Janine and the Mixtape – Bullets
WARNING: THIS WILL GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD FOR DAYS. It’s the voice (take note The Voice TV show fans – this is how it’s done) and one hell of a hook. Janine Foster fronts Janine and the Mixtape: she sings, writes the songs, produces, plays synths, sorts out the beats – the works. A New Zealander who has spent time in New York and evidently immersed herself in the global electro hip-hop scene, there’s a buzz building… watch this space! Read More
An early broadcast of of Tom Robinson’s Evening Sequence from the 6 Music studios – pic comes courtesy of a great 1932 photoset on Flickr tweeted by Jem Stone.
Read more on the BBC’s 80th Anniversary of Broadcasting House.
Over the last three weeks I have given an overview of some of the main areas to consider if you want to make some hard earned dosh from your beloved songs. If you’re reading this for the first time check out my page on this site to read more.
By now I am sure you are aware that to make any money out of the music industry it’s not just about selling records, live or royalties. It is a combination of many things – multiple, micro businesses all linked in together and a lot of hard work. Timing is crucial so check out this if you haven’t already. Aside from the usual suspects there are several other areas that you can explore.
Sophie Jamieson – The Harbour Wall
The best thing about being part of a network of new music fanatics, is getting tips from your mates. Skopje puts on acoustic nights in Watford, north London, and always nabs himself the best of line ups. Sophie Jamieson is one such tip he sent over to me, and this song The Harbour Wall is just beautiful. And we’re not biased that she’s singing about Dublin at all – but being married to a Dubliner, I like to think I’ve stood at that very spot on Dublin harbour wall, tasted the salt and felt that breeze… Read More
So another week has come and gone, as weeks tend to do, which can only mean one thing – we’ve got another bunch of tracks that have been hand-selected by you, the ever-discerning public. This week we’ve got tuned percussion, pianos, brass sections, pianos, mandolins and, erm, more pianos, so what are you waiting for? Click the Read More link for all 11 tracks in alphabetical order:
EMPTY POOLS – ‘Vanderbilt Cup’
As a commenter on SoundCloud astutely notes, there is some very “creative drumming” in ‘Vanderbilt Cup’ – but the creativity doesn’t end with the percussion. There’s a load of imaginative and melodic guitar work too, which guides the track gently from modern spiky, angular pop-punk (think Johnny Foreigner) to fuzzy alt-rock (think Pixes meets Pavement). Website
GEORGE MONTAGUE – ‘Blood Ties’
One of several tunes touched by The Spirit Of Jazz, this is lighter and, for want of a better word, more commercial than the others. It’s easy to see Montague filling the well-polished shoes of Jamie Cullum et al with his infectious, Radio 2-friendly big band sound. I’ve only got one criticism of this song – the gratuitous and completely OTT guitar solo. God, I hate that solo. Other than that, it’s really rather good. Website
Have you ever heard an album for the very first time that exactly fits the mood you are in?
I was lucky enough to have such an album come my way in this last week from those lovely people at Folkwit Records that is so enchanting,beautiful & beguiling it has not been off my stereogram radio-matic ipod ghetto boom box thing ever since it landed.
It’s called ‘The Raindrop Dance & Other Songs about Love’ and its from Seattle based storytellers Mr. and Mrs. Muffin and we at FOTN think its something you may well find yourselves smitten with.
I have been incorporating the sounds of my melodica into my own music recently and so I fell hook,line and sinker for the melodica loveliness of opening track ‘The Magic Cloud’ and never looked back.
This album is gentle,relaxing and wondrous,just like a mini fairytale orchestra is performing for you in your living room.
Totally enchanting.
Mr & Mrs Muffin-The Carrot’s Theme
By Charlotte Krol
Guest blogger & Friend of Freshnet
Yesterday BBC Radio 1 released figures from the BPI and Official Charts Company that show a 25% decrease in CD sales from 20.5 million in the first three months of 2011, to 15.3 million this year. Digital sales are instead increasing and account for almost a third of all albums sales.
Regardless of the rise in digital sales, Music Week has revealed that weekly album sales have plummeted to a record 21st century low: ‘Overall album sales are 27.62% down week-on-week at 1,446,218 – that is 23.19% below same week 2011 sales of 1,882,878, and lower than in any of the 640 previous weeks that have elapsed in the 21st century.’ While music is being shared and accessed more easily via streaming platforms such as Spotify, it is not being paid for as much by fans. Streaming is essentially the new buying.
Last month, my friend treated me to a month’s premium subscription to Spotify for £10. Read More
These Glaswegian punk rockers play it ear-splittingly loud. When seeing them live at a tiny venue in north London, we left with ears ringing and silly grins on our faces. This video was made by guitarist Vickie and will bend your brain, Horseheads the 7″ is available from Milk Records or from the band live… and trust us you NEED to see this band play! Divorce have also announced that they’ll be recording their first album next month and are putting on a fundraiser because they’re broke – 11 May at The Old Hairdressers in Glasgow if you’re in the neighbourhood. Read More
Photos from Tom’s 60th Birthday gig at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire by Roger Goodgroves
This is such a fundamentally f**king obvious part of an artist’s career that I am in complete incomprehension as to how or even why I hear so much grumbling from promoters about artists and vice versa. It is really simple, you put bums on seats, you get booked again. It is your duty as an artist to make every show as good as possible and do your damndest to fill it. If you’re playing every week to five people and you’re pissed off, get over it. Either your set is not good enough or you’re playing too often for the size of your fanbase.
I come at this from all sides. I have played everywhere in London, from every indie toilet to the Brit Awards. I have rigged, engineered and promoted gigs from 50 seaters to the likes of the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and the Albert Hall. One thing I know is the type of artist I want to work with. So singer songwriters out there who turn up all fluffy like, an hour late, having forgotten their guitar lead, with no fans to support them and expect the promoter to be grateful… go home. It’s not cute. Really it isn’t. And just to emphasise the point, the pictures above are from Tom’s 60th gig. We squeezed in 8 bands, numerous guests and stage re-rigs and came in 4 minutes early on curtain down with no gaps in the program. This was only possible because of the consumate professionalism of all the artists taking part, one very organised stage manager (Thanks Kirsty), some shit hot engineers and a lot of planning.
This part of the industry is like a whole ecosystem in itself. Promoters, agents, bands and their managers all vying for attention in a very crowded market. The theory however is simple: Band + Venue + Audience = Gig.
So rant over, how do you make some dosh?
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