The State of the Austin Music Industry

Last night, I went to a meeting at the Lucky Lounge. The Austin Music Foundation had their monthly... or once every monthly meeting. I'm not sure how often. They stopped doing monthly. So I got out of the habit of going. That was well over a year ago.

The meeting was great though. They were talking about the state of the Austin music industry since a report came out from the Austin Music Commission. They had nine movers and shakers in the industry up on the stage. Reminded me of the Fellowship of the Ring... except there were no hobbits.

Funnily, Sauron showed up. Okay, not really. Actually, it was the local rep for ASCAP. I gotta say, if I was on the board of ASCAP, I would've fired the arsehole. Cuz he was one. During the question and answers section, he verbally attacked the panelists with particular emphasis on "why aren't venues paying their dues to ASCAP."

Listen dude. Are you that stupid? I'll tell you why venues try to avoid paying money to Performing Rights Organizations (PROs).

1. 90% of all ASCAP members will never see a dime from your organization. Venues know this. Most artists in Austin are NOT members of the PROs, there for they will never see a dime from the money you collect.
   
2. Running a live music venue, esp in Austin, is an easy way to make a living. There's too much competition. Thus the fees you charge are too damned much. We had a venue in College Station that was fantastic, but died as a venue because they couldn't afford paying the PROs and were hassled by arses like you.
   
   And while this isn't a reason asked. Here's another pet peeve with PROs.
   
3. Your sampling SUCKS! PROs do random samples to determine which artists earn money. You have computers powerful enough to keep track of nearly every song. So screw your traditional biased system and update it to the 21st century so artists get paid.

Soapbox ended.

Anyway, the meeting was much more than that. I ran into John Pointer and Ande Rasmussen and chatted with them a wee bit. Ande is great to brainstorm with. He definitely has the music marketing bug. Plus a brilliant songwriter who's written a number of hit songs. I've been talking to him recently about music promotion.

That along with the AMF discussion about Mentoring in Austin got me thinking I may volunteer to mentor. My specialty is online music marketing and I've been a panelist thanks to all the work I've done promoting my band the Brobdingnagian Bards online with millions of downloads of our music.

I mentioned it to Nikki Rowling about the idea, and she loved it. So keep an eye on the Austin Music Foundation website. Mayhaps something will develop out of it soon.

On another quick soapbox.

Casey Monahan, the director of the Texas Music Office, mentioned that musicians needed to tour to make money. I have to disagree.

Yes. I agree that that is one way that is certainly MUCH more profitable and easiest for making a living in the now. But you see, I had a day job alongside my music career for seven years. The only way I felt comfortable quitting my day job was knowning I had a secure income in the music business FIRST.

What do you need to make money in the business if you're not touring? You need three things:

1. Great music,
2. A website,
   
3. Perseverance to promote yourself, and
4. Lots of product.

With my band and solo, I have, oh, ten albums or so in production. And more coming soon. My suggestion is record, promote, record, promote, record, promote. THAT is what will allow you to make a living the music business in Austin.

Don't get me wrong though. Casey is amazing. The work he's done with the Texas Music Office is brilliant. Thanks, mate!

And I guess that's all for this episode of "It's too late at night. I should be asleep, but can't seem to fall asleep... yet."

Night... or morning!