8 Etapas Para Sua Primeira Canção: De Uma Ideia a Uma Produção Profissional

8 Steps to Your First Song: From Idea to Professional Production

It’s always exciting to hit upon a song idea which can be the next big sensation.

But translating that idea into a song or an album can be a daunting task, especially if music production is new for you.

In this article we will demystify the process of creating songs from scratch.

A song starts with either a catchy melody or a set of powerful lyrics. Then music is added to the song, the song is given a structure and then it is recorded and goes for final post production. Let us look at each of these processes in detail.

1. Tune/melody:

The basic starting point is the tune or the melody you have in your mind.

To give an example of melody- think of your favorite song. Now just hum the song, without any words.That’s right- the bare humming, without any music or a word is called the melody of the song.

It might sound very basic, but it is the heart of the song. The melody has to be catchy and something your listeners can connect to.

2. Lyrics:

The melody needs a good set of lyrics which can express your thoughts and ideas.

You can either hire a lyricist or you can write your own. These two steps are interchangeable as well.

Sometimes you might have a few lines of lyrics first and then set them to a particular melody. Either approach is fine and there is no right or wrong way.

3. Arrangement:

Adding background music to the melody and lyrics is called arrangement.

This includes drums, guitars, bass, strings, percussions or even exotic didgeridoo!

If your song falls under the rock, blues, Jazz or similar genre wherein you require live instruments, you need to find some good band mates or session players. (Session players are professional players who will play according to your guidelines, but are not a part of your band. You need to pay them for their services.)

You need to decide what kind of music will best suit your song. Your band mates or session musician will help you compose and give a structure to your song, including lead music, beats etc.

If your song falls under the electronic genre like club, ambient, drum n bass, you need to hire an arranger who will arrange and compose the entire music for your song. Generally arrangers are a one man army and they have huge sound libraries and virtual instrument collections, which they use to compose the entire music for the song.

4. Pre-production:

Once the music of the song is finalized, you need to practice with your band members till you can play the entire song, with proper feel and without making any mistakes.

By now the entire structure of your song is finalized and you pay attention to the vocals, chorus and the entire feel of how the song is being played. You can do improvisations on the tempo or playing to make the song better.

5. Studio Recording:

Once you are confident that your singers and musicians are very well rehearsed, you can book a studio for the final recording.

If you have programmed the entire song, you will just need to record the vocals in the studio. But if your genre is rock etc, you will have to record all the instruments (drums, bass, guitars etc.) as well as the vocals in the studio.

You might have to play the song multiple times to make sure everything sounds on pitch and right on tempo.

6. Editing:

Once you have recorded the final song and are happy with the recording, the sound engineer will edit the tracks.

He will meticulously go over all the recorded tracks and remove errors, mistakes and noises. He might also correct the pitch and adjusts the tempo to make the song more tight.

7. Mixing:

Now the engineer has everything he needs to mix the song.

This is the most critical phase of production which will determine the sonic quality of your song.

All the different tracks, including the instruments and vocals are leveled, balanced, and EQ’d so that the final song sounds crisp and punchy. Each instrument is given its own stereo space. [Editor's note: if you've decided to do everything yourself up to this point and need help with mixing, 

8. Mastering:

Mixing is not enough to bring out the true sonic quality of the song.

Once the track is mixed, it has to be mastered by a mastering engineer. This is the final step in the production chain. Mastering adds the final shine to the song, making it sound, loud, clean and professional. Generally you hire another studio which specializes in mastering and has a dedicated mastering engineer.

Once the song is mastered, your song is ready to be broadcasted! You can use various online marketing services, radios and record companies to market and promote your song. So go on, make some cool songs and you never know you could be the next Beatles!

Amazon Esta Perdendo Dinheiro Com o Seu Novo Serviço De Música

Amazon Is Actually Losing Money From Its New Music Service

First of all thanks to Bobby Owsinski  for this article.

The major record labels are adamant about keeping the price of a music streaming subscription at $9.99 per month, regardless of the platform, so it was a great surprise last week when Amazon announced that its new Amazon Music Unlimited service was priced at $7.99 per month for Amazon Prime members. It turns out that the labels haven’t softened their pricing stance at all, as Music Business Worldwide reported that Amazon will actually end up subsidising the other two bucks when all is said and done.

It turns out that Amazon is expected to be paying out from between $5.50 to $6 each month to record labels and artists for each $7.99 Prime subscriber, and an additional $1.50 a month to publishers and songwriters. When you figure in administration, marketing, staff and infrastructure costs, that means that most if not all of that monthly fee has pretty much been eaten up.

So what’s the company’s end game? Amazon might be pulling an Apple here, losing money on software in order to sell more hardware and make a much higher profit. While Echo and Dot seem to be hits and are the leading products in this new category, there very well may be more hardware devices from the company on the way. Using music streaming as a loss-leader to make it’s hardware more attractive has been tried by many companies though, particularly in the mobile space, and only Apple has been wildly successful with the strategy.

The price subsidy could also be another way to increase Prime memberships. While Amazon doesn’t publish the actual number of subscriptions, insiders have reported it to be around 60 million, and when you consider that each one is paying $99 a year for the privilege, you can see why anything that might increase that number could be valuable. Still, it seems like a stretch to think that the average music user will say to himself, “I really want to subscribe to this music service because of this great price. Let me pay just $99 more so I can buy in.”

In the end, I think Music Unlimited’s pricing structure comes down to a little of column A and a little of column B, with most of the emphasis on selling more hardware. Almost every service looks great at launch when things look their freshest and rosiest. Check back after the first of the year to see what the reality really is.

ENCORE Quer tornar Mais Fácil Agendar Um Músico Ou Um Banda Para O Seu Evento

Encore wants to make it easy to book a musician or band for your event

Encore, a U.K. startup and graduate of Entrepreneur First, is another example of a company attempting to disrupt the traditional agency model. Targeting booking agencies, it lets you find and book a musician or band online for your event. The marketplace has already attracted over 18,000 musicians, and I’m told 30 per cent are active each month.

To further grow the company, Encore is disclosing that it has raised just over £560,000 in Seed funding. It plans to use the new capital to expand its team and begin paid marketing in a bid to increase the demand side of its marketplace.

Noteworthy is that Entrepreneur First itself has participated in the round. The investment is the first made public from the company builder’s new £40 million “Next Stage Fund”, which it set up to back alumni companies with follow-on funding.

“Finding great musicians for your venue or event is a nightmare,” says Encore co-founder James McAulay. “The booking process is clunky and slow, often takes weeks, and once you’ve finally found the right group or musician, confirming the booking involves a minefield of contracts, invoices and old-school payments. After this, the telephone calls and text message begin, along with organising the logistics of the venue and deposit payments… the list is endless”.

In addition to making it easier to book musicians and bands, McAulay says that Encore aims to improve pay and conditions for the musicians themselves by cutting out (and replacing) the traditional agency middle person. “Musicians are tired of being ripped off by traditional agents who take a large cut and often don’t have the musicians’ best interests at heart,” he says. “Encore brings transparency to an industry that desperately needs it”.

The site works as follows: those putting on an event simply submit the type of musician or band they wish to hire, providing details like instrument, genre, and time and place. Encore then takes that information and sends out an alert to matching musicians and bands who are registered on its mobile app.

Musicians that are available and interested then respond with a quote and the booker can check their profile and Soundcloud links etc., and ask any follow up questions before making a booking. Payment is then processed via Encore, which takes a 15 per cent booking fee along the way.

“Instead of forcing customers to browse directories of musicians who may not be available, we ask for one enquiry that is then sent to local performers,” explains McAulay. “Available acts respond with a tailored quote for the event, usually within twenty minutes, giving the client a shortlist of suitable acts to choose from. Quick, simple and efficient”.

Pandora Perdeu 250 Milhões Este Ano - Irá Trocar O Modelo De Negócios Para Salva--la?

Pandora Has Lost $250 Million This Year -- Will Switching Business Models Save It?

HOUSTON, TX – OCTOBER 18: Singer-songwriter Yuna performs onstage during the Life at Pandora Gallery on October 18, 2016 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Rick Kern/Getty Images for Pandora)

While it is still one of the biggest and most influential players in the streaming music industry, not everything is looking up for Pandora, which has been losing huge sums of money all year. According to financial documents just recently filed, the company’s third quarter had some positives and negatives, but it’s by adding up the figures from the first half of 2016 that the real scope of the monetary problem becomes clear.

In its third quarter, Pandora posted a loss of $61 million. Adding that number to the amount lost in the first two quarters of the year brings Pandora’s total losses so far this year to a hefty $253 million, which isn’t safe ground for any business to stand on. With three months to go, its total losses in 2016 could hit the $300 million mark.

There are several factors hurting the company’s bottom line, but it seems like one of the biggest financial burdens for the internet radio behemoth could also wind up being one of its biggest and most important revenue sources soon enough. The company’s CEO, Tim Westergren, admitted to investors while sharing the numbers that part of the reason why losses were so high this time around was because Pandora had to pay advances to content owners for licenses that would allow the company to launch its new streaming tiers with some on-demand-leaning features, which were revealed last month. 

It’s believable that paying for those licenses did hurt Pandora’s financial standing in the past quarter, and that depending on the deals, that could be the case for a time to come, but that doesn’t explain the past few quarters of losses, and it’s an explanation that will only work for so long. Adding on-demand functionality clearly comes with a sizeable cost upfront, but it isn’t the only issue the company faces, and Pandora will need to find money elsewhere if it wants to balance the books.

It certainly hurt the Oakland, CA-based radio giant’s wallet to pay for everything necessary to become something of a “new entrant” to the on-demand streaming market, but it could come with huge payoffs, and it might be just the thing to slow down all of these unfortunate losses. With its newly updated and recently announced Pandora Plus tier, the company is much closer to competing directly with massively popular options like Spotify and Apple Music, which are growing at faster rates when looking at user numbers.

It might be priced at only $5 per month (at least that’s the most attractive option), but if Pandora can convince even just some of its 77.9 million users (down from 78.1 million during the same period last year) to switch to this paid tier, while also recruiting new members, the big bill the company just paid, and which it will continue to pay, could wind up being a solid choice, and there’s a chance that the future is a bright one for Pandora.

Os Sons Do Battlefield 1 - Podcast E Vídeo

The Sound of Battlefield 1

Attention soldier! In this episode we talked with Lead Sound Designer Andres Almstrom and Audio Director Bence Pajor from EA Dice studios located in Stockholm, Sweden who recently finished work on Battlefield 1.

In Battlefield 1 the player will experience the origins of modern warfare where the old world was destroyed, giving way to the new one. The player will experience innovative, modern weaponry and vehicles of World War I as you battle across the land, air and sea.

This podcast is sponsored by THX, a globally renowned brand focused on delivering premium entertainment experiences and is passionate about telling the stories of the creators behind great productions. THX certifies the world’s best consumer electronics to provide users with the assurance of superior quality. Find out more at www.thx.com

Festivais De Música Explodem Globalmente: Enormes, Pequenos, Extravagantes e Conferências

Music Festivals Exploding Globally: Huge, Tiny, Extravagant and a Conference

First of all thanks to Brad Auerbach  for this article.

The explosion of music festivals worldwide has resulted inevitably in a need to diversify. The ultimate diversification, in one sense, is to assemble an unbeatable lineup. That was certainly the case for Desert Trip, which will likely go down in history as the largest revenue generating festival in history. It will be just about impossible for anyone to beat the lineup of Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, The Who and Roger Waters, regardless of the size of a archest to pay for artists.

Another festival strategy that is emerging is the destination festival, where the venue is as much an attraction as the performers. Ondalinda is in the latter camp. Situated in Costa Reyes, Mexico later this week, the organizers seek a more intimate gathering of about 400 people. The inaugural festival is described as a boutique music and lifestyle festival. The focus on the stunning setting and the indigenous Huichol culture includes a ‘giving back’ dynamic which is becoming a welcome element to gatherings of this sort.

The Ondalinda organizers point out that the inconvenience of the location takes you off the map in a positive sense. Attendees will have an hour drive from Manzanillo International Airport and a 2.5-hour drive from Puerto Vallarta unless they can arrange to buzz into the private landing strip nearby.

Once arriving at Costa Reyes, attendees will have a blend of first and third world activities focusing on health and wellness, including jungle yoga, meditation, massage, paddle boarding, kayaking, scuba, and horseback riding.

The team producing Ondalinda are veterans of Burning Man and Further Future, so visitors can expect that somewhat indefinable and intriguing collision of technology, rustic simplicity and global awareness.

Set in a private family-owned beachfront resort, the vibe is expected to be a mashup of party, outdoor and health. Music is always at the core of such gatherings, and the international lineup includes ethereal vocals and minimal production from Vienna duo HVOB, deep global instrumentations from Berlin-based producer NU, deep baselines from Barcelona’s Audiofly, tribal soundscapes from female duo BLOND:ISH, and luscious deep house vibes from LA producer Sabo, along with LUM, Gandalla, MENDRIX, and The Happy Show.

Mayan Warrior is a rolling art installation, originally painted by visionary artist Alex Grey, and was at Burning Man this year and performed a set with Robot Heart. When I saw Robot Heart at Further Future, I was astounded by its sonic punch. Mayan Warrior has apparently “recently received millions of dollars worth of mind-blowing improvements with awe-inspiring lasers and a visceral sounds system to transport onlookers to the very origins of Mexican culture.” It is uncertain how this will be accomplished; there is no promise of virtual or augmented reality. But it is a good bet that a mammoth sonic and visual experience will be on offer.

Furthering the visual arts on offer, Mexico-based entrepreneur and artist Philippe Moellhausen will install Teopa Beach with monumental art pieces, vibrant decor, dazzling costumes, and indigenous live performances.

Also on offer will be spa services such as mud baths, massages, and ritual healing ceremonies to further assuage (or enhance) the inevitable sensory overload.

Many festivals are wisely including significant culinary upsell options. At Ondalinda, the cuisine will be suitably upscale.

The promoters stress that “Ondalinda aims to honor authenticity by showcasing the art and teachings of the local Huichol culture. A portion of net profits from the festival will be donated to the Huichol to support their mission to preserve sacred land through the organisation UNESCO, and an exclusive collection of Huichol art by the name ‘Los Navegantes del sueño’ will be displayed with never before seen masterpieces that reflect the cosmovision of this mystic community.”

The whole Ondalinda shebang will cost attendees $1000 for admission, which includes some food. Lodging options range from simple casitas to more extravagant venues including castles.

The publicity team behind Ondalinda are already looking ahead to their next destination festival, which will be in Thailand. Called Wonderfruit, the event is being postponed until February 16-19, 2017 to pay tribute and respect to the recently deceased His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Not surprisingly, the burgeoning festival market has spawned its own conference. XLIVE in Las Vegas will cover everything from data analytics to optimal beer selections to geofencing.

Seemingly not a weekend goes by without a music festival being presented somewhere.

Elvis Está De Volta: Presley Encabeça O Ranking (Top Chart)

Elvis Is Back: Presley Heads For Chart Record

First of all thanks to Mark Beech  for this article.

Elvis Presley, we are still stuck on you. The late star is returning to the top as Albums King and is heading for a chart record.

Fans are still proclaiming “The wonder of Elvis” nearly 40 years after his death. The second collection of re-workings of his hits with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (titled, naturally, The Wonder Of You) is likely to leave the charts all shook up yet again. Its No. 1 rank would also give a record-breaking 60 years since his first British chart-topper in 1956. If it holds on, it will also give Presley the most British No. 1 albums of any solo artist ever, ahead of Madonna with 12. The Beatles hold the record for the most chart-topping albums on the Official Chart, with 15.

Presley already made headlines with the album’s predecessor, If I Can Dream, which has sold 1.6 million copies globally.

The Wonder of You takes the original vocals and fuses them with new orchestral performances in London’s Abbey Road studios. There are hits such as “A Big Hunk o’Love,” the lead-off track and single, “Suspicious Minds” and “I Just Can’t Help Believing” – as well as a new duet with Helene Fischer titled “Just Pretend.”

The British No. 1 is considered even more remarkable when the star never visited the country, aside from a brief airport stop on Mar. 3, 1960, when he was returning from military service in Germany.

Presley came in fourth place in the FORBES list of top-earning dead celebrities in 2016 with earnings of $27 million. This is down from second place at $55 million in 2016, because of a different way of accounting for Graceland ticket sales, but he is making more than most living stars and shifted more than one million albums during the year, most of them physical, not digital. (Michael Jackson remains in top slot with $825 million.)

Still, the No. 1 place may not be achieved in all countries. In the U.K., the new Elvis album, on Legacy RCA, leads the way by just 3,500 combined sales at the “mid-week” stage just announced.

The King has to beat Michael Bublé, whose ninth studio album Nobody But Me (on Reprise) is close behind at Number 2. Ironically, the last Elvis album included “Fever,” a newly created duet with Bublé. Lady Gaga’s new album Joanne (Interscope) currently sits at 3. You Want It Darker (Columbia), the 14^th studio album by Leonard Cohen, 82, is one place behind at No. 4. The U.K. chart remains volatile, with a lot of new releases shooting to the top briefly before falling back: the Kings of Leon album Walls drops from the top to fifth position. The cast recording of the new David Bowie musical Lazarus is among other rising stars.