syd.

on key commands in itunes and ratings

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:22:50 -0800

I like to rate songs, but iTunes doesn’t have any built in key-commands to make rating a song a simple flick of the wrist.

I used to use Synergy to control itunes playback and allow me to have system-wide ratings key commands for a while, but it sucks up system resources, and paying for software just to have system-wide ratings key commands? Seems a little excessive.

So, with many thanks to @forrestgrant, I ran this command in the terminal and now I just have to tab over to iTunes and press cmd-1 for 1 star, cmd-2 for 2 stars, etc. The extra step of tabbing over to iTunes doesn’t bug me. Just copy and paste this exact command into the terminal (restart iTunes for it to go into effect):

defaults write com.apple.iTunes NSUserKeyEquivalents ‘{“★”=”@1”;”★★”=”@2”;”★★★”=”@3”;”★★★★”=”@4”;”★★★★★”=”@5”;}’

if you want the key strokes to be different, here are the unix equivalents of the keys on the macintosh keyboard:

@ Command (Apple) CMD

~ Option OPT

$ Shift SHIFT

^ Control CTRL

why I use tunecore

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:18:30 -0700

I was just about flooding my friend Christopher Dallman’s twitter stream in response to the very simple question “do you use tunecore for digital distribution as well?”

I had earlier recommended he check out their short run CD program. It doesn’t yield the most spectacular looking product, but they’re fine, and I’d much rather go small batches at a time these days then sit on an inventory of 1000 for a couple of years. That’s a blog post for another time, but my “more selective” touring coupled with college students and music fans in general being less likely to buy product AND my belief that free is a good tool to get people to come to shows has left me selling less CDs. I’m pretty sure if I could afford to, I’d press deluxe vinyl, cheapo CDs (maybe with handmade cases) and then give it away for free online. Anyway…I digress.

My answer to Chris’ question is yes, I use tunecore for digital distribution and that’s partially because I think they have an elegant, easy to use solution, partly because I think CD Baby lost the plot (maybe they’re getting it back, but I don’t want to be a guinea pig thankyouverymuch), but MAINLY because when I first moved to New York in 2007 I was looking for a job and interviewed at Tunecore with Jeff Price (and then over the phone with the rest of the team) and was therefore pitched on the product and company philosophy in a unique way that left me, for lack of a better phrase, willing to put my chips in their….chip…thing. *

Mainly, Jeff was making the (at the time) radical observation that companies like The Orchard and CD Baby were charging *per transaction* as if they had to do any actual leg-work to get a *digital* file from point A to point B. Think about that. Even though they deliver a set of files once to iTunes, emusic, etc, they’re charging you per transaction as if they are delivering it every time. Huh?

His plan was to charge yearly storage on tunecore’s servers so that you always knew your music was safe and ready to redeliver at a higher bitrate (which happened to me) or ready to meet the Next Big Thing whatever that may be.

Anyway, Jeff was also very charismatic, excited and, as a founder of a great indie label, clearly understood what the marketplace could bear and needed.

I’ve been very happy with tunecore for the most part. They’re clearly answering to investors and I think have maybe raised their prices a bit in the last year or two to meet the demands of their growing business. The price hikes seem in line with what I can only assume has been pretty meteoric growth since Jeff and I first talked. And they’ve added great new services (video, liner notes, more) in keeping with their very artist-friendly company philosophy.

So there it is, Chris. Not exactly 140 characters.

(also, here’s an outdated chart from moses avalon with dig distro comparisons)

*btw, I didn’t get the job. I think it had to do with the fact that I was about to go on tour for 3 months. Turns out, even a rock n roll company isn’t super stoked to hear that. Noted. ;-)

We had some great entries for the Syd Remix Contest over at Remix Comps. The winner is: Giulio...

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:46:37 -0700

We had some great entries for the Syd Remix Contest over at Remix Comps.

The winner is: Giulio Maddolini: listen

The runners up are:

Lerry Müeller: listen
SatisfiedScientist: listen

The winner will be a part of the Syd Upswing Remix EP, to be released digitally.
We’ve decided to give the runners up a prize as well. They will have the opportunity to remix the other songs from the Upswing EP.

You can hear the original Upswing EP here.

For those of you that were watching the stream today as I shared...

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:50:00 -0700

For those of you that were watching the stream today as I shared the process of demoing a new song, here is that demo. It’s a very very rough mix, just straight outta garageband, but the song is called “Same For You” and the lyrics aren’t done yet, but it’s a start!

For those that don’t know a “demo” is just a recording of a song meant for commercial release. They can sound like they are (this doesn’t, just FYI) but more often they’re just vocals and guitar or something. It’s just to show someone (in this case, my band) what the intentions of a song are.

I wrote the song with Chalupsky, a songwriter from LA who splits his time between here and NYC and is from the Midwest. We had a lot of fun writing it, and hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for joining me for the stream today if you did and if you didn’t check it out next time! I’m streaming as many shows as I can, and sometimes doing stuff like this.

East Coast Fall Tour // Remix Contest // FuseTV

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:54:01 -0700

East Coast Fall Tour // Remix Contest // FuseTV:

LINKSsyd on myspace | syd on twitter | the official syd site | the co-opHELLO FROM SYDWhile the summer days rain themselves stupid on the east coast, I’m in that perpetual meteorological pur…

touring in "this economy"

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:13:00 -0700

This is not a story about how much it sucks to tour. This is a story about what I’m going to do about it.

So, first it was gas prices, and that was the story, and that sucked, because we’d go out and be on the road for a couple of months and our gas bills were doubled and when your margins are so narrow, that extra expense really hurt. But at that time (let’s say 3 years ago) at least people were still coming to shows. Especially in cities. What did they care that gas prices were high? They took the train. And they still had their jobs.

Now, in the wake of the downturn, sure, touring is a little more scary—-fans are jobless and not as flush with discretionary income to spend on things like merch. We used to sell to like 15-20% of the room at least. That’s what we could count on. Now, we’re lucky for 5%. There’s another hit to your bottom line, along with the gas prices staying high.

Ok, so what do you *do*? Well, you recognize the problems and confront them. I’m choosing to tour in a smaller van this fall because I want to save with gas. We decided to give away an EP’s worth of songs to help build our mailing list so that we have larger group to draw from to get them out to shows. We’re trying to keep ticket prices down. And I’m doing shows solo where it makes sense to save as well. Getting scrappy and felxible and hunkering down, that’s what it’s about.

But mostly, I’m trying to have more FUN. Which I know sounds counter to what I’m saying, but really, all this shit is so obnoxious, cutting costs, eating frugally, trying to spend less on gas, and I know the average Joe and Jane are feeling the same way, so my gal is to let our hair down a little more even at our shows—-just let loose. And encourage everyone else to let loose. The job market sucks, taking the train instead of driving sucks, budgeting everything sucks, so come hear some good music that we think doesn’t suck. And if we sing loud enough and dance long enough maybe that will all go away.

That’s what we’re going to aim for this fall when we go out there.

the facebook debacle.

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:25:00 -0700

I just posted this simple tweet earlier today and have been getting a lot of people wondering wtf I’m talking about so here it is:

When I first joined facebook, I just joined using the name everyone knows me by. Syd. It’s what I’ve been called for years. By everyone. My family and friends found me on facebook that way. But then, so did fans. And I thought that was great, because hey it was a hell of a lot easier than myspace. So I started interacting with them and even invited to be my friend on facebook by uploading my mailing list to facebook and inviting them.

Then facebook decided they’d launch pages/ads for bands like me, and I thought hey this is good—-at that time they didn’t have any specific friend lists for privacy so fans would see some personal pictures and stuff and it was getting weird. So I sent an email to facebook asking them if they would convert my profile over to a Page (remember, myspace did this all the time—you could convert one kind of profile to another) and then I could sort through my *actual* friends and pick them off the Page and say *psst, over here, this is really me, that page is for fans*. It would be a perfect seperation, problem solved.

Facebook suspended my account. That was their elegant solution to the problem. 1000+ friends and fans, gone.

I fought back, but got nothing but regurgitated policy from their support team. And so I started fresh. New facebook Profile and a Page. Turned out a Page was so crippled and non-interactive as to be laughable. There were no events that were started by Pages, you couldn’t interact with people as a Page. It’s pretty pathetic. So who could blame my fans when they started finding my new Profile and friending me?

So I turned to iLike and Reverbnation and yadi yada all of those tools meant to help make facebook more useful.

Luckily, now I can keep fans and music biz contacts in a separate friends list so I can at least obscure some details that I would want friends to know but not necessarily fans (cell, details about my family and where I live) and so there’s a weird balance, but it sort of works.

But now, with a fall tour approaching I find myself in the same stupid predicament. My fans are fragmented across all of the various places a band can be on the internet, but they’re also fragmented *within* facebook Pages/Profiles/iLike/Reverbnation.

When I just want to get the word out that I have new music out and that I’m playing a show, I just want to create an event in my Profile, invite my friends and fans (who I can sort by location) and then inetract with them there. Is that too much to ask?

Yes, apparently. Back to work.

[Syd] The Pattern Remix Contest! | Santa Barbara Show!

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:52:32 -0700

[Syd] The Pattern Remix Contest! | Santa Barbara Show!:

THE PATTERN REMIX CONTESTSummer is here and that usually means long, lazy days with nothing exciting to do. Well, we’ve come along and created something that’s bound to keep you busy. For all you out…

The Pattern Remix Contest!

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:21:48 -0700

Summer is here and that usually means long, lazy days with nothing exciting to do. Well, we’ve come along and created something that’s bound to keep you busy. For all you out there who have the desire to put a new spin on an existing song, listen up. Have you ever wanted to step behind the mixing board and tweak what you’re hearing? If you have a remixing hat, or are trying on one for the first time, we’ve got something going that we think you’ll be interested in. Do you think you have the chops?

For the ‘Find the New Pattern’ contest, we’re looking for a fresh take on one of the tracks from Syd’s newest EP, “Upswing”. Take ‘The Pattern’ single, find your own way through it, and send it to us. We want to hear what you hear and see what you see in this tune. In the process, the winning remix will be made available for digital download via The Co-Op and Syd.

To send in your entry you must create/have an existing a Remix Comps account. From there you’ll be able to upload your entry and will be able to see a list of current entries a they are loaded to the site to check on your competition.

The contest is running now through the end of August and the winners will be announced right before Syd heads out on his Fall Tour. So, get out there and get those remixes working. We can’t wait to hear what you’ve got for us!

The Contest Link - http://www.remixcomps.com/SYD-Find-The-New-Pattern
The Myspace/Website Widget - http://www.remixcomps.com/Syd-Widget

a note to my cunhado re: Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins after he heard it for the first time and had his mind blown.

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:36:24 -0700

Oh shane. You have walked into something and you don’t even know what it is. It’s a room filled with leather and velvet and cool cigarettes that don’t kill you and men wearing rings and not giving a shit what their parents did. Because here’s the thing, Billy Corgan, let’s admit it, now I know, he’s a fucking toolbag. He’s a sanctimonious prick and an egomaniac. But back then. Back then he was something else entirely to me. He was a weird Bowie-like shemale with a voice that parents despised, singing about God-knows-what but my best guess was that those songs were either about fucking or being in love, the two things I wanted to know how to do more than anything. Or maybe just about being older and cooler and prettier. Because let’s face it, as cool and mature as the music may be, it’s also insanely beautiful. The song “Today” is probably my favorite song of that era, and yes, it was the radio single but it embodies everything good about that album.

Or maybe we should just say that Jimmy Chamberlin, the drummer, *he* was the one. He knew. And he was everything good about that album. He had unlocked the secret of music and was letting Billy in. That’s how I sometimes felt. His drumming is magical, and the glue of the whole thing. And worth learning every drum note of — something I did. Alongside Weezer’s blue album, Pearl Jam’s vs (which was just gloriously re-released and remastered so it’s louder and cleaner, something Siamese Dream could use), Nirvana’s Nevermind….I mean, we’re talking about SEMINAL fucking albums here.

I’ve since learned a lot about the making of that record, about how they took weeks to get drum sounds, about how shitty Billy was to his band and how he would often re-record the parts of his other musicians (guitar and bass) without telling them. But one thing he could never do is play the drums like Jimmy Chamberlin.

Thing is, you can still put this record on at home while you’re hanging out or blast it in the car and it still says the same things beautifully and painfully and like nothing I’ve ever heard since.

Because when you walked into this room, filled with leather and velvet and cool cigarettes, some might say you’re too old to remember this room forever, that you’re not young and stupid enough to think it really exists. But it’s worth knowing that to some of us, we expect heaven to look a little bit like this album sounds.

advice from patrick thomas before I started "Upswing"When

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0700

When I started writing the tunes for what would become “Upswing” I was turning to my friends and asking for writing assignments, anything to guide the direction. Here’s some advice that someday Patrick Thomas will be able to charge a premium for.

Do a chorus every day for a week, after you finish that week, start writing a verse a day to a previous chorus as well as a new chorus. Don’t stop until you finish a full verse, even if you don’t love it, you will come up with something better. At the end of two weeks, you should start to come up with some stuff.
Rule- you are not allowed to use “you” or “me” in songs. Music- Go to your favorite pre 1990 albums and pick a song that wasn’t a single and rip it off in some way. Beat or chord changes Take you old ideas and force them into a new beat or melody. I have three songs on BMAC (Build Me a City) that were written that way!

As joeconwayr says: You’ve got to love Timmy Blane.

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:49:07 -0700

As joeconwayr says:

You’ve got to love Timmy Blane.

Computer--engage.

Sat, 16 May 2009 23:23:00 -0700

So wolframalpha’s beta launch was today. And listen, I don’t know anything about this guy. I haven’t googled the whole thing to death or anything. I simply heard about it on twitter, watched the screencast, and have been playing with it for an hour.

But it strikes me that wolframalpha is actually The Next Big Thing. It’s the next google, facebook, etc. And the reason for that is that it gets us closer to that fictional computer we all clearly dream of, the one that’s been idolized or villified in movies like Star Wars/Trek, Iron Man, or Terminator. The Computer that, when it hears us speaking, knows exactly what we mean and gives us relevant information in return. HAL. 2001-type-shit.

Right now Walpha (as lifehacker is affectionally calling it) is telling us things that are based on computatations that deal with meta data. Things That Are Written In Books of Importance. But Walpha doesn’t just spit out facts, it *contextualizes* them, and understands questions *in their original syntax*. It’s a remarkable step really, and one that brings us close to a time when, instead of just these things about the world around us, something else happens. The computer knows Things About You. And contextualizes THOSE things so that you can understand them and understands them in the syntax you present them in.

So we start with google, because as we know the revolution won’t be televised but it sure as shit will start with google.

In google’s world, where the revolution starts, if you are in Santa Barbara and you want to know when high tide will be coming next you would google “High Tide Santa Barbara today” and get results. Some provided by google, and links to other sites on the web.

Now. Today. Enter wolframalpha, and well, look.

So, we’re closer. So next, instead of typing in “When Is High Tide?” and having walpha know that you mean (because of your GeoIP) exactly where YOU are, and feed you back relevant data. Imagine instead of that you typed in “When Is Mom’s Birthday?” and that walpha knew you meant YOUR mom’s birthday.

Ok, well then what if you could *say* that out loud? And there was a way for the computer to hear you all the time? And….

See where I’m headed with this?

multitracks and deep liner notes in the modern age.

Tue, 12 May 2009 21:38:30 -0700

Mark Hoppus of blink182 posted a track sheet from the tracking of their hit “All The Small Things” (a song that is 10 years old now!) on his blog and on twitter today, and studying it while I listened a few things struck me:

a. that record is so ridiculously simple compared to the modern punkpop that’s out there, it was recorded to tape and that limitation serves the songs well, I think.

b. jerry finn was a modern record making genius & it’s so sad he’s gone

c. I would pay a premium price for a peek at the protools sessions that comprise my favorite records. even just stems are cool (radiohead, ben folds, thank you). but I want more!

d. maybe this is asking too much, and I’m an information junkie, but I think it ties into my larger desire to see “deep” liner notes in the digital realm, something that itunes or a major player is probably working on, but god those flat pdfs that we can attach to itunes releases are so boring. liner notes (and sound quality) are the primary reason I buy vinyl. I only buy digital at a deep discount but if there was content that allowed me to get inside my records more, I’d be in.

e. what I mean is, when a song comes on in iTunes, let me hit a little info button next to it and see a linked list of credits for that song, lyrics, video and then other premium content that enhances my experience of the song. make iTunes like the DVD extras, but always on. Imagine how much money they’d make off of that. Or better yet, make that shit open source and do the world a favor.

hmm.

last.fm/blip.fm/8tracks/itunes - working together to listen better

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:33:00 -0700

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the way I listen to music, about the way that I want to experience music within my community and the tools that are available to help me do that.

First of all, we all know the cloud is coming. The day that the internet is your ipod draws ever nearer, and someone at Apple has probably figured out a way to own that and sell it back to us and make us feel lucky to receive it. That’s all old water that needn’t be recycled.

Until that day, the fine folks at places like last.fm, twt.fm, blip.fm and the fm-less 8tracks.com and thesixtyone.com are all playing their part in socializing music and helping us share our own impeccable tastes with the world around us. Right now it feels like these services are inching closer and closer to a world in the cloud. Here’s how I think it could be ratcheted up a notch:

Let’s start with me listening to the library of tracks I own, in iTunes, like in the old days.

-When I hear a track I love I want it to be:

-sent to a playlist in itunes of loved tracks (so I might rate it 5 stars to do this)
-marked as “loved” on last.fm to show the world my true tast
-blipped to blip.fm or twt.fm (u pick ur own poision) with my own 140 char of pure insight.

-When I decide I’ve come up with the perfect rainy day mix songs, I want to:

-create a playlist in itunes and drag and drop that playlist onto 8tracks.com and share with my friends.

Right now when I love a song in itunes and want to share it and remember I loved it, I have to rate it, then love it in my last.fm menu, then blip it, then put it in a playlist that maybe someday I’ll get around to uploading to 8tracks.

Ok, now how about when I listen to any of the music discovery sites out there, like pandora, last.fm, blip.fm, thesixtyone, jango, a mix by friends on 8tracks.com.

-When I hear a track I love I want there to be:

-a favorites playlist somewhere that keeps track of all the songs I love on all these without me having to buy them. favtape.com might be that place, but it’s currently down, so I dunno.
-a way for me to order those songs in a mix to share with friends on 8tracks
-a way to tell my community I’ve found a great song (I want to be able to blip it)

Right now to accomplish this is even more time-consuming, especially if I don’t own the song in iTunes.

What I really want is to sit in a room with some of these smart people and talk to them about how to push this harder and faster to the next step. I feel a little like I’m losing my mind—-the future is SO CLOSE!

Of course, until then I’m going to keep using these services. There are some talented people doing amazing things in this space and I love watching it and being tangentially involved in it.

may newsletter [Fall Tour Planning | Interview | Free Music (Still)]

Sun, 10 May 2009 23:40:00 -0700

Happy May!

This is a big month everyone. I will celebrate my birthday at the end of the month but that celebration will be greatly overshadowed by my wedding just a few short days before! So while I go do that I just thought I’d take a minute to update you all on goings on over here.

FALL TOUR PLANNING UNDERWAY—YOU CAN HELP

We’re planning our east coast fall tour (maybe to be followed by a west coast fall tour) and there are some very cool conversations going on right now that I’m excited about.
If you go to college and want to bring me to your campus for an intimate solo show or a raucous full band affair, just email me (syd@syd-music.com) or hit me on twitter at @sydmusic and we’ll make it happen!
Same goes for clubs—if you live in a city you feel has been grossly under-visited by me and the guys,email me (syd@syd-music.com) or hit me on twitter at @sydmusic .

INTERVIEW ON SWIM RADIO

I had a chance to sit down with the fine midwestern folks at Chicago’s SWIM radio for a chat last week, and it’s available either streaming (here) or as a podcast. If you have some time to sit down and listen we ended up having an interesting conversation touching on piracy, production and performance. The 3 P’s as I call them.

UPSWING STILL SWINGING

I won’t belabor the point—my new record is a free download. Go to http://syd-music.com to hear it and click the banner to download it for free. I guarantee you’ll think it was worth the money.

Syd on myspace
Syd on twitter
the official Syd site

#balderdash on twitter with @timblane

Thu, 07 May 2009 11:24:00 -0700

Yesterday we decided to start playing the game Balderdash on twitter. We’re not really sure how you win, or what the point it, but it is pretty damn funny.

Here’s a stream of yesterday’s #balderdash game, from the bottom up.

My favorite? mattyork’s. so, I guess, the “winner” is “when weak dimples end up becoming like dominant dimples. Sad….. every dimple should be their own dimple.”

The real definition is “to fill up”. In context — “The new technique adimpleates the cans with milk through injection.”

SoRefined @timblane @sydmusic The process by which divots are added to golf balls.#balderdash about 17 hours ago from EventBox
mattyork @timblane @sydmusic Adimpleate - when weak dimples end up becoming like dominant dimples. Sad….. every dimple should be their own dimple.
timblane @sydmusic adimpleate: The cause of the cannibal’s stomach ache.#balderdash about 22 hours ago from web
JamesEWilliams Still learning Twitter method @timblane adimpleate: to apply superficial indentations to an otherwise smooth surface. #balderdashabout 23 hours ago from web
eliseyac @sydmusic @timblane adimpleate - to surgically remove a dimple from the body #balderdashabout 23 hours ago from TwitterFon
lovehasnologic @sydmusic adimpleate - a bureaucratic pant fold #balderdashabout 24 hours ago from twitterrific
sydmusic OK. @timblane and I just had an idea. Let’s play balderdash. reply back with a definition for the word “adimpleate” #balderdash

08 was great. (an 8tracks mix)

Thu, 07 May 2009 10:30:25 -0700