Category: New Music Strategies

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A Few Thoughts On Careers In Music

Back when I did my ‘ask me anything‘ thread a few months ago, I said I was going to re-blog some of the answers, as there were some really good thought provoking questions, and answers that really deserve a readership beyond those tenacious souls who wade through all the responses to posts here… So here’s a question about having a career in music:

After years of studying music in Higher Education I wasn’t prepared for the outside world when the apron strings were finally cut.

I went into teaching and now I work in an office. which is killing me because I want to be creative. i have music I am happy with. I just want to take the big step to be the musician and writer I envisioned myself becoming when I was an undergraduate.

The truth is, I don’t know where to start. Gigs, website, social media outlet, blog, recording an ep…… It just seems so daunting to jump into.

Am I right to plan for this? Or does being a freelance musician and writer mean you have to go with the flow?

All the best,
Adam

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A New Way To Pay For My Music…

I had this idea ages ago, but have finally got round to putting it in place.

As an alternative to just heading over to Bandcamp and paying with paypal or a credit/debit card, I’ve now added the option via the MP3s page here (which isn’t really an MP3s page at all, it’s just all my albums embedded from Bandcamp, so you can listen then download them in whatever format you like, but anyway…) – you can now ‘pay’ by buying me something from my Amazon wishlist. Continue reading “A New Way To Pay For My Music…”

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Whatsapp, Louis C.K. And The Problem Of Advertising

I think it was through searching for an ostatus Android app (more on that later), but I stumbled across WhatsApp’s ‘Why We Don’t Sell Ads‘ page. This could easily be subtitled ‘what’s wrong with the rest of the internet?’ – a beautifully written personalised rebuttal of the consensus that ad-revenue and it’s even more pernicious big brother, data-mining are the ways to fund the internet. Continue reading “Whatsapp, Louis C.K. And The Problem Of Advertising”

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Talking About A Revolution – Feb 2001, Bass Player Magazine

From the February 2001 issue of Bass Player Magazine – the strapline on the cover was “The Future Of Bass – Fearless Forecasts From 40 Pros” – of which I was one.

Here’s the last paragraph of what I wrote: “As the major labels focus their attention on an increasingly vapid and temporal bunch of faceless clothes horses, the Net will open up more and more channels for heartfelt independent original music”. Continue reading “Talking About A Revolution – Feb 2001, Bass Player Magazine”

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No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem

Any And All Records LogoMy first 5 or 6 albums were released on Pillow Mountain Records. I would be referred to in American magazine articles as ‘Pillow Mountain Records recording artist Steve Lawson’, and my music would be described as ‘his prolific back catalogue, on Pillow Mountain Records’. No-one ever referred to me as an unsigned artist, no review ever had ‘private release’ next to it (what the hell does that mean anyway?) No-one ever accused me of vanity publishing.

Only, Pillow Mountain Records never existed. It never had a bank account, never had any staff, never did anything. It existed in name only. It was a way of me lifting myself out of the conversation about being signed or unsigned, and focussing on making music. Continue reading “No More Unsigned Artists – A Solution To A Semantic Problem”

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Some Thoughts on Lowery vs White (a compilation of Facebook responses)

EVERYTHING IS IN FLUX

Right, if you’ve been living underground for the last few days, you’ll have missed first this blog post by an intern at NPR and then this response by singer/songwriter and college lecturer David Lowery.

I sadly don’t have time to go through Lowery’s post point by point. Despite how widely it’s been distributed, I don’t, in all honesty think it warrants that level of scrutiny. I also really like this response from Erin McKeown. If you can’t be bothered wading through 1800 words from me on the subject, just read Erin’s post. It’s better than mine anyway. Continue reading “Some Thoughts on Lowery vs White (a compilation of Facebook responses)”

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10 Essays – Limited Edition Essays On Postcards

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen this morning that I tweeted asking this:

Tweet Screen Shot requesting one word subjects for essays

One word to write something interesting about – I got loads of fantastic responses including

Chance -::- Timing -::- Serenity -::- Sound -::- Interconnectedness -::- Loss -::- Enlightenment -::- Family -::-  Grace -::- Serendipity -::- Truth -::- Steve -::- Focus -::- Metamorphosis -::- Temperament -::- Humility -::- Creativity -::- Intention Continue reading “10 Essays – Limited Edition Essays On Postcards”

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Entire Catalogue USB Stick gets a Facelift + An Album For You To Sell

Steve Lawson Back Catalogue USB Stick photo with PostcardI’ve been meaning to do this for AGES, and have finally found the time needed. If you order the Entire Steve Lawson and Lobelia catalog on USB Stick (currently sat at 20 albums), it now comes with a lil’ label telling you what it is, and a postcard with a list of all the albums on it! Just like in the picture. As you can see, the USB sticks we’re using at the moment are tiny. REALLY really small. V. cute. 4gb of music and video.

The other thing that’s been updated is the ordering process, which is now fully via Bandcamp, so just head to the Believe In Peace page and buy it there. (or any of the other recent albums… will add it to all of them in good time…)

Some Thoughts On Big Catalogs Continue reading “Entire Catalogue USB Stick gets a Facelift + An Album For You To Sell”

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Talking About Twitter… Again.

If you remember, three years ago (I know, 3 years on the internet is like 500 years in normal life – sorry ’bout that) Andrew Dubber and I made a lil’ video talking about Twitter for musicians.

It’s proved very popular over the years, and has been incorporated into the curriculum on a number of music courses.

So a couple of weeks back, we recorded a follow up. Here it is. Enjoy 🙂

Twitter – 3 years on from Andrew Dubber on Vimeo.

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What is Success? Starting from scratch

She Makes War, Live at All Hallows in Leeds

“What Happens Now For Music?” is a growth area of exploration, both for academics and industry analysts, consultants and representative bodies.

The old machine that has controlled things for the last 40-50 years have their lobbyists and their clumsy, internet-ruining political agenda, but for the rest of us who give a shit about little things like ethics, art and culture, the questions are WAY bigger than ‘how can we pretend we’re making less money while actually making more money so that we can make EVEN more money, and still blame the internet for our made up failure?’

No, the bigger questions start with challenging the foundational principles of what the relationship is between a culture and its soundtrack, and how we can define success for those musicians who are somehow meaningfully engaged in the process of creating that soundtrack. Continue reading “What is Success? Starting from scratch”

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