Beautiful girls don't play the guitar

you people are all brilliant keep up the work, we all build this network of artists.

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
I totally agree. But here's an idea.

You put your music free to download on your site. Everytime someone downloads it, you have to put a 5 seconds ad in front of the song, or at the end, whatever. You get paid by the people you gave you that ad 10 cents per song downloaded...
So the customer has free music, the guy who pays you gets ads to a public he chooses (punk bands: punk fashion for example) and you get some money for what you like to do most...

I think that's a really cool idea

good idea lalimacefolle (it's been bugging me, what does that mean? sorry my french has really gone down hill, and if i were to go to france tomorow, the only thing that would get me buy would be "je sius desolee", which is apt i think :)) on both acounts...

The thing is though Kingdavid, i do slightly diagree with you, I mean big biusness is crushing but it'll all in the name of the american dream in the end, the good thing is that record companies relize that a happy artist works better, and give them creative freedom to write, but that changes when it comes to single release etc which i think is fairly resonable for your album buying public...

there are bands that have made it, admitidly it took them years but they've dont it, Radiohead would be a prime example...
One of the best band's that I know at the minute are "life with out biuldings", and it's sad that most poeple here wont get to hear their biutiful stuff (unlessI upload it for a short while, and tell you all to go and listen, their lead singer is woman with a child like voice and her singing style is the most unique i know, she has the abilty to make 2 or 3 words into one, it's very weird and cool), but there's nothing you can really do about it... I mean it's like rap, there is some great rap out there but the main stream is EXTREMLY fanacailly driven, and so most of you wont have heard Blackaliscious or Oneday, but will have heard of PUFF Dady/ p didy etc

I am thinking about that idea, that would be cool to put a site up where people would upload their mp3s, and companies would pay so that you could.... I'll think about it, don't steal my idea!!!

Anyways, la limace folle means the crazy slug. Don't ask me why I choose this name, all my friends just call me la limace folle, that's all :)

I wont steal your idea, crazy slug (were you like the lethargic brother of Crazy horse? lol)... just get moving with it! It's a pretty good idea, I'd like to see it happen fairly soon (i know it takes long for the cogs to turn, so I'll be pataint)...

well, all it takes are companies who wish to pay around 20 cents so that the artist gets 10 cents per download, the rest would go to site hosting and in my pocket...

I'd say it's quite expensive, but I might argue that since you know pretty much who's gonna download what, you are sure that the money you invest is not wasted... Anyone here owns a company??

Also, the idea is not totally mine, I came up with it when I read an article that Ron thal wrote, where he said let the music be free, just count the downloading, and pay it thanks to advertisement on the radio and on the site of download.
http://www.ronthal.com/articles/napster.htm

peek around his site, he is a genius on the guitar too...

I will quote someone who is a columnist on one of my favourite guitar sites, http://www.guitarnoise.com :
"Music is meant to be shared. It is its nature. The high that you get from playing is amplified enormously when playing for and (more so) with others."
Having said that,as civilizations have grown and changed,so has the sharing end of this whole thing.Long ago,musicians used to do their thing in fairs,palaces,courts,things like that.The art was always thriving(is and forever shall).But the way music was shared wasn't very advanced.But with communications and technology,this has changed.
What record companies do(I know you know,I'm saying it for the purposes of this "conversation")is make a business out of the sharing end of music.And at this point,I should say that I think lal has his notions on the industry wrong.I say record companies cheat musicians.He says he didn't say that.But he did."...put power where it belongs..rec companies should work for the artists interests,not the other way round..."That sounds like exploitation to me.And he doesnt have any love for them,otherwise he wouldnt be waiting for them to go bankrupt!
So labels are in the sharing end of music.And the way businesses are run pretty much depends on whos running them,which is how come doing the same job in different companies could pay very variedly,depending.Even the business models used depend on those who created them.lal seems to be having another one,which btw looks very good.But whether or not this helps artists is a different story altogether:you could still give artists lousy deals and tell them to take them or go to hell,if say you had monopoly power,the artist was helpless against you....stuff like that.Like they mostly are with the present setup.It all boils down to what drives you,why you do what you do,how much you care for people,etc,etc.
And another thing:we may want to think otherwise,but whatever ideas go throuhg our minds go through other peoples' minds as well.Record companies are now offering download services,but if critics are to be believed,these services suck.And lal,dont imagine what you're thinking hasnt occured to them.It probably has,but they realised it wouldnt serve their interests.And believe me,you and I arent part of their interests.
Think of this:how would YOU run a regular record company if you were the main man there.And if how you would isnt how those who do it do it,how come?You'd have to deal with all the things they deal with.Financiers,ROE's,logistics,show promoters,your secretary,artists' egos(now,do we have those!).What comes out at the end depends on who you are.What drives you.Why you do what you do.

Originally posted by kingdavid
And he doesnt have any love for them,otherwise he wouldnt be waiting for them to go bankrupt!

I do not have love for records companies, and I have also said they were vampires :)

I know my way around them, and I also know they are a necessary evil. Of course, musicians couldn't deal with all the hassle of show business. They couldn't promote themselves on international levels, deal with ASCAP, and everything music involves once it starts being a job(it's quite fun sometimes)

One guy has understood something, it's VIRGIN's boss, BRONSON(can't remember his name). He has created his label with in mind the artist and the public. Since his company has grown so much, I guess they now work like all majors do, but still, that guy became rich thanks to his artistic vision and unique way of dealing with artists.

You said my idea wouldn't serve the Companies, of course, they wouldn't have 80% of the profit like they do right now!!! :( If the contracts specified that the company could make say, the double of the money they put on the line, then the profits would only be the artists'(the company taking money to cover the cost of making the CDs, promotion etc...), wouldn't it be a better deal for the artist? Well, we all talk about piracy, but would we all download stuff if we really stole from the artist (if you had to pay ONLY the money the artist makes on all the tracks you have downloaded any of you guys, I'm pretty sure you would have less than 200 bucks to pay). And of course, the price of the CDs would drop a lot (since the label doesn't take interests after a number of copies)

How would I run a company? I'm creating one this month. If I ever hire people (which I don't plan to do for some time, since it's an individual company) I'd put my job on the line every year, where employees would elect me or not (there's a company in France that has done that for 30 years, the guy just retired, and he was considered as the most loved boss ever). But I'd do what I just wrote, make maybe the double of the money I invest, then it's all the artists'. I would find a way of making them be a part of their success (promoting, giving clinics or whatever) but profit would not be my goal...
It's a gamble to work that way, since the guy who's successful and the guy who barely makes it give you the same ration of interest (200%) But I guess you can't be an artist's boss if all you try to do is take his money from him....

I often wonder if I suddenly became famous if I would wave my freak in everyones faces and let it corrupt me into a pile of sespool egoism or .....?

Originally posted by nechako
I often wonder if I suddenly became famous if I would wave my freak in everyones faces and let it corrupt me into a pile of sespool egoism or .....?

You're not alone. Of course, I also ponder ways to piss people off with my fame. I think that's a positive sign.

there are certain people who would hear no end of it :D
-Daniel

Oh, I'm right with you. I've planned for quite some time that if I ever have a signature series instrument, that I'd use them on tour for a year and give them to a specific guitar shop (where I do as much of my business as possible) to sell to beginners as if they were a used Squier.

[It's good PR but moreso, it's that I begged for a guitar my whole life and, coming from a non-musical family that didn't get my drive, I didn't get one until I was 16 and had dropped out of school to get a job.

>>>>I wanted a guitar the same way, my dad was a british materialist, more concerned with pomp and position- I was to follow a path that made sense and profit, and neither it did it ruined me...untill I returned to my dream and put faith in it when I was 21!- I started from scratch, everyone told me that I was too old, that it takes forever, bla bla bla. Its better to follow the dream than sell out and become a "yes man", "go getter" and sell your soul to the corporate demon. I'm not the best nor the worst but I love every real note, and I pass it on wherever I can. Thank you all for encouraging and inspiring me further, I've been in artist depression of late.

i would tour tour tour tour tour and make more music. i'd love every moment of it. and i'd actually hang out with my fans.
-daniel

oh god, if i got famous... sweet jesus, you'd all find me by following the trail of beat up reporters (I may be little, but you'd be surprised at what i can do)... and to be honest if i got really realy rich, one thing i would do is turn up on the sub-way/ underground, with a siutcase full of cash... and sit under one of those emergency brake levers, the ones that say "penalty charge upto £250".. and just keep tuggin at it and handing the conductor guy wads of £250... MWAAAHAHAHAHAaaa.. so NOBODY would get to work on time...
yeah i came from an non musical non artistic backround and both are seen as waste, but they've slowly relized it's not just a fad, and that there is potential... but it's strange it's histroy repeating, cos my dad came from a very poor background and nobody took his dream of getting a really decent education, and becoming a doctor... I mean my grandad got him to go work with carpenters/ plumers etc in his summer holidays to "teach him a trade"... but now he's a doctor, and as Much as he tries to mask it, he's pretty bitter about the lack of faith in him (untill the day he actaully got into med school)... BUT YOU'D THINK HE'D KNOW BETTER THAN TO TELL ME I'M WASTING MY TIME WITH PAITINGS AND GIUTAR!!!.. sigh.. what can you do...

As for charity, I would do charity work, but none of it public... I dont want to have that horrible naggin' concience asking me wether it was good will or pr... but then again to the poeple recieving the much neede help it wouldn't really matter...

Originally posted by PonyOne
combined tour where I do arena shows as well as small venues, after which I and the band sort of mingle with the folks that're paying for my new house, clothes, food, gas money, new instruments, etc. I went to see Col. Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade and the band was really cool, they weren't like "hey you, you peon, hands off the stage!" in fact Les was checking out my g/f the whole time, at one time his face was like three inches from her bosom, I didn't mind though.

When I saw CLCFFFB about a year ago there was this woman... well, a couple of people, but basicly she ended up getting spun around some guy in such a manner as to knock a few people around and make me want to smack the both of them. The odd thing is she looked pretty "Hippy-ish;" something that (in idealogy anyway) promotes being considerate to others. Anyway, a few minutes later she ends up crowd surfing...

And I remember quite clearly Eenor watching her with a steadily growing grin then laughter as she teetered a bit and fell to the floor.

My advice is this though: Never throw anything at Les. I cannot post his comments on being clocked with a crushed tin can here on this message board, and the person who threw it is probably not over the emotional trauma of said comments even today.

Email me if you want a more "colorful" Claypool gets hit with a flying object story.

And this was at a Primus show mind you... one of my brother's friends was also there and knew the kid who threw the can. He was punched upon just as soon as Les started Tommy the Cat back up again. He came out bruised and with broken ribs which he tried to say he got from "pitting."

When I get famous & rich,I think I'll have a lot of avenues to be charitable;I'm Kenyan,and in case you didn't know,Kenya is in sub-saharan Africa.I can't even begin to list tj areas one's money and time could go into.You might get depressed,and I don't like posting depressing stuff.Not on this forum.;)

A priest friend moved to Benin last year. We write a lot, and last time he visited me. His views and things on his mind are WAY different than ours...
I have just bought a house, and I was wondering about the interests I had to pay, while he thought about where they were going to take their homeless kids... Sad but true...

When you buy a pack of strings, just know that you are spending the equivalent of 2 weeks of salary back there... Just have it on your mind. I pray that someday, all humans might eat all they need, and be able to think only about art and music (because when you can think about that, it means you have eaten and you have a place to sleep at night.)

Originally posted by lalimacefolle
A priest friend moved to Benin last year. We write a lot, and last time he visited me. His views and things on his mind are WAY different than ours...
I have just bought a house, and I was wondering about the interests I had to pay, while he thought about where they were going to take their homeless kids... Sad but true...

When you buy a pack of strings, just know that you are spending the equivalent of 2 weeks of salary back there... Just have it on your mind. I pray that someday, all humans might eat all they need, and be able to think only about art and music (because when you can think about that, it means you have eaten and you have a place to sleep at night.)

You wouldn't believe some of the s*#@ that happens here.Remember that photo during the'86(I think)famine in Ethiopia,of a kid stumbling,on her way to dying,and being followed by a VULTURE?I see a human being,the bird of prey sees a potential meal.This world is ****ed up.Well and truly ****ed up.And all Bush can think of is kill OBL.(I think he's taken up this terror thing,as much as it's valid,with so much zeal coz he doesn't have an agenda.Imagine the news without afghanistan and the middle east:no news.To win a second term,you need to have been in the news somehow).