Sal Silva plays some loud Texas Doublestereo
Sal Silva defines Texas music entrepreneur: balls out, fiercely intelligent, no apparent awareness of bounds and limitations. He is the guy engaged with and immersed in one of the most dynamic, progressive music scenes in the United States. Take the upcoming behemoth SXSW and even Austin City Limits out of the bigger than Texas equation and you still have as diverse and organic a music scene as one could imagine. Silva is at the epicenter of it all.
A native of Austin, TX, Sal Silva III (yes, he was preceded by two others) started gigging as a musician doing clubs and venues from the age of 16. He’s performed, recorded and written music with more than 10 bands including the recently reunited Texas rock band Rubberhed, which released three independent singles on rock radio stations across Texas. He’s gigged with major label acts such as Jane’s Addiction and Audioslave in music festivals like Lollapalooza, SXSW and the NXNE Music Festival in Canada.
In 2003, Silva started the online music and merchandise fulfillment company CDfuse.com in collaboration with business partner and musician Erik Schaeffer. CDfuse began as an online distribution service for independent musicians with only one group that ultimately grew to boast over two thousand bands representing over 40 countries. While nurturing the start up, Silva has managed to forge partnerships with Microsoft (MSN Music), DMGI (Digital Music Inc.) the Texas Music Law Session and the Austin Music Foundation. Silva has also been a keynote speaker at special events like the 2006 SXSW Music Festival and a 2007 Austin Music Foundation panelist.
After 4 years of Taco Bell, macaroni and cheese and a few sleepless nights, the company began to come to life and Silva and Schaeffer merged CDfuse.com with Doublestereo to create Doubelstereo.com in March 2009. Doublestereo.com is refreshing in that it is a free digital music platform + order fulfillment service for bands that features music from record labels and independent artists. Today, Doublestereo.com hosts over two-thousand artists from all over the world.
We’ve talked with Silva about the Texas music scene, more than a few of the bands in it, including the very impressive Music For Animals and their new CD “If Looks Could Kill,” as well as how he and Schaeffer’s little company, Double Stereo, managed to become the little engine that could. After more than a few requests, he finally agreed to our interview on the eve of SXSW which, for us, seemed like great timing.
SXSW is coming up again soon. What do you look for that you think will really stand out in 2010?
Without a doubt,the ‘interactive’ portion of SXSW will be a stand out. The interactive portion of SXSW is where emerging technologies and industry leaders showcase their new websites and start up ideas. Twitter had much recognition a couple of years back during the interactive portion. This year will be no exception. Of course, the music portion is always a great time and there will be a number of great acts to catch at the start of their buzz. Smokey Robinson will be a keynote speaker this year at the conference… how cool is that!?
The Texas music scene is one of the brightest in the nation. What do you attribute that to?
Texas has had such a great pool of talent for a very long time. When you think about Texas music roots and it’s connections, it goes all the way back to Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and beyond. I think that has everything to do with all of the great music that comes from Texas. Through the years, places like Austin, Dallas and Houston have spawned some of the greatest musicians and music around. With music and interactive conferences like South by South West (SXSW), the industry and music fans alike will continue to recognize this rich talent pool and culture we have here. Texas has a solid foundation of great music history and always will.
We love your business concept at Doublestereo as it seems like it is first and foremost dedicated to the artists. Where in your head did this ever come from?
First and foremost, my business partner and I are both musicians. Even though we don’t perform or tour like we used to, the foundation of DoubleStereo was built to be musician friendly. From our initial concept, we always had it mind to ask ourselves, “What would we want on this website”? Both of us were in touring bands, had radio play, regional success and record labels scouting us. The record labels, entertainment lawyers and the likes were not helping us with anything we weren’t able to do ourselves. Regional success was great, but we wanted more. We wanted the ability to sell our T-shirts and merchandise to a fan in Australia without a label taking 70% of our earnings. It just came to a point in time when we thought to ourselves, “why do we really need a record label to sell our merchandise and music online”? Then came the reality of putting it all together. We started with one band and have over 2,500 that use our service.
One of the bands that you talk very enthusiastically about is Arc Angels. What is it that makes you so passionate about them?
The Arc Angels are Texas music icons. When the first formed years back, the press called them a Texas super group. The band consists of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Double Trouble”, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon with Charlie Sexton and Doyle Brammhal II. Both of those guys play and tour with Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. Their management came to us wanting our merch store services to release their new album/dvd since they are not officially with Geffen records anymore. This was an extreme honor and we’re glad to be their official online store. Their music is great – timeless even, and we’re just happy to be a part of their new release.
How do you want to see Doublestereo evolve going forward?
DoubleStereo is evolving right now. We have to in this industry. The music industry (most parts of it) are in poor shape and is constantly moving. We’ll be concentrating more of our efforts into our digital technology and merchandise order fulfillment for music companies, bands, festivals etc. We provide artists and music companies with custom merchandise stores, so we are going to make sure we stay on our A-game to provide a great service for them. For entertainment purposes, our blog is and will continue to evolve as well. More writers, linking to more content around the web, and providing a great music hub for fans.
