Rádio - Os Erros Que As Bandas "Indie" Fazem

Two Radio Submission Pet-Peeves (Mistakes Indie Artists Make) 

Back in the day, when I started out as a baby radio DJ, artists would send me their brand spanking new music on promo CDs or even white label vinyl, remember those?!

These days it’s all done online. It’s easier to just email an EPK, accompanied with the latest single, EP or album to a radio station, radio show or independent music promoters like myself. But sadly enough, with easiness comes laziness and artists stop thinking things through:

Low Quality MP3s

Great! You’ve just finished recording your awesome new album or EP, picked a single and it’s time to get your ear candy out there, to the masses. And there’s no better way than getting it played on the radio, right?!

So here you are, grabbing your highly paid mastered WAV file, converting it into a 128 or 160 kbps MP3, sending it off with an impressive EPK to radio stations. Finally, you can kick back and relax, it’s just a matter of time before you can hear yourself on the radio, every artist or band’s wet dream!

Wrong! ‘Cause the file you’ve just sent, is like licking a passed down lollipop!

The thing you should know about radio stations, they have a certain broadcast quality to maintain. The audio isn’t allowed to lose the high audio frequencies required for realistic sound reproduction. In other words, your audio must not suck! You won’t listen to a radio station with poor, telephone-ish audio either, right?

Converting your mastered WAV file into 128 or 160 MP3 will cost you your audio quality. It will get so compressed, the full audio sound you’ve paid for at the recording studio will be cut in at least half. And if you’re doing it because of the file size, so emailing it to radio shows or stations becomes easier, don’t! Most only accept WAV files, or if you get real lucky, the highest MP3 quality (320 kbps).

And if you’re still not convinced yet, grab some kid’s lollipop and start licking! Doesn’t taste as good without that full candy flavour, does it…

Dirty Versions

Now I’m not gonna discuss artistic freedom (of speech) here, or the fact some artists throw in profanity just because they feel they can. Personally, I don’t give a doo-doo!

But picture this: you’ve invested a lot of time & money by recording your next hit single and getting it mastered by a professional. It does contains profanity, but hey, ‘this track is the sh*t yo!’ And getting radio airplay would be the bomb, right?!

Wrong! While it’s allowed in some countries to use profanity on radio or TV, like The Netherlands, in most countries it isn’t! If you’re, for example, from the US or UK, you should already know that. So why do you keep sending radio stations your dirty version, while you know it will never ride the airwaves? And radio stations won’t edit a clean version for you, how dope your track might be!

In the end, you’re not only wasting your own time but also of the music director. And trust me, when you do send them a clean version next time around, they probably won’t listen to it because they think it’s contains profanity, just like last time.

So, next time you’re recording a track including profanity, cut a clean version as well. ‘Cause you are creating music to be heard by as many people possible, right? And as bonus tip, why don’t you do the same for your music video…

Google Poderia Ser Maior Em Streaming de Música Do Que Você Pensa

Google could be bigger in streaming music than you think

Google's music streaming apps are a bit of a mystery.

Despite having a robust app in Play Music—in my opinion the best streaming app there is—and a hot new thing in YouTube Music, Google has released zero subscriber data and therefore is often left out in comparisons with Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and the rest.

We gathered some outside data for a closer look.

First, a survey of Android users from 7Park Data shows that Play Music is neck-in-neck with Spotify for daily active users in the US:

7Park Data

Meanwhile, YouTube Music's current daily active user rate is a mere 0.2%, according to 7Park Data.

Play Music isn’t doing quite as well among international Android users:

7Park Data

It helps that Google, which makes Android, has started putting Play Music on most devices:

7Park Data

Next, predictive data from Sensor Tower shows that Play Music downloads are growing slow but steady on iOS, while YouTube Music downloads are on fire. That said, Spotify and Pandora are still in the lead.

From top to bottom: Pandora, Spotify, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, Play Music, and Tidal. Sensor Tower

Pandora Irá Em Breve Oferecer A Opção De Música Em Streaming.

Pandora Will Roll Out On-Demand Streaming Soon

First of all thanks to Shelby Carpenter  for this article.

Pandora could start to look a lot more like Spotify soon..

The Internet-radio service may offer two new paid tiers with on-demand music as soon as next month, according to the Wall Street Journal. Right now Pandora does not allow users to pick speciffic songs–instead, you tune in to stations that may or may not have exactly what you want to listen to. While the stations can be personalized based on user preference, it’s not the same as being able to load up the latest Justin Bieber hit on Spotify whenever you want.

In the past Pandora has not needed permission from the record labels to play music because it operates like a radio station rather than an on-demand service. However, Pandora is closing in on deals with the labels to offer the on-demand option both in the U.S. and overseas, the Wall Street Journal says.

“We’ve been working hard to bring an expanded listening experience to listeners and are on track to do so later this year,” a Pandora spokesperson told FORBES. The company would not confirm the next-month timeline. However, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said it planned to debut an on-demand option in the second half of this year during the company’s Q2 earnings call last month.

Beefing up its content options could help Pandora grow its user base, which has been faltering in recent quarters. Pandora had 78.1 million monthly active listeners at the end of Q2 2016, a drop from the 79.4 million it for the same period the previous year. The company’s stock jumped more than 3% following the news on Friday.

Este Post Da Reddit Causou Uma Batalha Legal Com A Atlantic Records Sobre a Trilha de "Esquadrão Suicida"

This is the Reddit post that caused a legal battle with Atlantic Records over the 'Suicide Squad' soundtrack

First of all thanks to James Cook   for this article.

Reddit is currently in the middle of a legal fight with Atlantic Recordsover a leaked track from the soundtrack to the movie "Suicide Squad" that surfaced on the site.

Atlantic Records discovered that the track "Heathens" by Twenty One Pilots from the "Suicide Squad" soundtrack was released months ahead of schedule and uploaded to filesharing site Dropfile.to.

On the same day it was posted on the filesharing site, a Reddit user named "twentyoneheathens" shared the link on Reddit.

Here's the Reddit post from the user, whose only activity on the site was posting the link to download the leaked song:

Reddit

Atlantic Records quickly noticed that the song had been leaked and tried to stop it spreading. Its initial court filing says that "Atlantic attempted to have the illegally distributed copies of 'Heathens' removed from the Internet. Despite expending significant effort and funds in this attempt, the removal efforts were ultimately unsuccessful in curtailing further widespread distribution."

But Atlantic didn't stop the leak, and it was forced to release the song officially the next day. That meant that the music video wasn't finished, and the marketing agreements it had weren't finalised either.

Atlantic Records is asking Reddit to hand over the IP address of the user, but the company is refusing. It says Atlantic can't prove there's a link between the filesharing site and Reddit, and there's no definitive proof that the Reddit user is an Atlantic employee anyway.

Tecnologia Não Matou A Música! Os Fãs Mataram....

Technology Didn’t Kill The Music Industry. The Fans Did..

First of all thanks to Sahpreem A. King for this article.

It is a scary proposition when paying artists for their music has become a voluntary act of kindness, rather than a consumer responsibility.  The free music fans consume like water, cost artists money to create; money they will never recover as long as the artist’s fan base consumes it for free.  Nothing is wrong with giving away an exclusive FREE track every now and again, but that should be the exception and not the rule.

As artists, we must stand our ground and set the expectation.

The ideology behind music freemium has destroyed the working class musician and independent labels.

Everyone thought that Napster was the second coming of Christ—and the beginning of the music revolution; however, in the midst of this transformation, the fans became increasingly desensitized to the fact, that the free music they were consuming was created by artists who have to make a living from their music.   The fallacy that artists/musicians are ultra rich is just that… a myth, nonetheless, perpetuated thanks to over-the-top hip hop videos and MTV Cribs, leading fans to believe that all artists are rich.

This is hardly the case when only 1% of artists are successfully making a living from their music.

Nevertheless, fans have been disillusioned to believe that their enjoyment of the free music obtained from the remaining 99% only affects the major labels, meanwhile most artists are literally starving.

The music industry is a brutal bitch, a beast that chews up artists and shits them out.

What if artists and musicians grew tired of the abuse and decided to stop making music?  What then?  Radio stations would be nothing but dead air between commercials — if all their advertisers don’t abandon them like rats on a sinking ship — and televisions stations that play music videos would be blank screens.  Imagine your favorite movie with no music to set the tone, or going to a school dance minus the dance. Like I said, a scary proposition.

When fans are left the option to pay whatever they’d like for music, they almost always choose zero.

As a content creator of music, why should I have to pass around the collection plate or hold out the tip jar and jingle it to capture your attention?  What if artists told fans that they would have to work at their jobs for free?  Do you think they would go quietly in the night to the land of acceptance?  Hell no, they would be in outrage, so why do they expect artists to just take one for the team?

Greed perhaps, ignorance maybe, but the one thing is for sure is that fans have a lopsided perspective as to what really goes on in the music business.  Artisans should be able to make a living from their work no different from a nurse or auto mechanic.

Sure, the 1% is living the lifestyle of the rich and famous; however, the 99% are one poorly-promoted show away from being homeless.  For God’s sake, something has to give.

I believe the healing will begin when the public is educated on how the music business works sans the VH1 movies and Hollywood imagery.

If fans understood what it takes to make a record — all the time, money, people, and energy — they would have more respect for the art and science of it.  If they could experience, on some part the dedication and sacrifice artists endure, their nonchalant attitudes toward paying artists what they owe would change.  Fans don’t realize that artists of today were fans of yesterday and the cycle is everlasting.

Fans and artists must come to an agreement on how music will be monetized using fair and equitable practices.  According to a recent CNN poll, the average football fan will pay $143 per game, which includes the cost of the ticket, parking, and refreshments, for a one-time event.  For music, a fans have the opportunity to play a CD as many times as they desire; yet they complain about spending $16 for the CD.   In order to set the wheels of change in motion, there must be a catalyst.

Compor Músicas Para RV Não é Bem Simples Assim!

Turns Out Composing Music for VR Is Not Exactly Simple

One of the many games available on the Oculus Rift is Farlands, an exploration title that plays out like a laid back safari through a peaceful alien planet. The otherworldly zoo is supported by veteran composer Jason Graves’ pleasant, ethereal score. Graves has previously composed music for industry hits like the Dead Space series, Tomb Raider, and Far Cry Primal, but took a break from the intense world of action gaming to craft a score for virtual reality.

We got the opportunity to talk to Graves about games, his process, and what it’s like to compose music that’s truly interactive.

What was it like to compose for VR as opposed to a more familiar console experience?

From a technical standpoint, there’s a lot to consider when making a VR game, because there’s not just a 3D visual world — you’ve also got a 3D audio world. Just because you can do a lot of things, though, doesn’t mean you should.

Restraint is a good word to use. With the music more than the sound effects, a lot of times, less is more.

In addition to the score, do you get drafted to do cues, as well?

Depends on the game; I actually love doing stuff like that because you get this real sense of immersion from the score. It makes everything sound like it comes from the same world.

I tend to give developers lots of options and layers, so they have more control over the final product. So, we did a lot of “Victory” and “End of the Day” and those kind of sound cues for Farlands that were made up of sounds that I used in the score itself.

Do you think about your music appearing out of order when you’re composing it?

When I’m dealing with short pieces, I do try to write them so that they can be interchanged and randomized. The biggest pleasure I get is doing some things and sending them to the developer and then hearing them in the game and being surprised.

That’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s interactive. The player is determining the score. There’s a symbiosis between the gameplay and the music in ways that I could never accomplish if I just sat down and wrote a static piece of music.

How much creative freedom did you get going into the Farlands project?

Enough to hang myself with. 

But, that’s honestly the way it’s been for the last six years or so. I’m given a lot of creative freedom within projects, but the understanding is that I’m being creative within the sandbox established by the game. Farlands was no exception. There was a surface-level discussion with the creative director and a few others when I visited Oculus, and no one talked about specific instruments or genres.

What everyone talked about were the feelings they wanted to evoke, which is really what music comes down to anyway. Then, they left it to me to figure out how that would sound.

When you worked on Evolve, producers mandated a non-orchestral score, and when you worked on Far Cry Primal, you collected a variations on wood and brick to create the score. Where does that motivation come from?

A lot of it really came from game developers saying, “Hey, what can you do that would be different? We want something iconic and unique where we can hear five seconds of the music and know it’s our score.” I mean, that’s easier said than done, but when you start using original sounds, and you’re not confining yourself to “traditional” instruments, then you’ve got more opportunities to create something memorable.

When I realized that game developers were going to let me have fun and do some really experimental things that even I wasn’t sure would work, it just created this snowball effect that’s grown from project to project.

Do you think your rhythmic bent has helped distinguish you from the competition?

I really hope so. In school, I felt like I was at a disadvantage. I was worried that I didn’t know how to fill in the blanks, I wished I’d studied piano more than drums. Then, after I scored the first Dead Space game, I discovered that I was very comfortable with rhythm. And, for me, that’s the heart and soul of music. From there you build up pitch and harmonies, but the rhythm is the base. 

Once I embraced being a drummer and really leaning on as a strength has really shaped the music I write. Of course, on my own, I’m still learning about orchestration and composition, but that’s what makes this job so much fun. Every day, I get to come into the studio and learn something new.

What would you say you learned while composing Farlands?

Farlands was so relaxing and meditative. I learned how to use space, both in terms of physical distance and space in the sound itself. I didn’t want to have music playing all the time, even when the song was going. Hopefully, there’s an ebb and flow to the final product.

Of all the game’s you’ve worked on, which score is your favorite?

Well, that’s tough, because all of the scores I’ve worked on were kind of ripped from my hands and completed without me. I wouldn’t have that any other way, because otherwise I’d never finish anything, but if I had to pick some, there were three games that kind of tie for first. The first was Dead Space 2, because we weren’t even sure we’d get the opportunity to do it in the first place. 

The second would probably be The Order: 1886. Sony literally let me do anything, so I had this crazy orchestra with no violins and no brass, no high woodwinds. It was just all male singers, low strings and low woodwinds, which gave it a slightly somber score.

I also have really good memories of Far Cry Primal because it was all live, but it was all done entirely by me in my small studio at home. I learned so much about how to layer music and make new, big sounds.

This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

Como Promover Sua Música Secretamente Sem Realmente Falar Sobre Ela

How To Sneakily Promote Your Music Without Actually Talking About It

While the idea of self-promotion without talking up one's self may seem backwards or impossible the reality is that, as an artist, more subtle forms of marketing and promotion can often be the most effective.

I know it sounds completely counterintuitive to promote your music and raise awareness for yourself as an artist without actually talking about your music – or your music career, for that matter. But it’s being done more and more and has become a really powerful way to make a name for yourself by bypassing the crowded indie-musician market.

Let me explain. The key is to establish yourself as an expert in some related topic like gear, self-releasing music, or songwriting. It’s about sharing valuable information on a topic you have a lot of experience in to draw potential fans. They find you by searching for “how to write a song,” or “how to book your own gigs,” or “guitar pedal review,” and discover your music through that connection.

Push vs. pull marketing

Traditionally, there are two ways to go about promoting your music. You can either push your message out to fans and potential fans (push marketing), or you can pull them in and get them to come to you (pull marketing).

Push marketing is those typical advertisements you see on TV and hear on the radio. They’re just pushing information out about their product to a large audience hoping to reach someone who may be interested.

Pull marketing is about giving out valuable information that you know your target audience is searching for. This valuable information could be exclusive or behind-the-scenes access to you as an artist. This kind of content will pull in current fans and deepen your relationship.

But you could also share advice on something you have a lot of experience with. This will help you reach a new audience who may not even be familiar with your music.

[6 Ways to Build Personal Relationships With Fans That You Probably Haven't Tried]

So let’s go through the strategy step-by-step.

1. Find your expertise

The first step is finding something you have a lot of experience and knowledge in. As a musician, you have a few really obvious routes – music, songwriting, mixing, mastering, music theory, gear, instruments, etc. These are the skills that form the very foundation of your career, so you definitely have a lot of valuable information to bring to the table here.

Many musicians, including Scale the Summit’s bassist Mark Michell, have set up online schools to share their musical knowledge and techniques. The key here is to bring this training online instead of doing local lessons. Not only will you be able to reach a much larger audience, you’ll also start showing up in Google searches for things like “online bass lessons.”

Other musicians pull on other skill sets like music business knowledge, booking gigs, or creating YouTube videos. DIY musician Ari Herstand, for example, runs the blog Ari’s Take, where he shares his experiences and the skills he’s learned from booking his own shows and generally running his own career. Other musicians like Alex Cowles share their knowledge on self-releasing music.

2. Find the right platform

If you want people to organically find you, the best option is to go online.Depending on the kind of information you share, your platform may be a little different. So, if you’re creating music lessons, videos may be your best bet. Try making YouTube tutorials, playthroughs, and lessons, and release them regularly to build an audience.

On the other hand, if you’re sharing the things you’ve learned on getting your songs licensed orbooking college gigs, a blog may suit your information better. Gear and guitar pedal reviews and demonstrations might use a combination of blog posts and videos.

You could also aim to partner with other media outlets to share out your information. This will help you get your name out to a larger audience. In addition to his own blog, Ari Herstand also writes for Digital Music News. Maybe you could get a regular column in a small online music magazine or music industry blog – start small and grow from there.

3. Show up in search

Now that you have your content up, you need to make sure people can actually find it. There are plenty of SEO guides out there, but basically, you just want to think about what people are actually typing into search. There are also a lot of cool tools like Google’s Keyword Planner that can give you some ideas.

You want the keywords and article titles you choose to be relevant and specific to what you’re posting. So if you’re posting a review of a certain guitar pedal, a title like “Boss Waza Craft VB-2W Vibrato Review” will perform better than “Guitar Pedal Review.” Likewise, if you’re sharing your tips on how to set up good lighting for a music video, something like “Setting Up Good Lighting for a Music Video” will probably do the trick.

Of course, good SEO won’t instantly drive thousands of people to your articles and videos. It’s going to take a lot of work and consistent posting to build up an audience.

4. Create the connection

Here’s the most important part of this strategy: you need to make the connection to your music and drive your viewers or readers to check it out. After all, music is your main gig.

There are a few options here. You could obviously host your blog on your band’s site, or share your tutorials or gear reviews on your band’s YouTube channel. That way, your music is just a click away. This works, but it will make it more difficult to get the SEO working like you want.

If you host your content off your music website, you need to make the connection obvious. Include an “About” page that shares your story. Highlight your musical journey and your creative career as an indicator of your expertise on the subject.

You should also mention your career and bring out stories in your articles and videos.Preface an amp review by saying you brought it on tour and recorded some awesome sounding live videos with it. Include the live video to prove your point (and introduce your readers to your music).

If you’re teaching people on YouTube about modes, you could mention that you used a certain mode when writing a new song you have out. Play a short section of that song to show your point and include a card in the top right corner to link to your music video.