Slash's Arcade Rocker app

The newest game is worth playing at despite anything though (especially at the $.99 price tag). Slash’s Arcade Rocker allows the guitar legend’s die hard fans to play along with three pre-loaded songs from Slash’s solo début album – By The Sword, Watch This and Doctor Alibi – as well as any Slash song in their music library (and not only Slash, just as in the regular AR you can play thousands of songs if they are in your iPod music library).

In addition to the music/rhythm game, the Slash Arcade Rocker app provides access to the latest news, blog, tour dates and other exclusive content from Slash’s official website, which was as well developed and is hosted by Ultimate-Guitar.com as part of its partnership with the guitarist.

“The Arcade Rocker iPhone app is one of the coolest apps I’ve seen yet,” said Slash. “I’m having a blast with it!”

The mobile version of Slash Arcade Rocker is available for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad users from the iTunes Store for $0.99 (a limited time offer). A free online version is available at slash.arcaderocker.com.

Don’t be greedy for a buck :) Share your thoughts in the comments if you buy the app!

The full interview is available at this location, read few excerpts from it below (the most practical ones, in my opinion):

What sort of tips can you give to new music bloggers and new musicians looking to establish the direction of their own blogs?

As Seth Godin recently warned, “the Internet is almost full”. Picking readers’ attention is harder and harder and harder each year and even month or week. I don’t think you need to afraid to fail though, remember that it’s all about fun (good luck if you began blogging to get rich). Experiment, try things that no one or only few have done before, see the results and either stick to the new direction or try something new again. Your goal is to stand out against the crowd of blogs in your niche, so experimenting by itself will do a lot for you.

If you are a musician, of course just blog in any way you can, even if your grammar skills suck. Don’t do it for the sake of being trendy, do it for fun. Keep your posts short if you are not wordy (most readers will appreciate that!), but say something cool each time you leave a post. You are a rock star, and your life IS interesting to others by default. What seems boring to you will sound spicy to others, especially your fans.

Did you do any research to learn new and more effective ways to establish and promote your blog? If so, where did you receive the best information from?

I had been spending hours reading dozens of blogs dedicated to that, like Copyblogger, ProBlogger, Blogging Tips etc. They are all great, that is fact, but these sites are mostly recycling the same information over again. I’ve learned absolutely essential things from such blogs, but also understood that there is no need to constantly keep up with each of them to get your website running great. Instead of falling into the learning trap, like I love to do, just open your online editor and write a new blog post!

Did blogging present new avenues for networking and establishing connections with people that may not have been available to you through social networks?

Yes and this is one of the most amazing things about blogging to me. Owning a blog gives great opportunities in finding new connections in your industry. Most of the people nowadays realize the influence of blogging, so you’ve got very strong chances to get a response from a high profile person even if you blog is young and small.

How can a blog network benefit new bloggers looking to establish their own brand?

If you want to build a name in your niche (and I know that you do), you should find as many blogs of the same topic as possible and start not only reading them, but constantly leaving comments in their posts, contacting their founders, asking to do guest posts. And if you do a guest post, share the best stuff you’ve got!

Networking is crucial for establishing a successful blog and spending more time on networking is one of the top priorities in my to-do list for Dotted Music.

How long did it take you to establish a ‘voice’ within your writing? Do you have any tips for new bloggers looking to find their own voice?

I think I’m still establishing my voice! Writing in English is an exciting challenge by itself, as I’m Russian. But I have to note that expressing ideas in a language different from your native one proved to be healthy. You don’t have a too wide scope for writing unnecessary stuff, and so this is my advice to everyone – keep it clear and to the point.

If interested, read more over here, and be sure to check out other articles from the series – very inspiring.

Also, using a chance, I want to apology for writing here so rarely lately. You will see a lot of interesting stuff on Dotted Music very soon, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading :)

The new film, starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart, presents an unflinching insider’s view of what it was like for six teenaged girls to be thrust into the limelight with minimal adult supervision, in a sex, drugs and rock’n’roll era hostile to female musicians.

Ultimate Guitar’s Joe Matera recently talked to Victory Tischler Blue about her new film, the renewed interest in the group, reissues of its back catalog, Vicki’s memories of her two year stint in the group, and thoughts on music industry. Read an exclusive DM excerpt below:

Edgeplay cover

Do you have many fond memories of your time in the group?

The whole thing was really magical for me, I really did like it. Not to contradict myself, but I really enjoyed it as it was a chance to go out and play music and be very cool as a teenager and travel the world and live a dream. But the bummer was after awhile, I kind of wanted to go home and get back on track and do the other thing in my life that I loved which were horses and going back to film school. To become a film director was my original goal.

What do you think of the new Runaways movie that Joan Jett has sanctioned?

I have not seen it though I know the script as I had it for awhile and I’ve seen the clips and everybody I know has seen it. Ironically, two of the actresses in the movie called me as they wanted to touch base and connect and stuff and they told me that they ended up watching Edgeplay over and over again to learn from it, a basis of the part of the characters they were going to play. The other ironic thing is that a lot of the things that Joan was suing me over in Edgeplay, ended up being included in the new Runaways movie.

So does Joan has control over the back catalog then?

Yes, on a business level they have made sure of that and I think Joan’s big issue with Edgeplay was a control issue. And at that point it certainly wasn’t the content. But they’re all about controlling the whole Runaways franchise.

Since you’re now full-time in the film making business, do you still harbor any musical ambitions?

No I am involved in the music in the projects I do and I bring in other musicians to work on my projects which are film based projects. But the only thing I want now as a musician is a new black 1962 Everly Brothers Gibson acoustic guitar with the double pickguard and star inlays…

MicControl

While music bloggers make up a significant portion of the overall population of the blogosphere, there are far too many blogs that just float along in cyberspace without the understanding or direction to put their blog onto the path of success.

Meanwhile, there are far too few artists who truly understand the power of a blog and why it should be used in congruence with a strong social media presence.

Therefore the purpose of The Blogging Side Of Music is twofold – First, to share some powerful insight with existing music bloggers as to how they can get on the right path towards success. Second, is to elaborate on the effectiveness and usefulness of a blog in any artist’s overall marketing strategy.

The bloggers featured throughout the series have all found success at their own levels of blogging, each with their own purpose and motives for establishing a blog in the first place. The following is the schedule for the 5-part series:

• Monday June 7: Matthew Moran – Musician/ Social Media Consultant
• Tuesday June 8: Dave Tamkin – National Touring Musician
• Wednesday June 9: Peter Malick – Award Winning Music Producer/ Blues Musician/Blogger
• Thursday June 10: Andrew Apanov – Editor-In-Cheif, Ultimate-Guitar.com/ Blogger (Jon, thank you!)
• Friday June 11: Christina Duren – General Manager, Ariel Publicity/ Blogger

Asked by Joe, What has been the most important lesson you have learned from being in the music business?, Lu said:

Photo credit: Kentaro Murai

That there is no music business now, but the only thing I have learned is to not trust anything that has got to do with the business and only just play with your friends and connect to the people who you really share a passionate interest with music. Also keep your mind open and never dismiss anyone, never condemn anyone and never think you know everything.

Always keep your ideas open and go and see as much music as possible. And don’t clam up because if you become despondent and depressed, you will clam up.

And if you think you are really successful and are the bees’ knees and there is no one else better than you, you are going to clam up too and you are going to stop absorbing and stop connecting. And either of those two things are your nemesis. You have to stay calm and stay open. That is my advice.

This part is what I like: don’t ever stop absorbing and never stop connecting.

Read the full interview when it’s up on UG tomorrow here, and don’t forget to enter our latest giveaway for a chance to win 1,2,3’s colored Confetti 7″ vinyl for simply “liking” the Dotted Music Facebook page. It’s really simple.

While the need to record in a professional studio used to be the standard, the same quality of recordings can now be achieved from the comfort of your own home – you just need to know what you are doing. The purpose of this series is twofold – first, to explore different forms in-home recording in hopes of sharing some insight with other emerging artists looking to record their own music. Second, to expose the music of emerging artists who have put the time and effort into perfecting their craft.

MicControl

The music featured in Recording In The Home will vary from acoustic based blues to electronic based house, where the recordings were obtained in settings that range from an attic to a home-office based studio.

Except from interview with Eric Dennis – Metal Guitarist who goes by the stage name Daemon Blak:

Typical how many tracks will one of your songs contain? Can you explain the different tracks use?

On most of my songs, there are the following tracks – Drum rhythm tracks= 3-  main drum track for the primary beat, one fill track for cymbals, one fill track for drum fills, Bass track= 1. Rhythm guitar =2 tracks- one for left, and one for right, and Lead Track=1 for the guitar solo. There may also be two additional tracks for a lead harmony. That makes for an average total of 7 to 9 tracks for the music. There will be one track for vocals (when I find a singer), so the average track count is 7 to 10 total tracks, depending on the song.

Except from interview with ESEMDEE – Electronic Instrumental Composer:

Where do you get your samples from?

I hit the dollar (record) bins something serious. I had to not shop at the spot I go to for a while because I cleaned house. I got Prince’s “Purple Rain” album for .50 cents not too long ago. Everything from my 404′s & Cold Sores* album was made from dollar records. With vinyl back on the rise, so are the prices. I’m a man on a budget. If I’m feeling lazy, I’ll just sample whatever songs I have on my computer. It could have came out today or in the ’40′s.. I’ll sample it. When I first started, I was using the sound of a heart beat for drum kicks. I might record my vocals to chop up and throw in a track from time to time. I get my samples from anything and everything. I’ll record voice memo’s on my phone when I’m riding the bus or hanging out and use everyday events even. Nothing is safe. You can’t limit your sources.

This series is right in line with the goals and purpose of MicControl.com – to establish a learning network through the use the fully functional blogging platform, where musicians can teach each other and learn from past experience. While MicControl.com is a fully functioning music social network, the primary focus is blogging and learning – forming a level of engagement and trust within the music community that has yet to be established on the internet.

This was a guest post by Jonathan Ostrow. Be sure to check out his ‘Recording In The Home’ interview series next week and express your thoughts on the topic in the comments below.

Ultimate-Guitar.com, the world’s biggest guitar tablature database and musicians community, has officially announced a joint venture with internationally renowned artist Slash.

Here’s a part from the press release:

Slash

Under the agreement, Ultimate Guitar and Slash will co-develop and co-own digital assets associated with Slash’s online initiatives, including his official website, www.slashonline.com, which launched today. In addition, the Joint Venture will develop and release a variety of Slash-branded mobile applications as well as instructional videos featuring Slash.

“As a musician & fan there’s nothing cooler than to partner with Ultimate Guitar. They’re THE source for gear info, tabs, music & artist news & the list goes on & on. There is no online site that comes close to UG for supplying such comprehensive music information. I’m proud to be onboard,” said Slash.

“Slash is the ultimate guitar god and his brand resonates with the Ultimate Guitar community like no other musician. He is one of my favorite artists and a major inspiration when I started Ultimate Guitar in the first place,” said Ultimate Guitar founder Eugeny Naidenov. “This partnership creates a unique opportunity not only for Ultimate Guitar to leverage the Slash brand but also for our worldwide community of guitar enthusiasts to interact with and get close to a revered artist, and vice versa. For an artist of his stature to tie his brand and web property to an online social community is a forward looking approach that truly breaks the mold.“

Noticed the “Slash-branded mobile applications” part? We are in fact going to release a co-branded iPhone application in a week, you will love it.

Meanwhile, Slash‘s self-titled album is released tomorrow (April 6th), be sure to check it out – dope LP.

So, today in the world of DM:

DottedMusic.com

What to read on the main domain? First of all, recently I broke the news about two fabulous Ultimate Guitar projects I’ve been involved in: Arcade Rocker and Ultimate Guitar Tabs (already first place in the App Store!! 2nd place in the App Store’s Music category, right after I Am T-Pain!). Definitely worth checking out are Starting A Record Label series by Ben Histand, inspiring pieces from music specialist Draven Grey and my friend and a kick-ass publicist Brian Rocha, and comments on the music biz from Jared Leto and Reader’s Wives’ frontman Niall James.

Dotted Thoughts @ Posterous

This is the first time I’m revealing here my Posterous blog, called Dotted Thoughts. Don’t be confused, it’s actually a part of the Dotted Music project, soon to be transferred to a dottedmusic.com subdomain. Dotted Thoughts is more about brief news on music and technology. If you don’t want to subscribe to its updates separately (which indeed might be confusing for some of you), keep an eye on weekly “Dotted Thoughts Round-ups,” containing the most interesting news and links from that Posterous blog and my Twitter account. I will begin posting the round-ups in April.

Fiverr

This is a little weird experiment I’ve launched on the Fiverr platform. For those who hasn’t heard about Fiverr yet, it is a place where people will do various things for you just for $5, and where you can offer your own $5 services. To put it short, I am promising to give you a complex personal music marketing advice for five bucks. Interested, anyone? It’s a limited time offer ;)

Facebook Page

Be sure to join the Dotted Music page on Facebook, if you haven’t done that already. It’s a great way to receive updates from both DM and DT blogs, and to be the first to read exclusive news from time to time. Several Facebook contests coming up in the future, so don’t hesitate to join us on Facebook!

Twitter List

While some of you are following me on Twitter already (please make sure you are among those some though), not many people have heard about the music biz Twitter List I’ve created. Follow it to get tons of exceptional music industry updates in one feed (I will be adding even more intersting personas to the list soon). Moreover, if you follow this Twitter List – I will mention your Twitter name in the nearest Dotted Thoughts round-up!

I think that’s it for now, read Dotted Music and be inspired!

By the way, just as with our Arcade Rocker game, you (precious Dotted Music readers) hear about this project first.

What is UGT?

Ultimate Guitar Tabs is an easy and convenient application for viewing guitar and bass tablature and chords. What differs it from similar apps in the App Store is that this is the only mobile application giving you an unlimited and licensed access to the world’s largest database of tabs from Ultimate-Guitar.com. Everything is legal. And it’s relatively cheap, you can buy the app for just $1.99.

Here are the main features to get some of you hooked, hopefully:

• Simple Search. Find Tabs quickly by entering artist name or song title.
• Advanced Search tool. You can search for Tabs by specifying Tab type (guitar Tabs, chords, bass Tabs), part of the song (intro, solo, chorus), difficulty level, tuning, and rating.
• Favorites. Add any Tab to your favorites to make them available for offline browsing.
• Tab Packs. Collections of pre-selected Tabs that are preloaded into the application. Tab Packs are based on skills level (Easy, Medium, Advanced), music genres (Rock, Metal, Punk), and special occasions (Love songs, Xmas songs). Tab Packs are frequently updated.
• Top 100 Tabs list for each Tab type (Guitar, Bass, Chords or overall).
• Auto-scroll feature. View Tablature in the text viewer using the handy Auto-Scroll functionality – The App will scroll Tabs for you!
• Portrait and Landscape modes are available. You can scale Tabs too.

Here Come The Screenshots!

Share your thoughts! Found any bugs, glitches, or just have an idea on how to improve the app? Please let me know via the contact form or in the comments below.

During the week, I have discovered three brand new movies that I take the liberty of describing as “inspiring” even before actually watching them (yet). Here they are, for your consideration:

72 Musicians

72 Musicians asks the question, “Why the hell do we chase this music dream, anyway?” The film was made and released by Topspin’s VP of Product Design Bob Moczydlowsky, so the creation, pretty obviously, uses Topspin platform for marketing and distribution (which is a unique and a promising collaboration on its own).

The documentary chronicles the struggles of 72 Kansas City musicians, “speaking with a single, anonymous voice about art, poverty, booze, lies, class, hardship, food and failure. Oh, and day care. And rock ‘n’ roll.” It features interviews and/or performances from members of Spoon, White Whale, The Architects, Coalesce, The Get Up Kids, The Republic Tigers, Mac Lethal, The Life & Times, Roman Numerals, SSION and more.

The movie has been released in a variety of formats, from an $8 iPhone version to HD downloads and DVDs with T-shirts and posters, to 50 DVDs in bulk, all the way to a $400 version which comes on a hard drive with all the assets, Creative Commons-licensed to edit and release your own version. Go read more at Topspin’s Ian Rogers‘ post here.

Don’t Quit Your Daydream

Don’t Quit Your Daydream was created by Los Angeles-based musicians Clark Stiles and Nathan Khyber from the band The Good Listeners and was produced in association with JLoar, Inc and Adrian Grenier’s Reckless Productions.

“It is a story of two musicians approaching their 40th birthday unwilling to relinquish their love of music. Not wanting to give up the dream of being rock stars after hitting 40, the duo set off to do what most said they couldn’t – record the album of their dreams on the road and document every second creating this film. Leaving their day jobs behind, they set off on a 24-day cross-country road trip in an RV recording and filming both the album and documentary, Don’t Quit Your Daydream, while spanning 12 cities across the heart of America.

“Stiles and Khyber were on a mission to find the answer many musicians search for: why risk it all for a pursuit in music? To answer this question, Stiles and Khyber set up their recording studio in each city, collaborated on a song with a local musician and asked them why, like themselves, were they drawn to do what they love most… which is to play music.”

The Runaways

The Runaways is the music-fueled story of the groundbreaking, all girl 1970s rock band, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning starring as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. The film is written and directed by Floria Sigismondi, and Apparition will release it on March 19, 2010.

“The two teenage valley girls with punk in their blood, meet and become the heart and soul of the seminal all girl band, The Runaways. Floria Sigismondi brings The Runaways to the big screen in this story of a group of extraordinary young women as they rise from rebellious Southern California kids to rock stars of the now legendary band that paved the way for future generations of girl musicians. Under the Svengali-like influence of rock impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the group evolves into an outrageous success and a family of misfits. With its tough-chick image and raw talent, the band quickly earns a name for itself — and so do its two leads: Joan is the band’s pure rock’ n’ roll heart, while Cherie, with her Bowie-Bardot looks, is the sex kitten.”

The Runaways is produced by John Linson, Art Linson and Bill Pohlad. Joan Jett, Kenny Laguna and Brian Young serve as executive producers.

Have you had a chance to watch any of the movies? (Or have you decided that you should go to The Runaways premiere?) Share your thoughts in the comments!