I Played On Stage With WEEZER!

That's right. I take the award for "best weekend ever." Last saturday, I had the opportunity of playing my tenor saxophone on stage with Weezer for their Troublemaker Tour 2008! Weezer has been having fans come up on stage to play with them, calling it a "hootenanny." All you had to do is record yourself playing one of their songs, email it to the local radio station (in my case, the Project 96.1), then they chose the lucky players. Weezer played an awesome show with everyone's favorites and a good amount from the the Red Album that came out earlier this summer.

My friends and I made our way to the Gwinnett Arena in Duluth, GA for the concert of a lifetime and had a quick rehearsal with Weezer band member Brian. 

After the short rehearsal, they let us loose with floor/backstage passes and I had to grab something to eat.

I was still hungry after this. And yes, that's a whole dill pickle slice. And tomato slices. And peppers. And a baby.

Tokyo Police Club opened up for Weezer and it was great seeing them again after an awesome show opening up for The Whigs a few weeks ago in Athens.  After Angels and Airwaves performed, Weezer finally started the party.

"Say It Ain't So" was the most EPIC thing I've ever seen live.

A couple of my favorite pics.

Around 10:30, we had to report back to the practice area to warm up. There were a couple of Redcoat Alumni there too, so we played some UGA tunes. (Beating LSU only made the night better:)

Afterwards, we headed backstage so get ready to take over the stage! While we waited, Weezer played a couple tracks of their new Red Album.

As I was walking on stage, it was SURREAL. I freaked out a little bit, but then got more excited than anything else. At first, the stage peeps tried to put us behind two rows of people but (thankfully) moved us front center right behind River Cuomo!! Here are some videos and pics! (my friend who got on stage with us recorded, and as you can tell with the shaky camera work, he was really excited:)

Here are my favorite pictures of the night

I WAS SO EXCITED.

Man.... I wish I could have played the solo:)

After we finished playing, I got to shake his hand before leaving the stage. What an awesome idea to let your fans play with you on stage at a concert! Pure GENIUS. How many opportunities do you get to perform with your favorite band? Most likely never, but I can say I have. They've been doing this "hootenanny" for the whole Troublemaker Tour 2008 and by having fans play on stage with you, you pump up about 20-30 Weezer fans per show from mere fans to crazed fanatics who will do anything to spread Weezer music now that they've played with them. Other bands should take note, if this style fits theirs.

 I just wish I could have said hello to the whole band and chat with them for awhile, but nonetheless, this is coolest thing I have ever done:) 

Weezer, if you guys are reading this:

Thank you, you guys fucking rock. It was an experience I will never forget!

My Music Playlist is now live!

I love my new media productions class:)

I've been having a blast working with many web development programs like Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flash to name a few. I just completed one of my assignments and it's up and running free on the internet! It's a cool flash page that I used to make a jukebox using some of my own music. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Bryan's Music Playlist

Also, here's a link to my class portfolio with all my fun assignments I'm doing. 

www.mynmi.net/student/bhiga

do it.

No More Pesky Charger Cords!

Here's my daily ritual of getting ready for the day.

-Wake up.

- ...

-Okay, now really wake up.

-Brush teeth

-Put on clothes

-Unplug my iPhone

-Unplug my MacBook

-Tie charger up and put in backpack.

Man, I wish I could cut this routine in half. And no, don't tell me to wake up the first time. That's just too much to ask. But what about the last part- the whole "unplugging and tying" bit? Can't there be something that makes the process of charging our phones and iPods easier (lazier)? 

Have no fear- WildCharge is here!

WildCharge is a new device that lets you simply set your electronic devices on top of a small, thin pad, and you sit back and watch your phone charge automatically. It can charge up to five of your whatchamacallits and only uses one power outlet! Amazing! After a long day, all you have to do and put your phone on top of it and it magnetically connects to the pad, and then you sit back and smile. Best of all, it's only 60 bucks!

WildCharge works by attaching four tiny raised dots on the back panel of your phone/iPod, which finds the the necessary path to your device's power source. Since nothing we have today has these, you'll have to put on a jacket on your stuff that acts also as a protective jacket. Unfortunately, it's kind of ugly. 

Also, the only things that WIldCharge will charge at this time are BlackBerry Pearls, BlackBerry Curves and Motorola Razrs. New updates will also include iPods and iPhones in the near future. 

Just think about the doors that could open because of this technology. WildCharge has already had talks to license and spread its technology to other parties, like incorporating this technology with Wii and Xbox controllers. Done playing Halo 3 or Smash Brothers? Just set your controllers on the mat and it'll be ready for you when you get back. Soon, we'll be able to charge all our electronic stuff, like laptops, wirelessly with ease.

Maybe I'll be able to add a couple more minutes of sleep to my morning routine too:p

Labels Vs. Game Developers... Fight!

In this corner, we have the developers of "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero!" These games have been responsible for 15% of video game sales this year and 32% of the gaming industry's year-over-year growth! This industry has been booming this year with profits rising to $9.5 billion in the first seven months of 2008!

And in the other corner, we have the major record labels, who are infamous for not thinking forward and shooting themselves in the foot! They are going to try to put up a fight to obtain more revenue from the success of "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero," which they lend they catalogs to. 

Ladies and gents... LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

...well, this is how I see the fight will start anyway. And it might get a little ugly.

Only a couple years ago, back when "Guitar Hero" was still being developed, major record labels underestimated the success that the gaming franchise would achieve and settled for a standard soundtrack licensing which provides a royalty based on the sales of units for all music included in the game at purchase and certain percentages of songs downloaded afterwards, according to Billboard. Interestingly enough, this amounts to less than the 70% split labels receive from iTunes. Bad move, labels. Now labels want more of a partnership to receive more of the percentage of total revenue. 

Too late, guys. "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" has become way too powerful to mess with now. You definitely underestimated a sleeping giant. Not only has these games offered a new way to distribute music, they also serve as a promotional device for the music that is featured in its games. According to Nielsen Soundscan, after "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" was released, Aerosmith's catalog sales shot up 40%. These games make a huge difference in music sales.

Yes, labels get less revenue than than the 70% split from iTunes, but that's because game developers have to spend more time programming each song for each title. There's no way you can compare this to the simple job online retailers do and ask for. 

The way these games are evolving, it's only a matter of time that they will feature an iTunes-like store built in the game, so then not only can you play the music in the game, you can also listen to it on your iPod. 

That is, if this inevitable fight between the labels and game developers doesn't prevent it. The problem is each side has a case to fight for and each side is able to flex their muscles at each other. But like many other times before this, labels continue to be stubborn and missing the success train, and when they do, they pout and try to find ways to make up for it. Wake up, labels! These games are going to help your sales! With the incorporation of a music store, these games can provide another awesome way for users to connect and buy music.

C'mon, labels! Learn from your mistakes and cooperate! 

iTunes Not Closing After All!

If there is one thing that everyone can agree on about the music business is that it is going through a very uncertain, transitional phase even as we speak! Take for example this past week:

Apple threatened to call closing time for iTunes, the world's leading online music store.

According to Times Online, The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C. held a meeting to decide whether to grant American music publishers to increase royalty rates on songs sold through online music stores, like iTunes and Amazon. Their request was to up the rate from 9 cents per song to 15 cents, a large 66% increase. iTunes, who has been adamant about not increasing song prices over 99 cents, didn't take the news lightly and threatened to pull the plug on iTunes. According to Apple, 65-70 cents of each song usually goes to the artist with the rest going to Apple. Take network and transaction fees, Apple only makes about 10 cents per song. If the request were to be granted, they'd only make about 4-5 cents per song, basically making iTunes non-profitable.

But don't worry guys, The Copyright Loyalty Board decided to leave the fee unchanged.

Nonetheless, this week had me on the edge of my seat for a couple days eagerly awaiting the decision. Do I think iTunes would have closed down? From a strategic stand-point, I think Apple may have been bluffing to some extent. Just look at how widely popular iPods and iPhones are now. Do you think they really would have hung all its customers out to dry? If anything, the iTunes stores is a driving influence for iPod and iPhone sales. Just like the new App Store that opened during the summer, Apple uses these items to sell more of their products.

But at the same time, I don't blame iTunes for making such a serious threat. It would make running the iTunes store too expensive and they would end up losing more than gain, especially with free streaming music sites out there now. Also, if the price did get hiked up, what would stop music publishers or labels from requesting another increase. Certainly, more money also breeds more greed.  Where will it end? In the near future, music is probably going to be free. What are labels and publishers going to do then?

It's amazing how close the industry came to closing a legit alternative to pirating music. Will we ever learn? Like the saying goes for love, it's like a handful of sand, the tighter you squeeze, the more you loose.