Category Archives: Industry

Major Corporations are your underground tastemakers?


Here it is. This track “All Summer” by Kid Cudi, Best Coast and Rostam Batmangli ( from Vampire Weekend and rapidly become one of my favorite names) was created for and available on the Converse website. Is brand sponsored music the only outlet for new music? Are major brands now leading tastemakers for what would traditionally be considered underground music? Lest us not forget that Levis is at present in the middle of their Pioneer Sessions which has some pretty notable and underground artist doing their favorite covers that you would not hear anywhere else. Its safe to say a indie label would not have the capital to fund such a project and a major label would not have fortitude to do such.

David Letterman’s Late Night booker has a who’s who of hipster world on CBS the old people network. And Jimmy Fallon’s show ( Isn’t that called Late Night also?) has the Roots as a house band which automatically lends legitimacy to any guest

Point is weren’t these the very outlets that used to be “raged against”?

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Also posted in Rants, Video |

Body Music

Fleshmap Graphic
Fleshmap is an inquiry into human desire, its collective shape and
individual expressions. In a series of studies, we explore the
relationship between the body and its visual and verbal representation.
Using images of the body as pictograms, Listen offers a fresh look at
vocabulary use, ranging from the popular to the erudite. ”

Yeah, yeah, yeah, basically, this is a very beautiful, interface that
visually depicts how many times a body part is mentioned in song in a
variety of genres.
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Also posted in Website, trends |

Lil Wayne Album Sell Strong Despite Album Leaks

Reports here that Lil Wayne is due to sell upwards of 900,000 copies of “Tha Carter III” this week. That is despite of Mr. Waynes protest against the mixtape dj’s unfairly profitting on his music and other album leaks. Lil Wayne could also surpass Kanye West 1st week sales of “Graduation” which reached 956,000 copies. Which should prompt some interesting blow back from Mr.West.
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Also posted in Hip Hop, Rants |

Did You Hear That: Album Leaks – All of them!

What do you do if your release date is 2 months away and someone in your camp has leaked your new album to the interweb? It happens alot. All the time. Your label has spent 6 months staging a marketing campaign and now everyone UMICH is downloading your creative genius faster than a greased leopard. Again what do you do? The obvious thing would be to push up the release date to minimize the circulation of unsanctioned copies floating through the ether. Sure, that works for the majors, Beck, Nine Inch Nails,Radiohead are all still going to probably sell 7 figures ( albeit low 7 figures). And they have their tour support and licensing opportunities ( which is really where todays artist are going to make there money).

But I’m talking about the 2nd tier artist (neh artist on the come up). Critic and blogger darlings much anticipated 4th album ( hypothetically). Imagining they sold 40k last time out and they are slated to sell upwards of 100K this time around which would bump them up from their indie to the major that distributes said indie. But wait, 2008 is here and the DIY marketing strategy you have so carefully plotted out is blown because everybody has already bitorrented your record 2 months before you are booked on Letterman.

What do you do?
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