http://www.singleoftheday.com
http://www.myspace.com/jodywhitesides

Essentially this is a daily blog that will be a song that fits the mood the writer is in for the day or what’s currently happening in the world. It will always be a band or artist the writer thinks the audience should know about, and support by purchasing the music or seeing them play live. Who knows, you might dig his taste in others enough to even support him in his creative endeavors as well.

Q: How long have you been blogging?

A I’ve been doing the Single of the Day blog since June 27th, 2006. That puts me at a little over the two year mark and counting. That’s a post for every day! It’s not always easy.

Q: In your opinion, what does a good song need to consist of?

A: Being that I’m a songwriter I’m probably more critical of the music I select for the blog. If I come across a song that somehow grabs me and does fit my normal ideals, I’ll point that out on the blog. I’ll explain what it is that grabs me in the song.

First off an intro that has a vibe that either piques my ear or draws me in is a major plus. That could be a hook of any sort, be it a vocal, a guitar, a piano, a bass, a drum, something that clearly denotes that song as soon as I hear it. Once the song comes in it has to have some sort of flow. A vibe, often times a bounce or swing. So much music these days lacks flow. How good the people playing their instruments are comes into consideration as well. Being in tune helps a bunch. With that typed, production rarely makes a bad song better. The real trick is getting me to feel it in some way. Then come the lyrics, can I remember them? Is the melody supporting those words? Does the music support that melody? Does the singer sing in tune? Do they have a voice that is pleasing to my ear? Do I get a nice journey in the lyrics? Tell me something that I can relate a portion of my life to and do it in a way that is unique.

Q: What is your favorite band or favorite genre of music and why?

A: I used to have favorites when I was learning to play. Once I got to a certain level of playing ability on my main instrument I no longer had favorites. Then my focus shifted to songwriting, a different beast from being a technically good/great musician. Some bands have had great players that are/were great writers. At this point, I really don’t have favorite bands anymore. As for genres, well… I primarily dig the all encompassing field of Rock. However, I’m very much into combining that with other genres. For my listening though, I really will listen to a lot of genres and if a song really grabs me, I’ll buy it. If the whole album is really strong, I’ll buy the album. I much prefer an album over a single. But it has to kick ass front to back. That’s hard to do, even for me (with my own releases). I think the real question is: What music gets one to part with their hard earned money? Anything that can do that is probably able to be listed as a favorite.

Q: What changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have effected you most?

A: I’m probably about to shoot myself in the foot with this answer. My rep at SESAC, Derek Sivers, Brian A. Whitney, and many of my musical peers, were all really excited to hear about the blog when I started it a couple of years ago. I’m actually amazed I’m still doing it. Every single day. I tend to focus mostly on non-signed or blog/podcast friendly artists. Which makes it easy for them to give me permission to have their song play when someone visits the site. I could allow the player to play the music in the RSS feed, but I’ve opted not to do that incase I get attacked with some arcane law. In a way, I get the feeling, I’m sorta flying under the radar. Who knows what the future will bring. I don’t make anything substantial off the blog, maybe a few pennies here and there based on google ads. It’s not much money, certainly not enough to justify why I do it. I don’t take money or bribes to be on the blog either. It’s strictly stuff I choose that shows I love music, it’s that simple. If I got hit with a lawsuit, I’d first see if there’s some arrangement to avoid the lawsuit. Otherwise, I’d probably have stop the idea of playing the music and continue by only talking about it.

Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel blogs have that power?

A: At risk of being a dick (I have a sticker that says, “Don’t Be A Dick”) I will say the following about Myspace. Myspace screwed themselves with poor usability. At first it was an ok way to find music and match it with fans. The closed system did not, and still does not allow for easy personalization of a page - not exactly what I would define as ‘my’ space. It took 3rd party developers to come up with ways to make myspace more useful. Smart peeps used the programs to target very specific profiles and gain fans. There was some weird belief that if you had X amount of friends on Myspace you’d get signed. So bands would spend hours a day on myspace looking for anyone to friend them.

Since I’m not a fan of promoting my music to other bands and vis versa, I don’t accept band requests on my myspace page. Of the 19,000 or so peeps I have there, maybe 50 are band pages in my friends list. But they’re all bands I know personally or have written with. My reason on that is: it’s a waste of time if it’s not making a sale. Which is probably why Myspace failed to really generate amazing sales for most bands, attempting to sell to other bands. I’m sure a few people got something out of myspace. I doubt you’ll see any new band come out of it now. Why? Myspace killed off all the ability to mass communicate. They’ve turned their back on the artists that helped create the site and are now bowing to the major labels. I understand it from a business sense. But it’s going to prevent them from returning to the “cool” status they had two years ago.

Blogs on the other hand are a whole different beast. They are generally much more personal. A way for a human to expose themselves. If that exposure of the self is something others happen to like, it ends up creating a community. When Single of the Day first got off the ground, I had a lot of people offering me suggestions to check out music. Some were great suggestions, lots of others not so much. The idea of an artist doing a review of other artists seemed to be something people really liked. My blog has morphed a bit. I’ve incorporated way more of my own musings of what I go thru as an artist into it. I remember the blog post where I made that switch. I then attempt to relate me to the song I pick in some way shape or form. I actually have no idea if people truly read it or not. My desire is readers get something from it. That something is the song. It always surprises me when people tell me “oh you know when you wrote…” it shows they are paying attention. I know artists have made sales because of Single of the Day. That makes me feel good. I also get emails from readers saying how much a song meant to them so they buy it, that’s great too.

I would say that if the blogger is worth reading, people will follow. It can make a great way to connect music. We all still need a filter system and a blog is a very nice niche filter.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://www.electricallanguage.co.uk

http://www.myspace.com/electricallanguage

Electrical language is a weekly music podcast of 4 or 5 podsafe songs by independent artists from around the world. The music ranges from acoustic to electronica to catchy pop to good old indie rock. It is hosted by me, Gabor Kovacs, from Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Q: With the Electrical Language Podcast in operation since December of 2005, how have you kept your content fresh for so long?

A: The basic format has been the same for about 2 years: I usually play 5 songs, of which 2 are by the same artist. Sometimes it’s hard, and there are times that I have felt that it’s perhaps getting stale.

What really keeps the content fresh, what re-invigorates me, is finding some great new music. Periodically I find something, or have a song sent to me, that is just so good. I get the same feeling I had as an 18 year old in 1977, going to loads of gigs by struggling young bands. It really is all about the music.

And the icing on the cake is when I get e-mails. Not so long ago a listener from New York e-mailed to say he’d been listening almost since I started electrical language, and listed about a dozen albums by artists from all over the world that he’d bought as a result of my play. That list included one band I’d never heard of, so I checked them out and got to play their songs as a result. And earlier this month an artist from British Columbia told me he’d made a sale to an electrical language listener in Hungary. Things like that give me a real buzz, and help keep me excited.

Q: Since that time, what changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have effected you most?

A: I have always taken great care only to play podsafe music. I know of podcasters who have been forced to take an episode off the server and remove a song. I can do without the hassle!

What I have noticed in the course of the last couple of years has been an increasing use by record companies of podcasting as a means of marketing artists, new and established. There are definitely people out there who use podcasters as part of a viral marketing strategy. I’ve even been asked to play a song by Duran Duran! I avoid playing artists who already have an established name. There are so many people out there with so much talent, and music is a cut-throat competitive business, and so I see the mission of my podcast (I’d never thought of it as having a mission before!) as being to help promote bands and artists who are trying to establish themselves.

Q: How has the show evolved since its inception?

A: I’ve noticed that my own musical tastes have evolved, no doubt about that. I think the answer to this question is that I have grown with the show. I still don’t like heavy metal, though!

Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel podcasts have the same power?

A: Yes, I can understand that if you take the view that word-of-mouth is a major part of using the internet to spread the word. I play music that I like, and every week I send out what amounts to a tape of songs I like, saying “Hey, you should check these guys out”. The funny thing is I have no idea who about 90% of my listeners are, but I suppose those who stick with me do so because their tastes and mine are similar. So my podcast is a kind of audio blog, listened to by people who want to hear the kind of music I play, which could be seen as a start. MySpace does seem to be something of a blunt instrument in comparison. I suspect that to use it well as a sales tool, you need to do more than send out friend requests and post bulletins.

Q: What’s coming up in the future for the Electrical Language Podcast?

A: I am trying to get more listener and artist involvement in electrical language. Every week the show opens with an ident by a listener or an artist. Sometimes I ask a band or to record a couple of minutes of audio to link two of their songs. I’m still working that idea through. I suspect I ought to take the plunge and try Skype interviews!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ariel: If you could just start by introducing yourself and I’d love it if you could maybe just give a very, very Cliff Note version of how in the hell you found Twitter and how you came to it, kind of what your life was like.  What happened and how did it happen?  Then, I love the way you talk about it and how it’s radically shifted your life.  Then we’re going to go in and I’d love to get your opinions and input on how a creative person can use it because I’ve been getting a lot of push-back from my community of musicians who are a little bit skeptical.  They feel like being musicians is very, very important but they don’t really understand the concept of the whole thing and why and how it could benefit them.  The goal here is to kind of get them…win them over and then towards the end of the call I’d love to talk about just some practical things that they can do that could help get them on the courts quickly, so that they feel like it’s making an impact.  The few that I have had sign up end up signing up and then saying things to me like, “well, this didn’t do anything.”  That’s when I look and they’re following no one and they didn’t really get it.  That’s a lot, but please introduce yourself and if you could just start with a little background on who you are in this community.

Laura: Absolutely.  The first thing you asked was how did I find Twitter in the first place.  I found it in a fairly typical way, which was just that as I started my serious blogging in March and April 2007, it was definitely the talk of the town.  The blog-erati or whatever you’d like to call the particularly well-known bloggers in the social media space were all saying, “oh my God, this thing is great.”  None of them could really articulate why in a way that was particularly convincing.  But they talked about it enough that I went and I signed up and looked at it and I thought it was dumb.  Just like everybody.  It looked stupid.  Twitter is the dumbest thing you will ever see.  But the truth is it…  Now I sound like an evangelical crazy woman.  It has incredible power and it takes time to learn that.

What happened was that those first couple months I thought it was dumb.  I even blogged it was dumb.  Yes, the post is still up.  You can go read it and laugh.  Around May, I noticed a guy and he mentioned it very incidentally in a blog post and I clicked into his Twitter stream and it was full of really productive things he’d been doing.  He’d been taking mentoring meetings.  He’d been going to networking events.  He’d been doing a bunch of really smart things.  This is a 19-year-old kid out in Silicone Valley who’d already founded two companies.  He was kind of an inspiring person to watch anyway and this idea that you could watch little snippets from his life as he felt inclined to unleash them made me realize that’s one of the oldest rules in the book of business success, is surround yourself with successful people.

So I started following him and because of the way Twitter is set up, you just kind of wander around and find people.  It’s very much accepted that you would be reading someone’s Twitter who you don’t know.  So I wandered around who he was following, who he thought was motivating, and I picked up maybe a dozen, maybe twenty people to read.  They say follow on Twitter, but follow’s a little freaky.  I call it read.  Who were just doing interesting things and saying smart, interesting things.  I really enjoyed watching that stream come by when I had time.  It’s a great work break.  It is easy to get drawn in and spend a little too much time there.  You do have to watch for that, because you’re going from being who you are your whole life to suddenly being surrounded by people who are really intellectually stimulating, who maybe have common interests with you that you didn’t know that many other people were into the thing you’re into before.  It’s a really refreshing, exciting experience.

So what happened, four days after that blog post, a group in Boston got together in public and just said, okay, you know, if you’re following me on Twitter, you’re invited to come out for a beer.  Okay, that struck me as really bizarre.  But I went.  Young mom, two kids under two.  I did not need big excuses to get out of the house.  We were all meeting at a public place so it wasn’t particularly worrisome.  These turned out to be some of the real rock stars of social media.  Scott Monty’s gone on to head up social media for all of Ford worldwide.  Steve Garfield, who’s one of the first video bloggers ever and has been in Time Magazine and all this stuff.  Brian Person, who’s just the heart and soul of Twitter for many of us.  We had a great time and that really cemented it.

Fast forward about four months.  People started to really start following me out of nowhere and I wasn’t sure why because I really wasn’t trying to build an audience or pursue an audience.  But from the New Media & Podcasting Expo…  Do you remember that last year, Ariel?

Ariel: Sure, absolutely.

Laura: I think I had somewhere between 300 and 600 followers then.  Now I’m starting to approach 7,000 already.  It’s really kind of crazy.  So one of the things I’m trying to show other people and especially musicians, my God, the opportunity for musicians is huge.  If an ordinary person like me can suddenly get an audience and a micro, micro, mini celebrity kind of thing going on, someone with a bona fide audience and something to constantly give their audience, like their music, and relationships to build and peaks into their lives, can really build something substantial using Twitter.  The other thing to remember is you’re not just sharing text and it’s not even just text and links.  Through those links you can share audio, you can share photographs, you can share video, you can share live video streaming off a cell phone that you carry with you.  Imagine that.  You’re backstage at a gig warming up and you suddenly give your fans a little sneak preview into what the sound check is like.  The type of content you can offer your fans for essentially free, because it’s just the time you take to put into it…  And from a mobile base, because I think if you’re on tour, musicians, actors, and executives all fit this profile of probably having some kind of mobile phone with them and being constantly in motion.  So it’s very hard for someone like that to sit down and blog or really spend a lot of time in front of a computer trying to share content.  Being able to do it through your mobile is really powerful and cool.

Ariel: Awesome.

Laura: You also asked me a little bit about how my life changed.  It’s been absolutely surreal.  I’m being followed now by somebody who’s known me since I was born.  It’s another kid I grew up with in an extended family vacation that we take every year.  There’s like 36 of us and we’ve been going for 36 years.  It’s pretty crazy.  So he just started following me on Twitter, because he just went to work for a company where a lot of my Twitter friends work.  It’s so funny because he knows me from real life.  We hung out in May.  Now he’s sort of stumbling through my work life.  Last time I told him about the Seth Godin thing.  He said, “oh, you really ought to write a book or something, ha, ha, ha.”  I said, “oh, yeah, no, actually I have an agent with ICM, I am writing a book.”  He’s like, “really?”.

So even my friends kind of don’t understand what’s happened and I’m really still coming to terms with it.  But I’ve been in a lot of newspapers.  I’ve been in some magazines.  I’ve had a lot of professional opportunities come my way.  Sorry, I just kind of alluded to, but we didn’t talk it recorded here on the call, I just found out this morning that marketing and business guru, Seth Godin, in his new book Tribes mentions the effect of what I’ve done with Twitter and what’s happened to me and the kind of business outcomes that have come from it.

It’s something to explore and I always encourage people to feel free to rip on it.  Feel free to say it looks stupid.  Feel free to say, “I don’t get it.”  But give it an honest try.  And I met you through Twitter.

Ariel: Yeah, this is the back story of how I met Laura.

That was a great story, that we were following each other somehow and so we had some vague awareness of each other.  You were, from the kindness of your heart, when I was coming to New York for Pod Camp and said, “anybody got a couch I can surf?” you opened up your home to me.  That meant so much.  I can’t even say.

Ariel: That’s the other thing I’ve found about Twitter.  It’s amazing how people show up.  I had someone I was following the other day and his dog got really, really sick and actually passed away.  It was someone I didn’t really know, but because I love animals I wrote him a really sweet note and just said, so sorry.  I actually ended up meeting him at a conference and he said, “you know, some of my best friends didn’t say anything to me and you did.”  It’s interesting.  You think it’s this weird impersonal thing, this giant IM in the sky which is how I like to explain it to people who don’t know what it is.  And then you can end up making these real, real connections through it.

Laura: I tried to blog about that this weekend because I got going on a few Tweets in a row about, look, it’s…  A lot of what makes Twitter so powerful is that it’s not in-your-face business communication.  It’s not that face-to-face, I want something from you, here’s my business card, trying to really make it transactional.  It’s this very authentic…  First of all, you’re only remarking on stuff that you would just remark on out of the power of your own heart.  For companies learning about how people feel about their products, it’s very powerful because it’s very, very authentic information.  That depth and authenticity also means that you could go to a total stranger’s Twitter page right now and read their last one to four pages of Tweets, just little, short, 140-character SMS links comments and remarks and jokes and complaints.  You read four pages of that, it’s maybe 80 little Tweets.  So from 80 little tiny remarks about somebody, you get an amazingly accurate sense of what they’re like.  It’s very hard to convince people that that is so, but the more I’ve interacted with people, the more I’ve discovered new personalities on Twitter that…

Incidentally, one big mistake that people who haven’t seen this before make, they think it all happens online.  The really major friendships and business relationships and opportunities that have come to me have been a lasagna, different layers.  Meeting online, meeting at a conference, hanging out online more, seeing each other at another event, building up a big kind of connected thing.  But when I do meet the people in person, it is true that I know them pretty well, just from those little offhand remarks.  And it always astonishes me.

Ariel: It always astonishes me, too.  People will see me and be like, “how was California?”  “How do you know I was in California?”  Then I realize, oh, yeah.

Laura: And it’s not just knowing you were in California.  It’s the remarks you made when you were on the Pacific Coast.  They feel the same way about the Pacific Coast and you’re that much more connected to them now.

Ariel: Exactly.  Let’s move on to Twitter specifically for musicians and some practical things.  We’ve kind of now given you an overview of who Laura is how she ended up doing it.  But I think that there is a plague that happens in the music and artistic community.  That plague is thinking that the only way to make a community is by exposing people to your music.  I see artists make this mistake consistently.  They’re so trained to talk about their music and just go up to someone and give them a flyer or whatever, that they forget there’s an entire other side to them.  This, as a traditional publicist, discovering Twitter and getting into it, I had to really lobotomize my old self as the person that was trained.  Okay, this is how you create a promotion.  You write a release and then you release it and it’s very one-way [unintelligible].  I think this is how a lot of us see promotion to this day.

Laura: Right.

Ariel: It’s all about I must tell everyone everything in one page and blast it.  What Twitter is about is it’s the antithesis of this.  It’s actually scorned upon to over-hype or over-market.  Can you talk a little bit about that and then I’d love to maybe try to set up a roadmap for musicians that might be interested in joining but are completely confused and they don’t know who to follow and they don’t know anyone.  That’s another big complaint I get.  No one I know is on it.

Laura: Yeah, you need that critical mass for it to make sense.  One of the first thing I would say to any musician listening to this, let’s face it, obviously, you only write music and you only perform music so you can sell it and make money.  You don’t do it for emotional connection.  You don’t do it for artistic expression.  You don’t do it because you want to change something in the world.  You don’t do it because you feel a certain way and you want other people to understand how you feel.  Right?

Ariel: I kind of beg to differ, but…

Laura: Come on.  All the basic motivating things that drive you to be a musician are the things that are going to make you really good at something like Twitter.  Because Twitter isn’t about push, push, push the music.  Obviously, you need the music to sell, to survive and to be able to pour more into your art, but all the things at the center of your art itself, the work you’ve put in, the talent you’ve acquired, the things you know about music, the things you’re trying to figure out in your lyrics or in your performances, all those really soulful things…  This sounds silly when I talk to executives, believe me.  But for musicians it’s great because all those soulful things are going to be what makes you successful on Twitter.  People want personality.  They want authenticity.  They want a genuine look at the person behind the music.  The beautiful thing, especially as you start to get famous as a musician, is that these tools give you the control over your privacy.  You’re not dealing with paparazzi coming in and invading.  You’re saying, “well, when I want to share something personal, I’m going to let it get out there in a way that is totally on my terms and in a way that benefits my business as a musician financially.”

As for pushing your music, the key is to get…  It’s pull.  It’s really pull.  The key is to get people involved with your life, get people involved with your artistic ideas and expressions, even share little snippets of your music.  You can share a photo, say “this is where I write most of my songs.”  You can share what you care to share and get people excited and involved.  Then, when you do have a new album, when you do have a signing party, when you do have a tour going on, you can let your fans know in a way that they’re going to be excited to tell other people and advocate for you.  Because you’ve spent most of your time just engaging with them as humans.  If you set up a Twitter account and every day, every Tweet just says, buy my album, buy my album, you’re not going to get any audience there.

Ariel: That’s totally right.  What would you do?  If you were a musician and you were coming to this site and you didn’t really have a lot of technological social networking know how?  What do you do?

Laura: Set up and account and use your brand name, your band, whatever name it is that you want people to be able to find and Google.  That’s very important.  Don’t just pick a name you like.  Whatever name you choose on Twitter it becomes very Google-able.  So the thing you want fans and prospective fans to find you as.  If you’re just starting out, you might use a generic like singer/songwriter or something.  But choose something you’re comfortable with, that you want to do well in search results and that’s the name you want to get out there.

Sign up.  Then go to the search page.  I think it’s search.twitter.com.  It’s that simple.  On the search page, start searching key words, words that are important to you, topics that you like to write about, words about the music you play, whether it be the genre or the instrument.  Even, gosh, if you want to really bond with other musicians just to start, you can even search the brand names of your band equipment.  Like your amplifiers are from so-and-so, you search that keyword, you’re going to find a bunch of other people who’ve made remarks about that word.  That gives you a jumping off point.  You can click in each of their profiles.  Remember how I said reading one to four pages of someone’s Tweets gives you a surprising accurate sense of their personality?  Just find random strangers that way and start following them and see if you have anything in common.  If you don’t, you just stop following.  That’s the way to find people with common interests.

As far as musicians themselves, I know if you ask Ariel or I’m sure you blogged this somewhere, there are a bunch of musicians who’ve done a great job on Twitter and they’re good to follow, just for their examples.  I think of Matthew [unintelligible].  I think of Samantha Murphy.  You may not know that Henry Rollins Twitters.  He doesn’t talk about music a lot, but man, that guy has a personality on him, as anyone knows.

Ariel: The other day I got the best.  I got a Twitter that someone had re-Tweeted, which you can do.  If you see something you like, you can post.  It said something like Henry Rollins just destroyed everything that was cool about him.  You went to the page and it was Henry Rollins who had Twittered folding laundry on my bed.  Just this image of this iconic man…

Laura: There you go.  Henry Rollins folds laundry, too.

Ariel: It was just hilarious.  I looked at it and cracked up.  If Henry Rollins can admit that he’s not promoting all the time…

Laura: Right, right.  So much in music is about generating a buzz, right?

Ariel: Yes.

Laura: The image that Henry Rollins admitted he was doing laundry made someone re-Tweet it, made you re-Tweet it, made you tell the story here.  It’s noteworthy, it’s interesting, it’s a funny story to tell.  So if you want people to talk about you, you need to give them things to talk about.

Ariel: That’s right.

Laura: That’s an example of one that’s memorable.  Certainly with somebody like Henry Rollins, he was huge.  But now pretty much just his devoted fan base remembers him and follows him and stuff like that.  So he’s able to kind of create new buzz and new information about him by just being him.  Which is pretty cool and that can still sell albums.

Ariel: It sure can.  They find a few people to follow using keywords.  Then what’s the protocol?  What should they say?  What should they do?  What’s the first step they should take?  What should they Tweet first?

Laura: Sure.  Here’s some jumping off points.  One, take some time and set up your profile properly.  Think about it this way.  You probably had a website made for your music and that either involved spending a bunch of money or hitting up a friend for a favor. You put a lot of thought into it and you really worked it out.  Well, here’s a chance to have a free website.  It’s not going to be as souped up as your own website, but put a little bit of time.  You can set up a static electronic image as your background, just single image, maybe an album cover, maybe a candid of you on the road.  Put up a good profile picture.  That’s the little, tiny square picture that goes next to all your messages.  If you’re in Twitter, you’ll see what I mean.  Write a couple things about yourself.  Make sure there’s a link to your web page.  Just get it all nicely set up so it looks cool when you get there.

As far as the first things to actually say and write, Twitter’s cue question, the jumping off point is, what are you doing.  That’s a fine thing to answer.  You can just say, “oh, I’m having lunch.  Oh, I’m meeting with a band.  Oh, we’re rehearsing.”  Especially because, as a musician, your life is thought of as very interesting by outsiders so just simply answering that will get you some cool stuff.  But I challenge you to maybe take a note here or write down a couple other questions you can think about answering.  One of the big things that I think we’re all doing on Twitter is that we’re answering and at the same time asking, “what do we have in common?”  I know I’ve gone into situations that I thought were fascinating and I’ve Tweeted, okay, I’m here and I’m doing this and I’m seeing this.  People are kind of like, “oh, that’s cool.”  But then I Tweet something really dumb like why do we all throw rocks into water.  Why is that so compelling?  And I get 40 replies because everybody knows that feeling of standing on the shore and just lobbing rocks into the water.  So it’s the things people can really identify with.

Here’s an anecdote that has good play into the music world.  This was specifically regarding promotion for a play in New York.  The person Twittering it was telling about the play and giving a link to buy tickets and saying, “yes, this is my client, but it’s a good play.”  I said, “look, I think a more effective approach would be to Tweet questions about the experience of going to a play.”  If you say, “what was the first play you ever went to?  Have you been to a Broadway show and which one?  What do you love about being in the theater? “, people are going to really engage with that and then you can still deliver the same content with the name of the play and the link to buy tickets.  But you’ve gotten people’s attention around it.  They have a reason to think about that experience and maybe even an urge to want to go see a play.  You can do the same thing with concerts, with albums, with whatever stuff you are talking about at the time.

Once you get to be a little more comfortable with the platform and a slightly more advanced user, or right away if you have good tech support, you can create something called a Widget.  A Widget is just a little box that can go on any website in the world that is going to contain all the Tweets you’re doing.  Because one point for a musician is you’re trying to use this to engage your audience and to share more with them.  They may not be on Twitter yet.  They probably aren’t on Twitter yet.  So rather than try and teach them about this new platform and make them go sign up and make them go log in, you can deliver all the stuff you’re sharing, the photos, the videos, the audio, the remarks, lyrics, whatever it is you’re producing on your own website using a Widget.

Ariel: And you can synch it with your status updates at FaceBook, which I think is an amazing little…

Laura: Exactly.  So Twitter almost becomes a little engine for generating content that can go anywhere else.  If you have one of those Widgets built, which they’re not expensive, there’s a ton of ways to do it for free, you just need a little tech know how, your fans can pick that up and put it on their own websites.  So, again, it becomes a way to help your fans help you and help them have a little piece of you to engage with, to have relationship with and spread the word about.

Ariel: Couple of questions.  First of all, how do we follow you?  Let us know.

Laura: I am Pistachio.  So all you have to remember is the nut and then you have to figure out how to spell it, which can be tricky.  But I’m Pistachio on Twitter and if you have any doubt about what I said about the search engine thing, pick a name that you want to be searchable, go to Google from anywhere in the world and search for the word Pistachio, which by the way, is a product, a nut, something people buy, lots of people selling them.  Nonetheless, I’m the third result.  Sometimes I’m number four or number seven.  But generally I’m behind Wikipedia and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  Just by interacting with people with that name, I’ve come to own that word in Google.  So, yes, please come follow me on Twitter.  I’ll warn you, I Tweet a lot, so follow a bunch of other people, too.

Ariel: Aside from Henry Rollins and Samantha Murphy and Matthew Ebolt(?), do you have any other creative people or people that stand out in your mind as people we could…

Laura: There are gobs and gobs of them and they’re going to be different from people’s specific genres.  So I can’t think of any other names offhand, but I would say use that search tool.  Sarah Burelis(?).

Ariel: That’s right.  I think she signed to Sony.

Laura: She’s kind of getting up to speed with it.  I wouldn’t say she’s an uber-user.  Henry Rollins is like he totally gets it.  Many people are on Twitter but don’t quite get how to use it to their advantage.  MTV did a promotion from the Music Awards almost over a year ago and it was cool, but it kind of fell flat because there wasn’t a lot of run-up to it and there was no follow-up after it.

Ariel: Yep, they used it.  That’s the incorrect use of Twitter.

Laura: Once you’ve built your network there, it is fantastic for organizing little flash mobs, getting extra people to come to your show.  It’s just such a great tool for that because people see the Tweet.  Oh, ten o’clock at the Orpheum?  Yeah, actually I’m around tonight.  Maybe I’ll run into town and see that.

Ariel: Thank you so much for your time.  I might be sending you a couple questions via e-mail.  If you don’t mind, I might want to include this in my new book that I’m doing.

Laura: That would be fantastic.  Quick little plug for most musicians starting out, just do this on your own.  If you have a lot of success and a lot of traction and you just don’t have time to go figure this out, this is exactly the kind of thing my business does now, is help people understand it, help set them up, help teach them how.  We don’t do it for you.  We will not outsource it and sort of write your blog for you.  But we can make it really easy and fun and show you ways to actually make money off doing it, not just do it for fun and general feel-good audience building.

Thank you so much.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://www.daveslounge.com
http://www.myspace.com/daveslounge

Dave’s Lounge is a weekly podcast that showcases the best in chillout, trip hop and downtempo music found on the Internet.

Q: How long have you been broadcasting?

A: I did some college radio back in the early 90s, but I didn’t really do my own show again until I opened Dave’s Lounge in 2005.

Q: In your opinion, what does a good song need to consist of?

A: Wow, that’s a really open question. There are lots of things that make a great song, but for the most part, it just needs something to hook the listeners. Cliche as it sounds, the hook does bring you back. That hook, however, could be anything — a catchy chorus, a solid guitar riff or keyboard pattern, a quality sample loop, or even just a certain vibe that makes the listener want to listen multiple times.

It’s a different sort of hook for every genre. The thing that makes people want to listen to Thievery Corporation is different from what makes people want to listen to, say, B.B. King or early 80s Michael Jackson. But there’s always something there to catch people’s ear, and sadly, I don’t think I can describe it any better.

Q: What is your favorite band or favorite genre of music and why?

A: I got into trip hop in the mid 90s after being a total hip hop junkie for much of high school and college. It takes that feeling you get when you find the perfect 2 or 4 bars of a record and make something entirely new with it, and it combines that with a melodic element in a way that just works. I first heard it in 1989 when Fresh 4’s cover of “Wishing on a Star” was in heavy rotation on my local R&B station, and I figured all R&B was going in that direction — except I didn’t hear that sound again until 1995, when Portishead unleashed “Dummy” on the world.

Trip hop and downtempo electronica can be very versatile as a genre, so much so that people try to split it into a hundred subgenres. But it all works for me, and even though it’s mostly designed for a chilled out mood, a good song can get me pretty excited. (Not that you could tell from my podcast voice, of course…)

Q: What changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have effected you most?

A: I try not to concern myself with specific laws, really, though I keep an eye on them. I just abide by some very basic rules for my show. I don’t play music from RIAA labels, and I avoid cover songs (although I’ve inadvertently broken that rule once or twice). I stick to legal outlets, like the Podsafe Music Network and IODA Promonet — which are excellent resources for podcasters seeking music — and anyone who emails me and asks me to consider their music will get a listen, provided they fit into the genre of my show. (Punk rockers and bluegrass fiddlers who try to be my friend on Myspace get on my tits. A little research never hurt anyone.)

Most of all, though, I only work with people who want to work with me. If I don’t have permission to play your song, I’ll email you and ask permission. 49 times out of 50, the artists will grant it, because they want the exposure. If they don’t reply, though, I respect it and move on.

Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel podcasts have the same power?

A: In theory, yes. In practice, it’s a little trickier. People do buy music they hear on my show, and I’ve made it as easy as possible for my listeners to do so, but it does seem like many people just listen to the podcasts themselves and leave it at that. Why buy the cow, y’know? It’s a bit of a double-edged sword for me, too, because I want to put out a great show each week, but I also want people to go out and support these musicians, because they help make my show what it is. (This is one reason why I don’t ask for donations on my show. It never felt right to me to take cash on the backs of other people’s creations.)

Still, what makes a good music blog or music podcast is the unified voice behind it. Here’s one person saying, “This is a great song, and you should listen to it.” It’s the reason certain DJs are so popular in electronic music: they have a good ear for good tunes. It’s easier than ever to get music out there, but because there’s so much of it now, we still need the gatekeepers and tastemakers to guide us to the good stuff. That’s one part of the music business that won’t go away any time soon. We’re just seeing a slow transition of those gatekeepers from radio and TV to the Internet.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://www.bounceradio.net

http://www.digivegas.com

Q: How long have you been broadcasting?

A: I’ve been broadcasting off and on for the past 20 years. I started at my college radio station in the late 80’s, then earning a BA in Radio, Television and Film. Since then I have worked in various capacities at radio stations, TV stations, recording studios, running live sound for musical theatre, corporate events and live music (my favorite of the three). I started podcasting in early 2006 with my show DigiVegas. (That’s where I got the name “Paulie Podcaster”) I started at bounce Radio in May of this year as a DJ, became Indie Music Director in July, and Program Director in late August.

Q: In your opinion, what does a good song need to consist of?

A: First, the instruments have to be in tune, and vocals have to be on key. I can’t tell you how many tracks I’ve rejected because the vocals are off key. It amazes me that people can’t, or refuse to, hear it, whether they are the vocalist, or involved in the musical project in some other way. You’re not doing the band any favors by telling the vocalist that he/she is on key when they are not. You’re wasting everyone’s valuable time and money.

Secondly, the song has to sound like it’s coming from the heart of the performer, not the head. I want to hear emotion, I want to hear the artist reaching out to me on that level. I don’t really want to hear calculated logic. If you simply must put your political or religious beliefs, or whatever, into song, give it to me on an emotional level. Tell me a little story about how it affects you emotionally.

Thirdly, no gratuitous language, sexism, violence, misogyny, etc. That’s my own personal opinion that does find it’s way into how I produce my show and program the station. I have a feeling I may not bee the only producer/programmer who feels this way.

Q: What is your favorite band or favorite genre of music and why?

A: I’ve always been a big fan of indie music, regardless of style or genre. I’ve always been a big fan of the underdog, the unsung hero. I get a kick out of finding some really cool band or song that no one else has heard of yet. I like to be the one to give it to people first, and even gloat a little bit when everyone else jumps on the bandwagon (”I was listening to these guys way back when…”. Either that, or I just don’t like being spoon-fed the music, being told by some corporation what I’m supposed to like simply because they say so.

Q: What changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have effected you most?

A: The biggest thing to affect me is reading in the news about how certain private citizens have been prosecuted for having a few “illegal” mp3’s on their hard drives. Remember that one where the mother was facing tens of thousands of dollars in fines and maybe even a prison sentence because her kids downloaded some “illegal” mp3’s? “It was her computer, she should have known and controlled what was going on with it” was the prosecutor’s argument. That’s complete B.S. IMHO. Lighten up people. Yes, piracy is wrong, and every artist should get paid for every copy of their work that’s made, but come on. Go after the right people.

I make sure I cover my behind… legally, that is. Bounce Radio is a fully licensed station and essentially, we can play anything we want. As far as the podcast is concerned, I have to be very careful to attain the artists’ permission before I play anything. I rely on services like Ariel, Podsafe Music Network, and even the direct, written permission of the artist before I play anything on my podcast. It’s one of the reasons I do an interview show. I highly doubt someone will turn on me and say they never consented to have their music on my show when they consented to an interview and sent me their tracks to play.

Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel podcasts have the same power?

A: No. I might say that if this were 2005 or 2006. I feel as if podcasts run the risk of going the way of 8 track and cassette tapes if we’re not careful. I quickly discovered, after producing my own podcast for only a few months, that unless you were one of the fortunate ones who got in on it on the ground floor, like Adam Curry, Fr. Roderick, or C. C. Chapman, you were facing an uphill climb to get your podcast noticed. All too quickly, everybody and their brother was producing a podcast. There are now thousands and thousands of podcasts starting up, and fading, every day, offering a huge variety of content. It’s extremely difficult being a podcaster trying to stand out as a gem in a giant bin full of junk. It’s extremely difficult for the consumer these days to sort through all these podcasts to figure out what suits them. All too often they swing and miss, and get something of low quality, or content that doesn’t measure up to their tastes or standards.

Think about it, it takes time and effort to download a podcast. How likely is someone to take a chance on one they have never heard of before? After a few sessions of fruitless searches they give up on podcasting all together. That, I think, is causing podcasting to be passed over as a legitimate, viable, first tier medium. Sure, they will always be here, and they do serve their purpose, but I think they have quickly taken a back seat to more timely and immediate mediums such as streaming media, blogs, social networking sites, etc.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://www.mevio.com
 

As the premier social media community, Mevio is the only network providing single-click access to the best in new media in audio, video, podcasts, and music to be delivered to your computer, iPod, mobile device, or television.
 

Q: What is the background story of how Mevio came along?
 

A: Mevio was originally Podshow. The company was founded by former MTV VJ Adam Curry and his business partner Ron Bloom.
 

In 2004 Adam had been messing around with audio blogging, before the term podcasting existed. He and Dave Winer were experimenting with adding enclosures to rss feeds and podcasting was born. Soon, podcasters were starting shows and shortly after, Podshow was started. They signed some of the early producers including my show (The Rock and Roll Geek Show), Dawn and Drew, Yeast Radio and some others.
 

Back then, people were playing whatever music they wanted on their shows. Then people started getting worried that the RIAA may not like that so Adam and some other creative minds started a place for bands who actually wanted to be heard on podcasts to post their music and The Podsafe Music Network was born. Shortly after, Adam and Ron asked me to quit my job as a house painter and work with artists on the network. 4 years later, it is THE place for bands, record labels and content creators to connect.
 

Q: What do you see the future of Mevio being?
 

A: I can’t speak for the entire company, since I only work on the music network but my goal is to have every record label, band and aritst on the network. I want independent content creators to have as much power in the music business as radio stations had in the good old days. It is my dream to have back catalog available to podcasters. I can’t speak for everyone but as a content creator, I want to play not only up and coming independent artists but also bands that were a part of the soundtrack of my life.
 

Q: What is your favorite band or favorite genre of music and why?
 

A: I am partial to 70’s rock and punk because that is what I grew up listening to. My favorite bands are still Cheap Trick, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Ramones and Joan Jett.
 

Q: What changes in content laws, broadcasting rights, etc. have affected you most?

A: When I reach out to some of the major labels to try to get their artists on the Podsafe Music Network, some of them still think that posting an mp3 on a website is piracy. The indies have been posting mp3s on their own websites for a few years not but the majors are a little harder to convince. That being said, the majors are now starting new media departments so there may still be hope for the dinosaurs.
 

The Podsafe Music Network now deals with some of the largest digital music distributors and independent labels in the world and I am really proud of that.
 

Q: A recent study found blogs to be more effective than MySpace in generating album sales, do you feel podcasts has the same power?
 

A: I think the labels are slowly realizing that by releasing a song from their artists to blogs and podcasts does more good than harm and can actually help break a band. For example, last year, there was a band from Australia called Airbourne. No one in the US or Europe had ever heard of them. I started playing them on The Rock and Roll Geek Show and listeners seemed to really like them. They emailed the band and let them know they discovered them from my show. Soon after that, got a CD from the band’s management and offered an interview with the band. I interviewed the band and continued to sing their praises. Now that band has taken the country by storm and has released one of the best selling independent hard rock records this year.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://www.accidenthash.com
http://www.myspace.com/accidenthash
 

Boston based Accident Hash is the premiere independent music podcast to find the best mix in podsafe music. If you’ve never listened to a podcast it’s simple an MP3 file that you can listen to anytime you want. Accident Hash is usually a half hour of talk and music.
 

Q: Boston music listeners have been known to be a little finicky when it comes to their music – backtrack to the Run DMC remix of “Walk This Way” scandal which was originally by Aerosmith. What do you think Boston listeners want to hear and why?
 

A: I don’t see this as just a Boston thing. Music fans are passionate about what they listen to and love and are not afraid to tell anyone about it. Most music fans want to hear the latest track by the favorite band and to discover new tunes that fit into that which they love. A fan in one area of the country is not that different then another in my mind. It is all about the love of music.
 

Q: Why do you podcast? And do you think it’s a good idea for artists to invest energy in promoting their music via podcasting networks?
 

A: I always liked being the guy who found a new song and had to tell everyone about it. Podcasting gave me an outlet where I could do that on a global scale and that excited me. From the first one up to today, every time an artist or fan drops me an e-mail excited over a track I played I get a renewed energy to keep doing what I’ve been doing for almost 4 years.
 

Artists should certainly invest energy into promoting their music on any channel that allows them more exposure and podcasting is a great tool for this. By making a track(s) available on sites such as the PodSafe Music Network, IODA or others it opens up the possibility of being heard by people that might not find them in any other way. This doesn’t mean that they can just upload a track and then do nothing. They still have to actively promote themselves either on their own or through a company or individual working on their behalf. Sure, luck plays a little bit into it, but hard work is not replaceable.
 

Q: What, personally, is your favorite genre to play?
 

A: I LOVE it when a hard rocking band strips it down and plays a loud track acousticly. I always loved MTV Unplugged when it was on beause you could instantly tell the real artists from the people who only sounded good in a studio. I’m a sucker for a solid acoustic track. If not that, then anything that I can put the top down and crank as I fly down the high way gets me going.
 

Q: What other social media ventures do you have besides podcasting?
 

A: I co-founded a digital marketing agency called The Advance Guard in 2007 that focuses on building marketing programs using emerging technologies so it is crucial that I at least have a foot in whatever the cool new pool at the moment is so that I can understand it for my clients. I’ve also been blogger for just over 6 years now and I’m an avid photographer and lover of Flickr.
 

Q: Your pretty big on twittering. How do you feel Twitter has helped your podcast?
 

A: Twitter allows me to stay connected to fans, bands and to meet new people that I can introduce my podcasts to. Besides Accident Hash I also do a new media focused one called Managing the Gray and a lot of my target audience for that show uses Twitter as well.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://weheartmusic.vox.com
http://www.myspace.com/weheartmusik
 

WeHeartMusic.com is a music blog composed of 30 music fans. They feature artists’ songs to stream to their readers, and include artists’ bios.
 

Q: How do you keep up with all the news in the music industry to put in your blog?
 

A: We actually get a ton of music-related news (mostly tour announcements), that I actually started a ‘news’ sister website - site.weheartmusic.com - that compiles press material. What’s interesting is that it’s indexed and searchable as soon as it appears on the front page.
 

If you’re a news junkie, you can usually find all the latest information about bands and touring information, directly from the source. This website is also the place to find out which bands we’re going to cover under “albums” and “assignments” page.
 

Q: How much work goes into producing and maintaining a successful blog?
 

A: I always tell people that you must produce content everyday, so you will need to at least spend 3-4 hours to write one long-form article. If you’re a music blog, I also recommend writing about music outside your normal genre, try not to pigeonhole yourself. Our most successful articles are usually not entirely about music (although it’s usually grounded in music).
 

Q: What are you looking forward to seeing/hearing at the Pitchfork Music Festival this year?
 

A: So, this came and went, and looks to be pretty successful. I did mention about Pitchfork’s Festival prior to the event, but not for the bands that were playing. I just really admire how all this came together by a company that’s not the traditional media. Yet somehow, they have enough readers and followers that they are able to pull in the crowd to create this event every year.
 

In an article last May, Rolling Stone editor Nathan Brackett dismissed Stereogum and Pitchfork… say what they do aren’t writing. Sure, Rolling Stone is still a media gorilla, but let me ask you, if you talk to any young person today, what is the chance that they read Rolling Stone? They are most likely to get their news from a music blog, such as Pitchfork. Plus, when was the last time you heard Rolling Stone putting together a music festival?
 

Q: What musical change are you hoping to see in the industry this year?
 

A: Right now, you still can’t ignore traditional media, but I think you’re starting to see influences heading more online. Personally, I would love to see MP3s used as marketing/promotional devices to help drive sales of concert tickets and merchandises. I still very much prefer to have a physical CD or vinyl.
 

Q: How many artists do you review weekly?
 

A: I personally write about an artist seven days a week, at the very least. Combined that with my other writers, we produce about 50 articles a month, usually spotlighting very different music genres since everyone brings in their music taste.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://pool88.typepad.com/my_weblog
 

Pool 88 is a Vancouver-based blog, named after a tranquil river pool in North Vancouver where the author grew up.
 

Q: Besides music what are some of your favorite pastimes and hobbies?
 

A: In addition to music, my main pastime is running. I’m currently training for my fourth marathon. I also enjoy the outdoors: swimming in the river or the ocean, cycling, hiking and trail running, and cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. I enjoy TV, movies, reading, and hockey, and am currently trying to master Guitar Hero on my Wii — I’ve almost completed the ‘medium’ level!
 

Q: What made you want to become a critic of music?
 

A: I have been passionate about music since my high-school years and have seen so many great concerts: the first one was Queen! When I started my blog, I simply wanted to create a record of the shows that I saw with my impressions — so I can remember and so I can spread the word when I see something special. I comment occasionally on records, but it’s mostly live performances — and awards shows: I really enjoy critiquing awards shows!
 

Q: In your personal opinion, what do you think makes a good artist a great artist?
 

A: I’d say the biggest thing that makes a good artist a great artist is authenticity. Having a true commitment to your music and your message is something that shines through, no matter what the genre. In live settings, I think the artists who are most successful are the ones who can find a way to connect with their audience on any given night and avoid the trap of playing every gig exactly the same.
 

For example, last summer, I was so impressed when Stephen Stills talked about what he’d read in the local newspaper that day, and was able to connect some of those stories to his old protest songs from the 60s: it gave extraordinary relevance to a show by a veteran artist and reminded us that those struggles are far from over.
 

Q: From your site we can see that you are interested in various genres, from Country to Pop. But what is your favorite genre of music to listen to and review?
 

A: I really do like all genres of music: I am such a ‘consumer’ of music that I always like to hear things that are fresh, no matter what the style. I prefer live instruments over synths and samples, which is one reason that I’ve been listening to a lot of country lately. In the past, I have been more of a rocker — Bon Jovi is still a favorite — but I have lots of guilty pleasures in pop music, especially up-tempo songs that are powerful for running. When I’m relaxing, my taste runs towards folk, jazz, and classical.
 

Q: What do you absolutely hate to hear on an artist’s CD?
 

A: These days, Timbaland (booo, Madonna!) I’m not a fan of his production style, and to me all his material sounds essentially the same. I also have a hard time with the misogyny and glorification of violence in a lot of hip-hop…and some rock. Women tend to be treated very well in country songs, and I appreciate that!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

http://www.radiodos84.com
http://www.eixordador.com
 

L’eixordador Internet Radio plays the best in new releases of pop, rock, indie and electro music.
 

Q: Do you have a bigger Spanish based audience or English?
 

A: L’eixordador has two different audiences. Audiences can listen through the Live365 network, these people come basically from the United States (about 35%) followed by Spain (about 20-22%) and the rest come to the music channel from UK and Germany equally (we can’t forget other countries with some listeners like Mexico, Canada, Sweden, Netherlands or Australia). On the other hand we can find the people that are subscribed to the podcast and radio listeners. Here you can find the difference. The feed subscribers are basically Spanish (70%) followed by American subscribers (about 14-15%), Austrian (2%) and British (2%). The rest (11-12%) comes basically from other countries of Europe).
 

Q. How long have you been playing music?
 

A. Since 1997. The radio show started as a local hard rock show but after some changes over the years the show has finished being a mixture of pop, indie and electronic.
 

Q: What type of music, genre, do you enjoy playing?
 

A: Lately, and the subscribers of the podcast can confirm that, I love to play artists and DJ’s defined in the latest edition of the Sonar festival as bastardism: all those bands that play indie mixed with electro under house or funky beats but you can’t put them on the genre of “indie” or “alt rock” or “electronica” or something else. Good, but different… The music channel in its rotation is a bit different, it’s open to general audience, playing better known artists for the general masses and well known genres.
 

Q: Why do you play music?
 

A: I’m playing music for the pleasure to discover new sounds, through unsigned artists to independent labels or netlabels. There are thousands of artists ready to being discovered, knowing one artist is the best way to know another one which can share his/her music with the rest of the world. Look at MySpace or Last.fm for example, this is a great way to discover a lot of amazing music. Feeling the vibe is the reason to play music.
 

Q: What is your goal for L’Eixordador.com?
 

A: The goal for L’eixordador.com is promoting new music, from the major label artists to unsigned artists, only with one condition: good quality work. We appreciate the compositions a lot that give us a good feeling, a well structured composition showing us something fresh and new. Trying to get a comfortable environment for the listeners who loves the music and the new tendencies.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

  1 | 2 | 3  Next Page »