Should I indirectly work for Clear Channel???
Sun_Fortune
1,374 Posts
Faced with a moral dilema and I'm hoping some folks can set me straight.Backstory:A month ago a cd of mine fell into the wrong hands through a parent of a friend of mine. The person who got it now works at Def jam as some marketing wiz, but before switching sides worked for Clear Channel and KISS. She gets in touch with me and says I'd be perfect for doing some radio promos (or imaging as its called -- not sure why) and drones (when they say KISS and then there's a sound effect.) Basically, she can get me a ton of work, and at 200 dollars a pop, I could be making some serious cheez wiz. All I got to do now is finish a demo (working on it now, gonna send it tomorrow, maybe.) Truth be told, within a couple of months she practically guranteed I'd be doing 15 a month, then more and more. But I'm on the fence about it.Pros: (If this works out the way she says it will).-Lots of cash to buy tobacco, grass, food, records, new equipment and to take my pseudo-wife out to dinner every now and then.-I would only have to "work" about four to five days a month.-Looking to get into sound editing and sound design as a possible career.-Maybe I'll make good ones and change the format (I'm allowed to do what I want on the demo.)-Possible radio contacts, for what its worth.-I dropped out of college and don't want to work at a book store for 8 dollars an hour.Cons:-Perpetuating the Fraud.-working for the evil empire.-if I have a soul, I will mutilate it(maybe.)-Its freelance work, so I'm not guranteed anything.-Having to "yessir" bullshucks radio types.-hypocraticus Majoris.-Fill in response.I've been talking to my mom and old woman about and they say do it -- bleed the empire as Che would say. So I'm doing it now, but have showered three times since 8 oclock, and I still feel unclean. Any advice, anecdotes, putdowns, disses and various intonations of "you're whak" (with an h and a k -- the most wack way to spell it) would be greatly appreciated.Ray Leatherwood aka Arthur Krems aka Sun_Fortune
Comments
Man, if you can live off that then DO IT. Time is more precious than money.
Fuck the dumb shit.
Clear Channel and House of Blues are killing the touring music industry. These two corporations have a damn near monopoly on all major and even many minor tours. Commercial radio is TERRIBLE and will not get ANY better as long as clear channel is running the majority of the stations. I hope you can find another way to make some good money soon.
real talk
real talk!
Peace...
FM
Here is the real issue. Morally it can easily be justified. You are having your work played on CC, same is if you got a top 40 hit. You are working freelance and if your local independant wants one of your demos they can have it.
BUT[/b] you have to live with yourself. If you feel unclean, then don't do it.
You can think about where lines are. What if the Republican party wanted to use your demos? What if Al Qaida wanted to use them? What if Fox News wanted to use it? What if the Simpson (Fox TV) wanted to use it? What if ABC wanted to use it? What about HBO? What if a whack big name MC wanted one of your beats? how pure are you?
It doesn't matter what we think, you need to find that line.
Dan
I agree with Chan but shit, on the other hand take their money and use it for something constructive.
I'm not sure how pure I am -- I eat food off the ground on the regular.
http://s34.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=05IWXV2F9TUWG2EMJXOC6QZJAW
dont work hard. work smart!
if you dont take the check somebody else will....GET PAID NOW...TRY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE LATER
wow, you do got a radio voice, you trying to hook it up with some drops?
i hate clear channel, but i'd love to get paid to just use my voice like that...i'd probably take it if i could.
DAMN, I WAS GOING TO RESPOND HERE BUT THEN...
...I saw Alba.
Everyone with me, twice as slow now: Al-ba[/b]
good advice, i recently quit a tour gig, for the same reason, i dont need the devils money as good as it was, i didnt feel right ever... now im broke & happy
"Is IT...in YOU?"
Takes the money Lebowsky. Will you be chained to a desk/cube? Will you have time to work your other gigs/hustles? Then it's just money man. Nothing to it.
Honestly, morals in this instance is bullshit because if you were serious then you wouldn't be able to take money from a lot of people. You'd be surprised how often the trail leads back to a company like Clear Channel, or Seagrams, or whatever.
As long as it's not ruining your life, as long as it's merely an ethical issue then it's all in your mind. What having to do with money doesn't present some ethical issue?
My 2.
REAL TALK.
People kill me with this stuff. If you were SO ethically opposed, you wouldn't even have suffered a friendship with someone who worked for them, let alone her offer to help you in the door. This isn't like opening a liquor store on an Indian Reservation, this is about doing some freelance work for a big corporation, right? Music, audio work, right? Isn't that where most of the money for that work is these days? Even small business makes it money doing business with BIG business. No matter how hard we all might wish otherwise, eventually, for some stretch of time, we all do time in the machine.
FUK'N DO IT.
It's hard to break into radio production. You gotta start at the bottom. Your getting an oppurtunity to make money guys in the business have been working their asses off to make for years. Your being given a rare oppurtunity as a newbie to make veteran money.
But if you decide not to do it, tell me where to send my demo....
Chan - what tour has been "killed" by Clear Channel or House of Blues??? When cats like Fat Joe are asking for 100k, it's not really their fault (other than the fact that they sometimes pay it) is it???
As a concert promoter (I don't work for either of them), I'd love to put Common, De La, Atomosphere et al on tour, but sometimes the groups don't sell the tickets their asking price or record sales might suggest.... I've been trying to put together a package tour a la Smokin' Grooves for a year and the main obstacle is finding the group of artists who can selll 3-5,000 seats and it not cost over 100K for groups alone.
Sun - take the money & run. Just don't be defined by who you work for freelance.
as a working freelancer let me tell you first hand that type of shit doesnt come around everyday. take the money and run. and if you dont want to do it, give me their contact info, I WILL!!!!
Clear Channel's latest plan is that they are booking shows and offering the artists NO GUARANTEE. Clear Channel agrees to give the artist most or all of the gate, depending on how big the artist is. Clear Channel then gets ALL the concessions and parking money and does not have to guarantee ANY money to the artists. A lot of artists are going to be VERY reluctant to tour with no nightly guarantee. This will help kill the touring music industry.
You speak in generalizations - where are the examples??? Who are these "artists" that are being offered that???? and which artists are dying to tour???
And that plan hardly "kills" the industry. It does actually put the artist in the postion to where if they can't put asses in the seats (The Snoop/Game tour comes to mind) they have no business asking for 100k and then have people think it's Clear Channel who's to blame. Case in point: Metallica has been playing for without a guarantee for the last three tours (they also refuse to work with CC) and if anything, their record has more to do with their lagging show attendance than anything else.
I just got pitched a NEW GROUP (Hip Hop) who have a member of a club act (a group that on their best date get no more than 1,500 people to pay for tix) who are asking 8-10K. that means that you have to have at least 750 people show up before the promoter breaks even on a $15 ticket. That's a hell of a lot of money for people who have ZERO touring history and can't prove that by association they will have people rolling in like popcorn.