Interesting article in the Times Online today, entitled “Money, Music and The Web”.
Both websites introduced there sound very interesting (SellaBand and Slice The Pie.
However, I feel nowadays bands can very well do without such services. Both organizations try to take on the role of the record company. But nowadays the money made from music should go to one (group of) person(s) only: the musician(s).
How to Make Smart Decisions in Less Than 60 Seconds (Steve Pavlina)
Overcome Procrastination Once and For All (Lifehack.org)
Tiefsee (NZZ Neue Zürcher Zeitung Folio July 2007) German language only.
Technorati Tags: How To Make Smart Decisions, Steve Pavlina, Overcome Procrastination, NZZ Folio Tiefsee
Last.FM: Why You Should Make Your Music Available
To promote your music, Last.FM has become a much better tool than MySpace. If you are a musician who wants to reach a larger audience, you should put some effort into using Last.FM to your advantage.Start by uploading your tracks, and making at least a few of them available for free download.
Yes, we would all love to make a living from our music, but to achieve this will take a lot of dedication, time and effort.
Look at it this way: you have already written and recorded some songs. Who is currently listening to them? You, and possibly a few friends of yours. Why not let others enjoy it, too? The more people you get to download your songs, the more likely you will find new fans. With the help of Last.FM and MySpace, possibly even people who live on the other side of the planet!
The advantage on Last.FM is the fact that whenever a person listens to your track, this will be recorded on your artist profile. The more listeners, the more exposure. The more listeners, the more likely that your track(s) will be aired on one of the Last.FM Radio Stations. If you have some spare money, you can also pay to get featured on their radio.
It will all take time and effort, but it might very well turn out to be worth your while.
The free downloads are encoded at only 128 kbps / 44.100 kHz, which is fairly low. Many music enthusiasts want to listen to songs that they enjoy at a higher bitrate, so you can e.g. make the same tracks (that you put on Last.FM for free download) available for sale on your website and/or the Apple iTunes Store.
If you are lucky and find enough people who like your music, you might establish yourself, and eventually make at least some extra money to enable you to continue writing/recording music.
Two guys have recently been in the press, who both have been making a very good living from their music: John Vanderslice and Jonathan Coulton.
Both of them pretty much started their careers on the internet (yes, with free MP3 downloads), and are now touring extensively, making extra money selling merchandise (t-shirts, etc.) and special/limited edition CDs and vinyl.
Think about it.
If you are interested, we can create a so-called Last.FM Group and help each other promote our music.
Send us a message if you have any questions.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Last.FM, MySpace, Band Promotion, Music Promotion, Artist Promotion, Label Promotion, Promoting Music, Promoting Bands, Free MP3, John Vanderslice, Jonathan Coulton
If you have been using it, you will understand. If you are into music but haven’t been using it, then you should join in on the Last.FM fun asap.
The good old record shops - where you know the salesman and know that you can trust his taste - are unfortunately almost extinct. In the country where I grew up, a once great shop had to eventually start selling crap just to survive - now 95 % of its inventory belongs to said category. In the place where I now live, your CD needs will only be satisfied if you are into the worst of the worst Top 40 and “Hip Hop” stuff. To not even mention the mighty vinyl…
Vinyl… good ol’ vinyl… I do miss the days of making proper compilation tapes (cassette tapes, that is) for mates and for girlfriends. There was something magic to it. You had to actually sit down and fully concentrate on the task at hand - or start all over if you made a mistake. Well, you had to start all over if you are a perfectionist like yours truly… I remember impressing girls with many a compilation I had put together for them. Cassette tape players are out of fashion, and it has become more and more difficult to impress them. Ha ha…
Nowadays, you put together a playlist in your iTunes. Since you’re already at it and it will most likely be listened to on a computer anyways, you might as well make use of the 700 MB on the CD-R, so you put eight, nine, or even ten hours (depending on your encoding rate) of music onto the CD. While arranging the playlist, you keep checking your MySpace, reply to some emails, accept an invitation for a chat with a friend - to finally rip the CD in the background while indulging in more online madness.
What does that have to do with Last.FM? I will go into that in my next post. I will outline for you how Last.FM works and how you can use it to your advantage.
Stay tuned. Subscribe to the RSS Feed to not miss the follow-up(s).
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Record Shops, Vinyl, Compilation Tapes, Online Radio, Personal Radio, Personalized Radio, Personalized Radio Station, Online Music, MySpace
A few days ago, The New York Times featured a great article: “Sex, Drugs & Updating Your Blog”. It will not be available for free for too long, so go check it out now!
Instead of trying to find the real cause for dramatically decreasing CD sales, the record companies have been moaning about people illegaly downloading music in MP3 format, about those “criminals” ruining their business, etc. etc. etc. Have they ever considered that possibly they have been releasing too much rubbish and that their customers are getting disillusioned with the corporate music bullshit?
The record companies have been taking advantage of the record/CD-buying public for too long. When CDs first hit the market, promises were made that once the format was established, prices would be reduced drastically. Has this happened? Not really, yours truly thinks.
Well, they simply got too used to making big money ($$$), paying outrageous sums to their big name artists, splashing out on new, oftentimes untalented, bands, dropping them the second expected sales were not met (at times even before the record came out!), screwing talented bands with ridiculous contracts, totally losing interest in developing and helping promising artists.
Luckily, their system is failing. Record companies are middlemen that soon will no longer be needed. The internet has truly revolutionized the music business. Now, any artist can record and sell their own material online. Consumers usually pay less per track/album than they would in a shop, while the musician(s) still make more money than they would have, had they been backed by a record company.
Merlin Mann has recently interviewed two individuals who have been using the internet very successfully to build their careers: John Vanderslice, and Jonathan Coulton.
You can watch the videos on Merlin Mann’s The Merlin Show:
John Vanderslice Part 1 (of 3)
John Vanderslice Part 2 (of 3)
John Vanderslice Part 3 (of 3)
Jonathan Coulton Part 1 (of 2)
Jonathan Coulton Part 2 (of 2)
I will in the future definitely write more about the music industry and also Last.FM.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Addendum 20 May 2007: Good and interesting article (German language only) in this weekend’s edition of Das Magazin.
Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Jonathan Coulton, John Vanderslice, MP3 Download, Online Radio, Personalized Radio, Artist Promotion, Label Promotion
After first signing up with Last.FM, I gave the Last.FM Player a try. Results were not that satisfying.
Not too long ago, I have started playing around with it again, and have been very pleasantly surprised. Last.FM have obviously put a lot more work into the algorithm behind it.
Being, amongst other styles, into 20th century classical music, as well as some “avantgarde” (what an awful term!), and nerdy metal, the best results I have had so far were by choosing “Similar Artists To: Edgard Varèse”. Some other classical stuff was generated, but also a couple of metal bands, and as a positive surprise one of the latest works, Moonchild, by John Zorn, whose music I adore.
A new discovery, even though I had heard the name before, was Glen Branca. Definitely someone whose CD(s) I will buy.
Just now listening to “Similar Artists To: Giacinto Scelsi”. Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen and the likes: very enjoyable.
I will soon write about promoting your music on Last.FM. Stay tuned, subscribe to the RSS Feed.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Last.FM, Last.FM Player, Online Radio, Personal Radio, Personalized Radio, Personalized Radio Station, Edgard Varèse, John Zorn, John Zorn Moonchild, Glen Branca, Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, Online Music, Music Download, MP3 Download, Free Music, Free Music Download, Band Promotion, Artist Promotion, Music Promotion, Label Promotion, New Music
AGLOCO.COM has been causing a bit of a stir on the blogosphere and the world wide web.
AGLOCO.COM will soon be offering a toolbar that you can install on your computer. When activated, you can earn money by simply surfing on the net. A must-have, it seems, for people like yours truly who do spend quite a bit of time on the net.
Yes, it does almost sound a bit too good to be true, but as Steve Pavlina pointed out, there is no sign-up fee, so you have nothing to lose, only to gain.
You can read Steve Pavlina’s article Earn Passive Income While Web Surfing
for further insightful information.
BTW: if you follow the link from this article and sign up to AGLOCO.COM, you will become one of my referrals, and I will possibly - if the system works out - get a financial kickback from it.
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Agloco, Agloco.com, Money Matters, Make Money While Surfing Web, Earn Passive Income, Steve Pavlina
My good friend - and occasional partner in music crime - from way back, Roland Blum, has been writing and recording his very own take on classical, pop and rock music for almost two decades.
I have recently been giving him a helping hand to get the recordings out of his studio and into the ears of music lovers.
The reactions on Roland Blum’s MySpace have been very positive, which does not surprise me at all. He has put his heart and soul into his tunes.
Not too long ago, yours truly opened an account on Last.FM for him, where several of his tracks are now available for free download. From Roland Blum’s Artist Page, of course.
For his take on pop/rock, check out Roland Blum’s “EP”.
If you are into ambient/chillout, check out Roland Blum’s “Indie Ambient EP”.
And/or if you are into contemporary classical/minimal stuff, check out Roland Blum’s “Sabantey” (the “missing” tracks will be available shortly in the Apple iTunes Store).
His music has recently been featured on the following podcasts:
Green Dragon (UK) (Episode 9 May 2007)
X-Pat Radio (USA) (Episode 11 May 2007)
My Pocket Player (Poland) (Episode 14 May 2007)
© Patrice Schneider. No reproduction without prior written consent.
Technorati Tags: Roland Blum, Roland Blum Music, Last.FM, Online Radio, Online Music, Music Download, Podsafe Music Network, MP3 Download, Free Music, Free Music Download, MySpace, Pop Music, Rock Music, Indie Music, Alternative Music, Minimal, Ambient, Chill Out Music, Chillout Music, Ibiza Music, Buddha Bar, Cafe Del Mar, Contemporary Classical Music, Guitar