JSngry

4 for 75 would have made more sense to me, but otoh, 18.95 is "high normal" for a single CD...3-75 does seem a bit high, but I guess he did the math and projected that there were X people who would pay it (and realistically, even a lower price, how many people are going to buy a 3 CD set of live Jim Hall, period? Not that many.), and that was what was needed to make it work. Time will tell if he was right.

I'd have gotten the full 2-CD set myself, but that and Routes (on Artist Share!) are the two to get if you want the best possible first impression. Just know that her music seems to be one of those things that people either really, really like, or else just shrug and say "huh?" about. But those songs...

I would think that the extra monies received from the selling of the old material would be put towards offsetting the costs of the new project, Artist Share allows their artists to set up their own pricing structure, so if (and I don't know if he did) Hall chose to not offer all the uber-high-dollar participant packages (I've seen some projects with, like, a $5000.00 price tag with all kinds of "perks"), then it would seem that he's aiming to offer a 4 CD set for $75.00, thinking that he'll ultimately net more that way than selling one or two lavish packages. He may or may not prove to be right. Same with Maria Schnieder, she's been doing this long enough that she's no doubt done the math and came to the conclusion that she'll ne X amount of dollars to make the project do-able, and past participation activities project out to these price points being the most likely way to get it. And if the gap between $20.00 & $350.00 is too wide for comfort, just buy 3 CDs for $60.00 & give the extras as gifts. She still gets the money, and you get to spread her music around. Remeber this about Artist Share - for every project you see, the real "producer" is the artist themself, not some Albert Lion or Milt Gable or Bernard Stollman or Chuck Nessa who has the money in hand up front to pay everybody. It's a different business model, and the jury is still out on how viable it will prove to be long-term, but no matter what the pricing structures, I don't know of anybody who's making really lush profits of of any of these projects. A music having a niche audience does not give that music an automatic discount from studios, engineers, designers, printers, etc. They got to pay no matter what.

Mosaic doesn't have session-production costs, though. Those have long been paid off. Remember - the money you spend on an Artist Share project is not just for the CDs, packaging, etc. It's also for paying the musicians, engineers, studio costs, everything. LTB & I put in $500.00 on one of Monday Michiru's AS projects, pre-production. Wish it could have been 4-5 times that, because even with everything being "self-contained" these days, shit still costs money. She wanted to do more with horns, more with post-production, but the money was just not there. She still made a damn fine album, and if you didn't know better, you'd just think she was being "minimalist" in her production. But the business reality is that she did the most she could with what she had. That wasn't nearly as much an artistic choice as it was a financial necessity. So just keep this in mind - on most regular labels, somebody funds the date up front and recoups (or not) through sales and whatnot. With Artist Share, you the consumer fund the project up front, and what you recoup is product. And pride, if you represent like that. If you believe in the people and their music enough, pay the cost and be proud that you're not just buying CDs, you're financing record dates. Walk Tall, Mr. & Mrs. Big Shot Record Producers!

"Repurposing" is all the rage today, or so the shows LTB like to watch all seem to say, so, yeah, why not?

And today is one of the most perfect & beautiful spring days I've ever experienced in my life. Ever. Perfect temperature, nice cool breeze, everything as green as green can be, birds singing non-stop, and not one 18-wheeler flying in the sky to stop them. What the difference a day makes!

Another mysterious delight from Alamac!

My mother in-law still has one in her house. Not her only phone, though. Weren't those tone generators also useful for getting free long-distance or something like that? Back in the day when it wasn't supposed to be free?

A modern tone arm & cartridge would do the same thing with a lot less effort!

And McCartney's like Humpty-Dumpty!

Body piercings, then, perhaps...or not...

Cufflinks, baby, cufflinks!

Listening to Joel DiBartolo & Buddy Rich hook up right now on Buddy's Stick It album. Haven't heard this in close to 40 years, but DAMN, when the charts open up for some "rock" or "funk" blowing, Buddy's got his foot all the way up in it, as does Joel, who's giving Buddy every bit as much as good as he gets! Got to love that!

Bat Masterson Cat Anderson Pat Patterson

Wow that was quick! There are murmurings of a joint effort, or something.. http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/beatles-sons-really-form-own-band-211511971.html

Guess who?

The Ames Brothers Lida Rose Lydia Pense

Yeah, Dave Liebman tells the story of him telling Miles that he was having a hard time finding something new to play on Stella, to which Miles replied, "well, don't blame the tune!".

The thing that tripped me out was the 18-wheelers getting lifted several hundred feet up in the air and then getting smashed down like a cat playing with a dangling ball. So far, no fatalities reported, which is a freakin' miracle.

Nothing bad where I live (so far..). Sirens were going off & there was some wild stuff going on not too far away. Some really dangerous stuff to the south and further east still going on. Various video footages are pretty intense, Arlington's been declared a disaster area, hope Big Al is ok... Springtime in Texas...you just never know...

WTF?

I'm actually a very happy guy who laughs at his anger as much as he does those who provoke it! A friend to all but the willfully slothful, that's me.

Tempo. Most people got three tempos in them. Them that's got more stands a chance.

Yesterday, I came close to telling the person in front of me "Oh, it looks like the self-checkout is broken", just to steer her to the help she needed, in a traditional checkstand. But me, I'll check myself out anytime: groceries, Home Depot, hotels, air travel... Oh HELL yeah! I mean, all you have to do is be able to read, understand what touch-screens and barcodes are, and hope for some good programming. You don't always get that, but otherwise, unless you're very old and or totally rural, this is al kinda...basic stuff for how life and commerce roll these days. If you're a successful-enough person who has managed to reach your early 50s or so without ever having to deal with this stuff, it means that you've led a life based on getting other people to do your work for you, which, hey, I'm all ok with that, but what kind of decisions based on what kind of perspective are you going to have about bigger things if a simple bar code on a can of biscuits causes a meltdown of your mental reactor or you seem to not grasp that a touch screen can only begin to work if you TOUCH THE SCREEN? They got babies in China that can fix a car in seven different languages by remote control and you can't even know which side of the ATM card has the magnetic strip? Good lord JESUS help us. We ain't gonna make it like this!