You guys might wanna jump in on the sale coz it's only for a few days!
Some of the products are on %50 off!!!
Time for me to grab it while I can and so should you guys if you've been holding off in getting that effect or plug in :)
I'm looking at Guitar Rig 5 for the studio after Traktor. But I can delay getting that. Let's see...
Cy
For a lot of musicians, getting on iTunes is one of those things before that somehow seemed like a dream. Everybody wanted in on it because the world was their stage and there were millions of people "watching" thru the iTunes platform. But in this day and age, it seems easier but a lot of people I know still ask me how I got on it. With this in mind, I'd like to share some ideas on how to get your music onto iTunes for distribution.
There are a few options I can think of and I hope these can help you on your way :)
1. The most obvious is to get signed onto a label - ok don't dismiss this first if you feel like getting on a label may be another huge hurdle for you. I know you're reading this because of the fact that you may want to skip that but bear with me here. It's not as hard to get on a label these days. I recently wrote and blogged on getting signed and even had a video done on how to get your music onto beatport which is somewhat related so you might also wanna watch that. With a little work put in, you may just find yourself on iTunes WITHOUT having to shell out any cash.
2. Get distributed - There are a couple of routes here so it depends on how you want to go about it...
I got into itunes via my account on Reverbnation. It's a music social networking site that has really great features. They have a distribution package that you pay for annually and you get a lot of analytics/stats that lets you know if you're creating an impact or even having people listen to your tunes. I like the stats that are free for any RN account and the instant payout updates you get from their sales reports is great. The only thing I don't like is the annual fee because a lot of the competition doesn't have that. Though in their defense, it's because you keep 100% royalties. But for an indie artist, I'd rather go with a percentage cut rather than paying upfront and annually for my album to be sold. But for the purpose of getting your music on iTunes and a lot of other digital stores PLUS the stats, this is a good option. I think this is the quickest and cheapest option so far given the pluses.
The other option is looking into its competition like Tunecore.com. Tunecore is actually the big gun in this game and you can look at their packages and page that they really mean business. You can also consider them if you're not into the whole social network thing of Reverbnation.
The last option is formal distribution... I know you may be asking aren't the above two distribution already? Are they informal? Well, it's more like a use of terms on my end. For me formally getting yourself distributed is more by the way of putting up a label or applying for distribution to companies who really handle label distribution. These companies may or may not charge upfront fees so take the time to look around and see which packages they offer fit your catalog if you're planning to put up a label or if you wanna sign up as an artist. One thing to note however, is that most take in labels and they sometimes seem like record labels themselves in the sense that they will really listen to your material first before taking you in for distribution because a lot of them also have some standard or focus more on a particular type of sound. You may be applying into some distributor as a rock band when in fact, they focus on dance labels. So be sure to do your research. This writeup is the first step so I hope this makes things easier on your part instead of just going round in circles.
It's worth looking into the following distribution companies that came up in my research :)
feiyr
believe digital
rebeat digital
kvz
bleep
baseware
ingrooves
ioda
labelworx
So there! I hope this little tutorial will help you on your way to getting and sharing your music with the world. If you have any question, feel free to post away :)
God bless!
Cy
For almost a decade now, I feared for my hearing. Having played the drums professionally a few times a week for a couple of years made me feel like I may have damaged it. All these years, I prayed (really) for God to restore my hearing like that of a child's. Why? Well, working in music professionally now doing mixing and mastering stuff really need the best my ears can give. When I go out now in clubs especially rock joints, I always have my ear plugs on or at the very least a pair of folded table napkin in my ears to protect it.
Our ears can hear a certain range of frequencies and as we know, the animals can hear more high pitched ones. As we grow old, the range of frequencies we're able to hear narrows down a bit depending on how you took care of your ears.
Going back to my story, I never got around to having my ears checked and then I came across this site and did their test last night. I can't tell you how happy I was upon checking my hearing. The test starts from 22. I heard it starting at 18. For our everyday listening the higher ups are already high and it's really more piercing than pleasant.
Try the test out and lemme know which frequency you started hearing it?
http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php
Cy
To the techno-heads :) My latest EP entitled Stronger from Subtec Records in Denmark just came out!
Check it out here and support it by buying if you dig the tunes :)
http://www.beatport.com/release/stronger/816360
God bless!
Cy
Here's a short video on my story on how I got into Beatport without needing to shell out money to pay any distributor or label.
This is pretty specific but a lot of other products tie up with various brands so take this as you see fit :)
If you've bought some hardware controllers or other hardware products over the past 5 years or so, you may have noticed that it came with some freebie "lite" versions of popular software like Ableton, Cubase, etc. Some of the people I know actually have discarded these installer CDs just because they were "lite" versions or "LE" or limited edition versions... yeah sometimes it appears that it just came with your controller as a little add-on to make the purchase seem more than worth it. Truth is, it is!
For a real life example, I was one of those people who either threw out the installer or in my case, I lost the CD. I actually had to go online on forums to ask other people who may have some of their CD installers lying around because those my friends, are gold.
Not getting into exact figures but the Lite version of Ableton Live actually gives you around $100 off your upgrade to the full version! Neat eh!? This is what I did. Once I found someone who sent me his lite installer, I was well on my way getting the full version and that's how I got my copy of Ableton.
Right now, I actually had to dig up my old box of my NI Audio Kontrol 1 to look for my old Traktor installer because once again, it's $100 off to upgrade to the full version!
So there! Just a little reminder to all you guys and gals out there who may have ignored their humble lite installers in favor at looking at the full versions not knowing that they actually have money in their hands for a nicer and more practical upgrade path :)
So who's going to look for their old installers after this?
Check out the link and help us in this little project of ours :)
http://artisteconnect.com/projects/lovecore-our-first-full-length-funk-rock-a...
Cy
Here's a short tutorial I made on DIY album packaging. This is part 1. Part 2 to follow for other ideas :)
Enjoy!
Cy
iControl for Garageband for sale
Brand New so anything you see online would be the same :)
But for reference and to save you some googling, here's a photo.
Retails here around 10k I believe.
Selling for 5k Brand New.
Cy
I'm not the master don't worry :)
Here's a link to a recently shared video over at the Propellerhead forum on Mixing in Reason 6. This is a must for everyone who wants to develop their sound engineer side :)
There's a video window but scroll down a bit and you'll find a link to download so you can watch the video as much as you want offline.
I have 7 mins left in my download as well as I type this :)
Enjoy!
http://www.musotalk.de/video/reason-6-mixing-masterclass-mit-gary-bromham-eng...
Cy
side note: It sometimes gets hard thinking of what to blog about but I always fail to remember that part of it is just simply sharing anything that may be helpful to others and so I shall from now on just post random stuff that can be of help to anyone in my field of interest :)
Jumping in...
At times, the pressure of clients breathing down your throat can be an inspiration killer and when I'm tasked to write lyrics for something, I go visit some sites when my mind draws a blank. I figured that for any songwriter out there (or even if you're a poet) this site might help you out if your juice isn't there and you need to finish something quick.
I use Rhymezone more coz it's easier on the eyes when searching for a word but you can try out both.
These sites can help you look for words to complete a set of poems or lyrics for anything... Don't also just go to these sites if you feel like there's no inspiration. Sometimes finding the right words can be a jump off point for inspiration as well and you can keep searching for new words even if you feel you're on the go already.
Hope that helps :)
Cy
