If you’ve been living under a rock, you probably don’t know Mr. Forte was released from prison last year after getting off early from a 14 yr. stint (courtesy of George W. Bush….really). I was hesitant to listen to his new material post Fugees but I was pleasantly surprised to find this gem of a song off of his new EP. From reading his blog posts over at The Daily Beast, John has realized the mistakes he’s made and is on a positive path now. I’m not mad at all….enjoy nerds!
Graffiti veteran, Revolt (sometimes also dubbed “Dr. Revolt”) is recognized for his bright and elaborate Wild Style piece. His pieces draw upon pop culture, influenced by everything ranging from comic books to hip-hop, to Clint Eastwood to cult classics. Based in New York, he’s contributed to “Wild Style,” “Style Wars,” music videos, and created the “Yo! MTV Raps” logo. Get an inside view into the artist’s world as Ricky Powell interviews Dr. Revolt about his place in graffiti history. Watch the interview from “Dithers,” available for the first time to the public for free, on Walrus TV.
Flickr Pro, Olly C, had this to say in regards to this Banksy piece in Africa. Banksy has to be a group of people….no?:
I’ve seen this one in the flesh. Its in the suburbs of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. Banksy was there about 4-5 months ago. Sadly this has been partially painted over, Peaches Geldoff is no more and somebody has added a flower to the collection tin. There’s also a few local tags scribbled on the same wall.
There are a handful in Mali, stretching from Bamako to Timbuktu. Their locations are still unpublicised as far as I can tell.
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
Celebrate the publication of London’s first graffiti book, Crack and Shine. If in your London July 17, be sure to check it out.
Jade is a talented singer from NYC and was supposedly signed to Star Trak (not sure though). Her style is different but comes across soulful. Upon first listen, I was confused by her style and tone but after the second and third listen all was understood. Do yourself a favor and check her out. I know I’m kinda late but better late than never.
Shout out to DA of Chester French for the retweet. Very, very, very good post from Trent Reznor and his thoughts on being an indie artist A.G. (after Google). I’ve been trying to tell yall but hey…what do I know. Check out what Trent has to say:
(disclaimer)
This was written on a bumpy Euro-bus ride across the wilderness – may ramble a bit but I think the point gets across.
TRI posted a message on Twitter yesterday stating I thought The Beastie Boys and TopSpin Media “got it right” regarding how to sell music in this day and age. Here’s a link to their store:
[illcommunication.beastieboys.com]
Shortly thereafter, I got some responses from people stating the usual “yeah, if you’re an established artist – what if you’re just trying to get heard?” argument. In an interview I did recently this topic came up and I’ll reiterate what I said here.
If you are an unknown / lesser-known artist trying to get noticed / established:
* Establish your goals. What are you trying to do / accomplish? If you are looking for mainstream super-success (think Lady GaGa, Coldplay, U2, Justin Timberlake) – your best bet in my opinion is to look at major labels and prepare to share all revenue streams / creative control / music ownership. To reach that kind of critical mass these days your need old-school marketing muscle and that only comes from major labels. Good luck with that one.
If you’re forging your own path, read on.
* Forget thinking you are going to make any real money from record sales. Make your record cheaply (but great) and GIVE IT AWAY. As an artist you want as many people as possible to hear your work. Word of mouth is the only true marketing that matters.
To clarify:
Parter with a TopSpin or similar or build your own website, but what you NEED to do is this – give your music away as high-quality DRM-free MP3s. Collect people’s email info in exchange (which means having the infrastructure to do so) and start building your database of potential customers. Then, offer a variety of premium packages for sale and make them limited editions / scarce goods. Base the price and amount available on what you think you can sell. Make the packages special – make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan. Make a premium download available that includes high-resolution versions (for sale at a reasonable price) and include the download as something immediately available with any physical purchase. Sell T-shirts. Sell buttons, posters… whatever.Don’t have a TopSpin as a partner? Use Amazon for your transactions and fulfillment. [www.amazon.com]
Use TuneCore to get your music everywhere. [www.tunecore.com]
Have a realistic idea of what you can expect to make from these and budget your recording appropriately.
The point is this: music IS free whether you want to believe that or not. Every piece of music you can think of is available free right now a click away. This is a fact – it sucks as the musician BUT THAT’S THE WAY IT IS (for now). So… have the public get what they want FROM YOU instead of a torrent site and garner good will in the process (plus build your database).The Beastie Boys’ site offers everything you could possibly want in the formats you would want it in – available right from them, right now. The prices they are charging are more than you should be charging – they are established and you are not. Think this through.
The database you are amassing should not be abused, but used to inform people that are interested in what you do when you have something going on – like a few shows, or a tour, or a new record, or a webcast, etc.
Have your MySpace page, but get a site outside MySpace – it’s dying and reads as cheap / generic. Remove all Flash from your website. Remove all stupid intros and load-times. MAKE IT SIMPLE TO NAVIGATE AND EASY TO FIND AND HEAR MUSIC (but don’t autoplay). Constantly update your site with content – pictures, blogs, whatever. Give people a reason to return to your site all the time. Put up a bulletin board and start a community. Engage your fans (with caution!) Make cheap videos. Film yourself talking. Play shows. Make interesting things. Get a Twitter account. Be interesting. Be real. Submit your music to blogs that may be interested. NEVER CHASE TRENDS. Utilize the multitude of tools available to you for very little cost of any – Flickr / YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud / Twitter etc.If you don’t know anything about new media or how people communicate these days, none of this will work. The role of an independent musician these days requires a mastery of first hand use of these tools. If you don’t get it – find someone who does to do this for you. If you are waiting around for the phone to ring or that A & R guy to show up at your gig – good luck, you’re going to be waiting a while.
Hope this helps, and I’ll scour responses for intelligent comments I can respond to.
TR
15
Jul 09
A Comment from Olly
I wanna take this time to give a shout out to Olly who took the time to drop me a line. It feels good to know that people are out their reading and actually giving a shit to this movement that’s slowly taking place. Bless…