Nick Edelstein » video

Creative Twitter Hurdles Simfy on FB

Sara — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:07:47 +0000

Some very interesting things happened online today.Twitter launched a photo sharing service. Simfy beat Spotify to Facebook. Facebook’s behavior re: Pages brought some artists to reconsider their methods of fan interaction. Creative Commons is now on YouTube. Overall it was a great day of progress, introspection and optomism.

The Twitter photo sharing thing doesn’t suprise me, honestly. NPR did an exposé on Twitpic’s Terms and Conditions clause recently, which generated a bit of negative buzz. Even Ellen DeGeneres announced she would never TwitPic again. So naturally Twitter has seized an opportunity to play hero. More suprising is Simfy! Talk about the underdog. Nobody predicted this: German music streaming service Simfy launched their Facebook player just a week after news broke that Spotify was working on FB integration. Awesome.

So, is Facebook commandeering mid-level artists’ Pages? Some successful, non-major-label artists such as Zoe Keating noticed their Pages have been reclassified (not replaced) as “Community Pages.” The official status they previously held has now been granted to a new, Wikipedia-fed Page. While it’s not clear whether the Wiki Pages were auto-generated or made by FB staff, this mystery doesn’t stop at reclassification. When I type “Zoe Keating” into the search bar, her Page doesn’t even show up! That’s right. When I do a blanket search for her name, select “show all results” and narrow the search to Pages, it does not appear. Since it’s been a few hours, this is unlikely due to propagation delays. Weird. Unsettling.
Update: Keating’s Page was restored to “Official” status hours later, after hundreds of emails and tweets and comments had been published. Other affected artists are still struggling. Luckily this did not affect any of the Pages owned by NESS Records.

In other / better news, the creative commons license - first discovered by this artist via the European community Tribe Of Noise – has now become so mainstream that YouTube offers it as an alternative to standard copyright. YouTube announced today that it now supports Creative Commons licenses and launched a huge library of 10,000 CC videos (read the official press release here). Awesome, yes. In no way do I wish to diminish the awesomeness. However, this illustrates one HUGE way that major-label artists, major news orgs, etc. will be and have always been separated from us independants. Those 10,000 videos in the library. They are from major networks. Part of the launch, the coverage, the hype. With me? No? Look at iTunes: major artists get iTunes Exclusives and other special extras. Major artists get first crack at major breakthroughs in social media and tech. Dave Matthews had a custom Page and vanity URL before any indie artist, for example. This will forever be a hurdle that indie artists attempt to jump.

I fondly remember the days when being on iTunes was impressive. It was brand new … most people still didn’t have iPods … smartphones were only found in the hands of businessmen. Telling people your music was on iTunes gave you instant street cred and often times, before you could finish uttering the sentence, you’d converted strangers into fans. Now, everyone and their brother has their music on iTunes. Who knows if an opportunity like that will present itself again?

… now, who doesn’t wanna watch Bill Cosby playing piano on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno?!? http://bit.ly/cosbyonleno

New Videos on YouTube

Nick — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:08:30 +0000

Uploaded brand spankin’ new videos on YouTube from the Dunwoody Music Festival, thanks to super-fan Scott Brown and my wife’s iMac!

Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/NickEdelsteinBand OK now, blast away!
IF YOU HAVE FAN FOOTAGE or FAN FOTOS to share, please do! You can upload photos directly on the Gallery page of this website! ~Nick

Bo Diddley has passed …

Sara — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:05:09 +0000

Hello again friends! Last week was filled with more sadness as we learned of the passing of another Blues legend on June 2, and the great news journalist Tim Russert on June 13. I wanted to write a good obituary for Bo Diddley, but time was limited in my schedule. Fortunately the Associated Press did an excellent job in their attempt so I’ve pasted it below. Please keep the greats alive in your thoughts! ~Nick

Bo Diddley,
born Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel on Dec 30, 1928 in McComb, MS
Died Jun 2, 2008 in Archer, FL
“Bo Diddley gets a rocking sendoff at Fla. funeral” by Brendan Farrington, Associated Press Writer

GAINESVILLE — Bo Diddley’s funeral rocked and rolled Saturday with as much energy as his music. For four hours, friends and relatives sang, danced and celebrated the life of the man who helped give birth to rock and roll with a signature beat that influenced Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and many others. As family members passed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s casket, a gospel band played his namesake song. Within moments the crowd of several hundred began clapping in time and shouting, “Hey, Bo Diddley!”
Diddley, 79, died of heart failure Monday at his home in nearby Archer. “In 1955 he used to keep the crowds rocking and rolling way before Elvis Presley,” Diddley’s grandson, Garry Mitchell, said before kicking his legs sideways, high up in the air, the way Diddley did onstage. Mourners cheered. “I’m just telling it the way it is,” Mitchell said.
Diddley, who was born Ellas Bates and became Ellas McDaniel when he took the last name of a cousin who raised him, was remembered for much more than his songs. Friends recounted his generosity, manifested in concerts for the homeless and work with youth groups and other charities; and the way he loved to talk to just about anybody he met. Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan referred to one of his most famous hits as she told the crowd, “When the question is asked, “Who do you love?” it’s you, Bo.”
The funeral was followed by a tribute concert featuring his touring band and other musicians.
Eric Burdon, leader of the rock group The Animals, attended the service, and flowers were sent from musicians including Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Petty, George Thorogood and others.
Burdon, also a member of the Rock Hall, called Diddley a big influence. “I’ve been a fan of his since 16, 17 years of age. Probably one of the first records I ever owned,” Burdon said, recalling that his attention was immediately grabbed when he saw an album cover with Diddley sitting on a scooter with a square guitar.
Burdon said he saw Diddley play last year at a concert in Australia, and even though he could tell his health wasn’t great, Diddley put tremendous energy into the show. He was known for his stage moves, which some presume influenced Presley.
“He’s always been jumping around and very aggressive; if he was onstage with the Stones, he was obviously putting Keith Richards in his place,” Burdon said. In describing the “shave and a haircut two bits” rhythm Diddley made famous, Burdon said, “I call it bone music, because it goes to your bone.”
But stories of another side of Diddley were told repeatedly at the funeral. A man who loved God and his family, who would always stop to talk in the grocery store and always was smiling.
His brother, Rev. Kenneth Haynes of Biloxi, MS, said Diddley always asked how he could help and what he could give.
“There was one thing he wouldn’t give me. That’s his hat,” Haynes said, referring to the black hat the musician was also known for.
But Haynes said his brother grew weary of life on the road. “But this is what God gave me to feed my family,” Haynes recalled Diddley saying. “I have to keep doing it until God says it’s enough.”
Diddley was born in McComb, MS. He moved to rural Archer in the early 1980s and had a recording studio on his 76 acres. Mitchell joked that Diddley got up so early, he would tap the roosters on the shoulder to wake them up. And he always sang at breakfast. Diddley’s friend Roosevelt Hutchinson described how the musician would wrap meat in several layers of tin foil, bury it and light a fire on top to cook it. Once the fire was lit, he would grab his guitar.
“He just enjoyed playing that thing under those trees,” Hutchinson said. But he enjoyed his family even more, friends said. He had four children, 15 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.
“Please know this, because I know Diddley,” the guitarist’s business manager, Faith Fusillo, told his family. “As much as you loved him, he loved you more.”

Digital Cafe Tour, Top 50 chart!

Nick — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:38:33 +0000

Dear family and friends, I’m thrilled to announce our placement in the Top 50 chart on www.DigitalCafeTour.com! The congratulatory email I received is pasted here:

“Nick Edelstein Band, Congratulations on being selected as a Top 50 Winner of Live 2.0 Independents’ Day! Top 10 and Top 4 will be next in our announcement schedule. Good luck in the next round of selections!
Best Regards,
Tom Walker, President, DCT”

As always, I’ll keep you posted when I get more info. Thanks for ALL of your support, you’re the best fans IN THE WORLD! ~Nick

WUGA videos uploaded (finally!)

Nick — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 18:39:24 +0000

Dear friends and family, apologies for it taking so many months to upload these videos. The truth is we were waiting on having the editing done. Not that there was THAT much to edit – on the contrary we did very little editing (basically just added a splash page and did fade-outs for endings). No, we just were so busy that we didn’t begin the editing process until last week. So here they are – all four songs which I performed live on the air on October 12, 2007. Enjoy ~NE click to watch on YouTube

Friday morning, Oct. 12

Nick — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:00:28 +0000

I think perhaps I have seen more than my share of 3 AMs at the young age of 24. My eyes are heavy but I can not rest. My mind races. These 48 hours are jam-packed with excitement and “firsts.” Last night I played a concert for the University of GA. As a student I recall dreaming of the day that I would return to entertain my alma mater. While the show did not take place in Hodgeson Hall, it was in the Grand Ballroom of the student center. Also, our concert was the opening event of a Georgia Scholastic Press Association conference – the inaugural year – so the audience was comprised of about 200 high school students. While this number does not approach my personal record, it was the best/biggest production I’ve ever done to that age group. Another exciting aspect of the show was performing as a 5-piece (drum/bass/guitar/organ/sax). While this was not the first time I’ve had a 5-pc. band, it was with some of the best musicians I’ve ever played with. And, thanks to a recent run of good luck, the 5-pc. setup is increasingly more common. When I began my solo project in 2004 I dreamt of someday having a permanent saxophonist and I feel that may soon happen. So, the audience was really awesome! We got tons of applause and cheers, and autograph requests. It was great. We took video. It’ll be online (on this blog) ASAP.

‘night ~NE