Trixie's THC

Prince Covering Radiohead at Coachella

2008-04-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Weep now to "Creep":

Price Hike for Broadcasters

2008-03-27T19:45:00.001-07:00

It's getting very hard to justify the expense of broadcasting my station -- they just hiked the price by $40 a quarter.

Maybe this will be the push I need to invest more time in it, though. With more effort I could call it an advertising expense by using it to get more exposure to our websites. Actually, I *do* call it an advertising expense already, but it's not really paying off (my fault, totally, for not putting the work into it). It's also like a plug-in for my members; I imagine that's where most of my listeners come from (but I can't tell since the personal broadcaster stats aren't very detailed/don't show referrers); I don't know any other porn sites like mine featuring a radio station broadcast by the girl herself so I think it's a unique bonus. It doesn't have to be a great station to be worthwhile just for sharing part of my music library and tastes with my members who like knowing more about me.

Today I finally bought the domain, TrixieRadio.com. If I can step up my podcasting and integrate that into my station plus get more playlists cooking, I should easily earn back the money for the broadcasting account I have now (it would take about eight joins per quarter to pay for the station; about three joins per month).

Ideally I'd be able to afford a pro broadcasting account so I could customize the players and stream it directly from my site (hence the leap of faith in purchasing TrixieRadio.com even though I don't have time to do anything with it right now). I think the pro accounts start at around $99 a month which isn't too expensive for what it is; I just don't have the money or time to put into it right now. I guess I should make a plan for that which would involve:

STAGE I:

*ripping and buying more music to expand my .mp3 library, uploading all of that, creating more playlists for variety, spending more time listening to music and researching new stuff

*recording station identifiers and advertisements letting people know who I am . . . and that I have porn sites where people can see me naked and live on cam

*assessing impact of those two things on number of listeners and site signups resulting directly from radio exposure

STAGE II:

*recording podcasts that I can integrate/play on the station

*assessing the effect of "talk" on listener hours and signups

STAGE III:

*If all of that boosts listening hours and signups to be worth a) the time I put into it and b) the cost of upgrading to a pro broadcasting account, developing TrixieRadio.com with a custom player, guests, more music, schedule, live broadcasts, call-in shows, chat, etc.

It can't be something that would take away from my website, so it would have to augment what I already do online; that should naturally occur because my site members would enjoy it, and the free listeners would probably want to join so they could enjoy watching me on cam while I'm broadcasting, looking at naked pics of me, blah blah blah. If it were a success, I should be able to get other people to take over a lot of the work in exchange for advertising/exposure.

Just thinking out loud here . . .

Mainstream Music

2007-07-28T12:49:00.001-07:00

Live365, where I host my radio station, provides listeners the opportunity to rate each track I broadcast between one and five stars. It's always funny to see the ratings, because the mainstream type of music that may have at one time been top-of-the-pop-charts almost always gets low rates while the more unfamiliar (to the general public) tracks get rated higher.

If I took the cue from my ratings, I'd get rid of all of the familiar and embraced-by-pop-culture tracks. But I just CAN'T. I've always resented that divide between "cool" music and "popular" music and have yearned for a station that plays anything and everything, so that's what my station is about. I mean, how can Beastie Boys' "She's Crafty" rank at half a star? There's no way I'm ditching that from the current playlist since it's one of my favorite songs of all time. How can ZZTop's "Cheap Sunglasses" receive only two stars? OH MY GOD!!! It's craziness!! That is a fucking five star song!!

At least my listeners have rated Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" at five stars. I'm shocked to report, however, that "I Would Die 4 U" is swinging from only HALF a star. Oh my GOD!!! It's MADNESS!! "I Would Die 4 U" and "Take Me With U" are, like, my favorite 80's songs performed in a major key!! It's so disheartening.

Fortunately everyone seems quite fond of her dirty holiness, Lucinda Williams. Peaches, Tin Hat Trio, and (oddly) Herb Alpert are also doing well in the ratings. The same cannot be said, however, for Bad Company, Buddy Holly and T. Rex.

Lonesome Music

2007-07-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

I just added the blog "Lonesome Music" to my sidebar. Even though I haven't had a chance to read into it, any blog with a tagline of "keeping you melancholy all day" is a surefire winner in my book (or blog, or whatever the case may be).

If anyone has recs for other readable music-oriented blogs, feel free to plug them in comments.

Scorching HOT New Playlist

2007-07-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Has it really been a whole season since I added new songs to the station? Yes . . . yes, I suppose it has, but I finally devoted some time to buying, ripping, uploading and arranging, so GIVE THEM A LISTEN HERE.

The playlist is like a summer day from 3 am to 3 am, abbreviated into less than five hours and has a range of artists from Little Richard to Kings of Leon. A couple of my favorite tracks were pulled off of Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof soundtrack.

Explosions in my Panties!

2007-03-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

One of my online friends/supporters sent me a nice birthday gift. You can read about it HERE.

It's been months, but I finally added in a new load of songs to my station today. They are all just being shuffled right now and haven't been programmed into a special perfectly-tuned order.

Tim Emmerick

2007-01-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

I just got an email -- a real one, not a form email -- from Tim Emmerick and am checking out his site / giving song samples a listen now. Off the top of my head I'd say they sounds like a mixture of Blue Rodeo, The Delevantes, and Crowded House.

It's pretty rare that someone actually takes the time to check out my profile and playlist on Live365 and address me by name before spamming me with their music, so I wanted to give him a plug here.

Kevin Smith's Celebrity Playlist

2006-12-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Worth checking out: Kevin Smith's celebrity playlist (as rejected by iTunes).

Magazine Recs

2006-11-19T17:14:00.000-08:00

I'd love to subscribe to a good music review magazine. Every so often I pick up Paste or No Depression, but I'd like something representing an even more diverse spectrum of music. And no, I don't want great *websites* that do that, I want print. That you can read while sitting on the toilet taking a dump, know what I mean?

Any recommendations?

Flash Mysteries

2006-11-19T17:09:00.000-08:00

It really annoys me when music(ian) websites loop pretty little bits and pieces of music on their sites BUT FAIL TO NOTE WHAT SONG IS BEING PLAYED/SAMPLED. It's like, THANKS! You sold me on your little ditty and I've no fucking clue what it is. NOT VERY INFORMATIVE. It's like Michael Stipe in the days when he refused to put song lyrics in the liner notes, only stupider.

Or maybe it's brilliant marketing. Maybe they figure surfers will like that little mystery piece so much they will buy every single album to FIND that little chunk of music that hooked them.

But probably it's just a thoughtless design oversight.

Crushing: Sean Lennon

2006-11-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

I think I have a crush on Sean Lennon after seeing/watching/hearing him on one of those stupid entertainment shows. I've never been immersed in any aspect of Beatlemania so I'm almost entirely ignorant of what Sean and Julian have been up to, but Sean radiates an awkward confidence and bumblingly brilliant sense of humour that makes him seem defiantly human. Poorly groomed charisma -- it knocks me out, like a deflated, introverted Jack Black. SEXY.

New Playlist

2006-10-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded some new songs to my station . . . some swingy stuff, old favorites, and perhaps sadly, very little newly released material except for Ray LaMontagne's "Three More Days" which is so cool it's bound to get overplayed all too soon, so I'm enjoying it while I can.

There's also a new T-Bone Burnett song, "Zombieland", which seems appropriate for the time and season, some sexy trip-hoppy Cat Power vocals, my favorite Talking Heads song, and a sappy 80's slow-dance song that I *love* (hint: I never realized Jeff Healey was blind the whole time that particular song was popular). Oh, and I had to throw in some Freddy Fender: RIP.

Tonight's Orgasm Soundtrack

2006-10-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

I just had a big whopper of an orgasm listening to Ryan Adams' "Why Do They Leave" and before that, during a live camshow on my site, I caught one on the tail end of Hendrix doing "Red House Blues" and going into The Raconteurs' "Blue Veins".

So there.

Swinging

2006-09-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since I updated my playlist, but I do have a lot of tunes in the queue, just not the time to fiddle with it.

One cool thing: Tucker and I started swing dance lessons (east coast swing) so there are a couple of bands I've been introduced to. Top of the list is Alien Fashion Show.

New Songs & Playlist

2006-08-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded a bunch of "new" songs (at least, songs that haven't been played on THC before) and a new playlist (that has old faves and some of the new ones).

Some of the new-to-me tunes are by Ryan Scott, Frank Black, Jeffrey Foucault, Death Cab for Cutie, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Honestly, I'm most fond of the old faves. The Death Cab song is already being overplayed on the "real" radio and maybe I'm just getting old and like hearing familiar stuff. I do think the Ryan Scott & Jeffrey Foucault numbers will become faves of mine . . . eventually.

Artists' Websites

2006-08-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

Huh.

In checking out a handful of musician's/band websites, I notice that very few of them provide links to other artists, or if they do it's sort of weak and not very fleshed out. I probably notice this because I'm a blogger and internet pornographer, and linking to other people is such a huge part of getting exposure for your sites when you're an unknown entity. But the other part of it is that when you run your own business or blog online part of WHY you do it is to explore OTHER people's websites. It's part of your job, more or less, to recommend links to your surfers that you think they would like.

I'm sure *most* big name musicians spend their time . . . you know . . . making music and that their websites are just tools for their fans and not something the artists maintain themselves.

It's not a criticism, just an observation. And something that makes me want to create a more comprehensive linklist to indie artists and lesser-knowns, because they have to struggle a bit more for exposure and therefore seem a bit more involved in their websites. Not that this is a requirement for a good musician OR a good music site, I just like exploring how people in industries other than my own (porn) build their internet presence.

Quickie

2006-08-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

It's positively insane of me to start yet another blog, but here it is. Nice and topical (music) to go with my live365 radio station, "The Human Condition" (or THC for short).

I've been noodling with my station for a few years now, not really devoting any time to it but when I get email from people saying how much they like listening to it, I feel the need to pump some more life into it.

Anyway, here's to new life for THC!!

And yes, I do know that "thc" stands for something else.