The Kills performed at Royale on Friday, February 3, 2012. Jasmine Lywen-Dill took photos of the concert and they have been posted on the Boston Phoenix website under Live Reviews at: thephoenix.com/boston/music/133773-photos-the-kills-at-royale/

Click the thumbnails to view the photos here. When they enlarge, then click on right or left to navigate as a slideshow:

The Brad Ellenberg Quintet, led by Westwood’s own Brad Ellenberg, gave a free performance of original and traditional jazz tunes for an enthusiastic crowd at the Islington Community Center last month, thanks to a grant from the Westwood Cultural Council.

Brad, who plays the guitar, said the band has been together in different forms since 1993.

They started as a trio. Brad met his bass player, Michael Ball, when they were both attending the New England Conservatory. Brad was there to get his master’s in jazz composition.

He started out wanting a smaller sound, but the band just kept growing. These days, the band also includes Gary Bohan on trumpet, Corey Lareau on saxophone, clarinet and flute, and Grant Smith on drums.

Their 2009 release, Rendezvous, is the band’s only album together. While it is strongly a jazz album with no vocals, there are clearly different genres that influenced Brad while he was writing the songs.

When listening to jazz, one would never assume there would also be Latin, rock and blues influences, but all these sounds are on Rendezvous. Brad said he grew up with bands like the Allman Brothers, Traffic, and Eric Clapton.

One track on the album is titled, “Images of Louis,” inspired from a biography on Louis Armstrong. It sounds like a 1920s ode to the late great jazz trumpeter, with snare drums and a trumpet bringing the listener back in time.

“I really don’t like to shut myself off to any type of music,” Brad said. “I’ll try to take an influence wherever I can.” He further explained this idea by comparing chord changes to different colors, and that there’s a different color sound for every chord and key.

“A lot of jazz song writing takes a journey through a variety of those,” he said.

Brad believes he got into jazz as a result of a natural progression. It spoke to him personally.

“There’s a certain depth and complexity to jazz music or the repertoire,” he said. “There’s so much variety within it.”

Another big part of being a jazz band is improvisation. When I asked Brad if they ever free form at a show, he quickly replied, “All the time.”

Jazz is like going through the different rooms of a house, he said, where the construction is always the same, but the decorations of the rooms are different.

Every song has improvisation, but Brad made it clear the quintet is not improvising with nothing on the spot. They always have the structure of the song to work from.

“The beauty of jazz is it’s an extremely spontaneous expression,” he said.

The Quintet performs at a lot of corporate and private events, such as bar mitzvahs, weddings, and social events. All the members of the band are working musicians and play with different groups as well.

Brad is a guitar teacher at Waltham Middle School and High School. He also co-directs the student council at the middle school and helps coach some of his son’s sports teams. The benefit of being a teacher, he said, is being done with work around 4 p.m. so he can focus the rest of the day on his music.

Last month, the Quintet played a free concert at the Islington Community Center, funded by a $600 grant from the Westwood Cultural Council. About 50 people turned out for the event that Sunday.
Massachusetts appropriates funds to every city and town’s cultural council. In 2011, the Westwood Cultural Council awarded the maximum, $1,000, to groups organizing three events: Westwood Chinese Cultural night, an Indian Cultural Evening, and a Meet the Musicians night at Downey Elementary School.

The Quintet’s grant of $600 was the second highest amount awarded.

Brad said he would apply for another grant from the cultural council this year. The guidelines are simple: the money needs to be used for something that many people in the community can partake in. If they got it again, he said, they would probably use it for another free concert.

The band is also working on another album, which they hope to get out some time next year.

“We’re local musicians,” he said, “but it’s music for the passion of that music, for what it brings out emotionally and spiritually.”

Copyright 2011 Westwood Press. Some rights reserved

The article above was copied from the Wicked Local Westwood website: www.wickedlocal.com/westwood/news/x430729535/Quintet-of-Brad-Ellenberg-and-his-jazzmen-give-back-to-Westwood#ixzz1liX3oyOr

Published in print and online for Wicked Local Westwood – November 03, 2011.

“It was mainly just for fun and to show people what I can do,” says Westwood’s Jacob Hertz, about his first-ever musical release last month, a cover album titled Jacob and Skit: Three Years Later.

Hertz and his guitar teacher, Skot Veroczi — who played bass and back-up guitar on the tracks — talked about recording the album for three months before they did it. After Hertz chose the covers he wanted to play, he and Veroczi blazed through the recording process in just two, eight-hour days at the end of summer.

The album kicks off with a cover of Statesboro Blues by the Allman Brothers. Hertz then riffs his way through A Day in the Life by The Beatles, gives a riveting rendition of Cause We Ended as Lovers by Stevie Wonder, accomplishes a guitarist’s dream in Castles Made of Sand by Jimi Hendrix, goes into some jazz with So What by Miles Davis, and shows a softer side by finishing with Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton.

“Those are some songs I’ve been working on over the years for school projects that I was just really interested in because of the guitar that’s on them,” says Hertz, who really shines on the album when it’s just him and his guitar rocking out during solos. “I was inspired by Hendrix and Jeff Beck, and the Allman Brothers are just fun to play.”

“It was mainly just for me and also to get my music out there,” he says.

Surprisingly, Hertz says that while he’s passionate about playing music, it’s just a hobby. Despite his obvious talents, he doesn’t desire the risks of being a professional musician.

He didn’t even apply to music colleges.

“I do it for myself and for personal enjoyment,” he says. “I don’t think a musical life later on would be as enjoyable.”
His ambition is to become a marine biologist — specifically, a physical oceanographer.

This doesn’t mean that Hertz plans to stop playing. He especially loves donating his talents to charity. Two years ago, he collaborated with Children’s Hospital in a fundraiser where he hosted a battle of the bands at the Dedham Community Theatre.

Outside of music, Hertz plays lacrosse and skis.

“Jacob uses music to express himself,” says Camilla Hertz, Jacob’s mother. “He doesn’t talk a lot, but you hear his voice in his music.”

Jacob and Skit: Three Years Later can be heard for free at jacobhertz.bandcamp.com.Contact Westwood Press correspondent Jasmine Lywen-Dill at westwood@wickedlocal.com. Follow this story on Twitter @WestwoodPress.

Copyright 2011 Westwood Press. Some rights reserved

The article above was copied from the Wicked Local Westwood website: www.wickedlocal.com/westwood/news/x545131922/Teen-Jacob-Hertz-produces-plays-his-ax-on-six-tracks-of-wax#axzz1hkshaIzg

Published in print and online for Wicked Local Westwood – December 15, 2011.

Last Friday at the House of Blues, Fitz & the Tantrums brought their soul-inflected indie pop to Boston. Right before the band’s encore performance of their hit “Moneygrabber,” singer/songwriter Michael “Fitz” Fitzpatrick told the audience that the band likes to get down and party — literally. The ringleader of the Los Angeles sextet explained that everybody at the sold out venue should get down also, by squatting or sitting down on the ground. If they were spotted still standing amongst the crowd, Fitz and vocalist Noelle Scaggs would point and call them out.

"This day and age, you better be able to put on a great live show because it's really one of the ways you're going to make a name for yourself."

Sure, it was kind of uncomfortable, but it made for a unique climax of their performance. When the song started, it was an explosion of Motown-inspired beats and about 2,400 dancing Fitz fans. Yesterday afternoon, I reached Fitzpatrick by phone for a chat about his grueling tour schedule, where his band gets their Motown sound, and what it takes to break out in the music biz. Fitz  finally had a day off after a fortnight of energetic shows, but he still found time to chat with the Phoenix for the first time since January.

I thought it was funny that you said on stage in other cities, Fitz is an original name, but in Boston it isn’t. What do you mean by that?
With so many Irish people in Boston, it’s not uncommon to meet a lot of Fitzpatricks or Fitzgeralds. Every time I’m in Boston, there’s at least two or three other Fitzses that come up to me after the show.

Do your friends and family also call you “Fitz” now?
That’s where I always got the nickname, because when your first name’s Michael, there’s too many Michaels. Everyone’s got a dad, a brother, and a lot of friends named Michael. So my friends early on started calling me Fitz and that’s really where the nickname came out of.

I went to your show at the House of Blues last Friday, and it was fantastic. You guys bring a lot of energy to the stage. How do you access that every single night while you are touring?
Honestly, some nights, I have no idea because it is such a physically exhausting show and we just, today, had our first day off after doing 14 shows in a row. There’s some days where I am so physically exhausted, trying to sleep as much as possible and rest until that moment we go on stage. I think, the music itself just inspires us and we feed off the energy of the crowd. The more we kind of push each other, the crowd pushes us, and we push the crowd. It sort of fuels us to always go to that next level.

Did you have a lot of time in Boston before going to your next show? I know while you were on stage you said it was one of your favorite cities, and there must be bars around here you guys have to hit up while you’re in town, especially since your keyboardist Jeremy (Ruzumna), is a native Bostonian.
Yeah, that’s the trippy thing about being on tour. We pulled in at noon, and we left at two in the morning. It was very little time to do anything in Boston, but in the afternoon we took a walk to our favorite coffee shop and back.

What coffee shop was it?
Blue State Coffee, next to the Paradise Lounge.

Did you also have a performance with WFNX last Friday?
Yeah, we did an afternoon little mini concert for some of the listeners upstairs in the Foundation Lounge at the House of Blues. [Click here to see photos from that concert.]

Your show last Friday was sold out. Have other shows on your tour been selling out also?
Yeah, I mean, Philly sold out; DC; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; three nights [at Metro in Chicago]. It’s pretty incredible.

I know that the band started in Los Angeles, but after selling out at Boston’s HOB, I was wondering where you feel you have a bigger fan base — East or West Coast?
It’s hard to say. We’re from LA, so we have a pretty big fan base there and in San Francisco and Seattle. We definitely have a nice little fan base in the South. But, I don’t know, maybe the East Coast is really where our biggest fan base is.

At the show you said “Tighter” was one of your favorite songs on the album, is it also your favorite song to perform live?
It definitely is one of them because a lot of the other songs are very high-tech and uptempo and high-energy and playful. That song requires for me, as a performer, to really get in touch with a different side, emotionally. To get the audience to sing along with us with that song … it makes me emotional every time I do it.

You’ve described your own sound as “soul-influenced indie pop.” Can you name other artists who have inspired the band’s sound?
Anybody from the Motown group — Otis Redding, Aretha, Sam Cooke — and then artists like Talking Heads, and ABC songs from the ’80s. There’s a lot of hip-hop influence for the record. It’s really sort of a mixture of styles. It’s not just a pure soul record.

One of the most interesting thing about your sound is the lack of guitars. Should we never expect to hear a guitar on a Fitz and The Tantrums record?
I don’t think we’ll ever limit ourselves. If a song was ready for it, we would certainly give it a try.

Lyrically, which of your songs are you the most proud to have written?
It’s hard, because they are all your babies. We really took a lot of good care to make every song on the record stand on its own two feet and be great. I love them all, and “Don’t Gotta Work It Out” is one of my favorites.

I’m also impressed by how fast this band came into the spotlight. What do you think was the reason for that and do you have any advice for up-and-coming bands wanting to make it?
It has happened fast, but at the same time, we have truly worked our asses off for three years straight now. Even before then, with initial recordings, we’re pushing four years in progression. I’m sure to most people on the outside that seems fast, but on the inside, when we’re in the band, driving all night to the next gig, it doesn’t seem that fast to you. I think you better start at the core with great music and great songs.This day and age, you better be able to put on a great live show because it’s really one of the ways you’re going to make a name for yourself. We have been willing to make a lot of sacrifices — to play anywhere, everywhere, to do an interview anytime, anything. Go and do some website session, do somebody’s bedroom blog, you know, anything and everything. At the same time, you also need a little bit of the right time, some serendipity, and a lot of luck. You have to do anything and everything you’re willing to do and work really hard at it. Don’t be cocky and don’t be lazy, and know that even with all of that, there’s no guarantees.

There were new songs you guys played on stage. It may be a little too soon to ask, but do you have any idea of when you want to release the next album?
Well, we’re working. We’re writing on the road … If everything goes well, we’ll get to work on the next record around February and March, and then, hopefully, we’ll be able to have the next single out next summer and have the record come out at the end of summer.

The article above was copied from the Boston Phoenix website:
blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/onthedownload/archive/2011/11/15/photos-q-amp-a-fitz-amp-the-tantrums-michael-fitzpatrick-on-his-soul-d-out-tour.aspx

Written for The Boston Phoenix Blog on November 15, 2011.

At America’s Stonehenge, you can snowshoe your way, by candlelight, through thousands of years of archaeological history. But first, you’ll have to pass by some alpacas.

When I went to Stonehenge in the UK last year, it was hard to get a picture of just the rocks without some tourist being in your frame. After a couple of minutes waiting in line, I just wanted to be done with it, post the pictures on Facebook, and officially say I’d been there.

>> PHOTOS: America’s Stonehenge <<

These were my expectations for the site billed as America’s Stonehenge, but at 10 am on a recent Saturday, I was one of just four people at the 105-acre site on Salem, NH’s Mystery Hill. I was won over by not just the site’s history, but the expansiveness of the forest. It’s hard to remember places like this exist after weeks of breathing God knows what kinds of pollution and falling asleep to the sound of car alarms and police sirens in the city.

The whole place is family-run, purchased and opened to the public by the aptly named Robert Stone, who passed away in 2009. I got a personal tour with Robert’s son, Dennis, a commercial pilot who followed in his father’s footsteps by continuing to maintain and research the land with his wife, Pat.

We started by walking by the alpaca farm at the beginning of the trail (and seeing one of them kiss Dennis on the lips; he really likes alpacas). Fun fact: according to Dennis, alpacas are native to North America, not South America. He said he had wanted to reunite the animal with their “homeland.”

The main attraction at America’s Stonehenge is a handful of ancient stone structures and cave-like dwellings. No one knows for sure where they came from; theories range far and wide. Some say it was a Native American site dating back millennia, or that it was built by wayward Irish monks in AD 1000— though academics contend it was part of a cider press owned by a farmer in 1825. Nonetheless, charcoal found at the site has reportedly been dated to 6000 years ago.

Given that history, it’s easy to imagine why rumors spread about people experiencing paranormal activity here, and the eeriness of the vast expanse of open land definitely lends itself to ghost sighting claims. Dennis said that, the weekend before I visited, a paranormal group came to investigate, and that their energy meters kept going off. Then he casually added, “I’m not so sensitive to that stuff, but my son has seen shape shifters out here.”

If it’s not too spooky for you, the gem of the site’s offerings is the candlelight hike. Every Saturday from January 14 to February 18, the Stones open up additional acres to the public and light the trail with kerosene candles. Sounds like the perfect place to take that special hook-up buddy to on Valentine’s Day. It’s $15 for adults — $10 if you bring your own snowshoes — and reservations are required. For children, it’s $10, $7 if they bring their own shoes. (On a regular day, admission prices are $8-12 for adults, and $5-8 for kids.) Best part: that rate includes hot chocolate and cookies. This would also be a great outdoorsy activity to remind yourself that stars actually do exist in the night sky. (Although it’s recommended to bring flashlights because it can get really dark out there.) Sleds are suggested for little ones too young to walk/talk/snowshoe.

On February 4, there will be a special full-moon trek. It’s recommended you stay away from any wolf-like creature you might encounter that night. Don’t worry though, if you get spooked out, it’s probably just a friendly shape shifter.

America’s Stonehenge is located at 105 Haverhill Road in Salem, NH. For more information call 603.893.8300 or visit stonehengeusa.com.

The article above was copied from the Boston Phoenix website:
thephoenix.com/Boston/life/129495-everybody-must-get-stonehenged/

Written for The Boston Phoenix Ski Guide 2012 in print and posted online on November 9, 2011.

Amy Madge, the author of the anti-bullying book, The Adventures of Kwung-ee and Uba-Dooba Boy.

Westwood — In the wake of teenage suicides in America linked to bullying and cyberbullying, Westwood’s Amy Madge has written a children’s book aimed at educating youngsters about the lasting effects of teasing, The Adventures of Kwung-ee and Uba-Dooba Boy.

“As a child, I was bullied and teased very much,” Madge recalls. “I’m in my late 40s and I still remember the incidents that happened to me on the playground.”

While she had a great support system at home, it was still difficult for Madge to tell her mother whenever she was bullied, because she was afraid it would make the situation even worse. As she got older, she was teased for various things, like her curly hair, teenage acne, and being the tallest in her class.

“It’s very hard, very painful [till] this day, when I think back,” Madge said.

During those years when she was victimized, Madge and her brother escaped by creating imaginary friends named Kwung-ee and Uba-Dooba Boy. When Madge’s mother fell ill a few years ago, Madge quit her job to take care of her. With the encouragement of her mother, she spent some of that time writing this book.

After her mother passed away, The Adventures of Kwung-ee and Uba-Dooba Boy sat on Madge’s laptop until friends encouraged her to publish it. While the recent suicides and anti-bullying campaigns were not an influence when she was writing the book, because it had yet to grab the media’s attention, it was another factor that finally led her to publish.

On one level, the book is about a children’s baseball game, where one of the kids strikes out and the neighborhood bully starts teasing him, saying, “What a baby!” The bully thinks it would be cool to make fun of this new kid in town, but eventually realizes what he was doing was wrong and apologizes. The new kid accepts his apology and they become friends.

On a deeper level, Madge hopes to bring awareness to the children and parents reading her book about why name-calling or mocking can be deeply hurtful and potentially traumatizing. The book is meant to be both enjoyable and, at the same time, teach readers to contemplate their actions before doing them.

“[I hope children reading this book] see what the effects can be and stop and think before doing that,” Madge said. “It’s OK just to be who you are.”

When presented with the argument that bullying is merely a part of childhood, Madge disagreed.

“It’s not,” she stated firmly. “Kids have to learn to get along and share, I agree, but not bully and tease, I don’t agree with that. I don’t think that’s a part of growing up or part of being a kid, when you see someone [be beaten up].”

Educating older children about the harmful effects of bullying is important, Madge said, but even more so regarding younger children. The solution is “getting them while they are young [and] start educating them while they are little,” she said.

The book itself is part of her personal campaign to include bullying in early education curriculum. Massachusetts has made an effort to try and end bullying and cyberbullying, Madge says, but there is still more to be done.

“I think teachers and parents [have] to work together on this,” Madge said. “Parents have to be more involved. It’s hard with all the technology out there today.”

“If the book reached one person, and made them stop and think,” Madge says, “then the book has accomplished its mission.”

The Adventures of Kwung-ee and Uba-Dooba Boy can be found at www.publishamerica.com.

Copyright 2011 Westwood Press. Some rights reserved

The article above was copied from the Wicked Local Westwood website: www.wickedlocal.com/westwood/features/x984144608/Local-scribe-seeks-no-bullying-early-education#axzz1bjyktjJP

Published in print and online for Wicked Local Westwood – October 24, 2011.

Let’s face it, Massachusetts is haunted. Nathaniel Hawthorne knew it; H.P. Lovecraft knew it; you know it, too. We’re sitting on a shitload of history here – going back to the original Eurotrash invasion of 1605 – and not all of it is bright and shiny. If any state is going to be infested with restless spirits, it’s good ol’ Mass.

So it’s no surprise that there are spots with a reputation for paranormal activity. For example: Cape Cod, normally one of the best places to watch the wealthy vacation, is littered with haunted mansions. One of them, the Barnstable House built in 1716, is home to 11 ghosts.  One of its previous owners was a sea captain; legend says that while  he was away at sea, his wife found their daughter drowned in their well. The wife proceeded to starve herself to death in the third-floor bedroom.  Boarders have claimed to see the ghost of the captain helping children down the stairs, or slamming doors.  There are also stories about the windows unlocking and locking on their own. One visitor said that his newspaper moved from one side of the table to the other by itself. Spooky, right? I mean, who STILL READS NEWSPAPERS? Ghosts, apparently..

Then there’s Salem. Execute 19 people, and 400 years later they’ll build a gift shop. Despite the fact that they bear no relation to the mass hysteria that swept through town in the 1690s, Wiccans, goths, and Harry Potter fans have all flocked here, and it’s become a great place to buy magnets shaped like witches. Despite the touristy bullshit, there are still traces of genuine creepiness. Take 43 Church (formerly known as the Lyceum Bar & Grill), a great place for a beer, which also happens to stand on the site of an old apple orchard owned by Bridget Bishop — the first to be hanged for witchcraft back in 1692.  People claim they have seen her spirit haunting the building, and/or heard a female voice whispering in their ears. Occasionally, employees have even seen a woman standing by the second-floor window.

READ: “Salem’s spookiest tourist traps,” by Greg Cook

Salem isn’t the only place in Massachusetts that has an uneasy past. The Concord Colonial Inn in Concord was built on a Native American burial ground – never a good thing. Strange occurrences include books flying off shelves and sightings of people vanishing in thin air.  In 1966, one woman said she saw a figure hovering over her bed.  Another time, a guest ran downstairs and slept in the foyer after seeing a ghost in her haunted room.  In the morning, her suitcase was found re-packed without any knowledge of who did it. Room 24 is what gets the most attention; a paranormal investigation team once claimed to make contact with three spirits just in that one room. No word as to whether they were members of AIM.

But those are the ‘burbs, where the lawns are huge and no one can hear you scream. Surely civilized, metropolitan Boston is safer? Ha! Think again. Back in the 17th century, they used to hang people on Boston Common, and people have seen ghosts there. Two women seen walking together are thought to be Quaker Mary Dyer, hung in 1660 for her religious beliefs, and Elizabeth Emerson, hung in 1693 for murdering her two children.  It’s nice that they’re keeping each other company in the afterlife, at least. Meanwhile, over at Fort Warren on George’s Island, the ghosts are color-coded. “The Lady in Black” was executed in 1862; legend says she tried to help her Confederate POW husband get free, and then killed him as the fort commander closed in on them. Soldiers stationed here later claimed to fire at a dark cloaked image, only to have it disappear afterwards. “The Woman in Scarlet” was killed by a cannonball  on a British ship blockading Boston Harbor during the Revolutionary War. Since then, several people have claimed to see a woman walk around with blood dripping from her head.

Next time you are trying to give yourself a good scare on Halloween by going to a horror film or touring a haunted house, remember that some of what you are seeing may be based on real life mysterious events.

The article above was copied from the Boston Phoenix website:
blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2011/10/21/massachusetts-s-most-haunted-true-tales-of-ghost-captains-spectral-widows-hotel-poltergeists-and-more.aspx

Written for The Boston Phoenix PHLOG (online blog) on October 21, 2011.

The Duke & The King

Catskill Mountains, New York

“Folk Rock meets Huckleberry Finn”

If your music of choice includes overused synthesizers, highly amplified distortion, or overall heavy beats harshly reverberating your eardrums until they bleed, then The Duke & The King is not for you.  This harmonious and sweetly melodic quartet from upstate New York brings you to their adventuresome roots in their new album, a compilation of their previous British releases.

Their name comes from the traveling Shakespeare hustlers in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and when listening to their folk-rock songs like “Shaky” and “Shine On You,” you can just imagine floating with them down a river, accepting whatever journey lies ahead.  One of their more gospel and bluesy songs, “Hudson River,” directly relates to that idea – with lyrics that prompt the listener to want to sing along by the end – “Don’t run astray, don’t you ever take your love away.”

“If You Ever Get Famous” is the first song on the album and defines the morality of the band with lyrics including, “Keep your eyes open wide and beware of the sharks, because they get out in the dark” and “If you ever get famous, don’t forget about her.”  The Duke & The King may be enjoying their journey down the river that is the music business and their growing fame, but it’s safe to say this band of musicians (compared to Shakespeare’s band of players) won’t let it get to their heads.  As long as they keep that homemade folk sound, then they’ll be playing their own advice. (ANTI-)

myspace.com/dukeandtheking

The article above was copied from the Performer Magazine website: performermag.com/2011/08/10/record-review-the-duke-the-king/

Published in print and online for Performer Magazine – August 2011.

On July 14, Swedish music streaming service Spotify made its U.S. debut.  Will Americans grasp onto it as much as our mates across the pond have?

On Spotify’s “Hello America” welcome page, the company explains that users can have “any track, any time, anywhere. And it’s free!”  The service includes creating and sharing playlists, searching through its 15 million tracklist catalogue, and even downloading Spotify as an app for your smart phone.  An invite is needed in order to begin registration, but once started and after a six-month beginner period, free users have access to 10 hours of streaming per month and can listen to individual songs up to five times each.  One adverse feature that comes with free access is advertisements.  If a user signs up for the premium package starting at $4.99 a month, then there is no need for an invite or hesitation about being harassed by advertisements, because there are none.

Created in 2006, Spotify had 1.6 million users from only the seven European countries (Finland, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK) it was available in prior to its recent U.S. release. According to David Johnson from Business Insider, the United States’ 80 percent of labels get 2 billion dollars of its revenue from sales, as opposed to Sweden, which in only 20% of the country’s $38 million from digital revenue, a hefty 60% comes solely from streaming.  If these numbers translate Stateside, the U.S. might be looking at streaming as the main moneymaker in the music industry.

Heliene Lindvall of The Guardian is skeptical that this change is for the better, at least where artists are concerned.  She explains, “Indie labels only get a 50% share of ad revenue on a pro-rata basis.”  With labels only getting 18% of the shares from online streaming, artists will hardly see that income.

Spotify has a chance to gain widespread popularity in the States if it unites with Facebook, as it is rumored.  On Spotify’s homepage, there is a quote from Mark Zuckerberg saying, “Spotify is so good.”  It certainly will be, for him at least, if the two do make a deal.

Spotify already has one million paid subscribers and undoubtedly is looking to become the top used streaming site in the world.  One can only hope that WHEN, not IF, streaming is the top resource for listening pleasure, that artists, and not just their labels, are compensated fairly.

The article above was copied from the Performer Magazine website: www.performermag.com/2011/07/15/spotify-is-u-s-launch-good-for-artists/

Published online for Performer Magazine – June 15, 2011.

The article above was copied from the Performer Magazine website pdf download of the September 2011 edition: performermag.com/2011/08/31/september-2011-print-issue/

Published in print for the September 2011 edition of Performer Magazine.

Download the pdf of the Obituary page