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How Music Works: Youbloom — teaching you how to make a living from music

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Donal Lunny youbloom
Donal Lunny, one of the artists taking part in this year’s Youbloom festival and conference for bands and musicians. Photograph: Aidan Crawley

The old music industry models have splintered and shattered in different directions and platforms. Beyoncé just released a visual album that was announced via a HBO TV special. Drake streamed Views From The Six exclusively on Apple Music. Kanye West continues to tinker away on The Life Of Pablo after its been released. Adele doesn’t tour if she can help it. Taylor Swift still refuses to stream her hit album 1989 on Spotify.

That level of impact and control is reserved for the megastars, those who are lucky to have established themselves and have an audience listening – the 1 per cent? Everyone else is still figuring out how they can make their art their life’s work. Those people are the focus of Youbloom, a conference and music festival taking place in Dublin next month.

“Seventy-five per cent of the revenues of the music business go to the superstars – which numbers maybe the low hundreds worldwide,” says Phil Harrington, the CEO of Youbloom. “So it’s not the 1 per cent, it’s the .0001 per cent of artists that earn the most. The rest take the crumbs, not even, the crumb off the table. It’s very unbalanced.”

The new DIY and the old industry

Youbloom’s aim is to help those crumb-earning independent musicians succeed on their own terms by to empower them with knowledge about how music works, facilitating networking and a connect to established and experienced industry figures.

“The question I thought to myself, that became central to Youbloom , is ‘What is it going to take for an artist to make a decent living, if they’re good enough?” says Harrington. “What has to happen? How is this going to be solved?”

Today’s bands can utilize social media, crowdfunding, data analytics, new tech and platforms to get noticed but Harrington says these modern tools have yet to translate into career sustainability and that a lot of opportunities can still come from the old-school idea of networking and showcasing.

“We haven’t yet got to a place where the science and the art of using these tools results in more and more artists becoming viable, but it is coming.”
Now coming into its fourth year in Dublin (it is taking place for the third time in Los Angeles later this year), Youbloom’s purpose has previously included the idea of a data co-op between artists to a song contest as suggested by Bob Geldof.

Geldof invested in Harrington’s forays into video when he acquired the rights to JVC in the early 1980s. They shared an accountant and Harrington got to know more about the music business as a result.

Before that, Harrington had trained as a doctor, but he developed an interest in alternative medicine, which lead to music therapy under the name Voce, something he has done at raves, Burning Man festival and Irish prisons in Portlaoise and Spike Island. At the workshops, Harrington teaches a technique of “releasing your voice in order to explore your inner self.”

“When I do them, I wake up the next day feeling so renewed, everything is back in alignment. It’s a healing experience.”
Harrington’s interest in helping people through music transfers to Youbloom. Once the song contest was established, Nigel Grainge, who signed Thin Lizzy, Sinead O’Connor and Geldof’s Boomtown Rats, got involved by listening to the song contest entries and the idea morphed into the Youbloom music festival and summit.
‘A band or singer-songwriter is basically a little microbusiness’

This year’s event features panels about music synchronisation, approaching the media, music rights, US artist visas, royalties and touring Brazil. There are opportunities for networking and speed sessions.

“Our tagline is learn, connect, play,” says Harrington. “The first tenet of that is the artist learning the business of music. A band or singer-songwriter is basically a little microbusiness. It’s a complex business – there are lot of different elements to understand. Most artists don’t expect to be signed to a major label now. They understand that they have to do a lot themselves.“

Speakers at the conference are drawn largely from the established industry, including publisher of DIY Magazine Rupert Vereker, publisher Steve Lindsay, lawyer Eileen O’Gorman, artist manager and arts immigration expert Matthew Covey and Irish musician Donal Lunny.

“We reserve spots for artists to engage with the industry. On top of that we create mixtapes and collect data from the band and we promote them to industry, the partners and sponsors. If we see an opportunity to connect a band to an industry person – whether it’s management, sync or otherwise, we’ll make it happen.”

Adopt a band

At night, the focus moves to seven Dublin city venues featuring performances from Irish and international bands, playing for the industry and fans alike.
Artists who apply via Sonicbids and Youbloom’s own database are assessed based on social media engagement, live activity, Youtube live performances, fanbase and their answers to the Youbloom application form. The artists that are invited must pay their own way.

“Bands finance themselves to come in. The business model doesn’t afford to be able to pay those expenses. What we see are bands coming in from the US or South America and they put together a tour over two or three weeks and apply to a bunch of festivals and conferences and if they’re accepted it forms the basis of their tour.

“We do a thing called adopt a band. The local artist adopt the band coming in to Dublin. They help them with accommodation, get them gear and help them out.”
Youbloom success stories have included bands signing publishing deals, recording with an established producer, touring opportunities and management.

“We had a band called Cartoon from Brazil who played both in London and LA; they brought both the industry and the local audience to their gigs. They ended up getting signed to a Japanese label.”

Harrington says the bands that are interested in connecting to experienced industry at Youbloom are those who understand what they need to be proactive in order to make a living out of their music to make even a sliver of what the Beyoncés and Drakes are making.

“The A&R guys used to help out the bands by offering advice and talking to them. Then 10 or 12 years ago, they disappeared when the budgets at the major labels dried up. Artists were still doing gigs but the A&R people weren’t there. Then, three or four years ago, the bands would get down to business after the show, instead of partying. That’s something you’re seeing more and more – the artists realise they have to do it for themselves.”

Youbloom takes place from June 1st to 3rd in Dublin. Tickets are €100 for the weekend.

Legacy, lies and loss, and why we’re all Martians now: thank you Mr Bowie

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Thank you David Bowie
Rest In Space David Bowie

“Ashes to ashes,
funk to funky”

On Monday last week artist, musician and legendary spaceboy David Bowie was announced dead. My ceiling collapsed.

A fortnight later I’m still processing what it all meant. They were just pop songs and I never met the man, but a world without Bowie just feels entirely alien.

I’m not much given to pilgrimage but I read that he brought wife Iman and daughter Lexi back home to check out his old haunts shortly after his cancer had been diagnosed as terminal. That brought tears. We did the same with my dad as he entered his final stretch (though a pie and mash in Walworth and a pub crawl around Bermondsey probably weren’t on Bowie’s bucket list…).

Anyhow he grew up locally and I needed answers so a brisk ten-minute walk and there I was, stood outside a 1930s terraced house on the outskirts of South London, teenage Bowie’s Bromley base of operations…

Of course, there was nothing much to see, and I felt a little stupid standing there stalking departed suburban Buddhas. There were flowers attached to the railings at the front of the house. I pondered how weird that must be for the residents, especially if they’re not fans. It all felt incredibly pointless, my sense of loss deepened and I was glad I hadn’t travelled over to his birthplace in Brixton.

To soothe myself I walked, and sank my thoughts into suburban anonymity…

Bowie’s true lies

Suburbia is a place to hide, but it’s also a place to cook up, and David Bowie did a hell of a lot of that. He’s been called a chameleon because of the ‘shape shifting’ but chameleons try to blend in. Bowie never blended in. But by the same token he never fully emerged. He left clues and reference points as to the inner workings of the real David Jones but the ‘revealing’ always left you wanting more.

Throughout his career Mr Jones used identity as a canvas; Ziggy, Halloween Jack, The Thin White Duke, David Bowie… possibly prompted by a family history of schizophrenia… or maybe he just enjoyed dressing up.

Whatever—he was the original pop transgressor, not because he wore lip-gloss and consumed vast quantities of cocaine—they all did that—but because he definitively exposed the fakery of it all.

“So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse of
How the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test”

He epitomised what the best British talent brings to American rock ’n’ roll rebellion… The ironic feint.

That’s not to say it was all just rock ’n’ roll satire. That wouldn’t have washed. Like a tribute act with no original, irony without a point eats its own tail and unlike many ‘rock gods’ Bowie never descended into self-parody because he’d already mastered the language. Well versed in Nietzsche and Warhol, Bowie knew all about masks and our need for healing self-deceptions. There’s empowerment in that knowledge, and in the hands of a popular magician, enchantment for the rest of us.

Bowie told ‘true lies’. He wore his fakery on his sleeve not just for the fun of it all but for the art of it all. He self-examined like the best existentialist and delivered on his findings like the best Vaudevillian, replete with Anthony Newley voice-over.

If the Beatles represented the peak of ‘pop modernism’ Bowie lifted us into a ‘post-pop’ stratosphere without us even noticing, influencing untold numbers along the way.

And he never stopped pushing and pulling.

Bowie once railed against the excluding and self-indulgent ‘art-speak’ of a certain creative elite. He was a working class lad at heart and his antidote to that form of cultural snobbery was the humble pop song. You can take the songs as you find them, they’re nice tunes, but if you go hunting for meaning be warned, it might hurt a little, the ‘crashing’ normally does. His themes of isolation, dystopia, difference and despair were sometimes hard to hear but wrapped up in charming melodies he delivered stardust on the ear like the most comforting ‘light entertainer’.

Creatively he trod a path between the sulky vulnerability of a Hamlet (“To be or not to be…”) and the majestic and mannered deftness of a Prospero (“We are such stuff as dreams are made on…”), and I hate to say this, but his death feels timely; not because his time is over but because it is only just truly beginning.

Re-evaluation will inevitably follow his passing and his prescience can’t be ignored. I believe Bowie will garner a deeper relevance as, prompted by technical innovation and increased worldwide connectivity, questions of identity, difference and creativity come to the fore.

He was light years ahead of the curve acting out gender fluidity before it was even vaguely a thing and jumping creative boundaries with a single Nietzschean leap. Writer, singer, painter, actor, social commentator… He was a one-man cultural revolution and unlike the typically earth-bound rock star encased in a single oeuvre, he foresaw and embraced change as a part of his purpose and process like no one before or since.

There’s life on Mars

As far back as 1999 he had this to say about the state of music and the industry:

“I embrace the idea there’s a new demystification process going on between the artist and the audience. […] When we look back at this decade there hasn’t really been one single entity, artist or group that have personified or become the brand name for the 90s […] in the 70s there were still definite artists […] now it’s sub-groups and genres; there’s hip-hop, there’s girl power… it’s a communal kind of thing… it’s about the community, it’s becoming more and more about the audience, because the point of having somebody who ‘lead the forces’ has disappeared because the vocabulary of rock is too well known, it’s a currency that is not devoid of meaning anymore but it’s certainly only a conveyor of information, it’s not a conveyor of rebellion… And the internet has taken on that […] I’d like to see what the new construction is between artist and audience. […] It’s almost like the artist is to accompany the audience and what the audience is doing, and that feeling is very much permeating music, and permeating the internet […]
Is there life on Mars..? Yes it’s just landed here.”

He added in 2002:

“The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years and nothing is going to be able to stop it. […] Music is going to be like running water or electricity.”

We no longer have to travel to Mars, because borderless Mars travelled to us.

Whether you feel Bowie helped pull down the barriers or merely documented their collapse doesn’t really matter the question is: will you take the baton? Change is hurting the old order and disrupting the established ways of doing things but it’s also providing opportunity for those willing to explore the new territory.

We all have our own ‘Bowie’ or ‘Cobain’ or ‘Elvis’ but the days of ‘creativity by proxy’ are coming to an end. We’re entering an era where personal expression in all its forms will receive a new respect, and fuelled by web technologies, greater and wider means of distribution. Now’s the time to look within, explore your own boundaries and become the Martian you always were.
Step up to the mic. Do it now, you don’t know how long you’ve got.

There’s something distinctly British about Bowie, distinctly ‘London’, but like all great art and artists his legacy goes beyond arbitrary lines on maps and reaches into very personal inner landscapes. Introducing his 2002 TV appearance Live By Request Bowie teasingly said:

“The question I wanna ask is ‘who do I want you to be?’”

And so he went on his way.

We’re left with the already critically acclaimed Blackstar. Exposed, vulnerable yet skillfully theatrical, Bowie remained the Cracked Actor right to the end. Even on his deathbed he sprays riddles into our ears and eyes like some mischievous laughing gnome high on the mystery of it all. There’s no attempt at conclusion and no request for clemency. The story just goes on because it’s our story now and I love him for that.

“The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time”
—David Bowie

That’s my Bowie. What’s yours?

youbloom artist spotlight: Kingdom Of Crows

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Kingdom-Of-Crows-youbloom-fetured-artist
Having formed Kingdom of Crows as a one man acoustic project in 2011, Stephen Kelly invited two guests, Bob Power and Brian Brennan to record a demo with him in the studio in 2012. Due to the unique sound this resulted in, Kingdom of Crows played some Dublin based shows as a three-piece acoustic act in late 2012.

Soon after this, Stephen started work on what would be the first track for his debut album. Stephen commented: “It was a humble three guitar piece named Call of the Void, it was suggested that I continue building the song, adding vocals, drums and bass to it”. Enter Lucy Early vocalist and lyrics writer (formerly with Factions) and guests bassist Robert Stanley (The Very Special/The Outsiders) and drummer Ken Mcgrath (The Very Special/The Outsiders).

Stephen notes: “Our sound grew and grew but we still maintained our acoustic roots and style. Eight new songs were written on top of Call of the Void, some including guests like the talented international violinist Nuria Garcia Salas of Catalunya and Ireland’s own Jonathan Yeates (Mr Blueface), who also produced our debut album The Truth is the Trip in his studio The Casualty Factory.”

In early 2014, now with nine new songs ready to go and the addition of two popular songs from their 2012 demo,these are Dreamless Sleep and Elizabeth which have been revamped in the new Kingdom of Crows sound, the band were ready to start recording their debut album.

However the process was brought to all but a complete halt after guitar/keys player and main songwriter for the group Stephen Kelly suffered serious injury in a motorbike accident. Through his love of music and sheer determination Stephen vowed “after nurturing the songs for so long nothing was going to stop this album being completed” and after six months of recovery Stephen returned to complete the project.

They chose the title of their debut album, due for release later this year as The Truth Is The Trip. Remarking on the influences for the album and title, Stephen said: “The title of the album has great relevance throughout the record and also in what was going on in the world at the time of recording. What really goes on in the world won’t be seen on mainstream news and when we open our eyes and realise the truth of what is actually transpiring, that is surely a trip”.

Stephen adds: “Our goal has always been to harness all of our influences into our music, be it from Luke Kelly to Bob Marley or Black Sabbath to opera, we don’t want to limit ourselves to one genre or style and we hope people can hear and feel that when listening to the album”. With that in mind, take a listen to some of the bands edgy and thought provoking music, which we feel would suit many movie and TV scores well: http://www.breakingtunes.com/kingdomofcrows

Music & emotions: can music make you a happier person?

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music-emotions
There is a saying that “When words leave off, Music begins…” Music is very much essential in day-to-day life. When there are no words to speak at that time music speaks… Music is said to be a universal language… Music is an important part of life. It is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm to life…

But can music make you a happier person?

Music is powerful, it can change your mood, the way you feel, and change your heart. The kind of music you listen to controls your mind. Whether you’ve had a rainy day or a bright sunny afternoon music has a positive effect on your mood.
“It is well said that Music is the shorthand of emotion…” Music helps alter our mood… Music is the best way to distress yourself in times of worry, and the best way to celebrate and appreciate the good things in life.
There are many of benefits of listening to music, some of these are: Strong sensation: – Music gives us a deep emotional experience especially if we are performing it on stage.

  • Diversion: Music helps us prevent the mind from unpleasant thoughts which often take over our mind It diverts our mind from negative energy to positive energy.
  • Discharge: Music can discharge us from the bad memories. It helps us to get rid of an unwanted feeling or memory.
  • Mental Work: Music can also bring nostalgia, sometimes we can associate a song with anecdotes and old friends. It can take us through the beautiful moments in our lives.
  • Consolation: When we are disappointed music forgot all our problems momentarily
  • Becoming a Better Listener: Music makes you a better listener. We listen to the voice of the singer, the beats and the notes and the symphony and the moment we are able to distinguish between the different sounds we hear we are on the path of becoming good listeners.
  • Make Better Decisions: Learning music or listening to it can help you make better decisions as it improves focus and concentration.
  • Develops Patience: When we play an instrument it usually takes years of practice and patient listening to perfect it. This practice develops patience in us.
  • It Reduces Stress & Makes You Healthier: When we listen to music we can forgot the stress in our life. It helps uplift our mood. Stress is the worst form of negative energy, we can fight that with music.

The list goes on and on. Music really is the key to success. We all have our likes and dislikes in music. Some like pop and others prefer rock, whichever is your favorite music makes you a happier person!

Post by Binny Sharma. Binny is an all-round musician. He is a singer, lyricist, composer and performer. When he is not singing, he likes to travel. Catch him at his personal website binnysharma.com or on Twitter @beingbinny.

Rock ‘n’ roll job for musical adventures: Pat Baker’s story

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jobs-music-industry-Pat-Baker
Pat Baker has the rock ‘n’ roll job to die for.

From Rolls Royce mechanic to rock ‘n roll roadie… that’s the story of Pat Baker, legendary music tour manager.

The elements decided his fate when he was working in a Rolls Royce Mercedes-Benz dealership. A local contact approached him, said he needed a truck driver for two weeks. Pat said yes and found himself driving Squeeze around in 1979 in the height of the “Cool For Cats” tour.

“I had the best time of my life,” he grins, “and then they handed me a big bunch of money at the end of it. I suddenly realised I was in the wrong business.” Chatting away in the snug operations office of The Olympia Theatre Pat gives me a modest history of his professional adventures.

After the Squeeze job it took him a couple of years to hit the tour trade full time. He managed to get himself sacked from Rolls Royce the day before a Chris Rea tour started. He jumped at the chance and set off selling T-shirts. He worked his way up, watched and learned. He describes himself as “roadworthy”. Capable, willing, consistent, good craic and able to consume more than a few beers is probably what he really means.

During his ascent through the ranks he did keyboard tech, (having never played a keyboard) for Chris Rea, drum tech and African drums for Paul Simon on the Graceland tour, stage management for Adele and Goldfrapp.

He attributes his progression to two things. One, doing all the jobs. He’s been the truck driver, humped PA’s about, done rigging and set ups, lighting and backline. The other success factor is his mechanical mind and his ability to fix things. “You didn’t necessarily have to play the instrument. It was all about set up, strip down, tune and repair.” Nowadays as tour manager for acts like Chris Rea, Pat reckons that because he’s done every role he can anticipate and deal with the problems the crew might encounter. Small venues like The Olympia for example require a different rig than an arena. So Pat’s job is to have the right equipment planned for the right venue to roll out the set up on the day of the show.

Regardless of whatever issues the crew have the old adage “The show must go on” applies to the crew more than it ever does to the band. So whatever shit happens Pat’s gotta fix it.

But that’s alright, because he loves his job. As any successful professional will tell you, it’s about having the right team around you. Pat stands by this referring to the accountability of the industry. “If you’re crap, you only work once. If you’re good, you’ll work with the same people over and over”. Though the industry is populated with lots of young people Pat is adamant about the value of experience.” It’s fine if you can specialise in one instrument, but if you’ve suddenly got to go into a venue, the truck’s broken down and it’s eight hours late it’s knowing how to cope with those situations that will get you through and will get you hired again.” Passing his pearls of wisdom on to anyone considering the production industry Pat’s advice is “Don’t be cocky, watch and learn. None of this ‘I need a tea break’ because no matter what you must do whatever it takes to get the gig up and running. Finally, check and double check everything.”

The hard work pays off though. A lifetime of rock ‘n roll adventures, travels all over the world. Fun filled encounters with old style rock ‘n rollers with Squeeze. Pat did the Paul Simon Graceland world tour in 1987/88 and The Rhythm Of The Saints Tour.

That was 49 countries in 18 months. He was part of the team for the Paul Simon gig in Central Park to 750,000 people in August 1990. He did 149 shows on that tour with lots of time off. A week off in Bali, a week off in Melbourne and a week off in Florida were just some of the perks Pat was young enough to enjoy and appreciate.

Referring to more recent acts Pat speaks fondly of Adele and Goldfrapp, lovely people, great tour. He’s got some right old yarns to tell, however despite my discreet encouragement he declines. Fair enough. After all, what goes on tour stays on tour.

Professionals like Pat and his rigging crews are under the public radar and highly underrated. These are the guys who unload the boxes that contain the magic that makes the show. Whether it’s Ed Sheeran, Queens Of The Stoneage, The Killers, Peter Gabriel or AC/DC none of it would happen without the crew. The next time the house lights go up and your artist is gone back to his hotel these guys will be taking the kit apart, packing it carefully and taking it to the next venue. Driving through the night to deliver the dream to the next set of fans waiting at the barrier.

They’re not called Fly By Night for nothing.

Post by Ciara Sheahan. I’m a self confessed indie rock n’roller. Live music addict, writer, blogger, festival veteran. Native to Dublin, my degree in Journalism is from The University of Sheffield. With a proven track record in business and a creative side that refuses to recede I’m firmly focused on my future in the music/creative industry.

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