Ok so the Easter Show is awesome when your old enough to go without your parents and little sister/brother but thats when you realise that there is only one different ride from last year, the animals are always the same - I’ve seen a cow before! And fairy floss will still make you feel sick, alas! there is a fresh lemonade mirage in the distance but no it’s not a cool refreshment it’s a refreshing addition to the Royal Easter Show, welcome please the Indent Stand - part of the youth area (no kids aloud) !!

Over the easter long weekend Indent was rocking out at the Easter show with friends: Youth Week, Arrive Alive, some of the cats from Youth Rock, the Indigenous Hip Hop Crew as well as Triple J. We had the sickest set up in the grassy area behind the Triple J stage, like we’re talking bean bags, giant games, the world championship connect four competition, foose ball, cool tunes, oh and the serenity, who could forget the serenity!

Indent from where you’d rather be…

This is max playing drum and bass for all the really little kids that people just kept dropping of to us on the Friday afternoon. They loved Drum and Bass but their parents didn’t, so we directed them towards the kids world.

Each day we kicked off with some healthy excersise thanks to the Indigenous Hip Hop Crew. We even danced a little bit, but mainly left if up to them cause they were the best in the business! The IHHP was bought out to the show by Beyond Blue and were encouraging everyone to Look! Listen! Talk! Seek Help! (over 4 days they really drilled it into us), and all for a good cause - raising the awareness for youth depression and anxiety.

On the Saturday this little girl dominated the Giant Connect Four World Championship in an epic battle against someone nearly 3x her age! Go little girl go! She’s here with ISAAC and her new world championships belt, she has to wear it forever until someone battles her for the title, it’ll probably go down next year at the Easter Show when we pull the Giant Connect 4 out of the back office.

The final of YouthRock 2009 at Sutherland Entertainment Centre on April 4th saw some really awesome acts grace the stage. We were so impressed with the caliber of the finalists that we thought we’d introduce them to all of you. Hit up the bands MySpace links to find out more.

So without further ado, Indent would like to present…

Powerage 

This band of brothers, two sets of brothers to be precise, hailing form just near Newcastle and ranging in age from 14 to 18 have been performing since 2005. The second place winners at this years’ YouthRock who pride themselves on playing true Aussie rock have played some pretty amazing gigs in their relatively sort career. Some of the most impressive include winning second place in the world final of Global Battle of The Bands in London last December and supporting bands such as Grinspoon, Screaming Jets and Matchbox 20.

http://www.myspace.com/powerageband

The Bennisons

This Indie four piece took out third place at YouthRock 2009. Hailing from Sydney, The Bennisons formed in the spring of 2007, an amalgamation of three good mates and a younger drummer in for a laugh. With an average age of 17, The Bennisons already have a well developed performance resume, including appearances at Generationext Youth Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Smartarts Youth Festival.

www.myspace.com/thebennisons

The Polaroid People 

Four year 10 students from Kiama who, in March this year had their first air time on i98fm come together to form this pop/rock outfit. The band has been finalists in the Mercury/Bluescope Steel Band Comp, the i98fm Battle of the Bands, the Wollongong Wail Band Comp and Youth Rock 2009. The boys said YouthRock 2009 was “awesome - fantastic stage, sound and lighting - even smoke machines” and reckoned that the workshops were “invaluable” to them as a band just starting out.

http://www.myspace.com/thepolaroidpeople

 Zygotic

This pop punk trio with the strange name is a group of 15 and 16 years olds from Western Sydney. With legends of the pop punk genre like Blink 182 and The Offspring as their influences, Zygotic have the title “Best Punk Band” under their belt as achieved at the Kool Skools Band Competition held at The Metro Theatre in Sydney in 2008. A JB Hi-Fi reviewer believes that the YouthRock 2009 finalists “could go far given the right opportunities”.

www.myspace.com/zygoticband

No Pressure 

These enthusiastic Central Coast teens live to deliver old school Rock and Roll. Playing in a live setting is where No Pressure thrives and the sheer diversity and extent of their performance experience shows this. From opening the Spring Carnival racing season at the Myer Gold Cup at a major regional race track to performing on national television on Channel nine’s Today show and appearing in national print media like Dolly Magazine and The Daily Telegraph, the sky seems to be the limit for No Pressure.

www.myspace.com/nopressurerockband

Mind Priorities

Mind Priorities are a four piece from Woy Woy on the Central Coast. These 15-18 year olds won best Indie song in Kool Skools Band Competition in 2007 and achieved finalist positions in YouthRock in both 2008 and 2009. The band believes that since forming two years they have learnt so much about themselves and formed a connection as a band that can never be broken. Their first EP and first single are in the final stages of production and are being launched in May.

 http://www.myspace.com/mindpriorities

Breaking Contrasts 

Breaking Contrast is Liam Bell on guitar and lead vocals, Sam Robinson on guitar, Jake Robertson on bass and Aidon Scott on drums. They have been together for about 9 months and have played local gigs around their home town of Forster-Tuncurry and YouthRock ‘09 at the Sutherland Entertainment Centre. Citing bands such as Bloc Party and Kings of Leon, as well as more classic rock acts such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin as their influences, Breaking Contrast play awesome Indie/Progressive rock.

http://www.myspace.com/breakingcontrast

Other finalists were:

Sleep Intense (http://www.myspace.com/sleepintense)  

From Her Breath

Friday the 13th of March was the annual Indent Open day and ISAAC awards, which is like the highlight of the Indent social calender cause we get to meet all the Indent funded teams and rockstar award winners by the end of the day my ears kinda hurt from all the overwhelming inspiration our speakers! took away from all indent teams. The ISAACs celebrate these outstanding achievements towards the all ages scene, that wowed all industry professionals present on the day.

This year we pulled out the big guns down at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach; the venue was killer the weather held up (in true Sydney weather style) and the speakers made up the creme of the crop, but based on Heath Mawson’s keynote speech - their positions shouldn’t be taken as a threat, anything is possible at any age - and speaking form experience Heath is only 24 and is the label manager for local phenomenon Modular Records. Heath’s experience is inspiring (although he did walk away inspired and impressed by all the teams) and captures just how ideal it is to keep a young person on the books, for the innovation the drive and the passion.

The ISAAC awards followed the awards take their name from Indent’s mascot (Indent Super All AgesCrusader) and are an annual award ceremony and opportunity for young contenders
to be recognised and celebrated for exceptional efforts towards their local
entertainment scene.

Each of the 10 categories are supported by industry professionals, reflecting the high
standards expected and very much delivered by each of the event teams that are
funded through Indent’s partnership grants.

Best Event | Supported by Big Day Out

Sahara Herald-Shepherd from the Big Day Out presented the award for the Best Event in 2008. Tuncurry’s team ‘New Moon Productions’ took out the coveted award for their free event; ‘Commotion by the Ocean’. Commotion by the Ocean is held in January each year for the past 6 years and has grown in size exponentially every year. In the past year it had an audience of over 1500 people for headlining act Ash Grunwald with a stack of local support. Commotion by the Ocean is the Tuncurry-Foster Region.

Minister for Youth the Hon. Graham West was also there to present each of the 9 remaining awards. Mr West who’s entire office are big fans of Indent and a great help to getting news out there - thats a big shout out to Cara Davis -

“The Indent ISAAC awards are important to the development of all-ages music
events in NSW,” Mr West said.

“I am please to congratulate the young winners for their hard work and creativity in
bringing these well-organised and entertaining events to our State.”

Best Indent Team | Supported by Dept. of Community services

The Best Indent Team in 2008 went to Northo Entertainment Crew in North Richmond. Their annual event ‘Rock Across the River’ has consistently pulled a killer crowd which isn’t a surprise cause this team are exceptional at working together to get things done!

In this picture is Minister West, members of the Northo Crew and the Indent big kahuna project manager Greg Carey.

Best MEDIA | Supported by FasterLouder.com

The Dapto team took out the award for the Best Indent Team last year, this year they’ve been recognised for their media attention for their 7th annual Illawarra regional skate competition. Brett Amatto accepted the award on behalf of the Dapto team (pictured here with Minister West and Mr Carey), their unique and innovative sponsorship and media packages were what caught the eye of Indent HQ.

Shake & Bake | Supported by Modular Records

Dale Garbutt is the gun.

Why did he get the shake and bake award, he’s just the gun.

Dale is the Youth Arts worker at the Loft in Newcastle, he has been running all ages events since 1984. Since 2001 he has put on over 200 all-ages gigs under his Youth Activities position at the Newcastle Council. His continuous support and mentoring for young event co-ordinators. In addition to running all ages gigs all the time the Loft venue runs radio and pod casting classes and shows, electronic music production courses and has a rehearsal and recording studio available for use by young people.

Best Support Organisation | Supported by YAPA

Responsible for supporting the annual premiere youth event in Campbelltown called Fisher’s Gig, Campbelltown City Council have been instrumental in assisting the development of youth run entertainment in the region. In 2008, Fisher’s Gig attracted over more then 800 young people with some of Australia’s best bands including ARIA winners Operator Please and Dead Letter Circus.

Graphic Art | Supported by Love Police

Another award for the Tuncurry-Foster Region the award for Best Graphic Art at an event goes to David Jeismen for his work with the New Moon Productions team’s event “King of the Krater”. King of the Krater is an annual skate competition that has happened for the past 5 years. Sarah from New Moon Productions is accepting the award on behalf of David.

Best Safety & Transport | Supported by YouthSafe

Amplify Organising Committee stage an annual, free Battle-of-the-bands held at Riverside Park Moruya attracting 3000 people. Amplify Organising Committee utilise the event to engage with young people on local issues of concern. Each year the event has a theme. In 08 it was mental health.

Best Photography Award | Supported by Daniel Boud

Daniel Boud also took the photos of the ISAACs so it was a shame that Peter Manston was not there to get his award for Best Photography - who knows what photographic genius ideas would spark up! Peter took out the award for his photo of Operator Please from the Fishers gig 08. Bruce McCausland from Campbelltown Council was gracious enough to accept the award on Peters behalf.

Best Local Supporter | Supported by us…Indent

This award is all about the community that supports all ages events, because we all know it is a big risk and sometimes people aren’t willing to give the kids a go. This next award recipient is not like that at all, he has been a strong supporter of community projects since the 80s. Richard Ruhus was nominated by MAD Youth in Bowral for his generous donation of his ‘New Empire Cinema’ shutting down any form of profiteering. Refusing to accept any money for the use of the venue, or his friendly staff. Richard is especially supportive of programs and activities that benefit local youth. He has also made a very large section of the wall outside the cinema entrance available for annual youth mural.

All Ages Band Supporter | Supported by APRA

APRA supported the All Ages Supporter Band award, which this year was taken out by Central Coast hero’s Something With Numbers. Something with Numbers has always heavily integrated all ages shows into their tours. For the launch of their newest studio release, ‘Engineering the Soul’ one third of the tour was dedicated to all age’s shows. Something With Numbers were on tour again at the time of the awards so couldnt make it, their manager Stephen Wade accepted the awards on their behalf, he is pictured here on the left of APRA’s Chris Moller. Both Chris and Stephen stuck around to help out with the panel and workshops respectively.

Unfortunately both Chris and Stephen arrived just after the awards, so during the ceremony this guy jumped up and accepted the award. He’s from Orange Rock up, who booked Something with Numbers for their Freshly Plucked festival last year.

So the winners were the rockstars on they day but here are some more shots of the panel and everyone else that participated, oh and our host Tom Tilley, and our hilarious lecturer Craig Schuftan.

Indent recently did their final Save The Scene workshop in Newcastle as part of the TINA/Sound Summit conference. The workshop was held at The Loft Music Venue and hosted a day of music industry business and a MC/Production session.

Panelist on the day included: Chris Moller (APRA), Kirsty Brown (The Brag), Newcastle’s hip hop group, The Last Kinection and Aria nominated hip hop MC, A-Love.

The day finished with special guest A-Love headlining an all ages hip hop gig, which also showcased some very promising local up and comers: Soul Purpose, Urban Freeflow, NC Boyz and Dhopec.

The Indent Save The Scene workshop series will happen once again across NSW in 2009.

The latest of our ‘Save the Scene’ regional forums was held in Orange on the 10th September. This workshop was co-run with John Godfrey and the Australia Business Arts Foundation. The workshop was a bit different to our normal event management/music business format because it focussed heavily on how to obtain sponsorship for your event. While the workshop was open to everyone, it was tailored strongly towards the Rock Up team, who have grown their Rock Up band competition from a local event into one which spans the Central West and brings bands from all the towns together to perform. Rock Up has grown tremendously, but could also benefit from a funding injection - and this is where John came in.

John took the first part of the workshop, and used this time to go through the kinds of things that must be considered when approaching sponsors - and how to pick which sponsors you apply to. We also went through how to make an application that fills all of the sponsor’s needs (and hence makes them much more interested!)

The day concluded with a combined brainstorm with Indent and the Dubbo and Orange Rock Up teams to identify potential sponsors and form a a plan of attack.

The workshop was fantastic - and very thought provoking for all involved. If sponsorship is something you are interested in learning more about then drop max@musicnsw.com an email and we’ll get you some basic resources cranking!

Indent hits the road again for their second Save The Scene leg, stopping by the central west to co-run a workshop with ABAF (Australian Business Arts Foundation) about discovering how to build a mutually beneficial partnership with businesses to build up your all ages gigs and local music scene.

Workshop: Business Case Approach: Level 1
Presenter: John Godfrey
Date: Wednesday 10th September, 2008
Time: 9:30am – 1.00pm ( 2 hour debrief following seminar)
Venue: Orange Regional Art Gallery, West Room, Civic Square, Byng Street, Orange

For more info please contact greg@musicnsw.com | (02) 9699 9706.

Indent held its second online forum on the afternoon of August 20. The online forums are there for people who might not be able to make it to our face to face workshops. We were lucky enough to be joined in this workshop by Luke from The John Steel Singers and Maggie Collins who manages the band and is also the Music Director at Brisbane’s 4ZzZ.

While our workshops generally focus on event management, this forum was much more artist focussed. Having representatives from one of Australia’s freshest bands was great as they’ve recently experienced the stuff we preach at Indent workshops - the touring, creating a buzz, the gaining of a manager, the releasing of demos and EPs. So it was a great insight that they were able to bring to the forum.

We will hold another online forum with just the Indent team to discuss Partnership applications and answer any questions you may have.

DOWNLOAD THE TRANSCRIPT HERE.

1,000 True Fans
The long tail is famously good news for two classes of people; a few lucky aggregators, such as Amazon and Netflix, and 6 billion consumers. Of those two, I think consumers earn the greater reward from the wealth hidden in infinite niches.

But the long tail is a decidedly mixed blessing for creators. Individual artists, producers, inventors and makers are overlooked in the equation. The long tail does not raise the sales of creators much, but it does add massive competition and endless downward pressure on prices. Unless artists become a large aggregator of other artist’s works, the long tail offers no path out of the quiet doldrums of minuscule sales.

Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail?

One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

To raise your sales out of the flatline of the long tail you need to connect with your True Fans directly. Another way to state this is, you need to convert a thousand Lesser Fans into a thousand True Fans.

Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.

One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

The technologies of connection and small-time manufacturing make this circle possible. Blogs and RSS feeds trickle out news, and upcoming appearances or new works. Web sites host galleries of your past work, archives of biographical information, and catalogs of paraphernalia. Diskmakers, Blurb, rapid prototyping shops, Myspace, Facebook, and the entire digital domain all conspire to make duplication and dissemination in small quantities fast, cheap and easy. You don’t need a million fans to justify producing something new. A mere one thousand is sufficient.

This small circle of diehard fans, which can provide you with a living, is surrounded by concentric circles of Lesser Fans. These folks will not purchase everything you do, and may not seek out direct contact, but they will buy much of what you produce. The processes you develop to feed your True Fans will also nurture Lesser Fans. As you acquire new True Fans, you can also add many more Lesser Fans. If you keep going, you may indeed end up with millions of fans and reach a hit. I don’t know of any creator who is not interested in having a million fans.

But the point of this strategy is to say that you don’t need a hit to survive. You don’t need to aim for the short head of best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. There is a place in the middle, that is not very far away from the tail, where you can at least make a living. That mid-way haven is called 1,000 True Fans. It is an alternate destination for an artist to aim for.

Young artists starting out in this digitally mediated world have another path other than stardom, a path made possible by the very technology that creates the long tail. Instead of trying to reach the narrow and unlikely peaks of platinum hits, bestseller blockbusters, and celebrity status, they can aim for direct connection with 1,000 True Fans. It’s a much saner destination to hope for. You make a living instead of a fortune. You are surrounded not by fad and fashionable infatuation, but by True Fans. And you are much more likely to actually arrive there.

A few caveats. This formula - one thousand direct True Fans — is crafted for one person, the solo artist. What happens in a duet, or quartet, or movie crew? Obviously, you’ll need more fans. But the additional fans you’ll need are in direct geometric proportion to the increase of your creative group. In other words, if you increase your group size by 33%, you need add only 33% more fans. This linear growth is in contrast to the exponential growth by which many things in the digital domain inflate. I would not be surprise to find that the value of your True Fans network follows the standard network effects rule, and increases as the square of the number of Fans. As your True Fans connect with each other, they will more readily increase their average spending on your works. So while increasing the numbers of artists involved in creation increases the number of True Fans needed, the increase does not explode, but rises gently and in proportion.

A more important caution: Not every artist is cut out, or willing, to be a nurturer of fans. Many musicians just want to play music, or photographers just want to shoot, or painters paint, and they temperamentally don’t want to deal with fans, especially True Fans. For these creatives, they need a mediator, a manager, a handler, an agent, a galleryist — someone to manage their fans. Nonetheless, they can still aim for the same middle destination of 1,000 True Fans. They are just working in a duet.

Third distinction. Direct fans are best. The number of True Fans needed to make a living indirectly inflates fast, but not infinitely. Take blogging as an example. Because fan support for a blogger routes through advertising clicks (except in the occasional tip-jar), more fans are needed for a blogger to make a living. But while this moves the destination towards the left on the long tail curve, it is still far short of blockbuster territory. Same is true in book publishing. When you have corporations involved in taking the majority of the revenue for your work, then it takes many times more True Fans to support you. To the degree an author cultivates direct contact with his/her fans, the smaller the number needed.

Lastly, the actual number may vary depending on the media. Maybe it is 500 True Fans for a painter and 5,000 True Fans for a videomaker. The numbers must surely vary around the world. But in fact the actual number is not critical, because it cannot be determined except by attempting it. Once you are in that mode, the actual number will become evident. That will be the True Fan number that works for you. My formula may be off by an order of magnitude, but even so, its far less than a million.

I’ve been scouring the literature for any references to the True Fan number. Suck.com co-founder Carl Steadman had theory about microcelebrities. By his count, a microcelebrity was someone famous to 1,500 people. So those fifteen hundred would rave about you. As quoted by Danny O’Brien, “One person in every town in Britain likes your dumb online comic. That’s enough to keep you in beers (or T-shirt sales) all year.”

Others call this microcelebrity support micro-patronage, or distributed patronage.

In 1999 John Kelsey and Bruce Schneier published a model for this in First Monday, an online journal. They called it the Street Performer Protocol.

Using the logic of a street performer, the author goes directly to the readers before the book is published; perhaps even before the book is written. The author bypasses the publisher and makes a public statement on the order of: “When I get $100,000 in donations, I will release the next novel in this series.”

Readers can go to the author’s Web site, see how much money has already been donated, and donate money to the cause of getting his novel out. Note that the author doesn’t care who pays to get the next chapter out; nor does he care how many people read the book that didn’t pay for it. He just cares that his $100,000 pot gets filled. When it does, he publishes the next book. In this case “publish” simply means “make available,” not “bind and distribute through bookstores.” The book is made available, free of charge, to everyone: those who paid for it and those who did not.
In 2004 author Lawrence Watt-Evans used this model to publish his newest novel. He asked his True Fans to collectively pay $100 per month. When he got $100 he posted the next chapter of the novel. The entire book was published online for his True Fans, and then later in paper for all his fans. He is now writing a second novel this way. He gets by on an estimated 200 True Fans because he also publishes in the traditional manner — with advances from a publisher supported by thousands of Lesser Fans. Other authors who use fans to directly support their work are Diane Duane, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, and Don Sakers. Game designer Greg Stolze employed a similar True Fan model to launch two pre-financed games. Fifty of his True Fans contributed seed money for his development costs.

The genius of the True Fan model is that the fans are able to move an artist away from the edges of the long tail to a degree larger than their numbers indicate. They can do this in three ways: by purchasing more per person, by spending directly so the creator keeps more per sale, and by enabling new models of support.

New models of support include micro-patronage. Another model is pre-financing the startup costs. Digital technology enables this fan support to take many shapes. Fundable is a web-based enterprise which allows anyone to raise a fixed amount of money for a project, while reassuring the backers the project will happen. Fundable withholds the money until the full amount is collected. They return the money if the mininum is not reached.

Here’s an example from Fundable’s site;

Amelia, a twenty-year-old classical soprano singer, pre-sold her first CD before entering a recording studio. “If I get $400 in pre-orders, I will be able to afford the rest [of the studio costs],” she told potential contributors. Fundable’s all-or-nothing model ensured that none of her customers would lose money if she fell short of her goal. Amelia sold over $940 in albums.
A thousand dollars won’t keep even a starving artist alive long, but with serious attention, a dedicated artist can do better with their True Fans. Jill Sobule, a musician who has nurtured a sizeable following over many years of touring and recording, is doing well relying on her True Fans. Recently she decided to go to her fans to finance the $75,000 professional recording fees she needed for her next album. She has raised close to $50,000 so far. By directly supporting her via their patronage, the fans gain intimacy with their artist. According to the Associated Press:

Contributors can choose a level of pledges ranging from the $10 “unpolished rock,” which earns them a free digital download of her disc when it’s made, to the $10,000 “weapons-grade plutonium level,” where she promises “you get to come and sing on my CD. Don’t worry if you can’t sing - we can fix that on our end.” For a $5,000 contribution, Sobule said she’ll perform a concert in the donor’s house. The lower levels are more popular, where donors can earn things like an advanced copy of the CD, a mention in the liner notes and a T-shirt identifying them as a “junior executive producer” of the CD.
The usual alternative to making a living based on True Fans is poverty. A study as recently as 1995 showed that the accepted price of being an artist was large. Sociologist Ruth Towse surveyed artists in Britian and determined that on average they earned below poverty subsistence levels.

I am suggesting there is a home for creatives in between poverty and stardom. Somewhere lower than stratospheric bestsellerdom, but higher than the obscurity of the long tail. I don’t know the actual true number, but I think a dedicated artist could cultivate 1,000 True Fans, and by their direct support using new technology, make an honest living. I’d love to hear from anyone who might have settled on such a path.

The above article was written by Kevin Kelly and was taken from The Technium website