I was so excited when I found out that Spotify gave us the chance to see new and upcoming artists in their What’s New Feed…but over the last few weeks I’ve been disappointed. Give me a music engine of some sort that supplies me with new upcoming artists already! Justin Bieber‘s newest christmas album shouldn’t be on the list next to R.E.M. or Portugal, The Man. A music service I once went to to discover new artists has quickly turned into a corrupted corporate brothel of music. There may be hope though. Spotify is holding a global conference November 30th to talk about the future of the service…they’ve also said there will be a few special guests at the conference. Let’s all hope it’s not Lady Gaga and Ke$ha. I’d accept Justin Timberlake seeing as he just took an ownership stake in former social media empire Myspace. (Side note: I logged into my “______space” as they like to call it yesterday for the first time in over a year…WTF! did they do to that thing?) I think It’d be a large leap of faith if the two teamed up…but would like to see how it played out.

For now…Spotify isn’t doing it for me. I don’t play half of the music they have in fear of being judged by my friends on Facebook because every song you play posts in the whole worlds feed. No Bieber for me. So my addiction with music has had to find a new source for new music. Below are some of the places I’ve recently been going for new music whether it be no name artists, leaks from larger albums or just places to stream new music. If you find any cool sites let me know!

AbsolutePunk.net

Leakyslut.com

Bandcamp.com

Thesixtyone.com

Related articles

• Spotify Is Planning A Mysterious Event Next Week (businessinsider.com)
• The music industry is killing the music industry | 200+ labels leave Spotify (dccrowley.posterous.com)
• Record Labels Pull Music from Spotify (musicforasong.wordpress.com)
• Indie pulls 200 labels from Spotify (mobile-ent.biz)

Image via Wikipedia

Sunday should be universal acoustic day. Take every amp on the face of the planet and unplug it. That being said…I woke up to heart wrenching, brain melting metal this Sunday because we have not perfected our new automated DJ at the station.  It seems to be a trend lately to record an album, and then a few months later come out with that same album but all acoustic. Recently Yellow Card put out an entire acoustic album of their latest album when You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes and not as recent The Dangerous Summer put out an acoustic performance of their album Reach For The Sun. Acoustic albums strip an artists innards apart exposing vocals and actual guitar abilities. Below are some artists that I listen to that have some great amazing acoustic stuff.

City and Colour

The Dangerous Summer

Four Year Strong Acoustic

A Day to Remember

John Mayer

Jack Johnson 

Yellow Card

That’s just a taste and I know there are other great acoustic albums and acoustic songs out there…just keep searching! In my next post we’re going to drop the instruments all together! I’m super excited about it!

Related articles

• Adele wants third album to be acoustic! (loft965.com)

Image by _ambrown via Flickr

I’m a firm believer in P2P sharing…Peer to Peer sharing that is…(If you don’t buy your music you suck in my opinion.) With this belief I assigned my DJ’s at the radio station I manage a homework assignment. I think you learn best from your peers…peers being other college radio stations in this case.

The Assignment: Listen to at least one college radio station other than ours(www.kmsa913.com) and find one you like. They had to listen to more than 2 hours of the stations programming. I did this because at the start of the year we had trouble figuring out what we should sound like…I would have described it as Miley Cyrus in a sleigh at a nickel back concert with her fake blonde wig on fire. In my personal experience teaching has taught me more than I have ever learned in a class room.

The Results: Over the month long assignment our station was slowly shifting towards the sound that our music director and myself had been aiming for. My assignment was working. Another part of this assignment was for my DJ’s to bring in their favorite stations. So below is a list of what stations my DJ’s liked most.

KMSA 91.3′s Favorite College Radio Stations:

University Nevada Las Vegas KUNV 91.5 FM

Lane Community College  89.7 FM 

Fresno State KFSR 90.7 FM

Clemson WSBF 88.1 FM

University of Minnesota Radio K

University Tennessee @ Knoxville WUTK 90.3 FM 

Cornell University WVBR 93.5 FM

Vanderbilt WRVU 90.3 FM 

Metro State College KMET 

CU Boulder KVCU 1190 AM

Stanford University KZSU 90.1 FM

University Of San Francisco  KUSF 90.3 FM

San Francisco University KSFS

After looking at all of these stations listening to their programming for a little while, I found a new appreciation for what we do as college radio. So do your self a favor and click on the links above and listen. Find your local college radio station and listen.

Related articles

• KTSU’s “Takeover Crew”: Keeping College Radio Alive (dayandadream.com)
• Uncle Sam slaps San Francisco radio pirate with $10k fine (arstechnica.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Coldplay is just about to unveil their new album Mylo Xyloto. I’ve only heard about 3 songs off of it, and I haven’t quite decided how I feel. What I do know by hearing these few songs is that Coldplay has again recreated their sound, image, and overall appearance for their fans and of course the “You know how I know you’re gay” haters.

This is a big deal because changing your overall product is something huge corporations like Coke and Pepsi do once or twice a century, if that, all while holding their breath. Another example is Facebook. The minor changes Facebook has made over the last month or so has disturbed the masses. God forbid Google changed its colors from green, blue, red and yellow…what would we all do…head back to AOL?

This next album is going to be more mainstream than the last. My prediction, an easy 4 or 5 singles hitting Top 40 radio ( 2 have already made it). I’d still consider this Alternative…successful Alternative for sure…but they’ll most definitely still get their spins on non commercial radio. How else would we know that Coldplay is everyones guilty pleasure?

Related articles

• “Mylo Xyloto” Is Here! Read Tracklist, Find Videos and Watch Coldplay Perform The New Songs Live (929dave.radio.com)

Image via Wikipedia

College radio prides itself in bringing lesser-known artists to the ears of those searching for the next no name for as long as it has existed. As a general manager of one of these stations, it’s becoming more and more difficult to sift through the crap that is sent to us. Profits are hard to make with music that no one wants to listen to.

When does Alternative turn into main stream Adult Contemporary “Top 40?” Better yet, give me a clean definition of the word Alternative. iTunes considers plenty of artists I would never let our DJ’s play “alternative” …Alternative music was actually called College Rock before it was even given the name Alternative… With that said there are still “college radio critics” who dissect every song and artist that is put over our airwaves. When do we decide that an artist is no longer worthy of the alternative label and has in some people’s views “sold out”? Is it really selling out, or is it just becoming a successful artist?  

The Black Keys were named artist of the year in Spin Magazine…a magazine that also knighted Kanye West with album of the year…an album that he put out only a month before the end of 2010. I wouldn’t consider The Black Keys as “sell outs” as they deserved artist of the year but wearing that specific crown will probably be enough to stop many followers from continuing to listen to their music…”It’s just too main stream.” The Black Keys played on our radio station before being named “Artist of the Year” and will continue to be played on many of our DJ’s shows as they have been and probably will continue to be one of the most successful artists in college radio.

A while ago I had to have a conversation with a DJ; this talk is part of the reason I’m writing this now. Is there a time when an artist is too mainstream? I enjoy all types of music, and for those who may not know…I’m minoring in Vocal Performance. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven…they all have a special place in my heart…and if they were still alive today, I probably couldn’t play them on KMSA because of their kickass-ness…and their rotation on Magic 93.1. Along with Magic, we fall into a crowd full of Katty Perrys, Lady GaGas and Kelly Clarksons, not to mention the Voldemort of the group- She Who Shall Not Be Named- Ke$ha. When was the last time any of these artists were consideredalternative and didn’t shoot for number one on the billboard music charts the second their album came out of the CD tray? But what about artists that make the “popular music stations,” and are considered Alternative?

My all-time favorite memory of working in college radio so far is the one call I received about two weeks into starting my show in November, 2008. I was a timid DJ that would compromise the flow of my show…with the luck that a show like mine had any flow Monday’s 7-9pm (shameless plug) with Metal, and any other request that cooks in the back of the local wing joint had to throw my way. So there I sat, playing a band called The Cab, a pop-punk, R&B, rock sound that made you feel like you had attention deficit disorder trying to figure out what genre the band was trying to pull off next, then the phone rang…”KMSA” I said…

35-year-old male listening in his mother’s basement: “Will you turn this corporate shit off?!”

Me, the innocent rookie DJ: “Ummm sir what would you like me to play that is less ‘corporate’?”

35-year-old male in early from his mother’s curfew…listening in his mothers basement: “Put on some White Stripes.”

Me with a new found swagger: “White Stripes! You want…less corporate White Stripes…”

35-year-old male with insomnia living in his mothers basement: “Seven Nation Army!”

Me, shaking my head: “Alright Seven Nation Army it is.”

For all I knew, I could have been talking down to the future creator of Owl City, who may have just been looking for inspiration during one of his sleepless nights.

I later went on that night to tear the word “corporate” apart as he had told me to turn off a band that had never sold more than 100,000 albums…had never toured in a bus…and had never played a sold-out arena…mind you, get played on a show that wasn’t 7-10 at night in Grand Junction, Colorado.

Back to artists that are alternative and make the mainstream radio stations. White Stripes, a perfect example…but better off let’s go with Colorado native One Republic. I had never heard of One Republic until they did a remix of a song that no one had ever heard with Timbaland. That remix instantly jetted them to mainstream radio, but if you have ever given any of their albums a complete listen…only a few songs make the Top 40 rotation, and the rest are never given any credit. Do we stop playing these artists because one or two songs that are “popular” make it onto mainstream radio? Many extreme indie listeners, we’ll call them “Hipsters”, would turn to NPR and stream the newest indie artist and sip their Americanos in spite…don’t forget, this is all in fun as I love myself some NPR…where else would I get my Mozart fix.

The word “Alternative” is always changing…there will always be those with different opinions. College Radio on the other hand will always be the Alternative from corporate radio. With 168 hours of DJ’s with different tastes the listener is bound to stumble upon something they enjoy.

Moral of the story. Do the Alternative thing.

Related articles

• The Rock Shop’s Guide To College Radio (musicbusinessheretic.wordpress.com)

Related articles

• On College Radio Day, independent radio thrives at Fresno State (fresnobeehive.com)
• College Radio Day: 10/11/11 (campusfrequency.wordpress.com)
• College Radio: A Presentation (campusfrequency.wordpress.com)
• 15 N.J. stations on air for international College Radio Day (nj.com)

Related articles

• ‘Pearl Jam Twenty’ Documentary Unearths Rare Footage, Artifacts from Band’s Past (rollingstone.com)
• “Pearl Jam Twenty”: New Cinerama screening added (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Documentary Shows Emotional Ride for Pearl Jam (abcnews.go.com)
• Review: ‘Pearl Jam Twenty’ soundtrack (cnn.com)

Welcome to the Alternative Motive Blog

Here you’ll get everything but mainstream…with a main focus on college radio and what is happening around the country with the most exciting form of media today!

Enjoy,

Kyle

Related articles

• Redefining College Radio’s Reach (thecollegeradiozone.com)
• Farewell to College Radio? – A Blog Critique (campusfrequency.wordpress.com)
• College Radio Day: 10/11/11 (campusfrequency.wordpress.com)