Promotion of Catholic Chant and Polyphony
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    There is a tremendous need for someone to take up the task of creating and running a Catholic music publicity service.

    I am sure that Jeff Ostrowski, Francis Koerber and others with ongoing projects see, like I do, a peak in interest and eventual sales whenever a comment is made here on this forum (thank you, forum members) or on blogs, in magazines...any place at all.

    I was introduced to all of this and you by a priest who, upon hiring me, said I really needed to get to know By Flowing Waters. Thank you, Paul Ford and Fr. John Orr.

    Then I discovered the work of Bruce Ford and things began to happen. There is so much going on!

    Would doing this create great riches and fund someone a new car? Doubtful. But the satisfaction of helping spread the word and assist us would be great.

    Anyone wanting to explore ideas for this, especially someone with some background in this sort of thing, please contact me.

    noel@frogmusic.com
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Anyone got any comments? Did I spell your name correctly, Francis?

    Having someone doing this would free many of us for more work on music!
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    Publicity was traditionally the job of the publisher (and Mr. Ostrowski does that part of his job with gusto.) That was the whole point of parting with a portion of one's performing-rights royalties: that the publisher would increase your outreach enough to make it worth the investment. One can question how well modern publishers do that, but that's the model. But now we have a model where most advertising and distribution (even for print pubs) is done through the Internet. Combine that with the "free music" model that doesn't even allow the composer (let alone a third party) payment for the time flogging his music, and you have a problem: it's somebody's job, but the job must be done for free. The job gets done free here to some extent, because it's fun telling people about work we treasure. So if you want to set up a central place for publicizing music, it has to provide value to commenters.

    Such a service could be set up in a blog format, with topic tags for various genres/voicings of music. There'd be a combox, of course, as well as Facebook style "like" (AND "dislike"; no such thing as bad publicity) buttons. Each post would contain an audio sample, so we know what things sound like, and a sample score page, and a link to how to get the score. Am I forgetting anything? Besides volunteering...which I'm not forgetting, I'm avoiding.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    This is a job I really want, actually.
    When I get rich on the internet, and no longer have to work my non-musical day job, I will be all over it.

    In the mean time, if there's a need for someone to provide non-helpful advice and tell other people how they ought to be doing things I'm not willing or able to do... I will volunteer for that position.
  • a1437053a1437053
    Posts: 198
    Do you have any models to emulate? The Chant Cafe and Musica Sacra web-sites can do this?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    JQ, interesting message. Every successful project has a mouth and that mouth can be the originator or, if the originator prefers to make money and spend money so someone else frees up her time by being the mouth is a way to go.

    I'm willing to pay someone to promote my work...it's going in different directions and I know many who do this and get lost in jumping from one to another. It's the who has been ignored the longest order of work.

    There are those that are put on the earth to be enthusiastic and share their enthusiasm with others. There are a number of small operations like mine that could band together and pay someone to do the work....giving us more time to create.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    FNJ
    It sounds like what you're starting to describe is (essentially) a composer-controlled, publishing/promoting co-op.

    I'm in.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Essentially, exactl!

    I am involved in another project which appeared to be one thing and turned out to be totally another and the key to making it happen is not the quality of materials, though that is important, but rather changing people's perceptions of it....that of the suppliers and the clients.

    PR is exactly essential. A number of us have mailing lists we have developed of people who have expressed an interest in what we are doing and there is a huge crossover, one person working with these list could introduce people to music from a composer in Idaho to a blog by a musician in Texas, a connection that they might have never made and possibly only by chance. I try to place mention of Musica Sacra in everything I do, one little book mentions that An Idiot' s Guide to Gregorian Chant is a must read...all the members must be in agreement as to the overall goal, as most of us here are.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    FNJ

    Just saw this thread. Will read through again and respond soon.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Interesting idea, Noel.

    What you are outlining is a 21st century model for a publishing company, yes? The times and the model have changed, and a good model for how to use the technology has not appeared as of yet.

    I propose we (?) have a few facetime brainstorming sessions and talk through the ideas. A forum like this does not allow enough time for a healthy nitty-gritty discussion to occur at the level needed.

    Every century has its "gathering of minds" so to speak, and it would be interesting to see who here is interested in what.

    I have 20+ years in professional publishing/marketing and software system development including branding and prototyping which all contribute to my own efforts at this point in time, but the vast amount of my day presently goes into my post as DoM here in Wyoming. So I am not sure how much time I have to offer but I would certainly be game to entertain ideas.

    I long to connect on a human level with everyone (and not this silly web thing) but I am very isolated geographically which makes it difficult. I would be at every Colloquium if I had the means.

    Can everyone do a facetime or a webinar or a video conference?
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