I’ve always led a double life of music and technology which serves my clients well. On the music side, I co-owned and operated San Francisco’s Blue Room Studios and served as an audio engineer for countless CDs including a Grammy-nominated Latin jazz release, assisted in the production of a double platinum album, and served as a guitarist, keyboardist and singer for various bands.

On the technology side, I served as co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for Angry Coffee.com, which launched the first publicly-available web-based interface to Napster and Napster-like networks just as the Internet emerged as a musical force. We made the front page of the Wall Street Journal due to how dangerously close we came to developing a “Napster-killing application” in close conjunction with an EMI executive.

Today I am able to bring my technology, business and music experience to my clients and other professionals as both consultant and industry expert, including but not limited to, serving as Community Architect for The SF MusicTech Summit.

I enjoy keeping up to speed on the latest and greatest ways for musicians, bands and brands to implement a strategy of communication via the Web, Facebook and Twitter, which enables fans to find, listen, share, buy, and engage the artists’ music via the Web or live in local venues. WordPress is my platform of choice to support a maximum-impact Web presence. My clients include bands and brands seeking visually exciting and effective Websites, incorporating permission-based marketing which drives calls to action and tangible, commercial results. Please do not hesitate to contact me today.

Until then, my goals as a business development professional are to connect Web music technology developers and founders with the appropriate business relationships to help their companies thrive.

Please continue on to my LinkedIn Profile to take a look at my qualifications.

I am always open to joining new or existing companies as a team member or advisor. Please feel free to reach out to me.

The start-up is immortalized on Wikipedia and reads as follows:

Angry Coffee, led by Adam Vincent Powell, Todd Tate and CTO Jeff Burchell, deployed the first publicly available web interface to P2P networks when they launched Percolator in June of 2000. When Napster denied Angry Coffee users access to their database, the story appeared on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

On June 27, 2000 Angry Coffee made this statement: “Napster has shut us out of their network. We think it’s lame that a company that built its business through unauthorized distribution would consider Percolator to be an unauthorized use of their resources, but they’re entitled to their opinion.”

Soon after this event Angry Coffee went on to assist EMI and Capitol Records with the marketing and promotion of internationally famed band Radiohead, with the release of Kid A in 2000.

Life Love Misery” is an alternative rock group featuring a string quartet.  I am the lead singer-songwriter that wrote all the string arrangements and produced this sonically sound 10 song release with my two band mates and production partners, drummer Ken Stavropolous (Starship, Cacaphony) and bassist Mario Previti (of the legendary Plant Studios).

“Sayla Dobro” is my Dobro playing alter-ego.  The tex-mex sounds that come about when you mix the Dobro with a vintage Yamaha Synth Accordion patch, a Cuban Tres, and a Casio drum machine are a “lo-fi must hear”. I play every instrument on these recordings and produced them in a make-shift project recording studio in my former residence garage in Northern California.

Over the years I have played on, engineered, and produced many recordings. Stay tuned for my discography.

CASH Music is a nonprofit organization that builds open source digital tools for musicians and labels. Their mission is to help educate and empower artists and their fans to foster a more viable and sustainable future for music.  It is officially released and supported. They have a very detailed Blog post on their Website on how to use the platform.

To my knowledge, they will be offering additional functionality in the future:

Tweet for download
FB like for download
Download for current social followers
Email capture
Download for current mailing list participants
Download codes
Paid downloads
Audio stream
Secure audio stream
And more…

Here is how I incorporated the email address (capture) for payload feature into WordPress.

First you have upload your asset or payload. This is all very intuitive. Click “add assets” and do your thing:

Secondly create an Element, and add your asset as the payload for that Element:

Now you’ll get some code what you have to use to get this all to work, copy this code:

and this code:

All into a .php file entitled “music.php”:

And now load that into your root directory:

I tried a bunch of PHP plug-ins with WordPress and if you have a bunch of plug-ins it’s just a pain trying to figure out which ones are conflicting with each other. So I decided not to use any plug-ins that enable PHP in Post or Pages.  Am I lazy? I’m just a hack! When I say that people always respond “we all are”.  Makes me feel great; let’s just pull this CASH Music widget in to our WordPress Page or Post via an iFrame. Why not?

Call your “music.php” into WordPress via an iFrame:

And Blam! We have a seamlessly integrated email-for-payload music page. You can get creative with css and make it look like a widget, but in this case I like the seamless no-widget look.

Take a peek at the finished product here on the new Gift of Gab Website “www.giftofgab.tv”.

CASH music is a open source not-for-profit organization that has an awesome board of advisers and is also a Fellow of the new Mozilla open source accelerator WebFWD. Pledge to their Kickstarter campaign today!

Video is continuing to get white hot as YouTube continues heavy business development efforts with their new(er) channel layouts. 100 Million Americans Watch Online Video Per Day, Up 43% Since 2010, says TechCrunch.

Now for something completely different, have you seen the new video by the band “OK GO“?

Some start-up companies are aggregating original video content, and/or commercial video, keep your eyes on some of these up-and-comers.

Switchcam
www.switchcam.com
From crowd sourced concert videos, Switchcam synchronizes audio and offers multiple camera angles
in a snap. This is hot. Here’s a great Deadmau5 3-cam video.

BAMM.tv
www.BAMM.tv
BAMM.tv is a new kind of music company that connects artists, entertainment service providers and audiences worldwide. Through an extensive global content distribution network, they deliver fresh music video content from the best new artists to the web, mobile devices and television.

Free HD video production for artists, hot new music content apps and services for our network partners.

There seems to be some young developers that really dig this space and are already making noise of launching on-line video start-ups:

Hazda
http://www.hadza.com/es/
“Hunt videos, gather moments” is the only info we have on this one at this time.

Outlisten
http://www.outlisten.com/
Outlisten neatly organizes and seamlessly combines concert footage into a unique online experience
made by artists and fans together.

And here are more in action right now:

Cull.tv
Cull.tv
“New Music Television”. Check it out. Endless full screen music videos. Channels of hand picked videos.

45 Sound
http://45sound.com/
Still in beta this company will be out at the SXSW as a “SXSW Accelerator 2012 Finalist”.

“45 Sound is a new service which makes your live music videos sound better. We replace the original sound of your video footage (which is usually fairly poor) with a high-quality recording of the exact same part of the concert.”

What other music video Websites and apps are on your radar? Hit me on Twitter.

Artist! Stay tuned for some no nonsense advice on how to set up your YouTube channel coming soon on my blog!

Directly from the Website:

“DRIP.FM is a platform that connects labels and artists with their superfans. Fans pay a monthly fee. Labels set their price and choose how much content they want to deliver, and how often. Simple.”

In our discussion Sam explained they are trying to offer another sustainable way for artist to make a direct connection with fans. This is based on the basic premise that fans want to belong to a tribe. I can think of many labels and artists that would benefit from such a service. The idea came up from direct request from the the fans of Ghostly International where Sam and Miguel have been working for some time now. Drip.fm is answering fans request for exclusive downloads, remixes, to non-owned (i.e. downloaded) streaming content for a monthly fee.

There are three labels aboard right now being Ghostly International, Dirty Bird Records, and Stones Throw Records. If you would like to become a drip.fm label please contact them here. I think it’s hot.

If you are attending the upcoming SF MusicTech Summit on 2/13, Drip.fm will be in attendance. Tweet at them at @htmiguel or @ghostly to set up a chat, or hit Sam at sam [at] ghostly.com .

“Superfly presents: “The Creators”
Featuring panelists:

Moderated by: Billy Zero – Grammy Trustee & Founder, Zero Management
Fitz of Fitz and the Tantrums – Recording Artist
Rick Farman – Co-founder of Superfly Presents (Bonaroo, Outside Lands)
Brad Furman – Director (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Take)
Anthony Veneziale – Actor, performer, director (Freestyle Love Supreme, Electric Company)
Jeff Castelaz – CEO of Dangerbird Records, Artist Manager (Fitz and the Tantrums, Silversun Pickups, Beady Eye, Seawolf)

Expertly moderated by Billy Zero it was of high value to beginning to intermediate attendees. What was very refreshing and great to hear was a couple statements from the musician on the panel, being Fitz.

One of his statements was:
“By using the Square App on an iPhone we are selling twice as much merchandise at all of our shows.”

The power of mobile devices, being iPhone, Android, and all tablets, empowered with this simple tool is simply undeniable. At SF MusicTech Summit IX we were given 1000 units to give away for free and we gave them all away!

To get your own Square device go here to sign up: http://squareup.com. Or simply download and install the app to your mobile device, register and they will send you a device via USPS.

(1) Participate in Hackathons in whatever capacity you can, when you can.

(2) Follow:
http://musichackday.org/
Andrew Mager on Twitter: Hacker Advocate at @Spotify.

(3) Who else and what other events should I follow? Hit me on Twitter.

At this point I am an intermediate hacker. I do PHP, HTML, CSS… a little this, a little that. And at heart I’m a Business Type. The two together have let me participate in multiple technical specifications, and enabled me to vet dozen of Web music apps around each SF MusicTech Summit. In 2011 alone I wrote proposals to completely redesign two “vintage” Web music tech properties. These are expensive endeavors that have not come to fruition as of yet, but the opportunity to participate has been invaluable.

It was fun seeing myself in a little bit of every person Andrew writes about in his article….

Designer: Forget your fancy wireframe software! I have made sharpy and cardboard UI’s that have made engineers say, “I want in on this one”. Do you see a missing button? I vetted the new Facebook App for musicians developed by Dan Peachy called “Chat With the Band.” I could not tell if my Web cam microphone was working. I suggested, “A VU meter would be great right under this button.” Three days later it appeared. Bingo! Side lesson: help people out – even if you don’t get a job out the gate, you at least get the reward of helping them…and often, a new friend.

Business minds: I can network with the best of ‘em and I can connect the dots. And, you can too. What product needs what partners? What type of integrations are needed? I can’t tell you how many engineers need some gentle help and pointers. Participate in your community. Give and it may give back.

Marketing sharks/product ninjas: Product! That’s your vision of design, the flow of the product, the virality, the needed marketing channels. You don’t have a resume full of “Product Manager” jobs? Me neither! Get together with engineers and use caveman, sign language, dance moves, you name it to get your point across! Sometimes you need patience, sometimes what you thought was a fit, is not. Keep searching for your dream team that values your insights and input.

What are your strengths? Dreams? Does Andrews article empower you? You dig music? I do!

I’m also a salesman so I got to add one more “to do”: come and meet like minded people like yourself at the 2/13 SF MusicTech Summit. Use code promotoddtate for 20% off. Check out NARM’s “Music Startup Academy” use code ‘ msa-toddtate’ for 20% off. Music Hack Day is full but you can get on the wait list.

The time to motivate is now. Digital music is moving into a very exciting phase.