Jody Gnant - A new way of being an indie artist
Jody Gnant [1], the singer/songwriter of One Red Paperclip fame [2], has found a solution to a big problem in the independent music business.
Gnant's One Red Paperclip trade gave her the studio time to record her new album, PIVOT, but she still needed to bring it to market and garner the attention of music industry moguls and fans alike.
She knew she could join the millions of artists with their own website and a video clip on youtube.com, but felt she needed an edge, a big edge, to get noticed.
With the help of a new video streaming website called Ustream.tv [3] she found that edge and has definitely arrived on the music scene. Gnant is now video streaming her life to the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- live and in real time.
The funny moments, the greatest difficulties, the recording of the album, the editing, the mastering, the preparations for the release, looking for advertising, it's all there, live.
This "lifecasting" strategy has already resulted in a dramatic increase in the awareness of Gnant's music. Less than a week after starting her broadcast, she had the #3 video on MySpace with 186,000 views. Her music is also being showcased as part of ScreenVison's pre-show entertainment in 4,000 movie theaters in the United States. In addition, Gnant's music is finding a worldwide audience with preorders for her new album, PIVOT, coming in from all over the world.
She says:
Everyone is welcome to tune in to her live Ustream broadcast - for free - at http://www.jodygnant.tv , see some of her videoclips ("Over" and "Hounds of Romance"), or the hundred-plus past clips of her lifecast on her ustream page. You can also listen to some of her new songs, or the songs she recorded in her previous album. She recorded an album 12 years ago, as a soundtrack, and she has all her "old" songs available for listen and download for free there. Jody Gnant is an independent singer/songwriter headquartered in Phoenix, AZ. What I found most interesting is the fact that this artist is, regardless of what people think of her music (she calls it Bohemian Geek Soul, I personally consider it almost pop), something instantly captures your attention: not only her sparkling personality and the way she interacts with the fans on the site, but also her trajectory and life story, and the goals and the views she has of music, and how she plans to achieve them. Also, as I previously mentioned, this is an independent artist, which means she is her own record label, and she controls her own destiny in terms of music creation, and she's doing this all with her own money, and the biggest cut in the profits don't go to any "middleman" major label but her own pocket. You got to respect that.
So, if you have idle time on your hands tonight (3am in Portugal), tune in for a live CD Release show.
[1] - http://www.jodygnant.com
[2] - http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
[3] - http://www.ustream.tv
[4] - http://www.brickhouse.tv
Gnant's One Red Paperclip trade gave her the studio time to record her new album, PIVOT, but she still needed to bring it to market and garner the attention of music industry moguls and fans alike.
She knew she could join the millions of artists with their own website and a video clip on youtube.com, but felt she needed an edge, a big edge, to get noticed.
With the help of a new video streaming website called Ustream.tv [3] she found that edge and has definitely arrived on the music scene. Gnant is now video streaming her life to the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- live and in real time.
The funny moments, the greatest difficulties, the recording of the album, the editing, the mastering, the preparations for the release, looking for advertising, it's all there, live.
This "lifecasting" strategy has already resulted in a dramatic increase in the awareness of Gnant's music. Less than a week after starting her broadcast, she had the #3 video on MySpace with 186,000 views. Her music is also being showcased as part of ScreenVison's pre-show entertainment in 4,000 movie theaters in the United States. In addition, Gnant's music is finding a worldwide audience with preorders for her new album, PIVOT, coming in from all over the world.
She says:
It's an exciting combination of interactive and non-interactive media, [...] People can choose to tune in and just watch the events of my life unfold, or they can log on and have an immediate effect on my career.When asked how long she'll continue lifecasting Gnant simply says,
This is not a dress rehearsal -- I'll continue as long as it's fun.Gnant is also broadcasting her CD Release performance live on the Internet, today, from The Brickhouse [4] in Phoenix.
Everyone is welcome to tune in to her live Ustream broadcast - for free - at http://www.jodygnant.tv , see some of her videoclips ("Over" and "Hounds of Romance"), or the hundred-plus past clips of her lifecast on her ustream page. You can also listen to some of her new songs, or the songs she recorded in her previous album. She recorded an album 12 years ago, as a soundtrack, and she has all her "old" songs available for listen and download for free there. Jody Gnant is an independent singer/songwriter headquartered in Phoenix, AZ. What I found most interesting is the fact that this artist is, regardless of what people think of her music (she calls it Bohemian Geek Soul, I personally consider it almost pop), something instantly captures your attention: not only her sparkling personality and the way she interacts with the fans on the site, but also her trajectory and life story, and the goals and the views she has of music, and how she plans to achieve them. Also, as I previously mentioned, this is an independent artist, which means she is her own record label, and she controls her own destiny in terms of music creation, and she's doing this all with her own money, and the biggest cut in the profits don't go to any "middleman" major label but her own pocket. You got to respect that.
So, if you have idle time on your hands tonight (3am in Portugal), tune in for a live CD Release show.
[1] - http://www.jodygnant.com
[2] - http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/
[3] - http://www.ustream.tv
[4] - http://www.brickhouse.tv
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