South Korean Indie Music - there is no real profit to be found from rock festivals

by Huw on Friday, October 12, 2012

A poorer cousin of K-pop, the Korean indie scene is apparently not the place to make money, as the below article reports, arguing that even bands who have had some measure of success can rarely make ends meet. Some cite the amount of “idol” bands filling the charts in as the cause of this, whilst others point to the ‘mercenary’ nature of the Hongdae club scene.

Some netizens are saying the fans themselves are to blame for not spending enough on their favourite artists, others argue its just the bands that need to raise their own profiles, and the rest say it’s the Chaebols that have spoilt the music scene for new bands.

It is worth noting that in Korean that the use of the word “indie” does not refer to a specific genre in the way it might to our English-speaking readers. It is used here to refer to Korean punk acts of renown like Crying Nut and No Brain, as well as more commercial pop-rock artists like CNBLUE.

From Naver:

‘Almost No Bands Make A Living Through Music.’

’1 million won a month is practically nothing. Music is my dream but as you get older, it gets harder to stand.’ A (38), runs a bar in at Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, in Seoul. He was, 3 months ago, a guitarist in an active and successful indie band, that once topped the indie charts, and made their way into the public eye by writing music for dramas. However, despite being ‘on a roll’ they never earnt more than a million won a month. ‘In the indie world establishing yourself financially is not easy even if you have a following. There are nearly no bands making enough to get by through music.’ The members of A’s band have moved on to managing cafes, bars and schools, or just drifting between different jobs. But, this is not to say he’s given up music, he dreams of rekindling his love for music once he has raised enough money. 

Of the roughly 500 bands native to the Hongdae club scene, there are only around 10, including Crying Nut, No Brain and Nell(Pictured, L-R), who are able to make a living. Many have pointed out that in order to help diversify Korean music, indie bands would have to have been able to perform steadily for 20-30 years.

 

There are currently around 500 bands native to the Hongdae area, and this estimate is separate from the one given by the Record Label Industry Association of Korea. Of the roughly 100 bands playing this year’s rock festivals, the bands able to make a living amounts to less than 10, and they tend to be well known acts such as Crying Nut, No Brain and Nell

 

In the year 2000, rookie indie bands made their way into the public eye, and began to be paid on a monthly basis. Popularity was rewarded with the assurance of Korean releases, and pay was around a million won each. These despotic ‘slave contracts’ are greatly praised amongst business circles. 

The number of indie bands playing at rock festivals who are capable of earning the minimum cost of living (in 2012 around 55 million won) is estimated to be around 100. This is because, outside of business events, there is no real profit to be found from rock festivals. Album sales are only a publicity issue and, the truth is, the sales market has sort of died, with digital recording sales returning a mere 5% to each singer. 

According to high-ranking fan club members, we are fast approaching the ‘free stage’. More than ten venues, such as Club FF, Evans, Hauter, Jammers, Spat, Ta, Drug, GoGoS2, and others, are holding animated concerts in the Hongdae area, but the earnings from these events are extremely poor. Most clubs will only start paying the artists money from the admission fee if the audience has more than 10 people. The effect of this is a B-list band getting 12 people to come would then have to split the profit from those two people 5 ways. So it is common for bands to be playing a venue that’s getting 2-3 million won without receiving a penny.

Korean indie music agencies have said ‘Clubs are looking for an audience of 5-30 people on weekdays and 70-100 on the weekend, this is not easy and every club has the same requirements.’ adding ‘Club management won’t see profit from ticket sales and whilst they make a little money on selling booze, recently the sums haven’t added up at closing time.’

In their late 30s the young artists who determined to ‘make a living with music they like’ will start working in bars or cafes, teaching at schools, working as private tutors, or any job which will help them avoid joining the ranks of office workers.

An indie agency representative has pointed out ‘People may have formed programmes like EBS’s Hello Rookie, KBS Top Band, and KOCCA’s K-rookies, but there’s no real public interest. In order to help diversify Korean music, indie bands would have to have been able to perform steadily for 20-30 years.’

Cultural Critic Jeong Teokhyeon has said ‘The world of indie plays an important role in nourishing Korean music.’ and ‘This market needs help if it is to develop. Band must be increasingly and regularly invited on shows such as ‘I’m a singer’(KBS) and ‘Immortal Classic’(MBC)’

Lee Hyun

engine@segye.com

The Reclused Huguette Clark - 104 Year Old Copper Queen with $500 Million Estate Made Howard Hughes Look Like a Party Going Playboy

Deceased--Huguette Clark

Huguette Clark
June 9th, 1906 to May 24th, 2011

This is a photo from 1917 of mister Clark and his daughters Andrée and Huguette visiting Columbia Gardens, which he built in Butte. Huguette is on the right.

You have to wonder about Huguette Clark's life: She had so much and so little.

"Huguette Clark: New York's billionaire recluse dies, aged 104"
Manhattan heiress to copper fortune 'made Howard Hughes seem outgoing'

by

Ed Pilkington

May 25th, 2011

guardian.co.uk

For 80 years her life was set in aspic, preserved as if in a time warp in an ever-shrinking social world that ended with her death this week aged 104 in a hospital room accompanied only by the nursescaring for her and her beloved French dolls.

But Huguette Clark leaves behind her a fortune estimated as at least $500m (£307m) and a story of eccentricity and loss anchored in another age.

For the past 22 years or more, she has lived under a false name in a hospital room, most recently in the Beth Israel Medical Centre, New York, where she died on Tuesday, with no one other than herlawyer allowed to visit her. The last known photograph of her shows her standing on a steamship swaddled in furs; it was taken in 1930.

As MSNBC's investigative reporter Bill Dedman, who has written the definitive work on Clark and last year tracked her down to a bustling corridor in the hospital, has put it: "She wasn't sick. She was reclusive. She made Howard Hughes seem outgoing."

By choosing to closet herself away at Beth Israel, Clark deprived herself of fabulous riches. Her inheritance included Bellosguardo, a mansion worth $100m overlooking the Pacific in Santa Barbara, California, which she last visited 50 years ago, as well as the $24m Le Beau Chateau, tucked among 21 hectares (52 acres) of land in Connecticut, which she bought in 1952 and expanded with an artist's loft but never occupied.

Above all, there was the Fifth Avenue apartment, distinguished by being the largest at that illustrious Manhattan address, with 42 rooms over one and a half floors of an entire block. She was last spotted there at least 22 years ago.

If Clark sounds a little irregular, then consider the source of her wondrous wealth – her father, William Clark. He was a copper tycoon from Montana, second in riches only to the oil magnate John Rockefeller.

Notorious for his curmudgeonly ways and temper, Clark is still remembered in Montana as the man who stripped the state of its natural wealth. He was seminal in the founding of Las Vegas, which he established as a maintenance base for one of his railway lines. He also has the dubious distinction of having inspired the 17th amendment to the American constitution which provides for direct elections for US senators – it was introduced after he tried to buy a seat.

Clark built a house on Fifth Avenue a few blocks from where Huguette eventually moved. It had 121 rooms and four art galleries, with electricity powered by a daily load of seven tons of coal brought to the house via his own subway line.

Huguette was brought up in that house and in Paris, where she had been born on 9 June 1906. She is said to have spoken English with a French accent to the day she died. She spent much of her time, both as a child and adult, with her prized collection of dolls, playing music – she owned four Stradivari including The Virgin, one of the most sought-after violins, made in 1709, given by her mother for her 50th birthday and later sold for $6m – and watching the Flintstones and other TV cartoons.

Why she became a recluse is not known. It could have been the bereavement of losing her elder sister, Andrée, who died in 1919 of meningitis, or of her mother in 1963, or it could have been related to divorcing her husband, William Gower, after just two years' marriage in 1930. Perhaps it was a reaction to her huge wealth. She once called money "a menace to happiness".

It is unclear what will happen to her fortune; it is being investigated by the Manhattan district attorney.

She had no children and had not seen any relatives for decades. Her only visitors were her lawyer, Wallace Bock, and accountant, Irving Kamsler, each the subject of the attorney's attention after Clark's relatives complained a couple of years ago that her affairs were being mismanaged. Both men deny any wrongdoing.

"Huguette Clark dies at 104; reclusive heiress"

Huguette Clark, a copper tycoon's daughter, preferred to be known as Madame Clark and to be surrounded by her expensive French dolls. Relatives accuse her lawyer and accountant of mishandling her massive estate.

by 

Steve Chawkins

May 26th, 2011

Los Angeles Times

Huguette Clark, a copper tycoon's daughter with a taste for exquisite French dolls, baronial homes and solitude, has died. She was 104.

Clark, who preferred to be known as Madame Clark, died Tuesday at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. She had resided at the hospital for more than 20 years, leaving vacant but meticulously tended her grand homes in Santa Barbara, New Canaan, Conn., and New York City.

Increasingly reclusive as she grew older, she would summon an antiques dealer to her palatial Fifth Avenue apartment and bargain with him only through a closed door. As her long life drew to an end, her cherished dolls are reported to have been her constant companions.

Her New York attorney, Wallace Bock, is one of the few people with whom she is known to have had regular contact. However, New York prosecutors are investigating whether he and accountant Irving H. Kamsler exploited the frail Clark, whose estate is valued at $500 million.

Bock's spokesman issued a brief comment on her death: "Madame Clark's passing is a sad event for everyone who loved and respected her over the years. She died as she wanted, with dignity and privacy. We intend to continue to respect her wishes for privacy."

Born into opulence in Paris on June 9, 1906, Huguette Marcelle Clark was the daughter of William Andrews Clark, a mine owner and railroad baron whose fortune rivaled John D. Rockefeller's. Huguette's mother, Anna LaChappelle, was 17 and portraying Lady Liberty in a Fourth of July pageant when the 56-year-old Clark, later a U.S. senator from Montana, saw her and was smitten.

Clark's father — who built a whistle-stop called Las Vegas in what is now Clark County, Nev. — was unashamed to display his wealth. Huguette grew up in a 121-room Manhattan mansion so over-the-top that New Yorkers called it "Clark's Folly." It included Turkish baths, galleries for an extensive art collection and a railroad spur for coal cars.

Huguette Clark was educated at Miss Spence's School for Girls in New York and took extended vacations in France.

When she was a teenager, her father acquired a Santa Barbara estate called Bellosguardo, an elegant home perched on a bluff overlooking the ocean. A private rail car would deposit the family at Bellosguardo every winter and Huguette would return there over the years. By all accounts, she had not set foot on her 23-acre property for at least half a century before her death.

Barbara Hoelscher Doran, the manager of a Montecito interior design business, grew up at Bellosguardo, where her father supervised the staff. When invited from her family's cottage to the estate's main house, she would don surgical-style slippers to avoid marring the parquet floors. As a young girl she was fond of Huguette, who would ask her to tea and give her children's books in French.

"She was a wonderful, kind, giving lady," Doran said. "I feel really saddened that it's the end of an era."

While William Andrews Clark was open to a fault, bragging that as a politician he "never bought a man who wasn't for sale," Huguette shunned the spotlight. In Santa Barbara, she was little known. She donated land and money for a 42-acre bird refuge near her estate and named it after Andree Clark, a sister who died of meningitis in 1919.

In her younger days, Huguette Clark was mentioned in society columns but soon faded from public view. She became a public figure — unwillingly — at the age of 103.

It was then that reports by MSNBC.com raised questions about the handling of her estate.

Prompted by the news stories, three distant relatives told a New York judge that Clark's advisors had exerted "improper influence" over her. They pointed to a $1.5-million donation she made to an Israeli settlement in the disputed West Bank, where her attorney's daughter lived with her family. They also expressed concern over her accountant's guilty plea to charges that he had emailed pornography to teenage girls.

The judge denied their request for a guardian. Bock and Kamsler, who have not been charged with any crimes, denied any wrongdoing, including accusations that they tried to get themselves named in her will. In court papers, Bock cast the family members as opportunists.

None of the relatives, he said, had any contact with Huguette Clark until she was 95 — and that was only to seek funds for upkeep of a family mausoleum.

They were "officious interlopers," he wrote, "virtual strangers … with whom Ms. Clark has knowingly and assiduously avoided contact for decades."

Clark was married in 1928 to William MacDonald Gower, a son of one of her father's business associates. They divorced in 1930. She had no children and outlived her six brothers and sisters.

Russian Authorities they must guarantee the safety of Masha & Nadya and release them immediately.

Amnesty International calls on Russian authorities to free the two remaining members of Pussy Riot and ensure their safety until they are released.

	We're relieved that one member of Pussy Riot has been set free. Russian authorities must now release Nadya & Masha immediately.
	Dear KDTN Radio One, On Wednesday, an appeals court in Moscow released one member of feminist punk band Pussy Riot and upheld two-year sentences for the other two. While we welcomed the news that Katja Samutsevich has been reunited with her family, we are standing firmly beside Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova. For them -- and for everyday citizens of Russia -- this week's decision represents a rubber stamp on repression. And what the women face next could be a lot worse. Tell the Russian Authorities they must guarantee the safety of Masha & Nadya and release them immediately. It's critical that all the women are let go without prejudice. Right now, these Prisoners of Conscience are facing two years in a Russian penal colony hundreds of miles from their families. And if you saw the conditions in these notorious prisons, you'd want to scrub the sight from your mind. High-profile prisoners like these women are at heightened risk. Since the mainstream media in Russia has portrayed Pussy Riot as a bunch of "hooligans motivated by religious hatred," it's like painting a big target on the women's backs. Masha and Nadya need activists like you to show the world they will not be forgotten. Please take action now to show that you care. Amnesty International has been there from the beginning. And we will not stop fighting until all members of Pussy Riot are free. This all started because the women peacefully performed a political song in an empty church. And this is what happens when fear is embraced and dissent is crushed. The best way to fight back is to step forward. Thank you for using your voice to speak out on behalf of these women. Free Pussy Riot. All of them. Now. With thanks and in solidarity, Michelle Ringuette Chief of Campaigns & Programs Amnesty International USA

Monday, October 15, 2012, 08:25 am

Microsoft set to launch Xbox Music with free unlimited streaming

By Katie Marsal

This week, Microsoft will step up its competition with Apple's iTunes with the launch of Xbox Music, a new service that offers unlimited streaming to Microsoft devices, including PCs running Windows 8.
For now, the Xbox Music service will be limited to only devices running Microsoft's new Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 platforms, as well as the Xbox 360 game console. A hands-on preview of Xbox Music was published on Monday by Gizmodo.

While the basic, free service offers unlimited streaming to Windows 8 tablets and PCs, customers who pay a $10-per-month subscription can also download songs, and stream to their Xbox game console as well as Windows Phone 8 handsets. It's a business model similar to Spotify, which offers free ad-supported streaming to desktops, while only subscribers can stream to their mobile device.

The basic free service is currently scheduled to last six months, but author Kyle Wagner noted that period could be extended, depending on what kind of deal Microsoft can reach with music publishers.

"For local music files that you add to your library, Xbox Music sort of works like Google Play Music, with a bit of iTunes Match thrown in," Wagner wrote. "It uses a 'scan and match' process to see if you've uploaded tracks that it has on file, and if it finds a match, you'll be able to stream it from the cloud, even if it's not available over XBM's streaming service."

Pussy Riot Song Continues Rise on American Pop Music Charts

MEMPHIS TN (IFS) -- KDTN Radio One, the internet powerhouse radio station playlist has Pussy Riot's "The Putin Song" (English translation) continues to climb the American music charts.  The girls single entered the charts as an "Add-on" in the stations 200 song playlist, and has over the past couple of weeks, steadily climbed the charts which is setting at 139 among some of the American artists' best sellers.  

Kenny Smith, the director of music programming at the SDC Radio Networks (SDC OmniMedia Group) four stations call the song a game changer, as the requests for the single continues to grow in popularity as the listener requests for Pussy Riot's interest garners an America audience.  

Smith states that no one really understand the lyrics, but they support the girls, because they are in the national media all of the time.  Their popularity here in the states will just grow more and more as long as they are in prison, and the international media keeps attention on them.

Smith also adds, that the songs is not really that great, but it is "just good enough"  for listening and requests for the song gather lots of "hits" out of curiosity about the group.  Smith also adds, that it's just enough spoken Russian for the American listeners to get the "idea" of the song.

As for the language lessons, the song has increased interest in learning the Russian language, and general sales are up for these programs.  Smith says, that the girls song will enter the top 100 songs on the KDTN Radio One charts by the end of November, giving its current projection into the national media music stream and the international focus on them.

Russian punk rocker freed on appeal; two others remain in prison

Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich leaves the Moscow City Court on Oct 10, 2012.  The court replaced Yekaterina Samutsevich's jail term for a suspended sentence.



By Will Englund, Wednesday, October 10, 9:07 AM

MOSCOW — One of the members of a feminist punk group convicted of hooliganism, for storming into a cathedral and singing a protest song, unexpectedly won her freedom on appeal Wednesday.

Two other members of the band, called Pussy Riot, had their sentences upheld, and must serve two years in a prison camp.
Their case has won worldwide notoriety, with calls for their release from rock stars and political figures. Their target was President Vladimir Putin, who said last week that he thought their sentences were just. They continued to criticize him in court at Wednesday’s hearing.

The members of the band went to the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral on Feb. 21, wearing balaclava ski masks, and sang a song against Putin. At their trial last summer, they were accused of inciting religious hatred.

The case has been portrayed as evidence of a crackdown by Putin on the more spirited members of the opposition that began taking to the streets in open protest in December 2011. Other activists also face a variety of criminal charges that could carry severe penalties.

At the same time, parliament has passed bills that significantly increase the prison terms for organizing illegal protests and that have made it much more difficult for civil society organizations to operate here. New bills would greatly expand the definition of treason and make it easier to imprison people on charges of inciting religious hatred.

The released woman, Yekaterina Samutsevich, had replaced her lawyers before a previously scheduled hearing. Her supporters were quick to point out Wednesday that the attorneys who originally represented her — Violetta Volkova, Nikolai Polozov and Mark Feigin — are particularly disliked by Putin. Samutsevich’s father suggested that she was being rewarded for making the change; other allies saw an effort by the Kremlin to drive a wedge among members of the group and among other activists as well.

Band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, both of whom have small children, kept the original defense team and now must serve their sentences.

The court decision releasing Samutsevich pointed out that she had not had time to join the others at the altar before security guards hustled them all out of the cathedral, and she therefore deserved less blame.

At Wednesday’s hearing, all three women argued that their protest was strictly political and not motivated by religious hatred.

“It is as clear as noon that our performance at the Christ the Savior Cathedral was political rather than anti-religious. I have no religious hatred, and none of us had it in our performance,” Tolokonnikova said. She said she felt repentance but not remorse.

“Repentance as a personal act is acceptable to us, but remorse is not, because this would mean that we acknowledge our guilt. It is impossible to feel remorse for something you did not do,” she said.

She apologized for hurting believers’ feelings.

“If we unintentionally offended any believers with our actions, we express our apologies,” said Samutsevich.

The women were careful to mention the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church as one of their political targets, as opposed to those who worship within the church.

The church is closely aligned with the Kremlin, and it pushed hard for the prosecution of the punk rockers. More broadly, it has been arguing that it is a victim of strident secular hostility. In the wake of the Pussy Riot convictions, some activists have been sawing down wooden crosses in cities throughout Russia.

Amnesty International said Wednesday that all three members should be released. “The persecution of Pussy Riot has become a global symbol of President Putin’s shameless intolerance for criticism and determined crackdown on freedom of expression and association,” Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement released by her office.

American Music Awards: Rihanna, Nicki Minaj Lead Nominees

American Music Awards: Rihanna, Nicki Minaj Lead Nominees

Christina Aguilera Set to Perform at 40th Anniversary Event, Airing Nov. 18 on ABC

 

 

 

Nicki Minaj and Rihanna secured four American Music Awards nominations each Tuesday as voting booths were opened to the public for the 40th anniversary of the awards show.

Christina Aguilera, the first announced performer on the show, joined producers to announce the nominations Tuesday at the J.W. Marriott Los Angeles in the L.A. Live complex, adjacent to the Nokia Theater where the event will be held on Nov. 18. ABC will broadcast the three-hour show FULL LIST: 2012 American Music Awards Nominees.

Among the artists securing multiple nominations were Drake, Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, One Direction and Usher with three each, and Carrie Underwood, Chris Brown, fun., Gotye, J. Cole, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Luke Bryan and Pitbull with two apiece. Awards will be handed out in 20 categories including a new one, Electronic Dance Music, where the nominees are David Guetta, Calvin Harris and Skrillex.

Rihanna, Bieber, Drake, Maroon 5 and Billboard's Woman of the Year, Katy Perry, are up for the top AMA prize, Artist of the Year. Cole, fun., Gotye, Carly Rae Jepsen and One Direction are the New Artist of the Year contenders.

Besides being the AMAs' 40th anniversary, it will be the first show since the death of the show's creator Dick Clark. Producer Larry Klein, who had worked with Clark since the first edition, says the show will be filled with clips from throughout its history in addition to presenting about 17 live performances.

"Terrific performances, outrageous acceptance speeches -- those moments when you feel strong emotion," Klein told Billboard, noting that the entire three-hour show would be a tribute to Clark.

Having spent time in the Dick Clark Productions archives, Klein rattled off a few highlights: A Paul McCartney interview filmed in Jamaica in 1982 as part of a Stevie Wonder tribute; Whitney Houston in 1994; Eddie Murphy and Michael Jackson.

Clark was a behind-the-scenes presence at the AMAs so Klein will be saving an on-air tribute for "New Year's Rockin' Eve," which he also produces for ABC. His goal now is to maintain the spirit of the show that began with a telecast in 1974 to honor the music of 1973 in 16 categories. The first show had four performances.

"Dick used to say we're an entertainment show with awards in it and I like wall-to-wall music," Klein adds. "It's a celebration of music."

Winners will be determined by online voting at the Coca-Cola AMA voting website, amavote.com, as well as AMA.abc.com.

Leading up to the awards, Lance Bass, Kimberly Cole, and Megan Turney will be the hosts of a weekly web series, "AMAs On Demand," that will be posted on YouTube and ABC.com.