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 …
Introducing Ryan MacPhee, Senior Manager, Business Affairs
Hello everyone! I’m excited to be joining The Orchard here in New York. I will be working with the Content Acquisition team focused primarily on the many amazing services we offer in addition to distribution, including The Orchard Video Network, Sync Licensing, Compilations, Collections, as well as bringing new clients into the company.
Here’s some info about me: I was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Georgia. After graduating from Washington and Lee University in 2008, I spent most of the last five years split between Manhattan and Brooklyn, with a brief stint in Texas. When I’m not working, I like to wander around Williamsburg and go to shows. I try to stay active — ice hockey, snowboarding, wake boarding, and most recently I’ve gotten into rock climbing. When it comes to music, I have pretty wide tastes, but tend to gravitate towards classic, old-fashioned Rock (with a sweet spot for 80′s Synthpop). Again, very excited to be here, and looking forward to meeting everyone!
For Jehovah’s Witnesses, it is only once all mankind has heard God’s message that the day of judgement will come. Only then, once everybody has had opportunity to repent, and the chance of enlightenment, will the wheat be separated from the chaff in the second coming of Christ. They believe one thing, I believe another, but that won’t keep them from knocking on a bank holiday…
Social media, having shrunk the world into a pistachio shell, may be a little quicker than going door to door. Perhaps the Jehovah’s should consider Psy’s “Gangnam Style” a blueprint for a new, shiny, 21st Century Apocalypse. Speaking of which, Psy’s second single (and music video) “Gentleman” has been released.
Gentleman is a revelation for Psy. Without the need to pander to the public’s fickle attention span, he has taken the opportunity to pass comment on society. Here, he does not disappoint. In a verbose deconstruction of modernity, comparable to Orwell’s Animal Farm, Psy brings home the implications of nihilism on good taste. After three minutes and fifty-eight seconds, the relative nature of truth is exposed — musically, Psy’s offering makes a shit, on a record player made out of shit, with a broken needle, sound great.
But it is through Psy’s exposure of implicit social norms, the very fabric of society, that the piece should be analysed — as conceptual art. Psy begins his video with a scene reminiscent of Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, while walking down the road with his droogs he raises a finger to the man by knocking over a traffic cone. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” Certainly these words emanate from between the lines of the refrain “I’m a, I’m a, I’m a, Mother-Father-Gentleman.”
Later in the video, Psy is seen questioning the modern obsession with sanitation as he prevents a man from getting to his hotel room in order to relieve himself, by pressing all the many buttons in the elevator. He then “cupcakes” someone at a desk. The sterilizing quality of modernity is brought to bear; truly Psy has created a work of art that defies the gallery. But this is a metaphor on the grandest scale. We all bear witness to the otherness of good taste.
In the face of this anti-authoritarianism, the South Korean government has had no choice but to ban the video. Such is the burden of inspiration. Psy now joins the list of visionaries caught before their time, a list including Orwell, Mandela, Burgess and the Jehovah’s themselves. In Psy’s words, “My only goal was to avoid being called a one-hit wonder.” — truly a Christ-like sentiment.
Two years ago, the online video streaming services competed for volume of titles and over the same potential users. The dinner table discussion over “Netflix vs. Hulu vs. Amazon” focused on which service offered the most shows and best movies for the price point. This year, the conversation has changed as Netflix has publicly shifted the way they’re programming the service. Now with more subscribers than HBO and a successful $100 million original TV series, House of Cards, in their repertoire ($3.6 million per episode), the service has stated that their main competitor is now HBO, not iTunes, Hulu or other internet streaming services. Most recently Netflix allowed 1,800 titles to expire, telling Mashable that it is working towards licensing titles “on an exclusive basis” and that their goal is to be an “expert programmer” and not a “broad distributor.” This strategy paves the way for a future where Netflix can more easily co-exist with other subscription services.
Consumers were hoping an $8/mo subscription could replace their cable bill (just as a $10/month subscription provides them with access to virtually 100% of music available). Unfortunately for consumers, $8/month will always only give us a small subset of premium video content. The dust is starting to settle and each service is presenting its unique value to the viewer in the marketplace. Netflix will increasingly be the place to go for their exclusive series (next up this month: Arrested Development) and for recently released movies — the same value consumers see in HBO. Hulu (owned by the major networks) will be your go-to for network TV series, indie films, classics and documentaries (what Netflix used to be). I’d expect old seasons of TV series to fall off Netflix over time as Hulu increasingly takes over this role in the market. The sports leagues have their own subscription options and many others will enter the market and find their niche. Popular music subscription service, Spotify, will supposedly be entering the video streaming market. Amazon Prime has launched Amazon Studios to start producing original series for release through Amazon Prime.
So just how many of these services would you have to subscribe to in the future to replace your cable TV package? If you’re spending $120 on your cable bill, odds are $50 of that is for your internet and $70 is for your TV package. To replace your TV package you would have to subscribe to 7 or 8 services to match the current amount you spend on TV. If this is the future, then there is room in the market for Hulu to co-exist with Netflix and others, just as cable networks can co-exist and are not necessarily competing for the same viewer. If you’re looking to cut your monthly TV budget and you’re hoping (legal) internet streaming is the solution, then you’ll have to decide what types of movies and shows you’re willing to lose. It will become increasingly clear over the next year which services are right for you as they will inevitably follow the footsteps of TV networks and program their services for a selected viewer demographic rather than the masses.
Where did the week go? How about a better question, who cares? That’s right, everyone’s favorite day of the week is back, and with it, Freeloader Friday. We have loads of music to satiate your hunger for new tunes this week — so sit back, relax, grab a pair of your favorite headphones and treat your ears to some tasty new tracks.
To kick things off, Palms premiere the first single off their anticipated, eponymous new record over on Pitchfork. The track, aptly titled “Patagonia,” is a dreamy, groove-laden soundscape that will send you floating in the clouds above the southern Andes of South America — no travel guide needed.
The free music rolls on with Tripwires‘ track premiere of “Shimmer,” a Noise-Pop number with enough hooks to have you singing along in no time. In addition, Cassettes Won’t Listen bring the grimy, funk-infused Electronica and Dfalt channels 90′s Trip-Hop sounds (think DJ Shadow with a twist) with their respective song streams. There’s no excuse for you to not bust a move this weekend.
If you’re in the mood for a full album stream then you’re in luck, as AM & Shawn Lee have released all the tracks of their new record before its official drop next week. From dance-y vibes to atmospheric, syncopated rhythms — the album is sure to suit any weekend adventure you have planned. Happy Listening!
Palms: “Patagonia” via Pitchfork
Palms out June 25 on Ipecac Recordings
Tripwires: “Shimmer” track premiere via DIY
Spacehopper out June 18 on Frenchkiss Records
Cassettes Won’t Listen: “Transmission” track premiere via Vibe
Transmission – Single out now on Daylight Curfew
Dfalt: “Moon Milkshakes” free track via Okayfuture
Helsinki Beat Tape: Part 1 out June 11 on Daylight Curfew
AM & Shawn Lee: Full album stream via Soundcheck
La Musique Numerique out May 7 on Park The Van
Five years ago today, we launched this blog to share artist news as we grew our roster of Interactive Marketing campaigns. We quickly evolved The Daily Rind into a vital piece of our corporate content marketing strategy, focusing on client communication, Orchard news, tips for navigating the digital landscape, op-eds on industry topics, and yes, artist news. All of this through the eyes of my very talented co-workers, who we continuously pester for more posts.
In honor of our five year mark, here are some of our favorite Daily Rind moments :
2008
Sharon Jones on Austin City Limits, Grammy Consideration by Tonia Samman
2009
Getting Social: The Orchard is on Facebook! and Let’s Twitter! by James Volpe
2010
Streaming vs P2P (Round #543324): Why Does Spotify Feel So Much Faster? by Nathan Thompson
Honorable mention to a republished Billboard piece: Billboard Op-Ed by Scott Cohen (Our Co-Founder and VP): LESS BEGETS MORE by Scott Cohen
2011
SoundCloud: So…About Just Sending Out That MP3? by Robbie Mackey
Honorable mention for a catchy song and catchy topic: Ai Se Eu Te Pego: When Music + Soccer Collide by Celia Saez
2012
Indie Artist Makes a Killing from Streaming – Yep, You Heard Right. by Chris Duncan (this was reposted by Hypebot)
Honorable mention for being our sixth most read post of all time: The Most Valuable Thing You Don’t Know About YouTube’s Business Model by Doug Shineman
Thank you to all our writers, readers and sharers throughout the years. As always, let us know via comments if there are topics you’d like us to cover in the future.
