Musician boutique

I've seen a lot of musicians, good musicians, creative musicians, become worn out with trying to "make it" and give up.  It saddens me because I believe in most cases they've been aiming for the wrong target, one that was never within their grasp.

The concept of "making it" that so many musicians have bought into is fundamentally flawed and is a poison legacy of the mainstream commercial record industry of the last fifty years. It says that your music (and ,sadly, you also)  only have value if you reach a huge audience and sell a great number of "units".  However, even in that industry's pre-internet heyday, the vast majority of signed, recorded artists never attained that and there was always a far greater community of unsigned musicians who didn't even have access to a mechanism to achieve it.

The problem is that we want to be a supermarket, churning out whatever sells, to the widest, most undiscerning audience. Quality means nothing and decisions are made based on potential profit margins.

I have a different idea of success.

If I can record the music I want to record, without pressure from anyone to conform to the latest pointless fad, and release it so that it is accessible to a broad audience and some people buy/acquire it and like it, and the whole process doesn't bankrupt me, then as far as I'm concerned I have been successful.  I am doing what I've always wanted to do and my creative drive is satisfied.

To continue the shopping analogy, the digital post-record-industry music world lends itself more to a boutique model than a supermarket model. A boutique can provide a high quality, beautiful product to a select, discerning audience. No-one can tell it what it can or cannot  make available.  It needs to make enough to survive but doesn't need to shift vast amounts just to cover its overheads.

So, if you're a musician who is tempted to feel that what you do is pointless because you haven't become a household name after years of hard work, perhaps the answer is to realise that you don't work in a supermarket, you own a boutique.  Seek a smaller, more appreciative audience. Paradoxically, perhaps, it's not a smaller vision, it's a bigger one.

Gajoob

Back in 1990, I spotted an intriguing looking magazine on the racks at Tower records (I think...) in London. It was called Gajoob and it came from the US. It dealt with a pre-internet world that is now long gone but which was amazing and creative - the world of homemade music, sold and distributed by mail when the world's postal services were still quite good. Most items were on cassette and the scene had absolutely nothing to do with the mainstream music industry. I loved it! Gajoob reviewed thousands of cassettes and other homemade art.

Gajoob was a huge inspiration to me as I was starting Secret Archives of the Vatican. I had a Fostex four-track cassette-based home studio and was starting to release cassettes. Gajoob opened up a whole world of possibility and pointed me towards contacts, collaborators and other 'zines. At some point I made contact with the main man, Bryan Baker.



Well, here we are, two decades later and by the mighty power of Facebook, I've made contact again. Gajoob is still alive, albeit in web form and its offshoot/alter-ego, Homemade Music, is also thriving.

They say:
GAJOOB has been reviewing independent music since 1987. We review all styles of independently released CDs, cassettes, net albums and vinyl. We are returning to print late fall 2010.

Gajoob began in 1987 as a print 'zine by Bryan Baker focused on home recording artists and independent music activities. The final print issue was in 1994. Bryan produced a weekly 3-hour radio show from 1991-1994 on Salt Lake City's KRCL called Cassette Culture Shock which featured the artists sending tape albums to Gajoob. Bryan Baker began publishing The DiY Report in 1994, an email subscription newsletter which gathered news of independent music activities and featured articles and interviews with indie artists. 124 issues were published until 2001 and the content was archived via the web. The Gajoob website was also home to Gajoob Radio, a streaming RealAudio radio show of music and artist interviews.

From 2000-2010, Gajoob evolved into various interrelated activities and websites, including homemademusic.com, tapegerm.com, discoversounds.com, along with on-demand CD manufacturing and online sales.

2010 sees the return of GAJOOB Magazine , sometime this autumn. Bryan says that coverage will be much the same as before. They will strive to give voice to the creative impulse and hear what artists have to say about that. If you like discovering new music or want to keep up with creative music activities then GAJOOB Magazine is something you'll want to read.

GAJOOB Magazine will be published with a CD of 100+ tracks direct from recording studios around the world. Each track will carry detailed notes from artists about the making of it. To be included on the mp3 CD simply submit a track to homemademusic.com. Include details about making your music: what inspired you, what was the process, related anecdotes, etc.

Reviews

GAJOOB's album listings can contain much more than a review of your album. Artist commentary, interviews, streaming audio are included as well. They will review CDs, cassette, vinyl, DVD, and online album releases (also called netlabel and free music culture). Mailyour release to them or let them know where to find it via their contact page. See their submission guide for details.

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