Music 2.0

Pretty much everyone knows about web 2.0, what it is, and what it allows internet users to do. But what about music 2.0, as in, someone taking something that exists and recreating it into something entirely new?

This is exactly what artist, Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk has done. On his new album Feed The Animals he takes samples from over 300 different songs, fuses them together, and forms an entirely new song. One of the notable "mashups" includes Jay Z's "roc boys" playing over Radioheads "Paranoid Android."

He is hoping to avoid legal problems under the Creative Commons Licensing act, which allows websites and various media to sample 30 seconds previews.

Will he get sued? I highly doubt it, for one reason specifically: publicity.

Any artist who sued him would be facing an angry mob of music fans. Looking back a few years in history, take the example of Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich who led the campaign against Napster. He faced a backlash and that was for people stealing entire songs! Imagine if one person gets sued for using no more than 30 seconds of a song. (see also Prince and YouTube)


Anyways, if music 2.0 intrigues you, I encourage you to check out Girl Talk's Feed The Animals. Personally, I give the CD a 9/10, but it is subjective to whether you really like the genre or not.

When Bad Press Is Good

OMG, Gossip Girl has a new ad campaign! This one takes their worst reviews and places them over pictures of the steamier scenes. No such thing as bad press, I guess.

The intent is obvious: make teens think that watching GG is rebellious and cool. It's a smart move, and the show has actually taken off despite bad acting and boring plotlines involving parents hooking up. Kind of frustrating in contrast with the books, which are actually really clever and have great characters. Just goes to show that if you put beautiful people in beautiful clothes on screen then the writing isn't the most relevant aspect of the show.

No 'Fail Whale' for Twitter

I have been a member of Twitter for at least a year now...but it wasn't until recently that I became a Twitter-phile. I use twitter daily and post and receive updates from the people I follow. Part of my obsession has come from the application Twinkle, which lets me see what people are saying in my area, regardless of whether or not I am Following them on Twitter.

This article summarizes and captures what makes Twitter unique and why it is successful.

Oh, by the way, you can follow me on twitter here: @AxiomPR

Girly Bloggers

Infamous dating blogger Julia Allison has teamed up with two other girls to make a really girly blog. Called "NonSociety", they are so far covering fashion, dating, and tech news. More contributors promised to come soon.

The left-to-right layout feels a little weird to me, and the style section reads like a Body Shop ad. Maybe it is? A little endorsement cash behind this blog wouldn't be too shocking.

Advertising vs. PR

With the daily increase in ads that I see and the news of NBC locking up over $1 billion in ad revenue for the Olympics, it got me thinking -- is advertising worth it?

Many ad campaigns have generated a considerable amount of public appeal, but they fail to do the one thing they are supposed to: increase sales.

Some notable campaigns:

- Got Milk campaign. Hugely popular and famous campaign. Did milk sales increase? Nope. They continued to fall year after year since the campaign.

- Yo quiero Taco Bell. Remember that campaign with the dog? Massively popular and parodied, but it didn't increase sales. The agency behind the ad campaign was also fired.

- Whassup? Arguably one of the most popular ad campaigns in the last 20 years, but sales of Budweiser have been declining steadily. They went from 50 million barrels in 1990 to less than 35 million in 2000. Bud Light has been doing well without the Whaasup campaign.

I'm not saying that advertising is never effective, but I believe it is widely overspent and often irresponsibly. Advertising should be used to defend a brand and keep it relevant.

PR should be used to build the brand. Often times companies try to build a brand/product through advertising alone.

More thoughts on this to come. For a more in-depth look at advertising and PR, check out this great book.