Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
"more than just pity and politics"
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2006 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
My friend Camille Acey has been insider-blogging about the concert/music industry and it is as though she is writing just for me. Camille runs Remarkable Booking, sort of a boutique booking agency for musicians, and so she shares her concerns about the sorts of niche topics that make economics dilettantes like me go squee:
- merch splits and underselling yourself
- the need to tour and the price of gas
- (no really, the price of gas makes indie touring unusually tough this summer)
- the credibility of a cool last name
- further injustice in the Great White tragedy
- what happens to the smaller bands when arena rockers decide to take over more intimate spots?
And Camille inspires me to go see more live stuff:
...Nonetheless, this is a very exciting time in the music industry. An overwhelming amount of great new music and a ton of music bubbling up from independent outlets. As a person in the touring industry, I think the next big things that need to happen are:1) emergence of a crop young new bands with great live shows....We need an indie rock Bob Fosse, we need an indie rock PT Barnum. We need a new Grace Jones and David Byrne. More personalities. Build it and they will come.
and
2) a big insidious propaganda campaign that re-popularizes the live concert experience.
I'm part of the latter now!
The title's from an acerbic comment on the Dixie Chicks' tour rerouting.
