Overcoming nervousness (PART 1)

It’s fifteen minutes before your scheduled time to sing. Your palms become sweaty. Your throat tightens up and gets dry. Your lips flex uncontrollably. Your whole body shakes in a convulsive manner. When you finally stand up to sing, you open your mouth, but no sound comes out!  Then, when you eventually get the sounds out, you forget all your lyrics.

What we just described is a singer overcome by an acute bout of nervousness. All of us have been nervous to some degree, either BEFORE we sing or DURING the performance.

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Let's get real about streaming!

Okay streaming is here and very soon Joe + Jane Doe consumer will know all about it. The majority, as some predict, are honest and will subscribe to a service paying a minimal monthly fee. And they’ll love how cheap music is for them to get. 

But who gets the money? Labels and songwriters are the beneficiaries of the royalties paid, but it hardly compares to revenue generated from sales. And what about Johnny and Jeannie who are the non-writing part of the band and get two points each from the group’s record deal? They are screwed! 

R.E.M FUND

R.E.M. wrote the book on music and activism, and have tirelessly protected human rights, the environment, and supported those who needed it. To honor this rich history of great music and activism, Air Traffic Control (ATC) is collecting donations for an R.E.M. Fund through the end of October here: http://www.atctower.net/rem-fund/ ATC will work with R.E.M. to give the donations to some of the great organizations the band has worked with over the years. We will also pass along well-wishes and messages with the donation list to the band. All donations are tax-deductible. Make a donation online here: http://bit.ly/p10kHx or mail checks made out to Air Traffic Control: 1475 15th Street San Francisco, CA 94103 If you want to tweet or post, here is some language:  Please Share: Celebrate R.E.M.’s long history of great music & activism by making a donation to the #REMfund http://bit.ly/p10kHx About ATC: Air Traffic Control (ATC) helps musicians play an effective, unique and vital role in the promotion of social justice. Musicians and managers established ATC five years ago to assemble an experienced and trusted team of leaders, resources and tools that would help them to create more effective social change collaborations with each other and social justice organizations. As a result, ATC became an artists’ air traffic control—one that develops capacity, efficiency, and coordination to produce stronger and more creative social change collaborations. For more information about ATC, please go to www.atctower.net

The Fame Formula

There are several secret ingredients to making a star shine and sparkle. A lot goes into defining and sculpting the X Factor that ultimately is the key to making them stand out so big and bold. We all know by now that it’s not an overnight thing. It’s a complete recipe and leaving out even one ingredient, or adding them at the wrong time – and the formula won’t work.

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Rockin' in the New World: Taking Your Band from the Basement to the Big Time"

Ok, there’s a bit of hype here since this is the title of my new book, but it really is a special book and addresses issues bands face in today’s changing industry. Those of you who know me, understand it’s not a vanity piece about me, instead, just like I did with TCG, it is a platform for helping artists, fostering the arts.

The letters I’m getting from kids in bands testify that it has hit it’s mark head on! 

We never had any resource written by people who, other than being lawyers or academics, actually were veterans of the industry. Martin Atkins’ Tour-Smart is the ultimate guerilla touring guide for today, Jim and Jean Youngs’ book from the 70s had interviews with an assortment of people in the industry including me as cocky a 24 year old manager. RNW includes today’s bands, the websites, the labels, DIY, Indies staff, and pages of resources. 

Check it out, it’s already in public libraries and receiving accolades. We need to support and nurture young artists as they are the future of our industry

Soundiron Bamboo Stick Ensemble Review

Soundiron’s newly updated “Bamboo Stick Ensemble” packs a real punch by not only offering percussive samples, but also a plethora of ambiences, drones and effects.

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Stem mastering vs Stereo 2 track mastering

Stem mastering is a different method of mastering audio which traditionally uses the stereo 2 track mixdown files. There is some confusion surrounding stem mastering as it appears to be akin to mixing, however this is not the case. Stem mastering utilizes groups of instruments such as bass, guitars, vocals, drums, synths, brass section etc. The mastering engineer requires these groups of instrumentation to successfully perform stem mastering. Stem mastering allows the engineer extra flexibility when adjustments are being made to the overall sound of the music. the goal is still based on ensuring your music translates as good as is possible to as many sound reproduction systems as possible.

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try the free beta of Kollector, a realtime worldwide radiobroadcasts tracking system

free beta on www.kollector.com/en

Kollector is an online application telling in REAL TIME when (date and hour) and where (country, radio station’s name) a specific song is played on radio. The end result is then displayed and detailled with several lists, diagrams and graphics, allowing for important groundbreaking possibilities in the management of musical repertoires FOR ALL IN THE MUSIC COMMUNITY.

AUDIO WORKS MANAGEMENT TOOL/ ROYALTIES MANAGEMENT HELPING TOOL

• Tracking of albums/single airplays and discover trends before it’s gone public.

• Follow-up of promotions.

• Planning of tours and evaluate the potential of regional markets.

• Immediate feedback on efficiency of singles.

• Comparative watch.

• Realtime vital and worldwide datas that can be shared with partners.

• Help forecast airplay royalties for publishers and collecting societies.

Discover the new opportunities of realtime online airplay tracking and try the free Beta version on www.Kollector.com/en

The Bastards Of The Digital Age

*bastard in a non derogatory way and in no relation to the old meaning of the word

“New technologies have revolutionised our lives, undercutting established norms and upending industries. It’s in these periods of uncertainty that true innovators revel… this next generation of creative minds is keen to recreate the country in its own image: inspired, individual, artistic.”
David Annand

What we need are radicals keen to re-imagine the creation and distribution of their art.

Many artists still think the internet isn’t all that special, that the internet is effectively just Facebook, Twitter and a nice looking wesbite. A bastard of the digital age is an artist who takes advantage of what is presented to them right now, to do something new. There will be no shortage of those people who only do something because everybody else is already doing it, but there will always be a shortage of bastards – the innovators on the outside – burrowing their way in for the explosion.

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Top 9 Song Pitching Platforms

Many musicians fail to achieve success in the music industry due to lack of “follow through”. The simple act of following through on a few crucial things can make all the difference.

Going round in circles

I used to lack follow through. I’d write song after song but rarely send it to anyone in the industry. Was it laziness, fear of rejection or simply being too focused on my next musical creation? Too be honest I don’t know, but whatever the answer, the non action resulted in stagnation of my music career without me even realising it. I was busy writing songs, working hard and pushing forward, but in reality I was simply going round in circles.

I now view music “creation” as a form of preparation and nothing more. The real job is to send my work to the industry and get their thoughts and literally expose my music more. Shifting my focus in this way means I am able to follow through with each song I write.

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A master plan to get indie music into the UK charts

Bitter Ruin are on a mission to get their music into the UK charts on Sunday 9^th October.

“We all want that so what’s new”, I hear you say.

Well of course it’s not new but what’s different is Bitter Ruin are seeing the results of a very good piece of planning that all indie musicians can learn something from. Plus there’s the fact that they’re unsigned and doing all of this themselves with grace, enthusiasm and a good pinch of strategic thinking.

Bitter Ruin formed in 2007 in Brighton when Ben Richards and Georgia Train met at music school. Although they understood each other musically through their classical training, they had dramatically opposing music tastes. Georgia listened to Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor and The Talking Heads whereas Ben preferred rock and bands like Metallica. The result? ‘Contemporary Expressionism’ with passion and musical intelligence at the heart of what they do. Their songs are about the darker side of life and their innovative performances come alive with theatricality, strong sparing vocals, harmonisation and raw instrumentation.

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What People Will Always Want

How hard is it to make money these days from music? Umm, really hard! The Future of Music Coalition recently had their summit so I googled to see if anything was written to sum things up. My search of “future of music” resulted in an article - “Future of Music Summit: More Chaos Ahead 

Tech: An Introduction to Field Recording

Earlier this summer, I was doing sound design for a video game company, work which involved going out into the city to capture source material to use as the basis for my projects. Applications This presented a conundrum of the ‘how should I go about this?’ type. Recording in the field can be applied to live gigs (where legal), band rehearsals — uploading impromptu recordings/videos of your band is a great way to connect with fans – interviews, on-location podcasts, capturing great sound effects and everything else in between.

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Who are the Highest Earning Musicians in the UK & US and How Do They Impact the Economy?

A few days ago I wrote a post over on Canpages about how Justin Bieber, Drake, and Chris Brown represent a whopping 7% of Canada’s whole music economy, which as a figure is a staggering $107,000,000 a year. I thought it would also be quite interesting to look at who has the biggest impact on the music economy here in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

The UK is home to three of the current highest earning artists in the world: U2, Elton John, and Paul McCartney, who collectively earn a massive $362,000,000 a year (it slightly dwarfs Justin Bieber’s $53,000,000!)

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