Virtual Venue for the Starving Musician

HOUSTON - Tech-savvy musicians now have a new way to make money, one that gives their fans a novel platform upon which to enjoy their music.

Say you’re a fan of Saul Zonana, a Nashville-based artist who’s put out seven studio albums. Zonana tours all the time, just not through Houston.

That is, unless you count Tuesday night’s appearance. Not on stage, but on StageIt, a five-month-old web-based service that puts the musician in your computer monitor - if you buy a ticket.

Saul Zonana’s 45-minute performance was a bargain: $3.50. Fans watched a live feed from Zonana’s studio, during which he sang and talked about the process of recording albums.

“I always believe that a great lyric is one that has you picturing something, imagining something,” Zonana said.

Using StageIt’s website, fans were able to tip Zonana and text him questions in real time, which he answered between songs.

StageIt was started by a frustrated musician: Evan Lowenstein.

“Initially,” said Lowenstein, “it was really just this desire to be able to tour the world without leaving my home. I just figured there had to be a way.”

That might as well be the musician’s motto, in a time when anyone can be a rock star but nobody’s getting rich doing it.

“It's caused our industry to go from hundreds of artists making millions of dollars to millions of artists making hundreds of dollars,” observed Lowenstein.

Don’t believe the internet tycoon? Ask Houston guitarist Robyn MacAdams.

“The market's oversaturated,” said MacAdams, whose band goes by the same name. “There's millions and millions of musicians and everybody has the ability to try to share it.”

On Tuesday, MacAdams (the band) was tweaking its upcoming album.

If you want to steal one of their songs, that’s just fine – as long as you bring a couple of friends to their next show.

This is the new economics of music.

“Most of us have other jobs,” said Robyn MacAdams, “because we all have to pay our bills. We do what we do because that's just, it's something that's inside you.”

A song can be something you sell, or something given away to find more fans.

That’s also the thinking behind a video podcast called Live from Sugar Hill Studios, which is about to roll on its 30th episode at the legendary southeast Houston recording den.

“We put it out for free,” said Sugar Hill producer and sound engineer Chris Longwood. “Everybody works for free that day. The band doesn't get paid, we don't clock in hours. The band gets an HD video of them in the studio and we now have 29 episodes that we can roll back on and say, ‘Hey, look what we can do. Look what we're doing over here.’”

Or, over here on StageIt, where Saul Zonana has just finished his virtual set. You supply the standing ovation.

Artists who perform on StageIt take home about 60% of their total ticket sales, according to Lowenstein. He adds, that’s more than some of them can make on a “real” tour.

For more information about the bands and services discussed in this story, click below:

http://saulzonana.com/

http://www.stageit.com/

http://www.facebook.com/MacAdamsBand

http://www.livefromsugarhill.tv/

http://chrislongwood.com/