Praising the trueModel, Melissa Rapp signs with trueAnthem: "trueWidgets could save our music industry."

trueAnthem's latest artist release week includes singer-songwriter Melissa Rapp. After a week with tA, she personally wrote us with her opinion on the trueAnthem model. ...It made us so happy that we just had to share it with you!

"trueWidgets, if adequately publicized, understood and circulated among the music-seeking population, could not only save our ailing music industry, but stimulate our economy as well," she wrote.

Indeed. In the trueWidgets latest iteration, artists are paid a small percentage of their chosen sponsor's Amazon sales, when linked directly from the artist widget. Melissa has already seen affiliate sales through her support of the Bliss spa product line.

Imagine! What would our economy and music industry would be if the billions who downloaded music every day *occasionally* bought a few of the artist's tracks (by choice) and then followed that $3 purchase with buying the artist's endorsed goods?

We at the trueAnthem fervently believe, that if both of these two (small?) wishes could be fulfilled, that the world would be a (noticeably) better place.

So, the real question here is: Can You Hang?

Or as Tupac would phrase it, Can You Feel Me?

We sure golly hope so. Cause we have some pretty talented artists releasing this month, and we hope you find their music valuable, as well as the products they believe in. This month, our artists are combining both the free and paid models for distributing their music. You'll find some tracks available for free download, with the remainders of albums often available at a discount price, only from trueAnthem's widgets.

We encourage you, as we always have...to Grab it like you want it. (The widget, we mean! Not that...) :) And then, SHARE SHARE SHARE! There is nothing, really, more lovely that you could do today than send your friend/mass email list the code for a new widget you have been digging. Encourage them to post in on their Facebook, MySpace and various rather ridiculous social networking pages...help spread the love.

Music, after all, is love.

So, now...ladies and gentlemen, without further adieu, we bring you...

NEW LOVE.

*

Melissa Rapp
The Other Side
brought to you by Bliss

This girl has told us more than once that she likes her lotions. Hand creams, foot scrubs, sex wax, magic eye creams. Melissa Rapp is not afraid to admit that she likes to moisturize.

When we told her that she could indeed pair up with one of her favorite moisturizing body care lines, Bliss, we saw a sparkle in her blue eyes. ...The possibilities! Endless! ...Quality music, a classy brand sponsorship, and trueAnthem's digital marketing prowess? What more could a young artist need?

And so the release began. trueAnthem is now the exclusive digital distributor of The Other Side.

While Melissa might have a slight obsession with lotions, we at trueAnthem have also noticed her slight obsession with perfection, or at least, in her words, "the attempt of perfection."

Sure, she started with the right ingredients:
*Jon Evans on bass and producing (Tori Amos, Paula Cole) {1 cup}
*Allison Miller on drums (Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant) {1 1/2 cups}
*Julie Wolf on keyboards (Indigo Girls, Dar Williams) {8 TBS.}
*Betsy Adams on lead guitars (Under) {As desired, up to 2 cups}

Sure enough, Melissa's backing band of musicians reads like a Wikipedia of Great Female Singer-Songwriters. We knew right away...we WANT to hear this album.

After all, it is a lesser known fact that some of the greatest albums of all time owed as much to the studio musicians behind the artist's tracks, as to the songs or artist themselves.

All this said, Melissa's desire to perfect her craft is perhaps most apparent not in her finished product, but in the bare bones of her artistry--her songwriting. In her ten rock solid tracks, she give us not one weak line, not one melody we don't want to hear over and over, not one bridge that doesn't take us to a higher place.

It may be the Stanford degree that pushed a songwriter like this to such near perfection...but we believe it's actually, more likely...in her jeans. Or shall we say, her jeans skirt. :)

Yes, Melissa can rock the mini-skirt. Even better, she is not afraid to admit that (along with her obsessions for lotion and perfection), she has perhaps more flip-flops than Sarah Jessica Parker has Manolos. And she most loves to wear "skirts, slippahs, or preferably, just a beach towel." "As little clothes as possible..." she told us, "that is how most true Hawaiians prefer to dress!"

And, in our humble opinion, Melissa is most definitely, a Hawaiian. "What? HOW!" you may ask...she is white as a doll!" But you see, 'Hawaiian' is not just a skin color or ethnic background," Melissa explains. "At its best, it is an essence, a drive, a respect for what came before us, and a unique sense of the energies that will follow."

Yes, that is what it is. Forget the resumes and fancy names. Stanford may have helped craft Chelsea and Tiger's future career paths, but we believe Melissa is perhaps most influenced by her Hawaiian upbringing.

Like contemporaries Jack Johnson, Makana, and the Ka'au Crater Boys, Melissa is inspired by the magic of the Hawaiian Islands--the surf, the wind, the heavy tropical rains. We hear, more than anything, this magical and unpredictable beauty, in her perfectly (if we may say so ourselves) crafted songs.

Enjoy.