Ten Mile Tide

The dot-com bubble busted—but don’t tell that to Jason Munning.

“We all quit our day jobs just about a year ago,” says Munning of he and his Ten Mile Tide bandmates, who have managed to exchange their respective cubicles and offices for the world of rock clubs and coffee shops. And they owe it all to the Internet, claims Munning.

Eight years ago, he and his twin brother Justin—then fresh-faced high school grads from Lewis and Clark’s class of 1996—headed for the campus of Stanford University, right in the middle of that late-‘90s techno siren song known as Silicon Valley.

“When we got to Stanford, the whole dot-com boom was happening right in front of us,” says Munning. “The Internet was really getting huge, and more and more sites were popping up right around us.”

Many of those sites focused on music and the brand-new world of file sharing. So when the Munning twins formed Ten Mile Tide in 1999 along with four of their Palo Alto pals, the goal was to form a “folk-inspired rock” outlet for songs equally influenced by the folksy songwriter standards of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and the psychedelic jam-band influences of the Allman Brothers and The Dead. Not long after, they began posting Ten Mile Tide mp3s on Web sites, exchanging them with people on file-sharing services like Napster. And when Napster was forced to shut down free exchange operations, the Munnings and Ten Mile Tide found the file-sharing program Kazaa. That discovery, claims the band, is quite possibly the reason why they call Ten Mile Tide their new day jobs.

“We put our stuff on Kazaa, and we pretty much just watched it take off from there,” says Munning. “It was crazy. The first week, it was like 10 downloads. The next week, it was 100. The week after that, 1,000. The next week, 10,000.” Not only, says Munning, was the band literally watching their music gain national distribution, but they were getting feedback from places they’d never heard of. “All of sudden, we’re sitting in our cubicles getting emails from people all over the world about our music.”

Eventually, Ten Mile Tide would hit the 10 million download mark, quickly earning them the attention of CNN, the Denver Post, and the hippie rock rag Relix Magazine for the role of digital distribution in their successes.

- Spokane Local Planet

It’s an old model that never gets old: publicized competition of skill. With the dearth of reality programs based on a similar concept- particularly music-based ones- we decided it was time to let bands of a more improvisatory nature have their time. So last August we kicked off our first-ever JamOff competition and by the year’s end had close to 200 song entries. Bands from all over the U.S. and Canada entered, making for extremely tight competition; tenths of a point often determined who made it and who didn’t (versus a catty panel of judges scoring the delivery of unoriginal material). How we judged ‘em: Bands submitted one track, less than seven minutes in length, that was judged by a panel of Relix and Jambands.com staffers. The songs were judged blindly, with only the track name offered for reference. Each was scored from one to five in five categories: creativity, musicianship, originality, songwriting, and style. All scores were then averaged to determine the winners. We congratulate the winners below and thank everyone who entered. The ten JamOff winners will also be featured on a JamOff sampler CD that will be distributed with copies of Relix and at summer festivals across the country. Until next year, jam on!

TEN MILE TIDE
Song: “SWEET LIFE”

It’s not often that identical twins are both musically talented, but the Munning twins— Jason and Justin—are just that. Handling lead and rhythm guitars, respectively, they each tackle vocal duties as well. Drawing on folk-based rock influences like Bob Dylan, CSN&Y and Neil Young, the band has received a warm reception. It has shared the stage with The Wailers, Dispatch, moe., MOFRO, and Railroad Earth, and has recently released their second album, Midnight is Early. www.tenmiletide.com - Relix Magazine

Ten Mile Tide
*4 Stars

If you don't know the band's music, you should at least know what it stands for. Recently named the "Poster Band for Kazaa," Ten Mile Tide has been riding the Internet waves to success.

It has had songs downloaded more than 10 million times and has been featured on CNN and many other news outlets for its outspoken support of file sharing.

Oh, and the music's good, too. The music balances on the cusp of rock, country and folk. Just when you'd call it a rock band, the next track on its second CD, "Midnight Early," will have you rethinking its categorization.

Although the album opens with the acoustic "Carry On," Ten Mile Tide quickly dives into a Phish-like "Scream Out at the Sky."

Then "Alive on the Wall" keeps up the funky groove, but the band re-examines its country influence on "Sodium Lights."

The six-piece, San Francisco-based band has a bright future ahead of it. It might bounce back and forth between genres, but the main thing is the band does it well.

It performed Friday night at The Blind Tiger in Greensboro, but if you missed the show, you can always download its music online.

I'm sure the band wouldn't mind.
- GoTriad (NC)

The Summer of Love never ended for the amiable, jammy San Francisco combo Ten Mile Tide. On their latest CD, Flow, the six-piece combines Cat Stevens-ish vocals with a sweet, soaring fiddle, a poppier-than-expected sensibility and lush production courtesy of the Tiny Telephone studio. - San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco’s Ten Mile Tide has had quite the ride over the past few months. With the help of the popular file sharing software Kazaa, the band was able to get their music heard by millions and in turn was able to quit their day jobs and tour the United States for three months. Hmmm? Who said file sharing was all that bad?

The band got their start in 1999 at Stanford University, and there is a lot of that typical “college sound” in their music. However, when you combine the band’s obvious folk influence along with their new surroundings in San Francisco, you’ll find yourself wondering whether to tell your girlfriend to burn her bra or to pass you the beer bong.

Ten Mile Tide’s new release Midnight is Early is saturated with wonderfully pleasant harmonies and nicely crafted tunes. Early tracks “Scream Out at the Sky” and “Alive on the Wall” have those types of grooves that will translate into record sales across America’s college campuses.

It’s when you get deeper into the album that Ten Mile Tide really begins to shine. From the very first listen, two things that really stand out are the vocalist’s delivery, which falls somewhere between Cat Stevens and the late great Warren Zevon, and the extremely interesting content of the group’s lyrics. The song “Sodium Lights” contains some of the collection's most visual lines and one of the album’s best hooks. “All the Days” is another standout track that is very reminiscent of traditional Irish Folk and is easy to sing along to.

“Drive Me Away” is a very likeable song that proves to be a fitting end to a solid album, but “Hurricane” is the record’s gem. This sultry ballad sounds like it could have easily been included on any of Phish’s last releases, and the singer even adds a “Trey-like” vocal delivery to the song. The guitar and piano interplay midway through the cut really exemplifies what this talented band can do.

Whether or not you download their music or buy their record, Ten Mile Tide’s Midnight is Early is a must have for any fan that loves a good blend of acoustic and electric rock. San Francisco, rich with pop music history, has yet another band to be proud of. Having already shared the stage with national acts such as moe., Karl Denson and MOFRO, the band is well on their way to leaving their stamp in the world of popular music.

Mixing great harmonies, pop sensibilities and tasteful deliveries, Ten Mile Tide comes through with a great collection of music for a genre that usually includes music’s pickiest fans. Just make sure you pass me that beer bong.

- Indie-Music.com

Bay Area acoustic folk-rock band Ten Mile Tide is hardly a household name in the world of rock.

But it already has a tribute band in Brazil.

That's the reward some bands get for seeing the writing on the technological wall a few years back. Ten Mile Tide's members have already quit their day jobs, a monumental event that used to mean the musicians were on the payroll of a major record label and selling hundreds of thousands of CDs.

But fewer bands are able to claim that distinction, thanks to a financially shaky industry that's tightened the purse strings. The business model is changing, and success means using the digital future of music hand-in-hand, ironically, with old-fashioned touring. Ten Mile Tide has championed the Internet to get its music out to those who would otherwise know nothing about them. They use it as a springboard to build audiences as they tour the country.

Lead guitarist Jason Munning says they now tour for a living because fans all over --even in South America -- know them by getting their material over the Internet. He talked about how the band has prospered via digital music.

Q: How does the approach of offering music for free translate into dollars for you guys?

A Really, we make our money by touring. It's not tons of money, but we can do it full time. We just completed a couple of three-month tours with about 60 dates on each. And we need an online presence to do it.

Q: How did you figure out to use the Internet to get the music out there?

A It started accidentally. A couple years ago, we were playing around San Francisco, and there were all these Internet sites that said "You can put your music here for free." We did as many as we could. Then we found (Internet music sharing service) Kazaa and it started snowballing. Kazaa is big all around the world. We're musicians first and foremost, and it's good to have people hear our music. Money is secondary to us.

Q: What was it like to suddenly have your stuff take off?

A We're sitting there at our jobs, at our computers, checking the (Kazaa) stats. One week it was 1,000 (downloads). The next it was 10,000. Another week we're into the millions. We didn't know what to make of it. People started e-mailing us from all over, telling us they loved our music. About a year ago, we were up to 10 million. Now we can't keep up with it.

Q: How does that translate to touring?

A We started forming street teams in different cities. On our Web site, people would say "You come to my town, I'll do everything for you once you get here." They put up posters, they even booked us a couple times.

Q: You hear a lot about this being the only way indie bands can make it nowadays.

A That's the future of the music industry. Some independent bands will put a couple things on the Internet. We put all our songs on the Internet. If people like the music, they'll go ahead and come to a show or buy a CD.

Q: Touring seems to be your main income, but what about CDs ?

A We sell about a thousand on the Web site every six months, and maybe another thousand at shows. It may not sound like much, but we reap all the profit. A record label will give you a few cents per copy. This way, we get all the profit. And it's definitely building.

Q: How big are the venues you play, considering you book your own shows in a town that only knows you by what they hear of your music on the Internet?

A We play 200- to 300-seat places. We get a good response. We've been touring full time a little less than a year. And we're very happy with the draw.

Q: Does the grass-roots approach apply to management as well?

A We do it all ourselves, though we are looking into it. Our motto is "We're not going to hire a manager or a booking agent until we can find someone who does it better than us." We have all the control.

Q: There's a new school of thought that says successful indie bands must go back to basics by doing it themselves, creating a new re-emphasis on playing live, and that -- contrary to what the major labels have been saying -- the Internet will help bands.

A That's the model, obviously. There was a study at Harvard that said downloading really never hurt major label artists. People who download music are fans. When they find something they like, they're going to tell friends and come out to shows.

Q: Would you sign to a major label, though?

A We've been in contact with a few. But we'd have to maintain our integrity. We'd still want to give away our music for free. But we'd work that out.

Q: So how was the day you got to quit your day job?

A It was great. It's awesome. We were all professionals -- I have my degree from Stanford and was doing biotech research. A couple of the guys were computer programmers, another a teacher. One was a journalist and one was a chef.

Q: Sounds like you had a lot to lose. Was it scary?

A We had set goals. We were pretty ready once it happened, though we didn't really know what to expect. Now, it's crazy. We have a street team in Brazil, in London, in Australia, in Africa. People in Brazil want to know when we're coming there to play. They sent us photos of this ancient stone amphitheater, saying we could play there. There's actually a Ten Mile Tide cover band in Brazil. That's weird. I haven't heard them, but I'd love to.

- Contra Costa Times

Kevin Schiltz is a punk-rock loving, skateboard-toting sophomore at the University of Colorado, and he's part of a powerful force threatening to turn the music industry on its head.

Schiltz downloads all of his favorite punk rock and reggae songs off the Internet on file-sharing websites.

He doesn't care about copyright laws, and he doesn't plan to change his behavior - despite a dizzying number of lawsuits expected to be filed next month against illegal file traders by the recording industry.

"I've heard stories about people being busted," Schiltz said. "But CDs cost too much."

Nearly three-quarters of all Internet users Schiltz's age - 19 to 29 - feel the same way: They don't care that the music they swap online is copyright protected, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & Life Project. That mind-set goes for 67 percent of Internet users of all ages who download songs.

The survey underscores a pervasive problem faced by myriad businesses these days: People are used to getting online content for free.

For years pornography dealers were the few businesses able to get people to open their wallets and pay for online content. And only recently have other businesses such as dating service Match.com turned a profit.

Now, as the availability of free Internet downloads bites into the music industry's profits, big record labels are struggling to reinvent themselves, change that freebie Internet culture and stop, for good, illegal file swapping.

"The recording industry faces an uphill battle," said Mary Madden, author of the Pew survey. "The whole culture of free content online is deeply rooted. People have become accustomed to it."

Yet Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff says that culture indeed can be reversed. He notes that people pay for bottled water when tap water is free.

Flexible pricing and convenience, mixed with a little fear, he said, will be key to getting people to pay for music online. That includes lawsuits.

The music industry effectively shut down file-sharing pioneer Napster two years ago in court, but a number of copycat file-sharing services have since emerged.

In April, a Los Angeles judge said file-sharing companies including Morpheus and Grokster could not be held liable for users' illegal activity.

So the Recording Industry Association of America is preparing to sue high-volume individual users next month instead.

The tactic may be working. Market research firm NPD Group reported last week that the number of songs illegally swapped online dropped to 655 million files in June from 852 million files in April, due primarily to the RIAA's threats.

Record labels are also spoofing file-sharing sites by uploading what appears to be a popular song but is actually a loop of a song's chorus or a message from the artist scolding the file sharer.

"The free experience is not so great anymore," Bernoff said.

Legal experts say the Pew survey on how people view copyright laws is a sad glimpse into society's moral turpitude and argue that cracking down with litigation is the chief way to change that attitude.

Edward Gac, a business law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, compares illegal file sharing to stealing belongings from someone's home.

"If we did this for every other property, we would have chaos," Gac said. "We can't let the Internet be the wild frontier forever."

Yet the music industry must deal with a powerful backlash by consumers, said Michael Bracy, government relations director for the Future of Music Coalition, a nonprofit that represents artists and consumer interests in music.

"There is a real perception that the recording industry is more about trying to shut down technology and make as much money as they can," he said.

Consumers say concerts cost too much - $50 to $80 a ticket - and CDs, at $13 to $18 apiece, do too, Bracy said.

Plus, consumers, including Schiltz, say that the consolidation of radio stations and the handful of powerful recording labels have created homogeneous sounds and don't give listeners access to new and different kinds of music.

"The existing industry doesn't work for artists or for fans," Bracy said. "The music industry is broken."

Bracy points to the nation's No. 1 radio station owner, Clear Channel, which owns, programs or sells airtime for some 1,225 radio stations, including eight stations in the Denver market.

"I think it's hard to find new music," said Schiltz, the CU student. With file sharing, he said, he has discovered as many as 10 bands.

Schiltz said there are enough people who share his views that it will ultimately force the industry to change the way it operates. "They'll figure out something," he said.

Bracy said the music industry should embrace new technology.

That's starting to happen.

It took the music industry two to three years to realize file sharing was a huge threat to their business, Forrester's Bernoff said. But when they realized it, he said, record labels moved faster than any other media in history.

As many as 10 new Windows- based music services are expected to come online in the next six to nine months, Bernoff said.

The industry's early music sites, MusicNet and PressPlay, fell far from what consumers wanted, Bernoff said.

Selection was limited. The sites set restrictions on burning music to a CD or transferring it to a portable MP3 player. And consumers had only one payment option: monthly subscriptions rather than the option to pay per-song.

Apple came along in April and changed everything with its iTunes online music store, offering Mac users more flexibility, more selection and more payment options - 99 cents per song.

Apple will come out with a Windows-compatible service by year's end. And other new music services will follow Apple's lead in terms of flexibility and selection.

Still, illegal downloads have taken a huge toll on the industry, said Kim Guggenheim, a Beverly Hills music lawyer who represents a number of artists, including Smash Mouth and jazz artist Al Jarreau.

Major record labels are contemplating consolidation and CD sales are down 15 percent over the past three years. Bernoff's Forrester blames at least one-third of that drop on file sharing.

"It's not just the recording companies - the faceless corporations - that are losing money or the rich artists and rich songwriters," Guggenheim said. "It cuts across everyone in the industry."

Illegal downloads, Guggenheim said, translate into less money for new records, which means fewer new artists are given a chance and fewer producers and studio musicians are employed.

"The music industry is in terrible shape," Guggenheim said.

Some smaller artists don't necessarily agree.

Online file sharing gave Ten Mile Tide, a band from San Francisco, its start and a following of fans.

The folk rock band has a partnership on file-sharing site Kazaa.com and on Cornerband.com, which lets people search for and rate new artists and download songs or buy albums.

Ten Mile's guitarist Justin Munning said that despite the free downloads, Ten Mile Tide's record sales increased tenfold, allowing its six members to quit their day jobs in June, Munning said. The band also just scheduled a three- month nationwide tour based on e- mails from fans requesting they visit.

Munning said the Internet may finally allow more independent bands to make a livable wage playing music rather than making just a handful of record labels and superstars rich.

"There's a shift of balance of power in the music industry," Munning said. "The whole attitude is going to have to change." - Denver Post

The record industry has been experiencing steadily declining CD sales the past three years, and instead of exploring possible causes -- such as high prices and a lack of quality music -- record labels have chosen to blame the Internet.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the main lobbying group of the major music companies, has filed hundreds of lawsuits against people illegally downloading music across the country.

But not everyone in the music industry views the World Wide Web as the enemy. In fact, the San Francisco-based band Ten Mile Tide has embraced it. In partnership with Kazaa, one of the top peer-to-peer file sharing systems, the group has found a creative way to distribute its music. Without a recording contract, the acoustic folk-influenced rock band has achieved international success thanks to Kazaa users downloading more than 10 million songs for free.

"We really just didn't want to wait around for a record deal," Ten Mile Tide guitarist Justin Munning said of their decision to sign up with Kazaa. "We wanted to get out there. We didn't want to have to wait around for someone to tell us that we can go on tour."

Munning co-founded Ten Mile Tide with his twin brother, Jason, (also a guitarist), violinist Steve Kessler and keyboardist Marc Mazzoni while they were students at Stanford University. Marty Balou (bass) and Adam Weissman (drums) complete the group.

"Right after we graduated, we played in San Francisco for a couple of years without really going anywhere else," Munning said. "Then, we got hooked up with Kazaa."

Munning said they saw "an exponential increase in the number of people downloading our songs" immediately. "The first week we had a couple of thousand," he said. "The next week we had ten thousand. In a month, it was like a million or something."

Conventional wisdom in the industry dictates that artists cannot survive financially when their songs are given away free on the Web. Ten Mile Tide proves the contrary, as the members have been able to quit their day jobs recently and pursue a music career full time. The band makes money from touring and sales of their two albums, "Flow" and the recently released "Midnight Is Early," which are available almost exclusively online and at concerts. The band is currently on their second national tour.

"By giving away our music free on the Internet, it has allowed us to be a touring band," Munning said. "First of all, by getting people out to shows no matter where we go. Secondly, our Internet CD sales have increased by like a hundredfold."

Instead of the why-buy-the-cow-when-you-can-get-the-milk-for-free philosophy, Munning said the band has discovered that its fans are willing to buy the CDs even though they have already downloaded them.

"People like finding a new band," he said. "People come to our shows and tell us they downloaded all of our songs, but they buy the CDs. I think they like supporting us."

The members of Ten Mile Tide are not entirely adverse to signing with a record label, but they have found that they can make a decent living without a record contract.

"We haven't excluded the possibility," Munning said. "If we were to get a record deal, we would want it to be favorable to us and on our terms. Our online CD sales have gone up, and we get all of the money from that. If we were to sign a record deal, it would just be a small percentage."

Plus, Munning sees the record industry's stubborness to embrace online opportunities might lead to bigger problems down the road.

"I think it is important to realize that this is the future," said Munning. The music industry's "inability to adapt to the whole thing is probably going to be a problem for them in the near future."

For Ten Mile Tide, the Internet enables the band to directly reach its audience and grow a fan base through word of mouth.

"We like the grassroots approach," Munning said. Although they are "not making the kind of money that the big acts make on MTV, or anything, we are able to make enough to get by and do what we love doing."

- South Bend Tribune

It's been a rollercoaster the last two years for Ten Mile Tide, an Americana/Fiddle-rock band from the city by the bay.

The San Francisco sextet "has gone from national success to burnout to tragedy and now they are back" according to the band's press release. The 2006 New Groove of the Year Jammy-nominated group recently got back on track after a self-imposed hiatus when tragedy struck. The resurrected Ten Mile Tide performed at Lost on Main in Chico last Saturday night, a quick stop in their bounce back California tour.

The tight-knit band, founded by twins Justin Munning (lead vocals, acoustic guitar and banjo) and Jason Munning (vocals, electric guitar), lost their younger brother turned tour manager, Nathan Munning, due to a drug overdose in October 2006.

Jason Munning recalled the grim period.

"What helped me most was music," he said. "It took me a long time to be able to start channeling my sadness in the form of music, but once I did it was the most cathartic experience I could ever have. When I would get so sad that I couldn't shake it, I picked up my guitar and played until the music I was playing matched what I was feeling."

He now truly understands the power music has to connect people on deep, emotional levels he said.

Now the twins are back and ready to hit the road again. The rest of the band is eager to get the show on the road, too. Filling out Ten Mile Tide includes Chico State alumnus, Jeff Clemetson (bass), Steve Kessler (fiddle),
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John "Knuckles" Morales (drums) and Matt Mitchell (keys, B3).

"It feels great to be back," Jason Munning said. "We've all done a lot of soul searching the last couple of years (and) we all realized this is exactly what we wanted to do."

The guitarist explained how the band members are all best friends and there was an "empty void" when they weren't playing music together. Now, "We all have renewed energy and focus," he said.

With a current west coast tour underway, an east coast tour scheduled this fall and a new album coming out later this year, the band is full steam ahead.

Some of the new songs on their yet-to-be-titled album includes, "Heartbeat of San Francisco," an acoustic rock number about the city's vibrant, diverse energy and how the city finds kindness and tolerance in multiculturalism, and country rock song, "You and Me Gonna get Drunk Tonight," about old-time friends getting together to have a good time.

"We pretty much run the gamut," Jason Munning said of the band's music. "We (enjoy playing) everything from deep, meaningful songs to fun, party songs." Makes sense from a band who describes its work as "feel-good acoustic rock, foot-stomping folk and beer-drenched bluegrass."

To learn more about Ten Mile Tide's rocky and reviving ride, visit the band's website at www.tenmiletide.com/.

DeeAnn Resk can be contacted at deeannresk@gmail.com. - Chico Enterprise

In 1999, while many of their Stanford colleagues were jumping onto the dot-com bandwagon that was rolling in the Silicon Valley, identical twins Justin and Jason Munning felt a different calling: music. But that's not to say the brothers and four other Stanford grads who make up the folk-pop group Ten Mile Tide were out to lunch on the technology-boom going on in their backyard.

They recognized the great opportunities that an online society offered their band and capitalized on them.

Like many unsigned groups, Ten Mile Tide saw radio as an inaccessible medium for their music to be heard on.

"Major commercial radio is completely controlled by major labels," said Jason Munning in a phone conversation from San Francisco. So the band turned to the largely unexplored region of peer-to-peer file sharing on the Internet. Using the file-swapping program Kazaa, Ten Mile Tide was able to get its music out to masses without signing onto a label or leaving the Bay Area.

This tech know-how combined with a great sound led to a nationwide fan base for the band. As of today, people have pulled 10 million Ten Mile Tide songs off Kazaa. According to Munning, the file-sharing strategy has "taken us from a local San Francisco band to a nationally touring band."

They are planning to embark on a tour of the western United States that will bring them to several Montana venues to support Vancouver-based folk group The Clumsy Lovers. Both groups will be in Helena this Wednesday at Miller's Crossing.

Even their tours are tech-supported, as fans can sign up to be on the "Street Team" on the band's Web site, www.tenmiletide.com, and promote the band in their communities. This gives the band free promotion and the ability to see where they should tour.

Munning said the strategy they pioneered is now gaining speed. He says they have been frustrated by the recording industry's crackdown on file sharing, which has diminished Kazaa users by 30 percent, but says it's "only so long that those scare tactics can work."

He said the band is not worried about loss in record sales due to downloading. As with most bands, he said the majority of Ten Mile Tide's income comes from touring, not record sales, and added "people still want to buy CDs if they like (the music)."

With all the press the band has been getting (they have been featured on CNN, in The Denver Post, and other major media outlets) and the fan base they have amassed, Ten Mile Tide has been the object of affection for some major labels. But so far, efforts to sign the band have been unsuccessful, as Ten Mile Tide has opted for the freedom of doing their own recording and promoting. If more musicians get keen to Ten Mile Tide's approach, music fans may be seeing more artists reaching them without going through the record labels; this is good news if you are into the artist-made-music and CDs that cost 10 bucks.

This is not so good news for the recording industry. It looks like it better come up with some better scare tactics, and fast, lest it become obsolete, and judging by the creativity shown in the past by the recording industry, my bet is they won't come up with much. Ten dollar CDs, here we come.
- University of Montana Kaimin