Y Prog Festival Cancelled, Are There Too Many Festivals?

The Y-Prog (or Why Prog? as my wife called it) Festival has been cancelled. In prog circles this was quite a big event, lots of well know bands and a decent amount of promotion. No official announcement but it looks like poor tickets sales did it. I don't know and choose not to speculate. Kris who was putting the festival on is a nice bloke and I've played with his band Manning, all very decent people.

My beat combo The Fierce And The Dead were supposed to be playing. Balls.

It does make you worry that fans will choose not to come to these festivals in the future after being let down here - here are some posts from facebook and forums (names witheld as i don't want to invade anyone's privacy):

"I ordered my non-refundable airline ticket. There's no way I will spend £300 just to see Riverside "

"The train tickets are not (about £65), and I have to sort out the £70 weekend ticket, and I'll certainly be losing money on the admin charges"

"Having paid for my own coach tickets fom Inverness and hotel for weekend. I'm well and truely out of pocket (as both are non refundable)"

I've seen a lot more. I feel really bad for these guys, rubbish. BALLS!

Are there too many festivals now? Too many similar line ups? Too many prog bands not enough fans?

I know we are lucky to allowed to play these events as we're not a "proper prog band" but it's a difficult time. 

The very wonderful Electric Garden Festival is still only at 20%, please support it. It's a cracking line up:

http://www.fundervine.com/projects/509f7bf0495dadda05000000#.UTcTh9GwiG9

Please also support the excellent Celebr8 Prog Festival. 

Tonight I'm doing a warm up in London...

Catch Bar - On At 8 - Trying new songs out :) 

Are Musicians Rich?

You know when you go to a decent size venue to see a band and it's £25 a ticket, how much money actually goes to the band? 

£25?

£10?

£5?

£1?

What if a gig makes £200,000 but costs £220,000 to promote?

Fair enough at that level the band will most likely be on a guarantee of some sort, but it's frustrating when people presume that musicians are getting rich. 

OK, here is another one. 

An album sells £20,000 worth of records but costs £30,000 to promote.

Yup it's still a negative number. Robbie Williams was massively in debt to his label, even at that level. Many bands never recoup. 

A lot of people want to attack record labels but if the revenue isn't there they can't pay the artist (it's too easy to attack labels as at the moment, lots of good people work for labels). Economics! 

And this is even before you get into labels/film studios etc who have dodgy accounting practices...

Want an even more scary example of the entertainment industry promotion versus profit equation (plus dodgy accounting):

Hollywood Accounting: How A $19 Million Movie Makes $150 Million... And Still Isn't Profitable

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121018/01054720744/hollywood-accounting-how-19-million-movie-makes-150-million-still-isnt-profitable.shtml

Tom G Warrior vs Grumpy Cat

Blackpool here we come :)

Fundervine.com

The last day....

Hello :)


Thanks loads to everyone who has paid for downloads this week, it means a lot to me.

Today is the last day to download my albums and pay any amount, including free. A few people asked me why I was stopping.

So here it is:

1. Because I've done that. The whole idea was to use "pay what you want" to build an audience. 6000 downloads later we've done that. 3000 email address make make it easier to reach the audience for the next album. 
2. The music is all on Spotify and Bandcamp to listen to free anyway. There is no barrier to discovery. 
3. It's no longer remarkable. PWYW has been done. It doesn't feel fresh anymore. 
4. There will always be a free offer on my site - whether it's a sampler like this one or just a few tracks. I believe you need to give something away to gain an audience. 

So that's it :) 

All downloads will be £3 - £5 (minimum) from tomorrow so why not grab one for free now? 

http://mattstevens.bandcamp.com/

Thanks loads for all your support :) 

Matt

PS What do you think?

Gran 1919-2013

My Gran passed away last week. She was a lovely lady and we all miss her. This is me and her together while i was boy ...

This year hasn't quite turned out how I expected. I've been made redundant from the day job and a friend passed away who we'd know for many years, lovely fella. Now my son is unwell.

Not good.

But you have to stay positive. Not going to let this beat us.

2012, What was all that about?

2012 was a bit of a weird year for me. 

I had to get a day job, to support my family (and it's a job that I'm lucky that I enjoy, that's interesting and challenging) but it left less time for music. And we had the most amazing little boy who is wonderful but also keeps you busy. I often feel guilty i am not spending enough time with him. 

So I thought I know I'll stop gigging and focus on Fierce And The Dead. 

Well, that didn't happen. I ended up doing loads of solo gigs and a FATD tour. It was a very busy year and I got no where near finishing a new solo album, although we've started the new FATD one. 

Meeting supporters and online friends at gigs meant a lot to me, lovely people. Thank you :) 

Highlights of the year

My son, my wife and my family. I love them so much. 

The Stabbing  A Dead Horse - A wonderful tour. Before we did these dates it took us a while to find ourselves as a live band but it all seemed to come together for this tour. 

Solo gigs - Supporting Daevid Allen from Gong, Celebr8 and various festivals and gigs with various friends from The Reasoning to Manning. 

The ON VHS EP - It seemed to go well and I'm still proud of it, they are all great musicians and friends and I love playing in the band. 

Audience and press support - Makes a massive difference and does keep you going. 

Playing on other people's records - Cosmograf/Nine Stones Close/Shineback. I enjoyed that. 

Shite stuff:

Another friend passing away. Gutted. 

Lack of time. 

Losing focus. 

Goals for 2013

Make lots of videos and do online gigs. 

Spend more time with my wife and son. 

Losing weight - I need to get fit. I need to be there for my son. Fact....

Release a Fierce And The Dead album. 

Release a solo record. 

Expand the audience, without compromising the music. 

Tour outside the UK. 

Get some help with the music career - what that might be I'm not sure.....

Do some collaborative projects... (can't talk about them at the moment). 

Generally more recording, less gigs. We'll see how that goes, (won't count my chickens) 

Thanks so much for all your support in 2013. It means a lot to me, you are are an amazing audience and I'm very lucky. 

Thanks loads

Matt

Matt Stevens