What value does a Music Agent bring to the client transaction? There was a time in recent years when the News Anchor's role was considered dead. And yet like them Music Agencies can and do play a valuable & similar role: making meaningful the abundance of data today with its ubiquitous distribution through the internet. Read this interesting interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley whose show's ratings are increasing. I have substituted words to draw a parallel with the music profession.

"….never in human history has so much information [music] been available to so many people, but unfortunately that also means that never in human history has so much bad information [music] been available to so many people."

"I read an article in the NY Times with interviews with editors from various news [music] websites, and one of those editors said the metabolism of the news [music] cycle now is such that they don't always have time to check everything before they put it out. Well, that is the end of journalism [the music agency] (and) is antithetical to everything we stand for. The other model is called gossip. And journalism [the music agent] was invented to be an antidote to gossip."

Read the whole article: http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/TV-Broadcast-news-is-alive-and-well-says-CBS-5288945.php#photo-5969686

Should I have music at my event and if so what kind?

Explore our relationship with sound in general including music and its effect on our mood and even our health in this fascinating TED Talk by Julian Treasure, ex drummer from the 1980's British art rock band The Transmitters. 

"Music is the most powerful sound there is for two reasons: we recognize it fast and we make quick powerful associations with it as well."  When you plan your event it can be said that what is happening sonically is the defining of a Brand unique to the client company or featured personalities. Thus music choices need to contain these features to have maximum impact: 1) congruence with the visual communication, props & decor; 2) making the music appropriate to the situation, event space, # of guests, etc. ; 3) making the music valuable rather than undistinguished (louder is not better); 4) testing the choice in the sense of being aware of who is listening and an anticipated response. 

Julian Treasure, TED Talk:

https://new.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_the_4_ways_sound_affects_us

Holophonic Sound is recordings of sounds the human ear hears in an environment either in nature or in a concert hall. These have been recreated in its original 4 Dimensions: 3 for location and 1 for time. Using this new technology one experiences seeing in space what they hear in time!

"In the movie Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's adventure begins when a beam of light shoots out of the robot Artoo Detoo and projects a miniature three-dimensional image of Princess Leia. Luke watches spellbound as the ghostly sculpture of light begs for someone named Obi-wan Kenobi to come to her assistance. The image is a hologram, a three-dimensional picture made with the aid of a laser." Michael Talbot: The  Holographic Universe.

Argentinian physiologist Hugo Zuccarelli recently developed a new recording technique that allows one to create what amounts to holograms made out of sound instead of light.

http://www.acousticintegrity.com/acousticintegrity/Hugo_Zuccarelli.html

test post on GIFs:

Superbowl Sunday, Nat'l Anthem. Compare singers; choose a trophy winner?

For this song the performer must bring a style and voice quality befitting the nature of the occasion, typically one on a grand scale and an approach reflecting the purpose of the song itself that being a representation of our nation. The instrumental and choral accompaniment is also an area for originality. Below are three different singers from sports dates now past. Absent the visuals which is your favorite sound? My choice remains a secret but the last note of the song should give it away.

#1-https://soundcloud.com/user2025252/alicia-keys

#2-https://soundcloud.com/user2025252/whitney-huston

#3-https://soundcloud.com/user2025252/rene-fleming

Music + Picture+ Words

A single Picture is worth a thousand Word's. The same can be said visa versa. And while Music has the power to convey the meanings held within both pictures and words, by combining all three one experiences the force of three streams of data entreating the brain simultaneously. It is undeniable that today's multimedia of Motion Pictures as a story telling technology is captivating in ways each of its component parts cannot accomplish separately. The link below provides an earlier version of Movie technology using the "Video Jukebox" . For the Baby Boomers out there seeking historical time travel allow the memories and emotions to uncoil... 

http://www.1959bhsmustangs.com/VideoJukebox.htm#

Repetition in Music: What a drag?

Seems like the nature of some media requires more than a single statement for its meaning to be communicated and fully appreciated. At least in the re-creative ones like musical performance the playing action itself is finite in time, a song lasts 5-10 minutes a concert 60 minutes and is over. Thus the musical experience is only present to the listener while the notes sound. That experience is resurrected only by playing the music all over again--from the beginning. This is unlike the visual arts for example wherein a painting can hang on a wall indefinitely after the first creative act is done. Which BTW is precisely the contribution provided with the invention of the camera. Here one could for the first time freeze in time a scene to be viewed subsequently independent of time of day, lighting, indoors or outdoors, weather, or the presence or absence of viewers at that scene. The experience of music on the other hand is not consumed in a fixed moment but rather occurs over a period of time and when the music is not recorded, enjoyment of sound is hardly dulled but rather enhanced with frequent live performances. This feature unique to music has many examples: 1,255 local performances of Tchaikowski's Nutcraker Ballet by third horn player Brian McCarty (see article below); solo pianist Eric Shifrin presiding in the Fairmont Hotel's Laurel Court for seven years (just laid off), or violinist David Reffkin playing Salon Music throughout the 1980's with his trio in what was then the St Francis Hotel's Compass Rose Room.

How is this different from any other form of mechanized labor say for example working a 'stamping machine' in an athletic shoe factory? Might want to ask the laborers involved about their state of mind at the end of a work shift. While Siddhartha famously said "one can never stand in the same river twice" with music the mental state required provides an opportunity for infinite variety of attention and expression. That's why we pay top dollar for favorite performers who bring a unique interpretation to the very same material. Can't say that about the machine operator or even a traditional Disc Jockey. And this is true for performances of  'carved in stone' classical manuscripts as well as Jazz improvisations using chord charts. "Play it Again Sam" each time can take us on an entirely different journey.

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/garchik/article/Sugarplum-fairy-just-keeps-twirling-5107120.php