Here is another music feature series that we are building using one of our favorite places to find new music. RCRD LBL, like SoundCloud, also has a rudimentary social component. You can build a profile and add your favorite artists, so you can stay in-the-know on them.

Check out the RCRD LBL Star feature every Sunday!

photo by Nabil Elderkin

The first one is always the most special, right? This distinction goes to Nas and Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley for their single “As We Enter (Tinie Tempah Remix),” which I don’t know if it’s a real remix, but that’s why RCRD says. It sounds like the original that is posted on the Distant Relatives website.

Religious readers may remember my post on independent music labels where I highlighted some of my favorite places to find new tunes.  I was reminded that I forgot about an outfit that happens to be based in my backyard.  This “label” is none other than Ghostly International (GI).

Ghostly lives up to its name with their eerie ability to be everywhere. With their brand associating with the likes of Adult Swim and Behance, it is obvious that there is more to them than music. Ghostly shows a distinct understanding of what it is to have vision. In this day and age, it takes a lot of garner respect in one’s own space, let alone in other spaces. GI is managing to do that. With a knack for releasing forward-thinking, electronic-based music and packaging it with artwork that can be appreciated separate from its inspiration, the Ann Arbor, MI-based art aggregator is a shining example on how to be a brand in the 21st century.

Ghostly is one of the greatest labels to ever be birthed in Michigan.

- Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier

A couple of weeks ago, FutureMidwest – a technology and knowledge conference – took place in Royal Oak, MI, which is a suburb of Detroit. Ghostly International Founder/CEO, Sam Valenti IV, spoke about the story of Ghostly and how they have dealt with dips. Hopefully, his presentation makes it on the web, so we can share it here. It was quite inspiring. Sam’s message of innovation leading the charge in shaping a brand is what we here at Frying in Vein hope more art curation hubs strive to be. As fellow curator Renaissance Soul Detroit‘s Kelly “K-Fresh” Frazier proclaims, “Ghostly is one of the greatest labels to ever be birthed in Michigan. They have been able to successfully brand a label based on a method of making music, so it gives them that legroom to move with the times.”

Inspired by Ghostly, we want to showcase some favorites of their latest material that they have out now.
Read the rest of this entry »

In any line of work, it is usually a good practice to stay up on the latest developments and trends in a particular industry. My industry – digital marketing – could not require a deeper necessity for keeping up with the Joneses. There are many heros in the digital space. One of them happens to be Chris Brogan.

Brogan recently wrote a blog post about a band called Spirit of the Stairs and he noted that the band did not have a web home. It is worth the read for the takeaway message. In Brogan’s post, he basically suggests that the band should have its own website. This digital marketer agrees wholeheartedly.

I am going to take it a step further and give reasons for why bands should invest in having a stand-alone website for your music.

• Autonomy – Control your domain. If MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation or [insert free band website resource here] went belly-up and shut down, you would have nowhere to go. A self-hosted site is like owning a home. Sure, it can be somewhat of a hassle, but having your own place is definitely an ego-boost, right?
• Analytics – Sure, some of the social media sites offer analytics or “Insights,” if you’re Facebook, but the charts and graphs they offer are limited. Say you wanted to know when a person was on your site to see when it might be good to post new content for them to see, only applications like Woopra offer such information. You cannot reliably add Woopra to your MySpace page though (yell at me if I’m wrong). Analytics is where the big boys play when they are looking to increase their bottom line. How can you know if you are successful in your pushing your new single if you do not know when your traffic changes?
• Legitimacy – Having your own self-hosted site let’s people know you are serious. Go on GoDaddy, buy your domain for 3+ years and see how Google treats your site.
• Options – Feel restrained with your Facebook “Like” Page? Do you know many people that can program in FBML? Heh, you can easily switch gears if you have your own space. There are many options out there for building websites – WordPress, Joomla, Squarehost… heck, you can even just trick out a Tumblr page. Endless options lead to endless potential. Potential equals growth, so there. GROW UP.

Do you believe bands need stand-alone websites? No? Tell me why in the comments. Yes? Is there anything I missed in my bulleted reasoning?