“Unsigned” bands define themselves as failures. They divide Bandland into two camps – the lucky Signed, and the green-eyed Unsigned – and then announce to the world that they live in Loserville. The “unsigned” team is the team that never wins. Read more…
Chronographs are a recent discovery, and they’ve made a real impact in a very short time. I’ve written a lot recently about how I try to offer constructive criticism where possible; but I just can’t think of any way to improve this band. Chronographs are like a firework with a lit fuse. Your best course of action is to stand well back, and watch them go. Read more…
Since becoming a music blogger, I’ve had some amazing experiences. Nothing gets me buzzing like the discovery of a brand new band capable of blowing my mind into smithereens. Artists as diverse as Dorje, Signals, Princess Slayer, Shrine, In Dynamics, Mike Dawes, Project RnL, Inner Pieces, and Lunatrix all knocked me for six when I first came across them – and the knowledge that tomorrow it could happen all over again is what keeps me writing.
However, it’s not all been great. I love what I get to do via TMMP, but there is a dark side to music writing. I’m not just here to be nice; I also have to be harsh at times. When reviewing music, I’m a critic – and the word ‘criticism’ is, as we all know, associated more directly with negativity than anything else. Criticism is a part of life, something we all experience, and it’s hard – sometimes impossible – to not take it personally. Often this is because the person doing the criticising is just letting out their own frustrations and not considering us at all. Read more…
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
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Over the past few years, crowdfunding has become one of the music industry’s most talked about topics. Adopted by acts as diverse as art-pop legend Amanda Palmer and Canadian tech-metallers Protest The Hero, crowdfunding has made headlines worldwide and opened many eyes to the power of direct-to-fan business models.
Ben Minal created one of the top Indiegogo campaigns of 2012 before he had even finished university. Beating a target of $7,500 nearly three times over, Ben was able to send his band Dorje (fronted by YouTube guitar star Rob Chapman and completed by guitarist Rabea Massaad and bassist Dave Hollingworth) on a two-week UK tour alongside The Drills, themselves fronted by regular Bon Jovi sideman and session legend Phil X. TMMP sat down with Ben Minal to talk about Dorje, crowdfunding, the future of the music business, his current projects and passions, and how a man ordering a pizza changed the course of four careers. Read more…
In 2014, fifteen years after the first warning signs heralding the now legendary decline of the recorded music industry, the blame throwing and endless infighting that centres around that most black hole-like of music industry topics – online file sharing – continues.
What cannot be argued, however, is the simple fact that what happened over the last decade and a half definitely happened. Now, it is time to either find a solution to the problem of making a living as a musician in the twenty first century, or continue looking backwards, missing new opportunities, and eventually succumbing to the musty bargain bins of cultural irrelevance.
A complete solution that is universally embraced and applied by the whole music business has yet to appear. And before we can hope to reach that point, we have to ask: Where do we start? Read more…