The Sex Pistols need your Money! What about Music 2.0?

Fresh from the horse's mouth - the Sex Pistols (or whoever owns their IPR) have launched the first ever Pistols website. I wonder how the people who have the "other" official Sex Pistols site feel? The site has tons of stuff for sale and some cool content, but it reminds me of Johnny's honest quote about why they re-united for a tour in 1996 - "We want your money."

What about Music 2.0 - isn't it going to save the artists?

The recording industry is still floundering in its inability to grasp the reality of the Internet. I made a blog post about this on Mix2r.fm yesterday and wonder what the new model will be. I guess more bands are going to be touring and releasing more of their merchandise from their closets (good for us). The Sex Pistols official site lists a special DVD coming out June 30 titled "There'll Always Be An England". I'm gonna order mine - if Johnny needs my money I'll lend him a quid any day but the DVD is well worth it (Disclaimer: I have not seen it yet). Johnny - next time you're in Vancouver pints are on me!!

So what do you do if you are someone famous (or formerly famous) like John Lydon, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, et al. to earn money today? Your royalty cheques are getting smaller, labels are dropping your content, you've got songs starting to appear on "Best of " CDs. What I'd like to see is some of these guys start to realize that they can monetize the respect the fans have for them by means other than merchandise or unique performances. I'd like to see some of them start to offer their services on sites like Mix2r.fm. I'd love to be able to offer Glen Matlock $1,000 to play bass on a track on my new CD and since this can be done virtually, he can probably pull it off in minimal time and upload his track to mix2r.fm. I'd like to see more open source music donated by some of these artists but also stub recordings with abilities for users to donate money back if they use it. Why doesn't Johnny sample his voice and allow people to mix it into their music for a suggested price? I'd pay!

Anyways, I want to order my official copy of the DVD before they're gone and I have to rip one via BitTorrent because some nitwit miscalculated how many copies they can sell. ;-)

22nd Century at the Railway Club

Here are some photos from our recent gig at the railway club. Special thanks to Sarah Wark for taking these! We also uploaded some new songs to Mix2r.fm.




Tim, Glen & me playing Let Me Be



Banging out a Punk-metal version of "Echo Beach".



Covering 'Surrender' - Cheap Trick.

Why David Recordon (Six Apart) needs an Ontology!

David Recordon and I had noticed a similar issue. At Web 2.0 we connected and talked about it. The issue is one of how in every social network you have to manually re-declare your whole social network. Rather than repeat it here, the post can be read here:
http://technoracle.blogspot.com/2007/11/cmon-web-20-get-it-together-now.html

Short version:
Why do we have to keep re-declaring our social networks for every single social network application (Facebook, Mix2r, Twitter, Plaxo, MySpace, Dopplr,
whateverthehellcomesnext.com)?

David and I had lunch in the UK with Matt (CTO, Dopplr) and James Governor (RedMonk) and all agreed that this is an issue facing the next social network. David made a great presentation of it at Web 2.0 Expo Berlin.

We seem to agree that the solution is a non-proprietary open social graphing application that can be used to suck social networks into various social sites. If we are to make an open social network provider service, there are a lot of answers that have to be figured out first. Foremost, real FOL and ontology work has to be done. The social networks of today have limited and immature binary relationships. Here is an example:

"A is a friend of B"

What does this mean? Is it asymmetrical or symmetrical (is B also a friend of A?). Does B know A exists? Can B traverse the binary relationship (see that A declares B is a friend)? If so, does B know the exact nature of the declaration on the relationship? Do either A or B survive if the relationship is dead? Does the relationship exist if either A or B cease to exist?

There are simply far too many of these types of questions that are not really answered by existing social networks. This sort of ontology work is sadly needed. Perhaps a group like the Ontolog Forum can become involved to help sort some of this out.

Davd is a smart guy - I cannot wait to see what he comes up with!

Thoughts? Comments?

BTW - I am on vacation for two weeks and will not respond after tonight CET.

Music 2.0 via Mix2r.fm

Music 2.0 is a new way of making music. Like the early beta in software, where users can participate long before the gold copy comes out, Music 2.0 is about getting people involved in the creation process. Mix2r.com is a platform that gives artists the ability to allow that collaboration and each participant can retain full control over their own licenses of their content.

I am involved in a project on Mix2r.com that requires some input. If you are a musician, please consider this one.

My alternative band 6th Avenue Nightmare just posted a song called 16 Bottles on Mix2r.fm. The URL to listen or download it for free is here http://www.mix2r.com/node/821.

Here is what we want. If you are a guitarist or play any other instrument that you think might sound good on this, down load this song, then use your recording software like Ableton Live, Pro-tools, Garage Band, Cubase, Adobe Soundbooth etc. and add in a track (or tracks) of your own. When you are finished mixing it up, re-upload it as a derivative work of the original song. You can do this by clicking on the link "derivatives" in the top right hand corner as shown below:


If you are the first, you will see a screen like this:


Click on the link that says "Upload your own derivative of this work". NOTE: you must first have an account to do this. They are free.

Once you have done that, you will be prompted to upload your derivative work along with making some text notes about what you added, your license (for your content only - you cannot override the existing base tracks licenses) and who you are etc.

This song is going on a CD one day and we would also be really happy if anyone submitting tracks could indicate if they are willing to allow their content to be used on the CD.

In addition to this song, there are tons of gigabytes of free music available for both download and remixing. Have fun!!!

New 22nd Century Songs Released on Mix2r.fm

Under my alternate ego, Duane Chaos, I play in several bands (22nd Century and Stress Factor 9 to name just two). One of those, 22nd Century, just released some new mixes on the Music 2.0 social site Mix2r. Mix2r.com allows you to take these songs, download them and add your own tracks to them or remix them.



Regardless, consider taking a listen to the most recent post - the hard rock song "Nightmare on 6th Avenue". I put down bass, lead guitar and vocal tracks on this song. It has a kind of snotty, in your face and get out of my face feel.

http://www.mix2r.com/node/173

Anyone know of any battle of the bands happening at Tech Conferences? I'd love to go and represent Adobe!

Mix2r.com collaborative music portal growing!

In November, a new site was launched that allows musicians and other electronic artists to collaborate to create mixes, music and other audio projects via the internet. Recording an album used to involve recording tracks one at a time in separate rooms and controlling the creation via a central control room. Mix2r.com just overlays that pattern on the net to allow people to contribute to your mixes and music from all around the world.





I have been using it to work on other people's music and have contributed to projects in the UK and USA. People from New Zealand have sent in tracks on my audio projects.

Even if you are not a musician, there are now hundreds of free MP3 works from various genres to legally download and use. There are desktop widgets for Mac users to get the latest audio files and RSS feeds you can use to keep up to date on the goings on. To listen to the latest music from Mix2r.com, go to this link http://mix2r.fm/recent/audio.


To be honest, we're still wondering what this might eventually become or where it will all lead. As a musician, I have been hopeful that a new model for the music industry will evolve. I want to see a really cool project start on the site to make a CD with ten songs on it, with each song having one track from one musician in every country in the world on it. That would be a really cool social project. Please help spread the word and maybe it will happen.

Oh yeah - its completely free and free of spam, spyware etc.