Re:traditional channels for creative artists
on
Wil Wheaton Strikes Back
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· Score: 3, Insightful
I'll play Devil's Advocate -- I'm not in a band but I have been close with several, some of which went on To Get Signed By a Well-Known Label(tm), and others which did not.
First off, let me just say I just downloaded your free sample. Second, I'm listening to it right now. I enjoy listening to it, and it's not bad music for its genre.
But that ends where we agree.
Your music is not, well, the kind of music that would turn out to be popular. That is not to say you guys don't have talent (which I can't judge from one song), or that you don't work hard (again, I can't tell if you guys do or not). But you're dealing in drum 'n' bass played by a live band. That's not the broadest possible genre, and I imagine it's a turn off to 80% or 90% of the population, if not more. And for such a super-niche-y type of music, you have to be REALLY REALLY good to break into any sort of mainstream popularity. Even bands like Breakestra don't have door-smashing commercial success. Everyone once in a while you'll have someone like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who within a few day's time suddenly appears profiled in Time Out NY, Pitchfork, and the NY Press and now "everyone on the internet"* knows about them.
What you guys have to do is try and connect with the audiences that might see you. I'm sure you know of all these names, but look at artists like Greyboy (and Greyboy Allstars), the New Mastersounds, LTJ Bukem, Disco Biscuits, and other artists that are in a similar genre. Find out where they play live and follow them there. Play in that same club. Try and connect with that audience. A lof of these artists do well for themselves with a tiny tiny amount of record sales. Someone might not want to pay $10 for your CD, but they will pay to see you in a live show for $10 (or more), and you will make more money off that $10 that they contributed. (I just looked on your site and you have one show in June and one in July --- you need to have two a week at least).
(I'm listening to your song now for the second time and I'd have to say, I don't know if I would buy your CD, but I would probably really enjoy your live show. And I know a few other people who would probably like it too.)
Blogs aren't the end-all and be-all, even if "everyone on the internet"* reads them. As I have opined before, I don't think they are all that great, and what's worse (for you), they are reaching a TINY audience that is spread all across the globe. Most people don't read blogs, most people don't even know what a blog is. Don't put all your faith into them, because they will not make or break you. They can help in either direction, but they are still sub-sub-mainstream media, outside of maybe a couple of very specific sites.
I can't stress live shows enough. Over here in the US, if you "make it" as a DJ, you are making money off of live shows, not CD sales. Compare the amount of discs that say, Tall Paul, sells, versus the sheer number of people he can pack into clubs. Your music seems like it would be fun to dance/move to.
I don't mean to sound discouraging. Put your energy into blogs, as you have, but don't be afraid to contact smaller papers, college/small-market radio stations, and do a LOT of shows. To be honest, your music is not good enough were you guys will be able to make a go out of it simply by doing a show a month. Not many bands can do that.
I hope all the best for you. Make it work for you.
* Everyone on the internet = A couple of hundred people.
I truly believe if Sega had released the Dreamcast in time for the 1998 Holiday season (as it did in Japan), it would've been a great success. That would've given it a year and a half or more before they needed to worry about Sony (and before Sony ever showed the duck-in-sink E3 footage).
But for whatever reason, Sega wasn't ready or didn't want to do it and it cost them.
The good news is that with the video game industry is getting bigger and bigger each year, grabbing 10% of the market is going to be sustainable for certain developers and manufacturers. You can survive with 10% market share. It surprises me that only Nintendo is really the one that seems to grasp this, as they clearly know they will not be #1 and don't seem to care.
Sorry, readers. The posters and the posts above are on the queue to be sacked. We had asked someone in the department to sack them earlier, but they didn't do it. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
As a result, since no one receives email, calls, visitors, IMs, telegrams, or Soviet secret police, we are sending messenger (African) pigeons to deliver these messages to you, in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.
Man they need to do their fact checking a bit more. That guy looks like he's 160 lbs. tops. I know I've seen some hackers top over 300 lbs. They're a bit wilier though.
Maybe they'll change their name to Crosoft in Windows in Spanish (since My is written as Mi).
Re:YES! $12! No need to hack it...
on
Juicebox Hacking
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· Score: 1
Let me know when PSPs, or even memory sticks, are anywhere near $12... Even at $40 or $50 it is still cheaper than a PSP, at least for those on a budget.
Look man, I'll kep it simple. If God/The Great Spirit/Mother Nature/nobody didn't want Man to slaughter and eat Moa (or the common Cow), he wouldn't have made them out of food.
The simple solution is for animals to evolve so that they are, in fact, not made out of food. It has worked wonders for the jellyfish and certain kinds of urchin. Also, tuna, which to me is gross.
Re:If they're anything like bose headphones...
on
Cubicle Privacy
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· Score: 1
I bought a cheapo ($50) pair at Radio Shack and I they don't create silence, but they work very similarly to white noise. Coupled with music actually playing on head phones, it's much more difficult to be distracted by outside sounds. It works great against say, a group of people chatting or a lawn being mowed, where there's a constant level of mid-range sounds.
That's why I like my "blog". It never needs to be updated but is always current. And no RSS feeds or anything to worry about. The other good thing is that it can be your blog too, if you agree with its views.
Also, worst word of the past two years = "blogosphere".
So, for some things in the mail you might send via a plain old envelope. Other things might be sent via mail with a security envelope.
By the judge's opinion, the things sent via mail with a security envelope are illegal.
This sets a bad precedent. Child pornographers are depraved monsters. However, using encryption should not make anyone automatically a child pornographer.
Have you ever seen the IE screens of people that are a bit clueless? They will have an iShop toolbar, an Alexa toolbar, a Google toolbar, a Yahoo toolbar, and at least 2 or 3 other toolbars, plus another one altogether displaying "Hot new game" or something like that. Since most of them don't like "the words little" they have their computers at 800x600 resolution, meaning effectively they have about a 720x40 browsing area.
Re:Glad I'm not a Californian anymore
on
Tinfoil Hat House
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· Score: 1
No, but seriously, on the downside... you're in Alaska.
TOKYO (Reuters) - The presidents of Japanese electronics giants Sony , Toshiba and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will meet to try to break a stalemate in talks over a unified format for next-generation DVD technology, a source close to the matter said on Tuesday. Sony and Toshiba, leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their new technology standards adopted by the industry. The winner will have pole position in the multi-billion-dollar markets for DVD players, PC drives and optical discs.
The high-level talks offer new hope for negotiations that appeared to have reached an impasse. A senior Toshiba official was quoted by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Monday as saying one format based on Sony technology would be "extremely difficult." Both sides still believe one standard is the best scenario, knowing that a prolonged format battle like the one between VHS and Betamax two decades ago would likely discourage consumers from shifting to advanced discs and stifle the industry's growth.
Slashdot Mirror
But that's a perfectly cromulent sentence.
First off, let me just say I just downloaded your free sample. Second, I'm listening to it right now. I enjoy listening to it, and it's not bad music for its genre.
But that ends where we agree.
Your music is not, well, the kind of music that would turn out to be popular. That is not to say you guys don't have talent (which I can't judge from one song), or that you don't work hard (again, I can't tell if you guys do or not). But you're dealing in drum 'n' bass played by a live band. That's not the broadest possible genre, and I imagine it's a turn off to 80% or 90% of the population, if not more. And for such a super-niche-y type of music, you have to be REALLY REALLY good to break into any sort of mainstream popularity. Even bands like Breakestra don't have door-smashing commercial success. Everyone once in a while you'll have someone like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who within a few day's time suddenly appears profiled in Time Out NY, Pitchfork, and the NY Press and now "everyone on the internet"* knows about them.
What you guys have to do is try and connect with the audiences that might see you. I'm sure you know of all these names, but look at artists like Greyboy (and Greyboy Allstars), the New Mastersounds, LTJ Bukem, Disco Biscuits, and other artists that are in a similar genre. Find out where they play live and follow them there. Play in that same club. Try and connect with that audience. A lof of these artists do well for themselves with a tiny tiny amount of record sales. Someone might not want to pay $10 for your CD, but they will pay to see you in a live show for $10 (or more), and you will make more money off that $10 that they contributed. (I just looked on your site and you have one show in June and one in July --- you need to have two a week at least).
(I'm listening to your song now for the second time and I'd have to say, I don't know if I would buy your CD, but I would probably really enjoy your live show. And I know a few other people who would probably like it too.)
Blogs aren't the end-all and be-all, even if "everyone on the internet"* reads them. As I have opined before, I don't think they are all that great, and what's worse (for you), they are reaching a TINY audience that is spread all across the globe. Most people don't read blogs, most people don't even know what a blog is. Don't put all your faith into them, because they will not make or break you. They can help in either direction, but they are still sub-sub-mainstream media, outside of maybe a couple of very specific sites.
I can't stress live shows enough. Over here in the US, if you "make it" as a DJ, you are making money off of live shows, not CD sales. Compare the amount of discs that say, Tall Paul, sells, versus the sheer number of people he can pack into clubs. Your music seems like it would be fun to dance/move to.
I don't mean to sound discouraging. Put your energy into blogs, as you have, but don't be afraid to contact smaller papers, college/small-market radio stations, and do a LOT of shows. To be honest, your music is not good enough were you guys will be able to make a go out of it simply by doing a show a month. Not many bands can do that.
I hope all the best for you. Make it work for you.
Wait, I'm confused... How does that tie in to Google?
So a blogger that is participating in this bubble is a... blubber?
I do predict that this blog will continue to be relevant, even if it never updates. *shrug*
I truly believe if Sega had released the Dreamcast in time for the 1998 Holiday season (as it did in Japan), it would've been a great success. That would've given it a year and a half or more before they needed to worry about Sony (and before Sony ever showed the duck-in-sink E3 footage).
But for whatever reason, Sega wasn't ready or didn't want to do it and it cost them.
The good news is that with the video game industry is getting bigger and bigger each year, grabbing 10% of the market is going to be sustainable for certain developers and manufacturers. You can survive with 10% market share. It surprises me that only Nintendo is really the one that seems to grasp this, as they clearly know they will not be #1 and don't seem to care.
My brain... the Dvorak and Cringely! They do nothing!
In his case, it's more like tied to the bottom of the Mariana Trench...
Sorry, readers. The posters and the posts above are on the queue to be sacked. We had asked someone in the department to sack them earlier, but they didn't do it. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
As a result, since no one receives email, calls, visitors, IMs, telegrams, or Soviet secret police, we are sending messenger (African) pigeons to deliver these messages to you, in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.
Man they need to do their fact checking a bit more. That guy looks like he's 160 lbs. tops. I know I've seen some hackers top over 300 lbs. They're a bit wilier though.
Another idea would be to have some sort of extension fee to copyrights. Say, after 50 years, it is $20,000 for every 5 years, up to 75.
I do think copyrights should survive the creators lifetime, or 50 years, whichever is longer, but no more than that.
Maybe they'll change their name to Crosoft in Windows in Spanish (since My is written as Mi).
Let me know when PSPs, or even memory sticks, are anywhere near $12... Even at $40 or $50 it is still cheaper than a PSP, at least for those on a budget.
It was my understanding that these VANs also serve as home networks, if you are down by the river!
Look man, I'll kep it simple. If God/The Great Spirit/Mother Nature/nobody didn't want Man to slaughter and eat Moa (or the common Cow), he wouldn't have made them out of food.
The simple solution is for animals to evolve so that they are, in fact, not made out of food. It has worked wonders for the jellyfish and certain kinds of urchin. Also, tuna, which to me is gross.
I bought a cheapo ($50) pair at Radio Shack and I they don't create silence, but they work very similarly to white noise. Coupled with music actually playing on head phones, it's much more difficult to be distracted by outside sounds. It works great against say, a group of people chatting or a lawn being mowed, where there's a constant level of mid-range sounds.
That's why I like my "blog". It never needs to be updated but is always current. And no RSS feeds or anything to worry about. The other good thing is that it can be your blog too, if you agree with its views.
Also, worst word of the past two years = "blogosphere".
But could explain the wealth of one Bill Gates...
Luckily, all my keys have grime on them so I don't look at it to begin with.
So, for some things in the mail you might send via a plain old envelope. Other things might be sent via mail with a security envelope.
By the judge's opinion, the things sent via mail with a security envelope are illegal.
This sets a bad precedent. Child pornographers are depraved monsters. However, using encryption should not make anyone automatically a child pornographer.
Have you ever seen the IE screens of people that are a bit clueless? They will have an iShop toolbar, an Alexa toolbar, a Google toolbar, a Yahoo toolbar, and at least 2 or 3 other toolbars, plus another one altogether displaying "Hot new game" or something like that. Since most of them don't like "the words little" they have their computers at 800x600 resolution, meaning effectively they have about a 720x40 browsing area.
No, but seriously, on the downside... you're in Alaska.
I'll tell you what the real crime is... not submitting any mirrors! We're going to get arrested for arson on this guy's server.
Mirrordot came up empty but there does seem to be a Coral Cache available.
Terrible nerdy nitpick, but it's "Only the Sith speak in absolutes."
Which is intself an absolute... Yoda = Sith!!!
Yes, I can't wait to play it on my BitBoys Oy Glaze3D card. Why even bother with a Voodoo3?
They know they need to collude if they want to maximize profits. Not having a standard is going to hurt everybody.