Holland Villa(ge)

Lynette and I went to Holland Village to document the rich-poor divide there.

This post is part of a class assignment for  COM412: Journalism Re-imagined.

iTunes spots the Indie.

Originally meant as a rebellion against the mainstream, the term ‘indie’ is making an imprint even in countries like Vietnam, where their show business industry is far from established to create a dichotomy of ‘indie’ versus mainstream.

It has become such a catchphrase that iTunes has created a Indie Spotlight section in their iTunes Store where people can listen to short samples of music from independent or non-major record labels. You can go here to check it out.

Nokia has also launched a new subscription plan, called Comes With Music. When you purchase a compatible phone, you will get songs for free; with a wide range of genres, including those from indie artists. Singapore will also be the first market in Asia, with songs from Asian artists such as Rainie Yang.

These monolithic companies are a huge platform for independent artists to reach a wider mass definitely. For iTunes, though, will the Indie Spotlight section be a permanent fixture, or will it be a faddish feature, to be easily removed once the ‘indie’ fever dies down?

Right now, I’ll just enjoy surfing through the section to see whether there’s anything good to update to my own playlist on iTunes.

Watch music festivals online.

In the coming two months, I will be missing two massive music festivals; South by Southwest in Texas from March 18 to 22 and Coachella in California from April 17 to 19. For people like me who either have empty coffers or whose schedules clash with the festival dates, help is at hand.

I came across this article which gave fans some alternative options such as websites, a satellite broadcast network and radio station that would feature upcoming performances at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival.

For non-American fans such as me, some of the options are not available here. Online radio stations such as Woxy.com and New Public Radio (NPR) would be your best bet. They will be streaming live webcasts of the concerts and studio sessions from SXSW! Maybe you can even catch Singaporean band, I am David Sparkle who will be performing there.

Last year, Coachella offered a streaming option from a site called AT&T blue room but the links no longer work. Hopefully, as the festival draws near, they will update them.

So till the day I can afford the time and cash, these streaming videos are the next best thing.

Vlogging

This vlog post is an assignment as part of  the course module COM412: Journalism Reimagined.

Get $1 to download free music.

It came as no surprise that youths do not want to pay for music, even though they say it is an integral part of their lives.  So they resort to illegal downloads. Bands such as Radiohead made it easier for them by providing free and legal downloads. Now you can even get paid for downloading free music?

Officer Roseland, an indie rock band from Philadelphia is reversing its role by paying $1 to those downloading their latest album, ‘Stimulus Package’, just released last Wednesday. On the website, fans can choose to keep the money by pressing the button ‘Take’. If they don’t feel greedy, they can choose ‘Give’ where the $1 is then donated to a children’s music charity organisation The Mr Holland’s Opus Foundation.

The band’s About page showed a very idealistic group of men; their evasion of ‘slick mass-production’ and aversion to commercialisation.

It’s all very noble but what I’m thinking is: where does the money come from (I couldn’t find any news on how they’re getting sponsored or if it’s coming out of their own pockets) and how far would this guerilla-style marketing strategy take them?

Music networking through SMS?

Be a high-tech groupie when you register at SwarmTribes, a website which promises you an interactive link to your favourite bands. You can SMS, email and Instant Message the band members directly through the SwarmTribes server and they can reach you in the same way.

How is this different from other music networking sites such as MySpace? You can watch this video on how the website works.

Theoretically, when a band member SMS-es to SwarmTribes, that personalised message will get sent to the fans who had signed up under the band ‘tribe’ and vice versa. And record labels and retail companies can also join in to promote their own brands.

This then creates a cluster, or in their words, ‘a swarm tribe’.

Right now, only 85 bands are on their list, so I joined the Lost Prophet tribe to see what people were doing. It proved quite disappointing; the last note on the message board was posted on 21st December last year and according to one of the fans on the board, the band had only sent out one text message since the tribe started.

So much for interactivity.

Time to go home/party!

Lynette and I spent a day at Thieves’ Market in Sungei Road, where many elderly folk come to sell used items that range from Buddhist jade to fans and blenders. This is an account of what we observed during the night. The day scene is available here.