Establishing an instantly recognizable identity can be the most elusive ingredient in building a career as a young musical artist. We see the difficulty every time we tune in to American Idol. Young artists competing for public recognition struggle every week to be whatever it is they think will keep them on the show another week. They adopt new hairstyles, change their demeanor, paint their nails, get a new tattoo and make the sort of unfortunate wardrobe choices that could easily backfire in any posh big city nightspot. No matter how well or badly these aspiring idols are able to perform, I always want to ask the question, “Who the hell are you anyway? I mean…really…who?”

Who Are These People

Now, we can talk all we want about artistic integrity and all of that sort of balderdash. But if you are a musical performer attempting to enter the professional ranks as a recording artist, the issue of commercial marketability is inescapable and must be addressed. Every public image, every word, spoken, written and sung, every video, every note produced is a commercial advertisement of your product whether you like it or not. You are perceived as being the sum of that which you allow to be put before the public.

In today’s marketplace, the highest priority is given to immediacy of product identification. When you go to the convenience store to buy a pack of breath mints, the box that looks the coolest will win every time. The mints might taste like horseshoe nails and there might be the most amazing breath mints only inches away in a plain brown wrapper. But by the time you realize you’ve bought the box instead of the mints your money is already on the way to corporate headquarters. This distasteful form of hucksterism has sadly become the engine driving public underwear-washing displays like American Idol. The contestants who are fortunate enough to make the show spend so much energy trying to be everything to everybody that we never really get a chance to know them. Am I seeing an artist who has average abilities in multiple genres, or am I watching a victim of multiple personality disorder unravel like Sally Field’s Sybil as she tries to decide on which of her sixteen personalities will be the flavor of the day?

It’s not that I’m knocking American Idol, nor do I wish to downplay the need for effective marketability. But if you think about it, of the many talented artists who have managed any sort of  post-Idol career, the most publicly accepted are the ones who showed their cards early on. Carrie Underwood has always been a wholesome Country Artist even though she had to prove herself relatively competent in multiple genres during her competition. Chris Daughtry is another example of an artist we felt we knew from the start. Adam Lambert on the other hand, could be one of the most impressive singers in the show’s history. But will his chameleon-like ability to transform into anything that serves the moment be an asset or a liability. Would true Country fans accept Adam’s interpretation of a Dolly Parton classic? Do die-hard Queen fans really take Adam’s performance with the band as anything more than a novelty. There’s no question that, purely on a technical level, Adam sings higher and louder than many of the great Motown artists. But would real Motown fans swallow an Adam Lambert remake of What’s Going On?Singing ability aside, you just want to ask yourself “Who the hell is this guy…really?”

There can be a wide gulf between great musical artists and great entertainers. Great artists can also be considered great entertainers but great entertainers are not necessarily great musical artists. Tina Turner and Elvis Presley are the epitome of the former while Sammy Davis Jr. and Wayne Newton are examples of the latter. Time and public acceptance will answer as to where Adam Lambert’s contributions will fall in this equation.

The Real Rod?

Two other examples of artistic multiple personality disorder spring to mind. I attended the American Music Awards a few years ago when Rod Stewart took the stage to perform a medley from his Great American Songbook album. You had to be a true blue Rod Stewart fan to keep your pre-show h’ordeuvres from making a curtain call. And Michael McDonald wouldn’t have lost one molecule of career luster had he let someone else make a spiritless remake of Motown classics. There are just some things that don’t need to be done. I admit that Stewart and McDonald were established superstars and had a right to do as they pleased. Established stars can remake themselves to varying degrees of success over the length of a long career. But for an unknown artist to morph across genres while compiling material geared to attract industry attention is a mistake.

The Dream Team

A good pal of mine mentors aspiring recording artists seeking fame on different web-based platforms like AKAmusic and Sellaband. His DreamTeam members are at the stage at which they must make the choices and decisions which will define their artistic identities to potential fans with whom they may never have personal contact. The era of booking a showcase gig and padding the house with friends and relatives is over. Music lovers can search the web and find the music they like from an ever increasing pool of talent. So, how should these artists proceed? How can one artist become the sought-after product desired over millions of others offered for consideration?

For these up-and-coming then, there is the question of what to do, what to do? The first thing I suppose is to decide what you are. Are you a singer, a songwriter, a pianist, a guitarist? Is there one aspect of your talent that holds court over the others? Does the interaction between your singing and playing embellish or detract from your performance? Are you ready to admit that there may be a difference between the genre that you enjoy as opposed to the genre in which you are most capable? Are you a Rock singer in an R&B body or is there a Country heart beating in your Alt-Rock chest? These are some questions that have to do with what’s on the inside and only you can answer them.

What’s inside will eventually make its way to the surface. So what condition is your outside in? Do you dress the part? And if you do, is it just a part or is this who you really are? Did you get a tattoo to show your individuality, or did you do it because you didn’t want to be left out? Do you take a magazine to the hairdresser to give an example of what you want to look like, or do you put a pair of underpants on your head to keep your hair out of your eyes as you hover over your laptop writing your heart out.

Appearing onstage can be a matter of playing a role, wearing a costume or playing pretend. But when all you have between you and your public is a set of headphones it makes being somebody more important than being Like somebody. And when a truly great artist hits that first note you don’t need to see a driver’s license or passport to know who they are.

Believe me when I tell you that I don’t have any answers. But I’m still left with one important question…Who the hell are you anyway?

Ah, the 50K question…seems I’ve stepped on a few toes with my last post so let me start by saying that I have no problem with any artist getting their hands on any amount of cash and making any type of recording they are able to in order to make this a more perfect world. Peace brothers and sisters, Peace.

However, I still firmly believe that the former standardized goal of $50,000 on Sellaband’s crowd sourcing music website had more in its favor than otherwise and here’s why I think this is the case:

First of all, some people seem to think that 50K is a lot of money. This is an erroneous assumption when it comes to producing, manufacturing and shipping a recording project. Let me try to put this in perspective as compared with the recordings one is accustomed to hearing in the mainstream media.

50K equals about one month of studio time at LA book rates. Very few hit albums are completed in such a short time frame.

50K will buy you the services of maybe four actual session players (musicians who make their living playing in the studio) for about ten days if you call in a few bigtime favors.

50K represents about one tenth the cash that would guarantee mainstream media placement. Think I’m joking? Here’s a challenge, give me $500K and I’ll get any Sellaband recording placed…and you can pick the artist.

Because of these factors, writing, producing, recording, manufacturing and attempting to promote a project for 50K is already an absurdity. Those who believe 50K to be excessive cite legendary productions or recordings that have achieved cult status which were accomplished on the cheap but most of these are exceptional artists who obviously knew what they were about. That is not at all to say that such an artist does not exist on Sellaband, but a system of standards should exist to serve the needs of a broad cross section of users and not the odd exception.

If I were to put into one sentence my first impression of Sellaband as it was when I first became involved, it would be this:

Sellaband provides previously unknown or unsigned artists an opportunity to interact with experienced producers in a professional environment for what may be their only opportunity at a real world studio experience.

What an artist makes of this opportunity is completely another matter. Perhaps all a band wants is a professional level recording which can be sold at club gigs, weddings and parties. Or a more career minded artist with eyes toward landing distribution on a higher level may wisely choose to record two to four examples of their very best material at the best possible quality that can be had for the budget.The reality that Sellaband does not have the resources to promote its own products renders any related discussion a futile exercise in wishful thinking. As my dear sweet grandmother liked to say, “Wish into one hand and shit in the other. Then tell me which one fills up first.”

Regardless of the motive, withholding cash from the production budget with thoughts of funding promotion is a mistake on two counts. First, the entire 50K wouldn’t serve to promote a whore house in prison. It just isn’t enough money to make anything meaningful happen. Second, for the more serious artist aiming at placement with a major, the production will require every cent of the budget if the recording has any hope at all of comparing favorably with the competition.

Finally, for the artist who has never “been there” so to speak, getting a chance to work on original material in a professional environment can be the culmination of hopes and dreams that once lived only in the realm of fantasy. If one takes the expensive idea of promotion off the menu and concentrates fully on the music, the process itself will be worth the tab. And if all you ever wanted to do was get into a studio and record your music for real, why would you sell yourself short? Why would you want to be in a hurry? Why wouldn’t you use every last dollar of that budget to buy yourself the fulfillment of those frustrating years twiddling at the old 4-track portastudio? Why wouldn’t you suck every drop of goodness out of that time and force them to drag you out of there with your fingernails clinging to the control room door jamb?

There are businessmen who drool when they think of the two weeks they will spend at an exclusive fantasy sports camp, a cushy African safari or an extreme but well-appointed sojourn among the Amazonian tribes. There are celebrities and rich bastards who have become addicted to a yearly stint in a luxury rehab facility. These experiences cost a ton of cash and the people who indulge themselves do so without much thought for the expense. Think about it. with the 50K budget model, musicians can avail themselves of an intense, real world recording experience…and the resulting product is not only debt free, but nobody gets hurt!

I know it’s a stupid question, but why would anyone sell themselves short just to get it done faster? Feel free to comment…this ought to be good. I can already hear the tomatoes smacking my computer screen.

As an early and optimistic supporter of Sellaband, I feel confident in saying that I am not alone in wishing a successful and prosperous 2010 to the company and all of my friends, both virtual and physical, associated with the Dutch crowd-sourcing music website. That said, the past year has brought changes in policy and implementation which move me to express concerns of a nature less than positive for the first time since I became a supporter, not only of the concept itself, but of many aspiring artists on the platform.

Phil Sommersby

On a positive note, there are two sub-organizations on the website which I support and admire very much. The Dream Team is a group of individual artists organized under the benevolent mentoring of Phil Sommersby. My good friend Phil offers artists the wisdom gleaned from his years in business outside of the music industry. His “out of the box” thinking has proven to be a valuable resource to up and coming artists mired in the old school solutions to new wave problems. Marketing and promotion in the music industry is changing at light speed and Phil’s common sense solutions, positivity and sense of old fashioned perseverance have built a successful track record as no less than five Dreamteamsters  have secured Sellaband recording budgets during 2009. Regardless of changes in policy, members of The Dream Team continue to use the platform to serve their purposes, maintain a positive outlook and reap the rewards of Phil’s sensible eye over their shoulders.

collaboration proj

The Collaboration Project, under the watchful eye of composer/producer Casper Van Vulpen, is having mixed success in financial terms but if it is indeed “all about the music,” then this project is the Viagra of Sellaband. Most users of the boner-inducing “vitamin V” are not aware that it was first developed for use in treating blood pressure deficiency. In much the same way, The Collaboration Project began as a collaborative effort to raise funding for a compilation album of Sellaband artists but has morphed into a clearing house for side projects which are turning out collaborative songs and productions by artists, writers and producers from all over the ever shrinking virtual world. The latest effort includes songs written by Monica Thomas, Mark Payne, aka Dreb Hacklett of Sheet Metal, Casper Van Vulpen, Kostek Andreev and Lille Mulder and will be available worldwide this spring. Members of The Collaboration Project have joined forces in developing quite an effective production team and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a successful move toward establishing this team as an option for other Sellaband artists who may think that name producers working at a fraction of their normal fees can insure success. These guys are serious.

On the flip side of Sellaband’s 2009, there are three developments which I have found to be potentially disastrous and which only the loyalty of the old guard believers can overcome if Sellaband is to continue to become an important force in the evolution of the music industry. In no order of importance, they are:

1. The look, construction and functionality of the website. The SAB forums document the disaster and subsequent fixes that have resulted in the present incarnation. Many security issues have been satisfactorily addressed and functionality restored but as the proverbial bell cannot be unrung, the damage to Sellaband’s integrity as a commerce site could well be beyond estimation. Navigation through the site is less than intuitive, searching for new music is on a par with browsing through un-alphabetized record bins and buying the music produced by Sellaband is nearly impossible for first time visitors to the site. While Sellaband’s initial priority is to sell parts in future productions, it seems absurd that albums produced by Sellaband artists are nearly invisible and difficult to buy. Yes, there have been answers to these issues but with all due respect to the tech team working hard to make sense of it all, the answers haven’t made complete sense in the real world and Sellaband has not served their own artists as well as they might or should.

2. The new terms and conditions which allow for customized budgetary goals. It used to be a simple plan for artists…post some demos, bring your homegrown support system to the site to get things rolling, sell 5000 parts and boom, you’re in a real studio to live out your dream of making an album with the support of experts in the field. It seems that Sellaband has caved in to artists who believe it can all be done otherwise. Of course it is possible to produce something that sounds relatively like an album for a fraction of what once was a recording budget. But that isn’t the point. The original point of it all was to put unknown or inexperienced artists in contact with people who had made records and were in a position to mentor and develop artists in the ways of producing music on a scale superior to the bedroom studio. But rather than hold fast to the idea of educating and developing talent, Sellaband now allows artists to produce music on the same scale and with the same inevitable results of the typical myspace offerings.

With a budget of $50,000 on the line, there is an understandable expectation of recording quality of even second tier songs. Under the current terms believers are asked to accept well-recorded but underdeveloped material, possible hits recorded in Garageband at Home Studio Inc. and everything between. While it is accepted that there are talented artists who can record great material at a high standard for a fraction of $50,000, it must also be understood that these are exceptions and perhaps Sellaband is not the place for them. Obliterating the original budgetary goal perhaps serves the purposes of a handful of artists but it is a mistake that lowers the standards for what can be expected by those who invest in artists they don’t personally know. And this brings me to what may be the biggest disappointment of 2009…

Maitreya

3. The ambassadorship of Chuck D. What was originally touted by Sellaband as a significant promotional inroad to the U.S. music buying public is fast turning into a public relations comedy of errors. One can almost hear the pies hitting the side of the building as Public Enemy’s ship floats motionless in the doldrums of believer apathy. Many thought that whistling Chuck D. on board would signal a turning point for artists like New Zealand Hip-Hopper Maitreya, Sellaband’s most viable artist of the genre to date. But instead of using the influence of a successful career and notoriety to help Sellaband or its artists, Chuck and Public enemy elbowed themselves up to the trough to get their own…establishing a goal five times the budget at the time and at a buy-in price of 250% the norm.

This tactic may have seemed like just the braggadocio needed to pique the interest of the American public but coinciding with the financial disaster that has befallen first America and then every international economy sucking at the teat of the U.S. financial industry, the direction taken by Public Enemy and sanctioned by Sellaband has done damage that will not be undone easily. When Babe Ruth pointed to the cheap seats and declared that the next pitch was ending up there, well, that’s exactly where the next pitch ended up and the episode served to further cement his legendary status. Unfortunately I don’t think that Public Enemy’s plan of attack nor Sellaband’s approval of it will do the same.

And so 2010 begins with unanswered questions, high hopes and hopefully some hard-earned lessons. To all the individuals who share my continued optimism in the promise Sellaband offers, I wish continued success, a hit song and many healthy, prosperous returns of the day. For those who disagree with my assessment, drop me a comment. and to those who have all the answers…get up off your asses and make something good happen. Happy New Year!