Blog > Publicity
Lyric videos made easy - Superstring app
We’ve checked out a brilliant new app for making lyric videos easy. It’s called Superstring and it’s the first app by new tech company Simplest Ways. Making any kind of music video can be tough on resources and time. Lyric videos are a great way to get your music on YouTube, and they’re popular with fans who want to be able to sing the songs. We asked London indie electro band Feral Five to give Superstring a try on their new single Strung Out.
House concerts - new research by Andrew Howie, Calamateur
During the final year of a music degree course, I was asked to write an independent research paper on a topic of my choice. Rather than write an essay purely for the sake of a good mark, on a topic that had already been written about many times before, I was keen to explore a contemporary issue directly relevant to independent musicians, one which genuinely interested me - house concerts.
What’s Next Musicians’ Conference - Promote Yourself Session
There’s an exciting What’s Next Musicians’ Conference coming up in Los Angeles on 10th August, and you can get free tickets. The conference is one of a worldwide series of events organised by Line 6, Topspin Media and industry leaders, to talk about the business and give practical tips. The series kicked off in London where Kitmonsters put together a panel about how to promote yourself, using social media and other strategies. The conference featured workshops and a discussion with music experts.
Feral Tagging
Tagging – that nightmare point in your upload when you have to pin yourself down. Some places give you wiggle room as a musician, others are more prescriptive. How do you make the most of the process? When Matthew Hawn, Last.fm’s VP Product, gave a cutting edge talk on tags at the amazing Digital Shoreditch festival, we were all ears. You need to know this stuff and not just in relation to Last.fm.
ReVu Video Editor App
It promised a lot and delivered even more - the ReVu Video Editor app launched to massive acclaim, even from an audience of cutting edge musicians and technologists. It gives you quick fix video editing for iPhone, iPad, and GoPro cameras, and Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) was one of the Beta testers.
Music Tech Fest - Day 1
The second, and sellout Music Tech Fest had a huge buzz about it. Mike Skinner (The Streets, The D.O.T.) sent over his latest aiff files, RCA Records supplied a load of stems for the Music Hack Camp hackers to play with, and there were amazing speakers. There was so much new stuff to do, see, hear and think about that we’re doing a separate blog for each day. Here are some of our highlights from Day 1, including Alex Allmont’s Lego sculptures that play rhythms, EMI’s strategies for artists, and live performances.
Playing Poland - Jordan Reyne
Playing foreign territories is always exciting. Polish audiences are receptive, open, and willing to book music that does not fit in boxes. When you stand on stage in Poland, everyone stops what they’re doing. When you stop what you’re doing, and your set is over, they usually ask you to continue!
Music, Blogging and Social Media event
In spite of dodgy weather and major news events, the London Bloggers Meetup on the theme of Music, Blogging and Social Media was packed out. Bloggers, music biz types and techno heads all wanted to learn more about making the latest tech trends work for them over a couple of drinks in a cosy North London bar.
Music, blogging & social media - LBM with Google+ & Kitmonsters
Online presence - love it or hate it, is essential and a great tool for artists. With endless new platforms and apps it can be hard to work out where to be and what to do. So the Music, Blogging & Social Media event organised by the great London Bloggers Meetup for 9th April, is pretty timely. James Howard from Google+ is on the panel, along with Kitmonsters’ Terry Tyldesley and Andrew Dubber, music industry advisor, digital expert and Professor of Music Industries Innovation at Birmingham City University.
Making Minefields performance video - She Makes War
This week marks the launch of my new single “Minefields”, the latest to be released off my second album “Little Battles”. The video introduces some of my latest musical collaborators and is She Makes War’s first foray in to performance videos - I have shot them for others and appeared in them in the past but never before for this project.
Artist Development
We went to a fantastic Artist Development Masterclass Day organised by Generator at Roundhouse Rising 2014, designed to promote new talent and give artists support and advice. The event featured top managers, radio presenters, YouTube experts and more and was full of practical tips and quite a few surprises. We’ve pulled out some of the things that stood out for us.
What’s Next Musicians’ Conference - Line 6, Topspin, Kitmonsters & more
There’s an exciting musicians’ conference coming up in London on 6th July, and you can get free tickets. The What’s Next Musicians’ Conference is a worldwide series of events organised by Line 6, Topspin Media and industry leaders, to talk about cutting edge tech and ideas, and give tips and info to musicians. Kitmonsters is hosting a session at the London event called ‘Promote Yourself’, with music industry experts giving advice on promotion and social media.