Why It's Important To Develop Your Strengths If You Want To Grow As Musician

Yesterday I saw a great quote:
“Success is achieved by developing your strengths, not by eliminating your weaknesses.”
It’s from Marilyn vos Savant. She’s known for having the highest IQ.

Think about it. It sounds quite logical. Weaknesses can be distracting. Eliminating your weaknesses is like eliminating the weed around a young tree. By eliminating your weaknesses, you eliminate some of the distractions that prevent you to focus on your goal, like growing your career as musician.

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3 Common Sense Songwriting Tips

Songwriting can brutal for amateurs and even seasoned veterans. There’s the pressure of getting it right the first time. There are the long hours in the studio. There’s the fatigue, the anxiety and of course the pressure to create the song(s) to make or break your career. It’s a tough and thankless task because despite the hours and effort you put in a song’s creation, it may flop — it may flop badly. However, the following three tips will help you hit the mark more often than not.

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iTunes And FLVTO, Less Clicking And Instant Conversion

Converting videos online is a PITA, there’s no getting around this;  I am yet to see an app or a program that does this seamlessly without having to go the whole hog about download speeds, add on’, premium service for which one has to pay, etc. Until FLVTO, you had to pony up the cash to get the best out of any online video converters, be it download speeds or for that matter, quality. With FLVTO, you can see great results in terms of video quality and download speed.  I have tried most of the online converters at one point or other, had problems with the lot due to their lag times, lack of performance of any discernable quality and finally opted for FLVTO. So what’s FLVTO all about?

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What A Digital Fan Club Should Be

I used to work with fan clubs back in the 80s when they were a key source of income for a lot of bands. I think the biggest one I worked with was the official Take That fan club with over a 100,000 subscribers paying (from memory) £10 a year. That’s a lot of revenue that artists are now missing out on.

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Choosing The Right Recording Studio For Your Music - What To Look For

Recording your music is not something to take lightly. After all, you’ve worked hard to get to this point, and it’s crucial that the finished product accurately reflects your artistic vision. In order to produce a recording that you’re proud of, there are many factors to consider, and perhaps the most important is the studio itself. Creating music magic requires the right equipment, people, and environment, and knowing what to look for is key. Here are five considerations you should have in mind as you look for the perfect studio.

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Pay To Pitch? Money In The Ditch? Good Idea Or Bad For Licensing Music?

HI I am Michelle Lockey, award winning songwriter and composer for Film & TV.  You can see a breif bio below.  I write a blog on Writing & Licensing songs for Film & TV.  In this weeks episode I am talking about the Pay to Pitch model. Is it a good idea or bad? This is my experience and opinion only.  Here you go!

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FanFair Technologies Launches Investment Campaign for Music Enterprise Platform

FanFair Technologies Ltd., makers of a leading enterprise-class CRM platform for music industry enterprises, FanFair Pro, today announced the launch of an investment campaign on the Los Angeles based, online equity investment site, FlashFunders.

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A Career In Music, Or Just Fame?

Like many of you I occasionally like to watch reality talent shows to potentially discover the next “big thing” that once upon a time we may never have come across. Naturally the world of an unsigned / emerging artist was once a lonely one with a mountain to climb and a lot of hard work and sheer persistence to get yourself heard or in fact in front of the right people. It is a shame though that for the majority of singers / bands that something is definitely missing.

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Music Production And Songwriting Residency

13th - 17th MARCH 2016

 ‘Pro7ect brings musicians & songwriters together, face-to-face, in a creative space, to write, record and produce great music’ - Lisa Fitzgibbon (Pro7ect Founder)

 Pro7ect (pronounced Project 7) is taking over the Hotel Pelirocco in Brighton, to help musicians, producers and songwriters make their own inspired collaborations.

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MusicPromoToday Reveals Why Record Labels Still Matter

It’s often the artist dream to get signed by a record label. Artists work tirelessly, perfect their music, hire a digital marketing agency, all to get them noticed by the big labels.

Getting signed is your chance to get the big house, the fancy cars, and the private jets. Unfortunately, if you are indie artist with an indie label, these dreams may be too far away.

While it’s true that independent labels are popping out left and right, and some are even owned by artists, the potential of the big artist dream cannot be conquered without the majors.

What will a label record get you?

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Lessons From the Grateful Dead: Creating the Magic for Live Shows

There’s nothing like seeing your favorite performer live. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the nosebleed section, you can still say you saw your favorite entertainer live. People who’ve seen acts that are no longer together — The Beatles, the Grateful Dead, The Beach Boys — will never forget the experience. For many, it’s because the act stimulated more than seeing and hearing: it stirred feelings that remain decades later.

If you’re part of an act that’s getting off the ground, think of ways to give your budding fan base a few extras to help them become the next wave of DeadHead-like devotees.

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Quick Live Performance Quiz

There are a lot of things we all know (or think we know) about the ins and outs of live performance, since most of us have been dealing with it professionally for years. But do we? Take the Quick Live Performance Quiz and see! We’ll start with some stuff most of us already know:

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Reinvention Of Digital Platform ‘Paste’ Debuts With Newest Streaming Service ‘Paste Cloud’

Leading online arts and lifestyle brand Paste, announced its platform’s reinvention, with the launch of the Paste Cloud, an innovative service created to stream thousands of exclusive songs, stand-up routines, interviews and concert videos from up-and-coming musicians, filmmakers, video bloggers, comedians, chefs and more.

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The Essential Guide To Being Elliott Sharp, by Elliott Sharp

Improvisation and composition dance around each other in an interlocked feedback loop. I have always wanted my composed music to emulate the spontaneity and unpredictability found in an exciting improvisation and my improvisations to have the inevitability and satisfying narrative arc that a well-structured composition possesses. These polarities are not mutually exclusive. This applies across the board, whether I’m composing for a symphony orchestra or solo guitar piece.

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