Friday fun: AARP Magazine interview with Ringo Starr, and his comment on the Beatles

Lifelong professional visual artist - 57 years doing traditional painting, drawing, sculpture, conservation and lapidary. Not a high - roller, but comfortable. Locally 'famous'. My market has changed radically over the years, as have the tools. I also am playing with AI and several digital creativity devices/programs.

I agree with you on the retirement thing, though business still contributes.

My son, also an artist, is out there on social media selling his work. He is on pretty much every platform I have heard of. He is doing very well, as he grew up on a computer and cell phone (pats self on back). Much of what he sells is classic art media (like paper prints by mail), he also does quite well licensing digital art assets. (example: common themed digital art package for wall art prints, table place mats, signage, coasters, house beer/wine labels commissioned by a bar in Australia, emailed to the client to do limited print runs of the items)

The market has changed radically, competition is vast, but with some knowledge and effort a career in the arts is still quite doable. It never was easy, but nothing else is either. Glad to be "old".

Mumbo said...
If you wonder about the sorry state of the music business, a recent Rick Beato video is a good watch.
https://youtu.be/reesdiabvk4

Thanks that was definitely worthwhile. I think what they lament is how the business model and the deregulation coincided with new technology that led to a fragmentation and balkanization of music. Like they said at the end, that we don't all talk about the same music anymore just speaks to that impact. And I, like they mentioned, iamsomeone who has heard of Taylor Swift but not heard Taylor Swift. 40 years ago that would not have been the case. I believe that this is also due to the fact that we have so many more channels to tune into than we did in the past.

VinceInMT said...
Thanks that was definitely worthwhile. I think what they lament is how the business model and the deregulation coincided with new technology that led to a fragmentation and balkanization of music. Like they said at the end, that we don't all talk about the same music anymore just speaks to that impact. And I, like they mentioned, am someone who has heard of Taylor Swift but not heard Taylor Swift. 40 years ago that would not have been the case. I believe that this is also due to the fact that we have so many more channels to tune into than we did in the past.

They got into the opportunities that new performers have nowadays near the end which may provide something but if you read any of Rick Beato's other posts about "moneitization", the real problem is there is virtually no way to make any money for artists, internet or other. I like to think of Live Nation & Ticketmaster as doing the same thing by acquiring every major venue and controlling most ticketing such that they control most everything in live music and set the rules.

I am also in the category of hearing many new artist's work once and then put on my mental "ignore" list forever. Taylor Swift is one and there are many others that do not interest me. So I ignore 10 artists that are similar to Taylor Swift without listening. I pretty much rejected Rap from the get-go and only hear it accidentally. On the other hand, if someone posts a music link at sites I visit, I usually check out to see if I am missing anything good. Of course, I don't hang on the Barbie site so it is mainly from more trusted sources.

VinceInMT said...
I think there was a move (iTunes comes to mind) to change the financial relationship between the consumer and the artist (and all the producers, etc.) by eliminating the physical media and, through “purchase” or subscription better track what was being played. It sort of turns the model into a giant jukebox and if you want to hear a song you have to drop a quarter in the slot. I prefer to own the media with unlimited rights as to how many times I can play the content on it.

My recollection is it started with MP3’s and Napster. The MP3 allowed smaller files to be exchanged between parties over the internet vin Napster as it existed back then and no one got paid. I had software called SoundJam by Cassidy & Greene for my Rio player which Apple bought and became iTunes. iTunes allowed ripping from CD’s which became very handy for the first iPods and everyone got to listen to their own music anywhere. So far so good. I still use iTunes Match which costs $25/yr and parks my entire music collection on iCloud which I can access from all my devices including Apple TV. Still buy used CD’s on EBay for good prices and rip to AAC’s for cloud version. Amazing what you can find under $10 shipped.

Somehow Apple became a hero as it rescued the music business from the Napster model where no one got anything for their music plays. Spotify and all the rest followed the same model and pay fractions of cents to artists for plays. They also killed the album business by allowing single songs to be bought and played.

Not sure where all this will end. Some people are already wondering if BluRay disk players will be available in the near future and are starting to buy an extra device in case theirs breaks. Right out of a movie it seems.

A great song touching on buskering (sp?l) and money in the music business is the song “For Free” by Joni Mitchell

Mumbo said...

VinceinMT said...
All that said, I have an iPhone and I figured out how to load music on that and use that when I travel. So much of where I go there is no cell service so having it in the cloud doesn't help me, but I do have Apple Music as part of my cell plan and use it quite a bit at home.

The last iPhone I bought has double the memory (256GB) just to store a bunch of my library albums for traveling in those areas where cell service sucks. This could be on airplanes or out of the country or Montana Mixing technologies with my old music collection is a nice place to be.

Yep, lots of No Service in MT. While I never use it in cities, towns, or villages, I have a nice set of JBL speakers in my motorcycle helmet that, through a small Cardo unit on the side of the helmet, connects to my iPhone through Bluetooth. It doesn’t take long before I’m out of cell service here. I am 90 miles from Beartooth Pass and that’s a really easy day ride but cell service drops just outside of Red Lodge. Sometimes I’ll go over the pass and hook up to the Chief Jospeh Scenic Byway to make the complete loop, coming back through Wyoming (about 280 miles) and there’s no service on the Byway. Other than riding here, I do one or two cross country trips a year, using all 2-lane roads, staying on pavement but keeping things as remote as pleasurable, and camping all along the way. I ride about 10,000 miles/year, most of it solo. I’ll spend many miles just with the sound of the wind and the bike (‘21 Yamaha FJR) but music is nice on those long straight stretches. I turn it off in the twisty canyons. Another plus is that the Cardo unit allows voice commands to adjust volume, start/stop/skip/repeat as well as all the Siri commands I find the latter useful to tell it to take nots regarding what I am doing/seeing that I want to reference later. It also has rider to rider communication.

As for the music on my phone (iPhone 14 Pro), I sat down and went through all that I have (it’s in a computer database) and asked myself “If I was on Pandora, Spotify, etc., what songs would I NEVER hit the ‘Skip’ button on?” On the first pass I came up with 454 songs, all from different eras, genres, etc., totaling about 28 hours worth. I turned that into a playlist (called it ‘My No Skip List’) and use “Shuffle” which gives me some interesting segues like when Dean Martin transitions into AC/DC. ;-). I write a blog entry for every ride. Here’s one where I talk about the music and list the songs on my phone:

https://fjradventures.blogspot.com/2021/09/some-post-trip-musings-part-4-music.html

Post Edited (VinceInMT) : 1/12/2024 6:18:06 AM (GMT-8)

Mumbo said...
…I might wonder where The Who, Toto, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Led Zeppelin, Byrds, Blood Sweat & Tears, Van Halen, and so on would fall in your listening list? I assume you just have to stop at some point.

I have albums by all of them but, as you said, I had to stop somewhere but I’ve started going through my catalog and creating a 2nd No Skip List. I may end up with several on them. BTW, one of my favorite albums is “Who’s Next” which I bought on factory reel-to-reel when it came out.

Mumbo said...
I tend to listen to albums but shuffle play is great when walking, I find songs I can't readily identify and artists I did not even remember I had. That is when you know your collection is large enough with enough variety.

When I’m streaming from Apple music and whatever I selected ends and it starts playing what it thinks I might like I find myself frequently saying “Siri, what song is this?”

Mumbo said...
Another favorite is to search for a common song and listen to all the versions of it. Stormy Monday is a good one in my collection. Allman Brothers always wins but Lee Michaels is a close second since it is just an organ and a drummer.

YES, I’ve done that quite a bit too. Back in the day, I used Napster to help track down as many versions as it could have the song “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and it found quite few. The real find in that search is that it introduced me the British band The Beautiful South. If you aren’t familiar with them, check them out. Very pop, great songwriting and clever lyrics. They are a big deal in England but not so much in the states.

Another one is “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” which is one of the most covered songs out there and, to me, the definitive version is Eva Cassidy’s. Find the black and white version of her playing it live on YouTube.

Mumbo said...
My favorite “Somewhere over the Rainbow” is by Tommy Emmanuel. Chet Atkinson did a similar version.
https://youtu.be/0chensckzn0

Thanks for that. He’s amazing and when I watch/hear players like that I’m always torn between being inspired to practice the guitar more or to give up and sell the ones I have. ;-0

Mumbo said...
Papa John Creach was hard to beat many years ago with Over the Rainbow. I had this album when I was in my fiddle listening stage.
https://youtu.be/nbol73ekjme

Wow, another good one.

I wondered if it is one of the most covered songs out there and one of the lists I found ranked it as #18 with “Yesterday” coming in first. On a related topic, on a 7-mile run a few weeks ago, my running partner and I were were talking about music, like we do quite frequently, and wondered what songwriter is the most covered. I looked (OK, asked Siri) when we got back and the several sources that popped up indicated Bob Dylan, which was my guess.

Mumbo said...
I have Eve Cassidy Live at Blues Alley from my DC days. Shame she passed so young.

Yes, and I find hearing her sing “Rainbow” more poignant knowing that.

Sort of back to the earlier topic of the industry and the challenges for artists, last night I was working on my vinyl catalog (tweaking the software I wrote and updating some entries) and went through the albums I have by The Roches. My wife and I were big fans and saw them several times when we lived in LA. I pulled up one of their concerts from the early-80s on YouTube that was interspersed with interviews and in one, Suzzy mentioned that they know what they do isn’t radio friendly but through all the playing live they have done they have built a loyal fan base. So, playing live and making whatever pittance they get from selling records is how they make their living. There are lots of acts like this and most don’t end up with super-mansions in Malibu.

Another aspect is that with today’s technology, artists are more able to produce/record/distribute their material themselves, sidestepping the traditional industry altogether.

Last thoughts:

Gershwin's "Summertime" has been recorded over 67,000 times for the win. The Beatles are just newbies in this race.

The guys standing in the intermission bathroom line at a Tommy Emmanuel concert are all offering their guitars for sale for cheap to take up another instrument, pretty funny group of dejected musicians, I was never good enough to get depressed.

Many great players became session musicians. It was quite common for the producer to throw the band's drummer out after about 15 minutes. Software is replacing much of that now as engineers can fix about anything or use a custom drum track so another income source going down the drain.

My brother says he gets less playing gigs now than he did 20 years ago. Lots of fun but you need a real job to pay the bills, especially if you have a family.

The money is in concerts on the road now if you are popular enough, Steve Morse was Deep Purple's guitar player for years as the money was too good. Steve Lukather plays with Ringo and resurrects Toto every few years for tours. Easy money for great musicians except you have to abandon family for much of your life which they all complain about and then go on the road the next week. Covid was helpful for many to meet their family and spouse, some got divorced as a result.

If the Beatles arrived on the scene today, in today's music business environment chances are they wouldn't even make it out of Liverpool, unless perhaps they turned they're creative magic in the direction of hip-hop. That likely wouldn't turn out well for John, Paul, George and Ringo. In the good 'ol days raw talent rose to the top. Today? It's all corporate deals and marketing. Extremely talented musicians live in poverty. Take me back to the 50's 60's 70's. We'd all wait next to the radio waiting for the next release from one of the great musical groups. Those were in the days I paid $1 for a 45 rpm. I feel sorry for the kids today. Not much to hang their hats on. I know. I know. Granted, we can't go back in time. But they can't confiscate my memories.

TJ123 said...
…Today? It's all corporate deals and marketing. Extremely talented musicians live in poverty. Take me back to the 50's 60's 70's. We'd all wait next to the radio waiting for the next release from one of the great musical groups….

There was plenty of corporate-manufactured music in that era: the Monkees and The Archies come to mind. Then there are actual bands who got manufactured in the studio, keeping the front man and largely replacing the rest of the band with session players like Gary Lewis and the Playboys.

All that said, there is still lots of great music being made and, in many ways, easier to access that it was decades ago due to the Internet. Back in the day, many people only heard what the radio station, the DJ, the program director wanted them to hear. Many/most of my friends here grew up with that experience and are “stuck” in that era in what was a very small market. My experience wa different in that I grew up in the Los Angeles area where we had at least two stations that played content not found elsewhere: KNAC in Long Beach and KPPC/KROQ in Pasadena. Later Santa Monica’s KCRW daily Morning Becomes Eclectic regularly introduced new artists, many times live in the studio, and I think they still do. So much of one is exposed to depends on where they were/are. Local radio where I am now is new music (highly processed produced), classic oldies, lots of CW, and religious content. The only jazz we get is an hour on an NPR outlet. Luckily, with the Internet, I’m not limited to any of that.

centralPAdude said...
I have discovered so much music via the internet, that would have never made in front of me if I waited for radio to lay it.

On YouTube, any “Live on KEXP” video from the from the KEXP radio station in Seattle is going to have exceptional sound quality. One of the groups I discovered late…

https:// https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=foduqaesj0c

The female singer, Mimi, recently passed away from cancer. I think of this song whenever I have to urinate on demand for the urologist.

YES!!! The KEXP videos are some of favorites. I especially like this one with James Mercer of the Shins:

https://youtu.be/f_cuhtmp3wi?si=cprxbwmzcgrnfpsi

BTW, this a fixed version of your link:

https://youtu.be/foduqaesj0c?si=matpkwicnptvnd0_

I wasn’t familiar with them but like them. Reminds me of the minimalism of the band The xx. From NPR Tiny Desk Concerts:

https://youtu.be/3-03z36is6m?si=no2_pockje5wv6cb

And, yes, the urology thing comes to mind. And a funny side story, I’ve had an AUS for 4-1/2 years and just had it replaced 4 days ago. Prior to surgery I had to do labs and when I got there they said they only needed a urine sample. I asked if they knew why I was getting tested and they didn’t. When I told them they said they could send me home with a cup as if that was a solution. Anyway, I had consumed several pints of water before I got there and felt a pretty steady dribble into my pad and was able to put enough in the cup for them.

Mumbo said...
… Milli Vanilli…

Yes. And it was about that time there was controversy about bands using prerecorded music, not just vocals, in their concerts. I saw the Eagles in Los Angeles in 1977, Hotel California, and they performed in front of a curtain with album cover projected on it. When they got to one of their songs that has strings on it I thought, prerecorded strings? No, the curtain opened and it looked like the strings from the LA Philharmonic behind them performing live.