LiveMusicCapitol.com and The Capitol Production were established in 2001. Both companies were founded on the thriving music industry in Austin, Texas when all of the current resources were coming from cities outside of Austin, like L.A., New York, London, Dallas, and Hong Kong among others across the world. The companies’ goal was to create an avenue for local and touring artists that would provide a single location with anything they needed for their production. The location would act as a resource center where artists could explore their options using internet research, place orders, book venues, schedule studio time and download influential music within seconds. Needless to say, business is a "who you know" game and it took longer than anticipated to make these visions come to life. But the time has come! The revolution has begun! So tell the sleeper to wake up.
History:
The companies’ founder, Adam Demetri, began his first entertainment company at the age of 22. With partner Jess Farr, they built Infinite Studios, located on North Lamar Boulevard. Austin, Texas. It was set up as a photography studio that included a one hour photo lab, photo studio, and black-and-white darkroom, which was open during the day. At night, the studio transformed into a music environment complete with a mini disk recorder and a wealth of instruments. In tandem, these arts burst forth an infinite number of possibilities. But with digital photography growing rapidly and bigger corporations entering the Austin scene with photo labs on every corner (both stiff competitions), Infinite Studios was closed down after only two years.
Working odd jobs in carpentry, professional photography, as well as turning to music to relieve frustrations over failed endeavors, Adam took up a studio project with collaborator Heath Macintosh. They independently produced a project called "Southpaw and The Pharmacy"copyright2001, working with a lawyer from Los Angeles who sought major labels to advance the project (without success). Managing to save funds along the way, Adam started a small promotion company called Music Medicine Promotions.
Starting in 2001, Music Medicine Promotions’ purpose was to promote live music in Austin. Using the growing idea of “Music is medicine†and anything to help bands was “good for the soulâ€, Adam found there were a lot of other band-related needs besides running ads in Austin’s The Chronicle or creating/posting black-and-white posters. Continuing alliance with Heath McIntosh, Heath having just started his own club, and Adam supplying his wide-network of bands to supply entertainment for the club, Adam also found that resources for producing posters, t-shirts, stickers, buttons and other promotion paraphernalia were more affordable from places outside of Texas.
Up until 2002, at which point movie production companies discovered the potential of Texas as an ideal location for filming, Austin’s single appeal was music, unlike other booming cities where multiple types of entertainment were available. Movie production companies supplied new opportunities for bands to have quality videos made for a lot less money than Los Angeles or New York, a very appealing scenario for Austin's ever growing artist population.
Adam was introduced to the manager of the local music television network in Austin, Austin Music Network (AMN). Music Medicine helped bands get on television as well as found other places for them to get more exposure. When the Austin Music Network moved into its first location on Airport Boulevard, Music Medicine assisted in tasks ranging from sales to booking, and even the preliminary undertaking of hanging a 300 foot stage curtain around the studio set. Music Medicine was a major contributor to AMN receiving mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for broadcasting live for 8 days in a row from noon to midnight (it was also the first time the network was broadcasting live from somewhere outside of the station's headquarters). Music Medicine had worked with a member of the station to propose the idea, finding bands to perform, a venue that was willing to remain open for the interim, and also providing floor management and security. Shortly after raising $12,000 through this record-breaking fundraiser, Adam found out the station was privately owned and set up to make profit, whereas it had been presented as a non-profit company. For this reason, Music Medicine left the station in search for the next horizon.
The money that Music Medicine Promotions initially started with was diminished and the station's compensation for the fundraiser was around $500.00, hardly covering 8 days of live music production. Recovering from this disappointment, Adam looked for a way to get involved with bands more directly and found a club on 6th street interested in switching from shot bar to live music venue.
He found two people to help the initiative and found funding to purchase a top of the line sound system for the club. This was the start of a new production company, The Capitol Production. He thought this club would finally give him the chance to make income and give it back to fellow musicians and the local music community as a whole. Around the same time, Adam discovered that no one had created a livemusiccapitol.com website and saw an even bigger vision for the future.
The Capitol was located on 6th Street where the original White Rabbit club had been. The building had seen legends like Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix back in the 60's. But due to The Capitol’s monetary interest as opposed to interest in the development of the musical community, it was around for only six months. After attempts to revive the club, Adam left the business with the name and logos in pursuit of his next venture, one with the future of music at heart: LiveMusicCapitol.com.
LiveMusicCapitol.com hosts several live music events and is currently reconstructing its website to finally get the music back! Now, anyone can easily get involved with the music industry in Austin. All of the resources listed on the site are local businesses that will impress you with quality, giving you the product you desire. With just a click, you can find all of the Austin you were looking for.
