Journal of the Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association Volume 7, Number 1 (2007) Bruce Ronkin, Editor Northeastern University Published with Support from Improvisation and Reciprocity: An Analysis of the Jam Band Community and Its Unique Business Model Casey Lowdermilk The MEIEA Journal occasionally features outstanding stu- dent papers. This undergraduate research paper was writ- ten by Casey Lowdermilk, a 2007 graduate of the Univer- sity of the Pacific. Aside from the noodly solos and thirty-minute songs, jam bands are also noteworthy for their unique business practices. The Grateful Dead and Phish, two pioneers of this genre, both built innovative business models around their music. These practices have evolved into an exceptional busi- ness model within today’s thriving jam band community—one that is an expanding and exciting market with the possibility of influencing a dra- matic change in the business practices of the ailing mainstream music in- dustry. The very name of the jam band genre has been the subject of much discussion. Some bands view it as a musical boundary and try to distance themselves from it while others embrace the style and push the limit. What- ever their perceptions may be, a broad conjecture can be made that there are four defining features of the music and bands that are categorized in this dynamic and loosely defined genre. First and foremost, the artists are expert musicians who have mastered their instruments and playing styles. Second, these bands are marked by their relentless touring schedules, often surpassing two hundred shows a year. This naturally lends itself to the im- provisation that is a hallmark of the live setting. Every night, each song takes on new life as it is redefined through improvisation. Next, the term arose from a need to categorize bands that did not fit within other genres of popular music. According to Dean Budnick, the senior editor of Relix maga- zine and the person responsible for popularizing the term jam band, “their willingness, their ability, [and] their propensity to cross genres” defines jam bands. They do not fit within other styles, yet these bands are influ- https://doi.org/10.25101/7.10 MEIEA Journal 159 enced by, and create, music that draws from nearly all genres. Finally, the taping policy of jam bands is perhaps the most distinctive aspect of their business model and thus a defining characteristic of the genre. While the specific terms vary from band to band, jam bands generally encourage fans to record their live concerts and trade them among other fans with the stipu- lation that no money is exchanged. The mixture, to varying degrees, of these four features loosely defines jam bands, a diverse musical culture that thrives upon the live concert experience. These bands have ignored the traditional record industry business model and created unique practices to form a new model that is healthy and flourishing. As Carrie Lombardi, president of Madison House Publishing, so aptly puts it, “Jam band isn’t really a genre as much as it is an approach to music.” This approach is distinguished by the same creativity and improvisation that drives their noteworthy business practices. “History’s Page Will Thus Be Carved In Stone” John Perry Barlow, from Throwing Stones, Grateful Dead Grateful Dead and Phish: Business Innovators Before the term existed, the prototypical jam band that laid the ground- work for today’s jam band community was the Grateful Dead. The precon- ceived notions surrounding the Grateful Dead and their fans, Deadheads, are a hindrance in attempting to comprehend their real impact on the music business. It is important to look beyond their music and distinctive legacy to discover that they developed a different way to do business. Their most significant contribution was to let fans record and trade music freely. Not only did tape-trading feed a fan base that was committed to sharing the intellectual property of the Grateful Dead, but also “carved in stone” a busi- ness practice that would be at the core of an active and thriving music community over forty years later. In his article Fear and Norms and Rock & Roll: What Jam Bands Can Teach Us About Persuading People to Obey Copyright Law, Mark F. Schultz, Assistant Professor of Law at Southern Illinois University explores the business contributions of the Grateful Dead. As Schultz explains, “[The Grateful Dead] ran its own business very effectively, gaining a tremendous amount of freedom and independence from the large amounts of income generated by its endless touring” (Schultz 676). Traversing the nation sev- 160 MEIEA Journal eral times a year in their prime, the Grateful Dead would provide a unique concert experience each night that relied heavily upon improvisation. Fans soon began modeling their lives around the Grateful Dead, their tour sched- ule, and community. It was much more than just the music. Tape trading allowed fans to share their passion as they captured each night’s unique performance—special moments in time that happened once and would never happen again in quite the same way. John Perry Barlow, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, explains how tape trading was important to the Grateful Dead—how it fostered the Deadhead community: I think it is probably the single most important rea- son we have the popularity that we have… [T]he prolif- eration of tapes…formed the basis of a culture and some- thing weirdly like a religion…A lot of what we are selling is community. That is our main product, it’s not music (McNally 386). The generous and kind community that evolved as a direct effect of the business practices of the Grateful Dead is an attractive environment for a certain group of music fans. These music fans respect the rules set forth by the band in trading free music, yet they also actively support the band by buying commercial releases, wearing band merchandise, and attending con- certs. The Grateful Dead made taping and trading a foundation for their business model. As Schultz notes, fan recordings of live performances were available, but rare, when the band started in the late 1960s. During this time the band passively encouraged taping by allowing fans to plug right into the soundboard. In the mid-70s the band officially condoned taping during shows. By the mid-80s they realized the importance of taping to their fan base and began the first ever tapers’ section, typically behind the soundboard at a venue, where tapers could get the best sound while not interfering with the experiences of the non-taping fans. The Deadheads’ passion for captur- ing the best sound possible influenced their enthusiastic consumption of new recording technologies. This community was always quick to embrace new technologies such as cassettes, digital audiotapes, CD burning, and the internet (as a forum to list and trade tapes more easily). If the Grateful Dead laid the groundwork for the generous commu- nity and taping policy of jam bands, Phish modernized the business prac- MEIEA Journal 161 tices for a new generation. Much like the Grateful Dead, Phish constantly toured, had a devoted community of “phans,” and created innovative busi- ness practices by interacting with those fans. Phish was a pioneer in recog- nizing the need for high quality soundboard recordings of their live con- certs. As a result, they were among the first to release a series of live soundboard-quality recordings in 2001—the LivePhish CD series ultimately including twenty-three volumes. Apparently this did not quench the fans’ thirst for high quality recordings. In December of 2002, just days before Phish returned from hiatus, livephish.com was launched as the first-ever web site to release a live soundboard-quality recording of a concert within forty-eight hours of the performance. The band was also among the first to truly embrace the power of the internet as a virtual gathering place for fans. Through the web, Phish polled fans for Halloween musical costume ideas, accepted suggestions for ver- sions of songs to be included on A Live One, and, as early as 1990, created an email list of fans. Phish used the internet unlike any other band before to connect with fans. This was a grassroots, organic approach to culture and to growing notoriety. These loyal fans on the internet increased the social capital of the band. Fans created fan web sites, rumor pages, message boards, email lists, subgroups within the fan base, and maintained a comprehensive history of the band and its performances. Phish used this special connection with their fans to interact with them and use their feedback to guide their business practices. For example, as Budnick acknowledges, for several tours in the early years Phish merchan- dise was primarily designed with the stylized and unique imagery of Jim Pollock. The band began to notice that fans were more interested in the lot- style shirts, unofficial merchandise created by fans often incorporating song names in creative ways. Phish then began to integrate more of this lot-style iconography into their official merchandise so as to satisfy the desires of the fan base. Phish further developed a reciprocal relationship with its fan base through one-of-a-kind festivals, unique Halloween concerts, elabo- rate New Year’s Eve performances, a tour-long chess match, and a secret language between band and audience. The fans motivated these uncom- mon business practices and Phish delivered while reshaping music busi- ness norms at the same time. As the pioneers of the jam band genre, the Grateful Dead and Phish certainly did their part in defining the virtuosic musicianship that is charac- teristic of the style.