Welcome to My Personal Revolution!

[Bob Olhsson]

My goal here is to explore ways of connecting performers directly with fans bypassing the third-party requirements of advertisers and the labels broadcasters and promoters who pander to advertisers.

In the beginning every artist is their own manager, publicist, promoter, producer, record label, distributer, broadcaster, sponsor and salesperson. If lots of people can get good at a number of these roles, great at a few of them and have at least a competent understanding of most of them, we can have ourselves a musical renaissance. People who love music rather than just want to exploit it will be back in the driver's seat.

I also want to discuss production, recording, mixing and mastering. I've recently begun doing a limited amount of production and mixing after fifteen years of concentrating on digital mastering and post production work. I feel a bit like Rip Van W. moving directly from 24 track tape in the mid '80s to today's 24 bit digital. I'm finding my 1970s bag of tricks working far better than I expected and my exploration of '40s and '50s style live studio recording has been utterly fascinating.

Finally, I have also been working on lighting a fire with a contemporary all-star version of Motown's Funk Brothers. We call them The Great American Rhythm Section.

The idea is not to recreate the past but rather to rekindle the kind of creativity that led to so many classic records during the 1950s and '60s. If we old guys can really crank it up again, we'll be in a position to hand the skills off to a new generation. We're having a complete blast and I get to be a relative beginner again.

[nobby]

That's what I call an inspiring post!

:icon_thumbsup: :icon_cool:

[blackieC]

You're working with the Funk Brothers again?

I can't wait to hear those chops unleashed on the world in a new incarnation.

[Bob Olhsson]

If anything, it's a step beyond the original Funk Brothers, Tommy Dowd's idea of a dream team that he passed on to me shortly before his death:

Bob Babbitt: -bass
Ed Greene: -drums
David Hungate: -rhythm guitar
Catherine Styron Marx: -keyboards
Reggie Young: -lead guitar

[Tim Armstrong]

Aw man, Bob, that's a purely perfect band! And this is a purely wonderful place, already. I'm excited and delighted to be able to hang here, thanks for doing this.

Cheers, Tim

[maccool]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=4]My goal here is to explore ways of connecting performers directly with fans bypassing the third-party requirements of advertisers and the labels broadcasters and promoters who pander to advertisers.

There are those who'll say that it can't be done. I say it can. I'm with you Bob. I think this move away from PSW is a good thing. Sure, there are vested interests here, and it'll take some time to break moulds, but if you, we, don't try, where does that leave us? Power to you Bob.

[magicchord]

I'm on your team, Bob!
Good to be here.

[bblackwood]

Hi Bob - nice place

Whatever you need, I'm here to help - good music must be made accessible!

[McAllister]

Hi Bob - I am glad you are still around after the move.

I have a question re: your Dream Team - who are the writers? arrangers? singers? Is this a casual-type hang thing, or will music be available for us to buy? I think it's great that someone is doing this (and I wish it was me).

thanks
M

[Bob Olhsson]

The arrangements are head arrangements. These are publishing demos for the most part sung by pro singers. The idea is to get major label artists to buy the tracks and release them.

[studiomusic]

So how do we get a song to you for your consideration?

[Swafford]

Hey Bob, thanks for having me.

I'll be writing about my rather incredible experience having Lunch At The Castle and tracking 5 songs in 4 hours with the band, including the leisurely and tasty lunch Jane made. With your permission, I'd like to post a link to the text when it's done.

[Bob Olhsson]

Absolutely!

[Logan]

Bob
Your stated premise is the only way to go if diverse and well played music is to remain viable and if the players and writers are going to have a chance at actually making a living at their craft. I'm looking forward to the discussion. Take care Logan

[emtou2u]

Bob - it's nice to hear Tommy's name again...what a hero. With enough momentum...sky's the limit. I'll keep checking this thread out.

[willpowrd]

Nice place you've got set up here, Bob. Glad you're here.

Sounds like you've got yourself one cool gig, too. Quite the dream team indeed. Good luck and definitely keep us posted.

[Goes211]

This is awesome.
:Coolio:

[Meriphew]

I wish the Funk Brothers much success. They certainly deserve it.

[Scratchy Potts]

My goal here is to explore ways of connecting performers directly with fans bypassing the third-party requirements of advertisers and the labels broadcasters and promoters who pander to advertisers.

In the beginning every artist is their own manager, publicist, promoter, producer, record label, distributer, broadcaster, sponsor and salesperson. If lots of people can get good at a number of these roles, great at a few of them and have at least a competent understanding of most of them, we can have ourselves a musical renaissance. People who love music rather than just want to exploit it will be back in the driver's seat.

I also want to discuss production, recording, mixing and mastering. I've recently begun doing a limited amount of production and mixing after fifteen years of concentrating on digital mastering and post production work. I feel a bit like Rip Van W. moving directly from 24 track tape in the mid '80s to today's 24 bit digital. I'm finding my 1970s bag of tricks working far better than I expected and my exploration of '40s and '50s style live studio recording has been utterly fascinating.

Finally, I have also been working on lighting a fire with a contemporary all-star version of Motown's Funk Brothers. We call them The Great American Rhythm Section.

The idea is not to recreate the past but rather to rekindle the kind of creativity that led to so many classic records during the 1950s and '60s. If we old guys can really crank it up again, we'll be in a position to hand the skills off to a new generation. We're having a complete blast and I get to be a relative beginner again.


:Thumbsup: Glad to see somone trying!!!
great stuff Bob,ya doing what I sorta what i hinted at in this post..:Coolio:

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/160238/0/#msg_160238

[jimmy v]

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=4]My goal here is to explore ways of connecting performers directly with fans bypassing the third-party requirements of advertisers and the labels broadcasters and promoters who pander to advertisers.

In the beginning every artist is their own manager, publicist, promoter, producer, record label, distributer, broadcaster, sponsor and salesperson. If lots of people can get good at a number of these roles, great at a few of them and have at least a competent understanding of most of them, we can have ourselves a musical renaissance. People who love music rather than just want to exploit it will be back in the driver's seat.


Bob,This has been going on for some time.I,myself know a few people who are making this concept work.The thing is this is happening completly outside of the industry............................ Most people inside of the industry have been completly unaware of this trend.............Untill now when the effects are begining to be felt. ........................... Its called micro maketing by some folks.In every city I've been in there is a network of artists selling tickets and product directly to the people.These local networks began conecting with each other and that began to grow.Then the net came along..............See what happens is there are a lot of people doing a lot work on a speculative basis.Its very free enterprise but not so corporate.More cooperative.Studios feeling the economic crunch are either pulling away from the spec market or diving in,but most are pulling away. ........................... I understand.Its a big investment,all that design,gear,and expertise,but this threw open the door for the home recording industry...............With the proliferation of DIY releases(the record co's wern't spending anything to develop talent.) the audio quality began to degrade......................The people accepted this..............................If the best people available were working on these records they would sound teriffic.But the best producers,AE's,players are working on the paying gigs,the stuff with the financial backing..............................The new talent aint got no cash,so they cant record in the good studios,so they do it themselves.................................. I have had the oportunity to record in world class rooms,with world class AE's,and world class players.....................I got a world class product............... That was back in the day when I had cash.The product is slowly returning the investment but I got no cash now....................But there are still songs and artists to record here.............So I record them.I'm learning where to put what mic and what to do with them,but I aint near to a world class AE...................But I'm all they got............................When the records are done we sell them.............We network with every one we know............They sell our stuff,we sell theirs.We book gigs for them, they book gigs for us................It works....At 10 bucks a pop we dont need huge sales to make it worthwhile ..... When one of us "breaks out" there are always many more ready to follow.(ask Chad from Nickleback.)So Bob....Welcome to the movement.It would be beautiful to have someone on board with your talents..

[Bob Olhsson]

Actually I blame most of the problems we have on Wall Street being drunk out of their minds on micro-marketing.

They are insisting that music (and other entertainment) be used to separate people into micro markets instead of supporting music's traditional role of bringing people together into a community.

Micro marketing works for music but it's important to understand that every artist has always had a unique audience and an absolutely unique relationship with that audience. This is not anything new.

The ONLY difference between a "star" and anybody else is the size of their audience. This is dictated almost entirely by their individual ability to build relationships.

[jimmy v]

Ya, once again wall st.takes a perfectly good concept and beats it to death..From my understanding micro marketing began from a lack of resources to do large scale campaigns.So smaller geographic areas were targeted.This was done quite sucsessfully by Network records with Sara McGlauchlin (I 'm sure I speeled that incorrectly).Focus on one area,one city at a time..As it will do the corporate world grabs hold of whatever works and twists it to its own ends.Thats how it works,build a better mouse trap and it will end up being mass produced in some third world country or it will be supressed.As soon as a new way of connecting the talent with the masses is developed the corporate world will step in and take over.There is an endless supply of talent eager to do "whatever it takes" to be a star.So really,the whole world is to blame,we can let the talent off the hook either. There is an huge diference between building a relationship with an audience and building personal relationships. I personally know people with lots of fans and NO friends,I'll bet you do to.

[Bob Olhsson]

We're at it again this week!

[Tommy Fobia]

Wow, Bob!

Sounds like you're going to have a blast!

:Thumbsup:

[JMP2204]

Let me know when I can buy it!

It will be a welcome change to hear people make music that matters.

[Dave Perry]

Wow, Bob kicked it up a notch (or two or three). Go Bob, go!

[radiationroom]

Joining your revolution!!! :Coolio:

[nobby]

Joining your revolution!!! :Coolio:

I've joined the revolution quite a while ago.

!Viva la Revolución Olhsson! :Thumbsup::Coolio:


In the beginning every artist is their own manager, publicist, promoter, producer, record label, distributer, broadcaster, sponsor and salesperson. If lots of people can get good at a number of these roles, great at a few of them and have at least a competent understanding of most of them, we can have ourselves a musical renaissance. People who love music rather than just want to exploit it will be back in the driver's seat.

:Thumbsup:

[joerogers1970]

...every artist is their own manager, publicist, promoter, producer, record label, distributer, broadcaster, sponsor and salesperson. If lots of people can get good at a number of these roles, great at a few of them and have at least a competent understanding of most of them, we can have ourselves a musical renaissance.



This is exactly what I've been trying to do in my little neck of the woods. I have some knowledge in those areas and I love talking, teaching and spending time with people that can create good music.

You'd be suprised at how many people immediately throw up the defenses when you offer to help them. It only takes one success to get people to listen to ya though and that's what I'm trying to do is find that first success. By the same token,
you'd be amazed at what gets traction.

For example - Texas offers a vanity license plate that has the tagline - Enjoy Texas Music. I got the plate # ROCK.

I have been flagged down on I10 and SH290 on several occasions, pulled over and had meaningful chats with folks on the state of the local music scene and what can be done to turn things around.

[assemblyworker]

This sounds like great news.

I really look forward to hearing what you guys come up with, I'll keep checking back, I rarely come in this part of the forum but when I do there's always some really cool posts. Thanks for sharing....

[Anderer]

This sub-forum is of great interest to me. As well as being interested in music and engineering/production, the future of the music business is a newish passion of mine.

[CloseToTheEdge]

Maybe this post holds some promise for the future, which is perhaps why it keeps being dug up and brought back to life.

I think that a new business model will only come from the grassroots, as the "money" folks at the top have demonstrated an eagerness to butcher all the cows because the poor beasts cannot give milk fast enough. Those folks (to generalize more than a little bit) will never be able design anything sustainable, being quite incapable of thinking beyond next Wednesday.

However, if local musicians and studios work together to assemble loose-knit groups (consortiums/guilds/associations or whatever you want to call them) in order to get interesting music recorded and available via direct purchase from the artist over the Internet, I think it might just have some small chance of success. Not a new idea by any means.

With the extra 90% that the guys at the top shoved into their pockets then being available to reinvest in the artists and those who helped them create the music, the unit cost might be much lower —or maybe "success" only needs to be 10% as large as it once needed to be!

Although this does nothing to address the legal issues that currently limit the musical artist's rights to their intellectual property (which no other type of art suffers from) and the wholesale theft of same by the general public, the current business model is an important part of what needs fixing.

[Bob Olhsson]

...Although this does nothing to address the legal issues that currently limit the musical artist's rights to their intellectual property (which no other type of art suffers from) and the wholesale theft of same by the general public, the current business model is an important part of what needs fixing.What people call "the current business model" is a fantasy that has been perpetuated by artists seeking someone to blame their failure to attract fans on, a few industry executives who want to brag about the size of their manhood and marketing types seeking to create the illusion of their artist being an "alternative" to the mythological corporate-created artists.

The music business has always been entirely about building from the grass roots. Our grass roots infrastructure, the place where we used to grow artists, got destroyed by the corporate consolidation of retailing, broadcast and live performance venues.

This problem dates back to the early 1990s and before. The labels were already on life support in the form of CD catalog sales when Napster reared its ugly head as a means of the personal computer industry taking over the consumer entertainment electronics industry. The biggest problem by far that this created has been scaring off the angel investors who used to finance most artists' early grass roots activity.

We certainly can grow artists again but not in the same way we have since the early 1930s. We're back to church, living rooms and street busking until a new generation of live venues has been developed.

[CloseToTheEdge]

We certainly can grow artists again but not in the same way we have since the early 1930s. We're back to church, living rooms and street busking until a new generation of live venues has been developed.

Bob, your knowledge of this issue and your willingness to share it are greatly appreciated.

The grass roots artist infrastructure that once existed was still quite unavailable to many talented people, even at it's peak. And as you say, once the digital theft era happened, it all but disappeared.

But even before the PC was invented, perhaps the acceptance of DJs as "live music" was also a contributing factor to demise of the music venue as it used to be several decades ago.

Shit, it WAS all disco's fault...

Prior to the CD format, I remember companies like Hemisphere Sound, who were violating copyright laws by copying vinyl to 8 track tapes and selling them in gas stations on a large scale throughout the midwest before the FBI finally shut their doors.

And it's not just music that's stolen. Every time the technology has permitted it, there have been many people willing to step up and steal.

The wholesale theft of intellectual property rights in the form of software applications in the world of personal computers was quite widespread from it's origins, and certainly before music ever arrived there. Now, of course motion pictures are the latest to be stolen right and left due to the digital domains easy transport and tolerance of stolen property.

:headpalm: