Hello. WTF is Pravda23?
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Ah! what a pleasure it is being surrounded by art and ARTISTS!!! It makes my art skip a beat! Seriously, I'm 'art pressed to find anything more 'artwarming than 'art-working art lovers. Thou art my crowd!
I play alongside me mate Nick in a live electronic band called Pravda23. I'll skip the whole story of how I met the program which now helps me create awesome tunes - you can read about it in Dot Comic. I've been releasing music under that name for 5 years, and we've been playing live at Pickwicks every Saturday for 10 weeks. We'll be playing every Saturday in November, and then at Vortex from December 4-6th.
The Unique Selling Point
I've been asked to explain this unique and intriguing concept to Thee, Artist. Pravda23 is a music distribution experiment. Ok, so nobody buys music anymore, so let's roll with that. All the music released is free. Groove beats with live violin, vinyl, guitar, etc.Like software, you now update your music by downloading the latest 'version' (aka album) of The Kuleshov Effect. Now I know you film students have heard of the Soviet film experiment - it's named after that. Any thing - everything - is defined by its context.
So that's my gift to you. Free music. You can subscribe to the RSS feed on Pravda23.com for regular updates.
For now, I'm not interested in making a living out of music. That comes later, in a few years. Where we're at now is creating awareness of a new music industry model with sustainable income not coming from music sales, but from merchandise and live performance. Only with heavy web presence (Pravda23 Google Search), a slew of trinkets to buy (www.bandfashion.co.za) and a killer live show does the modern independent band or musician take control of their fanbase.
Thou art our fan!
What's in it for YOU?
1. Good times and free entrance (if you can get it together to reply to this post with your name for the November guest list and become a Facebook Fan of Pravda23).
2. Band Fashion! BF is a musician's merch paradise! if you're one of those musicians with a box of CDs and shirts in your room that doesn't get touched between gigs, take some photos and mail them (with prices and info) to info [at] bandfashion [dot] co [dot] za to list your stuff - for free! You get your own band page. Maybe someone in Kokstad wants one! (no offence to people from Kokstad)
3. Charity - for now, we'll play for free (if you provide sound). So contact me to get Pravda23 at your gig / promo / etc. The cool thing about this act is the versatility. Can be one-two-three piece depending on demand.
thanks Linda & James for checking out the show last night
johnny b, nick & the program
PS - I'm presently working on Version 4.0 of the album, which is taking a Gotan Project / Royksopp direction. As usual, I'm releasing the individual tracks one by one so hit the site and check out the latest track, Gridlocked [v4.0] now and tell me what you think. www.pravda23.com
Labels: band fashion, free, mp3, Music, pravda23
posted by John Bartmann at 10:39 PM
4 Comments:
I know Postproduction is really dated these days, I can't help thinking of Bourriaud, and the quotation:
"Notions of originality (being at the origin of) and even of creation (making something from nothing) are slowly blurred in this new cultural landscape marked by the twin figures of the DJ and the programmer, both of whom have the task of selecting cultural objects and inserting them into new contexts". (2001)
I really like the idea of users (listeners) updating their music like they do their software, with you the programmer (musician/dj) providing new versions of your tracks for the universe to download.
Plus it would be great if more stuff could work like this: art (ever evolving installations - which have great precedents - or just one life's work that gets updated regularly till you die, of course then leaving it to someone to continue. Or even just a painting that you sell with the proviso that it will be altered/painted over/scratched into once a month), literature, relationships ("how about we add a romance track to this, or one of envy or love or solitude. We don't have to worry about the implications too much though, we'll review and remix it in a few weeks) etcetera.
Anyway, great model and cool gig on Saturday - great to have you on board John.
I like Black Smoke. nice.
Yay something interesting is going to happen with this. I like the idea that art could be remade or remixed to live different lives through different meanings and visions.
Yes, Margaret. Music used to be about ownership, but the reality now is that within a few years, the trend of 'owning' intellectual property will be replaced by what they're calling 'The Cloud' - instant, streaming digital content. Now of course, it won't all be free, but you'll be able to subscribe to a specific sound or artist.
this is where it gets interesting. now more than ever, it's becoming important for producers of creative work to FOCUS THEIR ART into a single, 'dumbed down' and highly identifible brand identity. There will be more than enough room for art, but different art forms are increasingly requiring different identities. In fact, it's always been like this - which is why we equate, for example, Dali with surrealism - but now we're experiencing such an overflow of content that the only way we're able to categorise our preferences is to subscribe to artists like we subscribe to the news. CD is out. RSS is in.
The only way to sustainable financial freedom as an artist (I call it "The Art of Life!") is through the pop-art barrier. You have to earn to learn how to be independent of it. I'm creating something with commercial value here so that in years to come, I CAN have the freedom to exact some of the interesting projects I have.
--> I'd like to create the world's first Cheese & Bacon Pizza Burger Pie food outlet.
--> I want to start a junk food farm, exchanging stale food for goodwill tokens from the manufacturer
--> I want to create a beach chip bowl with a Frisbee for a lid. It's called a Frisbowl.
--> etc. thanks for the comment. update your music.
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