by Emilio on January 24, 2012
Name: Record Together
URL: http://www.recordtogether.com
Think of all these albums in which bands couldn’t afford to hire extra instrumentalists. Just how good would they have been if a service like Record Together had existed back in the day? What if The Who had managed to hire cello players for “A Quick One, While He’s Away” (the mini-opera after which their second LP was named)? Would real cellos have sounded better than the jokey “cello, cello, cello” the guys ended up chanting in the finished record? Would that have taken away from the charm of the piece? That could be debated for longer than it took Brian Wilson to release “Smile” as he had originally conceived it, and we’d never come to any kind of agreement. Integrity, ingenuity, imnocence… the people who would veto using outside instrumentalists always end up talking about such things.
Yet, they have to admit that some classic albums could have been nothing short of perfected if artists could have had access to accomplished session players. If The Smiths had hired a full orchestra to play on their epic “The Queen Is Dead”, the end result could have been even better than it was. When the album was originally recorded, the band had to hire the services of “The Hated Salford Ensemble” (IE guitarist Johnny Marr playing everything using a keyboard) to get the accompaniment they wanted for songs like “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side” and “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”. [click to continue…]
by Emilio on January 23, 2012
Just How Good Is Facebook's "Listen With" Button For Musicians?
You’re a musician, you’ve read about Facebook’s new “Listen With” button, and you’re wondering exactly how this new feature can help you spread your music. OK, bear with me…
As you know by now, the “Listen With” button lets your friends listen to the songs you’re playing while you’re online. Well, I want to call your attention to how friends interact with these songs.
Each time a friend clicks on the “Listen With” button, the chat room that’s opened for your friend to talk with you will also display a link back to the artist’s Facebook Page. So, checking out that artist’s profile becomes as easy as 1-2-3. No need to hunt for information all over the Internet.
From a marketing point of view, I don’t have to tell you how cool this is. If you’re the artist at the center of it all, the “Listen With” button can make people who’s never heard of you before head down to your profile, and go through your bio, your songs and your merchandise. They’ll even get to buy tickets for upcoming shows. Everything will be just one click away.
This is the first time since Facebook launched it’s music partnerships that the company does something which lets artists gain fans so easily. Seen in this light, Facebook’s alliance with Spotify was just the beginning of an unparalleled incursion in the music scene. Is 2012 going to be the year in which music goes truly social? With the evidence we have at hand, a case can certainly be made.
