By: Doug Cheong

Taking Music to the App Store

The great thing about music on the web is that it is relatively new. This means that you have the opportunity to start new trends and to be the pioneers of new forms of distribution and marketing. Bringing your band to Apple’s IPhone application store (app store) is an example of how some artists are using the platform to their advantage. T-Pain did just that with the “I am T-Pain” app which allowed users to download a version of the Antares AutoTune Plug-in onto their IPhone. Now anyone can get the famous T-Pain sound for a small fee. They can even record their own songs onto the IPhone using the app and upload them to the web. Watch as T-Pain teaches recording artists Ludacris and Shawna how to use the “I am T-Pain” app on his IPhone.

Now even Indie artists are cashing in on the platform with Shinobi Ninja (an independent rock/rap group from Brooklyn) releasing their own IPhone App called; “Brooklyn to Babylon: Shinobi Ninja Attacks!” The Application is a game where users can chose their favorite Shinobi Ninja band member and battle their way through the streets in order to get to a club where they will “Rock Out”.  Hypebot.com posted this today;

“In what the band says is a first for music and gaming iPhone apps, “Shinobi Ninja Attacks” also leverages smartphone GPS tracking capability at concerts to locate and reward fans who have installed the app. A “lite” version is available free from the App Store and the fully loaded retail version sells for $3.99.Read More . . .

I think this is a great idea. Users can listen to the band’s music while playing a game and unlocking more of the bands content. Offering GPS tracking to reward fans is the icing on the cake. Shinobi Ninja gives added incentives for fans to attend their shows. It’s nice to see that independent artists are able to use the same resources as the big boys in order to get exposure.

Check out the I Am T-Pain website.

Check out Shinobi Ninja on myspace.com

Check out Shinobi Ninja on Twitter

Technorati Tags: App Store, indie, Indie Music, iphone, iphone app, music, Music app, Music Culture, Music Promotion, music technology

By Mike Skelton

A major way people are being exposed to new music is through games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Now, if you’re already a big name artist or an established act, you or your manager/publisher will be in a better position to negotiate a sync deal. But what if you’re an indie act that’s trying to find a higher level of exposure by having your song(s) in Rock Band. What are your options?

There are a couple of new ways of getting tunes on Rock Band that are definitely something to think about. I’ll start by saying what not to do. Don’t send your music directly to Harmonix (the developer of Rock Band) in hopes that they’ll like it and create a playable version of the song for the game. It’s essentially the same thing as sending a CD to a commercial radio station, “hoping” they like it, and maybe play it. Instead, you might want to consider the DIY or third-party options.

You can download the Reaper software ($60 US), which allows you to create the Rock Band track and is compatible with both a Mac and a PC. You will also need MAGMA software to transfer the file to a gaming system. However, this software only works on a PC, unless you use an emulator, and as of right now, you can only test your Rock Band track on the Xbox 360.

You also need to become a member of the Xbox Creators’ Club, which is a $99/year membership (don’t forget about the cost of the Rock Band game if you don’t already own it). Other concerns include having your track not make it past the review process as well as all the time that will be spent on learning how to use the software, creating the track, and testing the song. All time that could be spent on writing songs, rehearsing, networking, etc. For a more in-depth look on how to use the Reaper software, check out this article at createdigitalmusic.com.

A newer way of getting your music onto Rock Band is through Tunecore (Note: You must be a member of Tunecore to do this). For the cost of $999 (apparently a limited time deal as the price may go up to $2500), Tunecore, working with The Authority, will do all of the work for you and place your track onto the RBN online store. Artists receive a 30% royalty on tracks sold (max price for selling a track is $3) and are payed out quarterly. Tunecore is currently providing this service for free for one (random) band per month. Anyone interested at all should checkout Tunecore for the details such as what stem tracks are required and what the file types should be (16 bit, 44.1 kHz, etc.).

Anyone interested in either of these methods should consider whether it’s more suitable for the band to invest time or money. Spending $1000 as an indie act is no easy decision and it will take a lot of downloads to recoup that cost. Make sure you already have an existing fan base that will purchase your track(s) and as much as it has the potential to attract new fans, make sure you’re spending your time/money in the right way.

Technorati Tags: DIY, Mike Skelton, Reaper, rock band, tunecore, video games

By: Connor

Allow me to present one of my favorite groups: Futuristic Sex Robotz
They encourage you to pirate their music, which was available on their website as to do otherwise would be pretty hypocritical. How so, you ask? well, check out “Fuck The MPAA” As the title suggests, the song contains explicit lyrics: don’t play it for any 4 year olds, no matter how pissed off at the RIAA you may be.

Nerdcore is a genre of hip-hop that’s defined as “A sub-genre of hip hop music characterized by themes and subject matter considered to be of general interest to nerds, though it can appeal to others as well.” Further, Nerdcore used to be relatively unique in promoting free music and online distribution. As this is becoming increasingly more common and popular, it’s no longer so defining to the genre.

Unfortunately, Futuristic Sex Robotz have been inactive since early 2007 or so, and their website is now inactive. Further, being nerds – and therefore knowledgeable about computers and html and how search engines work – they’ve excluded it from crawlers and it can’t be accessed via the Wayback Machine either.

For more FSR, check out the two videos embedded below, The Positronic Pimp, a rap about the Star Trek character Data and Back To The Future, a rap about the titular movie. Alternately, browse around on Last.fm or google “Futuristic Sex Robots +torrent”
What you’re looking for is their album ‘Hotel Coral Essex.’ Here’s the track list:

1. Van on Fire
2. Welcome to the Internet
3. Back in the Day
4. Law & Order
5. ***** the MPAA
6. The Positronic Pimp
7. Hey, Ladies
8. WoW
9. Dishwasher
10. LiveJournal
11. Back to the Future
12. Don’t Make Us Kick Your Ass
13. Empornium
14. If I Ruled the World
15. Checking Out

Next up, MC Frontalot, another nerdcore artist. He’s widely credited with coining the term ‘nerdcore’ in 2000, although there were arists rapping about nerdy subjects prior to him. He gained fame through his victories on SongFight! where he was known for never losing a songfight – in the case of Romantic Cheapskate he rips on Songfight and its users, and still recieves 614 votes. The runner up? 28 votes.

He still tours , and in the nerdcore tradition his music is freely available in multiple formats on his website, although he’s not adverse to accepting your money in exchange for cool merch either. Check out his song as an example of entertaining ways to ask your fans to pay you.Charity Case

Finally, if any of this nerdcore talk tickles your fancy, check out Nerdcore Rising, a documentary style film about the Nerdcore movement

Futuristic Sex Robots – The Positronic Pimp

Futuristic Sex Robots – Back to the Future (Fan made Video)

Technorati Tags: Futuristic Sex Robotz, hip hop, MC Frontalot, Nerdcore, rap

By: Connor

What else is there to say other than check out From The Basement? It’s a live music site featuring exclusive videos of various artists, produced by Nigel Godrich. Check out the video below!

Legendary Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich has launched a new website and it’s awesome. I tried to finding an equivalent British superlative, but I couldn’t ! “Awesome” is the only word for it.

The site is called From The Basement and features exclusive live performances (all shot in gorgeous HD) of artists like Beck, Fleet Foxes, Eels, Gnarls Barkley, Iggy And The Stooges, Jarvis Cocker, Jose Gonzalez, P J Harvey, Queens of The Stone Age, Sonic Youth, Sparks, Super Furry Animals, The White Stripes and Radiohead themselves, all produced by the inimitable Mr. Godrich himself.

It’s been around for a while now, but only in certain regions – now you can watch the videos anywhere.

Read the whole article at Production Advice

Technorati Tags: From The Basement, Ian Sheperd, Live Music, Nigel Godrich

By: Connor

First of all, let me preface this post by stating two of my favorite musical genres – classical music, and nearly anything involving electric guitar. Behold my surprise, when following a YouTube related-videos trail many years ago opened the world of classical metal to me. This is one of the better examples I’ve encountered, by the band Pergamum. Hope you enjoy.

Technorati Tags: classical, metal, Pergamum

By: Connor

If you’re interested in getting on the Rock Band Network, check out GameSoundCon 2009, in San Francisco this year. Harmonix is teaming up with GameSound to run a 2 day training session covering all facets of RBN, including how to create appropriate stem mixes, how to author songs using the Reaper tool, how to create a song package with Magma and how to audition your song before submitting your track. They’ll also show you how to publish and promote your song on RBN. Here’s hoping there’s a webcast of the event for those of us that can’t make it in person!

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) August 27, 2009 — SoundCon, LLC announced today that it is working with MTV Games’ Harmonix Music Systems, developer of Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band, to bring two days of training sessions on how musicians can create and publish original music in the Rock Band Network to GameSoundCon 2009 in Los Angeles. The Rock Band Network, announced in July, is a ground-breaking initiative that gives musicians, publishers and record labels the ability to author their original recordings into gameplay files and sell their music as playable Rock Band tracks through the newly created Rock Band Network Music Store.

The Rock Band Network training sessions at GameSoundCon, facilitated by Harmonix employees, will be one of the first live public sessions to demonstrate how musicians, record labels and publishers can author their original recordings into gameplay files for publication on the Rock Band Network. Once published and approved through a peer review process, tracks uploaded to the Rock Band Network Music Store will be available for download and purchase by millions of Rock Band players.

Read more on Taildragger Rocks

Technorati Tags: Game sound, Harmonix, music distribution, network, RBN, Rockband, taildagger rocks

By Connor

Australian hard rock band Wolfmother plans to release a Facebook game in conjunction with their new album ‘Cosmic Egg’ on October 26th. Not only are they connecting with their Facebook community by offering something cool and unique to Facebook users, they’re offering free music in exchange for word of mouth recommendations – everyone wins.

“With the release of the new Wolfmother album `Cosmic Egg` also comes a Facebook game. Fans can customise their very own virtual egg on their profile by dragging and dropping the icons on the left onto the egg. The more the user interacts with the egg, the more content it unlocks- there’s free music (3 tracks), loads of videos and photos/wallpapers to be found. Sending it on to people also unlocks more content, and as time goes on more things appear to customise your egg with.”

Read the full story at Undercover.

Jack Johnson offered something similar via twitter; advertise his music and receive a free song. Read more here.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Jack Johnson, music distribution, Music Games, Wolfmother

By: Shawn Daley

This week we finally got to see the RBN’s song creation tools in action, some interesting info on how chiptunes are made for the Gameboy, and of course, more 8 bit covers.

Hey Jude – 8-Bit Cover

Rock Band Network Tools Are Live!

Since the announcement of the RBN allowing users to create, upload and sell Rock Band tracks a couple of months ago, we’ve been wondering exactly what the process will entail. The tools are available right now for free, so anyone interested should give it a go!

This could mean big things for the indie music community, and it’s certainly inspiring to the indie gaming community as well. As we’ve seen in the past, user generated content is one of the best ways to increase a fanbase and garner interest in something. It will be interesting to see what kind of popularity the RBN receives in the months to come.

Story via Rock Band Forums

Guitar Hero CEO on picking music for the games

Dan Rosensweig, Guitar Hero CEO, was recently interviewed by gameindustry.biz, and just about all of the discussion is a great read. Dan speaks about the song selection process for choosing music for the games:

[Y]ou do a scientific analysis of the popularity of that song, how you group the songs together, how many songs should be in there. And then you do the magic part which [the studios are] focused on, which is the stuff statistics can’t tell you. Some of it is factual — who’s going on tour, who’s interested in promoting, but really they blend the science and the art together. Then the last component goes to the studio, which is, is it fun to play? If it’s not fun as hell to play, it’s not going to make the game.

Get the full read at gameindustry.biz

How is Gameboy music created?

This may seem a little confusing, but it’s neat watching how it’s done:

Star Wars Them in 8-Bit

Technorati Tags: 8 Bit Covers, Guitar Hero, RBN