Grace Potter at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia

The 12th Annual NON-COMMvention, hosted by Philly pubradio station WXPN, is well underway.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals kicked things off with a Wednesday night performance at World Cafe Live, adjacent to the XPN studios.

Attendance is strong, with radio station and music industry executives selling out both the main and overflow hotels. A full slate of meetings and performances continues through Saturday afternoon.

Updates will occur on TheTop22.com in the coming days.

Walk Up registration is still available. Learn more by navigating from our NON-COMMvention home page.

Royalty Deal

Big players in the music industry including the RIAA, National Music Publishers Association, and the Digital Media Association have agreed on mechanical royalties for digital media — as well as new types of business models such as music storage lockers and genre-specific specialty streams.

The deal must be approved by the Copyright Royalty Board. Check the full story in The Hollywood Reporter.

Multiple Screens Mean Kids Have the Attention Span of a Gnat – and that’s Important.

Neilsen reports, to no one’s surprise, that 88% of Americans with tablets use them while they’re watching TV. See the graph below and the story in Paid Content.

But the ramifications of the above point are extremely important for marketers, as a new study suggests that adults in their 20s change media 27 times per (non-working) hour. Frankly, that sounds insane. But all you need to do is look at PPM data to feel that it’s true. So how do you break through that kind of clutter? Interesting thoughts in AdvertisingAge.

Who Wants a Job?

Scrappy up-and-coming AAA NON-COMM WXPN is looking for a diginative interested in handling social media duties at the station as well as editing the station’s local music blog, The Key.

Details here.

Brandi Carlile. Photo courtesy of the artist.

The 12 Annual NON-COMMvention, ,which already appeared to be busting at the seams, has added additional music performers and announced the schedule of sessions.

Confirming are Brandi Carlile, Twin Cities newcomers Poliça, Rebecca Ferguson, and Jonathan Wilson, formerly of Eisley.

They join a star-studded lineup that includes veterans Willie Nelson, Sinead O’Connor, Norah Jones, Joe Jackson, and many more May 17 – 19 at World Cafe Live next to the WXPN studios in Philadelphia.

The schedule of events is taking shape, kicking off earlier than usual with a special Wednesday night performance for early arrivals featuring rock legend Paul Weller on May 16. Weller’s set will start at 10 p.m.

In addition to the musical performances, attendees will enjoy an array of sessions that kick off Thursday morning, including:

* The Digital State of the Union with Media Mechanics/TheTop22.com’s Paul Marszalek
* The NON-COMMversation with WXPN’s Dan Reed featuring pundit Bob Lefsetz
* A David Dye-hosted World Cafe taping with Joe Jackson
* Widening Your Circle of Influence — a guide on how to get the most for your station
* Competition, Partners, or Both
* Community Radio Roundtable
* Local, Local, Local, and
* The Music Meeting with Songlines’ Sean Coakley

Registration is now open, with early bird rates in effect until 5pm April 6.

The complete musical lineup can be found an the NON-COMMvention Artist Lineup Page and schedule details will be posted as they become available in the NON-COMMvention Schedule Page.

Complete details on the event, including hotel and registration can be found by navigating from the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention tab above.

Sharon Van Etten and WFUV's Rita Houston at SXSW, courtesy WFUV.org

There were some great strides in the reporting from SXSW this year, a festival so cool that the name has been shortened to just SX.

Gone are the days of the complete boondoggle that left listeners back home wondering why they were footing the bill for sending station employees to a party in Texas. But there is still a ways to go.

There was more reporting this year, but too little journalism.

Station management needs to realize that, without actual coaching and some journalism training, they’re very likely to get the kind of disconnected-from-the-audience, stream-of-consciousness, inside-baseball talk-a-thons we’ve become used to from music announcers given free reign to describe the party that is SX — the kind of reporting that WXPN discovered was actually driving down ratings during their coverage of the event a few years back.

Before sending the troops out next year, a good day-long session covering J-school 101 and a discussion of deliverables would go a long way.

KCRW's Jason Bentley working SX. Courtesy KCRW.org.

But let’s stop there, because this article is called Worth Watching. Improved station websites offer big opportunities for content of all stripes, and many are starting to exploit those opportunities. Here are some of the winning moments…

KCRW smartly tossed up an off-the-shelf Tumblr page (read: Free!) to showcase its work, which consisted primarily of photos, picks, and previews via Soundcloud. But KCRW’s Avishay Artsy created one of the best pieces of music journalism we found — a well -produced radio piece covering Bruce Springsteen’s keynote.

WFUV had a strong performance this year, with some excellent video of JD McPherson and Alabama Shakes among others. And Rita Houston got her interview on and gets a lot out of Brendan Benson in a piece that works on-air and online as a two-camera shoot…

And here’s a clip from Alabama Shakes that really gives one a feel for the event — not slick — but a street party…

But the winners of the music journalism crown are the folks at hometown KUT. Music journalism is a discipline there, and it shows. Five full pages of videos and reports from their stage at the Four Seasons — a controlled environment that lent itself to strong, but basic shoots and good sound. Clips include James Mercer, Trampled by Turtles, Sons of Fathers, Justin Townes Earle, and many more.

Check out the Punch Brothers…

Lastly, in case you hadn’t yet thought that SXSW had jumped the shark, some douche thought that an Angry Birds flash mob dance was a good idea. Oy…

The 12th Annual NON-COMMvention, the gathering of music-centric public radio stations and industry executives, has announced additions to the musical performance lineup.

Beth Orton, Joesph Arthur, and Citizen Cope will join the previously announced Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Sinead O’Connor, Paul Weller, Joe Jackson, Rufus Wainwright, Nada Surf, and a dozen additional artists to the May 17-19 event in Philadelphia.

The music showcases will take place at World Cafe Live, adjacent to the WXPN/Philadelphia studios.

Registration for the event is now open, with early-bird rates that can be as low as $50 for radio station employees.

See who’s playing on The 12th Annual NON-COMMvention Artist Home Page.

Further details can be found on the Registration Home Page and lodging information is on the Hotel Home Page.

Amazingly, more artists are yet to be announced. Check in regularly to TheTop22.com’s 12th Annual NON-COMMvention Home Page for updates.

Music industry pundit Bob Lefsetz

WXPN is pleased to announce that registration for the 2012 NON-COMMvention is now open.

Early Bird registration rates are now in effect, with the added twist this year that allows multiple radio station employees to register for as little as $50.

The NON-COMMvention returns to Philadelphia May 17-19, with meetings and music performances taking place at the WXPN studios – adjacent to World Cafe Live.

The Inn at Penn will serve as the official hotel and is currently taking reservations.

Additionally, the NON-COMMvention is proud to announce that music industry pundit Bob Lefsetz will be at the center of the NON-COMMversation with WXPN host Dan Reed. Certainly this will set the tone for a fun and frank event.

The musical lineup is being finalized and TheTop22.com will report additions as they are confirmed.

Additional details and appropriate links to registration and hotel reservations are available from the top navigation bar of TheTop22.com. Look for the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention Home Page tab.

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#7 Lisa Sonkin

We'd kill for a surveillance tape.

The Columbia Records rep benefits from the label’s strong roster and A&R, but rarely do records get themselves played.

Columbia took the sophomore release from Adele to new heights and new formats, and the album still dominates the AAA charts.

But Sonkin gets props for breaking two developing acts at Adult Rock — Cults and Foster the People — the latter probably the best new band of 2011. Throw in strong work in getting play for outliers Raphael Saadiq and Tony Bennett.

Lisa will be extraordinarily busy in 2012. Train and The Shins and Bruce Springsteen in January alone. Add to that new albums from John Mayer, Brandi Carlile, and a Leonard Cohen album that you’re going to like, plus a handful of baby bands…

Bonus points: Late in the year, Lisa got run over by a deer. Standing at a bus stop. Yep, run over by a deer, which was being chased by cops. Awesome.

#6 The Whole New Media Thing

When making the list, there were so many potential new media pieces of the puzzle, they threatened to take over the list entirely. So we wimped out and combined them. And while their combined force should be way higher than #6, we’re simultaneously fatigued with packed-with-statistics new media stories.

So it is with those conflicting emotions that we salute Pandora, which could be the most amazing solution for labels — if the labels could only see it. The music industry needs to lower royalty rates to encourage new media innovation. If the Pandora’s and the Slacker’s and the Spotify’s fail in any way due to ridiculous royalty rates, expect a rise in piracy — among other things.

But it’s not just the streamers making noise this year. We see the return of video. Yes, video may again kill the radio star as Vevo unquestionably turned the corner in 2011, increasingly making promotional videos viable again.

Lastly, on the independent musician side, we’re loving the off-the-shelf tools being delivered to the DIY set. Who cares that MySpace is dead — it needed to die to make room for everything from Bandcamp to crowdsourced funding sites like Kickstarter.

#5 WXPN/Philadelphia

WXPN host and NON-COMMvention ruler Dan Reed.

Where do we start?

How about with congratulations to David Dye and World Cafe on its 20th Anniversary, celebrated in 2011.

And then there’s the NON-COMMvention, clearly emerging as the annual gathering of the AAA set. After successfully taking the show on the road to Wilmington in 2011, the event returns to Philly this May.

If you’re in the business of breaking artists, the NON-COMMvention is a must — whether you’re on the label side or the radio side.

Period.

#4 Sky Daniels

Skyboy on the right, circa 1980.

Last year Sky Daniels made our list for his work on the label side.

2011 found him back where he started — on the radio side with scrappy startup (or relaunch) KCSN/Northridge.

What the station lacks in signal and budget, it will more than make up for with hustle and smarts — as evidenced by its Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – headlined fundraiser.

With so many artists with no place to go in LA, we expect a line to be forming shortly outside KCSN.

#3 Jim McGuinn

The Public Radio pay scale sometimes forces McGuinn to live off the land to make ends meet.

With a playlist that can only be described as “that shouldn’t work,” KCMP/Minneapolis-St. Paul (The Current) somehow manages to make it work.

With a 3.1 share and an audience that approaches 300,000, The Current is the envy of many in public radio.

One reason for success lies in the fact that the Twin Cities have been primed with Left of the Dial-style radio since way before The Replacements sang about it in 1985.

Another is that The Current is part of pubradio juggernaut American Public Media – packed with smart people who know how to program, promote, market and sell.

It’s interesting to note that, in a market with a commercial AAA (Cities 97) and a non-comm, the ratings share and related cumes demonstrate almost everything about the differences in the execution of the two related formats.

Cities pulls a 3.4 share with 625,000 audience. Compare that to The Current’s aforementioned 3.1 with much less than half the audience. Cities arguably suffers from low TSL — much of the 625k simply isn’t engaged. Over at The Current, it’s a community – and they’re locked in.

Mumford and Sons with Dawes. Credit Doug Seymour for WXPN.org

Mumford and Sons and Dawes packed the stage for a performance of When My Time Comes as part of the celebration of World Cafe’s 20th Anniversary.

The show was one of many that occurred over the weekend of October 28, with performers that also included Feist, Tedeschi Trucks Band, John Hiatt, Amos Lee, and more.

Thankfully, cameras were rolling and WXPN has just released a clip of the Mumford and Sons/Dawes collaboration.

Dawes with Mumford & Sons – When My Time Comes from WXPN FM on Vimeo.

Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi. Credit Doug Seymour for WXPN.org

You can re-live major portions of the 20thAnniversary celebration, as WXPN and World Cafe have archived performances from Indigo Girls, The Jayhawks, Ani DiFranco, Tedeschi Trucks and more on their streaming player.

There are also plenty of photos that capture the moments.

A good place to start is on the World Cafe Tribute Concerts page, and start browsing from there.

Again, our congratulations to David Dye and all involved in this amazing run of success that has lifted the careers of countless artists.

Mark your calendars: Dan Reed and the staff of WXPN have announced that the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention will take place in Philadelphia May 17, 18, and 19, 2012.

After taking the show on the road last year to Wilmington, Delaware, the gathering of Public Radio, AAA Radio,  and music industry executives will return to the original World Cafe Live, adjacent to the WXPN studios in Philly.

TheTop22.com is excited to sign on once again as media partner for the event.

Details on registration, hotel, artists, and sessions are forthcoming and will be available on TheTop22.com by navigating from the NON-COMMvention tab on the home page.

Photo courtesy NPR Music.

As the media landscape gets increasingly cluttered, it has become increasingly important for broadcasters and publishers to develop or otherwise secure unique content to break out from the pack.

It doesn’t matter if you’re running a radio station, TV channel, or website. If you don’t have something you can’t get anywhere else, you won’t be long for this world.

Interestingly, in many cases, it takes just one “hit show” to lift a channel out of obscurity.

Howard Stern did it for Sirius, Deadliest Catch did it for Discovery, and Keith Olbermann will likely do it for Current. Heck, Al Jazeera just bought the rights to the top French soccer league in order to secure distribution and eyeballs in France.

NPR Music has carved out territory by first playing up critics’ darlings and indie rockers – many of whom couldn’t sell 200 tickets in any given town. But it was something few others were paying attention to — at least on a national basis. NPR Music did it by aggregating content from pubradio players such as KUT/Austin, WXPN/Philadelphia, and WFUV/New York.

NPR’s Bob Boilen then added the Tiny Desk Concerts — low-fi videos of artists playing in his office. He was among the first to create music video webisodes. Further buzz ensued.

More ambitious is his latest attempt in developing a hit show for NPR — Project Song. The concept is simple: Bob shows an artist images that serve as inspiration for the creation of a song – with a 48 hour time limit.

NPR films the process documentary-style, the cost of which may account for why there are just a few episodes. The latest features Moby co-creating a song called Gone to Sleep:

Check out more episodes at NPR Music.

Matt Nathanson at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware

Matt Nathanson’s seventh studio album, Modern Love, is out just a few weeks now, and the first single, Faster, is Top 10 and climbing at Commercial AAA radio.

First impressions suggest that this album could be with us for a while. In addition to Faster, there are at least two more radio-ready pop singles in Mercy and the title track.

On his site, Nathanson briefly cites the inspiration for both of those tracks…

people misdirect their passion. their attention.
off themselves. onto celebrity.
every time i think it’s bad, it gets worse.
the idea that someone else’s life
is more fascinating than their own
we are being DEVOURED by this.
pulling away at the sand under our feet.
“modern love” came from this.
“mercy (less drowning, more land)” came from this.

We were lucky to catch both songs as Matt performed at WXPN’s 11th Annual NON-COMMvention in Wilmington, Delaware this May:

In early 2010, New York University film students Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion (the name is a tribute to an obscure film character) put a couple of songs up on their bandcamp page.

The rest is history.

Prominent websites, such as the never hyperbolic Pitchfork, created incredible online buzz that led to, among other things, SXSW, Coachella, and the track Go Outside in a commercial.

All this, in turn, led to being signed by none other than Lily Allen’s “In The Name Of”  label — an imprint on Columbia. Pretty good mileage for a three-song EP.

If all that wasn’t enough, the band was featured on the MTV series Supervideo, where an indie band gets the star treatment with big names contributing to the clip. In the case of Cults, it was Emma Roberts and Dave Franco starring in Go Outside:

So now, with an actual album out, and the entire blogosphere completely aware of the band, radio has to ask itself, “Is it too late to start drinking the Kool-Aid?”

Definitely not, as WXPN/Philadeplhia has just named the band “Artist to Watch” for July.

Beyond Go Outside, we also like Abducted.

Justin Townes Earle at WXPN's 11th Annual NON-COMMvention in Wilmington, Delaware

Named for songwriter Townes Van Zandt by his father Steve Earle, Justin Townes Earle continues to build a following with his fourth release, Harlem River Blues.

The new disc and its title track have just received award nominations by the Americana Music Association — for Album of the Year and Song of the Year, respectively.

The nominations are just the latest in a series of critical nods that acknowledge Earle’s growth. Press has been supportive and he’s gotten exposure on HBO’s Treme, NPR’s All Things Considered, World Cafe, A Prairie Home Companion, and Letterman.

While he continues to battle substance abuse problems, the hard stuff appears to be in the rear-view mirror, and during his set at the NON-COMMvention, he noted that somehow he manages to come out okay.

The latest track off Harlem River Blues is Christchurch Woman. Watch his performance at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware during the 11th Annual NON-COMMvention…

And here’s Harlem River Blues from the same show…

Cher This

Crummy iPhone 3G shot of the Music Meeting. Kot, DeRogatis, and Coakely.

Sean Coakely of Songlines immediately knew he was in trouble.

For years he had hosted he annual Music Meeting — a generally boisterous session where radio and music industry types, as well as local radio listeners took part in your basic “rate-a-record.”

Play about a minute of a brand new song, rate it from 1 to 10. Try to guess who it is — you get the idea.

Previous to this year, the fun was to see the scoring differences between the listeners and the insider crowd, who tended to be more critical.

The occasional trashing of a record has made it increasingly difficult for labels to even want to participate in the Music Meeting for fear of their new song being dead on arrival at radio. But on the whole, the sessions tended to be civil with just one or two outbreaks.

Not this year.

Guest panelists were veteran music journalists and critics Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis, who in addition to writing, host a successful talk-about-music show called Sound Opinions on Public Radio. (Note moving forward that the show is not based in music criticism, there’s much more.)

At this year’s meeting, the sound guy rolled a new Jayhawks song. Up went placards ranging from 6 to 9. And then DeRogatis held up a 1. Kot followed suit with a lowball rating.

One could feel the air go right out of the room. Really? The Jayhawks? A ONE?

WTF? On the Jayhawks worst day they couldn’t produce a one. DeRogatis and Kot talked a bit about a low-rent Byrds, and that Gary Louris was capable of better arrangements and so on. Seriously.

Moderator Coakely was now in the position of preventing the session from devolving into a piranha-like feeding frenzy.

DeRogatis, in referencing that he teaches music criticism at Columbia College in Chicago, said that, unfortunately, “critic” has come to mean “someone who tears things down, but it’s not that.” Yet snarky tear-downs permeated the proceedings.

It got so rough that Binky Phillips, the New York musician/writer/scenester, chimed in from the crowd about the new Heavenly States song called Berlin Wall. Sung by guest vocalist Britt Daniel of Spoon, and a crowd favorite, Phillips complained from the audience about the chord changes and lack of creativity.

I’m not sure if he was serious. I’m desperately hoping that he was subversively mocking the whole Music Meeting concept. But I’m not sure he was.

With rare exception, Kot and DeRogatis panned songs, and as they did so, I began wondering about what it means to be a music critic in today’s environment. Increasingly I’ve wondered, “Are music critics obsolete?”

With all of the potential resources for checking out new music, are we not qualified to critique for ourselves?

I am, myself, a recovering critic. Like most of my fellow radio colleagues, for years I thought that my opinion mattered. I lived in a fantasy that my tastes and opinions could guide a radio station to success.

Eventually, I learned that my role was that of a curator and not a critic. The job was to find things that, based on feedback, the audience might enjoy — challenging them once in a while along the way. As I got better at this, my stations, shows, and productions all had more success.

I am now clean for more than 15 years – haven’t read a review. When All Things Considered rolls into one of their 5 minute time killers near the top of the hour, I’m gone. Do we really need a review of the new Death Cab for Cutie? No thanks. Not useful.

The fundamental problem I have with critics is not that they tear things down, but that it’s a fairly easy gig.

Critics do not have to act. They only react.

And this is not Newtonian, where the energies are equal. More energy is in the action. Less energy in the reaction.

With regard to the role of a music critic today, WXPN General Manager Roger LeMay suggested that the role was that of a conversation starter. I think that makes a lot of sense, and it may be one of the reasons Sound Opinions works. Among the best parts of the show is the audience reaction — sometimes letting the guys have it.

But there’s no place for criticism in a Music Meeting, and it’s easy to point out stations that rely on staff opinion and the critics within the organization to make musical decisions. Fact is, they under-perform.

I can think of five stations off the top of my head that under-perform because the PD or MD is in “all about me” mode. Meanwhile, the audience, with hundreds of sources at their disposal, is basically calling “bullshit” on these stations.

In today’s Music Meeting, the audience gets a seat at the table, and the PD and MD need to be more curator than critic.

There’s that saying, “Opinions are like assholes – everybody has one.”

What we need to prevent is, “In Music Meetings, opinions are like assholes – and everybody is one.”

-Paul Marszalek

The Queen Theater under re-construction. Courtesy Light Up the Queen

Closed for 50-plus years, The Queen Theater re-opens in full this weekend as the 11th Annual NON-COMMvention will put it to the test.

Three things I know about Delaware:

1) Loose banking and corporate laws make it the corporate home of most credit card companies and more than half of the Fortune 500.

2) The speed limit on I-95 in Delaware is 55, not 85.

3) If the Trooper who pulls you over is nice, he’ll reduce your ticket to 60 mph, costing you a reasonable $62.50.

Other than those facts, it’s gonna be a new experience for just about all of us attending NON-COMM.

James Maddock

In a last-minute schedule change, James McCartney unfortunately had to cancel his appearance due to illness. In his slot, James Maddock will play.

Check the entire schedule here, and if you’re still on the fence about coming, make it happen — overflow hotels are available — follow the links on our NON-COMMVention Home Page.

Lastly, here’s a video worth watching from WITN — Channel 22 in Wilmington. It’s a little long but gives a great history of The Queen Theater, plus an interview with World Cafe Live’s Hal Real…

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With more than 2 million people tuning in, WRXP/New York is the top Adult Rock radio station — by a mile — when ranked by total weekly listeners.

WXPN/Philadelphia is the #1 Public Radio station in the category, and Nashville’s WRLT rounds out The Top 22.

Using March Arbitron listener estimates, we ranked The Top 22 Adult Rockers, and found that a station needs to reach at least 100,000 listeners a week to make the list.

Check the list (pubradio in yellow), then scroll down for additional observations:

Additional Observations:

* KTCZ (Cities 97) and KCMP (The Current) in Minneapolis are tied with each other with a 4.2 share, despite KTCZ having more than double the audience. The Current is benefiting from outrageous Time Spent Listening.

* WXPN and KCMP (The Current) are the gold standard for Public Radio stations, with cumes of more than 300k — yet they couldn’t be more different with XPN going upper demo and The Current leaning very alternative.

* WXPK (The Peak) edges out WFUV in New York, despite a limited signal that primarily covers lower Westchester and Rockland Counties.

* KKXT/Dallas continues solid growth — within striking distance of 200,000 weekly  listeners.

* Student run WERS/Boston is a Top 20 AAA. Did I mention student run? What it means: Discipline and executing fundamentals pays off.

* Proving that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, KDHX/St. Louis is one of those “crazy” community stations with lots of different shows on the schedule manned by volunteers — yet it pulls in nearly 100k listeners.

* KCRW and KUT were considered outliers due to their heavy use of talk and NPR programming. KBZT was listed as an outlier as it feels more alternative than Adult Alternatives WRXP, KNRK, and KENZ.