Andy Zipf

My Love Remains

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:58:25 -0800

Fields of Mourning (live)

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 17:01:05 -0700

Find You

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:07:43 -0700

Keep On

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:20:17 -0700

Lie To Yourself

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:17:15 -0700

Pfriends on Pfilm1

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:32:42 -0800

photo by Brad Wolf, SOTA

Paste SXSW 07

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:39:56 -0700

spfdpic

Thu, 31 May 2007 08:22:57 -0700

Pretty colors. I need to have my own light show. Maybe a giant Light Bright.

pasteprofile

Thu, 31 May 2007 08:21:29 -0700

This was taken at the SXSW '07 Paste Magazine party.

newghut

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:58:45 -0700

The Galaxy Hut - March 31, 07

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:10:14 -0700

photo by Brad Wolf, SOTA

Greensburg, KS

Thu, 10 May 2007 19:36:02 -0700

A couple of days ago, I was in Springfield, MO. I had 3 or 4 days off, and I was able to hang out with my friend Tad for some of that time. Tad has a company called Disaster Recovery Solutions. He was in Missouri, clearing out debris from the ice storm they had recently. He'll go into any area that has had a natural disaster is hired to return some order there...hurricanes, floods, tornadoes... whatever. Tad has massive, custom designed equipment. It's pretty amazing. For a while now, he has had an idea for a new company called First Response. First Response would be part of Disaster Recovery Solutions, and would be first on the scene to help after a catastrophe...and he wants to volunteer their services. Free of charge! He just wants to help people, because he has the ability and the heart to do so. Tad told me right before I left Springfield, "I want to go to Kansas, where they just had that F-5 tornado and see what I can do." That is exactly what Tad did. While I was on my way to Nashville, Tad drove eight hours to Greensburg, KS. He showed up - alone - in his huge truck. He told me that he drove around knocking on the doors of the police station, city hall and where ever he could find someone in charge. He was the only civilian they let in the ravaged town. They asked if he could help clear the firestation out. So he went over and began to lift the debris off of the trucks and the building with his gigantic crane. He's still there now. I am so inspired by him. I'm proud to know him, and I am writing about it here so that you will know the rare and powerful thing he is doing. Tad is not looking for money from the town people of Greensburg. He just wants to do what he can to help them. If I had a million dollars, I'd give it to him in a heartbeat. www.myspace.com/disasterrecoverysolutions

I'm in L.A. and I won't be sleeping for a week.

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:38:29 -0700

www.andyzipfalbum.blog.com

north by northwest

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 05:40:53 -0700

Montana, Idaho and Washington are beautiful. I really want to come back to this part of the country again. I'm off to Oregon tomorrow. Then, San Francisco and L.A.

More people are seeing the genius of Disc Revolt

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:25:08 -0700

I found this blog today. The word is spreading about Disc Revolt. I think this bird's gonna fly. From: http://indiehq.com/2007/03/30/disc-revolt-the-future-of-digital-sales/ Friday, March 30th, 2007 Disc Revolt, The Future of Digital Sales I have been hearing a lot about this company, Disc Revolt. I even checked it out a few times, but it wasn’t until my buddy Seth from Negative Progression called me this morning to tell me more about it that I actually gave it some thought. He even mentioned speaking to someone at Disc Revolt. We discussed it quite a bit and when I asked a few questions that Seth could not answer, I decided to call Disc Revolt myself. I called the number on the site expecting to leave a voice mail. To my surprise I got a live person and not just anyone, but CEO Mike Shamus. He was super courteous and helpful and helped me to get a lot of answers. Here is what I found: Disc Revolt allows bands to sell digital downloads at their merch table. They give artists/labels plastic cards that they can sell enabling fans to get a one time download of up 15 songs. They offer promotions that give new accounts 100 free cards, but after that, you can buy cards in the following increments: 100 cards = $99.00 (99 cents each) 250 cards = $187.50 (75 cents each) 500 cards = $250.00 (50 cents each) 1000 cards = $450.00 (45 cents each) That is the only money any artist or label has to pay for the opportunity to sell their music digitally. Disc Revolt does the rest; they host the songs; and enable customers to download tracks. The price the cards are sold at are up to you, but it is pretty open. As Mike discussed it, he said that artists have been giving them away as promo and selling them between $5.00 and $10.00 on their merch table. As a label, you could sell them to your bands just like you sell them CDs. I, for example, sell CDs to my bands for $5.00 and they sell them for $10.00. There could be a similar price set up for the cards. I asked Mike how they make money as I could not believe that they could make enough money on cards alone. He said that their business model is set up much like a CD manufacturer and it is the hope that these cards one day will replace CD manufacturing. If bands and labels in the future switch over to Disc Revolt and they are one day making millions of cards, their business would succeed on card revenue alone. I seriously think that this can become a great new outlet for artists and I plan to tell everyone I know about it. I will also be doing an interview with Mike shortly so stay tuned. For me, probably the absolute coolest part of all of this is that I will now be able to offer an inexpensive way to bundle downloads with my vinyl sales of Suburban Home artists. I will just put a download card in each record and now people will get both the vinyl and a full album download. Artists and Labels though could use these cards for all sorts of purposes. You could use these as promotion instead of sending promo CDs. Mike mentioned an artist that had an Album release show, but instead of CDs, they sold the cards. This honestly could be the future of digital sales at your merch table. Please check out the site now and set up an account. You will be stoked you did.

Unshackled, Super Deluxe

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:14:57 -0700

The interview I did with The Washington Post came out today. Thursday, March 29, 2007; Page VA06 When singer-songwriter Andy Zipf heard an executive at a major record label announce that CDs are dead, he barely shrugged. "I've already known that for two years," the Northern Virginia-based musician said. "What will always be is the connection between the artist and the fans and live music. People will always have to tour and bring the music to the people, but the way the music is distributed has changed." In fact, if you want to buy a CD of Zipf's most recent collection of songs, "The Long Tail," you're out of luck. Zipf (pronounced "Ziff") no longer sells CDs at his shows. Instead, he sells download cards, which provide prepaid access to music online. You can sample three of his new tunes at http://www.myspace.com/andyzipf, but be prepared to spend time in Zipf's online world -- you'll find two blogs, social networking pages, videos and links to other cool stuff. "I always like to know what's out there and what resources I have as a musician to make new impressions on people," Zipf said of his many Web activities. When it came time to record his latest album, Zipf said, "I was able to raise $45,000 through my MySpace friends and my online friends and my fans and investors." Some people contributed outright ($5 to $50 was typical) and others invested more with hopes of profit-sharing. "My manager and I set up a tour, and we went across the country having fundraiser shows where, instead of a cover, they would give what they could as a donation, and it added up." Zipf was able to hire producer James Barber, who has worked with artists such as Aimee Mann, Ryan Adams, Lisa Loeb and Courtney Love, and to secure the talents of several respected session musicians whose collective credits include working with Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Iggy Pop and Sarah McLachlan. "When I recorded those songs in L.A., it was literally a dream that I had since I was in junior high and started playing guitar," he said. "We were able to rent a studio for a month and live there and do the whole major label thing, but we completely circumvented the label." With such a sustainable independent business model, Zipf doesn't even think of himself as an unsigned artist. "It's more like being unshackled. . . . A record label really doesn't have anything to offer that I can't get on my own right now." What major label, for example, would create the "swagbot" -- a portable, custom T-shirt manufacturing system in which fans pick not just the size and color of the shirt, but what designs to add and where to put them. And yes, they're printed right at the show. "We save money by not having to pre-order 200 [T-shirts]," Zipf said. "We just make them as we need them." Despite his obvious comfort with technology and innovation, Zipf's music stresses personal connections through non-flashy means -- a haunting voice, emotional lyrics and strong melodies. It's a style that's been labeled "mood rock" and could be compared to artists such as Neil Young, Richard Ashcroft and Keane. Two years ago, Zipf set out to tour nationally and has played hundreds of dates since, including some high-profile gigs, such as a recent appearance at the SXSW (South by Southwest) music festival. Compared with the gigs at which he has attracted fans in the dozens, even hundreds, the Galaxy Hut could be a tight space for a Zipf show. "But I like playing there," he said. He credits Galaxy Hut's long-term previous owner, musician Alice Despard, with giving him an early break. "She let me have a show there, and the same with Stephen [Negrey] at Iota. I have an affection for those two places, and I hope I always get to play there." -- MARIANNE MEYER The Galaxy Hut is at 2711 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. There is a $5 cover charge; admission is limited to those 21 and over. For information, visithttp://www.myspace.com/galaxyhut. Also... My cousin has been working on W WORLD, an animated series for Comedy Central. It's a wacky travel show staring our President George W. Bush. Check it out here: http://www.super deluxe.com

virb is a noun

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:21:19 -0700

I like this. I think I'm going to build on it. I wish you could import blogs, though. I don't really want to write 5 blogs a day.