Example: On Sunday night, Lan and I had decided, to start sending each other mixtapes on a regular basis. Every week, we’d assemble a good lot of songs and sling them over. I thought it was great because I kill two birds with one stone: I get to keep talking to a friend in San Francisco, and I get to hear a bunch of music I may not have heard before.

Yesterday was our inaugural #MixtapeTOSF exchange. It went even better than expected.

Here are our mixtapes, mine (“Energetic Mondays”) on the left, and Lan’s (“I Love The Unknown”) on the right.

Totally looking forward to next Monday. I’ve already started working on the mixtape!

Be spontaneous!

Margaret Gould Stewart, the head of user experience over at YouTube explains the Content ID system over at YouTube, and mentions that the minute you upload some copyrighted material, the rights holders get to determine what happens to your video.

Once again, not a huge fan of copyright protection being too far and overreaching, but you really do have to realize that YouTube is making small and incremental changes to copyright protection. The story from the video is a great example: the wedding video that uses Chris Brown’s Forever brought the song back to number 4 on the iTunes charts, having been long dead before that. Had Sony, the rights holder to Chris Brown’s Forever, simply blocked the video from appearing, that song would have stayed off of the charts.

Keep in mind, years ago, these RIAA companies would simply have blocked the content and prevent anyone from enjoying the video. Now, you have companies thinking about all of the possibilities that can come from that one video. As Stewart said:

By simply blocking all reuse, you’ll miss out on new art forms, new audiences, new distribution channels and new revenue streams.

Now, the real task is to get them to move from only allowing popular videos to benefit from this sort of leniency, and to all videos that simply want to share the song – you want more people to listen to your artists, don’t you?

Here is the description of Field Music from their Last.FM:

Field Music is an experimental pop band from Sunderland, UK, formed by brothers Peter and David Brewis and their schoolfriend, pianist Andrew Moore. They have recently reconvened after an extended hiatus with a new line-up featuring guitarist/keyboardist Kev Dosdale and bass player Ian Black (Andrew having taken time out to train as a chef). A new double album is due to be released in February 2010.

The band’s first album, the eponymous “Field Music”, was released in 2005, followed in 2006 by a collection of b-sides and early tracks entitled ‘Write Your Own History’. During this time they toured with fellow bands from the North East England, such as Maximo Park and The Futureheads, as well as sonic adventurers from further afield, including Melbourne’s Architecture in Helsinki and Portland’s Menomena.

In 2007, they released ‘Tones of Town’, a critically acclaimed song cycle, which captured a particularly English variety of post-industrial frustration. However, sensing that a quick follow-up could lead to a dilution of ideas and purpose, the band announced a hiatus shortly after the album was released. In this time Peter and David each released solo albums as The Week That Was and School of Language respectively.

All of their albums were self-produced at their own ‘8Music’ studio in Sunderland.

As usual, the stream is below. Enjoy!

Here is the description of Holly Miranda from her Last.FM:

Holly Miranda is a Detroit born musician, raised between Michigan and Tennessee. Besides being trained in piano, Holly is a self-taught guitar and trumpet player. In 2001, She recorded “High Above The City”, a 20-track solo album available only at shows. In the fall of 2003, Holly met and teamed up with Alex Lipsen, producer and keys player. The project evolved into The Jealous Girlfriends, a four piece band based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She also recorded and performed as Raven Mayhem.

Holly has recently released an EP and has a solo album coming out some time in 2009 . It was produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek and Celebration’s Katrina Ford.

Very different from what I’m used to, but very chill music. The stream is below, hope you enjoy!

Wonderful album, very relaxing, along the same lines as I have been posting as of late (Nujabes, Woodblue, Smooth J, etc) and I really hope I can keep finding these kind of albums. The stream is below, enjoy!

Here is the description of Built By Snow from their Last.FM:

Catchy keyboard rock with an explosion of velcro melodies and magnetic pop hooks that hit your brain like an Atari blasting out of a bazooka.

Short and sweet! This album is very poppy and I love that, give it a listen with the stream below. Enjoy!

Terrific second part to the album I posted last week, the stream is below, enjoy!

Indie pop with distorted vocals, very happy music. Enjoy!

Wonderful downtempo album, along the vein of the same kind of people I’ve been posting as of late – DJ Okawari, Nujabes, Michita, and the rest of them. Take a listen, and I’ll probably be posting North Source next week, which is the other half of this album. The stream is below, enjoy!

Here is the description of Electric President from their Last.FM:

Electric President is made up of Ben Cooper and Alex Kane, both natives of Jacksonville, Florida. Ben is pretty awesome, but Alex is a piece of shit. He’s good at bass, though, so Ben puts up with him for that and that alone. Both of them are very fond of pizza, but Ben’s stomach is easily twice the size of Alex’s and he can eat much more of it per sitting. Alex also drinks Diet Coke due to having diabetes since he was a little kid, which is embarrassing (the Diet Coke … not the having diabetes part). Ben must have the patience of a Saint to put up with that guy.

They’ve recorded two albums and one EP under the Electric President moniker, all released under the German imprint Morr Music, with a third to be released this in early 2010, set to be released by Fake Four Inc. They’ve had songs on television (two on the OC, which was canceled shortly after – coincidence?) and in various short films. They both came from pretty DIY ideas of making music, and as such record all their music in a tool shed and a bedroom with a handful of recording gear. Apparently, this gives them cred.
They hope to one day be incredibly rich from their music so they can buy an airplane and set it on fire without ever using it. To burn that sucker simply because they can, and to stand by and drink expensive wine and laugh manically until it explodes.

This is a really chill album – I played it this morning while I was getting some work done and the CD finished before I even noticed. Check it out, the stream is below, enjoy!