Day 2 Denver Music Summit. The Future of the Music Business + an industry round table with about 20 or so local, regional, and out of state musicians and industry personnel. I think the big takeaway for me was realizing we’re sitting in a pretty good place here in Colorado.
UCD Professor Storm Gloor covered the current trends and fast changing technologies that are shaping the near future, without prognosticating on what may or may not happen years from now. And the round table discussion I took part in more or less reinforced what I already felt, that despite the nearly horrific rise in the price of housing our creative community continues to set a standard looked at and talked about coast to coast – and that the only thing missing are jobs in publishing, licensing, and management and booking agencies, which for now at least are still safely settled on either coast.
Another pretty big takeaway from the weekend was verification that 18-24 and 45-64 audiences exist for both music discovery and live music attendance, and it’s the 25-44 crowd that’s largely absent at live music events, but still the most desired radio audience for advertisers. This has been true for a few decades now.
The question was brought up, when the last of the baby boomers (now 50) pass on through, what happens? After all, how many acts can still fill stadiums? Jagger et.al. are now in their mid-seventies .. the youngest members left of the WWII generation … and the average age of the average touring musician today is 52, at the youngest end of the boomer generation. One of the most likely outcomes is the demise of the full on stadium show and a rise in smaller venues (in the 1500+ seat range) and festival events. Who is the next act or acts capable of doing stadium shows?
Video Pick of the Week
I had my camera with me, but as usual it was the spontaneous “oh crap I’d better shoot some stuff” moment that compelled me to take it out the holster and actually push record. Here’s just a taste of what I saw on Saturday night. I did a full audio recording of the DMS, but haven’t had time to review and edit.
PLAYLIST S9|EP17
HOUR 1
Mollie O’Brien “When I’m Gone” from Things I Gave Away (2000)
Yo, Flaco! “Skeptamistic” from Skeptamistic (2001)
John Common “The River Is Moving” from The River Is Moving (2015)
Tennis “Bad Girls” from Ritual In Repeat (2014)
Fierce Bad Rabbit “Time Machine” from Maestro & the Elephant (2013)
Plum “Behind Your Man” from Behind Your Man (2015)
Devotchka “Transliterator” from A Mad & Faithful Telling (2008)
John Statz “One Way Opens” from Tulsa (2015)
Montropo “Something to See” from Follow Me (2015)
Danielle Ate the Sandwich “Like A King” from Like A King (2012)
Railsplitters “Met That Day” from The Faster It Goes (2015)
Rich Lamb “Deja Blues” from Music Along the Way (2008)
HOUR 2
Leftover Salmon & Cracker “Low” from Oh Cracker, Where Art Thou? (2003)
(D) Raven and the Writing Desk “On A Wire” from some get started (2015)
(N) Natalie Walker “Nothing Lasts Forever” from Strange Bird (2015)
OneRepublic “Feel Again” from Native (2012)
Calder’s Revolvers “Leave Ya Be” from Sunday Morning (2014)
Bill Frisell “Messin’ with the Kid” from Guitar In the Space Age (2014)
Hazel Miller Band “I’m Still Looking” from I’m Still Looking (2001)
Drag the River “Not That Kind” from Drag The River (2013)
(N) Todd Adelman “Cold Mississippi Blues” from Highways & Lowways (2015)
Head for The Hills “Take Me Back” from Blue Ruin (2013)
Brad Goode “St. Louis Blues” from Chicago Red (2013)
