Learning Music Monthly

When I compare work in my current industry to when I used to work in the investment business, I always seem to come back to a really important point. A big part about working in music has to do with being creative; inventing new models, following through on creative ideas. I never fully realized this while fixing trades and balancing accounts years ago at RBC Investments.

Reinforcing my point is Learning Music Monthly, a subscription based, album-a-month series put out by LA’s Vosotros Records. By signing up, subscribers will receive a full length CD of original material in handmade recycled packaging, delivered my mail each month, as well as unlimited access to the Learning Music digital archive. Check the site for different subscriber options.

The idea started in Nov. ’06 from the living room of composer John Wood, keyboardist for Inara George (The Bird and The Bee). Wood orchestrated collaborations with various artists to produce one album a month for one year, released in limited quantities to friends and family. Year one of Learning Music included an album recorded entirely on a handheld cassette player, songs composed to short homemade music videos, a musical autobiographically written by a lonely robot and dozens of electro-acoustic folk-pop anthems.

Most recently they’ve asked you to get involved. The site has a contribute page where listeners and subscribers can donate sounds for future compositions or download song stems for remixes. Pretty cool idea. This one caught my ear today, check out Contagious (off The Greatest Hits So Far EP).