• The Limousines – Very Busy People

    03Mar
    Categories: For Musicians, Industry news, Music Marketing Comments

    I’ve been hearing the song Very Busy People on several channels while listening to XM radio. I just looked up the band, The Limousines, and on Wikipedia and it says ” The band’s single “Very Busy People” was released by Universal Republic records but the band is not currently signed to a label”. Huh? Distribution through a label without being represented by that label? Is this new? How will the label make money off of this agreement?

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  • The World’s First Album Cover – Alex Steinweiss’ Greatest Hit

    27Oct
    Categories: For Musicians, Industry news, Music Marketing, Other stuff Comments

    From Undependent.com

    World's First Album Cover

    While there is no shortage of interest in the album cover medium, there’s no obvious web page out dedicated to the world’s first record cover. I’m apparently I’m not the only one looking for it (See: “Anyone have a scan?“) I’ve seen scattered images from articles about Steinweiss but I’ve not found anything resembling a Shrine.

    Such a noteworthy artifact in the history of mass media screams for its own page. Google returns 300+ results for the phrase “Sgt Pepper’s Album Cover” but nothing definitive for the phrase “First Album Cover.” Here’s my humble stab at such a page.

    For the complete history of the album cover and its creator, just hit Wikipedia or pick up a copy of “For the Record.” Alex Steinwess, a then 23 years old designer, convinced Columbia’s suits to create the first true album cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic sleeves.Recently, I came across an apparently original edition of this album and was able to pick it up for almost nothing. Someone unwittingly dumped it onto eBay for chump change. I mean, if they’d known what they had, I would’ve at least expected the auction to include “World’s First Album Cover!” and a reserve price of $100, $500, who knows? Instead, I picked it up for less than $30.

    I have been eager to get it posted for all the graphic designers, media theorists and vinyl enthusiasts out there googling “steinweiss +first album cover.” I wanted to get these images out into the world for broader circulation.

    Read the entire article and see more shots of this album cover at undependent.com

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  • Waves Vocal Rider – Genius or just plain lazy?

    22Oct
    Categories: For Musicians, Industry news, Mixing Comments

    Waves Vocal RiderSo Waves came out with a new plug-in called Vocal Rider and I have one question.

    • Is this plug-in really necessary?

    I guess this may work well in the broadcast world, but they’re pitching it as a mix tool for vocals. To me that means mixing, as in mixing music. Does anyone else feel that the engineer who uses this plug-in is just plain lazy?

    Maybe I’m a little irked because a HUGE part of mixing a song with vocals, especially a lead vocal, is the human placement of the vocal within the track. That requires listening to all the parts of the arrangement and finding the best place for the vocal as the song progresses from beginning to end. That requires feel and emotion from the mix engineer. Can you get that from a plug-in?

    Then again, maybe the real reason I so annoyed is because this could potentially put me out of a job. It’s like the Ronco Rotisserie of audio – “just set it and forget it”.

    To me, I think this may be the laziest plug-in ever created. What do you all think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

    You can read a description of Vocal Rider on the Electronic Musician web site.

    (Side note: I actually have the Ronco Rotisserie and it is awesome! If this plug-in produces the same results I’m screwed.)

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  • Google Wave: A Music Industry Primer

    12Oct
    Categories: For Musicians, H.O.T. News, Industry news, Music Marketing, Other stuff Comments

    from Music Alley…

    Google Wave! It’s The Future! Convergent Communication 3.0! The bleeding zeitgesty edge of real-time innovation! But, er, what exactly IS it, and what potential does it have – if any – for artists, labels and the music industry?

    I’ve been puzzling over this since Google Wave was first announced earlier this year. Now it’s launched in beta, with Google having sent out the first 100,000 invites for the service, allowing those people to invite others.

    There isn’t much specific information online about Google Wave and music, apart from this fairly brief Hypebot post. However, there are quite a few articles talking about what Google Wave means for brands, which offer ideas that can be translated to the music industry.

    With those as the basis (and properly referenced and linked to), I’ve tried to put together a brief Google Wave primer. Read on, and do please post a comment if you have views or ideas on the subject.

    First off, what is Google Wave?

    In a nutshell, it’s like email meets instant messaging meets social networking meets document editing meets online collaboration. Sort of. Or, to relate it specifically to Google products, it’s like Gmail, Google Talk and Google Docs all mashed up into one service, with Facebook-style applications thrown in for customisation…

    Continue reading the full article here.

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  • 50 Cent: “P2P is Part of Music Marketing”

    24Sep
    Categories: For Musicians, Industry news, Music Marketing Comments

    From ZeroPaid.com

    Says that record label marketing dollars vanish with declining sales, but that even pirates end up at a concert, buy t-shirts, and even albums.

    Hip hop megastar 50 Cent appearedon the Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) recently to promote his new book “The 50th Law,” and during the interview he made some interesting points about P2P and what it means for music artists like himself.

    When asked how performers are to make money in the music business these days he points out that even though things have changed considerably it is still possible.

    “The technology is absolutely shifting things, and uh the marketing dollars that the major companies were providing for artists in the past is gone with the actual record labels.”

    So when it comes to illegal file-sharing 50 Cent believes that it’s simply a “part of the marketing” necessary to make up for what the record labels are no longer able to afford.

    Read the entire article and see the video here

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