Steve Moore

Steve Moore: This is your new Flavors.me page.
Steve Moore, B.A. J.D. Author of "The Truth about the Music Business" -
Producer, Singer/Songwriter - Owner of High Cotton Records

Steve Moore & the New South's New Website is UP!

Yes, Steve Moore finally has gotten around to building the new website for his main band!

Please Visit: 

Steve Moore & the New South 

I doubt I'll post much to that site - but maybe go through the history of the band - maybe scan some PRESS, and some old FLYERS - etc - pretty much a trip down nostalgic lane - but I figured I'd go ahead and get the domain, put up the site and then just see what happens!  I've still got some back end work to complete - more soporifically SEO, SEM, SEP, but all of the SMO is done! 

Most of my NEW BLOGS will be added to MSO's New site - where I'll be adding more of my informational blogs in the FAQ section - and adding NEWS and other POSTS - as we are starting to grow - we'll be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT SOON and making a HUGE MOVE on NASHVILLE!  Can't say anything more than that as this point as my new partner is taking the weekend off to Celebrate his Birthday!!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! (that should be a hint!?)

Stay Tuned by Visiting:

Music Square One 

Or

High Cotton Records


All the best - as always...

Steve Moore, B.A., J.D., Author
"The Truth About the Music Business"
steve@musicsquareone.com
ooVoo: musicsquareone
skype: musicsquareone
High Cotton Records
Raising Moore Cain Music (BMI)
Cowboy Killers Music (ASCAP)

)

It's OFFICIAL - you can get The CD on BAND CAMP!

Hope you enjoy!  We'll be adding MORE SINGLES from Steve Moore as well as the full CD for:

High Cotton Records Meridian Recording Arists (Volume One)

We are also looking at doing a Mississippi Recording Artists Compilation CD as well...

Also, feel free to visit our OTHER WEBSITE!

Steve Moore & the New South

High Cotton Records

Music Square One

Coming soon:  The Truth about the Music Business" new site!

We'll slowly be phasing out this "Blogger Account" as most of our posts will be going to the above website and their "blog posts".

Sincerely,

Steve Moore, B.A. J.D. Author of "The Truth about the Music Business"

Steve Moore's CD - TRUE MERIDIAN on BAND CAMP!

Yes, yes, yes - we're making some moves on our own musical home front!

Steve Moore has now released his album/CD/record on BAND CAMP!

 CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR NEW SITE!







We'll soon have all of High Cotton Records Music as well as Steve Moore's singles available on ALL DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION SITES - so be on the LOOK OUT FOR "HIGH COTTON RECORD MERIDIAN COMPILATION CD as well!  

You can check out our FACEBOOK PAGE at this LINK:  HIGH COTTON RECORDS

Just search for Steve Moore & the New South or High Cotton Records!

MORE MUSIC TO COME!

You can also visit our new WEBSITES!

Music Square One 

High Cotton Records

And Steve is working on his new WEBSITE for "Steve Moore & the New South" -

We may update the OLD "THE COWBOY KILLERS" site - but due to TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT ISSUES - by OTHER BANDS that do NOT have the right to use that name - we're NOT ABANDONING THAT MARK - but choose not to deal with it via the Lanham Act at this time - but we'll get getting around to it - as there's also a Square One Music site that's infringing on Music Square One's Mark as well! Hope these guys have brushed on their Trademark Law - but I guess if they missed out on Law School - well then they'll be looking at some SERIOUS ATTORNEY'S FEE - and my attorney is FREE! 

More info to come - in the meantime - please enjoy our music on BAND CAMP -
Coming soon to CD BABY, and possibly TOP SPIN, and possibly more!

Of course you can visit our REVERBNATION ACCOUNTS for HIGH COTTON RECORDS, STEVE MOORE & THE NEW SOUTH as well as "THE COWBOY KILLERS" for STREAMING MUSIC and/or to Buy on iTunes etc

Sincerely,

Steve Moore, B.A. J.D. Author of "The Truth about the Music Business" -

Buy the BOOK at this LINK to AMAZON! 












'

Everybody wants to be a "published author"

But unfortunately, they can barely write a decent e-mail - for that matter they struggle with getting out a TWEET!  Do you really think it's THAT EASY to write a book?  Well just sit down and TRY! 

And even if you can write a book - good luck with getting it published - especially if you don't know proper grammar - or you write in all lower case! 

I saw this and coudln't help but laugh - especially when I see people that say that "I could have written that book" when they see mine -

Yeah RIGHT - that's 656 pages - I doubt you can even Finish READING MY BOOK much less WRITE ONE! 

Again this is just TOO FUNNY!  

http://youtu.be/c9fc-crEFDw

Just laughing too hard to even type any more...

SM @ MSO

To Blog or to just Blog-Post (Or just what?)

With all of the new ways to get your message across - which platform should you consider?  And how does one find the time?

I've been blogging intermittently on this "blogger" site for quite some time now - I'd have to go back and actually look to see when I wrote my first blog for this particular FEED and/or FEEDS.  But I'm sure it's been quite a while.  In the past, I had maintained my four My Space Pages: Steve Moore & the New South (my band a.k.a. "The Cowboy Killers"); High Cotton Records (my label), The Truth about the Music Biz (my book); and Music Square One (MSO - the parent company to ALL of my MUSIC endeavors where I would post music, blog about the music business, etc.  And I still sort of check up on My Space every so often and that used to take up a good deal of my time - answering friend requests, checking/approving comments, etc  But when I started to see that many of my friends were dropping off My Space as my friend count dropped from 6 figures to much less than that - then I noted that there was a paradigm shift.  Everything was indeed changing. 

Since my interests are NOT by any means restricted to music, songwriting, producing, audio/video work or for that matter the MUSIC BUSINESS - I've constantly opened and closed numerous accounts to allow me many platform to share my ideas, thoughts, and yes, even some of my writings (published or otherwise) that include prose, poetry, and even some short stories - yet, when I had finished my book, "The Truth about the Music Business" - I sort have had said quite a bit in those 656 some pages or so - so I backed off on the concentrated writings and moved to some shorter forms.  Hence, I had set up a twitter account (and now have several), but find that 140 Characters can be restrictive and yet liberating at the same time - but no matter how succinct or obscure a "Tweet" may be it usually falls short of getting an entire idea or set of ideas across even with a "bitly" that links to a larger writing, blog post, etc.   In fact, I've probably had too many social network accounts over the past 10 or more years than I can to think about - most of which have either been closed or made entirely private (for reasons I'd just as soon not mention - but "privacy" should be enough). 

With that said, I had built a basic site a long time ago for MSO, High Cotton and band sites, etc but was never really that pleased with them - as other things were more important and just ate up my time as that always seems to be the case - there just aren't enough hours in the day, weeks, or month as they seemingly fly by these days and there's not much time off doing what I do - as I'm far from a nine to fiver (Or as Rich Cobb calls me "A Tireless Second Miler").  And I have never really have been one of those who just sticks to a basic schedule, goes to their "day job" and then does little else but take care of the yard, house and other domestic duties (you work hard to pay people to do that for you) and since I worked as a professional musician paying my way though high school, then college, then law school - I didn't really seem to have much FREE time between band rehearsals, moving equipment and constant gigging.  Then when I was in Nashville a huge part of my day was going out at night - as you don't get clients without being there - where it's happening.  In fact, "you have to pay to play and be present to win" as Ralph Murphy (VP at ASCAP) always said - as he stayed at my house for almost three years or so - until I went through my "major distraction phase" as I sometimes call it. 

Be that as it may, I built a beta test site for Music Square One in pure HTML and hand coded all of it but didn't use a on purpose to see how that would work and also was testing various code plug-ins for widgets and the like - the site worked very well - but it wasn't nearly as aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked it to be.  However, to me "form follows function" and in that regard - it was a success.  However, I needed to step up to better software with CS-4 to allow me to add more back end functionality and to use xhtml, div-tables but still needed MORE back end functionality so I ditched pure CSS and moved into PHP.  Which I'm not totally hooked on - it's an incredible language that allows for many arguments (not oral back and forth) as well as tables and Databases for SQL, etc.  So I created the NEW "MSO" site and have pretty much switched all of my new sites into that platform Linux - it had been at least 11 or more years since I even donned the "RED HAT" and set up my own server - which by the way has NEVER ONCE crashed - but I'd have to go back and totally read up on what I had done....but with Linux I found that not only could I cross platforms (MAC or PC) but design for ALL Browsers (although I must say that sometimes my FEEDS in Chrome end up in Code only - go figure - as Google owns almost all RSS feed platforms that I use) - but I digress...

So now that I have integrated my sites so that with ONE push of a button I can update EVERYTHING I have out there, from twitter, to FB, to FB FAN PAGES (that I'm working on now with Static FBML), back to My Space and MORE.  In short, if I were to put this BLOG on my new MSO site - as a POST - I'm done - out it goes to any place I like from my Newsletter (if you've subscribed along with a pretty simple "Captcha" code and verification and everywhere else that I don't mind sharing (but I am careful NOT to allow FB or other "personal sites" in turn feed back out to my websites, blogs, etc. 

And IF I post a new YouTube video - that video can be interconnected to almost all of my social networks as well - and IF I use "Smart YouTube" to post my video on my site - then out it goes yet again.  One just must be careful as to how many auto-shares one has in order that you don't double post or end up posting what's intended to be private (or at least shared with JUST my INNER CIRCLE of readers, friends, etc) such that any particular post ends up where those that I do NOT want to be privy to that information don't get to read it. 

So to answer my own question - to BLOG or to "Blog-Post" - I much prefer to latter - and with that in mind, I'm probably going to set this BLOGGER account aside for a while as I work on my BLOG-POST.

But I will most likely copy/paste my most popular blogs from this format - onto either High Cotton's new site, The Truth about the Music Business (under construction) and/or Steve Moore & the New South (also under construction) or just directly to Music Square One - www.musicsquareone.com - hence I won't have to do nearly the work to get that message out and can use my PHP code tracking apps that I wrote myself - to bypass those that think I'm just using Java Script to track my page views, check out IP addresses, and just about ANYTHING I need to know about who visits, when, how long they stay and what they look at - as well as their TEMP CACHE so that I can see WHAT ELSE they've been looking at as well - pretty Scary - but that the Beauty of PHP and Linux!  My PHP hosted images can keep me informed...and hence to me a blog-post RULES! 

Singing out for now and perhaps for quite a while as I've got MORE coding to do - and then it's back to the Code that I'm most used to - USC, CFR, et seq - But I wan't just have to FIND the time - I'll have to MAKE the time!  It's like I've said time and time again, you'll never get published - unless you WORK at it - and you have to FINISH - as I was reminded by one of my new writers - where I turned that into a sort of joke.  'Two aspiring authors are in a book store - one says to the other - The only difference between these writers and us - THEY FINISHED!  (and of course, then you have to get a pub deal - but I was lucky enough to sign a deal and get paid up front - so I was for sure going to get published - but in today's world - you don't need a publisher - you just need to finish - there's plenty of start-ups that will help you get self published - one of my companies are included in those start-ups - I'm just a little ahead of the game!)

Res Ipsa Loquitor....

SM @ MSO

New WEBSITE IS UP!

It only took 12 hours but the NEW MUSIC SQUARE ONE SITE IS UP! 

Of course, there's a LONG way to go - but it's all good! 

Check it out HERE:   Music Square One  

Can't wait to get more content in there - got a LOT of testimonials and videos to ad, etc - but a LOT of work on the videos to get done too - with my NEW SONY VEGAS PRO 10 HD!

Wow, it just never ends, but I"m going to play nice in the Sandbox with Reverb Nation and go ahead and post all of my music (ot as much as POSSIBLE) as I'll put out "TRUE MERIDIAN" on iTunes, Last FM, etc  - and just keep my SINGLE "HOLD BACK THE NIGHT" under "The Cowboy Killers" - and then push up the Meridian Compilation CD I recorded for High Cotton Records, but getting a TON done while I can before the STORM HITS - and I won't have time for much of anything,,,PRODUCTION after PRODCUTION on the way soon...

But I'm pleased with the new site and can't wait to get in there and mess with the CSS and PHP code...

More to come...Stay Tuned!

Steve @ MSO

The iPad for musicians and on the road social networking!

There are very few tools that take credit for redefining the way that music is created. For me, the love affair with producing music has just been an ongoing thing - especially with Pro Tools and all of the cool virtual instrments you now can use - who needs a BAND?   But the iPad is about to change the way I think about creating music as I'm not always in my studio - nor care to be!  Idea can come at any time!  

So why not have a tool handy that you can WORK with - at least to get your ideas down before taking them back to the STUDIO for the REAL work to begin!

The new the iRig can be hooked up to any guitar and then add the iRig’s Microphone, a decent condenser microphone that is of decent quality to become a live mic - if there's not too much ambient noise! But you do need a good pair of headphones and my Bose Nose Cancelling and yes, ACTIVE headphones (meaning they have POWER) work just fine! 

But from my standpoint - with all these cool little tools and apps, I can get down to the Songwriting, which leads to arrangements and producing -  and then I can worry about performing the songs live - later on!

But with so much power in one device - you can be writing anywhere you go! It's also a great little pre-production tool as you can use Garage band to get ideas for beats, tempos, as well as other instrumentation you think you may want on the REAL tracks, etc.

And of course, the amp modeler and mic models - with plug-ins make you sound GREAT - I'll have to check to see when or IF the melodyne will come as an app - if it does...WOW!
But I'm tickled pink that I can use my Jimi H - amp, or my double twin reverbs - along with a great drum track and lay it down!  ALL LIVE and in my HOTEL ROOM! 

I''m just loving the technology - and of course, I do love my ONSWIPE plug-ins for my website too!  As I can post and do all kinds of stuff from Admin - and whatever i create - just save to mp3 - post it and it's gone out to ALL of my social networks!  Now that's COOL!

SM @ MSO

Want to be a PUBLISHED AUTHOR?

Well there's a LOT to it  - but then again, it's not as hard as you think...

I heard a funny anectdote while meeting with my new writer for dinner last night - her work is going to blow you away! 

She's with a friend at the local book store and marveling at ALL of the books - so I've just copied/pasted this from a FB POST

------

I heard something last night that REALLY rang true and it was a combination of wisdom, common sense and humour - one aspiring author is speaking to another in a book store - and one says: the only difference between these books and ours - THEY ARE FINISHED!

----

There's a little more to it than that - and I was lucky and got a BIG ADVANCE for my book so getting it published was a SURE THING - doubt that will happen for a first time writer - BUT if you want to be published - then you have to pick a topic, write, write, and write some more - edit and then write some more - pick a starting and stopping point!  And FINISH!  Then worry about the rest of it...

I was signed to turn in 180 pages...6 months in - I was OVERDUE - they said, "What you can't write 180 pages in 6 months? I was like - sure, but I'm at almost 400 pages and NOT even close to finished.

I literally cranked out over 656 pages (not including intro, dedications, etc) and SKIPPED two levels of Edittors - Thanks to Dr. Ben Fisher at the Univ of MS - my English teacher and mentor that didn't put up with sub-par work - he demanded PERFECTION and that's why he got FIRST THANKS in MY BOOK!

WRITE ON! 

Steve @ MSO

"She's Beginning to See" Music By Steve Moore - Video Carla Horne

Carla asked is she could use my song - and I was like SURE - of course, I'd have preferred to recorded it...
and probably will so she can redo the video - but she did a GREAT JOB!  And it's my sincere hope that this video will REACH just one person if not MORE! 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcK-Knq7iec


I'm sure that if and when I can find the time I'll rerecord the song for Carla - as this was a one take recording with a Zoom Q3 - and NOT done in PRO TOOLS as it should have been...

I'm just SUPER PLEASED that CARLA chose MY SONG for the subject matter!

All the best,

Steve M @ MSO

That place that I go -

Unless you’ve been there – you can’t imagine it – once you’ve been you can never describe it – it’s an amazing place that’s just full of emotion and creativity and it only comes out when I play music….


Its Magical…it’s incredible and I just wish that for those who have ever wished they could play really well – that they could just know how it feels just ONCE to be able to just make things happen off the cuff and the let the MUSIC FLOW from your soul!


As my fiddle player said, "you can take ONE CHORD and make it completely interesting and even turn that into a SONG!"   Jamming so say the LEAST! 


I LOVE IT!

SM @ MSO

Two New Authors! And I've got two more books on the WAY!

Working with an INCREDIBLE writer - the first time I read her work - the HAIR literally was standing on the back of my neck - can't say much more but we're using a new company to do the web/blog and Social Media -which is all underway, and I'll be her manager, literary agent, and more...as MORE things are to come! 

I've also got a book tentatively called "State Rights" - but you'd be surprised that it's FICTION but based upon a "time period" and some timely events...a "Forrest Gump" meets reality...

And I'm getting out my 2nd Edition to fit with the many changes over the past few years...it should be a good read - but it's probably going to be more like the "The Truth about the Music Business, Digital Media, Social Revolution, and the storm of new technology" -

I just LOVE to write and have cranked out more material as of late - it's time to get it all into completed formats - but I may release my Fiction - very similarly to Valkyrie Morgan - in 3 episode for Vol1 and then 3 more for Vol II  - we'll see how it unfolds - as "State Rights" could be a LONG tail - or end up short- but as much as I write - probably in the ORDER of "WAR and PEACE' - we'll see...only with TIME will we know...

SM @ MSO

AL KOOPER on Ronnie Hammond and Robert Nix

I should take a picture of my Platinum Album that Robert Nix gave me from the Atlanta Rhythim Section-I'll get around to it later - HOWEVER:


I'll PREFACE this post about a LETTER that I just read with the fact that Robert Nix and I are both back in MS and still trying to set the MOON on FIRE! Robert and I met in Nashville and became FAST FRIENDS and he gave me my FIRST PLATINUM RECORD for the work I did for him and for the Atlanta Rhythm Section - tracking EVERY song and everything they did while in Atlanta and under the management of a pretty Ruthless Company that messed the ENTIRE BAND, and or course Robert, over pretty bad - it would break your HEART to hear the stories I've heard about artist and writers that DID NOT GET PAID nearly what they should have or outright had their BAND NAME STOLEN FROM THEM! There never seemed to be any limit to the GREED in the music business!
But this is about Robert and Ronnie Hammond - Go in PEACE RONNIE!
------------

From: Al Kooper
Re: Ronnie Hammond – Atlanta Rhythm Section

I knew Ronnie Hammond well. I befriended the band they were b4 ARS when they played New York as “The Candymen”. They were Roy Orbison's back up band and they opened for “The Blues Project” and “Blood Sweat & Tears” when I was a member of each and Orbison took time off. They were signed to ABC-Paramount back then.. We became good friends and when I played Atlanta as Al Kooper with my band in 1972, they invited us down to hear their just built studio and jam. I fell in love with that studio and also the other bands I heard in town when I spent that week there.

I bought into the studio and had my roadies pack up my apartment in New York City and I never even went back HOME from that trip. I moved to Atlanta in 1972, started my own label (Sounds Of the South) and signed two of the bands I heard in town that week (Lynyrd Skynyrd & Mose Jones) Robert Nix, ARS drummer played on Skynyrd's track "Tuesday's Gone" and Ronnie Hammond and Ronnie Van Zant challenged each other for the same woman on more than one occasion. I played on two ARS albums and they backed me up on one of my solo albums. When I heard he passed away, I hit You Tube to see what he looked and sounded like lately and he had aged pretty well. However only he and the keyboard player remained from the original band and that was sad.

It rang my bell when you quoted "Doraville," cause that's where Studio One of which I was part owner for awhile was. "Free Bird" "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Saturday Night Special" were all cut by that Jacksonville band...... in Doraville. I was told Ronnie wasn't feeling well and went to the doctor's office and promptly died right there.

Give 'em hell up there in Heaven, Ronnie.

Al Kooper

-------
If you don’t know who AL KOOPER is then you have to KNOW – read his book! But it all started with his training as a HORN PLAYER and when Bob Dylan was recording “Like a Rolling Stone” the keyboard player didn’t show or they just needed some Organ on the track and Al said “sure I can do it” – first RECORDING STUDIO GIG and FIRST TIME to play KEYS on anything and then the tale just goes on for years and years! I’m a HUGE FAN of everything AL KOOPER has ever done!

Steve Moore
MUSIC SQUARE ONE (and) High Cotton Records

MY SPACE & FACEBOOK FAN PAGES for ARTISTS, BANDS, etc.

Well it looks like MY SPACE is in REAL TROUBLE and the decisions they have made in their recent efforts to try and SAVE the company have FAILED MISERABLY!  And Facebook has failed to really grasp what really happens at the GRASSROOTS of the music business which is what they are supposed to be about - helping out up and coming band! 

Music Fan Pages – were at one time was THE exclusive purview of My Space (and they are STILL vying for bands and artist at MY SPACE more so than anything else - but they have just suffered a huge BRAIN DRAIN and lost 50% of their Employees so we'll see how much longer they can last) so FaceBook Fan Pages are going to FILL that GAP in services and hence gain more market share – but even FaceBook is getting IT WRONG!

I’m certainly no expert on how to code such huge endeavors such as My Space or FaceBook but I have been using both for SEVERAL YEARS NOW and I know how I “NEED” to use these services and I know how I “WANT” to use these services and NEITHER My Space or FaceBook are really making it very easy to do….

In regards to My Space, I can say that the NEW INTERFACE is just HOSED – page load times are insanely slow – trying to fix anything on your “pages” is just ridiculous and you can’t customize your HTML CODE like you used to – it’s all hurry up and wait – and HOPE that your changes are accepted before your browser FREEZES.

They are trying to save the company by AD REVENUE and that was at least the SMARTEST THING ZUCKERMAN figured out when FB was first started – it better be COOL before you start pounding people with ADS or you’re doomed for failure! Especially back in mid-2000’s when FREE was really what the internet was about!

My BIGGEST GRIPE with MY SPACE is that IF you want to change your BAND NAME (which you used to could do easily) you’re STUCK – even if you’re going back to a band name that you used to use AND your ORIGINAL ACCOUNT NAME!

In short, if you used to have myspace.com/myoldband and that was your USER NAME – and you switched to myspace.com/mynewband – due to line up changes or for whatever reason and you decide to go BACK to your ORIGINAL user name – and change the name back to myspace.com/myoldband – you’re STUCK – you can’t change a THING!

That means that the YEARS of work you did adding friends or accepting comments, posting songs, etc are just WASTED! – (even if you held out the hope of getting paid via BMI/ASCAP for “PERFOMANCES” – yeah RIGHT!) You won’t see a dime! GREAT BUSINESS MODEL for the songwriters, publisher or OWNERS of the copyrights – yeah, BMI/ASCAP – you guys were behind the ball as well! But seriously, My Space,

what are you thinking? The good folks at MY SPACE have taken a pretty viable entity and just RUINED IT – and that take us to how FaceBook took over and really messed up as well!

It used to be that FaceBook was about adding FRIENDS – well that was GREAT – in fact, you could hook up with old friends from a LONG TIME ago – all was well with the world unless you were being STALKED or contacted by people that you really didn’t want to hear from and there was NOT a blocking tool – but after some REALLY bad things happened with FaceBook users then FB got a wake up call and started to implement MORE privacy controls, blocking features, etc – they STILL have OPPRESIVE if NOT BLATANT copyright and publicity rights violations but again, I digress.

When FaceBook created FAN PAGES – well that was their entrée into getting BANDS to sign up so they could take on MY SPACE – that’s cool – why not? But then BUSINESSES got into the FRAY and everything got pretty much out of control – way too many companies signing up which meant that BAND FAN PAGES fell by the wayside. Why else call them “FAN PAGES?” – Who is REALY a FAN of a “business” or BRAND! Sure you may LIKE that brand but were you a FAN? Hence they changed the game again – and now you have to LIKE a business or a Band. But what really got me is when they MOVED your BAND PROFILE off your “personal page” and made you move it to your BANDS FAN PAGE! Now there goes your up to 5000 friends that can NO LONGER access your music, videos through PAID and/or ROYATLY based applications like REVERBNATION – and spins or views of videos COST NOTHING to the viewers – if they want to BUY your song(s) – well that’s a different story.

But NOW you’ve got to go PANDER to your friends to JOIN your FAN PAGE – not cool! I know I HATE it when I get some really bad band that wants me to become a FAN (or NOW “LIKE” that band) and with the Band Profile being MOVED that also meant that ALL of your “personal friends” had to join your Fan Page just so that you could get “spins” and/or downloads from Reverbnation – hence royalties went from being PRETTY DECENT to NOT SO DECENT unless of course you want to BUG all of your existing friends to JOIN your FAN PAGE – and unless you’re offering some INCENTIVE (coupons for business, or in the case of bands – a FREE something) and that’s insane as BAND/ARISTS and SONGWREITERS already are GIVING AWAY their music basically FOR FREE anyway – how are these young bands supposed to make ANY MONEY much less a living when they are giving away everything for FREE!

I’m all for the bands that want to GIVE AWAY FREE downloads if that’s their business model as they can make money in SO MANY OTHER WAYS – but for those bands that are just getting started even an EXTRA $25 a month is a HUGE HELP – and of course, I think it’s better to give away your CD – IF your fans buy your T-Shirt for a reasonable price! The fan gets a FREE CD – the band gets FREE ADVERTISING when that fan wears the T-Shirt; a pretty good trade off!

But NOW FB no longer allows you to CHANGE your BAND’s PROFILE NAME if you have over 100 LIKES – not sure WHY there’s a 100 “LIKES” cut-off point but a lot of bands need to change their name and NOT have to start COMPLETELY OVER building a fan base on FaceBook Fan Page – so instead of Facebook being a COOL alternative to “MY SPACE” to post your music AND also a way of generating actual REVENUES – you’re STUCK with your ORIGINAL FAN PAGE or you have to START ALL over again and bug your “friends” to LIKE your NEW BAND PAGE. Once again, big business comes into the COOL SCENE and messes it up for EVERYBODY!

I just wish that both of these companies would try to look at things for the ARTISTS and/or BANDS POINT of VIEW and understand that name changes (even trademark issues will come up – case in point – I’m changing my band name BACK to Steve Moore & The New South because FACEBOOK has ALLOWED at least four of five OTHER “Cowboy Killers” use the same name) At least at one time on MY SPACE you couldn’t have the same BAND NAME (or at least USER NAME) on your account so some other band couldn’t cause confusion in the market place as to which band is which! You surely don’t want to buy songs from the WRONG BAND and get inferior music – or music that’s NOT even what you THOUGHT You were buying!

And I certainly don’t want to have to file injunctions in FEDERAL COURT to get these OTHER BANDS to STOP using my band name as I KNOW I was first in time – hence first in right – but FACEBOOK should NOT allow bands to use the same name that’s already been taken! The other option is to take on FACEBOOK in a class action to stop rampant TM infringement – but whomever wants to fight a company with unlimited amounts of MONEY to battle it out in court is going to be losing before they EVEN START! And don’t expect the USPTO or any other organization to help you out – as nobody really cares about the ARTIST anymore- sure they LOVE to listen to music- and they have their favorite bands – but since it’s so accessible and for the most part FREE I doubt any regular fan would even take the time to write a letter to FB to complain or even help out the band that’s haven their name STOLEN on FACEBOOK!

Well that’s enough ranting for today – as now I’ve got all this work to do to create a new FAN PAGE, change all my accounts with Reverbnation, etc, change ALL of the logos, take down ALL of my songs from iTunes – and change EVERYTHING back to the ONE NAME that I KNOW that NOBODY else is USING – in short, I’ve got to START ALL OVER AGAIN - thanks to the NEW policies of My Space and FaceBook!

On behalf of myself and 10’s of thousands of other similarly situated bands, artists, songwriters and publishers – I’d like to say “Thanks FB and MY SPACE!” That’s all we needed was a TON of work lost and a TON of work to get BACK to where we were – which is NOW IMPOSSIBLE!

SM @ MSO

Crowdsourcing - OR Crowd Sourcing

“Crowd Sourcing” was first "coined" by Jeff Howe and was a featured article in Wired Magazine back in 2006 - (which by the way I've been reading WIRED for a LONG TIME!)

Be that as it may, if you have a unique skill set - such as a "graphic designer" or perhaps are an expert at After Effects, Illustrator or even an APP Developer - the list is just too long to mention - this is a GREAT WAY to keep yourself and/or your small business OUT THERE and actively seeking one-off type jobs.

With the new growth in Word From Home Business - and I'm not talking about SCAMS such as MLM or products like Melalueka where you have to have hundreds of people below you actually selling products for you and/or bugging all of your friends and family to "buy these products" - and talk about how GREAT they are and get almost NOTHING in return! What a waste of time and energy – and it kinds of makes you look BOGUS since you’re even CONNECTED with these companies where if you read about them – you’ll get about 1 out of 100 POSTIVE REVIEWS and 99% are all BAD and talk about how big of a SCAM the whole concept is!

Crowd Sourcing is a GREAT WAY to have access to a host of talented people and let's face it - with every facet of the design world - whether is WEBSITES, or Graphics, Branding/Logo design, or just about ANY type of job where you are using specialized applications to do your work in - it's virtually impossible to keep up with EVERY new release and/or UPDATE for these new software apps, or even be able to afford to buy these huge suites such as CS-5 so that you can learn about 3 or 4 of them and maybe if your LUCKY master two or three of them - then CROWD SOURCING is for you!

In today's world, you have to focus on a NICHE - in fact, if you really want to be a HUGELY SUCCESFUL business - you have to focus on a truly different niche - that really should NOT even be SEXY like the MUSIC BUSINESS - as I can assure you tens of thousands are trying to find a NICHE to stay in the music business. Find something that NOBODY else really even wants to do!

In FACT, you've GOT to find something that fewer people are CLAMMERING for to build a new business model! For example: this new venture I'm looking at for New South Development and we are entertaining the idea as we do more and more research - but this new venture is focusing on a NEW and UNIQUE way of "thermal treatment" for solid/liquid waste - yes, it's GREEN, yes, it's GOOD for the environment as the byproducts are Nutrient Rich "ORGANIC" Liquid Fertilizers, a minimal amount of SOLIDS that can be used for "ORGANIC COMPOST" and the best part is that you create Methane (so instead of just burning it off - which is WORSE for the environment --- you can use the methane (similar to Propane) to POWER you treatment operations! But I digress...(more to come with another PRODUCT and BRAND from New South Development)

So just that I'm being clear, IF you are really good at your particular niche - then join the CROWD SOURCING NETWORKS and/or GROUPS- sure you may submit RFP's and/or bids that get turned down - but you're more than likely doing that every day anyway - why not give yourself MORE OPTIONS to be FOUND and HOPEFULLY HIRED for that really good ONE-OFF project and if you're really good at what you do - then the company that finds you through crowd sourcing - could end up hiring you (if even part time) for MORE WORK - and for those that are struggling to KEEP themselves busy with new projects, finding new clients, etc - this is THE BEST WAY to get your name into the POOL of others that are offering similar or the same types of services.

And how does this work for Musicians, Producers, etc - well there's plenty of people that need back ground music or mastering work done or a HOST of other products/services that YOU can do and/or create - but also don't think of it as just about getting YOUR music or work out there for the masses - also think of it as a way to get your Album Cover Art, Your band Logo, your EPK or any number of things you need to get done to further your career- use the CROWD to get the BEST DEAL on what you need by having people BID ON YOUR NEEDS!

In this down economy and with it being a "business hiring" dream - as people will take a job for next to nothing - at least you don't have to look for a FULL TIME GIG - you can work from HOME legitimately AND if you work with the RIGHT "CROUDSOURCING" GROUPS - you could end up landing a really GREAT PROJECT to add to your PORTFOLIO and in the PROCESS get that exposure that you need to get MORE work and BETTER TYPES of work that are best suited to HOW YOU WORK and WHAT YOU CAN DO! Especially if you have a UNIQUE SKILL or are REALLY GOOD at YOUR NICHE!

Just some random thoughts again as I was cleaning out some old articles and magazines and taking them for RECYCLING - so I figured I "RECYCLE" this information!

SM @ MSO

The Major Labels and the TOP 10% Money Makers vs. FREE MUSIC

I hear a lot of people talking about the Major Record Labels making HUGE PROFITS off the backs of the people who support the music they put out, but I can assure you that NOTHING CAN BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH! The major labels are going BROKE! In fact, many have CLOSED and two have filed for Bankruptcy leaving only about two left standing and their days are NUMBERED I can assure you.


Why? Because the labels stuck to the old business paradigm where they WERE making a TON of money but that model is BROKEN! The internet has changed EVERYTHING!

As for those ARTISTS that are getting RICH by charging high rates for LEGAL DOWNLOADS of songs – don’t even think that is the case! In fact, for 10 years in a row CD sales are dropping at an INSANE RATE! In fact, if you follow Sound Scan – you would know that CD SALES are dismal – and most retailers have dropped the number of SKU’s (CD TITLES and how they are tracked) that are available to a very small amount.

Wal-Mart – was the LARGEST distributor of MUSIC for quite some time – PERIOD. As you saw Tower Records file for bankruptcy – nobody stopped to think about all of the independent record labels or distribution companies that were caught up in that whole process and many of them lost HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars as their inventory that they had SHIPPED to TOWER was now owned by the bankruptch trustee – will they EVER see any money out of those bankruptcy proceedings? NO! Not a dime because you can’t sell CD’s anymore! That’s just how it is!

So what happened to these smaller companies? Many of them lost so much money that THEY TOO had to file for bankruptcy as a small company cannot afford to lose $25,000 much less $250,000 – so these purveyors of music that were NOT necessarily representing the “mainstream’ music that you heard on the radio but were trying to break NEW ACTS that had worked for years to get to the level of being able to put out a CD and I can assure you that the amount of time and money that is spent on a FULL CD is mind blowing! What happened to these ACTS? They’ve faded into obscurity – their music careers are OVER – they have to go back to the BAR CIRCUIT and try to make a living by giving away CD’s if you are willing to buy a T-Shirts just to TRY make some merchandise money to pay for the gas in the bus, equipment maintenance, CHEAP hotels (or sleeping in the van) and eating fast food! Keep in mind the COVER CHARGE has NOT CHANGED since the 80’s – that’s 30 years of inflation and yet people are not willing to pay more than $5.00 to go see a band and yet people wonder why there aren’t nearly as many GREAT new bands out there.

There is simply no way for a standard touring band in today’s market to even make more than minimum wage or LESS once you factor in the hours of rehearsal, drive time to the gig, set up, play for 4 hours, tear down and hit the road again. It used to be in the 70’s when I fried chicken to buy my first guitar – Minimum wage was like $2.35 an hour – I can’t really remember – but I did what I had to do to buy my first guitar – practiced and practiced and our band made $875 at our first GIG! That was 1977! You can’t even get that as a guarantee from a bar and it’s now 2011. Also, I could play solo gigs for $200 or so a night for years – not any more! So if you look at the early 80’s and compare that $200 a night to the minimum wage – I was making a KILLING! But you can’t do that anymore – unless cover charge goes up – the only way to make any decent money is to play private parties….

But enough of what it was like THEN – let’s talk about NOW. Did you know that ONLINE SALES took a HUGE hit last year? Yes that’s right – after Wal-mart was replaced by iTunes as the number one retailer in the world – LEGAL DIGITAL DOWNLOADS STIL TANKED! So who’s making all this money? Well it’s the Justin Bieber’s (sp? Who cares?) and Taylor Swift’s of the world – and I don’t even want to tell you how bad of a deal you get IF you make it on American Idol – you sign away your LIFE just to get on the show – sure you’re going to make money – as you have to TOUR, and TOUR, and TOUR and work 18 hour days hitting talk shows, meet and greets, in-stores, etc, etc – it’s SUPER HARD WORK and if you don’t keep it up they forget all about you and then your done- what happens to all of those bands or artist that have had JUST ONE HIT - who knows but they are not making a KILLING in the music business that’s for sure – as music has become TOO DEVALUED! Seen the viral video that got 64 million spins on youtube? Did they get rich? NO – they made less than $50,000. Heard a band on Pandora that you hear over and over think they are making a killing? No! They’ve got to get 50,000 spins to make $400.00. That’s insane! But what do you do if you want to get your music out there just to even SEE if people will like it?

Do it all yourself – but that takes YEARS of work! Which you may never see much return by way of money but if you love what you do – then just maybe everybody will catch on and follow you. With PRO TOOLS and home studios, anybody can make a good CD – but even if you can make your own music, get it on iTunes, and tour, tour, tour to try to build a fan base – without a LOT of money behind you (which used to come from the major labels) how are you going to PAY for all the promotion, production for larges shows, etc. It take money to make money – so sure that top 10% that you see on TV etc are making some good money – but for HOW LONG?

When was the last time you want to a TRUE ARENA show? They used to have them all the time but now all but the very BIGGEST stars can even get an arena to sell out. Most are lucky to get ½ full…and even bands like US – that have a HUGE following are NOT making a ton of money of music sales – they make it from TICKET SALES!

So the bottom line for those that want FREE MUSIC and think they are being ripped off – don’t buy those artists music, do NOT buy major label acts music either! Support the mid-level band that are jus trying to make a meager living – and don’t forget about those young and truly talented, hard working artist/bands that will spend years working on their craft only to fall by the wayside – and if they didn’t PLAN for a way to make a living in something other than music – what will you hear from then next? “Would you like fries with that?” So these days if you put all your eggs in one basked and don’t make it – which is the ONLY way TO MAKE IT – then you are going to have a really hard life.

And those are just the FACTS – THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS!

I'm all about supporting songwriters, artists and bands that are out the breaking their backs just TRYING to do what they love and HOPING that it's enough to just pay the bills - but i can assure you that only the VERY TOP ARTISTS (whose careers are eventually going to fail) are the ONLY ONES that are making much money - the stuggling bands that are REALLY GOOD can't seem to get a BREAK but again, if they are doing it for the LOVE of music - then I'm all for it - and will support them as much as I can - which is what I've been doing for the past 30 years - developing bands, helping band, working as their producer, their attorney, their mentor, and putting up MY OWN TIME and MONEY to help them!  But this is just how it is - only a very small percentage will hit the big time - the REST will fade into obscurity...
 
I just wish the more people actually understood the TRUE nature of the music business before they rant about how much the labels or the big acts are making - rememember you have a better change of getting hit by lightning that having a career in the music business and that is a cold hard FACT!  I just wish it was different and that more people understood that it's the mid-level bands and the up and coming bands that are facing the toughst times EVER!  They are going to work so hard - just to come up empty handed! It's SAD but it's TRUE!  So if we make music almost FREE - how will these poor musicians, writers and bands even make even enough money to live at the POVERTY LEVEL?  They won't and they aren't already!
 
Which is why I've taken a complete 180 and do NOT CARE about the music business or making money - I'll give you my music for free (not that I'm any good anyway, my good years are way behind me) but I still do it for one reason and one reaon only - BECAUSE I LOVE MUSIC!!  And more importanltly - "I love to PLAY music!"  And if EVEN just a few people enjoy what I do - then that's enough for me!  All it takes is for somebody to say they Liked JUST ONE of my songs or came to one of my shows and really enjoyed it and that will make my DAY!  But I can assure you I don't play live anymore as I can't afford it - it's just too much work for too little money - and I'm NOT going to go play unless I bring the WHOLE PA, Lights and everything else as I want to put on a GREAT SHOW - but you can only do that for so long - so I spend my time in the studio and writing and hope that when I finally release something - that just a few poeple will reach out and say - "hey that's pretty good!" And again, that's fine with me...
 
But I can't speak for the other Artists and Bands that are still trying to make it BIG! But I do wish them all the luck in the world!  Bless them all!
 
SM @ MSO

Pandora - are they going to drive away their listeners?

I had planned on Blogging about Pandora soon anyway, but the e-mail I got today sparked me to write this IMMEDIATELY!


I remember when I first discovered Pandora – I thought it was really cool – sure there are a lot of other services out there which I use or used but I just though Pandora had something special if they could just HANG ON until they could get the revenue to stay open.

What I liked is that one could type in a song or an artist and there it was for you to hear AND you could create YOUR OWN RADIO STATION based on that ARTIST or SONG! And then it got to be a lot more like Arbirton as Pandora would then use some algorithm to predict similar songs and/or artists which was not the BEST algorithm as I would get some pretty weird stuff on my station (or rather stations as I created a LOT of stations based upon my own VERY VARIED musical tastes). But you could always say “I don’t like this song” and it was gone from you play list or “LIKE the song” and it would come up more often as well as other similar songs/artists in that vein – but the math just didn’t work that well. As you got to hear a LOT of stuff you did NOT like – so I just hit the “thumb down button”.

Then they had to start to ad advertising – understandable. You’ve got to have revenue but these ads were not obtrusive – you just had to LOOK at it. Then they added advertising that you had to HEAR. That was OK too – it wasn’t too obtrusive and I surely understand that they set a time out feature as they shouldn’t have to pay for streaming songs to an empty room – but I did like to turn on ambient music to go to sleep with…so when it timed out – no problem. But then those ADS got LOUDER and more often and that’s when it got annoying.

However, I stuck with them even though Pandora was NOT my only source of streaming radio – but I did get turned on to a lot of new artists and songs that I would have NEVER heard otherwise. I can assure you that my local radio stations would NEVER play that type of music – as my tastes are very eclectic and I do NOT like the over homogenized and pasteurized mocha-chino land over-corporate McDonald Land chain store music that Terrestrial Radio tries to cram down your throat at the behest of the major labels trying to break and maintain their latest acts including their FIRST hit that was OVERPLAYED in the first place and the second single by the same artist that doesn’t even belong on the air. In short, if I’m in my car, its Satellite Radio and being such an avid music fan, I don’t even subscribe to ANTYHING but music. I could care less about the hundreds of channels of talk, sports, or anything else – I want MUSIC and I want the type of music that suits MY TASTES and with Satellite you can get some good music – and I grow tired of listening to my iPod or other devices through my car speakers…my paid for songs get BORING as well…

Well now Pandora has really taken it to a level that is just really BAD – they not only have commercials – but they are LIMITING how much music you can hear on one month – and since I work in front of my computers ALL DAY and in to the night – I listen a LOT. So I get an E-mail today saying I’m approaching my FREE LISTENING LIMIT!! WHAT?? According to Pandora most people do not listen more than 40 hours per month – and “the number of ADS a listener hears decline sharply after 40 hours” HUH? That makes NO SENSE whatsoever! I’m all about paying royalties, even though the royalties paid for 40,000 spins of ONE SONG on Pandora do NOT amount to much for the songwriters or publishers – in fact, Streaming Radio, is HURTING the writers and driving down royalties – but that’s a price every writer or publisher has to pay in order to even GET SPINS – as that’s better than NO SPINS at all! But give me a break – you’re going to SHUT me down unless I pay – well – I understand you need your money – but you may end up sending me to another FREE SERVICE and LOSE me as a customer all together! Sure I could pay the $39 per year, but until you get your computers to pick better music and NOT bombard me with stuff I do NOT want to hear, then we’re at an impasse. I could pay the $0.99 to keep listening with ADS included or just pay out the $39 – but again, once they shut me off – I’ll go searching for another place for music before I break out my credit card! Get it RIGHT and I’ll gladly pay –I’m already helping spread the word as I tweet and post to FB what I’m listening to – thus getting you MORE LISTENERS –  but IF I’m going to PAY – you’d better start getting your math right as well as be paying MORE to the writers and publishers and quit driving down the value of music!

SM @ MSO

Typography - Who Cares or has the time?

I've never really got why anyone would want to reaally STUDY typography, especially since you've got so many 1000's of choices these days.  In fact, I can't remember how many different Fonts I have downloaded for the variety of apps that I use - some install automatically (depending on your OS) and some you have add to the app later on - which isn't a problem - but keeping track of what's what is a REAL PAIN! 

Further instead of SEARCHING and searching (or better still wasting TIME looking) for a particular font to either match what you're working on or what you WANT to add that needed look for your graphic or Document work and THEN try to remember the name - then there's a really cool FREE APP that's out there - (can't I've even tried to use it on a MAC) but it works GREAT with PC's!  Just add the font or compare fonts in a single viewing pane so you can COMPARE on the fly!  It's insanely easy - and saves an incredible amount of time wasted browsing around the 1000's of fonts on your machine.

It's FONT VIEW OK - you can get it from CNET (one of my FAVOURITE places to get apps so much so I subsribe to their updates - LOADS of GREAT INFO!).  Be that as it may, it allows you to COMPARE FONTS and then PICK the ones that you need with a side by side comparison...just too easy.

Try it - you'll LOVE IT!

SM @ MSO

Trademark Infringement is Rampant on the Internet!

I guess most people just do NOT get Intellectual Property – and I must admit, it took years of studying and learning to really get a total grasp on the intricacies of how it all works but when it comes to TRADEMARK LAW – it’s pretty easy to understand.


The first rule is that IF somebody is first to use a trade name wether that be for a SERVICE, PRODUCT or BOTH – then they have the right to use that name unless somebody comes along and established a name in a similar class of goods, files that mark with the USPTO (United State Patent and Trademark Office) and that’s on file for SEVEN YEARS – then they can preclude the original owner of the name from using it. And not just get injunctive relief but also statutory damages!

But the real test of whether a Trademark or Trade Name is able to be protected is not that clear as you can NOT get a registered TM on a geographically descriptive mark – such as Middle Tennessee Music Products/Services. You must first figure out if anyone else has USED that mark in the class of goods/services you intend to use your mark in commerce.

But first in Commerce usually WINS! OR first one to FILE is better off - but not alwasy the winner. Of course, there’s regional marks that are created through State Trademarks and that works if your business is LOCAL, Statewide or within a REGION as you get a ‘zone of expansion”. But with the internet – almost any business is doing business not just nationally but INTERNATIONALLY and that REALLY applies to MUSIC!

However, you cannot Trademark a song title – you can’t even copyright a song title. And I hear that all that time – “we need to copyright that name” – WRONG! You need to TRADEMARK IT! And that is NOT as easy at it may sound. Sure a State TM is pretty easy to get but that has NO protection nationally or internationally!

But it’s all good – I’ve got some infringement issues with a few of my business name and I’m deciding IF I want to fight the battles – as my attorney is FREE but I may take the moral high ground. We’ll see – but some cease and desist and/or let’s make a deal letters are about to out soon! AS my ALERTS are lighting up with names in music that are just too similar to precisely like mine…but it’s all good!

What really started to hurt me is that a well KNOWN band came out with a song that was almost identical to one of my company’s names – and there’s NOTHING I can do about that – they had every right to use that name in a song title – and that just KILLED my SEO and SMO efforts, but again, I’m OK with it – it actually will make get motivated to finish up the site designs for the 10 or so sub-divisions of my main business. AS they really needed an UPDATE and/or UPGRADE!

By the way – I know that these other people using my names read my blogs, view my sites, so if you want to get a STEAL of a DEAL and avoid FEDERAL COURT – drop me a line – I’ll work WITH you – otherwise, if I work against you – YOU WILL LOSE!  Let's use the EASY BUTTON! ??

SM @ MSO

BROWSER WARS

Ok - I've not got SEVERAL COMPUTERS FIRED UP - including several version of Window OS and a couple of MAC OS - skipping the iPhone, iPad  and both Galaxies (phone and pad) for now- but have everything fired up!  I've got IE (not so cool - but you have to use it for some things), Chrome *(my favorite on speed), Firefox *(my favorite for blocking scripts and running TOR) and Safari - (can't get much use out of it unless with Mac OS but it works and I hate the default tab to all things MAC - we live in a cross platform world) and I'm running tests on SEVERAL MONITORS (HD, CRT, Laptops and many different sizes) along with Different Screen resolutions, etc - I'm sure my Analytics should be interesting tomorrow for my many sites!

So far I'm rather pleased as everything is adding up and working - however, I'm SUPPOSED to update IE - but the LAST update wreaked havoc with my two main mastering machines - which MUST have windows OS on them due to the many plug-ins I'm running and for Sony Vegas. 

But I'm slowly deciding through testing multiple site which is going to be my DEFAULT BROWSER on EVERY MACHINE - and soon enough as I finish up the learning curve for importing CSS into STATIC FBML.  But then it's on to learning the NEWEST MOBILE PLATFORMS and that's when I can fire up my smaller peripherals as I'm leaning toward the ANDROID OS - it's just SO COOL! 

Having fun getting my GEEK ON and LEARNING A TON as I GO!!    Can't wait to get into .mobi design soon enough....

SM & MSO

High Cotton Records has a NEW SITE!

After several years of TM infringement and cyber-squatting issues, we've FINALLY acquired High Cotton Records DOT COM!

And we welcome you to visit our NEW WEBSITE For HIGH COTTON RECORDS!  The original redirect link is still: www.highcottonrecords.net - new links on the way as we wait for DNS changes.

Steve Moore has revived the label in order to phase out some other projects and to promote his newest songs and recorded materials as well as many of his past productions and other projects which will be available soon on all digital forums and many streaming sites as well. The time has finally come to MOVE!

Due to issues that Steve Moore chooses to take the the moral high ground on - he's changing his band name back to "Steve Moore & the New South" and will be releasing his entire catalogue including all bands and CD's from High Cotton Records to iTunes and elsewhere soon enough. He will also be changing his FaceBook Fan Pages and Reverbnation and other accounts to reflect this change.  We apologize in advance to all of our fans for any inconvenience! 

You can see our new site at the following LINK: www.highcottonrecords.com/highcotton (please bear with us until we change the DNS SERVERS to reflect the correct link as this is merely one of MANY subdomains under our new hosting account(s). 

We look forward to seeing you there - and invite you to contact us via the contact page.  We will more than likely tie in our RSS FEEDS with FEEDBURNER and Google Feed Proxy, but that will come in time - we've got to fix our Permalinks and work in our SEO/SMO but will still be a division of Music Square One.

MORE SITES ON THE WAY - but all in due time. We've got to get Steve's book deal wrapped up, get some more content for the second edition and have a LOT of other projects going on currently....

Thanks for stopping by our Blog and we hope to see you at High Cotton Records soon!




Sincerely,

Steve Moore, B.A. J.D. Author of "The Truth about the Music Business"
steve@highcottonrecords.net (new E-mail address on the way as well)

iMac - Good enough specs for even the TOP of the LINE?

Not too sure...

Ok sure Quad Core - but if you're not doing Video or SUPER INTENSE audio is that REALLY going to speed things up - and how much RAM can you UPGRADE too? C'mon give me MORE RAM - got to have that to even allow the Quad to catch up to the multi-tasking I'll have to do - got to have CS-4/5 open and AE, PS/ILL, Dreamweaver and a few others - but not so into the AUDIO by Adobe - give my old Syntrillium with LOADS of plug-ins and at least I can MASTER - but can I multi-track and STILL use Sony Vegas to get my FINAL VIDEO's RENDERED and UPLOADED? Not too sure...seems like a PC thing.


Plus there's not nearly enough HD space - even with a daisy chain of Glyph Drives - I'll be torching HD's quickly at 90MB per TRACK times 4-5 takes and 32 Tracks - that's 11 GB for just BASIC tracking...ONE SONG - much less many versions of that one song - that 110 GB and then add to that 10 songs and that over a TB -- then try to SMPTE HD VIDEO times THREE HD cams in REAL TIME and now you're needing 200 TB - time to move to PETABYTE - and when you're done with Audio tracks - then master - then ADD all of the graphics tricks - I'm going to need at least THREE of them - sure I love my portable Mac stuff - jailbreak an iPhone, etc, but I'm done coveting a new 4g iPad - as the Galacy is SLEEKER and I prefer Google's OS - for the cloud - just with the SERVICE Providers would get their high end stuff up FASTER! MORE OPTICAL PLEASE!

Oh well, just get it ALL and that's how I ROLL - cross platforms - and of course, you've got to be able to switch from PTS to PTD's...oh well worse fates, at least there are no DLL and other RAM hogs on the MAC but I'd still prefer to BUILD from SCRATCH something that will BLOW away any take it as you find it out of what's shipped - I NEED TO CUSTOMIZE - give me a FULL TOWER with Loads of DRIVE RACKS and plenty of PCI BUSSES and I'll BE OK!!

Techno Distraction!! GK-A-ZOID!

SM @ MSO -

Intellectual Property Basics

(THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE - MERERLY a RESPRESENTATION of THE BASICS of IP LAW)

Most people just do NOT get intellectual property but the BASICS are not that hard to understand. And the main areas are Copyright, Trademark, Patents and Trade Secrets.


I’ll touch on Patents just to get them out of the way – Patents are governed by the USPTO – Patent and Trademark office. If you’ve come up with a new design (plants, mechanical, etc, etc) and that design is useful, non-obvious and UNIQUE then you can get a PATENT – but it’s COSTLY and you’ve got ONE YEAR to file for a provisional Patent (to buy a little time) and for your FULL on PATENT which could take YEARS to be granted. So if you’ve got a great new idea that you’ve build and want to market – get your ducks in a row and HIRE a GREAT PATENT ATTORNEY unless you think you can do it yourself – if so, good luck! Einstein was a Patent Clerk…enough said? Patents are designed to protect the OWNER of the Patent but only for a LIMITED TIME – 20 years, so that other companies can put them out and prevent a Monopoly – and of course, the 20 years is for the owner to be able to recoup their R & D ( research and development). So patents protect the owners for a time and then the consumer to be able to buy that design for a much better price and Patents are governed by FEDERAL LAW.

Copyright is probably the most common of all intellectual property rights – and these rights can get a bit complicated as one can get a Copyright immediately but it has no teeth. Suffice it to say that one is granted a “Statutory Copyright” when one creates a “work” and puts it out there for others to view, touch, etc. To keep this discussion as brief as possible I’ll stick to music or websites. You’ll often see song with a © notice or even a website with a © but does that mean that a copyright has been actually filed? NO! It’s easy enough to find out – go to the Library of Congress.Gov – and you can EASILY find out what copyrights have been filed. If the copyright was NOT filed – all that means is that the ORIGINAL OWNER (if you can prove you created the work) has a “Statutory Copyright” and the only POWER that invokes is injunctive relief – or “stop using my work!” – Not much help – right? So it would be wise to file your copyrights so that people can’t take part of your code (from you website) or part of your song (a sample) or just take the whole thing and use it as their own. Plus the owner can get damages for infringement along with attorney’s fees, etc – and all works come with a “BUNDLE OF RIGHTS” but that again is TOO MUCH for this blog – See “The Truth about the Music Business” for more information. But you’ll have to buy the BOOK! Copyright is also governed by FEDERAL LAW but Copyright is designed solely to protect the CREATOR of the work! Not like Patents that are a hybrid or Trademark that protects the CONSUMER!

So, now we’ll talk about Trademark which is governed by FEDERAL LAW and STATE LAW as many states have enacted similar Statutes as a lot of companies just work in ONE STATE or surrounding states and therefore want to only protect their rights in a smaller area. Trademark rights unlike ALL other IP RIGHTS are NOT designed to protect the OWNER of the mark – but the CONSUMER – in regards to the origin of the goods and/or services. In short, when you as a consumer see that BRAND (LOGO) or Name – then you know that you can trust it – (as least that’s the goal!) But TM rights are indeed ALL POWERFUL as if somebody infringes on your mark – and creates confusion in the market place then the DAMAGES can be HUGE – of course, you can always put TM next to your name which shows an intention to trademark your name or that you are in the PROCESS of getting a TRADEMARK but until you actually have the mark REGISTERED and on file with the USPTO – you can only get injunctive relief. Get a REGISTERD MARK and you get injunctive relief, you get Statutory Damages, attorneys fees and in the worst case scenario for an infringer – the owner of the mark can take ALL of your profits from the illegal use of that Mark less what you can PROVE it cost you to make those profits. But in short, an owner of a mark can basically put an infringer OUT OF BUSINESS for GOOD!

The Last is TRADE SECRETS and this is governed by STATE LAW- this just means that if you have internal processes or ways of doing things, ideas, concepts, etc that are UNIQUE to YOUR business – you need to protect them – but you can’t FILE TRADE SECRETS with any agency – you just have to make sure that if you disseminate these secrets within or even outside of your company – you MUST be sure to put something on those communiqués that “THIS IS A TRADE SECRET’ and any type of reasonable damages you think you would be entitled to should someone STEAL your SECRETS of YOUR TRADE!

Just remember – your better of FILING for protection and NOT just going about your business without paying for the proper protection as you’ll end up with no better than “injunctive relief” or in other words, you can get a court to say – STOP DOING THAT!

AGAIN THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE nor is it INTENDED TO BE!
YOU SHOULD CONTACT an attorney if you would like more info or if you need any HELP with these issues, however, you are more than Welcome to buy my BOOK!

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE MUSIC BUSINESS - Steve Moore, B.A., J.D., Author


SM @ MSO

The Black Eyed Peas and The Half-Time Show...A total Disappointment!

I'm actually a pretty decent fan of the Black Eyed Peas. I like their studio stuff and a few of their videos - and I like the "Concept" of the band - and how they each have a unique personality and make that all work together as a whole. It's sad that they haven't really had more hits - but welcome the music business.

HOWEVER, I'm sorry to say that LAST NIGHT'S performance was well - JUST AWFUL! In fact, it was a reminder of how the proliferation of software DAW's like Pro Tools and Post-Editing tools for Video that are now so cheap that almost anyone can get in on the action with very little money- and if you get REALLY good at these APPS you really don't have to have MUCH TALENT AT ALL! In fact, PRO TOOLS has on their main adverts that you don't need any music talent at all - just ONE FINGER and with a LOT of practice, forethought and about 1000 hours of studio time and YOU TOO can be a STAR!

Well it was pretty obvious after seeing the LIVE - that they are USING all the studio tricks that are necessary to make them come off like they can actually BRING IT - and they surely didn't BRING IT LIVE - as least not IMHO. One would think that since they used the OBVIOUS Auto-Tune sound which has gotten to be SO OVERUSED that it's a JOKE that they could have used a BANK of Auto-Tunes and other pitch correction HW devices (like so many if not ALL of the major acts out there are using) that they could have come off like they indeed have some concept of PITCH Control.

Granted it was ALL LIVE and I'm sure SUPER, SUPER hard to pull off the set up in a short time - as that was obvious when they had MIC issues and Mix issues as their voices were not mixed well at least not during the first few minutes. But when I started to hear pure PITCH issues - I thought they had more command over their voices than I heard last night. Sure FERGIE can sing - but she's NOT even close to as good as some of the "other" singers of her time that have come before her - whether from IDOL or from the YouTube phenom or those that has risen through the ranks to get Major Deals and have created careers the OLD FASHIONED WAY – but you can’t deny, she’s certainly easy on the eyes and very talented, but I was SHOCKED at the notes she missed. And again, it was obvious they were using Auto-Tune in the OVERDONE way as per many other artists but couldn’t they have put some signal processing to correct some of those blatant bad notes? Who knows, I’m sure they were being mixed from somewhere WAY far away from the stadium – and I’m sure there was a MS (millisecond) or so of time delay to allow for the sync up of Video and Audio – but again, I’m sure that it was a massive undertaking for all involved – but with today’s technology, why couldn’t they PULL IT OFF? After all it’s the SUPER BOWL! But in my humble opinion, playing that gig is probably going to HURT the BEP’s More that it helped their careers – and the fact that it was done so POORLY from an Audio and PITCH point of view just PROVES that they are better off in the studio and hence, I don’t think I’d EVER buy a ticket to see them live. But what do I know? Not much – but I know what “I LIKE” and I did NOT like that performance. Get back to the studio and create a hit song - if you want to revive your career - as last nights performance did more harm than good!

DD & MSO

Down to Four - no THREE MAJOR RECORD LABELS

Well I said it in 2001 or so when I started High Cotton Records - the day of the Major Record labels are numbered.  Well we're losing another MAJOR this week - EMI.  What does this mean to the average consumer - not much really other than there's one less player that can try to develop bands, fund their entire promotion, marketing and distribution (as it NRC's - or Normal Retail Channels even matter).  And one less company to pay big radio huge dollars for ADS - yes, on the inside music companies and radio stations refer to "songs" as ADS - as somebody is paying to get the newest music out there.

But for those of us that live in middle America and/or Small Town USA - we're not going to notice as we're still going to have those local stations that play the SAME songs all the time and less and less companies are able to pay to get NEW music out there - so you're going to have to look elsewhere- the only real problem is WHERE - there's so many choices to find music and even MORE music to choose from today than ever before. 

We're never going to stop seeing the top 5% of acts that will still be on radio, TV, touring, etc - and we'll see more and more blow up on YouTube.  Just suffice it to say the Music Business although in a major INCOME decline as CD sales tanked last year even worse than years before but also ONLINE SALES took a HUGE DIVE as well - as there's just too many ways to get what you want to hear for FREE so for those artists or songwriters out there thinking they'll be cashing huge BMI/ASCAP checks - think again. Get with Sound Exchange and start to focus on Mobile Media - if you can hit THAT market - folks will find you on your others sites or get intrigued enough to hit the iTunes store.

The moral of this story - do it yourself - but do NOT think you don't have to put in the time - the reason why music was so good in the earlier days was that people WORKED at it!  Thousands of hours honing their craft - the only difference today is that you have to hone your craft and THEN know how to get it all out there yourself - or find these smaller and faster/forward thinking small and nimble companies that can help you get your music out! But it all depends on GREAT SONGS and TOURING - if you have GREAT SONGS - the message will go viral and you'll take off - and keep MOST of your money instead of giving MOST of it to the MAJORS where they want a 360 deal - where they get a large piece of the entire pie!

SM @ MSO

Netflix and the Long Tail is it getting shorter?

Long Tail Marketing – the Future! Not any more. And that was the real trick as Netflix used to say one could get over 30,000 title and 10,000 “STREAMING” movies over the internet as part of your service – but nobody had an internet ready TV of Blu-Ray player.


But all that’s changed, more and more people are moving from their computers to their internet ready devices and now Netflix is complaining about Hollywood asking TOO much money for streams and of course, in reaction to ALL of this they have now reduced the number of streaming titles to something you can almost search through in less than an hour.

Are Joost, Hulu and other streaming services along with others that are now offering streaming movies hurting Netflix? You BET! Are they hurting them bad? Not really as many people may have bought the Blu-Ray players that hook up to your TV and are configured with your wireless router assuming people can sort that out – or if they don’t have an SSID (secured router such that the neighbors can piggy back along) or even some have bought internet ready TV’s but most people are not THAT tech savvy and don’t know that they can run a simple DVI/HDMI out and hook that up direct to most NEWER TV – or in the worst case, they can run a simple S-Video out of their existing Video Card from the back of their computer – but what about the AUDIO? Simple enough; just take a splitter for 16mm pin and run a wire from your sound card direct to the audio input of your TV unless of course you watch TV or MOVIES from your computer. And that was the case with Netflix a long time ago, as you had to KNOW how to get both Audio and Video to your TV – if you didn’t want to watch from your laptop or your computer.

As more and more content is available online and as your TV merges into your iPad, or other Devices along with internet ready TV devices – having just the major Brand options on your TV won’t mean much in the coming years as more and more companies are going to be offering streaming services and the company that merges your computer to your TV the FASTEST with NO RESTRTAINTS are going to way ahead of the pack and as more and more CONTENT is streamed, Hollywood is going to be faced with the same decision as the music business.

And let us not forget that Comcast has bought out NBC – so they’ll be getting in on the Content Game as they at Comcast are already cutting back on your ISP Baud Rates – mine has dropped down to at least 10 Kpbs down instead of my 28 Kpbs that I once had. Is it because of Bit Torrent – NO – it’s because of Netflix and other streaming services like Pandora! I guess you CAN’T have it ALL like they say….

SM @ MSO

Looking for a ONE STOP PLACE for Branding, A/V, Websites, etc?

Then look no further...let us hook you up with "The Service Station"

PROMO VIDEO

Click on LINK  - I think you'll be VERY IMPRESSED!!

Contact Steve Moore for more info...

SM @ MSO
musicsquareone@gmail.com

STREAMING RADIO and the FUTURE

Well it's just gotten so if you can't find what you want - FREE - then you are not looking very hard.

Now I'm not a huge proponent of FREE DOWNLOADS, even though my company along with Mike Lawson did the very FIRST Internet download EVER  *(and it was LEGAL) via CompuServer before the WWW even existed.

Be that as it may, there's a LOT happening in the STREAMING markets - and it looks like SPOTIFY will be moving to America - of course, there's plenty of other places to go - Mr. "KVETCH" prefers the whole AOL thing but I'm just NOT a fan of AOL/TIME WARNER since they bought out CompuServe and were SO PERVASIVE during the 90's and early 2000's - I've got too many friends using AOL interface for E-mail etc and if they've got a computer issue - it's usually AOL that's the problem - even if you UNINSTALL AOL it still leaves a TON of files all over your computer that you can't get rid of UNLESS you reformat...

But I digress...

I've got Satellite XM/Sirius in my car and the Internet - but I like some variety and don't like to pay for Satellite on my PC/MAC - so while I'm in the car, I usually listen to the Coffeehouse - Acoustic Covers, etc - but while I'm working - I really like Pandora - I've created almost 50 stations and can listen to almost any Genre, song, artist, you name it- but as with all things...I have to deal with the odd commercial now and again, as they become more pervasive - I'll just pay for it - let's just hope we don't get an ISP TAX for CONTENT - as that may WORK well for the Internet Service Providers and in some way for STREAMING SERVICES - but that will NOT BODE well for the CONTENT PROVIDERS - as what METRIC will they use to PAY the ARTIST, SONGWRITERS or even pay the session players, their meager $0.0000000001 cents per play.  It's gotten just a LITTLE bit ridiculous but what can you expect when almost every musician or their brother has a home studio and crank out music and then POST almost anywhere and EVERYWHERE -

Hence the reason I like Pandora - (even though it does have an ARBITRON type algorithm to pick other songs) - but I can choose enough channels or create more to focus in on what I like. 

But I also query, how do they keep up with people that have two computers side by side - and use ST AUDIO OUT - into STEREO AUDIO IN  and just make their OWN copies of what's being played.  Well there's NOT much anyone can do!  But I do NOT have a problem paying for subscription services as opposed to buying song from iTunes - as once I've listened to a song a few times - I really don't care to revisit it anytime soon. But that's the future - all things available at all times - so get used to it - and learn how to build your own websites, get your brand out there - and work those social networks, because IF your MUSIC IS GOOD ENOUGH the people will COME!!

Royalties may not be what they used to be - nor is there much value in Sync Rights - but I love what Pomplomoose is doing - a simple set up with Pro Tools, a couple of Hi-Def cams and Sony Vegas and they've got their own label - and not even a very good website - but they are doing well and I"m happy for them - it's a brave new world - see be ready for change and go with the flow - as there's never been a better time to try to break out on your own - and with only FOUR MAJOR LABELS left - and EMI about to close the BIG THREE left standing haven't changed - so why not change along with the times!

Keep chasing your dreams and don't wait on success to knock on your door - go out and knock the doors down! 

SM @ MSO

MIDEM – THE International Music Conference in Cannes France

You can't afford to MISS THIS!!

I think my first trip to Cannes (pronounced CAN not CAHN) was in January of 1991 or 92. I had a friend of mine that was staying at my house in Nashville for an extended period of time as it was a good fit for the both of us. His name: Ralph Murphy. Ralph is currently VP of ASCAP Nashville and had been to Midem since – well before I had gotten out of high school. Ralph and I had a deal that he would introduce me to everyone he knew as I was new in Nashville and even though I had a Law Degree with a focus on International Law – I didn’t have much experience on the international scene either and if you are looking to break into work on the international level in the music business then MIDEM is the place to do it! So we planned our trip to Cannes and off we went.


It’s held at the end of January every year and is the most incredible trade show you could ever attend. Imagine if you will, people from all over the world showing up in the same place and all having their first of the year budgets ready to spend. You will find that you will end up meeting more people and making more deals that you could in MONTHS of working the phones and corresponding or even attending any other event in the music business. It’s like a feeding frenzy and be prepared to not get much sleep as I closed more deals after MIDNIGHT than I did all day as that’s when things slow down and you get a chance to sit and visit with people for an extended period of time.

Just BE PREPARED if you go – ship as much of your accoutrement ahead of time and have it waiting at the Hotel as you do NOT want to be lugging around a ton of CD’s or Promo Items, etc as it’s a long trip and also pack an extra change of clothes in your shipment as my first trip there – the airlines lost my luggage so I was without my suits for a couple of days – but that’s a whole other story. Also, there are plenty of shuttles so do NOT stay on the main strip if you want to save some money! I usually stayed at Cannes Beach Residence and could literally have several of my friends stay in my Beach Suite as it had two bedrooms, a couch, a bed under the couch and you could get MORE beds if you like. Want you privacy? Don’t worry about it – you won’t be in your hotel room very much as there’s just TOO much going on and you don’t want to waste a second.

The most important thing is to pay for floor access – you don’t need a booth (unless that’s your thing) but you get there early, grab a couple of espressos and hit the floor! Bring comfortable shoes as you’re going to be doing a TON of walking and that’s what you do – walk from one end of the place to the next which is sort of laid out like a baseball field – you hit one side and then the other and every 10 feet or so, you’ll hit a booth with plenty of people to talk to! So have your business cards ready – I found that I could literally not just pitch my clients for international deals but that there were PLENTY of people trying to work with somebody from Nashville so I would end up getting enough work to keep me busy for 6 months after the show.

Go to as many seminars that are of interest and plan your day from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. as that’s the kind of days your going to face – remember people are coming from ALL time zones so there’s going to be people up and out to mingle with 24/7. I could go on and on – but I could literally write another book about this show, the stories and experience I had but the MOST important thing I would like my readers to get out of this Blog is that if you don’t go – you’ll never know and it is one of the most amazing experiences you’ll ever have in your life – I made that trip many, many times and am working my way back to being able to go more often as well as perhaps hitting the multi-media show that’s held in March before the international film festival in May which are all held at the same place! The Palais De Festival…and don’t think you can’t afford it – you can’t afford NOT to go! And if you do it right – you WILL MAKE MONEY! So if you can, get your passport ready, book your hotel and flights way in advance, get a game plan so you don’t waste any time and JUST GO! It will change your life forever! For more information check out: http://www.midem.com/

Happy, yet safe travels and go take on the world!

SM @ MSO