Vanessa-Mae will perform in Bulgaria on July 5, 2008

[Xanthippe]

Yes, thanks, though I have the video already, but perhaps it is new to others here. I had a link to the original video at my website in December when she did this concert in Bratislava.

[eva03]

Rijko what song does vanessa-mae play on this video?

http://vanessa-mae.com.ar/local-cgi/ind ... imedia2005

(cant preview it --- dial up at home; downloading of multimedia files is prohibited at work)

[Xanthippe]

hi eva,

This video is a television report on Vanessa-Mae's concert in Frankfurt on February 16 in 2005. There are some images of vanessa-Mae at her cocnert playing Storm and Sabre Dance, alternating with an interview where sit sits on a coach. There are also comments from concert visitors. The length of the video is about 5 or 6 minutes, I guess.

[wylde8]

So to sum it up, I think you will see fans be more vocal about their support of Vanessa-Mae when she becomes more vocal of her interest in us.

Benji, you hit the nail on the head with that one. And this goes back to what I've said before. A musical artist must work as hard promoting themselves as they do on their music. Why should a musician expect a fan to pay good money for their album if that fan can't expect some kind of bonus or extras for being their fan?

[Xanthippe]

Why should a musician expect a fan to pay good money for their album if that fan can't expect some kind of bonus or extras for being their fan?

Maybe because he or she simple likes the music on the album very much! For most of my cd's counts that I simple like the music, but have never received anything for that in return, not have expect something like that.

We do not ownn the artists. Either you buy a cd or not, either you're a fan or not.

[wylde8]

I should have stated that differently. As a musician, she's going to get out of it what she puts into it. Its not different than any of us at our jobs. If we work hard, put in the hours, and take on extra responsibilities, hopefully we would be rewarded with promotions, pay raises, etc. However, if we slack off, don't show dedication, and only perform some of our responsibilities, we will at best be able to barely get by. We could possibly even be fired.

Unfortunately, I think VM has taken the latter aproach. She is doing just enough to keep her record contract and her quality of life. She hasn't gone above and beyond the minimums for several years.

So what, you ask. She's still fulfilling the obligations of her record contract, right? Well yes, but for how long? Its slowly diminishing her fan base and consequently, her album sales.

To me, you can be a fan of someone's music, but not a fan of them. Most people are fans of music, not musicians. That means they enjoy listening to the music, but they leave it at that. They don't desire anything else. However, for people who are fans of a musician, they truly admire that person and what to get to know more about them as a person. This includes some of their likes and dislikes, personal stories, etc. This is the category most of us fall into. VM's lack of interest is this area is directly attributable to the dropoff in activity on this board. She hasn't given us much to discuss beyond her occasional album that many of us have to buy off Amazon or Ebay because they don't sell it in the country we live in. How much is there to talk about without interviews, articles, TV appearances and all the other stuff that goes along with having a record contract?

[Xanthippe]

Hello wylde8,

I go along with a lot of what you're saying.

Just a few remarks, though.

Vanessa-Mae didn't take the easy way in her life and career, and she had the benefits from that in many ways: she is a rich girl and sold millions of records.

I do not know what her career goals are for now. If she thinks she can sell million copies from her albums with her present efforts, then she is wrong. But maybe, she just want to be creative and make a new album, basically just for her own satisfaction, and that she is happy with whatever result, perform a few concerts and that is it, not be away from home for too long either.

That would be her good right, wouldn't it?

Also, we do not know what the conditions are of her contrat with Sony. Maybe, Sony just records the album and takes care for the distrubution. They have the channels for that. Sony does not do any promotion for Vanessa-Mae, and Vanessa-Mae has no furhter obligations towards Sony. She gets only a very limited payment for each sold copy.

There are many artists working this way. For example, The Ahn Trio does it the same way, more or less. They have their own label but use the distribution channels of a large company.

I saw Vanessa-Mae 3 times in concert for her Choreogrphy tour and all 3 shows were sold out completley. And she only goes to countries where she is well known and popular, where she is not forgotten by the fans so soon. That is not a too risky operation.

If this all fits in how Vanessa-Mae sees her career and she is happy with it, then we simple can only respect and accept it.

That is my opinion.

[Benji]

I think it would be a lot different if we had concert footage, but except for the 20-30 sec clips of Toccata and Fugue and Sabre Dance, we have nothing.

In case you don't know there is a fan-recorded full length recent performance of Contradanza available for download on vanessa-mae.com.ar. It's in .flv format.

http://www.vanessa-mae.com.ar/local-cgi ... imedia2007

Thank you for this delightful gift Eva! I'm actually gonna put out a cash "reward" for anyone who gets me a recent performance of Red Hot and/or Toccata and Fugue (in full).