We keep saying, mobile is the future. Clearly, mobile is the present!!

With artists struggling to figure out what they need to do, we’ve developed a “Survival Guide for Engaging Fans and Building a Career in Music” to put shape around this increasingly confusing landscape. It illustrates the ‘tools-for-musicians’ ecosystem, some (but of course, not all) of the key players, their relationship to the whole, and how mobile plays into all of this.

Here’s how it works:

First, do whatever needs to be done to get discovered. This doesn’t mean getting discovered by millions of people, but rather, a core initial group of fans that you will build on.

Next, engage this core initial group of fans in an interactive and authentic way in order to convert them from casual fans into loyal fans. By doing so, fans will be much more likely to support you financially and spread the word.

Once a deep connection has been made, offer fans many ways to support you financially and make it easy for them to do so. This includes selling music and creative bundles directly from your website, offering unique merch, and giving fans the opportunity to invest in you through one of the many crowdfunding platforms out there, like PledgeMusic. Get creative and don’t assume the only way to get paid is to sell music in iTunes!

Finally, carefully analyze what has worked and what hasn’t, and adjust things accordingly. Then, repeat, repeat, repeat… and don’t forget about mobile!

In September, MobBase had the privilege of being a part of the 2012 Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco. In its 15th year, IDF is the place for Intel Corporation, along with high-tech industry developers, executives, designers and engineers, to come together and share their latest innovations and vision for the future of technology.

MobBase was invited to demo its platform in front of thousands of people during the keynote (check out the demo here), as well as teach people who visited the MobBase booth in the expo hall how to build mobile apps.

Guided by the theme, “The Future of Innovation is Wide Open,” IDF 2012 demonstrated how developers can take advantage of the latest innovations in hardware, software and services to help enable the best user experiences from the cloud to devices.

Here are some pictures from the event…visit our Facebook page for more!

When we first launched MobBase a few years ago, our goal was to offer artists a cheap and easy way to create iPhone apps and connect with fans on-the-go. Well, times have changed and iOS is no longer the only game in town. With the undeniable rise of Android, Windows Phone and other mobile phones and tablets, artists now need a cross-platform mobile strategy in order to connect with all fans. The problem is, cross platform mobile app development has been time-consuming, expensive, and a general pain in the ass…until now.

In the above video, MobBase CEO, Charles Feinn, discusses how MobBase is helping artists build one mobile app that can be launched on all devices using the mobile web. MobBase mobile web apps are HTML5 based and can be built and launched for free here.

Time and time again we stress the importance of getting your fans involved with your music. Whether you host a remix contest, make an iPhone app or generally think out of the box when promoting your music. Here is a great example of a creative way that Canadian DJ, Kid Koala, released his music with his fans. He made the CD packaging for his recent record “12 Bit Blues” into a DIY mini record player with a mini record inside the CD box. Extremely creative, innovative, and a memorable event for any casual fan. Beyond this particular record, Kid Koala has made his past concert experiences interactive as well.

More power to you Kid Koala! Share your creative ways of interacting with your fans below!!

Last week, MobBase had the privilege of demonstrating its platform during the “Security and Services in an Age of Transparent Computing” keynote at the 2012 Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Led by Intel Senior Vice President Renée James, the keynote addressed HTML5 based applications and security.

MobBase co-founder Alan Khalfin showed an audience of more than 3,000 people how to build a mobile app with MobBase and how HTML5 is enabling MobBase clients to build one app the connects with fans on all smartphones and tablets.

Throw Me The Statue frontman, Scott Reitherman, then walked people through the band’s official mobile app, discussed how easy it was to build the app using MobBase, and how the app has helped the band connect with fans on-the-go. Throw Me The Statue also rocked the house with a 30 minute set to start the keynote! Check out a video of the MobBase demo above.

The point: launching your own mobile app is a key part of succeeding in today’s new music economy. Luckily, you can build your own mobile app for free with MobBase.

MobBase introduced today a new, free way for artists to build just one mobile app that connects with fans on any Internet-enabled screen, including iPhones and iPads, Android phones and tablets, and Blackberrys.

MobBase is a favorite solution for artists to create, launch, and manage their own, custom mobile applications. With MobBase, artists share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise, and other content with fans on-the-go.

“It’s never been this easy, this fast or this inexpensive for an artist to have their own mobile app and connect with fans wherever they are and whatever screen they’re using,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer.

Separate apps for different devices a challenge for artists
Feinn said the proliferation of systems and screens has been a challenge for artists. “It’s been too difficult, too expensive and too time consuming to make a mobile app for every device and every environment,” he said. “The new MobBase app changes everything because artists can now build a single app to reach everyone.”

Rebelution among artists with MobBase HTML5 apps
“A mobile app is one of the best ways for Rebelution to stay connected with our fans,” said Eric Rachmany, vocalist and guitarist for Rebelution. “We use MobBase because we get an inexpensive app that looks and performs great, and works on iPhones, iPads, Androids, and everything else our fans are carrying in their pockets or purses.”

MobBase built on HTML5
The new build-it-once, publish-across-every-screen capability is made possible by HTML5, the newest version of the common language used for structuring and presenting content on the web. HTML5 apps are used by developers, including MobBase, to build applications for use on personal computers, tablets, smart phones, and other devices.

A lot for free, even more for just $5
Artists can build, launch and manage their own MobBase app for no charge. It works on iOS (iPhone, iPad), Android (phones and tablets), Blackberry, and any other mobile device that supports HTML5. For just $5 to activate and $5 a month, artists can make a mobile app and feature unlimited videos, songs and other content.

MobBase a favorite of artists, labels and concert venues
More than 500 artists, record labels and concert venues have launched their own MobBase apps, including Tila Tequila, Pepper, Parkway Drive, 9:30 Club, Rebelution, Jump Smokers, John McLaughlin, Iration, the Jacka, Zion I, and Paul Thorn.

“MobBase has been so popular with artists because it makes it so easy and inexpensive to connect and engage with fans,” said Feinn. ”The new build-it-once and publish-it-everywhere capability, and no-charge option, are sure to make it the first choice of even more artists.”

MobBase featured in Mozilla Marketplace
MobBase is one of the featured partners for the forthcoming Mozilla Marketplace, an app store for cross-platform HTML5 apps that aims to connect the ecosystem of HTML5 developers with the tens of millions of Firefox browser users. Hundreds of MobBase apps will be available in the Mozilla Marketplace in the coming months.

Big thanks to Mozilla for including MobBase in their Mozilla Marketplace Partner Spotlight! This video features MobBase co-founders Alan Khalfin and Charles Feinn and outlines how MobBase will use the Mozilla Marketplace and HTML5 to provide a cross-platform solution for artists to create mobile apps. Coming soon to a mobile device near you…

Mozilla is unlocking the power of the web as the world’s largest marketplace, creating an open ecosystem of developers and content owners with limitless possibilities for consumer interaction. The Mozilla Marketplace will roll out to millions of Firefox users later this year. MobBase is thrilled to be a part of it and to make it easier for artists to build mobile apps!

On September 10^th I went and saw Brand New perform at the Regency Grand Ballroom in San Francisco. This was an evening of firsts – it was the first time Brand New had been in San Francisco since 2009, the first time they had toured in a year, and my first time seeing them live.

Walking into the room, we all knew we were there for the same reason – the music we loved and an experience we would never forget. Each fan expected something different – for those seeing the band for the first time, they had no idea what to expect but knew it would be something they would remember; for those seeing Brand New for their fourth or fifth time, they knew the energy the band would bring but waited in anticipation for the songs the band would showcase. Everyone went straight to the front of the ballroom as soon as the doors opened, squishing up towards the barricade as close as they could in hopes that they would be able to catch something at the end of the show.

The show began and Robbers stepped onto the stage. They brought an easy indie vibe to the crowd that encouraged some bobbing heads and slow movement. After they closed their set, Sainthood Reps took the stage and brought a faster alternative vibe to the crowd causing them to jump and begin to push up closer to the stage. As I listened to both of these bands for the first time, I could tell that they were inspired by Brand New in some sort of way and pulled two different aspects from their music. Robbers was pulling from their slower, more melodic songs like “Jesus Christ” and “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot.” Sainthood Reps were getting their inspiration from songs like “Seventy Times Seven” and “Vices.” With both of these bands opening, they exposed the audience to different musical aspects that Brand New would tie together as soon as they took the stage.

It was at 10 o’clock that Brand New finally ascended the stage, opening with “Sowing Season (Yeah).” The crowd surged and went insane as soon as the first “Yeah!” was sung; while there was no mosh pit, the amount of movement occurring throughout the crowd never stopped. Halfway through their set they played “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad“, off of their first album Your Favorite Weapon, followed by “Seventy Time Seven”, a fan-favorite and my favorite song by them. The crowd went supremely crazy during these two songs because they are very fast paced and come from their early days.

Brand New continued to intertwine songs from different albums and made their encore “At the Bottom,” “Jesus Christ”, and “Soco Amaretto Lime. The last song was played just by Jesse Lacey, the lead singer, as the rest of the band members walked off stage. All the fans were singing and many had tears in their eyes due to the lyrics that Jesse changed from “you’re just jealous cause we’re young and in love,” to “I’m just jealous cause you’re young and in love.” The tears also stemmed from not knowing when Brand New would be back and playing shows, or when they would release their next album.

This was one of the best concerts I have ever been to hands down. While Brand New did not talk a lot in between their songs, make jokes with the crowd or involve them too much with the live show, they delivered a set list and performance that they knew their fans wanted to see. The unique thing about Brand New fans is that they don’t just know “the popular songs” or the newest album, but they love each album and know the majority or all of the songs they played. Simply put, they’re dedicated – I met people who had seen them the night before in Chico and drove down to San Francisco to see them again, and one person who drove sixteen hours to see the band. This made for the entire crowd singing each song, sometimes even louder than the microphone was.

While no one knows when the next Brand New album will come out, or how much longer they will be around, the performances they give are not going downhill or lacking in any aspect. The next time they come around I know I will be there no matter how much tickets are or how far I have to drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKDc2lkt_mE

This past Saturday night, I went and watched Matt & Kim perform at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. While being a band with only a keyboardist and drummer, they are known for their upbeat music and energetic crowds. I walked into the show with high expectations, as it was my second time seeing them (I had seen their amazing performance at Live 105‘s BFD in 2010), and I expected this show to be better than the last because it was not in an outdoor venue with a short amount of time to play. Simply put, they delivered one of the most energetic performances I have ever seen and exceeded the expectations I had.

As the lights went down, after The Thermals delivered a fantastic opening, I could feel the energy radiating from the crowd. The keyboard and drums were set up on a small raised platform on the stage, illuminated by the stage lights. Matt and Kim ascended the stage and took their places, Kim at the drums and Matt at the keys, and dove into “Block After Block”, their newest single off their album Sidewalks. This immediately pumped up the crowd and got everyone jumping, pushing, and singing every word at the top of their lungs.

As they continued their show, they connected with the audience and encouraged everyone to get involved, even the balcony. Instead of just asking everyone to sing along and jump up and down like the typical band, they threw out deflated balloons and told us all to blow them up. I enthusiastically grabbed one of the balloons and began to inflate it. Matt then told us to hold onto them until he said “One, two, one, two, three, four!,” which meant to the crowd that we would be dancing to their song “Yea Yeah.”

As soon as the song started, the balloons went flying around and the crowd was going crazy – the balloons continued to get tossed around throughout the rest of their set and I never saw one touch the ground. Their crowd interaction did not end there, as Kim would look at people in the audience and point or smile at them – I was lucky enough to get about a minute of her eye-contact and it genuinely made the show better. She would also step away from her drums and run out to the crowd and grab the hands of fans and even hand out her drumsticks. Matt would do the same when he could and would reach out to the crowd and encourage them to sing the words instead of him. The entire show was filled with amazing energy from the both of them – the jumping never stopped and the singing continued long after the show within my ears.

They ended their set with their most popular song “Daylight”, and when the crowd commanded them to perform an encore, they did something I had never seen before. Instead of just performing another song, they did a mash-up of all the hooks within all of their songs including: “Daylight,” “Cameras”, “Yea Yeah”, and “Lightspeed”.

Matt and Kim completely blew me away. Instead of being the same band I saw with the same great live performance, they got better. They reminisced on their last time in the Bay Area (at BFD), where Kim did her infamous “booty dance” for the first time, and after announcing this, she recreated it for us. They also reflected back on their first show in Oakland, where they played to a cafe filled with six people, and the show got shut down because they were not the “acoustic” band that the manager had thought.

While being just two people, Matt and Kim deliver one of the most energetic and genuinely fun performances I have ever seen. With the show that I experienced on Saturday night, I know that Matt and Kim love what they do and could tell that they see themselves performing and creating music for a very long time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hz8fuw5adc

The songs
“O.N.E.” by Yeasayer
“Gimme the Music” by Nickodemus feat The Real Live Show
“Feeling Twisted” by The Disco Biscuits

How to participate?
1) Choose a song to remix and go to that song’s remix widget.
2) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many Camp Bisco remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment and rate your mix and share it with their friends on Twitter, Facebook, their blogs, etc.
6) Once you’ve finished and uploaded your remix, judges from Camp Bisco and URB.com will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends June 10, 2011.

Grand prize!
The winning remix of each track will receive two tickets to the festival. Each of those winners will go on to compete for the grand prize. One grand prize winner will receive 2 passes to the festival with Artist credentials, a custom MobBase Android app (with lifetime subscription) and support on how to create mobile apps, $250 for travel expenses, and the chance of a lifetime — a DJ set in front of thousands of festival goers at Camp Bisco 10!

About Camp Bisco X
Camp Bisco is an outdoor music festival held near Albany, NY. It starts on July 7th and features 3 days and 3 nights of music on 5 stages, including 2 side-by-side main stages, two afternoon and late night dance tents featuring top international Dance acts, a silent disco and an up & coming stage. Artists include the Disco Biscuits, Cut Copy, Wiz Khalifa, Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, Shpongle Live, Ratatat, Death from Above 1979, MSTRKRFT, Ghostland Observatory, James Murphy and Pat Mahoney (DFA/LCD Soundsystem-DJ Set), Yeasayer, Neon Indian, Four Tet, Break Science w/ RJD2, Holy Ghost! (dj set), Easy Star All Stars, Beats Antique, Das Racist, Treasure Fingers, Nickodemus, Mr. Lif and many more!

To start remixing, visit the Camp Disco Remix Contest page on URB today!

We’re excited to announce that MobBase, the fast and easy way for musicians to make mobile apps, has partnered with Guitar Center to create apps for Guitar Center employees through their GAIN Program. Thousands of Guitar Center employees are musicians themselves and through this partnership, they will be able to easily build their own iPhone and Android apps at a vastly discounted price. If you’re a member of GAIN, be sure to check this out.

The GAIN Program was launched in March 2007 to help Guitar Center team members achieve their musical aspirations. At the heart of GAIN is an extensive private social network where Guitar Center employees can post music, pictures, blogs and online discussions, in order to share with and learn from each other. In addition, GAIN presents a number of other benefits, deals, offers and opportunities to its participants, including partnerships with a number of vendors, services and institutions. The GAIN program continues to build relationships with companies, organizations and individuals who can provide exposure, insight, tools and opportunity to the musicians who work for Guitar Center, Inc.

Check out the poster we created for the campaign – it will be going up in every Guitar Center location in the US!

Iration is a Southern Californian based band that formed in 2006 when the members attended UCSB. All coming from Hawaii, the band has created a powerful sound that fuses reggae, rock and pop. They released their “Fresh Grounds” EP in February and have been touring all year, most recently as part of the Winter Greens Tour with Rebelution. I had a chance to sit down with Iration’s bassist, Adam Taylor, and ask him about how Iration came to be, their influences, marketing strategies and their next tour.

TC: You guys are all from Hawaii but met in Isla Vista, California. How did Iration form?

AT: Iration formed while we attended UCSB. It started as a hobby and then developed into our career.

TC: Do you pull a majority of your influence from Hawaii or where you live currently? How is that influence brought out in your music?

AT: Initially from Hawaii, but these days I feel like we’re influenced by our surroundings here in Santa Barbara and while on tour. It comes out in the way we approach creating songs and the way we perform live.

TC: You released your “Fresh Grounds” EP in February and are setting out on tour. What are you looking at to accomplish with this next tour? How will this tour be different than other tours you have been on?

AT: We want to bring out all our fans as well as gain some new ones. We want to play well and give the audience a really fun and memorable experience. We’ll be playing new material off our new CD as well as two covers that are really fun to play. We’ll also be experimenting with some acoustic stuff on this tour.

TC: Who would your dream tour lineup consist of?

AT: The Police, The Beatles, Black Uhuru, and Iration!

TC: You guys have played at many colleges, especially in California. Which college town has given you the best fan response? Why did you choose to play colleges as opposed to regular venues?

AT: Calpoly in San Luis Obispo is great and so is Northern Arizona University. We play colleges because you typically get a large built-in crowd and often times students that have never heard of you get exposed to your music.

TC: What is one of the craziest things you have had happen on tour?

AT: My amp had a power overload and caught on fire on the past tour. That was pretty crazy!

TC: What is your best fan memory?

AT: Hanging out with Kelly Slater on stage!

TC: Your band’s website is set up like a blog on the homepage. Did you design it this way in order to connect more with your fans?

AT: Yes. Social networking and having a strong viral presence is really important to us and it’s a great way to connect with fans.

TC: What are some of your favorite ways to reach out to your fanbase?

AT: We like using Fantourage and Fanbridge. Fans can ask us questions and post videos and photos from the shows.

TC: Do you have an online marketing strategy in place?

AT: We basically like to keep up a strong presence online and be in constant communication with our fans. It just comes down to us enjoying what we do, and we love to write back to fans and hear what they have to say online.

TC: How does your MobBase mobile app fit in to this strategy? What has the response been from fans?

AT: Fans love it. Its a great tool for finding out where a show is or listening to music. Its free on iTunes and the Android Market, so pick it up!

TC: If Iration owned a coffee company, what would be the name of your special blend and most popular pastry?

AT: Our drummer does own a coffee company on the big island of Hawaii, called Kona Homestead Coffee! If the others owned one, we’d call our special blend ‘Kona Gold’ and our pastry would be the Butternut.

Iration is currently on tour around California their next dates are:

• April 28th at The Avalon in Santa Clara, CA
• April 29th at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, CA
• April 30th at Audies Olympic in Fresno, CA.
• May 12th at the Ace of Spades in Sacramento, CA.
• May 13th at the Senator Theater in Chico, CA.

Big Light is a San Francisco based rock band that emerged onto the scene in 2007.  They are now considered one of the Bay Area’s hottest up and coming bands and released their debut full length album, Animals in Bloom, in March 2010.  I had a chance to sit down and talk with Fred Torphy, the lead singer of Big Light, about their album, where they have gone since, and how they are using technology to connect with their fans.

TC: Big Light seems to pull its sound from a variety of sources. What are your major musical influences?

FT: Well, I think everyone in the band will cite different influences. I think Jeremy would probably cite a few contemporary bands.  I’m more influenced by cats and movies than music. But I like Tom Waits and Nathan Moore a lot…

TC: Do you pull a lot of influence from San Francisco, where you live now, or Rhode Island, where you grew up?

FT: I’m influenced by everything that happens in my life, so I’ve probably picked something up from every place I’ve ever spent a good bit of time in.  San Francisco, Rhode Island… Sure, but I would also need to add a few other places to that list. I lived in Burlington, VT for six years studying archeology and then getting back to playing in bands, something I had done since grade school but put down during college, for the most part. I started writing my first songs in Burlington. “Monster”, which is on Animals In Bloom, was something I started writing in Vermont.

TC: You guys have played in a variety of venues in San Francisco. Which venue has been your favorite to perform in and why?

FT: The Independent in San Francisco – hands down the coolest place to play in SF, staffed by some of the nicest people working in music. It’s our hometown gig.

TC: In which one have you gotten the best crowd response so far?

FT: Putting the Independent in SF aside, The Brooklyn Bowl in NYC is an amazing venue that always has a great audience.

TC: “Triceratops” was recently made available for Rock Band on XboX. What caused you to sign this deal with Rock Band?

FT: We like the idea of people from different scenes learning about Big Light through a game… I think it’s cool to infiltrate a whole world that was completely alien to me until recently. It’s not like we’re background music for a video game. People playing “Triceratops” on Rock Band are interacting with our music in a really interesting way.

TC: Were there incentives for this?

FT: The exposure it offers is certainly an incentive.  There isn’t a huge check coming to us from  Rock Band or anything like that.  You can buy our song for a buck.

TC: How did the majority of your fan base react to this?

FT: As always, they are supportive.

TC: Did anyone bring up the idea of “selling out?”

FT: Well, “selling out” usually involves making a bunch of money, so no it hasn’t come up.

TC: Being one of the up-and-coming bands in the Bay Area, where are you hoping that your album “Animals in Bloom” will take you?

FT: Japan.

TC: Big Light has played a variety of music festivals such as: Noisepop, SXSW and Outside Lands. Which festival has been your favorite to play?

FT: High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, CA is my favorite festival, hands down. I’ve been six years in a row, and Big Light has played the last three years. I met my girlfriend there. I’ll always show up for that one, as long as they will have us.

TC: Is fan connection easier at a festival or at a normal show?

FT: Sure. Everybody shares their drugs.

TC: Have you shared the stage with any artists you have looked up to?

FT: Yes. The guys in The Mother Hips, Marco Benevento, The Slip, Nathan Moore – we’re lucky to have worked with all of them.  Nathan, in particular, is someone who I’m extremely honored to be working with on a semi-regular basis. I learned how to sing and write through studying his music. Now we collaborate and write the occasional song together and started a band called The Dun Four.

TC: You guys are really active in online and mobile marketing – what does your digital marketing strategy consist of? Can you comment on any initiatives that went really well?

FT: It’s how people live their lives now. Facebook is an important tool for every band, I suppose. It also just brought down a 30-year-old dictatorship in Egypt. It’s ubiquitous.

TC: How does your MobBase mobile app fit in to this strategy? What has the response been from fans?

FT: Well, those fans that have an  iPhone find the MobBase app helpful for keeping up on what’s happening with us. I get a kick out of all the technology that we employ to do business. It’s a lot different from when I was in high school, putting up posters and using word-of-mouth, literally. The internet had no role in my life back then… These days every band needs the web to exist.

TC: If Big Light was a superhero, what power would he possess and what would his costume look like?

FT: He’d be able to stay up for days in a row playing music. His costume would be all black, naturally.

Big Light’s next show will be at Slims on 4/20/11 for $13.

MobBase, the fast, easy and inexpensive way for musicians to make iPhone apps, is now the fast, easy and inexpensive way for them to get Android apps too. Musicians and music companies can now use MobBase to build their own custom applications and with no extra effort, offer them to fans using Android devices and even personal computers.

The build-once, publish across multiple platforms capability is made possible through Adobe InMarket, a service that helps MobBase distribute Adobe® AIR® applications across app stores, including the Intel® AppUp℠ storefront.

“Artists just want to make great music and great experiences for their fans,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “We’re helping them stay focused on their music and fans by eliminating the need to make a decision about a technology platform. With MobBase, they can build their own custom app and make that app available to all their fans on whatever platform or device fans prefer.”

MobBase has already launched hundreds of Android and desktop apps and is offering artists the additional distribution on Android and desktops for no additional monthly cost through this summer. The current AIR application will run on Android OS 2.2 or later equipped phones, and on personal computers running AIR. MobBase apps are expected to be published on additional mobile devices, tablets, and TVs in the future.

“MobBase is a great example of how developers are reducing costs by leveraging Adobe AIR for multi-screen app development and distributing those applications to many consumers through Adobe InMarket,” said Eric Wittman, Head of Platform Services at Adobe. “By streamlining the process of creating and publishing high value apps, MobBase can focus on creating a fantastic experience for the artist and provide the broadest possible distribution for their apps across different device types.”

Adobe AIR, a key component of the Adobe® Flash® Platform, is a cross-platform environment that makes it easy to build and deploy rich Internet applications on multiple platforms.

More than 400 artists, record labels and concert venues have launched their own MobBase apps, including Tila Tequila, X Japan, Parkway Drive, Pepper, 9:30 Club, and Paul Thorn. And producers for shows and movies including Parenthood and Stomp the Yard are using MobBase to connect with fans.

“MobBase has been such a hit with artists because it’s a low cost, surefire way to connect with fans,” said Feinn. “Making it easy to reach even more fans is a ‘can’t miss’ benefit for them, and we’re expecting a lot of artists to take advantage as a result.”

MobBase distribution partners including IODA, Jango, IRIS, BandsInTown, HelloMusic and Valleyarm will be offering MobBase Android and desktop apps to their artists and labels.

Apple has notified us they are now requiring a unique iTunes Developer Account for each new app submitted to the App Store.  The change in policy means that build-your-own-app companies, including MobBase, can no longer submit apps to the App Store under a master iTunes Developer Account.

This has an immediate impact on apps currently in the approval queue, which will have to be resubmitted under a new iTunes Developer Account.  We’ve communicated details to affected customers and offered to refund their set up fees, as well as a generous discount on iPhone activation fees going forward.

Apple tells us that apps already approved and live in the App Store are unaffected.

Apple’s change in policy means it will take more time, more effort and more money to get an iOS app, regardless of whether artists work with MobBase, make your own iPhone app company or a custom developer.

We can’t do anything about the $99 a year Apple requires for each iOS Developer Account.  However, we’re absorbing a big part of the extra cost and work involved in getting an app ready to be approved under the new Apple process.

While this is not great news for anybody, we’re doing our best to help artists navigate the changes in Apple’s policy and still provide a great way for them to build their own iPhone/iOS apps.

Artists still need a mobile app to connect with fans and help build their careers. And MobBase remains the easiest and least expensive way to get one that looks great and has all the functionality you need. And soon we’ll be announcing some more options: Android and Desktop apps are not affected by Apple’s policy change, so you will be able to get a great app for your Android and Desktop using fans at a ridiculously low price. And we’ll have a mobile web app soon too.

As always, we welcome your suggestions and ideas below.

Vancouver-based DJ/producer Tarun Nayar is a member and producer of Delhi 2 Dublin, which we wrote about a couple years ago. While D2D gives us a unique brand of Indian and Celtic fusion, Tarun’s musical endeavors reach far beyond welding together two rich genres.

His creative outpourings are driven by a humanitarian need to cross cultural boundaries and bring people together. As a founding member of Beats Without Borders, it’s no surprise that his music ranges from Angolan Kuduro to Punjabi Bhangra to Jamaican Dancehall to UK bass music.

On March 1, 2011 Tarun released his first solo album, 22º Beatitude, which is comprised of 10 years worth of material collected from travels and recordings around the world. On the album, which he describes as his most personal work, Tarun eschews the use of sample libraries and instead includes a plethora of live sounds (ocean, voices, etc) blended in with traditional indian and other asian instruments and upbeat dance beats.

One of the more intriguing aspects of the album is that each song is based on a chapter of his life. The listener is not simply left to use their imagination, however, as the album comes with archival photos and videos providing them with a dynamic audiovisual experience.

World music inhabits an interesting part of the musical spectrum, especially those subgenres that combine traditional cultural sounds with more contemporary electronic beats. The results are not always as seamless and complementary as they were perhaps intended to be. However, when done well these kinds of songs can be incredibly powerful.

On 22º Beatitude, a few of the songs pass through your ears without leaving much of an impression.  The majority of the songs, however, manage to find that sweet spot. Beats, bass, and culture come together to create something that both pleases the ears and stirs the heart.

Songs not to miss: “Rising Up,” “Turkish Spice,” “Mamaji,” and “Water.” Definitely check those out. Overall, the live samples of sounds like cars honking, people talking and kids laughing give the album a very human and very global feel.

Tarun Nayar seems to be accomplishing what he’s setting out to do and will certainly continue to be a force to be reckoned with on the global fusion scene.

Tila Tequila prepares to fully dominate the digital world with the launch of her very own Miss Tila iPhone app, powered by MobBase. The official Miss Tila app will allow fans into Tila’s various social media properties including her blog, her merch store, videos, photos, twitter and music. All things Tila…on-the-go!

“Tila is a great example of an artist who is passionate about using all of the tools at her disposal to connect and engage with fans online and on their mobile devices, without having to know how to program a mobile app ,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “A custom MobBase mobile app is an essential part of that mix, with the high value content that fuels the artist-fan connection. We are very excited to be working with Tila on her official mobile app!”

To download Tila’s official iPhone app, click here!

We often write about the importance of musicians having to engage and involve casual listeners in order to build deep and lasting connections with them, and to convert them to loyal fans.  These connections are what drive sales of the concert tickets, band merchandise and music artists need to pay the rent and put gas in the van.

While just getting your music discovered is no longer enough, it is extremely important that you get as many people to hear your music as possible. Obviously. The more people that hear your music, the more potential fans you have to convert into loyal fans. And while not every person who hears your music will like it (sorry), it’s a numbers game and maximizing exposure is critical in order to succeed.

Enter Jango Airplay. Jango Airplay gives you access to millions of active music fans that listen to their favorite artists on Jango.com, a vibrant social music service that lets fans create and share custom radio stations. Your music is guaranteed to play right alongside the artists that you choose in Jango’s custom radio stations, from Jay Z to Arcade Fire to Bella Fleck. Jango Airplay plays your music to their fans, who are likely to dig it. Based on what we’ve heard from many artists, this is a very cheap and effective way for you to get your music heard!

Jango is offering Evolving Music readers a special deal, where you can set up a Jango Airplay account (if you don’t already have one) and receive 100 guaranteed spins on Jango.com for FREE. Then, you can choose how much more you want to be played (packages start at as little as $10 for 250 plays) and where with basic geo-targeting. You’ll also get detailed actionable reports and data about your new fan base so that you can find out who likes you, where they live, how old they are and what other types of music they like. You got nothing to lose, so give this a try! Click here to get started.

Hello Music, the digital music platform and power tool connecting independent artists to industry resources and career opportunities, today announced it has partnered with MobBase to offer its artist community an intuitive and cost-effective solution for creating their very own personalized iPhone app.

Hello Music will offer the MobBase iPhone app solution as an additional opportunity for its independent artists to market and promote their music to fans. Through the deal, Hello Music artists receive a free month of MobBase membership, and for those artists who want more help designing their personalized app, they will also receive a free premium support package for three months valued at $200.

“Mobile is an incredibly valuable platform for artists of every level, and the mobile music market continues to flourish,” said Zack Zalon, Co-Founder, Hello Music. “While many independent artists previously found it cost-prohibitive to go mobile, MobBase levels the field for them. We are pleased to offer our artist community the ability to create their own custom app for bringing their music, photos, videos and more to the device that’s always at hand.”

“Connection fuels the fan – artist relationship” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “A MobBase mobile app is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to make that connection. “Our relationship with Hello Music is a natural because we share the common goal of helping artists build their careers.”

Existing Hello Music artists are able to access MobBase through the Hello Music Dashboard. Interested artists not already part of the Hello Music community should go to hellomusic.com to join for free and then they can make an iPhone app!

About Hello Music
Touted one of Billboard Magazine’s 10 Best Digital Music Startups, Hello Music is the digital music platform and power tool for independent artists. Providing valuable insight, resources and career opportunities, independent artists can upload their music at www.hellomusic.com for FREE, to be reviewed by Hello Music’s in-house music screening team who listens to every song submitted and provides each musician with a FREE Music Feedback Report. Hello Music matches artists with opportunities that matter, from partners including Taylor Guitars, CMJ, New Music Seminar, Durango Songwriters Expo, Balcony TV, Topspin, Yahoo! Music, Slacker, Delta Airlines Radio, Jango Airplay, TuneCore, Dropcards, Getty Images, PlayNetwork, RootMusic, Swing House Studios, Gravity Studios, The Record Shop Studios, and Next Big Sound. Launched in 2010, Hello Music was conceived and incubated by Wilshire Media Group, a digital music product design and development firm founded by Zack Zalon and Brendon Cassidy.

MobBase, the fast, easy and inexpensive way for music artists to get their own custom iPhone app, is now available to more artists in more places and through more channels than ever. A new partnership with Valleyarm is marketing MobBase to musicians in Asia, Europe, and Africa. And Music180 and Viral Nation are now offering MobBase as part of the toolkits of products and services they provide musicians to help them market and promote themselves.

“More and more musicians are reaching out to fans and bringing them backstage, on tour or into recording sessions via a mobile app,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “It’s connection that reinforces relationship and it’s what builds musical careers.”

“Our partners are helping build relationships and careers too. The shared commitment to indie and developing artists guides our partnering strategy and is fueling our growth.”

Reaching musicians in Asia, Europe, and Africa
MobBase partner Valleyarm is marketing MobBase to musicians in Australasia, The Pacific and throughout Asia and through its partner network in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The publishing and online marketer of music and video content is the leading digital distributor in the Asia Pacific, selling through hundreds of online stores including China Mobile, China Telecom, Telstra Bigpond, Beatport and Maxis Malaysia.

“A mobile app is a ‘must have’ part of artists’ promotional mix,” said Lucy Tulett, Valleyarm’s Head of Business Development. “Because it’s so fast, so easy and so inexpensive, MobBase is the hands down best mobile app solution for Valleyarm artists.”

New distribution relationships promote MobBase to more artists
Music180 is the world’s premier Artist Development Platform that gives artists career management and the ability to meet and work with the world’s top music industry professionals. With Music180’s new membership-based management programs, artists can create a custom career game plan, get pitched to labels and management companies, write and record in the studio with top music pros and more.

“We give artists expert guidance and access to top music pros to take their music careers to the next level,” said Eric Galen, CEO of Music180. “MobBase is about helping independent artists connect with fans and promote themselves – it’s a perfect complement to our services.”

Viral Nation is a social platform connecting musicians and other content providers to venues, promoters and fans. Viral Nation is offering MobBase to musicians to help them promote their music and build their careers.

More than 400 apps – including apps for Saw 3D, Stomp the Yard
More than 400 artists and also music venues, movie and TV soundtracks are using to build iPhone apps. Notables include heavy metal artists, X Japan, and also new apps for Jazz Mafia, Robbie Rivera, and Filth FM. And MobBase is powering the official soundtrack apps for the NBC television hit, Parenthood, the Saw 3D movie and the dance celebration, Stomp the Yard.

Fast, easy, and inexpensive way for artists to get their own iPhone app
MobBase is the low cost way for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices. MobBase apps are priced for starving artists and also artists who remember what it is like to starve, with many artists paying as little as $0.50 a day for their own custom iPhone app.

So you are a musician. That’s awesome. But competition is stiff and you need to make a living. Aside from live performance, music, and merch sales, there are many ways to make a living by composing or providing your tracks for film and video. And fortunately, these types of opportunities for getting paid as a musician and composer for film/video have increased astronomically over the past 10 years with the rise of, you guessed it, the internet and technology.

As a working composer and sound designer, I have managed to build a viable and growing career doing what I love, which is making music and playing with sounds. I have only been able to do so by expanding my search for composition opportunities into artistic realms never before thought of as viable to composition work. All sorts of people are now making video and require music for their videos, expanding the need for original music.

The advantage of the internet and the role it plays in increasing our exposure as artists is obvious and there is no need to belabor the point. Most of us communicate daily with folks all over the world whether it be for collaboration, paying gigs, or as friends and family. However, the advent of technology and its impact on opportunities for musicians begs a bit more analysis. Not only can musicians and composers create better and faster, but because of access to affordable technology, other types of media artists can more easily make video as well. This includes photographers, photobook creators and curators, and authors, who now actively create video to promote and showcase their work. Fortunately for us musicians, these videos need sound and music, and as a result, photographers, curators, and writers are now valid artists with which to seek opportunity.

One example of a photographer and videographer creatively using original music is Genevieve Russell of Story Portrait Media. As part of her work, Russell creates videos which incorporate dialog, photography, and music for photographers to showcase their work and present themselves. One such example is the showcase video for Norah Levine found here. Clearly, photographers, who never had need for music in the past, are now viable candidates to seek out and contact for music composition gigs.

A second example of the use of original music is a fantastically fresh new media called “flipthroughs,” being created by the Indie Photobook Library, founded by photography writer and photobook curator Larissa Leclair. This flipthrough video is a superb example of a new media mash which needs music. It features the photobook “Desert Days” by photographer Matt Austin and shows a close up of a person flipping through the photos in the book with an accompanying track by the artist A(a)rdvark/Jeff Austin. The killer track adds emotion and artistry to the act of viewing a photobook, which previously would have been a silent process. Who would have thought? A photobook curator makes a video of a photobook with original music to create a cutting-edge fresh mashup of media which best of all, requires music.

Another group who is now searching for music are book authors. The concept of a “book trailer” is a new phenomenon and many authors are either creating book trailers themselves, or are hiring professionals to do so. Regardless of how it gets done, though, these book trailers need music. There are tons of articles and blogs online that give advice on how to create a book trailer and all of them mention adding music, whether original or royalty free, as part of the process. Obviously, now, authors are a target for opportunity.

You might be wondering how you would go about finding artists who actively seek music for their work? While this could be an entirely other post, it is safe to say that “traditional” methods work. Join photography and book writer forums, post on blogs related to the subject, answers questions related to the subject on yahoo answers, search for videographers who make videos for photographers and email them directly. Yes it can be boring and take time and effort, but being active in your search to find opportunities for your music bears results. This world is ripe for music, a sonic apple waiting to be plucked.

Other types of artists/associations that now require music for projects:

1. Podcasters
2. Audio Book publishers
3. Churches
4. Poets
5. YouTube videographers

About the Author
This is a guest post by Adam A. Johnson, a music composer and sound designer who owns and operates Architect of Sound, a music company that provides custom music scoring and sound design for Film/TV/New Media projects both in the U.S. and abroad with clients in Canada, Ireland, Haiti, Egypt, and Dubai. Credits include LEGO, the United Nations, Aquafina-Pepsico, the National Endowment for the Arts, US Customs, Exxon, NYC Mayor Bloomberg and more. He also owns and operates the SFXsource.com Sound Effects and Royalty Free Music Library.

Recently, The Ting Tings teamed up with MixMatchMusic, Creative Allies, and URB.com to host a remix contest for their new single, “Hands”. The UK indie pop duo launched the contest in order to find an official remix for the song and 91 amazing remixes were submitted by fans in just one month.

The band has selected their 10 favorites and now needs your help in picking the winner, whose remix will be released with the forthcoming limited edition “Hands” Remix package (which you can pre-order here)! The winner will also receive $500. Not too shabby, eh?

Without further ado, here are the 10 finalists. Please vote for your favorites by 11:59 PM on December 16th, 2010.

The limited edition “Hands” Remix Package is a unique offering created by fans and curated by The Ting Tings. Only 500 copies of the package will be sold, which shall include original art and music submitted through The Ting Tings’ “Hands” Remix Contest. Be sure to pre-order the “Hands” Remix Package today because this will definitely sell out!

Louis and Nick Matos are brothers that grew up together surrounded by music. It was not a shock when they started the fresh and exciting band, The Great Valley. After years of writing music together, the band digitally released their debut EP “Wrecking Ball” on April 20th and the EP debuted 188 on the iTunes top 200 Alternative Chart. Their successful online sales has them turning heads in the industry and getting a lot of attention from media moguls all over the country. Being on a roll and well immersed in the scene, The Great Valley has now made their music, videos, concert dates, news and more available via your favorite iOS device. Introducing, The Great Valley iPhone/iPad/iPod app, powered by MobBase!

Moogfest – the annual event honoring the remarkable vision of Robert Moog and his amazing musical inventions that changed the course of music – has teamed up with URB.com and MixMatchMusic to host the official Moogfest remix contest! The contest features two different artists and songs to remix: “We Have Love” by Hot Chip (from the band’s album One Life Stand, courtesy of Astralwerks) and “I Count the Ways” by Nortec Collective (from their new album Bulevar 2000, courtesy of Nacional Records). Sounds pretty good, eh?

Prizing
One finalist for each song will get 2 weekend passes to the festival. Among those finalists, one grand-prize winner will be awarded a DJ set at this year’s Moogfest (plus $250 for travel expenses), as well as a custom MobBase iPhone app and lifetime subscription from MixMatchMusic.

How to participate?
1) Choose a song to remix.
2) Download the song stems, it’s free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 11:59pm on October 14th, 2010. Winners will be notified by October 18th, 2010.

Remix Hot Chip:

Remix Nortec Collective:

About Moogfest
Moogfest takes place the weekend of October 29 -31, 2010. Artists include DEVO, MGMT, Massive Attack, Cee-Lo Green, Big Boi, Thievery Corporation, Hot Chip, Caribou, Four Tet and more! In addition to fantastic concerts, Moogfest 2010 will also offer opportunities to engage with the artists in panel discussions, question and answer sessions, and workshops. There will also be interactive experiences for the audience to explore their own musical creativity with a variety of Moog instruments. The festival will also offer visual art exhibitions, installations, and film screenings throughout the weekend.

Over a year and a half ago, fans had a chance to remix Pepper’s “Freeze.” More than 50 great remixes were submitted, and the results were awesome. Sad you missed the opportunity? Think you can do better? Now you have your chance! Pepper has teamed up with MixMatchMusic to invite you to have a go at their new single, “Wake Up” from the forthcoming “Stiches” EP.

Prizing
Pepper and Silverback will be hand-picking the winner who, in addition to receiving a signed EP and lots of other goodies from Silverback and Law Records, will appear in a video explaining their inspiration. The winning remix itself will be featured on all of Pepper’s websites.

How to participate?
1) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
2) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
3) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
4) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
5) Contest ends at October 31th, 2010. Be sure to check out the official rules here before you dive into the creative process.

MobBase, the fast, easy and inexpensive way for you to build your own iPhone app, has integrated Soundcloud and BandsInTown to its service to make it easier for artists to share music and get fans to their gigs. MobBase is also making it easier for artists to get their own apps by making them available from BFM Digital, Ditto Music, Musicfinity, and The Indie.

The new capabilities and distribution relationships coincide with an important new milestone – 325 MobBase apps have been developed and released since the service debuted in November, 2009.

“MobBase helps artists build their careers by making it easy and inexpensive for them to connect and engage with fans,” said Charles Feinn, co-founder and CEO of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “Integrating Soundcloud and BandsInTown adds sought-after functionality, and distribution with BFM Digital, Ditto Music, Musicfinity, and The Indie makes it even easier for them to get the app they really want.”

More power to connect and engage fans
BandsInTown is a platform that connects live music fans to their favorite artists. Its integration with MobBase makes it painless for an artist to add and manage tour dates, with information about shows, including when and where it’s taking place and how to get tickets, sourced from artists’ Facebook and Myspace pages, ArtistData and thousands of venues around the world.

Soundcloud’s integration with MobBase makes it even easier for artists to add music to their custom apps. Artists can now stream tracks directly from their Soundcloud library into their MobBase app, eliminating the manual loading of mp3 files. The integration makes it fast and simple for artist to get their music into fans’ hands and on their phones.

The new technology partners complement existing integrations with Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, and Shoutcast. MobBase’s capabilities and extensive relationships with its technology partners make it a complete solution for artists.

“Our mantra is ‘get fans to the gig,’” said Todd Cronin, CEO of BandsInTown. “It’s a huge win for an artist to be able to deliver essential gig info via the same app they use to connect with fans, on the device that is with them every waking moment.”

More places to get your own custom iPhone app
BFM Digital, Ditto Music, The Indie, and Musicfinity are each offering their artists the opportunity to get their own, custom MobBase app. MobBase is also offered through IODA, Iris, and Tunecore – in addition, indie labels including Silverback Music/Controlled Substance Sound Labs, SMC Recordings, Welk Music Group, Vanguard Records, Town Thizzness, Red Bull Records, Sargent House, and 429 Records are also offering MobBase apps and promoting MobBase to their artists.

“BFM’s label partners are creating iPhone apps because they see the value of connecting with fans in real time via mobile technology,” said Steven Corn, CEO of BFM Digital. “MobBase is an ideal partner for such applications, as they are highly customizable, user-friendly and affordable for indie artists.”

More apps for more artists
More than 325 MobBase iPhone apps have been released so far, with scores more in development or in the Apple queue for approval. Prominent artists including Pepper, Parkway Drive, John McLaughlin, and Everclear are among the bands that have built and launched their own MobBase apps. MobBase is the preferred app solution for indie artists such as Rebelution, Paul Thorn, Jump Smokers, RX Bandits, Zion I, and Veronica Ballestrini.

Fast, easy and inexpensive way for artists to get their own iPhone app
MobBase is the low cost way for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices. MobBase apps are priced for starving artists and also artists who remember what it is like to starve, with many artists paying as little as $0.50 a day for their own custom iPhone app.

Are you the Ultimate Social Artist of 2010?
TheIndie.biz wants to know and to find out, they just launched a contest for musicians that has up to $25,000 in prizes! Their Ultimate Social Artist Contest invites bands and musicians from all over the world to take part and bring their fans along for the ride, who can also win up to $3,500 in prizes. The band that signs up the most fans to their TheIndie.biz profiles, while selling the most songs through the site and receiving the highest ratings from the contest’s panel of judges, wins.  Contest sponsors include YouLicense, Media2Radio, and MobBase, who has also partnered with The Indie to create iPhone apps for its artists.

“Social media has changed the music landscape,” says Damon Cleveland, CEO of TheIndie.biz. “With millions of people online, updating their profiles, chatting, giving status updates, the biggest audience in the world, at any given time, is online. TheIndie.biz gives independent musicians the opportunity to tap into that audience and introduce them to their music, while music fans from all over the world can discover new bands. The rules have changed and we want to help indie bands take advantage of the new opportunities.”

How to Participate
To participate in the contest, bands must be registered artists on The Indie, which is free. There are two phases to the contest: first, bands must have/sign up 100 fans on The Indie, after which they will be eligible to submit a song and a brief note on how they acquired their TheIndie.biz fan base. The contest winners will be judged based on:

1. The content of the song submitted (production, composition, and lyrics)
2. Number of TheIndie.biz fans
3. Artist development, marketability, and overall readiness
4. Ability of the artist to socialize their music on The Indie
5. Creativity of their social media campaign

The contest ends on October 31, 2010. Registration and participation for fans and bands is free, and all genres are welcome, so why not enter the contest here?

Prizes and Judging
The Ultimate Social Artist will be selected through a 25/25/50 weighted formula, with 25% of the weight going to the number of fans registered, 25% going to the number of songs sold on TheIndie.biz, and the remaining 50% toward the subjective portion including the song submitted along with the other elements of the band’s portfolio. The Grand Prize includes $25,00 in prizes:

• Full publicity campaign (releases, industry media blitz, etc)
• 30 day full ad campaign (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc)
• Social media marketing campaign – up to 50,000+ subscribers
• A MobBase iPhone App with one year of free service
• Global marketing of winning song – up to 1,100 radio stations
• Global marketing of winning artist – up to 1,350 DJs
• One week feature placement on iTunes, Napster, Amazon, and others
• A professional, personalized band management plan
• A professional, personalized band marketing plan
• Regional tour marketing & booking
• Song/Voice licensing for The Music Producer
• Six Month private label song licensing account, and more…

About The Indie
The Indie is a premier social music promotion and distribution platform that encourages the discovery, and consumption of music created by unsigned artists, independent artists and indie labels. They strive to meet these goals by creating simplified, highly effective, social solutions that enable artists to exponentially promote their music and dramatically grow their fan base; providing artists with emerging channels where their music, performances and videos can be discovered and consumed; and creating a marketplace the attracts and encourages music fans to explore, discover, share, and consume music socially.

All in all, there were some amazing remixes submitted for the 1st annual Outside Lands Remix Contest powered by URB.com and MixMatchMusic. Entrants from around the world competed for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to DJ at this year’s festival. After torturous deliberations among the judges, the grand prize winner is Nisus for his remix of Gogol Bordello‘s “Transcontinental Hustle“. As the winner, Nisus will get to perform in front of thousands of festival goers at Outside Lands this weekend, so be sure to check him out if you’re going! Nisus will also get $500 and a free iPhone app from MobBase. To learn more about the winner, check out his website.

We’d also like to congratulate the following winning remixes selected as finalists:

Rebirth Brass Band – SaQi (http://saqimusic.com/about/)
My Morning Jacket – Irene! (http://soundcloud.com/djloosefit)
Beats Antique – Giancarlo (http://djcarlo.net/)

Listen to all the winning remixes below, or check out all the remixes submitted here.
Outside Lands 2010 / URB.com Remix Contest Winners Selected!

Fans of many genres will be pleased to hear about the Black Seeds Remix Competition. The Black Seeds are among the many good things that come from New Zealand, other than Flight of the Conchords. (Actually Bret McKenzie is a former member of The Black Seeds.) The Black Seeds have teamed up with MixMatchMusic to host this competition, in which fans have the opportunity to remix two sick songs from the 2008 album Solid Ground: “Rotten Apple,” which “has all the thump of a vintage Parliament-Funkadelic jam“ and “Strugglers,” a solid reggae tune that reminds us to help those less fortunate and not become complacent.

Prizing
The winning remix will be featured on The Black Seed’s upcoming ‘Specials’ LP and the winner will receive 40% of profits from the use of the track!

How to participate?
1) Choose a song to remix
2) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 5pm Monday August 30th, 2010. More on the rules here.

The Black Seeds
The Black Seeds, who hail from Wellington, New Zealand, have a dubbed out reggae sound with hints of afrobeat and soul. Renowned for their powerful 8-piece live shows, the band has gained a following outside of their homeland, both in Europe and North America. Their particular brand of vintage roots reggae fused together seamlessly with big beat funk, dub, soul and other grooves vibes well with many audiences. Perhaps lead singer, Barnaby Weir (vocals/guitar), put it best when he said, “We sound like a sizzling BBQ, beside a vintage car, next to the beach on a summers day after a few beers pressed to vinyl.”

BFM Digital, a leading digital music aggregator and distributor of independent music, has partnered with MobBase to provide affordable and cutting-edge iPhone applications to its clients. MobBase makes it easy for artists and labels to create, launch and manage their own, custom iPhone applications. MobBase was built by MixMatchMusic in an effort to give artists the tools they need to cultivate and engage their fanbase. MobBase is a low cost way for artists to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and more with fans on their mobile devices.

“BFM continually strives to offer the latest marketing tools to our clients through a suite of services. In today’s DIY environment, access to new and affordable technologies is a vital part of any independent artist’s career, and mobile marketing through such applications are quickly becoming a must have for artists. MobBase and their easy to use, affordable way to build an iPhone app make them a perfect addition to our suite of services,” says BFM’s CEO, Steven Corn.

BFM is also launching their own discovery and promotional iPhone application through MobBase. The application will showcase featured artists and releases from BFM’s extensive catalogue, and is launching with albums from Beach Boy founder Al Jardine, all-star charity compilation album Aid Still Required, which includes tracks from Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Maroon 5, and up and coming pop starlet Julia Michaels. BFM’s official application can be downloaded for free via the iTunes store here.

About BFM Digital
BFM Digital is a global digital music company committed to serving the independent music community and delivering quality music, spoken word and video content to leading online BFM DIGITAL Page 2 August 5, 2010 retailers worldwide. Representing a diverse catalog of indie labels, artists and publishers, BFM distributes to all of the major music services including iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, eMusic, Napster, Walmart, Nokia and many more. With an unparalleled commitment to personalized service, BFM works closely with their content providers from around the world to ensure maximum exposure of their catalog by customizing marketing efforts and building strong relationships with BFM’s digital store partners.

In anticipation of their 3rd annual music and arts festival, Outside Lands has teamed up with MixMatchMusic and URB.com to host a badass remix contest featuring songs by Gogol Bordello, My Morning Jacket, Rebirth Brass Band and Beats Antique. Using MixMatchMusic’s Remix Wizard, anyone can have a crack at remixing and the winner will get a chance to perform at Outside Lands in front of thousands of festival goers! How cool is that?

The Songs
Gogol Bordello – “Trans-Continental Hustle”
My Morning Jacket – “Highly Suspicious”
Rebirth Brass Band – “D’s Hips”
Beats Antique – “Merry Go Round”

How to participate?
1) Choose a song to remix
2) Download the song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, judges will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends at 11:59pm on August 5th, 2010. Winners will be notified on August 6th, 2010.

Prizing
Each song will have one winner who will receive two general admission passes to the festival and a prize pack of CDs from the artist they remix. Each of these winners will go on to compete for the grand prize, which includes two passes to the festival with artist credentials, a custom MobBase iPhone app and lifetime subscription from MixMatchMusic, $500 for travel expenses, and a one-hour set in front of thousands of festival goers at Outside Lands!

About the bands
Gogol Bordello’s Trans-Continental Hustle, the group’s American Recordings debut, is perhaps the most ambitious undertaking in the group’s already remarkable decade-long gypsy punk career and it’s the result of an inspired, year-length collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin. Gogol Bordello is arguably the hardest working — and hardest rocking — group of our discordant new century, maintaining a touring schedule and an onstage energy level that would send the average combo running for the emergency room.

Kentucky-born My Morning Jacket formed in 1998 and has been going strong ever since. Their fifth full-length studio album, “Evil Urges” is the most far-ranging, surprising, and satisfying record of the band’s career. Have a go at remixing the freak-funk electro-slam of “Highly Suspicious” for your chance to win.

Rebirth Brass Band, a New Orleans institution, evolved from playing the streets of the French Quarter to playing festivals and stages all over the world. Committed to upholding the tradition of brass bands, while at the same time incorporating modern music into their show, their signature brand of heavy funk has been winning over hearts for almost three decades.

Beats Antique is an Oakland, CA based group forging a curious alliance between middle eastern traditions and potent west coast circus, underground hip hop, breakbeat brass band, downtempo, glitch and dubstep. Their paradoxical brand of electro-acoustic music is perfect fodder for the savvy remixer.

About Outside Lands
The 3rd annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival takes place in beautiful Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on August 14 and 15, 2010. The two day festival is a celebration of music, food, wine and art that benefits the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department. It features over 40 bands, including Kings of Leon, The Strokes, Phoenix, My Morning Jacket, Further featuring Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, Wolfmother, Gogol Bordello, Al Green, Nas and Damien Marley, Tokyo Police Club and more! For complete, up-to-date information about Outside Lands click here. To start remixing, click here.

]]> http://evolvingmusic.mixmatchmusic.com/2010/07/27/outside-lands-remix-contest/feed/ 3 http://evolvingmusic.mixmatchmusic.com/2010/06/30/camp-bisco-announces-remix-contest-winners-and-launches-iphone-app-for-camp-bisco-9/ http://evolvingmusic.mixmatchmusic.com/2010/06/30/camp-bisco-announces-remix-contest-winners-and-launches-iphone-app-for-camp-bisco-9/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:46:06 +0000 Sandra http://evolvingmusic.mixmatchmusic.com/?p=5442

Since the Camp Bisco Remix Contest, powered by MixMatchMusic and URB.com, launched over a month ago in anticipation of the 9th annual Camp Bisco music festival in New York, over 130 amazing remixes have been submitted by aspiring DJs and musicians, and shared and voted on by fans. This was a contest of epic proportions that saw more entrants than previous Camp Bisco remix contests, all delivering wildly varied styles from nearly every continent. Today, we to bring you the winners!

The coveted grand prize goes to DJ Geoffro aka Topshotta of Harrisburg, PA for his dubbed out remix of the Black Seeds‘ “Slingshot”! Among other things, Topshotta will be receiving a free iPhone app, powered by MobBase, and will get to perform at Camp Bisco in front of thousands of festival-goers. Congratulations!

Black Seeds “Slingshot” Topshotta Redub by Topshotta

“I’m really excited about the opportunity to play a set at the massive Camp Bisco festival,” said Geoff Altoff, aka DJ Geoffro aka Topshotta. “The lineup this year is ridiculous. Thanks to everyone who took a moment to listen and vote on my remix, I appreciate it. There are a lot of great elements to that Black Seeds tune that I felt would translate well to a dub, so I tried to keep the feel and movement of the original, but put my spin on it and dub it out.”

Congratulations to the amazing runners-up:

Bassnectar “Cozza Frenzy” McArthur Bass Mix by Hubsmoke, Faccio & Reza
King Britt “The Intricate Beauty” Technobears Redux by Ed Haskins
Disco Biscuits “On Time” Full Static Mix by Aman Ellis

Today also marks the release of the official Camp Bisco iPhone app, powered by MobBase! Access artist bios, videos, photos, this year’s site map and schedule, a kickass photo gallery by veteran rock photographer Dave Cann, the facebook page, and of course the Camp Bisco twitter stream, all from the comfort of your own pocket. Be among those in the know, navigate your way around the festival with ease and be sure not to miss any of your favorite acts. Get this free app here.

We’re two weeks away from Camp Bisco 9 (you can still buy tickets) and the official Camp Bisco iPhone app is the best way to stay connected during this summer’s premier 3-day music festival (July 15-17). The ridiculous line-up includes everybody from LCD Soundsystem and Thievery Corporation to Girl Talk, Diplo, Bassnectar, Caribou, Gift of Gab and more! Be sure to visit the Camp Bisco website for all the details!

Remember when the tables turned and MySpace went from being the coolest social networking site around to a shady place for scantily-clad teens in questionable photos and, well… musicians? Despite the seizure-inducing animated gifs and glittering madness that came with the pimp-your-profile craze, MySpace somehow still maintained its role as THE place for musicians. Your band maybe had its own website if, you know, it was all fancy and stuff. But your band definitely had a MySpace page!

Then Facebook came along and soothed us with its minimalist design and all its tangible real-world benefits, and rocked our collective worlds. And yet, the musician was always left to fend for him or herself.

Enter Root Music. Musicians now FINALLY have a home on Facebook. This clever little San Francisco-based startup has created a way for musicians to share their stuff right from within Facebook. The BandPage is a tab just like your photos, info, or wall tabs. While they browse your page, fans can listen to your music from the embedded SoundCloud player. Want to place a banner on your page? Easy! Just upload the picture you want to use. No need to create a custom one. Every section of the BandPage is easily editable. Just drop, drag, and customize as you wish.

What you end up with is a sexy place within your Facebook profile, which you already use and people are already looking at, to share all your stuff (info, photos, shows, twitter feed and much much more) with your fans. In the place where they are already hanging out! It’s an elegant solution to an obvious problem, and Root Music has done it with aplomb. Once you setup your Root Music Bandpage on Facebook, be sure to set it as the default landing page so that it’s the first thing fans see!

Last week, MobBase co-founder Alan Khalfin led a music marketing training session with Greg Rollett for Label 2.0 members. Alan shared some great music marketing strategies and explained how mobile apps are one of the best ways to engage with the modern music fan. He gave a thorough overview of the MobBase platform and shared some best practices on how to create iPhone apps for artists.

While the training session was limited to Label 2.0 members, you can listen to it here:

If you’re not a Label 2.0 member or don’t know who they are, you should definitely check them out! Label 2.0 is an interactive learning community for musicians that empowers you to build your own music business and keep all the profits. When you sign up for Label 2.0, you will receive monthly, interactive training programs that guide you through all the steps of managing your music business online.

You will get interactive screen cast videos, where you will learn how to setup marketing campaigns, manage online accounts, and utilize a plethora of resources to build a passionate fanbase. They also do white board training to deliver concepts and show processes of moving fans through buying and sales cycles. And just like they did with MobBase, they do live calls and sessions that give you the opportunity to ask questions and get feedback on your efforts. All from some of the digital music industry’s brightest minds. Check them out here.

This is a guest post by MusicNomad, a musicians advocate organization that researches, reviews and ranks thousands of companies in the music industry to filter out the ones that help musicians the most.

1. Bands (and not management or interns) should always write their own emails to be authentic.
2. Noon Eastern time on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday is the ideal time to send broadcast emails to your fans, as people are at work across the US and Europe.
3. The ideal frequency of emails to fans is about every 2 to 4 weeks, with updates on your tour, merch and music announcements.
4. Negotiate upfront if you leave from a record label that you keep your email list and you own it.
5. Give great deals through email offers for pre-orders, such as a $50 package for $25.
6. Don’t put links to iTunes and Amazon in your emails. Fans want to buy direct from you so always link them directly to your website (or Bandcamp).
7. In each email, make sure you have direct and separate links to buy merch, buy tour tickets and buy music. Don’t be afraid to have a big “Buy” button in the email.
8. Sell email exclusive package offerings around holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, Cinco De Mayo, etc or just give some music away for free that day in exchange for an email.
9. Your fan email lists are gold and building them up is huge! Collect emails and zip codes from your fans at shows or ask for them in exchange for a free download.
10. Pay someone to go around and collect emails and zip codes at your shows. It’s that important.
11. Ask your merch company for the emails and zip codes for the fans that bought your merch.
12. Send emails by zip code so that you can target emails to promote upcoming shows. The best time to send a show announcement is 30 to 45 days before the show date. The ideal time to send an email reminder about an upcoming show is 5 days before the show. Offer fans something special like a $5 off coupon at your merch table. In the subject line, be sure to put the name of that city, such as “New Tour Date announced in Chicago”. This will personalize the email and increase its overall open rate.
13. Don’t go overboard in graphics and special effects in your email, but make it look nice and spend some time designing it.
14. Before you send out a fan email, send a test email to you and your band members to see how it looks. Fix any issues before sending.
15. If you have only a fan’s email and no zip code, give something away for free (like a live show recording or free album download) in exchange for it and tell them it will help you more effectively communicate with them about tour dates or special appearances in their city. It’s the truth.
16. Don’t cut and paste blanket emails to your fans. Be authentic even if it takes you longer — you will be much more successful this way. Fans will tell a friend about the personal email they received from you and viral marketing will begin. Split up the emails and get everyone in the band involved.
17. Send an email to fans in a city you just played in and thank them for their support. Have a local connection in your email to those fans and tell them what you did in or thought about their city besides your show.

We’re happy to announce that IRIS Distribution, the digital music distribution and marketing company that represents many of the world’s leading independent record labels, has partnered with MobBase to provide affordable and cutting-edge iPhone applications to its labels and their artists. MobBase is the new service that makes it easy for musicians and record labels to create an iPhone app.

“IRIS is always looking for new ways to help our labels get music in the hands of fans, and to enable artists to build audiences and careers,” said Bryn Boughton, chief marketing officer. “Mobile applications are quickly becoming a ‘must have’ part of the label and musician tool kit, and MobBase provides one of the best, fastest and most inexpensive ways for our labels to create a custom iPhone application.”

MobBase, a service of MixMatchMusic, is a low cost way for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices.

“IRIS presents labels and their artists with a fantastic array of tools and services to help them connect with fans,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “A custom MobBase iPhone app is a perfect complement to these tools and services – it will help labels promote their acts and help artists engage fans and ultimately, get their music heard and tickets to their shows sold.”

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.

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.

About IRIS Distribution
Founded in 2003, IRIS is the only remaining independent digital distribution company in the US. The company operates a wholly owned branded entertainment and music marketing agency, BlinkerActive.  IRIS boasts a strong roster of leading independent labels from all genres and distributes to over 450 digital outlets in 85 territories around the world.  Distribution and marketing clients include Ninja Tune, kranky, K Records, Palmetto, Scion A/V, CMH, BYO, Surfdog, Chemikal Underground, Metropolis, EMI, Projekt and more. The company is based in San Francisco and New York City.

With every passing SanFran Music Tech summit, the speaker list and the sponsor list look more and more like red carpet roll calls, and the schedule includes increasingly poignant panel topics. At past conferences, despite the rampant enthusiasm of attendees, there seemed to be an overhanging tone of uncertainty about the music industry. It was as if everyone was walking around being excited about all these crazy new technologies and possibilities and yet couldn’t quite relax because nobody really knew what direction things were going in. It seems like this may be starting to shift. Rob Pegoraro of The Washington Post points out that things could be worse.

As the possibilities of the future of music begin to emerge, one hot topic is the future of musical instruments. Roger Linn, Max Mathews, Ge Wang, John Chowning and Dave Wessel gave a fascinating demo of just what some of those possibilities might look like. Mashable asked what people thought about this. The comments are revealing in that they are a good example of some pretty strong sentiment on both sides of the argument (technology + instruments = good or bad?) .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi9ZikB_BUA

TechDirt recognized one of the overarching themes of this summit to be the increasing irrelevance of the major record labels, with one clear indicator being that the room emptied out after the popular Ben Folds panel and no one really seemed to care about the next panel which was a “discussion between a guy at Warner Music Group and someone at Cisco about the “direct to fan” artist websites that Warner Music has set up using Cisco’s Eos platform.” They go on to point out one audience question during the “Music and Money” panel, which summed up the whole thing: “If the major labels are such a pain to work with, why work with them at all?”

In response to heightened consumer frustration, Live Nation‘s Noah Maffit told attendees, during the “Live and Online” panel, that Ticketmaster service fees must come down. Ticketmaster’s technology doesn’t warrant the hegemony it possesses over the ticket market, and the company — bought by LiveNation in 2009 — is on a mission to update it, according to David Downs of the East Bay Express. It’ll be interesting to see how they evolve moving forward, especially with fresh, young competition like Ticketfly at their heels.

Stephen Fortner of Keyboard Magazine summed up the summit well: “…it’s grown from a locals-only networking hang largely focused on social networks as they related to music delivery, to a fertile marketplace of ideas covering all aspects of the music business in the digital age–from instruments and production to marketing and distribution.”

Follow the real-time conversation about SF MusicTech on Collecta:

For more on the previous 5 summits:

SF MusicTech Summit 1: Rockstars, Lawyers, Nerds and Me
SF MusicTech Summit 2: Guestlist Wish, Artist Activism, and Label Survival
SF MusicTech Summit 3: Albums Die, Social Media Kicks Ass, Songs Find a Home
SF MusicTech Summit 4: Singalongs, Video Interviews, and Twitter Gossip
SF MusicTech Summit 5: Google Music, API Aficionados, and Pandorable Cars

The Songs
Cozza Frenzy (Original) by Bassnectar
The Black Seeds – Slingshot
King Britt – The Intricate Beauty (feat Ryat)
Disco Biscuits – “On Time”

How to participate?
1) Choose a song to remix, and open up that Remix Wizard widget.
2) Download song stems, its free and easy!
3) Create your remix using the stems and any additional music or beats that either you have created or have a creative commons license for. You can also make your mix online by clicking on the MixMaker button of the widget.
4) Upload an MP3 of your remix via the same widget you used to download the stems. Enter as many Camp Bisco remixes as you like!
5) Share the track with your friends and ask them to comment, rate, playlist your mix and share it with their friends on twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and their blogs, etc.
6) Once you have finished and uploaded your remix, Judges from Camp Bisco and URB.com will select a winner for each track and one grand-prize winner!
7) Contest ends June 21, 2010. Winners will be notified by June 28, 2010.

Visit the Camp Disco Remix Contest page on URB to start working on your remixes today!

Prizing
Each remix will have one winner. Each of those winners will go on to compete for the Grand Prize. The winning remix of each track will receive a prize pack of CDs from each of the remix artists and two tickets to the festival. One grand prize winner will also receive 2 passes to the festival with Artist credentials, a custom MobBase iPhone app and lifetime subscription from MixMatchMusic, $200 for travel expenses and a hotel room along with the chance of a lifetime — a one-hour set in front of thousands of festival goers at Camp Bisco 9!

Camp Bisco Announces Partnership with MixMatchMusic
A new addition to the Camp Bisco remix contest team for this year is the Remix Wizard, provided by MixMatchMusic, which includes easy-to-use web-based remixing tools for beginners. ”Involving fans in the creative process through remixing is one of the best ways to make the artist – fan connection stronger,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic. “And, it’s exciting and also humbling to know that we’re playing a part in making those connections happen.” MixMatchMusic’s popular and versatile iPhone app builder MobBase will be used for the first ever Camp Bisco iPhone app.

About Camp Bisco
The 9th annual Camp Bisco festival will take place once again at the picturesque Indian Lookout Country Club in Mariaville, New York outside New York City from July 16 to 18, 2010. The event features three nights of the Disco Biscuits and over forty other acts. Headliners include The Disco Biscuits, Thievery Corporation, LCD Soundsystem and Ween.  For complete, up-to-date information about Camp Bisco 9 click here. To start remixing, click here.

I wanted to kick off a series of guest posts on Evolving Music by taking a look at a mindset adaption that I truly feel is needed in today’s new music economy. The mental state that I see most artists that I speak with, read about or work with is the one that is looking for someone to take them from point A to point B because they are talented.

This approach can pose a real problem towards growing a business in today’s industry.

As a musician you need to compose a great sense of music/work/life balance. What this means is that your creative and artistic side needs to be nurtured and come first. Without hit songs there is no opportunity to advance in this business.

The next step is utilizing your available time to the best of your availability. We all want time to relax, kick back a few drinks or whatever vice/habits/daily rituals you have. The objective is to balance this out with actual work that is going to progress your music career. This includes playing out live, building local contacts, updating web properties, creating products, leveraging social networking sites, talking with fans and soaking in an education on technology and business.

This is where the mindset of an entrepreneur kicks in.

Think about it. Think about the brands and companies that you emulate. Their CEO’s and figure heads all work their asses of to accomplish a goal which is to essentially grow their company. Their focus is on many things – not just looking for the one investor who will dump in a bunch of money and let the entrepreneur cash out.

Assemble A Team

The next step in this mindset is to begin building and assembling a team to help you in the areas that you may be weak in or have no interest in. The cool thing is that there are a ton of web properties that can help you, and almost become a team member.

Think about MobBase. They are a web service that allows you to have an iPhone application. They act as a developer, hosting company and partner to push your music onto 40 million iPhones. Although they have branded themselves as a service to musicians, they are really a member of your team.

Other members may include graphic designers, marketers, booking agents, financial people and so on. These team members are there to support you and your efforts in growing your vision. There is not one single person that can handle and grow your entire business, but one you understand that to have a career with any type of longevity, you actually need a business.

Some Hard Ass Work

Your music/work/life balance is not an easy mental state to just sit on the couch and figure out. It’s something that requires a ton of time and effort. The artists that I see making the biggest investment in their careers are the ones that take responsibility for their entire career.

We profiled Rhymefest a few days ago over on GYRS. The guy has created a wealth of good music. This is where it starts. Now it’s all about awareness and monetization. He has crafted a pay-what-you want mixtape. He’s blogging. He’s on Twitter connecting with fans. He is using Facebook to connect with a different audience. He is playing live shows. He is reaching out to popular sites and providing quality conversations for their audience.

In short, he is taking responsibility for his success and his career. That is just one example of the entrepreneur mindset for the musician.

Over the next few weeks we will be exploring marketing and business ideas for your music career in this little guest writing feature. Big shout out to MixMatchMusic for letting me hang out over here and check out the video I shot with MixMatchMusic’s co-founder, Alan Khalfin, about iPhone apps, marketing and design. It came out really cool.

Till next time.

This post was written by Greg Rollett, a music marketing and digital entrepreneur from Orlando, FL. He is an advocate of the New Music Economy and has an awesome community of entrepreneurial minded musicians at Label 2.0. Follow him on Twitter, @g_ro to chat about the music game.

photo credit: Chris-Håvard Berge

Tunecore. This gem of a company is quite frankly the only solution that DIY musicians will ever need for digital music (and video) distribution. Two of the most obvious reasons why: 1) Get 100% of the royalties and 2) Keep all your rights.

Not only is Tunecore the largest distributer in the world, touting artists like Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z, Joan Jett, Aretha Franklin, and Public Enemy, but they are also the preferred partner for many of the top digital stores due to their speed, reliability, and low costs.

For artists there is no better deal because they keep every penny from every sale of their songs. And Tunecore sales are up in the neighborhood of $45 million so far. Now, that’s a lot of pennies.

On top of that, the process couldn’t be easier. Instead of submitting music to a ton of different places, Tunecore does all the work for you. They push your music to iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, Aimee Street, and others, give you access to Access to Interscope, Island Def Jam, Republic, Motown Records, and can even make your song available to buy and play on Rock Band. You also get physical on-demand distribution on Amazon, get paid for your streams on MySpace, and get a streaming music player with your music for your webpage. Merry freakin’ Christmas, people! If you ask nicely, they might come over and tuck you into bed at night too.

Ok, maybe they won’t show up at your door, but you can definitely always reach them. In addition to 24/7 access to your account (where you can add or remove stores, review iTunes sales trending reports, withdraw your money, view or download your accounting, create a streaming media player or get an iTunes store link on your artist page), there are also dedicated Artist Support Reps there to hold your hand throughout the process. Then again, Tunecore was founded on the philosophy of never taking advantage of an artist, so that shouldn’t be surprising. Their motto is “Sell Your Music, Not Your Soul.”

Tunecore should also be your new best friend because they’ve got friends in high places. Like, thanks to their partnership with Universal Music Group, they can help artists get their music licensed for TV, movies, and video games. Try doing that on your own. It’ll be tough. They’re also in cahoots with the folks at Guitar Center and House of Blues, which could bode well for your future.

As if all that weren’t enough, Tunecore also insists on hooking you up with freebies like free digital cover art, free CD artwork (for Amazon’s Disc on Demand store), free streaming music widgets, and even free bar codes, UPCs and TuneCore song identifiers (TCSI).

You’re probably wondering what the catch is by now. It all seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? They must charge like a zillion dollars, right? Nope. For $9.99, you can push your single to all 19 stores. And for $46.99 you can push your album (unlimited songs) to all 19 stores. Holy crapola that’s cheap. Another option – for the picky among you – is the “a la carte” album option that, for $59.58, let’s you select your songs and select your stores. By the way, signing up is free.

Another cool feature is the custom widget. Add your songs, band photo, tour dates, streams from Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. Be strategic and put the widget on your blog, website, Facebook, MySpace or wherever so that your fans can buy your music, see your videos, become a fan, and most importantly share your goodies with their friends.

If you do well with Tunecore, they will even grant you some super exclusive opportunities. For example: Sell 100 songs on iTunes within 30 days and get guaranteed gigs at The Roxy in LA or at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. Or if you become a Tunecore Top 10 best seller, you can get your CD in over 200 Guitar Center stores next to U2, Jimi Hendrix, and other greats, plus guaranteed in-store music play. Not. Too. Shabby. They’ve always got crazy deals and promotions going. Check out the current ones.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t just make your hot sister stand there and sell your CDs at your next local show. And don’t be that creep following rockstars around LA hoping to slip one of them a demo. Just go to Tunecore, for Pete’s sake. They’ll welcome you with open arms and propel you and your music to a level you couldn’t reach on your own. Sign up for Tunecore today!

After weeks of careful deliberation, dredg has selected the winners of the remix contest they ran with MixMatchMusic. Back in February, dredg asked fans to remix “Gathering Pebbles” and gave them two months to get busy. Out of 39 amazing submissions, dredg has picked Albino 9 as the Grand Prize winner! The remix featured a masterful layering of big beat drums cut up and mixed with synths to give the song a great industrial electronic edge.  In addition to getting a bunch of cool dredg schwag, Albino 9′s remix will be officially released by dredg on iTunes and Albino 9  will be granted a royalty percentage.

Dredg also selected two runner up winners — Al the Pal, for his “SlowMo” remix, and Syte for his drum and bass rework of the song. They will both receive a bundle package that includes a signed The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion CD, a t-shirt and a pair of tickets to a dredg show of their choice. Thank you to everyone that participated and congrats to the winners!!

Listen to the winning remixes:

Listen to all the remixes submitted:

Enter the Niche Music System. Created by Hagop Tchaparian, the Niche Music System is a strategy designed to help you succeed in the music business through the leveraging of music niches. The idea is to carve a small, local niche for your music in order build initial traction and then promote and rise up through that niche to grow and widen your reach. The logic behind this is that for every niche, there is already an existing audience that is pre-exposed to the sound of that niche. So while you may need to tweak your sound to fit into a specific niche, the Niche Music System provides you with a much easier way to build an initial following.

Hagop initially created the system to mirror the processes his own band (Symposium) went through to gain attention, build a core following, play for more people and make more money. Subsequently, he helped implement a similar system in his work with English electronic artist Hot Chip (pictured below) to help them build early traction, rise through their niche and ultimately get signed by DFA/EMI.

The Niche Music System has now been turned into a 12 week video/audio/PDF course designed to help you get people to care about your music and come out of obscurity.  For a great intro to the course, you should take the time to check out the video below. While the course is normally $47/month (for three months),  because you are an Evolving Music reader, you can get it for $27/month! To sign up and receive the discount, click here.

Born in New York and educated in Virginia, Neekola currently resides in Washington DC where she works as a full time international DJ. Inspired by her parents musical talents, Neekola has been involved in music since childhood. The early years were spent in rock bands as a lead singer, keyboard player and songwriter. However, upon moving to Germany in 1997, Neekola was introduced to her soulmate, electronic dance music. She spent so much of her time dancing in the nightclubs within Europe. It was during this time she was inspired to pursue music production. After having a bit of trouble, she was advised by her mentors in the industry that she should first learn to DJ, and then her production skills would come naturally soon after. So she headed on out to NYC’s Scratch Academy, learned the basic skills, acquired her own turntable setup, and then her life changed forever…

Check out Neekola’s app and new song, “Don’t Live for the Moment.”

Don’t Live for the Moment – ORIGINAL by Neekola
Don’t Live for the Moment – ORIGINAL by Neekola

Neekola built her app using MixMatchMusic’s new DIY app building platform, MobBase, which makes it easy for musicians, music companies and music blogs to build a mobile app for as little as $0.50 a day. And because MobBase enables us to update the app’s content and design whenever we want, be sure to check the app often because we’ll be keeping things fresh. Ya dig?

We’ve talked ad nauseum about the importance of interacting with your fans via the many social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, via your very own iPhone app, and also via a newsletter. As you fanbase grows, however, you’ll need a way to manage this process. Enter FanBridge. What FanBridge does “is very, very simple: help musical acts email and text their fans.”

FanBridge, which is all about “powering valuable fan relationships,” will help you not only get more fans, but also keep them engaged, and track your analytics so you can see what’s working and what’s getting them excited. After all, that’s what you’re working toward isn’t it — getting (and keeping) your fans excited? Let’s examine their 3 steps: 1) get more fans, 2) excite your fans, and 3) keep your fans engaged.

Get More Fans

Let’s say you’re somewhat organized and established and you already have a list. It’s super easy to add said list to your account. They’ll even do it for you for free if you want. Once you’ve got a list going in FanBridge, then you’re ready to start growing it.

Fans that come to your website/blog/myspace etc. need a place to type in their email address so you can add them to your list. FanBridge will whip up the code you need for these forms which, of course, are totally customizable in look and feel. They even have downloadable signup forms for live shows/events that’ll work without an internet connection.

If you are offering a fan incentive, like a free download with signup, they handle everything. You just upload the incentive. Easy.

Excite Your Fans

FanBridge makes converting browsers into buyers easy with simple tools that take visitors to the point of sale for whatever it is you’re selling (i.e. tickets, merch etc.) Whatever actions your fans take are tracked and converted into data that help you understand which of your campaigns are most effective, who is clicking on what, and what you need to do to reach out to your most active fans.

Another important feature is the tour calendar. Your calendar can be part of your newsletter and is also posted on your fan “action page.” Fans can even set reminders about your shows.

FanBridge understands how valuable your fans’ friends are, and gives your fans the tools they need to share your music with them. Viral marketing tools like contests, prizes, “share this” links, etc. are automatically integrated into the system. Remember, the easier it is for your fans to share your music with others, the more likely they are to do it!

Keep Fans Engaged

Artist-fan interaction has become the norm. Finally. It takes a LOT of work to stay on top of all the various ways you are interacting with your fans, though, and you can’t afford to waste your valuable time toggling between twitter clients, facebook pages, and everything else. FanBridge solves this problem by allowing you to communicate with fans across many networks all from a single location.

Email newsletters (which are super important) are a breeze to send out, because FanBridge handles all the backend stuff for you. You simply need to come up with the irresistible content that goes in them.

Another brilliant feature is their mobile text messaging platform. Imagine sending last minute text messages to your fans to remind them about your upcoming show or sending updates from backstage! You can schedule them to send later, too, so you don’t have to worry about doing it live all the time.

This service is priced insanely low for all the cool stuff you get. Seriously. Really cheap.

In case you’re still not convinced you need FanBridge, they’ve come up with 5 simple reasons why you need them: 1) you get superior client service from real, live people, 2) their only priority is making your fan list more valuable, 3) they automate the fan-getting process so it’s working for you 24/7, 4) they do all the analysis so you don’t have to, and 5) you can communicate with all your fans in one place.

Be sure to check out these handy FanBridge resources too:

Tips on Sending Effective Fan Newsletters

3 Fan List Basics for Musicians

How Do I Get More Emails at Live Shows/Events?

If you’re a music industry blog/publication, record label, radio station, venue, music festival, music school, recording studio, gear/instrument company, or other music related project/company, MobBase can greatly help you connect with your audience through a custom iPhone app. For as little as $0.50 a day, you can use MobBase to build a dynamic app that shares music, photos, videos, tweets, news, event info, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices. Here’s a little taste of the different types of music industry players that are using MobBase to connect with their fans:

Music Industry Blogs, Publications and Resources:

• Indie Music Tech: A blog that explores the technologies enabling the music industry.
• Remix Comps: A community of remix contest enthusiasts that provides information on the latest remix contests going on across the web, and features streaming versions of remix contest winners.
• Wink Sound: A resource for music production videos and tutorials on Ableton, Logic, Pro-Tools, Reason, and Cubase, as well as on mixing, mastering, recording audio, beat making and Djing.
• Evolving Music: You’re looking at it dude

Record Labels and Other Music Companies:

• Controlled Substance Sound Labs/Silverback Artist Management: Record label and artist management firm; artists include Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, Fishbone, The Beautiful Girls, Mat McHugh, Rebelution, and The Expendables.
• Town Thizzness: Record label created by Thizz Nation and SMC Recordings; artists include Mistah Fab, J.Stalin, D.Lo, Sleepy D, Beeda Weeda, Philthy Rich, Dj Fresh, Stevie Joe, Shady Nate, G-Stack, and Eddi Projex.
• Independent Media: Marketing and artist development company; artists include K’Naan, Tanya Morgan, J*Davey, Canibus, Shaya, Truthlive and Sin.
• Let It Burn Records: European hardcore record label.
• Flash Records: German electronica record label
• Nobel Records: Norwegian record label; artists include Jazzmaster, Bang Bang, and True Blue.
• Metal Postcards Records: Hong Kong based metal record label.

Radio and Music Discovery:

• IODA Promonet: A promotional distribution network from IODA that helps fans discover and share music from thousands of top independent artists and labels around the world.
• House Music Channel: A destination for all things house music, featuring exclusive music, mixed sets, news, information, and events from today’s hottest names in house music.
• Flawless Radio: An app that helps you discover new music and news from the hottest emerging and developing hip-hop artists.
• LyricShare: A Gospel and Christian music destination that gives unrivaled access to music, pictures, lyrics, sheet music, and videos.

Soundtracks and Soundscapes:

• Sound Healing: This app is the perfect audio companion to meditation and yoga, and includes 72 relaxing songs for meditation.
• Nurse Jackie Soundtrack: The official app for the soundtrack for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie.

This batch of apps was made by musicians and music companies from around the world, and features a variety of eclectic content for you to enjoy. The apps turned out really well, and as you can see below, they aren’t cookie cutter at all — each MobBase app can have its own unique image, look and feel.  Check out all the new MobBase apps here. Or, find out how to make mobile applications.

“Movies without music are just snapshots”
~ Stephen Whitty

With the Academy Awards just a few days away, the exciting is growing. The heavy red carpet gets rolled out, Hollywood celebrities grin (hard under the influence of botox!) and bear it during their grueling last minute nips and tucks, starstruck fans buzz with anticipation, and talented artists from all facets of the film-making world hope and dream that this might be their year…

Let’s – just for a moment – bypass all the rest of the ruckus, though, and focus on the music. Though not a central theme, music plays an undeniable role in the biggest night of the year for film. In fact, though it rarely gets the attention it should, the music often makes the movie.

Naturally, we’ve got the four award categories that are music-related, which is all about the behind-the-scenes artists. These are the guys and gals who slave away composing, editing, and mixing and hardly get any recognition for their hard work. Unless, of course, they win an Oscar. Here is a breakdown of those categories and their nominees.

- Music (Original Score): Avatar (James Harner), Fantastic Mr. Fox (Alexandre Desplat), The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders), Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer), Up (Michael Giacchino)

- Music (Original Song): The Princess and the Frog for “Almost There” and “Down in New Orleans” (Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman), Paris 36 for “Loin de Paname” (Music by Reinhardt Wagner and Lyrics by Frank Thomas), Nine for “Take it All” (Music and Lyrics by Maury Yeston), Crazy Heart for “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” (Music and Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett)

- Sound Editing: Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle), The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson), Inglorious Basterds (Wylie Stateman), Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin), Up (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)

- Sound Mixing: Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson), The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett), Inglorious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano), Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin), Transformers (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

Beyond the music-related categories, there are the movies about music, like Crazy Heart. Apparently, public opinion has Jeff Bridges taking home the Oscar for Best Actor. It’s his fifth nomination and this time, say fans, it’s his time. Over here at Evolving Music, we say movies about music and the profound role it plays in people’s lives should win more often! Actually, there should be more movies about music (and musicians) period. Interestingly, this year it seems the music stars themselves did not come out on top. Idolator points out that Leona Lewis’ Avatar theme “I See You” didn’t even get nominated (although it did get nominated for a Golden Globe.)

Whatever your predictions and sentiments are for the event his year, don’t forget to take a moment to appreciate the music because, as the wise Stephen Whitty said, “Movies without music are just snapshots!” Speaking of shots, here are some drinking games for Oscar night in case you’re interested.

“The MobBase adoption curve is getting steep, fast,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer. “It took about 90 days to launch the first 50 apps and just 30 days to get to 107. It’s more clear with every day that artists are adopting mobile apps to help build their careers, and that they choose MobBase as the fast, easy and inexpensive way to get their own app.”

MobBase is a low cost way for musicians to share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, information about shows, merchandise and other content with fans on their mobile devices. MobBase apps are priced for starving artists and also artists who remember what it is like to starve, with many artists paying as little as $0.50 a day for their own custom iPhone app.

Prominent artists including Pepper and Everclear are among the bands that have built and launched their own MobBase apps. Feinn said growth is also coming from long tail artists, such as Tribal Seeds, Cash Lewis, NatStar the King, Radagun, Supreme The Eloheem, and indie label, Let It Burn Records. The MobBase platform has also been used to create the official iPhone app for Showtime’s Nurse Jackie soundtrack.

MobBase is a great solution for established acts,” Feinn said. “It’s also a fantastic solution for artists with small but devoted followings who are making music for the love of music. The extremely low price, the super ease of use and the ability to customize it to reflect your own look and feel makes it perfect for artists in the long tail.”

Music distribution powerhouse, IODA, and indie labels including Silverback Music/Controlled Substance Sound Labs, SMC Recordings, Welk Music Group, Vanguard Records, Sugar Hill Records, Town Thizzness, Red Bull Records, Sargent House, and 429 Records are offering MobBase apps and promoting MobBase to their artists.

Feinn said there have been more than 60,000 installs of MobBase apps by fans.

We’re exited to announce the release of Evolving Music’s iPhone app! Built on MobBase, you can download our free app for your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad and stay connected to Evolving Music wherever you roam. The app includes blog posts, tweets, videos, and other digital goodies for you to enjoy. It also features a selection of 10 songs that you can listen to while browsing the app. Currently, it includes some great tunes from RX Bandits, Easy Star All-Stars, Shanghai Restoration Project, Throw Me the Statue and Gavroche.

We built the app using MixMatchMusic’s new DIY app building platform, MobBase, which makes it easy for you to create your own mobile app for as little as $0.50 a day. And because MobBase enables us to update the app’s content and design whenever we want, be sure to check the app often because we’ll be keeping things fresh. Ya dig? Get the app here.

The above quote is by Friedrich Nietzsche.
(I assume A.Z. is whoever put the quote on the bench.)

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” – Decca Recording Company, rejecting the Beatles, in 1962

“I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.” – Elvis Presley

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” – Albert Einstein

“Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.” – John Lennon

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” – Aldous Huxley

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” – Victor Hugo

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” -  Jimi Hendrix

“There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.” – Johann Sebastian Bach

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Berthold Auerbach

“Music is love in search of a word.” – Sidney Lanier

“Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory.” – Oscar Wilde

“A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.” – Benny Green

“Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.” – Charlie Parker

“When I first heard Elvis’ voice, I knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody … hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail” – Bob Dylan

“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”  – Confucius

“If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing.” – Zimbabwe Proverb

“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen

“Music is the shorthand of emotion.”  – Leo Tolstoy

“A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.” – Frank Zappa

“Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.” – Voltaire

“I stole everything I ever heard, but mostly I stole from the horns.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“Playing ‘Bop’ is like Scrabble with all the vowels missing.” – Duke Ellington

“Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.” – Igor Stravinsky

“MTV is to music as KFC is to chicken.” – Lewis Black

“I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.” – Richard Strauss

“He has a woman’s name and wears makeup. How original.” – Alice Cooper, on Marilyn Manson

“If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.” – Gustav Mahler

“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.” – Charlie Parker

“The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven’t got the joke yet.” - Oliver Herford