Jaci Rae asked:


Promoting your CD to radio takes a lot of organization and time management skills. Let me help organize your process. First you need to find radio stations that are willing to accept submissions from independent artists (Contact names, addresses, phone and email for radio stations across the globe are listed in “The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money” ISBN 978-0-9746229-4-1 and The Indie Contact Guide – it’s companion book.).

You have to decide whether you are going to local and regional stations (which are a good recommendation if you don’t have a lot of money to work with and you aren’t worried about charting.), or if you are going after national stations, which is only a good idea if you are already established locally and are seeking national exposure and a chance to chart.

As with all submissions, always get permission ahead of time before you submit your music. There are two easy ways to find radio station information. The first is to log onto the internet and search the radio station databases available. This method is free, but will take some time. The best resources I have found are “MIT Radio Stations on the Web” and “BRS Radio.

Most sites list the stations by genre (style of music), state, etc. You should bookmark these sites in your Internet browser. You will find yourself going back to these sites often.

The major advantage the internet offers is the ability to download information into a spreadsheet or word processing document to make labels and save data for your follow-up files.

However, if you decide looking for information on the internet takes too much time, an alternative is to purchase books that already have all the information for radio stations listed in them.

When finding radio stations to submit to, it’s best to start with college radio first, especially if you are a new act without a track record. It will be easier for you to get added on college stations, which are usually “free format” and are more likely to air something new and exciting.

If you decide on the college route, make sure you have verified they have a format for your music. Most college stations have a variety of music styles and Music Directors.

Rock, Jazz, and Alternative Music tend to be the main stay for college stations. Country acts will have a more difficult time on college stations and there are many that have Folk Music programs. For Country acts you’ll have a better opportunity at stations that play Country Music specifically and/or those that play Americana.

Once you conquer the college charts, you will have a solid base and track record to promote yourself to the larger stations. It’s like a snowball that rolls down the mountain. The more it rolls, the larger it gets. Make sure when approaching larger stations that you ask specifically if they play independent artists.

If they tell you they occasionally give an independent artist an opportunity, and you have the extra resources, go ahead and submit your CD to them. You never know, they may play it.

But if you hear: ‘No. We only play major-label releases, or artists that are in the top 50 of the Billboard charts, but why don’t you go ahead and send it along anyway.’ Think long and hard about it before sending your CD. You’re better off to be patient, record the comment on your spreadsheet and wait until you chart before contacting that station again.

If the goal for your music is charting you will need to make sure that all of the radio stations you submit to, report to the same charts. This will help ensure that all of your “spins” count. (Spins are the amount of times a song is played.)

If the radio stations don’t report to any charts, or the charts they do report to are not consistent with those you already have, you may want to think about passing on them until you have more resources. It would be like sending an unsolicited press kit to a management firm that doesn’t accept them. It’s a waste of time, energy and press kits.

If you are only looking for exposure, then by all means send it to every radio station you get permission from as long as your budget allows. However, try to stay in one local/regional area so it’s saturated with your music. It will give you a much better chance at lining up a distributor as well as selling more CD’s.

It is easier to get added to a play list on stations that don’t report, than do. The competition is not as fierce. Remember: air time is an important commodity to a radio station. Each station only has so many hours and slots they can play songs. If you can get your song charted, you will have a better chance of getting into one of those precious slots. You have to decide which route you want to take.

Once you have found the radio stations you plan to submit to, and you have entered that information into a database, you are ready to send the press kit out (assuming your CD is ready).

At this time, make sure to call the radio stations again and verify that all the information you’ve gathered is still the same. The industry is very volatile. Stations get bought and sold very quickly, and there is an extremely high turnover rate for personnel. You don’t want to send your Heavy Metal CD to a station that is now a Smooth Jazz station. And you don’t want to send something out with the words “Material Requested” on it, to someone who no longer works there.

You’ll need a cover letter for your press kit, make sure to suggest the tracks you think radio personnel will like, and the ones you think are more commercial. Give them an opportunity to listen to several tracks, but don’t ask them to listen to the entire CD. It’s not professional. Radio promoters push one track at a time.

Pushing only one track will show them you know what you are doing and are respectful of their time. To push a track means to tell the radio personnel which track you are suggesting at this time for airplay. Tell them it’s the first release off your new CD.

In order to chart you must have a substantial amount of “spins”. Here’s another major reason to push only one spin: If you have a lot of tracks that are being played, but no stations are playing similar tracks, your chances of charting for a particular song are very slim. While you really don’t have a choice of what is played, you can help it along by constantly suggesting the same track.

Most Program Directors (PD’s) and Music Directors (MD’s) have specific call times, on specific days, every week. You can only call them on these days or they will not take your calls. Once you have sent your press kit out, wait approximately two weeks, then call and confirm that your CD has arrived safely.

If the CD has not arrived, wait one more week and call again. If at that point the CD has still not arrived, tell the PD or MD that you will send another package and then send it. Wait another week and then follow up again.

The life of one song is anywhere from 4 – 6 weeks. You can’t just assume that at the end of 6 weeks the radio station is going to automatically play another track from your CD. It’s up to you to suggest it.

At the end of your first 4 weeks of air time, continue to push the first track but also start suggesting the next track you plan to release. Start building a rapport with the PD’s and MD’s. Find out their likes, dislikes, and interests. You will get much farther if you are truly interested in who they are and what they do, than if you are only interested in what they can do for you.

Because Program and Music Directors have different call times and days, time management is essential. To help make your job a little easier, create a database to hold all your contact information and keep track of calls and call times. If you have succeeded in getting a station to add your music, here are some questions you should ask:

• If they are playing your CD, ask them how your CD is doing at their station. • Ask them if they are playing the track you specified in your promotional package, and if they have had any listener response. • Ask if there is anything additional that you can do to assist them.

More often than not, you will only be able to leave a message when you call. If you are able to contact them directly, always ask them if it is a convenient time for them to talk to you. If it is, keep your conversations short, as they are extremely busy people. If it is not a good time for them to talk, ask them when you can call them back and then do.

Keep them informed of any newsworthy items. Every time you succeed in getting another station to add your music, go a little further on the chart, or score a major gig, send out a press release by faxes or emails, and definitely hype it on the phone during your conversations with them.

Build excitement so you keep yourself in the forefront of their minds. Keep them interested in your music. Offer to do interviews and liners. Liners are a small commercial you record for the station. For example: ‘Hi! This is Joe Smoegh and you are listening to today’s hottest mix on such and such a radio station.’ I will say it again, be persistent and pleasant.

If you have not been added, or you are not receiving airplay yet, continue promoting yourself to these stations via email, fax, or doing your follow up phone calls. Ask them if they do test spins. If they do, ask them if they would try your CD during one of their next test spin slots. Additionally, stop by radio stations in your area and make live appearances.

Bring something special, perhaps pizza or donuts and soda. You will bring a smile to their faces and create a personal association. Try to come up with unique ideas to “sell” your CD to them. Additionally, when you release your CD to radio will affect how much airplay you receive.

If everything fails, try to remain upbeat and positive with them. Radio is very political. Remember there is only so much air time and only so many time slots available. Most will not pick Joe Smoegh over Britney Spears. After repeated efforts have failed and you’re still not getting any air time, it may be time to call it quits on that particular station and stop contacting them with your weekly phone calls. You should still continue to keep them informed of your comings and goings via email.

ylotana project asked:


Music and Art: Bringing Nations Together

Music and art are two methods of communicating that need no translation. Music can evoke the same emotions anywhere in the world, no matter what the language. It is, quite literally, a universal language. Art is, as well, an image can depict the same thing no matter which language you speak.The unique ability of these two creative outlets to cross borders and appeal to all walks of life, as well as cultures, means that it is ideal for uniting nations.

Music Bands: Bridging the Gap

There was a time when all music bands tended to stay in their home country, particularly those who were non-American. The impact of smaller, more alternative bands being able to present their music to the world has been huge! Suddenly, anyone can buy a cd of music from India, Russia, or Japan, without having to even travel to the country.

When music bands first began to cross borders, they usually did so with countries similar to their own. A West German band might play in East Germany, for example, or a Canadian band would do a tour in the US or England and vice versa. While still sharing, it was limited. Then came the international tours, where one band would perform in dozens of countries around the world and the music created a link between them all.

Now, you`ll find that singers, musicians and entire music bands are able to perform in nearly any country, no matter their origin. It`s a huge leap forward for a world that was once so full of racism and fear of other cultures. Now, cultures can share between themselves and are the richer for it. Cds, mp3s and other forms of music have spread this multicultural message around the world and people are discovering entirely new genres of music that they never even knew existed, yet hold a powerful message anyway.

Borders are inconsequential when it comes to music. The internet has basically created a potential link between every single country in the world, but with language barriers, there are still issues to be faced when sharing information. That`s why music and anything artistic is so important. Watching a video on YouTube that is set to music, rather than words, conveys the same message to anyone who watches it, no matter where they might live or what language is their mother tongue. Music and art can reach everyone.

Art: Combining with Music

Artistic endeavors such as drawing, painting, sculpting and animation have always been methods of communicating between two people who had no language in common. Museums have known this for a long time and frequently present foreign art in their shows, creating interesting attractions and exposing entire countries to new talent and cultures.

However, while art and music are wonderful on their own, there`s nothing as powerful as the two combined. We`ve seen it time and time again, where art is set to music to create something that is so much more than either of the two parts.

In many cases, the music is what inspired the visual art. Many sculptors listen to music as they work, allowing the creativity of the compositions flow through them and into their sculpture. The same goes for painters, who often have a favorite music band that they listen to when working on a painting. It`s a powerful medium to work with and just listening to it can help artists create more incredible works of art.

Then again, sometimes music and art simply flow together to tell a story, a tale that the world can enjoy without having to understand English, or French, or Russian, because music truly is a universal language and when combined with visual art, it provides a method of conveying your message, whatever it is, to the masses.

How We Use Music and Art

A huge number of people who use the internet use it to view videos. That means the potential for creating a video that is pure art and music and having it seen around the world is huge. People love the combination and when there is no language barrier, that means the video will often be sent to friends and family around the globe, turning it into a viral message that passes over borders without fail.

While the internet has made it very possible to share visual art and music with anyone, there are more mainstream methods, as well. Children`s choirs, for example, are one way that we have enjoyed musical art from other countries. It`s not uncommon for concerts and music videos from many countries to be played on one television channel. Even museums usually incorporate some form of background music into their cultural displays, making them that much more powerful. It`s impossible not to feel something as you gaze at Genghis Khan`s armor in a museum display and hear the same sort of music that he would have heard, or view a Hindu funeral pyre while listening to Indian music. It evokes an emotional response that makes what we are looking at that much more important and real to us.

This isn`t just true of things in a museum. You will find that emotional responses can be garnered even from more abstract images and music. It`s the combination that works to create a new feeling, to pass something from the creator of the piece to the listening viewer.

Whether mainstream or independent, music and visual art have spanned the globe and reached millions of people, bringing nations together under a love of all that is musical and artistic. It`s been a way to blend cultures and expose people to new ones and the combination of music and art has turned our world into a place that is much smaller and much friendlier than ever before in history.

Anatoly Podkopov

Ylotana Project

www.ylotana.com

thomasgx1 asked:

Cool cartoon

versusjunior asked:

tinyurl.com – Inkheart Trailer … “Inkheart Trailer” “latest trailer” movies trailer

Chris Owen asked:


We need to end music copyright. I have written about this before but following many debates with people I have written a full list of the reasons why we must end music copyright and why downloading unlicenced music should be allowed.

Although the industry would have you believe something different, downloading music is not the same as stealing. One has to concede that although there are similarities it is fundementally different from stealing. If I steal your car you no longer have your car. If I download music, I have the music and so does the original bearer.

It is perfectly easy to understand that if someone downloads music it does not mean that if they didn’t have the means to download it for free they definitely would have bought it instead.

Record companies and musicians are very violent. They lobby our government to take people from their homes, kidnap them in state prisons, and saction stealing your property or money in compensation for their alleged loss. This is unacceptable.

The ability to upload and download music accross the Internet has radically changed the music reproduction industry. Change is change. It can can be bad for some but history is clear that change is good overall. Change does not neccessarily mean that something should be reversed. The music industry as it stands will likely be damaged but that is no justification to continue as we are. Things change. A lot of people would have jobs digging our roads but no longer do it because we have mechanical diggers.

Let’s be clear about exactly what we mean by music. Only in the last few decades has music also meant something entirely different than its meaning through all of history. Music is the sound of people singing or playing instruments. This has always been true and is still true. Today it also covers the results of audio reproduction.

Governments shouldn’t play such a key role in creating so many millionaires. Protecting the music industry is probably the single most blatant action the government does to create huge inequality. Inequality exists elsewhere in society but is not so reliant on government.

Changing copyright law does not in anyway affect the ability of a musician to make an excellent living given they can charge money for live concerts. It’s up to you how you get into a secured music venue but buying a ticket is the easiest. I’ve already covered that musicians can already make a lot more money charging for concerts if they charge the optimum price using an online auction in this post on ticket touts and gig ticket prices.

Music celebrities are rarely good role models. We don’t need to make immoral people so powerful.

Intellectual property is a difficult subject. It’s a lot easier to justify allowing inventors to reap the rewards of their creations through patents considering what they have given society. It’s not so easy to justify it for music.

There are other ways for musicians to make money. Let’s not pretend music is some sacred art and consider placing sponsored adverts into the lyrics. It’s how others earn a living.

The vast majority of music is simply a rehash of other music that went before anyway. The lines of who really deserves the rewards for a lot of music is extremely blurred. It’s a strange concept to create enforcable rights simply for the reason that it is a creation of a human. New words, sometimes slang, are creations of people yet we do not create enforcable rights based on these.

What’s really ridiculous is that a lot of these millionaire musicians are still not happy even with the existing laws! They want an extension to the 50-year royalties period to make even more money! Unbelievable.

Music fans are dedicated people and they know they can get the music for free if they want it yet seem to be happy to give the muscians on a voluntary basis as Radiohead showed.

Record companies use unfair practices to distort the free market by lobbying government to ban parallel imports. My post on parallel importing of CDs goes into more detail on this travesty.

Copyright rules can still be enforced between complicit parties without laws. Musicians and other parties can still agree contracts regulated by 3rd parties to manage disputes and infringments. For example, rival broadcasters could agree to enforce copyright between themselves.

All this keeps the money in the pockets of the people who can spend it to create more justifiable parts of an economy. There is no danger of music itself being harmed by the end of music copyright. Some people’s careers will be ended by this but that’s starts the story in the middle because these laws should never have been created or enforced in the first place.

ylotana project asked:


Bridging Cultural Divides Through Music

Although many people believe that birds are the only animals that sing, science shows that this is not the case.  All kinds creatures, both large and small, perform vocalizations that could be considered as song.  Whales, one of the largest mammals on earth, sing to their offspring and to each other. Gibbon monkeys, who mate for life, often sing duets as something of an identifier.  Even certain species of squirrels sing to ward off predators.  These vocalizations act as a form of communication that can convey a myriad of ideals and thoughts to other creatures.  Without the ability to form words, these animals intentions are made clear, and in many cases, are well respected.

Man can learn a thing or two from the animal kingdom, as it would appear that song can be utilized as a language that can be understood by anyone.  In a way, we have mastered the art of communication in this regard via vehicles like opera.  Even if one doesn’t speak a word of Italian, one can be moved by the emotions conveyed on stage by the talented actors. We can apply these methods to reach across the aisle and foster understanding in different lands.  While many people believe that these types of ideals are fanciful at best, teaching the world to sing in perfect harmony is an ideal whose time has come. What can be a nobler or more worthy challenge for a musician than using their talent to affect positive change? By taking a page from nature itself, we can use music to take down the barriers that have kept the world apart.  In this way, we can take a brave step forward towards a future free of the dark animosities that we currently accept as an inherent aspect of human behavior.

Anatoly Podkopov

Ylotana Project

www.ylotana.com

ivaylo yordanov asked:


Music is beyond love. No one says yuck to music. It has been there since the world originated. European concerts and music festivals have always been in the air for quite some time. They are simply mind blowing. This immense love for music paved way to the various concerts happening in all parts of Europe. People enjoying their holidays love to be in one of this music live for more leisure and amusement.

As a result, the past and present decades were marked by immense number of music festivals. Now, this is never meant for rich people alone. You can grab the tickets in cheap rates through online. All you have to be aware is of advance booking. An exceptional characteristic of these Holiday carnivals is that the trainers, associates of world celebrated foursomes, time after time take part in the crowds they are preparing.

European concerts have stupendous performances and operas in fabulous settings. Other characteristics include the housing in sumptuousness or four star centrally established hotels. Other than music, the tickets also endow connoisseur banquets in a gregarious, relaxed ambience. There is no need to worry about sightseeing. Plenty of spots are ready to be visited by the people joining the operas.

Music alone will never bore the audience. The musicians change and there are friendly get-togethers with high-status concerts in Europe. The tickets include the opportunity of live music, concerts, training for part-time musicians with associates of principal Czech quartets. Indeed, there are additional buffets and parties to explore the liveliness.

Vienna is spotted as the magnificent musical city. Here too, there is good music concerts accompanied with the Schloss Laudon. You can meet the musicians individually with permission. There is less-priced ticket available here. Viable cuisines for different nationalities are encountered on ease.

It was in 2007, the first European festival took place. For the year of 2009, this event is to be launched in Munich. European music festivals usually are conducted during the summers. They are of course targeted on a unique crowd, the sole musical lovers. The superior occasions are provided for people of all modes. Almost certainly the most well-known music festival of all occasion is Woodstock which is the standard through which the rest are estimated.

United Kingdom music festivals are by and large extra music centered. Glastonbury Festival aims mainly at Guitar Bands as well as Rock n Roll. V Festival at the same time aims on the same mode of music with added stage shows and street party ambiance. The season for UK festival time is mainly during May to June.

United States of America’s Festivals is inclined to be further relied on special contributors for example the Warp Tour. The market for music never fades and instead they bounce back with more energy and liveliness. The reasons might be the busy life and people wish to hang out in musical concerts that are happening all over Europe in which they can perceive their famous stars on real.

Harry Rackers asked:


 

Lots of people download music and movies using file sharing software. Especially young people, those who grew up with Internet, find it totally normal to download music. Most of them are very adept at finding their kind of music and downloading it straight to their PC.

Online piracy has cut into national music sales by nearly a third since 1999, sending record and film revenues into a downward spiral, which hits everyone in the industry hard, from the record store clerks, songwriters, and technicians, to the artists themselves. Sometimes referred to as P2P, file sharing applications like the original Napster are a virtual treasure trove of music, movies, and software. If you use P2P software to download music, movies, or software, you may also be sharing those files to others.

Increasingly frustrated by the rise of illegal downloading, the music and film industries have been making examples of individual file-swappers. During the past year, the music and film industries have been bombarding colleges and universities with notices of illegal downloads of music and movie files by students. Recently, the music industry filed suit against four college students across the country, seeking billions of dollars in damages.

Despite all these lawsuits targeting campus pirates, more than half of all college students still download music and movies illegally, according to the University of Richmond’s Intellectual Property Institute. The music industry is fighting a losing battle to stop this downloading; they should realize that it is impossible to stop the downloading of music, it will only grow. Trying to stop it is a dead end street, it is much better to use the Internet.

Many musicians, artists, and software developers are changing the way they do business and are providing their works on the Internet for free. Maybe this is the way it should be. Musicians could make their money with performing, they could use the Internet to promote their music, and so they can charge more for their concerts. In the future they could even use the Internet to broadcast their live shows and in this way make more from a single concert. Then they still have a lot of other money making opportunities, for example commercials. A lot of musicians make a lot of money this way.

What ever the future brings, no one knows, but it is pretty sure that downloading of music for free from the Internet is here to stay, and the musician of today will be better of if they understand this and use it to their advantage.

hitfixcom asked:

The Time Travelers Wife is based on the best-selling book about a love that transcends time. Clare (Rachel McAdams) has been in love with Henry (Eric Bana) her entire life. She believes they are destined to be together, even though she never knows when they will be separated: Henry is a time traveler—cursed with a rare genetic anomaly that causes him to live his life on a shifting timeline, skipping back and forth through his lifespan with no control. Despite the fact that Henrys travels …