Shaking Through Alum, Family Band has a new album coming out on July 24 and we couldn’t be happier about it. You can listen to the first single “Night Song” off of Grace & Lies on Stereogum and download it from The Fader. Give it a listen and spread the word.
Last October, on a Digital Music News post, an anonymous commenter claiming to be a Grooveshark employee stated that company employees at every level actively upload copyright-infringing content to the Grooveshark service. In the six months since, Grooveshark has been slammed with law suits from all four major labels, as well as attacked by large indie distributors and other groups for their anti-artist business practices.
We’ve been watching this ever since last fall with great dismay. If you look through the evidence being presented against the company in Universal Music’s lawsuit, it’s hard to deny that the company’s behavior has repeatedly harmed artists, whether intentionally or not, by blatantly ignoring their rights.
In response to all the heat, Grooveshark founder & CEO Sam Tarantino did an interview last week with Evolver.fm’s Elliot Van Burskirk on the 6 reasons why he thinks recorded music should be free. While we certainly don’t agree with quite a few of his assertions—in particular that touring is unilaterally more lucrative for artists than recorded music—we wanted to open it up to you guys to hear your thoughts. Here are his 6 reasons:
1. Record labels want too much money
2. Musicians already get paid more by touring anyway
3. The music business is too slow and partially broken
4. Grooveshark is modeled on early YouTube (the one that got sued)
5. Grooveshark complies with takedown notices [Ed. note: This is debatable]
6. Grooveshark’s ad platform can boost an unknown band to 500k views in 3 weeks
What do you think? Are these legitimate excuses for Grooveshark not to pay the artists whose work is the foundation of their business? Or do you think this argument merits consideration? If you’re an artist, how do you feel about the way this company treats the artistic community? Let us know your thoughts!
Before we release her Shaking Through episode with Sufjan Stevens and Chris Powell, start getting to know Cat Martino by checking out her past releases. Cat’s got a nice sampling of work up on her Bandcamp page, including the only official release she’s put out with Sufjan until “I Promise” debuts later this week:
“I Promise” won’t be released for a few more days, but if you’re into getting your hands dirty with mixing and remixing songs, you can download the raw tracks from the session right now, right here. Make your own mixes using Sufjan, Chris, and Cat’s tracks, and show us your work by commenting below! We’ll share the best of what we hear with the rest of the Weathervane community.
Sign up for the Weathervane mailing list to hear “I Promise” as soon as it’s released.
We just came across this “manifesto of modern creativity” on Techdirt, which is getting a lot of buzz around the web today. It’s a beautiful sentiment from curators of an exhibition for Les Rencontres Arles Photographie, though we wonder just how true a few specific aspects of this are.
It’s easy to feel like the possibilities are endless for ambitious creatives these days, and to some extent that’s true. But resources are by no means limitless—certainly not for musicians—and in the creative game, access to resources (particularly financial and social ones) can make or break your career.
What do you think? Have we reached an age of creative utopia? Or are these seemingly endless possibilities creating new limitations of their own?
We know how hard it is to wrap your head around the task of “marketing” yourself to an audience. It’s not easy, and when you’d rather be working on your music, it can often feel counter-productive. Unfortunately, to get your career off the ground, direct-to-fan marketing is pretty much a necessity. The good news is, there are ways to make it fun, and it can be a powerful tool to tell your story to your audience in new ways.
Our go-to source of music industry news and commentary, Hypebot.com, is hosting a free direct-to-fan marketing webinar TONIGHT. If you’re an artist who’s had a hard time wrapping your head around just how to even get started with this, it just might be worth your while to tune in.
What are your thoughts on marketing your music? We’ve heard a lot of different perspectives on this, let us know how you feel about it!
From Hypebot:
Hypebot is proud to sponsor a free direct-to-fan music marketing webinar hosted by Brian Thompson and Michael Brandvold from The Music Biz Weekly podcast on April 16th. This 60 minute intro to Direct-to-Fan Music Marketing will be followed by a Q&A. [...]
D2F is the practice of identifying people with an interest in your music, creating a relationship with those fans, promoting and marketing your music to them and going direct to them to finance your career by monetizing that relationship. Some of the topics covered in the webinar include:
Fan Management – Brand Management – Sales – Marketing – Distribution – Manufacturing – Crowd Funding – Event Management – Merchandizing – Warehousing – Fulfillment
Be one of the first 200 to sign up now for the free D2F webinar being held on Monday, April 16 from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Spring is in full swing here in Philadelphia, and it’s about time to release our newest episode of Shaking Through. This month, we’re featuring an old friend of the series: Brooklyn’s Cat Martino. We first met Cat during the very first shoot for Shaking Through with Sharon Van Etten. She sang backing vocals on “Love More,” but now it’s time to showcase her own amazing voice with “I Promise.”
Cat enlisted the help of a few very talented friends to help her record the song: her frequent collaborator Sufjan Stevens and Philly drummer extraordinaire Chris Powell (of Man Man). Watch the sneak peak above and take some time to get to know more about this talented woman. Check out a few of her photos from the session and come back Thursday for the full episode and free download of “I Promise.”
Sign up for our email list to hear about it first!
Shaking Through Vol. 3, Ep. 3 is now live! Head to ShakingThrough.com to watch Faces on Film record “Waiting for GA.” There you can download the song and learn more about this gifted artist from Boston, MA.
Love what you see and hear? Help us spread the word by sharing the episode with the world. Don’t forget: our videos and songs are always embeddable through Vimeo and our Bandcamp widget. And make sure to let us know what you think!
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Our thoughts on the music industry, our artists and our work to create better opportunities for those who love and create music.
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Artist Update: Family Band’s New Single “Night Song”
Shaking Through Alum, Family Band has a new album coming out on July 24 and we couldn’t be happier about it. You can listen to the first single “Night Song” off of Grace & Lies on Stereogum and download it from The Fader. Give it a listen and spread the word.
The Grooveshark Debate: What Do You Think?
Last October, on a Digital Music News post, an anonymous commenter claiming to be a Grooveshark employee stated that company employees at every level actively upload copyright-infringing content to the Grooveshark service. In the six months since, Grooveshark has been slammed with law suits from all four major labels, as well as attacked by large indie distributors and other groups for their anti-artist business practices.
We’ve been watching this ever since last fall with great dismay. If you look through the evidence being presented against the company in Universal Music’s lawsuit, it’s hard to deny that the company’s behavior has repeatedly harmed artists, whether intentionally or not, by blatantly ignoring their rights.
In response to all the heat, Grooveshark founder & CEO Sam Tarantino did an interview last week with Evolver.fm’s Elliot Van Burskirk on the 6 reasons why he thinks recorded music should be free. While we certainly don’t agree with quite a few of his assertions—in particular that touring is unilaterally more lucrative for artists than recorded music—we wanted to open it up to you guys to hear your thoughts. Here are his 6 reasons:
1. Record labels want too much money
2. Musicians already get paid more by touring anyway
3. The music business is too slow and partially broken
4. Grooveshark is modeled on early YouTube (the one that got sued)
5. Grooveshark complies with takedown notices [Ed. note: This is debatable]
6. Grooveshark’s ad platform can boost an unknown band to 500k views in 3 weeks
What do you think? Are these legitimate excuses for Grooveshark not to pay the artists whose work is the foundation of their business? Or do you think this argument merits consideration? If you’re an artist, how do you feel about the way this company treats the artistic community? Let us know your thoughts!
2012 Vimeo Awards: We’re Nominated for Best Original Series
Wow! We’ve got some great news! Shaking Through is up for Best Original Series at the 2012 Vimeo Awards coming up in June. We are thrilled to see that people are watching and enjoying the work we do.
The Best Series winner will be determined by a panel of judges including Aziz Ansari, Ted Tremper, Edgar Wright, and YOU. So help us take our best run at winning this Award by voting for Shaking Through. You can vote once every day, and the more you vote, the better! The winner will receive a $5,000 grant which will go a long ways toward helping Weathervane continue to introduce you to more great independent artists.
Vote now, and THANK YOU for your amazing support of Weathervane Music!
Shaking Through: Cat Martino
Volume 3, Episode 4 of 2012’s Shaking Through series is live. Head to ShakingThrough.com now to watch Cat Martino, Sufjan Stevens, and Chris Powell (of Man Man) record “I Promise.” Pick up a free download of the track and feel free to share the video and Bandcamp widget far and wide!
Join the conversation and let us know what you think of the release. And if you’re really adventurous, download the raw track from the recording session and take a stab at creating your own mix of “I Promise.” Just make sure to share your work with us!
Getting to Know Cat Martino
Before we release her Shaking Through episode with Sufjan Stevens and Chris Powell, start getting to know Cat Martino by checking out her past releases. Cat’s got a nice sampling of work up on her Bandcamp page, including the only official release she’s put out with Sufjan until “I Promise” debuts later this week:
“I Promise” won’t be released for a few more days, but if you’re into getting your hands dirty with mixing and remixing songs, you can download the raw tracks from the session right now, right here. Make your own mixes using Sufjan, Chris, and Cat’s tracks, and show us your work by commenting below! We’ll share the best of what we hear with the rest of the Weathervane community.
Sign up for the Weathervane mailing list to hear “I Promise” as soon as it’s released.
A Manifesto For Creativity In The Modern Era
We just came across this “manifesto of modern creativity” on Techdirt, which is getting a lot of buzz around the web today. It’s a beautiful sentiment from curators of an exhibition for Les Rencontres Arles Photographie, though we wonder just how true a few specific aspects of this are.
It’s easy to feel like the possibilities are endless for ambitious creatives these days, and to some extent that’s true. But resources are by no means limitless—certainly not for musicians—and in the creative game, access to resources (particularly financial and social ones) can make or break your career.
What do you think? Have we reached an age of creative utopia? Or are these seemingly endless possibilities creating new limitations of their own?
Free Direct-to-Fan Marketing Webinar TONIGHT
We know how hard it is to wrap your head around the task of “marketing” yourself to an audience. It’s not easy, and when you’d rather be working on your music, it can often feel counter-productive. Unfortunately, to get your career off the ground, direct-to-fan marketing is pretty much a necessity. The good news is, there are ways to make it fun, and it can be a powerful tool to tell your story to your audience in new ways.
Our go-to source of music industry news and commentary, Hypebot.com, is hosting a free direct-to-fan marketing webinar TONIGHT. If you’re an artist who’s had a hard time wrapping your head around just how to even get started with this, it just might be worth your while to tune in.
What are your thoughts on marketing your music? We’ve heard a lot of different perspectives on this, let us know how you feel about it!
From Hypebot:
Meet April’s Featured Shaking Through Artist: Cat Martino
Spring is in full swing here in Philadelphia, and it’s about time to release our newest episode of Shaking Through. This month, we’re featuring an old friend of the series: Brooklyn’s Cat Martino. We first met Cat during the very first shoot for Shaking Through with Sharon Van Etten. She sang backing vocals on “Love More,” but now it’s time to showcase her own amazing voice with “I Promise.”
Cat enlisted the help of a few very talented friends to help her record the song: her frequent collaborator Sufjan Stevens and Philly drummer extraordinaire Chris Powell (of Man Man). Watch the sneak peak above and take some time to get to know more about this talented woman. Check out a few of her photos from the session and come back Thursday for the full episode and free download of “I Promise.”
Sign up for our email list to hear about it first!
Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre Sample Twin Sister
Earlier this week, we discovered what’s probably the coolest example yet of Shaking Through tracks being re-purposed to create new works of art. The next big thing in West Coast rap is Kendrick Lamar, who just released his first official single featuring Dr. Dre himself. And look at that—a sample from Twin Sister’s “Meet the Frownies,” the track we produced with them for Shaking Through, runs through the entire song!
Seriously though, we’ve been listening to this track on repeat at the office. Give it a listen:
Download “Meet the Frownies” for free here.
Download stems from the Shaking Through sessions and make your own remixes here.
Shaking Through – Faces on Film
Shaking Through Vol. 3, Ep. 3 is now live! Head to ShakingThrough.com to watch Faces on Film record “Waiting for GA.” There you can download the song and learn more about this gifted artist from Boston, MA.
Love what you see and hear? Help us spread the word by sharing the episode with the world. Don’t forget: our videos and songs are always embeddable through Vimeo and our Bandcamp widget. And make sure to let us know what you think!