Matchbox Twenty may be a 20 year old band, but they are leading the way in mobile technology for musicians. The group offers a mobile app with geofencing, which can track the location of concertgoers and offer them personalized service. While this kind of technology is out of the reach of most independent artists, the concepts of using technology to interact with fans is something we can all learn from.
New data shows that there are far more music industry jobs per capita in Nashville than anywhere else in the country. In fact, nearly 8 out of every 1,000 jobs in our city is in the music industry. We look at what this means for Nashville and the music industry.
‘Elysium’ director Neill Blomkamp found his composer, Ryan Amon, through YouTube. The unusual process rocketed Amon from a relatively unknown composer to working on a Matt Damon movie in Abbey Road Studios. The tale echoes how many indie musicians have risen from obscurity through unusual means.
With more products moving to ‘the cloud’ these days, we wanted to explore music recording in web browsers. One of the advantages to recording in the cloud is simply you can record anywhere your computer goes. So you can basically record on the go but with something this easy there are always some drawbacks. A drawback to recording on the cloud is that you are operating in a web browser and you don't have the power that you get from having individual DAWs.
Dither is often an aspect of digital audio production that is not very understood. Here, we look at exactly what dither is, and how it can help your song reach its optimum audio quality. We also look at when to use dither, as well as when not to.
We explore new reverb by HOFA and virtual instruments software for your home studio. The new sampled instruments by Big Fish Audio offer unique vintage options for your samples collection. Additionally, we’ve got a list of the Apogee products compatible with Apple Logic Pro X.
Audio cables are the overlooked hardware of your home recording studio. The inexpensive cables will result in an unsatisfactory recording, while the most expensive cables are nice but the money can be best spent elsewhere within the studio equipment. The more you pay for the cables the more the frequency of the primary source will be retained, particularly the highs and lows. Most notable cables come with a lifetime warranty, so if they do stop working you can have them repaired or replaced at no cost.
Audio streaming becomes more popular among the new generation of music enthusiasts but this could be at the expense of falling digital sales. Sales have been falling in both digital tack and album sales, although digital album sales still remain on the positive side. Audio streaming has a very unclear future in the music industry but both Apple and Google have decided to take a vital role in it this year and believe it still has room for growth.
Social Media Executives discuss the future of their products being used to help the music industry for both the app developers and independent artists. Parse is a tool used to develop apps that inspire exceptional user integration and experience. Facebook purchased the company in April and it is a service that runs apps across multiple platforms. Twitter first integrated music app, #Music, is in its beginning stages but hopefully by the end of the year we will be able to see the prosperity from this music app.
Being an independent artist always has its setbacks whether you've made it in the spotlight yet or not. It's what you've learned along the way that helps and keeps you working smart and hard to become the musician you want to be. Ed Sheeran is an artist who is just that. One that has been through his trials and tribulations and among many setbacks he knew who he was and who he wanted to be. He took his best critics and used that to his advantage. Stay focused, noticed and always be open minded to suggestions so that you can grow into the artist you were meant to be.
SoundCloud is aspiring to be the new go to tool for independent artists. It can help promote an independent artist by building a following, rewarding your returning fans, receiving critiques from other musicians/fans, and also seeing what kind of demographic you are affecting as an independent artist. All of these reasons is why SoundCloud is currently the go to music social network of choice but it seems that Myspace is planning on making them work for it because the new release of MySpace will target just that, independent artists.
Some fun new methods are coming into the recording world and these are specific interfaces that are meant for smartphones and tablets. iRig HD is a new mobile interface for guitarists that want to create a mobile recording opportunity. IK Multimedia is the company that brought iRig HD as well as the popular AmpliTube guitar. Most recording on-the-go programs are available only for iOS but some products are still available for Android and other operating systems as well.
In musical engineering piano is known as one of the most difficult instruments to record and mix for. Some of the reasons it is very hard to record and mix for is because there is an extremely wide scope of pitches, including a very wide range of frequencies, and also you have sounds going in all directions inside the case of the piano. After taking that into account you then would need to figure out how or rather where you think the sound of the piano, sounds its best at. Whether that’s from inside the piano or to the audiences ears you will run into some issues with either position. From inside the piano you might run into picking up too much of the sound of the hammers hitting the strings and from the audiences ears you might run into picking up sounds that are made by the player as well as other unwanted room noise. The best tip is to trust your ears and fortunately there is never a wrong way to do it as long as you get the sounds you are looking for.
Submitting your EP for a record deal has changed a lot over the years. You used to just have to record a demo and mail it off to the major recording labels, maybe some Indies depending on your goals, and wait for a call back. It may have not ever been that simple, it is always easier said than done. But now the process has changed and is a bit more complex and less expensive than it used to be with all of the new advances technology has brought into our society. A great idea is to record up to three fully produced tracks that way this can give a record company an idea of what you sound like. Then make sure you follow the directions of how the label accepts or doesn't accept submissions and that can either be virtual through email, etc. or actual by submitting a hard copy through the mail. No matter how you record the songs you submit, your songs should be professionally mastered before submitting them to a label. It used to be inconvenient and expensive to have a project mastered but now it is actually affordable and convenient. This way you can make sure your album has that “finished” sound.
Twitter just released #Music, its first music app. #Music has song recommendations that is specific to each individual user and they are divided in five different categories: Popular, Emerging, Suggested, #NowPlaying, and Me. All music recommended in each of the categories is determined by how many times the artists are mentioned on Twitter. There are three ways to listen to recommended music and the default of this app is a thirty second clip from iTunes. The other two are for users that are subscribed to Spotify or Rdio and they can sign in and listen to the full version of any track that is in one of their recommended categories. There are a few drawbacks of #Music that range from it being a separate app that is not integrated with Twitters natural platform to lack of access. With how early it is at this point in the app's life it is hard to tell how much the app will be used and how big of a force it will be in the music community. As a result of #Music being based entirely on the number of tweets about an artist, bands must use this as a tool in their social marketing to help boost and engage a community of online fans.
