Blue Frog Records

Blog, Social Network buzz correlates to better album sales

2008-02-12T23:55:00.001-08:00

Bloggers may be the most important music critics of all, as a new study shows that buzz from everyday people (i.e., not marketers) correlates to strong sales in the music business.

read more | digg story

Chip of the block...

2008-02-07T04:19:00.000-08:00

Doritos recently ran a Crash The Super Bowl contest - musicans auditioned from all over, and one was chosen. Kina Grannis. Big deal, right? Happens all the time. Reality show winner sinks back into oblivion post major label deal. BUT, what Doritos did with Kina is amazing. Here's what ...

Doritos took the winner Kina, shot a video, placed it in a 60-second ad and ran it during Super Bowl at the cost of $2.7 million!!!! I think it's awesome that corporates are throwing in the big bucks to help artists break through. Super Bowl does have a reach of 100 million people. That's twice the combined populations of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai & Bangalore!

What I find most amazing about the deal is the amount of MONEY flushed into backing a musical talent that isn't even known. Sure, Doritos is doing this to support talent and not to invest in a record, you might say. But Rs 12 crore is about as much investment a label would do for a MAJOR artist, across a year.

Wikipedia says that the Doritos Super Bowl 2008 commercial received the lowest ratings, but in my book, just for trying something ballsy, new and to support music, Doritos has moved several notches higher in my esteem.

Keep reading. I have my antennae out for strange / revolutionary / intriguing stories from the world of music.

PS - The song 's pretty suckie!

Back to the Motherland

2008-01-24T21:47:00.000-08:00

One of the things that's had me thinking is the amount of people returning to India to work in the entertainment circuit. Almost everyday, I meet Indians who have chucked plush jobs to come try their hand at music/films. Their accent and outlook might be different - and they usually bring a wealth of knowledge from the West. They all seem highly motivated and capable of bringing to reality whatever they have in mind. Meet them now ..

KW & KS - 2 employees of the world's largest investment bank. These guys are here in India after working with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. They plan to work on an exchange program between India and the US, plugging talent across continents. The USP - India has a massive population that is unexposed to some of the West's best.

M - After working with the largest talent management agency in the world, she returns to India to discover potential - both hers and her country's. Speaking with a nasal twang, working diligently on everything given to her, M is young and still in an exploratory phase.

S - Investment banker. Now CEO of a music company in India.

R - My favourite. A PhD student from Canada, he chose to work his thesus on the farmers from Vidharba. While he spends most of his time in India in the interiors of Maharashtra, he finds time to promote music he likes. Black Lipps, Deer Hoof etc. I got about 2 GB of music from him, and it was all good.

DH - Musicians from Canada. Currently in India to promote himself and his band. His music's good. But I think he needs to work the scene a lot more. He's already started, so that much is in his favour.

There's so many more. But these I remember for now. In a rapidly shrinking world, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. And if it does, it usually rolls back.

Another blog

2008-01-22T21:43:00.000-08:00

There's another blog that you guys must check out, if you want more on Blue Frog.

http://shekharomigosh.blogspot.com

Written by Blue Frog's most regular visitor.

What's up Doc?

2008-01-18T00:27:00.000-08:00

The Indian economy and zeitgeist has witnessed a major up-thrust these past few years. It's obvious that the growing high-disposable-income people should move in droves looking for entertainment. The money's big, the pay-offs are immediate and the competition is intense. Here's some organisms the primordial soup has spawned thus far -

Rolling Stone India

With a major potential to catapult Indian performers onto a global stage, Rolling Stone magazine launches sometime in Feb, from what I hear. While the magazine will stick to the international format and content to some percent, the covers will initially be of Indian origin. If done right, Rolling Stone could convert a very large base of the non main-stream music lovers into subscribers. I for one am waiting for the first issue like I wait for the return of Southpark's next season. High hopes.

An Echo and BRA

With Vijay Nair's OML moving out into the mainstream, things weren't looking too good. 2 event management groups got together and gave the country it's longest running rock festival. Small, smart and completely into the scene, these guys have everything going for them at the moment. The shows are always well promoted, the bands are treated well and paid (not a staple, yet) and they are open to mash-ups. Collaborations is the key here.

Hologram

A 2 day festival early next month, the Hologram festival should trigger an interest in music festivals with a non-competitive and melting-pot feel. Musicians will meet, artists will be promoted and an expected 10000 people will open their eyes to Mumbai's first Woodstock-sort-of festival. It's an ambitious plan by any standards, but from what the organisers seem to say and believe, everything looks sweet right now.

UMI

THe first of it's kind, the Union for Musicians in India. All members of this union will get together to promote the scene as one entity. Like any union worth it's salt, these guys are putting their foot down on free shows (no more ripping off artists), promoting causes and even planning compilation albums. After an entire generation of musicians has played their souls off for free shows, this union lays the foundation for the next gen of musicians to make something with their music. These guys were earlier called URINE (Union for Rock in India), but wiser sense prevailed. There is Power in a Union.

Blue Frog

At the risk of sounding pompous and self obsessed, I do believe that the Blue Frog movement will play a massive part in discovering, nurturing and promoting Indian talent. The exciting part here isn't breaking an artist into the 4 metropolitans. The focus is on finding a global presence. The way things are moving right now, and the headstart the rest of the world has on us are only working in our favour. India's globally semi-isolated music and audience is a reactor with a zillion reactions a second ... anything can happen. It's just a matter of time. And being at the right place at the right time.

Sound guys

2007-12-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

Some wisdom from someone who has been through hellfire.

Sound guys should be worshipped. Not because they control the way the band sounds. But because they have to pack up afterwards. I just witnessed 2 sound guys pack up a 24-microphone 9-piece band. There were more cables on stage than at the climax of Matrix Revolutions.

The band was Roy Paci. The sound guys were Sunil Chandy and Camille Polycarp (I swear, I don't make this up). Respec to you guys. The packers.

Learnings at the Shaa'ir + Func gig

2007-12-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

That's right .... we sold 25 CDs of Shaa'ir + Func tonight. I'd been wondering if we'd sell 15, but we did 25. Not bad at all. Pat on the back. Alright! But seriously - had been wondering for the past few weeks - "Is it only the international acts that sell 25+ CDs at the Blue Frog. I know Sarah Tavares sold about 25 per day. So did Mango Blue. When the first S+F gig at Blue Frog did about 7 CDs, I was excited (they were the first CDs I was responsible for selling), but I knew we could do better.

So, tonight, with the genius helper Kalhan, we decided to go for the Most-CDs-Sold-By-An-Indian-Artist-At-The-Blue-Frog award. I'd been toying with the idea of a CD display for a long time now - especially since the first gig on the 12th. See - post a gig, the people might love the music, but they're just too drunk to go pick up the CD. The CD has to glare down right into their face. So I did what I always do - I went for a perfect solution to the problem. But sometimes, it's the guerilla thinking that pays off. Kalhan's massive brain decided that we should modify the notes-stand (where musicians keep all their music) to double up at a CD rack. And for almost no cost, we had a perfectly visible, serviceable CD display unit. CDU. Nice.

First half of the gig - we sold about 5. Ho hum. S+F were packing the house and song after song drove in the point clearly - these were very talented and inspired people on stage. I visited the sales counter every 10 minutes from then on. We sold 3 more. Then 5 more. Then back to 3 more (Salonika, our hostess at the gate got carried away and reported 5 extra sales. Still love you Salon!) Then something strange happened. We sold 14 CDs in the last 20 minutes of the night - about an hour after S+F had gotten off the stage and Subswara and taken over. I even had to stop this guy from shoplifting 4 CDs. All in a days work for someone trying to make music pay.

So - yes -everyone in their creative lives will come to a point where we question - where do I draw the line? What is selling and what is selling out? I do not have answers. All I know is this - every time I see someone coming to the CDU and picking up one of my artist's CD's, my heart stops. I pray - O please yes please buy it ... it's incredible ....! Sometimes they do. Sometimes they don't. Like anything else in life, sometimes it works. And then not.

What a month!!!

2007-12-19T04:36:00.000-08:00

So the Blue Frog club launched - and how!!?!! It's been a crazy last 2 weeks, ever since the first soft launch gig on the 8th of December. The happiest I've ever been at any job, any where in my last 8 years as a worker bee. I wish I'd blogged every second of it, but I've been kind of wrapped up selling music, plugging my artists into NGO-events, scampering around for last-minute posters - but mostly, I've been busy just watching the artists playing at the club.

Mango Blue was the first band to kick off the Blue Frog chain of soft-launch gigs. Free alcohol, free food and free love - I wish I'd been more sober so I'd remember what a killer time it all was. I must've drunk 14 Appletinis' in all - and that's not counting the rum punches, Blue Frogs (special drink tailor made for people visiting the Frog) and Rum-n-cokes. Mango Blue was an eye-opener of sorts, for me atleast. Here's a band that truly knew how to get the crowd going, and they didn't even have a guitarist. Ya - they had a bass player. But no 6-strings. For most, I hope, this is as novel as it seemed to me. MB played 3 nights in all, and I caught 2 gigs. Alex Alvear - dude - you're the man. The band even did a workshop on afro-latin music for special friends of the Frog. So remember - if you love music, you gotto, gotto love the Frog.

The bands followed thick and fast after Mango Blue. Chromosome Eye (incredible solos from Dhruv, Harmeet & Sheldon), Shaa'ir + Func (Monica ... you are truly a goddess :) and finally, the divine Sara Tavares. While individual gig reviews is something I'm not going to get into (check thebluefrog.vox.com for that), I'm mostly writing right now because I have nothing to do. Also, I feel quite lame about not blogging more often. Every day here is worth blogging - but sometimes, you just gotto do the camel thing - store all that shyt in a lump on your back and ... you know ...

And then there's the infamous night which I'm sure you've read about in the Mirror (if you are from Mumbai). Like I heard someone telling someone on the phone - "All publicity is good publicity. We screwed up a bit and we've learnt from it. But we still stand our ground. The Blue Frog is about music. And if you aren't there for the music, you can find yourself another place to be." If you have no clue what I'm talking about - moving on....

I've been into live music for 7 years now. Yet, in the last 2 weeks I have witnessed and met more musicians that I've learnt from. And yet, I blink, I miss. Every moment holds more surprises and yet more gratification. The music biz is all I ever expected it to be. I guess the gist of what I'm trying to say here is - never a dull moment.

So - tonight I watch Pink Noise live. A band from Kolkatta featuring 2 generations of a very musical family. I look forward to it. As I look forward to writing more often. Don't forget to check out thebluefrog.vox.com for detailed reviews. Pics and videos coming up. Cheers!

Musicane - the next THING?

2007-10-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

If you observed my blog carefully, you'd find it hard to miss the Musicane embed on top right. So what is Musicane? Lets start at the very beginning.

Rayna got back from th Black Eyed Peas concert, and ya, she met Will.I.Am. And Will spoke to her at length about distribution - and he mentioned Musicane. So I googled musicane, and it's pretty much fabulous - the idea atleast. The execution ... well - we shall wait and watch,

Musicane allows you to embed your favourite music on your blog or website. The embedded player allows visitors to sample music (like Myspace) and let's you even buy it (like Itunes). Now here's the sweet part - for every clip sold through your player, you make some money too.

So all that money that should've gone to the record label and the distributer is now going to the fan, Pretty fuckin' sweet right? Well ... the music world is full of new surprises. Catch you soon with more break throughs from the most desperate industry in the world - besides Insurance that is,

The Quiz Dedicated To Important People whose names you don't know

2007-10-16T03:16:00.000-07:00

Who is Jammie Thomas?
Who is Elden Spencer?
Who is Heather DeLoach?

Jammie Thomas is the single mother of 2 kids who recently got sued for $220,000, for sharing mp3s of P2P networks. If you've used Kazaa, there's a one in a thounsand chance that you'v leeched off her.

Elden Spencer is the naked kid from the Nevermind cover. He's 17 now, and feels like the world's biggest pornstar - cause everyone has seen his pingaling.

Heather DeLoach is the tap-dancing bee girl from BLind Melon's No Rain.

Th-th-that's all folks.

Album cover art

2007-10-16T02:13:00.000-07:00

I posted on Facebook asking to get in touch with visual artists for Blue Frog's album cover art work (among other things). I hit post and had 20 entries in the next 20 minutes. They're still coming in. It's unexpected, but if you send a message to 1000 people you don't know, wuld you expect 20 replies in as many minutes?

The internet is so full of surprises. Like the awesome Benny Lava video. Could it be because people change the minute they're on it? Inhibitions dropped, fears curbed. Anyways ... that isn't the point. I don't want to tell you what you already know. I'm just completely bowled over by the reaction an internet community can have to something that seems to touch them directly. There's something to learn there.

No matter what you're trying to do, there will be people interested in helping you out. I must, must remember this.

2007-10-15T06:09:00.000-07:00

And just when I thought music was getting to be drag ....

Thank you Benny Lava.

Ze future of muzik

2007-10-15T05:01:00.000-07:00

So I was chatting with Sylvan today. We usually start talking because Sylvan gets excited seeing me listen to Punk. Maybe he's happy that punk has spread it's evil tentacles across continents to Hindustan. Although, punk has been around for sometime now in the sub-continent, you know. Like when Shammi Kapoor sang Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kae.

Anyways ... so ... Sylvan and I were talking about Bad Religion & Punkorama and he mentioned how he just downloads music off the net. Nothing new there right? So I asked him would he buy a CD if he REALLY liked the artist. And he said he might - but CDs aren't really available when yu need them. So he just picked up T-Shirts and books about artists he likes.

Now, if you knew that I work with BLue Frog Records, you'd see the intent behind my questions. I tell people that we're in the business of selling music. And yet, no one's buying. I've been reading and feeling the massive impact of music on lives and cultures, but unlike all the other things that change lives and mindsets, music just isn't making any money.

So - what is the future? When the major record labels can sue a single mother for $220,000 for downloading music illegally (http://www.musicsnews.com/articles/1842/1/) one wonders if 25 years down there'll be 2 types of people, musically speaking. One, who are sued and broke. And two, the ones who go and buy their music like good people. Then there's the third minority - the people sueing and making all the money - the Labels. If suing a single mother the right message to send to an order of diminishing faith? While we all know musicians need money to survive, does a cold stake through the heart do any good? It's like KFC - except, the Labels don't boil you alive. They just skin you and take pictures for everyone to see and be warned.

Ze future of muzik - I've joked about this with people I hang around with. But in a decade or two, it looks very possible that the number of musicians will exceed the number of non-musicians. It's not that difficult. It's not that tough. And it definitely isn't that expensive. Think of an exchange program between 2 cities who have abolished all major labels as corporate invaders and pimps of an art form. City A makes 20 albums a month. City B does the same. They then share their creations and work out an exchange program.

Sometimes I talk crap. But that's only because I ramble. If I wasn't rambling, I'd stick to discussing vinyl CDs that hold 70 minutes of CD and 5 minutes of Vinyl. It's a sweet idea, for sure. Target audience of 2%, but it's still sweet.

Back to the issue - how does someone make music a self-sustaining model? Especially when no one is buying. I don't think sueing people is the answer. Radiohead's In Rainbows might have worked the novelty-toggle right, but that's only because they can. No start-up band could make anything worthwhile from that revenue model. And yet. developing and nurturing an artist is an expensive process. The minds involved, the electronic required, the networking needed - all run on money.

While Chris Anderson's The Long Tail sings praises for the diversity of content available, it doesn't shed light on how the already thinning spend is worked to an invisible membrane that could rip through anytime.

Or maybe I'm just having a negative moment.

Music industry happenings

2007-10-11T04:04:00.000-07:00

This week saw the following happen -

Sony enlisted the skills of Rick Ruben to stabilise the wonky record industry
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/magazine/02rubin.t.html?pagewanted=all

Madonna got closer to a 120 ml dollar deal with Live Nation.
Run a google for this

Radiohead started marketing their album "In Rainbows", a first-of-a-kind price - pay what you want.
http://www.inrainbows.com

Now - how are these connected? In my head, they are. Maybe.

Dedicating all of before to now ...

2007-10-09T06:19:00.001-07:00

Seems only fit to start this one with my all-time favourite song by Frusciante. What a week this has been.vI was bored, and pissed off and wondering what to do, I suddenly stopped feeling that way. Maybe it won't last - but right now I feel harder, better, faster, stronger. So... what happened?

Have been writing interviews for Split's blog. You can read the final product at splitspace.blogspot.com. I enjoy interviews immensely. I get to be insulting, obnoxious and talk about cum swapping without sounding like a total dick. Or so I hope. Anyways ... Kalhan ... if you're reading this - I've asked Paola to chck you out on Ork. Cheers fuckface.

Best part of the week was meeting Rana. Easiy. So, after weeks of meeting pasty-faced construction people and dodging 14-year-old dreams to record-label-security, I was called into a meeting organised by Mort (frm Chatterjee & Lall - the art house) to meet an Indian from Canada studying the state of the people in Vidharba for a university in the UK. This, i said to myself, is a man worth meeting. Someone who has spared himself 12 years of investment banking and cut to the chase ...

So I met up with Rana. And he gave me about a gig of music which I still haven't completely heard. Anyways ... that was a week back. We planned to meet yesterday at Janta. I don't know why Rana wanted to meet. I just wanted to talk about Vidharba. See - i have a selfish agenda attached - I've been planning on writing a song about what's been happening there. Right now Vidharba is the karmic arsehole of India, where all our bad-deeds seem to have found seed. Anyways .. moving on ...

Janta was shut. Dry day. I already had, 2 days earlier, worked out a basic structure to the song - I called it "Evil Land". We met at Rana's friend's place - which is where I met the beautiful Tabashree. Who was an old friend of Sim's. So Sim landed up too. And we (Johnny Cash shouldn't ever have covered Rusty Cage. Die Rick Rubin) ate fish. Fabulous. And drank rum. Nice. And a joint tripped around for a bit.

And then, this evening I meet JP and Sylvan - bothers from France (cest vous paux ciam vulva). JP got me listening to Seven Degrees, his UFO-punk band from the UK and I made him listen to ForceField. Later, after we'd discussed Cydonia and NASA's fake shit, we listened to more music. Image for the day - the brothers, one earplug in a ear each - listening to She Lied To Me - bobbing their heads in sweet unison. Hehehe .... it warmed my soul.

Now - about the Label. I've been reading up about music law, publishing, cross collateralization, synch rights, merch rights, watching videos on artistshousemusic.org. So - yes - it's been educative. Tomorrow we finally start sending songs to Tune Core and stuff. So - yes - a soft launch of sorts has begun. Beta testing, if you please. A trial run. Check 1-2.

Also, I have been dealing with checkered-panted goon looking people from the construction industry. Perks of the job.

So - what did we learn this week? That the music biz is full of surprises. It is not for the faint hearted. It is for the sparkly-eyed oppurtunistic people who don;t spell too well.

So while I munch on this apple...

2007-10-05T00:28:00.000-07:00

... I'm getting apple juice all over my once once white Mac keyboard, I feel pleased. I am not a banker. I am not a computer engineer. I am not a lawyer. I sell music. It pleases me to say that, so I'll say it again. I sell music.

I remember the last 18 months as a haze ... trips to the mountains, meeting my future wife Simrat, the RiffMobile job, the wedding itself, moving out of Riff and into Blue Frog and now - 2 months later - I feel a strong sense of how much is within grasp. The musical movement coming out of India is as diversely eclectic as the country itself - and yet, when one thinks of the movement as one whole creature awakening to a technologically initiated migration, that one moment is strong enough to destroy all my existential demons. I am witness to, and a part of a beast that inches closer to being freed after decades of confinement.

The Indian Rock scene, the underground talent in the electronica movement, the classical pundits, the divas, the visual artists returning to musical roots, the scene-makers, the groupies, the nay-sayers and critics, the ones who want to break into the scene, the stoners, the trippers, the alcoholics - every new person adds another angle to an ever-growing kaleidoscope.

I posted a track by one of iyr artists, Smoke, yesterday. Within 5 minutes I received feedback from someone in Pakistan. Isn't that the most amazing thing. Geography is only a map now. And even Miss Teen Carolina will be able to figure this one out - the shape of things to come isn't a geographical by-product. It will more be defined by talent, the message, the relevance and ofcourse that huge X factor that filters the Paris Hiltons from the Paul Potts of the world.

So - what's this blog about? It'll be about my experiences in the music industry. It'll be about Blue Frog Records as it gropes around armed with the internet, a plan and a tsunami of music. It'll be a lot about what I've learnt and the people I meet. I'm tripping on Audioslave. What are you listening to?