Star Nation

[Paul Mather]

ANDREW GARIBALDI wrote:

> Now I understand what you're saying but you're missing the point.

I was probably not being very clear. :-)

> Musicians have to live, eat and pay the bills like the rest of us, and
> with so few REAL labels taking any interest in  such music that's
> specialist anymore, it's becoming incresingly harder to do this, and
> with things like napster threatening to
> undermine the very fabric of the music industry that supports the
> bands such a s Spacehead, Hawkwind, Star Nation and the like, then
> things may only get harder and harder until eventually there's no
> quality left.

I would contend that the "very fabric of the music industry" does not
support bands such as Hawkwind, Spacehead, Star Nation and the like.
Because they are not an obvious "mass appeal," they will probably always
be shunned by big label support.  So, they have to support themselves.
Luckily, there are enabling technologies such as CD-R and the Internet
that make that easier to do.  No longer does a band have to pony up for
a pressing run of 1000 and hope they can sell them quickly enough to
avoid going bankrupt.

I'm not sure it makes economic sense to go to the capital outlay of
studio time and then only limit yourself to 50 units, unless you can
make the unit cost very high.  (Or, unless you have a home studio and go
the Nick Saloman route.)  So, selling on CD-R is a good option.
Nowadays, it takes ~10 minutes to burn a 74-minute CD-R from hard disc.
Producing CD-Rs is easy enough that here at Virginia Tech they even have
a "walk-up" CD software distribution for campus licensed software.  It's
not rocket science.  Even a big name guaranteed seller like Jimmy Page
is selling on CD-R now.

Having someone who will produce copies "on demand" is a good way to keep
the music "out there."  The biggest thing to suffer here would be the
packaging, which would probably be an issue for some (not for me, and,
hey, I never though the _Weird Tapes_ had such great packaging anyway:),
but an investment in a good colour printer (wax thermal transfer; laser;
etc.) would also help in that regard.

I don't think I'm speaking specifically to the Star Nation project in
all this.  Spacerock needs to move with the times, and realise they are
a niche market in the music industry at large.  Luckily, technology can
help them, and they no longer need be so reliant on "the music biz" to
get their music heard by their fans.

Cheers,

Paul.

NP: BOC, _The Thing!_

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa