“I play it like I stole it and the guy I stole it from is about to break down the door and take the guitar from me.” –Chris Dinardo, SLeuX guitarist.

The building used to be a bank. But in December, 2004, when I first met Chris Dinardo, the sign on its door read “SMR Studios.” Chris, and two of his hard-rock bandmates, from DownNeck had opened the rehearsal/recording space there in Garfield, NJ and were running their own record label, Saturday Morning Records. I discovered the newly-opened studio via Craigslist—when nobody here knew about Craigslist—and I knew Chris could be trusted when he told me he knew who Matt Skiba was. Inside SMR, walls were decorated with brilliant paintings by Paul Jach, who rented space upstairs. Their engineer Jamie ate voltage and loved Primus almost as much as Chris loves KISS. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like recording vocals in a vault.

But years passed, and it was a strain for the rest of the original DownNeck to keep focus on the SMR venture when they, unlike Chris, had proverbial day jobs. (One we suspect was CIA, although he won’t admit it, and the other may have built your house.) The studio closed and DownNeck split. Chris, who had studied TV/film production and broadcasting, needed a better way to fuse creativity, music, and video production, so he decided to start his own company, NeverImage Entertainment. His latest music project SLeuX came about last year, which Chris started with James Donovan, DownNeck’s singer in their later years. Chris is no stranger to the NYC/NJ underground scene or to indie music business, and he had a lot of great stuff to tell us, so let’s cut right to it.

Tell me more about your vision for NeverImage. I mean, when you were starting it a few years back you saw it as an entertainment company rather than a traditional record label. Are you taking on other artists with NeverImage?

CD: I think with the way things are today you can’t be a traditional label and survive. With NeverImage we’re doing albums but we’re also able to get into other areas like film, video, DVD’s, webvids, and whatever else we feel like doing. The key is to have an artist own what they do content-wise and have the vision to present it. NeverImage started as a home for me and my friends to have place to put out their stuff, my crazy projects, and stuff I produced with other artists. Now with the release of SLeuX it’s a nice way to start off what we’re going to do in the future. We’re not taking on artists, but with that said, I’ll never say no to a good idea.

You mentioned producing a video for every track on the new SLeuX album. Awesome. Is that still the plan? What’s your approach on that?

CD: Well we got two so far…10 to go…(laughs). It’s a task, that’s for sure. I know five songs on the album have video treatments. The approach is as footage is collected and ideas get filmed, we’ll put the videos together. There’s no time frame, but we’d like to have all of them done before the next album comes out…(laughs)…in 2023.

Old school vs. new school—who wins?

CD: Old school recording, performing, and music wins for me. The new school way of the music business wins over the old school model.

Dinardo lies amidst his influences, who include KISS, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Quicksand, Rush, Dinosaur Jr., and The Misfits: “If you don’t own at least 5 things in this pic ya’ need to reconsider your taste music n’ DVD’s.”

Tell me about the lead up to SLeuX and the production of the debut album.

CD: Well we went in wanting to give the music justice. We wanted to record old-school style on 2-inch analog tape. We had 22 songs. We wanted that down to 12. For the production I wanted a sound like Rock and Roll Over by KISS. I realized pretty quick that I wasn’t Eddie Kramer either…(laughs)…I wanted the musicianship to jump out…I wanted guitars up. I wanted to play the fuck out of the guitar on this record. So many new guitarists play two strings and don’t know what the hell they are doing. I play it like I stole it and the guy I stole it from is about to break down the door and take the guitar from me. I wanted harmonies. Character-driven lyrics. We definitely achieved what we set out to do. People are gonna dig it.

You imposed at least one rule on SLeuX so far: don’t make the same song twice. Are there any more…or is that the only one you need?

CD: Yeah, never say no to a musical idea without trying it or feeling it out. It’s no fun making the same song over and over,or getting held down in one sound. It’s exciting because when someone brings a song in it could be anything in any style. It may never even have a style. You have to take the song where it should go and that could be anywhere. To me that’s where the fun is—creation.

Dinardo, on surviving the industry: “It’s like you’re playing a football game and the rules keep changing every minute. It’s impossible to navigate. But if you make your own playbook and play by your own rules it makes things easier.”

With the industry in hyper flux, how are you adapting on the business side? What are you doing the same/differently now with SLeuX and NeverImage?

CD: It’s insane. The way the music business is now, it’s like you’re playing a football game and the rules keep changing every minute. It’s impossible to navigate. But if you make your own playbook and play by your own rules it makes things easier. I love the way the music business is. I think if you are an artist who can create good songs, have a decent idea of promotion and kick ass live, you will be fine. Business-wise we have ideas on this release. We haven’t decided the exact route yet. We know it will be on iTunes first before it’s anywhere else. Then we’re gonna get crafty with the actual CD. Not too many people buy CD’s but we want to make it special for the ones who still do. I’m hoping to have it released as a CD/DVD and keep it at a low price. We do all the DVD production in house so it lets us keep our stuff low in price. We’re not into over pricing anything we do.

What’s your take on free media, P2P, and alternative pricing like pay-what-you-want?

CD: I don’t have a take. Everyone can decide how they want to present their music. An idea might be perfect for one artist and a disaster for another.

What’s one thing that’s wrong with the music industry, and one thing that’s right?

CD: What’s wrong is artists looking at getting signed as the be all end all. It’s not. Every deal is different for every artist. You have to make it on your own before anyone invests in you. Hard work pays off. The thing that’s right is artists can have total control. As long as you have tunes that people love you’ll be okay. Trust your vision.

What’s the SLeuX album called?

CD: It’s gonna be self-titled. But like everything with SLeuX, it’s subject to change. The thing that won’t change is NeverImage. I will be involved in several projects in the future and NeverImage will be the home base for everything. I can’t stop making music and I see myself being in several different projects. I love what I do. Music is my passion. Plenty of good shit is coming from the NeverImage camp—stay tuned.

Dinardo has a mysterious affinity for anything silver. I recommend you ask him about it via Twitter @DiNardoSleux or, even better, in person on Saturday, November 27 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ, where SLeuX will be performing their entire debut album live for the first time. Also performing will be The 33rd Revolution, Lowdown, and Object 7. I’ll be there too, because, “It’s going to be one hell of a party, and you don’t wanna miss it!”

Can Vevo compete with YouTube? “Unlike YouTube, it will not also contain user-generated stuff that potentially scares off advertisers, which Vevo hopes will allow it to charge more for ads.” (Wired.com). The videos are meant to be “premium” content such as hi-fi official videos, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage. In addition to needing killer video content, deciding factors in its adoption may be whether Vevo will embrace open media enough—for example by allowing embedding—and whether they’ll deliver the social, mobile features needed to build a community. Thoughts? Do you say…

Let us know what you think in the comment section below or on our Facebook page.

With the smartphones coming, and all these apps coming, the music business gets one more kick at the can, and I hope they don’t fight this one, because there’s a huge opportune to grow the business faster than what they’ve ever considered. I think there’s a huge sense of optimism for the first time in about five years that this business can actually grow. –Terry McBride in his 2009 interview with tech reporter Matt Hartley [video above].

Music is becoming more of a service than a product and Terry believes that in these digital times, context trumps content, access trumps ownership, and customer service is as important as ever. P2P filesharing should cease to be an issue as listeners increasingly prefer instant-access streams.

The second interview details the history of the Nettwerk Music Group as a DIY all-in-one company that developed by adapting to meet the needs of musicians and their fans. Towards the end he talks about joint ventures between musicians and non-music brands as being likely in the next five years.

I really think that the paradigm is shifting. I think within the next five years you’re going to have other brands inside the market signing artists. Brands will look at this going, well, we already use music within all of our TV, and radio, and, you know, internet media. Um, why don’t we just sign the artist? –Terry McBride, in his 2008 CMU-Tube interview [video below].

On my previous post, Musicians—Money Is Not Motivation, Dave MacDonald had commented that Terry McBride recently spoke positively about the music industry at TEDxVancouver in November 2009. That video isn’t available yet, but I hope they air it soon on TEDxTalks—I’ll keep you posted.

[homepage thumbnail photo: Flickr/stephen_dyrgas]

Science

In his above TED talk, Daniel Pink makes a strong case relating the science of motivation to creativity and business. The verdict is that money is not a primary motivator for people doing creative work. Sure, it does play a factor today as people need enough money to meet their essential needs. Once those needs are met, money is out of the picture. I look forward to reading his upcoming book, Drive.

Spotify

I felt compelled to deliver the point—money is not an artist’s true motivation—in response to the exorbitant editorial negativity surrounding yesterday’s news of Lady Gaga getting paid $167 for 1+ million Spotify streams. Where I live—in the US—Spotify is not yet available so I have not been able to try the platform. Spotify is a new service and its revenue model is understandably in a shakedown period where they are still determining what works, what data they have, and how they can best leverage that data to generate revenue.

Mr. Ek [Spotify CEO and Founder] revealed how the company has been working on making its advertising as personally tailored to an individual’s tastes as possible. “We have a lot of information about people. We know our users’ age, gender, location and even mood – which figure out by through BPMs [beats per minute],” he explained. Depending on whether a person has listened to lots of fast or slow music, Spotify is trying to make its mood analysis as accurate as possible – so it can serve highly targeted adverts for users to properly engage with—which should in turn, increase the amount it can charge brands to advertise on the platform. Mr. Ek said Spotify was “beginning to figure this stuff out”. (Spotify chief, Daniel Ek, rules out 2009 US launch | Telegraph)

It sounds like Spotify is on track to me. I like the ad-based model and there are many variations to explore. I brainstormed launching an ad-based free music service back in 2007, and I think Spotify is the closest service to what I would have done, but they’ll need to continue to evolve, as do musicians.

Whether it is really relevant to measure the success of Spotify in this way remains to be seen as it is still a service in it’s infancy. Much like Twitter, it is phenomenally successful in terms of usability but is still finding its feet in terms of making money. As it continues to attract users its appeal to advertisers will grow and so too will the financial returns. How this filters down to the individual artist is then probably more of an issue with the labels than with Spotify. (A Ga Ga approach to marketing? | The Naked Pheasant)

Industry

It’s smart business to think years down the road by expanding your fan base even if it doesn’t pay off immediately. I think Lady Gaga and many other artists see that. The long-term benefit of those 1+ million streams is immense, and I think many people are blinded to that fact—such a level of exposure leads to sellout shows and non-music revenue streams. The one thing I dislike about the situation is that the major labels still have major pull and they can afford huge production and marketing investments. But the need for heavy financing is down—thank you, Internet. In today’s connected, music-abundant world why does any one artist get so popular? Is it hard work, affinity, or talent? To me, talent is relative—it’s not what you can build, but rather it’s what you can build with what you have. It’s the Internet Age—indie musicians have the power to take the industry back but they must embrace change and creativity to do it—they must creatively leverage the internet and mobile apps.

The connection from the fan to the band, financially, has been broken. The fan knows that their purchase will hardly help the band, or more precisely that the marginal benefit from their purchase to the band is near zero, so why do it? The cost to the fan is much higher than the marginal benefit to the band, so the fan just torrents the damn song. (Why Music Is Broken – The Artist To Consumer Connection)

P2P rocks—it turned the industry up-side-down letting the label-lords know they had lost control. I see P2P as a massive benefit for musicians. Do they have P2P streaming yet? They will. With all that said, I believe that many music fans are as-motivated-as-ever to pay for music when they know their money is going directly to the artist. Maybe subscription services like Spotify can find a way to work this, or endorsement deals that fans would want to support, into their business model. I think that fans—and people in general—need to feel like they are part of something and they want to feel empowered.

Artwork: jahdakinebrah/flickr.

The fan artwork you see above is a creative visualization of Pink Floyd’s Money. The image squares depict the story of the song lyrics. What motivates you? What do you think motivates music fans?

Carey is pioneering a new business model for music. She’s cutting deals with the kind of partners musicians have traditionally shunned, pushing herself into new areas such as publishing, tourism and food and drink. … “A lot of big powerful music-industry executives made a giant mistake,” she says. “They gave the music business away on the internet. If they had just sat back and said, ‘Maybe let’s figure this internet thing out, it could be something cool,’ we could have found a way to distribute music online on our own terms, not somebody else’s. … Musicians have long promoted non-music products. The Rolling Stones marketed Windows 95 with Start Me Up. Michael Jackson did endless Pepsi promos. And rappers such as P Diddy and Jay-Z have moved on from name-checking other people’s fashion and luxury-goods brands in their songs to create their own brands, usually in partnership with their record labels, and promote them instead. But Carey is breaking new ground in three areas. Mariah Carey: The gloves are off | Times Online

The internet has leveled the playing field. It has proven that content is king, and that those who work hard at delivering content can build a following. Artists have channels with live streaming video content and direct connection with their fans through mobile applications. The same opportunities exist for everyone, and they’re almost all free. You may think that endorsements and partnerships are only for megastars—but I don’t. I believe that indie musicians with smaller niche fan bases can make the same types of product endorsement deals and partnerships with brands or services that the megastars can. The trick is finding the right brands and companies to match up with. But if you have—for example—a Ustream or YouTube channel that’s getting hundreds of views on a daily basis then I don’t think it would be hard to pitch to a company that relates to your audience. Ideally your audience would be a target market for the endorsed product or service. Think big but also think local.

flickr.com/photos/eyesofrc/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

There is no single exact solution for indie artists, but the best solutions revolve around leveraging social media and video streaming to maximize fan engagement. Visual content is a must. Video content is supreme. YouTube serves well over 1 billion views per day. Live videos are easy to stream with ustream.tv, stickam.com, or justin.tv and a decent webcam. For recording non-live videos I recommend HD pocket cameras like the Zi6 or Zi8, or smartphones that enable mobile uploads like the iPhone. Video is becoming more interactive by the second and mobility is always important. Each musician has their own unique style and identifying that will help you see opportunities. Keep an open mind and be willing to adapt.

It seems that we truly are at the dawn of a new era. Opportunities abound at every corner. Music is more alive than ever, consumers listen to more music in more ways than ever thought possible, artists interact and build connections with fans in new and unique ways, music and other entertainment content can be delivered via multiple platforms for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, and artists can form business relationships with many different partners—including consumer brands. (Music Branding Gets All Grown Up | Talent Zoo)

A lot of businesses still don’t get the internet, but a lot of them do—these are the ones that you can work with. Realize that a band’s physical merchandise is a product line, and there’s nothing stopping bands from partnering with companies to sell their own non-music products. Smart companies would likely jump at the chance to sponsor bands that have built active communities around the internet and are accessible via mobile phones. They see the meaning in social media—for business.

The types of products that will work for indie musician endorsements will vary greatly and be determined by each musician’s personal style or brand. A middle-man service that helps musicians match up with consumer brands and vice-versa might be viable—don’t you think? It would probably be pretty easy for Google, Facebook, or MySpace to implement such a service. However I’m a fan of DIY and I usually like to cut out middle-men. I think the best approach would be to directly contact companies that you’d like to partner with. Don’t be afraid to fail. You can’t get anywhere without trying things. Remember to focus on the dopeness—see Part 1: Music Dopeness and Bands as Brands.

“Know what your problem is, Shapiro? It’s that you just have this really shitty way of looking at things, ya know? I don’t have that problem. I just look at the dopeness. But you, it’s like you just look at the wackness, ya know?” (The Wackness)

So you consider music as your profession? Then whether you like it or not, your band is your brand. You may think you are defined by your style and sound, but nowadays your are ultimately defined by your fans and their perception of you. When you look in the social-media mirror your public face should be a reflection of your private face [see discussion]. If you cannot handle being true to your fans by putting yourself out there genuinely then your fans will see right through you. And if you’re not providing some form of free content, then you will be invisible. Music fans have lots of choices.

Now more than ever the essential component of your business is you. Use the tools that are available to go where your fans are—social media—and deliver true customer service (the most important aspect in business) by responding to all comments and messages from your fan base. In doing these actions you’ll be building all the promotional material that you’ll need, and you’ll be forming a community around your brand. Remember to focus on the dopeness that most of your costs as a musician have evaporated and you have your fans at your fingertips. Your true fans will support your shows and purchase from you as a thank you. Gary Vaynerchuk describes the thank you economy:

[homepage thumbnail photo: Flickr/DistortedSmile]

Part 2: Musicians, Brands, Endorsements, and Partnerships

Simply put, it rocks.

The past few years have proven that music and videogames were destined for each other. But until now, the music in games was restricted to mainstream artists and tunes specifically licensed for the games. Rock Band Network is the first opportunity that allows anyone to get their music in the game.

Screenshot: Rock Band Network is located at creators.rockband.com.

This summer’s press about Rock Band Network hinted that it would become available by November. Currently the site introduces the steps involved in submitting tracks to the game—it provides detailed mix specifications and links to the free audio software necessary for producing tracks. Creators must sign up for the XNA Creators Club–Gold Membership to Xbox Live [currently $8/month or $50/year].

The influx of new music into Rock Band will help to further popularize the game, and I think Harmonix will see increasing domination in the music-gaming market. The artists whose songs are featured in the game will gain exposure and revenue from sales through the Network—according to Wikipedia artists will receive a 30% revenue share. In the interview below, Matthew Nordhaus, a senior producer at Harmonix, mentions that song pricing will vary from $1–$3. I would love to hear more pricing details if anyone can provide them. What is your take on the pricing and revenue share? Even without the revenue share I think Rock Band Network is a massive opportunity for independent musicians.

Once Rock Band Network is through its current, private beta phase, I’m going to attempt to produce a track for the game, and I’ll keep you informed as I learn more about the process. In the meantime, what do you think about Rock Band Network? How do you think it will affect our music culture? Do you think that gaming platforms will be the major outlet for digital music sales in the near future?

Find the buzz.

Realtime buzz. Twitter makes it easy for fans to join in realtime conversations. By leveraging Twitter’s search operators, musicians are able to find their fans and contact them directly in realtime. Fans can also use the search to connect with other fans. Both musicians and fans are likely interested in other artists in the same genre. It is their music scene, and, from a bands perspective, it is their target market. Anyone in their music scene is a pretty likely potential fan to them.

Know your scene.

Even if you are new to a particular scene you can still easily discover similar artists as there are many applications that support this feature. Due to its wide use, last.fm is a one relatively accurate similarity indicator. The point here is that one can search conversations about multiple artists simultaneously, and focus on a specific niche or microgenre. By combining the search operators one can create extremely effective searches that target a specific scene in a specific location.

Search like this.

• “Happy Mondays” OR “Psychedelic Furs” OR “Psych Furs” near:SF within:100mi
• “Bombay Bicycle Club” OR “Maccabees” OR “Macabees” OR @bombaybicycle OR @themaccabees near:London within:100km
• Geocode variations: near:California near:”Los Angeles” near:LAX near:90210 near:Disneyland

Participate.

Finding the conversation is not enough. Participation is key. Genuine and honest participation. Musicians that can effectively use social platforms to build true relationships with their fans will deliver the most entertaining and valuable experience to them. What fan would not want to be able to contact their favorite bands as they come to their city? What band would not want to be in touch with their local fans? For touring musicians this local connection is invaluable. Twitter is your street team. Spark impromptu fan meet-ups and improvised gigs. Make true connections.

Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba performing in 2008.

It was September 2000 and the course of my life was about to change. Attending school in Boulder in a time when punk rock was center stage in my life, one of my favorite bands—Face To Face—was coming to Denver for an event that I would not skip. My hazy recollection tells me that they put on two back-to-back shows at the Ogden Theatre and that I attended both nights with two different friends. The three opening bands—all then new to me—were New Found Glory, Saves The Day, and Alkaline Trio. The venue was uncrowded during the first set, New Found Glory. By the time Saves The Day was on stage, Denver’s punk-rock fans had begun to fill the room, and we had magnetized to a position right up front at the rail. The first two sets rocked, but it was the third set—Alkaline Trio—that altered the course of my life.

Alkaline Trio’s straight-up intensity and heart was undeniable and I was hypnotized. It was their performances those nights that inspired me to learn to play guitar and later write my music. Maybe it would have happened anyway—I’ll never know. This was the spark that started the fire. When Face to Face was up next, the venue was surging!

Let’s flash to the now and to Alkaline Trio’s recent “I Found Away” open remix contest—listen to the winning remixes here. Had I been in the loop earlier about this contest, I would have been all over it and contributed my own remix. There’s no chance I’d have topped the winner—MacLes Music Factory—who remixed pop punk into dub. Punk rock and dub both had their alpha stage in the ’70s. I think this song works so remarkably well as a dub remix because punk and reggae are similar in that they often share lyrical themes like social criticism, angst, and love—Alkaline Trio’s lyrics cover dark subjects in an upbeat way. Both punk and reggae also tend to share simple chord structure and 4/4 time signature. Regardless, there doesn’t need to be a reason—if it sounds good, then it is good—so why ask why? This is just a great example of creative collaboration and music 2.0 promotion. Open remixing gives genre-crossing artists a stellar way to broaden their fan base.

There’s no doubt that collaboration brings brilliance to life. Collaboration is king. Online collaboration is still embryonic. Open remixing will put more diverse and imaginative music into scene than ever before. Genres will blend. Interpretation is in the ear of the remixer. With the thriving emergence of virtual collaboration platforms, it’s easy to be a remixer. The music is there and you can be a part of it. You know you want it. Go remix the planet.

• Photos: “Matt Skiba” by Victoria Morse. “Soundwaves Mix 2″ by chrisharve
• 2000 Event Info: Past event detail via Last.fm