Teamwork In The Music Industry

One individual can never be allowed to undermine or destroy a successful business. If a player isn’t happy and wants to leave – they should be allowed to continue their career elsewhere. Each team needs players who will benefit the team as a whole – this benefits the business as well – because the team IS a business.

Click to read more ...

Warner Music Group Collaboration with Shazam Creates Hybrid Record Label

By Zach Rickers

In February of 2014, Warner Music Group and Shazam announced that they would enter into a “strategic collaboration” in which Warner would have access to Shazam’s user data and Shazam would have access to exclusive Warner content.¹  Currently, when a user hears a song that they like, whether it is at a restaurant or on the radio, they can open up the Shazam application on their smartphone and hold the phones microphone to the speaker which will then analyze and identify the song title and artist that the user is listening to.²  Once a song is identified, the app logs data such as the time of day the song was “tagged”, the song being identified, and even where the song was tagged (if the user has location services enabled).³  This is the sort of data that Warner plans to use not only for A&R, but also for marketing and promotion purposes.

Click to read more ...

How Bands Can Break Into New Markets

One way to grow your music’s reach is to break into new markets. This could be taken a number of ways: new geographical areas (cities, states, countries, etc.) or simply new audiences in general (by demographic, interest, psychographic, etc). Before you try and expand your reach through new markets, it’s important to take a few things into consideration:

• Return on Investment: What is the cost or effort required to break into this market? Is the return on investment worthwhile or would you be better off using those resources to grow an existing market?

• Goals: What kind of role will this market play in your S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals?

Click to read more ...

Pickasound; A movement for the free expression of musical Ideas online

About 8 months ago, me and an amateur musician friend of mine living in Toronto were trying to collaborate on a few tracks for his upcoming album.  

I created instrumentals and he wanted to sing over them. 
We were both excited about working together on a project, but when it came time to communicate our musical ideas online, the process proved to be a daunting task.

Click to read more ...

Recording Festival

Many a musician has had that lovely daydream about recording for free with an award winning producer in a legendary studio, and making it big so they could travel the world. Recording Festival has captured all these dreams and combined them into one reality, offering artists the chance to win a free two week recording session with a stellar team of music producers (with awards, even Grammys, on their resumes), and doing all this recording in the heart of Ireland in an all expenses paid trip. Is this a dream come true? Most definitely. It will be a dream come true for not one, but for three lucky artists / bands.

Click to read more ...

One Book To Rule Them All! The Elusive "It" Factor in the Music Industry

I have always been a creative entrepreneur, and not allowed the world to get the better of me, but instead, let the world fuel me. Throughout 13 years in the music industry I’ve worked with some of the best in the business: Anita Baker, KC Porter, Jim Henson Studios, Never Land, OK GO, George Duke, Lauren Mayhew, Pomplamoose, and as far as I can remember, I’ve heard of “it,” this elusive thing setting apart the extraordinary from the ordinary. These people encapsulate: auras, energy, and empower all that are near; you’re drawn to them.

Click to read more ...

Feed The Arts Introduces TIME Funding

FEED THE ARTS INTRODUCES TIME FUNDING WEBSITE FOR THE ARTS
ENTERTAINMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS BENEFIT AND BUILD THEIR BUSINESS WHILE HELPING ARTISTS

NEW YORK, NY (June 4, 2013)—

Feedthearts.com is forever changing the way art is funded by introducing its patent pending TIME FUNDING Model.  Time Funding is a cross between crowd funding and virtual rewards programs allowing fans to donate time instead of money.  Their time is what helps Artists get funded and allows funding of Creative Arts projects with fans earning virtual currency we call ?Helping Hands?.  Helping Hands are then turned around through an advertising revenue share and giving that currency to artists projects posted on the site.  This revolutionary model eliminates the risk of previous crowd funding and traditional funding models.

Click to read more ...

How to Work With Music Industry Contacts

It’s no secret that often in the world music, it’s more about “who you know” than what you know. The industry generally favors pre-existing relationships, whether you are looking for a venue, a sponsor, a review on your new album, or a slot at SXSW. Like it or not, networking can make or break an act.

Focus on taking a few steps closer to your goal by working on your contacts a few minutes each day. Here are some of my favorite tips on networking:

Click to read more ...

Music Collaboration

Imagine collaborating on a musical project 150 years ago, a symphony perhaps, communicating between London and Berlin. This is a fairly sizeable distance by bullet train standards, let alone the most reliable form of long distance communication we have in our little daydream, courier on horseback. So, after six months of sending letters to simply work out how it would all work and the style of the project it would be, undeterred by the difficulties you decide to give it a go. I reckon about six years later would mark the point where you got so bored that you gave up. Or secretly finished it yourself, washed your hands of further annoyance and trained the dog to attack the postman. Maybe it would have been fantastic, maybe.

Click to read more ...

Music Without Labels Seeking Submissions for New Web Series!

Hello Everyone!

I am the spokesperson for Music Without Labels & Beat-Play LLC.  MWL is an umbrella for many music projects, ideas and conversation. The MWL Live just wrapped up a on a 15,000 mile cross-country video tour covering the hottest summer musicians and artists across the country. We featured several great bands such as Portugal. The Man, Datsik, The Lonely Forest, Yann Tiersen, Carina Round, Vintage Trouble, Dry the River, Washed Out, Gardens & Villa, Fun. and many more! Check out the MWL Live Tour 2012 videos here. 

Click to read more ...

Jammio - An Online Community For Music Collaboration and Marketing.

(Dallas, TX) June 20, 2012 - Jammio, LLC. is launching Jammio.com (Beta): An online collaboration tool for musicians to both market their services and securely request the services of other like-minded artists.

Jammio.com provides community profiles and a marketplace that showcases artists’ current works and helps them to develop unique future works. The social website provides a basis for artists to collaborate free of political borders and financial hindrances. No matter the vision of the artist, there is a place for them on Jammio.com.

Click to read more ...

Introducing StudioVox

We’d like to introduce you to StudioVox – The professional social network for creative professionals – and invite all Music Think Tank raders to join our private beta. 

StudioVox (www.studiovox.com) is built from the ground up for creative professionals. It’s not just another profile site. It’s the only social community that encompasses creatives, agencies, industry and fans on a single platform. 

StudioVox offers unlimited music, image and file uploads, so you can express your creativity without restriction.

Here’s our intro video - turn up the volume, set it to full screen and enjoy! 

Click to read more ...

5 Simple Steps to a Great Sounding Drum Mix

When I record drum or percussion tracks for clients, 9 times out of 10 I’m sending the RAW wav files straight from Pro Tools. Of course, my goal is to always get the best sounds that I can possibly get in the studio and at the source. However, mixing and processing the drum kit is inevitable.

In general, mixing audio is a personal art form. Everything from the style of music to the instruments chosen will determine how the mixing session will go. Because the drums are typically recorded first, it makes sense to mix the drum tracks within the context of the remaining instruments later verses starting with a processed drum mix. Of course, there are no rules here. This is just what I have found to be the most effective way to work.

That being said, I get a lot of questions from clients asking for my advice on mixing the drum kit. My only goal when mixing drums is to attempt to highlight the sounds as I hear them in the studio. Meaning, my approach is simple:

Get rid of what’s not necessary and keep what is. I know, really deep stuff right?

Click to read more ...

BBox: Brooklyn’s New Community Radio Station: Call for Entries!

Hi Music Think Tank, We are BBox Radio, a new community-powered platform and internet station broadcasting from NYC’s creative center: Brooklyn! Take a look at our Call for Entries — we’re asking everyone in and around the borough to help us reinvent radio! The idea is to create something new, expressive and decidedly LOCAL, yet global in reach. We hope you can help us spread the word! Visit BBoxRadio.com for more information and let us know if you have any questions. We’ll keep you tuned in. Love, BBox Radio

Click to read more ...