New Single! "Call" by Sleeveless Meek and the Right to Bare Arms
Josh Preston LIVE on WDVX!!!
From Josh Preston:
Hey Folks!!
Today is going to be a very exciting day for yours truly! It will mark the release of my new EP Landmarks as well as a live performance on Knoxville's WDVX @ noon (or 12:30 as the playing order hasn't been finalized).
The EP is available exclusively through my Bandcamp page until February when it will be released worldwide on iTunes and all of your other favorite digital music outlets. Not only will it be available for instant digital download in any format you'd like TODAY but I'll also begin shipping physical CDs for those of you that like to hold music in your hand and smell the plastic. Ok, that's a bit strange but I actually love the way new CDs smell. Too much sharing...
Thanks so much to all of you that have previewed this EP on my Facebook page and if you're so inclined don't forget to become a fan!
I'll be posting throughout the day on Twitter about my travels to Knoxville.
See ya soon!
Josh
Preview Josh Preston's new EP!
 |
| Photograph/Cover Art by Heather Love |
At long last, Josh Preston's new EP Landmarks can be previewed on his Facebook artist page! This 6 song EP includes the following songs:
1. Landmarks
2. Empty Driveways
3. Actress
4. The Only Town I Know Without A Name
5. Our Ghosts
6. Stages
This EP will be on sale on December 10th, 2010 for friends and fans via Bandcamp. This date coincides with Josh's live performance on WDVX in Knoxville as part of their Blue Plate Special series. You can listen to this performance live on wdvx.com at Noon EST.
In addition to this new EP, he's launched a new website at joshpreston.com!
We've got a TON of new releases coming in 2011 from almost every Me and the Machine artist so stay tuned!
Our buddy Leo Johnson with the Johnson Swingtet on WDVX
Our long time friend Leo Johnson will be performing on WDVX today @ 12pm EST with his band Johnson Swingtet. Listen here!!
Spotify crashes into Apple on way to U.S. | Media Maverick - CNET News
Sent from my happy place via my iPhone
ASCAP Tells Artists It's Cutting Their Payments, While Collecting More Than Ever
As posted in Techdirt: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101007/11300711326/ascap-tells-artists-it-s-cutting-their-payments-as-it-brags-to-the-press-how-much-more-money-it-s-collecting.shtml
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Sent to you by Josh via Google Reader:
via Techdirt by Mike Masnick on 10/7/10
ASCAP feels like the gift that keeps on giving to those of us covering it. If you're an artist... not so much. We've covered many examples of how ASCAP's aggressive efforts to shut down venues from hosting up-and-coming singers is harming local musicians. And, we've also pointed out how they use a system to overpay large acts at the expense of small acts. Now it's getting even worse. Just as ASCAP is attacking groups like Creative Commons, EFF and Public Knowledge -- who help artists find more ways to take control over their own careers, it's also cutting back on payments to many of its artists: ASCAP cut payments to some members of it's ASCAPlus program by 20-30%. "Unfortunately, because of the fiscal climate, less money was available this year for the award program," ASCAP said in a letter to those receiving checks.Ah, right. The tough economic climate. We do know about that. But... wait. Here's an ASCAP press release from just five months ago, claiming it was bringing in more money than ever:
"Music is performed more often, in more places, in more ways by more businesses than ever before. That expanded music use, combined with dramatic ASCAP Membership growth, market share increases and effective strategic management have led to stunning revenue and distribution growth for 2009."Okay, so ASCAP is collecting more money and distributing more money, but it's cutting the amount given to ASCAPlus members by a huge amount. What's ASCAPlus? Ah, right, the smaller artists who can't make a big stink about this:
"writer members of any genre whose performances are primarily in venues not surveyed; and/or writer members whose catalogs have prestige value for which they would not otherwise be compensated."In other words, ASCAP appears to be taking more money away from small artists, and giving it to their biggest artists. No wonder ASCAP's Paul Williams refuses to debate Larry Lessig, claiming he'd rather focus on "fair compensation to music creators." Unless you're a smaller, less well known artist. Then ASCAP wants your share to be a little less fair. Actually, quite a bit less fair. Like 20 to 30%.
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The New Whole Usuals @ Musicians Corner
The New Whole Usuals w/ Vince Gill
Photo by Lisa Reed-Preston
On behalf of The New Whole Usuals, thanks to everyone that came out to the park on Saturday for Musicians Corner!
The New Whole Usuals will be performing again on October 15th @ 9pm at The 5 Spot in East Nashville.
Found Footage: The first iPad street musician
From The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Found Footage: The first iPad street musician
09-28-2010
The iPad, and the wonderful iPad music app called Seline HD (US$9.99), are making a splash in the music world. Last month, Alex Shpil showed us The iPad Orchestra, which was a quartet using the same software to make beautiful music. This month, he shows us a street musician playing sitar-like music on the iPad.
Enjoy the music, which Alex captured in full stereo.
Behind the music: The winners and losers of social networking promotion
Josh Preston spotted this on the guardian.co.uk site and thought you should see it.
To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/sep/23/music-social-networking-promotion-blogs
Behind the music: The winners and losers of social networking promotion
Some musicians take years to finish a song. When we expect them to bash out blogs too we risk alienating talent
Helienne Lindvall
Friday September 24 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/sep/23/music-social-networking-promotion-blogs
An artist I know recently signed to a major. The label wanted him to be active on social networking sites, to blog and so on, because apparently that's how you build a fan base these days. Within weeks, he was a nervous wreck. He spent hours sitting in front of his computer, slowly breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of each word he wrote being dissected, with no chance of revision once it had entered cyberspace, potentially spreading across Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.
He wanted to be witty, candid and sincere. He also felt the need to be a bit controversial, since that would be one way to attract attention to himself and, hopefully, his music. Yet that would also guarantee those indelible words would remain in the public eye ...
So stressed was this musician that he's now posted to a blog saying: "This is the last time I do this." Why? It had taken him years to distil his emotions into 10 songs, sweating over every word to make sure it divulged how he really felt, knowing that it would be part of his legacy forever. Now he was expected to write 500 of them in a week ? preferably in a day.
In the magnificent volume Songwriters On Songwriting [http://www.amazon.com/Songwriters-Songwriting-Expanded-Paul-Zollo/dp/0306812657" title="Songwriters On Songwriting], in which Paul Zollo interviews legendary songwriters about their craft, Leonard Cohen [http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/zollo.html" title="Leonard Cohen] describes his creative process: "It takes me months and months of full employment to break the code of the song ... I try everything to ignore it, try to repress it, try to get high, try to get intoxicated, try to get sober, all the versions of myself that I can summon are summoned to participate in this project, this work force." He proceeds with a tale of how it took him a decade to write Anthem [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zKk76YkF1U" title="Anthem], offering detailed explanations as to why he chose one word over another.
If Cohen started out today, would he survive as an artist? Would his songs become such a part of our cultural fabric that even someone such as Simon Cowell would pick one as the X Factor winner's single? Would he be expected to fund his next record by cooking a meal ? or even doing a striptease [http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/princesssuperstar" title="do a striptease] ? at a fan's house, or singing down the second-hand iPhone [http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/836324104/ukulelehead-is-out-webcast-party-is-today-6-pm" title="second-hand iPhone] they bought from him for $1,000?
What if you just want to ? and are only good at ? making music? "Some people just want to build and sell typewriters, and there's nothing wrong with that," says Mike Masnick of TechDirt [http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i68e64a3cf27273505d02d59eabedae01" title="Mike Masnick of TechDirt]. "But they shouldn't then complain when people aren't interested in buying the typewriters ... [or] be upset when they are branded as archaic because they're trying to sell something in a market that has moved on." Cohen is not a businessman (though his former manager was ordered to pay him $9.5m after he sued her for siphoning money [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/04/arts.usa" title="sued her for siphoning ?5m] from him, so I guess he eventually learned). He's a damn good songwriter. Who knows whether he'd have been able to hone his craft if he'd been forced to work on his business acumen and social networking skills at the same time.
My friend with the blogging troubles may still be able to get his music out there because he has the marketing machine of a major to fall back on, but what about the musicians who don't? What if they're not part of the "artistic middle class" touted by TopSpin [http://www.topspinmedia.com/blog/" title="TopSpin] and other online music marketers, who consider themselves entrepreneurs and not just artists who create art for art's sake?
I recently heard a Danish band called Choir of Young Believers [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU_LRUkjbKk" title="Choir of Young Believers], who fall into that category. They may never get the Twitter retinue of an Amanda Palmer [http://twitter.com/amandapalmer" title="Amanda Palmer] ? who has nearly half a million followers ? but their song Hollow Talk [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy7yuj-UrNI" title="Hollow Talk] (which only has 23,000 views on YouTube, at the time of writing) completely stopped me in my tracks, sounding like a melancholic Arcade Fire doing the soundtrack for Wallander [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkv2ITs4TrE" title="Wallander]. I don't want them to write blogposts; I just want them to be able to keep writing songs that transport me to a much more beautiful place when I'm enduring the London underground at rush hour. And no, I don't own a typewriter.
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk user help desk: userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
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To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/sep/23/music-social-networking-promotion-blogs
Behind the music: The winners and losers of social networking promotion
Some musicians take years to finish a song. When we expect them to bash out blogs too we risk alienating talent
Helienne Lindvall
Friday September 24 2010
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/sep/23/music-social-networking-promotion-blogs
An artist I know recently signed to a major. The label wanted him to be active on social networking sites, to blog and so on, because apparently that's how you build a fan base these days. Within weeks, he was a nervous wreck. He spent hours sitting in front of his computer, slowly breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of each word he wrote being dissected, with no chance of revision once it had entered cyberspace, potentially spreading across Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.
He wanted to be witty, candid and sincere. He also felt the need to be a bit controversial, since that would be one way to attract attention to himself and, hopefully, his music. Yet that would also guarantee those indelible words would remain in the public eye ...
So stressed was this musician that he's now posted to a blog saying: "This is the last time I do this." Why? It had taken him years to distil his emotions into 10 songs, sweating over every word to make sure it divulged how he really felt, knowing that it would be part of his legacy forever. Now he was expected to write 500 of them in a week ? preferably in a day.
In the magnificent volume Songwriters On Songwriting [http://www.amazon.com/Songwriters-Songwriting-Expanded-Paul-Zollo/dp/0306812657" title="Songwriters On Songwriting], in which Paul Zollo interviews legendary songwriters about their craft, Leonard Cohen [http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/zollo.html" title="Leonard Cohen] describes his creative process: "It takes me months and months of full employment to break the code of the song ... I try everything to ignore it, try to repress it, try to get high, try to get intoxicated, try to get sober, all the versions of myself that I can summon are summoned to participate in this project, this work force." He proceeds with a tale of how it took him a decade to write Anthem [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zKk76YkF1U" title="Anthem], offering detailed explanations as to why he chose one word over another.
If Cohen started out today, would he survive as an artist? Would his songs become such a part of our cultural fabric that even someone such as Simon Cowell would pick one as the X Factor winner's single? Would he be expected to fund his next record by cooking a meal ? or even doing a striptease [http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/princesssuperstar" title="do a striptease] ? at a fan's house, or singing down the second-hand iPhone [http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/836324104/ukulelehead-is-out-webcast-party-is-today-6-pm" title="second-hand iPhone] they bought from him for $1,000?
What if you just want to ? and are only good at ? making music? "Some people just want to build and sell typewriters, and there's nothing wrong with that," says Mike Masnick of TechDirt [http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i68e64a3cf27273505d02d59eabedae01" title="Mike Masnick of TechDirt]. "But they shouldn't then complain when people aren't interested in buying the typewriters ... [or] be upset when they are branded as archaic because they're trying to sell something in a market that has moved on." Cohen is not a businessman (though his former manager was ordered to pay him $9.5m after he sued her for siphoning money [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/04/arts.usa" title="sued her for siphoning ?5m] from him, so I guess he eventually learned). He's a damn good songwriter. Who knows whether he'd have been able to hone his craft if he'd been forced to work on his business acumen and social networking skills at the same time.
My friend with the blogging troubles may still be able to get his music out there because he has the marketing machine of a major to fall back on, but what about the musicians who don't? What if they're not part of the "artistic middle class" touted by TopSpin [http://www.topspinmedia.com/blog/" title="TopSpin] and other online music marketers, who consider themselves entrepreneurs and not just artists who create art for art's sake?
I recently heard a Danish band called Choir of Young Believers [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU_LRUkjbKk" title="Choir of Young Believers], who fall into that category. They may never get the Twitter retinue of an Amanda Palmer [http://twitter.com/amandapalmer" title="Amanda Palmer] ? who has nearly half a million followers ? but their song Hollow Talk [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy7yuj-UrNI" title="Hollow Talk] (which only has 23,000 views on YouTube, at the time of writing) completely stopped me in my tracks, sounding like a melancholic Arcade Fire doing the soundtrack for Wallander [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkv2ITs4TrE" title="Wallander]. I don't want them to write blogposts; I just want them to be able to keep writing songs that transport me to a much more beautiful place when I'm enduring the London underground at rush hour. And no, I don't own a typewriter.
If you have any questions about this email, please contact the guardian.co.uk user help desk: userhelp@guardian.co.uk.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2010
Registered in England and Wales No. 908396
Registered office: Number 1 Scott Place, Manchester M3 3GG
Please consider the environment before printing this email.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Visit guardian.co.uk - newspaper website of the year
www.guardian.co.uk www.observer.co.uk
To save up to 33% when you subscribe to the Guardian and the Observer
visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/subscriber
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This e-mail and all attachments are confidential and may also
be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify
the sender and delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately.
Do not disclose the contents to another person. You may not use
the information for any purpose, or store, or copy, it in any way.
Guardian News & Media Limited is not liable for any computer
viruses or other material transmitted with or as part of this
e-mail. You should employ virus checking software.
Guardian News & Media Limited
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Amie Street Closing Shop
Me and the Machine is saddened to hear that Amie Street is closing on September 22nd. Amie Street has been a great platform for our artists over the past few years and we'll miss them. Starting September 22nd, Amie Street will be redirected to Amazon.com. The Amie Street crew will be focusing on their new internet radio start-up Songza.com. As the Me and the Machine folks are not ones to let the grass grow under their feet, we've already set up a radio station dedicated to Me and the Machine artists and you can check out the station by clicking here. Good luck on the new venture folks!!
MATM Artists Play Shakespeare In The Park THIS WEEKEND
All of the pre-show entertainment this weekend at Shakespeare In The Park (Map) will feature Me and the Machine artists. This year's show is Love's Labor's Lost. Here are the details:
8/26/10 - Nathan Griffin of Stillhouse Hollow
8/27/10 - Josh Preston
8/28/10 - Adam Burrows
8/29/10 - The New Whole Usuals
(All Set Times are 6:30pm)
Come early, bring a friend and enjoy an incredible evening in the park!
The Future of Concert Videos / App Idea
I was just turned on to a new video feature developed by Pitchfork that allows the viewer to choose one of six videos cameras with which to watch a concert. Pop over here to experience this for yourself. It's absolutely seamless and downright amazing.
While this feature has not yet been used in a live streaming setting that I'm aware of, the day is coming very, very soon to be sure. And for bands that want to broadcast their shows but don't have the budget for a multi-camera shoot, it only makes sense that the filming will be handled by fans via their mobile devices.
While not tackling the live streaming at this juncture because the iPhone does not yet allow for live streaming, I've thought about a potential app that would allow the user to capture video with an embedded, location-based timecode. Post-show, the user could upload the video they captured to the band's page and other users could upload the videos they captured to allow for community editing or the ability to jump between videos synched w/ the concert audio from that night. The community could also rate the videographer and the best videographers could share in ad venue. These are just thoughts and this is all super preliminary but for this future venture, I've secured the domain name everyoneatonce.com. Additionally, the applications for this app outside of the concert industry are limitless (parties, weddings, etc.).
If any readers are interested, I'm looking for a designed/developer to help develop an app of this nature or at least to discuss the unforeseen pitfalls of such an app. Hit me up @ josh(@)meandthemachine(dot)com or post in the comments section and I'll get back to you. Let's allow real music fans to revolutionize the live concert experience...
While this feature has not yet been used in a live streaming setting that I'm aware of, the day is coming very, very soon to be sure. And for bands that want to broadcast their shows but don't have the budget for a multi-camera shoot, it only makes sense that the filming will be handled by fans via their mobile devices.
While not tackling the live streaming at this juncture because the iPhone does not yet allow for live streaming, I've thought about a potential app that would allow the user to capture video with an embedded, location-based timecode. Post-show, the user could upload the video they captured to the band's page and other users could upload the videos they captured to allow for community editing or the ability to jump between videos synched w/ the concert audio from that night. The community could also rate the videographer and the best videographers could share in ad venue. These are just thoughts and this is all super preliminary but for this future venture, I've secured the domain name everyoneatonce.com. Additionally, the applications for this app outside of the concert industry are limitless (parties, weddings, etc.).
If any readers are interested, I'm looking for a designed/developer to help develop an app of this nature or at least to discuss the unforeseen pitfalls of such an app. Hit me up @ josh(@)meandthemachine(dot)com or post in the comments section and I'll get back to you. Let's allow real music fans to revolutionize the live concert experience...
Josh Preston in NYC on Saturday Night (8/21/10)!!!
Just a reminder to those of you that may have been missed on Facebook, Josh Preston will be performing live on Saturday, August 21st @ 8pm at The Underground Lounge (Map) in New York. The show is free with a two drink minimum. (Please note the date change from the prior email.)
MATM Studios Session w/ Adam Burrows & Steve Wolfe - Pics by Mark Vann
Brilliant evening in the studio last night w/ Adam Burrows and Steve Wolfe. Steve played percussion on a few tracks for Adam's forthcoming EP. Mark Vann popped by and grabbed a few shots of the recording process.
James David Wolf's Special CD Release Party
You're invited to the CD release party for James David Wolf's Special tonight (7/29/10) @ Douglas Corner in Nashville, TN. The show starts at 8 PM and there is no cover. The show will also feature solo performances by Josh Preston, Adam Burrows and Nathan Griffin from Stillhouse Hollow.
Awesome Piece About The New Whole Usuals in Nashville Cream!
And don't forget to grab the album if you have not already. It will make you happy.
TNWU Featured on We Own This Town: Volume 35 Podcast
New MATM Releases Get Some Mobile Love From Sprint
Are we already seeing the death of mobile streaming?
I've been thinking a great deal about the recent policy change by AT&T to cap their monthly bandwidth usage to 2 gigabytes instead of offering unlimited usage like they do currently. After reading a recent post by Bob Lefsetz, I decided to dive into the issue a bit further for some real world perspective and I came up with the following:
Two of the hottest music streaming sites Spotify & Mog each provide music streams at 320kbps for premium users (Spotify Source / Mog Source). I believe Pandora peaks @ 128kbps for their streams.
At 320kbps, the bandwidth usage is 150 megabytes per hour. If AT&T's recently announced cap is 2 gigabytes a month, this means - without doing anything else on your mobile device - you could only listen to 13 hours of music a month on your mobile device using either Spotify or Mog (13 hours = 1.95 gigabytes) assuming their mobile apps offer the same streaming quality. That's roughly 15 albums a month.
That's horrible.
Not only is the music industry completely screwed by current streaming revenue models; there's no possible way to make up ground if newly acquired streaming consumers are forced to cap their listening for fear of being charged overage fees. If all of this is true and the music industry is banking on the mobile marketplace to survive, they had better bank elsewhere.
Even though Pandora's streams are 128kbps, that still only leaves a customer the ability to stream a total of 40 hours of music a month. That equals 5 days of streaming music for 8 hours a day. Again, this is also assuming you don't engage in any additional usage on your mobile phone. Throw a few YouTube video streams and a few text messages with pictures in the mix and streaming music consumption damn near disappears.
This leaves a number of unanswered questions for me. Namely, if Apple bought Lala and then shut it down, do they really have a motivation to create a streaming service allowing users to store their music in the "cloud" given such limited mobile bandwidth? Might Apple work out a deal w/ AT&T so streaming music consumption won't count against your bandwidth usage? Labels had better start begging Apple to engage in such a deal.
Additionally, it's no stretch to say that Verizon and other mobile companies will cap bandwidth eventually given the ongoing strains on their respective systems. If you keep following the breadcrumbs, might the mobile service providers start their own streaming services and allow users to stream all the music they want without limiting bandwidth if you have a contract with them? It doesn't seem like much of a stretch if you think about it. It's also fairly easy to see that the user interface from a mobile service provider will undoubtedly suck.
So with consumption caps on their users and mobile service providers presumably on their heels with their own services, there are going to be many more shake-ups before there is stability when it comes to streaming music on your phone.
TNWU playing Stache Bash 2010 THIS SATURDAY
While only claiming a whisper of a moustache, we're still feeling hip enough to attend. You should too! Here are the particulars.
Show starts at 9pm @ Mercy Lounge. Hoping to score a monocle before the show.
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