MMC15 - Part 4.1

Many of you may recall that I had a series of posts in February on the Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg (see: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). It recently occurred to me that I did not finish all of the posts I had intended to from that. Though it's overdue to the point of just letting it go, there's still a wealth of knowledge I pulled from the conference that I think is worth sharing.

Part 4 of this MMC15 series is on the last session that I attended. Jason Rubal, the owner of Seventh Wave Studio, spoke for this one. They've got their name on some 250,000 records - just to put things in prospective. Jason was real down-to-earth and seemed to know what was up with music and how it's been changing throughout the last few years. It was definitely my favorite and I've got a crap ton of notes from it - so get ready (this one section will be broken down over a few posts).

As was the case with the other MMC15 posts, I'll throw some comments in after things. I'll sign each one (-ab) just to avert confusion because there are tons of lists and whatnot here.


Mistakes Musicians Make - Jason Rubal


4 kinds of musicians:

1. Pro - make it happen no matter what 
2. Feelers - need something for it to happen
3. Excuse Makers - always have something to blame
4. Suck - act pro, but suck

• Being pro is the only way to make it
• I'd put myself somewhere between feelers and pro. While I can deliver musically 95% of the time, I still lack the audience skills to round the show out every time. -ab

You need to find fans for life - your "niche"

Types of music:

1. Song - tell a story
2. Music - based on an expression of music
3. Entertainment - weird

• Don't mix types! (goes along with finding your niche)
• Being firmly rooted in the "music" type, I often times will criticize the song and entertainment side of things for their lack of musicality. I've been getting better at looking at the lyrical content over the musicality of the "song" genre, but still can't get over the entertainment stuff. However, Jason made a great point: we don't understand them and we probably don't want to. -ab

Types of Records:

1. Fans - for people who want to purchase and listen to you
1. Albums made for the fans are intended to solidify your "sound" and to give people something they're familiar with. It would make sense to me that this would also lead to more profit. -ab
2. Artist - for yourself, as an artist
1. Albums made for yourself I would generally think of as less marketable. If I'm releasing albums as "Alex Brubaker" and one album is this pretty guitar stuff and then the next is profane rap, then you'll confuse the heck out of your fans. A lesser extreme is seen when artists change their sound and their fans get upset. Unless you've gotten those "fan for life" types, you'll never be able to carry a following. -ab
3. Industry - for the industry. These are dead.
1. The industry has caved in on itself. Major labels have tried to hold tie down the creativity in music and it's no longer having the upper hand. The success of that horrid youtube video, Friday, has shown that labels aren't needed. That leaves the choice of your album down to being for the fans or being for yourself. -ab

The music industry is doing great - how the industry perceives bands is the problem

• I think I would say that the problem is how "the industry" is defined is the problem. Since any Rebecca Black can release something, industry has just expanded too rapidly to be able to be redefined. -ab

Do not assume the way that you hear music is how everyone else hears it

• Being in the "music" category of type of music is the hardest because of this. Pop music is a step away from making my ears bleed and I can't fathom how others listen to it. However, I'll listen to a death metal band while sleeping on the beach and be perfectly content and relaxed. There's no way I'll stop being critical of ...everything, but to realize that not everyone senses the same is a good place to start at understanding people -ab
• The key is to find out how your fans hear music.