Music Hounds

>43,000 music downloads about rum

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Thanks to Music Ally (Bacardi talks music and branding ) from March 26 we have a follow-up of the Bacardi-Groove Armada Pyramid Scheme that I had written about previously.

Despite some things to be desired, such as presentation skills and its length (38 minutes) I recommend checking it out - it is from the marketing perspective. I'll give you some of the stats that showed up 27 minutes into it (so you don't need to wade through the first 27 minutes). Bacardi managed more than 43,000 downloads of GA's new album (of which, we find out that 4 songs were "coached" by Bacardi as branding their product) and made Number 1 on a few charts including Hypemachine's. We do not ever find out how deep the free downloads got (recall that if you were able to get a certain number of your friends to download track 1, you were allowed to download track 2). I can venture a guess that those first four Bacardi brand songs were the free ones that were downloaded (for the record, I've not heard any part of GA's Bacardi album).
I mentioned that the presentation was from a marketing perspective, and portrayed as successful, with lots of free media attention that would have otherwise, they estimate, cost them many millions of dollars. However, we never find out how much money it cost them to do the deal, or how much it will cost them to do another deal. They also claim that it was very difficult to make the artist do what they wanted, but get them to think it was their idea (in the question/answer part of the video). Lovely.

Your thoughts on this?

Free air time is great, no doubt about it. Was this free air time best for Bacardi or best for GA? Not sure, but Bacardi seemed to come away with an estimated >$7M in free advertising. GA? Well, GA recorded four songs about something that they thought was their idea and these brainwashing songs were downloaded for free. I'm most interested, however, in the downloading pyramid scheme. At the end of the day, 43,000 downloads in 40 days is pretty good...even if each song is about how great rum is; too bad there was no value to each download...to GA, I mean.

The Different Approches

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:29:00 +0000

Amy's latest post here on Music Hounds, Free Music got me thinking about the different approaches people take to finding music. From her post she indicated her delight in sampling music from all over the web for hours. I do not share the same delight; I have a much shorter attention span.

I will work backward in the music hounding process:
Listening to a song. When I come across a new song it better catch my attention quickly - within the first 30 seconds or less; regardless of whether I am familiar with the band or not. It could be one of my favorite bands, but I'll disregard the song if it hasn't grabbed me immediately and I'll move on to another. I do not like radio stations in general, but it is because of this short attention span. I wouldn't mind internet radio if one could move through songs one does not like; if Pandora, for example, allowed such a thing...well I guess it wouldn't be much of a radio station.

Finding a song. I generally do not like recommendations from music recommendation sites. I have blogged about this in a couple of posts, the most recent being Signal Patterns Music Survey, mostly because they never seem to get it right...for me at least. I usually have something in particular I'm searching for and broad genre categories are often not represented properly simply because the sites hosting music do not allow much inclusion of different music styles without just grouping in "OTHER". This is a shame. Reverbnation is one such hosting site that comes to mind. So I wind up searching large amounts of music under "other", for example, with a strategy of crossing my fingers and hoping I like what I hear (for the first 30 seconds). I hate that. Pandora is a good example to use here - they make recommendations for their users based upon similarities to an entered "favorite band/artist". This seems a good way to find music, provided that Pandora accurately identifies "similarities". Its popularity suggests that it may have that down. However given the 30 seconds "rule" I have (see above), Pandora is frustrating to me. As I mentioned, I'm usually in the mood for a specific type of music. If I stumble across something that sounds good, I'm excited and have found something new (to me), but oftentimes it takes many, many tries with little or no success (part of the reason I get impatient with NPR's Second Stage). Perhaps I do not have entirely mainstream musical tastes, but I do like music that falls under the general categorization of a whole host of "genres".

What's the solution? To my knowledge (and I'd love to be proven wrong - so write if you have input) if I do not have a band name/artist name/song name/genre that I'm searching for, no such solution exists other than painstakingly clicking with crossed fingers and toes. I am building the Hounds to the Music search function because of my short attention span when it comes to finding new music. There is a ton of new music posted every day, but how to find it efficiently? I certainly do no think that Hounds to the Music will be the Holy Grail of music hunting, but I do hope that it will take a small step in that efficiency; ultimately one will always need to click and hope, but if the frequency of success can be increased, that will be a benefit I think.

How do you hunt for music? What sites do you use? Do hunt like Amy or me?

So, will Amy, who loves to poke around free music for hours on a weekend afternoon benefit from the music search function of Hounds to the Music? I hope so, although she may use it in a different manner than I plan to.

Hounds to the Music. What's the status of Hounds to the Music you ask? We are getting there...closer and closer each day. We plan on a limited launch to indie musicians/bands/labels and other interested parties around mid to late summer this year. We will also be entertaining investors starting in April.

Free Music

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Kopecky) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:44:00 +0000

Love it or love it not? Good relationship with it or bad?

I recently flipped through a magazine article on music and wrote down an entire list of artists/bands it mentioned that I thought I would like to sample. After categorizing them and crossing off the ones I was already familiar with, I got onto Amazon's MP3 downloads site and started a search that lasted me a couple of hours more than I had planned. I love spending an afternoon in the fantastical tangled web of music sampling. Unfortunately, for me it's too easy to download the free music Amazon offers and not purchase anything (and purchased music is generally the better music, since you get what you pay for).

You might not be able to relate--some people's music habits cost them thousands of dollars a year and others, like me, are just plain cheap about it. Theoretically and on principle, I have great respect for musicians and the time and work they put into their craft. Especially because I consider myself a musician. It's not cheap to make an album, so it shouldn't be cheap for me to listen.

So is free music good for me and the general public, or bad? For the artist, it's a useful marketing tool. But the question is, do we use it as the "appetizer" it should be that encourages us to buy more songs, or do we treat it how we treat other things we don't invest in: without the value it and the artist deserves?

Do you download free music? Is it good or bad for your music searches?

RPM Challenge Over

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:18:00 +0000

With the end of February comes the end of the RPM Challenge. I have not looked to see the final number of bands or artists who completed the challenge, but if it was like the last two years it will have been around one thousand. That's preety neat - 1,000 groups cramming for nothing but the satisfaction of completing. I finished the challenge with the help of one of two bands, but only ONE album; truth be told I was ambitious and signed up for two albums - one for each band.

Now comes the question: you want to hear songs from the RPM Challenge, but have no place to start - no band name, no genre, etc to go by to find cool-to-you music. What do you do?! This is precisely why I founded Hounds to the Music. Ideally, by next February you will be able to use our web application service to find cool-to-you music from the RPM Challenge and everywhere else on the internet.

Listening Doesn't Have to be Passive

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Kopecky) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:56:00 +0000

I'm privileged to have acquaintances in two bands on the cusp of making it big. The groups couldn't be more night and day. The first band, we'll call them Band A, creates new wave eighties hip hop. They started out in L.A. and moved to London because, well, the Brits tend to be more accepting of indie experimental music than their American cousins. (I also think it might have something to do with the British Isles being a bit smaller than the U.S.--just a bit.) It's a crazy group of guys who strip off their sweat-soaked shirts on stage, who travel across the world to Tokyo for just a one-night show, who can party with the best of them, and yet, who are deadly serious about their music. Is it their talent, dedication and savvy business maneuvering that got them interviews on BBC 1 and Jonathan Ross? That put them in the London Paper and magazines, and moved them up to #3 on the charts? That booked them more U.S. shows and made them one of the most requested bands on one of L.A.'s hit radio stations? Or is it something else?

The next band we'll call Band B. Band B is from Reno, NV. They got their start playing worship songs for a young adult church service. They tour Christian music festivals and retreats and churches, and last year won a major song contest in Houston that got them a record deal. Right now they're working with some influential musicians in the Christian sphere and making plans to tour nationally. They're all married, some of them with kids, and are actively involved in their Reno church. But they've agreed that if they don't make it big this year, they'll go back to just playing locally, not as a full-time job. What's interesting about Band B is that the Christian musician that's working with them, who's kind of like a mentor, has encouraged them towards a different sound, one that sounds conspicuously like . . . him. I was also surprised to learn that when they record their album, the vocalists in the band are the only ones who end up on the final product. The musicians are all studio musicians, not a part of the band at all. They play whatever Band B would play, but it's not the same instrumentalists. As a consumer and music lover I was shocked, and yet I hear this is a typical practice. (But I digress...this is an unrelated topic for another day.)

The two band's start-up stories pique my curiosity about my favorite bands--how they got started, how they got discovered, what makes them big or successful (because big and successful doesn't necessarily mean the same thing, I don't think). And at what point do talented musicians throw in the towel? I'm trying to make my way in the book publishing sphere, and book publishing is a lot like music in this regard: the artist's success depends on the viewer. Of course music mobility depends on a lot of factors, but above all, it comes down to word of mouth.

We, the listeners, are not so passive as I used to think. Or at least, we shouldn't be. If we want more good music, we have to talk up our favorite artists. We have to play their albums for our friends. We can become facebook fans. One of the sites that really helps this process along is NoiseTrade. You have two choices on the site: get free songs by telling five friends about it, or get the songs by paying whatever you think they're worth. Sites like these not only benefit the artist by increasing the viral nature of their music, but they also benefit us, because our favorite music keeps playing.

What are you doing to keep the music going?

CDs...the things you play in a CD player

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:58:00 +0000

With the ever present news of CD sales continuing to slip, in part due to the inability for the big record labels to understand that their world is changing in favor of digital media, this week I believe that I found the solution:

It was very, very cold here early this week and upon leaving in the morning my car was entirely frosted over. The week prior I had broken my window scraper; it was a nice one with a brush on one side. So looking around for something to use to get the frost off of my windows, I found a CD case. It actually worked quite well. The record labels should start marketing each album thus:

"With each album, you receive a free window scraper!"

Think of the impact if albums start coming with brushes on one of the four sides! For summer months, maybe a pump and spout for doubling as a water gun on one of the remaining sides!

Two more seasons and two more sides remain...

Life lessons found in the RPM challenge (T-minus 2 days)

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:52:00 +0000

I've been "preparing" for the RPM challenge by pulling out old, familiar, favorite albums and listening to new music on sites like Reverbnation. Not like I don't have enough to do anyway, but working on the challenge is something of a "must" for me. I'm not sure why I'm so excited to start (in two days) nor am I sure why it is a must to participate this year, other than I really did miss it last year.

There is a wonderful sense of accomplishment associated with writing a song and telling yourself, "it is okay". It is okay for someone else to hear this song. It is okay for other people to not like it or for it to not be everyone's favorite. It is okay if it isn't one of my favorites. It is okay if it isn't as developed, complex, or musically mature as songs I typically listen to. It is okay...(insert any excuse here). There is also a fabulous sense of accomplishment when you finish - even though you finish tired and grumpy without any desire to even look at your instrument(s) for a while.

This challenge is really a terrific life lesson (when used as intended) which teaches to enjoy the process. I've always struggled with "enjoying the process" in school, work, life, etc. I tend to focus on getting to the final outcome...only to realize that that is just part of the "bigger" process. However, for some reason I do enjoy the RPM challenge process. Perhaps because the only potentially negative outcome is that I don't finish - I feel disappointment in myself for not following through to the end. There are no other negative consequences - not everyone will dig my tunes...okay; there will be someone out there who does though...okay; and I will, more or less, like the tunes - I'm satisfying a need (to write music), following through on a task, making something, and having a lot of fun enjoying the entire process.

Two days and counting...not listening to my own advice about enjoying the process - I have two days to enjoy!

Groove Armada and Bacardi Pyramid Scheme

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:28:00 +0000

I recently read that Bacardi and Groove Armada (GA) partnered in a social networking experiment to, "embrace free music while giving it value", according to a GA band member. Music Ally, a blog I try to follow, is fond of the experiment.
Here's the dirt: one may download Track One of GA's new album entirely free. In order to download subsequent tracks, one must pass Track One on to other people via any number of methods including widgets on Facebook. To get Track Two reach must be 20 people. Track Three requires reach from Track One to be 200. Track Four is 2,000; presumably track five is 20,000. Oh, and there is a time limit - forty days - after which I presume you can just buy the entire album (but I don't know). Music Ally loves the idea and is working hard to build up its reach (see update).

Let's do some math:
I have a lot of friends on Facebook with friend densities of 35-100. I also have a few friends who are in the 300-5,000 density range. Let's be generous and say that the average is about 200 Friends. Let's also assume that one in every four friends likes GA or Bacardi rum and thus wants to try to get some tracks off the new album. Then these 50 people send it to their network, which consists of 200 people. Let's assume that everyone that receives track one tries it (big assumption). Let's also assume that the networks do not overlap (also a big assumption).
10,000 people get Track One free.
50 people get Track Two and Track Three free.
Then, if each of those 10,000 send Track One to 50 friends who try it, we're at 500,000 free downloads of Track One.
10,000 friends get to try Track Two.
All in forty days...like Lent.

If this is going to work, Track One and Track Two better be spectacular! There is a big difference between getting something for free and choosing to buy it without a sample - even if it is less than a dollar.
I bet this is the longest forty days of Bacardi's and GA's life!

There are a few reasons I like this:

It's a new approach to giving value to free downloads; it's sort of creative and it's a start.
If done properly (partnered with sponsors (Baccardi) holding lots of cash) it can really build a buzz.
This could work really well with an entire catalogue - either artist's catalogue or label catalogue, but that would require a music search engine that bases searches on something relevant, like...music (like Hounds to the Music is creating).

And more reasons that I don't:

Pyramid Scheme. GA is the Amway of music.
If you're going to have a timeline for such a promotion, you've got to have a lot of launch momentum to get the word out - the first fans to download Track One are key and there better be a lot of them. This is tough for budget-conscious independent, emerging musicians trying to make a buzz.
What if you don't like Track One or Track Two? If you don't you won't spend much time trying to get Track Three for free.
A better idea is to have your choice of next tracks to download after track one, provided you meet the "reach goals". I'm not sure why this was not an option - maybe it was too challenging logistically.
GA can put all the great tracks at the top of the album and leave the let's-just-finish-quickly-songs after track four. Did they do that?
Is coaxing your 2,000 best friends to download music so that you can benefit with another track really the best use of your time? Or would you rather spend the $3 for the first four tracks? If you really dig GA, you'll probably spend much more than that to get your choice of songs from the album.

And your thoughts?

Developing Taste

noreply@blogger.com (Amy Kopecky) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:31:00 +0000

I'm a new blogger on Hounds to the Music. If you're like me, you appreciate knowing where writers are coming from before you subject yourself to their strong opinions (musicians always have strong opinions). So it's only fair to share a little about my music interests before I dive into things.

I grew up playing piano and french horn (my mom was a piano teacher and my dad a band director) so I have a classical background. My parents listened to New Age piano music like David Lanz and George Winston, so when I first started writing my own songs on the piano, that's what dripped out of my fingers. It drove me crazy. I didn't venture out and start listening to my own music until junior high and high school, but I still didn't have my bearings. It was a matter of switching on the car radio and playing the top 40 because I was young and didn't know any better. (But let's admit it--the 90's was a pretty decent era, wasn't it? REM? Counting Crows? Blues Traveler? Cranberries? Ah, the memories...)

Luckily by late college I had finally formed a solid list of likes and dislikes. Like most musicians, my list of likes is a lot longer than the dislikes because variety is what makes the world and my ears spin:

Likes
Acoustic
Rock
Alternative rock
Pop
Punk
Hip-hop
R&B and Soul
Electronica
Jazz
Folk
Celtic
Latin
Classical
Musical Theatre (that is, if it can be a genre of its own. I'm a sucker for it)
some Emo (but not the whiny kind. Trust me, non-whiny Emo exists)

Dislikes
Opera
Country
Smooth jazz
Some rap (too much gets old)

Some favorite artists right now:
The Hush Sound: alternative rock/pop
Mates of State: alternative rock/pop
Iglu and Hartly: 80's hip-hop
Ben Folds (will always like him. Love piano rock)
Neil Cowley Trio: jazz
Greg Holden: acoustic/folk

Now I prefer to listen to indie music if I can wade through all the sites online that claim to have it. But it's difficult to find artists who have both good music and lyrics (although like Carl I'm a music person more than a lyrics person). It's difficult to find the kind of music that matches my mood at that particular time of day. It's difficult to find truly talented artists who know anything about music beyond the standard chord progressions, and who aren't just in it for the fame and money. But now, with this website on the horizon, no worries. Hounds will be the one-stop site that will match visitors with the perfect music.

Until then, maybe you have a better story to tell about your musical upbringing. What influenced you? When did you start listening to music you actually liked?

Yo-Yo Ma Contest Winners announced

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:17:00 +0000

I hadn't heard of the contest that Yo-Yo Ma had collaborated with NPR on earlier than when the winner was announced yesterday. Ma had asked musicians of all ilk and sort to listen to and collaborate with his version of "Dona Nobis Pacem" and upload them to Indabamusic.
He picked two winners which are highlighted on NPR music, Toshi and Kevin McChesney. I wasn't familiar with Toshi, although he really can wail on the e-guitar. However, I have been familar and fond of McChesney, having played handbells for many of his arrangements. His are some of the most exciting arrangements our handbell ringers have played under the direction of Music Director, Scott Kamman.

Take a listen and don't forget to check out the runners up on Indabamusic.

RPM Challenge 2009

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:12:00 +0000

I got my first email from RPM HQ Monday morning of this week announcing the RPM Challenge 2009. The RPM challenge has occurred since February 2006. The challenge is to write, record, and mix an album that is minimum 35 minutes or ten songs in the month of February. Participants had it easy last year (leap year) with an additional 24 hours of time. The first year participants were sparse and not much publicity had surrounded the event other than local media and artists in New Hampshire. The following year the participation was quite intense with something like 800+ bands finishing albums in the specified time period and approximately four times that number were attempting. My brother, wife and I participated in 2007 as the band Astronaut Aardvark Attack and had a terrific time; although we were getting pretty punchy there toward the end. Four songs from our album contribution is posted here. I'll post the entire album later and provide a link to it (it's HERE now, along with a bunch of other stuff)

The nice thing about the event is that musicians from all over the world participate and they communicate with one another over the RPM website. It is a modest social networking site that allows users to upload their music tracks as they come together and provide feedback. At the end participants from all over get together and host listening parties where in they log into the RPM HQ website and listen to the radio stream from completed albums. One can also go to specific places on the the site to choose specific tracks or bands to listen to (go here for last year's jukebox). I didn't keep track of it last year, but intend to monitor the RPM airwaves this year (and may contribute again). In 2007 there were some really great tunes, but there was also a lot of noise that seemed to be just buying time (35 minutes of screaming and beating on aluminum pans will count as an album...and did apparently).

To be sure, if you are trying to make an album, it is nice to have a deadline. The best part of a deadline for the RPM challenge is that everyone else has the same deadline and is under the same self-imposed pressure and therefore provides support. Who knows, you may get ten RPM challenge songs, of which two or three are good enough for your debut, sophomore, etc album.

Check it out! It can be a lot of fun.

Signal Patterns Music Survey

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Yesterday I found a link to a music recommendation function on Signal Patterns which is kind of neat - similar to MoodLogic. Daniel Levitin, PhD, a former mentor and friend I've since lost touch with, but has been and continues to be uber successful, participated in MoodLogic's founding and participates in the scientific board of Signal Patterns. His home page is here. I suspect that the music recommendation tool is at least partially his brainchild. It's a really good idea, and I suspect that for some people it works. I would encourage people to give it a try - it uses 40 song samples of about 15 seconds each and asks the user to rate on a scale of 1-9 whether the sample is liked or disliked. Let me know whether you like it or not.

The recommendation tool didn't work for me. I could take it again, that option is always available, however I suspect that part of the reason it did not work is that some song samples do not go anywhere: the meat of the song was not chosen as part of the song sample. If the meat of the song is absent, how can it be an accurate representation of the "music type" being evaluated? Signal Patterns uses Imeem and its social networking platform after the survey. Once I was switched to the Imeem site through Signal Patterns, I was asked to include my favorite artist. I don't really have a single favorite, but I wrote McCoy Tyner, and was then prompted to check off tracks of his that were favorites. None of the Tyner tracks listed were my favorites, so I backed out and entered Jethro Tull. This then led me to check off "Teacher", "Bouree" and "Locamotive Breath" as my favorite tracks (at least of those listed). (For the record, I also input Snake Oil Medicine Show as a favorite band and they were not found.) From these tracks and my evaluation from Signal Patterns I got the Imeem playlist that you can visit here. You can take a listen to the tunes that were recommended and see if those songs would be recommending the songs on this list. You can also take a gander at my Signal Patterns Music Survey Results below.
I'm really not sure whether the generated recommendations are determined from Signal Patterns (what I suspect) or are Imeem influenced (less likely), but the playlist doesn't work for me for the following reasons:

1) I've listened to the list and there is no new music - everything is already familiar, if by no other means, it is by popular names.
2) There are several songs by few artists; this cannot be all that exists!
3) I'm not keen on more than two or three of the songs.
4) I usually cannot stand ballads, sad songs or romantic songs, other than Sonatas. So much for these survey results...
5) I like up-tempo tunes, as a general rule (perhaps not the ones that were played, though).
6) I'm the king of complex tunes - I dig complex rhthyms, time signatures, layers, instrumentation.
7) Relaxing music is hard to identify - what really is relaxing? Easy listening?
On a positive note, I will offer that I'm usually not interested in lyrics, but would rather hear a nice hook or groove and someone justing singing "La la la"- the music survey may have gotten that right.

In general, all automated music recommendation tools I've evaluated are hit and miss (and probably more former than latter). Thusfar I still think Pandora is the best "automated" tool, although as I've said before it still has a lot to be desired, but it is at present successful. This tool by Signal Patterns is a neat idea, just like MoodLogic was, but I'm not convinced the approximately five minutes I used to take the survey were beneficial other than to give me something to write about today that didn't have anything to do with "Happy New Year". I may be a snob in this regard and this tool may be very valuable to others, afterall, Compete had Signal Patterns at ~16K unique users last month. That's pretty impressive. As alwasy I'd appreciate feedback on whether readers of this blog have better experiences with these music recommendation tools.

It is my sincere hope that Hounds to the Music, LLC will be able to add that "something" that is to be desired by music recommendation and discovery tools. We're working on it and anticipate that the launch will be this summer.

By the way, Imeem needs to significantly increase its bandwidth...I'm just saying.

Nightlight Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 13:20:00 +0000

I spent some time this morning picking a few tunes from Reverbnation to make a playlist called "Nightlight". Its worth a listen!

There are really great songs out there being made by people who are extraordinarily talented in writing and performing. These tunes may not be altogether popular with bigtime music executives, or with their fourteen-year-old daughters they pattern their music tastes to, but that is the best part about it. The music exec strategy reminds me of The Blues Brothers, "Oh, we've got both kinds of music: Country and Western."

I hope that you enjoy the playlist!

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:50:00 +0000

My Christmas iPod playlist includes:

Winter Wonderland, Rat Pack
Silver Bells, Rat Pack
Sleigh Ride, Boston Symphony Orchestra
I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm, Rat Pack
I Believe, Rat Pack
God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Pete Jacobs Orchestra
We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Pete Jacobs Orchestra
Santa Baby, Eartha Kitt
Baby, It's Cold Outside, Rat Pack
God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, Bethany Dillon
We Three Kings of Orient Are, The Beach Boys
Shepard's Chorus, Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Christmas Song, Jethro Tull
Silent Night, Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Merry Christmas!

Muffin music discovery

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:37:00 +0000

I had recently heard about the new music discovery/recommendation site, Muffin. I finally gave it a shot.
Verdict: unimpressed.
I wasn't really playing fair though, to be entirely honest. I entered in the advanced search that I liked Jethro Tull and the track I wanted Muffin to recommend from was Kelpie. Actually, come to the think of it, considering how diverse Tull's songs can be, I may have been helping Muffin by suggesting a specific style of Tull.

My result:
1) Kelpie (hardly "new")
2) A blues band I've never heard of
3) Johnny Cash

Then when I tried to go to the next page, all went blank and all that was revealed was Kelpie. If you've heard this tune, you'll realize how off this actually is. Really, Johnny Cash?

Angela Ortiz

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:42:00 +0000

I decided to follow my own advice and pour over the last MANY, MANY months of NPR's Second Stage. I found a REAL gem: Angela Ortiz (NPR show) (here for her website). Great piano and song structure!
She's on a lot of different sites and signed with a label - hard to miss, I suppose, but I did. She has also done some work for me by choosing a number of really cool artists as "favorites" on her Reverbnation profile site. Guess who will be focused on next...

Anyway, enjoy.

NPR's Second Stage/apologies for taste

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:01:00 +0000

Yes, NPR Second Stage hits and misses in my opinion...just as they should given that everyone, thankfully, has differing musical tastes. I think that Robin Hilton hit it right with the top 10 for the year! Not only did he choose ten tunes representing varying genres and styles, but they are all fun to listen. Would my 10 probably have been different? Yup, but I dig these tunes to varying degrees.
SIDE BAR:
I'm not sure I agree with his rankings all the time (details, details), but I'm fond of the selections...and that is pretty big for me to admit - sometimes Robin Hilton's musical tastes and mine overlap, but oftentimes he digs something that I cannot find any value in (sorry), other than the fact that he is doing what he is doing, which is not only noble and challenging, but necessary - no matter how "wrong" I think he is. Everyone should subscribe to the podcast or log on daily to hear the selection (easier said than done, I know). That said, my M.O. is that I have little patience for slow-er tunes and "sappy/emotional" lyrics, so my musical spectrum is somewhat limited. If I don't hear something interesting within the first 30 seconds, I usually don't hear much more. Frankly, sometimes 30 seconds is too much to wait (again, sorry).
...off the soapbox:
Were these the best tunes he received this year? Only he knows. I'm, nonetheless, impressed with each of these tunes! I recommend listening to the "show" and then logging on to hear more from your favorites!

Music entrepreneurs, the online world, and two centuries!

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Music Ally posted 200 music startups in 2008. Then posted that one announced its "departure". That's okay, because there were comments from readers mentioning a few they had missed. Still two centuries (or more) of the online music world.
Both elements are obviously intimidating from the perspective of a music startup. The first because of the popularity of this industry and the second because even one year out, someone folded.
As an entrepreneur one hopes that the difference between their company and the .com next door will lead to success. It is with this hope (see older post about what hope is unfortunately NOT) that entrepreneurs must persevere. I've been told many times that oftentimes half the battle in developing a company is following through on the initial idea and business plan. It is probably best to modify that statement to say half the battle is to persevere - do anything you must to see your product to the end and be successful with it. Only about 10% were focused on similar goals as Hounds to the Music, LLC; all developing the business differently with different ideas about how it "should be done".
Why were there so many online music industry companies developed in 2008? Hope and Perseverance.
Will some of them still be around when Music Ally posts the number of 2009 startups? Yes.
Why? Perseverance.
Was this a peptalk directed at me? Yup.

Joker's Daughter - NPR Second Stage

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:57:00 +0000

This time of year NPR's Second Stage puts together their favorite songs of the year. I have always liked that NPR offers the opportunity for independent, unsigned artists to be highlighted in a national manner. I also like that the songs are highlighted, not necessarily the album. In this digital music age where individual songs can be downloaded and the physical packaging of an album is, at best superfluous, and at worst archaic, the definition of an "album" may become "playlist". I know it has been for me since my Sony Walkman cassette player. Just about every weekday during the calendar year there is a new song uploaded to the website to give a taste. The only problem with NPR's Second Stage platform of songs on display is that all the albums are reviewed by an Editor(s). If your music likes, dislikes, motivations, and agendas are identical to that guy (Robin Hilton), then you are golden; otherwise...time to sort (ye same ole story: how do I begin to sort?!).
So, I'm sorting through the songs leading up to the Top 10 Great Unknowns, From Second Stage, and after the seventh song, I found something that I was interested in. The song is called Worm's Head, by Joker's Daughter. It wasn't something I'd really say is "my genre", but it was interesting enough for me to press repeat a few times. I really enjoyed the melody and rhythmic nature as well as the various timbres. Give it a listen.

New Music-Snake Oil Medicine Show

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:30:00 +0000

I got onto Reverbnation to find something new. I wanted to listen to a blue grass-y sort of thing, but not the traditional thing. I thought for a moment about how I would find this and resorted to looking for The Biscuit Burners, which I had discovered this summer and enjoy greatly. However, they had three recommendations, one of which looked a little different, they are called Snake Oil Medicine Show and, like the Biscuit Burners are out of Asheville, NC. SOMS have a few tunes on their Reverbnation site and I must say they are a lot of fun. They have tempo changes, vocal harmonies, funny song names that still describe the song, lots of instrumental space, banjos, violins, whistles, and a female vocalist's voice that is high pitched and has almost a comical, Old Time quality to it, but it works so well. They sound pretty accomplished and just super enjoyable to listen to. They describe themselves as "World/Reggae/Slam Grass/Psycho Billy".
I'm a new fan of SNAKE OIL MEDICINE SHOW! Check them out!

Christmas music - the old reliables

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:49:00 +0000

At home we've been listening to a lot of Christmas time music of late, as I expect many, many others are: carols from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Christmas with the Rat Pack, Handel's Messiah, and a hundreds of others. They are very enjoyable to listen to; one of my absolute favorite carols is "Carol of the Bells". I"m not talking about a pop version of the tune, nay, nay nay! I mean handbell ringing and a choir! It is almost a haunting sound and I get goosebumps whenever I listen to it. If one's music can provide a physiological response, like goosebumps, it is a winner! I never grow tired of "Carol of the Bells"...even in the summertime!

I cannot leave without also mentioning, however, another ole favorite: How the Grinch Stole Christmas - "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch".

Happy Christmas listening!

Problems and solutions (?)

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:12:00 +0000

So my previous post discussed the primary problem for listeners and musicians in this age of easy, cheap music recordings and everything internet:

Listeners: finding the right song

Artists: finding the right listeners

I glossed over how companies have approached solving this problem, but will address some of that here. There have been a lot of solutions, far more than I would want to get into on this post. Pandora may be the most logical and elegant so far - use known music to find new. It also lends itself to emerging artists something like 70%, but only 60,000 artists are present in the database and it is internet radio (which I'm not fond of). That said, it certainly has done well - an average of 2.3MM unqiue views per month according to Compete. Last.fm has also done well, albeit by using genre and social networking groups (average of 1.8MM unique visitors). (I'm not sure what percent of music on Last.fm is independent. Anyone know?)

These two sites have really caught people's attention and they should be proud of that (graph to the right), but they are not alone by any means. There are others out there trying to solve these problems too. Owl Multimedia is a really cool idea, but I'm honestly not yet convinced it works - it hasn't worked for me...yet. It also appears that I may not be the only one to think this, because so far it hasn't caught on (3,222 average unique visitors/month) according to Compete.

Then there are the hosting sites for independent artists. Of those that I've looked at Reverbnation does slightly better than Virb according to Compete (220K vs. 169K unique visitors/month average). Fuzz comes in a distant third with 11.7K.

The disparity in these numbers (successful modestly indpendent music search sites (Pandora) vs. mostly independent music hosting sites (Reverbnation, etc.) speaks volumes I think. It indicates that I'm not alone when I become frustrated scouring the sites for songs as a listener. When using Reverbnation, Virb, or Fuzz one resorts to the typical formulas: genre, band location, newness, and that popularity contest that I hated in high school. As an artist, one does all that one can do to get noticed - cool names, cool pics, but ultimately can only hope that the right people find one's tune, and as a former colleague of mine often said, "Hope is not a strategy". Truth be told, I've got original tunes posted on all three of these sites, and I'm really hoping that these tunes get noticed. The odds are against getting noticed by the right people randomly though...and that brings us right back to where we were when we started - we still have the problems.

Needles in haystacks - finding that tune

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:38:00 +0000

I must admit I'm pretty intimidated when I cruise over to a music hosting site like Reverbnation or Virb and try to find a tune I like. After the first few tunes I've spent time hunting for by genre I'm pretty impatient and irritated by the whole process. I'm impatient because of the time it takes to find something if, for example, I'm looking for Celtic music and find everything under the sun with "celtic" in the keyword, and I'm irritated because I ultimately decide on listening to a song because of the image or name associated with the artist, album or song. I've judged a book by its cover! I may miss the coolest tune, but alas have no "cue" to look for it. Perhaps this applies to me more than others simply because my music tastes tend to be on the outer rim of mainstream (there are some exceptions: loved early-career R.E.M, early Sting (solo), dig U2), but I'm sure everyone struggles with this to some degree. If there is someone out there who does not, I'd love to hear how you deal with tihs problem!

There are organizations that have brought in Web2.0 - I can think of many - to help sort through this problem by social networking, but there is always that someone that was the first to find a band/song/album. How did he/she do it? He or she must have some cue from somewhere. Moreover, is popularity really solving the problem? Just because "Roll out the Barrel" is well known doesn't make it interesting to listen to as discovery! It does make it easy to find, however.

The problem for listeners is finding something new and appropriate and the problem for emerging artists is getting listened to by the right group of listeners.

Hounds to the Music

Getting started

noreply@blogger.com (SCS) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:15:00 +0000

At Hounds to the Music, LLC we are working to change how independent music is discovered. We're currently working out the glitches of our prototypes in anticipation of a Beta launch sometime in summer 2009 (fastly approaching!). A few of us thought it would be great to begin blogging about the things we think about as we are building up to our launch. Not surprisingly, we think a lot about music! So we're going to write about music.

I'll start by writing about a song I've dug since I first heard it. If you like contemporary jazz (not the cheezeball jazz, but cool poppy-jazz with good progressions, tight instrumentation and musicianship, ebbs and flows) you should give this tune a try. The song is called "Fire Dance" by Armen Chakmakian. He's quite a pianist and this is song is energetic. The sound has influences from contemporary jazz, pop, world (Arabic and Armenian), fun rhythms and a lot of piano flare. Honestly, I never grow tired of that tune. If you prefer a little more mellow piano contemporary jazz feel, there is also "Rain, rain go away" that can be found at the same site. Another good tune, although there is an instrumental portion in the song that I could take or leave depending on my mood. I'm not a fan of all the stuff he's posted at this hosting site, but there are other jems there as well.