What Was I Thinking?

A little blurb about Motown Muse.

I have a passion for those who try to make their living with God-given talent. You can learn and develop skills, but you’re born with talent. I also learned early on that there’s almost a bias against talent, and a disproportionate esteem for skill.

When I started out, I worked as a draftsman. I developed my lettering skills and learned to draw different width lines, learned to dimension and tolerance parts and assemblies.. all the skills I needed to do a drafting job. Shortly thereafter, I learned to work a computer and used computer-aided drafting tools. I’d always had a pretty good knack for artistic drawing, as well, and when I moved back to Detroit I heard about an opening in Technical illustration in the company where I was working.

At that time, I’d been drafting for 7 or 8 years. I dropped into the Tech illustration department and looked over a few of the illustrator’s shoulders. What talent?!? These guys had a real natural gift. I wanted to learn. I was shocked, however, to find that these guys were paid a fraction of what I was being paid as a draftsman. They told me they couldn’t afford me... and I wasn’t making much money at the time. He said these guys loved it so much, they’d work for a lot less. He actually said it with a smirk on his face.

It was then that I realized there’s a bias against natural talent. Intentional or not, it really ticked me off.

So when I see someone develop their talents into a skill, and are driven to make all or some of their living using it, I want to see them succeed.

In Detroit, there is a music scene that rivals any found in the country. But, if you’re an artist, you know it’s tough out there. I spent a couple of years running a non-profit venue that helped promote local artists. It was a battle. We had very little money for promotion, and when it came to filling the house, I discovered how tough it is to get people to come out to a venue.

Money’s tight. Times are hard for customers, artists AND venues. So I started thinking about the drivers in the live music arena. These were my observations:

In the music scene, there are 4 players. The Audience/customer, The Venue, the Media, and the Artists.

The Audience/Customers are driven by hunger, but not always for food. Maybe for entertainment or even music. They might start with a place to eat. If they have money and time left over, they’ll go out for conversation, desert/drink, and some music. If they’re like me, the decision comes when their stomach growls. They get in the car and go. If its Friday night, they don’t grab a paper and look. They grab their keys and drive. Most times they’re already out, and the follow their nose.

Venues are driven by traffic and profit. Don’t get me wrong. They may be passionate about what they do (or cook), but if they bring in more traffic (customers) more people pay, or in the case of a restaurant, eat, and the overhead of a venue becomes less significant making the venue more profitable. Without traffic, they fail, and that’s not good for them or the neighborhoods where they live. Artists can draw traffic, and help create the environment that bring customers back. Getting people out, though, sometimes require an additional resource.

The Media are driven by ad revenues. If you want to advertise, you give them money and they give you air-time or square inches on a piece of newsprint, or webpage. If a media site has more subscribers/viewers, this space/time is worth more. Venues give money for this space/time. If the advertising works, the venue sees more traffic, has more profit, and can spend more to promote.

Artists are driven by.. well usually they drive themselves in worn-out cars. Seriously, though, they are driven by a passion to exercise their talents. If they can pay the bills doing so, its that much more fulfilling. Local artists rarely have the means to promote themselves, and are at the mercy of the venue to promote. In fact, many venues depend totally on word-of-mouth, and pay the artists based on their ability to promote and/or bring in a crowd.

I decided to start Motown Muse so that local Detroit-metro artists can have a voice in promoting themselves, and so Detroit metro residents can have a good way of finding out where local metro Detroit artists are playing.

It will be focussed on local Metro-Detroit artists, and the gig publishing will be in the hands of the artists.

How much will it cost? Nothing for the artists. Listings will be free. Budget will be hand-to-mouth, at first. Maybe we’ll take donations if we need to. Manpower will be mine and volunteers, but I promise it’ll be the best I can give and excellence will be the standard.

Someday, I hope that venues will see the value in sponsoring the publication and when that day comes I’ll use those revenues to increase circulation so more people know about Motown Muse and the artists and it promotes and venues that support them. In the mean-time, however, I will need the help of every artist to get the word out. I’ll need every reader of Motown Muse to tell their friends and coworkers about how easy it makes finding affordable, local-live-music when you go out for dinner or a drink.

That’s all for now, but I’ll keep you updated as thing progress. Target date for the Motown Muse to go is still fluent. I want it to be informational, and as thorough as possible, but I also want to make sure that it is efficient, not requiring excessive resources to update. If we keep it efficient it will live a long life and be timely enough to be a valuable resource for the artists and the residents of metro Detroit.

If you have any ideas, please leave a comment.

In the mean-time, artists, if you have upcoming gigs, please email motownmuse@gmail.com and let us know dates, venue/location, and some details about the band, including a photo if you got it.

Promote Detroit Music!

A New Venture

Today I began the task of assembling the Motown Muse.

Motown Muse is a calendar of events that is focused on filling up the rooms of venues around the Detroit metroplex in order to support the local artists of Southeast Michigan.

It’s a big task. Hopefully I can follow through and make this what it deserves to be.