Updates from February, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Nick 10:28 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink  

  Headliner Surpasses 10,000,000 Fans 

  One month after going public, Headliner has passed a notable milestone. The Headliner exchange now has a reach of over 10,000,000 fans with over 2,300 bands using Headliner. The Headliner is growing at an explosive rate, and the increased size of Headliner’s fan base means more possibilities for bands to find fans interested in their music. For just $5 a band can now reach over 100,000 music lovers. All signs for Headliner are positive, and in a few weeks, we’ll hit the SXSW festival in Austin, find old and new friends, and demo our product. See you there.

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• Nick 8:07 pm on February 23, 2010 Permalink  

  Cornell’s Really Tiny Guitar 

  Guitars are awesome, but sometimes transporting a large guitar case can be inconvenient. Cornell University has a solution : really, really tiny guitars made using nanotechnology. As part of a nanotechnology project, Cornell  applied physics grad student Lidija Sekaric crafted two guitars, one the size of a red blood cell and one five times larger . The guitars can be played using a focused laser and emit sound at a frequency 17,000 times higher than a real guitar. Although the guitars are currently inaudible to human ears, they offer an exciting glimpse into a future where all instruments are played using lasers. Check out more info here..

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• Nick 8:04 pm on February 23, 2010 Permalink  

  Myspace Status Updates Indexed By Google 

  Google has been integrating real time social marketing posts into its search function for a while. In October, the search giant paid $15 million to Twitter in exchange for being able to include select Tweets in its results. Now Google can search Myspace status updates. Myspace’s new-found searchability makes the platform even more relevant for bands getting their music out there, and makes Headliner an even more effective tool. The next time you post information about an upcoming show or a new track, there is a real possibility that update could show up on Google. More info here.

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• Nick 10:23 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink  

  EMI Shoots Self in Foot Again 

  EMI’s financial difficulties are no secret, but some of the label’s fundraising strategies are having a counterproductive effect. Labels earn money each time a video is streamed on Youtube, and to increase Youtube streams, EMI has outlawed the embedding of its videos. The result: more revenue from Youtube and a huge drop in free advertising. The New York Times has an article written by Damion Kulash, the lead singer of OK Go whose 2006 video “Here It Goes Again” was one of Youtube’s first viral success stories. In the article, Kulash alleges that OK Go’s videos have had their traffic slashed by more than half as a result of EMI cracking down on embedding. Check it out here

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• Nick 2:14 pm on February 20, 2010 Permalink  

  Sick New Headliner Feature 

  Using Headliner just became easier and more effective. Now when you are creating a promotion you can click on the magnifying glass icon next to a band’s name to find links to their social media pages and a picture of the group. This way you can easily find the myspace of the band that wants to promote with you and decide whether or not you want to accept. Check it out.
  

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• Nick 7:29 pm on February 19, 2010 Permalink  

  Guvera Set To Launch March 30 

  Giving away music for free doesn’t seem like the way to run a business, but from Spotify to Qtrax enterprising industry businessmen are lining up to do just that. Guvera is an Australian based site that allows users to download music for free in exchange for viewing advertisements. Guvera has the backing of the big four labels and is poised to make its US debut at the end of March. Guvera is likely to face stiff competition. Spotify is eying a US launch, and rumors persist that Apple may be taking its music service to the cloud. Who comes out on top remains to be seen, but clearly the music industry can’t support countless ad supported music distribution sites.

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• Nick 10:54 pm on February 17, 2010 Permalink  

  Are All The Good Band Names Really Taken? 

  The Wall Street Journal just ran a story entitled “From Abba to ZZ Top All The Good Band Names Are Taken” discussing how impossible it is to name a band these days. As evidence, author John Jurgensen sited the Discovery Vs. Discovery feud, and the fact that Them Crooked Vultures wanted to be known as Caligula only to discover that the name had already been taken. To illustrate the ease of naming your band in the good old days of band namery, Jurgensen recounted the story of Jerry Garcia picking the name “Grateful Dead” by flipping through a dictionary. Ironically the Dead were originally The Warlocks but changed their name because another band had taken The Warlocks. Funnily enough, The Warlocks was also the original name of the Velvet Underground. Claiming that all the good band names have been taken is like saying that all the good songs have been written or that all the good progressions have been played. Sure, a quick perusal of myspace may reveal a hundred bands named “Mirage,” but that doesn’t mean that bands didn’t choose the same names before the internet arrived. It was just harder to figure out.

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• Nick 8:30 pm on February 12, 2010 Permalink  

  Jim Jarmusch To Curate ATP 

  Music has always been important to filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Singer-songwriter Tom Waits played a lead role in Jarmusch’s Down by Law, and two of Waits’ songs were on the soundtrack. It was Jarmusch, not Tarrantino, who first tapped Wutang Clan master producer RZA to score a film, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Now Jarmusch is making waves in the music world; he will curate the 2010 All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP) Festival in Monticello, New York featuring performances by Raekown, Fucked Up and the Vivian girls amongst others.

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• Nick 11:11 pm on February 11, 2010 Permalink  

  Pat Methanys New Band 

  Jazz Guitarist Pat Methany has a new band, a new ROBOT band. Methany has built a sprawling mechanical mass of wires and instruments which he plans to use as the backing band for his next tour. Each robot has been programmed to play compositions written by Methany from his last album, Ochestrion. In effect the robots are extensions of Methany; programmed approximations of his own musical tastes. As kooky as this sounds Methany is not alone. This summer I watched Gamelatron, a robot programmed to perform an synthesis of traditional Javanese Gamela music and drum and bass. Seeing Gamelatron play live was incredible, mainly because of the exoticism of the whole affair. Still I have a hard time believing a bunch of robots could ever be as exciting as a real band for the duration of a long set. When I saw Gamelatron play it was as an opener, and I dont think I could be entertained by the novelty of what are essentially high tech player pianos for very long. Check out an article of Methany’s creation here. Click here for a more on Gamelatron.

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• Nick 10:31 pm on February 10, 2010 Permalink  

  Is Nike Asking For Trouble? 

  Nike loves using music to sell its products. From the sacrilegious, non-consensual licensing of the Beatles  ”Revolution” to sell Airmaxs to the Nas, KRS-One, Rakim and Kanye West Airforce 1 tribute “Classic”, Nike has combined music and commerce to mixed results. Nike’s latest incursion into the music field may be accidental. Nike just released a set of tshirt’s which, to me at least bear a striking similarity to the iLike logo. Its just 2 words, so maybe this is nothing worthy of note. You be the judge.

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