The New Music Movement

[Note: Every Sunday we'll be featuring a guest author. This week it's the one & only Smash. Enjoy! - Michael]

From artist to artist, fan to fan, mono y mono, we all know that the spark of today’s music industry is fading quickly. I wish for a venue like the Whiskey a-Go-Go in the late 60’s where they housed The Doors, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills and Nash. So much talent and energy in one spot that it couldn’t be bottled or packaged into a neat little LP. Where are those venues with talent bubbling over? Where is that music movement that you know is special to be a part of? I can equate this yearning to Hunter S. Thompson’s description of the hippie movement in San Francisco: “San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . . There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .” What a great time to be a part of. We as fans need something palpable to grab onto and enjoy the musical ride.

However, I can look back at history and smile, because I’ve found that spark again. At this point, the music industry is changing at a rate that is hard to keep up with. Free internet radio is here, record labels are squirming in their plush seats, and experts predict cd’s will become extinct by 2012. It’s time to jump on the new music template; here at ArtiSan’s Label the focus is on the artist and their music. Artisans bypassed the convolution of traditional record labels and is bringing it back to the customer, where it should be. The spark is at Artisan’s and I’m happy to be a part of this counterrevolution at this juncture in time. Exciting things are happening here, amazing artists are recording at our studio, and the excitement is thick in the air.

I am an Artist Advocate for ArtiSans Label. I basically go out and spread the good word through their RADAR program. RADAR stands for Rewarding Artists Discovery And Referral. And if an artist signs with ArtiSans, then my efforts are financially appreciated. The great thing about this program is anybody can do it! Everybody knows an aspiring artist, and ArtiSans can help them achieve their goals, whatever they may be. Consider the possibilities! Check out the RADAR program on the ArtiSans website and become an Artist Advocate. Be a part of the new music movement.

On that note, I will bring the focus back to the music with another Hunter S. Thompson quote that we all can relate to.

"Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio."
— Hunter S. Thompson