The Georgia Theatre is an iconic Athens landmark. Anyone that has passed through Athens since the late 1970’s, when the building first opened up as a concert venue, or again in the late 1980’s when the Georgia Theatre once again opened its doors to musicians, has memories associated with the theatre. Spring of my freshmen year, I saw Sister Hazel play the Georgia Theatre on Valentine’s Day. My best friend and I were dateless for the holiday and thought it would be a fun way to enjoy the evening. That was my first (and only) concert at the Georgia Theatre before it burnt down in June of 2009. I’ve already started tweeting at Sister Hazel in the hopes that they will return to Athens and the Georgia Theatre before I graduate in May.

The Georgia Theatre plans to reopen its doors in August of 2011 and will feature artists like Big Boi, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Of Montreal, Bright Eyes, and The Whigs, just to name a few. Looking over the roster at who has graced the stage of the Georgia Theatre is a reminder of what makes the venue so amazing. For better-known artists, the Georgia Theatre is a great way to connect with fans in a more intimate setting. For lesser-known artists who are looking to get their foot in the door, the theatre is a place to build a devoted fan base.

The Glands: 8:00 PM. August 1. SOLD OUT

Blackberry Smoke: 8:00 PM. August 5, $10

RJD2: 8:00 PM. August 6, $15

J Roddy Walson and the Business, Reptar: 8:00 PM. August 9, $10

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: 8:00 PM. August 10, $30

Big Boi: 8:00 PM. August 11. SOLD OUT

Drive By Truckers: 8:00 PM. August 12-13. SOLD OUT

Gillian Welch: 8:00 PM. August 14, $25

Colt Ford and Friends: 7:30 PM. August 16, $50

Stockholm Syndrome: 8:00 PM. August 17, $15

Corey Smith: 8:00 PM. August 19, $21

The Whigs: 8:00 PM. August 20, $15

Dank Sinatra: 8:00 PM. August 24, $8

Of Montreal: 8:00 PM. September 1, $15

Bright Eyes: 8:00 PM. September 8, $30

One concert that I am looking forward to is Corey Smith on August 19. As a fan of UGA and all things Athens, Smith’s songs resonate with me. I can’t imagine anything better than seeing Corey Smith performing in the town that has inspired so many of his songs. Check out the Georgia Theatre’s calendar for yourself and decide what concerts you’d like to attend. I guarantee that the theatre has some great things planned for its reopening and you won’t want to miss out.

If you’ve been around me for long enough over the last three years, you may have heard me express my displeasure when somebody confuses ratings and rankings.

One of the most recent example occurred at Atlanta’s ProductCamp. I had a great time, but walked away with a bad taste after reviewing the survey they wanted us to fill out on the experience. With it being the fall and keeping up with the Sunday NFL Countdown gang, I can only think of one thing to say: C’mon man!

It amazes me how little research you can find when searching for published data on the difference between ratings and rankings. Maybe that’s the reason I feel like our society considers the two to be synonymous. In reality, they serve pretty different purposes.

As Wikipedia explains, in its most basic form, a ranking is “a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either ‘ranked higher than’, ‘ranked lower than’ or ‘ranked equal to’ the second.” They clearly differentiate ratings by explaining that a rating is “the evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality (as with a critic rating a novel), quantity (as with an athlete being rated by his or her statistics), or some combination of both.”

Until recently, I felt like I was on a crusade to make the general public aware of the differences. Yet, over the last couple months, I’ve grown to learn that they are more complimentary than anything.

If I may paraphrase FlickChart, if they’re all five stars, how [the hell] do you tell ‘em apart? I got an idea: Rank ‘em!

According to IFPI’s Digital Music Report 2010, digital sales grew 9.2% and downloads accounted for $4.3 billion in revenue this past year. Sounds like a lot of money…but in reality, it could be a lot more.

These days, iTunes and Amazon seem to place the majority of their emphasis on the songs that are selling, and put the ones that aren’t so “radio-friendly” on the backburner.

Yet, as Chris Anderson described in The Long Tail, there’s probably as much money to be made in the tail as there is in the head.

In my opinion, iTunes & Amazon are taking the lazy approach. They’re basing their listings off of sales data, but for all of the songs that never receive mainstream exposure, they repeatedly get lost in shuffle.

Think about the big picture: Who knows each artist’s catalog better than their own fans? Nobody!

The easiest artist example for conveying this ongoing epidemic is Radiohead, a band that had a huge hit in the mid-90s with ‘Creep,’ but as 99% of Radiohead fans would probably tell you, it’s far from their best song. Hell, even the band refused to play the song for five years.

If you go to iTunes or Amazon, you’ll find the same story: Creep is at the very top of the list. If you go to the Radiohead page on Rank ‘em, it’s an entirely different story: ‘Creep’ barely cracks the Top 15!

Despite the problem with ‘Creep’ at the top of the list, it’s not even the biggest discrepancy in their catalog listing! That distinction would go to songs like ‘Airbag.’

If you were to visit Amazon’s Radiohead listings (as of 6.25.10), you would have go four pages in and locate listing #151 to find the song. Let’s get real: Who would ever dig that deep?

On the other hand, if you go to Rank ‘em’s Radiohead listings, the song is sitting pretty at #5 ahead of often more recognizable titles like ‘High and Dry’ and ‘Nude.’

Why so high? Because Rank ‘em gives the Radiohead fans a voice, and all of the Radiohead fanatics probably know the album ‘OK Computer’ like the back of their hand, and know about the greatness of that song (unlike some other services…). Wouldn’t you rather hear from them than a computerized system?

Needless to say, a song like ‘Airbag’ is probably not selling on Amazon, but if they adopted the Rank ‘em model of polling those that know each artist the best, they’d raise their bottom line and make sales on songs that are currently overlooked.

I could go on for days, but I don’t want to write a thesis. There will surely be plenty more to come on this subject, but in the meantime, I’d love to hear any questions or comments anybody may have!

I recently returned from a great time in Austin for a week full of SXSW. After putting my money towards the development of Rank ‘em, I decided to sit out the actual conference, but there was plenty going on in Austin in conjunction. In fact, it was still overwhelming to just wander the infamous Sixth Street.

I specifically recall grabbing the local paper and taking out the SXSW “guide” over our first meal in town. In reality, I think I would have been better off without taking a look. They might as well have called it “SXSW Confusion.”

There were (literally) thousands of bands playing shows through the week-long affair. Every artist had the same priority: increase their awareness.

Considering I recognized maybe 1%, of the acts, I’m not exactly sure what they wanted me to do. With strictly showtimes and venues listed, was I supposed to judge the bands based on their name? Better hope you picked a good one!

On that note, I had an engaging conversation with Bart Bohn the other day about turn2live (soon to be moodfish), who he advises, and their unique approach that could have come in handy. They allow you to select the type of live music in your area that fits your mood and suggest shows from there. For the live music capital of the world, it’s a great start!

Then again, I still want to know what I can expect from each act. That’s why we think Rank ‘em as a resource can be so valuable.

Everybody is operating on a limited amount of time, and you want to know ASAP what are the best songs from each artist. There’s plenty of “resources” available…but do those truly recognize the best, or is it more like the most popular?

No one knows each artist, especially the unknown indie acts, better than their own fans. Without question, I’d rather hear from them than anybody!

Here’s my quick breakdown for the initial music discovery process.

Step 1: You just discovered a new artist from:

A)   A friend (trusted source)

B)   A placement (movie, TV show, advertisement, etc.)

C)   A recommendation engine

D)   An identification program like Shazam

E)   Bloggers

F)  What else?

Step 2: Where do I go from here?

As much as I love recommendation engines like Pandora & Slacker, when I find a new artist that I really like, I’m not that inclined to embrace an additional artist. It’s hard enough to find one artist that you can thoroughly enjoy. So when I do, I want to know what their next best song is! Am I alone in that sentiment?

Like I said, once you receive a recommendation from a trusted source or stumble across a new artist you enjoy (step 1), we think Rank ‘em is the ideal next step. Who would know each artist better than their own fans? It’s our goal to sort through the catalogs of every artist of all-time, according to those that know them the best: their own fans. And, that’s only going to be possible with your continued support…through sharing & ranking your favorites for the rest of the world to see!

To further the sentiment, we share an internal theory that there is a significantly greater likelihood of that consumers will find an additional song to purchase by going to the next best song than another artist with a similar track. It’s tough to find a new artist that you LOVE, and especially fully embrace one. But, when you do find one, why would you want to stop there?

That’s what we hope Rank ‘em can do for you. When we say we’re accelerating music discovery, you now know what we mean!