MySpace Gets Heavy Into Music Marketing and Promotion

MySpace took a big leap into music marketing and promotion Monday night to pimp out MySpace Records artist Mickey Avalon.

If I were a band, I'd be friends with Tom.

Other stuff I write about at the Suite101 pop music page includes:

*Beyonce's Oscar snub
*Lily Allen does MTV's First Discover & Download Tour
*Linda Perry -- the Power Behind the Hits

You can also take my poll to let me know how you discover new music and read articles from our writers about Christina Aguilera and Talking Heads. I blog about The Police and Talking Heads.

Feel free to let me know about any kind of music or trend in pop music you'd like to hear more about. I'm open to any and all ideas about pop music, music promotion and marketing, new artists, hit songs, great albums, and pop music history to name a few.

And by the way, have you heard Mickey Avalon yet? What do you think?

Finally, I find a way to listen to Iron Butterfly online

I wanted to buy In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly on iTunes until I realized that iTunes only had the 4-minute version. I didn't even know there was a 4-minute version. What's the point? So I gave up.

Then I found a place where I can listen to the song in it's 17-minute entirety online -- for free no less! Friends, let me introduce you to MP3Realm.

Now I can be a happy music fan again.

You've got to hear this guy!

I just found Geoff Smith on Podshow Podshow and I am absolutely hooked on his music. At first he reminded me of Ben Folds just a little bit because of his voice. Not On The Radio is the song I keep playing over and over, you know like we did back in the day when we had casettes and we'd hit rewind over and over and over. Or back when we had 45s and all we had to do was put the needle back at the just the right groove where the song began.

Give a listen to Geoff Smith and let me know what you think!

Britney Shaves Her Head!

The girl has got to be nuts. Well, we knew that. Anyway, I cover the silliness at length at Suite101.com. Happy reading. Vote too on the poll I've put up -- why did she do it? Certainly there must be a reason?



Did she just want some attention?

Dear record companies,

I don’t know if the old model is working anymore. Well, duh. But more specifically, I am not sure if the amount of spins a record gets is totally where it’s at anymore.

Don’t get me wrong; I still think the more a record gets played, the more it sells. But what I’m trying to say is that isn’t all there is anymore. The case in point is MySpace the killer app and all the other alternative ways of marketing music other than traditional terrestrial radio.

In other words, the old model of giving kickbacks to the radio station who spins your new song the most is nice, but you’re likely wasting resources. It’s not all about radio spins anymore. If I were you, I’d be making my music available all over the place so it can spread virally over MySpace, blogs, podcasts, vlogs, through e-mail, through websites and any other way you can think of.

Screw DRM.

Give up. Just give music something akin to the creative commons license. I’m not saying you just allow your music to be spread for free amongst everyone and their grandmother. But for people who are reviewing your music online or talking about it on blogs or wanting to use it in a YouTube video or on MySpace, let people have a creative commons type license to use it.

Let me make a music bed out of a loop of a song for my radio show – as long as I somehow cite whether on-air or online where it came from. If I want to open a podcast with a KT Tunstall song, I should be able to as long as I give KT credit, right? It’s just like running photos in a newspaper or on a blog – you have to give credit.

Maybe this opens it up too much because how can you police that? How can you make sure some kid in Kansas who has posted your song on his blog is citing your music in a way that helps market it?

I don’t know but I’m just saying. Keeping music under lock and key for those of us fans who help spread it like good rock n’ roll foot soldiers is soon to be the way of the past. It has to be.

Signed,

The lowly little part-time radio DJ in Phoenix.

Become a freelance writer!

Latest Pop Music Articles by Heather Larson

Best new website hands down!

You have got to check out this new website (new to me, anyway) because it's just hysterical. Looks like it comes from the fine folks at HBO Comedy... It's called Thisjustin.com. They got me with that Condilicious video, which is just a sidesplitter. I've always felt Condi Rice was a source of much unmined hilarity over the years and this proves it. I may almost miss the Bush administration!

Was Anna Nicole Smith a bonafide celebrity or celebrity caricature?

We have no idea yet how Anna Nicole Smith died, but we’re no strangers to how she lived – in a circus mostly made up of fame and controversy in recent years. It all began so differently back in 1993 when Smith was named Playboy’s 1993 Playmate of the Year. I have to tell you what a strange experience it is to be on the air at the 98-7 The Peak during a breaking news cycle when a major celebrity dies like this.

I was a bit floored at the outpouring of sadness on the request lines! People truly loved Anna Nicole Smith. Maybe we all saw a little bit of ourselves in her, maybe we all felt sorry for her because she’s had quite a final year of living. I’d always thought of Smith as a tabloid caricature in recent years. It’s been hard to remember as the lawsuits have recently been piled upon her that she had indeed seen better days.

It was never an easy life for her, which is perhaps the most tragic of all no matter what her cause of death may be. We can only imagine that she can finally know peace.

Anna Nicole Smith is dead

Anna Nicole Smith was found unconscious today in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida at around 2pm Eastern. The blonde bombshell has been pronounced dead; CNN is reporting she was dead before even being rushed to the hospital. She was 39 years old. Smith was Playboy's Playmate of the Year in 1993.

My ten can't-miss podcasts

I haven't gotten so many votes thus far in the last poll (page down and you can take it). But from what I can tell, you're not that into podcasting. With so few votes, it's hard to tell. So if you're into podcasting, please let me know what podcasts you listen to whether it's regularly or not. I'm just curious and doing some research here. I'm way into podcasts and download a zillion of them I have no time to even listen to. They turn into something I can listen to when I'm working out at the gym or nights when I have insomnia. I used to listen to music ones a lot when I worked at a 9-5 office job last year.

Here's a list of some current favorites you can look for on iTunes:
*Podrunner
*Next Big Hit Hip-Hop
*Roots Rock Radio
*Hip Tranquil Chick
*Grammar Girl

And that's just a sampling of the audio podasts I enjoy. As for video podcasts:
*Ask a Ninja
*CNN Reliable Sources
*NBC Nightly News
*VH1 Best Week Ever
*Yogamazing

Now for the poll!

Tell me about your podcasting interests!

I have an idea about a new podcast I may start...hence the research below -- a new poll. I have so very little free time, that if I'm going to start a new podcast, I want to make sure it's worth it to me and the audience. Not to mention it's about something the audience will dig. (And hopefully Digg as well!)

So please take the poll below!