Rising Digital Blog

Lady Gaga - formerly known as Stefani Germanotta

Love or hate her, she's hugely successful around the globe and brings a certain 'uniqueness' to the pop world. Personally I find her rather cold in an ice queen kinda way, but respect this whole persona she has created, hat off to her. 

Unfortunately she does a have striking resemblance to a former employer of mine (no she didn't march round with boxes on her head, shoulder pads stopping door passage and a bejewelled face) but was someone I never found any common ground with or particularly warmed too. 

I knew Lady Gaga was talented musically, able to play an array of instruments, yet this is an aspect we rarely see of her. Today I found a video to transform this opinion (nope, not of my ex-boss) but of Lady Gaga. Formerly known as Stefani Germanotta, this video shows her performing avec piano at Ultraviolet Live, NYU's annual talent show. Truly stunning. More please.

Zippyshare Vs Ripblock

Every once in a while something comes along that just makes 100% sense. Something simple that's easy to understand, use and shows immediate results. This morning I took a call from a client on tour down under. His latest single had hit the digital beatport shelves in the late part of the week. Despite our initial efforts to produce quality content and make the first page of Google ours, a few illegal files had already crept up to 6,7 and 9. If you didn't fancy any of those versions, fear not, the following four pages were enough to make any musician feel slightly nauseous. What can you do...? Really? We all know it happens, and most people have accepted it as a way of life. Ever since music could be made on a laptop the market has been saturated with so much shite, well... anyway... I digress... It's now common knowledge that a DJ/Producer's main income is made from touring. Fair do's. However, there are some services out there which can help those artists who aren't all about the gigs. Check out this process with approximate timings:

8:30am - I communicate with the aforementioned client in Australia

8:45am - I call www.ripblock.com for the very first time - No answer on the landline. So, with it being the weekend, I opted for the info@ email rather than calling some poor buggers mobile

9:36am - Ripblock get back in touch via email.

9:55am - We make the choice of service and pay via paypal.

10:52am - The first of 46 emails arrive in my inbox confirming that under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 512 has been sent, a request has been made for the removal of (name of track) on the behalf of (name of label).

11:19am - I receive an email from Ripblock confirming they have cleared everything that is currently online and will maintain the monitoring process for the remainder of our contract (two weeks)

I'm sorry, but how bloody fantastic is that? All for £50? Bargain.

The Social Media Guru

This is genius. Enjoy it with a cup of tea or have a diet-coke break. Either way, sit back, hit play and get ready to laugh.

Swedish House Mafia Killed Brixton Academy!

So, the Swedish house mafia were playing two dates, 6^th and 7th November and poor old me didn’t have a ticket to the both SOLD OUT shows! Depression had already kicked in as my weekend looked abysmal, Burnley town centre with resident DJ Baz or the 3 biggest names in house music. Hand me the rope.

Now, I was already glowing a gorgeous shade of green, due to the fact I had to hear about it every day at work (rising digital), so when my boss, rung me and said I could attend (obviously on the basis I did some work) I was ‘Well Made Up’ !!!

 In the style of Gordon Ramsey:

Train booked

Clothes packed

Arrive in London

Done.

Brixton Academy is huge, huge in the fact it’s a big venue and huge in the fact it’s where top acts have performed so this was a big gig! I arrived early, got in the drinks and waited. The support act was Steve Angello’s younger brother, AN21, and I have to admit I was pretty impressed. I would have been more than happy to listen to his set all night, however knowing the Swedes were coming on made me want him to hurry up and finish!

The Swedes killed it, though some people say they are a bit commercial there was not one person in that place complaining! The music was amazing; playing their own tracks and remixes from more pop/rock artists like The Temper Trap and La Roux.

I have to say I wasn’t massively into the Swedes at first, I loved Steve Angello on his own and even Ingrosso. Now I can say with my hand on heart I’m a true gods honest fan. I adore the way all three (axwell, angello and ingrosso) buzz off each other. One always plays to the crowd with the other two working away banging out the tunes keeping the crowd well and truly entertained.  You can feel the energy they are giving off and how much they love what they’re doing, which in turn makes you love what they’re doing.

I’m really not usually one for mentioning the lighting and sound of the gig (though I did study lighting etc for a year at uni but will run if anyone asks me anything about it), but the lighting, smoke effects and even half naked lady gaga style dancers were amazing. The light show was up there with the best, strobes and all, confetti from the ceiling and smoke guns. It absolutely made the night not just a ‘gig’ but a performance.

The thing that annoys me about shows like this is if the gig was by Robbie Williams, Girls Aloud or even Muse it would have been respected as one of the top gigs, not for the crap pop music but for the way the show was produced and the amount of fans the event actually pulled in. Not only did the Swedes manage to sell out a venue like Brixton Academy, but they also put an extra night on last minute that also sold out. For a house music act in my book that is something to be respected.