and keep feeding you, and feeding you…
Innocuous local news yesterday may be more troubling than it initially appeared: the launch of T-Radio, an effort by the MBTA to run their own radio station that plays on subway platforms, starting out on three of the busiest stations in Boston. According to the Boston Globe, T-Radio is “an experiment that began yesterday at three stations and may someday broadcast on every subway platform in Eastern Massachusetts. Disc jockeys and media personalities will mix in light news, weather, entertainment tips, and the like. If it proves popular enough to go full time, commuters will be subjected to eight to 10 minutes of commercials per hour.”
It makes perfect sense for the MBTA to have a means of communicating with passengers, specifically if there is an emergency, or news of delayed service, and possibly even updates on important local news, such as election results, weather warnings, and big-time sporting events.
T-Radio, however, is not any of that. The fact that the mention of how many commercials will play on the station is in the lede (which was buried in the second paragraph…who taught these reporters to write? William Faulkner?) tells us exactly where this effort is headed. Now I know the MBTA has a budgeted multi-million dollar deficit year after year, but I have to believe there are better ways to go about addressing it than this.
What really sucks is that subway platforms are sometimes the only venues that independent artists can be heard on a regular basis. Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman got their starts playing in the T stations, as well as our very own folks like Kevin So and Melissa Li. With the advent of T-Radio, where are these folks going to find space to play now? Options for the struggling artist continue to get slimmer and slimmer.
This kind of news helps remind me what we’re trying to do here. We at BPRLive are committed to existing outside pre-approved industry structures. As limited as we may be, our Internets radio stream still plays 100% independent artists, with explicit approval from the artists themselves. And we don’t sell ad space or airtime, so you can be sure everything up on here is in its original form, raw I’ma give it to ya, with no trivia.
So support indy artists! Forward.
Last 5 posts by giles
- Haini's Here! Haini's Here! - May 9th, 2008
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Tags: Commentary, News.
Tracy Chapman… she’s from Cleveland, but I heard she went to Tufts University. I also heard that she played at the Davis Square T-stop when she started.
I wonder about indie artists sometimes. I think they are caught in-between sometimes. What is the right model for artists to make a sustainable living while permitting stations like BPR to play their music without royalties? while existing outside the commercial business?
i think radiohead set a good example with the direct to fans interaction. i know lesser-known artists on major labels can’t really do that, but totally independent artists can make a living at least by selling their merchandise to fans and off shows, etc.
i mean, it wouldn’t be a glamour life…but what job allows you to have a glamour life? i think there’s a misconception - even among artists themselves - that if you don’t get to a financially-set point in your life, then you’re not making it. but if you can eke out a living as an artist, then you’re doing the same thing anybody in any profession is doing. you know?
just trying to grind and at least support yourself, that’s part of everybody’s day to day, so you know.
does anyone know what the hell I”m saying? i swear i’m so jibba jabba sometimes…
But can they eke out that living wage while working as an artist? I mean they contribute to society in a non-quantitative way, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.
Indeed, why does that white collar professional sitting in his office sipping his latte or reading the Wall Street Journal grinding out as much as (or maybe less than) that artist make a bajillion times more? Not that I would want to be that professional (or maybe I do)…
Maybe life is just hard, maybe having all that cash isn’t all that it is cracked up to be. The grass isn’t always greener, eh?
But capitalism certainly doesn’t help. Capitalism and all the marketing associated with it brainwashing me to believe that if I don’t have the latest fancy gadget from Orange Inc., then I’m not successful enough.
Yadda yadda. This comment is going nowhere.
yeah, no i def don’t think that person deserves more. i mean, obviously…
but i’m saying, if there was no record industry - or at least a record industry that was in the business of putting out good product, then the life (and aspirations) or performing artists would be very different.
right now, there’s a premium on image and marketing over creation of quality work. and of course quality is subjective, but you can’t tell me “booty booty booty booty rockin everywhere” would have gone gold on its merits alone…that was industry payola at its worst.
or when BET refuses to play a video because it is deemed “too intelligent” for their audience, then it’s obvious that we aren’t exactly making our own decisions as consumers.
now in america, we supposedly believe in the consumer’s choice, if you don’t like it, you don’t buy it. but how truthful is that? as far as i know, there have been two hip hop albums released so far this year: 50 cent and kanye…
the pimp-ho-john relationship is unmistakable. the pimp (record industry) has no scruples, but it is the support from johns (consumers) that allows the pimp to succeed in the first place, and encourages the pimp to continue to act that way.
and let’s be honest, i’m a white collar professional and i don’t make a bajillion times more than a working artist; in fact, i make less than an average working artist, which is why i have to supplement my income by selling real estate and…being a perfoming artist…
so when the MBTA discourages people from performing in the stations, i’m not thinking of the loose change income they’ll be missing out on, i’m thinking of the exposure they’ll be missing out on. where else can you perform in front of - what, maybe (40 people on the platform for each train, train runs every 7 minutes, over 2 hours) 685 people without having to rent a space to do it?
so i’m not arguing that the performing artist doesn’t do something valuable. quite the opposite, i’m saying that the struggling performing artist NEEDS access to all possible venues in order to make a living. And one of the best ones in Boston is being taken away from them.
podcasts baby, and an ipod for everyone.
(i’m so braindead, that’s the most intelligent comment i can come up with today.)