Alan Doyle And A New Video...'Come Out With Me'.

I love professionally made music videos. They are always worth the wait.

There are so many things I love about professionally made music videos including the quality of the sound and production, the stories they tell and that any proceeds, no matter how small, whether views, likes or money when shared in places like YouTube go to the musician and/or creators.

Not a lot of information was shared about the making of this excellent music video. The music video shows Alan Doyle and his Beautiful, Beautiful Band (Cory Tetford, Kendel Carson, Todd Lumley, Shehab Illyas and Kris MacFarlane) performing the song 'Come Out With Me' live on stage to a sold out crowd in a beautifully restored theatre somewhere in Canada. I love the inclusiveness of all the members of the band and the crowd.

I love the story this music video tells. It shows us the fans what it is like to be a musician in a band performing, doing what they love with good friends and how these musicians interact with their audience from their unique position on the stage. The audience are up on their feet, singing, clapping and dancing and are certainly loving this performance of this song.

From the number of views of professionally made music videos verses the average bootlegged concert music video, fans seem to enjoy professionally made music videos much more.

Perhaps my only criticism is Alan Doyle should consider leading a tour with a professionally made music video like this one as it would not leave a fan or any person considering going to a concert with any doubt about buying a ticket to one of his concerts when they visit their town.

I have shared a copy of this music video on my Google + page. The music video is available on Alan Doyle's Vevo YouTube site. The screenshots are from the music video. As always no copyright infringement intended.

Great Big Sea 2018 ... And a lovely day in St. John's.

Recently a photograph of the original founding members of Great Big Sea (Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann) having a meeting in St. John's, Newfoundland shared via their official social media accounts.

The photograph brought a lot of pleasure to many of fans who weighed in on the discussion on the various official and fan social media sites. Most fans were pleased to see the boys sitting down together and trying to sort out a few of their differences.

However, not all fans felt that way offering a few different interpretations especially of the body language between the three boys.

I have included a copy here just for the record. I have also included a totally drop dead gorgeous photograph of the original members including Darrell Power shared by Darrell on his official Twitter account. No copyright infringement intended.

Darrell Power And A New Album...Available this Fall.

Recently former Great Big Sea founding member Darrell Power announced on social media he is about to release his first solo album in the Newfoundland Fall. This is very exciting news for Great Big Sea fans around the world.

Darrell did an interview with the local Newfoundland newspaper The Telegram about working on his solo album and named a large collection of local musicians working on the album including his former Great Big Sea band mates Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann. I am really looking forward to this album. 

Darrell has also been keeping himself busy musically playing gigs in a local pub in St. John's, Newfoundland. There are many times I wish I was living in St. John's where I could attend local music gigs and this is one of them. 

Darrell shared a photograph of himself and his former bandmate Bob Hallett working on the album and of himself performing at the Blacksheep in St. John's on social media. I have included a screenshot of those below. 

I wish Darrell all the best with his solo album. I for one can't wait for this album's release.

I have included a copy of article that appeared in The Telegram about him making the album. As always no copyright infringement intended.

'After decades playing with other groups, former Great Big Sea bassist is making a solo album' by R. Mullaley published on 13 June, 2018 in TheTelegram.com (no copyright infringement intended).

‘It’s always been on my bucket list’

Darrell Power spent more than three decades playing with well-known music groups.

From his four years as a member of Rankin Street in the late 1980s and early 1990s, 10 years as a member of Great Big Sea, three years partnering with singer Kevin Evans and more than 10 years as a member of Timber, the talented bassist, guitarist and vocalist has helped many other musicians create magical music moments on the local music scene.

Now, he’s ready to create some of his own.

The 50-year-old from Outer Cove is pursuing his first solo album.

After more than 30 years of writing his own material and hoping to record it someday, he said now was the right time to do it.

“Those (bands) were all fun, but making a solo album, it’s always been on my bucket list,” Power told The Telegram during an interview Tuesday at a downtown coffee shop.

“I always knew I wanted to do it, but every time I kept getting close to it, I kept writing more songs. That seemed to be my habit, to back away from it a little bit more.

“The way it is — and most musicians are alike — you think you really can’t sing, you really can’t play and you really can’t write.”

However, when some of his original songs went over well during his solo acoustic performances at the Black Sheep bar on Water Street in downtown St. John’s this year, it gave him the confidence he needed to record them.

“I’d joke that you write songs and put them under the bed, but they were finally broken out,” said Power, who owned his own recording studio for seven years. “And people were really liking them.”

Things took off for Power a few months ago after a chance meeting downtown with Robert Kelly, a native of Fogo and well-known sound engineer.

“We bumped into each other and he said, ‘Why don’t we record it?’” Power said of Kelly, who recorded the album in Rick Hollett Sr.’s studio on Bond Street, not far from where Power lives. “That was a Thursday. On Saturday, we were in the studio, getting started on it. It all came together so fast.”

He said he’s known for four years what he would call the album — “Happily Ever After,” “because it answers the question, ‘What ever happened to Darrell Power?’” he said, laughing.

“Which is a total joke, because who lives happily ever after? But it’s a nice thing to strive for.”

He said the album includes “a little bit of everything,” but mostly folk and folk/rock tunes. His favourite is the self-titled track, the last of 12 tracks, which he said is like a southern Baptist gospel tune.

“I like to describe it as a story of ‘a life’ because the album does tell a story,” he said. “There are bits and pieces of my life, but it’s also living in other people’s heads, which is another (aspect) to songwriting — to write from their perspective.”

Power — who has two sons, ages 15 and 17 — said he’s glad he waited so long to make the solo album, as his boys are older now and, as a musician, he has more experience as a songwriter and more knowledge about making song selections.

As exciting as it is for him to be venturing out on his own, he admits it was big move.

“(Great Big Sea’s) albums were a lot of fun. I loved that whole process. That’s four people butting heads about songs, arrangements — and believe you me, we were pretty good at butting heads when it came to the price of tea in China or whether it’s a D (chord) or G7, and that’s a fact,” he said, laughing.

“So, it’s a different experience when you’re by yourself. The decisions you make are yours alone, so you weigh every word, every chord.”

He was happy to have some talented local musicians accompany him on the album.

They include drummer Devon Milley, who played in a thrash metal rock band called Monsterbator; Hollett Sr. (piano); Kevin Evans (banjo/mandolin); Luke Welsh (violin), a member of the Punters; Hey Rosetta! cellist Romesh Thavanathan; and Terri Lynn Humber (piano, vocals), who plays in the band Weight of the World.

His Great Big Sea bandmates — Alan Doyle, Sean McCann and Bob Hallett — also make contributions, either instrumentally or vocally.

“They all appear somewhere on the album and I’m glad they are on it,” Power said. “They are all old friends and that was really important to me.”

Since Kelly’s schedule is taking him out of the country for several months, the album will be completed long distance “thanks to Dropbox technology,” Power said.

It’s due out this fall.

“I’m really looking forward to (having it released),” he said. “Now that I’ve done it, I’m definitely going to do it again.”

Happy Six Year Anniversary...500 blog posts.

I was hoping to finish off my six year anniversary by writing 500 posts and I did. I have achieved my goal.

Where to next? I don’t really know.  I have diverted a bit from my original goals of this blog being about the fans and fandom, to the work of the artists and musicians by writing posts about what they are doing and sharing resources about them that don't come from the usual sources. 

I am still interested in what the fans have to say on social media and how they share their stories and creative work.

I am also really interested in a range of topics for example music and bootlegging, copyright, sport and television with an Australian focus. These posts are probably not as popular as the others but they also have the goal of education. 

I hope I have managed to educate and change some fan's perspectives on how they engage with music and in particular music piracy and bootlegging along the way. 

Thank you to all the people who visit my blog every day and to all the artists and musicians I am interested in for sharing. 

Thank you to all the fans for sharing their love of music, concerts and fandom via social media. 

The Fan, The Musician And Streaming Music...A reflection.

"Whenever you listen to a streamed song, like it but don't buy it and instead stream it again, you are casting a vote for the future nonexistence of professional musicians, writes Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith." (Chau, 2018)

While there are many definitions of who is a fan accompanied by just as many actions, one thing fans all share is we want our favourites to keep on doing what they do best, so they make a comfortable living and are happy professionally and personally and we can enjoy the results of their labour.

I was reminded recently that some people who call themselves fans of particular artists, musicians and groups find it acceptable to listen to music only via music streaming services. These fans seem to find it acceptable that they do not pay for albums and be rewarded for listening to Spotify and other streaming services in which their favourites get little income for their music.

Maybe I am just old school, but I don't really care how much money any of my favourite artists and musicians make, I want to pay them for their services whether they be television shows, movies, books, albums, concerts or merchandise. And that is we have to pay them for their creative services we enjoy at a fair price. Nothing we wouldn't want from our own working lives.

It is well documented artists and musicians are finding it more and more difficult to make a living in the digital age including competing not only with illegal means like music piracy and bootlegging, but also the legal means such as music streaming services and other content streaming services.

I don't support music streaming or any kind of streaming because I don't like paying for content I don't own outright. I don't know anything about music steaming services except they pay artists and musicians next to nothing for their content.

So I went in search of how much money do music streaming services like Spotify pay artists and musicians.

The first article I found 'Spotify sued for $2b in copyright infringement lawsuit' by David Chau published on 3 January, 2018 at abc.net.au is an excellent article that provides an overview of the recent copyright infringement lawsuit brought against Spotify. The article describes how Spotify was being sued for not getting some of the correct licenses and not paying artists and musicians any compensation at all.

The second article I found 'What Do The Major Streaming Services Pay Per Stream?' by Hugh McIntyre published on the 27 July, 2017 at forbes.com is also an excellent article that outlines the difficulties in collecting reliable data on how much each of the music streaming service pays artists and musicians. Spotify, Pandora and YouTube were at the bottom of the list with the lowest rates. Spotify paid $0.0038 US per stream.

I have copied the two articles here for interested fans. No copyright infringement intended.

'Spotify sued for $2b in copyright infringement lawsuit' by David Chau published on 3 January, 2018 at abc.net.au below. (No copyright infringement intended).

Music streaming company Spotify has been sued for at least $US1.6 billion ($2 billion) for copyright infringement.

California-based Wixen Music Publishing alleges 10,784 of its songs were streamed or downloaded "billions of times" via Spotify's app — without a licence or compensation being paid to the music publisher.

Wixen describes itself as an independent publisher which "administers" more than 50,000 songs by "some of the most popular and acclaimed music artists of the last 100 years".

It is the exclusive licensee of songs by artists like Tom Petty, Neil Young, Janis Joplin and the Doors.

"While Spotify has become a multi-billion-dollar company, songwriters and their publishers, such as Wixen, have not been able to fairly and rightfully shares in Spotify's success," Wixen stated in documents filed at the United States District Court.

Spotify, which is planning a stock market listing this year, claims to have over 140 million active users and more than 30 million songs in its playlists.

Despite rapid growth in users and revenue, Spotify is not making a profit, primarily because of large licensing payments to record labels.

The Stockholm-based music company said it has paid $US5 billion ($6.4 billion) in revenue to music rightsholders (as of September 2016).

But Spotify "took a shortcut" to win the "race to be first to market", according to Wixen.

"In 2011, Spotify faced a choice to either obtain all the required rights to the songs and significantly delay its US launch, or move forward without proper licenses and face the legal ramifications later," the publisher stated.

"As a result, Spotify has built a billion dollar business on the backs of songwriters and publishers whose music Spotify is using, in many cases without obtaining and paying for the necessary licenses."

In May, Spotify agreed to pay more than $US43 million ($55 million) to settle a class action from a group of American songwriters including David Lowery and Melissa Ferrick — who alleged the company failed to pay them royalties.

But Wixen has criticised that settlement for being "grossly insufficient to compensate songwriters and publishers for Spotify's actions".

Spotify has declined to comment.



'What Do The Major Streaming Services Pay Per Stream?' by Hugh McIntyre published on 27 July, 2017 at forbes.com.

While streaming has completely taken over the music industry, that doesn’t mean all is going well for everyone involved. In fact, nobody seems to be making quite enough money from the growing format, and almost all of the businesses trying to survive are losing incredible amounts of cash. It’s a rough game to be in, and it can be especially difficult for up-and-coming musicians trying to making a living off of their art.

The discussion of how much each service pays per stream is a tricky one for a number of reasons. Many companies won’t release exact numbers and several artists have come forward to share their payouts, which sometimes conflict with what others have stated—but no matter the company or the reason, every firm has an extremely low payout scale that only adds up to a liveable wage if the artist or band is attracting some serious attention.

Data collection and visualization blog Information Is Beautiful has updated its infographic outlining what the most popular streaming services pay per stream to reflect some changes, using a number of sources to compile the data. These numbers probably aren’t perfect, and the actual amount artists earn from streaming sites can vary widely, but these figures can give some insight to those that may not have any idea what even the most popular streaming outlets are paying.

Coming in a somewhat surprising first place is Napster, which was the brand that helped usher in the era of people stealing music en masse online. The company merged with streaming platform Rhapsody a few years back, and eventually, the latter name was discarded in favor of Napster, which was already a legitimate streaming platform in some territories around the world by that time. That company pays $0.0167 per play, and if that sounds like it’s too small to matter to anyone, the numbers only drop from there.

Jay-Z-owned platform Tidal is the second-best for artists according to the report, which states that the relative newcomer to the scene is one of only two options that pay, on average, at least one penny for every stream. The rest of the streaming sites included in the roundup all offer only fractions of cents for the music millions are listening to.

The three most popular options in the world of streaming—Spotify, Pandora and YouTube—are at the bottom of the list with the lowest rates, though artists often see their music played on those sites far more often than on platforms like Tidal or Napster, which haven’t yet been able to rack up the same kind of user numbers as the largest in the industry.

Here are the estimated payout rates per stream for eight of the most-used streaming companies in music, according to Information is Beautiful.

Napster - $0.0167

Tidal - $0.0110

Apple Music - $0.0064

Google Play - $0.0059

Deezer - $0.0056

Spotify - $0.0038

Pandora - $0.0011

YouTube - $0.0006

Cory Tetford And A New Video...'In the Morning'.

Recently Cory Tetford (accompanied by Kendel Carson on fiddle) made a fabulous new video to go with the beautiful song 'In the Morning' from the album of the same name released late last year.

The video was shot at the Stone Mountain Arts Centre in Brownfield, Maine. Cory Tetford is one very talented musician and the video is beautifully shot by Shehab Illyas. The video is available from Cory Tetford's official YouTube channel.

I have circulated a copy of this totally gorgeous video on my Google + page. I have included some screenshots from the video. No copyright infringement intended.

Fandom An Unexpected Journey Six Year Anniversary... My personal favourite post.

With the six year anniversary of my blog 'Fandom, An Unexpected Journey' approaching I found it interesting to revisit some of my posts. My statistics provide valuable information as to what readers like and keep revisiting, but I mainly write about what I find interesting including not only the artists and musicians I am interested in but also the subjects such as music piracy and bootlegging, sport and television.

'Great Big Sea, Newfoundland And The Fan Pilgrimage' published on the 14 May, 2013 was my personal favourite post over the past six years of writing my blog. The post was viewed 171 times. I wrote it on my first trip to St. John's, Newfoundland to see Great Big Sea for their 20th anniversary tour. It was the trip of a lifetime where I wanted to walk in the footsteps of my favourite band.

The photographs contained in this post are not mine and are from the Internet. No copyright infringement intended. 

'Great Big Sea, Newfoundland And The Fan Pilgrimage' published on 14 May, 2013 

"From the moment I stepped off the plane and took the short ride from the airport to my accommodation in downtown St John's I have been in love. Newfoundlanders have been friendly and welcoming, a change from the hustle and bustle of a big north American city that is Toronto, the weather glorious in all it's Spring shades from the deep biting cold grey overcast skies and rain to the sunshine blue skies. It is spectacular physically, culturally and historically. I understand why the members of Great Big Sea Alan Doyle, Bob Hallett and Sean McCann are eager to return here after weeks away on the tour. It would be easy to call Newfoundland home.

I have been fortunate enough during my time here to visit all the sights associated with Great Big Sea. Alan Doyle tweets affectionately his love of Leo's fish and chips. It was one of my first stops on this fan pilgrimage. I sat in a booth with a picture of the boys in their younger days signed hanging on the wall along with other famous people who ate there for example the Barenaked Ladies eating yummy fish and chips but made the big mistake of not ordering the gravy and dressing. I have also been to The Duke,The Ship, walked past Erin's (Bob Hallett's pub), Fred's Records, down George Street, visited Petty Harbour the home town of Alan Doyle, the LSPU Hall where Russell Crowe and friends did the first Indoor Garden Party Shows, Memorial University (where a poster of an early GBS show hangs on the wall) and walked up Signal Hill. St John's and its people are glorious indeed.













The loyal faithful fans gathered at the Mile One Centre in the early evening on the 29 April 2013 to celebrate twenty years of Great Big Sea. It was a full house as one would expect from the people of St John's. People came from St John's, all over Newfoundland, the Canadian mainland and overseas to listen to music and celebrated with the boys in the band. It was interesting watching the meet and greet among fans, the music of this fabulous band uniting and bringing people together who probably only see each other at Great Big Sea concerts.

From the moment they stepped on stage they thrilled the audience. The crowd was certainly diverse including the more mature folks who enjoy a sit down concert to the young group who love dancing and drinking. But pretty soon every one regardless of age was up dancing in their seats. They played most of their old favourites like The Night Pat Murphy Died, Ordinary Day, Lukey's Boat, Consequence Free and Donkey Riding pleasing the die hard fans and playing some new music like Heart of Hearts and Live This Life while continuing to evolve and move on successfully with the crowd loving it.

The home crowd and the big stage enabled Great Big Sea to shine. After years and weeks on the road together on the bus for this tour the members of the band Alan Doyle, Sean McCann, Bob Hallett, Murray Foster and Kris McFarlane still had a lot of friendship and love for each other. While Alan Doyle is clearly the showman of the band the other members each held their own as talented singers and musicians playing an incredible diverse range of instruments and shining in their own right not to be left out.

There were two encores as one would expect. The first with talented and funny trumpet player Paddy Joe Boyle and the second with former member Darrell Power. The boys graciously acknowledging his contribution and welcoming him to the stage, leaving the audience wanting more.

I don't often agree with Lynda Elstad or @lyndahere in particular about her observations about the audience at Great Big Sea concerts but with these observations she has written about in her blog. While it is great the band has attracted some younger people to concerts and their music, seated in front of us were three young guys who arrived really drunk. They drunk, well skulled what seemed like a drink for every song and could hardly stand up by the end of the concert. They hung around in a group like teenage boys spending more time checking out girls and the audience, checking their phones and taking the occasional video than watching the band perform and listening to the music. Guys maybe time next the pub may be a better venue for you.

It is a shame that Great Big Sea don't play as often as they should in their home town and as often as their home town would like. It leaves their fans not taking them for granted and appreciating them when they do play. It also allows room for other new and emerging talents to develop and take the stage and the tradition that is Newfoundland music to evolve and continue.





Photo by staff photographer Ted Pritchard at The Chronicle Herald in Halifax. The Halifax show was the previous night. (No copyright infringement intended)."