January 23, 2008

FreeMusic: Napster vs. Real Rhapsody vs. Yahoo Music vs. eMusic - A Free Trial Showdown

While searching for free music one day, I compared the main features of competing subscription-driven music download sites Napsternapster free trial, Real Rhapsodyreal rhapsody free trial, Yahoo! Music Unlimitedyahoo music free trial, and eMusicemusic free trial, 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:

FREE MUSIC TRIALS: HEAD-TO-HEAD
(click to enlarge)
Free Music Trials & FreeMusicDownloads Chart

SOME THOUGHTS:

  • They all offer different types of 'value'  It really is worth trying each online music site to see the good, the bad, and the ugly.  For example, Napster napster free trial has the biggest online song catalog, Yahoo! Music Unlimitedyahoo music free trial is the cheapest music service, Rhapsodyrhapsody free trial is award-winning and awesome to use, and eMusicemusic free trial lets you keep its DRM-free mp3s forever.  What you pick depends on what fits your musicdownload consumption preferences; try each for 5 minutes, and you'll get the gist.
  • The eMusic free trial is a no-brainer.  The music trial lets you keep 25 free MP3 downloads no matter what.  That's 2-3 albums worth of free mp3 downloads!  It's also the only music site providing iPod compatible music files -- MP3s, as opposed to DRM-ed WMA files, which the other music sites use.
  • Real Rhapsody is awesome.  In my opinion, anyway.  And it's the least known, go figure.  With editorial content, tons of ways to share your playlists and preferences (blog/email/IM), great music discovery systems, TiVo compatability, and the Rhapsody To Go option (which costs more), it's not surprising it's won as many awards as it has.
  • Free MP3 players are good, too.  If you're looking for a new mp3 player, consider Napster To Go.  If you subscribe for a full year, you get a free mp3 player, which is pretty cool.  Btw, Yahoo Music is the only option that is PC-bound; hence its cost.
  • Music subscriptions = Cable TV.  As long as you pay, you can play...however, it seems way more acceptable for TV than for music...perhaps that's because music has a higher "repeat" value. I'll listen the White Album all day, but will not be queuing up the famous SoupNazi Seinfeld episode any time soon; i.e. we like to own our music. Perhaps the whole "Music Like Water" thing theorists bullsh#t about still has a chance.   Unlimited access to millions of songs can be daunting, so music recommendation engines, playlists, channels, and/or stations are key to enhance your music experience.
  • Other music sites?  I'd like to further compare these against smaller music sites like AOL Music and Live365, or even Pandora and Jango.  I'll leave that for another time.  (The table won't fit much more, anyway, and I'm lazy.  :)  )

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 pageemusic freemusic
  *  Napster 7-day free trial sign-up pagenapster freemusic
  *  Real Rhapsody 14-day free trial sign-up pagerhapsody freemusic
  *  Yahoo! Music Unlimited 14-day free trial sign-up pageyahoo freemusic

Enjoy! 

Samsung Battle of the Unsigned Bands

Samsung Battle of the Unsigned BandsSamsung 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.

January 22, 2008

The Youngest Mandolin Player, Ever

Morgan Olivia, youngest mandolin playerIt'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!

Hooray, My M-Audio Monitors Are on Their Way

I got a happy call this weekend telling me that my M-Audio BX5a monitors will be repaired, and sent to me within the week.  As I suspected, the tweeter was out, hence the HORRible sound quality emanating forth during playback of my vocals.  And all the while, I thought it was because I was chewing oatmeal and wearing a motorcycle helmet while recording...

January 21, 2008

Celebrity Apprentice: Trump Fires Gene Simmons??

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...

January 20, 2008

Battle of the Sexes: Making the Band 4 - Diddy Wins

battle of the sexes: making the band 4

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...

January 14, 2008

DAW and Girl Crusade Project Update

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!

January 13, 2008

VH1 Rock of Love 2 Premiere - Brett Michaels at His Best

rock of love 2 premiereDid 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:

Ok, enough.  ...Suddenly, I feel like I need to take a shower asap...

January 12, 2008

List of College Radio Stations

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:

  • Create a Story - The more interesting your story (or your band's bio "hook", the more likely some DJ will be interested in you, and give your music a listen. 
  • Start Local - Hey, who doesn't like to promote home-grown talent?  Try your alma-mater schools and stations, past places of residence, etc.
  • Contact a Human - Try to strike an email or phone exchange with one of the DJs or station administrators first.  The smaller the station, the easier that will be.

Good luck! 

January 08, 2008

2007: Top Songs, Bands, 'Bums

2007 top songsWell, 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:

  • Top 42 Songs of 2007 - Mp3Hugger put this great indie 2007 top songs list together, which is so far my favorite.  Loney, Dear, Montag, and Hello, Blue Roses take top honors.
  • Top 10 Indie Debut Albums of 2007 - By Berkeley Place.  It's getting harder for new bands to make it...but some young blood always rises to the top.  Marnie Stern and Scissors for Lefty made the biggest waves.
  • 10 Best Indie Rock Songs You Didn't Hear in 2007 - The Washington Post (huh) dug deep to put together a list of 2007 top songs you may not have heard, but should have.  Nice.
  • 20 Best Indie Albums of 2007 - A list at Suite101 of the best albums supposedly "..stripped (almost entirely) of pretentiousness and hipsterness..".  True?  You tell me.  Arcade Fire, Apparat, LCD Soundsystem, and Radiohead end up on top.
  • 2007's Best Albums - AmieStreet.com is an awesome source of good unsigned music with a demand-based pricing system...very cool.  I love hunting for great mp3s that cost under $0.15.  :)  These are some of the best performers, apparently.
Are there any bands or songs you think deserve an immortal place holder in 2007?  Share.  (Until then, see you next year for "2008 Top Songs, Bands, 'n' 'Bums".)

January 07, 2008

Music Lessons from Seth Godin

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...)

January 06, 2008

Andrew Dubber and Online Media Ecology

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. 

January 03, 2008

Guitar Hero 4? No, Rock Band by Harmonix

Rock Band video gameIf 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:

December 28, 2007

Cool Christmas Presents for Artists from BradSucks

Brad Sucks is the man.  He recently launched a couple cool Christmas presents for indie artists everywhere:

  • Give Me Some Money - This is sort of like a cooler, more interactive tip jar.  If you've seen the Give Me Some Candy widgets on Jonathan Coulton's or Ze Frank's websites, you'll get the idea.  Except, this one is open source, so you can do it yourself for free.
  • Download Store - Brad's own download store now has its own shopping cart (so it will enable PayPal, Google Cart, or whatever), and also enables zero dollar downloads (i.e. free downloads), which is great.

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!

December 19, 2007

Secret Santa Bounty: Tron and a Snow Tube

uncle-bob-snow-tube.JPGIt'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 (20th Anniversary Collector's Edition). (The old Tron flick is an absolute classic.) Then I got a 56" Uncle Bob's Double Snow Tube for some fun in the snow. The actual tube is different from what's pictured here -- mine has funky blue flame details on it, and has two sets of handles, etc.

Girl Crusade and I will have to tear up the slopes with this puppy.  Jackpot!

December 12, 2007

Band's EP Marketed With a 'Street Fighter' Video Game

Neo Filigrante EP gameNormally, 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.

December 05, 2007

Sell Hannah Montana Tickets via Ticket Master - Or Not

ticket master affiliate programLet'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.  ;) 

December 02, 2007

Gibson Robot Guitar Slaughters Fender

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)


November 27, 2007

Getting a new DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), i.e. PC

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...

November 21, 2007

Best Ad Placement Ever: Mac Spanks Vista on Home Court

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.

Mac OS Leopard bitch slaps Microsoft Vista
 

UPDATE: Well, the ads have already been pulled. Fortunately, someone was smart enough to capture the video -- enjoy:

The Thanksgiving Song, an Adam Sandler Turkey Classic

There aren't many turkey songs in the world, let alone Thanksgiving songs.  You never hear about anyone going Thanksgiving caroling on T-Day eve.  But the Adam Sandler turkey song (i.e. the "Thanksgiving Song") is a classic of classics.

Though I couldn't find a Youtube clip of Adam's performance (law suit issues), I did find the decent home made video below.  Sit back with your family, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, and sing along (the lyrics are right under the video clip):

Adam Sandler: "Thanksgiving Song" Lyrics

Love to eat turkey
Love to eat tur-r-rkeyyyy
OO i love you

Love to eat turkey cuz its good
I love to eat turkey like a good boy should
Cuz its turkey, to eat, so good

Turkey for me turkey for u
Let's eat the turkey in my big brown shoe
Love to eat the turkey at the table
I once saw a movie with Betty Grable
Eat the turkey all night long
50 million Elvis fans cant be wrong
Turkey-lurkey doo turkey lurkey that
I eat that turkey then i take a nap

Thanksgiving..is a special night
Jimmy Walker used to say DYNOMITE...THATS RIGHT

Tukey with gravy and cranberries
Cant believe the Mets traded Darrel Strawberry
Turkey for u and turkey for me
Cant believe Tyson gave that girl VD

Oh, white meat and dark meat
You just cant lose
I fell off my Moped and i got a bruise
Turkey in the oven and the buns in the toaster
I'll never take down my Sherrel Tiggs poster

Wrap the turkey up in aluminum foil
My brother likes to masterbate with baby oil

Turkey and sweet potato pie
Sammy Davis Jr. only had one eye

Oh turkey for the girls and turkey for the boys
My favoirte pants are courdaroys
Gobble Gobble goo and Gobble Gobble giggle
I wish turkey only cost a nickel

OOOO I love turkey on Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

November 16, 2007

RCRD LBL Launched by Engadget Founder

RCRD LBLPeter Rojas, founder of Engadget, Joystiq, and Gizmodo, launched a new biz called...er...RCRD LBL.  (Vowels?  We don't need no stinkin' vowels..!)  Imagine a cross between the mp3 blog Large Hearted Boy and editorially-leaning publication Pitchfork, then remove the unbiased commentary, add band blogs and listener profile pages, close label relationships, 100% free downloads, widgets, and a compensation system that shares advertising royalties with bands, and you have RCRD LBL.  Sort of.  You get the idea.

So yes.  Read about new bands, download their music, and hooray, bands actually get a cut of ad royalties.  It's almost like a SELECTIVE music site...not every band can join, but anyone can listen for free.  Worth checking out.  (Thanks, Taylor!)

WSJ wrote all about RCRD LBL as well (it must be nice having an Engadget founder backing you), within the frame of an ailing music industry looking for new ways to monetize music, etc etc.

HEY BANDS -- Note this questoin in the FAQ section:

Do you accept demo tapes/MP3s from signed and unsigned bands?

Yes, if you'd like to submit a LINK (please do not send full MP3s) to your music, you can send it to aandr [at] rcrdlbl [dot] com. If we dig what we hear, we'll be sure to drop you a line.

I would strongly recommend you submit your music now, while the site is still new, before it gets swamped with submissions from thousands of other bands. Cheers.

November 15, 2007

Bohemian Rhapsody in Acapella

Whether you love or hate acapella, you have to admit, this is a pretty solid rendition:

November 13, 2007

Next Song: "Take A Stand" is now "Avalanche"

I worked on my new song for the first time in months last Sunday, and recorded all the main verse and chorus vocals.  That is, after re-writing a good chunk of the song; it was sounding a tad too angry and accusatory (as I was angry at the time I wrote it).

It's not called "Take A Stand" anymore -- it's now called "Avalanche".  The chorus lyrics are:

Unclench your fists
Throw away your defenses
Let them all fall like an avalanche
There is still time
Fix the love, yours and mine
Let it rain down like an avalanche

That may sound a little strange out of context..?  The song is about cycles of abuse or pain that have involved multiple generations, and taking a stand to break those cycles.  (Unfortunately, I know too many examples of this happening (though not to me)...abuse being passed down from one person to another to another, often within the same family...it's really sad to see.  Some are able to stop the 'cycle' dead; others aren't so fortunate.)

Anyway, the song was a challenge -- I experimented with phrasings and rhythms I've not used before.  We'll see what you think, it may be a total flop.  But at least I tried, darnit!  Anyway, I'm getting close...and can't wait for you to hear it.   Maybe I'll post a preliminary demo...  (Actually, I still want to get all y'all to contribute to the end bridge, which I mentioned way back in...MAY???  Wow, I need to get this project done, peeps.)  Thanks for your unlimited patience.

Mega Man 2 Medley

mega man 2Are there any Nintendo veterans in the house?  (I'm talking the 8-bit old school version, not this Wii nonsense...which I dream about at night, by the way...)  If you shouted "Heck yeah!", then here's a follow-up question -- do you remember the game Mega Man 2?  Awesome game.

The Video Game Cover Band did an awesome medley of all the Mega Man 2 theme songs in this live concert.  They're so right on, I actually had flashbacks of myself getting swarmed by mechanical birds and getting crushed by huge, spikey masses. (Thanks, Noel!)  Ah...the good old days.

October 31, 2007

Halloween Music Video shot in World of Warcraft

Happy Halloween, y'all.  Here's little music video ditty I found while browsing the YouTubes...shot in the World of Warcraft with pumpkins 'n' bats 'n' stuff.  Enjoy.

So, did any of you actually wear a costume to work?  I brought my Pick-Up Artist "Mystery" hat, but haven't actually worn it yet.

October 30, 2007

"Accomplice: New York"

accomplice new yorkAccomplice: New York was a blast; I recently went with my family this last weekend. If you haven't heard of it already, it's a sort of show that's part game, part scavenger hunt, part theater.  You buy tickets to it not even knowing where it is.  That is, until you get a sketchy call from a mobsta-sounding dude tell you where to meet him.  Clues, puzzles, tasks, and 'scenes' then lead you all over lower Manhattan.  Good fun.

There are a couple shows in NY, and they're apparently adding more in DC, LA, and a 3rd city I don't recall.  If there's one near you, I highly recommend checking it out.

October 27, 2007

Sweet Freebie: 25 Free MP3 Downloads from eMusic

So, you can download 25 indie tracks (or rap, classical, blues, whatever) from eMusic right now for free.  They're doing a 14-day free trial that lets you keep the music you download, whether you subscribe or not, with no obligation, and no DRM.  Nice.  You can check out the offer here.

I recently browsed emusic.com and I picked out a bunch tracks by indie and alternative bands:

  1. Alkaline Trio
  2. Arcade Fire 
  3. Badly Drawn Boy
  4. Beirut 
  5. Belle and Sebastian 
  6. Ben Kweller 
  7. Bloc Party 
  8. Brand New
  9. Dashboard Confessional 
  10. Elliott Smith 
  11. Jens Lekman 
  12. Modest Mouse 
  13. Of Montreal 
  14. Plain White T's 
  15. Spoon 
  16. Stereolab 
  17. Sufjan Stevens 
  18. The Decemberists 
  19. The Mountain Goats 
  20. The New Pornographers 
  21. The Pixies
  22. The White Stripes 
  23. Thom Yorke 
  24. Voxtrot
  25. Yo La Tengo

Some of these are more mainstream indie than others, but whatever -- I'm not ashamed.  :)  If you do the trial and download some tracks from e music, share your picks with the rest of us in the comments below -- it's fun to know what everyone else is listening to..!

October 22, 2007

A Propellerhead Reason 4.0 Free Giveaway

I have and love Reason 2.5.  I'd love to have Propellerhead's latest version, Reason 4.0 even more.  But alas, it's normally not free, and is more often than not about $399 in stores.  Yowza!

Fortunately, for one lucky songwriter, audioMIDI is holding a little Reason 4 giveaway.  Go for it! (Thanks Eric)

(If you're not a Reason user, consider entering the contest and donating your winnings to GarageSpin.  :D)



October 18, 2007

Gibson Guitar that Tunes Itself - PowerTune System

Kinda funny.  For the ultimate in pampered musicianship, Gibson released several guitars that basically tune themselves using something called the Tronical Powertune System.  That must be great for both 1) hard-working musicians that need to change tunings on the fly before/during/after gigs, and 2) lazy musicians who don't want to bother withthe whole process.  (via Wiser Rocker)

Hopefully, the 'System' will never become self-aware, begin writing music, and put musicians out of work. 

October 14, 2007

Sigur Ros, Talented Musicians, Painful Interviewees

Sigur Ros is a band from Iceland that's sold 2 million records of music that contains made-up, gibberish language.  (That's a story in and of itself, since it proves once and for all that lyrics don't matter.  Just kidding.  The music is beautiful and atmospheric, and must be any video producer's dream, since there aren't any actual words that may conflict with the premise of a video sequence.)  You may remember "Staralfur" from Life Aquatic, and other stuff from Vanilla Sky and other films.

Anyway,  it's no wonder these guys sing gibberish, they're not the best public speakers.  Taylor pointed out a recent and cringe-worthy NPR interview with the band.  I dare you to see how far through it you can get...

October 12, 2007

Free Guitar Contest O Rama and Mayhem

Guitar Contests galloreHoly smokes -- look at all these free guitar give-aways.  Do ya feel lucky, punk?

While I love my 2nd hand Epiphone Les Paul Standard, some of these made me drool a bit, and I'm not normally a gear geek.  Most of the entry deadlines are in October.  If you win a new axe, think well of me.  (Thanks to Eric at EKA Hosting for the tip!):

Happy winnings!

October 05, 2007

Raymond Crowe, Louis Armstrong, and Hand Shadows

It's Friday random fun time.  Check out this Raymond Crowe clip as he takes a "hands on" approach (I am sooo funny) to music video making for the song "What A Wonderful World"  by Louis Armstrong.  Genius. This is must be what Jun'ichirō Tanizaki had in mind when he wrote In Praise of Shadows. :) (Thanks, Tara)

October 03, 2007

TrakAxPC, a Free, Downloadable Media Mixer for PC

TrakAx PC - music, photo, video mixerThe company