I hadn’t previous realized the potential of Podcasts, but lately I’ve decided to start sifting through what iTunes has to offer. I’m finding a lot of valuable content. Here are my current favorites:

1. The Accidental Creative
   http://www.accidentalcreative.com

It is the age of creativity and “cover bands” don’t change the world. You MUST find your unique voice if you are going to thrive in the create-on-demand world. At Accidental Creative, we are “freedom fighters for the creative class.” In these podcasts we address real-life issues for creative professionals.

Besides this free podcast, the Accidental Creative also offers a premium service subscription with 3 or more podcasts per month and access to their entire back catalog of 100+ podcasts.

2. The Business Side of Music
   http://thebusinesssideofmusic.libsyn.com/         

   This is a monthly podcast series geared towards empowering all musicians to understand the music business from the ground up.

3. APM Film & TV Music
   http://pressroom.apmmusic.com/pr/apm/info/APM-Film-and-TV-Music-Podcast.asp         

   All about composing and licensing library music for use in film, television, trailers, promos, video games, new media, radio and more. Sponsered by APM, a premier provider of production music services.

4. Pandora Presents… the Musicology Show
   http://blog.pandora.com/podcast/         

   If you’ve never heard of Pandora, it’s a great service to expose you to new music. It plays simular material based on a band or artist you like, with the connections having been analysed by real people. If you haven’t tried it out, you can now, at www.pandora.com. The Musicology Show is an excellent Podcast presented by Pandora.

   Musicology presents ten-minute insights into music writing, performance, and production. Pandora’s host Kevin Seal and his guests perform live in the studio to show how they write and record their songs.

   “Ever wonder how a band creates its unique ’sound’, or what makes a particular song so distinctive?”

   “As we spend our days dissecting tracks for the Music Genome Project, it occurs to us that most people don’t get to hear songs before they’re finished. We thought it might be interesting for folks to learn more about what goes into songwriting. This show is our attempt to give you an inside look at the techniques musicians use to put their signature on the music they write and perform.”

5. Music Business Radio
   http://www.musicbusinessradio.com/         

   Music Business Radio is a syndicated, weekly, one-hour specialty program spotlighting the inside workings of the music business.

   The show is hosted by music marketing expert, consultant, and author, David Hooper, and features interviews with various industry professionals giving the listener their insight and expertise into the business. Our wide-ranging guest list include Grammy Award winning producers, artists, musicians, and songwriters…as well as, record executives, promoters and artist managers.

   Un-predictable and un-scripted, informative, and always entertaining! A “must listen to” for anyone interested in music. That’s how audiences are describing Music Business Radio.

What are some of your current favorite podcasts for informative content?
I’m interested, let me know. :)
Thanks.

My heart’s been thrown to the dustbins, 
waiting for the days to begin.
I’m sick of trying to understand
a life that’s been so hard to withstand.

Each step seems like it’s headed uphill,
but I can no longer stand to be still.
The days pass away like seconds to a year,
nothings left inside, but tears…
and
Lonely shadows, hidden in silence,
with nothing left in their defense.
I can’t lie in this river, drowning,
or wake up again, with my heart pounding.

I feel my cells depart,
waiting for this life to start. 

Show me the meaning of infinity,
as I suffer through my inability
to see past the days
when my heart was first set ablaze,

It’s been a thousand years
since music’s filled the atmosphere.
All my yearning is incomplete,
as days go by, they’re bittersweet.

Too many ideas, left in my head,
Too many words, left unsaid.
Destiny’s been leaving me behind,
with my sight fading, until I’m blind.

The life of people like me,
goes on, until it’s taken by insanity.
we’re just searching for truth.
Yearning for youth.

My own thoughts these days sometime feel as if they are the great mystery of the universe. Something I’ll never understand. Sometimes I live so deep within my own head, that when I take a break to just linger, the World feels like it’s spinning around me. Sometimes hazy. I’m standing 3 ft. beside myself, looking at myself and wondering, who is this person? Where am I? Everything is out of place.. The truth, that we’re carbon based DNA on a floating rock, although incomparable to most peoples ideals of reality, is much easier to understand than the structure of society we’ve chosen to surround ourselves with.

Everything I’m directed towards, sprawls out and upward like the branches of a tree. My path, too ubiquitous for my own good. It feels as though I’ll never be sated, until I can reach out across those branches and hold every single one them in a single grasp.

I’ve been writing code for almost four days straight for Octava. I feel like my brain should have grown 10-sizes larger in the last week. I also feel like just kicking back and watching some movies, to numb my mind and just relax for a bit.

I have iTunes open at the moment and I’m listening through my Top 25 Most Played. :) I’d highly suggest the album KiloWatts & Vanek - Focus & Flow, if you haven’t heard it. You can get it through their website. There should be more electronic music like this in the World.

Sorry I’ve been gone for so long. I promise to write.

New York, NY, April 17, 2008: To remind the public, members of the music industry and U.S. legislators of the central role and rights of those who conceive and create music, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) today officially launched a ‘Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers.’

This awareness-building initiative centers around 10 core principles, including ” We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate” and “We have the right to license our works and control the ways in which they are used.”

For those of you who don’t know. ASCAP is one of the societies that collect performance royalties for us when our music is licensed and played on things like TV, video games, radio, or other public performances..

Make Your Voice Heard! Sign now.

Click here to read more.

Me and my longtime friend Xavier have been planning to put together a record label. It took me long enough to try to figure out a name, although, I did find one. The name is actually a term I used in the early ’90’s to describe the style of bass-lines in UBM’s music at the time. The style jumped octaves and musical fifths all over the place, therefore making “Octava” suitable and descriptively simple.

www.octavarecords.com is now online, it’s just basically a splash page at the moment. I wrote newsletter subscription code for the front page today so everyone can be updated when the site officially launches. I’ve been doing tons of work behind the scenes on the administration panels and database structure mostly, but because of the work I’ve been getting done in the administration panel, I’ll soon be into the front-end user interface stuff.

I basically created an editor in php that I can use as a common editor for all the various database functions, much like how scaffolding works in Ruby on Rails. If you’re not familiar, there is a screencast called Creating a weblog in 15 minutes to demonstrate how much it can speed up and simplify things by not repeating a million lines of code. I basically lay down definitions in my php pages containing information about the database structure, such as:

• Database row names
• Database row type (e.g. Integer, Boolean, Text, or even things like File. — As an example, the code will make things like Boolean appear as a checkbox when editing or adding new entries.
• Friendly names, displayed as labels, such as ‘Name:’
• If the database is storing integers to refer to another database table, such as artist id #1. This section also includes data referring to the table ‘artist’. Giving definition to the id number that’s stored as an integer.
• And a few other options.

The common included file will then generate pages to Display, Add, Edit and Delete database entries based on that array of information about the MySql database. It’s been a lot of work creating the code to do all this, but it will be nice and simplify things in the long run, because I’ll be able to re-use the code in other projects of mine.

So, basically, I’ve just been über-geek lately… Perhaps it’s time I buy one of those illuminated wi-fi signal status detector shirts from ThinkGeek? Oh well… What the hell am I talking about? Take a look at yourself! You, too, are on this damn infernal cobweb of a net… You know you want one!

Anyways, Octava will be the new home for my various music projects and collaborations, past and present. Including: The Underground Bass Masters, Polaroid Kiss, and Audesi. I will also be producing and mastering new music from Xavier.

Audio Journal Entry

Audesi - Wave Profusion (Rough Draft)

There, just two feet below him, was the stream — alive, sparkling, thrilling. He had known about it all along, but at that moment he actually saw it flowing beneath him.

Audio Journal Entry

Audesi - The Infernal Machine

I decided I’m sick of the flow of slow computers and waiting for softsynths to load and of connecting tracks and everything… It just seems like the flow of everything is becoming SO SLOW!! I’m sick of it!

I hooked up all my hardware synths, at least with as many audio and midi cables that I could find. So now I’m surrounded in keyboards at the moment. I programmed a beat on my Electribe ES-1 and started playing my synths. :) It’s nice to record things quickly, although Cubase was crashing a ton for some reason when dealing with real MIDI and then my Korg controller KB quit working, so I couldn’t make better piano with one of the softsynths I was using… lol.

Audio Journal Entry

Audesi - Slow Birth

Here is a bit of reading material I found on the net in the last few days, which I felt could be beneficial to emerging artists. Written by both David Byrne (from Talking Heads fame), with audio of a chat with Brian Eno. As well as a recent blog post by Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails).

I used to own a record label. That label, Luaka Bop, still exists, though I’m no longer involved in running it. My last record came out through Nonesuch, a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group empire. I have also released music through indie labels like Thrill Jockey, and I have pressed up CDs and sold them on tour. I tour every few years, and I don’t see it as simply a loss leader for CD sales. So I have seen this business from both sides. I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will. It saved my life, and I bet I’m not the only one who can say that. -David Byrne

Read the full article: David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists — and Megastars

There was recently a post from Trent Reznor of NIN, with stats of Saul Williams latest record. I couldn’t find a direct link to it on www.nin.com, only an RSS or Atom feed link. So I cut and paste it. I hope nobody minds.

It’s a strange time to be an artist in the recording business. It’s pretty easy to see what NOT to do these days, but less obvious to know what’s right. As I find myself free from the bloated bureaucracy of major labels, finally able to do whatever I want… well, what is that? What is the “right” way to release records, treat your music and your audience with respect and attempt to make a living as well? I have a number of musician friends who are either in a similar situation or feel they soon will be, and it’s a real source of anxiety and uncertainty.I’d like to share my experience releasing Saul Williams’ “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust” and what I’ve learned from the process. Perhaps by revealing of all our data - our “dirty laundry” - we can contribute to a better solution.

“A quick history: Saul makes a great record that I produce. We can’t find the right home at a major label. We decide to release it ourselves, digitally. Saul does not have limitless financial resources so we shop around for a company that can fulfill our needs. We choose Musicane because they are competent and are willing to adapt to what we want. The results are here: niggytardust.comWe offer the entire record free (as in totally free to the visitor - we pay bandwidth costs) as 192 MP3s, or for $5 you can choose higher fidelity versions and feel good about supporting the artist directly. We offer all major CCs and PayPal as payment options.Here’s what I was thinking: Fans are interested in music as soon as it’s available (that’s a good thing, remember) and usually that’s a leak from the label’s manufacturing plants. Offering the record digitally as its first appearance in the marketplace eliminates that problem. I thought if you offered the whole record free at reasonable quality - no strings attached - and offered a hassle free way to show support that clearly goes straight to the artists who made it at an unquestionably low price people would “do the right thing”. I know, I know…Well, now I DO know and you will too.Saul’s previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies.As of 1/2/08,154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record. 28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning: 18.3% chose to pay.Of those paying,3220 chose 192kbps MP3 19,764 chose 320kbps MP3 5338 chose FLACKeep in mind not one cent was spent on marketing this record. The only marketing was Saul and myself talking as loudly as we could to anybody that would listen.If 33,897 people went out and bought Saul’s last record 3 years ago (when more people bought CDs) and over 150K - five times as many - sought out this new record, that’s great - right?I have to assume the people knowing about this project must either be primarily Saul or NIN fans, as there was very little media coverage outside our direct influence. If that assumption is correct - that most of the people that chose to download Saul’s record came from his or my own fan-base - is it good news that less than one in five feel it was worth $5? I’m not sure what I was expecting but that percentage - primarily from fans - seems disheartening.Add to that: we spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record utilizing an A-list team and studio, Musicane fees, an old publishing deal, sample clearance fees, paying to give the record away (bandwidth costs), and nobody’s getting rich off this project.But…Saul’s music is in more peoples’ iPods than ever before and people are interested in him. He’ll be touring throughout the year and we will continue to get the word out however we can.So - if you’re an artist looking to utilize this method of distribution, make of these figures what you will and hopefully this info is enlightening.Best,TR”