Philly's Weathervane Music boosts careers of new talent

Back in 2002, when Brian McTear was producing an album for chamber-pop songwriter Matt Pond at his Miner Street Recordings studio, the two friends batted around ideas about the future of the music industry.

CD sales had peaked the preceding year. And though Napster had ushered in the file-sharing revolution, the recording industry was not yet in free fall.

"It was obvious even back then that the music industry was on an unsustainable path," says McTear, executive director of Weathervane Music, the Fishtown nonprofit that assists young artists in a response to the music business' transformation.

Sharon Van Etten, the Brooklyn songwriter, is the breakout success story for Weathervane and its Shaking Through program, the collaborative series with adult-alternative radio station WXPN (88.5) that has also spotlighted Philadelphia buzz bands Reading Rainbow and Party Photographers. On Thursday, Van Etten headlines the Fishtown music club Johnny Brenda's.

"We realized that popular music, while perceived to be a booming business, had only a fraction of the respect and organized support that, say, classical music had, or jazz, or dance," says McTear, 38, recalling the discussion during the recording of the band Matt Pond PA's The Nature of Maps. "It seemed inevitable that at some point pop music would have to fight for its keep as well."

Weathervane aids rising musicians in that battle. "With everything falling apart in the music industry," asks McTear, who founded the all-volunteer organization in 2009, "who's going to help artists figure out what the next step is?"

Acting as a "new music incubator," Weathervane aims to do just that. Artists are selected by such taste-making curators as Scott McMicken, of the West Philadelphia pop-rock band Dr. Dog; Daniel Smith, of the South Jersey avant-rock act Danielson Famile; and Mark Schoeneveld, of the Fishtown-based music blog "yvynyl" (pronounced why vinyl).

With Weathervane, pop acts such as the Long Island indie quintet Twin Sister have gained access to resources that are not commonly available to scuffling bands on a no-budget business model. It's another example of the music business under today's ever-changing new rules, as the Internet makeover of the industry forces aspiring acts to adapt and build their careers in creative ways.