There’s been quite a raging controversy over Spotify over at Hypebot as musicians across the industry chime in with their opinion on the streaming service.

Zoe Keating, Cellist and brilliant DIY musician, talks about how independant artists are treated unfairly.

That’s it. That’s my complaint: fairness.

If Spotify would level the playing field and make the distribution equal to all artists. I would lay off (since I am sure that my constant complaints are a total priority for them!). Now, if Spotify was to make those royalties algorithm-based, they’d have my full nerd support. For example if, thanks to their ‘related’ algorithm,  people listen to small-artist X after listening to large-artist Y, then I could see that a particular play, not all of them, of artist Y could be ‘heavier’. However, if people end up at artist Y by searching for them directly, the play-weight should reflect that. Data, do it with data!

But just to pay tracks from major labels more because they are major labels, that is so OLD. Where is the revolution in that?

Four indie labels have already withdrawn from the service. Sam Rosenthal of Projekt, the most recent label to pull out, issued a public statement explaining the label’s decision bluntly: 

For a stream on Spotfy…. NOW READ THIS CLOSELY….. on average $0.0013 is paid to Projekt’s Digital Distributor. 5000 plays generates around $6.50. In comparison, 5000 track downloads at iTunes generates $3487. To be clear: I am not suggesting that every stream would have been a sale at iTunes. Believe me, I understand the reality of the music business. I am providing that as a comparison for you. Let’s look at this another way: To earn the U.S. monthly minimum wage – $1160 – 892,307 plays a month are needed at Spotify. This is not a viable number for artists.  

Spotify responded to Projeckt by changing the subject:

Spotify does not sell streams, but access to music. Users pay for this access either via a subscription fee or with their ear time via the ad-supported service [just like commercial radio] – they do not pay per stream. In other words, Spotify is not a unit based business and it does not make sense to look at revenues from Spotify from a per stream or other music unit-based point of view. Instead, one must look at the overall revenues that Spotify is generating, and how these revenues grow over time.

Spotify is generating serious revenues for rights holders, labels, publishers and the artists that they represent.  We have paid over $100m to rights holders since our launch, and the overwhelming majority of our label partners are thrilled with the revenues we’re returning to them. Spotify is now the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe, according to IFPI.

But is this current royalty structure sustainable? According to Spotify’s filings in the UK, it lost $42 million on licensing fees in 2010 alone despite a five-fold increase in revenues from the previous year. 

What does all of this mean to an independant artist? Is streaming worth the loss in income so more fans can listen to your music? Can you ever break even on streaming? Is it better to just ignore the whole deal?

Here’s how I see things playing out:
—

1) Streaming services are similar to radio in that both benefit major labels with more money and muscle than independant bands. 

When it comes down to corporation-level negotiations, a DIY artist will always be at a disadvantage. Self-sufficent bands don’t have legal departments, lobbyists, consultants, piles of cash, or a fanbase ranging into the millions that can be used in negotiations. If Spotify can’t sign a DIY singer-songerwriter it’s no big deal, but if Spotify doesn’t have access to the entire Universal Music catalog, the streaming service will be severely crippled. The streaming service has to make that deal.

As such, these large entities leverage their influence and power to ensure that they maximize their benefit from negotiations. Organizations not at the table miss out.

It sucks, but I don’t see a solution to this problem without either a PRO stepping into negotiations or a coalition of DIY artists forming their own right’s group.

2) There’s no turning back, the cloud is here to stay.

For better or worse, streaming services figured out how to monetize piracy. Judging by the success of Rdio and Spotify, businesses have made their services more appealing than piracy. Unless there is a game-changing method of piracy to replace BitTorrent, the ease of use of the cloud will continue to draw in customers. (Piracy in Sweden is down 25% since the Spotify’s introduction.)

Businesses won’t give up this revenue stream without a fight.

3) Streaming is marginally better for indie musicians than radio.
Radio was a passive music experience, with a song selection heavily influenced by who had the most cash for promotion.

Streaming/cloud services/piracy enable an active music experience by allowing curious fans to give new bands a try. It won’t pay much, if anything, but it does benefit smaller and niche bands that wouldn’t get much airplay on traditional radio.

A minor win.

4) Streaming an album is a moral dilemma.
As a fan, it was absolutely awesome to hear the new Mastodon the day it came out for free on Spotify. Now I’ve got no qualms about throwing dollars at Mastodon, I’ve bought every studio album because they’re that gravy. But. having spun the album a few times, there wasn’t any reason for me to buy the actual album anymore.

This is a mammoth moral dilemma.

Instead of Mastodon seeing my entire $10 for a digital download (minus iTunes’ cut), the money is instead spent on a subscription to an intermediate who only offers the band a fraction of the $10. The middleman (streaming) scoops most of the profit off of album before it ever hits the band.

Owch.

How do we cope with this?

5) Delaying and limiting releases to streaming is an effective compromise.

By delaying release of new material to streaming services, we ensure that super-fans who are willing to pay for a “brand-new” album actually pay for the album, while not excluding casual listeners who may convert to a sale later down the line. This is the same method of price discrimination that movie companies use; movies don’t come out on DVD/Netflix until months after they’ve left the theaters. This ensures that movie-buffs willing to pay a price premium to see a movie in theaters actually pay.

For the same reason, any b-sides, rarities or limited-edition material shouldn’t be released to streaming services as this would discourage willing fans from paying at the cost of providing the material to casual fans, who really won’t care about “extra” material.
—

What are your thoughts on streaming?

Art can go straight from the eye to connect with something deep inside of us. And because we as people–quirky, brilliant, flawed, twitchy things that we are–are all a collection of different life experiences, art connects differently with each one of us. But one thing is for sure, like the pieces done for interior design, nothing connects unless there is something true in the piece.

Author, Anne Lamott, admonishes people to “stop writing as if your mother is looking over your shoulder.” This is true not just for writers but for visual artists and musicians. We can get into a rhythm of creating what we think we “should” create or what is easy for us rather than allowing our human selves–the deep stuff–to be revealed. And there is something about the deep stuff…our hopes, dreams, fears, pain and insecurities–all of the stuff that makes us vulnerable–that is universally true.

So do a “gut check.” Are there things keeping your work from being “true”? Get quiet enough for a moment to explore on the inside and see if you are giving your art total access to your soul. Are the barriers what others might think? Are we hiding behind walls that keep us safe?

True art always goes for the connection. And only what is real is able to connect.

The following color photos are from the lens of Thomas Garza, the black and whites are from William Neal.

Many thanks to both of these photographers for their beautiful work.

You can learn more about Thomas Garza at http://www.facebook.com/ThomasGarzaPhotography

You can learn more about William Neal at http://www.facebook.com/wjnphoto

Special thanks to The Just.Us.League, Abstract Method Marketing, and the Hilton Anatole for this event.

Contact: David Rodriguez
Tel. 972-743-3105
Email: david@artlovemagic.com

DART –

Eventbrite –

Titan Comics –

Southside on Lamar –

Poor Vida –

Rec Shop –

Ufilmhouse –

2826 Arnetic –

Deep Eddy Vodka –

Absinthe –

Deep Ellum Brewing Company –

Red Bull –

Kevin Steele’s linework is just beautiful. And those smart choices of where to lay the color in, leaving the rest to line and paper, really make her face and tattooes pop. A beautiful drawing.

You can see Kevin do some of this live live at February 11th’s UNDERGROUND show.

This pencil drawing by artist Will Klein was a commissioned Christmas present for ArtLoveMagic’s Michael Lagocki. Click on it to zoom in, and really catch the details and the softness of the drawing. Also, check out someone’s best friend hanging out in the clouds.

This image currently welcomes visitors at the frontpage of www.artlovemagic.com.

Cartoonist Khalid Robertson recently posted the above sketches for an upcoming project that he’s still working out the ideas on. When Khalid does get everything figured out in sketches, he’ll usually complete the drawings in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.

You can see more of Khalid’s work, and meet him, and watch him create art live at February 11th’s UNDERGROUND show.

Jason Kinney’s pencil drawings fool the eye into thinking another medium is being used. But his tools are simple (probably in your desk drawer now). He manages to get all those soft gradations simply through careful drawing and erasing. Smart use of dark and light is very important here. Look at the difference between the lightest white on the drawing and the darkest black.

This above drawing, a re-creation of William Bouguereau’s painting ‘Innocence’, was recently featured in our 2011 artist blog as Jason’s selection for one of his favorite works of the year.

Cal Slayton has done a variety of freelance art in his career including plenty of published comic book work. One project Cal has recently been active in is the creation of original hand drawn comic book covers. Marvel has taken to publishing comics with pure white covers for artists to draw on. The inside is a normal comic, but the cover is blank bristol. Cal’s done dozens of these using lots of different themes and characters.

Cal Slayton was a featured artist in the very first ArtLoveMagic show. To commission a comic with a hand drawn cover from him, hit him up at www.calslayton.com

Photo Credit: Carolyn Collins Photography  (David Rodriguez, Justin Nygren, Michael Lagocki)

As 2011 draws to a close, my heart is full of anticipation for 2012.  I’ve taken the last year off for family business and have had the opportunity to watch this last year’s activity and growth from an outside perspective.  To see the work, the dedication, the passion and the direction grow and evolve has been both humbling and beyond encouraging.  Since 2006 when Mike, Dave and I dreamt over a cup of coffee and planted the seeds for our first show, it seems like the amazing ride we embarked on has only gotten more and more wild.  The best part about it is that we have gone from a small group of dreaming and idealistic friends and grown into an amazing and beautiful community full of intentionality and vision.

My thanks and undying gratitude go out to every one of you, from artist to attendee, sponsor to customer, for every ounce of love that you have poured out into the Dallas arts community.  I can see 2012 bringing us more connections, more focus and more importantly, more Love to you and to our community.  I’m looking forward to hugging your neck at the next show.

Peace,

Justin Nygren
Co-Founder/Love Ninja/Dot Connector

Post by David Rodriguez, Lead Producer for Underground

Underground 2012, Dallas’ largest live art event, has added a new element to its presentation: The VIP Lounge! Tickets for VIP are $25 and will ONLY be sold on-line.

As our VIP guest, you will be able to get into our event an hour earlier than the general public. If you remember the lines that formed at the previous events then you’ll know that this is a great feature! Not only will you avoid the wait but you’ll be able to get FIRST DIBS on some amazing new art and jewelry, as well as be able to speak to some of artist you are looking forward to see.

VIP’s will have unlimited access to the UNDERGROUND VIP Room. You must have a VIP pass to enter this room. Throughout the night you will be able to retreat to this location and enjoy a little getaway as 5 select local artists body paint under black lights. A dj will be spinnin’ within the room as additional artists create live.

Swag bags will be distributed to VIP’s within the VIP Lounge. Tons of FREE stuff, including a FREE Underground imprinted PINT GLASS!

There will be FREE food for VIP’s and, no more waiting in line to pay for drinks with a VIP ticket, FREE local craft beer from Deep Ellum Brewing Company and mixed drinks featuring Deep Eddy’s Vodka ONLY in the VIP Lounge.

Special presentation within the VIP Lounge to be announced!

Underground 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
7pm VIP
8pm – 12am General Admission
Janette Kennedy Gallery
within South Side On Lamar
1409 S. Lamar, Dallas, TX 75215

Go to artlovemagic.com or underground2012.eventbrite.com to purchase your tickets TODAY! Thank you for your support and we’ll see you at the show.

A variety of artists answered the call, from many different mediums. There’s been no effort here to order them into any categories. What follows is a mash up of Dallas area artists from illustrators, to painters, photographers, and even sculptors.  Also included are a few former Dallas-ites who’ve now moved around the world and still have a connection to artlovemagic.

You can click on each image to see it a bit larger, or follow the link after to see more of the artist’s work. Enjoy.

Jonathan Davis

“Medusa”
mixed mediums on cotton paper, October 2011
18.5 x 12.75 inches

Medusa was once a beautiful, lovely woman. She was so beautiful and desired, a god took her innocence by force, raped her, and left her all alone. When Medusa came to Athena for help, Athena took the side of the god who raped her, since he was a god as well, and Medusa was simply a human that was as beautiful, if not more, than Athena. She then cursed her to be alone, deformed and never to know love. Athena turned such beauty into such horror, and left her at the end of the world. Later on she was be-headed by Perseus. I just wanted her to be remembered, not as a monster, but a beautiful woman who never had a chance. She symbolizes to me in many ways, what women have been dealing with since the beginning. This is a tribute to Medusa, the most beautiful woman that ever walked the planet.

www.facebook.com/jonathanmichealdavis

Lawrence Alexander

Brandon Douglas

The ideas I have for my art come from various conversations I have with my close friends. All of which are creative types. I am very fortunate for that. One conversation we had revolved around perceived value and beauty in people and things. Our talk focused around the treatment of beautiful women. My conclusion from the conversation was that I felt a little sad that most people look at beautiful women just as they would look at a rare object. Never connecting with them on a human level but rather only superficially. Days later as I was waking up I had a vision of a transparent woman blending in with the background and looking away from me. She was content with her position in life but her presence was cold. The title for this piece is “Disconnected”

https://www.facebook.com/B.DougArt

Snow White

The Calatrava Bridge at sunset.

Cori Berg

This piece was a commission gifted to a friend this year leaving one successful creative career and opening herself up to a new journey of unknown experiences.  Having gone through this myself in the last several years leaving my career in education and administration to pursue my art full time, I was really drawn to this piece.  Many, many people people are going through this  midway or even at the end of their working careers these days, with very unique challenges and struggles.  Immediately, one can struggle with a loss of identity, having lived so much with your job as that piece which people connect to.  There can be feelings of grief over loss of “job relationships,” as well as grief over the tasks that once brought you joy.  One is met with being a novice again, middleaged amongst younger people who may not recognize your skills and value.  But, if one is willing to face this experience with authenticity, courage, and hope, one can find new skills emerge and new sources of joy.  Thus, the image of the bird changing direction mid-flight, wings still spread, still in motion.

www.coriberg.blogspot.com

My name is Arazeli Torres and the piece I am most proud of that I’ve done in 2011 is my first metal sculpture I created using scrap metals, computer parts, and clay. The piece is called “Programmed Life” and it represents how some parents don’t allow their kids to follow their dreams. Sometimes you want to become a singer, artist, musician, writer, etc. and your parents don’t allow you to become what you want to be in life.  Many have endured a life of being controlled, led, directed, and programmed into following an occupation or life they are not happy with. Parents need to give their kids confidence and courage to follow their own dreams and show them support.

https://www.facebook.com/torresarts

Hatziel Flores

” Beauty ( inside-out )”
Oil/ Acrylic
36×48 Woodpanel

A inside look at the true beauty that lies inside of us even when in-times it seems to almost fell truly lost, is also second chance or an opportunity to share a side that the close person has missed or not seen before.

Hatziel.com

Jasna Boudard

www.municipaljabberings.blogspot.com

Dee Hill

This is an image of a room in an old hotel built in the 1880′s
in a small town in East Texas,
Many things in the rooms have pretty much been left most likely
just as they were at least 20 years prior to the day I photographed it.
It’s a beautiful vintage building in need of restoration.
The hotel is also “home” to three known ghosts.
Reported sightings include a woman in a long dress,
a young female child and a gambler often carrying a deck of cards.

www.flickr.com/photos/genevive33

Chris and Hallie Garcia

One of my favorite pieces of 2011 was the “family” portrait my husband Chris and I did together. How this happened was purely sparked through ALM. We were asked to be a part ALM’s section of Deep Ellum Arts Fest and Deborah specifically asked us to team up as husband and wife and work on something together. Chris and I hadn’t really done that before but decided it could be fun. Months earlier I had rescued a huge 4′x6′ canvas that was sitting with some neighbor’s trash, and we settled on using that since Deborah asked us to create ‘BIG!” and it was free….so if we messed it up it wasn’t a big loss. Since it was our first true collaborative painting together, the subject matter seemed to be an easy choice! A key to working on this together was using an improv game called The Yes Game. When one player says a statement, the other has to respond with “yes” followed by a statement that only builds the conversation up. So when we went to paint this, we decided to say yes to each others ideas, and follow up with ways we could enhance and see those ideas through. It was a great experience for the both of us and we ended up with a fantastic piece of art we are both proud of and LOVE!  Since we’ve completed this piece, we were commissioned to do other family portraits and have discovered we really love working together on art!

Brandy Collins

I painted this after a strong desire to express my thankfulness and love for the privilege of nursing as a profession. My acrylic version of the original photo. “Staged Kiss.”

Cal Slayton

Cloak and Dagger
In a year (luckily) filled with tons of commissions, this was a piece I did for fun. Just for me, just because I wanted to. Cloak and Dagger as such cool characters and there are a lot of cool images of them out there.  It made me realize that in all my years (and that ain’t no small amount of years) of drawing, I’ve only done them a couple of times at the most.  So I thought I’d tackle them and I was pleased with the results.  Pencil, ink, markers, color pencil on this sorta chip board / card stock paper.

http://calslayton.deviantart.com/

Will Klein

“City Life” is a painting that was inspired directly from graffiti and street art.  Art work on the street brings a certain liveliness to the environment. The unavoidability of this art accompanied by its inherent, humanistic qualities reminded me of a unstoppable vine or weed. In this painting, the paint is transforming an otherwise gray wall into an alive scenery. In essence, artwork on the street takes on an entity all its own and brings life to the city.

Robert James Luedke

I’m very proud of this image because it was created using a number of mediums, including: Soft Pastels, colored pencils and markers.  In addition, it was created for a very good cause, the live charity art auction benefiting Heroes for Heroes, sponsored by Art/Love/Magic .

http://www.bobtheartist.com

Kathryn Petroff

I am extremely proud of this mural I painted in 2011. Landscape is not at all in my style. In fact, this was my first landscape to ever paint. If you know my work, I specialize in murals and portraits of people and have a much more edgy look to my gallery works. The reason this painting sticks out as my most important work this year is that it wasn’t painted for money, but with love for my son. I worked on this mural throughout most of my pregnancy for our nursery. It felt like it took forever because of the body aches and having to wear a respirator for safety…the progress photos of me working are hysterical! In the end, it was completely worth it. Being a full time artist, it is easy to measure the importance of my works by the amount of money I made or people who will see it. This time it is a mural painted off the clock, for my own little family that has a special place in my heart.

www.klpfineart.com

Patricia Rodriguez

This piece is titled “Adrift”, I made it especially for the Cool Waters show I participated in this year. I drew some inspiration from Hokusai and was really shooting for a piece that showed movement and stillness all at once. The branches appear to be caught and suspended in the flow which wants to pull them away with it’s natural force. It is a snapshot of a moment in between currents. This piece is acrylic on canvas and is the flip side of what I do when I’m not painting on vinyl records.

Here are some photographs from the lens of Quoc Cong Qc.

Special thanks to the Just.Us.League, the Hilton Anatole, Abstract Method Marketing, Origin Magazine and all the volunteers. What a special experience.

To learn more at Quoc Cong Qc’s gorgeous event photography, check out his facebook page here.

Thankfully, event photographer Robert Hold documented all facets of the evening and took some beautiful photos while doing so. And photo booth photographer Kelsey Paine set up one of the most amazing booths we’ve ever had, complete with winter snowflakes shooting at the attendees from a canon-like-object.

We mixed up some of the best photos from both photographers here, and have links to the full sets at the bottom of this post. Enjoy.

The full set of Robert Hold’s event photography can be seen, downloaded, and ordered here:

http://roberthold.photoshelter.com/gallery/Art-Love-Magic-12-17/G0000cXKk8KaDna4/

The full set of Kelsey Paine’s winter photobooth photography can be seen, downloaded and ordered here:

http://lostandfoundfocus.smugmug.com/Photobooth/ArtLoveMagic-Holiday-Show2011/20669114_bLKxVc#1639085302_ZR8hrF9

A special thanks to the good people at Life In Deep Ellum & Mokah Lounge for providing space for this event.