Michael “Iron Man” Burks died Sunday in Atlanta of an apparent heart attack. He was 54.

Burks was returning from a European tour to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport when he collapsed.

Burks earned the nickname “Iron Man” from his intense, hours-long performances. The Arkansas native self-released his debut in ‘97 and recorded for Alligator since 2001.

Learn more about Michael at our sister-site TheBluesMobile.com, including this exclusive archive interview.

On a lighter note, The New York Times recently published two interesting articles on breakthrough businesses that are directly helping musicians in a Web 2.0 world.

First, they profiled Kickstarter, a company we’ve written about before. The Times noted Kickstarter’s benchmark — having funded 50,000 projects to the tune of $200 million. $38 million of that went to music projects. All in just three years – amazing. Check out their very cool graphic presentation of the crowdsourced projects.

Also worth reading is a profile of Jeff Price and his company Tunecore. Jeff ran spinArt Records, but moved into digital delivery, helping countless bands get their stuff on the major download sites. Tunecore currently delivers 4% of all digital downloads. And they do it for an artist-friendly fee.

Check the story here.

We’ll be honest, overall, the 2012 batch of Webby Award winners left us a little underwhelmed. Lots of usual suspects – TED, BBC, NASA (100 Best Planets in the Galaxy!), ESPN. NPR nominated but not much in terms of wins. They’re all great, but we’ve seen the movie.

And Pinterest, sorry, we don’t get it.

In past years, the Webby Awards turned us on to a host of innovative or otherwise “oh wow” designs, ideas, and functions. Much less so this year.

Perhaps that’s predictable — maybe the web has come of age and there are simply fewer “new” things that can be done. It’s also possible that the number of highly functional, off-the-shelf templates are saving everyone money, but leaving us wanting in terms of design. Everything sort of looks the same.

That said, there were some great things that happened on the web in 2012. The Webby’s honored Louis C.K. as their Person of the Year for his $5 direct-to-fan concert download. Bjork was named Artist of the Year for her Biophilia album, which had apps that accompanied the songs.

Notable for their creativity were the Muppets and a guy in New York who leaves money around the city for people to find. And then there’s a hilarious homage to the late Kim Jong-Il.

Radio? Well, they eliminated the radio/podcast category this year. Thanks.

A roundup of categories that relate to the media and music biz, plus other winners — and that’s where the real creativity comes out…

Music

Pitchfork (Webby Award Winner)
Pandora (People’s Voice Winner)

Best Visual Design Aesthetic

Kinetic Fanzine Vol. 1 (Webby Award Winner)
Google Music (People’s Voice Winner)

Television

HBO Connect (Webby Award Winner)
Hulu (People’s Voice Winner)

Celebrity/Fan

MTV O Music Awards (Webby Award Winner)
Team Coco (People’s Voice Winner)

Weird

I Found Money Today (Webby Award Winner)
Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things (People’s Voice Winner)

Other Winners

The Muppets Mahna Mahna
VW Beetle
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Cultural Institution Winner)
Foodily (Food and Beverage)
The Work of Robert Jaso (Self Promotion/Portfolio)

Vevo, the joint venture between Sony Music, Universal Music, and Abu Dhabi Media, launched an “upfront” last week, attempting to attract advertisers with new, original content.

It’s an interesting idea, as several new media companies are now imitating the television upfront process.

While garnering a lot of press with the announcement, what may have gone unreported are the amazing numbers the company has been putting up.

Globally, the service racks up 250 million visits per month, and forecasts 36 billion views this year. In short, it dominates music video, and one has to wonder how much better it would do if the Warner Group participated in Vevo.

Read more about the original content slate in AdAge.

Last week we reported numbers out of the NAB that an HD Radio-equipped car is sold every fifteen seconds.

Now comes a JD Power and Associates report from more than 17,000 vehicle owners this past March. The survey was an “Emerging Technologies” study seeking to gauge consumer interest in various options.

There was good news for HD Radio, as 70% of those surveyed said they’d pay extra for HD Radio. Learn more in MediaPost’s Marketing Daily.

Marshall Crenshaw’s Kickstarter Project has been funded.

As previously reported, the singer-songwriter aims to release six EPs over a two year period thanks to the crowdsourced funding model.

It looked a bit scary for the project, with Crenshaw sitting at $23,000 of the $32,000 goal with one day to go. But he must have had a few major donors sandbagged as he ultimately came in at nearly $34,000. With $200 of that coming from us, we’re looking forward to our beer with Marshall at a future show.

See more about his project.

Ryan Adams covering Bob Mould, a Jack White liquid-filled 12″ disc, The Knack Live in Los Angeles 1978 — hell yeah, it’s Record Store Day once again!

This brilliant awareness stunt returns this Saturday, making those of us without a local record store incredibly jealous as the event continues to attract more and more participants from the artist and label world.

Let’s cut right to the chase, with the annual walk-through from Chris Brown of Bull Moose in Maine. BTW, this is just PART ONE…

Chris Brown Record Store Day 2012 Preview Pt.1 from Record Store Day on Vimeo.

And here’s a great related clip about how a record gets made — literally. The Band Preteen Zenith is made up of Tim DeLaughter of Polyphonic Spree and Philip E. Karnats of Secret Machines. They’ll make their debut with a Record Store Day limited release of 500 vinyl copies of Rubble Guts b/w BB Eye…

Download the complete list of offerings (not everything will be at all stores!) here.

Click the Record Store Day icon above to learn more about where you can shop.

Royalty Deal

Big players in the music industry including the RIAA, National Music Publishers Association, and the Digital Media Association have agreed on mechanical royalties for digital media — as well as new types of business models such as music storage lockers and genre-specific specialty streams.

The deal must be approved by the Copyright Royalty Board. Check the full story in The Hollywood Reporter.

Multiple Screens Mean Kids Have the Attention Span of a Gnat – and that’s Important.

Neilsen reports, to no one’s surprise, that 88% of Americans with tablets use them while they’re watching TV. See the graph below and the story in Paid Content.

But the ramifications of the above point are extremely important for marketers, as a new study suggests that adults in their 20s change media 27 times per (non-working) hour. Frankly, that sounds insane. But all you need to do is look at PPM data to feel that it’s true. So how do you break through that kind of clutter? Interesting thoughts in AdvertisingAge.

Who Wants a Job?

Scrappy up-and-coming AAA NON-COMM WXPN is looking for a diginative interested in handling social media duties at the station as well as editing the station’s local music blog, The Key.

Details here.

We’ve mentioned before how much we love Kickstarter, the crowd-sourced funding engine that’s helping artists, writers, film-makers, designers, and others bring their projects to life through small donations.

Now, one of our long-time faves, Marshall Crenshaw, has listed a project.

Crenshaw wants to release on 10″ 45 RPM vinyl (and MP3), six EPs over the next two years. Each EP will contain a new song, a cover, and a re-imagining of a Crenshaw classic. He’s positioned it as a subscription series.

To raise the money, Crenshaw will give those who pledge goodies that range from signed versions of the EP to a private concert via Skype to an actual performance in your living room. Pledge levels run from $1 to $5000.

His ask is a rather significant $32,000. And he needs it by April 28. As of this writing, Crenshaw has raised $8348, or just better than 25%.

According to Kickstarters rules, it’s all or nothing. If he doesn’t hit the 32k goal, nobody pays and the project goes away.

As can be expected, more than half of the pledges are coming in between $25 and $100. If that keeps up, he’ll need anywhere from 300 to 500 more people to get on board.

For an artist like Crenshaw, that’s certainly achievable — if he can get the word out.

That’s really the key to Kickstarter — getting those superfans engaged. For a web-savvy, social media friendly digi-native, that might be easier than for an artist with a fanbase that might not exactly be full of early adopters.

Someone like Marshall Crenshaw is going to need some help from old friends — perhaps in AAA radio who can tell the story on the air and online. Kickstarter is a great story to begin with, and this project would make for a great morning show bit at the least.

New York area stations should consider getting on board in a bigger way — it’s a story they can talk about (and take credit for) literally for two years if the project comes through. Kickstarter-like projects will become more and more common, so here’s an opportunity to hip your audience to the concept with an artist they know.

Check out his pitch, which can be embedded on any site…

By the way, we’re in for $200.

Chrysler's Sergio Marchionne

All businesses need revitalization at some point in their lifespan. Some need complete reinvention.

Regardless of the type of business, often the problems struggling businesses face are very similar.

With that in mind, we thought we’d share this piece profiling Sergio Marchionne, who first turned around Fiat, then salvaged Chrysler.

To manage the latter, he took a high interest, $6 billion loan from the government. Amazingly, not only is Chrysler already in the black, they repaid the loan early.

Take some time out to watch this profile of Marchionne on CBS’ 60 Minutes — and think about the issues he faced and how he dealt with them — and how similar some of those issues are to our own…

John Mayer will be interviewed by David Dye for World Cafe.

The 12th Annual NON-COMMvention is excited to announce John Mayer as an addition to the conference lineup.

Mayer, sidelined from performing due to granuloma — essentially an inflammation affecting his vocal chords — will instead tape a conversation with David Dye for an upcoming episode of World Cafe.

The session will take place Friday afternoon, May 18.

Other important developments include the expiration of Early Bird rates Friday, April 6 at 5pm Eastern. Radio personnel can take advantage of rates as low as $50.

Also noteworthy is that the primary hotel, the Inn at Penn, is sold out. There are rooms available at the overflow hotel, Club Quarters, for the favorable rate of $126/night.

Club Quarters standard room. Looks nice, no?

And if that’s not enough news, the musical lineup has gotten even bigger.

Just added are Philly act Good Old War, Quebec’s Barr Brothers, and Brooklyn’s Elle King (fun fact: she’s the daughter of SNL’s Rob Schneider).

All necessary links for registration, phone numbers for hotel reservations, and the emerging schedule can be found here at TheTop22.com.

Just start at the top nav bar and work your way around.

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Ulysses S. Grant. Why is he on the fifty dollar bill?

Because he was a badass general in the Civil War — managing to finally end the thing after Lincoln’s previous leaders failed to act.

Think General George McClellan. The dude could have ended the War years earlier — ultimately saving tens of thousands of lives– if he only would attack. But no, he basically sat on his hands as events developed around him. Sounds like a deer in the headlights commercial radio guy (relax, it’s a joke and we’re talking about your boss.)

Grant? He got shit done. He beat the rebel army, got reconstruction underway, and then kicked the collective ass of the Ku Klux Klan in 1871.

That’s how you get on the fifty.

And that’s why it may cost you as little as fifty dollars to attend the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention.

In honor of U.S. Grant, all additional attendees from the same radio station can attend for 50 bucks. So the first station employee pays an Early Bird rate of $95, and everyone else just $50.

There are conditions: First, all radio employees must register at the same time to get the special rate. Second, the rate expires at 5pm EASTERN this Friday, April 6.

$200 Early Bird rates for music industry employees also expire at the same time.

So you need to ask yourself, are you McClellan or Grant?

Thought so. Follow this link to sign up.

Times writer Joe Levy writes a fun travel section story on a bona fide music business success story — the music cruise.

He boarded this year’s Weezer cruise and filed this report…

Speaking of successful music business stories, here’s a leftover SXSW link from the LA Times’ Pop & Hiss blog that not only wraps up the event, but opines a bit more on the state of the business…

Moshcam.com has been steadily shooting live concerts across the globe for a couple of years.

But last week they released an app that brings these shows to your phone. It’s another potentially great application for music monetization.

It’s a freemium model. Download the free app, and you get a handful of free shows. Then it’s pay per view.

Learn more on their site, and check out The Pretenders below.

Watch The Pretenders and other great gigs on Moshcam.

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Shaq on Conan's tiny set. Courtesy TeamCoco.com

Here’s a simple rule of thumb for radio programmers: If you can tune away from your station for a week, then come back and feel as if you haven’t missed anything — you’re already in trouble.

Great programmers and personalities know this. The early TV masters like Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen, who Letterman and Conan emulate, knew that routine is the enemy of (ratings) success.

Instead, there is a need to stay top of mind, to create buzz, to go viral. The old “water cooler moment.”

Perhaps surprisingly, most of these stunts don’t have to be elaborate. They just have to be creative or otherwise connect with the audience.

Conan, at 6′4″, his 6′3″ sidekick Andy Richter, 7′1″ Shaquile O’Neil, and 6′4″ Joel McHale crammed into a tiny version of his set — one that they used a few weeks back for another stunt called “Puppy Conan.”

It’s a pretty lame gag, but damn if it didn’t accomplish the goal. An otherwise routine show was suddenly buzzworthy.

There are plenty of ways to do this on radio, considering all the opportunities playing with sound offers.

A few from my radio career: At WMAD/Madison, on nice summer evenings, we’d broadcast from “the porch” – running a sound effects loop of birds chirping and ambient sound. At WXRT/Chicago, where elaborate April Fool’s Day pranks were the Norm, production director Tom Couch helped us “build a pool on the roof” — with days of construction finally paying off in a pool party that sounded incredibly convincing on the air.

At KFOG/San Francisco, when the Blue Angels came in for Fleet Week, we’d hang a live mic out the window as they practiced for several days in advance of the weekend air show. As the jets drowned out the on-air talent, we couldn’t sound more connected to The City.

WXPK – the Peak/White Plains “unplugs” the station on the super-hot summer days to “save electricity” — playing only acoustic music all day long.

Nothing elaborate, just memorable.

What have you done this week?

A clip from Conan’s tiny set show…

Sharon Van Etten and WFUV's Rita Houston at SXSW, courtesy WFUV.org

There were some great strides in the reporting from SXSW this year, a festival so cool that the name has been shortened to just SX.

Gone are the days of the complete boondoggle that left listeners back home wondering why they were footing the bill for sending station employees to a party in Texas. But there is still a ways to go.

There was more reporting this year, but too little journalism.

Station management needs to realize that, without actual coaching and some journalism training, they’re very likely to get the kind of disconnected-from-the-audience, stream-of-consciousness, inside-baseball talk-a-thons we’ve become used to from music announcers given free reign to describe the party that is SX — the kind of reporting that WXPN discovered was actually driving down ratings during their coverage of the event a few years back.

Before sending the troops out next year, a good day-long session covering J-school 101 and a discussion of deliverables would go a long way.

KCRW's Jason Bentley working SX. Courtesy KCRW.org.

But let’s stop there, because this article is called Worth Watching. Improved station websites offer big opportunities for content of all stripes, and many are starting to exploit those opportunities. Here are some of the winning moments…

KCRW smartly tossed up an off-the-shelf Tumblr page (read: Free!) to showcase its work, which consisted primarily of photos, picks, and previews via Soundcloud. But KCRW’s Avishay Artsy created one of the best pieces of music journalism we found — a well -produced radio piece covering Bruce Springsteen’s keynote.

WFUV had a strong performance this year, with some excellent video of JD McPherson and Alabama Shakes among others. And Rita Houston got her interview on and gets a lot out of Brendan Benson in a piece that works on-air and online as a two-camera shoot…

And here’s a clip from Alabama Shakes that really gives one a feel for the event — not slick — but a street party…

But the winners of the music journalism crown are the folks at hometown KUT. Music journalism is a discipline there, and it shows. Five full pages of videos and reports from their stage at the Four Seasons — a controlled environment that lent itself to strong, but basic shoots and good sound. Clips include James Mercer, Trampled by Turtles, Sons of Fathers, Justin Townes Earle, and many more.

Check out the Punch Brothers…

Lastly, in case you hadn’t yet thought that SXSW had jumped the shark, some douche thought that an Angry Birds flash mob dance was a good idea. Oy…

PRX, the innovative startup that connected independent producers with public radio station, is taking another swing at shaking up the public media space.

Together with a $2.5 million grant from the Knight Foundation, PRX will launch PMX — the Public Media Accelerator, a project that intends to incubate media solutions from mission-driven entrepreneurs.

It’s not a new idea, with innovation projects and “entrepreneur in residence” projects all over Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley. But it is generally new to Public Media, and it’s sorely needed.

Media in general finds itself in the Wild West, as consumer habits change and business models crumble. Among the questions is where to start?

Issues in pubcasting range from technology to systemic issues, such as the increasing marginalization of radio affiliates at the hands of the major content producers and the almost existential crisis facing public television. Let’s hope PMX isn’t just about building apps.

PMX is correct to identify that the most like source of solutions to those problems will be found in individuals within the system who are otherwise unsupported by their workplace (read: banging their heads against the wall), or just as likely, individuals or groups who are outside the public media system altogether.

PMX describes itself as such:

The Public Media Accelerator is targeted at strategic innovation, identifying and accelerating ideas with the potential to transform the field. Modeled on mentorship-driven technology startup accelerators, the Public Media Accelerator will invest in both nonprofit and for-profit ventures building apps, services and media products. Successful projects will be showcased to additional funders and investors, and receive support through a partner, mentor and sponsor network.

$2.5 million won’t go very far, and if done right, it shouldn’t have to. In situations such as these, it’s less about seed money for a project, and more about the Accelerator’s Rolodex. In other words, “You got an idea? I gotta guy for you.” These connections are invaluable in moving projects forward.

Applications open in the Spring. Learn more on the PMX site and in this more detailed story in Pubcasting trade Current.

We’ll have more on PMX and innovation in upcoming posts.

Photo courtesy BruceSpringsteen.net

As part of a campaign leading up to the March 6 release of Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball, Columbia Records has arranged something of a listening tour of the album — making a different album track available via stream to a different partner every day through March 2.

Friday, it’s radio’s turn.

Stations can embed This Depression on their websites starting at 12:01 EST, 9:01 PST — for 24 hours.

The embed will come as a very reliable Soundcloud player (we were an early adopter and love those guys!).

The player will look like the following:

Cut and paste the following embed code into a WYSIWYG portion of your site:

<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder=
"no" src="http://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.
soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F36867202%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-2COFb&amp;
auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;color=ff7700;
sharing=false&amp"></iframe>

And while you’re at it, embed this video of Bruce talking about Wrecking Ball for a group of European journalists…

Coldplay performed on the 54th Grammy Awards. Courtesy Grammy.com

Adele Adkins brought home multiple trophies at the 54th Grammy Awards, winning major categories including Album of the Year for 21, Record of the Year for Rolling in the Deep, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Performance for Someone Like You, and the songwriting award Song of the Year for Rolling in the Deep.

Rock vets Foo Fighters ran the table in the rock categories – Best Rock Album for Wasting Light, Best Rock Song for Walk, plus wins Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance and Best Rock Performance.

Mark Foster and Foster the People performed as part of a Beach Boys tribute. Courtesy Grammy.com

Justin Vernon’s Bon Iver surprised by not only winning the very hotly contested Best Alternative Music Album, but Best New Artist.

Other wins from the adult rock world came from The Civil Wars, who won for Best Folk Album and Best Country Duo/Group Performance.

Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse won for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her final recording Body and Soul. Duets II also won in the pop field.

In the newly re-defined (and severely diminished) American Roots field, Levon Helm won Best Americana Album for Ramble at the Ryman; Tedeschi Trucks Band won Best Blues Album with Revelator; and Alison Krauss and Union Station won for Best Bluegrass Album.

As in recent years, the handing out of trophies was pared back in favor of more music. The best performances of the night belonged to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (who opened), Bruno Mars (best of the night), Adele, and Beach Boys reunion featuring Foster the People and Maroon 5.

Rufus Wainwright, courtesy RufusWainwright.com

The musical lineup for the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention is beginning to take shape with a slew of announcements.

Brandi Carlile, Sinead O’Connnor, Rufus Wainwright, and Diego Garcia are scheduled to perform at the Philadelphia-based conference May 17-19.

Also announced are Dry the River, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, Lee Fields, and Father John Misty. Many more artists are yet to be announced.

Sinead O'Connor by Kevin Abosch, courtesy of sineadoconnor.com

As the NON-COMMvention returns to Philly from Wilmington, performances will take place at World Cafe Live, adjacent to the WXPN studios.

Early Bird registration rates are currently in effect, with multiple radio station employees able to attend for as little as $50. See the NON-COMMvention registration page for details.

The official hotel will again be the The Inn at Penn, with reservations now being taken. Learn more at the NON-COMMvention hotel page.

TheTop22.com will have complete details as the conference further develops. Information is available via the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention tab on the top navigation bar.