iLike and Cruxy – a great match for musicians

We’ve never claimed to be the “be all and end all” here at Cruxy. We’ve always been focused on enabling commerce throughout the various places online an artist might promote themselves and connect with their fans. Today we’ll share a relatively new service that we think provides a fantastic opportunity for musicians.

iLike.com the wildly popular Facebook application (11 million users!) has added a new “For Artists” capability, that allows you to get promote your music and events through their system. I use iLike often on Facebook to quickly look up songs, send e-dedications, and to express what music I like on my profile. We have to admit, it works really well and is very fun to use. It’s really a great front-end discovery tool for fans, and now they’ve plugged in some great services for musicians as well.

Now to good news for you Cruxy musicians out there – you can link to your digital download store on Cruxy via iLike! They’ve enabled a MySpace bulletin type feature that you can send out links to downloads for sale on Cruxy.

Communicate with your fans using iCast. iCast is a combination of blogging, bulletins, and multimedia posts, all in one. In addition to text, you can post audio, photos, or video messages for all your fans to see. You can post your latest video or pictures from last night’s show. :) These posts show up automatically on your artist page on iLike.com and iLike on Facebook. Posting an iCast message is easy. Just log in to your iLike Artist Dashboard and click on the iCast tab to make a post.

You can also use iTunes to announce shows and even sell tickets ahead of time for certain venues. Learn more about iLike For Artists today.

Second Life Photo Tour

Second Life is a 3D online digital world that reflects the creativity of the world’s residents. Cruxy can get your digital creations into Second Life for avatars from around the world to discover and experience. Register for Cruxy today, or log into your account, and start making your media available to a whole new world.

Second Life has a vibrant music scene that we are big fans of. We’ve been working hard to bridge the various media promotion and distribution services we’ve built for RL (real life) musicians into the SL Grid and we’re ready to start sharing the results.

Learn more about the Cruxy Player at http://cruxy.com/sl

"the bird and the bee" in Second Life

Cruxy Consulting partnered with EMI / Blue Note Records to launch the new release of the bird and the bee, a Los Angeles-based band. Cruxy created a listening lounge for holding events for fans. The lounge also acted a venue for promoting and distributing the band’s music within Second Life, through the Cruxy Player. As part of the project, Cruxy hosted a listening party, where fans were invited to listen, socialize, dance, and otherwise hang out.

Listening Party Photos

Promotional Trailer Video

Learn more at http://cruxy.com/tbatb

The Long Blondes in Second Life

The 3-D virtual world of Second Life just got a lot more stylish and rockin’. The international phenomenon has teamed up with Beggars Group and Rough Trade Records to create a virtual listening party for the critically acclaimed debut, Someone To Drive You Home, of Sheffield, England’s The Long Blondes.

But this isn’t your average listening party. Cruxy Consulting and Second Life have built a virtual drive-in for their members to listen to the album called the “Lost Highway” Lounge. The lounge features an interactive media player, a large movie theatre featuring The Long Blondes videos, virtual apparel giveaways, and links to purchase their music. There are even portable music players available for visitors to take with them once they leave the lounge.

Learn more at http://cruxy.com/thelongblondes

For more information, here are some helpful links.
http://cruxy.com/features/thelongblondes/sl/

Teaser video for the Lost Highway Lounge:
http://cruxy.com/features/thelongblondes/sl/video.html

The Long Blondes’ album, Someone To Drive You Home, was released in the UK last November and in the US on June 5th on Beggars Group via an exlusive agreement with Rough Trade. It’s since gained widespread critical acclaim. The band is currently in the middle of a successful US tour, including a sold out show at NYC’s Bowery Ballroom.

“Most so-called “cinematic” records earn that distinction due to some quirk of reverb or their use of space, but the Long Blondes only have modern England’s typically confined, 17-year-old-from-Doncaster guitar-dudish sound. Instead, it’s the songs themselves, their narratives and their characters that speak to the band’s widescreen ambitions.” Pitchfork 8.2

“Filled with more hits than Doherty’s arm, this record flashed with more deliciously faded glamour than a crumbling Cuban city … this is a record – and a band – which many people will fall in love with …” NME

“Sheffield quintet impress with a rough diamond of a debut’

Mojo 4 of 4 star review

“Someone to Drive You Home was that peculiar paradox: an instant slow-burner. I knew immediately that this was a record which would grow and grow … ” The Independent

“On their excellent full-length debut…the Blondes spolit the difference between those two Britpop biggies [Pulp and Arctic Monkeys], holding forth on fame, sex and movies over slashing disco-flecked guitar pop.” Time Out NY

“If my hunch is right …The Long Blondes are en route to becoming one of the most important British bands of our time” The Independent

“… An indie ace pop record” Time Out London

www.thelongblondes.co.uk

www.myspace.com/thelongblondes