Saw this over at hypebot the other day, and this morning over at Digital Music News (with a ridiculously misleading, attention grabbing title), and I wanted to re-post the e-mail here for anyone who may have missed it.
Featured Album this Week (4/11/11): “The Head and the Heart” by The Head and the Heart
The Head and the Heart is a coed acoustic group out of Seattle that blends folk, Americana, and 60′s-style pop music beautifully. Their self-titled album is an easy listen that feels like it finishes way too fast. It leaves me generally satisfied, but craving a bit more. If you can imagine The Avett Brothers actually being good, they would probably sound a lot like these guys.
20 Mind-Blowing TED Talks for Music Students, Lovers, and Industry Folks [VIDEOS]
I came across a great article via Twitter a couple of months back, and just now realized that I never put up a post for it. Whoops! I haven’t watched all of these videos yet, but they all sound extremely interesting and worth a watch for any music student, industry worker, or lover.
How Are You Promoting Your Next Release? [GUEST POST]
This is a guest post from Shaun of Independent Music Advice, a website dedicated to increasing the business knowledge (and income) of independent musicians.
Recently, a friend of mine released his first CD. While he had been doing music for a while (in his bedroom), this was his first attempt at releasing a professional product. Not only does he have strong vocals and a good set of lyrics, he also has a look that would appeal to his targeted genre of music.
All credit to him, he didn’t spare any expense when it came to making and packaging the CD. He used a good quality studio to get his vocals sounding as crisp as possible, and he managed to find a good quality cover designer on a music related forum. When it came to pressing up his product, he used a pressing plant and went for the four page booklet with film wrap option. All in all, it looked like he had a good product on his hands.
Despite all this, when it came to releasing his first CD it was largely a flop. While both him and the package he created looked the part, there was one key element missing: His promotional efforts.
Featured Album this Week (4/4/11): “A Work in Progress” by Ernesto Schnack
This week’s album is purely instrumental, and I must say, that didn’t bother me one bit. From start to finish, this album sounded amazing and kept me interested the entire time, without using any words. That is an extremely hard feat to accomplish these days, isn’t it? Either way, I was damn impressed.
Making the Long Tail Theory Work for You [GUEST POST]
This post was contributed by Nick Lewis from Zimbalam, a digital music distribution company. Zimbalam is powered by Believe Digital, one of the largest digital distribution networks in the world, and pays 100% of all royalties to artists.
The Long Tail is a concept not many musicians are likely aware of (unless you’ve been reading music and tech blogs over the past few years), but it’s important to understand if you‘re using the web to advance your music career.
Meet the Dipshit Behind that Rebecca Black Song [INTERVIEW]
This video drained my soul for the day. Le sigh.
Featured Album this Week (3/28/11): “Playtime” by Sparrow
I’ve become a pretty a heavy user of Rdio, and man, I really wish my friends would believe me when I tell them how awesome it is. It’s totally worth the $9.99 monthly subscription. I found out about this week’s album from my activity feed on Rdio (props to @behoff), the album art being the first thing that peaked my interest.
Musicians@Google Interviews Lady GaGa [VIDEO]
This video gave me a newfound respect for the pop artist. Great video.
Music Piracy is Not Theft. It’s Piracy.
My basic philosophy on piracy can be pretty well summed up by the above picture that I found in this post’s amazing comment thread.
However, this doesn’t mean that just because piracy isn’t theft, it’s morally justifiable. If the content creator/owner is cool with it and expresses that viewpoint publicly, then the pirate is not doing anything morally wrong. Copy, share, and remix your heart out. If the content creator/owner is not okay with piracy and has expressed that publicly, then the pirate has done something morally wrong.
If you are a content creator/owner who isn’t okay with piracy, I have but one word for you: Why?