About blocSonic
Your introduction to the world of netaudio…
For the past decade an alternative culture of music has been sprouting up outside the wastelands of the increasingly formulaic and compartmentalized mainstream music business. This world of “Netaudio” is generally released freely, either independently or through Netlabels. As this culture continues to grow, the amount of available music grows exponentially making it increasingly difficult for folks who are new to the culture to filter the good from the bad. Each of our free releases, in one way or another, are an attempt to shine the spotlight on what we think is the best of what this world has to offer.
Consider blocSonic a filter through which you can discover this vibrant, global culture! Currently there are three ways which we spotlight what the netaudio world has to offer:
During our travels through the wide-world of netaudio culture, we find artists who stand out and who we feel would be perfect to spotlight independently in original blocSonic album releases. Each Original features:
- Available in a choice of three high-quality audio formats — Lossless FLAC, 320kbs MP3 and 192kbs MP3.
- Complete album art is available in three formats — EPS, PDF and TIF.
- 40+ page PDF booklet with complete liner-notes, lyrics, photos and album credits.
Each of our Xtended Edition (XE) series is essentially a re-release. A re-release of an album that blocSonic found to be an exceptional example of the quality that the netaudio world is capable of producing. These re-releases contain the original album as well as at least a bonus disc worth of material (remixes, demos, outtakes, new material and/or other unreleased material). They also feature fresh album art and as with all our releases an extensive PDF booklet.
Each Xtended Edition features:
- At least 1 disc worth of bonus material
- Available in a choice of three high-quality audio formats — Lossless FLAC, 320kbs MP3 and 192kbs MP3.
- Complete new album art is available in three formats — EPS, PDF and TIF.
- 40+ page PDF booklet with complete liner-notes, lyrics, photos and album credits.
Each of these eclectic releases shine a spotlight on ten or so international audio gems culled from the Netaudio culture. Each netBloc features:
- Available in a choice of three high-quality audio formats — Lossless FLAC, 320kbs MP3 and 192kbs MP3.
- Complete album art is available in three formats — EPS, PDF and TIF.
- 30+ page PDF booklet with complete liner-notes, track credits and artist photos.
These special collections feature Creative Commons licensed tracks that for one reason or another blocSonic couldn't acquire official permission to use but find them worthy of extra attention. Since no formal permission has been acquired, links to the original files are provided rather than compiling them into a proper release. However, a cover and a tracklisting is provided in order for you to burn them to disc, if you'd like.
Why do we do what we do? We love music, we love netaudio and have found that the quality and variety of what’s coming out of this culture is superior to that of much of what’s coming out of the mainstream music industry. We feel more secure donating to netaudio artists/labels then we do purchasing formulaic music-product from the majors. We’d like you to also feel that way toward the netaudio culture. We realize that most people don’t have the time and/or patience to filter through it all to find the good stuff, so we invest the time to find the gems in the ruff and deliver them to you in our releases.
In between releases, you can also look forward to blog posts about netaudio news or topics relating to DRM and online music.
So subscribe to our feed and discover great new openly-licensed music every month. Be sure to spread the word!
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blocsonic on 02/16/2012 at 12:00AM
Catch up with blocSonic and enjoy some great free music
Back in the early 2000s, I began discovering the incredibly diverse world of netlabels/netaudio. At first, my exploration was hindered due to my lack of commitment to the need of listening to such a large array of music only to discover a very few gems that appealed to my tastes. By 2006 I had come to realize that there wasn’t any easy button to discovering music I love. I also decided that I’d take it upon myself to create that easy button for others to discover the vibrant music scene more easily than I was able to. That easy button became blocSonic.com and was launched in January of 2007.
For the first two years, I concentrated on the series of releases for which blocSonic was created, the netBloc series. A series of releases that collects 10-12 personal netaudio favorites into a fully realized compilation album that comes with complete album art, a PDF booklet with extensive liner-notes and is available in multiple audio formats, including lossless FLAC. In those first two years, 26 volumes were released that shined the spotlight on a widely eclectic range of netaudio from all over the world. The netBloc series quickly generated interest among music listeners, netaudio artists and netlabels alike.
Then in 2009 came the natural next step… releasing blocSonic original albums alongside the netBloc series. That year saw the release of the first four blocSonic originals… Just Plain Ant’s “Dig Deep”, Formula’s “The Catastrophic Connection”, Luck & Ripps’ “The Catastrophic Connection” and CM aka Creative’s “Classic Material Vol. 3: UI Radio”.
Along with new netBloc and original releases, 2010 came with it’s own additions to the blocSonic release line-up… maxi-singles and EPs known as maxBlocs and blocSonic’s own brand of deluxe edition re-releases called Xtended Editions.
2011 was a year of refining the blocSonic release schedule and planning for more growth this year.
In January blocSonic celebrated its fifth year with what became known as MUTE month — four releases by the cross-atlantic team of Tha Silent Partner and UNknown (Formula) known as MUTE.
Since launching, blocSonic’s audience has only grown and continues to do so now even as I plan future additions to the release line-up, a new site design and other exciting changes. The future is bright for netaudio and for blocSonic. I can’t wait to let you in on what I’ve got cooking!
For now, get to know blocSonic or simply catch up… with this selection of 50 highlights from the 2007-2012 archives.
Peace
Mike Gregoire
Founder/Curator blocSonic.com
blocsonic on 08/04/2010 at 12:21AM
New release: Just Plain Ant “Rumble, Young Man, Rumble” with guest appearance by Chuck D!
Just Plain Ant is back with another fresh collection of his unique brand of hip-hop — beats, jazzy samples and a host of guests who each add their own flavor to the mix. Among the guests we’ve got blocSonic regulars such as Joey Ripps, Ohbliv and Sleaze. We’ve also got some new names — Black Liquid, Braintrust, Mic Jordan, Gordy Michael, NOTE, Octavion Xcellence, Photosynthesizers and last but not least… the INCREDIBLE… Chuck D! That’s right… the legendary Public Enemy front man took time out of his busy schedule to drop a verse!
As you’ll read in Ant’s PDF liner-notes, this album was a long time in the making and has undergone a few changes along the way… but in my opinion, it was worth it… Ant turned out another fantastic release! I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.
Thanks in advance for checking it out! Remember… keep the music moving… share it… blog it… podcast it!