The above player is this week’s webcast, live from Laurel Canyon covering a lot of Topspin ground. Lots to learn about us in this episode so please press play. You’ll see some excellent campaigns in action, as well.

Watch live video from The Topspin Weekly Webcast on Justin.tv

Garrison Starr stopped by to perform songs from her new release “Amateur” before her CD release party tonight at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. It was a very heartfelt performance from Garrison in our office and we thank her for being with us today! Great spirit!

There is such great art in this week’s post below, so PLEASE jump on a few mailing lists to keep up to date with these rockstars while earning their free tracks.

And Happy Friday!

Michele

Welcome to Topspin, Amanda Palmer! Eyes and Ears customized a GREAT email acquisition page in conjunction with the handy Download Anywhere feature built by Topspin Labs. After you get your “Confirm and Download” email, you land right on top of Amanda’s record-setting Kickstarter campaign which has garnered over $743k in 18 days! Badass.

Beachwood Sparks bring their very chill California vibe back to us with their first album in 11 years. ‘The Tarnished Gold’ comes out on Sub Pop June 26 and you can get a taste with a free download of ‘Forget the Song’ now. The song is simply beautiful and I cannot wait for the album to be released into the world.

Fitz and The Tantrums are giving away more of their fun, vibrant music, including live tracks and a remix of their groovy “Breakin’ The Chains of Love”. I discovered the giveaway when they posted the link from their Facebook page. It served as a great reminder: if you are giving away tracks, throw the link into your Facebook status, encourage ‘Shares’ and grow your list! It works!

This smooth pre-order page for the Danko Jones offer by Bad Taste Records is very well-done and worth checking out. Get the free music while you’re at it!

This beautiful Curtis & Reinhard offer page is produced by 27 Sound. It features thoughtful offers which include a nice way to select t-shirt designs through the purchase flow to avoid using multiple buy buttons. Go look: http://curtisreinhard.com

After ignoring Electronic Dance Music (EDM) since its inception, the music “business” is finally waking up to the fact that throngs of people *love* it and want to pay money to experience it.  The pinnacle of proof is the annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) which has organically grown to be the biggest EDM event of the year.  This year the creators of EDC have added a conference addressing the *business* of EDM to the lineup, happening earlier in the week prior to EDC in Vegas.  It’s shaping up to be a must-attend for anyone interested in the business of Electronic Dance Music.

See you there!

ian

EDMbiz Conference
June 5-7
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Register HERE

Music Startup Academy – LA
June 7
1:00 – 5:00
Grammy Museum
800 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, California
(corner of Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street), in the L.A. LIVE district

The Music Startup Academy is designed to reduce barriers to entry into the music business for entrepreneurs, by providing a clear roadmap to success through actionable insights into the core structure, legal framework, content deals, business models, and the “nuts n’ bolts” of getting things done to build a legal, streamlined, and competitive music property.  These sessions have been held in NYC, San Francisco, at the SXSW Accelerator, and most recently a 100+ standing-room-only session in Nashville. Upcoming sessions include this L.A. session, Washington D.C., and another to be announced shortly in London, at the UK GeneralAssemb.ly space.

The GRAMMY Museum is an exciting and interactive celebration of the power of music occupying a vibrant new space in downtown Los Angeles, minutes away from the Staples Center and the Convention Center.

A full agenda and registration can be found via Eventbrite.

It’s time we pulled back the curtain on the newly launched Eurovision download store produced by Jessie Scoullar of Wicksteed Works. The Eurovision Song Contest has been held annually since 1955 when it was created by the European Broadcasting Union in a bid to bring countries together with a light entertainment program. Check out the 2012 entries to the Contest, complete with custom preview players, lyrics to sing along with your favorites, and the back catalogue from 2007 through to 2011. All tracks are available for individual purchase or as whole albums, in full-figured high quality 320kbps MP3. This is one of Wicksteed Works’ most ambitious projects to date, in partnership with a world-leading brand: over 270 pages and 400 buy buttons! Eurovision has a broadcast audience reach in the hundreds of millions and there is a fantastic team at Universal Denmark. We’re looking forward to seeing who wins the Song Contest on May 26!

About Wicksteed Works: Jessie’s company emerged from the simmering crucible of the experience and know-how distilled from two years on Topspin’s Creative Services team, compounded with broad music industry experience in artist management, live event production, touring and merchandising, on top of a background in licensing, commercial law, student radio and journalism. To inquire about their services, send a message to: hello@wicksteedworks.com or follow them on Twitter.

Topspin features: Custom HTML Store; WordPress Plugin; Linkbuilder

Produced by: Wicksteed Works

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Very rough day on the news of Adam’s death. I may try to collect some memories in a blog post at some point. No idea what to say at the moment.

Please hit play on Bad Brains’ ROIR cassette this weekend. Adam would appreciate that, I’m certain.

Official statement up on BeastieBoys.com.

ian c rogers
Topspin

Wednesday, May 9
8:30 – 10:45AM: Breakfast & Opening Session
At NARM and digitalmusic.org’s Music Biz 2012 Opening Session, which will be held Wednesday, May 9 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, Robb McDaniels will be interviewed by Topspin’s Ian Rogers in a live episode of the “This Week in Music” web series. It will be McDaniels’ first public speaking engagement since INgrooves’ March 2012 acquisition of Fontana Distribution, a leading distribution company for independent record labels, to create the merged company INgrooves Fontana. McDaniels, Founder and CEO of Isolation Network (IN) and its pioneering digital music distributor INgrooves, is now CEO of the newly minted INgrooves Fontana.

“Robb’s long history in the digital space and recent entrance into the physical distribution market make him an extremely interesting interview subject with many important lessons to share,” said Rogers. “I’m looking forward to exploring his take on the current distribution landscape and excited for the opportunity to present ‘This Week in Music’ live from MusicBiz 2012.”

2:00 – 3:30PM: The Internet and Independent Labels
Ian will be in this Breakout Session with fellow panelists Bill Armstrong (Side One Dummy/The New Record Service), Adam Farrell (Beggars Group USA), Brian McNelis (Lakeshore Entertainment), and Molly Neuman (eMusic/Simple Social Graces Discos). The panel will discuss how Internet access has opened up countless opportunities for independents, but at the same time has also opened up opportunities for unlicensed/unpaid access. The conversation will explore best practices being enacted like the “Copyright Alerts” program, which the major ISPs have embraced here in the U.S. and the finger-printing and content ID blocking measures that many digital partners are starting to include as standard for their platforms.

Thursday, May 11
9:15AM: Product Packaging/Bundling In The Digital Age
Bob Moczydlowsky will be moderating the “Product Packaging/Bundling In The Digital Age” panel. Confirmed speakers are David Dorn (Rhino), Christina Dunkley (3D Management), Jason Fisher (Epitaph), Jeff Nicholas (The Uprising Creative), and Mark Reynolds (Cinderblock). The session will address the productization of digital content with a focus on what the fan wants, and how the industry must meet these demands through standardized metadata, condensed licensing strategies, and interoperable databases and backend systems.

Bringing Together The Developer Community And The Legacy Music Business
digitalmusic.org was created to reduce the friction between the entrepreneurs/developers and the legacy music business, and this year’s Music Biz 2012 focuses on bringing together these two communities to discuss best practices to reduce the friction in how they do business and tools to better help them navigate the complicated landscape of rights, standards and relationships. Music Biz 2012 is offering a Special App Developer Registration Offer, a steeply discounted registration fee of $199. If you are a developer, use code ’199-app’ at this registration link for the discounted registration fee.

Please say hello when you see us kicking around the various events next week!

Quick announcement from Topspin-land. We are excited to announce we’ve just hooked up with our pals at TuneCore to create a real technical integration that will save artists both time and money. Coming in late summer of this year, you will be able to have your music auto-delivered from Topspin to TuneCore or from TuneCore to Topspin without having to re-upload. You’ll also be able to send your Topspin direct-to-fan sales proceeds and information into the TuneCore artist dashboard, so it can be displayed along with all of your other sales data from iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, simfy, iHeartRadio and a whole bunch of other services around the world.

In fact, in the interest of celebrating, we’re making the discount available immediately. Click “Get Started” below and TuneCore is ready to give you up to 30 percent off right now.

Already Have a Tunecore Account?

Hopefully this simple but powerful integration will keep you from going crazy uploading albums and videos all over the place, and it will save you some money, too. Partnerships with MTV and TuneCore? Giving artists the ability to put their work on the URLs where fans discover and consume music? Hmmm… seems we’re up to something, doesn’t it?

Stay tuned. We have at least two, and maybe more, important announcements coming soon.

Thumbs up for rock-’n'-roll,

-bob

With over a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, DeStorm is another DIY artist winning in the game of music. His first release ever, the “Be Careful” mixtape, is available today via Topspin’s out-of-the-box Spinshop. DeStorm promotes his Spinshop link right inside his YouTube video descriptions to sell his offers: http://destorm.spinshop.com. And because he is a YouTube partner, DeStorm has his Topspin offers available in a Store right inside his YouTube channel. Learn more about YouTube’s Partner Program HERE.

DeStorm’s “Be Careful” mixtape, is for sale on a really cool KEY USB Drive which has all 14 songs + a bonus song for $15.00. The physical SIGNED CD is $9.99, and a digital version is just $4.99.

Thanks for all the Topspin shout-outs in your new video on YouTube, DeStorm! Keep up the great work!

Topspin features: Topspin Spinshop

Installed by: DIY – Artist

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