4:00 AM, Best Western Santa Monica

There’s a mighty large group out there on the webs talking about the dynamic nature of online retail, the possibilities for integrated tour management, bands and brands, the best global release strategies. Marketing, online presence, the future of the music industry. That’s great. Posting a friendly note that all this discussion only really matters where it matters if it culminates in concrete ways to make it easier for artists to get on stage and do the only thing that ultimately matters: play.

Tonight, I spent 3 hours in a booth at a club on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica waiting to play a solo gig that started at 11:15pm. I got two drink coupons, the coupons only allowed me to get well drinks. I made $10 total (see pic). I had to watch the main acts’ fans move into the bar as I got set up. Not fun. I was fortunate to have really good friends Brad, Deirdre and Rich there to cheer. Thanks guys. I sat on stage playing my heart out as I watched people trickle out of the bar one by one. The recurring ‘you did awesome’ speeches were great to hear from the bartenders. Still, last night I came into Santa Monica and played for an empty room. In alot of ways, I am just starting out, and certainly no artist is immune from having to do this at some point, even if they have a small management team, Topspin, last.fm, constantly Twitter, pwn Facebook or do any other whizbang of the moment.

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What I want to remind the community is that when we talk about ‘artists’, this is our life and the shit we go through every night around the world to try and enrich culture. This business of being a musician can be disheartening, depressing, sometimes lonely, with no feedback, no clear route to follow, still we love playing. (Watch 72 Musicians) Artists are your clients and the personas you should be addressing. Artists know the concrete problems that really need to be solved, the problems that would matter so much to them as they work through rough times. Sure, a $1m deal with a brand would be great, but I’m a little busy just trying to get my career momentum kickstarted.

So I’m challenging everyone to be concrete. Solutions that help the artist live a better life. What’s your idea? Oh, and yeah, I’ve got some specific ideas I’d love to see solved, so email me your NDA and we can talk. ;>

Thanks for listening,

Christopher Grant Ward