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Hop On Pop
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10/1/2010 9:08:50 AM
My label is folding
I talked to Matt (label owner and former HoP keys player) the other day, and he's just tired of trying to make it work. He was never in it for the money but, at this point, I don't feel like he's even doing any good in helping his bands get heard through the dense collection of music that's available out there on the internet.
It's sad, really. I know that he put a lot of himself into the label, and I'm gonna miss being a part of that whole collective.
Just another indication of the way things are going in the music biz, I guess.
Spade Kitty Records: R.I.P. (1994 - 2010)
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Richard Scotti
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10/1/2010 5:25:53 PM
---- Updated 10/1/2010 10:37:13 PM
As George said: "All things must pass". You'll go on to bigger and better things but the music biz is essentially dead. It will eventually be reborn but I have no idea what it will look like. Perhaps ALL music will be sold online and CD's will be obsolete. Personally I miss the record stores. I used to love to browse through all kinds of obscure sections searching for rare oddities in Tower or Virgin Records. NYC is supposed to be the place where you can get anything you want but it is now impossible to find a good sound effects CD in any store. Some of the ones online are terrible and there aren't many of them.
The route to success in music is no longer through the same channels as before.
It seems that many people are getting discovered on YouTube. Society has become more visually oriented. Audio alone does not seem to capture many imaginations these days. If you have great songs, you're only half way home. You need something visual to tie into the songs. For some it's videos and for others it's themselves as in the case of Lady Gaga. She's a walking video!
I'm not selling myself or my appearance and I can't afford to make videos so I'm pretty much screwed but I keep on writing because I don't know what else to do! The upside is I have a very large number of what I hope are high quality songs, so someday when the time is right, I'll be ready! I feel that the more quality songs I have and the more varied they are, the more chances there are of a hit emerging from the pack. I have enough material in production at moment for 2 and 1/2 CD's and they are not just more of the same. I've really been trying to shake things up and move out of my comfort zone while staying true to my basic sound.
The bottom line is to keep on writing and not get too hung up on the songs you've already written. There can still be a hit or two among them but you have to look forward and not rest on past achievements. If you believe in your writing abilities, you have to keep the assembly line moving. Any song you've ever written can still compete if it's a great song, but you may write one tomorrow that's even greater.
One can't write one or two great songs and ten very good ones and hope to be discovered or signed. If a CD fails to catch on, move on. Analyze what went wrong and fix it in the next CD. Take your art up a notch. Today the expectation from a a song, play or movie is that it makes the audience do one or more of the following: laugh, cry, get turned on sexually and/or intellectually or be profoundly moved on a personal level. This is a tall order!! And sometimes music alone is not enough.
Some of us might make it with songs that are placed in movies or commercials or we might make videos to accompany our songs that help the songs meet their potential. I would venture to say that more artists are discovered on You Tube than ANY other medium. Hearing music is no longer good enough. It has to be seen. I don't like it, but I don't make the rules!
Maybe I'll try and discover the next Lady Gaga and write a bunch of crappy disco songs ~ NOT!
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Tom O'Brien
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10/1/2010 7:52:40 PM
As usual Richard, you have a lot of good things to say.
Todd, you already are a success in that you write good songs - in that you keep doing it. Maybe it hasn't made you a cent, but we just can't measure success that way anymore.
This is just a germ of an idea, but why are all musicians swinging for the fences? (Sorry non-yanks, that's a baseball term meaning going for the biggest possible gain). Personally, I would be extremely happy to be a songwriter or performing artist who just made a living wage (which I barely make in my "real" job). Since selling CD's is already passe, why doesn't someone start a company that isn't trying to get rich, but is rather trying to take back the airwaves, so to speak, and supply the world with listenable music once again? I'm sure that company could make enough money on advertising to cover the costs of recording and promoting new artists. Advertising - that seems to be where the money is going. And it's killing the quality of music. But a business has to make money somehow, and it's unlikely that it'll do it selling music anymore.
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Richard Scotti
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10/1/2010 10:13:45 PM
---- Updated 10/1/2010 10:32:29 PM
I agree with Tom that the definition of success is very subjective. If you are doing what you love regardless of whether or not you are making a living at it or if you have a day job to support your artistic endeavors, you are a success in my opinion.
The day I received my emancipation from being a slave to the concept of "making it" in music was the day I stopped equating commercial success with happiness and well being. It was the most liberating insight I ever had. What led me to this insight was the the thought that I would be profoundly depressed if I "failed" at my life's work.
This desperation actually made my work suffer because I was trying to write what I thought would sell rather than what what is in my heart. That's when I decided to appreciate all the other wonderful things in my life and stop obsessing about commercial success. I realized I already was happy and I wasn't going to let the corrupt and dishonest music business determine my destiny. I didn't fail. The music business failed. My songwriting got stronger after this revelation because I began to only write songs that came from the deepest part of me with no concern as to how they would be judged.
I recently wrote a song that I have been working on (on and off) for several years. It's a very raw and dark song which really fits the current mood in the world at this point and expresses a lot of pain I have felt in my life and some of the anger I presently feel towards people in authority who are doing wrong things. I had done a few good versions of it over the years but I never got it right. The other night I got it right. I was able to take a song from the past and make it relevant for the present.
The musical and lyrical vision that had eluded me for so many years finally came into the light. The outro needed a harmonica solo to be the icing on the cake and I searched through my stuff to find a harp in the key of C. (I have a harp in every key and they're all over the house)) But the first harp I found was in the key of "C". I felt a rush go through my whole body because I knew I was going to wail on that thing in the rousing climax of this song. In one pass I got the perfect take.
I just sat there and stared at the colorful wave forms of the music on the screen as though it were a picture that I had just painted. I was totally euphoric with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and pride. At that moment I realized the meaning of success.
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Chandra Moon
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10/2/2010 11:50:19 AM
---- Updated 10/2/2010 11:51:34 AM
I agree so much with these comments - I came to song writing so late that I've never had the notion of making a living from it - I'm lucky to have sold quite a few hundred cd's at gigs and online to more or less pay for the first Cd ha ha! I'm going to record another one next year regardless of the ones I've got left in boxes at home of the last one.
When I saw my album finished in 2008 I felt I'd achieved something unimaginable and even though I'd do some of the tracks differently now I still feel a tremendous sense of pride for just getting them finished.
The worst thing is the time to do it all - if you have a full time day job I know how hard it is but making a living through our music seems elusive for most of us and those that do are often slave to labels, managers, agents and publishers.
If you write songs it seems impossible not to just keep going somehow and it's fantastic knowing that some people appreciate and enjoy the music. That's success to me.
I'm sure you'll find a way of keeping going with the recording Todd - good luck with it - you never know, it could be a brilliant turning point in your music career - you just never know!
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Hop On Pop
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10/4/2010 6:49:46 AM
Here is the official announcement:
BERWYN, IL (10/14/2010) After a 16-year run, Chicago indie label Spade Kitty is deciding to pack it in.
From the very beginning, it was a battle to get noticed, and to stay afloat, but label founder and owner Matt Walters is adamant, “This thing was never about the money. I just wanted to get my own music out there, and to help my friends’ bands get heard, too.”
The label officially began in September of 1994, with a handshake deal to release an album from local power pop combo Post Office.
Since then, the label has released 30 albums from Chicago bands, including Paper Airplane Pilots, Trakan, Hop On Pop, The Red Plastic Buddha, and The Pralines, as well as recordings from several of Walters’ own projects, including Olde Style, The Three Fifths, and Roxy Swain. The latter of those actually had some chart success – in Indonesia, of all places! Unfortunately, nothing more came of that.
Through the years, the label became something of a family, with many musicians playing in multiple bands on the label; Walters, in particular, was all over the place. As of late, however, he has felt spread thin, playing in as many as 5 bands at once. Add to that the pressure of running the label, trying to find new ways to get unknown bands heard, and booking and promoting shows, and…
“It’s disappointing, for sure, and I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. There have been a lot of great supporters of the label; I have good friends. But, I’m tired, and it’s time to close it up.”
For the last 4 years, Spade Kitty has sponsored a monthly Thursday night showcase at Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn. The evening has become relatively successful, building a dedicated audience who come to see the variety of talent being offered up each month. The showcase has also provided several local musicians a chance to play on the stage of one of the premier small clubs in the Chicago area.
Fitzgerald’s will host one final Spade Kitty Night on Thursday, October 14. The lineup includes Hop On Pop, Living Struggle, Loud Quiet Loud, and a solo set from Walters, himself.
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And, for the record, I agree with what a lot of you are saying re: the industry. But, when we loose an entity like Spade Kitty, who really did push a lot of artists to record and release albums when they otherwise may not have, that is a big loss. Even if it is a small label.
And, I am not just referring to myself, alone.
Yes, there is a lot more independent music out there, that is more available, and easier to find than ever before. That is a good thing. But, I do think that it was small labels like SK that were a part of the germination of this whole movement. (MERGE Records just had their first-ever #1 record this past month, when The Arcade Fire's newest album debuted in that top spot — unimaginable just a few years ago!)
Music will continue to be made and, hopefully, the cream will eventually find its way to the top.
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Richard Scotti
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10/5/2010 8:10:08 AM
---- Updated 10/5/2010 8:13:53 AM
For better or worse, we are in the middle of a massive shift in the way people buy things. If you haven't seen the movie: The Social Network, you should check it out.
It was so "now" in terms of what is happening with the internet. Young computer nerds are writing computer programs that are literally shaping the world we live in. Guys like Shawn Fanning who created Napster are the reason that record stores are closing and record companies are going under.
The "middlemen" in our economy are being eliminated. Anything people want to buy they can order on the internet. The responsibility for getting ahead is shifting to the individual and the individual's ability to attract people who can finance their own dreams or the ability to finance one's dreams with their own money (or money from investors) ~ in other words: the ability to "network" which is what the movie is all about. The movie really influenced me. It made me understand that if I don't get on the train that is headed for the future, it will leave the station without me and my music. I realized that the previous way of trying to be successful in music is becoming obsolete.
Artists now have to find new ways of standing out from the crowd. Even Bono and the Edge are writing music for Broadway shows. Just music alone without some kind of visual aid or for lack of a better word: "gimmick", is no longer enough to break through. Just writing songs and hoping that a record company will discover you and do all the leg work for you is no longer the way to pursue your dream. Expand the narrative of your music. Tie the concepts of your songs to other artistic mediums which will enlarge those concepts. This advice only applies to those of us who want to go to the next level.
Some of us are content to be where we are. But if you want to get on that train, move quickly. It's leaving the station. As for me, I'm not sure if I can follow my own advice. It might be too late for me to catch the train but it might not be too late for others.
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SILVERWOODSTUDIO
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10/5/2010 2:08:35 PM
Todd
Sorry to here about the demise of "Spade Kitty" (do I hear a spade digging?)
-----but elated by this blog---thanks rich and tom and chadra for putting into words what many of us feeling----profound
I'll try to catch up again from LA (where I hope to meet The Man!)
arohanui
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