Archive for the 'website' Category

Root Music: BandPages on Facebook

Remember when the tables turned and MySpace went from being the coolest social networking site around to a shady place for scantily-clad teens in questionable photos and, well… musicians? Despite the seizure-inducing animated gifs and glittering madness that came with the pimp-your-profile craze, MySpace somehow still maintained its role as THE place for musicians. Your band maybe had its own website if, you know, it was all fancy and stuff. But your band definitely had a MySpace page!

Then Facebook came along and soothed us with its minimalist design and all its tangible real-world benefits, and rocked our collective worlds. And yet, the musician was always left to fend for him or herself.

Enter Root Music. Musicians now FINALLY have a home on Facebook. This clever little San Francisco-based startup has created a way for musicians to share their stuff right from within Facebook. The BandPage is a tab just like your photos, info, or wall tabs. While they browse your page, fans can listen to your music from the embedded SoundCloud player. Want to place a banner on your page? Easy! Just upload the picture you want to use. No need to create a custom one. Every section of the BandPage is easily editable. Just drop, drag, and customize as you wish.

What you end up with is a sexy place within your Facebook profile, which you already use and people are already looking at, to share all your stuff (info, photos, shows, twitter feed and much much more) with your fans. In the place where they are already hanging out! It’s an elegant solution to an obvious problem, and Root Music has done it with aplomb. Once you setup your Root Music Bandpage on Facebook, be sure to set it as the default landing page so that it’s the first thing fans see!

Tunecore: The DIY Solution for Digital Music Distribution

Tunecore. This gem of a company is quite frankly the only solution that DIY musicians will ever need for digital music (and video) distribution. Two of the most obvious reasons why: 1) Get 100% of the royalties and 2) Keep all your rights.

Not only is Tunecore the largest distributer in the world, touting artists like Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z, Joan Jett, Aretha Franklin, and Public Enemy, but they are also the preferred partner for many of the top digital stores due to their speed, reliability, and low costs.

For artists there is no better deal because they keep every penny from every sale of their songs. And Tunecore sales are up in the neighborhood of $45 million so far. Now, that’s a lot of pennies.

On top of that, the process couldn’t be easier. Instead of submitting music to a ton of different places, Tunecore does all the work for you. They push your music to iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, Aimee Street, and others, give you access to Access to Interscope, Island Def Jam, Republic, Motown Records, and can even make your song available to buy and play on Rock Band. You also get physical on-demand distribution on Amazon, get paid for your streams on MySpace, and get a streaming music player with your music for your webpage. Merry freakin’ Christmas, people! If you ask nicely, they might come over and tuck you into bed at night too.

Ok, maybe they won’t show up at your door, but you can definitely always reach them. In addition to 24/7 access to your account (where you can add or remove stores, review iTunes sales trending reports, withdraw your money, view or download your accounting, create a streaming media player or get an iTunes store link on your artist page), there are also dedicated Artist Support Reps there to hold your hand throughout the process. Then again, Tunecore was founded on the philosophy of never taking advantage of an artist, so that shouldn’t be surprising. Their motto is “Sell Your Music, Not Your Soul.”

Tunecore should also be your new best friend because they’ve got friends in high places. Like, thanks to their partnership with Universal Music Group, they can help artists get their music licensed for TV, movies, and video games. Try doing that on your own. It’ll be tough. They’re also in cahoots with the folks at Guitar Center and House of Blues, which could bode well for your future.

As if all that weren’t enough, Tunecore also insists on hooking you up with freebies like free digital cover art, free CD artwork (for Amazon’s Disc on Demand store), free streaming music widgets, and even free bar codes, UPCs and TuneCore song identifiers (TCSI).

You’re probably wondering what the catch is by now. It all seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? They must charge like a zillion dollars, right? Nope. For $9.99, you can push your single to all 19 stores. And for $46.99 you can push your album (unlimited songs) to all 19 stores. Holy crapola that’s cheap. Another option – for the picky among you – is the “a la carte” album option that, for $59.58, let’s you select your songs and select your stores. By the way, signing up is free.

Another cool feature is the custom widget. Add your songs, band photo, tour dates, streams from Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. Be strategic and put the widget on your blog, website, Facebook, MySpace or wherever so that your fans can buy your music, see your videos, become a fan, and most importantly share your goodies with their friends.

If you do well with Tunecore, they will even grant you some super exclusive opportunities. For example: Sell 100 songs on iTunes within 30 days and get guaranteed gigs at The Roxy in LA or at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. Or if you become a Tunecore Top 10 best seller, you can get your CD in over 200 Guitar Center stores next to U2, Jimi Hendrix, and other greats, plus guaranteed in-store music play. Not. Too. Shabby. They’ve always got crazy deals and promotions going. Check out the current ones.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t just make your hot sister stand there and sell your CDs at your next local show. And don’t be that creep following rockstars around LA hoping to slip one of them a demo. Just go to Tunecore, for Pete’s sake. They’ll welcome you with open arms and propel you and your music to a level you couldn’t reach on your own. Sign up for Tunecore today!

LoopMasters: Audio Producers, Check It!!

Loopmasters.com, the ultimate audio sampling site based out of the UK. “Loopmasters first came to light in 1999 under the ‘Beatnik Samples’ banner, which released 4 Sample CDs known as the ‘Modular Series’, and received excellent reviews in the UK and overseas by the likes of Future Music (Platinum Awards), Sound on Sound (5 star reviews) and many other magazines, mainly for the flexibility and general quality of these titles. The titles were distributed worldwide and were used by many recording artists, multimedia designers, library music producers and dance music producers.” In 2003 Loopmasters officially launched. They’re not your typical audio sampling web site. Loopmasters searches for well known producers to contribute packages of useable samples. We interviewed the Loopmasters team about their product. Check it out…

LG: Hey Loopmasters, hows the audio sampling business these days? Any big news?

LM: Good thanks, lots of great stuff coming out over the coming weeks, we launch Global Underground Sample Series, and we have some great artist titles coming out including a Hardcore pack from Breeze and Styles, trance from Jon 00 Flemming, and some great dance titles from artists like Meat Katie, Jon Carter, Funkagenda and many others!

We also just starting working with Industrial Strength records who have some great Drum and Bass, Techno and Dubstep libraries amoung others in the pipeline, so its exciting times here at Loopmasters with some fantastic new royalty free samples coming from some of hottest producers on the planet. We just took over a new office which also has a nice music studio next door, and have expanded our team to help with social media, distributor projects and some new ideas we have cooking – so watch this space!

LG: What do you look for in the producers that you get to upload samples to your site?

LM: Overall it has to be quality and inspiration every time, as we can help with technical formatting and content selection – overall the producers must have passion and really know their style, genre, or instrument. Apart from that they must be ready to give up their best sounds and musical ideas for the project without worry – as we know that we have to make our customers happy.

LG: Are there any recognizable songs out there that have Loopmasters samples in them?

LM: There are a lot out there for sure, but we prefer to generally operate like a doctor/patient relationship and keep our customers identity a secret.

LG: Anything in the Loopmasters future that we should be aware of?

LM: There is a lot going on here at the moment, we are lucky to have a great group of producers buying and trusting us to provide them with the right sounds, genres and formats – as styles change we have a constant challenge to find the best people to come up with the goods. Outside of our core business we are looking into supporting our customer base more and providing useful information and opportunities – so we launched looptv.net to give an industry focus for music production, artists and interviews. Also we have an exciting record label related project launching which will be new for us and hopefully something we will be very proud of.

In the meantime – watch out for upcoming releases from our Artist and Label series, along with some fantastic products from our partner labels – a couple to keep an eye on are Wave Alchemy, Push Button Bang and Drumdrops.

Thanks for the interview, Loopmasters. Make sure to check out their profile on MixMatchMusic where you can download several of their samples!

Distribute Yourself All Over The Place

Are you a musician? Are you creating music that your friends and fans love? You want to distribute your jams but are completely confused in this weird music distribution world? We empathize… It’s hard to know where to go and what to do! You want to make sure that you will successfully and effectively distribute yourself all over the place, right? MixMatchMusic has been around the block a few times and has some good ideas of where you should go. While we were at this year’s Winter Music Conference, we made friends with a multifaceted service called Symphonic Distribution. Symphonic Distribution is a digital content distributor and services provider aimed at providing the best in content delivery, customer service, marketing, education, and more for music industry artists, managers, and record labels across the globe. They have a proven track record and currently provide services to hundreds of clients based in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Australia, Sweeden, Bosnia & Herzegovina, India, Japan, USA, Canada, Portugal, and countless other countries and cultures around the globe. In addition to their services, Symphonic Distribution also has several distinct brands for the intention of expanding the reach of a client.

SymDirect – www.symdirect.com
SymDirect is a upload fee based distribution service allowing artists and labels to keep 100% of their royalties. This service is different then the normal distribution model and in addition, undercuts MANY imitators. Consider this to be… the official post office of digital distribution. You pick the package (or shipping price), we deliver, and you get ALL of your royalties! No other charges or hidden fees!

SymIntranet – www.symintranet.com
SymIntranet is Symphonic Distribution and SymDirect’s portal for it’s signed labels and artists. The extensive portal includes marketing materials from stores, educational tutorials relating to music business, music production, and music marketing, and links to helpful initiatives aimed at helping labels grow! The website will continue to be updated to contain more educational materials, marketing plans, and more!

Check them out and please, don’t hesitate to shoot them an email if you’re interested in distributing your music and creating a name for yourself as an artist. support@symphonicdistribution.com

Bandize: Organize Your Band (Alpha)

Bandize: Organize your band from the ground up! This service is not even in beta yet (invite only for now), so it’s impressive that they’re already getting noticed. By helping you organize and manage all aspects of running a band, will Bandize put band managers out of a job? Probably not, but it will likely make it a hell of a lot easier. Artists should focus on making more great music and not have to worry about the minutiae of day-to-day band management, like accounting and product management.

Just based on their splash page, Bandize looks promising – a clean and intuitive look and feel as well as clear and concise organization of the various areas of band management. Let’s take a closer look at the areas they cover:

Shows/Tours – Manage dates, plan accommodations, track merch sales, store maps and directions…

Accounting – Log expenses, track money owed, tag transactions…

Social Network Synching – Push all your data from one place. Includes SNs like Myspace, PureVolume, Last.fm, Eventful…

Product Management – Track inventory and sales, get “out of stock” alerts…

Contact Management – Manage and categorize contacts, keep track of who talked to whom, when and why…

Task Management – Create and assign tasks, set due dates, send reminders…

Communication – Send internal messages and leave comments, upload files…

Asset Management – Log and track your gear, personal items…

Album Management – Upload cover art, album info, post reviews…

Sounds pretty sweet, right? For more, check them out at SXSW, follow them on Twitter, read their blog, or have your say at Get Satisfaction.