Blog posts

• 

  Oct 20, 01:08 PM

  Letter to the Editor

  

  My new album, *Clang & Chime*, goes on sale to the general public in a matter of ...of however many hours it takes for a certain website to upload the information!
  
  But you don't have to wait for that to start digging on it.
  
  Listen to/download/freak out over the first track, "Letter to the Editor", right now!  It's available on my iLike, Reverb Nation, Myspace, and Facebook pages.
  
  What I'm saying is, if you look hard enough, you'll find it. :)

  
  Thanks for listening, folks.  Enjoy, and stay tuned for album release news!
  
  be well,
  
  Seth
• 

  Jul 28, 11:08 AM

  The Shockingly Unjust & Hideous Death of the Cafe Au Lait. =(

  The Shockingly Unjust & Hideous Death of the Cafe Au Lait. =(

  I had a moment of clarity the other night while doing something I rarely do anymore:  I went and hung out in a Borders store, browsed through the books, the albums, the magazines, got a cup of coffee, and sat down to take in some culture.

  I noticed some jarring changes.  Most obvious was that the CD section had been reduced to a quarter of its previous size.  I mean: SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT of the CD bins had been removed.  I went to take stock of the carnage.

  It seemed that most of what had been removed were “catalog” titles… they’d nixed the “old” music in favor of new artists and new releases by established acts, and most of the acts I could see at a glance I would call “peripheral” or “emerging” artists.

  It was a bit astonishing to realize the number of artists who had albums on display that I have had some kind of contact with.  These artists are… my peers, really.  In many cases there are completely arbitrary factors that have dictated that their albums are still available in a nationwide chain store, while mine have not been on those shelves since 2005.

  I had just taken all this in when I walked over to the cafe counter and placed my coffee order.  I was present, but mildly distracted, so the counter dude’s response to my request surprised me more than it should have:

  “A cafe au lait!  Wow; most people don’t know what that even IS!”

  What??

  This, of course, is not true.  Plenty of people know what a cafe au lait is.

  Err…          …don’t they?

  Well, shit.  Maybe they don’t?   I pondered this as I went to sit down.

  “Cafe Au Lait” is French for “coffee with milk”.  It’s been a staple on cafe menus all over the world, regardless of language, for as long as I can remember.  At least until Starbucks came along.

  Starbucks capitalized on a major idea: they convinced the public that “ESPRESSO IS MORE VALUABLE THAN COFFEE”.  The idea is nonsense, of course — espresso IS coffee.  It’s simply prepared differently.  There is no practical reason to charge twice as much for it.  Sure; it requires a different grind and a separate machine, but grinders are adjustable, and espresso machines are standard overhead in cafes.

  Besides that, it has become commonplace for a 2 ounce shot of espresso to cost the same as a 12 ounce cup of drip coffee.   Um…  hello?

  People were already used to paying close to 2 bucks for a cup full of drip coffee.  By convincing people that espresso is exotic and valuable and different, Starbucks made the world believe that the same sized cup with espresso in it was easily worth twice as much.  Even though most of what is in the cup is actually MILK; not espresso.

  The problem for Starbucks was this:  if people equate a full cup of coffee with “two dollars”, and if you have to give people milk for free on the condiment stand, you can’t charge a whole lot more just for dumping out half the coffee and replacing it with HOT milk.  True; a Cafe Au Lait usually doesn’t cost more than 25 to 50 cents more than a standard coffee.

  Well if the maximum price for a cup of half coffee and half milk is $2.50, how are you supposed to convince people to spend $4 on a cup that has only 2 ounces of coffee and is MOSTLY milk?

  You take the better deal off the menu.

  People will forget.  Those that don’t won’t want to speak up.

  That’s what Starbucks bet on.  They were right.

  There is NO “Cafe Au Lait” menu option at any Starbucks, anywhere.  If you ask for one, you’ll be told that it’s not on the menu.  They can tell you that, because they’re not lying; “Cafe Au Lait” is NOT on their menu.

  Because they changed it’s name.  Starbucks calls a cup of half coffee/half milk a “Misto”.   The Misto does not appear anywhere on the menu, either, but if you ask for one, they have to make it for you, and you’ll pay…  (drumroll)   about $2.50.

  But people don’t ask for it.  Because they either can’t remember it when they’re staring at the menu, or they don’t want to “be a problem” or draw unnecessary attention to themselves by asking for it.

  This explanation is long, but the realization came to me in the second following the barista’s declaration:

  I’m a Cafe Au Lait.

  I’m a great deal, dammit.  I cost less than most of the other stuff out there, and I taste better than most of it…  or at least AS good!

  I’m just not on the menu.

   

  Whenever any listeners or fans discovered me, I was “on the menu” in their world.  I was playing on stage; my music became a common experience for everyone who heard me. After I sold CDs to these folks, they played them for their friends, and then my music was in the common cultural vocabulary they shared.

  But over the years, those people grew apart, moved, met new friends who weren’t already familiar with my music.  Suddenly my songs lost their “common touchstone” status, and I was “not on the menu” anymore.  And just like the Cafe Au Lait, people forgot that I was an option, or didn’t want to be judged by suggesting something that wasn’t already in their new friends’ pool of common experience.

  Once this mindset took hold, some people just erased me from their own cultural vocabulary, and even though they heard from me through email, by the time my next album came out, they couldn’t reconcile adding me back to their mental playlist.  Instead of getting excited about listening to my new music, they actually withdrew from it.

  SO.  Check it out:

  I am releasing my first full-length album in FIVE YEARS this fall**.  It is, by far, the best thing I’ve ever made, and no matter if you have listened to every note I’ve recorded over the past decade or if the last thing you heard from me was the last note of “Something Pretty” back in 2002, I would be honored if you would at least give it a chance.

  We, the independent artists of today, don’t have media PR machines to change your minds, influence your friends, and direct your attention for you.

  We have YOU, and we’re counting on you to remember us, talk about us, suggest us, explain us to those who don’t know.

  We need you to put us back on the menu.

  We need you to NOT take the path of least resistance.

  We need you to order a Cafe Au Lait.

  

  Thanks for listening.

  -Seth
  **If you’re not already on my email list, sign up HERE and I’ll let you know when it’s ready.
• 

  Jun 14 2008, 04:48 AM

  Wanted: Music Producers. No experience necessary.

  I got some really interesting feedback from my last post about the future of (my) music. In that post, I made mention of how I'm going to make my next record... with you.
  
  This is to explain how that will happen. First, here are a few important things to understand before I explain my idea:
  
  1.)I've read in a number of sources that a lot of people claim they don't buy full albums anymore because most records have only one or two good songs on them. I've heard this in a lot of conversations with people as well. They say: if artists made better albums, well then of course they would buy the whole thing. People are, it seems, still willing to pay for quality... or at least the promise of quality.
  
  2.)Normally when an artist goes through the creative process of songwriting, song refining, and choosing songs for an album, he or she works with a producer. The producer acts as a sounding board for the artist's ideas, and steers the artist in a (hopefully) better direction than the artist might have taken by himself/herself. To wit: the producer's goal is to make sure the artist puts out the best possible record.
  
  3.)YOU CAN'T PLEASE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME... but you CAN try to please most of them most of the time.
  
  So now that we're on the same page, here's
  
  THE DEAL:
  
  -I'm going to record one song a week for the next five months. That's a total of twenty (20) songs.
  
  -Statistically speaking, a few of these will be great. A few will suck royally. And most of them will need just a bit of help to bring them where they need to go.
  
  -You (and by that I mean “those of you who want to”) are going to give me feedback on these songs, and ultimately, you're going to decide which ten (10) make it on to the next record I put out.
  
  You are going to be, in essence, my 'producers'.
  
  -Every week, I will send you an email with a high-quality MP3 attached (it will be a decently-sized file; big, but not huge). The first of these will be delivered on Wednesday, July 9th, and the last one will be delivered on Wednesday, November 26th. There is only one week during which there will be no delivery made, at the end of September/beginning of October, and that is because I will be on tour in the United Kingdom at the time... it still works out that there will be four (4) MP3s delivered each month.
  
  -In each of these emails that deliver the MP3s, there will be a small feedback form, and every week, you'll get to send it back to me with your opinions and comments until the next song is delivered.
  
  -At the end of every month (that is, after every fourth song), I will poll my 'producers' for that month as to how they feel the delivered songs stack up, in order, from 1st place to 4th. The 'producers' will have 48 hours to participate in this poll.
  
  -The song that comes out on top for that month will be slightly re-tweaked using the best of the feedback I've received, and will be re-sent to all my 'producers' for that month along with an email containing anonymous samples of their feedback, my notes, and thoughts on the creative process involved with all four songs.
  
  -At the end of five months, I will post one-minute clips of all twenty songs on the internet. Anyone who has been a 'producer' of the project at any point will be asked to choose their “Top Ten” songs from this list to pick the final songs for the album.
  
  -Those 'producers' who have been more involved throughout the process will have their votes weighed more heavily than those who were less involved. This is partially because of the familiarity the more-involved 'producers' will have with the material. For example, if you were a producer for Month Five only, you would have heard the full versions of only four of the twenty songs. While it is important to get people's general impression of a song from a shorter preview clip, it's in the best interests of making a great album to consider the more informed 'producers' opinions more heavily. The more you've been involved by that point, the 'louder' your voice will be.
  
  -Any 'producer' who has been involved for two (2) months or more will receive free copies of the resulting album, as described in a few paragraphs...
  
  THE DETAILS:
  
  -Anything goes with this. Some weeks I may do solo bass and vocals; other weeks I may invite guest musicians to play with me, or I might send songs by email around the planet for other friends of mine in distant lands to overdub themselves onto. I might do a song with drums and a keyboard part. I might do a song with very few words; or maybe a song that never repeats a word twice. There might be a completely instrumental solo-bass piece in there. I might record my upright bass on a song and invite other people to sing with me. I could do a bluegrass-style song. A jazz-style song. A complete heavy-fricking metal song. I could record two basses, a zither, and a kazoo. I could record my dog barking and play it back through my loop pedal to create a rhythm track. I could be just as surprised (or not) as you by the whole thing.
  
  -The point is, those of you who opt to be a part of this will get to hear the sounds of my creative process. You'll hear everything UN-filtered... the raw material I start with. You'll choose how far you follow the songs as they develop, and you will guide that development process (“Dear Seth, while I really did like your use of the Norwegian fishing chant in last week's song, maybe following it up with a German drinking song-style tune this week wasn't such a fresh idea...”)
  
  THE BUSINESS END:
  
  The opportunity to invest in this production costs $10 a month; you can pay fifty up front and be involved from the get-go all the way through until the album release, you can tread lightly and pay one month at a time, or you can forgo this whole operation, sit back and trust the capable and refined ears of your peers... the choice is yours!
  
  Your level of commitment will determine just what you get out of your investment, as follows:
  
  -$10
  Four MP3s (plus one re-vamped song version) in one month, and a vote for the Top Ten at the beginning of December.
  
  -$20
  Eight MP3s (plus two re-vamped song versions) in two months, and one copy of the physical CD when the final version is pressed. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count twice.
  
  -$30
  Twelve MP3s (plus three re-vamped song versions) in three months, and two copies of the physical CD when the final version is pressed. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count four times.
  
  -$40
  Sixteen MP3s (plus four re-vamped song versions) in four months, and three copies of the physical CD when the final version is pressed. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count seven times.
  
  -$50
  Twenty MP3s (plus five re-vamped song versions) in five months, four copies of the physical CD when the final version is pressed, and a producer's credit in the physical album's liner notes. In December, your vote for the Top Ten songs will count ten times.
  
  And yes, if you decide to try this out for one month and then decide to re-up, your status will accumulate... For example, if you pay $10 the first month to try this out and then decide you'd like to stay on board for the whole project, you can pay $40 more and reap all the benefits of those who pay $50 from the beginning.
  
  Basically, if this sort of thing is up your alley, you can't lose with this. :) I get to make a record that stands a chance of resonating with a large number of people, and you get to help me make the record you've always wanted me to make.
  
  So where my producers at? :)
  
  1.To get started, send an email to sethhoran@yahoo.com
  
  2.MAKE SURE YOU SEND THE EMAIL FROM THE ADDRESS YOU WANT TO RECEIVE YOUR MP3s AT. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
  
  3.Put the words “seth horan production” in the subject heading
  
  4.In the body of the email, please include your name, and how much you'd like to invest into the project (10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 dollars).
  
  5.I will reply to your email with a PayPal invoice, and once we square that away, you're officially part of the production team!
  
  This is going to be a huge step forward, folks. Not just for me... if we're successful in this, other people will copy it, and you can say that you were part of the thing that changed the music industry.
  
  Food for thought. ;)
• 

  Jun 07 2008, 01:59 AM

  The future of (my) music...

  No matter what you think of the state of the music business, you probably think it's time something changed. See, it's not a question of "if" CDs will stop selling; it's a question of WHEN.
  
  Being an artist who sells my music to make a living, I'm faced with an interesting combination of factors: People born up until around 1978 or '79 for example, still see a compact disc as a thing of value. It's something they either adopted to replace cassettes or something they grew up with, and people in this bracket tend to have something in the way of a tangible "record collection". When they were in college, Napster either didn't exist or hadn't reached critical mass, and the idea that illegal downloading carried serious consequences wasn't laughed at openly. These were the last people who shopped in "Used CD stores".

  Anyone born between 1980 and '81 saw the whole transition go down... peer-to-peer file sharing was blowing through the roof just as these folks' college years hit, and though these people were probably decent, record-buying americans in high-school, by the time they graduated, deferred, or dropped out of college (gooooo Gen Y!), they were all about the MP3.

  Anyone born after that pretty much looks at a packaged audio CD and says, "WHY?" They think of them as flimsy, breakable, and due to the CD-R's endless and cheap availability as data storage media for computers, virtually worthless. iPods and iTunes came about while these folks were either in college or high school, and it's hard for them to remember life without the option of the .99 cent download, so that's how their perception of the value of music has been shaped.

  I announced a few months ago that my album "Notwithstanding" is officially out of print now. My first album, "...this is the session.", has only a small number of copies left. My "biggest" release to date is "Conduit", and that album was pressed by a label in greater numbers than the others, so it'll be around in CD form for awhile longer, but my fourth release, "Happenstance" will be going the way of the Dodo in short order as well. Each of these titles, however, continue to sell each month via CD Baby and iTunes... as digital downloads (and for those who didn't know, when you download an MP3 album from CD Baby, you recieve the album artwork and liner notes as jpegs).

  I think people still have the desire to buy music, and I think that desire is strongest at concerts -- people feel most strongly about giving back to an artist right after they have experienced that artist's performance. The idea of buying a download works against that, but what is becoming more common now is the sale of "download cards" (like the ones you see at Starbucks). Think of it as a "promise to download", because you're paying for the album up-front, and you're being given a plastic card that you'll take out of your pocket or your purse when you get home, and it will serve as your reminder that "Hey! You already paid for this!! GET IT." These cards have access codes that, when you enter them into the appropriate website, allow you to download the album in question instantly. I've already started selling download cards for "Notwithstanding" at my live shows, and as the other titles in my catalog sell out, I will add download cards for those titles, too.

  (I should note, however, that the new Download Card-version of "Notwithstanding" contains BONUS TRACKS featuring live versions of FOUR of the songs on the album.)

  Now, my latest release is a DVD, and a double-length DVD at that. DVDs aren't looked at the same way as CDs just yet, and the feedback about "Between Two Oceans" has been overwhelmingly positive... this is something most of you have been wanting for years; a slice of the live concert experience that led most of us to cross paths in the first place. Co-X Entertainment and I feel justified that what we're charging for the DVD is a fair price, and nearly everyone who's bought it says they're getting a great product for their money. So the DVD will stick around for awhile longer, at least.

  But what about NEW MUSIC? The old method of making albums just isn't going to work for much longer, is it?

  Well I'm going to give it one more try, but with a twist: I'm going to make the next record WITH you. At least, I'm going to make it with those of you who want to be involved. :)

  Stay tuned for the next update, and I'll tell you how. ;)
• 

  May 25 2008, 10:54 PM

  live nude girls.

  Ah! Would you look at this blog?  All nicely laid out with oodles of cool info and links for you to check out...
  
  ...why don't I do this more often?
  
  Actually...  I do!  Less than a year ago I migrated my email list over to a new server, and each month, I send out a mailer chock-full of coolness.  I started posting that monthly mailer as a bulletin recently, but every day I get more proof in my inbox that the bulletins just don't get through to many of you...  they get bumped down in the bulletin list too quickly for most people.  And if I post the same bulletin more than twice in one day, I get pissy notes from folks with smaller friend counts who consider the multiple messages spam.  Like the saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time.
  
  So that's some incentive, right? If you haven't already done so, please: JOIN MY REAL EMAIL LIST.  It's an update-a-month unless there's something special going on (like a show in your town), and there's no wondering...  I know that my message will actually get to you, and you don't have to wonder if you've missed an update from me!   Win-win!  Go!  Now!  Sign up here!
  http://www.reverbnation.com/sethhoran?add_email=true
  
  May 31st - "Anonymity" is "Track of the Day" at Garageband.com
  
  My song "Anonymity" has been receiving some really nice reviews over at Garageband.com, and has quickly climbed up the "Acoustic" charts there...  so much so that they're making it "Track of the Day" this Saturday (May 31st).  To celebrate, I've made the song a FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD...  if it's not already in your collection, you can get it by clicking on the button:
  
  
  So I took this Finn back to my hotel room in Germany, and we made a video...
  
  Remember my blog about the Frankfurt Music Show at the end of March?  Remember the cruel, teasing, 4-second clip of Petteri Sariola and I on stage?  Remember I promised that there would be more footage of us jamming together some day?  Remember...?  Yeah... me neither.  ;)
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9f_7ZqxJwg
  
  3MOB
  
  3
  Men
  on
  BASS
  
  is finally TOURING!  And we're doing it in ONE MONTH!  After our increasingly talked-about shows in Boston for the past few years, we're taking the experience to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City this year on our way back to Cambridge's legendary Club Passim.
  
  Pay special attention to the next bit of info if you fall into any of these categories:
  
  -you live within 2 hours of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, or Boston
  
  -you have at some point said to me "I've never seen anyone ELSE do what you do!"
  
  -you haven't been to one of my shows in awhile...
  
  This nice big magenta and blue flyer is for you.  Print it out and stick it on the fridge. :)
  

  Inflation sucks!
  
  ...but it is the reality of the situation.  The United States Postal Service just increased all their rates, so as a result, I've had to bump up the price of ordering my new DVD, "Between Two Oceans", by 1 (one) US Dollar.  So you see: the early bird gets the worm, and gets it cheaper.
  
  Don't wait for some sudden, random paper shortage drive up the price of padded envelopes...  if you don't have your copy of "Between Two Oceans" yet, click on my Myspace page, scroll down to the big picture of the cover, and order it now!
  
  The Affirmation Sessions
  
  You may know my friend Joel Ackerson from the years we spent touring together.  You may know him because he makes a guest appearance or two on the new DVD.  You may not know him at all, but you need to change that, because Joel just released a new album that makes the hair on my arms stand straight up and makes me want to take long drives to nowhere just so I can listen to the whole thing in one sitting.  Remember when people made albums that could hold your attention from beginning-to-end?  My friend Joel Ackerson just put out a masterpiece, and I'm proud to have played a small part in its creation.
  
  I belted out harmony vocals on one song, I bowed my double bass on another song, and I co-produced a third song, so if you need to know my connection with the project to accept my recommendation, there you go...  but if you just want to hear a great full-length album like nobody seems to make anymore, check out "The Affirmation Sessions".  And know my friend Joel Ackerson.
  
  
  There's even more cool stuff coming in the June newsletter...  don't forget to join the email list if you haven't already!!
  
  All the best,
  
  Seth :]