Reason 4.0 Review

Year we preach the gospel of Propellerhead's Reason. The gospel has a new chapter by the way: Chapter 4.0. We've tried the software and read a bunches of reviews. Of all the reviews the most accurate comes from an computer magazine. No we did not say Sound on Sound and no not Computer Music. The review published in PC Advisor is the most accurate in our expert opinion. We also predicted that McCain and Palin would lose the election so you know we're a credible source.

If you plan on buying Reason 4.0 we suggest you read this first. We do recommend Reason 4.0 if you're sick of Reason 3.0-3.5. If you're not, hold off until they stop making refills for Reason 3.0-3.5. Then you will have to upgrade to 4.0 since you can't get any new sounds and by then 4.0 will have very few kinks.

The link to the review is below:
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=2016

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Indie Artists Promote Yourselves!!

Trackmasterz Closes Doors Online

As many of you may have noticed Trackmasterz.com is now longer online. We've decided to shut our doors. It was fun, but in light of the economy and music industry we cannot ignore the truth. The truth is that it is best for indie artists to produce their own music or choose their own producer out of their own camp. This is much more affordable and realistic. Yes we're honest here, we won't try to sell you SUV's when gas is almost $4.00/gl like some people.

We will still keep the blog going and discuss production tips and promotion in conjuction with JamilleLuney.com, HotIndieMusicWorld and HotIndieMusic.com.

Spoken Word Beats Will Be Closing

SpokenWordBeats.com will be combining with Trackmasterz.com in early August. What does this mean exactly? All it means is that instead of going to SpokenWordBeats.com you know go to Trackmasterz.com.

Cut Out The Middleman Indie Artists

Music Analyst Jamille Luney wrote a great article about indie artists selling their own music. She draws and interesting parallel to Sam Walton, creator of Wal-Mart, and indie artists. It's quiet interesting and insightful. Here's the Link: http://jamilleluney.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/cut-out-the-middleman-indie-artists/

The Music Analyst

Our Sr. Executive Producer has embarked on another career as a music Analyst. Her site jamilleluney.com offers free consultation to independent recording artists and bands. She's drawing over 10,000 hits a day and a radio talk show is in the works.

Jamille's site features interviews with Timbaland, Kanye West, Scott Storch, and the Neptunes. She tells artists how to increase their sales and online music plays. Her new marketing approaches are excellent. She spends time explaining new information technology and how to use it to market. One subject she emphasizes is Search Engine Optimization, often overlooked by artists and bands.

At heart she is a computer nerd, we know Jamille very well. However, a computer nerd makes the best marketer in today's economy. Everything is online and people spend countless hours searching the web. Jamille explains new and future technology to her readers and how they can use it to maximize their sales.

The best part about her information is that is completely free to the public. For more information visit Jamilleluney.com.

Giving Away Free Music Pays Off

Giving away a couple songs is great marketing and publicity. Recent research shows that giving away a song helps increase sales. Just ask hit band Coldplay.

"To drum up publicity for its new single, Violet Hill, which was released last week, the band decided to give it away for a week on its Web site as a free download. On the first day it was available, the song was downloaded more than 600,000 times, according to Billboard magazine. In 2005, Speed of Sound, the lead single from Coldplay's previous album, X&Y, sold [only] about 53,000 copies digitally in the United States and the United Kingdom" Houston Chronicle May 16, 2008

Billboard, Nielsen SoundScan, and major record labels not only tracks music sales, but online plays as well. The free download generated a lot of plays and web traffic to the Coldplay's website. Here are a few numbers below.

"According to the music social network last.fm, Violet Hill set a record among its 15 million members, who played the track about 33,000 times the first day, or once every two seconds." Houston Chronicle May 16, 2008

"the Coldplay Web site jumped 1,800 percent the day of the release over its traffic two days earlier. It moved from No. 305 to No. 1 on the company's chart of musician Web sites, with more than 2.5 percent of all the U.S. traffic to the sites they monitor." Houston Chronicle May 16, 2008

If anything, Coldplay may have set a new standard for online music marketing.

Politicians Open Door for Independent Recording Artists

Many states are pushing for taxes on digital products. In a recent article written by Anne Broache published on April 15, 2008 on CNET News.com, Broache writes:

"Two years ago, a CNET News.com special report found that 15 states and the District of Columbia said that their laws and regulations meant that digital downloads should be taxed. A few months later, New Jersey joined that list.

Since then, more states have become tax-inclined. In 2008 alone, Indiana, Utah, and South Dakota have enacted laws reiterating their commitments to collect taxes on digital downloads, while Nebraska recently voted to send its governor a bill (PDF) that would tax downloads of books, movies, and music starting October 1. Others, including Wisconsin and Massachusetts, have formed groups to "study" new i Tunes taxes." (Politicians push for new iTunes sales taxes).

Although this sounds tedious it, puts more pressure on the entertainment industry and opens doors for Independent artists. Don't thank your state government officials just yet. They did not do it for their native aspiring artists, nevertheless they have opened a door.

Right about now some of you are saying isn't this bad for me? I sell my music on my web page and MySpace. Doesn't this take money out of my pocket? NO!! If you sell you music on MySpace , Snocap is the one paying the taxes. For those who are unaware, Snocap is the company MySpace uses to allow users to sell their music on their MySpace page. What about your web page? More than likely you are using a company or other service such as cdbaby, e-junkie, amazon, or itunes to sell your music on your web page. Companies such as these are responsible for charging the digital tax.

So does this mean we will be charged more? Possibly $5-$10 more per month at most. Think of it like a Wholesaler. They sell in bulk, so the price is cheaper. Do you realize how many independent artists there are in the world? The tax will not effect the companies negatively and as a result it will not effect you. Secondly what do you think the tax will be on a .99 cent song? Around $.07, we're not breaking the bank here. Also we're in a financial drought, this will help states out a lot and in the end your own family. It all comes around in full circle.

The greatest outcome of the proposed state tax is the financial hit to the major record labels. Record labels cannot afford to loose one dime ($.10) right now. They can barely afford to pay for their star recording artists. That precious $.07 tax is more than they give each artists per album sale!

Door Opened For Female Producers

The technological evolution has truly hit the music industry hard. Record executives never dreamed that a young college student would create a program called Napster years ago. They also thought the shutting down of Napster and serious law suits would stop downloading. They truly under estimated the intelligence of music listeners across the globe. In their ignorance and arrogance they are paying a dear price. However, independent artists should thank them. They have opened the door and leveled the playing ground for real talent.

If and independent artist can make a truly ear catching song and promote themselves successfully via Internet (save over head costs), they have a shot. Take for example the hit song 'Soldier Boy'. Although I am not a fan, the fifteen year old rapper/producer created the song in his home studio and posted it on MySpace, Face Book, You Tube, and SoundClick. The rest is history. Technology has truly changed the game and given the underdog a shot. People must learn how to take advantage of these opportunities. One hint is do not attempt what has already been done. You must find the next new method and be the first.

The window of opportunity has also opened for female producers everywhere. With technology changing marketing strategies, female producers no longer have to adhere to the standards of the male dominated industry. No longer to they have to go through male dominated management companies, A&R's, record executives. Alicia Keys had to wait for about six years before Arista put her on the shelf. It worked, Clive Davis is a genius, but still the upcoming female producers have other options.



A prime example of this new generation of technology Internet based female producers is Jamille Luney. Her name is growing in popularity across the globe. Through word of mouth she has landed remix opportunities with Nas and Alicia Keys. I'm sure Ms. Keys probably gave Ms. Luney some advice, female producer to female producer. However, Jamille has an advantage Ms. Keys does not. In addition to having to parents as lawyers, Ms. Luney is not constrained by the normal precepts of the music industry. She was not sculpted or created by a corporate record label or artists development team. That being said, she has a lot of creative freedom and is not held captive by 'work for fire' clauses or terms and conditions of recording contracts. However, she does suffer from one disadvantage. Her fan base and popularity is solely at this time determined by the music listeners and the public. Alicia Keys is in the music network, so they will opt to promote her first. Nobody wants to offend record industry giant Clive Davis. So you better play Alicia before Jamille.



This won't last for long. Clive is suffering along with the rest of the music industry. He recently had to let go of Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard, and their discussing terminating Fantasia's contract as well. Sales are down, what else can he do. He has to turn to more popular acts like Alicia, Justin, and Outcast that can produce. BUT IT DOES NOT STOP THE DOWNLOADING! Young kids all want ipods, they live on their computers, cell phones, and to make matters worse, all cell phones will come with mp3 players within the next five years.

Big industry names may get more airplay and mass marketing. However, their popularity puts them at the top of the list for being downloaded illegally. " I like that new Alicia Keys song 'No One'. I'm gonna download it for free!" This happens everyday. "I like that 'No One' Remix by that new producer Jamille Luney. The only place I can find it is on her website though. Guess I'll have to buy it. That's okay $.99 isn't bad. I don't feel like calling my friends to see if one of them has it and I don't feel like waiting for them to email or instant message it to me. I've gotta get to Amy's sweet 16 party!"



The above statement is an over exaggerated example and Jamille's remix is not for resale, but that is the mindset of these young children. It's hard for us to imagine. We did not grow up with Internet and computers in almost every household. However, today's children are tomorrow's consumers. They want things fast and quick. Since they can access everything with a few key strokes on a computer, patience has gone out the window. They're not going to waste time trying to get a ride to a CD store to buy Alicia Keys, they're going to download her. They're not going to waste time trying to find Jamille's songs for free or wait for their friends to send a copy. They'll pay the $.99, they may even shell out $1.00 if the song is really hot!

2008 Music Technolgy / Industry

HELLO 2008.

The music industry as we have known it is dead. The industry as we presently know it, well the truth is we don't know it. Nobody knows what is going on, how to stop downloading, let alone what does P. Diddy want to be called this year? Diddy right, no 'P'? Here is what we do know. Computers are more affordable then ever, they are only going to become more accessible, and you can make a hit song on Fruity Loops music production software for around $250. Put all this together, there is going to be a lot of music being created. We're in a huge economic recession and people are broke and depressed. Economic depressions have been the birth places of cultural and artistic renaissance periods. Big Band swing music is a prime examples of artistic musical expression that was birthed out of The Great Depression.

2008 will prove to be one of the most explosive musical creative years. Why? In addition to an economic crisis we have an international one. WAR. Artists do not like war and the negative energy dramatically impacts creativity. Look at Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday's famous 'Strange Fruit' which referred to black lynchings and civil unrest of a divided America. Even King David was writing songs (psalms) through Wars and chaos. Every true artists will write from their pain and turmoil. However, don't look to mainstream artists like Jessica Simpson to sing about Iraq unless Daddy rights her a song to increase promotion (he's probably doing that right now, her numbers are down). You'll find the birth of music in the streets, in the underground, undefiled by globalization and money hungry record labels.

Independent artists have something Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Billie Holiday, and the like never dreamed of: Affordable recording technology. Half the battle has been one, a well fought victory. HOWEVER, the other half is still up for grabs. It is the one vehicle that today's artists, yesterday's artists, and deceased artists, have not been able to master: Marketing and Promotion. This is where the snakes come in and this is how royalties are lost. As of toady, there seem to be few ways to mass market or effectively determine a target audience to promote music without capital investors (big boys with money). A few success stories have hit the press, but these people were truly blessed in that God delivered their target audience too them (i.e people stumbled on too them on MySpace, YouTube, or FaceBook). The labels are holding on to the marketing and promotion powers, or at least they're trying to. I don't know how much longer they can hold out. You can get a computer for $500, Fruity Loops for $250 or less, Internet for $30/mo or less (or free), and people like staying at home not spending money surfing the web. Hmmm.... I wonder what is going to happen?