the not so secret aardvark records diaries

Steve O' Connor to perform at British Memorial Gardens 9/11 memorial concert in NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:22:00 +0000

When then 9/11 terrorist attacks happened eight years ago, Steve O'Connor was thousands of miles away in his home in Liverpool. Stunned, he watched as New York, a city which had given him many fond memories, was thrown into chaos.

"One minute I was working on some new songs and the next minute I couldn't believe my eyes," O'Connor recalled. "Everything went on hold in the hours and days that followed. I asked myself the same kind of questions hundreds of millions around the world asked. What kind of world did we live in. And where do we go from here? New York was the first place I'd ever performed in America, so as an artist that makes it special…and there was just this carnage. There I was in Liverpool. What could I do?"

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Get your free Yahel download; 'Life Is A Test'

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:40:00 +0000

Yep FTP Music & Aardvark Records are giving away a FREE legal download from Yahel - in conjunction with DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJ poll...which is happening now.

The track 'Life Is A Test' is our way of saying thanks you for all the support, love and faith you have so generously given over the years.

Click here to go to the download page

Catch Zetan Spore's interview with Such Cool Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:12:00 +0000

The British live Psytrance duo talk to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about their music, festival promoters, their musical tastes...and how living in Cornwall inspires them on every level.

Catch Zetan Spore's interview here:

Catch Yahel's interview with Such Cool Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:28:00 +0000

International Trance DJ & Producer Yahel Sherman talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about his music, the music scene in Israel...and how DJing around the globe has made him the DJ & producer he is today.

Catch Yahel's interview here:

American Nu Jazz duo Torso's interview with Such Cool Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Torso talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about their music...and about how Lee orginally wanted to be a writer and Louis wanted to be James Brown.

Catch Torso's interview here:

My first ever blog!

noreply@blogger.com (musicaholic) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:26:00 +0000

I have just spent my morning listening to some good music and some very strange music. It never fails to amaze me at the diversity of music that there is out there. Am I allowed to mention names; no, maybe not.

For someone interested, erm probably obsessed with music would be a better description, there can't be a better way to spend my day. If anyone reads this blog I would be interested to hear what you are listening to today, right now! Me? 'Walkabout' Dave Jacobs band www.myspace.com/djacobsband

Thanks for reading

Musicaholic

German Trance producer Jason Sean's interview with Such Cool Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Trance Producer Jason Sean talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about DJing and his music...and how trekking around the globe can influence some great tracks.

Catch Jason Sean's interview here:

Japanese Cyber Trance DJ/Producer Yuto Nagayama's interview with Such Cool Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:24:00 +0000

Cyber Trance DJ/Producer Yuto Nagayama talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about DJing and his music...and about being a young Japanese DJ/producer breaking into the global music biz.

Catch Yuto Nagayama's interview here:

French Psy Trance DJ/Producer' Jeff Alford's interview with Such Cool Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:14:00 +0000

Psy Trance DJ/Producer Jeff Alford talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about his music...and how living around the globe has made him the DJ & producer he is today.

Catch Jeff Alford's interview here:

Nu Jazz & Downtempo DJ/Producer Chris Hale's interview with Such Cool Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:11:00 +0000

Nu Jazz & Downtempo DJ/Producer Chris Hale talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about life as an American in Tokyo...and how Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" changed his life forever as a child.

Catch Chris Hale's interview here:

Such Cool Stuff! interviews UK AAC Pop trio Riveraire

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:14:00 +0000

The UK AAC Pop trio Riveraire talk to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about their career-to-date...and the inspirations behind their very catchy Adult Contemporary pop tunes.

You can catch the interview here

Catch Firedance's interview with Such Cool Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Catch Marcel Otte from Firedance's interview with the music & fashion blogzine Such Cool Stuff!

The German Technotrance DJ & prodcer talks to the Such Cool Stuff! crew about his career-to-date...and the things that get him fired up.

You can catch the interview here

Ninja Kodou interview with Such Cool Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:22:00 +0000

You can catch the latest Ninja Kodou interview with the people behind the music and fashion blogzine Such Cool Stuff!: http://suchcoolstuff.blogspot.com/2009/06/ninja-kodou.html

The Israeli Progressive Breaks producer discusses everything from his sources of inspiration to his favourite activities.

In business, less is more

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:49:00 +0000

The not-so-new digital economy may have shrunk the globe we live on, speeded up the way business is conducted online and opened up bold, new frontiers…but it sometimes seems that all of this was done at the expense of business relationships.

Before I entered the hallowed halls of the music industry, I worked in the PR and advertising agencies. In those worlds, client relationships were Ace, King, Queen – and sometimes a joker. If you bungled a client account, the company lost the client. It was as simple as that. Whether it was a bread and butter client – or one that brought in millions – it hurt. If someone continued to lose their company clients they were sacked. The attitude these days is that clients are disposable. Especially in the music industry.

I’ve just finished doing an audit of our primary B2B partners. This includes digital aggregators, audio and video content licensing and music synchronisation partners. The audit followed a period at the beginning of the year where we discussed our various sales targets with our B2B partners…and means to achieve them. A few were surprised to say the least. I suppose target setting and involving B2B partners in that process isn’t as commonplace as I thought in the music industry.

Post-audit, results were weighed against the set targets – and matched against the activities our partners engaged in to promote our catalogue. Those partners whose work returned solid sales results were enthusiastically praised. Those who were pretty much on target were also congratulated. And further conversations with both of these groups have been had to further improve sales revenue.

Those who failed to meet the targets – and pretty much failed to do anything to promote our catalogue – were placed on notice. And this seems to have genuinely shocked them. I could see the deeply furrowed brows and quizzical looks at the other end of the phone or on the other side of emails. ‘You’re holding us accountable for our performance?’ Indeed!

I’m not one for excuses. I don’t make them and I really don’t want to hear them. I don’t want to hear a litany of excuses about bad sales performance. I want to hear ‘this is what went wrong and this is what we’re going to do about it. I’m on the case mate’. Then again, I am proper old school.

However, in and amongst the many conversations that have been had with those partners who performed badly against targets, there has been a distinct apathy amongst a notable handful. That apathy screams volumes: “We have loads of labels. Yours is just one of many. We don’t care. We don’t have to. There are loads more where you came from.”

Indeed. Apathy in business can work both ways. And if enough labels become apathetic with their digital content partners and go to other providers, I doubt very much if such aggregators’ apathy will lost for long.

We will be dealing with fewer aggregators in the future. For us, the old adage is true: less is more.

YouTube video fallout continues in the UK...

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:35:00 +0000

from Digital Music News

The YouTube imbroglio continued on Tuesday in the UK, sparked by an unceremonious pulldown of thousands of artist videos. The content removal follows a contentious negotiation between YouTube and performance rights organization PRS for Music, one riddled with heavy payment demands and a "lack of transparency," at least according to Google. In the end, it was Google pulling the plug, not PRS.

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Do music fans want quality audio?

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:33:00 +0000

from Digital Music News

Think Music Fans Want Quality? One Stanford Professor Disagrees...

It sounds perfectly reasonable. Music fans want superior sound quality; they want crisp cymbals and rich bass instead of muffled or over-compressed files. Sounds logical, right?

According to one Stanford professor, the answer is 'not exactly'. During a recent panel in Mountain View, Stanford professor of music Jonathan Berger shared an interesting takeaway from years of ad-hoc listening surveys involving his students. In 'blind' listening tests conducted by Berger, students often express a preference for lower-quality MP3s, even against high-fidelity, superior versions of the same music.

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The Rhapsody Marketing Machine Rolls On...

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Is Rhapsody just a big vision waiting to come to fruition? The joint venture between MTV Networks and RealNetworks hinges on subscription, long considered the future of music consumption by many executives.

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Album Sales Keep Tracking Downward; Dip Approaches 12%

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:29:00 +0000

from Digital Music News

The eroding album continued its slide in February, based on Soundscan figures surfacing Wednesday. As of the end of February, cumulative albums are now 11.7 percent beneath comparable levels in 2008, itself a distressed year. The decline stretches to 28.6 percent when compared to 2007, according to a calculation offered by Coolfer.

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We are the music bankers

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:53:00 +0000

I’ve noticed a bit of a trend in people enquiring about jobs at Aardvark. City bankers - both those who have recently been made redundant and that fear redundancy in the near future – have been enquiring about marketing and sales jobs. So here we are: we are the music bankers, and we are the dreamer of dreams. Indeed.

I know what this says about the state of the UK economy in general and the financial sector specifically. However, I’m curious if this is just coincidence or indicative of a larger trend. Is this the 21st Century equivalent of the late 20th Century phenomenon that saw London advertising executives flee to the Home Counties and seaside villages to become restaurateurs?

Now, I’m not adverse to anyone who loves music, has a thorough knowledge about the international music industry and solid experience in B2B sales enquiring about a job at this label. Bring it on, please. Yet, when a significant number of employment queries come from one specific employment sector, it gives me pause to think…and ask why. Especially as the merchant and city banks they’ve been working for are household names in the world of high finance.

I’ll probably never know the answer. Just so long as those we do hire accept that Cornish pasties and local brews will more than likely replace the haute cuisine and Moët to which they’re accustomed.

Performance Rights Act Drawing Major Reactions...

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:18:00 +0000

[from Digital Music News - read 06 Feb 09]

The recently-introduced Performance Rights Act is drawing reaction from industry stakeholders, across independent, technological, and label sectors. The once-dead measure aims to charge traditional broadcasters for the use of recordings, a longtime exemption for US-based stations. "The Performance Rights Act brings the United States in line with almost every other nation in the world," industry consortium MusicFIRST stated.

read more here: http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/020509performance/view

Warner Music group pulls videos from YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:34:00 +0000

It was with some bemusement that a fellow independent music colleague phoned me to ask if I heard about Warner Music Group pulling its artists' videos from YouTube. I hadn't. I have to say it didn't come as any great shock.

It's all about money, of course. I can understand and appreciate Warner's position about compensating its artists, writers, etc. And when you're a company like Warners, you also have to keep the stockholders happy too.

However, as independent labels don't tend to earn so much as a penny (or pence for us Brits) from YouTube, I can't say I'm shedding a tear over the situation. Who knows, if the remaining majors come to pull their videos, YouTube might embrace the very labels which started providing it with videos when it first started - yup, that would be the independents. I wouldn't hold my breath.

You can find a synopisis of Warners v. YouTube here: http://www.music-news.com/ShowNews.asp?nCID=0&H=Warner-pulls-music-videos-from-YouTube&nItemID=23140

Saying farewell to an old friend

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:02:00 +0000

I've been out of sorts lately. It's something akin to losing something you took for granted; something you thought would always be there. For me, that's Gut Records.

The news of Gut Records demise was something like a sucker punch...out of the blue and unexpected. Aye, there were the whispers. Despite the rumours, I thought Gut would rally. The reality that the label is no more has finally sunk in and my funk is the result.

Guy Holmes was something of a mentor-come-role model for me. Back in the days when I was a bright-eyed band manager and relatively new to the music business, I met Guy for the first time. Despite the fact he blew the band I was shopping to him clean out of the water, I had an immediate respect for the man. He was plain speaking and no-nonsense when many in the indsutry weren't. He had class and wit. And let's face it, in the 90s, everything he touched turned to stardust. He was humble with it. And respected. Regardless of whether I agreed with him or not I listened and respected his point of view. Not that my opinion mattered. In those days to say I was a non-entity in the music business would be too kind.

There are three people who taught me the music business. Whether or not they would ever admit it or take credit for it is another matter. One is a dear singer/songwriter friend of mine who shall remain nameless to save her blushes. The second is Colin Bell. Guy Holmes was the last but by means the least. For whatever reason, his lessons resonated the strongest within me. So while I say I wish him well in whatever he does in the future may sound trite, such words will have to do.

The UK independent music scene shines a little less brightly.

Could software find the X Factor?

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:12:00 +0000

telegraph.co.uk — Good news for some: computers could replace Simon Cowell. The team, based at Tel Aviv University, has unveiled a computer program that looks not at an act's vocal abilities or stage presence, but simply at the word of mouth they generate.

Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/3778304/Could-software-find-the-X-Factor.html

Steve O'Connor Scottish radio interviews

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:19:00 +0000

The Liverpool-born and Caledonian-inspired singer-songwriter Steve O'Connor has been enjoying rare praise from Scottish radio stations during his continuing radio interview junket in the region. With its creative inspiration, Scotland can lay claim to being his artistic birthplace. A spell living in the highlands led to his picking up a guitar and penning some very popular acoustic and folk songs.

Cuillin FM, Leith FM, Black Diamond FM and Celtic Music Radio are a handful of Scottish radio stations currently supporting O’Connor’s new single 'Hail Caledonia' from his second album 'Roll The Dice'

To listen to the Cuillen FM interview online, visit:
http://www.last.fm/music/Inga%2BBonk%2B%2528Cuillen%2BFM%2529%253B%2BSteve%2BO%2527Connor/Steve+O%27Connor+interview+with+Cuillin+FM+%28Scotland%29

To listen to the Leith FM interview online, visit:
http://www.last.fm/music/John%2BMurray%2B%2528Leith%2BFM%2529%253B%2BSteve%2BO%2527Connor/Steve+O%27Connor+interview+with+Leith+FM+%28Scotland%29

To listen to Hail Caledonia and other songs from the album Roll The Dice, visit:
http://www.last.fm/music/Steve+O%27Connor/Roll+The+Dice

Why Artist Metadata Matters More Than Ever...

noreply@blogger.com (Aardvark Records) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:21:00 +0000

Got proper metadata? If the answer is no, then you could be losing fans and missing transactions. That was a major takeaway from a pair of recent digital music conferences, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The rest of this article is available from digital music news.