R.I.P. Michael Jackson

Monthly SoundCloud Artist: Jamie Lynn Noon

As mentioned back in April, I'm going to blog one artist per month that has uploaded their music to my SoundCloud DropBox. Again, I'm not going to review any of these songs; rather, I'm simply going to share them with the IMT community as part of a social experiment. If you're an artist, there is no criteria, other than uploading your song to SoundCloud and making it publicly available. This month's artist is Jamie Lynn Noon and her song is Second of a Spark.

SoundCloud on Indie Music Tech

For several months now I've been meaning to add a SoundCloud DropBox for artists to share their music with the IMT community. Well, tonight I had some time, so if you'd like to have the opportunity to have your music highlighted on IMT, all you have to do is send one track to my DropBox in the right sidebar. About once a month, I'll pick a track and highlight it here on IMT. It won't be reviewed; rather, I'll just share it with the IMT community.

I'll start with a track called Damn Love by the Dirt Drifters, a song I mentioned on Twitter a few months ago. This band is doing a great job sharing their demos on SoundCloud. Check it out, you may get some ideas.

BTW, I think SoundCloud is one of the top music tech companies out there; not to mention Alex is a great guy!

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.

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.

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:

Amie Street Offering 50 Percent Discount on Entire Music Catalog

Just got an email from the good folks at Amie Street and they're offering a special holiday discount of 50% off any purchases from their best of 2008 list. Sweet! I'm gonna download The Walkmen's release, You & Me. And to sweeten the deal, Amie Street extended this deep discount to their entire music catalog!  So be sure to make your purchases soon as I doubt their offer will last long.

Merl Saunders Tribute

I just learned that the legendary Merl Saunders died yesterday from complications related to his stroke in 2002 at the age of 74. Another great musician has passed this year, another artist I used to see when I was in college. Surprisingly, you could still catch him at bars back then as his fan base was primarily from the small Jam Band scene at that time. Saunders was one of the original funk masters of the B3; he will be missed. Here's a clip of the groovy tune, "Aunt Monk" from 1974:

MixMatchMusic Post DEMO

About three months ago, I interviewed MixMatchMusic when they were still in private beta, and I was impressed with the direction of the online music collaboration app they were building. In Today's podcast, I reconnect with the founders, Charles Feinn and Alan Khalflin to hear about their launch at DEMO and their progress since July. During this 10 minute interview, Charles and Alan provide insight about their business model, product offering and community. And I think you will find that MixMatchMusic is one of the more promising music tech startups; its just a matter of time before they receive significant adoption from both musicians/bands and music enthusiasts.

Click here to download the interview with MixMatchMusic

Also, here's the video from their presentation at DEMO - they did a fantastic job:

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.

"Immigration Man" Covered by MoG: Hit or Miss

MoG Music is about to release a compilation with a couple of new tracks, like their version of Immigration Man, a 1972 hit by Graham Nash and David Crosby. To help promote their release, Harvey Wharfield with MoG sent this cover over and asked me to post it here for your review. Is this song a hit, or did they miss the mark? You be the judge by rating and/or reviewing it below:

Btw, in case you're wondering if they have the digital rights to distribute this song, the answer is yes. Their license with HFA is 1080041265.

If you would like to submit your music to be posted for a "Hit or Miss" review, just drop me a note.

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

Sample Music from Wombat

The musicians with Wombat, an Atlanta based funk-jam fusion band sent over a 7 minute audio clip of one of their latest originals to give away here called, Sunburst. The track was written primarily by Shawn McCrystal, and was recorded live at Smith's Olde Bar on February 09, 2008. While it's only a clip, as the entire track is almost 20 minutes, I thought some of you might enjoy listening to it. Their sound is definitely not for everyone though, especially if you are not into improvisational music, but there's no denying that Wombat is comprised of some incredibly talented musicians. The Creative Loafing called their sound "tried-n-true rock jamming served with a side of greasy funk," and Jezebel Magazine said Wombat "combines high energy and funky rhythms with long improvisational jams."

If you would like to have the entire song, just send me an email. Also, if you're in a band or a solo musician and would like for me to consider posting a sample of your music here,  just drop me a note.