PODCAST – Sean McDaniel – The Vinnie Colaiuta Of Musical Theater

Sean McDaniel – I feel he’s one of the most versatile musicians playing on Broadway shows. As a substitute on Broadway, he has performed in 11 different shows at one time. Sean has performed in 20 Broadway shows including Frozen, The Book Of Mormon, and Spamalot. He helped develop many other musicals, including Hamilton. He…

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Five Things You Need To Know About Playing Drums On A Broadway Show

If you are at all interested in finding work as a musician playing drums on a Broadway musical, I can certainly give a few tips. I’ve been fortunate to have played in several over the past 20 years and I’ve learned a  little from each one I’ve been in. Each of the shows I’ve done…

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Three Tips On How To Get Paid What You Are Worth For Gigs

I often hear musicians talk about the amount of money certain gigs pay. People chat about the tip jar having to be passed around because club owners pay so little. They might get paid a few dollars here and there for the gig,  but hey, at least they get a meal out of it. They…

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“The Temptations Were Our Beatles”

“The Temptations were our Beatles” I stumbled across a series of Behind The Music episodes on YouTube last night and watched the story of Hall and Oates. Wow, I forgot how many hits they had. I loved so many of their songs. But, The Temps… I really didn’t know how much of an influence they…

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Why new Temptations play is NOT a ‘jukebox musical’

“People always say I make musicals for people who hate musicals and there is some truth to that.” – Des McAnuff True indeed! I never liked musicals. I think way too many of them are corny. I once saw a musical where a singer was at a train station , waiting on her train to…

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Open the Music Industry’s Black Box

By DAVID BYRNE – JULY 31, 2015 An excerpt from HERE: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/opinion/sunday/open-the-music-industrys-black-box.html?smid=fb-share   Putting together a picture of where listeners’ money goes when we pay for a streaming service subscription is notoriously complicated. Here is some of what we do know: About 70 percent of the money a listener pays to Spotify (which, to its credit,…

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With Downloads In Decline, Can iTunes Adapt?

Anyone who witnessed the transition from the older version of iTunes to the post-Steve Jobs version knows ITunes sucks. It is confusing, cumbersome and frustrating. I think I have purchased about 8 songs from iTunes in my life so my opionion is quite biased. I have way too much music on vinyl, CD and MP3s…

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