While the band stayed in Australia, Ultimate Guitar writer Joe Matera sat down with Biffy Clyro singer and guitarist Simon Neil to talk the new album, touring and music business. Read an exclusive excerpt below:

What have been some of the most important lessons you have learned from being in this business?

Image credit: news.bbc.co.uk

The one lesson we learned the most was to just believe in yourself. Just because someone thinks you’re crap doesn’t mean you are crap. And like wise, just because some one thinks you’re amazing doesn’t mean you’re amazing. It’s really about the belief in yourself.

We’ve always had a focus and a drive. We were lucky that we had a start where people didn’t like our band for years and we made small records on indie records. And if we didn’t have the belief in ourselves, we still wouldn’t be doing it. If we were doing this to make money or to meet tons of girls we would have given up after about a year. For us it’s really about the thrill of making music.

What have been some of the most memorable experiences in the band’s career thus far?

There have been quite a few. I guess on a basic level when we got to meet The Rolling Stones that was a real pinch yourself moment. And that was because they are a band that really shaped rock and roll from day one. I probably prefer The Beatles slightly more musically than The Stones, but they have done a lot. That was a moment we’ll never forget, and also having Josh Homme play guitar on the record. He is such an amazing songwriter and guitarist.

Read the rest of the interview on UG next week.

After viewing the “Teutonic Terror” video, a Turkish fan entered “ACCEPT pwns” into his update box on Twitter, only to find out that someone named @pwns was now following him on Twitter. Both the Twitter story and the video spread like wildfire across the internet as the unlikely worlds of metal music and technology blogs including Gizmodo, Mashable, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times and Blabbermouth picked the story up and spread it faster than a heavy metal guitar riff. Gizmodo and Mashable detailed very simple explanations telling their readers how to exploit the security hole, while Twitter went into panic mode and to fix the “Accept Bug” by resetting everyone’s followers back to zero. Even Ashton Kutcher had as many friends as most of us… for a couple of hours.

Accept

Ashton Kutcher posted at around 1 p.m. EST, “twitter is being hacked by some turkish hacker. haha I have 0 followers.” Stacy Keibler saw the bright side of things, tweeting, “People are freaking out about Twitter followers going to zero. I look at it like this: Right now, I have just as many followers as @aplusk!” Kim Kardashian was one of the many stars who had trouble dealing with the Twitter bug aftermath, writing, “Someone hacked my twitter account and direct messaged me! They have added over 200 new people! Ughhhhh.”

The hacker certainly got an earful from celebs like Justin Bieber who sent a fair warning, “u have now pissed off over 2 million teenage girls. They are more dangerous than Navy Seals.” Elsewhere, Jim Carrey pondered, “Imagine if this hacker put his/her talent 2 some worthy use. They could 1 day have more than a false sense of superiority.”

More celebrity woes from:

@chriscolfer There has been a twitter glitch, also known as a twitch
- Chris Colfer, Actor (“Glee”)

@michellebranch Is this all part of the finale of Lost?
- Michelle Branch, Musician

@sarabareilles Oh my gosh! Twitter’s been Hacked!!!!! CALL IRONMAN.
- Sara Bareilles, Musician

@joejonas Wait.. So this means I have to “talk” to my friends… :^/
- Joe Jonas, Musician

@iamdiddy I feel so lonley!!!!! Lol :) come back soon. I can’t live without yall!!! :( can somebody send me some followers pls lol :). Let’s go!!!,
- Sean “Diddy” Combs, Rapper, Actor (“Get Him To The Greek”)

@jordansblog I semi feel like I’m back in Middle school with no friends…
- Jordan Pruitt, Singer

@markhoppus People freak out more when twitter crashes than the stock market. Next up: Senate Hearings on the Great Crash of 2010.
- Mark Hoppus, Musician (blink182)

If you are curious, Blood Of The Nations, Accept’s twelfth full-length studio album, is scheduled for a September release in Europe & North America.

The rules are dead simple. You have two options to enter the giveaway:

• “Like” the Dotted Music page on Facebook.
• Share the message about the sweepstakes on Twitter (and don’t forget to follow me).

Or do both ;)

The winner will be announced later in June (the end date has been pushed back).

1,2,3

Confetti 7" Cover

A little background on 1,2,3, signed to almost as much young Ooh La La Records, a boutique artist development company and record label from Brooklyn, founded by producer Theo Aronson.

The outfit consists of Nic Snyder (vocals, guitar & keys) and his long-time pal Josh Sickels (drums). 1,2,3 hail from Pittsburgh and are late of the well-known power punk outfit, The Takeover UK.

“I’m really excited about this new band,” Nic proclaims, “It’s what I’ve always wanted a band to be.”

1,2,3 is the platform for some very smart songwriting, for example, “Confetti,” a tune about death that quite happily sounds like the orgasmic collision of latter day Beatles (definitely a Lennon tune), Gram Parsons and Big Star, and “Can’t Bribe God,” a kind of slow, Gospel shuffle that finds Snyder displaying simply the most viciously visceral vox work this side of Prince Rogers Nelson with a middle eight that feels curiously like ELO… in a good way.

Both songs were recorded last Fall at Aronson’s Brooklyn recording studio. Inquiring minds can expect to hear them very soon, followed by a full album in early 2010. Check out the band’s MySpace page for a sneak peak. “Confetti” is available in the Ooh La La Records online store.

Designed and built by RUNE Entertainment and GRAND Creative Studios, the website opens with the story of family man and steel factory worker Drake Carter ending his affair with seductive co-worker Thea Landa. This sparks a chain of events that leads to Drake’s murder at the hands of his former lover and secret Villain as she moves to claim his soul.

Hail The Villain website

Freezing time in that savage moment, the website allows you to navigate through the scene to unlock character back-stories, clues, downloads, to participate in the story by becoming “Villain-ized” and to share messages with the band.

According to the press release, the concept for the website grew out of a series of sketches the band had created as a rough draft for a comic book inspired by the sounds of their new album, Population: Declining which will be released via Roadrunner Records on June 8, 2010.

HailTheVillain.com includes a series of illustrated environments to explore, with clues and hints, character bios and Easter eggs hidden here and there. Numbers scrawled in matchbooks unlock audio content when punched into a phone booth, while a map hidden in the glove compartment foreshadows a darker plot twist that will be revealed in one of the upcoming comics.

You are also invited to activate your webcam at the beginning to “uncover various opportunities to upload and modify pictures of yourselves,” (FYS look pretty modest with their simple flash app) record and share videos with the band and other users.

I haven’t had a chance to test the game with a webcam, but the experience was impressing enough even without it – now I just can’t call this game a website anymore. Great job.

Your thoughts?

Myself, FYSed

Upon completion, the photos can be saved and sent to either Facebook or Twitter. Or posted on a blog, like here on the right (I decided to keep it simple, as I look dumb even with only those sunglasses added).

As the announcement says, Four Year Strong have always embraced the idea of not taking themselves too seriously and now, they have spread that philosophy with FysYourself. Hours after its launch, FysYourself reportedly attracted the likes of Pete Wentz, Paramore’s Hayley Williams and over 10,000 other viewers.

Fans will have the opportunity to enter a contest with their FysYourself “masterpieces,” and the best entry will receive the ultimate Enemy of the World prize package: FYS Skatedeck, vinyl, CD, shirt, poster, pin pack, and tickets to see the band live.

What has been done here is relatevely simple technically wise, which only confirms that a viral idea doesn’t require an enormous budget.

My advice: if you are thinking of what game concept could be adopted for your own brand, just go to a random online collection of Flash games for inspiration – you will get dozens of ideas. But if you don’t care about viral promotions, or just goofing off at your computer: go FysYourself.

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.

Using the stock exchange as a basis for my business model, I’ve constructed a theoretical approach to help support up-and-coming bands, starting from when they’re still at their earliest stages of their artistic and commercial development. Thus, individuals could invest in bands that they think have potential, and when (or if) the band gains popularity and starts gaining profits from CD and ticket sales, the initial investors get a financial return from the band.

Image credit: Gripweed on Pixdaus

Because buying a “share” or “stock” of a band sounds too possessive (these are still human beings after all), we’ll use the term “bond”. A bond in the finance world is a debt security, as in, an individual buys a debt from a company so that at a future date, once the company becomes more profitable, the investor is repaid the amount of the bond by the company along with interest. In the case of investing in bands, the debt would be repaid if the band eventually sells a profitable amount of music, and instead of interest, the band would also pay back a percentage of their revenue.

One way that this whole process can be facilitated is if we can invest in specific bands through their record labels rather than investing in the record label as a whole, or giving money directly to the band. Although this would technically eliminate all bands that are unsigned, it could conversely create an opportunity for them to get signed: they amass a certain amount of money from investors (which would mostly come from family and friends), and offer it to the label in exchange of getting signed, which consequently reduces the risk for the label of signing a new band since they won’t require as large a sum of funds from their own treasury. This greatly supports the industry on many levels: first, the band because they are now signed with a record label and have a sum of money that will go to their commercial needs. Second, it supports the record label by allowing them to sign more bands at a lower risk. Finally, the mechanism also provides a way for people that love music and that are looking for investment opportunities to invest in an area that they know and enjoy versus the complexities of stock markets. Because of a possible financial return, it is more appealing than simply supporting a band by buying their music.

Although this business model is certainly flawed and doesn’t consider potential problems such as band breakups, it is mainly to serve as a theoretical basis to thinking outside of the box in regards to supporting young and talented bands that are swallowed by the leviathan that is the music industry scene. There will practically never be a sudden dramatic plunge in illegal music downloads, and even if there are several other ways of supporting a band, there are still countless obstacles musicians have to face before being able to make sustainable careers out of their art. It is up to us, their avid listeners, to provide the beginnings of a reform that can allow musicians to attain their appropriate level of recognition by being judged solely on their devotion and talent.

I thought that this was a fairly bad practice. I will admit that there is some work involved, and some actual singing does need to be done, but life threw one of those confusing hits at me earlier today. I was sitting at home, laptop on and fingers working frantically for a piece I’ve been working on. One of the people that I live with had on the “Alan Titchmarsh show“. Personally – not something I would have watched, but it’s a necessary evil for this article.

They were holding a “crooning” competition. There had been a fair few applicants, but no public exposure whatsoever, and yet, the winner would earn themselves a record contract, just as the winner of the X Factor was being offered. This required significantly less work.

Photo credit: Quotidiano.Net

Is the talent pool so dilated that record companies need to host such competitions in order to find the next “big thing”? The exposure alone from shows like Popstars: The Rivals generates album and single sales without question, but the Alan Titchmarsh show? Where’s the guarantee there? Is that a win to be proud of?

You all have the internet, else there’d be no way for you to be reading this right now. You know that there is an enormous wealth of talent out of there; unpaid, under listened to and most definitely under appreciated. Why aren’t they being offered these deals? They’ve worked hard to earn a following, build a reputation and garnish a career, so why don’t they get any recognition? If you owned a record company, would you rather go for something that you can hear straight away or something that you’re going to have to mould, assign songs to and write lyrics for?

Or worse, somebody who will perform a cover of a cover, and, in adding their own twist, butcher the last of the original charm that it had?

I can only wonder then if it’s the artists themselves who are failing to expose themselves to the record companies in question. Has e-mail and myspace music replaced the good old “send them your demo” method that really is required in the modern age and the previous generation. I am a writer. I write using a laptop, but I still have to double space it, print it all out, force visual appeal into it and then send it off for an agent or publisher to review, possibly edit and then consider. You can never discount the packaging on CDs either. First impressions last.

I’d like to see what you think here. Why has it become necessary for the music industry to create and mould new musical applicants through the use of competitions when there are so many artists who are desperate to be recognised for the hard work that they’ve been doing for so long?

Perhaps it’s something to do with how malleable your children are compared to those of other people. I am unsure.

Tom Colohue is a fiction writer and music instructor from Blackpool, England. Though his main works are in the realms of fantasy, he also writes modern fiction for multiple websites, as well as theoretical and practical music lessons for magazines.

Also read The Effects Of The Internet: “Making It” and The Effects Of The Internet: Music Distribution

The 145-page book contains the full tablature for all rhythm and lead guitar tracks on the album, expanded album artwork, track by track commentary and an introduction from the band, as well as a digital download of Cosmogenesis which includes isolated rhythm guitar and solo tracks, and more.

Obscura's Cosmogenesis cover

What gives a cool twist about this is all the added bonuses. The artwork on Cosmogenesis is incredible, and fans of the band should definitely check out the expanded artwork. The other huge bonus I like is the fact that a digital download of Cosmogenesis with isolated rhythm guitar and solo tracks is included. I mean, it really gives a complete package here.

The one thing I wish is that bass tablature would have been included somehow. Seeing the technical shredding death metal virtuosity that Obscura unleashes, each member brings such a unique talent, and if you listen closely, bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling really makes his bass a lead, counter attacking the guitars with such brilliance!

Anyway, all of you guitar players need to pick up this sweet deal, and shred along/attempt to shred along.

Record sales are the least of your concerns. This may be the category that everyone pays attention to, the one that gets you press and lands you magazine covers, but as a musician you aren’t going to receive much in the way of profits on record sales. If you can land with a major album, you’ll keep about 7% of the total sales of your album, which usually translates to about a dollar an album for unproven bands. Indies tend to be a little more generous, letting you keep anywhere from 15-40%, but their limited promotional reach usually translates into significantly lower album sales. So even if you manage to sell a million albums through a major label (that’s quite a feat!) then you’re making less than a million dollars, because any promotion the record company does for you and any advance is going to come straight from your cut of the sales. That’s simply the way the music industry is set up; record companies take big risks in signing artists and take a huge cut of any successes that they have. They do the dirty work to get your album to radio stations and run ad campaigns, which set you up nicely for the real moneymakers.

Image credit: AMagill on Flickr

Touring and live shows are going to be your bread and butter as an artist. Emerging artists tend to make around 10% of the gate charges. This number can balloon to 60% for legendary acts like the Rolling Stones — on their last tour they generated $437 million in ticket sales, of which around $262 million went to the band. This doesn’t even include band and tour merchandise available, a number that averages 10% of the gross ticket sales.

The other big ticket item as an artist comes from royalties and licensing. Every time a radio station or bar plays your song, you’ve got a three-cent royalty. Put your song on rhapsody or other streaming sites and you’ll grab a one-cent royalty per song. Sell your song on iTunes and you’ll earn ten to twenty cents (more if you aren’t selling through a label). If a movie or television show uses any of your songs, you earn a negotiable licensing fee. Michael Jackson would charge $500,000 for the use of any Beatles song in a movie. Let an outside company put your name and/or image on their product and take a cut of sales. KISS is the industry standard with its $1 billion/year licensing business.

That’s a lot of numbers. How does this pertain to survival in the business of music? Simply, this means that your album sales are far from the most important thing. Album sales generally receive the greatest amount of publicity, but generate the smallest percentage of cash flow for the artist. Album and single sales have their greatest effect as a means of promotion, not as a means of revenue.

You’re primarily an artist so I doubt that that conclusion reverberated within your mind. Let’s break it down like so: albums and singles are simply promotional tools. Don’t be bound by traditional thoughts about albums. It may be well worth it as a band to give away albums or release a single that has nothing to do with any album that you’ve got in the works. In today’s music industry, the album is no longer the focus. The focus needs to be on you, what you offer to the consumer as a band.

To the consumer your band isn’t an album. To the consumer your band is an emotion. The consumer buys your album because they feel love, because they feel aggression, sadness, or like some badass roaring through the desert in a convertible packing a 9mm and aviators. Your job is to deliver that promise, and an album is only a part of the picture. Your job is to let them feel that emotion whenever they wear a t-shirt with your band on it, or whenever they see your picture. This is something you can do by making sure that everything non-recorded fits together. Deliver the emotion you promised on an album in a live performance, show that emotion in your merchandise. Your album is like a one-night stand in Vegas, but the other aspects are what form a lasting relationship between you and your fans when you’ve got to live with each other, warts and all. Don’t let a rigid focus on albums hold you back from a career as a musician. Don’t try to sell albums; try to sell your band.