"In a world hyperabundant in content,
point of view will become
the rarest of commodities".

-Paul Saffo
Director
Institute For The Future

Webitorial

In the days of the traditional media, the editor had the last say as the newspaper was "put to bed", That tradition was called the "Editorial", and should carry on, and here is the page where it happen's. Periodically a comment on the music scene, albums, etc., will be published as the Webmasters "point of view".

All feedback, positive or negative will be accepted, but be aware, your reply may be included on this page.

-Webmaster, 01/2001

Album remixes

A bit of commentary on the www.bicrunga.com messageboard about the remixes from Beautiful Collision, some liking it, some not, were put into context with this post by Andrew (A.J.Mac) from Stellar* on the Stellar* messageboard in February 2002:

"Hi Everyone

It is interesting to read all of the discussions about the b-side material
so to speak and also good for us to gauge what we should do for future singles. As it is mainly dedicated fans who buy singles we try and put something there for everone as you all like different things.

There have been quite e few requests for some songs from our live show that didn't make the album so we will include on the next single the first of these.

'We Go Out' will be on our forthcoming single 'Star' and we hope to have 'Rock Me' ready for the next one, pretty sure that's not going to be a problem though. The singles may also include accoustic versions or remixes ( a little more in-house this time)

In case you were wondering why we include remixes it is because they present the song in a different format which in turn can mean radio play on a station that would never usually play that material. It is also a great format for film placement which is invaluable exposure.

Will be interested to see your replies.

a.j.mac"

For the original thread go to
http://sonyubb.digiweb.net.nz/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000704.html

Videos / DVD's from Bic

A lot of comment from fan's on the Bic Runga.com messageboard about a release of Bic's video's......and some feedback from long term music industry afficiando, Peter Green:

Re: Videos, it's usually better marketing (and more cost effective) to release a DVD with ALL the clips AFTER the final single is released from the album and the final clip made for that album.

That way all the clips from DRIVE and all the CLIPS from B.C. could be on the one DVD. It also rounds it off in a better way , as I'm not sure about you guys but I think it's a bit frustrating if one or two clips are missing. I'd prefer to wait and have them all, & it would probably help Bic more too as far as recouping costs of said clips ....(assumption on my part).

Saying all that I honestly haven't been privy to such a release but to me that seems like the sensible way to go, all the clips from both albums on a DVD.Maybe Bic could do what The Cult/Skyhooks and a few others have done and have an option button where Bic can introduce or tell a story about that particular clip. You can turn off this option on the DVD and just view the clips...
Peter

A comment from Andrew MacLaren, drummer for the NZ band Stellar*, outlines the NZ Music Video industry in NZ.....an interesting insight!

Stellar Board

10 September, 2001 

"Hello all I think Stevo's comment requires a reply. 

Don't get me wrong, I think he is basically right but there are many factors regarding NZ videos that need to be explained. 

As most people know NZ on air video grants are for the sum of $5000, the idea being that the bands record label equals that amount again to help make the video better. In many cases the labels are not big enough to do that so videos get made on that budget, and in my opinion get made very well. That is not the situation in our case or with other bands on major labels but I would like to make a point regarding video budget verses album budget. 

Take a NZ independant label for example. Their bands album budget could be anywhere from $5000-$20,000 and the video budget from the grant at least $5000. Even though the money is given to them it could be anywhere from a quarter of their album budget to the entire thing! As a band that seems obscene, 

I know from experience that I would rather have had the money to spend on recording the album. You might say that the visual image is as important to sell the band to the public as the music and you would be right, but not entirely. 

As far as NZ goes many bands have made good videos in this country but have recieved very little radio airpay due to the quality of the recording (accoording to the programmers of radio). 

Also, much of the public decides very quickly whether a local act sounds as good as an international and as much as that may seem unfair, it is the truth. There are so few free to public video shows that many videos get shown once to twice maximum on these shows. Obviously I do not include 'juice', they are great supporters of local music if you can afford Sky. 

I hear you say 'Shouldn't the videos try to be as good as the internationals as well?' and you would be right, except that the plain old truth of it is that we in NZ not matter what our status cannot compete on a monetary level with American and European video budgets. Americans for example wouldn't blink twice at the idea of spending US $100,000 on a video, in fact it would be a low budget. Convert that to NZ dollars, $250,000 plus, I mean come on! That is what we hear in NZ are up against and we have to be realistic about it. 

We recently went to the US to get five tracks on our album mixed, it was an expensive exercise but one well worth it. To us, the money at this stage was better spent on the music rather than the image, that is just how we see things at the moment. To succeed internationally we may one day have to spend that sort of money but we are unlikely to get that sort of money here and that is fair enough. 

As for the people who make videos here, they are the hardest working bunch of people you may ever come across. They do it because they love NZ music, they do it for virtually no money or far below what they are worth and if you want to see a hard days work, try and go to a video shoot. Stevo is right that the videos are entertaining but maybe don't look that great and there is a reason for that. Most overseas videos are shot on 35mm film which costs 3-4 times that of 16mm which is most commonly used here. Most NZ videos try to entertain the viewer rather that have a close up of some womens arse in a thong (also entertaining but boring after being the staple of most videos). This means more action on cheaper film and I think that is the right thing to do for NZ. 

Overall most people connected to the NZ music industry do an awesome job and we should never forget that, Until US and European money starts getting spent on NZ videos things are going to remain the same, so get use to it. There is no shortage of good ideas in this country, just a shortage of money. My views are strictly my own and don't represent the views of stellar* 

a.j.mac"

Red Herring
Issue No. 85
13/11/00
Pg 218

"Where'd that million go?"

How a band spends the $1,000,000 advance it gets for a recording, according to Courtney Love.

She did the math for a speech at the Digital Hollywood Online Entertainment conference in New York in May, 2000.

$500,000 Cost of recording the album
$100,000 Managers commission
$25,000 Lawyers Fee
$25,000 Business Managers fee

That leaves $350,000 in profit. Out of that, $170,000 goes to taxes, leaving:

$180,000 which is divided amongst the band members, or $45,000 per person.

Thats $45,000 to live on for a year until a record gets released.

***************************

Take that one step further, Bic has a 3 album contract, with a timeframe of 1.5 years to produce each album.

How does a perfectionist that "just wants to keep learning and making records that I'm happy with, rather than making records that I think will sell" survive?

To quote Bic again, "I think you really get a sense of people doing, um, making music for their own reasons in New Zealand, there's definitely no money in it...it's such a small industry, you have to do it for love".