Kudos to John Jurgensen (WSJ, 7/31/’09) for picking up on the Seattle- and Portland-based Modest Mouse, not just for their solid melodic tunes but for the indie band’s lessons on marketing music. The band has put out several singles on some very cool-colored vinyl and is free-streaming on Stereogum and Modestmousemusic.com. This Tuesday’s release of [...]
According to a report out of Tokyo (Investor’s Business Daily, 7/31/’09), “sales of the once unstoppable Wii console have tumbled for the first time since its launch three years ago, sending the game giant’s quarterly profits down 61%.” Prior to the bad news, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit notched holiday sales records just half [...]
The problem with illegal downloading is that there are too many young adults who want to use it as a surrogate parent to get what they want without paying for it. Yes, I’m on my soapbox again. I am an advocate of every indie artist out there trying to grow their musical passion into a [...]
In an article in WSJ (7/29/’09) by Sarah McBride (“Studios Sue to Stop Pirate Bay”), the major Hollywood studios are requesting that a Swedish civil court impose an injunction against the operators of Pirate Bay (in the process of being sold to Global Gaming Factory X AB as of August 27th) to stop both its [...]
MTV has given artists a new first step toward having their music reach gamers by launching Rock Band Network. Any artist, signed or unsigned, can submit songs for consideration in the Xbox 360 version of the game (Sony Playstation 3 and Wii to follow). As long as your tunes are of playable quality with lyrics [...]
Check out the article “Musician, Market Yourself” in the New York Times by Brad Stone:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/technology/internet/22music.html?_r=1&scp=6&sq=%20brad%20stone&st=cse
For those indie artists committed to bypassing a major label deal and doing their recording and marketing, Polyphonic is worth looking into. Formed by music industry trio Adam Driscoll (Mama Group co-CEO), Terry McBride (Nettwerk CEO) and Brian Message (ATC & [...]
The BBC announced nominees for the ‘09 Barclaycard Mercury Prize which goes to the best British or Irish album over the past 12-months. Usually a mix of mainstream and unknown artists, Brit rockers Kasabian (nominated for its 3rd album, “West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum”) and singer-songwriter Bat for Lashes (nominated for her 2nd album, “Two [...]
The intro production to this Toto “Africa” remake wails! Talk about using yourself as an instrument and an effect. Kudos to Perpetuum Jazzile, an a cappella jazz choir from Slovenia. Awesome vocals and originality. Thanks, Betty-Lynn, for sending me this.
http://videos.komando.com/2009/06/18/african-thunderstorm/
I’ve got to credit Gloria K. Fiero in her book, The Humanistic Tradition for this indie gem: “Tempermental and defiant, (Beethoven) scorned the patronage system that had weighed heavily upon both Mozart and Haydn, and sold his compositions as an independent artist.”
The backs of business models supporting online music sites like Pandora and AccuRadio were able to straighten up as royalty payments to SoundExchange were agreed upon by artists and labels after 2-years of dark cloud debate. There’s still the 30-day period during which webcasters can opt-to-adopt the new deal or either resort to the Copyright [...]