What’s it all about?
Welcome to Savvant Music, our blog giving you my take on the world of music in a variety of arenas. We’ll keep you updated on our progress as Savvant Music works to drive change in this challenging business and creative environment of today’s music industry. You can follow our search for incredible, barrier breaking artists here as well, reading about the triumphs, the artists we will watch and nurture, and (if you really want to know) about those in our “why bother?” category.
If you’re wondering, “Who are you guys?” then follow the link or click on my photo to travel to the Savvant Music “About Us” page where you can find out more about us and what we’re all about!
by Tori Sparks
by Hadley Caliman
How do you feel about cover bands and tribute bands? It’s not like you’ve never heard the music…
I heard about one called Lez Zeppelin (it’s a girl band, I guess one of them’s gay) — Until Page & Co start touring again, they’re the next best thing, if you like that kind of thing, and, after all, who doesn’t?
Hey Martin – I’ve never seen Lez Zeppelin, but I absolutely loved the (also girl) AC/DC tribute band Hell’s Belles. The Angus-girl in school boy shorts and dreds was freaking amazing, and I swear she was channeling Angus!
As far as bands Savvant Music will feature, here’s the deal. If we see an incredible tribute band or cover group, you can bet we’ll cover it in one of our blogs, because like you say, if it’s good, it’s good, even if it’s not original. (And who’s to say a chick Angus with dreds isn’t, in some way at least, original anyway!)
However, you probably won’t find that type of band featured on the main Savvant Music site, and the reason is that we’re really looking for great new music. That said, if we found a band or artist that is an awesome performer, but lacks great original material, we’d love to work with them to hook them up with some awesome songwriter(s). In fact, one of the business models we’re pursuing involves finding new ways to hook great artists up with great composers/songwriters. Stay tuned for more on that topic in the near future!
Your company tagline, “finding the best music never heard,” is quite creative. Whoever came up with it deserves a bonus.
You mention a desire to “drive change in this challenging business.” What kind of changes do you have in mind?
Thanks Gregg! Our marketing company, Linden (http://golinden.com) came up with the initial version which has since been tweaked to avoid trademark infringement issues (the bane of my existence of late).
As for driving change – there are a number of things on the top of our agenda. First, we’d like to put the artists and composers in a position of greater artistic and business control of their music. We think one way to do this is to move away from the advance/recoup method of funding an artist’s development and to move toward more of a collaborative partnership. We’d also like to celebrate and make people aware of music that is really great, even if it’s not what the industry might label as “economically viable.” In other words, music doesn’t have to be radio-pop-appealing-to-masses for us to promote it.
We’re building alternative ways to find that music. Sure there’s radio, but that’s at the mercy of the lawyers who run the major labels. And, of course, there’s the internet, but that’s more of a flood plain with sites like myspace and garageband not providing any true filtering and letting anyone claiming to be a band set up a site. And, in some cases, any band who pays a premium can be the “band of the week.” Ugh! Finally, there are reviewers and bloggers, but once again, most cover the bad as well as the good, and how do you know which ones you should listen to?
Whew! Long answer! Anyway, watch the main site and these blogs for more on this topic. Thanks for your questions!