We want the music scene to stay alive. How do we do it? How do we achieve a thriving music scene? Lets start by asking some questions. Using our resources.
Eric Alper - Director Director of Media Relations and Label Acquisitions E1 Music Canada
What it really comes down to is a few things - the media and how smart the bands/promoters are themselves and how much they really want to change things.
Every small-ish town has a problem - if there's 4 or less radio stations (and none of them play local music because of MDs not caring/no indie programming abilities), then people really have to start going online. I bet if I looked at various band's websites, a bunch wouldn't have an updated tour schedule, updated bio, photo, or even streaming or free downloading of songs. The key word is free. None of these bands should be worried at all about losing or making money, they should be worried about being ignored. Every single new band I've signed this year is giving away 3-5 songs every 4 months, and at the end of the year, if they have 20,000 or so downloads, then they make a physical CD. It's not my rule, but retail isn't going to give up shelf space to a band that doesn't have any fans - the band has to create the buzz themselves, and it's not by spamming people daily, but actually giving their fans a reason to keep coming back to the websites.
The high schools in the city are going to be the future for any arts area - is anyone targeting them? Having free shows? Creating a Facebook/Yahoo group for people to talk about music, who's coming, who they'd like to see, promo for bands, discounted tickets for them, all ages shows, Brockville blog/music scene page, half page editorial in the local papers, or indie spotlight on radio stations, etc.?
I find sometimes the promoters are the biggest meanies of all of it. They have this aura that the bands should be thankful for their existence, when really, it's the other way around. They charge $20 for 15 awful bands, cut corners, and put all the pressure on the bands to bring in the people, when really, it should be the promoters and audience and bands working together to just get as much information out there as possible. What usually happens is that all 3 groups of people are looking at one another going "it's your fault."
But the fact is, the Brockville Arts Centre do reasonable well, I would imagine. The Recorder can really step up a bit, as can Cogeco and Living In Brockville Magazine, but it's all about the audience, and I know - why should The Recorder give up a weekly column written by a music person other than the entertainment editor to cover indie artists who's audience don't read the paper, nor contribute to the advertising dollars? Because they bloody well should - there's The London Free Press, K/W Record and others that have high school or university students writing music sections every week, because the main music person covers the bigger acts.
But I think the answer is that with 4 High Schools, St Lawrence College, and a population of over 20,000, the audience pool is going to be pretty small to choose from anyway - maybe it's just a matter of having those cream of the crops bands fight it out for themselves. I truly believe that the first thing to go down the drain in any community/city/province/country are the arts. Kill that, depress that, ignore that, and you'll have an area waiting to be designated as a place where nobody wants to go or live.
So here I am trying to spike some life into the Brockville Music scene.
