Wildscreen.TV for Artists

There are scores of video communities aimed at helping artists promote their work like Vimeo, Blastro, AudioTube, Plugo.LA, Babelgum, and many others including newcomer, Wildscreen.TV, an online video portal for filmmakers, musicians, labels and an artistically-minded audience with a focus on high quality user-generated content from creative people. What video sites do you like besides YouTube for sharing your music on?

Below are the basics of wildscreen.TV:

Goal of wildscreen.TV:

Offer viewers an abundant pool of artistic, fresh and top-quality videos in 6 categories:

• Music videos and live music performances (gigs, interviews, studio out-takes, etc.)
• Short films
• Performing art
• Webisodes
• Video art & animation
• Fashion & design

Some of the Features of wildscreen.TV:

• free fully-customizable channel - use CSS to design it
• get 100% of ad revenue if you place advertising on your channel - use an affiliate ad program
• HD-quality player
• no upload-limit (either in terms of video length or size of data)
• create compilations as video mix-tapes. Make your own or get involved
• boost your creative output by connecting with other wild videologists
• fast support
  

How to build awareness of your music videos on wildscreen.TV:

• contact other users of wildscreen.TV and comment on their videos and compilations
• invite friends to watch your videos
• pimp your channel and make descriptions of your art, your videos and your compilations to make people talk about you AND with you.
• use the blog function in your channel to inform people about you and your stuff, and talk about things that thrill you.
• Encourage friends and interested people to embed your channel on their web page or blog
• Link to your channel on wildscreen.TV.

For any questions about wildscreen.TV, please contact Chris Wochagg or drop him an email at chris@wildscreen.tv

Music Licensing Landscape

Below is a brief list of some of the companies that can help bands and musicians place their music in film, television, commercials, games, etc. What companies did I miss?

Rumblefish (licensing for television, film, advertisements, websites, videos, games, podcasts, and sonic branding - e.g. your music inside your local Gap)
Gamecues (licensing for the gaming industry)
YouLicense (music licensing marketplace - essentially, their system enables artists and those seeking music to conduct business directly with each other)
Pump Audio (artists can license their music in television and advertising without giving up any ownership
BeatPick (music licensing provider)
Ricall (music licensing marketplace, connecting users wanting to license music directly with the relevant copyright owners)
SoundReef (private beta service exchanging music for promotion in television, film, advertising, etc.)

Serving Your Fans: The Trent Reznor Case Study

You may have seen this before, but I just watched Techdirt founder Michael Masnick's keynote presentation at The Leadership Music Digital Summit, and I gotta say, it was fantastic, a must watch for anyone in the music industry. Here's the one he gave at Midem, but I missed due to meetings:

The difference between today's presentation and the one he gave at Midem is an additional 160 slides for a total of 440! Hopefully, the folks at LMDS will post the video soon.

Beastie Boys, Ian Rogers and Paul's Boutique

Ian Rogers' Skype interview with the Beastie Boys on their reissue of Paul's Boutique:

Ian's reflections are worth reading as well.

Indecision Live Stream: 02.07.09

One of the bands I've been working with for over 15 years, Indecision is performing in Atlanta at Smith's Olde Bar next Saturday, February 07 and I'm going to stream their show. So if you're into that kind of music, you'll be able to watch it live on Ustream. If you've never heard of them, you can sample their music here, or download some of their live shows here. Here's one from the Valentine Museum in Richmond, VA:

WE FUN: Documentary on the Atlanta Music Scene

I just saw this tweet from Davy Minor about a documentary on the Atlanta Music Scene called WE FUN. Here's one of the trailers:



Having been in a band in Atlanta during the late 80's, I'm looking forward to watching this film.

New Barack Obama Music Video: A Tribute by Greg Hester

About two weeks ago, Greg Hester phoned and said he was thinking about creating a music video for Barack Obama using a song he wrote several years ago called, "President," as he was in the process of re-recording it with Eric McConnell in Nashville. I knew right away that Greg had a great idea and the funked-up version, now called "Prezident" with Ivan Neville, Danny Ray and the James Brown Band (the JBs) would do well, and would probably generate some new listeners for Greg as well... so, we moved as quickly as possible to release it, and just a few minutes ago I received the final edited video from Shannon Pengelly, so please take a look and tell us what you think:

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Broadcast your music in real time with Synchronicity Live

Looking for a way to broadcast your live shows in real time to your fans for free? Synchronicity Live can help you do just that and then some...  Synchronicity Live is a new music startup (about 9 weeks old) based out of Jacksonville Beach, Florida that is providing a way for bands and musicians to stream their live performances for free to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Here's how it works:

1) create a free account with Synchronicity Live
2) schedule your live performance and select on demand viewing
3) set-up your own video camera at your show's location and connect it to a computer with a high speed connection (at least a 300Kbps upstream) - it will also need to have the Flash Media Encoder installed with a few adjustments that allow it to communicate with Synchronicity Live
4) make sure your computer's internal clock and time zone are set to the location from which you are broadcasting from and
5) a few minutes before you take the stage activate your stream via the FME and your show will immediately be broadcast in real time on Synchronicity Live for anyone to watch.

Once the show is over you can archive it on Synchronicity Live for free, allowing your fans and lurkers who missed the show to view it when they can. Here's an example of an archived show from Sovus Radio.

I caught up with the founder of Synchronicity Live, Aric Berquist at the Atlantis Music Conference last week and he said that they make their money from forthcoming content distribution deals as well as advertising, but the ads are not intrusive and are barely noticeable. Right now there are about 3,000 people that have registered for a free account with Synchronicity Live, about 1,000 more than last week so the excitement is spreading.

Synchronicity Live is a very cool service.  Not to mention there are lots of ways you could use it beyond just broadcasting your live shows. For example, you could broadcast your studio sessions. This kind of real time streaming video will help you connect with your existing fans and tap into other music enthusiasts that may have never heard your music before.... what are you waiting for?

As always, I welcome your comments.

Peace