Author: Matthew King Kaufman

As the nation’s lockdowns down . Eric Din and I are accelerating our work on expanding my favorite project, the Free Music List at Surf4u.com. With everyone at home including us, listening to music helps pass the time. So the Free Music List, we created. is called filtered and curated, but I call it  “a start for finding music you might love.” You might not agree with my musical choices, I’ve found no one’s music interests is exactly the same, but the songs are a free listen so you only lose your time not your $. With time on your hands this music knowledge sharing seems like a worthy thing to contribute.

MEMO FROM HEAVEN
Space Rock Music Masterpiece Is Timeless
Rolling Stones Miss Science
Pleading For Love
Glenn Campbell, Ed Sheeran, Jack White, And Johnny Cash Versions Of A Classic
Beyonce’s first group
Popular Singer Explains Why He’s Broke
Gr8 Trumpet, The start Of Jazz
Making Jazz Understood
Free Music For Christmas
No Skillet Lickers But Still Hot
Dance Craze Sweeps The World
Burn, Baby, Burn
Common Law Wife Mind-Reads
Public Enemy Speaks
Dirty Business Discussed
A Question Better Not Answered
Crafty Musicians
Satanic Flatulence
Liar, L

 

Music knowledge is so important.

I decided to offer music for a free listen @ surf4u.com. Music currently is financed, exposed, marketed, and filtered by multinational corporations.  A lot of good music is lost in the shuffle. I want to fill in the blanks with my knowledge of popular music. I’m going to link to recordings I find as a free listen.

So much music is being made today, not to mention all the music made in the past. It would take several lifetimes to listen to all of it.

So far I’m offering a solution of reliable music filtering. I was lucky and old enough to experience excellent music filtering done by radio programmers and journalists.  So I’m driven to share this knowledge.

I became Son of Pete in 1973,  with my first performance with the recording artist Earth Quake at the Longbranch Saloon in Berkeley, California. I made several recordings as Son of Pete. The first one about my father, Yukon Pete, the ballad titled “Saga of Yukon Pete.” I would link to this song on Youtube.com or Vimeo.com but the video of the Tijuana Bible that accompanied it, was not allowed to be on the site due to a ban on porn. In 1975,  as an art project, Son of Pete recorded a player piano and added electric guitar and vocals, and the song was released in 1976, in conjunction with the 200th anniversary celebration of the founding of our nation The United States. The song the player piano played was John Phillip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Son of Pete wrote lyrics updating the song’s message. I tried to make the message short and sweet. I can’t believe the obvious message, “Nature and Mankind are One,” has gone unheeded.  It’s 2020 and nothing is being done!  So Pete is making a Comeback!! I’m devoting my resources to use  music to further my  messaging.

Here’s an “out of the box” theory that just might work.

Backstory: Musicians and music itself have been the fodder for “The Music Business” throughout our lifetimes. Musicians don’t usually have enough traction in the business equation to change things. It seems that the only way the music industry changes is by following the herd.The Record Business’s “finding a needle in a haystack” approach to discovering new music is outdated, and with the decreasing number of labels, the number of needle hunters is also decreasing.

1. The number of people creating music has increased dramatically.
2. There is no new music thinking from traditional media outlets.
3. The only people who are going to change music are the musicians.

Solution: Musicians need to put their money where their mouths are, and they should buy new music directly from each other. If every musician bought one CD directly from another new artist, and then spread the word about this purchase to everyone known to the purchaser, musicians might level the playing field.

That’s right; I’m proposing a “chain letter/social media post” approach so musicians can promote music to interested parties at no cost.

• A typical chain letter/social media post consists of a compelling message then share it with as many recipients as possible.
• The “Music Chain Letter or social media post” should contain a link to the CD that the musician has just purchased directly.
• The musician should explain why the purchase was important.
• The post/letter should include a link to the artist’s web page.
• The letter /post should include a link to a digital download opportunity. For most artists, that means money paid directly to them as well.
• There is NO curse connected to inaction.
• But if you want to change the music scene, please share this post to any musician you know.

I retired, for the first time, in 1986, as a general in my own army, but today I re-enlisted as a foot solider in John Kerry’s / Arnold Schwarzenegger’s army. I enlisted in the fight for our planet at the  World War Zero site.  I took action and donated.  This struggle is so important I must get involved.  

Seems I fell asleep at the wheel, after recording “Mankind” in 1976. I just assumed my government would react to my concern about over population, the laws of nature, and massive over-consumption. I WAS WRONG.  As I read, million species are endangered with extincition, and watch California and Australia  burn, I grow concerned the government hasn’t even considered a plan B to the obvious impending disaster. Instead, denial of science seems to be the current agenda. The government has adopted an ostrich approach. That scares me into action!. I now have to get active and do what I expected my government to do. Before it’s too late.

 

Musicians have a unique ability to solve the unsolvable, the huge cost of ”being discovered.” It shouldn’t take big corporation’s $$$ to be discovered. I assume a musician’s job is to support music love and to help DO the discovery thing . 

 

My thoughts here are simple: 

1. Your fans probably like music you like, but don’t know where to find it. 
2. Growing the number of artist/direct to fans is in everyone’s best interest.
3. The more artists who can create their music without business censorship, the better! 
4. Buying directly from the artist seems like the solution for the musicians in this era of corporate manipulated greed. 

 

A social media post could easily allow this plan to work!

 

Here’s how: 

1. Buy the music directly. Put your money where your mouth is, as I did. 
2. Let you fans know about your purchase and explain to them their role in the all-important discovery process.The more artist/direct buyers the better! 

 

Here’s where I can help.

I’ve enclosed a model post for any musician to use.

 

“I recently purchased https://theuptones.bandcamp.com/album/outback or post a link to your choice (song or album name) directly from The Uptones (or fill in the artist name you purchased). Spreading this purchase to all my fans is based on the belief that “If I liked the music, you might too.”

 

By spreading this music, you help the cause of artist/direct music. This $5.00 represents more money than the artist makes from a corporate world split. It’s music lovers helping artists directly. And that’s a beautiful thing.

 

As a music lover, I have grown concerned by the proliferation of corporate music businesses over the last few years that allows these owners of millions of copyrights of recorded music to get control of the medium of the Internet with the assistance of tech companies. I find this concerning, and it is as anti-art as is most of the soulless corporate vision for music. My observation is simple, the further up the food chain you go in the corporate world, the more greed rules! 

 

The corporations, who spent millions influencing the radio and press are now teaming up with Internet corporations to dominate public opinion.  Their ability to make discovery in the music field economically impossible without them is a frightening thought. It doesn’t need to be with this plan.