Cheshire Omnimedia

Last night over beer a buddy was asking me about the general “stages” of recording. After a bit I started to think about the first step I had told him: Pre-Production.

Prepro is probably the easiest to underestimate in the recording process. It took me quite a few sessions to figure that out as there’s not the clear cut path to follow in my market as far as learning the ropes.

Let’s look at the basic premise of prepro: the producers of the project (bands, producers, engineers) talk over what they hope to end with and how they’re going to achieve it. Will everybody play together at the same time? Is everybody rehearsed, songs selected? Budget? Studio? Schedule?Deliverables? Click track? Rental gear? Do instruments need some tlc from a tech? Etc etc.

At a home studio or pro room ( or any combo of the two ) this simple process is the key to many problems that usually come up later.

It’s a painful lesson to learn, but once you get in the mode of planning, the sessions go sooooo much better. There’s quite a bit less drama in the studio with this short meeting.

One of the things that Apple Computer does best isn’t innovation. Read that again to make sure that you grok it. Let me explain: Apple’s claim to fame is taking existing technologies and combining or refining them into a killer app or device. Ipod? Even when it was new, it certainly wasn’t novel. There were other Mp3 players on the market long before. The iPhone? Individually those technologies aren’t even remotely that amazing. Combined it kicks absolute cell phone butt.

But what does this have to do with online marketing? Or the music biz?

One of the best ways to make money in the business of music is to sell your music online- that’s nothing new or groundbreaking. Social networking isn’t new either. The combination of the two, well, that’s what the guys at Griffle are doing with IndieCrawler.

(A moment of full disclosure: I don’t work for Griffle. I just have quite a few friends who do.)

Indiecrawler allow you to set up music stores anywhere you can put an HTML tag, like the embedded videos you see from YouTube. Now they do the usual store thing, where artists can sell their Mp3’s direct with very little overhead, but where it gets really interesting is that if you want you can allow other people to sell your music. You set the cut they get. Everyone makes money. Imagine if all of your Myspace friends had your track on their page for sell. . .

If you’re in the business of selling music, stop on over and Indiecrawler. You’ll be glad you did.

Today I’d like to take a look at a quote that gets bandied about quite a bit on the Internet. You see it as a signature in many of the online forums. Hell, even I had it printed out and posted on the main rack at the Dawghouse for all to see.

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
- Mis-attributed to Hunter S. Thompson

Now there’s a certain truth to it. We’ve all seen quite a few great artists get nowhere in the music business and quite a bit of mediocre talent get lauded for it’s genius. But that’s not the point that I’m hitting at right yet. It’s more-so the fact that Hunter S. Thompson never said it or wrote it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true.

The actual quote: (According to Wikiqoute)

“The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.”
- San Francisco Examiner (4 November 1985) HST

Now I think we’ll all agree that the music business is a pretty rough place. Even when everyone acts in good faith the intersection of Art and Commerce is tenuous at best.

The live business can be unending and dreary. A hurry-up-and-wait game that repeats daily. Venues start to blur together. Fast food becomes a habit as good food becomes scarce. Playing pirate can take it’s toll on the staff and the talent. Long days. Long roads.

The studio business ain’t much better. We bill like lawyers. There’s no paid vacation or bennies save for the top 1% of jobs, unless you’re in post. (Kidding. Sort of.) You eat what you kill. The glut of “engineers” from 1 and 2 year programs has the business in a race to the bottom.

And yet we still do it. We put in more hours and heart then almost any other profession. Sure there are tougher jobs, that’s no lie. But they get paid for it. Well. So why do we do it? I could put forth a tenth of the effort and live way more comfortably.

Because we love it.

Even when the good men die like dogs.

(I’d recommend checking out About.com’s Urban Legend Guide for more info on the HST quote.)