Author: admin

By now many of you (at least the musicians among us) have probably read Emily White’s NPR piece “I Never Owned Any Music To Begin With”. If not, take a moment before proceeding to read her article. It is basically an admission of having barely ever actually paid for music whilst enjoying it as a central part of her life.

Now, there have been many well-written reaction pieces to Ms. White’s, and I don’t feel the need to add to that in the same way. I would like, however, to make an appeal to the rest of you. I think that many of you probably don’t realize the power you have to make sure that the music you love keeps on thriving. By simply purchasing music whenever you find something you like, especially when it was made by an independent or small-label artist, you are being a patron of the arts, keeping the music coming. It really is that easy. Whether you buy it in person at a show, at a record store, or as a digital download, money does actually make it our way… how much depends on where you buy it.

Chances are, if you are buying a physical copy at a band’s show 100% is going to the musicians, so this is probably the best option if possible, plus you’ve probably bought a ticket to get into the show, doubly helping the artist. Now obviously sometimes your favorite acts simply aren’t touring anywhere near you– perhaps you live in North Dakota or the Yukon Territory. Some people might ask, “what is the next best thing? How can we ensure that the majority of the money we spend goes to the musicians?” You could go download albums from iTunes, which is certainly easy, but if you think of a $0.99 song, the musician generally gets $0.69 for every download. This can also be substantially reduced if the artist has released said song through a label, depending on that contract. This brings me to my favorite two choices, used by most independent musicians I know: Bandcamp and CD Baby. The former is my true favorite. I love Bandcamp. It is sleek, easy to customize, and artists see 85% of the sales on digital downloads, and 90% on physical orders (CD Baby pays out around 91%). It also makes it really easy to discover new music, through the great new Discoverinator section on the website. I recently stumbled onto this wonderful Montreal-based duo, Lizzy & the Orca, through Bandcamp. I liked what I heard, and for a mere 10 Canadian dollars I ordered the CD copy, which came with a sweet coloring book as well. The point here is that my purchase directly supported Lizzy & the Orca. There are 300 million people in the United States, and if only 1% of that number are BIG music fans, imagine the power to support the arts held in that 3 million people if each spent about $10 a week. That is a couple of beers plus tip at your favorite bar, or one lunch eaten out.

So get out there, find some music you love, and buy it! In many cases, you aren’t supporting some “phantom corporation”, but the musicians themselves. And hey, we might even some day be able to quit our day jobs and release EVEN MORE music!

Thanks for reading,

John

p.s., you can always find my music at the above-mentioned spots 😉 –

Bandcamp
CD Baby
iTunes

Yea yea, I know, I’m a slacker.  I’ve been busy?  Does that work as an excuse?  I’m going to be better at updating you, blog, I swear!  Here are the pictures from Arches National Park that I promised, taken at the end of my May tour through Wyoming and Utah.

 

Sorry it is taking a long time to get this now month-old story out, I’ve been a bit busy lately. Here is the (near) final installment in the early May Wyoming/Utah trip tales…

After some greasy breakfast and coffee with Mr. Brett Turner (yes, greasy breakfast and coffee with music friends is a MUST while on the road), we parted ways and I headed south out of Ogden. My destination was Moab, where I was playing a house concert that night, but I would have to make a few interesting pit-stops on the way, the first of which was Salt Lake City.

My Utah experience until this trip was pretty limited: Moab, Park City, and a drive through southern Utah to Las Vegas, as well as driving past SLC once. I had to stop, and I’ll admit, I’m a bit fascinated by the whole “Salt Lake City is to Mormonism as Rome is to Catholicism” thing, so, after a brief stop to the State Capitol, I walked down to Temple Square. Of course, this is the image everyone has in mind, and the only thing I really knew about downtown SLC…

Yep, it is a big church, though not as big as I thought it would be. No disrespect to Mormons, by the way, it just isn’t St. Pete’s in Rome is all. So yea, there are some pretty flowers, and lots of weddings going on (I probably ended up in the background of some photos), and since they don’t let non-Mormons into the Tabernacle, that was about it for my visit. There is also this weird office building, which actually houses the headquarters of the Church of Latter-Day Saints:

There is something very impersonal and strange, to me, anyways, about running a faith out of an office building. Makes it seem kind of like, I don’t know, a business…

Anyways, out of SLC and on to Moab!

Well, that is, until I decided to pull off the highway outside of Price, Utah for a creepy-as-hell trek down this dirt road:

The road leads into Horse Canyon, which seemed like a place that might have some hiking trails or something. Wrong, and like outside of Laramie on day 1 of this trip, I once again landed myself in super-creepy territory. After the road entered the canyon, I quickly came upon ruins of some type.

Again, I was the only human in sight, and there was an eerie wind blowing through the canyon. Despite the beautiful, sunny day, I felt cold. And if anyone has seen The Hills Have Eyes (the original), you might be able to get a sense for the weirdness in the air. I fully expected mutants to climb down the walls of the canyon after me. How about a few more strange pictures:

This was as far as I dared to venture inside on my lonesome. How about those large holes in the wall by the graffiti?

There were more of those human silhouette spots all over the outside (and inside, from what I could see) of the buildings. I found it weirder that they didn’t have bullet holes all over them, because I could see some locals using them for target practice. So why were they there?

Couldn’t really muster up the courage to go through this door…

I wandered around the ruins for about a half-hour, but could not shake the freaky vibes, and so, before becoming a victim in a Wes Craven film, I drove the hell out of Horse Canyon. Yea, I’m probably a big wuss. After reaching Moab I did some research and found out that the buildings were part of the abandoned Horse Canyon Mine, which this decidedly brave Price, UT local unabashedly explored and photographed, incredibly. I’ll go back with a friend sometime, I promise.

Oh yeah, check out that drive into Moab:

I played a house concert that night for the Community Rebuilds organization, a great bunch of folks who build energy-efficient, sustainable housing for low-income families. I played in front of their garage in the backyard, with a campfire, Christmas lights, and around forty amazing people as company. It was a beautiful evening, and one of the best crowds I have ever had the privilege of playing for. Moab, I shall return, you were amazing. Thanks for listening to my long-winded stories between songs, I probably talked more than played, but hey, you gave me the PBR.

Stay tuned for the conclusion, which will really mostly be photos from my excursion the next day to Arches National Park, before I drove back to Denver…