I know, I suck.

I've moved my daily blogging over to my personal site. If you're seeing this message, you are currently following the old blog which will no longer be updated. There are many reasons for this decision and I will go into them now, if you don't care and you just want to find the new blog, you can do that by clicking here: alanlastufka.com/blog

First, I can't reply to comments here. Which I thought would be okay, but now it's pissing me off. My personal site has threaded comments, the best kind. And the original commenter gets an email letting them know I replied, if they so choose to receive that email.

Second, I spent a lot of time building my beautiful, sexy, steamy hot personal site. And I never have an excuse to send people to it. No more!

Third, this old blog was hosted by blogspot, and while I don't think Google will ever go belly up, it is, in the future, a possibility and then my blog here would have gone belly up with it. My personal site is hosted by me, and will be hosted by me until I go belly up, and at that point, I won't care.

Fourth, why separate my audience by sending them to two separate blogs? One for music and one for this daily updating stuff? Too much of a hassle. The conversations here have been more interesting than I thought they would be, so, they belong on the "official" site.

Don't worry, all of the posts have been moved over, along with ALL of the comments, so nothing got lost in the move.

I really hope to see you guys over at the new blogging site - alanlastufka.com/blog - you can subscribe via email or RSS over there, if you'd like. Or just follow me on twitter (@AlanDistro), I always tweet my daily blog links. <3

On Letting Go, and Poop Jokes

My friend John Green likes to remind me that once we finish a project, it no longer belongs to us, it belongs to the audience, the readers, the listeners, the viewers. This is difficult for me to accept sometimes.

For instance, in my iTunes library, all of my albums are organized by release date. By default, iTunes lists albums alphabetically, so I know everyone is listening to my releases out of order. Storytelling and chronology is important to me. Overall, it’s a small concern, but a concern nonetheless.

No matter what I do in the foreseeable future, I will probably be known for my song “Can’t”. It has over 520,000 streams on YouTube, it’s been covered dozens of times in every genre you can possibly think of, and it remains my best selling song on iTunes, even though I’ve released three new (and in my opinion, better) titles since.

It’s a total crap shoot, which work becomes known and which doesn’t. A quick in-the-moment work might blow up while other projects you spend months on may stall.

My friend John asks me to photoshop lots of weird things for him to use in his videoblogs. From Zuckerberg’s head up a giant squirrel’s ass, to shanedawson-type neon thumbnails to attract views. But this one time he asked for two giraffes, humping.

Given the popularity of the vlogbrothers’ videos, I think more people have seen the giraffes I photoshopped having sex than any other piece of art I’ve created.

And if that’s not depressing enough, I think my second most viewed work is the thumbnail of his childhood dog’s poop in his Nintendo that I was asked to photoshop by John (used in multiple videos).

Now I’m not saying these aren’t fine examples of my artistic abilities - okay, yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Ten minute bestiality photoshop sessions should not be viewed millions of times more than week-long digital paintings. But lowest common denominator stuff always does better than pieces that require a little more work to access or appreciate.

John has this great quote, “What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?”. It’s just too bad that the real remarkable stuff is usually only appreciated by a small audience, while the rest celebrate poop jokes.

Leading By Example

After reading my blog post from yesterday regarding YouTube and Viacom’s court battle, my good friend Aaron posed this question: “If this was the RIAA suing a site like the Pirate Bay and DFTBA Records songs were proven to have been downloaded for free, would you be on the opposite side of the coin here?”

I didn’t immediately answer his question, but decided I would here, in my journal.

Would I be on the opposite side of the coin? No. And how do I know that? Our actions have spoken louder than any words here could. For over a year now DFTBA Records has allowed - nay - encouraged all YouTube users to use our music, for free, in their vlogs, dancing videos and animations.

Hank (the other co-founder of DFTBA) and I have realized the power our listeners have in helping us spread the word about our releases.

Word of mouth or recommendations from friends are the best possible kind of promotions. When new listeners hear recommendations from friends, they aren’t hearing an advertisement, or even a pitch from someone who stands to profit from their friend buying the album, it’s an unbiased review and recommendation. That’s way more powerful than a recommendation from Hank or me.

By encouraging our listeners to use our music in their videos (or to cover our songs), we bypass any licensing or legal hassles. And while we might not profit directly from those streams like traditional music labels want to, we do profit by way of goodwill and, for lack of a better phrase, free advertising.

Of course, the revenue we lose might not be the best business decision - and in order to remain in business and continue producing the fantastic releases that we do, we have to make money - but Hank and I are also YouTube users first and foremost. And we know the frustration of wanting to use that perfect song in a video and not being able to. We don’t want our listeners experiencing that same frustration if we can do something about it.

I’m fairly certain the majority of our listeners can already see this, and because of it, I believe our music is pirated less than any other peer label. Of course, I could be wrong, but until I see data proving otherwise, I’ll think positively.

Please don’t misinterpret yesterday’s entry, I do not think Viacom is wrong for wanting to protect and get paid for its copyrighted material. I do think, however, that they are placing blame on the wrong parties, and demanding more than they should be. They should be participating in this exciting new landscape, not suing it. I’m not okay with copyright laws being broken. If a musician has not given permission, you should not use their work. But I also don’t think things have to be as “locked up” as they are, and I think DFTBA is leading here by example.

The Sideshow Coalition

Over the last few weeks I’ve been quietly helping YouTube fight Viacom in their ongoing court battle (along side a dozen other prominent YouTubers). I can’t say much about it, but YouTube has made our recent legal brief public, so I will talk about that.

Viacom recently referred to all registered YouTube users who post original content as a “sideshow”, suggesting the original content posted to YouTube was worthless when compared to the unauthorized copyrighted content that is illegally uploaded. So together with the vlogbrothers, lisanova, whatthebuckshow, smosh, and others, we formed “The Sideshow Coalition”.

We recently all wrote brief statements for the court to read on how we’ve used YouTube to not only reach an audience with our original work, but how we’ve made YouTube a home, a business, or a place for friends and family.

My piece focused on DFTBA Records, and how this little company Hank and I started, run out of my garage, promoted only on YouTube, is now supporting numerous musicians full-time, myself full-time, and making tens of thousands of listeners from every country in the world, happy.

And none of that would be possible were it not for YouTube.

If Viacom wins this lawsuit, YouTube may be forced to manually approve every video uploaded to the website, making it impossible but for a select few to post videos on the site. No longer would YouTube be a place for everyone, it would be a place for Partners who are legally bound not to upload copyrighted content. This is obviously not what YouTube, or any registered YouTube user, wants.

Our testimonials and personal stories will hopefully help the court decide in YouTube’s favor. Viacom doesn’t understand YouTube, or the community. And Viacom wants every registered user to have to pay for the actions of a very small portion of dishonest users.

You can read the full legal brief we wrote by clicking here.

You can help by bringing this case to the attention of others. You can simply tweet a link to this journal entry, or you can read the brief and write your own thoughts on your blogs.

If YouTube loses this case, we will all lose.

making contact

Someone asked on twitter why I don’t reply to the comments here on my blog. It’s not because I don’t want to, it’s because it’s impossible, Blogspot doesn’t have a reply or threaded comments system. I could leave a comment with an @symbol so people would know who I was talking to, but no one comes back and rereads blog post comments the day after, looking for replies. So, I didn’t see the point.

If there is something that needs addressing, I will blog about it the next day, or email that person privately (if they include their email in the hidden part of the comment box that asks for it).

But believe me, I do read (and sometimes reread) every comment on this blog, they are emailed directly to my inbox.

For example, so many new names have popped up in the comments over the last two days from Lena’s musical project, thanking me for my donation. First, you guys are welcome, seriously, it was my pleasure. Second, thank YOU for all the heart felt thanks and brief introductions as to the parts you play in this huge project Lena and Mallory are putting on. It sounds like such a wonderful thing and I wish you all the luck in the world. I’m excited to hear the end result.

I do appreciate your guys’ comments here. But if you want to discuss something as a dialogue, it’s probably better to reach me on skype, if we’re friends there, or on twitter (@AlanDistro). I leave my browser open to my @replies page most of the day while working. Or you can always email me (alandistro at gmail dot com) and, if I can, I will get back to you. I’m usually pretty good about it.

Okay, it’s been a long day, so I’m off. Talk to you guys soon!

definitely won't erase this

On Friday I mentioned that Alex Day sent me a review of my debut full-length album, Erase This. I thought I would publish it here for anyone who cared to read it.

Alex wrote:

Production-wise, you can't fault Luke Conard. (I've CC'd him in to this email - hi Luke!) I was never clear on how much was Luke and how much was Jason, but either way, the production rocks. The way that the radio changes during Shortwave Part 1 and briefly plays a bit of Shortwave Part 2 is AMAZING. I cheered out loud. I love that bit SO MUCH. The album feels so unified from track to track, and it really is an album, not a collection of songs. Alan, you're great at writing songs that fit together, and this really showcases that. Tom, Ed and I had a post-Erase This conversation once we'd all individually heard the CD, and we all agreed that (especially given how you created it, with so many people in so many different places) you aimed high, and you got where you aimed for. It's a triumph.

That said - Luke, I think some of your vocals let some of the tracks down. And before I go on, most of this isn't your fault, you obviously have a good singing voice, it's not your singing specifically that's the issue for me ... it's more a Raven issue. I never really liked Winter's Song because Raven wrote the melody, and then Luke sang to it. It wasn't designed for your voice, it was designed for a sultry warbly girl voice. I think it would have benefitted hugely if you'd rewritten it to fit your style. The same is true of Making A Scene, which, OH MY GOD, when the album first starts playing, I'm thinking "this is the best thing I've ever heard, that song is fantastic", but then the melody isn't really your style, and it just takes the edge off it a bit, for me at least. I was fortunate to hear Raven's fantastic demo of the song back when Alan gave a shit about erasethis.com (lol) and I was so excited to hear what it would be like all finished, but I'd have been happier hearing you make the song fit your voice even if it meant it was significantly different, than trying to adapt to work with what she had already done, as she's the kind of gal that writes very intimate music to suit her specific individual style.

I also think there can sometimes be a gap in translation between Alan writing the lyrics and Luke singing them. For example, in Boxcar Blood, there's that great line about skipping school but not skipping cracks in the street; I read that line before I heard it, and the way it was sang was completely different to what I expected. To me, it wasn't delivered in a way that gave the line the same kind of impact. It's witty and brilliant, but on the song, because of the way the words are emphasised and structured, it doesn't come across as well. I have no idea why that might be; maybe Alan's possessive of his work and wouldn't let a single syllable be changed, maybe Luke didn't want to suggest said changes because Alan was the lyrics man and he was the music man. But if I had to guess, I'd just put it down to one of the unfortunate weaknesses of having the band spread so far across the country - and that's more than made up for by its strengths. Speaking of lyrics, Luke, I don't think lyrics are one of your best strengths, and on ALL CAPS I think Kristina is the master at lyrical ideas of the two of you, so having Alan write for you here (as he did on Summer Of 09) worked massively in you guys' favour, I think.

I preferred Tom's version of The Mirror Song to Luke's, but I preferred Luke's version of Forgiven, so in terms of the re-releases, it's evens on that.

My points to take away from this would be: be proud of this CD. The melodies are strong, the production soars in a way that I haven't heard from you before - Luke, hearing you work on completely organic instruments and no electronic stuff was something I was massively curious about, and I'm glad Alan made this happen cos it paid off massively. It's a LOT stronger than Bmin/E, of which I only kept three tracks that I enjoy listening to regularly out of fourteen (in order of preference; Delete You, Summer Of '09 and Don't Unplug Me - speaking of which, I would be pushing Delete You a lot more, putting it on the Volume Two comp, hitting it out on the radio hour ... it's amazing). On Erase This, I have five favourites out of ten, and I like those odds; Boxcar Blood, Forgiven, Shortwave Parts 1 and 2 (though I think part 2 is a little slow, hence my uke cover) and All I Am (although Ed did an incredible version of it, but I'm biased towards fangirling over Ed's voice/songwriting ability). Shortwave Part 1 is my favourite by far, though I would have absolutely ADORED Making A Scene if it wasn't for the style clash that I mentioned prior; as it is I'm happy listening to Rebecca Brickley's cover of it instead, as her voice suits the melody a lot more. (On that note - the idea of releasing the whole album again by other artists is something I'd never be bold enough to do, because I'd be terrified that people would like the cover more than they liked my version. It's a strong move. And it's a great way for an audience to be exposed to new talent.)

Alan - I'd say in future, maybe working in a 'director' type capacity to talk with your producer about how the lines could/should be delivered would be a big benefit for the whole thing.

Luke - always make the songs your own, cos your own is great. Don't try and fit someone else's style. I'm so jealous of your falsetto melody in Shortwave Part 1, I could never pull that off, would never even try. It sounds amazing. That said, I think you work better when you're behind the mic producing someone else (like Kristina, as on Delete You), for the same reason I think Tom produces better music for me then he does for himself; having that objectivity and sense of responsibility helps the creative process. That aside, you did great. Now that you're getting a lot better at writing melodies (I mean, Don't Unplug Me, Shortwave Part 1, oh my god) the next thing to do is to be different. Stand out from what's being played right now. Instead of sounding like current music, strive to sound like what current music wants to be. I don't know how to achieve that, I'm still in the 'be different' phase myself with songwriting. But you'll benefit hugely if you manage to crack it.

In short: you're getting nerdy girls into badass music, all independently, and it's awesome. Onwards and upwards, as always. <3

As far as reviews go, this one is everything an artist could ask for. I've been able to take away a sense of pride in what worked, and focus on what didn't work for my next project. Some people fault Alex for his honesty and (occasional) tactlessness, but I love it.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who's purchased the album so far, and a bigger thank you to those of you who have reviewed it or emailed me or @replied me about it. I'm glad so many of you are enjoying it.

Also, this is my second post today, if you didn't read my entry from earlier today, called "On Giving", I really hope you do, and offer support however you can. Thanks.

On Giving

My friends have awesome ideas all the time. But less than 10% of those ideas ever see the light of day. Mostly because there is never enough time or money to put in the work required for these ideas to become realities. Everyone's too busy working their "day jobs".

It’s hard to convince people that creative work is ...work. People don’t usually expect you to mow their lawn for free, or fix their car, or replace their windows. But some people do expect songs for free. And movies. And poems. And plays.

But all of these things cost money to produce. And time. And time is money.

Today, Lena Gabrielle and I were chatting and she sent me a rough demo of a new musical she’s working on. That’s right, Lena wrote an entire freakin’ musical! Her score is 760 pages long, and she (along with a cast of 50 people and a 15-piece orchestra) will be performing that musical in just 46 days.

Lena will not be charging for tickets, nor will she be charging for the music, she is giving it all away for free. Non-profit. However, she has a budget that requires $3,000 for her to put on this performance. To date, they’ve been able to raise $1,500 (and that was after a live concert fundraising event).

After hearing this, I donated $1,000.

The musical is called “The Final Battle” (epic much?) and it covers the last 200 pages of Deathly Hallows. That’s right, it’s a Harry Potter musical. I don’t even care about Harry Potter. Haven’t ever read the books.

But what I do care about is independent media, and music, and YouTubers - and in specific - independent music projects created by YouTubers.

I don’t make six-figures a year (yet) and yeah, I had other plans for that money, but you know what, those plans can wait, this couldn’t (46 freakin days! (I just keep typing the number of days left to freak out Lena as she reads this)).

I’m posting this in hopes that you guys, collectively, can make up the last $500 they’re short. They have tiers where you can put shout-outs or links to your youtube pages in the program (depending on how much you donate), and they have a raffle for all donators for one on-stage cameo, if you’re going to be attending Infinitus 2010. I know how many views my new blog posts get on average, so even if each of you only donated $2, they would soar way above their goal, allowing them to stop focusing on the budget, and instead focus on producing a kick ass stage show.

If you want, you can donate by clicking here. And if you want more information on how they built their budget (and to hear a song from the show), you can click here.

PS. I didn’t blog yesterday, missed a day already, gah! But I will post two entries today to make up for it. =)

haters

Sometimes people ask me how to deal with “haters” and other critics. It’s inevitable, when you post your projects in an open forum, like the internet, you are going to get some negative feedback along with the positive.

I try to consider the source before really taking any review to heart. Some people will praise something just as absent-mindedly as another will hate on it. For me, the empty praise doesn’t mean anything more than the empty hate.

The feedback I really trust, though, comes from people whose opinions I trust. People who know me well enough to put my project in context (how it was created, the time, budget and resources) will always have better insight than those who don’t. That was one of the driving forces behind us releasing a "Making of..." video for Erase This, to put the project in some kind of context.

Today nerimon sent me his review of Erase This. A good portion of the beginning was very positive, then it got critical for a while, then he ended on a positive note. The perfect review sandwich. I may post the review tomorrow, or I may not.

The important thing is, not only did I get reassured that the pride I feel for Erase This is not misplaced, I also got a few areas nerimon believes I could work on for the next album, to make it even better. And because Alex is someone who I’ve met in real life, and someone whose opinion I value, I will take the majority of his advice to heart. Or at least consider it a bit more than I would consider some random, nameless commenter.

If you happen to get a nasty comment, or a bad review, or someone making fun of you in your comments section, try to consider the source before getting upset or even giving it a second thought. Anonymity brings out the worst in people, sometimes. Once you understand that this person didn’t spend more than five seconds considering you, or your project, you’ll be better able to not give them more than five seconds of your own time.

And when you do receive a positive comment or feedback from someone you trust, it’ll mean that much more.

timezones & statelines

It’s been so long since I’ve collaborated with someone in the same room that I think I’ve forgotten what it feels like.

I remember when I was in grade school, my friends Josh and Tyler would come over and we’d challenge each other to short story contests or just sit and come up with ideas for various stories.

In high school I had a band with my downstairs neighbor Darryl. We wrote and recorded 70 songs together. I taught him how to paint. I kicked his ass at Cool Boarders 2 on Playstation.

When I lived with my ex-girlfriend Kate we’d work on music together, her at the piano, me on guitar or at the computer.

But now all of my projects are with people I only know online. I’ve never met Hank in person. Or John. I’ve met Alex, but not Charlie, Todd or Johnny. And I’ve met Monica, but not Karen or Luke or Kristina or Christian.

One of my best friends has been feeling a little lonely lately. Working on her projects by herself every day. And I tell her she has me, but I know that’s just not the same.

Luke is looking for a new place to live after he’s done with his summer job in the mountains, and he asked me about the possibility of him living here in the house with Jenny and me. We certainly have enough room, and the rent is super cheap. I was excited at the idea of having someone to work with in the same room. But that’s a whole summer away, so who knows what will happen come fall.

Some times the internet can make the world feel so small and help me really connect with someone half a world away. Other times, I feel millions of miles away from the people I care about. No doubt my projects are better off because of the involvement of these people, but I know I’d be happier, in general, if I had people to work with who lived in the same zip code.

what's the frequency, kenneth?

Today was mostly spent working on a new project. An online guitar tuner.

I don’t have relative/perfect pitch, so I can’t tune my guitar by ear, even if I can hear the correctly tuned tones. Every online tuner I’ve seen plays these tones for you to tune to.

So I decided to develop a visual tuner. One that works just like a hardware tuner, with a VU meter and everything:


When it’s launched, you’ll be able to just go to the website from any computer or mobile device, and the tuner will pick up and process your default audio device. There are no confusing audio routing or device setting options, etc.

My friend Sam wrote the Javascript coding, and I did all of the interface design.

Today I gave ten people the chance to beta test it. Kristina Horner was the first, and she absolutely loved it. The tuner also worked perfectly for seven other people. One person had trouble getting their browser to recognize the incoming audio signal. And one other person’s connection was too slow, which caused the browser to lose the incoming streaming audio and flicker the tuner image.

For our first round of testing, an 80% success rate isn’t too bad.

The beta team had some solid suggestions on features they’d like to see (as beta teams almost always do) so, after a few more days of testing and upgrading, I should be ready to launch the tuner for public use. (If you visit the URL now, the site is not live, it will simply forward you to one of the other sites I host.)

I don’t expect this project to bring in any serious income outside of AdSense and affiliate ads on the page around the tuner, but I’m excited for it nonetheless. The time spent developing this, and the money spent hosting it and its bandwidth will be paid back with its coolness factor. This tuner is something I will actually use, and something I’d guess others would find useful as well.

I’ll post about it again when the site goes live.