Rap Beats – Get Your Music Heard! – Music Marketing 101

Rapping Beats

Marketing of your music product (mixed and mastered vocals on Rapping Beats or R&B Instrumentals) is probably the most important part of the music BUSINESS. In this Rap Beats and Instrumentals support article Ill give you an intro in the MASSIVE world of Music Marketing. This article is part of a series on how to become a successful Rapper or Singer. You can view all the articles in this series on the authors page.

You can have the craziest lyrics and the hottest rapping beats and R&B instrumentals in the world, but if no one knows about you and your music, it makes NO difference. You can even have distribution with the biggest distributors in the world. But without proper marketing it wont mean anything. If you dont promote your music heavily, youll get lost in the ocean of rappers and singers that are online and in stores. Ill give you an intro here, but the topic is way to huge to discuss in one article.

Q: Once my song is ready, where and how can I promote it and get it heard?

A: Like I said earlier this is a big subject which cant be explained in a couple of paragraphs. But once you have a fully mixed and mastered song with solid lyrics on a really HOT rapping beat or R&B instrumental, youre ready to get it out there into the world. (Remember, as important as marketing is, music quality still matters). One thing you definitely want to keep doing is constantly learn all you can about Music Marketing. The key is to get AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE to hear (to actually listen to) your song. Post your music up everywhere online. Give it to all your friends and tell them to make copies and share it with their own friends. Hand CDs out at clubs and concerts where they play music similar to yours. When youre first starting out dont be afraid to give your music away for free. Yes I said FREE. (well Almost free, the only thing you should ask for in return is the persons Email Address more on this later.) People wont pay to listen to a song from an unknown artist they might not like. They have to trust and like you before they buy from you. Trust me, giving away your music to gain a true fan will PAY OFF in the end.

The next thing to do is get your music on the internet and let the world hear. Upload your music to any music related website you know of. POST IT EVERYWHERE YOU CAN! Some good ones to focus on are iLike, ReverbNation, MySpace (yes MySpace still matters), Last.fm, Jango and BandCamp but the list goes on and on. After that get on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and socialize with different people tell them about your music! Its important NOT to be annoying and spam people with ads of your music. That is one SURE way to get potential fans to HATE you. (Do you ever click on those kinds of posts? Didnt think so) You have to start or join in conversations and build personal relationships with people. Thats the key to social networking Its hard work, but it WILL pay off.

Another thing you dont want to forget about is having your OWN website it looks professional and will give you credibility as an independent artist. Having a MySpace of Facebook Page is great but you need a HOME your personal website will be your own store-front where you can gather fans. A good solution for this is BandZoogle. You can easily design a professional looking website with them and get your own domain (something like www.YourArtistOrBandName.com). BandZoogle also has a great Mailing List application that will let you collect all your fans email addresses so you can keep in touch with them. This is VERY important. When you give your music away to fans, make sure to get an email address in return and keep them updated on all your new releases. Its much easier to keep old fans (customers) than it is to get new ones! Well this is the longest article in the series so Ill leave it at that for now! Keep learning about Music Marketing Its Important! Hope this helped.

Holla @ ur boy!

DatPaki
Producer/Songwriter
PBE Music

The Advantages Of Using Downloadable Royalty Free Music

Nowadays, people are getting hip to using royalty free music for their promotions. Royalty free music is music that is licensed for a fee, without having to pay additional royalties. Using royalty free music provides many advantages and benefits. The greatest advantage to using royalty free music it can be used without the person having to fork over hefty fees to the copyright holder(s).

There are plenty of websites online that offer royalty free music for downloading. These sites allow you to download royalty free music that is of good quality. Royalty free music is also known as “buyout music”.
If a person decides to download music to use for their business or other use, they would have to pay a fee, but it would be just that one fee. Sometimes you can download royalty free music to use at a reduced cost. You still come out better than you would if you had to pay for the copyright.
Some websites are set up where there are only limited copies available of their royalty free music. They don’t want it saturated, so they have a certain number of downloads available for purchase.
When using this type of music, it can be made for unlimited use by the person that’s using it. Another good thing about this is royalty free music is legal. People use it all the time for promotions and other events as they see fit.

There are a variety of music and other clips to choose from. It depends on what your taste is. Some genres include jazz, soul, rock, pop and different movie clips. This is just a sampling of what can be found when you search online for downloadable royalty free music.
People can get easy access to this kind of music. Going online and doing a search can provide you with hundreds if not thousands of royalty free music downloads that you can choose from. There is something for everyone. Anyone can search for what they want and download it within minutes.
There are different sounds available for everyone’s taste. You can find things like nature sounds, guitar sounds, piano sounds and other sounds that may suit your needs. If you’re interested in film clips, you can find that online as well.

There is so much to choose from that it would take your many days to go through it all. The best thing to do is to narrow it down to what you really want or need. The online websites usually have royalty free music loops that you can listen to. They are always adding new music and film clips to satisfy the growing demand for this category of music.

Using downloadable royalty free music is a great advertising and promotional tool. People find it more cost-effective to do it this way than to fork out buckets of money for copyright fees.

Alternative Music – History And Facts Revealed

The evolution of music has brought forth hundreds of music variations in so many forms to the basic music categories. This diversity in music forms have categorized in alternative music those ish style music that come as slight style alterations to most popular music forms (i.e. alternative rock or rock-ish music for rock music that does not really fit into the mainstream genres of a particular time period).

Alternative music is a category coined as a sort of catch-all for those sub-genres that are unclassified but can be traced with similarities to popular genres. These alternative music are usually those that were not released commercially and are recorded on independent labels. Some music from this category, from word of mouth, would soon find its way into the mainstream and become commercially successful.

Off-Country
Country music that does not conform to the prevailing country style is generally classified as alternative music. Musicians playing alternative country music are generally those who do not subscribe to high production values and popularity concerns. Their music are of lo-fi sound quality and often incorporated strong punk and rock and roll qualities and contained lyrics that are bleak, gothic or socially aware. The range of their music spans American folk tune to rockabilly and honky-tonk to a fusion of rock and country music. Alternative country music has developed several namesakes like Americana, neotraditional, progressive country, lo-fi country, and twang core.

Not-so-hip Hip-Hop
The alternative version of hip hop has not been very popular. Artists claiming to play alternative rap or alternative hip hop are non-conformists who wish to turn from the common drug and violence-directed mainstream rap. Alternative hip-hop fuses influences from funk, rock, jazz, soul and reggae. Some of these alternative hip-hop groups have somehow found themselves in mainstream success like Black Star, Mos Def, De La Soul, M.I.A., Kidz in the Hall, Consequence, Jurassic 5 and Brand Nubian.

Electric Rock
Alternative music is most often used to refer to alternative rock. It used to be that the word alternative was used in the 1980s to refer to punk rock-inspired bands that do not belong to major record labels and have no clear genre association. There are a lot of influences in alternative rock namely, grunge, Britpop, gothic rock and indie pop. Most of these alternative rock artists were considered cult acts and recorded their albums on independent labels. Their popularity was largely due to the exposure their alternative music got in college radios and word-of-month. The band Nirvana entry in the alternative music scene has propelled the popularity of several other bands playing alternative rock music. Metallica is another group who made it big in the mainstream music world playing alternative rock.

Perhaps an offshoot of alternative rock is alternative dance music. This kind of music combined elements of dance-pop which includes forms of electronic house or techno, and alternative rock genres. Alternative dance music can be characterized as mostly electronic, pre-programmed beats and sequenced synthesizer melodies.

As there will always be popular music, there will always be a spot for alternative music. After all, there will always be music that falls somewhere in-between, music that is somewhat like but not entirely the same as what is predominantly popular at a certain period in time.

Top 20 Reasons Why Children Should Study Music

Copyright 2006 Deborah Torres Patel

All you need to do is visit the kids audio/video section of your local CD shop and you will be bombarded with a multitude of educational enhancement products to buy. You may find Baby Einstein or Brainy Baby and an abundance of similar merchandise to make your child smarter. These types of goods can be a wonderful way to introduce music to your children before the age of three. However, nothing can replace private music lessons for a 3 to 9 year old.

The brain develops at a rapid rate between birth and three and is an essential window for the development of neurons. Therefore, encouraging musical exploration is an easy way to promote intellectual development.

Before the age of three, toy instruments can be an excellent introduction to the real thing and group musical play classes can prepare a child for later study. Singing at any age is highly beneficial and linguistic & musical awareness can begin as early as the fifth month of pregnancy when the fetal brain and ears are wide open to receive stimulus.

From the age of 3 years old, a childs brain circuits are mature enough to begin instrumental and/or vocal lessons. Voice is probably the most important instrument because singing is a tremendous gateway to confident communication and full self-expression.

The piano is usually the best musical instrument to start with because it does not require any specific fingering to play. However, children should choose instruments to play by the sounds they like. Kids will practice more if they like the sound of an instrument.

If your child chooses the piano, inexpensive electronic keyboards are a good way to begin because they are very affordable and portable. Many brands on the market today will display the notes on a digital screen while music is being played. These types of keyboards can greatly assist a child to begin to read musical notes and symbols. They also often have built in rhythm and song functions that make singing and dancing along with the music easy.

Since Howard Gardners Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences in 1983 and Gordon Shaw and Francis Rauschers Mozart Effect in 1993, there has be much debate and research into whether or not music study can be linked to better academic performance.

You will find thousands of books, products, articles and websites discussing the advantages of studying music. For your convenience, the top 20 benefits reported for vocal and instrumental music study are listed below.

1. Music training has been linked to spatial-temporal reasoning skills. (I.e. ability to read a map, put puzzles together, form mental images, transform/visualize things in space that unfold over time, and recognize relationships between objects. These skills are often helpful in science, math, and chess.)

2. Musical symbols, structure, and rhythmic training utilize fractions, ratios, and proportions, which are all important in mathematical study.

3. Increases problem finding/solving, logic and thinking skills like analysis, evaluation and the linkage/organization of ideas

4. Optimizes brain neuron development & circuitry

5. Assists motor development especially coordination of hands, eyes and body

6. Expands multiple intelligences and helps students transfer study, cognitive and communication skills from subject to subject in any syllabus

7. Group orchestra or ensemble activities help promote cooperation, social harmony and teach kids discipline while working together toward a common goal.

8. Music augments memory. For example, most people learn their ABCs by singing them. Repeating a tune in a predictable rhythmic song structure makes memorization easier.

9. Singing is a great way to aid/improve reading ability and instruction. Karaoke is a perfect example. Children may learn a song by ear (auditory) but words on a TV or computer screen provide a simultaneous visual anchor.

10. In vocal music learning rhythm, phrasing, and pitch greatly enhances language, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary skills. This is especially noticeable when using songs in first and second language study.

11. Improves critical reading and writing

12. Raises test scores, decreases performance anxiety, and teaches kids how to handle/manage stress during standardized exams

13. Helps children channel unexpressed and/or negative emotions in a positive way

14. Boosts creative thinking

15. Reading music and performing memorized pieces help children to think ahead

16. Improvisation helps people to think on their feet

17. Solo performance is connected to self-esteem & self-efficacy. (concept of self capacity) Children learn to reach for their very best.

18. When kids prepare and consistently practice for recital or performance, they work to sing/play without errors. They generally apply similar determination and perseverance to many future endeavors academic or otherwise.

19. Improves understanding of homework and enables a higher levels of concentration

20. Children who study music usually have a better attitude, are more motivated and are less intimidated by learning new things

Strong music reading, writing notation, sight singing (solfege), music theory, literacy, and moving the body to music are solid, transferable skills. Learning is a two-way street. For example, one can assume that mathematics can also develop music. Academic achievement links positively with musical achievement and vice versa.

As early as the 19th century, the visionary Dr. Maria Montessori included music and arts into her worldwide school curriculums to greatly enhance and accelerate learning.

Lorna Heyge, Ph.D., says: “While educational leaders turn to early childhood music because it promotes brain development, they will stay with music because of the joy and stimulation experienced in actual music making. Music learning requires total involvement-that is why it appeals so much to young children”

Dish Network Music Channels

Do you love listening to music? They say music has the power to both heal and calm. That is right in many ways. Whenever you feel low and sad, listening to music can give you the desired boost. If you listen to some soothing and relaxing music it can relieve you from all kinds of stress and tension. Music therefore has an important role to play in our day to day lives. We just love listening to music. Dont we? If you are a music lover who cannot live without music then you are sure to have an entertaining time with DISH Network, one of the leading satellite TV companies of the United States.

The Satellite TV provider offers you a wide array of music channels that can give you a heavenly musical experience. There are number of DISH Network channels that are dedicated to music. These channels bring you music of every kind and genre. Whether you love jazz, rock, blues, pop or any other kinds of music for that matter, you can get a variety of music of your choice on DISH Network satellite TV channels. You can also get to hear a number of musical performances by the eminent artists. The music related reality shows are also there. You will enjoy watching some of the rising stars of music industry through these programs. It is sure to be an experience to remember. You can hear some cool classics as well as some of the latest chartbusting singles by the pop idols through these channels.

We can classify the music channels on DISH Network in different categories. Some of these channels are audio channels while there are some channels that bring you the beautiful music videos that come with these singles and other songs.

DISH Network Audio Channels

The DISH Network audio channels can be found under the name of DISH Music. You can have a great time listening to your favorite genre of music with these channels. The channels include DISH MUSIC – 50’s & 60’s Hits, DISH Music – 70’s Hits, DISH Music – 80’s Hits, DISH Music – City Lights, DISH Music – Country Music One, DISH Music – Expressions, DISH Music – Gumbo, DISH Music Hitline, DISH Music Love Song, DISH Music Hot FM and much more. You are sure to get the best of songs and performances from the eminent artists with this DISH Network channel.

DISH Network Video Music Channels

There are a number of video channels that offer the viewers high quality music entertainment. Through the music channels you can not only get to hear some of the coolest music videos and live performances. Yes, that is true. You can enjoy the latest music videos by the famous pop stars and music bands through these DISH TV channels. You may also listen to some beautiful and refreshing country music through these channels. The channels include MTV, Country Music Channel or CMTT and much more.

Apart from these channels there are channels like Fox, NBC and ABC that brings you musical talent shows, live performances and much more with DISH Network channels.