IFPI Accuses Blogger of Infringing, Then Interviews Him
Classic. The International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI) emailed Dave Allen, writer editor at music/mp3 blog Pampelmoose, asking him to remove an "infringing" Portishead mp3. He did, and after so doing, they asked to interview him about blogs, the evolving music industry, online music promotion, etc. for their new site, Pro-Music.
A little like asking to borrow change from someone you’ve just punched in the gut…but at least they’re asking questions, realize that the industry is changing, and recognize how important online channels and filters have become for breaking new acts.
There are both good questions and good answers — one in particular was a good read:
7) As a blogger, how can you ensure you don’t infringe the rights of artists that don’t want their music made available for free online?
Ah, the trick question finally….just kidding. Before answering I have to ask a question – Why would artists or labels not want their music, say just one track, available for music fans to hear or download? There have been so many past examples of music being made free or close to it – one that jumps out is the Columbia House record club where CDs could be had for five cents! Talk about devaluing music…. The usual outlets that provided free access to music – radio, TV, MTV have all been co-opted in the USA so music fans looking for the latest and greatest are forced to the internet to discover what’s new. If artists, especially new and upcoming artists, are to get heard through the white noise of media they have to work closely on their relationship with their fans. Andrew Dubber, who runs a site called New Music Strategies, has this to say:
“The new (music) model is about starting an ongoing economic relationship with a community of enthusiasts. It’s about attention and repeat engagement. It’s about letting go of the idea of the individual transaction and the ‘lost sale’ of a pirate download. CDs and mp3s are increasingly souvenirs of an engagement with a musical experience, rather than the occasion for the experience itself.”
Good answer. (Also a nice quote by Dubber, included for good measure.) Fun stuff. Full interview here.
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Google Loves GarageSpin a Little Less…
I am so very sad. As of last week, GarageSpin.com dropped down in PageRank (Google’s organic relevance ranking for websites) from "5" to "4", on a scale of 1 to 10. While a PageRank change does not have much impact on search engine traffic a website receives, it does give an idea of how ‘important’ or ‘popular’ your blog is relative to the rest of the webiverse, according to Google’s search engine algorithm.
Apparently, when you write less than once a week for an extended period of time, Google isn’t impressed.
Remember when GarageSpin had a PageRank of "6"? Ah, the memories… Is anyone else experiencing PageRank drops or boosts? On a positive note, I have a good feeling about 2009. 
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GigPay: Preventing Promoter and Artist Bitchas#ness
Interesting. The music industry (or any ‘event-based’ industry for that matter) is full of black hat stories of contracts being broken, artists getting screwed, or promoters losing bands in clutch moments. For example:
- Band plays gig. Venue decides not to pay band afterwards. Hassle-city ensues.
- Band commits to gig. Venue pays upfront. Band never shows up at event. Bummer.
GigPay created an escrow solution that acts as a "PayPal-for-live-events", which works like this:
- Performer and Promoter agree to a live performance and related terms.
- Promoter pays using GigPay; the money sits in escrow at GigPay.
- Both Promoter and Performer can see and confirm payment status.
- Performer is paid on completion of the gig.
And voila, the potential for bitchas#ness is stymied ("bithas#ness" = annoying behaviour…per P. Diddy). Not a bad way to manage things if you’re a band on tour, or a venue manager. The solution is lacking (or at least, I didn’t see it mentioned) a solution for post-performance revenue share models, such as the splitting of ticket sale revenue, merchandise revenue, or something similar…but that can probably be handled with a little contract term magic.
Hey! GigPay gave me something to give to you, lovely reader:
GarageSpin Freebie of the Day: The first 50 folks to use discount code GARAGESPIN08 will be able to "request payments" or "send payments" for free.
Please use, and think kindly of me.
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Notes From My Trip to Vegas…
Well, we’re back from our trip to Las Vegas. A few random, points of note/discovery/highlight:
- We met "Miss Jay Alexander", the cross-dressing, male runway coach that teaches new models how to walk all sexy-like on the show America’s Next Top Model, while they were shooting at Caesar’s Palace for the next season.
- The highlight of the trip was a helicopter ride into a Grand Canyon chasm. If you get the chance to do it, please consider — you won’t regret it.
- I won $85 playing roulette for the first time using the "double-my-bet-when-I-lose" strategy. Probably not smart, but better than the "bet-on-my-children’s-birthdays" approach the couple next to me used.
- The Hoover Dam is really, really big. And built in the 1930s…wow.
- Picked up a few cool chatchkes at the DMA conference, but missed the coolest item: a race car mouse.
- If you thought Michael Phelps was cool to watch during the Olympics, you’d love the Cirque du Soleil "O" show.
- Timing vacations with company-paid trips is a great way to save on flight/hotel costs.
Alrighty, back to work. And perhaps even music.
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ReverbNation Launches Digital Distribution to iTunes etc.
ReverbNation has always impressed me with their breadth of online promotion tools for bands. If you haven’t set up an account with them, I’d seriously consider giving their service a try.
One service they lacked was digital distribution — they used to have a deal with SnoCap, but as we all know, SnoCap SUCKED. (Poor service, something like a 50% commission fee for all sales, etc etc.) But now, ReverbNation offers digital disctribution! Here are some key details:
- RETAILERS INCLUDED: iTunes Worldwide, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, and Amazon.
- ARTIST ROYALTIES: Artists keep 100% of the royalties (ReverbNation doesn’t take a cut; actual payouts vary by retailer).
- PRICING: $34.95 per album per year (Compared to $41.73 for TuneCore, and $55.00 for CD Baby).
- MANAGEMENT TOOLS: Detailed sales stats provided, and ReverbNation’s promo tools are plugged in.
- ISRC & UPC #: Both can be created for you if you don’t have one.
A few things the service can’t do - thought this is the case for most distributoin services:
- SINGLE DOWNLOADS: Can’t accept and upload single songs (You can upload a single song, but you would have to pay the "album price" to do it).
- PRICE CONTROL: Can’t control song pricing.
- SOUNDSCAN: Sales are not reported to SoundScan.
- PHYSICAL GOODS: You can’t sell CDs or merch through this service.
All-in-all, it’s a great addition to ReverbNation’s suite of services. Check it out, if you haven’t.
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Heading to DMA Vegas
I’m heading to the annual "Direct Marketer’s Association" conference in Las Vegas tomorrow morning…but won’t be attending any of the panels. Panels are mostly composed of fluffy hot air, anyway. The week is more about hangin’ with people you work with, collecting widgets and gizmos from the trade show floor, and enjoying the ol’ L.V.
Ad Tech kicks the DMA’s butt.
If you’re heading out to the DMA as well, drop me a line.
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WordCamp New York: We Came, We Saw, We Geeked Out
I’m back from WordCamp New York, which was awesome. I was reminded of several things:
- Damn, I _really_ need to launch the Wordpress-powered GarageSpin.
- There are an overwhelming number of smart people involved in technology. A lot of them are "consultants" or run a "consulting company."
- Meeting and discussing creative stuff with creative folks is like chicken soup for one’s creative muse.
- People are interested in many subjects besides digital music. (eh??)
- Eight to nine hours of presentations is plenty.
- GarageSpin business cards may be in my future. (*meh*)
- Matt from Automattic is a cool guy.
- Kaltura is one of the slickest video applications that currently exist. (seriously)
- The Rio Grande restaurant has great salsa dip.
- At least two other Wordpress users on the East Coast are writing and recording music.
‘Twas great to meet some very cool peeps. Two new acquaintances were even involved in music — Jim is a "technology Swiss army knife" at Johns Hopkins who happens to also have built a small recording studio in which he lays down rockin’ drum tracks, and Valerie runs Inspire Solutions, while also singing lead in the band Planet Girl. It’s great to meet other "day-giggers" who have a passion for music.
Other awesome folks I had the pleasure of hanging and chatting with included Jeremy of Simian Uprisings and Global Voices‘ fame (great presentation, dood), Sanford from Contagious Conversations, Jeremiah of Cubicle Punk, Sandira, Cynthia of Media Story, Aaron of Techno Sailor and b5media, Jen the filmmaker, Zac, and Mike.
Thanks to all for a great day of geekage.
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Heading to WordCamp NYC
Because GarageSpin.com is switching from Movable Type to Wordpress…er, some day, anyway…it seemed like a good idea to check out WordCamp NYC to learn more about the paltform’s future, and meet some of the folks using it. And besides, the $30 registration fee includes breakfast, lunch, and a T-shirt…and I like food and tees, so, I’m in.
Jonathan Dingman from Google Inside organized the event, which will be held at Sun Microsystems’ office in Manhattan. Speakers include Matt Mullenweg (founding developer of Wordpress, and founder of Automattic), Aaron Brazell, Shay David, Jeremy Clarke, Michael Hampton, and Jen Simmons. Tickets were originally sold out…but now seem to available at EventBrite.
If you happen to be going, give me a shout out.
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eBay Pirate Strikes Again: Two Rode NT5 Microphones
Aw yeah. I "won" (as eBay’s marketing department tells us we do when we bid high) an auction for a pair of factory matched, Rode NT5 small condenser microphones for $152.50 with 40 seconds left in the auction (they’re $400+ new). YAAARRRRGGHH, that’s me booty now!!
I’ve wanted a pair of small condenser microphones for some time. They’re great for acoustic guitars, and especially so when used in stereo in an X-Y configuration. (Seriously, for all you home recordists, if you don’t already, try recording acoustic guitars in stereo — the difference in sound richness is just plain stupid. Or, record twice and pan your recordings left and right. Or, both record in stereo AND record twice!)
My next song (song #3) will be entirely acoustic, so it seemed as good a time as any to invest in a couple solid mics, though I was hoping to stick to a budget of $200 max. After doing some research, I was reading a lot of good things about these small condenser mics:
- AT4041 ($500/2; $350 eBay)
- Rode NT5 ($430/2; $310 eBay)
- Studio Projects C4 ($350/2; $350 ebay)
- Shure’s SM81 ($530/2)
- AKG’s C1000S ($297/2)
- Audio-Technica’s AT3528 ($259/2)
They were all over my budget, so I checked eBay next, and voila, there sat a couple of used, factory matched (meaning, sonically equal…like-model mics can vary in sound response) Rode NT5 microphones with only a single, solitary bid made. AFter watching and waited for two days, I pounced like an eBay ninja with 40 seconds left.
Beware the eBay Ninja…beware. Not to be confused with Ask a Ninja, my favorite YouTube advice column.
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First Google Android Phone Launched: T-Mobile G1
In case you missed the many, many, many, many posts announcing the launch, T-Mobile launched the first Google Android powered mobile phone, the T-Mobile G1.
It actually looks quite cool. A great hands-on review is at Gizmodo, and you can check out the phone’s official site here.
Music fans, however, will be annoyed — there is NO HEADPHONE JACK. You will actually have to buy a USB adaptor to plug in headphones, or some such nonsense. Sigh.
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