Can't Stop The Music

Hungry

In these challenging economic times, Seth Godin published a “deep” blog posting. I recommend reading it. I was made aware of it as I read Shaun Groves’ “Schlog” blog – “It’s a crisis. Oh, look, an iPhone!” I recommend them both.   

Twitter Tips

Several people commented online and offline on the Twitter article last week. To those “veteran” Twitter users, the question has been raised, “Where do I go to get advanced ideas regarding Twitter?”  Michael Hyatt sent out a link in his Twitter feed this weekend that led me to a winner… TwiTip. Edited by ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse, TwiTip is a wealth of ideas and software tools for Twitter aficionados. I reviewed several suggestions that have appeared here and found TwiTip to be a great inspiration. Check it out.

Darren is a writer with ProBlogger. For those of you looking for professional blogging tips, you will find ProBlogger to be one of many great resources.

If you have other great sites for Twitter tips of professional blogging tips, please leave a comment below.

Attack of the killer lady bugs

Since moving to Franklin, Tennessee we have had many guests come to visit from all over North America. Susan has an incredible gift of hospitality and we do love to have friends and family over. Our home has even more room now that our children are off to college and beyond. Yet one guest, until recently, was a surprise visitor and came with all her friends every year… the lady bug.

When we first moved in, we were welcomed by hundreds of lady bugs. They were all over the house and even came inside through any possible entry point. Susan and I alway thought them to be beautiful and friendly. Until this week. We learned that one must carefully distinguish one’s friends from wolves in sheeps’ clothing.

As we had our regular pest control treatment to ensure the warm Tennessee summer had not bloomed any bugs inside the nooks and crannies of our home and that the wood remained pest free, we received a startling education: all Lady Bugs are not kind. It seems that the bright red lady bugs are, as we expected, aphid eaters and fun to have around during their brief visitation period each year. However the orange lady bugs are bees in disguise. Or at least their bite would have you think you were stung by a bee. (They are actually Japanese Beetles in Lady Bug disguises.) Yes, the orange ones also like aphids. Just don’t assume they wouldn’t also like a piece of you!

All those times we’d gently held them as they landed on us and we gave them flight and freedom outside our home… and we simply thought of their color differences as interesting. No more. Close inspection is required. Now the annual migration of lady bugs to our home feels more like “Attack of the Killer Lady Bugs” than a scene from a pure and delightful children’s video. I posted our surprise finding in a Twitter update and found that others had experienced the same surprise. Yet, feeling no one would believe them, they kept the orange lady bug’s nasty side a well kept secret. No more! We will brave this killer. And keep our doors and windows closed during their next visit. Consider yourself warned. Choose your friends carefully.

Back to Blogging. Continuing to Tweet.

I have been experimenting with Twitter and other social networking tools for some time now. And I have not been a frequent blogger for many months. In fact, Twitter serves as a “micro-blogging” tool, so I suppose I have been blogging… just nothing more than 140 characters at a time. Yet some thoughts require more than this, so here I am again.

With Facebook and MySpace and Plaxo and other social networking tools linked to my Twitter feeds, true “one stop” micro-blogging makes an update from my cell phone available moments later. At first I had a hard time getting my head around why one “tweets”. To those who feel the same I have one suggestion: use Twitter for one month and commit to tweet updates at least once a day. You’ll then be able to best decide for yourself if tweeting is for you or not. I am a convert.

To those wanting to know more about the experience, I recommend Michael Hyatt’s guide to Twitter. Michael is CEO of Thomas Nelson. He is also an active blogger.

When Michael started Twittering he highlighted four reasons to do so:

1. It allows family, friends, and others to follow your activity throughout the day and keep up with your life. You can even get these updates via your cell phone, as a text message. It's kind of like the Truman Show meets instant messaging.

2. It allows you to meet new friends, who tend to be on the cutting edge of technology. I am following several people that I would have never met otherwise. These are relationships-or potential relationships-that may prove very fruitful for the future. We'll see.

3. It allows me to experience first-hand a new technology that almost 1 million people are using. It may be a complete waste of time but it is free and the investment of time is miniscule.

4. It allows me to think consciously about my life. What am I doing now? What kind of story is my life telling? Is this really what I want to be doing? Could I-should I-be choosing something different?

Reason #1 has helped me keep in close touch with our children and with Susan when I travel and even throughout the day. I feel connected with our children even though we are often thousands of miles apart. This is especially true of late as Susan and I became empty nesters this past month. Jenn and Amanda are living in the Seattle area now. Sarah is studying in Australia. And Jonathon is at MTSU.

Reason #1 has also applied to our extended family and friends. I have been able to catch up and keep up with family and friends better than ever before. It’s a blast seeing photos more rapidly and more often than ever before as families and friends share their life journey.

And I personally like reason #4. It is a worthwhile question to ask… “What story is my life telling?”

If you want to "follow me," you can do do my joining Twitter.com and officially following me. You can follow Michael on Twitter here. It’s time to micro-blog!

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.