Soulja Boy’s SayNow Number: (678) 999-8212
Soulja Boy’s Myspace

Cassidy just called the round 3 winner of his rap battle and broadcasted the conversation! You can listen to it below

He used our Connect Live feature to call the winner Lil Chugga. (Right now this feature is something you have to request from us, so if you’re interested in talking to your fans while keeping your number private, let us know)

Here’s the winner…

Cassidy’s SayNow Number: (215) 701-0998
Cassidy’s MySpace

I was listening to some of Tyrese’s fan messages while I was on the train this morning and came across this super nice one. Good luck Courtney!! We’re rootin’ for ya :-)

Tyrese just sent a message to his fans this morning and conferenced in Akon! I think we’re gonna be hearing more from Akon real soon :-) (at least, I hope we will…)

Tyrese’s SayNow Number:(818) 287-8968
Tyrese’s Website

J. Holiday just sent this message out. It’s pretty sweet :-)

J. Holiday’s SayNow Number: (202) 683-7119
J. Holiday’s Myspace

who was hangin with Omarion when he sent this message yesterday :-)

Why doesn’t Bow Wow have a SayNow number? I don’t know…maybe you guys can bug him about that.

Omarion’s SayNow number: (818) 287-8964
Omarion’s MySpace
MySpace for the Face Off album

Call for the seeeeecret password to see Edison Glass and Blindside for free when they go on tour next month! More details in their message below

Edison Glass’ SayNow Number: (917) 338-3878
Edison Glass’ Myspace
Edison Glass’ Website

Flyleaf is a band from Belton, Texas and according to their MySpace page, they’re going to be calling back one fan each week. Also, their single “I’m So Sick” is going to be in the new videogame Rock Band (which is kind of like Guitar Hero but instead of being limited to a guitar, you can also play the bass, drums, and even sing). I imagine it’ll be like competitive karoke so we need to get it for the office when it comes out in Nov! (except I think Loren would have an unfair advantage so we need to come up with a handicap for him).

Flyleaf’s SayNow number:(214) 306-4677
Flyleaf’s MySpace
Flyleaf’s Website

We’re going to start doing some tests with text and voice advertising for a few of our broadcasters. If you’re interested in having advertising turned on for your line and helping us test, let us know.

Advertising is one way we’re hoping to keep the service free for broadcasters and listeners, but there are lots of things we haven’t worked out yet.

If you’re a fan of someone on SayNow who has advertising turned on, we also want to know what you think. Our hope is to deliver information that’s relevant and interesting to you and since we’re just starting, there may be some hiccups as we develop and tweak a system that does this. Let us know!!

After Midnight Project is a hot band from LA that recently started using SayNow. Over the weekend, they sent personal replies to at least 13 of their fans! Their single “Take Me Home” is featured in the XBOX 360 game “Prey” and their music has been licensed to ABC, NBC, and MTV.

After Midnight Project’s SayNow number: (310) 597-4033
After Midnight Project’s MySpace

Last night I went to an interesting panel on the future of the music industry and Tim Westergren (founder of the Music Genome Project and Pandora) said something that I thought was pretty compelling. Given the shifting landscape of the music industry, he believes that an artist’s relationship with their fans is going to be the most important thing in their career going forward.

If you don’t have a good relationship with your fans, he said, they’re simply going to rip you off and download your music for free instead of buying it.

As an artist, you’re a needle in a much bigger haystack these days and needless to say, distinguishing yourself is more important than ever!

This feature just went live on our home page last week. You can now listen to public voice messages that come in as they come in AND see where they’re coming from.

Just press the play button where it says “Incoming Voice Messages” in the sidebar on our home page to listen. I usually have it playing during the day while I’m working to give me a sense of what people are saying and what they care about.

It’s usually interesting, sometimes hilarious, and every so often, heartbreaking. Here are a few messages I listened to today.

(more…)

Country + Hip Hop = Hick Hop. I didn’t know there was such a thing, but that’s what Cowboy Troy calls his music. Growing up in Texas, he listened to a lot of country and rock, but was also a fan of rap and hip hop so the fusion made sense to him. The catchy Hick Chick Dance Mix is the first single off his new album Black in the Saddle and you can check out the video below

Cowboy Troy is also the co-host (with Jewel) of Nashville Star. He recently signed up with us and has been sending messages back to fans who call and leave him messages!

Cowboy Troy’s SayNow number:(615) 866-1682
Cowboy Troy’s Website
Cowboy Troy’s MySpace

This message is in the post below too, but I wanted to single it out because it’s an inspiring story (and the very first time one of our artists actually included a fan in his broadcast!)

Here’s a broadcast that Tyrese sent out last night and some really sweet responses from his fans. (click the play button on the banner to the left to listen)

It made us really happy to hear that his fans are inspired and motivated by his messages…and to know that he’s using SayNow for something more than just another “celebrity fan club.”

It’s rare to find people like him who care to the extent that he does and who use their influence to have a positive impact on other people’s lives. It makes all of our work here worthwhile!

(You can listen to more of his broadcasts and messages from other fans over here: http://saynow.com/blackty)

UPDATE: A couple folks have asked if they can get Tyrese’s message player above for their MySpace page…so if you want it, copy and paste the embed code below.

<embed allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" enableJSURL="false" enableHREF="false" saveEmbedTags="true" src="http://asset.saynow.com/flash/favorites_tyrese.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="400" name="shoutOutPlaylist" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="never" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowNetworking="internal" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" wmode="transparent"/>

For those of you who want to know how many fans you have on SayNow, we’ve recently implemented a new feature that lets you find out on your phone. Just send a text message to 729669 (SAYNOW) with the word stats in the body of the message and we’ll send you a message that looks like the following (except with your numbers inserted)

Fans: 11241. New fans since last bcast: 1121. Last bcast listened to 11014 times.

The first number tells you how many fans you have (the total number of people who’ve called or left you messages). The second number tells you how many new fans have signed up for your broadcasts since your last one and the third number tells you how many times your last broadcast was listened to.