Devo inc scores one here – first new song from DEVO In awhile, as performed on the Olympics 2-22. Its beyond good. It’s FRESH!!!
http://www.clubdevo.com – Get the song here!
Archive for the 'Artists' Category
Plenty of posts and blogs talk about “transparency” in the music business. How Artist’s need to be in direct connection with their fans. Part of the “Conversation”. It’s all buzzwords until it’s real: My continuing adventure with Devo and Devo Inc.
Watch the message, and contribute to the Devo inc color study now!
VIDEO
Great content, and nice technique for success:
How IKEA’s ‘Easy to Assemble’ Broke 1.9M Views (Without Cheating)
MOBILE
New product idea from the people:
World’s First Multimedia SF Novel on a QR Code T-shirt.
Buy it via ebay!
MUSIC
Devo is Back – I was there!
These guys are still unbeliveable!
“one of the few truly original rock acts of the last 40 years.”
San Jose Mercury news
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/11/07/devo-fans-find-satisfaction/?
I participated in a fun panel last Wednesday entitled “Music Power Shift: Artist, Label, Technology, Management” at LOWES Santa Monica for Digital Hollywood 2009.
Digital music panels are no longer the hot and heated arguments between old and new that they used to be! Everyone seems to get along and agree on most of the issues.
I elaborated on three main points throughout the panel and I think most panelist agreed with these main concepts
CONNECTED
They key to 360 rights holders is connecting them effectively. From a fans perspective, all of an Artists projects are connected. You need the best team in each area, and if they can all be on one team, you can generate real results. Data collected from a download of the new single, is used to make touring decisions, and update merch lines. Art from a new shirt in the web store keeps the fans active, and bridges gaps between songs. When they all work together, behind an artist’s vision, the sum is much greater than each piece and it ends a great fan experience. 360 is not just about getting more rights, it’s about the ability to connect them together effectively.
PATIENCE
Make the right decisions, then give them chance to work. Allow new ecosystems need time to develop. Direct to fan campaigns that rely on commerce generate maximum results after the’ve been optimized, and correctly run for a few project cycles. Invest in the time of running things correctly to truly reach your potential. Trent Rezonr’s direct to fan approach and success didn’t happen overnight or begin with that one piece of product everyone wrote about!
CREATIVITY
My closing point was about Artists that are learning to create art 2.0 – this is when a musical artist makes great music and inherently knows how to tell their story, and vision in a multi media art/message – across you tube, iphone aps, twitter etc. When the vision is there, these 2.0 tools and networks become more than communication channels, more than new ways to sell direct. They combine and connect to form true extensions of the music experience. The Artists who truly understand this will drive the exponential evolution of music into completely new forms!
Thanks to the other great panelists!
Christopher Allen, COO, Napster
Michael Spiegelman, Head of Music, Yahoo!
Phil Sandhaus, MemBrain LLC
Jeremy Welt, SVP New Media, Warner Bros Records
Sam Wick, SVP of Monetization and Strategy, MySpace Music
Gary Brotman, Sr. Director, Marketing & Artist Services, Topspin
Kelli Richards, President, The All Access Group,
I was deeply inspired by the movie “it might get loud”, a “guitar” documentary centered around Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.
You don’t need to be a guitar head to love this movie – if you love music you will love this film! In my work with new media and music, I spend so much time thinking about how the changing ratios of communication change the way music is marketed, promoted and consumed, it’s refreshing to see these “masters” talk about nothing but sounds.
In fact – this movie was a needed reset for my brain. Take away twitter, facebook, and everything else – its irrelevant to these guys. The guitar and technology around making the guitar convey music is all that’s needed. Everything else will just happen.
The unbending dedication and focus around a single instrument was inspiring. Do musician’s lose this today while twitter facebooking, etc? Is the nature of technology infecting the creative process?
Or perhaps these legends have explored all of the sound frontiers and possibilities of the guitar, and now the current generation will explore how to connect people to these sounds? After watching this film, something about how easy it is to create and record music feels like we’ve forgotten a step. You will find yourself asking these questions of yourself throughout the movie.
JIMMY PAGE – incredibly elegant and well spoken. I’ve never heard him speak so much before When you see him, and the emotion still behind those eyes – you can have nothing but respect for his legacy.
JACK WHITE – “technology makes things too easy” – Jack talks a lot about how technology takes away from the artistic process. Everyone in new media needs to hear his thoughts as a balance to our hectic info mania. You need to struggle to create. He makes it harder for himself to create. Take a guitar that is broken down and out of tune and fight with it to make music…
THE EDGE – a stark contrast to Jack – the “sonic architect” uses technology and effects to change his sound and bring new soundscapes from the guitar. Interesting to see how he uses technology to create sound, while still respecting the instrument itself.
Reset your brain and love for music! See this Movie!
Hearing the silversun pickups made me realize what the pumpkins lost over time – the feeling of a band, and most of their melody. The new silversun pickups is as good as the pumpkins at their best!
Hear for yourself:
Multiple press outlets picked up a piece about the campaign for Ashley Tisdale’s new album “Guilty Pleasure”. I’ve been working on the music side of Ashley’s campaign since her first album in 2006. She is hard working, and cares about her fans! One of the highlights of this campaign has been her use of Twitter. Ashley took to it right away and she understands how important it is to communicate direct.
The key is it’s all her. And that’s why her Twittering is generating lots of buzz and traffic to her site and store! Even a star as big as Ashley needs to understand the first key principle for successful twittering – authenticity.
This article from Reuters poked a little fun at her Tweets, and it somewhat diluted my point about the importance of Ashley’s’ communication with her fans:
“Tisdale is an especially avid Twitterer, with more than 750,000 followers.
“She’s very protective of it in terms of it sounding authentic,” according to Warner Bros. senior VP of new media Jeremy Welt. “There have been a couple of times where we’ve said to her, ‘Hey, why don’t you mention so-and-so?’ and she’s told us, ‘I wouldn’t say that.’” (What would she say? One recent Tweet read, “Happy fathers day!!! Goin to dinner with my family and the most amazing dad ever! I love you daddy!”)”
You may not see the connection in Ashley Tisdale twittering “happy fathers day”, but her 940,000 followers do. The series of seemingly simple tweets provide basic insights into her life (She’s subtly letting her fans know family is important to her), and it all adds up to a lot for her fans. They peak into the everyday activity. You don’t see overloaded shameless promo, or re-purposed press releases. It is exactly this type of communication that makes it Authentic, and why Twitter itself has grown so fast.
The Facebook party is winding down, and LIGHTS blew away an always tough industry crowd. It was hard to resist her energy, even if you missed the announcement that LIGHTS launched what could be the first ever artist site using facebook connect.
It was more than an industry showcase! Convincing Artist’s to take a chance on new technology can be tough (thats a big part of my job!). They need to have an understanding of where things are going to truly apply new ideas to their art. Its often a riskier proposition than people realize. But when an Artist has a vision for new music AND new media – you can create the perfect storm of innovation the music business needs.
The “Connect” technology is amazing – and it has that feel good moment when you log into LIGHT’S site with your facebook account. But it never would have happened if the Artist didn’t have a strong enough vision for herself to try something new.
LIGHTS is the future, as much as facebook connect is the future!
Thanks to LIGHTS, Ethan Kaplan, and Raquel and Dave at Facebook, for making the show, the art, and the tech happen! When they work together, things evolve.
When it came to the fork in the road for new media vs old, Neil Young went the new way, while keeping the music as good as ever! I cant believe I get to work on his projects, and in some small way, have helped him move into the new world. There’s an amazing guy named Jeff on the new media team who has a great relationship with Neil and has helped Neil use the internet. Now Neil does it all. It started a few years ago with blogging, and now it’s visual. Neil just shows up with new material, and we help him get the word out! Oh yeah – he’s also revolutionizing the auto industry! http://www.lincvolt.com/
This video and new album just showed up at WBR and we cant wait to get it out to you!
Neil Young – Fork In The Road
Mixed in with the year end spin on numbers, NIN is back as the poster child for free music. Lots of interesting stories about how the free NIN album was top of Amazon sales charts.
Digital Music news says “perhaps a more fine-tuned example of how free often leads to paid in the modern music business”.
Its so easy to go to this oversimplification on one example as the “new model” for the music biz. I wish it were as easy as free leading to paid! The NIN “free” model is not scaleable for most and lets not forget – they are Nine Inch Nails and the new record was GOOD! NIN’s music at one point was the most revolutionary sound to appear in years. That’s the model! Innovative music and great songs lead to “paid”.
See Digital Music news Story Here
Read my post on Free, and some great links to the debate over free music
