Music Conference to Train Budding Rock Stars and Discuss Web Music; Coincides With New Showcase Rock Festival
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 19, 1999
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Music Conference to Train Budding Rock Stars and Discuss Web Music; Coincides With New Showcase Rock Festival
Aspiring performing musicians from throughout Northern California will be gathering at California State University, Chico April 10 for advice from record label and Web marketing executives, promoters, producers and top studio musicians.
“Music Industry 2000: So You Want to Be a Rock Star,” will be held Saturday, April 10, in the Performing Arts Center on the CSU, Chico campus.
The Music Industry 2000 conference is sponsored by CSU, Chico’s Music Industry program. The conference debuted last year with the successful “Music Industry 2000: A Symposium on the Future of Music Delivery.”
Coinciding with this year’s music conference will be a new music festival, “Nowhere By Nowhere,” April 9-11. Humpfy Records and Indigo Agency will be showcasing 150 bands at eight venues in Chico.
The music conference’s morning session will feature business and recording advice for musicians. The afternoon session will offer a discussion on the future of music delivered via the Internet, tips for creating a demo tape and a studio guitarist lecture and demonstration.
“This is a how-to music conference for aspiring rock, country, jazz and classical musicians,” said CSU, Chico music professor Paul Friedlander. “For anybody interested in knowing the business-from the garage to the studio-there’s something in here for you.”
Friedlander said the afternoon session on the Internet in particular will discuss the hottest controversy in the music industry today: people bypassing record stores and labels to freely download MP3 digital music files.
“Right now anyone can search thousands of sites on the Web, find any kind of music or artist and download free CD-quality music,” Friedlander said.
One of the guest speakers in the afternoon session, the person most at the center of the downloading controversy, is Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3.com in San Diego. Robertson, a pioneer in musical use of MP3 files, has been featured recently on CNN, the CBS Morning Show and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” discussing the MP3 issue.
Also speaking at the session will be Ken Comstock, from Diamond MultiMedia in the Silicon Valley. Diamond is best known in the music business for their MP3 file playback unit, the “Rio,” that sparked one of the biggest music controversies of 1998. Diamond was sued by the record industry to prevent it from releasing the Rio, which would have played music files downloaded from the Internet. Diamond prevailed in court.
Other speakers at the conference include Allen Kovac, CEO, Left Bank Organization, which has represented Blondie, Motley Crue, Richard Marx and the Cranberries; Robert Jones, Senior V.P., Festival Productions, past producers of Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals, JVC Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz and the Heritage Festival; producer/keyboardist Ronnie Foster, who has played with Stevie Wonder, George Benson and Al Green; and musician, author, educator Dick Weissman, who was a member of the ’60s folk group the Journeymen that included the Mamas and Papas founder, John Phillips, and Scott McKenzie of “If You’re Going to San Francisco” fame. Weissman is the author of many music industry books, including “The Music Business: Career Development and Self-Defense.”
For information, call (530) 898-5243 or (530) 898-5152 or visit the conference Web site at www.csuchico.edu/mi2000.
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