5 Key Points to Help Make a Low-Budget Video / VYCLONE Iphone APP

In todays social media world, the video seems to be the optimum format for getting your music across. As much as we like to listen to music, the art of discovery is often helped with a video.

With all the low budget tech out there, it is now within everybodies reach to create a video. I succesfully filmed a band at a live gig recently with just two iphones just to see how it would work, and it didn't turn out too bad! 

So if you fancy giving it a go, there are a few simple things you need get right before you embark on your first video production.

Peter Gavin has put together a list of 5 key points that will help you create your first video in a post that i found on evolver FM.

He says you need to consider these things..

1. It takes 2 (cameras) to make a thing go right

2. Lighting is the more important than your camera

3. Audio quality can make or break your video

4. You already own editing software

5. Resize your videos without losing quality

He goes into depth in the full article that you can read here. Which also has more leads/links to more info that will guide you through to making your first video.

VYCLONE Iphone APP

Another interesting way to create a video is to use a useful app that has just appeared on the Web.

Vyclone is a new free iPhone app which allows you to include and remix your own video footage with the ones of your friends recording the same event.

Vyclone synchronizes and edits everyone's clips to create one movie with all the angles cut together.

Sounds awesome, you just make sure you get a few friends to install the app at your gig and get them filming, all the pain of syncing is taken away so you can just use the best shots!

For more info go here

Go on give it a go... it's not as difficult to make a video as you think!

Links

http://evolver.fm/2012/08/17/5-ways-to-make-a-low-budget-video/

http://vyclone.com/

 

 

 

The Friday Five - 6th July 2012

Another week over! Here's a bunch of thing we liked this week across the musical web.

 

1. Why are verse lyrics so hard to write?

So you have the hook, now you gotta get the story right. Some top tips on getting the verse lyrics sorted on your next song.

http://garyewer.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/why-are-verse-lyrics-so-hard-to-write/

 

2. Lego step sequencer

This is not a trick is actually works. Built at a Hackathon in the States, a webcam detects the colours of the bricks and plays the appropriate sound. Cool!

https://vimeo.com/45026119#

 

3. Using QR codes to promote.

QR codes are great, they are the funny looking square patterns that are popping up everywhere.

But what are they for? What you need is a QR reader in your smart phone. It scans the square which then opens the phones browser and takes you directly to the content. Check out how this band used them on a poster for ideas.

http://www.independentrockstar.com/2040/qr-codes-posters-matt-moran-band/

 

4. Complete Guide to Sync Licensing

After our article on our main site about Cover Songs, I found this great video article all about Sync Licensing from DIY musician

http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/the-diy-musicians-complete-guide-to-sync-licensing/

 

5. Beatsurfing - The Organic MIDI Controller Builder

This is an awesome new programmable midi controller for the iPad.  Especially if you like your music glitchy. Check out a few of the videos and demos to get an idea of what this is truly capable of.

http://beatsurfing.net/

Don't forget to check our latest post on our main website  Do you need a license for a Cover Song?

Have a good weekend!   Steve  :)

 

How To Spot 10 tell-tale Signs of an Amateur Mix

I've worked in recording studios most of my life, and also tutored Music production and sound engineering at Point Blank Music School. Over the years i keep getting asked the same question from musicians and students alike, "why doesn't my music sound like a professional record?"

Well this can be for many reasons, firstly as a music maker, I believe that just because you can add parts and infinite amounts of detail to a track, doesnt mean you have to. It's the point that just because he or she is a musician and can do it, doesn't mean that it has to be there in the track, it's not a contest!

Making a good tune is not about showing off your musical skills, it's about creating a track/song that people will love.

When asked to produce a tune I will take the parts supplied if its a song and strip it right down to its basics. Drums, Bass and Voice. Does it still feel like a vital tune? You should hope so, as good song should be able to rely on this basic interpretation, then everything else for me is production.

I have found people create tracks where they listen to it at a point in their production process, and think, 'hmm the tune ain't right, it needs something else'. So more parts are added and the production gets more layered and more complicated.

Well, over the years i have come to realise that the brain can really only handle about 5 components in a track, (drums/rhythm being 1), any more and the listener tends to find it complicated and hard to listen to.

So if you get to a point in your production, where you feel it isn't right and needs more, maybe you should be asking yourself, 'Are these parts I have the best they can be?' . Covering and layering more parts isn't a solution, and as a musician, dont think you're being a producer either. The sign of a good producer is know what to leave out of a production, and keeping what really works.

So what inspired me to pass on this nugget of information, is a very cool article and essential reading I found on the Music Radar website.

10 tell tale signs of an Amateur mix will help you find and spot faults with your production and help make your tracks stand out for the right reasons. Here they mention using the wrong sounds...

The wrong sounds

Sometimes tracks don't sound right because the constituent parts don't make a whole. This can be caused by using sounds that simply don't fit - synth brass being used in place of a real part, or a sample with slightly incorrect timing or pitch, for example.

It can also be down to the use of boring-sounding presets, too many or incorrectly applied effects, or roughly recorded samples. Don't misunderstand this last point, because rough, lo-fi audio can sound fantastic in the right context. It's all about getting the right sounds for the track.

The mix is also extremely important here. Of course, you want some sounds to stand out - the hooks, lead vocals and so on - but it can be jarring when other sounds that make up the arrangement are so poorly mixed that they end up taking over (we've heard tinny percussion loops that take your head off, and sub-basses that blow your speaker cones… we could go on and on!).

You can read the article in full here.

Link

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/10-tell-tale-signs-of-an-amateur-mix-547621

Key Points for Success in Todays Music Business

This came to my attention from Clyde Smith at Hypebot. 10 top tips from the horses mouth so to speak. 

Originally sourced from article in American Songwriter, they asked a range of industry professionals what is needed after you have written some great tunes but haven't built a sizable following or become visible to possible music industry allies.

There is some excellent advice here

Kendel Ratley – Director of Marketing, Kickstarter:

"If you're still establishing your fanbase, check out where your peers, favorite artists, or bands you want to emulate share their music and follow suit. There are countless platforms and venues to debut your work. Identify your audience, think about where you discover music, and post accordingly.".

The top tips have been sorted in Clyde's article here, but for more depth check out the full article on American Songwriter here.

 

Links

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2012/04/10-tips-for-succeeding-in-todays-volatile-music-biz.html

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2012/03/dream-big-how-to-succeed-in-todays-volatile-music-biz/

 

Pure Solo - any use for the DIY musician?

I wasn't sure if this was something that we should cover, but decided that there were plenty of people who could benefit from the practice that it would encourage.

Pure Solo is an online recording tool that allows users to record their part (a vocal or instrumental) over studio quality backing tracks.

My concern is that this is glorified Karaoke that encourages the belief that a reasonable vocal or playing talent is enough to forge some success as a musician - and sure, there will be hordes of people that use it to record 'demos' and post them to YouTube. And, there's nothing wrong with that...... if it's for fun.

But then I realised that the Beatles learnt how to play pretty much every then existing R&B track in their relentless hours in Hamburg and that most musicians can learn a lot about their craft as players and writers by practising more and learning how great songs are put together.

So, it gets a recommendation from me if it's something that you can use to hone your chops or just for having fun.

But, please don't think that of itself it's a way to make yourself famous or to record professionally!

Watch their promo here.

Music Business pdf Guides

This is a post for those who don't follow us on Twitter or visit the main site that often.

On Friday we posted about 2 free pdf guides to the Music Business written by the folks at Berklee College of Music.

Go to our main site to get these music business pdf's.

Gobbler - a Dropbox for artists

I didn't know this existed - and I am a huge fan of Dropbox which I use to sync my files everywhere.

But Gobbler is designed specifically as an online storage and back-up solution for musicians with very trick integration with all the most popular recording systems - Pro Tools, Logic etc.

I talked to all my management clients about this today - one was already using it and loved it and all the others signed up.

It's a no brainer.

I found out about it from this article in the LA Times - which I heard about from one of my Google+ circles (BTW - I find myself looking at that way more than Facebook already!)

Sitting on a bus as it was rolling across Turkey on a concert tour in summer 2009, the 37-year-old Los Angeles entrepreneur watched singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz fire up a disc drive where he had stored a song he had been recording. To their horror, the drive was dead.

"I started asking other musicians how they kept copies of their work," Kantrowitz recalled. "They were all on these old tapes and disc drives. To me, that was crazy."

That gave Kantrowitz the idea to launch Gobbler, a company that would not only back up artists' digital files but also let them collaborate to create songs with other musicians anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Here's the LA Times piece.

And here's the Gobbler intro video.

 

Play by the New Rules

A Bob Lefsetz post.

You know the drill.

It's good stuff and you should read it.

1. Listen to a lot of records. A knowledge of music is the best education. Spend more time listening than posting on Facebook. The musicians of yore could play every lick on their favorite blues records, can you?

2. Learn how to play. Start with lessons. Only give them up when you surpass your teacher. Know how to play what you don’t like. It’ll come in handy, just like studying algebra.

3. Write. We’re interested in what you have to say. You can wring emotion with a note, but begin composing lyrics too. Music blew up in the sixties because we were interested in more than the surface, we wanted to know who these acts were, we wanted to know what they had to say.

4. Rehearse. If you’re not frustrated, if you’re not chomping at the bit, you’re not doing it right. Sure, post the results to the Net, but don’t expect anybody to pay attention. And promotion is passe. Don’t tell people to listen, go back and cut more until you create something so good it spreads by itself.

5. Use what’s come before as a stepping off point, not as a blueprint. Although you should know how to play the classics, your music should not sound just like the Beatles or Zeppelin, but different. If you haven’t got people scratching their heads, telling you to turn it down, you’re playing it too safe.

That's just a bit of it. Like we said, read it.

So, do that here.

How to write a great song

I get the PRS magazine and waspleased to discover that they have an online version of it where they post the advice articles.

And, here's two great short ones on songwriting - one from one of Adele's co-writers and the other from a veteran with 30 years experience.

They know their stuff.

Five ingredients of a hit song

Fraser T Smith on hits and co-writing

And, for good measure, check out our blog section on songwriting tips.

20 pieces of bad advice for musicians

Links to two posts on the Tunecore blog that each list "10 Inaccurate, Erroneous and Irrelevant" pieces of advice that musicians are told.

Now, being as everyone is entitled to hand out advice, I don't agree entirely with all 20!

The one I have the most beef with is this:

With the rise of the Internet/social media I can build an audience online

Remember that the articles are stating that these are pieces of bad advice.

To be fair, the point made is that you can't just expect to build an audience online - that your online efforts amplify and add to your offline effots, and that I do sort of agree with. However, I (as you'd probably guess) do give a lot of weight to what can be achieved purely online. Indeed, in our personal experience with our clients a lot of initial momentum is built entirely online.

So, generally, these posts are great advice, but rememeber that your own experience and interpretation of ANY advice you get is as important as the advice itself.

Here are the two posts.

The original 10 pieces of bad advice.

The follow up 10 pieces of more bad advice.

And, of course, or the best advice - visit our main site - Make It In Music!

10 seconds is all you have

I went to a talk by Jay Frank last night put on by @thisisnewmusic.

It was very revealing.

Jay is a respected authority on what makes a song a hit in the post filesharing, online music dicovery world. This is all revealed in his excellent book - Future Hit DNA.

I encourage you to go and check out Jay's site and if you're serious about writing hits, try and see him speak or buy the book.

Here's a few nuggets from last night. Apologies to Jay if I miss the detail!:

• All music discovery online occurs at 0 seconds because an embedded player, YouTube video etc starts at the beginning. This might seem obvious but it was never like this before when you would usually switch on the radio and maybe hear a song halfway through.

• About half the people only hear the first 10 seconds of the track, no matter how they discovered it. But, if they get past 10 seconds they are likely to listen to the whole thing. Possible exit times are at about 2 minutes (normally after the second chorus, in the bridge) or towards the end, where you may have a fade that bores them. Abrupt endings are better.

• The first listen is easy to get these days - there are vast numbers of ways to be discovered whereas in the past, the first listen meant a very hard to come by radio play - but it takes 5 - 7 plays to embed a song with a listener and the repeat plays will only come if the first play hooked them and made them listen all the way through.

• After the birth of Napster the average length of Intro dropped from 14 seconds to 7.

• If people jump out of listening to a track at any point this sets a negative connotation in their mind that makes them exponentially less likely to listen again. Avoid this!

• There is some evidence that the communal experience in listening to songs and discussing them is declining in the web 2.0 world. Perhaps enhancing the communality of the song itself can help - eg - gang singing or 'call and response'.

Seriously, check out the book!

Music trumps everything

We wrote about a piece in the Independent about Adele the other day.

Bob Lefsetz has followed up on the piece and his comments are far more eloquently put than mine!

This is SO right it should be distributed to every wannabe musician to shed light on the proper direction to take in a career.

It’s about music.  And credibility.  And Adele has both.

The public believes her music is real and believes she’s all about the music.  That’s another one of America’s downfalls, executives wanting bigger paychecks convincing vulnerable musicians that they’ve got to play with the Fortune 500 and Clear Channel to get ahead.

Hogwash.

People want to believe. That’s what blew up music forty years ago, that’s what’s been lost in the MTV/CD era.  People no longer believe the artists are all about pursuing their craft, getting it right.  People can’t identify with artists the same way they can’t identify with Lloyd Blankfein and the rest of the Wall Street titans.  Come on, read that Mariah Carey tripe.  Is this YOU?

Read Bob's post here.

The Who, The What, The Where and the Why

Four great posts from Loren Weismann in which he distills four key concepts that every band needs to get to grips with

The Who - work out who you are!

The What - what are you putting out there to tell people about you?

The Where - where are you playing and promoting?

The Why - give people a reason to come or buy!

Lots of great nuggets of advice in there - check them out.

Don't do anything that I and those like me advise.....

...if you're truly brilliant!

Just to be contrary, I had to post this article about Adele from today's Indie newspaper.

It tells us that she doesn't Tweet, won't play festivals and doesn't do brand tie-ins or advertising hook-ups.

Pretty much three cornerstones of what I and those like me who peddle advice for the aspiring musician would all be telling you to do.

So how come it works for her and yet we tell you to do it differently?

Well, the truth is that she got IMPORTANT THING NUMBER 1 right ages ago, and this allows you to ignore everyone and strike out for all your goals secure in the kowledge that you'll get there in the end.

SHE IS HUGELY TALENTED and she has some GREAT SONGS.

I don't care whether you agree with me or not. If you don't agree, you're deluding yourself and will carry on deluding yourself when you should be taking stock and perfecting your art!

And, don't forget that this is not overnight sucess - this is 'Album 2' and nearly 5 years after she left a performing arts school and thre years since her first Album.

Where does that leave all the advice that we 'musician bloggers' hand out?

Well, it all still works - and Adele would still be where she is if she followed those suggestions. But, don't mistake my advice for a 'magic bullet'. It will give you the best chance of building a fanbase and getting noticed by the wider public if used properly and if you put in a lot of hard work.

But it won't work for shit if your music's shit!

Read about Adele here.

The secret of Sade's success

From the Guardian website - read the post here.

After the previous post that suggests that you need to pander to a standard view, this is the antidote - and proof that the opposing view (a resolute and steadfast belief in yourself and your material) can winn through - big time.

It doesn't matter that this story is about Sade and whether you like her material or not, nor that it's about the old industry - there are things to be learnt here.

What they needed was some DIY thinking. Sade's boyfriend played the tracks to friends who worked at style-bible the Face. They liked both Sade and the music and put her on the cover with the headline: "Sade, the Face of 1984." The band quickly organised a gig at the club Heaven, inviting journalists who witnessed 1,000 people being turned away at the door. The next day all the record companies tried to sign them. Most of the labels wanted to send her to the US to work with big producers such as Quincy Jones. But Sade had a clear vision of what she wanted to do – so instead of the biggest offer, she took the deal that allowed her to finish what she started.

Read the whole piece.

Top 8 mistakes new bands make

Image by basheertome

This is a great post that covers some of the same ground as our free eBook for musicians - which you should get if you haven't already!

All I'll add is that the advice in this post and in our eBook isn't intended to make anyone give up, but it should be taken to heart. You need to be able to analyse what is and isn't working with your music or band and make the changes that are stopping you moving forward.

I have had the privilege of sitting as a judge on the largest annual Band Competition in Finland. It has 200 bands attending every year, and I’ve been part of the judging panel since 2005. The competition is aimed at unsigned bands, and is open to anyone. The entrants are picked in the order of entry submissions, so the bands are not required to have previous gigging experience. Some of the bands are playing their first ever gigs, while others have been playing youth clubs for years. Needless to say a bit of experience goes a long way. Year after year, I’ve witnessed the same problems that the bands make in the beginning of their journey. Here is my top list:

Read the tips here.

 

 

So you wanna be a rock star?

Amusing infographic of facts about musicians from the Band Promo site.

Talent plus 'direct to fan' ensures success

Just go and read this post from Bob Lefsetz.

He lists the people he thinks are the 10 most powerful right now in Music - and tells us why. He also looks at those that aren't as powerful as you'd think.

His conclusion is that talent and 'direct to fan' is the answer - oh, how odd, that's what we're teaching!

The future is in the hands of the public.  Who will follow the leads of individuals utilizing tech tools to build infrastructure.  I’d love to tell you exactly where we’re going, but I don’t know.  But one thing I’m sure of is the future will not look like the past. Those in the past have blown it by insisting the public stay in the past.  The public loves digital files, wants tons of them, for nowhere near a buck a track, yet the labels still cling to an old model.  The future is a new model.  Based on access.  Monetizing in ways heretofore unseen.  It’s about marrying Richard Russell’s acts with Topspin exploitation.  All the while charging the public to hear everything at their fingertips.  We’ll get there.  And most of the people who were powerful before Napster will be ancient history.  Some of those who are powerful today will be history. But those who make the music will survive.  If they’ve put in their 10,000 hours, if what they create resonates with the public.  You don’t have to make what everyone else does.  But when you get it right, you need a Coran Capshaw or an insightful twentysomething to navigate a career where you make every decision thinking about your audience, not your wallet.  There’s plenty of money..if your music is great and you’re credible and you know that the old institutions, radio and television and labels, mean less than ever before.

Read it here.

 

5 tips for emerging artists

This fits really well with the posts we've been doing today and earlier this week.

It's from Hypebot and it's the Sonic Bids' boss's view of the industry as it is today.

His final five tips are pretty much exactly what we've been saying all week!

• Think of music beyond just “the stage.” Music is everywhere.
• Build meaningful relationships with your fans. They’re your best friends.
• Know who those fans are… Like any business, the more you know your customer, the better you serve them.
• Treat your music like a business. Find time to make your music, but also time on how you’re going to market it. Create a plan.
• Have a social media strategy. Facebook and Twitter are powerful tools for connecting with your fans and creating new fans virally.

Read it all here.

 

Why a major label record deal still matters

I'd like you to read the comment by 'Pazuzu' on this Guardian post about why Nerina Pallot still wants a record deal with a major. It's the ninth comment down.

I would reproduce it in it's entirety but I don't have permission so you have to go over there to read it. The follow-ups in the later comments clarify his thoughts.

I'm not that interested in the article itself.

I met Nerina a few times many years ago when she played keys in a band called, if I recall, 'Thumb'. Very nice she was too and clearly talented and if she feels the need for a major deal on the basis of what she says in the article, then it's a perfectly acceptable choice.

But, it's what Pazuzu says that works for me.

When I started our main blog, I thought that to 'make it in music' was to become a lauded, respected, volume-selling mainstream success. That's where the bulk of my experience was at the time and it's what I thought all artists wanted.

As I have written more and become more involved in 'direct to fan' I realise that there are a myriad ways for musicians to 'make it' - be that playing the music you love regardless of whether you find an audience, doing it yourself but looking for a fanbase that can financially sustain your lifestyle (whether that is modest or fantastical), or indeed the pursuit of global GaGa fame, plus a whole other load of perfectly sensible models to fit individual desires and definitions of success.

I then realised that whatever it is you hope to achieve, you should always focus on your art and the skills you have so that the expression of your art can be as complete as you are then able to make it. Practice, effort, improvement and humility will all make that art better.

And, as you improve, everything that we teach and point readers to, should help in the promotion of that art in the most effective way that the music industry and the wider modern world allows. Whether you choose to promote or not is up to you.

But, if you do, the tools and our knowledge will help.

In his comment, Pazuzu says:

I can't figure out if you want to make music or make sales. In these times, people seem to confuse the two, as though commercial success is any marker of artistic worth. If people want to be artists of any kind they should be prepared to toil in obscurity. It's one of those unpleasant truths life throws at us. All of us have seen tear-inducingly talented people performing in obscurity and going nowhere commercially, while mediocrity is lavished at every turn with riches, privilege, and praise. And yet artists flock to major record labels to seek validation through commerce. No artist should ever feel entitled to make a living, much less a fortune, from their art. That is a courtier's mentality. If they do happen to "make it," good for them, but let's not confuse the two distinct and incommensurable things that are artistic worth and commercial value.

I do actually believe that the DIY musicians who use the direct to fan model can now build a career that is financially sustainable and might then go on to global success (which might or might not involve a deal with a major label). But I also believe that talent and persistent pursuit of artistic improvement is the starting point for those DIY musicians.

So, although I love his view of what it is to be an artist, I think we are in a golden age for music where the 'tear-inducingly talented' will only fail to find success (at some level) if they don't use the tools at their disposal, or if they choose not to.

Don't give up on the major label deal if it's what you desire, but don't see it as the be all and end all. Make yourself great and work to build a fanbase using what the 'DIY musician' industry that is beginning to appear wants to teach you. Where that might take you, who knows, but it's better than blindly hoping that you might be good enough for 30 seconds of fame from a copycat produced bit of generic pop bollocks.

Fact!

The main article and Pazuzu's comments are here.