To be continued.
Over Labor Day Weekend, the great Midwestern city of Chicago will host the North Coast Music Festival (NCMF). This particular festival will have performances by The Chemical Brothers, Nas and Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, Boys Noize and De La Soul, as well as FryinginVein.com favorites Phantogram and Mayer Hawthorne & the County.
To promote the music festival, NCMF is hosting a contest for one (1) band and one (1) DJ to get the opportunity to play a 45-minute set at the festival. They are pushing for crowd participation to pick the best of the pack. The entries are in and the voting has commenced. Obviously, we like to share our taste and our pick is the hip hop group – CROWN NATION. Crown Nation is a duo from out of Detroit. The members are FryinginVein.com notable Quelle and Denmark Vessey; both of whom are vocalists and music producers.
Help us get Crown Nation to the top 10 to get a chance to advance. You can vote ONCE A DAY until August 15th. Here’s the details right from NCMF:
Voting
Between August 2nd and August 15th, vote once per day, every day, if you want to make a life-changing difference in the life of one band and one DJ. Each e-mail address will be allotted one vote per day, so encourage your supporters to vote early and often!
The Decision
On August 15th, the votes will be tallied and North Coast Music Festival organizers will choose 10 Finalists out of the Top 20 Vote-Getters. These finalists will play a private show for organizers and their guests at a yet-to-be-disclosed location. Wow us, and you’ll be one of two winners. We’ll pick 1 Band and 1 DJ to join the main stages for a 45-minute set. He, Her, or They will be showered with praise and good fortune.
via North Coast Music Festival
Check out our favorite song of their project – Slut Bag Edition – “Deal Wit It.” Then Vote for Crown Nation today!
Why do you use SoundCloud? Do you have any success stories from using the site so far?
I first decided to use SoundCloud because it was the only music site that allowed me to post streaming player links to Facebook. In the age of high-speed internet, the attention span of internet users is extremely short lived. If users are not able to quickly and easily access music and information within one or two clicks, they usually won’t bother checking it out, especially in the case of new music. SoundCloud has allowed me to connect directly with listeners, whether through embeddable players, direct links, or entire sets, unlike sites like Bandcamp and Myspace.
I’m not sure if this counts as a success story, but I was recently forced to remove a remix of Drake’s song “Over” from my SoundCloud account. According to SoundCloud, Drake’s management filed a complaint against my version, claiming copyright infringement. While it’s unfortunate that I can’t have that (hot) remix available through my SoundCloud account, it was somewhat reassuring to know that my music had reached the ears of some movers and shakers, meaning that people are in fact listening in.
Do you have any strategy with how you’re using SoundCloud?
I love that I can use SoundCloud not only as a catalyst to promote myself publicly as an artist and producer, but as a collaborative tool to be utilized “behind the scenes”. I’m a constant tweaker, often changing mixes on songs several times in a day until I find the sound I’m happy with. My premium account allows me to replace files, send private links to colleagues, and download the original files on the road, which has proven invaluable to my style of workflow, and I’ve always felt like my files were secure. I keep a lot of hidden material on my account so that I can access it from anywhere- you never know when you need play something special in that “right place, right time” situation.
Who are some of your favorite artists to check for on SoundCloud?
I love checking for new tracks from artists like 14KT, Body Rock, Illingsworth, Professor Purple, and Seek Selekta, and it’s great that my dashboard keeps me updated on which of my friends is uploading new material. I’ve recently been finding some cool new music by roaming through people’s followers and randomly clicking on songs. It can be hit or miss, but sometimes I find some gems.
If there was one feature that you would like added to SoundCloud what would it be?
If SoundCloud could integrate some of the features of Bandcamp, such as being able to sell digital release packages, collect e-mail lists, and customizable artist profiles, it would be a monster of a site.
We have talked about merchandise in our Masters of Content series. If you read the posts and felt defeated, then mope no more! We were on Hypebot the other day and learned about Merchluv, which is where “artists inspire artists.” Sounds like utopia, doesn’t it? This is an interesting model – crowd-sourced merchandise. Imagine the possibilities.
Here’s a summary of how the service works where band meets arts-and-crafts and then get married and/or do business (however you want to see it):
Musicians just upload their logos, photos, etc. Then designers buy a license for 99¢ to make an original merch sample and post their creation on Mechluv. If it sells, the designer ships directly to the fan and band gets 20% of the sale. Bands can also negotiate to purchase higher quantities of an item to sell directly to their fans.
Via Hypebot
This opens so many new opportunities. If you use this service, please come share with us your experience. We would love to do a feature on you!
Alex Zelenka is a producer and DJ from Chicago, IL. The tracks you can find him making and/or playing vary between tech house, electronica, nu disco and everything in-between. He has a new project available for free download under the title Morphemic.
Alex has impressive stats on SoundCloud for someone we just recently came to know. He has an impressive resume with a considerable amount of releases. We asked him a few questions about his experiences on the site and what his approach to using it.
1) Why do you use SoundCloud? What are some success stories that you have had using the site?
Well, I was one of the first 400 artists who got to test the site before it was officially released and I have proudly used its features (widgets) to release my music for free digital downloads on multi songs.
2) Do you have any strategy with how you’re using SoundCloud?
Normally, I seek out songs and artists I like and follow their work and by using some of the share features it allows to me share music with my favorite artists as well.
3) Who are some of your favorite artists to check for on SoundCloud?
Crystal Castles
cliquetalk
Secret Shadows
Lucky Date
jasontyler
Kill Paris
Da Fresh
4) If there was one feature that you would like added to SoundCloud what would it be?
I think a chat box would be pretty sweet to talk with online artists or maybe an app to design album covers.
5) Who/what are your influences? What songs that you feature on SoundCloud are good examples of these influences?
I am influenced by all genres of music, I have always been in love with the expression through sound.
Check out Alex Zelenka’s latest project: Melodies & Mayhem: