For now, Imeem will still be run independently of MySpace, but, word on the street is that it will soon by assimilated into MySpace Music. Another rumor is that MySpace may soon be charging for music services, so, is all this gobbling up of sites like Imeem and iLike a move into that direction?

So how did it come down to this for Imeem, a site that had over 4 million users?

First off, they had some major financial issues.

They were hit with a copyright lawsuit by music publisher Orchard Enterprises. They also failed to raise some much needed funds. At one point, they were able to earn around $30 million from places like Warner Brothers, who also sued Imeem later on.

Then there’s an obvious factor. People could care less about ads when listening to music.

When you go to a music streaming site, you’re there for one thing and one thing only, to listen to music.

I’m actually kind of bummed about this whole thing. Imeem was a pretty decent site that made it pretty simple in sharing music. We used Imeem quite a bit here at Evolvor to share some tunes.

It’s also a shame that they’re forced to now be a part of the mess that is MySpace. As everyone knew from the get go, MySpace Music is really unimpressive. I don’t think that acquisition is going to help them one bit.

So, another music sharing site goes under and one less place to share your music with the world. Awesome.

Post from: Evolvor Media

This is a guest post from Paul Fenlon, a gifted web developer, drummer, and friend of evolvor.com. Thanks Paul for this wonderful lil’ tool that will make browsing MySpace way less frustrating in the future!

If you’re anything like me, then you probably find yourself swearing at MySpace and the designers that pollute it. For the most part, MySpace pages are cluttered and media-rich, resulting in slow load times or maybe even a browser crash.

I don’t know about you, but the only reason I’m on MySpace is to keep track of bands and find out about new music. So, when I go to MySpace I really only need to see the music player.

With that said, I got motivated a few days ago and decided to put an end to the MySpace media problem. After some toiling, I came up with a pretty good solution: a bookmarklet.

My bookmarklet searches through MySpace source code and grabs only the information needed to play a band’s songs. It then refreshes the page and shows only the Flash music player. Problem solved!

“How do you use the bookmarklet” you ask? Well, you drag the link below to your bookmarks and simply click it anytime you go to a band’s MySpace page. You can load the music player almost immediately after connecting with MySpace.

Please note that I haven’t done any legitimate testing; however, it does seem to work in Opera, Safari 4, and Firefox 3. Also note that add ons like ad blockers or flash blockers will stop the bookmarklet from working.

Here is the JavaScript code (formated for readability)…

var s = document.getElementById('shell');
var t = document.createTreeWalker(s,
				  NodeFilter.SHOW_ELEMENT,
				  null,
				  false);
var n, v, m, f;
while (t.nextNode()) {
	if (t.currentNode.tagName.toLowerCase() == 'param') {
		n = t.currentNode.getAttribute('name');
		v = t.currentNode.getAttribute('value');
		if (n == 'movie')
			m = v;
		else if (n == 'flashvars') {
			f = v;
			break;
		}
	}
}
window.location.href = m + '?' + f;

I hope my Music-Only bookmarklet helps you enjoy MySpace a little more…please let us know if you end up using it!!!

Go ahead and give it a try here (shameless plug!) Julian Day @ MySpace

Post from: Evolvor Media

I had the pleasure of interviewing Brian a few months back, and with the release of his second album, A New Meaning, I figured now’s a good time to publish it!

Brian is unique in that he has self-released two albums under his alias Cyrenic – a one man band and producer. For someone without a live show to spread the word about his music, I was interested in Brain’s thoughts on creating music and using the web to distribute it.

Can you give us a little background on yourself and the Cyrenic project?

Cyrenic actually grew out of me sitting in class at University of Maryland at the lowest point of my life, and ignoring what was going on in class, I would just sit and write lyrics. I had grown up heavily influenced by music and had taken a shot at a few different instrument lessons through the year but never sticking with it.

I have always had an ear for melody though and I guess as a way to cope with the change of going to college and being in the wrong place, writing was my self-help. I never intended or knew how to take what i had written and turn them into actual songs but i wrote hundreds of songs and really got pretty good at writing lyrics.

I would share my lyrics with friends online and talk music with tons of people to discover new bands. Eventually I ran into a guy who sent me some stuff he recorded using simple windows recorder and just overlaying the sounds. I was blown away that you could do this on your computer.

I got myself a tiny computer microphone and started experimenting recording through it and recording a little guitar amplifier into windows recorder and eventually acid music. I just played by ear and while I thought it was pretty good, looking back its horrifying how awful my voice was. I never let anything discourage me though and went on to gradually upgrade my recording equipment and I recorded 4 full albums by myself under the name Sole Cord.

At a certain point I felt that I had grown enough as an artist and wanted to get rid of any connection to the awful Sole Cord music and changed my name to Cyrenic. I had always strived to get a pro recording sound out of my low cost equipment and finally feel that i achieved that with the release of “The Whites of Our Lies” on Jan 1 last year.

What does “Cyrenic” mean?

As Sole Cord, I had a song called “Siren” which i loved the meaning behind that word. When i decided it was time for a name changed I came up with the adjective Sirenic meaning captivating or alluring besides the mythological connections and wrote it as Cyrenic.

You produced “The Whites of Your Lies” yourself, correct?

Correct. I’ve produced everything I’ve ever done. I love that I get to control every aspect of every song and have it come out as pure as it is when it first comes to me, usually in the shower. The production is the part I’m most proud of on the recent stuff as it definitely takes the longest time for me. I can write and record a song in less than a week. But mixing it correctly, editing and mastering it takes 5 times as long.

And you played all the instruments?

I do. I know that I’m not an expert at any instrument, but I play by ear and feel that I can put together great melodies and songs that don’t require it. A good song is a good song. I’m always learning and improving though. Vocally I’ve definitely come the farthest. My early stuff was just atrocious and I usually get complimented on my voice more than anything now.

What have you done in terms of promoting that album, and what do you plan on doing differently for your new one?

I never had any expectations for the “Whites” really. I did it for myself mostly. I didn’t care about the money and wanted as many people as possible to hear it. I did something that may seem weird, but I released it as a scene release on MIRC to generate word of mouth at least. Those first few days I had more downloads than the new Foo Fighters album and people were going nuts over it. It blew me away. I then started contacting fans of bands that I loved to have them take listens and the response was fantastic. I have continued promoting on MySpace which has been great and plan to use it for the new album as well.

For the new album, I plan on mostly doing the same, except it will be more about contacting existing fans and possibly having them help spread the word.

Would you consider “Whites” a success, either creatively or financially?

For me, personally, it’s one of my greatest successes. I am extremely proud of it. Financially, it’s done better than I expected but of course I do not have the same exposure as other bands, especially with no live show. Like i said, I’m definitely not in this for the money. I would send everyone a free copy of the cd if it didn’t cost me anything. I just want as many people as possible to get the opportunity to love it or hate it.

Your sister Adria (I’m just assuming here) joins you on a few tracks, including “Let it Burn”, off the upcoming album. What is her musical background and what is it like having her join you in the studio?

My sister, Adria has always had a fantastic voice with no formal training either. She is one of the only people who share my music taste almost exactly. Doing “Immune” with her on the last album was awesome.

It really brought the song to a whole new level and gave it a very dynamic element. We are both perfectionists and spend hours upon hours recording every line though so it’s not really practical to have her on a lot of the album.

“Let it Burn” is actually a sequel to “Immune” and I knew I had to have her on this album due to popular demand as well. I think our voices work well together and I hope people enjoy the hard work that went into the songs.

Speaking of studio, do you have your own?

I have a home studio which lets me use any free time i get or ideas that pop into my head to be captured immediately. I also do not have to worry about studio costs or rushing anything. I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.

The setup i use right now is actually very simple. I use a mac pro G5 running logic pro with an maudio recording interface. I direct record all guitars, bass and microphones using various plug ins which allow me to alter the sounds once they’re recorded with much more flexibility. I also have a midi setup for piano/strings/ambient sounds. Very simple but there is already enough going on with the writing, recording, mixing, mastering this works best for me.

I love the design work on the album, graphically speaking. Did you do this as well?

My background and career is as a graphic designer has let me create the visuals along with the audio for my work. I love being able to have the artwork be from the same artist as the music. Brings the package to a whole for me. I put a lot of work into the visual aspect of the band.

What role has the internet played in getting people into Cyrenic?

There would be no Cyrenic without the internet. It’s really everything to the band since there is no live show.

Are your plans in the future to keep going it alone?

I have toyed with the idea of taking the band to the stage but am putting that on hold again at least until after this album is completed. I will continue recording alone but as of now, plan on having a few surprise guests on the new album besides Adria.

Update – check out the Cyrenic MySpace page – looks like the live act is coming together!

Post from: Evolvor Media

(Photo by VeldaZ)

Gen-Y and young people coming out of college today are changing the status quo of the one-size-fits-all model of the industrial age. Young people are starting businesses, communicating online and interrupting the traditional business paths laid out by our elders.

Musicians are no exception. In fact, some might say they are pioneers. From the days of MP3.com to Napster to Myspace and Radiohead saying pay whatever the hell you want, musicians and people in love with music have lived and played by their own set of rules.

Take both scenarios and you have a bunch of young people, making music, starting businesses and making a living by their own admission.

Thus the dawn of the location independent musician.

• A musician who operates their business from wherever they happen to be.
• A musician who found multiple streams of income from digital downloads, merch, touring, songwriting, collaborating, creating products and focused on branding.
• A musician who has no physical inventory.
• A musician or band that lives in a van, on planes and creates cult classics in airports on MacBooks and GarageBand.
• A musician who doesn’t sit in a desk all week and play a local show on Friday night.

These bands and musicians have been categorized as boys in vans or the coffee shop circuit. The reality is that they operate a business as legit as that coffee shop or your local laundry mat for that matter.

They leverage tools that developers and designers have laid out for them and the comfort of using the internet has afforded them.

Typical tools may include:

• Wordpress to blog about their day to day lives and serve as a content management system for their online brand.
• YouTube, Twitter, Myspace, Reverbnation and Facebook to connect with fans all day long.
• CafePress for on demand shirts and other print as needed or as ordered merch.
• TuneCore to get their MP3’s onto iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody and the other players that help them look like the bog boys.
• Audiolife to print CD’s and merch on demand, handle inventory, orders and shipping.
• Bandcamp to pretend they are Radiohead or Trent Reznor.
• Basecamp to keep their team organized on stay on task.
• Google Docs for all documents, presentations, contracts and offers.
• Gmail for email.
• Instant Messengers to talk to fans, partners and well, mom.
• UStream to broadcast live video from anywhere.
• Lulu to self publish books of their poetry, songs, memoirs or stories from the road.
• And countless others.

Being location independent gives a musician the flexibility to collaborate with musicians from across the world and actually be in the same studio. It gives them travel benefits like frequent flyer miles. It allows them to sustain the rock star lifestyle while working on their business.

There has never been a more exciting time to be a musician. The tools are out there, venues are begging for talent to inflate their Tuesday nights and social media has proven that people want to talk about great things.

Are you a location independent musician?

Let us know how you maintain your life on the road and enlighten others on your travels, your day-to-day and the tools that make your life easier to manage and more accessible for fans. I look forward to meeting you when you visit Orlando, a great place to stay for a few days on your travels.

For more information on location independent lifestyles (not necessarily musicians) be sure to check out:

http://locationindependent.com/blog/ - by Lea Woodward

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ – by Tim Ferriss

http://www.thrillingheroics.com/ – by Cody McKibben

(This post was written by Greg Rollett from Gen-Y Rock Stars, a resource and community for indie musicians. Check out their free Gen-Y Rock Star Tool Kit or email Greg for more information.)

Post from: Evolvor Media

Portishead are looking to their fans to help them promote their next album, since the trio is yet another band free from a record contract.

Member Geoff Barrow recently left a MySpace Blog entitled “The Future” and, here’s what he had to say:

“We spent the day discussing the future of the P as we are free… well free of a deal and free of commitment… for now!”

The multi-instrumentalist went on to state:

“With the world being the way it is there are lots of options open…” and he added “But if you lot have any bright ideas of how we should sell our music in the future lets us know, why not!”

But, if your hoping that the band will give away the album for free, you may be a bit disappointed.

“I don’t think that were into giving out music away for free to be honest… it f***in’ takes ages to write and we have to heat our swimming pools…!!!”

Does anyone else find that funny?

Anyways, the band confirmed last December that they were working on the follow to their third album, cleverly titled Third, which came out last year.

If you’re a Portishead fan, this is an awesome opportunity. Who knows? Maybe you could start something big.

Post from: Evolvor Media

Now, let’s step back for a minute so you can put what I’m about to tell you in some simple perspective.

Turn back the clock to let’s say 1995. Think of the different outlets you used to discover new music. Your list should probably turn up something like this:

• Radio
• Film & TV
  (mostly MTV)
• Friends
• Live Shows/Concerts
• Magazines

Most if you heard music from MTV and the Radio. Your friends did too, and you shared it with each other. You even formed bonds with friends because of your similar music tastes.

Now, let’s look at all the different outlets we have today:

• Radio (a little less of the new and more of the same)
• Film & TV (see radio)
• Friends
• Live Shows/Concerts
• Magazines
• The Internet

Notice a difference? Yeah, the Internet is the new player in helping you discover new music. You have your MySpace and your Facebooks – these are social networks that you and your friends use to share music, in addition to the spam requests that many bands use to hopefully steal your attention long enough to give them a listen.

While these networks are great ways to discover music, 9 times out of ten the REAL fans made there are made AFTER they have heard a song from somewhere else, whether it be a live show or from a friend’s iPod.

What I’m trying to say is, you’re probably not going to get someone to listen to you for the first time just by hitting them up on MySpace.

Instead, you’re going to use your MySpace/Facebook/YouTube/Bebo/Enternetworknamehere to REINFORCE any kind of exposure your potential fan might have had of your music.

Example:

Potential fan sees you live in a bar, goes home, Google’s your name, finds your MySpace page, and BAM, is your friend for life and gets all your updates and all that jazz.

That’s the value these networks really provide – they enable the fan to keep track in the goings-on of your band instead of relying on traditional media outlets to remind them of you.

So what forms of online media actually INFLUENCE music discovery?

That’s where the Hype Machine Music Blog Zeitgeist comes in.

Albert discussed the importance of the Hype Machine a while back, but here is a quick refresher:

“The Hype Machine simply aggregates Mp3 blogs into one place. The more “hyped” an Mp3 is (i.e. the number of mentions, links to the blog post via technorati and delicious), the better chance it has of making the Hype Machine front page or radio.”

The Zeitgeist of 2008 is a collection of the most blogged about songs, artists, and albums of 2008.

In other words, it’s about people like you and me sharing information and music, and then having that information reach others, who then share with their communities, etc etc.

It’s about FRIENDS sharing music with other FRIENDS (or in this case, blog subscribers) who have SIMILAR TASTES!

If you can reach music bloggers, and get them interested in YOUR music, and make them a fan, chances are they’re going to share it with their communities as well, and if you reach the right people, you too can have the chance of getting your song picked up on the Hype Machine.

This is the Billboard chart of the digital age, and it’s only going to grow more important in time. Learn how to connect with the music blogosphere and you’ll be way ahead of the competition!

Post from: Evolvor Media

Actually, there’s an overwhelming number of free marketing tools online that enable artists to connect with fans. Once you break through the wall of no-brainers like MySpace and Facebook, it can be kind of intimidating with all the other networks and tools out there, especially when you run into someone like me and I geek out on you about things like Twitter.

But are these things really going to help you out? Is using Twitter going to sell you albums or increase your fan base?

I say yes. Others may disagree. It’s your job to look at these new technologies and ask yourself if you think your fans use them too. Or if the people you want to hear your music use them.

First, let’s clear some things up for those who are unfamiliar with Twitter. Twitter is a free “micro-bloggging” social network that let’s it’s users update their followers with short sentences regarding their “status”. You login to Twitter and type a quick blurb about what you are doing, and those people who have joined your network can read.

Now, the service is HUGE and has millions of people using it. Some use it to update their friends on worthless activities; others use it in a conversational method; others to provide resources to their community.

Their are different ways you can make your Twitter profile interesting and resourceful enough that people will want to follow you and communicate with you through the service.

People follow me on Twitter because I use the service to reinforce my “brand” and what it is that I do for a living – teaching others about the Web and how to use it to your advantage in your career. Check out my list of “tweets” and you can see that my focus is on music and marketing.

Now, not every tweet is about music and marketing, and this is where you must understand that Twitter is casual conversation at the same time. It’s like sitting at the bar with your tie pulled out after a long day of work, but you’re shooting the shit with the bartender about the work you actually did accomplish.

Every marketer and their mom is trying to use Twitter to get the word out about their products and services, and some are using the service in a smart way. Many are not and are just using it to spam us with links to some web page hawking some product, or even worse just updating us with random, pointless information about their day that no one cares about.

You see this happening a lot with entertainers, especially musicians. Their marketing team tells them to get on Twitter and update everyday. I know, because I’m one of them.

Unfortunately they’re not teaching them how to really use the service properly, and what you have is a whole mess of musicians updating us with meaningless talk about what they had to eat today and the shit they just took afterwards.

What they are not understanding is that yes, while every once in a while it’s the random “in the moment” tweets that we might find funny or interesting, it’s all the resources and information that you provide most of the time that people listen and react to.

It’s no different than your blog – people want to read good, fresh content that they can walk away from with something that will help them or get their mind asking questions – stuff like news, informative commentary and resources.

The same needs to happen if you’re a musician and are going to be using Twitter to help “promote” yourself; you’re not using it to directly promote a song or album, but rather to bring people into the processes behind it.

A good use of Twitter for a musician would be to Tweet about all the things involved when you’re writing a song – what is inspiring you (and why)? what distortion pedal did you use to create a sound?

Maybe you’re on tour and you figured out a great place to grab a taco near the club; it’s a random comment, but another band playing that club might stop by there and try one for themselves.

I was reading a recent post from Lefsetz that discusses Twitter, and technology in general, and whether or not you need to to succeed. Here’s a quote worth really thinking about:

That’s your marketing. Your fan base. It isn’t about hiring a PR firm or using Twitter. Actually, Marty pooh-poohs most technology. He says you’ve got be wary that the technology doesn’t get ahead of, doesn’t overwhelm the act. He doesn’t use Google Analytics to find out where each and every fan is. Marty goes on feel. He, and his uber agent Cass Scripps just go into a new territory, and although the first gig might be soft, the one after that never is. Because Corey delivers.

He has a great point – ultimately it’s not the MySpace’s and Twitter’s that are going to make or break you – it’s the fans that will.

And my only argument is using these tools properly is a means to interact with those fans, to get them involved. There are a million ways to communicate with people to bring them into your world; it’s not the tools themselves, but HOW you use them that will dictate whether or not they will help you succeed.

You can have a million MySpace friends, but it doesn’t mean squat if none of those “people” actually checked out your profile or read your updates or leave you comments. You can Use Twitter all day long, but if the conversation you’re having isn’t interesting, then no one is going to give a shit.

Learn how to use technology to engage people, and learn what kinds of technologies are being used by what kinds of people.

Twitter is being used by a lot of business professionals, marketers, and industry insiders – use this information as a basis for your decision to use Twitter as a conversational tool.

Not all technologies are going to be used for all kinds of people – know and understand the different demographics of people are using a specific tool, and mold your conversation accordingly.

http://twitter.com/evolvor

Post from: Evolvor Media

The band asked fans to create videos for tracks from last year’s historic release In Rainbows. Three winners were to be selected, but since Radiohead do things their way, they picked four. The winners will have their videos placed on MySpace.

The videos for “Reckoner” and “Weird Fishes” (which you can watch below) were put up last week. By the way, both are pretty clever and very pretty damn good. You can look for “15 Step” on November 25 and “Videotape” on November 28.

Yet another reason why Radiohead has such a dedicated fan-base.

Asking fans to make videos for you definitely keeps the fans interacted with your music, and saves the band some dough too.

Good work mates, you guys still know how to amaze me.

Radiohead – Weird Fishes – by Tobias Stretch

Post from: Evolvor Media

Hello Musicians!

We are happy to announce that artists can now buy ad space on MySpace. We call the program Find Your Fans. Find Your Fans On MySpace is a quicker, easier and smarter way to promote yourself, your band or your brand on MySpace.

The ad sales program is in beta, and we’re ready for MySpace users to start kicking the tires.

If you are interested in joining us, then read on….

So, what is Find Your Fans On MySpace?

Find Your Fans is a user-friendly tool for you to use to advertise your band, brand or yourself on MySpace. You can target specific types of MySpace users you want to reach. Simply create your ad, tell us who should see it, how long you want to run it and how much you’re willing to spend. That’s it!

We’ll display your ad all throughout the MySpace site to the users you’ve chosen, putting your message in front of millions of potential customers and driving traffic to your profile until your campaign’s reached its spending limit or the expiration date set by you, whichever comes first.

When are you charged? Only if someone clicks on your ad — not when your ad is displayed.

How do you sign up?

All you have to do is email the URL of the profile (or profiles – you can promote as many as you want!) to:
ssapfeedback@myspace.com

You can also visit the following website to learn more:

https://advertise.myspace.com/apply.html

Thanks,
Tom

I have spoken with some of the kats from MySpace in the past about advertising on MySpace, but it kinda seemed like you needed to have a reasonable budget to get anywhere. This new service may provide a nice way to target specific users in a cost-per-click ad model, which is kind of cool. I’ll be doing some more research into it over the next few weeks and let you know what happens.

Post from: Evolvor Media

If you are not aware, millions of baby boomers are beginning to retire and this will be a huge shift in regards to Internet usage as well. As more and more boomers retire, they’ll have more time to spend at home, and trust me, it won’t be watching TV. It will be surfing the ‘Net, especially for travel and retirement destinations, or business related searching (let’s just say not every boomer is going to be able to afford retirement and most will turn to the net for additional income).

Gossip abounds about how 50% of MySpace is over 35. That’s because these people are just starting to discover the social aspects of the web. Youth discovers it first, mommy and daddy follow. Then mommy retires and spends all day online buying things and talking to her girlfriends. See the picture here? Stop knocking MySpace as a bad deal-these guys know what their doing!

Post from: Evolvor Media