Those WWW Links

By Ken Casper

With a brand new year upon us, I thought I'd take this month's column and list in one tidy little place some of the useful web links I've mentioned in the past. You know, those www dot things that look like www.louisvillemusicnews.com. You see them everywhere these days, planted on everything from buses to bus stop shelters. All of the links mentioned in this column, or in any article in LMN, become mouse clickable on the LMN website. For those of you who might have picked up your first copy of LMN, there is a companion website where you can stay current with what is happening on the local music scene. I don't mean to discourage you from rushing to your favorite music store or eatery on the first of each month to grab your copy, but if you just can't wait for that feature article about your favorite band, just click here: www.louisvillemusicnews.com. Or here: LMN. You can even read and print archived columns in back issues of LMN.

Several months ago, when I first started writing this column, I created a station on www.Mp3.com to showcase local talent. You can visit the station at www.mp3.com/stations/lky. And if hip-hop is your thing, try www.mp3.com/stations/lkyhip. I've added up to three songs from each artist who asked to be included on these stations. I've also added songs by local artists I've run across on Mp3.com. To play these stations, or any Mp3 files for that matter, you'll need a media player. You can download one from Microsoft, but my favorite is Winamp. These stations are excellent collections of music you can visit anytime. Unlike traditional radio stations, where you have no choices in what you hear or when you hear any particular song, you have control over these stations. The Showcase Louisville station has a playlist featuring 71 songs by 26 artists. It's nearly five hours of music which you can listen to in stereo high fidelity if you have high-speed access to the Internet, or mono lo-fi if you have a 56K dialup connection. You can let it stream non-stop and listen while you read LMN. You can skip songs you don't like, or visit other artists' Mp3.com pages to listen to more of their tunes. Many of the artists on these stations actually earn a few pennies from your plays of their songs on Mp3.com. Song rankings on Mp3.com are also based upon number of song plays and CD sales. You can actually preview songs and buy a CD of your favorite artist from their Mp3.com site. Either way, you'll be promoting the local music scene.

While we're on the subjects of links and stations, let's not forget about www.undergroundlou.com. UndergroundLou has the most complete listing I've seen of links to local bands' websites. They are also webcasting to thousands of listeners, a playlist of 300 songs daily, complete with DJ's and some lively banter. If you are an artist, make sure you contact the folks at UndergroundLou and ask them to play your music. Their station, broadcast via www.live365.com, is not genre specific. All local music is welcome there.

Regular readers of this column may remember my September column about the Mp3 Grammy Awards. Sorry, the website no longer exists. Counsel to the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (the "Academy") made it all too clear in their certified letter that my little website was not authorized to use their trademark in our domain name. It took them three pages to say they were expensive lawyers, that the academy was displeased because we used their little statuette name and that we'd better cease and desist before they sued our collective butts (mine and the website designer's). Buried in all the legal mumbo jumbo, they also made it perfectly clear that we didn't have a chance of winning a lawsuit. The website designer pulled the plug. Oh well, at least I'm being noticed by someone in the recording industry.

In closing, I'd like to quote an artist friend, John DeBoer, who emailed me his thoughts on the current state of indie music. "A real alternative to Hollywood hype and Fifth Avenue crap. The Internet music scene is alive and well... Diversity is out there to be freely had. There is no excuse for lack of choice any more. They just can't cram it down your throat like they used to unless you let them."

Ken Casper is a lead vocalist/guitarist/songwriter for Crush! and can be contacted at kgcasper@bellsouth.net or through www.mp3.com/crushrocks. email to have your band's Mp3.com listed tunes added to the Mp3.com Showcase Louisville stations mentioned herein.