Revolution Void

This collection of tracks was released as part of the Hiphop White Label series. All of these songs are released to the public domain, granting free use to do anything you wish with them, including using the tracks in whole or part in commercial endeavors, without requiring to give credit.

1. Back in the Day
2. Cut-Up Piano Beatz
3. Wes Coast
4. Shufflectro
5. New York City
6. Epic Strings
7. Day Before New Year's
8. Desperate Measures Theme

Labels: hiphop

The album Increase the Dosage was my first release on Jamendo. I found Jamendo when searching for Creative Commons music. Previously, I had released music through OurMedia (and I still do), but I liked the selection of music and features on Jamendo and so I published the album there. Since then, I'm continually impressed with the features Jamendo rolls out.

Take their spiral, for instance. Not only is the spiral a fresh and unique way to find out about new music, but it's done entirely without the use of Flash. I have nothing against Flash per se but it is still nice to see widgets created in pure DHTML.

Perhaps the best thing about Jamendo is the huge community of users, both musicians and fans. It seems that their user base is very active as well, with a penchant for reviews, comments, and a voracious appetite for music. In other words, this is the perfect audience for Creative Commons musicians looking to get heard by the world at large. According to their site, as of Saturday, May 12, 2007, Jamendo has 3313 published albums, 113891 active members, and 37197 album reviews.

Jamendo provides quite a few excellent services for musicians and fans alike. In January 2007, they began sharing 50% of their advertising revenue with the artists. It is divided proportionately according to how many pageviews the artist received. So, if you received 2% of the pageviews on jamendo.com then you are entitled to 1% of their advertising revenue. It's an astounding gesture, and is certain to attract more musicians to the site. The site is already growing like wildfire-- when I published Increase the Dosage in June 2006, there were 2225 albums on Jamendo, and the number of published albums has already increased by over 1000 since then. At this rate, an average of 90 albums per month are being added, all of which can be downloaded in their entirety for free. This is truly a revolutionary time, an online renaissance of open-source music.

Besides the great functionality and incentives for bands, Jamendo simply has a great online community with which to discuss your favorite bands, share playlsts and promote your favorite artists. You can review artists and comment on reviews. If you promote an artist (by emailing their link, writing a review, adding them to a playlist or otherwise recommending them) then you become part of that artist's "BuzzTeam." Your username and icon will appear on that artist's page along with a number, representing how many times you have promoted them. This gives an incentive to fans to promote their favorite artists, and is an innovative way to encourage audience participation and interaction with the bands.

Labels: creative commons, jamendo

The tune Infornography was used as a music bed in an episode of Mark Forman's Getting a Leg Up podcast. (note: site automatically plays music). It appears the song title was influential as well. Mark writes, "I've been motivated to get back to doing some more thematic podcasts again— hence today’s MindField show (title mashed-up from the trendy software and cool tune by Jonah Dempcy)."

Tracklist and Download Links
Mark Forman's Getting a Leg Up podcast

Socialize 4:31 Metal Hearts* Media Screws 4:49 Kalas*Digital Data 3:26 ASHWAN *Vision 4:59 Angel Tears*Agenda Suicide (adult. mix) 4:41 the faint*Bet You Never Thought 4:52 Brighton, MA*Words That I Employ 3:03 Coach Said Not To*Words Were Barely There 3:03 The Temporary Thing *1,000 words 2:31 Burning Bright*Background music: Infornography 4:15 Revolution Void

I should point out that I did not originate the word. Rather, I first heard it from the Japanese animation television series Serial Experiments Lain.

Interestingly, there is even a Wikipedia article for the word infornography. The meaning, according to Wikipedia, "is an addiction to or an obsession with acquiring, manipulating, and sharing information. People "suffering" from infornography are generally people that greatly enjoy receiving, sending, exchanging, and digitizing information."

Labels: podcast

This electro breaks track got its name because when I hear it, it elicits images of vast cyberpunk cityscapes or post-apocalyptic fields a la Mad Max. It is a hard electro breakbeat with overdriven bassline. Overall, the whole thing is very compressed, giving it a harsh electronic quality. Synth pads balance out the otherwise aggressive sonic palette, evoking a sense of vastness.

Vast Fields (MP3 6 MB)