Archive for the 'DIY' CategoryPage 8 of 15

SanFran MusicTech Summit 4: Singalongs, Video Interviews, and Twitter Gossip

published
on June 10, 2009
by
Sandra
in collaboration, culture, dance, DIY, future of music, interview, music, music business, technology, video, and web 2.0
. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

What started out as a seemingly humble local gathering of music and tech geeks has – thanks to its visionary founder, Brian Zisk, gained momentum and recognition and is now the premier event of its kind. For more on speakers/panels from the last three SanFran MusicTech summits, click here. To read my review of any of those three, see below:

SanFran MusicTech Summit 1: Rockstars, Lawyers, Nerds and Me
SanFran MusicTech Summit 2: Guestlist Wish, Artist Activism, and Label Survival
SanFran MusicTech Summit 3: Albums Die, Social Media Kicks Ass, and Songs Find a Home

Now, on to summit #4.

In the second review above, I put in a request for some sort of attendee list (using the Web 2.0 Expo’s use of crowdvine as an example), thinking that this would facilitate more effective networking. Let’s be honest, tech people aren’t always the best networkers. Well thank you Brian for listening to the suggestion! This event saw the introduction of SFMT’s very own crowdvine page! I’m curious to know whether people found it useful?

Speaking of suggestions, musician Chris Stroffolino (also featured in the video below) thinks there is room for a panel on the “fostering of connections between the already established live music scenes in the Bay Area, and the major labels and web-distribution networks.” Perhaps we’ll see this topic discussed further in the future.

Like a nice red wine, this conference is clearly getting better with age. With its shiny new reputation and rapt audience, SFMT attracts a pleasing blend of big names in the music industry, Silicon Valley thought leaders, social media celebrities, and starving musicians. Although, as attendee Kwan Booth points out, the conference overall was noticeably “light skinned and testosterone heavy.” I’m not sure how the demographic breakdown compared to past SFMTs, but it is certainly a good point.

Let’s make a collective effort to change that, shall we? All you minority and female music tech geeks out there: get on it! Next time we want to see you there.

Early in the day, the tone was set when musician Matt Morris, the first artist off of Justin Timberlake’s label, Tennman Records, asked the audience to stop twittering, put down their iPhones and close their laptops. And then proceeded to lead an audience singalong, which he promised to record and post on YouTube. Ah, music 2.0… Here it is:

That whole episode got me thinking about how busy we all are engaging with each other through technology all the time. So much so that we forget to engage with each other in real life. There we were, a room full of music fanatics watching a powerful new voice perform, and some of us were so busy writing witty tweets about the performance or sharing interesting facts about the performer, that we had to be reminded by the performer himself to pay attention!

Matt Morris also got some good face time in the NBC coverage of the event.

Whereas last time I focused on capturing the look and feel of the event through pictures, this time I went with video. All of the following footage was captured using one of those ghetto-fabulous flip minos and edited in iMovie.

Intead of reviewing topics covered, panelist cat fights, and the like, I want to provide a more haphazard organic insight into the experience. Here are a handful of tweets (search #sfmusictech on Twitter Search for more) that tell the story.

donald: Just posted my favorite takeaways from #sfmusictech http://is.gd/BxPF 8:41 PM May 19th

MattMorris: My SanFran trip: met some cool techies (#sfmusictech), ate some good chowder, & had a Twitter name-change (@MattMorrisFeed to @MattMorris). 7:44 AM May 20th

SoulMajestic: Attended #sfmusictech conference in San Francisco. Digital is ruling. Must dig our music into the social networks. 10:46 AM May 20th

hansveld: If you’re in a band or in artist management you really need to check out bandize.com and bandmetrics.com. Very useful services. #sfmusictech 10:24 PM May 18th

KISSmyBLAKarts: Is this why Spears signed to Pepsi @Boothism tip:coke does background checks on every member of every band before they license. #sfmusictech 5:45 PM May 18th

denverdan4life: The gloves are coming out. I hope we see a fist fight over the fact that labels slept at the wheel for almost 10 yrs. #sfmusictech 5:16 PM May 18th

Boothism: true story: preparation H wanted to license “Ring of Fire” for commercial. Fail. #sfmusictech 5:11 PM May 18th

SocialSound1982: “The music industry is the world’s biggest law firm” – Jim Griffin #sfmusictech 4:59 PM May 18th

Thanks to Brian and Shoshana for another great event and I look forward to seeing you all at the next one!

Grooveshark – Listen & Be Listened To

published
on April 23, 2009
by
LG
in DIY, music, music business, and technology
. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

For Fans

For Artists

It’s my favorite way to stream music. In my opinion, way better than Pandora. Groovesharkers can browse through their library of music, add music they find to their streaming “queue” or “auto play” letting Grooveshark pick their upcoming music based on their choices. The best part is that streamers can “favorite” the music they like and come back to it another time or add it to a play-list. Another great feature is the ability to share music links through various social networks like twitter. Way cool. Beyond streaming, Grooveshark hosts an artist section that focuses on “do it yourself” (DIY) and emerging bands getting their music played. Here’s how…

They Create and Convert Fanbases

Grooveshark Artists gets your music to the ears that matter. Choose similar artists and they’ll play your music after they get played on Grooveshark, thus creating fans organically via Autoplay. At the same time, why not target them with an ad every time your music is put on?
Quality Control
It pays to be honest. Once you’ve targeted some artists to match up with your music, fans start hearing your music. If your targeting was inaccurate, inappropriate, or simply bad, fans will vote it down -automatically taking the tune out of rotation. Play nice and get fans, play mean and get nothing.
Appease Your Inner Control Freak
If you’re as compulsive as they are at Grooveshark, you’ll love that no detail of your music life goes overlooked. Edit both your own metadata as well as metadata from fan-uploaded files. Keep album art in check. Submit lyrics. You can even sell your music + merch on tons of their partners’ sites.
Blending AdWords and Radio

Grooveshark employs a very simple song placement technology to ensure that you’re heard by those who already dig your style of sound. Promoted tracks– whether country, jazz or rock– will only be played after the artists within the genres you select.

Ads as Calls to Action

Almost every musician throughout the world performs at concerts, sells merchandise, and needs potential fans to actually listen to their music. With Grooveshark, not only are standalone ad campaigns sold at a discount to artists, but they’re provided free of charge alongside any ‘Get New Fans’ campaigns.

Goodies Galore

Embed your tunes with a widget on every website you love. Get short URL links directly to your songs. Watch your buzz grow with the easiest (and newest) way to keep your digital life grooving. Tinysong, Twisten.FM, Widgets, and Facebook ShareSong allow you to do all sorts of cool things–at no cost. They’ll take care of everything.

Give it a whirl, test it out, let Grooveshark know what you think!! In the mean time, I’d like to share one of my play-lists with you.

YouTube Symphony: The Unlikely Marriage of Classical Music and Online Collaboration

published
on April 16, 2009
by
Sandra
in collaboration, culture, DIY, future of music, music, recording, remixing, technology, and video
. Closed Tags: , , , .

Remember the world’s first online collaborative orchestra project that began a while back? Well, thousands of video submissions from all around the world later, the resulting mashup video of the Tan Dun piece “Internet Symphony, Eroica” was released on the YouTube Symphony Orchestra Channel yesterday.

The finalists , who hail from 30 countries, six continents, and play 26 different instruments, played last night at Carnegie Hall. See Act One below:

There is now a new answer to the question “how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Upload, upload, upload. Despite the short amount of rehearsal time, the group was was placed among the 10 most inspiring orchestras and praised for “for democratising classical music on a global scale, making it truly all-inclusive.”

Remix Delphic

published
on March 28, 2009
by
Sandra
in DIY, future of music, genres, music, remix promotions, remixing, and technology
. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

delphic

Have you heard the driving electronic sounds of the band Delphic? If not, add them to your list of music to check out. Their band name was enough to pique my interest. Why the Greek reference? Why ambiguous or obscure? Why did they pick it…?

Then you hear their music and the intrigue grows. At times paying homage to fellow countrymen and musical pioneers, New Order, or other greats, and at times creating an experience completely their own, Delphic is poised to make some serious noise in the musical landscape of 2009. So, it seems, say the oracles of the dancefloor.

Also, the “forward-thinking, indie-rave” sound of the “best new band in Manchester” is now yours to remix! Yep, they’ve got a Remix Wizard for you to play with, so get to it. Check out the remixes done so far and/or make your own here!

The young band is releasing their single “Counterpoint” on Belgium’s R&S label. Though fairly new to the scene, they are already opening for the likes of Bloc Party and The Streets. Not bad for a band still in their musical diapers. Check out the “Counterpoint” video, which was produced by Ewan Pearson, who will be working with the Delphic boys on their debut album.

Tools for Musicians Spotlight: Cartfly

published
on March 26, 2009
by
Sandra
in DIY, future of music, music, music business, and technology
. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Hey musicians, have something to sell? You know, like… an album? Enter Cartfly. Cartfly lets you set up a store widget to sell your product (jewelery, music, art etc). It is painfully simple, almost free, and you can post it in all those special places.

Capitalizing on the ubiquity of social networks, Cartfly is enabling retailers “… to establish a point of presence right inside profile pages and other sites” according to cofounder Joshua Manley. Even if you’ve got your songs on iTunes, CD Baby and wherever else, one more potential revenue stream can’t hurt, right? Slap it on your Facebook and show the world your goods! Oh, and the widget uses Flex, which gets the RIA (Rich Internet Applications) junkies all excited. Want to know more? Follow them on Twitter.