Tech

An Evening of New Music: Zoe Keating, Noveller & LESQ

by David D. on May 13, 2012

An interview with Jonathan Matis

On Saturday, April 14, 2012 Zoe Keating, Noveller, and the Low End String Quartet (LESQ) came together at the CenterStage in Reston, Virginia for an evening of new music. LESQ started the night with compositions from founder Jonathan Matis, and closed their set with premieres of new works commissioned from Zoe Keating and Sarah Lipstate (Noveller).

Has LESQ commissioned any works previous to these?  

No. This was our first attempt at commissioning music from other composers. Our other repertoire is from ensemble members. I wrote most of it, our former cellist wrote “Mystery Snail.”

How did you come to choose Sarah and Zoe for the commissions?

I was trying to find composers that would intuitively “get it” in terms of what we’re about. People who already understand why we’re amplified, and how that works. I also wanted to find composers who are working outside of the typical “new music” world. Both Zoe Keating and Sarah Lipstate are great composers, but they aren’t necessarily recognized as such since they’re performers too.

With both of them, I heard their music and I loved it immediately. That’s important to me. I want to play music that has an immediate, visceral appeal. I also want there to be more going on beneath the surface, but I feel like so much contemporary music coming out of the classical tradition is too concerned with its own construction, and not concerned enough with the actual sound and the experience of hearing sound. I’m not interested in music that’s about how clever the composer is. I want music that is awesome. And that feels awesome the first time, and the 100th time you hear it. Zoe’s and Sarah’s music has that quality. It’s beautifully put together, but that’s not what it’s about.

I heard a Noveller show at a club in DC a few years ago. Hearing her music live, it was obvious that she was very thoughtful and intentional in her compositional approach. Other “experimental” electronic music performers I’ve heard are more improvisatory, and they’re turning knobs for the fun of it. Sarah was clearly using electronics in service of the music she was writing, not as a means of inventing the music. That made me think she’d be a perfect choice. Obviously, she has a great command of the electric guitar and its sonic possibilities. I hoped adding the other string instruments to the palette would be fun for her.

With Zoe Keating, my wife actually introduced me to her music. I think it was Last.fm that played it for her. She sent me a text right away after hearing one of Zoe’s pieces asking if I’d heard that music. I hadn’t. She said Zoe’s music sounded kind of like Low End String Quartet, but better. I can’t argue with that. I looked her up for myself and that was a no-brainer. Luckily, Zoe was interested in writing for an ensemble, so she was open to working with us.

What was the process like — was there any back and forth, or were the pieces delivered to you whole and final?

We didn’t have much back and forth during the composing. They both wrote the pieces on their own. We had some conversations at the beginning about the quartet, and about the specific performers so they could be aware of our individual strengths and weaknesses. But they basically did their own thing and sent us a finished product.

For Zoe’s piece, she delivered audio files that we transcribed. Neither Zoe or Sarah typically work with notes on paper. Sarah also gave us a recording, but did make a written score. In both cases we worked with them during rehearsals, but after the pieces were composed.

Did Zoe or Sarah have any input into the performances?

Yes, happily they did. As we rehearsed the pieces, I made recordings that we sent to them for comments. Sarah’s piece required fairly specific guitar sounds so I was able to send her audio files and she could make sure I was getting the right sounds.We weren’t all in the same location until the day of the show, but we did get to spend an hour or so that morning with each composer working on their piece. That rehearsal time made a huge difference, for both pieces. And working with Zoe and Sarah was lots of fun. They were able to zero in on particular things right away and they helped us a lot. I suspect because they are performers themselves, they knew exactly how they wanted to hear it played, and they knew how to explain that clearly.

Zoe didn’t waste any time. She picked up the cello and showed us parts that she bowed a certain way, or articulated certain phrases differently from how we’d learned them. It was easy to take those kinds of pointers and it made the piece sound so much better.

Sarah made some nice adjustments to the guitar effects, and gave me some tips on bowing. I hadn’t played the guitar with a bow before, so that was something I had to learn for her piece. The other players in the quartet gave me a crash-course in bow technique, but Sarah had some guitar-specific tips that she’s figured out over the years.

After hearing the piece, Zoe told us she wants to make some revisions. Her typical process involves playing pieces many times, and they evolve over time. I’m not sure yet how the process will work for us, but I’m eager to find out what kinds of changes she wants to make. There might be some sections that get expanded. Hopefully we’ll get to work on it some with her before too much time passes and it’s still fresh in our ears. She’s so busy, we’ll have to see what’s possible.

Sarah’s piece is pretty much finished. We’re going to take a stab at recording it soon.

Where do you think the audience for new music is coming from?  How are you finding an audience?

I wish I knew the answer to these questions. The whole world of music is so up in the air right now, and changing so fast. It’s the best of times and the worst of times. Maybe not the worst, actually. There’s so much great music going on all over the place now, and I think people are listening to so much different music. In some ways, people’s ears are more open now than ever, but it’s also so hard to be heard with so much music everywhere. I don’t honestly know how to find “our” audience, since I’m not sure what that really means. Who is our demographic? I have no idea.

I’m curious about where the “new music” (i.e. “post – classical”) audience is coming from, in as much as there is such a thing. I don’t have a lot of faith in new music as a sub-genre of classical music. I don’t think it really works that way as far as audience demographics, but I don’t really know. That’s just my hunch. I think the “new music” audience is made up of people interested in hearing new things, not necessarily a specific genre. Thinking of the big picture, I think the audience for instrumental music of any kind is already such a tiny slice of music audiences overall, I’m not sure how we zoom in within that little piece. Who are audiences for new / modern jazz? Who are the audiences for experimental, instrumental rock bands? I suspect those audiences overlap more with “new music” audience than broader classical music audiences. Nevermind the problems in the classical music business in terms of shrinking audiences over there…

Ultimately, I think it’s probably better to leave the demographics questions to the marketing people. I don’t understand it well enough. It seems to me that, in general, awesome music finds an audience eventually. In some cases that happens quickly, and in some cases it takes a long time, but good music will find appreciative listeners eventually.

Any thoughts on the “business” of music? How can performers sustain themselves under the current conditions?

I wish I understood the “business” better. I don’t think the Low End String Quartet has really figured out a business model yet. My background is on the nonprofit side of the performing arts world, so that’s what I’m more familiar with.

I spent a few years writing grant proposals and trying to keep the group running that way. We had some success with it; our first (and only, so far) studio recording, “Blunt Objects,” was funded mostly by grant money. Support like that, for commissioning new work, and making recordings, is quite difficult to come by. And it’s getting harder.

After the record was done, the only grant funding I could find was for educational programs. So, we put together a pilot program to figure out how to do in-school programming. That project didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. We raised some money, and put together an in-school concert program. My impression now is that to really succeed at educational programming, you need to specialize in it. Since that’s not where my heart is, especially with this group, I’ve set that initiative aside for now. I want this group to stay focused on developing new music, playing shows, and recording.

Since 2008, we’ve had much more trouble finding funding using the nonprofit model. From where I’m sitting, it sure looks like arts funding dried up real fast once the recession started. I don’t know if that’s actually true, more broadly, but it was my personal experience.

For this project, we did a big online fundraising campaign in collaboration with Sarah, and that worked quite well. We qualified for some matching funds and also had a great response from our friends and fans. I guess this move toward “crowd-sourcing” is promising, although that presents its own challenges.

There’s no easy solution to the money thing. Hopefully we can find other opportunities to commission more new music – and hopefully the results will be as good as these two! I think we’re spoiled now, since Zoe and Sarah did such great work for us. In the end, I think we need to stay focused on the music. If we can deliver awesome performances, then we should be able to keep moving forward.

MMT asked Sarah Lipstate about the process of composing her piece for LESQ:

 

I wrote a lot of the melodies for the piece on piano and then arranged it for violin, cello, and bass.  Most of the guitar parts I wrote on the guitar, though a few were done on the piano and then I had to figure out how to play it on guitar.  I had to create a pretty strange guitar tuning to accommodate those melodies!  I used midi instruments to record the string instruments and to do a reference recording of the piece for the musicians to listen to along with the score.  I did a lot of revision at home and let a few close friends hear the recording and give advice, but I only delivered the final version to the LESQ musicians.

~ Sarah Lipstate (Noveller)

{ 0 comments }

Getting the most out of iTunes Match: Part 1

by David D. on April 2, 2012

Get started: Set up iTunes Match and upgrade your audio files

Wondering whether iTunes Match is worth $24.99 a year?  Assuming you have iTunes on your computer and a music library of several hundred or thousands of songs, ask yourself two questions:

1. Do you own an Android or iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch)?

2. Are most of your songs at a bit-rate lower than 256 kbps?

If you answered yes to either one, iTunes Match is definitely worth at least a one-time investment to upgrade and clean up your music library. If you’re not sure about the bit rates for your songs, open iTunes and select your Music library.  Now right-click the column header and make sure Bit Rate is checked. Click Bit Rate to sort your library and check it out.

If you’re not up to paying $24.99 every year, we will show you how to quickly download upgraded files to your computers and devices, and store the shiny new library in the cloud using Google Play (née Music).

If you currently use Google Play, your first step should be to open Preferences and UNcheck “Automatically add songs uploaded to iTunes”.  This will prevent the upload of duplicate songs to your Play library.

More details on dealing with duplicates and working with Google Play are coming in Part 2.  Let’s start with signing up for iTunes and upgrading the audio quality of your music Library.

Subscribing to iTunes Match

You must have a valid credit card on file, and your subscription will automatically renew for one year periods until you cancel.  Open iTunes on your computer, choose iTunes Match in the sidebar, enter your Apple ID and password, and click Subscribe.  (Use the Apple ID that is associated with the majority of your music purchases.)

iTunes Match will then:

  1. Match the songs in your library with those in the iTunes Store.
  2. Create an index in the cloud to DRM-free 256 kbps AAC files that match the songs in your library.
  3. Upload any songs in your library that it could not match.*

* Apple fine print: 

Tunes Match works with libraries that contain up to 25,000 songs which are either (i) not currently available on the iTunes Service, or (ii) not purchased from the iTunes Service with your Account.

  • Songs with quality less than 96 kbps or that are not authorized for your computer are not eligible for iTunes Match.
  • Song files over 200 MB will not be uploaded to iCloud.
  • Songs containing DRM (Digital Rights Management) will not be matched or uploaded to iCloud unless your computer is authorized for playback of that content.
  • Songs encoded in ALAC, WAV, or AIFF will be transcoded to a separate temporary AAC 256 kbps file locally, prior to uploading to iCloud. The original files will remain untouched.

Upgrade your local files to 256 kbps

You now have two iTunes Libraries:

iTunes in the Cloud – All the songs that were matched, plus all of the unmatched songs that were uploaded.  The matched songs are AAC 256 kbps files.  Eligible unmatched MP3 or AAC files are uploaded at their original bit rates, other file types are transcoded to 256 kbps AAC.

Local iTunes Library – This contains all of your non-music audio content (e.g., podcasts, audiobooks) plus other file types for books, videos, photos and apps.  Your original music files are still there, and still at their original bit rates.

This is where the magic happens.  We need to identify the music that is eligible for upgrade: all files under 256 kbps that iTunes has marked as matched or purchased.  And thanks to Jason Snell and MacWorld, we can do this quickly with a smart playlist.

From the iTunes menu select File > New Smart Playlist
Click the dropdown boxes and select Bit Rate | is less than | 256
Click + to add a new condition
Select Media Kind | is | Music

Add a second set of conditions:

Hold down the alt/option key and click the + button (now an ellipsis)
Select Any of the following are true
Select iCloud Status | is | Matched
Click + to add a new condition
Select iCloud Status | is | Purchased

Your selection window should now look like this:

Click OK and name your new playlist “Upgradeable”

The new playlist should show all your files that are eligible for upgrade:

Now would be a good time to empty your trash, so you’ll have a clean can for all of the files you’re about to delete.  In order to bring the new files down from iCloud, you will need to delete the local versions.

  • Select all of the songs in the Upgradeable playlist
  • Hold down the alt/option key (shift key on PC) and press delete
  • Make sure that “Also delete these songs from iCloud.” is NOT checked
  • Click Delete Songs
  • Click Yes when asked if you want to move the files to the trash

Your upgradeable playlist should now show that these songs are available for download from iCloud:

To bring the files down from iCloud:

  • Select all songs in the Upgradeable Playlist
  • Control-click (or right click) and select Download

That’s it!  Make sure you have all the files you want keep before emptying the trash, and get ready for some serious cleanup in Part 2.

{ 0 comments }

SXSW debrief at DC Music Industry Meetup on 3/29/2012

by Jem on March 26, 2012

The Metro Music Source & DC Setlist will be hosting a SXSW debrief panel discussion this Thursday, March 29th at The Dunes as part of their monthly music industry meet-up event. Fresh from their return from Austin, Texas, Ryan Holladay of BLUEBRAIN, the Listen Local First team, and promoter Sasha Lord will be sharing their SXSW 2012 experiences. The evening will feature a performance from Gypsy jazz vocalist and Strathmore Artist In Residence, Mary Alouette.

Ryan Holladay is one half of the innovative music duo, BLUEBRAIN. They’ve been featured in everything from WIRED Magazine to the New York Times for their work, which blurs the line between art and technology. Their “location-aware album” for The National Mall is the first ever iPhone app to be included in the Washington Post’s Top 10 Albums of the Year awards. Ryan also serves as the new media curator at Artisphere.

Listen Local First DC (LLF) is a local music initiative devoted to building awareness and creating opportunities for local musicians and venues in order to raise the profile of DC’s local music scene. At the beginning of the year, LLF launched a campaign to get a mobile music venue to SXSW with the aim of showcasing the talent and diversity of the DC area music scene to a wider audience.

With money raised from a Kickstarter campaign, Listen Local First purchased a van, decked it out with sound equipment, and took to the road. They successfully showcased 15 DC bands/ musicians and hosted upwards of 25 different mobile music venue performances over the course of 3 days. The process, adventure and music were documented via their blog, and soon-to-be-released web series.

Sasha Lord co-produced the “DC Does SXSW” event which showcased a diverse set of DC artists including Hume, Deleted Scenes, Edie Sedgwick and DJ Baby Alcatraz. Sasha is the booker and promoter for Comet Ping Pong in DC.

LLF founders Christopher Naoum and René Moffatt will join Sasha and Ryan to share insights from their trip and answer questions from the DC area music community. MMS is an informal monthly music industry meet-up event with the goal of bringing focus to the vibrant DC music scene, encouraging support, collaboration, and knowledge sharing amongst music creators and industry professionals, as well as helping to raise the profile of our music scene on a national level.

The National Mall by BLUEBRAIN. The First Location-Aware Album from BLUEBRAIN on Vimeo.

Past MMS events have brought together local musicians, record label reps, artist managers, publicists, filmmakers, music publishers, producer/engineers, and many others. This month’s event is co-hosted with DC Setlist, a popular music platform which recommends, discovers and discusses all things music in the DC area and beyond.

The evening will end with music from Gypsy jazz vocalist and Strathmore Artist In Residence Mary Alouette. Alouette describes her sound as “Gypsy jazz, post dubstep, beautiful music and dangerous rhythms”. Her core inspiration is the gypsy legend virtuoso guitarist Django Reinhardt, but her musical influences also range from the great Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Edith Piaf through to progressive contemporaries like Grimes, St. Vincent, and Modeselektor. Mary will be previewing tracks from her debut EP Midas, ahead of her CD Release Show on April 25th at the Mansion at Strathmore.

Runnin’ – Mary Alouette

When: Thursday, March 29th, 2012
Time: 6pm-9pm
Venue: The Dunes, 1402 Meridian Place, NW Washington, DC 20009
Cost: Free!

{ 0 comments }

BAMM.tv and the future of music

by David D. on February 19, 2012

Free HD video production and global distribution for your music

If you’re making music the world needs to hear, and your best concert footage was captured on a flip-phone, you should check out BAMM.tv. Founded by brothers Chris and Nick Hansen, BAMM.tv works with emerging artists to capture performances in HD video and high-quality audio in their San Francisco studio, or at music festivals and venues around the world. For free.

The typical deal results in 5 videos: one goes to the artist for promotion and distribution through whatever channels they choose. In exchange, BAMM.tv has exclusive rights to distribute the remaining videos through a network with an estimated reach of 15 million people in 150 countries. Net profit will be split 50/50 with the artists.

I spoke with co-founder Chris Hansen, and he expects BAMM will break even in early 2013. But they plan to start paying bands some money before then, in part to test out their payments system. Once they are profitable, artist payments will be based on their percentage of plays on the network.

BAMM continues to sign up distribution partners, which currently include Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom, a global deal with Samsung to include a BAMM.tv app on all of their tablets and smartphones, and Flingo, which provides video content to over seven million smart TVs. They are also working on an iPad app that will help promote the participating artists, with a $1,000 cash prize for the “Artist of the Month” and other sponsored promotions.

The future of music and artist compensation

Last September, we wrote about the Future of Music Coaltition and their Artist Revenue Streams project, which they describe as “a multi-method, cross-genre examination of how US-based musicians’ revenue streams are changing, and why.” The project has spawned a new website, and the 29 streams have spread into 40 (or 42, but who’s counting?).

We’ll dig deeper into the ARS results for an upcoming report, but why has BAMM.tv has gone out and created a 43rd revenue stream?  According to Chris:

I don’t think any business model that’s solely reliant upon revenues from copyright and publishing rights is going to survive long-term. The only way forward is providing access to experiences that can’t be downloaded on torrents, and the only way to do that is to ease the grip on traditional rights that made a lot of sense in the 20th century but are long outdated. Spotify seems to be the labels’ collective acknowledgement of this fact, but I still think they have a long road ahead.

First of all, the $100 million raised seems to have gone straight to the labels, and the next mega-round of funding is just around the corner. I look at the unfavorable terms toward streaming services and lack of transparency as well as the mounting cost structure as major competitive disadvantages for Spotify and other streaming services that rely on major label licensing.

On scaling and superstars

So far, BAMM.tv has worked with around 150 bands, and they’re preparing to add to that number with a return trip to SXSW. Although Bay area artists are disproportionately represented, BAMM uses Southby and other festivals to catch up with bands they have been tracking from around the world. They are also looking at adding some sound stages in SF, and recently rented a studio in Amsterdam to produce videos for European acts.

There will always be limits on how many acts can participate, so curation is an essential part of their work.  Happily, they appear to be comfortable traveling outside of the mainstream for talent, as evidenced by the diverse selection of artists in the YouTube playlist above. Artists that are interested in working with BAMM.tv can submit their information here.

Chris is upbeat about the future of BAMM.tv, and looking for innovative ways to get artists paid. In our Music 2.0 series, we have seen that the future of music can’t be just one thing, and the new business models are unlikely to emerge from the entrenched players.  BAMM.tv may succeed in part because they can side-step the obstacles that have been built up by the labels and license holders over the years.

What I like about BAMM’s business model is that our competitive disadvantage is upfront and obvious: we don’t get to work with superstars. After that, things start looking pretty good for us. Our variable cost is extremely low. Our license is straightforward, global, perpetual, and allows us to remix, sample, synch, make derivative works, etc. Therefore we can make deals with OEMs, telcos, MSOs and other service providers at will, and we can afford to commoditize the music product to an extent that the major players cannot.

I hope we are able to demonstrate in the coming months that the choice between piracy and Spotify is a false dilemma. There are other models that work, and we’re quietly pursuing a few that I’m very excited about.

~ Chris Hansen, BAMM.tv

{ 2 comments }

Neil Young on living in the low-rez world

by David D. on February 1, 2012

“We can’t control the back end of the donkey.”

In this clip from the D: Dive Into Media conference, Neil Young begins by saying ”My goal is to try to rescue the art form that I’ve been practicing for the past 50 years.” He goes on to talk about  preserving the album format, how piracy is the new radio, and what Beats headphones bring to the back end of the donkey (more bottom end).

Neil wants to bring more attention to the front end: offering music in high-resolution formats, and making it available conveniently.  That’s what we’re all about, and we will focus on this in the next installment of Hi-Fi 2.0.  Let’s save the 95%!

{ 0 comments }

Zoë Keating: MMT Featured Artist

by David D. on January 8, 2012

An Alt-Classical Artist for the 21st Century

We first featured Zoë Keating as a Free Friday pick in 2010.  Last year she received more mentions in MMT than any other artist — largely due to a guest post she wrote for us: “Zoe Keating on Spotify, Apple and Independents (and lettuce).”

In addition to being at the vanguard of alt-classical music, she has become a leading light for the DIY movement and unofficial spokesperson for indie musicians.  As the handcrafted artisan music blog at the intersection of art, commerce, and technology, Zoë’s story and music have a special resonance with MMT.

Stage fright steered her away from a career as a classical performer and into a liberal arts education at Sarah Lawrence College.  After college, Zoë strengthened her tech skills through the tuition of several dot-com startups while moonlighting as a musician.

Then the dot-com bust provided an opportunity to work at music full-time while doing information architecture on the side.  Everything converged around the cello and MacBook Pro.  Although limiting at first, through advances in technology she is now “dealing with the repercussions of being able to do almost anything.”  And she has dealt with those repercussions quite well — producing music and managing her career with fierce independence and great success.

You can sample some performances and get more information from her featured artist profile, available from the dropdown list at the top of each page and previewed below.

 [click through for full profile]

click through for full profile

zoë keating photo: nadya lev

street signs: steve jobs keynote from the ipad launch

{ 0 comments }

Want Logic Pro for $160? (or any app for 20% off…)

January 8, 2012

Best Buy is offering iTunes gift card at a 20% discount for a limited time (i.e., hurry up!).  In addition to music, videos, books, movies, and rentals, the digitally delivered cards can be used for software purchases in the Mac App Store.  Since Apple rarely discounts its products, here’s a chance to save some money. [...]

Read the full article →

MMT: Top Eleven Things from 2011

December 31, 2011

The year of Apple, artists, and unanswered questions As we reflect on 2011 through the lens of MMT statistics, it’s not surprising to see that Apple dominated the year from multiple angles.  Apple’s iCloud service was the subject of this year’s most popular post, and 6 of the top 11 stories had ties to Apple [...]

Read the full article →

Animoog: Editor’s Choice – Best Synthesizer App for the iPad

December 25, 2011

Capsule Review:  Buy it — NOW! originally posted 10/19/2011 Christmas 2011 Update: Moog Music Inc. now offers Animoog for iPhone at an introductory price of $0.99, and has put the iPad version on sale for $9.99 (regularly $29.99). A year ago, we wrote about the mixed reviews for Moog’s first iOS app: Filtatron.  Our main [...]

Read the full article →

2011 Holiday gift guide for music & audio geeks (part 4)

December 18, 2011

The 1% Edition – gifts under $4,000 The Anvil “Alloy Convertible” Turntable – $1,600 Finally, an heirloom quality turntable with a cast iron plinth (base) and a proprietary cast alloy non-magnetic platter.  Made in Detroit, USA. Sennheiser HD800 Headphones – $1,499.95   Calling these “headphones” simply will not do. For this is the Sennheiser HD800 [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries