.Evolving Music.

Looking for the perfect gift for the musician in your life? Something thoughtful but not too over the top. Something useful but not ordinary. Something exciting but not short-lived.

Custom iPhone apps are quickly becoming a ‘must have’ for musicians looking to build and cultivate their fan base. Now, Holiday shoppers with a musician on their list can give the gift of a custom iPhone app for just $50, with the MobBase Holiday Gift Pack. With MobBase, musicians share music, recording session out takes, photos, videos, info about gigs, tweets, merchandise and more. And because it’s all on their iPhones, fans get the info and content they want where and when they want it. Talk about the the gift that keeps on giving!

MobBase is the fast, easy and inexpensive way for musicians to build and manage their own iPhone app. MobBase is priced so low every artist can have one. And now for the Holidays, a special package makes it even less expensive — and super easy — for shoppers to give the musicians in their lives their own custom iPhone app.

The MobBase Holiday Gift Pack includes:
* One custom iPhone app ($20 value)
* Exactly the features and functionality musicians want & need
* Infinite customization (for all practical purposes, anyway)
* Three months of basic MobBase service ($45 value)
* Unlimited love from suddenly connected fans
* A MobBase gift certificate to put under the tree

All for only $50!

See full details here

Happy Shopping!!

Have you heard of the Crunchies? As stated on the website, they “are to technology what the Oscars are to Hollywood.” This event is co-sponsored by GigaOm, VentureBeat and TechCrunch and for all of us start-ups, being considered for an award gives us some nice exposure. And the chance to win!

This is where we need your help. It literally only takes a few seconds, and you can vote everyday. You have until Friday, December 4th, but instead of putting another item on your to do list, why not just nominate us right now?!

If you want to be even more awesome and help us get the word out – or if you are a social media geek and can’t help but document your every move – you can easily broadcast your nomination on Twitter and Facebook or embed a voting badge on your blog (like we did below). Thanks!

MobBase is up for Best Mobile App:
And MixMatchMusic is up for Best Boot-Strapped Startup:

Our friends over at RemixComps.com, who we raved about earlier this year, have passed along a great resource. For anyone who is in any way involved in or interested in remixing, this is a must have! Edward Cufaude has written a 20-page ebook entitled The RemixComps.com Guide to Remix Contests and Remixing, which is chock full of tips and info about virtually every aspect of remixing. MixMatchMusic’s increasingly popular Remix Wizard gets a few mentions too!

This ebook is FREE to all you readers of Evolving Music. You can download it here. Happy reading!

If you can’t get enough of this stuff and need more remix contests to throw yourself into, you should subscribe to the Remix Comps newsletter, which will arrive in your inbox on days when new contests are added to the site. Another great resource is Rhythm Creation, also by Edward Cufaude. You can also subscribe to the Remix Wizard new promotions feed.

Here, he’ll teach you things like: How to Get Fatter, Heavier, Different Drum Sounds by Layering Your Samples, How a Remix Competition Can Help Music Promotion, and How to Remove Clicks from the Beginning and End of Samples.

For a while now, there have been websites out there that help you find live shows, such as GigLocator. Naturally, given the rampant growth in the mobile application space, there are iPhone apps popping up that do the same. Let’s have a look.

There is JamBase, one of the leading sources of live music and concert information. They’ve been around since 1998 and were quick to jump on the iPhone opportunity. Currently they are on V2 of their app. With their app you can find live shows in your area (with the built in GPS, of course), obsess over your favorite musicians on their artist pages, and get totally dialed in by checking out the event pages that are equipped with maps, ticket info, and lineups.

GigMap, a free service that helps both musicians and music venues communicate their upcoming gigs, is actually a “mashup of Google Maps, Twitter and music community Tribe of Noise, which they launched together with Layar. Read more here. Though not the sleekest looking website in the world, the features are pretty sweet. Their mobile app is both iPhone and Android compatible.

And then there’s Beck’s (yes, the beer) GigFinder. Similar to the above example (why reinvent the wheel when you can just make a mashup using existing applications or services…) GigFinder uses Last.fm’s database along with Google Maps. Watch the video below for more info:

iLike has entered the race with their aptly named Local Concerts app. One advantage here, for current iLike members, is that you can browse local concerts personalized to your music library. You can also buy tickets directly in the app or get directions to the show.

Lastly, we have onseeker music, with a lot of the same features as the apps listed above including GPS-based search, directions, etc. You can give feedback to the artists and venues, which is cool. For the anti-iPhone crowd, they’ve got versions coming for Android, WebOS, Blackberry, and more.

So, there you have it. Pick an app that works for you, fire up your GPS and never again wander the streets wondering where to find live music.

Yesterday, MixMatchMusic launched MobBase, a new service that makes it easy and inexpensive for musicians to create, launch and manage their own, custom iPhone apps. While a lot of information about MobBase has already been revealed, and you can now visit MobBase to start creating your app, there are some things that we would like to point. Here are 10 things that you may not know about your MobBase iPhone app:

Create your app for free
You can register for a MobBase account and create an iPhone app for free. When you’re ready to launch, you pay a $20 activation fee to submit your app to Apple for approval. Before submission, a MobBase team member will walk you through your app to make sure everything looks good.

Your app is a blank canvas
It’s your app, and it can have your unique image, look, and feel. The MobBase dashboard gives you a blank canvas to project your artistic vision — select from seven different layouts, arrange the features however you like, upload a loading image, upload background and button images, choose your title bar color, and select color themes. Don’t worry, you can change the app’s layout and design as often as you like.

Lyrics, album artwork and credits
Too much of the album experience has been lost in the post CD/Vinyl world, until now. With a MobBase iPhone app, you can give your fans the full album experience by adding lyrics to your songs, additional artwork for your releases, and even credits.

Fans can add videos too
In addition to featuring YouTube videos and piping in your entire YouTube channel, your fans can add video content to your app. Just pick a few tags for fans to use when uploading their videos to YouTube, and these videos will appear in your app. The tags can be as specific as you want, so if you want fan footage from a specific show or if you want fans to make their own music videos for your song, just hook them up with the tags!

There’s a whole lot of tweeting going on
Twitter is not something we take casually, and neither should you.  Add as many Twitter accounts as you want to your app, whether it be one official band account, or the Twitter accounts for all the members, even the drummer:) Then, track the buzz by piping in all the “@” mentions of your accounts. You can even have conversations with your fans about specific topics, by adding hashtags — add as many hashtags as you want, and we’ll create special sections for them.

All the music you want, from our servers or yours.
You can stream as much music as you want from your app, whether it be your full catalog or just your new single. And, you can mix up what music is playable by making songs inactive or adding new songs. To add music to your app, you can either upload the MP3s to MobBase, or you can paste in a link and stream the music from your own servers.

Update your app on the fly
After you launch your app, you can update it as often as you want, at no additional charge. And, only a few of the changes will require resubmission to Apple, which means most your changes will happen right away. Some of your updates will need to be made through the MobBase dashboard (adding new music, feeds, or featured videos; or changing the layout/customization), while others (all the feed-based content you provide, like the news, blog, shows, videos, photos, etc) will happen automatically.

Hands-on support, if you need it.
While we’ve built MobBase so that you can easily create your app through the MobBase dashboard without any programming or technical skills, we’re here to help. If you want our hands-on support while making your app, you can purchase 3 months of premium support for $200. Premium support includes unlimited phone and email support while building your app; exclusive features such as multiple news feeds, integration with your mailing list/street team, and extra content; a complete app audit that will identify ways to make your app more effective; and unlimited walk-throughs of your app before it is launched.

Photos Galore
You can add as many photos albums as you want to your MobBase app, each with an unlimited amount of photos.

To sell or not to sell?
It’s your app, and you can decide if you want to give it away for free in iTunes, or if you want to sell the app. If you sell the app, you can name the price and we’ll handle all the administrative logistics for a nominal monthly fee. After Apple takes its 30% cut, you keep the rest — we don’t rev share with you!

The MobBase iPhone app for musicians launched today with an exclusive partnership with IODA, one of the world’s leading digital distributors of independent music and film, and with broad support from top indie music labels including Controlled Substance Sound Labs, Welk Music Group, Vanguard Records and SMC Recordings.  MobBase is the new service for musicians that makes it easy and inexpensive to create, launch and manage their own custom iPhone applications.

MobBase, a service of MixMatchMusic, helps artists connect with fans to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices.

IODA promoting MobBase as exclusive app solution to artists and labels

IODA is offering a special version of the MobBase iPhone app to its roster of independent labels and artists, including Easy Star All Stars, Big Light and Shanghai Restoration Project, each of which are launching their own MobBase app this week.

“The MobBase iPhone app is an innovative and low-cost solution for independent artists who want to participate in the explosively popular iPhone app market” said Adam Rabinovitz, vice president of marketing at IODA. “Now IODA artists can easily create their own custom app and tap into the next level of fan communication.”

IODA clients will benefit from a custom version of the MobBase app that will integrate streaming music and real-time performance metrics from IODA’s unique promotional platform, Promonet.  Rightsholders will be able to track mobile app streams in real time alongside other online promotional activity such as blog downloads from across the Promonet network.

Additionally, IODA is launching its own music discovery and promotion iPhone app built with the MobBase platform. The IODA Promonet app will enable music fans to discover and listen to a wide array of new tracks drawn from IODA’s diverse catalog, now featuring artists such as Pink Martini, Deer Tick, Aventura, The Phenomenal Handclap Band, Tinariwen, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Apples in Stereo, and Vic Chestnutt.

Top indie labels promote acts with MobBase

The MobBase iPhone app has also received broad support from top indie music labels, including Controlled Substance Sound Labs, Welk Music Group, Town Thizzness and SMC Recordings. Controlled Substance Sound Labs, is launching its own MobBase app, and acts signed to the label, including Pepper, Rebelution, Fishbone and the Expendables will be launching their own apps as well.  Town Thizzness is launching its own MobBase app.  Other strategic partners include Vanguard Records, Sugar Hill Records, SMC Recordings, Red Bull Records, Sargent House, and 429 Records, who will be offering MobBase iPhone apps to their roster of artists.

“In addition to IODA’s roster of thousands of top indie labels, Controlled Substance, Town Thizzness, and SMC dramatically extend our reach,” said Charles Feinn, MixMatchMusic CEO and co-founder.  “With their help we’re making it possible for every artist to build and manage their own high quality app, and for every artist to connect with fans on their mobile devices”

Feinn said the labels and IODA are promoting MobBase as their solution for mobile applications, and that it is being marketed on the firms’ websites, via direct marketing and other channels.

Everclear, RX Bandits and other top indie artists connect with fans using MobBase

Artists including Everclear, RX Bandits, Greg Laswell, and Pepper are among the more than 20 bands launching their own custom iPhone apps built with MobBase, according to MixMatchMusic.

Feinn said the strong initial response is good but not surprising news. “Custom iPhone apps have for too long been just for the top selling artists,” he said. “With MobBase every artist can have an inexpensive yet high quality app.”

He said many artists aim to engage and involve listeners in their music in order to build deep and lasting connections with them.  Increasingly, these connections drive sales of concert tickets, band merchandise and music.  Likewise modern music fans are looking for more and deeper interaction with musicians.

“MobBase is the easy and inexpensive solution,” said Feinn.

Mobile music marketing

MobBase gives artists a mobile, interactive fan club, storefront, merchandise table, and more.  The MobBase application is highly customizable, so artists can pick and choose the content they offer to fans and also the way that content is presented. To see all the MobBase iPhone apps that are live in iTunes, click here.

A custom iPhone app for as little as 50 cents a day

MobBase is priced to be accessible to any artist. It costs just $20 to get going and many artists will never pay more than $15 a month to deliver music, photos, videos, tweets, info about gigs, merch and more to hundreds of fans.

Tomorrow (Nov. 3), MixMatchMusic will debut MobBase, a new service for musicians that makes it easy for them to create, launch and manage their own, custom iPhone applications. For as little as $0.50 a day, MobBase will enable musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, blog posts, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices.

“The iPod put music in fans’ pockets.  The MobBase iPhone app puts musicians in fans’ pockets, with the high value content that fuels the artist-fan connection,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “We’ve made it so inexpensive, even starving artists can have their own app and have the same mobile presence as major acts.”

Feinn said many artists aim to engage and involve listeners in their music in order to build deep and lasting connections with them.  Increasingly, these connections drive sales of concert tickets, band merchandise and music.  Likewise modern music fans are looking for more and deeper interaction with musicians.

“Just a relative handful of artists have launched iPhone apps,” said Feinn.  “MobBase makes it easy enough and inexpensive enough that every musician can have their own app.”

Rock-reggae stars Pepper among first bands to launch MobBase app
Twenty-two artists and labels including Pepper, Everclear, Zion I, RX Bandits, Silverback Music/Controlled Substance Sound Labs, Greg Laswell, Shanghai Restoration Project, the Jacka, Easy Star All-Stars, Rebelution, Town Thizzness, Throw Me the Statue, Killer Mike, Jennie Laws, Big Light, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Black Gold, Enzyme Dynamite, The Blakes, Eoin Harrington, El Desayuno, and Gavroche have launched MobBase applications to deepen their connection with fans. To view all the MobBase iPhone apps that are live in iTunes, click here.

“Pepper fans can’t get enough about the band,” said Sally Nobbs, manager for Silverback Music, Pepper’s management firm.  “And were excited about the way that our app will fuel deeper connections with our fans, by giving them constant access to Pepper’s music, backstage video footage, photos and news, and the ability to interact with Pepper through their iPhones, no matter where they are.”

Feinn said MixMatchMusic is now making MobBase available to other musicians.

“Connecting more fans more effectively with the music they love is fundamental to individual artists’ success, and to long-term music industry revenue growth,” said Susan Kevorkian, IDC program director, Mobile Media and Entertainment. “Services like MobBase are expected to play a key role in connecting artists to their fans with cost-competitive, versatile apps as smartphones assume an increasingly central role as sources of music and related information.”

Labels and music 2.0 companies endorse MobBase
Music 2.0 pioneer IODA, along with indie labels Controlled Substance Sound Labs, SMC Recordings, Welk Music Group, Vanguard Records, Sugar Hill Records, Red Bull Records, Sargent House, and 429 Records have each agreed to offer and promote MobBase apps to their rosters of artists.

Feinn said partners are offering MobBase so their artists can build the deeper connections that result in fan engagement and ultimately sales of music, merchandise and concert tickets.  He said partners will promote MobBase as their exclusive solution for mobile applications, and that they will be marketing it on their websites, via direct marketing and other channels.

Content powers connection
MobBase gives artists a mobile, interactive fan club, storefront, merchandise table, and more.  The MobBase application is highly customizable, so artists can pick and choose the content they offer to fans and also the way that content is presented.

Feinn said there are no design constraints with MobBase.  “Musicians have a blank canvas to project their artistic vision.  We’re expecting an explosion of creativity and fun.”

Featured content supported includes:
Music.  Artists just want to make and share music.  By featuring their music in MobBase, they make it easy for fans to buy songs or even entire albums.

Videos.  With MobBase, artists can share video out takes, footage from backstage and at parties, or even feed their YouTube channel directly into the    application. Fans can also upload their own videos to their favorite artist’s app.

Photos.  An image is worth 1,000 words, so artists can create and share photo collections including album artwork, tour pictures and other images fans are clamoring for.  MobBase features seamless integration with Flickr and Picasa, so it’s easy to manage, update and add photos in real time.

News/Blog.  Artists can use MobBase to keep fans up to date on news, blog posts and behind the scenes info with RSS feeds.

Shows.  The best way to get fans to shows is to make sure they know when and where they are.  With MobBase, artists can update show times, venues, directions and other info to make sure their fans know where to find them live. MobBase features seamless integration with ArtistData and MySpace, so it’s easy to manage, update and add concert info in real time.

Discography.  Artists can connect fans with their entire catalog, album artwork, liner notes, and lyrics by featuring them in MobBase.

Twitter.  Artists can make sure their tweets reach their fans with MobBase, and fans can hear what others have to say about the band. Artist and fans can also have conversations to discuss specific topics of the artists choosing.

Store.  MobBase is like a mobile merch table, connected to artists’ web stores.  It’s a great way for artists to show their merch where it’s easiest for their fans to find it (in their pockets).

Biography.  Biographies provide fans with background and back story, information that makes the artist-fan connection that much more meaningful.

More and more.  Because MobBase is highly customizable and supports additional functionality, artists can expand on the platform to do more and engage fans more deeply.

Easy. Customizable. Dynamic.
MobBase is built on an advanced content management system that makes it easy to add, manage and update content in real-time.  Yet it is so easy to use, so easy to set up and so easy to maintain, even a rock star can do it.  And because it is highly customizable, every artist – rock star or rock star-in-the-making, can easily create their own unique app with their unique image, look and feel.  Artists aren’t locked in to a design either – they can change the app whenever the mood strikes.

Priced for starving artists
MobBase is priced for starving artists and also artists who remember what it was like to starve.  It costs just $20 to get going and many artists will never pay more than $15 a month to deliver music, photos, videos, tweets, info about gigs, merch and more to hundreds of fans.

It is well known that over the last 10 years the barriers to making music have been shattered by highly effective, and cheap, music making software. Musicians now have many great resources when it comes to digital studio software and online collaboration and production tools. And, as music making technology continues to spread and becomes easier to use, even fans have entered the music making process by remixing and collaborating with their favorite artists.

The next step in the evolution of music production very well may be mobile music making, and while many mobile music tools have been released in the last several years, IK Multimedia’s GrooveMaker may be the most effective. After the success of their first four applications released last August, IK Multimedia has put out two new versions of their GrooveMaker music production apps. The new GrooveMaker Techno and GrooveMaker Trance add to IKM’s existing genre collection of House, Hip-Hop, and Club. If you get the itch to make some beats on-the-go, these apps allow users to create and share full length, non-stop tracks in real-time, perfect for DJing, remixing, or creating multimedia soundtracks. Pretty sweet, eh?

The GrooveMaker apps contain advanced remixing software that allows for control over eight stereo loop tracks. Users can pull from GrooveMaker’s extensive library of high sound-quality drum, bass, bass drums, lines, pads, percussion and effects loops, and loops are easily arranged by dragging and dropping. GrooveMaker’s randomization feature lets users create millions of possible grooves with just one touch. Once a user is done with their jam, tracks can be saved, previewed, recalled, and exported as .WAV files to a computer through a Wi-Fi network.

While GrooveMaker Techno and GrooveMaker Trance are available in the iTunes App Store for $9.99, IK Multimedia has given us a few copies to give out for free! The first four people to tweet out “I dig the GrooveMaker iPhone app and @EvolvingMusic!” will get a free copy of the GrooveMaker app. Or check out GrooveMaker’s fully functional basic version, available for free on iTunes. And to check out audio demos, visit GrooveMaker’s website.

Curious to learn more about music making on the iPhone? Read this.

This 4 member DJ crew from Tel Aviv brings us traditional Jewish melodies on top of American hip-hop tracks, reggae, and funk. Meet Soulico.

Their new album, Exotic on the Speaker, is the “result of years of creative collaborations and finesse – culminating in 13 club ready tracks featuring the likes of Ghostface, Del the Funky Homosapien, M.I.A. understudy Rye Rye, Pigeon John, Lyrics Born, and more,” says The Daily Rind.

In anticipation of the new album, the boys released a free promo mixtape, Exotic on the Mixtape, including the song “Put em up”, which Pitchfork calls “an exuberant synthesis of traditional Israeli folk melodies and familiar hip-hop sensibilities.” You can download it all here.

Once you’ve download the mixtape, read Soulico’s answers to The Music Slut’s 8 Questions, including how playing to an Israeli audience differs from an American one, and check out Sabbo’s blog, Noiz in Zion, if you like remixes (and free downloads). Of course they are on MySpace and Facebook too.

JDub Records, which is a “not-for-profit dedicated to innovative Jewish music, community, and cross cultural dialogue,” was lucky enough to sign Soulico before anyone else found them. CEO Aaron Bisman happened upon their first mixtape while he was rummaging through the bins at Tel Aviv’s Hatav Hashmini record store. Apparently they were hard to track down, but he jumped on their MySpace the day it went up and claimed them.

Thanks to our friends over at JDub Records for hooking us up with these guys. As part of the release of their new album, Soulico wants you to remix the title track, “Exotic on the Speaker,” and is giving you access to the stems of the song via the MixMatchMusic Remix Wizard. You can either download the stems (for free) and use the audio editing software of your choice OR simply click on the MixMaker button on the widget to make a remix in MixMatchMusic’s simple online music editor. If you’ve never experienced remixing before, or just want to see how the song was made, check out the MixMaker. Once you’ve completed your remix, upload it so that others can listen to, vote on and share it.

Soulico will be choosing one grand prize winner plus three runner-ups. Here’s what you can win:

Grand Prize:
- Soulico – Exotic on the Speaker CD + LP
- Stanton YakPak DJ bag filled with JDub Vinyl
- Your choice of Prime Loops Software
- Pair of Radius Ear buds
- Remix featured on jdubrecords.org & Soulico myspace

3 Runner-Ups:
- Stanton YakPak DJ bag filled with JDub Vinyl
- Copy of Soulico – Exotic on the Speaker CD
- Remix featured on jdubrecords.org & Soulico myspace

Deadlines: Contest starts Monday, October 5th and ends Monday November 23rd. Check out the official rules here.

Get on it!

After carefully reviewing the 49 remixes submitted to their Blazed and Confused at 2 Am Remix Contest, Slightly Stoopid have picked the winners! As part of the contest, Slightly Stoopid invited fans to remix their song 2AM using MixMatchMusic’s Remix Wizard, while the band was on the road for the Blazed and Confused tour. Thanks to everybody that participated, there’s so much talent out there! Some of the remixes were pretty mellow, others were upbeat, some more hip hop influenced, a lot of reggae, some cool sound bites… all in all some really great stuff.

But, there was one remix that really caught the attention of Slightly Stoopid and stood out above the competition. Congrats to icehouseindustries for winning the remix contest! His remix was chosen by Slightly Stoopid as the grand prize winner! Check it out…

Icehouseindustries will receive a HUGE prize pack that includes a set of the new Slightly Stoopid branded headphones (Skull Candy); an autographed Stoopid poster; 2 tickets to the next Slightly Stoopid concert in their area; a limited edition Slightly Stoopid branded glass pipe; CDs of Slightly Stoopid’s entire discography & Chronichitis vinyl; a copy of Slightly Stoopid Live in San Diego DVD; and the icehouseindustries remix will be posted for streaming on Slightly Stoopid’s Website, Myspace, Facebook, and their theSixtyOne.com page.

There was also a prize for the fan favorite, for the remix that received the most fan votes. Congrats to Karma for getting the most fan votes for his unique remix that brought a grooving lounge sound to 2am, complete with funky flute, saxophone and jazz guitar. His remix definitely caught a lot of attention. Karma wins a set of the new Slightly Stoopid branded headphones (Skull Candy) and a limited edition Slightly Stoopid branded glass pipe. Saaawwweeeet!!!

Make sure to check out some of the other remixes submitted. I’m a fan of NotoriAce’s remix and all of the different levels and genres used, as well as We Like it Edgy out of Galashiels, Scotland’s “2am edgy remix”. Also, I’m kinda diggin’ the use of Daydreamin’ by DJ Devan Air and Biggie Smalls in Will Becker’s mash-up. And, big ups to Gravity Terminal for his electro-dub version of 2am. Click the image below to check out all of the submissions. While you’re there, be sure to browse the Remix Wizard site to find other remix opportunities and to see how you can host your own remix contest using MixMatchMusic’s FREE remix contest platform.