March 23rd, 2008
But I thought I’d post this comment here, relating to this post at Techcrunch where Michael Arrington comments:
“Recorded music is nothing but marketing material to drive awareness of an artist. Websites that bring that music to listeners are doing artists a favor. In fact, they’re doing them a favor that they should (and will) be paid for. Young artists and songwriters in particular benefit from these services - Until a few years ago they had almost no way to break into the mainstream without getting a label to promote them. Now those walls are being torn down, and Bragg has the audacity to complain about it.”
My reply to this is that one word comes to mind when I hear all of the web2.0 types talk about the next generation of music and how artists and labels should not expect to be compensated for recorded music.
Carpetbagger.
Yes. The old fatcats at the top of the music biz totally f’d it up with Napster. That’s ancient news. But they also screwed it up with terrestrial radio and MTV- building huge conglomerates on “promotional” music. To be fair, the biz was making enough money selling discs for it not to matter.
But it does now. We’re wise to Bullsh!t2.0, where some small team of founders and initial investors make millions in funding from selling to Newscorp, Yahoo, Google or CBS. Don’t blame the artists and labels for adapting to the new playing field. Music helps these companies acquire customers who have a lifetime value. So they need to shut up and pay.
These guys are still just as greedy as they claim Doug Morris and Edgar Bronfman are, the just hide behind the popular mantra that music should be free. Free to the consumer? Sure. Free to those who make a windfall? No way.
I suggest anyone in a band or from a label read the post and leave a comment on it.
Written by Bill Wilson | 14 Comments
February 13th, 2008
Hey everyone. It has unfortunately been a really long time since we have posted anything on IndieHQ. I wish I could say that was going to change in the near future, but with all of our current schedules that is looking to be pretty doubtful. In lieu of this situation, I thought I’d give some quick updates on where we’re all at right now and how to keep up to date with what we’re all up to should you feel inclined…
I recently updated my personal blog and portfolio. I also posted a “Best of 2007″ mix for anyone to stream or download.
Virgil has been extrememly busy with Suburban Home and Vinyl Collective. Check out a new band he is releasing vinyl for called Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground. The record is excellent.
Bill recently launched a new site for Blackout! Check it out and make sure to watch the Sheer Terror documentary available to stream on the site.
Hope all are doing well.
Written by Sean Klassen | 2 Comments
September 11th, 2007
I’m loving what the folks over at Take Away Shows are doing. If you haven’t checked out the site before I highly recommend you do. They basically take a band and film them outside playing live and uncut in some sort of unique environment…
Here are a few I particularly enjoyed:
Written by Sean Klassen | 1 Comment
August 25th, 2007
A few weeks back, I mentioned an idea I had about all the large ISP’s charging a $5 per household media usage “fee” to all broadband subscribers. In return, the households would get full access to a content repository of mp3’s. According to a recent article at GigaOM, Cable Companies in France are doing exactly that.
“Yesterday, neuf Cegetel, a competitive broadband service provider, said it will offer about 150,000 songs and 3,000 videos from Universal Music Group (owned by Vivendi (V), another French company) for about five euros a month.
Today, not to be outdone, France Telecom’s (FTE) Orange France is looking to offer unlimited music downloads (from a much bigger catalog) for free! And here I was talking about music-becoming-a-commodity. It’s happening faster than I thought.”
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Written by Bill Wilson | 2 Comments
July 2nd, 2007
I just posted a new mix for the summer. Half of the songs I picked remind me of summers when I was a little kid (I guess my parents love old soul music) and the other half are tracks that are new to me and for the most part new in general along with an interesting Pixies cover. The two sides alternate throughout the mix and it’s as simple as that. Enjoy.
Written by Sean Klassen | No Comments
June 27th, 2007
I am really excited to share with you the full album stream of Screeching Weasel’s “Anthem for a New Tomorrow”. I had called Mike Park the other day about wanting to stream something from Asian Man on IndieHQ and he said that he was ok with me streaming whatever I wanted. I thought about this for a while and I just had to post “Anthem for a New Tomorrow” which is my favorite Weasel album; with “My Brain Hurts” being a close second.
I hope a few of you consider giving this album a listen. This is the scene that inspired me to start a label and got me excited about independent music. For quite some time, Screeching Weasel, were my favorite band and this album will always hold a soft spot in my heart. My terrible college pop-punk band even covered “Totally” at the few house parties we played.
When Mike Park announced that he was re-issuing all of the Screeching Weasel catalog, I was so excited for him. Although punk rock has become a completely different thing in 2007, I don’t know where I would have been if not for the pop-punk scene of the early to mid 90’s.
Written by Virgil Dickerson | 6 Comments
June 26th, 2007
We are happy to be hosting a mix tape compiled by our good friend, Aaron Ray. Aaron is a former employee of Suburban Home, current employee of Collective International (who was recently bought by Payless, as well as a freelance graphic designer. Aaron is one of the raddest designers I know and definitely miss the days when he used to work for us. He has put together a mix of some of his recent favorites which includes tracks by Pelican, Battles, C-Clamp, Apostle of Hustle, Blonde Redhead, Shellac, and more. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks Aaron for putting it together.
Click the link to read Aaron’s comments on the songs from his mix.
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Written by Virgil Dickerson | 2 Comments
June 22nd, 2007
Today, we are happy to announce the full album stream for Josh Small’s “Tall by Josh Small”. If you just click the Josh Small cover on the right side of the IndieHQ site, our streaming audio player will pop up and you can take a listen. If you are so inclined, you can copy the html on the player and put this player on your myspace page, blog, or whatever.
To give you a quick intro, Josh Small is a Suburban Home artist. I met him through Tim Barry as Josh plays Banjo and Dobro in Tim’s band. One night I saw Josh Small, Tim Barry, and Jon Snodgrass from Drag the River jamming after a late night show. It was honestly one of the coolest things I had ever seen. I fell in love with Josh’s songs and later asked him if he would want to do a record. The record is much different than anything I have ever put out and I have a hard time telling people what it sounds like. It’s Folk with a 70’s Rock vibe and when I had first seen Josh play, I thought he would do well on a tour with William Elliott Whitmore. Crazily enough Josh and Tim Barry will be supporting William Whitmore this fall for a full U.S. tour. I am stoked. I love the record and hope some of you check it out. The record will be in stores on June 26th; it is also available in our store or as part of our pick any 5 Suburban Home releases for $25.
Written by Virgil Dickerson | No Comments
June 22nd, 2007
After having my last mix on the IndieHQ site for way too long, I thought I would share with you a mix I did with Kyle at Suburban Home called, “Not So Quiet on the Country Western Front”. It is a fun comp of many of my favorite Country/Folk/Roots rock and in between acts like Lenny and the Piss Poor Boys, Tom Waits, Dustin Kensrue, and Rocky Votolato are tracks by some of my acts including songs by Drag the River, Josh Small, Two Cow Garage, Tim Barry, and Armchair Martian. You can get a copy of this mix for free if you purchase anything from the Suburban Home store and add this mix to your cart.
I sometimes consider starting the antithesis of the hipster music blog and start one that features my favorite Country and Punk Rock songs. I even bought the urls, PuttheOBackInCuntry.com and PuttheOBackInCountry.com for some future use. Only if there were more hours in the day!
I hope you enjoy the mix. We will over the course of the next week be updating the other releases in our streaming area.
Written by Virgil Dickerson | No Comments
May 24th, 2007
A little while ago, I ran across TALENTfilter, a blog all about great unsigned music. No hipster kitsch, no specific genre… just great unsigned stuff, as heard by an educated set of ears, with a knowledgeable sense of humor about the music biz-at- large. I find myself checking in on it frequently, and decided to talk to the (anonymous) folks responsible. (more…)
Written by Bill Wilson | 23 Comments
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