Buzzsonic.com

Links for 2009-07-11 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Social media the death of celebrity? I think not.
Celebrity in this day and age of global and instant information exchange through social media is something quite different than it was even a generation ago.

Links for 2009-07-10 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Radiohead Manager, Nettwerk Launch New Label: Artists Get To Keep Their Copyright | Techdirt
We've pointed out how incredibly ridiculous the old structure of the recording industry was, where artists would hand over pretty much all of their rights to the label. It's amazing that this sort of indentured servitude model has survived as long as it has.
Universal/TuneCore deal opens major doors for indie artists - Ars Technica
Indie artists who distribute through TuneCore can now purchase major label services from Universal on a flat-fee basis. Artists retain their rights and royalties while still benefiting from those Universal services they need, such as access to world-class recording studios and live performance help.
NPR: Vlog: Monitor Mix Record Label Challenge
Remember the other day, when I wrote about record labels and whether or not they still matter? And I also participated in an All Songs Considered show wherein I spent an hour discussing that very subject? Well, then, you might also recall that I claimed to be knowledgeable about labels and their artist rosters.
NPR: Do Record Labels Still Matter?
The other week, Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton and I recorded a show about record labels. The idea was to come up with a few labels that held personal significance for each of us. None of us found the task difficult.
Why is music the main battleground in the copyright wars?
Andrew Dubber is an established scholar working in Britain, an author, and an online music consultant writing a book “about the music industries and intellectual property in the digital age.”
How can YouTube survive? - Technology, Business - Independent.ie
It's wildly popular - and thought to be losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Now questions are being asked about the future of YouTube. Rhodri Marsden investigates a mystery of digital-age 'freeconomics'
Trent Reznor Explains What A Musician Needs To Do To Be Successful These Days | Techdirt
Pretty much every other person who's ever read the site has sent this one in today, so I figure it's worth writing up. We've talked for a long time about how unknown/up-and-coming artists can embrace new business models to be more successful these days

Links for 2009-07-05 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Education Software for Schools: Free Software, Open Source | School Forge
SchoolForge's mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for education. We advocate the use of open texts and lessons, open curricula, free software and open source in education.

Links for 2009-07-04 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

MixMatchMusic- Host Your Own Remix Contest!
Convert casual fans into loyal fans with MixMatchMusic Remix Wizard. It gives fans the ability to remix and become a part of your music through a lightweight widget than you can put on your website and myspace page. It's easy to set up, free, and highly customizable!
Pirate Bay's purchase proves they're not altruistic | Behind the Music | Helienne Lindvall | Music | guardian.co.uk
There have been two big music-business news stories in the past week. One has been – and still is – dominating all media outlets, and the other pretty much snuck in under the radar.
Helienne Lindvall on Swedish filesharing site Pirate Bay | Music | guardian.co.uk
In a recent blog criticising the P2P filesharing site Pirate Bay, I voiced my doubts about the site's claims of being anti-corporation, as they accept ad funding. I suspected that the people behind the site weren't in fact as altruistic as they proclaimed, and were quite happy to make money off the back of other people's music.

Links for 2009-07-03 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Michael Jackson: Symbol of a Near-Dead Music Industry: Nachrichten of Switzerland
"The current crises in the music industry can be compared to the crisis among car manufacturers. … It may well be that with Michael Jackson, the last megastar of the music business has died - and along with this talented musician who had been brutally treated in life, much of what ultimately destroyed him will also be laid to rest."

Links for 2009-06-30 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Midcourse Corrections » Blog Archive » Tips For Planning An Unconference: Lessons Learned From The Trenches
Yesterday, I wrote about my experience with WordCamp 2009 Dallas, an WordPress Camp / unconference for bloggers and WordPress enthusiasts. Today, here are some of my tips for those organizing an unconference or BarCamp from my years of experience planning events and meetings.

Links for 2009-06-27 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 PDT

The Reverse Cowgirl: Letter to a Young Writer
Most of the time, when I receive emails like yours, I delete them, leaving them ignored and unanswered. Now 12 years into a little-rewarding writing career, I have grown bitter, jaded, and tend to see bright-eyed, bushy-tailed upstarts such as yourself as little more than potential competition.

Digital Music Distribution Round-Up Part Two

Adrian Fusiarski — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:50:54 +0000

I didn’t get to mention all the digital music distribution outlets that I wanted too in my (part 1) post a few days ago, ‘Exploring The Digital Music Distribution ‘Jungle’’, so I thought I’d update the list in this ‘quick’ additional post. Thanks also to the feedback and suggestions I got, especially from 101 Distribution [...]

New Commenting System

Adrian Fusiarski — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:09:09 +0000

I’ve pretty much neglected the comments area on this blog, probably because there was never much activity. But as the blog starts to pull in more readers this year there’s been more feedback and I was beginning to realize how crap the default Wordpress commenting system is. Ideally I was looking for a plug-in that [...]

101 Distribution Correction

Adrian Fusiarski — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:09:29 +0000

I mentioned 101 Distribution in my digital distribution round-up here: 101 Distribution - (Phoenix, Arizona, USA) - Not sure what warrants the high costs here. But there’s a massive $599 sign up fee, then $49.95 a month. 100% payout of all sales. You’re gonna need it with those kind of upfronts! You can Twitter questions why, [...]

Some Simple Branding Hacks To Supercharge Your Social Media URLs

Adrian Fusiarski — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:47:11 +0000

I remember trying to design one of those flash pro-looking Twitter backgrounds where you list all your social media profiles in a box in the top left hand corner. You know, like all those MLM ‘gurus’ have. I gave up. But it did bring attention to a couple of things for me. I noticed that not [...]

Exploring The Digital Music Distribution ‘Jungle’

Adrian Fusiarski — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:46:49 +0000

I’ve touched on music distribution issues here before with Tunecore, Bit Torrent and even good old analogue vinyl but thought I’d dig around a bit deeper as there seems to be new distribution services springing up on a regular basis these days. Be they aggregator or ‘widget’ type tools. Ill be covering digital music aggregators [...]

A Recap Of Buzzsonic’s Older, Most Useful Posts

Adrian Fusiarski — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:47:56 +0000

While I get my lazy ass into gear with two new posts over the weekend I thought I’d do a shameless piece of self plugging (which is very rare for me by the way!) and highlight a couple of posts on this blog from last year that have kinda got buried by more recent posts. In [...]

Resize of IMG_2 [Flickr]

Florida Ade — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 08:05:33 PDT

Florida Ade posted a photo: