Category Archives: Resources For Musicians & Music Lovers

FuseTrade – Social Network For Artists

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Name: FuseTrade
URL: http://www.fusetrade.com

When reviewing social networking sites on MusicKO, I usually focus on the ones which are centered on musicians, and that let them interact among themselves or with their fans (or both). These sites let musicians and their punters start building the kind of communication that is necessary for music to become an integral part of everybody’s lives. But something which is every bit as important in order to accomplish that is taking a good look at what the artistic scene around one is like. Which plays are being staged, which exhibitions are being held, which new galleries are opening… A lot of opportunities for further spreading one’s art lie there. Not to mention that visual artists are something every musician ends up working with when releasing an album. Finding those that are in one’s wavelength early can but be a wise move.

That’s exactly what this new social network is all about. It lets artists from all over the world connect with each other, share all that they are doing and promote their creative work collectively. News on events can be spread, and the site has a gallery for uploading original work to. And a forum for conducting organized discussions regarding art and events is likewise featured.

Membership to FuseTrade costs nothing, and registration is quick and painless. And if you already have a Facebook, Twitter, Google or Yahoo! account then you can use that to log in instead, and skip registration altogether.

Jazz Cypher – Social Network For Jazz Musicians And Enthusiasts

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Jazz Cypher Is A Social Network That Jazz Lovers And Performers Can Join At Zero Cost.

 

Name: Jazz Cypher
URL: http://www.jazzcypher.com

Jazz Cypher is a social network which is aimed at jazz musicians and connoisseurs. It enables them to create their very own profiles, list their likes and dislikes and post on a wealth of jazz-related topics. For example, the site makes it very easy for performers to promote upcoming shows, and also to find other musicians to play with. And these venues that feature combos playing live can spread the word about the acts they are to feature next through Jazz Cypher, in a cost-effective way (IE for free).

And what would a social network be without photo albums? Jazz Cypher enables users to upload all their images and group them in the relevant collections. These can then be seen by all their contacts and friends.

So, the site gives jazz musicians and lovers the chance to do what social networks let people do in general: connect among themselves, and share these things they are enthusiastic about. Only that here everything is kept within well-defined limits and boundaries, and no discussion is careening off-topic.

Personally, I feel it’s important to mention that even someone like me (who is neither a jazz performer nor someone who is overly-keen on the genre) found the site quite interesting. It actually made me feel like playing the CDs by Diana Krall I have in my possession. I have no doubts that if you’ve got the genre under your skin, you’re certainly going to fall for something like Jazz Cypher.

OneSheet – Build A Rich Profile Page For Your Band

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Name: OneSheet
URL: http://www.onesheet.com

With MySpace sinking into the sunset of its existence after having been sold for a pittance of its former value, the game of thrones for its successor has started in the strongest possible way. The first player to have made a move is this new startup, which is the brainchild of Brenden Mulligan (founder of ArtistData, a very well-respected syndication tool for musicians to post information online). OneSheet is its name, and we can define it as a centralizer of any band’s activity on the Internet.

People who use the service log in with their Facebook accounts, and then they can have their data exported from musician-specific sites such as ReverbNation and Bandcamp, as well as from sites such as YouTube, Posterous and Tumblr. All the data featured there will be aggregated together, and displayed in a profile page whose layout bands can actually determine themselves. Continue reading →

LYRICSnMUSIC – Lyrics, Band Bios, Tour Dates & Everything Else In Between

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Name: LYRICSnMUSIC
URL: http://www.lyricsnmusic.com

The first thing people do when wanting to learn more about any band that’s been brought into their attention is heading straight to Wikipedia to see what can be learned about that artist there. Either that, or they are on their way to YouTube to catch the band in sonic flight. And looking up some lyrics is the next link in the chain, specially if English’s not their first language.

By all reckonings, that’s an almighty amount of toing and froing. It would be great if there were a way to get all that info at once, wouldn’t it? And it would be even better if The Who finally decided to tour South America.

Well, as far as the Shepherd Bush’s contingent coming all the way to this balmy region of the world is concerned I’ve almost lost all hope by now. And I don’t love them any less for that, nor do I listen to their music any less enthusiastically. But I refuse to believe nobody has ever come with a site to let you search the whole Internet in an organic way when looking for music-related information. Somebody must have done something about it. And I’ve scoured the whole digital universe looking for an answer. And hey, look what I’ve found.

LYRICSnMUSIC is a search aggregator that collects together results for sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and the best of the many lyrics repositories that are currently available online. All these are accessible using a tabbed interface that makes for a really cool user experience. You input your query, pick the suitable tab and Bob’s your uncle. Continue reading →

PitchImprover.com – All You Need To Play By Ear, To Recognize Intervals And To Develop Perfect Pitch

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Name: Pitch Improver
URL: http://pitchimprover.com

Being almost tone deaf wasn’t the only reason why I gave up on instruments when I was younger, but it certainly played its part. With a tool like this one back then, things might have gone more pleasurably. I would have been encouraged to keep at it for a little longer, and maybe (just maybe) reach the point in which I could actually play something. I find myself thinking that every time I go to a rehearsal of any of the bands I write lyrics for, and any member couldn’t make it there on time, leaving an instrument vacant. Today was one such day. Hence, today is the right time to review this site.

Found at http://pitchimprover.com, this a site that will let you learn to play instruments by ear. The site lets you choose the one you want to master from a list made up by “Piano”, “Guitar”, “Strings” and “Woodwinds”, and then it will let you do as many exercises as you want. These all revolve around a melody being played to you, and you having to reproduce it using an interactive keyboard. There are 20 different skill levels, and you are actually the one choosing the one you are in at the beginning of the process. Level 1 is “Major 1, 3, 5” (the one even I get right), and level 20 is “Chromatic” (the one I wouldn’t get right in twenty consecutive reincarnations). Continue reading →

Swift.fm Relaunches As A Platform For Sharing Music In A More Global Way

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The name of Swift.fm might as well be familiar to those of you who are active on the Twitterverse. The site launched about one year and a half ago, and it basically stood as a Twitter-powered platform for the sharing of songs. Then again, you might not. It didn’t pick that much traction, despite some famous musicians (most notably rappers) singing it praises. Well, Swift.fm is back with a vengeance – the whole platform has been revamped in order to let people share music on practically all the main social networking sites available today.

 

 

This is how it works. People who join Swift.fm (it costs nothing) can link their MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm accounts together, and share their own music (and the music that they have discovered online) with everybody and his wife. That is, provided everybody and/or his wife can access the Internet in one way or the other. But I think we can count on that in this day and age, right?

And the discovery quotient of the whole platform is pretty high, since users can follow their friends and see what music they have been sharing/uploading more recently. Continue reading →

SoundSpar – Compete With Other Bands And Win New Fans

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Name: SoundSpar
URL: http://www.soundspar.com

There is something which is obvious, but which is not any less true because of that. Listeners are the only people who can truly determine how good your own band is. Forget about critics, forget about these radios that actually play your songs or shun them. Any band worth its salt knows the one answer that actually has any real meaning is the one they can elicit from the public. All the rest comes later.

And which better way to measure how popular a band is in the world’s eyes than a site where bands from everywhere can challenge each other out, and have punters vote on which is better? Well, that’s exactly what this site is all about. SoundSpar is a battleground for bands to fight for supremacy. The word “battleground” might be too much, come to think of it. Bands fight each other in what is comparable to a kind of forum where people can vote and opine as freely as they wish.

Each featured band has a record of its own, highlighting how many confrontations they have won, how many they have lost, and how many have ended in a draw. And these bands that step into the ring more often are all highlighted on the main page, for you to know who the champs you should aspire to challenge one day are.

A wealth of different styles are supported on this site – rock, pop, country, rap, electronic/techno… and something that definitely has to be mentioned is that the site is also usable by comedians. The will be able to battle for supremacy much in the same ways that bands are allowed to.

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.

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 →

GuitarTV – A Site For Guitar Players Created By Steve Vai

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GuitarTV

Name: GuitarTV
URL: http://www.guitartv.com

Can you imagine how cool would it be if people like Richard Thompson or Carlos Santana built sites featuring hand-picked content for guitar players? That would be comparable to someone like Stephen King building a site showing budding writers the way things really click.

Well, the day such sites come to be might not be that distant. Guitar maestro Steve Vai has just released one such website, and it can be reached at Guitartv.com. It is a site 100 % dedicated to the streaming of guitar-related content. Those who visit it will get to watch music videos, live shows and lessons dealing with all things guitar. Information such as which axe any performer is playing can be accessed at a click, and tablatures are provided via Songster.com.

And in all cases, users are provided with the links for buying what they are watching at stores such as Amazon. Plus, tickets for shows can be purchased in an equally-easy way.

So who do you think is following on Vai’s footsteps now? And which instrument is next? Bass? Drums? Place your bets in the comments below…