Guilty Of Music Piracy? Walk The Plank!

Piracy is the act of duplicating anything without prior permission and consent of the rightful owner.


Music piracy is nothing but the act of duplicating an original recording in an unauthorized manner in order to generate commercial gains. There is no consent in any form, from the rights owner of the recording. Piracy has forced many an upcoming artist to shut shop, and does not give artistes the recognition and money that they deserve to get. Record companies lose revenue and face heavy financial losses because of piracy.

Pirated copies of music are usually a compilation of several tracks of the performing band or artiste and are available in the market in CDs, Cassettes and DVDs. The advancement in technology and the availability of this technology to the public, especially the pirates has led to a dangerously high increase in the flow of pirated music in the market.
The internet is helping the growth of piracy?

When is the last time you wanted to download a track from a torrent site on the internet? Well, this is an act of supporting piracy, and in some countries, where copyright infringement is a big issue; you could be committing an offense. The extensive reach of the internet throughout the world, the inability to police the net effectively, and the humongous number of users the internet has, has indeed made the internet a haven for pirates. Pirates no longer find the need to burn music on scores of music CDs or DVDs, pack, and finally smuggle them, to be sold on the streets. All a pirate has to do is buy the original CD, rip the tracks from it, and upload it to his website on the internet. A few links around, and within days, his website will be flooded with traffic, most of whom only want to download the song.

Some pirates even sell the music for cheap rates! They end up making money on a bulk scale. When this is repeated for thousands of songs, they eventually build up a download library of sorts, and end up making enormous amounts of illegal money. Some sites also use illegal downloads as a tool to increase their website traffic or to gain popularity and make money advertising. This is also illegal and constitutes music piracy. Some people also have doubts regarding the use of P2P software to "share" music. If the music being transferred via the P2P file sharing network is not copyright protected, then it is perfectly legal. However, transfer or download of copyrighted music via P2P networks is illegal, as P2P facilitates the unauthorized distribution of the music, and it is done without prior authorised permission from the record label or artiste.

I urge every independent aratist to properly copyright their material as they may (already) be losing out big-time and losing out legally if not copyrighted.

Fishing For A Music Album Theme

I entered my home recording studio early last week for the first time in a few months. I have commenced my latest album recording. All I had to 'run' with was a thread of a bass guitar track. Four days later, I re-emerged with five full tracks, minus vocals. The album, even at this early stage has taken on a life of its own. I'm not particularly 'involved' any more. Ideas are hitting me left, right and centre and they're all of a vaguely similar nature. Luckily they're not SO similar as to be blatantly repetive album-wise.



I generally stop the 'creating' process when I have around sixteen or seventeen tracks fully completed. As far as a 'theme' is concerned, it is currently happening right now which is why I can't divulge any more at this point. I shall, however, be addressing the album HERE on its release.


Creating an album is a process, and keep the basics in mind. An album, in itself, consists of two elements. First is catchy tunes that appeal to a large audience. Secondly is the often overlooked 'theme' of the album. It's not just a matter of recording ten or twelve songs and comiling them haphazardly

Too many ideas will spoil an album. When listening to an album in its entirety, you will often notice that the music is made of certain phrases that repeat themselves or appear as a slight variation of a previous track. They are called themes. A theme may be melodic, rhythmic, harmonic or combination of these. When you hear the themes, it registers to the brain and that makes it easier to remember, particularly when applied with care to an entire album.


A common mistake of songwriters is they make it boring, where the listener has no urge to want to hear the song again. Remember, if they like it, they want to hear your song again and again and again (which can translate into more record sales for you).


Sometimes a songwriter will experience "writer's block". When this happens, you might want to use a different approach, such as creating the melody first, or experimenting with some chord progression first then melody, or even rhythm first, then melody, and chord progression last. I've doing this all week.


Remember, there is no correct way of creating a theme for an album. Experiment with different instrumentation. Relax. Take a break. After a few days out of the studio, I have deliberately gone for a walk up the street, to the Post Office and newsagents and returned, every time, with at least a handful of lyrics. I KNOW that at least some will be used on my upcoming album


It's every independent musicians goal to produce an album full of great songs. You think they are perfect, where the girls go gaga over your songs and the guys elevate it to the national anthem of angst and raging hormones. But!....you need to record those songs and try to find a way to put it in public in a manner that is even more conducive to sales than an individual song alone, right? Much to a musician's chagrin, there are steps and systems to follow. Yes, the way to the gold pot at the end of the rainbow requires a keen sense of direction from here to there.


Despite many years of vodka abuse, I have a surprisingly good memory for things musical. Having said this, like everyone else, my neurons my misfire at anytime and you may lose those precious, MTV award-winning lyrics (Well, some musician's neurons misfire ALL the time. Why am I not surprised...?). Make sure that you record all of the lyrics or, at the very least, put them to paper/notepad. Don't be afraid to use different schemes also (acoustic or amplified instruments, or if you feel operatic -- solo, duet, or acapella). The more variations, the better your chance of hitting that sweet spot for airplay cut. Anyway, you need to record that track. Once every track is to your liking and you're ready to compile your album, this is where things get very frustrating and indecisiveness reigns....if you let it.


Fine tuning: Any portion in any part of a song can be repeated in throughout the album as often as you want. The more, the better but keep it subtle. You may cut the portions that makes no sense, portions that puts the great rhythm in the grey instead of concrete, defined colors. Edit out any unwanted portions of any song. You can polish up on those areas that needs polishing, strengthening the areas of the album where the tune must flow freely and the thought unobstructed.

Mastering: Here, you try to maximize the tracks and optimize the cuts by stuffing tracks that are weak in between strong tracks. Or you place weak tracks at the latter portion of the album and the strong ones as the opening singles. This is an indirectly VERY time-consuming affair. I say 'indirectly' because it means walking away from what you think is a well-themed album for a few days, only to return and listen to it wondering what the hell you were doing.


Copyright: Here, you stamp it down and tell the whole wide world that the song is yours, with a great heaping of blood, sweat and tears. You put enough protection and fence around the real estate of your mind's work, telling them to get lost or else...well, depends on you and your vigilance to protect what is yours.

Is ReverbNation Losing It's Original Spirit?

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Without doubt, ReverbNation is one of the most beneficial specifically music sites
around for the independent artist. ReverbNation offers the new online musician
outstanding free statistics, promotional tools & means of maintaining contact with your fanbase. Over the last 12 months,however, more tools have been offered to independent musicians and guess what? Yup! They come with a price. 


Before you enter ANY data into ReverbNation, I suggest both finish reading this article and then jump over to ReverbNation and go through it with a fine tooth comb. It will make things much simpler & MUCH more effective as you can quite easily become sidetracked. It will save you money.


The promotional & statistical tools offered by ReverbNation are a real online highlight. Supporter sign-up forms come in varying sizes with colours also being able to be
customised. They can be deployed on your website, pages that you have on other
sites blogs & other online areas.


Additionally, ReverbNation have an assortment of mini-players that can be similarly
deployed. These players can be set on 'auto-play,' as suggested by ReverbNation. I
suggest NOT doing this & the vast majority of online listeners will agree. More of that
shortly.

As I recommend for all sites, upload no more than 8-14 tracks. Keep track 1 at the top
of the list as it greatly affects your statistics & continuity. It also helps you climb as far as Google is concerned.


ReverbNation keenly encourages artists to offer a track, or tracks, as “fan exclusive”
free downloads. I have had this conversation with everyone from D.J.s to promoters,
musicians & followers. Their argument is the same old “people like free things.” They
use this philosophy as a means of attracting followers.I find this extremely patronising towards listeners in general & statistics show that it DOES NOT boost a musicians true following. You want REAL followers, not transients.


IF you do opt to offer a free download, use it wisely. NEVER use what you consider to
be your best track or your most requested.


The “free download” widget IS a handy tool forplacing on your website, blog & so forth but bare in mind there's a lot of people will be put off by the fact that they go to
download the track only to discover that they have to sign up as a
ReverbNation member. Even though it's free, people STILL feel that they're being
roped in.....and roped in by YOU, not by ReverbNation. Don't try to dupe the public.


Once you have your ReverbNation page ready, launch it by making it known on other
music sites and; social networking sites using the assortment of widgets and banners
provided. Word will travel quickly, believe me.


ReverbNation gives your followers the option to join your mailing list. To my mind,
when used properly, it's THE single most powerful in-line communication tool for
musicians. To see it both under-utilised & abused by musicians played a part in me
embarking on the writing of this book. Unfortunately the limit for your mailing list is 500 fans. What happens once this limit is reached? I don't know.I'm still awaiting a response. IF it means that I lose my mailing list then I'll be catching the next train out of there.


Initially you will have a reasonably high percentage of followers who also sign up to
your mailing list. By checking the locations of who truly is paying attention via clickthrus'
in combination with song-play locations can help you delineate a target
audience, geographically & demographically. Through human nature your mailing list numbers will drop over time. Don't be disheartened by this. A mailing list of between 10 and 20% of your total followers is a good figure.

Mailing your supporters is FREE. One paid service offered by ReverbNation is
professional templates for your emails with additional features. From my experience
this paid service makes no difference at all. Keep your credit card in your wallet and you will save almost $120 a year.


The most common mistake I've encountered is artists emailing supporters with news
that people aren't interested in. This is a sure-fire way of watching your mailing list
plummet. Paradoxically, make your followers aware of upcoming & new releases. Let
them know that you are still thinking of them.


Don't email your list every time you hit a chord. Emailing your list every 2-3 weeks is ideal. Ensure your emails are relevant, well laid out & maintain continuity regarding previous mail. Spending a little extra time (not a great deal) on these little thing really DO make a difference.


If you enjoy it, your fans will too.


I am now wondering what their next move will be. No doubt it will entail a fee. For this writer/musician, ReverbNation began losing its' independent nature when it jumped into bed with Audiolife with regards merchandise & CD production. My monthly 'fair share' amounts plummeted without me doing a damned thing.


Call me paranoid but it appears tome that ReverbNation may well be trying to be the Amazon or Sony BMG of the independent music scene. Time will tell.



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Internet Radio

Independent music relies on alternative means to promote alternative music, since the idea is to eschew the standard music industry models of promotion. Independent music therefore has created it's own record companies and ways of doing things. It relies a lot on radio stations and websites on the Internet, for one thing.