I received this email from a trusted friend, Monique Barry of Songwriter's Expo in Toronto.
While she (and I) are not in any way associated with the following, it might be of interest to some of you.
So I felt it worthwhile to pass along.

And hell, if you need a quick video, you know who to call, eh?
(how cynical of me - what have I become?)

Are you the next great Canadian songwriter?
 
Think you have written a Chart Topper?

Want a chance prove it and to perform your original song on TV for a
national audience?
 
New television series from Temple Street Productions (Canada’s Next
Top Model) is looking for songwriters with a song they think could be
#1!

If you are interested in showcasing your talent, passion and original
song please apply by emailing a video audition to
chart.topper.canada@gmail.com with the following information by
Tuesday August 25th:
 
1. In the body of the email tell us: Your Name/ Age/ Occupation/Main
genre you write for
 
2.   Post a video of you performing the full song on YouTube and paste
the link in the email.
          
- in the video you MUST introduce yourself - state name/
age/ occupation AND answer the following questions on camera:

A). Introduce the song, how you came up with it.
 
What would it mean for you if this song gets licensed? Becomes #1?
 
C). Describe your songwriting background
 
- Your Video doesn't have to be amazing quality, but we really need
the youtube link. Performance can be a home video or from a recent
gig.

- While the music speaks for itself, you can be creative and show your
personality in your answers to the questions!
 
We are looking for ALL genres/ types/ sounds. All songs must be
original and not previously published.

If selected, you must be available August 30th to perform the song for
filming in downtown Toronto for initial casting.
 
Thanks  - We look forward to hearing from you!

By applying you acknowledge that all information you send, including
sound and images, may be used in the development of this program for
private use.

        

milestonesThis week has marked a number of turning points for this writer, on personal and professional levels. August 9th was the 25th year I have been married to the sweet, gentle Helen, an event we marked by renewing our vows at frankfest (more info under thanks). I also recently turned 50, a number I have dreaded for at least two years, but have truly come to embrace in the weeks since my birthday. Perhaps it's the relief that when the sun rose that morning, I didn't in fact turn into my father, or perhaps I came to the refreshing realization that I was no longer an old 40-something, rather, I am now a young 50-something. Lynn Harrison (pictured) honoured me with a song called Milestone at frankfest, one she composed at Helen's request. What a GIFT.

frankcasting news
This week, we filmed The Wilkins at The Bookstore Café in East Camden, a place familiar to a number of readers. As you can imagine in that old place, it was a challenging shoot, especially as there were no empty seats anywhere! We also introduced a third HD camera into the mix, and look forward to what new dimensions this brings to our video productions.

Rick and I tested our new Tricaster production mixer at CIUT radio on Tuesday. This powerful mixer allows us to become a mobile, multi-camera web TV studio. We're a few weeks away from fully rolling this system into the marketplace, but the possibilities of what we can produce live-to-web are endless. Tricaster and U-Stream have a unique business arrangement that allows video streaming to UStream directly from the unit, and it won't be long before you start seeing our great music scene represented in professional TV style presentations live on your computer/TV.

gasp!
This was also the week that this statistic, reported by my friend Chris Patheiger of Redux Media, hit me right between the eyes:

Canadian Online Advertising Revenue Grows by almost 30% in 2008 to $1.6 Billion (and Surpasses Radio)

As a former terrestrial-radio broadcaster who has recently transitioned to New Media, you might imagine how the bracketed words hit me right between the eyes. What does this milestone mean? Money talks - loudly. Does it confirm what many have long believed, that the era of radio being the second-in-command to TV is slowly coming to an end? Does this further legitimize the web's stake in the entertainment media landscape? I mean do kids even listen to radio anymore?

So then this question comes to mind: are those of us who use these mediums shifting our perceptions accordingly? My experience tells me this is probably not the case. I am still a die-hard old-radio romantic, and I dearly miss the red-light buzz I got weekday mornings every day. And while it's tough to put that emotion aside as I look at the changing times reflected by Redux Media, I believe that I am on the right curve on the chart with frankcasting new media.

As for musicians who hold radio with in the same high regard as I do, I am really curious about their experience. Does airplay still result in money? Significant money? Or are their sales still mostly driven by gigs, face-to-face CD sales, and on-line recommendations? Are they, like me, still secretly holding on to the paradigm that many of us were raised with, the great overnight sensation?

Meanwhile, many of us look at the Internet as a cold medium where everyone is a self-made star, where every flunky with a guitar has a MySpace profile, a You Tube video, and aspirations to American Idol stardom. For most of us, it just doesn't hold the same allure as radio,but it maybe time for us romantics to take a deep breath and try to find some kind of joy and comfort on-line. It's our frontier to conquer, and knowledge is the key to successfully doing so. Hopefully,some of this week's tips and articles can help with strategies and understanding, or at least, entertain.

From Hypebot.com This guest post is from Nick Crocker who runs Native, a digital agency based in Australia.  You can read his blog or follow him on Twitter.

Not every artist needs an A+ online.  But everyone needs at least a C-.The challenge for independent artists, label managers, artist managers and anyone working with artists in online marketing is deciding where to apportion effort. See how you score

And we present our usual set of really interesting links relating to social media andother relevant information. Many of course are from Mashable - a leading social media blog that appears to completely understand the social media phenomenon, the good, the bad, the ugly.

Titles are self-explanatory.

Tweetable Eats: What Street Vendors Can Teach Businesses About Twitter
Top 10 Things You Should Not Share on Social Networks
Twitter Zombies: 24% of Tweets Created by Bots
MySpace Helps News Corp Lose $363 Million
Tumblr (blogging service) Takes Over World: 255,000,000 Pageviews in July
Megalists - links to an incredible amount of useful information including how to maximize your You Tube account
How to write a killer bio
What The F**K is Social Media?
26 Places to Find Free Multimedia for Your Blog

thanks
A HUGE thank you to all of the artists and friends who made the first frankfest a huge success! No, this was not a wiener-roasting festival, it was an outdoor party at F'COFFEE on Queen Street East (at DVP).  Folks enjoyed performances by Amy Campbell, Jim Armstrong, Grainne Ryan (with Jeff Beauchamp), Rosemary Phelan & Jason Laprade, Eve Goldberg, Jon Brooks, Lynn Harrison, Layah Jane & Oli Johnson, and the remarkable house band, The Muggs, featuring the evening's host and preacher, David Newland, sound man extraordinaire Steve McNie, Nick Tustin and F'COFFEE owner, Rob Poizner.

My man Rick Scicluna videotaped the whole scene, and we will be slowly unwrapping those juicy goods and popping them on frankcasting.com in the weeks to come. One such video is already there: Jon Brooks, with an incredibly beautiful performance of "Mercy". Check it out, and admire the textured backdrop offered by F'COFFEE's outdoor patio stage. It was, quite frankly (ba da boom), the best evening of my life.


Andy, Helen, David Newland "The Preacher".

        

 

So I've had this empty blog page for a while, and I have been wondering what useful contributions I could make to the great discussion that is the Internet. Naturally, Jaime Almond (pictured), my cheery Aussie-Canadian business coach, says it should relate to what I do with this website, information about my webTV and live music video production, and how potential clients can get the most gas mileage out of these products.

She's right of course (you will see sparks of her creative genius in these pages from week to week), but to keep me interested in maintaining it, and more importantly, to enhance your reading pleasure, I think I can make it a little broader than that. So what I will do here is a blog that is part video and music marketing tips, part journal of my public life, and part commentary on stories that come across my 17" mac screen.

Today, a brief introduction to me, but I promise many of these entries will henceforth be about YOU. Montreal-born, I was once fluently bilingual,  have lived and worked all over Canada, Toronto since 2003, and was a Quick Service Restaurant (QSR aka Fast Food) owner, exec, and corporate trainer for many years. (insert yawn here...)

Many of you know my name from CIUT 89.5FM Toronto, where for five years, I hosted a pair of radio shows that spotlighted touring live music acts of many genres, artists that were largely based in Toronto, and almost all Canadian. Along the way, I discovered a very simple and heart-warming formula for happiness: show most musicians your genuine love, and they will show you theirs.  (I suspect this is true of most artists)

In all my years in the hardcore business world leading up to my radio days, this just never happened, money was all that mattered. And sure, musicians aspire to cash in on their talents as much as anyone else does, and so do I. Hence, this business and website. It's designed to do both. If my clients' products help them get bookings, or sell as DVD's off a merch table, or create a viral buzz around the web, or simply enhance their websites and social media, then we both win! More to come about my world in future installments, including exciting radio and webTV projects due to launch in a few weeks.  AF August 3, 2009

Links of the week - some you've seen, some you haven't,

guaranteed to be entertaining! 

I promise they are safe links.
Car used to design font
Get Your Facebook Data Out of Facebook
Twitter is Top Social Media Platform at Fortune 100 Companies
Tiger Woods Fart Video Lights Up YouTube?
In Focus: New 'Toastables' Offers Microwavable Pre-Toasted Bread?
A new kind of wedding ceremony?

a new kind of divorce?
A new kind of label and management service?

Marketing tip of the week

I come across these articles here and there, and share them in this forum. I take no credit or blame, and am not promoting the products or services of these folks, this is just handy FYI. This is a short video overview of the Internet music marketing strategyoutlined in the Music Marketing Manifesto course book. This tip involves going after the existing traffic on the Internet. It sounds useful. Lemme know if it is.