” Over The Clouds “
NEW Instrumental Guitar Cd

by Jean Paul Agnesod
aviable also on: iTunes, CDBABY, Amazon, …

well Giantface has been busy, the debut cd “VESSEL” has dropped and has been getting an excellent response so far and I couldn’t be any happier. The folks at cdbaby were so great to work with and itunes has an incredible traffic flow thanks to every one who has purchased,commented, and shown a general interest in “VESSEL” the first of many from a very young and eager band.
To listen to Vessel check out myspace at http://www.myspace.com/giantfaceband
check it out on cdbaby http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/GiantFace
or just do an itunes search thanks again for all the support.

Greetings, team ASP! Miss Fitz here to bring you the good news from on high:

You can officially {and legally!} purchase Monte Pittman’s solo debut, The Deepest Dark, RIGHT NOW from CDbaby.com! So STOP reading this post and go get it!!!

Monte Pittman - The Deepest Dark

Seriously, why are you still here at ASP? For once– we’d like you to stop reading our blog and go download this NOW NOW NOW!

{ASP will update this post when the tracks hit iTunes– but for now, support your independent-web-music-store that supports your independent-rock-gods!}

This may seem profoundly mundane, but I think the Internet just might change everything.

No, it’s not 1993. And, no, I’m not 74 years old. But even recent developments have me rethinking just how far the Internet revolution will take us.

It’s not necessarily overly astute to observe that the Internet has become the great leveler, sanding off the playing field so that nearly everyone has equal access to information. On the flip side, the low cost barriers and ubiquity of free Web tools have allowed virtually anyone with the time and interest to become publishers of some kind.

You see this already with respect to news dissemination. As newspapers shrink and fold, blogs and alternative media grow and proliferate. There is very little cost prohibition when it comes to disseminating news and information as there was in years past. I don’t need a printing press, distribution network or employees to deliver information. So pretty much anyone can be a distributor of “news.”

Content communities, such as YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare, allow us all to publish video, photos and visual information. Social networks allow us to connect with others and spread information far more quickly and effectively than old-school word-of-mouth. Everyone has a Web site. Everyone is online. And everyone has either an opinion, an agenda, a passion, a cause or all of the above, just waiting to be broadcast.

So where does it all end? Or, where are we heading?

I envision a day in the not-too-distant future in which all third-party distribution channels are largely removed, and messages and products are delivered directly to the end-user. It’s not all that difficult to imagine; but it’s confounding to me why it’s not happening sooner.

Why do artists need music labels anymore? Will they ten years from now?

Why do authors need publishers anymore? Will they ten years from now?

Why do journalists need newspapers anymore? Will they ten years from now?

Take music, for example. It’s already happening, but pretty soon the physical medium will be a distant memory. CDs will have little relevance, as direct download will have taken their place completely. In such a reality, mass production costs are zero. Distribution can be as easy as publishing to iTunes, a convenience vanity labels such as CDBaby already afford independent artists. There are no printing costs; there are no duplication costs. No delivery. No stocking fees. No retailer fees. All that’s left is promotion and air play. As it stands today, indie artists can in no way compete with the labels in terms of promotion muscle. And the labels and radio stations are in bed together, it seems. But take an artist like Wilco — self-produced, self-published, self-promoted. They aren’t Britney Spears, and they don’t want to be, but they can get their music to their fans at a handsome profit, without the need for third-party muckety-mucks getting their hands in the cookie jar. Is this the wave of the future, only on a much broader scale? Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are already there.

Next up: books. Vanity presses used to be quaint and all, but they generally didn’t translate into broad-scale success. It was near impossible to get anyone to review them, and you couldn’t get mass distribution for your work. Along comes Kindle. Self-publishing has found new life, as distribution barriers have been removed. If you can get Amazon to pick up your title on Kindle, all that’s left is, once again, promotion. And media reviewers no longer treat self-publishers as pariahs, so if you can create a big enough stir for your work, they just might have to take notice.

It’s exciting to see if this thing knows any bounds. Even movies like The Blair Witch Project and the more recent Paranormal Activity show how successful the independent artist can be with very little overhead costs and and very clever self-promotion.

What makes this so exciting for me, as a failed musician of the 1990s, is the potential this has to deliver broader access to better art, unfiltered and un-watered-down by the know-it-all suits at publishing outfits…not to mention the direct connection between artist and fan that seems more natural in a self-published, self-marketing environment. I wish I was a budding artist today, and had all of this technology and social ubiquity at my disposal. Maybe then I wouldn’t be one of those aforementioned suits.

I don’t know about you, but I’m really starting to believe in these here Internets!

I’m hooking you up yet again. I got that uploading fever kid. You’re welcome.
Fact: At a time there were two bands named Donnybrook. According to wikipedia one is “a Los Angeles, California, hardcore punk band” and the other is “a Tribal Metal band from Maine”. Can you guess which band is better? Great! Me too. So here’s a little bedtime story for you. During my first semester at college in Boston I went to go see Dog Fashion Disco play a show at Bill’s Bar. (Anarchists of Good Taste is still listenable.) I can’t remember if there was some terrible opening band but let’s just assume that there was. Suddenly Dog Fashion Disco was taking the stage to rawk the faces of the baker’s dozen of people in attendance. I don’t think I was the only one surprised to see them go on so early especially since they were billed as the headlining act. After DFD played I overheard in the dead quiet room that they had played early because they didn’t want to play after the next band who were really good. I think admitting something like that is really respectable and rare. Most headlining bands get terrible bands to open for them for this exact reason. I decided it was probably worth my time to stick around and check out the next band who of course wound up being Donnybrook…the good one…from Maine. Without a doubt they blew Dog Fashion Disco off the face of the Earth.
I felt like I got it right away and was on board with them for the whole show. It was a perfect blend of Mr. Bungle/Faith No More, Tool and all that is good in music. As I recall they didn’t have any cds with them for some reason and that was a major bummer. I did end up finding it in Newbury Comics the next day though. I was lucky enough to catch them a couple of years later at the Middle East Upstairs for an even smaller crowd but it still a great show. It’s always the really great bands that have a hard time finding their audience like the situation with Haste.
I remember seeing them in Metal Hammer or a similar brutal magazine discussing the lyrics for one of their songs even though they were unsigned. According to this interview they had offers from TVT and Roadrunner. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out for them in terms of finding a label or distribution though I’m not sure they would’ve been marketed properly anyways. From my understanding they put out three proper eps. I’ll be sharing their first ep with you today. The second ep was produced by Johnny K and it was clearly an attempt at sounding more polished and radio friendly. With this ep they made the unfortunate move, in my opinion of course, of reworking some songs from the first ep. This reworking basically meant throwing in a chorus or two more and taking out all the interesting and unique parts. The third ep was along the same lines as the second which is to say I liked them both but would rather listen to the first one.
I offer up Donnybrook’s first ep, Bleeding The Grain, for you fans of the jackercrap.

Tracklist
1. Radio Killed The Underground Star
2. A Better Way To Waste Your Life
3. Breathing The Final Dance
4. Cold Confusion
5. Grey Sketch Of Red
6. Poetic Tightfist

http://rapidshare.com/files/302956219/Donnybrook_-_Bleeding_The_Grain.zip

As I mentioned in my first upload this is for preview purposes only and to my knowledge is out print. It’s hard to find info about these guys actually. Wikipedia doesn’t have an actual entry for them. However, they did change their name to Red Cloud Revival and have released one album which you can and should purchase at cdbaby. They’ve got a concise myspace page to explore as well. Unfortunately, they seem to only sporadically do shows at this point but please support them by buying a cd. Check out this cool video, especially considering it was probably made on the budget of a cheese sandwich, for Poetic Tighfist. You might notice that this song is on Bleeding The Grain but this is a different version done by Red Cloud Revival. (I still prefer the original for the record.) This should give you a good idea of what you’re going to get from the upload.

Supposedly Donnybrook had over 60 songs but only released a third of that. If anyone has any Donnybrook music besides the three eps please send it my way. If there is any interest I’ll post the other 2 eps as well.

Project 3.1’s first single in over a year, TANGERINE, has hit CDBaby.com and is soon to be released on iTunes as well. This is a just a precursor to the band’s latest and possibly final album to be released later this year. Find the single HERE and the band HERE.

*Music: Listen to analysis of three Beatles multitrack masters from the BBC’s “Record Producers: The Extended Cut.” No, really. Listen. If I told you this was from Waxy, would you listen? Ugh. Christ.

*Games: Preview and/or check out Hi, How Are You, an iPhone app inspired by Daniel Johnston’s art. That was a weird sentence, and one the me from five years ago would not have liked, much less understood. Sad.

*Music: A podcast of Bon Iver performing at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater. I’m typing this with stumps.

*Poetry: This seems like the kind of lit hip people would like. And by this, I mean Zadie Smith reading Frank O’Hara’s “Animals.”

*Entrepreneurship: Derek Sivers talks about growing and then knowing he was done with his business, CDBaby.

*Fashion: The t-qualizer is a shirt with a graphic equalizer embedded. [neatorama]

*Sustenance: I love pictures of disgusting-looking food. Wait. Huh? But it’s true. That’s what makes it funny. Also, never go deep into the Google image search results for chaat. Ever. [murketing]

*Today’s links: Always F.

The Startup Success Podcast

This week Bob and Pat talk with Derek Sivers, founder of CDBaby about creating and then selling CDBaby, his extremely successful approach to business, knowing when to sell, knowing what to start and more. This is one interview you don’t want to miss!

Bob sounds off aboout one useful way to tap the infamous Law API and Pat covers what Microsoft is doing now for LAMP startups and makes the case for open source developers to take a fresh look at Microsoft.

Download Show #40 here: Show #40 Or if you prefer, Subscribe to the podcast in Apple iTunes.

Please review it on iTunes: we need your feedback!

Please call in your suggestions, comments and constructive criticisms to our Listener Hotline at 206-202-6473. When you call, tell us if it’s okay to play your comment in our podcast.

Bob Walsh is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bobwalsh or you can email him at bob.walsh@47hats.com.

Patrick Foley is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/patrickfoley or you can email him at patrick.foley@microsoft.com

Show Notes:

URLs mentioned in this episode of the Startup Success Podcast:

• FairSoftware.net
• Derek Sivers web site.
• CDBaby – Derek’s old company: Customer page, Musician’s page.
• Derek’s free ebook of Music Marketing Advice.
• MuckWork.
• About NowNowNow.
• Microsoft WebsiteSpark – web site and ScottGu’s announcement.
• Microsoft Web Platform.

This week’s show…

… Is sponsored by StartupToDo.com. StartupToDo.com is an online productivity app and community for startup founders, microISVs and anyone who wants to create their own software company. Be successful faster at StartupToDo.com!

This is a section of a talk I gave at the Royal Academy of Music for music students

One of the sections was centered around some specific information concerning how simple it is to produce and circulate a debut recording. These days, a record deal maybe the last thing you need as a musician!!

One student asked if they should send a huge dossier of references, biographies, programmes and recordings to prospective venues/employers. Err.. nope! A CD with a handwritten note, nicely designed, personally directed is much better, especially if solicited via an initial email. The former package would in all likelihood end up in a recycling bin.

Harsh maybe.. but true!

Here are some simple steps to releasing tracks online and (even) getting income through sales (though this may not be the primary aim at this stage). You want people to hear you, join you, and get excited about what you produce next (and hopefully turn up in droves to your next recital).

Getting it out there…

Let’s assume you’ve already recorded a really well thought-through programme.

The obvious place to start a web presence is myspace, but it seems (at best) an inelegant way to present yourself as an artist, especially when there are so many other free hosted sites with beautiful templates out there. I have a myspace page, but its primary purpose is to redirect traffic to my own sites!
WordPress

I love WordPress (where you’re reading this). It’s free – I can place a track like this

The more people comment and link to you, the higher you page goes in Google’s rankings, so make sure it’s appealing!!

You can get a WordPress blog here – highly recommended.

SoundCloud
A different way of grouping/ hosting your music for free is presented by SoundCloud. What is neat about this is the way people can place comments along the timeline, and even better, anyone (if you like) can stream it to their own blog/site. Here’s a recent piece of mine which is being streamed from the SoundCloud website.

Listeners can add comments at specific points in the track – you can see them by hovering over the pictures. I use SoundCloud to determine whether a track has ‘legs’ or not. It’s very meritocratic – if something’s good – it’ll get lots of plays!

Now, if you’re feeling generous, you can make the tracks downloadable (although I would tag them in iTunes first so the mp3 has your web address in its code).
This track is a download track – again, being streamed via a simple bit of code from SoundCloud:

The downwards arrow on the right is a download link. Here’s a site where someone’s placed a block of my tracks leading to free downloads.

Here’s my site hosted by SoundCloud.

Lastfm

A well-established streaming music service is lastfm.com. This is a curious amalgam of fansite and radio station. Personally I find it a bit disjointed, and also it concerns me that unreleased tracks often appear there from dubious sources. There are tracks of mine on there that I’ve never released!

The Sixty one

A completely different approach to new music streaming and downloads can be found at thesixtyone.com.

This is a really hard site to describe as it is as much about gameplay as it is about streaming music. There are two types of (free) account. Artists or Listeners. The Listeners get a higher ranking depending upon how they scout for new songs that the Artists place on there. They give ‘hearts’ to tracks they like, a little like buying shares in a stock that looks like it’s going to perform well.

Frankly, no-one really knows how it works but it’s a superb place to find new music in a quirky and vibrant community.
Also, as with SoundCloud, you can tell pretty quickly if a track has merit as it will get voted onto the front page!
Players also give ‘tips’ which I hadn’t realized translate into Paypal dollars.

From my page here, I have enough for two cappuccinos already… hurrah!

Setting up a label and generating paid downloads

Setting up a label appears at first to be an onerous and difficult task. This certainly used to be the case, when there was a baffling array of requirements,; barcodes, encoding, registration and so forth. This is no longer the case thanks to intermediary companies that have sprung up to help us confused and frustrated independent players and composers.

CDbaby

CDBaby was established by the very brilliant Derek Sivers (whose blog is essential reading). They distribute to a huge number of digital outlets, and have excellent accounting procedures for small labels. They started as a physical distributor of CDs but seem to have made a smooth transition to digital marketing. You can read about joining here.

Ditto Music
One of the most impressive of these new services is Ditto Music.

They have created a brilliant service where the tasks of creating a label for your releases is streamlined and organized for a one-off fee. They also take 0% of your royalties when tracks are sold online, and they can distribute to 700 digital outlets. The real icing on the cake is that they have created a means by which independent musicians can get their tracks loaded onto Spotify, and iTunes.

Spotify

There’s a widely held belief that as an independent artist, getting your tracks onto Spotify and iTunes is nigh on impossible unless you’re with a major label. This is happily untrue as discussed above. Spotify is an exciting way of streaming (and now temporarily downloading) tracks which has begun a seamless integration with phones and mp3 players.

Spotify are themselves trying to approach smaller, independent labels, and you can register interest as a future partner here.

What’s next..?

I’m going to write about physical CD production, as well as other merchandise… But I need a big mug of coffee first! Let me know if this is useful…

In the meantime, here’s an article I wrote about being a composer whilst keeping your head!

In case you were the one in 50 billion people who knew I had another blog, I have another blog called iPhone(e) Baloney ( http://iphoneebaloney.wordpress.com ) for my little side interest on iPhone programming.

I ran into something in my iPhone research that has inspired me to do the same over here on the indie music side of things.  Awhile back I was trying to find some earnings numbers from someone selling their application on the iPhone App store.  Do you know how hard that was to find?  I only found one guy who wrote about it; and as I did not expect, his sales numbers were not stellar.  I’m still going to develop apps, because it’s fun.  At least my expectations are more reasonable thanks to his blog post.

Before I continue I have to ask myself, if this is going to hurt the sales of my album.  Are people going to come and read this and be turned off to what I have created because they find out what other people think of it?

The answer:  I don’t care anymore.

When I was first starting out with all this indie music jive, I was so obsessed with image creation, manipulation, illusion, and b.s., but not anymore.  I have gone down that road as far as I am ever going to go, so although I think all those things are real effective tools to sell your indie music, for me the have become tiring.  I’d rather learn to write code for the iPhone.  The way I figure it, I have a chance to do something good to help out a young kid starting his first album out there, or to help an old guy going through his mid-life crisis making music.

Are you ready for some inside baseball?

I spent roughly $10,000 to $15,000 actual dollars recording,  mixing, mastering, and releasing my album which includes a 2-song EP released in 2005 prior to the full album released in the spring of 2009.  Early on in the project I was laying down the tracks at a local studio, using local talent that met my standards.  I always paid these people even though they were all people I found and asked to be involved.  I wasn’t going to make them rich, but the $50/hr was better than nothing.  A friend of mine in Dallas contributed some of the tracks on two of the different songs, I paid him at his standard rate and all total it was probably $1000.  Eventually I learned enough to record tracks in my basement on my Mac to save money on studio time, and used an online drum track service called Live Studio Drums for one of the songs instead of my local drummer.

Mark Needham, (ie Fleetwood Mac, The Killers, Chris Isaak) did the mix for the EP for a handsome sum.  For the full deal I went with Robert Wawoe, who I highly recommend.  The mastering for the EP was by Bob Katz, while I had Joe Lambert do the LP.  All of these guys are top-notch pros and I always received top-notch results from them.

Physical CD’s of the EP were stocked at CDBaby and Amazon.com, as well as at a local record store in my hometown.  The full album is digital-only, and once again I went with CDBaby, but for digital distribution only this time.  You’ll see why I decided not to have physical CD’s made in a little bit.

When the EP was released in 2005, I was all hot to trot about playing live to promote it.  I played mostly local gigs that i scheduled myself and sold CD’s at the gigs.  I always played solo at these events, sometimes with backing tracks, and never formed a real backing band for either release.  Some of the gigs payed, some were for free.

I did get a great review of the EP by my favorite online music critic, Jeff Giles, and was just as lucky the second time when he reviewed the full album, which is the only big-name publicity I think I ever got.  I was also featured in three or four stories in the local press for both releases.

I hired a radio promoter to promote the EP to radio stations for airplay.  I am barred from mentioning the case in public, but let’s say I had to get a lawyer and fight to get my money back.  I didn’t get it all back, but it helped.  I also sent copies and promo sheets to radio stations on my own for the EP, but not for the LP.

For awhile I was having my own domain name website hosted with a professional company.  After awhile I got tired of paying the monthly bill and started hosting it myself.  Web pages take a lot of one of two things: money, or time.  I really don’t have a lot of either.  If you search my name on the web you will find my website, which is very modest.

After all of that, I currently owe $0.  The whole has been bought and paid for, including the CD’s in my basement closet (anyone need a coaster?).

Now for the big question.  How much money have you made?

As of today, I have sold about $46 dollars worth of music via digital anything.  Sales of physical CD’s are probably somewhere around the neighborhood of $75 to $100.

Morale of the story for me is don’t quit my day job.  It’s actually more than that, though.  There are a whole lot of areas I could have done more in, and there is time I could have spent doing this or that to sell more units.  But what I have done is what I am willing to do, and I am not going to do any more than what I feel I should.  I am raising a family; we have went from no kids to three kids in the time since I first began recording the EP to today.  My wife and I sold our little 800 square foot house and moved to a little bigger one during the recording of the EP as well.  Life has been busy.  I am also a deacon at church, and I have a day job that kicks my butt some weeks.

My results are not probably going to be your results, and don’t get me wrong, I’m not crying in my beer about it.  If this is what you love doing and you can afford to do it, go for it.  Early on I asked myself “What would you rather do: see to it you have a happy wife and three awesome kids, or more album sales?  I chose the first one because I think it’s better.  That’s just my choice.

Tips

• If you insist on quality then do your research and pay for the best within your budget.
• Expect nothing in return by those involved in your project. Big-name people will, believe it or not, work for little old you too.  Your money spends just as good as the next guy’s, but that’s all you should expect from them and nothing more. If you think so-and-so is going to drop your name around his circle of peeps and then somehow you are going to be discovered, think again.
• Take as much time as you need. You hear about the cycle of releasing new music at only certain times of the year, or following your EP with your LP in such and such an interval? Forget about it. Just do what you have time and money to do. If it’s three years after your first project before your second one, nobody cares.
• Don’t pay for services like promotion prior to the work getting done, otherwise you are going to get ripped off. I don’t care what it is, if they ask for money before they do the work, send them down the road.
• Stay organized. There are a ton of things to keep track of when you are doing things yourself.  Write everything down, keep track of phone numbers, song-lyrics, chord-charts, and anything else you might want to refer to later or pass on to your kids.
• Keep your imagination in check. There are those stories about the girl who made it big and now she is retired and living with her fifteen cats in a New York penthouse. There is no harm in dreaming of some day being one of those lucky people, or having nightmares about it. Until you begin to spend more money then you have or sacrifice things you’ll regret later it’s all good. Like the good book says, “Be sober minded”.
• Keep it all in perspective.

Post your questions here if you want to ask me for advice.  If I can help you out I will.

By Daniel Graves
Contributing Writer

Music is undoubtedly changing in every aspect such as sales, media, video, distribution, ownership and rights.  It has always been assumed that if you have a song on the radio being signed you concludes stardom.  Now with the internet expanding in ways we are not prepared for, the music industry has left a big gap for motivated and talented artists to own and profit from their own artistic talents.

This is how you get your business right.  First become a member of The American Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers [A.S.C.A.P.] or Broadcasting Music Inc. [B.M.I.].  Next, get online and research places to sell your music such as iTunes and CD Baby.  You want to hire a professional music lawyer once your music is copy written and mastered.

Success will arrive with professionalism, education and a growing passion for the art of music production.  Take a few classes at a local community college about music recording and business.  Learn music recording programs such as CuBase, Nuendo, Pro-Tools or Sonar. 

Get equipment for recording.  Purchase the most affordable software with an interface, outboard compressor and pre-amp.  Find a condenser microphone and stand with a Popper Stopper.  Buy a 2.5 motherboard/processer combination [at least] that is able to take at least four gigs of ram.  You may use a soundcard with Midi keyboard inputs.  This usually runs about $250.  One midi keyboard controller and you are ready to track out and record. This is affordable for under $1500.

The most talented people can become extraordinary when they also work hard, stay focused and execute. If you are meant to do this you must make sacrifices. Much love and luck.

For my far-away friends your wait is over! If you want to purchase my album through MP3s head over to http://cdbaby.com/cd/lisabello. You can buy the singles or the WHOLE album, its up to you!!!! After you get it write a review at CDbaby I would love to hear what you think!!

You can now download a strictly digital copy of We Are Bound by Stephen MacDonald & The Okay Win from CD Baby!

As music artists seek notice from fans and the industry, it’s vital to observe a key factor concerning peoples’ ability to recognize talent, even greatness.

You may have already read about the social experiment the Washington Post conducted two years ago with world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell. It was actually Bell’s idea to perform undercover as a street musician for a day at a Washington Metro station. What many don’t know is that the Gene Weingarten story earned a Pulitzer Prize that year for feature writing. What many do recall is the fact that a venerated violinist went virtually unnoticed, unappreciated and unrecognized.

What the public took away from the story — rightly so — is the fact that people pass up life’s jewels, even when they’re right before their, well, ears. But this tale holds a much greater meaning for artists of all stripes.

Center stage for artists sits the concept of context. What does that mean? For decades, I’ve observed that people, music industry pros included, often don’t recognize greatness in its raw form. When it comes to music, listeners need to have a song or an album framed for them in a validated form.

There are many examples, but here’s a case in point from my own experience as a songwriter and recording artist. In the late 1980’s, I began a ten-year stint as a Nashville songwriter. The first two years were rough, but when I got the hang of it my material and demos became street-ready, as they say. A number of those demos were sung by Trisha Yearwood. Then, she was known as Trisha Latham (her name from her first marriage), and was unsigned and unknown. The first demo I heard her sing on left me slack-jawed, and not just because of the material, which did eventually get signed to what was then PolyGram. By the time she hit the first chorus, I knew I was hearing a major star in the making.

But here’s the point. As I played those demos for music publishers and A&R execs, it amazed me that not a one commented on the singer. So I started what was to become an experiment of my own. I’d ask, “so what do you think of the singer?” They’d invariably say, “who is she?,” to which I’d reply, “Trisha Latham.” Then, they’d say something like “never heard of her,” and that was the end of it.

The reason they never heard of Trisha is because she was being developed privately through Garth Brooks’ camp. A&R in any music town expect to see upcoming talent in the clubs, so the assumption (as it was with Trisha) is: “if I don’t know her, she can’t be any good.” Again, it’s all about context.

Several months later, Trisha’s first single – “She’s in Love with the Boy” — came out, making Music City history for duration at number one for a female artist. By then, she had returned to her maiden name, Yearwood. I made the rounds of many of the same offices again, playing those Trisha-sung demos. This time, by the third note, I’d hear, “That’s Trisha Yearwood!,” to which I’d reply, “yeah, so where were you last year?”

Of course, we’ve all heard the stories of how most famous artists have their walls lined with record-label rejection letters, and, if you’ve paid some dues in the biz, you likely have a collection of your own.

So what’s the point of all of this? People – pedestrians and pros alike – miss greatness all the time. Even in the biz, there aren’t that many John Hammonds, Ahmet Erteguns and Russell Simmonses. If it were that easy to spot top talent, A&R would be a cinch.

So how is this study of use to the music artist? Simply as a point of reference, to understand why some audiences, some pros have been missing your best stuff. Maybe you’ll never write or produce a truly great song. But, if you work hard for a long, long time, chances are very good that you will come up with one, maybe more. For that reason, it’s vital to be armed with such perspective.

So… I have been busy.

First, (or: most recently) I’ve updated my twitter page with a customized background: http://twitter.com/nancynishihira

It’s not perfect, but it is something fun until I feel like modifying it to fit different size monitors!

Also, I’ve been working on the idea of an EPK, or Electronic Press Kit… and I don’t really know exactly where to start.

I’ve got the picture (also see the top left hand corner of my newly designed twitter page)…

And I’ve tried to update my many web pages… finally got the cover to my CD up on last.fm…

Which can be viewed here: http://www.last.fm/music/Nancy+Nishihira

Also, I think I’ve finally (?) been able to get control of the account.

However, I still have to design an album cover for a tiny 3 song EP I’m going to stream on last.fm. (Perhaps I will sell it on CDBaby once the site is situated).

The album is called “Long Lost” and so far, I have the first track, “Infatuation, My Obsession” up to stream.  I converted it from tape (cassette tape!) to mp3.

There are two other tracks, which I still need to convert and add…  These are very old tracks, professionally recorded, which I just “rediscovered”.  I haven’t heard them for quite sometime.  I eventually hope to convert my entire tape collection to mp3.

Still seems like it will be awhile before I can get music onto Pandora; it seems that something on Amazon has to do something and for that to work CDBaby has to have stuff and a barcode and whatever else.

I am actually very excited about making music and art right now.

I have a really cool art idea but I am keeping it quiet now because I don’t want anyone to take my idea until I am done with it!

Listening to so much music has been very inspiring.  Right now, I love Vienna Teng (Hope on Fire is my current favorite).  She has an amazing voice.   I also love the song Grow Grow Grow by PJ Harvey.  AMAZING.

I’d love to get on youtube and record some songs too… I don’t think it’s time yet though.  I’m a little rusty and don’t really have the time to sit down and record stuff, although I also have some fun video ideas.

And as for Tanaka Style…

I am compiling a list of songs to record.  It is likely that the Tanaka Style (or 「田中スタイル」) stuff will be recorded before my solo stuff will.  There is a lot less pressure and more fun!

My next step, after I lay the groundwork… is to play some open mic.

yes we sold out but are restocked once again! yay!

make M.U.S.I.C. yours!!!!

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/AndreeBelle

tons of love and inspiration your way!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Album Cover

After a mere 4 hours of sleep last night, I woke up this morning at 5 ante meridiem to start packing for my birthday weekend in Seattle. I don’t know why I didn’t pack the night before. That’s a lie. I do know; I was too lazy to sort everything out. My host mom took me to the airport, I checked in (even though I’d done the whole online check-in thingie) and I went shopping with only 25 minutes left before departure.

I finally made it onto the plane after the terribly long lines, we taxied and waited in another long line of departing planes. Now here I am sitting on the plane on my way to Seattle to see my friends and family.

I must admit that I am looking forward to tomorrow (August 7th) because everything leading up to this day has been so sincere and profound. I received my first birthday gift about 3 weeks ago. My host mom purchased a ticket for me to Seattle – until this morning I didn’t realise that it was first a First Class Ticket!

Yesterday (August 5th), my friends gave me an early birthday surprise. I also thought I had to work but I didn’t. My very good friend Josefin, invited me for our usual walk together and we detoured – I didn’t think much of it and the next thing I knew I had people screaming and scaring the heck out me! The signs were all there but I failed to pay attention to them and put four and three together. I was no longer a surprise party virgin. I am very grateful to my friends for everything – it meant more than you could imagine.

It doesn’t end there; Dianne and I met a South African family last year and I am very fond of them. Last night, their oldest son, and my new friend, called and asked me to pop by before leaving, regardless of the time. So at 10:35 post meridiem I head on over and I introduce him to two of my friends. He leads us to the garage and points to the bike and says Happy Birthday. I didn’t know what to say. I know I probably sound like an excited 4 year old what with getting a new bike and all, but I was really excited. Still am.

In the spirit of celebration and excitement and happiness, I am very pleased to announce that Ngqibs – Let Me Be: Recharged will be available for purchase through CD Baby from the 27th of August. It doesn’t end there either; Hope,the first song from the almost-ready 5-track EP will be also be available at most major digital music stores.

New song from Ngqibs upcoming EP

I chose this day for release because it is my sister’s birthday. I am very excited to hear your thoughts on the song – you can listen to it on my Facebook Page.

So now I hope you can understand the anticipation of my big day. Turning 21, seeing Seattle and my friends again is going to be great. The only thing that would make my birthday perfect would be seeing my family again, but that won’t happen (or will it??? pleeeeze ), I will settle for a phone call. I miss and love you all.

Yours in Singing

Ngqibs

Tiffany Desrosiers is on Last FM where you can listen to many full length tracks from her new CD just released on CDbaby. Tiffany is a big surprise to most listeners because she has an old fashioned message dressed in a modern powerful heart pounding pop style. If you like music that makes you dance and lyrics that have a message then you might just fall in love with Tiffany.

Listen on Last FM