Sticking it to the Man

As it is meant to be the season of goodwill I thought I would write about something a lot of people discuss with me, so I can try and see how much goodwill there really is out there. Illegal/bootleg software and music downloads is a subject that really fires people up, so much so that I have devoted a section of my new Music Licensing book (out in 2009) to it.

Almost anyone who uses the Internet knows where they can download all the free pirated software and music they want, or knows someone who has access to cracked versions of every music program ever made that they will burn onto a disk for free. We all like sticking it to “The man” in some small way if we think we can get away with it, but to my mind it is just plain stealing if you use illegally downloaded software or music.

You may argue that Sony or Steinberg make a fortune selling their software, and why should you give these huge corporations your hard earned money when they can easily afford to lose a few hundred dollars? The fact is that sales of sequencing based software are not as large as you may think, and like most businesses these days even big companies are feeling the pinch too.

I am no lover of the corporate world we live in, but these companies have spent a lot of money developing this software and there are many coders and designers who work for a salary and have families to support, in the end “The Man” may or may not survive, but the regular people will be the first to go.

If you want to use free software to make music you do not have to become a criminal to do it (and remember they are catching small time pirates and putting them in jail these days), there is enough free software out there to write and record a professional album that sounds like it was recorded in a big studio if you learn how to use it properly.

You may not really care about any of this because after all who is going to catch you in your bedroom using cracked software anyway? The likelihood of getting caught is low, but maybe you might think twice when the tables are turned and you produce a piece of music that you slaved over for weeks and then find that someone has illegally downloaded it and used it on their website or Youtube video? This may not sound so bad, after all it can give you free exposure if they bother to credit you (which they rarely do), but what about the money they are making from it, where is your share?

At this point you may be wondering what money can someone actually make from a Youtube video or a small blogging website?

They are usually making money from advertising and other sources and are using your music to help drive traffic to their site to help them make that money. This little scenario has actually happened to me and it does not feel good, so please think of the consequences before you start downloading every piece of illegal software or plug-in under the sun because you may be on the other side of it one day, downloading illegal software or music are two sides of the same coin, or maybe that just makes me The Man now?

At the end of the day only you and your conscience are going to decide how you act, if you decide to use illegal software then please do not get upset when someone steals your iPod or your mobile phone, like you they made the decision to just steal things they wanted rather than pay for them, no complaints there then?

A quick search came up with these free software ideas for music making:

Computer Music Magazine They have their own entire suite of music making software included with every magazine, everything you need to start making music.
Ubuntu Studio Linux
koblo studio Mac/Windows
Sonoma Wireworks Mac/Windows/iPhone
Ardour Linux/Mac
XOwave Mac
Mutools Mac/Windows
Music Studio Producer Windows
Rosegarden Linux
KVR Audio The king of free music software and plugin sites on the Internet.

10 Minute List: 5 Easy Steps to Rock immortality

This is something I like to call a 10 minute list, (a list of things to check out when you have a spare 10 minutes online), for this posting I have listed some bands that you probably know but should still check out if you are interested in being in a real band yourself. The bands may not all be to your taste but you can still learn something from them, if you are serious about making an impact you could do worse than give a few minutes of your time to each one. I do apologize in advance for leaving out The Clash and the many other bands that deserve to be included, but I haven’t got time to write a book!
Please note: These are real bands so you won’t find anyone whose name begins with DJ, all offense meant.

Slade. Do your apprenticeship. As well known for their outrageous Glam Rock outfits as their music, Slade were the kings of the British Pop charts in the early 70s. The thing that sometimes gets forgotten about Slade is that they were a proper band who did their apprenticeship and could really play and deliver a great live show (I saw them and I don’t remember anyone better), check them out on YouTube or check out some of their live performances on Wolfgang’s Vault. Slade even made one of the only credible Rock N Roll films by a real band, the not to be missed gritty and realistic Slade in Flame. Slade have been quoted as an influence by such people as Gene Simmons of KISS, Joey Ramone of The Ramones and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Listen and learn, quality.

The Band. Be original. Beautiful songs, just a fantastic real band that seems to have come from a different time and place to everyone else around them (Canada actually, so maybe?). While being totally original is of course not possible, The Band went their own way and became legends in the process, even Eric Clapton wanted to join them, and if legend is to be believed he made his own version of The Band called Derek & The Dominoes who were of course responsible for one of his greatest songs, Layla. As with most legends a Greatest Hits is a good place to start and then move on to the albums. The last ever live show performed by the whole of The Band was filmed by Martin Scorsese and released as The Last Waltz, the film features Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and many more, it is well worth a look.

The Who. Become a hot live act. A more obvious one, but they have been something else at various stages of their career and were almost untouchable on their day as a live act, my favorites are Quadrophenia and a lot of the early 60s Mod stuff. Although many people say Tommy is the best thing they did, and it does indeed have some great songs, it was not their best stuff for me, I could always identify more with the sharp suited Mods and West London Bloke rock than the Hippie Trippy stuff. Start with a Greatest Hits, as with The Band, and then check out the albums. If you need an introduction, My Generation still blows nearly everything else ever recorded away by a mile.

The Sex Pistols. Add some shock value to get you noticed. How can anyone ignore what they did? They created such excitement for a young kid like myself in 70s London, they encouraged thousands of us to pick up instruments and have a go and sparked a worldwide music revolution. At that time before the Pistols came along it was all posh kids and Art School types in flairs, the excitement didn’t last long but for a couple of years London was a fantastic place to be. I honestly think that I would have been stuck forever in a dead end job and would never have traveled so much without their inspiration to break free from the confines of the British mentality. They don’t seem so shocking all these years later but they did leave a great album in Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols and Steve Jones still has one of the best guitar sounds around.

The Beach Boys. Stick around a while and finally become Immortal. No explanation necessary, Brian Wilson is a God. I have read several Beach Boys Biographies over the years including Wouldn’t It Be Nice: My Own Story by Brian Wilson himself, the reality being 180 degrees from the image you get when you think about the fantastic songs and vocals of The Beach Boys. There have been far too many greatest hits released, but try Sounds Of Summer to kick things off. My favorite Beach Boys song is God Only Knows, from the one album of theirs that everyone should have, Pet Sounds.

So there it is, you can’t go wrong, I would suggest putting down the Rock Band 2 controller and picking up a real musical instrument at zZounds and doing it. Get going, immortality awaits.

Music Websites For Beginners

Twobobproductions.com is several things, an online presence for my company, a place production companies can Licence music for TV shows and other media related projects (although this part of the site is temporary, it is having a major overhaul as I write) and more recently a Blog for Music related topics.

I was very much into the Internet in the early 90s, (I was a real HTML nut), I moved away from the Internet and have only just rediscovered my passion for it, mainly because I wanted a way to market my Company and Music. My catalyst for getting hooked on all things Internet again was a book by Scott Fox called Internet Riches, which is a guide to get you up and running quickly without too much fuss. Scott also has a lot of free advice on his website Scottfox.com about marketing and building your site that is well worth checking out, and he has a weekly radio show called The E-Commerce Success Show that is invaluable for getting you up to speed on the latest Internet marketing trends.

My website, as with many around these days is a Blog based site, I use free software called WordPress, but there are others like Blogger and Typepad for instance that are also great. I ended up using WordPress after trying the CMS (content management system) software Joomla, this was OK but there were a few things I didn’t like about it so I installed WordPress and it was really easy to get my site up and running in a few hours. Even though the software is designed as Blogging software it can operate as a regular website or CMS, so you can still use it to sell your songs and have permanent links on your music site, it’s not just for Blogging.

This, as I am discovering, is just the tip of the iceberg to creating and marketing a website in 2008, I do not claim to be an expert in any of this stuff and I am a novice who is just starting out with Web 2.0 technology, so any suggestions to further my knowledge will be greatly appreciated.

There is a lot of free advice and tools out there to get your website going, and along with the list of music sites on my previous posting I have also listed a few sites here that deal more with creating and marketing a modern music website:

Flyte Blog
Cute Writing
Problogger
Peter Shankman
Masters of SEO
Jim’s Marketing Blog
Bloggeries
Hitsguru
Scott Fox
Link Vendor
Google Adsense
Google Webtools
Feedburner
Constant Contact
WordPress

I hope this helps gets you started on building your music based website, have fun.

10 Minute List: Selling Music

In what is the first of something I like to call a 10 minute list, (a list of things to check out when you have a spare 10 minutes online), I thought I would post a list of sites that help Bands and Musicians sell music or license it for various productions. I do not endorse anyone in particular on the list nor have I used all of these services, I make no claim to how good they are it is just a list to check out. There are many other services out there, but I hope spending 10 minutes on this list helps save you a couple of hours of searching.

TuneCore
Hoooka
Amie Street
Pump Audio
Taxi
Indiestore
Projectopus
CD Baby
The Track Shack
Audiomicro
Audiosparx
Productiontrax
Nimbit
Youlicense
Soundloud
Fandoodle
Artists First
Snocap
We7
Garageband
Soundclick
Purevolume
Overplay
Reverbnation
Kerchoonz
Acidplanet
Interpunk
Boost
Goodstorm
CD Pulse
My Music Source

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