Man, I go do an Internet radio show and you guys go crazy. LOL! Actually I am doing a series of web casts on visiting/moving to Nashville and use some of the things you guys talk about to educate other people. Those questions you ask help me address what I feel people need to do.

Ray, the Vinyl thing is cool because so many people grew up to those and loved reading the covers and inserts. So that makes sense that those people, who are now collectors, would love to 'get back to their roots' and pass it on. that party I went to a few weeks back, had a bunch of under thirty kids who had never seen or heard vinyl, so it was really cool watching them experience something for the first time. I believe there will be a demand for those for a while.
CD's the same. Like Mark Twain said, I think the notices of the demise of the CD are quite a bit overstated. I think they will be around for a while also. The quality is good, cars and houses have CD players, they are even built into most computers, so I don't see them totally dissapearing for a while. There is always something to having PHYSICAL product, especially when leaving a show. Taking the experience home with them.So I see that one as being around for quite a while.

Aaron, actually the people performing on the periphery of CMA fest are probably NOT going to be seen by anyone important. Those people, the artists, their managers, labels, publishers, etc. are all involved in their own networking and are not going to be going to the other bars around town, especially to see people who are not on labels.They have too much schmoozing to do on their own. And the fans are paying a LOT of money to hob knob with the stars, not "Johnny One Note" playing the lunch show at TOOTSIES.

But those people will be able to play for tourists, and others who are here in town and not involved with the shows or in a different part of the town. And being able to say you played Nashville during CMA week is not a bad thing to have on a resmue. Even if you played 10 BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE CMA ACTIVITIES.

Now the "paid co-writes" with pros, are a new things and actually pretty cool. I mean to sit down with a monster hit writer, listen to stories, get insight on the business, and get a cool song, probably better than you already have, is in my opinion a pretty good use of money.

My own example of paying a guy who had lived here before I moved here, gave me all kinds of insights to Nashville and actually led to my getting a cut my first night in town. So I feel it was a great use of money.
Now there are a lot of co-writes going for charity, and many ways to do that with some of the pro writers. Some have businesses doing it, and that is part of what I offer in my songwriting tours. Although no one is paying me to write. They are paying me to learn the process of writing, dealing with the co-write mentality, learning tips and tricks the pro writers use, learning out to build ideas from scratch, melody and lyric processes. All in a very tight time frame, is what my tours are all about.

And many really cool songs have come out of that, most of the songs I currently do and get attention, some that have been cut, some that have gotten people deals, have all come from those processes.

It is one way to learn a lot besides just the song itself.

MAB