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”.

So, there’s context and contexts in which outside musicians can be used in musical projects. If you’re a recording artist, sometimes you just have to resort to them. And if you’re going to do that, then you’d better do it right. You’d better go for a service like this one.

Record Together is a platform that lets you crowdsource the recording of individual tracks for these songs you’re working on. Need a sitar? A harpsichord? A lute, maybe? No problem. On this site you can get bonafide players to record the parts you need, and submit them to you digitally. All you must do is to explain exactly what you need, and set a bounty (in $$$). Session musicians will there and then upload their contributions, and the one who comes closer to the mark is the one that will get the money. He’ll get the money, and you’ll buy the rights to the recording. And years down the line, fans will be discussing whether hiring someone to play that part was the “right” choice or not.

But not that such a thing did The Who or The Smiths any harm in the long run, really.

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.

Now You Can Listen To Music With Up To 50 Facebook Friends At The Same Time

Facebook began rolling its “Listen With” button last week, and the response has been unanimous. It rocks.

In a nutshell, what this button does is to let you listen to music with as many as 50 different friends at the very same time. When this button is activated, friends can see a music note icon next to your name in chat. This means that you’re listening to a song, and by clicking on the button they can listen to it with you in real time. The button also opens a chat room for you and your friend, and posts a story to your news feed that goes along the lines of “Peter is listening to music with Stephen.”

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that this new service is dealing a tremendous blow to Turntable.fm. Up until now, that was the one service you had to use for synchronous listening with friends. Well, now that Facebook is playing in that ballpark Turntable.fm will have to think of something different to survive. Concentrating on its music discovery capabilities by fostering public listening rooms and sessions with celebrity DJs could be a good move.

But not that it could do a lot more now that its users have been entinced by a more widely-adopted service such as Facebook, really. It’s the one card left for it to play.

For The First Time In Ages, Music Sales Reports Don't Look Like This

Nielsen and Billboard have just released their 2011 Music Industry Report, and for the first time in eight years the number of total albums sold has gone up. You can check the figures here. And when you do so, you’ll also see that for the first time ever digital sales have beat phsycal music sales.

Still, just because sales are up from 2010 that doesn’t mean the industry’s “saved” or anything like that. It’s the beginning of a recovery process that will take a good couple of years.

And there should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that services like Spotify, Grooveshark and Rdio are to thank for this increase in sales. If anything, these services are responsible for instilling something that was unthinkable just some years ago: the concept of listening to music legally online.

It’s all gone full circle. Digital music hurt the industry at first, but now it’s making people support their favorite artists with their wallets again.

So, contrary to what lots of people predicted, digital music didn’t kill the industry in the end. It did exactly the opposite, giving it a whole new lease of life when least expected. It’ll be really interesting to see what the music report for 2012 looks like.

Provided the world hasn’t ended by then, that’s it.

My, the state these Mayans have left us all in…

Now Everybody Can Access Paul McCartney's Own Music Collection

Terrific news for Macca fans. The legendary musician has launched a music sharing site that lets his fans immerse themselves in his own personal collection. All of Paul’s music and media has been digitized (that’s five decades worth of data), and folks like you and me can listen to all the rare records he’s collected over the years, and both watch videos and view photos that only people close to Paul had access to until now. Check it out here.

The site details McCartney’s post-Beatles career in exhaustive detail. Minute information on all the concerts McCarney has ever played is provided, and you’ll also get to see all the albums any song of Paul has been included in. And links to buy them all are available, of course.

Need more? OK, what about the live studio feature that lets you remix Paul’s song? You can do that for free, and then (if you feel the results are particularly glorious) have them shared on the site for everybody else to remember that Paul is not dead.

And those of you who with the money to spend can buy a premium membership, and create playlists with your own songs. You can actually have them streamed on Macca’s own radio.

It’s great to see the work of some of the most inventive and talented musicians ever finally getting its right place online. This new site and last year’s long-overdue announcement that The Beatles music was finally becoming available on iTunes are the kind to have not only Beatlemaniacs but also lovers of true music singing hosannas.

The only question I have, now, is which way to go from here. Which other artists deserve a similar treatment? My money’s obviously on The Who, but I’d love to know what you think. Don’t go away without leaving a comment below!

Kanye West surely knows how to make headlines.

Sunday night saw him tweeting one his longest rants ever. Over the course of 86 tweets, he announced the creation of a company that will be named after his late mother, Donda. While Kanye didn’t exactly explain what the new venture will be about, he did offered the following gem in one of his final tweets of the night:

There’s nothing like aiming high, huh?

It’s easy to scoff at some of the notions Kanye tweeted (another update said that Donda will have 22 different divisions, and will create products and experiences that anybody could afford). At the same time, one can’t help being curious what one of the most successful hip-hop artists of the last couple of years can actually do with all his acumen.

I’m lending Kanye my ear until he announces exactly what on Earth Donda is all about.

And you? Will you let ‘im finish? Or has he stayed his welcome already?

Footage from what must have been one of the coolest New Year Eve parties in the history of reverberation has begun surfacing on YouTube. It took place at Mala Restaurant in Wailea (Maui), and it featured the combined talents of Alice Cooper, Steven Tyler and “Weird Al” Yankovic.

This is one clip from the show, with the trio covering The Beatles’ perennial “Come Together”. The quality isn’t optimal, but only a sissy would complain. Be thankful you get the chance to see performers of this caliber on a stage together, in any way or the other.

Name: ShareMyGuitar
URL: http://www.sharemyguitar.com

Check this site out if your New Year resolutions included one that went “Learn to play the guitar like John Petrucci”. ShareMyGuitar is a social network that will let you see to that. The only people who use it are guitar enthusiasts. By signing up for an account, you’ll be able to share pictures and videos of your favorite guitars and players. You’ll get to read interviews and news. And you’ll also be able to create polls and post questions for more knowledgeable folks to come to the rescue.

Alternative guitar tunings, chord charts, rare tablatures… you can request (and get) all that through this site.

And when it comes to polls, you can ask whatever you want. You can ask who’s the best rhythm guitar player under the sun (pointless – everybody knows it’s Pete Townshend), what’s the most famous guitar in history (pointless – everybody knows it’s Lucille), who’s the hottest chick who’s ever played a guitar (pointless – everybody knows it’s Orianthi)… all these things you’ve always wanted to ask but kept to yourself can be elucidated here.

And a blog is also included, for you to learn even more about all that’s happening in Guitar Town. It’s got reviews of the latest guitars and gear, and tons of videos of people who play real badass solos.

Accounts can be created here, and they’re free. Just pick a picture that makes you look like fire could pour out of your hand, and get ready to connect with fellow six-string lovers.

Below you’ll find all the independent and unsigned artists that were profiled on MusicKO in 2012.

Vincent Vega

The Bear Season

La Medio Siglo

The Blueberries

Miguel Campal

Picnic

Laura Chinelli

Erika Chuwoki

Matías Cantante

Los Pazientes

El Umbral

The following videos were also featured on the blog:

“Llevame” by Laura Chinelli

“Normal” by La Medio Siglo

“This Is Not A Test” by The Bear Season

“El Piso Se Va A Manchar” by Vincent Vega

“POU” by Closet

“Please Don’t Be Like Me” by Casablancas

“Decidir” by Andrea Deleón Santos

“Gigantes” by Orgánica

I also interviewed Pablo Faragó, and covered the release of his first solo album here.

Well, this is the last post of 2012. I want to wish you all a happy New Year, and thank you for your support. Keeping this blog alive takes me a huge amount of time, but it’s always something I do with a lot of conviction, a lot of determination and (most of all) a lot of illusion.

Always will.

Emilio

This is a list including these sites and apps that I regard as the finest of 2012. I’ve linked to the original posts on MusicKO. And in many cases, you’ll also find links to interviews with their founders and developers.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a list with all of the Uruguayan artists featured on MusicKO over the course of the year.

StoryAmp: The Place Where Musicians And Journalists Meet

SpotMeUp: Upload Your Music To Spotify

PumpYouUp: Free Indie Electronic Music (Interview with Robert Dede)

WildChords: An iPad Game That Lets You Become A Guitar Player
(Interview with Christoph Thür)

Veenue: Collaborate With Musicians From All Over The World
(Interview with Dario Zampetti)

SongSpin.fm: Discover And Share The Latest Sounds

Restorm: Letting Bands License And Sell Their Music
(Interview with Jonas Brander)

JamCloud: Like Hangouts, But Strictly For Music Lovers
(Interview with Jason Gruntra)

JazzCypher: Social Network For Jazz Musicians And Enthusiasts
(Interview with Chris)

OneSheet: Build A Rich Profile Page For Your Band

PitchImprover: All You Need To Play By Ear To Recognize Intervals And To Develop Perfect Pitch
(Interview with Anton Naumovets)

SoundSpar: Compete With Other Bands And Win New Fans

RecooMe: In Search Of The Ultimate Playlists
(Interview with Kailash Subedi)

1Band1Brand: New Bands & Fashion Brands (Interview with Kyle York)

GigValley: Like Facebook, But Only For Bands

FindYouSomeVinyl: A Search Engine For Nothing But LPs

Bandhack: Local Bands On Facebook (Interview with Josh Roberts)

Crowdbands: A Record Label Run By The People