Category: News

  • Why Winning Music Awards Takes More Than Just a Great Song

    Why Winning Music Awards Takes More Than Just a Great Song

    Moving Into The Lead

    There’s a little event coming up called the Utah Music Awards. My single Touch has been entered into the process for Best Pop Song and for Best Music Video. There’s an ancillary award called the Audience Choice Award. Currently Touch, as I write this post, has been moving into the lead. But there’s a hot contender that is moving up fast.

    Awards events can be a massive boost to the ego, or they can be a massive drain on the ego. I’ve won in the past for my song Falling In. That was a such a cool feeling. I’ve also been in the prelim rounds of the Grammys. I’d really like to make it out of the prelims and into the nominations round.

    There’s an awful lot of work that goes into making people aware of the music being voted on. I’ve got a couple of friends that have won Grammys and its essentially becomes a full time job sending out the music, making friendships, calling in favors, and generally asking people to look out for your music – then vote on it. A lot of moving parts that have to coordinate.

    Utah Music Awards Audience Choice Vote Here

    Hit the link, throw a vote on it and help boost my ego a little bit. I’ll be a sour Jedi Knight, ala Anakin, if I lose to a cover song from a two year old movie.

  • From Single Release to TV Sync: My Surprise Music Placement on KUWTK

    From Single Release to TV Sync: My Surprise Music Placement on KUWTK

    Songs For The Kardashians

    In the midst of the hubbub about my single Touch I was hired to write a couple of songs for the Kardashians. Yes, a friend of mine texted me saying they needed some music for the show. I thought what the hell, it’ll be interesting to add some fuel to the fire that is the Kardashians. Plus what could it hurt?

    What a life they lead right? Antics. Strange connections. A father going for a sex change. There’s a real view into a family right?

    If you’re a fan of Keeping Up With The Kardashians do my a favor and keep an eye out for episodes that may have my name in the credits. It would be fun to get some screen shots of that. Kinda like the first movie I had a song in where my name was scrolling up the screen. My girlfriend at the time worked for a movie theater. She actually got me a frame from the movie with my name in it. Cool right?

    Stay tuned, more good stuff coming.

  • How Music Gets on Streaming Services: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Touch

    How Music Gets on Streaming Services: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Touch

    Touch-Jody-Whitesides

    Sometimes the best laid plans don’t go as envisioned. I was hoping that the label and the distributor would get both versions of Touch released in due time that all services would have it on launch day. Maybe that’s only reserved for the big boys and girls like Taylor Swift or Imagine Dragons. We all start somewhere right?

    What am I referencing? Spotify.

    Spotify Plan

    Yes, I’m an advocate for Spotify, and other streaming services that are on the up and up for paying artists. Today marks the day that Spotify got one of the versions of Touch on their site. A week late from the actual release. Apparently they windowed themselves with their own plan. So far it’s only the explicit version that has reached the Spotify service. Better late than never. Though now I wonder if Spotify’s plan to wait another week to release the ‘clean’ version of Touch. Who knows?

    If you’re a Spotify user I apologize for the delay, it was out of my hands. Hopefully you’ll be into sending the song out to all your friends and Spotify network.

    My next step is working on getting into Rhapsody’s hands. I’m very interested in the new plan they’ve got going with Twitter. Instant audio cards that can be shared on Twitter without the need for a Rhapsody account, and somehow we artists still get paid. Someone finally cracked the nut on making music a more sociable sharing event via Twitter. Makes me wonder if Spotify will follow suit.

    Time will tell.

    Enjoy Touch on Spotify!