A great profile by Paul Resnikoff.

Get past the street-tough imagery and braggadocio, and 50 Cent is actually one of the most well-run, well-conceived business entities in music. And like Jay-Z, he also one of the most wealthy.

Spawned by Dr. Dre and Eminem and one the highest-selling rappers of all time, 50 Cent is actually less a rapper, and more a company. In fact, he is one of the most highly-successful examples of a 360-degree artist today, and a template for future artist business models.

In an earlier era, artists would shy away from advertising and sponsorship deals. A tie-in with a major company was usually viewed as a sellout, and often resulted in a major credibility hit. That has changed dramatically, though rappers were never haunted by that sellout demon.

Instead, the opposite is true - rappers are often unabashed capitalist warriors beating the system, and rapping about their exploits. And 50 Cent - who famously survived nine gunshots at close range - recently entered a monetary stratosphere that few enjoy.

Sure, 50 is a mega-platinum seller, and a staple of popular culture. But the rapper, and those orchestrating his career, are mostly focused on pursuing revenues through any channel, instead of simply maximizing record sales. And the moneymaking possibilities are only limited by the creativity of the entrepreneurs involved.

In fact, during the past twelve months, 50 Cent netted $150 million, according to a Forbes estimate. A major percentage of that payout came from an interesting deal with VitaminWater owner Glaceau, purchased by Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion. 50, as part of a broader sponsorship deal, cashed Glaceau shares for an estimated $100 million after taxes.

That adds to an existing stable of other business divisions, including a G-Unit clothing line, a boutique recording label, and even a stab into gaming. “The financials of the music business have changed to the point that we have to find ways to make money in other places,” 50 Cent brand manager Barry Williams recently told Forbes. “I didn’t think six years ago when we started trying to sell music that we’d be selling VitaminWater and shoes and clothes. Now we’re moving into other directions, and four or five years from now, it’s exciting to think about us looking at natural resources and raw materials and other businesses.”

The natural resources discussion could potentially produce a 50-branded series of platinum jewels. The rapper is now entertaining a deal with South African mining billionaire Patrice Motsepe, another creative exploitation of the 50 Cent image that goes way beyond a simple album release.

Of course, 50 Cent is unique entrepreneur and performer, and an extreme example of success. And every successful, 360-degree artist forges a unique business model, one that plays into the strengths of the artist and considers the target audience carefully. But in the modern music industry, the ultra-successful artist is one that successfully exploits a broad portfolio of revenue generators, and approaches the situation like a diversified business. That is the reality of the modern music industry, one that demands just as much business ingenuity as artist creativity.

More here at Digital Music News.

Discussions of imaginary barlines tend to get very mathematical. It’s easier to think of them in terms of clarifying syncopation.

An imaginary barline is a notation convention designed to help the music reader know what’s syncopated—off the beat—and what’s not. It’s not an actual notation mark; it is an understanding and a notation convention.

In 4/4, the imaginary barline separates beats 1 and 2 from beats 3 and 4. Only whole notes and non-syncopated half and dotted half notes can be notated as “crossing the imaginary barline.” No other note durations can cross them. Rather, they must be rewritten as pairs of tied notes, with beat 3 being shown. This makes the notation much easier to read.

So, these are acceptable:

The ones below are not acceptable. Again, the reason is that the notes crossing the imaginary barline disguise the fact that the music is syncopated.

Much easier to follow are the following revisions. The notes are tied, and the target note of the tie re-articulates beat 3, and thus clarifies where the syncopation lies.

In some Latin music, there is a notable notation exception to this convention: bass lines with the following syncopated rhythm. But this is a rare acceptable exception to the general rule.

Beams never cross imaginary barlines. Some publishers group beats on each side of it together, while others begin new beam groups on every beat. These are other ways to clarify the metric organization.

These are correct:

These are incorrect:

Similarly, beams are used to clarify other meters besides 4/4, and the other rules of imaginary barlines also apply to them. Many of these signatures can be interpreted in a variety of ways, and thoughtful beaming can greatly clarify how the music is to be performed. Again, it’s about clarifying subdivisions and which beats are emphasized. Meters have subdivisions every two or three beats, and more complex time signatures (e.g., 7/8, 12/8) might have multiple imaginary barlines to consider. Below, the beams show how some other meters are commonly organized. Other options are available.

This concept of clarifying syncopations also applies when you drill down deeper, into smaller divisions of the measure. For example, this notation clarifies beat 2, and thus the fact that the notation is off the beat. This is a clear way to write that rhythm because the relationship between the sounding notes and the meter is clarified, via the tie.

Here, however, the syncopation is more difficult to figure out, and thus, to be avoided.

These “rules” of notation help make music as easy to read, and thus, interpret. When the notation follows the music’s intent, it becomes much easier for the reader to understand, especially at a glance.

Derek is the musician who started CD Baby, the world’s largest online music store for independent musicians. Here are some current stats from the site:

- 242,846 artists sell their music at CD Baby
- 4,574,622 CDs sold online to customers
- $83,590,381 paid directly to the artists

With more than 2 million digitized tracks under management, CD Baby is also the largest provider of independent music for iTunes… and it all started as a hobby. A lot to learn here.

Here is a recent interview between Derek and Tim Ferris, author of the hugely popular book The Four Hour Workweek.

Here is another presentation by my co-author Gerd Leonhard on “The Future”. It is a little long (63 mins) but very interesting and inspiring. Anyone seeking to understand how to make money in the face of free music should watch this very carefully, and learn.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

That’s the motto that’s inspired the current hot trend in music publishing (and in the record business as well). Since none of the experts in the industry can seem to figure out a way to actually sell music to the public, the savvy players are now looking for help, and the people they’re reaching out to are not music business experts, or even others in the entertainment world. Instead, they’re going to those who do know how to sell products effectively: the marketing and advertising whiz kids behind successful consumer brands and retail stores. Given our meager success recently in selling music as music, or even music as entertainment, it’s probably only natural that now we try to sell music as a brand.

Having been at Zomba Music Publishing and Jive Records during the reign of the teen pop trinity of Backstreet Boys, Britney, and *NSYNC, I had the opportunity to witness some of the early forays into cross-marketing efforts between music and consumer brands– in those glory days, we put music in cereal boxes, made special CD’s for McDonalds and Burger King, and partnered with everyone from Coca-Cola to Nickelodeon. I remember doing A&R for a teen girl group and receiving the news that we had just obtained a partnership with Ragu (the tomato sauce). Never did figure out how that tied together.

But today, publishers are pushing it even further. The latest move is a the idea of the branded CD, with publishing companies creating special collections of music in partnership with a variety of consumer brands, to be sold either along with the product itself, or in specific retail outlets. A recent Billboard article, “Publish or Perish” describes a wild array of ideas:

Cherry Lane is releasing a disc of music around “Hello Kitty”.
Primary Wave is partnering with Lancôme at cosmetic counters.
SonyATV France joined with Ben & Jerry’s (do you think the writers got paid in free ice cream?)

The motivating factor here is the desire to get music to the right target audience, by drawing on the expertise of companies that are experts in reaching that particular group of people. If your music appeals to trendy teenage females of a particular demographic, you could expend great effort and expense to get a song on the radio and a record in the stores, and then hope that your advertising campaign drives those coveted young girls toward your product. Or you could join with Hello Kitty, who clearly has a direct line to the trendy teen female market.

It’s all a pretty good theory, although to be fair, it’s not foolproof. I remember another young girl group, when I was with Sony Music that was placed into a partnership with the company that made Troll dolls– those weird little furry-haired plastic men. Not exactly a match made in heaven. The trick in making these branding efforts work is the same trick that usually makes an act or song successful at radio or anywhere else. In order to brand your music effectively, you have to accurately identify your target audience. For most songwriter/publishers, this is a challenge all by itself.

Here’s a quick exercise to jump-start your own songwriter/publisher branding campaign:

Do your own audience analysis. Start with some homework– read Radio & Records, Hits, or an advertising magazine like Adweek to get a clear idea of the demographics of the target audience your music will appeal to. Then take it a step further. What kinds of magazines does your target audience read? What TV shows do they watch? What clothing brands do they wear? Where do they eat? Who are the celebrity trendsetters that your audience tends to follow?

The reason that Lancôme, Hello Kitty and other brands can so successfully reach their consumer is largely because of endless, incessant research. I remember having a meeting with representatives of the Barbie brand (who strangely enough, all bore a remarkable and rather eerie resemblance to the doll itself) as they explained quite confidently that they knew and could predict changes in every aspect of the lifestyle of a girl between the ages of 5-10. How? By studying them with the same intensity that the guy in the white coat watches his lab rats.

It stands to reason that a songwriter/publisher should have that same knowledge. You are never writing songs for a general audience. Whether you’re writing for urban, AC, country, or smooth jazz, you need to understand specifically who the audience for that particular music is. If your songs aren’t relevant to that target market, they won’t stand a chance in the branding world.

Once you know exactly who your market is, it’s not that hard to begin to identify opportunities. Just look at who advertises in those magazines or on the TV shows that your audience favors. Look at what stores sell the clothes that your audience wears. What restaurants serve the food that your fans eat? These are your potential branding partners. It can be anyone from a top Vegas casino to Cracker Barrel restaurants, from a pricey perfume to a Troll doll. The key is in the fit.

Are you a purist? Does the very thought of connecting that closely to a major brand send shivers down your spine? I get it. To be honest, it’s not my favorite thing either– which probably says more about my age than my scruples. But let me put it in perspective. When Britney Spears did a special CD with McDonalds, the label (and the publishers involved) were guaranteed sales of 2 million units. How many other times in the music business can you count on selling 2 million units? A songwriter friend of mine, Steve Diamond recently placed a song on a Reba McEntire album done specifically for Hallmark– the guarantee was very similar, with all songs earning the full mechanical rate. That’s hard to beat in the current music market.

Most of us didn’t get into music because we were expert salesmen. So maybe it’s not such a bad idea to partner with the people who are. Business is business. If you can’t beat ‘em, join the brand.

‘Publish’ is a word we often throw around without really clarifying what it means. We might say ‘I’d like to get this song published’, but really what we mean is that we’d like to get the song recorded by an artist selling records, or placed in TV or Film or other media situation. As a songwriter, if we’re ‘published’ it can mean that the songwriter has a contract with a company whose job is to market his/her songs to the people who have a need for those songs – basically artists or other companies looking to use the music for various media purposes. Or, ‘published’ can also refer to just one song, a single-song-contract between a writer and a company interested in getting that one song placed in a film or TV show, or recorded by an artist.

Being ‘published’ may seem like a goal, but it’s actually just a means to an end. Whether we’re backed by a publishing company or not, we still need to bust our butts to continue to push our own music. It is in the publisher’s interest to push our music down the various avenues they have access to, but it’s our job as the writers to manage our careers in the direction we want. Sometimes acting as our own publisher is the best decision we can make for ourselves. If we’re making connections by attending industry functions, getting to know other artists and writers in our area, and working to circulate our own music by playing clubs, house concerts, benefits, our best-friend’s brother’s son’s Bar Mitzvah, and so on, we are doing the business of a label and publisher. The end result is that our songs are out there in the mix, floating upon the ears of those who need the music we create.

When I first started, I got my songs into the hands of other songwriters by handing them a cassette tape. Back then Myspace wasn’t around, and people didn’t rely on MP3’s sent over email instead of a tangible CD or cassette. I hung out in music stores, I met anyone I could at restaurants and clubs who performed or wrote music, handing out my business card and a few tunes everywhere I went. As a result of those initial meetings, my network grew and soon I was co-writing with friends of friends, with some unsigned writers and some signed writers. My goal was to get hired at a publishing company. Since I had no direct contacts with the Faith Hills and Tim McGraws of the world, I believed I needed a publisher to bridge that sizable gap. It’s true that a publisher can get you through some doors previously unapproachable to you. But, it’s also true that with determination and creativity, and a shining personality, you can begin to connect the dots yourself. Don’t let a publishing deal or a label deal hold you back from the true goal – getting your songs to the artists who want to record them and the listeners who want to enjoy them. Assess the contacts you have and start there, building up. Even if you have practically no contacts, start by taking a course in songwriting online, or taking a few vocal or guitar lessons at your local community college. Get involved in your greater metropolitan songwriting community. Get in the mindset that you have something valuable to offer, and you’ll be amazed how those who need your gift emerge from your corner of the world.

Daniel Levitin, author of “This is Your Brain on Music” has a new book entitled “The World in Six Songs.” In it, he says there are just six types of song in all music throughout the ages, and they help tell a story of music and human evolution.

Those six types are:

- Friendship/Social bonding
- Joy
- Comfort
- Knowledge
- Religion
- Love

To hear more about his findings, including some interesting studies on the body’s chemical reaction to music, listen to this ON POINT interview on NPR online. In it, Daniel Levitin shares findings about music and the brain.

I’m not big on television. As a matter of fact, about the only screen time I get is when I’m captive in a hotel room on family trips. As I’m now headed home after twelve days in Scotland, there one TV image that keeps coming back… a Samsung cellphone commercial where a DJ captures the sound of different sporting events, loads them in a beat box and loops them, making a very cool groove with these "found" sounds. See below:

At the beginning of the twentieth century a composer named Luigi Russolo authored a manifesto called The Art of Noises, where he called for a new pallet of sounds for music that would reflect a more modern time. The early 20th century way of pulling this off was to bring bells, sirens, and motorized gadgets on stage with an orchestra –check out George Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique. While this served as the inspiration for a minor musical movement in the 1920’s, the whole idea soon faded away. That is until samplers came along in the 1980’s. Once the sample genie was let out of the bottle, everyone from rappers to synth poppers made music out of any sound you could imagine.

So what makes this Samsung commercial so compelling to me? It’s really remarkable that an idea that was so radical in the last century can now be put front and center before a prime-time, mass market audience on mainstream TV. The idea that you can grab just about any sound, loop it and make music may be familiar to electronic musicians, but putting in front of the summer’s biggest ad market is pretty darn cool.

Has anyone else seen this?

Student’s who are not in my Remixing with Pro Tools and Reason course often ask me where they can find material to download for remixing. Below is a list of my favorite sites. Most of the sites require you to sign up, but it’s well worth the effort.

For a cappellas (vocals only versions):
Acapellas4u.co.uk (One of the best free a cappella sites on the Web.)
Beastieboys.com/remixer (All the Beastie Boys acas you’ll ever need!)
Vocalsonly.com (If you want something original, not a commercially released aca, you’ll find it here.)

For contests and breakout tracks (short stereo loops):
Acidplanet.com/contests (An oldie but a goodie.)
Beatport.com (Both independent and name artists regularly offer breakout tracks for remixing, some are for free and some will cost you.)
Peaceloveproductions.com (Mostly indie artists offering breakout tracks for free.)
Realworldremixed.com (A personal favorite. Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records offers select artist tracks for your remixing pleasure. Talk about having the opportunity to get in on the ground floor!)

Of course, there are many other sites with tasty tracks to download for remixing too. If you know of one, or more, please share them. And, of course, don’t forget about my book, The Complete Guide to Remixing.

Learning that’s fun is impactful and lasting. For years, Beethoven’s Wig has provided a fun path to learning about classical music for children.

Today, Beethoven’s Wig 4 was released and once again, it is where humor, classical music, and music education come together as one. And this time, to the delight of children and families everywhere, the collection is based on famous dance pieces.

The previous three Beethoven’s Wig CDs have won 40 national awards, and garnered Grammy® Award nominations in 2003, 2005 and 2007. The Sing Along Symphonies were featured on NBC’s Today show and National Public Radio’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Beethoven’s Wig 4 is sure to follow similar acclaim… the music is wonderful, the lyrics are so clever, funny and inventive, and the cover art is incredible: Saturday Night Fever meets Beethoven… Great stuff! Beethoven’s Wig 4 is simply wonderful and should be part of every family’s music collection and every music educator’s classroom. Highly recommended.

When it’s time to record a few tunes, it can be a daunting task to decide how to go about it. Over the years I’ve learned a few hard lessons, and I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned from the perspective of an artist and songwriter recording her own material. To make sure I’ve got my facts straight, I’ve asked my long-term recording engineer Jan Teddy to help me out.

Major facilities are appealing in that they offer the gear and the service we’d like, but can place somewhat of a strain on our budget. Home studios are great if the system is working and we’re well versed in how to achieve the sound we need from production to engineering. But as anyone who has built a home studio knows, it often takes a huge time investment with a long learning curve to come to the point we’re recording our music without too much resistance from technology and the process.

In my most frustrated moments, I’ll admit I’ve wished technology had stopped growing with the introduction of the 4-track tape. Fortunately for me and many other artists and songwriters recording their material, my wishes don’t come true and we can get close to the sound of a major facility right in our basement or office, at least in terms of the equipment. The know-how of an experienced engineer/producer is unfortunately not duplicated quite as easily. I have a few opinions based on personal experience and the experience of colleagues that I’d like to share on choosing and building a recording process. However, as with everything you read, do your own research and learn from those around you as well as take into account your own experiences. My thoughts here are only guidelines, and so please use this information to strengthen your craft and business rather than limit it.

One mistake I have made myself and watch other songwriters make is going out and buying a recording system that requires more of an investment than the buyer is willing to make. I’m not only talking about money but rather time and energy into the art itself of recording. Recording, arranging, editing and mixing as well as production are arts that are as deeply complex as writing great songs time after time, and so it can be very wise to get real about your expectations. As many years as you’ve dedicated to becoming a better writer is how many years someone skilled in mix engineering has dedicated to being a good mixer. Now, that’s not to say you can’t be both a decent songwriter and producer, or songwriter and mix engineer. However, being great in more than one of these disciplines is unusual. Also, you are depriving yourself of the second or outside opinion which is part of the producer’s job description. Particularly with songs you have lived with and played for a long time, your objectivity in terms of quality control and emotional impact will most likely be limited. And if your approach to the recording arts is not as intuitive as your writing, there is a good chance you will experience the frustration of having sunk a hefty down-payment into a system that left you screaming into your pillow at night, unable to make music for lack of an understanding of the gear.

The degree to which you outfit your studio can depend a lot on budget as well. There is a wide range of hardwares and softwares out there that all offer the same basic service, but to varying degrees of financial investment. Technology is constantly changing, and what was cutting edge one year may be old news 6 months later. The important thing to remember is that trying to stay current with the latest gear may only leave your pockets empty and your studio constantly under renovation. Don’t let your gear determine what you want to create with your music, but let your music determine what you need from your gear. In the end, the best studio for you is one that allows you to create the music you want to create. For some, that’s a more serious personal studio, and for others, it’s just the bare bones.

Below are some options you might consider when researching a studio setup that’s right for you. I’ve listed some prices next to the options as ballpark figures.

Personal Studio Option 1 (about $1500)
-Apple iMac ($1000)
-Digidesign Mbox Mini ($250)
-Rode NT1-A ($250)

Personal Studio Option 2 (about $3,000)
-Apple MacBook ($1500)
-Firewire Hard Drive such as Gtech ($300)
-Digidesign Mbox 2 or M-Powered ($400)
-Shure SM58 ($150)
-Rode NT2000 ($600)
-Headphones ($50)

Serious Personal Studio (about $6,500)
-Apple MacBook Pro ($2000)
-Firewire Hard Drive such as Gtech ($300)
-Less “High Performance) Firewire Hard Drive for backup ($100)
-Digidesign 002 or 003 ($1200)
-API LunchBox w/API 512c x 2 ($2,000)
-Rode NT2000 ($600)
-Rode NT4 ($500)
-Headphones x 2 ($100)
-Pop Filter ($25)
-Mic Stand ($25)

As you can see above, some of the elements of a personal studio are:
-Computer (Mac or PC)
-Computer Performance (RAM, Hard Drive)
-Audio Interface (Motu, RME, Frontier Designs, M-audio, Presonus, Apogee)
-Optional Pre-Amp (API, Manley, Universal Audio, Focusrite)
-Microphones (Neumann, Shure/AKG, Rode, Peluso, Studio Projects, etc.)
-Accessories (Pop Filter, DI, Mic Stand, Headphones, etc.)

Then there are software options to consider:

Softwares include Apple Garage Band, Fruity Loops for starters, and Ableton Live or Propellerheads Reason for a little more well-rounded approach. You may have heard of DigiDesign Pro Tools LE/M/HD, which is the industry standard, proprietary. Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo, Apple Logic (which is mac only), and MOTU Digital Performer are all softwares used by professionals in major facilities, as well as more serious home or project studios. The main point of having specifically Protools in your studio is a matter of compatibility, since they have been the guys that have been there from the very beginning, and are therefore the most widely distributed software/hardware solution. Many great records have been made on Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer, etc. These software solutions are quite comparable to ProTools, especially the LE version, but there is something to be said for the ability to go back and forth between your home studio and a world class facility without compatibility headaches. The other consideration to be made are driver conflicts … it just doesn’t matter how good the software feels, and your hardware sounds if they don’t play well together. Yet again a point for Digidesign’s ProTools, since hardware and software are specifically created for each other.
Frequently, audio interfaces will actually come with a lite version (really a teaser) of a particular software. Play with that and see if it appeals to the way you think, work, and create. After spending about 100 hours with it and things still feel awkward, maybe it’s time to try something else.

If all this seems a little overwhelming to you, (and there’s no shame in simply being a great songwriter), I encourage you to become familiar with the most basic recording setups, read a couple books, and stay clear of too many radical commentaries in online recording newsgroups/blog sites. Most of the guys that I really want to hear opinions from are busy …making records Whether you find yourself at your friend’s house recording, or at a major facility, you’ll be glad you took the time to understand a little about signal flow, patchbays, compression, microphone basics, etc. You’ll be able to empathize a bit more with the engineer tracking your session as well.

If you do choose to go the way of a major facility, consider your options here, too. How much you shell out for those gleaming platinum-record lined hallways depends on how much time you spend there. The more you rehearse before the studio, the more money you’ll save. Studios charge by the day, sometimes by the hour, whichever you’ve working out with them, and the cost can range from $50 - $250 per hour. Many times day rates are less expensive. My advice would be hiring and engineer that works in that particular room all the time. For one, it will ensure that the engineer frequently works in high end facilities, and at the same time this person will know the ins and outs of that particular room. That will save time and save you money. Most larger studios will be able to connect you with an engineer like this.

You might decide to record a solo demo if you’re a singer/songwriter, thus cutting out the cost of hiring a full band. You might decide to use a full band but only record an EP instead of a full album. Fewer songs mean less time investment and less money.

In my experience, I’m happier with the final product when I’ve done adequate pre-production, over-budgeted the time it will take to record, and hired musicians capable of achieving the sound I want. I would personally rather record two songs with musicians and an engineer I can count on in a decent facility, than record 4 songs in an expensive facility with buddies of mine who mean well but can’t execute what I need them to get on tape. For you, the situation may be different, but I encourage you to give it some thought. The more you know going into the recording process, the better your experiences throughout this exciting leap into the next phase of your music career.

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So you thought the record business was bad?

Turns out that the record label’s best friend/worst enemy is doing as bad or worse— these are tough times in radio-land. News came out this week that CBS, the number 2 operator in the country, is selling 50 of its mid-market radio stations. This comes on the heels of a mass of lay-offs across the radio industry and news of continuing declines in audience. If you think that this is just a natural shift from the old and stodgy commercial radio format to the more progressive, forward-thinking world of satellite and Internet radio, don’t be so sure– Sirius and XM are desperate to merge, as they’re barely surviving as well.

For record labels, songwriters, artists, producers, and others who rely on broadcasters to get their music out to the public, the decline of the radio industry brings on a strange mix of conflicting emotions: it’s hard not to enjoy seeing Clear Channel and their likes getting their comeuppance; it’s hard not to think that the rampant corruption in the radio biz has at least something to do with its current condition; it’s difficult to imagine how declining revenues and tighter budgets could do anything but squeeze playlists even tighter and make risk-taking more unlikely; and it’s unfortunately still impossible to offer up any solutions for alternative ways to expose new music that has the power to create a superstar overnight in the way that radio does. For the music industry, radio is the ally that you can’t live with or without. As frustrating as it is, nothing sells music more effectively than radio play.

The truth is, radio is not much different than any other declining industry. Whether it’s a Big Three automaker, a major record label, or a radio conglomerate, there are three inescapable observations:

1. Despite any number of outside factors affecting the business, most industries in decline have no one to blame but themselves for the bulk of their problems. Corporate arrogance, malfeasance, blindness to future trends, an unwillingness to give the consumer what he or she wants– not surprisingly, all of these factors usually lead to disaster, whether you’re in the business of making mortgage loans, recording music, or running a Top 40 station in Boise.

2. While acknowledging that most declining businesses are reaping their own just rewards, it’s impossible not to notice that a huge number of good, honest, smart, hard-working and devoted people are being dragged down in the process. In fact, those most likely to lose their job or even their career in an industry downturn are rarely those who are actually responsible for orchestrating the disaster. It seems like the guy who drives the bus off the cliff is rarely aboard when it’s going into a free-fall.

3. The way out of an industry slide is not more conservative corporate thinking, number crunching, and centralization. The only hope for reversing a business gone bad is risk-taking, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit. Doing more of what got you into the mess in the first place is generally not a sound strategy– although it seems to be a very popular one.

When it comes to the broadcast business, it’s clear that it wasn’t the Internet, or satellite radio, or anything else that killed the radio-star. The wounds have largely been self-inflicted. The destruction of the radio business began more than a decade ago, with the move toward consolidation championed by Clear Channel and others, and signed off on by the US government, which transformed the radio business from one of small local fiefdoms controlled by small to mid-size companies, into a national media business at the mercy of a few massive corporate conglomerates. Like most of these kinds of moves, cheered on by the investment banking community, the plan looked better on paper than it played out.

If you want to understand why it didn’t work, check out Jerry Del Colliano’s blog, “Inside Music Media”, and his Friday, August 1 posting “The CBS Radio Firesale”. In it, he points out bluntly:

“Playing by Wall Street rules has nailed the coffin shut… Too much consolidation and not enough operation has led to a once vigorous industry too bloated to take advantage of opportunities in the new media. Consolidation failed for too many reasons to get into here. But can we agree on that? If it had worked, the industry would either be more vibrant now or it would be aggressively present in the world of new media. Instead, it’s MIA.”

Or if you want a more visceral explanation of what happened, just turn on the dial. If you’re hearing a lot of generic, personality-free programming that sounds like it was dreamed up by a computer in some central office, that’s because it was. Corporate consolidation has exorcised much of the regional, quirky, unpredictable charm right out of radio, and created something only a corporate control-freak could love. Radio programmers that were once crucial creative players in the music industry, willing to use their own personal taste and a knowledge of their local market to take chances on new music, have now been hamstrung by a corporate environment that relies on endless audience testing, centralized decision-making, and rigid playlists.

I was out to dinner last week with several people still alive and thriving in the radio biz, and the conversation was enough to terrify anyone who loves music or radio, or at least recognizes the vital role that radio plays in the music industry. Tales were swapped about how in today’s environment, major Top 40 channels in markets as large as Miami are actually being programmed out of Los Angeles. Lists were compiled of groundbreaking Music Directors now hunting for jobs. A dire inside news scoop was shared that Clear Channel is soon planning to eliminate Music Directors entirely, and program everything based on one national playlist– a decision that would be in direct violation of commitments made at the time that permission for consolidation was granted.

Certainly, it doesn’t take much foresight to see how the scenario of a national playlist passed down to all Clear Channel stations would limit the opportunities for new music, particularly from indie labels. But that’s not that worst part of the picture.

The worst thing is that it won’t work. Just as Guy Hands at EMI is already starting to see that creating and selling music is not the same as marketing household cleaning products, the corporate radio operators will learn (as they already should have) that creating engaging radio entertainment is not done in a rigidly controlled, number-crunching, risk-averse environment. You don’t succeed in a creative business by being un-creative. You succeed by being more creative– as messy and unruly and unpredictable as that process is. Just as with the rest of the music industry, the hope of the future lies with the little guys, not the big ones. Let’s just hope that there’s something left of the industry for those creative entrepreneurs to work with, by the time the big operators get bored enough or broke enough to finally walk away.

I recently received an email from a songwriter bringing up a very important idea in the world of songwriting called ‘write what you know.’ It sounds so obvious, but in fact it’s one of the most difficult ideas when trying to make a living writing songs.

I’d like to describe this idea of ‘writing what you know’ in terms of my own experiences. As an unsigned writer in a new town trying to establish a career as a songwriter, my ears were keenly perked to the styles of music and lyric that rode the radio waves in my industry. Back then it was Nashville, and so I my plan was to dive right into the types of songs that were making it as singles and basically write my version of them. This was always a frustrating endeavor. Just when I’d think I’d get the groove down, acceptable lyric material, and some good melodic ideas, I’d realize I’d be writing too close to the original. Even if I managed to draw a clear line between my tune and the one that inspired it, I was left with something that was an excellent caricature rather than an innovative trend-setter. Another problem was that the songs I’d be attempting to write like were old by the time they were released. I was always 9 months to a year behind the trends. The final blow was realizing that while an artist may have had a hit single with a song, they wouldn’t necessarily want to release another a year later with the same message and sound. It was a good exercise in capturing the essence of a song, but a poor direction for writing truly believable and innovative tunes.

As is often the case with new writers, it took me awhile to figure out that the key to my success as a songwriter would be in writing music and lyric that moved me. When I wrote what was important or significant to me, I ended up with a product I was happy with and an experience that moved my listeners. Understanding how my songs could fit within the commercial market took time and intense listening and study. Sometimes my writing would sway on the side of art songs, expressing my own artist’s voice but falling short of any commercial potential. Sometimes I’d flip-flop the other way, hitting the commercial elements but losing a bit of my own artistry. The process of hitting both the commercial market and expressing my own voice as an artist took many songs to grasp, and I’m still faced with the challenge each time I sit down to write. My most successful songs are those where I become the character, I step into the emotions of the singer. The topics though not always a frame from my own life, are deeply personal. I project how I would feel, move, think, and be in the situation I present in the song. That’s quite a vulnerable expression and takes some level of guts. More than that, it takes a level of honesty, revealing some intimate emotions I might only share with close friends. But that’s the power of music, isn’t it? It connects us at our deepest fibers where we may be uncomfortable connecting any other way.

This is where the idea of ‘write what you know’ comes into play. I may not know much about tractors, ex-husbands, or dive bars, and if I attempt to write country music from any of those perspectives, I may wind up with a fairly watered down idea. It’s not the theme that makes a song settle into a particular genre. It’s the artist/writer who draws from his/her own experiences giving that theme believability. At least that’s how I see it.

When I write, lyrics are a very important part of my songs. Relationships are a common theme in my tunes. That’s not to say that I often write love songs or break-up songs, but to say that the themes I tend to know about revolve around personal connection. It is an extension of what I value in life. In this sense, every song I write is deeply personal whether it’s an expression of an actual event or something imagined.

Think about your own life and what you hold close to you. What do you know a lot about? If you work a day-job, immerse yourself in a hobby, give your time, money, your resources to campaigns you care about, how do those feed into the perspective with which you see the world? What if you write from that perspective, creating connection from where you are now? Recognizing the extraordinary in the ordinary has sent thousands of songs to the tops of the charts – and the bottoms of people’s hearts.

I hope you find the courage to write what you know. I truly believe that as writers we share the most valuable part of ourselves when we write from a place of true experience. The audience can feel our honesty - just as they can feel us withholding the truth. Begin to believe that you don’t need to become someone else to the audience than who you are now. Write what you know, because no one knows it better than you.

In an industry where CD sales are tanking, the Children’s Music genre is up 38% over last year. Sales went from 12.3 million to 17.1 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Here’s a link to the article by Sam Wood from the July 27th issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled “A Fine-Tuning for Kids’ Music: Something to Sing About.”

Last week I participated in Berklee’s annual Music Technology Weekend Workshop…. basically an MTEC lovefest. This year’s group was the best in recent memory, with lots of enthusiasm and great questions. My sessions this year included a basic sound design workshop using Native Instruments Reaktor, a session on remix techniques using Pro Tools, and one on various and sundry plug-ins I call "Plug-ins You Never Heard About in School." While many of the participants at these sessions are up on the current crop of music technology products, I’m always surprised to see that there is little knowledge of what’s available outside of the mainstream industry. So, every year I scout out interesting plug-ins, that for many are off the radar, and come up with a collection of things that are unique, providing capabilities and twists that you might not see in higher profile commercial products.

One of my big points when talking to anyone about plug-ins is that anyone can build a well-stocked collection without breaking the bank, and most of the plugs on my annual list are either free or cost a nominal amount. There’s a perception that since the cost of commercial software can really add up, mere mortals have to make do with a limited pallet or, god forbid, use cracks. Not true. You just have to do a little digging and be prepared to put up with a few bumps in the road.

Now, before you get ready to load up you plug-ins folder, there’s a few things to keep in mind. Some of these plugs are beta, works in progress, or shall we say, etudes… As such, you have to adjust your expectations, and perhaps do a little head-scratching to understand what they are doing. With some of these, that might not be entirely clear to the developer. In some cases, these may not work with current operating systems, and some may just crash inexplicably. But, the rewards here are sound possibilities you won’t find elsewhere, and to a sound designer, secret weapons are everything.

What you’ll find below is a listing of the plug-ins we had a look at during my MTEC Summer Workshop presentation. As luck would have it, the August edition of Electronic Musician magazine has its own listing of cool plug-ins put together by their staff editors. You’ll see some overlap here, as well as a few things from the Windows world that I haven’t mentioned.

I’d like to do something a bit different with this blog entry. Instead of me giving you a rundown of these or let on to which happen to be my favorites, I’d like you to download some of these on your own and post a reply to this blog entry with reviews of your favorites.

In addition to the plug-ins listed here, check out the comprehensive listing found at: www.dontcrack.com.

And most of all, have fun!

The deadline for our fall term Celebrity Online Scholarship Program is this Friday, August 1st. Learn more and apply today.

Designed to reward and assist outstanding online students who demonstrate superior performance studying in Certificate Programs at Berkleemusic, these quarterly scholarships are awarded in the name of renowned music education champions. This term’s scholarships are named in honor of Alf Clausen, BT, Juan Luis Guerra, and Patty Larkin.

The student recipients of each Celebrity Online Scholarship will receive an award of $1,250 to be used towards paying their tuition and helping them achieve their goals.

The Summer 2008 scholarship honorees were:

• The Glen Ballard Award: Cindy Nelson, Vincent Russo, Frederico Oliveira, and Ronald Berard
• The Gloria Estefan Award: Alberto Ramirez, Ileana Palmieri, Stephanie Rosario, and Evangelos D. Karageorgelis
• The Mark Mothersbaugh Award: Bob Strenger, Tyler Erlandson, Jiri Janis, and Michael Paduano
• The Steve Vai Award: Andrew Bonica, Kathleen O’Halloran, Michael MacDonald, and Shane Flail

Are you the next to join this talented group of winners? Apply now.

I had a flurry of responses to a variety of recent blogs all arrive in my inbox this week. I’m not sure if everyone just suddenly decided to throw in their two cents, or whether it all happened to show up at once. It’s always great to hear from those of you who follow “Music Publishing and Songwriting”. Whether you agree, disagree, like the blog or hate it, it’s engaging to hear your thoughts and reactions.

One of the most interesting responses I received was from Mark Simos, a songwriting teacher at Berkleemusic– he wrote to share a different point of view in regards to the blog called “Hits Only, Please”. I’m excerpting here– but I’d encourage you to go back and read his comments in full, as they’re very perceptive and full of useful insight. Mark writes:

It’s absolutely true that successful hit songwriters are thinking about communication and not mere self-expression, in the sense of just “emoting” or venting emotion through their songs. But it’s important to acknowledge that this attitude is also true of great songwriters in many genres and many styles, from traditional folk, to acoustic singer-songwriters, to political songwriters, to children’s music writers, to musical theater writing. Writing radio-friendly “hit format” songs is one kind of stylistic and audience focus and choice. Writers of equal discipline, craft and integrity may also choose to write for other, admittedly smaller audiences, and in other styles and genres - yet still must think about the experience of the listener, still be thinking about communication and not just self-expression.

I make this point because I work with lots of talented young writers - and not all of them have the goal of writing, “hit songs” in current pop or country formats. I like to encourage diversity and innovation in music and songwriting. But you can also critique a narrative folk song or a jazz ballad from the standpoint of the experience created for the listener. Good writers - in any genre - study great model songs and explore why they work so well. Good writers - in any style - seek feedback on their songs, and revise them with patience and dedication.

Mark makes a great point here– and certainly, I didn’t mean to imply that the only communicators are those who write for Top Forty success. In every genre or sector of music, from musical theater to jazz to children’s music, there are those writers who bring the discipline of craftsmanship to bear on their personal expression. The point here is really how you judge your success as a songwriter, regardless of which area of music you choose to work in. The “hit” writers judge success, at least in part, by whether or not their song reaches and communicates with their target audience. The other writers are interested only in whether they have “expressed themselves” and feel good about their own song.

But where Mark is really on to something is when he points out that “writing radio-friendly, hit format songs is one kind of stylistic and audience focus and choice. Writers of equal discipline, craft and integrity may also choose to write for other, admittedly smaller audiences…and yet still must think about the experience of the listener, still be thinking about communication and not just self-expression.” The key here is that little phrase “audience focus”. If you want to identify what separates the successful songwriter from the struggling one, here’s a place to start:

Successful songwriters know their audience.

Not personally, of course. But successful songwriters in any genre have learned the same lesson that everyone else in the media and entertainment industry has learned: There is no general audience. In our increasingly fragmented world, there is very, very little that everyone likes. Even a basic newscast is right-leaning or left-leaning, hip and irreverent, or slow and wonkish, and clearly aimed at a particular age, gender, political persuasion or marketing angle.

When a songwriter tells me that his or her work “appeals to everyone”, or “crosses a lot of different genres”, or “doesn’t really fit into any category”, the songwriter is not convincing me as to the potentially universal appeal his or her music could have. The songwriter is in fact telling me that he or she has no idea who the audience for his or her songs is– and doesn’t much care. If you write musical theater songs, you are not aiming for the kids that buy rap records. If you’re writing children’s songs, 20-year-old alternative fans are not your crowd. In today’s entertainment industry, anyone that sets out to appeal to everyone will very likely reach no one at all.

If you don’t believe that, take a look at every media and entertainment company, from magazines to television networks to radio stations. Notice how precisely they target their product to a very specific audience. They don’t do it by accident. Radio stations, advertisers, movie studios and everyone else study the public constantly– watching demographic shifts, seeing how different markets are changing, monitoring how well they are reaching their target audience. If a radio station is targeted to a young, urban audience, that station will study everything about that particular lifestyle. They want to know what movies that audience watches, which stars are rising and which are fading, what clothes are in and out of style, and what cars are being bought and sold.

If it works for every other entity in the entertainment business, why would it not work for songwriters as well?

One of the first steps to success as a songwriter is to define and understand your market. For many, it’s a relatively simple process. If you’re in a band in Williamsburg that’s aimed at appealing to the Williamsburg hipster crowd, you should be able to follow your instincts about what would appeal to you and your friends. As long as you’re reasonably representative of the audience that you write for, you shouldn’t have to engage in much of a research project. Your job is simply to make sure that you stay up on what’s happening in your particular scene– so that you see trends coming and sense fashions changing before anyone else.

On the other hand, if you’re a 40-year-old guy in Nashville trying to write songs for Avril Lavigne, you’ve got a bit more of a challenge. You’re going to have to invest some time and effort in understanding the teen market, and the female demographic in particular, if you’re going to come up with something that will entertain that audience. It’s not impossible– trust me, Dr. Luke or the Matrix are well outside of Avril’s core fanbase. But when they write for her, they are focused on targeting ideas that appeal to that particular demographic and communicate on that audience’s terms. Alternatively, one of my favorite country writers, George Teren, who’s written songs like “Ladies Love Country Boys” and “Homewrecker”, is a long way from a typical country music listener. But he understands that audience, and when he writes for them, he speaks in their language.

Defining your target audience doesn’t mean that those are the only people that will like your music. There are thousands of exceptions to every demographic description– 70-year-old grandmothers that have a peculiar fondness for hip-hop, or 17-year-old Hispanic kids that love musical theater. But you don’t write for those exceptions. You begin by drawing a reasonable, defined picture of those at the heart of your market, and write for them. Perhaps you’ll draw in a few people you never expected. Perhaps your song will become such a success in your core market, which it will begin to crossover to a larger audience. But you start by aiming at a specific, core audience that will become your fanbase. You can’t start from everywhere. You have to start from somewhere specific.

There’s a wonderful new musical that just opened on Broadway, called “title of show”. If you’re in NYC this summer, be sure to check it out. In “title of show”, there’s a great song called “Nine People’s Favorite Thing”, in which the characters writing a musical agree that they’d rather be “Nine people’s favorite thing than 100 people’s ninth favorite thing”. The truth is, that’s the goal of most successful entertainment today. Whether you’re shooting at mass success, or working in a more specialized field, you still have to hit a very specific target. The first step in doing that is to take aim.

One of the lessons in my Intro to Game Audio course uses pre-existing music as the basis for some music edits. I provide links to both an audio file and a midi file of the same music. Frequently students will want to use the midi file and then re-realize the instruments for the edits. That can be a much cleaner way of making an edit because you don’t have to worry about reverb tails hanging around or pickup notes or other very musical moments that are captured permanently in audio.

How do you know you are using a MIDI file as opposed to audio? You can tell you are using a MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) file because in most cases the file will have an extension of “.mid” or “.smf”. That last one stands for Standard Midi File. You can find out all you ever wanted to know about MIDI from the organization that invented it, The MIDI Manufacturers Association. *As a side note the musical pieces are from the Grim Fandango score which I spoke of in an earlier blog (of course!). A MIDI file only contains  a set of instructions. These instructions relay information to a sound producing device, like a synthesizer or sampler, about playing notes. We sometimes forget this because most modern computers will actually create sound automatically from a MIDI file. Click on this link and your browser likely will start playing music! In my browser I get the familiar QuickTime transport bar and if I click on the info triangle at the right I get this :

What exactly is happening? A few things are at play here. Yes, I was correct when I said a MIDI file only contains a set of instructions. It isn’t the MIDI file, per say, making those sounds but rather it is the browser plug-in that is creating the sound. I just happened to set QT as the default helper application for playing MIDI files from my browser. Let’s take a look at how that happens. If I go to my QuickTime settings in the System Preferences pane and click on Advanced, this is what I see:

Notice it states that the default synthesizer is found in QuickTime. What that means is that, when a MIDI file is played, from within any standard operating system procedure, the instructional notes/information will be translated to audio via this thing called a QuickTime Music Synthesizer. This is a key point and it explains just how a MIDI file can make sound from a browser. I apologize to those of you that do not have much experience working with MIDI, I’ll tackle that at another time, as this is really meant to provide answers on how to play these files in a DAW/Sequencer. So we know we can play a MIDI file  in a browser, yippee! but how do we use those darn things in Logic?!@# ?@#$^ or DP or PT or any other sequencer application?

First, perhaps, we should consider that when I play that MIDI file in my browser, I hear sounds that make sense for the piece of music. I hear strings, I hear clarinet, I hear an acoustic bass. It is not a coincidence that the correct sounds are played by the correct MIDI track. Just how is that possible? The magic of a MIDI file is that it is meant to be transportable to many systems, it includes not only the note on/off information, but it can also include an indication of what “sound” or “instrument” should be playing those sounds. This is known as the General MIDI spec. When I grab a MIDI file that has been written with the General MIDI spec in mind, it not only has the note on, note off information expected in the file, but it also includes which instruments should be playing each track. Here is a look at a Logic Pro session after dragging and dropping the Grim Fandango MIDI file onto it.

Notice that each track within the MIDI file includes an indication of the “instrument/sound” that should play the notes indicated in the track. The top track, called “Grim Fandango” has “45″ as a program change. If you look at the General MIDI specification that defines soundsets you will see that any MIDI file written to follow the GM spec has 128 named instrument sounds that the file can use. That is to say, by following the GM guidelines the composer understands that the above file will play the instrument type associated with program change “45″. If we go into our event list we can also see that Logic has associated a PROGRAM CHANGE 45 with pizzicato strings. Make sure you are not filtering the view to exclude program changes, in this screen shot, “Additional Info” is toggled to be hidden, everything else is seen. ***please see the footnote on GM program change number formatting at the bottom

The nice thing about embedding the Program Change into a track is that any GM compatible device playing it will produce the sound of pizzicato strings. This is wonderful if you are developing games for mobile devices etc. that can not play audio files directly. For the assignment though, that program change can really mess things up! Why? Simply because no matter what the device you point that MIDI track to, the first thing that will happen is the device will switch to Program number 45! That’s fine on a GM patch bank, but it you are using Kontakt or Reason or any other MIDI instrument, program 45 may not be the sound you want, and indeed, chances are you already picked a great pizzicato string sound and every single time you hit play on your sequencer it takes your patch away!

This happens to many of my students both on campus and online. So, back to the reason for this blog. How do you use MIDI files with these program changes in your sequencer? If you are intending to trigger a GM device you only need to make sure to use a GM bank of sounds. Almost every synthesizer I’ve ever used has at least one bank that states it is GM compliant. If you want to play around with unique sounds for each track, ones that you pick from your thousands of patches, then you need to delete the program change at the beginning of every single MIDI track.

That’s it. So if you’ve ever experienced your sound modules/synthesizers, etc. “acting crazy” and selecting weird sounds, my guess is there were embedded program changes. Once my students start to understand that, believe it or not,  they also start to understand MIDI a lot better. MIDI is still a powerful tool in your productions…. but that is also for another blog…

***Why did I tag the above statement about the program change numbers?  Well, as is true in most facets of life, not everyone agrees on things that seem straightforward and obvious. In the case of MIDI numbers there is a debate about what numbers to use to indicate the program number to the user, some applications use 0..127 while others use 1..128. If you look at the GM sound list I linked to it is numbered starting at 1 and says that number “46″ should trigger a pizzicato sound. The Logic session starts the “decimal system indication” at 0, thus it is “45″ that triggers the pizz sound. For the end user, you need to know which numbering system your DAW uses. DP numbers from 1..128, PT numbers from 0..127. Realize that the sequencers have it figured out from the true binary that is used, only us humans have these competing ways of representing it!

I’m certainly no Alex Lifeson on the guitar, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t find it frustrating that after playing “terrestrial” guitar for years I can’t seem to get past the beginning stages of Rock Band. But after watching this hilarious video from the Colbert Report, I feel a little better. Check out Neil Peart, Geddy Lee, and Alex Lifeson stumbling through “Tom Sawyer” on Rock Band. Fantastic!

When enabled, the Elastic Time plug-in analyzes two dimensions of your audio in order to calculate the recorded performance’s tempo. It looks at the audio region’s duration in bars and beats, and it looks for transients that represent a regular periodic rhythm in the recording. In theory, if the rhythmic content of your recording is clear, with distinct transients, Elastic Time can figure out a performance’s tempo regardless of whether the audio region is trimmed to a perfect loop or not. This is really neat when it works, but it doesn’t perform miracles (nor should you expect it to, that’s not producing your own music).

Instead of relying blindly on Elastic Time to perform your beat matching (as in, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best), there are several simple steps that you can take ahead of time to prepare the audio and ensure perfect results every time. Performing this pre-processing, even though it’s a tedious task, helps to preserve the audio quality and the groove of the original performance after your tempo change.

The easiest way to demonstrate my pre-processing approach is to take you step by step through the process. This is the best way to understand not only the steps in the process but the logic behind my approach. (Try it a different way and you’ll find out just how quickly you can end up with a train wreck.) The DRM (Digital Rights Management) free stems being offered for your remixing pleasure by Radiohead, of their song “Nude”, on iTunes is perfect for this example. The stems are $0.99 each and you only really need two of the five available, the “Drum Stem” and the “Voice Stem”. But, it’s nice to have all of the stems in your session, even if you don’t use the “Bass Stem” and “Guitar Stem” they’re handy for finding the key of the original, and the “String FX Etc. Stem” contains several sounds that are perfect for a remix.

Remixing Radiohead

1. Create a new Pro Tools session and import all of the “Nude” stems. When prompted, select the import Destination as New Track with a Location of Session Start.


2. Arrange the tracks in the Edit window with the Drum Stem on top and the Voice Stem just below.


3. Mute all of the tracks except the Drum Stem. Use Tab to Transient to locate the very first downbeat in front of the vocals (approximately 1946229 samples in from the session’s start) and separate the regions.


4. Select the Edit Group, double click on the latter Drum Stem region and separate all of the regions.


5. Select the Shuffle Edit Mode and delete the first set of regions so that the downbeat of the second set of regions scoots to the beginning of the session.


6. Disable the Edit Group and using Tab to Transient find the downbeat every two bars in the Drum Stem and separate the regions. (The only region that I left as 4 bars is the drum break, having 2 bars before the break itself.) In some instances, you can make the separations every 4 bars, but with “Nude” there’s a lot of human tempo variation and every 2 bars will produce the most precise overall beat match.


7. Select the Edit Group and double click on each 2 bar Drum Stem section and separate the sections.


8. Select each 2 bar section and apply Identify Beat to generate a tempo map for each section. This will beat match and lock each 2 bar section to your session’s tempo grid. (You could use Beat Detective to generate a tempo map, but my method preserves the original performance’s groove every two bars, while simultaneously guaranteeing that the original’s downbeat is locked exactly to the grid every two bars. This way, your beat match never drifts.) At this stage, it’s also helpful to create a Click track in order to audition your tempo lock.


9. Change the Timebase selector for all of the tracks to Ticks. This will lock the regions to their relative bar and beat positions so that they stay in beat when you make your tempo change. Then, enable the Elastic Time plug-in for each track. Set the Drum Stem to Rhythmic, the Voice Stem to Monophonic, the String FX Etc. Stem to Polyphonic, the Bass Stem to Monophonic, and the Guitar Stem to Polyphonic. Give Pro Tools time to analyze the audio. (For now, leave the Elastic Time plug-in set to Real-Time Processing.)


10. In the Transport bar, disable the Conductor and enter a new tempo in the Current Tempo field, or experiment with the Manual Tempo Slider. Since the original tempo is about 42 BPM, it’s nice to bring the tempo up to about 62 BPM. At this tempo you can then record drums in double-time (124 BPM) and be at a dance tempo! (Once you decide on your remix target tempo, if your computer is running short on processing power, your can set the Elastic Time plug-in to Rendered Processing.)

Here’s what the final results sound like, using all of the stems at 62 BPM, some effect processing, and backed by Digidesign’s Strike virtual drum instrument playing in double-time at 124 BPM:
Nude – The Strike Remix (by Erik Hawk)

The Barenaked Ladies released their debut children’s record this past Spring and the response has been very positive by parents, kids, bloggers (including me), and the media.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it seems lots of well-established mainstream artists are crossing over into the children’s music market. However, I strongly believe to be a children’s artist is to be a role model and there are responsibilities that go with playing in this genre.

This week, BNL lead singer Steven Page was arrested for cocaine possession.

They’ve canceled their Disney tour and probably hosts of other family shows. I don’t envy the parents who have to explain to their children “why” the show they were looking forward to is canceled.

I hope, going forward, artists will avoid participating in the children’s music genre if they can’t be responsible role models to kids.

One needs only to take a walk down Boylston Street pass the new Apple store at 8AM to see how important word of mouth is to Apple and their new iPhone. Apple is legendary for their marketing (customer service is another thing - I waited close to an hour last week to get an iPhone, in which time Apple was only able to service ONE person). Their integrated marketing campaigns are amazing, from the traditional print, packaging, television, and branding components; to their forward thinking viral and word of mouth campaigns.

To get a large group of people to evangelize about your product or service is the end goal of any marketing campaign, and it’s something that my friend Dave Balter knows a lot about. In 2002, Dave founded BzzAgent, a word of mouth media company that currently coordinates 450,000 volunteer “agents” in the US, Canada, and the U.K.. Dave recently wrote and self-published his second book on Word of Mouth marketing, creatively titled “The Word of Mouth Manual Volume II.” It’s a great read, illustrated with examples from the Grateful Dead, Crocs, and of course, Apple. The book is for sale for $45 on Amazon, but Dave’s provided the book to a few folks for free, as a PDF download, available here. If you’ve ever been curious about how or why word of mouth marketing works, or how to get folks to start talking about your own product, I recommend you check it out.

Sometimes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Only two years ago, the buzz book of the media industry was “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson (also visit The Long Tail Blog), which warned all of us old-fashioned music biz types that we were in the midst of a massive change (”Gee, you don’t say?”) and that even our most sacred tenet was about to be tossed to the wind. Suddenly, for the first time in its history, music was no longer going to be about “hits”! Crass commercialism, mass appeal, and Top Forty tastes were dead, killed off by the alternative environment of the Internet, which championed artists that appealed to more discerning, open-minded, niche-oriented audiences.

“We are turning from a mass market back into a niche nation” predicted Anderson, and hence, the future would be based on selling less units of more different kinds of product. Using the analogy of a long tail to illustrate how sales of music on the internet would now stretch further and further into little known and obscure product, Anderson made clear that this shift from a mass-market in which superstars sold millions of records into an environment where a million bands each sold a hundred records was a positive development for society overall. No longer would artists be enslaved by the need to cater to the lowest-common denominator in a quest for popular success.

Except that it didn’t happen. There’s a fascinating new analysis out now at coolfer.com by Glenn Peoples, that points out Four Key Points:

1. Consumers have not lost their taste for hits.

2. Heavy users delve into the long tail, but infrequent buyers tend to stick with mainstream fare.

3. Popular titles have grown disproportionately at the expense of niche titles.

4. Digital channels may be strengthening winners’ place in the market.

5. Don’t confuse availability for access.

Citing an important study from the July Harvard Business Review by Anita Elberse, People makes clear that most of “The Long Tail’s” predictions simply have not materialized. In fact, things have worked out almost the opposite. It appears that even in the world of digital sales, hits are taking a disproportionate amount of sales at the expense of niche titles. Elberse writes, “… although today’s hits may no longer reach the sales volumes typical of the pre-piracy era, an ever smaller set of top titles continues to account for a large chunk of the overall demand for music”.

While this may be news to visionaries like Chris Anderson, it is something that most music publishers have been aware of for the last several years. Whether one looks at traditional areas like record sales and radio airplay, or at major new developing markets like ringtones, the one constant is this: Hits rule. In fact, unlike ten years ago when a songwriter could make a very nice living penning album cuts for a few huge-selling albums, today’s songwriters and publishers are almost entirely dependent on hit singles to generate income. Hit songs are the ones that earn performance income from ASCAP or BMI, they’re the ones that get placed in major advertisements, they’re the ones that people purchase as ringtones. There is very little market for album cuts, and little in the way of significant income opportunities for obscure titles. Why?

Here are three suggestions of what Anderson may have left out of his “Long Tail” theory:

1. Hits are hits because people like them. Despite all the conspiracy theories against the mass media, the truth is that most songs that achieve huge popularity do not do so because of manipulative marketing campaigns, record company payola, or media brainwashing. Most songs at the top of the Hot 100 are there because they strike a common chord with a huge number of people, they capture a meaningful sentiment, a cultural moment, or a hot fashion. Hit songs are not cheap, easy formulaic songs. They’re songs that work– that reach listeners and provide four solid minutes of entertainment. Likewise, most songs that are in the “niche” world are simply ones that have a limited appeal.

2. More music availability does not encourage the general public to cultivate and expand their tastes. It actually confuses the heck out of them. The truth is, most people do not consider it one of their top priorities to seek out and discover incredible, new unknown music. Most people have jobs, friends, families, homes and other things to which they need to devote the majority of their time. They do not spend their days immersed in music blogs, sampling every new band on myspace or exploring the corners of Internet radio.

For people within the mass market (which is, by definition, the masses of people), music choices have to be presented in a relatively limited way. One of the greatest downfalls of the music industry within the old-fashioned bricks and mortar retail format has been to flood the market with far more product than the public can possibly absorb. Consequently, the consumer enters the store, is immediately overwhelmed and confused by albums from hundreds of acts that John Q. Public has never heard of, and leaves without purchasing anything. The Internet amplifies this dilemma ten-fold. Perhaps the greatest contribution the major label system has ever made to music is in limiting the choices that consumers were given. Confusion breeds despair.

3. There is a cost to everything. Much of the Long Tail argument was based on the idea that the internet allowed vast amounts of music to be made available at no significant cost– in the digital world, with no production or manufacturing costs and no storage space limitations, it was just as easy for a music store to make available 500,000 titles both known and obscure as to carry 500 top hit titles. Likewise, labels and publishers might as well seek to exploit their entire product, even the less popular acts, rather than just focusing on superstars. Unfortunately, what the industry quickly learned is that there is no free lunch.

Everything costs money. The truth is that there are administrative costs to everything, whether it’s the logistics of accounting to thousands of different acts, registering and collecting on hundreds of thousands of titles, or trying to establish some kind of brand identity within a market flooded by an endless amount of consumer choices. While the prospect of selling one unit each of a million different pieces of product may seem roughly equivalent to selling one million units of one piece of product, there is no comparison in the profitability between one and the other. For every player in the process, from the digital music store to the record company to the publishers to artists and writers themselves, it is far more efficient to sell large amounts of one song or album than to sell miniscule amounts of a million different titles. Administration and collection cost money, and it takes a certain level of sales to justify those costs.

So what does the snipping of the Long Tail mean to songwriters and bands? Is it a blow against diversity and creativity? Is it one more illustration that the general public is ignorant and lemming-like in its taste?

Not really. What it means is that some things don’t change, or at least not very fast. It means that one hit song will still go further in establishing your band, or advancing your career as a songwriter than a thousand “interesting” album cuts. It means that being obscure for obscurity’s sake may make you an underground favorite, but it won’t pay the bills. It means that a song that “communicates” and touches a listener will always be a better business venture than a song that merely “expresses” your own feelings. This is not new– it’s the reality that artists have been dealing with since the beginning of art itself. So far, it appears not even the Internet can alter that familiar tale.

I often write about the significance of networking, merely because it is the lifeline of a songwriting career. Most of us will need to establish and expand our networks as the business grows and changes, and so this process continues throughout the life of our career.

We all know about Myspace for artists to showcase their music and attract fans, but what about the songwriter who doesn’t perform? What kinds of networking opportunities are available for those trying to reach a broader audience or who don’t play an instrument or have a specific ‘sound’ like a band or singer/songwriter might have?

I think the first step in answering this question is defining what we want to accomplish with our songs. There are so many opportunities to create and perform music, but not all are going to bring us the fulfillment we’re looking for. You might have the dream of writing a song that will stand the test of time, becoming a household tune. You might aspire to encourage others with your positive music, bridge cultural or social gaps, transform the way we see ourselves or our theologies, philosophies, etc. Or, you may simply want to entertain.

Perhaps a better question then is, ‘who’ do we want to benefit from this dream of ours? If we can clearly define the audience who will appreciate our music, we can more clearly define the road to reaching that audience. The short-term steps will be more effective, and the long-terms payoffs more satisfying.

Sometimes understanding ‘who’ we want to influence starts with our own introspection, but sometimes it starts with looking at the songs we’re already writing and the people they’re already affecting. Each of us has to consider that our unique voices can’t be everything to everybody. I have a unique sound that is a combination of my voice, my influences, my knowledge about the craft, my life experiences that direct my lyrics, etc. Though I may love all kinds of music, the music I create is not appealing to all kinds of people. It serves me well to understand the genre my music fits within. That understanding allows me to isolate the opportunities that are going to afford me the most success and satisfaction.

As a songwriter in the Nashville music market, I had to learn what characterizes the songs artists there are looking for. Then, I had to begin to understand what it is about my music that is unique, but also where my musical voice and that particular market intersect. The more I am able to offer something that no one else can offer while staying relevant, the more success I have.

As you’re thinking about your own musical style, you might think back to times where your songs have been played well or especially appreciated by audiences. Aside from your mom, who has been particularly inspired by your songs? What were the circumstances? If you haven’t yet had the chance to play your songs for many people, this would be a great time to start. It takes years to grow into our own skin as writers and artists, and lots of failed attempts too. If you’re just beginning to write regularly, start recording rough demos of your songs and gauging reactions from listeners. Your own reactions are telling too, as those areas we’re not confident in speak more loudly when there is someone else in the room.

There are a few activities every songwriter can do to generate interest in their writing and inspire forward movement along the path to writing more skillfully.
The first is getting involved with a songwriting community. It may not seem like much, but in my opinion it is one of the most powerful steps you can make. You can receive and give feedback, you can find co-writers, you can expand your knowledge of the industry from the experiences of others, and you can become more aware of opportunities in your own city for musicians and songwriters. You might find a guitar player or pianist who can help you record a good version of your song. You might meet a vocalist you like who can sing that song. You’ll learn about song camps in Nashville and other places, how you might expect to pitch your songs when the time is right, and advice about song competitions, TAXI, and other organizations like ASCAP and BMI. It’s the information and the relationships that are important here, and they are the doorway to the informed decisions you’ll be making later as a writer in the competitive market.

For ideas on how to find workshops or communities in your area, I recommend two websites. The first is the Nashville Songwriters Association, International.,
www.nashvillesongwriters.com. The second is Just Plain Folks, at www.jpfolks.com. Tour these sites and understand what they do. Whether or not you decide to become a member, it is the consistent participation in these groups that will gain you those first steps in moving your hobby or career forward. Another great site to check out is The Muse’s Muse at www.musesmuse.com. This site has some excellent resources for writers, from articles to co-writing opportunities.

As you get more familiar with the way the industry works and meet other writers, you’ll begin to understand new ways you can market your own talents and skills. Becoming immersed in the community is the first step to opening up doors to opportunities you didn’t even know existed. Each of us arrives at our destination by a different route, so your path will be like no one else’s. Just keep writing and gathering knowledge, always comparing your information with what you hear and see around you. Have fun along the way, and roll with the punches. There are some things we can control – like our craft and our relationships. Keep focusing on what gives you the energy to try again and again, and you’ll surely look back in amazement at how far you’ve come.

I consider myself a bit of a hopeless romantic. I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy. I love watching the groom’s face as the bride walks down the aisle. Even though I know Valentine’s Day dinner and a movie at twice the price is a cheap exploitation of true love, I still make the reservations.

You’d think with such a soft spot for affection I’d eek out a few hundred love songs now and then. The problem is not writing a love song, but writing a good love song that people want to hear again and again without chewing their own arm off. For me, songs have to connect - and connect with a depth of purpose. If that depth of purpose only runs skin deep with phrases like ‘ever since we met’, or ‘I was so blind,’ my willingness to believe the song reflects actual experience is compromised. I want to be swept away by the love song, not just mildly interested. I want to feel down to the marrow of my bones that this love is worth every ounce of passion and vulnerability the artist is asking me to invest by listening to it. Anything less and there is a discordance between what the writer/artist intended on making me feel, and what I actually feel.

I’m not saying that a love song can’t be reggae, can’t make me smile, blush, or can’t bounce along with the pitter-patter of a new romance. I am saying that a great love song has to deliver some actual life experience between the clichés. It’s got to be real, intimate, and totally accessible.

It is for this reason that I find love songs especially difficult to write. In my opinion, my most successful love song attempts result from two techniques, both of which I only realized I was using in hindsight. The first of these techniques is using a location as the basis for the story. By setting the first verse in a specific ‘place’, such as a laundry mat or a coffee shop, the song finds its roots firmly planted in a real-life experience instead of whizzing out in nowhere with scattered thoughts and feelings. Take a listen to some of the more recent popular love songs and look for this ‘location’ within the lyric. Many artists within the pop or rock vein come to mind, such as Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Edwin McCain, Sting. As with any songwriting technique, look within your genre to find examples of the tool at work. For more detail on this technique, refer to Popular Lyric Writing: 10 Steps to Effective Storytelling, chapters one, two, and three.

The other technique is using a metaphor to ground the song. For instance, love is a rose. Love is a rent-controlled apartment. Love is an open field. Love is a landing strip. Thinking about the characteristics of these nouns, we can draw contrasts and comparisons and come at love from a unique perspective. When I write with a metaphor in mind, I also choose my verbs wisely. If a landing strip is my launchpad for this technique, I list all the verbs, nouns, and adjectives that come to mind related to that idea. Taking off, zoom, jet fuel, screech, burnt rubber, passenger, wingspan, etc. This gets me on a path towards more ideas: What happens when love takes off? When would I describe love with the word ‘zoom’? What jet fuels love? What happens when I smell the burnt rubber, the screech, am I ever a passenger in love, and what wingspan can love have?

On a final note, I find break-up songs just flow out of me. Even though breaking up hasn’t been a theme in my life for years, I find I can access that well of painful words and images as if it happened yesterday. Perhaps it’s because so much of love is deliriously happy and almost removed from the details of mundane reality. But to connect in intimate ways, generalizations just won’t do. While you’re writing your next love song, how vulnerable are you wil