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Announcing the 2013 FlashFWD Nominees – Vote For Your Favorites Now

SoundCtrl — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:00:39 +0000

SoundCtrl is proud to announce our nominees for the 4th Annual FlashFWD Awards – honoring excellence and innovation in music technology.

Every year, we’re excited by the steady and explosive growth of technology that is changing the ways we create, perform, discover and listen to music. Since the inception of FlashFWD in 2010, we’ve seen the industry shift, adjust and evolve many times over.

This year, there are simply too many companies and individuals we wanted to recognize. We feel compelled open up the conversation to you – the artist, the fan, the influencer – who do you think deserves a 2013 FlashFWD Award?

Submit your vote for each of our six categories through our 2013 ballot hosted right HERE on SoundCtrl!

Best in Discovery | Best in Live | Best in Mobile & Tablet

Best in Artist Support | Best in Gaming | SoundWAV Influencer Award

See if your favorites make the cut on Wednesday, May 22nd at the Gramercy Theatre where we will welcome nominees, artists, entrepreneurs, and industry elite to celebrate our 2013 honorees, with special performances by guests TBA.

The voting period ends in two weeks and honorees will be announced in May. Congratulations to all our nominees and looking forward to another amazing FlashFWD season!

To check out what went down in 2012, visit our recap HERE and check out what past winners think about FlashFWD HERE.

If you’d like to receive a press pass and/or interview the SoundCtrl board about the event, please email [email protected].

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Best in Discovery: Past honorees include Spotify (2012), The Echo Nest (2011), Hype Machine (2010)

Recognizing a product or service that has most significantly impacted and improved the way fans discover and share recorded music

1) Songza 2) NPR Music 3) YouTube 4) Mixify 5) Rap Genius

Best in Live: Past honorees include Square (2012), The Creator’s Project (2011)

Recognizing a product, service or organization that has most significantly improved the live concert experience from either a fan or artist perspective

1) Boiler Room 2) V Squared Labs 3) Superfly Presents 4) ID&T

Best in Mobile & Tablet: Past honorees include Snibbe Interactive for Biophilia (2012), SoundTracking (2011)

Recognizing a product or service that is breaking new ground in mobile technology and expanding upon traditional fan engagement

1) Pheed 2) Groovebug 3) Biobeats 4) Instagram

Best in Artist Support: Past honorees include BandPage (2012), SoundCloud (2011), Indaba Music (2010)

Recognizing a product or service that focuses on giving artists more options in creating and promoting their music independently

1) Tumblr 2) Jamplify 3) PledgeMusic 4) (New) Myspace

Best in Gaming: A Brand New Category

Recognizing a game, creator or organization that demonstrates innovation in music integration with a gaming platform, be it through soundtrack, virtual marketplace, or unique partnership.

1) Video Star App 2) SoundPlay by Pitchfork 3) Kinect for XBOX 360 4) Virgin Gaming

SoundWAV Influencer Award: Past honorees include Scooter Braun (2012), Troy Carter (2011)

Recognizing an individual who has significantly impacted digital music culture through the early adoption or creation of new technology and is seen as a visionary and voice in the music tech industry

1) Bill Werde 2) Jimmy Iovine 3) Amanda Palmer 4) Guy Oseary 5) Questlove

Stipple: Musicians’ Ultimate Solution for Interactive In-Image Content and Ecommerce

SoundCtrl — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:00:10 +0000

By Carolyn Heneghan

In the art form of stippling, you assimilate dots to form a complete picture. In the art form of Stipple, you assimilate media to form a complete branding solution. Tech startup Stipple weaves together complex forms of media and tags this information to enriched web images for interactive and easily activated content at users’ fingertips. Content creators: Listen up.

Images are pervasive on social media and the web in general, so it’s no wonder that they are at the forefront of Stipple’s digital advertising strategy. You can’t log in to Facebook or Twitter without being bombarded by images from your friends and the brands that you follow. Wouldn’t it be a novel idea to be able to access still more content right from that image? And to take it one step further, wouldn’t it be great if that content remained attached to the image no matter where it might be shared?

While often labeled as a tagging service, Stipple goes far beyond typical tagging capabilities. Users are likely already familiar with tagging people and places in photos, say on Facebook. But once that photo is shared beyond its place on Facebook, the tags are lost on the blog, website or other social media profile it has been shared on. With Stipple, the content is woven directly into the very fabric of the image and thus travels right along with that photo wherever it might end up.

Just this past week at the Ad Age Digital Conference, the company officially introduced its new Stipple Shopping component to increase the ease and accessibility of ecommerce for brands and musicians. Reaching fans and customers has never been easier, as consumers can now purchase products, say albums and merchandise, from right within a photo posted on the band or musician’s website, Facebook, Twitter and the like.

“[Stipple Shopping] revolutionizes online purchasing by enabling brands to share the needed information for consumers to make informed purchase decisions,” says Stipple CEO and founder Rey Flemings. “Let’s stop asking consumers to open multiple browsers to hunt down, explore and compare products—steps that create friction in the sales process. Now, consumers will be able to explore, compare and purchase products without ever leaving the image that they’re looking at.”

And for musicians, he adds, “Instead of asking your fans to click to your website to checkout your albums and merchandise, you can now take the best of what your site offers directly to them through images everywhere.”

While Stipple might generally be more brand-facing, musicians stand to benefit in their own unique ways. According to Flemings, “Music is part of Stipple’s DNA.”

“Stipple enables musicians to package relevant content and deliver it through photos to their fans across the web and social media,” says Flemings. “This means musicians are no longer limited to sharing just a song; with Stipple, in a single image they can share a video from the latest tour stop, backstage pictures, the ability to like the band on Facebook, purchase the latest album on iTunes and more.”

“It’s a win-win,” Flemings continues. “Fans get richer interactive content at their fingertips, without ever needing to leave the image or web page they’re looking at. Musicians drive much deeper engagement and ensure that their content is presented exactly how they want it, including the ability to drive revenue.”

Stipple continues to further the reach of images and in-image content through its Editorial offerings. Flemings says, “Stipple’s Editorial offering enables brands and musicians to place interactive content and messaging in images that contain their products. For example, if a band gets reviewed in Vibe and other websites, Stipple enables the corresponding band to place a video, buy on iTunes button, Facebook ‘like’ button and more within the editorial photo that accompanies the article. This is a great win-win-win. Consumers get more relevant content regarding the story they’re reading. Bands reach consumers in an editorial context and further engage consumers that are interested in their music. Publishers get deeper reader engagement and the opportunity to drive revenue from their images.”

This venture is not one simply in the works for bands here and there to dabble with. As an established web tagging, ecommerce and advertising solution, Stipple currently works with “many talented musicians and labels,” says Flemings, “Including Justin Timberlake, Warner Music Group and others.”

Stipple has produced a case study to take a closer look at their successes with Justin Timberlake and his promotions for his latest album, tour and appearance on Saturday Night Live. With three posts each on Facebook and Twitter, Stipple’s interactive images engaged an average of 74% of viewers with a 7.5% click-through rate and 146 sites reached through sharing, including premium sites like Glamour, Paste, Vibe and The Hollywood Reporter. This is a huge number of engaged users from just a few posts and nearly 540,000 image views. These clicks are equivalent to 40 million in ads, and the engagements are equivalent to 400 million in ads. You do the math.

The possibilities of this service for brands and musicians are limited only by their content and imaginations. Check out this presentation from Stipple’s appearance at the Ad Age Digital Conference last week to learn more about the company and how it is “Rethinking Digital Advertising.”

Better Know a FlashFWD Nominee – Jamplify

SoundCtrl — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:07:55 +0000

By Keith Nelson, Jr.

Ever since social media connected every human with one another, word of mouth’s promotional value has increased exponentially with Facebook statuses acting as digital billboards. How do you revolutionize a constantly changing medium? Reward fans for being fans. Former Goldman Sachs employees took that idea and manifested it into a social reward service called Jamplify where artists can reward fans for constantly promoting the artist. Given their own custom URL, fans can share the artists’ music, music video, etc to Facebook, blogs, and a variety of other online platforms which can help them garner prizes set by the artist for the fan with the most referrers.

The service, which started in August of 2012, is not some unknown powerhouse. In March of this year, the startup raised $600,000 from an array of investors.

Jamplify co-founder Moses Soyoola spoke with SoundCtrl about the rise of Jamplify, its future, “Jampaigns,” and more.

SoundCtrl: How did the idea for Jamplify form?

Moses Soyoola: Our CEO Andy woke up one morning to a music video in his inbox that had hit 300,000 views just from word of mouth. It sparked the idea that fans can be a powerful marketing asset and that artists need better tools to drive word-of-mouth.

SC: What has the past year meant for the Jamplify brand?

MS: We launched Jamplify in August and have had a really exciting year, winning best startup in marketing and social engagement at Midem and best startup at Canadian Music Week. In the last nine months, we’ve worked with big players in the major and indie label communities and with names like 50 Cent and Bruno Mars. The last year has been amazing, but it’s just the beginning.

SC: Jamplify turns an artists’ fanbase into a digital ad agency with allowing them to promote their own unique link. Why this method?

MS: Fans are powerful and effective marketers. By giving each fan their own unique referral link, the fan can spread the word wherever they have social reach, whether Facebook, Twitter, or obscure community forums where they might be active. The average fan drives 50 referrals withJamplify, and that’s a testament to their creativity and tenacity in sharing their link around.

SC: What has been the most common “ScratchBack” offered by artists? What has been the strangest or most inventive?

MS: Most common: free tickets to shows. Most inventive: a day in the office with 50 Cent at G-Unit records to do a 12-photo shoot and make a 50 Cent calendar.

SC: Since Jamplify rewards users for referring links do you think this could cause the artist to have momentary fans instead of long lasting fans that are more engaged?

MS: Because the rewards are always things related to the artist rather than something like cash or an iPad, the fans that promote are the ones that really care about the artist. A person isn’t going to try to win tickets to a show if he/she doesn’t actually like that artist. In a lot of ways,Jamplify helps artists develop stronger relationships with their most influential fans. We’re building in a host of new features which will enable artists to reengage their promoters around all of their content releases and deepen those relationships over time.

SC: What will the new $600,000 in investment money rouded up last month go towards?

MS: The $600,000 investment will be focused mostly on product development. We’re building Jamplify into an ongoing digital street team platform that will provide long-lasting promotional value for the artists we work with.

SC: Jamplify connects to YouTube but are there plans of expanding the connection to other streaming platforms such as Spotify and SoundCloud?

MS: We’ve already run jampaigns for embeds from SoundCloud, and we’re set up to do jampaigns for Spotify or any streaming platform. Jamplify can be used to promote anything with a URL – so Spotify playlists, Rdio playlists, etc are all fair game.

SC: What are the people at Jamplify actively working on improving about the service?

MS: We’re really excited about the data that we can show artists on their top influencers. These are fans that can reach thousands of people with a tweet. Our goal is to help artists identify and foster a stronger relationship with these valuable fans. We’re building in all sorts of functionality to make this happen.

SC: What are the plans for 2013?

MS: 2013 is about helping artists get more than ever from word-of-mouth. We have a great group of artists that we’re working with today, and we’re excited for the Jamplify community to grow as more artists sign up.

35 Ways Musicians and Music Brands Are Using Twitter’s Vine App

SoundCtrl — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:03:11 +0000

By Brian Anthony Hernandez, via Mashable

Mashable has compiled a pretty great 35-vine long list of celebrities, rising artists and music brands who are giving fans a visual and auditory glimpse into their lives with intimate 6-second, GIF-like videos. Here are the top ten… go check out all the vines on Mashable!

1. Rolling Stone Honors 5 Decades of The Beatles

2. Paul McCartney Challenges Fans to Name Song

3. Enrique Igelsias Shares Fan’s Footage

4. 30 Seconds to Mars Thanks a Fan

5. VH1 Interviews Jared Leto About Vine

6. Dido Shows Off Rehearsal in a Hotel

7. Live Nation Promotes Tickets With Video of Pink

8. Steve Aoki Curses and Air Humps in Limo

9. Jason Derulo Meets With Record Label

10. Rolling Stone Pimps Out Flaming Lips Singer’s Nails

Ghost Beach Opens Up About Times Square Billboard on Piracy

SoundCtrl — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:08:30 +0000

Last week, we posted an article from Ben Sisario via The New York Times about a mysterious billboard that had appeared above the American Eagle Outfitters in Times Square. The $50,000 advertising spot wasn’t being used to promote new spring arrivals… it had been given to New York-based “tropical grit pop” duo Ghost Beach, whose single ‘Miracle’ was recently licensed for a AEO commercial spot. But rather than opting for a splashy promo pic and a call to action to download said single, the band chose to use this opportunity to shine a light on piracy debate from an artist’s perspective.

The band has opened up to Billboard.biz about the decision to launch the online campaign called Artists Vs. Artists on Twitter and at artistsvsartists.com. Perhaps surprisingly, according to the responses submitted thus far, #artistsforpiracy is more heavily supported than #artistsagainstpiracy (although consumers and fans have been weighing in as well).

Check out Ghost Beach’s guest post HERE and if you’re an artist, let them know what piracy means to you.

Indaba Music Launches ‘Projects’

SoundCtrl — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:19:47 +0000

Past FlashFWD Honoree Indaba (2010) has launched a brand new area of their service called Projects.

Projects are a way to make music away from the competition and deadlines of contests. With opportunities to either ‘learn’ through interactive tutorials, ‘record’ new music, or ‘produce’ or remix music already provided by the community, Projects aim to enhance the collaborative nature of Indaba.

Check out the video below for more information:

Debate over Piracy Gets Big with Times Square Billboard

SoundCtrl — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:26:54 +0000

By Ben Sisario via The New York Times

“For the last week a mysterious ad has flashed on the LED billboard above the American Eagle Outfitters store at Broadway and 46th Street, just over the bronze shoulder of George M. Cohan. Variably positing piracy as “criminal,” “progress” and “the future,” it asks the observer to “pick a side” on Twitter, as #artistsforpiracy or #artistsagainstpiracy…

The party behind the billboard and its related Web site, ArtistsVsArtists.com, is Ghost Beach, a two-man Brooklyn band whose profile is low even by indie Brooklyn standards: about 8,800 Facebook likes and zero Pitchfork hits. Ghost Beach was approached by American Eagle, which wanted to license the band’s song “Miracle” for an online ad. As it has done with a few other bands the retailer offered a fee as well as access to the billboard.

The ArtistsVsArtists billboard has been booked for two weeks, ending on Sunday. The group’s use of the billboard is worth $50,000, an American Eagle spokeswoman said.”

What side do you fall on? #artistsforpiracy or #artistsagainstpiracy ?

For the full story visit www.nytimes.com

Limited Run Introduces Ticketing Module

SoundCtrl — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:00:28 +0000

by Dave Mainella

Direct-to-fan platform Limited Run has been working hard to present a uniquely efficient and attractive home base for independent artists and labels. We first wrote about them after their relaunch last year, and last week, Limited Run announced their biggest upgrade to date: unveiling a new ticket selling module.

The idea is to bring the concept of managing Will Call lists and ticket sales into the age of digital, DIY innovation. The ticketing module is integrated directly into an artist’s or label’s storefront, allowing them to advertise and sell tickets to shows through their Limited Run store. Tickets are featured in their own dedicated “shows” area in the storefront.

SoundCloud integration, as on product pages, makes it so fans purchasing tickets don’t have to scour the internet to check out music before attending the show. Limited Run rightly explains the simple justification for this feature; “Keeping the fan on the ticket and product pages is a great way to increase engagement.”

To keep with the theme of engagement, the ticketing system is also integrated with Google Maps and multiple calendar programs, including Google, iCalendar, and Outlook, so that fan’s have all the essential details they need directly through the platform. Email notifications are built in as well, just in case fans forget.

Limited Run’s cost basis for managing a storefront and selling products has always been outstanding, and the trend continues with the ticketing module. The one-and-only flat fee on ticket sales is 25 cents a ticket.

The team at Limited Run has gone through great lengths to make sure ticket management goes smoothly on the day of the show. They’ve created a Will Cast list simultaneously available for use by multiple people. A manager can email a show-specific code to several helpers working the door, giving each of them access to the Will Call list on their laptops, smartphones, and iPads. The list automatically updates after a guest is checked in, meaning everyone is seeing an up-to-date list.

Other features include an easy search feature that helps to quickly check in fans, local information storage that accommodates temporary losses of network connections, and a guest list function that allows bands to easily add friends to the list. Ticket sellers are also given the option of ending online sales 6 hours, 12 hours, or several days before showtime.

Limited Run outlines the basics of this new feature (and all their recent improvements) on their blog.

Soundrop Announces Facebook Integration – Interview with CEO Inge Andre Sandvik

SoundCtrl — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 15:46:43 +0000

By Keith Nelson Jr.

In October of 2012, Spotify app Soundrop was an indicator of a shift in the artist-fan relationship with its digital listening session for Interscope Records rapper Kendrick Lamar’s now Gold-certified album, good kid, mAAd city. Over 40,000 people at one point chatted with Kendrick and voted for the next song the room would play, thus creating more dialogue and this phenomenon of social playlisting.

How does a service built on the constant growth of an interactive community advance its social listening rooms? Forge a partnership with the goliaths of social media: Facebook and YouTube/VEVO.

Today, Soundrop unveils its next step in making music social with the establishment of cross-platform integration with Facebook and YouTube/VEVO. As of this moment, artists can easily embed their Soundrop rooms onto their personal Facebook page here, tapping into the word-of-mouth potential of 693 million active Facebook users. YouTube/VEVO will handle the playback of the music, and fans on both Facebook and Spotify will be able to vote on songs for these newly connected rooms. Fans in the in-app chatroom on Spotify will also be able to communicate with those in the Soundrop chatrooms on Facebook in real-time.

SoundCtrl interviewed Soundrop CEO and co-founder Inge Andre Sandvik to delve deeper into the significance of the recent partnership as well as gauge Soundrop’s potential influence on artists’ careers in the constantly digitizing music industry.

SoundCtrl: The press release places an emphasis on improving video traffic and playback is handled by YouTube/VEVO. Will music videos be played or will video traffic be related to songs played over YouTube/VEVO?

Inge Andre Sandvik: We’re focused on helping artists accelerate their traffic, no matter what platform their fans prefer to use. On Facebook, we use VEVO and YouTube for playback, so we’re actually helping artists increase their video counts. In Spotify, we’re helping them increase their Spotify streams. We always want to drive traffic where the artist has licensed their content, so the artist is always in control of the videos presented in their room.

SoundCtrl: Soundrop has streamed over 500 million songs. Which artist room had the most people in it at one given time?

Inge Andre Sandvik: Kendrick Lamar is our current record holder. More than 42,000 people were simultaneously connected at any one second during his live chat. Additionally, more than 200,000 people visited his room within just a few days. This was right around the release of good kid, m.A.A.d city, which was a landmark album. Our previous champion was an event with Sebastian Ingrosso (of Swedish House Mafia) and Alesso that actually won us an award.

SoundCtrl: Are there any talks about implementing video chat or streaming music videos in a chatroom that fans can vote on?

Inge Andre Sandvik: Actually we’re doing the latter right now. Since playback in Facebook is done through VEVO and YouTube, you could say that the fans are streaming music videos in the chat room (Soundrop of course lets you chat live with fans everywhere) and voting on them to change the playlist. We’re of course always evaluating ways of improving our service, but artists tell us that the current text chat is a very easy, low threshold way of connecting with their fans. When you add a live video component, it puts more pressure and effort on the artist and their team. We want Soundrop to be easy and fun for both fans and artists to use.

SoundCtrl: Soundrop’s integration with Facebook means real-time cross-platform conversations between Spotify and Facebook members. That is pretty innovative. Will there be any differences between the Soundrop user interface and functionality such as Facebook status updates when someone enters a Soundrop room.

Inge Andre Sandvik: The core Soundrop experience will always be cross-platform and in real-time. When you vote up a song in Soundrop in Spotify, that will be reflected in the playlist I see in Soundrop in Facebook. At the same time, it’s important to carefully use the opportunities for sharing in a way that is not spamming each listener’s social graph. We will never share activity without the user’s explicit approval.

SoundCtrl: I remember being at the Kendrick Lamar Soundrop event back in October. He garnered about 40,000 guests. How can an upcoming artist with a relatively small fanbase benefit from Soundrop?

Inge Andre Sandvik: 40,000 was just the beginning. There were more than 200,000 visits within a few days to the Kendrick Lamar room. It proves that people want to enjoy music in a social setting. Humans have done this for thousands of years. We’re just bringing that activity online. A Soundrop room is about giving your fans a place to connect. It’s not about the size of your tribe today, it’s about how you keep them engaged and nurture your fan base so it grows over time. We’re the perfect tool for an artist to do exactly that. And since we’re always driving to licensed content, we’re always helping an artist generate revenue. Everybody wins. Fans get a great experience, and an artist can generate more revenue.

Soundctrl: Will Soundrop’s new development deliver any analytics for artists to gauge traffic?

Inge Andre Sandvik: We provide analytics so room owners can see how their rooms are performing. Our goal is to give them unique insights in who their listeners are and what they are doing. However we see that there is much more to do there, so expect more things from us soon.

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In the next few weeks, artists such as Matisyahu, English rapper Delvin, and a few other surprises will be the first to host live chat events on the new Soundrop. In December, we discussed Facebook’s low video traffic (in relation to overall Facebook traffic) and the friction between VEVO and YouTube so Soundrop could be a beneficial middleman for all. Until that is known, let’s all listen with thy (digital) neighbor.

Stay social, people.

Keith Nelson Jr. is a music appreciator bordering on elitist trying to connect all the dots. He graduated from Syracuse University in 2010 with a B.A. in English & Textual Studies. Tweet at him at @JusAire.

BandPage Builds Out ‘Pipes’ to Twitter, Pandora, SoundCloud and Facebook

SoundCtrl — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:49:24 +0000

By Alex Pham – via Billboard Biz

BandPage on Wednesday announced that its half a billion users can update some of their information simultaneously on Twitter, Pandora, SoundCloud and Facebook — putting in place key pieces of its ambition to give musicians a central location where they can manage their myriad online presence.

“The idea is to give musicians a tool that would let them update their band information once and have it automatically appear everywhere online so they don’t have to sign on to all these different accounts,” said J Sider, chief executive of the San Francisco start-up.

Read full story at Billboard.biz

GeoRiot Reveals New Tools For International Affiliate Linking

SoundCtrl — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:55:46 +0000

Unified affiliate linking platform GeoRiot has been continually refining and tweaking their product. Back in November, the company announced unified reporting across international affiliates, and this week they have unveiled a new design with new tools that more seamlessly transform iTunes Store links into globally-aware affiliate links. The launch is accompanied by new and updated resources that foster the company’s goal of providing simple and concise affiliate linking resources for record labels, app developers, and Internet marketers around the world.

The new site include walkthroughs and screenshots, video tutorials for getting set up with each of the affiliate networks, and concise information on “geo-fragmentation,” the term GeoRiot uses to describe today’s geographically segmented e-commerce and affiliate marketing landscape.

“We designed every aspect of the site with the user in mind. We strive to be a resource for international affiliate linking because getting set up and running with the various networks can be such a complicated process and a barrier to leveraging tools like ours to open up an additional revenue stream. We felt these challenges significantly impacted the number of people who use the affiliate program, especially at a global scale,” says GeoRiot CEO Jesse Lakes.

GeoRiot works differently from traditional affiliate networks by providing users with a single, globally-aware link, in place of using multiple links that vary by region. For example, an artist with an international fan base can tweet one link to buy their album which will work regardless of where that fan might be located.

While GeoRiot’s current focuses are the iTunes and App Stores, the company says they plan to expand the service to fully support Amazon’s international presence.

Audiosocket is strengthening its social tool set

SoundCtrl — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:01:55 +0000

By Kira Grunenberg

Getting your music noticed and licensed can get complicated pretty quickly in some situations. There are usually a fair amount of metaphoric barriers to break through and even then, there is a lot of pavement pounding to be done in order to hopefully get recognized. Audiosocket, a music and licensing tech company based in Seattle, with additional offices in New York, LA, New Orleans, and London, has been promoting hassle-free licensing and pre-cleared, fully legal, musical content by a variety of artists –established and independent– since its founding in 2007. The incorporation of sharing across platforms is also a big part of Audiosocket’s work. The company just recently announced enhancements and changes to its existing platform; emphasizing the enduring difference in its approach as a professional business, which includes using social elements:

While sharing music via social media or email for entertainment is nothing new, sharing music for professional reasons (i.e. film, ads, videos, gaming) is currently exclusive to Audiosocket and adds to the convenience the company seeks to provide its users.

At present, Audiosocket’s library hosts more than 48,000 tracks and utilizes another unique tech tool called MaaS (Music as a Service). This strongly supports both the content creators and the end users thereof, smoothing out the overall experience of providing and then accessing the chosen content. Users of MaaS have a Storefront available to them, using an API that can be easily obtained and applied to one’s own website and remain in the individual’s control.

The Audiosocket Storefront has now been aesthetically and functionally redesigned to match the overhaul of its main site, which was re-branded in October of last year. Regarding the former, search features have been strengthened with more criteria available for filtering, including: mood, artists, genre and even particular instruments present in a song. Other than searching on one’s own for content to use, social sharing among Audiosocket’s professional has taken on a higher level of priority and growth, based on feedback from users. The President and Co-founder of Audiosocket, Jenn Miller, explains:

“Knowing how much people love to share new music they discover with colleagues and friends, we wanted to make it easy, sexy and fun. By allowing creatives to extend their reach beyond the walls of their editing suite, our artists will gain greater exposure and opportunity. Tracks and playlists can now be shared via Facebook, Twitter, or email.”

After sifting through the assortment of Audiosocket’s content and finding something suitable for future use or, even when vacillating between a few potential choices, users can turn to new pricing options for license acquisition that fit either scenario. “Track Packages” allow for bulk purchase of licenses at a fixed rate and also allow for as much time as needed to produce the licenses for each purchased.

These changes and updates are sure to strengthen Audiosocket’s existing and new users’ confidence levels –not only in having a place to get quality content but also in helping these media partners better establish rapport for their individual networks of collaborators for any of their future, music related needs.

To get a better idea of Audiosocket’s trademarked MaaS technology, below is a brief video of CEO Brent McCrossen explaining its core concept prior to the company’s October revamp:

Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1

Next Big Sound Reports on The State of Online Music in 2012

SoundCtrl — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:09:54 +0000

by Dave Mainella

Earlier this week, music data analytics company Next Big Sound released their 2012 State of Online Music report. After tracking data related to the growth of social networks, streaming services, online radio, and digital downloads for nearly three years, we have a by-the-numbers look at digital music trends in social media and fan sharing.

Next Big Sound tracked growth in consumption from audio and video sources including Vimeo, YouTube, VEVO, SoundCloud, Last.fm, MySpace, Rdio, ReverbNation, and Purevolume to reveal 2012 had a 45% year-over-year growth in new plays. That’s almost 100 billion combined views on YouTube, listens on SoundCloud etc.

The report also summed the new followers and subscribers of the aforementioned content platforms, as well as Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and Pandora fans for a combined total of over 5 billion new fans, or 67% growth.

Interestingly, total new profile views numbered 17 billion, only 6% growth over 2011 that Next Big Sound clarifies as a result of a 13% decline in YouTube channel views and a 32% decline in MySpace profile views. The staggering drop in MySpace views only means that the freshly re-launched former leader in social media has a good chance to do better this year.

MySpace aside, all other media outlets experienced steady-to-substantial growth in 2012. SoundCloud led the pack, with fan activity close to triple 2011 levels. The Next Big Sound blog correctly emphasizes the importance of video. “Emphasis on visual content is key, with video streaming platform YouTube seeing steady growth, though much more so than partner website VEVO which only services the major labels, excluding Warner.” Video views number in the several hundred thousands each month.

The Next Big Sound report also dives into the concept of Social Market Share, that is, the percentage of the social media environment captured by the major labels and independent artists. At first glance, there appears to be a fairly consistent distribution, with Universal leading the majors and independent artists keeping pace – (the one exception is SoundCloud, where unsigned artists captured two-thirds of plays).

There are several important things to note about the Social Market Share numbers. Next Big Sound calculated the numbers only using artists who have ever had a song on the radio in the US or Canada. This immediately inflates the major labels’ representation in relation to independent artists. If the conversation is the entire digital and social music landscape outside of sales, then this is an important distinction. Granted, Next Big Sound can’t be blamed for not tracking and aggregating data from millions of small and unsigned bands.

Next Big Sound does correctly identify the major labels as responsible for over three quarters of music sales in 2012, a statistic confirmed by The Nielsen Company & Billboard’s 2012 Music Industry Report. We then also see that independent artists hold a multiplier of two in regards to Social Market Share versus sales. While they account for roughly 15% of music sales, unsigned artists have at least a 30% market share in social. This is a very important statistical distinction from which we can hypothesize a revealing conclusion.

Based on the amazing growth in numbers and percentages that Next Big Sound reveals in their report, it is undisputed that the influence of the social media environment as part of the music environment is large. But what about social’s influence on the music environment?

Again comparing Next Big Sound’s report to the Nielsen report, the major labels’ representation in Social Market Share quite closely approximates their market share in sales, especially in digital sales. Independent artists’ market share in sales is half their market share in social. Perhaps independent artists are in a better position to capitalize on the growth of social media in music, and in turn drive more growth in sales than the major labels.

Next Big Sound concludes it’s report with a presentation of the Top Social Albums, determined by looking at the top-selling albums of the year and finding the ones that drove the largest percentage increase in the artist’s social media numbers. The Top Social Album of 2012 was the Lumineers and their self-titled debut, released by Dualtone Records… an independent label.

Kickstarter Turns Three: Releases Stats on Music Crowdfunding

SoundCtrl — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:33:43 +0000

By Jeff Brunken

Launched on April 28, 2009 with the goal of providing a funding alternative for Music and Art, Kickstarter is now three years old. Last week, they released their 2012 Year in Review highlights.

Key milestones include:

2,241,475 people pledged a total of $319,786,629 and successfully funded 18,109 projects
People in 177 countries (90% of countries worldwide) backed a project in 2012
Funds pledged totaled $319,786,629 — a 221% increase from 2011
Funds collected totaled $274,391,721 — a 238% increase from 2011
Total backers rose to 2,241,475 — a 134% increase from 2011
Music had the most funded projects with 5,067

These campaigns were more than just struggling musicians trying to crowdfund an album – music projects in 2012 were diverse. In addition to mainstream popular music, campaigns funded the release of classical works into the public domain, opera, and even music documentaries.

A Stradivarius violin nearly 300 years old was the basis of a campaign to chronicle the instrument’s history and the music associated with it.

An experimental music band seeks funding for, “A psychedelic, ambient, Western music video culminating in the ritualistic sacrifice of a cowboy and his bride to a giant glowing worm.”

Projects also included the philanthropic. Lester Chambers, leader of the 60s Soul group, “The Chambers Brothers” worked for over 27 years before seeing a single royalty check. Online publisher Alex Ohanian led this successful project to produce a fund-raising album.

17 projects raised more than $1 million in 2012, but the norm is more modest; the average successful project is closer to $5000, the average pledge $71, and the most common pledge is $25.

For those in search of Big Money, it helps to start with a Big Name. Recipients of major funding in 2012 include Steven Van Zandt, MSI, and Mishka.

And, with big money sometimes comes big controversy. Amanda Palmer asked for $100,000, got $1.2 million, and was soon defending herself from critics.

A good place to start before joining the Kickstarter crowd is Kickstarter School. Even more in-depth study is available via 3rd-party Schools.

After triple-digit growth in 2012 and prominence to match, it will be interesting to see what kind of year Kickstarter has in 2013.

Jeff worked as a researcher & technical writer for a Fortune 500 company and has a serious gadget problem. He loves music, but was an instrumentalist long enough to know that the world is a better place if he just listens instead. Tweet at him @jbrunkn

Facebook’s New Graph Search and the Future of Artists on Facebook

SoundCtrl — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:38:13 +0000

By Jason Epstein

Earlier this week, Facebook announced their new search feature, Graph Search. Along with the controversy-ridden News Feed and Timeline, Facebook considers this to be one of their “Three Pillars.” Graph Search is meant to be a private, internal search engine with the categories People, Places, Photos and Interests. For searches that come up empty, you’ll be dumped onto a Bing search engine results page within Facebook.

This could be a great way to localize and add an unprecedented social element to music. You could find a friend’s photos of a band or interests associated with a specific genre of music. You can use Siri-like search terms like “what music do my friends like?” or “what concerts are my friends going to in 2013?” instead of more traditional Google-friendly search terms. With this new feature, word of mouth music exposure will now be searchable, enabling recommendations from the past to come into the present. Seeing a friend’s “liked” band can lead to you to “liking” an artist, seeing an upcoming show, or finding an entirely new genre to enjoy.

At around the same time, the new MySpace quietly launched (there will be a more formal and public launch at some point) their revamped site new.myspace.com as a music-oriented social networking venture with Justin Timberlake as its mascot. Users will be able to post status updates, pictures, or music in addition to using MySpace’s “audio deck” media player. There’s a “People” tab for subscribing to others’ status updates and a “Discover” function for popular music news.

Will there be competition from MySpace? It’s possible, but only in the way people consume music and music news. Facebook is overwhelmingly likely to have a monopoly on the way people interact with each other and every other topic under the sun for the foreseeable future. But this resurgence still begs the question; could Facebook adopt Myspace-style music players and features for media consumption in the future? And could that extend to movies and other forms of media?

Graph Search could change music marketing in a big way. Search Engine Optimization has been helpful for all types of monetization and Graph Search could become one of the most important, influential and widely used search engines out there, facilitating a need for artists to use SEO for high search engine results page rankings in Facebook. Facebook’s shady dealings could even result in auto-completes being populated with results that point to the page of the highest bidder.

Whatever may come down the line, this is certainly an interesting and worthwhile addition to Facebook that could have an increasing impact on the way we find, consume and share music, both old and new.

Going Viral: How YouTube Videos and Social Media Spurred (R)evolution for the Music Industry

SoundCtrl — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:00:51 +0000

By Carolyn Heneghan

Viral videos have thoroughly permeated contemporary culture, from chats at the water cooler and TV mentions to rampant social media shares. And while many of these videos feature adorable cats, dramatic prairie dogs, or Charlie the Unicorn, many others feature musicians of all stripes. Whether it’s an established artist’s latest music video or a new band’s first shot at internet fame, the potential for a video going viral is a new goal in the minds of the music industry.

Take the Scooter Braun factory for example: Psy, Carly Rae Jepsen, Justin Bieber. Granted, these may be extreme examples of viral hits, but they are indicative of the driving force behind up-and-coming musicians’ DIY media pursuits.

For some, the virality of their latest music video is a more front-and-center goal than landing a record deal. In an age where countless musically-inclined hopefuls have the accessibility of the internet at their disposal, musicians are having to come up with new, tech-savvy ways to get noticed.

Cardinal Sons

“There are TONS of bands out there, all with practically the same resources at their disposal,” says David Shirley of the New Orleans trio of brothers, Cardinal Sons. “It makes it more difficult to be heard in the crowd, but it gives bands the ability to be creative with what they have and make an impact that way. It is very exciting. “

Of course, not all musicians have embraced this industry trend, and many would agree that they simply don’t need to. Plenty of artists are successful without viral videos. Others have had a video go viral, only to enjoy a mere 15 seconds of fame amidst viewers’ exponentially short attention spans.

The Local Skank

Hannah Krieger-Benson, of New Orleans-based ska band, The Local Skank, says, “We are definitely not an especially video-heavy band, although we have some of both music videos and live footage. We’ve never gone out of our way to create… videos, video has just been part of our stream of creativity. But overall I’d say we’re way more focused on making music than on documenting it visually.”

“I think that all depends on the level of the band,” says Shirley. “For a band that already has a dedicated fan base, it’s not as important. I feel like a new band needs videos, music or promo, to captivate new listeners and keep them interested for long enough to “like” their page or convince them to go out to their show.”

Social media promotes this idea of viral videos, as it is the most common engine for viral spreads of media and information in general. It’s also likely to be the most common way for musicians to directly reach their fans today. All of the musicians interviewed for this article agreed that Facebook (and indirectly YouTube) is the primary vehicle for sharing videos and other content with their fans. The “liking” and “sharing” of videos is a phenomenon that has changed the way musicians think about the visual content they create alongside the music they write. In this day and age, it’s almost better to have something visual and sharable than nothing at all.

Koan

“It’s so simple now. Anybody with a smartphone can produce a good quality video,” says New Orleans-based hip hop artist Koan. “Social media changed the way you promote. Instead of hanging flyers in hopes that someone sees it, you could just send it directly to them. It’s right in their pockets. Everybody has a cell phone, everybody has Twitter, everybody has Facebook.”

“[Videos] can definitely help, but the video has zero value unless it leads the observer to share it with his or her friends, go to our shows, visit our social media sites, download our EP, etc. It’s all about the interaction, especially from fan to band,” says Shirley.

Viral video marketing is now pushing musicians to produce videos that are newsworthy, funny, shocking, or so bad they’re good (a la Rebecca Black). A three-piece band playing a generic indie song in front of a laptop camera may not be unique or remarkable, and neither will the amount of views (unless they already have a sizable following). So now the key for musicians—both established and up-and-coming—is to find more ways to stand out, both musically and visually.

“Our promotion strategies are tailored to and include a lot of independent promotion and use of social media. However, we came up as a band in the age where this is a normal standard,” says Krieger-Benson. “Having started in 2008, we can’t really speak to the experience of bands who have had to shift from older paradigms for video creation, promotion, and release.”

Whatever stance a musician may have on viral videos and social media, it is undeniable that there has been a sizable shift that will forever affect the way we think about producing, promoting, and sharing music with the world.

“I think the move toward self-production/promotion is, yes, a significant shift in the music industry,” says Krieger-Benson. “But, it has not happened in a vacuum, it has been part of larger sea-changes in the arts amidst the rise of 21-century technology.”

“We are a part of the shift. All new bands are,” says Shirley. “Bands have to be creative and current and thinking about the future. Lots of bands are getting noticed these days by having “groundbreaking” ideas with the release of their music and videos. That is what we are trying to find, the next best thing. All we can do is keep giving it our best shot.”

Thefuture.fm announces DJ Royalty Program

SoundCtrl — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:40:29 +0000

Dubset Media Holdings, the rights-flow and fingerprint technology company, today announced the launch of the world’s first formal DJ Royalty Program being offered by its internet radio site Thefuture.fm. SoundCtrl interviewed Thefuture.fm VP of Marketing Chris Nagy last year.

Powered by the company’s patent-pending MixSCAN technology, Thefuture.fm provides one of the only platforms for DJs to share mixes with their fans under full rights compliance, and DJs will begin earning multiple royalties themselves.

The MixSCAN technology parses mixes into thousands of individual audio files, comparing each against the Gracenote database. The resulting output is a “Mix DNA” that not only identifies all underlying music, but all rights metadata associated with it. The platform is rights compliant and fully integrated with all performance rights organizations including ASCAP, SESAC, BMI, and SoundExchange. It reports all mix and listener data downstream and makes necessary royalty payments on behalf of the site and the DJ.

“Mix streaming technology is a unique area of expertise for the company,” says Bob Barbiere, CEO. “Since Thefuture.fm pays a portion of its revenue to the performance rights organizations, DJs can use the site to share their mixes without the threat of copyright infringement or takedown notices. Although DJs traditionally share mixes for free, most free sites are not DMCA compliant and create a potentially large financial liability for the DJ. DJs who choose Thefuture.fm to share music with their fans represent a growing number who understand the risks and are concerned about the artists whose music they are mixing.”

Grab Thefuture.fm mobile app at iTunes.

Moozar’s “Reward Link” Provides Artists with a Potential Means to Make Money

SoundCtrl — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:48:07 +0000

by Dave Mainella

As artists continue to find ways to drive sales and earn income with their music, Moozar hopes to add another tool to their workshop. Moozar introduces the “reward link,” providing a service through which fans can financially support artists. For the fans, it’s an altruistic way of acknowledging and appreciating someone’s creative work. For the artist, it’s a potential source of income derived from pre-existing digital channels.

The concept is this: an artist, label, author, composer, publisher etc. registers for free with Moozar. Once registered, creative works are imported from YouTube, SoundCloud, and other sources. For each titled work, Moozar creates a “reward link” that can be shared as-is or attached to the source material so that, for example, each time a YouTube video is shared on FaceBook and Twitter, the “reward link” gets shared as well.

Fans that enjoy the works online click the “reward link” and are directed to a cart where they can then directly give money (as little as $0.30) to the artist. It’s a kind of digital tipping.

The artist always receives at least 80% of the “rewards”, with the remaining 20% given to the source of the “reward link”. If the “reward link” originated with the artist, they also get that 20%. If a fan accessed the link and reward cart through Moozar’s own library, Moozar takes the 20% cut. And if a subscribed Partner, those like YouTube, SoundCloud, registered blogs who broadcast and highlight the music provide the “reward link,” then they earn that 20%.

Moozar launched about a year ago and “reboot” at the end of 2012 to emphasize its “reward link” service. According to the company, about 1500 artists are currently participating and earning income through “rewards.”

While Moozar expects growth and promises product developments, especially in regards to the Partner program, there are several digital tipping platforms also in place, including HumanFankind and StageIt. But these services also offer exclusives and incentives, something Moozar’s “reward link” does not. Moozar will have to find a way to stand out beyond the noisy and crowded digital music environment.

Social Music Network AAMPP Launches

SoundCtrl — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:55:20 +0000

By Kira Grunenberg

The sheer volume of sharing and cross posting that exists out in the digital world can overwhelm at times but that is exactly why some social networks are devoted to specific audiences, participants and purposes. While there are clearly several music-centric communities already in full swing, and even some old members making new comebacks, (here’s looking at you Myspace), a community fresh off the development line celebrated its launch to public beta last Friday, and the company might just help to turn down the noise; providing new focus to smooth out the lines to sharing content for the active music industry individual.

Kicking back to see the results of its official public opening, AAMPP (pronounced as simply “amp,”) is the internet’s next social media newcomer. The company announced late last week, how this network will cut through some of the existing difficulties in maintaining social equilibrium; giving relief to working musicians, producers and other industry members who are caught in the middle of a chat-focused society.

Prior to signing up, creative individuals might have a hard time seeing the stand out qualities of AAMPP among the rest of the available music branded social media. Eloquently described in the press release, AAMPP is referred to as a “social music network” and “is positioned to disrupt the music industry in much the same way [as a singularly focused network like Linkedin], by providing a level playing field for promoting and discovering new music and people in the industry like never before.”

The current top figures of AAMPP are Garth Soshahi and (CEO) and O’Neil Anderson (President). The two of them have known each other and worked together on AAMPP since 2006, using their combined experience and drive to build a community mainframe they believe will redirect industry creators back to what they can and should be doing, which is creating, rather than just typing and posting:

In today’s socially-driven society, having to manage multiple web profiles on the side is not the best use of a creative professional’s time.

To a degree, there is much of the same underlying aspiration for AAMPP as with any socially fueled system. A social engine needs content and engagement revolving around said content. Engagement comes from interest and excitement; two things Soshahi and Anderson want to gain in mass quantity so AAMPP will be here to stay.

In terms of the network’s interface itself, a user’s page has the feel of an older version of one’s Facebook wall, crossed with the semantics of Twitter (“@” usernames, “Followers” and “Following”) topped with the lifeblood of AAMPP’s purpose, which is the ability to post the music one creates and wants to share with the public, (à la SoundCloud.)

At the top of the article is a screenshot of the main page for Soshahi’s AAMPP user profile, to give a better idea of the layout.

Currently the Music, Bio and Photos sections are the core of AAMPP, (as well as music sharing via linking to YouTube and Vimeo) but, more elements are said to be coming in the very near future, which are tied to an “aggressive feature rollout schedule,” according to the press release. The opportunities for direct promotion/marketing, selling and distribution of original music is supposedly next on the list and those will put AAMPP in the run against easy-to-use distributors like CD Baby and Bandcamp as well.

You can give AAMPP a try for yourself and sign up here.

App Review: Liveler Promotes Gig Organization for the Music Industry

SoundCtrl — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:32:55 +0000

By Carolyn Heneghan

Having trouble keeping your gig schedule straight? Marketed toward musicians and bands, the Liveler app is an event organizer that will help you keep all of your upcoming shows and other events in one place for you and your fellow band members to access. According to the company’s introductory blog post, Liveler “intends on being an integral part of [the] Live music industry.” The app is currently in desktop form with email notifications for easy, user-friendly navigation.

To begin, you will first need to establish everyone who needs to have access to this particular set of events, such as your band members, manager, promoter, and anyone else directly affiliated with your music and appearances. Or you may be a solo artist who simply needs a better, more interactive calendar tool to be regularly reminded of upcoming gigs and events.

Either way, the app makes it easy to invite permanent members. Once you have set up your account by filling out your general contact info on the company’s website, you can invite other members just by entering their email addresses. When they receive notification, they’ll be able to enter their own contact info to be part of the event updates. This keeps everyone and all relevant event information in one place for everyone to see whenever they want.

After you’ve got everyone on board, you can click “Create New Event” to begin the scheduling process. You’ll enter the basics—event name, venue, date, start time, end time—and you’ll also be able to mark its status (booked or advanced paid). Save this information, and you’ll be brought to a screen with a sidebar on the left for navigating various aspects of the event. When an event is created, you and the rest of the team will receive an email notifying you of the new event with a link to the event info.

From here you can manage who is on the “team,” or who has access to this event, as well as any relevant contacts, such as venue managers, promoters, other bands performing at that gig, and so on. There’s a “Packing” list where you can list some or all of the specific equipment you’ll need to bring for that show, such as special cords, adapters, instruments, microphones, or speakers. You can enter the item name, brand, quantity, and category—gear or other.

You can attach any files that might be handy to keep with the gig, such as flyers, contact sheets, and press releases. Finally, you can add a specific to-do list to keep you and your band members prepared for everything that might be happening at this gig. There is an option for a due date as well as the ability to assign the task to a specific person or persons if you like.

Once you are done, you can click on the name of the event for a one-page snapshot of all of the basic information related to that particular entry. You can also track any recent updates to the event in case other members add or edit information that you haven’t seen just yet.

Liveler describes itself as “an easy way for music artists and industry professionals to manage live shows, collaborate with team members, and keep track of show bookings.” Only in beta-testing, this app already does everything it purports and stands to be a valuable tool for any and all music professionals as it continues to grow. Visit their website for more information or to try out the app for yourself.

BandLab Music Creation Cloud raising funds via Kickstarter

SoundCtrl — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:30:01 +0000

By Keith Nelson Jr.

Record 12th take. Get frustrated. Save session. Ride bus. Get inspired. Add effects to the bass from your phone. Return home. Listen to phone rough draft in the saved session. Read comments from collaborator. Repeat. JamHub, the makers of a silent rehearsal studio product line, aim to make this reality with BandLab, the first digital audio workstation (DAW) completely based in a cloud storage network.

The ability to upload and/or edit multitrack sessions to BandLab’s cloud storage network enables musicians to work on the go with mobile devices and tablets in addition to computers. Additionally, the cloud storage backs up all files and reduces the the disk space on one’s computer. The BandLab software is compatible with any audio interface and JamHub promises an automatic file syncing feature by mid-2013. BandLab operates on an open platform with its own app market to allow developers and technical artists to create personalized vocal effects, widgets, and a variety of other tools.

The crux of BandLab’s auspicious potential lies in its central emphasis on expanding the breadth of collaboration. BandLab allows for users to choose who is linked to their sessions for closed collaborations and private listening sessions. Similar to music streaming mainstay SoundCloud, BandLab allows users connected with a session to infuse comments on certain aspects of songs into the session. Individual mixes of sessions can be performed over the cloud and stored with others instead of replacing the previous mix with the new one. When a comment, mix or upload is completed each connected user gets an instant notification through email, tweet, post and/or in-app update. Essentially, a band can make their own individual mixes of changes on a session they have made without affecting each others and compare to find the perfect balance even if they are countries apart.

Five account types (Friend, Player, Musician, Writer, Producer) offer varying amounts of song uploads and mixes as well as BandLab editing features. The monthly price for these accounts range from free (Friend), to $.99 (Player), all the way to $14.99 (Producer). For users who do not want to use BandLab after the one-year subscription is up, JamHub offers them a Hibernation option for $10 which preserves all of the users’ audio for one year. The platform is currently raising money via Kickstarter, though as of this posting, still has a long way to go to reach it’s fundraising goal of $53,000.

Grammy-nominated R&B singer/producer Ryan Leslie had to redo his latest album, Les Is More from scratch after losing his laptop in Germany over two years ago. As cloud storage further pushes the music industry into a digital landscape (Google Music, iTunes Cloud, etc) BandLab is as pragmatic as it is inventive.

Stay creative, people.

Baeblemusic announces WordPress Plug-in

SoundCtrl — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:38:53 +0000

Baeblemusic announced the release of its WordPress Plug-in, granting unlimited access to its extensive video library. The new plug-in extends the company’s entire library of more than 3,000 long and short form indie and alternative video programs to the vast WordPress community.

Publishers can add all or designated portions of the library as a complete music video section or isolate videos for individual posts. Baeble organizes its library into six unique sections. The “Newest” and “Trending” sections are of-the-moment, updating throughout the day as new video programming is added and repeated plays drive them to the top. The company’s exclusive “Concerts”, “Sessions,” and “Interviews” are grouped, as are the curated collection of artist and label supplied “Music Videos.”

“We think this plug-in is unique in that it allows sites to immediately add a large quantity of high quality original video to the programming on their sites.” says CEO David Moffly. “We see music sites, radio stations and endless personal blogs having an immediate use for the plug in, increasing page views and engagement as users experience our unique video programming every day.”

Download the plugin at WordPress.org

Card Included Launches Out of Beta for Direct-to-Fan Download Cards

SoundCtrl — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:19:02 +0000

by Dave Mainella

Card Included is officially out of beta and on its feet, the self-serve download card service announced yesterday. Card Included first appeared in beta earlier this year but with the official launch now offers several updated and enticing additional features.

Co-founders Nick and Tom Mango, who introduced us to direct-to-fan platform Limited Run, have designed a straightforward and unique download-card service that offers cheap and easily customized downloads. Card Included provides a card template and guides a user through the process of uploading material, designing the cards, and creating a custom landing page. The user receives a PDF of the cards that they can then print, and for those who prefer the paperless route, a text file containing download codes for email purposes.

Card Included now offers the option of lossless audio, which Tom Mango believes to be an important commodity in the digital music world. “Lossless audio is the future of digital music,” he explains. “If you’re not making the FLAC or ALAC available to fans, you’re doing it wrong.”

The official launch also includes better integration with a customer’s existing web presence. While Card Included still provides a custom landing page, they also have developed the option of showing an overlay on top of a user’s webpage. When a fan enters the URL code from the download card, they are directed to the artist’s webpage that displays an overlay offering the download; when the overlay closes, fans are left with the artist’s webpage. And Card Included makes it easy for the artist. All they have to provide is the URL to their website.

Card Included also announced their partnership with a PayPal alternative, Stripe, a credit card payment solution with competitive pricing.

Card Included continues to offer their own economically appealing rate of $0.01 per 20MB. For example, ordering 250 cards of a 20MB download will cost only $2.50. In hopes of enticing new users, and to again emphasize the importance of lossless audio, Card Included is giving a 20% discount to customers who upload in a lossless format.

Kickstarter propelled KMI into a successful second project

SoundCtrl — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:28:04 +0000

By Kira Grunenberg

Kickstarter means a lot of different things to the variety of people and projects mounted on the site for backing. For some it means mere one-time exposure and then ideally a success, for others it means the beginning of an entire long-range company business plan and for still more, it can mean tapping into as many cool independent projects as possible, if for no other reason than to be a part of something from the ground upward.

Surprisingly, despite the massive number of endeavors posted to Kickstarter to date, there had yet to be a company that could launch more than one fully funded project through the site’s crowd funding strategy. Berkeley, California based KMI, (Keith McMillen Instruments) revealed via press release this morning, that they are the first to hit this milestone. The accomplishment marks not only a celebratory occasion for both the instrument company and Kickstarter itself, but also shows a increasing position of reliable consistency for KMI that could reinvigorate how entrepreneurs and consumers look at the platform power of Kickstarter.

KMI considers itself an “innovative hardware and software technology” startup geared toward new methods of musical interface, as explained in their company description. Yet, with the speed of funding completion for their benchmark second product, the QuNexus, KMI comes across more as a firmly established figure in the technology realm. The brand has clearly proven its worth in delivering quality equipment for the tech-oriented musician, as well as being a brand with strong business sense.

The QuNexus, which is an extremely versatile keyboard controller with “smart sensors,” came to Kickstarter already “fully designed and prototyped,” as stated on the campaign page, before KMI even received its first dollar. The product itself is extremely appealing, as the list of its innate functions shows consumer range, not confined to those with specific sets of other tools or experience levels:

QuNexus is the first keyboard controller to unite four generations of synthesis:

MIDI, Control Voltage, OSC and USB.
25 Smart Sensor Keys detect Pressure, Location, and VelocityPolyphonic Aftertouch
7 Octave range
Pitch Bend Pad
2 CV/Gate InputsGate and 3 CV Outputs (16-bit)
Blue and White LED Illumination with 16 levels of brightness
Portable: 14 oz, 3.5″ x 10″ x .5 “
Plug and Play: USB powered, no drivers needed
MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux

At press time, status of the QuNexus’s campaign stands at an excess of approximately $7,200 from its $20,000 goal, with just under a month of time still active for additional ‘gravy’ donations. Its controller predecessor, the QuNeo, which required only $15,000, reached its goal with a shocking excess of approximately $150,900. It remains to be seen if KMI will surpass this little bonus record in the time left. Having Kickstarter at KMI’s disposal is like having a free outlet for additional business and exposure. Knowing there is now a well established relationship of consumer trust, KMI can almost treat Kickstarter as a separate online store but keep the consumer-friendly simplicity and transparency of Kickstarter’s accountability structure.

Below is KMI’s promotional Kickstarter video for the QuNexus. The campaign continues until December 18.

Five Questions for Ari Levine – Brand Strategist at Tumblr

SoundCtrl — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:38:07 +0000

Ari Levine – Brand Strategist, Tumblr

By Jamison Antoine

Q1 – What makes Tumblr different from the other popular blog sites and social networks?

Ari Levine – You can customize everything on Tumblr. We give our community full control over what they want to build, design and create from their blog design to the content they decide to share. Tumblr is a hub for all things social, whether you’re pushing your posts out to other services or pulling in photos by hashtag from other apps. We also see incredible engagement on the site. The average user spends over 1.5 hours on the site per month and that’s just interacting with great content (no games, chatting, etc.). Lastly, we have an amazingly diverse community that uses our tools and platform to promote their own creativity and the creative work of each other.

Q2 – As someone who would normally advise brands using Tumblr, what tips can you share for artists who are looking to brand themselves on the platform?

AL - Be a part of the conversation. Go out there and follow other users, reblog their content and let people within the Tumblr community know you’re there. Be creative with what and how you post content to you audience, take advantage of the visual nature of Tumblr and do something different. Tumblr is a place where you can really be yourself without restrictions so do that via the customization to your page and the type of content you share.

Be unique. Users like to identify with things that you post—nostalgic images, infographics, fan-submitted content. Engage!

Q3 – With Myspace retooling and focusing on more established artist on their platform, do you see an opportunity for Tumblr to play a larger role in the development of emerging artists?

AL – Tumblr is a place for both. Artists like Shakira, Coldplay, Beyonce and Paramore engage in Tumblr and see success. Other artists, like Odd Future and Frank Ocean, used Tumblr as their hub while in their developmental years and continue to use it to engage with their audiences. Tumblr definitely has that energy that MySpace did back in 2006, where users and music fans feel like they are the first to discover bands. With the ease of use on Tumblr, and its ability to work well with other platforms, Tumblr is exactly what developing artists need to get off the ground and immediately plug into their potential fan bases, where they hang out.

Q4 – Which artists come to mind when you think about cool things you’ve seen on Tumblr?

AL – Odd Future, Frank Ocean, Beyonce, MS MR, Deadmau5, Beastie Boys

Q5 – Who are your to top five artists dead or alive?

AL – Wu-Tang (the whole Clan)

Jamison Antoine is a music industry veteran and social media marketer with stints at Island Def Jam, Universal Music Group and 360i Digital Marketing. Follow him on Twitter: @JayDigital