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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Live from Bloomington returns for 2016 album

Since 1986, the Union Board’s Live from Bloomington committee has regularly released compilation albums of work by local musicians. Now the committee is taking submissions for “Live from Bloomington 2016.”

The deadline for submissions is Nov. 30, and there is a submission fee of $5. Interested artists should send their work to lfb@indiana.edu, according to the album submission Facebook page.

Committee member Wilson Phillips said Live from Bloomington wants to release a diverse record that showcases various facets of the city’s music environment.

“Bloomington is not a homogeneous city, so we don’t want a homogeneous record,” he said. “We want something that flows and works together, but we’re not worried about having a genre to the album ... We want to showcase talent, and talent speaks for itself.”

Phillips said the committee would consider submissions regardless of how inaccessible or experimental the music might be. If it’s good for the community, it’s viable, he said.

Though Union Board is associated with IU as an organization, Live from Bloomington Director Astrid Mejia said the committee wants the album to represent and benefit the greater Bloomington community. As with all previous albums, proceeds from this year’s release will go to Hoosier Hills Food Bank, 
Phillips said.

Phillips said that means the committee has to focus on marketing the album, which its looking to release sometime in April. Because there’s something at stake, it can’t treat it as a trifle.

“That’s kind of one of the struggles — making sure you’re balancing everything out,” he said. “We don’t have that sort of cost structure where it definitely gives us some sort of return. We want to give the most to Hoosier Hills that we can.”

Though the album’s financial success varies from year to year, the fact that it benefits Hoosier Hills has motivated people to buy it in the past, Phillips said.

Mejia said this year’s album is also part of a conscious effort to return to a feeling of tradition around the album. Live from Bloomington released an album annually for more than two decades until a gap in the early 2010s, she said. Now it’s in its third year since returning, she said.

“I don’t feel like we have a shortage in people who are interested in buying the album or people who are interested in being on the album in the Bloomington community,” she said. “It’s been around for a long time. I’ve had a lot of people from outside of the University coming up to me and asking about the album, because it’s been around for so long.”

Phillips and Mejia both said submitting music to the album could benefit bands in positive ways. It would expose them to a wider audience, especially to underclassmen who might be interested in the local music scene but don’t know where to start, Mejia said.

Though some bands might worry about song ownership, Live from Bloomington licenses the songs for release but musicians retain ownership, Phillips said.

“It serves you in that you get your music out and get exposure in the community, and it does work for others in the fact that it comes back for those who need it the most,” he said.

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