Independent Artist Devo Spice Takes on iTunes
Devo Spice is trying to prove that you don't need the backing of a major record label to make a splash on iTunes. His new album Gnome Sane comes out on April 1st and he is asking all his fans to buy it on that day from iTunes. He is hoping that if all of his fans buy the album from the same place on the same day, the album will get pushed up the iTunes charts giving him more publicity, exposure, and ultimately more sales.
Stockholm, NJ, April 01, 2011 --(PR.com)-- An independent musician is trying to prove that you don't need the backing of a major record label to make a splash on iTunes. The artist, Devo Spice, is doing an iTunes rush on April 1st. His new album Gnome Sane comes out then and he is asking all his fans to buy it on that day from iTunes. He is hoping that if all of his fans buy the album from the same place on the same day the album will get pushed up the iTunes charts giving him more publicity, exposure, and ultimately more sales. And he is doing this without the help of any record label.
"I've seen several authors do this when their books were released on Amazon.com," Devo says. "I want to see if the same thing works with music on iTunes."
Devo Spice is a dementia artist, that is, an artist whose music is intended to make the listener laugh. Fans of funny music have shunned the term "novelty music," in recent years because it implies that the novelty wears off and the songs aren't listenable after that. They prefer the term "dementia," an homage to Dr. Demento whose weekly show of comedy music was heard nationwide for almost 40 years and now continues on the internet. Devo Spice specifically does hip hop and has found a niche for his music not only among the dementia crowd but in the nerdcore community as well, where rappers talk about hacking, video games, and nerd life, instead of guns, drugs, and thug life.
Devo's new album Gnome Sane (a play on the common hip hop phrase "Do you know what I'm saying?") will be released on April 1st and to encourage his fans to help with the iTunes rush he is running a special promotion. Anyone who buys Gnome Sane from iTunes on April 1st will receive the physical CD of Gnome Sane for free as well as a bonus CD called Nah Meen (a play on the phrase "Do you know what I mean?"), also for free.
Gnome Sane contains 19 tracks of funny rap songs totaling 70 minutes of music. Several of the tracks have been released to The FuMP, or The Funny Music Project, and have become hits already. "Platform Wars," a battle rap between the Mac and PC in Apple's famous commercials, became the 4th most requested song of 2009 on The Dr. Demento Show. The album also contains "I Hate Mondays," a parody of "I Love College" by Asher Roth, which is Devo Spice's highest rated song ever on Jango. The bonus CD Nah Meen contains 13 additional tracks, 7 by Devo Spice and 6 by other artists which feature Devo as a guest vocalist. Nah Meen will not be sold. The only way to get it is to participate in the iTunes rush on April 1st.
To help promote the new album Devo has been podcasting it one song at a time on his usually monthly podcast The Insider. Starting in mid-February, Devo began releasing an episode every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each with a different song from the album along with full commentary by Devo himself. The final episode of The Insider containing a track from the album will be released on April 1st when the album comes out. The song contained in that episode, a duet with Oglio recording artist MC Lars called "Earworm," will also be posted to The FuMP on April 1st.
Additionally Devo Spice has done a series of interviews to help promote the album, including one for The Nerdy Show with Nerdapalooza creator John "Hex" Carter and even a phone in interview with Dr. Demento. All of this effort is to focus on the release date and iTunes.
"I've seen this technique work very well for authors," Devo says. "I know iTunes is a huge market, but I'm confident we can make our way onto the charts. I guess I'll find out Friday."
On the web:
Devo Spice: http://www.devospice.com
The Insider: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dsinsider
The FuMP: http://www.thefump.com
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"I've seen several authors do this when their books were released on Amazon.com," Devo says. "I want to see if the same thing works with music on iTunes."
Devo Spice is a dementia artist, that is, an artist whose music is intended to make the listener laugh. Fans of funny music have shunned the term "novelty music," in recent years because it implies that the novelty wears off and the songs aren't listenable after that. They prefer the term "dementia," an homage to Dr. Demento whose weekly show of comedy music was heard nationwide for almost 40 years and now continues on the internet. Devo Spice specifically does hip hop and has found a niche for his music not only among the dementia crowd but in the nerdcore community as well, where rappers talk about hacking, video games, and nerd life, instead of guns, drugs, and thug life.
Devo's new album Gnome Sane (a play on the common hip hop phrase "Do you know what I'm saying?") will be released on April 1st and to encourage his fans to help with the iTunes rush he is running a special promotion. Anyone who buys Gnome Sane from iTunes on April 1st will receive the physical CD of Gnome Sane for free as well as a bonus CD called Nah Meen (a play on the phrase "Do you know what I mean?"), also for free.
Gnome Sane contains 19 tracks of funny rap songs totaling 70 minutes of music. Several of the tracks have been released to The FuMP, or The Funny Music Project, and have become hits already. "Platform Wars," a battle rap between the Mac and PC in Apple's famous commercials, became the 4th most requested song of 2009 on The Dr. Demento Show. The album also contains "I Hate Mondays," a parody of "I Love College" by Asher Roth, which is Devo Spice's highest rated song ever on Jango. The bonus CD Nah Meen contains 13 additional tracks, 7 by Devo Spice and 6 by other artists which feature Devo as a guest vocalist. Nah Meen will not be sold. The only way to get it is to participate in the iTunes rush on April 1st.
To help promote the new album Devo has been podcasting it one song at a time on his usually monthly podcast The Insider. Starting in mid-February, Devo began releasing an episode every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each with a different song from the album along with full commentary by Devo himself. The final episode of The Insider containing a track from the album will be released on April 1st when the album comes out. The song contained in that episode, a duet with Oglio recording artist MC Lars called "Earworm," will also be posted to The FuMP on April 1st.
Additionally Devo Spice has done a series of interviews to help promote the album, including one for The Nerdy Show with Nerdapalooza creator John "Hex" Carter and even a phone in interview with Dr. Demento. All of this effort is to focus on the release date and iTunes.
"I've seen this technique work very well for authors," Devo says. "I know iTunes is a huge market, but I'm confident we can make our way onto the charts. I guess I'll find out Friday."
On the web:
Devo Spice: http://www.devospice.com
The Insider: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dsinsider
The FuMP: http://www.thefump.com
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Contact
Devo Spice
Tom Rockwell
201-317-2732
www.devospice.com
Tom Rockwell
201-317-2732
www.devospice.com
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