Indie Sounds NY & Austin

Five Minutes With John Pointer

Local musician John Pointer is a man of ideas, always up to something new, always looking for a new way to expose his - and other people's - music.  Shows at the ZACH Theatre are his latest brainwave ...



Indie Sounds: You have something cooking at Zachary Scott Theatre - the ZACH - this weekend. Tell us about it?

John Pointer: I've been working full time as a musician in Austin since 1996.  In 2007, the ZACH asked me to play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, and that's where this started.  I realized that there was a whole group of people over there who would prefer not to go to a bar to see live music - over 20,000 on their email list alone.

Five Minutes With Benji Rogers of Pledge Music

Benji Rogers of Marwood is up to something new. Since his return to the UK last year, the one-time New Yorker has been hard at work creating Pledge Music, a new kind of label that allows artists to raise money from their fans to fund the creation of albums, contribute to charity and retain ownership of their works.  It all sounds too good to be true ... so Indie Sounds decided to get the scoop.



Indie Sounds: What is Pledge Music? Why did you start it?

Benji Rogers: Hi Pete. Pledge Music helps artists fund their albums, keep 100% of their rights and raise money for charity. I started it because I wanted to use it, and because none of the alternatives appealed to me. It was designed to combine maximum flexibility for the artist both during the "Pledge" and afterwards. That is why we insist upon the artist keeping 100% of what they make from the sale of their records.

Austin Set To Create City Music Department

Following proposals formulated last year, the City of Austin looks set to create a department dedicated to developing the local music community.  Indie Sounds got the scoop from Paul Oveisi, owner of Momo's and a leading advocate for the department's creation.



Indie Sounds: Why does Austin need a music department?

Paul Oveisi: It only needs one if it wants to take itself seriously as a music city. Every city with a strong music presence has more substantial civic resources devoted to foster, develop, encourage and deal with all things music. At least as it pertains to city policy. Austin should be leading by example.  At this point, I'd say we rank near the bottom in terms of City resources devoted to music. 

Austin Musicians Support Brewster McCracken For Next Mayor

In Austin, support for the local music scene is an election issue ... and Brewster McCracken is the man that local musicians, venues and music biz people are backing.

"The artists and and professionals who bring us these shows, they need leaders who understand the critical role the music industry plays for our local economy," McCracken said.

Ihor Gowda Gives The 101 On Music Management

This Suzanna Choffel girl is everywhere ... on the cover of magazines, featured at the Dell Lounge, and tomorrow night she performs at the Austin Music Awards, along with Carolyn Wonderland and Ruthie Foster, kicking off a week of appearances at SXSW, including the official City of Austin showcase at Momo's on Saturday.

For sure, she's a talented lady who makes great music.  But in the music business, this kind of exposure doesn't just happen. And Suz is getting a bit of help for sure, in the form of manager Ihor Gowda. So we caught up with the man behind the woman ...


Photo by Todd Wolfson

Good Info From Derek Sivers

CD Baby founder Derek Sivers - he sold the company last year and is now working on various projects aimed at helping independent musicians - has a couple of interesting posts on his blog ...

MIDEM Interviews - videos of interviews Derek conducted with various companies at the Midem event held recently in Cannes, France.

Amber Rubarth - Amber's thoughts on how to be a successful touring musician.

CD Baby Acquired, Valeze Is Brown Bread, New Galapagos Open

CD Baby has been acquired by Audio & Video Labs, the parent of Disc Makers.  Disc Makers president Tony van Veen says that the intent is to keep CD Baby independent and that it will remain in Portland, Oregon.

CD Baby founder Derek Sivers says he's not actually worked at the company since last year, and that he is now focusing on new projects to help musicians.  He's also looking for help.  See here.

Tiff Randol says that Valeze - rated by Indie Sounds (in issue #2) as "The Best New Live Rock Band In The World" - is now a thing of the past.  This means that Rich Girls can now claim that status.

Galapagos Art Space - now in DUMBO at 16 Main Street - is open and getting ready for the fall season.  See more here.  Alas, while there will be world music, there will be no rock.

The Business of Music

Some 12,500 delegates registered for this year's SXSW event, up from around 7,000 in 2001.  Those numbers do not incude performing artists.  Event sponsors like Citigroup and Dell reportedly paid $100,000 to $200,000 each for sponsorship.

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Apple is reportedly considering a bundled music service for iPod users.  Details are sketchy, but already rival download service eMusic is suggesting such a plan may violate anti-trust laws.

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Starbucks reportedly sells an average of two CDs per store per day.  Starbucks says that's wrong, but isn't providing alternative data.

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We7 in the UK will soon carry free, ad-supported streaming music from Sony BMG.  We7 Prepends demographically targeted audio adverts onto songs, whether they be streamed or downloaded.  Content owners recieve a cut of advertising revenues.

Meanwhile, UK independent artist Joy Walshe has enjoyed some 8,500 song downloads from We7 in recent weeks.

The Business of Music

There is an interesting blog about Snocap and MySpace at Penny Distribution.

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And a view about widgets at Coolfer.

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From Digital Music News there is more positive news on widgets: Music networking application iLike has reached 200,000 participating artists.  Artists are using iLike in conjunction with Facebook, hi5, and Bebo - with MySpace coming soon.

The Business of Music

Teenagers are no longer buying CDs!  That's the shock finding of a report by NPD Group.  But the firm has quantified the issue: 48 percent of teenagers do not purchase CDs at all, up from 38 percent a year ago.  And the report also found that overal music consumption was up six percent.

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Music 2.0 is a collection of contributions about music companies of the future.  The PDF download is available for a pay-what-you-like donation here.

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Tunecore - a service that facilitates online distribution is branching out into physical CD distribution, according to The Listening Post.