Here’s a choice I am running into that I need help making a decision for. When you post your commercial, for sale music online do you allow the full song to stream or only allow a 30 second preview? The large online music retailers such as iTunes and Amazon only allow 30 second previews. Do they know something about buying behavior? Does allowing just a short clip tantalize a listener so he wants to hear the rest of the song and clicks buy? Could it be iTunes and Amazon believe people will “rip” or record a full song stream even if just 128k quality?

Some websites like Last.fm give you the choice. I had my music set for 30 sec play and I received the following comment:

“30 second clips? can we get anymore of a rip off thats like showing half of the picture you painted, but if you want to hear the rest youll have to buy it if people like you enough, they will buy your music stop being such a rip off” – mnmcandiez

After a little thought I switched my settings to full song play. Is that the right decision? I think everyone knows it’s easy to record any sound your computer makes. I also know my publisher Strengholt music group doesn’t approve. There are some sites such as Bandcamp who rely on people buying music in order for them to survive yet they only allow full streaming songs.

So what do you do? What are the pros and cons here?

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photo credit: mag3737

As musicians we all spend time checking out music tech blogs, participating in pro-audio forums and listening to tunes on various social music sites. We can all justify the time we spend on such sites as learning (and it really is!). I’ve found a new time waster: Craigsphone (iTunes link). I know the iPhone app has been around for a while. I know you could do the same searching over at Craigslist. However, I had not searched for local synths for sale on my iPhone until today. There’s something to be said for laying in the backyard on a chaise lounge chair and finger flicking through used goodies with knobs. There’s some great stuff you can find such as “3 Non-Working ADATS”.

Ever find a killer deal on Craigslist?

Here’s an interesting tip I don’t recommend actually trying: Use iTunes and Tunecore to launder money! Apparently the Times Online (UK) says that’s exactly what happened using stolen credit cards.

“The Metropolitan Police and the FBI have caught an international criminal gang said to have made tens of thousands of pounds by buying their own records from Apple iTunes and Amazon with stolen credit cards. The gang are alleged to have created several songs that they provided to an online American company (Tunecore), which uploaded them to be sold on the two internet sites. It is believed that over four months from September last year the gang used 1,500 stolen or cloned British and American credit cards to buy songs worth $750,000 (£469,000). Amazon and iTunes, which were unaware of the fraud, paid $300,000 in royalties. Six men and three women were arrested yesterday by 60 officers at addresses in London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Kent. A man in his forties, was arrested later… It is believed that one of the gang is a DJ and that he created the songs that were then bought…” – timesonline.co.uk

This seems like a stupid crime because of the trail it leaves. I wonder if they had to actually download all the songs they bought. I guess this is one way to get onto the charts!

photo credit: maury.mccown

I’ve always complained to my Beatport rep that I really want to be able to customize the embedable player to fit my label’s website. I mean lime green and dark blue isn’t exacly what you would call a neutral color scheme. I still have not recieved my wish however today they released some nice looking banner generators.

Introducing the Beatport Banner Generator

Beatport has created a new tool to provide graphic assistance for the promotion of your new music. The dynamic banners created by the generator will update automatically with links to your current releases. Here’s the URL and easy instructions:

http://promote.beatport.com

Step 1. Pick whether you’d like to promote releases by Label or by Artist

Step 2. Choose one of four color schemes

Step 3. Choose from the eleven different banner sizes and get the code to embed to your website, Myspace, Facebook, email signature, or online newsletters.

You don’t have to be a Beatport label partner to access the generator so if you want to help your favorite artist out grab a banner and promote away.

I’ve been considering the ways to create an iPhone app for my own music as The Horrorist. iLike is has a limited time offer which will take all your content from your iLike artist page, turn it into an app and get it onto the iTunes app store. They charge a one time fee of $99 and after that they split the profits with you. The one time fee is a limited offer until next week. I can’t find anywhere what happens pricewise after that. “I like” the idea and may jump on it this weekend.

We just launched our turnkey service so you can create and distribute your own iPhone app. It’s simple to customize your app and program it with content using the iLike Artist Dashboard. Learn more by watching the video overview. Get started – customize and launch your app now. – iLike.com

What do you think? Is this a deal worth going for? Am I missing a better offer from a competitor? Is this an idea who’s time as past?

Related post: The Death Cab for Cutie iPhone application

SoundCloud has added volume control, a new info panel showing track stats, a download and buy panel, a share panel with support for direct sharing to your favorite social network, a handy switch to toggle comments on/off for faster navigation and threaded comments to it’s already sleek Player Widget.

To be honest I wish I didn’t love SoundCloud so much because I hate the idea of paying more than $50 a year on a web service. I also fear that if I upload 1000s of songs over the next five years and then SoundCloud goes out of business I’d feel majorly screwed. Imagine I use the above Player Widget in all my blog posts and then SoundCloud disappears. I know this is an issue with all cloud computing but I feel a bit more confident Google (and even Yahoo/Flickr) will be here in the long term or if they do cancel a service there will be good migration options. Now all that said, SoundCloud as a site is fantastic. In fact, it’s pretty much everything I want in a music storage and share online service. The guys in Berlin should really be congratulated for doing such a beautiful job.

I’m on SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/thingstocome

Related post: SoundCloud is a nice looking way to share music.

I’m a list maker. As far back as I can remember I was writing out lists on paper. What to do today. What do to next week. Things I meant to do last week but want to definitely get to this year. Things I need to do that have to do with the music business. Things I need to do that have to do with home life. You get the idea. Naturally computers make list making and reminders even more “enjoyable”. However, I’ve been torn as to which application to use.

My first stab at a computerized to do list was in a Filemaker database I created. After that got boring I just had a to do list on a TextEdit document. Then I had that list TextEdit document inside a iDisk (mobileMe) folder so it would be available on all my computers. When online web apps took over I tried Remember the Milk and Todoist. I settled on Todoist for about a year. Lately, with my new job and Bronx renovations I realized I am managing a ton more projects and need another layer of help. This weekend I tried out The Hit List and Things. I really like Things a lot and think it maybe my next choice. The iPhone app for Things also looks pretty sweet. Although I’m already syncing a bunch of stuff (mobileMe, dropbox, Spanning Sync) and I think it’s slowing my machine down (duh!). I really think web apps are the future though. Google’s new Task’s look interesting. Maybe I should make a musical GTD inbox? I could sing all my to do lists! Surely I would remember them that way.

So by now maybe you get my point? Yes I need to choose a tool and they are useful but it’s all a bit ridiculous. That said, what’s your favorite choice for remembering all the things you have to do?

If you want to know a little more about the art of “Getting Things Done” or GTD check out David Allen: click here

photo credit: eston

I met Ritche Hawtin a few times. I played a bowling alley with him in the early 90’s. We were set up inside the area that gives out the rental shoes. More recently in Berlin he moved into the studio next to me. Beyond being a friendly guy he’s got some great marketing tool ideas. I really like his latest move which sends Tweets of whatever track he’s playing directly from Native Instruments Traktor to Twitter. Here’s the copy:

“Pioneering techno DJ Richie Hawtin has announced the development of a new Twitter application that enables him to broadcast his Traktor tracklists in real time over the network. The custom Twitter application was developed in-house by Richie Hawtin’s label Minus, and it works by uploading song metadata through Traktor Pro’s inbuilt broadcasting functionality. Track details are automatically posted to Richie Hawtin’s Twitter account every 30 seconds (you can already see Traktor tracklist updates on his Twitter), giving anyone access to the tracklist of his performance, and providing exposure to the artists and labels whose music is being played.” – beatportal.com

Follow Ritchie on Twitter: click here and follow me (Oliver Chesler) too: click here

photo credit: cena carioca

Related post: Use Twitter as a promotion tool for your music.

Get To Know Your Gear: Episode 1 from Blorp Corp on Vimeo.

Sometime around 1996 I was living in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (actually I was in Midwood). I came home from a European gig to find myself locked out of my apartment. My keys wouldn’t open the door as they did many times before. I quickly realized someone had tried or possibly succeded in breaking in. I called the police and six officers entered my small one bedroom. I was told to remain in the hall. The female officer of the group came and and told me, “It’s not pretty in there. You’re going to be a little upset.”.

That was the understatement of the year. Everything was gone except my DAT (Wikipedia: DAT Recorder) tapes and Electrocomp-101. Now when I mean everything I mean everything. They took my food, underwear, soap and bed too. Gearwise two TB-303’s and a ton of other pieces you would find in a typical 90s techno guy studio were gone including a loved Roland Juno-106. So this morning I smile knowing I’m safe, I have my old tunes on DAT tapes and my Electrocomp is still as large and heavy as ever. Needless to say all my studios since have been armed and alarmed.

Related post: Secure your recording studio from thieves.

The Moogseum Project from Steve White on Vimeo.

A Moog museum. A program to bring electronic instruments into schools. Ton of archives, schematics written by Bob on display for the public. These are a few of the things the Moog Foundation is working on and they need your help. This is not a “mini” project! The Moog brand is a true American success story and it’s story deserves great respect and preservation.

“Michelle Moog-Koussa of The Bob Moog Foundation discusses the first Bob Moog museum or MOOGSEUM.” – Steve White

Learn more and donate: www.moogfoundation.org
Visit Moog online: www.moogmusic.com