The good folks over at Mashable recently published an article talking about who would buy the new iPad.  It got us here at Oniracom wondering who among us would buy the new iPad.  This is what some Oniracom employees had to say about Apple’s latest Magical hardware:

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

Click Read More to see Videos of some Great Live Performances

In a time when the music industry is constantly worrying about, questioning and adapting to changes in the way that people acquire and listen to music, there is one thing that hasn’t changed. The power and draw of a great live performance.

Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead don’t need to fear declining physical album sales because of two things: 1) these bands are leading the way by adapting to the digital age of music and 2) These bands know that they have a team of fans that will fight snow and storm to get to their live shows.

These bands have established their reputation by writing great music and putting on shows that draw crowds in. Whether they incorporate leaps in live music technology—like on the last Nine Inch Nails Tour where there was a sheet of lights that would switched on and off in reaction to the movements by the members of the band—or if they strip back the flashiness and allow their songs to communicate in a simple and humble manner. The key is create an atmosphere that will connect with the fans and get them excited.

Live music is incredibly powerful—seeing the strain and the emotion that a musician puts into the music can take a song from enjoyable to meaningful. Live music can inspire people, change ones day, change the way one feels and, by doing so, change lives. When one watches a live performance by a great band, there is a feeling like nothing else that overtakes a person. If you haven’t felt the shiver that runs down ones spine or a wave of happiness that makes you want to move then you have been going to the wrong performances. (Also, there are some great videos about the power of music at whymusicmatters.org I suggest the video about Willie Johnson)

So what is my entirely unprofessional and terribly biased advice to the music industry and to musicians in general. It’s the same advice I would give to any business: focus on doing what you do well.  In the case Musicians: focus on writing and playing your music well. Allow your music to connect with your fans during your live performances and your fans will take care of marketing and buying the music, tickets and merchandise.

That said, I wanted to share a few of my favorite live performances as models.

Click Read More to see Videos of these Live Performances

Creating iPhone apps for bands is starting to catch on.  It started out with the big-budget artists (like Pink) cranking out the custom applications that probably included a hefty price tag, but now there are many solutions for “middle class” bands to develop their own apps.  I will review and compare four cost-effective solutions for getting an iPhone app developed for your band. 

The four companies I will be talking about are: iLike, Mobile Roadie, MobBase, and Phizuu.

Click “Read More” to get the scoop on the best company to build your app…

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.

It is no secret at Oniracom that I am quite the Phish phanatic (for better or worse).  With that said, how can I allow this news to slip past our blog? 

The first 3D concert film experience, Phish 3D, features the boys (Trey, Mike, Page & Fishman) at their aptly named 8th one-band-music-festival, Festival 8.  This event took place over 3 days of Halloween weekend 2009 and includes a famous stunt of the bands’—performing a ‘costume album’ from front to back—this time they covered the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St.  I’m allowing this bit of press release and trailer speak for itself, although I do wonder if movie theaters will hire security, or turn a blind eye to any funny smells within the darkened theaters?

Watch the Trailer:

Press Release:

Phish 3D, a 3D concert experience, is opening nationwide on Friday, April 30th for an exclusive one week run.  The more than two hour movie, presented by Action 3D Productions in association with Network LIVE and Cinedigm Digital Cinema Corp., highlights Phish’s Festival 8, a three-day, eight-set, 16-hour concert in the Southern California desert.

In advance of the nationwide roll-out, exclusive preview screenings will be shown in nine cities—Boston; Burlington, VT; Chicago; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Raleigh/Durham, NC; and Washington, D.C.—on April 20th. In addition to experiencing this special screening, fans in attendance will take home a Phish 3D movie poster. The fully immersive music and visual experience, featuring state-of-the-art 3D technology, gives viewers the sense that they are not only at the event, but on stage with the band that Entertainment Weekly has called “the biggest cult band in America.” Phish 3D features fan favorites, never before seen cover songs, and intimate footage of the band backstage and in rehearsals.

Filmed in October 2009 at the band’s Festival 8, more than 40,000 devoted fans watched as Phish combined two of their most beloved traditions — the multi-day festival and the Halloween album “costume.”  The band’s highly anticipated “musical costumes” are concerts involving the performance of an entire album by another artist—in this case, Phish covered the Rolling Stones’ album Exile on Main St. Phish 3D also features songs from the band’s first ever full-length acoustic set, as well as performances taken from the six additional sets.

Part of my job at Oniracom  is staying on top of web design trends. This of course means that it is my official duty to cruise around the internet with no particular aim but to see what is out there.  It’s a difficult job, but someone has to do it.

I was keeping my eyes on the website designs that have come out this year, when I started to realize something. These websites have some very common threads. The organizer in me decided that I must find a way to group them all.

As I started grouping them, I realized that web design right now can be boiled down to two major kinds of design and 5 styles.

Click “Read More” to see how it is done.

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!

Last Friday I had a great opportunity to listen to Jay Matheson from Apple Computer speak at our local City College about personal branding.  As a small business owner, I never turn down these special moments to learn, no matter how versed I believe I may be in a particular field.  We can always learn more information, or see familiar information from new perspectives.  Please Read More…

I’m sitting at the airport gate right now waiting for my flight out to LAX, then I’m on my way to Austin for SXSW.  Luckily there is wireless at my gate so I can go through the massive list of panels, shows, talks, keynotes, and booths at the festival to decide where I want to go and who I want to meet.  I already have a couple plans to meet up with some cool like-minded companies as Oniracom (like TopSpin and CultureJam), see some of our clients play (Rogue Wave, The Middle East, The Northern Crowns, Christa Borden), and meet up with some companies we already have the pleasure to work with (Justin.TV, TAO, and Luck Media).  It’s going to be a busy 4 days to say the least, but I’m excited to take it all in.

Here are the panels I’m most excited about:

1) Your Fans Are Your Livelihood
How can artists and labels use new technologies and services to sell directly to consumers, retain more of the sale price and build relationships with fans? Services are emerging which offer the framework to go direct. Learn what the new intermediaries can and can’t do for you and your fans.

This one caught my interest immediately because it is moderated by Glenn Peoples (Senior Editorial Analyst at Billboard).  I’ve been following Glenn’s writing on the state of the music industry since before I started working in the industry.  There are a ton of people who write about the music industry, but this guy is the top of the top.  Highly recommended.  I really look forward to meeting him.

Click “Read More….” to read the rest!

One of the biggest advantages to being a contestant on American Idol?  Building a strong online fan base to take with you once the show is over.  15 minutes of fame turns into a potential career if you can grow (and keep) your fan base.

However, American Idol has stomped on this growth by not allowing American Idol contestants to maintain their individual social media pages, as it is taking traffic away from the American Idol page. 

The following excerpt is from The Wall Street Journal:

Want to tweet personal “feel better” messages to Crystal Bowersox? Too bad — your time has passed.

As of roughly 6 p.m. ET on March 3, all Twitter, Facebook and MySpace followers of individual “American Idol” contestants were sent the same message: “Thanks so much for following me/joining my Fan Page! All my updates from now on will be on our Official American Idol 9 Contestant Page, please become a fan there to read all my updates throughout the season!”

That means that for 20 contestants, they all share one Twitter, one Facebook, and one Myspace.  It’s pretty unlikely that they would give passwords out to each of the contestants, so any tweets coming “from the singers” are probably highly moderated, if not completely fabricated. 

So much for honest, spontaneous updates.  If I cared about American Idol, I would be pretty upset.  Right now I’m just upset that all of their social media pages are hideous.  Where’s the design?

The following post was written by reknown producer and industry thinker Sjoerd (Sjoko) Koppert.  Besides working with bands such as The Who, Pink Floyd, ABBA, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, Beach Boys, Yes, and Lynyrd Skynrd, he also orchestrated the launch of FedEx in Europe and the Middle East in 1986 while on a personal break from the music industry.  He is well-known for being an insightful and forward thinker for the music industry, as he has constantly adapted his strategies to maintain success in an ever-changing business.

Oniracom is currently working with Sjoko on two original music series, produced in high quality to be premiered on the web before moving to television and film.  (More on that soon!)  Here’s a snippet on some of Sjoko’s thoughts for YouTube future in their fast maturing market. Enjoy:

Points for thought

After launching FedEx in Europe in ‘86 I attended my first “official” FedEx board meeting in Memphis and caused a lot of consternation. When asked my opinion about the state of the corporation my response was: “Dangerous. You are a single product company in a fast maturing market.” To say this remark caused consternation would be a severe understatement. After all, I was addressing a board that had only ever experienced and accommodated growth. But my statement was truth based on fact and before long they recognized that they had to take serious action in order to preserve their market position.

Today I see a very similar situation with YouTube. They are a single product (delivery platform) company, a market leader in a maturing market. Alternative delivery platforms are developing and growing. Just in recent weeks we have seen developments. Hulu is moving from being just another delivery platform to content development (Article). AOL is moving from content provider to include delivery platform (Article). Shifts have also been spotted from companies such as Yahoo (Article) and MSN/Bing (Article). History has shown that this market movement is to accelerate. As such, a company like YouTube will have to make strategic moves in order to preserve and built its market position.

Currently, we are awaiting YouTube’s response to a request for a more “fixed rate” schedule of advertisements for two original series. This is a move away from their Google based advertising platform. Our request to YouTube is based on our concept research, our proven capability to deliver and the interest in the shows from corporate sponsors. 

Our contact with sponsors is due to my history with marketing / advertising / sponsorships, but our core activity is content development. I am a producer first and foremost and a marketing / development person as a necessity. No question YouTube can handle sponsorship / product placement and have the people in place to do so. The latter is one of the reasons I requested for a YouTube person to be part of our “closing team” when finalizing major sponsorship deals. It helps us and comforts our corporate sponsors.

And here comes today’s key question:

YouTube is considering a strategic decision in changing their manner of advertising. Should they perhaps consider a different strategy and partner in the production of shows?

Personally I think of YouTube as a partner anyway, be it an “initial delivery partner” only. I would not have any objections to them becoming involved financially. Yes we would forego a percentage of our long-term revenue, but I do think they have much to offer to counterbalance that. I would value your opinions. 

In evaluating the above, please consider that currently our production entity owns both shows and YouTube is the initial delivery platform. After YouTube the shows will go to television and after that other alternative platforms (DVD etc.). In other words, there will be a large ongoing residual value. Naturally we would have to share the revenue with YouTube should they partner us in producing the content.

Do you think this would benefit both parties? Or do you think YouTube should stay away from production and revenue share? I welcome your opinions!

Sjoerd Koppert

What makes a good website? How do you start building a website? Learn all this and more this week on Jeremy’s Desktop.

Join Jeremy and the guys from Oniracom to find out what you need to make your website a smashing success. Oniracom is the company responsible for the websites of Jack Johnson, John Legend, Matt Costa and countless other music sensations. We’ll get the scoop from them on how they go about creating these works of art – from the story board to content dissemination. See what these experts say are the 3 things every website must have.

About Oniracom

What makes a good website? How do you start building a website? Join Jeremy and the guys from Oniracom to learn what you need to make your website a smashing success. Oniracom is the company responsible for the websites of Jack Johnson, John Legend, Matt Costa and countless other music sensations. We’ll get the scoop from them on how they go about creating these works of art – from the story board to content dissemination. See what these experts say are the 3 things every website must have.

Fast-Forward 17 minutes…

Oniracom built this free MP3 widget for Matt Costa.  We got a bit of press in the OC Weekly too!

​Visit MattCosta.com right now for your chance to download new song, “Permanent Vacation,”  from the Huntington Beach Brushfire artist. But don’t think you don’t have to put (a little) work into it—by either posting on Facebook, tweeting or joining the Costa mailing list, you can get the track for totally free.

While it’s definitely a deviation from the usual ultra pleasant Costa M.O. we’re all used to—sunshine, Astairs, roses, et al—the track may just be a pleasant surprise for you fans out there waiting for fresh material. Hope you like the Doors. And reverb.

That’s right… We finally created a Facebook Page for Oniracom!

We’ll be posting little updates about new sites, widgets, campaigns, and cool client news.  Become a fan!