Latest Indie News

  • Do SXSWi's Tech Trends Foretell The Future Of Music?

    Mar 13

    By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm. Monday was the last day of SXSW Interactive, which means people are posting lists of trends purporting to distill this incredibly wide-ranging event into a few key trends — “takeaways,” if you will — from the event. These hopefully say something about where we are, both culture- and business-wise, as of March 2013. We like NPR All Tech Considered’s list, because it’s comprehensive without being overwhelming or ridiculous. We’ll take each of the trends...

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  • Learning To Be A Better Performer From Cirque du Soleil, Lemolo And Justin Timberlake

    Mar 13

    By Musician and Marketing Consultant Solveig Whittle (@shadesofsolveig). The craft of stage performance is a critical part of every performing artist’s success. This weekend, I watched three excellent performances: Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna, the emerging Seattle female music duo Lemolo, and veteran Disney and boy band performer, Justin Timberlake, on Saturday Night Live. As an artist watching these three performances, it struck me that stage skills are more important, in some ways, than...

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  • Spotify CEO Says He Doesn't Worry What Apple, Google Do In Music

    Mar 13

    "We're obviously watching what everybody is doing," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, told Forbes during an onstage interview at SXSW Interactive. "Music is something that is so inherently important to people that it makes sense for gigantic companies to have music strategies... But we're focused only on music. Unlike everyone else, like Google and Apple...they have tons of other businesses. For them, music is not a core priority." "What we do," EK continued, "is wake up every morning and think about...

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  • Pepsi Sponsors Downloads From Yala, World's Largest Arabic Music Service

    Mar 13

    Yala Music is a unique hybrid music service featuring Arabic music. Though developed for the Middle East and North Africa, Yala's listenership has grown most strongly in the U.S. Yala offers streaming options but is currently focused on ad-supported downloads with Pepsi as their first sponsor. In addition, Yala offers services to artists including management of YouTube channels and Facebook pages. I spoke yesterday with Camille Moussard of Yala Music, who is now based in France but...

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  • Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Tells Musicians To Go Crowdfund Themselves

    Mar 13

    By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Chief Swine Defender (his real title) at BreadPig, just gave the second of three keynote addresses on the first day of SXSW in Austin, Texas. In it, he laid out a well-worn yet important argument: that the Internet needs to stay open in order to realize its potential to help humans by giving informational access and entrepreneurial opportunity to more of them than the pre-digital world ever could. Invoking Amanda...

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  • The Weeknd Announces $200 Trilogy Vinyl Reissue

    Mar 13

    As FACT points out, following digital and CD releases of the Weeknd's Trilogy collection, Abel Tesfaye's webstore is now offering a vinyl release of his groundbreaking three albums, House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, across six discs. The set costs $199.00. One more time: that's one hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Phew! Each copy is signed and hand-numbered: The run is limited to 500 copies worldwide. That's the original artwork above; head to Tesfaye's website to see tiny...

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  • Watch Justin Timberlake Perform "Mirrors" on "Fallon", Plus a Barbershop Rendition of "SexyBack"

    Mar 13

    "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" is hosting a full week of Justin Timberlake. Last night was his second appearance, and he performed "Mirrors". Timberlake, Fallon, and his Ragtime Gals also sang "SexyBack" as a barbershop group, complete with suggestive winks and period-appropriate dancing. Watch both below. If you hadn't had your fill of Timberlake on TV, Vulture also reports that on March 19, The 20/20 Experience's official release date, Timberlake will participate in an hour-long CW special,...

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  • 4 Reasons Why Your Website’s Stats Are Important

    Mar 13

    It’s been nearly 4 years since we wrote a post specifically about web statistics. But the truth is, you need to be watching the stats for your website. It’s the best way to learn about your visitors while improving your online marketing. There are a number of excellent stats trackers out there. We’ve heard wonderful things about Google Analytics. Im sure they’re great. The below screen-prints are compliments of Statcounter- a service I’ve been using (and loving) for years. With that said, here...

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  • Listen: New Raekwon: "Whatever Baby" With JD ERA

    Mar 12

    Raekwon: "Whatever Baby" [ft. JD ERA] Following his Lost Jewlry EP, Raekwon just dropped a brief new freestyle, "Whatever Baby", featuring JD ERA. It's just over 90 seconds long. Raekwon's upcoming album F.I.L.A. is reportedly out in June. 

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  • Watch: Wayne Coyne Stars in Extremely Weird Virgin Mobile Commercial

    Mar 12

    Virgin Mobile's newest ad stars the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, who actively tries to brainwash you into switching your phone plan. The commercial is full of acid-headed, ultra weird imagery: Coyne sits beside a table covered in lobsters, there's a giant cat filming a tiny man playing with a ball of yarn, a dude hugs a shark...you know what? You should probably just watch it (via the Future Heart). This isn't the first time Coyne has appeared in an ad this year. During the Super Bowl, the...

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