The David Andrew Wiebe Show

I’m a big believer in self-education.

Formal education can teach us a great deal, but its influence only extends so far. If we stop learning, we stop growing, and unfortunately many people stop learning after they leave high school or college.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, you’ll learn about the benefits of self-education.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – The importance of self-education for musicians

00:19 – The problem with complacency

00:56 – Something each of us can control – input

01:49 – Learning vs. application

02:04 – 3 benefits of self-education

02:13 – #1: Inspiration

02:42 – #2: Staying informed

03:06 – #3: Personal growth

03:38 – Conclusion

Transcription:

Thank you for joining me. Today, I wanted to look at the importance of ongoing self-education for musicians. Now, don’t get me wrong. I believe many musicians and music entrepreneurs are smart and well-informed. So, why would I need to remind you to keep on learning and to keep on growing?

Well, the problem is that because of our talents, knowledge and experience, we can easily become complacent. There is a certain amount of pride and sometimes arrogance that can come along with being an artist. It’s easy to feel like you know it all and you know how to do things.

To become complacent is to become comfortable with where and who you are. Where you are might be a great place to be but what if it isn’t? What if you have bigger aspirations? What if you want to achieve more?

To become complacent is to become comfortable with where and who you are.Share on X

Well, there definitely aren’t too many things we can control individually in this world and the things that happen to us, but the input we take in is something we can control. I believe it is something we should.

There is nothing wrong with staying informed about the state of the world. It can even inspire songs and creative ideas. You can watch the news or watch sports if that’s what you want to do. But if we don’t vary up the information we consume, we can easily become stagnant. Our point of view goes unquestioned and we shut ourselves off to fresh possibilities.

The goal of self-education should be to stretch and grow yourself, not to live in an echo chamber of the same thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that have been reinforced in you over and over again. We are all very good at seeking out things that support our ideas and beliefs and not very good at challenging ourselves and finding things outside of our comfort zone.

The goal of self-education should be to stretch and grow yourself.Share on X

Learning is often the easy part if you’re disciplined and motivated enough to act. Application is the hard part. You can read a lot of things but if you don’t apply any of it, or at least try it out, then you’re not going to get anywhere with it.

I’ve identified three benefits of self-education for today’s show, but I’m not saying there aren’t others. Here are a few that came to mind.

Number one: Inspiration. As you study how others think, how they approach problems, what they accomplished, and how they rose above difficult challenges in their lives, you begin to take that inspiration and turn it into motivation.

Whether you’re reading a book or listening to a podcast, the stories that are told or the information that is relayed is often hard-earned and is coming from a source or it’s coming from somebody who has experience in that area and has something to share with you.

The second benefit is staying informed. Regular study allows you to stay on top of your chosen industry or discipline. This can also prevent you from becoming a Blockbuster in the age of Netflix. If we fall behind we risk becoming irrelevant, so keeping on top of changes within the industry – although as challenging as that can be – can help you move with the times.

The third benefit – and to me really this is the biggest one of all, and my favorite one – is personal growth. The right material will challenge you to be better, to try and experiment with different methods and approaches to your business or to your career, and to adopt a more aggressive advancement plan for your life. These are things we only tend to do when we make a vow. We only make a vow when we feel inspired and motivated to do so. Oftentimes it comes through the input - the things we watch, the things we listen to, and the things we read.

So, my question for you is how are you educating yourself? I look forward to your comments.

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So, you’ve been building your email list. Now what?

Many artists struggle with what email to send their fans and end up falling behind the eight ball.

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I share 10 types of emails you could be sending to your fans.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – 10 types of emails to send your fans

00:45 – #1: Promotional

01:09 – #2: News updates

01:42 – #3: Blog posts

02:07 – #4: Videos

02:32 – #5: Tour diaries

02:53 – #6: Press

03:22 – #7: Contests and giveaways

03:44 – #8: Reviews

04:09 – #9: Interviews

04:35 – #10: Surveys

05:04 – Closing thoughts

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today I wanted to look at 10 types of emails to send to your fans.

Perhaps you’ve started building your email list, which is all well and good, but a lot of artists struggle with what to send their fans. Even if you have been building your email list for a while, you might be in the same predicament.

So, I’ve come up with a few different ideas you can use, which should help you engage your fans more consistently. That way, your fans aren’t wondering why you’re suddenly emailing them out of the blue when you haven’t even talked to them in the last three or four months.

Promotional Emails

The first type of email to send your fans is promotional. I know this is obvious. I know most artists are already doing this, but it is an important category.

If you have an upcoming tour, a new release, an album, an EP, or a single, new merch items that your fans can purchase, or even if you’re launching a crowdfunding campaign, you should be letting your fans know about these things so that they can purchase your latest release or help support your crowdfunding campaign.

News Updates

Number two is news updates, which sound similar to promotional posts, but these are more so just letting your fans know what’s happening. So, what are you doing on tour? When is your new release coming out? Maybe you’re making a last-minute appearance on stage on Thursday and you want to let your fans know about that. Or maybe you’re doing a TV interview. Or perhaps you just got signed to a label.

If there is anything new happening in your career, your most loyal fans are obviously going to want to know about it, so you can kind of mix up your promotional and news update type emails to keep things interesting.

Blog Posts

The third type of email you can send to your fans is blog posts. If you are a blogging musician, you may already have a bunch of content in your archives that you could be sharing with your fans occasionally.

Now, you don’t need to include the full text of the post necessarily in the email itself. What you can do instead is maybe add the first or second paragraphs and then add a “click here to read more” button at the end of it.

Videos

Number four is videos, so really any video you’ve already published to YouTube, whether it’s a lyric video, concert video or music video. This is something your fans would appreciate finding in their email. Simply create a video thumbnail with a play button. You can link that image over to YouTube so when your fans click on it within the email, they are immediately brought over to the video on YouTube.

Tour Diaries

Number five is tour diaries. This is something you may already be doing with your blog, but if you’re not a blogging musician, then this is an excellent place to share your latest happenings. You could for example send a weekly update just talking about all the crazy things that have been happening on tour. If you are touring, then rest assured you’ll have lots to talk about.

Press

Number six is press. Every time you’re mentioned in a blog post or an article or a review, you should be sharing that with your fans. This just gives them a sense that you’re out there doing things. It lends more credibility to your name.

Feel free to share negative reviews with your fans too. Just beware of slamming people for writing negative reviews about you. Instead, let your fans go and react in whatever ways that they see appropriate. Again, don’t tell your fans to slam them either.

Contests & Giveaways

Number seven is contests and giveaways. This gives you a really great excuse to email your fans at least on a monthly basis. If you aren’t already giving away a CD or a merch item every month, that’s a really good place to start. Just let your fans participate in these contests and giveaways. It’s not a bad way to grow your email list as well.

Reviews

Number eight is reviews. This takes a little bit more work, but you can review music venues, your favorite restaurants, your favorite albums, or even recent gear purchases. This type of email may not help you get any more streams or any more sales, but it is a good way to engage and connect with your fans. You don’t necessarily need to write really long reviews either. That way, you can keep your emails short so you that people can easily digest them.

Interviews

Number nine is interviews. This is a category perhaps you aren’t really thinking about, but you could be doing quick interviews with interesting people you meet at your shows or even on the road. You don’t even need to ask more than three or four questions, but by interviewing interesting people, you can give your fans an inside view into things that you are doing as well as the music industry. In a way, you’ll become an influencer or a tastemaker in your own right.

Surveys

Number ten is surveys. Why not make some fun surveys for your fans using a tool like SurveyMonkey and occasionally send out some weird and interesting and intriguing questions that your fans can answer for you?

You can send a few career-relevant questions too, because there might be some things you’re wondering about your fans, whether it’s places to tour through, or what kind of song they want to hear from you next. You certainly can gather some market data by surveying your audience as well. I think it just really gives you an opportunity to get to know your fans in a fun way.

Final Thoughts

I came up with ten ideas for this episode of the podcast, but there are so many other ways to engage your fans with your emails. You really just have to let your creative juices flow. What do you think of the ideas covered in this episode? Feel free to send me an email to [email protected]. I’ll be more than happy to feature you in an upcoming episode.

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Would you consider yourself a blogging musician?

Did you know that there are many ways to make money from your blog?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I explore five opportunities you can take advantage of as a blogging musician.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – 5 monetization opportunities for blogging musicians

00:20 – Is blogging something you should be doing?

00:44 – The benefits of blogging

00:53 – What kind of content should you share on your blog?

01:38 – Revenue-generating opportunities

01:46 – #1: Advertising

02:19 – #2: Affiliate marketing

03:04 – #3: Selling digital products

03:41 – #4: Physical products and merchandise

03:59 – #5: Lessons

04:14 – There are more ways you can make money with your blog

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today, I wanted to look at five monetization opportunities for blogging musicians. Many musicians ask: Is blogging something they should be doing? To me, that mostly comes down to whether you think you can sustain it over the long haul. That means committing to a consistent schedule and publishing on a predictable basis – weekly, monthly. I don’t think you would want to do it much less than that. But you have to get into a bit of a routine and rhythm and that can be somewhat challenging.

You won’t get anything from your blogging efforts if you don’t keep it up and put in the effort necessary. But if you choose to blog, you may be able to tap into certain opportunities others simply cannot. That may include opportunities to make more money from your music career. Many musicians ask what sort of content should they be publishing to their blog. I think that’s a separate discussion for another time, and there are many possibilities here but I’ll just throw out a few so you can get an idea of what to post.

You won't get anything from your blogging efforts if you don't keep at it!Share on X

You can share updates for your fans, tour diaries, reviews of various products or venues, and anything local. It’s much easier for you to connect with people that are in your locality as opposed to those who are further away, which means if you talk about their products, their services, their businesses, or any other effort they might be involved in, it gives them a chance to share their message and spread what they are doing with others. Most people are happy to get that kind of coverage and even share it with their friends and perhaps reciprocate in some way.

Let’s get into these opportunities, and just so you know you can take advantage of some of them even if you aren’t a blogging musician.

Number one is advertising. I think the easiest route most people can take is to sign up for Google AdWords and begin placing ads on their website. It can be very difficult to make money with ads. It usually takes a lot of time and effort. You also need a significant amount of traffic to your website, or else you won’t see much traction with them.

But if you’re blogging regularly, that means you should be attracting regular traffic to your blog, especially over time. Maybe not immediately, but as your archive begins to build up, you will see more people coming to your website, which means, over time, the advertising monetization opportunity grows.

Blogging regularly will help you attract more traffic to your website.Share on X

Number two is affiliate marketing. If there are specific products that you can recommend to others, then you can earn a commission on them. I talked about affiliate marketing in an earlier episode, so I want to point you to that one as well, but I think the easiest way to get started here is to sign up with Amazon Associates, since they sell just about every product under the sun.

Once you’re signed up you’ll be able to search for specific products and the link code that you need to use to promote those products through your website. Just like with advertising, you may not see a ton of traction with affiliate marketing early on. It’s only as your traffic grows and you build trust with your audience that you will begin to see people purchasing and then earn some commissions on those products. It can be a lucrative opportunit,y but getting to that point is difficult so I wouldn’t count on it.

Number three is selling digital products such as eBooks. One of my favorite ways to do this is through a website called Gumroad. Setting up an account with Gumroad is essentially free. Selling your PDF documents, or videos, or audio files, through Gumroad is very easy.

You may have secret interviews or acoustic covers or videos that haven’t been released. You may have footage that nobody has seen yet, and these are kind of extras that your fans could be interested in. So, if you have a merchandise and physical products already, it’s possible that your fans would also appreciate some kind of digital product that they can purchase from you as well.

Speaking of physical products and merchandise, that’s number four. Whether it’s CDs, T-shirts, pins, stickers, sheet music, or books, if you haven’t monetized your website in this way, you are definitely missing out. These days you can set up an online store relatively easily whether it’s with a WordPress plugin (such as WooCommerce) or Shopify or something else.

Number five is lessons. You may be able to offer some kind of music lessons through your site such as guitar, bass, drums, or vocals if you are particularly skilled in any of these areas. You can potentially do all the work from home because you could offer Skype lessons.

For this podcast episode, I picked five examples of different things you can do to monetize your blog, but there are so many other ways to go about it. I just thought these were the most accessible and probably some of the easiest to wrap your head around.

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The word “symmetry” leads to questions about meaning, like when we encounter words like “democracy” or “love”. The word symmetry basically means “agreement in dimensions, proportions, and arrangement”.

Things that strike us as being symmetrical definitely seem to fit this criteria. We assume that measuring the dimensions, proportions, and the arrangement of something will determine if it’s symmetrical or not.

But in practice, the ancient Greeks viewed the meaning of “symmetria” in an expanded form, beyond mere mathematical measurements.

Fourth century Greek sculptor Polykleitos developed a revolutionary theory about the relationship between the mathematical expression and the dimensions of symmetry, and the dynamic movements of the human body.

His sculptures of young Greek athletes were studies of the interplay of detailing dimension with balance and rhythm. He called this interplay “symmetry”.

The concept of symmetry changed our perspective forever, paved the way for the sublime works of Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rodin, and countless others.

From the very beginning, symmetry was not just a calculation. “symmetria” was, as the definition says, and agreement, a relationship.

In our modern and highly technological age, where we seek to measure everything, we might do well to remember that “symmetria” isn’t just a number.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “The Message of Symmetry”, as well as the music of David Andrew Wiebe.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

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We live in a complicated world. We live complicated lives within a complicated human landscape. Our complicated lives are made more complicated by the complicated biological, ecological, zoological, psychological, socio-economical, political, technological, and cosmological realities we interact with every day.

“Interact” may be too kind of a word to use in many of these cases. So often, too often, we don’t really interact. We’re more likely to react to the overwhelming realities that surround and often dominate us.

For complicated people like us, reacting is often the least complicated thing we’ll ever do. Reacting doesn’t make us simple, except perhaps for the simple conclusion we often reach as we react to the overwhelming reality – that complicated equals chaos.

By definition, chaos makes no sense. We are persuaded, even conditioned, to believe that our inability to make sense of these massive complicated realities renders the whole hot mess an expression of massive chaos.

Of course, if it is chaos, it’s probably also massively random as well. The most recent and fashionable new meme for this chaos is called the Law of Unintended Consequences. Does it really seem sensible, beyond our desire to appear intellectual, philosophical, or even spiritual, that the gentle beating of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a catastrophic tornado in Texas? That feels like an unintended consequence, which could only be verified if you were able to ask the butterfly its intention.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “The Message of Symmetry”, as well as the music of David Andrew Wiebe.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

We encourage you to connect with us via social media:

Facebook

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After a time, he allowed the students to exist the bus, still blindfolded, he asked the group to make their best guess for the direction of the university campus, and point their fingers in that direction. Surprisingly, a significant number of the students pointed in the correct direction.

He replicated the experiment the very next day with the same students. Only this time, he secretly inserted small magnets into their blindfolds. And again, surprisingly, there was a significant reduction in the number of students who pointed in the right direction.

This type of magnetic interference often happens to migrating birds flying near high-tension power lines or microwave towers. They lose their way.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “What Guides Your Compass”, as well as the music of Shannon Magee.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

We encourage you to connect with us via social media:

Facebook

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The compass is a simple ancient device made of natural magnetic material, mounted in free suspension, to interact with the awesome power of the earth’s electromagnetic field.

Whether it’s a fourth century Chinese lodestone compass or a modern-day magnetometer, the principles of the compass are universal, enduring, and deeply philosophical.

The compass represents, to us, the essential power of electromagnetism, the ability to navigate the unknown, and our confidence in the existence of True North.

In this episode of The Question podcast, you will hear highlights from Frederick Tamagi’s presentation on “What Guides Your Compass”, as well as the music of Shannon Magee.

Thank you for listening!

What questions will you be taking with you after listening to this episode?

We encourage you to connect with us via social media:

Facebook

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Are you worried about someone stealing your music?

Are you trying to figure out the exact process for how to register your songs?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I explain the basics of music copyright.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Music copyright

00:22 – I’m not a copyright expert

00:52 – Poor man’s copyright

01:41 – The two types of copyrights

01:56 – Registering your music

02:16 – Cost-saving measures in copyrighting

02:25 – Leveraging your copyright

03:22 – Additional resources

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Today I want to talk about a topic that many of you have been asking me to share about, which is music copyright. I do want to let you know in advance that I’m not a copyright expert, so I would suggest doing your own research and even talking to an entertainment lawyer if you have the opportunity to do so. It’s always best to get tips and advice from the experts whenever you can.

But I also know that many of you appreciate the brevity with which I create these episodes because it helps you understand difficult concepts very, very quickly.

So, here’s my take on music copyright and what I understand about it right now. I may have more insights to offer in the future, but this is what I’ve got for you at the moment.

Poor Man's Copyright

First of all, some people may tell you about poor man’s copyright. This is where you package up your material and send it to yourself in the mail so that it can be dated by the postal service.

Now, this all sounds good in theory and it seems like if you have a registered date on your envelope it would confirm that you put together your material on a specific date. But the reality is that this probably won’t hold up in court, so I can’t really recommend poor man’s copyright if there are any disputes.

Poor man's copyright probably won't hold up in court.Share on X

By and large, these cases are rare and I think most musicians don’t have completely original or unique music in the first place. We’re all taking inspiration from somewhere, but what you are copyrighting when you do copyright your music is your exact way of delivering a specific song, the lyrics, and the melody.

The Two Copyrights

There are two copyrights for every recorded work. This is always a good thing to understand, as many musicians do not. Number one is composition, which includes the lyrics and the melody. Then number two is the master recording, which is essentially how the song sounds.

Registering Your Music

Now, if you’re listening to this episode it’s probably because you’re looking to register your music. So, the easiest way to do this is online. You can file with the U.S. Copyright Office, which is at copyright.gov. If you’re in Canada like I am, then you would want to go to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. You can also register online with them.

Cost-Saving Tips

Now, here’s a quick cost-saving tip, which is to copyright your entire album instead of copyrighting individual songs. You’re going to save a lot of money doing it that way.

Maximizing & Leveraging Your Music Copyrights

Now, I do have a few secondary tips for you. Some people wonder how these things are connected to copyright, but the whole point of registering your copyright is to benefit from it. If you aren’t taking advantage of the right services, then you are not getting everything you can from your copyright, which is why you want to take the following steps.

The first thing you want to do is register with a Performance Rights Organization or PRO. In the States, you’ve got ASCAP and BMI. In Canada, we have SOCAN. Another organization that you should register with is SoundExchange. This may be a little bit of a laborious process for my Canadian friends, but still worth doing, and you may even have some royalties waiting for you.

Another aspect to this whole thing is publishing. I would suggest getting your music distributor to handle publishing royalties. You may have to pay them a little bit extra to do that, but it is so complicated and so much work to try to do yourself. So, to me that’s a no-brainer. It’s really just the easiest way to go about things.

Learn More About Music Copyright

Another great resource you can check out, and I also referred to this in creating this episode, is episode 186 of the DIY Musician Podcast, which contains a lot more great insights into music copyright.

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Summer is here in full force. What type of summer have you been experiencing so far?

In my experience, there are essentially six types of summers that exist. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, you’ll learn about how these seasonal changes can affect you as an artist.

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Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – Seasonal disruption

01:35 – How we look at events shapes our lives

01:53 – Global and personal shifts

02:23 – The rhythm of life

03:07 – Six types of summer

03:28 – #1: Relief

04:01 – #2: Recreation

04:37 – #3: Restoration

05:15 – #4: Restlessness

06:36 – #5: Relocation

07:26 – #6: Realization

08:26 – What type of summer have you been experiencing?

08:49 – The different types of summer can overlap

09:21 – Enjoy the rhythm of life

Transcription:

Thanks for joining me. Normally on the podcast, I would be sharing some insights about marketing, social media, or possibly business and entrepreneurship. But today, I wanted to take a break from that to talk about a different matter entirely.

I actually debated whether this was something I should even bring up. But just the other day, I took some time out to go for a walk in Canmore. It’s a rather picturesque town nestled in the Rockies, only about an hour or an hour and a half away from where I live in Calgary. It’s a beautiful town. It’s also a bit of a tourist destination.

The thing that occurred to me – and I’ve had a lot of conversations with some entrepreneurs and artists I know –  they seem to be experiencing this summer in a rather disruptive way. There are some exceptions of course – I’ve also talked to some people that really seem to be loving it and in their element, which is great. But as artists, we will go through different seasons.

This is also the type of content that I’ve been creating for my upcoming book, Flashes of Elation. So even if I just spend one episode talking about this, I believe it is something that could be of value to you. So, we will get back to the regularly scheduled program in the next few episodes, but for this one I wanted to talk about the six types of summer and how to interpret them.

How we look at events shapes our lives. That’s how significant this whole issue of interpretation is to me. I think you will also find that you can view life’s events through different lenses. Sometimes that can come through experience and time and some of the healing that you’ll experience along the way.

I believe there have been a lot of shifts. It’s not only on a global scale with some of the things that are happening in politics and across the world. And of course, on a more localized, personal level as I see reflected through some of the people that I know personally.

These sudden and disruptive shifts can affect you and your ability to move forward in your career, or finish the tasks you need to complete, or take your relationships to the next level, or really just slow down and enjoy life.

There is a rhythm to life from week to week, and also from season to season. I have often ignored this, especially in the last six years or so, because I’ve been pursuing various ventures and endeavors as an entrepreneur and as a musician.

But sometimes the universe will get your attention through any means necessary. It wakes you up and you suddenly realize, “That’s right. I have a heart. I don’t just have a mind. I also have a heart that wants things. In fact, it might be a truer reflection of who I am on the inside.”

So often we judge the heart and try to push it down and forget about it. Then, we wake up days later or weeks later or months or years later to realize we have unfulfilled desires.

As I was going on a walk in Canmore and reflecting on my past experiences, I basically identified six types of summers that exist. There could be others too. I would love to hear your thoughts on that. But I’ve used words that start with the letter “R” to maintain uniformity. So, all the following types of summer begin with the letter “R”.

#1 – The Summer of Relief

The first type of summer is the summer of relief. This is really one of my favorites. You get to breathe, and spread your wings, and maybe even take a break. It may even feel like an oasis in the middle of a dessert based on all the hardships that you’ve experienced earlier in the year, or some of the assignments that you’ve had to plow through, or whatever difficulties you’ve been experiencing in life.

There really isn’t a whole lot to interpret with regards to the summer of relief. Chances are you’ve been in touch with your heart and been following with the seasons for a while.

#2 – The Summer of Recreation

The second type of summer that I’ve encountered is one of recreation. This is where you get to go out, have fun, maybe go to a lake and go boating, or fishing, or swimming. There’s a lot of activity – not necessarily one after the other, but there is enough to keep you engaged and interested.

You get to do things you don’t usually get to do. Maybe you’ll pick up a good book and read, do some journaling, meet new people, share new experiences with your friends and family members. The summer of recreation is really great because you get to recreate yourself. You get to recreate your energy.

#3 – The Summer of Restoration

The third type of summer is the summer of restoration. You get to heal from old wounds and possibly even purge old beliefs.

But the main thing to remember here is that healing can be painful. Anybody who’s been through rehab will probably tell you that even though the moment of injury was the most traumatic and painful, the months or possibly even years spent recovering were just as difficult in some ways.

But if you’re going through the summer of restoration, overall it can be a great thing because you get to reclaim things from your past that you’ve lost, which might even be a piece of yourself.

#4 – The Summer of Restlessness

The fourth type of summer is the summer of restlessness, which is the most painful to talk about and really my least favorite. You have those feelings of not being sure about your life, or what to even do with yourself. You’re watching the clock as it ticks by the seconds, wondering when this minute will be over. You don’t know what to do or where to go. Even when you are out doing things that are supposed to be fun, you’re still not fully satisfied in that moment.

There are a lot of categories to think about in terms of uncertainty. Uncertainty is really at the root of the restlessness you’re experiencing. It could be because of relationships, projects that you haven’t finished, income, or debts, or a job, or even a career.

I think a major category – and I’m seeing this a lot right now – is summer love, infatuation, love sickness, unrequited love. I even put together a video about that so I’ll make sure to include that in the show notes [note: this video is no longer available].

Here’s the thing. If you’re experiencing restlessness right now, there is a good chance you’ve been disconnected from the rhythm of life as well as your heart. You’ve killed your desires in favor of perhaps pursuing a career or some kind of project that’s meant to be fulfilling. It’s a wake-up call basically. It’s just letting you know that "Hey, you’re still alive. You still have a heart. And the heart matters."

#5 – The Summer of Relocation

The fifth type of summer is the summer of relocation, which can be a great thing, but can also be immensely uncomfortable. You probably have some kind of itinerary or schedule for your summer. You know where you’re going to be and it’s all mapped out, almost like a band that’s on tour.

Relocation almost always means moving from one familiar place to a less comfortable one. Whether that’s physical, mental, spiritual, emotional or even financial. I think it’s helpful to remember that this is all part of your growth process. It could even be argued that everything you encounter in life offers a growth experience.

When you relocate, everything is new and fresh and different. The new experiences that come into your life may be uncomfortable for a while, but you’ll learn to accept and live with them.

#6 – The Summer of Realization

The sixth and final type of summer I’ve identified as part of being my experiences is summer of realization. Again, realization isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You may be waking up to certain realities you hadn’t really considered before. It could be that you haven’t accomplished what you thought you would have accomplished by now. It could be that you’ve come to the realization you only have so many years to live, and you want to begin allocating your time differently than you have to this point. Sometimes this can all manifest as a rude awakening, which certainly makes your summer uncomfortable.

It’s only natural that with the passage of time you’re going to begin reflecting on past experiences and thinking about where you’ve come and how you got there. We all do that at different times of the year. I feel like the New Year is often the best time to do that, but summer can also offer that opportunity for us to think about and reflect on what’s happened. I think it’s all just part of the natural rhythm of the seasons.

What type of summer are you experiencing?

At this point you’ve probably identified what summer you’ve been experiencing so far. You’ve probably also thought about the six different types of summer and which one you would rather be experiencing than the one you are right now. Maybe not so much if you’re experiencing a summer of relief, recreation, or restoration. But the less comfortable ones are often restlessness, relocation and realization.

But I do have some good news for you if you are going through the summer of restlessness, relocation, or realization. That is simply this: The different types of summer can overlap....

Have you ever thought about using multiple cameras to capture video content? Are you interested in taking your video production to the next level?

In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I talk to Will Waters from NewTek, who shares about how to get started with multi-camera video production.

Download the PDF Transcription

Podcast Highlights:

00:14 – The importance of video content

00:36 – Introduction to Will Waters

02:05 – How practical is multi-camera video production?

03:55 – The benefits of multi-camera video production

06:55 – Mixing and matching cameras

08:47 – What tools or gear do you need to make multi-camera video production possible?

11:22 – The video editing process and post-production

13:39 – How can you create better videos with multiple cameras?

15:57 – How technical is the setup process?

20:48 – What types of content should musicians be creating to engage their audience?

25:53 – How can we market and distribute video content?

28:30 – How important is it for musicians to be publishing video content?

30:14 – Closing remarks

Transcription:

David Andrew Wiebe: Thanks for joining me. You may have noticed that I’ve started talking a little bit more about creating video and video content as of late. There’s a good reason for that. You may have even heard that people now spend more time on YouTube than all other social networks combined, which is insane. In this episode, I have a special interview for you. Let’s get right into it. I think you’re going to enjoy it.

My guest today is the director of product marketing at NewTek. Here to talk about multicamera video production, I’d like to welcome Will Waters. How are you today, Will?

Will Waters: I’m doing well David. Thank you very much.

David: Is there anything you’d like to share about yourself before we get into the main questions about camera and multicamera production?

Will: I’d like to say I appreciate the opportunity here to talk to so many people. I have a background of music and music production live, in the live element really. Background of live audio mix engineering and doing event production and various things.

It came through the time when video was just being put onto the stage. I guess through the 90s and everything. I kind of saw this video thing. Well, it’s not that hard to kind of move in. That took a winding path, I guess into a road of now working for a manufacturer and helping develop product that hopefully solves some solutions.

But one of the wonderful things is taking some of those things that have been found in the audio world and applying them to video and kind of like vice versa. Bringing together all for artistic or storytelling experience.

David: I have some experience with both live and in studio engineering so hopefully there’s some overlap there and I’ll be able to relate to some of the things that you’re going to be sharing about.

A lot of musicians struggle with consistently creating video content let alone using multiple cameras to do it. How practical is it for them to even think about taking the production game to the next level?

Will: Well, fortunately, in today’s world of technology things have become – the barrier, I guess, to putting all this [together] has really been removed in so many different ways. Even the things that we’re carrying around our pockets, in these smartphones, the things that you could do from an audio perspective, they also involve these cameras that you can easily live stream to whatever platform, from a social standpoint very quickly and easily.

But again, taking that I guess to the next level as far as synching up multiple cameras and putting that all together, there is a little bit of complexity. It’s not nearly what it used to be but there is a little bit of complexity that probably is worth talking about to get around.

But it can be done and it can be done pretty quickly. While I wouldn’t say – I mean I guess depending on your thought about what is considered inexpensive. Comparatively, it’s actually much lower cost than it has ever been before. In today’s world, this is something that really you can do that and then, of course, use the internet to get to an audience that in the past was completely unavailable as a musician.

David: Yeah. It’s not too surprising to me that it would be cheaper and easier than ever before. I mean especially with computer hardware and really just electronic hardware, in general, we’re seeing prices decrease and go down. We live in an amazing time and we can do so much more than we are able to do before.

What are some of the benefits of using multiple video cameras? Why is that something musicians would want to do when creating video content?

Will: Well, one of the things is if we just think about or we take a step back away from the technology, and if you just think a little bit about how you interact even in the room or maybe as our viewers – I mean the listeners – are thinking about even where they are right now, you tend to take in this data visually.

You would look around the room. You look around what may be happening. We’re taking all these data in at a pretty constant rate. Even if you watch your traditional television or something on your Facebook feed even, your eyes are moving around in that player and they are doing different things at it. If you go to an event. You go down to the bar to watch a live performance, you are going to look at the guitar player. You’re going to see the vocalist. You’re going to pay attention sometimes to the drummer. This is just the natural way that we interact with our world around us.

What multicam allows us to do is take and show multiple angles, areas of interest that is... Because you can’t physically be in a particular location, what it allows for is that move around of “Hey, look at this. Look at that over there.” It gives you more... It tells us a more concise and more enveloped story around whatever experience that you’re working with. It enhances something.

That’s not to say that everything else is unimportant. You can certainly have a single camera that live streams and you can watch that just fine but there is a certain element of I guess professionalism or you move up that when you start adding multiple cameras and then you start directing or telling a story by moving to the fretboard on a particular guitar solo versus just having the static shot, it brings an area of interest that then is enhanced. It really enhances the audio from a musician standpoint.

David: Yeah. Several years ago, I had some video blogs done for me by a professional. He would incorporate some of the narrative or some of my talking along with different visuals and different things he picked up around my house or whatever environment we happened to be in like a live music venue. I love how that kind of helped tell a story. It wasn’t just focused entirely on me or what I was saying. It had to do with my music and my environment in which I was creating my music. I really love that and I like your point about how your eyes are going to follow naturally to different places while you’re watching a band.

When using multiple cameras, is it important for musicians to be using the same camera for every angle, or can they mix and match different cameras?

Will: Well, that’s a really – it’s a creative decision. Just like if you’re doing a recording, the question I was asked a lot is what microphone did you use or what pickup are you’re working with? I think the real answer to all of that is: What is the right tool for what you want to have?

Now, the camera is a capture. It’s an acquiring tool. Cameras have different specifications. They are at good some things versus others. One may have a wide focal lens or a large sensor panel. It may be small and can be clipped on to the end of the guitar you know? There are different things that you can put together.

Now, for consistency, there are some subtleties that can be important to pay attention to such as the color. When you have the same camera type then you have a better consistency as you switch between those angles. But again, depending on how you want to tell the story, or what you want to draw the attention to, then the camera choice becomes secondary to the content itself.

David: I know that my friend Daniel Guy Martin – who's a very accomplished guitarist – he used to go around capturing video footage for himself and what he was up to. He would also capture footage not just with his camcorder or video camera but also with his phone to kind of get a little bit of that low-fi footage in there to mix in with the high def stuff.

So, I think like you say it’s a creative decision and might even play into your branding and what sort of image you’re trying to project.

So, what tools would a musician need to get started with multicamera video production?

Will: Well, there’s a lot of different ways you can go about this. But for a moment, let’s make an assumption that we do have audio covered in some capacity or we’re working with that. Then, the second thing to think about is are we going to want to cut these cameras or we want to put this together kind of in a live or as-it-happens, or do we want to go in to a post-processing where we have recorded video and then we marry them up together?

So, there is a big distinction as far as what you can do. Obviously, the live element allows for it to be done very quickly and efficiently so that you can produce your quantities of content and get that out to your audience versus a post-production workflow whereas you may be able to add in more effects or pay attention to more of the finer details and deliver something that is very specific artistically.

But of course, that is going to take time and effort that you put into. To get started, that’s really the first thing to kind of think about because they are two som