A few months back, I asked "Is kids music recession-proof?" (The answer: no, not entirely.)
Well, someone else has asked that question, and they have a video camera and an editor, too. More importantly, the folks at Film@11.tv asked Lloyd Miller from the Deedle Deedle Dees to talk about his business. It's odd -- I tend not to think about musicians as businessmen and women, even though we just talked about it at Kindiefest. But they are, of course, and Miller has a good grasp on what's stayed steady (the big gigs) and what hasn't (the birthday parties).
And, near the very end, he also provides an origin story for the band's name. Still can't tell if he's joking.
Kindiependent Ironically Not Independent At All
At Kindiefest a couple weeks ago, one of the few sustained conversations I had was with the guys from Recess Monkey. We talked about how the key with the kids music genre is the continued sharing -- rather than fighting over limited pieces of a pie, try to make that pie bigger so everybody gets more. Especially if it's pecan pie. Mmm, I love me some pecan pie.
But I digress.
Anyway, the guys in the band said they'd been working with some of the other Seattle kids music bands to try to cross-promote their shows and music, but they didn't reveal their secret weapon, which is the most awesome name: Kindiependent, which almost makes me like the whole "kindie" name which I've never fully been able to embrace. It's a Seattle kids music collective featuring Recess Monkey, Caspar Babypants, The Not-Its, Johnny Bregar, and the Central Services Board of Education.
Check out the cool poster art from Kate Endle (Chris Ballew's wife, who's also done both Caspar Babypants covers) -- with help from Johnny Bregar and Jack Forman -- for a show on June 13th. It's the record release party for RM's The Final Funktier -- apparently it's going to be one seamless set where each band's set overlaps with the one preceeding it.
So, yeah, Seattle's totally going all for one, one for all, 5 Musketeers-style. (And maybe more, once other Seattle folks get the word.) Other areas might be thinking the same thing, but Seattle's taken the visible step. And secured the website.I Want My KTV!: Kidz Bop Launches Preschool Video On Demand Channel
I think it is safe to say that the opinion of Kidz Bop 'round these parts is one of -- at best -- tolerance. The half-sung/half-shouted re-workings of songs written for folks twice the age of Kidz Bop's audience have tended to annoy the adults in my audience.
Even with all that, perhaps you should become a Kidz Bop fan. Why? Because it stands to have the biggest positive impact on independent kids music of anything TV-related since Jack's Big Music Show.
For a couple years, the label's been partnering with Comcast to offer a Video on Demand channel (Cox is also now part of the partnership). Up to this point, the channel appears to have been nothing but Kidz Bop-related stuff targeted at the 6+age group, but starting this week, they've added "KB Preschool." It'll feature music videos, educational shows, live concerts and more from both signed and unsigned preschool/children artists (emphasis mine).
This month, Ben Rudnick's “A Frog Named Sam," Lalaland's "Music in You," and Milkshake's "Jump" and "Blue Bird," among others, are debuting on the channel. In months to come, expect Justin Roberts, Debbie and Friends, Sugar Free Allstars, Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Uncle Rock, and more. Kinda looks like a Zooglobble (or Jitterbug) playlist, no?
If you're a Kidz Bop hater, why should you care? Well, Kidz Bop reports that Comcast and Cox reach about 30 million homes (as compared to Nickelodeon's 85 million cable households) and they get more than a million streams a month of their content on video-on-demand. Take into account the streams on their own Kidz Bop website and syndicated programming on KOL (AOL for Kids) and Yahoo! Kids, and the potential impact on those independent artists above is potentially huge. Even if you don't have Comcast or Cox (or are worried about what other videos might be interspersed between those listed above and therefore wouldn't let your kids watch it anyway), grabbing just 10% of those streams for independent music would be a pretty big deal.
So, yeah, count me as a fan. I'm as surprised as anyone. And if you're actually in one of these households, let me know what you think of the channel (and what else I've missed)...Kindiefest 2010: Own Your [Stuff]
I've launched into a series of posts focusing on the individual artists who showcased at the 2010 edition of Kindiefest, but I thought a few words about what I took away from the conference would be appropriate before getting too far down that path.
If the thread running through last year's conference was that of community, the thread running through this year's conference was that of hard work and committing to the craft of making music for kids and families.
Or, to put it another way, committing to owning your stuff.
Except when we (or at least I) talked about it this weekend, we used an earthier word in place of (but close to) "stuff" that I don't feel comfortable using on the intrawebs. And we (or at least I) used that phrase a lot.
Danny and Sarah and Nori from The Not-Its walking around in their band trademark black and pink outfits? Owning their stuff. Recess Monkey putting together sweet little videos on the cheap? Owning their stuff. Justin Roberts playing a set so awesome that at least a couple other performing artists said that it inspired them to improve their own game and making at least one audience member literally cry? Completely and totally owning his stuff.
As I suggest above, that commitment requires time and attention to detail. The panels this year were, with the exception of my Old School Meets New School panel, technically oriented. And what I saw of the panels suggested that people can't do this lackadaiscally. The panel on videos moderated by Michael Rachap of Readeez brought to life the truism that when it comes to making videos good, fast, and cheap, you can only pick two of them (and nobody suggested dropping "good"). Though I didn't see all of the production panel, what I heard suggested that the producer wasn't necessarily going to make your life easier. Better, hopefully, but you'd be working even harder.
And the distribution panel might have been the biggest cold water splash of them all. Veronica Villarreal from E1 Music said that only 500 of 4,300 Walmarts carry music, of which most of it is TV-based. The Walmarts and Targets of the world are look for you to sell 400-500 CDs per week. Kevin Salem from Little Monster Records was again one of the most quotable folks around, pointing out that the question isn't just (from the artist to the distributor), "What are you doing to get my record into stores?," but also (from the distributor to the artist), "What are you doing to get your record out of the stores?" Said Salem in that regard, "Nothing is as powerful as doing a great show, even if it's for 10 people." In other words, you've got to take your career -- even if it's a part-time one seriously. You have to, yes, own that stuff. (Just like Cathy Fink did in giving her initial comments for the panel while accompanying herself on an electric guitar-styled ukulele.)
My own panel on "Old School Meets New School" was fun, but I'm a poor judge of that, I suppose. It was the only panel that wasn't specifically designed to be nuts-and-bolts. Instead, I viewed it mostly as an opportunity for the more experienced hands on the panel to a) reassure newer folks that this was a valuable path to travel, but b) it wasn't going to be easy. Bill Harley still sets aside an hour a day to write new stuff. That's commitment to the creative side.
Sustaining this Kids New Wave is going to take a lot of hard work and effort. You don't have to do it full time. But whatever time you give to the genre, you're gonna need to give it your full attention. If you don't own your stuff, nobody's going to do it for you.
More thoughts after the jump...When Will We Hear the Pied Piper Pledge Drive?
Move on over, Click and Clack -- here comes Pied Piper Radio. Amberly Warnke from Ages 3 and Up! has gone big time, developing a Crowdfunding, Part 3: Matt Clark Does It...
A few weeks back, I highlighted the attempt by Portland, Oregon's Matt Clark to use Kickstarter, a "crowd-sourcing" site which puts folks under a deadline to raise funds from fans for a wide variety of projects. Matt's project was to record the follow-up to Clark's debut, Funny Little Fella -- he was looking for $3,000 for mixing, mastering, and duplicating.
Well, as you can see from the fancy widget below, Clark made his goal. I'm posting this for two reasons:
1) Yay, Matt.
2) For other musicians considering this route, the details on how people chose to fund the project -- i.e., at what levels -- I think are useful reading. You'll actually have to click on the widget below to see that, but I found it interesting that folks bypassed the cheaper reward levels and were only interested in the higher levels. In other words, if you're gonna get somebody invested in you... make 'em invest.
