The Practice Room

Attention, performers

Want to get music to your fans for cheap? Here’s a new approach from Discrevolt. This is the gist, from a report in Billboard:

“… The company provides artists with customized prepaid cards that fans can redeem for MP3 downloads on its Web site. Here's how it works: Artists buy in bulk a set of cards that they can design with their own custom artwork and text. Each card has a unique redemption code and holds 15 credits. Participating artists then upload their music in MP3 format to their profile on the DiscRevolt site, which can also accommodate a bio, contact info and artwork. Bands can either sell or give away these cards to fans, who use the redemption code to download individual tracks -- one credit per track.

“Where pressing CDs generally costs on average of $1 per disc -- excluding cover art and booklets -- DiscRevolt prices range from 100 cards for $99 (99 cents each) to 1,000 cards for $450 (45 cents each). Larger bulk orders can run as low as 25 cents per card.

“There are no further per-track costs for tracks downloaded from the site. Artists pocket the cash they make by selling the cards individually -- typically between $5 and $10. And even kids without a credit card can buy them.”

[TJH]

Fine Guitars

Who knew that my country, Switzerland, produces, besides chocolate and watches, some fine guitars too? Check out Blade Guitars by Gary Levinson, a little guitar shop near Basel, Switzerland. The desing of the guitars is not groundbreaking, you've seen all the models before, but the immaculate workmanship and the great sound they produce make them first-rate instruments.

They're available in the U.S. at Close Marketing in Colorado. Email them @ [email protected]. (No, I'm not endorsing Blade Guitars, I've never been in the shop, but I certainly would like to own one.)   

Peter

   

Not Cool, But Ugly

Ugliness has its own attraction - scary:

Peter

More Cool Guitars

Tom just raised the bar of guitar coolness:

http://www.teuffel.com/instrumente/birdfish/birdfish_e.html
Interchangeable resonators, swappable pickups, headless neck, high tech materials, limited edition, and a cool look. I wonder what it sounds like.

P.S. The company's name is "Teuffel;" "Teufel" is a German word and means "devil." Expect flames shooting out while you play.

Peter

Need a Cool Guitar?

The notions of what a cool guitar is vary with each person, but the way I interpret the term "cool," it has to do with restrained elegance, quiet, but powerful appearance, also dynamic. Before your head hits the desk reading my orgy of adjectives, take a look at the new Gibson Les Paul Studio Satin at Cary's Electric Guitar Review site. You can find reviews of dozens of other cool guitars there. If you plan to buy a guitar but want to get a good idea first of what's out there, Cary's blog is the site to go to.

Peter

WorkshopLive news

We are pleased to announce that Akamai will be our new flash video content provider, delivering our high speed flash videos world wide.  This means that WorkshopLive videos, mp3's and graphic files will be delivered even faster. Flash users don’t need to do anything differently; it’s all automatic. (QuickTime users won’t be affected by this change.)

We’ve made some other improvements recently:

• New Study Guides - These guides to help you navigate through the lessons.
• Cool tools - tuner, glossary, jam tracks and more.
• New Search - Find lessons and songs by keyword.
• Over 450 jam tracks to play along with.
• New Drum lessons (including beginner rock) with many more to come.

Check us out!

[TJH]

Finetune - Be Your Own Radio Jockey

Finetune is a pretty cool music listening program, or, to use current jargon, a "social music application." If you're familiar with Pandora, the "Music Genome Project" that serves you music based on your preferences, you get a good idea of how Finetune works. You can listen to Peter's playlist by clicking the "finetune playlists and stations" link on the upper right-hand side of this blog.

Here are the pros and cons in a nutshell:

iPhone

In case you’ve been in Borneo for the last week and missed the iPhone announcement, here are the essentials:

• The iPhone combines an iPod, a cell phone and a camera.
• It has a 3.5 inch touchscreen, a 4 or 8GB hard drive, Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM radio, and a bunch of other geekish things that I can’t explain.
• It’s the thinnest phone around.
• It can synch music, photos, videos and personal contact info via and iTunes interface.
• It will cost $499 for the 4 GB version, $599 for the 8 GB version. It comes out in June, from Cingular.

[TJH]

MP3 is the future?

Eliot Van Buskirk, writing in Wired, contends that the major record labels are likely to adopt MP3 as their preferred format in the not-to-distant future. He cites seven reasons, which include:

• They don’t like Steve Jobs telling them what to do;
• Apple may be forced to enable songs from iTunes to play on MP3 players;
• Thompson Media, which owns the MP3 codec, supports the idea of watermarked MP3 file, which would allow tracking of files;
• Amazon is rumored to be opening a store selling just MP3s in April;
• Sony claims to see Digital Rights Management as becoming less important;
• AllofMP3.com, despite being illegal and under attack, is still attracting customers;
• The MP3 technology has room to grow.

If you don’t understand any of that but would like to, read the whole article.

 

[TJH]

 

Analog vs. digital

Not too long ago we mentioned the new HD.6X-Pro digital Les Paul from Gibson. Now, if you’re fast, you can get a digital Les Paul signed by the digits of the original Les Paul. Yes, Rhubarb Red has singed one hundred of them, and they’re for sale from online dealer Sweetwater for $7,999. (If you’d like to buy a regular one and forge Les’ signature, it’ll cost you $4,999.)

From the press release: “The HD.6X-Pro features...