This also confirms my theory that anything can be made into a punk rock song. It would also be good behind a diesel beat! Before the 2010 heat map, my most popular post was 10 Engineering Rules. Each line of the song makes reference to one of the top posts on the blog, with reference to one or two extra to fill in the back-story. Linkable lyrics are below. Tabbed lyrics are right here.

The sky’s the limit—Ryan Van Etten self-photographed in summer 2010 and ready to take on the world in 2011.

For years I joked that my New Year’s resolution was to get into hard drugs, and have good posture. Well, luckily for my health I never followed through with the former. Actually it might be luckier for your sanity too. I have to say though that my posture has stayed pretty straight. Hell, I think I’m still getting taller at 31.

I know it’s already a month in. It felt like a 25-day jet lag that just avoided a crash landing when I saw a moment of clarity. I have a new resolution for this year—be edgier. And I mean that in a ‘challenge the norms’ and ‘push the motha’ f’n envelope’ sort of way. You can dig it or not. (FYI: You don’t need drugs to be edgy.)

be edgier.

Sound Around: iPhone apps for bands.

Gee, Scott, what do you want to do tonight? The same thing we do every night, Steve—try to help music take over the world by building better mobile apps for bands and their fans!

In 2009, in a little place called Raleigh, North Carolina, brothers Scott and Steve Klein had been brainstorming tech startup ideas. Both were students at NC State, but with opposite majors—nearly yin and yang. Add entrepreneurial DNA, and they’re Pinky and The Brain. Scott (Brain) was preparing to graduate as a computer engineer, and his younger brother, Steve (Pinky), was studying business management/marketing. Their startup would be born, but the question was, what kind? Taking advantage of their student resources, they had access to mentoring and networking through the NCSU Engineering Entrepreneurs Program.

They started 2bros1blog.com to blog about what they learned on the startup road. Many early ideas were solutions aimed towards the university community. Scott had learned Objective-C, the programming language for iPhone apps, and they decided they really wanted to get involved with mobile apps. Everyone has a phone, and they always have it with them, right? But they needed to find the right niche. They thought about campus sports or news apps, but when they proposed building a news app for the college paper, they were met with perplexed stares. Scott and Steve realized that for their app service to fly, they needed to find people that were really interested in expanding and engaging their audience. Being music fans themselves, they took what seemed to be a logical turn that summer—towards musicians. Next stop, Sound Around.

Scott graduated in December, gave a speech, and started a job at an TransLoc—a startup that provides realtime location information to mass-transit users. He built their iPhone app. At the same time he and Steve (who was still in school and working part-time in Macaroni Grill) were developing what would soon be called Sound Around. At the turn of 2010, they took on 15 bands as closed-beta testers. In February Steve learned the ins and outs of web design and built getsoundaround.com.

With people skills and resourcefulness, they’d bootstrapped their expenses so far, but in early 2010 they got involved with TechStars in an effort to raise seed capital. In March they flew to Boulder and found themselves surrounded by like minds in the tech scene. Of 600 startups, TechStars funds only 10. Sound Around made it to the top 27 but not the final 10, and it was back to bootstrapping.

In a typical college scenario, the two brothers were living in a 4-bedroom apartment with two other students—David and A.J.—but when David moved out to live with his fiancé, Scott and Steve commandeered the empty room and converted it into a workspace—their current headquarters.

Having success with the beta apps, they started recording videos to demo the Sound Around platform, and, in the meantime started the application process for funding through another (more local) startup incubator, called LaunchBox Digital…which pretty much brings us to the present. Last night was a milestone for Sound Around. Their first apps were approved by Apple and are now live in the App Store. The party was on, but it’s only the beginning for Sound Around.

In the upcoming weeks, Sound Around will be running discount promos via Twitter. Stay in the loop: @VirtualMusictv and @getsoundaround.

Scott is on a 3-month sabbatical from his job at TransLoc to focus full-time on Sound Around. Steve would love to be able to dropout next semester and get Sound Around rolling without distractions. Funding would help them “scale faster” but with or without it they’re expecting to launch in public beta this summer. They considering finding a 3rd team member experienced in web and/or Android dev.

The ‘band apps as a service’ market is a wide-open frontier. There’s some fundamental characteristics about Sound Around that really make them stand out.

1. It’s the DIY mindset. Sound Around’s young, two-brother team is the core of all their development. They’re building it all from the ground up. By not hiring out their programming or design, they’ll be able to constantly address feedback and improve their platform. When demands of the app market change, they’ll be able to adapt the fastest.

2. Sound Around purely focused on developing apps for bands/musicians. They’re not leaving the music niche—immense as it is—and they plan on rocking it. MobBase is their only direct competition right now, and there’s plenty of room to coexist in this space.

3. In what I’ve learned about Scott and Steve, I can tell that they understand the importance of people in the mix. They plan on creating an interface for interaction—not one-way communication—and they have a lot of innovative ideas on deck.

4. Their pricing is user-focused. It’s not based on installs. Bands pay based on the number of fans that actually use the app each month. The starter $14/month plan covers 1000 unique app users per month. Above 1000 is $0.01/user until the next tier—$29/month for 5000 unique users.

5. Their mascot is a giraffe named Shirley. She’ll make you smile. :) Giraffes are a symbol of evolution, you know. She doesn’t always travel with the team of course, who’ll be attending events this summer, including Warped Tour in Charlotte, and would love to meet up.

// update // October 19, 2010 from Scott:

I know it hasn’t been very long since we officially launched back in July, but we’ve been working on something really cool behind the scenes that we’re finally ready to tell everyone about. One of our fellow local music companies, ReverbNation, has acquired Sound Around and will be moving quickly to launch the product to their more than 900,000 artists.

Steve and I are both super excited to be joining the ReverbNation team to work on providing mobile products that will continue to move the needle on acquiring new fans, and engaging existing ones on a deeper level. We’ve been heavily vested in creating useful technologies in the mobile space, and we have no doubt that these efforts will only be amplified as we move into our new roles working alongside an impressive and passionate team of individuals.

For everyone that had a hand in touching, shaping, or otherwise influencing our foray into building a product and launching our first company, we can’t thank you enough for all of the hours of mentoring, being a cheerleader, and (most importantly) bringing us down to size when we needed it.

I was actually a bit relieved. I had been worried it was the motherboard—a much harder swap out. Needless to say I was going to need to replace the card, and, since I use my computer all the time, I was going to need to replace it pretty fast. I went to Staples and ended up dropping $120 on a new one, a GeForce 9500 GT, which I had to split between two debit cards because neither of my accounts had enough to cover it on their own. Problem solved for now—fingers crossed—but if any generous hearts would like to help me and the site out by contributing to the repair fund, please write or PayPal to virtualmusictv@gmail.com and in return I’ll hook you up with some free advertising and/or a mention on the site. I’ve stoked about a really sweet new article that’s an inside look on a new music startup, so stay tuned for that this weekend—I think you guys are really going to like it—and for the dads out there (not me!), happy Father’s Day!

Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba performing in 2008.

It was September 2000 and the course of my life was about to change. Attending school in Boulder in a time when punk rock was center stage in my life, one of my favorite bands—Face To Face—was coming to Denver for an event that I would not skip. My hazy recollection tells me that they put on two back-to-back shows at the Ogden Theatre and that I attended both nights with two different friends. The three opening bands—all then new to me—were New Found Glory, Saves The Day, and Alkaline Trio. The venue was uncrowded during the first set, New Found Glory. By the time Saves The Day was on stage, Denver’s punk-rock fans had begun to fill the room, and we had magnetized to a position right up front at the rail. The first two sets rocked, but it was the third set—Alkaline Trio—that altered the course of my life.

Alkaline Trio’s straight-up intensity and heart was undeniable and I was hypnotized. It was their performances those nights that inspired me to learn to play guitar and later write my music. Maybe it would have happened anyway—I’ll never know. This was the spark that started the fire. When Face to Face was up next, the venue was surging!

Let’s flash to the now and to Alkaline Trio’s recent “I Found Away” open remix contest—listen to the winning remixes here. Had I been in the loop earlier about this contest, I would have been all over it and contributed my own remix. There’s no chance I’d have topped the winner—MacLes Music Factory—who remixed pop punk into dub. Punk rock and dub both had their alpha stage in the ’70s. I think this song works so remarkably well as a dub remix because punk and reggae are similar in that they often share lyrical themes like social criticism, angst, and love—Alkaline Trio’s lyrics cover dark subjects in an upbeat way. Both punk and reggae also tend to share simple chord structure and 4/4 time signature. Regardless, there doesn’t need to be a reason—if it sounds good, then it is good—so why ask why? This is just a great example of creative collaboration and music 2.0 promotion. Open remixing gives genre-crossing artists a stellar way to broaden their fan base.

There’s no doubt that collaboration brings brilliance to life. Collaboration is king. Online collaboration is still embryonic. Open remixing will put more diverse and imaginative music into scene than ever before. Genres will blend. Interpretation is in the ear of the remixer. With the thriving emergence of virtual collaboration platforms, it’s easy to be a remixer. The music is there and you can be a part of it. You know you want it. Go remix the planet.

• Photos: “Matt Skiba” by Victoria Morse. “Soundwaves Mix 2″ by chrisharve
• 2000 Event Info: Past event detail via Last.fm

For decades, Michael Jackson has been a paramount inspiration to music and dance. He is one of the top performers to ever grace our world and our hearts. His undeniable talent united people around the globe—through music—and he will long be remembered as entertainment at its best.

Last night, as I arrived home around 9pm, a few elementary-school aged kids in the neighborhood were hanging out near my apartment. One of them told me that, “Michael Jackson died.” For a moment, I questioned if he was serious—which of course he was—and next these kids began saying some unwarranted and negative comments about the renowned entertainer.

I asked them where they heard such things, to which their best response was, “the news.” I told them then to forget the news, that in my eyes Michael Jackson is one of the best musicians of our time, and he should be regarded as a hero. The kids—still joking—just didn’t get it. I understand these are kids, but I wish that they could learn about respect—for people, and the arts. I think that parents and teachers need to better address the issue of respect for one another. If these were my kids, they’d be grounded for the summer—with no TV ever. This brief interaction made me feel sad about the world’s perception about Michael Jackson…

But as I walked upstairs and looked into my computer screen, I was relieved beyond calculation when I saw the thousands, and thousands, and thousands of MJ tweets in Twitter’s trending topics with loving words about Michael. I was reassured. Society still has a chance. I’m taking comfort in the steady flow of positive comments under YouTube videos of Michael. One of my favorites, is the First Ever Moonwalk.

In my life, I’ve been moved by the soulful music of the Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson. The passion in the music is humbling. They have given more to our world than they could ever take back. Michael is truly The King of Pop. Thank God for Michael Jackson, and may his spirit live forever in our hearts.

Note: Originally published on thespinarounds.com on Jan. 26, 2009 and back dated here. virtualmusic.TV launched in July 2009 with the ‘pilot’ article Music In The Virtual Realm.