Time to dispel a myth...

[Stu]

You mean something like this that received little to no coverage from DCI.

http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...howtopic=140253

Dean

Other artists have done similar things with drum lines, like Shania Twain or even going back to Fleetwood Mac performing Tusk. And as long as rock and country performers uses those drummers live on stage and say something akin to, "Hey, all out there! If you liked what you just seen and heard, check out a Drum Corps show near you for more of that intense great drummin'!!!!!!" Then YES, that is a good start to what I am talking about!!! But unless that "real" vocal promotion accompanies the performance, then the average Joe will not notice the quality of the drum line in the Alesha video, nor will they view the drum line as anything other than a prop to the song.

[HeatherM]

Just as the Cadets drum line and front ensemble just presented at PASIC, how about we get some of the amazing horn talent to present at national brass conferences. When leaders in the field are exposed to and understand the level of playing, I think it will have a wide spread effect.

[Stu]

Just as the Cadets drum line and front ensemble just presented at PASIC, how about we get some of the amazing horn talent to present at national brass conferences. When leaders in the field are exposed to and understand the level of playing, I think it will have a wide spread effect.

I would venture to say that 99.9% of those attending PASIC already know about drum corps; and I am sure that it would hold true at national brass conferences. IMO, it is places like Lollapallza festivals, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Saturday Night Live where qualitative DCI drum lines and brass lines need to get some exposure. Imagine the Devils drum line playing Diddy on the Tonight Show, or the Cadets horns playing with Al and Paul on the David Letterman Show!!!

Edited November 12, 2010 by Stu

[MikeN]

Also people might be willing to spend a crapload of money of a U2 concert that they might never see again but not a crapload of money on a annual regional show. Due to many reasons (some out of DCI/DCA control) Drum Corps has priced itself out of a chance for mainstream support.

While I'm sure there are definitely advantages to drum corps reaching and maintaining a larger audience (financial ones primarily), there are plenty examples in the world of the performing arts of popularity not necessarily equating sunshine, rainbows, and happily-ever-afters.

Be careful what you wish for.

Drum corps will always be a niche activity. And I think that's just fine.

The problem is that DCI cannot sustain itself on its current income. Touring costs go up every year, and as we saw this past season, corps are willing to cannibalize the circuit (and consequently each other) in order to generate revenue. It seems that the increased burden of the national tour is being shifted on to the members. (Adjusted for inflation, an $800 tour fee in 1988, for example, should be $1400 now.)

Rather than decrease the size of the cake they're making, DCI corps are instead concerned about how to afford the ingredients. Which is obviously a valid strategy to pursue (though I would have looked at cutting the tour / expenditures long ago), but in order to make it work, corps have to make more money. Period. So either new revenue streams must be found or existing ones expanded. Meaning - butts in seats.

I don't think Finals attendance is necessarily a reliable indicator over the years. First off, we're talking swings from 14k (Orlando) to about 30k at its peak - 16,000 attendees is not that large of a spread numbers wise (I know percentage wise it's huge), especially considering that there's a vacation attached to attending the event, the money of which doesn't really go back to DCI. Plus, in terms of total summer attendance, we're still talking about roughly 3% of the total ticket income.

It's the overall season attendance that's the real indicator, and those numbers are much harder to come by. But I don't think it's a leap to suggest that in order to generate more revenue, attendance is the prime variable. More people attend shows in the summer, more tickets are bought, more is spent on corps / DCI merchandise, etc.

Of course, that also assumes that increased ticket sales mean more money to corps or DCI, which I don't know is actually the case - I thought it was a flat fee paid. At least in the non-DCI sponsored shows. Which begs the question of whether or not the DCI tour should focus on their self-run marquee events, and support individual shows only so much as they support the big circuit events.

Anyways, some thoughts for a Friday morning. :smile;

Mike

[Stu]

> (Adjusted for inflation, an $800 tour fee in 1988, for example, should be $1400 now.)

$1400? Try $2600 in 2011 for performing with a tenth place Open Class corps!

From the Forte Website: Audition Fee: $100; Camp Fees: $100 each (5 camps total- Jan, Feb, March, April, May); Tuition: $2000 (payable in installments of $400 per camp). That is $2600 total!!!

http://www.fortecorps.org/auditions

Edited November 12, 2010 by Stu

[Hrothgar15]

> (Adjusted for inflation, an $800 tour fee in 1988, for example, should be $1400 now.)

$1400? Try $2600 in 2011 for performing with a tenth place Open Class corps!

From the Forte Website: Audition Fee: $100; Camp Fees: $100 each (5 camps total- Jan, Feb, March, April, May); Tuition: $2000 (payable in installments of $400 per camp). That is $2600 total!!!

http://www.fortecorps.org/auditions

Exactly. Tour fees have almost tripled since 1988 even taking inflation into account.

[JimF-LowBari]

The problem is that DCI cannot sustain itself on its current income. Touring costs go up every year, and as we saw this past season, corps are willing to cannibalize the circuit (and consequently each other) in order to generate revenue. It seems that the increased burden of the national tour is being shifted on to the members. (Adjusted for inflation, an $800 tour fee in 1988, for example, should be $1400 now.)

Can't argue with anything in your post Mike but want to quote this so I can add another note:

What gets lost in just discussing DCI is that it's expensive as Hades for ALL corps to survive. Expensive for non-touring (aka DCA) corps, non-competing (aka Alumni-types) and even for the Minis who get very little in way of show revenue. To stay on-topic, it's those last few groups that provides most of the local "eyeball time" by way of parades and other local venues. Hard to show Drum Corps to the uninitiated if there are few corps out there.

[bawker]

It's all marching band, Hroth.

The people who are in it now are looking more towards selling their wares at a scholastic level to get ahold of those yummy tax dollars we pay and making their bones there. It's the reason why Poulan and others offer watered down versions of their corps arrangements, and why the band instruments are resold "cause those are the ones Crown used".

The time of having a separate identity is over with. Drum corps exists in the shadow of scholastic marching band . . .and everyone left in drum corps . . .from Acheson on down . . .realize that the it's not about beating 'em, it's about joining 'em.

That's what drum corps is now, and the path it's been on for the greater part of fifteen years.

Ticheli and Hazo are the new Holsinger and Smith; MENC/NAMM and all the attendant music ed. cliques are all DCI has left to turn to for scholastic legitimacy, money and members.

It is what it is. Acheson and others charted a path that they thought would enable the activity to stick around in some form for a while. So far, it's still here, so that's at least a partial barometer for success.

My advice is to enjoy what you can from each year and just let whatever happens happen. You already see the beginnings of the activity trying to devour itself with near-yearly reshapes of its organizational structure, the whole G8 kerfuffle and the attempted olive branch to the fans now after summary dismissal as "legacy" castoffs just a few years previous.

Hopefully, things will right themselves over the next few years. If not, then it's out of our hands anyway.

I'm not going to waste energy trying to rage against the machine . . .or pretend that I have all of the answers. Go buy some legacy DVDs. Check out DCA. Go march an alumni corps and have fun. Find your passion again, even if it's not in the cards with the current product.

DCI . . .that of the 30,000+ fans in Montreal, the G bugles and so forth . . .isn't coming back. It exists as a rose-colored memory now, anyway; for every Madison 1995, there was a Spirit 1989.

There were just as many eye-rolling moments then as there are now. Granted, the new toys now increase the creative crutch factor, but that's true in the marching band world as well.

Let it go.

Otherwise, you're going to find yourself more and more disappointed as a fan and spectator, which defeats the purpose of what we're all here for.

[DreaminMello]

Drum Corps does not have the exposure it did when Finals were on PBS or even ESPN. They do show quarter finals in the theatres but no publicity. PBS, and ESPN were free, theater is $20.00. It is hard to get the exposure that we used to. Drum Corps is still alive and well within its community, but we do need the rest of the world exposed. I remember years ago, when DCI was on ESPN, they hooked a tenor player from Garfield to a heart monitor to show what kind of physical shape one had to be in to march Drum Corps, very cool and something I will not forget. We need to get that out to the public. But realize as well, as school budgets get cut, music and arts are usually the first to go, so less musicians coming from public schools. Maybe the ads on tv encouraging the arts need to throw a little drum corps in there as well....

[Legalhack]

There are a number of stumbling blocks to obtaining widespread appeal. One is availability of live performances.

Drum corps is most compelling when viewed live and in person. However, the drum corps performance season is short. In addition, a great many localities are not within one hour of a single drum corps show. Moreover, many localities that host a show will host only one show the entire summer. Other forms of live music do not have this problem.

An orchestra, for example, tends to focus on the single community (some tour, of course). It is of the community in one significant sense or another, it markets to that community intensively, and it provides multiple performances that cover a majority of the calendar year.

Other forms of commercial music are even more ubiquitous as the live entertainment in eating and drinking establishments.

So, how can drum corps overcome this hurdle? Given current technology, I'm at a loss to come up with a solution.

The good news is that technology will make distributing the product in real time increasingly easy.

Edited November 12, 2010 by Legalhack