Crazy airline flights, ballads, T-Ball, a most helpful chart & “I Would Trade” – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings,

There’s a convention coming up for record people and non-commercial radio stations that are music oriented.

It’s in Philadelphia and as always – when there’s a meeting on the East coast – I travel by Amtrak instead of flying.

It’s not as fast but it’s comfortable, the trains have wireless internet, electrical outlets at all the seats and pretty decent selections in the food car.

But just to remember what it was like to travel to conventions by plane (which I’ll do again later this summer) I asked a few friends on the phone what kind of connections they were having to make to get to Philadelphia this year.

I did some checking and confirmed that Philadelphia is the 5th largest city in the US.

I remember my days of constant traveling (2003 I believe was my busiest when I spent 150 days on the road with Nelly Furtado, Citizen Cope, Rufus Wainwright and Eastmountainsouth among other acts) during my Warner Bros and DreamWorks days when a city that size would have lots of direct flights.

Boy have the airlines changed.

You sure get to see the sights.

Ira Gordon from KBAC Santa Fe is flying from Santa Fe to Dallas to Philly – that’s not so bad.

Duncan Hudson from KXCI Tucson is flying from Tucson to Chicago to Philly.  That makes sense as well.

Stasia Lanier from KSUT Durango has one additional step – Durango to Denver to Chicago to Philly.

But Mark “Fish” Fishman from KMTN Jackson has a weird routing – Jackson to Denver to Milwaukee (huh?) to NYC where he’s picking up a ride to Philly.

My “What genius decided this routing makes sense” award though goes to Danny Preston from KNBA in Anchorage.

You’d think Anchorage to Seattle and then maybe a stop in Chicago to Philly.

But he “sort of” lucked out.

He can fly from Anchorage to Philly in only two flights – that’s less than Stasia and Fish.

But what a first flight.

Danny has to fly from Anchorage to HOUSTON.

And then Houston to Philly.

Let’s be nice to him when we see him……he’ll be a bit tired I bet.

But I’ve got big help for Danny – check the end of this email!!!!!!

So this album was sent to radio in the past couple of weeks:

And the radio adds are starting to come in.

I have been recommending to programmers cut # 3 – “When I’m With You”.

For some good reasons.

On the music site www.thesixtyone.com “When I’m With You” was the most played Clarensau track with some very strong spins.

It has some nice tempo and my wife loves it (always a good sign).

But two of the first radio programmers I spoke to last week brought up another track – “I Would Trade”.

Ripley Johnson at WVMP Roanoke mentioned it in her charming direct way:

“I’m adding “I Would Trade” period”.

No discussion.

But I knew why and I knew it was a great track to add.

And then Steve Varholy at WXRY Columbia told me that when he checked Clarensau on iTunes he saw that the most active track was “I Would Trade”.

Again I knew why it was so active and I fessed up.

This is what Steve saw on iTunes:

I know that “I Would Trade” is the most active track on the Clarensau album.

But it’s a ballad.

Radio programmers hate ballads because they think the lack of tempo drives listeners away.

Talking to them about a ballad is even harder than trying to get a 6 year to go to bed on time.

But very often the most popular songs are ballads.

And it’s often because of the lyrics.

That’s the case with “I Would Trade”.

Tyler Clarensau the writer of the song wrote it when his Grandfather was in the hospital for his final stay.

The lyrics – heartfelt and emotional have hit a viral chord on the internet.

The song sells a lot of tracks every single week.

People tweet about it – I just searched and found these mentions from the past few days:

Here are the lyrics along with a comment on the song from YouTube:

You can listen to “I Would Trade” by Clarensau on our YouTube album listening channel:

In the meantime I have something else taking over my life.

T-Ball.

My son is six and has joined his first organized sports team.

For those of you that don’t know.

T-Ball is the first step in organized baseball.

Instead of hitting a pitched ball – the ball is placed on a “T” for the batter to hit it off of.

Here’s the general idea of what’s happening.

We have a whole team (I got roped into helping the coach – basically I stayed still and all the other parents took one step back) that…..

….can’t hit….

….can’t catch….

….can’t throw….

but are very excited to play baseball.

How anyone starts here and ends up in the Major Leagues sure is a mystery to me at this point.

But they sure have a good time.

First team meeting with the coach:

First T-Ball league photo – and yup I won this bet – only one kid is looking away from the camera – my kid:

Batter up:

RUN:

The trash talking starts at an early age – something like “Ah your mom can’t build legos at all”:

A great time was had by all.

But the parents are always the one’s exhausted after the game.

If there were no kids and no conventions would that mean that there would be no need for caffeine?

I wonder.

But seeing as how many of my friends have kids and go to conventions I found a helpful poster that might help us through the Non-comm meeting coming up.

This might be the most helpful thing I can email everyone this week.

Study hard!

Have a wonderful week and if you’re traveling to Philly – travel safe and do say hello!

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Life happens when you’re a parent / the best worst 1 star review ever & music stories – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings,

So I’ve been missing in action a bit.

I could blame my lack of blogging on tax prep, the 37,000 different jobs I do for the company (isn’t it true that we all do the work now that 10 people did 10 years ago….and there’s more work than there was?) and other odds and ends but it really comes down to life.

There are some days when shutting down the computer and doing races around the yard with our 6 year are more important than writing emails.

Ethan’s into racing me around the house now that the snow is gone and it’s getting nice outside.

He’s got it all worked out.

He even brings out an audience:

We do three laps.  Each one counts as a win / loss.

And we have to stop and walk up the steep hill part of the race track.

Even if he’s ahead after the three individual laps – he still figures out a way to get me to do more.

Kids have so much energy it’s astonishing……until they don’t.

It’s not a gradual drop off.

It’s immediate.

Sort of like when you’re working on a computer on battery power and when you hit that power limit the big red sign comes on and says “Plug me in now….or say goodbye to your information”!

He’ll race and race and race and then say “I’m tired….will you carry me?”

Not a ounce of energy left.

Unless I say let’s race some more…..and he’s off again.

Forget about the caffeine in coffee or those five hour “energy” drinks.

If we could bottle “6 year old kid energy” into small little colorful bottles – I’d be rich!

In the midst of all this Mishara Music has released another recording – an album by a group named “Clarensau”.

The album is titled “Until Our Lungs Give”

Clarensau is a trio from Wichita Kansas.

The album mailed to radio last week so hopefully you’ll hear it on the air soon if you listen to the format called Triple A (which stands for Adult Album Alternative – and includes many non-commercial music radio stations).

The recommended radio track is a cut titled “When I’m With You”.

Something pretty extraordinary happened last week regarding this track.

Someone we don’t know posted a YouTube video using the song.

That happens a lot on YouTube.

But this video is different.

The woman that posted it – and it’s a fairly complicated video – lots of different locations – is “signing” the lyrics to the song (with another friend as well).

So the intended audience are people that can’t hear the music.

That says a lot.

In my long years of experience in the music business if I’ve learned one rule that trumps all others it is that:

“Music attracts – Lyrics sell”

That someone would make a video just about the lyrics is very telling.

Check it out – here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDPtjYS7ssA

What else can I tell you about Clarensau?

I asked them for some trivia about themselves.

Here’s what they sent me (my two favorite parts are the one’s about “Waffle House” and “Ping Pong”:

Let’s talk about reviews.

We all love great ones – and hate bad ones.

That makes sense.

But for once I have to say – I love the one star review we just got.

One of our wonderful promotional tools are our Mishara Music free song samplers on Amazon.com

We’ve done three of them and we get great response (and have used them to great effectiveness in building our company and artist audiences) we’re closing in on over a half a million free song downloads via these samplers:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

 The latest sampler that came out about a month ago is getting great reviews which demonstrate that the company is establishing a brand in the singer – songwriter world – exactly what we’ve been working to do:

But a couple of weeks ago I was surprised when I saw that we received our first ever One Star review…..

…..until I read the review:

Some days are like that.

That’s the kind of company we are.

We live in the real world and so do the artists we love.

They write songs about real life in the real world.

Check out our samplers – feel free to post the links anywhere and everywhere.

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

31 free songs by a great collection of artists – some on the label – some just friends!

Finally let me share three photos with you.

The first two about life.

The annual Easter Egg coloring was great fun this year:

The eggs came out great:

And lastly – I know what the intent of this sign is…..but isn’t there a better way to say it?

When you read it quickly you just can’t help thinking that “Trial Size” implies a miniature sample like they do with toothpaste etc.

And in this particular case that sure wouldn’t be a good idea:

Have a full size week!

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

 

A Family “Maple” adventure – more than you ever wanted to know & odds and ends – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings all,

So after all the serious things life threw at us in the past month or so (read about them in my blog post “The Best Of Times – The Worst of Times” dated 03-20-2012 @ www.marcrescue.wordpress.com we’re back to being a family unit enjoying all the things that the state of Maine throws at us.

For instance – a week ago virtually all of Maine had 80 degree temperatures and two days ago we woke up to a a temp of 19 degrees and 35 mph winds which brought the windchill down to about zero – and today it’s snowing:

But the great event during the 4th weekend in March is “Maine Maple Sunday”.

A whole bunch of the Maine maple syrup producers open up their doors to visitors and offer treats and great prices on maple syrup.

We spend a bunch of hours driving around checking out different sugar houses and found a new favorite this year – the Bradstreet Maple Farm in Searsmont Maine.   (69 Peters Road, Searsmont, ME.  04973  (207)-441-8801)

So of course I barged right up to Mark Bradstreet – the owner and starting asking a bunch of questions about maple syrup, it’s production and took a bunch of photos.

So if you want to learn more than you ever wanted about maple syrup production – read on.

Here’s the sugar house:

Perfectly picturesque – Mark said that’s his wife’s doing and I believe him. The sugar houses I’ve seen where guys are totally in charge don’t look this good!

You might wonder why maple syrup is so expensive?

Here’s why.

This is the old fashioned way to collect maple sap:

The more modern way (that Mark uses) is using tubing running from the taps that connect to 5 galleon water jugs – just like the ones on the office water cooler.

That helps a whole bunch because Mark puts about 500 taps on around 250 trees over 50 acres.

That’ll produce in the 4 to 6 week sap season somewhere between 2000 to 2500 galleons of sap.

When the sap runs it’s time to work - it has to boiled right then down to make the syrup.

So during the season Mark is working 18 hour days in the sugar house.

He can boil about 25 galleons of sap down into syrup per hour depending on the sugar content of the sap.

In the beginning of the season the sap can have a 3% sugar content which declines down to about 1% later in the season.  (Remember that figure to compare it to the finished maple syrup figure below).

So first you need a lot of wood to keep the fires burning for weeks on end boiling sap – about 4 cords for the season (Mark cuts and stacks it all including another 8 cords a year to heat their house):

Then it’s time to light the fire and boil the sap:

And the great thing about hanging out in the sugar house with the boiling syrup:

Is the aroma – ohh it’s great.

And then once it’s boiled down it’s time to pour out of the evaporator and get ready to bottle it:

It may have to be heated again & the temperature checked – it’s maple syrup at exactly 219.1 degrees and at 66% sugar – it’ll foam up at that temp:

When it’s ready:

It’s time for a taste:

And the verdict is perfect!

Then it’s time to rate it – the different colors are the different types – from left to right:

Light / Medium / Dark / Extra Dark and “B” syrup.

Our favorite is Extra Dark which has the most intense flavor and is almost impossible to find at retail stores – it’s rare.

But that’s what was being produced and bottled that day:

So what do you end up with after all that work?

50 galleons of sap makes just one galleon of syrup.

Ouch.

Mark says he started doing it as a hobby when his kids were young.  He tapped a couple of trees and boiled it down to syrup on the back deck in a lobster pot.

Then it sort of got our of control.

His wife calls it “Sugar Fever”.

He said someone somewhere figured out their sugaring time vs income and their maple sugaring income was about 22 cents an hour.

You don’t make a living at it.

Hmmm, reminds me of the music business these days.

Mark’s real job is an aerial mapping business.

His explanations about that world got real scientific with stuff I couldn’t spell so maybe we’ll learn about that business another time.

I’m very glad he’s got “Sugar Fever” though.

His syrup is delicious and the great thing about Maine Maple Sunday is that in addition to the syrup tasting the sugar houses make other things out of the syrup that you can get.  Maple flavored donuts, Maple fudge (Mark’s is the best I’ve ever had) and we make one special stop each year to get the a treat that is to die for.

Maple Cotton Candy – still have a bit left:

Remember the pink regular sugar stuff from the fair when you were a kid?

Yuck.

There’s no comparison.

I’m already mad at myself for not buying a second bag.

Next year.

And if you’re wondering why there’s no photo of Mark’s Maple fudge?

I ate it all.

I’ll take a photo next year.

Odds and ends.

Connor Garvey good news and bad news.

Last week radio station WBSD traded up Connor Garvey tracks and added a new track –  ”Pencil Frame” which is amazing in that it makes EIGHT different tracks from his album “Where Ocean Makes Land” that have been reported to the radio / records trade magazine FMQB:

I’ve never seen that many tracks played from a new artist’s album before – but I understand why – it’s a wonderful recording.  You can hear the entire album on our “Where Ocean Meets Land” YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/WhereOceanMeetsLand

Connor’s bad news?

For some stupid reason – the gate check people put his guitar in regular baggage instead of the gate check area….and as soon as he didn’t receive it at the front door of the plane when they landed he knew he was in trouble.

He was right:

Clarensau’s new album was released a week ago on Mishara Music and is already selling well thanks in part to our 3rd Amazon free song sampler which they’re a part of:

We use our free song samplers to build audience for our artists.

It works like a charm!

The new sampler is doing gangbusters on Amazon.  It’s # 6 as I type this on the all format Top 100 free album chart on Amazon:

And we own the Top 100 Free Folk chart:

The best thing about it are the reviews Mishara Music is getting – we’ve established a brand:

You can get the new Mishara Music Amazon.com free song sampler at:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaAmazonSampler3

I do want to take a moment to make note of two songs that are demonstrating some strong viral action – one from the sampler and one from the Clarensau album.

Both songs are written about a real family loss and they seem to resonate with people because of that.  It seems to me that with so much sharing on Facebook I’m aware so much more than before of when friends are going through the family lifecycle that we all must go through (and our family has gone through twice in recent months) and these songs speak to that.

“I Would Trade” by Clarensau was written by Tyler Clarensau about his grandfather:

You can hear “I Would Trade” here:

The first track on the new Mishara Amazon sampler is the title track from the upcoming Barnaby Bright album “Made Up Of”.

It’s the heartbreaking true story of a friend of theirs who lost her husband unexpectedly at a young age.

You can hear it here on YouTube:

Once again both songs reinforce how important music can be in our lives.

Surprise someone in your family or a good friend - call or visit them for no reason whatsoever except that you love them…..and share some meaningful music with them!

Marc

PS One other artist note – Peter Bradley Adams had three songs used in three different tv shows last week – it’s amazing how much music supervisors like his music.  “One Tree Hill” gave us a great visual at the end of the show was broadcast:

And another great placement on the “One Tree Hill” website:

And two final “Odds and Ends”.  While in California a couple weeks ago I had to make one trip that was off the beaten path a bit – and boy – do they charge for gas when you have to buy and you have no other choices:

And lastly this weekend I’ll be enjoying this new crop of maple syrup on my wife’s amazing french toast – can’t wait.

If you’re in the neighborhood – c’mon by – we’ll set a place for you!

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Two heartbreaking true story songs about loss – the marcrescue blog

Greetings All,

It seems that these days I see more and more about hard times for families on the social media sites – especially Facebook – where people are able to share and communicate like never before about family – both the great times and the sad times.

In my blog post last week I detailed some of the hardships our family has gone threw recently.

Some quick backround.

Mishara Music is my company that I started with my business partner Linda Baker (both of us long time veterans of major record business companies like Warner Bros and DreamWorks).

Simply put we wanted to start a modern company that reminded us of companies of old where artistry and great songwriting were most important.

We focus on singer-songwriters.

(Much more about us and the company at www.misharamusic.com)

We just released two new albums and on both albums – the most active song is a song about heartbreaking loss based on a true story.

The first album is by an acoustic trio (two men and a woman) from of all places Wichita Kansas that discovered Mishara Mishara and approached us via our website.

They blew us away when we first listened to their music.

Last Tuesday Mishara Music re-released their album “Until Our Lungs Give:

The most active song on the album is “I Would Trade” written I believe about Tyler’s grandfather.

It’s achingly beautiful and is far and away the most active song on the album.

Here are the lyrics:

 

You can listen to it here on YouTube:

 

The other album we just recently released is our third free song sampler on Amazon.com:

 

 

One of our beliefs is that the best way to build an audience for our artists is to give away a lot of free songs – so we do.

In the last half of 2011 our first two samplers were responsible for over 300,000 free song downloads and now with the 3rd just released 3 weeks ago we’re on our way to giving away over half a million free songs.

People seem to love what we’re doing – here are the first four reviews of the new sampler:

 

You can find all three samplers at

 

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

The first song on the new sampler is “Made Up Of” – a song by a husband and wife duo “Barnaby Bright”.  It’s a song they wrote based on the true story of a friend of theirs who lost her husband unexpectedly at a young ago.  Becky from “Barnaby  Bright” has a stunning voice and this simple piano composition is another take on loss that puts into words how we all feel at times like this.

Here are the lyrics:

You can hear “Made Up Of” at YouTube:

And you download it for free on Amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaAmazonSampler3

As I said in last week’s blog post – “It’s the best of times – The worst of times”.

I would be lost without music.

Marc

P.S.  ”I Would Trade” by Clarensau is not on the new Amazon sampler (although 2 other Clarensau songs are – but if you go to www.misharamusic.com/listentothemusic.html there’s way to get a free download of “I Would Trade” as well.

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

 

Parenting is tough enough! I keep thinking about this conversation – the marcrescue blog

Greetings,

I’ve been meaning to post this in some post sooner or later and finally decided not to wait and to just post it on its own.

We really like watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and one of my favorite things every night is watching the Roots’ tuba player!

How can you not love a band with a tuba player?!

Imagine the gutsy conversation as a kid:

“Mom, Dad, don’t bug me.  I’m gonna be the tuba player in a famous band on tv when I grow up”

Parenting is tough enough with all the “I don’t need to do my homework, I’m gonna grow up and be a rockstar, or a spy, or play in the NBA, or NFL or a blah, blah, blah” conversations.

How in the world did his parents handle that one?

I smile everything I think about it.

Marc

 

The best of times – the worst of times / A family love story from Marc Ratner / the Marcrescue blog

Greetings all,

It’s been at least a month since my last email / blog post.

And of all the non family things that I do – writing this blog is the thing I enjoy most and wish I could do more often.

So if that’s the case?

Why haven’t I written?

I had my ideas all set for my follow up to the post about the toboggan championships that I wrote about at the beginning of February.

I was going to start writing about Valentine’s Day.

We celebrate it as a family (Mom, Dad, Kid) like we do all holidays and make it wonderful and fun.

We give each other cards:

And we give small sentimental presents.

This year Kim and I gave each other “hearts”.  She gave me a silver pin and I gave her a pewter ornament (we do tend to think alike - which is most obvious when we often say the same thing at the same time):

It was a wonderful holiday.

And then I hit the road for 9 days.

I headed to Boston enroute to Logan Airport…..and oh do I love public transportation!

Amtrak from Portland to Boston:

 

And then the subway to the airport terminal bus:

And before you know it - after a long (6 1/2 hours) flight to LA and some quick meetings I’m headed up 395 in California on my way to Carson City Nevada:

And I got to make a quick detour to take some photos at Lake Tahoe:

And what was happening at home while I’m gallivanting all over the West Coast?

My wife is trying to take care our six year old son while she’s come down with the flu with a 101 temperature.

And of course it snows and she has to shovel:

And let me add – before I left on this trip I left them at home one other time to spend a night in Boston seeing Barnaby Bright (at Club 939) and Connor Garvey (at Club Passim) - luckily they were scheduled at different times – both were great shows:

Here’s Connor at Club Passim:

And you never know what you’re going to get with Barnaby Bright in concert. There’s a great story behind this instrument set up for this song by them. They did a big introduction about Billie Holliday being one of their favorite singers AND writers (among other songs she wrote “God Bless The Child”) and then did one of their favorite songs of her’s (“Fine And Mellow”) with a totally unique instrumentation – ukelele and banjo….and it rocked:

So I could joke about all that - I was living it up while my poor wife was suffering at home….

…..and then life got serious.

Monday morning my wife went into work – (one of her two part time jobs – besides her full time job of taking care of our son and I) and heard horrifying news.  Her boss – the founder of the company – had passed away suddenly and unexpectedly that morning.

Her boss was a wonderful man who started a non-profit company “The Institute For Global Ethics” – that helped corporations worldwide understand and deal with ethical situations – something we need much more of.

Here’s the posting about it on the company’s website:

And then two days later – she got a call from her mother – her Grandmother had passed away.

Here’s Kim’s FB post about it:

And then two more days later – her other job – ran out of financing and the doors closed to the newspaper company that serviced the entire midcoast of Maine:

While I was away life got really serious at home.

We virtually passed in the airport – I came home and she flew out to be with her mother’s family for a few days.

And then we were together again.

The three of us.

How did we deal with all of the loss?

We’ve been celebrating our family.

Last weekend we went tubing together at our local ski hill on their last weekend open:

And this weekend we went hiking – only a streak of snow left at the ski hill:

That’s how we’ve coped.

Family comes first.

There has been some great news.

Mishara Music put out our third Amazon.com free song sampler a week ago:

It’s been Top 10 (# 6 as I write this) on the Amazon Top 100 free album chart since release and it joined our previous two samplers on the Amazon Top 100 free Folk album chart – where we own the top 3:

And the reviews have been wonderful – they tell the story of what we’ve been trying to accomplish with the label – establish a BRAND.  A singer-songwriter company where people trust and look forward to our artistry:

You can check out all three samplers here:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

And oh by the way – people have asked me how we make money if we give songs away (we’ve given away over 300,000 free song downloads in the past six months)???

Here’s how – another one of our sampler reviews on Amazon:

Today (Tuesday March 20th) our new artist Clarensau releases their first album on Mishara Music:

And we’ve been marketing it in a number of different ways including putting out trivia posts about the band. There are 3 members – 2 guys named Tyler and one of the Tyler’s is married to the third member Sally – which makes it somewhat difficult to keep track of who’s who.  But this helps:

My wife loves the part about “Waffle House”!  I’m curious about the Ping-Pong bit.  Does this mean we’ll have to include a Ping-Pong table in the concert contract rider?

We just posted a listening channel for the album on YouTube that you can access here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/UntilOurLungsGive

And while you’re at it – you can listen to the title track from the upcoming Barnaby Bright album on this YouTube listening channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MadeUpOfBarnabyBrht

It’s a heartbreaking song based on a true story about loss – a song I go back to often these days….and it’s the first track on the new Amazon free song sampler mentioned above.

That’s the story of our last few weeks.

Life has it’s up’s and down’s.

Longtime readers of this blog (and my wife) know that I write about everything that’s happening in our lives – good or bad – no matter what it is.

Some might say I wear my heart on my sleeve.

More precisely – since Valentine’s Day – on my vest:

Have a wonderful week.

Hug, call, write, visit, love your family.

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Crazy winter people in Maine on Toboggans / Happily we give songs away free & the Peanut Butter problem fixed! – The Marcrescue blog

Greetings All,

Well here we are smack dab in the middle of February.

It was 4 degrees this morning when we got up which is just about perfect.

Unfortunately there’s no snow in the forecast.

Sighhhhh.

But it was perfect weather this weekend for the annual US National Toboggan Championships which are held at the Camden Snow Bowl – the only commercial ski area in the continental USA where you can see the ocean from the ski run:

Luckily it’s gotten colder because the toboggan run empties out onto the ice on Hosmer Pond.  (Note -”pond” in Maine means the body of water is same size or larger than “lake” in other places).  Every year Hosmer Pond becomes a virtual city on ice – this photo was taken on Sunday after the festivities were over so most of the crowd on the ice had already departed for home:

It’s not a fancy championship (c’mon – how much money is there in toboggan racing these days?) but the organizers take it seriously:

They have great trophies:

There’s great food:

Including a treat that Maine is famous for – the “Whoopie Pie” and there’s none better than these – but you better have a big appetite for the “Giant” size:

The “city” on the ice is amazing.

People bring the most amazing things.

It wouldn’t be Maine without a Lobster and a Moose:

A big person’s toy – oooh wish I had one of these:

Someone even brought and set up a jumpzone for kids on the ice – for free – just for the fun of it:

Even the bull from “Urban Cowboy” showed up (it’s been a while since the movie  - guess there’s not much demand anymore):

The housing on the ice is pretty extravagant:

Although I keep thinking – do they remember they’re on ice????

The racing can be intense (love that they use a Camden Police Dept speeding sign for the speed display – I think it means that this team could actually receive a speeding ticket:

But the big fun are the teams that race seriously but have fun with their uniforms.  I love seeing what they’re going to do every year.

The National Team from Holland wins the “Best Dressed” contest every year:

This is the photo I took of them last year:

Other random outfits this year include these and it gets stranger the more you see:

Love the classic twist on ”Schweddy Balls”:

What’s winter without a classic drop seat long underwear team:

But of course with the Maine GOP voting on Sunday the day after I took these photos – I wasn’t surprised at all to see all the politicians that will do anything to get votes:

A great time was had by all.

In the meantime – Connor Garvey’s album continues to get great radio airplay – in the past two weeks he’s moved from # 151 to # 132 to # 106:

A wonderful album:

And our Amazon free song samplers:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

Keep getting the most amazing reviews – it’s weird – the more we give away the more we sell – what a concept:

As a matter of fact – currently as The Civil Wars sit at # 1 & # 2 on the Amazon.com Folk chart – right next to them as I write this our two free song samplers sit at # 1 and # 2 on the Amazon.com Free Folk Chart:

(Again available at: http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon)

So life is good.

And as always one person’s treat is different from what works for the next person.

Some people love a corndog:

But if you read last weeks letter you know that some people (ME!) just aren’t going to be happy until they’re re-supplied with not one but TWO jars of CRUNCHY (sorry creamy fans):

Now if we just had a little snow all would be perfect in our little northeast corner of the world!

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

Simple Solutions to Simple Problems / a Catastrophe (but not the Super Bowl) & 1/4 million free songs – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings All,

First off before I deal with the Subject headings on the letter I’m going to ask for your help.

And it’s not about music at all.

A great family friend has a granddaughter who at 16 has made an amazing decision to be an exchange student in the Middle East in Oman (right next to Saudi Arabia).

During her year long stay she’s writing a blog about her experiences and it’s great reading.  You might wonder what life is like for a 16 year old American woman suddenly transplanted to a strongly Islamic country in the Middle East and she’ll tell you.

You can read the blog here:

http://emmagoesabroad.blogspot.com/

Here’s the important part – Emma’s been nominated for an award for her blog about her experiences in Oman and I’d like to ask you to read the blog and if you think she deserves it – please vote for her.

Here’s a screen shot of the blog:

Vote for Emma!

Now on to business.

Our Connor Garvey album keeps gaining ground on the Non-Commercial / Public Radio airplay album chart at music trade FMQB.  His album “Where Ocean Meets Land” has moved from # 151 two weeks ago to # 132 last week  to # 106 this week.

Not many independent artists on independent labels that released their albums before the end of the year are still gaining ground week in week out. at radio.   Most programmers like to clear the decks at the end of the year and sweep away all of 2011′s albums to make room for the incoming 2012 releases even if they haven’t had a chance to really listen to the older records.

Yet here’s Connor still moving up.

Can’t be me – I’m not that persuasive.

Gotta be the music.

Isn’t that the whole idea?

This is the album:

We have a listening channel for all the songs on the album at YouTube:

Now let’s get on to two very important issues.

First.

Yeah the Patriot’s lost and New England is once more taking it in the shorts from all the NY folks.

Yeah there is not much of a winter this year and those of us that are big fans of snow and cold are bummed.

(I know that sounds crazy – who would be that insane? My wife and myself that’s who!  We really do want our 10 feet of snow on the ground and are longing for those single digit temperatures – so refreshing!)

But let’s deal with real important issues.

Last week I almost lost it.

I had a situation that almost sent me over the edge.

There’s important and then there’s IMPORTANT!

Please no sympathy emails or calls.

I know you’ll understand.

I just need to move on.

I need to get it behind me.

Last week.

Lunchtime.

And…..

And…..

….I’m sorry – it’s so hard to talk about….

And….

The jar of Crunchy Peanut Butter was EMPTY:

I had to eat CREAMY:

Oh the anguish.

If you’re a “Crunchy” person there’s nothing worse than “Creamy”.

A “Crunchy” person will never understand why they even make “Creamy” peanut butter.

Sighhhh.

Okay, I’m over it.

The second item this week.

If you’ve ever had kids you’ll laugh out loud.

And if you haven’t you probably will as well.

Our son is 6 years old.

At some point in our lives we make things difficult.

But the world is not difficult at six years old. (Or 5 in this case).

Simple solutions to simple problems.

My wife was talking to one of Ethan’s friend’s moms this week.

She had this conversation with her son who’s still five:

(By the way – he’s also insisted that everyone start calling him “Cool Dude” instead of his name).

“Mom, I just wanted you to know that I put all my boogers under my pillow”

“But ‘Cool Dude’ what happens if one of your friends comes over?”

“Then they can put their boogers there too!”

Simple solutions to simple problems.

Why do we grow up and make things so difficult?

Have a wonderful week.

And beware of pillows.

Marc

PS Some great ice carvings in town by the library this week in an otherwise very quiet town at the moment, (I took the photos a day or so after some warmer weather so they’re not as sharp as when carved):

 

 

All’s quiet in the harbor this week but next week the USA National Toboggan Championships come to town – great for picture taking – watch for them:

PPS.  And don’t forget – there are always free songs from all of our artists – Peter Bradley Adams, Barnaby Bright, Colin Devlin, Kat Maslich-Bode and a killer track “Monster” (listen above on the video link & then go to the free song page and get it for free) from Connor Garvey (and also more free songs from Mishara Music artist friends) on our website on the free songs page:

www.misharamusic.com/freesongs.html

 

And you can link on that page to our two free song samplers at Amazon.com that have even more free songs!

In the last half of 2011 – Mishara Music GAVE away over a QUARTER OF A MILLION free songs.  Absolutely free.

The way we see it – if you love the songs – we’ll develop a friendship that will benefit both of us and all of our artists.

We start with trust.

 

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

 

Hardware, Lucky # 7, Viral mgkting, Magic & Common Sense – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings All,

Welcome to the not weekly Marc Ratner / Mishara Music blog / email.

My intention is to write weekly but for a number of reasons it doesn’t get done:

1. I actually put many, many hours of time into each posting.  That might surprise you reading this.  But it’s the truth.  I guess the only way to prove it to you….is to send out a first draft.  But trust me you don’t want that.

2. There is a business concept to these posts – to encourage readers to enjoy the music we release at Mishara Music.  But if the letter were all business who would read it?  We all get way too much business email – and even if it’s about wonderful music – how much can I write about it?

So I try and have a “Golden Rule” writing rule.  Would I read it if it was sent to me?  (Perhaps not all the way through - but I’d do what most everyone does – I’d look at the nice pictures and read a sentence here and a sentence there).

I do work hard (really – what else is there to do in the wintertime in the middle of Maine in the woods) to find interesting things to write about. Seeing as how I actually tend towards being a quiet solitary person and we live in a very small town – interesting things don’t exactly come racing into my life.

I myself am curious to see how I’m going to tie together the topics in the Subject line this week.  Some weeks it comes easy and other weeks “I got nothin’”.  Let’s see how I do with an almost “nothin’” week.

I bring this up because a week ago when I was very late with a posting I got a “first”!

An email from a reader asking where the latest edition was:

Marc:

Where is the e-mail blast? I read your stuff.

David

Now because of that the letters will probably even come at more random times…..I have to factor in that someone not only reads them but anticipates them.

Pressure!

So here goes ”nothin’”.

Let’s wander around and see what I do have.

First off let’s discuss “Common Sense”.

Recently because of horrible customer service & continual price increases we switched from our local phone company to Time Warner Business Class phone service.  As part of the package we transferred our internet service from Time Warner Residential to Time Warner Business – more powerful at a lower price when combined with the business phone lines. (But cable stayed with Residential because Business Cable service doesn’t offer anywhere near the same service).

And in the next few weeks I was surprised at the phone calls I received….and the one I didn’t.

1.  The local phone company never called to ask why we switched.  I guess that’s not a surprise considering how bad they were at customer service to begin with.  (Someday ask me about them – what a disaster).

2.  Time Warner Residential called twice.  The first time to ask why we switched our internet service to another company and if there a way they could woo us back.  When I finally got to interrupt the “heartfelt” speech the rep was reading off of their instruction sheet and ask if they knew why I switched and where I switched to….the rep said “Ahhhh no I don’t”……and was maybe a bit embarrassed by what his own company did to him when I let him know that I had switched within the same company to Time Warner Business. Then another Residential sales person called back again a week later – not mentioning the switch – just generically asking if I’d like to try their bundle of internet and phone with their cable service.

So Business doesn’t speak to Residential and Residential doesn’t speak to themselves.

There’s a good business plan.

Next let’s move on to “Lucky 7″.

Connor Garvey’s latest recording “Where Ocean Meets Land” had something wonderful happen this week.  The 7th song off the album was reported to FMQB (a music industry trade magazine as an individual track this week at AAA (which stands for Adult Album Alternative music):

That’s amazing – I’ve never had an album have that many tracks played at radio before.  “Where Ocean Meets Land” is truly a wonderful record and a great answer to that long time criticism of the music business – “They only put one good track on the album”!.

Love that lucky 7….or in this case the 7 songs off of Connor’s album:

 Speaking of lucky numbers – my other lucky number this week is 3.

Before, during and after our music is featured at radio Mishara is constantly doing and exploring new ways to use the internet for viral marketing for our artists.

They are no easy quick answers on the internet but quiet, honest outreach can build a dedicated fanbase for an artist that’s there day in and day out with them.

As many of you know I’ve worked with Peter Bradley Adams for many years and he’s now at the point where the radio play, the touring and the viral marketing have brought him a very well deserved ever increasing fanbase.

I check the Top 200 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart every few days and Peter’s always has at least one album on the chart – the other day he had three:

Nice.

After 35+ years in the music business I learn something everyday about marketing music.

Sure is fun!

What else have I learned lately?

Wives are wonderful.  Mine surprised me with tickets to see Livingston Taylor a week ago at Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine.

What did I learn from that show?

Two things.

1. I was reminded that Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, Maine – in the middle of nowhere – is one of the best places to see music that exists.  I’d been there before – the last time with WPA, (Glen Phillips etc) and Glen told me at the time that it was a most amazing place for artists!  One of his favorites.  It really is in the middle of nowhere and reminds us that there’s no limit to what you can do if you put your mind to it.  No one in their right mind would put a concert venue in a barn on a farm in the middle of nowhere and yet there we were on a snowy Saturday night with the temperature a balmy minus 3 degrees at show time and it was sold out. It’s so in the middle of nowhere they recommend that you download and print out their directions on how to get there because many GPS units can’t find it:

http://www.stonemountainartscenter.com/ArtsCenter/index.html

2.  Most people I know in this business have seen James Taylor over the years.  He’s terrific.  A star.  Lots of hits.  But give me a choice these days and I’ll choose to see Livingston, his brother, any day over James.  Besides being a working musician for the past 40+ years he’s a Professor at Berklee School Of Music in Boston and teaches Stage Performance (I and II) at the school.  Over the years I’ve seen many a teacher that fits the old saying “those who can’t do – teach” but in this case I wish I was a young musician and could take his class and learn from the master. No one entertains better than Livingston.  Great songs, great playing, great stories, great “funny” – just the best.

(And he’s got more hair than James these days.  Not much – but he has more.)

Next subject?

Technology.

I have become my father.

I used to be pretty adept at all things electronic concerning music, sound, video etc.  (So much so that years ago at Warner Bros. Records in our executive music meetings I was the one who ran the audio visual controls and played the music).

A while back my wife’s company moved and they had a nice tv that they were no longer going to use and they offered it to her for free and she snapped it up – it was much better that the 20 year old set we were still using.

The remote was long gone but these days it’s pretty easy to combine functions on the remote the cable company gives you.

Worked great except for one thing.

Somehow while I was setting it up I enabled some display function and the “V-2″ image (which stands for “Video 2″) came up and stayed up on the screen.  Nothing I could do – no button, no programming, no kicking the tv could get rid of it:

Drove me crazy.

For months.

It was especially horrible during football playoffs because it’s right at the spot where all the networks put their mini info cube that lists the score, downs etc.

Arghhhh.

So two nights ago I wasn’t paying particular information to the remote and hit something by mistake…..and the V-2 is gone.

Gone.

Just like that.

After a half a year.

And I have no idea how it happened.

It’s like magic.

Which is exactly what my father used to think about the wizardry I did for him with his tv, vcr and computer.

I have become my father.

Luckily I have my wizard.  He’s only 6 but already knows things about tv’s, dvr’s and computers that I don’t:

Technology and magic are now his job.

Lastly let’s talk hardware.

Hardware?

Well not hardware…..a hardware store.

One in particular.

In Chagrin Falls, Ohio.

This article made the rounds last week – from the Associated Press:

 

That’s a wonderful story.

People helping people

And perhaps it allows me this small request.

Please share some Mishara Music with someone this week.

You don’t have to buy anything – we never ask people to do that.

We build our audience by GIVING away music.

(Weird huh? But let me tell you – the more we give away – the more we sell.  Audiences will support the musicians and companies they discover and love – if there’s an honest, open dialogue).

And it’s truly a joy to share our discoveries with people.

If you’re so willing you can point people to a whole host of free songs on our Amazon samplers (including artists that are just friends of the label that we have zero official involvement with – we like to help our friends as well!):

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

 

And there are more free songs on our Mishara Music website free song page:

www.misharamusic.com/freesongs.html

If you know someone that might enjoy some great songs by wonderful artists – please pass along the links with our thanks.

So that’s it for this week.

How did I do?

I started with nothin’ and at least wrote something.

But I always try to remember – it’s all about the content.

No matter how totally excited you are about the delivery method…..radio, internet, satellite, or your brand new Christmas present from your Grandpa – a portable video player for the long drives back and forth to visit him – if the content isn’t good - your audience is gone!:

Have a wonderful week.

Marc

PS Looking for content for next week’s letter starts now.

PPS With perhaps a small break.  If you remember my heartbreak from the last letter…..all is better now.

They keep making more!:

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue

The Plight Of Snowmen / The Birthday Party / An essay on Perspective – the Marcrescue blog

Greetings All,

So here we are totally settled into the new year and wondering what happened to winter.

With the exception of Danny Preston at KNBA in Anchorage – most of the radio programmers around the country I have spoken to lately have mentioned that there sure isn’t much snow on the ground.

Danny on the other hand has seen plenty.  Here’s a chart of the top 9 cities as of January 14th - no other city is even close to Anchorage and they’ve had double their average snowfall so far this winter:

Here in Midcoast Maine it’s been interesting.

We seem to only have big storms that come in overnight when I have to travel early the next morning.  It happened the day before Thanksgiving – 10 inches, the day after Christmas – 8 inches and last Friday – only 5 inches but I had to leave very early so I was up shoveling at 5:15am – (yup still have Christmas lights up – they usually come down at the end of January – good to have though – otherwise it was pitch black outside):

Had to get up early because I was meeting Connor Garvey at WMWV in New Hampshire – Connor was doing a live noon time interview and performance (4 songs!) for Mark Johnson at the station.  Connor was a bit worried because he had a bad cold but he pulled it off and his performance of “The Bird” is already up on the station’s YouTube channel (that YouTube start arrow sure is positioned badly isn’t it!):

Here’s the actual link to the video performance:

In between the songs Mark and Connor had some great discussions:

A great time was had by all.

You can easily listen to Connor’s “Where Ocean Meets Land” album at it’s YouTube listening channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/WhereOceanMeetsLand

What else has happened lately?

The last of our “holiday” celebrations.

They start with Thanksgiving, then comes my birthday at the beginning of December, then Christmas, New Years and finally the first week of January is Ethan’s birthday.

What other six year old in Maine (or anywhere) chooses a sushi restaurant (Suzuki’s in Rockland, ME – there’s no better restaurant anywhere!) for his birthday dinner (Parental note here: At this age we only allow him to eat the cooked items):

He loves his sushi.

But the big event was his weekend “Birthday Bowling Party”!

Already at 5 and 6 years old – the kids enjoy the bowling for a while (Candlepin bowling – unique to New England – where the balls are the size of grapefruit), and the cake is a big hit – but already at this age it’s all about a flat out attack on the video games:

You’d think quarters grew on trees at the rate these kids burned through them!

But I have to say – my kid knows the game to play – just like his dad – he’s a pinball guy (I’m so proud):

I mentioned “perspective” on the subject line.

Something I’ve been thinking about lately.

I’ve been seeing lots of examples that remind me about keeping a proper perspective lately.

At Mishara Music we made the decision a while back to champion artistry and be as progressive as we can as a 21st Century music company.

So we give away lots of songs – over a quarter of a million in the last six months of 2011 at Amazon.com:

http://tinyurl.com/MisharaMusicAmazon

Our thinking is that if we build a fanbase for the artists and the company and always look to the future  – the future indeed will be bright.

Although the future is always a mystery.

So the perspective is to remember to live everyday to the fullest.

Sometimes it’s all you have.

Especially if you’re a snowman:

In a sense we’re all short term.

It makes no difference if you’re a plain ol’ regular snowman, a superhero snowman, a pirate snowman, a pirate superhero Halloween snowman or an alien superhero snowman:

Sooner or later the sun comes out.

It’s how we spend that time that counts.

(Note: My wife is the snowperson maker in the family.  As you can see – there’s a lot of thought put into each and every one – certainly with input from a 6 year old.  And I was remiss in my last letter – many of the photos in that letter were hers.  Easy to tell – they were the best ones.  I don’t hold a candle to her in the photography realm).

At Mishara Music we made a conscious decision to enjoy what we do – find great music, share it and help real artists have artistic careers instead of manufactured ones.  The artists we work with may not be American Idol material or have tacky viral videos on YouTube but they’re wonderful people and we love their songs and performances.

It’s an old fashioned perspective – artist development.

Everyday we love the music and what we do.

So far on Mishara:

Coming in February:

With all the wonderful years I’ve had in the music business including amazing times at Warner Bros Records (15 years) and DreamWorks Records (6 years) among others - I enjoy this company most of all – even without all the perks (like a real income).

Perspective.

What’s really important?

I met this lady quite a number of years ago:

I met her husband at the same time.

What a great couple they were.

They both were amazing artists.

He ended up as a Professor at Boston University teaching painting and drawing.

She gave up her career to stay home and take care of their kids.

That’s the way they did it in those days.

He passed away just a bit over six years ago – just before his grandson was born.

She passed away right before Christmas.

I have great perspective on them.

I am their son.

I try to share their values with their grandson.

Teach him what’s important (like pinball)

Do what you love.

Have passion for it.

Don’t make money the focus.

Enjoy life.

Each day.

And share your great memories.

Near the latest melted snowman this tree was on the ground all this past week:

But every time I saw it – this is what I remembered – a tree standing tall with a kid with a funny nose in front of it:

Again perspective.

I think the best perspective is to have no regrets.

Or as few as possible.

Ya gotta be crazy to start a music label in the 21st digital sharing century.

And then give a quarter of a million songs away.

Possibly.

But I would have had huge regrets if I didn’t do it.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

And learn from your mistakes.

And you can’t get completely away from regrets.

Am I sorry the carton is empty?

Nope.

But I’m real sorry I didn’t buy two of ‘em!

Marc

Marc Ratner

Mishara Music

E-mail: marcrescue@gmail.com

Website: www.misharamusic.com

WordPress: www.marcrescue.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/marc.ratner

Twitter: www.twitter.com/marcrescue