"Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Guitarra Isolada

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Isolated Guitars

With Nevermind's lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana entered the mainstream, popularizing a subgenre of alternative rock called "grunge". Since their debut, Nirvana has sold over 25 million albums in the United States (U.S.) alone, and over 75 million worldwide.

The Fender Mustang Lake Placid Blue guitars played by Kurt Cobain during the filming of the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", shown at the Seattle Experience Music Project













Apparently Cobain developed a taste for Fender guitars just prior to recording Nevermind. "I like guitars in the Fender style because they have skinny necks," said Cobain in a late 1991 interview. "I've resorted to Japanese-made Fender Stratocasters because they're the most available left-handed guitars." During this period, he also acquired a left-handed '65 Jaguar that had a DiMarzio Super Distortion humbucker in the bridge position and a DiMarzio PAF in the neck position in place of the guitar's stock single-coil pickups. These modifications were made before Cobain purchased the guitar. Cobain also bought a left-handed, Lake Placid Blue '69 Fender Competition Mustang around then.

"Kurt had a Mesa/Boogie, but we also used a Fender Bassman a lot and a Vox AC30 on Nevermind," Vig recalls. "I prefer getting the amp to sound distorted instead of using special effects or pedals, which lose body and the fullness of the bottom end."

Still, Vig allowed Cobain to use a few pedals on the album, especially since the guitarist felt that the DS-1 was the main factor in his tone. Cobain also used the Small Clone liberally. "That's making the watery guitar sound you hear on the pre-chorus build-up of `Smells Like Teen Spirit' and also `Come As You Are,'" says Vig. "We used an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz box through a Fender Bassman on `Lithium' to get that thumpier, darker sound."

Então... O CD Está Morto?

So…the CD is dead? The trick is to Diversify.

“Who the fart are still buying CDs? It’s 2013, not 1993! Who would want the square-ish bulky thing with only 12-16 tracks when there’s the no-weight, no –mass (and some no-cost) digital music? Let’s just skip the CD and go digital full-force.”

Not the wisest decision, buddy.

Apparently, many still buy the good ‘ole compact disc. Sure, not too many that it would beat digital sales but not too few either that CD manufacturing companies would close down.  Proof that CDs are still okay? We’re still here. And we’re not struggling. In fact, we’re better than ever this year!

In 2012, Digital album sales in the US are up by 15.3%, and have sold over 1 billion units for the first time over this period.

Vinyl has also seen a dramatic 16.3% boost, but remain a niche format at 3.2 million units, according to Billboard.

The loser so far this year is the CD which recently celebrated its 30th birthday. At the same time last year there had been 151.6 million albums sold on CD – now it’s down to 129.7 million, which dragged down the overall album figures.

But why are we still here and why so many artists still making CDs?

We’re here because we don’t just offer CD manufacturing, we do all sorts of stuff from merch printing to vinyl pressing to Flash Drive manufacturing. Diversification is key. And that’s what artists should do, too. Freaking DIVERSIFY. Offer CDs, offer downloads, offer dropcards, offer USB albums, or even a limited edition vinyl record if you feel like it.

But never skip the CD. Here are some reasons why you should still make CDstoday:

The CD legitimizes you.

The CD helps create your Image/Brand.

You’ll get more attention from press if you have a CD.

Who tours without a CD?  

While you’re making CDs anyway, try to turn it into a marketing tool.  You can’t not make regular CDs today. That’s a waste of money! It should have something more than your music or else they’d just download your stuff. Your CD and your CD packaging should be “oh man this is too awesome” awesome.  Jerry Only said ““The packaging has to really sell the product today, because kids can go out and buy a CD and then 10 kids can burn them. So you have to really be on your toes.”So true!

So how can you turn your CD into a kick-ass marketing tool?

First Things First: Create a Buzz-worthy Packaging

Document Everything

Make a Press Release of your lovely CD packaging

Be featured on blogs

Include QR Codes

Put your website

Add small giveaways

Give away some on Facebook. Much better than a download.

The CD is dead? That’s debatable. We here at Unified are very confident it will never die. But to be safe, make only few and just diversify.

O Album Nunca Morreu?

Does an album ever die?

First of all thanks to  Chris Robley for this article.

3 things you can do to breathe new life into your oldest music.

Every week I “discover” some song I’ve never heard before that I really enjoy. I dig a little deeper and realize the track is 10 or 20 or 50 years old, from an album I’ve never heard of, and often by an artist I’ve never heard of.

If I really like the song, I play the whole album.

These are albums that never became big hits; the artists never became household names. And here they are getting a new chance to make a first impression.

In the old music industry, this rarely happened. Labels had a habit of abandoning any album that didn’t take off after a few months. No more promo. No more pressings. To the archives!

In the world of streaming, things are totally different.

I say it a lot, but no shelf space means no shelf life. And older material that wasn’t successful in its debut is finding new audiences.

Again, I’m not just talking about obscurer albums by famous bands; I’m talking about really rare stuff by musicians you’ve probably never heard of. For me this happens most often when I’m listening to my customized Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify, but it also happens occasionally with Apple Music’s curated playlists and on Pandora.

As artists, the impact that this change in consumption habits can have on our music is something we’re just starting to understand. It became clear decades ago that our music will live longer than us — in that it could always be… available. But that didn’t mean anyone was actually hearing it. Now, thanks to playlistingand the infinite ways you can re-contextualize back catalog content, your oldest music might still connect with new listeners.

It’s not a hypothetical. As a listener, this happens to me every single week.

So what can you do to help your older albums along?

1. Distribute your entire catalog

Don’t just focus on selling and promoting your newest songs. Make it all available. Put it all on streaming platforms (and in a sync licensing catalog, because you never know what music will fit the needs of a TV or film production).

Sign up with CD Baby to distribute your music worldwide!

2. Build playlists that include your older music

For people listening in a more passive way (like, for instance, putting on a playlist for an hour or two), they don’t care what year a song was released, only that they don’t need to skip it.

[Try some of these 12 ideas to make interesting playlists that can showcase your old songs in a new context.]

3. Find other creative ways to draw attention to your earlier albums

• Twitter listening party – CD Baby’s Kevin Breuner hosted a Twitter listening party on the 20th anniversary of his band’s debut album.
• Bonus content playlists – I’m in the process of making a behind-the-scenes playlist for one of my albums that just turned 10 this year, with bonus tracks where you can hear me talking about the record in between the album tracks (similar to the director’s commentary on a DVD).
• Remaster and re-release your old stuff – If you’re not crazy about the sound of some of the early albums, you can always revisit the mixing and mastering. Then put it out again with some bonus tracks (demos, unreleased songs from the session, remixes, etc.)
• Remember the birthdays – You have a built-in reason to promote something on its 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th (and so on) birthdays. Email, blog, tweet, whatever. Get the message out that it’s time to celebrate some of your “vintage” music.
• Play anniversary concerts – For example, on the 10th anniversary of your album, do a show where you play the entire thing from front to back.
• Offer discounts or giveaways – Got a few boxes of your first CD sitting in the basement? Start giving them away at the merch booth to anyone who buys your newer music. Or sell them for half price. If the music is good, your fans are going to start streaming it as well.

Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head. I’m sure there’s lots more you could do too.

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What do you do to draw attention to your older albums? I’d love to hear your suggestions, and your thoughts on whether or not music ever gets “old” in a streaming world. Holler in the comments!

Porque John Mayer É Um Superstar Não Muito Lembrado

Why John Mayer Is Music's Forgotten Superstar

First of all thanks to Steve Baltin for this article.

Headlining last night (Friday, April 21), on his current tour, John Mayer sold out the L.A. Forum, playing more than two hours for over 17, 000 rapturous and adoring fans who even stood for an entire acoustic segment. Keeping fans standing during the acoustic segment was just one of the many impressive feats Mayer and his devoted audience performed last night, starting with selling out the Forum.

For a former pop star who doesn’t currently have a hit song on a radio to sell out an arena is an incredible anomaly in music these days. But then Mayer now stands on his own in pop music, something he is well aware of and he addressed last night near the end of the set.

One of the sharpest and savviest musical minds you will ever encounter, and I have interviewed him numerous times to know this, Mayer thanked the crowd for “Giving me the freedom to make music that doesn’t compete with anybody” and for letting him make music for the rest of his life, which is all he ever wanted as a musician’s musician.

While many have found reasons to dislike Mayer since the beginning of his career, he is a consummate musician’s musician, an artist who has been embraced by Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and Buddy Guy among others. The first time I saw Mayer was when he played a blues show at the Viper Room in L.A. and ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons jumped on stage and began fanning Mayer with his arms and said, “Give it up for my man.” I spoke with both men in the days after the show and that was not planned, that was just Gibbons being swept up in the fervor of Mayer’s phenomenal playing.

After the Grammy-winning multi-platinum success of songs like “Daughters” and “Your Body Is A Wonderland” and work with , as well as, constant appearances on VH1 and in the media, Mayer spoke to me about being “Airport famous," that level of fame where people recognize him in airports and he often appeared in the magazines that graced airport gift shops. He spoke about not wanting that fame, which is exactly where he is now.

Of all of Mayer’s impressive career feats the transformation he achieved from pop star, the early 2000’s version of Ed Sheeran, to Pearl Jam, a career artist who can still sell out arenas and occasionally come back into the mainstream public consciousness when they choose to, is arguably the most dazzling. Pop stars who no longer have radio play don’t become career artists, they become where are they now fodder.

So how did Mayer do it? Besides, as I said, being a sharp musical mind, the reality is he is too musically talented not to be successful. Since he is not of the moment as a singer/songwriter like Sheehan or as a guitar hero like Gary Clark Jr. the general public forgets just how tremendously gifted Mayer is as a musician.

But the Forum fans were reminded of that again and again as he laid out the two hour and 15-minute set in five chapters – full band, acoustic, the trio, full band reprise and epilogue. Drawing on all phases of his career and versatile talent, from blues man to troubadour, Mayer dazzled with an effortlessness that left jaws dropping consistently on songs like “Slow Dancing In A Burning Room,” covers of “Crossroads” and Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’,” “Gravity,” the tour debut of “Dreaming With A Broken Heart,” “Changing” and the beautiful finale of “You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me.”

The set and production, framing it like a movie, with opening and ending credits that chronicles all of Mayer’s career, is truly special. As spectacular as it is musically though, it’s perhaps even more remarkable how it showcases Mayer’s career trajectory. It’s the stuff music movies should be made of, except Mayer wouldn’t want that. He is quite content being the forgotten superstar for the majority of music fans. Those that didn’t forget though got to experience an incredible night from a very unique artist.

Duas Startups Escolhidas Para Fazer Parte Da Abbey Road's Incubator

These Two Music Startups Just Joined Abbey Road's Incubator

Since launching officially just over a year ago, Abbey Road Red, the startup incubator based inside the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, has welcomed and graduated two classes of musical companies, and a third group has just been announced. This time around, the pair of companies that have been selected to join the brand new (yet still prestigious) startup accelerator are both working in the artificial intelligence vertical, which is quickly becoming a point of focus in the music industry. 

AI. Music

It’s hard to imagine a company with a more direct name than this new startup. The venture is one of many new entrants into the developing field of artificial intelligence, which is growing every day. The tech behind AI can be applied in a million different ways in a million different industries, and the people behind AI. Music are looking to change the way music is created. 

According to the company’s website, AI. Music is “exploring what happens when you apply the latest techniques in artificial intelligence to music creation.” That’s somewhat vague, but then again, the entire field of AI is changing all the time, and there is so much that can be done when it comes to furthering the use of this tech in music. 

The company also seems interested in making the process of creating great music something that everybody can enjoy, as the startup’s page claims that while progress has been made, “more needs to be done to make music production truly universally accessible.” 

Vochlea

It is difficult for many new companies to enter the hardware space, as it is an extremely expensive venture from the get-go, and there is no promise that the money will be recouped. Despite the risk, that’s exactly what those behind Vochlea have chosen to do. The first product the startup is launching with looks something like a microphone, only when the user makes a noise into the device with their mouth, the resulting output is something entirely different. The item actually turns human hums, beatboxes, and even singing into music by whatever instrument one can desire, from a guitar to horns and beyond.

What might initially sound like nothing more than a toy could actually change how people make music if the product can achieve widespread adoption. If a musician, or really anyone with a musical idea, begins humming a tune they created into the device, they could quickly turn that into a full song without the need to hire musicians or even learn to play an instrument.

'The Fast and the Furious,' 'Star Wars' E Mais: Os 10 Melhores Trilhas do Cinema

'The Fast and the Furious,' 'Star Wars' & More: Film Series With the Most Top 10 Soundtracks

As the new The Fate of the Furious film continues to rake in millions around the world at the box office ($900 million and counting), the movie’s soundtrack rolls in at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart dated May 6, granting the film series its fourth top 10 effort. It’s one of just a handful of theatrically released film series to earn as many top 10 sets.

The Fate of the Furious is the eighth film in The Fast and The Furious film series -- and each movie has sported its own companion soundtrack. Further, all of them have reached the Billboard 200.

The series got off to a hot start in 2001 with The Fast and The Furious, peaking at No. 7. It was followed by: 2 Fast 2 Furious (No. 5, 2003), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (No. 40, 2006), Fast & Furious (No. 116, 2009), Fast Five (No. 60, 2011), Fast & Furious 6 (No. 25, 2013) and Furious 7 (No. 1, 2015). The first film even scored a sequel soundtrack that charted: The Fast and the Furious: More Fast and Furious (No. 117, 2002).

Aside from The Fast and the Furious series, there are just a few others with at least four top 10 soundtracks on the Billboard 200. Let’s take a look:

Star Wars: Six Top 10 Albums

The Star Wars saga has launched seven films thus far, and its most recent release was 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie’s soundtrack debuted and peaked at No. 5 in January 2016.

Title, Peak Position, Peak Date

Star Wars, No. 2, Sept. 10, 1977
The Empire Strikes Back, No. 4, July 12, 1980
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, No. 3, May 22, 1999
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, No. 6, May 11, 2002
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, No. 6, May 21, 2005
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, No. 5, Jan. 1, 2016

Of the seven main Star Wars saga films, only Return of the Jedi, in 1983, missed the Billboard 200’s top 10, peaking at No. 20.

While the Star Wars series produced six top 10 albums, none have reached No. 1. The closest the series came was with the first film, Star Wars, which saw its album spend three consecutive weeks at No. 2 in 1977. (It was stuck behind Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, which ruled the list for 31 nonconsecutive weeks.)

Notably, Star Wars mania was at such a high in 1977, Meco's disco version of the Star Wars "Main Title" theme (mashed up with his interpretation of "Cantina Band") spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Meco's rework, titled "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band," is not on the Star Wars soundtrack.

The Star Wars universe has also spun off a separate anthology film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which helped set up the events seen in the first Star Warsmovie. Rogue One’s soundtrack peaked at No. 29 in January.

Twilight: Five Top 10 Albums

All five of the fantasy film series’ soundtracks have reached the top 10, starting with the chart-topping Twilight in 2008.

Title, Peak Position, Peak Date

Twilight, No. 1, Nov. 22, 2008
The Twilight Saga: New Moon, No. 1, Nov. 7, 2009
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, No. 2, June 26, 2010
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1, No. 4, Nov. 26, 2011
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, No. 3, Dec. 1, 2012

Notably, when Eclipse debuted and peaked at No. 2 for one week, it was stuck behind another soundtrack at No. 1: Fox TV’s Glee: The Music — Journey to Regionals.

Batman: Four Top 10 Albums (Including both the 1989-1997 and 2005-2012 series)

Prince’s smash-hit soundtrack to the 1989 film Batman, directed by Tim Burton, spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It launched three top 40-charting singles on the Billboard Hot 100: “Batdance” (No. 1), “Partyman” (No. 18) and “The Arms of Orion” (with Sheena Easton, No. 36). It notched a further hit on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, the No. 5-peaking “Scandalous!”

Title, Peak Position, Peak Date
Batman (Prince), No. 1 (six weeks), July 22, 1989
Batman Forever, No. 5, July 8, 1995
Batman & Robin, No. 5, July 12, 1997
The Dark Knight Rises, No. 8, Aug. 4, 2012

Como Ter Sua Música Tocada Em Eventos Esportivos

How To Get Your Music Played At Sporting Events

Getting your music played during a sporting event program or during a live sporting event is one of the most difficult challenges in licensing your music out. Most televised sporting event programs use music from the tv networks pre-cleared music library, and getting your music played at the stadium or arena during the game proves even more difficult. However, if you put your mind to it, and make the right moves, it’s totally possible.

Since you are as an artist, the main thing you will have to concern yourself with is writing a great piece of music that goes well with sports. If any of you have played sports before, I’m sure that you know that certain music is great for pumping yourself up before and during the game. Have you ever paid attention to the intro of a sporting event program? The announcers are talking over a bed of some of the most dramatic music you’ve ever heard! Usually these tracks are instrumental and inspirational, which means its a good idea to have instrumental versions of your music, if you typically use vocals in your music.

Also played quite often during the intro of a televised sporting event are songs about the cities that teams play for. I had a discussion with the music supervisor from Fox Sports recently, right around the time of the St Louis Cardinals were playing the Texas Rangers in the World Series. He expressed how elated he was about finding a song with lyrics about St. Louis that fit so perfectly and that he was able to attain from an unknown artist (which means he saved money compared to paying a mainstream artist, so again, he was elated). The advice for artists this music supervisor gave me was to research what teams are good that year, write songs about their respective cities, and attempt to get these songs to him at least six weeks before the playoffs.

The hard part is getting in touch with these people, such as my acquaintance from Fox Sports. Large networks like Fox, CBS, and ESPN all have their own music library, and usually use music bought from huge publishing and licensing companies that own rights to mainstream artists. I just heard an instrumental version of the new Black Keys song “Lonely Boy” played during a televised football game before a commercial just last Sunday. Don’t let that discourage you. If you do your research online and make the right connections, you can find access to submit your music to these larger companies, or directly to the music supervisor themselves for a chance for placement.

Music played during live sporting events can get a little trickier. A lot of the music played at the stadium is usually picked by the athletes. Think of a baseball game where the batter is stepping up to the plate and you hear a pump-up song. Think of an MMA fighter racing out to the octagon while “Eye of the Tiger” is played. Of course these songs will need to be cleared by the suits ahead of time, but unless you know an athlete personally, you will encounter difficulties. Once again, do not get discouraged. There are plenty of companies that you can find online that deal with public performance licenses for live sporting events.

Most of all, like I mentioned earlier, do your best to write a great sports-inspired piece of music and everything from that point is a possibility.