A Song A Day

After 5 months in the wilderness, I’m back on track and will be posting again on a regular basis. I imagine everyone’s disappeared after finding no updates for so long, but I will do my best to regain your attention - that’s not a promise, obviously

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In a move that’s sent shockwaves through the music industry, Fakesensations, a band you’ve probably never heard of, have decided to allow fans to buy their new album Isaac and the Secret Chord for £7.99 (or $9.99), from any of various online download stores.

From October 15th, fans will be able to purchase the album using credit cards, Paypal or other so-called ’systems of payment’. Once the transaction has been completed, they will be able to download the album and then listen to it as many times as they want.

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There’s a great story about how, when the Beatles completed Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the early hours of April 21st, 1967, they left Abbey Road and took an acetate of the recording to Mama Cass’s house in Chelsea, stuck speakers in the windows and broadcast the album to the neighbourhood. People in the area all woke up realising they were hearing the new Beatles record, and shared a small cultural moment together.

In a much bigger way, this is what’s happening today with Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Because of the way the album’s been distributed, we know that everyone who ordered the MP3s is listening to them right now. That’s potentially hundreds of thousands of people around the world all sharing a musical experience at the same time.

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Two posts in one day! But rarely do two items in the papers anger me so much. John Harris, ex-NME journo (from just before the time I joined), Socialist firebrand and now Guardian columnist, can usually be relied upon for sober, insightful and generally left-leaning comment.

In today’s Guardian, however, he seems to have been replaced with a deluded corporate shill.

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This is obviously a very sad and misguided decision, and sets a worrying precedent. The RIAA are probably very pleased with themselves - but they shouldn’t be. All the reports of this case, aside from the cowardly neutral - sorry, independent - reporting of the likes of Billboard, are leading with the words “single mother” closely followed by “$220,000″. Yes, it’s obvious Jammie Thomas was guilty, but it’s also obvious she’s being made a scapegoat for an industry that is still desperate to turn the clocks back to the mid-’90s, and pretend the internet never happened. They are hurting culture (see previous posts for an explanation why), and they need to be resisted at every opportunity.

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So, I can finally reveal the reason why A Song A Day hasn’t exactly been the most regular of blogs recently. I’ve been working on a new campaign for Last.fm entitled Now Form A Band. It’s a “campaign for better music” that we hope will kickstart a new DIY music revolution.

As the founders state in the manifesto: “We’re here to call for better music. If you don’t like the music that’s thrown at you, then get out there and do it yourself. With the tools and methods we’ll show you, there’s no reason why you can’t make it.”

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The final part of my interview with Kevin Ehlers, one half of the duo behind upcoming DIY indie label Lemon Drop records.

6. How do you go about finding bands to sign? or is it just friends’ bands at the moment?

At the moment, the bands are all friends of Charlie in some way, or in the case of Reset, it’s Charlie’s band. I’ve got a few bands interested in what LemonDrop stands for and want to be a part of it, but it’ll be a while before we can support them, so I’m just keeping in contact for the time being. I find bands through a variety of means, but mainly through word of mouth or through my blog. I’m contacted on a daily basis by bands asking if I’ll post about them, and most times I make sure to keep in touch with them. There’s a few bands I’ve kept in contact with throughout the last year or so that may be interested in joining us, but we’ll have to get a little bigger to support them, even though I’d sign them in a second otherwise.

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Part three of my interview with with Kevin Ehlers, one half of the duo behind upcoming DIY indie label Lemon Drop records.

5. What’s the best advice you could give to a band looking to promote themselves online?

Get yourself out there anyway you can, be nice to people who have taken time out of their lives to support you, and make connections. I realize that’s a bit cliché and you’ve heard it all before, but honestly, the internet is the single greatest thing to happen to music in our opinions, and we believe in it so much we went and started a record label to prove our point. Social communities like myspace and facebook are obviously key, but you can’t just be passive with those either. It’s easy to just click approve to your friend requests, or send a simple “thanks” message back to a fan who has sent you a myspace message, but you’d be surprised how much stronger a fan’s support for a band gets if they feel you truly care.

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Part two of my interview with with Kevin Ehlers, one half of the duo behind upcoming DIY indie label Lemon Drop records.

3. What are you offering the bands who sign to you?

Bands that sign to us get their album recorded should they need that, but mainly our bands get to be a part of something that has never been attempted as far as a record label is concerned. We’ll provide as much of the usual record label support as we can, from helping with recording needs, album artwork and merch design, website set-up, ordering physical CDs and Vinyl, writing up bios and promoting each album, etc. In the end though, it’s all about exposure for our bands and creating a fan community around each band through podcasts, forums, remix contests, etc. You name it, we’ll try it. And we’re only here to help our bands, so along with the exposure will come equal share of their profits with the label and very low recording costs.

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I’ll be back posting more general music stuff here soon, and there will be a special announcement related to Last.fm in a few days, which will explain why I’m no longer updating so much here. In the meantime…

I conducted an interview with Kevin Ehlers, one half of the duo behind upcoming DIY indie label Lemon Drop records, and will be posting the entire thing in instalments (as it’s quite long…) They’re not fully operational yet, but I think this gives you an insight into what it takes to run your own record label in this snazzy web 2.0 age wot we live in.

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