On Tue, 06 Aug 2013 11:56:49 -0700, Nancy Carlin wrote > As some of you know I spent 35 years as an agent for musicians, > between my 2 stints with the LSA - a lot of this time was working > on building careers and salability for folk and Celtic musicians. I > see a few things missing that other genres of music have used to > grab toe holds in the ladder toward success (or just keeping the > heads above water). > > - web pages. This is the first place where potential employers > (concert promoters etc.) look to find contact information. There are > more than a few "names" in the lute world who do not have their own > web sites. When you Google them all you get is links to buy their > CDs. - email lists.
Here I have to strongly object. I think that web-pages are totally over-rated (and I _do_ have some experience with the World Wide Web). Of all the musicians I know, only one, once, got a concert because of his web page. Maybe it's totally different in the states but the idea that a concert organizer googles for a Lute player (or any other kind of musician) is absurd. You get concerts because you _know_ people (and contact them at least twice a year!). You build up networks - invite other musicians to concert series you organize and hopefuly you get invited back (oh, and you need to have at least a small concert series :-) The problem of most organizers/comitees is not having to few groups to play (and hence having to find some) - it's more often having too many .... > I have yet to see a paper out at a lute concert > where the players is collecting emails for his own mailing list. > Concert promoters have a hard time getting audiences out and need > all the help they can get. Musicians who help them fill the seats > get booked. - the lute world seems to be made up of players of all > levels, but completely empty of people who are just fans. Yes, that's sadly a phenomen the lute world shares with the guitar world. Player-only-audiences. I think it correlates with the fact that guitar-/lute players often _only_ listen to Lute/Guitar music (have a look at your lute/guitar player friends CD shelves). I prefer to dwell in the early music world where ensembles do have "fan" audiences. Cheers, RalfD To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
