Tag Archives: Christopher Simmons

Christopher Simmons’ MuseWire again ranked among the Top 70 Music Industry Blogs for 2025 by Feedspot

TEMECULA, Calif., June 12, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — MuseWire has been selected by the panelists at Feedspot as one of the “Top 70 Music Industry Blogs” on the web for 2025. Ranked #30 this year (#35 last year). MuseWire™ (aka/formerly Music Industry Newswire) covers music makers, music gear, audiophile gear, the music business and related topics; established 2006. A publication of Neotrope®. Edited by Christopher Laird Simmons, a working tech journalist since 1984, and member ASCAP.

Image caption: MuseWire, a music industry blog magazine edited by Christopher Simmons.

“Nice for folks to notice my blog is still alive and kicking, even if my time for music journalism has dropped a bit in past couple of years,” said Christopher Simmons. “Looks like I moved up a few spots to #30 this year. It’s an interesting list, with some notable industry portals and some fairly obscure stuff.”

About MuseWire:

MuseWire is an online magazine published and edited by Christopher Simmons, an award-winning artist, author, musician, photographer and creative. The publication covers new music, new music tech and gear (both music instruments and audiophile gear), and selected news from music education and music business concerns. MuseWire was originally known as Music Industry Newswire (MIN) prior to a rebrand and scale back circa 2016.

Learn more at: https://MuseWire.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/musewire.

View an example Wayback Machine snapshot of the old Music Industry Newswire version of site, from 2010 here (Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20100106014415/http://musicindustrynewswire.com/

About Feedspot:

Feedspot is a Content Reader. It helps you keep up with multiple websites in one place so that you need not visit each website to see what’s new. “Feedspot makes keeping up with your favorite websites as easy as checking your email.”

See the complete list of music industry blogs honored for 2025 at: https://music.feedspot.com/music_industry_blogs/

About Christopher Laird Simmons:

Christopher Simmons has been a working journalist since 1984 when he sold his first music industry article to POLYPHONY magazine (purchased by MIX and became Electronic Musician). Later writing for diverse pubs including Computer Player, Digital Imaging, Micro Publishing News, Spazz, the Graphic Artist’s Guild newspaper, among many others. He has been widely interviewed on topics related to technology, marketing, health and entertainment.

His full-time gig is acting as CEO and founder of NEOTROPE® and its PR brand Send2Press®.

As a musician he played in several bands in the ‘80s including PROJECT 11 and PETS GONE WILD (featured in the LA Times “Calendar” section and an LA Weekly “Band Name of the Week”).

He released numerous indie cassette albums in the 1980s under the moniker, BLUETOY. His music has been played on late night space radio stations, and positively reviewed in Electronic Musician and ‘zines like SYNE. A CD of his music from the mid ‘80s was released on Neotrope Records in 2000, “BESERKER.” The album is still available on most streaming platforms (albeit in horribly recompressed form).

His music has been used for two cable TV productions in the late 1980s in California: the award-winning “VIDKIDCO” and “Viewpoints on Video” from the Long Beach Museum of Art.

Simmons has some minor notoriety for having published two highly popular genre fanzines: in the late 1970s, “The Adama Journal” – and late 1980s, “Galaxy Class.”

Chris is no relation to a Canadian pianist of the same name, another electronic musician of the same name, nor a graphic artist based in San Francisco, also of same name. Recently he began using his full name to better differentiate himself from the brothers from another mother.

Learn more about Christopher Simmons at:

https://ChristopherSimmons.com/ (website under reconstruction; it’s a mess!).

X/Twitter: https://x.com/tophersimmons

Facebook (main personal page): https://www.facebook.com/christopher.l.simmons

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neosimmons/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersimmons/

Neotrope Records: https://neotroperecords.com/

Neotrope Press: https://neotropepress.com/

MULTIMEDIA:

Photo link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/21-1231-s2p-christopher-simmons-300dpi.jpg

Caption: Artist, author, musician, Christopher Laird Simmons (2022).

NEWS SOURCE: Christopher Simmons

This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Christopher Simmons), who is solely responsible for its accuracy, by Send2Press Newswire. Image, if any, was provided by the news source and not this website or the wire service. Information is believed accurate, as provided by the news source, but is not guaranteed.

To view the original story, visit: https://www.send2press.com/wire/christopher-simmons-musewire-again-ranked-among-the-top-70-music-industry-blogs-for-2025-by-feedspot/

MUSEWIRE ranked #35 among the top 70 Music Industry Blogs for 2024

TEMECULA, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- MuseWire has been selected by the panelists at Feedspot as one of the Top 70 Music Industry Blogs on the web. MuseWire™ (aka/formerly Music Industry Newswire™) covers music makers, music gear, audiophile gear, the music business and related topics; established 2005. A publication of Neotrope®. Edited by Christopher Simmons, a working tech journalist since 1984, and member ASCAP.

"This was nice to be honored again this year for inclusion on the Feedspot annual list," said Christopher Laird Simmons. "Seems my 'blog' has gone up in their ratings each year, which is nice, considering I'm not flooding the web anymore with 'me too' press announcements, and shooting for stuff a bit more personal; meaning stuff I like or news from less commonly known music stuff."

About MuseWire:

MuseWire is an online magazine published and edited by Christopher Simmons, an award-winning artist, author, musician, photographer and creative. The publication covers new music, new music tech and gear (both music instruments and audiophile gear), and selected news from music education and music business concerns. MuseWire was originally known as Music Industry Newswire (MIN) prior to a rebrand and scale back circa 2016.

Learn more at: https://MuseWire.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/musewire

View an example Wayback Machine snapshot of the old Music Industry Newswire version of site, from 2010 here (Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/20100106014415/http://musicindustrynewswire.com/

About Feedspot:

Feedspot is a Content Reader. It helps you keep up with multiple websites in one place so that you need not visit each website to see what's new. "Feedspot makes keeping up with your favorite websites as easy as checking your email."

See the complete list of music industry blogs honored for 2024 at: https://music.feedspot.com/music_industry_blogs/

About Christopher Laird Simmons:

Christopher Simmons has been a working journalist since 1984 when he sold his first music industry article to POLYPHONY magazine (purchased by MIX and became Electronic Musician). Later writing for diverse pubs including Computer Player, Digital Imaging, Micro Publishing News, Spazz, the Graphic Artist's Guild newspaper, among many others. He has been widely interviewed on topics related to technology, marketing, health and entertainment.

His full-time gig is acting as CEO and founder of NEOTROPE® and its PR brand Send2Press®.

As a musician he played in several bands in the '80s including PROJECT 11 and PETS GONE WILD (featured in the LA Times "Calendar" section and an LA Weekly "Band Name of the Week").

He released numerous indie cassette albums in the 1980s under the moniker, BLUETOY. His music has been played on late night space radio stations, and positively reviewed in Electronic Musician and 'zines like SYNE. A CD of his music from the mid '80s was released on Neotrope® Records in 2000, "BESERKER." The album is still available on most streaming platforms (albeit in horribly recompressed form).

His music has been used for two cable TV productions in the late 1980s in California: the award-winning "VIDKIDCO" and "Viewpoints on Video" from the Long Beach Museum of Art.

He is quoted in two music books: "Music Business For Dummies" (ISBN: 978-1119049654) and "The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business" (ISBN: 978-1608325788), both by music industry veteran Loren Weisman. Simmons is one of the quoted business experts in "Career and Corporate Cool" (ISBN: 978-0470120347) by branding expert Rachel C. Weingarten.

Simmons has some minor notoriety for having published two highly popular genre fanzines: in the late 1970s, "The Adama Journal" - and late 1980s, "Galaxy Class."

Chris is no relation to a Canadian pianist of the same name, another electronic musician of the same name, nor a graphic artist based in San Francisco, also of same name. Recently he began using his full name to better differentiate himself from the brothers from another mother.

Learn more about Christopher Simmons at https://ChristopherSimmons.com/ (website under reconstruction for 2024; it's a mess!).

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/tophersimmons

Facebook (main personal page): https://www.facebook.com/christopher.l.simmons

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neosimmons/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersimmons/

Neotrope Records: https://neotroperecords.com/

Neotrope Press: https://neotropepress.com/

MULTIMEDIA:

Photo link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/21-1231-s2p-christopher-simmons-300dpi.jpg

Caption: Artist, author, musician, Christopher Laird Simmons.

MuseWire has been selected by the panelists at Feedspot as one of the Top 70 Music Industry Blogs on the web. MuseWire™ (aka/formerly Music Industry Newswire™) covers music makers, music gear, audiophile gear, the music business and related topics; established 2005. A publication of Neotrope®. Edited by Christopher Simmons, a working tech journalist since 1984, and member ASCAP.

Related link: https://christophersimmons.com

Neotrope and Send2Press expand AI image optimization for its press release distribution services

TEMECULA, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- Today, Neotrope®, a 40+ year old tech and marketing firm, and Send2Press® Newswire, a 24 year old online newswire service, announce updated use of AI tools for client image optimization, such as upscaling and generative fill to make news images better for social and syndication.

"For the past 24 years we have always helped clients improve their news images for press release dissemination direct-to-editors and online," says CEO and co-founder Christopher Laird Simmons.

"This has sometimes been simple stuff like whitening teeth a little in headshots, or fixing wide angle distortion, where folks on either side of a group image look like Agustus Gloop due to lens distortion. We've been pretty proud of taking this extra step - which nobody else in the newswire business does."

Simmons, an Adobe Photoshop guru since 1993, and professional photographer since a teenager (ahem, in the late 1970s), started using image AI tools like Topaz Gigapixel AI in 2019 to upscale client images; where sometimes an agency could get nothing from their client except a postage stamp image, perhaps from a LinkedIn account or email signature.

Recently adding modern tools like generative fill in Photoshop 2023, and Topaz Photo AI for improved upsampling, has been a huge step forward in correcting the overall image for elements such as missing shoulders, rooms, outdoor sets, chopped off hair, and more.

"Today, our basic web image size for press releases syndicated online and shared to news platforms and social, is an 800x600 pixel rectangle, and 3x4 inch 300 dpi image for media," says Simmons. "When clients have nothing other than a 250x250 pixel headshot, we can now easily upscample the image to usable size, but also use generative fill to add the missing elements for converting a vertical or square image to landscape rectangle. The time saving with AI is just astounding, and our clients are both appreciative and a bit 'freaked out.' It is rather trippy what is now possible."

Simmons concludes, "We like to say our press release newswire is more like a wedding cake business than a burger flipping business. With these updated tools the frosting keeps getting better!"

Basic image correction is free with all of Send2Press' PRO press release distribution packages on a non-pre-approval basis. Pre-approval and alternate versioning is available at added cost and delays distribution.

Send2Press, online since 2000*, offers best in class affordable press release distribution and writing. News appears on legitimate news portals, APnews website, AP syndication, AP newsrooms, social media and high visibility on Google News and other news channels and data platforms.

Send2Press, a service of Neotrope, was ranked best overall of the top 6 newswire services by Fit Small Business in 2020. Parent, Neotrope, was an Inc. 5000 listed company in 2009.

Neotrope®, a marketing, entertainment, and technology company, launched in 1983 by Christopher Laird Simmons and the late Dr. JL Simmons, is celebrating its 41st anniversary in Jan. 2024.

(*Verifiable via Archive.org for Send2Press homepage in the year 2000.)

About Send2Press:

Send2Press®, founded in 2000, offers affordable press release distribution, writing, and social media marketing. Send2Press was named "best overall" of the top six press release services in 2020 by Fit Small Business. Send2Press is a dba of Neotrope, founded in 1983 in California.

Send2Press was the first true newswire service to be entirely made up of public relations and marketing professionals (including PRSA members), ex-magazine staffers, and published authors. This provides a better boutique experience versus other services with only sales people and copy editors on staff.

Send2Press has consistently been ranked one of the top newswire services overall based on honesty and credibility, with exceptional ratings from customers on sites like Trustpilot.

Learn more about Send2Press® at: https://www.Send2Press.com/

Send2Press Newswire offers:

* Professional press release writing with accredited staff

* Local, regional, or national targeted press release distribution to both U.S. daily media and trade periodicals

* Social media sharing with custom tags and over 275,000 monthly impressions for our social channels

* National syndication via the AP, including the AP website, all U.S. AP newsrooms and online syndication to U.S. newspaper and broadcast sites, with free photo

* Placement on top-ranked business and finance sites including Digital Journal, eNewsChannels, Street Insider, BENZINGA, Apple News, and Google News, among others

* Placement in the Neotrope News Network, Go Media Network and selected international news platforms in Canada, Germany, India/Asia, and the Middle East

* Agency pricing for all™ with "pay as go" packages; no membership fees or subscriptions

View current plans and pricing at: https://www.send2press.com/services/price-list.shtml

View current client projects at: https://www.send2press.com/wire/

About Neotrope:

Since 1983 Neotrope® has delivered services to raise organization awareness including brand identity, marketing, public relations (PR), and social media services. Based in Temecula, California (wine country!), Neotrope is also an entertainment publishing company involved in books, music, software, sound design, video and more.

The company was co-founded by author, artist, journalist, musician and marketing/PR expert, Christopher Laird Simmons, and the late Dr. JL Simmons, PhD, a best-selling author and respected university professor.

The company has been a consistent leader in new technologies including direct marketing, digital design, ecommerce, multimedia, SEO and e-marketing for 40 years. Neotrope was an Inc. 5000 company in 2009, has a 25-year A+ rating with the BBB, and is a member of GS1. Neotrope.com

LEGAL NOTE: Send2Press® and Neotrope® are U.S. registered trademarks and service marks. Neotrope is a registered trademark in Europe. Direct-to-Editors™ is a trademark and service mark of Neotrope.

Today, Neotrope®, a 40+ year old tech and marketing firm, and Send2Press® Newswire, a 24 year old online newswire service, announce updated use of AI tools for client image optimization, such as upscaling and generative fill to make news images better for social and syndication.

Related link: https://neotrope.com

MUSEWIRE ranked among the top 50 Music Industry Blogs on Feedspot

TEMECULA, Calif. /ScoopCloud/ -- MuseWire has been selected by the panelists at Feedspot as one of the Top 60 Music Industry Blogs on the web. Musewire™ (aka Music Industry Newswire™) covers music makers, music gear, the music business and related topics; established 2005. A publication of Neotrope®. Edited by Christopher Simmons, a working tech journalist since 1984, and member ASCAP.

"This was a nice out-of-the-blue honor," says Christopher Laird Simmons. "MuseWire used to be a fairly large news portal prior to 2016, when I scaled things back to more of a personal blog thing due to the explosion of 'me-too' music news sites. Now I just share stuff I'm into, and not every version update of a music plugin."

"I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of Top 60 Music Industry Blogs on the internet and I'm honored to have you as part of this!" said Feedspot founder Anuj Agarwal.

"I hope to uplift the site by morphing into a video channel on YouTube sometime in 2022," adds Simmons. "Video is really more compelling for many things now like reviews and tutorials of music tech. Since I just built a new home studio, the timing is just about right."

About MuseWire:

MuseWire is an online magazine published and edited by Christopher Simmons, an award-winning artist, author, musician, photographer and creative. The publication covers new music, new music tech and gear, and selected news from music education and music business concerns. MuseWire was originally known as Music Industry Newswire (MIN) prior to a rebrand and scale back circa 2016.

Learn more at: https://MuseWire.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/musewire

View an example Wayback Machine snapshot of the old site, from 2010 here: https://web.archive.org/web/20100106014415/http://musicindustrynewswire.com/

About Feedspot:

Feedspot is a Content Reader. It helps you keep up with multiple websites in one place so that you need not visit each website to see what's new. "Feedspot makes keeping up with your favorite websites as easy as checking your email."

See the complete list of music industry blogs honored: https://blog.feedspot.com/music_industry_blogs/

About Christopher Laird Simmons:

Christopher Simmons has been a working journalist since 1984 when he sold his first music industry article to POLYPHONY magazine (purchased by MIX and became Electronic Musician). Later writing for diverse pubs including Computer Player, Digital Imaging, Micro Publishing News, Spazz, the Graphic Artist's Guild newspaper, among many others. He has been widely interviewed on topics related to technology, marketing, health and entertainment.

His full-time gig is acting as CEO and founder of NEOTROPE® and Send2Press®.

As a musician he played in several bands in the '80s including PROJECT 11 and PETS GONE WILD (featured in the LA Times "Calendar" section and an LA Weekly "Band Name of the Week"). His music has been played on late night space radio stations, and positively reviewed in Electronic Musician and 'zines like SYNE. A CD of his music from the mid '80s was released on Neotrope® Records in 2000, "BESERKER" available on most streaming platforms.

His music has been used for two cable TV productions in the late 1980s in California: the award-winning "VIDKIDCO" and "Viewpoints on Video" from the Long Beach Museum of Art.

He is quoted in two music books: "Music Business For Dummies" (ISBN: 978-1119049654) and "The Artist's Guide to Success in the Music Business" (ISBN: 978-1608325788; Greenleaf Book Group Press), both by industry veteran Loren Weisman.

He is no relation to a Canadian keyboardist of the same name, nor a graphic artist based in San Francisco, also of same name.

Learn more about Christopher Simmons at https://ChristopherSimmons.com/ (website under reconstruction for 2022).

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tophersimmons

Facebook (public page): https://www.facebook.com/chrissimmonsarts/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neosimmons/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersimmons/

MuseWire has been selected by the panelists at Feedspot as one of the Top 60 Music Industry Blogs on the web. Musewire (aka Music Industry Newswire) covers music makers, music gear, the music business and related topics; established 2005. A publication of Neotrope. Edited by Christopher Simmons, a working tech journalist since 1984, and member ASCAP.

Related link: http://christophersimmons.com