Com Indicação Ao GRAMMY Jean-Michel Jarre - Pai Da Musica Eletrônica - Prepara Turnê Nos EU

With Grammy Nomination Electronic Music Godfather Jean-Michel Jarre Preps First North American Tour

CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 13: Jean-Michel Jarre attends the 'I, Daniel Blake' premiere during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival at the Palais des Festivals on May 13, 2016 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Now four decades into his storied career French artist Jean-Michel Jarre is considered the godfather of electronic music.  In all that time though, he has never toured North America, until this year. He’ll kick off his first ever North American tour May 9 in Toronto and end it May 27 in Los Angeles.

The tour was planned last year, but it got a tremendous boost when Jarre received a Grammy nomination in December for Best Dance Album for Electronica 1: The Time Machine, a series of collaborations he did with artists who, to him, influenced electronic music. The range of artists on that album is wide, from the Who’s Pete Townshend and Moby to Air, M83 and noted horror film director John Carpenter.

For Jarre, the nomination means more awareness for the tour. “I think that’s a sign that some people in the U.S. and younger generation also, having discovered electronic music through EDM, it’s creating a link with what electronic music is all about,” he says. “I would say that rock and roll is born in America and invaded the world. And electronic music was born in Europe and invaded the world. So there is a true link between electronic music and Europe and it’s nice to create a link with the Grammy award and the academy.”

In this day and age where collaborations are often pre-recorded between artists who never meet, instead sending files over to each other, Jarre purposely went the old-fashioned route, traveling around the world to work in person with his collaborators on both Electronica 1: The Time Machine and its sequel, Electronica 2: The Heart Of Noise. The result is a pair of albums more than four years on the making. To have his ambition and hard work rewarded with a Grammy nomination was so much sweeter because of the effort he put in.

“I’m really happy about the nomination obviously because this project is something I had in mind for quite a while and gathering around these people who have been such an inspiration to me and gathering people who have come from different generations and lead directly and indirectly to electronic music,” he says. “So I’m really happy also for all the people involved in the project.”

The news of the nomination came just as he was wrapping up the European leg of the tour. It capped off one of the most prolific years of his four decades in music. “Actually it was a very good surprise to me; it’s been a very busy, positive year for me because I released, in one year, more or less three albums, Electronica 1, Electronica 2 and Oxygene 3, and also I am very happy about the beginning of my world tour in Europe,” he says. “It’s a very special project, I’m going to bring it to the U.S. in May and it’s a mixing of the classics Oxygene, Equinox and my classics with the new Electronica albums and quite exciting type of 3D graphics. It’s something quite new.”

When Jarre and I spoke last year he discussed the idea of recreating the Electronica albums live with several of the guests on stage. He now admits that given the scope of the albums and the fact it took four years to put the albums together trying to bring everyone together on stage might be too ambitious, even for him.

“At the beginning my idea was to involve some collaborators and I realized it would become a real headache to try to make a tour with collaborators day by day,” he says. “Then I started to think about the tour with two and a half hours of music, it was quite easy for me to try to find a way to do a tour without necessarily the physical presence of the collaborators, but more, from time to time, having some collaborators joining us as guests depending on the availability.”

In addition, he has since released the third and, what he sees now, as the final chapter in his Oxygene series. So that will also be a big part of his first ever North American tour. He says the fortieth anniversary of the first Oxygene album last year spurred him to write new music.

“Last year when the record company said it was going to be the fortieth anniversary of Oxygene this year and we should think about doing a nice box, I said, ‘Wait a minute, it could be quite interesting to use this anniversary as a deadline to create the kind of final chapter of Oxygene,’” he says.

It all means that when Jarre finally hits North America this may, fans who have four decades to see him in the States and Canada will be greeted with a wealth of material.

IA (Inteligência Artificial) Pode Dominar As Composições

Don’t Look Now, But A.I. Composed Music Is Taking Hold

First of all thanks to BOBBY OWSINSKI for this article.

It’s tough out there for songwriters and composers of every genre. There’s more competition than ever, thanks to better training and the proliferation of home studios, so the last thing that’s needed is another obstacle to go up against. That’s why the rise in A.I. composed music (meaning by artificial intelligence) is so disconcerting. Most of us are used to dealing with human competition, but going up against an evolved computer is another story.

The New York Times had a great article on A.I. composed music not too long ago, and cited numerous examples from different genres. Here are a few of them below.

In the first, composer Learn Hiller used a computer to produce the “Illiac Suite” for string quartet, which is said to be the first computer-generated score.

Here’s one by Future that was composed using Sony’s AI tool Flow Composer.

And finally, here’s one in the style of The Beatles, also composed using Flow Composer.

I wasn’t too impressed until I heard the last one, which is quite good in that at least it has a memorable melody.

Somehow though, I don’t think human songwriters and composers have much to worry about – yet. A.I. composed music isn’t going away though, so prepare for a future of trying to decide whether a song was composed by human or machine.

Como Ficar Melhor? Pratique!

How To Get Better: Practice

First of all thanks to Johnny Dwinell  for this article

As an artist I spent COUNTLESS hours practicing my guitar.  Practicing my vocals, writing, and practicing with my band.

When we were making a living at making music there wasn’t a week that went by where we weren’t playing 4-6 hours a day as a band.

It came from our regular practice schedule and then relentless touring gigs.

When I moved to Nashville after the 80’s hair band thing was abruptly ended by Nirvana’s “Nevermind” record, I recorded some solo material.  I searched for musicians and paid them to get the right tracks, I wasn’t just looking to “get it done” from a project management perspective or just as damaging, an excitedly curious perspective.

I wanted it to be great!

Know your strengths and weaknesses and address them.

You have to be able to acknowledge the difference between an “A”, “B”, and “C” song.

Just because your song means the world to you doesn’t mean the world will care about it.

I paid players to cut the tracks I needed.

I shopped for players based on their talent and not their price tag.

You get what you pay for.

I grew up on analog recording so when the industry switched to digital I needed to learn Pro-Tools real fast.

I used to fly Kelly out to LA to mix my projects. I paid to fly him out and I paid him the “bro-rate” on an hourly basis with the stipulation that I got to ask questions.

I got to be annoying with questions.

He’ll tell you that too, I’m sure.

Learning this software was mission critical to my artistic soul.

My band paid money to get vocal lessons.  We wanted to build a better live show and we didn’t have the tools.

You’ve got to pay for tools, and knowledge.

It was amazing how many “perks” via favors and good energy that came to us for being a SOLID band.

People could easily tell that we were serious and we worked hard at it.

They found it “refreshing”.

The moral of the story is that when you do good work and you work hard people take you seriously.

They don’t take you seriously if you plan to do good work.

When you tell people you plan to do good work they blow it off.  You sound like everyone else.

Everybody PLANS to do good work.

The difference between the doers and the talkers is execution.  Plain and simple.

The people who actually execute good work instantly separate themselves from the crowd.

The only way to do good work is to be good.

The only way to be good is to practice.

Practice takes time, money, and energy.

These days I pay to learn as much as I can about my current gig which is marketing artists.

We are cracking the code for the New Music Business 2.0 here at Daredevil Production.

We collect little pieces of knowledge gleaned from various paid sources and assemble them to construct the vision of our future.

I feel like too many of you want people to take you seriously as an artist based on what you plan to do rather than what you have done.

You will never get better if you are waiting for someone to believe in you before you get serious about your career.

That’s is probably the most rampant mental flaw that artists possess.  They simply don’t believe in themselves enough so they set up a pretty wicked mental racket. 

They say to themselves that if they could just get to the right people that believed in them they would go ALL IN.

Here’s the thing, if you don’t have measurable, tangible evidence that you’re “all in” and your great when you meet “the right people” then you will get nothing from that meeting.

Zero love.

The end result is artists frequently meet the right people but are unprepared or unimpressive.

These artists know it so their energy is off. (Why give a CD with disclaimers, btw?)

The “right people” know it instantly.

The artists get jaded.

The cycle begins again.

This is true in any business.  People are exactly the same. They all talk the talk but until you walk the walk you won’t impress anyone.

I created a life-long mentor (who I lost to a heart attack in January of 2014) from a meeting that was set up by our (then) new booking agency.  I took him out to eat and kept driving the conversation back to him.  He was fascinating and SUPER smart!  A hustler! He kept telling me the truth, I knew it, and I wanted more.

People always like to talk about themselves.  Sometimes it’s far more productive, far more beneficial to you to keep your mouth shut and pay attention.

I knew I wasn’t going to impress so I kept my mouth shut and appeared stupid rather than open it up and remove all doubt.

In the case of this specific mentor (RIP Mark O’Toole), he was extremely humble and very matter of fact.

Some are more of the bragging type, but SO WHAT?  As long as they’re talking you should be listening.  Forget about how you feel about the way they serve it up and concentrate on whether you think they’re being truthful, man.

By the simple gesture of taking him to dinner and admitting I was green and needed some input from a pro like him, he liked me.

He like my honesty.

He like my hustle.

He probably liked that I kept my mouth shut.

He was attracted to my undying thirst for knowledge andhow to apply it.

I think he could see that I was focused on becoming a student of the game.

He remembered me.

  

That’s the kind of people that mentors want to help.

 Mentors don’t want beggars.

Mentors don’t want hangers on.

They don’t want charity cases.  The whole “somebody needs to help me because I’m unable to help myself” doesn’t usually attract good people in the animal kingdom (of which we are a part of).

It attracts predators that smell the blood from an easy kill so if that’s you STOP IT.  I promise you will just continue to attract predators.

It’s like sticking a bloody hand in shark infested waters, screaming for the sharks to come, and then complaining that you got your hand bit off.

This is why so many of you that operate from a certain “victim” or “pity” approach keep getting screwed.

If it makes you feel better the story doesn’t change for the artists who punch through into any kind of market awareness and brand name.  The more they avoid the nuts and bolts of their own business, the more they get screwed.

Inspect what you expect.

If you don’t learn what to look for (how to inspect and what to expect) you will get screwed when you start making money.

You have to practice to learn what to look for.

Balance between project management (get the goods to market) and artistic excellence is key as well.

You hear me harp about how marketing will make or break any project.

Well we have all seen good marketing break projects that are artistically lame and unimaginative.

We have never seen zero, lame, or unimaginative marketing break an amazing artistic project; it kills it.

Either way you’re going to need marketing and team building skills.

Either way you’re going to have to practice your marketing.

Practice makes perfect.

You can’t effectively market yourself unless you’re willing to suck at it in the beginning.

Just like your music.

You used to suck at that too.

Nobody was born with all the tools they need to succeed.

So if you want to move these little products you create and make a living, you will first need to learn how to get better.

How to get better at making them.

How to get better at marketing them.

Of course, that will require practice.

Stay In Tune

Facebook Contrata Tamara Hrivnak Do YouTube Para Liderar A Estratégia Global Em Música

Facebook Hires YouTube's Tamara Hrivnak to Lead Global Music Strategy

Facebook may be preparing to explore partnerships with the music business, if a recent hire is any indication. Tamara Hrivnak, one of the key music executives at YouTube, just announced she is joining Facebook “to lead global music strategy and business development."  Appropriately, Hrivnak made the announcement in a
Facebook post.

Neither Hrivnak nor Facebook would comment. But the fact that the social network hired a respected music lawyer with a history of working on licensing deals suggests that it’s interested in licensing music.

Hrivnak, a lawyer, worked as director of music partnerships for Google Play and YouTube, where she was seen by major label executives as a dealmaker who understood their business at a company where few people do. She reported to YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl. Before going to Google in 2011, Hrivnak was vp of digital strategy & business affairs for Warner/Chappell Music Publishing.

Read more: Facebook Developing Copyright ID System to Stem Music Rights Infringement

Over the past year, music videos have become more popular on Facebook, but most of them are not licensed – which has become a matter of concern to rightsholders. “I think our next big fight is with Facebook,” National Music Publishers’ Association CEO David Israelite said in a recent interview. (In Decemeber, news broke that Facebook was developing a content ID system to stem music infringement.) He added that he hoped the situation would change: “Being business partners isn’t only smarter, it’s the right thing to do — and I think they want to do the right thing.” The fact that Hrivnak described her job as “global music strategy and business development” suggests that it could do so soon.

Música Em Um Comercial Deve Ter Um Propósito Segundo Joel Simon

Music In Advertising Must Have Purpose Says Music Man Joel Simon

First of all thanks to Will Burns for this article 

Any marketers responsible for developing TV campaigns understand the importance of having a good director, a good editor, great talent and production people. But what about sound? Do we really appreciate the importance of music in advertising? To that end, I interviewed one of the go-to "music guys" in the advertising business, Joel Simon, president and CEO of JSM Music.

Below I have transcribed much of what we covered, including a behind the scenes look at JSM's most recent compositional work for the creepy House Of Cards season 5 teaser.

Joel Simon, President/CEO of JSM Music (photo credit: JSM Music)

Will Burns: Why is music important in ads and films?

Joel Simon: Did you ever notice that more people listen to TV than actually watch it? When they hear something interesting and compelling, that is when they look up. Beyond that, music sets the tone for any film. It's the emotional connection, and most importantly, it's visceral. Without any dialogue at all we can frame the viewer's experience and the creative idea, emotionally. Every advert is an emotional creation.

Burns: How do you know if it's the right music for the ad?

Simon: At JSM, all of our music has purpose. It can all stand on its own as individual and discrete musical pieces, but in our industry the music we create for our clients has a very specific role and purpose in the creative process. I read your stuff on Forbes and remember you calling it "Channeling the brand.” That is exactly what it's like with music. In order have long standing success in my business, we need to understand the brand completely, the business, the target audience, the message we're trying to communicate, all of it. We need to fully comprehend and create the sound of our client's brand. That sonic branding is more important as a whole than any one ad, or one campaign for that brand. It is the glue. It is the unspoken sonic landscape and foundation of its importance. And then we channel that understanding and knowledge into the music we compose for our clients. If you lose sight of the purpose then what have you done for your client? Jesus, even Mozart was a commissionable composer.

Burns: What are the 'rookie mistakes' that agencies and clients make when it comes to music in advertising?

Simon: Time. Creating music from nothing require a bit of time. Our clients can take months with strategy, a month on creative development, and then give us two days to do the music. We can do it, we always do, but it would be far more efficient if we could really immerse ourselves in the project and the brand. It is so important to bring in your music partner early on in the creative and marketing process.

Another mistake is sharing a placeholder track when presenting an edit, animatic or board and then ultimately suffering "demo love," where it's impossible to replicate the attraction to that piece no matter what we do because it was the first piece associated and reviewed with the idea. Say the agency has a Justin Timberlake song as the reference track, but then they find out it's impossible to get the song for financial or contractual reasons. They may come to us and ask us to try and replicate it and we can try, but we'll never be able to really replicate it, though that's what they really want. Once, after toiling with tracks that approached a famous artist's track, I spent the time with my musicians to completely rip it off, played it to the client and said, "Like that? Well, you can't have it. We're getting too close." They got my point.

The last rookie mistake is that clients don't attend music sessions as often as they should. They go to the shoot, the edit and maybe the mix, but they don't tend to go to the music sessions and I think that's a mistake. First, it’s the fucking music session. Who wouldn’t want to hang out in a studio with a bunch of musicians recording? It's an incredible life experience to witness something coming out of nothing, as does our music. But more importantly the music is better when the clients are there to witness it and really feel it and be a part of the creation. There are things that happen musically in the room, one time performances, that are so important and that the clients can respond to. But only if they attend.

Burns: Tell us about how you approached this haunting new TV spot for Netflix's 'House Of Cards' teaser?

Simon: Well, first of all the timing is perfect for that ad - it launched on Donald Trump's inauguration day - a perfect parallel with the mood that's going on in the country right now. The concept is great. We pull back on an otherwise normal looking American flag to discover it's upside down - a distressed flag, indicating there's trouble in the government. We wanted the sound to help with this reveal. We did all kinds of reads from the kids of "The Pledge" - some more sinister than others. But together with the agency, Doner/LA and its CCO, Jason Gaboriau, we ended up with a straight read from the kids like they're in any classroom in the country on any given day. That helped mask the reveal. Then as the camera pulls back and we actually see that the flag is upside down and the clouds are getting darker and more ominous, we sneak in the eery subtle sound design underneath that build to a sort of controlled manic crescendo as the kids continue "The Pledge." We only had a few days on that one and I'm really thrilled with how it came out. Something's not right in Frank Underwood's government, I can tell you that.

Burns: Big thanks to Joel. A little more about JSM Music:

JSM Music is the preeminent global commercial music production and sound design leader for the world’s most influential and compelling brands across all digital, broadcast, film, television, live experiential and mobile mediums. For over 25 years, JSM continues to evolve and always chooses to take the creative roads less traveled. JSM remains ahead of the curve by exclusively securing the finest global musical talent, unparalleled business practices and service, while always nurturing and expanding its unique original vibe, philosophy and creative vision. Located in its spectacular 10,000 Sq. Ft. NoHo penthouse studios in downtown NYC, JSM is one of the world’s most comprehensive recording and creative resources.