Blog Title: GarageSpin - Audio Production and Music Promotion for Unsigned Bands

MuckWork - Derek Sivers' Outsourcing Service for Bands

Screw "DIY" (do-it-yourself).  It's time for "SEDI" (someone-else-does-it).

Derek Sivers, the legend behind CD Baby, is apparently launching a new service for bands called Muckwork that will enable the outsourcing of tasks no band member wants to do, so bands can focus on writing and playing.

How will it work?  It's hard to say exactly, since the Muckwork site is virtually bare at the moment, but Derek explains that the service will work in a way similar to the outsourcing and virtual assistant services described in the article "Outsource Your Life: Sites Allow You to Create Army of Virtual Assistants."  Derek further explains:

"MuckWork will have a big network of people around the world that are great at helping musicians with the boring stuff that can be done from anywhere.

Because we'll have a huge network of people available to help, you never have to worry about someone flaking on you. MuckWork will take reponsibility to get your job done, whatever it may be"

In fact, he's already hiring his virtual army of band aides (or muckworkers).  They are:

Professional musician who now wants to stay home
    * Under $20/hr, 5-20 hrs/wk
    * You have already made a living as a musician
    * You've booked your own tour, promoted your own album, etc.
    * Now you'd rather stay at home helping others instead.

Experienced Virtual Assistant
    * Under $10/hr, 5-20 hrs/wk
    * You already have successful experience as a virtual assistant
    * You would prefer to work for musicians instead of more-generic VA work

Pretty interesting.  I can definitely think of some tasks that would be worth outsourcing:

• Music submission (plus follow-up) to internet radio stations, podcasts, review sites, mp3 blogs, etc.
• Social network profile updates (gig calendars, music portfolio, responding to comments, etc).
• PR distribution (plus follow-up) to online and offline publications.
• Forum mentions of music related to forum topics.
• Price comparison for and scheduling of CD, t-shirt, merchandise print runs.

What else? It's a pretty cool idea, considering how DIY-weary some DIY-ers can become over time.  Keep your eyes on Muckwork's muck work.

Turn Me Up: The War Against Sound Squashing Continues

Most modern-day popular music is heavily compressed (i.e. quiet sounds are increased in volume) to increase a track's overall "loudness" and apparent intensity.  Audiophile purists hate the trend, because it prevents the creation of truly expressive and "dynamic" albums.  Many consumers, however, perceive the "loudness" in a modern day track to reflect a higher level of quality.  Hence the Loudness War that ensues.

One organization, Turn Me Up!, is trying to "...create an environment where artists will feel comfortable making the creative choice to release a more dynamic record—without the fear of it being misunderstood by the consumer."  They're doing it by creating a new certification process:

To address this we've created Turn Me Up! Certification, which would allow records meeting our criteria to display the Turn Me Up! Certified label to inform the consumer nothing is wrong, this record is simply more dynamic and all they need to do is Turn Me Up!

The message on the label they're suggesting is:

Turn Me Up!™ Certified

To preserve the excitement, emotion and dynamics of the original performances this record is intentionally quieter than some. For full enjoyment simply Turn Me Up! (www.TurnMeUp.org)

It's the old trade-off between your target consumer's "perceived value" and your own "artistic integrity."  That is, if acoustic dynamics are extremely important to you.  Personally, I think disregarding your fans' tastes is risky business; walk that path with extreme caution!  In Turn Me Up's case, the basic message, "Do you think this CD sounds quiet?  Then turn up the volume." seems a little funny to me, though I appreciate the effort.  Would it be better to brand the certification as a "premium" label, rather than a "requires increased volume to fix the sound" label?  That almost makes it sound broken...

What do you think?

(Thanks for the link, Jay!)

NoiseTrade: Variable Pricing and Viral Marketing Widget

While browsing Mashable's Open Web Awards list of finalists (which I highly recommend giving a quick look-through), I noticed one music widget company I was unfamiliar with, called NoiseTrade.  Like all the finalists, it was voted by Mashable readers to be one of the best three applications in its category, in this case, "music".

NoiseTrade is awesome.  Literally, for two years, I've been dreaming about a simple widget that could offer both 1) variable pricing for music downloads, and 2) a "tell-a-friend" viral marketing option.  NoiseTrade's widget does both.  Halleluah.  Check it out:

BandCamp comes extremely close to providing the ultimate music widget functionality by offering variable pricing, multiple formats, and full scale management...but lacks an email address capture feature.  Personally, as a relatively unknown artist, exposure is MUCH more important than income at this point.  If NoiseTrade's word-of-mouth option were included in BandCamp's list of options, it might win out. The NoiseTrade widget lacks a clear, visual call-to-action to actually play the music. At a glance, I didn't realize an entire album was playable through it. That said, I still think NoiseTrade offers unsigned bands the best option for promotion.

Very cool.

Secret Millionaire: Good Fox Reality Show

Any reality show that makes you want to win the lottery so you can immediately give it away can't be all bad.

Secret Millionaire, Fox's new reality show, did that for me.  It's great to see TV glorifying volunteerism, charity, and good works.  In a nutshell, millionaires live in decrepit neighborhoods, experience poverty, meet amazing people, and give away at least $100,000 of their own cash to deserving folks.  (It's actually based on the UK show The Secret Millionaire which first aired in 2006.)

For me, the show was an awesome reminder of the many, many things I should be thankful for, the many ways in which we can all help others, and the importance of face-to-face human connections.  Hopefully, it's achieved that for a lot of other people as well.  Speaking of which, I genuinely hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

GarageSpin: A Look Back and a Look Forward

In January 2009, GarageSpin will hit its 4th birthday.  What's changed?  I write about the music industry less; there seem to be so many music blogs now that cover the 'news', I'm less motivated to. 

The biggest lesson I've learned?  New tools and portals and discovery channels come and go -- they're most useful to the earliest adopters who become "poster childs" for those services...those that follow generally get buried in the noize.  Only truly unique and creative ideas cut through the clutter.  Staying power is then determined by music quality and hype maintenance.  The DIY world is still as awesome and exciting as ever; I'm psyched to get my own music out into the world next year.

Anyway, I'll stop there -- this was supposed to be a short post.  :) Here's a quick glance at how GarageSpin.com itself evolved, courtesy of the Wayback Machine:

GarageSpin's Beginning:

GarageSpin Today:

GarageSpin Tomorrow:

The last screenshot above was taken of the first draft of the new, Wordpress-powered GarageSpin.  It'll look better once it's tweaked, but for now, I'm struggling to get the thing launched (and have been for several months).  In any case, I'm psyched for the new engine and new design.  Here's to 2009.

Get Pumped for A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

As Turkey Day approaches, you really can't beat cuddling up to a YouTube-powered PC monitor with a bowl full of gelatin cranberry sauce and stuffing to watch like A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  The great jazz music combined with pisspoor voiceover work are simply timeless.

If you still feel like you're not quite ready for Thanksgiving, or are still stressed by playing catch-up at work in preparation for the long weekend, then feel free to get turkey-fied and unwind with the Chuck, the ever-hopeful fieldgoal-kicking whiz kid we all love to feel sorry for..  Happy Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown:

Gmail and Woot Impressed Me Today

I was doubly impressed while checking email today.  First, Gmail's new themes were pretty cool -- I'm going with the Ninja theme myself, currently:

Then, I noticed the extremely well-targeted ad -- you can see it in the middle of the picture above.  In case it's too tiny to read, here's the message:

"WOOT Recording Computers - www.wootcomputers.com

Tired of freezing your tracks?  Eat those plugins for lunch!"

They know me too well.  But then I clicked on the link, and was further impressed...the software displayed on the computer in the ad is my very own Cakewalk Sonar:

Kudos to the advertisers...except now I'm looking over my shoulder, wondering where the hidden camera is...  Maybe I need to randomly purchase crap I don't need to throw off the recommendation engines...like a Care Bear...or Fit Flops...or a subscription to Guns and Ammo...

Ed McMahon Raps About Free Credit Reports

Ouch.  Poor Ed McMahan.  First rich.  Then poor.  Then rapping about being poor to sell free credit reports.  Though I'll admit, the clips are kinda funny...

Ed McMahon free credit report rap #1 (of 2):

Ed McMahon free credit report rap #2 (of 2):

I think I still like all the other free credit report songs better.

iPhone Multitrack Recording: 4 Tracks and FourTrack

I've been dreaming of a cheap, easy way to record multi-track melody, lyric, and arrangement ideas using my cell phone for years.  (Dedicated multitrack recorders are expensive, and I'd not carry another "thing" in my pockets.)

Last week, I got an iPhone 3G.  (My iPod broke, it had been my birthday a couple months ago, and my Cingular plan was up for renewal...the perfect intersection of excuses.)

Within less than a day, I found 4 Tracks by Little Code Shop, a multitrack recording application for $6.  Oh baby.  Harmonies, bass lines, drum beats...all multi-layer brainstorms are now possible.  Included are a metronome, track volume control, and mute buttons.  Lacking are some kind of sound/track archive to save tracks with, a way to jump to different parts of a song, and an easy way to export the audio to a PC.  Still, I've seen cheeseburgers that are more expensive, so I'm happy.

Just today, I found FourTrack by Sonoma Wire Works...I had no choice but to include it in this post.  At $10, it's the better buy.  Included are pan control, compression, jump-to-point functionality, song project archive capability, and WiFi syncing to export music to a PC (though in my opinion, that's not a whole lot of help -- I'd prefer Bluetooth or email export).  Lacking is a metronome, which is bizarre to me...  And according to the reviews, there seem to be some audio quality issues during playback, and exporting is pretty difficult to make work.

For now, I'll play with 4 Tracks.  FourTrack may advance faster, since it's backed by a major audio recording software producer, but then again, you should never count out a talented, independent DIY developer.

Either way, if you're a songwriter and own an iPhone, you should definitely check out one of these apps.  (Want more music apps?  Check out iPhone Apps: 19 Music iPhone Applications.)

iTunes U and the Fall Music Mix

So apparently, iTunes U started randomly giving away bundles of 80 free songs to college students.  My wife received an email with the message, "Carnegie Mellon University and iTunes U are proud to bring you the Fall Music Mix."  That's kind of interesting, because she graduated from CMU four years ago, she's not an iTunes user, and she doesn't own an iPod/Phone/Touch/Nano/etc.  (Correction: my wife just reminded me that she DOES have an iPod...I'd forgotten, because I'd been "borrowing" hers since mine broke a few months ago.)

I suppose that's the genius of the promotion...get the youth hooked just before they start earning a salary.  Labels probably subsidize the downloads for the exposure to a premium taste-making segment.

Hey, whatever -- score!  Thanks, iTunes U.

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.

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.  ;)

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:

1. Performer and Promoter agree to a live performance and related terms.
2. Promoter pays using GigPay; the money sits in escrow at GigPay.
   
3. Both Promoter and Performer can see and confirm payment status.
4. 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.

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.

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.