the AMP - Issue 07

"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music."
— Maggie Tulliver in The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

In This Issue... [9+ pages, approx 14 minutes] You'll Get...

• RECOMMENDS — Jim Parker's Singer Songwriter Series

• TALKABOUT — Music And The Brain: The Secret of Music's Strange Power.

• GUEST ARTICLE — Wait! What? Even Rock Stars Have a Boss?

• BACKSTAGE PASS— 4 Steps to a Unique Show by Tom Jackson,

• PS from PS— So Far Sofar Sounds Not So Good

Here is the playlist

• RECOMMENDS — Jim Parker's Singer Songwriter Series

Jim Parker is a Singer Songwriting legend (and fully disclosed, one of NML's Support Partners). More than four decades in the biz playing and co-creating with an astonishing array of who's-whose-and-who's would be reason enough, but his Jim Parker's Songwriters Series, where he showcases the talents and creation stories of songwriters and their songs from Los Angeles; Canada; Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; and, and, and... is what makes Jim a National Treasure.

Jim's Songwriter Series is a showcase featuring the world's greatest Songwriters and musicians. Hosted at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It's a rare opportunity to see these artists perform in the round, in a dinner-theater atmosphere, up close and personal!

Tap to SUBSCRIBE.

You'll get announcements and invites and news of upcoming events (eight this year and nine in 2024). AND, Jim's YouTube channel features more than 376 videos, from setlist clips to complete shows. And he's on Facebook as well:

Want a taste of Jim's Treasures?

Here's one of our favorites: Pat Alger Thunder Rolls co-written with Garth Brooks. The backstory is crazy amazing.

Here's another: Jill Colucci’s Anymore she wrote with Travis Tritt.

Jill tells the story of how Anymore has been used on the Voice multiple times and was sung by Todd Tilghman who won season 18. Todd's 'mega-mentor' on the Voice that week was James Taylor and Jill just happened to be watching that show. Just for fun, here's Todd's performance.

Can't resist. One more: Aaron Barker.

One of our plans for the future is The New Music Lives Singer Songwriter's Hall of Fame. James Ervan 'Jim' Parker will be one of the first inductees.

• TALKABOUT — Music And The Brain: The Secret of Music's Strange Power.

This article— condensed and summarized below— was originally published in Scientific American on September 1, 2006, and was written by Norman M. Weinberger.

The article delves deeply into the relationship between music and the brain, attempting to uncover the mechanisms behind our profound emotional reactions to music and the reasons for its universal appeal. We've summarized the article for you highlighting the four key points. (There's a link to the original below).

• Universal Recall and Imagination of Music: Even in the absence of external stimuli, our brains can recall and even "play" music internally. This ability suggests that music holds a deeply ingrained and fundamental place in our cognitive processes.

• Physical Changes Due to Music: Prolonged exposure to and practice of music can lead to physical changes in the brain. These changes include alterations in the auditory cortex, increased motor control regions related to instrument playing, and hyperdevelopment of certain brain structures. Such profound physical changes underline music's significance in human evolution and daily function for both musicians and listeners.

• Strong Emotional Reactions: One of the most unique and powerful aspects of music is its ability to evoke intense emotional reactions. The study of the brain shows distinct and consistent physiological changes in response to different types of music, indicating that our brains are wired to associate music with emotional responses. Even when certain parts of the brain responsible for comprehending melody are damaged, the emotional response to music remains intact, highlighting the deep-rooted and perhaps primal nature of our connection to music.

• Music and Reward Systems: Music has the capability to stimulate the same brain reward systems as primal needs and desires, such as food, sex, and addictive drugs. This overlap suggests that music, at some level, fulfills a fundamental human need or desire, making it universally cherished.

In conclusion, music's pervasive and important role in human lives stems from...

• Its deep-rooted connection to our cognitive processes
• Its ability to induce physical changes in the brain, and
• Its unique power to evoke strong emotional responses

The secret to music's uncanny power lies in its capacity to tap into the fundamental brain structures and processes, resonating with our primal needs and emotions, and fulfilling a profound human desire for connection, expression, and reward.

Source: Scientific American

In Partnership With MUBUTV

• GUEST ARTICLE — Wait! What? Even Rock Stars Have a Boss?

By Derek Sivers, from his 'must have book’ Your Music and People: Creative and Considerate Fame.

Rock Stars Have a Boss?
I was 20 years old. I had just moved to New York City. And I was working inside the music industry.

I ran the music library at Warner/Chappell. It was a huge room, near the executives’ offices, and I had it all to myself.

Rock stars would come into my room before or after their meetings, to wait or relax. Because I was just some nobody working in the library, they would often speak candidly.

What surprised me was this:

These rock stars’ biggest complaints were about the things they were forced to do, or not allowed to do! 
Things like, “I think the album is perfect and finished, but the label says they don’t hear a hit, so they’re making me co-write.” Or, “I wanted to make a video with this director I admire, but the label won’t let me.”

I had always assumed that rock stars were the top of the food chain. It was weird to realize they had a boss!

But that’s the trade-off when you sign away your rights.
The independent music revolution was so exciting because thousands of musicians were realizing that they didn’t need to sign these kinds of deals anymore. They didn’t need labels, distributors, publishers, or anything else to get their music to the public.

But years later, I still hear people making that trade-off. Giving up their rights and serving a company, in hopes of a greater reward.

• authors who act like Amazon is the boss
• web designers who act like Google is the boss
• promoters who act like Facebook is the boss

But you only have a boss if you choose to!
Nobody is making you serve these masters. Of course, if you don’t want a boss, then everything is up to you. Less promotion, but more freedom. Less help, but keeping all your rights. Riding the back roads, not the highway. Serving no one but yourself.

Never forget you have the choice.

• BACKSTAGE PASS — 4 Steps to a Unique Show by Tom Jackson

When explaining how to create a unique show, I always offer the analogy of building a house. There are 4 steps to making it happen.

And for those of you who’ve worked with contractors to build a home, who are thinking to yourself right now, 'Well, that’s pretty over simplified – 4 steps? What did he think I\ was doing for the last 8 months when I built MY house!...’ ...you’d be right. It is an oversimplification of the process involved. And believe me, I always remind artists that creating a unique show is a long process, too!

But I still believe all the things you do in the process of building a house or building a great live show, basically consists of these 4 steps:

1. Plan It
The first answer I get whenever I ask an audience of musicians, “what’s the first step in building a house?” is always “lay the foundation!” (That’s why we’re all musicians, not contractors.) In reality, the first step is planning the house — taking all the ideas you’ve seen, heard, thought about, and putting them down on paper.

With your show, what do you want to see (or more accurately, what do you want your audience to see, hear, experience)? Whether it was an idea you got from someone else’s show, from a song you wrote, or something from your own creative mind that no one else has ever imagined — you need to get a vision for your unique show and begin to make a plan for how you’ll make those special moments happen for your audience.

2. Lay the Foundation
OK, now is the time for that foundation! When it comes to the live show, that means the mental, emotional, psychological, and spiritual parts of you and what you understand about your audience. Most artists have an unsteady foundation because they have failed to deal with what is going on at a personal level inside of themselves and their audience.

The foundation is so very important, but rarely addressed. Your audience will be connecting with you as a person. They want to understand the human side of you. You’ll need to be confident, with authority and charisma, and that will very likely mean wrestling with yourself about being on the stage, being able to accept criticism and learning from it, working through struggles of business and finances, and more.

3. Build It
This is the part most people think of when you talk about building a home. And it’s the part artists think of when preparing a show. Getting the music right, developing the skills to play your instrument and sing, writing songs, and getting the sound & tone right, etc.

Add to that the part of “building it” that most artists don’t think about... the visual and style development... and you know this is a big part of the process, and one that will take a great deal of time to get right!

4. Move In
Finally, there is this important part of building a home (or a show). It will make the difference between moving into a “cookie cutter” house in a subdivision that has been decorated and furnished by the builder, or choosing your own paint color, flooring, furniture, and accessories to create our own unique home.

To do this with your live show means rearranging your songs so you are in control and can connect with the audience. It means extracting the moments within your songs that allow you to express yourself completely from stage. And it means learning how to effectively communicate, musically, visually, and verbally from the stage so your audience can understand who you are and relate to you and your music.

____________________

Tom Jackson is the author of the book, Tom Jackson’s Live Music Method and the All Roads Lead to the Stage DVD series. He’s worked with Taylor Swift, Magic!, Shawn Mendes, LeCrae and a host of A List artists. Tom’s uniquely talented and skilled at transforming an artist’s live show into a magical experience for the audience; helping artist at every level to create a live show that is engaging and memorable and teaching them to exceed their audiences’ expectations and to create fans for life— TrueFans.

Tom's innovative, fun, and unique speaking & teaching skills are highly regarded at conferences, colleges, and music events around the world.

As Tom says, “When I introduce my Live Music Method into a performer’s rehearsal process, I’m leading them into an entirely new set of skills, a completely new tool set... in fact, a totally new mind set!”

AND... Coming Soon. Not Ready Yet. Tom and NML's Paul Saunders are planning a Performance Series aimed at solo-duo Singer Songwriters. That's gonna' be killer. KILLER!

• WE CONTINUE TO ASK... For people who appreciate the AMP

If you're one of them— the Appreciators— help us make more of you. We're not a big deal Internet nor affiliate marketers. We're building NML on a shoestring. (Not even bootstrapping.) So, if you enjoy the AMP... Benefit from what's in each issue... And you're willing and able to spread the word with and for us... Please. And thank you!

Go to New Music Lives for the AMP. the Book. the Group. No charge. No strings.

And we don't hound people or hassle them with sales pitches. It's Time... for a Change. Big Time. Past Time. We're asking you to help us make that happen. Thanks.

• PS from PS— So Far Sofar Sounds Not So Good

I've seen the rise and rise of Sofar Sounds as a new way for artists to play shows in alternative venues. So... I wanted to see if this was something worthwhile from a financial point of view for artists seeking gigs on the road.

I did some research. Calculator in hand. Here's the breakdown of the revenue split based on an average show...

Ave Ticket Price $20. Selling 60 tickets = $1200

Ave Show Staff: $460 goes to Sofar Sounds
Ave Show Costs: $200 goes to Sofar Sounds
Ave Show Promo: $100 goes to Sofar Sounds

Total Expenses paid. $760

This leaves $440 for the artist from which Sofar takes 30%— $132

Plus there's a $2 per-ticket booking fee from which Sofar makes $1.00 per ticket. That's $60. And let's assume that Sofar nets 30% of the show costs after paying expenses, which is $228

This means Sofar makes $420 from the show.

This means the artist makes $308 from the show. Around 25% of the revenue.

Artists are then paid by Sofar approx. 14 days after each show.

So once again you... The artists... Are the last and the least paid.

Seems to be a common theme in the music business.

Have you heard me say, 'It's Time... for a Change. Big Time. Past Time.'

Well... It is!

Thanks for reading. Give us your feedback. And remember, all Issues of the AMP are posted in our Private Facebook Group.

And PLEASE, if you've got any Singer Songwriter friends, pass the AMP on, because...It’s Time... for a Change. Big Time. Past Time...

Paul Saunders