Live gigs in danger!

MUSIC PETITION UK
There is a government move to make it very difficult for musicians to perform live in small venues, or for schools, pubs and charities to raise money for causes through musical events.
The new legislation will inhibit the central role music making has in our lives and communities.
If you circulate this to your musician (and non-musician!) friends, all each person has to do is go to the government's petitions website below, give your name, email and address - it takes about 30 seconds. And it could make a vital difference to the nurturing of community music making, and enabling young musicians to find their feet in the performing world.
The live music/licensing e-petition now has nearly 19,000 signatures. It currently stands at no.19 in the list of 1,702 petitions on the Number 10 website.
This is good, especially in just under a month - and there are five more months in which people can sign. But the petition needs to do much better to make an impression on ministers, and to encourage DCMS to implement music-friendly amendments.

website: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/licensing/

Peakz back on Radio 1

Our very fave band Peakz escaped from their North Wales lair and made a daring cyber-raid on the Beeb, ensuring Welsh DJ extraordinaire Huw Stephens played their track 'Follow Me' on his late night show on Radio 1 Wednesday night/Thursday early morning.
Fortunately you can listen again here if you were unable to make it and learn more about Peakz in their North Wales fastnesses at Audley Music.

Eric von Schmidt 1931-2007

Eric von Schmidt
Singer and writer who inspired Bob Dylan
Michael Carlson
Monday February 5, 2007

The Guardian

Eric von Schmidt, who has died aged 75, was a captivating performer and songwriter, but his legacy remains firmly tied to Bob Dylan. A major figure in the Cambridge (Massachusetts) folk scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was a man of huge generosity to his fellow musicians.
When Dylan travelled to Cambridge, where he met Joan Baez, he crashed with von Schmidt, learned songs from him, and played his first game of croquet stoned. Dylan repaid the hospitality on his first album by crediting "Rick von Schmidt" in the spoken introduction to Baby Let Me Follow You Down, although, in fact, von Schmidt's own version was adapted from Blind Boy Fuller's original. Three years later, Dylan posed for the cover of Bringing It All Back Home next to a pile of records. On top was The Folk Blues of Eric von Schmidt.

Even that plug did not propel von Schmidt to stardom, but stardom was something he never sought. He had a parallel career as a painter, including album covers for Baez, Cisco Houston, John Renborn, Rev Gary Davis, Geoff and Maria Muldaur and even for James Baldwin's readings. His masterpiece was the gatefold Sweet Moments with the Blue Velvet Band, a short-lived bluegrass supergroup featuring Jim Rooney, Bill Keith, Eric Weissberg, and Richard Greene, which included a board game over both inside panels.

His artistic talent came from his father, Harold, a Western painter who did illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. Born in Wesport, Connecticut, von Schmidt was selling his artwork while still a teenager. He had been captivated by country music after hearing the Grand Ole Opry on the radio, and at 17 he was listening to Leadbelly.

While in the army, he read Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, and discovered he could order peyote legally by post, which made his army experience more rewarding. After a spell in Florida, he won a Fulbright scholarship to study art in Florence. He moved to Cambridge in 1957, where he painted and became the centre of the coffeehouse scene. He recorded his first album, featuring the song Grizzly Bear in 1961 with folk historian Rolf Cahn. In 1963 he and Richard Farina recorded in London's Dobell's Jazz Record store, with one Blind Boy Grunt (Dylan) on harmonica. That was followed by Folk Blues, with Geoff Muldaur and Fritz Richmond from the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. His fourth, Eric Sings von Schmidt, again with Muldaur, included Joshua's Gone Barbados, one of the most covered of all folk songs, including the Basement Tapes epic version by Dylan and The Band.

He was at his peak, but despite a rapturous reception at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where Farina and his wife Mimi Baez, Joan's sister, famously danced to his singing, Dylan's going electric overshadowed him. His next album did not appear until 1969. Who Knocked the Brains Out of the Sky is surprising psychedelic folk, with Dylan writing the liner notes. Von Schmidt then ventured to Woodstock to make two records. The first, 2nd Right 3rd Row, was released in 1972 on Poppy Records. Poppy folded before releasing its follow-up, Livin' on the Trail, also featuring the Band's Garth Hudson and Geoff and Maria Muldaur, with Rooney producing. The tapes were rediscovered and finally released in 2002. In the ensuing 30 years, von Schmidt made only two records.

His art career flourished and, with Rooney, he wrote a brilliant history of the Cambridge folk years called Baby Let Me Follow You Down (1979).

In 2000 he developed throat cancer. That year he received a lifetime achievement award from the society of music publishers, ASCAP, and was serenaded with his and Tom Rush's What a Mighty Storm. It was a tribute to a singer whom Dylan said "could sing the bird off the wire and rubber off the tire ...separate the men from the boys and the note from the noise".

Twice divorced, he is survived by two daughters.

· Eric von Schmidt, musician, born May 28 1931; died February 2 2007



Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007

What do you know about MyLot?

One of the more popular social web forums online which pays its users to participate in discussions, myLOT has certainly grown rapidly since its humble beginnings in the earlier part of 2006. With over 65000 users, it’s become a mecca of some sort for users looking to make some extra income online.

Several readers have written in to friends and mylot admin asking for an article on how to maximize myLOT earnings. This list came about as a result of some research and experiments over a period of a week and I do hope that it helps anyone who’s crazy about myLOT as a option for making some income online. Personally, I’m rather fascinated with how so many people are, shall we say, addicted to myLOT’s earning program.

If you’re new to myLOT, you might also want to start by reading this detailed review for more background information.

Getting Referrals: Put your earnings on Autopilot

One of the best ways to make money with myLOT is through it’s referral system, which pays you 25% of earnings for each person you refer to the community. Having a great number of hardworking referrals definitely automates your earnings without having to spend lots of time online. Referrals are basically like Adsense, you don’t have to do much except monitor your earnings occasionally. The million dollar question: How does one get many active referrals for myLot?

Here are some suggestions:
1. Set up a blog or webpage to advertise the benefit of MyLOT. Promote this blog or webpage by giving the link to friends and families. Also try link exchanging with relevant blogs or websites.

2. Participate in many forums. Always do a topic search for ‘myLOT‘ and read the forum rules regarding advertising and referral links. Nobody wants to constantly read about myLOT over and over again, so take note of that. This will help you to avoid spamming, reposting and getting banned.

3. Send an email to everyone on your Inbox. Keep it polite, simple and short. A pretty traditional method but you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn how many referrals you canget this way.

4. Leave comments and your link on blogs with a relevant topic/subject/niche. This is a tricky task because you don’t want to come across as a nasty referral link spammer. Make sure the blog post you are leaving a comment on is within the “make money online” niche or specifically relates to myLOT. Do not just leave your link without sincerely commenting on the specific blog post itself. The easiest way to find such blogs would be to do a search about such topics on Blogger, Wordpress.com and Technorati.

5. Advertise. Do it the good old affiliate marketing way. As stated earlier, set up a sell page with information on MYLOT. Create a very attractive banner or button. Spend some money buying prominent ad space on high traffic blogs or websites. If you’re a hardcore myLOT fanatic, you can even try using Google’s AdWords as an promotional campaign.

6. Stick up posters or one page ads on free bulletin boards or street corners. You could either put down your referral link or just list an email if you want to personally explain the process to anyone who’s interested in signing up. A tad aggressive and time-consuming but if you’re mad about myLOT, it’ll help.

7. Put up a silly video about myLOT on Youtube or any other social video website. This might sound a little ridiculous but it’s all in good fun and never fails to get loads of attention. Remember to include a webpage which promotes your myLOT referral link.

Discussion Hacks: Maximize your earnings.

Because myLOT does not reveal it’s earnings algorithm or rates, many users have tried to experiment with several techniques to increase their earnings. Here are some of the tried-and-tested methods that do work to noticeably increase daily earnings.

8. Set a target to hit and resolve to complete it within the day. For example, you might decide to start at least 10 discussions and/or write at least 50 responses to questions every day.

9. Divide your work. Work at answering questions before beginning to start discussions. I usually feel that this helps to speed up your rate while keeping you focused.

10. Start open-ended discussions. Don’t ask questions that can lead to a yes/no answer. This increases the overall quality of your discussions.

11. Reply to everyone that responds to your discussion topics. This has the benefit of prolonging the discussion and increases your earnings.

12. Rate each reply to your questions by actively using the + and - buttons at the bottom of every reply.

13. Use a lot of tags for every question or reply. If you always ask questions in a specific area, write down the tags in a notepad so you can copy and paste it immediately after posting replies or discussion topics. Tags definitely increase your earnings while ensuring that your discussion is more widely read.

14. Post interesting pictures to discussions as well as the interests section. You’ll get paid for images too so it’s good to put some effort in that.

15. Don’t only post in one topic, try spending more time on a wide variety of topics. Some users have claimed that posting consistently in one topic reduces the rate of earnings.

16. Maintain high quality posts. The strength of your post partially depends on the + and - rating next to it. Encourage your readers to rate your discussions well.

17. Work with other MyLot fans. Start a group of determined posters and work with them by mutual responding to each other’s discussions.

18. Complete the ‘My Interests’ section and start a discussion by clicking on one of the interest categories. This possibly leads to increased earnings and also greater profile views/interaction.

19. Rotate posting duties. Get someone to post on your behalf using the same account. Stick with a brother/sister or friend who you can trust. Take turns posting at different hours of the day and of course, try to share the profits!

20. Link off your blog. If you run a blog, lead your readers to myLOT discussions you’ve started by dropping a link at the end of your blog post. If they’re myLOT users, they’ll probably particpate and extend the discussion. If they aren’t, you’ll most likely get a new referral.

There you have it. You might want to implement a few methods daily to see the difference in earnings yourself. If you aren’t already registered with myLOT, start by signing up here.
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