Bits for bands 4 ... or The Examples of Innovation Awards...
Here's two examples of real musicians worthy of an award for their own intuition, innovation and commitment to going it alone and suceeding in the digital age...one name is very recognisable and one might not be just yet, but they share an incredible musical talent and an incredible determination to succeed in unique and original ways making them all prime examples for new (and not so new) bands and artists to follow. But there's no 'glamming up' or glossing over the possible pitfalls so you can have the added benefit of learning from their mistakes before you travel their freshly layed paths.
These artists are not only great musicians, but great pioneers in a fast changing world...
Throughout the nineteen eighties - a time in musical history when many 'executives' placed 'image' and commerciability before having any kind of musical ability and a time also when many of the musical heroes and progressive rock stars of the previous decade slowly began to conform themselves to the more commercialy acceptable dyed perms, mullets, and shoulder padded synthetics of eighties pop image and sound - a new voice emmerged among the toned and turned down throng that immediately caught the attention of the pop and rock world . It was a sound that turned vocal volume back up again and reminded the mindless of the rock roots that were slowly being abandoned by the labels in favour of the talentless 'casio, out of key boarded ' plop. The voice was that of T'Pau's Carol Decker and her overpowering voice blasted it's way into the charts of 1987 with a raw energy and sound that was simply no longer present in any other signed UK act of the time. Yet even though the band was seemingly at the very centre of the pop world until 1991 they were not a band that was 'of ' the pop world - their songwriting held a depth and ability to cast an imagery that was far too thoughtfull and creative for most ordinary pop brains to 'fathom'. When the band eventualy split following the merger of Siren Records with Virgin, Carol waved 'Ta Ta' to the major labels and continued to write songs for various projects - often co writing and appearing as a guest on the albums of others.1997 saw T'pau reimmerge to tour and record again releasing the album ' Red ' independantly the following year - 98 also saw them play many festivals to crowds of up to 90,000 at some venues . In that same year Carol also began to raise her own family (giving birth to her first daughter just three weeks before playing at the Princess Diana Tribute Concert) and has since continued to tour since in and out of the limelight...So all in all, an amazing, reknound and well publicised career so far.
But where's the innovation in all that you may be wandering..? 'She's been there seen that and done it all' you say? You might well be thinking that she's an international superstar and therefore must be completely loaded and set up for life? but this is often the myth in a world of music where pausing for breathe can often see bands not only losing momentum but often being completely forgotten...Two bouts in the limelght can tire any band out (and T'Pau were -and are- a very hard working band) so most move on to other projects hoping that their royalties will last out until the pension plans kick in. Unfortunately, for many artists that became superstars throughout the eighties pop era in that drive for fame and fortune, once the labels took back their own and everyone elses cut out of the multi million dollar contracts there wasn't an awfull lot left over for the artists.Then, as the explosion of free file sharing music sites engulfed the nineties and the future royalties of former artists, many found themselves living a fulfillment of the famous TPau lyric "Don't push too far your dreams of china in your hand for they might come true and you can't have them".
Carol continued to tour throughout the nineties but her innovation actualy broke through in her current, new phase of songwriting with Ron Rogers (who together both penned the original TPau catalogue)and in her approach to using new tecnology and 'Social networking' in rekindling the memories of those former fans.
The 'technical 'side of her innovation is explained in the video and was taking place throughout 2006/7(the same time period that Jo Greenwood and Ged flood were using the same approach - see the Originality Award page). The social networking innovation was a stroke of genius that got Carol back on a personal footing with former fans and helped create many new ones too with MySpace.In case you don't know, MySpace has a search engine built in for members to search and connect with other users sharing similar interests worldwide. You can search by gender, age, nation, marital status, musical tastes, etc.. etc..So all Carol had to do was search for people who would have been in their early teens to late thirties in the UK, Europe, Australia or the States in 1987 and put in a friend request! Now lets face it, there aren't many musical icons that send friend requests to your average joe on MySpace so can you imagine the look of joy on the faces of countless UK males approching their mid-
life crises when Carol Decker comes knocking at their in-boxes asking to make friends!!(you can also imagine the sudden influx of patients with heart problems to the nations emergency and cardiac wards too! ) To put it mildly, Carols approach to promoting the new 2007 'Just Dream' single and digital re release of Red made a lot of peoples dreams come true..and Carol also went out of her way to contact and respond to as many letters, emails and comments as physicaly possible personally ( Unlike most icons, no-one else is running the site on her behalf) . Her friend list quickly soared into the thousands (itself becoming a full time project) and all the signs looked like 2007 was going to be another multi platinum groundbreaking year..so everyone was a little shocked when the front page headlines and awards didn't come...so what went wrong?
Well Carols 'Just Dream' single and the re released album Red was all sold solely online as a download via iTunes and Napster ( her next single 'Don't Stop Believing' will also be online only from July 7th 08)...the problem came with the age range of many of those former fans as many are still very new to IT and computers and a surprisingly large ammount of people approaching, or over, the age of forty actualy rely almost solely on their junior and infant school aged children to do anything online! So a new wave of coronary problems again began to trouble the UK's hospital wards as stressed fans were driven into a state of panic over having to get round the concept of 'downloading' while their children were at school. 2007 was still a good year for Carol - and she stil deserves an award for the amazing energy and perseverance she still maintains in personaly connecting with all of her fans ...and she even managed to help fans overcome those IT fears with special -and very easy to follow - guides on exectly how to do seemingly complecated tasks such as 'downloading ' and installing iTunes or Napster. So who knows, maybe 2008 and 09 will pay off big time for an innovative artist who has never been afraid to be a pioneer on the front line of international music (..with or without a label).
For more on how to 'Do a Decker' -and make some loyal fans if you're able to make great music- you can follow her example and see for yourself by exploring her MySpace site at...Go on....Do a Decker!
Our next example is a brand new vocalist who has chosen a unique- and potentialy very risky way - to single handedly catapult her way into the forefront of the worlds music industry.Now many bands slog away waiting for an agent or a label to offer them the illusion of being 'saved ' from the rat race , and many more put their caps out to interested parties for donations or even grants to carry on with their dreams, but Laura Warwick has chosen a path that few struggling artists would dare to attempt by offering 'shares' in her career. What makes this particular buisness management avenue a brilliant piece of innovation is the breathtaking ability of Laura's voice...She is undoubtedly one of the best female vocalists to ever emmerge from the UK since the likes of Carol Decker, Natasha Beddingfield, Amy May, Jo Greenwood, Leonna Lewis..and any other UK icon I may have missed out .
So it's not too hard to see why anyone with even the scantest of buisness sense would look at Lauras 'Public Record Label' as a 'dead cert' ' and 'win win ' situation. Her voice easily ranks among the greatest soul, funk and jazz singers of history and looks set to be able to do so for years to come... and it's also not often that fans can get to share in the financial rewards of their icons - but this is exactly what Laura is offering. For a minimum of £5 you can buy shares in her career - and even have a say in the tracks to be featured on her upcoming albums. Shares will also buy you a digital copy of the completed album, tickets to the launch party , a percentage of the profits earned up untill 10th April 2010 and no limits to the ammount of shares you can own (...so whatever you do don't tell Simon Cowell about it!).
But Laura did also have a few scary moments recently that could have reaped untold damage if it wasn't for the promptness of MySpace staff. Now exactly what happened is a little unclear and Laura was entirely innocent of any wrong doing, but as a warning to anyone else with enough talent to follow Lauras example let me explain the dangers.
Firstly, international spam laws now make it illegal for you to contact people via the internet and claim or promise to to offer riches or wealth in exchange for money (Laura did not do this)...So if you want to travel down the 'shares' route it is important that 1) you know what you're doing and 2) you do not use any kind of misleading information that would let people think your going to make them a millionaire (Laura didn't do this either). Different social networks will all have different interperatations of how the law should be interperated ...so even if your buisness plans and motives are completely above board and honest it could only take one person (or even another jealous artist) to report you to the site moderators and scupper your plans. On one weekend recently, this was exactly what happened to Laura - her profile was taken off line and all her new fans were finding a message, where her profile should have been, stating that it was deleted for suspiscious activities. Laura was horrified to find that not only had she been cut off from her new found and rapidly growing fan base but that she had now also been publicaly labelled a fraudster. Thankfully the MySpace team was quickly able to vindicate her as it appeared that she was being impersonated by real spammers who were on the take, so they had to close all the offending profiles untill the real Laura Warrick stood up! As soon as Laura contacted them she was immediately re-instated and so too was her Public Record Label. So, if you don't want fakers and jealous rivals to hijack your career here's a quick tip or two to avoid the pitfalls..1) keep your social network sites centred on your music and open an official 'non space' site to include your bio's, music, media, contacts and buisness plans.( mention your share option but don't plug it - if youre as good as Laura then your music will do the plug for you!) 2)Make sure their is a tangeable product connected to the deal - such as a contract, an album,or event etc 3) Check your own profile name in the directory to make sure your profile hasn't been cloned or used as a den of spam. 4) Have a good look at Laura's public record label and...if youre as good and as talented , give it a go yourself ...or invest! Laura Waricks first outstanding vocal demo can be heard on her exhonerated official MySpace page here... Laura Waricks Real MySpace
copyright 2008. Mairtin O'Riain and Martin Ryan - The Ryan O'Riain22
