Payola

This is a month old, but somehow I didn't hear about it. From the Associated Press...

Broadcast Companies Agree on $12.5 Million Anti-Payola Settlement

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Radio listeners weary of hearing the same songs over and over may have something to cheer about: Broadcasters have tentatively agreed to anti-payola settlements that could shake up music playlists at some of the nation's largest radio chains.
Four major broadcast companies would pay the government $12.5 million and provide 8,400 half-hour segments of free airtime for independent record labels and local artists, The Associated Press has learned.

I'm skeptical about what this means in real life, but read the rest of the article on Yahoo.

Another Resource

Indie-Music.com had a tip sheet page with information for indie musicians. There's a 4 or 5 recent posts about song contests. Here's the latest:

American Songwriter Magazine sponsors a bi-monthly amateur lyric contest. No music - only lyrics needed, and all genres of music are accepted. The winning lyrics, along with the four runners-up, will be published in an issue of the magazine. The contest is open to any amateur songwriter - AS defines an amateur as a songwriter who has not earned more than $5,000 from songwriting related royalties, advances, or works for hire. Submission deadline: May 23.

Roadside Couch

FirstCom Music, a production music library company, announced that they are starting an indie record label to license music for advertising, television, and film:

Dallas, TX-April 6, 2007 - FirstCom Music, a leading provider of music services via CD, Hard Drive and the Web, is pleased to announce the release of their first record label, Roadside Couch RecordsTM, which was created exclusively to provide Music Supervisors, Ad Agencies and the Film and Television industry with a readily accessible source for songs and bands. The label will be unveiled at NAB 2007 and will provide a launching platform for up and coming bands and Indie labels in a wide variety of genres. Roadside Couch Records will deliver the very best in alternative rock, punk pop, singer-songwriter and other mainstream and hard to find talent that producers and music supervisors demand. "We are very excited to be able to offer this unique service to both music supervisors and our artists. Our goal is to deliver fresh new talent directly to producers and directors with 'no hassle' master and synch rights provided to the client", says Ken Nelson, Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of FirstCom Music.

I couldn't find any info on submitting your music, so I'm guessing they won't have a website up until NAB on the 16th.
On a side note, FirstCom is owned by BMG, so I don't know how "indie" it truly is.

The First Step

Apple and EMI sell DRM-free songs at the iTunes store:

Apple® today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available.

Read the whole press release here.
Here's some related information from Gizmodo. And here's their take on how it relates to their RIAA boycott.

Licks!

Imagine my disappointment when I realized that Learnlicks.com was a site for learning to play the guitar (and drums and keyboard).

LearnLicks.com is a free site for musicians to share: videos of music licks, tips, techniques, and concepts. Learn Licks is a place for you to share what you've learned while learning and connecting with fellow musicians.

"Licks" are videos created by you and other musicians to share musical knowledge. Licks can be: a short series of notes that are fun to play, exercises, advice, questions, scales, concepts, music theory, etc. By posting video licks you can share knowledge, ask questions, and get feedback.

Not much indie rock on this site - plenty of Rush, though. I did find Beck's Two Turntables and a Microphone.

I also found this kind of creepy, yet interesting clip on how to file your nails for classical guitar.

A guy who goes by "abesluciferius" posted 4 clips in the Metal category, but only bothered to put his shirt on for one of them. For some reason, I was inspired to check out his Myspace page. Graphic design is not his strong point.