by Mike Errico | Apr 1, 2015 | Lessons, Text Journalism
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” — Charles Darwin I’m used to managing change, and if you’re reading this, I bet you are, too. My short story: My label debut was released in 1999, and my coming out party was a slot at Woodstock ’99, which, you may recall, went up in flames and took the legacy of a previous era with it. ‘99 was the summer of Napster, and the winter of Y2K…and it only got weirder from there. Luckily, improvisation has always been part of the job description. Today is no different, and though there are new challenges, there is also the same Darwinian need to adapt. As a songwriting professor who’s been in the trenches, I tell my students that my class – The Art and Business of Songwriting – is the most important one they’re taking. They laugh, but I remind them: The song is the spark for the chain reaction that ignites every subsequent section of the industry. The song gets the musicians paid, the studios booked, the promoters on the phone, the venues filled, the PROs collecting royalties, and straight on down the line. Songwriting is also the creation of intellectual property that can continue to generate income over time. I tell them that the people who say “touring is the answer” for musicians are likely people who a) have never toured themselves, and b) forget the fact that human bodies inevitably fail over time, whereas there are songwriters out there making a great living who aren’t even...
by Mike Errico | Mar 21, 2015 | Text Journalism, Video Journalism
#TBT #SXSW #Video #Interviews Katy Perry, Gallows, Flyleaf — as babies. Back in the day, I ran Blender.com, the Internet arm of Blender magazine. I started in 2006, and there was no video page — at all. No video. We worked on fixing that by shooting a ton. Blender is dead and that’s another story, but we managed to get some good pieces together. Here are some from Austin. My, they do grow up so fast, don’t they. Katy Perry The California gurl whips out the Sharpie and signs some boobs. (2006) Gallows UK hardcore beasts tear up Austin, Texas in their fourth-ever Stateside gig. (2007) Flyleaf SXSW: After a humanitarian trip to Rwanda, a charged acoustic version of “Broken Wings.” (2008) Augustana Over the din of Austin, the band discusses “Sweet and Low” and touring with — wow — Dashboard Confessional. (2008) …and so on. We did a ton more of them and the highlight reel, including luminaries like Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, or David Lee Roth, or…oh, tons of folks, check them out here: Journalism – Mike Errico A collection of video and text journalism by Mike...
by Mike Errico | Mar 18, 2015 | Lessons, Teaching, Text Journalism, The Solo Show
This is not about copyright infringement. It’s about how not to get effed by your own entertainment lawyer. I hope my artist friends will check it out, and I hope it helps. What the “Blurred Lines” Lawyer Taught All Artists For a minute, forget about the “Blurred Lines” verdict, the lyrics and whether or not you love Marvin Gaye. The New York Times just ran a profile on Richard S. Busch, the lawyer who won the $7.4 million case for the Gaye estate. In explaining how he did it, Busch says something I hope all artists caught: “By being on the outside,” he said, “everyone who hires me knows that they get 100 percent of my loyalty.” Why is that noteworthy? Because there’s an assumption that you can hire an entertainment attorney — that’s the guy on your side, remember — and not get 100 percent of his/her loyalty. It’s pretty hard to win a legal battle with a lawyer who might not be riding with you. You’d think loyalty was a given, but, as Busch casually explains it, that’s not the case. Read on at Cuepoint. What the “Blurred Lines” Lawyer Taught All...
by Mike Errico | Mar 12, 2015 | audio, Free, Podcast, Stories, Teaching
In the new Design Observer podcast, The Observatory, Jessica Helfand and Michael Beirut discuss highlights from the “What Design Sounds Like” symposium. My contribution was “Dancing About Architecture” – the interplay between sound, architecture, composition and meaning. I spoke and spun J.S.Bach, AC/DC and FKA Twigs. I think it made sense. Other stories include: • It’s Nice That’s Rob Alderson on TED and Design Indaba • Roy Choi • Sindiso Khumalo • Interactive videos by Yoni Bloch: Like a Rolling Stone; Pretend to Be Happy • The Christmas party scene from Kramer vs. Kramer • CBC on Spocking the Canadian $5 bill Bonus: Check out Lena Dunham’s concept for a graphic design web series featuring Jessica and...
by Mike Errico | Mar 5, 2015 | Stories, Text Journalism, The Solo Show
Read Appraising Amanda Palmer’s New Patreon Campaign on Cuepoint. Amanda Palmer is good people. No, she’s great people. She came to a songwriting class I taught at Yale, and opened her heart, mind and soul to my students. She tweeted to her fanbase and for one slice of a second, we trended on Twitter. (I did not get the screengrab. Dammit.) Now she’s got a Patreon campaign, and I think the experiment will prove fruitful for her. As I write, she’s up to $20k per piece of content after just one day. So. Fruitful. In short: Meet the future of the tip jar. Appraising Amanda Palmer’s New Patreon...
