Housatonic — Local musicians, venue owners and managers, and music industry professionals all came together on Tuesday, August 26, at the Multi-Use Studio Experiment (MUSE) building for the first-ever Music Mixer event.
The event was co-organized by Berkshire County-based musician Jackson Whalan and Great Barrington culinary company After Hours.
Whalen, who has studio space in the MUSE building, told The Berkshire Edge that the event is a way to bring Berkshire County’s music community together. “Everybody in the music community works super hard, and we don’t always get a chance to get together,” Whalen said. “I wanted to create a moment of togetherness in the community with this event. You have some very hard-working and talented people in this community, and Berkshire County is very eclectic when it comes to music. You have singer-songwriters, rappers, bands with original music, and cover bands. To me, everything is all here when it comes to music in the Berkshires.”
During the event, Ariel Hyatt, founder of Cyber PR and author of the books “From Buzz to Bond” and “The Ultimate Guide to Music Publicity,” led a discussion about music marketing. “It is extremely hard for artists to market their music in today’s world of technology,” she said. “There are over 120,000 new tracks a day that come out on Spotify, and that is a really big number. It can feel very stressful when you are trying to market and promote artists, and it can get overwhelming.”
Hyatt said that, despite the odds, there are avenues for musicians in Berkshire County to get their music out to listeners. “I love the Berkshire County music scene, but I think it needs a connection point,” she said. “I’m so happy that Jackson put this event together because we are a huge county, and we have little scenes that pop up.”
“To me, the Berkshire County music scene is varied, quirky, and a little bit weird,” Justin Badger, a member of Berkshire County-based band The Fremonts. “I’m always surprised by how many different styles and genres pop up in this area.”
“The music scene in this area is sleepy, yet eclectic,” said Jay Santangelo, founder of WANDER Berkshires, a cafe and community space in Pittsfield. “I moved here from Austin, Texas, where music is in your face everywhere,” Santangelo said. “But once you find the music in the Berkshires, you will see that there is a lot here.”
“Music in the Berkshires is not just a summer thing,” said Amy Brentano, producing artistic director of The Foundry in West Stockbridge. “We have prolific musicians in Berkshire County, and there is so much happening all of the time. A music mixer event is a great opportunity to meet other people in this industry because we all want to know what is going on with everyone. We are friends with the owners at other music venues in Berkshire County, and there really isn’t any competition between us. The more of us that are here, the more successful we all are.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theberkshireedge.com ’
