Now it’s gone; the community has dissipated. And that’s okay.

Seriously, it’s okay. It took me a while to realize it, but disappearance of community is just the next major step towards permanence. Sure, it was sad to see some exciting projects lose steam or dissolve entirely, but it’s just the way of things. From the toils of early adopters and pioneers come both fruit and chaff. Once the spring season for New Media ended, it was time to tend the plants. That’s when I began to lament the disappearance of the New Media Community.

Community Exists on the Frontier

The cycle is not without precedent. Bloggers were considered a small group of enthusiasts before CNN paid them for full-time positions. I vaguely remember when there was an “Internet Community”, do you? Back in the days of Archie and UUEncode and Telnet? The Internet Community emerged as a natural product of the Computer Community. This was before my time, really, but I know the stories told by elders around the New Media campfires. Intensely interested pockets of engineers and tinkerers gathered in garages to make boxes that would process spreadsheets or calculate Ham Radio satellite orbits. They held meetings, traded secrets, drank a shitload of coffee.

Was the excitement all about the circuit boards, packets, and wires? No. These communities are not formed because of technology. Technology is just the fertile ground these pioneers settle upon. They- we -gathered and bonded because of our shared love for uncharted territory. Communities like these form because there is the promise of something no one has ever done before. Places nobody has seen. This is what binds us together as a community, and those bonds do not last forever.

Lighting the Torch

With every community formed on the cutting edge, there is always the inevitable dissolution. The band of brothers and sisters on the frontier, connected by their intense engagement, light a torch for the rest of the world to flock to. Sometimes, as with Computers and New Media, they do. The world embraces this new frontier. A small settlement like New Amsterdam grows to a city of over 9 million. Every home houses several computers, none of which were built by hand in a garage. Podcasts and blogs are as ubiquitous and unremarkable as radio and newspapers.

And that’s okay.

The community dissolves, diluted by mass adoption. And that’s okay. Some friendships remain strong, some businesses and ventures hold together, but the attitude towards New Media has changed. Territory has been well-charted, leaving only a few nooks and crannies left to explore. With mass exposure, the focus shifts from how it’s done to what is being done with it. The original community reacts as each individual is inclined.

Some run in ever-growing circles trying to lasso the community back together, wishing the heyday wouldn’t end. Some, like me, mourn the decline of the community. I know that mass adoption is what the community worked so hard to achieve, but sometimes it’s sad to see something mature. You adopt the kitten, but it grows into a cat. The sadness, in my case, comes from the uncertainty of where the next community will form. This frontier is paved and developed, where will the next New World be?

Finding the Next Community

Community is like a drug. I need my fix.

I’d like to be a part of a New Community. Some faces from the old community will meet me there, some will be responsible for inviting me there I’m sure. Old friends never vanish into the masses, but nothing can top the experience of being a part of something new. I want to lead, to innovate, to explore. I want to form new communities that make the old seem superficial. It’s not about the size of the community- quite the contrary, the size it what breaks it apart. The longing is for the intensity.

What communities are you a part of? Where are they going? Maybe I’m leading somewhere undiscovered and I just don’t know it yet. Maybe others will follow and we’ll start a new settlement on this frontier. We’ll form a community that lives intensely, then grows and scatters. Just like the New Media Community.

And that’s okay.

Photo by Francisco Daum

Ideas Are Just Files

Conversation as defined by the Oxford American Dictionary:

conversation |ˌkänvərˈsā sh ən|
noun
the informal exchange of ideas by spoken words

So conversation is the exchange of data from one brain to the next, like computers transferring files. It’s basic communication, right? Why do we as a human society have so much trouble with this? I’ve read studies that cite “Lack of communication” as the number one reason for divorce. Why is such a fundamental low-level task like exchanging data so complex and difficult for many to grasp?

Try thinking like a computer for a moment. The entire purpose of this blog post is to transfer a file, Conversation.idea from my brain into yours.

I’m typing on a Mac. With only 10% of the market share or less, chances are good you’re not reading this on a Mac. Not only are our brains two different machines, we’re very likely running on completely different software. Instead of three main options- Mac, Windows, Linux -every human being is running a unique version of an infinite number of operating systems. Philosophers would call this a “worldview” but philosophers don’t make the kind of money programmers do, so we’re sticking with my analogy.

Conversation is a Floppy Disk

So how would you transfer a file from one computer to another? With a disk? SMB of AFP over Ethernet? What medium would you use? If you’re going to exchange ideas with someone in any sustained conversation, you’ll need to choose the best method for sending those files back and forth.

Mitch, in his post, talks about the breakdown of conversation in social media. If my keychain flash drive can hold 16GB of files, Twitter is the world’s 1.4MB Floppy Disk (anyone remember those?). Obviously, the capacity of the medium we choose will dictate the detail and scope of our conversation. Lower capacity isn’t good or bad, it just changes the kind of conversation we can have.

Ever talk to someone you really, truly connect with? Had one of those awake-til-4am talks about religion, sex, Twilight, etc.? Consider yourselves connected directly with no disk involved- ethernet, wifi, etc. Not all conversations get that involved, just as not all files are big enough to require a hard line connection. If all you need to discuss can fit on a floppy, why bother digging out the ethernet cables?

Language is a File System

So you’ve got your file on a drive, ready to exchange with someone. What file system are you using? Apple’s HFS+ or Microsoft’s NTFS? You can’t just stick a Mac disk into a Windows machine and expect it to work. If you don’t speak a person’s language, you’re not going to converse. Be it French, Martian, or New Yorker, you’d better be able to articulate that idea in a way their brain is wired to receive.

Of course, modern operating systems can work with multiple file systems. My Mac has been multi-lingual for years now, modern iterations of Windows have begun catching up. The disks can only be formatted one way, but the computers are as versatile as a foreign diplomat.

Human file systems go beyond basic languages, though. English to English doesn’t always make for easy communication- what about local idioms? Sarcasm? Obscure references? If both ends of the transfer don’t use the same file system, the data- the idea -will be corrupted in the process. Ever give someone a compliment that grossly offended them?

Operating Systems are the New Paradigm

The last and most daunting hurdle to a successful idea transfer is the recipient’s operating system. The raw data can make it into a person’s brain, but what about comprehension? If I give you an HTML file on a thumb drive, what program will you use to open it? IE? Firefox? What about TextEdit or WordPad? You may hear every word I’m saying loud and clear, but your interpretation could completely distort my meaning.

Translation software exists for many file types. Our brains have the advantage of context and analogy. This entire post is made clearer to geeks by the file system analogy I’m using, but non-geeks would be even more confused. I’d need to find another analogy, another way to translate the idea, for a luddite.

Of course, some computers are also more powerful than others. Some machines are simply incapable of handling some files. Human brains are no exception.

Conversation Is Not Dead

If you’re still reading this, you’ve probably forgotten why I started in the first place. Mitch Joel. The End of Conversation. That little reminder could be called a checksum, but I think I’m wearing out the analogy at this point.

So conversation is merely the exchange of ideas. Not every file transfer is a two-way exchange, but we still need disks for backups, storage, etc. The New Media are a whole new protocol for exchanging ideas, but the same obstacles to real conversation exist here as they do in any marriage. If ideas are being sent out without expectation of a return, there will be no conversation. If there’s a break in the connection due to disinterest or aggression, there will be no conversation. Perhaps you’re expecting conversation on one port but all the talk is on another port; you’re sitting in silence, wondering why nobody’s listening when there’s a wealth of incoming data being ignored.

As with all tools, they are only as good as the operators using them. If you believe your end of the conversation is adequate, maybe your listeners aren’t. Maybe they’re running old 386′s with Windows 3. Or maybe they’re engaged, responding, and interested, but you’re not listening the right way. Whatever the breakdown, if you want conversation and you’re not getting it, there are countless points of failure in the transfer of ideas. Just keep troubleshooting until you’re successful.

rev⋅o⋅lu⋅tion [rev-uh-LOO-shuhn] –noun

2. Sociology. a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure
3. a sudden, complete or marked change in something

dictionary.reference.com

Back in the days when High Orbit was a weekly show, I named the spaceship the UTF Revolution. In those days there was an air of excitement, even fanaticism, about podcasting and downloads and new technology. The discovery that people could make and deliver content beyond the confines of TV, radio, and newspapers electrified the internet crowd. We called it a revolution. If the revolution started in 2004, it’s only beginning to come to a head now.

Revolutionary Communication

[flickr align='left' class='alignleft' hspace='5']photo:2602427250(thumbnail)[/flickr]If you’re reading this, chances are good you’re a fan of my music. You didn’t hear me on the radio, you didn’t see me on some prime-time contest show. You heard me on a podcast, in a virtual world, or on live video. I am doing nothing special; I am merely putting my music out there wherever I can. It is you who drive the revolution every time you use these channels. You make the choice to spend your time outside the pre-fab information streams set up by Rupert Murdoch and Robert Iger.

The past five years may have made this revolution seem… well, less revolutionary. After all, we’re not as jazzed up about the miracle of flight now that we can hop a shuttle from NY to Boston for less than a hundred bucks. Make no mistake about it, however, you are committing an act of rebellion with every new channel you support. The record labels and major networks are starting to realize they cannot make money anymore. Soon they will realize the nagging truth that some of us have been shouting from the town square for years: The artists and the fans no longer need them.

Revolutionary Thinking

Is that true? Are record labels obsolete? The answer isn’t a matter of sales figures or Billboard charts. The future of the revolution is in your mind. You must understand that as long as the old-media channels still claim a foothold in your brain, they are controlling you.

Here’s a revolutionary question:

If you’re a fan of my music, are you wondering when I’m going to get “discovered” by a record label?

If so, those record labels still control your brain. You are still chained down by a world where big companies decide what music is legitimate and what music is “just indie”. As the mon once said, “emancipate yourself from mental slavery.” Good videos don’t need a TV network, good news doesn’t need radio towers, and good music does not need a record label.

YOU are my record label. Yes, you. Do you like my music? Then my music is legitimate. I don’t need some guy in a crisp suit to own 80% of my artwork to make it good. All I need is for you to understand that as soon as you become a fan, you become part of my record label.

Revolutionary Action

[flickr align='left' class='alignleft' hspace='5']photo:2287769640(thumbnail)[/flickr]That’s right, you’re part of my record label. You are also your own TV and radio network. You are working for the best media conglomerate ever created; you contribute only what time and effort you see fit, you cannot be fired, and you are part of something truly revolutionary. In fact, depending on your iTunes playlist, you probably work for so many different record labels right now that your resumé should be 40 pages long. This revolution, however, cannot survive without action.

If you want to keep the revolution fueled, you have a few responsibilities (I’m not going to call them a manifesto, that’d be beating a dead analogy at this point).

• Evict the corporations from your mind.
  They aren’t the ones buying the music, YOU are. You are in control.
• Small sacrifices must be made.
  Have you bought an album? Picked up your favorite show’s official shirt/mug/chia pet? Congratulations, you are now a shareholder in the revolution.
• Grab your bullhorn.
  The #1 thing you can do to support your favorite artists and shows is spread the word about them. Whether they’re on a major label or not, all musicians need that key action from their fans.
• Show up for the battles.
  For musicians, it’s about live concerts and release parties. For podcasters, it’s the live recording events. Whatever division of the revolution you’re fighting with, they need warm bodies to man the barricades.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate!
  The artists, producers, and revolutionaries are only as good as their supporters make them. Talk to them. Comment on their blog posts, post your photos/videos in their Flickr group or Facebook page. Tell them what you like, what you don’t like, and most importantly where you want this revolution to go.

The Revolution Grows

Some of us have been a part of this revolution for years. Some of us just discovered yesterday that you can turn a Mac Mini into an entertainment center (yes, that’s a link to a how-to video). However long you’ve been a part of the revolution, make no mistake: the battle rages on. Until we’ve completely killed the notion that a show, artist, or band needs a major corporate partner to be considered “legitimate”, we are still subject to an oppressive regime.

Make the change happen. Take action, and long live the revolution!

However, the wider net serves a broader purpose. If you’re reading this in a web browser, it means that matthewebel.com is up and operational. One of these days, though, it might disappear. My hosting service might go broke, my domain registrar could screw things up, hackers could plunder the servers… Any number of things might go wrong, but I still want to be able to reach you. I don’t ever want to lose touch with the fans that keep me going.

This is why I am everywhere. If you’re only following me in one place (website, Facebook, email, etc.), that bond could easily be broken. Check out some of the other options at matthewebel.com/contact and see where else you can find me online. Even if it’s someplace I rarely visit, in an emergency I’ll be heading to all of these other places to stay in touch with my fans.

Message me on Facebook. Bump me on The Sixty-One. If you’re slumming, friend me on MySpace. I always love hearing back from you, so please keep your options open if you haven’t already!

Photo by Pelódia

Recently an indie label added me to their mailing list without my permission (Stupid #1). Their mailings don’t have any unsubscribe link (Stupid #2), forcing me to reply and ask to be taken off their list. This amount of stupid is typical, baseline Stupid, usually doesn’t bother me. Unfortunately, they had advanced Stupid.

Then the label argues with me via email (Stupid #3) and tells me that “If you don’t want someone sending you an email without asking, then you should not post your email on the web.” As though they were sending me an email as opposed to just adding me to a list. Not feeling sufficiently stupid yet, they then have the balls to throw this at me:

I would be glad to take you off the list, but I don’t know how to do that without taking up several hours of my time, which is rather short, since I run two for-profit businesses and a non-profit organization.
(Stupid #4)

Another savvy marketer has added me to a list and is CC-ing everyone on the list- meaning I can see all their addresses and they can see mine (Stupid #5).

This morning I found the last straw. Yet another music marketing company had been sending me emails about bands since I produce the High Orbit Podcast. Initially they added me to their mailing list without permission, but I’ll overlook that for now. They typically sent me one or two emails a month.

Then there were more.

Fast forward to the present and I’m getting damn near daily emails from these people (Stupid #6). Yesterday it got so bad they sent me two emails in one day about the same damn band (Stupid #7). This is getting ridiculous, so I asked to be taken off the list (oh yeah, no unsubscribe link again. Back to stupid #2).

Once again, I’m getting argued with via email (Stupid #3 again):

You know Matthew, I’ve had you up on my MySpace top friends for awile (sic) now trying to toss you a bone.

Apparantly (sic) your (sic) not as smart as you look.

So not only can they not spell (Stupid #8) but they think that insulting me will somehow make me change my mind about supporting their bands (Stupids #9-47)?

To all of you stricken with The Stupid lately… Grab a clue from the artists you represent: If people don’t want your emails, you don’t want to send to them. If you’re a rock band, you don’t want to force your way onstage at a country bar. All you’re going to do is turn someone who was ambivalent into someone who actively works against you.

Have you ever heard of Richard Cheese? He’s the guy who takes hard rock tunes like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Down With The Sickness” and turns them into cheesy lounge numbers. It’s his shtick, and he’s made a career out of it. Sort of like Weird Al with no creativity.

It’s like he adds a touch of class to dirty, grungy rock music.

Apparently Cheese proved how completely devoid of class he is at the recent New Media Expo in Vegas. To quote some attendees:

When Richard Cheese started his performance he started complaining about the Audio levels, and from what I heard later he had demanded from the organizer that all other prior performers audio levels be at a lower level then his.
Todd Cochrane, Geek News Central
[Video from the event can be found at this link, assuming Cheese hasn't sued him yet.]
[Too late... you'll have to find video on your own, it seems.]

Okay, I can understand wanting the best sound possible at a show. But I played that gig last year and, considering the crowd was apparently smaller this year in a room twice as large, I would’ve focused more on making a connection with the crowd than the levels.

And on that note, connect with the crowd he did:

Cheese began the assault on some of his biggest fans during the opening song..Cheese ripped a device from the hands of one of the concert’s main sponsors…before shutting the camera off and throwing it back. Several minutes later, Cheese spit water on another fan and his camera. The song closed with a lecture about how he hates people who like to capture fleeting moments with any sort of video device.

After the show concluded, Cheese assaulted one last guest who was talking into his own camcorder.
Matt Gunn, Average Samaritan

To me this is about as futile as walking into South Station in a tiger-striped speedo and yelling, “stop staring at me!”

So what’re the lessons here? Your fans have cameras (fans like Langley). Your fans are what matter. Sure, you want to sell a DVD later on, so do I. Your DVD will be a hell of a lot better quality than anything caught on a Palm Centro, and all those YouTube videos are going to be what sells that DVD in the long run.

And the number one lesson to take away from this? If your show is awesome, people might blog about it. If you’re a total prick, everyone WILL blog about it.

Notice: I usually like to leave my comments unmoderated, but blatant flame-baiting and “bring it on” escalation BS will be deleted immediately.

First of all, the obvious reason I couldn’t do the tour was the coalition of high gas prices and low ticket sales. I’m not going to hide that fact, the ticket pre-sales weren’t enough to cover the gas alone (and occasionally I do like to eat while on tour, too). With dead dinosaur juice topping $3.78 a gallon this spring, the break-even bar is getting higher and higher.

So if not a 2-week road trip, what did I get out of this?

Promote Early, Promote Often

For starters I only started contacting house hosts about 6 weeks in advance of the schedule. When booking a bar or festival, that’s more than enough lead time to promote a show. What I didn’t realize was that a house concert is a lot like a church concert- you’re making a venue where there typically isn’t one. It takes a lot more work (and time) to spread the word when there isn’t already a concert series there.

When I did church tours back in my music ministry days, the battle was twofold. Not only did you have to get people to show up for the show, you first had to make people wrap their minds around a music performance in a typically non-concert space. Whether it’s a sanctuary or a living room, the battle is the same.

One month simply isn’t enough time to draw attention to something this uncommon.

New Media Is Still Young

Don’t think for a second that I’m blaming the new media community for what happened. It’s just a fact that new media doesn’t yet have enough local clout to drive ticket sales. CD sales yes, ticket sales no. Sure, a podcast may have 10,000 listeners, but that could be 2 people each in 5,000 cities around the world.

Does this mean we’re still stuck with radio and print for concert promotion? Well, somewhat. New media channels such as Facebook and podcasting will eventually drive localized attention, but at this point it will need more nurturing and more outreach. When the overall audience grows, so will the influence.

My take on this? Right now local publications and radio are the staples of good promotion, but new media adds a small (yet increasing) number of eyeballs to the crowd.

Touring Means Having Local Support

Not every touring band has a huge fan base in every town. That’s the reason they tour, usually, to build up a bigger crowd each time. If you’re just starting out, though, you need to have at least one person who lives in the area that will work their ass off for you.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When visiting Rome, get a Roman to put your posters everywhere beforehand. I don’t think I really took that to heart when I booked a rather ambitious schedule. Concert promoters exist for a reason- they know their local scene and how to whip it up on cue. So before I can even call a concert booked, now, I need to know that someone in that town will be working the local communications lines with a serious will.

In Conclusion

There are no conclusions, only experience. I’d like to think I can learn as much from not touring as I can from a 2-week road trip. I can’t change gas prices, but hopefully this fall I can change my approach and get out there once again!

[tags]Matthew Ebel, piano rock, touring, new media[/tags]

Our first week of shows were rather nice. The two days before the 4th were P to the A to the CKED. By 3pm both days it was a solid mass of meat, [tag]bikinis[/tag], and [tag]beer[/tag] undulating before the band shell. The two days after… were a bit sparse. Cooler weather rolled in and left us with a small but appreciative crowd (meaning high energy, low tips).

You should see how people rock out to [tag]Sweet Caroline[/tag] by [tag]Neil Diamond[/tag], though. It’s off the hook.

I’ll get some visuals soon, and kudos to [tag]Chris Penn[/tag] for lending us a video camera, too. Hopefully it’ll arrive on the island today.

Update: Oh yeah… if you want to check out a LONG conversation Kevin and I had about [tag]musicians rights[/tag] in the [tag]new media[/tag] world, catch the video here:

[tags]Kevin Reeves, Matthew Ebel, Piano Rock[/tags]