Re: Tape Exchange

[haandruss@xxxxxxx (Harvey A. Andruss, III)]

>To sum up: I'm talking about finding the optimal use of minimal
>resources to reach a maximum audience for minor producers of a
>specialized product, while spending almost no money.

Let me see if I got this right.  Winslow's vision might play out like this:  

A bunch of John or Mary Does out there have 4-track recorders or DAT, etc,
and like to play harmonica, maybe they also have some MIDI or other
instruments, but they don't necessarily have internet or on-line access. 
They then have some solo tracks laid down or maybe a bunch of stuff with
friends, they make a (non-professional ?) demo tape, see a poster at the
local music store (or one of those free adds in the local music papers, or
the various harmonica rags -- sorry Winslow et al -- maybe even a few other
music magazines), of course with the new catchy harp-l logo, asking them to
send in their best harmonica cuts -- no grandiose promises, except possibly
for some low-level exposure to other 'hobbyists' and some 'professionals'
who like this sort of thing. The repository (regional or central?) receives
all this 'free' music with the task of sorting out the best from the good
(and not so good), but being careful not to squeeze out genres they may not
be used to or maybe don't really like, then re-mixing/dumping to a master
(would have to be pretty high quality), and then be able to supply
on-demand small orders in the neighborhood of a few hundred per year,
unless of course it really does take off and it becomes apparent that a 500
cassette run is warranted.

I think parts of this are done all the time on the net with all these tape
trees for bootlegs of live recordings. One person does maybe 4, sends them
out to 4 more, who then do their four, and the geometric progression
continues. Steve L. just alluded to something similar for blues-l, and the
one that never was for harp-l -- but each of these is just a subset of what
Winslow wants to do. I guess I'd like to see a harp-l tape come together
first (common promotional vehicle, finite set of inputs), then try for one
with  non-on-liners, see how it goes, who has time, resources, initiative -
all that logistics stuff.

A grassroots not-for-profit initiative has a lot of appeal.  The people's
instrument on the people's label -- harp-l ! We'd all be the 'minor
producers of a specialized project' -- I like it, and it seems doable :)

Who are the organizers out there? Anybody do the tape tree thing? :):)
Where's that 'original' logo?  Critique away, but then you better be
willing to volunteer ;)


Regards,                  haandruss@xxxxxxx                  
Harv                      *Opinions my own*