Blog

Music AND Carl Sagan?!?!?

Matthew Siegel — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:38:00 -0400

Buy Indaba Merch!

Matthew Siegel — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:45:00 -0500

Some of you have asked us for Indaba merch, i.e. t-shirts and other stuff with the Indaba logo on it. Well here it is! If you love Indaba then grab some gear.

Groundbreaking Album Production and Promotion Model

Matthew Siegel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:39:00 -0500

Yesterday, in conjunction with Nettwerk Music Group and Universal Music Canada, Indaba Music launched an incredibly innovative program for progressive hip-hop artist K-OS. K-OS's new album is not being released until the spring, but starting yesterday, musicians around the world will have the chance to download, mix, and re-imagine the stems for all 11 songs on that not-yet-released album. This is an exciting opportunity in and of itself, but the best part is that K-OS is going to pick a winner from each contest to be awarded $1,000 and to be included on a companion album (also being released by Universal).

At Indaba, we're completely psyched about this for 2 reasons. One, this is an amazing, unprecedented opportunity for undiscovered musicians to collaborate with a major artist and actually get serious exposure by winning a spot on a major release. Two, this program demonstrates the extraordinary flexibility and depth that new technologies are adding to the traditional album production and release process. In the past, people wouldn't have a chance to interact with the artist or his content until it came out of the studio and was packaged for distribution (whether that's in the form of a physical CD, digital download, etc.). Here, we're demonstrating that an artist can engage musicians and fans even before an album is finished, building stronger connections with them, and hopefully creating a larger economic pie for everyone who has a stake in the album's success.
We're running a similar program with Third Eye Blind concurrently, so I think it's only appropriate to wrap up this post by saying that Indaba is incredibly blessed to have found such progressive, forward-thinking artists that would enable us to demonstrate the utility of the technology and community we've built.
Here's a link to the full press release about the K-OS program.

New Indaba Feature I am COMPLETELY PSYCHED ABOUT

Matthew Siegel — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:06:00 -0400

I don't usually blog about new Indaba features, but today I can't help myself. Thanks to our technical wizards over at Indaba, you can now call each of your sessions and RECORD DIRECTLY TO IT FROM YOUR PHONE. No more kicking yourself because you forgot that melody or lyric idea you had when you were out on the town over the weekend. Every session also has it's own CONFERENCE NUMBER, so you can have a conference call over the phone with your fellow collaborators any time you like.

I am completely psyched about these features and I hope they are useful to you! Let us know what you think!

Belated - Billy Joel at Shea Stadium

Matthew Siegel — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:51:00 -0400

I am sorry I didn't get to this post sooner - mostly bec ause I wanted to write about this concert while it was fresh in my head. I've been a huge Billy Joel fan my entire life (like most kids from Westchester or Long Island), but the only live show of his that I'd seen was the Billy Joel/Elton John tour in Boston about 6 or 7 years ago.

So, I braved the secondary market and decided that no matter what it cost, I would procure tickets for this show - good tickets. I ended up with 6 tickets for the July 16th show - 2 for me, 2 for Dan , and 2 for my parents about 15 rows back from the field. It turned out to be worth it, because this was an incredible concert.

Even if you weren't a big Billy fan, this was a truly legendary show. Surprise guest performers included John Mayer, John Mellencamp, and Tony Bennett. Billy also played more than a few Beatles songs in a tribute the band that is one of Billy's biggest influences, and also the first music act to ever play Shea. Billy became the last since they'll be tearing it down at the end of the 2008 season. More exciting for me however was Billy's own music - all 3 hours of it.

Billy played just about every one of his big hits (with the exception of Extremes, Uptown Girl, and one other that I can't remember anymore). It was absolutely incredible to hear these songs live, and Billy delivered them with his typical high-energy, crowd-pleasing excitement - I was on my feet the entire show. Even more exciting for me though were the songs that aren't his most well-known hits...he opened the show with Miami 2017 off of Songs in the Attic...this was the one song I desperately wanted him to play but never thought he actually would (probably my favorite Billy song, if I had to pick one). Other amazing, lesser known songs included Ballad of Billy the Kid, Angry Young Man, and The Entertainer (I guess that one doesn't really count since it's on Greatest Hits volume 1). Whew...just repeating that list gets me excited.
This was the kind of show that I really didn't want to end. Although it did of course, it seemed like they were shooting for a DVD (multiple cameras, unusually formal intro at the beginning of the show, etc.), so maybe I'll get to watch it over and over once the recording comes out. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Plants Can Make Music Too

Matthew Siegel — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:05:00 -0400

Yes, yes they can. This story (via Create Digital Music) chronicles an amazing sound installation in Scotland that automatically produces music in response to changing environmental factors associated with plant life in a greenhouse.

A composition for plants, yangqin, bamboo robot and robotic chimes, Three Pieces is designed as a collaboration between robots, traditional instruments, and living things, housed in Victorian Palm House of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. A traditional Chinese dulcimer is played by a robot with many bamboo fingers while the surrounding foliage hides an ensemble of robotic chimes. Despite being separate individuals, the robots communicate and perform together. The robot performers are conducted by all the living things in the Palm House. The moisture content of the soil changes slowly as the plants absorb water, while on a much faster timescale, the temperature changes in the building as animals, including humans, move about. The installation detects this living presence in the Palm House and the music changes accordingly. The robots react to humans, but their mood alters with the plants.

The robots and plants are taking over. Maybe they're mad that we've been killing all of them for so long (the plants, not the robots).

THREE PIECES sound installation from Ziggy Campbell on Vimeo.

Biggest Lyrical Contradictions of All Time?

Matthew Siegel — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:59:00 -0400

I get bizarre thoughts in the morning - don't ask. This morning it was a thought about Meatloaf, and the fact that he'd do anything for love. Except that he won't do anything for love, because he won't do that. How can we let him get away with this contradiction?

Anyway this got me thinking if there are any others like this out there...anyone? Bueller?

Condi Joins the Kiss Army

Matthew Siegel — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:25:00 -0400

This Wired post is HYSTERICAL. In what must be one of the weirdest marriages of a political figure and musicians ever, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice hung out with KISS in Stockholm during a conference on Iraq. Maybe she's going to get the KISS army to help out the other army.

Gas Prices Tough for Musicians

Matthew Siegel — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:14:00 -0400

Everyone knows that gas prices are through the roof, but I hadn't thought specifically about the impact they had on musicians. The Chicago Tribune did a great job highlighting the difficulty that rising oil prices create for indie bands on the road - check out the full article here.

"Traveling from town to town and playing for an audience is the lifeblood of any musician. It's a calling that has transcended centuries, generations and styles. But it's imperiled by the rising price of gasoline.

'We drove from Omaha to Madison to play a show and it cost us $240,' said Matt Maginn, bassist for the Omaha indie-rock band Cursive. 'My jaw just about hit the floor. That's double what it cost us before. If you're a new band driving cross-country in a van pulling a trailer of equipment that's getting 6 miles a gallon, and you're getting paid 50 or 75 bucks to play a gig, I don't know how you survive.'"

I feel a slew of songs about gas prices coming on. What do you say Indaba? Bueller?

Wuchess

Matthew Siegel — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:47:00 -0400

Just when you thought there was a social network for everything, in comes wuchess, a social network for hip-hop and chess. Yes, you read that correctly.

According to the site, "WuChess is a new online chess + hip-hop community that will offer live game play, chat rooms, tournaments, lessons and exhibitions featuring RZA and special guests." It hasn't launched yet, but RZA seems pretty excited about it and it looks like it may be released soon, so stay tuned.

Flight of the Conchords

Matthew Siegel — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:35:00 -0400

I love these guys - they're hysterical. Aside from thinking that the show is pretty funny, their music is catchy and really amuses me. Check out this video for "Ladies of the World" (from the band's current full-length album on Sub Pop).

Bad Music is Still Bad

Matthew Siegel — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:48:00 -0400

Duncan Riley over at TechCrunch wrote a great response to some ridiculous comments from The Society of Authors, the UK Association representing professional book authors. These folks are claiming that internet piracy will put an end to original writing. Sound familiar? It should, because this was the same argument music industry execs made for music when the internet and P2P hit the scene.

I'm glad Duncan is calling shenanigans on this kind of argument, but I take issue with one point he makes. In his words, "While online content and E-Book readers are changing the book game, there will always be a market for books; literature is not modern music, it can’t be created on a whim by 9 year olds using Garage Band."

I feel like people outside the music world often make this mistake - as anyone on Indaba will attest to, digital production technology makes it easier for anyone to create music, but it doesn't guarantee that the music will be any good. Musicians, engineers, and producers still need to be talented - this hasn't changed in over 100 years of recorded music. The implication that all of modern music is about inexperienced 9 years old hacking songs together on Garage Band is moderately offensive.

The Amazing Beatboxing Dog

Matthew Siegel — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:24:00 -0400

A very amusing new Flash campaign for Swedish telco Tele2 features an interactive beatboxing dog. Not sure what it has to do with the advertiser's business, but it's music and it's funny so I figured I'd share.

[via GigaOm]

Statistical Rap Shirts

Matthew Siegel — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:51:00 -0400

Gordon brought these hysterical analytical interpretations of rap lyrics to my attention today...some very, very funny pokes at some of the most famous (and/or funny and cheesy) rap lines* of all time. Evidently you can also buy them on t-shirts too! A few of my favorites are below.

*Because a lot of the songs depicted graphically after the jump include misogynistic and sometimes vulgar lyrics, I feel compelled to mention a wonderful talk that Moby gave at SXSW this year in Austin. Moby is such a wonderful human being and so it was a great interview all around, but I was particularly moved by his thoughtful way of looking at offensive lyrics. Moby is by no means a fan of censorship and said he is indeed a member of the ACLU, but he also said that he takes great personal offense to lyrics that demean women or any other persecuted group. Moby therefore makes a personal choice not to listen to such lyrics. It was a meaningful discussion to me because hip hop and rap songs with offensive lyrics have been ingrained in my memory and childhood...they were a big part of the music I grew up with...and so now I feel bad even writing this post because it indirectly calls the wrong kind of attention to these lyrics. So I wanted to point out that I don't take the lyrics lightly (even if some of these depictions are positively hysterical), and everyone should check out Moby's talk for some good perspective on things.

Digital marketing insights inspired by Avenue A Razorfish

Matthew Siegel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:01:00 -0400

I finally got around to reading Avenue A Razorfish's 164 page 2008 Digital OutlookReport, and I must say that it's a great overview of pretty much everything that is happening where digital media and marketing is concerned. It was so good that it inspired me to craft some marketing concepts for Indaba Music that I think should contribute to shaping the future of our company. A few themes were particularly relevant and got me significantly excited about their application to Indaba:

Value for marketers needs to be measured across multiple touchpoints - not just pageviews on a homepage. In the past, you could determine how valuable a website was to marketers based on how heavily consumers interacted with it online, but now, consumers interact with websites across an array of technologies from RSS and email to widgets and content syndication. The internet now blends seamlessly with an astounding array of offline activites. No where is this more true than on Indaba, where community members download audio files which they then work with over significant periods of time offline. I found this point particularly interesting because in Indaba's case, it means that members engage with our company in significant ways even when they are not using the website. There is value that can be delivered to both marketers and users throughout the entire story of this engagement (from pageview, to file download, to digital production, to file upload, to content syndication), and everyone, especially marketers and websites (like Indaba) need to get better at measuring, explaining, and capturing that value.

Smart companies are ceding control to their most passionate users so that they are empowered to market for them. This one is pretty obvious to those of us in the tech community, but it's particularly relevant to Indaba. Our most passionate, vocal, and active users are both our biggest fans and biggest critics - they love what we're doing and they don't like it when it doesn't work the way they want it to. Indaba as a team and a company has forged meaningful relationships with these individuals, but we can also go further and empower them to help shape the Indaba community, the message it sends to the outside world, and the tone of its activity and collaboration. It's obvious that core Indaba members are begging for this kind of empowerment, and so we're thinking about what the best tools and techniques will be for giving it to them.

Congrats to Jukebox the Ghost

Matthew Siegel — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:24:00 -0400

One of our favorite bands here at Indaba is Jukebox the Ghost, and I wanted to congratulate them on their big new publishing deal! We were lucky enough to celebrate them with them down at SXSW (plus Seth, their manager and our former Indaba intern).

SXSW Update #3

Matthew Siegel — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:20:00 -0400

In the morning, we learned that original ideas for the internet date back to the 1830s...that's right, they didn't have the telephone, but some guy still thought the internet would be a pretty cool idea. Since most of our short term memory was erased later on in the day by the nuclear tacos (read on for more), you can check out that cool dude's name and other interesting factoids about the history of the interwebs at Alex Wright's website.

One of the new friends we've made here at SXSW (a great guy from ASCAP by the name of Mark Palermo) decided that as SXSWi newbies we had to experience the nuclear taco buffet in Brush Square Park. Being the cavalier hot-pepper-eaters that we are, we dove right in to the nuclear (nucular as Reagan would say) tacos and we were certainly regrettful of our arrogance. These were the most painful things we've ever had to eat, but at SXSW, if it's free and you can eat it, you have to take it.

We capped off the night with an awesome show from Boston synth-pop act Freezepop - Jesse has been photographing the band for years and insisted that this was one show we didn't want to miss - it certainly dissapoint. This band is a lot of fun - especially if you like to dance - and they have exceptionally stylish schwag that I would recommend wearing even if you don't like synth-pop and keytars.

SXSW Update #2: Throw Down Your Heart

Matthew Siegel — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:21:00 -0400

The highlight from yesterday (our 2nd day down here at SXSW) had to be meeting Bela Fleck and seeing the world premier of his documentary film, Throw Down Your Heart (co-produced with his brother). Bela is one of our favorite musicians (and people) at Indaba; I've been fortunate to have met him a few times, and every time he's just as warm and genuine as ever (despite obviously having no idea who I am). Yesterday Bela played a great solo set and then went across the street to premier the film at the Alamo Ritz.

Bela, who is one of the greatest banjo players of all time, takes his banjo on a trip across Africa to trace its roots as an African instrument and play with traditional musicians, many of whom have never even seen a banjo before. The film was beautiful and inspiring, and the music was incredible. A highlight for me was the 15 foot marimba that was played by upwards of 5 people at a time over a giant pit in the ground. I am anxiously awaiting the release of the soundtrack for obvious reasons. If you have a chance to see Bela's extraordinary movie, make sure to go.

To recap the day from a broader perspective, the whole experience of Bela's film served as a great little microcosm of why I love being here at SXSW so much. We got to interact with an incredible musician face-to-face after hearing him play an incredible set. We got to see a piece of media that no one in the world has seen before while drinking a pitcher of great Texan beer in a movie theater that, yes, serves drinks and food at your seat. And to top it all off, we made a new friend while waiting in line for the movie who also happens to be creating new opportunities for musicians (check out Magnatune - a very interesting company experimenting with new models for how a record label can function). More to come!

SXSW Day #1

Matthew Siegel — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:50:00 -0500

It's about 7pm here in Austin, TX, ending our first full day of conferencing here at SXSW. Me, Dan, and Jesse came down for the Interactive festival, and the rest of the Indaba team will be joining us for music next week. First and most importantly, I must report that the BBQ is as good as I remember last year, and we will certainly be returing to Stubb's again before leaving town (perhaps 3 or 4 times if our arteries can handle it). Dropkick Murphys happened to be playing the outdoor venue while we ate so the ambience was awesome.

So far I have to say that in terms of insight and awareness of the sweeping changes taking place in technology and also in music, the Interactive festival is far more progressive and forward-thinking than Music was last year. Everyone here seems to "get it" - not surprising of course since this is a conference made up entirely of people who work on websites for a living. Today we heard panels on building successful online communities leveraging the web for artist promotion just to name a few, but more importantly we had some great conversations with other people working to reinvent and improve the ways people find and work together online. Not much by way of specifics to report just yet (since I am exhausted and am cutting this short so I can take a nap before dinner), but we'll be blogging all week so there's more to come...

And if there are any Indabans down here that we don't know about, please let us know so we can get together!

And here's Dan talking to a very nice reporter at lunch courtesy of Sam at drop.io...(hopefully our pictures will get more exciting)

How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet

Matthew Siegel — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:15:00 -0500

Although I consider my parents to be pretty hip when it comes to technology (see my mom quoted in Wired for evidence), I must confess that I do think conversations with them about the internet and particularly about social technologies often reveal generational gaps in our understanding and use of technology. Using the internet, or better yet, living the internet as so many of us here on Indaba do is in fact just the normal state of being for us - we meet people, we interact, we make music, we make friends. And we do it online - not at the expense (I hope) of what we do offline, but definitely in addition to it. A lot of this activity is conceptually difficult for older generations, and even if it isn't, for the un-initiated it's almost always difficult to handle from a technical perspective - using the internet, making digital music, and even using a computer requires a whole new frame of reference and skills that can be difficult to master when one was not raised in this environment. I've recently been helping my grandmother learn to use a computer, and I was faced with an interesting problem: how do you explain the difference between a single click and a double click to someone who has never used a mouse before? It isn't as simple as I'd thought, even though I myself know intuitively when to do one or the other.

What I find most interesting about all this is that this community - Indaba Music, is in fact good evidence that the generational boundary is an illusion - musicians over 30 are in full force here, and other sites show the same trend - 40-and-ups are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook (someone please check that stat for me - I know I saw it in a credible place but I can't remember where). So, rather than try to bridge the divide and make peace between the generations all by myself, I wanted to share this article that my brother introduced me to. It's from one of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, among others), and I think it's a really interesting read. Enjoy!