According to a Wall Street Journal Article, American Idol contestants have sold their soul to the devil (OK, I’m paraphrasing).  It says:

“Thanks so much for following me/joining my Fan Page! All my updates from now on will be on our Official American Idol 9 Contestant Page, please become a fan there to read all my updates throughout the season!

That’s right they no longer can use their own Twitter. They have to use the official “American Idol Twitter.” These poor contestants are being forced to abandon their brand. What happens when American Idol is over (or you lose)? Are your fans going to know where to find you (I hope they all own their names as a domain – and used coupon code cooler7 at godaddy.com when they purchased them).

Heard much from Taylor Hicks these days? (dropped from his label), or Bo Bice (same), or (insert past idol here). There are only a few who have won who have made it. Yes you get TONS of exposure, but YOU need to own YOUR brand so that WHEN (not if) they kick you to the curb your fans know where they can find you.

We’ve talked about looping in the past, but now there seems to be a $4 alternative to those expensive peddles. This videos is in French, but still impressive. Music is universal. Its amazing the way he turns things on and off. This is called Easy Looper

If I make a mistake, I want it to be with every fiber of my being. I always want to give my all. I just found out about a band called “Rock Sugar.” This is one of the most original ideas I’ve come across in a while They combine Rock Metal Anthems (Enter Sandman, We Will Rock You, Welcome to the Jungle) with pop songs like Jessie’s Girl, Don’t Stop Believing, Voices Carry) etc. So you get songs like “Don’t Stop the Sandman (Journey and Metallica)

The cool thing I respect is:

1. These guys have chops.
2. They realized this is different, and they came up with an elaborate back story about a band that has been stranded on a island has just got back (so they are kind of stuck in 1989).
3. They took time to make it look pretty, and make a good first impression.

I challenge you to listen to this without smiling. It’s funny, but yet rocks. I found myself wanting to sing along.

If I had one “oops” their stuff is not available at amazon.com (only available from their website via paypal). The bottom line, this is very well thought out, planned, and they are giving it their all.

This week my step son built a giant snow fort – in the middle of the driveway blocking me from getting into my garage. Great job – bad planning. This video is from OK Go (the people who did the treadmill video a while ago) and they are back with a “I can’t stop watching it video.” One can only imagine the time, patience, and planning that went into this video.

I got sucked into an informercial the other other for the yudu screen printing system.

It seems way cool (as all products do on and informercial) and I was really waiting and waiting to find out how much does the yudu cost?

Well I’m still wating. I sent an email to the comany (I haven’t heard anything yet), but as this advertisement shows you can use it for a month for $33 bucks. This is cool as you can create a lot of shirts ina month. My question is does anybody know how much this thing is to keep?

Obviously more and more people are expecting music to be free or $.99 a song, but nobody expects t-shirts, bags, hats, etc to be free. As a podcaster I would like to make some t-shirts for people who send in info to the podcast, or contests, etc.

If you know someone who actually has this system, please let me know.

I originally heard about this on hypebot.com

Disagreements between artist and labels have been happening since the invention of the recorded disc. Way back in 1956, Buddy Holly recorded several songs in Nashville including  “That’ll Be The Day”. But but producer Owen Bradley reportedly hated rock n’ roll, and the results were less than exciting.

Later Holly re-recorded “That’ll Be The Day” at a different studio with his own arrangement. But…

according to his contract with Decca, he couldn’t release it, because they owned all rights to his music and wanted to recoup their investment somehow.

Buddy called Decca to plead with them, and secretly taped his conversation. They refused to give him the rights and eventually he circumvented the process by releasing the song under another name (The Crickets) on a subsidiary of Decca. But along the way Holly went through the hell that too many artists have gone through who participated in the old label system.

They won’t let him use the recordings. They won’t let him pay for the recordins.  They won’t release the songs.

Next week I’m turning 45 (2/8/2010). I still feel I’m young at heart, and I want to be that way until I’m too old to change. The bad news is my eyes are not being so kind. I love to read, and a lot of the material for this show comes from books, etc.  So this birthday I really want a Kindle, they are kind of pricy, but I heard where the Rock and Roll Geek was sent to England by his audience, so it would be cool if we could get me something I could read. If you can help at all, it would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve mentioned in the past, that one of the things you should be trying to do at a gig is to have fun. After all, who doesn’t like fun? There are people who field questions from the crowd. I was in a band that would grab women out of the audience to sing backup on “Leave your hat on.” This became a staple of our show, and women would want to be part of the “choir.” It was a chance to be silly, loose, etc. It was an invitation to have fun.

 Sometimes, we’re not sure what to try. To this I say, “It’s time to think outside the box.” This video points out how when people have a choice of “easy vs fun” people will choose fun.

Everything is going to the phone in the future. I think a phone number for texting is just as important if not more important than an email address (I never delete a text message before reading it – not so much for e-mail).

With this in mind, you don’t have to pay some programmer a ton of cash to have your own iPhone application for your band. A company called Mobbase makes it easy and affordable. It’s free to set up. You don’t even have to enter a credit card number until you’ve designed your app and decided that you want to launch it for your fans. Then it’s 20 bucks to launch and $15 a month. 

So what can you do with an iPhone app for your band? You can keep your schedule (along with directions) in their face, your music, add a store to sell your stuff, keep a blog, send your youtube clips right to their phone and more. 

MobBase app is highly customizable and can have your unique image, look, and feel — you pick and choose the content you offer to fans, arrange the features however you like, upload background and button images, and select color themes. And, because MobBase is built on an advanced content management system, it’s easy to add, manage and update content and design in real-time, whenever the mood strikes.

For more information and to start making your app, click here (www.mobbase.com )
MobBase app is highly customizable and can have your unique image, look, and feel — you pick and choose the content you offer to fans, arrange the features however you like, upload background and button images, and select color themes. And, because MobBase is built on an advanced content management system, it’s easy to add, manage and update content and design in real-time, whenever the mood strikes.

For more information and to start making your app, click here www.mobbase.com

Black Friday is the day after Thanks giving (November 27th). Stores have insane sales, open their doors in the wee hours of the morning, resulting with people lining up and going crazy.

Why should your band miss out? You can participate as well. Send an email out to your fans stating that if they buy one CD, they get one free (for a friend), etc. You pick the sale. It could be buy a CD, get a T-shirt free (or vice versa). Make it a ONE DAY only sale (to add a sense of urgency).  If you are use CDBaby to sell your music, you can easily adjust the price of your items.

People are in the mood to buy on this day so take advantage of it. However, it is right around the corner, so start promoting this “Special” deal.