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From the Bridging the Gap album behind the scene footage of the video ashoot for the single Old 2 the New produced by ME!!!!
*** Updated Video Behind the scene 1.5!!!!
Enjoy and Comment:
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2 new joint off the HipHopDX Presents A Crack in the Bridge mixtape, dropping 05.12!!!!!! Both songs are on hiphopdx webiste getting lots of spins,***3500 in 2 days so far
Chubb Rock- Our Love produced by Strada
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Wordsmith featuring Soulstice- Music for the new Millennium produced by Capish
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How Do Non-Musicians Hear Your Music? Nice little article on the difference between musician/audio professional and regular people listening to a song.
Lyrics are king when it comes to popular songs. When I hear my non-musician friends comment on a song, they are almost always commenting on the lyrics. The lyrics are probably the most accessible component of a song to a non-musician, because poetry can be universally appreciated without any training. They can immediately grasp the meaning behind what went into the song through the lyrics.
I almost never listen to the lyric on the first 5 listen its all about the beat and instrumentation for me. and this is what I think afterwards when I reflect on my thoughts.
Some even say they wish they could be back to before their training so that they could truly appreciate a good song before deconstructing it’s production value.
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http://playingforchange.com - From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes the first of many “songs around the world” being released independently. Featured is a cover of the Ben E. King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. This video and “Don’t Worry” will be available at iTunes 1.27.09 while other songs such as “One Love” will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD in stores on 4.21.09.
Stand By Me | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.
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Good Innitiative from my fellow Montrealr Moe at makingthemogul.com.
Here is the scheduled posts.
ZACH KATZ (Producer Manager - J.R Rotem) Part 1 | Part 2
THA BIZNESS (Production Team - Young Jeezy “My President Is Black”)
MIDI MAFIA (Production Team - 50 Cent “21 Questions”)
D-DOT (Producer - Notorious B.I.G “Hypnotize”)
TRAFFICKER MANAGEMENT (Producer Manager - Boi-1da, Megaman)
CHAD BEATZ (Producer - Ashanti ft. Robin Thicke “The Things U Make Me Do”)
DJ MONTAY (Producer - Flo’Rida ft. T-Pain “Low”)
He also extending his network to upcoming producer with giving the a chance to produce for Lil Wayne’s Young Money.
Also, as part of Producers Week, ALL producers, regardless of previous experience, can submit their beats to Lil’ Wayne’s Young Money!
To submit your tracks to Young Money, please click here to read the details.
Def Check it out
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Whats good people?
FIRST, let me say I am sorry for the lack of continuity but I had 2 major work weeks plus drama that made it kind of hard to keep at it but no excuses are valid, I will not fail again!
Here is the excerpt from the Interview i gave a couple weeks ago.
Shout out to Revolution & DJ Buddha Blaze from Off the Hook Radio, Don Smooth, Skratch Bastid and everybody I met there. BIG UP
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MORE TO COME…
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Great blog post by Joey Maker over at xxlmag.com about tips for the beat placement hustle
Chasing Placements 101
Face it, producers - beatmaking is the new rapping. Right now, chances are your whole block is filled with kids packing a pirate copy of Fruity Loops and a “Dr. Dre Drumkit”, all hoping they can become the next Timbo.
So how are you going to separate yourself from them?
* HAVE BEATS, WILL TRAVEL - CONFERENCES AND SHOWCASES
Like rap battles, beat battles are a great way to get the crowd hype and to pit your skill against other cats trying to make it on the same path. Unlike rap battles, however, beat battles might actually lead to a career (no shots).
They can be expensive, but if you’re serious about your beats, any producer who has been to one of the many events now held all around the US will tell you that they are worth the cost.
Even if you’re not competing in the battles, producer conferences and showcases are a great place to network with A&Rs, managers, and other producers on the same grind - and, if you’re lucky, you might get a chance to meet a famous rapper or producer, who often volunteer their services as judges and panelists.
- Dynamic Producer [www.dynamicproducer.com]
- One Stop Shop [www.moneymanagementxl.com]
- iStandard Producers [www.istandardproducers.com]
* NO PLANE? NO PROBLEM - BEATMAKING ON A BUDGET
If you can’t afford the time or the money needed to travel, or live overseas, there are still other options. Australia’s M-Phazes used his manager as a proxy at last year’s One Stop Shop beat battle, which he was able to win. For those of us not lucky enough to have that opportunity, the web is full of sites allowing you to showcase your tracks in different ways. There are too many sites to list, so here are some of the big names:
- Loud.com recently finished up a producer contest, offering $15,000 and a three track deal to the winner. J Cardim took it home, and is already working with rappers like Saigon - hopefully Loud will bring back the contest for another season.
- DynamicProducer.com, PMPworldwide.com and MusicPlacements.com offer industry opportunities regularly. The staff filter through all the tracks that are submitted for the opportunity and pass on the best of those to the A&Rs. A great option for those who haven’t yet been able to make their own connects within the industry and labels.
- There are a vast number of sites where you can sell your beats online, but RocBattle.com is one of the most prominent. The site also offers regular online beat battles.
* INCREASE THE LEASE
Many producers will tell you one man’s trash is another man’s treasure - the beats they think are throwaways will sometimes be the ones that make the rapper’s eyes light up. That being said, sometimes you need to make some quick cash, and can’t afford to wait around for a big placement.
Leasing beats is an online hustle that’s emerged over the last few years, offering non-exclusive (e.g. resellable) use of beats for a lesser fee - but don’t be so quick to make your whole catalog online. We’d suggest going through your portfolio with some friends, getting some feedback, and using that to categorize your beats into top tier bangers, solid heat, and bottom of the barrel Dre knockoffs. Put the lower grade material online and save your top stuff for bigger opportunities.
Leasing a beat doesn’t mean you can never sell it exclusively later on down the track, but something you are making readily available is a less attractive commodity. In a year or two, your perception of a red hot banger will change, and your old A-grade material may filter down anyway.
Do it yourself on [myspace.com] or [soundclick.com], or use one of the many sites out there like [IveGotBeats.com].
* MIX GAME PROPER
If you hear a track with a raw beat and mind-blowing lyrics, but the rapper has a sub-par voice, chances are you wouldn’t be interested in hearing more from that artist. The same goes with your beats - you might have a great idea, but unless your mixing is right, it’s not going to cut it when you’re trying to land a major placement. Why give something that could potentially sound good a chance, when they have a hundred other CDs with clean mixes?
Don’t stress - the pros are here to help. For advice from some of the top engineers in the game (Just Blaze’s engineer Ryan West, Grammy winner Bassy Bob Brockman) head to [elementsofmixing.ning.com].
* STAY STRAPPED
It’s common sense, but always have a copy of your hottest beats on you. Make sure you always have your latest tracks, too, so you avoid a situation where you’re trying to explain why “my new stuff sounds much much better… but I don’t have it with me…”. If CDs are too unwieldy, try carrying around low capacity USB drives - they’re small and can be reused if you need to update your catalog. Just make sure you label them.
* BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS
Always remember that there are other ways to make money from music without landing that number one single. TV, radio and movie placements are all ways for producers to make money, and they are often looking for tracks in the hip-hop/rap/R&B genre - we’ve all see the infamous clip of Bleek in a shampoo commercial [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVRkYBp4pjA]. Check out [www.taxi.com] and [www.the3030career.com] for more information.
* FACE THE MUSIC
Finally, nothing is more useful than getting out there and making connections, face to face. Build with your local DJs, who can connect you with local artists. Build with your local artists, who may tour with more major acts. Be seen and heard - people knowing your face and knowing your sound, even locally to start with, is invaluable. At the end of the day, it could be the difference between your success as a producer, or forever being DresApprentice418 on MySpace.-Joey Maker
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My roomate Scruff just picked up the new Wired magazine ( yes we still buy magazine….for the can!) and the first article, Here it Goes Again: Games like Rock Band pump up music sales. So why record labels want to take the air out? by Jeff Howe pertains to the post I wrote this morning.
“The amount being paid to the music industry, even though these games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small.”Edgar bronfman Ceo of Warner music group
…….Guitar Hero and Rock band have become an industry in their own right, raking in more than $2.3 BILLION over the past three years.
Wow that right on the money. They still try to control and maximize any and every profit. The only people trying to stop the sharing of the media are the one in control. The ones that are loosing money from it. This could be a nice income stream for the music industry, like Howe puts it
With more entries to come in the play-along genre, and networked hardware to play them on, the game themselves could evenbecome an online music retail channel to rival with iTunes.
I think the numbers that these games have pulled in the last 3 years could be enough to jusity them as a great opportunity. Why not cooperate with the game studio? Why not open the vault of the label? Yes you will loose some money on the Publishing( lets be real, this side of the business is also dying) but think about all the futur income and possibility it could generate. How many kids knew about Molly Hatchet, Deep Purple or The Who before Rock Band ? Probably not many 7 to 17 years old (teen and tween market segment)…..see my point?
Aerosmith has reportedly earned more from Guitar Hero:Aerosmith than from any single album in the band’s history.
Try to build with these channels instead of aiming for that deal with a major that probably will end up in you making little to no money and not owning the rights to your master recording. INDY all the way baby!
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Sincock over at Illmuzik posted a great clip about intellectual property within a historical content starting the from the days of the Gutenberg press. It highlights that continuous repulsion the media companies always towards new technologies (i.e: cable tv, vcr, mp3 player, peer 2 peer…). History has shown us that these new technologies seem to always prevail and become the norm. A great quote from the clip is the head over at Getty Images said Intellectual Property is the oil of the 21st century. It is the ones who used to profit from the copyrights are the ones who are resisting this evolution. You hear the RIIA, Record companies, a few bands but you never hear any new artist complaining about the file sharing because that’s their channel, that’s how they get their music out to the people. Why does the man, Steve K over at OGHipHop has to go through something like this
A few days ago I received a Cease-And-Desist letter from GrayZone, Inc and their legal team, stating that my Miami-based website, The305.Com, was infringing on copyrights by posting a stream of a recent music video for Flo-Rida’s “Right Round.” Their claims were that I was encouraging “bootlegging,” by letting the video stream. The video was not EVER available for download on The305.Com. It was simply embedded as a stream from a third-party video hosting website.
With that, my hosting company also received a letter from GrayZone and immediately shut my website down due to the actions and accusations. Yet, the video has stayed on the video hosting site untouched…”
The record companies are still trying to fight the sharing of music but history proves the fight is already lost. What next??? Well now that the people who use to buy music can now record, produce and distribute their music totally independently with very little costs. The power is shift and that why the music industry is in a downfall. I don’t have a solution for the labels( which are way to busy trying to create that crossover hit to save their ass for another quarter). I know for sure that any artist out there should record their music at home, build a blog, cooperate with other artist, participate in communities (forums, social network sites) and BE ORIGINAL. The attention of span of people on the receiving end of any media is getting shorter and shorter( I opened at least 8 tabs while i wrote this post). The search for the newest piece out is full speed. Why take time to over polish everything? I think people should do what they think is very good, don’t do it to the standards of other do it for you. The key is sharing. Share opinions, talent, network, ideas, work… Once the people involved in music understand this I think we will able to progress again because now we are stagnating. Independent Digital Labels, Music blogs/website (like NMC, Hiphopdx), pay what you like album release…these are all valid options and should be explored….thats enough for now…I’m sure i”ll com back to this subject.
BE CREATIVE, EXPLORE DIFFERENT AVENUES(video game, indy animation, indy movie….) SHARE!!!
Check the movie, it’s worth it if you’re interested by this subject:
