News

E-Mix: André Anjos and the Remix Artist Collective leverage initiative, ingenuity and the Internet into an online music force

Continued from page 2

André Anjos — whose clients typically send him raw song data — is a prime example of someone who has taken full advantage of this open access to information.

"The Internet has leveled the playing field for people like him to get their stuff out there," says Scott Vener, a music supervisor with HBO's Entourage, the series about making it in Hollywood that stars Jeremy Piven. "There's not just three or four distribution channels. And obviously the music blogs have been the thing that has helped André gain a fan base, or even recognition. You don't need huge marketing budgets, either, to promote yourself."

One way to get a sense of the RAC's saturation is to search for "RAC" on the Hype Machine (www.hypem.com), a site that aggregates blog posts containing downloadable MP3s. Blogs in Germany and Sweden have posted RAC remixes, and the widely read U.S. music blog BrooklynVegan dedicated an entire entry to the RAC's output late last year — to the tune of eighteen MP3s posted. Anjos is particularly proud that the RAC remix of Tegan and Sara's "Back in Your Head" was the Hype Machine's single most popular blog track on Christmas Eve 2007.

The spread of music files — remixes included — is a digital domino effect: People download an MP3 and share it with friends or other bloggers, who in turn repost it so others can discover, listen to and share the tune. Essentially these music bloggers have begun to replace the professional tastemakers of the past: record store clerks, journalists and even radio DJs.

"Music blogs are more important than radio," asserts Vener. "If you find somebody whose tastes you align with, then you can stay with that personal blog and save it, keep going back to it."

The difference now is that blogs increasingly have become a legitimate outlet for promotion, says Stereogum's Lapatine. "For many years no one knew who we were. And now a lot of bands will come to us months in advance, will have it as part of their release plans to debut something on Stereogum. The mindset of the industry is changing, such that artists and labels realize the value of blog promotion."

But for every site that, like Stereogum, gets clearance for the MP3s it posts for download, countless others post MP3s without permission. And the problem of contraband music isn't going away: As quickly as authorities shut down illegal album-download sites such as OiNK and Demonoid, other cheekily named sites (waffles.fm, what.cd) have popped up in their place.

The business of unauthorized MP3 remixes is booming as well, judging by the number of bootleg versions offered up by blogs and Web sites that specialize in dance and electronic music. These outlets help Matt Shiv, music director/on-air host at WOXY.com, expand the playlist of Xtrabeats, which he curates.

"There's a ton of people who will get ahold of the a cappella version [of a song] off a promo or something like that, and then do a mix that isn't officially released," he says. "That's becoming more frequent in the sense that there's an awful lot of up-and-coming talent right now, and it's a lot easier to do that stuff than it used to be. People are making DJ mixes and posting them online to get their name out there.

"Let's face it, even probably ten years ago you had to be a lot more entrenched in the production side of the industry to do that kind of stuff. But now with all the [software], it is a lot easier to construct something and make it listenable."

Shiv notes that widespread press and attention can ultimately be a positive thing, even if the source is an illegal release, citing as examples two high-profile renegade remix projects: Danger Mouse's The Grey Album, a mash-up of the Beatles' White Album and Jay-Z's The Black Album; and DJ Amplive's Rainydayz Remixes. The latter — on which hip-hop artists including Too $hort, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien rapped over songs from Radiohead's album In Rainbows — was hit with a cease-and-desist order earlier this year before it could be released. But Amplive ultimately cleared the collection and was able to make Rainydayz available for free download.

"Even if they do something that isn't approved and causes some problems initially, if it's done well enough, that may turn them into somebody that everyone wants to work with," says Shiv. "Because they're like, 'Oh my God, did you hear what he did? He had Del Tha Funkee Homosapien rap over Radiohead, he did this amazing version!' Anything you can do these days to get yourself noticed over all of the other loudness that's out there.

"It's obviously only going to work for a select few. But for some people, it's certainly a great way to get themselves out there."

Anjos and the RAC have built their reputation via a cautious approach. The vast majority of their remixes are official; he'll either approach a band or a label and offer his services — or vice versa. He's also careful about not posting any MP3s until he gets clearance, and the RAC's online portfolio utilizes streaming (i.e., non-downloadable) audio.

Anjos has posted a few downloadable, just-for-fun "mini-mixes" on the RAC's blog (found on www.theremixcompany.co.uk, its official site). It was one of these, in fact, that caught the ear of Shiv and led to the Xtrabeats gig. An Anjos remix of the Who's "Baba O'Riley" also found its way from the RAC blog to other Web sites.

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
Next Page »