Archer donates money to bring relief to Nashville after flood

William Acher will be donating 20% of the May sales of his book to aid the flood relief in Tennessee. Nashville, one of the music capitols of the world is in ruins, being the home to many artists, their homes mostly destroyed.

Stereogum is stating that one of the music halls in Nashville holding some of the world's most famous musician's guitars are broken beyond repair. Acher is hoping that this donation will precedent a lot of artist to make the same sort of donation as well, to bring relief to the people of Tennessee and to help aid the rebuild of the music capitol of our nation.

more information on the book can be found at: www.starvingtheartist.com

it can be purchased on Amazon for 9.95 or downloaded for 4.95.

Source: http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=130111

-Samantha Corrie Schulman

State Farm helps out OK GO!

Does anyone remember OK GO before the "Here It Goes Again" video? no? anyone...anyone.....? yeah, I didn't think so. OK GO is one of those bands that got their success based on a simple video, the song was mediocre, but the artistry was what made their name huge, huge enough for Columbia to spend half the manifest budget two years ago to have them perform. Once again, OK GO is making waves virally with their newest release "This Too Shall Pass." Releasing a clip in January that had no embedding code, bloggers apparently lost their minds, (I didn't read any, but I mean, it very well could of happened.)

Anyway, for the release of "This Too Shall Pass" OK GO teamed up with State Farm Insurance to fund the project and just seconds into the video State Farm's logo is shown.

The video is incredibly well done and can be seen on the band's youtube account.

Not only does OK GO once again prove that they are easily the best marketed band in the top 40, but the video speaks for itself.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/ok-go-goes-viral-again-with-help-from-state-farm.html#more

-Samantha Corrie Schulman

Why Justin Bieber?

I don't know if anyone remembers, but my first blog happened to be about Justin Bieber and the mall riot he caused last November. Now, everyone knows who Justin Bieber is and if you don't, you live in a hole. This fifteen year old boy has gone from nothing to one of the, if not the biggest name in pop music right now; what many don't understand is why. Well, here are the reasons according to Jay Frank, basically, someone is a marketing genius.

1. time out releases to songs; a new song every few months.

2. have shorter introductions at the beginning of songs.

3. longer songs; have songs longer than 2-2:30 minutes.

4. poppier chord changes

5. the repetition. "baby, baby, baby"

overall, j. biebs is taking over the world.

oh yeah, heres a video... 1-5 is definitely shown.

Source: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/why-just-bieber-is-such-a-big-hit.html#more

-Samantha Corrie Schulman

Last.fm tries to fit in.

As if there weren't enough streaming sites on the web (Pandora, LaLa, Purevolume, MySpace) now Last.fm is doing just that. Since Last.fm started some individual tracks have been streamed on the site, but a limited amount.

This week Last.fm abolished all individual tracks and are now making their site more like Purevolume, where artists have pages and can stream their music via their page.

Here is the zinger, Last.fm is paid for every song that is streamed on their site, even with this new layout, artists still will not be getting paid any royalties, no matter how many times their songs are listened to.

Last.fm claims that these plays are promotional and thereof do not fall under the royalty laws. So, artists, you can stream your music, but Last.fm is taking all of your money.

Source: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/04/lastfm-to-add-play-direct-indie-artist-program.html

-Samantha Corrie Schulman

Expert Marketing or is Atlantic really poor?

Atlantic Records is asking fans to help fund their artist Natty's second record. How are they doing this? They're enticing fans by offering them the EP at a discounted price, paying to introduce him on stage, having him come to your house and even having him mix your record. Not only is this a way to fund his project, but connect him to his fans.

It's definitely odd that a major label is in such a dire need for money, but at the same time, I don't really believe it. I think that if this is just Atlantic's scheme to get Natty some recognition or even connect him to his fans, they're doing an incredible job. I'd definitely pay some money to introduce my favorite band on stage or be able to hang out with them, especially if it meant funding a new record....

Source: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/04/major-label-atlantic-asks-fan-to-help-fund-new-natty-release-via-pledge-music.html

-Samantha Corrie Schulman

RIAA beats LimeWire

The RIAA beat LimeWire in a major courtcase earlier this week because of LimeWire's inability to change it's policies so that it is a legal source to download music. As we all know, LimeWire is one of the simplest downloading sites out there. Like Napster, LimeWire allows users to download content from other LimeWire users- this concept for all of you who didn't take Art and Business of Recording, has a specific name, it's called "Peer to Peer" file sharing. Meaning, that once you're logged in anyone can download anything in your "shared" folder off your computer, which can be incredibly dangerous. It's sort of like how on iTunes you can listen to other people in your networks music, even though you can't download it onto your computer, it's accessible- LimeWire allows you to take it right off of the other persons computer.

LimeWire was held accountable for the following:

1. Their awareness of substantial infringement by users.

2. Their efforts to attract infringing users.

3. Their efforts to enable and assist users to commit said infringment.

4. Their dependence on infringing use for the success of their business.

and finally:

5. Their failure to mitigate infringing activities.

Basically, their getting in trouble for allowing users to download music illegally and turning the other cheek, acting like they don't know.

The RIAA is hoping to scare other companies into cracking down on infringing users.

-Samantha Corrie Schulman

LoKast Social Music Application?

As if there werent enough social networking sites that promote stalking and communicating with people you don't know, the newest is LoKast. Short for "local-casting" the application is a lot like facebook. It allows you to have your own page for videos, pictures, web-links and music you love.

LoKast first became popular this year at Coachella when bands with post exclusive content about their sets to LoKast fans. Even better is that when you're within 300 feet of another user of LoKast it connects you and allows you to exchange content between the two of you.

Now, initially I thought this was really creepy, but I read the section about Coachella and I think that's awesome. A lot of bigger bands, like Third Eye Blind are using the application to keep in touch with their fans and bring fans together.

Source: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/05/lokast-social-app-gains-transaction-at-concerts.html

-Samantha Corrie Schulman