Saturday, December 20, 2014

Budget, Venue, Fundraiser

By the time you read this, I hope to have heard back from our prime venue spot and up-dated this post to include the venue.

In the meantime, we now have to think about booking performers, securing an MC/host(s) & presenters, budgeting, and more.

Putting together a budget right now....then using one of the crowdfunding sites to launch the campaign so we can pay for all this. Soooo....

When working up the budget, we'll have costs for venue, physical awards, programs, paying fees for MC/host(s), hopefully for performers, insurance (if needed), merchandise (programs, really), security, transportation, catering, the inevitable "emergency miscellaneous"....WHAT ELSE???

I've produced shows in the past, but really want everyone's input anyway. You never know what else we could do if we just think about it before its too late!

Thanx!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Time to NOMINATE!!!

PLEASE READ before voting.


First, our mission:

The LEXINGTON MUSIC AWARDS are designed to add cohesion and a true sense of community to the local & regional music scene; to help raise the "quality" bar; to educate artists and fans alike on what's going on in the whole music community; integrate Lexington into the wider (national) music scene; and much more.

OK....You'll get 4 pages: industry, style, performance, and special awards.

You get 3 choices in each category (5 in lifetime achievement). You do NOT have to use all 3 choices. You do NOT have to vote in each category. Do what feels right...what you know. No need to guess is areas you're unsure about.

Get your music peers involved. Get your friends & family involved. If your a musician, get your fans involved. The hard work is in the nominations. The voting, well...we'll discuss that soon enough.

Remember, this is for YOUR music community.

Rules?

Not much.

Vote once (it only tracks one time anyway, so voting again is useless). Ask others to vote.

TWO of us behind the scenes are INELIGIBLE. Please don't vote for me (David McLean) or for Heather Parrish.

It's only active until early January, so let's get on it.

Is voting just for Lexington musicians? NO. Vote for anyone born in KY. Anyone residing in KY. Anyone who contributes heavily to the Lexington music scene, regardless of where they live or where they were born.

Yes, it is Lexington-centric, but no, it is not Lexington-exclusive.

Remember our mission, interpret as you see fit, and vote accordingly:

The LEXINGTON MUSIC AWARDS are designed to add cohesion and a true sense of community to the local & regional music scene; to help raise the "quality" bar; to educate artists and fans alike on what's going on in the whole music community; integrate Lexington into the wider (national) music scene; and much more.

NOMINATION BALLOT for the Lexington Music Awards.


Chaos Nominations Committee

In my view, the success and validity of this awards program hinges on YOU.

That is, we all mistrust both pure popularity contests.....from local radio-sponsored band battles where the nominees are the bands who get the most on-line votes from fans and winners are chosen by body-count at show time, to the national programs like People's Choice and American Musical Awards.

Similarly, we have a certain disdain for a select committee of "experts", where we envision a meeting in the dark in some backroom after midnight....the way the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards are done (though these expert panels can range from 4 or 5 members to, say, the 20,000 or so voting members of NARAS [once it passes muster of 150 experts], in the case of the Grammys).

We don't even particularly like the hybrids, like popular TV shows where the experts select the survivors and the public votes each week, or some similar model.

So what are WE going to do at the Lexington Music Awards?

Well, it will likely change over the first few years as we tweak the model, but the basic idea is that to nominate, we employ the opinions of mostly Lexington-area music pros....from musicians to venue owners/managers to music store employees to media (print, broadcast, web) to members of arts organizations to music educators (both institutional and independent) and the like.

As I write this (on a break working on the actual ballot), there are over 50 non-facebook individuals communicating with me and a facebook group of over 500 people weighing in at various points...all of whom are our nominating committee. A committee I had taken to calling "chaos committee" because of the mix of music pros and music fans.

With luck, we'll end up with at least 500 ballots weighing in on WHO should be our nominees in our 31 categories. With luck, we'll have musicians from everty style voting on the styles they know best so we have a ballot of 3 nominees in each category that truly are the cream of the crop.

Then we'll talk about our rather special voting process.

Come along for the ride! Help make this the best awards program in the country!

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The Categories for the LEXI Awards

best in industry:

best live music venue
best music store (instruments)
best music company (CD & music sales, labels, agents, arts orgs, etc)
best recording studio/engineer/producer
best music educator
best live soundman
best video
best DJ (radio)
best instrument repair/builders/customization


best artist in style categories:

Americana/Folk
Blues
Classical
Country/Bluegrass
Funk/R&B/Reggae
Hip-Hop/Rap
Jazz/Latin/Big Band/World
Pop
Rock
Singer-songwriter
Cover Band/Variety Act
Song of the Year

best artist in performance categories:

Vocalist (male - any style)
Vocalist (female - any style)
Drummer/percussionist
Guitarist
Bassist
Keyboardist
Wind/Brass
Strings (non guitar/bass)

plus speialty categories:

Lifetime Achievement
Community Service (over-broad category to cover benefits & other events, ultra-fans, and more)

Friday, December 5, 2014

Meat-space Meet

Looking forward to meeting a handful of the group at Willis Music this Sunday (Dec 7) at 1pm. It'll be short, but its a chance to get face-to-face and make it real for many....plus a chance to maybe get something done or at least an outline and some goals.

And a good chance to grab a Bloody Mary after....

I'll up-date this post after the meeting.

Up-date: Had a few call and cancel, but we still had me, Heather Parrish, Allison & Sydney Cubit,  Bob Stange, JD Wright, and Donald Mason. Going after venues - trying to nail one down FAST so we can move on.

Lots of other ground covered, but venue is top priority.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

How to Produce a Show that Costs $15,000 for $500.

The LEXI Award is an excellent idea. I'm not being arrogant - I didn't make up the idea of an awards show. And I'm sure I'm not the first to suggest it for Lexington.

I mention it because this blew up out of control - from the idea of 50+ people at Natasha's to already (3 months out) having over 150 confirmed guests (no counting nominees and their guests). That means we went from needing next to no budget (I was gonna cover physical awards out of pocket and use the cover charge to recoup my loss and hope to break even) to needing enough to rent a venue, get food & drinks catered, stage/lights/sound and techs to deliver, set up, and run them, insurance, security, a ticket selling system, booking musical acts, securing MCs and presenters, writing script, community & press outreach.....and WAY more. all the stuff that goes along with producing an event.

Like money.

So how am I gonna do it?

I have trust in the idea. That's how. I truly believe that if we get word out to the community, we'll either get sponsors to provide the cash to get this thing moving, or we'll have everything we need donated.

I have that much trust in YOU.

UP-DATE (12-5): I've been chatting with some folks now at local TV & local radio & local print/web media. The community outreach begins....

UP-DATE (2-15...one week before the show): Our sponsorship is pretty good. Here they are:

contributors:
Jami Desrosiers
Travis Warnken
David Miller
David Cubine
Bob and Carol Stange
Paulie Felice
Jennifer Brocato
Kimber Douthitt
Paula Thomas
Patrick Morley
Joshua McLean
Kevin Holm-Hudson
Shawn Reaves
Adam McLean

Bronze Sponsor:
Sarah Jennison
Integrated Sign & Graphic ISG
Kay Foley

Gold Sponsors:
Beaumont UPS Store
Classic Rock 921 WBVX
Crowne Trophy of Lexington
Drum Center of Lexington
Harrod Concrete & Stone
Lexington Diner
Pinot's Palette
You Can Only Imagine

Elite Sponsors:
Lyric Theatre
WLEX TV-18

On-line fundraiser has hit $1500, direct is another roughly $1500, donated services add WAY up, and if we sell out we might actually break even.

And you can read elsewhere about our musical acts, presenters, presenter guides, and MCs!

Not too shabby, eh?

Monday, December 1, 2014

WELCOME!!!

Welcome to the new "Lexington Music Awards" blog...the on-line home (in concert with the LEXI Facebook Group) for the newly established Lexington Music Awards, a.k.a. the Lexi Awards.

Here is a post on my personal blog detailing some of how this came about (then still referred to as the KY Music Awards).

Here is the stated purpose of the awards program:

The LEXINGTON MUSIC AWARDS are designed to add cohesion and a true sense of community to the local & regional music scene; to help raise the "quality" bar; to educate artists and fans alike on what's going on in the whole music community; integrate Lexington into the wider (national) music scene; and much more.

At I write this, we've had the FB group under 2 weeks and the event page only a week or so, and the group has 339 members, the event 150 confirmed guests with 44 maybes. Yes, the grew out of control very quickly (hahaha!). The cynic in me says it did so because - at their lowest - awards play to the ego. The optimist in me says because we've all been craving something to help unite the Lexington music scene, and this smells like it has great potential. Deep down, I'm sure it's a bit of both, but I hope the latter prevails when it counts. I urge YOU to help make that a reality.

This started with the idea that we'd put 50 to maybe 75 people in one room and get a little press and show that we could run a viable program so the non-profit arts orgs would consider taking up the reins. Now estimates range, but we're looking at a venue to hold at least 500 people. Maybe a thousand. Go figure.

Nominations will be done via the group & non-FB folks from the community, by sending an email directly to me with your suggestions when we start accepting submissions.

Here are the categories (with the caveat that we may tweak these further before we begin accepting submissions).

best in industry:

best live music venue
best music store (instruments)
best music company (CD & music sales, labels, agents, arts orgs, etc)
best recording studio/engineer/producer
best music educator
best live soundman
best video
best DJ (radio)
best instrument repair/builders/customization

best artist in style categories:
Americana/Folk
Blues
Classical
Country/Bluegrass
Funk/R&B/Reggae
Hip-Hop/Rap
Jazz/Latin/Big Band/World
Pop
Rock
Singer-songwriter
Cover Band/Variety Act
Song of the Year


best artist in performance categories:

Best new talent
Vocalist (male - any style)
Vocalist (female - any style)
Drummer/percussionist
Guitarist
Bassist
Keyboardist
Wind/Brass
Strings (non guitar/bass)


plus:

Lifetime Achievement
Community Service (over-broad category to cover benefits & other events, ultra-fans, and more)

Please ponder these....and then I look forward to your feedback!

- David