Amie Street Lands Big Content Deal With Orchard
Amie Street, the music store that features dynamic pricing that varies according to a song’s popularity, has secured a deal with digital music distributor The Orchard, which holds a catalog of over 1 million songs. For the time being not all of The Orchard’s music labels will be taking part in the deal, but Amie Street hopes to have them all finalized in the near future. [Read More]

Andrew Bird Talks Songwriting
But if I like my record too much does it mean I’m getting complacent? Or am I just getting better at making records sound the way I want them to? It worries me because what I love about songwriting is that there is no guaranteed formula for success. I’m hoping that getting better at making records means, for one thing, that I am learning how to leave room for serendipitous moments. I always want to hear how things didn’t go according to plan. [Read More]

Multitasking is a songwriting killer (Adventures in Songwriting)
When I write, there are some times when I just pick up the guitar and play someting new, jotting down what I’ve just played. Similarly, there are times when I can just sit down and type out lyrics into Notepad. I rarely write with a pen these days as my office is as close to a paperless office as one I’ve ever heard of. The fact is, I’m writing lyrics only at that point. [Read More]

Used and new lap steel guitars
I started a carefully cultivated list of used and new lap steel listings on eBay on a domain name I don’t use. I filtered out bad listings and categorized them in custom categories. Check it out: lap steel guitars