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If you’ve always dreamt about rocking out alongside some of your favorite artists, you may have the chance via The Public Record. The Public Record is a music project unlike any other, where YOU can supply the music for some of your favorite artists. The project overall is still relatively new, but drummer Tommy Lee is just finishing up his latest album through the site, and country musician Shooter Jennings has just come on board to start work on his album.

How does it work? According the site, “Simply log in, download those work-in-progress tracks into your digital audio workstation (ProTools, Logic, Garageband, etc.), record all your best ideas, and then upload them to www.ThePublicRecord.com.”

In a nutshell, The Public Record is a crowdsourcing tool. The artists upload their tracks and fans get to manipulate them as they see fit. If the artist likes your version of their work, they may add it to their album. In return, you’ll get a credit in the liner notes for the chosen track.

There is one major advantage to this, should you attract the attention of the artist with your skillz.         You get to tell everyone, “I laid the guitar down on Tommy Lee’s album!” Unfortunately, that’s as good as it gets.

First, The Public Record only features established artists, and the chance you’ll get your big break is limited. Through this site, you really aren’t even making original music. It’s more like you’re doing Tommy Lee’s homework while he’s the one getting to perform onstage, bringing home the fat paycheck, and living the party lifestyle. Secondly, while I understand the website is new, it’s not going to win a Webby in any layout or design category. Quite honestly, the site is hideous looking.  So much so, I’d say “Yo momma so ugly she looks like The Public Record homepage,” if provoked. Read the rest of this entry »

The World Wide Web. Not such a bad name for the internet. The world at your fingertips. Actually, it’s the perfect definition for what the internet actually is and what it’s capable of when it comes to the science of social networking. But, there’s a snag. Social networking isn’t exactly worldwide, now is it?

It’s all who you know. And who your friends know. And who their friends know. But it’s more than that, too. If who you know is interested in what you are offering them, then it works. If who you know has friends who are interested in what you are offering, even better. If none of them are interested in what you are doing, you might as well call it the Room Wide Web. Or garbage product.

Case in point: I used to be in a well known metal band that currently has over eighty thousand MySpace friends. My personal Facebook page has over one thousand friends. All of this potential for networking is due to the product I was associated with. And let’s not mistake ourselves. Your friend count on any social networking site is really a potential number, not necessarily a concrete network.

Let’s look at my latest project, the web TV show Polyester Dreams. Read the rest of this entry »