Results for "AAJ Staff"

The Beast and Nnenna Freelon Present Freedom Suite, Hosted by 9th Wonder + MP3

October 18, 2010

The Beast, a hip-hop quartet featuring emcee Pierce Freelon brings multi Grammy nominee jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon into the group for Freedom Suite, a collection of original songs, classic interpretations and interviews reflecting on jazz and hip-hop today. The entire album will be available for free download on October 26th, via The Revivalist, Okayplayer's new jazz ...

"We Have Had Almost Zero File-Sharing of Pledge Artists," Says Benji Rogers of Pledgemusic. PT. 1

October 18, 2010

Recently, I spoke with Benji Rogers, founder of PledgeMusic, a crowdfunding platform for music and creativity. In the first segment of this two part interview, Rogers talks about the difference between crowdfunding and what PledgeMusic does, how the process encourages more active participation from fans, and things artists should consider when putting together a campaign. How ...

No Shoe-Strings Attached, Unless They're Converse

October 13, 2010

No one cares what record label paid for an album. Fans are oblivious to whether EMI, Warner Music Group, or Sony Music had their hands on it.  The day is coming when fans might have to care.  Converse plans to build a recording studio called Rubber Tracks in New York City. Bands will be able to ...

MTT: Wordpress Plugins for Passive Promotion

October 13, 2010

Don't have time to promote yourself or manage your website all the time? Brian Hazard, a recording artist, offers a solution by encouraging musicians to use WordPress and plugins. These plugins help artists passively promote themselves. A great plugin is Thank Me Later, which sends an e-mail to anyone who leaves a comment on your website. ...

Music 4.5 Conference Confirms Panels and Speakers

October 13, 2010

MTT: Do Music Fans Have Too Much Control?

October 15, 2010

At Music Think Tank, Kyle Bylin asks readers if fans have too much control. He brings the discussion from the Click Track blog on The Washington Post. Some artists have given fans more control by allowing fans to fund their albums. Television shows like American Idol give fans the control to pick the next music superstar. ...

Can You Dig It? Emporer X Buries New Songs Around L.A. for Fans to Find

October 15, 2010

Singer-songwriter Chad Matheny has been recording albums under the name Emperor X for years. He's gotten a little attention, but certainly not broken through to anything close to mainstream success. Now Matheny's started burying his new songs in the ground and giving fans clues as to how to find them. Recently, Matheny walked to a rock ...

Why I Secretly Hope for an Epidemic of Book Piracy

October 15, 2010

In his column in The Telegraph, writer Adrian Hon makes a few assertions about book piracy that relate to the record industry. First, he talks about the rather honest journey that a number of readers take into the practice of downloading books, much like fans do with music. It starts with the notion of getting a ...

Interview: INgrooves CEO Robb McDaniels on Acquisitions, Tunecore and the One Digital Platform

October 18, 2010

After the announcement that digital music distributor INgrooves had received a “significant" investment from Shamrock and extend its UMG partnership, I asked founder and CEO Robb McDaniels to share his plans in the face of increased competition from Tuncore and others. The announcement stated that some funds will be used to “make strategic acquisitions."  What kind ...

"My Goal is to Never Be Left Behind," Says Ethan Kaplan, SVP of Emerging Technology at WMG. PT. 1

October 18, 2010

(UPDATED) Recently, I spoke with Ethan Kaplan, who describes himself as a former academic, a former newspaper web-master and a present day technological evangelist and innovator. He's also author of the semi-famous music industry blog BlackRimGlasses and started an REM fan-club called Murmurs when he was sixteen. As of late, Kaplan was newly promoted SVP of ...