KWEEVAK!: With a name sounding like a cartoon sound effect, Kweevak's Tracks (www.kweevak.com) is a somewhat confusing combination of advertising, music promotion and music links. Their press release focuses in on their database of classic rock music llinks and online MP3 tracks, but they also offer services for new bans, including free reviewing and posting of your music. The site itself is a very slow download with LOTS of banner ads, froze up my browser 4 times, and if the press release didn't point out the music stuff I would have had a difficult time knowing it was there. But free is free, and you can send your CD and a 50 word summary describing it to Kweevak¹s Tracks, 38 Oliver Place, Ringwood, NJ 07456.
INSOUND INDIE VIDEOS: Insound (www.insound.com) is a very interesting and attractive site for indie music, cinema and photography, showcasing some very established indie bands that have little chance of mainstream exposure. They have now added an indie video section, featuring videos from established bands such as Stereolab, Belle & Sebastian and the Dub Narcotic Sound System, bands with international followings but little chance of MTV/VH1 airplay. They plan to host and make available over 150 videos, viewable as Real Video files, and hope to double that number by the end of the year.
MASTERING IN OC: John Vestman is a mastering engineer with a facility in Orange County, and a website at www.johnvestman.com. His website is full of useful resources, including links and lots of technical (and non-technical) information and explanations of the mastering process. Even if you don't decide to use his services, you will learn a lot about what it takes to get your CD mastered properly, and how best to prepare your tracking, mixes and DATs to optimize the mastering process.
MORE RESOURCES: Another good resource for musicians in Indie-Music.com, put together by Suzanne Glass. This site includes Spotlight Bands reviews (for all you indie up-and-comers), as well as resources on how to get airplay, studios and manuracturing, band lists, label lists and the Musicians' Destination Guide, the "ultimate little black book for musicians." It includes lots of useful info for touring bands, including clubs and booking, PR, music stores, where to eat and sleep, and a visual locator for the roads most important destinations, including Taco Bells, FedEx, K Marts and AAA.
MUSICTEACHERS: Interactive Music, Inc. is launching a new website, www.musicteacherfind.com, a nationwide list of music instructors that can be accesed and searched according to instrument or geographic area. Students can visit the site to find teachers in their area at no charge. Music instructors pay a $24.95 per year to be listed, and users can access the database from www.studentsforme.com or www.teachersforme.com.
AUDIOTODAY: www.audiotoday.com is professional, informative site providing news and information to the Internet community. The site focuses on issues and current news elating to Internet-based music and radio sites, technologies and culture. It's a great resource for anyone in the internet/music business, or for someone interested in learning about or keeping up with the industry. Stories and features included range in topics from MP3, SonicNet, MP3, Alanis Morissette, Sony Electronics, MP3,... (any pattern here?).
LILITHCHICKCLICK: chickclick.com (not to be confused with chickclick.com, a female photographer's personal site) distributed 10,000 pounds of glitter sunblock, 100,000 temporary tattoots, 300,000 postcards fro their ChickClick Tent at all 40 Lilith Fair concerts. Through their sponsorship of the tour they raised $50,000 for Boarding for Breast Cancer, their charitable foundation partner. BBC's mission is to spread breast cancer awareness, and to raise funds for research and educational programs. ChickClick.com will also donate the six iMac computers featured at the Fair (no doubt tuned into their website) to San Fracisco's Center for Young Women's Development digital literacy program.
ANOTHER ONLINE BAND CONTEST: Yamaha and Kaman Music are co-sponsoring the Best Band on the Net '99 contest. With an entry deadline of October 31, there still a bit of time to go to www.bestband.com for information on how to register and upload your MP3 song entry. Members of the public will be able to listed to the entries and vote between November 1 and mid-December 1999. Judges will include Shelia E, Alex Acúna, No Doubt's Tom Dumont and Elton John band guitarists Davey Johnstone and John Jorgenson. The winners will be announced at NAMM 2000 in Los Angeles, February 2000. Prizes include a recording contract, as well as Yamaha gear.
WEBTIPS: Fear Not!Most internet service providers give you a few MBs worth of server space to have your own website. If you have a dialup account, what are you waiting for? It's already there, and it's free.Afraid of what it takes to design a webpage? A lot less that what you have to go through to write songs, put together and rehearse a band, then record it, press it and try to sell it. Most ISPs offer all kinds of online resources on putting together your own web page. Many even include forms you fill ot, creating your web pages without even having to know anything about HTML and FTP acess. Once you've gotten past the initial techno-shock, you might even want to build it on your own. Claris Home Page, Microsoft Frontpage, Abode Pagemill are three programs that let anyone, with almost no computer skills, to design their own website, then load it up onto their ISPs server. Many professional sites online are designed and maintained using these programs, so you don't need to worry about limiting yourself. Then there's always learning HTML. Here's a little story: when I decided I wanted to have a web page, I signed up with a local service provider, then paid $20 to go to a 2-hour class they had on designing web pages. In 2 hours I took notes and learned enough about HTML and FTP access (along with a few technical support hand-holding phone calls) to design my first pages. Then I looked at lots of other web pages and their HTML (you can view any source code from any web page by going to VIEW SOURCE in your browser), and taking anything I thought cool and using it on my site. I am NOT a programmer, only an artist and musician who learned HTML (so, trust me, it's pretty easy). In my opinion, learning to read and write music is much more difficult than learning how to code a website. Most musicians, having already mastered the former, are prime candidates for learning the latter (and it can make a great, free-lance day job as well)! |
© Music Connection Magazine 1999.