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Music will thrive in 2010 Jomar, blogger for the musicproducersforum recently wrote a rebuttal to CNETS recent article entitled will recorded music survive in 2010. Kudos to Jomar for getting it right. To sell music this year labels will have to see music as more than just a way get money from the customer. With the record labels struggling for a solution i've never seen so many artists recording music, its as if getting signed is an annoyance for the artists of the future. The leveling is almost here, with every artist gaining access to the same tools, theres never been more of a reason to record music. The less expensive it is for an artist to record music the less money an artist has to make to see a profit.

What exactly does a music library do. Music libraries are becoming more important to the indie musician as money gets tighter and the demand for indie placements rises. Songplacements.com is now the premier music library in southern California, helping artists land opportunities previously only available to the majors. With that being said, the insider has a great piece on exactly what a music library is and does. Knowing how company's such as Songplacements.com operate empowers you, the independent musician, allowing you to better exploit our services, and hopefully land more placements!

I've been hearing some chatter recently about underground music going the way of the "black guy mohawk"-out the door. one definition of Underground music is music that refers to a variety of post-1960s rock, pop, or dance subgenres that developed a cult following despite their lack of mainstream. Even though music can't hide from the internet I still believe that because of the pressures put on todays bloggers and DJs to "play for pay" or "go where the money is" that underground music can still live and thrive and evolve on the internet. Hopefully we can help increase the underground network by strengthening long distance ties between musicians and their fans. Everyone is now the underground musician. Music will go back to its purest form where the main inspiration for doing it is the love and the respect.

indie-music-news 101 has deduced that there is Human emotions in music, thanks guys i would have never guessed. The article did go on to reveal a little something that may have come as a surprise to the rest of us however, did you know that the Taliban banned music in their band (Too many great opportunities to say banned), hit the jump if you want to find out a little more about the history of music by professors in cognitive science and ethnomusicologists.

The future of Music: Manifest for the Digital Music Revolution - The guide to prepare you for a world where copyright has vanished, music belongs to know, one artists make money indirectly from their music.

Learning musical notes in a flash. As musicians have we put much thought about the ways in which we will pass down or knowledge of music to our children? It always surprises me when i look at a piece of music and realize that this is a language that not everybody knows how to speak. There are many acronyms and mnemonics that help facilitate the learning of an instrument but they don't encourage the instant note recognition that flash cards do. Try out these simple flash card naming and timing games with your little ones and you just might find your musical skills increase as a result.

The Music Power Network (MPN), which is the brainchild of Dave Kusek, (Some big instructor at Berklee) credited for being an all-around future music business expert, is coming to a YouTube Channel new you! The MPN will be making some of its educational videos accessible for free to help you achieve success in this ever changing industry. Subscribe to the network if online music business lessons and advice are your forte. Also be sure to check out the songplacements youtube channel, send us links to your songs and we'll add them to our playlists for others to see.

1. The best approach is slow and cautious. Right now, we are in the jungle. In the jungle, you don't rush blindly ahead. You dip a toe in the sand, and see if you sink. We have no hope of predicting which of these services might catch on. We need to move slowly, with very short-term agreements and see what works and what fails. And we need to be sure not to undermine our other business partners while we do that. Which leads to… 2. We should support our allies and punish our enemies. Rob McDaniels for InGrooves estimates that it takes 150-200 streams of one song to equal the royalty income on a single download. Right now, our industry still relies on the sale of physical product (believe it or not, it's still the primary source of revenue) and on digital downloads. Perhaps streaming is the future. Perhaps not. But we would be very unwise to cut ridiculously low-cost rates to a business model that obviously threatens both physical retailers and iTunes. Let's take care of the people paying our bills. At the same time, we should continue to press ahead with legal efforts against things like Pirate Bay- efforts that are finally starting to show some results. 3. We need to recognize that "bundling" and ad-revenue sharing is a marriage, and it works both ways. If we bundle the cost of music access into the cost of a mobile phone or the sale of a computer, we're now not only in the music business, we're in the electronics business. Any economic factors that hurt the sales of phones and computers will now hurt us as well. 4. Most of all, we need transparency in the negotiations and setting of rates, so that everyone in the music community understands what they're being paid and how it's being calculated.

7 Ways to Destroy Your Music Career Bob Baker takes us on a very entertaining journey, by revealing the 7 ways to best destroy your music career. He sarcastically touches upon everything from "being fearful of being perceived as a greedy, capitalist pig" all the way down to "using lack of time, money and connections as your biggest excuse". Wanna destroy your music career before it even gets off the ground? Follow these tips.

The Great Balancing Act Between Art and Business Both art and music require a great deal of energy and time, the balance is how and where you spend it. There are many different factors that go into creating a successful business around your music, including record keeping and bookkeeping. The insider has a great post about the difference between these two chores as well as some good advice on multi tasking business and music creation. Einstein said that one definition of insanity was repeating your actions and expecting different outcomes, if you wanna try a new approach to being a successful songwriter then all you gotta do is READ MORE.

Forget the Record Deal, What about the Publishing Deal. While labels are understandably trying to mitigate their risk, by targeting artists who are already as "developed" as possible, it seems that publishers have taken on greater roles as nurturers of talent. Taylor Swift go her start by honing her songwriting abilities under the guidance of Arthur Buenahora at Songy/ATV Music publishing. Keri Hilson speaks about having first developed as a songwriter with Universal Music Publishing, and how that experience helped her launch her solo career with Interscope Records. HERE is a full interview with Eric Beale, who began his tenure in the industry as a songwriter, writing songs for the Jacksons and Diana Ross. Hopefully this interview gives you some further insight into the world of publishing and some hints on how you can either get into the publishing business as a working artist or as a career, helping other artists hone their skills!

Learn from the best music video directors and interact with musicians who need and appreciate your talent as much as you need and appreciate theirs. Share your work with the fans and let them help you to become the next big music video director working with some of the biggest names in the music business.

Grooveshark is a music streaming service that is accessed through your browser, and is driven by users who upload their record collections. Currently Universal has initiated legal action against the service for failing to pay royalties, which is bad news for the shark. The good news comes to indie musicians looking to capitalize on increased exposure. Since it is a free service to access indie bands can upload their music to the service in hopes of extending their fan base. Users who wish to purchase your music can also be referred to Amazon or Itunes. In 2010 have your music in more places.

Okay, so your an independent artist, more power to ya. You write, produce, record and distribute your own tracks, but how well is your music being received. Major record labels have numerous methods to track the performance and popularity of their music. Soundscan, and Billboard are some of those ways. But once the music reaches the consumer thats when the metrics come to a screeching halt. Luckily now as an indie musician you have many ways to track your music, some ways actually rival those of the record labels. You can now monitor your brand, and even statistics such as how much time my audience spends listening to my material, and what songs are shared the most in their network.

2009 Future of Music Policy Summit CCC: California Copyright Conference NARIP: National Assn. of Record Industry Professionals AIMP: Association of Independent Music Publishers PMA: Production Music Association NMPA: National Music Publishers Association Record companies often earn money that cannot be paid to artists, managers, songwriters, or publishers because of paperwork problems. I know what you're thinking: yeah, right, paperwork problems. NMPA president and CEO David Israelite and Special Master/lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who will be overseeing the distribution of nearly $300 million to music publishers from the big four record companies.

Loiterers Should Be Arrested. The CMJ Music Marathon ended last week but the lessons learned have just begun. Kevin English, blogger at eleetmusic.com took some time to talk about the lessons that he took away with him from the many panelists. His conclusion; there is no concrete answer to surviving in todays music industry. Old school pundits stressed the importance of networking and buzz generation by any means possible while New Media progressives represented new media applications, widgets and digital services that promised to strengthen direct to fan relationships. It wasn't until the Sudanese rapper Emmanual Jai took to the stage that he realized industry survival was about constantly adapting, bending the industry to specifically cater to your needs. Figure out what your number one need is right now as an indie artist and exploit that need. Kevin's short but enlightening read this morning brings me to the idea of a (wait for it, wait for it) digital manager. Not loading up all of your tracks on myspace, but actually hiring a manager to surf the web all day and submit your music to opportunities world wide. Has anyone tried something like this yet? let me know how it works, and what you have been doing to try to adapt.

"How can i make music when i'm expected to spend all my time on Twitter and Facebook? " - Great music is where it all begins and ends, but in between the path to success is always changing. Facebook, Twitter, iTunes, heck..SongPlacements are all just new aged tools on the path to success.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Myspace Myspace is back. Ever since they dropped the ball on their no-money making music service, myspace music, they've been at listeners throats with all the advertising they can throw at us. First there was that annoying thing that started happening when trying to get a decent session out of an artists myspace player. I vivdly remember a picture of ugly lil wayne popping up everytime i tried to enjoy a couple songs in succession. Now there's word of experimentation with audio ads that must play before users can listen to free streaming music. Isn't myspace bogged down enough with bad user html and full page million dollar advertising slots? I guess my biggest worry is that more ads will just decrease the number of listeners trying to get an enjoyable experience from my myspace player.

The good the bad and the ugly of the academy awards. Last week i touched on how the music industry was not MY industry in a basic attempt to relay how i felt while watching the Grammys. It was an okay post, but i was really waiting on Eric Beall of the berkleemusicblog to really take the reins on this one and go in. Fortunately we walked away from the grammys with practically the same message. Music has become a spectacle, The recording industry doesn't know how to invest in its future and music is going global. Hit the jump to READ MORE

Are The Record Labels Biting the Hand that Feeds Them Radio broadcasters around the country are growing increasingly concerned about the long-standing relationship with the music industry. The record labels are demanding an additional "tax" (not including the hundreds of millions of dollars paid annually to groups like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, which goes to compensate songwriters and music publishers) on local radio stations for every song played. The music industry must be in panic mode to intentionally put a strain on the over 80 year mutually beneficial relationship that previously had radio promote record labels and artists and generate millions of dollars in music, hospitality, small-business and merchandise sales. Free local radio reaches 236 million listeners/week but record labels seem to not really give a hoot about free promo, pay up or shut down.