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The Superhighway Tour is a brand new online music product developed by the Tom Petty team here at WBR, and Tom Petty himself!. It’s a direct to fan digital configuration of the upcoming The Live Anthology, with the bonus content on demand from the cloud!

48 digital tracks for $24.98, mp3 AND FLAC! The digital tracks are presented within a dedicated web site and delivered with truly compelling additional material. No DRM – just real value in an on-line experience actually worth paying for. The multimedia around each song gives context, depth and understanding to what is already a career-defining live music anthology. nd them.

The site includes streaming audio commentary from Tom and the band on the songs that are included in the Anthology, historic photos and videos, show reviews, recreated vintage merch, and areas for fans to share their experiences and photos from Tom Petty shows.

http://www.youtube.com/tompetty

And you get 24 tracks before “traditional street date”! The first 24 tracks, which make up the body of the Superhighway Tour are delivered over an 8 week period that leads to street date (11/23/09). The remaining 24 tracks will be delivered collectively on street date.

You can get a free live track without even signing up!

Head there now! http://www.tompettysuperhighway.com

Rumor hit earlier this week on the google music service:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/google-music-service-the-screenshots/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/22/google.music/index.html

Google already has some experience with music in CHINA

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123841495337969485.html

Google and LALA? Readers of my blog already know I am a fan of lala (like this guy!)
http://changingway.org/2009/10/21/singing-lala-about-google-music/, and i’ve done a lot of great work with ilike and lala…so this looks interesting!

But this all got me thinking about the CD as a music format. There were benefits of this old technology, benefits of a clear standard from the player, to the audio format to the physical medium. You showed up at your friends house and it worked.

With Google entering the scene, we’re moving beyond the physical/file, to online experiences and services. It made me think – what role does compatibility and standards have with services? Is Google the mechanism for compatibility?

Is there a “service” standard where music can be monetized more effectively? You can move from different subscription vendors with ease and keep all of your preferences? If services and experiences had some way to know your preferences, and transfer them seamlessly, google could become a “front end” to an exciting music experience

I’d bet this is not something Google is going to build, but Google’s involvement (whatever it may be), starts making online music services and experiences Interesting. Looking forward, you see google becoming a frictioness traffic driver to all sorts of music products and you dont start over every time you try a new one.

Let me know your thoughts as this story unfolds throughout the week, and Ill post updates as I learn more.

I’ve been posting about the rollout of the LIGHTS campaign for the last few months, and now its with great pride I can show all that’s happened to bring her vision to the world. LIGHTS is a brilliant Artist who not only has a debut album out, but an amazing multimedia presentation of her vision!
Her vision combined with a great plan with MYSPACE MUSIC has created a big US fanbase over the course of the last 9 months(read billboard article here)

Start with this introducing piece created by myspace, then sample all the different sides of LIGHTS:

Introducing LIGHTS (The Listening is out on 10/6!)

LIGHTS | MySpace Video

MUSIC VIDEO for Saviour (traditional)

http://tinyurl.com/ygey798

LIGHTS LIVE (Accoustic)

LIGHTS – COLDPLAY COVER (recorded on the road and in the tour van!)

LIGHTS TALKS GAMING

Head to www.iamlights.com
www.myspace.com.lights for more!

UPDATE 10/21/2010: We saw a 120% increase in sales, the clip was #4 on HULU the day after the SNL airing, and we hadover 60,000 tweets to promote the clip. It was interesting to see the album at #40 after SNL aired across the country. But by mid-day Sunday it was #12. It seemed like a lot of the buzz was around watching the clip the next day. Nice experiment with solid results!

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Here are a few ways things I set up to enhance and capture the buzz from Regina’s SNL performance, and launch her new single “Eet”

Start with the now obligatory Culture Jam Twitter Interface : Tweet about Regina on SNL and get a live version of “EET”. Goal was to make people aware she was on SNL ahead of broadcast. These twitter buzz interface campaigns can work if you have great content – get people excited about getting something spectacular, make it worth their time, and fans will spread the word. In this case, the interface makes it easy, and an inspiring live version of “Eet” makes twittering about Regina fun!

Check it our the campaign and get the Live Version of “Eet”

Then let new fans watching SNL sample the album on NBC.com – Check out Regina’s widget with a stream the new cd “FAR” for a limited time

Sunday Morning, and you haven’t seen it yet? Check out the performance from SNL on HULU.

“Eet”
“The Calculation”

I’ve been watching the album move up itunes ever since!

Great idea and use of twitter functionality to spread the word on the Used’s new Album ARTWORK. One tweet unlocks full stream of the record, with a killer interface to retweet and see who else’s is listening to artwork.
Worth it because this is the best album the Used has made in awhile, and you will like it too!

http://twitter.theused.net/

I have a feeling this will rise up the itunes charts fast. Currently #44 on the itunes alt album chart at 8:45 pst

Ill post results and insights over the next few days! Props Kazy B in New media, and the tech team for coming up with this idea and making it happen!

http://twitter.theused.net/

Listen to the new @wearetheused album #Artwork +2 B-sides for 24 hours only! http://culturej.am/15z #theused

This is a real add I saw on a you tube clip from the movie Garden Party. This is a bad sign for the ad market, or a great sign of alignment between you tube and the untapped add market for people making crystal meth!

I was discouraged to see the Imeem widget default to :30 clips. I guess the business model can not support free streaming, legally liscnesed into a widget (trying to use only liscemsed tools and players here).

So I hopped over to LALA. Remmber the big difference between Imeem and LALA embedable Widgets:

I am paying .10 a song for web streaming rights, so people who come to my blog can hear full length.

You can only stream for free in full one time – then it will default to :30

If your looking to stream free music on your site, the LALA model seems fair in absence of true ad suppported model that works (R.I.P. Imeem widget). LALA also added a nice facebook connect implementation I’ll write more about later!

Try the LALA playlist here, original imeem playlist below:

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.

Check out the full interview here:

I had a great time at the SF Music Tech summit today. My panel was entitled “Reaching Fans” with Sean, Dave, Pano, Aaron, and Dave.

Thanks to Brian for a great day! Here is a recap of some of the key points I wanted to discuss:

We are past the tool phase – and into the “Romance the Fan” era

There are than enough tools to reach fans, no matter how advanced or basic. Know how to use them to communicate your passion, listen back, and your fan base will grow!

Your Music is the most important asset and the best way to “Reach Fans”. 

Not all Artist’s are meant to connect to Fans all the time.

Fans are going to seek what they want, when they want it – if your going to connect to them, be preapred for this!

You dont only have to give it away – selling great products from your site IS a way to connect with your Fans.

Many artists think they’re connecting to their Fans but are just pushing info out. There is a difference.

Avoid communication and data black holes – make sure your aware of what everyone else on your team is doing with your Fans. You need someone to QB your direct to Fan strategy across all areas.

The other panelists made some great points, couldnt write them all down. Search twitter #sfmusictech and youll get the best recap of the day!

I spent five years running new media for Maverick Records from 1999-2004. It was a time of transition where new media was gaining steam and the labels were taking heat. I rember fighting with people alot to do the right thing.

While new media was my focus, we put out some great music too! These Maverick Artists make a great mix, with a thread of quality throughout. We had the right concepts to break them on-line but the social infrastructure of web 2.0 and the blogosphere wasn’t quite in place. Some of these songs and bands should have been bigger, and i can see them actually doing better today with more place to get the word out!

BEST OF MAVERICK RECORD PLAYLST