Category: Business

Kansas City Star on jazz tribute shows

Click the link to read the whole thing. I love the last line of the quote.

Too many jazz tribute shows leave little room for innovation – Kansas City Star:

“Concert and club presenters sometimes fret that jazz doesn’t bring in crowds like it used to. But is booking tribute shows the way to bring the crowds back or to build a new audience for the future?

Some tribute shows make a populist appeal. (Hear the Sinatra hits! Hear swing played the way it used to be played!) Some try to serve as gateways to greater jazz appreciation. (Celebrate the 80th anniversary of the classic recordings by Blind Willie Dunn’s Gin Bottle Four! Hear an evening of Wayne Shorter’s music played by people whose fees are lower than his!)”

(Via @accujazzradio.)

new eMusic album scheme

eMusic has started a policy that makes many albums cost 12 credits, regardless of the number of tracks (they used to just count tracks instead of “credits”). That is cool if it is an albums with 17 tracks, but a drag if the album has only 7 tracks. They also now have some tracks that are album only (oddly mostly tracks over 10 minutes, much like iTunes).

So if you want to take advantage of the new catalog and get some old Columbia sides, like I Sing The Body Electric maybe, the numbers break down like this.

Old way: 7 tracks for 7 credits, which cost you roughly $0.30 each. You can choose which tracks you do or don’t want.

New way: 6 tracks for 6 credits, which cost you roughly $0.50 each, and an additional 6 credits if you also want “Medley” which is track 5. If you want “Medley” at all you must buy the other six tracks. I’m not sure that there is anything special about “Medley” other than the fact that it is 10:40 long.

It seems that most of the “album only” stuff is about the length of the track. If someone can explain to me how this is better, I might not cancel my subscription when it runs out next month.

cool hangs and digital delivery dissapointments

Last night was a good night for out of town musicians making the hang at the Open Ears Series. Izaak Mills, from the band Reptet, is hanging in town, and we had a nice balcony hang at the Blue Nile. Hopefully we can get them on the series sometime. Chicago bassist Josh Abrams was also in town, playing with Bonnie Prince Billy, and he made the hang too. By the time he got there the music was over, but there was some hanging left. It was great to see Josh, and meet Izaak. The musician community can be so warm and beautiful at times.

If you have read this blog for long, you have probably realized that I am a big eMusic fan, or at least that’s what some people tell me. When I heard that eMusic was adding some major label back catalog, I thought it was interesting. Today when I realized that I would be forced to a new plan at an over 100% price increase, it was much less cool. Now I am on a plan that has been grandfathered in. I have had this plan for three years, and I understand that prices rise, but not 100% at a time. If they said they had to change my plan, and I would only get 60 downloads a month instead of 65, for the same money, I might be ok with that. If they said that I would still get 65 downloads a month, but it would be $160 a year now in stead of the roughly $145 a year it has been, that might be ok. What they told me was that my plan would be changed to $129.99 a year, and I’d get 24 downloads a month. “You’ll only have to pay 90% of what you were paying to get 37% as much music.” ¿que? Is some old Sony catalog worth that?

I have loved eMusic as a place to explore. I have heard lots of music that I likely wouldn’t have gambled $10 on, but would gladly give up 8 or 9 prepaid downloads to be able to check it out. This price change is a bit too much of a shock for me. I think I will let my subscription lapse. It’s a shame.

more social media stuff

Today someone described Facebook to me as “another free advertising venue.” Lately I have had lots of people trying to advertise to me on Facebook, or more accurately use my Facebook profile as a place to advertise for them. Am I wrong to be a bit put off by this? Why should I “be a fan” of a music store I have never bought anything from, or a flower shop that I have no knowledge of other than the fact that the owner friended me, and now won’t quit sending me “blah blah suggested you become a fan of…” messages. WTF?

I don’t want to follow people on Twitter that only tweet ads for their ventures. I would MUCH rather know what some random drummer in Richmond had for lunch (hummus sandwich that sounded pretty good) than know for 18th time this week that so and so has a new book out. Now, I don’t mind when people that also offer other interesting things also tweet about their ventures. I’m totally cool with that. I like Facebook and Twitter as ways of keeping in touch with old friends and making new friends, and getting to better know folks I have met on the internet. I like them as ways to develop some rapport with fans and colleagues and potential fans and colleagues. I really don’t like being seen as a link in someone’s free advertising network. Is that so wrong?

New Amsterdam Records

I just bought the new Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society CD that is burning up the interwebs. I haven’t had it long enough to really comment on the music, although what I have heard so far is pretty slammin’.

I am writing this post to comment on the purchase process. I went to the New Amsterdam website and ordered the physical CD. I have been buying downloads lately, but I guess I thought this would be a good candidate for full resolution hi-fi treatment. So I ordered the CD somewhat disappointed that I would have to wait a couple of days to hear the music, BUT WAIT! The rockin’ New Amsterdam store gives you the downloads as well when you order the physical CD. I know there are other places that do this, and I love them too. I think this is part of the future. I’ll report on the music at some point.

Facebook …friendship or communication tool? Stage | guardian.co.uk

Critics shouldn’t befriend artists |Stage |guardian.co.uk:

“As a woman of reasonable drive and sanity, I try not to spend too much time on Facebook. I’ll log on weekly to see which friends have a birthday approaching (felicitations, Peter and Lars) or to post an update. And for a while I really liked that Slayers game, Zombies Must Die! But lately I find myself forced to visit the site for an uncomfortable purpose: declining ‘friend requests’ from actors, directors, playwrights and publicists.

Why not just hit ‘accept’? Yes, many of these people are unknown to me, but so are several of the erstwhile classmates I cheerfully agreed to ‘befriend’. And many are known to me and very likable – a category that includes, remarkably, several publicists. But I write for publications with strict codes of ethics – chiefly, the New York Times – and they don’t look too kindly on pals profiling pals. Yet, to friend or not to friend is really a modern gloss on a much older dilemma: what is the appropriate relationship between the artist and the critic?”

This is an interesting dilemma. I am getting to the point that I don’t necessarily see a Facebook Friend Request so much as a request to be my “friend” as much as a request to have approved communication. More and more I am finding people that have my email address, and phone number, and mailing address (it’s all on my website) using Facebook (or MySpace) messages to contact me. The addition of another layer of technology is mildly annoying, but it seems to be a somewhat necessary annoyance. Apparently this is how people want to communicate, and if I want to be accessible, I need to be accessible there.

Thoughts? Leave a comment, or email me…or friend me so we can message each other.

How to be cool, funny, and give good customer service

Apparently whoever manufactures the CDs for our friends at Cryptogramophone got some bad glue. They just released Nels Cline’s newest CD, Coward, and it seems that some of the disc trays have not been clinging to the cool art as they should. I am sure this is driving them nuts, because I know that they pride themselves on great physical art to go along with the musical art. I must admit that I bought Coward as a download, so I have missed out on the cool physical art, and the detaching tray.

Check out the artist’s response to the issue. It makes me like Nels and the Crypto gang even more.

Brilliant! (sipping Guinness whilst piano falls on my head)

“Similar in the Opposite Way” drops today

I am pleased to announce that my new CD, “Similar in the Opposite Way,” is officially released today. The quartet will perform at Snug Harbor, in New Orleans, on Thursday (1/29) in celebration of this fact. This link: http://jeffalbert.com/?p=177 will take you to the page on my website where you can read about it, and listen to samples, as well as order it. I think my website or the label site (www.forasound.com) probably have the best prices on physical product, and I definitely get the largest cut of it that way. It is also available in physical version from CD Baby or Amazon, and in digital version from iTunes, CD Baby and Amazon. I’ll paste direct links below this.

Thanks for listening, and purchasing (if you do so.)

Peace,
Jeff

http://cdbaby.com/cd/jeffalbert2
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J8AB38/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1230331565&sr=8-4
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=292294922&id=292294847&s=143441 (iTunes direct link)