Helen Sventitsky...Singer/Songwriter

Eigenharp Alpha, the future of music

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:54:28 -0800

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

It's a Sexy Job, But Adam Lambert's Gotta Do It! - E! Online

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:42:11 -0800

I’m not team Glambert, and, because I’m on the West Coast, so I missed all the good stuff from last night’s AMAs (from Jen’s falling to Adam’s copulating), but, dammit, enough, already!

If our outrage over rock stars is nothing new, then neither are our rock stars. From Elvis’ pelvis on down, they are nothing if not dedicated to sex, more sex, the next new single, which is probably about sex, and ticking off people who prefer their s-e-x to be not so explicit, thankyouverymuch.
Criticizing Lambert for what he did, smooched and pawed at the AMAs is like criticizing that Paula Deen lady on the Food Network because she made something with butter: It’s what they do.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

My last.fm Top 3 Artists, 11/22/2009

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:24:44 -0800

The usual stuff, but I love it so much!

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

It Takes a Chunk of Ad Change to Build a Village, or Adventures in Self-Promotion, part 1

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:15:49 -0800

I admit, I’m always a little puzzled when on/off line acquaintances tell me that they are surprised to find out that I do write, sing and perform music. I mean, seriously. Do a search on Google for my name, and you’ll see links of my work to music sites I’ve never heard of. I then look have a look over my Twitter stream, my FriendFeed stream, and even over on my Myspace accounts. Lots of pimping of other people’s work. Hardly a peep about mine. I’ve now gotten to a point where all that is going to have to change.

As with many women, I’m scared of coming across as boastful, arrogant, or even spammy when I try to encourage eyes and ears to my music. In my 16+ years as an online addict, I’ve seen many an attempt to show off their wares be meet with ridicule, sarcasm and, in some cases, out and out anger. There was once a massive subculture that didn’t take too kindly to being “sold to” on their respective BBSs, and the like. These days, there is really no room for that kind of thinking. Promoting oneself on the internet (or anywhere else for that matter) has always been a fierce business, but, especially in this economy, everyone’s out for their own. To this end, you cannot be afraid to put yourself out there, make yourself heard, and reap the resulting rewards (or scorn). Sure, you run the risk of annoying your friends. But if they didn’t support what you are doing, would they be your friends?

Anyway, to that end, I’ve decided to work harder (and hopefully a little smarter) to sell my CDs online. I’ve decided that, rather than spam the hell out of some of these music sites, I’d do the right thing and participate in some of these music site ad campaigns. I’d start small, try to extend the time, and work it out from there. A lot of these sites will allow you to promote either a page or a song. I opted for song promotion and picked the first “single” off of my last album, “Incident at Motel 6”. Granted, this album was released over a year and a half ago, and I’ve kind of sat on it without saying anything until now, when I’m in the middle of another project. But, what the hey? It’s been good to me, and I want to share it. So, last night, I paid about $75 for an iLike ad that was to run for 150 clicks, and be seen in all countries accessing iLike in the electronic music genre. Small audience, right? Should take a few days to come to fruition, right?

It was over in 2 hours. $75 bucks for a two hour campaign. Serves me right for thinking the iLike site had such a small following:

Checking my stats the next morning, I saw that the campaign landed me five more fans and 4 more “Likes”. I always appreciate more fans, but I’m not sure I can afford $75 every time I need a two hour spike in iLike traffic. Here’s to hoping the word of mouth from the fans works… I also signed up for Last.fm’s powercampaign. This time, it’s USD $25.00 for 100 clicks, and you can target it toward people who like certain bands. I initially had Radiohead and the Chemical Brothers’ fans in my sights as well as the usual Kate Bush/Bjork/Alanis combo. But then I decided that targeting those bands’ followers was a bit dicey. So, I chose these, instead:

As of this morning, these were my stats on the campaign:

Ok, not a smash hit, but noone hated it either, at least not so far. I also have to consider that Last.fm is Euro-centric, so the listens/loves/skips/bans will probably show up while I’m asleep. I also tried getting my music on Pandora, and aside from the rather stringent requirements, I kept getting this error message when I tried to put in my UPC code for the CD (which IS on Amazon.com).

So, I contacted Amazon.com. They got back to me the next day and said that the UPC code is properly connected with the item in their store. Do a search using the UPC code, and there you have it.

So, I’ve put out a couple of emails to Pandora and CD Baby. It’s Sunday, of course, so I don’t expect to hear from them until tomorrow, if all goes to plan. And finally, I’ve put together an ad campaign on Facebook. .50 per click. Maxed out at $50.00. It is currently “Pending Review”. I wonder if I should edit the text to say that the CD would be a great Christmas gift. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas.

Anyway, those experimental ad campaigns have cost me a total of $150.00. It was about as much as it cost me to master the CD, and less than it did for me to dupe it. It’s too soon to tell to see if I got my money’s worth. If I can sell at least one CD out of all of this, I’ll smile a little. But I’ve now more fans that I’ve have before, so the payback is already coming.

I’ll do my best to communicate. That’s another thing. I need to get better at fan communication. I’m always flattered when I email/twitter someone I’m a fan of, and they actually reply! I must do the same thing. Anyway, results in a few. Cheerio!

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Kandinsky retrospective is natural for Guggenheim -

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:20:50 -0800

via latimes.com

Reporting from New York - “Kandinsky,” the big exhibition of 95 oil paintings made between 1902 and 1942 by the visionary pioneer of abstraction, Vasily Kandinsky, is a show that looks like it was made expressly for the spiral ramp of the Guggenheim Museum. That’s because in a sense it was.
Solomon R. Guggenheim, the museum’s founder, was a major collector of Kandinsky’s art, amassing no fewer than 150 canvases in his lifetime. (He died in 1949, five years after the artist.) The work was perhaps the most profound influence on the collector’s thinking about nonobjective painting, which shed direct relationships to the visible world. Kandinsky instead explored the emotive possibilities of color and form, study central to avant-garde art for the next half a century.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

NASA - Robert Satcher's Self-Portrait

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:11:33 -0800

via nasa.gov

Astronaut Robert Satcher uses a digital still camera to expose take a self-portrait during the STS-129 mission’s first spacewalk.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Awesomest...sashimi...plate...EVAH!!!

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:30:00 -0800

Taken @ Spanish Springs Sushi, Sparks, NV
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

test

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:38:06 -0800

Test

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Future colliders: Beyond the LHC - physics-math - 20 November 2009 - New Scientist

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:05:52 -0800

via newscientist.com

The Large Hadron Collider is by no means the last of the particle smashers. A group at CERN recently explored the various scenarios that might emerge from the atomic debris in Geneva – and how they would shape what colliders we build next.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Fave Quote of the Day

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:56:06 -0800

A taste for irony has kept more hearts from breaking than a sense of humor, for it takes irony to appreciate the joke which is on oneself.
- Jessamyn West

via google.com

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Leafdrift in video form

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:17:25 -0800

(534 KB)
Watch on posterous

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Leavedrift

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:14:18 -0800

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Depeche Mode - “Master and Servant” | Sound Affects | PopMatters

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:51:16 -0800

via popmatters.com

The original “Master and Servant” features the members of Depeche Mode in their musical prime, partway between their awkward early teen idols years and on the road to fulfilling their destiny as gloomy stadium gods. It’s also a song that shouldn’t be toned down into some easy listening version. After all, this is a tune explicitly about BDSM, a topic the group addresses both lyrically and sonically with full gusto. It’s no wonder that when Depeche Mode was creating this record, its chief inspiration was “Relax”, the innuendo-laced smash hit by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

A Soccer Match in Sudan Includes Soldiers and Guns

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:02:54 -0800

via nytimes.com

Two of Africa’s powerhouse soccer teams, Egypt and Algeria, were squaring off Wednesday night for a chance to go to next year’s World Cup. Rowdy Egyptian and Algerian fans had been playfully goading one another all day, zooming around in minivans, hanging out the windows, flapping their national flags like matadors trying to taunt a bull.
Most of it seemed good-natured, sports-fan stuff. But the Sudanese were not playing games. This is a militaristic place, after all, where children wear deconstructed camouflage uniforms to school and several serious internal conflicts often rage at once (like Darfur and South Sudan).

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

100 Years Of Johnny Mercer, Pop Poet Laureate : NPR

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:00:49 -0800

via npr.org

Mercer wrote the words, and sometimes the music, for more than 1,500 songs, with more than 200 collaborators, among them composers Harold Arlen, Hoagy Carmichael and Jerome Kern. He was nominated for 18 Academy Awards and won four.
One hundred years ago today, Johnny Mercer was born in Savannah, Ga. And he grew up to be one of the most popular lyricists of the American Songbook.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Cousins - Vampire Weekend at Town Hall Theatre, Lafayette, CA 11/8/09

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:14:19 -0800

via youtube.com

The previews of this song I’ve been seeing on (OMG, I can’t believe I’m copping to actually watching this on) MTV have been delish! I kinda liked their first album, but the second one’s sounding as if it’s shaping up to be super killer!

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Abandoned Ruins of the Soviet Empire - Per Steven Perez @ FriendFeed

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:39:45 -0800

via io9.com

My dad would have died laughing…no wait…

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

Sound & Vision Magazine - Fab Photos: A Gallery of the Beatles

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:39:14 -0800

via soundandvisionmag.com

I grew up listening to, among others, the Beatles. Kids at school gave me a hard time. I didn’t care. I just wish I was old enough back then to pay attention to them while they were still together. RIP John and George.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

University research proves that the smart interlinking of multiple artist-controlled web properties drives success - MTT - Music Think Tank

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:53:23 -0800

via musicthinktank.com

I think all artists should read through this important case study. You can download it by visiting here: http://www.musicadium.com/online-marketing-research-paper
In my opinion Dave Carter found out some very interesting things: (Disclaimer: I may find this study so inspiring is it scientifically backs up my theories and teachings at Ariel Publicity and in my book/online course Music Success in Nine Weeks. Affirmation feels so sweet….)

After seeing him present and taking some time to read through the study I had more questions and I wanted an opportunity to delve deeper with Dr. Carter and he graciously took the time to answer my inquiries.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »

China turns to Adam Smith - Telegraph

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:22:32 -0800

via telegraph.co.uk

Oh…the…irony…

China that has an appetite for the father of modern capitalism, while the West is rediscovering Marx.
Smith’s first masterpiece, the Theory of Moral Sentiments, has been translated into Chinese for the first time, and Chris Berry, professor at Glasgow University, where Smith wrote the book, will next week deliver lectures on it at Fudan University in Shanghai.

China’s Premier, Wen Jiabao, has said he often carries the work – which preceded his more famous work The Wealth of Nations – in his suitcase when he goes abroad. Prof Berry said the earlier book emphasised the importance “not only [of] their material prosperity but also their moral welfare”.

Posted from Singing in a Restaurant at the End of the Universe… | Comment »