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).

Free Concert Discovery App

Updated:
Flyer is a free concert discovery app that searches your iTunes music library and provides an up-to-date listing of shows for those artists based on the geographical area you define (see video demo below).

Presently in beta, the initial version of Flyer is a desktop-based app that utilizes the Bandsintown API, and works with both Macs and PCs using iTunes. If you have any questions/comments, please contact Shane O'Donnell.

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

Accept Credit Cards for your Merch via your iPhone or Android

Square is now available for both the iPhone and Android, and it's poised to revolutionize the credit card payments industry, especially for small businesses, and that's a good thing. So what can it do for artists? By creating an account, downloading the app, and connecting the tiny hardware to your mobile phone, you will be able to easily sell your merch from wherever you are, without any need for a computer or wireless connection - all you need is your iPhone or Android. No more sending in transaction slips, or turning away customers because they only have a credit card. It's simple, eloquent and efficient, not surprising coming from one of the co-founders of Twitter - just take a look at some of Square's features:

• accept credit cards on any device with an audio input jack, including your mobile phone
• no merchant account required
• no contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs
• receipts are sent instantly to your email or mobile phone
• instantly see how much you’ve made for the day, broken out by tips, tax, and payment method
• meets and exceeds all industry standard security practices and compliance requirements
• simple and transparent credit card fees

Here's a quick video about Square; notice how the transaction works at the very beginning of the video:

500 Songs for Kids!

The Songs For Kids Foundation is a non-profit that enriches the lives of children in need through music. It brings musicians year round to hospitals, specialized support camps, and places where kids are in need. Here are a few of the organizations the foundation helps.

To raise money and awareness for the foundation, they are hosting their 4th annual 500 Songs for Kids charity event, April 29 through May 08, 2010 at Smith's Olde Bar in Atlanta. Like previous years, it's 500 artists performing 500 songs over 10 nights, but this year they'll be covering the 500 greatest era-defining songs, like "Hey Jude", "Suspicious Minds", "One", "Tiny Dancer", "Rio" and 495 more! The event always attracts major artists and quality indie bands, so get your tickets now, and support a great cause. Previous years have included performances from Arrested Development, Shawn Mullins, Mute Math, Angie Aparo and the Zac Brown Band to name a few.

If you can't attend, but would like to make a donation, go here. You can also follow them on Twitter.

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.

Turn2Live: A Mood-Based Concert Search Engine

Turn2Live is a concert search engine that helps you find shows based on the kind of mood you're in (e.g. energetic, mellow, romantic, etc). Although they're still in beta, and appear to only offer their service in Austin, the concept is interesting, as emotive music services like Turn2Live, Stereomood, Moodagent and others are increasing. Do you find emotive music services appealing/helpful?

Music Sampling Documentary, "RIP: A Remix Manifesto" now available for free

SnagFilms just released free streaming of the full length version of RIP: A Remix Manifesto, the highly acclaimed copyright infringement documentary that explores issues of music sampling around the work of Girl Talk. Just press play below:

Introducing Music Scout

As briefly mentioned last week, I've been quietly working on another project for the past few months, separately from my work on Band Metrics. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired, but today I'm pleased to announce that the initial beta of Music Scout is live.

While there's still a ton of work to do, and the design is rudimentary, we wanted to go ahead and get it out there so we could get some feedback, and incorporate your changes and feature requests, as we've got a significant product road-map for Music Scout in 2010.

Essentially, Music Scout is location-aware mobile music app for the Android and iPhone that enables music enthusiasts to express their thoughts and sentiments about the band they're watching in real-time directly from the venue. Not only can users rate and express their feelings about a band or musician, but Music Scout will begin to trace and identify the individuals that are actually scouting and discovering the next hot bands before they become known acts, providing of course, they're using the service, but to help encourage use we're building in a future reward system.

But it's not just a tool for music aficionados, critics and music lovers, just imagine the kind of feedback that this app could produce for a band, manager, A&R rep, etc. - from the live sound, to the songs selected for each show, to the venue, etc.

The Android app is available now for FREE, and the FREE iPhone app will be available once it's approved by Apple (should be in about 2 weeks). Again, this is just the initial release - we have miles to go before we sleep.

72 Musicians

I'd never heard of 72 Musicians or that Bob Moczydlowsky of Topspin produced and directed it until I saw this tweet. The documentary chronicles the struggles of 72 Kansas City musicians (20 bands) on one stage, in one chair, over four days from the Record Bar - all "speaking with a single, anonymous voice about art, poverty, booze, lies, class, hardship, food and failure." Looking forward to watching this film, and the soundtrack is free!

Techno Jeep

This highly creative music video was produced live using only sounds from a Jeep - remarkable! Hats off to the creators, and thanks for sharing @Bandize... wish I still had my 1988 Cherokee Laredo.

Live Music Machine

By the look of this post and recent tweet from music industry veteran David Sherbow, he's announcing his music tech venture, Live Music Machine, a booking utility and platform for "connecting fans to the bands they love for their own live music events." While similar to SonicBids, they seem to be focused on the fan communities. For example, their app will help fans connect with other fans of a particular artist in the same geographical area that are interested in hiring that artist for an event. Here's an example of how it works in both MySpace and Facebook, and a demo as well:


Good luck David!

Bandloop launches iPhone App

Bandloop announced today from SxSW the release of their iPhone app, a global, geo-located concert listings for bands and venues that allows music enthusiasts to quickly find live music shows - from local bars to stadium concerts.  I haven't tried it, but it looks really nice - congrats guys!  Here are some of its features:

• Automatically detects where you are, zooming into your vicinity without having to type in your location
• Fast-loading interactive map
• Represents as many artists as possible, no matter how underground they are
• Website links and MySpace images provided for almost every artist

Eddie's Attic on NPR

NPR Radio of Atlanta (WABE: 90.1 FM) produced a short story about open mic night at Eddie's Attic. It's a good quick listen for anyone interested in the history of this legendary venue that has helped launch the careers of several national acts for almost 20 years, like Shawn Mullins, Jennifer Nettles and John Mayer. If you're interested in performing and competing at the Open Mic Shootout, you'll need to contact them months in advance due to demand.

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:

Rumblefish Agreement with YouTube is Most Significant Music Tech Deal of 2008

This afternoon I reflected a little bit on the last 12 months of news from the music tech industry, and I would submit that the Rumblefish Agreement with YouTube is the most significant music tech deal of 2008. A bold claim? Maybe, but hundreds of millions of people are watching billions of videos each month when you consider the entire global Internet population. That's a ton of potential revenue for artists and labels working with Rumblefish, and the deal will surely bring thousands of new artists to Rumblefish.

Another way to look at this deal is to conduct a simple search for videos on YouTube. It seems there are are currently about 360 million videos on YouTube. Even if you cut that number in half to account for duplicates, vlogs, channels, removed videos, erroneous search results etc., you're still talking about 120 million plus videos, and growing every minute, a trajectory that seems to be in line with Kansas State University's YouTube statistics from January through March of 2008.

It's easy to see that these numbers represent substantial revenue opportunities for the music industry, and I'm excited for artists, as this agreement will become an easy way for individuals to incorporate legal music into their videos.

So hats off to Rumblefish!

Live Concert from YouTube Tonight at 8:00PM EST

Another step towards the end of television as we know it will take place tonight as YouTube broadcasts its first live concert in about one hour.... Will Google be able to stream high quality video and sound with millions of simultaneous connections?  It should be interesting to watch... Commander Google, you have the Con.

Plastic Lennon Band: John Lennon Anniversary Show

December 8th, 2008 will mark the 28th Anniversary of the tragic death of John Lennon.  Atlanta based multi-instrumentalist, Lee Schwartz, who is a founding member/drummer of Outformation is fronting a tribute show to celebrate the life and music of the late John Lennon.  The show will be a snapshot of John's music with the Beatles and as a solo artist, performed by a stellar group of musicians for one night only:

Lee Schwartz (Outformation) as John Lennon on Guitar
Benji Shanks (Captain Soularcat, Last Waltz Ensemble) on Lead Guitar
Tony Giordano (Ancient Harmony, Tommy Talton Band, Captain Soularcat) on Piano/Keys
Shawn McCrystal  (Indecision, Wombat) on Bass    
Kevin Rustchman (Last Waltz Ensemble, Wombat) on Drums

When:  December 8, 2008
Venue: Smith's Olde Bar
City:    Atlanta, GA
Price:  $10 + 2 cans of food for the Atlanta Community Food Bank
Time:  doors open at 8pm, show starts at 9pm

Btw, I normally don't make these kinds of posts, but these guys are friends of mine with tons of talent, so it's going to be a very good show, one you definitely will want to see, and it's for a good cause.

Live Music Archive Revisited

Over the weekend, I re-explored archive.org and their Live Music Archive for the first time in over a year. I was impressed with some of the changes they've incorporated through their integration with etree.org (a lossless live show repository I've been using since 2000). For example, you can now stream most live concerts that have been uploaded, or even embed them on your site. That's a great free widget for bands trying to build a following, as you can introduce potential new fans to your live music directly on your blog with ease. Here's an example of a show from Gomez:



Your fans can also sign-up to receive RSS alerts for newly added recordings of your live shows by other fans. Here's an example for Ween (located under their photo). It's also a great way to see what your fans think about your live shows, like Jack Johnson's recent performance at Bonnaroo (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

There has certainly been a great deal of discussion about free music and the potential benefits it has on generating new listeners and larger audience attendance. For some bands, it does seem to have a positive impact, for others, little to none. So my only suggestion to Archive is that they allow an option for bands to sell their downloads if they like. But until that happens, Maybe the Live Music Archive is where you allow your fans to freely exchange your live shows, but not your studio work or commercial recordings - there are scores of bands on Archive doing just that. Not to mention, most recordings are in high-quality lossless formats like SHN or FLAC, even 24-bit FLAC, and most bands have MP3 files as well, so this should suit everyone from the general music enthusiast to the audiophile. However, with any music repository, there are some potential licensing issues to consider, so you may want to seek guidance from an attorney first.

To get started allowing your fans to record and upload your live shows, just send archive.org an email. To learn how to upload music, go here, or if you have additional questions check out their FAQ.

Separately, from a consumer's perspective, there are literally thousands of live shows from hundreds of bands you can download. Chances are, one of your favorite artists has a show there for you to download.