ALMT-MM: Soundcloud dominates music distribution

On ALMT-Music Mondays I write about music.

In my last post, I introduced you to The Hype Machine, an awesome site for checking out the latest, hottest, trendiest music on the blogosphere.

But what if you’re a musician that wants to be listed ON that awesome site?
It appears there are a few ways:

1. Check out their source list for the top 100 sources and cold call them.
2. Do a little research on THM: find music similar to yours and hunt down the blogs that like your genre and send them your track.

Either way you decide to go, you may want to consider putting your music on SoundCloud. Besides the fact that Wired claimed it was threatening MySpace for the “best online music destination,” it appears that THM is aggregated with SoundCloud (which means you’ll make it a whole lot easier for these kick ass blogs to smoothly integrate your band into their daily cool hunting).

An example below (I love how you can comment on specific parts of the song):

New Fang by crookedvultures

I have not yet set up an account for Girl In The Red Dress, but hope to do so soon. If you beat me to the punch, please let me know what you think and where to find your track. Best of luck getting on THM!

And don’t forget to check out tomorrow’s blog for your chance to win the debut EP from GITRD
and for a chance to win an iPad.
YES, an iPad.

ALMT-MM: Where thousands of music blogs bring you the latest MP3s

On ALMT-Music Mondays I write about music.

Are you a music lover? Want to know what the top 100 music blogs on the web are discovering? Want it all in one spot?

The Hype Machine to your rescue. Here’s he ways to explore their site:

• Latest: What’s going on right now in the blogosphere.
• Popular: The most popular artists, searches and blogs on the internet right now.
• Twitter: Interactive music chart of songs being posted on Twitter.
• Radio: An eclectic non-stop radio stream of blogged tracks from the past week
• Spy: Snoop on what other people are listening to on our site.
• Zeitgeist: The best 50 artists, albums and songs of the year.
• Dashboard: A customizable view of your favorite tracks, artists, blogs and users.

Anytime one of their thousands of approved music blogs includes an MP3, it is listed on THM. It’s not available for download (no free music), but you can listen to the whole thing and then click through to Amazon or iTunes to buy if you love it.

But what if you are a musician and want to get your music on THM?
Check out the next blog post for details.

ALMT-MM: Peter Gabriel scratches some backs

On ALMT-Music Mondays I write about music.

I feel like I discovered several goldmines today, so I’ll try to get through them as succinctly as possible.

First: Peter Gabriel rocks.  Ok, I already knew this.  But what I recently discovered is on 2/16 the man is putting out “Scratch My Back” an indie rock/orchestral cover album featuring such artists as David Bowie, Elbow, Talking Heads, Regina Spektor and Paul Simon. The artists in turn will cover a Gabriel song for the follow-up album “I’ll Scratch Yours.”

I downloaded his rendition of Arcade Fire’s “My Body Is a Cage” and if this is a taste of things to come, then I’m first in line to buy the album.

Next up: Where to listen to the latest finds from the top music blogs on the internet…all in one place?

ALMT-FS: Best Superbowl Commercial

ALMT-Funday Sundays is a diversion from the rest of the week.

Well, The Saints just won the Superbowl. Not that I saw the game.

Prior to the big game I was on the way home from my parent’s house in Minnesota. About an hour and half away from Chicago the four wheel drive of my boyfriend’s Kia Sorento started seizing up. We pushed it as far as we could, but when the vehicle could go no further we managed to get off the highway in Janesville, Wisconsin.

We called a few family members, all of which volunteered to pick us up, but we decided to check into a nearby hotel and sort everything out in the morning.  So, we checked in and watched the last five minutes of the game. Then I went online (thanks for the free internet Econolodge) and searched for the best part of the Superbowl, which I missed:

The commercials.

My favorite Superbowl commercial is a little bittersweet, seeing as it’s for the new Sorento. But, nothing can top a man-sized sock monkey on a jet ski.

ALMT-Social Saturdays: Wordle

On ALMT-Social Saturdays I write about Social Networking.

Looking for a unique wallpaper for your Twitter page or other social homebase?

Check out Wordle, where you can plug in your blog feed or other block of text and customize colors, fonts and shapes.  We plugged in the ALMT blog, with the “mostly vertical” layout in “enamel brush” font and a custom color palette.

We’ve updated our Twitter profile with it, check it out while it’s up.