This blog is a combination of articles from Tunecore and the Mac Observer article by Bryan Chaffin
This is great news for the independent artist, now we have distribution in Brazil and South America. All we have to do now is figure out how to get people to discover our music! Once people find out about Fantazzmo, I know they'll love our music!
Hey, if it was easy...everyone would be doing it!!!!
Fantazzmo 1: Enter the Fantazz
NOW AVAILABLE IN BRAZIL & SOUTH AMERICA
Territories include: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Apple announced on Tuesday the long-delayed launch of the iTunes Store, as well as the somewhat unexpected launch of iTunes Match, in Brazil. The company said it was launching the store with 20 million songs
The iTunes Store is also launching with “over a thousand” movies to rent or purchase, some of which are being offered in HD. 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures are all on board for the rollout of movies in Brazil.
Brazil is the world’s 7th largest economy, making it the primary target for Apple in South America. The reason behind the delay has reportedly been the difficulty of managing local royalty payments, and in November is was reported that Apple had found a local solution provider to manage that process in time for a December launch.
Related: It’s December.
In addition to Brazil, Apple said that iTunes Stores are coming to 15 other South American countries, including: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.
Music on the iTunes Store is being offered in the same 256kbps, DRM-free AAC format in the the U.S. iTunes Store. Local accounts will require a valid credit card with a Brazilian billion address.
Running a band is the same as running a business. You invest time, labor, capital & intelligence in the hopes of getting desired results. You have to plan ahead diligently and make projections, preparations, consult with those with more experience and always remember the most important thing, your product, in this case, the music.
The music is the most important part, you can never lose sight of that. At the end of the day you want to make sure you have a great body of work, if you do, then it was all worth it.
Fantazzmo is planning 2012 and ready to come out swinging!!!
I recently found out about Next Big Sound from from the Bob Lefsetz Blog, the Lefsetz Letter, I checked it out for myself and it really is a valuable site for the independent artist. We can view how fans engage with our social sites, how they find out about us, where they are from, what regions are getting the most activity and gauge the success of our marketing efforts.
I recommend every independent artist take advantage of the basic free plan if nothing else. Yes, you can view your stats on Facebook Insights, Blog, band website, etc, but you can also link all of those and more to form a one stop shop for all you band's data.
Over the course of history, it was decided that people who made their ideas tangible –like songwriters– should make money. So they made up a bunch of really esoteric, hard to understand rules (aka laws) on how it should all work. The foundation for these laws can actually be found in the United States Constitution. The rules built on this concept get updated from time to time, but ultimately the foundation of the six legal rights that a person gets when he or she creates a copyrighted work, by making a song tangible (meaning it’s recorded or written down) are the basis for all the rules, laws and money made in the music industry.
Which, if you think about it, is a bit weird, because, what is it that is actually being sold when someone buys “music?” A buyer walks out of the store with some sort of device (like a vinyl record, CD or digital download) and plops it onto a machine. That machine “plays” the device, causing a speaker to vibrate in such a way that sound waves move through the air to our ears. Our ears detect these sound waves, and transmit them to our brains as electrical impulses. Our brains interpret these impulses and we “hear” the music.
In other words, unlike food or clothes, there is nothing tangible to a song beyond the intangible memory of what you just heard. The sound of music always lives in the past.
And yet, the governments of the world (acting on behalf of their constituents; in theory at least) decided that these transmissions of sound waves, and the people who wrote the songs, are so valuable and important, that they created a complex set of laws and regulations. These laws require that licenses be granted and payments be made to the people/entities controlling the rights to the recordings of the songs (usually called a “record label”) and the lyrics and melody of the song (usually called the “songwriter” or “music publisher”).
These rules and regulations tie together, regulate, and give basis for a global consortium of tens of millions of record labels, artists, songwriters, music publishers, performing rights organizations, and mechanical royalty collection agencies, to generate and collect and administer over $23 billion dollars.
And the governments of the world take this stuff very, very seriously. So much so, that there is an entire shadow economy built around an infrastructure of copyright boards, judges, copyright police, congressional committees, and teams of lawyers that are supposed to be the experts in knowing all the rules, and, in some cases, set royalty rates as to what these innovative creators should be paid.
However, in a move that could be construed as paradoxical (or, at the very least a “head scratcher”) these very same governments that created a way to assure that artists, songwriters and record labels can make money also decided that a songwriter/lable only gets these rights for 70 years after the death of the last surviving person who wrote the song (or ninety-five years from the date of publication in the case of a work for hire), after which point, all of the author’s rights get taken away, and the song becomes a “public domain” work, This means it’s available for anyone to use in any way they like without having to pay or negotiate anything with anyone.
Or put another way, 69 years and 364 days after the death of the last surviving writer, the people who control the rights to the song (like someone’s child or grandchildren) get to make money from the use of that song. The next day they don’t; one hell of a Monday to a Tuesday.
Which brings up the question as to why. Why give all of these rights and all of these rules for a set period of time? What is the reason that on that last magical day the very same hand that gave these rights decides it’s enough and takes them all away?
After all, when a song’s rights are stripped away from the person who wrote it, and the copyrights expire, many other people can make money off the recording and song. For example, at some point in time, the Beatles’ recordings and songs will enter the public domain, and when they do, anyone can release a Beatles album or cover Paul/John’s song without paying them. If someone buys that song or album physically from Amazon, a slew of people make money off the Beatles: Amazon makes money, the person who sold it makes money, the entity that made the cardboard box that the CD ships in makes money, the U.S. postal service makes money. The Beatles’ label, their estate, and John and Paul’s estates don’t make money from the sale.
Hardly seems fair.
On the other hand, what happens if Dr. Evil comes to life, only this time he has a trillion dollars at his disposal (don’t laugh too hard, there was a moment not too long ago when Bill Gates was worth a trillion dollars), and he decides he is going to buy the copyrights to all the recordings and songs in the world. Without a reversion of copyright, the world would be denied access to these creations. Corporations could hoard them forever, and perpetually deny or grant access at their whim. Put another way, corporations would have a complete and total stranglehold on culture (one could argue they already do, but that’s a different topic).
And thus the tension between the public good vs. copyright holders and creators comes to play with the government standing in between them, trying to come up with a solution that does not tip the scales too far on way or another.
The question I have relates to technology opening the flood gates to more creators: should there be a re-evaluation of this tension? I honestly don’t have the answer, and I truly can argue both sides of this equation. If it were me, and I wrote and recorded the song “Paperback Writer,” why the hell should I not be entitled to make money off the thing I created? Who the hell is the government to interfere with my rights and decide it’s been long enough for me, or my children, or their children’s children to make money off my creation. If I build a house, the government doesn’t get to take it away from me after a period of time and say it is “public domain.” Why is my song, my creation, thought less of than a house?
On the other hand, somehow it would just not feel right to me if Mozart’s great-great-great-great-great (not sure how many greats should go here) grandchildren got paid each and every time his Flute Concerto No. 2 In D Major – K. 314 was played and sold.
In other words, what is the place of public domain and the reversion of copyright in the new emerging digital music industry?
My concern is not over what the answer is, but instead who gets to shape the discussion. To this point in time, the creators themselves are the minority voice. The multi-national corporations that have gobbled up and/or “own” all of these songs and copyrights are the ones pulling the strings, lobbying for changes to the law. This would be fine if the creators of culture–aka artists–and corporations were in step with one another, but this is hardly the case.
Today’s world has allowed musicians and artists to break free of a system requiring them to relinquish their copyrights to pursue their dreams and ambitions. Together they are louder than any other music entity. The trick is allowing their voice to be heard. TuneCore is simply a megaphone, you are the voice.
Sign And Fail: How The Traditional Music Industry Killed Culture
(Reprint from Tunecore Blog)
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By George Howard
(follow George on Twitter)
We talk a lot about how this era of the music business is a particularly good one for the independent artist (by that, I mean an artist not signed to a label; someone who releases his/her own music either by him or herself or with a small team). The reasons for this are many, and largely due to technological advances: companies like TuneCore made it possible for you to have your music distributed world-wide very efficiently; Pro Tools (etc.) allows for the efficient creation of music; social media enables you (in theory) to promote your music directly to fans, etc…
However, one thing we don’t discuss often enough is that there is another reason why now is a fantastic time to release your own work. While it’s related to the above, it does stand apart enough to merit observation.
The bottom line is that a significant reason that now is a great time to release your own music is that the cost of failure is so low.
Let me explain. Historically, when you decided you wanted to be a musician and release records, you chose a very specific path. This path required you to, among other things, dedicate nearly all of your time and energy to essentially getting a record deal. What this meant was that you were forced to do everything in your power to attempt to get the attention of a series of gatekeepers (press, radio, managers, booking agents, club owners, label A&R people, etc…) in the hopes that they would give you a series of chances that would lead to a record deal. During that time, while you were attempting to get this series of chances, you needed to be monomaniacal with respect to your purpose. An inordinate amount of time, therefore, was spent not making music, but rather attempting to position yourself favorably in the eyes of these gatekeepers. Doing this, obviously, had a “cost.” This cost was not necessarily one measured in dollars (though, pre Pro Tools, it sure wasn’t cheap to record demos), but instead one measured in time/distraction. Economists call this “opportunity cost.”
In the off chance that you made all the right moves, and the stars lined up, and you were offered a record deal, your cost of failure just went through the roof. While the label I ran (for better, and, sometimes, for worse) frequently worked with artists who had had major label deals, a lot of the time, an artist who had a record deal, and, for whatever reason, didn’t sell enough records to be deemed a commercial success, was forever labeled as a pariah; never to be offered another deal.
Essentially, the cost of failure with respect to getting signed to a label, and then not selling records was being barred from ever competing again.
In both cases — the road leading to getting a record deal, and actually getting the deal — mis-steps along the way (real or perceived) had a huge cost associated with them. In essence, there was really only One Way, and if you veered from this path (or were thrown off the path), it was very hard to get back on.
In hindsight, this is sort of insane. In what other business is it expected that you come right out of the gate, fully-formed, and achieve success on your very first effort? While there are certainly vocations — from doctor to stock broker — where screw ups can bar you from the field, these (and most others) tend to not even let you into the field until you’ve been trained (medical school, MBA, etc…). Part of that training is learning from others and learning from mistakes.
The old music business didn’t allow for this. One could argue that this high cost of failure, one that deterred people from straying from a fairly narrow path (artistically and in a business sense). led to the homogenized nature of the music business during this era.
This is because, of course, it wasn’t just the artists who have a high cost of failure. Rather, it’s the executives at the labels as well. If you’re making a few hundred large a year, you will do almost anything to keep that money flow coming. This also means that you won’t do anything that puts your salary at risk. This leads to a culture where few, if any, are willing to push for anything innovative or new, and most feel it’s safer to repeat the status quo.
Arguably, the major labels are still caught in this cycle.
The good news is that most artists are largely indifferent to the old-school label system at this point, and an increasing number are working hard to find new ways to create music on their own terms and build sustainable careers. This is partly because the major labels (or any label) just aren’t viable (or appealing) options at this point, but it’s also, I would argue, because the cost of failure has come down dramatically.
As it’s now easier than ever to create and release music, artists are freed from the one-album-every-eighteen-months cycle that raised the stakes (and cost of failure) to such a scary degree.
What results is that artists are much more inclined to create a work and put it into the marketplace quickly. In so doing, they honor a time-tested management theory known as the Deming Cycle. W. Edward Deming developed a philosophy that revolutionized industries, and, like most revolutionary philosophies, it can be stated simply, but takes some time to understand and implement. At its core, the Deming cycle recommends a circular process beginning with “Plan,” moving to “Do,” then to “Check,” then to “Act,” and then back to “Plan.”
This can be understood as “Ready, Fire, Aim” as opposed to “Ready, Aim, Fire,” so long as you also understand that after you fire, you must check where your shot went, and adjust before you re-fire.
This approach demands iteration over cogitation. It demands that you move quickly to get something into the marketplace, because only in so doing can you truly understand if what you’re doing will have an impact. Importantly, it demands that you study closely the results that occur upon entering the market, and assumes that you will refine your efforts prior to re-introducing them into the market.
This method works best when the costs of failures are low enough so as not to be fatal. In the old music business, you essentially got one shot. There was no opportunity to refine anything. Now, given the tools at the disposal of just about every artist, and a culture that not only expects, but demands agility (see the preponderance of “betas”), it is incumbent upon you to get into the game, learn, and then refine.
I strongly believe that this not only results in a higher chance of success for artists, but also in a more diverse musical landscape. This is because no one, no one knows what the market wants, and for too long people thought they did. This resulted in a lot of music being put into the market just because it resembled something else that had been successful. With the Deming approach, and a low cost of failure, we are able to do what we should have been doing all along: create what is in our hearts, and then — if we so choose — continue to refine as people respond to our work.
Reprint from Tunecore Newsletter November 21, 2011
Why Everyone But The Artist And The Music Fan Is Doomed
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By Jeff Price
(Updated Nov. 22nd – Please see the bottom of this article for sales information from TuneCore Artists in July 2011)
Every business built on gatekeepers eventually fails. At some point some technology comes around, making the entire old school industry obsolete.
It’s a shortsighted model based on greed, ego and false perception of invulnerability.
Take the old school music industry: it was a ticking time bomb of self-destruction waiting to go off. It began with the birth of recorded music. The “artist gatekeepers” with the infrastructure and access to place music on retail shelves decided they would not just charge a fee for the service, but would also require a transference of copyright from the creator to the gatekeeper.
For the “consumer gatekeepers,” they could have chosen to allow more music to be exposed, but they went down the same path as the artist gatekeepers.
It did not need to be this way; the artists could have been allowed to keep their copyrights, and music fans could have had access to discover more music. Try as these two sets of gatekeepers might, their control would be broken. Their over-the-top, greedy mistakes were always on a path of tearing themselves down; it was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when.
Along the way there were lies, theft, piles of money traded, and unnecessary filtering, but the artist and music fan would win. It’s evolution.
The fall came hard and fast. It used to be that as a musician, you had to go to the “artist gatekeeper,” the label, and be one of the anointed few that got the privilege of transferring ownership of what you created to the label so your CDs could end up on store shelves.
In order to get heard, and then hopefully have your music cause a reaction, you had to be one of the even luckier few chosen by the “consumer gatekeepers” to have your music played on commercial radio or MTV, or get written about in Rolling Stone.
Did they think, even a moment, that this control would ever be taken from them?
When eMusic, the first on-line digital store, launched in 1998, the boulder began to careen down the mountain. Within ten years, the entire 80-year-old traditional gatekeeper model had been destroyed.
No longer did you need an A&R person deciding an artist was of “commercial value” to be let into the system.
No longer did you have a retail store buyer subjectively deciding which CDs had enough value to be placed on their shelves.
No longer did MTV have a lock on deciding which music videos got seen.
No longer did commercial radio limit what we all heard to the 15 to 20 songs that they decided to play.
No longer was the general population limited to reading what the editors of Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin and others decided to write about.
In the digital world, all artists can be on infinite digital shelves with infinite inventory waiting to be discovered, heard, shared and bought. The general population of the world can decide what does and does not have value, and can share thoughts and preferences in scales never before thought imaginable, networking to one another globally, via social outlets like Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, and YouTube.
Digital radio stations now have millions of songs available to be programmed based on the listener’s preferences, likes and dislikes.
This entire old school system was based not on serving the artist, but on gatekeepers exploiting artists to let them in. And when you are a gatekeeper, when you think you are the only one with the keys to the kingdom (and only you will ever have them), you do stupid things, immoral things, and create a business where you’re simply a necessary evil.
This mentality extended beyond labels, distributors, retailers, radio stations, MTV and print magazines. It reached into every nook and cranny of the old industry, into entities like ASCAP: the gatekeepers for songwriters to get their money.
Just as it was in the old school industry, there was a time when these gatekeepers reigned supreme in what they did; they, and only they, had systems to track and collect money owed to songwriters for public performances. But then hubris crept in leading to their taking their songwriter members’ money to not only do the job they were hired to do, but also to pay the heads of these organizations exorbitant six and seven figure salaries, spend their members’ money on fleets of cars, expensive dinners, first class airplane tickets, luxury hotels, over the top decadent office space in the most expensive cities in the world (as well as many other travel and expense perks).
They were gatekeepers blocking songwriters from getting their money. Just like the major labels, they were the only ones with the infrastructure to provide the service; if you wanted your songwriter money, you had to go to them. They made their priority maintaining control, not serving. Had they kept this focus, they would now not be in trouble, they would have adapted.
The digital age has made the digital part of what ASCAP and others do a thing of the past. These organizations are not needed to track sales in iTunes or video streams in YouTube, and yet they are fighting and litigating to try to keep songwriters’ money going to themselves to stick in their pockets. They do not really give a damn that 98% of the world’s songwriters don’t get their cut of the money owed to them. There are other entities out in the world now, like TuneCore, that can get songwriters more money, more quickly, with transparency and an audit trail, and yet they fight against this efficiency.
It’s foolish, dumb and wrong.
As a member of ASCAP, we called and asked them for a list of entities that ASCAP licenses to, as well as the rates we should expect to get paid.
They called us up with two lawyers on the phone–lawyers that ASCAP is able to pay from the money it collects from songwriters – and said they could not tell us the rates or whom they were in deals with as it would “violate anti-trust laws”. What I can’t understand is how they can state this while simultaneously issuing a press release about how they entered into a licensing agreement with Netflix.
Further, how can the people that hired them not get told what rates have been negotiated on their behalf? How would anyone know if they were doing their job?
It’s frustrating, but I keep this in mind, the end is inevitable; technology has rendered these entities moot, a thing of the past. The only thing keeping them propped up is that there are artists who do not understand how much money they are owed and where it is. As this information gets out, these organizations will use songwriters’ money in an attempt to sue, legislate and litigate, to stop these same songwriters from getting more of what they earned.
There should be no gatekeepers for musicians, or for anything. It all comes down to serving the musician. This is as it should be. Then entities like TuneCore must create products or services that are of true value to artists or get the hell out of the way. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
UPDATE – November 22, 2011
(We apologize for the length of this article, but we wanted to provide more data. You can make comments down below.)
Many blog posters have been suggesting that artists not signed to major labels do not sell music or make money. Below is a small swatch of sales information for TuneCore Artists only. It shows what they sold and what they made in July 2011, just that ONE MONTH. I have removed the artists’ names and release info out of respect for their privacy.
Over 99% of these artists are not “signed.” Also note, these are sales from July, 2011, one of the slower music sales months of the year.
As you would expect, there are a small number of artists making hundreds of thousands of dollars each month and more artists earn less as you move down the list. But for all those that may comment suggesting most are making less, my response is, you’ve got to be kidding me.
These artists, all of them, are outside of the traditional system. Some are earning hundreds of thousands and some are earning $20.
And this is bad because…?
With the music industry democratized more artists are making more money than ever before. All of this money you are seeing is going directly into these artists’ pockets; this is money they would have never ever seen before.
Now add the songwriter money on top of this money.
Someone needs to explain to me why an artist earning something vs. nothing is a bad thing, as I truly cannot understand that logic. As far as TuneCore, as I have stated over and over, it’s your music that causes it to sell. It’s up to you to decide if the services and fees TuneCore charges work for you.
No gimmicks, no games, transparency in the way we work. Arm the artists with info and let them make their own decisions.
Here’s a sample of the data (click the link below to download the full doc):
Launch Of Google Music– What Does This Mean For You? (Reprint)
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Get ready to cut the ribbon; the search engine giant Google has just launched the long-awaited Google Music, a platform enabling musicians to connect with their fans. Google Music allows you to discover and purchase new music, upload your personal collection to the cloud, share purchased tracks with friends on Google+, and access your entire collection from the web or any device. So what does this new digital platform mean for the user? And for the artist?
WHAT IS IT?
Google Music includes an online music store within Android Market that provides à la carte digital downloads of albums and tracks (tracks vary from free to $1.29). When you make a purchase through Android Market, the album or single automatically goes to your Google Music library, which can be thought of as a kind of locker. In addition to storing downloads from the store, the locker can also hold up to 20,000 songs from your personal music collection.
Once in the locker, the music can be streamed on the web and any device, and even stored for offline listening on a mobile device. You’ll be able to access your songs on up to 10 authorized devices per account.
In addition, artists will be able to create an “Artist Page,” which will feature the artist’s albums for sale, as well as additional information and media such as band photos and an artist bio. To upload and publish content for Google Music using their artist portal, users must be residents of the United States (including its territories, protectorates, and insular areas). To edit an artist page, you can be located anywhere in the world.
REWARD!!! On Friday, Nov 4, my dark blue guitar (PRS) went missing at the Stardust in Downey. It was last seen on the right side of the stage before the band Broken Silence performed. I am offering a $300 reward for its prompt & safe return. To collect, please return the guitar to management at the Stardust, (Dust) or call (562)480-3573 and I will meet you anywhere, anytime, no questions asked. Thank you, Sergio Bedolla
Four days & four shows, Fantazzmo just finished up the last show on our mini tour and we had a blast!!! Last stop was a house party in Fontana and ....yeah it kicked Ass!!! Thank you to everyone who rocked out with us and made this a great experience, see you soon!!!
“almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
-Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was a genius and more of a Rock Star than most Rock Stars. His passion and endless pursuit to create products that enrich our lives is a great influence and will be admired forever. The world will miss him, my condolences to his family and loved ones.
Bad Fish
RECIPROCITY
SHE REALLY LIKES IT
7 Nation Army
DROWN YOUR LIES
Dyer Maker
WHAT YOU DOIN TO ME
Like A Stone
ALWAYS SOMETHING
Fear In Me
Plush
ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL
SOULS ON ICE
SUPERMAN
Santeria
I KNOW YOU’RE MINE
Caress Me Down
Every major city has an overabundance of talented musicians. Los Angeles, New York, Dallas, the same goes for major cities in England, France, Italy, Germany, China, India, Japan & every country in the world.
But not all of these "musicians" are dedicated, passionate, focused, determined, or willing to invest their time & money...endlessly. Most of them will wind up in cubicles or other careers once they have given up and are done cluttering up the venues and internet.
Fantazzmo has now joined the ranks of touring bands. We have been hitting the road & playing cities far from home. In doing this, I realize more and more that not everyone else is. I also realize more and more that our musical career goals are attainable. Yes, anyone can put a band together and start playing shows. Yes, anyone create a recording or buy studio time & put their music on iTunes. Yes, anyone can create videos for their band. Yes, anyone can create band merchandise. And, yes..anyone can tour; but not all of them do.
How do you stand out from the crowd? Quality. What is the quality of your cd? What is the quality of your videos? What is the quality of your merch? What is the quality of your brand?
This is how you stand out from the crowd. Have great quality in all your band does. Fantazzmo only provides the highest quality in every realm of our brand.
The next hurdle for Fantazzmo is standing out above the crowd of national & international touring acts, and we will. I am presently putting a plan together to accomplish this, and we will.
Fantazzmo is the needle in the haystack, the fans who have found us, love us & you will too.
FANTAZZMO is coming to your town...real soon!
"FANTAZZMO 1: ENTER THE FANTAZZ" AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE MUSIC IS SOLD ONLINE
It is all within my grasp. I must keep writing great songs. With great songs my goals of making Fantazzmo a successful international musical powerhouse are attainable. I can accomplish this, Fantazzmo can accomplish this.
Rock does not live in Los Angeles, CA. Rock is not welcome here on an independent level. If you're Rage Against the Machine, you can fill the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, but there is no "scene" for bands to be a part of, you must make your own scene & Fantazzmo will.
Fantazzmo is a great band & I must take this band on the road. I am closer to my goals than I think. Fantazzmo played its first shows outside our home of Los Angeles in September 2011. We have now joined the ranks of touring bands. In one show, we played 2.5 hours north of Los Angeles (Lompoc). Let me tell you, it had to be the best response we have gotten so far. We sold merchandise, cd's & added lots of people to the "LEGIONZ OF THE FANTAZZ" mailing list, got people dancing, grooving & rocking out. We overcame personnel issues, financial issues, technical difficulties & got the job done!
Fantazzmo is headed down the right path. Fantazzmo needs to get back on the road ASAP. Fantazzmo needs to hit more colleges, more festivals, more bars, more states, create more great music, meet more people and keep improving our live shows and sound. Fantazzmo must push the boundaries in all that we do.
We can and will become an internationally successful musical group. More important, we must be great songwriters, composers and performers. Spreading the word, worldwide, one person at a time if needed. People must constantly be talking about and listening to Fantazzmo.
"FANTAZZMO 1: ENTER THE FANTAZZ" AVAILABLE NOW, EVERYWHERE MUSIC IS SOLD ONLINE!
I was born to be a great musician, songwriter, composer and performer. It has taken many years, but I am now writing great songs. I have put together a great group of musicians and the result is Fantazzmo, a great band. We perform at a high level of energy, enthusiasm, intensity and musicianship. Our live show and performance improves with every show. Our communication with the audience is improving with every performance. Our live show is evolving into a great live show with every performance consisting of great music, a greater connection with the audience and provides the audience with a musical journey which is the soundtrack of their lives.
We are on a mission to evolve and grow with every performance, with every song we write, every step we take and every move we make. Our photo shoots, graphics, videos, websites, presentation, presence, image is all improving and will continue to improve and get better and better.
You see, mediocrity is not an option. Go big, or go home. Greatness is the only choice, the only outcome, the only possible end result. Being the best is the goal. Being a great live band with amazing music is the vision and our destiny.
Taft Bike Fest, Labor Day Weekend, September 2-4, 2011 in Taft, CA
FANTAZZMO Kicks off the Saturday concerts on Saturday, September 3, 2011
2 Wheel Production presents The First Annual Taft Bike Fest which will take place this Labor Day Weekend, Friday (12pm-9pm), Saturday (9am-9pm) and Sunday (9am-2pm), September 2nd-4th at the Rails to Trails located at 6th St. and Main St. This three day event will feature concerts, beer garden, multiple vendors, motorcycle bike show and contest, tattoo contest, and motorcycle stunt show. There will be dry tent camping and RV/Trailer parking on site. Vendor space is available for food, crafters, commercial and business vendors. To apply for vendor space stop by the Taft Chamber of Commerce for event form and more information or contact Shannon with the Chamber at shannon.taftchamber@gmail.com or 765-2165. For more information on the Taft Bike Fest email them at taftbikefest@yahoo.com or check them out on Facebook.
Check out some of the gorgeous ladies that will be there:
Reprint from the Jeff Price article seen on www.Tunecore.com
September 1, 2011
How The ’70s Majorly Screwed The Major Labels
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By Jeff Price
Lava lamps, Happy Days, mood rings, MASH, and Jimmy Carter’s Playboy interview weren’t the only things to come out of the ’70s. In addition, copyright law was revised by the U.S. government granting artists and songwriters “termination rights.” This law states that 35 years after 1978 the recordings and songs “owned” by record labels or publishers would revert back to the artist or songwriter regardless of if the artist or songwriter was recouped, un-recouped, etc. In other words, the government said to the labels and publishers,“ 35 years is long enough. Times up, give them back control over their work.”
For those of you counting, 35 years from 1978 is 2013.
This means albums and songs from Cheap Trick, The Kinks, AC/DC, Kraftwerk, Carole King, Peter Gabriel, The Cars, The Buzzcocks, KC & the Sunshine Band, Kenny Rogers, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Tom Waits, Yes, Sex Pistols, Boston, Ramones, Bryan Ferry, Heart, Uriah Heap, Neil Young, Aerosmith, Brian Eno, Hawkwind, Whitesnake, Queen, Kate Bush, and countless others are eligible to revert back to the artists. Which means that the record labels, in addition to losing control over distribution (think TuneCore) may now lose the rights to the only thing left keeping them alive, the recordings that they make money off of.
And each year that goes by, means another set of albums and songs becoming eligible to revert back to the artist.
As you can imagine, the labels are fighting it. According to the August 15th, 2011 New York Times article, “Record Industry Braces for Artists’ Battles Over Song Rights,” Steven Marks, general counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America stated,
“We believe the termination right doesn’t apply to most sound recordings.” The RIAA’s position is that the artist never owned the recordings or songs in the first place so how could they revert back to them. They were just employees hired by the label to record their own songs. Therefore, the labels own the recordings forever (or until they enter public domain).
The issue here is over the legal definition of the term “Work For Hire”. If the artists were legally “work for hire” employees, the labels would be right. The RIAA and the labels saw this issue coming. In 1999, to assure their position and not lose rights, they were sneaky little scumbags and literally attempted to quietly slip a midnight amendment into a bill going through Congress called “The Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act”. The bill was about “retransmissions of broadcast signals” (I kid you not). The RIAA had four words added to this bill that would take away the right for artists to own their recordings if they signed a major label deal. These four words would, by default, legally define the artists as “work for hires” and therefore the rights to the recordings could not revert back to them.
To quote the very comprehensive and well written August of 2000, Austin Chronicle article “Work For Hire,” (which you should read!)…
In 1999, “Turns out the amendment was added by a staffer named Mitch Glazer from the office of Subcommittee Chairperson Howard Coble, R.-N.C., Glazer now works for the RIAA, the organization that sought to have those four words included in the first place, and did so with alarming quiet.”
Fortunately, they were caught. The words were noticed and artists, and their lawyers, went to war. The result was that these four little words are no longer part of the bill. Which means that the courts have yet to rule if the labels are right or if the artists are right in regards to the reversion of rights.
So, we approach 2013, and both labels, artists, and entrepreneurs are frantically attempting to either hold on to, get back, or acquire rights. Clearly, the labels are not going to go quiet into that dark night, however, this is yet another crack in the firmament of the traditional label system, and ultimately a win for the artists. Of course, the artists, now more than ever, will need to be able to market and distribute their newly-acquired/re-acquired rights, so that they can enjoy sustainable artistic careers on their own terms. The labels will argue that the artists can’t do this; only the labels could possibly market and distribute their records. That argument gets a little more tenuous with each passing day.
Stay tuned for the mother of legal battles. It’s going to get very interesting as manager and former label head and owner Irving Azoff sides with the interest of his client, The Eagles, and takes on the very industry he helped create.
TAFT BIKE FEST
Rails To Trails, Taft, CA
661-867-5309
The main stage (on the east side of Sixth Street on the north side of Rails to Trails) will have a DJ from noon to 5 p.m. with live bands taking over from 5 p.m. to at least 11:30 p.m.
The times below are all estimates and subject to change!
Friday:
Main Stage
Noon-5 D.J.
5-6:15 Every King a Crown
7-8:15 All the Kings Men
9:00-9:30 TBA
10-11:30pm Pawn
Stunt Area
6-8:30 p.m. Bike Game Practice
Beer Gardens
Open 930am-1:30am
Vendor Area opens noon to 9 p.m.
Saturday: Main Stage
9 a.m.-1 D.J.
1-2 pin up girls
2-2:30 D.J.
2:30-3 Pin up winners announced
3:00-3:15 Bike contest winners announced 3:15-4 Fantazzmo
4:15-5 Glassun
5:45-6:45 Lunatic Fringe
7:15-8:30 X-Static
9:15-11:45pm Last Chance Band
Stunt Area
11am-11:45 Street Bike Stunts
12-12:45 Slow Drag
1:45-2:30 Bite the Weenie
4-4:45 Street Bike Stunts
5-6pm Burn Outs
Beer Gardens open 9am to 1:30am
5th Street Plaza
Bike contest sign-ups 9am -12pm
12-2 bike contest judging
Vendor Area open 9am to 9pm
Flat Track
Pit Bikes, Go-Karts and Lawnmowers 12:00pm-4:00
Sunday
Main Stage
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. D.J.
Beer Gardens open 9am to 2pm
Vendors open 9am to 12pm
Mercantile Building
Lunatic Fringe and All the Kings Men time TBA
Bloody Mary Contest 9 a.m.-noon
Sign-ups at 8:30 am alcohol provided
Poker Run
2 -5 p.m. Start at Pioneer Bar and Saloon ride Highway 33. First stop The
Place in Ventucopa, second stop at Reyes Creek, third stop Madd Baileys Pub in Pine
Mountain Club then scenic route back to Pioneer Bar and Saloon for final card draw,
food, refreshments and music.
For any additional information please contact taftbikefest@yahoo.com
From Friday, 02-Sep-2011 at 10:00 AM
To Sunday, 04-Sep-2011 at 10:00 PM
Taft, CA
Labor Day Weekend Bike Festival with 20 Bands Bike contests over 200 vendors and 2 full bars, outdoor event with dry camping at the event.
Gene Jones
661-979-2030 / Email Motorcycle Event Organizer
Featured bands:
Fantazzmo
Glassun
Friday:
Main Stage
Noon-5 D.J.
5-6:15 Every King a Crown
7-8:15 All the Kings Men
9:00-9:30 TBA
10-11:30pm Pawn
Stunt Area
6-8:30 p.m. Bike Game Practice
Beer Gardens
Open 930am-1:30am
Vendor Area opens noon to 9 p.m.
Saturday: Main Stage
9 a.m.-1 D.J.
1-2 pin up girls
2-2:30 D.J.
2:30-3 Pin up winners announced
3:15-3:30 Bike contest winners announced
3:45-4 Fantazzmo
4:15-5 Glassun
5:45-6:45 Lunatic Fringe
7:15-8:30 X-Static
9:15-11:45pm Last Chance Band
Stunt Area
11am-11:45 Street Bike Stunts
12-12:45 Slow Drag
1:45-2:30 Bite the Weenie
4-4:45 Street Bike Stunts
5-6pm Burn Outs
Beer Gardens open 9am to 1:30am
5th Street Plaza
Bike contest sign-ups 9am -12pm
12-2 bike contest judging
Vendor Area open 9am to 9pm
Flat Track
Pit Bikes, Go-Karts and Lawnmowers 12:00pm-4:00
Sunday
Main Stage
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. D.J.
Beer Gardens open 9am to 2pm
Vendors open 9am to 12pm
Mercantile Building
Lunatic Fringe and All the Kings Men time TBA
Bloody Mary Contest 9 a.m.-noon
Sign-ups at 8:30 am alcohol provided
Poker Run
2 -5 p.m. Start at Pioneer Bar and Saloon ride Highway 33. First stop The
Place in Ventucopa, second stop at Reyes Creek, third stop Madd Baileys Pub in Pine
Mountain Club then scenic route back to Pioneer Bar and Saloon for final card draw,
food, refreshments and music.
For any additional information please contact taftbikefest@yahoo.com
Lot of folks expected for first Taft Bike Fest
Zoom
Photos
Doug Keeler/Midway Drilller
Banner announcing first Taft Bike Fest hangs over Center Street.
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By Doug Keeler
Taft Midway Driller
Posted Aug 30, 2011 @ 03:45 PM
Taft, Calif. —
Taft has become a mecca for off-road motorcycle enthusiasts, and now the street bikes are coming to see what Taft is all about.
The first annual Taft Bike Fest is almost here.
No one is quite sure how big its going to be, but organizer Gene Jones said there is a lot of interest from all over the region.
He guessed as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people could show up but didn't want to make an estimate.
“I don't know,” Jones said Tuesday. “I'm getting calls from people in Oregon, Phoenix, different bike clubs from all over.”
There has been a lot of entrance from vendors, too. Shannon Jones, events coordinator for the taft Chamber of Commerce, said about 35 booths have been reserved by Tuesday afternoon
One thing that is certain is there is going to be plenty of beer, plenty of events and plenty of bands over the next five days.
A full weekend of events ranging from burnout contests to lawnmower races to a big poker run on Sunday will give both riders and spectators a lot to do and see.
Vendor booths and the headquarters tent will be along Rails to Trails near the Fifth Street Plaza.
Sixth Street and Fourth Street will be closed to traffic beween Main Street and Supply Row from 6 a.m. Friday through 8 p.m. Sunday.
Supply Row will be closed from Fourth to Tenth during the same time period.
Main Street between Fourth and Fifth will be closed between 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The big events will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday over the Labor Day weekend but things get started Wednesday night with Bike Night at Chilled & Grilled, 621 Center St. from 6 p.m. until closing with a live band and drink and dinner food specials.
The Pioneer Mercantile Building at Fifth and Main is opening again for the Taft Bike Fest as the Pioneer Bar and Saloon starting Thursday and will have a live band (H?ist) and drink specials from 4 p.m. to closing.
The action really gets underway Friday and the Rails to Trails area takes center stage.
The main stage (on the east side of Sixth Street on the north side of Rails to Trails) will have a DJ from noon to 5 p.m. with live bands taking over from 5 p.m. to at least 11:30 p.m.
Beer gardens operated by Chilled & Grilled and the Taft Petroleum Club will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Rails to Trails.
Schedule of Events:
(Time and events are subject to change)
Wednesday
6 p.m. to close:
Bike Night at Chilled and Grilled 621 Center
St. with band and drink and food specials
Thursday: 4 p.m. to closing:
Pioneer Bar and Saloon (Fifth and Main)
Grand opening with live Band “H?ist” and drinks specials
Friday:
Main Stage
Noon-5 D.J.
5-6:15 Every King a Crown
7-8:15 All the Kings Men
9:00-9:30 TBA
10-11:30pm Pawn
Stunt Area
6-8:30 p.m. Bike Game Practice
Beer Gardens
Open 930am-1:30am
Vendor Area opens noon to 9 p.m.
Saturday: Main Stage
9 a.m.-1 D.J.
1-2 pin up girls
2-2:30 D.J.
2:30-3 Pin up winners announced
3:15-3:30 Bike contest winners announced
3:45-4 Fantazzmo
4:15-5 Glassun
5:45-6:45 Lunatic Fringe
7:15-8:30 X-Static
9:15-11:45pm Last Chance Band
Stunt Area
11am-11:45 Street Bike Stunts
12-12:45 Slow Drag
1:45-2:30 Bite the Weenie
4-4:45 Street Bike Stunts
5-6pm Burn Outs
Beer Gardens open 9am to 1:30am
5th Street Plaza
Bike contest sign-ups 9am -12pm
12-2 bike contest judging
Vendor Area open 9am to 9pm
Flat Track
Pit Bikes, Go-Karts and Lawnmowers 12:00pm-4:00
Sunday
Main Stage
9 a.m. to 2 p.m. D.J.
Beer Gardens open 9am to 2pm
Vendors open 9am to 12pm
Mercantile Building
Lunatic Fringe and All the Kings Men time TBA
Bloody Mary Contest 9 a.m.-noon
Sign-ups at 8:30 am alcohol provided
Poker Run
2 -5 p.m. Start at Pioneer Bar and Saloon ride Highway 33. First stop The
Place in Ventucopa, second stop at Reyes Creek, third stop Madd Baileys Pub in Pine
Mountain Club then scenic route back to Pioneer Bar and Saloon for final card draw,
food, refreshments and music.
For any additional information please contact taftbikefest@yahoo.com
Copyright 2011 Taft Midway Driller. Some rights reserved
www.FANTAZZMOROCKS..com
Taft has become a mecca for off-road motorcycle enthusiasts, and now the street bikes are coming to see what Taft is all about. The first annual Taft Bike Fest is almost here. It promises not only a long holiday weekend of events, but its all for a good cause. it's a fundraiser for Alpha House and the NEEDS Center. No one is quite sure how big its going to be, but organizer Gene Jones said there is a lot of interest from all over the region. He guessed as many as 3,000 to 4,000 people could show up but didn't want to make an estimate. “I don't know,” Jones said Tuesday. “I'm getting calls from people in Oregon, Phoenix, different bike clubs from all over.” There has been a lot of entrance from vendors, too. Shannon Jones, events coordinator for the taft Chamber of Commerce, said about 35 booths have been reserved by Tuesday afternoon One thing that is certain is there is going to be plenty of beer, plenty of events and plenty of bands over the next five days. A full weekend of events ranging from burnout contests to lawnmower races to a big poker run on Sunday will give both riders and spectators a lot to do and see. Vendor booths and the headquarters tent will be along Rails to Trails near the Fifth Street Plaza. Sixth Street and Fourth Street will be closed to traffic beween Main Street and Supply Row from 6 a.m. Friday through 8 p.m. Sunday. Supply Row will be closed from Fourth to Tenth during the same time period. Main Street between Fourth and Fifth will be closed between 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The big events will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday over the Labor Day weekend but things get started Wednesday night with Bike Night at Chilled & Grilled, 621 Center St. from 6 p.m. until closing with a live band and drink and dinner food specials. The Pioneer Mercantile Building at Fifth and Main is opening again for the Taft Bike Fest as the Pioneer Bar and Saloon starting Thursday and will have a live band (H?ist) and drink specials from 4 p.m. to closing. The action really gets underway Friday and the Rails to Trails area takes center stage. The main stage (on the east side of Sixth Street on the north side of Rails to Trails) will have a DJ from noon to 5 p.m. with live bands taking over from 5 p.m. to at least 11:30 p.m. Beer gardens operated by Chilled & Grilled and the Taft Petroleum Club will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Rails to Trails.
Schedule of Events: (Time and events are subject to change) Wednesday 6 p.m. to close: Bike Night at Chilled and Grilled 621 Center St. with band and drink and food specials Thursday: 4 p.m. to closing: Pioneer Bar and Saloon (Fifth and Main) Grand opening with live Band “H?ist” and drinks specials Friday: Main Stage Noon-5 D.J. 5-6:15 Every King a Crown 7-8:15 All the Kings Men 9:00-9:30 TBA 10-11:30pm Pawn Stunt Area 6-8:30 p.m. Bike Game Practice Beer Gardens Open 930am-1:30am Vendor Area opens noon to 9 p.m. Saturday: Main Stage 9 a.m.-1 D.J. 1-2 pin up girls 2-2:30 D.J. 2:30-3 Pin up winners announced 3:15-3:30 Bike contest winners announced 3:45-4 Fantazzmo 4:15-5 Glassun 5:45-6:45 Lunatic Fringe 7:15-8:30 X-Static 9:15-11:45pm Last Chance Band Stunt Area 11am-11:45 Street Bike Stunts 12-12:45 Slow Drag 1:45-2:30 Bite the Weenie 4-4:45 Street Bike Stunts 5-6pm Burn Outs Beer Gardens open 9am to 1:30am 5th Street Plaza Bike contest sign-ups 9am -12pm 12-2 bike contest judging Vendor Area open 9am to 9pm Flat Track Pit Bikes, Go-Karts and Lawnmowers 12:00pm-4:00
Sunday Main Stage 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. D.J. Beer Gardens open 9am to 2pm Vendors open 9am to 12pm Mercantile Building Lunatic Fringe and All the Kings Men time TBA Bloody Mary Contest 9 a.m.-noon Sign-ups at 8:30 am alcohol provided Poker Run 2 -5 p.m. Start at Pioneer Bar and Saloon ride Highway 33. First stop The Place in Ventucopa, second stop at Reyes Creek, third stop Madd Baileys Pub in Pine Mountain Club then scenic route back to Pioneer Bar and Saloon for final card draw, food, refreshments and music. For any additional information please contact taftbikefest@yahoo.com
