Rumer - new artist, with echoes of Karen*

Hi Diane!

I'd thought of starting up a discussion area for Rumer as well, as many (most?) of the forum members here and elsewhere don't (or won't) use Facebook. Probably would not get much activity though, so it's just a distant idea. I do follow her on Twitter; it seems like she's done well on her tour so far. Still a bit of a downer that they backed out of the gig in Michigan; I would have done Chicago if I'd known sooner than two days before the gig.

Poking around on Amazon today, I thought I saw that the current "US" edition of SEASONS OF MY SOUL was only being issued on CD-R media. That's rather discouraging, if true.

Harry

Discouraging, but it's part of CreateSpace, so it eliminates the overhead of manufacturing and stocking something on the shelves. I guess it beats not having it released at all.

I wonder if this is even going to show up in stores. Has anyone seen it?

I see the track listing is revised, unless they mixed up the track listing in the album previews. "Slow" is apparently the first track, and "Am I Forgiven? is third. Didn't check the rest.

Interesting that "Slow" has a link to "Get MP3" where the others are "Buy MP3". I bet Amazon is giving it away as a promotion, in conjunction with Amazon. Checked a couple of other places, but can't tell what is import and what might be a recent domestic release. This one's from Deep Discount: http://www.deepdiscount.com/cd/RUMER-SEASONS-OF-MY-SOUL . Plus, this: http://www.deepdiscount.com/cd/Seasons-of-My-Soul-5052498455225 . Barnes and Noble has the US version on (see the tracklist) but no indication of CD-R: http://music.barnesandnoble.com/Seasons-of-My-Soul/Rumer/e/825646738397 .

The two Deep Discount's look like imports since they have release dates of 2010. B&N's has the Jan 2012 date, so that should be the new US release. Like you said though, no indication of CD or CD-R status.

Harry

FaceBook, CD-Rs, POD... Unfortuantely or fortunately, depending on your point of view, this is the future.

Like Rudy says, "...it's part of CreateSpace, so it eliminates the overhead...and stocking...shelves. (And) it beats not having it released at all."

Many musicians, photographers, artists and authors who sell well but aren't "superstars" yet have large fan bases but lack the support of a label, publisher or venue are opting for these methods, regaining the rights to their materials and "self-publishing/marketing." In many ways -- in music anyway -- it's almost a reversion to the way it was before record labels became the monoliths they grew into through the 50s-80's before they started the post-digital media collapse. Back in the 50s and into the early 60s hit records weren't a national thing. There were local hits on a regional level. Ask anyone who had a hit with "Alley Oop" and in most of the country they'll say "The Hollywood Argyles" but in LA the chart-topping version was by Dante and the Evergreens. To this day my mom (a native Los Angeleno) calls the Argyles' the "fake version of Alley Oop."

We may see a return to those days if (or once) radio gets out of the label's pockets -- or is it vice versa... When an artist hand-carried their own single to a station. It'd be a CD or thumb drive (or even an email) today...

Food for thought.

Not intimidated, just streetwise. Too many years in the trenches I guess (I started in I.T. professionally in 1989). Those of us in the I.T. community already knows the dangers, and have experienced firsthand the privacy intrusions, the tracking of your web activities even when you're logged out, the click-jacking and spreading of malware, etc. Then again, it's having to deal with these dangers and intrusions that help keep us in business, helping out innocent folks who have been compromised.

On the flip side, it is nice to see non-web-savvy folks have basic tools to create their own "presence" using social media. As long as they fully understand the drawbacks, and are aware of the many dangers and privacy issues (and have taken steps to deal with those issues), and the issue of content ownership, it's all good. I will say, too, that most of us here in the forum (present company included ) know enough to recognize what's good and bad, and take steps to keep things within their comfort level.

I've actually had at least three facebook accounts, having had the ability to test various privacy settings in one account against those of other accounts, mainly for researching "how-to" guides and helping clients. It's something I can fall back into for more testing, but I stay safe by running only in protected browsers (such as the Incognito window in Chrome) so facebook can't deposit all the tracking cookies on the computers we use here.

In my consulting/development business, though, I do recommend the following: http://j.mp/AkNpSc . In our development blog, it applies more to business (we focus on small business mainly), but the idea holds true for any "presence" in social media where unique content might be hosted: use social media only as free advertising to drive traffic back to your primary website. I've seen firsthand the backlash of small businesses that run a facebook-only promotion, only to find angered customers who were excluded.

Stay safe!

Did you find out anything as to why the Michigan gig was cancelled? If it was due to poor ticket sales, I can relate--Detroit has historically been very poor at promoting talent. If it wasn't for signing up for one of those ticket alert services, I never would have known she was coming to the area (especially since her official site didn't list it). It's not like we were out of the way either--they had to cross the border at Detroit or Port Huron if they were traveling from Chicago to Toronto. Heck, I could have just stood on Jefferson Ave. and waved at the tour bus...

One other thing--were they selling vinyl also? That is one bonus to going to a gig. I actually know a handful of other music lovers who are envious of my vinyl copy (see my posts earlier in this thread) and are having problems finding one of their own. You can get one from Rumer's site in the UK, but the shipping is nearly as much as the LP! I lucked out and got mine from Amazon.UK, back when it wasn't as expensive. Wish I knew someone who could smuggle over a case of those for me to resell...

http://www.papermag.com/2012/02/rumers_tour_diary_part_2_we_th.php

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Rumer's Tour Diary, Part 2: "We Think You're Wonderful"

BY RUMER
Rumer, a British-by-way-of-Pakistan artist, sings dusky ballads reminiscent of 70s chanteuses like Carol King and Karen Carpenter; her talent has even caught the eye of Burt Bacharach, who invited the artist to perform at his home. With the U.S. release last month of her debut album, Seasons of My Soul (which was already a hit in the UK when it came out in 2010), and a North American tour to coincide, we've asked Rumer to record her thoughts and impressions for PAPERMAG while she's on the road.

There was snow on the ground in Salt Lake City. The crowd was small but very nice. After the show I went out to the bus to get something and the door slammed behind me. I turned around and realized it was locked. I went to the bus and couldn't remember the code to get back in. I was locked out in the yard of the venue in the snow. It was pretty cold. I tried to be inconspicuous, but I was wearing zip-up fleece stripey pajamas! Luckily after 20 minutes or so someone came out...

The next morning, I woke up to a phone call. "Rumer your album is #1 on iTunes!!!"
"What?" I said, scrambling for the laptop. I remembered the CBS news piece had aired. We had all forgotten about it. There it was. Rumer. Seasons of My Soul. #1 on iTunes and #4 onAmazon.com. There were no physical copies of the CDs available and people were buying imports at $40. Tag, my keyboard player, came into the hotel room in his pajamas. Then everyone came in. We were amazed, blinking at the screen. Nobody could believe it. At the next show the place was sold out and packed. When I was standing outside the bus, a car screeched up, a lady jumped out, came running up, threw her arms around me and exclaimed "Welcome to America!" Some other people brought a banner, which had large letters written in glitter spelling "We think you're wonderful."

Everyone wanted to talk about the CBS story. I connected with so many wonderful people. At the Minneapolis show, one lady moved me to tears when she said, "My husband died in April and this is the first time I have gone out by myself. I saw you on the TV, bought a ticket and I came here by myself."

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The article linked above confirms the fact that people were buying stuff from iTunes and import CDs after the CBS THIS MORNING feature, pushing her up to #1, mentioning the fact that there were no physical CDs to buy.

Is there a US-issued CD yet?

Harry

Various sites have a CD listed with the US track running order, but Amazon is showing it as "on demand" (through their CreateSpace program). Pretty sad IMHO that Atlantic can't even release a standard CD for someone who has sold so many copies around the world. I wonder if they are getting these shipped on demand from CreateSpace or another on-demand vendor.

I wish she'd put out another LP, personally. There are another nine or ten tracks on top of the ten I have that would make another full record.

...and yet our gig here was cancelled?? I admit they could have done better than book it in a tiny venue in Pontiac (that room only accomodates 250).

Oh jeez...now there's a highly polarizing political figure! What a shame, really.

Anyway, did anyone catch Rumer on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night? Link here (click the image):



We're working on embed code so it displays directly in the forum, but for now this temporary link will do.

Just posted via Twitter:

BOYS DONT CRY NEWS: After our lively and (helpful) debate.. we will be doing two cds: one 12 track standard cd, and a 16/17 track "Special Edition" available at the same time so you don't have to buy anything twice. Release is scheduled for May.

Here is a full list of all the artists I have covered on the project...

TIM HARDIN, ISAAC HAYES, PAUL WILLIAMS, RICHIE HAVENS, HALL AND OATES, ELTON JOHN, JIMY WEBB, TOWNES VAN ZANDT, TERRY REID, TODD RUNDGREN, STEPHEN BISHOP, CLIFFORD T WARD, LEON RUSSELL, RONNIE LANE, GILBERT O SULLIVAN, NEIL YOUNG, JOHN SEBASTIAN

I'll take a double LP of the special edition if it comes along...