Recap: Exploring songwriting with The National and The Recording Academy

Last night the Bay Area chapter of The Recording Academy hosted a special evening with Matt and Aaron from The National, as part of an ongoing 'exploring songwriting' series. 

At the onset, Matt mentioned that The National has been a band for 14 years, but that it took eight before the band garnered any real attention. Overnight success is rare in this industry, even when you're a master of your craft. (Shout out to my former colleagues at Paste for what I think was The National's first major cover story and 'Album of the Year' nod?). 

The duo played four songs, including "Pink Rabbits" and "I Need My Girl" from the new album Trouble Will Find Me, and sat down for a Q&A about what it's like to be songwriting in a band with five "smart and stubborn" people.

Here are some of the quotes I caught through the evening. 

"It took a few years before we knew what we were doing -- the alchemy of the band.... We never wrote big hooks... we weren't influenced by that desire.... But eventually we did write infectious songs."

Aaron: "You realize you have to have a sense of conviction because if you release a record and you tour, you're going to live with those song for two years, so you better have conviction, and you better love it.... The first two records [The National and Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers] were really about figuring it out."

Matt: "I will pop [an instrumental] track on Garage Band and mumble along.... It's hard to tell which pieces of music will create the chemistry I can connect to.... For each record, we have 50-60 pieces of music, and only 20 I connect with."

Matt: "You get five people who are smart and stubborn... pulling it in different directions.... We were afraid the band would break up. We were desperate to make it good...Boxer, we got thru it... though Aaron's lung collapsed..."

Aaron: "We call our songs ugly ducklings... It takes a lot of hard work, and faith that you will get [to a final product]."

Matt: "I'm never worried I'm going to write a sad song. I always do... But it is never depressing; it is cathartic... Once lyrics start to get fleshed out we think, 'Maybe the strings are too much now'.... We have to be careful of the melodrama."

Thanks to The Recording Academy and the band for the insight.

If you're a musician or otherwise involved in music creation, definitely consider membership in The Recording Academy. I've been to a number of events like this and they just keep getting better. Great people in attendance, too.

A letter to Matt Nathanson, regarding the money I surely owe him

Dear Matt Nathanson,

A friend RT'd about your upcoming show at Amoeba, and I thought, "Sweet! A free Matt Nathanson gig?! In my neighborhood?! Heck yeah!"

Then it occurred to me that every interaction I've had with your music so far has been "free"... and that made me pretty sad and also a bit embarrassed. 

You see, back in 2004 I went to see The Darkness perform in Atlanta. On the way out of the venue, a slightly aggressive college kid (presumably on a street team) gave me a swag-bag from Tower Records (RIP), which contained your single, "Suspended." Though I'd seen your name on some adverts for The Cotton Club (RIP) I had never heard your music until I got home and put that CD in my computer.

Holycow! I wore that single OUT! I listened to it so many times that I could name-that-tune as soon as I heard that first snare note.

A year later, I went work at a music magazine and discovered even more of your music, like At the Point, in the CD library and, well, borrowed it for long periods of time. When this thing called Pandora happened shortly thereafter, your music was all over my stations. I wasn't surprised when a Pandora exec told me that "Curve of the Earth" was surfaced more than any other song at the time. I probably contributed to a lot of those Thumbs-Up votes myself.

So back to the Amoeba thing, because this isn't meant to be a gushing fan letter...

I realized when I read your tweet that I've never paid you a single cent for all the music I've consumed. Not a penny.

You know how much money I've given The Darkness? $60.00, give-or-take... and I'm not even a fan!

I still work in the industry and know that there's a prevailing argument that, by listening to your music and recommending it to my friends, fans like me have had some kind of pass-along economic impact. Yet in my case, I don't think that's anecdotally true. In fact, I asked my four closest friends, "How did you find out about Matt Nathanson?" hoping they would say, "Because of you! Because you teach me everything I need to know about music!" Instead, two cited Pandora, one thought it was because of the radio, and the fourth said she covered one of your early concerts for a college paper and was probably the one who introduced ME to your music...

Maybe the radio royalties have added up, and maybe every fan who feels like she discovered your music has made an impact, but the fact remains that I've never consciously paid you for your work and I know I've consumed my fair share of it. So, I'd like to remedy that -- not by buying merch or sending money through a long chain of middlemen who will take a cut... no, I'd like to write you a personal check. 

Even for that original copy of "Suspended" I'd owe you, like, $3.40 if we considered interest and inflation. That's almost enough to get a good cup of pour over coffee in the Mission. But, heck, I've listened to a lot more than that single: let's one-up The Darkness with $61.00.

Should we arrange a hand-off at Amoeba? Do you prefer PayPal? Square? Venmo? I'm serious about this. It'll be like supporting a retroactive Kickstarter campaign. And maybe that's where this industry is heading.

Sincerely,

Caren

Independent musicians and Google Play Music All Access

If you ask me, I have one of the coolest jobs at Google: to create success stories for independent musicians on Google Play.

From my time as a music critic and band manager, I can tell you that no two musicians are the same, whether it's in the art they create or the ways they want to share that art with the world. Some artists will put their music anywhere to gain exposure with new audiences, while others are more particular about how their music is sold.

There's no right or wrong answer in this brave new digital world, which is why I'm proud of what we've built within the Google Play artist hub. 

Through the artist hub, independent musicians make the decisions about how their music is distributed on Google Play. Since there are no limits to how many albums you can distribute, and no per-album or annual fees, we've seen artists doing all kinds of interesting things with their music, like posting recordings from live shows. Still others, like The Civil Wars, Lindsey Stirling and Kopecky Family Band, have climbed our charts with studio recordings, after distributing through the artist hub.

Many musicians don't realize that iTunes isn't available on Android devices, but Google Play is. With over 900 million activated Android devices out in the world, that's a lot of potential fans for any musician to reach.

With the roll out of the All Access service on Google Play Music, we're giving musicians another option for distributing their music via the artist hub. Just as you can choose how and where your music is sold on Google Play, you choose whether to make your music available on All Access.

When you do, any All Access subscriber can easily add your music to their collection. Imagine your tracks popping up in a personalized radio station, or in a playlist handcrafted by the Google Play editorial team. I've been blown away by how spot on the recommendations are. Opening a Third Eye Blind radio station delivered songs more fitting than what I put on my own mix tape in 1998.

Independent artists can opt-in entire albums or just specific tracks for All Access.

1. Log-in to the artist hub at http://play.google.com/music/publish
2. Click on an album you want to add to All Access
3. Select "Edit Album Details"
4. Review the "All Access Setting"
5. Click "Publish changes"

The best part is that music fans in the US, Europe and Australia will still be able to buy your tracks, too (if you've opted-in to international distribution). Now you have two ways to earn money and find more fans.  

We know the money stuff can get confusing when it comes to streaming, so we've provided transparency and clarity in our Support Center.

At the end of the day, musicians want to create music, and not TPS reports, for a reason. It's our goal to help artists spend less time on the business of their music so they can get back to making it.

Cheers to the next chapter of Google Play.

Reflections from my desk at Paste magazine, 8 years ago

Last week one of the folks at Paste magazine posted some photos from its old office in Decatur, Georgia.

The photos were taken in September 2005, a few months after I'd started my job there. In one of the shots, you can see me hunched over my desk -- a happy workaholic -- surrounded by what a fire marshall would deem a disaster waiting to happen.

With the news Facebook's bajillion-dollar acquisition of Instagram, it was especially nice to see this digital time capsule opened up last week. Photos and their memories are incredibly powerful. This particular album reminded me of my own days at a start-up (albeit of a different sort) and what really goes into that work: a lot of love, frustration and faith.

I shared the following reflection on Facebook but wanted to expand on it and give it a bit more breathing room...

I vividly remember the first time I visited the Paste office for my internship interview, at the recommendation of my wonderful sorority advisor and friend, Christy. Situated next to the train tracks and above a frame store, the office looked like a frat house occupied by music geeks.

Overdressed in my pencil skirt and heels, I plopped down on a hand-me-down couch to talk to Paste's publisher, Nick Purdy, who gave me the first case interview of my career. I was sure I bombed it, but on the way out he suggested a start date of August. Surrounded by posters, CDs and shipments of magazines, it was all a bit overwhelming and I wondered what the heck I was getting myself into.

A year later, they couldn't drag me out of that place and they had no choice but to hire me on full-time. My coworker, Jeremy, donated his old college desk so that I had a place to sit. We built it in what little space was left in the place, while other folks were sitting two to a table (while our interns got resourceful and turned huge rolls of bubble wrap into makeshift workstations). The Brick Store Pub acted as our conference room and we shared team lunches on the roof. We took turns taking out the trash and answering customer service inquiries. If the train was rolling by, we put our phone calls on hold.

In the years that followed, Paste grew-up and got a bigger office and I learned how hard it is to build something from scratch. I also learned how rewarding it is when you succeed. Many of my coworkers had second jobs -- valeting cars, writing press releases, coding for other companies -- but you wouldn't have known it from how hard everyone worked when they arrived at the office each day. Every contract, every subscription and every award was a tiny victory that each of us had a hand in.

More importantly, I learned that it's true what they say: to love what you do, you must do what you love (and it doesn't hurt to surround yourself with good, smart and creative people).

See all of the old pictures from the Paste magazine offices -- September 2005

My first concert review - August 1996, The Monkees

I was saddened to learn that Davy Jones of The Monkees died yesterday. The Monkees reunion tour in 1996 brought me to my very first concert. I've now been to over 300 gigs, so hearing about Jones' passing made me think of all the good things that have happened since then.

To commemorate his life, I'd like to share the very first concert review I ever wrote, taken exactly as it was scribed in my junior high diary.

(I'll warn you now: most middle school journalists were pret-ty intimidated by my writing...)

Ahem.

Sunday 8/25/96

Last night we went to the Monkees concert at the Patriot Center (George Mason University). It started at 8pm. We saw the Oldies 100 WBIG van. It was parked outside the "arena."

When we got inside we saw the tee-shirt stand. Meghan and I each got tee-shirts. We were going to get a program but they cost $18.00 each! It only had pictures, too. When we got our tee shirts, Meg & I changed into them. We bought ice cream and went to our seats. Section 101 Row C, Seats 11, 12, 13 and 14.

[DJs] Jim London, Kathy Whiteside, Dave Adler, etc, from WBIG came on stage and opened. 5 min. break then all of a sudden. You heard, "Here we come, walking down the street..." and the three touring Monkees came out. Davey Jones, Mickey ____ and Peter Tork. Opened with I think, "Take the last train to Clarksville."

Very funny. Mickey pulled kids up on stage. Their names were Charolette, Emily and Georgia. It was Georgia's birthday. Sang happy birthday.

Overall, each had two solos. Heard songs I knew and didn't. "I'm not your stepping stone," "Another pleasant Valley Sunday," "Daydream believer."

Davey came in the audience. Said people thought he and Marcia Brady got married. Asked if we remembered the theme. Sang it, and he came in audience. Then song "Girl." Came two rows away from us. Closed with "Day...Believer." Left.

We had alot of fun. Also, they did Jimi Hendirx impression. - Bum, Bum, Bum, Bum, Bum^Bum, Bum, Bum, Bump, Bum Bum Bum We Want the Monkees We Want Davey, We Want Mickey, We Want Peter, We Want Mike.

Funny. Loved It.

Thanks for the music and the memories, Davy, even the very silly ones.

Caren Explains... How Ticketmaster Plans to Seat You Next to Friends

Yesterday Ticketmaster announced a thoughtful new feature that allows you to see where your friends are sitting at an event... even if you didn't make plans to go to said event with said friends. Ticketmaster relies on Facebook Connect to do this and will reveal that layer of information on top of the venue map before you complete a ticket purchase.

Concerts are an inherently social experience, so this is a no-brainer. I've been to nearly 300 concerts and can't tell you how many times I have run around trying to find friends who I wanted to meet up with at the show. This new feature could end dizzying rounds of text messages suggesting "Meet me at the merch table!"

While the aim is discovery (see which of your friends are at the event) it could also lessen the stress of social coordination. Here is an example of how I normally take charge of group ticket buying when I'm the one in-the-know:

1. Email a group of friends who may be interested in the event.

2. Wait on responses; maybe chase it with one last email before tickets go on sale.

3. Gauge sensitivity to ticket prices (should we sit on the lawn or in actual seats?)

4. Buy tickets for everyone so that we can all sit together.

5. Collect payment from friends, either by PayPal or at the show.

6. Distribute tickets, either by:

- Emailing the ticket PDF (should that option be available)

- Waiting at the gate for friends to come pick up tickets

- Going to the event all together (more coordination required)

In the future, Ticketmaster could lessen that burden. I would love to see some functionality that allows you to hold a block of seats and send your selected Facebook friends a message so they can grab them up if they act immediately. As it is, Ticketmaster will hold a block of seats for you for X-minutes before releasing them. If I could grab six seats, hold them, assign each seat to a friend, message my friends with a link so they could input their credit card information, I'd be a hero amongst friends.

Just as with any check-in or location-based service, there will be some strange social consequences of this "sick" new feature. One positive consequence is that it might help you discover new things about your friends and your shared interests ("Oh, wow, I didn't know Jane likes Wrestlemania, too!").

Yet it may also reveal things your friends didn't intend for you to know ("Jane likes Wrestlemania?"). It could also be disheartening if you realize your friends didn't invite you to an event you were interested in ("Jane KNOWS I like Wrestlemania!").

This is a tradeoff we make as we allow our personal data to be used in more places, and perhaps a reminder that we should be more careful to maintain privacy and anonymity. As our Facebook friendships become looser and the social graph grows, there are inevitable tradeoffs between privacy and problem solving.

I consider how angry my father would be if he bought the family tickets to a Redskins game and found out a brown-noser from the office bought the seats next to ours, proudly proclaiming "I saw you were sitting here on Ticketmaster." Then again, that is why my father isn't on Facebook.

-CK

Get Smart at SXSW: Five tips for surviving the week

Last year I gave you three pieces of advice on SXSX Music before embarking on my first Platinum SXSW experience (Music, Film and Interactive conferences all). With that behind me and nine days of SXSW ahead of me, I give you five more pieces of advice on how to survive SXSW 2011.

1) Bring a phone charger or spare battery with you wherever you go. All of those tweets, check-ins, emails and texts are going to drain your phone so fast you will be running around looking for an electrical outlet before lunchtime. The Convention Center usually has cellphone charging lockers you can use on the upper levels, but also consider bringing a spare battery pack (sorry, iPhone users, that doesn't apply to you) or else carry an extra AC adapter in your bag.

2) Be diligent about your health. Not to sound too much like a mom, but take care of yourself, okay? Go for a run on the awesome Town Lake trails and take some vitamins. With all the beer-swiggin' and hand-shakin' that happens during the week, you are gonna pick up as many unwanted germs as unwanted tchotchkes. So instead of reaching for that mimosa, put some Emergen-C in your water and toast to your health.

3) Get to peddling. Austin is really not a very big town, so this year my friend Monica and I (who are staying a mile outside of downtown) are getting bikes. Cheap, quick and no need to fight for cabs. Plus there are added health benefits (see above) Uber, the private car service I love in SF, is also going to be down in Austin with pedicabs, so put them to work for charity.

4) Create your own parties on the fly. About 20% of your time at SXSW is spent waiting in line for something -- to catch a band, to get some food, to use the bathroom... but when the only reason you're queued up is to get in to a party hosted by a tech company, why not just grab some folks and spill in to the bar next door? Let's be honest, guys: will you really get to meet the founder if you don't know them already? Probably not. It seemed ridiculous last year that people were waiting to get in to a bar for a party when the bar next door was completely empty. Try using Hurricane Party's app to make your own on-the-fly party, or else to tell friends where you're relocating to. And if the Foursquare or Gowalla check-in matters that much to you, guess what? You'll be in close enough proximity to fool the app in to thinking you're there.

5) Create a mobile group to keep in touch. Before you get to Austin, decide which few people you really want to keep up with -- perhaps coworkers so you don't miss networking opportunities, or friends so you can use all the +1s you asked for in your RSVPs. Try Kik (great app which just rolled out group messaging) or GroupMe (uses SMS messages) and hit lots of people at once when issuing only one message.

Wanna meet up in Austin? Find me on Twitter at twitter.com/caren

2010 Indie Music Trends: Cats, Beaches, a Venn Diagram and a Playlist

Every year there seems to be one or two prevailing trends in the world of indie music naming and branding. It was my (assumed) job at Paste to document this all for an audience of hipsters who cared to argue about such things at the end of the year. Back then I discovered that...

• 2007 was the Year of the Deer/Dear bands (Deerhunter, Deer Tick, Loney Dear)
• 2008 brought the Year of the Bear bands (Care Bears on Fire, Grizzly Bear, Panda Bear)

As we look back on 2010, I'm ready to declare that it was "The Year of the Cat and the Beach (a Little Bit of Each)." Too bad Dr Seuss isn't around to write about this one for me.

Take a look at all the album art that featured furry felines, including releases by Best Coast, The Klaxons, MGMT and Two Door Cinema Club.

But there were just as many surf-and-sand-loving bands to be had, so let's venn diagram this and figure out who the real winner was in 2010.

Four magic bands in the center of the venn diagram?! Amazing!

That's because MGMT gave us...

• Cat-shaped-wave on the album art

The Klaxons offered...

• Cat album art
• An album called "Surfing the Void"

Best Coast provided...

• Cat (sitting on an ocean) album art
• A nearly beachy name

But the real winner is Wavves, with its...

• Cat (wearing a gold chain!) album art
• Surf-and-sand band name (with superfluous 'v'!)
• A song called "King of the Beach"

Well done, Wavves. The trinity of 2010 indie music branding.

Here's a playlist of all the bands. They are talented folks. Buy their music, please (... but maybe not the whole MGMT album... that was disappointing).

Caren Explains Tree Cenergy, Copyrights and Being a Blacklisted Blogger

Today I received notification that someone is out to get me. I cannot tell you who, exactly, but they are already on the attack.

It started when I got a very longwinded, vague email from Blogger that said I have apparently infringed on the copyrights of someone involved in a blog post I wrote nearly six months ago. The post proclaimed the awesomeness of a hip band from Philadelphia whose name rhymes with "Tree Cenergy." [This band is growing very popular, by the way].

The blog post in question refers readers to two mp3 downloads that were made "legally" available on other sites. I wasn't hosting the files myself, and I made sure -- before posting the links -- to read up on the referring sites' download agreements. In doing so, I was assured that the referring sites (SPIN and Stereogum) had permission to post the mp3s. I even listed a disclaimer that said something to the effect of, "These sites have proof that these downloads are allowed."

Blogger advises that I remove the offending content and repost. But to be honest, I have no idea what I did wrong. Knowing this detail would be helpful to "prevent future violations." Instead, I'm going to be blacklisted on the DMCA clearinghouse. Super.

So let me stand on my soapbox for a second and make two different but tangental arguments.

First, I applaud you copyright holders for fighting for your rights. No one values content anymore and that needs to be remedied. The proliferation of mp3 blogs and aggregators has only perpetuated the notion that content should be free. Consumers feel entitled to get it. And if you take a stand and say it isn't allowed to be free, there are still plenty of places to stream it (Grooveshark, for one). If you treat the symptom, you don't ever cure the disease. So maybe I deserved a slap on the wrist.

But, if a musician values his copyrights he should make sure his business team is on the same page. When I was at Paste, I used to get tons of emails from publicists and labels encouraging us to post mp3s for our readers to download. These businessmen were treating mp3s as loss leaders for other revenue streams, like touring dollars and commercial licensing fees. Not that artists are always okay with that strategy.... In 2007 Band of Horses pulled out of a Wal-Mart commercial after going back and forth about the implications for its image.

That there is no industry agreement on mp3 sharing on music blogs has only further muddled the perceived value of content. If the majors say "No!" but the indies say "Yes!" what happens to when an indie band is upstreamed to a major label? My guess is the major suddenly go looking through archives to yank down files that the artist published as an indie; heck, the indie might even look through the archives once a band gets somewhat popular... it is certainly suspicious that this notice was issued six months after the blog publication...

Perhaps I trusted too much in SPIN and Stereogum's policies; or perhaps it isn't the mp3s that are the problem, but a picture I posted instead? I guess only The Man knows for sure.

You can bite the hand that feeds you, Music Industry, but at least give an explanation after you sink your teeth in.

Caren Explains Zeppelin, Springsteen and Strategic Marketing

Four years ago, I mistook John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin for a mandolin-totin' nobody... at best, I thought him a member of Widespread Panic.

It all happened when I was sitting in a tent backstage at Bonnaroo, sneezing incessantly and waiting for my allergy medicine to kick-in. It was hot and I was miserable. That's when Jones walked in. He politely and unassumingly introduced himself as "John" while I tried not to sneeze in his face. Then he walked into the other part of the tent to play the mandolin for a camera crew from CNN.

A handful of people rushed in to see this legend play his instrument, while others (like me) went about business as usual.

#hugelifefail

I recognized neither Jones' star power or musical prowess, despite the presence of CNN. I guess I just wasn't looking (or listening) hard enough.

I thought of this encounter during our last HBS session of Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries, when Professor Elberse challenged me and my classmates to predict whether people can identify true talent without marketing cues or signals. As an example, she referenced an experiment that took place in 2007:

What happens when world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bells, plays six difficult pieces on his $3m violin... at a DC Metro station during rush hour?

Some classmates guessed that there would be a mob (as did The Washington Post initially expected), whereas others said he would go unnoticed.

Here's what happened...

Talk about a humbling experience. Bell made $32.17 that day, whereas he normally earns $1,000 per minute for a performance.

The Jones and Bell examples hint at a question underlying the entertainment industry: Can people recognize quality without cues?

The contextual factors are certainly important, like time, day, location and competition. My classmate, Luis (a chart-topping musician in South America) also brought up accessibility. Pop songs are, not surprisingly, more recognizable than those crafted for the violin (or mandolin). When you have only a few seconds to catch someone's attention, this is especially critical.

To support Luis' point about accessibility, here is a video of Bruce Springsteen performing on a street in Copenhagen some twenty-odd years ago. While The Boss didn't cause near riots, he certainly drew more of a crowd than Bell did...

I think we would all prefer pure talent over manufactured fads -- the show without the business. But if Springsteen can't make it on the streets, who of us can?

Caren and Brad Explain Bieber's Five Forces

Over the past few days we haven't had a lot of case studies at HBS, so Brad and I decided to take a break from paper-writing to turn our attention to a business mystery: How did Justin Bieber happen?

Here's what we know about Justin "J-Biebz" Bieber:

- He is from Canada

- He is sixteen

- He was "discovered" on YouTube

- He likes to tweet (and 1.8million people like his tweets)

- He makes three-year-old girls cry

But is his fame sustainable? To explore this question, Brad and I offer you a Bieber's Five Forces analysis.

Let's crowd source this one -- go ahead and add your analysis + any suggestions to the Google Doc and we'll see if we can crack the case.

Caren Explains 1997 and 1998 Mix Tapes

When I lived in Atlanta, my car was broken into twice. I didn't care so much about that; what REALLY bothered me is that the thieves took everything except my amazing collection of cassette tapes!

Really? You didn't want any of those? Not even Tiffany or NKOTB? REALLY?!?

When I was cleaning out this eleven-year-old car the other day I rediscovered a few of these cassettes, including some mix tapes I made in 1997 and 1998. Listening to them was like opening a time capsule, and I got a bit nostalgic for my tweenage years at Robert Frost Middle School and Wootton High School. Back then I spent at least an hour a night listening to 99.1 WHFS, trying to tape its nightly countdown onto cassette tapes. I would then edit them into mixes using my two-tape boom box. Yup... I was a dorky music geek even then.

Here are the songs on two of those mix tapes. Hope they take you on a trip down memory lane.

Caren Explains 3 Ways to Improve Your SXSW Music Experience

On Sunday I head to Austin, Texas, for my fourth pilgrimage to SXSW. It will be the first time I'm not producing SXSW-related events (like the one pictured above); instead I'll be checking out the interactive panels and film screenings, before I help introduce The Lighthouse and the Whaler to the rest of the music industry [catch the band's showcase on Wednesday March 17th at 7:30pm at The Tap Room at Six].

Ian Schafer penned a great post for AdAge reminding all of us who are Austin-bound “10 Ways to Not Be a Jerk at SXSW.” Ian’s offers some advice specific to SXSWi, so I thought I’d add three pieces of advice for those people going to the SXSW Music festivities.

1) Don't plan every minute of your day. SXSW used to be about the discovery, but now it is a miracle if you can survive the whole thing. Go ahead and make a schedule using my.sxsw, but do leave some room for exploration. There are probably 50-some-odd bands that the industry is buzzing about, and you may be tempted to go see them all; but do you really want to be the umpteenth blogger to proclaim [over-hyped band] the darling of SXSW? Wouldn’t it be cooler to stumble into something unusually interesting? There is certainly talent among the other 1,000+ artists showcasing at SXSW, so ditch the schedule from time to time and let your ear lead you to something surprising.

2) Don't show off all of your day party laminates. It's nice to feel wanted and well-liked, but you don't have to brag about it, especially if you didn't share your party invitations with your friends and instead horded passes for yourself. Imagine checking-in to Four Square and seeing that a few of your friends are at a pretty happening place; but, wait, why didn’t they invite you to go with them?! Don’t wear your party laminates like merit badges unless you’re willing to answer, “How come I wasn’t invited to that?"

3) Make a point to go to Flatstock. For the past 24 years the best poster artists and designers have shown up at SXSW to display their work. I've outfitted my entire apartment with posters I bought at SXSW 2008 and my house guests love them almost as much as I do. If you are on a budget, I recommend doing some research ahead of time, since some of these posters are pricey. Check out two of my favorites: The Small Stakes (responsible for The National poster below) and Methane Studios (which made the Band of Horses print).

10 songs for a rainy day + 1 to cheer you up

Today is one gloomy day in Boston. It's raining, it's pouring, it's sometimes sleeting-snowing? And since the weather can't make up it's mind, you might be restless and depressed. Never fear, there's a playlist that knows just how you feel.

Rainy Day Playlist No. 12 & 35


But if you're a 'glass-half-full' type like me, you probably want to get out of your rut. If so, this catchy pop gem from the Swedes in I'm From Barcelona will surely turn that frown upside down.

(YouTube disabled video embedding for this one, but you can click the image below to get to the video)

Caren Explains the 25 Biggest Hits in iTunes History

Lest anyone doubt Apple's stronghold in the music industry, iTunes is about to deliver its 10 billionth song download. How big is 10 billion? Well, 304m Americans would have had to purchase 33 songs each to achieve this milestone, or else each of Europe's 830m citizens would have had to purchase 12 songs (an entire album) off of iTunes.

In preparation for the celebration, iTunes released a playlist of its most downloaded songs of all time. The top five?

1) "I've Got a Feeling," Black Eyed Peas
2) "Poker Face," Lady Gaga
3) "Boom Boom Pow," Black Eyed Peas
4) "I'm Yours," Jason Mraz
5) "Viva La Vida," Coldplay

Looking through the full list (and doing a fair bit of Nielsen SoundScan research), I observed a few things:

- There is no one recipe for success. Only six (6) of the songs debuted at #1, while nine (9) of the Top 25 songs never made it to #1, including "I'm Yours" and "Viva La Vida," which nevertheless rank in the Top 25 of all time. Slow and steady won the race for Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (which entered the charts at #85 and took 27 weeks to reach #1), whereas "Boom Boom Pow" debuted at #1 and spent 10 weeks in the top spot. See all my findings here.

- More than half of the Top 25 songs debuted in 2008. This is not that surprising, considering the trend in consumption and the cumulative number of downloads served across time:



We should also consider that iTunes installed base has grown over time, which means if 5% of users download a #1 song, the resulting sales look much different in 2003 than 2009. For example, when "Hey There Delilah" was at #1 in 2005 it sold 130,000 units a week; when "I Gotta Feeling" debuted at #1 in 2009 it sold 250,000 units a week -- nearly double what "Hey There Delilah" generated.

- No songs added to the catalog in 2004, 2006 or 2010 made the cut (though I expect a few hits from 2010 will by the end of the year). Were 2004 and 2006 just bad years in music? According to Billboard, the most popular songs in 2004 and 2006 were, respectively, "Yeah!" by Usher and "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter. Perhaps people went out and bought those CDs rather than digital editions? Or the songs were timely but not timeless? (I certainly don't need to hear "Bad Day" ever again).



- For all their popularity and exposure, no American Idol winners made the list... not even Carrie Underwood.

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One thing I'd be interested to learn is the Top 25 digital albums of iTunes history. As you can see below, the best selling physical albums from 2003-2009 did not produce Top 25 digital singles, save Taylor Swift with "Love Story" in 2009.

- 2003: "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" - 50 Cent

- 2004: "Confessions" - Usher
- 2005: "The Emancipation of Mimi" - Mariah Carey
- 2006: "High School Musical" soundtrack
- 2007: "Noel" - Josh Groban
- 2008: "Tha Carter III" - Lil Wayne
- 2009: "Fearless" - Taylor Swift

Any songs you expected to see on the list that didn't make the cut?

Need a Song for Your Sweetie? 15 Songs for Valentine's Day

There's a new card commercial that says, "Your Valentine is who you want to sit by; who you get in trouble with; who you tell your secrets to; who you play with at recess" [Ed: well, after you realize there is no such thing as cooties].

But if you don't want to pay for Hallmark's rhetoric, maybe you want to proclaim your [budding/established/unrequited] love through song.

Here are 15 lovely songs that you won't find on the Billboard 100.

Caren Explains Coachella 2010

There are only two major US music festivals I've not been to: Sasquatch and Coachella.

I've gotta say, this year's Coachella lineup is enough to draw me out to the desert...

Great mix of artists, anchored by Jay-Z, Gorillaz and Muse.

But what's with the "Thom Yorke ????" on Sunday? Is that "Thom Yorke" and another band called "????" Wouldn't be a stretch; after all, !!! is a pretty popular band on the festival circuit...

Tickets on sale 1/22

Music Monday: Ten Albums from 2009

Here we are: the last Music Monday of 2009. It's been a nice year, at least sonically. 2009 also brought a slue of digital music start-ups, and I'm excited to see which survive and which can survive profitably.

As we look forward to 2010, here are ten albums I will keep listening to. If Santa brought you an iTunes or Amazon gift card for Christmas, might I recommend buying one or two or all of them?

If you don't share my taste in music, check out the Metacritic: Best Albums of 2009 list, which aggregates all published reviews into one mega meta list.



Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Favorite tracks: "Listzomania," "Rome"

Fanfarlo, Reservoir
Favorite tracks: "Finish Line," "Harold T. Wilkins"
(Also check out the very creative Fanfarlo advent calendar while it's still posted)



Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Up from Below
Favorite tracks: "Home," "Janglin"

The xx, xx
Favorite tracks: "Islands," "VCR"



The Dirty Projectors, Bitte Ocra
Favorite tracks: "Stillness is the Move," "Two Doves"

Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career
Favorite tracks: "The Sweetest Thing," "French Navy"




The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, self-titled
Favorite tracks: "Young Adult Friction," "A Teenager in Love"

Dark Was the Night, Various Artists
Favorite tracks: "Knotty Pine" (Dirty Projectors feat David Byrne), "Brackett, WI" (Bon Iver)
(Benefits charity! Buy it, don't stream it!)



Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Favorite tracks: "My Girls," "Daily Routine"

Lady Gaga, The Fame
Favorite tracks: "Just Dance," "Paparazzi"

Music Monday: The Lighthouse and the Whaler (Cleveland, OH)

Oh boy, oh boy! I've been waiting awhile for this one to be released....

The Lighthouse and the Whaler is out today on iTunes. It's a gem from the young Cleveland, OH, trio of the same name.



This debut LP has five things I like in an album:

• Xylophone
• Hand-clapping
• Lingering harmonies
• Oil painting as album art
• Nice people behind the music

Sometimes I get jaded and think, "Yeah, yeah... another promising young band... but will they be around next year?" But this band excites that cynicism right out of me.

The band wrote its first song in a field, which doesn't surprise me after hearing the album: its earthy and organic, with some imperfections here and there, which just makes the whole thing more natural and unencumbered.

TLATW recently took the stage after Sufjan Stevens in Ohio (after party!) and are about to embark on a new tour in the spring (hopefully with a SXSW performance on the itinerary?). In the meantime, catch them online.

For Fans Of: Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, the Yim Yames piece of Monsters of Folk, stuff you find on Etsy.com

Caren Explains the Dangers on the Dancefloor

A public service campaign, brought to you by the recording artists of the Billboard Hot 100.



What to do if you see danger at a dance club.

Option 1: Evacuate the dancefloor. If you fail to do so you will either become infected by the sound, or watch the DJ burn the place right down to the ground.

Option 2: Somebody call 9-1-1. If a shorty fire-burning on the dancefloor, call for emergency assistance. Be prepared to explain what a "shorty" is when you speak to a dispatcher, as it is unlikely that he or she will have an Urban Dictionary handy.

Option 3: Just dance (it's gonna be okay). According to Lady GaGa, "we're all getting hosed tonight" as it is, so why not keep dancing until the fire department arrives?