Musicadium Blog

Australian Music Business Declining According to the PricewaterhouseCoopers study Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook Australia’s recorded music market is expected to decline 6.8% to $795 million at the end of 2008. This comes off the back of a 10.6% fall in 2007. Again - the finger is pointed at digital and ringtones. Apparently their rise hasn’t made up for plummeting physical CD sales. The moral of the story? Buy more music on iTunes.

Study: The Leading Digital Music Retailers in the USA are…

iTunes and Amazon. This is according to the most recent surveys by NPD. Read about it here .

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Musicadium featured on a South by South West panel at the Troubadour in Brisbane last week. The panel was free and aimed at musicians, managers and music entrepreneurs looking to get their groove on at SXSW 2008. Nick talked about how overwhelming SXSW can be for beginners, the good and bad of the SXSW tradeshow, how important it is to book meetings in advance and the benefits of staying in close to Sixth Avenue. If you want to know more about SXSW - send Nick an email.

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Listening Post’s Top 10 Hottest Music Sites

100 Free & Affordable Music Promotion Tips

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Musicadium was chuffed to present the QSong Award for the Musicadium New Music/Experimental category on Tuesday, August 12. The winner of that category was Lawrence English for his song ‘Watching It Unfold’. Cheery Lawrence won $1000 cash for his troubles. Check his music out here. It was also great to see our artists - Asa Broomhall, Andrew Kennedy, Mr Rascal, Andrew Veivers and PJ Weston nominated for prestigious QSong awards across a range of categories!

Check out all Musicadium’s photos from the night here.

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Every so often, an act comes along that stops you in your tracks. You feel the need to tell everyone about them, play them continuously, find out everything about them and basically cling to the fact that you found them first. The Hungry Kids of Hungary are one of these acts.

With glowing reviews from JJJ’s Richard Kingsmill, Nick Findlay and the Courier Mail’s Pat Whyte to name just a few, Brisbane act the Hungry Kids of Hungary are gaining attention and momentum at a rapid pace. By fusing indie, soul, and 1960s pop/rock, these local Brissie lads have produced an EP that once listened to, will not be forgotten. The Musicadium team agrees that this is a band to watch, see, dance to and rave on about to anyone who appreciates quality music and brilliantly-crafted songs.

Continue reading “Feed your musical appetite with the hungry kids of hungary” »

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How do I get my music on iTunes?

This is the fundamental question, the one that independent artists around the world are asking every day.

And this is the answer: Get your music on iTunes with the help of a digital distributor.

iTunes will not take your calls or emails, they will send you a stock-standard email with a list of all the world’s digital distributor.

Take the hint. But make sure you get yourself the best distribution deal.

Musicadium is a Digital Distributor. We help independent artists and labels to sell their music worldwide on iTunes, emusic and Amazon mp3. We pay our artists and labels 100% of royalties - we take no cut. We help our artists and labels to access promotional opportunities on each of the outlets.

Musicadium charges only an upload fee and an annual renewal fee. We can provide barcodes if needed. Musicadium’s distribution deal is non-exclusive, there is no lock-in time period, artists and labels are free to leave as they please and most importantly, they retain 100% of all rights to their music.

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Musicadium’s free e-book ‘Nine Ways To Ride The Digital Music Wave’ is now available for download.

After our artists continually came back to us with the question: My music’s online, now what? we decided to get together a comprehensive answer.

“9 Ways To Ride The Digital Music Wave” outlines the 9 ways to make the most of music online. The e-book covers a bundle of really important information including:

1. The nine questions to ask before you choose a digital distributor.
2. Three ways to get your music promoted by outlets like iTunes and Amazon mp3.
3. The essentials of an effective email databse.
4. How to run a successful MySpace campaign.
5. The twelve most useful online marketing and promotion tools.
6. Strategies for you to use blogs to build hype.
7. The 14 cardinal rules of a good bio.
8. The best methods for getting promoted in traditional media like print, radio and TV.
9. The importance of being a music professional.

You can download it now, free, here: http://www.musicadium.com/promotions/ebook

We are keen to hear from you. Please leave us a comment and let us know, what are some of the best ways you have seen for marketing and selling music online?

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This week Musicadium features a man of many artistic talents and JJJ pick as an artist to watch – Mailer Daemon (aka Sina Djavadkhani). His track ‘Bad Move Baby’ feat. Catcall and Peach has been given quite a few spins on the ‘Home and Hosed’ program and it’s no wonder why as the EP dishes up more tasty treats of a similar persuasion.

This Sydney-siders resume would put most of us to shame with the following most likely to be included; MCing, music production, composition, DJing, graphic design, drumming and some pretty serious blogging.

For those of you out there wanting to know what a truly tricked-out blog looks like head to http://www.blackgallant.com/

Hey Sina, thanks for taking the time to chat to us.

My pleasure

How do you fit in everything that you do? Do you sleep?

Most definitely, I have a bunk bed above all my studio gear. Most of my best hooks come from me falling off my bed and landing on the keyboard

Tell us about your EP ‘Black Gallant’. How would you describe the multitude of sounds that feature?

Exciting, exhilarating, and expansive. The EP is an electronic hip-hop record with a guest vocalist on every track, each vocalist brings their own vibe and I feel that each beat symbiotically fuses with its guest quite well. I know not all producers/vocalists work this way, but I like leave the beat half finished- get the vocalists in- and then finish off the beat. That way it feels like the beat has been moulded around the vocal as opposed to having the vocal slapped on top at the end.

You have a number of feature artists on the EP. Did you already know them or did you approach them to join you?

I met Peach at a house party of Al’s from the Red Riders’, we started free styling/ beat boxing in the alley. Catcall I’ve known from Uni days just a few years back, we aren’t super close but had similar goals to get down for the music. I met the Vangarde through my girlfriend, I’m helping them record vocals for their album. I got in touch with Kobra Kai through my old housemates who introduced me to the Sydney Drum n Bass scene; and finally Damn Dirty Apes is my brother who’s band I used to play drums in. In reflection the entire process was quite organic.

You have spent time in Malaysia, what is the music scene like over there?

It’s growing bigger and better, every time I go back there seems to be a more solid music industry developing. There used to be a lot police raids and government crack downs and stuff like that, but now there are more corporate sponsors for events; legitimising it and allowing it to grow.

What has been your favourite place to play/DJ?

Sosueme, Qbar Friday nights!

Apart from your musical talents, you are also a designer. Did you create the fabulous and distinctive cover of the EP?

My ex is a hair stylist, the model is from a photo shoot of hers which I painted over/manipulated. Please don’t sue me.

How should punters dance when they come and see your set?

Naked!

And finally, what are your plans for the next few months?

Remixes, Remixes, Remixes (GET ME TO DO YOUR REMIX! blackgallant@gmail.com) , Just Where You Want Me Part 2 with Nik Valentino, and then an indie-dance EP.

Cheers Sina!

To check out tracks from the Black Gallant EP click on the iTunes link below

Or head to:

http://www.blackgallant.com/

http://www.myspace.com/blackgallant

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Winners of UncharTED – Here Come The Birds Set to Rock At The Splendour Weekender

With a brand, spanking new video clip for their track ‘Bravery and Defeat’, a spot on MTV with popular hostess Ruby Rose and a cool $20K now under their belts and a spot at Splendour In The Grass – there will be no stopping Musicadium artists Here Come The Birds. They were announced as the winners just last night, and as we had a chat to them prior to this we want to pass on our congratulations to the boys took home the grand prize.

Congratulations on playing at Splendour! Which artists are you itching to see?

The line up is awesome this year but if we had to narrow it down to three I would say Gyroscope, Sigur Ros and Cold War Kids

What would have been your favourite gig that you have played and why?

Our EP launch has definitely been our favourite gig to date. We sold out the venue with over 400 people and they were all there to see us perform our new songs, the atmosphere was amazing.

If you could collaborate with any musician/s living or dead, who would they be?

That’s a tough question, I guess we list some of our current influences as Gyroscope, Bloc Party and Brand New and I would have to say that they would be some amazing bands to work with. They all have different styles that make them unique and it would be great to get an insight in to their song writing process.

You cite Muse as one of your influences, and I have noticed that your guitarist’s last name is Bellamy - was that just a lucky coincidence?

They are actually cousins…..no not really it’s totally coincidence but we wish they were related, we could tour the world with one of our favourite bands!

What are you up to for the next couple of months? Where can we expect to catch a show?

Apart from the Uncharted competition which is kind of ruling our world at the moment we are just keeping up business as usual. We have some gigs coming up at:

The Cambridge Hotel – Sat 26th July (Newcastle)
Mum @ World Bar – Fri 15th August (Sydney)

(ed. And now SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS - Aug 2nd and 3rd, Belongil Fields, Byron Bay)

Thanks so much for your time guys, love your work!

Catch their video at http://www.ciproductions.biz/solutions/

and check out the uncharted website at http://www.uncharted.com.au/home/home.do

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Globe-Trotting, heart-warming, endlessly charming Aussie ladies the Hussy Hicks are Musicadium’s featured artists this week.

Their debut album, ‘Life Plays Out’ is proudly distributed by Musicadium and we were lucky enough to catch up with them for a chat while the girls were touring in Europe. From Prince, to Phil Emmanuel to Pat Benetar, these folk/pop ladies have eclectic tastes and some interesting stories to boot.

What you have been up to lately girls? It seems like you have been tripping all over the globe!

Tripping all over the globe is exactly what we’ve been doing! We started this year with an Australian tour which had us drive the eleven thousand kilometres from Sydney to Darwin via Perth and Broome, then we flew to China for a run of shows and a festival and the to London where we bought ourselves an old Royal Mail van and proceeded to drive around Europe. So far we have played shows in Italy, France, Belgium, Norway, Holland and Germany and after this weekend we drive back to London for 3 shows before heading to the States.

Where has been your favourite place to perform? Have you ever played at any unorthodox venues?

Everywhere we’ve played has been great in different ways… The most incredible part of touring through different countries (apart from the incredible food, wine and language issues) is experiencing different audiences and the way they react to our music.
The Italians are vocal and passionate (and love to buy CD’s and chat away to you for hours after the show), the French are quiet and attentive until the desperate pull of a nicotine hit will remove them momentarily from the venue, the Norwegians are loud and excitable and lots of fun, The Dutch are incredibly appreciative and will want to ply you full of weird and wonderful beverages and the Germans, oh the Germans… playing to your first German audience is possibly one of the strangest yet most satisfying experiences any musician can have. They sit in total silence, they watch intently and only clap when it’s clapping time. Then they clap. And they clap. Apparently the longer they clap the more they have appreciated the song, which makes sense, but it is very odd for a first timer. And finally all Europeans LOVE a good encore. In fact they are rarely content with only one encore, generally going for at least 2 encores of at least 4 or 5 songs.

So everywhere has something special… In terms of unorthodox venues I would have to say that the underground bomb shelter bars in France are the most unusual… although there are quite a few of them, and they make excellent band venues!

You guys met in 2004, were you both involved in other projects before this? How did you meet?

Both Julz and I have been involved in music our whole lives, Julz started playing guitar at about 7 and by the age of 15 she was playing in Phil Emmanuels band. I started singing at 9 and grew up in the country music industry, I released a country single through ABC records when I was 16 and then formed a trio with my sister and a friend called Miss Radio before decided to go traipsing all over the globe and finally meeting up with Julz. We met through an awesome bass player friend who had been playing some gigs with my band and was best friends with Julz in High School. Both Julz and I had been giggin overseas and upon our return we started hanging out and jamming and it just kinda clicked and here we are now 3 years later in Berlin…

You have a distinctly Aussie feel and sound to your music. Do you think this is important to retain? Have you had many comments on this overseas?

I think the Aussie feel is a very organic part of our music, we don’t deliberately present an Australian tone, but it is just naturally a part of what we do. The folk/roots music movement is quite unique to Australia and it’s really great to be able to take it to international audiences and show them what we’re doing on our little island! We travel with our Woodskin cajon which is an Australian made instrument that gains a lot of attention and really adds something different to our sound.

If you could collaborate with any musician (living or dead) who would it be?

Me’Shell Ndegéocello and Prince come to mind immediately… and I’d really enjoy belting out a tune with Patsy Cline! We’d also love to have Steve Gadd on the next album and Julz would desperately love to play at one of Eric Claptons Crossroads festivals!

Some of your tracks are very emotionally-driven and seem quite personal. Do you ever find it hard to perform tracks that have come from a personal experience or do you find it to be a therapeutic experience?

I think the therapy is in the actual writing process… you get to dig deeply into your emotions and when it all comes out you get a little piece of music that you can do with what you like. I love the evolution of songs, you can play the same song a hundred times and it can take you to a hundred different places and be interpreted in a hundred different ways, and every interpretation is as valid as the initial idea behind the song. It’s the best part of music!

And finally, what is your favourite track to perform and why?

It’s a tough question… audience response is always such a big part of live performance, so tracks like Texas and Ugly are always fun to play. Having an attentive and focused audience is always a wonderful opportunity to play our more intricate songs like We climb, we fall and Play with me, but barely a gig will go by when we don’t play Happy and Close your eyes… ha, I guess we enjoy playing all our songs! Also lately we’ve been throwing in an acoustic version of Pat Benatars “Love is a battlefield” which gives me a chance to scream like a banshee and is a real audience favourite… but you have to get to a live show to catch that!

Check out the Hussy Hicks here

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