A quick reminder that Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton join Ziggy Marley on the Tonight Show, er, tonight (March 15). They'll be helping out with "I Love You Too" from Marley's Grammy-winning album Family Time. It's not the song that Mitchell helped out with on the album, but it'll do. Here's another version of the track to get you in the mood...
Ziggy Marley - "I Love You Too" [YouTube]
Do Kids' Musicians Get the Royal(ty) Treatment or Royalty Screwed?
Some posts are meant to be.
A couple weeks back, when I started Zooglobble Radio (go listen now, really), I got into a brief discussion with another person in the industry involved in terrestrial radio in some way. They reported their playlists, but expressed doubt that it was really benefitting the artists they played on the station. They mentioned one artist in particular that they'd played literally dozens if not hundreds of times that had never received a single royalty check. (I chose Live365 in large part because I wanted to make sure artists got paid, and they're the only internet radio provider that provides full SoundExchange payment.)
So when I saw this Los Angeles Times article about royalty payments paid by SoundExchange, a non-profit group created by Congress to distribute royalties from digital and satellite media streams, I thought this might be of interest.
And then I read the first paragraphs:
When John Boydston got an e-mail from SoundExchange saying he had several thousand dollars in unclaimed royalties, he did what most sensible people would do. He ignored it. To the rock musician from Atlanta, "money for nothing" meant a song by Dire Straits, not a stranger contacting him out of the blue promising to cut him big checks. But then he got the message again six months later. Curious, he called SoundExchange. "Sure enough, they had a sizable amount of money for me," said Boydston, 51, whose band Daddy a Go Go includes his two teenage sons. "It was several thousand dollars. That's not a ton of money. But for a guy who makes CDs in his basement, it was enough to finance my next album."That's right, that's SXSW artist Daddy A Go Go there. So here's my question for you, kid rockers -- is SoundExchange a major part of your income stream, a minor part, or no part at all? And if so, why (or why not)?
This Oran Etkin / Putumayo Kids Thing Might Just Work Out
Seriously, check out Oran Etkin, whose duet with Charenee Wade on "Little Lamb Jam" is featured on the latest Putumayo Kids disk, Jazz Playground. I don't need much more than a tuba and Dizzy's "Salt Peanuts" to make me happy, and this collection of bits from a recent Jazz Playground Concert Tour concert in Philly has both. Let there be a long, fruitful partnership.
Video from Etkin (plus a bonus video from the album) after the jump...The Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll: #s 25-11
Here's a list of album numbers 11 through 25 of the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll. For a few more comments on the methodology, go here, but you may as well just dig in... because it's gonna take a little while.
25. Family Dance - Dan Zanes
Points: 136
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2001
Zanes' second foray into music for families. Unlike its predecessor Rocket Ship Beach, this album to me feels like his first real "age-desegregated" album, with less of the more kid-focused stuff on the first disk.
24. Easy - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo
Points: 137
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2008 (released in 2009)
I'm not the only person to have said it -- it's the first great kids hip-hop album, but saying so makes it sound like its appeal would be limited. It's not.
23. Rocket Ship Beach - Dan Zanes
Points: 140
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2000
Sure, Laurie Berkner and Justin Roberts released albums before this one came out, but if there was an album that first made people in the world at large aware of a resurgent genre, it was this one.
22. On a Flying Guitar - SteveSongs
Points: 144
Ballots: 6
Release date: 2000
The second SteveSongs disk, and the first after Steve Roslonek left his job as a business consultant to perform music for kids full-time. It's worked out well for him, I think.
21. Singable Songs for the Very Young - Raffi
Points: 146
Ballots: 6
Release date: 1976
It's been said (though by whom has been lost to the mists of time and the internet) that this album, Raffi's first, basically created the kids' music genre from a sales perspective. Seeing as the album has gone platinum, that's not entirely surprising.The Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll: Results Introduction
I'm about to post the first part of results from the Top Kids Music Albums of All Time Poll, and I wanted to start off by thanking everyone who voted lo these many months ago. Nearly 90 folks submitted ballots, which I thought was an excellent response. And I also want to thank everyone for their patience while I compiled these results.
One note on the results I'll be presenting here. The rules I outlined in my original post asked people to vote for 10 albums, with point ratings from 1 to 10, but people could submit fewer than 10 albums with points reduced accordingly. As I received votes, however, I realized a couple things:
1) The disparity between a tenth place vote and a first place vote was far too large
2) By permitting one- or two-vote ballots (albeit at a discounted value), it didn't discourage persons who wanted to specifically promote one artist at the cost of all others.
So, prior to tabulating votes, I decided to change the scoring methodology as follows:
1) Rather than scoring votes from 1 to 10, I scored votes from 18 to 27. (There was a justification for selecting that range, but it's not worth getting into.)
2) I disqualified all ballots with fewer than five votes.
I will be describing the top 25 albums using the revised methodology, but will publish (after the full results are revealed) both sets of results.
So I hope you enjoy the results. There are a lot of familiar faces, a few (relatively) unfamiliar ones, and a lot of time both in the voting and in the compiling. Enjoy.My Favorite Kids Music Videos of 2009
As much as 2009 was a great year for kids music, I think it might have been even more the year of the kids music video. In past years, coming up with 16 good kids music videos, let alone 20, was hard work. This year, it was hard, but not because there wasn't enough good stuff. There was too much good stuff.
I'm still not sure why that is -- while you have your fair share of material developed for DVDs or TV pilots, there are still plenty of videos on this list that seem created solely for the purpose of promoting a song or album (and perhaps amusing their creators). But it doesn't really matter, does it? Here, then, are my 20 favorite kids music videos from 2009 (2009 defined roughly as March 1, 2009 - February 28, 2010), starting off with the #1 video of the year... (or you can watch the whole list at my YouTube playlist of these 20 great kids music videos).
1. They Might Be Giants - "Meet the Elements" [YouTube]
Videos are flavor enhancers -- they don't do much for a bland song, no matter how technically proficient or cool the visuals are. But a good video can go a long ways toward implanting a song into the brain. And combine a great song with a great video, and you can put this result at the entryway to They Might Be Giants' wing in the Kids Music Video Hall of Fame.
