Learn How to Build a Facebook BandPage Tonight

RootMusic is providing a free step-by-step live video demonstration on how to build a Facebook BandPage tonight at 6pm PDT / 9pm EDT via their Ustream channel, or you can watch it below. If you're unable to attend, you'll be able to watch the archived version at your convenience.

 

Music Hack Day London

UPDATED 2 (links fixed, apps added):

Another Music Hack Day (London) was held this past weekend. Below are the hacks:

• Paul G music-on-hold hack (call his conference number and select the music you want to hear
• Cuttle (access music library on iDevice under iOS 4, and run a live remix using realtime beat tracker)
• Big Piano (inspired by the movie Big - big floor piano that you can make music with)
• Future of music 2010 (a Mac OS X app that scans your iTunes library and computes the music you are not supposed to be listening to anymore based on your preferences, and then deletes it from iTunes and your hard drive)
• Gramophone (browse around the world, pick a month from history and find songs that were played live then and there)
• HOTTTABS (crawls the web for you and retrieve the guitar tabs of the hottests songs of the moment according to their level of difficulty)
• BumbleTab patient guitar tutor (a very patient guitar tutor)
• Daily Sample Set (ruby script that pulls the hottest downloadable uncompressed Creative Commons tracks from SoundCloud within last 24 hours)
• Piracy (android app that allows you to drop tracks from your music collection on your current location, allowing others to grab them if they're close enough)
• Playlistr (imports/exports XSPF playlists, imports tracklists from the BBC Programmes website, links to stream on Spotify and buy from 7digital)
• Disco Snake (play the classic game snake, but you have multiple pieces of food available at any time, and eating a piece of food adds a note to a playing sequence with a pitch and velocity corresponding to the position of the food, and crashing in to your tail results in switching to a new set of samples)
• Singalong (quick access to tablature from your favorite bands)
• Speakatron (a program that looks at you through your web cam and plays a sound when you open your mouth)
• The Cut Liberator (a python script to autogenerate cut up hip hop mixes)
• Roomba Recon (The inspiration for this project is a robot solving a maze. Or cleaning a house. The general idea is to construct coherent playlists that traverse from a start to end song on the Soundcloud with minimal prior knowledge.)
• Webloop_Revisited (The webloop, in its first incarnation remotely presented at music hack day STHLM, is an ongoing experiment in using modern browsers to generate sound. On one hand. On the other hand it tries to find ways to allow people to collaboratively create music.)
• Earth Destroyers (For my London Music Hackday hack I built a web app called 'Earth Destroyers'. Give Earth Destroyers a band name and it will show you how eco-friendly the band's touring schedule is. Earth Destroyers calculates the total distance traveled from the first gig to the last along with the average distance between shows. If an artist has an average inter-show distance of greater than a 1,000 km I consider it an 'Earth Destroyer'. The app also shows you a Google map so you can see just how inefficient the tour is.)
• 7digital Never-ending Popquiz ("Arcade style" never-ending popquiz. Reaching next level will bring new type of questions and they get more difficult with each level. Wrong answers cost you lives. You can choose different genres to play and questions are generated randomly from top artists tagged with this genre. Options for answers are generated from similar artists to the correct answer.)
• 7x7 (a square of 7x7 notes, where the notes can be selected by using the mouse. All notes within the selected rectangle are played, creating various chords. When notes are selected they are played according to an Attack-Duration-Decay envelope, where the user has no control of the parameters.)
• MixCloudPad (a sit back way of enjoying MixCloud content on your iPad)
• MashBox (The user selects a track and the system mixes it with another that is chosen at random (within limits), and uploads to http://soundcloud.com/mashbox)
• SongkickGiglister (An Android oriented Songkick gig lister for people who agree to go to gigs before they've heard the band. Fetches the upcoming gigs for a given user, pulling in data about the bands: links to Spotify, tracks from around the web etc.)
• Accessible music (This hack is a web browser where songs are triggered with mouse over movements)
• MuseScore OSC Remote (several musicians scoring together)
• I was there (tour t-shirts from your Songkick gigography)
• Gowalla for SoundCloud (check in with Gowalla to a particular venue and get a free SoundCloud stream/download)
• Cleversounds (next time you visit a place with a cleversounds jukebox (at the moment, just laptops), you will be played artists that you like)
• Music Mag (create a music magazine from Guardian content)
• The Sound of Tweets (simple web app to turn tweets into pieces of music)
• Swearaoke (this is a game where you play Guitar Hero guitar, and this makes the words to a song)
• Auto Score Tubing (YouTube.com is stuffed with great musical performances. Imagine these videos playing along with the musical score! While manually synchronizing a score measure per measure along with the video is possible, automatic synchronizing would be even greater.)
• The Sound of Data About Justin Bieber (exploring how fan data could be presented not as visualizations, but instead as sounds)
• Political Echonalysis (exploring the style of politcal speech by analysing the audio data)
• Not That Song (add songs from your 7digital locker to playlist that tells you how well those tracks fit together, or not)
• Head Tracking Sound Installation (breakout Game with Procedurally Generated Audio - actions in the game affect the audio output)
• BBC Dance & Electronica Archive & Recommendations (tracklist archives for all dance & electronica shows, finds listed tracks on SoundCloud, after entering your Last.FM username, it recommends artists based on the _complete_ tracklist)
• Mortal Songbat (a musical version of Mortal Kombat)
• Radio Map (sweeping the frequency spectrum on an old analogue radio to the digital web-radio world)
• SoundWheel (Sound Wheel is a circular synthesizer that uses synesthesia and variable intonation to make funky sounding basslines)
• Chatter-FM (call a number and leave a message that will be uploaded to soundcloud)
• Nirtous Oxide (webcam midi controller that tracks colours / fruits)

It's inspiring to see what can be developed in a weekend - congrats to all! While I haven't experimented with any of the above hacks, based on the brief summaries they've provided, my favorites are Disco Snake, Earth Destroyers, I was there, Gowalla for SoundCloud and Mortal Songbat. Btw, if you are not familiar with Music Hack Day, watch these two videos:

Track and Share your Music Listening Activity with Like.fm

Indie Music Tech Exclusive:

Like.fm is a new music tech startup created by Chris Chen that allows users to seamlessly keep historical track of what they're listening to on sites like YouTube and Pandora (many more sites coming soon), recommend/rank artists and songs from iTunes, and create and share playlists from music sites with friends. Like.FM even summarizes a user's music listening activity, and automatically posts it to their Facebook profile.

It's quite robust, and can be downloaded as an unobtrusive, lightweight desktop client that integrates with iTunes and Winamp, or as a browser plugin (presently available for both Chrome and Safari) - just install and listen to music online like you normally do. Like.fm will then automatically keep track of your plays, and it's quite accurate too, with advanced scrobbling that checks for the validity of an artist, title, genre, tags and other metadata.

5 Ways to Broadcast Live Shows

Quick Post: There are dozens of ways fans can post video segments, or stream live concerts from their mobile phones, but below are 5 sites that can help artists professionally broadcast their live shows (in no particular order):

• Ustream
• Justin.tv
• Livestream
• Stickam
• Kyte

What did I miss? Which service do you recommend?

Influence your Local Music Scene with Gigwish

Gigwish is a webapp that enables music enthusiasts to help influence their local music scene by voting for artists to play in their area, and then sharing their votes with their friends to encourage additional voting. The goal for music fans is to generate enough votes to influence promoters, booking agencies and venues to hire the acts they want to see (might be useful for an artist's street team).

Music Industry Marketing and Millennials

Are you marketing your music, service or music technology to millennials? If yes, than you may want to study this infographic below, created by Flowtown last Friday.

ReverbNation updates their My Band Facebook App

Yesterday, ReverbNation released the latest version of their already successful My Band Facebook App, based on feedback and suggestions from their users (read their full announcement here). Some of the new features include:

• tour map, show schedule with details, ticket links, sharing
• fan-exclusive downloads
• custom header banner
• aggregated fan count stats (MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation Mailing list)
• song lyrics
• links to retailers like iTunes and Amazon

Here's a screenshot of how it works (it's their fake band to demonstrate the app) - what do you think of their revisions:


 

G2.fm: an artist booking management system

Based out of Chicago, G2.fm is building a service similar to Sonicbids. According to their website, the founders have built an artist booking management system based on their personal experiences as musicians, promoters, and booking agents. "Our successes, as well as lessons from past frustrations, inspired us to create a solution that would streamline the booking process, save artists time and money, and create new revenue streams for our venue partners."

While I'm not sure what fees G2.fm charges artists and/or venues, if any, here's how it works for musicians and/or artist managers:

1. signup and create a profile for your band (bio, genre, location, etc)
2. upload your media (music, photos, videos, etc.)
3. search venues and apply for gigs - you can then check the status of your application

Here's how G2.fm works for venue owners/managers:

1. signup and create a profile for your venue (venue description, location, size, etc.)
2. create and customize a calendar with your available dates/times
3. browse applications and book desired talent

Merge.fm: where fans and artists share in the songwriting process

Update (see below):
Merge.fm is a new collaboration app that helps artists open-up the creative process and share the songwriting experience with their fans (see video demo below).

The site has a great clean layout with intuitive features, and they are looking for bands and musicians artists to join as they just launched a couple of weeks ago, and it's free for artists, and the first 3 fans artists to email support@merge.fm with the coupon code "indiemusictech" will get one free year's subscription to Merge.fm (a $60 value).

Allowing fans to participate in the evolution of your music, and even provide feedback to the songs you're working on is a great way to develop and strengthen loyalty with your fans.

Referral Marketing and the Music Industry

There are a number of music related websites that have attempted to reward fans with cash, merchandise and/or other discounts for promoting, reviewing or selling songs for artists, such as Burnlounge, People's Music Store, Slicethepie and Zaploop, among others, but do they work. Do artists support these initiatives? Do music fans use them? What are your thoughts?

The latest is Webceleb:

Top 10 Music-Based Facebook Apps

According to All Facebook, the unofficial Facebook resource, below are the current top 10 music apps on Facebook (based on monthly active users):

Everybody is a Music Maker

Below is Dave Haynes' interesting presentation from TEDxCardiff last month, called Everybody is a Music Maker. Great job Dave!

Cross Promote your Music with other Artists via Headliner.fm

Yesterday, Headliner.fm gave a presentation at the SF MusicTech Summit. Essentially, the service provides a cross promotion platform for artists. You can read how it works here, or watch the short video below:

TuneRights: a stock exchange for songs

Looking to sell shares of your songs, allowing you to receive capital upfront to finance your career, while allowing your fans to earn a portion of your song's revenue, then take a look at TuneRights. Essentially, this web app (still in beta) aims to provide a stock exchange for music, where songs work like stocks, and your fans can purchase ownership in them. While you may not want to sell much ownership in the songs you think are hits, TuneRights may be a great way to help motivate your fans further, as they will share and earn income from your success.

Interview with My Audio Bio

Curious about My Audio Bio? Below is a brief email interview with the founder, Dan Morris.

What is My Audio Bio?
My Audio Bio is an autobiographical catalogue of your musical history. It gives you a way to connect your life to music, sharing your stories with your friends on Facebook, as well as making new friends by connecting over the stories you post. You can also turn your stories into a soundtrack by assembling playlists for them.

Why would someone use My Audio Bio instead of blogging about or sharing their experiences within their social networks?
My Audio bio is a central place for people to share their personal music stories, a catalog of your life in music powered by Last.FM and Facebook. Also, users on social networks are mostly sharing what they are listening to currently, which is great, but MAB allows users to share how music effected their lives.

It seems My Audio Bio is still in the early stages, what features is My Audio Bio building for future releases?
At present, My Audio Bio users can publish their Audio Bio's to Facebook, and tag friends in their stories. We have entertained the idea of having a Facebook app that allows Artists to publish their "MAB" albums to facebook, but we do not have this in the works today. We are also releasing our iPhone application, playlists publishing with iTunes, and expansion into live concerts on the site. We are also exploring some partnership opportunities that will further the users experience and provide a new direction for our business model.

What is My Audio Bio's business model?
We will offer a light version of our iPhone application, which will be free, but we are also building a paid version that will allow for a much richer experience. Ultimately, the ability to purchase songs along side each story will be in place throughout the site.

Bandsintown is on the Move: Announces Partnerships and Expands Board of Advisers

My friends over at Bandsintown just announced significant API partnerships with EMI, Shazam and ReverbNation, as well as the appointment of Paul Vidich to their board of advisers. Paul is a former EVP with Warner Music and a former director at Ticketmaster UK.

These are key partnerships for Bandsintown, as it will expand their reach considerably. For example, Bandsintown will now deliver tour dates and ticket links to more than 60 million songs tagged each month on Shazam, Shazam Encore and (SHAZAM) RED apps. Additionally, Bandsintown will also provide concert information to over 20 million music fans throughout ReverbNation's network looking to purchase tickets, and a similar arrangement with EMI artists as well. Nice work guys, congrats!

If you haven't had a chance to explore Bandsintown, now's the time, and they have a great iPhone app too. Not to mention, they've made tremendous progress since their launch in 2007, just take a look at some of these stats:

• aggregate ticket information from more than 100 different ticketing companies in 160 countries
• expose concert data to more than 50 million people monthly through their partner network
• over 150,000 upcoming events
• an active developer community with more than 70 developers utilizing their data in various global music sites and applications - here's just a few of them

To read their full press release regarding these partnerships and the appointment of Paul Vidich to their board of advisers, please go here.

Some of the Challenges Artists Face Promoting their Music (a video)

While concept stage Immitter seems to be trying to develop a music promotion engine, I'm not sure what tools they'll provide to artists, practically speaking, as they haven't yet developed their initial service (they're still very early stage), but this is a creative video about some of the challenges musicians and bands face vying for exposure to their music:



Founder and CEO, Jermaine Kelly said they're pitching at DEMO this Monday.

Enhance Your Facebook Fan Page with RootMusic

RootMusic is a new web app that enables you to seamlessly enhance your Facebook Fan Page (see videos below). For example, by adding the free, RootMusic BandPage tab to your existing Facebook Page, your fans can listen to your music while they comment, view photos or read about upcoming shows - not possible with standard Facebook Pages, as the music stops. You can also allow your fans to download songs for free, or integrate your band's twitter feed all within a nice looking layout which can be your default tab.

While RootMusic just launched a few weeks ago, it's a promising tool for artists that you should experiment with, as I'm sure we'll see more features and functionality from RootMusic soon. Do you think Facebook will counter and create more flexibility for artist Fan Pages?

The Jackson 5 Coming Soon to ZOOZBeat

In a few weeks, ZOOZBeat will release The Jackson 5 mobile remix app, allowing users to recreate hits like "ABC," "Dancing Machine" or "I Want You Back" with loops, hooks or adding in their own vocals directly from an iPhone. Users can then upload their remix and share with friends. It's a super cool and fun app that's a bit addicting (I played with it nonstop for an hour this afternoon), so stay tuned to ZOOZBeat for their release announcement.

As mentioned in a previous article, ZOOZBeat builds Gesture-Based Mobile Music apps that allow users to create music through physical interactions with their mobile device, like shaking, tilting and tapping.

Three Videos Worth Watching

If you haven't seen these videos, you may want to find 20 minutes to watch them - you'll be glad you did.

CNN interview with Tim Westergren of Pandora:

Derek Sivers' Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy:


Nate Harrison's history of the the Amen Break: