Opportunities for East Texas Songwriters

I happened onto an article that mentioned the Nashville Songwriters Association International meeting monthly in Tyler, TX and decided it was time to pull together as much info as I could for songwriters in East Texas.

Depending on where exactly you draw the boundaries, East Texas has about 6 million people. I'm a pro at searching Google, so with this many people and Google at my fingertips, this should be easy, right? Wrong. I'm completely underwhelmed by what I find. How can this be? East Texas has produced a fair share of famous singer-songwriters, so why can't I find more love for songwriters in East Texas?

Ok, I'll quit whining and just share what I did manage to find. If you know of anything, ANYTHING, that needs to be added - songwriters workshops, venues that feature songwriters, anything that other East Texas Songwriters would be interested, please share in the comments.

The Nashville Songwriters Association International meets monthly at Brady's Coffee in Tyler, Texas. The NSAI East Texas Chapter's Facebook page can be found here https://www.facebook.com/pages/NSAI-East-Texas/537942732911704

The American Christian Songwriters Association apparently has a chapter in Longview, but I am unable to find details. From the Associations website http://christiansongwriter.org/chapter-meetings/, I tried the Longview link, but it said "protected content - log in to view". Wow. Really? Not sure how they expect to gain members that way.

The Forge in Ben Wheeler, TX (southeast of Canton) doesn't mention regular meetings or associations, but appears to be very fond of Texas singer/songwriters, so it might be worth checking them out.

The Blue Frog Grill in Marshall, TX, is another venue that appears to be supportive of singer/songwriters but doesn't mention this on their website.

Your Band Can Make More Money in 2014

I just finished writing a very detailed article about how your band can make more money in 2014 (and if your band didn't make anything in 2013, this is going to be really easy!)

Despite my serious articles so far on this site, I do have a good sense of humor and use it often. So when I get serious about a subject, it means I am passionate about it. And this is serious - making money. And I am very passionate about making money. :)

The article lists 9 specific ways to make more money this year with your band. Some of the 9 methods also include very specific details and links to other sites that you will need to complete the steps. I doubt many of you will try all 9, but try as many as you can if you really want to maximize your income. I strongly suggest you do the first 4, as these have the greatest immediate impact on your income. The rest are tips to help increase your revenue from these 4, or increase your pay for gigs.

9 Ways Your Band Can Make More Money in 2014

Bills in House and Senate to Restore FCC's Open Internet Order

Bills have been introduced in the House and the Senate this week to restore the parts of the FCC's Open Internet Order that were recently struck down in a federal appeals court (thanks Verizon).

The text of the House version of the bill simply restores what we had until a few weeks ago, until such time that the FCC can draft new rules.

I see this as good and bad. Good for the short term - broadband is once again charged with delivering your internet and banned from playing favorites (deciding which sites or content providers get priority and which ones get shafted - this is why musicians should be very concerned and involved in this fight).

Bad because... well, now the FCC MUST write new rules that it thinks will be upheld in the courts. Who knows how they'll go about this? We can hope they write a nice bit about protecting us, but we've all seen what can happen when you hope a federal agency does the right thing.

Ok, I'll try to stay optimistic.

But while reading on this issue, I realized something I hadn't thought about before. Stupid ISPs, thinking only of the potential profits to be made by charging more for certain types of content or giving preferential treatment to certain content providers, apparently haven't thought about the nightmare of liability they would also be creating.

From techcrunch.com :

And there is a simple question of who decides. If ISPs can censor and slow at will, what can stop activist networks from pushing on those companies to halt what they do not approve of? If a religious group called Comcast complicit in hate speech for delivering content Internet users requested that they found blasphemous, what can Comcast do? We’re removing their shield of “we deliver all to all equally,” which could harm ISPs down the road.

Three years ago thousands of artists joined together to deliver a message to Congress - protect the Open Internet Act. Now, it looks like it's time to do the same thing again, but your voice is needed. You can start by sending a letter to the FCC urging them to reclassify broadband as a communications service.

Contact your Representive and Senator and urge them to support the bill restoring the FCC's Open Internet Order. If you don't know who or how to contact your rep, this site is great : http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/.

Learn more. Educate others. Stay involved. If you're a musician, this is crucial to your future livelihood. Here's a great site to get more info and stay involved : http://www.savetheinternet.com/sti-home

Why Musicians Should Be Concerned About Net Neutrality

Most people just yawn when I bring up net neutrality. They didn't even notice when a federal appeals court struck down most of the protections of the FCC's Open Internet Order. Thousands of activists worked tirelessly for years to prevent giant companies from controlling what you can access on the internet. The FCC's Open Internet Order was a stopgap measure, but not the final solution. Now, the stopper has been pulled and we're all wondering if everything is going to go down the drain.

In the short term, this court decision just confirmed again that the internet does indeed fall into the catogory of communications regulated by the FCC. So in effect, the government is already regulating the internet. And that control won't be relinquished.

So what happens next can be tricky. Much of it boils whether or not broadband should be classified as a "common carrier" - meaning, they're just dumb wires regardless of what they're carrying, much like phone lines or cable tv. By classifying them as dumb wires, your ISP cannot legally block or charge more for certain types of content. This classification also would offer some protection from this scenario :

AT&T and other giant ISPs have long salivated at being able to divide the internet into tiers, charging content providers big money to have their websites in the top tier.  Websites in the top tier would be given preferential treatment, mostly meaning they would load quickly.  Websites in the bottom tier would load slowly or be blocked entirely.

Now imagine what this means to bands and small businesses who cannot afford to pay to have their website in the top tier (I assure you, the fees to be included in the top tier will be steep).  That means that fans and customers either won't find your site, or your site will load so slowly they'll abandon it.

The internet was never meant to be this way.  It was meant to be a level playing field for all. So let's pressure the FCC to classify broadband as a "common carrier" and fix this, right? Well...

This troubling essay at the Electronic Frontier Foundation Why The FCC Can't Save Net Neutrality illustrates how complex net neutrality really is. There will be no easy "fix" to keep it free. It will probably be a continual fight to keep it free.

I've read both sides. It makes my head hurt. But at the end of the day, I think reclassification is the best tool in the toolbelt at this time.

Please get involved. Learn more about net neutrality and why it's so important to bands and artists, then help educate others.  Place links or banners on your site to organizations that are working to help preserve the internet as it was meant to be, such as www.SaveTheInternet.com, www.FightForTheFuture.org,  the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and www.FutureOfMusic.Org.