Revolution Void

Here are some tracks which can be used as building blocks, either for other songs or for soundtracks and segues.

These are all released under the Creative Commons Attrib license so you can use them for whatever you like (just give credit).

• Minimal Instrumental Hiphop Segue MP3 | WAV
  Sparse, minimal downtempo breakbeat and a Moog-ish bassline. This clip is only 34 seconds long so it would have to be a segue, incidental music or music cue.
• Hat Pusher Overkill MP3 | WAV
  Overdriven breakbeat with pushy hihats. Warning: Very loud!
• Too Cool for Homeschool MP3 | WAV
  This track starts with solo turntablism filtered with light delay. The beat drops-- a simple, crisp drum-machine breakbeat with sub bass. The beat is then filtered through a flanger while the turntablism continues.
• Biomythos (ambient soundscape mix) MP3 | WAV
  Sparse vibraphone evokes a sense of mystery, while a phased synth pad provides counterpoint. Remix of a track from the 2006 release Thread Soul.
• Filtered Breakbeat with Clav Solo MP3
  The main solo on this track is performed with the Native Instruments Elektrik Piano Clavinet (along with some filtering effects). The breakbeat has a lowpass filter using Ableton Live's built-in Auto-filter effect.

Labels: creative commons, hiphop, samples

An historic event in cinema, the first-ever Open Source/Creative-Commons-licensed full-length feature film to be shot entirely in HD, The Last Drug is already gaining momentum before the release. From the website,

The first reports on "The Last Drug" come out. A journalist even told me recently "...there are already rumors! We have to bring this story if we want to be the first" That sounds promising. Last week there was an article in "Prinz" and radio "Energy" broadcasted a report.

Meanwhile the cut is finished, sound design, compositing and rendering are worked on. As soon as all computer generated shots and animations of priority 1 are integrated, we go search for a sponsor - then we can see about a release date.

Production Stills: Incidentally, you can hear the Revolution Void track Double the Daily Dose playing in the background during this compositing session: Link

Labels: creative commons, film

The album Thread Soul has been featured in its entirety in the promotional Flash game Grolsch Gardens, playable at www.grolschgardens.com. It's refreshing to see high-quality sprite-driven Flash work. I love vector as much as the next guy but the developers of Grolsch Gardens have really done a superb job at creating a faux-3D environment using 2D sprites.

In addition to featuring my music, their "jukebox" page also features 7 other Creative-Commons-affiliated artists, most (if not all) of whom were found through Jamendo. While it may be a double-edged sword, I think it's great that big-league advertisers are looking to underground, independent musicians for music placement. I hope this trend continues, as it gives underground musicians a chance to reach a larger audience (myself included).

Labels: advertisement, creative commons, flash, website

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

Jamendo has released another cool widget on their artist pages: the "BuzzTeam." Apparently a BuzzTeam is a group of fans who have recommended the artist. Here's the BuzzTeam for Revolution Void:



I have to say, this is pretty cool! It's great to be able to see not only how many fans there are for an artist, but how much the grass-roots online promotion method is working. In my case, I have found it to work quite well.

Previously, I blogged about how great it was that Jamendo is now sharing 50% of its advertising profits with artists. Well, their service keeps getting better and better. With features like this being released, it's safe to say that Jamendo has established itself at the forefront of the renaissance of free music.

Labels: creative commons, jamendo