Group project learning experience

As a music business student in the management track I never had the opportunity to work in a project that actually involved applying the skills learned in the classroom into the “real world”.  Therefore when the opportunity of working in a project as a manager for the band Nanai arose I looked at it as an opportunity to gain work experience rather than just another class project.  Since the day we started working with them I knew it was going to be a great learning experience. Not only did I learn from working with Nanai but also from doing it collectively with my classmates. Social media sites, biography (English/Spanish), artist website, promote concert among many others are some of the goals that were set and accomplished while working with Nanai. Even though time was not on our side we managed to give our best in helping them have a clearer vision on how to guide their career within the next few years. Personally I would have loved to have at least one more semester to work with them in a much more developed way. Another great experience that I had with the band was having the opportunity to rehearse and perform with them on a concert. I believe that Nanai has a lot of potential and that could easily achieve all their career goals. In order to achieve their goals they need to have good management and put more effort into the marketing and promotion of the band. One of the most important things about this project is that in the process both sides learned something new. Like I said before I strongly believe that this type of project is highly educational and should be incorporated into more classes.

 

Que viva Nanai y la clase de music intermidiaries!!!!!!!! 

check this out!!!!!!!

http://www.nfb.ca/film/rip_a_remix_manifesto

Hello guys! since we were talking about copyright and creative commons in our last session I thought it would be great to share this video and write a post on it.
Here it goes:

Rip a Remix Manifesto is a documentary based on the copyright concept and the idea that all creations should fall on the public domain (copy left). The protagonist in this documentary is the mash up artist “ Girl Talk”. The central premise of the documentary revolves around the estimation that Girl Talk’s sample based music should not be considered copyright infringement. In order to convince us (the audience) they (the documentary staff, along with remixers and Djs) drafted a manifesto, which they corroborated with interviews and facts and it consists of four points: culture always builds on the past, the past always tries to control the future, our future is becoming less free and to build free societies you must limit the control of the past. From the outset, the documentary seemingly emboldens its viewers to take a stand on the issue of copyright infringement: either you agree with the argument that all ideas should fall on the public domain or you agree with the copyright law and see Girl Talk’s music as an infringement. For the uninitiated, a copyright is a legal concept that gives the creator (“author”) of an idea exclusive right to it. In order for an idea to be copyrightable it has to be an original work of sufficient duration and fixed in a tangible medium. The main purpose of copyright law is to promote the development of science and the useful arts. The government makes this possible by granting authors ownership of six exclusive rights (monopoly) to their work for a determined period of time.
The six legal rights of a copyright are: right to reproduce, right to distribute, right to publicly perform, right to publicly display, right to digital transmission and the one that affects girl talk’s music more directly, the right to create a derivative work. According to the copyright act a derivative work 17 U.S.C. §101: is a work based upon one or more pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications, which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative work”.
In order to create a derivative work in the music realm the user has to negotiate an agreement with the copyright holder of the song (usually the artist or composer) and with the copyright holder of the master (in most cases the record label). Girls Talk’s music is based upon famous songs, which makes them, derivative works as a result. Therefore, according to the copyright law Girl Talk is liable of copyright infringement in every song that he samples and or remixes without getting a license from the copyright holder.
As a musician and a music business major student, I analyze this problem from two different perspectives: I understand that music has always been built upon earlier works and it is impossible to create something new that doesn’t relate to a previous work. On the other hand, no person is more powerful than or able to usurp the written law. Therefore, any creation that breaks any of the exclusive rights in a copyright should be considered infringement. Even though Girl Talk’s music can be considered original and creative most of it constitutes significant amounts of copyrighted material. From my point of view, Girl Talk is been unethical by ignoring the fact that the music he is creating breaks with the law (willful infringement). Hope you guys find this information helpful and watch the video!!!! do it do it!!!!

Creative commons

Hello people!! thought it would be a good idea to share just a little information on creative commons with you all. Hope you guys find it interesting I tried to make it short enough to make you all go and do some more research haha 🙂 here it is:

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2001. Their mission is to increase the number of creative works available to everyone to build upon and to share legally. Creative commons gives the opportunity to creators to maintain their copyrights while allowing some uses of their work. Thus, their work can be more compatible with the Internet. In my opinion the idea of “some rights reserved” instead of  “all rights reserved” can be good in certain scenarios. A good example of this is the website “Wikipedia”. Wikipedia allows it user to modify certain amount of information in their website while still reserving some other rights from their copyrights. Although a few years ago many people didn’t agreed with their proposal, we have seen how recently more and more people are using their licenses.   

Rehearsing with Nanai

Hello bloggers,

I want to share with you all my experience of rehearsing and performing with Nanai. Like I said in an earlier post, Nanai is not just another band. You can notice this just by listening to their songs and watching some of their videos online. They are a group of musicians with a mission of sending a message throughout their music. They have managed to incorporate serious lyrics into entertaining rhythms that makes even the worse dancers jump into the dance floor. Rehearsing with them was a really good experience. Since I walked in to the rehearsal room they welcomed me with a smile in their faces and a really good energy. As soon as everybody was ready to play we all started jamming for a few minutes. In this jam they came up with a few ideas that they decided to record so that later on they could develop them into new songs. After jamming for a good twenty minutes we then started working on the set list for the show. One of the things that I liked the most about the rehearsal is the way they were open to new ideas from all the members, even me.  After practicing the songs that I was playing on, we jammed a little more and came up with some more ideas for new songs. In the second half of the rehearsal they ran the set list twice. After rehearsal was over they decided to go for beers and bocatas.   In my opinion, the energy and vibe they transmit to the listener has a lot to do with the good relationship the musicians have. I am sure that if they keep working as hard as they are right now success is the only thing that awaits them. Que viva Nanai!

MIDEM 2012

This year I had the opportunity to attend to “MIDEM” the world’s biggest music business trade fair that takes place every year in Cannes, France. This might sound a little dramatic to you all but I am not lying when I say that attending to MIDEM changed my life. It is unbelievable the amount of information that you can get and the people you can meet in just a few days. Since it was my first time attending to a music business trade fair at first I was completely lost. It took me around a day to get used to the way things were been run and to start meeting with people that work in the different fields that I am more interested about in the industry. Just by walking around the different booths you could see how important are the different types of intermediaries in an artist’s career. Publishers, Managers, Attorneys and Web Designers just to name of few were the different booths you could find there.  There were two different sessions that I found really productive: meet the lawyers and meet the managers. In these two sessions I got to talk one to one with people that are actually doing what I would like to do after graduating. The amount of advice and information about the industry that I got out of those one to one meetings is just unexplainable. I definitely plan to go to MIDEM in the next few years and eventually have my own booth and represent my country there.

Meeting the band

Nanai

As part of one of the assignments for the music intermediaries’ class I’m working in a group project with the band Nanai. Our mission is to help them promote their upcoming show in March 17 and further their career goals. After researching on the web and listening to some of their music we finally set up a meeting with the main vocalist of the group and the percussionist, Pilar and Luisjo. In this meeting we got a better sense of what is Nanai all about. Nanai is not just another band. They are trying to transmit a message throughout their music. They have had the opportunity to perform in different festivals throughout Europe and at the moment they are planning the recording of their first album. In that meeting we exchanged ideas on how to promote their upcoming show and how to create a budget to afford the recording process. The last few years the band have worked restlessly in order to build a strong fan base around the Valencia area and their effort has finally started to give fruits. Pilar and Luisjo expressed their desire to become known and respected worldwide. In that meeting we were able to set a list of goals that we want to accomplish before the semester is over. This goal list includes things such as: translate biography, promote the show, work in online presence and crow funding website to name a few. So far we have been able to translate the bio, update their FB and Twitter account and help promote the upcoming show in different ways. I think I speak for the whole group when I say that we are really excited to be working with such a talented band and we are looking forward to the upcoming show.

 

P.S. Luisjo and Pilar asked me to play Baritone Sax in the show!!!! I am really looking forward to it! See you all there!!!!!!!