GENCON and Musical Gamers

Mary_Crowell

First Post

• Nov 12, 2012

• #1

The first heat of Battle of the Bards is done, and I really enjoyed listening to everyone's songs: "Hireling!" by Nathaniel Webb, "D&D Baby" by Faconis and Tinka, "Down to the Dungeon by The Friends of Gravity, and
"Optimized "by Matt James! I also really appreciate the videos with lyrics that [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] and the cast of Perturbed Dragon made for them too. So many people do their music browsing on youtube.

1) How many songwriters/performers are going to GenCon in 2013? My family and several of our gamer friends are planning to go this coming year, and I'm hoping I'll get to meet other gamer/songwriters at the convention.

2) Overall, how much music occurs at GenCon? I've gone to GenCon only once, and lost my mind in the dealer's room and the art show. (Wow!) I did notice a few people set up in the hall playing some acoustic music here and there though.

 

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J

Janx

Hero

• Nov 12, 2012

• #2

good question. I haven't been to gencon myself, and was unable to make the time to write and record for the BotB contest.

If you look back through the archive, you can see the thread that started the BotB which will give some sense of what regulars are musically inclined.

Though we also picked up some newcomers like yourself from the BotB contest.

BTW, I did like your Low Stat song and voted on it. You had the best production and vocals from that set. This week's Raven song would have given you a run for the money, though I didn't vote for it due to it not feeling like a D&D song.

 

Mathew_Freeman

First Post

• Nov 13, 2012

• #3

I've been a couple of times and both times there were a few stands from people that do gaming songs/comedy musicians. I don't know if the information is still there but you could take a look at the GenCon site and see if the list of booths is still up.

 

T

Thunderfoot

Hero

• Nov 14, 2012

• #4

The answer is...it depends.

There is usually between 3 - 6 "roving musical" groups. These folks perform in the hallways in the convention center strolling around taking up position in various locations and hoping that you'll toss a few coins in their hat.

The Great Luke Sky usually does some sort of performance though that is not a guarantee, even though he has been there for every con I've been to, (all of them since 2006) there have been a couple times he didn't perform.

Also, the video game symphony (the musical program where all the songs were video game themes) was playing while GenCon was running and was heavily advertised. There were the Musical Wenches showed up one year, and so, yeah, concert. BUT, it all depends upon what the staff at GenCon can beg, borrow or cajole performers to come and do.

I'm not speaking ill of the con, but as a former pro, there is no way they can pay the salaries and expenses of a big named act to perform. Public appearances are hard enough to broker and that just for people to come, sit and sign autographs.

The fact is, this is the artists livelihood, and cons SUCK at generating enough money to sustain life for musical acts. We priced having performers at True Dungeon in the Tavern setting and it was just not cost feasible. So, unfortunately, your answer is... it depends. Wish I could be more helpful.

 

F

frequentbeef

First Post

• Nov 14, 2012

• #5

Just wanted to pop in quickly, since I'm the event programming manager at Gen Con, and musical events have been a bit of a pet project for me the past couple years.

Every year, we have the roving entertainers, and that's actually a project coordinated by my boss. We haven't had concerts or performances in quite a while, though.

We had set something up a while back and it was met with very mixed success. Recently, we've been getting more inquiries from bands interested in performing (many of them a bit more video game related) so I've been trying to figure out ways to accommodate them.

This past year, we were able to set aside a performance room for bands and provide them with badges, but we can't cover hotels for them (or travel, but we don't normally do that for events anyway). We were also able to establish an exception to allow them to sell merchandise while performing.

Ultimately, Gen Con isn't going to be able to afford performance fees for most big, established bands, but I think we can carve out a space for gaming and nerd-related music.

So if anyone has ideas on how to do that or if they want to get involved in planning or performing themselves, let me know. I'm always happy to chat - just drop an email to events@gencon.com.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Nov 19, 2012

• #6

We've been talking about having some musical performance(s) as part of the ENnies - it's only an idea right now, though.

 

Mary_Crowell

First Post

• Nov 19, 2012

• #7

It can be an issue, because awards ceremonies like the ENnies (or Hugo's) such large venues. ASCAP, BMI, and similar organizations will sometimes try to charge a larger convention because there might be a cover played.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Nov 19, 2012

• #8

Mary_Crowell said:

It can be an issue, because awards ceremonies like the ENnies (or Hugo's) such large venues. ASCAP, BMI, and similar organizations will sometimes try to charge a larger convention because there might be a cover played.

Click to expand...

The ENnies are much smaller than you probably think! And we were thinking about people playing their original music, not covers. BMI ain't got nuffin' to do with it!

 

Mary_Crowell

First Post

• Nov 20, 2012

• #9

Morrus said:

The ENnies are much smaller than you probably think! And we were thinking about people playing their original music, not covers. BMI ain't got nuffin' to do with it!

Click to expand...

Ah. I've never gotten to go to the ENnies. We day tripped to GenCon during our previous attendance. This time we plan to do it up right.

The issue I mentioned came up at Fencon. And that's basically what Fencon did is make sure we played our own material when we played during the masquerade intermission. (We being Three Weird Sisters)

So, cool!

 

Last edited: Nov 20, 2012

J

Janx

Hero

• Nov 20, 2012

• #10

Mary_Crowell said:

It can be an issue, because awards ceremonies like the ENnies (or Hugo's) such large venues. ASCAP, BMI, and similar organizations will sometimes try to charge a larger convention because there might be a cover played.

Click to expand...

[MENTION=34175]Thunderfoot[/MENTION] might know, he used to gig if I recall.

Aren't ASCAP fees normally like 10 cents a song or some such in a bar or similar small venue?

Either way, parodies are probably protected so long as like originals, they were written by the performer, who thus can effectively grant himself performance permission.