Le blog du Baron

20/06/2009: WOULD YOU AUCTION A BAND MEMBER ON E-BAY ?

According to the message I received from TANTRUM RECORDS recently, this is exactty what the Welsh band SICKNOTE is planning to do. Here are the details:

Band sells one of it's members on Ebay: In a move not seen in the music industry before now, Welsh anarchic psychic-techno punksters, Sicknote have decided to auction off one of their band members on Ebay. "Tough times have forced us to sell our dancer on Ebay in order to sustain the band", said Sicknote mouse-fiddler, Johan.

Here is the Ebay post description:

'We are selling Dr Conker! that's right, Sicknote's infamous dancer is up for grabs.... The winning bidder will get to keep the doctor for 24 hours and he will be delivered FREE of charge to your doorstep in the Sickmobile, chauffered by the one and only Dickie Balboa....

The lucky winner can then 'use' the good doctor in anyway you see fit. eg. Cleaning, Sex, Spiritual Guidance, Councelling, Drug Partners or indeed he will dance.. for you, or maybe he could dance in your band or you could send him as a gift to a loved one... or indeed one of your enemies with instructions on what he should do upon arrival. Anyway the options are endless.... The dr will do ANYTHING for the 24 hours that you own him. NO RESERVE get bidding.

details of date and location an be sorted after the auction... bidders outside the

UK

must cover flight costs. Thanks...'

"If there are any drugs involved, I would like to make absolutely clear that YOU have to supply them. If it's sex your thinking, then being a gay man, i can only turn straight for you if the winning bid is over £1000.", said Dr Conker. 

Now the email also includes a link to E-Bay but the auction has been disabled. Which is not a surprise since this would be a breach of E-Bay's rules and regulations. So Dr Conker did not have to lose sleep over it.

More importantly: is this a good PR idea ? If someboody at Tantrum reads, I would be interested to get their views. For me the headline certainly grabs your attention and althought the idea in itself is not entirely new, the tone of the message is certainly good for a laugh. But did I remember the name of the band afterwards ? Did I check their band site, Facebook, MySpace, google them, etc ...

No.

And, come on guys, no mp3 attached ? You must be joking. What is the point of going all this way to grab my attention so that I would blog about it and not even give me a mp3 to post ? Do you expect that I would do all the work myself ...

 

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25/04/2009: WHY IT IS A GOOD IDEA FOR YOUR BAND TO GET MIXED UP (PART 3)

If you have read the 2 previous posts I wrote on the subject (part 1 and part 2), you should be convinced by now that getting your tracks remixed is a damn good idea.

Now where do your start when JUSTICE (who just remixed the latest U2 single - coming soon on Zerocast) or SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO (back on form with a great remix of Deerhunter) are too busy to return your calls ?

Here are a few sites to check out

• CCMixter - the community remix site sponsored by Creative Common is probably the most established. You will obviously need to licence your tracks under CC and you might have to put (some) money on the table to get people started.
• RemixFight - register, ask nicely and there is a good chance that MC Jack in the Box and his friends will be more than happy to mix things up for you. They had a go some time ago at remixing POSITIVE and I will be posting soon some of the results.
• Jamglue and SpliceMusic - I haven't tried any of them yet so feel free to feedback if you have.
• Indaba Music - although it is no per se a remix site but focuses on online music collaboration, there are plenty of people who would be more than able and probably happy to help you. Indaba is my favourite (you will find me there looking sultry having a smoke - very French).
• Le Blog du Baron - and of course, what prevents you from contacting directly some of the remixers regularly featured in ZEROCAST ? Chance is that if you like what they do, they will like to hear it and who knows, they might be up to lend you a hand.

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20/04/2009: 6 TIPS FOR MUSICIANS TO LEVERAGE TWITTER

I have registered on TWITTER a few months ago and slowly but surely I'm  approaching the 100 followers mark. Of course I'm still far behind the likes of   Britney Spears (11,066,222 followers), Barack Obama (914,168), Coldplay   (602,990) or even more modestly Brad Sucks (880) so no reason to throw a  party yet. But just in case you can follow BARON ZERO on Twitter here.

And this is the opportunity to repost the tips that Heather McDonald published on her blog some time ago:

Download Twitter Tips for the Music

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02/03/2009: WHY IT IS A GOOD IDEA FOR YOUR BAND TO GET MIXED UP (part 2)

I mentioned in my previous post here that a remix can be a great way to generate buzz and get talked about. Although this is a few months old already, here is a clever twist  from British remixer James Rutledge (who was already featured a few times in ZEROCAST).

He created a four hour remix of "Videotape" with accompanying visuals from Philip M. Lane, captured it on a VHS and auctioned off his unique remix, all profits going to the UK-based Missing People charity.

More details at Pitchfork here.

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10/02/2009: WHY IT IS A GOOD IDEA FOR YOUR BAND TO GET MIXED UP (part 1))

Considering how many remixes are available on this site (500+ and counting - if you haven't heard them all you can start here), you will not be surprised that I advocate the use of remixes for independent musicians. After all Radiohead and more recently Franz Ferdinand have shown the merit of such an approach, even managing to generate new revenue streams in the process.

But let me just remind you of some of the benefits; here are 5 reasons to get mixed up I can think of from the top of my head:

1. BUILD CONTACTS: not the most immediate benefit but certainly the most powerful in the end which is why I put it first. Remixers are in demand and you can never tell who will be the next rising star. Imagine having one of your tracks remixed by Justice before they went on to achieve worldwide domination on dance music. And of course it goes both ways: the remix of Simian's "We are your friends" is what set them on this course.

2. GET TALKED ABOUT: nothing like a great remix by the likes of Diplo, Boys Noize, Left/Right or Digitalism to get that blog buzz we are all after. It might be difficult to get one of these guys on board (although it is worth a try if you can stir their interest - I'll expand on this another time) but there are plenty of great remixers on the net who will be happy to take on the challenge just for the fun of it.

3. IMPROVE YOUR SONGS: however talented you are as a songwriter, chances are good production ideas will make your music sound even better. And since good producers do not always come cheap you can get some interesting ideas this way.

4. GET MORE MATERIAL TO SHARE: how long does it takes to write a great song ? Sometimes a few minutes might be enough but recording, producing and mastering it can litterally take years. And there's only so many different demo versions you can upload. So remixes are a great way to have something new to share with your fans.

5. SCORE A HIT: ... and who knows, some remixes end up being much, much more successful than the original. One of the best examples is probably BRIMFUL OF ASHA from Cornershop, which was taken to new heights by Fatboy Slim and became a hit in its own right. You can download both versions and listen to the difference: CORNERSHOP Brimful of Asha (original album version) download / CORNERSHOP Brimful of Asha (Fatboy Slim remix) download

Convinced ? Very well ... but where do you start ?

Just tune back in a few days for the 2nd part of this post in which I will give you some more tips and links to the best remix sites.

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23/10/2008: PAY ATTENTION TO THE DOCTOR, "DISCO SAVES LIVES"

Fun bite I picked up in the Singapore STRAIT TIMES earlier this week. Doctors and student at the University of Illinois have recently done a study, performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to the sound of the Bee Gees' STAYING ALIVE.

The reason ?

At 103 beat per minute the disco anthem is close to the perfect rythm recommended by the American Heart Association to jump-start a stopped heart. According to the doctor who conducted the study "many people hesitate to give CPR because they fear they might not be able to keep the correct rythm. The AHA has been using the song as a training tool for CPR for about 2 years".

And he adds "I heard ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST also works, but it doesn't seem quite as appropriate". Get me that disco ball in the operating block, now !

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13/08/2008: THE 10 SITES WHERE EVERY MUSICIAN MUST BE

Of course, everybody is on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter (although I'm not yet on the last one) but here is my personal list on sites when you should definitely be if you want to cut through as a musician:

CD BABY - if anybody tells you that CD is dead and burried, just turn around. CD Baby is a proof  that CD is indeed still alive and that you definitely do not want to miss out on a sale because you  have gone all digital (hang on, CD is digital !). What more to say: the original and still the best ?

YOULICENSE - licensing your songs for use in commercials, TV series, films ... is for any musician a good opportunity to generate additional revenue streams and this should not be overlooked. I have registered with PUMPAUDIO a long time ago but YOULICENSE is much easier and quicker to set up.

TUNECORE - from what I've seen, this is simply the best aggregator around and a must if you want one single destination to get your music on iTunes, Amazon and co. Sure, there are plenty of sites who boast they can get your music anywhere and everywhere for free. But Tunecore is well worth the money; hope to be up and running soon once I have fixed some technical problem with them (uploading 40MB wav files from my old laptop being one).

REVERBNATION - I'm still pretty new to it but ReverbNation blows away any other site when it comes to providing all the widgets you need to promote your music online.

INDABA - there are quite a few collaboration sites on the net (KOMPOZ for instance), but   Indaba  is clearly my favourite with a very active community, many opportunities to work on different projects and regular remix contests.

AMIE STREET - even if AS does not offer much possibilities in terms of band page, the idea of setting up the price of each song according to its popularity is absolutely brilliant. Agreed, it might take some time untill FOLLOW THE EYE reaches a decent selling price (so far priced at 1.43$) but it got a decent level of exposure with close to 4,000 listens untill now.

SELLABAND - a great idea and although I'm more focused on getting my music heard by as many people as possible than locking up myself in a recording studio, there will be a time to make use of Sellaband. If you already have a motivated fan base ready to help you out , this one might be for you.

GARAGEBAND - an old favourite of mine, GB is not only a good site to get exposure but very useful to collect some feedback on your music. And there is nothing like a few good quotes to liven up a PR kit. Here is what some people had to say about BARON ZERO:

"The bass and horns are awesome. That bass player is a f... bad ass. The song is executed perfectly: very funky for sure". gatorlipsmurphy @ GarageBand on NO EASY WAY
"This song is great!!! I'm going to be singing this song all day long. It sonds like all the band members know what they are doing. This song is just overall excellent. Good job guys!!! Rock on!!!" anonymoustipster1988 @ GarageBand on POSITIVE

WE7 - is there still a need to present the company co-founded by Peter Gabriel ? Even if the registration process is way to complicated, I love the concept.

LAST.FM - last but not least ! Clearly I still have to properly leverage the potential of last.fm (11 listeners and counting) but I love the idea of finding people based on your music affinity.

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03/07/2008: BEING VISIBLE ON THE INTERNET - WIKIPEDIA

Andrew DUBBER is publishing an interesting series of posts at NEW MUSIC STRATEGIES, where he reviews which sites independent musicians should be present on - have a read:

• What website should I be on (part 1) ?   Wikipedia 
• What website should I be on (part 2) ?   Last.fm
• What website should I be on (part 3) ?   Facebook

I have already created pages for BARON ZERO on Facebook and Last.fm some time ago (even though I'm painfully aware I could leverage them much more than I do currently) but I was surprised to see Andrew included WIKIPEDIA in his list.

I hadn't thought about it before but it is true that Wikipedia comes almost always top of the search list for any given subject. So it seems that getting a wiki on Baron Zero could be a good idea; but since it wouldn't do for me to write myself, here is my call to you guys: anybody feels like writing a WIKI ENTRY on Baron Zero ?

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03/06/2008: CAN PRINCE REMOVE A SONG WITHOUT OWNING ITS RIGHTS ?

If like me you thought that in most cases copyrights were a pretty clear-cut thing, Prince and Radiohead are showing this is not the case. You probably know by now that Prince recently covered "Creep" during his Coachella set (not his most inspired cover by the way - check out BARON ZERO version of Creep here instead).

But you probably had difficulties in finding footage of his performance since he has systematically removed every clip posted on the net.

Obviously the only problem is that Prince does not own the copyright for the song; Thom Yorke does. In a recent interview, he said he heard about Prince's performance from a text message and thought it was "hilarious." Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O'Brien, said the blocking had prevented him from seeing Prince's version of their song. "Really? He's blocked it?" asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. "Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment." Yorke added: "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song."

Well, if you feel like checking out the Purple cover, the video is available here (for a limited time only, I guess) and here is the mp3:

PRINCE Creep (live at Coachella 08) download

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28/05/2008: GET YOUR NEXT RECORD FUNDED BY FANS

Following up on my previous post: I was really interested to read in a recent Peter Gabriel interview what THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND did since it showed another way in which you can get financial help from your fans.

In order to pay for recording sessions at Gabriel's studio, they found 120 fans over the internet who would pay 60£ each to come and attend the making of the album. In addition they filmed everything which gave them material for a web-broadcast and extra exposure. More details about the band here.

And by the way, if you have a minute check out Peter Gabriel's interview (posted by TapeOp.com). Well worth a read:

Download peter_gabriel_the_future.pdf

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