Awhile back, Slashdot had a request for interview questions for Bill Evans in a story called,
"Ask a Music Producer". For reasons unknown (I'd guess he was just too busy), he never responded to the interview. He did, however, send lil' ol' me an email answering my questions. I've meant to post this for awhile, but for reasons unknown (I must have been too busy
:), I haven't. Here it is in all its brief glory. My questions are italicized.
I don't think I'll get to your question in the interview, but I wanted to
answer them.
As a producer, I'm guessing you use p2p to nab some songs that may be in the
back or your head and that you would like to duplicate the 'feel' of aspects
of a certain producer's style. How has p2p affected your production style?
Has it helped solidify ideas, or bogged you down with distractions?
You're exactly right, and it has helped. I plan to get satellite radio,
which will probably be a better system for me.
I am currently in the process of removing my music from buymusic.com , who
acquired it and is selling it illegally.[me: see a previous Journal Entry for details] What resources do independent artists have when fighting against the very industry that professes to protect musicians? Is copyright infrigement a one way street leading straight to the bank for large companies?
You raise an interesting point about the (little-mentioned) copyright
infringement by large record companies who illegally sell works and/or don't
pay the artist. It's something I deal with more than infrequently.
As for resources, I would start with ASCAP or BMI (whichever you belong to).
There may be additional legal services for musicians, but I'm afraid I don't
know about them -- hopefully one of the above organizations will know more.
We're fortunate in that we have our lawyers for dealing with these issues,
but are far from 100% successful even when the record company is clearly in
the wrong.
Keep me updated on your situation and I'll try to help.
As a publicist, do you see distribution via p2p as a growing trend for your
more/less established artists?
I'm not sure what you mean by growing (for me or the industry?). I've been
using P2P to market my artists for several years now. I think it's critical,
and for me there is no relative importance in regard to an artist's
established market presence.
I notice that the link to Neil's site only
provides small samples of music.
LOL. Yeah, I know. I just started with Neal last week. That will all change.
Do you encourage making entire songs
available at low bitrate samples? Does p2p make this a moot point?
I can't make a specific, across-the-board recommendation. As a base line,
though, all my artists release one song from each CD as an extra-high
quality audio file -- for free download and distribution. Depending on the
artist, where we are in the album promotion cycle (and other factors) there
may be more released.
I'm not a fan of low bit-rate stuff because I don't see a strong value for
the consumer. But that's just my opinion, and I certainly don't think
there's a right or wrong. That's just my own style.
Bill
--
Bill Evans
Media Relations
Numavox Records
Web: www.numavox.com
It feels good to scoop the Slashdot eds... :)