Some of you know I’m a huge fan of black lab and often my tweet contain their lyrics.  I have a million favorite songs so pointing you at one album would be difficult at best. Buy all of them instead and then watch all the videos.

Their music along with Matthew Ebel’s make up the vast majority of my music collection.

A few months ago, they decided to make a video of their community with photos of the people within it.  They put out a quick call for photos from the community to feature in a video of pictures of people (lyrics are at the bottom of the post).  Of course, I immediately jumped on the bandwagon and sent one over. I never expected to make it in so thanks guys.

Their community is within and watching the video gives a small glimpse of all the people loving their music. It’s very touching.  A simple act and it brought people closer to the music they love.

Pictures Of People from Black Lab on Vimeo.

pictures of people well nothing gets done. and everyone’s tired. yeah but everything’s fine. everything comes in it’s own good time. pictures of people in magazines. I think they’re trying to tell me something. pictures of people I’ve never met living inside my tv set. and my heart gets so full driving around this town. feel like dr. zhivago lost in chicago. these pictures of people never alone or confused just looking for something left at the side of the road. these pictures of people I never talk to. I wanna say ‘I’m pleased to meet you.’ these pictures of people I could believe in if there was a way I could touch and feel them. and I’ll never see the same again. no I’ll never see the same again. and everything gets quiet. I need help to remember. and I feel no regret for the kindness of strangers come down through the airwaves. never alone or afraid just searching for something left at the side of the road. pictures of people. people around me never run out of things to tell me. these pictures of people here in my mind. I carry them with me all of the time. and I’ll never see the same again. what’s left of you my friend. how can I miss you? I’ve never met you. pictures of people.

Black Lab and Faces of Community

Pandora faces closing the lid on it’s popular streaming radio service after the CRB, earlier this year, tripled the fees due to SoundExchange. Each time a streaming service plays a song they have to pay a small fee to Soundexchange. Soundexchange is deeply associated with the RIAA, who continuously acts like the bully on the playground. Making all the rules and taking your lunch money to boot.

Now the strain of those triple fees has hit internet stream radio and popular service Pandora is getting punched in the stomach enough times that it just might fall over soon. This weekend, the Washington Post reported that Tim Westergren, Founder of Pandora Radio stated “We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision”.

I support 100% that artists make money from being played ANYWHERE. I know musicians who are struggling to keep up in the daily grind. I also know that there are a few who have passed along their music to Pandora so that new fans can be reached. I’ve also discovered new music over at Pandora and would hate to see them close their doors. I don’t think that anyone in internet radio objects to paying fees for playing songs, but suddenly requiring internet radio to pay 3x the fees that the did for streaming is unbelievable. Yet, it’s done.

Oh, and your regular AM and FM stations? They aren’t getting hit with the same outrageous fees. SoundExchange and RIAA are acting unfairly because they are scared of what internet radio is doing for independent artists at the same time being damn greedy with what shouldn’t primarily go to them, but to the artists that they “represent”.  A lot of the time that money doesn’t reach the artist because Soundexchange “can’t find them“.

The only slim hope for Pandora lies with Rep. Howard L. Berman of California and his negotiations with Soundexchange and webcasters to come to an agreement on fees lower than those handed down last year.

The Washington Post also got a quote from Mike Huppe, general counsel for SoundExchange, “Our artists and copyright owners deserve to be fairly compensated for the blood and sweat that forms the core product of these businesses.” However, musicians only receive approximately $0.56 for a 10 song album.

Mr. Huppe, if you’re so concerned with the “blood and sweat” that goes into music creation, then maybe stop worrying about YOUR bottom line and support services who support musicians fairly.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Is the end nigh for Pandora and Internet radio?
• Pandora Might Avoid Extinction by Getting More Social
• Pandora Remains Blocked to International Users
• Music fees row forces Pandora to pull plug on UK webcasts

Closing the Box: Pandora’s Woes

Say what? Prince is releasing free copies of his CD in the Sunday Mail?

Fans love this kind of stuff. People in general love *free* stuff. It’s free *Prince*. Drop “shipping” your CD to thousands of people at no cost to them and they just might give a listen. They might fall in love with the music (and even purchase tickets to a fall tour as a result .

The ERA’s co-chairman Paul Quirk made a comment to the press about the paper/CD release:

“The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores,” he said.

“It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. It is yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music,” Quirk told a music conference in London.

I’m with indiemusician.com, whose music is this again? Prince’s music not in record stores? Cold day in hell anyone?

I’ve said it before, the fans are what make the music successful. This inspires confidence that Prince cares about his fans. Inspiring that confidence is gold. If he/they can do that and bypass the machines of the RIAA and the ERA? Brilliant.

Inspiring fans creates publicity, publicity creates curiosity, curiosity creates new fans. If there’s anything that we’ve learned from the iPhone hype it should be that the right publicity can inspire joy in a product. Inspire the kind of joy that makes someone sleep with their newly purchased iPhone in hand….that’s marketing genius. Tap into that publicity for a CD release? Hello success.

Both associations and record labels need to put aside their old way of doing things and embrace new media and fast. Unless they innovate themselves instead of wasting time getting angry, they will soon find themselves obsolete.

P.S. Thank you Prince for standing up and making some noise.

[RL] Prince, the Mail, and his free release

I think I need to introduce myself.

Hi. I’m Michelle Wolverton. Also known as Chel Pixie. Now that you know my name, let me tell you who I am.

I came to the web to find community outside of the small sleepy Arkansas town I lived in. To that end, I joined Memespace (the old version on Caucus), which was founded by Christopher Abraham. Memespace held a lot of interesting people who inspired each other. I was a host there for a period of time before the Caucus version closed it’s doors and moved.

From there, I found my way to Howard Rheingold’s Brainstorms. I’ve been a member of this virtual community since 1999. Here I learned to communicate better online, to voice my opinions to a group of people and hosted two or three conferences. I was also editor of The Brainstorms Scoop for a time before several projects refocused by attention.

During this time, I also majored in Paralegal Studies at Kaplan University. I am member of Lambda Epsilon Chi honor society. I love reading and writing legal documents and doing legal research for cases. Family law is most interesting to me though Contracts is a close second.

Last year, I discovered Second Life. My avatar’s name is Chel Pixie. I am events planner/coordinator for SL Brand. I am a Second Life Relay for Life team member. I love events and people and live music. I love planning events and creating an environment for people to have a good time. Second Life is a great platform for live music, several musicians that I’ve had the opportunity to hear are Rich Desoto, Cylindrian, Uncle Seth, Jaycatt Nico, Kurt Bestor, and Louis Volare.

I discovered podcasting through Bucket and went on to add a list of podcasts that I’ve found interesting and inspiring. I am contemplating my own and working on a project that is inspired by podsafe music. I am looking forward to PodCamp Boston2 to learn more from people who are willing to hand you their knowledge and inspire you to use it.

Professionally, I’m working with my partner and mentor Christopher Penn as Project Lead and Marketing with Virtual Hot Wings. Virtual Hot Wings is a digital CD of tunes from Matthew Ebel‘s Second Life tour. Many people have asked why are you talking about this musician at great length? Are you getting paid for this? And er, some other not really repeatable suggestions. Isn’t enough that I believe in someone enough to give them my energy and time?

I am spreading the word about Matthew because his music is more than just another album released. Each song tells a story and I relate to each story. His music inspires me every morning when I wake to do better, to do more, to make my effort on something that matters. He’s very gracious and for the record has never asked for anything of me. I’m fueled by my own desire to help him and others.

My desire, my goal isn’t only to reach people about Matthew Ebel or Anji Bee but to make them pay attention to the issues in the music industry and to help them discover why indie music is so important. Imagine shutting down the RIAA because the public takes their listening habits in their own hands and makes the decision to listen to independent and podsafe music. There is a community available that I have joined that can help make that happen.

I am the pixie behind WickedPixieMedia.com. WickedPixieMedia is new media music label. It is representative of the musicians and the music that I promote and support, using new media to reach out to others about independent music. Then to encourage others to discover independent music, to encourage them to realize that it’s only with a community that a change can begin.

I am the student of new media and using it to market an idea or thought or presence that seems interesting to me and that I think other’s will find interesting. Ideas that can expand the community and its knowledge. I love learning how to apply these skills to reach people. In the past, I’ve managed an office, been an assistant to 2 CEOs, a receptionist and then later a legal assistant.

Who I am has changed in the last couple months. My mind has been opened to what I can achieve and how. I’ve found confidence that I didn’t have before in my ability to make a difference. A little instruction and an open door can go a long way in bringing out the best in people and inspire them to great lengths (thanks ninja).

I think I’ve summarized in a few sentences what’s next and in more than a few who I am. That’s changing because we grow and change on a daily basis. Want to find out more about how to open the doors? Just click on that contact me button at the top of the page, I love conversation.

[RL] definition of a pixie

Virtual Hot Wings has been a fantastic project and if I haven’t said it loudly enough; working with Christopher Penn, Matthew Ebel, C.C. Chapman, Crap Mariner, and Dedric Muriac; has been an amazing experience. That experience was celebrated yesterday during a concert by Matthew in Second Life.

During the concert, I received some IMs regarding the CD and the concept. One of the IMs was from a guy and what he had to say touched a nerve. The conversation (with names omitted) went like this:

[11:53] Random Guy: oh which CD?
[11:53] Chel Pixie: virtual hot wings
[11:56] Random Guy: ah didn’t even read most of the web page, it’s a cap of some Concerts in SL?
[11:57] Chel Pixie: it’s cuts of the concerts and then the concerts
[11:57] Chel Pixie: as well
[11:57] Chel Pixie: 7 hours
[11:58] Random Guy: ah I get beer and coffee
[11:58] Random Guy: the streams I can cap myselfe

He was wearing a fan tag above his head, enjoying the music, and it wasn’t the first time he’d been to a concert.

Yes, you can capture and record the future streams yourself. Think about it this way, if you couldn’t access the artist in the same way, if you had to purchase a CD in order to hear the music that you loved, then you would do so. No questions, no second guessing. You would be supporting that artist in doing so the only way you could. Supporting Matthew is one purpose of this project.

There is no money that gets sent to iTunes, there’s no money that CD Baby eats up, it’s all 100% to feed that bird who sang and played his heart out to his fans several nights in Second Life. This CD isn’t just a few tunes cut and slapped down to download, it’s over 7 hours of music.

If you don’t like Matthew’s music, I can understand not making the purchase. Not making the purchase because you can capture future streams yourself, that’s not supporting the artist who you claim to be a fan of.

why you should support independent musicians reason # 386

Photo taken by C.C. Chapman

Two weeks ago I started a conversation with a ninja (Christopher Penn, to those of you who don’t know) in Second Life who had broken into the treehouse to listen to a live stream of Matthew Ebel/Hali Heron in concert. The result? Virtual Hot Wings, a landmark fan created and released album of Matthew’s Second Life tour, is now available for download. This brilliant piano man gives himself to his fans each time he puts his fingers on the keyboard and does it so well.

Unlike buying an album from CD Baby or iTunes, which then take a cut from the sale, this album entirely benefits Matthew, 100% of all proceeds are instantly paid to him!

With the assistance of C.C. Chapman and crayon (read the press release here), this release has the power to change the way that the music industry works. The record labels and the RIAA have a whole lot of catching up to earn the love and loyalty of the fans the way that Matthew has.

Join the live concert by Matthew on tomorrow from 11 AM – 1 PM SLT (2-4 EST) at the Coke’s Virtual Thirst Pavilion. You can purchase a copy of the CD during the concert! I’ll see you there!

Don’t forget to digg or tweet this to the world, spread the word and show the RIAA what it means to be a fan! (All multimedia on this release can be found here.)

Craving something spicy? Virtual Hot Wings released!

Bum Rush the Charts NOW!