Archive for September, 2008

From what I know, it takes about three to four months to get noticed and play a part in the blogosphere. You need to be posting good quality content on a regular basis, not too often though; a wise man once taught me that too many blogs posts would inevitably lead to diluting the stuff that’s actually of interest.

So here we are, three months in and we have our first random friend. Zoran approached Chris to do an  interview for his blog last week, the first interview he’s done I might add, but I can’t help but salute the guy’s efforts.

Back in the day, you were limited to reading features and interviews in the music press and occasionally, if the artist was massive, they’d make it into the Guardian’s music pages. Nowadays, you’ve got lads like Zoran approaching artists and getting their own great material… personally I think it’s brilliant. Not just because I have an issue with the media controlling the world’s messages, but because normal people who work a hard day’s graft are getting their chance to be the journo…. something I think many people are interested in, but simply don’t have the time. This guy can go down to his local boozer tonight and tell his mates “Alright lads, I interviewed Chris Lake last night”… I think that’s pretty cool and only the online world could facilitate this.

So there you go; with my rants, Duncan’s constant delivery in musical education and global updates from the head-honcho, we’ve made it onto our first blog-roll, well done team.

I have to say that in my time working with online marketing and communications I’ve come across my fair share of companies trying to exploit the digitally naive with promises of high google rankings and increased SEO blah blah blah, but this really takes the piss: MySpacemusicplays is apparently the answer for all those poor bands and artists out there who are struggling to get noticed… by paying them cash, they will increase the number of plays on your MySpace page, which will increase your chances of apparently getting famous…

I don’t even know where to start with this? The shocking ‘customer testimonials’ that don’t even link to the relevant pages, the fact that this sketchy as hell looking site doesn’t actually say how they do what they do, or that if you click ‘home’ it takes you to ‘Oops – page not found’.

What a bag of complete shite. DJs, artists, bands…. whatever, please beware of sites like this and DO NOT waste your cash.

Instead, if you want to increase your SEO and general exposure, have a go at the basics:

1) Make sure you’re using as many channels as possible. Research and explore the net, and you just might find a gem like iLike.com.

2) Add content frequently, but not just for the sake of it. Do it because you have worked hard and produced it well. Putting a track up every six months will not get you anywhere, let alone put a Mercedes in your garage and get you playing at Glastonbury.

3) Be creative – it’s not just about the music. Fans and peers will enjoy pictures, audio and video clips.. with nearly every mobile phone now allowing users to take good quality pictures and video, you should make the most of it… even if the quality isn’t 100%, at least you’re doing something different and giving people an insight into your personality.

4) Communication – talk to others online. Don’t be so arrogant as to think your material is so good the labels should be queued up outside your front door. And by communicating, I don’t mean spamming other pages with links or saying ‘thx 4 the add – gr8 new tune man!’… urghhh…. that’s fine if you’re a fan, but if you’re serious about getting exposure and gaining profile, why not actually engage in conversation with these people?

5) Transparency – Don’t hire a company to make you look great. It’s sad, a cheap trick, and more often that not, people get caught out. Whether it’s DJs boosting their DJ Mag Top 100 listings by using 10p/day guys in Africa, or Vista’s bribing blogger outreach launch… it’s not a happy ending.

Hope this has been of use and good luck.

Last Monday our head-honcho and tour manager Dean, hit the airways to play Privilege for the second time this Ibizian summer. We’ve put together a quick snap shot of their 24 hour stay, but more importantly, we managed to capture some of Chris’ new track “If you knew” featuring the vocals of Nastala, his follow up piano record to the globally supported “Changes“. We hope you like it! As soon as we have a release date we’ll late you know.

May we also give you a gentle reminder that you’ve got… hang on… let me check… 18days, 12hours, 29mins and 12 seconds to get your votes in for this year’s Top100 DJs.

Chris Lake @ Privilege, Ibiza, September 2008

It seems the dance-music industry has found Facebook… since the beginning of this year’s politically controversial DJ Mag top 100, I have been bombarded with group requests from DJs across the board. Now my background is in digital communications, so this may sound a bit over the top… but I would really like to see artists who are asking for people to support them, to do more online for their fans. In this day and age, if you’re going to have an online presence then you need to engage with supporters, not just push messages at them… I got another group request through yesterday, not that I’d heard of the DJ, but that’s by the by… for whatever reason I clicked the link to find out more. I landed on a boring page, with the inevitable “VOTE FOR ME”, a few photos and a link to the guy’s MySpace… it’s like, come on mate, you’re an artist, surely you can be more creative than that? No samples of music, video, comments or discussions… not even a biog – just somebody trying to tick all the boxes in a somewhat banal fashion.

Anyway, despite circulating rumours that this poll may be nearing its sell-by-date – a good friend of Rising Music, Mr Deadmau5, has done what I think is a genius bit of campaigning… all very tongue in cheek, but highly amusing. Check it out:

So here we are again! Tuesday was a very sad day for clubbing in London as it was announced that The End was to shut. I had the pleasure of playing and raving at this awesome venue and it will be sadly missed. But London lives on! 

Had a quiet weekend just gone but used the time to have a good search through beatport. With my relaxed mood deep house was the order of the day and this is what I uncovered.

Bearweasel – Orpington EP: Bearweasel make great deep house, that’s all you need to know!

Dan Berkson – Keep On feat Robert Owens (Two Armadillos Remix): Amazing remix with the legend Robert Owens on vocals.

Mr. V – Circle Track: Mr. V has been putting out quality deep house for years and this is more of the same.

James Talk & Tom Budden – Toad In The Whole: Great stuff here from the Portsmouth boys.

My My – Everybody’s Talkin’: Oh yes! Killer bassline and great groove

If you get time check out these little beauties even if deep house isn’t usually your thing. It’s the perfect way to hold on to those last remaining hours of summer. See you all after the weekend for more of what I’m up too!

The End in action

Duncan x

So on Monday Chris played his second gig warming up for Tiesto… I’m told the night went well, and we should have some footage up on the YouTube site by the end of the week. This however, could not wait… awesome snap of the two DJs…. we’d like people to offer up their own captions… feel free to be as creative as you like!

Personally, I remember the days of Kate in the Big Brother house… ahhh… only a distant memory as she’s now doing pretty well on the DJ/Production front.

Not much to say here – I’ll leave it to the lovely Mel Sutton to ask the questions: