Children of The Universe

New Viral Marketing for Individual musicans and Bands

The number of established musicians and bands who no longer have major label backing and don't know exactly how to use the Internet to create sales is staggering. Some Really good people just don't know where to go.

ClarenceWigfall.com just announced a new Viral Marketing Project for musicians and writers. They already had a number of artists who wanted them to represent them and handle their Internet Viral marketing.

More RIAA Tales

Barry Ritholtz over at The Big Picture gets added to the list of people outing the RIAA over their various claims that You are stealing all the money and music from the poor artists who are starving because of it - or something like that.

I've been so busy working on my own audio projects that I haven't been posting very much.  Thanks, Barry, for making me post this.

There's new Rose Tang that I need to get written here - hopefully soon.

DRM - All Buyers are Criminals and Bugs

You buy the music - someone else tells you how you can enjoy the music - when you can play the music - where you can use the music -

Work around that and you're a criminal.

Doesn't Big Brother have anything better to worry about? 

There are so many ways to make this work.

INTEL IS ABOUT TO CUT Linux out of the legitimate content market, and hand the keys to the future of digital media to Microsoft at your expense. Don't like it? Tough, you are screwed. The vehicle to do this is called East Fork, the upcoming and regrettable Intel digital media 'platform'. The funny part is that the scheme is already a failure, but it will hurt you as it thrashes before it dies. Be afraid, be very afraid...

Any DRM on a machine is simply a sign of failure. It signifies that the providers cannot, or will not provide you with a good product at a fair price... Bought legislators are hard at work making sure you will go to jail if you try to exercise your rights on the issue.

Bruce Schneier has been writing about the danger of this for a long time -

The ubiquity of the Microsoft operating system is a security risk. There's an inherent security risk in any monoculture, and we're seeing the effects of it...

Bugs, worms, viruses - wildlife of all sort thrive in monocultures wherever they are - wheat fields - factory chicken farms - feedlots of all sorts.

Ever drive by a feed lot or a factory chicken operation?  You didn't have to see it to know it.  The sad thing is that none of the animals trapped in these places would live like that if given any choice, and none of them would require the heavy innoculations of antibiotics and hormones if left alone.

How much are you willing to pay to innoculate your computer against viruses and worms and spyware?  How many times are you willing to pay for the same piece of music or any other digital content that you buy? 

Mark Cuban asks some good questions about file sharing and it's impact on the "music industry" and comes up with something the RIAA doesn't want to talk about (among other things)

I contend RIAA sales are down because they lost marketshare. There are more CDs being self published or released by non RIAA members than ever before.  Sales from websites, concerts and car trunks are taking away sales from traditional labels.

So now we're being protected against something that doesn't necessarily even exist - something that isn't even a threat to us  and certainly something that I'm not worried about - but I forgot, I'm the threat here - the miscellaneous bit of wild life that needs to be protected against, and, oh yeah, so are you.

More on Whores

Category:  Music.

WFMU's blog asks a funny question about why Eliot Spitzer chose "airplay" as something terribly important to investigate with New York State's precious dollars over other nefarious schemes that are more directly hurting the citizens of that state:

Could it be that he thought that dropping names like Celine Dion and Don Henley would attract publicity that would help his 2006 gubernatorial campaign? Surely that can't be it.

Still, we have to admit that the public release of emails and other documentation made for some really sweet quotes and insight into the self image of the players involved.

Station Manager admits being a Whore

Artists have often called entertainment industry executives many things, but it seems they have the best names for themselves:

...a station manager who allegedly accepted gifts joked to Sony BMG executives: "I'm a whore this week. What can I say?"

Uh, what will you be next week?  and the week after?

Eliot Spitzer had a lot to say about what his investigation found -

"It is omnipresent," Spitzer said. "It is driving the industry. And it is wrong. It reaches to the very top of the industry on the radio side and on the label side."

And you wondered how people like Jennifer Lopez and others get so much airplay.  Raw talent... ?

The L. A. Times has the whole story.

Radio - What Happened?

Eric Eggertson - Great Communictions Technology Spoiled by Greed makes some great points about what happened to radio - you remember Radio don't you?  Used to be a great window on the world.  I still have the Album set (you remember albums, don't you?) "The First 50 Years of Radio" that was put out by GroupW (ok, You remember GroupW, don't you?) and given to their employees - I was Producing and Directing Television for them at KDKA-TV at the time.

Imagine you took this amazing technology and only allowed a few people to have licences to use it.

Imagine 50% of every radio station in the U.S. started playing the same playlis...

Imagine each of these radio stations interrupting their programs with invasive, inane promotions from companies that had little respect for the intelligence of the audience.

Just Imagine!

Super Cookie Cutter Girl - SuperHero

Well, she is promoting her music - awards - gigs - radio play - independent

See for yourself!

Queen of Groove

...even abroad one doesn't find many female musicians who are really part of a band...

She is a professional musician, as she puts it, and an outstanding jazz player who has almost always been surrounded by outstanding rock artists...

"I had come from New York, where I studied classical music and had discovered jazz a little...

Alona Turel
The full story by   Michal Palti at Haaretz.com

Tango Tango Tango

"On the street I encounter surprised looks when people see me carrying the instrument on my back."

Rinat Avisar

Isn't the tango a little monotonous? Don't you tire of it after a while? "I discovered there that the fault lies not with the style, but with the implementation. Sometimes after 10 minutes it's already boring, that's true..."

It takes six to tango by Noam Ben Ze'ev

Music is my husband

Well, Not my husband - we're talking about Mbilia Bel, the angelic-voiced queen of Rhumba from the Congo.

Charles Otieno makes this report.

Mbilia says that women should unite and let men know that they are not cheap. "Dancing and singing is not immoral or cheap, and men should not be jealous..."   She adds that she wants producers to treat female musicians better. "My challenge is to make the producers respect us, female singers. Most of them do not give us respect as women..."
We're all for that!  Maybe she should come to the U. S. while she's at it.