There are days when I lament the inaccessibility of major publications to one-man operations like myself. I, like a lot of people, still assume that big print magazines are “taste-makers” that people actually read before buying CD’s. Reviewers, after all, are people that matter. Getting a blurb from something like Billboard or Rolling Stone makes for great press kit fodder, but does anyone else really care? In fact, would the person writing the quote even care? Would a quote from these people make my music any better or worse?

Then there are days like today when I get quotes from people that actually matter. They’re from people that don’t write for major publications or run radio stations. Quotes like these remind me why I do what I do:

I just wanted to thank you for the song I Will Wait for You. last FWA I nearly made a terrible decision to end a relationship with a girl that I really care about over stupid reasons that weren’t my own… We went to your show that night, having missed half of it due to our discussion about breaking up, which ended with both of us in tears.

That night you played a few songs I’ve already sent a note of thanks about, but I Will Wait for You was the one that mended everything that had been said and done that night. To this day whenever we hear it we always tend to get a little choked up.

…We just recently celebrated one year of being together, and I just keep thinking about what I would have missed out on had that night at FWA not gone the way it did.

I wouldn’t mind being photographed for the cover of Keyboard, but messages like these mean a whole lot more to me than any industry mags.

If you read my last three posts about the 140 Characters Conference, you’ve seen my initial reactions and thank-you’s from the event. After a few days of simmering, It occurs to me that I learned more about specific people than I did about the real-time web. I’ll admit I spent more time tending to the panelists I’d invited than actually watching the programming, but that was out of necessity. I felt like I’d gotten them into this thing, I better make sure they had a good time (even though Jeff Pulver always makes his events fun). Here’s what I learned about the people I spent my time with:
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That’s me, Amanda Palmer, Jeff Pulver, Andy Dixon, and Keith Spiro doing an impromptu version of Sesame Street at the 140 Characters Conference.

Here’s the 1-frame-per-minute video stream (the wifi at the BBEC sucked) of the Music panel with me, Ariel, Ted, and Amanda. Hope you dig it!

Video courtesy of Steve Garfield

Sorry folks, but I’m packing up my gear right now for a flight to Atlanta tomorrow. We’ll try to stream the show on Saturday, but tonight I just can’t do it. Sorry!

To say the least, the 140 Characters Conference was fun. I got to lead the Music panel and I was fortunate enough to convince Ariel Hyatt, Amanda Palmer, and Ted Cohen to join me. I’m so glad Jeff Pulver invited me to moderate this panel, I never thought I’d get all three names at the top of my list to sit at the table. I felt like a little fish in a very big pond, given that they’ve all dealt with major labels and real established acts in the past and I’m still working my ass off just to bring you all some tunes on a monthly basis. Still, I think each of us managed to provide some insight into the real-time web that your average corporate marketing type wouldn’t really have seen.

Honestly, though, what makes social media events like this fun aren’t really the events. It’s the socializing. Getting to talk about indie music promotion with Ariel is always a highlight. Hearing stories of touring with Van Halen and Prince and the like from Ted Cohen never gets old. And Amanda Palmer? Yeah, she’s as groovy as I anticipated. Busiest woman I’ve ever seen, though, she’s literally the CEO of her own company just like me. Her business is significantly larger, though, so I can see why she needs caffeine. What we talked about on stage mirrored what was happening backstage: Talk to people online, Don’t just promote shit, actually converse. If you’re not interacting with your fans as a human being, you’re not interacting with your fans.

And speaking of interacting with your fans, the most unexpected surprise for me was meeting Derrick, one of my VIP’s, for the first time. He’d been a VIP member since day one, but I never thought I’d actually get to meet him. Why? He lives in frickin’ Singapore. Right now he’s in the Boston area, though, and was attending the 140 Characters conference. I don’t think he knew I was going to be there, but I’m damn glad he showed up. I don’t know if many of you know how cool it feels to meet someone who’s a big supporter even though you’ve never seen them and never played a show in their country. It takes a real fan to take part in something like Matthew Ebel dot net without knowing if you’ll ever actually get to SEE the artist you’re supporting, so I considered it a stone-cold honor to bump into Derrick.

The dinner afterwards sealed the day perfectly. NY Times best-selling author Julien Smith sponsored this indie rocker’s meal that night, and man am I grateful. I got to spend the final hours of the day talking with friends like CC Chapman, Chris Penn, Chel Pixie (who organized the dinner), Jeffrey Sass and his aspiring-rock-star son, and more. These kind of people create a notable change in conversation every time I’m around them. I’m usually among folks who create or manage technology- networking, storage, programming, etc. -but the people I ate dinner with are a different kind of cutting edge. They don’t make the tools, they use them in ways nobody else imagines. It’s refreshing to hear from people who are paving new roads using the toys that my other friends are crafting. It’s a hell of a perspective and I’m thankful for the opportunity to see all sides of the picture.

So here’s to the con-goers at 140 Characters. I hope to see you all next year!

This is going to be a hell of a year.

When I announced on August 1 that my next project would be The Lives of Dexter Peterson, all I was thinking about was the story. I suppose that’s a good thing- thinking about the world of the creation rather than the logistics behind it. We didn’t get to the moon by planning on orbit, rendezvous, docking, and long-term health effects, we got there by pointing up into space and saying “let’s go there.”

But now I’m into that part of the project. There’s a reason they say the devil’s in the details. If creativity is heaven, project planning is the fifth level of hell. This is becoming the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken, way more complicated than Goodbye Planet Earth. When all the dust has settled, I need to end up with:

• A full-length story about The Lives of Dexter Peterson
• A music album based on that story
• A graphic novel based on that story
• Either an audiobook or a radio drama rendition of the story

Suddenly I’m not working on one project, I’m working on four. Gen Whitmore is handling the graphic side of things and my friend Calindy is trying to book convention shows so I’m not doing everything myself, but I’m doing pretty much everything else. Those four projects alone are ambitious enough for the one year deadline I’ve set, but there are always more details. Albums don’t sell themselves, even if you’re U2. On top of creating four finished works by next August, I have to manage all the support projects involved:

• Re-design www.matthewebel.com to better represent what I’m trying to do now
• Figure out where I can get a graphic novel printed in short runs
• Promote the project online. Somehow.
• Spread the word about the nature of the project itself
• Book some concerts so I don’t starve to death

If ever there was a time I needed a management team, it’s now. I pulled off the last major album by myself, but I don’t know how I’m going to create all this stuff, promote it properly, and still perform on stage without more help. The DIY mentality has sex appeal, sure, but there are just some projects that take a real team.

Right now we’re a team of 3. Hopefully that will grow soon!

I don’t know how many of you follow the CD Baby DIY Musician Blog, but something happened there recently that reveals a lot about what the Major-Label Music Business has done to the independent artist. Take a look at this screenshot from their blog:

Sure, they get a decent amount of comments on each blog post, anywhere from 60-100. That’s a good conversation right? Now read the top article: 323 Comments as of this writing, more than three times their average response. This sort of thing can’t be just a fluke, Scott James really touched on a nerve in the community here. While this isn’t an accurate sample of the labels and in-crowd themselves, it certainly spells out the number one fear of unsigned artists:

You are dead to the Music Industry when you turn 30.
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Hey there! Since iTunes still hasn’t let independent artists into the party yet, I can’t tell you where to follow me or where to find me on Ping. I’m on there as a person, but I don’t think that counts just yet. So while I wait for any sign that iTunes cares about anyone but EMI, BMG, and other TLA’s, please help me out by “Like”-ing my stuff in the iTMS!

Just visit http://matthewebel.com/itunes and hit the “Like” button for any albums of mine that you like. Thanks!