Yeah, but did you know despite going platnum she still hasn't paid the production costs yet!

My Name is Glyn MacLean, I am one of the company owners. Bruce Armstrong is another owner, however, OIKOS is a combination of many people and there are too many names to mention. We all use a LOGON name here in this forum as this is a condition of it's use. It is your own judgement that leads you to decide our ethics. I try to avoid judgement until I've established the facts. Anyone who is seriously interested will investigate the opportunity for themselves, and so I invite you, or anyone else whose interests converge with our own to make contact with us to learn more.

We can only succeed by serving and adding value to others.
The selfish are by virtue of their condition; alone.
Oikos is about a harmonious way.

Oikos

A little about Oikos

Oikos Entertainment Ltd & Oikos Records Ltd are auditioning songwriters for (immediate) Wellington, (mid term) National and (long term) International live and recorded events.

Oikos is a small, ambitious label based in Wellington focussed on developing NZ artists for the NZ market. We are associated with a Music Academy (which is one of the largest private music academy's in NZ with over 600 students) We like to think of what we are doing as like MOTOWN and we use a portable studio format and contracts with venues for our performers advantage.

Our intentions involve utilising the domestic (NZ) market as a "proving ground" for the development of our artists in the context of preparing them for export to primarily the Asia / European markets.

We believe artists should own and profit from their music and that the record label should encourage the creative development of the artist.

These belief statements are fundamentally opposite to most companies in the industry. We believe we have discovered a formula that works for the artist and the label and promote an environment of honesty, integrity and loyalty.

We are enablers.

Criteria for Auditions:

- Must be a NZ resident
- Must have your written either music OR lyrics for your own songs or have written permission for performance of a previously unreleased original
- Must be professional, prefer business minded individuals who actually want a career in music
- Auditions essential
- While we prefer to audition artists who can perform live and ENTERTAIN people, we will also consider studio artists.

Send Demo Tape/Cd to:

Oikos Songwriters
PO Box 11061
Manners Street
Wellington

Oikos

MUSIC GOING DOWNHILL - in the 60's and 70's experimentation and independent labels were a vehicle for songwriters to evolve and get creative. In the 80's, 90's and to date, the majors have sectored and segmented music into units for distribution. I think you're right, CREATIVE drives the development of music and most labels play it safe to meet genre. Additionally, rhythm and harmony are safety zones when we should be playing with the Atonal and Melodic contours that help us communicate.
NZ has amazing musicians and writers and what we are missing is that important infrastructure that allows them to have a voice. Don't you worry, there are a lot of people in the Oikos group who think the same as you and just like in the Matrix, we're an underground movement doing something few can see about it. You are not alone. In fact there are many others who think the same thing and who ARE doing something about it. Keep the faith.

Oikos

PS. I suggest you might enjoy looking into the meaning of the Greek word OIKOS

I am surpised at the hostility. If you don't like what I have to say, then don't read it. If I don't like what you have to say, then at least I'll respect your opinion and your right to it. Actually, the facts and figures I give are accurate. Check at the companies office online at www.companies.govt.nz and check up on Oikos, Music City, MCL Investments, Afrodita Investments etc and you'll find these are bonefide companies. Check with the IRD and you'll find I pay in excess of $300,000 PA in staff wages. I don't need to boast, this happens day in day out. But to someone else it might seem overstated. Have you considered there might be a little "tall poppy sundrome" going on here? I wrote a cheque for $11,000 in GST a couple of weeks back and this months due PAYE is roughly $6000, and I am proud of the fact I employee so many people. I am proud of the fact I create jobs and rather than heap judgement on me, if you met the numerous people I interact with on a daily basis, you'd apreciate I have great relationships and have earnt respect. You don't know me. I don't know you. So why the angst?

Oikos

Thanks Madeleine,

Loppy Envagelist I am not, but the attitude works like this. I grew up in a poor family, my parents and the system taught me supposed truths. Like everyone else I believed what I learnt at school, I became the perfect little worker, I trusted the blue collar and the while collar worker and government and believed people basically have good intentions. I am kid off the street, but now I am a man in charge of my own destiny with the power to create employment and provide opportunities for everyone at any point on the path to just be who they are, enjoy what they do and get on with it. Most musicians have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but someone who is committed to a lifetime will be interested. I can't apologise for actually giving a damn and caring about NZ music or caring about people. I won't ever give up, and yeah, I am zealous because I love NZ and I love our people and the music and art we create and we should give a damn. The something that is more important than what we know, is learning what we don't know so that we can begin to learn at all.

Oikos

If you're serious about the music business, we're serious about wanting to hear from you. Because what you do today echoes throughout eternity.

We're looking for artists who are business minded and want to make a full time living from their original music with interests in export and touring.

We're quite different from other record companies because we believe YOU should own the music and be taught how to own and run your own company. It's the full package and we have several artists already in the development program.

If this interests you, email to

record@musiccity.co.nz

Totally Agree.

NZ artists need to hold their heads up high and develop original product.

Good news is that there are some amazing original bands out there, dozens of them.
While it's a small world, it's also big enough to hide the amazing unseen talent.
there are bands like Odessa (Wellington), Pierced, (Wellington), Steriogram (just signed to Capitol)
Davis Sione Band, Peter Shaw Band etc you guys have probably never heard of.

The thing is it is is easy to feel despondent when you're in isolation,
but there is a lot going on in the world that you won't hear about
until the artist/band makes it in UK, USA or ASIA.

I'm off to China at end of August trail blazing a path for ROCK based groups
now that China has joined the World Trade Organisation.

Industry NZ just paid for The Urban Pacfic Music Cluster to travel to UK
and strut the stuff of NZ music right there under the noses of UK industry.

Things are happening. But unless you're involved in it
you don't get to see it until well after it happened.

So the thing is to get connected.

NZ MUSIC is just one good avenue, there are many others which serve to inform.

Very soon, NZ music will explode into the Export market.
Those who are prepared and serious can get on the train.

have faith... the good music is coming.

Oikos

It's easy to see who takes their musicianship and artistry seriously.
What's the point of posting content here just so you can make
self indulgent rhetoric...

For those who actually give a damn... the Music Managers Forum
is for those who have an interest in understanding self management
of managers who want to add value to their artists.

In answer to your questions; I employ the same staff for many of
the businesses and that's a concept called leverage, which
is using less for more.

Some of us take music seriously and make a living from it.
Some of us actually prepare the way by owning the venues
that give artists a place to play and a voice to be heard.

The guys who runs the MMF in Wellington owns Indigo.

have some respect.

Oikos - interesting reading folks!

Natalie Merchant, No Strings Attached
By JON PARELES

Natalie Merchant has stepped off the pop treadmill. After 17 years with Elektra Records, first as the main songwriter and singer of 10,000 Maniacs and then with million-selling solo albums of her reflective folk-rock, Ms. Merchant decided to go it alone.
When her Elektra contract expired in August 2002, she chose not to renew it or to seek a deal with another major label. "I would make a big-budget pop album, followed by a year of touring and promotion and then some downtime for recovery," she said. "I don't even know if I was writing music that was appropriate for that mold." Instead she will release her next album, a collection of traditional songs called "The House Carpenter's Daughter," on her own label, Myth America Records. It is to be released June 1 through Ms. Merchant's Web site, nataliemerchant .com, and July 1 in stores.

Recorded on a modest budget, marketed primarily to existing fans and not relying on radio exposure, "The House Carpenter's Daughter" breaks free of the commercial pressures that have turned major-label releases into risky gambles that can cost a million dollars in promotion alone. In contrast, Ms. Merchant's transition suggests the model of a sustainable career for a musician who is no longer eager to chase hits.
"The business is going one way, and Natalie's going another," said her manager, Gary Smith, also the general manager of Myth America.
Ms. Merchant has little to lose. "I'm in a privileged position," she said by telephone from Hawaii, where she lives part of the year; she also has a home in upstate New York. "I'm beyond financially independent. I had a lot of success, and I gathered together a very large audience. And I was in a rare position, because my material was unorthodox as the pop-hit mold went, but I was able to sell multiplatinum albums and have relatively large hits."
When a musician is signed to a label, the company pays for recording and promotion, then recoups expenses from the musician's royalties while retaining ownership of the finished recordings. (Elektra still owns Ms. Merchant's catalog; Rhino Records, distributed by the AOL Time Warner conglomerate that includes Elektra, is releasing a 10,000 Maniacs retrospective this summer.) A label also uses its expertise and clout to market and distribute an album.
Ms. Merchant paid for recording and packaging "The House Carpenter's Daughter," including the $3.50 manufacturing cost of an elaborate box for the first 30,000 copies. (The CD will sell for $16.95.) The special package "was printed in America for three times the price in Hong Kong," Ms. Merchant said.
"It's just not in keeping with American business practice right now," she added.
Even so, "The House Carpenter's Daughter" needs to sell only 50,000 copies to break even, less than 15 percent of what "Motherland," her last album for Elektra, sold.
"We're not trying to recoup some enormous debt," Mr. Smith said. "The economics of making this record are very prudent. When we sell 200,000 copies, we'll be standing on our chairs, hollering. If we released this record with these kinds of goals on a major label, we would look like a failure. At Elektra, if you just sell 1.5 million, everyone goes around with their heads down."
Ms. Merchant is not the first well-known musician to become independent. Prince, after battling Warner Records over his desire to release more music in a year than the label thought it could market, started his own company, NPG, and has since released double- and triple-CD sets at whim. Todd Rundgren markets his music directly to subscribers to his Web site, patronet.com.
"For those already through the door, doing it on your own is incredibly viable," said Jay Rosenthal, a music-business lawyer who represents the Recording Artists' Coalition. "It's going to be very attractive, and it's going to be a viable alternative even for bands who are doing well. The only reason to go to the major labels is to get your songs on the radio, to go for the promo money. If you don't need to get on the radio, and you've got a name, go out there and go for yourself. If there's any moment that artists should do it, it's now, before things get worse."
He added that some musicians would have no choice, as he expected major labels to cut their rosters by 30 to 50 percent in the next year
Ms. Merchant's album "Motherland" was made before Sept. 11, 2001, and released shortly after. Her concert fans welcomed its somber songs. But Soundscan, which tabulates retail sales in the United States, shows that "Motherland" has sold about 398,000 copies, far fewer than "Tiger Lily," released in 1995, which has sold nearly 3.6 million, and "Ophelia," released in 1998, which has sold 1.2 million.

" `Motherland' was the best material I ever wrote, and I was really happy with the record," Ms. Merchant said. "I don't know if it was timing or the way the industry is today, but it just didn't seem to interest the label so much. And I thought, why fight an uphill battle for attention?"
Elektra, Mr. Smith said, "offered her a sizable amount of money to stay, at a juncture when she felt like she was ready to go."
The label does not comment on musicians who have left its roster, an Elektra spokeswoman said.
"The House Carpenter's Daughter" is a collection of other people's songs. Ms. Merchant began delving into them in 1999, before the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou" put traditional music back in the Top 10 in 2001. ("Motherland" was produced by T Bone Burnett, who also produced the "O Brother" soundtrack.) She researched books of folk songs and listened to field recordings collected by Alan Lomax; she also took courses in the history of American folk music at Bard College.
A few selections on the new album are well known, like the English ballad "House Carpenter" and the labor movement song "Which Side Are You On?"; others are rescued from archives. Ms. Merchant found one, "Weeping Pilgrim," in an 18th-century hymnal at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. "I really appreciate the songs as social documents," Ms. Merchant said.
She performed them during a summer tour in 2000; since then, live versions have been circulating on the Internet. When the tour ended, she decided to take the band into the studio simply to document the songs. The road-tested band mixed banjo and fiddle with drums and electric guitar, like a bluesier and bluegrass-loving American cousin of the English trad-rock band Fairport Convention. Four days of sessions, recorded live and barely overdubbed, yielded the makings of the album.
Ms. Merchant and Mr. Smith are now learning about marketing and distribution. "This is the first time that we don't have somebody watching over us," Mr. Smith said, "telling us that we can't do this, or it's going to cost too much money, or it's not going to work."
They expect fans to learn about the album from Ms. Merchant's Web site and through publicity and a small advertising campaign. To gauge demand, they may offer fans who order the CD in advance a downloadable file of a song from the sessions that is not included on the album. In an increasingly consolidated retail business, a handful of chain stores, like Borders and Barnes & Noble, have accounted for a large percentage of Ms. Merchant's sales in the past; now her label is approaching them directly.
"I don't know that every artist has the capability to go directly to these chains, but Natalie has a history," Mr. Smith said.
He doesn't rule out the possibility of more major-label efforts. But for the moment, Ms. Merchant sees them as unlikely. She says she may go live in Europe for a time; she's considering setting medieval Latin liturgical texts to music or making a children's album. Million-selling albums and loyal fans have given her the freedom to experiment.
"This is the kind of record I want to make, going forward," Ms. Merchant said. "I've been writing things that are much more obscure and sort of shelving them, thinking I can't get this past a corporate boardroom and I won't even try."
"I understand that the larger labels are just interested in the projects that can generate the most capital for their quarter," she continued. "But I didn't want to subject the music to that kind of corporate boardroom and radio censorship. Why subject myself and the work that I do to that kind of environment when it really doesn't matter any more?"

Oikos

Thanks Heather. I'll respond generally. The following comments are not aimed specifically at you.

I mentioned Brad Sugars, not to promote him, but as a reference to my comments.

Gobbledegook; it is important for anyone in musicBUSINESS to come to understand it's terms.
Just like it is for a songwriter to understand, Chorus, Bridge, Verse, Motif, Riff etc.
Most professional songwriters work to methods and with processes.
Most successful artists are intelligent and organised.

As a professional pianist and keyboardist who has played keyboards for 25 years,
I am all too aware of process and the discipline involved to achieve excellence.

Actually, the single reason many artists end up with poorer contracts than they
hoped for is largely due to too much blind trust and the burying of heads in sand.
This can be avoided by teaching artists to be more aware, to learn the skills.
Learning the language of business is a skill to be aquired for success.

The reason some succeed and some fail has nothing to do with talent.
I've met a lot of down and out musicians who were world class,
but they didn't have their act together. Some had bad deals.

It takes time to learn what things mean and how they apply.
Artists can be at many stages along that path.
but I've met some VERY astute musos.
Musicians are amongst some of the
smarter people I've known.

I reckon musicians can easily learn all the Austin Powers acronymns.
Then they can use them to slap some sense into the music industry.
they can take control of their circumstances and profit.

I gave up maths in form 3 and played frisbee, now years later I employ three accountants.
So in the process I have had to come to terms with learning the language of business.
I'm a songwriter, & a musican, but I'm also in business, so I learn the lingo.
Success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.

I've worked 7 days a week for 14 years for what I've achieved.

Rather than giving up, we can all benefit from stepping up and gaining understanding.
Those who are interested in growing their music businesses
will want to learn it's language.

In my short little lifetime I've met thousands of musicians.
I wouldn't dare presume to judge their intelligences.
People look down on musicians enough as it is.
My angle is to raise people up.

The ones who win when musicians give up wanting to know, are those who hold all the keys.
The keys to life are in knowledge. So if the other guy has the knowledge - he wins - game ends.

Knowledge is a key which unlocks our greater potential
we each have to be interested in attaining it.
If you don't know how, you can't do.

As for "send no money now" I have clearly expressed my intentions early on.
It is up to you whether you take my intentions at face value or whether
you choose to judge them according to your own perceptions
& previous experiences.

We all treat people by the way we perceive them.
We just better hope our perceptions are right.

Aristotle said "if excellence is a habit then we are what we repeatedly do"
That means that, as you and I both know, "deeds not words."

So just remember the name OIKOS and lets see what it will do.

I appreciate your feedback.

Oikos

Oikos

The Recording Artists Coalition (USA) is working in the USA at the Congressional level with government and transnational corporations (TNC's) to development a fairness and equitability in artist contracts.

The site listed below speaks for itself.

you can use the ARTISTS CONTRACTS FORUM to openly discuss your own subjective experience of contracts.

Are they fair? unfair?

Oikos

[ external link ]