{"id":174,"date":"2008-05-14T16:26:14","date_gmt":"2008-05-15T00:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evolvingmusic.wordpress.com\/?p=174"},"modified":"2008-05-14T16:26:14","modified_gmt":"2008-05-15T00:26:14","slug":"brad-sucks-does-not-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/2008\/05\/14\/brad-sucks-does-not-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Sucks Does Not Suck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Self-proclaimed &#8220;one man band with no fans&#8221;, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Brad_Sucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Brad Sucks<\/a> (Brad Turcotte) is one of the pioneers of &#8220;open source music&#8221; and the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Free_Culture_movement\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Free Culture Movement<\/a>. By waiving all the rights to his songs and giving fans access to the source of his songs for remixes, Brad has not only built a huge following, but his songs have been licensed for commercials and many of his fans <strong>choose<\/strong> to pay for his music.<\/p>\n<p>This serves to further reinforce the school of thought which maintains that giving fans access to free music (whether for listening or download) actually <a href=\"http:\/\/mashable.com\/2008\/04\/09\/lastfm-free-grows-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">results in increased sales<\/a> in the end (of CDs, digital music, concert tickets, merchandise etc.)<\/p>\n<p>Here is one of my favorite Brad Sucks songs (in a fan-made music video done as a film project and editing test):<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zRqi7HkQPF0?wmode=transparent&amp;fs=1&amp;hl=en&amp;modestbranding=1&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;showsearch=0&amp;rel=1&amp;theme=dark&amp;feature=related\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/diffrentcolours.livejournal.com\/tag\/brad+sucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Carefully, Correctfully Wrong<\/a> has an interesting way of describing Brad&#8217;s sound: &#8220;&#8230;a smooth mix of indie rock and electro, mixed with sardonic lyrics and pounding disco beats. It&#8217;s what the Scissor Sisters would sound like if they weren&#8217;t trying to be the Bee Gees.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Brad Sucks is a great example of a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Do_it_yourself\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">DIY<\/a> musician who has taken full advantage of the tools available to artists online. Other than his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bradsucks.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">official site<\/a>, you can find him on <a title=\"Brad Sucks MySpace\" href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/bradsucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">MySpace<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/cdbaby.com\/cd\/bradsucks2\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">CD Baby<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/ccmixter.org\/people\/bradsucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">ccMixter<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Brad%20Sucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Last.fm<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.magnatune.com\/artists\/brad_sucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Magnatune<\/a>, <a title=\"iLike\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ilike.com\/artist\/Brad+Sucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">iLike<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sellaband.com\/bradsucks\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Sellaband<\/a>, <a title=\"Jamendo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jamendo.com\/en\/artist\/bradsucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Jamendo<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/mog.com\/music\/Brad_Sucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">MOG<\/a> and <a title=\"Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/bradsucks\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">Twitter<\/a> to name a few. Not only does Brad Sucks encourage remixing of his songs, he invites fans to submit their remixes so he can <a title=\"Remixes\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bradsucks.net\/you\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">post them on the site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I love the simplicity of his site and the plethora of options he offers his fans for how to enjoy his music. On the <a title=\"home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bradsucks.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">home page<\/a> you can view the progress of his next album, view his upcoming gigs (you can also &#8220;demand&#8221; to see him live&#8230;), buy the album there (or Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby etc). On the <a title=\"music page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bradsucks.net\/music\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"xLink\">music page<\/a>, you can listen to songs, download them for free, buy them on a number of sites, or make a donation etc.<\/p>\n<p>Also. Is it just me or is this guy a freaking marketing genius? With a self-deprecating artist name like &#8220;Brad Sucks&#8221; and an equally likable album name, &#8220;I Don&#8217;t Know What I&#8217;m Doing&#8221;, and the simple almost child-like branding style, he gets your attention immediately and is not easily forgotten.<\/p>\n<p>Brad Sucks genuinely understands the power of encouraging direct artist-fan interaction by giving his listeners what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. And by letting them have a voice.<\/p>\n<p>And he definitely does not suck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-proclaimed &#8220;one man band with no fans&#8221;, Brad Sucks (Brad Turcotte) is one of the pioneers of &#8220;open source music&#8221; and the Free Culture Movement. By waiving all the rights to his songs and giving fans access to the source of his songs for remixes, Brad has not only built a huge following, but his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5,25,40,2034],"tags":[285,339,340,860,921,2036,1113,1223,1518,1616,1916],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mixmatchmusic.com\/evolvingmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}