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December 24, 2004
Christmasy Songs from Songfight
Christmasy Songs from Your Friends at the Song Fight Network span the genre, taste and production values spectrum.
Posted by roymond at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2004
MyVirtualBand.com
I can't help but plug a brand new site that's doing something very cool. Let's see if it catches on!
MyVirtualBand is a portal for music collaboration. It hosts bulletin boards, an FTP site, and podcasts of finished works. A very nice complement to Songfight, even.
Posted by roymond at 09:03 AM | Comments (1)
December 20, 2004
Oddio Overplay is UberFine!
I've gotta call out a great index of indie labels run by the coolest Katya. Oddio Overplay features free music from free artists. It's truly a pleasure zone.
"This little website exists to spread some happiness all over the little planet by connecting you with fantastic artists who deserve to be heard. The sites featured here are for legal sharing of music online, so you are free to relax and enjoy!"
Posted by roymond at 08:50 PM | Comments (1)
December 09, 2004
WebJay is back online
After being hacked and subsequently down for a few weeks, Webjay has recovered and appears to be healthy again, hopefully with some new security messures implemented.
One thing that's great is their instant Podcast feature for playlists. Click on the Podcast button and view the RSS feed file, which you put in your iPodder client. For many static lists this doesn't make much sense (like my example). But for a dynamic list this is great! Good job Webjay!!!
Posted by roymond at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
Podcast article in the Independent: The people's radio
A new kind of radio format is blazing a trail across the internet. Called "podcasting" (because it's a bit like broadcasting and it's aimed at machines like the iPod), it uses open source software, MP3 players and the rambling efforts of audio webloggers ("audiobloggers") to redefine the role of radio in the mobile digital world, and offers hope to the millions who pray for the demise of inane DJs and obnoxious radio advertisements.
Posted by roymond at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2004
ICN segment: Subscribing via iPod ratings
The audio file for today's podcast can be found here 
I talk too much about an idea about how to use iPod ratings to automatically subscribe to podcasts via embedded RSS feeds within podcasts. And through it all I feature some fun indie music. Sorry if this is a large file, but it shouldn't matter with podcasts, right? I don't want to sample this lower than 128 kbps. Music suffers too much when you squeeze it!
Featured music this time:
Frankie Big Face - Towering Inferno
Scooter Scudieri - The Usual
The Skeleton Killers - Love Ain't Right, It's Wrong
The Jukebox Sinners - The Grape and The Grain
Posted by roymond at 02:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2004
Activating Podcast Subscriptions via iPods directly
The thing I've been pondering in my few spare moments since podcasting has to do with how we can build a network distribution model that serves all producers and listeners or viewers. And I've talked about creating channels that help an audience navigate through the thousands of offerings (34 directories with hundreds of podcasts currently...the potential is unlimited). People want to find the things they think they like, and also discover new things they never knew they'd like. But...
What about when you're listening to a podcast, like Adam's or MWS Media, and you like the band they played or a clip from another podcaster and they tell you there's a podcast channel (RSS feed) for it? What if you could subscribe then and there? And what if you could do this directly via your mobile device or your media client (iTunes, etc.) without writing down the band name or website, and then manually going through the subscription process in your iPodder client?
This would be a way to help you add new subscriptions referenced in feeds you already have. It follows the trusted sources you already know about rather than sending you to a cold directory listing
of podcasts.
OK, the podcast you're listening to says you can subscribe immediately. That means, in this imaginary scenario, that:
1) there's a custom playlist on your iPod called "Subscription Forms" with a "slug" MP3 which acts as a voting mechanism to indicate you want to subscribe to the show mentioned. The audio of this slug mp3 has a soothing voice which simply says "You can subscribe to this feed by rating this slug with 5 stars" and it has the ID3 tags: song='name of podcast to subscribe to', album="Rate as ***** to subscribe", and artist='source podcast name'.
2) when you synchronize your iPod (or other mobile device), your iPodder software is aware of this slug (it put it there to begin with) and sees that you subscribed to it. It then adds the RSS feed to your subscription list and grabs it ASAP.
3) If you didn't subscribe, the slug remains unrated yet shows that you have listened to it, so the iPodder client deletes it.
So, how does the slug get created in the first place? When you produce your podcast, simply embed links to RSS feeds. Just as the blogging software creates "enclosure" tags for media links, it also creates "sub-podcast" tags for RSS links. iPodder then reads the embedded podcast's feed, grabs the title and creates the slug mp3 with appropriate ID3 tags, and puts this into a custom playlist folder on your iPod. You've now subscribed to a new podcast without going on the web or even configuring your iPodder client.
The blog you just read is a dramatization. Names have been created to make a point, and any resemblance to other concepts simply implies someone else is trying to solve these same issues. Let's make Indie Content Networks work!
Posted by roymond at 10:50 PM | Comments (3)
December 06, 2004
Songfight process
All - as some of you know I produce an occassional podcast that covers Songfight each week. I feature my favorite 4 or 5 entries from both titles, and I invite listeners to listen and vote on the site. My logs show a couple hundred downloads of the show. I would also like to have a show that explores the songwriting and production process. As such, I am documenting my song from start to finish, and I invite anyone to do the same. Honestly, I really only want to feature pretty polished songs (so, my own may not make the cut - I was doing this last week and my ABCD Puppies didn't, but it was a good practice run). I say this so that you're not dissappointed if you go through all the trouble of creating "the making of my Wrath of God" and I don't feature it. If board feedback lets you think you produce high-end songs, please consider working this into your process this week (I don't want to name names).
As you go, record little sound bites about what you're thinking about (both musically and lyrically) and capture the key audio parts as they evolve (preserve the first takes, even). I figure five minutes per song should tell the story of how we put our songs together. I'll edit it to make it flow, so don't worry about splicing these pieces together...it's better if they're like: "I didn't really know where to go with this title, so I Googled famous Shelleys and found this story about a Civil War widow..." and then you sing the idea, then the first keyboard parts, then a drum loop and more developed vocals, then the idea for the break, then that great sample that just makes it all happen at the end. I'll put these segments together, layering where it works, and trimming things to clean it up (so put in a little more than you might expect to hear) and I'll play the finished product at the end of each segment.
I'd like to make this an occassional part of the Songfight podcast, so if this week doesn't work out or you're not entering, please think about it in the future. I think it's cool to hear songwriters explain where they came from when they wrote and recorded their songs, and figure others would find it facinating, too. One of the thrills of songfight for me is that these songs are fresh off the fire and somehow someone took a whacky title like ABCD Puppies and made a real song out of it. Most of us do the whole thing in one or two sittings, and this process forces instant inspiration that is more direct than what happens when songwriters massage something for weeks or months.
Who's game? When you're done, send me a link to your documentary audio (MP3 @ 128 is fine, but Wave is better).
Posted by roymond at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2004
What Is Podcasting and Why Should You Care?
Every new medium has a hard time explaining itself. Often it depends on outsiders to say what needs to be said in a way a broader audience can understand it. Amy Gahran has done just that in her What Is Podcasting and Why Should You Care? blog entry. Nice :)
Posted by roymond at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2004
ICN Segment: ABCD Puppies & Zero to Phantom
The audio file for today's podcast can be found here
There are two songfights this week over at Songfight:
The Red Fight: ABCD Puppies - has 14 entries and I picked 4.
The Blue fight: Zero to Phantom - has 25 entries(!) and I picked 2.
Artists featured today:
NIL - Entered 4 songfights back in 2000 / 2001. Not heard of since, as far as I know.
Carol Cleveland Sings - the studio trial platform for the Spinto Band, from PA. Silly but in a cerebral way. Great instrumentation as usual, and a heart warming over-active bass line.
Jim of Seattle - One of the prolific songfighters the past two years, Jim writes lush, studied dramatic interludes that stand on their own. And it has been recently noted that his lower register is coming together nicely. He takes alphetic meaninglessness to new heights.
Les Diphthongs - oh man, this is sweet. nice organ and laid back drum track. I don't know what he's saying but I feel it's alright
Hostess Mostess - Songfight veterans with 19 titles under their belt.
The Befores - Zareen and Humbert. Suave and very Supreme Beings of Leisure, in a way. A lush and vibrant tone-scape, which unfortunately totally clips at the end...hmmm. But I couldn't let that keep it off the show. WINNER!
Posted by roymond at 01:23 AM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2004
Webjay Hacked
So I finally found this, explaining that Webjay.com was hacked and rendered useless, and documenting the recovery process. Idiots can do marvelous things, huh? I wish it well and hope to hear the sounds of success soon!
Posted by roymond at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)