May 2010
1 post
4 tags
Musicians Take Over Chatroulette →
http://chatroulette.com/ is a website that connects you (webcam and audio) to another random chatroulette user in the world. You can click “next” at any time to connect to another random user. Its full of all sorts of people (ok, mostly guys, but not entirely), and yes, a lot of people doing very, uh, rated R (or worse) things. You can *always* click “next” or...
January 2010
1 post
3 tags
December 2009
2 posts
3 tags
SF Music Tech Summit - 1 minute Pitches
SF Music Tech was a great event, but the session that seemed to excite me the most was the “1 minute pitches”. Most of them were for web sites/services for musicians (of course). Here’s a list of the ones I wrote down that I found interesting:
LiveCut: ”LiveCut makes getting one-of-a-kind live recordings easy. During a performance and for a limited time after, LiveCut...
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SF Music Tech Summit →
This Monday, Dec 7 in San Francisco:
The SF MusicTech Summit brings together visionaries in the music/technology space, along with the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive,...
November 2009
3 posts
1 tag
Social Media Club SFSV - The Music That Moves Us,... →
Come on out and join us at a Social Media Club event where we’ll have musicians and music fans share how they’ve used social media to connect with each other (and not just via a label).
Look forward to seeing you there!
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A first-time manager's peek into managing "Get... →
From Ian Rogers:
I am going to try to blog the experience in hopes it might be interesting/useful for others.
Being the CEO ofTopspin and *not* having experience managing a band is like running Flickr and not taking photos.
All in all, a tantalizing taste of a “behind the scenes” description of how to launch and promote a band without the backing of a label. Mention of a lot of the...
October 2009
2 posts
DigABand Empowers Independent Musicians To Boost... →
Gonna have to try this out and keep an eye on it. I’ve been waiting for just this sort of platform for the “1000 true fans” model…
DigABand, which just launched in private beta, is hoping to help independent artists manage their online presence easily and through and single platform.
Forrester Article: "Music biz needs radical... →
In the “no duh!” file…
This Ars Technica coverage of a new Forrester report states what seems to me to be stupendously obvious:
“The music industry needs a “radical overhaul” to its products if it wants to revive sales, and that overhaul revolves around actually catering to consumer needs. That’s the argument in a new report from market research firm...
September 2009
2 posts
Zoe's Incredibly Interesting Blog: Deep thoughts... →
A great interview of Zoe Keating where Zoe discusses (among other things) why she didn’t want to sign to a record label:
“I’m not trashing record labels. They perform a useful service for many artists. But I don’t think the model works for me. I think of recording contracts as very, very expensive bank loans. In the future, if I need extra money to make an album, I’m...
A critical look at Spotify's deal for musicians →
Not a glowing review of how Spotify deals with the artists who aren’t represented by big labels. Here’s one example:
“On Spotify, it seems, artists are not equal. There are indie labels that, as opposed to the majors and Merlin members, receive no advance, receive no minimum per stream and only get a 50% share of ad revenue on a pro-rata basis (which so far has amounted to next...
August 2009
2 posts
What Will Record Labels Look Like in the Future? →
An interesting introductory article from Jason Feinberg, summarizing the challenges facing the music publishing industry:
The pioneers of the music industry couldn’t have seen this coming in their wildest dreams. When publishers were selling sheet music in the late 1800s, the idea of people privately sharing their product, independent of location and physical constraints, would have seemed...
Vintage Music Collective →
San Mateo County’s own Vintage Music Collective, playing really tight reggae and blues. And performing all over the place (Little Fox, San Mateo County Faire).
From their Facebook page:
Personal Interests: Making you dance. Being funky
July 2009
4 posts
The New Breed of Record Labels: Helping Bands Help... →
Polyphonic will invest in bands, who in turn will operate like startups, dealing mostly with contractors to handle various aspects of a band’s work, such as merch, tours, publicity, recording etc. They will share profits from their music and tours, but – and this is the really important part – they get to keep copyrights and master recordings. It’s about royalties, of course, but it’s also about...
3 tags
Music Labels Reach Royalty Deal With Online... →
There’s been a lot of concern among in the community of fans of small and innovative music webcasters like Pandora about royalties being set by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board - fees were set at rates which would have potentially put companies like Pandora out of business. With this new agreement, however, it looks like the industry folks have have relented a bit.
Details are in the NY...
3 tags
Musicians: Do you have 1000 "True Fans"? →
In this 2008 blog entry, Kevin Kelly wrote posits that it should be possible for artists to survive on a modest (1000) number of “true fans” who would spend enough money per capita on their favorite artists to support each artist. The exciting idea was that this would make it possible for artists to focus on their art, even if it weren’t popular, and not live like a pauper.
A...
Breaking News EXCLUSIVE: Hope Squad Becomes "The...
With a mere tweet, @keikotakamura, the lead singer (and chief conspirator) of Hope Squad announced that the group has renamed themselves The Shebangs. Which this author finds a little funny since the band is 50/50 male/female — doesn’t that mean the group should be called “The Theybangs”?
And yes kids, The Shebangs are on Twitter and Myspace.
Back to your regularly...
Vibe Magazine Shutting Down Immediately →
Is this:
A sign of the general economic times
A sign of the decline of print media
A sign of nothing in particular?
Discuss!
June 2009
23 posts
1 tag
Jason from West Seattle Pleasure Club →
Just saw Jason from WSPC live at open mic at Angelica’s. Check out his band here.
2 tags
B is For Bob (full album online) →
I’m probably not in the habit of discussing individual releases, but as a dad, this one is a special exception. I grew up listening to my dad’s Bob Marley albums, and now my kids get to hear the same songs, made perhaps a little more appealing for them (at 6 and 8). Definitely a must-have — and the songs are available to listen to for free online right now:
B is for Bob is a...
2 tags
United Breaks Radio →
Online Breakbeat Radio station, and what appears to be a really interesting and active fan community around the music as well:
Full featured internet breakbeat station broadcasting over 60,000 minutes of the finest domestic breaks. Search our fast growing breakbeat music playlist and request your favorite breaks to be played on ubRadio! You may also dedicate your request to otherbreakbeat fans....
2 tags
Djembe Strap Tutorial →
I used this tutorial to make my own strap for my Djembe out of 2” strapping. I bought about 15 feet of it at REI (off the spool), cost me less than $11.
Playing Djembe standing up is a whole other experience than sitting down.
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Fri. Jun 26: Epic Night of Live Music
Tracy Shaun and Keiko Takamura’s band (currently named Hope Squad) both have live gigs on Friday June 26th in the bay area. And here’s the good news: you can go to both in one night! Even better, you can meet me!
Both of my friends are amateurs (for the time being) and need your support. Both of them have interesting stories that I’ll cover in future blog entries. But you need...
#musicmonday on Twitter →
If you like talking about music (especially on Mondays), you may want to check out the Twitter hashtag #musicmonday. I’ve also found #funkfriday.
I’m curious if people have seen other music related “day” tags (the idea being that everyone starts talking about a community of music on a particular day of the week). If you find any active ones, post in the comments to this...
1 tag
Me Like Good Music →
I just found this site because its owner just followed me on Twitter.
ME LIKE GOOD MUSIC IS DEDICATED TO RECOMMENDING THE BEST NEW AND OLD UNDERRATED MUSIC OF MULTIPLE GENRES, ESPECIALLY ARTISTS AND BANDS FLYING UNDER THE RADAR OF POPULAR MUSIC.
That’s an agenda I can buy into. Electronica, Pop, R&B, Metal, Bossa Nova.. you name it, there’s something for everyone. In-browser...
3 tags
World of Blues →
This site is a labor of love by a few pals who enjoy the blues and would like to pay something back. We’re blogging about the blues and we have some simple pages to help gather information to be shared with other blues fans. Check back often, we hope to do great things for all the blues lovers and artists out there. If you have any suggestions or ideas please feel free to leave a comment here for...
2 tags
Playing For Change →
Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal...
1 tag
SomaFM →
14 unique channels of listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio broadcasting from San Francisco.
SomaFM is entirely listener supported. They have an interesting support model where they show their monthly broadcasting expenses on their main page, and how much money they have left to raise for the month to cover those expenses. And they send you nifty goodies if you...
@beatslacker on Twitter →
I’m not sure how I’m going to use this twitter account, but please follow if you are a BeatSlacker fan!
Internet Archive: Live Music Archive →
A great collection of recordings of live music from a wide range of bands. Of particular note is the Grateful Dead collection. If you’re not a dead-head, there’s a ton of other bands music. A nice in-browser player, playlists (for Itunes, and your favorite audio players), audio in multiple (including raw format) - metadata included!
Welcome to Internet Archive’s Live Music...
2 tags
B A Scene.com (Bay Area Scene) →
Thanks for the headsup from @alevin
BAscene.com is all about celebrating our local bay area artists and the raising of awareness of our diverse art scene, music scene and cultural scene in the bay area. We are providing an alternative platform (other than a soapbox) for bay area artists. All in an attempt to rejuvenate the local bay area scene. To achieve this goal it is essential to be a...
1 tag
Bay Area Open Mic Directory →
Adina Levin and I were discussing how frustrating it was to go to an Open Mic and see a great performer and then never find out who they are and where to find out more.
Well, problem solved (thanks to Adina!) Bay Area Open Mic is a site where folks at open mics can list themselves (names, websites, twitter, where they are playing next, etc) so that interested folks can follow them as they perform...
2 tags
Open Mic Discoveries
This is a series of posts I want to do highlighting folks I see live (usually at Open Mics). These are people earning their fame one performance at a time!
I’ve seen these folks at the Tuesday night (sometimes Friday) open mic at Angelica’s Bistro in Redwood City, CA.
Nkechi - “Astral Soul Songtress, Alternative Singer/Songwriter”
Merrady - Acoustic/Indie - sounds like...
2 tags
1 tag
My Favorite (Social) Music Sites
In no particular order:
Pandora
Last.fm
Blip.fm
Spotify
Do you have any others? Feel free to mention them in comments.
1 tag
Indian Electronica →
Indian Electronica is an online community, record label, radio station and annual music festival showcasing cutting-edge electronic music inspired by South Asian traditions.
Great streaming audio along with lots of info and a blog. Also see their IndoChill stream if you are looking for something more laid back.
2 tags
Beatport →
Beatport is the recognized leader of electronic music downloads by DJs and fans alike delivering content in premium-encoded formats that match the professional performance quality standards of the world’s leading sound systems. Beatport.com allows users to access the world of club music through secure, legal, hi-speed, high quality downloads in MP3, MP4 and WAV formats on a pay per...
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