Today I thought I would share a quick tutorial on how you can make a hand drawn myspace header image and then show you a way that you can quickly add that header image to the top of your myspace. (If you are only looking for the code that adds an image header to your myspace page, see step 10 at the bottom).
To see the Header in action go check out Myspace.com/MatthewMcAvene
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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.
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It’d be nice if all you had to do was send CDs out to the big magazines and they would eventually be reviewed, but this hardly happens anymore. In fact, not much gets done by blindly sending CDs to people—we get tons of them each month, and yes although we do listen, we have no context or connection for any of the bands.
Take an approach like one of the artists we signed to our record label: Marc B. He heard our company name and did some research to find out how to get in touch with us. He found an address and a phone number. Advice: pick the phone number. Make a connection with whoever you meet on the phone, and ask them if you could send them your CD. When Marc’s CDs arrived, it wasn’t addressed to “Oniric Records” like all of the others, it was addressed to a single person, who was expecting his CDs. The package was immediately delivered to him, and the listener had a context and connection for who sent him the package. At the very least, it had his name on it, so he was going to pay more attention.
Take the extra step to make a relationship with the company you are going to send your CD to. Don’t address anything to “Demos” or “(Company Name)” if you want your music to be taken seriously. You worked too hard on your CD for it to be stacked in a pile with the rest of the demos.
Also, before you start sending out your CDs to Rolling Stone and SPIN, gather some press in your local market. For a smaller city like ours in Santa Barbara, our biggest publication, The Santa Barbara Independent, comes out with an annual comprehensive list of bands in Santa Barbara. You can check it out here. See if your local publication has one of these, and make sure you are included. If they don’t have one, suggest it, but at the very least, make a connection and address your CD to a person, not a company.
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From SmashingMagazine.com to DesignBump to Magazine sites like Print and CMYK, there are tons of great design resources out there. But lately, there is one resource that has been providing me with more exciting content and educational articles than any other, Design-Newz.
Design-Newz, which was built and is run by the guys over at Spyre Studios, is an invaluable resource for any designer. It hosts a virtual library of design blog posts. Basically, they search the web for the latest and greatest design articles and then post links to those articles on their project website Design-Newz.com.
To help promote the blog posts, they employ twitter. I follow them on twitter and get their regular tweets linking to hundreds of different design blogs with high quality articles that offer free brushes, photoshop tutorials, and inspirational collections of work by designers. Thus far, they’ve been a wonderful and welcome source of inspiration as I’ve worked on our company’s websites.
Their work and their site exhibits four things that inspire me: A unique idea, Fantastic quality, Regular and consistent updates (they commit to at least having 5-10 updates a day), and a humble attitude that seeks to promote great work over purely personal gain.
Go follow them on twitter and start learning.
Permalink Post CommentI got the chance to head out to West Beach Festival to support two of our clients, G. Love and SOJA. Both of them played great sets to a barefoot crowd of thousands who were hanging out on the beach and loving every second of the festival.
It’s always great when you see great music come to your hometown, especially when you know it will happen again the next year. Many thanks to Twiin Productions for putting on the successful event. Can’t wait to see what the lineup is like next year.
Below are some pictures I shot while at the Festival on Saturday (many more coming!). Double click on the picture to see a larger version.
The Festival Grounds in Santa Barbara, CA
One of Oniracom’s newest clients, indie rockers The Middle East, got an honorable mention on Pitchfork today.
Check out the write up and listen to their first single, “The Darkest Side” of their new EP
The first track is called “The Darkest Side”, a simple, finger-plucked acoustic affair with alternating and harmonizing vocals that lend the hushed track a sense of beleaguered hope. (Pitchfork)
Also stay tuned for a brand new website for The Middle East coming soon!
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We recently launched the new Jack Johnson Music for his upcoming “En Concert†release. The launch includes a brand new website layout, updated online store complete with digital downloads (integrated with physical merchandise shipments) and a social media campaign to promote the products. Billboard.biz covered our Twitter widget:
Permalink Post CommentJack Johnson is harnessing the power of his Twitter followers to promote his new live album. Users send a form letter (form tweet?) to their followers and in return will get a free MP3. Nice. It’s simple, probably cost next to nothing, and will most likely be very effective. Oniracom, the company that runs Johnson’s website, offers a case study on its efforts to increase Matisyahu’s Twitter following and improve his Twittering. (For example, Matisyahu generated buzz by inviting five Twitter followers to his band rehearsal). (Mashable)
MySpace has launched their sync service to many of their users world wide. Right now you can sync your MySpace status update with your Twitter.
The beta service was originally only available to celebrities and musicians like Oniracom clients Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, and Matisyahu.
The service is another great way for musicians to be able to update once and publish to several sites much like several third party Facebook apps that publish your Twitter updates to your profile wall.
We have been able to keep fans updated about new tours, album launches, and special opportunities through Myspace Sync. (Sizlocore)
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We recently launched the new www.jackjohnsonmusic.com for his upcoming “En Concert” release. The launch includes a brand new website layout, updated online store complete with digital downloads (integrated with physical merchandise shipments) and a social media campaign to promote the products. Mashable.com covered our Twitter widget:
Permalink Post CommentIt’s really simple: just head on to twitter.jackjohnsonmusic.com. There’s a premade Twitter message there (you can add 24 more characters if you like) that promotes the new album, titled En Concert, and all you need to do is login into your Twitter account and send it. The download of the promised tune (it’s a 192 kbps MP3) will start automatically.
Apple is exploring a new interactive album format code named “Cocktail” that could potentially bring new life to the Album AND the Music Industry. An executive involved in the plan is quoted by the Financial Times as saying it’s “all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music.”
That’s all well and good but it seems as though the current state of the music industry has arrived to where it’s at because of a reason - progression. This new format is supposedly all about “re-creating the heyday of the album” but what can we classify this as - progression, nostalgia, retro, all of the above or none of the above?
I realize that this new format is being created to give fans more for their money and encourage them to buy the whole album versus single tracks. However, in order for this “Cocktail” to work it will have to overcome the way of thinking that most music consumers have these days - that albums only have 2 or 3 good songs that are worth the money and the rest is usually filler. Let’s just dream for a second and imagine if “Cocktail” really takes off. Perhaps this is what is needed to motivate artists to create albums with less filler.
Of course, for the die hard fans I think this concept will work. Fans are always willing and wanting to get new content from their favorite artists. The question, though, is what “exclusive content” will be offered and will it be something unique OR will it be something you can find on-line within a few minutes of searching?
I’m glad to see that the big names in the music industry are working on new ways to entice fans into buying music. It’s a sad, true fact but “just music” isn’t really cutting it these days. I personally think the “Cocktail” is a progression and a good idea, but it needs to be done right. And who better to lead this initiative than Apple.
Click here to read the article in the New York Times
Click here to read the article in Financial Times
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elder
