Hey, here's a quick way to fill almost a GB of space on the old iPod. The annual music festival, South By Southwest (SXSW) 2008 put together another annual torrent download of songs to go along with this year's annual indie band show. Get your 700 SXSW DRM-free mp3s, baby. (thanks, Netflix Mike!)
I got an email alert from BzzAgent about TheTrackShack.com the other day. It's an interesting spin on the buying and selling of audio samples and loops. In a nutshell, TheTrackShack enables musicians to monetize their songs in a new way -- in pieces. Slice 'n' dice...mute 'n' unmute...and you have another track you can sell or license for use in other media.
While that sounds strange, it makes sense. CreativeCommons.com, SpliceMusic.com, JamGlue.com, and other sites like them already offering free ways to download, mix, and mashup audio loops. People are becoming accustomed to piecing together audio on their own. Creating a portal for premium loops is a natural next step. Here's the thing -- it's not a new idea from a buyer's perspective, since there are plenty of audio sample CDs and ecommerce sites...it's new from a sellers perspective, since musicians and bands are now being invited to pimp out existing song tracks. And therein lies the business model -- TheTrackShack charges musicians $24.99 to upload tracks and all "slices" of said tracks, or will do it for musicians for $44.99. I.e. charge for setup upfront, and leave the selling to the buyer. Sellers keep 80% of revenue generated by loops sales, which is good. (I can see sales performance being dominated by people who are already in the business of creating loops and sound samples...)
The site itself could use some work. Aesthetically, it's all over the place, and feels like one giant mozaic mashup of ad space, modules appealing to musicians, and modules appealing to fans. In my humble opinion, the site should determine upfront if you're a musician or a music fan, and adjust the site content accordingly.
There isn't really a critical mass of musicians using it yet, so some of the page modules are simply blank, or empty. We'll see how active the site is in a few months. All said, if you have songs which have been gathering dust, now may be a good time to jump on the site and make a name for yourself by becoming a "top seller" early in the game.
Oy vey, there are waaaaaay too many music marketing blogs out there these days... Which makes having found one that simultaneously inspires, confuses, and awes a rare event. If you have a chunk of time on your hands, definitely read Audible Hype's post on high concept, low cost, brilliant multi-level media campaigns. Here is one statement of absolute truth:
I will be providing examples of outstanding, low-cost, high-reward promotional concepts, but if you turn around and replicate them, you will fail. Why? These ideas all worked because they were innovative—brand new angles. This means they’re already taken, and you’ll look like an idiot imitating them.
It's long, but worth the read.
We recently launched a simple, 'beta' online portfolio for my dad's artwork, including acrylic, watercolor, and oil paintings of landscapes and still life. Recently retired, he's unleashed mad-crazy painting skillz that have caught us by surprise -- we always knew he was a good artist, but now some of the stuff he's been painting...well, let's just say various album artwork ideas have been selfishly floating through my head ever since.
We were looking for a simple way to get his artwork online, and ended up going with a Wordpress powered site, plus the plugin FAlbum to generate the online gallery from my dad's Flickr account. Our next step will be selecting an appropriate theme/template to make it look oh-so-sweet.
If you know any artists looking for a scalable, expandable website solution, consider Wordpress. Tons of themes, plugin support, etc. (And of course, Wordpress is also good for band sites -- I played around with DAY26 and Donnie J for kicks, which look pretty decent.) Fun stuff.
If you get a chance, check out my dad's artwork, and see what you think. Know any art buyers? :)
Apparently, the more an album is blogged about, the more it will sell. Yup, that's as obvious as, "if you promote harder, more people will buy." However, some NYU professor actually quantified the correlation between blog post volume and album sales performance. Here are the findings:
* When legitimate blog posts exceeded a threshold of 40 before an album's release, sales were 3X the average.
* If the albums blogged about were associated with a major record label, sales increased 5X.
* When blog activity reached more than 250 posts, sales were 6X the average regardless of an association with a major or independent label.
* The number of an artist's MySpace friends also contributed to higher future sales, but had a weaker correlation as compared to blog chatter.
Kinda interesting, in a random sort of way. (Spammers: Please note, the first bullet says, "legitimate" posts...no need for increased spam blogs, thanks.) Be sure to add me as a MySpace friend (see the link top right) so we can all benefit from the MySpace Friends effect. ;)
Practice Space is a (somewhat) new webisode series that visits a different band/musician at their regular practice haunt each websidoe. It's sort of a half-interview, half-feature, tracking various underground acts around the world. Certainly a nice change from the plethora of MTV and VH1 shows that go around kissing platinum artist as#.
Practice Space is produced by the online broadcast network VBS.tv, which actually has several interesting programs. (Like Toxic Brooklyn...yikes, all the scary toxic waste/sludge stories sure don't make me want to move to Williamsburg and Greepoint...) Good stuff.
Improv Everywhere is a comedy/improv group that creates scenes by laying out a series of actions in public spaces with numerous 'actors' -- their latest feat involved over 200 people freezing in poses throughout Grand Central Station, while onlookers and tourists scratched their heads.
In an earlier feat, ImprovEverywhere fabricated an audience for the band Ghost of Pasha. Imagine this -- your band has only been together 3 months, you have 6 recorded songs and no album, you're playing your 4th gig ever on a Sunday night at 10:00 PM, and expect noone to show up. Instead, a rowdy, enthusiastic crowd of 40+ people show up cheering, requesting songs, and singing all the lyrics...then disappear.
Understandably, the band was completely baffled. Is it cruel? Or an ultimate band fantasy? I'm undecided...I think the concept is friggin brilliant, but the band must have been sorely bummed after learning the audience was fake (they were, initially). NPR interviewed both sides of the story here...good story.
Riffworld.com is Somona Wire Works' entry into the music collaboration and social networking space. Rather than re-phrase, I'll quote from the press release:
Using the RiffWorks desktop recording application, up to four musicians can connect and collaborate on a song simultaneously. As a layer records, it instantly streams to other players' running RiffWorks. As the Riff loops, other players can add more. All contributions are saved on RiffWorld.com and can be opened later for further collaboration.
Kind of an interesting spin on the space touched on by music collaboration & social networking sites Kompoz, Light Speed Audio, eJamming Audio, SpliceMusic, and a bunch of others. They're all pretty different -- some focusing on loop-generated music, some focusing on pure songwriting ideas, and others focusing on live interaction. Riffworld is definitely worth checking out...I haven't tried it myself yet.
Pretty cool stuff...and just as I was getting so comfortable writing and recording in the bubble I'm in... Whatever happened to anti-social networking and brooding rockstars? :)
There seems to be a lot of band contests these days, and you'd think a company like Gibson Les Paul would be one whose terms you could trust. Apparently, Tonedeff won the Lalapolooza Last Band Standing contest in 2006, and has spent over 1 1/2 years trying to cash in on the $10,000 prize.
Tonedeff is a hip hop artist, and apparently Gibson was a little annoyed to be giving drums and guitars away to someone who wouldn't actually use them; they'd probably just be eBay fodder. Still, a contest prize is a contest prize, no? Check out the sad story at the Consumerist and QN5, Tonedeff's label blog. [thanks, EKA Hosting]
Pretty big news from Last.FM, the social music site. (If you haven't used it, try it, it's awesome.) First, they're enabling full song and full album plays for major artists for the first time -- EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner are all participating. (Unsigned artists' music has always been playable...and even major artists' music could often be found on the site to play in full, but anyway...) Listeners are limited to 3 full plays per title, after which, they'll be prompted to subscribe -- yup, they're entering the music subscription service game.
Second, Last.FM is launching the Artist Royalty Program where artists will be paid directly a share of ad revenue, based on the volume of plays their music gets. It'll be interesting to see what that actually works out to be. In any case, go ahead and upload your original music if you haven't already, and/or check out some of the new music available on the site.
While searching for free music one day, I compared the main features of competing subscription-driven music download sites Napster, Real Rhapsody
, Yahoo! Music Unlimited
, and eMusic
, and specifically, their free music trials. Free trials cost nothing, are fun, and provide a snapshot of the music industry's evolving effort to adapt to a world listening to music online.
Each music site has good points and bad points. I compiled all the free music download trial info I gathered into a single, all-powerful, comparison chart -- click on the thumb below to check it out:
SOME THOUGHTS:
In Summary. Yup, I like free music. I'd recommend doing the eMusic trial for the free MP3 downloads, at least, and trying at least one of the other subscription services. But that could just be me - I love playing with this kind of stuff. Hopefully, my Free Music Trials: Head-To-Head chart will help you decide which music trials make the most sense. Of course, you can skip the chart stuff and go right to the coupon sign-up pages here:
* eMusic 14-day free trial sign-up page
* Napster 7-day free trial sign-up page
* Real Rhapsody 14-day free trial sign-up page
* Yahoo! Music Unlimited 14-day free trial sign-up page
Enjoy!
Samsung is holding an online Battle of the Unsigned Bands where the winner gets to tour with The Used in the ROCKSTAR Get A Life Tour happening this spring. Bands sign up free, upload bio, photos, music...then wait until Friday, January 25th for fan voting to begin. At that point, each band is given email templates and banners to help promote themselves in the contest.
Fans can win money by voting, apparently. It's a pretty good viral marketing strategy -- both bands and fans are incentivized to promote like crazy.
Anyway, if you're in a band, you're unsigned, and you're interested, sign-up soon to get the jump on voting which starts this Friday. Good luck.
It's never too early too start learning to play the Mandolyn.
Case and point, Morgan Olivia, who at 2 weeks, is rocking like it's nobody's business.
Congrats to Jay and Natalia!
Is anyone else bummed that Donald Trump fired Gene Simmons last week? Am I the only guy around here that watches too much reality TV? Help me here, folks.
I was never a Kiss fan, but Gene was downright entertaining -- and quite bright, too. It was nice to see rock representing in the world of business. Let's all touch our tongues to our noses in memory of the honorable Mr. Simmons...
UPDATE: Diddy announced the name of the new boy band -- it's Day26!
Diddy is a marketing genius. I type as I watch MTV's "Battle of the Sexes: A First Look" which is basically a show to hype the series' next season, Battle of the Sexes: Making the Band 4. Diddy will be simultaneously promoting all three of his TV-born artists, Danity Kane, Donnie, and the soon-to-be-named guys group formed last year, with a competition to determine which band will be the label's #1 performer.
It's Real World meets American Idol...all the drama of of a house filled with attractive guys and girls plus musicians singing their hearts out. Brands will reinforce each other, album sales will multiply, and Diddy'll be the big winner.
Willie, Qwanell, Brian, Mike, Robert, Donnie, Aubrey, Shannon, Wanita, Aundrea, & Dawn will mix it up on January 28th. I think it'd be funny to do a wacked-out cover of whatever songs are being done on the show...
Some good news - the new DAW workstation arrived over the holidays, and seems to be running smoothly with some tweak help from StudioCat. We had some problems with audio drivers. I use a Delta 1010LT soundcard, and StudioCat appropriately downloaded the latest version of the M-Audio driver...which performed horribly, and was also missing several customization options that earlier versions had. So, we downgraded to an older version which now works swimmingly. Sometimes, older is better.
Now the problem we're having is that the DAW is still dropping out with a 25-track project I'm working on, despite the fact that the CPU meters are hovering at only 10-20%, and the Disk meter is hovering at around 20-30%. It's performing far better than my old machine, however, my old machine would only experience dropouts if the meters were hitting 80-90%. Weird.
Still, we got a lot of work done with Girl Crusade's next song, "The Rumor Song". Hopefully, we'll have that for you soon to check out, as well as my own next track, "Avalanche". Cheers!
Did anyone else watch VH1's Rock of Love 2 season premiere tonight? Bret Michaels is such an inspiration to us all, but not as much as the Rock of Love girls themselves. Yikes. No offence to any exotic dancers in the GarageSpin audience, but the sheer volume of strippers Mr. Brett Michaels smooched within the course of an hour made me worry for his health.
After watching Rock of Love 1, many wondered 'Is Bret Michael married?' and 'Who is Bret Michaels dating now?'. Silly people -- Jes, Brandi, and Kris are gone. He may be a wrinkly rockstar now, but he's OUR wrinkly rockstar from Poison, and is way too cool to commit. One episode, and we've already seen drunken, half nude girls. We can now all add "get-old-and-get-casted-on-a-VH1-reality-show" to our list of reasons for making it in the music industry.
For those of you who want more Brett Michaels and Rock of Love 2 pain, here ya go:
I was recently wondering if there was any kind of free list of college radio stations available online. There are probably several, but I just happened upon the Indie Friendly Radio Database which lets you filter by several categories, including 'college radio', internet radio, geographic location, media type...though not simultaneously.
Though not perfect, it's actually quite a good resource. If you're in a band that's doing some old school, offline promotion (i.e. trying to get radio airplay by submitting LPs or CDs), be sure to check it out. I'd suggest a couple things:
Good luck!
Well, it's time. Time to continue the tradition of ripping off other people's indie 2007 top song, band and album picks for the past year. (See 2006 top songs, bands, bums and 2005 top songs, bands, bums for blasts from the past) Not only is it fun, it's also a great way to get caught up on incredible music you may have missed. Happy New Year:
Another one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, wrote a fantabulous post today of music lessons for the music industry (i.e. for major labels). Definitely a great read -- here's a lesson summary, but be sure to check out the full post:
0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now
1. Past performance is no guarantee of future success
2. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dream
3. Interactivity can’t be copied
4. Permission is the asset of the future
5. A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer
6. This is a big one: The best time to change your business model is while you still have momentum.
7. Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it’s not just a record, it’s a movement
8. Don’t panic when the new business model isn’t as ‘clean’ as the old one
9. Read the writing on the wall
10. Don’t abandon the Long Tail
12. Celebrity is underrated
13. Value is created when you go from many to few, and vice versa
14. Whenever possible, sell subscriptions
#2, #3, #4, and #10 are especially relevant to any new, indie/unsigned artist. How do your own music creation/promotion/distribution efforts stack up? (I'm already re-thinking a few things...)
Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies blog is one of my favorite reads in the music space, especially when I need a philosophical infusion of online media ecology (his term, not mine). Well, he's decided to start 2008 by transforming the flow of a site into a gigantic "interactive ebook" (which is neither a fair nor accurate summary of the 2000+ word explanation Andrew offered for the project).
Anyway, it's the start of a great journey. Check out what he's written so far:
Funny, I was thinking of starting a "blog-post-series-becomes-a-free-ebook" project recently...but then remembered that I hadn't completed a song in almost a year. Ouch! No. New. Projects.
Speaking of which...my new music computer is almost set up, despite several "technical obstacles"...hopefully they'll be overcome soon.
If you can't be in a rock band, or your band just plain stinks, the game Rock Band is for you. I had a chance to play it during the Christmas break, and it was totally awesome.
Harmonix, maker of Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II (Guitar Hero 3 was released by someone else), created a game where multiple people play drums, sing, and play guitar to wow a virtual audience. If you suck, you get boo-ed off the stage.
As a singer/guitarist, I of course gravitated to the drum set all night. AWESOME. Play this game if you get the chance.
"We're gonna take the power back!!"
UPDATE: Ok, this is somewhat related -- I just noticed these free offers for Guitar Hero...if interested, check 'em out:
Brad Sucks is the man. He recently launched a couple cool Christmas presents for indie artists everywhere:
Very cool. Granted, I'm beginning to lean away from anything that requires me to code, since I stink at it, but hey, these are pretty cool apps. Happy holidays!
It's true, office Christmas parties CAN be a blast. We held one of those Secret Santa anonymous gift-giving delios today...and apparently, my co-workers know me pretty well.
First, I got a Tron DVD
Girl Crusade and I will have to tear up the slopes with this puppy. Jackpot!
Normally, I hate getting unsolicited email that doesn't address me directly, and delete it. An email today with the subject line, "New Release and special fighting Game" caught my attention, so I checked it out.
The band Neo Filigrante apparently created a Street Fighter-ish video game to help promote the release of their new EP release this month. Basically, users play the game, bash thugs over the head with a Yamaha keyboard, then submit their score to potentially win a free EP copy. Awesome interactive marketing idea; kudos.
Let's talk about selling out, shall we?
Any starving musician or cubicle-bound musician-wannabe wouldn't mind extracting a little extra coinage for the old album fund. If you're included in that group, four words: Scalp Hannah Montana tickets. Just kidding. (Though apparently, some parents are shelling out up to $2,000 - $3,000 for a pair. Insane.)
If scalping isn't your style, there's another option -- TicketMaster recently launched an affiliate program that will pay you a commission for any sales that occur through your site via banners, search boxes, and text links they provide you. (See example below) If you have a band/music blog, chances are, your readers are interested in music, and may very well be shopping for tickets. Here's the rub -- the commission rates suck: 1% - 1.5% on a ticket sale price, with a cap at $5. To illustrate the suckiness, if you bought a ticket worth $20 through the search box below, I would earn a whopping $0.25; if you upgraded to a $500 ticket, I would get $5.
Why so Scrooge-like? Ticket master's penny-pinching ways were explained to me by a friend thus (paraphrased by me):
ALL of the price of a ticket goes to the venue and artist. Ticketmaster gets about 50% of the service charge. (I hate service charges.) So, say, on a $100 ticket with a $20 service charge, the artist and venue split the $100, the promoter/venue, and ticketmaster split the $20 service charge, and there's also the additional 3% CC charge on the whole sale of $3. At the end of it all, poor old TM gets $7...so the 1% commission of the $100 is sort of 10% of their sales, in that case.
Interesting. But it's still hard for affiliate marketers (and bands) to swallow when sites like StubHub
(a great 'after market' site for buying and selling (er, scalping?) tickets) offers an 8% commission fee, for example.
So, a final word -- you'll do less work and earn more money towards that next guitar amp if you just go with my first tip: scalp Hannah Montana tickets. ;)
Gibson's "Robot Guitar seems to be getting more and more popular. If you haven't seen it in action, check out the demo video below. If you have, skip that, and check out Gibson's 'Psycho' spoof...poor Fender. (I wonder if the robot is quite as screechy and noisy as the video depicts? That could be a bit painful. Nevertheless, if anyone that loves me is reading this, remember, Christmas is right around the corner. Thanks Mike)
My frustration with my recording setup finally bore fruit this weekend, as I am now fully committed to upgrading my DAW (home recording PC).
While recording vocals for "Avalanche", my Dell kept crapping out in the middle of a recording, despite my turning off anything and everything that consumed RAM (disabling effects, archiving non-critical tracks, "freezing" permanent tracks, etc etc). That was the final straw.
I'm opting to have a pro put together something customized. Though geeky, I'm simply not geeky enough to trust myself with the task of tweaking and tinkering a DAW into a lean, mean, audio converting machine.
My current setup includes:
Dell Dimension 8200, Pentium 4 CPU 1.99 GHz, 1.99 GHz, 1GB RAM
C: ATA Controller: WDC WD800BB-75CAA0
F: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160023A
M-Audio Delta 1010LT soundcard
M-Audio DMP3 preamp
M-Audio Studiophile BX5a monitors
Nvidea GeForce 6200 video card (with Dell 2005 FPW and Dell 1702FP monitors)
Sonar Producer 6
Reason 2.5
Everything above is solid for my needs...except the ancient Dell from 5 years ago (did MP3s even exist back then?). Two words: UP. GRADE. More soon...
Gotta love da Apple, jabbing at Vista in its own ad space. Microsoft may be none too pleased with CNET after this... Check out the video ads before they're pulled here.
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