Music Arsenal Blog

I purchased the Before the Music Dies DVD after recently seeing snippets of a public showing at Omaha music venue, The Waiting Room. I finally got around to watching it last night and I must say I was very impressed.

The documentary revolves around the changing industry in both the major label and radio play/ownership. It began with discussions with major artists (Dave Matthews, Erika Badu and more) about the fabrication of teen idols and how many of the true music talents are being passed over for pushing a bubblegum act to make a quick buck. It also had several acts commenting on the consolidation of radio and playlists being shrunk to certain songs that have passed the group evaluation and universal market appeal tests. I think the most important points made in the movie were about the music and radio industries hurting themselves in the long run by paying more attention about making money now rather than having long term vision for their artists and companies.

Its clear that long term artist development of the 60s, 70s and 80s is a thing of the past. If an artist doesn't write that hit single or their album doesn't meet sales expectations chances are they'll be dropped for the next flavor.

If you have 90 minutes to spare and would like to check out an interesting documentary about the changing industry I highly suggest Before The Music Dies.

I wanted to give the readers a quick update that we've recently added some new functionality to Music Arsenal which allows you to import contacts from an Excel file. We know it was tedious when you had a big list to hand type everything back into Music Arsenal so we've automated everything and make data population quicker and easier!

If you click on the 'Data Import' link on the left navigation you'll be taken to a page with instructions on how to upload then import your contacts. Now, instead of adding a couple hundred contacts to Music Arsenal over a day or two, it will only take you seconds! E-mail me at jimmy (at) musicarsenal.com and let us know what you think!

Music Arsenal has teamed up with Advanced Alternative Media and Brooklyn Vegan to bring you a great South By Southwest day party.

Here's the details:
The Scoot Inn - 1308 E. 4th Street
Thursday, March 15th - 12-6pm

Mew
Matt and Kim
O'Death
Rock Plaza Central
Rob Crow
Hella
Best Fwends
Golden Bear
New Violators
Cloud Cult
Brothers and Sisters
The Finchies
Fucked Up
The Twilight Sad

Two Stages, Twice the Fun!

The party with is free with no badge required. We'll be there all day and if you want to talk to us e-mail me at jimmy@musicarsenal.com.

Music Arsenal will be attending South By Southwest again this year. We'll be out in full force scouring the town for the latest and greatest as well as at the Music Arsenal sponsored day party which we'll be giving details on in the next few days.

If you'd like to meet with us to discuss Music Arsenal, or anything else for that matter, give us a call at 800-231-9273 or e-mail me at jimmy@musicarsenal.com.

After the announcement that Ozzfest will be "free" for concert goers this year there has been much discussion on how this will affect the artists playing the shows. One thing I have not seen discussed much is how this will affect the fans.

Although the event claims to be free, the press release states, "To gain entry into the event, fans will go to www.ozzfest.com or www.livenation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured." I wonder what this means? Will fans need to register on LiveNation.com to get tickets in order to boost Live Nation's rumored upcoming social network? Will they need to watch a 30 second ad before they get tickets, similar to SpiralFrog's business plan?

I will be keeping an eye on this to see how this rolls out. Rocket From The Crypt did a free six week tour in the mid-90's footed by Interscope and from what I understand it really helped the band grow in popularity.

If Ozzfest is done correctly, without over commercialization, I believe this could change the way not only festivals are presented but also smaller, one or two band tours.