bijan sabet

Magazine Called Sunset - Wilco Still in a Wilco world.

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:57:18 -0400

Magazine Called Sunset - Wilco

Still in a Wilco world.

Last night show: Conor Oberst & Wilco

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 08:47:55 -0400

Last night, Lauren and I went to the Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band and Wilco show.

They were two different shows in many ways.

The crowd was definately more of a Wilco scene that Conor Oberst scene.

But I gotta tell you. I thought Conor Oberst was better. That is probably going to be blasphemy to a lot of Wilco fans out there. Sorry about that.

But Conor rocked it. His new band live is much better live than the studio recording of “Outer South”. He played a bunch of older stuff (NYC Gone Gone, I don’t want to die, eagle on a pole) and a lot from the new record which was great.

Jeff Tweedy and the guys played a mix of old & new as well. I love their older songs and mostly agree with @dougw about the last album. But they rocked out as well. Jeff looked happy.

It also rained in the middle of Wilco’s set and it was sunny during Conor Oberst’s set. And that about sums up the show for us.

Oh, one more thing. The show was at the Lowell LeLacheur Park (a good 45 minutes outside of Boston). I’m sure it’s fine to see a ballgame there but it’s a pretty bad venue for bands in my opinion. Lauren wondered why they ended up playing there instead of somewhere in Boston or Cambridge. I’m wondering the same thing.

I Got A Reason - Conor Oberst (via hype machine)

(photo from kanghaskan on flickr)

I Need To Know Where I Stand - Rhett Miller Discovered this song...

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:59:00 -0400

I Need To Know Where I Stand - Rhett Miller

Discovered this song yesterday from Rhett’s tweet yesterday. And he linked to the Hype Machine. So cool.

Right on Trent

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:19:07 -0400

Trent Reznor from the Nine Inch Nails has some great advice for young, unknown artists trying to make it.

via Trent:

Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.

To clarify:

Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this - give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special - make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.

Don’t have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]

Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]

Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.

The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact - it sucks as the musician BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So… have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).

The Beastie Boys’ site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in - available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging - they are established and you are not. Think this through.

The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on - like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.

Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace - it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content - pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any - Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.

If you don’t know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don’t get it - find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig - good luck, you’re going to be waiting a while.

Fantastic advice. That’s exactly right.

The only thing I would add is that I wish Trent would get a blog instead of posting in the NIN forums. And naturally, I would recommend using Tumblr just like Ra Ra Riot recently did :)

"And the same is true of locating your startup. You can build a great startup in any of the dozen to..."

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:36:00 -0400

“And the same is true of locating your startup. You can build a great startup in any of the dozen to two dozen startup hotbeds around the world. Pick a place you want to live and work and possibly raise a family. And then get busy.”

- Fred Wilson, Startup Hotbed Inferiority Complex

You Will - Snow Patrol Bright Eyes cover. Can’t wait to...

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:11:12 -0400

You Will - Snow Patrol

Bright Eyes cover. Can’t wait to see them tomorrow night.

Let's end employee non-compete agreements

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:27:34 -0400

There is a public event coming up on July 22nd to discuss employee non compete agreements.

State Representative Will Brownsberger will be on the panel. Earlier this year, Rep. Brownsberger sponosored a bill (House Bill 1794) to ban employee non compete agreements. I have been fortunate enough to spend some time with Represenative Brownsberger and I am an admirer of his leadership on this issue. You can also follow him on Twitter.

I encourage you to particpate in the event if you can make it. I will be there. And it’s free :)

Also, I just added a new petition to the Open Competition blog. Go to the bottom of the Supporters page and just add your name

Thanks and spread the word!

Oh yeah! This is awesome. via staff: Tip: Post photosets from...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:49:48 -0400

Oh yeah! This is awesome.

via staff:

Tip: Post photosets from your iPhone

With the new iPhone OS 3.0, you can attach multiple photos to an email message from your Camera Roll. Tap the action-arrow button, select up to 5 photos, then tap Share.

Email them to Tumblr and we’ll automatically create a photoset.

Orange Shirt - Discovery Members of Ra Ra Riot & Vampire...

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:14:00 -0400

Orange Shirt - Discovery

Members of Ra Ra Riot & Vampire Weekend came together and released LP this week. You can stream the entire album from their website or purchase on Amazon. I’m digging this.

The Sonos iPhone app is fan-freaking-tastic.

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:44:50 -0400

The Sonos iPhone app is fan-freaking-tastic.

Autumn Beds - Modest Mouse New single. Wonderful.

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:30:00 -0400

Autumn Beds - Modest Mouse

New single. Wonderful.

"However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web...."

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:50:32 -0400

“However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”

- Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

One amazing company.

I’ve got a ton of iPhone apps but I like to keep the first...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:53:50 -0400

I’ve got a ton of iPhone apps but I like to keep the first page clean with only the essentials.

Grace Kelly Blues - Eels Another day, another song from the...

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:49:04 -0400

Grace Kelly Blues - Eels

Another day, another song from the album “Daisies of the Galaxy”. Love this song.

What's most important: features, schedule or vision?

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:31:00 -0400

I learned a lot of valuable lessons working with Steve Perlman at WebTV Networks and Moxi Digital.

If you worked or met with Steve you would easily agree with me that his passion is nothing but extraordinary. He is positively obsessed about building amazing products.

I learned other things from Steve as well. One of my favorites is V.S.C.F.

Those letters stand for: Vision. Schedule. Cost. Features. And in that order.

This is how how Steve explained it to me:

1. Vision. Without a doubt, the founder’s vision of the product is the most important thing. Everything flows from that vision. I couldn’t agree more.

2. Schedule. Steve would often say, “Market windows don’t move”. Shipping the product on time is a big deal. If you slip late the market may no longer be there. Schedule trumps cost & features. Especially in a world of software or connected devices you can always add software improvements later (e.g. iTunes App Store is a beautiful example).

3. Cost. Cost is a bit tricky to think about when it comes to consumer internet applications vs consumer electronics like WebTV or iPhone. Cost is important. But you have to get the vision & schedule right. Cost will improve over time if the product is great along with engineering innovation & volume. We subsidized WebTV in the early days. One could argue that was a derivative of freemium.

4. Features. There is no question that features are important but vision, schedule and cost are more important. I think that’s right. Consider Twitter as an example. They shipped early, with less features and with a powerful vision that drives the company’s every move.

I keep VSCF in my mind all the the time.

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-7-5)

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:05:12 -0400

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-7-5):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues - Eels Playing “Daisies Of...

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:04:00 -0400

Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues - Eels

Playing “Daisies Of The Galaxy” this morning. Fantastic album. I need to find this one on vinyl.

Flower My dad took this photo. He’s been taking pictures...

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:42:45 -0400

Flower

My dad took this photo. He’s been taking pictures of flowers since my earliest memories. He loves them and it shows.

"As a musician, I don’t want to expend any energy whatsoever preventing people from hearing our..."

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:29:31 -0400

“As a musician, I don’t want to expend any energy whatsoever preventing people from hearing our music. I think that’s antithetical to the idea of making it. Yes, we streamed it. Basically we set it up so people who felt guilty about stealing our music could donate some money to our favorite charity.”

- Questions for Jeff Tweedy - Rock of Ages - Interview - NYTimes.com

In May, Wilco’s new album was leaked online a month before the record was released. So the band decided to stream it for free and ask fans to donate to their favorite charity. Brilliant.

Sunny Feeling - Wilco I’m in a serious Wilco world right...

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:21:16 -0400

Sunny Feeling - Wilco

I’m in a serious Wilco world right now. Getting ready for the show this Saturday. Here’s a track from the latest album.