The Best in the Industry

Being a music publishing and production company, CqE is all about music and its influence. What influences CqE the most is using music to save lives. Music is a powerful medium, and honestly, no matter what the financial state of the country or even the world, there will always be a desire and need for music.

In the fight to save lives through music, the “Stay Tuned” blog wants to focus on one profession association who seems to do it the best. We are influenced by VH1’s Save the Music Foundation and all its efforts. The foundation is a non-profit organization focused on reintroducing instrumental music education in the public schools of America. They are also adamant about raising the awareness about how important music is as part of the youth’s “complete education”.

For those unfamiliar within the foundation, VH1 Save the Music Foundation’s goal is to work with school districts of elementary and middle schools to implement instrumental programs in all school within the district who don’t have such programs. VH1 Save the Music Foundation is willing to provide each school with grants of new music instruments in order for that school to develop and offer instrumental music instruction curriculum for its students regardless of financial background.

HOW THIS HELPS THE INDUSTRY

In creating and sustaining these programs, you give the youth a better chance at being a success in life. Starting at this age, you are preparing the next generation of music artists, songwriters, and/or music producers. For some youth who come out of dangerous backgrounds, this foundation has also saved their life.

No one person can truly be a success, until they learn to give back. What is the point of gaining a lifetime of knowledge and experience just to keep to yourself? Any artist who has had his/her fair share of success is looking for a protégé. When you support and have a foundation like the VH1 Save the Music Foundation, you are ensuring that not only does music have a future, but also you are investing in the next Michael Jackson, Bono, Prince, Billy Joel, or even Jay-Z.

VH1 Save the Music Foundation’s website has a section on “Success Stories” which run the gauntlet from music saving kids from dropping out of school, to music allowing someone to be the first in their family to make it to college, to music giving students more focus academically. According to its website, the foundation has “provided more than $47 million in new musical instruments to 1750 public schools in over 100 cities around the country.” We can easily say that the VH1 Save the Music Foundation is not only saving the lives of the youth all over the States, but also the future of the music industry itself. This is important to the industry not only for the obvious reasons, but also further proof that used in the right way, music can and will save lives.

What will you contribute to the industry?

D-I-Y Music

CqE’s “Stay Tuned” blog has had the distinct pleasure of stumbling across an innovative website that is taking the concept of internet videos by storm. This is not YouTube or Hulu, while both very effective sites. This is TED.com; a site all about creators, innovators, and dreamers sharing their ideas online and getting support for them, or just spreading them to a cyber net audience.

One of the video presentations that stood out the most would be that of Andrew Bird. Of course I was a bit skeptical in seeing the title say this man is a “one-man orchestra”, but nonetheless, I will say it caught my eye.

In playing the video, the viewer is welcomed to Andrew recording a song in front of our very eyes in the form of various loops. The interesting thing was he would play a loop of his violin, move on to another melody loop, pluck the strings for another, whistle, then play on his xylophone for another loop meshing together a very beautiful song structure live for his audience.

There wasn’t much speaking, as most of his performance saw Andrew creating and performing songs right in front of the audience. He did go on to explain some of his songs and some of the ideas behind them. It was very exciting to see Andrew become, as the title very much suggested, a one-man orchestra.

This one man shows that technology has taken us so far as to say that the creation of music itself is now a DIY, or “do-it-yourself”, project. There is no longer a need for a middleman, and the sky is almost literally the limit as far as what you are able to do and accomplish. For Andrew to record an elaborately composed song live is indicative of where the music industry itself is heading. The record label as we may have known it, is collapsing in a way that the newspaper/print industry is becoming obsolete.

As long as there is software, hardware, and other forms of technology that allows a man like Andrew to become his own band, you eliminate the need for other musicians who may complain because you didn’t pay them, or may have a conflict in their schedule to where they can’t show up to a gig. That in itself brings its own implications: less egos/attitudes to deal with for promoters, less people to pay (or more money for Andrew), less money for travel, but on the flip side, in this case one monkey could very well “stop the show”.

For now, we’ll look at technology as a good thing for the music industry. And hopefully, more people will follow the lead of Andrew, and take the matters of their music into their own hands, instead of waiting to hire other people. This is beneficial if you have the talent to do so. If you don’t believe in your music and take the time to invest in yourself, how do you expect anyone else to? Follow Andrew’s example, keep an open mind, and ALWAYS expand and evolve your craft. Until next time.

Stay Tuned.