Tag: Music

A Night With SteelMagic

Carl Setzer

Tonight I was lucky enough to hear the premier performance of Steel Magic Northwest. Started at my son’s school, it’s grown significantly. They’re now a full-fledged 501c3 nonprofit. It’s been a fun ride watching them grow. 

Steel Magic is an Edmond/Lynnwood based steel drum group. The music this evening was quite the blend of styles and composers. They covered Stevie Wonder and Tchaikovsky to original compositions by Gary, the director. 

I was quite impressed with their musical quality. A few performers have been with them the full life of this ensemble, but a good many started a few months ago. Their rhythmic and melodic quality were too notch. I’m glad they’re part of our community!

They’re working with Edmonds Seventh Day Adventist. This is where they performed last night. The mixed use room we were they played. was filled to its max. 

I suggest that you take time and check out their next performance. 

More details at http://www.steelmagicnorthwest.org

Community Radio

Carl Setzer

I’m a community radio junkie.

One of my favorites growing up with KNHC, aka C89 FM. They’ve won several awards, including Best Dance Station. To me, that’s a huge deal since this local, student run (high-school students at that) community station beat out major national players.

Almost daily I listen to KEXP. John in the Morning has long been a staple of my days. And I’ve been listening the station, like, forever. Like back when it was KCMU.

Another that gets a fair amount of my ear-time: KNKX (formly KPLU). My favorite for news and my beloved jazz.

KING FM, Seattle’s classical station (personally, I prefer “symphonic/orchestral” as “classical” refers to a specific time period, and “classical” music {as it’s termed now} encompasses Baroque, Romantic, Modern…you get the idea…anyway, that’s me being a music snob, and, well, I digress) is another favorite. I was delighted when, years ago, they shifted to a community radio format.  And I still am delighted at the change.

A few additional “honorable mentions”:

So, I think I need this t-shirt!


So, that’s it for now. I’m sure I’ll add more later. Is there any I missed? Let me know in the comments below.

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Some thoughts on the current state of the Streaming Music Business

Carl Setzer

Earlier today I read this piece from my friends at Geekwire: “Music service Rhapsody posts record $35M net loss even as revenues climb to $202M“. I’m not simply concerned about a long-standing Seattle tech company struggling, but also that entities like Spotify are also bleeding cash to keep their market share. The losses are not sustainable long-term. I’m really not a streaming-music industry analyst, so I can’t really speak to the timeline of the issue, and that’s really not my point or concern.

I’m wondering about the sustainability of the music business. Not simply Spotify, et al; actually, even more my focus is on musicians. I’ve heard from many sources (most notably Taylor Swift) about how Spotify is not providing a livable income. Now, if Apple, Google, etc, can pay more than Spotify or Rhapsody, that’s a particular issue. However, I think this is larger. It’s ultimately about the consumers, about me and you as music lovers. Perhaps $10/mo is not enough to for artists to make music and eat. And if that’s the case, maybe we need to think about more $$$.

There are many tools that individual artists are leveraging well. Kickstarter and Patreon come to mind first. There are several tools, though, that help. Many artists I admire, such as Amanda Palmer and Zoe Keating leverage these tools to good effect. However, they spend a lot of time managing their audience. It seems, for them, that they get a lot of positive energy from us. Which will certainly make it more pleasant. Of course, emails, blog posts, Instagram updates and all that take away from producing their art. Or, maybe, that’s part of their art.

Anyway, there’s much to consider with this. So, as a mediation, I’ll leave you with Zoe Keating’s closing at the 2016 Word Economic Forum meeting in Davos. She’s carved an amazing niche for herself. As a fan myself, and love interacting with her other fans.

An Evening With Aaron Strumpel At Trinity Lutheran

Carl Setzer1 Comment

I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with Aaron before, so it was really a delight to see him perform again. The tranquility his music elicits calms me, settling my brain into a contemplative place, connecting me with the divine. Below is one of the pieces performed this evening. When you have the chance to hear him, take it.

Performing with Aaron was Keith Thomas, with ethereal computer assisted cello-work. This evening, he utilized looping much like one of my favorite contemporary artists: Zoe Keating With only the briefest time for web searching, I found this video featuring his work with the ensemble Primitivity. Though with a similar modernist quality, it lacks the looping effects. Keith currently lives in Seattle, and hopefully we’ll get him a web presence set up. He has another performance in early December. More details are forthcoming.

 

Spotify, Apple Music, And The Masses Of Online Music Choices

Carl Setzer

A few months back, I gave the new Apple Music a go. As a long time Spotify user, I was mainly compelled by access to Apple’s library, with the expectation that the service would have access to the full catalog. Well, that’s not the case. With that, it’s not quite clear when a song is available for streaming vs. only for download. Well, at least that’s how I found it. Ultimately, I found the whole experience underwhelming. Particularly sad considering Apple’s aura as masters of design. Another compelling piece was the price of the family plan. Spotify has been making some noise of matching that plan, though. That would make the Apple benefit small, very small. Lastly, there’s the bit where Spotify’s been arguing with artists over pay. I need to agree that the public discourse Spotify launched was very defensive and, to sound like Wil Wheaton, “dickish”. However, as I dug around the internet for data, I didn’t find much to support that artists are making more with Apple, or that the Apple Music service was going to make them able to subsist.

I cancelled the renewal of Apple music. However, I’m not entirely convinced that Spotify is the best. There are so damn many of these services out there and I’ve only scraped the surface. And, as a Seattle guy, I need to consider to home-spun entries into the space: Real Network’s Rhapsody, probably the oldest streaming service out there.  Then there’s Microsoft’s Groove. As a former Microsoftie, I feel compelled to give my chums in Redmond a fair shake.

My next steps need to include giving some thought to what constitutes “the best”. I know I want access to a large library, one that includes great jazz and classical content besides the latest pop hits. I want to work with a company that’s working hard to ensure their artists are compensated fairly. The interface needs to be clean and intuitive. And music discovery is critical. I want a family plan, so the three of us can all use it with independent accounts. Oh, and it needs to excel across platforms. Any given day I’ll be on Windows 7, 8, Mac, and Android.

So check in and see where this leads. And let me know what you’ve discovered, what you recommend, what pitfalls I should be considering. Your wisdom is what I value you most.

Time Stand Still, Rush and Earworm Songs

Carl Setzer

Rush’s Time Stand Still has been on earworm for me all day. Not complaining, to be clear; love the song. Perhaps my subconscious grabs ahold of it as my son moves into Middle School; capturing a bit of my zeitgeist? Eh…

Their musicality deeply resonates with me. When I studied bass, Geddy Lee’s skills blew my mind. As I learned drums, Peart’s drumming amazed me. And this song had the amazing Aimee Mann singing the back-up vocals. A major score, musically, that only a group with Rush’s stature could’ve pulled off. {Bias acknowledgement: Ms. Mann was a major musician crush of mine.}

I loved this song from when it first hit the airwaves. This time of my life was one of great musical and artistic expansion. Rush made it’s way into my life around the same time as the B-52s, Tangerine Dream and the Rocky Horror soundtrack. Yeah, I’d heard of Rush before, but I hadn’t broke free of the cliquish confines of early youth. Thus, I didn’t “like” them. But I came to love them as my awareness expanded.

This this musical expansion and awareness came through many of my friends, mainly from the Cascades drum corps. When I marched drum-line, we offered a faux-prayer to Neil Peart: “oh Neil, who dwealth in Canada, let us not sucketh”. Or something like that. The 80s drum-line idolized Neil, like the horn-line idolized Maynard Ferguson.  Oh, the memories! Makes me want to command “Time, Stand Still…”

 

A great part of #Seattle: starting my mornings with @KEXP and @LoserBoy

Carl Setzer

 

 

 

 

I’ve been starting my mornings with KEXP‘s John Richards for years. His blend of music challenges me and connects to my musical tastes deeply. I love exploring the new, but not ignoring the past. There are days that his playlists connect with the music I first fell in love with as a teen. And then he’ll connect with a series of great new artists. Oh, and they do a marvelous job keeping connected with Seattle’s vibrant music scene, bringing great local arts key exposure (ever heard of some guy named Macklemore?).

I can’t imagine not having these folks part of my life. I’m richer.

Spotify’s Seattle Based Competitor

Carl Setzer

I’m sure most people would think I’m writing about Amazon Prime music, but no. Real Networks has been around for years. I used their player before iTunes, before Pandora, I’m pretty sure before Windows XP. They’ve been in this space a long time, but have not have regained the popular attention they had in the 1990s.

And, as Spotify announces huge, game changing pivots in the music/video space, Real brings back their founder and announces they’re moving into photo-sharing. As they’re bleeding cash, it’s hard not to see this as the final flails of a dying company. I deeply hope I’m wrong. Their immanent death has been predicted for years, and wrong. And I root for my home teams!