Author Archive for SandraPage 2 of 30

Camp Bisco Announces Remix Contest Winners and Launches iPhone App for Camp Bisco 9!

published
on June 30, 2010
by
Sandra
in collaboration, culture, fans, MobBase, music, music production, and remixing
. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Since the Camp Bisco Remix Contest, powered by MixMatchMusic and URB.com, launched over a month ago in anticipation of the 9th annual Camp Bisco music festival in New York, over 130 amazing remixes have been submitted by aspiring DJs and musicians, and shared and voted on by fans. This was a contest of epic proportions that saw more entrants than previous Camp Bisco remix contests, all delivering wildly varied styles from nearly every continent. Today, we to bring you the winners!

The coveted grand prize goes to DJ Geoffro aka Topshotta of Harrisburg, PA for his dubbed out remix of the Black Seeds‘ “Slingshot”! Among other things, Topshotta will be receiving a free iPhone app, powered by MobBase, and will get to perform at Camp Bisco in front of thousands of festival-goers. Congratulations!

Black Seeds “Slingshot” Topshotta Redub by Topshotta

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to play a set at the massive Camp Bisco festival,” said Geoff Altoff, aka DJ Geoffro aka Topshotta. “The lineup this year is ridiculous. Thanks to everyone who took a moment to listen and vote on my remix, I appreciate it. There are a lot of great elements to that Black Seeds tune that I felt would translate well to a dub, so I tried to keep the feel and movement of the original, but put my spin on it and dub it out.”

Congratulations to the amazing runners-up:

Bassnectar “Cozza Frenzy” McArthur Bass Mix by Hubsmoke, Faccio & Reza
King Britt “The Intricate Beauty” Technobears Redux by Ed Haskins
Disco Biscuits “On Time” Full Static Mix by Aman Ellis

Today also marks the release of the official Camp Bisco iPhone app, powered by MobBase! Access artist bios, videos, photos, this year’s site map and schedule, a kickass photo gallery by veteran rock photographer Dave Cann, the facebook page, and of course the Camp Bisco twitter stream, all from the comfort of your own pocket. Be among those in the know, navigate your way around the festival with ease and be sure not to miss any of your favorite acts. Get this free app here.

We’re two weeks away from Camp Bisco 9 (you can still buy tickets) and the official Camp Bisco iPhone app is the best way to stay connected during this summer’s premier 3-day music festival (July 15-17). The ridiculous line-up includes everybody from LCD Soundsystem and Thievery Corporation to Girl Talk, Diplo, Bassnectar, Caribou, Gift of Gab and more! Be sure to visit the Camp Bisco website for all the details!

Root Music: BandPages on Facebook

published
on June 10, 2010
by
Sandra
in DIY, fans, future of music, music, music business, social media, startups, tools for musicians, and website
. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Remember when the tables turned and MySpace went from being the coolest social networking site around to a shady place for scantily-clad teens in questionable photos and, well… musicians? Despite the seizure-inducing animated gifs and glittering madness that came with the pimp-your-profile craze, MySpace somehow still maintained its role as THE place for musicians. Your band maybe had its own website if, you know, it was all fancy and stuff. But your band definitely had a MySpace page!

Then Facebook came along and soothed us with its minimalist design and all its tangible real-world benefits, and rocked our collective worlds. And yet, the musician was always left to fend for him or herself.

Enter Root Music. Musicians now FINALLY have a home on Facebook. This clever little San Francisco-based startup has created a way for musicians to share their stuff right from within Facebook. The BandPage is a tab just like your photos, info, or wall tabs. While they browse your page, fans can listen to your music from the embedded SoundCloud player. Want to place a banner on your page? Easy! Just upload the picture you want to use. No need to create a custom one. Every section of the BandPage is easily editable. Just drop, drag, and customize as you wish.

What you end up with is a sexy place within your Facebook profile, which you already use and people are already looking at, to share all your stuff (info, photos, shows, twitter feed and much much more) with your fans. In the place where they are already hanging out! It’s an elegant solution to an obvious problem, and Root Music has done it with aplomb. Once you setup your Root Music Bandpage on Facebook, be sure to set it as the default landing page so that it’s the first thing fans see!

SF MusicTech Summit 6: Futuristic Instruments, Irrelevant Labels, and Ticketmaster Madness

published
on May 21, 2010
by
Sandra
in future of music, music, and music business
. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

With every passing SanFran Music Tech summit, the speaker list and the sponsor list look more and more like red carpet roll calls, and the schedule includes increasingly poignant panel topics. At past conferences, despite the rampant enthusiasm of attendees, there seemed to be an overhanging tone of uncertainty about the music industry. It was as if everyone was walking around being excited about all these crazy new technologies and possibilities and yet couldn’t quite relax because nobody really knew what direction things were going in. It seems like this may be starting to shift. Rob Pegoraro of The Washington Post points out that things could be worse.

As the possibilities of the future of music begin to emerge, one hot topic is the future of musical instruments. Roger Linn, Max Mathews, Ge Wang, John Chowning and Dave Wessel gave a fascinating demo of just what some of those possibilities might look like. Mashable asked what people thought about this. The comments are revealing in that they are a good example of some pretty strong sentiment on both sides of the argument (technology + instruments = good or bad?) .

TechDirt recognized one of the overarching themes of this summit to be the increasing irrelevance of the major record labels, with one clear indicator being that the room emptied out after the popular Ben Folds panel and no one really seemed to care about the next panel which was a “discussion between a guy at Warner Music Group and someone at Cisco about the “direct to fan” artist websites that Warner Music has set up using Cisco’s Eos platform.” They go on to point out one audience question during the “Music and Money” panel, which summed up the whole thing: “If the major labels are such a pain to work with, why work with them at all?”

In response to heightened consumer frustration, Live Nation‘s Noah Maffit told attendees, during the “Live and Online” panel, that Ticketmaster service fees must come down. Ticketmaster’s technology doesn’t warrant the hegemony it possesses over the ticket market, and the company — bought by LiveNation in 2009 — is on a mission to update it, according to David Downs of the East Bay Express. It’ll be interesting to see how they evolve moving forward, especially with fresh, young competition like Ticketfly at their heels.

Stephen Fortner of Keyboard Magazine summed up the summit well: “…it’s grown from a locals-only networking hang largely focused on social networks as they related to music delivery, to a fertile marketplace of ideas covering all aspects of the music business in the digital age–from instruments and production to marketing and distribution.”

Follow the real-time conversation about SF MusicTech on Collecta:

For more on the previous 5 summits:

SF MusicTech Summit 1: Rockstars, Lawyers, Nerds and Me
SF MusicTech Summit 2: Guestlist Wish, Artist Activism, and Label Survival
SF MusicTech Summit 3: Albums Die, Social Media Kicks Ass, Songs Find a Home
SF MusicTech Summit 4: Singalongs, Video Interviews, and Twitter Gossip
SF MusicTech Summit 5: Google Music, API Aficionados, and Pandorable Cars

Tunecore: The DIY Solution for Digital Music Distribution

published
on May 5, 2010
by
Sandra
in DIY, fans, future of music, music, music business, music production, technology, tools for musicians, and website
. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Tunecore. This gem of a company is quite frankly the only solution that DIY musicians will ever need for digital music (and video) distribution. Two of the most obvious reasons why: 1) Get 100% of the royalties and 2) Keep all your rights.

Not only is Tunecore the largest distributer in the world, touting artists like Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z, Joan Jett, Aretha Franklin, and Public Enemy, but they are also the preferred partner for many of the top digital stores due to their speed, reliability, and low costs.

For artists there is no better deal because they keep every penny from every sale of their songs. And Tunecore sales are up in the neighborhood of $45 million so far. Now, that’s a lot of pennies.

On top of that, the process couldn’t be easier. Instead of submitting music to a ton of different places, Tunecore does all the work for you. They push your music to iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, Aimee Street, and others, give you access to Access to Interscope, Island Def Jam, Republic, Motown Records, and can even make your song available to buy and play on Rock Band. You also get physical on-demand distribution on Amazon, get paid for your streams on MySpace, and get a streaming music player with your music for your webpage. Merry freakin’ Christmas, people! If you ask nicely, they might come over and tuck you into bed at night too.

Ok, maybe they won’t show up at your door, but you can definitely always reach them. In addition to 24/7 access to your account (where you can add or remove stores, review iTunes sales trending reports, withdraw your money, view or download your accounting, create a streaming media player or get an iTunes store link on your artist page), there are also dedicated Artist Support Reps there to hold your hand throughout the process. Then again, Tunecore was founded on the philosophy of never taking advantage of an artist, so that shouldn’t be surprising. Their motto is “Sell Your Music, Not Your Soul.”

Tunecore should also be your new best friend because they’ve got friends in high places. Like, thanks to their partnership with Universal Music Group, they can help artists get their music licensed for TV, movies, and video games. Try doing that on your own. It’ll be tough. They’re also in cahoots with the folks at Guitar Center and House of Blues, which could bode well for your future.

As if all that weren’t enough, Tunecore also insists on hooking you up with freebies like free digital cover art, free CD artwork (for Amazon’s Disc on Demand store), free streaming music widgets, and even free bar codes, UPCs and TuneCore song identifiers (TCSI).

You’re probably wondering what the catch is by now. It all seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? They must charge like a zillion dollars, right? Nope. For $9.99, you can push your single to all 19 stores. And for $46.99 you can push your album (unlimited songs) to all 19 stores. Holy crapola that’s cheap. Another option – for the picky among you – is the “a la carte” album option that, for $59.58, let’s you select your songs and select your stores. By the way, signing up is free.

Another cool feature is the custom widget. Add your songs, band photo, tour dates, streams from Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. Be strategic and put the widget on your blog, website, Facebook, MySpace or wherever so that your fans can buy your music, see your videos, become a fan, and most importantly share your goodies with their friends.

If you do well with Tunecore, they will even grant you some super exclusive opportunities. For example: Sell 100 songs on iTunes within 30 days and get guaranteed gigs at The Roxy in LA or at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. Or if you become a Tunecore Top 10 best seller, you can get your CD in over 200 Guitar Center stores next to U2, Jimi Hendrix, and other greats, plus guaranteed in-store music play. Not. Too. Shabby. They’ve always got crazy deals and promotions going. Check out the current ones.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t just make your hot sister stand there and sell your CDs at your next local show. And don’t be that creep following rockstars around LA hoping to slip one of them a demo. Just go to Tunecore, for Pete’s sake. They’ll welcome you with open arms and propel you and your music to a level you couldn’t reach on your own. Sign up for Tunecore today!

Freematik Creates an Album Using Only His iPhone

published
on April 28, 2010
by
Sandra
in future of music, music, music production, technology, and tools for musicians
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .
Tom Freeman, a Bay Area rap and hip-hop producer and artist known as Freematik, decided to make some music on the road – using only his iPhone. What started out as a fun side project turned into an entire album full of psychedelic hip-hop and electronic music. This concept album is the first of its kind.
According to Freematik, “iMatik is a fresh DJ mixtape full of phat beats, DJ scratching, live synths and all types of crazy sounds, made using only an iPhone. Everything was made using apps available from the iTunes app store, such as Beatmaker, iDrum, Flare, Jasuto, etc. The parts were programmed over the course of a few months, in places including hotels, motels, the beach, bars, and anywhere else you would bring a phone.
Freematik works with underground rap artists primarily and his influence can be heard on a number of their mixtapes as well as in local bars and clubs. He produces his own albums as well. Like his style? Like him on Facebook. And follow him on Twitter.
In their review of iMatik, Big Beef and Beer says the album “is filled with ethereal and ambient tones over strong synthetic beats with lots of vocal samples… [which] are interesting, cool, and sometimes funny.” Samples include lines like “fuck you, donuts are awesome!” They go on to point out that iMatik is more of a proof of concept album than anything. Though Freematik is the first to have gone down this path, surely others will follow.