A History of Portable Music

Do you know the difference between an 8-Track and a MiniDisc? What about a Walkman and a Discman? Our History of Portable Music gives you an insight into where it started, and how it came to be today. From not-so-portable Phonograph players, to an entire computer in your pocket, we outline the History of Portable Music.

The history of portable music - A video by the team at Beatsuite.com

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The Case of Video Game Soundtracks as Serious Music

A soundtrack can make or break the mood and atmosphere of a video game. Music in video games is even more passive than movies and television — you don’t always notice it’s there. If you’re a gamer, go back and play a classic like “Halo” or “Devil May Cry” with no music and see just how void the experience really is. If you’re a musician struggling to find your niche, take a look at how some artists created some of the best tracks in the most unlikely place.

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Music as a Product versus Music as Art

If you’re studying modern music, particularly popular music, you’ll want to learn a bit about marketing and how the information related to marketing might be skewing your view of music a bit. Remember that, where popular music is concerned, music is a product. It’s designed to be marketed and sold to a particular demographic. As a serious student of music, you’ll need to learn to separate the music from the marketing that goes along with it.

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5 Musicians and Their Magnificent Motors

Power chords and horsepower is such a beautiful convergence. They go together, well, like rock and roll.

Early rockers frequently praised the glory of their little deuce coupes and hot rod Lincolns. Sammy Hagar proudly boasts about being unable to drive 55. Even car commercials play up the car-music connection — the classy clunkers the “old folks” drive are accompanied by sedate, classical music, while the fast, sporty models include plenty of screaming guitar riffs. The not-so-subtle message is: “Only rock stars like YOU are meant for a car like this.”

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2 chainz mixed with Kendrick Lamar

I find it hard to understand why people constantly want to be entertained all the time. One of my former teachers said, “we have enough entertainment for a lifetime.” But the thing is, its not just entertainment, its ignorant entertainment that we choose to be consumed by within the hip-hop world. Before I sound like I’m trying to sound “above that” or “unbothered by that”, I LOVE ignorant entertainment just as much as the next person.

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We're Coming Out Of A 10 Year Musical Depression

Alright, so the above statement may not be completely fair to the artists who have been meticulously slaving over and creating extremely well-crafted material in the last 10 years, but I want to discuss “pop” music over the last 10 years as a whole. 

Think back to the radio in 2002. The “golden years” of boy bands and pop divas had moved on and where being replaced by solo acts using way less harmony, sax solos, or  and a lot more drum machine. 

It was the birth of “the age of the modern producer”. Not the producers who had degrees in music and years of experience, I’m talking about the “Fruity Loops” using “Garageband” toting ones who threw out tracks faster than they could add real instruments to them. And we all loved it! Myself included.

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What Are The Musical Capabilities of an iPad?

There aren’t many technical advances over the last fifty years that the music industry hasn’t been hugely affected by. Television and cable, digital radio, computers, the internet. Music is susceptable to change, and by its very nature has to be constantly evolving. Great! Who wouldn’t want the industry to move on and advance with technology, as a great man once prophecised, “the times they are a changin’”.

So here we are in the 21st Century, and the mobile revolution is upon us. Tablet devices are all the rage and Apple continue to dominate. “There’s an App for that” as the mantra goes, but is there an App (or combination of apps) suitable for producing a chart-worthy piece of music? Let’s investigate.

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Nine Inch Nails, John Legend, David Bowie Reps Talk Social Media Marketing

BOSTON—Berklee’s Music Business Department and Professional Education Division present Envisioning 21^st-Century Music Business Models, an annual discussion about current and future music industry trends. This year’s panel will examine how leading digital marketers are using Web technology and social media to promote their clients as well as their own companies. Paul Resnikoff, the publisher and editor of Digital Music News will moderate an in-depth panel discussion featuring representatives for acts such as Nine Inch Nails, John Legend, Plain White T’s, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Linkin Park, Morphine, and more.

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