Soundcloud is possibly my favourite music website. I use it at least every week for a variety of music purposes. I love the clean feel of the site and the intuitive simple functions. It is such a user-friendly and well evolved website, that it is hard to believe they are just celebrating their 1st birthday. As any kind of musician, label owner, radio / podcast show host and more, Soundcloud is a great way to send and receive music, and it provides an efficient way to distribute, privately or publicly. It is becoming a hugely popular tool, and yet their friendly nature is still seen across the site. In their words, “We’re a few people who moved from Stockholm to Berlin, found some more cool people there and set up a small company to create the best dedicated music site in the world.”

Quick Facts
* SoundCloud is an online audio platform for music professionals that makes sending and receiving music simple and efficient.
* Accounts are currently only available by personal invite.
* SoundCloud is in use by many of the worlds leading electronic music producers and labels.
* Some people think of SoundCloud as an email application but for music, and with a play button.
* Founded in 2007 by Swedes Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss and based in Berlin–Mitte, Germany.

How Does it Work?
The easy way I can explain, is to show you via one of their friendly videos: The Soundcloud Tour.

Sharing
Using their embeddable music player is a great way to promote your music. The code is easily found once your song and details are uploaded, and simple to paste around the web. For example, here is a recent deep house remix that I produced for UK label, Lost My Dog.

Danny Stott – Bunker (Lee Jarvis’ Secret Kelvedon Hideout Remix) (320promo) by Lee Jarvis

Personally, I find this a much easier way than directing music fans to a (now overloaded) Myspace page, plus you are able to display the payer in blogs with ease. Using the Soundcloud Facebook App is also incredibly easy, gaining further recognition for your music on a popular social networking site. Allowing DJs, tastemakers, label owners, friends and co-artists to download your music from the site does away with the need for uploading and sending links that soon expire or FTP log-ins. As the Soundcloud guys put it, ” Music is just kind of tricky to deal with over email. So, we thought we’d change that. SoundCloud is our way of doing it.”

iPhone app
What next for the Soundcloud team? Obviously, mobile markets are going to be a huge development to most of the music industry, and so that’s where they went, announcing their iPhone App last week.

Having received endless feedback from their users, Soundcloud acted upon on of the most popular requests and have built an app allowing you to listen to your own uploaded tracks, as well those sent by people you follow, and tracks sent to your dropbox. It also lets you mark any of these as favourites, and send your tracks via email to anyone in your mobile address book.

Currently priced at €0.79 or $0.99 the app is available from the app store. Although only the first version, I’m sure they will continue to develop this the way they have the full website, and look forward to more announcements over the next year.

Lee Jarvis.

“Whatabitch”
Chess Club 23^rd November
www.myspace.com/kurranandthewolfnotes

Kurran and the Wolfnotes debut single ‘Whatabitch’ stands as the perfect introduction to the way that this band have brought an unmistakable noughties twist to the alt-folk sound, with an playful hint of The Strokes complimenting the otherwise straight up trad-sound. With New Yorker Kurran’s faltering, heartbroken croon and textbook Isle of White Festival circa-1968 guitar jangle it’s half medieval minstrel, half basement bar sleaze.

On the subject of the title they’re quick to stress that no one’s calling anyone a bitch, and that the term is used purely in the weary expressional sense, lest the feminists gather at the gates. Kurran explains, “It might not be the most romantic title but it’s about, from a guys perspective anyway, maybe getting the shorter end of a stick. There’s always got to be one person, and in this case it’s me.”

But anyway, they’re bored of talking about how they got together and they hate explaining what their songs are about, but our wolf based icebreakers (Prime example: wolves mate facing away from each other) prompt a more enthusiastic response. So on the cusp of the release of their debut single we invite them, currently recording in a spider infested garage in North London, to ponder what the future holds.  Let’s get conceptual. What will the single they release in twenty years sound like compared to this one?

GARAGE SESSIONS

Whatabitch || Garage Sessions from Kurran and the Wolfnotes on Vimeo.

“Well it’ll be after the technological singularity, so you’ll just think of a song and you’ll hear it,” says Kurran, “But then it’s always the same, whenever technology goes too far people go back to the retro thing and we’ll be there shouting, ‘Here come the luddites!’ Just like now I guess, because after nu-rave and that, shall we say blip, fiddles are hot again, which is fine with us.”

Groans echo around the table at the emergence of the term “buzz band” but there’s a general consensus that maybe if they were doing this a few years ago people probably wouldn’t have been sitting up and paying attention. But with the re-emergence of a strong Brit-folk school the luddites become the cool kids, by doing what they do best.

While their sound may lend itself to comparison to a whole host of their contemporaries Kurran doesn’t see his band as a flash in the pan. He’s never more sincere than when he says, “I look and bands like Radiohead who have amazing discographies and I want to be able to look back in twenty years and say, ‘Yeah, every single one of these albums speaks for a part of my life’ where as now, with the hype thing people just churn out songs like… it’s fucking ridiculous. We want to spend a little bit more time on the songs we’ve got, but there’s always that pressure that once the song’s there it’s done, but we want to put the care in now when it’s important. We just want to make sure we’re proud of everything we’ve done and if that takes a little longer then that’s just how it’ll be. It’s all about the music! As original as that sounds.”

“The way I think about it,” says Kurran, “There are a few special people who get the chance to do this as their career and that’s it, that’s our goal, I want to be one of those people. It’s not about fame, it’s just to be able to play music for your whole life. It’s like when I was fifteen and heard NOFX and Rancid and I thought, ‘Woah, those guys are playing and it doesn’t look that hard, friggin sweet, I could probably do that.’ So I did!” With secret influences like that, who’s going to stop him?

Kurran and the Wolfnotes will be on the road with Ex-Lovers during October/November for a co-headline tour;

November
Sun 1^st- Edinburgh, Electric Circus
Mon 2^nd- Glasgow, King Tuts
Wed 4^th- Nottingham, Bodega
Thurs 5^th- Birmingham, Hare &  Hounds
Fri 6^th- Cambridge, Portland Arms

Lost My Dog ‘Connect’ is an opportunity for budding DJs, producers and anybody with an interest in the dance music industry to meet and learn from some the UK finest underground House artists, alongside LMD label bosses and record shop staff.

Lost My Dog has teamed up with legendary record store Swag Records, based in Croydon, London, who have been long-time supporters of the label and who introduced artists such as Nathan Coles, Harold Heath and Nick Dare to LMD.

On the afternoon of Saturday 7th November you can hear sets from Rhythm Plate, Giom, Pete Dafeet, Nick Dare and Terry Francis as well as get their advice on music software, hardware, production tips, DJing and learn how they got their first break.

Also in attendance will be Lost My Dog label bosses Najan Ward and Ian Straker who will be giving advice on how to approach labels, things to consider if you are interested in starting your own label and all aspects of the dance music industry. And of course the hugely experienced Swag Records team will be on hand to talk to and serve up the latest hot 12”s. If you’re looking to work in the dance music industry this is a rare and free event that should definitely not be missed.

Date: Saturday 7th November 2009, 12:00 – 18:00

Location: Swag Records, 42 Station Road, West Croydon, London, CR0 2RB

DJs / Producers:
Rhythm Plate / YSE (Lost My Dog, Winding Road)
Pete Dafeet (Lost My Dog)
Giom (Lost My Dog, Aroma, Blackcherry)
Nick Dare (Lost My Dog, Reform Recordings)
Terry Francis (Fabric, Wiggle)

LMD Label Bosses:
Ian Straker
Najan Ward
Pete Dafeet

plus
Liz, Paul and the Swag Records team.

I hope some of our UK Music Jobs members can check it out!

Lee Jarvis.

(Image via Lost My Dog Records)

We offer many ways to showcase and interact here at UK Music Jobs, and I thought I’d cover a little about sharing your music around the website, as well as featuring recent music added by some of our most active members.

As well as from appearing on your profile, recently added mp3s are also featured on our front page and all the key UK Music Jobs site pages – if you contribute regularly you are more likely to attract attention and earn new fans.

The members I have featured below are all fine examples of the value of keeping your profile up to date – adding mp3s, photos, videos, press cuttings and more will make your profile easy to search and attractive to other users and employers to read. Regularly adding info and media means that I am more likely to find you in our network – next time it could be your music shared here and across the UK Music Jobs online profiles!

UK Music Jobs member: Anna Burton

Recommended Listening: And Dance (Indie)
|

UK Music Jobs member: Rebecca Hayes

Recommended Listening: From my chillout album Xemplify (Chill Out)
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UK Music Jobs member: Simon James

Recommended Listening: Wait For The Summer (Rock/Pop)
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UK Music Jobs member: Mike Hawkins

Recommended Listening: Guitar+BV’s: Tell The Blues I’ve Gone – The Flip Flays (Pop)
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UK Music Jobs member: Christopher Ransome

Recommended Listening: Stay – New track with Fear No Fish…. (Rock)
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UK Music Jobs member: Sulene Fleming

Recommended Listening: Stand Up (Dance)
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UK Music Jobs member: Jason Carter

Recommended Listening: One (Flamenco)
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UK Music Jobs member: Sandra Dangelo

Recommended Listening: Sandra Dangelo songwriting singing (Electronica)
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If you would like to be featured in future UK Music Jobs blog posts, then update your profile regularly and leave a message on my profile wall (another feature that you should use for networking – look out for a future blog post!)

Lee Jarvis.

UK Music Jobs recently teamed up with Shoreditch Radio to do some live interviews with acts performing and attending the 1234 Festival in Shoreditch Park.

We nabbed chats with members of My Tiger My Timing and Rifle Volunteer who were enjoying the acts on display. We also managed to spend some time with Hatcham Social and Polly Scattergood as soon as they came off stage. Enjoy!

I am a huge fan of Gary Vaynerchuk, and his words have always resonated with what I try to with music and social media. Well, he recently posted a video blog with the title “Hey Mr DJ”, describing the way that DJs aggregate all the music that is out there and deliver it to you for one particular time of day or mood or party. He then uses the term “DJ” in a broad sense to describe the way that people are always looking for interesting content (not just music, but videos, wine facts, triathlon information, etc), but with the incredible amount that is floating around in 2009, people also need a recommendation system to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Many online streaming sites have various genomes / genius bar devices, but I believe that music fans connect better with real people, hence the rise of the DJ over the last 40 years. I have been a DJ myself for sometime, and believe that I have a knack for choosing records from the millions that are out there from around the world, and playing them to the right people at the right time. As an extension of that, I recommend albums and artists to friends and strangers via my online social networking profiles (such as Twitter or Facebook). Vaynerchuk takes this one step further, and suggests that there is great scope for those who can disseminate any kind of niche information from the web, and provide a place that people with a common interest can easily discover and connect.

This kind of tastemaking is, in essence, what we are doing here at music jobs. We offer not only direct job opportunities, but also select pieces of music industry news, single reviews, festival reports, UK music events, advice on your music career, being an independent artist, band promotion, the future of music, copyright issues, music marketing tips and much more!

The purpose of this post is not only to point out how we are here to help you with your search for that perfect music job, but to also point out that maybe you can do something of similar nature. Maybe you know everything there is to know about 18th Century string music, and so maybe you could make yourself the go-to source, not only creating your own content, but feeding out to other sources and narrating on similar articles across the web. Think about it – find your niche, and run with it! You can even start off by posting some interesting topics in our forums and see how many views they gather!

Here is Gary, with his video…

Gary’s original blog post is here, and if you are into social media and general web inspired banter, then I suggest you watch as many of them as possible!

Aside from our music industry forum and music industry blog, we share a lot more in our Twitter Feed or Facebook Fan Page, so feel free to follow and connect with us on there, for all your music career resources.

Lee Jarvis.

I’ve long been a fan of Beverley Knight since I discovered her excellent 2nd album Prodgial Sista back in 1998. Since then she’s continued to churn out solid records varying from commercial pop (working with Guy Chambers on her 2004 record ”Affirmation”) to her last release the soul/motown influenced ”Music City Soul” in 2007.

After a two year hiatus Ms Knight, arguably the UK’s finest female vocalist, is back with the first single release from her 6th studio album ”’100%”’.  The track was co- written by Beverley with multi-million selling songwriter Amanda Ghost (Beyonce, Shakira, James Blunt), and produced by hot up-and-coming London based duo The Rural (Gym Class Heroes, Beyonce)

Its a classy, up market slice of pop with Knight’s trademark powerhouse vocals resonating deeply against the infectious hook and slick production values. It deserves to do very well and get the Wonder from Wolverhampton back at the front of the pack where she belongs. Accept no limitations as the Queen of British Music is showing everyone how its done.

Beverley will also be undertaking her first UK tour in 2 years in support of 100% in November, following an exclusive sold out gig at London’s ICA on September 3 to launch the album.

Tour dates are as follows:

Thursday 3rd September –ICA, London SOLD OUT
Tuesday 3rd November – Ipswich Regent
Wednesday 4th November – Cardiff St David’s Hall
Thursday 5th November – Bristol Colston Hall
Friday 6th November – Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Sunday 8th November – Glasgow ABC
Monday 9th November – Preston Guild Hall
Tuesday 10th November – Liverpool Philharmonic
Thursday 12th November – Brighton Dome
Friday 13th November – Southampton Guild Hall
Sunday 15th November – Folkestone Leas Cliff
Monday 16th November – Norwich UEA
Tuesday 17th November – Manchester Bridgewater Hall
Thursday 19th November – Southend Cliff Pavillion
Sunday 22nd November – Sheffield City Hall
Monday 23rd November – Birmingham Symphony Hall
Tuesday 24th November – Gateshead Sage
Wednesday 7th April 2010–London Royal Albert Hall

To book call 0871 2200 260 and www.gigsandtours.com

100% is released on Hurricane Records September 14, 2009.

Afternoon to you all.

I have to say it was a little strange not heading off to the pub last Monday for an FM. Strange but good to have a break.

The number of out of office replies I am currently getting suggests the rest of the industry is off at the moment but can I please request that there really is no need to say where you are going in your message. I don’t really want to know about those of you in Barbados, St Lucia, Thailand or Australia.

It really is quite enough just to say you’re away – for those of us without holiday plans, it’s more than enough to bear!

Despite the exodus, there is still plenty of news.

Before I update you all, I really wanted to get something off my chest. Not quite my Friday rant about the difference between the Music industry and the Record industry. But a little rant non the less.

I think we have developed Cultural ADHD.

I know we have a history in this country for building people up and then knocking them down; the reasons for which seem inexplicable to me. However, as technology continues to change the way we live our lives, it seems we have developed an insatiable appetite not only for the technology but also what we consume through it.

This year, we have the highest number of female artists nominated for a Mercury. On this basis, there is already talk that labels are no longer signing female artists as they’ve ‘had their time’. Increasingly we give a band 2 albums at best before we get entirely bored of them (or is it the case that actually the quality of music being made is actually dropping?). The proliferation of electronic bands seems to have been and gone too. And what next – folk?

Align this with our insatiable appetite for technology. Myspace is so last year, Facebook so last month – Twitter – well that’s so yesterday. Spotify – how long will the enthusiasm for that last – some say the bubble has already burst. Rightly or wrongly, I am not a big myspacer, facebooker or twitterer. As you should know, I value personal relationships – it’s the very reason for the creation of FM.

It seems to me we are so obsessed with what’s next, we don’t seem to take much stock of what’s now and make much of an effort to enjoy it. Whatever happened to letting things develop and grow – good old fashioned nurturing?

People continue to demonstrate their love of being part of something real – festivals, gigs and so on. But now some of the festivals are suffering – is that because there are too many? Yes others are selling out like Glastonbury, Bestival etc

All I know is that our ability to enjoy something for a reasonable length of time seems to be diminishing as we have greater expectations from technology and what it delivers.

That this is spilling over into the way we enjoy music I think is a real concern. I think we need to take a collective deep breath and take a little more time to enjoy what so many people have spent so much time, effort and energy into making.

OK, so now on to other things.

O2 and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy charity are proud to announce a one off concert, featuring unique collaborations from some of the UK’s greatest music talent at London’s most celebrated music venue, The O2.

Taking place on 11th September, O2 Rockwell in aid of Nordoff-Robbins will see influential musicians including Robert Plant and Tom Jones, sharing the stage with some of the best new talent to come out of the UK in recent times. This unique event will be a celebration of the amazing contribution that Nordoff-Robbins has made to Music Therapy and the music industry over the past 50 years.

The artists confirmed to play the event, with more to be announced, in no particular order include…

Razorlight

Tom Jones

Robert Plant

Joss Stone

Ronan Keating

Gaz Coombs & Danny Goffey (performing as Hot Rats)

Gabriella Cilmi

Beverley Knight

Lulu

Dan Gillespie Sells (The Feeling)

David Gray

… with more artists coming together to plot and plan a very special Super Group to play for one night only, and legendary collaborations amongst the other artists, it truly will be the musical spectacular of the year.

One hundred percent of proceeds from the show will be donated to Nordoff-Robbins.

Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy has established itself as THE charity of the music industry, with support from across the globe and patron’s that include David Bowie, Coldplay, Elvis Costello, Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, George Michael, Cliff Richard, Keith Richards, Sting, Rod Stewart, and Paul Weller to name but a few. Since its inception back in 1959 when Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins put their individual talents together for a fantastic cause that has helped millions, it has gone on to host and benefit from some fantastic events.

Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy is the UK’s largest music therapy charity and the O2 Rockwell event is part of its celebrations marking 50 years of the Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins collaboration. It provides over 35,000 music therapy sessions to children, young people and adults who are challenged by disability, illness or injustice, through its national centre in London and over 70 national projects. Nordoff-Robbins does not receive statutory funding and needs to raise almost £3 million a year to continue to operate.

Ticket prices for Rockwell range from £40 to £65, and further information can be found at www.o2rockwell.com.

Tickets are on sale now from the following outlets:

The O2:         www.theo2.co.uk

Kililive.com:   www.Kililive.com

Ticketline:     www.ticketline.co.uk

Stargreen:      www.stargreen.com

Gigantic :      www.gigantic.com

Now, for those of you worried about how to make money from your music, Own-it www.own-it.org are holding a free event called ‘How Not to Get Ripped Off’ as an introduction for creative businesses on how to protect and make the most of their creative work.

When: 19.08.09 at 18:30

Where: Street Lecture Theatre, London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London , SE1 6SB

Please visit http://www.own-it.org/events/how-not-to-get-ripped-off for details and to register

Going back briefly to holidays, I have come across a pretty spectacular resort in Goa. Now we are not a travel agent so you really do have to go through to the link and do all the necessary checks but this place does look stunning and if you think a healthy retreat but be just what you need, maybe in the New Year, then this seems like an ideal spot. You can check all of the details out here

http://www.sandawellness.com/india/main/index.html

and if you want to find out more, please contact them directly here anna@essence-communications.com

With so much covered in this mailing, I’m going to leave it at that for now but details will follow later this week of September FM events in London, Liverpool and New York.

Enjoy your week folks.

Sybil

Hey everyone,

We at UK Music Jobs are excited to start up a new promotion. If you are an unpaid registered member of Music Jobs and own a blog or website, you can get one month of paid membership for FREE. Don’t have an account yet? Sign up, and get your profile running for free, here!

How does it work?

If you are a registered UK Music Jobs member and you have a personal blog, this will be quite easy for you. Simply write in your blog about UK Music Jobs and include a link to our site. A couple of possible blog post ideas include a short or detailed description of the site, how Music Jobs has helped you in your job hunt, an informative wiki-like profile of our site, or you can write a review about UK Music Jobs.

If you don’t have a blog yet, there are plenty of free blog providers that you can join, including Blogger, Wordpress, TypePad, LiveJournal, and many more.

Have a website, but no blog? No problem! Just write about us on one of your pages, refer people back to us, and link back to our site.

You can link to the UK Music Jobs Homepage (uk.music-jobs.com) , but it may be more useful for your readers if you linked to the jobs board page at http://uk.music-jobs.com/jobsboard.php. But, if you feel we have a page on our site more relevant to your readers, feel free to link back to that page instead (ie, the “About Us page“). (Remember, the link has to be clickable. To do this on most blogging platforms, highlight the text you want to make a link, click the icon that looks like a globe with a chain link in front of it, then press OK or DONE).

Once you have your blog post up, send us the following to ukmj_promo@music-jobs.com:

1. Your Name and UK Music Jobs username (click here to sign up for free)
2. Your website or blog’s URL with the posting about UK Music Jobs

Also, if you know any artists or anyone in the music industry that is not with Music Jobs currently, why not tell them about this promotion? It’s a great opportunity for non members to try out our service at no cost. Just have them sign up for a free account at the freelancer registration page to get started!

This promotion will last from today, August 6, 2009 until , September 6, 2009. Members who qualify for the free one month’s subscription will be contacted by email.

Thanks, everyone!
UK Music Jobs

Conditions and terms: URLs and links to UK Music Jobs must be clickable. Links with the “no-follow” tag in the HTML are not considered eligible for the promotion. Please allow up to three business days for approval. Link and info must be posted outside of UK Music Jobs. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites that use “no-folow” and framed browsing do not qualify. Only one free month subscription per member. Free month contingent on Music Jobs’s link presence for a minimum of 1 month on members’ blog/website.

All week we had been nervously watching the weather reports hopin’ & a prayin’ that the sun would come out to play for Lovebox last Saturday.  Thankfully it did but then so did the rain just as Florence & The Machine took to the stage.  It didn’t dampen spirits though with the enthusiastic crowd lapping up the variety of acts performing throughout the day.

We arrived at Victoria Park around 1.30pm just as 12 year old Chipmunk (ok ok so he’’s apparently 19 but he looks 12 to us) was finishing his set.  To be fair he was giving it his all despite playing to a crowd of about 10 people.  It looked very much like the main acts would be the only ones capable of dragging people away from the Relentless dance area and fairground rides.

To be honest from our perspective it was very nice to be able to sit down and relax with a few beers around the main stage area without being trampled by a sea of crazy festival goers. This definitely seemed to be the vibe with Lovebox – relaxed, fun and not too crowded early on which was great when all you wanted to do is chill out with your pals.

Up next on the main stage was VV Brown.  We love VV here at UK Music Jobs and think she deserves more credit and respect than she gets.  She’s been pummeling the festival circuit, including a stunning Glastonbury show, giving well received performances but the big problem is that while people know who she is, they don’t know her songs.  VV is evidence that without Radio 1 airplay mass audiences just aren’t going to connect with you at this level. Despite that she’s a great performer and threw herself into the set with Crying Blood (both original and excellent reggae version), L.O.V.E & current single Shark In The Water going down fantastically well with the audience.

Mr Hudson was up next and was OK if slightly underwhelming for me.  I’ve heard lots about the man and while I think he has a excellent voice and bucket loads of charisma (plus his band are tight) the songs are just a bit bland and unexciting.  He did work it though and had the crowd going so its proof enough that his kind of mainstream, uber slick pop has mass appeal.

The retro tinged sound of Rumble Strips seemed to be a perfect choice for a late afternoon main stage appearance.  The crowed had consumed enough beer in the limited sunshine to lap up the shimmery, summery guitar sounds of this interesting indie/pop band.  I do wish the lead singer would look as if he actually wanted to be there though.  Always helps.

So then came a 22 year old singer/songwriter and former performing arts teacher to inject the first bit of blinding star quality of the day.  Florence & The Machine had drawn the biggest crowd with anticipation mounting for her to deliver a set to match all the hype.  She did and then some.  Running out on stage looking stunning and clutching a glass of white wine she jumped straight into a performance rich with drama, emotion, laughs, excitement and bloody brilliant tunes!  Cosmic Love is my favourite track of the entire album and I could quite happily listen to her sing it live everyday.  The emotion and throat tightening pathos she conveys is immense for one so young.   She finished off with her rousing cover of ‘You’ve Got The Love’ which had every hand in the air and so many smiles and wafts of good vibes that I sense it won’t be long before she’s the headline act.

I always thought Duran Duran were an odd choice for a headline act so I made my way over to the Gaymer’s Stage to catch Friendly Fires.  I’m not going to say much because if you were there then you already know just how brilliant their set was.  Quite simply the best live band I’ve seen in the last five years.  Their songs are immense, gorgeous nuggets of electro/indie/pop deliciousness.  Go and see them live whenever and wherever you can. They’ll make you happy. I promise.

So that was our Saturday at Lovebox.  For a mere £46 this has to be the best, friendliest, most organised music related day out of the year.  We recommend you get yourselves along next year.