PODCASTING HOUSE CONCERTS?

I can cross “’Manzanitaville’ lyrics” off the to-do list. Done, and it sounds like it’ll be okay. Yes, a parody, but it ended up with substantially more social commentary than I’d planned. We’ll practice it Sunday night and see how it comes off. It was scheduled to be the #2 song on The Impromptus’ setlist for the Manzanita Farmer’s Market.

Another of those Wild Ideas… Between the economy (which is in shambles) and high fuel prices (which will make the economy even more of a shambles), people are pretty much not going to be going anywhere at all for their entertainment. How can one deliver them entertainment really close to home? And make a living doing it?

Consider the House Concert. House concerts are legal in most places; they work real well for a visiting artist who has a small fan base in the area and doesn’t want to (or can’t) rent a venue for a concert. Small gate fee covers expenses; you sell some CDs.

What if it were taken one step further? Could that house concert be streamed live, perhaps, so the guy in Latvia, say (I still wonder how I managed to get fans in Latvia), who can’t make it to the concert under any conditions, can hear it, too? That technology exists—it’s in use right here in Tillamook County. I’d like to use it, in fact, to broadcast the Deathgrass CD Release Event when it happens, because I don’t think that’s been done before (it certainly hasn’t been done in this area). But streaming is free, isn’t it? Or is it?

I think it wouldn’t have to be. If one wants to listen to a podcast, one is accessing a Website; a lot of Websites are set up to restrict access to all or parts of the Website unless one is “registered” and has a password. One could take that a step further and require payment of a few bucks to get the password. Could do that from the Deathgrass Website I’ve been talking about (but haven’t done anything about yet). And of course, one wouldn’t want to do the requiring-money thing right away—initially, the podcasts would have to be free, until people were hooked on the events. (Yes, this is the business plan of the middle-school drug dealer. It works.)

Another step further? What if our fan in Latvia wanted to get together with the 28 other fans in Latvia (I have kept track) and watch the concert together on a big-screen TV at the local tavern? He could. That technology is widespread; it’d only take one “registration”—and if the tavern wanted to charge a gate fee, they could, and that would be income totally to them. One could rig the Website so concert podcasts were archived, and once you’d “registered” for a particular concert, you could watch it over and over again free if you wanted, even download it if you wanted—I’m after exposure, and I don’t care. (I have got to talk to a Website designer about this.)

I think this is one of those “have to try this” things. Current plan is to have the CD Release Event at the Bay City Arts Center (this assumes I can schedule a date that’ll work for both the Arts Center and the band); I’ll contact our local Internet radio station about the streaming. Could people log in there to hear the concert live? Or would we have to have another Website—our own, say? This would be an opportunity for the folks out of town—not just in Latvia, but other places—to “attend.” For most of them, it’d be their first “live” Deathgrass concert. With luck, they’d want more.

Joe