Thoughts on music and money/.....

[mindwave]

Yours actually.

I would LOVE to hear from folks who actually earn money playing music or in soem other form of personally creative endevor.

How do you feel about copywright laws and the way they rarely work out for performers?

Listening to |Heroin Diaries" Or whatever it was that Nicki Sixx titled his 'whibubg, tome of self loathing "poor poor pitiful me| substance abuse.

Hpowever he did enlighten me to something I was unaware of. Aparently smetime after girls girls girls, he was able to get Elektra to give him back all his masters and rights.

Now the reason I find THAT interesting is because of something that I am guilty of indulging in, but hadnt really thought much about until recently.
Besides IT Support for Healthcare, Im a writer, Ive published 3 books, and I have 6 more in the hopper. I write to support my teaching, not because Im looking for a best seller.
HOWEVER for truly creative people I have to wonder about something:

Jimi Hendrix - very talented dude, did somethnig new with an instrument taht had beena round for a few hundred years. But he died pretty young.

He recorded what 5 maybe 6 albums? Average 14 songs a disk?

How do I have 118 "officially licensed by Experience Hendrix Foundation CD's"? - and that is a very rough estimate. I have digitized my entire collection and I actually have over 3500 songs in his folder.

Now if you listen to the representative from "Experience Hendrix Foundation" these are unique insites and listening experiences into one of musics most quickly lived artists. Some of these cuts are just that, some are recordings of Mitch sneaing into the john with a recorder while jimi gives it to the secretary, well ok maybe not the bathroom, but thats what it sounds like!

I was reading one of SRVs bios and they had a statement from his brother talking about the fact that 'Stevie made sure the best of the best was on each record" whether THATS accurate or not, I have whle CHAPTERS that I have thrown away, shredded buried and burned in the back yard that I hope NO ONE ever finds....I just wonder if maybe were just getting clips of tape that Jimis sister (whom he never met) and his dad (who he had NO relationship with) spliced togetehr to pay the rent?

Thoughts comments ideas?

Not a hendrix fan? Lets look at film THX1138 was a student film lucas made to graduate, its HORRIBLEm now today after ILM has gotten its hands on it, A) it bears no resmblence to the original and B) Most sci fi nerds feel is the holy grail of the Church of Darth Maul......

!977 interview Lucas said he hoped NO ONE ever saw that movie, now he carries the ISBN code tatood on his wifes chest......

Whoredom or missed classic opportunity?

[mindwave]

wow 3 long posts in one siting I really gotta cut the monster of at like 1300

[Tglo]

My thoughts on music and money.
I like them both.

[Open G]

I'm a small time local musician. Recordings and videos never made me any money, and it's hard to say that they increased my audience size.

What does make money for me? Getting paid for gigs and tip jar. Audiences love it if I dress weird such as wear Elton John type glasses on stage.

[mindwave]

OPen G - now thats interesting, Im not sure where youre at, but here in central Fl. all the 'working' musicians I know say that theONLY thing that makes them $ is having someone running a mercha table.

We have a blues player here who has been bar hopping for about 30 years and published a dpzen cds on his own, and at $20 a pop, says he steadily sells $1k a week with him plaing 4 nights steady between 3 places.

During seasons he'll drop; them in the independent music stores and sell a few more,.

With his "style" he's not real afreaid of folks sampling his cuts, but he has always been on the fence about posthumouis music

[rrobbone]

I didn't post the angry rant I had going.

Suffice it to say: I think it's a crime that potentially successful musicians don't have a fair and legally protected way to publicize their work. It's a horrible injustice that the only hope for most is being plucked out of obscurity for the "lucky" chance at signing away their souls for it.

It's like the office of president these days: No one with any integrity or talent for the position will ever succeed again, because they cannot be controlled. The "industry" has learned it's lesson: we will never see another "Prince."

[Mossman]

I just wonder if maybe were just getting clips of tape that Jimis sister (whom he never met) and his dad (who he had NO relationship with) spliced togetehr to pay the rent?

Thoughts comments ideas?

I think the "Experience Hendrix Foundation" is a shameless cash grab, put on optimal display with their attempt to market those Gibson-made, "Strat" abominations. But even if she had gone through Fender, I'd still think it's disrespectful... Like Natalie Cole injecting her singing into her father's songs. It just smells of avarice.

The rest of the stuff on the "Experience Hendrix" website looked like over-priced Chinese crap.

THX is a student-grade film at best. I've attempted to watch it all the way through on several occasions... Just never could quite make it. I haven't seen the "Special Edition" version of it, but I watched a review of it on YouTube, and it looks like ILM just opened up the scenery more, to make sets and locations look more expansive (similar to what they did with the Cloud City interiors in the Empire Strikes Back), and they changed the color timing, and generally tightened up the image. I don't think there were any wholesale changes made to the movie... I can't imagine it could have made the movie any worse.

I can kind of identify with George Lucas in that I am also afflicted with perfectionism. I don't think it's all about money with him. He seems aloof about money... He had more money than he would ever need even before he sold Star Wars to Disney. I think he's just incapable of accepting the fact that he did the best he could with the tools that were available at the time. He's also incapable of understanding that nobody asked for this. We were all pretty happy with his movies the way they were... And his additions are not improvements. I'm sure he feel wholly justified in re-working his movies, but when I was in art school, I had a teacher who liked to say: "A great artist knows when one more brush stroke will ruin the masterpiece". If Lucas had gone to art school instead of film school, he might have learned that.

In terms of myself, and my personal experience/feelings about money and music go... I never wanted to be a rock star. I just wanted to make a living playing music. The entertainment industry is a disgusting meat grinder that you'd have to be insane to want to be a part of, and it seems that aspiring to be rich and famous is a form of mental illness. I would have been happy being a big fish in a small pond, as it were... I had friends who were. I think I could have been if I had stayed in Flagstaff. I never made my sole income from music, but I was pretty busy after I had lived there a year or so. I was in a band that gigged regularly, and I got a lot of side work as a sound tech. Flagstaff had a vibrant and diverse music scene, and I was getting a lot of positive attention, and making connections... But then I decided to leave to go on tour with my band, and we ended up relocating, and by the time I got back to Flagstaff, everything had changed. Clubs had changed hands/themes... some stopped featuring live music... one of the bars that I used to play wasn't a bar any more... I started playing in another band, and got some gigs as a sound man, but everything was different, and I was profoundly unhappy... You can never go home again.

But I would have played for food and drink (and have), or for free (and did)... After expenses, we all came back from tour broke (we had a fairly costly mishap with our bus, which is another hilarious story all in itself), and I think it took 5 years off my life, but I'd do all over again!

The fact of the matter is; artists always get screwed by record companies. They make you an indentured servant. All expenses ultimately come out of the artist's pocket, and they usually end up making pennies from record sales (if anything at all), and nothing from publishing rights. The bulk of an artist's income is derived from performing, and it's always been that way, from Buddy Holly to Justin Bieber. But now the record industry is dying, and kids who can't even play an instrument have songs on Spotify. I think eventually it will become impossible to make money from selling your recorded music because people don't want to pay for it anymore, and there's too much competition. The concept of the album is all but dead, and songs are just bread crumbs that lead people to your show, and merch booth. Even on the internet, the best you can hope for is to be a big fish in a small pond.

[Open G]

OPen G - now thats interesting, Im not sure where youre at, but here in central Fl. all the 'working' musicians I know say that theONLY thing that makes them $ is having someone running a mercha table.

We have sold merchandise profitably also.