Digital Buzz: Music Industry News

Email 101 for Artists, Labels & Venues: Jed Carlson, Co-Founder and COO of ReverbNation.com, shares best practices, tips and tricks for getting the most out of your email campaign. [KnowTheMusicBiz.com]

Top 7 Music Licensing Sites: Here in no particular order is a list of seven companies that help artists place their music in film, television, commercials, games, etc. [Hypebot]

EMI is Screwed. Utterly Screwed: What is EMI’s role in this new music ecology? [Music Think Tank]

Five Ways the Mobile Phone will Change How You Listen to Music: The portable music revolution has only been with us for a few years, but we may already be on the cusp of the another paradigm shift. [Wired]

British Music Ranks Number One on the World Scale:  According to a new survey, one in three Americans agreed that when it comes to popular music, the Brits hit the right notes. [Transatlanticism]

This Week on The Highway Girl: Rob Giles, Fred VonLohmann, Jeff Finlin & Industry Buzz!

THG Musical Guest: Rob Giles

I first heard about Rob Giles from my friend Noelle. She told me Rob’s voice pretty much kicked major ass–Noelle was right! Rob is one of those people who knows he’s good, but with a voice like that, he’d be a liar if he didn’t. It’s one of those deep down from the pits of your soul types of voices.

One that requires you to pull a certain face and squeeze out every ounce of breathe to get it all out. Rob is quite literally amazing. Don’t miss his live performance for SMtv. I literally cried.

Click here to watch Samantha’s interview with Rob Giles!

Click here to watch Rob’s live performance and listen to his SMtv podcast!

THG Industry Expert: Fred Von Lohmann

When it comes to music it’s hard to find a smarter mind than Fred von Lohmann. And not just because he’s an avid music fan who goes out of his way to constantly discover new music. Fred is the Senior Staff Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. If you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak, jump on it!

You can see the entire interview, by clicking here.

THG Podcast: Jeff Finlin

Bruce Springsteen added one of Jeff’s songs to his play on music at his concerts. Cameron Crowe singled out one of Jeff’s songs for his movie “Elizabethtown” Add me to the growing list of fans of Jeff Finlin.

The guy’s songwriting just kicks ass. He tells it like it is and backs it up with such a passionate voice. You need to own all three of his albums including his latest, Ballad of a Plain Man.”

Click here to listen to the entire podcast

Spring Tour: Samantha Murphy & Dave Lowensohn

Samantha recently announced that she’s hitting the road with Dave Lowensohn of Speechwriters LLC.  The dynamic duo will be touring up and down the East Coast through all of April. Let us know if you’d like to book a house concert!

Click here to see the list of announced tour dates!

Digital Buzz: Music Industry News

Warner Music Targeting More than YouTube: Fred VonLohmann writes about Warner Music’s (mis)use of YouTube’s Content ID (i.e., audio fingerprinting) tools to remove lots of videos that are clearly fair uses. (EFF)

Music Marketing Lessons From Groove Armada And Neko Case: In an interesting study in contrasts, this past week we’ve come across two artists who are taking slightly different approaches to arrive at the same goal: to get you to listen to their latest album and share it with your friends. (YPulse) (Thanks Derek!)

For Gen Y, Music is Oxygen: What do younger music consumers think about music piracy, digital music and other issues related to music?

These were just some of the questions that a new survey conducted by British Music Rights sought to answer. When it comes to music: What does the MySpace generation want? (Barking Robot Media)

Twt.fm: An easy way to share your music on Twitter! twt.fm will generate a track page for you using your twitter page design and you’ll be able to tweet it to your followers.

Warner Music Pitches Music Tax To Universities: You Pay, We Stop Suing: The idea would be to get various ISPs to simply add an additional fee to everyone’s internet access, have that money go into a pool that the recording industry would be responsible for paying out — and then let people have free reign for file sharing.

We hadn’t heard much about this music tax lately, but apparently attention is now being focused on getting universities to buy into the plan.(TechDirt)

Artist Tools: Artisteer

Artisteer makes it easy for you to design awesome WordPress Blogs, professional Joomla! and Drupal templates, and cool website designs in minutes.

With Artisteer YOU immediately become a Web design expert, editing and slicing graphics, coding XHTML and CSS, and creating Web design templates and Joomla, Drupal and WordPress themes – all in minutes, without Photoshop or Dreamweaver, and no technical skills.

Check out all of the cool things you can create using Artisteer by clicking here. And after you create that killer wordpress template, use Backblaze , an innovative online back-up service, to protect all your hard work!

Have Feedback?

We love hearing from you! If you have feedback on how we can improve our site or know of an indie artist we should interview, head on over to TheHighwayGirl.com and click You.

Twestival 2009: Sharing Music & Building Wells One Tweet at a Time

charity: water, founded by Scott Harrison,  is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 and focused on bringing clean, safe drinking water to developing nations. As of December of 2008, charity: water has 1,030 projects in 13 countries that included hand-dug wells, spring protections and rainwater harvesting schemes.

When we heard about Twestival, a global online music project in association with Twestival aiming to raise money for new wells and clean drinking water for charity, we immediately knew that we wanted to be apart of this extraordinary event.  The Highway Girl was proud to donated over 120 tracks from artists who have appeared on our show.

Among the MP3’s we donated are songs from  Samantha Murphy, Billy Harvey, Evan McHugh, Martha Wainwright, Juliana Hatfield, Teitur, Paul Doucette (Matchbox 20,)  The Devoted Few,  Jesse Malin and Inara George ( Bird & The Bee).

Samantha Murphy performed live at the Atlanta Twestival. In addition, The Highway Girl.com donated a Motorola Z9 mobile phone to the list of prizes to be raffled at the Atlanta event.

Twestival 2009 was a fantastic event and at the end of the day raised $250,000 for charity: water! We are looking forward to Twestival 2010 and supporting the work of charity:water in any way we can in the future (so Scott–call us!).

Support Indie Music!

Christopher Dallman, an artist who I’ve featured on my podcast,  has a special offer that I thought members of  The Highway Girl community would be interested in knowing about.

In an effort to raise money for his new album, for one week only, you can purchase Christopher’s first album, Race the Light, for only $5!

Christopher’s music is melodic and sweet. He knows how to tell a story with words and not just in songs either. His blog and tweets crack me up and always has me glued to the page.

Show your support for indie music and take advantage of this special offer today! If you already have his amazing album, you can still help Christopher fund his new music by clicking here.

Tour: Samantha Murphy & Dave Lowensohn

Our very own Samantha Murphy is teaming up with Dave Lowensohn of Speechwriters LLC for a spring tour. The dynamic duo will be touring up and down the East Coast through all of April.

If you’re interested in booking a house concert, let us know! Stay tuned for the complete list of tour date locations and ticket information.

On The Bus: Martha Wainwright, Inara George & Michael Spiegelman (Yahoo! Music)

Musical Guest: Martha Wainwright

Martha is without a doubt the coolest artist I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She is real and honest and so incredibly talented. She’s got a powerhouse of a voice and she’s not afraid to tell the truth.

Thanks to Jamie Jackson for making this interview happen.

If you haven’t heard her new album, you must go out and buy “I Know You’re Married, but I’ve Got Feelings Too.” It’s tremendous and so is she.

You can see the entire interview, by clicking here.

Industry Expert: Michael Spiegelman, Yahoo! Music

Last summer, as part of the TechStars program, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with one of the movers and shakers in the digital music biz–Michael Spiegelman VP of Yahoo! Music.

In this interview, Michael discusses how new Yahoo! technologies, like the open source Yahoo! Media Player, are all designed with one goal in mind: make playing music on the web a more enjoyable experience for the fans!

Michael and the folks over at Yahoo! couldn’t have been more generous with their time, knowledge and free candy! Thanks Yahoo! (Enter yodel here!)

You can see the entire interview, by clicking here:

THG Archive: Inara George

Do yourself a favor. Pour yourself a cup of joe, grab a couple cookies, then sit down and listen to this amazing podcast featuring singer-songwriter Inara George (Bird & the Bee).

Inara’s music incorporates elements of Jazz and Pop, but has a flavor all its own. Her father is Lowell George from Little Feat and her Father-in-Law, Jackson Browne, makes an appearance on this her stunning debut, All Rise.

Inara is genuinely sweet and down to earth. Her talent flows through her as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. And it is!

The Highway Girl Joins Forces with Twestival & Charity:Water

Twestival.fm is a global online music project in association with Twestival aiming to raise money for new wells and clean drinking water for charity. On 12 February 2009, 200+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals bringing together local Twitter communities for an evening of fun as well as raising money and awareness for charity: water.

charity: water, founded by Scott Harrison,  is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 and focused on bringing clean, safe drinking water to developing nations. As of December of 2008, charity: water has 1,030 projects in 13 countries that included hand-dug wells, spring protections and rainwater harvesting schemes.

When we heard about Twestival, we immediately knew that we wanted to be apart of this extraordinary event.  The Highway Girl is proud to announce that we have donated over 120 tracks from artists who have appeared on our show.

Among the MP3’s we donated are songs from  Samantha Murphy, Billy Harvey, Evan McHugh, Martha Wainwright, Juliana Hatfield, Teitur, Paul Doucette (Matchbox 20,)  The Devoted Few,  Jesse Malin and Inara George ( Bird & The Bee).

Samantha Murphy has signed on to perform live at the Atlanta Twestival. In addition, The Highway Girl.com has donated a Motorola Z9 mobile phone to the list of prizes to be raffled at the Atlanta event.

How can you get involved? It’s easy.

You can support Twestival.fm and charity: water by streaming, downloading and tweeting your favourite tunes. The tracks are available to stream/download until 19th Feb 2009.  You can make a donation here or give directly using Twitter.

Samantha Murphy to Perform at 2009 Variety Telethon

Samantha Murphy, the popular singer-songwriter and host of  The Highway Girl, will join a cavalcade of celebrities that includes Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson, Emma Samms, Greg Hanna and Miss World Ksenia Sukhinova at the 23nd annual Variety Telethon.

Variety the Children’s Charity is dedicated to promoting and protecting the health and well-being of children around the world.

Through their network of 52 chapters in 14 countries, Variety reaches into communities across the globe to offer financial assistance and services to children and organizations that serve children with special needs.

Each year a line-up of local and international celebrities appear along with thousands of volunteers and donors who continue to give their time and money to support Iowa’s children.

The telethon provides Variety the opportunity to highlight the kids and agencies that benefit from the dollars raised. The 23nd annual Variety Telethon will be held February 14-15, 2009.

MP3 of the Week: Samantha Murphy

The Highway Girl Goes Mobile

Thanks to the fine folks over at Tatango, we now have a quick and easy way for you to get the latest  information about our upcoming tour, new webisodes and first dibs on our free MP3 of the Week–right on your very own mobile phone!

How do you get all this good stuff?

Simply text “SMTV” to the phone number 68398 and you’ll be automagically signed up for our mobile updates. If you rather sign-up for our mobile updates on the Tatango website click here.

And don’t worry: We hate spam as much as you do and we won’t sell your information to anyone! Your info is safe and sound.

Tatango’s made it easy to unsubscribe at any time–so what are you waiting for? Sign up for your mobile updates today!