{"id":3404,"date":"2014-08-25T18:16:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T22:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockwellblake.com\/blog\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2014-11-28T08:49:46","modified_gmt":"2014-11-28T12:49:46","slug":"the-problem-is-the-product","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/25\/the-problem-is-the-product\/","title":{"rendered":"The Problem is the Product"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>So let\u2019s get down to basics.\u00a0 Is there a problem?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 What is the problem?\u00a0 Apparently we are suffering shrinkage of opportunities for singers and musicians to make a living.\u00a0 The arts, as a jobs program, is getting very weak in the knees, and a search for leg braces seems to be getting under way.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I think the search for leg braces is destined for failure.\u00a0 Those who are in the know about the problem seem to be trying to figure out how to market \u201cThe Arts\u201d&#8230; that is, arts organizations&#8217; need to deal with funding short falls and diminishing audience attendance.\u00a0 Almost everything I see being discussed in public about the action needed is off point. Arts organizations are being advised to find new ways to dress up the concert hall and design events relevant to an audience which seems willing to spend money, but not on tickets to \u201cThe Arts\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Another big problem is a discussion today among deep pocket donors, which is bubbling into public view here and there. It places those who support \u201cThe Arts\u201d in a difficult defensive position.\u00a0 I can imagine it would be very hard to argue the survival of \u201cClassical Music\u201d as\u00a0being as important as alleviating some of the suffering of the starving among us while sipping Champagne in opulent surroundings.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t think it possible to survive making such a case in many soup kitchen lines that are set up across our own still relatively prosperous country.\u00a0 My opinion on what these 1% ters ought to do with their bank accounts aside, I do believe the problem\u00a0for the 1%ter\u00a0is much the same as for the ticket buyer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you are selling a product that does not outshine your competition, then your result is going to be less impressive than your competitions\u2019.\u00a0 I have seen some grudging admission that \u201cThe Arts\u201d are really part of the entertainment industry, even if turning a profit seems to keep almost everyone else in the industry afloat.\u00a0 I see \u201cThe Arts\u201d, \u201cThe Press\u201d and just about any other form of communication as entertainment when they are not essential to a person\u2019s survival.\u00a0 I have a friend that has a police scanner for entertainment.\u00a0 Lawyers may think of scanners as tools, but my friend has a toy.\u00a0 Tracking communication among emergency service personal is serious business, especially if you are going to chase the ambulance your scanner catches being sent out to gather victims of a traffic accident.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about billing, about money, about survival.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Life is not \u201ca box of chocolate\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CJh59vZ8ccc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>No one can guarantee anyone anything, and the entertainment industry can only offer you opportunity.\u00a0 It can only offer an <a href=\"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/26\/trick-and-treat#Stage\" target=\"_blank\">empty box<\/a> that you must fill with what you have to offer in order to attract an audience.\u00a0\u00a0 Artists might like to be able to define the product they are producing in terms of cultural values, but there is only one system of valuation that makes any difference at all.\u00a0 The price someone will pay.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you are seeking to feed yourself and your family in the entertainment industry, you need to view the crisis, if you believe in it, from the point of view of anyone seeking employment.\u00a0 My first visits to the Guidance Counselors\u2019 offices at Peru Central School, most likely during the time I was first getting to know my <a href=\"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/25\/thanks-giving#Renata\" target=\"_blank\">Renata<\/a>, were dedicated to searching through employment categories in the catalogues\u00a0 strategically placed in the little waiting room outside the counselors\u2019 offices.\u00a0 I trolled those catalogues in order to overcome my ignorance about the job market.\u00a0 I wanted to study something that could be my magic carpet to ride out of the life style to which my extended family had become accustomed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>I didn\u2019t find my ultimate choice in those catalogues.\u00a0 I dedicated myself to the art and craft of singing without really knowing how risky a choice it was.\u00a0 I found out, when\u00a0 I applied for unemployment benefits just after leaving my military service with the Navy.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what to write in one of the blanks on the application form I was filling out.\u00a0 The big book of job titles in that office gave me the approved wording to insert in the appropriate blank on the application form that I successfully filled out. It was: \u201cclassical singer\u201d. Forget the fact that I was an unemployed \u201cclassical singer\u201d.\u00a0 I was happy to be classified as one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Needless to say: I found work and my little magic carpet revved up and carried me to many parts of the world I never dreamed to be able to visit.\u00a0 Oh! And yes. My life style never resembled the comfortable hard-working lower middle class life style of my dad, which now seems to be disappearing.\u00a0 You may not have noticed, but there is a crisis there as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Back to the product: be aware that there is only one honest way to make a living.\u00a0 Deliver value for the fee you collect.\u00a0 My dad bought himself his second new truck (I bought his first new one for him.) with money he earned by proving his labor valuable enough to become an employee rather than a jobs program participant.\u00a0 He was long past youth, but still full of energy.\u00a0 He loved the job he landed after the fur farm, where he worked most of his life, died, and his new job funded his life to the end of it.\u00a0 Artists and Arts Management personnel have to prove themselves just like my dad did and just like I did.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>People will buy tickets, subscribe to and donate to whatever inspires them.\u00a0 If you want to make a success as a performer, you must entertain.\u00a0 If you want to make a success of an organization that presents the efforts of performers, you have to know what will entertain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Last week-end I found an example of just the sort of entertainment I believe to be the cure for the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/sandow\/2013\/09\/before-the-crisis.html\" target=\"_blank\">crisis<\/a>\u201d, if you believe there is one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allanttrio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Allant Trio<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hillandhollowmusic.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hill and Hollow<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So let\u2019s get down to basics.\u00a0 Is there a problem?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 What is the problem?\u00a0 Apparently we are suffering shrinkage of opportunities for singers and musicians to make a living.\u00a0 The arts, as a jobs program, is getting very weak in the knees, and a search for leg braces seems to be getting under way. 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