[NewMusic] Fwd: Free Public Relations and Marketing Strategies Workshops

[David Slusser]

On May 21, 2008, at 7:44 PM, Alicia Byer wrote:
> re: low turnouts....
>
> Does the Transbay Calendar drop calendars off in many different  
> places?
>
> What about a PR compilation CD-R!!! haha just kidding.

In the early days, Rent Romus helped organize the local venue  
distribution
for the Transbay circulation desk.  Many of us had our routes for  
dropping
a handful off.  (I did Oakland/Berkeley music stores.) M-Ingalls also  
encouraged
taking a bunch to distribute at concerts and shows in a larger  
musical sphere.
But then, as now, participation in the publication shrank, and we  
just went to
(mostly) mail.

A free CD compilation would be a great thing to hand out everywhere,  
really.
The trick is to find the volunteer who would do it even-handed and  
judiciously,
and for free.  (The Transbay might be able to contribute or raise  
some basic
CDr production funds.)  The real task is arbitrating the contents.   
We all have a
different idea of what is representative (lower case, ecstatic,  
laptop, compositional).
It probably would be best to be Cage-ian and do it by lottery, for  
both inclusion
and track order.  Then you get John Lee and Matt Ingalls to stream it  
from Bayimproviser
and sfsoundradio.

We (the Improvised Music Society?) did this 15 or 20 years ago on  
cassette.  Even
though it was produced by a person from one extreme faction (Chris  
Milner of The
Molecules), it actually came out pretty inclusive.  I think we mailed  
it out with the
pre-cursor of the Transbay Calendar.  Was called Free-way then?

Is it too soon to start talking about the Skronkathon?