Topspin™

[Flickr photo by Print On Identity]

We’re here in London for MUSEXPO Europe and wanted to have a night out to say hello to anyone interested in hearing more about what we’re up to. Our friend Ian Hogarth from Songkick was kind enough to help us organize (or organise, as they say here) and we’re lucky enough to intersect with Hype Machine’s Anthony Volodkin’s 2008 world tour. So come on down and say hello to us Tuesday night, October 28th, at Bloomsbury Lanes. We’ll be there 8:30pm to midnight or so bowling, drinking, and making merry. We have a few spots for bowlers but it wouldn’t hurt to call and reserve a lane for yourself since we have no idea how many people might show up. Better safe than sorry.

See you Tuesday, at the conference, or around town…

ian c rogers
Topspin

[Flickr photo by City On Fire]

White Denim are an Austin rock n soul band who aren’t much interested in doing things the “normal” way. In order of appearance, my exposure to them has been the Let’s Talk About It video on YouTube, their RCRDLBL EP, their incredible Daytrotter session, and the Let’s Talk About It EP on iTunes, all of which are worth seeking out and most of which are free. This summer they finally released a full-length record and some singles on Full-Time Hobby in Europe.

Topspin is proud to announce White Denim has released their first non-European full-length album on their Web site using Topspin’s platform. It’s rollicking, experimental, and downright amazing. Run on over and buy it now. But don’t just buy the album in MP3 or FLAC format, pick up the $30 package which gets you 12″ *and* 7″ vinyl, plus a collection of unreleased live tracks and whatever other oddities they want to throw at you over the course of the year. You’ll be supporting one of the best live bands going today, as evidenced at Union Hall in Brooklyn Monday night after the Topspin get-together upstairs. Here’s some footage I shot from my Flip camera for those that couldn’t make it (Fred Wilson!) or had to get to bed early (Andy Weissman!):

And a video for Shake Shake Shake, which is featured on the album (and the Full-Time Hobby album for those of you in Europe):

Enjoy,
ian c rogers
Topspin

[Flickr photo by Katiew]

Fans of country and/or football should check out at least one of the FIFTY-SIX different MP3s available from the hardest working band in country music, The Lost Trailers. This Georgia quintet recorded a version of their hit song Holler Back for your favorite football team. Buy it and CRANK IT UP at the tailgate party.

Holla back,
ian c rogers
Topspin

Topspin is proud to have a relationship with Lionsgate Films, who have been a great partner in brainstorming the future of our product and running some early but meaningful beta tests. You can download the soundtrack to Repo: The Genetic Opera in CD-quality FLAC format here, for example. Or for fans of slightly different subject matter and music, you can also get the score to Oliver Stone’s new movie W direct from the W site here. It’s an honor to help with such a timely movie release.

We’re all well aware of just how important the 2008 election is and I’d like to take a moment to remind you to vote (duh) and pass along some important information on how to protect your vote and the votes of others. Our friends at ATC (a not-for-profit organization assisting artists who wish to be politically active) tell me in many places election day resources will be over capacity with even a minimal 10% increase in turnout over the last election. For instance, in Norfolk, VA, election experts report estimates it would take 25 hours to accommodate a 10% increase. In addition, there are significant voter caging and suppression reports, many having to do with young voters and swing states. Yikes.

Here is what ATC is suggesting the artists they work with send to their fans. Perhaps you can send this to your fans, friends, family, enemies, whoever today, too:

We want your vote to count. There are a lot of reports of voter misinformation and suppression out there. Here are some ways that you can make sure your vote counts. Please tell your friends.

How to Protect Your Vote:
1.) Vote Early! Many states offer early, in person or absentee voting. If you vote early, and there is a problem, there is more time and likelihood that it can be fixed in time for your vote to count.

Find out if you can vote early here:
http://vote411.org/bystate.php

2.) Poll workers are in high demand and are paid–anyone over 16 years of age can apply. More poll workers means more help the day of and much faster lines.

Here’s how to become a poll worker:
http://act.credoaction.com/pollworkers/

3.) Verify your registration with election offices BEFORE election day.

Look up your state and get information on verifying here:
http://vote411.org/bystate.php

4.) Prepare for long lines. Ask for the day-off from work or class if possible. Bring iPods, lawn chairs, food, books, etc. Make sure to follow through with your vote, don’t believe the polls if they say your candidate is winning or loosing. They have been wrong before.

5.) If you encounter a problem at the polling place now or later, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

Happy voting and pass this on!

Get out there and vote in two weeks. See you at the polls.

ian c rogers
Topspin

[photo by rserrano on Flickr]

If you’re one of the ten people who read my blog you already know The Drones are one of my favorite bands in recent years. I originally discovered them through a review in my favorite music magazine, Mojo, of their 2005 release “Wait Long By The River and The Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By”. I think I read someone claim they were a cross between Neil Young and Laughing Hyenas and that’s a description that actually does the incredible songwriting and the fury with which its delivered justice.

The Drones just released a new album in Australia and if you happen to be in Australia, you can buy it from iTunes here. If you’re not in Australia, well, you’re out of luck. In fact, you can’t even get the amazing aforementioned 2005 album digitally in the US, or the great album in-between, Gala Mill. You can buy the CD, if you’re into such things and aren’t in a rush (and I’d actually recommend it because the lyric sheet is worth the price of the disc). The album will come out in the US in 2009, and by then we US Drones fans will probably have already downloaded it from a friend. I don’t know any of the details of The Drones’ record deals, who manages them, or what their strategy is, but from the consumer/fan point of view this seems like a missed opportunity at best and poor execution at worst.

It doesn’t have to be this way. They (or their label, or labels) could have released worldwide on the same day and date both digitally and physically using Topspin. They could have delivered higher quality audio, the lyric sheet, photos, and videos all in one package from their Web site. They could have given an option for digital to be downloaded now and CDs and vinyl to be sent later. They could have repackaged the previous, impossible-to-find-digitally albums similarly and properly served a fans’ Drones fix. And best of all, they’d end up with the email address of every purchaser instead of sending those fans off to iTunes and others. When you send your fans away to iTunes to purchase, iTunes mails them every Tuesday and you don’t even know who they are! Doh!

I’m flying home from Boston right now, my two year-old is asleep on the seat next to me, and I’m listening to this new Drones record for the tenth time in a week. It’s incredible, the best thing ever done by one of my favorite bands, period. Unfortunately I can’t even give my friends a link to buy it for themselves. Drones, management, label, whoever…LET US HELP. Please? It’d be an honor.

Other bands, labels, and managers, please don’t make the same mistake. I understand how territory rights work, but they really don’t serve the fans very well in the age of the tubes of the Interwebs. IMHO, even if you have different owners in different territories, you should always make the music easily available for sale from the artist’s Web site worldwide. Split the money on the backend, don’t deter the fans from buying the product. Hit us up if you want some help.

ian c rogers
Topspin

UPDATE: Alec from The Drones’ US Label wrote a comment correcting me: All of the Drones’ albums *except* the new one are available in the US from iTunes. Click HERE to buy “Wait Long By The River…” now, for starters. It’s incredible. I didn’t realize this because a) I usually do my download purchasing through Amazon and the records aren’t available there, and b) all the links on the Drones’ site take you to AU and UK download stores. Thanks to Alec for the comment (click through to see my response), now lets see what we can do about getting the new album up and running worldwide ASAP and getting all these albums for sale directly from Drones and ATP sites!

Hey all, as mentioned last week, we’ll be in NYC for CMJ next week. If you’d like to say hello, please come visit us at Union Hall from 6-8pm Monday, October 20th. We’ll be there having a drink and maybe some food before seeing Fred Wilson’s new favorite band White Denim at the same venue later in the evening. Buy your ticket to the show here.

Wu, gots like come on thru. See you there.

ian

Sorry we haven’t been blogging much here as of late. Heads down and (clearly) hard at work in Topspin-land. A few random notes to share:

Digital Media Forum West was this week and I was on a panel with The Usual Suspects (TM) moderated by Ted Cohen giving a “digital state of the union”. Thanks very much to Ted for inviting us and for giving me the floor for a minute to share an overview of Topspin. I have to admit, I felt we were doing a bit of fiddling while Rome was burning. The discussion, and questions from the audience, was mostly about how startups can get access to the catalogs of major labels. I understand the frustration here. The lack of a reasonable APIs for an innovator like Muxtape to build a great consumer service on is inexcusable, especially when iMeem has already built the APIs and now just needs the licenses (and Universal and others are apparently rolling their own with TotalMusic instead of licensing the iMeem APIs for 3rd parties — I don’t have any inside info here, this is what I was led to believe from the panel). But there was no discussion of what the killer next consumer service would look like, and no discussion of how the relationship between the artist/manager nucleus and labels is evolving, which I think is the most important development of 2008. This evolution was being discussed this week at In The City in Manchester, however, where the “Featured Artist Coalition” was releasing a “charter for fair play in the digital age”. These, IMHO, are the values of the new music business, the one Topspin wants to be a part of. Read the charter. This isn’t “anti-label”, it’s anti-exploitation. I’m sure many labels will sign. Will yours? If not, do you want to work there? Friends, if you think I’m talking to you, I probably am.

It’s good meeting everyone at these conferences. Here’s a few more places we’ll be set up in the coming weeks and months if you’d like to reach out and say hello. Please do:

Thursday, Oct 9, Bar Chloe, Santa Monica. We’ve been doing this Bar Chloe thing as many Thursdays as possible. I’ve been traveling and seeing shows and whatnot so I’ve missed the last few weeks but we’ll be in full e.f.f.e.c.t. this Thursday with Buddyhead’s Travis Keller playing Verve and Oasis b-sides and an entire crew from Berklee College of Music in the house. Come on down from 9 to midnight.

Monday, Oct 20, Brooklyn. We’ll be in NYC for CMJ and we’re going to try to get together somewhere near Union Hall in Park Slope around 6pm before seeing White Denim at Union Hall that night (likely even just at Union Hall, upstairs). If you’d like to come please mail the “general inquiries” address on this page and we’ll mail you when we know where it’s at. Or just subscribe to me on Twitter and I’ll send out an update on the 20th. Buy your White Denim ticket now, though. I just bought mine.

Week of Oct 26, London. We’re London-bound for Musexpo, in town for a full week, meeting lots of folks. We’re trying to find a venue for a Bar Chloe-style hang. If anyone has suggestions, lets hear ‘em.

Looking further out we’ll likely visit CES, MIDEM and SXSW early in 2009 and could use your help. Because we’re a small startup and trying to conserve our cash we try to couch surf when we go to these sorts of things. We’re sorted for NYC and London, but if you have a couch and a shower in any of these other places, drop me a note. We don’t require much.

Hope to see you at one of these events. If you’d like to be sure you’re kept in the loop, please subscribe to this blog by dropping your email over there in the right margin and I’ll try to keep the blog up to date with anywhere we’ll be.

And now, back to work. Our days are full of building software. Most of our time is spent building the 1.0 versions of our two flagship products, and we’re doing our best to stay focused on that despite some exciting stuff brewing on the sidelines. We’ll have a couple of fun things to announce this month and next. Thanks for reading.

ian c rogers
Topspin

ps - This post was written while listening to this Futureheads live bootleg they released on a beta version of our software. It’s a really great show. Highly recommended.