Musikbusiness E-Book: "CD machen - und dann?"

For our German Readers in Switzerland:

Seit unseren MBiz Workshops 2010 zu haben: Praxisorientiertes E-Book für alle unabhängigen Musiker/innen, Produzenten und Interpreten. Der Leitfaden bietet viele Tipps, Hinweise, Adressen und weiterführende Links rund um die Themen Vertrieb und Promotion im Schweizer Musikmarkt und dient als Hilfestellung, um als Musikschaffende/r seine Kunst eigenständig zu verbreiten.

Erschienen am 5.4.2011 auf » lulu.com, € 18.90, PDF 60 Seiten A4 auf allen Computern und mobilen Geräten.

Now in German: Short Story "The Last Cigarette"

Seit heute im Kindle Store. Alexander G. Johnsons spannende Kurzgeschichte aus einer nicht allzu fernen Zukunft:

Die letzte Zigarette
"Es ist das Jahr 2052. Die Welt wird von einem zentralen Rat mit Sitz in Hong Kong regiert. Die Produktion von Rindfleisch wurde beschränkt und die offiziellen Sprachen sind Mandarin, Spanisch und English. Rauchen und das Anpflanzen von Tabak ist gesetzlich verboten. In London findet eine Auktion statt, an der die letzte noch verbliebene, legale Zigarette versteigert wird. Die Geschehnisse an jenem Tag eskalieren. Doch es geht nicht alles in Rauch auf ..."
€0.89 auf Amazon.de, per gratis Kindle App auf allen Mobiles, Tablets, Computern und Kindle Readern. E-Book Kurzgeschichte entspricht 30 Taschenbuchseiten.

True Musicianship

This is improvisation and true musicianship at its best. A violinist's answer to being interrupted by a Nokia ringtone during a solo concert of classical music. Enjoy.

Lovers and the Wisdom of the Crowds

Recommendation platform SoundOut recently made an offer to Sonicbids subscriber, a free song review.  In their own words, "SoundOut is the market leading research and audience insight tool for new music that guarantees accurate and objective insight into any track by any artist, powered 100% by real music fans and consumers."

So we had Sonicbid subscriber Alex Johnson's song "Lovers" rated, and returned was a cool, comprehensive report with lots of comments from real people.  In essence, this pages-long report analyses the marketability of the song in details and rates it. God to know that lovers has a 78% (very good) chance to become a hit with the main age group in their twenties ands thirties.

Display the report and snoop around (pdf 550 KB). Btw, Lovers is available for recording, licensing (pop).

Gerd Leonhard's book 'Music 2.0'

Gerd Leonhard's 2nd book on the Future of the Music Industry. Music 2.0 is an inspiring and invigorating collection of Music & Media Futurist Gerd Leonhard's best essays and blog posts on the future of the music industry. The book continues and expands on the ideas and models Gerd presented in his first book “The Future of Music” (co-written with Dave Kusek, published by Berklee Press in 2005).  From his more than 1.000+ blog posts and over 20 long-form essays, Gerd has selected the best essays on the key questions: what are the principles that will define the next iteration of the music business, and what will future success look like?

The author offers his book for free as .pdf, if you...

Free Read: The Last Cigarette

AmazonPrime Subscribers (US Store) can actually borrow this title free of charge from Amazon's Kindle library, we just found out.

A great new winter read.

A short story by Alexander G. Johnson

"The year 2052, the world is ruled by one central government seated in
Hong Kong; the produce of beef has been limited, and the official
languages are Mandarin and English! The smoking and planting of tobacco
has been outlawed; in London an auction is about to take place of the
last remaining, legal, cigarette. The surrounding events that take place
on that day make it a smoke to remember ..."

Free Kindle App available across many mobile and desktop devices.

Happy New Year, 2012 !

This ... is my all-time favorite illustration about 2012. By now everybody has heard about the Mayan calendar that will end -converted to Gregorian calendar- on December 21st, 2012. Certain circles already started to panic years ago (some time around 1999?) that the world is going to end. Books have been written, movies were made and believers are getting ready for the big event.

Well ... the Mayans didn't say that the planet is going to be sucked into a black hole or explode or hit by a comet or burned down by aliens. They simply wrote that the world as we know it is going to end.

And that's evident around us already now. Old structures are breaking up, the old is trying to resist the new, and the tensions will get stronger - for a while. But 2012 is also the year of change. I would like to encourage each and everybody to welcome the opportunities that present themselves before us. Chaos offers change and change becomes chance. 2012 will be a most interesting year. Take the chance and enjoy life to the fullest. Happy 2012!