Here in the Product department, we’re always busy building cool stuff to make life (and business) easier for our clients. This time, we’re very pleased to announce the launch of a brand new Accounting section. Please, everyone, calm down. Excuse me, sir, can you put your shirt back on? This …
Videos are by far the most engaging form of social content. This isn’t exactly a new discovery, but there’s a lot of missed potential by bands that claim to have a YouTube presence. The common misconception is that your music videos go up on YouTube and you’re done. Although MTV …
Plugging — it’s a word we often hear in relation to promoting something, recommending it, giving it your stamp of approval. iPluggers does just that for your music, and it does it all around the world. With a 100% airplay guarantee (or your money back), iPluggers provides the platform for …
Meet our latest partner: Conduit Mobile. The mobile app creator is getting all kinds of press these days, and it’s not without good reason. Their sexy app offers every function you could dream of with the ease of use you’ve always wanted. What’s more, they’re compatible with all major mobile …
This week, I’m very happy to warmly welcome a brand new label to The Orchard family. Their name is PiL Records (PiL for Play it Loud) and they come from Lille, in the North of France, near the Belgium Border, which could be seen as the French Manchester (which means even worse weather than in Paris).
Here are 10 questions to introduce you to them and their main artist, the French Trio, We Are Enfant Terrible, whose 1st album Explicit Pictures was released in 2011 on the Canadian label Last Gang (home of Metric, Chromeo, Crystal Castles…).
Is it reasonable to make music with a Game Boy?
Definitely, and even in your attic.
Is it reasonable to have a Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr…?
Only if you have enough content and creativity to regularly post great and appropriate content on each of them.
Facebook: 12,5 K Fans
Twitter: 1,527 Followers
Instagram: 228 subscribers
Is it reasonable to do a rockumentary when you play at SXSW for the first time?
We’ve got some great stuff in today’s edition of Freeloader Friday. Whether you’re familiar with these artists or not, they’re definitely worth taking the time to discover — and we’ve got some for every ear: Country, Classic Rock, Soul, Indie, Psychedelic… that’s what I call a great variety.
Opening the batch are Country staples Lonestar, who are celebrating their 20th anniversary with their latest album, out next week. Catch the exclusive pre-release stream on Amazon, nestled on the top right corner of this page. Moving onto Rock legends with Black Star Riders — a newly-formed reincarnation of Irish Rock band Thin Lizzy — who are appropriately streaming their just-released album on Classic Rock Magazine.
Soul powerhouse Charles Bradley has a new song from his album Victim of Love on The Village Voice, and Pitchfork is streaming a previously unreleased track from Matthew Dear‘s last album Beams, of which a “Complete Edition” is coming out in a couple of weeks. You’ll also find tracks from British Rockers, Tripwires; Indie Rockers, The Mantles and Surf City; and Electronic producer/member of Daylight Curfew, Dfalt.
The Black Angels take it home with the premiere of the music video for “Don’t Play with Guns.” It’s not necessarily what you’d expect what from the Psychedelic bunch, or from the title of the track, but it’s very entertaining and well-produced, and definitely worth a watch.
Happy listening, folks. See you next week at the top of June!
Lonestar: full album stream via Amazon
Life As We Know It out June 4 on 4 Star Records
Black Star Riders: full album stream via Classic Rock Magazine
All Hell Breaks Loose out now on Nuclear Blast
Charles Bradley: “You Put The Flame On It” via The Village Voice
Victim of Love out now on Daptone Records
Matthew Dear: “She’s Just That Way” via Pitchfork
Beams (Complete Edition) out June 16 on Ghostly International
Tripwires: “Catherine, I Feel Sick” via YouTube
Spacehopper out June 18 on Frenchkiss Records
The Mantles: “Shadow Of Your Step” track premiere via Stereogum
Long Enough To Leave out June 18 on Slumberland Records
Surf City: “It’s A Common Life” via Pitchfork
We Knew It Was Not Going to Be Like This out August 19 on Fire Records
Dfalt: “The Beggars” track download via XLR8R
Helsinki Beat Tape: Part 1 out June 11 on Daylight Curfew
The Black Angels: “Don’t Play with Guns” music video premiere via VEVO
Indigo Meadow out now on Blue Horizon
At the NARM-hosted Music Biz 2013 in Los Angeles in early May, there was a room of 200 people clamoring to discuss metadata. Really? Metadata? I’m sure we can all think of a dozen other places we’d rather be, but some key points were made to reiterate how important it is to submit correct metadata.
Submitting music for one artist with various spellings will split the music across different artist profiles. For instance, if I were a musician, I’d do myself a disservice by releasing music under Jaclyn, jac1yn (see how the L turned into a one?) and Jac & Diane (what I imagine to be a wonderful duet).
Different release dates around the world cause confusion when we all get information from sites that provide reviews and news to a global audience. Let’s say an Australian fan reads a glowing review on Pitchfork (psych!), and then heads over to iTunes to purchase the album which isn’t yet out in Australia: missed opportunity.
And now my big pet peeve, wrongly listed release years screw up an artist discography. Every now and then I want to listen to some Sinatra or Coltrane and, aside from being annoyed at having to scroll through things like Jazz Explosion, it appears that the earliest Sinatra release was in 1996 and Afro Blue came out in 2011. Huh?
There’s a great recap of the panel in this Billboard.biz piece by Ed Christman. I encourage you to read it if you’re still not convinced that submitting correct metadata needs your full attention.
We’ve been looking forward to this album for quite some time now, ever since we announced our partnership with Lonestar last summer, and it’s finally upon us! We’ve gotten to preview two awesome tracks: “The Countdown” and “Maybe Someday,” with a killer music video that’ll move even the most closeted softies, so we’re fully warmed up for what we know is a great 20th anniversary album for these Country legends.
How do we know it’s a great album? Aside from the obvious, we’ve previewed it in full on Amazon – and you can too. Just head over to this Lonestar page, and click Play on the album widget on the top right corner of the page. You can also watch the above-mentioned music video for “Maybe Someday” and browse the rest of the Lonestar catalogue.
With more than ten million albums sold throughout their career (so far!), ten #1 Country hits, hundreds of concerts and 20 years of music, Lonestar don’t need to prove they’re staples in every Country music fan’s repertoire. With Life As We Know It, the now reunited quartet – with original lead singer Richie McDonald back on vocals – is celebrating its history, and its fans.
As part of the giving back process, Lonestar has also launched a Pledge campaign, where in exchange for pledges of various amounts, fans get anything from a physical copy and download of the CD to a signed guitar from the band, as well as other autographed goodies and even a phone call from Lonestar to you.
Lonestar is on the road right now, living up to their touring rep. Catch them on one of the dates below, after the jump.
Life As We Know It hits stores next Tuesday, June 4 on the band’s own label, 4 Star Records.
Introducing Joseph Viletto, PHP Developer
Hi guys, I’m Joe. I graduated from the Computer Science program at NYU last Spring and after working on music technology at Drip.fm with the fine folks at Ghostly International I’m excited to be joining The Orchard. I’m a passionate music lover and until recently hosted a weekly radio show on 89.1 FM where I covered everything from harsh noise, cumbia, forgotten 80′s synth acts and everything in between. I’m also a huge sports geek and am always willing to talk Xs and Os (or commiserate about the performance of the Eagles as need be). I also like to brew beer in my spare time and am always down to share my latest creations. Most importantly though, I love coding and solving interesting new technical challenges so I’m very stoked to be joining as The Orchard’s newest developer!
