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Insider Interview: David Carrico and Judy Estrin of EVNTLIVE

SoundCtrl — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:10:57 +0000

Any serious music fan would agree that there is nothing more disappointing than being shut out of a live show from a lack of tickets and venue space. The inextinguishable activity of scalpers, enthusiasm of pre-sale fanatics, and other special offers –all these conditions make getting access to any concert like a race with a “survival of the fittest” type mentality.

This being said, the thought of such almost makes the internet and digital streaming the perfect solution, as they offer “infinite” audience space! A concept not likely to stay untapped for very long, creatives in the entertainment and music industries began taking to this idea and forming companies focused on broadcasting shows, either for free or for reasonable prices, for which consumers can pay online.

EVNTLIVE, a standalone concert streaming service, is another newcomer to the live streaming market and although it is far from the first of its kind, its co-founders, David Carrico, Alex Beckman, and Jonathan Beckman, along with an experienced team of high profile investors, (Troy Carter (CEO of Atom Factory), Yogen Dalai (Mayfield Fund partner) amid many others), believe there are still plenty of angles either unused or under utilized by existing players that will bring EVNTLIVE to the forefront of the digital concert and social music experience. The company has been in planning and development for over a year and is presently in beta launch, due to officially launch in the next few months.

David Carrico and business veteran Judy Estrin, the latter who is the Executive Chair of EVNTLIVE, chatted with me about their vision for the company and some of their thoughts on the general landscape of the music industry.

SoundCtrl: First off, I would like to say congratulations on everything you have managed to put together for the imminent launch of EVNTLIVE. It is clearly difficult to penetrate most facets of the music business in general and you two have prepared a solid staff and strong business objective in a relatively fresh entertainment segment –and there aren’t as many of those left these days!

Given that one of the major, and immediately noticeable, benefits to home streaming is “infinite seating,” I am curious as to whether there is a personal experience for either of you, that prompted pursuing this business model. Are you currently, or were you previously, frustrated by the physical limitations of live music – or was this an idea born simply out of wanting to expand the industry for the sake of creative change?

David: I spent several years running a boutique music management firm, and my experience on the road showed me both how tiring and costly touring can be for artists and how many fans in different parts of the world deeply desire to see an act but are unable to gain access to that experience for any number of reasons. With artist’s revenue streams dwindling in other categories we saw a real opportunity to create a newfound source of capital infusion from the monetization of streaming live concerts on the web. My co-founders and I are all passionate about live music and as our lives have gotten busier we have realized that we can’t attend as many shows as we would like – EVNTLIVE is the service we wanted to exist.

SoundCtrl: Clearly, as is evident by EVNTLIVE’s wide offering objective of live music, archived content, real time social interaction and show background information, you have confidence EVNTLIVE will not plateau for users at simply, “watch concert and leave site.” Still, as broad as this list of offerings is, do you feel maybe there is some potential for a double edged sword to form in expanding the live music segment through a concept that takes the very idea of “live and in-person” out of the picture –much like the continuous appeal of services like Instagram, that promote digital sharing and widening connections but, when appreciated in excess, almost disconnect people from being in the real present?

David: At EVNTLIVE we believe that there is no replacement for going to a live concert. Attending a live music performance for me personally is a social, communal, and sometimes spiritual experience. We have no intention of replacing that experience. Instead we we’re creating an online concert venue that offers the best user interface possible for individuals who can’t access the show in person. By creating a virtual social conversation, merch booth, and giving the user access to the story behind the show, we’re creating content that provides a unique look into an intimate performance experience but, we don’t believe it will ever replace the feeling of being in the front row with your friends around you feeling the vibrations of the music.

SoundCtrl: The both of you have quite the track records and impressive business “resumes.” What are some, if any, of the specific facets to your previous business experiences that you have applied to the creation and fine tuning of EVNTLIVE?

Judy: Being involved in the creation of EVNTLIVE has leveraged many facets of my career. Recruiting top engineers, developing large scalable systems, video streaming, building new companies, evangelizing new technologies; building business models to create new markets all draw from my entrepreneurial experience in starting seven companies. My board seats, especially, being a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company has given me an understanding of the entertainment industry, digital media, copyright licensing issues and consumer marketing that are all critical to the success of EVNTLIVE.

SoundCtrl: Let’s say EVNTLIVE catches on with vigor in post-launch. As I stated earlier, limitless seating is a big part of live streaming appeal. High profile artists like Lady Gaga for example, sell out even the biggest of arenas with no hard effort needed, so being able to “expand the arena” would be perfect for die hard fans that get left out of the ticket line. This being the hypothetical case, can you talk at all about how EVNTLIVE plans to deal with the topic of technical overload, which can be a common problem with any digital stream?

David: A key asset of the company is the depth of our technical team that has years of experience developing large scale systems and infrastructure. We have not taken the approach of rushing a system to market with the notion that we can fix it later– we have invested the time and resources in building a service that can scale to meet the demands of the most popular artists.

SoundCtrl: Simply put, after launch, what kind of a music consuming world do you see EVNTLIVE existing in, even just five years down the line, and what will its place in that world be like?

David: Looking out five years, we hope to see the worlds of physical and online concerts coexisting as a standard way of doing business in the music industry. The fan experience online will become increasingly interactive as we leverage new technologies. We see promise in 3D and 360 degree interactive filming as well as new ways of viewing from large screens to wearable devices. All of these advances add new connectivity for fans to interact with each-other and the artists they love. We would love to be the premier destination site leading the market in providing ever improving fan experiences and ever growing revenue streams for artists.

SoundCtrl: As a last creative question, I am wondering if you would ever consider partnering with an audio hardware company – more specifically, the speaker market. If someone loves music overall and they know they cannot get to every single concert they want to see in person, although still not “the real thing,” the experience could be further emulated with a combined high quality audio and visual experience. Any thoughts?

Judy: We’re very interested in forming relationships with a variety of partners. Whether that be audio hardware or perhaps device makers, we think EVNTLIVE has the potential to find synergies with many existing brands that make up the backbone of the music world.

SoundCtrl: Thanks for the chat. We’ll be excited to see how everything turns out for your launch!

Details are still to come for EVNTLIVE but you can keep in-the-know by signing up to receive news announcements on their website here.

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

Insider Interview: Tastebuds.fm Community Manager Máriusz Bari

SoundCtrl — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:00:25 +0000

Tastebuds.fm is a dating website for music lovers, by music lovers. Your potential match’s music interests aren’t just a minor part of your profile, tucked away beneath other items; they’re the main event. SoundCtrl writer Jason Epstein had a Q&A with Tastebuds.fm Community Manager Máriusz Bari to speak about the site’s community, features, and future.

SoundCtrl: How important do you feel a couple’s musical compatibility is?

Máriusz: Fairly important, I’d say. I’ve been working with music communities for more than a decade and based on that, I’d definitely say that sharing music is a great way to make people meet or even base relationships on. It can greatly strengthen a bond if a couple can go to a gig, show or festival together – still, their tastes shouldn’t completely overlap – so that either of them can show the other something new from time to time. We’re also in the process of posting testimonial stories about couples who met on our site and got engaged or married, so I’d say musical compatibility is a great thing to have. I’ve heard a number of our female users actually saying that they often ignore messages from guys whose musical taste is completely different.

SC: Using Tastebuds.fm, will you ever be able to meet people based on the music they play, if they are artists as well as music lovers?

Máriusz: Good question! So far we only match people based on the music they listen to and not the music they play, although these would naturally overlap to a certain degree. There are lots of users within our community who are solo musicians, band members, DJ’s, etc. and they love to pimp their music on their profile pages – so if you happen to love their music, you can contact them straight away!

SC: How are you able to offer such a niche service for free?

Máriusz: We’ve recently raised a round of funding to enable us to build out the product and scale our userbase – while testing some premium features with some great results! Also – I wouldn’t say we’re a niche service, festivals and gigs throughout the world would definitely underline the fact that people loving the same music can end up in great fun together!

SC: Can you tell me a bit about Tastebuds.fm’s community?

Máriusz: Oh, sure – they’re a great bunch of music lovers! They’re madly sending messages to each other at the rate of over 10,000 messages a day. Then they’re also debating more publicly in our forum section that we call “The Soapbox”. We hit 100,000 registered users at the end of last year and we’re growing quickly. Users are contributing to our blog articles and we plan to include more of their creative outputs, ideas and products into the site to make it as much theirs as it is ours at the moment. Definitely a friendly community who are about listening to more music and finding new great stuff to live by, so I’d love to hang out there even if I wasn’t working with them.

SC: What are some of Tastebuds.fm’s newest features?

Máriusz: Hmmm let’s see…we’ve recently tweaked our search algorithm to give our users a more accurate list of people who share their music taste. Our unique radio feature lets you discover new music that people just like you are listening to, right now. Now we’re preparing for our next Hack-A-Thon around Valentine’s Day where we basically have 36 hours to add a new feature to the site, which is…well, you have to come back a little after Valentine’s Day to see what that feature is, but it’ll be fun, I promise!

SC: What’s next?

Máriusz: We’re chiseling out a new design, a new real-time messaging system, new profiles… we basically have one wall of our office filled with post-its full of ideas, so it’s more like we’re coming up with a temporal expander and then have 48-hour long days to fill with more feature-o-matic awesomeness! We want to give our users a more seamless experience of communication and new ways of finding new people based on their tastes to have fun with.

Check out our original interview with Tastebuds.fm founder Alex Parish right here.

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.

Insider Interview: SoundTracking CEO, Steve Jang talks SoundTracking’s iOS update and aspirations for the future of music and memories

SoundCtrl — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:50:25 +0000

By Kira Grunenberg

We’ve begun another bustling year in the world of music and tech; especially so where the two collide. New faces are joining the business and old familiars have pushed forward to new heights. One of those many familiars is the memory-fueled, ‘music postcard’ app, SoundTracking, on which we’ve kept a close watch for quite some time; reporting as recently as this past October.

Steadily working to become an established app rather than a newcomer, SoundTracking has been active since March of 2011 and gained the accolades of many; only a few of which include Apple, for “Best iPhone Music App of 2011,” as well as SoundCtrl’s own 2011 FlashFWD Awards, receiving our “Best in Mobile” title. During the short time span between then and now, SoundTracking has covered a lot of improvement ground, making several moves to expand access and tighten its services with numerous updates. The newest of these changes rolled out yesterday for the iOS; including modifications that span from integral performance improvements to game changing feature additions and a freshly designed user interface that alters users’ frontline experiences with the app.

SoundTracking has touched upon a range of socialization elements that round out the app well as both an organizer and memory-maker. Here is a general run down of the new features:

Embracing of the photos and visual memories that accompany the songs in people’s lives: New profile and post personalization via Like/Love emoticons and inclusion of customized cover images and image-focused content feeds.
Emphasis on the value of connecting with other music lovers: This is done in the app with tagging and outside of the app by seeing who and what is “Trending Nearby.”
Widened ability to share: Twitter Card integration lets Twitter users see and hear the musical moments users post, embedded in the tweets themselves and with Facebook, songs posted can be viewed and liked by others.
Faster discovery: Songs are streamlined to users faster in SoundTracking’s “Search” and users are better streamlined to each other, through instant “Fan Recommendation,” pointing out individuals who like a user’s favorite songs.

Steve Jang, CEO of Schematic Labs, the company that produced SoundTracking, offered to share some of his thoughts about the app’s latest transformation and ideas for what he hopes the business can come to achieve going forward.

SoundCtrl: This newest iOS incarnation seems to show the app having integrated relatable forms of appealing features from many of the web’s general social media players: Artist verification badges, cover images and friend tagging, just to name a few. Do you feel this sets you truly apart in the app market, having a “bit of everybody” to offer –particularly when you are pushed as a music-centric service?

Steve Jang: We observed people using SoundTracking in different ways over the last year. Some of the most prevalent actions we saw were [users] trying to tag people in their music moments, to either dedicate songs or say, “I’m listening to this song with X and Y.” Some other behavior and feedback [we observed] was the popularity of following the musical tastes of higher-profile users such as DJs, bands and hip-hop artists using SoundTracking, [as well as] the desire to have a more customizable and personalized music identity and profile.

We want to help people naturally and authentically create their music timeline on SoundTracking as they serendipitously discover and listen to music and create a music identity for themselves. As with any online social identity, visual representation, like a profile avatar or a cover image/theme, is important, just like an album cover is important to a band in their personal expression to fans. One thing that we’ve implemented in our new Music Profiles is a personal music timeline and two filtered feeds showing your most popular music moments and your favorite music moments shared by other people. All of this gives a more holistic and implicit way of understanding more about someone and getting a sense of their music personality.

Rather than worrying about what other apps are doing, we really tried to watch organic behavior among our music fan community and develop easier, more fun and powerful ways to let them share, discover and interact with each other. It’s pretty common to hear people say that “music is inherently social” but there is a lot of truth to that and our goal is to provide an exciting music community designed for authentic expression and discovery.

SoundCtrl: Since SoundTracking has such a multi-faceted interface, is that one of the reasons you have also decided to alter its primary design to one of a more visual and expressive nature –to keep with this trend in the app? After all, music at its core is an auditory experience –more so at least than a visual one.

Jang: We moved in a more visual direction after studying how our community was actually using the service. People were sharing personal photos, album covers, and captions that expressed that specific music moment and why it was important. We wanted to give people an easy and aesthetically beautiful way to share and browse music moments inside of SoundTracking. Audio is at the core of music but the other elements in a SoundTracking post such as a photo, user caption and location add more context and meaning to why the song was shared by that person. Music moments are made up of songs, emotions, people, and places. By having the ability to include a photo to serve as sort of an “album cover” and play button to someone’s song gives people a more expressive way to share emotions and activities through a song, as opposed to a cookie-cutter chrome player with little other information or media attached.

SoundCtrl: Would you ever consider partnering with more non-music based businesses for cross promotional purposes, given the potential for widespread and frequent use of the new “Trending Nearby” feature? Places where people listen to music sometimes have other amenities of life around (e.g. restaurants or shops) and with Foursquare already incorporated, these kinds of places could push things like nearby concerts, as well as themselves, to enhance a person’s memory making experience.

Jang: We’ve seen some local businesses start using the app and sharing what music they are playing inside their hotel, bar, store, or cafe. Music curation is storytelling through songs. Businesses that want to either communicate their tastes or certain ethos to customers can certainly share a [particular] personality to the world and tell a unique story to people.

Over half of our users share their exact venue location, neighborhood or city with every music moment. Moving forward, there’s a real opportunity to offer people real-time insights into which bars, stores and clubs play music they like. I often remember the music that a retail store will play and either appreciate or be turned off by what they’ve got on their speakers.

Local entertainment has a real opportunity to reach people through this type of data and social interaction as well. Apps like Foursquare and WillCall have done a great job of telling people where their friends are and what shows they are going to. [In] WillCall’s case, [this means] letting [users] see a curated feed of shows for which they can buy tickets. SoundTracking can give great signal data to services like these and let people receive higher quality recommendations and offers based upon musical taste and location.

Also interesting to us is the mapping of music trends and seeing how tastes change and differ between not only cities, but even neighborhoods. We recently released a top songs and artists list of 2012 by San Francisco, LA, and New York. There were key differences in these city lists. Another difference you can see is the difference in music between neighborhoods like the East Village and Upper East Side in NY or The Mission District and Marina in San Francisco. It would be great one day, to walk down a street and listen to a soundtrack of the combined music of all the people that have lived, worked and hung out there and see the pictures, places and emotions that have taken place.

SoundCtrl: That would really be great –almost like having a musical history book! We’ll see how things come to unfold. All of us at SoundCtrl wish you continued success!

Five Questions for John Pisciotta – CEO, MusicSynk

SoundCtrl — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:27:21 +0000

John Pisciotta – CEO, MusicSynk

By Jamison Antoine

John Pisciotta is an entertainment entrepreneur focused on creating innovative business models for the entertainment industry in the digital age. He is the CEO of Nashville based MusicSynk, which offers a secure online platform that facilitates the music licenses for the film, television, online, advertising and video game markets. I had a chance to demo the service and speak with John about how he and his team intend to make life easier for rights owners and music supervisors.

Q1 – John, your resume is flush with endeavors in the music and tech space. Can you share briefly how you made the transition from a producer to serial entrepreneur?

John Pisciotta – As a music producer and publisher, I have spent well over a decade producing records. We won an American music award and song and video of the year nominations during that time.

The DNA of a producer parallels that of the entrepreneur. As a producer you’re putting the team together, you’re choosing songs for the record, you’re driving the process, finding solutions, building partnerships, handling financials and you’re basically leading the charge. This is what an entrepreneur does every day in an early stage company (just on a larger scale). So, after years of doing licensing I decided to build a solution that fixes the 40+ fractured steps in the sync licensing process. I went from working in music to working on music. At MusicSynk we have a unique view, in that we understand the importance of copyrights and technology at the same time. We have one foot in entertainment and one foot in technology. We see these as complimentary, not competitive. The mistake is looking at it through the lens of “either or”. We see them as inseparable and a massive opportunity. The entertainment space has gone through an industry- wide reset. We think there are many problems to solve and greenfield opportunities for the next era. This is what I wake up every day focused on working on.

Q2 – What specific licensing pain points do you hope to ease with your new site MusicSynk?

JP - MusicSynk was built to synthesize the synchronization process. So previously, you had 40+ fractured steps that would take weeks to clear songs for use in film and television. The process had not innovated since the 1940s Tin Pan Alley era. The entire process was frustrating for both rights holders and supervisors. Often, money was left on the table by either party quitting out of frustration. So, MusicSynk empowers both parties (rights holders and supervisors) to accelerate how they work. MS users are in complete control of who, what, when and where their content is licensed. This allows for MusicSynk users to collapse the time it takes to license music from weeks into hours, increases their income and expands their reach to new licensing opportunities. It really frees them up to work better, faster and smarter. There are a few new modules that we are testing that we will be talking about in early 2013 that are very, very cool.

Q3 – Many of the larger rights holders (labels, publishers) have sites that allow music supervisors to license their content.

JP - Sure, most labels and publishers have an in-house system for RFP (request for proposal). “Click here for more information and we will get back to you” kind of system. MusicSynk goes quite a bit further than in-house systems. Some of the things we are working on we can’t talk about yet.

Based on our users, the response is really great. One of our supervisors said, “So, really what you’ve built is the Holy Grail” (referring to our MusicSynk platform). We like that. We won’t stop until it is 10x better than what is currently in use today. MS users have a dashboard suite of tools that accelerates their workflow significantly.

Q4 – There are some producers who need one song and others who are looking for twenty. What type of support does MusicSynk provide to usher these individuals through the process?

JP - That’s a great point. One of the things we think about a lot is the idea that one size does not fit all. Everybody has a different workflow. Some supervisors work super-fast and are going to air at 2:00 pm, others are very methodical and very protective. MS was built to be agnostic. So, a MusicSynk user could do 2 licenses a month or get 100 sync requests a day. Whether you are a label, major music publisher or a scoring composer, the workflow is very different. We work closely and listen to our users, as to how they work and the things they ask for.

Q5 – Last but not least, are there any plans to sneak some of your own music in on the site for consideration or are your songwriting days behind you?

JP - Sure, we built it largely around our needs. We built it initially to scratch our itch and to solve the problems in the sync space that we were having ourselves. So we will use the platform for existing catalog, you bet! As far as songwriting… as an entrepreneur, I am just writing different types of “songs” now.

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

Insider Interview: Michela Magas of Music Tech Fest

SoundCtrl — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:52:26 +0000

By Keith Nelson Jr.

Throughout history, renaissances have been marked by individuals pushing conventions in response to present day needs and/or deficiencies. The recent music technology boom, which sees music streaming services outperforming traditional models of music distribution, has developed its own renaissance. Instead of composers manipulating scales and functional tonality, there are app developers creating sound from colors and controlling music selections with webcam hacks. London-based research lab Stromatolite Music Tech Fest is a paradigm in the burgeoning evolution of music technology that has turned every smartphone into an MP3 player with a series of talks which join together creative minds from all over the music industry (app developers, record label execs, etc). Stromatolite co-founder, Michela Magas elucidates the purpose and goal of this audacious endeavor in an interview with SoundCtrl.

SoundCtrl: What was the reason for Stromatolite to begin the Music Tech Fest?

Michela Magas:: We wanted to bring all the guys doing great things with music tech – hackers, startups, researchers – together with music industry people – all under one roof. We are working on a European project at the moment with seven great EU research centers looking at where this whole field might be going. We set it up as a “festival of music ideas” – a creative event where everyone can come together and demo, perform, create. It turned out that everyone we talked to thought this was a good idea.

SC: It looks as if this gathering of the minds is yielding interesting results. I tried out the Synaesthesia app and was blown away with how intuitive it was.

MM: Oh cool, that’s really great. You know we only did that one as an incentive for people to interact and create together during the fest? But it turned out more people were interested.

SC: Any plans to develop it further and add more features?

MM: Yes totally. You see it was created on a shoestring budget and everyone involved had sleepless nights. It wasn’t even in our remit! We just really wanted to do it. So of course we now need to expand it so people can upload their own sounds and match them to the colours they associate with them.

SC: I never thought of that. I suggested adding new sounds but that is pretty ingenious to allow users to match colors to whatever sounds they want.

MM: Well that would make sense because if you read up about synaesthesia you’ll find people associate different colours and sounds. But what was cool was that everyone wore the Music Tech Fest T-shirts in the “testcard” colours so people were “scanning each other.”

SC: What trends in the music tech industry have been addressed at these Music Tech Fest events?

MM: Things like visualising music, hacking into and sonifying ordinary objects, music rights, new tech which allows more efficient music licensing, music-making apps, performance tools and setups… all videos are now being uploaded on our YouTube channel.

SC: What about music streaming? That seems to be a big topic in today’s changing climate on digital music industry.

MM: Yes that too. And sonifying the Twitter stream. So not just ordinary streaming. Companies like Spotify and Last.fm now allow their APIs to be used for the creation of great new apps. Apps and interesting interfaces (both visual and tangible) are definitely top of the list in how those companies see their interaction with listeners.

SC: There was a Tech Talk two weeks ago. How was that event?

MM: Robert Kaye from MusicBrainz was over for the Music Hack Day London and said – hey guys, how about we record a Music Tech Talk? So we got into gear and set that up with our partners Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London. This MHD event sold out in about 18 minutes.

We had Matt Black from Ninja Tune presenting the new Ninja Jamm app - a great tool for jamming together. We also had a superb performance from Jason Singh – a beatboxer who makes tech to support his voice.

Photo credit: Jamillah Knowles

SC: Any plans for bringing an event to the United States?

MM: Yep – lots of people are asking. People are suggesting NYC or San Francisco but we also have a great community in Portland, OR we are looking at. We need people to help us take this forward. We did everything on a shoestring budget with the first one, with some help from the MIReS funding for our EU project and some help from the EU regional funding. We need to see who’s into backing a truly creative underground crowd and take it to the next level. The BBC introduced their podcast on the Music Tech Fest as “the future of music.” We were really surprised, but maybe there’s something in that.

SC: Are you guys familiar with the TED talks series? I feel a demonstration of a Music Tech Fest app at one of these speaking events would do wonders

MM: Yeah – in fact our idea was that the Music Tech Talks were “half-TED, half-gig” ( i.e. more performance but still intelligent ideas).

SC: The festival caters to an “underground crowd” as you have said and includes hackers. With Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom being indicted and attempting to start his own music store, what discussions have been had on the legislative aspect of the burgeoning music tech industry?

MM: We had talks by music industry legal guys about music rights and about people looking at ways in which music industry will pre-clear rights for licensing. We also had many discussions about how important it is to be able to access music files to develop great music apps. We are really keen that the developer crowd has access to content.

SC: What do you see the Music Tech Fest evolving into?

MM: Firstly, I’d like to see all the guys and gals making interesting things with sound and tech in some less exposed corners of the planet team up with some of the well-versed research centers and startups. We are looking at taking the festival to Croatia which is entering the European Union next year. There are some great people in that part of the world doing both music and tech but they don’t get much exposure. So – I’d like it to be the place where we evolve new ways of making music, collaborating, sharing, inventing new formats, and generally regenerating the stale old methods of the music industry.

A trip through the Music Tech Fest’s YouTube channel will take you across ping-pong tables that play music based on performance (TripPong), online repositories for guitar chords (This Is My Chord) and other demonstrations. The old-school Casio hacks are impressive novelties but there are apps such as Sonaris, a music discovery tool based on real-time musical quality analysis which presents a comprehensive database for licensing songs. All of these discussions and innovations stems from an organic reaction to present-time events even the planning of the Tech talks. With an expansion into more areas the music technology renaissance may soon have a centralized hub to concentrate the vast create minds to produce truly world-shaping inventions.

Five Questions with Chris Graham – Sr. Director Digital Marketing, Wind Up Records

SoundCtrl — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:19:49 +0000

by Jamison Antoine

Q1 – At Universal Motown/Republic you worked as a member of the creative dept. How does that experience help you in your role at Wind-Up?

A1 – The interaction with all departments made the transition from a major to an indie very smooth. In the creative dept at Uni I was responsible for dealing directly with all departments throughout the artist album cycle.

Q2 – What is it that Wind-Up does better than any other label in the digital space?

A2 – We try to offer compelling offers targeted for each sites audience, rather than offering everyone “the same thing.”

Q3 – Mobile is a major player in the digital echo system. What types of things are you working on with your artists to create cool mobile experiences for fans?

A3 – We are optimizing all our sites to be mobile friendly and recently launched a separate mobile site for Evanescence and Seether. ALL of our online campaigns work on mobile. Check out Civiltwilightband.com on your iPad to see what I mean.

Q4 – What is your greatest challenge day to day working in the digital space with artists and managers?

A4- The digital space changes every day. Keeping artists active and engaged with their fans can be tough at times, the “right” networks can change at any moment. Look at MySpace.

Q5 – What artist have you discovered recently through social?

A5 – Right now I’m listening to Imagine Dragons.

Insider Interview with German electro house duo Digitalism

SoundCtrl — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:18:43 +0000

by Lily Moayeri

There is something basic and straightforward about naming your band after a style of music. No confusion, no cross-pollination of genres, even the pigeonhole is a comfortable one. German electro house duo Digitalism is the beneficiary of such labeling. Jens “Jence” Moelle and Ismail “Isi” Tufekci are equally known for their remixes as they are for their two artist albums, Idealism and I Love You, Dude. From the White Stripes and Cut Copy to the Klaxons, Depeche Mode, and the Cure, getting “Digitified” is a badge of honor. On its latest offering, a contribution to the longstanding and well regarded DJ Kicks series, Digitalism combines its knack for remixes, (two done exclusively for this mix), its deft production skills, (there are six brand new Digitalism tracks exclusive to this mix), and its unerring track selection, (choice cuts from Alex Gopher, Hiroki Esashika, the Rapture, among others), for a sharply defined collection of high-quality floor-friendly cuts. Moelle elaborates on the creation of Digitalism—DJ Kicks for us.

SoundCtrl – What equipment did you use to record the DJ Kicks mix?
Jence – It was a proper DJ set up, what we usually use in the clubs: Pioneer CDJ-2000s and a Pioneer DJM-800 mixer, on which we recorded parts of the mix and tried out stuff beforehand, and Ableton Live 8.2, which served as the final editor. We recorded the parts into our studio computer and then did little tweaks and pasted the whole thing together, made it cohesive and added EQs [using Ableton]. With something as big and important as a DJ Kicks mix, you have to make sure you go over it again and make it one big, long piece of music. Ideally we would have used a couple of 12”s too, but at the time of compiling the mix we were on the road so we had to request the mastered WAV files.

SC – How did you decide on the selections for this mix? What were trying to put across with your choices?
Jence –We chose to go for a historic/portfolio-esque approach. We started writing down all the tracks, labels, and artists that we play over and over again the last decade. We then added new music by friends and our own, then started kicking things out of it until we were down to about 90 minutes of music. We also made sure that there would be enough different music on it to show our musical spectrum, which ranges from techno, house, and disco via electroclash and new wave to indie. For us, it’s important to create a mix that would life you to peaks and drop you down to mellow parts that let you take a breath. This mix is pretty much an essence of our DJ sets and the music that orbits the Digitalism universe.

SC – What is your ideal DJ set-up in a venue?
Jence – We play with several CDJ-2000s and a DJM-800 mixer. Of course good monitoring is appreciated—not old trashed rock ‘n’ roll ones. Recently we played a gig where the monitors were half a second behind so we had to do it old school like in the bedroom 12 years ago with just the headphones on.

SC – Coolest piece of DJ equipment?
Jence – CDJs. The Pioneer CDJ-2000s have a good sound—even warped—and are really versatile. We use them in the studio sometimes to perform live things with new material from a USB stick.

SC – Favorite headphones?
Isi – Technics RP-DJ1210
Jence – Sennheiser HD 25-1 II

SC – Favorite instrument? And is there an app or software you know of that sounds just as good?
Jence – Roland TR-808. It’s the ultimate bass drum. You can sample it, but that will render it down to a certain bit-depth and digital distortion. You have to hear that through a live PA. Actually, astoundingly enough, the simple, built-in Logic Ultrabeat is quite good with similar sound controls.

SC – Coolest app you’ve seen in the past six months?
Jence – Lemur Liine (controller for a number of music and visual software), Jasuto Pro (modular synthesizer), Moog Animoog (polyphonic synthesizer).

SC – First album you ever bought? What was the format?
Jence – Snap! The Madman’s Return on CD in 1991 probably.
Isi – Can’t remember exactly but the first single purchase was Zhane “Hey Mr. DJ” on CD.

SC – Best piece of music-related advice you ever got?
Jence – Only trust your ears.

SoundCtrl Insider Interview: Robbie Rivera live from SiriusXM

SoundCtrl — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 01:46:27 +0000

by Sarah Polonsky

Last week house music pioneer Robbie Rivera had an intimate party at SiriusXM’s headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. Moments before his live set the acclaimed DJ sat down for a chat with SoundCtrl.

In town promoting his new album “Dance or Die,” Rivera has a slew of tour dates in the Northeast this summer. “It’s been exciting,” said the warm and approachable Rivera, donning his spectacles and a nondescript green t-shirt. “One of the tracks off the album, ‘Forever Young,’ went Top Ten on Beatport,” Rivera said from the sound booth at Sirius. He’s also bringing his long-running Juicy Beach party to New York for the first time ever on July 14th at Governors Island.

“The Miami party has been going down for seven years, and it always brings out around 4,000 people,” Rivera said. ” We’ve had people like Deadmau5 headline it, and Swedish House Mafia play there. It’s always the best time.”

How does an aspiring DJ reach a Robbie Rivera level of mass appeal in 2012? “Stop copying everyone else,” he proclaimed. “You need to start creating original music because what’s happening is everyone is starting to sound the same. You also have to play a lot of parties, and playing the same 16 tracks is not going to work. It’s going to die and how can you DJ a five hour party like that? You need to be creative and have the balls to educate a bit.”

Educating is huge for Rivera. He even admitted that he’d like to design an app “for when I’m playing live, people can see what I’m doing,” adding “but I read that Ritchie Hawtin is doing something like that.”

As for his favorite app that does exist, Rivera announced, “You might be surprised.” A few lucky fans began circulating the SiriusXM space, as the DJ started setting up his console and tweaking various knobs and plug-ins for the live set. “The weather app.” DJs travel a lot, so it never hurts to know what conditions to expect, especially when your set is outside in front of thousands of partygoers who expect audile awesomeness, rain or shine.

And with that, Rivera took to the decks and delivered a bouncy, happy set for listeners across the nation via SiriusXM’s airwaves.

If you want to attend Robbie Rivera’s Juicy New York, enter for your chance to win a pair of free tickets courtesy of Vibe.

The Future Is Now: SoundCtrl Chats with TheFuture.fm VP of Marketing Chris Nagy

SoundCtrl — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 13:37:34 +0000

By Jessica Wunsch

The bleary-eyed music savant is tired but still bursting with excitement. Chris Nagy, VP of Marketing of TheFuture.fm, just got off the red-eye from his trip to LA, and is running around his office trying to find a quiet place (there’s a lot of music blasting at The Future) moment to chat with SoundCtrl about the application, along with some of its future prospects. The DJ turned entrepreneur throws out some advice for future tech-mogul aspirers, reveals his favorite iPhone apps and more…

SoundCtrl - What was the purpose in developing Thefuture.fm?
Chris Nagy - Literally the purpose was a desire to recreate the unique experience people get when they are in the presence of a DJ, whether they’re at a club, festival or party. That was the original desire, and once the process got started in creating a platform for this, a lot of hurdles and obstacles arose—not only from a technological standpoint, but also from the music industry, which we felt needed to be addressed.

SC - It has been reported that on April 25, when you re-launched dubset.com as thefuture.fm, your user base doubled to more than 100,000. How?
CN - It’s become a combination of our team and platform being more developed – all these things working together have put the company as a whole on another level. I think it’s creating a momentum that pushes us forward more quickly. It’s also a good time to be in the EDM space where there’s a lot going on – especially in the United States, where we’re really starting to embrace DJ culture more actively.

SC - Tell us about implementing mixSCAN technologies.
CN - mixSCAN pretty much serves as the backbone and it’s what makes everything else possible. Anytime a mix is constrained to any capacity within our platform, mixSCAN creates an automated report, and then pays off for the different copyrights in an automated fashion. This way we’ve created the first ever platform that respects the DJ as artists. We even have plans for a mechanism that will be able to pay DJs royalties for the work that they do.

SC - What did your 15+ years in the music biz, especially your time at Grooveshark, teach you about music technology? How are you applying what you’ve learned to make thefuture.fm?
CN - I’ve found that the integration of the music culture being tied to technology has really changed the business of it. The only way to be successful on a commercial level is through some form of technology, right? So I think the big thing that I learned is seeing these two separate opposing forces now working together hand-in-hand. I’ve also recently learned that you have to take the opinions of everyone you work with into consideration, especially in the music industry. From managers to artists, everyone has a vision on how they want to distribute the listening experience to their audience, and you have to foster a healthy dialogue with them in order to ensure the opportunity to grow and succeed.

SC - Will the future.fm ever host more than DJ music?
CN - We’re definitely not strictly EDM. Since we are a part of the DJ culture, we see many genres that are mixed into the work including hip-hop, trance, rock, alternative stuff, classics…whatever. EDM stems from all different types of music, and technology can be applied to any format of music.

SC - With all the young success stories these days, including Mark Zuckerburg and Dennis Crowley, what would you say is the key to becoming a successful programmer/entrepreneur?
CN - It’s a combination of actually having a vision, and business deliverance – it’s not just coding. Also, having a true grasp of the product and its marketing/packaging, or surrounding yourself with quality people that do. What I’ve seen often times is that some start-ups may have extremely talented developers who just want to create all different kinds of stuff and get it out there. Then there’s the Apple mentality where all these products are calculated and programmed so that the messaging, their packaging, their look, their feel, their identity, and their timing is all thought out. And I think the latter approach stands better. You can develop the greatest product, but if you don’t find a way to make it compelling with your users, even if you are be discovered organically or virally, ultimately you’re going to have a much slimmer chance at success.

SC - If you were to start charging for services, how do you do so strategically so as not to offend your users?
CN - I think there’s the ability to continue to allow people to adhere to our platform in certain capacities, but don’t want to participate financially. Then there’s the ability to offer access and services for a higher level product that involves a combination of a subscription service and then also a unique approach for users to be able to acquire exclusive original mixes that can’t be accessed from anywhere else.

SC - What is your favorite iPhone app?
CN - Right now I’m using Thefuture.fm app heavily for my entertainment consumption. I travel a lot so I use Instagram and Hotel Tonight. I also like to have Sign It! on hand as well.

SC - What’s next on Thefuture.fm’s agenda?
CN - We are in the process of rolling out various ways to monetize content, and at the same time provide special access to the audience with some exclusive mixes so that it’s basically become a new marketplace.

Insider Interview: Omid McDonald and Booker Sim of Legitmix

SoundCtrl — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:00:25 +0000

By Sarah Polonsky

SoundCtrl caught up with Omid McDonald and Booker Sim, founders of Legitmix, a music technology dedicated to building virtual bridges between those who create using other people’s music, the artists they remix and music fans – in a way that promotes, liberates and profits both remixers and copyright holders. The goal of Legitimix is to be the framework of music.

But how? We’re glad you asked…

SoundCtrl – What made you make the switch from producing medical software to inventing music based program?
Omid McDonald – After my last start-up was acquired, I was looking for an interesting new project. When my friend Booker introduced me to the problem of sample clearance, I saw an opportunity to improve the situation using software. The chance to make a difference is what motivated me to take on this project. While I have had to learn a lot about the music industry, the challenges of running a start-up in the medical or music business are similar.

SC – With your history, what would you say is the secret to a successful software program?
OM - Understanding your client. Most software projects fail because the customers needs are not properly understood. Getting software developers to understand the real-world is not alway easy.

SC – What was your original purpose in creating the Legitmix software?
OM – The problem facing remixers is that their intellectual property is glued in with the copyrighted music they sample. This means that to distribute or sell their work, they have to negotiate a license to the music they use. I thought this was unfair and wanted to create a way remixers could sell their work without infringing anyone’s rights.

SC - How does your program stand out from all other music-based website and applications like Soundcloud and Beatport?
OM – Soundcloud and Beatport avoid the copyright issue by having the remixer certify their content is non-infringing. With Legitmix, the remixer openly identify the tracks they sampled and our algorithm creates digital instructions that consumers can buy to recreate the remix using their copy of the sampled tracks. If they consumer doesn’t have the sampled tracks, they must buy them in order to recreate the remix. This novel approach allows remixers to profit from their work and get the artists the sample credited and paid.

SC - How do you intend to evolve it and keep it fresh?
OM – We recently launched our self-serve interface that allows remixers to submit and promote their work. We are seeing a good number of high quality remixes posted everyday. This fall we will be releasing some cool features to better connect fans with our users. We’ll also be launching several major marketing initiatives with leading remixers.

SC – You were inspired to create this program due to what you saw during Booker Sim’s, your boyhood friend, filming of his most recent documentary “Tragedy: The Story of Queensbridge.” What are your thoughts on the film?
OM – The fact that Booker’s film was blocked due to legal red tape really upset me. It wasn’t that the original artists were against his use of their music but that the system is so complex and inefficient that he couldn’t even get to talk to the right people. So in the end, everyone lost and that made no sense to me.

SC – What was your reasoning behind making this film?
Booker Sim – Ever since I the heard Mobb Deep’s HELL ON EARTH, I was obsessed with capturing the essence of 90s Queensbridge thug rap cinematically. My background is in war documentaries, so Capone-n-Noreaga’s THE WAR REPORT was especially meaningful to me. THE WAR REPORT was “ghetto CNN,” showing the world what was going on in hood, but more importantly in my view, it taught the hood to use street knowledge to deconstruct world power politics. Not only did Tragedy (as the architect of the WAR REPORT) birth this idea of teaching geo-politics to the hood, but his life story provided a great way to report about life in Queensbridge as well.

SC – Your documentary has gone viral throughout the web, being posted on many free-to-watch video sites including YouTube and Daily Motion. Was this always your intention? Why?
BS - I didn’t put TRAGEDY online. French fans did. While my partners and I did sell a version to FUSE, all the proceeds went to cutting the Queensbridge rap out of the film because it was impossibly complicated and expensive to clear the music. Because French laws allow for per-sale incremental music licensing for home video, French fans get to enjoy the real version, which actually contains Queensbridge hip-hop! So in the end, like most projects that fail to get released legitimately because of our byzantine music clearance system, fans still find a way to get what they want, and copyright holders (and music “remixers” like myself) get squat.

SC – Of all the Queensbridge rappers to profile in your documentary, why did you choose Tragedy?
BS – I actually moved to New York in 99 to get Prodigy of Mobb Deep, then at the height of his fame, to star in a screenplay I wrote. I connected with Tragedy around the same time, and learned from people in Queensbridge that he was part of pretty much every great Queensbridge hip-hop moment, from the early Park Jams, to the Juice Crew days, straight through to Nas, Capone-N-Noreaga and Mobb Deep. While I did manage to convince Prodigy to star in my film, I couldn’t raise the $50 million needed to make it. So I grabbed a camera and went the low budget route, realizing the real Queensbridge story was right in front of me, with Tragedy. But had I known I’d never be able to release the doc in the US with actual Queensbridge music in it, I’d never have made the film.

SC – You helped co-found Legitmix with your childhood friend Omid McDonald. What inspired you guys to make this new music technology?
BS – After a rough cut of TRAGEDY was accepted into a bunch of prestigious festivals and offers from major distributors, Omid lent me money to clear the music (which I only recently paid back). After six months and thousands of dollars in legal bills, I was unable to clear the music, so gave up on a premium release (and only released it years later years later, with the music cut out). Omid, coming from a tech background, was shocked to learn I couldn’t release a movie people wanted to buy because there was no rational, per-unit music clearance system in place. Not only was I losing out, but so too were the music copyright holders. He felt technology could provide a solution to the sample clearance problem, and went to work on that solution.

SC – What’s next for Legitimix?
Omid McDonald – We are focused on getting remixers aware of our technology and make the platform work for them. Eventually we will support releasing movies so Booker documentary can finally be enjoyed in its original form.

Insider Tips From Pro Music Photographer Shane McCauley

SoundCtrl — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:35:11 +0000

by Shane McCauley

From shooting for music labels (Universal/DefJam, Warner Music Group, Mad Decent, Columbia) and publications (Rolling Stone, The Fader, Vice, Nylon), to traveling the world with Diplo, as well as publishing a book with the famed DJ, 128 Beats Per Minute, Shane McCauley documents music and life. For many of us, music is life; subsequently, we seek to carve out a space in the both physical and digital world of the industry.

Here are tips from McCauley for all the pit-standing, side stage-snapping, all-access press pass-wearing shutterbug hopefuls…

1. Read these blogs so you can always stay up-to-date with what’s new in your field:

2. So you want to go to college…

I’m gonna give it you straight: Going to a 4-year institution to get a degree in photography is the biggest waste of +$100,000 ever. If you do take business classes, video editing and post-production classes, web application classes, but better yet, don’t go to college at all. I have messed with a lot of cameras and lighting and spent 10 years working as a photo assistant for some of the best photographers in the world. I learned a ton that you just can’t learn in a classroom. Much of photography is just having problem solving abilities.

3. Develop your own style and stay positive.

Figure it our by trial and error. I have gone to shoot to discover that someone forgot to pack a cable, rendering most of the equipment useless, things break all the time. It is important to know how to take the lemons and make lemonade.

4. Make the purchases you must make.

You need to spend a little bit, but stop here: Photoshop, lenses, Final Cut Pro and Alien Skin (especially VSCoOfilters packs)…hard drive back up and a solid DSLR!

Out of all the stuff I have used the most reliable tool I have is my Canon 5D Ark II. I’ve shot with Mamaiya cameras also, and occasionally I still do shoot medium format, but only in portrait session situations. The Canons are way faster and more versatile. It really is important to invest in great lenses. You won’t get the same result with the $200 lens that you will with the $1,500 lens. I always shoot with Zeiss lenses or Canon L Series Glass.

5. Technique, technique, technique.

If you aren’t shooting with natural light, make it look that way.
If you aren’t already doing video also, you should start.
Live Shows vs. Studio: Stay away from fish eye lenses, avoid using your flash, and know that shooting in the studio can take years to make right.

6. DEADLINE

I rarely work with assistants, so I have a system worked out for getting my stuff where it needs to be on time. Meeting the deadline is always the most important thing. Hungover? No one else’s problem but yours!

7. Draw the line between “favor gigs” and “paid gigs.”

Favor gigs have to be something that I would actually enjoy shooting or it has to be an opportunity to make something really special. Do not fall for the “this will be really great exposure for you” line.

8. Promote yourself.

Just a few years ago, not many photographers were taking Social Media seriously. There used to be something that was mysterious about being a photographer. I have been working in photography since before the Internet (gasp!) so the way a photographer markets themselves has changed dramatically in the last few years. You need to show people what you are doing all the time. There is a saturation of photographers out there. I take time out of my day, everyday to post new images to my Tumblr and to my Twitter feeds.

9. Persistence is KEY.

Insider Interview: Producer Duo Beauties Rebecca & Fiona Get Tech Crazy With SoundCtrl

SoundCtrl — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:33:23 +0000

by Sarah Polonsky

The US is about to be hit in the face (and like it!) by Sweden’s hottest DJ duo, Rebecca and Fiona. If you haven’t heard of them yet, YOU WILL. With a hard-as-bullets live show, a saucy new video for chart-topper, (ahem) “Bullets” and a tour promoting the US release of their album I Love You, Man, Rebecca and Fiona are taking the Northeast by storm.

While they may look adorable and teeny, don’t be fooled. Rebecca and Fiona are titans of tonality, armed with badass beats and hard-dropping bass. The gals made room in their party-making schedule to chat with SoundCtrl about music tech and more…

SoundCtrl - Describe your sound and what we get from a Rebecca and Fiona live show.
Rebecca & Fiona - While DJing, we play non-commercial stuff with hard drops. We try to avoid cheesy vocals. We’re really into the technology aspect. We’re Nazi mixers, but we’re really into the party, as well.

SC – Describe your single “Bullets” from a production standpoint.
R&F – It was just a guitar riff. Adrian [producer/DJ Adrian Lux, and Rebecca’s boyfriend] and his friend were making a remix. They recorded a guitar riff that never got released. So, we just had the guitar riff and some base—it was nothing, just a loop. We took it from there, and started to create a song. We usually start with making a demo version of a track, and the production aspect we finish up together in the studio.

SC – Do you do all your own producing?
R&F – Yes. It’s so different every time. Basically, we create some melodies in Logic, some piano or a little synthesizer vibe, and then we go from there.

SC – What are your software and hardware must-haves?
R&F – Logic! We almost always work with software. But, we have some old synthesizers. On our album, I Love You, Man we used midi synthesizers.

SC – What is your favorite music app?
R&F – Reason. Ot is a Swedish app like Ableton. They have a really good iPad app, so does GarageBand. But we mostly use Twitter and Instagram for fun. There’s a new app in Spotify that gets all the lyrics so when you listen to a track you get all the lyrics.

SC – Favorite headphones?
R&F – Sennheiser, we can’t play with anything else. We started with them and we produce with them, as well. They’re small and they’re sound is perfect.

SC – If you could perfect a piece of software, what would it be?
R&F – We would like to design a synthesizer with our favorite catalog or dream sounds that we love. It’s got to have the weirdest sounds, with its own DNA that you can go in and change and it’s fucking mental. And of course, no one else can use it.

Check out Rebecca & Fiona’s video for “Bullets,” available on iTunes.

Catch Rebecca and Fiona on tour:

DATE		CITY	VENUE
Mon	6/25	Las Vegas, NV	Marquee, NC
Sun	7/1	Ottawa, ON	Escapade Music Festival
Tue	7/3	Las Vegas, NV	LAVO
Wed	7/11	Chicago, IL	Studio Paris
Thu	7/12	San Diego, CA	Fluxx
Fri	7/13	Las Vegas, NV	Marquee, DC
Fri	7/13	Phoenix, AZ	Wild Knight
Sat	7/14	San Francisco, CA	Ruby Skye
Sun	7/15	Las Vegas, NV	Marquee, DC
Fri	8/3	Las Vegas, NV	Marquee, NC
Sat	8/4	Las Vegas, NV	Marquee, DC
Sun	8/5	Miami, FL	Set
Fri	8/10	Las Vegas, NV	Marquee, NC

SoundCtrl’s Insider Interview with Producer/DJ Arty: “I Would Make Some Insane VST with Crazy Combined Effects on Output”

SoundCtrl — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:06:40 +0000

by Sarah Polonsky

Russian producer Arty is having a big month in music. The 22-year-old sonic savant just released “Open Space,” his new single for Anjunabeats, on June 18, and launches, “Together We Are,” his new weekly radio show for Sirius XM, beginning tomorrow, June 23. Listen online at www.2getherweare.com.

In celebration of the “little Arty that could,” SoundCtrl picked his brain about music tech, apps and following your dream.

SoundCtrl – Favorite instrument? Why? Is there an app or software that sounds just as good?
Arty – Piano of course—I played for seven years in music school on this instrument, so there is no other option for me. There is no software that can sound the same or replace it and nothing that can convey a sense of touching the note.

SC – What’s the coolest app you’ve seen in the past six months?
Arty – Gross Beat in FL Studio. I love the way you can work with the sound using this little beast.

SC - If you could design your dream app, what would it be?
Arty – As a big fan of delays and reverbs, I would make some insane VST with crazy combined effects on output. But since I didn’t make it, I use FabFilter Timeless.

SC - First album you ever bought?
Arty – The Prodigy – “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned”

SC Best piece of advice you ever got?
Arty – Follow your dream.

SC - Coolest piece of DJ equipment?
Arty – Pioneer EFX-1000

SC - Favorite headphones?
Arty – Sennheiser HD-25

You can stream Arty’s new single “Open Space” (out now on Anjunabeats) at SoundCloud

Photo Credit: Sergey Mikhitarov

Moses Avalon Talks with SoundCtrl: The Google Bubble, Technology and the Music Industry

SoundCtrl — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 17:02:16 +0000

by Kira Grunenberg

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend this year’s New Music Seminar and some of the key offerings of the seminar throughout the conference were these 18-minute “Intensives,” hosted by different industry figures, aiming to give poignant and memorable advice or opinions on a variety of topics.

Moses Avalon is a 30+ year veteran of the music industry who is currently regarded as “one of the top music business experts in the country.” Yesterday, he hosted an intensive titled, “Google Bubble,” which concentrated on lesser known facts surrounding the company’s relationship with users and related issues surrounding the “freemium model.” Avalon has experience that spans from recording and engineering to artist advocacy and authoring books on the business.

After the intensive, Mr. Avalon was kind enough to talk with me, and we discussed the presentation, his two featured books at the seminar, and his feelings on some general trends of the industry. The Q&A is transcribed below:

SoundCtrl – So your intensive on the Google Bubble seemed to me, to be a very realist based, possibly cynical point of view. For example, you had stated, ”If I had a Google phone, I’d…throw it in the garbage as quickly as possible. Do you want them tracking your every move?” How long have you felt this way about Google — particularly about how it affects musicians and the industry?

Moses Avalon – So this is to answer your first question. You just asked me if it was cynical. Someone once said, that cynicism is just reality with the volume turned up. No, I don’t think my point of view is cynical. Actually I think it’s the opposite. I think it’s optimistic. We are going to start seeing these large ISP’s competing to start paying for content and they’re going to need to go through some kind of regulation, which is going to protect our privacy. Will that put a damper on some aspects of the ‘Wild West,’ free association of the internet? Yes, it will but it’s a tradeoff every industry has to go through. Television went through this, music, radio…everyone goes through this.

[With regard to how long,] I always kind of had my eye on this subject but it really hit reality, when I recently bought a Galaxy Tab because I needed a smaller tablet…and when I typed in my email address, within less than half a second, it had populated my entire phonebook with names and email addresses of people I emailed years ago. And I thought it was kind of scary how quickly they could associate all the data from one account to the next -within seconds. So it was a little freaky. It knew a little too much about me too quickly and that’s when I started investigating exactly how all this works, that’s when I learned about the Department of Justice, what’s going on with them…I just consider it being a good consumer. You want to know about the products.

SC - Knowing the world is so deeply rooted in being interconnected with social media, do you feel users and music fans will be, as Russ Crupnick from NPD Group put it, “passive” or apathetic toward the kinds of Google invasiveness issues you mentioned?

MA – I think people are apathetic now. Now they’re like, “Ehhh, you know, whatever!” I think it will change. I think people, like…in the 1950s, people smoked and were apathetic to the harm that cigarettes cause but now we’re all very educated about cigarettes. If you’re gonna smoke, you know you’re taking a risk. Social media and the “freemium model…” has held risks to our economy and we’re only at the very, very beginning of understanding. Just like in the 60s we just started to understand that, “You smoke a lot, you get cancer…” So no, I think we’re apathetic now and we’ll become less and less apathetic as time goes on. There’s [also] always going to be people who like stealing music because it’s fun, not because they can’t afford it and there’s always going to be people who enjoy interacting, you know, with giving up their personal information because they’re getting free stuff for it. I’m glad that market exists but I would like as a consumer, I’d like to see some choice. I would like to be able to buy an Android tablet and not have to give Google my personal information. I’d like to be able to use some of those great apps but not have to link them to my Facebook account.

SC – Tell me a bit about your books, “100 Answers to 50 Questions on the Music Business” and “Confessions of a Record Producer” that are featured by the Seminar. Does their content touch upon any of the things you spoke about today?

MA – Okay, well, first of all, I’m not here to promote books. [The New Music Seminar] asked me to have books in the book store…My books are required reading in over 50 schools and have been around for quite a while, but my books have nothing whatsoever to do with what I spoke about today. It’s an entirely new area for me. [The music industry is] a power, and granted, we’re not a big community, not compared to some other ones, but we’re a community that’s probably a million people strong in this country. We need to use those numbers to express our opinions about what some of these companies are doing with our work. That’s my real message. You know, music in the 60s stopped a war. We’ve become really lazy with our voice. We need to use our voice to first protect our own rights and unify, and then to educate other people about the dangers -not evils- but the dangers of the freemium model.

SC – What would be one old school way you would want to go back to if you could?

MA – I don’t want to go back to anything. I like everything moving forward. I don’t have a problem with any of the new technology. I don’t think the internet is bad but an artist or a record label should be able to give away their music by choice, not by force. What these companies that impose a freemium model want [is that] they want you to have no choice, but they know you do. So the next step in their game is to make you feel like selling it is hopeless. All of their propaganda and PR is based on making you feel like, if you’re selling your music, you’re an idiot. Just give it away and make money on something else. That’s not going to work. I have clients who give away music and I have clients who sell their music and I can tell you who lives in a bigger house. It’s the [artists] who sell their music who live in a bigger house, drive a better car, and send their kids to better schools.

SC – Lastly, is there one technology tool, app or otherwise, that you DO embrace, despite a lot of technology’s user shortcomings?

MA – I love Twitter. I’m a big Twitter fan. I think it’s a great way to reach a ton of people. Um, there’s [also] a company I like, called DeliRadio, and they have a new way of selling music that I think is actually quite revolutionary.

___________________________________________________________________

In addition to being a major Twitter supporter, Moses Avalon also has an app version of his widely used “Moses Avalon Royalty Calculator,” which is sold in the iTunes Store under the name “MyRecord Deal.” As explained in the store description, the app “will determine, with reasonable accuracy, if a record company is reporting all earnings and royalties.”

If you would like to keep up with Moses Avalon and hear his other thoughts on the music industry and more, you can follow him @MosesAvalon, connect with him on Facebook or sign up for his newsletter.

Chatting with Mikko Tarmia, Video Game Music Composer

SoundCtrl — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:53:46 +0000

by Jason Epstein

As video games become more cinematic with greater production value, music has become more prominent and crucial to the gaming experience. Music can add a touch of lightheartedness, bring a tear to your eye, or prepare you for battle as you control your character and progress toward the game’s finale. Mikko Tarmia, an award-winning Finnish composer is well-versed in the realm of video game music. Among other gigs, he’s prepared the soundtrack for Frictional Games’ critically acclaimed, cult classic, survival horror series Penumbra and its hit-status spiritual successor Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Rather than composing with broad strokes on these projects, his music serves the games by strategically adding an unsettling atmosphere and key moments of intensity. SoundCtrl exchanged emails with Mikko to talk about his process, his work with Frictional Games, and his current projects.

SoundCtrl - Do you play any of the games you have written music for yourself? Do your own compositions ever lend to the horror you feel when playing?

Mikko Tarmia – This might sound weird, but so far I haven’t played any of the games I’ve written music for during their development stage. It’s nothing intentional, but I think there hasn’t been a real need to do that as I get enough information from visuals and event descriptions to know what kind of music is needed. When I started playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent after the project was finished, I found myself forgetting to observe the functionality of music because of how immersive the game was. That’s when I knew I have succeeded in the job and it was very rewarding.

SC – What other types of games do you enjoy?

MT - I’ve been a fan of extreme sports games since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 came out. Like the old 80s arcade games which I also like to play, there’s a level of real skill required in these games and I like the challenge. I also like the Legend of Zelda series and RTS games, like StarCraft. I also love to play pinball machines. Though pinball games for computer are somewhat fun to play as well, nothing can beat the real thing.

SC – Can you tell us a bit about the process that occurs between writing
music, recording it, and implementing it into the games and how you are involved with all of this?

MT - My work for games starts with negotiating what style of music is it going to be and what kind of instrumentation is going be used. For example, Amnesia’s music was done using sounds (mostly samples) from real instruments only – no synthesizers were used. Usually developers have some references for music style and they send me links to music tracks which have that something they like, but there weren’t any examples given for Amnesia. It was obvious that the game needed music tracks with spooky feeling, but there was more freedom in developing the style which was great. It’s not just a bunch of tracks that’s been put into the game – I like to play with themes and on how they evolve during the game’s story. So there’s a certain structure in music.

As I mentioned earlier, I get descriptions for each event that needs music. I compose quick simple sketches for each event, leaving lots of room for improvement. It doesn’t make sense to waste time on making music sound polished when there’s a chance of music tracks being rejected. Sometimes it takes a number of tries to get everybody happy, but even if it gets a bit frustrating from time to time, results get usually better in the end. I usually leave most of the polishing into last weeks of project because there can always occur some changes in game that affect into use of music. That’s when I tweak, record and process everything, and finally do the mastering – I haven’t needed to do any implementation so far, even if I have studied it a bit. When you leave few weeks to finish all the tracks, it might get pretty hectic and you get your ears tired pretty quickly. That’s why I start working on a bunch of selected tracks a bit earlier. Even if they won’t get used in game, I know I’m going to put them on the soundtrack album.

SC - What are some of your upcoming projects?

MT - I’m currently working on Frictional Games’ next game, but I’m not allowed to tell you anything about it at the moment. I recommend to follow Frictional Games’ blog for any news concerning the project. I’ve been asked if I’m composing music for the upcoming Amnesia: A Machine for the Pigs, but the development of the game is handed over to an entirely different developer crew (thechineseroom) and they have their own contributors for the project, including composer. It will be interesting to see a whole new approach to the game, though.

Another project I’m working on is a game called Overgrowth developed by Wolfire Games. It’s an action-adventure game with rabbits and other animals fighting in it. It’s starting to look really good and they have done fantastic job its promotion. They also have these weekly alphas where they go through the game’s development progress from every aspect. As a side project, we (me and Anton Riehl) are working on an arrangement based in Overgrowth’s main theme and it will be played by [an] online volunteer orchestra, consisting of players from Wolfire Games’ community. They play and record required stems in their home and send us files back. It’s quite challenging to put it all together as the only requirements were that players can play their instrument at some level and that they have ability to record it. So, many of them has been recorded with cell phones or laptop mics – but most of them sound surprisingly good. We still need some more players though, but we hope to get the project finished in couple of months.

SC – Can you tell me a bit about your music label The Sound of Fiction?

MT - The Sound of Fiction is more like a channel to contribute my own stuff than a real label with a roster of artists to be represented. Besides game soundtrack albums, The Sound of Fiction also produces collaboration projects. Our first album project was called AIKA, which is a soundtrack composed around a short story written by Tom Jubert. We had few composers and an illustrator working on that album. There might be some similar projects coming up in the future, but I’m currently out of time for working on anything that massive. I’m planning to do my own album before anything else (besides game soundtracks).

SC – Who are some of your favorite bands or video game compositions/composers?

MT – I listen to all kinds of music from classical to jazz and rock ’n’ roll and I have my favorite artists in every genre. I could mention names like The Police, Vangelis, John Williams, Devo, Queen, Eric Serra, Shostakovich. I don’t really have a favorite video game composer – so many of them are doing a good job.

Jason Epstein is a writer based in the New York City area, and has been writing as long as he can remember. In his career he’s done a wide variety of pieces and projects including interviews with notable musicians, short stories, comedic commentary, entertainment writing, event coverage, photography and more. He can be reached at Jasonepstein84 at gmail dot com.

Chatting with Byron Morgan of Vinylmint

SoundCtrl — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:15:24 +0000

by Dave Mainella

One of the promising young companies to make an appearance at this past week’s TechCrunch Disrupt was Vinylmint, an online service aimed at facilitating digital collaboration between music professionals. Headed by CEO and producer Byron Morgan, Vinylmint can serve as an online home base where audio can be uploaded and musicians can meet, resulting in inspired musical collaborations from around the world.

Dave Mainella had the chance to talk with Bryon Morgan on the behalf of SoundCtrl…

SoundCtrl – What did you think of the TechCrunch Disrupt experience?

Byron Morgan – I thought TechCrunch was awesome. For us, one of the youngest companies participating in the battlefield, it was great exposure. We got about 400 people to sign up to the site. We got a ton of fan fare on Twitter. I even had a woman ask me to marry her.

SC – Did you say yes?

BM – No. I don’t know if my girlfriend would like that.

SC – When was Vinylmint’s launch?

BM – We officially launched May 21^st. We’ve had people signing up for our early access period for about a month.

SC – Are you looking to secure funding?

BM - Yes, we’re looking to raise about $1 million in the next 18 months. Preferably $500k before we enter an accelerated program this summer, and hopefully another $500k to $750k after the accelerated.

SC – By what means?

BM – Basically angel funds at the moment. Due to the TechCrunch event, we’ve built relationships with VC firms, but those relationships will probably be fostered at a later date. Early on we’re looking at some angel funds.

SC - Who is the Vinylmint targeted user? Music producers like yourself?

BM – I definitely see music producers as a part of the community. But to create music, there are multiple people that participate in the process. They include musicians, songwriters, amateurs, engineers, and people like myself who are arrangers of the music. I see Vinylmint as a way for music professionals to find one another, and possibly for talent agencies to find and communicate with new talent.

SC – I’ve read that you’re working on a “discovery aspect” of Vinylmint. What might that entail?

BM – One of the big features we’re working on is being able to find others through the types of recordings and sounds they create. Through the development of a sound library, people will be able to socially collaborate through the content they create. It’s a new way of discovering one another, rather than actually just finding someone through a profile. And then through that discovery, individuals can then read up on the people creating the content and invite them to sessions accordingly.

SC – When you’re talking about a global scale, that can be pretty impressive and comprehensive.

BM - Absolutely. Just think about it. You find a cellist from Japan who’s creating a crazy sound, then you have a Nigerian vocalist who’s creating a new style of singing. Just imagine the sounds you could get from connecting those two. You’re generating brand new sounds, and brand new ways to think about music, to think about creativity in general.

SC – How do you generate revenue?

BM – We have a Freemium model, and then subscription tiers following. You get a certain amount of space to manage and grow projects. And then once you exceed that, of course, you have to pay.

SC – Is Vinylmint a stand-alone service? Do you envision integration with other services, social media platforms like Facebook?

BM – Currently we are a stand-alone web application. But, because Facebook has essentially become more of a content distributor, what we want to do is fine ways to integrate with Facebook to distribute content. Maybe that comes through distributing through Spotify or one of the plethora of companies that are already distributing through them. We do want to look to distribute through sites like Facebook and Twitter and Soundcloud. Again, they are distributors of new media today. For us, we’re just a part of that supply chain at the current moment. Hopefully we can distribute accordingly through those sites as we grow.

SC – Vinylmint seems to be more than just a storage platform, like Dropbox, correct?

BM – Yes. Our goal is to help musicians collaborate at the point of inspiration. Music is at its best at the point of inspiration.

For more information visit vinylmint.com.

Dave Mainella is a musician, producer, composer, and writer living in
New York. He graduated from New York University in 2011 with a Jazz
Studies degree. See what he’s up to @DaveMainella.

Chatting with Jordan Walker of Spotify

SoundCtrl — Fri, 18 May 2012 15:25:28 +0000

Photo: Jordan Walker, Artist/Label Relations at Spotify, accepts Spotify’s FlashFWD Award for Best in Discovery from rapper Talib Kweli. Photo courtesy Nicky Digital.

Article by Keith Nelson, Jr.

In 2008, the late Steve Jobs claimed “people don’t read anymore” in response to the question of if Apple will enter the eBook business, and by the end of the following year, sales of eBooks went from $63 million to over $165 million. Apple eventually entered the eBooks arena with the iPad and is still a business juggernaut, however, this was a clear example of a company of dominance skewing their perception of changes in human life. Usually the true mark of sustainability is having a mentality which is rooted in delivering a useful product while actively discovering trends in human behavior to continuously shape such a mentality. After just three years, Spotify projects over $850 million in revenue for 2012 and with endorsements from everyone from Trent Reznor to President Obama, they have intertwined themselves in the music industry. We chatted with Jordan Walker, Artist/Label Relations at Spotify, who also accepted Spotify’s FlashFWD Award at our ceremony on Tuesday, to see if the burgeoning company’s vision is rooted in reality or hubris.

The new fan

“For many of our premium users, this is the first time in their lives that they are paying for music.”

2002 feels like a century ago. Sarah Michelle Gellar was slaying vampires, a Big Fat Greek Wedding grossed over $300 million, and over 7 million people were pirating music on Kazaa alone. A decade later and vampires now rule television, Kim Kardashian received millions of dollars for a 72 day marriage, and there are over 13 million paid music service subscribers according to the International Federation of Phonographic Industry. Spotify claims they are “cannibalizing piracy and bringing a new revenue stream.” While music piracy is far from eradicated, The Pirate Bay, Megaupload, and other many other file hosting sites have been significantly scaled back after the recent influx of governmental attacks. It has taken over ten years, but companies are moving in to capitalize on such a trend. According to the IFPI, over 500 legitimate music services are in operation, and by the end of 2011, Spotify accounted for about 1/5 of those paid subscriptions.

The new artist

“All artists, be they independent, major label, household name, or up-and-coming, benefit from Spotify.”

The biggest gripe voiced by some musicians and labels regarding Spotify relates to its terms of compensation in comparison to other modes of release (iTunes, physical CD, etc) due to its still developing fanbase. Spotify’s 3 million paid subscribers is far from enough users for the music phenomena to be an artist’s main revenue system with paid streaming services still in its infancy. Walker believes Spotify works in conjunction with digital and physical downloads and not as a replacement, and claims, “Spotify can help drive physical and digital sales all the while helping to curb piracy. We see this on a much larger industry scale when looking at our founding home, Sweden, where one out of every 3 citizens uses Spotify and yet the download market continues to grow.”

Walker ensures Spotify pays 70% of their subscription based revenue to the rights holders and attests that the company offers artists exposure to potentially millions of new fans through its Facebook integration. “Users can discover new music, dive into an artist’s deep catalog, buy tickets to their shows and become life-long supporters, all the while turning on new fans out of their network of friends.” He further adds that artist should be monetizing each of these individuals for a very long time” since most “will continue to listen to music until the day they die.”

Is a market with Spotify being perceived as unsustainable by some artists because of the company’s still-growing user base, or are the “traditional artist” setbacks becoming more glaring with the emergence of streaming services?

Traditionally, an artist is signed to a record label which handles everything from music releases and recording to promotion and distribution. This affords the artist less financial responsibility and a wider range of resources yet more individuals get a portion of the artist’s revenue as a result. In 2011, Mac Miller became the first artist in over 15 years to independently release an album that debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. He will tell you himself that his rise to fame came from years of free music being streamed and downloaded freely along with direct contact with his fan base. He even released an entire mixtape with no prior announcement to commemorate reaching 1 million Twitter followers. In the same year, Belgian-Australian musician Gotye utilized Google+’s Hangout feature to group video chat with five of his fans two months after he released “Somebody That I Used to Know” on his own imprint, Samples ‘n’ Seconds. By the end of April, “Somebody That I Used To Know” topped the charts in 18 countries (including the U.S.) and amassed 542,000 digital downloads in a week (a new record). Both Mac Miller and Gotye have their albums streamed on Spotify.

The New Industry

“Streaming is an important part of the new music landscape and the industry as a whole will continue to see streaming further influence the charts.”

On March 14^th, Billboard began the On-Demand Songs chart which ranks singles according to how many times the song is played on Rdio, Rhapsody, MOG, Slacker, Muve Music, and of course Spotify. In addition, digital sales increased by 11.3% in 2011 while the streaming industry also experienced a boost in both sales and paid subscriptions. It looks like streaming and selling can play nicely after all, and even help one another. How far can the streaming industry go? Will we ever see the first ever record label/streaming service? Spotify Records? Walker ruled out this possibility by reiterating Spotify’s stance of remaining a tech company focused on scaling their user base and building their platform. However, when asked if Spotify will eventually begin selling music similar to iTunes, Walker’s “we have nothing to announce right now” reply leaves the possibility out there. The world is changing, and to paraphrase hip hop lyricist Kendrick Lamar, (whom Walker personally listens to on Spotify), Spotify seems to be in the dead center, looking around. And forward.

Keep listening, 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.

Bob Lefsetz at Music:Tech Day – Internet Week New York

SoundCtrl — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:22:32 +0000

In case you couldn’t make it to Internet Week New York or watch the Livestream, here is Bob Lefsetz’s keynote conversation with SoundCtrl’s own Jesse Kirshbaum.

Video is courtesy Internet Week New York.

GigFunder: The Crowd-Funded Tour Site

SoundCtrl — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:12:15 +0000

by Jason Epstein

GigFunder is a brand new, just-launched service that aims to help bands get on tour regardless of their financial situation. Theirs is a mission that strives to achieve both success and altruism in the support of both the musicians who want to play and the fans who want to see them play.

GigFunder currently works with a host of indie and singer-songwriter artists with a sprinkling of Christian, rock, and metal as well. They also seek to offer the service to DJs, comedians, speakers, dance squads, and just about anyone else that can put on a performance. The service only charges artists a “success fee” of 7% for each successful campaign, (that reaches the right dollar amount within the right amount of time). Fans that pledge money, but don’t succeed at getting their artist to their town aren’t charged a dime.

SoundCtrl exchanged emails with founder and CEO Matt Pearson to talk about the challenges artists face in today’s touring climate and the solutions that GigFunder offers.

SoundCtrl - What is GigFunder’s main objective and how does the service work?

Matt Pearson - The main objective for GigFunder is to offer a way to help artists and fans more deeply connect. By giving artists a platform to let fans have a say in where they tour, artists can avoid saving up money or getting tour support upfront from a label and fans are actively promoting the artist in cities all across the country.

The site works by allowing artists to enter in all of their touring expenses and then putting the tour out for fans to create campaigns for those artists. The funding goal is based on the artist’s touring expenses and the distance between the artist’s city and the fan’s city. If enough fans pledge enough money to bring out an artist, the show is on. Artists get the money to book the show upfront. Fans get tickets, merch, or other pledge awards like the ability to pick the set list or play on stage with the band for a song. If the campaign doesn’t reach its funding goal, nobody is charged anything and the artist doesn’t play there. So fans and artists have a huge incentive to work together to get the money for a show.

SC – What type of artists would benefit from this service most?

MP – The artists that will benefit the most are DIY artists that are very involved with social media and YouTube and have 20k – 50k fans in the U.S. (GigFunder is U.S.-only for now). Fans can get them gigs in new cities, but not so huge that they need a tour bus or anything. We’ll accept bands of any size, but it’s probably a good idea for smaller bands to keep their touring expenses as low as possible to encourage more successful campaigns.

SC – How are you getting the company’s mission and message out there?

MP – Right now, we have been doing interviews with various music/tech blogs and have a couple radio shows scheduled for next week. In addition, I’ve been reaching out to artists that I thought would be great for the site personally to try to get them on. Beyond that, we are relying on the fans of bands to request artists through the site to help get the word out. If you really like a band, register for GigFunder and request them through the site. As soon as the band signs up, you’ll get an email letting you know that your band has joined.

SC – How do you think touring has changed over the years? Where do you think it will go from here?

MP – Touring has changed in a lot of ways. Most importantly, touring is now a band’s best way to make a living off of its music since nobody is really buying music by the album anymore. Today, just getting an audience for your music is the primary goal, so many artists are uploading their music to torrent sites or offering free downloads themselves.

Further, fans have come to expect more of a two-way relationship with artists with the prevalence of social media sites. Historically, fans took what they could get in terms of tour dates and radio interviews, but it was all a one-way conversation. Today, live events are the best way to interact with your fans in person and giving them a say in what music goes on your record, where you tour, and how they can interact with you builds the relationship with fans from passive to active. Today, artists have the opportunity to make a living off of a decent amount of active fans, even if the artist is never mainstream.

I think we’re going to begin seeing fans interacting on an even deeper level with artists over time. If artists can cultivate large fan bases online, there will never be a need for a label and tour support, album financing, etc. It will all be supported by a thriving fan base. Offering fans more for their dollar, (i.e. pledge awards or merchandise that has a more personal touch the more expensive it gets), is going to be a huge component in developing and monetizing your fan base. Fans actively promote the artists that they feel they have a relationship with and cultivating those relationships by seeing them on the road, wherever they are, is only going to get more important.

3 Questions with Sahil Lavingia from Gumroad

SoundCtrl — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:00:11 +0000

by David Chaitt

After recently covering Gumroad in a general post about their direct-to-fan marketing platform and then seeing them featured in Fast Company, I decided it would be interesting and exciting to get an interview with its founder, 19-year-old Sahil Lavingia.

Prior to Gumroad, Sahil was on the founding team at Pinterest and designed the Turntable.fm iPhone app, so I was curious what would make him leave all that to start something new.

1. With platforms like Kickstarter or Topspin Media out there already to drive commerce among fans, what are a few advantages for a musician to use Gumroad?

I think Kickstarter is great. I think both Kickstarter and Gumroad are after the same goal: letting those that create content have more control over the way they share and gain value from it directly.

I think there are numerous use cases for Gumroad specifically. For example, when you want to sell something easily, simply, and directly to the fans and followers you already have an EP or some behind-the-scenes footage or something you worked on last weekend that is neat but not store-worthy.

2. In the video you reference that e-commerce sites “take a huge cut of the profits.” Does Gumroad take any cut? If not, how do you plan on monetizing the platform?

We do take a cut. We take 5% + 25¢. For comparison, iTunes takes 30%.

3. What are some of your goals for the end of 2012?

We just want to help more content creators, so the goal would be to have as many musicians, artists, painters, writers, and other creative types earning more money doing what they love than ever before. Luckily, our business model aligns with this goal very well.

Are you a content creator or a manager of one? Curious about Gumroad? Find out more at Gumroad.com.

Chatting With Larry Goldberg – CEO, TuneWiki

SoundCtrl — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:57:49 +0000

by Brian Kecskemety

TuneWiki, the startup that creates social media players for cellphones and handheld devices, has been making a splash in the social music landscape. Many first heard of TuneWiki when their service was announced as a launch partner of Spotify’s new app platform last November. TuneWiki currently has agreements with major music publishers, such as Sony, Universal, and EMI to legally use synchronized lyrics in TuneWiki’s music applications, which include games like Lyric Legend and their flagship eponymous app.

SoundCtrl got a chance to ask a few questions to TuneWiki CEO Larry Goldberg.

How difficult has it been to get licenses to use copyright lyrics?

As you know, there are thousands of music publishers with rights to song lyrics. Getting the rights to lyrics from many of them has been easy, and from others not so easy. Some publishers understood right away how we were trying to make lyrics more relevant and engaging for music fans, but others had to be pitched. Our basic approach was to show them that their lyrics were a very valuable asset, and that advances in technology allowed an innovative company like TuneWiki to help unlock that value in a way that benefits everyone.

Are there certain catalogs of lyrics that TuneWiki is missing that you’d really like to add?

There are, and we are working hard to finalize agreements with these composers and publishers. Our users regularly request lyrics that we don’t yet have, so we are making sure these publishers know that there are opportunities to let music fans have an expanded experience with their songs. But all in all, we have very solid lyrics coverage and have deals for all of the major publishing catalogs. We also have the largest database of synced lyrics in the world and most of our rights are global.

What were the biggest challenges in launching the apps?

The biggest challenge is to continue to innovate and update the apps with cool new features that music fans want to interact with. In our social music player you can now share lyrics to Facebook and Twitter, and you can have conversation around lyrics and your favorite songs with other members of the TuneWiki community. You can also discover other TuneWiki members with similar music tastes and see what they are playing. These social and discovery features have really helped expand our popularity beyond those who just want a great music player with scrolling lyrics.

What ways are you marketing your apps and services?

We use a lot of different techniques, but we are relying more and more on social media as the most important way to reach new audiences. We have growing communities on Facebook and Twitter and some very interesting ideas for engaging users from other sites that we will be rolling out over the next few months. We haven’t done any events yet by ourselves, but we are looking into that for this year. We were one of the featured apps at Spotify’s press conference in December when they announced their new partner platform, and we got a lot of very positive feedback and awareness from that event.

Are there any new applications in the pipeline?

Yes–we have a new mobile game coming out in a few weeks, so stay tuned for more info. We’re taking a very popular music genre on console gaming and bringing it to mobile in a way that hasn’t been done before. Additionally, we have several new features for our social music player that are about to be released and that I don’t believe have been offered by any other music service. These include seeing who the top fans are for every song and also which lyrics in a song are the ones generating the most conversation within our network.

Download TuneWiki apps at TuneWiki.com, the iTunes App Store, and the Android Market.

3 Questions with…Katherine from Cull.TV

SoundCtrl — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:00:30 +0000

Post by David Chaitt

As a result of my Music Industry Survey, an acquaintance who participated in the survey told me about music video startup he’s been helping out called Cull.TV.

At first glance, it was extremely overwhelming especially with the autoplay videos (perfect for people with ADD), but I poked my head around the site and saw what they had to offer. I agreed to have an interview with Katherine de León who is the site’s co-founder. Here’s what she said:

1a. Do you see Cull.TV as filling a void in the industry? Why?
Yes. Music discovery online is disjointed. You can browse YouTube, but the chance that you’ll find your next favorite artist that way is minimal. Most music discovery services utilize a single approach to help artists find new audiences. It’s usually a critic on a blog or top 10 charts. Our method is unique. We look at what’s trending on social networks, what’s happening in your friend graph, draw from machine learning algorithms and top it off with editorial programming to deliver the most relevant music videos from emerging artists.

b. On that note, do you see it as competing with Vevo? Why or why not?
No, we don’t see ourselves competing with Vevo. Vevo is the go-to website if you want to watch the latest music videos from Top 40 artists but there’s so much more out there to discover! The sheer amount of great new music coming out is staggering. I’d say Vevo’s focus is a lot narrower than ours.

2. How do you plan on monetizing the site?
Most consumer websites monetize through some kind of advertising or subscription model. We have tons of opportunities to monetize, but for now we’re focused on building our audience and providing a killer music experience. Our approach to monetization will be thoughtful and deliver value to our audience. In other words, we’re not going to rush it.

3. What are some plans or goals for 2012?
Become the go-to resource for new music discovery! We also plan to roll out a mobile version in 2012. Look for Cull TV on tablets and phones soon.

Please be sure to check out Cull.TV. You might discover your next favorite band that you didn’t even know existed.

3 questions with…Cole from LetsListen

SoundCtrl — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:25:54 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous TechCrunch Disrupt post, I met an interesting company called LetsListen that combines the clean look of Google Music Beta and the social listening aspects of Turntable.fm.

After chatting with Cole Flournoy for a while about his startup, I realized that this was an exciting testament of how the whole concept of listening is changing. In a way, it’s going back to where it started, but instead of friends and family huddling around a radio, it’s someone getting cozy next their computer while they casually DJ to their friends.

How does Lets Listen fill a void in the social listening experience?

LetsListen starts as a standard cloud music locker, almost identical to Google Music Beta or Amazon’s Cloud Player – but our bombshell is that we’ve added in the real-time social components that they don’t have. There’s other social listening apps that have the real-time aspect, but they aren’t actually cloud music lockers. We are the first that’s combined both. With us you can actually listen to your music privately if you want and use it as a replacement to iTunes – but you’ve got the option to turn on the “Public” option and then your friends are allowed to come and join you in real time, hear exactly what you are hearing and chat. The other big point with us is that our social listening experience is a lot more informal than others. It’s not a high pressure gamified environment where you are competing with other DJ’s, its all about just casually listening to music like you normally do. When you make your room public you are the sole DJ in full control. Our other big trick up our sleeve is that people in your room can share and suggest music back and forth with you (all in real time). Users can suggest songs from the DJ’s library, or their own – and if they do that, the DJ gets a message asking if he wants to allow the song to be added to the queue or not.

How do you plan on monetizing the service?

Our model is the same as Pandora – we help people discover music, and we make affiliate fees when they buy that music. Whenever you are listening to a song in the app which you didn’t upload yourself, we pay an internet radio streaming fee for that and you can essentially only hear it that one time, then if you want to listen to it again, you can buy the song. We make it really easy to buy music, and we’ve also got the “Listen History” feature that you can use to look back and see all the songs you heard with someone (and buy them if you want).

What are your goals/plans for the end of the year?

We have just made our public debuts to investor’s over the last few days at Pitch ’11, SF Music Tech and Tech Crunch Disrupt. We are raising our seed round right now. Our goals in the next 3 months are to be funded, bring our other 5 team members on sight to San Francisco (two team members are here now), and to have an average of 1000 concurrent users on the site (that’s 1000 on the app listening to music all at the same time), and also to get our first 5 major celebrities or artists to use the app. We’re already talking to one who wants to use it because its such a powerful and easy way for him to connect with his fans and drive music.

If you’re at the very least intrigued, all it’s takes is a simple Facebook login to test it out.

3 questions with…Rashon from Music Bloggers Association of America

SoundCtrl — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:00:12 +0000

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend asking me if I was going to be in Chicago for Lollapalooza and if I had planned on going to the MBAA Launch Event.

I had no clue that a music blogger association existed, but was intrigued, so I reached out to them and was put in touch with Rashon Massey who is one of the founders. It makes so much sense to create a union of sorts for music bloggers since they wield so much power over their communities, so I was curious to read what his responses to my questions would be.

What was the motivation for starting the MBAA?

I started a blog several years ago called Roving Festival Writer. I vividly remember the Fall afternoon when TheRFW came to fruition. My blog co-founder and I were chatting about several Michigan print publications that were going under, the measly pay freelance writers were receiving from the Detroit Free Press and identifying exactly how the politics/model for the ‘old music industry’ were still very much in play. Eventually, these conversations blossomed into the creation of TheRFW, and though it took time to find the words to express our purpose, we ultimately decided our chief goal was to ‘document music just as’. In just about no time following, through our attending of live music events, we were able to begin gathering photographs, video coverage and exclusive interview sessions with artists, brands and key influencers to provide consistent and original copyrightable content for our blog. This was just 2005, mind you.

When TheRFW came along backstage to music festivals in the summer of ’06, we were one of a small handful of college students ushering in a new era of music journalism. As years rolled by, TheRFW would continue to grow in readership; moreover, I witnessed a steady increase in collegiate music enthusiast who took to publishing blogs to dish their opinions and reviews on pop-culture, music and entertainment. By 2008, bloggers had begun to dominate media areas at most music events TheRFW attended, and even the larger publications were saving costs by sending a staff photographer and just one writer/blogger. In just a few years, savvy hipsters and trend-watchers carrying laptops, microphones and business cards became all too normal in the media compound at events, and it was somewhere around this time the idea to bring all music blogger’s together started knocking my brain.

After spending the next couple years attending music industry conferences, the importance of music blogger’s uniting became a top priority for me. I remember attending the 2010 NARM conference in Chicago and learning that attendance was nearly HALF the size compared to the ’09 conference. This was because of mass job losses across the music industry, budget cuts to many companies and the closing of many record stores. It was just last year when the sales from physical copies of recorded music were still sinking (thankfully in ’11, the industry has Adele’s 21), and new technologies and blogs like Hype Machine, RCRD LBL, TopSpin, ReverbNation and Tune Core reigned supreme. With music bloggers being the foot soldiers largely influencing the successes and failures of recorded music, the need to band in order to share a common voice, information and validate the blogging medium as a trusted and lasting force within the music community was all too strong.

I reached out to two extremely well-connected and influential bloggers from different regions, Todd Walton and Brandon Dorsky, and together we began etching at a foundation that would allow for others to contribute towards the structural building of the Music Blogger’s Association of America.

Do you plan on monetizing the organization? Why/why not? And if so, how?

For the sake of developing and executing lasting revenue streams benefiting all members of the music blogging community, the MBAA plans to monetize the organization. While a free forum of information would greatly benefit members of the music blogging community, a free forum would only be able to provide so much. Through membership dues and events (conferences, performance showcases, etc) the MBAA can have the resources to do some rad things including the creation of an advertising network for all MBAA member blogs and a MBAA mobile application (which would serve as our trade journal/publication)- Two immediate ways our members can begin generating revenue for their blogs and themselves as site operators.

What are some goals for the end of the year?

A while back, I became quite fascinated with the world of branding and the importance of understanding your audience. With social media, we should celebrate in our opportunity to have conversations with people because our old ‘one-size fits all’ audience is now fragmented. And that is okay! I share this because as we move forward with the MBAA, we want to know WHO our bloggers are, what they care about, what information and resources THEY are looking for in a representative organization, and what are their plans for the future as bloggers. Blogging, in general, is still so very new, but we as an organization feel the platform is not going anywhere ANY time soon; for that reason, important conversations about the potential of music blogging needs to take place, and these exchanges and conversations are imperative to have before the MBAA can properly serve our members.

The rest of 2011, the MBAA is opening our doors to the entire music industry. We are meeting friends and future partners while identifying the needs of our members. Don’t get me wrong – we are actively working towards a music bloggers ad network, a SXSW event and a showstopper New Year’s Eve celebration; however, as far as the …. how shall we say…. meat n’ potatoes of the organization…well, that is a conversation we’re starting to have with our members because the strength and direction of this organization will come from their voices.

If you’re a music blogger, feel free to register for MBAA for free.