Martin Atkins puts the current state of the music industry into perspective, sharing wisdomisms such as “you’ve got to think outside the box”, “where’s the fucking box?”, and “I build my own boxes”. The veteran drummer credited by NIN, Ministry, and Killing Joke, among others, has published a comprehensive guide slated to put an end to touring stupid. Tour Smart (available on Amazon) is out and Martin has been unleashed on a new generation of artists living in a box and staring at the pretty wallpaper. The scope and scale of this publication covers every aspect of the music ecosystem, from where to pour your gasoline to health & safety practices [when pouring gasoline]. The man has a plan and if you don’t follow it, you’re fucked.
On the NPR blog, I stumbled upon a two week old post marking the annual Beatbox Battle World Championship held in Berlin. NPR featured the competition’s wildcard winner, 17 year old Julia Dales from Canada, and I think the young beatboxerererer deserves a bit of the sp-sp-sp-sp-spotlight. Sorry.
I explored the stop motion phenomenon a little further this morning. Straying from the content norm of this blog, I put together five clips I love which, I believe, compliment the tremendously viral stop motion music videos I posted in the past. Hope you enjoy.
A fine continuation of and welcome addition to the stop-motion music video series on YouTube. Watch for the little man doing the Ted Striker “Staying Alive” disco strut.
The story behind this video begins in Santa Monica, CA, where street musician, Roger Ridley, lays down the rhythm guitar and lead vocal tracks for the beginning of a musical journey spanning the globe. New Orleans, LA, is the next stop where Grandpa Elliot adds second verse vox. We find ourselves in Amsterdam for the third stanza with the backing of musical allies in France and Brazil. The virtual procession reaches troubadours in Russia, South Africa and Venezuela and doesn’t resolve until every note of “Stand By Me” has been spoken for, courtesy of Playing for Change.
I was snooping around the International Songwriting Competition website (as you do to keep tabs on your competitors) and discovered a real gem: Kate Miller-Heidke. Clearly a winner – she picked up the 2008 grand prize – and, in my opinion, the first truly competitive artist to be associated with the ISC, Kate Miller-Heidke sounds like Australia’s answer to Katy Perry. She will be making an appearance at MUSEXPO in London this summer. Superb artist.
As Twitter secures its place as “thenext social network”, savvy marketers are weighing its merit as a marketing communication platform. In the music space, the micro-messaging site may rival the promotional advantage of MySpace and Facebook, signaling the authoring of a slew of Twitter how-to’s and grassroots success stories. Of the many that I’ve scanned – the vast majority I rejected for lack of foresight – Topspin Media published the most pertinent post of all.
I suspect that Bob Baker is already working on a Twitter music marketing guide and Seth Godin will follow suit with a sequel to Tribes. Perhaps Followers will become a buzz word like Chris Anderson’s Long-Tail. Perhaps your degree of cool will be determined by the ratio of Followers to Following. To me, Ashton Kutcher is just a punk.
While many marketers consider Twitter to be a goldmine, I’m still on the fence – and that shall be the title of my book… unless Twitter becomes big enough for Oprah, that is.
“Let The Beat Build” by Nyle is getting a lot of underground attention at the moment. The video, produced by Last Pictures and 194 Recordings, and directed by Chadd Harbold, was shot in one take, and the audio tracked simultaneously. It’s refreshingly well done.
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