Can't Stop The Music

Advice for Indie Bands

Benjamin Brannen has been working the indie band since since he was a teenager. It started when the indie band was his band! Then he started helping other bands. After graduating with a finance degree and working with Disney, Benjamin returned to his first love. Benjamin has personally managed Jonah 33, Bullets and Octane and others and has provided advice to those taking the time to ask. Check out the “About” information below. Benjamin is an impressive guy.

Benjamin has been a giver ever since the first day I met him. He shares information and, as a result, he has benefited from his “pay it forward” approach to life by also receiving great counsel from others along the way. Now he has decided to join the blogging world with advice for indie bands, smartly titled “IndieBandAdvice.com” – check it out!

Many blogs are dissertations. On Day Two of his blogging, Benjamin is already engaged in a dialog with over 8,000 visits to his site and many questions and comments coming in just a few hours following the first posting. Benjamin’s goal is one we share: benefit artists and fans. This is one to add to your RSS feed list.

About Benjamin Brannen

Benjamin Brannen is founder and owner of both BCM and Ares Records. After working as a financial analyst for The Walt Disney Company’s corporate operations and real estate department, Ben took a leap into a creative position at BMG Music Publishing. At BMG, Ben quickly moved from an assistant to Manager of A&R in 2 short years proving his talent for artist acquisitions and copyright exploitation. He was an integral part in building BMG’s Rock roster, developing new talent, and placing songs with recording artists; one of which received a Grammy award nomination. Ben successfully provided the guidance and insight that led 3 unknown acts to major label record deals. Passionate about artists’ careers, and noticing a void in their development, Ben left BMG to form Brannen Creative Management and Ares Records.

 

25 Years

2008 is off with a BANG! The starter’s gun was blown with the start of CES as the starting blocks. I look forward to sharing more in the coming blogs.

2008 is also a start on the “next 25 years” for Susan and I. We celebrated our 25^th Wedding Anniversary in July of 2007! Family and close friends surprised us as we came together for a week of celebration and renewed our vows.

In both the musical and wedding worlds, 25 years is an accomplishment to celebrate. And like a band staying together, keeping a marriage together in these times takes more than just the band members’ love and commitment. Family and friends support and our faith in God is where we share the credit for our marriage success to date. So to all of you who are friends and family, we say “Thank you!” as we head into the next 25 years together. We are thankful for all of you in our life. You are a key part of our journey as we make life’s music together!

Forecast 2008

Happy New Year!

2007 will go down as the year of the “Falling of the Berlin Wall” — the industry’s formal movement to embrace and support MP3 files without digital rights management (DRM). PassAlong Networks is proud to have taken the first bricks out of the wall, leading in this cataclysmic event that will forever change the landscape of digital media. We were the first to take the entire independent catalog (over 2 million tracks) to the MP3 format while also managing a catalog with all four major labels (over 3 million tracks in the total catalog). EMI followed suit and again PassAlong led, being the first to offer EMI’s catalog in the MP3 format. And this summer we worked with Universal Music Group as they started with 3,000 albums in the MP3 format in a short-lived test of MP3 versus WMA with DRM… One week into the test they scrapped it and immediately moved to offer the majority of their catalog in MP3 format. Since that time we have also added ADA in MP3 format (ADA is the independent distribution arm of Warner Music Group) and also licensed the catalogs of Sub Pop, Epitaph, Saddle Creek, Downtown Records, Razor and Tie and IRIS. More signings actually occurred in 2007 and will be announced in the coming weeks. Consumers have spoken and PassAlong has spent the past year and a half working with all labels to offer their catalogs in the open MP3 format on our StoreBlocks platform.

When 2008 draws to a close we expect 100% of the catalog to be available in the MP3 format. We are also continuing to work with the finest labels around the world to ensure we maintain our catalog’s quality as we expand our business worldwide. DRM will continue to exist, yet only where it serves a specific purpose to enable a business model and a true benefit for a consumer, versus acting as a lock on your wrists as you seek to enjoy music and media.

2008 will also see us announce several relationships that have been in development for several years. Just like the music industry we serve, we understand that today’s “overnight success” is often built on years of foundation-building hard work.

2008 will be the year of the Connected Consumer™. We have invested in the entire ecosystem of digital media. In an “always connected” world we understand that you will want to get your music and media on any device when and where you choose. Our Connected Consumer initiatives have us working with leading consumer electronic device companies, in-car systems, as well as new leading mobile device companies. Our widget wizards have delivered great tools to ensure you “Never miss a concert again™” and to let you share your musical tastes and influences – more on this in a few days at PassAlongNetworks.com. New devices, our rich MP3 catalog and our rich set of services enable you to have a great experience, discovering and acquiring music on the device of your choice and moving as needed throughout your connected world.

PassAlong and our wholly owned subsidiary, Speakerheart, are a team of over 60 people worldwide that are passionate about music and media. We wish you and yours the best in 2008! It will be a great year. We are stepping into 2008 with great excitement. The foundational years of our company, from 2002–2007, have paved the way for 2008’s “overnight successes”. Our customers and their customers have provided us with great feedback. We are taking that feedback and our innovative tradition to continue our mission – inspiring and equipping our customers with digital media solutions. That means providing world class technology to connect Artists and Fans. 

We enter 2008 with great anticipation and look forward to serving you. Happy New Year! 

Bring Him Home Santa

Speakerheart is featuring a new song, Bring Him Home Santa, sung by a six year old. It is rising up the Billboard charts and is touching hearts around the world. It is also being featured on radio across the country and is now being mashed up on YouTube. Half of all proceeds raised go to help St. Judes Children’s Hospital. Enjoy!

The Future of Music (Electronica)

Microsoft recently demonstrated their new surface computing initiative. Microsoft Surface interacts with items you place on a table. The table is effective the display for a computer and has multiple cameras so it can “see” and interact with items placed on it. Apple’s iPhone let’s you move and manipulate pictures and web pages with simple touch and finger commands. Mny HP computers now integrate touch as do Microsoft’s ultra mobile computers. “Minority Report” has arrived! This week my cousin Jarome blogged on one of the newest electronica music creation tools… Enjoy “Music meets surface computing”!

The Amazing Slow Downer

This blog is for everyone who plays an instrument and who stands in awe of the great players. I play guitar and appreciate great guitar music in many styles and genres. I am awed by masters of the craft like Phil Keaggy, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Brad Paisley, Brent Mason, Stanley Jordan and so many other guitar greats.

How many times have we heard a new sound or a riff that defies the rules of nature as we knew them up to that moment? Learning the riffs of guitar greats can be quite a chore when their “normal driving speed” is 120 mph and yours is 55.

I know that, with practice, I can get there… the challenge is how to break apart the amazing riff and teach my fingers how to work up to the speed of light. Back in the turntable days, whether we were trying to decipher Les Paul or Eric Clapton or Dicky Betts, we could put a thumb on the 45 or the LP to separate the notes. The pitch would drop ridiculously, of course, and there was the risk of ruining the record by gouging the needle across the grooves. When music moved to tape and then to CD, we lost even the thumb trick.

Enter “The Amazing Slow Downer” by Roni Music on the Mac and PC and “Slowblast!” by PG Music for the PC. Both “The Amazing Slow Downer” and “Slowblast!” let you take a digital music file and slow it down, maintaining the key of the music even at the slower rate. They also let you loop a section of the music, enabling you to work on that one special riff over and over and over. There’s also an open source solution called “Audacity”, available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net, packs in many features including the ability to slow down a song. It’s great to have a tireless teacher at your side.

Isn’t it great that the wonders of digital media now extend beyond the pure listening enjoyment of music to software that can help you grow in your own personal pursuit of the craft? I’d love to hear of any software discoveries you have made that are enabling you to learn and grow as an artist.

Non-DRM versus MP3

Steve Jobs recently announced with EMI that he is making EMI’s entire catalog available in “non-DRM (digital rights management) format” and is doing so for the low extra price of $0.30 a track. So for $1.29 you get a song at iTunes with no DRM on it. The announcement implies that this change is a benefit to the consumer. You need to fully understand the difference between Steve’s “non-DRM” and MP3 to see that Steve Jobs is not doing you any big favor here.

 

Steve’s version of “non-DRM” is a file formatted with the AAC codec. This codec is supported by the iPod, the Mac, and few other devices. Odds are good that if you use a PC or have a mobile phone capable of playing music it doesn’t play AAC files easily, even though it does play MP3 formatted files.

 

MP3 is the most portable format across devices. I took a quick inventory of my travel bag -- my MP3 player, my Mac, my PC, my mobile phone and even my Garmin GPS can all play MP3 files. Anyone can copy an MP3 file to any of these devices, often just by dropping it to a flash memory card. Seconds later, the music is there to enjoy.

 

Let’s compare this with Steve’s “non-DRM” AAC files. Of all those devices in my travel bag, only my Mac and PC would easily play the AAC files. In fact, one can make the case that for $0.30 more you received no additional benefit over the $0.99 file you bought with DRM at Steve’s shop – at least no benefit that you are likely to realize. Unless you have software that transcodes AAC  files to MP3 (and few regular consumers do), you’ll need to burn an audio CD of your music and then rip it back into your computer as MP3 files to get interoperable files. In fact, you usually have to re-type all of the Artist, Album, and Song data, unless your CD was the full album and you burned it in exactly the same track order as the original album.

 

So what did you get for the extra money you paid? You received a song that can be burned an unlimited number of times. What did you lose? Space on your hard disk and your iPod , because the non-DRM file is larger than the DRM file Steve was previously selling you.

 

When we offer “Non-DRM” files at PassAlong Networks they are MP3 files. They play everywhere, including your iPod, Mac, PC, Garmin GPS, your mobile phone, your MP3 alarm clock, and many more devices. It’s music’s Esperanto, if you will – true “interoperability” in music means MP3.

 

We in the music industry do consumers a disservice when we represent or imply a value only to disappoint the consumer when they run up against the truth behind the rhetoric. For digital music to achieve its full potential, we need open honest communication on the issues  -- not marketing rhetoric.

 

Mark Knopfler’s famous words defined a previous music generation. Today, if you want true interoperability, you’ll sing “I want my MP3.”

“Drinking from the Fire Hose of Life”

We hear the casual question often from family, friends and even casual acquaintances: “How’s it going?”  My answer of late is “I’m drinking from the fire hose of life!” And I mean that in the best possible way. The same can be said of PassAlong Networks. We are in a very busy, and very exciting time!

 

A lot has happened on the home front and at PassAlong Networks since I last blogged just a few months back.

 

Here at home:

• My daughter, Jennifer, graduated from college.

 

 

• My daughter, Amanda, completed three months of study in Italy.

  

At PassAlong:

• We switched our entire independent catalog of music to MP3 format. Now the music we sell for 2 million songs is playable on you iPod, your PC or Mac, your phone, … truly interoperable for our digital lives!

 

• We launched 80 stores on our StoreBlocks platform! This nationwide rollout included all f.y.e and Sam Goody locations.

 

• We announced our Connected Consumer division. This work is bringing our StoreBlocks platform to all types of consumer electronics devices. We even worked with partners to demonstrate a 7 Series BMW with access to the complete catalog of 3 millions songs right in your car. This was shown last month at the International Car Show in Geneva, Switzerland. We also demonstrated our Connected Consumer technology at the National Association of Broadcasters convention.

 

• We ran over 300 promotions with major brands from MTV to American Red Cross to Pepsi to Scotties Tissue, and more, offering over 7 million songs free to consumers.

 

• We announced a variable pricing pilot program with Digonex and Nettwerk Music Group that will let us learn how the market responds to true dynamic variable pricing that is driven by demand.

 

• PassAlong Networks was recognized as one of the Top 100 Private Companies in Media and Entertainment by AlwaysOn at the OnHollywood event this month in Hollywood, California.

 

• OnTour® won Billboard Magazine’s “Best Use of Technology by an Artist” award for the release of OnTour® by Canada’s Bare Naked Ladies.

 

• We launched freedomMP3™, enabling digital resellers to sell MP3 files and ensure the artist gets paid as the songs are shared. freedomMP3™ also enables new advertising models.

 

• PassAlong Networks was named a “Music City Future 50” winner.

 

And, back at home:

• And we welcomed a new puppy, Riley Grace, to our family!

 

 

Those are just a few sips from the “fire hose of life.” It truly is a good thing, and it shows no sign of slowing down.

We are readying new versions of OnTour and StoreBlocks. We are launching Speakerheart, our platform for independent artists. And we have a new advertising model coming to market this summer! More on these and other new announcements soon…

 

So rather than wait for a break in the action, it’s time to get the blog machine fired up again. There is so much to talk about in this ever-changing industry. The team here at PassAlong invites your feedback on our products and services, and on the innovations coming to market in the months ahead . We want to connect artists and fans and the companies that serve them, so please let us know: What would make your digital life easier?

Born To Run

 

The sound of white noise over the airwaves sent a chill through my spine. No music. No talk. Just “dead air.”

 

May 29, 1980… It was “the day the music died,” as Don McLean sang. CJUM FM radio had its funding pulled by the Board of Governors of the University of Manitoba. Four of us had hired on just four months earlier to try and save the station from this tragedy. The previous management had driven the station into the ground, losing the focus of the station’s original charter, hijacking the students’ station for the whim and fancy of a few non-University outsiders.

 

“If only you had come six months sooner”, the representative of the University’s Board told us. “You could have saved the station. We would have kept it funded. You were too late.”

 

While we appreciated the compliment, it fell like a snack cracker in an empty stomach, leaving us empty and wanting more. A funding extension, for example.

 

With the station’s demise imminent, we set out to plan “the final moments”. Who to thank. What to say. How to leave the airwaves in a style that reflected the spirit of the student body and especially those of us who were most passionate about the music and its meaning in our lives. We chose Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run as our swan song.

 

That final night, as Born To Run faded out, we waited for the switch to be thrown. FM radio silence turned to static. Our hope and vision for CJUM had been cast to the airwaves. Here are those final minutes from our broadcast (the song is edited down for this blog posting). <Link: Final CJUM Broadcast Minutes.>

 

Time passes. Some dreams die. Others are too strong to stamp out. You can’t stop the music. Twenty years later, the transmitter switch was thrown again. Scott Baldwin, a Winnipeg entrepreneur and a passionate music fan, had never let hope die. Scott, a classmate and band mate, had played his way through college with his bass guitar. He developed a financial plan to ensure that our old CJUM would return to the airwaves – as UMFM – and stay on with a permanent funding plan.

 

The spirit of the last song song played carries on today on the reborn UMFM! UMFM now offers students a station of their own along with state-of-the-art digital production facilities. Congratulations to Scott and the team that resurrected the dream!

Freedom for the Kleenex® of Music Formats

What does Kleenex® have to do with music? Pretty simple, really. That ® symbol identifies Kleenex as a brand name, but for most people, it means disposable tissue. Today, for most people, the term MP3 is interchangeable with “music file.”

 

A WMA file is not an MP3 file. This may be news to only a few of you. Apparently it’s news to the sales team at my local mobile carrier.

 

I recently purchased new mobile phones for my wife and three daughters (my son and I had already updated and will wait for the next round). Like most mobile phone users, we replace our phones approximately every two years. In fact, the average turnover is under two years for today’s 1.8 billion mobile phone customers. Each year between 800 million and one billion phones are traded out.

 

Why is this significant? Just over six months ago fewer than 5% of phones offered a stereo music experience. In the next 18 months this proportion will surpass 95%! Apple may have sold 50+ million iPods over the past 4+ years. The spread of music-equipped mobile phones will dwarf this number very quickly.

 

Sure, some of you may be saying “it just won’t happen that way.” That’s what they said about cameras on cell phones. Do you know who is the largest seller of cameras in the world today? It’s Nokia. More cameras are sold on phones than are sold as standalone cameras today. It’s true that camera phones are generally of lower quality than standalone cameras. Yet that gap narrows as the quality of these small units continues to improve, offering more and more megapixels to the customer.

 

Mobile music and media will mimic the camera phone trend. Samsung already ships a device with 8GB of storage for media. Many phones support micro storage cards, enabling easy “side loading” of content.

 

MP3 and iPod have become the Kleenex® tissue of music. iPod has come to mean “MP3 Player”. And MP3 has come to mean “interoperable music file”. At least that must be what my mobile carrier’s sales person was thinking when he told me that “this new phone plays MP3 files.” We took the units home to discover that our new phones would not play an MP3 file. After a little experimentation it became clear that the only format supported was a non-DRM protected WMA file. Not even close to an “MP3”.

 

Even if the phones he sold us can’t do it, the sales person understood what his customers want --  MP3-enabled phones. Why? Because MP3 files offer true interoperability. Interoperability is the key to unlocking the door to widespread adoption of music on phones, computers, and other devices. My CD can move easily between my car, office, home, and computer… why not my digital media files?

 

Our company, PassAlong Networks, has been refining technology we call “FreedomMP3™” for several years. It releases to the market with a $100MM record label very soon. They will sell MP3 files that the customer can move from their computer to their various devices. When they do, a message comes up to notify the user that the file is being shared in a way that will not compensate the artist. This label is offering consumers the choice to “Let the file go” or to “Keep it here” on their PC. They trust their consumers and do not want to impede legitimate use of the music. At the same time, they value the artists and want to see them paid for their work. We think this breakthrough in thinking is a winner, for the label, its artists, and their customers.

 

FreedomMP3™ can offer the consumer a variety of experiences when a file that is not licensed wants to be moved or played. This can include free uses, advertising-supported uses, and more. We believe the key is to offer the consumer a truly interoperable file format that lets them enjoy their digital media on their devices without the hassle and inconvenience of most of today’s usage models.

 

The consumer has spoken. MP3 won. It happened years ago. MP3 is the Kleenex® of media formats. Now we have ways to embrace this choice and get on with the important task of understanding the many new ways consumers will support the artists they love as music and media go completely digital. Proof once again that you “Can’t Stop The Music!”