Wednesday, May 30, 2007

major label bye buy!

Great stuff here . . .
and I'm in the midst of trying to sort out how much big money stuff to do in work with some labels. There are some serious discussions around doing things like releasing video that is done well vs releasing video done on imovie. in trying to reach market you need to look different, and maybe looking produced right now is looking different . . .
it's too late for deep thoughts now, other than to wonder why i'm using these damn ellipses so much over the past couple weeks . . .

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

more buttons

to get this code, you can use the firefox developer toolbar or any other tool that allows you to see the code on a page. that page would be: http://news.calabashmusic.com/world/link_to_us

Calabash Music :: Tune Your World



Calabash Music :: Tune Your World



Calabash Music :: Tune Your World



Calabash Music :: Tune Your World



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Calabash Music :: Tune Your World

check them out here:
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Saturday, May 12, 2007

one and only one time that i'll do this

so this is hopefully the ONLY time i ever mention someone like paris hilton in my blog. but you known when you go to any "news" or "information" site on the web (including google, yahoo, msn, etc), and you see all of these insipid "entertainment" headlines? of course, they are above the real news in many cases, and so i have these silly messages in my head as i run down to the real news. over the past few days, there have been numerous mentions of paris hilton heading to the big house for 45 days for violating her probation. and of course, some "fans" have started a petition to keep her out of jail.

my first thought was that i'd love to see a petition to make sure she gets put in jail. i guess i wasn't alone. there is another petition to make sure she gets her court ordered jail time.

what is really great is that this petition is leading the "free paris hilton" petition by a 2:1 margin (56,000+ to 23,000+).

however, what i find very interesting is that our crack team of media (or rather, crack-addled team of media) has mentioned the "free" petition in about one billion stories, but the "jail" petition is not mentioned. awesome. let's hear it for a democratic media. . . .. .



ok. i'm done. no more. promise.

Monday, May 07, 2007

artists beware!

wow. i just read a very scary contract. there is an ongoing dispute over ownership of tracks and payment of royalties with an unnamed artist from an unnamed country in africa on our site. the artists' representative has claimed that they have a contract with the artist, but recently, the producer of the recording (!) has stepped in, saying they have the rights to the music. I have recently been sent a purported contract between producer and artist, and have just seen one of the most abusive contracts from an artist's perspective that i've ever seen.

On one level it is a recording contract, but it somehow transfers management rights to the recording company, as well as prohibits the artist from working with anyone else for 5 years. The artist gets 15% on domestic sales, 10% of international sales, and only gets paid every 6 months.

The terms are so loose that as an unscrupulous business person, one could clearly do the recording and never pay the artist again. amazing.

Very scary if this is a standard contract for artists in this part of Africa on several levels. Scary for the artists there and their ability to actually make a living on contracts like this, and scary for those interested in getting music out of Africa and helping artists reach an international audience. If an artist has one of these 5 year contracts lurking in their past, and probably never read nor understood the implications of such a contract, and someone comes in to help them bring their music to an international stage, record a new album, etc, and risks ending up in court to fight a contract like this, . . . . . .

wow. talk about a damper. must move on to happier pieces of work . . .

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

democracy in bamako

It appears that ATT has won again, following the example in Senegal of an incumbent somewhat popular president winning a slight majority and avoiding a runoff election. Here's for peaceful transitions, and continuing declines in corruption and poverty in west africa.

Spinal Tap is back!

one of my first favorite bands - Spinal Tap - is back, and they are ready to turn it up to 11 in the fight against global warming. This follows in Spinal Tap's long history of doing good, such as campaigns to help ferrets -- by raising money to feed them Caesar salad -- and to help people with high insteps.