The Rat Race

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Time is the measurement of all motion according to a standard. The truth though is that time measures the movement of the Earth around the Sun and this measurement divided into ever smaller increments becomes seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years. Age too makes its impact on our lives as time affects the condition of our bodies in addition to our use and maintenance or lack thereof. But nothing can prevent our age from catching up with us no matter how well we treat our bodies, over time age, bad habits, poor eating, genetic predisposition, and hygiene, will break down the body and stop it from functioning.

The ticktock of time is accentuated in The Rat Race as it impresses the listener with the silent pressure that clocks and schedules provide to working people. Every second is a moment either invested wisely or wasted, never to return, time lost and never regained. Beginning in an appropriate minimalistic style, The Rate Race quickly adds elements that float around the main minimalistic riff. Without a clear tempo, the listener has to rely on the pulse provided by several song elements such as the downbeat on the multitracked guitars and strumming.

Whether we’re overworked, stressed with the kids, or frustrated with other people and our conflicts with them, life is full of friction and can become unbearable by forcing us to adopt the mindset that we’re in a kind of prison of craziness apparently out of our control. The Rat Race tries to represent this chaos of drama by showing this combination of elements in a cloud of sound that goes in different directions and different speeds. Some elements are slow and relaxed, spaced far apart and reappearing at varying intervals of time unpredictably. While other elements are constant, quick moving, and altering their activity in rapid sequences of change.

Change too is a factor that calls our attention to time. Basically, time is the change of objects and people through space, which produces time, and as such The Rat Race demonstrates this with all of its sonic components colliding with one another in chance events occurring in an unplanned manner, you know, just like life. How often does it occur where one of our plans are thwarted or come to fruition in a version we had not foreseen? Change is inevitable and events emerge spontaneously as the motion of time waits for no one.

Another interesting feature of time and change is the development of opportunities. As things remain in motion they sometimes align into a fortuitous series of events that benefit us or those around us. Even unfortunate events oddly enough can sometimes push us into circumstances that are not totally harmful. Even in adversity there is much to be gained, a lesson to be learned, and even if a bad thing happens some good can come of it. Sometimes we can anticipate such moments as when we “feel lucky” or somehow interpret a day as possessing a particularly useful quality where things are working for us and not against us, perhaps, a day filled with good omens or signs leading to a positive result on the order of a “sure thing.”

Every day, these factors of time - the motion and change of objects and people into certain alignments forming opportunities - reveal themselves in unique ways, but only to the observant and sensitive individual. The real world Rat Race is filled with so many obstacles and ways to distract ourselves from achieving fulfillment or happiness that it’s not always possible to change our mode of perception to see what opportunities are developing and being presented before us. If we let the stress of everyday life beat us down until our heads are hung low, we may miss the potential of new possibilities in other directions than we normally travel.

The Rat Race was composed with these concepts and images in mind and as music stresses how we use our time and that our use of time is governed by our freedom of choice. To defeat the real world Rat Race it is up to us to choose a new way of living by pursuing what it is that life has to offer and changing something about ourselves, because after all, the world we see is simply a reflection of ourselves. But if we change ourselves, we can literally change the world we see and live in. Seek a new idea, a new way of thinking, or a new way of being and test what it’s like to live like that. What new things and people have been attracted to or repelled from the “new” you? Interestingly, by changing little parts of ourselves we can remake our image of the world and become born again into a new experience of life and break free of The Rat Race.

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Related Music:

The Rat Race

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Marc

https://stereothesis.bandcamp.com/

Price Per Play

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GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler” FOR FREE. To get your FREE full-length album…click here. ____________________________________________________________

What is the value of the music experience to the consumer?

In the past, the value of the music experience might have been more connected to the community as music was likely one of very few entertainments the people could enjoy together. Moreover, the value of music and the music experience itself was more allied with live performance rather than selling volume units of CD's, records, or mP3 downloads.

The question here today is not whether or not music was better in the past compared to now, but whether or not the price of music is correct relative to other artforms?

When measured by each unit, by far, photographs, paintings, sketches, sculptures, DVD's, and any other kind of art you can think of is worth far more per unit than music. The only rivals to music in terms of art or entertainment are T.V. and film. Even though more people spend more of their time listening to music or attending a live music performance, music still receives far less monetary appreciation than do other art forms. 

Let's look at this issue another way. If a photograph or painting by a famous artist is valued at $5,000 or $15,000,000 and thousands of people flock to see either one of them at a museum, their values don't change or they might actually go up. But what happens when you buy a digital download or a musician releases a new album?

First of all, the price of a digital download is automatically priced at $.99 no matter what demand is like. Also, the label prices the entire album where it thinks demand will help them to recoup their cost from the production, promotion, and marketing costs related to the project.

But here are some essential differences between other art forms and music. In general, no part of the public ever gets to touch or own the original copies of an artist work unless they buy it. In other words, the general public never gets to own a Picasso painting, unless they can outbid another buyer. However, the general public can buy a poster size print or an art book full of samples of Picasso paintings along with biographical information concerning his development as a person and artist over time.

But with music, the general population almost always gets to have the thing itself. The music is the thing. The master copies of songs produced by a musician or composer are the equivalent items to original paintings by master artists. The master copies are what the labels and producers want to own, but the general public just wants the experience.

But if music is art then it should be prices accordingly in similar terms as art other art forms. A copy of an original photograph by a highly-acclaimed photographer will cost the consumer less than the original. Same thing goes when it comes to copies or prints of original paintings.

With music, though, many people mistakenly believe that composers and musicians are selling a performance when really they're selling ideas or a shared emotional experience. Music is a means of communicating ideas and emotions with sound waves made by instruments and/or voices.

In basic economics, we learn that the price of something goes up when demand increases, and that the price of something goes down when demand goes down. So in theory, as demand goes up, price goes up and when demand goes down, price also goes down.

So then why is the price of a song or piece of music stuck at about $.99 per track? Even if the music is in demand, the price never changes unless the artist wants it to, but under no other circumstances. 

Even though we live in a period of time where master paintings are selling for millions of dollars, the price of music is stable at $.99 per download. Looking around for digital music on Amazon you'll occasionally notice downloads selling for $1.50 or $2, but not often. 

The point here is: more plays = lower cost per play.

100 plays of a $.99 download = .01 per play

10 plays = $.09 per play

In my estimation, there's just no way that $.99 is the value or true price of the music experience that the audience receives when they listen to music they really connect with and enjoy often. Instead, the value of that experience is what the artist or consumer says it is. Therefore, price, when it comes to music, is an agreement made between the artist and consumer about the value of the experience they both think they are giving and receiving through the music.

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Related Music:

Lucky Ducky

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____________________________________________________________________________

Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation securely through PayPal, click here.

Music is Art

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GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler” FOR FREE. To get your FREE full-length album…click here. ____________________________________________________________

In the modern era, musicians and composers have an opportunity to claim their status as artists equal and in many cases superior to other art forms and disciplines. 

Before recording, there really wasn't a way for composers and musicians to package and sell their compositions other than through performance or notation. 

In terms of performance, apprentices would learn from master musicians and the tradition would pass along from master to apprentice through the centuries. Throughout this process performance after painstaking study and practice was at the heart of the discipline.

Eventually, a notation system evolved which allowed composers to write down their ideas in order to preserve them, work them out on paper, and to communicate these ideas from person to person. Notation actually made music portable although a music score was not the end product, but rather a means of communicating the end product which was the music itself translated by musicians and performed live. 

Unfortunately, the weakness in the notation system lay in the interpretation which may or may not have been an accurate portrayal of the composer's thought and direction. The system wasn't perfect but it was a step in the right direction to where we are today.

As you can see, performance and portability were two essential steps that needed to be taken before we could arrive anywhere close to the final step of communicating the artist's ideas exactly as they intended. It's in this final step where music crosses over from a communal activity and into a medium similar to painting, sculpture, photography, and other crafts. 

Notice how almost every other art form and craft produces a physical product that can be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. Whereas in the past, music lacked the ability to produce a physical product and therefore could not be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. But this has all changed today.

Now, music can produce a physical product and like other art forms can be bought, sold and owned. But interestingly, the same technology that gave birth to the music recording industry is also destroying that industry and making more difficult for musicians and composers to maintain control over their work. 

Bootlegged music and other types of illegal duplication are pushing the price of the music experience so far down towards zero ($0) that each composer, musician, songwriter, and band have to consider themselves a brand in order to promote and market themselves according to a business model of their own choosing. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing only because the artists can now decide how they want to package and sell their music. Selling digital downloads is just one type of package, other forms include music DVD's, box sets with the artist's autograph and photos, touring, creating T-shirts and other paraphernalia as well as composing for T.V., film, and video games. Each of these packages is made up of products, each with their own price model, mark ups, and profit potential.

Music is art and now has the potential to be sold by artists directly to buyers, but now it's up to the artist to determine whether or not they'll only sell music or if they'll also package their music with other products. Each artist has to determine what kind of music business they're going to run and try different approaches to find out what works, what doesn't work, and how much of a living they can make doing it.

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

Remember to join our mailing list.

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The Music Vault: Overflow of Creativity - Revisited

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GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler” FOR FREE. To get your FREE full-length album…click here. ____________________________________________________________

Creativity cannot be contained or regulated since it flows to hidden recesses in the mind or soul and pools into reserves waiting to be harnessed. When too much creative energy is forced into a pool of reserves and is not allowed to flow freely into artistic production, pressure builds in the mind of the individual restraining himself.

This scenario occurs all too often in the field of the arts and the entertainment business, which is totally out of alignment with the needs of the artist and their desire for complete freedom of artistic expression. Instead, what happens, for example as in the case of Prince, is the record label decides how much and how often the musician/composer will be allowed to release their work publicly, so the artist can either wait for the label to dictate their rate of production, break the contract to move forward on their own, but risking a lawsuit, or start a new project under a different moniker, then proceed from there.

Some of the recent revelations about Prince’s music vault illustrate how much unreleased material there must be in the music vaults of most top bands and other solo artists in the music industry that’s just waiting to see the light of day, but won’t because the record labels want to control as much of the production process as they can to protect their investments in the works of their artists. It can be safely assumed that there must be as much unreleased material as there is released material in every artistic field, but for financial reasons or investment purposes labels aren’t allowing the artist the freedom to push their material out publicly.

At one point, Prince in his battle with his record label demanded that he be allowed to release albums at a much faster rate than they were allowing him to, specifically 2 albums per year, in order to keep up with his speed of production and the immensity of his creative vision. This would account for his vast unreleased music collection as well as additional materials and media.

Interestingly, no one doubts that Prince was in possession of such material and that it consists of at least 50 fully produced music videos, full-length albums, and many other kinds of media produced by the artist. In total, there are probably hundreds of hours of music ready for release in the vaults, but rumors are that the material is likely to be released slowly over the next 2 decades. It is also believed that this material includes songs that the artist once said contained some of his finest work.

When a person’s creative capacity is restrained or unnaturally regulated, from within or without, the soul of the person quietly determines that the vehicle is inadequate to serve its aims, therefore the body or restraining influence must be destroyed. Whether the artist restrains their creative capacity by withholding their artistic output or by hiding or withholding their artistic creations, the pressure of withholding becomes a kind of psychic pain, which is formed from the artist’s inability to freely offer their creative work to their audience.

Without resolving this dilemma completely, the psychic pain can morph into physical pain, which forces the artist to find ways to reduce or eliminate the pain. Too often, when artists go through this process of degradation, they self-medicate and frequently overdose. When the artist destroys their body, using one method or another, their decision is swayed by choosing the lesser of two evils. Instead of fighting the record labels in court, which could completely wipe the artist out emotionally and financially, they find other ways to escape the situation.

Prince, along with the many other artists, musicians, and composers, who are trapped by the restraining influence of music labels made his choice and for that we lost a tremendous talent whose absence became an immense void in the soul of humanity. This type of artistic departure I term “black hole creativity” because of the vacuum it leaves in the collective creative mind of all people.

Creativity needs freedom of expression to ensure the physical and psychological health of the individual in possession of an immense artistic capacity. In fact, our physical bodies are the vehicles or tools for artistic production, so when a person works in harmony with their creative capacity, their mind and body are at ease with the nature of the creativity that resides within them. The artist must be free to create as often and as quickly as they are capable and for this they should be amply rewarded and revered.

Click here to learn more and read the article “Black Hole Creativity.”

Click here to learn more and read the article "The Overflow of Creativity: Why Artists Need to Find New Areas to Conquer, New Worlds to Explore"

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

Remember to join our mailing list.

To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation securely through PayPal, click here.

The Formula for Catchiness

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GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler” FOR FREE.

To get your FREE full-length album…click here. ____________________________________________________________

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A(H) x P + M = C

Art multiplied by its Hypnotic elements plus the multiplied effect of Promotion and Marketing equals its Catchiness.

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Catchiness is a term that denotes a kind of attraction, emotional adhesive, or a way of binding two or more things via aesthetics. In the case of art and its catchiness, the artist is trying to catch the attention of the audience and bind the mind and emotions of the audience member together with a creative product.

In the formula above, art should be thought of as a creative idea, concept, design, or product. The human mind is the source of creativity and clearly differentiates us from other living beings.

Hypnotic elements refers to those items or qualities that an artist imbues their work with that is attention grabbing, technically superior, important, urgent, or emotionally meaningful. The dynamic components of each field of art construction mainly comprises its hypnotic elements, so it is an understanding and mastery of those elements that the artist must gain in order to produce effective emotional experiences in the mind of the audience member.

Once the artist has completed his creative work by carrying it from concept to construction, he must then start the process of making it known. This is what is referred to by promotion and marketing, the activity of communicating what one has to offer or what one has made available for sale. The business side of creative work is one of the most neglected aspects of the artist lifestyle, yet it is by far the most important. If one has the desire to make one’s living as an artist, then one has to know how to promote and market his work.

All together these 3 factors form the “catchiness” of art. Of all these factors the most difficult to learn is promotion and marketing because it is in itself the art of selling, which is how an artist makes money. The other 2 factors are the prime activities that define the artist, developing creative ideas and making them attractive to others.

One can visualize the artist as a fisherman with his artwork thrown out into the ocean as bait and the audience as a school of fish swimming aimlessly. Once the fish see the bait floating freely, they all move in unison toward it, and that’s how they are caught in the net and pulled aboard the fishing vessel. The net is a good symbol of the power of promotion and marketing to reel in fish.

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

 

Remember to join our mailing list.

To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation securely through PayPal, click here.