Musicadium Blog

We read this article at NME in the Musicadium office this morning and we were left scratching our heads a little.  Just what is Prince thinking when he makes statements like this?

Just how is the internet dead? With CD sales plummeting and Digital sales rising, as well as the rise of the independent artist and their ability to promote via the internet, it seems to be just the beginning of the ways the internet can help artists.  The partnership between the internet and the music industry is really only just going through the teething phase.  Yes, there are problems, but it is still very much infant age and certainly not aged, senile or dead.

In an interview with The Daily Mirror, the singer said his stance on technology is the main reason why his new album ‘20Ten’  will not be available for download online.

“The internet’s completely over,” he explained. “I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it, and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

Ok, Prince. This article does serve to show the divide between the old and new music industry.  The divide seems to sit at about 1999 and 2001, the lost years of pre-iTunes/iPods, post-Napster.  Advances from labels pre-1999 were commonplace and Prince is obviously accustomed to this sort of treatment, but surely he can see those days are over?

So - Prince wants an advance from iTunes on sales.  While of course, iTunes could afford an advance of royalties to Prince, why should they take the risk? In this environment, they don’t really need Prince to continue to turn a profit.  Prince, why not make it available in digital stores for those who want to buy it in that format, sell loads and turn a profit anyway?  The long tail of the majority of artists do not get advances from anywhere and just get on with being an artist - why are you entitled?

The article goes on to say that he will be releasing his new album 20Ten via a redeem code in newspapers (presumably in stores for the CD).  With CD stores in the state that they are in (closures everywhere due to lost revenue) does he expect bricks and mortar retailers to give him an advance? Surely they have less money to give and more to risk?

If the redeem code gives the user a download code where it is redeemed at Prince’s website to claim, then this would be more innovative and clever.  Hopefully, Prince is not completely off the idea of the internet in general and can use it from his own website to capture user data to inform his choices about touring. The redeem code is a great idea, especially being that it will mean that each of those codes will result in a “sale” for Prince, virtually assuring the album will chart highly.   However, it seems that his statement that the “internet is dead” means he’s not overly open to the idea.

Here’s hoping that Prince sees new opportunities using the internet to spread his music in the future, as it will certainly go on living without him.  I am sure the internet will have him back when he chooses to jump back on board.

Last week we held our 6th With Digital Love showcase at Barsoma and are pleased to report that it was amazing. We were graced with performances by three awesome bands on the night - My Escapade opening the stage with a performance that turned almost every head in the venue, The Belligerents who had the place dancing up a storm and then Elke bringing it home in style with a stellar show.

We’d like to say a huge thanks to all those who were there to make it such a great night as well as to our guest DJs Tim and Damien. A big shout out also goes to The Last Beatniks who took some awesome photos that you can check out here.

Looking forward to the next one!

In the past few days there has been a lot of talk about chartfixer.com and their system to (possibly) get your single into the ARIA charts via having people download your song a set number of times.  We feel that it is our responsibility to clear up a few fallacies about this sort of practice and break down a few facts about what your money is really buying.

According to their website, you can be a musician or a downloader.

A musician being an independent artist or label who has their nominated single in iTunes already and wants to have it chart.

A downloader being anyone who registers.  They are then paid to download your song and they profit as well.  They are paid $3 AUD for $1.69 AUD download in iTunes.

Let’s take the Top 20 Package as an example - for $30000, you will receive 5000 downloads of your single at $1.69 AUD = $8450.
5000 downloads at $3.00 (including fees to pay downloaders) = $15000

Which means you are giving chartfixer.org $15000 for nothing (oh yes, they probably have costs too, such as staff verifying the download etc - but $15000?).

Even using Musicadium as your distributer of your single, where you receive 100% of what the outlet returns to us, you will receive $5000 of your money back, but this is basically spending $25000 of your money on “instant fame” as they claim.

BUT every independent artist should know this - there is no such thing as “instant fame” that will last or have any longevity.  A long-lasting career in the music industry requires planning, infrastructure, money, a support team, resources and long-term endurance and ambition.

Even if you choose to (unwisely) spend this money on chartfixer, you have to realise that getting into the charts with a single requires knowledge, common sense, managerial skills, organisation and strategy on how to capitalise on the chart position.  You will need to tour in support of the single.  You will need to have followup singles prepared and ready to go.  You will need a film clip to support the single, being played on Video Hits, Rage etc, you will need promotional materials, you will need money for advertising and marketing for your tour and so people continue to buy the single.  You will need support staff such as a manager and a booking agent.  Thing is, if you spend this money and pop up out of nowhere, chances are, you are going to stay a “small fish” and people like booking agencies will still not want to take your calls.  These are ongoing relationships and networks that need to be grown.

Do not be fooled into thinking that you can buy your way to anything but disappointment with this website and deal.  We at Musicadium are always endeavouring to give you access to knowledge and resources that allow you to have a long-term career in the new music industry.

With Digital Love,

The Musicadium Team

In less than two weeks, UnConvention Brisbane will bring together some of independent music’s most innovative thinkers to discuss the future of the music industry and strategies for building up our local scene.

Held 12-13 June 2010 at The Edge in Brisbane’s South Bank precinct, the weekend event will comprise panel discussions and networking events focussed around creating sustainable careers within the music industry.

Over 30 key participants from the local independent music scene will appear as guest speakers, including Andrew Stafford (author of Pig City), Paul Curtis (Regurgitator manager / Valve Records founder), Graham Ashton (BIGSOUND executive programmer) and Kellie Lloyd (Screamfeeder bassist and vocalist / Q Music project officer).

Musicadium will also host a panel called “Music as a Product.”

The event will connect Brisbane to independent music scenes across the globe; recent UnConventions have taken place in India, Netherlands, the UK and Colombia. UnConvention UK co-founder, Jeff Thompson, is thrilled by the calibre of speakers appearing at the Brisbane event and the relevance of the program to independent music makers globally: “We’re really excited at the prospect of an UnConvention in Brisbane, which will be our fourth international event, following India, the Netherlands and Colombia. What’s particularly exciting for me is there seems to be some interesting parallels with the music scene in Brisbane and the one here in Manchester: truly vibrant and independent, with a real grass roots impetus. I think a lot of the ideas that come out of Brisbane could be just as applicable to what we’re doing here, and vice versa – in fact, we’re finding that to be the case in a lot of places, from Belfast to Medellin.

The program and calibre of speakers is fantastic, and there will undoubtedly be some innovative and vital insight for artists and music practitioners looking to further their careers. With future UnConventions coming up in Argentina, Brazil, Germany, China and the US, as well as here in the UK, it’s amazing to have the Brisbane scene as part of this ever-growing international community.”

UnConvention Brisbane is a grassroots-led music conference for independent promoters, labels, entrepreneurs, writers, technologists, innovators and artists. The goal of UnConvention Brisbane is to bring together like-minded individuals to discuss the future of independent music and how it will develop and flourish in the technological age.

Access to both days costs $20, and tickets are available via OzTix. For full program details, visit www.unconventionbrisbane.com. In addition to the conference program, a free, all ages public showcase concert will be held at The Edge on Saturday June 12 from 6.30pm, featuring hip-hop/roots collective Laneous and the Family Yah, folk act Lion Island, electronic pop trio Hunz, and indie rock band The Cairos.

More Info:
W: www.unconventionbrisbane.com
T: www.twitter.com/unconventionoz
F: www.facebook.com/unconventionbrisbane
E: unconventionbrisbane@gmail.com

Musicadium’s WITH DIGITAL LOVE Events are now an institution. A tried and true party, always with amazing acts, great vibe and lounging relaxation of the BarSoma surrounds. Why should this one be any different? Saturday May 29th sees BarSoma once again hosting the Digital Distributor’s contribution to the Brisbane live music scene, with a night of dance and rock acts, followed up with DJs to see the night through to completion – or sunrise, as it were.

Once again, the Musicadium staff has curated the lineup of the night and hand-picked (from thousands of acts on the roster). Leading the night is Gold Coast’s ELKE, amply backed up by party act The Beligerents and opening the night My+Escapade.

A new feature of the nights will be 3 DJs to see the night out, yet to be announced and shrouded in mystery, but sure to amaze, playing a variety of indie classics, disco burners and dance floor igniters! Watch this space for more details on celebrity DJs and local legends!

ELKE was designed as a response to what it’s four members wanted so badly to hear in the QLD music scene. Beginning in late 2007, the boys spent close to six months simply as a recording band before their first gig amongst the Queensland finalists of the MTV Kickstart competition. It wasn’t long before people started to take notice of ELKE’s infectious self-produced recordings and the shows began to line up around the block. Having shared the Goodvibes stage with acts such as Chromeo, The Presets, and Fatboy Slim, ELKE have also played support slots for international groups, Datarock (Norway), Ratatat (USA) as well as Australian wunderkinds, Grafton Primary, Van She, Lost Valentinos, and Art Vs Science.

The Belligerents are a new-age dance punk five piece and their fast-paced, high-energy live shows will spawn a dance frenzy of epic proportions. Their message is communicated via an avalanche of catchy pop hooks, 80’s synth fun, dance heavy bass, high tempo drumming, loud cow bell and guitars that sing. The band are now ready to launch their crusade after being schooled under the likes of Talking Heads, Joy Division, Foals, Radiohead, Cut Copy, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Does It Offend You Yeah, Midnight Juggernauts and The Rapture.

My Escapade has become best known for their haunting and uplifting live performances along with our experimentation with alluring melodies and tribal beats. Their sound is often described as soulful, alternative rock, reminiscent of early Coldplay and Jeff Buckley, with tributes to more modern sounds evocative of Muse. They have supported such acts as Dukes of Windsor and Little Red and are sure to blow minds.

Entry will be $10 and doors are at 8PM, with the first act taking the stage at 9PM. More information can be found at http://www.facebook.com/musicadium.

Melbourne’s Star Assassin will this weekend bring some good old fashioned rock to Brisbane when they play the Globe on Saturday night. After captivating audiences in Melbourne, Sydney and all around this fine land of ours, the Star Assassin boys have recently released a new single ’sickness’ on iTunes, and have been met with an overwhelming response.

If you like your music with depth, you’ll love Star Assasssin.

Sarah caught up with lead singer Simon for a chat about what’s coming up for this exciting Victorian band.

1.    You’ve got an East Coast tour coming up which is exciting? How does playing on tour differ from playing in your hometown of Melbourne?

A lot of driving and the fact that we are no longer in Melbourne are the two most apparent things to me, but apart from a bit of site seeing and trying not to eat large amounts of take away road food, all the shows are great and the fans make the road a nice place to be.
2.    Your new single ‘Sickness’ was released on iTunes May 10 – congratulations! It’s got a harder edge than some of your other tracks. Describe the new sound to us, and why you went in this direction.

“Sickness” is basically a song for the band to rock out live with our core fans. After we started with our new drummer “Mike White” we basically just wanted to put some heavy rock out, which was also raw and edgy with no plans for radio etc, just print media and touring and then we planned to sit down and record all the more everything friendly stuff, but we just had to get this out of our system first before the album was recorded.
3.    You’ve had some sync deals and also some placements with Men’s magazine samplers Ralph and Zoo. How did these come about? How do you feel about sync in general – is this the way a lot of musicians will be heading?

I have strong views in relation to the direction the music industry should go especially for savvy independent artists and that’s the exact direction it’s already heading. I think already and more so in the future that people will find and hear about their music from many, many sources, of course where there is a nice harmonious market there will always be some corporation wanting to control it… I could go on forever.

4.    What’s been your favourite moment as a band so far?

Honestly, no one moment sticks out, it’s all one ride for me.

5.    What’s next for Star Assassin?

Tour, Media, Shows, Repeat.

Check them out on

This week’s featured artists are pretty damn special for a multitude of reasons.

1.  They’re amazing songwriters and musicians.

2. They put on a killer live show and pack out every venue they play.

3.  They’re supporting psychedelic wizards Tame Impala tonight at the Tivoli in Brisbane.

4. Musicadium favourite family member Ashley Roulston is their manager, and that lady knows music.

5. The lead singer of the band Jack Bratt agreed with me one night after a few beverages that Rick Price is a solid musician.

Don’t let this put you off though, (Rick Price haters!), Blonde on Blonde are pretty much one of the coolest bands you’ll see and hear in 2010.

Musicadium’s own loveable troublemaker Trent Moody caught up with them for a chat about their own troublemaking as a band, John Farnham duets and a gossip about Ash.

You were drawn together by your love of smoking, Jack Daniels and a burning desire to quit your day jobs’ how’s that working out for you?
We  still love Jack Daniels, and we still have day jobs we want to quit, so it’s keeping us together! We are also great friends and we love playing music together, so there are other reasons for us being in a band despite our substance abuse and work. We basically started the band because we were spending all of our time together anyway, eventually we had one of our “What are we doing with our lives” moments, and it made sense to do something more constructive then just drink. Being in band justifies our drinking a little bit. At least to us it does.

You gained a lot of popularity so far in Brisbane all without ever playing a gig before, why have you kept us in suspense for so long?

It has been more out of necessity than anything else. I was always very worried to show any of the music I had written on my own to anybody. When I eventually showed a few of my friends, they pushed me to pursue it further. I wanted to see if it was going to be music people would enjoy before we went out playing shows and really putting the hard yards in, so we recorded the EP and just sat back and watched. The response in the short amount of time since the release has been overwhelming.

Musicadium’s very own Ash Roulston is managing you guys at the moment, how’s she treating you?

She is a delight. We call her Mum. We are constantly yearning for her approval. She came along at the perfect time when we had really done all we could on our own. We are all such a bunch of troublemakers and she is very good at keeping us all in check and taking care of us, I really don’t envy her.

If you could play with any artist in the world, who would it be and why?

John Farhnam. We hope to one day be popular enough that we can invite him on stage with us to perform “You’re the Voice”, complete with bagpipe solo.

Your EP “Tease” featured Dave Atkins, who was the drummer for Wolfmother and also plays with Resin Dogs, what was it like working with him?

Dave is just a genius. He was really the driving force behind the EP. He has been a friend of ours for a long time, and Matt had been talking to him about the music we were writing for a long time. So one day Dave called Matt and told him he had booked time in the studio for us and gave us the dates, without even asking us first! It was panic mode after that; the songs were not even finished. So we had to buckle down and work like crazy to get everything ready. I remember being in the live room, playing guitar with him playing drums, I had the cheesiest grin on my face. He does things on drums you just don’t think are possible. And he is such an easygoing person to work with. It couldn’t have been a more pleasant experience. We would still not have our shit together if it weren’t for him.

Hopefully you’re going to tell us that you’ll be recording a new album soon? How long do we have to wait and what can we expect from it?

We are really itching to get back in the studio and make an album. The songs on the EP are getting quite old for us, so the concept of recording new material is very exciting. We are going to be able to spend a lot more time and money on the album, so it will be a lot more polished. The new songs we are writing have a lot more energy. There will be Lots of guitar riffs, and more provocative songs. We hope to have it recorded and out by the end of the year.

Check out Blonde on Blonde on

Also check out their MySpace here.

Bandtag has released new Bandtag cards available especially for DIY artists who want to promote to their fans and collect real fan data on a budget.

The new DIY Bandtag cards are great for giveaways/promo of one track or more, new music video or anything an artist wants to reward fans with for being such loyal followers.

The best part for the artist is that they collect that lovely fan data on redemption - artists can then interact with fans directly and promote
directly tour dates, new album, new merch!

Artists can also use the DIY Bandtag cards as business cards or include it with the physical product as an add on with exclusive content they cannot
get anywhere else!

For as little as .65c each, an artist can have 1000 personalised Bandtag DIY cards with your own artwork and digital download platform - collecting real data and engaging/rewarding your fans!

BandTag are doing a one month only special for DIY artists of 10% discount off first order for the month of May. Orders can be at your door in under 7 days!

Check out the link here on the DIY Artists pricing (and please note the unique redeem codes are now printed on the back for you) at the BandTag Website.

Musicadium has moved offices, back to the Fortitude Valley!

Our new details…

2/477 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley, QLD 4006

info@musicadium.com

+61 7 3252 9962

Visiting Us

Our office is located on Brunswick St, just east of the iconic Fortitude Valley Mall, Brisbane’s vibrant Entertainment precinct.

If you are in a taxi, the closest intersection is Brunswick and McLachlan Streets.

If you are travelling by train, the closest station is Brunswick St.

View Larger Map

Check in at our new Office (if you drop in) on FourSquare!

Cover art for this week comes from Triggersound’s Vernakyewlar. A three-piece electronic outfit, Triggersound utilise a diverse sonic palette that blends acoustic and synthesised instruments to create a sound that is dancey and ambient. The album’s artwork looks awesome and is a pretty good visual representation of how their tunes sound.

Vernakyewlar is available for download on iTunes. Get it here