PC Mag reponds to RIAA

In response to the music industry backlash over their article about the demise of Limewire in which they pointed out alternative file sharing sources, PC Mag have given their opinion on the matter...

"The music industry has gone off the deep end. Now they want to lay the blame for music piracy on PCMag.com's doorstep. Seriously, over a dozen music industry execs signed a letter stating, "PC Magazine is encouraging" people to steal music. Allow me to explain."

Read the full article here

Win £500 to spend with Dolphin Music

Dolphin Music are feeling mightily festive today and ushering in the Christmas spirit by offering the chance to win £500 to spend on Dolphin products.  Head over to the Dolphin blog and fill in their survey to be entered into the prize draw.  For more info and to enter, go here.

Musician Insurance Is A Given

Accidents happen

 If you're an independent musician there are several things that we reckon you should be doing from day one. We're not saying that you're stupid if you don't do these things but you'll definitely be missing a trick. You've probably already read the millions of articles out there teaching you 'online marketing essentials for musicians' and how to 'improve your bands SEO'. The fact that there are a million of the previously mentioned articles knocking about suggests that these things are in fact important and we agree that they are. There's not however as much info pertaining to the importance of  something as simple as insurance for your equipment, but don't let this lack of information lead you to believe that it's not important - if you've invested a lot of your hard earned cash into your gear, you need to make sure you have adequate cover for it. Music rights management specialist Sentric Music recently published this excellent blog post which shows the average cost of a bands equipment and what the band would have to do in order to re-coup their losses.

A lot of musicians rely on their household insurance to cover their gear but it's often a very murky area when it comes to what's covered and many people have been caught 'with their pants down' so to speak and left out of pocket. Household Insurance may not cover your equipment outside of the UK - European and Worldwide cover is available on most tailored musician insurance packages. If you travel abroad with your instruments you're most probably going to need a tailored insurance policy and should seek some advice.

Another problem in relying on household Insurance to cover your equipment is that there is often a payment limit per item, e.g. the maximum you can claim per item could be £1,000 - thus, you're snookered if you have anything costing more.  There may also be a limit on the amount of cover provided for those items that leave the house with you.  Household insurance may not cover the instruments whilst they are in an external venue such as a pub or on the road, especially if they are being used for commercial purposes - which makes gigging a bit of a pain! Hopefully we're giving you an idea of the questions you need to ask when deciding what kind of insurance you need.  If you're a gigging musician or band it's just as imprtant to understand public liability.

Also, if you've ever tried to get a quote for your music equipment over the phone, you've probably been really perplexed at the randomness of some of the questions asked by insurance companies. It doesn't seem necessary to know your age, marital status and underwear colour (if this is asked, you should be worried) however, all the questions - however silly they may seem - are required by law.  The nice people at YOUR Insurance offer a quote and buy online facility so you can buy your insurance at a time that suits you and hopefully avoid having to speak to anybody!

To save you a lot of headache, misfortune and money in the long run musician insurance is extremely useful.

Music Monday: Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx - NY Is Killing Me

Talk of a collaboration between Jamie from The XX and Gil Scott-Heron has been doing the rounds for some time now and it turns out the project is going to be Jamie xx remixes of studio sessions from Gil Scott-Heron's album 'I'm Here Now' and will be imaginatively entitled 'We're Here Now'.  The full album release is set for the 21st February 2011 but as a teaser they have released this track and intriguing accompanying video.  The track is an almost 6 minute long, brooding, dubby remix that echoes elements of the Florence And The Machine track that he re-worked earlier this year. You can buy NY is killing me here.

Music Executives Accuse PC Mag Of Encouraging Music Piracy

PC Magazine have riled several music industry executives after they published an article that gave an insight into the best places to illegally download music on the back of the Limewire shutdown.  The PC mag article gives half a dozen torrent sites and trackers they recommend for downloading music and attempts in vain to avoid a backlash with the disclaimer “all of these services should be used for legal downloads, of course.” - What can actually be done about this I'm not sure but one thing is true, it's been an excellent PR stunt for PC Magazine.

The full story can be read here
Read the article that has caused all the controversy here

Dolphin Music: Roland Interactive Webcasts

The lovely people over at Dolphin Music have got together with Roland to offer access to their new interactive webcast sessions to showcase their gear and answer users questions.  There are three different webcasts on Saturday 27th November...

• 11am-12pm: Drums with Craig Blundell
• 1pm-2pm: Synths and Production with Luke Edwards
• 3pm-4pm: Guitar and Amps with Alex Hutchings

I f you'd like to watch these webcasts live on the Dolphin Music website, simply click here and fill in the sign up form on their website...easy as that

Artist Resources: Bandcamp

Get past the American Pie innuendo inducing title and you find a real gem of a website that is a must for all independent artists looking to get their music online. About a year old now, Bandcamp provides a home to host and display your music and ultimately if you so wish, flog it easily to your fans. Services like this have been around for many moons but what makes Bandcamp different is it's willingness to keep it's nose out of artists business and allow them to customise their pages as they see fit. When you visit a Bandcamp page you see exactly what the artist wants you to see and you don't get Bandcamp screaming in your face, nor do you get pesky third party advertisers popping up every five seconds promoting teeth whitening services and other highly irrelevant tosh.

Furthermore, a Bandcamp account is free for artists - they make their money by taking a 15% revenue share on sales. If an artists makes over $5000 in sales revenue, the share that Bandcamp take is reduced to 10%. If somebody buys your music from Bandcamp, the money goes directly into your designated Paypal account, Bandcamp don't hold on to it and pay you as and when they feel. If you want a great looking, easy to manage home for your music online then Bancamp is the only sensible choice.

And here's some lovely tracks from Bandcamp... Yeah, they let you embed your tracks on other websites too!