100 YEARS OF BLUES: Rhythmnet.com has designed and offered a 24" X 57" full color poster entitles 100 Years of American Blues, Rock and Pop. Designed for classrooms, band rooms and dorm rooms, it might also work filling unsightly holes in band rehearsal room walls (and give you something to do during the break times). This poster covers the first 100 years of American recordings in the areas of Blues, Rock and Pop, focusing on the American contribution. Featured artists include data on T-Bone Walker, Woody Guthrie, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Joni Mitchill, The Supremes, James Brown, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Doors, Bruce Springsteen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Gloria Estefan, The Beatles (one of the few Brits) Steve Ray Vaughan, Ray Charles, Guns and Roses, Sheryl Crow, Nirvana, Beck and many, many, more. Go to http://www.rhythmnet.com/rhposter/ to view and purchase.
FLYNOTE: Flynote.com allows users to selct and store up top 200 songs from their database of over 250,000 full-length MP3 tracks from over 500 labels. Users create a personal "song bin,' then assign tracks to it. This service seemed designed to get around lack of storage (you can "store" up to 1 Gigabyte of MP3 files in your bin), and you avoid the long download times required to assemble such a collection (although you'll have to wait around everytime you want to download the songs to listen to them). What's in it for Flynote? My guess is customer profiles of music styles, tastes and artists, which they can then provide to record companies for targeted emails and offers. The site is quick and attractive, and perhaps this will be a service users will find useful, although, with DSL, cable modems and cheap hard drives it may be redundant real soon...
CENTERSEAT: The Music Center on Centerseat (http://launch.centerseat.com/index2.htm) is a new online magazine for arts and culture, including refreshing mix of musical styles, from pop to classical. As you view different "shows" at the site, you are regularly updated with info on other content at the site (including films, sports, kids, science and hi-tech), especially e-commerce "opportunities" (re: buy something!). Tossing around concepts like "convergence" and "megasite,' they seem to be working very hard to appeal to the entertainment and investment community; the jury is out as to whether they'll also appeal to Internet viewers.
BROADBAND HEATS UP: With the recent announcement of the availability of cable modems throughout Los Angeles (and just why it took so long for cable modems to become available in the entertainment content creation capitol of the world has yet to be explained), Pac Bell, possibly anticipating Adelphia (formerly TCI) Cable's broadband move, dropped it's DSL access to under $40/month with no setup or hardware charge. Unable or unwilling to match the price, all the other local DSL providers could only wimper and claim Pac Bell's system was slow and unreliable, even though most of them use Pac Bell's system to deliver their service. Broadband's general acceptance and use means that music and video content can be delivered almost instantly at the highest quality, marking the end of traditional music distribution as we know it (possibly...). YEAH, SHURE: Shure Incorporated (makers of all those SM58's you screamed into over the years) has re-launched their website, www.shure.com. The site, with a fresh new look, is broken into 6 sections, including endorsed artists and merchandise pages. One of the areas most upgraded is the Technical Support section, maintained by the companies application engineering group, including an extensive dynamic FAQ section (for frequently asked questions). Their press release frequently mentions how easy it is to go to their online store to purchase Shure logo wear - actually 3 or 4 times in two pages... but the downloadable PDFs and tech info on their products should be very useful for musicians shopping for microphones.
Other great sites for microphone technical and spec info are Audio Technica's website, coincidentally enough located at www.audiotechnica.com, and Sennheiser's www.sennheiser.com.
ELECTRIC ARTISTS: When RCA Records wanted to create a buzz on the street for Christina Aguilar, they hired Electric Artists, an online web marketing consulting company. Electric Artists hired a team of web "users" to post lots of coments about how "cool" Christina Aguilar's music was (before the album was out) on listener groups, websites and chat rooms, helping to create that "buzz" and making the album a hit from the second it was released. Electric Artist's CEO Ken Krasner was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that, on a 1-10 scale, teens "have their BS detectors on 11." Apparently their meters were broken that day.
That's not to say that Aguilar's music is not good, and doesn't deserve the praise and success it has achieved. But this tactic reminds me of Microsoft's admitting to hiring PR companies to pose as "regular computer" users, sending letters to the editors of computer magazines and posting to user chat rooms and websites, praising Microsoft products and poo-pooing any anti-MS commentary and reviews. I am reminded, as well, of a recent band, written up in this magazine, quoted as having faxed competing record companies claiming the other was "very interested" in the band, when neither had even heard of the band, generating real interest resulting in a signing. Ethics, anyone?
Speaking of Chistina Aguilar (who is, coincidentally, not only talented but very young and attractive...), her website, http://www.peeps.com/christina/index.html, is very cool and well designed. Her record label, RCA/BMG, while being one of the companies fighting MP3.com and the Interenet's attempts to open up listeners' access to music, seems to be very hot on the Web's potential for promoting and exploiting their new young artists, and has apparently spent a pretty penny on Ms. Aguilar's site.
WEBTIPS: Foreign CD RequestsI recently received this email from Geoff Gardner:"It seems I've been getting an increasing number of requests for promotional CD's from Eastern Europe. The sender finds me on a music site such as IUMA and requests a promo. "Although it's a bit of an expense and hassle, my first reaction is to want to help out. Am I missing something? Is there a downside? For example, someone could bootleg my music which wouldn't be bad since I have no marketing there. Who knows? Maybe some kind of fan base could develop in which case I could combine a vacation to out of the way places with a few performances. Worse, perhaps someone could copyright and/or get rights to my music in a place I may want to distribute at a later date. "If you have time, I'd appreciate any scuttlebutt you may have picked up on this as well as your input. I'm not really interested in worst case legal scenarios as practical advice for an artist like me who is relatively unknown anywhere, much less Eastern Europe or other third world countries. Perhaps I should send a CD with an extra track where I speak my website address and give other contact info?" Hmmmm - I have only received one such request, from somewhere in the Balkans, and was happy to send it. The issue is interesting - we've all heard horror stories about pirating, especially in foreign markets, but it seems to me that everyone there wants to get NSYNC CDs, not us lowly indie artists. I would consider the requests opportunities for some free airplay and promo, although including a track with your name and website as an extra track is dubious (they can also just delete that track if they copy). It might be more effective to include the extra audio at the end of each song, making it unique and easy to trace (stating that this is a demo, with your name and web address, kind of like what I have seen in major studio pre-releases of new films on video). You might also consider just sending CD singles or EPs instead of full versions. And always include requests for information on local record labels and publishers - this could be your foot in the door to get some business going. If they want more, they'll call. They always do. |
© 2000 Music Connection Magazine.