wax&wires | your musical life

VIDEO: Jónsi – Go Do

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:26:26 +0000

It seems like every musical endeavor Jónsi embarks on, from Sigur Rós to Riceboy Sleeps, conjures a fantastic and dream-like quality. Perhaps there’s something in the water up in Iceland, or more likely, he’s one of the unique talents of our generation.

A few months ago, if you were on the Sigur Rós mailing list, you got a preview of Jónsi’s new solo project, and an oportunity to download a preview track, Boy Lilikoi. You might still be able to snag that on his website, I’m not sure.

We now have the official release date of Go, April 6th, and know that it will contain 9 sure-to-be-brilliant tracks. Of the bits I’ve heard, Jónsi’s solo debut picks up where Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust left off, with driving percussion and dancing orchestral arrangements, but incorporates more english than any of his previous projects. Until then, enjoy the new video for the first song on the album, Go Do, and sift through a plethora of media on his site.

Wax Pick: Yeasayer – Odd Blood

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:39:32 +0000

I know I already tweeted this album out a few times, but figured I’d still put it up on here since Yeasayer is gaining in popularity exponentially with each passing day, and the album has been on heavy rotation in my home and car for the better part of the past few weeks now.

Yeasayer is a Brooklyn-based group pumping out some great experimental electronic indie meets world beats. They started gaining steam upon a tour with Brooklyn buddies MGMT. Both groups feature highly affected falsetto vox, which I’ve unofficially deemed the new Brooklyn sound… solely based on a handful of groups hailing from the great NY. They first grabbed my attention a while back when Kevin Pereira was rocking “Sunrise” off the group’s first album, All Hour Cymbals.

I almost made that one a wax pick back then, but I didn’t feel like the album as a whole was as strong as I would have liked. It’s since grown on me a lot. Nonetheless, Yeasayer’s sophomore release, Odd Blood, is a very strong album and has a populace of gushing bloggers already forecasting it as one of 2010’s best.

My favorite tracks, the freebie Ambling Alp and O.N.E. The percussion will make you want to dance.

Yeasayer – Odd Blood

Wax Pick: Beach House – Teen Dream

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:42:52 +0000

Through a series of events involving Fleet Foxes, Sub Pop, and 4 LPs, I ended up with a bit of store credit down at M-Theory, the local record shop. I guess I didn’t really like the pants I had on, because I felt the urge to let my newfound inheritance burn a hole in my pocket as quickly as possible.

I asked the owner if he had any good albums that had just come in, and he had hardly uttered the words, “Beach House” before a fellow customer, a middle-aged hipster perusing the used vinyl interjected, “No, you don’t! That’s my copy, you better not be selling him my copy!”

Seriously though, calm down.

Mr. M-Theory proceeded to explain that he had two copies on hand, and had previously set one aside for Mr. Hipster.

Well if missing the opportunity to purchase a simple album was enough to elicit a near-violent response from a fellow music connoisseur, I figured said album must be well worth purchasing.

It was.

That’s why I love still going down to the record shop. You never know what could happen. I’ll probably find out next week when I’m in and the same “customer” is there that it’s some elaborate dog and pony show and I got played, but nonetheless, the album is stellar.

One of my favorite releases of the past few months, Beach House has crafted a simple and nostalgic album that oozes dream-pop beauty. Maybe it’s my wife’s fault, but them Frenchies always seem to get me. The duo hails from Baltimore and is comprised of Alex Scally and French-born Victoria Legrand. Their lush compositions and textures create a sonic space hearkening back to Brian Wilson’s hay day.

This is Beach House’s 3rd release, and their first on new label, Sub Pop. My favorite tracks are hands down, “Real Love,” and “Take Care.”

Snag it on vinyl if you can, it comes with the MP3s and a DVD with video content from various directors set to each song.

Beach House – Teen Dream

Wax Pick: Air – Moon Safari

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:51:04 +0000

I’m stoked for this wax pick. I was actually just listening to Radian a few days back and somebody came up to me to ask what it was.

Air is a French duo that has been putting out some great psychedelic electronica for over a decade. Them Frenchies always put out the best electronic artists! Their name is a French acronym for “love, imagination, dream,” and you can hear those ideals manifest themselves sonically in all their works.

Join the Moon Safari for $1.99 on Amazon today.

Air – Moon Safari

Copyright Criminals: This is a Sampling Sport

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:25:58 +0000

Here’s a trailer for Copyright Criminals, an IndiePix documentary about sampling and copyright law.

In it, you’ll see hip hop legends and other artists like Public Enemy, De La Soul, Beastie Boys, etc. You’ll also witness the argument from the side of the artists who have been sampled including mister p-funk, George Clinton, Clyde Stubblefield and more.

Check your PBS showtimes for Independent Lens, as it begins showing on Tuesday (though I can’t catch it until Sunday)!

Copyright Criminals: This Is a Sampling Sport examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and (of course) money.

This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.”

The film showcases many of hip-hop music’s founding figures like Public Enemy, De La Soul, and Digital Underground—while also featuring emerging hip-hop artists from record labels Definitive Jux, Rhymesayers, Ninja Tune, and more. It also provides an in-depth look at artists who have been sampled, such as Clyde Stubblefield (James Brown’s drummer and the world’s most sampled musician), as well as commentary by another highly sampled musician, funk legend George Clinton.

As artists find ever more inventive ways to insert old influences into new material, this documentary asks a critical question, on behalf of an entire creative community:

Can you own a sound?

PolyTune – Polyphonic Guitar Tuning From TC Electronic

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:37:35 +0000

TC Electronic has introduced a tuner they hope will become the new Boss TU-2. It’s so strange to give hype and attention to so primitive a pedal as a tuner; accolades are usually reserved for drives and delays… Nonetheless, this is pretty cool, and might just knock my age-old strobostomp off my board.

With all the activity around polyphonic DSP lately (Melodyne DNA, etc), you had to figure we’d see a polyphonic stompbox tuner in that mix sooner or later. My biggest hesitance would be whether or not it can track fast enough on all six strings to make it intuitive to use. From the reviews below, it seems like it does a fair job.

Carol Of The Cells

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:17:13 +0000

My Dad just sent this to me. I guess it’s a fitting way to say “Merry Christmas.”

This interactive art installation was the brain child of James Theopane Jr. While the mobile phones play “Carol of the Bells” in this video, you can log online and control the music for yourself here. The only trouble is, at least when I tried it, there was no feedback mechanism in place to let you see or hear what you were playing.

Work asked me to do something for their Christmas card. I work for an Interactive Agency.

To cut a long story short, after a company-wide upgrade the agency had a lot of old mobiles gathering dust. We took these, built and hoisted a gigantic interactive chandelier/mobile that plays Christmas jingles in our reception.

To add a little xmas spice to the mix, anyone can go online and enjoy annoying the hell out of people waiting around in the reception, by playing the thing live from their web browser: xmas.lbi.co.uk

Details on how we made it and some behind the scenes content are available on my blog: theophane.co.uk/mobile-mobile

Mobile Mobile has been made as a semi-permanent hanging (exhibition) space. In January the mobiles will be replaced with another hanging media, then updated month in, month out.

Mobile Mobile is just one in a line of many great lo-fi art/build concepts; from the Design Museum’s Aquarium, Digital By Design, Troika and The Cloud, the Printer Bleeping Thingy (I can’t remember who did it), all the great work by W+K, and of course, AKQA’s wonderful microwaves from last Christmas.

Looking forward to many more to come.

Wax Pick: John Mayer – Battle Studies

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:07:46 +0000

Amazon’s got John Mayer’s newest album, Battle Studies, up for $3.99 today. A well-spent $4 for one of this generation’s most prolific guitarists and song writers. I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews about it; some think it’s too country, some think it’s too pop, some think Johnny’s sold out (whatever that means these days). In my estimation, John’s just doing exactly what I talked about in WWTV 007 by making music that he’s feeling at the moment. People won’t reject it for not sounding like Heavier Things or because there’s not enough guitar shreddage (yes, that’s a real word). Fans are just looking for more John Mayer, which is present on every album he’s cut, no matter how much the genre ebbs and flows.

Cast away your expectations and walk into it wanting nothing more than some good catchy songs, and you’ll enjoy it. Definitely not one of the most memorable, or my favorite, Mayer album; but that doesn’t make it void of worth. The longer I sit with it, the more it takes me in.

John Mayer is single-handedly reviving the stratocaster. Respect it.

John Mayer – Battle Studies

PR Tips With Derek Sivers

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:00:42 +0000

If you don’t know Derek Sivers, he’s the founder of CD Baby. You can follow him @sivers (and should). I doubt any of these PR tips are anything you don’t already know, but they’re good refreshers nonetheless.

Here’s a quick video from CyberPR’s show “Sound Advice” with Derek too.

[via cyberPR]

Derek Sivers 7 Critical Marketing Basics Every Musicians Should Know

Here are 7 wonderful lessons, which are great to revisit no matter how strong your marketing muscles are.

But before I dive in I want to start with how Derek got his own music career off of the ground. This speaks volumes about how he achieved his CD Baby success later in his career. There is a huge marketing lesson in this story…

When he was a student at Berklee College of Music, Derek was attending a music business lecture. Before the lecture started, he overheard his professor whispering to the guest speaker, Mark Fried from Warner Chappell Music, that there would be no time to eat before the lecture and it was a 3-hour talk. Mark was looking hungry and there had clearly been a miscommunication about eating before the class started. So, Derek slipped out of the room to a pay phone and ordered pizza for Mark and for the entire class. Forty-five minutes into his lecture, Mark was eating pizza with the class and was extremely grateful to Derek (who was one of many students in the room) who went out of his way to help him.

After the lecture, Mark gave Derek his card and told him to keep in touch, which Derek did for the remaining 2 years he was at Berklee. When he came to New York he would meet Mark for coffee and their friendship grew. A week before his graduation, Derek called Mark to ask if there were any jobs at Warner Chappell opening up. Seven days later Derek had a job working at Warner Chappell in the tape room.

Lesson #1 A Marketing Golden Rule: It’s about THEM Not YOU

What struck me about this story is a simple marketing lesson that is also one of the golden rules. Always think about this question: How can I be helpful to other people? That is what will make you memorable in the long run. It was Derek’s courteous consideration that opened all doors for him in the music business.

The pizza took Derek one phone call and $25 and it secured him a job in the music industry. There were probably 45 students sitting in that lecture hall that day and he was the one who ended up with a relationship with Mark and in the end…a job.

Lesson #2: Unsolicited Actions Will Get You Nowhere

Derek then went on to explain what it was like in the tape room at Warner Chappell. It was there he got to see first hand what it looks like from the inside when indie musicians send unsolicited music to a publishing company. Warner Chappell is a large publishing company that was not looking to sign new artists and Derek saw the packages arrive by the dozen on a daily basis. From this he learned exactly what never to do.

Lesson #3: No One Is Coming To Save You In The Music Industry

Derek points out (and I have repeated this line in my own talks) that no one will come along and be your music business “fairy godfather”, it all has to start internally. If you hire anyone to be on your team, no matter what they are doing for you, you must understand that that person is your hired partner. You will both have to work to achieve your desired result. This is especially true in the realm of social media and online marketing.

Lesson #4: Marketing = Consideration

Reach People the Way You Want to Be Reached

Stop thinking of it as Marketing and start thinking of it as creative ways to be considerate. Think of things from the other person’s point of view: Imagine if you called your friend up and screamed into the phone: “THURSDAY COME SEE ME PLAY NEXT THURSDAY!” (HANG UP)

You probably would not show up if you were spoken to that rudely and then hung up on and it was funny to see Derek act this out but his point was: This is exactly the way most musicians speak to their newsletter lists.

If your friends spoke to you the way you speak to them on your newsletter list you wouldn’t be friends. Begin to pay attention to other artist’s messages and notice what works on you. The considerate thing is to be so novel and creative and innovative so that people say: you have GOT to see / hear this musician play!

Lesson #5: Sharply Define What You Do

You cannot slice through the world’s attention if you are using a blunt knife and you will most definitely be blunt if you are trying to be all things to all people. Your message must be sharp and pointed. It’s OK to exclude 99% and have 1% worship you! Be unapologetic in your bluntness.

3 CD Baby Artists Who Are Sharply Focused

Eileen Quinn – Create A Niche

One of CD Baby’s all time top-sellers is an artist named Eileen Hoyton. Eileen is from Nova Scotia and she owns a boat. She recorded her music on the boat and the title of her album is called Songs For Sailors, and it’s a top seller at CD Baby. Why? Because it’s laser focused. It speaks directly to a niche audience. I bet you can find a copy of her album on every boat that you set foot on. Eileen also laser focused her PR and marketing efforts on her niche audience. Since sailors read boating magazines, she went after reviews and features in boating mags, (she could have cared LESS about Spin and Rolling Stone) and she got publicized to a select group of people she knew would love her music and she sold tens of thousands of albums!

Regina Spektor – Don’t Be Afraid To Be “Out There”

Regina Spektor also understood laser focus but it took time. She did a Tori Amos style thing for years and with those albums, she did OK but when she added the hiccups and the “weird” themes and she started banging on her piano bench with a drumstick while she played people really started to notice her. This is what led her to her record deal and to her popularity. She really stood out from the crowd.

David m. Bailey – Find A Small Hill To Dominate

David was a lawyer who was diagnosed with brain cancer. Out of that experience he became a top seller at CD Baby. David was given a few months to live and he immediately quit his job and decided to record an album. He beat the odds and he survived brain cancer. He is now the poster child of surviving brain cancer. He has since recorded 7 albums and brain cancer patients often find him online through research, they then logon to CD Baby and buy all 7 of his albums at once.

Lesson #5: DIY Does Not Mean Do It All Yourself – Decide It Yourself

DIY does not have to mean do it all yourself. Doing it all yourself will surely set you up for exhaustion and will leave you no time to be creative.

Instead Derek recommends that you think of DIY as: Decide It Yourself – you call the shots but you MUST learn how to delegate, put your fans to work and get things off of your plate. If you have a sense of STRESS and UPSET around every decision and everything becomes so important you really miss the point. Just try delegating things and don’t make it all so serious and significant. Start every decision with: Let’s see what happens if… and try it!

Lesson #6: Act AS IF….

“You are whatever you pretend to be.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

This part of the talk really inspired me…. Most people do not know this: Derek Sivers is an introvert by nature. His instinct when at a music conference is to retreat to his hotel room. To combat this he ACTS as if he is an extrovert. Pretend to be the biggest extrovert possible for an hour at a networking event or at a party.

Lesson #7: It’s Who You Know Mixed With How You Persevere

Everything major that happens in your career starts with someone you know. Here’s Derek’s story of how he got the gig touring with world-renowned Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamato: Derek’s roommate from school was working wrapping cables in a studio and he overheard the musicians saying that they needed a guitar player to go on an upcoming tour.

To prove that he was the perfect guitarist for the gig, Derek got a hold of some of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s music that he was in the process of recording, wrote all of the guitar parts and mixed it and sent it back.

After a few days when he did not hear from Ryuichi he wrote a cello part out of another one of his songs and sent that to the studio.

After the third day he got the call and toured Japan for 2 months in front of 20,000 people each night.

But Derek proves that it’s not only who you know but also what you do once you get the connection. He demonstrates how to fully take advantage of each situation.

Persevere With People

Get used to staying in touch with hundreds of people with blogs and with your newsletter – it’s a psychological shift in your head but once you can make it you can be very very effective staying in touch with many people. This is the miracle of technology.

Make yourself meet 3 new people every single week: Do this by picking up the phone – people get hundreds of emails and dozens of phone calls.

TIP: AVOID saying the words “pick your brain” to anyone. That says: I want something from you…. and when you do talk to people, prove that you have already done your research. Derek says that people will ask him: So, what does CD Baby do? And It’s totally disrespectful – you want to let them know that you care enough to have spent some time learning about them before you talk / meet.

Wax Pick: Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:29:25 +0000

Grab one of the best albums of 2008 for just $4 on Amazon right now.

I saw Kings of Leon open for U2 on their Vertigo tour back in 2005. Honestly, they sounded terrible. I’ll chalk it up to a bad mix in an arena though. The Followill Family Band saw greater success overseas than stateside in their own homeland, but Only By The Night gave the Nashville quartet the breakthrough success that they’d been hunting for. Their sound is unashamedly carried by singer Caleb Followill’s vocals, delivered with a soulful and passionate intimacy. The mix and production quality as a whole actually isn’t that stellar, but it doesn’t matter because his vox are the only thing you’re listening to, and they’re superb.

If you don’t have this album already, you’re missing out. It’s everything rock’n'roll is supposed to be.

Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night

VIDEO: The Eigenharp Alpha

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:43:53 +0000

This interface is cool and innovative… but seriously, could it further the “music geek” stereotype any more?

That’s a rhetorical question.

The answer is no.

The Eigenharp Alpha is a mishmash of music making tools all rolled into one device. Many have mistaken it for a Chapman stick, which it’s not.

It features:

120 pressure-sensitive keys (sensitive down to 1 micron of movement… nuts)
12 percussion keys (which can also be assigned to other functions)
a bassoon-like breath pipe
hookups for expression pedals (and let’s face it, if you’re rocking this bad boy, you’re definitely feeling the need to express yourself)
a phantom powered microphone preamp
a headphone amp for nerding out without disturbing anybody (unless they happen to see you)

Now I’m just waiting for some hipster indie band like Mute Math to make it their new stage gimmick and watch all the scenesters’ pupils dilate.

All that said… I think I kinda want one…

You can find out more info about the Eigenharp Alpha, and it’s light-weight counterpart the Pico, on their site.

Wax Pick: Volcano Choir – UNMAP

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:46:50 +0000

Volcano Choir is a great little side project with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). You’ll hear his influence clear as day atop the pseudo math-rock, and always eclectic base of his counterparts.

I know they cite Reich as a key influence, as many bands do, but with UnMap, Volcano Choir follows through with that promise; and for the better. Tracks like Seeplymouth showcase a percussive pulse driving the song forward, trademark Reich, and even a bit of Pat Metheny Group to my ears. All the while, Vernon’s vocal keeps the mood intimate.

Today, you can grab their album for $5 on Amazon and enjoy some great music to put on in the cold.

Volcano Choir – UNMAP

Here’s the rather self-indulgent bio from their site:

Volcano Choir is an assembly of Wisconsinites Jon Mueller, Chris Rosenau, Jim Schoenecker, Daniel Spack, Justin Vernon, and Thomas Wincek. You might find these old friends also frequenting records and stages under different monikers, Collections of Colonies of Bees and Bon Iver. The collaboration predates the meteoric rise of Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver project, with original songwriting dating back to the summer of 2005, right around the time the Bees first toured with Vernon’s previous band DeYarmond Edison.

While entirely a studio record, the collection doesn’t suffer from the overburdens of a digital pile up or over-thinking. Rather it breathes and convulses in equal measure, radiating an inherent dynamism found only in the voluntary bondage of intimacy. With influences ranging from David Sylvian and Steve Reich to Mahalia Jackson and Tom Waits, it might be more accurate to say the group’s influence is music itself. You can hear it in the care and real love generously applied to each moment of Unmap. With the vibe of some intimate backwoods gospel, plus a spirit of patience and thoughtful repetition, the music of Volcano Choir is as dynamic as it is lovely.

Unmap ultimately came together over a weekend in November 2008 in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, at Justin and Nate Vernon’s recording studio. And while it is at its heart a record about the allure of being with people you need and making something with them, it is also a document created by musicians with rare gifts getting together to exorcise their ideas about beauty. This scaffolding of loops and off grid tempos for choral style vocals offers a state of continual surprise, call it unexpectation.

Unmap marks the debut full-length from Volcano Choir, the collaboration between Collections of Colonies of Bees and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

Is Streaming Music Our Shambhala?

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:19:11 +0000

We are teased with glimmers of hope. We hear stories of how it could work, tales from the other side of how an enlightened music industry could embrace streaming music, brokering peace and harmony between music consumers and the RIAA. Yet with each account we hear, with each promising start up we watch tank, streaming music success begins to carry more of a mythological air than a grip on reality.

I read an article by Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired that basically gives an update on the state of streaming music services, and whether or not they’ll fly in the US. It’s a good read for us Spotify hopeful who have been waiting for updates on a US launch ever since their CTO jumped ship right before the big release.

Music: Too Expensive to Be Free, Too Free to Be Expensive

MySpace, rumored to be on the verge of purchasing the free music streaming site imeem, is struggling to keep up with its own payments to music copyright holders, according to a top News Corp executive — a problem that has plagued every other licensed free music service.

The digital music doubters could be right with the contention that advertising revenue can’t cover the costs of licensing music. Meanwhile, illegitimate free music sources continue to proliferate, rendering paid music subscriptions irrelevant for most music fans.

Advertising was supposed to be music’s magic bullet, enabling fans to get the free music they’re going to find anyway while contributing at least something to copyright holder coffers. That dream is fading fast. As legitimate sources for free on-demand music dry up, fans will likely head back to file sharing networks, which is bad news for everyone involved in music — except for, perhaps, hard drive manufacturers.

Evidence and rumors are mounting to support the idea that free music websites are unfeasible.

MySpace Music — the on-demand, ad-supported music service not to be confused with the band pages on the site — is losing money and could soon add a subscription option. News Corp Digital head Jon Miller answered his own questions on the topic last week at a conference in Monaco. “Do I think the freemium model works, consistent with earlier discussions? Yes I do. Has that been figured out? No, it hasn’t, but it’s certainly something to look at,” said Miller. “Is [Myspace Music] profitable? No, it’s not. On an operating basis it’s getting in, but no, because of the payments due to the music companies.”

Ad-supported music service imeem, which has been the subject of considerable speculation related to its running out of money over the past year, is reportedly in late-stage discussions to be acquired by MySpace, which has its own problems, as mentioned above. Like MySpace, imeem’s biggest challenge has been covering payments to labels.

MOG, which planned to launch a free, ad-supported on-demand streaming service, decided that was impossible and went with a $5/month subscription instead.

Spotify pushed back its U.S. launch to early next year, with CEO Daniel Ek admitting that when the service launches in the states, it might not be the same as it was in Europe where music fans enjoy a free, ad-supported version of the software or a 10-euro-per-month subscription option that removes the ads. A bundled version of the service that comes with your smartphone or ISP is an increasingly likely option.

Google added play buttons to its music search results that allow anyone to listen to a song once for free through Lala or MySpace’s iLike service, after which they have to pay for it. If Google can’t figure out a way to support something with ads, it arguably cannot be done.

YouTube remains the only licensed, free, on-demand music service that promises to break even, mostly because the visual nature of the services makes users more likely to encounter advertisements on the site. When the labels launch their Vevo YouTube spin-off, they hope to generate even more money from ads than YouTube does.

The upshot of the labels’ licensing demands: Music will continue its transformation into something that accompanies a visual element.

[photo: Naughty Dog]

50 Free MP3s From InSound

admin — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:15:35 +0000

InSound is giving away 50 free MP3s from some of their top selling artists of 2009. Normally the freebies aren’t worth the hard drive space they take up, but these ones are legit. You can find tracks from Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Sonic Youth, Phoenix, Bon Iver and even more right here.

Using Math To Judge your Songs’ Hit Potential

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:21:22 +0000

I’ve always been fascinated by the consistencies between “popular songs,” the rhythmic patterns or chord progressions that comprise hits, the intervals between notes forming the hooks that you can’t seem to get out of your head. There are a lot of unspoken and intangible factors to popular songs that I’m sure are reflected in the numbers; starting a chorus vocal on the downbeat, or as a pick up to the downbeat, carries a greater likelihood of creating a memorable song than starting the lead vocal after the hit… stuff like that. I knew that you could, more or less, boil it down to numbers in some way, and now it’s being done.

Polyphonic claims to have predicted Norah Jones’ success before she garnered top honors for her album back in 2002.

Take it all with a grain of salt though, as the U-Playa goal is clearly (as it should be) to make money as a business.

You can submit your song to see if you’ve got a hit right here.

The video quality’s subpar on this, but definitely worth a watch.