NEW FRUIT FROM THE ORCHARD: Indie distributor The Orchard (www.theorchard.com) celebrated its first birthday with a number on announcements. As an online distributor they opened the doors for indie bands and artists to get not only online sales (using The Orchards secure ordering ystem), but acess to almost all retail stores through an agreement with Valley Media, on of the nation's largest retial indie distributors. After one year The Orchard distributes over 800 indie CDs, and in October they will offer consumers a new payment option: vistors to the site will be able to charge the purchase price of the CDs or digital downloads chosen from The Orchard's catalog to their Internet Service Provider (ISP) monthly statement (no credit card necessary). Their entire catalog is being encoded in secure digital files and will soon be available for sale. This is a very interesting, new scheme for providing online purchasing options for people with credit card security concerns, people without a credit card, or anyone interested in quick, easy purchases (making "impluse purchases" of music, either as CDs or digital downloadable files, more of a reality).
BLUES ONLINE: The Blues Foundation (www.blues.org) is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, promotion and advancement of Blues music and its artists, musicians and recordings. Their website is full of biographical information, discographies, etc. on legendary blues men and women. Some current highlights include information on the the 1999 Livetime Achievement Awards which will honor Ruth Brown, Etta James and Koko Taylor on October 18 at House Of Blues in LA. The site offers a chance to win a free trip to LA for the event, and a silent auction that includes things like a Gibson guitar autographed by John Lee Hooker, a weekend trip to New Orleans, and an evening for four that includes dinner and a Lakers game with Magic Johnson. Part of the proceeds for this event will go to the Magic Johnson Foundation National Breast Cancer Awareness Initiative.
AMAZON MUSIC: Amazon.com has one of the largest selections of free downloadable music from top-tier artists of any online music retailer; now indie artists listed at the site get a chance for the same treatment. Amazon.com's Advantage music program has provided independent artists and labels with a high-profile place on the Internet to getting noticed and sell their CDs. They have now added a NEW MUSIC SPOTLIGHT section to their Free Digital Download area, in which 36 independent Amazon.com Advantage artists from around the world are featured - each with a free, full-length MP3 of one of their tracks available for immediate download. Many more artists and labels will be added in the weeks and months to come.
EARN MONEY FROM GUITAR CENTER: Musician's Friend, Inc. (www.musiciansfriend.com), Guitar Center's online music store (and the largest catalog and Internet retailer of musical instruments in the US) has announced a new "Affiliate Program." Musicians, or anyone that wants in on the service, can sign up, then post a Musician's Friend banner (with a link to the retail site) on their web page. Anyone who clicks through from their site to musiciansfriend.com, then purchases something, earns money for whoever hosted the banner. This "advertising referral fee" is based upon the sales price of the items sold, there is no limit to the amount of the purchase, and the average purchase from the site is around $200. This is a great way to promote their site, and as long as you have the screen space and don't mind slowing down the downloadi of your page just a bit (for the image to load), then you might be willing to let Guitar Center give you a bit of money for a change (instead of the other way around)!
BMI AND DIGITAL DOWNLOADS: BMI, in signing a blnket licensing agreement with EMusic.com (owners of IUMA), is providing more free web opportunities for BMI songwriters, as well as a potential source of verifiable income from digital downloads. Besides making sure that BMI writers get paid for online materials posted and downlaoded on any of EMusic's sites, the agreement also outlines other features that BMI writers can benefit from, including links to BMI's online songwriters database (and from the BMI database directly to secure purchasing of that songwriter's products) and an Artist Uplink for BMI Writers, where they can use IUMA's uplink and site desig tools to create, at no charge, an extensive web page that will be posted at IUMA's site (www.iuma.com). BMI, in turn, will promte BMI writer's IUMA Artist's page to their publishers and writers.
CUSTOM MULTIMEDIA: First there were customizable audio CDs, made up of tracks chosen and paid for online, then burned and shipped by the online company directly to the consumer. Now MixFactory (www.mixfactory.com) has launched the first of a series of websites devoted to customizable multi-media CDs. CollegeMusic MixFactory (http://collegemusic.mixfactory.com) lets users choose song a list of available tracks, getting both an audio track (for their CD players) and a full-screen video performance track on the same CD (for $1.50/track, with an additional $4.95 mastering, shipping and handling fee). The upside: more consumers getting used to expecting the whole "enhanced CD" experience; the downside: Windows only (no MAC compatibility - but the site does say it's coming "soon"). The tracks can be prviewed in Real Audio, and future sites soon to be launched include MegaForce Factory (fro the label that brought us Metallica and Anthrax).
MP3 DJ: d-lusion interactive media (www.d-lusion.com) has developed and released a "virtual" MP3 and WAV-file audio DJ studio, called the MJ STUDIO. This Windows-only software functions like a traditional DJ mixing station, with pitch and volume controls, a 3-band EQ, cross fader, and bpm (beats-per-minute) detection to help match up the two song tempos. You can also drag and scratch, then record the mix (actually, save the mix on your hard drive) as a CD-quality, 44.1/16 bit stereo WAV file. Although the press release suggests it's the perfect, inexpensive ($35) software for party "fun," I wouldn't be suprised if, with the abundance of MP3 files in every genre, "virtual DJs" start popping up in more professional situations.
WEBTIPS: Not Again...I this article a month or two back I suggested some email ettiquite for bands and musicians sending off announcements of their gigs and goings on. I have been receiving more and more notices from bands since I started writing this article about a year ago, but from many of the messages I have been getting it seems that not too many of the bands have actualy read the articles.I got an email today (9/21) announcing a local LA performance by an artist whom I know personally and speak to from time to time. Perhaps she did not send it herself, but had someone else take care of it, but it broke a number of rules mentioned here: - The list of recipients, about 30 names, was posted in the CC: section, allowing everyone to read who was on her personal email list, encouraging a slew of insolicited emails from other bands, and, eventually, spammers. Please make your list "invisible" (place the names in the BCC: area). - The announcement included an image attachment of OVER 2 Mbs. Not only did this take forever to download, but it contained an image that had nothing to do with the gig (or the artist, as far as I can tell). That's even worse than other large attachments I've seen, including band photos and image (or text) files of their announcements, virtual "tickets," etc. (atleast I understood why those were there). Great rule for announcement emails : NO ATTACHEMENTS (what's to be gained from pissing off the recipient, especially if they are in the press). - Don't send me gig announcements! I don't do, or even assign, the live gig reviews in this magazine. I only review websites; if you don't have one, don't bother (this one isn't necessarily aimed at this artist, since we trade gig emails back and forth). I'm even starting to get gig announcements for bands gigging in other parts of the country, proof that a public email addres is like a bad rumor: somehow it just keep spreading. |
© Music Connection Magazine 1999.