Sooo I was in the process of figuring out how to live-loop the bits and pieces of Lunar Sunrise within Ableton Live tonight. I was too lazy to plug my bass and guitar in, so I pulled up some virtual instruments in Ableton and jammed out with them. Next thing I knew, I had turned the organic, expansive sounding Lunar Sunrise track into an electronic re-imagination.
What does this mean for Ian C. Anderson music? Am I going to follow-up Perennials with an electronic remix album? Am I going to play my original songs live with an electronic twist? Or will I dismiss this idea tomorrow when I’m not tired and my ears are fresh? Only time will tell…

Mail Chimp is an online tool for email marketing and email list management. I recently created an account in order to manage email list for my “fans.”

Why? Because many of my fans won’t actively read my blog or visit my website without a little nudge. But they all check their email. Sending an email is really the only guaranteed way to get their attention, even if you only hold their attention long enough to delete your message. Hopefully they get to the subject line before deleting it!

I have to be very careful in how I go about doing this email marketing. If not executed correctly, an email newsletter can be viewed as useless spam, in which case it’s doing more harm than good to your personal or corporate brand.

I listened to a podcast interview on CD Baby with the lead guy from “I Fight Dragons.” They have a fairly successful email campaign to promote their new music, videos, and shows. One of his main points was that, in order for people to actually read (and maybe even appreciate!) your emails, you have to much sure you give them a gift in EACH AND EVERY email.

What kind of gift, you may ask? The “gift” can range from a free song/album download to a discount code, or even just a cool new YouTube video. The point is, you’re delivering them valuable content, not just saying “I’m still alive and here’s what I’ve been doing.” Everyone is fighting the same fight to keep their inboxes clean, and if you don’t show them that your emails provide them with valuable content, then their cursors will be pointing closer and closer to that “Unsubscribe” button after every mediocre newsletter.

Some gifts I’m considering for people who decide to receive my emails:
YouTube videos
Free song downloads
Download codes and coupons

“Permission marketing” is a term coined by Seth Godin, an extremely smart man who’s been writing business books for the past decade or so. It’s pretty self-explanatory – only market to those who have given you permission. He describes it as a two-step process – make friends out of strangers, then make customers out of friends. The opposite of permission marketing is called interruption marketing, in which case content is thrown at you against your will (such as when you’re automatically signed up for an email newsletter).

Just because someone opts in to your email list doesn’t mean that they will let you abuse that power, however. That’s why I plan to keep the email campaigns relatively sparse (I’m thinking monthly, with twice a month being the maximum).

What do you think about email campaigns? At what point do you allow a musician (or company, artist, celebrity, etc.) access to your email inbox via a subscription? What kind of gifts would you want in an email newsletter? Leave it in the comments!

I’ve decided to pledge to the Haiti cause, specifically to the Doctors Without Borders cause.

As many of you know, I’m currently accepting pledges, via kickstarter.com, to help with the costs of producing my first album.

The amount that I’ll pledge to Doctors Without Borders will be 75% of the kickstarter pledges that I get over the course of the next week, (starting right now and ending next Thursday at 11:59PM).  For example, if I receive $100 worth of pledges between right NOW and January 21st, 11:59PM, I will pledge $75 to the cause on Friday, January 22nd.

Make your pledges here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/IanCAnderson/ians-debut-album-ep

Today (technically yesterday now..) I started the process of salvaging my (rather poorly) recorded drums from a few years ago into separate MIDI tracks. Reaper makes this process easier with a JS plugin called drumtrigger – it takes an audio signal as an input (such as a snare drum track), and outputs a MIDI note with a velocity that’s proportional to the intensity of the snare hit. I then route the MIDI notes to my Steven Slate Platinum sampled drum library to get some radio-ready drum sounds right off of the bat.  I also put down a quick take of piano using Kontakt 4’s sampled grand piano.  Take a listen to the excerpts before and after the kick, snare, hi hat, and piano were replaced by their virtual counterparts:

I’m very happy to announce that I will be self-releasing my very first album in 2010. It will be an EP, 5 or 6 songs, and I’m planning on a release date in March 2010.

I’m still figuring out the distribution method, but my current plan is:

• ~300 physical CDs will be replicated, packaged in cardboard sleeves or a Digipak.  (Replication is what the big boys use – instead of simply burning CD-R’s, a glass master is created and used to “stamp” the blank discs!)
• CDs will be available for purchase from me personally, via my website (http://music.iancanderson.com), as well as via CD Baby.
• Digital downloads will be available for purchase at my website (http://music.iancanderson.com), as well as several online outlets including iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, Amie Street, Spotify, and even Mobile carriers, including Verizon.

I won’t make as much money per download selling on iTunes as opposed to selling on my site, but I’ve come to realize that people like the “convenience” of the iTunes store..  Okay I won’t get into an anti-Apple rant here.

In short, I’m really excited about this.  However, I have a very busy (though fun) few months ahead as I re-record and mix my songs, and I’ll be calling on YOU to help me get my music out into the world.  Thanks ahead of time =)

I decided to lay a quick track down while I was practicing it for my gig on December 5th.  Take a listen if you’d like.

So I recently sprang for the Native Instruments Komplete 6 virtual instrument bundle.  Finally got a chance to jam out on it for an hour or so last night.  I’m not sure if this will become a “real” song or not, but I’m kind of digging the 80’s dance vibe I got out of three synths and a drum machine.  Feel free to stream/download/dance party it.

A company that sells cutting edge technological products can’t change the address on a pre-order?  Really??

Ian Anderson says, Hi, I preorded a copy of Windows 7 but my address has since changed
Maddie says, Unfortunately we can not modify a pre order, you would need to wait until the order has been reverted into a regular order.
Maddie says, The only way to up date it would be to void the pre order and you can re order online.
Ian Anderson says, Well I got the preorder at a reduced price (less than half of what it is now)
Ian Anderson says, How much of a time window will I have to update it once it becomes an actual order?
Maddie says, You would need to wait until the pre order has been reverted in that case.
Maddie says, Unfortunately I would not be able to advise that. It normally takes 24-48 hours (excluding weekends) to process an order prior to shipping. Once the order has been shipped, the estimated time of arrival will be determined by your selected shipping method.
Ian Anderson says, What? So what should I do?
Maddie says, You would need to wait once the pre order has changed sir. Once you have received the email of the converted order you can contact us.
Ian Anderson says, Okay, thank you
Maddie says, Was I able to resolve your issue or answer all your questions today?
Ian Anderson says, Kind of
Maddie says, Did you further need my assistance?
Ian Anderson says, No thanks
Maddie says, Thank you for contacting Newegg. I hope you have an eggcellent day!
Maddie says, Bye

I set up an email reminder with Remember the Milk for the day it releases.  I’m hoping I’ll have enough time to “catch” the order before it’s final..  Seems silly, does it not??

Okay, so I finally have an online music store. I was going to create my own, almost from scratch, but I’ve decided to instead use the store provided by bandcamp.com. I only have two tracks up for now, but I plan on adding more.

Free downloads are available for 128k mp3s.  If you want a higher quality download (or if you’re just feel like supporting my music), then you can name your price for the higher quality download ($0.50 or up).

Check it out: http://music.iancanderson.com

I’m in the process of tweaking a laptop-based live looping setup, using Reaper, my new Novation SL Mkii MIDI controller, and my Behringer FCB1010 MIDI foot controller.

I have a couple of mp3 demos to share with you that demonstrate what a (pseudo)live set might sound like.  Note that I kind of cheated with these mp3s, in the sense that I’m not actually recording the parts live as you hear them.  I used my live looping setup to record them, but what you’re hearing is me live-arranging the parts that I previously recorded.  Once I make recording parts more efficient (and actually practice a few sets), I’ll be sure to mix down completely live-recorded demos, possibly with some YouTubage.

The jams: