Author Archives: Emilio Pérez Miguel

Tonall – A Social Network For Those Who Can Play An Instrument

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Name: Tonall
URL: http://www.tonall.com

Tonall is a social network for musicians, but the instruments are the real stars of the show here. Why? Simply because connections on Tonall are made based on which instrument one plays.

If you become a user of Tonall you will be able to review the instrument you play, and wax romantic on its sound, its appearance and all these things that makes your eyes go misty when you think about it. The idea is that others will both get to know you better thanks to such reviews, and (which is every bit as important) get to realize if such an instrument would be a good fit for them.

And as it is only suitable, users of Tonall can buy and sell gear – a marketplace is provided to these purposes. It is browseable (and usable) by any single person who signs up for a Tonall account. That costs nothing, by the way. As long as you can speak English then you can jump aboard.

MusicKO Is Now 2 Years Old!!

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It fills me with joy to announce that today MusicKO has become two years old.

An enormous “thank you” to all the readers and to all the these bands that are a never-ending source of inspiration, and which motivate me to keep on writing and writing even when my job and other activities take up most of my time.

Special thanks to all the Uruguayan artists that contact me and ask to be included on the blog. You always thank me warmly for the posts afterwards, but you have no idea how much I get out of it, the feeling of joy and realization that washes over me whenever I manage to cover a new Uruguayan act.

To quote Richard Thompson… “I’ll never give it up”.

My 30 Day Song Challenge On Facebook

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There is a game going around on Facebook named the 30 Day Challenge. Well, I have taken to it, and just for those who are curious-enough what my full month looks like, here you have the 30 songs filling it up:

Day 01 – Your favorite song Don’t Look Back In Anger (Oasis)
Day 02 – Your least favorite song Que Ves Cuando Me Mes (Divididos)
Day 03 – A song that makes you happy Mayor Of Simpleton (XTC)
Day 04 – A song that makes you sad Concrete Angel (Martina MacBride)
Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone Wish I Could Fly (Roxette)
Day 06 – A song that reminds you of somewhere Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley)
Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event Red Red Wine (UB 40)
Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to Runaway Train (Soul Asylum)
Day 09 – A song that you can dance to Should I Stay Or Should I Go (The Clash)
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep Everybody Hurts (REM)
Day 11 – A song from your favorite band Real Good Looking Boy (The Who)
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate With Or Without You (U2)
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure Baby (Justin Bieber)
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love De Nada Sirve (No Te Va Gustar)
Day 15 – A song that describes you La Cienaga Just Smiled (Ryan Adams)
Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate Step Out (Oasis)
Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio Because Of You (Kelly Clarkson)
Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio Love Me Like The World Is Ending (Ben Lee)
Day 19 – A song from your favorite album 5.15 (The Who)
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry Please Return It (The Posies)
Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy Going Mobile (The Who)
Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad I’ve Been High REM
Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding You’re The Inspiration (Chicago)
Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral Aozora (Lia)
Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh I’m Gonna Be 500 Miles (The Proclaimers)
Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument She (Elvis Costello)
Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play More Than Words (Extreme)
Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty Vulnerable (Roxette)
Day 29 – A song from your childhood Sacrifice (Elton John)
Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year Special Needs (Placebo)

Just for your information, Divididos is a band from Argentina, No Te Va Gustar is from my country (Uruguay) and “Aozora” is a song from the anime “Air” (a great yet depressing show).

And yes, I know who is on day number 13. I wrote so many posts about him that the song wound up nestled in my head.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa…

How To Sell Your Music On iTunes

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How Do You Sell Your Own Music On iTunes?

How Do You Sell Your Own Music On iTunes?

To think that once upon a time the dream of every musician was to have his own CD on the racks of record stores all over the country… now, his aim is to have it featured on iTunes. Yet, how many stop to think of what would it take to make it happen before doing anything? How many understand how it really works? I hope the text below answers that, and gives anybody something of a direction when thinking about selling his own music through iTunes.

The first thing to realize is that you are not going to work directly with Apple – the requirements for doing that rule most people out (IE, you must have 20 albums in your catalog – that is more than bands like The Who put out in their actual time together). No, what you are going to do is to work with Apple through an aggregator such as TuneCore or CDBaby. These are companies that work with Apple in order to ensure that the content which is featured on iTunes meet its actual quality standards, and they also take care of marketing/promotional duties.

In the case of the two that have just been mentioned (TuneCore and CDBaby – they are easily the two most popular aggregators around), you retain the rights to your music, and you also retain more than 90 % of the royalties for every sale (TuneCore actually lets you retain 100 % of every transaction). Aggregators also let you sell your music on other stores and services such as Amazon MP3, Spotify, MySpace Music, Zune, Rhapsody, Nokia, Amazon On Demand and (in the vast majority of cases) you are also allowed to market your music physically, and have it sold on record stores. Continue reading →

We Love Your Songs – A New Social Network For Bands And Fans

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WeLoveYourSongs

Name: We Love Your Songs
URL: http://www.weloveyoursongs.com

We Love Your Songs is one of these community sites for new musicians that I have reviewed before, and that I will keep on reviewing until the end. I mean, such resources are terrific – young performers get a chance to nurture their talent, and fans get a chance to become familiarized with the ones who might as well become tomorrow’s stars today, when they were mostly unknown numbers. Plus, those who support a band locally get a chance to show their allegiance online more than easily

As in any other social site, users (IE bands and punters) have to sign up for their own accounts to interact among themselves. Once accounts have been created, it is very easy to upload media, and interact one-to-one both by commenting on what’s being shared.

And in order to elicit the best from bands (and to encourage fans to become even more involved) lots of different competitions are held on the site. Continue reading →

YouTube Now Has An Official Music Chart

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Last week YouTube launched its Top 100 chart for music. It basically combines official videos from the likes of Lady Gaga and Jessie J. along with clips that have gone viral after being uploaded by users.

The chart (which is found on YouTube’s music page) is updated weekly, and the data is going to be stored. So, those of you who are up for tracking trends will have it made.

Right now, the chart offers no real surprises – Jennifer Lopez s at number 1 with “On The Floor”, Lady Gaga is at number 2 with “Judas”, Bruno Mars is at number 3 with “The Lazy Song”… and Rebecca Black is at number 10 with “Friday”.

Yeah, sure. As if she were going to have another hit song anytime soon…

youtube music chart

Lady Gaga Is Now On Farmville

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Lady Gaga Comes To Farmville!

Lady Gaga Comes To Farmville!

Lady Gaga keeps on reminding us why she is called “The Internet Artist”. Her newest venture has her claiming ownership of a portion of FarmVille. It is aptly-called GagaVille, and people who get there can grow jewels and get her new album (“Born This Way”) when they purchase $25 in Zynga game cards.

Zynga is certainly not strange to partnerships with musicians and entertainment companies, as it has previously worked with Snoop Dogg, Dreamworks and Nickelodeon to drop a few names. But the Lady Gaga partnership is unarguably its largest entertainment deal.

GagaVille wll be open until the 26th of May.

Promo clip attached below:

“This Is Spinal Tap” Is The Only Movie That Goes To 11 On IMDB

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Spinal Tap: Derek Smalls, David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel

Spinal Tap: Derek Smalls, David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel

If you visit the IMDB page for “This Is Spinal Tap” right now, you will discover that its rating can go all the way to 11.

This is a homage to the classic scene in the mockumentary in which guitarist Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest) proudly shows director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) his trademark amp – an amp that can go all the way to 11.

ThisIsSpinalTap

Nigel’s response when questioned “Why don’t you make 10 be the top number and then make that a little louder?” by Marty?

As simple (and classic) as “These go to eleven”.