Time to Get SMMuG!
Let me be the last to say Happy New Year to you all.
If you were wondering why things were so quiet here or with my Twitter postings (Tweets), it can be blamed directly on a new project I launched during the last week of December. Those of you who know me well and how I’ve spent the better part of my life surrounded by music, musicians and DJs, will not be surprised to learn that I’ve launched a new online resource for independent musicians and bands called the Social Media Music Guide (SMMuG).
My single, simplistic goal with SMMuG is to help bands/musicians connect with their fans, friends and followers by leveraging technology. I am accomplishing this by providing easy to understand and easy to implement suggestions/recommendations on a wide variety of social media resources. For example, I am providing reviews of Podcasters, Webcasters, Music Review Bloggers and Online Promotional Resources in order to help musicians understand what is available to them, from one single, reputable (okay, reliable) source. I envision this turning into a quarterly zine or PDF guide, given how much I’ve been writing there. This is an entirely free online music marketing and promotional resource - if any money is made it will be from Google AdWords or maybe affiliate links to Amazon or CDBaby (when I get the time to figure THAT out).
A new interview I just finished yesterday, was with the Executive Producer of a new independent movie called The Graduates. This a pretty amazing concept that I am excited about. Basically, an independent film crew, put together the soundtrack for their movie, made up entirely of independent artists, who agreed to give away their music on the soundtrack in order to promote both the film AND their music. Ryan Gielen, the Executive Producer I interviewed, has set his sites on giving away 1 million soundtracks. He even granted me a special SMMuG code in order for anyone reading this to receive the 2 digital disc soundtrack for free. So hit this link, put the soundtrack in your cart and when checking out be sure to use SMMUG as your special code to save $18 and get some great music as well! Maybe the great soundtrack will entice you to see the movie later this year… MAY-BEE.
And while the new SMMuG website isn’t about critiquing music or providing music reviews, each week I am personally selecting a music video that is featured on each page of the website. This week features a new discovery for me - a very talented artist I discovered thanks to the CD Baby podcast; his name is Aidan Hawken. Check out the video on SMMuG and then go promptly to CD Baby and buy one of his CDs. The latest is called The Sleep of Trees - I ordered it yesterday! The Aidan Hawken video currently featured on SMMuG, called “Crush”, is from his first album.
Another great music discovery this past week came thanks to the musical genius that books bands for the Late Show with David Letterman. On Friday night’s show (Jan 30, 2009) they featured a NJ band called Gaslight Anthem doing a song called The ‘59 Sound. While I’m usually fast asleep by the time the musical guests air on Letterman, I lucked out this time. These guys have a faster punk-pace to them with an East Coast (Springsteen-esque) rockabilly feel that is both 50’s retro and current at the same time. A bit easier on the ears than Mike Ness of Social D and in a more modern rock vein. Dare I say, Daughtry? Great stuff though- I’ve ordered their latest CD (on Amazon yesterday) for a life-long friend who is dealing with a lot of stuff right now, including a deep, dark Wisconsin Winter.
So moving forward, I’ll likely keep this blog/website as my personal escape, but postings will likely be infrequent - maybe once per month. Beyond the duties now required for SMMuG, I am also working up a business oriented podcast that I reserved the domain for last month and am starting to line up guests for next month. More to come on that as well. In the meantime, follow me on either Twitter account; 80sAirwaves or SMMuG. I am still not on Facebook much, because as I pointed out six weeks ago, I just don’t get it.
I hope you are well.
I hope you are healthy.
The winter is drawing to a close and Spring will bring a lot of great things for all of us. Enjoy the Superbowl today and spend some time listening to music this week. Take 40 minutes out and listen to an ENTIRE CD without disruption.
-pjc