The Hype Machine acts as a mp3 blog search engine – once a track hits the hype radar – the audience exposure trebles in moments – other blogs post the track and write around it. This weekend, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool ‘Dance The Way I feel’ was the most ‘loved’ and most ‘listened to track’ – and stats suggest it will be one of the biggest tracks of the year
For more info myspace.com/ouestleswimmingpool
The wonderful Kitty, Daisy and Lewis on NME.com
We’ve just started working with Silverclub on their digital and web 2.0 strategy. A rather exciting electro / rock trio with dark twisted vocals and some wonderful synths coming all the way from rainy Manchester. First stop a redesign of their myspace site .
myspace.com/silverclubuk
Deep in mid-winter, both seasonally & economically, it’s the most satisfying thing to unveil a band so positive in their outlook & sound that they’re likely to turn the indie genre known predominantly for it’s moodiness unashamedly ‘up’ side!
Little Comets craft music to counter-act the chill factor of their Newcastle-upon-Tyne rehearsal facilities. Maybe it’s because the band are originally drawn from 2 brothers of strong academic bent that Robbie, Mark, Mickey, & Matt collectively refer to themselves as “an entirely four-sided shape”. It is indicative of their gang-like mentality, echoing the boisterous exuberance of ‘I Should Coco’-era Supergrass, coupled with a lyrical adventure more reminiscent of a by-gone era that thrust such things as XTC into the mainstream!
Significant blog, ‘Neon Gold’, described them as ‘bursting at the seams with fresh-faced vitality’, which, indeed, they are, but to contrast with the band’s warm grooves, brother Robbie writes lyrics representing the more broken parts of life, exploding scenes from kitchen sinks & other testing relationship dramas. Debut single ‘One Night In October’ describes one such, “with more invective than the average detective, she questions me on the lawn – windows ajar, tonight I will sleep in my car!” It’s not a surprise when the band suggest they are influenced by writers such as Jonathan Safran Foer, Seamus Heaney & Roald Dahl, rather than any clichéd rock heroes!
To complement, brother Mickey is the committed sonic scientist, & urges the band to create simultaneously epic & flowing soundtracks of energy & emotion. The blend is touched by surges of Morricone as much as moments of improvised rhythms sourced from kettles, sofas & all manner of peculiar percussion, usually assembled hanging from the roof of venues when they perform, in order to grab that moment that matters. This band are truly moving, and grooving at the same time, and B-side, ‘Her Black Eyes’, illustrates such subtlety, making sweet melody of menacing subject matter whilst exhibiting their unique outdoor vocal recording style!
Talking of the outdoors, Little Comets have largely steered clear of the typical indie ‘toilet’ circuit, preferring the more intimate & spontaneous birthday parties, trams, trains, shopping centres & lecture theatres that themselves & their growing legion of fans frequent. Fans have been able to contribute not only to the personal atmosphere of the venues, but also to video posts & scheduling organic ‘happenings.’ This guerrilla activity has not gone unnoticed & the band have been courted by Radio 1′s most innovative dj’s, including Huw Stephens & Zane Lowe. Of course, the band’s demos have drawn major record label interest. For now, they are more than happy alongside eclectic experimentalists like Tellier, Gotye & Keith, aboard Lucky Number’s free-sailing ship!
Fear not..the future is bright, the future is full of Little Comets! myspace.com/littlecometsmusic
Listen to their debut single here
Yes, finally the market has a competitive choice to iTunes, and marks bad news for 7digital we guess – more so, selling the latest offerings by Take That (who look to sell over 200,000 copies this week of their new album) at £3 is potentially disasterous for smaller labels. Whilst the cost of £.79 for a single track download is on a cost parallel with iTunes et al, the cost of albums will need to rise otherwise the industry has shot it’s own foot again. Word is that Amazon is selling these albums at a loss for the time being and the price will rise post PR campaign.
There is something wildly wonderful about Londoners Ou Est Les Swimming Pool:
“Try to imagine yourself riding through the beautiful, everlasting fields of Elysium… Then imagine that glorious feeling and state of mind converted into music, there you have Ou Est Le Swimming Pool! Taking music to the boundaries of insanity and reason, and back again! Hanging off the edge of the world giving those “Nay” sayers the finger! There was a time when man invented music, now this brand of new musical genius has been invented by gods….. Dare you join La Revolution Swimming Pool!???”
The brand new video by Sky Larkin, shot on a rather chilly October evening in New York City. The band have a very special release lined up for this one so stay tuned…
Catchy dance infused songs and only just a handful of concerts under the belts, the band are receiving great critical acclaim. The band are already considered as one of the most interesting new Icelandic outfits, spearheading the 90′s inspired revival wave that is currently happening Reykjavik, and spreading throughout Scandinavia and the rest of Europe. The band will be releasing their first series of singles this year, with debut album set for release in early 2009.
The band was formed by Danni, a super technical, inventive drummer, who was of one of Iceland’s leading Indie rock band Maus and DJ Dice, a turntable wizkid also formerly of Iceland’s biggest rap group Quarashi. They met one drunken evening in a bar in Reykjavik and soon the meeting of minds turned into countless jam sessions. Both musician’s interest in quirky and leftfield sounds, found themselves to the attention of Icelandic uber producer Curver who was currently in his own band Ghostigital, a duo with Einar Orn (from the Sugarcubes). His live dub-mixing and audio manipulation tricks for the likes of Minus, Singapore Sling, Kimono, Maus and of course Ghostigital did not go un-noticed by Danni and Rice, and with little persuasion he joined Sometime.
IHEARTCOMIX, one of the best mp3 music blogs covered Keith this weekend – see the post above or click through.
Franki, who is chief editor of the site ran a news story with MP3 download and the vimeo video across his network.
‘The song has a furious mixture of bits and pieces of my fave british and post punk bands from the 90’s while retaining a current urgency. I was impressed from the get go…..’
Our strategy was to approach a few key editors at blog that hold great influence within the wider network and envagelise them into band ambassadors – with the rest of their networks following suit with content.
Fascinating article on Wired this afternoon on Chris Anderson’s theory on providing free content / platforms for greater financial reward (you have to read the full article for this to resonate fully).
Mobile music hasn’t yet been able to tame the long tail, according to details unveiled at the Popkomm conference in Berlin, but that could be due to cellphone providers’ inability to embrace the openness and integration that have become second nature to web 2.0 developers.
Chris Anderson’s long tail theory posits that technology has enabled companies to earn significant revenue by selling seemingly insignificant amounts of lots of lesser-known media, in addition to the tried and true method of selling millions of copies of a few hits. While there’s plenty of evidence to support his theory in the music world, attendees of the conference heard one executive claim that the long tail is dead, insofar as mobile music goes.
Frank Taubert, CEO of 24/7 Entertainment, which provides 4.5 million songs to a wide variety of digital music services including the unlimited mobile music services Omnifone we liked so much, toldPopkomm attendees on Monday that a full 66 percent of those songs had never been purchased or downloaded — not even once.
However, Taubert’s assertion that the long tail does not apply to mobile music was challenged on Friday by Madeleine Milne, managing director of eMusic Europe. “Three quarters of eMusic’s entire four million track catalog sells at least once every year — or, to put it another way, we sell more than 50 percent of our catalog at least once every quarter,” she said.
Last week the wonderful guys at nylvi.com asked us here at BrilliantlyDifferent for some answers on the future of music and where we feel BrilliantlyDifferent fit in. For more information on Nylvi and the future of music please read here.
NYLVI: How do you see labels and artists adjust to the changes in the music industry?
James: I think the industry needs to learn to call on the help of external and non-music-industry expertise to truly gain a greater insight into consumer habits, the web as a leisure activity and some major research into how teens are using music, how the would use music if money was no object and how music can be valued again. It was good to see Guy Hands look at this for EMI. At present the future seems out of everyone’s hands with mp3 bloggers being feared and the cost of live concerts now through the roof to offset the loss of CD revenue amongst others!
NYLVI: Aside from MySpace, what do you consider to be the most important social services for online music marketing and promotion
James: I think it’s a combination of applications according to the challenges of the campaign. I personally love ping.fm for on the move updates to multiple sites and I feel excited about Bandcamp.mu. It’ll be nice when Muxtape is back live again too. I recently read that blogs account for more sales now than Myspace. Facebook does in some markets actually carry far more weight than Myspace which I find fascinating given then limitations of the platform (meaning ‘fan pages’).
NYLVI: What do you think about the vinyl format? Do you think it will be compatible with the streaming based future of the music industry?
James: Vinyl remains essential for sound quality and as a tangible collectable. Opinions differ of course where the market sits outside of proactive music fans and todays uber minimal society and whilst it is no longer the the format of choice for the masses; the sound of vinyl remains so wonderfully cinematic – and creeps into spaces that a CD could only dream of. I feel that labels should now be offering free download (high quality at 320kbs or FLAC) with all vinyl. For Dj’s, indie kid collectors, whoever and where-ever the market. Does this make music purchasing an experience again? Perhaps not – but it’s a value added argument that should be had.
You can read the full interview here
It sounded like an amazing deal for the consumer, but it surprised a lot of artists – and probably most record labels too. How would artists and labels possibly earn any money from the content that Nokia planned to give away? Well, I suspect that Nokia jumped the gun before realising they’d have to pay both the record labels and songwriters.
Muxtape was one of our very favorite web applications until the RIAA closed the site down. Ironically most of the record labels (‘major’ and ‘indies’ were in total support of the site – even Universal were very receptive; remember Muxtape always carried click through buy links. Now the site has closed down with a promise that Muxtape with return in a reincarnated band only presence. Superb.
Labels we worked with such as Lucky Number based in London were using Muxtape to promote several of their artists and remixes not available anywhere else. Nearly ever user of Tumblr, the popular blogging service included their own essential Muxtape. Users pointing fans of their site to this music application and example of their listening habits over web mainstays last.fm
Full detail on the events leading up to and including the closure of Muxtape
Our friends at NYLVI finally launched last night – inititally building up their sellers database with the rest of the site to be set live in the near future. It’s a one stop shop for DJ’s, labels and the public to buy and sell vinyl records – ahead of places like ebay and your local second hand shops. Plus, it’s a community based site where you can share and communicate with other users (i.e. buyers and sellers).
nice work guys. it’s also a lovely clean and minimal site with expert navigation and a very intuitive and simplistic sign up process. There’ the opportunity to create a fully function profile with photos, biog/words and social media info. Well worth checking out.
Hot topic of the day
According to Fortune, the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington D.C. is expected to rule on Thursday about a request by the National Music Publishers’ Association to increase royalty rates for downloads from online music stores such as iTunes. The request asks for an increase in rates from 9 cents to 15 cents a track. It should be noted that this group represents the copyright holders of songs and is distinct from the record companies themselves.
Understandably, Apple is opposed to the rate increase and, in a statement submitted to the board, even suggested that Apple might close iTunes altogether:
“If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no alternative at all,” Cue wrote. “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”
Apple claims that the market would not accept an increase in the per-track price and that overall sales would decrease. The Fortune article writer doubts that Apple would take such drastic measures as closing the iTunes Store as Apple has used it to leverage hardware sales of iPods and now iPhones.
Take from MacRumours.
Oddly, I first read about this on teletext (do people still read teletext?)…and today Pitchfork are covering the story. Brilliant. Brilliant from the ever Max Tundra.
‘In fact, Max has whipped up 250 cans of (totally edible!) kosher chicken soup, for which he’s started taking orders through the Domino Records webstore.
So what’s the occasion for Tundra’s foray into the realm of the culinary? Why, not unlike Of Montreal’s recent “buy some stickers, download our new jams” gambit, Tundra will offer the lucky diners a digital download of his awesome new album, Parallax Error Beheads You, when it’s released overseas from Domino on October 20.”
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Do you tweet?- OohBrilliant: RT @Nialler9: Was it decided that Julia Holter was the next Grimes on the internet today or something?
- OohBrilliant: @peggysueband realist
- OohBrilliant: @peggysueband too much for me
- OohBrilliant: @luckynumbermus second time that's come up
- OohBrilliant: @garethedobson m and s dude. So amazing
