Anthoy Bless Promo Video “Theory”

Music Business: Stop Burning Bridges!

Stop Burning Bridges… or Your Career Might Go Up in Flames! by Sheena Metal

Nobody said the music business was going to be easy.

It truly is a jungle out there filled with: snakes, rats, rabid carnivores, sharks…well, you get the picture.  In the course of your musical journey, there will be confrontations, arguments, misunderstandings, and miscommunications.  You’ll get jerked around, ripped off and disrespected.  So, you want to be a rockstar?  Welcome to your nightmare.

But this is also a business of good people, who’ll give you opportunities and chances and help you out when you least expect it.  That’s why it’s so important that you, as musicians and as a band, act professionally and respectfully regardless of the behavior of those you encounter.  You don’t have to be a pushover and of course, you have a right to defend yourself against the questionable actions of others, but the music community can be a very small town and the behavior you exhibit will follow you throughout your musical career.

On the flipside of that, there are musicians out there who, either knowingly or unknowingly bring negativity on themselves through their own actions.  Short temperedness, egocentricism, brazen entitlement, compulsive lying and just plain old psychotic behavior can brand your band as troublemakers and deprive you of important opportunities that you need to move forward in this business.

So, how can you make sure that you’re doing onto others as you wish they would do onto you?  What can you, as musicians do, to eliminate aspects of your personality that may be causing bad blood between you and the people you run across on your way to superstardom?

The following are a few tips that may help you to make sure you’re exhibiting professional behavior at all times: Read more

Reasons Why Most Demos Get Rejected.

10 Reasons Why Most Demo Recordings are Rejected

by Christopher Knab

“Getting a deal” has long been the goal of many would-be artists and bands. For mostly naive reasons, most new talent feel that by securing a recording contract with a significant major or independent label, success will be guaranteed. (talk about naivete). Even in this new era of “do-it-yourself” career building, many musicians figure all they have to do is send off their demo to a label, and a recording contract will come their way .

The following list of ‘10 Reasons Why Demos Are Rejected‘ was gathered together after years of listening to comments made by Record Label A&R reps at music industry conferences and workshops; as well as from personal interviews with reps, and from many interviews A&R reps have given to the press. In addition, I can verify that these observations as true, from having personally listened to thousands of demos over the years.

Since there is little I can do to stop anyone from ‘demo shopping’, (which I truly believe is a waste of time these days) the least I can do is try to improve the odds that your music will get listened to if you do send out your demos. This list will look at the most common mistakes musicians make when either shopping for a record deal, or trying to get the attention of A&R Reps with their demo recordings.

10 Reasons Demos are Rejected: Read more

Ways to Make Money Producing Hip Hop & R&B Beats

There’s  much information out there about the technical aspects of generating music.  No matter what sound you’re after, there’s a book or magazine article somewhere that will tell you how to do it.  There’s also a gap when it comes to how to earn money from that music five times you’ve created it.  Unless you’re generating music simply for the fun of it, you’ve probably finished a Google search about how sell beats or submit beats to major labels plus come up short.  I’ll fill that gap right now.

There’s five primary income sources that can be pursued as you build your catalog.

1.  Direct to artist sales. Read more

BMI Tops Previous Revenues with $905 Million in FY 2009

Despite two of the most difficult economic environments in BMI’s history, the company realized several industry-leading achievements over the past year:

BMI has announced that it earned over $905 million in revenues for its 2009 fiscal year, including its subsidiary Landmark Digital Services®, LLC. The company also announced that it increased royalty distributions to over $788 million for the songwriters, composers and copyright owners it represents. With over 400,000 songwriters, composers and music publisher affiliates, BMI is the world’s largest music copyright organization. Read more

Cut the Check : Cool & Dre

Stargate: Wizards in the Studio, Anonymous on the Street

THE songwriting session was so fresh that the aroma of the evening’s chicken wings still lingered. Behind the vast mixing board of a dimly lighted Manhattan recording studio, two producers and their co-writer greeted a record executive who had come to hear their work. With the press of a button, the room filled with sound: somber guitar arpeggios over a slow, sleek hip-hop beat, with layers of falsetto harmonies leading to a big, glittery, instantly memorable chorus. It was pure candy — sweetly melodic, but just funky enough to have a dance groove.

I’m thinking Jennifer,” the executive said. “It’s perfect for Jennifer Hudson.”

As three more songs that had been written in the last 24 hours blared from enormous speakers, the producers sat calmly, waiting to hear which superstars their songs would be pitched to. But they weren’t the Neptunes or Timbaland or Dr. Dre or anyone else ardent followers of the Top 40 would be likely to recognize. They were Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen, wholesome-looking, milk-complexioned Norwegians who, despite having no public persona, have quickly become two of the most in-demand figures in pop music. Read more

Tech Heads: Mac vs PC, which is better for a music computer??

Go to any computer gear-head forum, including studio-central, and simply ask this troubling question.  Suddenly the air changes around you.   For a moment, you sense a cold scrutiny from everyone around you, the same kind of vibe the significant other gave you last year when you forgot valentines day (again!).  Senior members, moderators, and administrators rush out of the dugout to say “You didn’t really mean to ask that question, right?” “We’re not going there, Sorry!“  But its usually too late. You already stuck your finger directly in the crusty wounds left by a two decades long platform war.

Experienced forum users know that nothing starts a major brawl as quickly as a PC vs. Mac debate. Its kind of like being in my least favored neighborhood tavern on the south side of Chicago.  As soon as some idiot shouts out, “I used a Mac for music AND IT SUCKED!” (substitute “PC” if you are already offended).  Read more

Make Money In Your Home Studio!! This is not a damn ad. Read It!

This is not an infomercial. I am not going to ask you for money to give you the secrets to making money in your studio.  I am going to tell you the best secrets I know and I am going to give them to you freely.  You are going to read  my tips, digest them over a few months, then when you start making money you will realize you are recipient of a gift that you must yourself give to someone else.  That’s the way it works!  And let me assure you it does…

Princess Noobia raises her hand “Uh Tweak that’s all cool ‘n stuff but I, like, need to make some money now, man!  I mean, like, I just spent $2700 on gear and I need a return on my investment fast!  Can you hurry up ‘n tell me, like, what to do so people give me lots of money to record tracks in my apartment?”  The 2 guys in the front , Spoon #1 and #2 stand up in unison and say “And could you just tell us what to do and not make us go study some BS your top contribs say we have to read.”  One of the gnarly pros, Ol’ RoyBoy rises his cane in the back row “Shuddup you stupid spoonies.  You ain’t gonna make no money in a studio that costs less than $100,000!  Tweak points at the two then does a graceful hand movement to the two large urns of coffee to the side of the lectern.  “That one is decaf”.

Ps.  A “spoonie” is one who wants to be spoonfed information, and who, if they don’t like it, will spit it out like babyfood.  They are the tragic outcome of a society on the brink of information overload. They simply want to be told what to do.

Are you ready?  Here we go! Read more

Review: Logic Pro 9

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9.  I have to wonder if the coders themselves got into the Lennon-ist mantra.  Its kind of funny.  A few months ago there someone came by the forums asking about Logic 9.  “Any news?” “Nah, its nowhere in sight”. Sort of like the classic book waiting for Godot, the one who never comes.  Well today Fed Ex did come to the TweakLab bearing Logic 9.  Its here, up and running.

You know with previous logic upgrades (and I have been through all of them) there was always the excitement of a new look as well as new functionality.   The look in Logic 9 is almost the same, though it seemed like they lightened the background behind the track list a few shades of grey.  Ha, I think,  That is par for apple’s pro line–grey is everywhere.  Just open up Sound Track Pro 3–more grey.  Shall w take a look at Final Cut Pro too?  That they found yet another unused shade of grey is no surprise.  While the look is almost unchanged there is a subtle difference to the objects. Everything looks more flattened, in a nice way. Read more