Tab hits the iPhone age

There are already a few companies making digital sheet music readers, but they're mostly expensive units for professional musicians. Now a company that calls itself iTab (subtract points for unoriginal, yet market-friendly name) has come up with a smartphone-sized device that's centered around the universal language of guitarists: tab (add points for enabling guitar geekery).

The touchscreen iTab lets you quickly flip through your tab list to select the song you want. Then the iTab will scroll through the lyrics and chords at whatever speed you select (so you can match the song's tempo) while you play along. Having trouble with a song? iTab offers downloadable videos to help you out with any tough parts. iTab has also built an accompanying store where you can download more tabs.

The iTab also has the ability to output the display to a TV so you can set up an instant guitar-and-karaoke party. There's even a mounting system that lets you keep it attached to your guitar's headstock. The best part is that with an estimated street price of $199, you don't have to be a professional to convince yourself to splurge on one (add more points for catering to hobbyists). The company has put some demonstration videos up on YouTube.



via engadget.

Them Crooked Vultures gear

Guitar Edge magazine has an article up that runs through the gear that each member of Them Crooked Vultures is using on tour. It's pretty cool, because none of them use "standard" stuff at all. On another TCV front, Spinner has a video with some backstage footage of the band members talking (well, Dave Grohl, mostly) about their first gig and being on SNL.

music labels to bands: "Social network - or else!!"

That's the basic gist of this reformatted press release over on CNET.

Skip about halfway down the article to read quotes that make Daniel Glass sound like a class-a jerkface. His tone is indignant and borderline self-righteous as he describes how he skipped signing a band to his label because they wouldn't tweet their every stage move. Seriously, check this quote:

"There may be some indie hipper-than-thou artists who want to let the music speak for itself . . . they are probably not for us."

How dare these impudent punks deny the all-powerful marketing tool of social media and slow the flow of dollars into Glass' pockets?!

Wait . . . huh? Money? Pockets?

Well, yeah. Think about it. How does the band's effort to promote itself through social media pay off for them? An active facebook, myspace or hosted webpage will result in some extra people showing up to see your band when you roll through town. If you set up an e-commerce store you might sell some tee shirts or cds direct and make some cash.

But I'll bet you a Motorola Cliq that's not what has Glass hot and bothered over your twitter account. He's hoping your online activity will generate music sales that put dollars in the label's coffers, and pennies in yours. Because in today's internet world social media = marketing = sales. Theoretically, at least.

Don't get me wrong; none of these things are bad by themselves. Maintaining a prominent profile with its online fans is important for most bands. Making it easy for its fans to support and follow them is a good thing. Bands deserve to get paid for their music, the same way doctors gets paid for their medicine. But making social-media-savviness a prerequisite for a record contract is ridiculous.

In fact, if social media is going to start having an influence on record contracts, the flow of influence and dollars should be going the other direction. If a band chooses to utilize the internet to promote itself, the label should pay them for their marketing efforts the same way they'd pay an in-house marketing staffer or a&r rep. Let's see a band's manager or lawyer bust that point of view out during contract negotiations and see how Glass reacts.



Afterthought:
I'd also like to see some analysis of the time a band spends promoting itself online through social media and compare the payoff against the time spent doing other work with its music (concerts, recording, practice, etc.) to see which is the more productive.

Last.fm Streaming Good For Music Sales

Interesting news from over at Wired's Listening Post where Mr. Van Buskirk sez the early returns from Last.fm's full-track streaming are good news for music sales.

Crazy Record Labels

Hahhahahhaha. Phew.

MAN! More Cool Pitchfork TV News

Pitchfork announced today that Radiohead will be joining the launch of Pitchfork.tv! The band got together in Nigel Godrich's basement to shoot a live performance of the song "Bangers & Mash" from the In Rainbows album. Obviously Pitchfork is thrilled, and I'm sure there are a lot of fans out there who are, too. I'll definitely be watching. Is there any band in the world as cool as Radiohead right now? I think not. It just seems like they're firing on all cylinders in the right direction at the right time.

Last.fm Is Cleared To Stream

According to an entry on the Last.fm blog, the company has gotten clearance to stream full tracks—for free(!)—from their website. Every single stream of a song will result in a payment directly to the artist, no middle men and no b.s. Pretty cool. The only downside is the streams are not unlimited.

There are a lot of details in their blog post, but basically they got all the record labels involved--majors, minors, and independents--to agree to it based on a subscription service they're going to roll out soon. During the interim you can stream each song three times and then a message is supposed to inform you about the subscription service. I'm not sure what is supposed to happen after that, but I tried it and no message about the subscription popped up and it definitely wouldn't let me listen a fourth time. I just got the old "Oops, we had a problem connecting" error message.

Anyway, when the subscription service is up and running, you'll get unlimited streams for a monthly fee. No word on what the fee will be or if non-subscribers will still be able to get three free streams. I'm pretty sure the standard scrobbling will continue. It would be suicide for them to dump that.

I like Last.fm and use it a lot, along with the desktop scrobbler. If you like music--and if you're here it's reasonable that you do--you should check it out.

New One On Me

Now here's something you don't see every day. Dr. Dre has a signature set of headphones. Called "Beats By Dr. Dre" these high-profile cans were speced out by Dre and Jimmy Iovine and are engineered and produced in collaboration with Monster. So not only are these the first signature headphones on the market (at least from a name with sway like Dre's) this is also a first for Monster, and the two parties chose to break this ground together.

I wonder what would happen if you listened to East Coast gangsta rap through a pair of Beats? Would Dre show up at your house with Snoop and take away your headphones?

Cool new internet resources for musicians

I just found this article over at Reuters that lists several new web-based services aimed at helping independent musicians. The best part? They're all free. Free is such a nice price.

Fanbridge is another cool (and free) service not listed in the article that musicians might want to know about. It basically brings mailing list management for your fan base into the Internet era.

Good stuff abounds.

Korg KAOSSILATOR: Coolest Musical Toy For 2007

There has been a lot of cool high-tech musical gear released in 2007, but for my money, none is as cool as the new Korg Kaossilator. It's so new, Korg USA doesn't even have a page up for it yet. Korg UK does, though, because it's been out in the UK and Europe (and Japan, obv.) for a while before hitting the States.

Anyway, why all the love for the Kaossilator? Because it's probably the most fun new musical instrument of the year. In my book, fun can trump a lot of other factors. It's portable, battery powered, lets you play music and build loops by yourself, and can easily be integrated into your music rig for fun at home or live. Thanks to the XY touchpad interface, you don't have to know scales or play keyboard or anything to play it, either. It's the perfect starter musical instrument for a generation that grew up on video games, cell phones, the internet, and iPods. And for non-technophobic musicians, it's a toy that can keep you entertained and let you make music pretty much anywhere. Plus, it's really, really yellow.

There are several videos up on YouTube (they have all the best stuff over there), including a semi-professional product demo and some user stuff.

You can pre-order the Korg Kaossilator at Musician's Friend.

Stung By The Police Reunion Rumors

This has been reported many other places besides here already, but it's just so freakin' cool I can't resist spreading the word. The Police are back!

Billboard put this announcement on their website back on the third of January:

"Rumors are swirling that the Police will reunite for 2007 dates in England and the United States, which would be the legendary trio's first since disbanding in 1986."

And now this is up on the NME site:

"The Police have scheduled rehearsals in Vancouver for a reunion tour, according to a report on the city's classic rock radio station, CFMI."

Other news reports are claiming the band hasn't reunited for a tour at all, but instead are simply making an unannounced appearance at the Grammys to play one song. Given this is the 30-year anniversary of "Roxanne" being released, I think we all know which song they should perform.

-sniff, sniff- Smell that? Ahh, sweet nostalgia . . .

Edit: It's confirmed!! The Police are playing the Grammys. Get your DVRs ready!