Blogrolling: Hypebot news + more cool blogs

(PS this is something that bloggers do. Write a post about other bloggers AND LINK TO THEM. It gives you good blog karma)

I find

http://www.hypebot.com

 a little bit lightweight at times. The attempts to stimulate debates can seem a bit forced sometimes, and although you get some really good stuff, some really good series like the 100 free tips and one I particularly liked – the rise of the music middle class, which foreshadowed the hub bub over the “100 true fans” . . .

 http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/100-free-affordable-high-.html

http://hypebot.typepad.com/hypebot/2007/10/the-rise-of-the.html

Hypebot is a well respected blog, but this is the thing, you get the feeling the hypebot is trying a little too hard to be a “serious” blog. That is, I guess, a blog that makes money.

BUT what I will say is that it’s easy for people like me, and some of the more academic bloggers, and there’s hundreds of us, to provide “analysis” and it’s up to us to pick and choose when hand how we do that, whereas Hypebot is a true news blog that updates several times a day with fresh muisc business news and info and that takes work and thats not what a lot of people are doing.

Mainly the rest of us divide into the critics and analysts, and where I see myself in the more practical, one of those reporting from the trenches actually providing tips, shortcuts, must haves and must do’s.

The contribution of guys like Andrew Dubber and Gerd Leonhard are massive but sometimes you just wanna shake them and say:

“Where’s my goddamn money?????”

“I gotta eat!!!!! I gotta family!!!”

But an “ideas” blogger I really like also is Bruce Warila because his ideas are fresh and different and he’s a wilful innovator. I don’t always agree wiht his posts but they often set off my own ideas about how to innovate and innovating is SO important.

but I think he suffers from a problem many of us do and that even though he’s not a musician, he loves music, and needs to get a bit more what I would I would describe as “Trump” or “Sopranos” on it.

http://www.unsprungmedia.com/

Bruce has now joined Andrew Dubber’s music think tank which is packed with big names such as Derek Sivers from CD Baby, and when your the man like Derek, you’re allowed to repeat yourself.

Oh and Bob Baker as well, who is also the man – Bob and Dereks material basically put me on this path 5 years ago when I first got the net – they were thinking about this stuff then!!!!

http://www.bob-baker.com/buzz/index.html

.musicthinktank.com/ definately one to watch.
 
But one NEW blog I’m definately recommending if you like my stuff is Frontend by Julian Moore. He’s definately more on a practical tip and his blog is quite new but packed with not just “ideas” but stuff you can actually apply whatever stage you’re at.

http://gwonder.com/frontend

And I couldn’t not mention Justin Boland from http://www.audiblehype.com/ 

reading his blogs is like being up front at the show, you can almost feel his sweat! Justin combines practical everyday stuff with solid analysis and bold calls. Unfortunately – in my opinion - his long posts and heavily personalised Hip Hop themes seperate him from growing a larger readership but you should subscribe to his feed any way because he’s a passionate and in depth music promo blogger.

When I first started reading Bob Lefsetz at http://www.lefsetz.com everything he said about the music industry was a revelation and I loved his bombastic style. He does lay it on pretty thick at times but I think like – Bob peppers his blogs with these kinda rock’n roll experiences from his youth, and his favourite classic rock and country songs - but a lot of the stuff he’s saying isn’t really much of a revelation to me any more, he’s just documenting the decay of the majors from an insiders perspective.

He’s old. He doesn’t have to worry about how to break a band. We DO!!!!

He’s handing the torch to us young’uns to reinvent the industry.

http://www.unsignedbandpromotion.com

isn’t a blog. It’s just a great resource site.

I gotta soft spot for http://www.reverbnation.com right now but no more rambling!!! More on that soon . . .

NEWS FROM HTTP://WWW.HYPEBOT.COM

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails may have found the Music 2.0 sweet spot with his multi-tiered price strategy.

Just a week and a day after self-releasing the 36 track opus “Ghosts”, Reznor has reported 781,917 transactions including free and paid downloads and orders of physical product. Nine of the 36 songs are available as a free download. A $300 Limited Edition Ultra-Deluxe Edition sold out 2,500 copies in 24 hours. The 36 tack set was also available as a $5 download, a $10 double-CD and in a $75 Deluxe Edition with bonus content. The total one week take according to Reznor is $1.6 million so far.

Reznor’s entire marketing campaign for this self-release, which means he keeps the lions share of all profits, consisted of an announcement on the band’s web site and seeding the free edition across P2P and torrent sites.

IMITATORS BEWARE
These numbers are certain to turn the heads of other artists, managers and label execs particularly since NIN is viewed as a successful but fringe band.  But it is precisely because NIN does not try to appeal to the fickle masses that this  release has been so successful. Reznor found his audience and then by staying close to them, he has been able to profit. 

REMEMBER HENRY FORD?
“Ghosts” is offered a price point for every level of commitment from vaguely interested (free  sample), to casual ($5 download, $10 CD/DVD) to fanatic ($75 and $300 sets). If you’re uncomfortable buying via his site, Amazon has the download at the same price. Still like physical product? Pre-order the CD/DVD and get the download now free.  Even the inclusion of the DVD shows an awareness that the average consumer may grab a few mp3’s from a friend, but is far less likely to download a DVD.

All this seems quite revolutionary until you consider that Reznor is just following a marketing mantra that other consumer sales driven industries have understood for decades: GIVE THE CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT.  Henry Ford said, “You can buy a Model T in any color you want as long as its black”.  Not too many years later, cars not only come in a rainbow of colors, but also in various sizes, shapes and prices.

Too many in the music industry still need to learn this lesson before they go the way of the Edsel.
Music marketers take note: AOL may not grab the headlines as the most cutting edge destination, but they have huge daily page views and today they made a move that proves their determined not to fade away.

AOL just announced that is buying social networker Bebo for $850 million in cash. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network, the acquisition will give AOL a strong position in the fast growing world of social media with a network of approximately 80 million unique users.   

With a membership of 40 million worldwide, Bebo is one of the leading social networks in the UK, and is ranked number one in Ireland and New Zealand, and number three in the U.S. Its users average 78 pages per usage day.
The deal comes just one week after AOL’s launch of Open AIM 2.0, an initiative that allows the developer community greater access the AIM network and integration of AIM into its sites and applications.
OH!!!

 I did bulletin this on myspace but if you missed it:

WHY EVERY MUSICIAN NEEDS A BLOG

http://tunecore.typepad.com/tunecorner/2008/03/kyra-reed.html

Niiiccceeee and simple, with excellent points.

But what you’ve got to learn here is from me. When I started my blog over 6 months ago, I didn’t have any big plans. I was just cutting and pasting my myspace bullitens.

this is my 47th post (my myspace blog actually has been a little busier for postings til now since I was mostly active there) and now I’m getting that . . . “oh my god my blog is taking off” feeling . . .

Don’t knock blogs until you’ve been posting decent stuff regularly for 6 months. Then you can tell me I dont know whatI’m talking about!

Nahaha blogz on teh interwebz: oh oh kurb 50/50 is coming

 > Alright!

Nothing like a new proposition to get me excited!!!

I will probably be using the plasticast to launchpad kurb 50/50,

AND I’m working on a script for my first “VIRAL” video.

but mean times . . .

I got 8 RSS subscribers to my blog on the first day!!!! 1000 true fans people, I’m .8% of the way there!!!

And I’ve had 157 hits on my myspace blog alone today. Thats like . . . I’ve made Fox News Corp. $3 just off my blog already today.

KURB PROMOTIONS IS NOW ON RSS!!!

Press the button . . . Get Kurb blog posts direct!!!!

..
..Subscribe in a reader..
..

RSS is “really simple syndication”

what does that mean? It means your favourite websites come to you.

Blogging and RSS go hand in hand. These are the habits of web 2.0. You don’t need to look for information when trusted sources have been given permission to bring it to you.

So when you click the button to get the kurb RSS feed from my blog, you can either add it to your existing reader if you know what you’re doing, or you can take this opportunity to update yourself on some really awesome technology, just like when you got your first email account!!!

FROM NOW, THIS IS A MAJOR TECHNIQUE FOR MAINTAINING YOUR CORE FANBASE THROUGH YOUR BLOG.

HERE’S A COMMENT I MADE RECENTLY WARMING UP FOR KURB 50/50:

part of the new model though I think is breaking an artist over the period of 2-3 years to establishing digital revenue from a strong brand/asset value.

I’m just trying to develop some new kind of contract – charging monthly fees protects and rewards my effort, but at the same time – closes off so many opportunities to work with artists who cant buy into a proposition where they have to pay me a monthly retainer and wait and hope for the future to arrive.

My experience is mainly of artists running out of steam and resources after a few months, and also dealing with established labels who’s experience is 6 weeks of hype and then you drop the album.

That doesn’t work any more. Content is going to hit, dip and then parabola back up the tail with solid web 2.0 promotion.

Really it does require a lot of faith. But at the same time I’m not too keen on long term contracts, or being in a position of having to force an artist to maintain their commitment.

So it’s really about creating a new, dynamic proposition.

50/50 WILL BE AVAILABLE STRICTLY TO AUCKLAND // NORTH OF THE NORHT ISLAND BASED ARTISTS INITIALLY

Standby announcements should start rolling next week.

WEB USE IN NEW ZEALAND: BROAD BAND

I was blown away!!!! SURE 82% of New Zealanders USE the net which is the second highest in the world after Iceland (which definitely a “creative economy”) BUT . . .

Only 20% have a broadband connection

and 15% have Dial up.

Obviously one broadband wifi connection can serve a whole household.

But still!!!

What does this mean for musicians??? Exactly what I’ve been saying. Nothing much maybe happening NOW but the HEADROOM on this thing is MASSIVE.

I’m excited again. In 2 years I see myself working with bands and creative content providers and everyone making money.

You’ll be happy because you don’t have to jump through a hundred hoops just to earn a buck from your work. You just make stuff and get paid. I’ll be happy because I’ll be making lots of money.

The number of broadband subscribers has overtaken dial-up subscribers for the first time, a Statistics NZ survey shows.

InternetNZ executive director Keith Davidson said it was obvious people wanted faster Internet but the broadband offerings in New Zealand were deficient.

“Many of the broadband offerings we have today are still not up to scratch and New Zealand has a long way to go to claim real broadband.”

SNZ’s six-monthly ISP Survey for September 2007, released last week, shows broadband subscribers increased by 14.4 per cent and dial-up subscribers fell by 8.6 per cent.

“Dial-up is no longer adequate for accessing some of the most useful content and services on the Internet – it just isn’t fast enough,” said Davidson.

Broadband subscribers continued to increase – up 14.4 percent in the six months to September 2007, to reach 829,300. However, this growth rate has slowed from an increase of 28.6 percent in September 2006 and 18.5 percent in March 2007.

Subscribers with dial-up connection fell 8.6 percent from March 2007, down to 675,800.

The number of broadband subscribers grew from 9 per 100 inhabitants to 19.6 per 100 inhabitants in the two years ended September 2007, while the number of dial-up subscribers per 100 inhabitants fell from 21.2 to 15.9.

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