Your Musical Taste Is Your Choice.

I think it's safe to say that most people have a preferred genre of music. The reasons for this could and have been discussed and written about infinitum. It seems that age does not play as big a role in peoples' tastes in music but more their location.



Those who enjoy country and western music tend to hail from rural areas, be they in the U.S.A or Australia for example. Fans of the blues & blues/rock tend to hail from more middle-class suburban areas. Disco, electronic & club music seem to be centralised in densely populated and more financially affluent areas. These are all generalisations & like everything else on earth, there are always exceptions.


Now that people have the easiest, fastest and most comprehensive access to global music they can be more selective to not only what style but to what artists they wish to listen to. With Google recently announcing that it is making every artist readily searchable from their toolbar and are touting this as a wonderful breakthrough, which is to a large degree, I suspect that it is going to make music a less 'sociable' medium than it already is, thank you very much to the 'interweb.'

Living in a small town in Tasmania, the sounds that I hear outside are birds twittering and the lapping waves of the nearby seashore. When I walk around the streets people say hello and smile. Further west in the city of Burnie nobody makes a sound, so engrossed are they in what they're listening to on their iPod and what the footpath looks like.


Even less sociable is the fact that people can go to the MySpace and have a myriad of talented musicians of all genres, ranging from Caribbean to Honky-Tonk and everything in between. The only problem that I have found with this site is that there seems to be a high percentage of musicians whos' supporters are fellow musicians. Hardly conducive to helping album sales.



Surprisingly, iLike, which is in partnership with Google in its' new music accessibility venture seems very under-utilised by listeners, considering songs from there can be shared on Facebook which holds 25% of internet sharing popularity. Artists can also set up their own music pages which allows artists to interact with their supporters


One site that is definitely 'on the up' is ReverbNation. This was the site that I first began uploading my music to as it offers great stats and promotional widgets. More importantly it allows artists to easily communicate with followers and make song available as 'fan exclusive' free downloads, which are not visible unless you become on of your favourite artists fans.


As interactive as many of the aforementioned websites are, they are not interactive in a group or social setting.


I recall many years ago being at a nightclub where an incredibly talented folk-rock band were playing. I was standing at the bar dancing away by myself whilst most of the other people were on the dance floor. I made eye contact with a younger chap who was also dancing away quite happily by himself at the bar. I approached him to make a comment about how good the band was. It turned out that this chap was Sudanese and didn't speak a word of English. We still had a great time.


The point that this shows is that irrespective of skin colour, background or dialect, music is the ultimate communicator. Now that the internet has made musical appreciation, availability and diversity more available than once unimaginable, the mental stimulation and bonding with others that this provides is extremely heartening to this writer.

If Your Memory Serves You Well

Back in the days before the advent of CDs we all rushed out to buy the latest vinyl record. The following weekend inevitably led to a party where that particular record was played all night long. This practise was all very well for a few parties until either A) everyone got sick to death of hearing the same record for hours on end at the aforementioned parties or, B) the endless playing led to the record in question developing scratches....scratches that resembled nails being scratched down a blackboard,

It was these factors that put me completely off the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin. Fortunately it didn't alter my love of Free, more specifically "Alright Now." Whenever I heard those opening chords and; Paul Rogers ad-libbing prior to the first verse, I would leave the party. Actually, leaving a party early was a trait of mine, particularly when my drinking became out of control. I was very conscious of being 'untidy' in public.

With the recent 're-introduction' of record players, retailers and people of my vintage (43) and older are singing the praises of this 're-innovation.' I'm not one of them!

Proponents offer the feeble excuse that vinyl 'sounds better.' How they come to this conclusion is beyond me and I'm yet to be given concrete evidence. I've listened to countless records and compared them with the same on CD. The difference that I could detect was the lack of minor scratches on CDs. I went one step further and listened to the same albums on vinyl and on CD using headphones. My advice....stick to CDs on that front.

The release of the remastered Beatles material spurned my curiosity. I can only sum up what I heard in one word....wrong. "Get Back" just doesn't sound right with a beefed-up drum sound, nor does the numerous replacements of certain guitar and vocal tracks. The Beatles were of their time. Their music is timeless and to go messing about with it in 2010 just doesn't make sense to me.

Stepping back a few years my younger brother gave me "Let It Be-Naked" by The Beatles. It was on CD. It took my breath away, even on first listening. There was no 'Spectorism' and so forth. To me it sounded like the lads were sitting in my lounge room playing. To hear each guitar part, bass line, vocal harmony, drum highlight blew me away. It truly is an album that displays to the world why The Beatles were The Beatles.

In summation, this writer will not be falling for the 'return to vinyl' gimmick because I'm certain that is all it is.

It also begs the question....how on earth can an independent musician/band feasibly release a vinyl record?

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No Man Alive Will Come To You

Researching a specifically chosen area is very much a double-edged sword.

After completing 'Online Music Traps,' my first effort as an author, there was a very small window of reflection. The vast majority of the book is based on my own experiences combined with input from musicians, promoters, D.Js and fans alike.

Combined with this I researched the various areas of the internet music industry only to discover more information than I would care to write in a single ebook. It was too diverse. Suffice it to say there will be another book.

My next effort has barely taken shape; I am still in the research stage. I can tell you that it won't be a 'softened' account of the online music industry. In recent weeks I have been inundated by emails from music sites who are almost going out of their way to support statements made in 'Online Music Traps.' It's bordering on hilarity.

With only a few weeks left before re-subscription to iTunes (I won't be re-subscribing), I thought I'd check how my 15-track 'Catharsis' was faring. I couldn't believe what I saw! There it was selling for $16.99!!! Each single is $1.69!!! Over at Amazon, 'Catharsis' is selling for $8.99 and singles for $0.89. I receive the same royalties from both. Take a guess where most downloads have been from? Hhhmmm.

I shall be re-subscribing at Amazon but purely for reasons of online 'visibility.' As a recording artist with no interest whatsoever in 'doing the rounds' again, every reasonable online option should be taken....and used wisely. By reasonable I don't mean paying outrageous sums of money for advertising with a site who promise exposure to countless 'somebodys.' One email in particular that I received recently had me in hysterical fits of laughter. The prize? Homepage Exposure on the site involved. The 'requirement'? Spend the most money in their online store!

If that's not a surefire way of finding the most deserving band then I don't know what is(!). I wonder, hypothetically, how The Stones or The Beatles would have fared in this climate were it 1961.

There are then the sites who proclaim in large print, "Get Your Music on iTunes 100% FREE!" The well-seasoned musicians among us rarely open these emails, let alone read them in their entirety, so predictable have they become. Inevitably, towards the bottom of the spiel in not-so-large print it carries on (words to the effect of) "....first 3 months subscription waived." I'm unsure of the rest of the globe but to this writer it's akin to well dodgy mobile phone 'plans.'

This brief insight into my email, dear reader, is the tip of the iceberg. As the potential author of a second ebook I could not have created more tailor-made information had I tried.

Returning to my researching of late, on a more upbeat note, the discovery of Bandcamp has come as a very pleasant surprise. The ability to speedily upload WAV, aiff and flac files as well as mp3s is a real bonus. Customer downloads, I am advised, are speedy affairs also. This has always been an area that I'm borderline neurotic about.

Another great feature for musicians are real-time statistics. Having always been a great lover of statistics and graphs, I am able to keep unbelievably accurate records of what promotional tactics work best for particular areas of the internet and at what time.

For me the best feature offered by Bandcamp is the ability to offer fans discount vouchers. I opt for what I consider a hefty discount (more than a few cents, folks) due to the fact that on this site musicians  keep all royalties.

Bandcamp almost has a 'sleeping giant' feel about it but from the nature of the site I doubt very much that it will venture into the 'glitzy' side of things. It seems to be doing just fine as it is.

Combining these factors with outstanding promotional support from Haych Storm©, who does an amazing amount of work that goes unseen and largely unrecognised. I highly recommend Haych if you're looking to further your independent career onto the world stage. NB: her link above is NOT a P.P.C. Additionally, David Slater, Nana Mex and more recently Nathan Norgel of 'Wasser-Prawda' in Germany who has recently featured numerous Australian-based blues artists are all outstanding promoters forindependent musicians. I am privileged to consider these folks my friends.

Then of course is the feedback that I have been receiving regarding “Redemption” since its release on Bandcamp. The ability to provide the album in its entirety to be played as often as the listener chooses combined with, if one decides, very smoothly downloading directly from that page, ideally with your discount code applied.

I am hoping that, in the near future, I will have all of my commercially available material locatable on my website www.scotsbob.com Additionally, I will be placing a codeword on the relevant page which will apply for all albums and singles.

The code for downloading from this page is: howling