X-53mph

I didn't mean to get snarky, but when someone flips you the finger after you've just spent a good bit of your time writing a message mainly for them.....well!

ITSEFY

Of course we're allowed to have fun. That's why we make music. But the moment someone asks about streaming services (the topic of this thread by the way), they need to ask themselves the question - why are you putting it on a streaming service? I remember years ago when I used to send out demos to my favorite labels, there was one in particular that had a disclaimer: "Before you send us a demo, you need to know - you will not make any money with us. " they then supplied a link to an unsigned musician (I don't know if it still exists) saying...'If your aim is to get as many people as possible to hear your music, we are not the way to do that. If your aim is to get as many people as possible to listen to your music without making any money, maybe you should follow his example'. What was it? This was a musician who came to the conclusion that if he charged for his music he would restrict the number of people who could listen to it, and since he had a good job (scientist) and didn't need the money, he gave it away for free. He figured he could reach as many listeners as he was able to burn CDs for. He distributed his music to anyone who showed interest and gave away thousands and thousands of CDs - to put this into context, my first single made it onto a few charts and the label only ever pressed 500 copies. I had a friend who made it to Number 1 on the indie charts in the UK with under 500 sales back in pre streaming days. Chart sales are very subjective. Having your music up on a streaming service does not guarantee someone will listen to it. In many ways the streaming services are designed exactly the same as radio used to be in the old days - those already getting huge numbers of plays, continue to get huge numbers of plays. Those who get none, continue to get none. That is why people pay to get false play numbers, or pay to get into playlists. Once you're in, you might see an increase in plays. But then, that goes against the idea of fun, right? Unless fun for you means shelling out money to get bots to listen to your music? Those who have made it on Spotify (the posterboy and girls) usually do so because they already had a local following. They had some exposure beyond the streaming services. They work on their product. So, if fun was the real aim here, why not do what I often do - give it all away for free. If you have bandcamp, you can give everything away for free - you can even gift your music directly to people yourself from bandcamp (I've done it myself as a way of saying thanks). You don't have to charge - you don't even need to know who got it for free (don't request email)....unless it is (in a little way) about the prestige of making a few bucks off your music....and I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. Just admit it to yourself, is all I'm saying. Or go one step beyond this - print up 100 CDs and give them out to friends, family, locals in the street. Spend an afternoon on a street corner near the record stores (if they still exist) or outside a venue and give away your music. Chances are, more people will actually listen to your stuff than will ever listen to it on streaming services this way. You might even direct traffic to your bandcamp page and make some dosh too. I am not criticizing anyone's decision to put stuff up on streaming services....I do it myself. what I am saying is, we shouldn't kid ourselves about our motives. And we shouldn't kid ourselves that it is in any way the route to being heard. As the founder of Audio Cafe once said in an interview 'in the 90s everyone started giving their content away for free and the consumer expect this now - the only ones making money anymore are those who designed the tools to releasing it'

So you know then that streaming services are just vanity projects for non-gigging musicians, right? ?‍♂️ What I'm getting at is this - back in the day, radio served a purpose, to get people to hear music which they would then go out and buy or go and see live. The whole idea of radio was to get product to the listeners. That is why I used the example of labels playing the system by buying their own product to get in into the charts. If Spotify etc. are the new radio, what is their purpose? To guide people toward our product? This can be CDs or videos or merchandise or live gigs. If you are not gigging or selling CDs then it's just a vanity project because you are not really selling anything. It's just to massage the artist's ego. This doesn't have to be seen negatively. Many great works of art have been vanity projects. ?

To give you an idea of what 'playing the system' for plays on Spotify is like...I get these adverts like this in Facebook offering services to do just that:

So you know then that streaming services are just vanity projects for non-gigging musicians, right? ?‍♂️

A friend of mine who used to be in my band back in the day and now works in the music biz once said that if you did a gig and sold 10 CDs after the gig, you'd make more money than you'd make from years off streaming services... And do you know what. He's right. When my music was on radio I made hundreds from weeks of airplay. When it was played once on Sky TV I got 400 bucks for one play...and that was back in 2000. It used to be a viable income source. The peanuts that streaming services throw at you it's nothing compared to how much they make.

So you've got your stuff out there.... Now what? Point being, getting stuff on Spotify, bandcamp etc is the easy part, but what is your long term goal? Get exposure so that labels take interest? Sell a shed load of tracks? Give all your money to charity?.... What is the bigger picture? Truth is, you would make more money busking in the street than from streaming services. If you want to make decent bucks, gig and sell merchandise.

I've used Landr for a few years to publish my stuff to streaming services. The subscription to do so it's pretty low, but this year I will not be renewing. Firstly, Landr does not have a great automated system. I often find I cannot freeze releases and have to contact them directly to freeze or unfreeze a release. Secondly, it's purely a vanity project. If you are like me, working full-time and releasing music as a hobby, putting stuff up on streaming services is just for the sake of being able to say you have music on streaming services. It will not make you any money. I suspect that a lot of people 'play the system' by paying agencies to boost their plays and get their stuff on playlists or charts, in the same way record companies used to buy their own records to get their artists in the charts. If you have money to throw away, you can do that too, but you are unlikely to ever recover that money. So, I depends what your aims are.

https://ww.musictech.net/news/why-was-korg-fined-1-5-million/ Korg, Roland and GAK collectively fined a total of £5.75million for enforcing the illegal practice of Resale Price Maintenance (RPM).

Got to give David Kudell some respect for his measured response to the fall out. It must have been awful for him to see all that negativity directed towards his work. https://www.musicradar.com/news/spitfire-audios-westworld-scoring-competition-descends-into-bitterness-and-acrimony-as-hans-zimmer-says-of-winners-critics-i-wouldnt-want-to-work-with-a-single-one-of-you

This is exactly true. Like many platforms, it all depends on how many people you get there yourself. These performs are all great depositories, but you, the artist, have to get the fans in.

Something to consider - It doesn't publish to Apple or Spotify, if that is what you want to do. It looks like a version of Bandcamp, but without the cut of sale. Could be interesting.

I have to say - the level of control looks awesome and the promo video on iZotope's page sells it like a pro. But when I listen to the example sounds, I'm like......??? Just sounds like old Korg preset sounds or something I can do in Dimension Pro. What am I missing here?

@SteveC What did you make of the winning entry? Apparently the winner had links to HBO and had even worked with JJ Abrams on Mission Impossible 3. I feel a twitter storm coming on.....:D

No probs man. It's a great score. It was my first attempt at scoring too. I've never worked to video before. What a fantastic competitive though, isn't it? Gotta give the guys at Spitfire Audio credit. Good luck! ?

After months of psychological stress and anxiety, many of us are feeling the strain. My own way of dealing with stress is to go into nature. But I cannot always get a forest or visit the sea, especially as I am most days chained to my desk teaching lessons. As a result, when I do go into nature I record the sounds I hear and then collate them into sound collages to listen to at night or during moments of stress. I have recently put together some long audio soundscapes (6-10 minutes) together with soothing musical tones and calming drones. I am making these available for free on my bandcamp page for anyone who might get some benefit from them. https://53mph.bandcamp.com/album/forces-of-nature-the-sea https://53mph.bandcamp.com/alb…/forces-of-nature-forest-walk You do not need to pay, but of course any payments would be gratefully received, especially in this moment of economic uncertainty. I hope you find these beneficial and please pass on the link to anyone else who may be in need of some calming sounds to get them through the day. #mindfulness #soundscapes #53mph #forest #sea #audiowalk #meditation

Is this free as part of the komplete collection?

I like to think the end will be soothing rather than an explosion. ? Thanks for listening. ?

I really liked the beginning. If I were to be critical, I'd say it sags a bit in the middle, needed a change of gear. My brother in law works in TV and he said the same thing about my entry...? Did you get your entry in on time? Just for fun, here is my attempt:

I've just released a short EP of instrumentals made during lockdown. Most of them were used in a podcast series called Audio Tales as sounds beds for spoken word tales. I've put them together here on bandcamp: https://53mph.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-the-end All performed, edited and mastered using CbB with a lot of Spitfire Audio instruments, and some interesting free plugins I got thanks to the deals on here. Rast Sounds Calm is a particular favourite of mine. Cheers for listening.

Oh yes. There are some great new features such as ripple. Only downside is that there isn't a staged learning tool to get new and old users up to speed on all the new developments. I'm sure I'm missing out on a ton of stuff simply because there isn't a logical learning tool to take you through each new thing. Or maybe I just don't know where to find it...?‍♂️

Also, if you work on a laptop (like I do) I had trouble with the tiny knobs and button icons when I used a demo version. It's probably best suited for a desktop setup.

Is it worth it, or is it a cut down version?

They appear to have fixed the bug in the VST3 file. Everything is running smoothly now. Yay!