Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Using Social Networks to Find the Best New Music
Using Social Networks to Find the Best New Music
by Christopher Benton
It is very easy to get music online. Legal or illegal, there are hundreds of means to download entire artist’s catalogs from the superobscure to the superstar. But with more decision comes indecision, and the question for the music fan becomes: what should I play?
Like the music industry itself, social networking has revolutionized the way in which consumers experience new music. Here’s some of the best social networks to discover your new favorite band.
MYSPACE MUSIC
In blogyears, Myspace Music is a dinosaur, but it is still one of the best sites for music lovers. Practically every artist has a Myspace page that allows fans to stream a couple songs, find out about tour dates, and even contact their favorite artists.
LAST FM
Like Pandora, but much more powerful, Last.fm allows users to build their own customizable radio station based on artist, song, or genre. Based on the characteristics of your radio station, the site will recommend other artists to you. Last.fm can even plug into your iTunes so you can play your library remotely. Access to iTunes also means that you can make friends with Last.fm profile and make recommendations to them, while Last.fm determines how “music compatible” you are based on similarities in taste. It’ll even tell you the last thing your friends have listened to.
RATE YOUR MUSIC
Rateyourmusic is a music critic’s social network, no credentials necessary. After you make a profile, you can rate millions of artist’s albums and even write your own review if you wish. This seemingly simple setup has many implications. From the rating system, RYM compiles lists, so you can easily search through the highest rated albums by year, artist, and genre, as constantly updated. The whole idea is very democratic and the best music gets pushed to the top. These are real music fans here, so anything in the yearly top 100 is always awesome and frequently on the fringes of mainstream. Users can also make their own lists, friend others, and recommend music to these friends.
DROWNED IN SOUND
Drowned in Sound is music criticism at its finest, or at least at it’s most Web 2.0. The British website posts reviews, features, and interviews like any other online reprint music publication but also contains a strong community component. For instance, users can post comments on any article or review, so listeners get in their own “two cents.” There is also a discussion board where readers can compose articles, look for band mates, sell equipments, host music forums, and debate the merits of staff-made articles.
HYPEMACHINE
Hypemachine is MP3 blog aggregator. Better than your RSS feed, Hypemachine is a constantly updating site that reposts streamable MP3s from all over the web. Hypemachine probably puts it best when they write: “To put it simply, the Hype Machine keeps track of what music bloggers write about. We handpick a set of kickass music blogs and then present what they discuss for easy analysis, consumption and discovery. This way, your odds of stumbling into awesome music or awesome blogs are high.”
BLIP.FM
Twitter meets Last.fm with Blip. The whole service hinges on the question: “What song do you want to Blip?” With millions of songs in its catalog, you can type any song you want (be it a MP3 or its accompanying music video) and then push it online. You can either play the song you Blip or play any song someone else Blips. The site is basically a series of user song recommendations.
The Life and Times of Auto-Tune (rough)
1990: Dr. Harold Hildegard founds Jupiter Systems, eventually Antares Audio Technologies
1997: Antares introduces Auto-Tune, a pitch-correcting software program
1998:
-Cher releases her hit song “Believe," which uses Auto-Tune to construct its distinctive bridge
-The song’s producers claim the Auto-tune effects are actually a vocoder, trying to protect a trade secret
2000: Gigi D’Agostino releases the Auto-Tuned “La Pasion,” which becomes number 1 in Belgium
2001: Janet Jackson releases the Auto-Tuned “All For You,” remaining on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks
2004: T-Pain rises to fame with his Auto-Tune-based “Hard & B” style, which takes on imitators
2008: T-Pain claims a right to royalties from any artist using Auto-Tune
2009:
-Death Cab for Cutie protests the widespread use of Auto-Tune at the 51st Grammy Awards with blue ribbons
-Jay-Z releases “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
1997: Antares introduces Auto-Tune, a pitch-correcting software program
1998:
-Cher releases her hit song “Believe," which uses Auto-Tune to construct its distinctive bridge
-The song’s producers claim the Auto-tune effects are actually a vocoder, trying to protect a trade secret
2000: Gigi D’Agostino releases the Auto-Tuned “La Pasion,” which becomes number 1 in Belgium
2001: Janet Jackson releases the Auto-Tuned “All For You,” remaining on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks
2004: T-Pain rises to fame with his Auto-Tune-based “Hard & B” style, which takes on imitators
2008: T-Pain claims a right to royalties from any artist using Auto-Tune
2009:
-Death Cab for Cutie protests the widespread use of Auto-Tune at the 51st Grammy Awards with blue ribbons
-Jay-Z releases “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Changing trends spark controversy within the recording industry
By Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – The days of musicians relying on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats are changing with the increasing popularity in the digital age of sampling and Auto-Tune.
With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.
“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”
However, the innovations of the digital age have received flack from performers of many genres.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the industry’s reliance on computers in the lyrics of his 2001 single “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my s---y tracks.”
Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.
Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, held on February 8, 2009. The band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.
Auto-Tune first rose to prominence in 1999, with Cher’s #1 hit song “Believe.” “Believe” used the program to great effect in creating the distinctive warbling effect in Cher’s voice that has since become the song’s most recognized element.
"If you're trying to turn a bad singer into a good singer, you're probably wasting your time," said Bruce Burch, director of the University of Georgia's music business program.
While Auto-Tune began as a select style, the program has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.
“It is what it is,” said Daniel Collins, owner and producer of the Athens-based Pigpen Studios. “It has become very, very commonplace. It’s just what’s popular right now.”
However, the proliferation of Auto-Tune songs does not sit well with some artists.
Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, made his feelings toward Auto-Tune known. In June of 2009, he released “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune),” a rather frank criticism of how Auto-Tune has overtaken music.
Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.
“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”
While the Auto-Tune controversy has emerged as the most common point of contention in the shifting priorities of the music industry, the sampling debate remains alive and well.
Computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.
“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”
Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.
“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone.”
For better or for worse, new artists appear each day, taking advantage of the new age and all it has to offer in the form of file-sharing web sites like Reverb Nation or the digital audio program Pro Tools.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.
The tools of the trade
Photo by: Thomas Patrick Hooper
Edited by: Blakeney Spong and Katie Weise
ATHENS, Ga. – The days of musicians relying on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats are changing with the increasing popularity in the digital age of sampling and Auto-Tune.
With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.
“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”
However, the innovations of the digital age have received flack from performers of many genres.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the industry’s reliance on computers in the lyrics of his 2001 single “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my s---y tracks.”
Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.
Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, held on February 8, 2009. The band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.
Auto-Tune first rose to prominence in 1999, with Cher’s #1 hit song “Believe.” “Believe” used the program to great effect in creating the distinctive warbling effect in Cher’s voice that has since become the song’s most recognized element.
"If you're trying to turn a bad singer into a good singer, you're probably wasting your time," said Bruce Burch, director of the University of Georgia's music business program.
While Auto-Tune began as a select style, the program has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.
“It is what it is,” said Daniel Collins, owner and producer of the Athens-based Pigpen Studios. “It has become very, very commonplace. It’s just what’s popular right now.”
However, the proliferation of Auto-Tune songs does not sit well with some artists.
Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, made his feelings toward Auto-Tune known. In June of 2009, he released “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune),” a rather frank criticism of how Auto-Tune has overtaken music.
Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.
“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”
While the Auto-Tune controversy has emerged as the most common point of contention in the shifting priorities of the music industry, the sampling debate remains alive and well.
Computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.
“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”
Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.
“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone.”
For better or for worse, new artists appear each day, taking advantage of the new age and all it has to offer in the form of file-sharing web sites like Reverb Nation or the digital audio program Pro Tools.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.
The tools of the trade
Photo by: Thomas Patrick Hooper
Are instruments like these a thing of the past?
Photo by: Thomas Patrick Hooper
Edited by: Blakeney Spong and Katie Weise
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Article #2 - First Draft
(Title pending)
Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Bands like the Beatles may have revolutionized music, but with the digital age in full swing, the artists may not be the only driving force in the music industry anymore.
With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.
“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”
TV programs like the wildly successful American Idol have put up-and-coming musicians in the public eye while video games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero make the everyman into the musician.
“It’s not really anything new, but I think they’ve done the best job of it,” said Bruce Burch, director of the Music Business program at the University of Georgia, of the American Idol phenomenon.
However, American Idol may be symptomatic of a greater trend in the musical world, as the industry has begun moving to court the performer and not the other way around.
The progressive rock group the Decemberists have emerged as a clear cut example, coming out of the city of Portland, Ore., far from the musical capitals of Los Angeles and Atlanta.
“Music has been decentralized,” said Burch of the Decemberists. “You don’t have to be in a major music center anymore.”
That hasn’t kept the innovations of the digital age from having received its fair share of flack from performers of many genres.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the changes of the editing process in the lyrics of “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks.”
Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.
Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, when the band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.
Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, took things a step further. In June of 2009, he released D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune) in protest of the program’s widespread use in the industry.
“It’s been around a lot longer than people think,” said Stetson in reference to the program, which began to gain national attention after Cher’s obvious use of it in her1998 song, “Believe.”
Since then, Auto-Tune has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.
Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.
“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”
While the Auto-Tune controversy has become a trend, it comes on the heels of the sampling debate.
Artists initially relied on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats, but computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.
“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”
Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.
“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone… I’m a purist. I think the people that will advance in the industry are the people associated with the pure songwriter. It all starts with the song.”
With the history of music stretching back so far and the recording industry being as young as it is, it’s anyone guess as to where the industry will go in the future.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.
Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Bands like the Beatles may have revolutionized music, but with the digital age in full swing, the artists may not be the only driving force in the music industry anymore.
With music piped into elevators and laid over commercials, people experience music now more than ever before.
“The way that the world is experiencing music is new,” said Eric Stetson, a 23-year-old music composition major at Georgia Southern. “We take music for granted. It’s ubiquitous. It’s all around us.”
TV programs like the wildly successful American Idol have put up-and-coming musicians in the public eye while video games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero make the everyman into the musician.
“It’s not really anything new, but I think they’ve done the best job of it,” said Bruce Burch, director of the Music Business program at the University of Georgia, of the American Idol phenomenon.
However, American Idol may be symptomatic of a greater trend in the musical world, as the industry has begun moving to court the performer and not the other way around.
The progressive rock group the Decemberists have emerged as a clear cut example, coming out of the city of Portland, Ore., far from the musical capitals of Los Angeles and Atlanta.
“Music has been decentralized,” said Burch of the Decemberists. “You don’t have to be in a major music center anymore.”
That hasn’t kept the innovations of the digital age from having received its fair share of flack from performers of many genres.
Singer-songwriter Ben Folds lampooned the changes of the editing process in the lyrics of “Rockin’ the Suburbs,” which carries the line “the song producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks.”
Folds isn’t the only one who has taken notice.
Indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie made a statement at the 51st Grammy Awards, when the band members wore blue ribbons to protest the widespread use of Auto-Tune, a software program that corrects the tune of a voice or instrument.
Rapper Shawn Corey Carter, better known by his stage name Jay-Z, took things a step further. In June of 2009, he released D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune) in protest of the program’s widespread use in the industry.
“It’s been around a lot longer than people think,” said Stetson in reference to the program, which began to gain national attention after Cher’s obvious use of it in her1998 song, “Believe.”
Since then, Auto-Tune has founds its way into the hands of any number of artists, with rapper T-Pain being the most visible example.
Will Hodge, a Marietta-based producer/engineer/songwriter who has been in the business for 20 years, doesn’t see any harm in using Auto-Tune.
“Background vocals need to be more in tune because they’re more a part of the instrumentation,” said Hodge, who also uses the program quite extensively in bass recordings. “The only way to get a real bass track is to play it on a keyboard.”
While the Auto-Tune controversy has become a trend, it comes on the heels of the sampling debate.
Artists initially relied on the instruments in their hands and the voices in their throats, but computers have made it possible for artists to cut and paste certain vocals, instruments and melodies into another, entirely unrelated song. The process has drawn criticism for its perceived lack of originality.
“They’re just taking existing pieces of existing media and making something,” said Hodge, who likened the sampling process to a collage. “As long as [the writer] is getting paid, it’s not a big deal.”
Unfortunately, not every sample is properly attributed, which has sparked a handful of highly publicized lawsuits. One of the most notable cases arose in the late 80s, when rapper Vanilla Ice sampled the bassline of “Under Pressure,” a Queen-Davie Bowie collaboration.
“It’s an inevitable thing,” Hodge said of the changes sweeping the industry. “It’s insane what I can do with an iPhone… I’m a purist. I think the people that will advance in the industry are the people associated with the pure songwriter. It all starts with the song.”
With the history of music stretching back so far and the recording industry being as young as it is, it’s anyone guess as to where the industry will go in the future.
“People shouldn’t be afraid of change,” said Stetson.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Athens Music Industry Adopts Twitter
Athens Music Industry Adopts Twitter
By Christopher Benton
The blank (screen) generation is all atwitter about Twitter, tweets, (hash) tags, and other jargonic miscellany associated with the “micro” blog. With its sub-text-message mantra of “140 characters or less,” Twitter is breaking down the former walls of communication and eliminating the middleman. The effect of this is clear in the music industry, which is rapidly adopting the technology for various forms of promotion. Many local members of the Athens music community are finding ways to use Twitter, too.
“I just got one,” Andrew Dykes, a solo folk artist who plays under the pseudonym Green Gerry, said. “I was hesitant to use Twitter at first, but then my friend made me one. I mostly use it so fans know what I’m up to…”
For Dykes, Twitter is not just a one-way interface with fans, but a dialogue. And while he may use Twitter to publicize himself and reach out to fans, his fans have also reached back, even sometimes helping him while on tour:
“Whenever I’m on tour, the question is, like, ‘Do I have to sleep in the car again tonight?,’ and there’s this mad search to find someone to stay with and couch-surf. But when I started posting on Twitter that I was looking for somewhere to stay in town, I’d sometimes get like 5 replies.”
Twitter may frequently be about self-promotion but sometimes, the self-promotion needs self-promotion. This need for meta-promotion is one of the service’s main drawbacks, at least, that is according to Daniel Clower, a local booker and band manager.
“When I was an intern working with social media for a PR company…we made a few [band] Twitters but the problem we had was getting people to follow. Even for our larger groups with tens of thousand of MySpace friends, we couldn’t even break a thousand on Twitter…The question was, ‘How do people know this Twitter even exists?’”
Clower tried advertising various Twitter accounts on other social media sites like MySpace and Facebook, but still to no avail.
“We quickly realized we were pushing the wrong content…publicists may run MySpace pages but when fans see a Twitter I think they want a personal connection to the band, so bands should operate their own accounts.”
While the “If you build, they will come” adage may not work in the Twitter world, there does seem to be a correlation to the amount of the “Tweets,” or posts a user makes, with the amount of people who follow.
Adrian Zelski, lead singer in the reggae band DubConscious agrees. “We have a twitter but I stopped tweeting when we got really busy and I purchased the club [New Earth Music Hall]…last time I checked, I think we had at least one thousand less followers."
Consistency may be the key, and while his band may have stopped “tweeting,” Zelski hasn’t given up experimenting with uses for the service for his other ventures. Zelski’s newly opened music venue “New Earth Music Hall,” on West Dougherty St. has a new Twitter account. So far, it’s mostly a forum for announcing shows and drink specials.
It’s not just the artists, their publicists, and the symbiotic venue system that has the Twitter bug, the publications that cover the whole thing has it too. Michelle Gilzenrat, music editor for local magazine Flagpole, has been tweeting for over a year, mostly announcing secret shows and posting local music news. The speed of Twitter’s service was especially useful this May: when the Georgia Theatre caught fire around 7 am, Gilzenrat’s Twitter was constantly updated with instantaneous news about the event, hours before Flagpole’s official site could post the same news.
Twitter may be a useful tool for music industry, but it is still just one pillar of a much more vast structure needed to promote music. Publicist Michelle Roche, who runs the local PR firm Michelle Roche Media Relations, likes the new tools offered by the Web 2.0 paradigm, but issued a warning in her address to UGA’s chapter of International Association of Business Communicators a year ago:
“Although MySpace Music, Facebook and Twitter and all these other so-called ‘social media’ tools are allowing musicians to connect directly with fans, and publicize themselves, there is still a definite need for music publicists.”
Twitter is far from the ultimate promotional tool, but it certainly has been a game changer for the music industry. And as Twitter further develops, it seems local musicians will find even newer, cooler ways to utilize the service.
By Christopher Benton
The blank (screen) generation is all atwitter about Twitter, tweets, (hash) tags, and other jargonic miscellany associated with the “micro” blog. With its sub-text-message mantra of “140 characters or less,” Twitter is breaking down the former walls of communication and eliminating the middleman. The effect of this is clear in the music industry, which is rapidly adopting the technology for various forms of promotion. Many local members of the Athens music community are finding ways to use Twitter, too.
“I just got one,” Andrew Dykes, a solo folk artist who plays under the pseudonym Green Gerry, said. “I was hesitant to use Twitter at first, but then my friend made me one. I mostly use it so fans know what I’m up to…”
For Dykes, Twitter is not just a one-way interface with fans, but a dialogue. And while he may use Twitter to publicize himself and reach out to fans, his fans have also reached back, even sometimes helping him while on tour:
“Whenever I’m on tour, the question is, like, ‘Do I have to sleep in the car again tonight?,’ and there’s this mad search to find someone to stay with and couch-surf. But when I started posting on Twitter that I was looking for somewhere to stay in town, I’d sometimes get like 5 replies.”
Twitter may frequently be about self-promotion but sometimes, the self-promotion needs self-promotion. This need for meta-promotion is one of the service’s main drawbacks, at least, that is according to Daniel Clower, a local booker and band manager.
“When I was an intern working with social media for a PR company…we made a few [band] Twitters but the problem we had was getting people to follow. Even for our larger groups with tens of thousand of MySpace friends, we couldn’t even break a thousand on Twitter…The question was, ‘How do people know this Twitter even exists?’”
Clower tried advertising various Twitter accounts on other social media sites like MySpace and Facebook, but still to no avail.
“We quickly realized we were pushing the wrong content…publicists may run MySpace pages but when fans see a Twitter I think they want a personal connection to the band, so bands should operate their own accounts.”
While the “If you build, they will come” adage may not work in the Twitter world, there does seem to be a correlation to the amount of the “Tweets,” or posts a user makes, with the amount of people who follow.
Adrian Zelski, lead singer in the reggae band DubConscious agrees. “We have a twitter but I stopped tweeting when we got really busy and I purchased the club [New Earth Music Hall]…last time I checked, I think we had at least one thousand less followers."
Consistency may be the key, and while his band may have stopped “tweeting,” Zelski hasn’t given up experimenting with uses for the service for his other ventures. Zelski’s newly opened music venue “New Earth Music Hall,” on West Dougherty St. has a new Twitter account. So far, it’s mostly a forum for announcing shows and drink specials.
It’s not just the artists, their publicists, and the symbiotic venue system that has the Twitter bug, the publications that cover the whole thing has it too. Michelle Gilzenrat, music editor for local magazine Flagpole, has been tweeting for over a year, mostly announcing secret shows and posting local music news. The speed of Twitter’s service was especially useful this May: when the Georgia Theatre caught fire around 7 am, Gilzenrat’s Twitter was constantly updated with instantaneous news about the event, hours before Flagpole’s official site could post the same news.
Twitter may be a useful tool for music industry, but it is still just one pillar of a much more vast structure needed to promote music. Publicist Michelle Roche, who runs the local PR firm Michelle Roche Media Relations, likes the new tools offered by the Web 2.0 paradigm, but issued a warning in her address to UGA’s chapter of International Association of Business Communicators a year ago:
“Although MySpace Music, Facebook and Twitter and all these other so-called ‘social media’ tools are allowing musicians to connect directly with fans, and publicize themselves, there is still a definite need for music publicists.”
Twitter is far from the ultimate promotional tool, but it certainly has been a game changer for the music industry. And as Twitter further develops, it seems local musicians will find even newer, cooler ways to utilize the service.
iTunes article (Final)
Is iTunes changing the face of music for the better?
By Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.
Aspiring musicians have found a number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Inc., now in its eighth phase. While best known as a source to download music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to download, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books and even conduct their own podcasts.
The iTunes Store has sold over 5 billion songs, including tracks from lesser-known artists.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album, Thirstay Thursday, for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.
“I Googled how to do it,” Lite said, who went through the digital music distribution site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”
Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes Store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.
“I get 100% of the profit, although it’s not that much,”said Lite.
Lite isn’t alone in embracing music-sharing media like iTunes.
Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross is the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.
“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”
Cross put agents and managers aside and began promoting himself through the Internet four years ago, after leaving a previous band.
“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the self-promoting approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”
However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to musicians.
The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing host that offered its services free of charge. The United States Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre.
“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, director and founder of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program.
The Internet’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.
“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record,” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”
However, iTunes may be taking steps to move away from promoting the less notable musicians of its catalogue with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes Store. Many of the iTunes Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.
“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live,” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”
Editor: Sydney Slotkin
By Thomas Patrick Hooper
ATHENS, Ga. – Conventional wisdom says not every Tom, Dick, and Harry can be a rock star. With the rise of the digital age, that may no longer be the case.
Aspiring musicians have found a number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Inc., now in its eighth phase. While best known as a source to download music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to download, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books and even conduct their own podcasts.
The iTunes Store has sold over 5 billion songs, including tracks from lesser-known artists.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore at Georgia State University, is one such aspiring musician. Lite, under the alias of A-Lite, has uploaded a three-song album, Thirstay Thursday, for mass consumption on the iTunes Store.
“I Googled how to do it,” Lite said, who went through the digital music distribution site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”
Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes Store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.
“I get 100% of the profit, although it’s not that much,”said Lite.
Lite isn’t alone in embracing music-sharing media like iTunes.
Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross is the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.
“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”
Cross put agents and managers aside and began promoting himself through the Internet four years ago, after leaving a previous band.
“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the self-promoting approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”
However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to musicians.
The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing host that offered its services free of charge. The United States Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr. Dre.
“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, director and founder of the University of Georgia’s Music Business program.
The Internet’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.
“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record,” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”
However, iTunes may be taking steps to move away from promoting the less notable musicians of its catalogue with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes Store. Many of the iTunes Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.
“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live,” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”
Editor: Sydney Slotkin
Monday, September 7, 2009
iMusic the wave of the future--for better or for worse?
Thomas Patrick Hooper
Aspiring musicians have found any number of opportunities in the likes of iTunes, a digital media player created by Apple Incorporated, now in its eighth phase. While known best as a source of music, the iTunes program offers a wide variety of media to explore, allowing users to watch movies, listen to audio books, and even conduct their own podcasts.
Austin Lite, a 19-year-old sophomore attending
“I googled how to do it.” Lite said, having gone through the digital music distribution web site TuneCore to make his iTunes debut possible. “You just upload [your songs] and they listen to it to make sure it’s music. It was really easy.”
Lite makes 99 cents for every song downloaded, which is not uncommon. The iTunes store offers its songs at prices of 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 per track.
Lite isn’t alone in embracing new media to spread the word about his music.
Elijah Cross, 28, has taken advantage of social networking and file streaming sites like Facebook and ReverbNation, respectively, for the sake of promoting his music. Cross acts as the lead vocalist and main promoter of Christian rock band His Reunited, which he co-founded with guitarist Jimmy Parr.
“I had dealings with booking agents and managers,” Cross said. “It isn’t always easy finding someone who has your best interests at heart.”
Cross embraced the possibilities of an online promotional campaign four years ago, after leaving a previous band.
“You can spend more time creating.” Cross said of the Internet approach. “The more time you put into it, the more response you get. You’ve got to invite 1,000 people to a show to get 100.”
However, the digital age has not been entirely beneficial to the musicians of
The relationship between the recording industry and the file sharing community grew heated in 2000 with highly publicized legal troubles of Napster, an online file sharing community that offered its services free of charge. The US Court of Appeals upheld a decision by a lower court ordering that Napster be shut down after legal battles with artists like Metallica, Madonna, and Dr Dre.
“People perceive music as being free,” said Bruce Burch, 56, who is the Director of the
The system’s capacity for abuse isn’t the only thing that troubles Burch about the proliferation of online music distribution.
“With technology being what it is, it doesn’t cost as much to make a record. Anyone can make a record.” Burch said. “It’s hard to find the good stuff when you have to sift through the bad stuff.”
However, features like iTunes may have taken steps to move away from promoting the less talented with offers like iTunes Originals, albums and tracks exclusive to the iTunes family. Many of the Originals consist of live performances and interviews with some of the most popular and frequently downloaded artists.
“I think you’ve got to be able to perform live.” Burch said of anyone looking for success in the world of music. “That’s how Mozart did it.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)