Do you miss our Forensics of a Song feature? Well, don't worry we are about to be doing a lot more of them. In the meantime a cool blog has done a feature on your favorite hermpahrodite's latest hit song, where they dissect the song. Check out a cool read to tide you over for some of the awesome stuff we have coming your way.
- Getting Signed: Demonstrate That You Don't Have To Beg
- If You Think A Manager Is There To Do The Business Side For You, You Already Lost The Game
- Recording Better Vocals Part 1 - Watch The Bottom End
- Must Read: The Indie Maximum Exposure List
- Music Industry Red Flags: Saying The Same Old Tired Things
- How To Make An Awesome DIY Pedal Board From Ikea
- Equal Vision Records Announces Name Your Own Price For New Release
- Why Quitting Twitter Or Not Using It Is One Of The Stupidest Things Ever
- Berklee College Students Unianimously Agree That You Don't Need A Major
- Facebook Launches LaLa Powered Way To Send Your Friends Tracks As Gifts
- Myspace Music Becomes More Useful To Musicians
- *Updated* Google To Partner With iLike And LaLa
- Best Buy To Get Even More Into The Musical Instruments Game With 24/7 NYC Store
- The Call To Arms To End The Manufacturing Of CDs
That's right, as you read this week, Todd and I are very excited to be on our way to Martin Atkins TourSmart weekend in Chicago. The blog is on autopilot so you will still see some posts but we won't be keeping you up to date with current events but come back on Monday and we will tell you some of the awesome stuff we saw this weekend in Chicago!
While having a 24 hour music store in the heart of Union Square will make some of us NYC musicians quite happy, we will unfortunately be getting it in the form of a Best Buy. Deciding to fill up the vacant Circuit City spot in Union Square, Best Buy has decided to move on in and claims the store will feature "the largest Best Buy Musical Instruments Department in the United States." Guitar Center a few blocks down the road is shaking in it's shoes. Coming soon to a city that sleeps near you.
(via Consumerist)
(via Consumerist)
MUSICVISION PHOENIX from Guillaume Delaperriere on Vimeo.
In this awesome feature called Musicvision, the band Phoenix play 20 songs that influenced them and explain how and what they took from each song. An amazing idea that is executed perfectly. More like this please!
Let's be honest here. This blog has been a little thin on content of late. We will take some of the blame and admit we have been a bit busy, but we also will say that there just hasn't been a lot of stuff to write about and discuss. Because of this we are enlisting your help. So here is what we are asking for:
- Does your band need help needing to know where to concentrate it's energies? Write us and tell us your problems and we will help you make a plan and post it on the blog!
- Do you have questions and want us to research them? Hit us up!
- Are their things you would like to see us write about and explore. Suggest us something.
Another week of Musformation fun including some AES Coverage that we hope you enjoyed. Next Friday we'll be heading to Chicago to speak at Martin Atkins Tour Smart Plus Weekend. Rest assured, we will bring you as much coverage as we can from Martin and the entire supporting cast - we expect it to be an amazing weekend. Till then enjoy this week's best stuff. 
There are many people who would never want to use Auto-Tune on a recording for many valid reasons. It is a valid decision for any artist, but the fact is if you can't hit the notes your record isn't made any better by it. One way Auto-Tune does work great is to teach singers what it sounds like when they do hit a pitch properly. If you want to do a recording without Auto-Tune but benefit from a great hidden use, simply do a demo and tune your singer so they sound like every song on Top 40 radio. Have them sing along to it and it will reinforce their sense of pitch and what the notes sound like when they are in tune. This can also help with composition as you hear what the notes sound like when hit in a defined way. I will often make a mix of a heavily Auto-Tuned vocal and drums for a singer who didn't give a good performance and send them home to practice for the week. Sining along to this in the car for a week can yield a night and day difference. 
In awesome news, a judge ruled against ASCAP in their ridiculous lawsuit that tried to get performance royalties for ringtones. As we have chronicled here before, ASCAP and their sometimes partner in stupidity BMI have been running around throwing lawsuits at anyone they can imagine they can get money from. This may also affect another of their mind-bending lawsuits where they are attempting to get royalties for iTunes previews. For more head to Consumerist.
The awesome podcast Sound Opinions took on a great subject this week, the weird instruments that get put in rock songs. They take a really great look at the history and context in which some off instruments work in rock songs. A great way to get some cool ideas for your next track and an awesome listen. Check it!
After releasing his new acclaimed album "Wait For Me", Moby (through his own label) has done something smart by palling on releasing a deluxe version with some bonus material. The second disc of Moby's new deluxe album is called an "ambient" version of the album - all reinterpretations of the original songs by Moby himself. This would be great idea for putting out the alternate versions of your songs that you probably already have. So many times bands have trouble deciding which version of a song is best (think of Wilco's two totally different takes of "Outta Mind" from Being There). That way you no longer feel torn that people aren't going to hear the sweet remix you did or dance version of the new single. It's also another great incentive for people to buy your record - you've already recorded the songs, so why not let people hear them! But don't feel limited to a full length, even an additional EP of alternate versions could be reason enough to release it with your regular album.
Not a month goes past without seeing the short sighted failures of what ASCAP and their sometimes partner in foolishness BMI, are going through to make a buck these days. While no one can blame the two for going after radio stations to try to make their artists more money - seeing as it is the very purpose of what their organization is supposed to do for their artists - they may have picked a more opportune time to start pulling out the crowbar and knocking on radio stations doors to get a royalty increase.
Right now, we are in the middle of a congressional debate on The Performance Rights Act, which would give royalties to not just songwriters but performers. Seeing as the majority of songwriters are also performers this would do a great service to their artists - whose interests they are supposed to be supporting - by increasing the money they are getting paid. Instead, while a debate rages on that is already stacked against The PRA, the bright minds at ASCAP and BMI decided to strengthen big radio's argument against the act that states they already pay out so much money that legislation would cripple radio's business model. Instead of waiting for the legislation to go through the congressional body, the greed of these foolish companies has yet again conquered the best interests of their clients. If you are a member of ASCAP or BMI and agree with my stance on this issue, please email your rep and tell them to lobotomize their strategists and get a clue.
Right now, we are in the middle of a congressional debate on The Performance Rights Act, which would give royalties to not just songwriters but performers. Seeing as the majority of songwriters are also performers this would do a great service to their artists - whose interests they are supposed to be supporting - by increasing the money they are getting paid. Instead, while a debate rages on that is already stacked against The PRA, the bright minds at ASCAP and BMI decided to strengthen big radio's argument against the act that states they already pay out so much money that legislation would cripple radio's business model. Instead of waiting for the legislation to go through the congressional body, the greed of these foolish companies has yet again conquered the best interests of their clients. If you are a member of ASCAP or BMI and agree with my stance on this issue, please email your rep and tell them to lobotomize their strategists and get a clue.
We're back from Day One of the AES Nerd Fest 2009. This weekend we will be posting some of the videos of all the hot gear we saw so scroll down since this will stay on top all weekend, but new content is below.
- Use SoundCloud To Have Your Fans Spread The Word On Facebook
- How To Obtain The Quality Control Advantages That A Record Label Has
- Don't Drive Traffic To Your Myspace When Debuting New Material
- Musformation How We Do: Our Design For A Small Indie Label Website Part 1 Strategy
- Musformation How We Do: Our Design For A Small Indie Label Website Part 2 The Label Page & Widgets
- Get Fresh PR Lists The Websites Every Band Should Be On
- Make Sure You Use A Creative Commons License On Your Flickr Press Shots
- Make Pitchfork Useful - Use Their Top 200 Tracks Of The 2000's To Get Inspired
- How To Sync Your Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr And Twitter Without Any Outside Service
- Get Fresh PR Lists Some Essential Touring IPhone Apps
- Communication In The Studio - Use References Not Descriptions
- Using Email Link Tracking To Increase Your Album Sales
- Eddie Van Halen's Patent Paper For His Instrument Support System Is PRICELESS
- Sorry Indie/Unsigned Artists No iTunes LP For You!
- Why Axl Why? Guns N Roses Steal From Ulrich Schnauss And Here's Solid Proof
- Just Because Radiohead Isn't Done With Albums Doesn't Mean You Shouldn't Be
- How To Find Out Who Wrote A Song Via iTunes
Hey everyone, so we scheduled a few articles for today, but we aren't really here. This means if the world ends, Thom Yorke or Trent Reznor goes to the bathroom or any other current event happens we won't get to it. We will have a few articles up today that are new but no roundups or current events. Instead we will be filming some cool new gear from AES and doing some interviews live from the floor. If you see either of the two handsome men in the pictures above please say hello!
Brian Hazard has up an article on The Music Think Tank about his experiences with a service I feel like everyone is curious about at some point, Taxi. Taxi offers artists/songwriters opportunities through listings on their service, but Mr. Hazard claims 12 years into his membership and it has never done anything for him. Read up and please tell us if you have had a different experience.
Why, Axl, Why? You corn rowed little f*cker. First you make us wait 10 years to hear the unlistenable garbage that is Chinese Democracy, now we find out you totally stole a sample on it from poor little, defenseless Ulrich Schnauss. Well, I guess I shouldn't call him defenseless since he totally just sued you. Watch the two videos above and here the obvious proof that Axl and his gang of paid eye rollers copped a sample without asking.
I had an inspiring weekend. After moving all week long I had some settling in to do and while doing this settling in was going on I had another goal; I wanted to get inspired again. After going through a summer where I listened to only a dozen or so of the same records, I felt I have heard everything around right now I may potentially like and wanted to find some new gems I may have missed. Thankfully, P4K put up their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000's, which despite the usual eye rolling we all have towards their retarded reviews and douchey ways I found to be inspiring.
In the list I found records I hadn't though of in years that I found and popped in and made me really excited giving me great ideas. I found some other records I had never heard of that I had always wanted to check out and sure enough when I did, I fell in love. The great things about these lists is you know that the choices are going to be of a certain amount of quality. While my list would have been different it served a great purpose of reminding me what of some great records and some I missed when my tastes were different. Get inspired and get to reading.
In the list I found records I hadn't though of in years that I found and popped in and made me really excited giving me great ideas. I found some other records I had never heard of that I had always wanted to check out and sure enough when I did, I fell in love. The great things about these lists is you know that the choices are going to be of a certain amount of quality. While my list would have been different it served a great purpose of reminding me what of some great records and some I missed when my tastes were different. Get inspired and get to reading.
(video moved to after the jump since it has auto play on)Have you ever wondered who looks out for musician's interests in D.C.? Well one of the organizations is The Future Of Music Coalition and right now is the middle of their 3 day conference on musicians issues and their policy summit in which they will discuss and figure out how to represent our community. If you are interested in what they are doing watch the above feed.
Another week of Musformation fun. Be sure to join us Monday and the rest of the week as we will be unveiling some huge articles on some of the projects we have been working on that will be highly informative. We are way excited to show them off! Till then enjoy this weeks best stuff.
- Use A Gratis License To Get Your Music In Indie/Non-Profit Films
- Amanda Palmer On The Loss Of The Middleman (More Important Than The Asking For Money Thing)
- When Print Ads Work For Music Releases And When They Don't
- Planning Your Next Release And How To Stay In The News Cycle For Longer Part 1
- Planning Your Next Release And How To Stay In The News Cycle For Longer Part 2 - Ideas And Examples
- Get Real-Time Traffic Reports To Your iPhone To Make Touring Easier
- 10 Things You May Not Know About Web Design For Your Artist Page That Are Crucial Knowledge
- Before You Book A Show You Want To Promote Heavily Check The Local Calendar
- Experimental Merch With Silk Screens To Start A Viral Merch Trend
- Sloan Take The Smart Road And Trades A Free Song Download For Your Email Address
- Tired Of Piracy Then Sign The Copyright Alliance Letter To Obama
- Must Read: How Fanfarlo Turned Reccomendations Into Ugh... Fans
- Getting More Realistic Drum Triggers Part 5 - You Don't Need To Fake It
- What You Need To Know About The Performance Rights Act
- ARS Technica Takes A In Depth Look Inside The iTunes LP And Diagnoses The Birth Defects
- Deerhoof's Greg Saurnier Shows Off His Unique Ride Hi-Hat
The Performance Rights Act is one of those things that affects every musician. Right now if you hear Aretha Franklin's version of Otis Redding's "Respect" on the radio, Otis receives royalties but Aretha does not. This act would change that and give performers compensation for their distinct art and voice. If you want to learn more about this head to the jump and see a blown up version of a flyer on the subject or right click and download it to see it in high res.
Piracy got your head down. Fancy yourself a rant on how no one is standing up for musicians rights as we are told to give away our music for free and it is worth nothing? Well there is a petition for you to sign! The Copyright Alliance is delivering a letter to your boyfriend Barack Obama telling him and his stiff-faced buddy Nancy Pelosi that we need some legislation to protect the copyrights that artists own. If you are into that sort of thing, go sign up here.
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