Going PodCamping Tomorrow

photo credit: topgold

So PodCamp Ireland lands tomorrow, the third unconference in 12 months I’ve been directly involved in organising. Turns out, it’s not easy, but when you get to the day it’s all good.

Tomorrow will be no different. We’ve plenty of talks to look forward to and with 125 registered (if we got 80-90 then we’d be looking well) there’ll be a load of people to talk with and chat with. I’m sure I’ll no doubt be running around like a very calm but very headless chicken tomorrow. Along side in an organisational capacity of course are Bernie and Krishna and there’s a few people who have put themselves forward to volunteer in any capacity possible.

The session I’ve organised for tomorrow will look at (with a bit of prodding from anyone keen on asking questions) how elements of social media and various online applications have helped the development and progress of KilkennyMusic, The Devious Theatre Company and Mycrofilms. There will be a screening before lunch of The Scarlet Lady Vanishes, followed by a Q&A with the Vultures crew, KKM crew and Devious crew but keeping the unconference notion in mind “we’ll see what happens on the day”.

Registration is from 9:30am, I’ll be there in the hotel from about 8am, if anyone wants me tomorrow or wants to drop me a line before then, just contact me.

Other than that, I’ll see you all tomorrow morning in Hotel Kilkenny for the second PodCamp Ireland.

300 vs The Irish Web Awards

The fun has started amongst those going to the Web Awards in October with buttons and graphics. Prompted by a call for a 300 mashup, here’s my little offering…

If anyone is interested, I’ve got a 5000×3000px version available as well…

Disclaimer: This is a mashup… the original 300 imagery is copyright of the original owners / producers / film company.

Playlist Mix 37 Goes Live

Recording in a studio with no lights is no fun. Just like stubbing your toe is no fun. When you do the two together and podcast in the dark, it’s bound to become a little interesting.

As I wait on this week’s KilkennyMusic.com podcast to upload I point you in the direction of the 37th Playlist Mix podcast featuring this 90s reggae-loving gem (above), Pato Banton.

The 37th podcast brings you another 30 minutes or so of podsafe and independent music, six acts, six tracks and some background in between. It arrived online later than expected, due to unforeseen technical difficulties with lights, a crashing browser and ultimately electricity but it’s there for all to grab now.

You can download here (about 28mb) or stream below. You can also check out PlaylistMix.com for the podcast archives, see past shows and subscribe via the feed (opens iTunes) to find out what I’ve been listening to during the week and just what’s been hitting my inbox.

Playlist Mix 37
[audio:http://www.playlistmix.com/podpress_trac/web/87/0/podcast037.mp3]

Shortlisted At Irish Web Awards

My morning-after coffee at the 2008 Irish Blog Awards earlier this year

Two of my babies (can I call them that if I’m *that* close to them?) have been shortlisted at the 2008 Irish Web Awards.

While I was secretly delighted to see KilkennyMusic.com and the Playlist Mix Podcast (new podcast later this morning) make the longlist last week, there was not one but two high fives given yesterday when I discovered that KKM and PLM have made the shortlist for Best Music site and Best Podcast respectively.

Needless to say I’m all surprised and happy and I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone again in Dublin on October 11th. I’m should be dragging the blog awards ninja with me again to represent Kilkenny Music on the night but can’t wait for the show.

Congratulations too to all the individuals and companies who also find themselves on the shortlist. Registration for the awards, taking place in the is currently open with numbers already well in three figures

Tuesday Push For DownloadMusic.ie

It’s about time I offered up a post for the Tuesday Push and I’m happy to see my first one being for DownloadMusic.ie.

With almost 900 artists on the books and close on 45,000 legal music downloads – which, by the way, contribute to standings in the Irish music charts – DownloadMusic.ie has become the place to be seen for independent Irish acts looking to make any kind of a name for themselves.

I’ll admit, I’ve never purchased music from the site. However, I use the site from the other side, as an artist and promoter helping other acts to get online and start selling their music.

While anyone can go online and purchase music via credit card or online payment, it’s nice to see DownloadMusic.ie give bands the chance to sell their music via text message. In a mobile-hungry country where mobile handset saturation exceeds 100% (I know myself I’ve got three active handsets on three different numbers with two spare handsets just in case), the service seems ideal. We are a texting nation. We’re possibly there-or-there abouts for phone calls, but we’re certainly there for texting.

Texting is where it’s at for DownloadMusic.ie. Fans of the bands can send a short code to 57501 e.g. ‘music XYZ’. They’ll be charged just a Euro for the text with the revenue split between the operator, DownloadMusic.ie (DownloadMusic.ie don’t actually take any money, leaving more to the artist again), the bulk going to the band (yes, IMRO are in there too looking for their percentage if you’re IMRO registered). The result is a text link and password for a secure download area to grab your new track and in the process of doing so you’re helping a band move one step closer to inclusion in the national music charts.

There’s no doubt that the majority of acts I work with through KilkennyMusic.com and under the One Take Sessions gig series have a presence on DownloadMusic.ie. Vesta Varro (were due in Kilkenny on Saturday), currently touring in support of new single ‘Believe’ are the featured artist on the DownloadMusic.ie homepage.

Local favourites Saving J, Myp Et Jeep and The Fundamentals are there too. At the last One Take Sessions in Kilkenny, Carlow performer Joe Cleere made a great point of asking people to text his shortcode to the DownloadMusic.ie number (57501) to buy his new single ‘Queue’.

CDs at gigs will shortly become a thing of the past. Further proof to this is the relase of DownloadMusic.ie’s first USB album (I was on the panel of judges asked to select the acts for inclusion), which is also registered for the Irish music charts and features the likes of Dirty Epics, Vesta Varro, Ro Tierney, Codes and more – €12.99 for a 1gb USB key with 15 tracks included isn’t a bad deal at all.

But you can get so much more – browse artists, get gig listings, check out the DownloadMusic.ie blog and there’s also the future possibility of bands selling tickets for gigs, band merch and more.

DownloadMusic.ie is an absolute credit to the independent Irish music scene and long may the service continue.

Online Pizza Ordering Arrives In Kilkenny

Ordering a pizza in Kilkenny just got a whole lot easier. On Friday (and again on Saturday) I tried the new online ordering system from ExtremePizza.com, the US-based pizza company, Kilkenny being the first Irish franchise location.

The flier in the door suggested online ordering was available so I clicked on over to the website about 5:55pm, made a custom pizza ticking off all the extras I wanted, placed the order around 6pm and was emailed a receipt and told the average delivery time would be 45 minutes.

Being one of the first houses in the estate, taxi and delivery drivers often skip past my own place and head for the bulk of the houses to seek out my address – but at least they listened to the ’special instructions’ part of the order. At 6:45pm I get a phone call from the driver saying he’d got the message, was in the driveway and described the house before approaching the door.

Instead of opting to open a company account or pay by credit card online (even more convenient), I had the cash ready from the receipt and – unlike some other pizza delivery companies I’ve heard tales of in Kilkenny – what you see on the receipt is what you pay.

In discussing the merits of online pizza ordering over a few beers on Saturday night, we put it to the test again, different house further across town, different order combination and all with the same results – order goes in, pizza confirmation emailed, 45 minutes later your internet order is at the door.

If they could knock the time down to 30 minute it’d be nice and handy but it’s great to see the whole system works and I’d hope that other places in Kilkenny catch on soon.

See my LouderVoice.com review here.

The Business Of Beauty, Gaming And Music

The UCD Quinn School of Business are running three evening talks from next week looking at the business of beauty, gaming and music, giving transitition year, fifth year and leaving cert students “a real insight” into viable career options in the three industries.

These are more than just a talk. They are real business people sharing their vast experience in today’s exciting world of business and the possibilities that can arise from a degree in business.

The Business of Beauty talk will be given by L’Oreal’s Eoghan O’Sullvan and Sarah Keating next Tuesday at UCD from 6:30pm to 10pm.

With a focus on specific ventures, Eoghan and Sarah will highlight the commercial, marketing, finance, supply chain management and human resource aspects to their business while you enjoy funky canapés, mocktails and goody bags on offer at the event

The Business of Gaming talk will run on Thursday October 9th with XBOX Ireland’s Orla Sheridan and Microsoft Game Studio’s Michel Buch Andersen taking to the floor to provide an insight to the current gaming marketplace, “retail distribution channels, profitability models” and more, something being pushed (by the looks of things) towards those studying business, economics or accounting.

However, the one that got my attention is the Business of Music talk being given by Universal’s Freddie Middleton (Marketing Director) and Gill Dooley (Digital Campaign Manager), the talk taking place on Thursday October 23rd. The Business of Music should offer an insight to the role of a record company in the music industry, from a traditional background through to digital media distribution. You think they’ll get a debate going on where record companies are going and how they’ll continue in 5, 10, 20 years?

Students going to the talks also have a chance to win a shadow-day at either Universal Music, L’Oreal or Xbox Ireland. Why weren’t they doing this kind of thing when I was in transition year? Were these events even open to third-level students in recent years?

If you are a second-level student with an interesting in any of the above, then head along. I know I would be anyway if the door was open to me.

Bandcamp Launched & It Looks Interesting

Bandcamp Screencast from Ethan Diamond on Vimeo.

Cheers to Will Knott for the nudge on this one but it looks like BandCamp.mu has gotten underway and could provide a nice outlet for bands looking to distribute music online and further enhance their fan base.

On the front of things from watching the screencast (above) it all seems pretty straightforward – add you profile, add your tracks, add some cover art and away you go. Grant API access to your PayPal account and you can start selling tracks direct from Bandcamp on a very Radiohead-esque “name your price” basis.

I’ve signed up to give the service a try and see what it does for my own music (something I keep meaning to publish online and get away from the older demos clouding the MySpace) and those of other bands we have involved with KilkennyMusic.com.

In their own words about what they do…

We’re not yet another site wanting to host your tracks alongside the trailer for High School Musical 4: I’m Pregnant. Instead, we power a site that’s truly yours, and hang out in the background handling all the technical issues you dread (and several you’ve probably never even considered). We keep your music streaming and downloading quickly and reliably, whether it’s 3am on a Sunday, or the hour your new record drops and Pitchfork gives it a scathingly positive review. We make your tracks available in every format under the sun, so the audiophilic nerderati can have their FLAC and eat mp3 v2. We adorn your songs with all the right metadata, so they sail into iTunes with artwork, album, band and track names intact. We mutter the various incantations necessary to keep your site top-ranked in Google, so when your fans search for your hits, they find your music long before they find bonkersforlyrics.com or iMyFace. We give your fans easy ways to share your music with their friends, and we give you gorgeous tools that reveal exactly how your music is spreading, so you can fan the fire.

The signup process (for me) has been delayed as I don’t have AIFF or WAV dumps of the music. Unlike MySpace, Bebo, NumberOneMusic etc where MP3s are the in thing, Bandcamp looks for the highest quality (loss-less) audio file you’ve got available and they’ll take care of the conversions to a variety of MP3 formats (192k and above), FLAC etc. The user or fan of your music can then decided how high a quality track they want to take, what format they want it delivered in and how much they’re willing to pay for it.

The stats behind Bandcamp let you see where the visitors are coming from, who’s linking to and using your music online, what are your most popular tracks, how have they been played (complete, partial, skipped), everything you’ve wanted to know about who’s been listening to your tunes.

Once I sort out a WAV dump of some of the session files I have gathering dust here I’ll give it a full run through, but for now, it looks rather promising indeed.

Update:Andy Baio (Waxy.org) has an interview with Ethan here.

Playlist Mix 36 Released

They Playlist Mix podcast series returned two weeks ago after a light summer break and I’ve just released the 36th Playlist Mix this evening, a little earlier than usual.

I’m doing well of late in the battle to set a definite finishing time work-wise during the day so I can free up more time in the evenings. More time in the evenings means earlier podcasts, earlier to bed and less of a fight with myself on a Wednesday morning before phoning into the PodCamp Ireland podcast show.

It was PodCamp Ireland last year in Kilkenny that gave me the much needed kick to put the Playlist Mix on course and since last October I’ve managed to release 32 podcasts. I’d be looking at close to 50 had it not been for the serious lack of any evening-time in the summer thanks to producing and acting in two back-to-back performances from May to August with this devious bunch.

As always on the podcast there’s six tracks from six different acts with music this week coming from Vesta Varro, Planet Rewind, This Is Fiction, Annie Golliath, Satellite State and Ro Tierney who I had as a guest at the One Take Sessions in Kilkenny last year.

I’ll be catching Vesta Varro in action in Kilkenny this weekend but until then, enjoy the podcast. Comments always appreciated

The podcast has also been longlisted / nominated for Best Podcast at the 2008 Irish Web Awards, another fine night in store for the Irish web community this October 11th in Dublin.

Playlist Mix Podcast #36 – Download @ 27mb
[audio:http://www.playlistmix.com/podpress_trac/web/83/0/podcast036.mp3]

Irish Web Awards Long List Published

photo credit: julialat34

The first of the long lists for the 2008 Irish Web Awards (Fall in love with the web again).

I’ve spied the Playlist Mix (Best Podcaster) and Kilkenny Music (Best Music) amongst the list of exceedingly good Irish web sites and resources.

Once again though, as in the case of the Blog Awards, these long lists are opening my eyes to other sites and resources I’m either unaware of or just don’t get to enjoy all that often. So while it’s certainly welcoming to see two of my internet babies on the long list, it’s great to have the eyes opened up to more great Irish websites.

Registration to attend the awards, taking place on October 11th in Dublin, will open soon.

See also: Long list for Best New Web Application / Service, second part of long list (just published).

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