN is sending letters to salons countrywide "reminding them that under Canadian copyright law, they are supposed to pay royalties for playing recorded music on their premises.
And that's got some people stickier than a well-coiffed beehive."

The entire Globe and Mail article is here. I'm with SOCAN on this one... the salons are in the service business and, by their own admission, the music really sets the mood and adds to the salon experience... Deriving that added benefit from the music, and a benefit that adds commercially to their enterprise, should be moral basis enough for SOCAN to enforce the licensing fees...

Polaris Music Prize

Just a plug for the Polaris Music Prize... a $20,000 Prize for a full-length Canadian album, judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales...

This is like Britain's Mercury Music Prize and it's very prestigious... I think there's some great nominees this year, with great product... Check them out at CBC's Radio3 podcast for Polaris here... and while you're on that site, don't forget to check out my Radio3 site as well...

Keep the faith... and ci vedimes...

Songwriting and Context

Well, I neglected to mention that I signed up for 3 months of SongU through Muses Muse. It's a songwriting resource site with courses to take and the ability to make pitches to the "industry" folk, as well as take some Feedback courses given by industry types. Sort of like "Date with a Demo" put on by SAC, but over the internet. Here's my SongU page, btw...

I did this last week for Pause and Wonder and just listened to the transcript of the instructor (Robin Frederick) who liked the "rawness" of the tune and greatly admired the "powerful" lyrics, though she felt it was incomplete (who is the man I'm singing about? where is the chorus?) and incorrectly named... She also reminded me that listeners are "stupid" in the sense that they don't know the CONTEXT of what I'm writing about the way I do... She spoke of an exercise where you re-jig the song to a third person point of view from a first person point of view (though that wouldn't work with this song).

Finally, she spoke of a quote from Sean Lennon along the lines of: 'Songs are myths about things that happen to us.' In other words, the song isn't a literal re-telling of what actually happened, but our skewed/subjective view of it... so go "all the way" and turn it into a "myth" that might appeal more universally...

I like that notion...

Role of a Music Publisher - Article

There's a nice article in the latest edition of Words & Music put out by SOCAN that's entitled: The Role of a Music Publisher - A new skills study reveals the complexities of the business.

There's a reference in the article, which discusses the Canadian Cultural Human Resources Council (CHRC) survey of publishers' duties and talents, both with respect to signed artists, and in the self-publishing arena. The CHRC site is a nice resource for someone looking to make a career in the arts...

FACTORing Technology

I received a letter from FACTOR today that contained the following:

• We attempted to assess the song submitted however the song file provided would not play through the various means we tried.

I don't know why I can't get the technology on my side when I've embraced it so...

I took a feedback course at SongU last week and that was the same problem (I was able to upload the song during "class" so I was able to have my song heard and receive feedback on it)... You'd think that since I rely on technology so much that it would be kinder to me...

Live and learn...

Jeff's Second Pro Gig!

Well we had some fun at Boston Pizza last night! The place was packed (all of Jeffie's friends and family attending, along with a rather large and inebriated group of golfers coming from a company tournament). Jeff sure knows how to work the crowd as you can see above (that's him being Elvis by the way).

He had a lot of fun in the earlier sets with his kids and their friends there. The little ones danced around the stage. Afterward (read, after dark when all the kids were gone) there was no shortage of drunken requests coming from the patio patrons and Jeff quickly obliged.

I came with my guitar, as you can see below, and we did play my Butterfly and Scotch song, but in the end, it was Jeffie's night and I sat down and listened... And now that he's got another notch for a paid gig, and now that he played his original tune last night (Cultural Genocide), I hope he joins SOCAN with me...

Great show man! But while I may not have been needed much on stage, let's just say it was a good thing I came though (certain amp issues and broken strings, stuff like that).

It was great to see Petie and Rico too (and Dave) and to scarf some free food (thank you golfers!). Ci vedimes...

Revolution Audio - "Free Summer School" Series

From Revolution Audio's latest newsletter:

• "We hope your Revolution continues even during the summer months. This is just a quick e-mail to remind you of the Free Sonar/Cakewalk Clinic at Revolution Audio in Mississauga, ON this Wednesday night July 11th 7-8pm. Jeffery Lyon will be here from Roland/Edirol Canada talking about Advanced Drum Programming: from Roland TR styles to severe audio manipulation!
  
  This is part of our "Free Summer School" series - Each Wednesday night during the summer we offer a free clinic taught by one of our expert staff or a special guest.
  July 18th 7-8pm: How to Setup a Home Studio - Intro to Home Recording For Beginners
  July 25th 7-8pm: Intro to Sonar 6 with Will Snodgrass
  Aug 1st 2007: Digital Guitar Tour with Lyle Crilly of Steinberg/IK Multimedia Canada
  
  Click below for the full schedule:http://www.revolutionaudio.ca/store/recordingclassesandclinics.php
  
  Also, if you were thinking of attending our 1 week boot camp - July 16-21 we only have two open slots remaining (at the writing of this e-mail) so you will want to signup today. http://revolutionaudio.ca/store/product_info.php/products_id/352
  
  For those subscribers in other parts of Canada and beyond, I have had many requests for classes and clinics in other cities. I am sorry that we cannot accommodate this at this time, but if you are interested please let me know so we can plan ways to respond to the demand.
  
  Thank you for your continued support of the Revolution on every front..."

I am very sorry that I'll be missing tomorrow night's class and the class scheduled for July 25 as I have previous commitments. Those were definitely lessons I could use...

Note from a listener!

A listener that found me from a post I just made in usenet newsgroup (rec.music.makers.songwriting) took the time to listen to my music and made the following thoughtful comment (that I greatly appreciated):

• Hey - I listened to your tunes and what I think of them is that they are good singer songwriter type songs but they would be hard to pitch to any band. As a publisher I would turn them down for that reason. If they were marketed for soundtrack songs they might fit a script but then if you played them out, you don't stink and you could easily be
  the guy that sells albums.
  

  Songs are product that get marketed for a purpose. If you don't have the tool (band or singer) to present your song you can't very well market them. Some songs work for a generic anyone to sing and others need a personality. Don't stop trying to do what you feel is right for you based on any or all critics but you may want to think about
  becoming your own marketing source. You have the basic knowledge of recording. If you make better, more complete recordings that would please your listeners, you can sell your own CD's and probably make more then you would expect.
  

  If you get "published" (and that would mean getting a cut on a CD) you get so little from the sale of the records it is almost insulting. If you don't have the hit song you never get airplay royalties. If you record and sell your CD's at a coffee house gig and say, make 10 sales a night for 150 nights a year and sell your CD's for $15 you make $22,500. If you want to get a publisher to shop your songs you are going to record them anyway but to make that much money you need a song on a CD that goes AT LEAST gold!!! Granted you would have 10 songs on your CD that you sell but you will need more then 10 songs in the hands of publishers to get lucky enough to go gold.
  

  Anyway, you are always your best marketer and you will always believe in your songs better then someone else no matter how much smoke they blow up your rear.
  

  Like I said, this is just my 2 cents but do the math, think it through and realize that you have a market. Just figure out who, what and where and get to it.
  

  Lots of luck

Christine Tier

Email as received from Christine:

• Hello folks,
  
  I will be playing this Thursday, July 12, at 8:00, at Latinada, 1671 Bloor Street West (south side of Bloor, 1 block east of Keele / Parkside). Its the place that looks like a log ski chalet. We'll be upstairs. $8.00 admission, $5.00 for students, children under 10 and pugs.
  
  It will be a quiet, acoustic show, with just myself and Robert Reid on guitars, Susan Reid doing a couple of background vocals and Eric doing a little bit of percussion. See you there.
  
  Christine
  

Support your local songwriters!

Jeff at Boston Pizza - July 10/07

I think that Jeff was inspired by the songwriting faculty performing last night (see previous post) so that should get him geared up big time for his gig on Tuesday. Here's the details as sent in an email from Jeff:

• I’m doing a live music performance at Boston Pizza on Tuesday night from 7pm – 11pm. Here are the directions:

  It’s a plaza on the South East corner of Courtney Park and Hurontaio south of Derry Road. Take 410 North and the very first exit is Courtney Park. Turn right and head towards Hurontario – Hwy 10 and the address is 50 Courtney Park Drive East. There is an AMC Theatre there, a Denny’s and a McDonalds.

  See you all at Boston Pizza on the patio

  www.edgefitnessconsulting.com

I'm looking forward to the evening... I have a dentist appointment (unfortunately) so I'll miss some of the first set, but I'll be there for most of it... Break a leg Jeffie... (Maybe I'll bring my guitar, just in case...)