Needs Moar Sausage: Vst Review - Dada Life's Sausage Fattener

On test this week:  Dada Life's Sausage Fattener VST.

When i first saw the video for Dada Life's VST plug-in  "Sausage Fattener" - i wasn't entirely sure if it was a wind-up or not.    Dada Life - the production team behind the track "Fight Club is Closed", - the teaser video of which you can even see the Sausage Fattener on the Ableton session.

By Jez with 3 comments

Webdocs - complete with Soundcloud integration

Soundcloud announced as part of their soundcloud lab, integration with webdocs - an online document storage facility where pictures and sounds can be imported and hosted and then made into transferrable widgets like the one shown above. 

As well as being embeddable on other platforms like tumblr, blogger or you own webspace, it also features neat little app integration such as the twitter one above, or a countdown timer to your next gig. 

Check them out here:

http://www.webdoc.com

By Jez with 2 comments

Are Record Labels Dinosaurs?



image c/o http://digiboydesigns.com/


With the rise of social networking and direct to fan advertising, most people seem to think so.  But former EMI CEO Tony Wadsworth at an address at the Great Escape Conference seems to think the opposite:

"Record labels are unrecognisable compared to the 90s," he said. "They are smaller, more efficient and they have diversified and taken on many more functions."

Although there were an increasing number of ways for artists to release music without record labels – in recent years bands from McFly to Public Enemy have gone down the DIY route – this often worked only for established artists with years of record-label support behind them, said Wadsworth.

Prince, who has released albums through newspapers, and Simply Red, who released their last album exclusively through Tesco, had some success. But former Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle, who also relased her debut solo single through Tesco, sold only 117 CD copies on its first day in the charts. "People outside the music industry think you can invest in music and cut out the record label," he said. "But investment without skills rings pretty hollow, record labels still give artists the skills and contacts they need."

By Jez with 1 comment

How to get your music onto Beatport

If you make dance music then the chances are you've heard of "Beatport". In their own words:  "Beatport is the recognized leader in electronic dance music downloads for DJs and club music enthusiasts."  Whilst certainly not the largest online audio store they are certainly the most recognised.  They certainly have the power to make careers - with progressive house producer Deadmau5 and Steve Duda amongst those whose careers have been launched through the site.

Beatport are renowned as having a strict policy in regard to their record labels.  In order to launch a deal with them you have to either be a recognised label and have some marketing muscle behind you.  They rarely deal with "vanity labels" - those labels set up just to deal with one artist - unless you are the kind of artist who can guarantee large volumes of sales.  In addition they monitor all sales - if you're sales dip below $500 per quarter then the chances are they'll cull you from their roster.

By Jez with 59 comments

Soundcloud announce "Labs" - app functionality through Soundcloud

Earlier today Alex, founder of Soundcloud announced the arrival of Soundcloud Labs - a new site dedicated to applications based on the Soundcloud platform.

Launching SoundCloudLabs (phone message) by Alex

The announced applications so far include:

• Social Unlock - a reciprocal social network application similar to tweetforatrack.com whereby users can download a track for free in return for a mention on twitter or facebook.
• Takes Questions - allows "fans" to interact with bands by recording questions which are then sent to the musician which they can reply to.
• Soundcloud Importer - allows users to import an audio file from a private phone line or by email
• Gmail plugin - embeds a soundcloud player in a gmail message
• Gobbler - a bulk upload and tagging utility

Social network allows you to link directly to your soundcloud account and lets users download via a page.  you can see this in action (for a limited time - until Sunday 14th) here:

http://socialunlock.com/celebrity-murder-party/ladyhawke-my-delerium-celebrity-murder-party-remix--2

There are hundreds more apps that other developers have created including an ipad beatbox app by Gorillaz and Korg, Soundcloud desktop and a Tunecore distribution application.

The direct to distribution applications in particular appear to be very useful - linking in directly with many other outlets using Soundcloud as the base.

Youlicense is a licensing application which allows you to advertise on the youlicense database for inclusion in films, tv, video games, websites, corporate applications and so on.

By Jez with 1 comment

Soundcloud Secrets: When to follow people

Soundcloud secrets - when to use following and when not to. at My car by The Always Unprofessional

By Jez with 1 comment

How to create a Facebook Fan page for your band using Root Music

As you probably are well aware, the ubiqutous facebook is currently the king of the social network – at least in the western hemisphere. It is increasingly being used as a method for connecting musicians and bands directly to the fans. But until recently it's basic graphical interface has meant that bands have very little control over it's appearance – and just exactly what can be embedded.

Root music attempts to solve that problem by providing a connecting interface between Facebook, Youtube and Soundcloud. This allows fans to view, interact, like, listen to your music and also to buy it through one simple web page.

They provide a basic free service which allows you to put a player and some basic interactive tools onto your facebook fan page, and a paid service where you have a greater degree of control over how the page looks. Monthly subscription starts at $1.99 per page per month.

The basic procedure is as follows:

By Jez with No comments