2012 Concert season is in full swing and just in time for the Summer Solstice the Sunstone Winery presents Zee Avi, Rico Delargo w/DJ Sparx, Howlin’ Woods and Rainbow Girls. Powered by the sun on the longest day of the year the show on June 23rd takes place at Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez. Celebrate the Sun with music, friends, food and wine!

Get your tickets here: SunstoneSummerSoltice.eventbrite.com

Back in 2010 Jake performed at the Kokua Festival in Honolulu, HI. If you were there you may remember Jake performing “Breakdown” with Jack Johnson. On April 17th, the live performance recording of “Breakdown” will be available on the “Jack Johnson and Friends - Best of Kokua Festival” album. The proceeds from the album will go to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

For more information about the album go to: Back in 2010 Jake performed at the Kokua Festival in Honolulu, HI. If you were there you may remember Jake performing “Breakdown” with Jack Johnson. On April 17th, the live performance recording of “Breakdown” will be available on the “Jack Johnson and Friends - Best of Kokua Festival” album. The proceeds from the album will go to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation.

For more information about the album go to: http://kokuafestival.com.

On March 14th, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival will premiere the documentary ‘Peace Love Ukulele,’ an in-depth profile of ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro, at the Castro theatre.

Produced by the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), the documentary follows Jake on tour throughout the United States and Japan and examines how he revolutionized the ukulele and became the most innovative player in the world.

For tickets and more information go to: http://festival.caamedia.org/30/guide/program/jake-shimabukoro-project/

We just launched a new microsite for singer/songwriter Martin Sexton to accompany his upcoming EP release Fall Like Rain. Check it out!

We’ve been working with Bishop Lamont to re-vamp his web presence and the result is the NEW BishopLamont.com! Check it out!

We just did a re-design of Scott James’ web presence as he embarks on the next chapter of his growing career.

Check out the new ScottJamesMusic.com!

‎Marc B. is a good friend, talented musician, and great person. He’s recording a new album and we can’t wait to hear the finished product. We encourage you to check out the video below to get to know him better. He’ll be teaming up with Producer Kevin McCormick (Melissa Etheridge, Brett Dennen) to record his long awaited sophomore album.

We also encourage you to support his Kickstarter campaign for the new album and tour HERE.

Last week we launched a new store page for Chris Cornell and his latest release, Songbook, which is a collection of acoustic performances of songs throughout his career recorded live on tour earlier this year.

Working with his great team at The Artists Organization, we created this Topspin store to sell different packages of the album and bonus tracks and we’re really proud of the end result.

Check it out for yourself at ChrisCornell.com/Songbook!

We are helping our longtime friends Brushfire Records with promoting the release of their holiday album This Warm December: A Brushfire Holiday Volume II.

Utilizing Topspin’s platform, we created the This Warm December Store, featuring exclusive bundled packages of the CD or Vinyl version of the album, plus a collectible 12 post card set (the first 200 orders received a card signed by Jack Johnson). The album is currently on pre-order until it’s officially released on November 15.

This Warm December: A Brushfire Holiday Volume II is a 13 track compilation of both original tunes and classic covers by Brushfire’s artists., including Jack Johnson, whose joyous “In The Morning” can be heard in an exclusive Entertainment Weekly premiere here.

Here’s the full track listing:

01. “Party Hard” by Zach Gill
02. “Jingle Bell Rock” by Rogue Wave
03. “Christmas Blues” by G. Love
04. “In The Morning” by Jack Johnson
05. “Christmas Must Be Tonight” by Bahamas
06. “Home For The Season” by Neil Halstead
07. “Frosty The Snowman” by Zee Avi
08. “Let It Ride” by ALO
09. “Make Time” by Money Mark
10. “Winter Swell Blues” by Paula Fuga
11. “Christmas Cookies” by G. Love
12. “I Bet On Flying High” by Matt Costa
13. “Angel (Holiday)” by Jack Johnson

Pre-order the album today!

We’ve worked with Boom LA Management for all things Mason Jennings, and they recently came to us for a site redesign for their other client, Nat & Alex Wolff.

In addition to releasing two rock albums in the last few years, the brothers are the stars of Nickelodeons popular TV show The Naked Brothers Band. They are currently in the studio working on their debut solo album.

These boys should definitely be kept on your radar!

A little while ago we created and ran a one day only promotional “donate-to-download” splash page for Chris Cornell’s website for his song “The Keeper” that he wrote for the film “Machine Gun Preacher,” a film based on the true story of the life of Sam Childers. A portion of the sales went to support Childers’ “Angels for East Africa” charity.

Now, we have just launched the NEW ChrisCornell.com!

Check it on out!

This morning we launched Tom Waits’ BadAsMe.com!

We’ve worked with Waits’ team and SoundCloud to create this exclusive listening party streaming his new album Bad As Me before it comes out on October 24.

Fans on Waits’ mailing list received individualized codes that granted them access into this exclusive listening party. Those who aren’t on the list are able to request a code to get into this album stream.

Check it out and get your code now at BadAsMe.com!

We’ve known for a long time that our boy G. Love has some Special Sauce, but what else does he got?

HOT SAUCE!

That’s right, G. Love has come out with his own line of hot sauce called, you guessed it, G. Love’s Special Sauce. To introduce this product to the public, we just launched a new micro-site for it -  Check it out and order yours today at GLovesHotSauce.com!

We recently launched the new ZeeAvi.com to coincide with the release of Zee Avi’s new record ghostbird, off Brushfire Records.

The site features new aesthetics that embody the overall vibe of ghostbird - give it a look and check out more from Ms. Zee Avi!

The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) took place last night, August 28, 2011 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. This year marked the award show’s 28th year. While the show did not have a host, it was nothing short of surprising and entertaining.

Many artists and celebrities strutted down the red carpet in fabulous garments while Selena Gomez hosted the VMA pre-show. The most memorable appearances were from Nicki Minaj, who wore metal, stuffed animals and pink hair, and Beyonce, who showed off her baby bump and announced that she and husand, Jay-Z are expecting a baby! Cobra Starship and Sabi performed as part of the pre-show.

Last Wednesday night, a crew of us jammed down to LA after work to hit up a house party and special Zee Avi concert at Brushfire Records. The event was one of many surrounding the release of Zee Avi’s upcoming record, ghostbird, which hits stores August 23rd and is on pre-sale now

We hustled through surprisingly no traffic, and got to Brushfire Records just in time. After chatting with our buddies there and hitting up the killer tacos they had grilling in the back (SO GOOD), all the guests gathered into one of the rooms in Brushfire’s backyard recording studio, the Solar Powered Plastic Plant. Once the crowd was in place and ready to go, her tiny Greatness, Ms. Zee Avi, walked in guitar in hand and smile wide. Followed by a film crew from Starbucks who were on site filming the event, she plugged in and welcomed the crowd with her infectious demeanor and subtle hilariousness.

Longtime client and phenomenal artist Mason Jennings is gearing up to release his new record, Minnesota, on September 13. The pre-sale for the album starts August 16th.

For this new release, we re-skinned his entire site to fit the theme and style of Minnesota‘s artwork, and the result is piece we are really proud of.

Check out the NEW MasonJennings.com.

We recently mentioned how 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting came to us to create the home of their Raise Your Voice! campaign, and it’s now in full swing! Here’s the official Press Release:

170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting and ANTI-Records are pleased to announce the release of Raise Your Voice!, a 16-track compilation of music from ANTI- artists being offered as a free download to advocates for public broadcasting. Anyone who signs up to join the campaign can download the compilation—available for a limited time only—by visiting RYVoice.org. Supporters will also have the opportunity to share Raise Your Voice! with their friends and social networks.

We were sought after by Andrea Bocelli’s camp to assist in the promotion of Andrea Bocelli, Live in Central Park - Sept. 15, 2011. This is a FREE concert for the lucky 60,000 fans who were able to snatch up tickets before they sold out quickly.

I always thought I was pretty on top of my music knowledge, and had a good grip on the various kinds of genres, top hits, and artists out there. But, as I have recently discovered, I thought way too highly of my knowledge of music. For some of you this may come as a shock, but until about three weeks ago, I had no idea who Fleet Foxes were, and had never heard their music. I was introduced to them by a friend because he could no longer stand the idea of having to drive to work with me again while listening to “my” music. He burned me a CD of songs he felt were “better” than mine and that was when my narrow and limited knowledge of music became very apparent. 

This idea of discovering new bands and artists started to intrigue me since I had been so stuck in my ways of only listening to my music, that I never really gave myself the chance to go out and explore. But, as I quickly learned, this exploring thing was not as easy as I thought. There are thousands of artists out there with multiple albums and I suddenly became very overwhelmed and defeated. This task was way larger than I anticipated and I was very close to giving up on my new project. Luckily, I was sent an article about an online site that makes the process of discovering new artists and bands a lot easier. GoRankem.com is “crowdsourcing the music discovery process. By aggregating the expertise of the existing fanbase for every artist, the prospective fans can more easily embrace a new artist or dive deeper into a catalog than they ever had before” (GoRankem). The site not only offers rankings on the artist’s best songs, but also provides interactive features between its members.

Marketing over social networks used to be easy. You would create a MySpace page, upload a few songs and a picture or two and let millions of users do the rest by virtually spreading the word. Fast forward to now – boy, has that changed. With a seemingly ever-expanding plethora of social networking sites all trying to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, marketing yourself over these platforms has moved from hobby to chore to nearly a full time job. The typical artist must manage and keep up-to-date their Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, website, and any other social media platforms they’ve chosen to market themselves over. Most artists will confess that constantly updating each and every one of their online marketing platforms takes much longer than they’d prefer. The process is arduous at best, and any artist will acknowledge their true desire to use that time creating music. Yet, in the modern age it’s an integral portion of anyone’s marketing strategy.

Enter Musedash, a new online application that lets musicians manage all their social network profiles from one main dashboard. From this dashboard, you can post content (be it status updates, links, news, or photos and videos) and choose to which networks you’d like the content to appear on. So you could simultaneously post a news article on your Facebook profile, your Facebook page, your Twitter, your MySpace, and any other applicable network – all with just one click. Musedash sets itself apart from competing services like Hootsuite and Ping.fm by catering specifically to musicians. And, recognizing that most musicians are not computer geeks in their spare time, creator Hilke Ros and the rest of the Musedash team have made user-friendliness a top priority. The result is a clean, simple and straightforward application designed to make social networking easier, not more complicated. Potentially, using Musedash to manage multiple social networks simultaneously could save valuable time and frustration, and would eliminate the possibility of mistakes or inconsistent information on different networks.

A fantastic interview of Jack Johnson and his views on improving our environment! He also plays a great love song he wrote for his wife.

Late last month, the unveiling of Google+ prompted the world over reconsider the future of social media and online networking, and many began to wonder if The Goog’s latest product would boast enough innovative features to dethrone Facebook, king of the social networking realm. Speculation has run rampant as the search giant’s latest foray into new media gains momentum, much of which attempts to size up Google+ against Facebook. Many in the tech world are projecting whether or not + will be successful both in stealing existing social network users and attracting new ones. But here at Oniracom, my compadres and I have been interested in how Google+ will integrate into the larger scheme of social media marketing and brand growth strategies. While wishful thinking would allow Google+, Facebook and others to harmoniously coincide with each other in the virtual world, it is becoming ever-more clear (as is obvious with Facebook’s Skype contract retaliation) that there really may only be room for one. It’s impossible to know which network, if any, will prevail, but Google+ is making a strong attempt by promising features and upgrades not available on Facebook or other social networking sites.

Feel free to check out our latest project, Courtney O’Donnell’s new website: CourtneyODonnell.com

Courtney is at the beginning of her career, yet has already written more than 20 songs, taught herself to play the guitar and worked with major names in the music business. She released her first two original CD’s at the age of 11 and 14. Courtney has big things lined up for her, and there is no doubt that she will succeed. We are thrilled to be working with her.

Be sure to check out her website to learn more about Courtney and to see what cool features we included on her site!

CourtneyODonnell.com

Feel free to check out our latest project, Iration’s new website: IrationMusic.com.

Lots of social media integration going on here - music fed in from SoundCloud, tour dates brought in by Bands In Town, Blogs pulled from Tumblr, and a Facebook commenting system. Another fun feature - the background changes from “daytime beach scene” to “evening beach scene” depending on the time of day. Check it out:

We recently launched a site for the Music Preservation Project.  Music Preservation Project is working to preserve endangered music collections by digitizing them, developing curriculum for educators, using the collections and allowing free access for educational purposes.

You can watch an intro video and learn more at musicpreservationproject.org.

In the several months before I moved out of Santa Barbara last October, a band emerged on the scene to reignite my hope for the rebirth of the local musical landscape. Not since Matthew McAvene teased me with a few smoking sets in early 2007 had I felt the spark of any new, home-bred talent. All it took was one performance by Howlin’ Woods on a Friday night at Cold Spring Tavern to convince me that these guys had the goods. They could jam fiercely, led by the sinewy guitar voodoo of Griffin Chetakian. The rhythm section of Matthew Farrington on drums and Brian “Solar B” Chandler on bass (and keys) was rugged and raw, yet with an intuitive grace. A lot of bands can jam. These guys came across as the total package thanks to the presence of a true frontman. Jordan Chetakian – a powerhouse vocalist with some acoustic guitar chops to boot, boasted a dynamic range. He could rain down with the back-alley blues, bust out a little Sly Stone soul and woo the ladies like a tormented indie rock icon. Offstage he was just an unassuming, plaid-shirt wearing dude with glasses which made his spotlight transformation all the more profound.

Reggae artist Duane Stephenson is one of our amazing clients. He’s currently touring all throughout summer and hit recent single “Better Tomorrow” is generating some serious buzz and airplay, along with the song’s music video. Duane and his team have truly been a pleasure to work with. If you haven’t check it out yet, head over to duanestephensonmusic.com to see what we created and learn more about this fantastic artist.

By Tyler Blue (Website | Twitter)

It was the summer of ’87 when the announcement came through the pipeline. My favorite band at the time, Motley Crue, was going to be playing nearby at the Hollywood (FL) Sportatorium. A dream scenario was unfolding for my first concert but long before the music hit my virgin ears, I was already conditioned to understand what a challenge it could be just to get tickets. Fortunately a girl I knew who worked at a record store assured my brother and I she would be able to score us tickets.

The anticipation was overwhelming but the day finally arrived when tickets went on sale. Sure enough our insider came through and we were all set for the big day. Ironically, I haven’t enjoyed a connection like that since. The details of that late November night are forever emblazoned in my mind. Starting my illustrious concert-going career on the Crue’s infamous “Girls, Girls, Girls” tour surely played a big factor in implanting the glory of the live music experience in my DNA. From the sea of spandex and Aqua Net hair outside to this deafening opening band no one had heard of called Guns ‘n Roses to Tommy Lee’s still unmatched 360-degree drum solo, it was the stuff of legends.

Fast forward to 1996 – my junior year at Clemson University – when a band called Phish announced its Halloween show only two hours away at Atlanta’s Omni Arena. Continuing a tradition established three years prior, the Vermont quartet was going to don a musical costume; covering another band’s album in its entirety. (Little did we know at the time it would be one of the coolest, most under-appreciated albums of all time – The Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light.”) The demand was so high, most of my friends and I were all rejected in our attempts to get mail order tickets. There was no way we were missing this so we hit the situation room like Washington strategizing his crossing of the Delaware. We had to outthink the other Phishheads. Where would they go? How far were they willing to drive? A few days later, a three hour banzai to an obscure Ticketmaster outlet in Macon, Georgia yielded the fruit of our desire. A month or so later, we were sitting pretty on the floor of the Omni.

Since their return from retirement in 2009, Phish has trended towards playing smaller venues, making the ticket acquisition process that much more of a science. Last year fans struggled to gain access to Berkeley’s 8500-seat Greek Theater and Telluride’s Town Park. Scalpers fattened their kid’s college funds, charging obscene amounts of money to the desperate masses. This year, on August 9 and 10, Phish is making their Lake Tahoe debut at Harvey’s Outdoor Amphitheater. Even by modern standards, 7000 seats is microscopic. Déjà vu struck as my online ticket request was rejected, sending me back to the situation room. Gas isn’t 99 cents a gallon anymore so a three hour drive was out of the question. “Should I drive an hour to Longview, Washington?” I contemplated. Even that seemed like overkill.

Scanning the map, I settled on an Oregon town with a funky name – Scappoose. It was only a half-hour from the Portland metro area which struck me as too accessible, but how many people in this neck of the woods were trying to get Phish Tahoe tickets? The area is littered with Fred Meyer Ticketmaster outlets but maybe Scappoose was too much of an attention-grabbing name. It rolls off the tongue with satisfying ease. I should have known better but decided to take my chances. It was a pleasant drive cruising along the forgotten side of the Columbia River, past the industrial ghost zone. If we didn’t get tickets, at least I would know where to go if I ever need to wack somebody. Despite the narrow odds, we were feeling rather confident. So confident we only arrived about 10 minutes before tickets went on sale. Big mistake. Upon walking into the electronics section at Fred Meyer, my heart sunk. When I saw seven people in line, I knew right then our ship had sailed.

It was 11:53 when I resorted to the equivalent of a Hail Mary. I pulled out my phone and dialed up Ticketmaster. Getting tickets on the phone for a high demand concert is maybe just a tad easier than completing a Rubik’s Cube in the dark. I almost couldn’t believe it when I wasn’t greeted with a busy signal. Entering the automated system, I knew I had to buy some time until the clock struck noon. Bypassing the computer, I opted to wait a few more precious minutes for a live body. 11:57 rolled around and I was starting to quiver. I knew it was now or never. Returning to automated avenue, I annunciated the date and venue of the show with painstaking clarity. When H.A.L. eventually responded, “We are holding four tickets for you,” I could see the Promised Land just over yonder.

While on the phone, the live action was unfolding a few feet away as the ticket agent scrambled to pluck as many as he could out of the computer cosmos. It was no surprise when he announced they were sold out five minutes later. Only two people were able to hit the jackpot. Groans of anguish resonated all around. My final minutes on the phone felt like eternity as credit card information and other details were confirmed. I wasn’t about to do any celebrating until that confirmation number came across the line. When it finally did, I breathed a huge sigh of relief and did a subtle fist pump; not wanting to rub it in for the less fortunate. One bookish brunette offered a friendly high-five. I could hardly believe my luck. Three-and-a-half months from now I would wield my golden tickets and dance in the garden of delights. Ridiculous service charges and hoop-jumping aside, I won’t be referring to the evil empire as “Ticketbastard”… at least for a little while.

We are proud to announce the launch of an awesome website for the very talented (and only 15 years old!) Scott James! Check it out here.

We implemented Topspin for Scott’s mailing list collection and e-commerce, Soundcloud for Scott’s audio content, YouTube for Scott’s video content and Facebook to feed Scott’s photos.

By Tyler Blue (Website | Twitter)

When the Grateful Dead used to announce a new live release, its impending arrival was met with voracious anticipation. Deadheads dropped everything and ran to the store on the first day it came out or else had it waiting in the mailbox. We all remember when “One from the Vault” hit the racks in April of 1991. It was like Christmas, Channukah and a birthday all rolled into one. Soon the Dick’s Picks series came around. The declaration of a new release was akin to Apple revealing upgrades for the latest iPhone. They only came once or twice a year so it was easy to keep up and buy them all. There were no CD burners yet so everyone had to buy their own copy. What a concept.

Maybe around the time Dick’s Picks crossed into double-digits, the reality set in that I was going to have to start to pick and choose. But it was so hard to resist the sudden and instant access to a perfect copy of a show which had only been heard on crackly cassettes or maybe not at all. For a band which, at the time, was facing the reality of the erosion of its talent, this was the ultimate way to revive the genius of their past heroics to be put on a pedestal in the present and future. The quality was so consistently stellar, with eyes closed, it really felt like you were there.

Several years ago, after Dick’s Picks had already run its course, the Dead introduced the Road Trips series which could be purchased in CD format or via digital download. The floodgates were officially open as these amazing shows were released at a rate so frequent, only the deepest pocketed audiophiles could keep up. Well, and the illegal downloaders too. No one seems to hesitate anymore in “stealing” these recordings as they tend to rationalize: “I’ve given more than enough money to the Dead organization over the years.” Actually, not such an unreasonable line of logic.

By Tyler Blue (Website | Twitter)

We can feel the planetary shift coming on. From weather to war to welfare, we can sense the world imploding and only hope to be part of its reinvention. Evolution is a powerful word and it can apply to so many different forms of life. Humans have evolved in synch with the music created around them. All of the great albums of music history serve as reflections of their generation on one level or another. I’m not implying the Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 deserves consideration in this category…but it might. Their new album puts on a clinic in exploring virgin terrain while carrying a retro torch.
Depending on the listener’s state of mind, “Sauce” could be perceived as an expression of genius containing the secret to life or an overproduced piece of crap. After my maiden spin on headphones, I leaned towards the latter. Two more listens later and I was drinking the Kool Aid. Some of us have gathered a few gray hairs over the last seven years since the Beastie Boys’ last hip hop offering - the criminally underrated To the 5 Boroughs. 2007’s all instrumental The Mix Up was an aberration. Going strong since the mid-80s, the band was injected with a rare dose of mortality when MCA - AKA Adam Yauch - was faced with a bout of throat cancer. On the other side with a clean bill of health, this album is delivered anxiously, with a “strike hard at the brink of the apocalypse” sort of focus. Although, at points it puts on the guise of a half-baked lark which could come unraveled like a ball of yarn.

Following the model of previous albums, the first single - in this case the album’s first song - “Make Some Noise” - is its obvious alpha dog. Continuing where they left off with 1994’s Ill Communication, the Beasties establish a dirty precedent with layers of grit coated over the mix. We are instantly vaulted into a familiar comfort zone as this track kicks open the back door to reveal a party we thought ended a long time ago. It’s irresistible as ever but this time everyone’s wearing styley new clothes. “Sauce’s” rough-around-the-edges aesthetic hits its zenith on “Say It” which would be a parent’s nightmare blasting out of their kid’s room. A potential polarizer like “The Crunge” on Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, one has to wade through the sonic soup to embrace the primal stomp under the surface.

By Tyler Blue


Jerry Garcia struts offstage as the catharsis of a monumental “Morning Dew” still resonates through the air. The expressions on the audience member’s faces are as if they have been in the presence of God. The man who has just delivered the cosmic gospel only wants some cold water as he searches the green room. He exits, comes back in, sits down and takes a few bites of a cupcake before abruptly hustling back onstage to raise the roof with “Johnny B. Goode.” This is only one of many scenes you’ve never seen in any other concert video. In the discussion of that genre’s best, The Band’s The Last Waltz, Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense and Pink Floyd’s Live at Pompeii tend to get the most mention, and deservingly so. What sets The Grateful Dead Movie apart from those classics and all of its peers, is how comprehensive it is in capturing every possible angle of every aspect related to producing and attending this series of concerts. Among other unique perspectives, we get to hang with fans munching on psychedelics while camped out in line for tickets, talk to a hot dog vendor who prefers the music of Sha Na Na, sympathize with a backstage door attendant dealing with persistent hippies and grasp the concept of “work hard, play hard” while the band’s crew gets debaucherous with a tank of nitrous…

Check out this short video of the Oniracom booth at SXSW.  To keep up with all the action at SXSW be sure to follow us: http://twitter.com/oniracom

Oniracom is enjoying a full week of film, music & interactive at SXSW2011 by attending screenings, live shows and conference panels in Austin this week.  We have made a tremendous amount of quality contact with the true innovators of 2011 both for Oniracom and our newest venture ProducersPortal.com.

Please follow us on Twitter throughout the week:

Oniracom, Company
Jacob Tell, CEO
Justin Davis, Lead Strategist
Tyler Singletary, Dir of Biz Dev

We look forward to sharing more of our thoughts, experiences and media, so stay tuned…

Oniracom has teamed up with our good friends at SoundCloud to bring you the first listen of
G. Loves latest release from Brushfire Records, Fixin’ To Die, exclusively on Conan O’Brien’s website Team Coco.  Head over to TeamCoco.com to hear the full album a week before it hits stores and you can download an exclusive track right on G. Love’s website.

Marie Parie is a new client here at Oniracom! She presents a different genre than we normally work with and we are excited to start working with her. She is a Parisian pop artist that moved to the United States in 2005, providing her with a unique view of American society. Marie is fascinated by the process of dating and is motivated by the power of futuristic music. Her full length album, Alien Victory, is aimed to be released early this year. Watch her first music video, Dating, here! Follow her on MySpace and Facebook to stay tuned for the release of her album!

With the 30th year anniversary of his death, Bob Marley remains the most well known reggae musician. His music is credited for spreading not only Jamaican music, but also the Rastafari movement worldwide. A truly captivating and challenging performer, we remember his music that remains timeless and universal.

Now here’s a brilliant album release campaign. UK songstress Adele, grammy winning “Chasing Pavements” singer, is releasing 21 (XL, Columbia) the much anticipated follow up to her debut album, 19. To generate buzz and increase fan engagement with the record in the weeks leading up the it’s US release, team Adele has set up quite a creative splash page:

Jake Shimabukuro is one of the latest artists we’ve been honored to work with. It is true we are excited to have him as a client because of the unparalleled level of musical ability he embodies, revolutionizing what’s possible with the ukulele. But even more so, we are thrilled to work with him because of the goodness of his character and the positive change he is contributing to this world.

Crowd fundraising—often referred to as crowd funding or crowd sourcing, is a method to raising money for new projects and/or businesses by inquiring micro donations from a large number of supporters and sponsors. Though this is currently becoming more and more popular, for years charities and non-profits have used this approach to gain public responsiveness. Nowadays, with the excessive shift in social media, crowd funding has developed into a sustainable fundraising mechanism for all new music, artists, films, creative ideas and projects, in addition to charities and nonprofit organizations.

There are a few drawbacks to this new web-based phenomena - the lack of quality, confidentiality, and the reliance of crowd sourcing. When you open the doors, anyone and anything can be posted on these sites without digression, which leads to inconsistency and trying to deal with matters out of your control. Another caution is to be careful not to give away competitive information. Intellectual property theft is a concern, so anyone who has an idea through a crowdsourcing platform has to be careful not to hand over a great idea on a public forum and never get credit for it.

Long gone are the days of records, tapes, and compact discs. But what is in store for music storage? Music streaming services are surfacing, making it possible to not only listen to music on computers, but also in cars, on TVs, throughout home sound systems, and on mobile devices. Countless services allow users to access thousands of albums and millions of songs instantly on the device of their choice. Users can create libraries of their favorite songs, listen to pre-made or personally created playlists, share songs with friends, purchase songs and so much more. While these services allow users to sync their created libraries and playlists, many music fanatics are looking for what’s next.

By : Erik Koral - FanManager Founder/CEO - 1.10.11
http://www.fanmanager.net

Hey everyone,

One of my new years resolutions was to do a bit more personal blogging and provide the music and marketing communities with some cool tips in navigating the web and managing your street campaigns.  I have been in the marketing field for over 10 years now and running FanManager for 6 years, so I wanted to post some of my observations and let you know what has worked and what hasn’t.

The entry below will cover everything you need to know about online street teaming in this new digital era.  Although physical street teams are still important and relevant for many hard touring bands, online street teaming is becoming much more prevalent.  Here is why…

1) It has never become so easy to reach tens of thousands of people in just a few minutes. In today’s ADD culture, people want instant bite sized bits of information. People are tuning out billboards and traditional advertising and are much more willing to listen to a recommendation of a new track, video, or concert from a friend.  This is why platforms like Twitter and Facebook are so important today

It’s that time of year—the hype for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2011 has arrived! Rumors of scheduled artists and headliners have tainted the web. Over 10,000 message threads and 400,000 individual posts occupy the official Coachella Message Board alone. Line-up wish lists from fans take up countless independent blog sites as well.  While the actual 2011 artist lineup will not be released until the end of January or beginning of February, the history of the music festival assures festival fanatics that this year’s will be nothing less than sensational.

Music licensing has become stricter and stricter due to the immense amount of untrustworthy and illegal music sharing stations there are across the net. Last.fm has provided their members with tons of free radio stations with limited listening, as well as offering subscriber-only radio stations such as the Loved Tracks Radio, Playlists, My Neighbourhood, and Personal Tag Radio Now that we all are familiar with and love on our handy dandy scrobblers. Unfortunately, beginning November 17th, Last.fm has been forced to omit some of these subscriber-only stations in order to direct their “energy on improving our most popular features, developing new and innovative stations, and offering the best music discovery service to our global audience,” says the members at Last.fm themselves.

For artists, Modlife is the next-generation of interactive online media and provides Artists a platform equipped with the tools necessary to build an excited, engaged, and loyal community of fans. A Modlife site is the place for fans to interact with artists directly.

Modlife seems to be a new social network for fans as well as a streamlined concentration of all the best tools and features of the most popular multiple social media websites in one location:

After that little sneak peak into 6 of the year’s best albums, I compiled a nice list of the 25 Best albums, this time in an actual order.

Click below or “Read More” to see the official list.

“At the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco, Eric Tseng said that Facebook “really sees mobile as the future,” and that we can expect to see Facebook’s “Like” buttons in mobile applications soon.

Tseng used geolocation as an example to illustrate the power of the mobile Open Graph. If you were to walk near a coffee shop and get a location-aware notification that there’s a happy hour going on there, you’ll probably be even more inclined to visit it if the notification comes bundled with recommendations from your Facebook friends.”

From Paramore’s rendition of “Use Somebody” to Framing Hanley’s version of “Lollipop,” cover songs seem to be all the rage right now. Which is exactly why we love BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, because honestly, what is better than watching your favorite artist cover a song that we already know all the words to?

So, what is Live lounge on BBC - Radio 1, you ask? Well, Radio 1 is a station on BBC and Live Lounge is a separate segment on Radio 1. The radio show features interviews and performances with musicians spanning all genres. After the interview is conducted the interviewee will usually perform a cover song in addition to one of their original songs. Interestingly enough, the cover usually tends to be outside of the musicians typical genre, the result… pure awesome-ness.

 

Blip.fm is a Social network founded in 2008, but just starting to pick up some good steam. The layout is nearly identical to Twitter, in that you have your “blips” that come in from all of your “favorite DJs” just as tweets come in from whom you’re following.

As the website itself will tell you:

A blip is a combination of 1) a song and 2) a short message that accompanies it. The way you create a blip is to first search for a song that you want to hear (or a song that you want your listeners to hear), then add a short message (under 150 characters), finally you submit it. Submitting a blip is also referred to as “blipping”, so from here on out, when you read “he blipped my favorite track” it means “he submitted a blip that had my favorite song attached”.

Video after the break

We, through our label Oniric Records, announce that legendary reggae band The Wailers have contributed an exclusive new track titled “A Step for Mankind” to our “Solutions for Dreamers: Season 3” compilation album. This compilation, to be released July 1, 2010, is the third in our Solutions for Dreamers series and all of the proceeds generated will go directly to the United Nations’ World Food Programme(WFP).

The World Food Programme is the world largest organization fighting hunger on a global scale. WFP is committed to getting food to where it is needed, saving the lives of victims of war, civil conflict, and natural disasters. Each year, on average, WFP feeds more than 90 million people in more than 70 countries. We at Oniracom and Oniric Records have been inspired the work the WFP does and are proud to partner with them on Solutions for Dreamers: Season 3.

We have compiled a list of what we find to be the most interesting and informative music blogs on the web. The list amounts to 21 music blogs, but is divided into four categories; Music Blogs (general reviews of up-and-coming music), International Blogs (reviews up-and-coming music from specific countries and around the world), Entertainment Blogs (covers news and reviews of a variety of art forms), and Music Industry Blogs (covers the latest happenings of what is moving and shaking in the music industry).

Direct-to-Fan (D2F) marketing is essentially creating a relationship with your fans through a marketing outlet, fans help you and in return you help them. D2F marketing is a creative business model that allows artists to eliminate the need for a middle man by delivering music directly to fans.  Which means, artists keep a higher percentage of their own sales, compared to the current business model where major labels, distributors or even iTunes take 30% or more away from the artist! D2F is most easily identified by free content give-aways in exchange for a tweet, Facebook shout-out, or e-mail sign up, reference MattCosta.com.

However, D2F marketing is evolving to include custom storefronts and marketing analytics that enable you to better grasp your audience and sell directly from your website and various social profiles. After researching the following sites; Bandbox, Nimbit and Topspin, I have outlined a detailed explanation of the costs, benefits, similarities, and differences between each platform. 

Read More…

Gorillaz. Known now to all as less of a pop phenomenon and more of pop royalty. The British-based virtual band has been on the cutting edge of multimedia musical innovation since the turn of the century. Gorillaz were formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn (Blur), and visual artist Jamie Hewlett. The band’s four members are fictional animated characters with their own unique and dramatic back-stories. The introduction of this revolutionary form of art came to the British and American public with huge success. The introduction of nuanced fictional characters with dark and electronic music has added a fourth dimension to the musical universe of the two dimensional band.

Click to read more

Slightly Stoopid has had a long and successful career and they have never forgotten to give back.  They have been ambassadors for I Went Hungry by donating to their cause and more recently they are heading down to Florida to show their support for Save My Oceans.

This is from their newsletter:

On Saturday March 27, Slightly Stoopid is heading south to Gainesville, FL to play a special show at The University of FL on Flavet Field, brought to you by Save My Oceans. This show is FREE and open to the public! Our boy G. Love & Special Sauce will kick off the show.

The SAVE MY OCEANS TOUR is part of Participant Media’s Social Action campaign for OCEANS, which recently launched online at http://www.savemyoceans.com, and is designed to provide information about the various issues currently affecting our oceans as well as solutions and actions that people can take every day, from supporting national oceans policy to modifications in the types of fish they eat or household cleaning products they use.

We at Oniracom have had a long partnership with Heal The Ocean and like to partner with like minded people, groups and organizations so its great to see our clients Silverback Mangement (Slightly Stoopid) and G. Love and Special Sauce backing this great cause.

During a recent show in Charlotte, Ben Folds pioneered a new element into his live show - spontaneous song writing inspired by people met via Chatroulette.com. 

For those of you who don’t know what Chatroulette is, it’s a website that pairs random strangers for webcam-based conversations. Visitors to the website randomly begin an online chat (video, audio and text) with another visitor. At any point, either user may leave the current chat by initiating another random connection.

Folds placed his computer on his piano, hooked it up to the big screen and proceeded to let the games begin.  What followed was comedic bliss and great musicianship in it’s finest form.  Check it out!

Fifteen years ago, the only hope for a band was to play locally, generate a dedicated fan base and pray to be discovered by a major record label. There was little to no money to be had in the realm of independent music, and the odds of your band getting national recognition were little to none. Nowadays however, through social networks like myspace, twitter and facebook, bands of all levels of popularity have been able to gain recognition within their own social circles and beyond.

In the digital age, it is becoming increasingly simple and affordable to create, record, produce and distribute your own music. And the good folks over at ReverbNation (RN) are revolutionizing the band merchandising business as well. RN recently introduced a store application to their already popular music industry website. Through their service, any band is now able to create, design and distribute their own quality merch with absolutely zero overhead costs. The merch is not made until it is bought by fans, and on top of that, the bands are able to price their merch at their own discretion at any price above production. RN also developed facebook applications to work along with the store, allowing fans to purchase merch directly from a bands facebook page. Check out the RN Store.

Check out more in a recent article on wired.com.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few months, Jimi Hendrix is set to release a brand-new unreleased studio album titled “Valleys of Neptune”.  The album will hit stores on March 9th, 2010 and feature 12 previously unreleased studio recordings.  Of these 12 songs, there will be new arrangements of classic songs “Red House, “Fire” and “Stone Free”.  The highlight of the album though, is said to be the track “Valleys Of Neptune”, one of the most sought after of Hendrix’s commercially unavailable recordings. 

Lucky for us “Valleys Of Neptune” is now streaming on Spinner.  Check it out and let us know your thoughts!

This new NPR series is absolutely incredible, and essential for any music lover, especially those of you who appreciate beautiful voices.  Take a few moments to not only scroll through the list and listen to samples, but also vote for your favorite 5.  Some of these vocalists are truly treasures, and many I had never heard before now…

In January 2010, NPR will launch a year-long exploration of 50 great voices in recorded history. The series isn’t an attempt to catalog the so-called “greatest” singers. Instead, we hope to discover and re-discover awe-inspiring vocalists from around the world and across time. We asked you to nominate artists for the series and we received thousands of options. NPR and a panel of experts are in the process of whittling them down to about 100 singers — a mix of familiar names and surprising discoveries. Explore some of the nominated voices below, choose five favorites you think should be included in the final 50 and tell us why.

Oniracom will be well represented at this weekend’s New Noise Music Conference and Festival, held in Oniracom’s backyard of Santa Barbara, CA.  New Noise Santa Barbara is a three-day music and digital media conference that will showcase emerging and established bands, host educational panels on the music industry’s hottest topics, present esteemed experts from all aspects of the business, and serve as a place for players big and small to connect and plot the future of music….

Noise Trade is a service that offers music for free to anyone willing to give them five email addresses. This is another thing to add to your list of “stuff you must know if you like music.”  You know you have a list like that.  You know it.

Noise Trade was started a few years back by Musician/Songwriter Derek Webb.  The principle is simple.  People want music without paying.  Musicians want to get their music out there for people to listen to.  Noise Trade makes all of this possible.  The theory behind Noise-Trade is that grass-roots promotion is far more valuable to independent musicians than album sales.

Although early on Noise Trade’s catalog carried just Derek Webb and local Nashville-area artists; their list of bands has grown dramatically. Currently one can find indie-artists from all over the U.S.  We recently placed Oniric Records Artist Marc B on noise trade…check out the widget at http://marcbmusic.com/freemp3/

Mason Jennings was featured and interviewed on CNN today.

On the interview he reveals a bit about how the new album “Blood Of Man” came about and what inspires him to write.

Effortless melody, dexterous wordplay, tight compositions—they come easy for Jennings, whom Rolling Stone recently dubbed “one of the best songwriters you’ve never heard of.” But his new album, “Blood of Man” (Brushfire), goes deeper than his previous work, which presented a more affable side of the Honolulu-born, Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter.

Read the full article here.

Also don’t forget to check out the website we did for him.