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December 12, 2013 Are you one of those unfortunate creative souls who has difficulties finding the time to play music in a band? Zeebraamusic.com, a recently launched online music collaboration platform, turns music-making process into a simple, social and fun activity.
December 11, 2013 Today, I was checking out a Sonicbids EPK that was emailed to me. Much to my surprise, the layout for a Sonicbids artist profile completely changed – there was no quick bio, music player on top, or a useful set of links (press, stage plot, etc.). Instead, I found a Pinterest-like layout with navigational tiles. I thought it was just some lame option that the artist chose, but decided to check using my own band’s profile.
This is what I found:
Advice, Artist Development, Artist FYI, Band Marketing, Band Website Tips, Booking Agents, Branding, Competitions, Concerts, Content Marketing Strategy, DIY, DIY Artist, DIY Promotions, Digital, Distribution, Endorsements, Information, Innovation, Marketing, Marketing 101, Music Business Plan, Music Industry, Music Industry Crisis, Music Management, Social Media, album, app development, artist, booking, digital music, earn a living playing live music, epk, how to, music business, music distribution, music festivals, music marketing, music promotion, opinion | tagged epk, press, press kit, reverbation, social media, sonicbids December 11, 2013 According to AdAge, Facebook openly states that fan page owners should expect their organic reach to continue to decline over time… and the best way to get your stuff seen is to pay for reach. In my opinion, that’s true. I personally noticed that my Facebook updates were getting about 20% of the reach that they usually get. If you are a musician, you are probably using a business system in which you are providing free value. Therefore, it does not make sense to pay to reach your own fans. Is there a solution?
December 10, 2013
No music would be complete in the absence of its accompaniers, namely bass, drum, tempo and others. A proper mix of all these could give a soothing output to the listener. But, if you are still unable to produce a mix that could be up to the mark, it is better to have a look at this post. It is a fact that if you don’t diversify yourself, you could soon find your sun setting. Regardless of the experience you have in this business, the below mentioned tips would guide you towards becoming a sound pro:
• Play at a little lower level: No other sound equipment is as good in the recording studio as your ears. It is better to check the volume at lower levels by inserting the ear plugs. Long run in the recording industry means better hearing for decades.
• Consistency would pay you the result: A Craftsman delivers his craft after working over it with dedication. His good result or quality delivered can’t be a matter of accident. His hard work is involved at every aspect, i.e. systematizing the signal flow, setting up the control room, choosing the right track, receiving the sounds and even in the act of pressing the record button. He would be responsible for all the aforementioned sessions to make it run smoothly.
The quality of a sound is in the hands of a recording engineer. The final goal should be to be in a recording studio in Massachusetts and all over the world in such a way that every individual uses your vibe, expertise, hearing skill and your impressive collections.
• Have a good set up: The key to understanding the nature of sound is to know how sound travels in your room and how it reaches your microphone. The knowledge regarding flutter echo, reflections and other acoustical problems are required for a great musical experience. A comfortable and creative environment would give you great productivity and great audio.
• Know about microphones: The strength and weaknesses differ with respect to the type of microphone you choose; hence if you are skilled in selecting the right microphone for the job, it would be invaluable as an engineer.
• Editing: Generally editing is overlooked because it’s tedious and boring, as the whole task requires listening, cutting out irrelevant noises and realistic fades. An abrupt start and end would clearly show the signs of an amateur engineer.
• Mixing a long way: Levels, panning, EQ, compression and depths would sum up your 80% of the mixes. Neither jump EQ nor compression before you set up the levels because pushing things up and down would surely delay and reverb each instrument in two dimensional spectrum. You would be overwhelmed if you take one at a time.
• Get mastered: If you are creating a record for professional mastering, it is better to mix it properly for a mastering engineer. Don’t be an amateur, and consider each and every aspect before preparing a mix.
• Present it well: It is an art and no engineer could master it by just putting up the microphone and a little bit mix. Presentation is a part of package; hence work on every pro and con so that your clients and co workers remember you for long as a good engineer.
Finally the ultimate goal is to be a pro sound engineer because when you would be in the studio with multiple hits, it would breed up your success a long way.
Author Bio:
Nathen Allis, director of a music studio and an engineer in recording studio in Massachusetts is keen to share his thoughts and tips to amateurs and professionals for a better music.
mastering, mixing, sound quality November 26, 2013 The internet is littered with accounts of the world’s craziest drummers- Keith Moon’s marathon drug and drinking binges, trail of shattered hotel rooms and early death; John Bonham’s… pretty much the same thing; Ginger Baker being the subject of a recent biopic which both explores and document’s his often fantastically unhinged behavior, etc. However, there are far fewer accounts of those guys who just do their thing without all the fuss and muss and have done for years. Don’t they deserve some of the limelight for being so consistently… consistent? Well it’s to be hoped they do, because that’s what this article is about.
Musicians Resources | tagged drummers, rock and roll November 26, 2013 Announcing the release of Bob Crawford’s newly published John Coltrane/Pat Martino-inspired music theory book “Symmetric Cycles” (Foreward by Mick Taylor -Rolling Stones/John Mayall) by RMCO MUSIC/Charles Colin Publications.
“Symmetric Cycles” offers new ways of stretching the melodic and harmonic boundaries of Modal Jazz, Blues, Pentatonic Rock, Latin (Montunos, etc.) Reggae, World Music, etc., creating sound colors that will open your ears in ways you may not have experienced before. It also is extremely useful compositionally—connecting chords in very unique ways, adding emotional sound colors to original musical works. As a teaching tool, it is very valuable for advanced students as well as seasoned players.
Education | tagged bobcrawford symmetriccycles November 25, 2013 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.
Music Strategy, Music Think Tank | tagged 21st century music November 25, 2013 Every day, I get to wake up and go to work at my favourite place in the world with my favourite people. Every day I shake myself and say - HEY THIS IS REAL LIFE. YOU AREN’T DREAMING!
My brand and artist development company Audio Blood is turning 5 years old next month and I can’t help but do some reflecting. 5 years somehow feels like it has just flown right by. I can see 10 in the not so distant future, and 15 and 20 thereafter. But, when you look carefully at each year it also feels like it’s been so long since starting out on my own in my little bedroom on Salem Ave in Toronto to our new downtown office with 7 full time staffers. It kinda blows my mind.
Advice, Music Industry, music business | tagged audio blood, music entrepreneur November 25, 2013 Since launching in August 2013, Music Gateway has grown by 62% to over 10,000 registered users. The unique business platform has served over 750 music project opportunities and received +2,800 pitches to date.
“I must start by thanking all of our founder members for their continued support and help in making Music Gateway happen. It is of fundamental importance to me personally that, as we grow, I look to include them in our success.
Our current investors aren’t musicians, therefore don’t fully understand or appreciate a musician’s mindset or the degree of passion and dedication taken to create good original music. We are quite simply a breed apart and it’s a bloody good job for the music industry we are too.”
entrepreneurship | tagged crowd funding, getting started November 25, 2013 Coffee House Sessions is a new music initiative, exposing the hottest in upcoming UK music talent to the student market via daytime performances in University coffee shops around the country: http://youtu.be/CZRp_MoTqhM.
With a carefully designed touring circuit taking place in 40 universities, Coffee House Sessions holds acoustic performances at two different campuses a day over a ten day period and provides promotion for the showcased artists through student media outlets such as student newspapers, student radio and student TV at each university.
.MUSIC Website, Album Release, Artist Development, Band Marketing, Concerts, Cover song, Digital, Distribution, Event, Future Of Music, Information, Interview, Investing In Your Music, Live Music, Management, Marketing, Music Industry, Music Management, album, artist, blogging, careers, digital music, direct to fan, fans, getting signed, music , music business, music marketing, music promotion | tagged booking a tour, brand new, music, national tour, singer/songwriter November 20, 2013 The digital music distributor recordJet and the young Berlin-based technology start-up brokenmusic have announced a joint collaboration. brokenmusic focuses on music and audio production services, while digital distributor recordJet offers bands and musicians the opportunity to sell their music digitally and physically worldwide. “As a Berlin-based start-up, we are particularly proud that a successful, young company like recordJet has placed their trust in us for a joint cooperation. Our work together will mainly focus on the combination of our services”, said Valéry Döhler, founder and managing director of brokenmusic.
“We were very confident in the idea of brokenmusic, because it stops right where recordJet starts. From production to sales, it covers the precise competencies that are needed before distribution. By combining our strengths, we’ll be able to offer our passengers production services together with a professional partner”, commented Jorin Zschiesche, Captain of recordJet, on the young collaboration.
November 19, 2013 10 years ago social media management was easy for musicians. MySpace was THE central place for artists for publishing their output online. All they had to do was making a few posts per month or upload a track from time to time. Nowadays artists and the music industry face a time consuming challenge: the fragmentation of social media. Today we have Facebook and Twitter, we have SoundCloud for sharing sounds, we have Instagram for sharing pictures and there are several new ambitioned platforms such as Tumblr striving for more importance. On top of that each of those platforms provides artists with loads of data which is too generic to support entertainment professionals with useful insights for a sustainable digital strategy.
November 19, 2013 November 19, 2013 Since its inception in 1973 hip-hop has gone on to become one of the most popular musical genres in the World. But how has it got to that point? Here’s an infographic by Audio Network on ‘The World of Hip Hop’.