thenewrecord:

The New Record Newsletter for November 30th (if you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re going to be shooting these out every Wednesday). 

A new post filled with intro by Bill talking about 00:02:59 Records (which Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem is a fan of) & Sugar Hill Records, a new editorial piece by Alex, a playlist from Alex as well, Just Added tracks featuring Nick 13, a Deep Cut by Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and tons of more stuff. You know, the usual. 

The New Records Newsletter

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Make sure you’re following us on any or all sites. Whenever we have new tunes, great news and awesome contests, we post it all on there. 

My Editorial in this week’s newsletter for The New Record featuring my Brother, El Big Jim ( one of his latest posts were about sopes so consider yourself warned if you’re currently hungry). 

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It’s that time of year again when everyone is assembling their Top Albums of the Year list. It’s such a great time to snoop around people’s list and see if they are either cool or lame. Right? I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but if one of your friends, who you hold high regards for musically, adds the new Selena Gomez record as their top favorites, is it acceptable to criticize him/her? Some might say that it’s absolutely okay… but it’s not.

My brother, Jimmy, grew up listening to Top 40 radio throughout his teenage and adult life. Rick Dees in the Morning on KISS FM was all we heard in the morning because it was his “get ready for school/work” music (we shared a room for a long time). So knowing what my brother’s musical taste was, I never hesitated to raid his 150 CD Case Logic wallet (wow, remember those?) to see what I might be missing out on…you know, just in case?  In being your standard nosey little brother, low and behold I made a huge discovery. The kind of discovery that if measured musically, it could be considered a gold mine now for me. If it wasn’t for my brother, I would have never got into Outkast or The Red Hot Chili Peppers which later led me to find my favorite artist of ALL TIME, John Frusciante.

So you see, never be ashamed of what you listen to and what music defines you. Some people may not approve of some of your choices or give you a hard time but it’s who you are. You can’t help but let music do to you what it’s meant to do: make you enjoy it. Always be willing to open up and let people know what you’re jamming to because you never know what kind of gem you’re going to introduce someone to.

In a world where we’re ambushed with greed at least share music…legally, of course.

Share your musical tastes by submitting your Top Records of 2011 as well as your New Record playlists on twitter - @thenewrecord

-Alex

I wrote one, check it out.

A few weeks ago we saw the closing of a legendary Louisville, KY record store, Ear X-Tacy. Yet last week, Amoeba Records in Hollywood celebrated it’s 10 Year Anniversary. It’s no secret that the record industry is a little unstable right now… everything is unpredictable.  I’m sure a lot of record stores are shaking in their boots, hoping that shoppers purchase music as Christmas gifts. A profitable holiday season could help keep their doors open for at least another year.

We all have a good idea of what is preventing people from buying physical records; it’s the free illegal mp3s that can be found left and right in any corner of the Internet. Why buy when you can just download, right? It might seem reasonable, but there are still many people out there (at least we’d like to think so) who love buying records. I know I’m one of them; but something has definitely changed. Back when I bought Pearl Jam’s “Yield” or The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,” I remember hearing that one hit on the radio and I trusted those bands to bring the goods on those albums. I knew the radio hit was good, but beyond that, I put my trust in Eddie Vedder and Billy Corgan to provide me with enough gems on those albums that would keep me coming back for years and years after my purchase… and they did. Those two albums will always be on frequent rotation in my house.

It’s different now, though. People need persuading. When given recommendations, we are quick to ask “Is it good?” or “You think I’ll like it?” The truth is, we really do need to be convinced and not by just 30 or 90 of music… we demand a whole song.

Enter The New Record. The New Record provides you and I with the opportunity to hear that full song (sometimes 2 or 3), and the music comes straight from the record label. It gives us a chance to do our research on an artist without wading through the murky waters of illegal downloading. As Bill Armstrong, creator of The New Record says, “it’s like a digital newsstand.”

So browse away and hopefully you’ll discover a song that will lead you to your own “Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness.”
-Alex

Thanks to Kayla for her awesome editing skills.

The New Record Newsletter #2

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thenewrecord:

We know you’ve all been waiting for this moment and the time has finally come… for our first contest!!

Anti Records, Dualtone Records, Vanguard Records, Kill Rock Stars Records, Brushfire Records and Barnone Records each sent us some records to include in this giveaway. A full list of the vinyl is below! 

Here’s how you can win…
Tumblr: Like or Reblog this post
Twitter: Retweet this
Facebook: Like or Share this 

The winner will be chosen next Wednesday (11/26)! You got one week!

Tom Waits “Bad As Me” LP
Bahamas “Pink Strat” CD
Bret Dennen “b side to the d side” 7inch 
The Front Bottoms “slow dance to soft rock/grip n tie” Double 10inch 
Milagres “Glowing Mouth” LP 
Kill Rock Stars “Compilation” LP 
The Raincoats “S/T” LP 
Elliott Smith “from a basement on the hill” 2XLP 
Horse Feathers “Thistled Spring” LP 
Gospel Music “How to Get to Heaven from Jacksonville, FL” LP 
The Thermals “Personal Life” LP 
Emperor X “Western Teleport” LP Release 
The Sunbird “Come Back to Us” LP 
Zee Avi “Ghost Bird” LP 
G. Love “Fixin’ to Die” LP 
Devotchka “100 Lover” LP 
Booker T. Jones “The Road From Memphis” LP 

As always, make sure you’re following us on all of the above sites. It’s just rude if you ain’t.

thenewrecord:

Adanowsky - “Me Siento Solo”

Listen here and download for free at The New Record!

I came across this while queuing up songs and instantly dug it. For fans of Devendra Banhart. This is Adan Jodorowsky, son of the famous filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky. Go figure.

I’m the featured playlist on The New Record!!!!!

thenewrecord:

Forbes just posted this article about The New Record!! Click the photo to read it on their website!!

Earlier this week, the L.A. Times‘ Pop & Hiss blog interviewed SideOneDummy records co-founder Bill Armstrong about his latest music venture, TheNewRecord.com. The site’s focus is simple: It’s a landing page for people looking for free music from independent labels. Labels, not artists. That’s an important distinction that makes The New Record stand out in a market already packed with competitors such as RCRD LBL, MySpoonful, and the recently relaunched Epitonic.

Branding has always been key for a business to survive and thrive, and The New Record has pinned down one that could both hamper its ability to grow and make it unique. Armstrong hit upon a couple vital points when asked about the site’s interest in label branding:

This is a closed platform, meaning if you and I start a band we cannot upload on here. This is a filter, with the labels being the filter. I had to go to each one of these people individually. Label identity has gotten washed away in the digital era. There was a time when label loyalty meant a lot. But it’s been so diluted. In this world of filters, labels are great filters.

Armstrong’s assertion that label identity isn’t as strong as it had been prior to the Internet era is a bit misguided–there are still plenty of new, independent labels that focus on garnering a particular vision and image with their artists, like Rhymesayers, a Minneapolis hip-hop label that’s championed that city’s scene and brought it international notoriety. (Rhymesayers is actually one of the labels giving away music on The New Record.) However, his point that labels provide a filter could be key to The New Record’s success.

Although the site’s partnership with a distinct number of labels provides for a smaller base of music to offer for free than other sites (its current roster includes “Anti-, Kill Rock Stars, Sub Pop, Century Media, Daptone, Rhymesayers, Brushfire Records, Side One Dummy and over 30 others,” though it is expanding), The New Record already provides listeners with independent brand names they know and trust. Just as music tastemaking websites such as Pitchfork, Tiny Mix Tapes, and Consequence of Sound have built an international readership by filtering through a seemingly endless supply of music to present their favorite new tunes, The New Record presents a slew of curated music selections in one location. Making sure eager listeners find The New Record is probably the lone road-bump on the way of what appears to be a smooth ride to success: Here’s hoping that Armstrong, who sold his house to finance the project, gets past that point with ease.

This post is not a self-promotion type post to help promote the new project that we’re working on called ‘The New Record.’ It is more a post from one music lover to many others on something neat and about good music.

So, in trying to familiarize myself with The New Record to help with promoting it on tumblr and Facebook, I decided that I should make a playlist and see how that works with sharing and building a nice profile on there. While doing so I was browsing through some tracks/artists that were just added and I came across the Dum Dum Girls. Now, this is the first time I had heard of them (I know, I can already hear some of you “First time?!?!? I’ve been into that band since before they were a band and in diapers”…oh well…sue me) but I can tell that my music obsessive butt is now gonna wanna look into their catalog deeper now.

While listening to “Coming Down” by Dum Dum Girls and REALLY digging it, it hit me that one of the cool things about ‘The New Record’ was that the song/mp3 was there for the taking. As my boss says, it’s like a newsstand for new music. I was already thinking, “I need this on my iPod for good drives,” and one click over the Download button and boom it was mine. All for free. It then hit me how cool this was.

There are lots of cool stuff that I’ve come across like the new Blitzen Trapper, Mister Heavenly, new Dead To Me tracks are up there too, really stoked to have some Daptones Records stuff in there since my friends and I have been into that label for a looooong time now.

The New Record is a new project. It’s a baby still but it has a lot of potential and with many more labels hopefully joining, this thing could be a great tool for people to come nab free mp3s of new music weeks or months in advance. Try it out. Test it out. Use it. Share it with friends. And most importantly, check out the tunes you like and download them. Just like I discovered how awesome Dum Dum Girls are, who knows what you’re going to discover on there. As a music fan, we all know how good the feeling of getting into something new can be.

So maybe I did promote it a little bit only because I was inspired by new music I discovered which is usually the most important part.

thenewrecord:

TheNewRecord.com has announced a partnership with over 30 independent labels to create a digital newsstand where, every week, the site will offer users a free filtered environment to play and download new songs weeks in advance of release. This first-ever music social network is curated by independent labels.

A new project here at work. Remember it, write it down, take a picture, I don’t…