attention bands, might be of interest....

[delboy]

Up and coming new bands will get a live DVD of themselves, and free webstreaming of the video of one of their songs, for playing at band nights with new multimedia company LiveMusicX.

Bands can book a slot to play at the eXchange, Grove Street, Edinburgh on one of LiveMusicXs video shoot nights. A crew of four, using broadcast quality cameras, records each bands performance, mixed live straight onto DV. The recorded songs can be previewed instantly after the performance and copies of the DVD will be with the band within seven days. There will also be a flexible range of web hosting options on the LiveMusicX website and selected footage will be submitted to WAM TV!

LiveMusicX multi-band video shoot nights, in a nutshell:

Cost per band 195 (100 deposit, 95 settled on the night)

Up to 40 mins of set videoed by a crew of four, and mixed live to DVD

Each band is given 40 tickets with face value of 5, to do with as they wish

If they sell them at 5, they finance the DVD themselves

Live DVD can be previewed on the night

Live DVD master delivered to the band within seven days

Includes free webhosting of one song, or a montage of the set, for 6 months on LiveMusicX.com

Director Richard Brown says, This is a great opportunity for new bands to showcase their talents, at a very reasonable potentially zero - cost. Gone are the days of bands recording an audiocassette, or even more recently CD recordings, and then hawking this around pubs, agents, promoters, or record companies. Bands who come through us will leave with a professionally recorded and mixed live video recording but the killer step forward is that we can host clips of their live performance on our website, which stream very fast, and the band then simply emails the url out to agents, pubs etc who can see them instantly! Simple! This way, they can get national, even worldwide exposure through LiveMusicX, without having to post CDs all over the place, at great expense, and with the strong chance that they will just gather dust at the other end anyway.

We have already trialled the process and the feedback from bands has been terrific check the website where there are ten or so bands up already

The recording will cost each band 195, but the deal includes 40 tickets, to give away or sell to friends. If the band sells the tickets on to their mates for 5 or so each, they can completely finance the bands video recording - its almost a form of sponsorship - and they get a home-crowd atmosphere, and will certainly play better as a result! The sound recording is great too taken off the mixing desk

We will be offering closed-doors live recording services to signed and touring bands, but obviously that will be a more sophisticated service, usually during the day, with the opportunity for retakes etc, to get it just right. The same can be done for tribute bands which need to be seen to look-alike, as well as sound-alike.

We will also do live videos of established, touring bands who want to promote themselves with a DVD or have a live DVD as merchandise, and we can cater for higher profile bands wishing to release a live video recording for TV, web or as additional footage for an album release

Its a great new service for music in Scotland. Our next video shoot night is 24th September and has The Hedrons headlining, with The Word, Indafusion, Yahoo Serious and Discipline.

The eXchanges venue manager says As if its not enough to play at a venue with some of the best facilities in Edinburgh bands can now get a LiveMusicX DVD of their set. The quality and speed of the service is second to none, and I believe this will prove a success for any band who gets filmed. Even better is the deal LMX are offering, to get all this for FREE if you sell only 40 tickets is unbelievable and I expect massive interest in this venture

About LiveMusicX:

We are a new limited company, formed in collaboration between video production company The Hold, and music promoters ARP Concerts Ltd.

For further information on LiveMusicX, contact

Richard Brown richard@livemusicx.com or 0131 228 9393

About The Hold:

The Hold is a cuttingedge independent music video production and live event recording company, set up primarily to serve the Edinburgh and Glasgow scenes. We are focused on helping Scottish artists and musicians promote themselves through new and emerging visual media opportunities. Recently established and equipped with the latest in digital video advances, we bring a fresh energy and a technological edge to the marketplace.

For further information on The Hold, contact:

Kerry Mullaney 0131 339 0164 (kerry@thehold.co.uk) or Kris Bird (kris@thehold.co.uk)

About ARP Concerts Ltd:

We are committed to putting on more high quality contemporary live music in Edinburgh. In the last year, we have promoted many gigs including KT Tunstall, Nazareth, Hugh Cornwell, Albert Lee, Level 42, Eliza Carthy, Sharon Shannon, Mac Floyd, Limehouse Lizzy and a host of local talent.

For further information on ARP Concerts, call 0131 228 9393 or email:

Richard Brown (richard@arpconcerts.co.uk) or David Lawson (david@arpconcerts.co.uk)

About WAM TV!:

Worldart WAMTV http://www.wam.tv/ is a broadband TV channel broadcasting a mix of Music Videos and Visual Art around the world.

For further information on WAM TV!, email

Paul Blyth at contact@wam.tv

[Chris]

yet another shameful pay to play ripoff. shame on you Del, you should know better than to peddle that pish.

200 quid to play a gig and get it filmed? fuck right off.

[savingthe9]

fuck that

[soundian]

yet another shameful pay to play ripoff. shame on you Del' date=' you should know better than to peddle that pish.

200 quid to play a gig and get it filmed? fuck right off.[/quote']

That's a bit harsh, maybe you should read it again, especially the bit about 40 free tickets and bearing in mind that a lot of record companies are looking for some video in addition to the standard biog/demo package.

I'd still think twice before doing it though, the "live mixing" of the video could be laughably bad, and any band without a decent fanbase in Edinburgh would probably be better off not bothering.

EDIT And the bit about the live sound being great, because it's taken off the mixing desk, when did that start happening?

[Chris]

thing is it's really simple to do this kind of thing yourself for much less. how many bands don't know someone wo has access to a decent video camera, and knows how to use it? not many I reckon.

[soundian]

thing is it's really simple to do this kind of thing yourself for much less. how many bands don't know someone wo has access to a decent video camera' date=' and knows how to use it? not many I reckon.[/quote']

How many have four friends with quality video cameras?

[Chris]

But it's not 40 free tickets. All you get is 40 tickets to sell or give away. You're buying the tickets off the venue to sell back to your friends before you make any money. That's classic pay to play and it's a total rip off.

Now I'm all for venues offering a service like filming the gig and giving you a dvd of the performance. And If they charged a small fee for that service fine (like the moorings does with it's gig recordings). But a band should not have to pay for the "priviledge" of playing at the venue in the first place.

Here's an excellent article on pay to play:

http://www.kasino.co.uk/swindle.htm

Here's another thread about this:

http://tartanunderground.mypunbb.com/viewtopic.php?pid=80

To see the videos they've done already:

http://www.livemusicx.com/

[Chris]

How many have four friends with quality video cameras?

they don't have to have four friends. they just need one who might know others. Film students tend to know other film students. They can also use sites like this to find people willing to film gigs (I'm sure it's not hard to find people who'll do it for the experience/practice).

A few years ago We Become Less made a video for one of their songs on a cd as a little bonus. It was done by one of their members in his spare time from footage they'd gathered across a few gigs. In my opinion that video, which was his first attempt at making a video, was just as good quality as the videos on that website.

[Guest Main Agent]

I have to agree with Chris here, its plain and simple treadmill P2P.

I was going to post the first reply earlier, but I thought hmm, "Del", dont want to give one of my radio icons grief,

but I know Del has a good heart and his intentions are well meaning.

[Frosty Jack]

It's only Pay2Play if you're thinking of it as playing a gig. It sounds like a better deal if you think of it as recording a demo. You could easily go into Capt Toms and spend 200 on 40 mins of music on CD. This way seems like you're getting a lot more than that -DVDs, 6 months hosted on the site etc. which is all good promotion. And you can spread the cost with any of your mates that are willing to part with a fiver to watch you do it.

Doesn't sound bad to me.

[jester1470]

Actually I'd say thats a pretty good deal in reality, I've done a lot of professional DVDs for bands including some bits on Fish's best of DVD and stuff for Ray Wilson amongst others, and the hire of equipment isnt far off that as well as the fact of having people good enough to create useable film, and the quality, not to mention stuff like live music synching which is time consuming in itself, as well as quite simply a chance to play one of the best venues in Scotland into a bands CV, I'd certainly consider it. You arent paying to play you're paying for the video to be made, and IIRC commercial rates are about #20 an hour for edited and shot video so getting it for #5 an hour isnt half bad especially if you have the fanbase to make it work for you, and as is pointed out, we're getting asked to submit video more and more nowadays instead of straight demoes so no harm in having a commercially done one. We even got asked to submit a video to Croperdy and you'd hardly think that was a looks orientated thing.

Cheers

Stuart

[soundian]

I was only trying to point out was was good and bad in this deal, allowing others to make up their own minds,which seems to be Del's reason for posting, not just dismissing it out of hand.

I realise it's a dressed up pay to play (I am a tad longer in the tooth than you, Chris) but, to some bands, it might be a good deal, because there is "product" at the end of it, something tangible that can be used to promote the band further, and quicker to make than a montage of individual gigs can be.

In saying that, unless you're an Edinburgh band with a pressing need for a live DVD it's not worth looking at.

[Chris]

I am a tad longer in the tooth than you' date=' Chris[/quote']

Yes I know, but thanks for patronising me anyway.

Needless to say it's not you I was trying to dissuade with my posts, more other people who might be reading the thread.

People are free to make up their own minds, that's why I posted a link to the company itself so they can view it's work, but in my opinion it's just another pay to play scam.

And now I've been up and about for a while and am more awake I'll admint my initial reply was a bit harsh towards Del. Sorry Del, shouldn't shoot the messenger.

[Flash@TMB]

And If they charged a small fee for that service fine (like the moorings does with it's gig recordings). But a band should not have to pay for the "priviledge" of playing at the venue in the first place.

The way we work it now is that if the band agrees to play for free than we will agree to mix their stuff for free to an equal value... but this only applies to bands that one would be willing to pay good money to hear in the first place.

[delboy]

if i see something of interest to bands, i'll put it up, as ian said its there for you to make your own minds up so dont have a go at me for putting something like this is, if your not interested fine but i thought there might be some who are.

[Danny Doubt]

i reckon it could be worthwhile but its all down to personal choice and the band in question of course it would make more sense for edinburgh bands cuz they dont have to do as much work as its right on their doorstep!

[Alex]

I wouldn't say that's pay to play, that's paying 200 for a video, with the chance of compensating yourself. Working out video cameras, (decent)staff costs, location wouldn't be too far off that.