In 2010, the ninth year of its existence, the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival had expanded its horizons, so much so that organizers welcomed 75,000 music lovers, not including staffers, organizers, talent and the mounted police of Coffee County’s finest. However if you asked anyone who has ventured to Bonnaroo, they will often testify that crowds are much larger than advertised, reaching around 100,000 attendees. (Due in part to forged tickets and sneak-ins.) Regardless, those crowd numbers can make 530 acres of festival grounds shrink considerably.

Essentially, the festival had grown too big for its own measuring stick. Bonnaroo’s ticket allotment has only increased by approximately 10,000 in ten years; an indicator that growth has been limited. Aside from price hikes, the Lollapaloozas, Bonnaroos and Sasquatches of the world are, like any respectable business, seeking new ways to expand their brand.

This year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival was the first of the ‘Big Three’ to gamble with the experiment of a double weekend. To be fair, New Orleans’ Jazz Fest, among other festivals around the world, have been producing multi-weekend events for years, albeit not with repeat performances. And now, annual demand at Coachella has incited founder Paul Tollet to book some of the world’s greatest acts…for two straight weekends. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Follett explained, “I didn’t want to ruin the show by putting 40,000 more people in per day. We’ve got more land, we could’ve gone that route, but we didn’t want to do that. We found something else…I’m believing in it.”

So is the double weekend the new standard for festivals everywhere? Or will the fans deem it a sell-out?

Essentially, it was a sell-out; the kind in which all 150,000 combined tickets were purchased within three hours of going on sale in January. But while crowds came out in full force both weekends, commercial sponsors were less enthusiastic. “There is definitely a feeling of excitement associated with the first weekend, when no one knows yet what memorable moments the festival is going to bring,” said Lacoste vice president of marketing Emily Coppock. “And who doesn’t want to say they were there first?” Guess, Armani Exchange, Chevy Volt and Lacoste were just a few advertisers to keep their promotional events to the first weekend only. In an atmosphere where sponsors host pool parties and mist tents, their absence was noticeable.

There’s no denying that the excitement resided in weekend one, when long-awaited rumors and secrets were put to rest. The hologram of late rapper Tupac Shakur, which performed onstage with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, was explosive enough to garner worldwide media attention and millions of views online within the festival’s middle week. Naturally, the shock and awe was not as well replicated in the second weekend. Other ‘non-holographic’ cameos by Usher, Kimbra and 50 Cent were also restricted to weekend one.

Double-weekend festivals such as Coachella face the task of recreating magic for audiences, who in today’s digital age, are connected with every revelation of each performance.

And yet, despite featuring the same lineup, weekend two still consisted of a few new surprises. John Fogerty joined the Black Keys onstage and former Pulp bassist Antony Genn assisted in the band’s classic “Common People.” Weekend two visitors even enjoyed more fortunate weather, as rains and cold temperatures plagued half of weekend one. But it was impossible to deny the allure of the first weekend, especially with Los Angeles’ celeb culture (i.e. Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kate Bosworth) joining the pilgrimage to Indio.

It’s not an easy task to recreate the mystique of an event like Coachella in two weekends. Other festivals will undoubtedly face the same challenges if they adopt the format. Like every year, it was a major success for Coachella financially. Selling twice as many tickets and reducing production costs by leaving sets constructed over the week allowed organizers to enjoy a significant profit leap. The adjustment was a commercial success.

That said, fans have now had the opportunity to contrast weekends and the issues that accompany them and there’s no doubt that most will prefer premiere weekends in future sales. A drop in interest could be cancerous to second weekenders. But for the entrepreneurial spirit of festival organizers, is a double weekend to beneficial to ignore?

The American consumer has always been a beast in which demand precedes supply. As festival leaders recognize this new ceiling, extended events will become as real as that Tupac hologram.

That was real. Wasn’t it?

Now consider this ‘concert spoiler’ as a token of good fortune, as hysteria could have ensued when a holographic form of the late rapper Tupac Shakur was projected onstage, accompanying Snoop Dogg on two songs, to a bewildered crowd. Within 24 hours, the videos of the performance have gone viral while news outlets across the globe discuss what the hell just happened here.

Meanwhile, I was rolling my eyes and praying that P Diddy (I don’t care if you changed your name again) was taking this performance as a challenge to recreate his own Notorious B.I.G. (Call it the Notorious CGI)

One can’t deny, the Shakur hologram appeared frighteningly realistic; a kudos to AV Concepts, a Tempe, Arizona-based lighting, video, audio and digital services company that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars producing the visual spectacle. For most, it is a stunning preview of a future in which lost musicians, artists and performers of all backgrounds can be revived onstage through the use of technology.

For a select few, it is just another wise trick; none more advanced than what we saw at the 2006 Grammy Awards, in which the cartoon band Gorillaz were digitally produced onstage to perform alongside Madonna. (It’s worth crediting AV Concepts, who also assisted in the production of that show.)

And yet, Sunday’s show still felt like a breaking wave in the evolution of live entertainment. Popular music commentator and musician ?uestlove of the Roots shared his thoughts via Twitter this morning stating…”damn: Dre Now Changed The Game 5 Times: 1) NWA 2) The Chronic 3) Col Tom Parkering Em 4) Beats By Dre & 5) http://t.co/mHD4yLdJ“

Now, talks of a full-length Tupac hologram tour and online polls listing what artists fans would like to see recreated in hologram form next are a grim indicator: will concert producers treat this as a passing fad, or the sobering technology that it seems to be?

Let’s consider for a moment that the days of paying $60 to see someone turn on what is essentially a 3-D light (to the tune of music) are upon us.

Movies had the advent of 3-D in the 1950s and even today, Hollywood is riding a massive return to the 3-D productions as an attempt to lure audiences back to theaters and away from their home entertainment systems.

Who’s to say live music companies don’t need another reason to lure listeners outside again?

While the concert industry has not necessarily suffered the same hardships as film, the application of more holographic technologies feels as imminent as the early days of concert lighting (old) or performance live streaming (new).There’s no rejecting the response from fans online.

I admit, it is still fresh and we have to let this one burn out before we roll another.

Yet whether you thought Tupac’s ghost was creepy or fascinating, it is certainly a subtle mirage in the landscape of what is to come.

I guess it’s only fitting that it made it’s claim-to-fame in the desert of Palm Springs, California.

Michael Carney might be one of the most forgettable artists today. Esteemed accomplishments line the last few years of his career, yet his name is as recognizable as a top selling brand of toothpicks. The man is a walking ghost of an artist.

It’s February 13, 2011. Carney is seated within the dark rows of chairs arranged inside the Staples Center in Los Angeles. His thick rimmed glasses and boyish comb over might lead you to believe he was somebody’s date. Nobody else. He waits patiently as names are called off during the 53^rd annual Grammy Awards pre-telecast presentation. Few people are aware that the Grammy’s has a pre-telecast awards ceremony. Even fewer people know who Michael Carney is. Even for the Carney family, it’s not just Michael’s big night. His older brother Patrick will walk away with two golden gramophone awards on the same night Michael will be awarded his first.

When Michael is announced as the winner of the 2011 Grammy for Best Packaging, he swiftly walks towards the stage, only to have the host impatiently interject, ‘we would like to accept this award on behalf of…’ Carney’s tall frame ascends the stage stairs and approaches the microphone just in time to silence the impatient ceremony. As he reaches for the trophy, the host surrenders the award with a look of estrangement. ‘Oh wait, we have someone here to accept this award.’

Like I said. He is a forgettable man. But then again, Carney dabbles in a forgettable music industry, where digital musicians come and go faster than pre-teen fads. But Carney is not a musician. He is an album artist. The man who puts a face to records that could transcend a generation. Faces that are not so forgettable.

And so is the beauty of album artwork. To give birth to a visual world associated with an invisible art. We all can name our favorite album covers. Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, U2, etc…but can we name those behind their design? Carney has contributed artwork to the likes of RJD2, The Black Keys, Blakroc, Dr. John and even Birdhouse skateboards. Take off your headphones and pick up that album (or enlarge that .pdf). Mr. Carney wants to tell you some things about album artwork’s place in this world.

When did you first realize that you loved creating visual arts associated with music or musical acts?

Honestly creating artwork to accompany music is something I sort of fell into. I worked on the artwork for a record for the first time when I was 19 years old and by the time I was 22, I had done something like five different album packages. I looked at it as a hobby or something all through school and around the end of my schooling I started to toy with the idea of taking it more seriously. It took me a long time to realize that a huge part of my creative process was interpreting music or at least attempting to do that.

The cover of Carney's sole musical project, known as Deathly Fighter.

I learned how to hit a deadline and that with enough coffee you can put in forty hours of work in two days. To me, being an artist is a balancing act of being technically skilled at something and being able to solve problems creatively and CCA&D helped me nurture the technical side of things.

How do you feel Columbus and the greater state of Ohio inspired your art growing up?

My experience living in Ohio is probably really similar to anyone who grew up in a city that was not New York or L.A. or Chicago.  The cost of living is cheap and it tends to be harder to be exposed to cultural stuff, whether that is music or art or even non-blockbuster movies…that kind of stuff is there, but you have to work hard to find it.  I got into skateboarding when I was in middle school and that was kind of how I found out about punk rock and indie rock and other stuff like that. I was exposed to tons of different kinds of art and design through reading Thrasher and loitering at record stores. I could talk for days about all the different important cultural figures who came from Ohio or places like Ohio.  In a nutshell there is not a ton of stuff to do in Ohio unless you go out and make it happen, whether that is starting a band or making a magazine. As a result I think there is a really big [do-it-yourself] culture in places like Ohio because people are bored and want to do something cool or interesting and they have to make it happen for themselves.

Music is becoming an increasingly digital commodity. How would you
encourage someone to buy a physical copy of an album?

I grew up going to record stores. I remember in middle school and high school saving up money to go buy CDs or LPs that I wanted; walking to the record store, being scared to ask stupid questions to the record store clerks. In college I went to Used Kids Records in Columbus almost everyday. That is an experience that is hard to explain and hard to fully understand with out doing it. So if someone’s only goal is hearing the music then that whole process does not matter. If the goal is having a tangible collection of music, then going to a record store makes sense. Frequenting a record store gives you a chance to build a relationship with the people who work there. Before I moved to New York, certain people at the record store I went to would put records aside for me that came in that they knew I would like. I knew if I asked this guy about a garage rock record he could tell me everything about it and the other guy could tell me if the new record by whatever band was worth listening to. Digital record stores will never be able to mimic this experience and as a result it is harder to sift through the crap and find music that speaks to you. Aside from that part of the record store experience, I think it is stopping to look at owning physical records as owning an object rather than data. I think beautiful packaging helps encourage people to buy the physical record rather than digital, but not everyone who likes music wants the whole experience of opening a record and holding it in their hands.

Why is album artwork and unique packaging so important? Is it more
important these days than before?

It is a chance to set the tone for the music, to tell a story in a very abstract way that relates to the music. Whether it is more important now than before is hard to say. I think in order to sell physical records these days, you have to work harder since people could buy it digitally.

What are some of your favorite album covers of all time?

The list changes every day but right now I am into these: Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd, Wire by Pink Flag, 20 Jazz Funk Greats by Throbbing Gristle, the first Suicide [self-titled] album.

Carney's most recognized work; the cover to the Black Key's 2010 album "Brothers," which earned him a Grammy for Best Packaging.

One of my friends works as a screen printer for a t-shirt factory and he was telling me about all these weird inks that one of their suppliers made. That got me thinking about what kind of inks were available for printing on compact discs. Then we went on a search for something different and found the heat sensitive ink. 

What’s is the best record you’ve heard that got the cover and/or packaging all wrong?

I can’t really answer that. I get really bummed out when I read or hear about someone saying negative stuff about my work so I would not want to publicly criticize someone else’s work. That being said, there are tons of amazing records that have terrible covers, and terrible records that have amazing covers.

You won a Grammy for your packaging work for “Brothers,” but what is another moment in your visual arts career that you are particularly proud of?

 I am just happy to be in a position to do the kind of work that I do. I never expected to do a second record cover after my first one, or to be doing record packaging 10 years later…let alone win a Grammy.

You’re a musician yourself (Deathly Fighter). What inspired you to take up music?

 I was struggling creatively about five years ago. I felt confused as to whether I had a voice of my own visually, or whether I was just a technician who created custom artwork for other people. That is an issue that I still struggle with, when someone says “you can do whatever you want.” I am always like, I need some rules, I need some challenges, I need to know what you are looking for. That is a result of the way that I learned to make art. It was always: “make something to accompany this music” not “make something”. At the time I did not feel like making visual art was creatively fulfilling. So my friend and I started a band as a creative outlet. The band ended up being really weird because we needed it to be something that we could do whatever we wanted with, no rules or restrictions. I actually have not made music in almost a year, and now spend the time that I used to spend making music, making paintings and stuff for myself. So the band kind of served its purpose of helping me work through a creative block of sorts. Although I am sure I will play music in some way in the future, right now. I don’t feel the need to.

What advice would you give someone who wanted to work in album artwork?

 That is something I get asked very often. I get emails from young artists and designers wanting to know how I got from point A to point B. To be honest, I don’t know what to tell them. In most situations, it is similar to mine where a close friend starts a band and asks you to make shirts or flyers or record covers for them. Another option is start a record label and do all the art. Your work is going to do the talking, so you have to make work and get it in front of people and there are tons of ways to do that. This is something I am still trying to figure out and I bet I will still be trying to figure it out when I am 90.

For only $125, you can see Metallica for two nights in a row. Not to mention, a clashing mix of indie favorites such as Modest Mouse and Best Coast...

As if there weren’t enough music festivals out there, Metallica has decided to grant mortals another.

The band announced today their plans for Orion Music & More, a festival set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, taking place June 23-24, 2012. The event marks the 20th anniversary of The Black Album, one of the group’s most heralded studio releases. Naturally, Metallica is scheduled to perform The Black Album in it’s entirety on one of the two nights. The second night will be reserved for their performance of Ride the Lightning.

While some might scoff at the notion of a Metallica-led festival as a heavy-metal-palooza, initial lineups suggest an inviting array of music. Modest Mouse, Arctic Monkeys and Best Coast are scheduled to perform, for starters. Hard rock heroes of the 21st century are representing though, such as The Sword and Avenged Sevenfold.

General admission passes for the two-day festival start at $125, although members of Metallica’s Met Club have the luxury of pre-ordering tickets from February 8 at 10 a.m. (EST) to February 10 at 10 p.m. (EST). VIP packages are also available.

I have to hand it to Metallica. They have decided not to spend the remainder of their days flaming out (okay, maybe excluding LuLu), but rather organize their own parties and perform the classics for their adoring fans. Can’t hate that.

M.I.A. is slated to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show alongside Madonna, Nicki Minaj and LMFAO.

Chalk up another leading female songstress to the estrogen-fueled Super Bowl halftime show.

Pop music’s original diva, Madonna, was announced back in October as Super Bowl XLVI’s main performance. Now, numerous additions have leaked, including Nicki Minaj, LMFAO and now, M.I.A. During an interview with Radio 1 in Britain today, M.I.A. revealed her scheduled appearance during the performance.

Born Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, M.I.A. burst onto the scene in the early 2000s with her swanky blend of hip-hop, electronic and world music. More recently, the songwriter co-produced Madonna’s latest single, “Give Me All Your Luvin,” alongside Nicki Minaj. Naturally, the pop trio are expected to perform the single during the halftime show.

Past Super Bowl halftime performers include Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the Rolling Stones, Prince and Bon Jovi. This year’s performance, coupled with last year’s debacle involving the Black Eyed Peas, marks a return to modern music artistry after a long series of classic rock throwbacks controlled the spotlight.

One way or the other, our chances of seeing some boobs are higher than they’ve been since 2004, when Janet Jackson breasted the breast of them.

Super Bowl XLVI airs on Sunday, February 5, live from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Artist Growth. Revolutionary? Maybe. Evolutionary? Absolutely.

By: Patrick Gipson

The music industry has endured a technological renaissance of sorts in the last fifteen years. I choose the word ‘endured’ because it seems like with every astronomical advancement, (i.e. P2P sharing, Pro Tools, Spotify) the industry desperately adjusts, only to see technology overtake it again. While mighty record labels continue to crumble under the free music enterprise, in-home studios and digital marketing have elevated once-stagnant artists. It’s an ongoing struggle for compromise between technology and the arts, or the past and the future. It divides the music industry of old, from the new.

So where is the line that separates recession and prosperity for all? One thing’s for sure: a pair of musicians from the city of Knoxville have definitively mapped their hometown on the side of prosperity and advancement, all in the form of an elegant little invention.

The next chapter of this ‘music renaissance’ has come in the form of “Artist Growth.” When I first heard of Artist Growth, I naturally dismissed it as just another application in our helplessly growing dependency on mobile devices. I’m a little old-fashioned in that I believe we spend so much time with our noses stuck in our phones and tablets that we continually overlook the basic fundamentals of our own development. It wasn’t until I had spoken with Artist Growth’s creators that I realized, in some ways, they felt the same way. They wanted to build an application for independent musicians that utilized the greatest rewards of technology, with a strict adherence to primitive simplicity. It came as no surprise to me that the creators of this industry-changing device were not overpaid corporate think tanks, but simple, blue-collar guys.

Years ago, Jonathan Sexton and Matt Urmy discussed a riveting, new concept over a bottle of wine in Knoxville, Tennessee. Their idea was to embolden musicians with the knowledge of an industry veteran; to mobilize artists with the resources once exclusive to only the biggest artists with the biggest teams. The device compounds the most critical facets of a successful independent musician; scheduling, promotions, marketing, merchandising, finances and more, all suspended in a small, tidy universe that runs on any smartphone. As the idea evolved, it became more apparent that just maybe, this was an idea that was not destined to be overtaken. It was not as brilliant of a device as it was a brilliant concept. It reinforced the most basic ideals of the Internet. To empower the powerless. To guide the lost. No artist gets left behind.

Urmy (CEO) and Sexton (CAO) were kind enough to give us here at BLANK the premier scoop on their trailblazing new product.

For starters, tell us about your history as musicians from Knoxville.

JS: Matt and I have a long history together. We met in Knoxville. As much as this company is based in Nashville, it’s got a lot of roots in Knoxville. Matt and I, we used to live together in Fort Sanders in a house. In our co-op, we were all playing in bands, we were running a studio in our house and we were touring and making music and having a good time. Matt and I, we just hit it off from the day we met when he was just walking down the street with a guitar. We were having a big party and I looked out the door and saw some dude with a guitar and yelled at him and told him to come in and play us a song and he did. We’ve been friends ever since. So, while we were living together in Fort Sanders we both found out we were going to be Dads. He moved back to Nashville, I went back to grad school, we both quit music for a while. I went into teaching Kindergarten full time and he was working in healthcare at Vanderbilt. Somewhere along the way, we didn’t really talk to each other, but we both started playing music again about the same time and we ran into each other at a gig on the road. We immediately started talking again, about how we were going to make music again; we needed a new approach. We had to be serious, it couldn’t just be about fun and partying; we had to try and figure it out. One thing that changed was technology. Back when we were getting started, MySpace was the thing, it had just come out.

When was the moment that you realized that this was not just another idea, just another conversation after a gig and something more?

JS: I remember when he (Urmy) told me about this new innovation, ‘it’s tools for bands it’s cool,’ which clubs are you playing, which kind of flyers are you using…It didn’t take us long to figure out, that the tools out there weren’t fitting our needs. We needed something more comprehensive, to address the needs of an artist. Part of those needs was tools that were easy to use and learning how you’re supposed to do things in the music industry. One day we realized, there was definitely a way that we could make something better, than already existed. So we sat down at my kitchen table in Knoxville, over a glass of wine and were just like, ‘we can do this.’

MU: The concept of Artist Growth was born after months of working through two other ideas for a business in music and discarding them. It was a process of elimination that left us holding what we felt was essential to helping artists, and one day when I was searching available URLs I came upon “artistgrowth,” and it was available, so I called Jonathan and we decided upon that name.

What were the first steps in bringing the idea to life?

JS: First, we went to somebody and said we had this great idea. Our first idea, it changed forms a few times, but originally we thought, what if we made orbits for bands, where if you were going on a trip, you could get everything you need. We talked to a few people in Nashville and in the music industry and somebody told us that if we were going to have this idea we needed a business plan. That was the first step in moving the ball forward. From taking the idea and making it into something real. Which is funny, because part of our thing is all about bands should do a business plan first thing, which could be shocking to somebody on the art side sometimes. We came up with it on a weekend and then we tweaked on it for a year.  There was one person, Tatum Hauck and Matt knew Tatum and she worked in the industry. She was the first person who said, ‘guys, you really got something here.’ It was the first big gust of wind in our sails. She said ‘don’t let anybody take this from you and follow it through.’

In designing the interface, did you take inspiration from any other applications, or rather other musicians?

MU: The original inspiration for Artist Growth was because we needed a tool like this as touring musicians. So we asked ourselves everyday, “Does this make my life easier?” if the answer was yes, then we kept it in the design.

What artists participated in the beta testing?

MU: All of the AG team participated in the BETA, as well as some local Nashville/Knoxville based songwriters.

What kinds of goals were set for the product?

JS: Our goal, what we’re going for, is full adoption, from the entire industry from the top down and the bottom up. We want this to be a game-changer in the way that Pro Tools was. [Before] everyone had analog studios and tapes forever and getting professional recording was so expensive and only a few artists had the opportunity. Pro Tools came along and all of the sudden, everybody had a studio. We want Artist Growth to have the same effect. We want it to be so streamlining and smooth and easy that the industry is like, ‘where has this been? This is going to save us so much money.’ But at the same time, artists can get it and say ‘oh man, this isn’t that hard, I can do this.’ That’s the impact we want to have, from the highest executive, to the guy who just got his first guitar.

Do you feel with technology such as this and the multitudes of tools online, the opportunities for grassroots artists are greater than ever, or more competitive and therefore harder than ever?

JS: I think there’s never been more opportunity. Now, it’s almost all they have to overcome is themselves. So the responsibility comes within the artists. I won’t say that it’s easier; there’s a lot of competition and there’s a lot of work and you really have to sacrifice. But, it’s possible. Anybody could get out there and go at it and that is what Artist Growth is about. It puts it back in your hands; it puts your career in your hands and lets you manage the part of your career that you maybe didn’t want to before or didn’t know how. It’s all on you now; it’s real empowering.

MU: Absolutely. Artists of all disciplines have the opportunity to participate in their own personal development and growth like never before. The internet gave everyone access to so many different sources of information and now it is a matter of harnessing the power of current technology to create laser focused and contextually relevant toolboxes that grant a user the opportunity for more autonomy. To do this you have to create the toolbox and teach people all the different ways to use it…and that’s what we’ve done with Artist Growth.

Not every musician is a 22-year-old smartphone owner. Do you think this product could be confusing for the less tech-savvy independent musicians?

JS: A very similar question that we get a lot is where do you stand on labels. Is this only for independent artists, are the labels going to go away, are managers going to go away? The answer is no. There’s room for everybody. And this tool is designed to make a manager’s life easier and an artist’s life easier. It’s not about replacing anything; it’s more about connecting everything.

If you were a publicist, or a manager of artists, on a small or large scale, would you be worried that a technology such as this can eliminate your place in the industry?

MU: Absolutely not. I would see it as an opportunity to expand my business because I can work more efficiently, manage larger teams and take on more projects.

JS: Well, for the publicists and the Shore Fires [Media] of the world, for one, clients and artists are learning. It’s going to teach them industry protocol and the right way to do things. And so, whenever an artist gets to a level where they are ready for a Shore Fire or they’re ready for a label, the artist is already going to be trained essentially in all of the ways the industry actually works. But another thing it’s going to enable them [artists] to do…labels and publicists and radio promoters and all these things, can look at Artist Growth as a way to scout and track talent and who’s working hard. It helps an artist quantify their work. So if I’m a record label and I’m looking at a band I want to sign…I listen to their music and see how it makes me feel, then I might see how many tickets they’ve sold, then I see how many ‘likes’ they have and Twitter followers…but what does that really mean?  I mean the answer is more is better…okay they’ve got a lot, so that might be good, but you don’t really know. With Artist Growth, you have actual, quantifiable data that a label can look at. How many gigs is this band playing? How much money have they made? How much merch have they sold? How many downloads did they have? And by giving that data, it gives the music industry a much more clear picture of whether they are interested in an artist. It creates a situation where finally, for the first time ever, the artists and the industry are speaking the same language…numbers.

Is there going to be any sort of version built for publicists and managers?

MU: This initial version is definitely already built for managers. Artist Growth will give artists who work alone an unprecedented power to get their careers together, but for artists who already have management teams, it will streamline their workflows like never before.

What would you say to those artists who might be unsure about their adaptability to use this new application?

JS: The cool thing about Artist Growth, is that one thing we tried to do all along was make it video game easy. If you can’t accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish in three or four clicks, then we tried to change it. Another principle we tried to apply was that the phone would do the work. There’s a basic tool set, the finances module, scheduler for gigs, the industry search database for finding any radio, print or club contact in the country and it’s already in the app. What we also included in the tool boxes are features to teach you how to do it. We have video mentoring, we call it AGTV…in AGTV we have interviews, questions and clips of A-list people in the music industry talking about legal advice, financial planning, studio advice, pre-production, engineering, how to tune a guitar string, everything… That’s what I love about Artist Growth is that integration of mentoring and education and the tools necessary to do it.

MU: There has never been anything like this before, but it is so easy to use.  Try the Free Trial. I don’t believe you will be disappointed.

Artist Growth will be available for download starting January 17^th for just $4.99/month. Free trials will be available granting partial access to the application’s features.

With rumors swirling about an upcoming fifth studio album, now is the ample time for a Tool mini-tour, in which fans will expect a preview of some new material.

Progressive rock’s heaviest band, Tool, have added new concert dates for the first time in over seventeen months, according to an article on Pollstar.com.

While no concert dates are currently listed on Tool’s website, the ‘concert hotwire’ website has listed these dates according to ticket availability that emerged on Ticketmaster and Live Nation. The band is slated to perform in dates within the United States and Canada, starting with a January 14th performance in Reno, Nevada.

While lead singer Maynard James Keenan has been touring with his latest musical project Puscifier, he revealed in an October interview that bandmates Adam Jones and Danny Carey were writing music for the band’s fifth studio album and first since 2006′s 10,000 Days.

Here is a complete list of tour dates:

1/14 Reno, NV – Reno Events Center
1/15 Las Vegas, NV – Mandalay Bay Events Center
1/17 Tucson, AZ – Tucson Arena
1/18 Albuquerque, NM – Tingley Coliseum
1/20 Grand Prairie, TX – Verizon Theatre
1/24 Toledo, OH – Huntington Center
1/25 Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
1/26 London, ON – John Labatt Centre
1/28 Boston, MA – TD Garden
1/29 Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center
1/31 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
2/8 Duluth, GA – Gwinnett Arena

You won't find the Black Keys' latest album on any free streaming websites. At least not legally...

We saw it in October, when British rockers Coldplay decided that their latest record, Mylo Xyloto, would not be available on popular music streaming services. Rather, the band took a more traditional route by releasing their album on iTunes and in record stores exclusively.

Now, blues rock heavyweights The Black Keys are thumbing their own noses at Spotify and other streaming services as well.

Their seventh studio album, El Camino, was released last week on iTunes and Amazon Mp3, but licensing rights were promptly refused to streaming websites such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio and MOG. It’s as if the Keys are trying a ‘digital window’ strategy at selling their music, before time gives way to the hordes of free streaming sites.

Smart or dumb?

Well, Spotify does pay the labels licensing fees for the music, which is later proportioned to the artists. It’s not much, as say it was in 2000, but artists make their bread and butter on the concert circuit and in commercial licensing these days. It was the Black Keys who explained this in an interview with NPR earlier this year.

While some will be thankful to see an artist of their magnitude stand up against the free streaming craze, the concept does seem as inevitable as free music did in 2004, once the Napster craze had withstood an onslaught of legal retaliation.

For more on the debate of free streaming and artistic licensing, you can read these articles:

The Eagles Bite Grooveshark with Copyright

iTunes Defeating Spotify

Blackie Dammett, father to Red Hot Chili Peppers' singer Anthony Kiedis, can understand his son's achievement in the performance arts.

In a fantastic interview with Rolling Stone, Red Hot Chili Peppers vocalist and front man Anthony Kiedis shared some interesting details about his discovery that his thirty-year-old band would be inducted into the 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class.

Kiedis’ father, John Kiedis (who now goes by the name Blackie Dammett), has been a working actor in Hollywood since the mid-1970s. Naturally, it came as no surprise that man with such an understanding of achievements in performance arts was so emotional when his son called him to reveal his acceptance into the most revered fraternity in all of rock and roll music.

“Dad, you and I are blood. I’m going to tell you something, but you can’t tell anybody,” Anthony said over the phone. The Chili Peppers had learned of their acceptance long before any public announcement was scheduled, prompting Anthony to ensure his father, who he describes as a ‘known Wikileaker,’ to share the news.

“I guess it’s just something that you want to share with the people that you’re closest to, like family and longtime friends. My dad cried,” Anthony said.

The original Guns N' Roses lineup hasn't played together since 1990. Who's to say that a little Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction will change that?

With the announcement of Guns N’ Roses’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame today, a great new series of rumors are bound to swirl around the band and a possible reunion.

The Generation X rock superstars haven’t performed together in their original lineup since 1990 and alienated front man Axl Rose has continued to slander band members (most notably Slash) in the media for years.

Moreover, during their heyday, Guns N’ Roses were one of the most dysfunctional and controversial bands, redefining the old ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’ mantra. Hell, their legend even managed to get them into the Hall on their first year of eligibility; a feat that a strong majority of bands are unable to achieve.

And yet, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has served as a temple to revitalize even the most doubtful of reunions, including the Talking Heads, Led Zeppelin and the Police. Former GNR drummer Steven Adler was hopeful, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, that the upcoming induction in April could work the same magic for his group.

Adler went on to compare his band’s situation with that of the Police many years ago, saying ‘One of the biggest jerks I ever met was Sting. If he can do it, then anyone can do it. It’s not that big a deal.’ However, when asked if he expected all five members to show up to the ceremony, he promptly responded ‘absolutely not.’

Of course, the reunion rumors have swirled for years now and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction almost seems irrelevant when compared to the drama former members have endured through the media. With the release of each others’ books, to Axl claiming Slash pissed his pants regularly, the slander has become as consistent as the reunion ideas.

Just an ongoing debate about the end of one of the first great bands of Generation X.