Music is a System, like any other…

So why not hack it?

Why not get down to it’s particular elements, and play God? So here goes…

I Can’t Quite Believe…

…that I haven’t posted since September; but the mighty Stomp the Genre Records moves on apace, building a brand “ettuspadix”, a dotty old gentleman who hasn’t the wit to thoroughly master modern music, modern technology, or even simple personal hygiene.

StGR has discovered this Erisian Anachronist, and has released four albums of his collected works.

A Couple of Tips and Tricks…

Whilst fiddling around with the “digital distribution” thing, I discovered a bit of a loophole. The ISRC codes can be registered with PPL (you have to get a registrant number, but it’s free (just takes time)) and tunecore automatically generate a UPC/EAN number which can be turned into a useable .png (on a free barcode generator site) even before you submit your album. This saves about 25 quid.

Time to Focus…

…and now I need to focus a bit on WHAT I’m selling. I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking through a niche where this type of music fits. How would I describe it? OK, it’s…er…electro-punk-jazz chamber-music. The bigger picture is that I’m now realising that ther’s a crusade in this. My mission, Jim, (should I decide to accept it) is to drag the concept of chamber-music (something I’ve always loved the idea of) kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. I think violins are the culprit here. Tough on domestic violins, tough on the CAUSES of domestic violins.
…this message wil self-destruct in BANG!!

Hold on there cowboy…

So before I started this business with promotion, I forgot that you need something to SELL.
Spent the last couple of days finishing off the CD and embedding ISRC codes through Gnome CD Master (free, of course, you know me by now) and getting a finished red-book glass-master. Whoop.

First things first…

Well, I had to have at least one artist to represent. And behold, it was spadix, and lo, I saw that it was good. Just to explain a little; my nickname when I had my hair taken back to a number one a few years back, was “Spike”. My surname is Brown. spadix is a dual-purpose Latin word that means 1.) a spike (a botanical term) and 2.) the colour brown (a deep reddish chestnut). I wanted to get this character vaguely in the manner of Prince or someone else with a touch of wierdness, but without any hint of god about, so I plumped for a worshipper of Eris (the goddess of Chaos). Several attempts at websites (all absolutely free, mark you) later, I linked the reverbnation accounts together, so that my record label now “officially” represents me. The spadix sites are all listed below.

• spadix on MySpace
• spadix on WordPress
• spadix at reverbnation
• spadix on webs.com
• spadix on 000webhost.com

All of these sites have their service limitations, banner-ads, whatever, but by playing one off against the other, I’ve managed to get audio working in various forms, and each has their own quirks and foibles.

Change of tack, slightly…

I recently went through a bit of inspiration, and came up with a whole shed load of music that I had recorded, and some compositions that I had finally printed in a decent looking software called Lilypond. I then decided that I should protect and indentify my music, by means of ISRC codes. In order to do this I had to be a record label. And so, dear reader, I became one. Stomp the Genre Records is the beast in question. Now look, I’m a muso, not a businessman. I have no experience at this. So hereafter follows an account of my adventures, inspirations, cock-ups and everything else, warts and all, so YOU can laugh, benefit, sympathise and comment to your hearts content. Have fun with it. I know I will.