The state of Social Networks - 2011

From Bobby Owsinksi's great blog Music 3.0:

Here's a very interesting info-graphic from Ignite as sourced from Google Insights that describes the current state of social networks. As you can see, interest in social networking seems to have flattened out somewhat. It's also interesting how many of the most visited networks are not in the US. And finally, I don't think any of the 5 biggest losers are a surprise (especially MySpace), but the winners are (especially the Chinese Weibo).


Read more: http://music3point0.blogspot.com/2011/04/current-state-of-social-networks.html#ixzz1JgbBeHma

Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

By Jez with No comments

Is everything popular wrong?

The Independant Label Market is being held in London today and again on the 21st May.  This seems to coincide with "National Record day" which is apparently to celebrate the vinyl format.  The NME has written somewhat cynically about how they hold no love for what they perceieve as a dead format:

If physical singles are finally dying out for good, then don’t expect me to send any flowers to the funeral. I don’t care about Record Store Day. I don’t even care if I never own a physical CD or vinyl record ever again. I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records I’d paid for before becoming a music hack. I don't miss them.


And here’s why: if you’re seriously bothered about the way your tunes are delivered to you, you’re focusing on totally the wrong aspect of what makes music great.

By Jez with 2 comments

NPR, the music powerhouse?

The Washington Post details the growing influence of National Public Radio in the USA.  It is now second only to MTV in terms of visits per month. Record labels are gradually waking up to the importance of NPR music. 

But as the audience for NPR Music grows, it appears to consist of a demographic that’s actually shrinking: music fans who still buy music.

When NPR pushes a group, “there’s a spike in sales and chatter online,” says Steve Martin, the publicist for Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Paul McCartney — all of whom have felt a tangible boost from NPR’s support. “It’s something that reaches an audience that a lot of other people don’t reach.”

And the fact that NPR has music fans reaching back into their wallets has forced both independent and major labels to make NPR Music coverage a top priority in their publicity campaigns.
Label representatives for British soul singer Adele say that NPR was an “important piece” of the publicity strategy that pushed her new album, “21,” to the top of Billboard for two weeks earlier this month. NPR Music recently streamed both the album and an exclusive live performance.
For lesser-known indie acts, NPR Music’s stamp of approval can feel downright momentous.

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/npr-the-music-powerhouse-totes-dude/2011/03/14/ABvg1Cs_story.html?hpid=z13

By Jez with 1 comment

An experiment in Musiconomy

Found this great post on Sound-unsound, a forum for emerging artists and bootleggers which i'm reposting here:

"Releasing music is like the dirty dishes when you're living with roommates—if everyone just did their own, there would be no drama!"


-MC Owl


Now I know it would never be like that, and that there's plenty of music being released drama-free to the benefit of all parties involved, but it's an interesting thought. The digital revolution has flipped everything, and there are opportunities for musicians that weren't available before. Nowadays, any schmoe can release a track. Some say this has led to a flood. But it was already flooded, and at least this is a step up from what it was before: any schmoe with money could release a track. So I decided to do an experiment in 'musiconomy' during this evolving time in the music business to see if the outlets are available and effective for me and my peers.

The DIY spirit of underground music uprisings is an inspiration to me, especially the house, DnB and punk scenes. I've heard over and over the tale of Jesse Saunders putting out the first house record on his label back in 1984. I love that story!

I've been observing the music business for a while now, so it's time for a report. Here's what I have found useful if you are looking to release your own music:

SoundExchange

Sound Exchange is a non-profit P.R.O. that pays royalties to featured artists and copyright owners. Collects from satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), Internet radio (like Pandora), cable TV music channels and similar platforms for streaming sound recordings. This can be registered for even if you are with ASCAP/BMI/SESAC, it does not compete. They even have a separate fund set up that pays session musicans.

TuneCore

Tunecore is a digital distribution site, facilitates getting your music on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, etc. There are others like it, but this one seems to be the most together. You can pay for a single or an album. There's a yearly fee to keep your music up on mp3 vendor sites, but its not hefty. What I like is that they get you an ISRC for free, which is valuable in tracking the sales of your music (like a barcode for digital tracks). Then, if you decide to distribute the song(s) yourself, you can encode the ISRC in the ID3 tag of your mp3. Then when you deal with Sound Exchange, you can provide the code and they can calculate your royalties from it, which brings me too:

E-junkie

E-Junkie is a service that provides you with a shopping cart and all the backend services you would need to put music out yourself. You simply upload your track(s) and they give you the code for the shopping cart, send customized emails to your customers with the link (which you can set to a certain amount of downloads) and all the tracking/reports. You can set up your tracks individually with a different price for a group of them (i.e. album). Price is extremely reasonable, a flat fee of $5/month. If you google "e-junkie trial coupon", you can find a coupon code. There's lots of them out there, and they do expire, but after 15 minutes of searching, I found one for a free 90 days.

US ISRC

If you are not using Tunecore for distribution (maybe strictly the beatport/traxsource/stompy route, which Tunecore does not deal with) or you would like the freedom to assign your own ISRC's for organizational purposes, you can register at this site. It's a one-time fee of $70, which might seem steep, but if you will be releasing a lot of tracks, it would be worth it compared to paying for each one on Tunecore.

Jaikoz Audio Tagger

Jaikoz is a software for Mac and PC that you can use to tag your mp3s. This is very useful to spice up your downloads with artwork, liner notes, credits, etc. to automatically show up on people's players. But more importantly, you can embed the ISRC. The software costs $15, but not without a FREE trial first! Once you buy the software, Jthink provides you with updates at no charge.

WordPress

Well known blog site, I know this is not some big discovery! But it's great. Free to start and maintain. Tons of tip sites out there for Wordpress, pretty easy to learn. Many websites you probably don't know are done through Wordpress because they offer a great backend interface.

http://www.orikawa.com/

Plug time! You can check out my site to see how the experiment is going. A little bit about myself: Once I discovered DJing and partying, the one thing I wanted to do most was...well, DJ for parties. Like many others in my raver generation, I got my start in the biz promoting shows...cuz no one books a DJ who doesn't contribute anything else to the scene! I started working for labels and venues, promoting more and more of other people's music and shows. On the side, I keep my dream alive, working on the many Frankenstein projects I now have in my Logic folder. I sit in on as many sessions as I can and I've worked with numerous heads that are on the same search for knowledge.

From my time spent working in the music business, it has become apparent to me that if you make good music, work hard and believe in what you're doing, you will succeed. Good luck!

By Jez with 1 comment

Collaborating with Established Artists

A friend wrote to me recently asking for advice about collaborating with a large Canadian band who had heard his mashups of their work. Collaborating with artists can be a tricky business, particularly if they are already established and the way you approach it can be fraught with difficulties on the business side if you are not.

One thing is true, you need to go into the collaboration with the right mindset to be able to produce good music, and to leave the experience without a bad taste in your mouth.

By Jez with 1 comment

Just what the world needs - another music social networking site

Apple have just announced the creation of a new music social networking site that exists solely within itunes.

Wired has the scoop:

Apple audaciously seems to think the world actually needs another social network — one that you even need special software to be part of, to boot. With the introduction Wednesday of ‘Ping,” a music-centered community that exists only within iTunes, they are probably right — and then some.

At Apple’s annual music event in San Francisco CEO Steve Jobs described “Ping,” part of the iTunes 10 upgrade coming soon, as “sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes.”

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/apples-ping-social-music-network-is-already-too-big-to-fail/#ixzz0ySrZD7XI

By Jez with No comments

My Organ in your face - Free Kontakt Patch "Felix Organ"

Bit of a one trick poney when it first came out but Felix's "Don't you want me", or more specifically the Hooj Tunes remix had an instantly recognisable Organ sound - the "Rock Organ" preset from the Roland JX-1.

Now you too can recreate that famous riff or many other riffs like it by using our free patch for Kontakt.

Felix Organ Demo by Celebrity Murder Party

You will need Kontakt 4.1 to use the patch - download it here.

If you like it you can always make friends with us on Soundcloud:

http://soundcloud.com/celebrity-murder-party/

By Jez with 3 comments