Como Peter Hollens Mudou A Indústria Da Música De Sua Sala - Video

How Peter Hollens Changed The Music Industry From His Living Room

First of all thanks to Danny Ross  for this article.

Peter Hollens didn’t plan for this. In fact, he never thought of it as a possibility. Yet, he's become a model for how to succeed in the modern music business as an independent artist. Hollens has accomplished a lot in his young career, starring in the NBC reality show The Sing Off and innovating the music business on Patreon, just to name a few accomplishments. He's also garnered millions of fans on social media, with over 400 million views of his self-produced videos. And he’s found a way to do it all without leaving his cul-de-sac in Eugene, Oregon. On a snowy day in New York, I was fortunate to get Peter on the phone:

Danny Ross: Let's start at the beginning. How did you fall in love with music?

Peter Hollens: My mom forced me into choir in high school. Thank god for mothers…. My choral director basically gave me my life. I was such a miserable kid, super depressed. I wanted to be able to do that for other kids. Quickly found out that classical music zapped the life out of me so I started an a cappella group to counterbalance Bach and Beethoven. Quickly fell in love with the recording studio after. Saved up to get my master’s degree and purchased myself a home studio.

Ross: You first made money in music by recording a cappella groups as a producer-engineer. How did that come about?

Hollens: Literally, I would fly out to New York and for $25 an hour, I’d record an a cappella group in a dorm room. Eighteen hours a day, an entire album in a week and a half. I did that at Yale, and I did that at Cornell, at Georgia. I loved it! I slept in a sleeping bag. After recording for tens of thousands of hours for all these groups, I started doing it for myself. I was already very proficient at it.

Ross: And this experience led to The Sing Off?

Hollens: I was at home recording my own group at the time when the producers of The Sing Off called, and they were trying to get more groups to audition for the second season. The producers go crazy trying to find contestants. I was helping put together a girls group for them, and I was convincing my guys' group at the time (“On The Rocks”) to audition. They had me come down and audition with them, and I ended up being the soloist on the show.

Before that I wasn’t performing as a solo artist, I was just completely and 100% content being a producer. I loved working with singers and getting the best out of them. I truthfully had no delusions of grandeur of any type of solo career whatsoever. I loved singing with all my heart. The only way I knew how to make money was either performing on cruise ships and then the recording stuff.

After the show, it gave me the impetus to start recording stuff myself. Not because I got thousands and thousands of fans–I probably got two hundred people that added me on Facebook. But my dad was actually dying of cancer at the time and he always asked me to record some of my own music. I thought, ‘Why don’t I just turn this mic on myself and stop recording these college kids?’

Ross: And what was the first step in launching a solo career?

Hollens: I started reverse-engineering what I saw succeeding online at the time. And it was pretty apparent to me in 2010-2011 that YouTube had a few success stories–Kurt Hugo Schneider, Boyce Avenue, Tyler Ward. I had seen my exact genre of music succeeding on there with a kid by the name of Mike Tompkins, a Canadian who was doing a cappella.

I thought ‘I could do that. I already know how to record a cappella music like that, and I can teach myself how to do video like that.’

Ross: So you produced tracks and created videos by yourself in a home studio?

Hollens: There’s truly no reason not to teach yourself every aspect, from concept to execution. Content is the king, music video is the queen and those two things need to be married. Otherwise, you don’t actually have a product. I don’t believe in an album anymore, everything needs to be a single.

I did it all myself because I wanted to have no overhead, because I didn’t have that much money, and I was living in someone else’s house eating ramen noodles with my wife. I was learning a lot in those first 18 months, I wasn’t gaining that much traction.

As I gathered steam, I took my gross revenue and started bringing people on because, in the end, it’s about making your product as good as possible. I’d bring on audio editors, mixing engineers and mastering engineers. So the only thing I was doing was recording myself and I’m the executive producer. I’m working on 15 to 20 projects at once.

I’m an adviser for the company. It changed my life. It saved me.

Ross: Soon Lindsey Stirling took notice of you, and that collaboration quadrupled your fanbase. How did that come about?

Hollens: I started learning the basics of everything–business, marketing, social media. When you see something working, you can go back and say ‘How are they doing this? What metadata are they using?’ And researching what thought-leaders in the space are saying because they’re not that tight-lipped. Just like I’m not.

I started viewing artists on YouTube as peers, not as competitors. The second an artist can change their mind from looking at it about making money, to helping others and doing it because you love it, it’s insane how much more successful you’ll be. I always give more than I get. Always. From the first penny in gross revenue, I’ll usually split everything in perpetuity. So it’s not about money; it’s about relationship-building, transparency. The relationship you have for decades is much more important than a one-off where you try to siphon a few more dollars from somebody else.

Ross: Your success on YouTube led to a major record deal. What happened?

Hollens: I never wanted a record deal but because I was moving so many units I was able to negotiate terms. Everyone should realize that every contract is negotiable (Hello!). I quickly realized that someone like myself should never have anyone telling them what to do. I’m a digital brand. I can create an entire career never leaving my cul-de-sac in Eugene, Oregon.

I thought I knew better than they did, and they didn’t like artists acting that way. Once you have control of something and you build it yourself, it’s very hard to relinquish. I don’t want to be some famous millionaire -- that’s not my prerogative. I want to create something that’s meaningful to my fanbase, meaningful to me. Going on the road 200 days a year is not going to make me a good father and a good husband, and I don’t think musician’s need to do that anymore. [It was] the biggest speed bump you could ever have in a career.

Ross: You’ve since managed to thrive as an independent artist through the site, Patreon. What is it?

Hollens: It’s a community management tool that actually pays you a salary. You can look at it like a Kickstarter that never ends. Why would you do an entire marketing campaign and bombard your entire fanbase to do something once, and make one lump of cash, which in the end is worthless?

A Kickstarter is a great tool to fund a CD. But do you want to fund a CD or do you want to have a great career doing what you love? And a company being built by creators for creators is the only way to succeed in perpetuity. Nothing exclusive from a contract perspective, something that never ends, and allows us to grow our own companies. As musicians, we are digitally media companies.

Ross: How has Patreon helped to develop your business model?

Hollens: Knowing that I had a few thousand people on Patreon giving me X amount of money per video guaranteed that I could have longevity to my career. The only thing that matters in a music career is your community. I believe that Patreon is the first company that has truly understood where we’re going in this 'Creator Revolution.'

When I joined the first week it came out, I was like, 'You want to give me money? I better check this out!' I quickly realized this was recurring at a 95/5 split, and I just flipped out. Now I’m an adviser for the company. It changed my life. It saved me.

Playing live just doesn’t pay. Even with millions of followers online, I would have lost $10,000-$15,000 on a 20-city tour. There’s just no reason to do that anymore.

Game Of Thrones - New Demo Soundtrack - Video

Game Of Thrones - New Demo Soundtrack

Hi everyone

Here is other demo soundtrack that I called 'Pre-Battle'.

I start this one when I was playing a video game 'Dark Kingdom', after listen several soundtracks during the game I decided to do something like that more 'Epic'

As Game Of Thrones new season will be released soon then I choose to put this soundtrack into a taser as you will see I edit the video and cut in 2 minutes.

That is it! Please make you comments good or not always will be welcome.

Incubus Esta De Volta

How Incubus Got Their Groove Back

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA - JULY 07: Singer Brandon Boyd (L) and guitarist Mike Einziger of the band Incubus perform onstage during the Grand Opening of The Bungalow Huntington Beach at The Bungalow Huntington Beach on July 7, 2016 in Huntington Beach, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Bolthouse Productions)

First of all thanks to Steve Baltin   for this article.

Incubus recently released their new single, “Nimble Bastard,” from their forthcoming album 8, due April 21. The album is the band’s first full-length in five years and you can feel how the break has rejuvenated the long-running Southern California quintet.

Propelled by producer Dave Sardy, an impromptu collaboration with Skrillex on “Familiar Faces” that came about from their friendship -- Skrillex was just in the studio and decided to work on the song --  and the love they are receiving from their new label, Island, Incubus have delivered a monster rock record, one they cannot wait to take on tour this year with Jimmy Eat World.

I have known the Incubus guys for years and over the past few years Monica Molinaro and I have been fortunate to have several in-depth conversations with frontman Brandon Boyd. So when we jump on the phone with him the day after the Grammys it is like reconvening with an old friend. In that spirit he opened up immensely on the state of the band, how Sardy pushed him, Beyonce and how he finds it best to write political songs in these crazy times.

Steve Baltin: How is it to go back into the Incubus machine after focusing on your artwork?

Brandon Boyd: It helps to have the might of a major label pushing a project and also, being super behind us too.  We haven’t experienced this kind of enthusiasm from a record label in a long time, which is so heartwarming just because we put everything we have into what we do.

Baltin: It definitely feels like this record had a thematic element. Did you notice that?

Boyd: I’ve really only, in the past couple of months, started to pick up on a couple of these things. It will be some time before a larger, more cohesive unifying theme reveals itself to me. But some of the themes that have come up, some of the thru-lines, are around raging, obsolescence, themes around paranoia that I’m picking up on, noticing patterns that have been repeated where you’re sort of waking up from repeated patterns, whether psychological or emotional patterns, attempting to want to break them perhaps and the sort of scariness and also the excitement of trying something brand new.

Monica Molinaro: What was exciting to me in listening to the album was sensing some frustration. It gave a great energy to your vocals and the guitar and bass parts really stuck out to me too. 

Mikey and Ben came into full Mikey and Ben formation when we were writing this. Everything Mikey showed was like, “Check this out,” all these boner riffs. It was fun to hear what they kept coming up with over and over again. I think if anything the process of writing this album was probably the hardest on me because what I was going through in my personal space, but also Dave Sardy, who produced the record, did not take it easy on me as a singer and lyricist. He was like, “Yeah, you’re awesome, man, but try that again and how about again and again and one more time.” We just chipped away at it until it was as awesome as it could be. But I’m actually really happy with how it ended up, so hopefully our fans will feel the same way.

Baltic: Do you feel like you also have more of an appreciation for this period of creativity having gone through ups and downs? 

Boyd: Mikey and I have been talking a lot about it in the past few weeks as we’ve been finishing the record and talking to people a little bit about it and playing it for some close, trusted friends and that’s really where we keep landing, like, “Holy s**t, we have been a band for 26 years and we’re still in love with the process of making album.” As difficult as it can be sometimes it still, at the end of the day, brings a level of joy and creative satisfaction. I’m certain that the challenge inherent in writing music and writing original music and hopefully writing innovative music is something that keeps us coming back to the table.

Baltic: What did you learn about yourself from this album?

Boyd: Working with Dave, he really, really challenged me. I love this dude to the end of the earth, but I would come to the studio and be like, “I did it, check it out, I got this badass chorus.” I’d sing it, lay it down and then go in the studio like, “Check it out, it’s cool, right?” He’d be like, “Hmm, no, I just…” He was just not there with me. And he kept reminding me, “I’m one of your biggest fans, Incubus has meant a lot to me over the years. So I’m coming at producing this album like I am a super fan who gets to finally produce an Incubus record. And I am not letting you get away with anything that’s not amazing.” So, on paper, it’s like, “Right on, man, that’s a great idea.” But the reality of it was holy s**t, he was hard on me. He did not let me sleep on any part. I did every part like a hundred times and he would kind of like brutalize my voice to the point where I would start to lose it towards the end of the day and he’d be like, “Just one more.” Then that was the one he would use. You can hear the strain in my voice on this album. As far as I can tell it’s never really been there. It sounds kind of cool cause he was able to unearth another layer of my voice as a singer. I think it’s a really good producing ethos for any band or artist coming up, work with a producer who knows what you’ve done thus far and has really enjoyed it, but also has really unrealistically high hopes for what you can still achieve.

Molinaro: When you talked about stretching your vocals it made me think of the Beyonce song “Sandcastles,” where she cracks in it. It’s like heart wrenching and it makes you more invested in the music because you can tell it’s really special and meaningful to them. 

Boyd: Yeah, there’s something to that. I just heard the song today funnily enough and I heard the same thing. I was like, “Wow, I’ve never heard Beyonce kind of crack, I’ve never heard the grumble in her voice before and it makes me like her more.” It’s interesting because we live in this time of incredible technologies where any person can go into a recording studio and go, “Ah, ah” into a microphone and a producer can turn that into a hit song. So there’s something fascinating about that, but there’s also something that’s lost in that, where we have to remind ourselves sometimes we’re human beings with instruments and we’re making sounds out of nothing. I think that’s something that Dave helped us chip away at hopefully on this record and hopefully our listeners hear the album and pick up on that.

Molinari: Were there other collaborations or partnerships that were influential to this work besides the Skrillex one? 

Boyd: Off the top of my head, no. We’re mostly very insular and mostly everything is in house, kind like a music factory, but also the art and the videos, so it’s all kind of in our close creative family. Maybe it can be limiting sometimes, so we’re always open to inviting new people into our weird polyamorous cult that we have. But, for the most part, it was just us in the man cave creating music.

Molinari: And was it important to incorporate your thoughts in this political climate?

Boyd: It is definitely one of the most interesting times politically and socially, interesting being the operative term or lack of a better term. I feel like the kind of creative sentiments that are going to be the most beneficial are the ones that are a little bit more lovingly subversive. Yes, there’s the need for open protests, like go into the streets protest. I did the women’s march downtown, it was one of the most beautiful afternoons I’ve ever spent in my city here. I was so proud of Los Angeles, I was so proud that many people could peacefully gather and walk in the streets in opposition to so much of what the coming administration stands for. But, from my point of view, I feel like the types of ideas that are going to be the most lovingly effective and lasting are the ones that people don’t even realize they’re being infected with. So people in Trump country are like, “I love this song.” And they’ll be infected with this kind of west coast ethos.

Baltic: Talk about this tour with Jimmy Eat World, how that pairing came about and what you look for in bands you tour with.

Boyd: You can usually get a sense of that by the kind of music that people are making. I don’t know the guys in Jimmy Eat World very well, I’ve met most of them like in passing. But they’ve always seemed like really rad, genuine dudes that I do very much like their music and I know that they also are doing very well with their new album. So it’s cool, we’ll piggyback with other bands like we did with the Deftones. They were planning on being on tour and we were going on tour so it was like, “Hey, let’s go tandem together forever.”

Vevo Está Agora Financiando Vídeos De Música E Jorja Smith Foi a Escohida

Vevo Is Now Funding Videos, Starting With Drake-Approved Jorja Smith

Jorja Smith performs at Radio 1's Future Headliners Live Music Event at Maida Vale Studios in London. 

Vevo is now in the business of funding music videos, starting with the new single from British singer -- and Drakefavorite -- Jorja Smith. In November, Vevo selected Smith as one of this year's Dscvr Ones to Watch artists, and now the video platform has produced the video for her song "Beautiful Little Fools," Music Week is reporting.

"It was clear from the outset of meeting Jorja that she has an amazing talent," said James Moodie, senior manager of music and talent at Vevo. "It’s been a privilege to be part of her journey since, lending a hand to support her vision."

The video, which has not been released, was shot at London's Rivoli Ballroom and directed by Hector Dockrill. Smith recently performed a pair of tracks for Vevo's Dscvr Live program. She got an even bigger promotional boost in early February when Drake posted a photo of the artist's EP, Project 11, on his Instagram.

9 Minutes De Exercício Para Desenvolver Sua Habilidade De Escrever Música

The 9-Minute Songwriter Workout

First to all thanks to Clay Mills or this article.

These three songwriting exercises are designed to get you into the flow of writing without thinking. Your best ideas come from your subconscious—and, you can tap into this with regular practice. Remember to do these exercises quickly, spending three minutes on each in rapid fire succession. I set the timer on my iPhone. Don’t judge or question ANYTHING you write down. This isn’t a test! The sole purpose is to train your creative thinking to respond on command. I find it helps to write with pen and paper, instead of typing. A lot of studies show that your brain responds differently when writing, as opposed to typing.

Pen and paper? Timer set? Okay, let’s go!

1.Write down every song title that comes to mind without censoring yourself. Work fast. Spit out titles. No judgement. Go wherever your thoughts take you. Note: These are your own original titles, not pre-existing song titles!

2.Choose one of your titles to play word association. Write down every word or phrase that relates to your title. Don’t think! Just work as quickly as possible. This will free up your subconscious. Here’s an example of how I free associated with one of my Darius Rucker #1 hits:

Title: ”Don't Think I Don't Think About It"

Associations: regrets, missing you, could've been, should've been, wrong choices, 

mistakes, do I cross your mind?, looking back, rear view mirror, where are you today?

3.Choose a word in your title and play poor man’s rhyming dictionary. Write down as many rhymes as you can. Example: My title is “Don't Think I Don't Think About It,” rhyming the word, “it.” Work your way through the alphabet and add consonants to the beginning of the word. B-it, F-it, Gr-it, H-it, S-it, W-it, etc. Not all letters will work, so move quickly to the next. Today, there is less emphasis on perfect rhymes, so don't be afraid to cast a wider net: D-itch, W-itch, S-witch. In the example song, I chose to use the word "regret" as a rhyme with “it.” The meaning of the word, coupled with Darius's delivery, made it work beautifully. This exercise will strengthen your rhyming skills, so that it becomes second nature. Your goal is to spend less time “thinking" of rhymes while writing. 

Congratulations, you did it! Repeat daily!

Write On!  

Como O Blockchain Pode Ajudar Os Músicos A Se Conectarem Com Os Fãs E Ainda Serem Pagos

How the Blockchain Lets Musicians Connect with Fans (and Get Paid)

First of all thanks to Rebecca Campbell for this article.

As businesses go, the music industry has witnessed significant changes over the years. First there were vinyl records, then there were cassette tapes. This was followed by CDs, and with the rise of Napster in the 1990s, we saw the advent of digital downloads. Now, of course, most of us stream the music we listen to.

Despite this, though, the music industry is going through turmoil. According to a report from Forbes, the music industry has experienced a steady decline in profits. Yet, while it was reported that one trillion songs had been streamedin 2015, the people streaming aren’t paying huge amounts of money for the songs. English singer-songwriter James Blunt famously tweeted that thanks to Spotify, he gets paid only £0.0004499368 ($0.0005517475) per stream.

Two projects in the digital currency and blockchain space, Tatiana Coin and Musicoin, are creating ways for artists and audiences to connect with and support each other.

Tatiana Coin

Tatiana Moroz, singer-songwriter and a pioneer in the Bitcoin community, told Bitcoin Magazine that musicians earn, on average, less than a penny per stream in today’s music landscape.

In 2014, Moroz introduced Tatiana Coin (TATIANACOIN), a new way for musicians and fans to have a closer relationship while allowing the artist to earn a living at the same time. As the first-ever musical-artist coin built on top of Bitcoin (via Counterparty), it’s supported by Tokenly’s upcoming media ownership platform, token.fm, due to launch in Q2 of ’17.

Owners of Tatiana Coin will have the opportunity to stream Moroz’s music, as well as lend, collect, sell or trade tokens. They will also have the chance to chat directly with Moroz, access unique multimedia content, buy personalized fan gear and have VIP experiences during her upcoming world tour, recording studio sessions and private concerts.

In February, Moroz launched the full band version of her single “Bitcoin Jingle.” She will be releasing her first studio album in five years on March 31 called Keep The Faith. As a friend and supporter of Ross Ulbricbht, the album cover was originally drawn by him as a birthday present for Moroz.

Exclusive: Get a first listen to "Safe With You," releasing March 3, 2017.

“After experiencing firsthand the troubles artists face trying to make a name for themselves, I sought a revolutionary way for artists and fans to help each other through incentivized financial support and social connectivity,” she said. “The only way to achieve this is through the power of the blockchain: a technology that presents countless opportunities for artists and musicians.”

For Moroz, Bitcoin was something that could help equalize the playing field, solving the problems of income, media distribution and fan relations within the music industry.

“Imagine artists being able to organically grow and directly reach their fan base without the influence of third-party vendors that may not have the artists’ best interests in mind,” she said.

Moroz is keen, though, to use her music to reach as many non-Bitcoiners and get them interested in digital currency. Moroz said that through a mix of song performances and storytelling with her talks, she illustrates the benefits of digital currencies to make it more engaging for her audience.

“I want to enlighten artists and musicians on a transformative technology that allows for true artistic freedom and creates a fair, transparent economy,” she said. “At the same time, I want to create greater access to and rewards for fans who believe in the work of artists.”

Since the launch of Tatiana Coin, artists have been very receptive of the technology, said Moroz. In her opinion, musicians have been the “slave class in the industry,” so the time has come for disruption.  In her home base of New York, Moroz wants to spearhead a grassroots effort to engage artists. However, she believes this technology can help streamline and power all aspects of the industry to benefit everyone. 

“I am excited to see this platform begin to connect communities directly with creatives, and keep the middleman services as optional and transparent,” she adds.

Musicoin

Musicoin, which was created by Brian Byrne, Isaac Mao and Dan Phifer, is a decentralized system for the publication and consumption of music, combining a cutting-edge digital currency with a peer-to-peer file sharing network, which aims to bring a level of transparency and fairness to the music industry. It does this by allowing musicians to license their content via a “coded contract” directly to the blockchain. With the contract, they automate the collection and distribution of royalty payments, which remain in the control of the artists themselves. 

Each time an artist’s track is played, the “pay per play” contract is executed by the system, resulting in a payment using the Musicoin currency. This is sent directly from the listener to the musician, who has granted the listener access to a specific piece of work.

Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, Byrne said Musicoin is solving the problem that musicians face by keeping artists connected to their music.

“They know that by using Musicoin, without fail or question, that when someone hits play on our platform that payment goes directly to them,” he said. “A real transaction that is transparent with no intermediary.”

As someone who has been a recording and touring artist, Byrne said that he understands what it’s like to try and navigate contracts with record labels and managers while watching the misuse of funds and the failed answers to royalty payments.

“When I was first introduced to this idea by Isaac and Dan, I knew without a doubt that this was something I would fight for, to see it come to fruition and let every artist know about it,” he said.

According to Musicoin, over 80 percent of royalty fees are kept by intermediaries, which, prior to the digital age, helped musicians to organize, plan, record, produce and distribute their music. Since then, that role has expanded and it is for that reason musicians can’t make a living.

However, through Musicoin’s theory of the Sharism Model, each playback represents an exchange between the musician and the listener.

As a project that is self-funded with no ICO, no pre-allocation to the founders and no pre-mining, Byrne states that their aim is about leveling the playing field, putting the artist first and figuring out the problem.

Byrne says that even though there will be those who don’t think the platform will work, the feedback so far has been positive.

“Everyone seems to be really thrilled with the idea, how it works, the support in the community and the potential it has,” he said.

Spotify Alcança 50 Milhões De Assinantes!

Spotify says it has 50 million paying subscribers, extending its lead over Apple Music

Spotify said on Thursday it has reached 50 million paid subscribers, growing 25 percent in less than six months and extending the Swedish music streaming service's lead over its closest rival, Apple Music.

Spotify, which has not yet shown a profit as it spends to grow internationally, is considering a potential U.S. stock market listing, according to a February TechCrunch report.

The Stockholm based company announced a major expansion in New York in February.

Spotify, one of Europe's most highly valued venture-backed startups, will move its New York office to the World Trade Center from the Midtown area of Manhattan, adding more than 1,000 new jobs.

Launched in 2008, Spotify had 40 million paid subscribers in September.

Apple, which launched its music service less than two years ago, had about 20 million subscribers in December.

In 2016, Americans used on demand streaming platforms, such as Spotify, to listen to 431 billion songs, Nielsen said in its U.S. year-end report.