What inspired you to center a podcast around the Advent Calendar?

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday of the year.  When I was a kid I used to get so wound up to make that walk down the hallway and see what Santa got me I would make myself sick with excitement. I remember how painfully slow those final days before the 25th used to crawl. My hope is that my daily little video snippets help ease that torture of waiting for Santa to visit. I was also looking for a way to share my enthusiasm for the holidays with the web and perhaps spare the people who have to live with me day to day in real life. Above all else, it’s a tremendous creative challenge that I look forward to every year. I even have a production binder this year to keep things straight!

You’ve been doing this since 2003. How has it evolved over the years? Come to think of it, “podcasting” didn’t even exist back then.

True. When I got the Advent Calendar in 2003, I had a blog. So back then I used to photograph what I got inside the door each day and post it to my blog. In 2005, I was working hard on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd and we’d done some video podcast stuff, I just thought it was a natural fit. So it’s evolved from still photos to film.  It’s also been quite fun to see how more and more people have joined in the fun.  By writing in, commenting on the website and YouTube or entering the yearly contest I hold. I’ve even had two fans create their own Advent Calendar video podcasts and, to me, that’s the real fun. Last year a fan named BreakManZ started his calendar and he’s back again this year. The breakout star of the Advent Calendar video podcast scene though is Olivia in Olivia’s Advent Calendar. She’s an 8 year old fan from Maryland who started her own video podcast with her family and it’s really fun to watch.  She’s giving me a run for my money in the creativity department that’s for sure. (Links are on my site)

Each episode has its own flavor. In one you’re singing, in another you’re doing sight gags with a fan. Where do the various ideas come from?

Everywhere. Sometimes it’s planned out a couple days in advance and other times I just start the camera rolling and see what happens. That’s part of the fun because one of my self-imposed rules is that there can only be one take.  So I can ‘rehearse’ it a couple of times, but I never open the door until the camera is rolling and whatever happens during that take is what goes out on the web.  I try really hard not to repeat myself though unless there’s a specific reason to do so. That’s why one day I’ll have special guests and the next day I’ll be opening it with the Golden Gate Bridge behind me.  I think it gives folks a reason to tune in to see what will happen next.

What’s your best guess as to what you’ll find on day number 25?

Oh you never know what the Advent Calendar Commission (my family) has up their sleeves. Could be a couple dollars, could be a tube of Chapstick.  That’s another very important rule I have too.  I NEVER look ahead. I’m just as surprised as the viewers are when that door is opened each day.

The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd has been going strong for years. What can we expect from the Doctor and the gang in the future?

We’ll be starting our eighth season early on in 2010. Our last season, season seven, was a bit of a departure from our usual formula that saw our characters jump in and out of works of classic literature, but in season eight the crew will be back traveling through time just like before. We’ll have our usual gaggle of special celebrity guest stars as well, but I gotta keep a lid on just who they are for now.  We’ll also be debuting more video. We’ve launched Letters To Dr. Steve where the Evil Mastermind Dr. Steve and his assistant Fidgert answer real letters sent in by kids and we’ll be doing more of that in 2010 for sure.

interview by Bill Palmer

Many moons ago, back when almost no one had yet heard of podcasting, I attended a conference where a speaker named C.C. Chapman had already started carrying out the gameplan for something called “podsafe music” which was allowing musicians to clear their songs for legal use on podcasts and to take advantage of the resulting publicity. Years later, with his award-winning music-themed podcast Accident Hash on the verge of its three hundredth episode and as influential as ever, I caught up with the podsafe pioneer to talk about the evolution of music podcasting as well as several other new media projects that currently have his attention – including a new podcast he’s producing that’s hosted by his eight year old daughter…



For those unfamiliar, what is podsafe music and why is it important to fans of music and podcasts?


Back when the Napster lawsuits were happening a bunch of new laws were passed that affect the downloading and publishing of music. I’m over simplifying, but this means that you legally can’t play music on podcasts unless you have the full permission of all rights holders to do so. This is not that easy to get, so the concept of “being podsafe” means that an artist has given their full ok for their music to be played on podcasts. When you are an indie artist (or a smart mainstream one) you want your tunes to be heard by as many people as possible on any outlet, so many artists have embraced the concept of becoming podsafe. 



Back in the day I was the Project Manager on the creation of the Podsafe Music Network which was a clearing house of music that had been deemed as podsafe for any registered user to play in their podcasts. While it has not been updated in years there is new music being uploaded every day so it is still a valuable resource.



I’m glad that other organizations have also stepped up to create libraries of music that podcasters can use. My friend Ariel Hyatt has an amazing lineup of artists that she works with at Cyber PR and all of them have songs that are deemed podsafe. If a podcaster is not signed up for her service (which is free) then they are missing out.

What led you to start the Accident Hash podcast?

I have always loved to be the guy who told his friends, “you’ve got to hear this new band.” In college I did radio and when I discovered podcasting I realized I now had an outlet to share music with the world. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I had a bunch of bands that I had gotten clearance to use their music in films I was making with Random Foo Pictures, so I started with playing them and people seemed to like what they heard.



It was crazy how quickly it went from little old me talking into a microphone and playing some tunes with a few listeners, to a show that was influencing people’s music purchasing around the globe. I still get a kick out of getting an e-mail from an artist who just sold their first CD to a listener on the other side of the world and they tell the artist they heard the song on Accident Hash. That NEVER gets old!

What can listeners expect from a typical episode?

Thirty minutes of great music from a variety of genres. I love hard rock, alternative and acoustic music. I’m a sucker for a female fronted rock band. I play it all and try to mix it up and give every listener a little escape from their day or the push to get through the end of the day.

You may also notice that quite often there is loose theme on each episode. So I might chill out one episode playing Allison Crowe or The Lovespirals and then the next show crank it out with [munk] and Waltham. It really depends on what my mood is for the day.



You’ll also hear plenty of me gabbing. I’ve been dinged from some people in the past for talking too much for a ‘music podcast’, but I’ve always shared my thoughts on the songs and what is going on in my life with my listeners and that isn’t ever going to change. Plus, if the talking is too much that is what the fast forward button was invented for.



My hope is that no matter what episode you listen to, you are going to hear at least one song that makes you pause and think, ‘why isn’t the radio playing this?’.


You’re coming up on your 300th episode. What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the landscape since you first started out?

When I started out we were all very new at this. You could listen to all the other music podcasts and everyone knew each other. It was a hobby for all of us, but it grew into a business for some of us and that of course changes everything. I don’t have as much time to give to the show as I used to and I miss that.



Podcasting never took off as big as many of us thought it would. Sure, it has grown immensely since those early days, but I remember the energy and optimism everyone was filled with the first time most of us met in Ontario, California and we all thought it would get bigger than it did. Sure, a lot of people are making some money from it and the smart ones have branched out, but I think a lot of the early optimism and ‘we are going to change the world’ attitudes have gone away.

What have you got planned for the 300th episode?



I honestly haven’t thought about it yet. I’m hoping that my friend and all around great musician Matthew Ebel will make me a special intro like he did for #200. I get a smile just thinking about that. I hope to play a lot of songs from some of my favorite bands over the years. It is going to be a long show. That much I can promise you.


Knowing me, even though I say that I don’t plan to do much, I’ll more than likely do an extra long show filled with a lot of thank yous to all the musicians, fans and friends who have kept me going this long.

In the spirit of Twitter, if you were trying to convince a musician to make their music podsafe, what would you say to them in 140 characters or less?

You WANT people to hear your music right? Then make it available on every channel possible by making at least one track podsafe. (12 characters to spare *grin*)


How do you expect the future of podsafe music to play out? Do you think the major labels fully embrace it eventually, or will it always be the domain of artists who control their own music?

The music industry is currently run by a bunch of dinosaurs who don’t see their own extinction on the horizon. I wish it wasn’t that way, but I’ve watched it closely and that is what is exactly what is happening.

I don’t think they will ever fully embrace podcasting. They’ll use it when they hope to break a new band or resurrect an old one (remember when James Brown went podsafe?). Indie artists have always looked for every angle to share their music and they will continue to do so. The need for a label is still there, but quickly shrinking as the model changes.

What can you tell us about your other projects?

Which one? I never seem to have only one thing on my plate.

My newest project is DigitalDads.com which I’m very excited about because it allows me to talk to other fathers out there about what is on my mind. I noticed that there were very few sites out there for Fathers so I wanted to start one. I’m fortunate to have some awesome Dads helping me out by writing for the site. I’m really excited to see how it grows in 2010.

I also just started producing a video show with my daughter called Emily Explains It. She is only eight, but already is a natural on camera and she answers questions on all topics. She even had a sponsor already which made both of our days. She loves doing it and I love producing it so I’m hoping to get that on a more regular schedule in the near future.



Managing the Gray, the marketing podcast I do, is still churning along with a sort of shift in focus lately away from pure marketing. I’m really happy where it is going and the listeners are more connected then ever.



I’m also an active freelance photographer and writer which makes me happy. I’m passionate about both and when I get hired to do either of them it is something special. I’m hoping that the new year brings a lot more of both of these.



You just finished growing a mustache. What was that all about? 



It was part of an event called Movember where guys around the world start the month of November clean shaven and then grow a mustache (known as a ‘mo in Australia where this was started) for the month to raise money and awareness for men’s cancer.

This year Cancer has been on my mind more than usual as my friend Drew Olanoff was diagnosed and made his fight very public through his #BlameDrewsCancer efforts. Sure, I could make a direct donation and did, but I also wanted to do something more and when I got a video from the founder of Movember asking me to join the cause I jumped on board.

I’m happy to say that my team raised several thousand dollars and that the whole experience was a blast. Although my wife wasn’t very happy about the facial hair, we both believed in the cause.

How have you used sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote your shows?

I use both of them to keep my community of friends and fans updated on what I’m creating. I have separate Twitter feeds for all of them, but mainly they just push out the latest shows. My main Twitter account (@cc_chapman) is the one I use all the time and use to share everything and anything on.

I also have a personal Facebook account and a fan actually set up a Fan Page a long time ago and I still have yet to fully utilize that to the fullest extent. I spend a lot of time building and maintaining communities for clients on Facebook and Twitter so I know how to do it, but just like the Cobbler’s children I don’t have the time to do it for myself.

The great thing about these tools is that they can be used in a variety of ways and most allow for cross syndication so when I write a Blog post it automatically posts to my Facebook page. Too often people forget to do this and it is right there. Create it once and share it everywhere.


You’re a Miami Dolphins fan living in New England, which is kind of a unique thing. How did you end up being a fan, and what do you think the Dolphins’ prospects are for the rest of 2009?



Well after their complete meltdown in Buffalo this past weekend I don’t think they have a prayer for much this year. That game was a painful one for sure.



I get asked how I became a fan and I honestly have no idea, but I always have been. My Dad is a life long Vikings fan and my Mom roots for the Cowboys so it doesn’t come from them. But, I grew up watching Marino throw touchdowns and have always rooted for them.



It makes for a lot of fun times in New England for sure, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wear my custom Dolphins jersey with pride.

Learn more at cc-chapman.com.

Radio Crystal Blue

iProng Magazine chats with Dan Herman, host of the Radio Crystal Blue podcast…

interview by Bill Palmer

What can listeners expect from a typical episode of Radio Crystal Blue?

Radio Crystal Blue, active since 2000 on the Internet is a series of indie-flavored music segments and information, all focused on the indie music scene in various parts of the world. I typically spin 35-55 songs per show, with a running time of anywhere between 3.5 and 6.5 hours. It all depends on how much information I share with my audience (upcoming shows and news per musician), how many songs, and how many segments.


The overall aim of Radio Crystal Blue is to be a throwback to the time when freeform radio had more of an integral place in commercial radio. You’d never quite know what would be heard on the airwaves next! But the coolest aspect, for me, is to present music from both underground/indie/emerging artists, and tie them together in some way, be it friendly association with each other, an instrument, a lyric, a chord, an upcoming double bill for an event, and so forth. At the end of each segment, I take the time to explain the connections, and will share info from the liner notes of each CD and often from an artists’ mailing list or website about upcoming news and events.

At different times of the year there will be special features. In most years I’ve ran an online airplay vote. To help listeners choose which artists receive airplay, I would spin 2 songs of each nominee.  In another part of the year, I run another 2 song segment, where I have final say as to who should be given more exposure and airplay in the long-term. Both sets of features have resulted in a top-tier level of exposure, given the title “Gem”.  My Gems and Charts page present a cross-section of the top artists featured, both past and present.

Also, at appropriate times (Christmas, New Year’s, Memorial Day, Labor Day), I’ll add a holiday show..as I predominantly spin music of appropriate holiday music from indies and others.

I have a secondary program, Radio Crystal Blue Novus Ordo (Latin for ‘new order’), where I spin exclusively current-year music, in one segment. This program is syndicated weekly on two Internet radio networks: Radio Bracknell, in Bracknell, UK and Free Radio Jackson.

Major label music gets spun rarely, but does get heard, as to enhance the overall experience.  These songs will generally be tied into specific holidays or certain festivals, past and present. Just the other week I began a show acknowledging the Woodstock (1969) festival anniversary. I had recognized that there were a number of bands that never made it to or turned down the opportunity. Typically of yours truly, I got some music together of those bands that, indeed, were not part of Woodstock but should have been.

How did you come up with the idea to include a focus on artists who will be performing in New York City?


The concept grew suddenly in May 2002, nearly two years into the show’s existence. Before this time, when I wasn’t receiving as much material as I do now, I took a grass-roots effort to find artists, both local and national, who were seeking a new place to get their songs aired. It was a slightly uphill battle, as this was in the time before royalty rates were set to ensure artists would be compensated.  My scope, was, as is now, worldwide. But I hadn’t taken the time to see any local artists. During this time, I kept a habit of joining the mailing list of each artist I was giving airplay to.


So in the fateful time, one particular artist, ellee ven an R&B artist from Los Angeles, mentioned in e-mail to me that she was playing a small venue in the East Village section of Manhattan, named The C-Note, and would I be interested in attending? I readily obliged, and made my way from north New Jersey to the venue.  I came early to see the tail end of a weekly open mic hosted by Kathy Zimmer and Meg Braun ellee performed with a cassette track of beats backing her up.  I was taken by the charm the venue offered and I stayed for the entire evening’s festivities.  Later I met the promoter for the venue, who turned me onto a ton of local artists.



Soon after, I became a regular (and worker) at C-Note, picking up the occasional CD from artists that were playing there, and a few contacts for booking alongsides. I recall first naming the audio segment ‘The Downtowner”. Soon after, with the influx of material coming in, I had built whole segments with artists from the New York City scene right alongside national and regionally touring artists.  My little radio show was little no more.  As Radio Crystal Blue, I picked up more local and national artists with major-indie ties.  Meanwhile, while doing bookings for local artists, I would often parlay such bookings with radio airplay.

What first motivated you to start the show nine years ago?


My parents were both 30 when I was born. I wondered to myself for years about what my life would be like when I turned 30 and if I somehow would become a father. Typically of the age-30 experience for most, I had a career consciousness crisis. I had spent 6 years in the company of people in the New Age field. The practices I put into action with their inspiration were a great help mentally and emotionally.  But when a series of moves came around between 1997 and 2000 (ages 27 through 30), both forced and planned, I gave up the dream of wanting to build a New Age practice.  During 2000 I continued to wonder (and wander) about, thinking about what to do or accomplish next. One early form of the Ask! website ultimately proved helpful.  I mentioned that I wanted to combine my love of music, radio, and the Internet.  Well there just happened to be such an animal as Internet radio, and it was suggested I build a presence out of a station on the new (then) Live365 network. And I began, without much of a following, or real direction.  Trivia: First song I ever spun was “Song X” by Neil Young & Pearl Jam.


I credit these as influences: Vin Scelsa (NYC radio icon), Pete Fornatale (ditto), Murray The K, Pat St. John (and other NYC DJs), and the syndicated radio program Hearts of Space.

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in Internet radio since you first started out?


Internet radio has grown as I have grown, adapting to many changes and rules and regulations, along with necessary technical upgrades.  It was not long before I began that the DMCA Act had been enacted, regulating amounts of airplay per artist. I had no problem with the rule, tho gone were the days of spinning, as one local station would call it “The Ultimate Album Side”..6 songs of one artist.  Can’t do that anymore.  My view is that it’s still possible to foster creativity, if not through one artist over time, then at least by artist association as described earlier.  The advent of the royalty issue in 2003 created an expected rift within the worldwide Internet radio community, and I even wondered what changes it would bring.  The payments, for me, were more reasonable than expected, so long as I would follow the FCC rules for airplay. 



Live365 continues to self-govern this practice. The technical nature of doing so, honestly, has proven cumbersome.  When I changed computers, going from Windows 95 to 98 to Vista, suddenly it became much more difficult to webcast as before.  What I’ve done since is upgrade all equipment (Behringer mixer, Sony microphone) and a great third-party software (SimpleCast) by the folks at SpacialAudio. I’m sure I’m not in the minority among fellow Internet radio/podcast denizens who have had to change with rules and upgrades.


The shouting has gotten only louder, in light of legislation and negotiation about the proper dispensation of royalties to the appropriate songwriters and performers. Internet radio is taking a big hit in allocating more money than other media to pay songwriters.  Yet an even bigger hit may impact commercial and niche radio to pay performers. It comes at the risk of losing commercial and terrestrial radio as we know it. Being a radio purist (despite the relative lack of creativity), I would not want to see such legislation come to pass.


Personally, I’m glad no federal structure has been set to monetize podcasting. I have the sense that more podcasters and radio folk are seeking alternative means to earn money, so any move in the direction of podcasting and a new wave of personalizing the radio experience, as it was nine years ago for me, seems inevitable. If there are any changes, they may come sooner than later. If I must pay three times what I pay monthly to Live365, it will not surprise me.


As a postscript to this answer, I am moving in 2010 out of New York City, to parts unknown, and am seeking the best opportunity for work, living, and support of a music scene. I’ve gone strictly to a podcast method for the time being.

What’s your connection with the National Underground?


I book directly with this small venue located on East Houston Street in NewYork City, owned by Gavin and Joey DeGraw.  National Underground has 2 floors of live music (Americana, roots, country, jazz, cover bands on the main level), a “Cheers”-like atmosphere, and how could I not mention the bar food (hamburgers, grilled chicken, cheese plate, etc.)? It’s been open for nearly 2 years.  Having done some bookings here prior with a local collective of booking agents, I retained my ties to the venue, and have just begun a weekly series. When possible, I showcase artists who have received some amount of airplay on my show, often in a double or triple bill with notable artists they are associated with.

What’s the best way to listen to Radio Crystal Blue?


As of late 2009, Radio Crystal Blue and RCB Novus Ordo are in podcast format only, though there are other means to hear the show. I still use the Live365 radio software to create a show in 64kbps format I convert the .mp3 audio into RealOne format, and further set it up for listening via my Archive page. On both this page and my new Google website are FeedPlayers, a device to hear my show through Big Contact The FeedPlayers allow a person to stream and download each program. Inside the player is HTML code, enabling the listener to take the player and post on his/her site or blog. And then there is the requisite RSS.  Each player (one for the podcast, another for live events, another for ancient audio I’ve recorded) has its own feed.


The Archive contains the click-through links to hear the shows in .mp3 and .ram formats.

•••••

Learn more at RadioCrystalBlue.com

*****

Podcast Spotlight: Sly Crooner

What can listeners expect from a typical episode of Sly Crooner of Swanktown?



Sly Crooner of Swanktown is a weekly half hour radio show and podcast of modern urban fairy tales and swank jazz tunes.  Think of it as a new jazz cabaret each week.  I write the stories and tell them as Sly Crooner who is the lounge singer and raconteur of the Royal Palm Court Lounge.  The main characters are the mayor Mr. Lucky, the hotel physician Dr. Peculiar, the resident florist and romeo Cosmo d. Gigolo and the lobby fortune teller Slow Kitty.  It’s martinis, fashion, jazz and whole lot of attitude and the motto every week is “living swank is the best revenge”.



How did you come up with the idea for such a unique premise for a show?



I was always a big fan of Garrison Keillor and his News from Lake Woebegone and really admired his story telling.  I’ve been a songwriter all my life and have a huge catalogue of material and putting the two together just seemed to make sense.  The art of storytelling, live radio storytelling has faded somewhat now that every event in modern life is attached to a video. Delving into that world has been the biggest challenge for me.

When you first launched the show as a podcast, did you have the goal at that time to eventually get it onto the radio?



Yes. I always thought that this format, unique as far as I know, could work both as a podcast and on radio and I always wanted to pursue both avenues.  The interesting thing is that it was immediately picked up by KYOU in San Francisco, a CBS station that broadcast all podcast content.  So right from jump street I had confirmation that it could work both as a podcast and on radio.

How did your show end up launching on SiriusXM last month?



That was a three year odyssey that ended only when I happened to write to the Program Director of Book Radio and ask if they’d like to get a CD of the show.  It was about the 50th email I’d written (there are no phone numbers I could find) and somehow it got through, got read and got a response.  I sent them a CD and 2 months later they got back to me.  As usual, when work or good news comes, I was out of town.  Actually I was in Helsinki and they wanted to talk before we put the show up.  I wasn’t scheduled to be back in Los Angeles for a month so I had to gut it out waiting to close the deal.  It was well worth the wait.

Since Sirius is a paid subscriber service and you’re presumably making revenue from Sly Crooner now, why continue to give it away for free as a podcast?



Good question, bad assumption.  The revenue I have and continue to receive for the show is easy to total up at the end of every month . . . zero.  It seems to be widely assumed that all content on SiriusXM is paid but I can assure you that is not the case.  I look at it as a golden opportunity to build an audience for the show and so I am thrilled to continue to give it away to SiriusXM and as a podcast.  And I hope to continue giving it away for a long long time.

Learn more at SlyCrooner.com

Ewan Spence on the Fringe

First of all, for those offlanders who shamefully aren’t familiar with it, what is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival all about?

Quite simply it is the largest arts festival on the planet. The raw numbers have 265 different stages descend on the Scottish capital, putting on a shade under 2100 shows performed by over 18,500 people. Over the three week period (August 7th to August 31st) that takes up 34,265 performances. That’s a lot – and when you consider that’s over multiple disciplines, theatres, drama, comedy, music, dance, stand-up and everything in between it’s just a smash of human nature that’s happened every year since 1947. It’s an open program, no curation – if you want to put on a show, you just find a stage, pitch up, and away you go.

What led you to start releasing your Fringe Festival content as a podcast back in 2005?

Podcasting back then was still less than year old (if you count Coverville as one of the first podcasts, which started in September 2004) so part of it was the challenge… a heady mix of the fringe itself being a place for experimentation and new ideas, but that podcasting was such a new medium that nothing like that had ever been done before. Could one man take on a festival of that size (both in terms of shows and time, three weeks plus change) and capture enough of it in audio to make a compelling show?

The answer, five years later and with a mailbox full of people checking that the coverage will be returning, means the answer is a confident yes.

How has your coverage of the event evolved since 2006?

Not by a huge amount to be honest. I’m a believer that the audiences out there, on the whole, can take one or two major changes in a format, but not much more than that, before they start to think something is too different. By switching their listening to a podcast, as opposed to a radio station, that’s already a major change, so I want to make it as comfortable as possible.

The show format is modelled closely on the night-time chat shows, a nice familiar introduction, some news and views at the top of the (half) hour, into the interviews and then finish with a number from one of the countless musicians playing the Fringe.
What has changed is my style. Going back to listen to the shows from 2005 and I sound like the announcer in a TV commercial running in the fifties. The best note I ever got was from someone who was a fan of the Fringe podcasts that year, meeting me in real life. They asked why the bundle of energy in front of them wasn’t coming through in the audio?

So I loosened up a bit, brought a bit more of me out, but always keeping the focus on the guests.

One thing that is new-ish this year is that throughout July is a weekly highlights show, looking back at some of the interviews from previous years to get everyone in the mood for this year’s Fringe. They’ve gone down incredibly well, and done the job of priming everyone (and all the RSS feeds!) that the show is definitely coming back in 2009.

What are you most looking forward to at the 2009 Festival?

September the 1st!

There is such a rush at the start, with all the press previews, and while I do have some interviews booked ahead of time, it’s the process of going through the previews and the buzz of all the reporters and people on the ground to try and find the small shows that are going to be big. While it’s great to interview the big names I much prefer being able to point to Fringe shows from previous years and seeing that I did get the names that are now big, when they were much smaller and struggling to pull in audiences of ten or fifteen people.

So it’s a process of discovery. And there’s also a huge extended “family” of people that gather once every year, so we all catch up in the bar, find out what’s been happening, much as you do at any festival or conference, but the scale of the Fringe makes it amazing. For comparison, SXSW Music has around 1800 20 minute slots through the event… the Fringe has the aforementioned 34,265 slots, generally running an hour long.

You’ll be releasing new podcast episodes daily during the Festival. How do you find the time to get them recorded, edited, and uploaded on a daily basis while attending the festival?

Haggis. And caffeine…

And a lot of planning! The honest answer is I’m not quite sure, but there’s a schedule to keep to, the clock will never stop ticking and you just have to get it done. There’s no time to spend hours on an edit for an interview, so you need to be able to nail the structure and the flow during the actual talk with the guests… there’s no time to do a massive re-ordering in post production, so planning out the interviews, with notes, biographies and press releases is a must. A lot of my time in July is spent planning the coverage, when to see shows, when are the time slots to book interviews, when can I edit…

After that it’s mostly trust in the planning process, make sure to write everything down (the Fringe is the only event I attend where I carry a second Filofax diary just for the Fringe details), and then just go on instinct, do what seems right, and never turn down an interview just because it sounds difficult. So what if the Japanese Samurai master doesn’t speak a word of English and has a katana on the table between us – it’ll make a great interview!!!

Tell us about iFringe, the iPhone app.

Well I have to be focussed one hundred percent on the audio show, but the iPhone App junkies should be looking for an app called iFringe. Put together by the Fringe Guru team, it’s going to pull in the huge amount of data from the Fringe, including reviews and recommendations alongside Fringe news and more touristy information such as the best places to eat. Oh and with so many venues expect some GPS goodness to go alongside the usual search features.

The Edinburgh Fringe Podcasts are going to be available inside the application as well, so there’s no excuse for the iPhone Art Loving fans to not know what’s going on at the Fringe this year!

Learn more at edinburgfringe.thepodcastnetwork.com

Scott Sigler interview

New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler has just released THE ROOKIE as a hardcover novel and sales are strong already, which is impressive for a book that’s been available for free as an audiobook in podcast format since 2007. But that’s the winning formula that’s allowed Scott to build a loyal audience, make a living from it, and achieve mainstream success. I caught up with him to learn how it’s all happened.

You started out trying to get EarthCore published as a print novel through a major publisher. What led you to change course and give it away as a podiobook instead?


I did land a print deal with an imprint of AOL/TimeWarner, and EARTHCORE was supposed to be out in mass market paperback in May 2002. However, in the post-911 recession, TimeWarner scrapped everything that wasn’t profitable. My imprint wasn’t profitable yet, hence, the whole project was shut down. It took me about three years to get the rights back. By then it was 2005, I discovered podcasting, and thought it was going to be the future of novels, short stories and storytelling.

Wasn’t it a bit scary, at the time, to give away content you’d been hoping to charge for, without knowing if you’d ever see a dime from it?


It wasn’t scary at all, it was a huge opportunity to be the first to do something like this, and use that to build an audience. I saw the connections people make online, and knew that if I created a great product, some people would like it and instantly send their friends MP3 links via IM, forums, chat rooms, blog posts, email, etc. Giving the first book away was about building a brand name, and proving that my work resonated with the marketplace. At the time, I assumed I’d pick up 10,000 subscribers and land a print deal. I hadn’t counted on the fact that publishers had no idea what podcasting was, or MP3s, or downloads or really even the internet, for that matter. I accomplished the goal, but it took five books and three years to get there.

How exactly did you go about building up an early audience for your podiobooks? Was enough to just put it out there for free, or did you have to actively spread the word?


I’ve worked constantly to spread the word, pick up fans, and get them to spread the word. Just putting a free work up isn’t enough, you have to market it. A lot of people will listen because it’s free, and a certain percentage of them will like your work and become fans. Therefore, my real goal as an entertainer is to make sure the most possible people find out about me and give me a shot. The larger the base, the more fans generated by that same certain percentage.

Now that you’re a New York Times bestselling print author, and people are clearly willing to pay for your work, why do you still give your content away? Is that just because you’re a nice guy, or is it part of a strategy to sell more content?


There’s a few reasons. First, my father had a phrase, “you dance with the one that brought ya.” I got to where I am because of my fans. They helped me in a lot of ways because my work was free, and I’m not going to bogart it from them now that I’ve achieved a couple of goals. Right now I give everything away for free, even the stuff that’s on sale. It’s up to the customer to decide how they want the story — free podcast, free PDF, paid iPhone app, paid book. And times are tough; some people want to buy the books but they don’t have the cash right now. So no problem, that’s what the free podcasts are for. Maybe someday they buy my books, maybe they don’t, doesn’t matter to me because that’s the customer’s choice to make. Second, “free” still gets me new people who try my stuff because they don’t have to shell out the bucks. If you have a choice between spending $25 on a Stephen King downloadable book, or get mine for free, odds are you’ll try mine first, even though King is a proven author and always delivers. You know if you don’t like mine, you can go back and spend the $25 anyway, so there’s no risk.

You released a hardcover version of THE ROOKIE last weekend. What’s the premise of the book?


Basically, it’s projecting professional football 700 years into the future, after we’ve discovered alien races, and trying to figure out what the game might be like. From there it gets much deeper, illustrating the integrative nature of sports and sport as a meritocracy that destroys racism (you have to learn to play with the best players, regardless of race, if you want to win). Finally, it’s a kick-ass coming of age story and chock-full of awesome, high-tech football action.

I’ll give you the synopses:


Set in a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future, THE ROOKIE is a story that combines the intense gridiron action of “Any Given Sunday” with the space opera style of “Star Wars” and the criminal underworld of “The Godfather.”

Aliens and humans alike play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that literally want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assassinated.

Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or he’ll wind up just another stat in the column marked “killed on the field.”

How are your years of participating in social media paying off as far as promoting the print version of THE ROOKIE?


I’ve built up an online following in various social media places, like Facebook, Twitter and on my own site scottsigler.com. Simply making the product available in these different areas lets people find the book based on their preferences. Some find it via Twitter, some via Facebook, and some via my podcasts or my website. The larger the following, the more people want to buy the product, so that’s why doing this for several years gives me the best chance to find customers that really want the book.

Don’t forget, I already gave THE ROOKIE away for free as a podcast, and it’s still available for free. Most, if not all the people who have pre-ordered so far have already heard the story. They liked it so much they want a print copy to read again or to share with others. That’s what social media does for me – when my fans finish a story, I’m still right there, accessible, they can stay in contact and monitor what’s coming next.

Is Quentin Barnes, your protagonist quarterback of the future, based in part on any real-life football player?


I wrote this book years ago, so he was initially based on Daunte Culpepper. When Culpepper came into the league , he was 6-foot-4, 260 pounds. It was almost unheard of for a quarterback with his skill set to be that big. So Quentin is huge for his position, which helps set him apart. Personality-wise, I tried to imagine an incredibly talented kid that’s played his whole life in, say, the Ku Klux Clan minor league, but he wants to be the best so he works his way into the bigs, where — hold on to your hat — he has to have sub-races on his team. The final step was gauging his maturity level. Quentin joins the pros at nineteen, so I channelled a bit of early Kobe Bryant behavior in there.

You’ve said that what you like about Stephen King’s books is that he’s willing to whack any character at any time. You’ve announced an upcoming sequel centered around Quentin Barnes. Is there a chance he bites the dust in that book?


Absolutely. In my books, no one is sacred, and dead stays dead. That being said, THE ROOKIE series isn’t like my modern-day horror/thrillers. This is a scifi series, so odds are everyone’s favorite quarterback will be there to play another day. With a thriller, much of the fear-of-loss revolves around a character’s life. To draw the reader in, you need that specter of death. With a sports series, you get a different specter — losing the championship, the big game, the career, etc. So you can really put a reader through the wringer without having to put the characters’ life on that line.

Speaking of quarterbacks, you’re a long-suffering Detroit Lions fan. What do you think of their drafting of Matthew Stafford with the first overall pick this past weekend?


Paying the kid $41 million guaranteed is a huge mistake. The Lions have needs everywhere, particularly the offensive line. Detroit destroys quarterbacks. Not the other teams’ quarterbacks, mind you, our quarterbacks. If you just look at the statistical trends of Detroit, Stafford won’t be the starter in three years. I wish they would have traded down and loaded up with three first- or second-round offensive line picks. Franchises that had dominant runs, like Dallas, New England, Pittsburgh, they all spend the dollars to develop and retain a great offensive line. I’d love to think Stafford is The One for Detroit, but this ain’t my first trip to the rodeo. At least we didn’t use our first pick to draft another goddamn receiver …

Late last year you released THE ROOKIE as an iPhone app. What role do you think iPhone books and readers like the Kindle will play in the near future of books?


I think portable devices are the future of books, period. There are 20 million iPhones and iTouch units sold so far, in only two years. I don’t even use my Kindle anymore now that the Kindle App works so well on the iPhone. So that’s a market of 20 million potential readers, who can now buy books, stockpile books, and most importantly impulse-buy books. As the cost of eBooks comes down to the $3-$5 range, the same cost as most apps, I think readership is going to go through the roof. The reason it’s going to keep getting bigger is that the iPhone and other cell phones are lifestyle devices. A book is just a book, but an iPhone is your phone, your email, your calendar, your social media, your video, your music, your games and now your books. People will continue to be more attached to their phones. They are already ubiquitous, and if you can read a book on your phone, there’s no reason to read it on paper — it’s just one more thing to carry.

For an aspiring book author who’s just starting out, what advice would you offer them? Has your successful career path written the definitive blueprint, or have things shifted already?


There is no blueprint, things are changing too fast. The first piece of advice is get used to the fact that you are in the minor leagues, there is clearly a minor-league system, and in the minors you have to give your content away to build up a following. Be prepared to do that for three to five years before you have enough people to make a difference. It will not happen overnight for you, nor do you want it to, because audience feedback will help shape your storytelling style. The second piece of advice is that the days of “just writing” are gone. You may hear the old guard talk about how a writer should write, and how they “let other people handle those other things.” Well, that was because these guys signed their publishing deals fifteen, twenty years ago, when there weren’t 500 channels, when there weren’t metroplexes, when video games were nothing like they are today and the internet was basically non-existent. People have so many entertainment choices now, you have to fight for your customers’ time. You have to market AND write, you have to be a businessperson AND an entertainer. Third and final bit of advice, understand the fact that readers want to connect with the author. Embrace social media, reply to emails, to blog comments, interact with them whenever possible. Don’t be an arrogant douchebag. You are not important. Your work is not important. What’s important is giving people value for the time they spend with their works — write great stories, and be accessible. The days of the author’s ivory tower are long gone.

Aside from promoting THE ROOKIE and writing The Starter, what else do you have on the horizon?


Right now I’m working on ANCESTOR, which will be the third hardcover published by Crown Publishing. Should be out March of 2010, and we’re gunning for a top-15 spot on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list. That’s my new goal, and I’ll be unleashing every trick in the book to make people aware of the book, and what it means for user-generated content and social media if we hit that mark.



Scott Adams of Dilbert

Dilbert has been a comic strip for twenty years and has become a cultural icon in the process. The cubicle-dwelling characters have found their way from the newspaper to books and television over the years, and now they’ve entered the new medium of podcasting in the form of animated cartoons delivered every weekday. I caught up with Dilbert creator Scott Adams to get the scoop on the how and why of Dilbert’s transformation from the page to the podcast…

First things first: how did you originally come up with the name “Dilbert” and who if anyone is the character based on?

Dilbert is a composite of my ex-coworkers, with a little of myself in the mix. Physically he is based on one particular guy who does not know what he inspired. I never mentioned it to him. The name Dilbert was suggested by my friend and ex-boss at the phone company.

What inspired you to turn Dilbert into a daily animated strip?

It seemed like the natural step. The Internet is embracing video and animation, and the cost of animation is dropping.

What have been the biggest challenges in doing the animated strip? Biggest rewards?

The challenge is that I write for readers, not listeners, so the voice actors have an extra challenge translating my words. The biggest reward is simply that people like the animations.

What led you to release the animated strip as a free video podcast in iTunes?

The videos are already free on dilbert.com, as are the regular comics and my blog. iTunes is a way to reach a larger audience.

Do you worry about releasing your work in a format like podcasting, a format from which most content creators have been unable to derive any type of revenue?

The more people who enjoy Dilbert the better. Popularity can be translated into income a number of ways. For example, in October the 20th Anniversary Dilbert book comes out. It’s a huge volume (coffee table size) with everything from the story of how I got started to the comics that didn’t get past the editors to every comic I have drawn up to that point. Added exposure to Dilbert can only help sales of the book.

How do you feel about episodes of the Dilbert television show being available for purchase through iTunes?

If people like them, that’s fine. I don’t make any money from that, thanks to Hollywood accounting.

Why do you blog? Is it purely a personal exercise, or do you believe Dilbert’s readers gain something from reading your thoughts on the various topics you blog about?

No one knows why they do anything. But I will share some rationalizations and that might feel to you like an answer. For one, I haven’t been able to speak for several years, thanks to an exotic problem with my vocal cords called spasmodic dysphonia. I recently had surgery which should correct it within a few months, as the nerves regenerate, but during this time I felt a strong impulse to have a voice of some sort, and the blog allowed that. It is essentially a written conversation with tens of thousands of people.

Second, when you are a creative person, you need to create. It is an unstoppable force. Dilbert is a restrictive vessel as far as the types of material it can handle. Blogging has no limits. It is nearly instant, uncensored, and strangely personal. It appeals to me on every creative level. That’s a long way of saying it feels good when I do it.

Beyond blogging, have you dabbled in other social media tools such as Facebook or Twitter, either for personal reasons or for the sake of expanding Dilbert’s reach?

I haven’t. Those things can be problematic for us minor celebrity types.

You’ve taken Dilbert from the comic strip pages to television to books to the podcasting world and beyond. What other forms of media are you planning to (or hoping to) integrate Dilbert into in the future?

Maybe when artificial intelligence and holograms are perfected I can take the gang to a new level. How great would it be to summon a lifelike image of Dilbert every you had a technical question?

Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV

New Media Expo has seen its share of notable podcasters take the keynote stage, and this year is no different as Gary Vaynerchuk of the popular video podcast Wine Library TV is set to deliver the Thursday morning keynote address. Intent on bringing wine to the masses, Gary has had massive success in using New Media tools to promote his show, and he’s been tapped to appear on mainstream outlets ranging from Conan O’Brien to Ellen Degeneres. I recently caught up with Gary to get some background on how he’s made this far, as well as a preview of what attendees can expect from his upcoming keynote address.

A lot of people start a podcast about some random topic, maybe something they just want to explore a little more, but in your case you grew up around wine, right?


Yes. You know, I come from a place of, I’d like to hope and think, a little bit of knowledge. It’s something I did my whole, basically my whole career, before I started a video blog, was, you know, the wine retail business. And I lived and breathed wine 24-7-365. So it’s definitely something I’m comfortable and obviously, you know, hopefully a little bit knowledgeable about.

This is a family business. What did your family think when you first said, I’m gonna do a wine-tasting video podcast, video blog, and it’s supposed to help business? Were they skeptical?

You know, I think at that point I’d gained so much street cred within, you know, the world. I mean really it’s my dad and I, so really he was the only that I had to kind of really talk about it with. But I’ve been running operations for a decade, and you know, when you take your family business from three million a year to fifty million a year, you’ve got some credibility, you know? You’re allowed to play a little bit. And so I think that, you know, just like my parents have been, I think they were very confident that there was something behind it and that I wasn’t doing this for kicks and giggles. But regardless, I’ll be honest with you, this was something I just knew I had to do. And you know, it really wasn’t even so much for day to day Wine Library business. It was really more about changing the culture of wine and doing something that made me happy. So that’s really what was most important to me.

Usually when you think wine you’re thinking connoisseurs, upper class two hundred dollar bottles of wine. But you’re going in a whole different direction, right? You’re aiming more toward the masses with Wine Library TV.

Yeah, you know I felt that I can leverage New Media to show people a cooler, more exciting wine culture, something that people could wrap their head around. I just feel that wine is on a pedestal that it has no interest in being on. It’s way to foofy-foofy in society. I think of it as a product that brings people together and is pretty awesome, and I wanted to shed a different light on Pinot. And I felt I could do that leveraging social media, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, you know, things of that nature, and that’s what I’ve been very passionate about. And luckily, somewhat successful.

You’ve been promoting the show using the social networks you mentioned. You do the show every day, and of course you’re still running your business. Why is it important to carve out time to do things like, you know, posting little random stuff on Twitter all day?

It’s actually become my full-time job. My day to day operations at Wine Library I’ve been handing off more and more every day. It’s important because you want to be part of the conversation and you want to engage your community. You know, it’s very important to me for me to put myself out there and spend time with people and, you know, answer wine questions or questions about other things whether it’s marketing or branding or business. I just want to be part of the conversation. I want to be with the people. And so it’s my lifeline. It’s my oxygen. I need it. So it’s not only important, it’s really everything.

So are you one of these folks who kind of goes nuts when Twitter goes down or the “replies” tab gets broken?

No, because I get about a thousand emails a day. So actually I think I’m relieved, so I can actually go do the emails, cause I don’t want to keep those people waiting too long. You know, I’ve always got something to do. So obviously Twitter’s fun and when it goes down there’s another place to go, you know, whether it’s Facebook or Pownce or my inbox or somewhere else.

The show is about wine tasting, so why are you on there licking rocks and eating dirt and stuff like that?

You know, episode 148 is a real historic episode of Wine Library TV. It’s when I did that. It was to show people what I did to build my palette, and how I built my palette when I was seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, to get into wine but my parents wouldn’t let me drink. I would read the tasting notes of wine and I would then go out and basically taste those things. So a Blackberry, Black Current, Cassis, you know, rocks. Whatever, you know, oyster shells, grass, black pepper. Whatever it took, I wanted to taste those things so that I could then pick them up, the subtleties of them in wine. Obviously if I’ve never had Cassis, how the heck was I gonna know what it tasted like when I tasted it in wine? And so that was a very important process of my career, even though it seems extreme, it was a big foundations of my palette.

When you’re on Conan or Ellen it seems like the thing that they want to focus the most on is eating the weird stuff. Do you feel like they’re trying to make it into a gimmick, whereas you have a more legitimate reason for doing it?

Yeah I think at some point maybe, but don’t forget I don’t care because I get the trade-off of getting millions of people to find out who I am and maybe come to the show and see what we’re doing, you know? And it is funny, and it is fun, and you know, I’m more than comfortable in making fun of myself. You know, I’m a New York Jets fan, I can handle a lot. So I just think it’s a part of the process, it’s one dimension. You know, I feel comfortable that I have a lot of dimensions, and so I hope that people start out by seeing it and being curious. And I’m sure some people will see that and be turned off by it and I respect that. But you know, I’m gonna work my face off and work real hard to show up on their radar again, and then hopefully when they see it the second or third or fourth time, they realize there’s a lot going on here.

I know there are lot of people who watch your show who are not necessarily a wine drinker, they just find the show entertaining. But for someone who’s never really gotten into wine, maybe they’ve taken a sip here and there but it’s just never caught on, what would be the first steps that they should take to become a wine drinker?

We should realize that wine is probably one of the only luxury items out there that doctors allow us, we can’t even eat anymore, right? I mean wine is like the one thing everybody agrees is healthy. So it’s a healthy beverage too. It’s phenomenal, it tastes great, and everybody hates it at first, and I think people need to wrap their head around that. Ninety percent of the people that taste wine for the first time dislike it. But then there’s a flip of a switch. And so the big thing to understand is you need to try as many different things and you need to trust your own palette. I don’t want to hear people rolling up on me anymore saying I’m sorry, I have an unsophisticated palette, you know? Nobody needs to be sorry for what their taste buds are. So go out, try different wines, don’t take it too serious, and I think what’s gonna happen is you’re gonna have an epiphany wine. You’re gonna be out with friends or doing something, watching games, drinking something. And you’re gonna taste something and be like wait a minute, this is pretty serious, I like this. And then the journey begins.

So if someone out there, it turns out that their favorite wine is some sort of wine that is cheap and everyone else makes fun of them for it, you’re saying that’s okay?

I think that’s great. I mean if you want to drink White Zinfandel or if you want to drink, you know, Yellowtail, that’s fine. But don’t drink it like it’s got the cure inside. I mean try different things. And way too many people find a wine they like and they drink it until, you know, they’re peeing out that flavor. And so I really would like to see people expand their palette, try as many different things, and that’s where I get really excited.

You’ve introduced some different terminology on your show, for instance there’s one that’s in the title of your book, you use it on your show all the time, “Bring Thunder.” What does that mean?

In high school when we used to play hoops and play NHL ’94 on Sega Genesis, if you did anything good, you brought thunder. You know, no matter what. If you picked up a girl, you brought thunder. It was just a term that me and my friends used, and you know, I just subtly brought it back somehow when I was doing Wine Library TV. People caught onto it and really enjoyed it, and it just kind of became a life of its own. And you know, it’s just a slang term that I’ve used from back in the old school that has just kind of been resurrected on WLTV.

So these are things, you say things like “sniffy-sniff” and “link that up,” these aren’t things that you’re sitting around trying to think up, this is the way you naturally speak?

I think those kind of things that you try to naturally think up become very non-authentic, which is going to kill you. Not that I haven’t said oh man, this is fun, let’s come up with more stuff. But I just can’t force it because the thing is, I black out when I do Wine Library TV anyway. So even if I had a really solid gameplan going in, it would be thrown out the window. So I kind of just go natural.

You say you black out, I’ve also read that this is unscripted, you don’t have cue cards or anything. So this is just from the top of your head once the camera’s rolling?

Straight from the hip, my man. Straight from the hip. Five hundred episodes almost, never an edit on WLTV, just we rip it. And that’s how it rolls. And so it’s how I feel comfortable. When I do national television, things of that nature, I actually get upset because they want to, except when I do Conan and when it’s live, you know? I mean, people just try to over-produce. And I think when it’s real and transparent and authentic, it dominates. And you know, that’s why I love improv comedy.

Did you know all along that you wanted your show to be video and not just audio?

No, I guess I didn’t, you know? The audio podcasting thing kind of slipped through my radar, I was just in the middle of building a forty thousand square foot store. I kind of very much paid attention to blogging, but you know, that whole thing kind of went and passed me by cause I’m just not an unbelievable writer, even though I wrote a book. And then audio had, you know let’s be honest, audio had like that one year window before video was kind of available as well. And in that window I kind of just was too busy. And then by the time I kind of got back onto paying attention to what was going on, video was available as well and it just felt like a more common, more obvious platform for me cause wine is pretty visual and I thought I could do a lot more things with being a little bit more visual and so that’s how that kind of happened.

How did you end up making the decision to this every weekday, as opposed to just once or twice a week, or something that would be easier on you?

Because I’m hungry and I’m raw like that. I don’t understand anything unless it’s at a hundred thousand miles an hour. And so if I was gonna do this, I was gonna do it for my community and my fanbase until I was gonna bleed out of my eyeballs. And so that’s just the work ethic that I come with. And so it just made sense. I felt listen, I could put out a lot more content, you know? I kind of make fun of myself that I don’t do it seven days a week.

You’re going to be giving a keynote address at New Media Expo on August 14th. Obviously we don’t want you to give away the whole thing here, because we want people to actually go and see it in person. But just in general, what can people expect from you when they go to see you give a speech like that?

Pure passion. Looking to give value. Not looking to go up there and brag about what I’ve done. Maybe try to give a blueprint to people being able to see or achieve the same kind of success as I’ve had in a genre or niche that is meaningful and passionate to their soul. Talk about different scenarios, and a crapload of Q&A so I can answer questions of what people really want to know about. And so, you know, that’s really where I’m gonna come from because that’s what’s most important to me. You know, when I speak, I’m there to help, I’m there to give, and I’m not up there to promote. And so that is going to be a massive, massive part of what I’m doing. And really trying to talk about this gold rush of personal branding and building community and giving back. I’ve got a lot of things I’m passionate about, and really we’ll see where the crowd is vibing, and I like to really adjust or mold into where I think the sense of direction is of the audience.

Matthew Ebel interview

Singer-songwriter Matthew Ebel made his iProng Radio debut back in September 2007 with a live interview at the Orange County Podcasters booth at New Media Expo, and later appeared in the debut issue of iProng Magazine in December. No stranger to podsafe music, Matthew recently took things a step further by giving away free downloads of three of his songs to anyone who wants them. We checked in with Matthew to find out why he’s giving away free music and what else he has going on…



What have you been up to since we last caught up with you in December?

Well since we talked last December I’ve actually moved from Nashville to Boston. I’ve been here almost five months now and I still feel like I just moved, though, it’s a totally different world. I definitely made the right move, though, since there are a lot more conventions and seminars up here that relate to what I’m doing. I’ve already been to a couple of new media events and a PR boot camp for musicians. Hopefully I’ll actually be able to start playing more shows soon!



You make a living by selling your music, so why are you giving it away?

I do make a living selling my music, but good luck getting people to buy music they haven’t heard. Some people will take a chance on an album based off of one listening, but I’d rather give people the chance to mull it over. I’m pretty sure that the more they listen to some of my songs on their good headphones or speakers, the more my music will grow on them. If not, they haven’t lost anything but time… but if they really dig it, I hope they’ll go for the rest of the album.

I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think the albums were worth buying.


What happened to the House Tour?

The house tour… well, a few things happened to the house tour. I mentioned a few things specifically on matthewebel.com recently, but the drift of it is that I would have gone broke trying to do it. God knows I wanted to make it work, but there just weren’t enough people buying tickets in advance to make the trip break even. At $4 a gallon, I literally would’ve come home from that 3,000-mile trip and had to get a day job. I’d rather try again later in the year and give myself a LOT more lead time to book other shows and promote more.



What have you got coming up next?

Right now I’ve got a couple of things on the horizon. First and foremost is Block Island; I spent a month there last year, but this summer I’ll be on the Block for 10 straight weeks. It’s going to be a hell of an experience, I know it. I was just getting into the rhythm last year when I had to go home, so hopefully it’ll be as great this year. I just hope my voice can survive singing 4 hours a day 5 days a week. The other thing I’m hoping to do by year’s end is release a Christmas album. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while, but I don’t want to just crank out some cheesy pop album where I’m butchering O Holy Night with vocal ornamentation. I want to do something classy and original, and if I can do that you’ll see it on round plastic by year’s end.