IINDIECAN
INVITES YOU TO LEARN FOR FREE FROM THOSE WHO KNOW. LISTEN
AND LEARN. IndieCan likes to entertain and educate. If
you have found your way to this page you are more than a
casual music fan. You are an artist that wants to learn
more about the biz without re-inventing the compact disc
-- Or you are a music fan that looks for more than the glitz
of commercial music and media. There is much to be learned
from those who have come before us. We have asked the questions
that we think you would ask. You won't find cliché
answers or attitude here. IndieCan would like to acknowledge
the candour, sincerity and generosity from these mentors
who shared with us.
| Get
the Indie VENUE Bible. You can buy just one region or
all of North America. $99 gets you the whole damn thing
and if that isn't the easiest dollar spent that you
can turn into more, I don't know what is. If you like,
just buy the contacts in your region for a fraction
of the price. A % of all sales through this banner,
go to help IndieCan promote more music. Thanks for your
support |
|
|
Most
of these "audio extras" are extended versions
of interviews that appeared on our radio show. Catering
to the constraints of the hour long radio show, we edit
the messages to bite-sized portions.
Each
guest had generously given so much more than could fit in
our Industry Insider radio format. Here, we invite you into
the studio with us to listen in on these conversations in
their natural flow. Take notes or listen often. If you,
like us, are students of the continuing history of music,
you are in for a treat.
Canadian
Music Veterans:
Joey
"Shit Head" Keithley Do-It-Yourself
Punk rocker, front man of D.O.A. since 1978, founder of
Sudden Death Records and activist, this is 30 minutes on
30 years of indie rock. Welcome to Punk U - the professor,
Joey Shit Head is here.
Moe
Berg Indie Hall of Fame Inductee, Producer of
The Cliks, Galore, Shannon Briggs, Tacoma Redd, The Left
and more
Neil Osborne
The lead singer of 54-40, with 11 CDs and countless
videos under their belt, 54-40 is at home with indie label
True North Records.
Some
Devoted Industry Insiders worth listening to:
Canadian
Music Week President Neill Dixon
CBC
Radio 3's Music Director, James Booth
Brad
Schwartz, GM, VP, MTV Canada and CMW Co-Chair
Phil
Klygo, WeeWerk Records, Festival Director or CMW
coming soon
Diane Foy , Carole Pople , John Capek
,
NXNE
BEST OF - Tips from the Experts
NXNE
Town Hall @ MuchMusic - Thur. June 7th/07 @ 2:30 p.m.(up
until you arrived)
1. biz sense is as critical as talent or songwriting
for a musical act
2.
"you have to like to drive to be in a band"
3.
agents can learn from bands (as well as vice versa), simply
b/c bands know the venues, the scene, etc.)
4.
don't worry about getting discovered: just make great music,
and we will find you
5.
"play" the music "game" as a challenge.
6.
Urban music is probably the most successful at it, b/c they
enter into a lot of collaborative projects, they support
each other, and this leads to success
7.
Take advantage of your "buzz"; it's fleeting,
and will probably NEVER come again.
8.
We are now dealing with a generation of kids (10-to-12-year
olds) who have NEVER paid for music, it's not a concept
they are familiar with.
Fuck
Radio - Let's Podcast - Fri. June 8th/07 @ 3:15 p.m.
1.
Grant Lawrence - CBC Radio 3 host, Jezz Harkin - The Brilliant!
Show Host, Julien Smith pioneer of pod casting, In Over
Your Head has been on the net since 2004 and Gregg Terrence,
president of Indie Pool
2. Podzinger (a digital media merchandising platform) and
Technorati (a search engine that combs through weblogs by
keyword and for links; it's ccurrently tracking 86.3 million
blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media
3. CBC's podcast is further (than their radio broadcast?).
it's also 100% Cancon. This is about 6 million downloads
4. 8% of pod casters make a living doing it.
5. Everyone can podcast. Everyone should. Instead of asking
your band's fans to buy your CD and come pay to get in another
show, why not send them your favourite five bands once a
month. Maybe they'll spread the word.
6. Uncle Seth is a band doing it's own podcast now.
more
great tips to come....
Joe Keithley Interview -
listen now - More
DOA pictures
DOA
has influenced Green Day, The Red Hot Chilli Pepers and
the list goes on. In this interview we talk about the early
days, the evolution of punk, the spirit of D.I.Y., What
Joe's reasons were for forming his new musical act, THE
BAND OF REBELS and Joey's favorites hockey moment. No School
of Rock would be complete without professor Joey Shit Head.
Neil
Osborne
Full Interview - Listen Now
In
the '80's Neil Osborne was at the Berkley School of Music
but not having any fun. Bass player Brad Merritt said, "Why
don't we start a band?" and soon, 54-40 was born. Back
then, Neil loved going to the Commodore Ballroom to see
Blondie, The Clash, The Talking Heads and other great bands
of the day performing. His only goal - to one day perform
on that same stage.
54-40
started as an indie band, the were signed to Warner, moved
to Sony, went back to Do It Yourself Indie. Now they have
landed with Canadian Indie label True North. With 11 full
length recordings behind him, Neil Osborne's life has changed
from his early days in the audience at the Commodore. We
had the good fortune to have a visit from Neil Osborne between
two sold out 54-40 shows in Vancouver on Friday October
20th, 2006 and Saturday October 21st.
We
invite you into the studio with Neil, Joe and engineer,
Tom Dobzanski Saturday October 21. This is completely unedited,
complete with cell phone's buzzing, um's er's et al. This
interview includes about 25 minutes more than the edited
Episode 20 version and includes Neils thoughts on music
videos, True North Records, philosophy, producing Jets Overhead,
how he relates to his fans, the art of living and much more.
We start with Neil's thoughts on the annual Commodore 54-40
show...
Moe
Berg Full Interview - Listen Now
Moe
Berg spent 11 years as the singer and songwriter for The
Pursuit of Happiness. The band recorded five records and
toured the world extensively. They were awarded one platinum
and two gold records. At Canadian Music Week 2006, TPOH
was inducted into the Indie Hall of Fame. Moe shares some
stories from the early days, which for any musical artist
or music fan will be of great interest.
1986
was the beginning of TPOH and in 2005, "When We Ruled"
was released, which includes two versions of the anthem,
"I'm an Adult Now" plus several hits, one new
tune and one Prince cover. More on THE
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
As
a bonus, we'll take you way back to 1988, live at The Pheonix
(then The Diamond Club) - check
this out:
Moe's
resume as a producer is growing. To his credit, he has worked
with Robin Black, The Grace Babies, Galore, Tacoma Redd,
National Anthem, The Clicks, Vancouver's Left Bank and more.
For more, check out http://myspace.com/moeberg
IndieCan will always be grateful
to Moe Berg for being the first industry insider and being
so generous with his time. You can also hear from Moe in
Episode 26, as he dropped into IndieCan studio for the Tacoma
Redd gig. If you're here for schoolin' or entertainment,
you're in for a treat either way...
|
Toronto
Indie Scene vetran BIG RUDE JAKE was part of Episode
74 - a tale of two Jakes. IndieCan spoke with this
vetran of alternative music in Canada for almost an
hour and lots of it was not quite day time radio,
if you know what I mean. We celebrate this great song
writer and he shares some great stories through three
decades of Rock-a-billy, Jazz, Punk and Alternative
music in Toronto and around the world.
BIGGER
RUDER UNCUT - stream on your computer. BIGGER
RUDER UNCUT - right click and keep it
|
|
|
 |
Neill
Dixon is President of Canadian Music Week and took the
time to talk with IndieCan leading up to CMW 2008. Neill
takes us on a world wide tour of the over two dozen
festivals and conferences he travels to, what it takes
to put on Canadas biggest festival, biggest conference,
a trade show and several awards ceremonies including
the Indie's and Canadian Radio Star Award. Part of this
interview was edited to be part of Episode 64 of IndieCan
Radio. This link you gives you the interview. CLICK
HERE |
One
of the NXNE highlights is the CBC Radio 3/SIRIUS Satellite
Showcase at the Horseshoe Tavern. It is broadcast over both
outlets and archived at CBC 3. Mr. Booth was very generous
with his time on what was a busy day preparing for this
"live-to-air" event. Hear what he has to say about
Canadian music and how CBC 3 or SIRIUS songs are selected.
 |
It's
easy to think public broadcasters might get either lazy
or high and mighty but Booth is driven by a love for
compelling Canadian music, where ever he finds it. Part
of this interview was part of Episode 43 but here, James
goes into more details for Indie artists what goes into
the music selection process. There s much to be learned
if you are an indie artist or just love the music scene:Listen
to James Booth with Joe Chisholm - unedited |
Gearing
up for Canadian Music Week 2007 IndieCan had the opportunity
to speak with Brad Schwartz, VP and GM of MTV Canada and
the 2007 CMW Co-Chair + WeeWerk's Phil Klygo who has been
running the festival for 7 CMWs
 |
This
interview was tweeked and edited for an upcoming episode
of IndieCan Radio but if you want to know now how this
influential music exec. sees our industry and why he'll
be running from venue to venue checking out bands like
the rest of us.... here you go:Listen
to Brad chatting with Joe Chisholm - unedited |
 |
This
interview is a fabulous insight into what it takes to
organize 40+ venues, 500 musical acts and so much more.
Phil Klygo, CMW festival director was more than generous
with his time and here is an insight in to his life
- his devotion to music, artists and fans:Listen
to Phil chatting with Joe Chisholm - unedited |
<p>
There
are some new tools available for artists at IndieCan.com
and hot off the press is a $17 co-write by What is Indie
producer Dave Cool and Berklee College of Music Director
of Career Development, Peter Spellman. For what it's worth,
I have a few things to say about spending money to make
money in general.
Did you know that I am a financial planner? No shit - since
1989 my own guitar has spent way too much time in it's case
while I aided and educated people in saving money, spending
no more than they needed to and how to prepared for a rainy
day. If you only know me as "indie music guy"
check this out:
http://www.joechisholm.com - it's really me.
So I am predisposed to encouraging people to save more,
spend less. As an aside or better stated, another aside,
I am somewhat critical about the seemingly cannibalistic
practices in the music biz. By that I mean that the industry
is suffering through new consumer habits that see less and
less money being spent by the public on music. So where's
the money? Artists are still spending like drunken sailors
- let's make the money off of them! I am critical of festivals
and "band battles" where the bulk of the budget
is shouldered by artists.
Regarding books, I was asked to review "Secrets of
the Millionaire Mind" and I concluded the only one
that would make $1Mil from that book would be the author.
No one has proved me wrong on that one. So, what about spending
your money on "Your Successful CD Release?" For
starters, in the interest of full and proper disclosure,
if you buy it from the IndieCan.com web site, we get some
of that $17 - I don't know how much because I didn't read
the fine print but I will tell you this - Our end will go
to deferring the costs of the web site and radio show and
you can be rest assured, if we turn a profit, I'll spend
the money on you.
So is it worth it? If you are open-minded to how to run
your business better, I bet it will. Owning the book won't
make you money. Instead we have to weigh the merit of the
ideas inside. What I like is they actually draw on the experience
of career artists like Ember Swift who has put out 10 do-it-yourself
CDs. She's not a teacher or an author; she makes a living
making music. I also note that the books a damn site cheaper
than The Berkley School of Music. I figure the sales-pitch
is that if it helps you sell 2 more CDs then you made your
money back but I think there's more to it than that. A CD
release is going to be a career altering experience for
you, either positive or negative. All eyes are on you during
your CD release and it will show either forward or downward
momentum so this isn't something to approach lightly. I
have had guest on my show warn of the perils of zealous
artist booking a CD release date before they have taken
possession of the product, over confident that it will be
there on time and the artwork will be perfect. There's a
lot to learn about being in this business and I believe
that smart ones learn from their own mistakes, wise ones
learn from the mistakes of others, so why re-invent the
compact disc when the steps to make one are laid out for
us?
Like I said, a CD release isn't just another day, just another
arrow in the quiver. Major labels will sit on a CD as long
as they feel they need to until all the ducks are in a row
to give the art work the maximum chance to succeed. I think
that kind of know-how is worth $17.
Here's the
link to look at the book:
Here's the press release
Dave Cool & Peter Spellman launch new eGuide "Your
Successful CD Release"
Director/Producer of documentary film "What is INDIE?"
and Director of Career Development at Berklee College of
Music team up to write empowering marketing guide for independent
artists
Montreal, November 7th, 2007 - After directing, producing
and self-releasing the documentary film "What is INDIE?"
last year, Montrealer Dave Cool has released his first follow-up
project to the film, but this time he has turned his attention
to writing.
Teaming up with Peter Spellman, Director of Career Development
at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Dave Cool wrote the
new eGuide "Your Successful CD Release" based
on 3 of Peter Spellman's classic books: "The Self-Promoting
Musician", "INDIE Power" and "INDIE
Marketing Power". Along with the powerful information
taken from those books, Dave also added his own insights
and experience to create a uniquely powerful tool that is
ideal for artists who might feel like they don't have the
time to read several full-size books on marketing and promotion.
"Peter is one of the foremost experts in the music
industry and his work has had a tremendous influence on
me over the years, so to get the opportunity to co-write
a book with him was a huge honor." - Dave Cool
"Dave is a rising talent in the music industry, and
after showing his skills as a filmmaker with "What
is INDIE?", he has now shown he is a prolific writer
as well. I'm glad to be working with him." - Peter
Spellman
Using an easy to follow, step-by-step structure, "Your
Successful CD Release" is a results-driven quick-action
marketing guide that coaches artists through the process
of putting together a marketing and promotional plan, and
features a comprehensive look at the broad range of possible
revenue streams & opportunities available to singer-songwriters.
The guide includes many empowering resources to help artists
with each aspect of their marketing plan, along with sample
templates to track the progress of their promotional campaign,
a straightforward spreadsheet template for a marketing budget,
and a rich list of follow-up resources that artists can
use to take immediate positive action in their career.
As an added bonus, "Your Successful CD Release"
also includes advice and insight from full-time independent
singer-songwriters so readers can get a sense of what it
takes to be a full-time indie musician. Among those interviewed
for the guide were Canadian indie artists Ember Swift and
Rob Szabo.
"Your Successful CD Release" is available as a
PDF download for $16.95 through Peter Spellman's company
Music Business Solutions: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=681790
Workshops based on the guide are being planned for Montreal,
Toronto, Boston and New York City. Details TBA.
About Dave Cool: Montrealer Dave Cool is an author, filmmaker,
and compassionate musician's advocate dedicated to helping
and empowering independent artists (and yes, that's his
real name!). He is also the founder of Stand Alone Records,
a unique record label that actually encourages artists not
to sign records deals. Instead, the company looks to inform,
inspire and educate artists with inspirational artist success
stories, free resources, guides and books, as well as affordable
coaching and consulting services. A recognized expert in
the music industry, Dave has done interviews for CNN.com,
Newsweek Magazine, CBC National Radio and CTV, as well as
for scores of newspapers, radio shows and podcasts.
About Peter Spellman: Peter Spellman is Director of Career
Development at Berklee College of Music, Boston, President
of Music Business Solutions, and the author of several handbooks
on the music business. A recognized expert on music industry
trends, the impact of the Internet on music, and music career
issues, Peter is a popular speaker at colleges, universities,
and music conferences. In addition, Peter teaches courses
on entrepreneurship, music publishing, and music marketing
at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
|
