All articles by Fluence Team

Today we released “Fluence Lists” – a new feature to help you organize and keep track of people who can help you with your promotional needs. Let us know if you want to be on these featured lists. You can create your own lists by clicking the ‘Add To’ button on any profile row or page.     From the profiles page, you can see lists of people you follow on Twitter or SoundCloud and are connected to on Facebook and Gmail. (More networks coming soon!)   You can also see the people on Fluence you have previously submitted to and quickly reconnect with the ones who have liked or shared your submissions. The more you use Fluence, the more powerful it gets. Creating lists is enormously helpful in segmenting people who can be useful in your pre-release and post release promotions. Create your own lists and share them with your colleagues and friends who are looking for help in promoting their art, products, and ideas. Get started creating your own lists here and if you have yet to try Fluence yourself you can signup here with $5 free credit. We have much more for you coming soon!  
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Promoting Kickstarter Campaigns with Fluence

  Kickstarter is a leading force in the creative community and have successfully crowdfunded over 84,000+ projects with over 1.6 billion dollars pledged. Many have requested the ability to promote their Kickstarter campaigns through Fluence, and today we’re happy to announce native support for all Kickstarter campaigns. Now when creators are looking to promote their Kickstarter projects beyond their initial circles, they can use Fluence to send their campaigns to curators around the world who can connect them to new audiences. We hope Fluence can make more Kickstarter campaigns achieve their goals quicker and go beyond their initial funding aspirations. Check out a few inspiring Kickstarter projects already taking flight across Fluence like this creative 3D sound platform ENVELOP. .@envelopsf is a 3D sound platform for live electronic music, DJ sets and educational workshops https://t.co/C3eYHR5Qg1 via @fluence_app — Brian Hazard (@colortheory) May 1, 2015 Just discovered @envelopsf http://t.co/GtDiwOhWDk via @fluence_app – love this idea @subpac check it! — Benji Rogers (@BenjiKRogers) May 4, 2015 Former Beauty & The Beast star Amber Skye’s Kickstarter Project   As an emerging actress & uber talented songwriter, @amberskye33 has a wonderful project to support http://t.co/SyjYhUGL9c via @fluence_app — Parker | Crystal (@parkercx) May 1, 2015 Former Beauty & The Beast star makes new indie record @amberskye33 Help her #Kickstarter http://t.co/kuRaUyP6r2 via @fluence_app — D Grant Smith (@AppetizerRadio) May 3, 2015   Start promoting your own Kickstarter projects in Fluence with $5 free credit when you sign up.
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Bitcoin needs a killer app

Now that the initial peak of inflated expectations over Bitcoin is well behind us and we’ve begun to emerge out of the proverbial trough of disillusionment, thousands of people around the world are working on Bitcoin apps and doing really interesting things. But as of yet, no one has created that one killer app which gives regular people a compelling reason to use Bitcoin. At Fluence, we think one potential app that could have mass appeal is a decentralized, peer to peer advertising network. The system would allow anyone to target other users directly and pay them to look at any URL and provide constructive feedback or promotional help. You could also earn for your own time and attention helping others. We’ve already built a centrally managed version of this app at https://fluence.io, but in this post we’ll discuss the steps we could take to decentralize the system and possibly refactor ourselves out of jobs. Decentralization One of the important roles we play at Fluence is to look at each review that takes place and ensure that it meets our community guidelines. We also validate the information people put on their profiles and estimate their external reach. This important information helps drive our targeting algorithm, but these activities make us the bottleneck and require users to trust that we’ll act with their best interests at heart. Even though we ALWAYS DO have their best interests at heart — it would be better if the system could scale all by itself and didn’t require any leap of faith. A decentralized version of Fluence would address these issues by providing radical transparency and pushing these moderation and verification tasks onto our users themselves. This self organizing system could incentive productive, honest behavior and would be fully auditable and democratic. Our transition to a decentralized model will require the following steps: Change the payment infrastructure We adopt a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin for all transactions within the system. This lowers transaction fees and reduces the friction involved in managing credit card charges and refunds for all of our users around the world. The money saved by avoiding these banking fees pays users who perform moderation and
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Promoting Vimeo Film and Video with Fluence

Our friends at Vimeo have built a high-quality platform for the creative community to promote their beautiful videos. Many in the Fluence community have requested that we accept native Vimeo support, because it’s their first choice in video playback given Vimeo’s refusal to pollute people’s attention with disruptive ads on their video. We are happy to announce the addition of native Vimeo video links into Fluence to help the creative community connect on their own terms. One mesmerizing short film from Kim Pimmel on Vimeo has already caught the attention of Fluence curator and film expert Nic Baisley. Loving this…great song and video – http://t.co/PmzT1u8W0d via @fluence_app — Nic Baisley (@FilmSnobbery) April 25, 2015   Here’s a look at a collection of featured film and video experts we’ve compiled to celebrate adding Vimeo to Fluence. Thanks to your helpful requests we’ve also recently added support for Bandcamp, and soon we’ll expand to support Kickstarter campaigns. More on that soon! We highly recommend exploring Vimeo if you haven’t already, and you can start promoting your Vimeo films on Fluence with $5 free credit.
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Fluence embraces the Internet of Money and now accepts payments in bitcoin

We’re happy to announce that we now accept payments in bitcoin at https://fluence.io.   What is bitcoin? Born out of the near collapse of the world economy in 2008, bitcoin allows you to pay for stuff without going through those pesky banks. This is world-changing stuff as the current banking system is incredibly unfair. Banks borrow money from the government for virtually nothing (< 0.25%) and then rent it out to the rest of us for more than 50 times that much. Merchants who want to accept credit card payments are forced to handover almost 3% of the transaction + $0.30 on top. We’ve come to accept this as a necessary cost of doing business — there needs to be some centralized authority responsible for evaluating who can be trusted and settling the accounts right? Well — with the invention of bitcoin and its ever increasing adoption around the world, things no longer have to work this way. Why is Fluence using it? At Fluence, we’re excited about Bitcoin not just because of lower transaction fees, but because we see it as a kindred spirit to our own fledgling marketing technology. Fluence levels the playing field by allowing anyone to promote their work directly to the people who can help the most; those with an existing audience and demand for their attention who would otherwise probably ignore email sent to their overflowing inbox. These “oversubscribed” people set a price for their time and attention to review media submissions and provide helpful feedback and advice, as well as share on Twitter or Facebook when they come across stuff they genuinely enjoy. Fluence provides complete transparency about what happens when each user engages with your media. This is radically different from traditional PR or an advertising agency which charges much higher fees and often provides little insight into exactly what you’re getting for your money. How do I pay for promotions using bitcoin? You’ll need a Coinbase account to use bitcoin on Fluence. When you submit a media URL to Fluence (we currently support YouTube, Soundcloud, Vimeo, Kickstarter and Bandcamp links and will roll out support for any URL in the near future), you can choose who
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Promoting Your Bandcamp Music with Fluence

We’re happy to announce that Fluence has expanded to accept music submitted from Bandcamp. Bandcamp has directly paid artists over $100 million; a huge milestone and testament to the power of direct-to-fan services. As longtime builders and supporters of direct-to-fan services, we’re driven to empower artists and the creative community to connect in new, innovative ways. Take a look at some of the amazing artists on Bandcamp already using Fluence to promote their music and forge new relationships. Cold, cold heart on Bandcamp Megan by Cold, cold heart Check out @C_C_heart – this track is absolutely beautiful; http://t.co/e9UhalLu8H via @fluence_app — We Close Tonight (@WeCloseTonight) January 27, 2015 A fresh find: @C_C_heart http://t.co/WoEewG6Vpm via @fluence_app. Excellent ambient/post-rock tune! — Trifonic (@trifonic) April 19, 2015 OH. on Bandcamp Synemotion by OH. Definitely the most unique submission I’ve received on @fluence_app. Unique is good. “Synemotion” by @olitunes http://t.co/KazbvXDZ1F — Trina G. (@dharma69) March 30, 2015 Rob Fleming on Bandcamp Chasing Light by Rob Fleming If #mercuryretrograde is causing you chaos, try relaxing with this @rflemingmusic track: http://t.co/k7Ok9kHQXW via @fluence_app — High Voltage (@highvoltagemag) January 30, 2015 We invite you to join Bandcamp if you haven’t already, and start getting feedback and exposure with $5 free credit to promote your Bandcamp tracks here on Fluence. Browse Fluence Experts Music Industry | Music Journalism & Blogging | DJing | Radio
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New Dashboards

We designed a new dashboard for you to easily manage your submissions through Fluence. For submitters, you can now easily see the latest activity your submissions receive. View the auditions, detailed ROI stats, and social shares for each submission directly on the summaries in the Dashboard.   For curators, the new Dashboard is split into a Pending Auditions queue showing all the media sent directly to you, a History section listing all the submissions you’ve auditioned in the past, and a Recommended section presenting our best suggestions of submissions that may be of interest to you.   It’s early days for the Recommended section, but as Fluence grows, our suggestions for you will have a higher probability of being a good match. We use a combination of your social connections and a submissions popularity within your network to recommend matches. Much more coming soon! –The Fluence Team
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Interview with Photographer and Instagrammer Arthur Martins

If you’ve never visited Rio de Janeiro, you’ll definitely want to after seeing Arthur Martin’s photography. Hear more from our Fluence curator about what inspires him, his success with Instagram, and his beautiful hometown of Rio.   How did you get started in photography? It was with Instagram; I noticed my friends started using it with their iPhones but I didn’t have any Apple products. Then I received an Ipad from my aunt, and I got an IPhone but the pictures were terrible. I received a digital camera from a friend and a year ago I bought my first professional camera.  I saw a huge improvement in the quality and aesthetics afterwards. When I started a design course in college, I had an interest in special effects and animation. I was thinking about doing something connected with this or computer games and graphics. Then I started looking at movies, TV shows, and professional videos on Vimeo and when I was looking at those videos, I started researching the graphics from the videos and I got more focused on my photography. It really inspired me.   What are your favorite subjects to photograph? Landscapes and the beach; I live Rio de Janeiro which is a great city for both. My photographs tend to show this landscape in a clean, vintage aesthetic, so I try to get less saturated pictures.   You’re from one of the world’s most fascinating cities, Rio de Janeiro.  Tell me what is your favorite thing about it? I think it is one of the best places to live; to live nearby so much nature. I live so close to everything; restaurants, bars. It is a city the where the “day” life and the “night” life are so different, but people always want to get together in the streets. Be out and meet each other. And most of the people are happy besides the problems that we have. They seem to not care about all of the superficial things.   Speaking of people meeting, tell me about how you got started with the Instameets. When I started photography, I used to get together with friends and take photographs
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7-Step DIY PR Guide for Creating an Amazing Campaign

Running a successful campaign can be hugely rewarding. You’ve spent countless hours creating, performing, and nurturing your work into existence, and the time has finally arrived to share it with the world.   The guide below is to help you fit all the pieces together and give you an organizational foundation for promoting your work. This is a Fluence best practice that we share with anyone who promotes media in our system. Step 1: Define Your Goals   Properly defining what you want to achieve with your campaign is essential.  Your goals help you craft your promotional strategy and set expectations for your results. Goals typically fall into two phases: pre-release and post-release.     In the pre-release phase, you typically receive feedback on production and marketing strategy. In this phase you can establish connections that will be helpful for the post-release part of your campaign. For example, you can connect to curators and tastemakers who may want to have a private first look at your new release for premiering it on their blog or publication. These connections can also refer you to more curators who may be helpful for when you start promoting your release. Goals in the post-release phase are usually related to generating exposure and amplifying your signal to the widest possible audience. Specifying your requests in your press release is important so people know what you’re looking for, how they can help, and who they should refer you to. Step 2: Craft Your Press Release   Crafting a beautiful press release can be a skill all by itself. Links to a few examples are included below, and here’s a useful outline download as a general template:   [ Title ] by [ Creator Name ] [Release Date] [Release Image] [Basic Release Note] – One descriptive sentence including the release or pre-order date. [Message / Pitch from the Artist/Creator] – Here’s where you start creating a meaningful connection and relationship with the person receiving your release. Give your pitch, what you’re looking for, and explain your goals in 1 – 2 brief sentences. If you’re using Fluence to manage your PR campaign, you would enter this as the first item in the “Description” area of your submission. [Most Important Link] – This could be anything; a download, purchase, pre-order,
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Music Journalist Raziq Rauf: Founder of Thrash Hits

Raziq Rauf has more than blood in his veins; music permeates his every molecule atom down to the bone marrow. For over the past 15 years, he’s written as a music journalist for BBC, The Guardian, Kerrang!, Drowned in Sound, Classic Rock, Prog, and Metal Hammer to name a few. He also runs the successful music blog Thrash Hits; a necessity if you’re a fan of metal, hard rock, punk, and more. Needless to say, we jumped on the opportunity to learn how Raziq started his career and hear his favorite artists so far in 2015.   What was the inspiration behind the genesis of Thrash Hits? It was part of an umbrella group of specialist sites started with Drowned In Sound in 2008. I’d been writing for them since 2000 so it was a natural partnership. I figured that if I wasn’t being serviced with enough new music of my heavy, London-oriented tastes from an online portal, there would be others that would enjoy that service as well. I also didn’t really enjoy the humourless style of the music press in general, so decided there would be more puns. The problem is that I’m not very funny.   The key to putting too much sriracha on your sandwich is also putting too much yoghurt on it #lifehack #protip #razrecommends #sandwiches — Raziq Rauf (@RAZIQRAUF) March 12, 2015 Favorite future hits you’ve covered so far in 2015? I really love Mord, a black metal band from Iceland that I discovered when I was over there last summer for the very, very awesome Eistnaflug festival. There’s such a wealth of talent in that country.   MORÐ by MORÐ   One closer to home is Prosperina, who sound like “Mastodon having a wig-off with Tool,” if you like that kind of thing. The title Future Hits is a funny one because we shine a light on the most ridiculously uncommercial music around, it’s very, very unlikely any of the bands ever get more than a very committed cult following, but we like that.   Advice for artists looking to reach bloggers with DIY PR? It’s very difficult, so don’t give up. I have hundreds
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Social Connections and Searching the Fluence Network

Fluence was built to connect the creative community to curators, experts, and other trusted sources. A crucial service of our platform is to match people based on their needs and interests. We released a new search and targeting system to help you quickly find the right people for your media. Our new Lists feature uses your social connections to help you find people on Fluence from your Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, and Gmail. By syncing your accounts, you can access the focused and direct attention of your social connections on their own terms.     You can also see lists of people you’ve previously engaged with in the Fluence network. This is particularly powerful when you come back and send new media to people who have liked or shared your previous submissions. We’ve also made it easier to get curator recommendations by entering different keywords for areas of expertise or interests.     You can now expand profiles directly in the search results and see the terms for their attention. We added new metrics in the profile to indicate responsiveness, location and social reach, and the icons to the right of their name show you if you’re connected to them on different networks.     With our new search and social connections you can precisely find the best people to help you with your media needs. Dive into Fluence here to take a look at the new changes, and if you’re just discovering Fluence for the first time you can get started here with $5 free credit.   We have much more soon to come. Thank you for all your support.  
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Getting to Know Will Abramson of Yours Truly

As Yours Truly’s website will tell you: For four years, brands and bands eager to make passionate connections with fans have turned to Yours Truly for our singular brand of French kiss-intimate storytelling held to the “ink standard” of hand-crafted quality worthy of our signature. Their client & partners roster list includes Ray-Ban, Red Bull, and adidas Originals to name a few. So, it was only natural for us to want to pick the brain of Yours Truly founder and Fluence curator Will Abramson.   beat:repeat NYC: Mtume – Juicy Fruit from Red Bull Music Academy and Yours Truly   So, Will, how did Yours Truly come about? While I working as the music marketing manager for a company called Imeem in San Francisco I built some great relationships with music publicists and labels. At the time there wasn’t much for bands to do press or promo wise while in San Francisco so we were able to steal bands for a few hours to shoot a short interview or performance. We started out producing “take away shows” for LA Blogoteque but quickly decided we needed to do our own thing. When I got laid off at Imeem I poured myself into Yours Truly because I never wanted to get laid off again. I spent the next year working full-time on Yours Truly and living on my unemployment. Then we just went from there.   Nao – ‘In the Morning’ from Yours Truly   Yours Truly and Fluence are strong proponents of the Attention Web and how it leads to better quality art and media being produced and promoted. What’s the best way for new brands, artists, and producers to get your attention? In a media landscape of relentless updates, when slight variations of the same news, reviews, lists and “bands to watch” parade through our feeds on a 24-hr cycle, and the shelf-life of content is measured in seconds, the value of curation and quality is at a premium. My time is valuable; everyone’s is. The best way to get my attention is to create a really compelling product. And it’s not just a song, its the artwork, the video, what you say about
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Electronic Artist Spotlight: Hollywood Principle

The debut single from Hollywood Principle is fantastic! http://t.co/bX6VSgnBzT via @fluence_app — Brian Hazard (@colortheory) December 31, 2014   We bring you a special artist trio soon to be in the minds of synth, indie electronic, and pop lovers everywhere. Beautifully crafted melodies, talented production chops, and breathtaking vocals make Hollywood Principle a musical force impossible to ignore.         New on the scene, we had the chance to be one of the first to interview and find more about them:       You’ve recently started receiving numerous accolades from bloggers and music curators with a wide range of opinions for identifying your unique sound. The comparisons to The Naked and the Famous, Florence and the Machine, and London Grammar are all well-founded, yet you seem to posses something beyond each categorization. What do you think contributes to this?   Mostly I think our desire to pull on our strengths individually is how we came up with our specific sound. Elliott is extremely focused on the complexity of the melodies, Mike is always focused on trying to have a higher production value, and Kayla is always centered around the songs having actual meaning.     Caught another keeper today! @holywdprinciple http://t.co/owYcF5co4v via @fluence_app — Valida (@Validaaa) February 9, 2015   Is there a story behind the name? Elliott and Mike are nerds. It’s a computer programming principle… Kayla has no clue what it means.   How did Hollywood Principle come into being? All of us share a mutual friend, Rob Bondurant.  Who is also a musician.  Essentially we used him to find each other and start our own band.   How did you discover the Fluence platform? What do you think of the concept? Elliott stumbled upon it on google when he was looking for innovative promotion platforms online. The concept is amazing, and we have been very fortunate to have made some key, beneficial connections through the platform.   Just discovered @holywdprinciple http://t.co/ZFNfgLNDoB via @fluence_app. Absolutely incredible. — Michael Reo Anderson (@Informichael) February 3, 2015   We’ve been anticipating your debut EP ‘Starting Over’ being released sometime this spring. Are there any more specific release details we
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Meet Andrea Young of Aspenbeat Record Label!

Andrea Young was born to work in music; it runs in your blood. After graduating college with a degree in music and psychology, she began work at MCA – a distributor who then handled Tom Petty, Chaka Khan and more. But like most of our Fluence curators she didn’t stop there, over time Andrea co-owned a chain of record stores, co-founded a company that computerized the music business (hello SoundScan) and eventually made her way to radio. We got a few minutes to catch up with Andrea and here’s what she had to say:.   Tell us about your present day career. What do you do? And what does it entail?  It’s always been about the music for me, whether as a hobby or a profession. I currently run my record label and produce my radio shows, so I am doing what I have always wanted to do! I spend my time listening to music to find tunes to play over the airwaves and share [digitally]. What that entails takes many forms, from coaching artists through Fluence and other online review sites to promoting individual artists I believe in through my record label, Aspenbeat. And from playing tunes on my weekly eclectic public radio show on Aspen Public Radio (“Aspenbeat”) or my jazz radio show (“Jazz From Aspen”), to creating playlists on Spotify for my private clients, or sharing in my newsletter and blogs and playlist sites to my listeners and fans – in other words, I share them anywhere and everywhere I can.     Is Fluence helping make your role a little easier? How? Definitely. I think Fluence is part of the future of music promotion and distribution. The good and the bad news is that the field of getting attention for your music has opened up to anyone and everyone with a tune and some persistence. But how do you spend your resources wisely, what makes the most sense? That type of strategy is what I love to do and Fluence brings artists to me to do that in both a shorthand version (online review) and then in more focused ways as I work with some of
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Music Blog and Record Label: Killing Moon Interview

  Killing Moon began as a new music blog in 2011 and was founded by Achal Dhillon, formerly of Mercury Records, Columbia Records and Quest Management. Known for being one of the first to break amazing artists such as Alt-J, Foxes, and Royal Blood, Killing Moon has since evolved into a record label, artist management company and concert promotion hub. We had a chance to interview founder Achal Dhillon and learn more about what it takes to run a respected music blog and record label.   You founded Killing Moon in 2011 – how did it all start? Killing Moon started as a blog which I launched having just left a job at Almost Gold Recordings/Quest Management. In one respect it isn’t much different from a lot of blogs already out there – I’d spend a lot of time looking at new artists via the various mediums of social networks, working out which one’s I liked with the slightly surreptitious purpose of bigging up those which I thought were objectively good. In another it is very different from other blogs – each track has to have a degree of emotional significance for me as I am constructing the ostensible soundtrack to my life. The blog now reaches to most if not all of the UK A&R community at large, as well as in Europe and North America and is cited as the blog that helped launched careers for artists such as Royal Blood, The Family Rain, Alt-J, Clean Bandit, and a bunch of others. At some point in the same year I had the idiot idea of putting on live nights, putting out some records and managing some artists despite the fact I could barely afford rent each month (and this is me living with my parents…). It’s now become my livelihood and that of several others, and we’re still doing the same sort of stuff, just on a much larger scale.   Advice for musicians and artists in the digital age? Make the music you like, as opposed to the music you think people want to hear. Unless of course you don’t write music and simply want to perform, in
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Fluence ROI for Electronic Artist 1987

Swedish electronic artist Victor Holmberg’s solo project 1987 grabbed our attention over the past couple months when the single ‘Bomb’ from his upcoming album began to tear across the music scene.     Incorporating a shimmering array of pulsing emotive synths, Victor’s voice rises and soars; upheld with reverb-drenched piano chords. Have a listen, and read more below to see how Bomb was successfully promoted with Fluence. Promoting ‘Bomb’ on Fluence On Fluence, people set their own rates for their time and attention and receive media matched to their interests. ‘Bomb’ was promoted to three curators specializing in “indie pop”, “music blogging”, and “indie electronic”, for a total cost of $15.12. Here’s a look at the breakdown:     Feedback / Advice ‘Bomb’ received great feedback from music Spotify Playlister SD Hox, as well as music curators disco naïveté and Pause Musicale.   Social Sharing  2 out of 3 curators chose to organically share it on Twitter, with nearly 300 clickthroughs resulting in a cost-per-engagement (CPE) of $.05.   SWEDISH POP. amazing. @thisis1987 http://t.co/Pum8O7183f via @fluence_app — disco naïveté (@disconaivete) January 22, 2015   Loving this… @thisis1987 http://t.co/iCOJdxVAV3 via @fluence_app Bra jobb på detta. Good new stuff from the Swedish band 1987. — hoxsd1 (@hoxsd1) January 21, 2015   Fostering organic sharing is a core principle for the Fluence community, with each and every share occurring from people who love recommending great art and media.   What’s The ROI? Take a look at the detailed ROI in Fluence compared with standard advertising services.   Facebook average CPC: $0.55.   Twitters Ad’s average CPE: $0.22 – $0.29   Google Adwords average CPC: $0.77 – $5.82     Fluence CPE: $0.05       While Fluence outperforms each advertising channel in terms of raw ROI, the real power behind the Fluence model is that people can choose exactly who they wish to target, build real 1 – 1 relationships, and receive media on their own terms. Read about our mission and ethos here   You can sign up for free with $5 of credit here, and have a look at 1987’s stirring new video for ‘Bomb’ before you leave.
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Indie Folk Artist on the Rise: The Division Men

Meet The Division Men; a husband / wife acoustic duo based in Austin, Texas. We were blown away when we heard their mesmerizing, haunting, desert-dusted sound a couple months ago, and since then their music has swept across the Fluence community evoking recurring comparisons to Leonard Cohen, The Handsome Family, and Tom Waits to name a few. The @DivisionMen‘s “Criminal” is a haunting tale that leads from #Texas into old #NewOrleans: http://t.co/YCCEfTWcx0 via @fluence_app — Coyote Music (@coyotemusic) January 23, 2015   We see great heights in store for their talent, and after listening to their music, it’s not hard to imagine them finding a place alongside Conor Oberst, The Good Life, and Monsters of Folk in the future. Read our interview with J. and Caroline below to hear The Division Men’s genesis, creative influences, and what’s upcoming for them this year.   Under The Gun by The Division Men   How did your collaboration as ‘The Division Men’ begin and transpire? (J) The band began in my apartment Berlin, Germany, in 2008. I met a few musicians that I wanted to collaborate with. My idea was to work with my friends who did not live in Germany at the time. I  know a lot of talented musicians and I didn’t think our locations should be a factor. I sent files to guys like Fredo Ortiz (Beastie Boys/ Tito and Tarantula/ Ozomatli), Steven Medina Hufsteter (The Quick / Cruzados / Tito and Tarantula) and Mitch Hertz (Salacious Crumb, Salmon Hater). I really enjoyed collaborating with them but just like everything in life, people get busy and the work slows down. At that time Caroline and I were dating and we continued to play music together under the already established name “The Division Men”.   Under The Gun by The Division Men             Did growing up in Texas inform any of the creative direction in your work? (J) I was raised on the border of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. I was able to be apart of two different cultures coming together. El Paso is a perfect place to write music because of it’s surroundings,
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It’s Music Blogger Pioneer, Travis Keller!

Travis Keller has always been slightly ahead of the curve; a true DIY music industry tastemaker (and fan). He created his blog, BUDDYHEAD.com, in 1998 which has since become a record label releasing over 40 records since 2001. And now he’s taken to Fluence to find fresh music discoveries and help artists with advice.   So, Travis, how’d you get started in music? When I moved to Los Angeles at 17 my first friends were a band called, the Kanker Sores (they later became the Icarus Line) who were on Recess Records and ingrained into the punk scene. So I just kinda landed in the middle of everything; my best friends were always promoting shows and playing shows with their band. I picked up the slack in the areas of photography, ‘zine (later webzine) and started pressing 7 inch vinyls of extra songs they had.   Why did you initially create Buddyhead? It all just kind of happened, it wasn’t something that was planned. Coming out of the punk DIY scene it just seemed like what you did. You got involved in whatever way you could and wanted to. I’ve always loved music and been around it, but never really planned on running a business around it. It was after Buddyhead’s fourth record release that we started getting demos from bands we didn’t know and it was like “Oh man! I guess I run a label now.” But the idea of BUDDYHEAD and still the motivation behind it is to shine a light on art or music that normally wouldn’t be seen or heard… And make myself and my friends laugh from time to time too. The label side started because we were promoting a Valentine’s Day show in 2001 at The Smell (first show at that venue ever) and the Icarus Line had an extra song, so we pressed up a thousand 7″ vinyls and gave 214 of them away (to the first 214 people at the show). Get it 214 = February 14th. Sold the rest. Then our friends in Ink and Daggers singer died and they didn’t have a label for their last album so we released
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Fluence Interviews Electronic Artist Toph Allen

Toph Allen is a new electronic artist we’re excited to recommend and share with you. His luminescent sounds soar along ambient lines, while the pop-infused synth rhythms suggest a deep affinity for Röyksopp and Pantha Du Prince. fans of Nicolas Jaar/Pantha Du Prince should probably check out Toph (got sent this via @fluence_app) https://t.co/8ay7e3TzFE — disco naïveté (@disconaivete) September 17, 2014   Toph had a moment to give us an interview, so read on to hear about his musical evolution, inspirational drivers, and how he shares his music with Fluence and the world.   How long have you been making music? How did you get your start? It’s kind of a weird story; I started doing it as a hobby. Just doing it for myself really. But I played the violin growing up, so I had some musical background. Then in 2006 I got my first laptop, and being interested in technology, electronic music was naturally what I created. I just played my music for myself and friends—it was more basic, kind of like Garageband stuff, and I gradually began working on it more and by the time I finished grad school, I discovered that I had improved over time.   Why did you choose the electronic genre? It’s kind of like the tools that you use, right? So I had kind of taken to computers and it was as simple as that. If I were using just a piano, maybe I’d be writing different music. I do listen to wide variety of music: folk, rock, pop. But I have no urge to write lyrics. Maybe I was influenced by growing up playing the violin, that’s probably why my music is more melody and harmony driven and less beat-driven.   Any other genres you’d like to explore? I would eventually like to do something with vocals. I’m working on a second EP right now that’s similar to my first, but in the future, I’d definitely like to explore vocals, music that’s more beat-driven, more upbeat and “dancey”.   Is there an artist you’d like to collaborate with? I have a huge fanboy crush on Nils Frahm. His studio albums are still and beautiful;
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Meet Founder of New Artist Model: Dave Kusek

Dave Kusek is the Artist Development Manager at New Artist Model and Senior Partner at Digital Cowboys Consulting. He was Vice President at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he created Berklee Online, the world’s largest music school reaching over 30,000 students in 170 countries. In 2013 he founded the New Artist Model as an alternative music business program for independent musicians, songwriters, and producers. He was one of the people who helped develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), was co-inventor of the first electronic drums called “Synare”, and founded the first music software company Passport Music Software; producer of Master Tracks, Encore, and MusicTime software. We had the pleasure of interviewing Dave to hear his insights on the streaming music landscape, predictions for industry shifts to come, and advice for artists to prepare and engage their fanbase. Join Dave Kusek and Fluence CoFounder Shamal Ranasinghe in a free webinar to learn more about Fluence and engaging your fans here.   In your 2005 best selling music business book “The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution” you correctly predicted the more than a few technological advances such as the iPhone, Apple’s SIRI, and marketplace shifts including the decline of the recording industry and the rise of streaming. What shifts and innovations do you see occurring in the next decade? Streaming has a long way to go to be economically viable for the creators, however, the consumers have embraced it. The trend is clear that people are going to move in that direction, especially when you can more-or-less access any song at any time. That makes it so convenient and easy, that from a fan perspective everybody’s going to begin to move in that direction. That shift is well under way. The economic part of that hasn’t really happened yet, in the sense that as an artist it may even be worse than your regular deal for your record depending on the kind of contract that you get. People bitch and moan about Spotify and not being paid royalties, but really the problem is with the labels, publishers and the deals that have been cut and
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Meet music curator, blogger, and Spotify playlister SD Hox

Music curation can be craft all its own, which is why we crave human-curated playlists. Music services such as 8tracks, Beats, Songza, and Spotify build their communities and products around human curators who are passionate about sharing amazing music. SD Hox is one such music curator who has become recognized in the Spotify and Playlists.net communities for sharing his exceptional stream of selections. SD Hox ranked #1 in 2014 on Playlists.net and received millions of listens for his playlists overall. Fluence is thrilled to share our interview where we dive into his inspiration, curation process, and special favorites.   Loving this… @thisis1987 http://t.co/iCOJdxVAV3 via @fluence_app Bra jobb på detta. Good new stuff from the Swedish band 1987. — hoxsd1 (@hoxsd1) January 21, 2015   What inspired you to start collecting and sharing your playlists? Music has been a central part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started making mixtapes in high school for friends and family. I still have many of these mixes somewhere in my garage just waiting to be digitized. I began to take mixes more seriously when I was living in New Orleans and working as a bartender. I would make the mixtapes for the bar and I would love to watch the crowd just grooving to my selections. A few years later, I was running a nightclub in Colorado and I would put together the music played in the club before the live acts would come on stage. The club featured a diverse array of music and I would have to tailor my mixes to the band and the event. I learned a lot about motivating a crowd and building the excitement in the room as show time approached. Now, in the digital age, I have the whole world of music at my fingertips and it is exciting to be able to share my mixes with a truly global audience. I still marvel at how many people that I have been able to reach through my playlists using this new technology. Many of my mixes are available on Spotify and through my blog (TheTastyTurntable.com) and I am about to start a curation project with Rdio that I hope will further
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Getting To Know Derrick Lee: Music Attorney & Blogger Extraordinaire

    Sometimes your day job, even though it’s completely emerged in music, just isn’t enough to satisfy your passion. That’s when Doggy Style Records / Snoopadelic Pictures attorney Derrick Lee started his own music blog, Music Of My Mind, to express his voice on a broader range of music.   Q: Tell us about yourself, Derrick! A: Well, I graduated undergrad in ’99 from Cornell University, and then took a year off to work as a paralegal at a boutique entertainment law firm in Santa Monica while trying my hand as a singer. Having limited success as singer, I took the LSAT and went to law school. After passing the bar, I became an associate and worked at the firm until ’07 when I was approached by the VP of Doggy Style Records to work in-house for them. I have worked for Snoop ever since while also taking on several other clients. Then, a year an a half ago, I started an LA based music blog (www.MusicOfMyMind14.com) which is really just a hobby that I am extremely passionate about.   Q: Out of everything you do, what gets you the most excited every morning? A: MUSIC! I’ve always been able to work/study with music in the background. Virtually everyday, I put together a “soundtrack of the day” of albums (to be listened to in their entirety), and it keeps me going through heavy drafting and contract review. Right now I’m going through my vinyl collection to weed out the LPs I want to keep. Usually, the music I listen to depends on the mood I’m in. Sometimes, I’ll “Genius” an artist on iTunes and let that play all day. When an artist passes away, I’ll usually spend the day listening to the music that I have of that artist. It all depends.   Q: Who was the first artist you fell in love with? The one you just couldn’t get enough of, and why? A: Well, I named my blog after Stevie Wonder’s 14th studio album, so I guess you can say that he’s the artist that I act like a groupie around. Trust me, I have several stories of
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Emerging Artist Spotlight: David Rosen

Powerful. Resonating. Ever-evolving. Crystalline.   These words are repeatedly found in the responses artist and musician David Rosen has been receiving from the creative community on Fluence. After spending years creating award-winning film scoring and composition projects, Rosen’s solo work is emerging with a surging style all its own. Listen to his latest music video release ‘Dreams Like These‘ for a glimpse of his exceptional talent.     We seized on the chance to interview David to discover more about his musical influences and the creative process behind his work:   Your debut album ‘Echoes In The Dark’ soars along combining an eclectic collection of ideas reminiscent of IDM, orchestral, and even darker synth-pop influences. Who are some artists you’ve drawn inspiration from? My two biggest influences also happen to be my two favorite bands and that’s The Cure & Depeche Mode. Aside from that, my influences come from all over the place including everything from film score composers, to industrial like Nine Inch Nails, pop like Michael Jackson and all kinds of other music. I also compose music for film, and I definitely try to let that influence creep into my album music as well.   A recurring theme in tracks such as ‘Inside Of Us All’, ‘If Only Tonight I Could Sleep’, ‘Takeover’, and even your newest single ‘Dreams Like These’ is the use of elongated builds; gradually adding layer after layer of instrumentation over a progression creating exceptionally gripping apexes. Is there a general motive behind this, and could you tell us about your creative process for composing and building on a progression? It’s funny that you picked that out. It’s actually a very specific decision I’ve made in my songwriting process to have various different structures that I use in different songs. A lot of pop songs have the old verse-chorus-repeat structure, and I will make songs like that sometimes too (although without lyrics), but I also have about five different structures (and variations of those structures) that I usually use when I’m creating a track. Usually by the time I’ve gotten to the 5th or 6th layer of the music I can start to tell what
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Hugh McIntyre: Writer, Editor, Founder of Pop! Bang! Boom!

  Hugh is the founder of the music blog Pop! Bang! Boom! and a Forbes contributor on all things music and music business. He writes for various other publications and blogs around the world and is a member of The Recording Academy. Check out our interview with Hugh below to learn more about his passion for pop music, his advice for musicians in the digital age, and his resolutions for 2015.   How did you get your start? I’ve been blogging for fun for about 6 years; it started as a hobby. Then in grad school, I applied for an internship at Billboard and began writing for them. I was living in Boston and I’d come to New York a couple times a month for the Billboard job. During this time, I gradually built up my portfolio. My main gig now is with Forbes about the music industry and the business of music.   Do you think social media is working for or against musicians? I think it’s very helpful. Back in the day, you either had to have a lot of money promoting you or stick to being a locally known artist, but these days artists can get big because of a fun YouTube video that went viral. Your whole life is different. I like that we’ve seen street teams go away and instead of promoters passing out fliers, now it’s shared on social media with a tweet: “Hey we’re coming to your city.” Social media has made it a lot more democratic for anyone to have a chance.   What’s your advice for musicians in the digital age? I think that as much as I don’t want to say it, take every opportunity to make money because you probably won’t sell a lot of records. Count on no money from sales, and focus on getting your song featured in a commercial, do tours. If actual money rolls in from Spotify or Itunes, great!  And focus on brands to hire you.   How’s your experience been with Fluence? I’ve really enjoyed Fluence. I genuinely like about 75% of the music that is  submitted to me and I’m happy to
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Meet Music Fiend Jeff Miller: Editor of The Thrillist LA

When what you love becomes what you do for a living that’s what we call the dream; Jeff Miller is living the dream. He edits The Thrillist Los Angeles by day, writes for Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Relix and many more music magazines by night and still finds time to play live music with his indie-rock cover band Black Crystal Wolf Kids. We’re just happy he made additional time to answer a few questions for us:   What was your career goal as a kid? I wanted to either be a rock star or write about them, and I sort of have had both dreams come true; I’ve certainly talked to my fair share of my music heroes, and I get to play music, regularly, for screaming fans — though I do have to remind myself that the songs are not mine sometimes.   Who was the first artist you fell in love with? The one you just couldn’t get enough of, and why? When I was a kid, I was a no-holds-barred Michael Jackson fan. My dad took me to see him when I was 5, my first show ever, and there’s documentation of choreographed dances to Beat It, Thriller, Remember The Time… yeah, it lasted a while.   Who are you listening to these days? I’m mostly an indie-rock guy. I love Wilco and the Arcade Fire and other bands you’d expect a white dude in his 30s to care about, but my favorite song of the year is Bruno Mars/Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk” (which is second only to “Shake It Off,” so I have a pop sweet spot as well).     Have you made any epic discoveries through using Fluence yet? Tell us about it. I wouldn’t say epic discoveries, but I’ve heard a fair number of artists I’ve really liked. One thing I like about Fluence is that it un-contextualizes, so I can just listen to the music and see the video that the artist is presenting. So much of my life in music writing is based on the story of the artist rather than the art itself, and I love how Fluence gives the
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Meet Alex Esser: Entrepreneur, DJ, HMWL Label Boss

Alex is the co-founder of the electronic label and music blog HMWL, which is part of the VICE music blog network. His entrepreneurial background has intertwined closely with music and technology throughout. He’s now the Marketing Director in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark for the streaming music service Deezer. Read our interview with Alex below to learn more about his passion for DJing and emerging artists, his advice for musicians, and his favorite artists right now. You founded HMWL in 2008 – how did it all start? Honestly, we were two students just goofing around. We run a club night during that time and started a simple music blog where we posted some of our favorite tracks, DJ-sets and would promote our events. Latest HMWL Set Over the years it turned into a much more serious music blog. Our main priority today is to write about up-and-coming electronic producers who deserve more attention. We also try to focus more on Nordic Electronic music, featuring nordic producers at least 30% of the times. The blog is quite niche for semi-underground electronica and deep house, on a busy week we get around 5,000 unique visitors on the site. We also get 30+ promo emails every day; we try to read them all. In 2014 we started HMWL recordings. It came quite naturally as we kept receiving some fantastic demos once in a while among those 30 promos per day. So creating a label empowers us to release the music we believe in 110%. The first EP is approaching 600,000 streams on the streaming platforms and HMWL002 and HMWL003 are to be released in early 2015. Daytime I’m the Deezer MD for Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Working with music both day and night is really like a dream come true. I think I’m the most happy guy in Sweden right now 🙂 Favorite artists right now? I want to promote my fellow Swedes: Axel Boman, HNNY, Dorisburg and 1987 are the four main Swedish electronic music geniuses at the moment. Also make sure to keep an eye on these Swedes: Ascorbite aka Edgar Ariza, Gin & Gin, Manifest, MAAL, Rimbaudian, Somoah, Martin Emmes, Slätten, Gidge, Swim, Josefine
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Private SoundCloud Sharing, ROI on your Promotional Spends, and more Badass Features

We’ve been working hard on new features and are excited to share them with you. It’s only going to get more badass from here on out. Private Soundcloud Links The #1 most-requested feature is now available! You can submit and send any private Soundcloud track link on Fluence. This makes sharing out pre-release tracks ridiculously easy, or if you want helpful feedback on a work-in-progress, then private links are perfect for you. Here’s how to share your private tracks:   Click on the Soundcloud ‘Share’ icon.     Copy the ‘Private Share’ link     Paste the link on your Fluence dashboard and start sending!     ROI ON YOUR PROMOTION Understanding the ROI of the money you spend is absolutely essential in any promotional campaign. We’ve added a new tab on all your ‘Submission Summary’ pages to help give you a detailed ROI breakdown for your promotions. You can also export your entire summary to save as a PDF and share with anyone you see fit.     This ROI section is only the beginning and will be quickly evolving. Soon we will help you track commerce conversions and give you a better understanding of how Fluence drives real views, plays, and shares of your media. Inviting People We’ve also added the ability to easily invite friends and colleagues to Fluence. Add any email address you want, and we’ll send an email inviting them to join. You can also sync your Gmail address book to quickly search through your contacts and find the right people.     We have much more on the way for you. Thank you for all your inspiring support so far, and we hope you’re enjoying wrapping up a great 2014. Cheers, The Fluence Team
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Discover How Artist Zach Hurd Uses Fluence

Zach Hurd is a singer-songwriter who recently relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles where he was looking to spread his music to an entirely new market. With the release of his latest album, A Million Little Lights, Zach successfully used Fluence to meet and connect with several music industry curators; here’s his story: How did you discover Fluence? And what made you want to give it a try? I discovered Fluence in an article on Digital Music News (thank you Ari Herstand!). I just released my new album in October and, just like all independent artists, have been sending it out to anyone and everyone. I wanted to try Fluence because it seemed to be a focused platform; I wouldn’t just be sending my album/song to random people, it would be people that actually work with my style of music. Have you had any career-enhancing experiences because of Fluence? Or made any connections that have continued outside the platform? Tell us the story. I got some really helpful feedback from Valida Carroll, a KCRW DJ and host of the “Desert Nights” series at The Standard Hotel in Hollywood. She also said my music would be a good fit for “Desert Nights” and now I’ll be playing there on Jan 14th. I went to the series a week ago and ended up meeting a lot of great musicians there. I’m really glad to have made the connection. What are you hoping to achieve with Fluence in the future? I hope to keep meeting new people on Fluence that can give me some perspective on my work and guidance. Any advice for other artists looking to use Fluence? Give Fluence a try! After all the time and money we spend as musicians, trying to get our music in the right hands, I’d say it’s money well spent. For music and additional information on Zach Hurd as an artist, visit: www.zachhurd.com  
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Meet Founder of High Voltage: Chelsea Schwartz

  We’re excited to welcome the enigmatic and very special Chelsea Schwartz (Founder of High Voltage) to our community of curators on Fluence. Chelsea’s wealth of talents include artist & tour management, music publicity & marketing, artist development, DJing, social media strategy and writing about all things music & nerd culture related since the age of 14. She’s 32 now…   Besides all that, Chelsea is also the executive producer (engineer and on-air talent!) for the High Voltage Radio Hour which airs twice a week on The Independent FM and is also available for streaming through the iHeartRadio app, Independent FM, Mixcloud and High Voltage website. Many past show archives are available via Mixcloud (whose co-founders Nico Perez and Nikhil Shah are also on Fluence), here’s one of our favorites featuring OK Go as studio guests:     We recently had the opportunity to ask Chelsea a few questions about herself, High Voltage and her advice for artists in the music industry today. Keep up with the latest music on High Voltage here, follow Chelsea on Twitter here, and don’t forget to send Chelsea tracks that rock here on Fluence.  
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Meet Bruno Natal

FILMMAKING. MUSIC. ART. STARTUPS. WRITING. + MORE At Fluence we’re bringing all kinds of creators together with people who can help them with feedback and exposure, and we can’t wait to share one of the latest people to join! Bruno Natal is a documentary filmmaker, co-founder of We Demand, and music writer with contributions for Vice, Spin, Urbe, and XLR8R. He is a passionate advocate of crowdfunding and new technologies, and we’re excited to bring you an interview with his latest thoughts on journalism, tech, and filmmaking. You can send your media to Bruno on Fluence here, and don’t forget to add it to the Fluence network here to kickstart your feedback and exposure with digital media experts and curators on Fluence.
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Music Writer Eric R. Danton Joins Fluence

Fluence builds software for people who share and receive media actively. For fun or business, our platform helps curators, journalists, bloggers, DJs, writers, and other tastemakers manage the media submitted to them, give feedback, and share. Eric R. Danton is one of the latest people to start using Fluence. He is a prolific contributor and journalist for The Wall Street Journal, Salon, Paste Magazine, M Music & Musicians, Diffuser.fm, ListenDammit.com, and more. The Fluence team is super-jazzed to feature Eric and share more from him. Eric has contributed to “Schools That Rock: The Rolling Stone College Guide” and American Songwriter, as well as the bygone publications Spinner.com, No Depression, Performing Songwriter, and Ironminds.com. He was also rock critic at the Hartford Courant in Connecticut from 2002-2012 and regularly appears on the Best New Song of the Week segment on WRSI-FM in Northampton, Mass. We had the chance to ask Eric a few questions about his career and highly enjoyed his recommendations for finding fresh cultural news and emerging artists. Take a look! Follow Eric’s Tumblr here to read some of his outstanding reviews, and check out Listen Dammit to get your rock ’n’ roll fix. You can send media directly to Eric here. Eric doesn’t charge anything to review your media, so don’t be shy! It’s easy and free. Request a beta account for your own profile here, and we’ll get you set up as we build the system. If you’re looking to get feedback and exposure for your media, send it to curators and experts here on Fluence.
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Giving Great Feedback to Creators

We started Fluence to connect creators with those who could help them with feedback and exposure. As we built the Fluence system, we began to see curators and experts give incredibly thoughtful, precise, and helpful feedback to creators on the production quality and composition of their media submissions. Andrei Liviu Georgescu is an ambient electronica  composer and producer who submitted his track ‘Waterway To The Horizon’ on Fluence – sending it to renowned downtempo and electronica music production expert Brian Trifon, who responded back with helpful feedback on his track. Maxwell’s Complex – an artist whose sound is described as “electronic music progenerated from early 80’s synth pop”, also used Fluence to get useful feedback from highly accomplished electronic music producer and recording engineer Eric Oehler. He submitted the track ‘Hurting Inside Out‘ while also asking for specific suggestions on which platforms, websites, or music blogs would be a good match to get in contact with. Maxwell’s Complex wrote back with his thoughts on Fluence: Recently this week, electronic synthpop artist echocell sent her track ‘Crumb Love‘ to Valida Carroll, KCRW On-Air Host and Fluence music expert. Valida enjoyed Crumb Love so much, she even gave echocell a shout-out on Twitter. Discovered a new song I’m digging. #CrumbLove http://t.co/o7BCQpRdDb via @fluence_app — Valida (@Validaaa) April 8, 2014   On Fluence, there is no reward or benefit to experts for sharing – so every time an someone shares a submission from a creator, it’s an authentic and organic promotion that completes a full cycle from submitting media to getting it recommended to others. It inspires us to see this level of thoughtful insight by curators and experts on Fluence. We are motivated more than ever in building our platform to let creators connect with those that can help them with useful and high-quality production feedback. Our new model is emerging to connect creators with curators and experts in a meaningful way. If you have any suggestions on how it could be improved or have any ideas on what could be better, please reach out directly and let us know. It’s just the beginning.
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Meet Ali Spagnola on Fluence

Based on what I learned during it, this meeting was about how to disassemble and reassemble a pen several times. — Ali Spagnola (@alispagnola) March 9, 2014 Meet Ali Spagnola – ingenious musician, creator of the Power Hour Album, artist behind the Free Paintings Project, and beer-shotgunner extraordinaire: Ali’s winning and hilarious personality have charmed 1.54+ million people on Twitter alone, and she’s blazed a highly-successful career path worthy of emulation by anyone looking to harness and promote their talents in new ways. We were beyond excited when Ali joined the Fluence community and gave us the opportunity to ask her a few questions: In addition to your painting, design, and music composition talents, you’ve built a highly successful music career around the “Power Hour” drinking game concept. How did the whole story start? What gave you the idea? It started when I was playing boring shows, strumming a guitar in a coffee shop. It was hard to get people excited to hear me as a new artist with new music. I knew I wanted my concert to be more like a party, so I combined the drinking game with my live show and the rest is history. Do you have a favorite beer? I really don’t. When I’m drinking beer to taste the beer (as opposed to a “stunt beer” that I’d use for a Power Hour or other games) I like to try craft brews. Most of the time with craft brews, you’re looking to try something new every time. So I guess my favorite beer is whatever new one I’m having next. Any big news upcoming for your projects in 2014? I’m working on a new album! This time the songs aren’t all necessarily a minute or necessarily about drinking but they are necessarily awesome. I’ve also been doing my “Most Googled Song” webshow since the beginning of the year. A song and video about one of Google’s trending topics every week! What are some of your favorite websites and resources? I loooooove Evernote. I use it all day every day for my multiple projects. I love Evernote so much, I wish I could grind it up
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Fluence Music Expert: Claudio Gallo (Bad Panda Records)

Beware The Bad Panda… We’re proud to welcome Claudio Gallo to our community of curators on Fluence! Claudio is the Founder and Head of Bad Panda Records. Claudio is also a Music Business and Information Strategist at Stereomood. Bad Panda Records showcases a wide range of electronic-based genres and has a special approach to running a Netlabel. Every Monday they feature a new release for free download under the Creative Commons license. Their goal is to encourage creativity and exposure for the featured artists in the form of downloads, remixes and sharing. The concept has exploded since its inception in 2009 with over 170 releases and followers reaching well over 150,000 on Soundcloud alone. Bad Panda Records now stands as one of the established champions on the forefront of the Free Music Movement and provides a powerful platform for DIY musicians to broadcast their creations. We had the honor of connecting with Claudio for an interview to ask him some questions. Here is Bad Panda’s latest mixtape for your listening pleasure as Claudio talks to us about Bad Panda and more:   You’re one of the most successful record labels championing creative commons. How did the whole story start? What gave you the idea? I developed the idea while realizing that the listening unit was switching from albums to singles and moving from a passive Read-Only culture to a Read/Write one. That’s why Bad Panda cares about Creative Commons licenses and is mostly focused on single releases. Any big news for upcoming for Bad Panda Records in 2014? Exciting singles and emerging acts. New albums from Indian Wells and Populous plus a brand new website and platform! What are your secrets to finding great music? Listening a lot via different sources like Soundcloud, Hype Machine, Bandcamp, This Is My Jam and 22tracks. What are some of your favorite websites and blogs? Excluding the ones mentioned above, Twitter and Songkick. Among my favorite blogs: The Needle Drop, XLR8R, Nialler9, The Quietus, Drownedinsound, Stadiums & Shrines, iso50. What advice would you give to undiscovered and aspiring artists? Be true, be passionate, don’t give up. Research and make your own kind of music. ———- We are
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Fluence Music Expert: Brian Hazard (Color Theory)

Our goal with Fluence is to bring creators and curators together. We’re thrilled every time a new expert joins our community, and wanted to introduce you to the man behind Color Theory. In case you haven’t heard of it, Color Theory is Brian Hazard’s music project with 9 full-length albums blending a unique combination of new wave and electro synth pop – drawing combined lines of inspiration from Depeche Mode and his roots in classical piano performance. His newest release below is a Pet Shop Boys cover collaboration between Matt Mancid and Heather Alden of Faded Paper Figures. Color Theory’s music is available here on his website to buy. Brian also uses his accomplished music engineering skills to run the highly successful Resonance Mastering studio in Huntington Beach, California. With over 1.1 million Twitter followers, Brian knows how to engage and interact with a large audience. He also publishes his experiences and helpful resources on the blog Passive Promotion, which shares mixing tips along with music promotion strategies. If you’d like to read more about what Brian’s been up to recently, The Expats’ Post published a recent interview with Brian here. We are incredibly excited to have Brian join Fluence. His top-notch expertise, passion for promoting, and powerful presence in the music industry are just a few great reasons to get in touch with Brian through Fluence.   Our curator network on Fluence also includes experts in Filmmaking, Music Licensing, A&R, Journalism, PR & Branding, Music & Film Production, Audio Mastering, Radio Production, Music Writing, Venture Capital, and more. Join Fluence for free here to start receiving advice and exposure for your creations.
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A Fluence Success Story: Michael-David Bushman

We’re working relentlessly at Fluence to help creators get feedback and exposure from industry experts and professional curators. In the words of Aaron Levie, our approach has been to build for “the way the world *should* work instead of optimizing for how the world *does* work.” It’s a massive challenge to bring a new model to life, but when the system performs as intended, the results can be very meaningful to our mission at Fluence. On December 13th, Michael-David Bushman, a musician from the Yakama Indian Reservation in Southern Washington, submitted three music tracks from his Soundcloud and targeted four experts and curators in Fluence. Given the varying rates charged by the people for their time and attention, the total potential spend for Michael-David was $57.85, which is based on the length of his submitted media. In Fluence, creators only pay for the time their selected people spend listening or watching their media and nothing more. In this case, Michael-David actually spent $51.19 (or 89%) of his potential max spend since his selected curators chose to listen to his submissions almost completely. Ikey Owens and Paul Heck were two people who went beyond giving feedback and organically shared it on their own public networks. Ikey Owens posted one track on twitter: dreammmmy space pop w big ass drums!!! http://t.co/RnPs3PgOeF via @fluenceapp — Free Moral Agents (@freemoralagents) December 12, 2013 Paul Heck shared Michael-David’s two other tracks on Facebook, and he also provided an engaging level of feedback and set of follow-on questions. Paul posted this feedback on Fluence when auditioning Michael-David’s, When Colors Bleed: Dude – I’m feeling this track, listening to it over and over. Is this your thing? Or do you work with vocalist? I love the shift at 1:10 — Do you think, structurally the first part of the song is a bit long before this shift happens? As it is – it seems A-B-A-B in structure, do you want to develop it more, musically? Add a bridge or something? As I tell everyone, I’m a song guy – I like hooks and choruses. I love the B part to this song – and would want to hear more development there, maybe it’s a pre-chorus that leads into a hook…..I don’t know — I’m not sure how you are
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