The Magic of a Song

In this creative time a lot of people are doing music. When we think about music we artist, the singers, rappers and pop stars.  But! Who makes all this magic come together what is the process? There are so many people that are over looked and never mentioned, so many that are trying to be the next big thing in music but are not artist. Today we will take a look at some of the behind the scenes people that make the music.  A song consist of two very important elements the beat/ instrumental and the lyrics.  Back in the day most artist wrote their own songs and someone in the group made the instrumental or beat, but the times have changed. Most major recording artist do not write their own lyrics and almost all off them can not make a beat or instrumental.  Now there are some vey talent people out there who can sing and they write there own songs and writes hits for big names we all know. Ne-yo is the prime example of being a hit making songwriter as well as being one of the biggest artists of our times.

“ Aside from working on his own album, Ne-Yo also collaborates with several other artists. His works include: Rihanna's top-ten singles Unfaithful, Russian Roulette" and her number-one hit "Take a Bow, Mario Vazquez's Gallery, Paula DeAnda's Walk Away (Remember Me), and Beyoncé Knowles' Billboard Hot 100 number-one single Irreplaceable, which stayed at the top of the chart for ten consecutive weeks. He wrote the song I'm You for Leona Lewis's debut album Spirit, and is currently writing songs for her next album and for the debut album of fellow X Factor winner Alexandra Burke. He has also been working with Sugababes for their seventh album, with member Keisha Buchanan confirming that Ne-Yo had written a song called 'No More You' for their album. In 2010, he dueted with Mariah Carey on 'Angel's Cry', a song on her cancelled album, Angels Advocate. Ne-Yo has also written songs for Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Carrie Underwood, Anastacia, Ciara, Corbin Bleu, Enrique Iglesias and Dima Bilan. He also collaborated with Lindsay Lohan on her new material, having already finished "Bossy", a pre-single for her new album Spirit in the Dark. Ne-Yo confirmed that he had been contacted by producer will.i.am to work on what would have been Michael Jackson's new album. However, at the time of Jackson's death, Ne-Yo's collaborations with him had yet to move past the writing stage. In an interview in 2010 he said since Jackson's death he's been confused as what to do with the songs, as he feels that selling them to another artist or even releasing the songs himself would be disrespectful to Jackson legacy. In 2009, he wrote Truth (Saigo no Shinjitsu) for Japanese pop group w-inds.”(Wiki, 2013)

In addition to a star songwriter like I mentioned before you need a just a good producer. Some songs are written to the instrumental or some instrumentals are made around a song. Either way the marriage of the two is very important to make a good song. Some well-known producers are Rick Rubin, Jermaine Dupri, Timberland, DR. Dre, Stargate, Rodney Jerkins and Swizz beats are just a few go to names that artist looking for sure hits frequent.  Now that we have the lyrics and the song we don’t right…wrong. One of the most important things when releasing a song is that it is mixed and mastered properly. YoungGuru is one of the best engineers in the game he makes sure that your songs are sonically crisp and consistent.

So in a whole, you need good lyric’s, a good beat, and a crisp sound and wha la like magic you have a mater piece.

References;

http://www.vibe.com/photo-gallery/vibe-unsung-heroes-36-best-songwriters-2000s

http://www.djyoungguru.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne-Yo

The Impact Digital Landscape has on the Music Industry

“ The digital landscape consist of a mix of different channels such as social networks, websites, email; mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets; videos, widgets, kiosks, and gaming consoles. These mediums help marketers to build relationships with consumers, publicize their brands, and also sell their products or services. (UK,2013)” The digital landscapes has an enormous impact on the music industry.  It changes how music business is done, how music is promoted and how it is presented. It changes business because things like social media; videos, websites and email can allow almost anyone to present their music on a board scale. Digital landscape allows us to connect to anyone anywhere that is apart of one of these channels and in most cases for free. Now i’m not saying big labels aren’t needed anymore, they have unlimited resources and more funds to make the process much easier. What I am saying is digital landscapes have made it much easier to become a successful artist or label without the help of a major label. As an independent are you have more control over what music you release, how you release and even when you release your music. If you want to drop a new single every week to interact with you fans and keep them entertained, digital landscape gives you the recourses to do so.  Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter in particular play a big role in any artist’s career both independent and major. These channels are the industry’s most popular outlets of communication in the world. The best thing about it is it’s free.

There are other outlets that go past promotion and actually allow you as an artist or label to collect record sales and royalties without the help of a label. Sites like CD baby, Mondo Tunes and Tune core help digitally distribute your music and collect the royalties. Performance rights organizations aka the PRO’s like BMI, ASACP and SESAC collect your money from where ever your music is played publicly for a minimal fee. You sign up to one of the PRO’s by visiting their website. Once accepted you can register your song online yourself and begin collecting, yep it’s that easy. Companies like “Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and Internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections. (Wiki, 2013)”

All in all digital landscaping has impacted the music world in such a big way; it changed the music game forever.

References:

http://realtalk405.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-impact-of-thedigital-landscape-in.html

http://letstalkentertainmentwithmssofia.blogspot.com/2012/06/impact-digital-landscape-on-music.html

http://untouchablesuccess.blogspot.com/2013/02/digital-landscape-music-industry-impact.html

http://getpushing.com/blog/2013/06/the-digital-landscape-in-todays-music-business/

http://wsi-onlinemarketingsolutions.co.uk/2013/02/14/do-you-understand-the-digital-landscape/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Broadcast_Data_Systems

Independent VS Signed

There are two kinds of artist in the music industry, independent and signed. Independent artist or music also known as indie or indie music, are artist that make music independently without the support of a major record label or their conglomerates.  This process is very hand’s on for the artist because most of them have little or no staff. Signed artist on the other hand are artist that are signed to a label. These artists are giving the delight to make the music while a team works to make them a star. An artist can be signed to an independent label or a major label. The perks of being signed to an independent are more control over your music, less money to pay out if you are a successful artist and the ability to release music at your own pace with so many distribution outlets at little or no cost.  The average cons of being an independent artist are, no or minimal budget, no or minimal staff, limited resources and no creative team.

The pro’s of being a signed artist are, advances when signed to a major label, an abundance of resources, a full staffed company dedicated to your success, access to the best quality services in the industry, and a fast-track to success. The cons are, you have little control artistically in most cases, and you have to give up a lot of your income if you are a new artist.

The decisions to pursue an independent career or trying to pursue a record deal all dependents on the artist and the artist’s career goals. “Many artist choose to go from an independent label to a 

Ways to soar as an independent artist

Making music is half the struggles in the entertainment world, and even that can be expensive. Independent artist have to worry about things like budgets for promotions, wardrobe etc., to try to push themselves and stand out in an over saturated market. As an independent artist you have to invest in yourself and pull in all resources possible. There are so many things that artist can do to promote themselves for minimal money. Sound cloud, reverbnation, YouTube, MySpace is a few great ways to showcase your music for free. The issue with that is now people have to know you exist to look for you. So how do you go about doing that on almost non-existent?

 “Instead of focusing on music publications and media, think in terms of audiences. Put your music where it can stand out from the crowd. Consider one of the early days of CD Baby: an album about sailing. Instead of following the crowd and sending the album to a music magazine, the band instead cleverly sent their album to a sailing magazine.The sailing magazine, which wasn’t used to receiving music, much less an entire album dedicated to exactly what the magazine was about, ended up reviewing the CD. The band’s CD didn’t have to compete against stacks and stacks of other CDs to get noticed. And because the magazine had a large audience and the CD got a great review, sales shot through the roof. The great thing about the standing-out strategy is there is room for everyone. While your music has a style or genre, just targeting the people that like that kind of music represents only one, highly competitive channel for your music. By putting your music where there usually isn’t any, you can get noticed. Another way to get recognized is known as the piggy backing strategy. One of the best known forms of piggybacking is listing out the bands you sound like on your website, CD Baby page, and press correspondences. This gives new listeners a clue as to what to expect by drawing on what they already know. Of course, another popular piggybacking tactic is to cover a well-known song. Often, these covers become your initial best sellers. But they also act as a gateway. If listeners like your version, they’ll likely check out your original material" (discmakers , 2013).

Lastly one of the best ways of getting your name out there is by having an agent. Finding a resourceful and well-connected agent that works on commission is one of the hardest ways, but the best way in my opinion.

References:

http://www.discmakers.com/pdf/10-effective-strategies.pdf