For more than a year, two of my best friends, Will Gray and Jon Kofahl, have been hard at work on a documentary about the state of the music industry and the uncertain future of independent musicians. The film is gorgeous and the story is compelling. Please support these guys, and support this conversation!

Is it possible for an artist to break?

Record labels continue to strive for reinvention in the brave new worlds of digital music, Internet marketing, and social media. The star-making radio deejays of yesteryear have taken a backseat to trendsetting celebrity bloggers and the purveyors of the latest ringtones. Rapidly evolving technologies provide revolutionary benefits to new and undiscovered musicians, but the ever-changing landscape of the Internet remains uncertain terrain. More music is being produced than ever before, but in light of the current climate, can the makers, marketers, and promoters of that music find a way to capture mainstream attention?

Following on-the-verge artist Will Gray through the recording and release of his debut album (featuring production by Grammy Award-winning producer, T Bone Burnett), Broke* chronicles the stories of artists and executives searching for ways to thrive in the face of today’s music industry challenges. Featuring candid interviews with industry insiders and intimate profiles of some of the brightest emerging musical talent in the country, the film digs beneath the clichés and standard storylines to reveal an industry struggling to find a new identity and an artist who’s simply trying to establish one. Can a new act be “broken”?

Release date for the film is still TBD, but you can stay connected to Broke* on Facebook or Twitter. If you’d like to contribute to the cause, and get a great looking t-shirt at the same time, please visit their website!

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Even though it never snows where I live, I grew up in a place where the cold of winter seeps into your bones and December really does hold the darkest night of the year. Sparkling lights, hot cocoa, and melancholy music all seem to make more sense in that atmosphere, but the nostalgia still feels real and I’m grateful for that.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite holiday songs this season. I tried to make sure they were either slightly left-of-center (maybe even off your radar) or so extraordinarily beautiful that you simply must have them.

Happy holidays, my friends.

01. Ron Sexsmith – “Maybe This Christmas”

02. The Weepies – “All That I Want”

03. Over The Rhine (feat. Terri Templeton) – “Silent Night”

04. Sleeping At Last – “Silver Bells”

05. Hem – “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

06. Brandi Carlile – “The Heartache Can Wait”

07. Matthew Hall & Meagan Moore (from The Polar Express) – “When Christmas Comes To Town”

08. The Rescues – “All That I Want For Christmas (Is To Give My Love Away)”

09. Fall Out Boy – “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out”

10. SHeDAISY feat. Rascal Flatts – “Twist Of The Magi”

11. Sufjan Stevens – “Get Behind Me, Santa”

12. Gayla Peevey – “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”

*BONUS TRACK* Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip – “O Holy Night”
TV Series Here | Download Here

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One of my favorite things to do is to create music. In fact, before I started working with leaders and writing books, I was playing shows with talented folks like The Fray / Sister Hazel / Mat Kearney and writing songs.

Now I produce and write music in my spare time, and I’m always keeping an eye on new music business models. I’ve just teamed up with NoiseTrade (Fair Trade Music) to offer my last album, The Let Go, for whatever price you like.

Seriously!

You can even get it for free, you just have to let a few friends know that I’m doing this.

View On The NoiseTrade Website

The files are all DRM-free high quality 192 kbps mp3s.

I originally released this album in 2006. If you’d like to learn more about it, you can go here and click along the links at the top (it’s basically all the liner notes online).

Free is good. Happy holidays!

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Welcome to Part III of 12 Songs You Need On Your iPod.

This list is something I’m calling the Goosebumps Edition. I don’t mean this in a scary, book/tv series from the nineties kind of way, but more so in a “these songs tell such heart wrenchingly beautiful stories they give me goosebumps even after I hear them a hundred times” kind of way.

You might think some are a bit cheesy, but, well, I happen to like a bit of cheese now and then. I hope you enjoy at least a few as much as I do.

01. Five For Fighting – “Note To The Unknown Soldier”

02. Butch Walker – “Joan”

03. Tim McGraw – “Don’t Take The Girl”

04. Eminem – “Stan”

05. David Wilcox – “Last Chance Waltz”

06. Ben Folds – “Still Fighting It”

07. Billy Joel – “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’”

08. James Taylor – “Millworker (Live)”

09. Taylor Swift – “The Best Day”

10. Jason Robert Brown – “Nothing In Common”

11. Imogen Heap – “Goodnight & Go”

12. Rascal Flatts – “Skin (Sarabeth)”

HONORABLE MENTION: Bob Carlisle – “Butterfly Kisses.” As a man, this song absolutely wrecks me in my more vulnerable moments, but it’s a little too cheesy, even for this list. Taylor Swift’s “The Best Day” is about as far as I can go without degenerating into a weepy mess all over you.

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…and, more importantly, how have I not seen this before!?

Travel is wondrous. Dancing is a blast. Combining them?

Genius.

(Thanks for the heads-up, Jenny!)

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Here’s a brand new social media facts video from the kind folks at XPLANE and The Economist. I’m always a big fan of the Did You Know? videos; here are a few of my favorite facts from this one:

• More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last two months than if ABC, NBC, and CBS had been airing new content 24/7/365 since 1948 (which was when ABC started broadcasting).
• 95% of all songs downloaded last year weren’t paid for.
• 90% of the 200 billion emails sent every day are spam.

Makes one wonder where it’s all going…

I have some ideas. Love to hear yours below!

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This isn’t a technology blog by any means, but these invisible speakers have the potential to be fairly game-changing for TVs, computers, and game systems. Have your mind blown right around the 2 minute mark.

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The Social Media Revolution video I posted yesterday got some good dialogue going on my Facebook page, so I thought I’d bring it on over here. A couple of my friends brought out some pretty interesting issues… the discussion went like this:

Josh: I am endlessly fascinated about this stuff. I’m actually working on a book that’s all about this “shift” and how it’s SO much deeper than many people think it is. Trying to figure out the best way to release the info (do people really still read books?!?). I’ll keep posting things on the blog as I get it figured out!

Briana: Maybe you will have to do an e-book so people can download and read it on their Kindle, iPod, etc.

Nate: Please don’t ask “do people really still read books” to someone with an MA in Lit.

Josh: I will definitely make all the info available somehow, on the blog, in eBook or something (or everything!). Haha, I think the book question is an interesting one… people don’t need “books” after all, do we? We need stories and information exchange.

Nate: For that remark you have been banned from borrowing any more of my books!!!

Josh: Hahaha I LOVE books. I’m just wondering if our kids will feel the same…?

(Hope you don’t mind my re-posting, friends.)

So, the question is… are we looking down the road at the death of books?

Of course it won’t be today, tomorrow, or the next day — but maybe in our lifetimes?

I suppose the bigger question is: do we really need books to get what we need?

I’m not convinced we do.

What humanity needs are more great stories and ways to continue the infection of good information across our personal networks. Technically speaking, we don’t need books to do either of those things.

As Mr. Shirky says here (love that guy), we don’t need newspapers — we need journalism. I would add that we don’t need CD’s (or even mp3s) — we need music.

As much as I love the feeling of holding and reading a book (it’s pure liquid nostalgia and magic, I tell you!), do they belong on that list as well?

It may just be a matter of time before the Reaper comes for our leather bound first editions.

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My first post of “12 Songs You Need On Your iPod” was surprisingly popular, so I thought I’d do it again. Maybe this should be a regular thing…? I do love promoting good music.

This is a “relatively unknown but should be huge” list. If you don’t know these artists, I hope you’ll get to; as usual, links go straight to iTunes.

1. Owl City – “The Saltwater Room”

2. Wood – “Knock It On The Head”

3. Daphne Loves Derby – “Pollen and Salt”

4. Molly Jenson – “Give It Time”

5. David Mead – “Last Train Home”

6. Katie Herzig & Matthew Perryman Jones – “Where the Road Meets the Sun”

7. Newton Faulkner – “People Should Smile More”

8. Mario Spinetti – “Delirious”

9. Glen Hansard – “Say It To Me Now”

10. Kristian Leontiou – “Shining”

11. Young Love – “Close Your Eyes”

12. Fiction Family – “When She’s Near”

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One of my obsessions is new music. It’s like a drug… and thankfully much cheaper. And even if you’re not as flashy as Elton, in my humble opinion at least, here are 12 songs that will make your iPod categorically better. It’s a proven fact, actually.*

MUSIC STARTS HERE — links go straight to iTunes!
* I did a study. Not really. But it is on Wikipedia.**
** Not really. But you will love this music!

01. Meese – “Next In Line”

02. Everest – “Angry Storm”

03. Deb Talan – “Big Strong Girl”

04. Iron & Wine – “Communion Cups & Someone’s Coat”

05. The Format – “She Doesn’t Get It”

06. The Cast of Glee – “Don’t Stop Believin’”

07. Bell X1 – “Eve, The Apple Of My Eye”

08. Brandi Carlile – “Hiding My Heart”

09. The Rescues – “I Miss Missing You”

10. Jim Bianco – “Painkiller”

11. Augustana – “Rest, Shame, Love”

12. The Weepies – “How You Survived The War”

NEED MORE TUNES!?

• Here’s 12 Songs You Need, Part II
• Here’s 12 Songs You Need, Part III (Goosebumps Edition)
• Here’s 12+1 Songs You Need On Your iPod (Holiday Edition)

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