Wouldn’t it be great to be able to submit your songs or instrumental music in a way for individuals to hear your work-and license it for use in media?

Or wouldn’t it be helpful to have another option for your creative media project-something other than stock music?

indieTracks, a Boston based music library, offers solutions for both in a collection which categorizes music submissions from independent artists in an easy to use format.

According to the site, “indieTracks library contains a diverse collection of songs and instrumentals from over 100 independent bands, singer/songwriters, composers and other musical artists for placement in all forms of media. Right now the library includes 900 plus songs covering a vast range of styles, themes and production qualities, with new music added weekly”.

Not only innovative and creative: organized. One can browse using a customized search engine by keyword, genre, mood, instrumentation, tempo, era, length or production quality.

The company states that “The indieTracks artist agreement is completely non-exclusive. Basically, it gives us the right to represent and promote your music and you as an artist to music supervisors in the industry. In return, we will split any licensing fees we make off of your music with you 50/50. You keep all writers’ public performance fees, while we only keep the publishing royalties that are generated from usages licensed through indieTracks. If you plan to sell exclusive rights for a piece of your music, just let us know and if it’s not being licensed by one of our clients at the time, we can just remove it from our website and it’s all yours”

Artist/Production Manager Jeff Peters explained his take on why indieTracks is beneficial to independent bands and composers.

“In my eyes, I see indieTracks as an independent promoter for these artists (bands, composers) for TV, film, advertising, and media placements. We’re not pounding the pavement trying to get these bands gigs and such, but it is a mutually beneficial relationship – essentially a low-risk promotional avenue for both sides. We don’t pay for the songs to be composed, and the artists don’t pay to have their songs featured in our library. The simple motto of “we only get paid when you do” fits quite nicely … We are just offering our website as a link between those who need music, and those who have music to supply,” said Peters.

As for musicians involved, indieTracks has proven to be helpful and not at all complicated. “indieTracks is a great resource for independent bands. It has the potential to open up new avenues of opportunity and exposure. indieTracks is also easy to enroll in and easy to use. For us, it was a no brainer.” said Dave Sicilian of The Shills, one of indieTracks’ featured bands.

“The idea for indieTracks initially came from the founder of AirCraft, Robert S. Cavicchio. indieTracks was initially thought of as a creative pursuit to both broaden AirCraft’s music offerings and showcasing the talent of various independent musicians,” said Marketing/Licensing Manager Jennifer Ruggiero.

(Aircraft Music Library is a production library which has been providing music for production professionals for over 25 years, www.aircraftmusiclibrary.com)

Tim Reppert, producer/engineer explains how indieTracks impacts independent artists in a positive light by helping them to expand their reach into different markets.

“We have many friends who are blossoming composers who we have tried to include in our traditional production music library AirCraft, but this is the perfect way to work with them, to represent their own material and allow them the chance to make a profit from their hard work,” said Reppert, “something that young composers don’t always find easily because artists often struggle with the business of selling their product. We are happy to lend a hand. Our non-exclusive agreement allows artists keep the rights to their music, only sharing the rights for the jobs that we bring them. Otherwise, they are free to use it, or sell it, on their own through their own connections.”

Reppert went on to explain how indieTracks works to ensure artist freedoms, “I see this as opening up their world of possibilities. Either they can just leave it up to us and the exposure of our website, and to our clients, to get them work, giving the artists more time to create more music. Or, their freedom can be realized as they use our service and learn more about the Music License business through interacting with our site and our staff as they submit their music to our site.”

The site offers an area for musicians in the “I Want to Submit Music” area, and for clients in the “I Am Looking for Music Area” in a neat layout and organized catalog-as a client you may also listen to full length cuts, download MP3s and WAV files, keep track of your usage and request custom music searches by registering online.

“indieTracks was born from the desire to make more music available to our clients … in the process we are helping bands and composers who are struggling to find ways to get their music out in the world, and get them more exposure in places that they wouldn’t normally have access to, ie, Film, Documentaries, TV Shows, Advertising, Web media and so on,” Reppert said.

Reppert added, “This empowers the artist to go out into the world armed with what they learned to make more connections and grow their own client base. And all the while we are still working to get their music licensed to our clients. A win/win as they say.”

Indeed. Musicians helping other musicians? A creative database for clients? In a business world driven by networking, bands and composers can have the support of indieTracks, opposed to just showcasing their work on a site like MySpace, because indieTracks has the client base for you to work with.

IndieTracks is forging a new path in the music industry with a business model that partners with the artist, rather than contracting them and by approaching the business from the musician’s angle.

By the way: Because of incorrect information provided to Blast, the name of Robert S. Cavicchio was spelled incorrectly.

Of course with the staggering amount of musical artists on Myspace, it could be considered impossible for anyone to really make a name for themselves amongst the masses. Apparently Adam Young – known more widely to his followers as Owl City – didn’t get that memo and went for it anyway. Over 20,000 digital albums and more than 200,000 tracks later, Owl City is set to embark on their first headlining tour across the US (even though his first live gigs were this past February – both sold out).

The new tour includes stops at Bamboozle, Sasquatch and Summerfest and even a few dates with Christian rockers Relient K.

The time spent on the road is to help promote Owl City’s upcoming release “Ocean Eyes” which will hit iTunes on September 1. It kicks off on today in Boston where Owl City will be playing at Café 939.

Young took a little time out on his way to Bamboozle this weekend to discuss internet popularity, the tour and “Ocean Eyes”.

“I honestly have no idea how I account for this kind of success. I did really poorly in the accounting class I took in high school, and none of my friends are licensed accountants so I guess I don’t really have a good answer,” Young said in his e-mail reply, “Regardless, I’m excited beyond reason about this. It’s a truly wonderful feeling to fall asleep at night knowing there are a few people out there who appreciate the art I pour so much of myself into. It’s an incredible feeling to say the least.”

Owl City has charted multiple times on the iTunes top ten electronic charts alongside Daft Punk, M.I.A. and The Postal Service. His most popular single is “Hello Seattle,” even though it turns out Young had never been able to visit the Emerald City until last month.

“Seattle was enchanting. It certainly lived up to my expectations… and then some. I had never tried tartar sauce with french fries until I visited the Emerald City. [The experience] makes me want to live there and eat tartar sauce and fries like it’s my job,” explained Young.

Young only began playing music a few years ago but soon got into using his computer to create a more electro-pop kind of sound which has attracted the attention of more than six million visitors to his Myspace.

“I started playing music a few years ago. It was pretty fun so I started programming music a few months ago. That was even more fun. In terms of genre, electronic music just happened to get in the way so I started tapping my toes. I’m still having fun,” Young said.

All of the Owl City albums have been recorded in Young’s basement in the small town of Owatonna, Minn. Initially, Young recorded a few songs and put them online and a few devoted fans carried it from there.

“I recorded some songs, put them up online and kids spread the word. I didn’t do a thing. I really owe it all to my fans because they’ve done all the work,” said Young.

Even the planned fall release of “Ocean Eyes” was done in Young’s house but, as he explains, with more of a process: “Recording this album was the same process as recording the others, but with a bit more purpose. I also know much more now — about programming/producing/engineering, than I did while recording the first two records. ‘Ocean Eyes’ was different also because I holed up in the studio for a month, put in 12 hour days and hammered everything out all in one fell swoop.”

Young also spent some time recording four extra tracks which will be used as promotional tools for the new album.

On the first Tuesday of every month leading up to the “Ocean Eyes” release, fans will be able to purchase a new Owl City song from iTunes which will also include a chance to see him live on the summer tour. The first song, “Hot Air Balloon” will be available May 5th for downloading.

“We thought it would be a sneaky idea to start building buzz for the release of the record in September. All four songs are picked out. They will not be featured on ‘Ocean Eyes,’ but rather iTunes-only releases,” Young said.

You can check out the new single this Tuesday or go catch Owl City on any of the stops along the tour this summer. The dates are listed below.

May 5th — Café 939, Boston, MA

May 6th — North Star Bar, Philadelphia, PA

May 7th — Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY

May 9th — Jammin’ Java, Vienna, VA

May 11th — Grog Shop, Cleveland Heights, OH

May 12th — The Pike Room @ Crofoot, Pontiac, MI

May 14th — Subterranean, Chicago, IL

May 15th — Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN

May 23rd — Gorge Amphitheatre/Sasquatch Festival, George, WA

May 26th — Glass House, Pomona, CA*

May 27th — The Dome, Bakersfield, CA*

May 28th — The Boardwalk, Orangevale, CA*

May 29th — Indigo District, Eugene, OR*

May 30th — Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR*

May 31st — Neumo’s, Seattle, WA*

June 2nd — Knitting Factory, Spokane, WA*

June 3rd — Knitting Factory, Boise, ID*

June 4th — Murray Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT*

June 19th — Rocketown, Nashville, TN

June 20th — Vinyl, Atlanta, GA

June 22nd — The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC

June 23rd — Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh, NC

June 25th — Sonar, Baltimore, MD

June 26th — Water Street Music Hall, Rochester, NY

June 27th — The Basement, Columbus, OH

June 29th — Riverside Ballroom, Green Bay, WI

June 30th — Grandma’s Sports Garden Bar & Grill, Duluth, MN

July 1st — Cornerstone Farm, Marietta, IL

July 2nd — Granada Theatre, Lawrence, KS

July 3rd — Slowdown, Omaha, NE

July 5th — Summerfest, Milwaukee, WI

*- with Relient K

Hulu’s growth is certainly impressive considering that most of Hulu’s offerings are all from network television, which typically don’t go viral like many of Youtube’s offerings. However as more cash-strapped consumers ditch their cable subscriptions and look to stream their favorite shows online instead, Hulu’s growth could easily continue.

Overall, 75 percent of people who signed online in February viewed at least one video during the month. While Hulu served only 2.5 percent of those videos, a full quarter of video watchers saw at least one video at Hulu (which for those who are still following the math is almost a fifth of the Internet populace).

Google maintained its lead at the largest video provider, showing over 5 million videos to 100 million unique visitors, almost 41 percent of all videos shown.

And as a final note, if productivity is what we need to get us out of this economic rut, these statistics don’t bode very well for us. Over 13 million videos were viewed in February, averaging out to about five hours per user. So much for actually getting work done at the office.

JustJared.com represents the photos to be accurate, leaked photos from the singer’s MySpace account.

BLAST could not independently verify the photos, but AOL News also reported the story.

The photos are a mixture of “beachy” bathing suit pics and lip-puckered underwear poses. There are also a number of other unidentified girls in the photos.

While suggestive, the photos are not explicit of pornographic, and don’t seem to be any worse than what most teenage and 20-something girls and women have on their MySpace profiles.

This could always, of course, just be a publicity stunt to draw attention to the growing superstar. Maybe she’s showing she can be one of the naughty girls too?

But, if the pictures are real, it’s more than likely just a bunch of random pics of Miley, who is, after all, a teenager.

You be the judge.

Editor’s note: BLAST has decided to take down any photos containing the other, unidentified girls.

Attackers send friend requests to the victim MySpace users. Clicking on the person’s picture or name link loads a profile page with what looks like a legitimate Windows Automatic Updates pop-up box. When the user clicks the pop-up, it results in a request for a file download masked as a Microsoft update called “updateKB890830.exe” from a server that includes “winxpupdate.Microsoft” in its name.”

“The file in actuality is a true malware cocktail,” McAfee said. “If installed and run it downloads programs from multiple servers that in turn download more malware in addition to Trojans, and a remote control tool.”

Initially, McAfee thought the download files look to be from China, but its Avert Labs determined the origin of the IP address belonging to an ISP in Malaysia and further downloads directed from the Ukraine.

The malicious MySpace profile is still live, McAfee said late Friday. MySpace and Microsoft have both been notified. Users should beware of friend requests from people they don’t know and be cautious when surfing MySpace profiles.