Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Check Out Tara Simmons

Tara Simmons Epilation is a tasty treat. Pick it up, pass it along.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

File Sharing Incentive and The New Media Order

Maybe you've been wondering how the music business plans to make a turn around and get back the momentum it had before the Napster fallout. Well I've been wondering the same thing and I've been doing research to find out what new companies might be useful in the new market to a musician like myself. Now I don't fall into the catagory of big name artists like Tom Petty or Snoop Dogg so I can't really speak for the big guys who are signed by big name labels and carry big budgets. But I can speak for the demographic of the burgeoning garage band about to release their first home studio record. This demographic is a growing market and as technology improves to allow the same perks to an independant garage band that it offers to sign big name label guys then there comes a shift in the overall consciousness as to how we discover, purchase and create media. Now of course I would love a Neumann vocal microphone to get that Sinatra or Beatles type of sound but I can't afford that on my budget, so that level of production quality is not in my scope. But, I do own a good enough tube condenser mic that gets the job done. With this simple tool I can get pretty damn clear recordings that sound really professional in the convenience of my home studio.

  So that there gets me part way to my dream of people actually listening and enjoying the music I create. Well how do I then sell and distribute my creations. There are a number of sites out there that provide services to bands like mine and independant musicians alike. Most of them have bits and pieces of all the stuff I need to promote, distribute and sell my work but lack the whole big picture. The point of all this is that a system needs to make it appealing to fans as well as artists to have everybody on board so that sales and user interaction go hand in hand. I need to have the ability to be juxtaposed next to big name artists on the same site as me but not be washed out under a landslide of other similar artists. Fans needs the incentive to use and share the music and media they love. When both of those paths meet we have a pretty sweet system don't we? and this I believe is the direction of the new media order. A digital world that empowers me with rewards for sharing media and helps artists get discovered while at the same time allowing the big guys a place to continue their sucess. It's win win all over the place and I can't wait for the rest of the world to discover max3.com and come to same realization I've come to.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Support Local Music

Tired of spending $40 just waiting in endless lines and watching your favorite band from the nose bleeds with no room to move around? Well The solution for you is getting out checking in on your local music scene. For that same $40 you could potentially see 8-10 shows in a much smaller room where you can move around and actually see the bands facial expressions. There are always options for all ages shows for the whole family around most towns in this great country.

A common misconception is that local bands aren’t as talented as the big national acts that grace the covers of the magazines and television screens. When in fact if your took the budget from a mega band like Kings of Leon and gave it to a resonably talented local act of your choosing you would potentially have the next big thing. Spending all that cash on great production and videos and equipment one could contest that anyone could be the next big thing given a minor amount of training and reasonable talent.

You can build your music collection for cheap by visiting local music shows. Picking up a disc from a local group at one of their shows is a great complement to the band. They worked really hard putting that record together and you can actually learn quite a bit by listening to budget production level music. The sounds, sure they aren’t as refined as Rhianna or Nickelback but the heart that those artists sometimes lack is all there with the local acts. Isn’t that what we’re after as listeners anyway? Aren’t we out to see, hear and experience as much as we can until it’s our time to graciously bow out and let the next generation take over and have their fun. Anyway, get out their to your local venues and check out some new bands, you might actually like what you hear.

Monday, December 15, 2008

No more albums? What? Say it ain’t so

In this burgeoning age of digital music why are we moving towards the model of the single download? A friend of mine posed the question earlier today "why don't people want more?" in response to an article in which Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins states that they will not release albums anymore. The idea of course is that people only want the single tracks that they like and the other stuff on the record never makes it into their play list. My friend gave the analogy that if you have your first taste of a new food that you like, won't you want another bite? The single is a great avenue to discover a new style or a fresh idea that gets in your brain and sticks, but really who ever gets those ideas in their head and that then ends up being the stopping point? If someone truly enjoys something they will almost always want more, except of course if that person is a mindless shill only looking to fit in with the herd. Any artist out there that wants to gain ground in the market and explain where they're coming from with their ideas and musicalities will need an avenue to provide a deeper understanding of their art form. This of course was the traditional album, the record with the liner notes and the pictures and poster and all those little things that we as the fans wanted to see from the artists we fell in love with. I mean what if The Beatles or The Stones or Johnny Cash or Led Zeppelin never included their lyrics or additional little inserts that went with their albums? No photos or posters or strange little images that bent your mind in ways beyond comprehension. Would they have had the same impact on society as a whole? I seriously doubt it. The notion that an artist just wants to make a song and sell it is totally boring and says to me that they don't care, they've lost their hunger for expression and they have very little to offer the discourse community.

  Now I do understand where Billy is coming from. He's watching the current trends in the industry and going along with the data he has and making his decision. Like any other intelligent business minded musician he has made his decision on how he wants to go about his business and that's fine. But really it seems to me like an angry teenager throwing up his hands in frustration that there is nothing he can do about the current state of affairs in the music business. Well my friends there is an answer, and if you've made it to this blog you probably have a pretty good clue as what the next step for the media industries of the world looks like. In a world of increasing skepticism and non action the ones who excel are those willing to give the most without all those little caveats and strings of the old model dinosaurs. Being able to release and sell material to a fan base that is hungry to see the next step and having them involved in distribution network is exactly what everybody is clamoring to do, and the idea that a band would simply give into the market like that really makes me wonder, don't they know....max3 has arrived.

http://www.spin.com/articles/smashing-pumpkins-no-more-albums

Friday, September 12, 2008

Welcome to the max3 community!

Welcome to max3's new community site! Here you can ask questions and learn tips from other members on our forum, how-to's with our wiki and "what's new" reading our weekly blog. We will be regularly adding new content, including instructional videos and creative ways to promote your max3s. Our moderators will be checking the forum daily, so be sure to post your questions and share your ideas. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you get the most out of max3!