Someone on Twitter posted about a new Australian-based online music service called Guvera. Its principle is free music streaming and downloading, paid for by targeted advertising. I love music, and I love free stuff – win win for me. So I was in.

You can register for a beta account at Guvera.com – I was worried that being in ‘beta’ might make it tough to get an account… but within a few minutes, I got an email saying my account was ready. Don’t know how readily they’ll be dishing out accounts, or when it will go completely “public” or out of beta – but there’s nothing to stop you from registering an account. I logged in, and was directed to update my profile in order to get “credits”. Essentially this just involves going through 11 different categories and saying what you like in each section… so that the advertising is aimed at you. Don’t totally understand the whole “credits” thing.

Once that was completed, it was onto the music. First thing was that the streaming wasn’t working – both at work on my PC using IE and on my Mac using Safari. Little bit annoying. But the downloading works perfectly.

It seems to all be done based on ‘channels’ – each channel is an advertiser who then sponsors those downloads. Whether that happens in actual fact, or whether money just changes hands in bulk amounts that’s then paid onto the record companies, it isn’t clear. Doesn’t matter I guess. But when you search for a song, you’re presented with a handful of channels who’re offering that song. And you visit their page, which is filled with plenty of info about their product, and you can then download a 256kbps MP3 of the song.

Pretty sweet deal.

So what’s the catch? There doesn’t seem to be one – just that there’s copious amounts of advertising. But that’s obvious based on the fact that those guys are paying for your music. And another very minor downside is that you don’t have the ability to download full albums – you have to search for and download all the individual tracks, but again, this is expected because you therefore have to see more advertising to get your music. There’s a bundle of terms & conditions, but none of them seem anything much different to what you’d expect from an online music store (such as iTunes) – it just states that your login is for your personal use only, and that when you download the song, you receive one licence to play the music only on your personal equipment. Nothing out of the ordinary there.

As for the music available – Guvera say they have the whole catalogues of EMI, Vigin and Capitol (pretty much just EMI) on board right now, and say they’re working on IODA, Universal and the rest of the world’s music. Presumably, when they say “the rest of the world’s music”, that will also include Warner and Sony. Really, if we just do some generalisation of the Big Four music labels (EMI, Universal, Sony & Warner), they’ve only got 25% of the world’s music at the moment. But it is only in beta I guess. They do say in the registration email that throughout 2010 they are “expanding available music to every major music artist in the world.” That’s a big statement. But hopefully it will mean that the missing labels of Warner, Sony & Universal aren’t far away.

Legitimacy? Well, I am very certain this is totally legit. From what I understand, there have been press releases about Guvera, and they’ve been saying loud and proud that they have EMI and Universal on board. Their company is based in Queensland, and so I’m sure that they would’ve been quickly and swiftly dealt with by those music lawyers had any of this not been legit. So fear not.

As far as artists getting paid any more or less than, say, iTunes Music Store? As far as I understand, it doesn’t make a squat of difference whether you pay $1.69 per song, or whether you deal with looking at ads and download it for free now via Guvera – the record company is still getting whatever fee the outlet (iTMS or Guvera or Bigpond) has negotiated with the individual record label, and thus the artist then gets their agreed royalty that they have with their record label. It’s just that Guvera have set up their company to have advertisers pay them plenty of money to cover all their charges to the record companies.

I’ll certainly be looking to use it next time I think of an album or songs that I want – advertising sucks me in any normal time… surely I can’t be that much worse off looking at a little more to get some music :) And I’ll just say a big thanks to McDonalds or Contiki or Bacardi  for buying me some new music.

I think it’s great to see something like this in Australia – the US have a bundle of free music streaming sites (that are strictly for US users), but I’m not actually sure if they have anything like this where they can download music for free. But at the moment, Guvera is strictly Australian – run by a company in Queensland, solely for Australians. Pretty cool.

And I like the sounds of something in their ‘about’ section: And if that’s not cool enough, film & TV isn’t too far behind.

For me, they are really up there as one of my all time favourite bands – even though the majority of their music was written well before I was even born.

I’d bought my tickets to the V8s in Homebush way back in May – there was no way that B2, Steve, my Dad and I were going to miss one of the best street race events. We knew there was some kind of concert entertainment that was yet to be announced, but we didn’t think much of it – we were going for the racing! Well, that was until September rolled around, and it was announced that Cold Chisel was reforming to play on the Saturday night! My Christmases and birthdays really had all come at once.

And tonight has been nothing short of epic. Grinspoon opened the night, and played a good set, even if they were a little bit drunk. The Living End came on and played a set of brilliance and were just so very tight – not that you’d expect anything else from them.

Finally the time had arrived for Cold Chisel to take the stage. They walked on and smashed some Standing On The Outside with such perfection that it was like this was the 15th stop on just another tour. It was pretty much everything I assumed to expect from Chisel! They played for a solid two hours, going through the likes of Bow River, My Baby, When The War Is Over, Forever and Flame Trees – all the stuff you’d expect them to bring out really. Surprisingly, Khe Sanh was in the middle of the set – but that didn’t stop the incredible singalong that was sure to happen. It was cool to see the boys all looking at each other every now and then with a bit of a wry smile that said, ‘wow, I’d forgotten how awesome this was!’

They did a couple of encores, but eventually finished up coming back on stage and playing Breakfast At Sweethearts and then closing the night with Last Wave Of Summer.

Some people do have lists of bands that that absolutely must see before they die, and such lists usually contain those bands who’ve broken up and are usually going to be nearly impossible to see. I don’t have such a list – but if I did, Cold Chisel would’ve been at the top of it. And I can very, very happily cross them off tonight.

Although, if they do reform again, I’ll be right there in front of the stage to see it all again without any hesitation.

And I can’t even think of anything decent to blog about.

But I will harp on The Basics’ concert last Friday night that Tamara and I went to. Incredible. It took me a while to get into The Basics, and I only saw them live for the first time a couple of months ago. But they are such a brilliant trio who write and perform some incredible music.

Keep Your Friends Close is their new album, and it’s an amazing piece of work. Stand Out Fit In comes from a few years ago, but is equally awesome - but they are definitely quite different albums.

Switchfoot have released a fantastic new album as well. There’s a lot of opinions floating around about Switchfoot, and if they’re anything like my thoughts, I loved The Beautiful Letdown, but that was about it. Well, Hello Hurricane has completely changed my thinking on them. You should just put any preminitions about Switchfoot out of your mind and just listen to this album on its own, and I really doubt you’ll be disappointed. It’s turning out to be one of my favourites this year.

I’ve definitely enjoyed these few new-music-months that tend to happen around this time of year. 2009 has been quite wonderful for music I think. Pity that the concerts have been few and far between for me over the last few years. Although I will finally get to see Cold Chisel in a week and a half thanks to Tony Cochrane and the V8s – they were one band I was sad I never got to see, and was sure I’d actually never get a chance to!

You’re able to order cases of their wine from their website… but where’s the fun in that? So with Debbie away for the weekend just gone, Sam and I thought it would be fun to head out to Orange (where Indigo Ridge is) on Sunday to buy some wine. We were greeted by a very friendly middle-aged couple who own Indigo Ridge, and who loved to chat, tell us about their winery, and about Orange too. They are very focused on the land they’re on, and about making the most use of it without damaging it – you should definitely check out their website (even if you aren’t into wine) to see how they are “greener than organic”.

They talked us through their 6 wines and gave us tastings of each – and they were all very impressive. Finding little wineries like this is fun; they don’t sell to bottlos, and basically don’t supply to Sydney at all, except through people ordering wines through their website. They just sell to a few restaurants and boutique bottlos in Orange, and then rely on cellar door buyers (like Sam and I) to sell their wine. They told us they prefer it that way, cos it means they get to meet most customers that drink their wine – I thought that was pretty cool.

Sam and I made mix tapes for the trip… not necessarily for each other – that would be a bit too romantic. Anyway, I was pretty proud of my mix. I thought I’d post the track listing:

1. The Resolution – Jack’s Mannequin
2. 1,000 Strands – Eliza Magill
3. Santeria – Sublime
4. Thump – Bertie Blackman
5. The Hard Road – The Hilltop Hoods
6. Until You’re Over Me – Maroon 5
7. The Mixed Tape – Jack’s Mannequin (oops, two JM tracks!)
8. If You Believe Me – Relient K
9. Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running) – Foo Fighters
10. The Feeling – Kutless
11. Guerilla Radio – Rage Against The Machine
12. King Of Wishful Thinking – New Found Glory
13. Dancing On The Inside – Antiskeptic
14. Stray – The Ross Irwin Soul Special
15. Break It Out – The Rocket Summer
16. Alarm Bells – The Lyrical Madmen
17. Waiting For Us – The Porkers
18. Forever Now – Pete Murray
19. Cailin – Unwritten Law
20. The Only Exception – Paramore
21. Lord, Save Me From Myself – Jon Foreman
22. Song For Elias – The Cat Empire

While it wasn’t deliberate, I just realised that just under half of those tracks are from Australian artists. I do love me some Aussie music.

• The Basics’ new album, Keep Your Friends Close, is due to be released on September 28, according to JB Hifi… but nowhere else seems to have confirmed this yet. But after seeing them live recently, I’m excited to hear these new songs.
• Paramore’s new album, brand new eyes, should be out that same weekend as well. I loved Riot! and love their new single too, so I’m hoping this album will be tops too.
• And then Relient K are releasing a new album on 6th October! Forget And Not Slow Down has actually arrived only about a year after their last release. Their last one was this awesome fusion of country and punk, and their new one should be great by the sounds of the title track.

Then sometime in November, Switchfoot are releasing new music too. And lots of people are talking up the sound of this new album, Hello Hurricane.

Playjerise playing with a mini string orchestra supporting was just perfect. It worked amazingly well. It all could’ve been mixed a bit better, but that could’ve just been the venue. The arrangements were brilliantly written, and they all just generally looked like they were loving it.

The evening in photo form. Apologies for the glary-ness of some of the photos – an iPhone isn’t the greatest of low-light cameras.

Their most recent album, The Birds & The Bee Sides was a double album that contained the Nashville Tennis EP and the aforementioned CD, which contained a bunch of b-sides and demo recordings. Pretty cool… but it was the original stuff they recorded on the Nashville Tennis EP that I was most hooked on. It was the first album that Ethan Luck (former OC Supertones guitarist) played on as their drummer. The drums were incredible – so tight, loud, and just brilliantly complex. But what I most loved about the album was the general direction that it took – country. RK showed just how you mix a country flavour with their brand of, I guess, pop punk. And it was amazing to listen to. Again, it was because it was so different to everything they’ve released before that I think I’ve loved it so much.

And only 12 months down the track, they’re releasing a new album, Forget and Not Slow Down, will be released in early October. Something that I can’t wait to hear.

And finally, after 7 years of visiting Australia, they’re heading back in the coming months. I can’t wait. They’re playing at the Big Exo Day… a pretty cool Christian Skate/Music Festival aimed at teens. I’m desperately hoping they play a sideshow… but I’m doubting it. Might just have to pretend to be 18 again…

Things started off this month quite promising – a big network opportunity for a mining company to link their Sydney office to their mine, and then link both back to a head office in Beijing. Huge stuff. But as the month has gone on, that deal has taken longer to come together, and the chances of getting a signature this month are slim – not just cos the customer isn’t keen, but pricing and contracts for something like this take longer than usual, as you’d imagine.

And the usual simple ADSL connections and data cards that usually just flow through from different customers to make up a large chunk of my sales numbers each month are just seeming a bit slow. And there’s been a couple of other reasonable sized sales that have just faded away in the last fortnight. All in all, quite frustrating.

But I wrote the numbers that I needed (with 8 working days in the month left) up on my whiteboard at my desk tonight before I left the office. It’s a fairly huge gap… but I ain’t giving up. And as soon as I make up that H2 number, some serious commission kicks in thanks to an incentive they gave us in January for this half of the year. So that looks promising as well.

We’ll see how things pan out.

In other news… I still have bandit.fm credit thanks to Commbank, and so with Chase That Feeling in my head, and really loving that song, I bought the Hilltop Hoods’ new album. I’ve appreciated a couple of their songs before now – always loving their sampling and strong beats – and so thought it was about time I gave a whole album a go. Listening to bits of it now, but going to give it a proper listen tomorrow morning.

Please allow me to introduce me:
Half of me slave, the other half free.
Righteous and sinful, both at the same time.
Iniquity and purity fill up the same mind.
And out of the same mouth, the holy and profane:
I curse all my brothers, then I bless Christ’s name.
I hang in the balance, but still I’m secure.
I’m leaning towards evil, but striving to be pure.

I stand between the saint and sinner,
Chasing after holiness,
Close enough to grasp,
But still it’s just beyond my reach…

Who I am is in between,
What I wanna be and what I am.

[In Between - The O.C. Supertones]

But this morning’s update from them was huge:

So we haven’t been entirely honest when we said we’ve been recording a new record. The truth is, we actually recorded 4 albums, 80+ songs.

We’ll be releasing them one at a time, starting with the first one this aug/sept. We’ll announce the album title this Friday when we finish!

Awesome!

Seems like the Jon Foreman thing of doing multiple albums in quick succession has caught onto the rest of the band.