Last week I (AK) had the opportunity to interview former member of the Pussycat Dolls, Kimberly Wyatt (KW).  Kim recently launched her line of clothing and beauty products called Beautiful Movements.  The store is located on her Dipdive profile and powered by Audiolife.  CLICK HERE to check out her customized store and continue reading below for the interview. Thanks Kim!

AK: What inspired you to create Beautiful Movements?

KW: I created Beautiful Movements to give more of me to my fans. I do a lot of work at being a strong positive influence in life and Beautiful Movements gives me a platform to be honest, vulnerable and open. I’m not perfect and I want my fans to know that none of us are, but as long as we dream big, believe in ourselves and put in the work, we can live beautiful and happy lives.

AK: What inspired the Beautiful Movements clothing line?

KW: As I grow as an individual so does Beautiful Movements. The clothing line serves as a walking billboard for the positive lifestyle Beautiful Movements represents. The original artwork that is printed on the clothes stands for “being the change” and making a difference.

AK: How are DipDive and Audiolife helping to achieve some of the initial goals you set for yourself with Beautiful Movements?

KW: Dipdive was the first believer in Beautiful Movements and the sort of world I wanted to create for myself. At the time I had tons of journal entries that I felt could make a difference in other peoples lives by showing that I’m just like everyone else out there, I’m “normal.” Dipdive allows the relationship between artist and fan to grow closer.

Audiolife serves the same purpose. They streamline the relationship between me and my fans by offering a direct to fan contact.

AK: Other than Beautiful Movements, what other projects are you currently working on?

KW: Other then Beautiful Movements I’ve been working on a television show in the UK called “Got to Dance.”  It’s a dance show and I am one of the three judges. The show will start airing in January 2010. I have been in the studio working on my own music. I started by really wanting to get involved writing music since writing is one of my biggest passions in life and a huge inspiration behind having Beautiful Movements.

The more time I spent in the studio the more involved I got and soon I was making my own album. Fingers crossed the album will be out in 2010! I also have a few collaborations and features as well. Other than that I’m always thinking forward as far as what else I can create for Beautiful Movements, creating a Beautiful Movements dance line and a possible One Year anniversary book of blogs from the first year of BM. I think next year is going to be fun, exciting, and a lot of work. I can’t wait!!

AK: That definitely sounds like a lot of great projects!  What else you can tell us about your upcoming album?

KW: My album has a lot of really great features with people like Paul Wall and Baby Bash. Even Tony Kanal from No Doubt co-wrote and played bass for a song. I love electronica music and I love to dance so it has a feel that stays true to me. My goal is to make music that can later be the driving force of great performances!

AK: Where or who are you drawing inspiration from and what can we expect?

KW: When it comes to the music I want to make and what inspires me to do so I pull from Justice, Massive Attack, The Ting Tings, even Postal Service and Owl City. But I have to say at the end of the day the album is very different from anything I’ve ever heard and, fingers crossed, people will love it!

Expect to be surprised … I know I am! Haha, I went into the studio a few years ago thinking my goal was to be a songwriter and now I’m not only a songwriter but an artist as well! I think it’s all about the mini victories in life and I have to say, I had many of them during the process of making this album!

AK: Sounds super, Kim. Looking forward to hearing it!

Category: Interview | 1 Comment »

Tags: Audiolife, Beautiful Movements, DipDive, direct-to-fan ecommerce, Kimberly Wyatt, on demand merchandise

We swear we’re not Trent Reznor groupies. The man just has a lot of great ideas on how to effectively market your music directly to fans without a label–and we’re all about empowering the artist! So in case you missed our post earlier this week notifying you of the interview Kevin Rose of Digg did with Trent, we got your back! Check out the video below.  If you need more convincing, then read this quote by Trent below:

“One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, ‘Wait – you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the f**k made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they’ll sign anything’ – like I did. When we found out we’d been released (from their recording contract) it was like, ‘Thank God!’. But 20 minutes later it was, ‘Uh-oh, now what are we going to do?’ It was incredibly liberating, and it was terrifying.”

Right on!

Category: Interview, Marketing | No Comments »

Tags: Dialogg, Digg, Nine Inch Nails, promoting music, Trent Reznor interview with Kevin Rose, unsigned artists

Two weeks ago we posted a video on “How Trent Reznor of NIN Represents the Future of the Music Business.”  Tomorrow, Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, will pose questions to Trent that were voted on by its users.  Many of the questions are revolved around the same topics that were brought up in the video presentation.  We think it’s going to be a pretty interesting interview and a great opportunity to not only learn more about the artist but about the thought process behind his business model for promoting NIN and connecting with fans.

Click here to see the list of questions and then be sure to check back tomorrow, April 7th at 10:00 am PDT for the full dialogue. Let us know what you think!

Category: Interview, Marketing | No Comments »

Tags: business model, Digg, Interview, Kevin Rose, NIN, promoting music, Trent Reznor

Last Friday our very own A&R Coordinator, Natasha Veinberg had the opportunity to meet one of our bands, Aurum Star, at the Whiskey in Hollywood.  The band is formed of Christian Altman (vocals), Jake deSouza (drums), Eric Meyers (bass) & Chris Warren (guitar).  The following is her review of the show:

The Whiskey was packed when the band started playing and everyone immediately seemed to enjoy the music. Among the songs they performed, my favorites were “Evelyn” and “You Are.” They ended the show with “Ravana” and the crowd was ecstatic.  I had the pleasure of meeting the band after the show.  One of the things I loved the most about these boys is that even though they act like rock stars on stage, they are very chill and down to earth in person (not to mention very dedicated to their career as musicians).  They told me they were really excited to be playing because it was their first show since October and their biggest draw–over 120 people filled the small venue! This made for both a very encouraging and intense show for the band, but they were excited to have their fans, family and friends come out to support them, making the show a huge success! Check out their MySpace page and a picture of them performing below:

Members of the band, Aurum Star, performing at the Whiskey on March 06, 2009.

Category: Interview, Music | No Comments »

Tags: Audiolife band, Aurum Star, concert review, The Whiskey

Please see the interview below done by well known blogger and web 2.0 entrepreneur Duncan Freeman. You can learn more about Duncan and his exciting new project Band Metrics here. To see the interview on Duncan’s blog IndieMusicTech, click here.

Are you looking for a single location to create, sell and manage custom swag, physical CDs, digital music, and even ringtones across multiple websites, blogs and social networks? If yes, than Audiolife may be what you need. They’re still in beta, but this music tech startup has potential with a minimalistic, fast and easy-to-use UI.

For additional information about AudioLife, check out their video, or you can read my interview with Co-Founder Brandon Hance below:

Was curious, why did you start Audiolife?

Brandon: We started Audiolife because we wanted to help create a “middle class” in the industry. We wanted to empower musicians to build a sustainable career doing what they love doing most- music. Putting together a comprehensive e-commerce solution takes lots of time, money and expertise- most of which artists have very little of. We wanted to create a solution that was easy, free, and powerful that would let them sell all of their digital and physical products from one central location.

Good stuff, how does AL make money, and what % do do you guys take from DD sales, physical sales, merch, etc.?

Brandon: We like to think of it as having a partnership with artists- we make money when they make money. For each product (downloads, Cds, etc.) there is a minimum price that has our cost included, and we give artists the ability to set their own retail prices on top of it. For example, we’ll manufacture and ship the CD directly to a fan for $5, so if the artists sells a CD for $15, they’d make $10 profit/CD. The beauty here is that artists have no up front costs for the CD’s, no membership costs, and no hassle of making, shipping, etc. They simply upload their designs, set their prices and begin selling immediately. They have the flexibility to change their music, artwork and prices as often as they’d like…for example, artists can have a live CD for every show.

Very cool! One thing I like about AL are the step-by-step wizards you created for an artist to add merch, DD, ringtones, etc. What features do you see adding in the future?

Brandon: We are in the process of adding a comprehensive record label solution, warehousing and fulfillment services, and a re-sizable and re-skinnable storefront. There are a handful of other really exciting things in the pipeline, but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet.

Gotcha; no worries, so how long have you guys been building AL and can you provide some details about the team and your background?

Brandon: We founded Inhance Media in June of 2005 and Audiolife about one year ago. There are 3 founders: Brandon Hance, Aaron Wiener and Nishit Rathod. Aaron is the musician that we essentially built the business around. Nishit is a PhD computer scientist/musician and I was a music business major at USC and worked in the industry as a music manager prior to starting Audiolife.

Nice! Are you guys working full time on AL? If so, how are you all funded? Self, Angel, Venture, etc.?

Brandon: We’re working double time and we’re Angel Funded.

LOL! I definitely understand, can you provide any details about the angel round?

Brandon: We did a seed round, Series A, and Series A-1

Congrats! One last question, do you have any other info you would like to provide/share that we didn’t discuss?

Brandon: just that companies like Audiolife and Band Metrics give artists the power of a record label- they can literally run their entire business through us, but they still have to have the skill, discipline and drive to DO IT! I’ve found that artists get very excited about services (not just ours) but don’t get around to it. And this is the most exciting time in the history of the music industry for up-and-coming bands if they take advantage of all of the opportunities that are out there.

No doubt – well said Brandon!

Category: Business, Interview | 2 Comments »

Tags: band metrics, brandon hance, cd baby, duncan freeman, indie, indiemusictech, Music, tech