Topspin™

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.

I’m just back from a vacation with my wife and baby but the team has been busy back at the homestead (thanks, y’all). A couple things of note:

In the friends-promoting (and producing)-friends department, Ben Harper not only produced the new Tom Freund record, he’s promoting its sale from his site at a limited-time introductory price of a buck-fifty. The record is full of clever songwriting, soulful vocals, and gorgeous instrumentation. Go grab it. You can’t beat the price (unless you’re buying the awesome new Paul Westerberg record from Amazon, which you should).

Also, our friends Jubilee released a new single and video while I was away (both free to anyone who bought the $20 package, of course), just a couple weeks ahead of their European tour and less than two months ahead of the full-length album, which is nearly finished but needs mixing and mastering (and will also be included in the $20 price tag). Travis and Aaron have been by the office regularly playing bits and pieces of it and it’s incredible.

Speaking of Travis Keller and Jubilee — Travis DJs on Thursday nights at Bar Chloe in Santa Monica (2nd Street near Broadway) and a few of us usually post up there for the evening and talk shop. Come on down and say hello. Starting this week we’re going to try a dinner/discussion beforehand. Not sure of the venue yet (though likely Gloria’s papuseria on Venice) — drop an email if you’re interested in attending and we’ll add you if there’s room. There’s always room at Bar Chloe, though, come by anytime 9pm to midnight if you’d like to say hello.

Finally, wanted to welcome the newest additions to the team: Ty White, Tara Brown, and Justin Davis. We are honored to have you among us. Thanks for joining our fighting force of extraordinary magnitude. You have our gratitude.

More fun stuff on the way in August, we’ll update as there’s news. As Robert Wyatt says, stay tuned…

UPDATE: Not making it to Bar Chloe tonight, didn’t realize Imaad Wasif’s LA show was tonight. So the new plan is: Gloria’s Cafe on Venice at 7:00pm then to The Smell downtown to see Imaad at 10pm. See you at the show. Buy Imaad’s album here.

ian c rogers
Topspin

More than seven years ago, Topspin’s founders Shamal Ranasinghe and Peter Gotcher were introduced to each other by Ryan McIntyre. So to find Topspin working closely with Ryan’s partnership Foundry Group in 2008 feels pretty damn natural. Fateful, even.

We don’t talk publicly about our financing efforts (so save your inquiries, please), but Ryan did such a great job talking about why they’re happy to be in business with us we’d be remiss not to post a link here. Thanks, Ryan, the feeling is 100% mutual. Ditto to Tim at Redpoint. We couldn’t be more excited.

Ryan and fellow Foundry partner and Topspin friend Jason Mendelson play in a band called Soul Patch. On June 21st Soul Patch played their first show in four years in Boulder, Colorado. I told Jason if Topspin and Foundry found themselves partners before the gig, I’d be there. As anyone following my Twitter stream knows, I made the show and was glad I did. They killed. iPhone photo of Jason stepping out from behind the kit for a run at the (moar) cowbell and vocals (second from left) and Ryan shredding the SG, above.

ian c rogers
Topspin