Small Numbers, Big Task
November 15 2008

If you've poked around my website, you know I'm releasing a CD in Toronto this coming Thursday.

I'm fortunate to be able to hold this concert in a great venue, Hugh's Room. It's one of the finest music rooms in the country. The people of Hugh's are dedicated to the music, and to their audiences as well. They welcome the world-renowned, and the not yet found. They're serious, but not oppressive. They're fun but not demeaning.

Their cozy yet professional energy flows from the reason Hugh's Room exists. There was a Hugh. He was a music lover. He died of cancer at a young age. His brother Richard dedicated himself to opening a music room in memory of Hugh. Richard succeeded in every way.

What a challenge it is though to run a club. Hugh's Room holds about 250 people. That's less than .01% of Toronto's population of 3 million. So, to fill the room, fewer than 1 in 10,000 people in Toronto (not including tourists!) would have to make it a point to get out on a given night.

Not such a big number, 1 in 10,000. Top notch, world-class music club. Good food.
Great ambiance. Just 1 in 10,000.

Yet it's a struggle to fill a room. Take my case for example. I have a following. I get great reviews (blessing, blessing, blessing.) I put on a show that leaves people entertained. Yet it takes a lot of hard work to get the tushes in the seats.

There is something of herd-think among people. If the size of the herd packgoing to some destination reaches critical mass, then others follow in droves. Britney and Madonna sell out stadiums in hours.

If the critical mass is not there, though, you could be the second coming of Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Armstrong, and you-name-them rolled up into one, and you'd be playing to the crickets.

It's as if there were some Darwinian dynamic, making it hard to succeed at music, but not impossible. Because if it were easy, the music business would be overpopulated. To keep the number of predators down on the plain, so there is sufficient prey for all to eat, the music business makes survival that much more difficult.

So- how does one get tushes in seats? How does one persuade 1 in 10,000 that the pleasure of an evening at a music club will be better for them than another evening in the couch with the TV jabbering to them? It is a constant challenge.

Make no mistake- this is neither a rant, nor a complaint. It is a brief meditation on the curious fact that people like to go out, but don't go out; that the business of music is as demanding (or moreso) than the art of music; that talent is the least part of the equation in a successful arts career- marketing rules.

Bottom line: if you;re in the Toronto area on Thursday November 20, come to my show, will ya?

- The spliff on my CD release

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