is the ipod ruining music

Is The Ipod Ruining Music?Writen by Brandon Drury

Effects of The Ipod

Just a week ago, I was headed up to a concert about two hours away from home. We sort of consider these concerts to be miniature road trips. In the past, we'd pop in a cd, crank it up for a while, and then we hop into a discussion about chicks, politics, potatoes, etc. The music being played kind of took a back seat until we ran out of things to talk about.

Well, this trip was a little different. The difference was no one brought any cds. Instead two of the group brought Ipods which played through the radio with an FM modulator. In the past, we'd flip through cd case after cd case looking for that one certain cd, but once we had found that one cd we were committed to it. On long trips, it was rare to take a cd out without listening all the way through it.

Well, enter the age of the Ipod. The Ipod has done to music what cable has done to television. You now have the magical curse called choice. Of course, all choice does is lead to indecision. I'm not sure if watching another person flip through 200 satellite channels on TV drives you crazy, but it certainly does me. For two hours, I watched two people do nothing but flip through song after song. It was VERY rare if we made it through one minute of a song. In fact, I doubt if we made it through an entire song at all.

While it does seem great being able to carry 41 days of constant music in your pocket, I have to say that the average Ipod user may be missing out. There was something to listening to an entire cd on a trip that helped define the great albums. We all have those 5 or so records that we'll never get bored with that we can always listen to all the way through. How would you know what a great record was if you had never had to listen to it all the way through? Sure, sometimes it seamed like a curse having to listen through a crappy song, but cds took care of that pretty easily. You just hit the skip button.

The real tragedy is there really wasn't that much music listening going on. It seams that a device that is designed to make it easier to listen to more music has a drastic downside. If people do little more than flip through song after song with their Ipod, then the Ipod is taking away from people's musical experience.

Yet, people still try to buy bigger and bigger Ipods. I remember thinking that 10GB of Mp3s was an enormous amount of music. Now 60GB versions are very common. I couldn't imagine who really needs 41 continuous days of music without repeating a single song. If you turn the Ipod off for sleeping, you are sitting at right at 60 days of music without repeating a single song.

Where Are All Of These Songs Coming From?

So how are people filling up their Ipods? Are they buying songs at $1 per song from Itunes? I've got a gut feeling that most of them are not. Assuming a one minute MP3 uses 1 MB and the average song is 4 minutes long, it would cost $15,000 to fill up a 60GB Ipod. Ouch! I don't know too many people who have spent $15,000 on purchasing music. I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS SPENT $15,000 ON MUSIC!!

It seams pretty clear that if the average college kid were paying $1 per song, they would probably wouldn't need an Ipod much larger than 1 or 2GB. Yes, I'm aware that you can store other data on an Ipod, but I don't know too many people who plan to haul around RAW video data on their Ipods.

So Who Is Getting Paid?

The labels still seam to be afloat even if they are signing a smaller quantity of artists. They certainly don't seam to be as excited about their profits as they may have been ten years ago. It's no secret that if the labels aren't getting paid, the artists definitely aren't getting paid either.

Music Is Expendable!

I remember just a little over 10 years ago. My family was low on cash. I decided that I wanted a rare Nirvana import called Outcesticide 3. The cd cost $30 and had to be ordered from Japan. I decided that the only way to buy the cd was to not each lunch at school for a month. (I was too young to get a job). So, I did without a meal each day for an entire month so that I could save $1 per day and order my Nirvana import. You could imagine how I felt the day the cd finally came in. I had put myself through torture for an entire month to get that cd.

I was at an uncle's house recently. My cousin was on his computer. He decided he wanted to listen to some rare Nirvana songs. He opened up his favorite peer to peer download software and typed in Nirvana or whatever. In about 10 minutes, he had almost the entire cd that I had starved for a month for.

While it is exciting that technology exists that makes it faster to download a song than it is to take the cd out of it's case and place it in the player, it seams that this somehow makes the music worth less to the individual. When a listener has to sacrifice for an album, the album is a little more memorable.

I mean I can remember the exact day I purchased many of my favorite cds. For example, I remember being 16 and buying Goo Goo Dolls, A Boy Named Goo. Me and my buddy were driving 90 mph on the way home like a bunch of immature idiots. It turned out that we had passed my mom without realizing it. When I got home, I was doomed. (That one didn't end on a happy note).

Uhh, good luck having any stories about how fast you downloaded an mp3. Good luck even remembering the day you downloaded a given mp3.

So who is winning with the Ipod?

Is the music listener winning? They now have a portable music machine that can hold 2 million zillion songs. Of course, the mp3 player costs about 3 times as much as a portable cd player did 10 years ago. With the luxury of having so many musical options, some people spend a lot more time flipping through songs than they used to. Ipods can hold an enormous amount of data, but this just leads to people blindly downloading every song under the planet. It's cool being able to hear a song, but having a free library of every song under the sun can make music expendable. Of course, the labels and artists don't seam to be winning.

In fact, I can only think of one guy who has really won from the Ipod...Steve Jobs, founder of Macintosh.

Brandon Drury runs an active music forum on his site at http://www.recordingreview.com which covers everything from songwriting to recording to cd replication to music marketing.

music the wave of the future

Music: The Wave of the FutureWriten by Hiteshk Patel

The 1990s have seen the largest increase in the music industry. With the invention of the compact disc, or CD, music is much more portable. The CD is a lot smaller and lighter than a vinyl record or cassette. CDs are also much more durable than their counterparts. Unlike vinyl records and cassettes, the sound quality will not fade over time. The price of CD players has dropped over the years and can now be found just about everywhere.

Now people are able to convert their music into a file on their computer. This breakthrough has made it possible to download music quickly. Computer users are also able to distribute and share their music files. By sharing music files, consumers are able to learn about new bands and meet others who share their love of music.

With todays technology, the opportunities seem endless. Fans, record producers and artists can all benefit from the endless possibilities of the technology. However, it is very important that the music producers are not taken advantage of. By taking advantage to the artists and producers, it could limit the future of creativity.

Independent musicians have felt the largest impact of music through the internet. Distribution and production of music has been solely dominated by the recording industry for many years. Now, the largest record companies are trying to integrate the Internet with the distribution process. The one thing holding them back is security.

No matter how secure music files are, they are vulnerable on the Internet. Therefore, there is a need to move away from selling music on the Internet in MP3 form or compact disc to creating communities with like interest to give their audience music for free.

Author is a web master & offers Free Mp3s, Movies, E-books, TV shows, Games, Antivirus, & Videos for downloads for a small lifetime fee & no per download charge. That too Legally. For more information on Free & Unlimited downloads please click here

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demo singers always get the reel musician

Demo Singers Always Get the Reel MusicianWriten by Tom Gauger

As a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency, Ive had the unusual opportunity to listen and critique many a demo reel from up and coming artists. One thing is for sure, the vast majority of reels are in the fair to pretty good, but not the Knock your socks off, category. There are a multiple of reasons for this, but for the sake of time, I will highlight what makes up for an incredible singing reel, whether youre singing jingles, general session work or working towards an artist deal.

Singer reels encompass somewhat of a large category in general, but I believe the following concepts can cross over multitudes of styles and hopefully bridge the gap in your attempt to have a demo that not only sounds great, but turns the ears of your listeners as well. Did you ever wonder beyond the actual music what makes for a great session or recording in general? Have you ever noticed how some individuals just naturally crank out demo reels that might as well be the master tracks for a major artist recording and how some just continually struggle to cut the grade?

To begin with, nothing short changes your demo reel more then a lack of focus. Lots of energy has been expended over a failure to provide the end goal. If you are going for an artist record deal, then dont be playing around with demos. Your artist record demo has to sound like youve already got the record deal. Unfortunately many individuals out there feel like they can piece together their artist demos on their friends computer Probably not going to happen. Your demo has to sound top 40 no questions asked, and on top of that, has to incorporate more unique musical elements not found with popular current recording artists - Why should the label add another act that sounds just like another act currently on the charts?

If you are a jingle singer, you will want to focus on a smorgasbord of sounds. Its funny that most of the commercials airing tend to be fairly moderate, but to break in to the market; youll probably want to include some off the wall sounding jingles to grab the attention of your listeners. You might want to visit ReelMusician.com for further ideas on jingles and what makes up for a good jingle reel. If you want to get into general session work then try figuring out who you are as a singer, what your particular role will be in the session and then develop your reel based upon those findings. Youd be surprised at how many singers dont sit down over a cup of coffee and figure out their singing goals starting with today, this week, this month, year and five year goals and then elaborate on a career game plan based upon that information.

Once youve established your goals and game plan to get there, you can start to look at your demo reel. Some time ago a prominent artist manager told me that he felt that if money was an issue when recording a demo, then it was better to keep the demo simple while using the best players possible. In other words, its better to record a guitar/vocal or piano/vocal with the best guitar or piano player around and have the reel musician play on your demo then to have all of the rhythm section elements in play, but not the quality to back it up. I found that statement interesting and find it as truth even today. It is far better to keep your artwork, music, bio, press kits, etc simple but utilizing the best possible writers, designers, musicians, then to have a run of the mill artist package that looks and sounds like the rest of them. Youll feel good about thinking youre in the in crowd saying all of the buzz words, but you will most likely go no where. Youre not in the game to sound like the rest of them, youre in the game to get a record deal, obtain jingle singing work or general session work. Utilize this principle and it will go along ways in your career.

Weve touched on developing your focus, creating a game plan with goals, obtaining the best musicians or the reel musician, and now lets look at some ancillary ideas to wrap up this topic and will hopefully give you an edge in your career path. Attitude is king as everyone knows. Great attitudes often make up for pretty good demos and helps pave the way to real success People like working with down to earth, nice individuals and not the artsy fartsy. Maintaining and setting your goals is key. Always be looking at and creating new goals and ways to get there. Always be authentic in your personal dealings. Music professionals may not always be transparent, but believe me, with all of the insecurity out there in the halls of the music industry and outside, its always refreshing to work with singers and acts that are real and transparent and not in a put on way.

Learn to develop creative ways to develop relationships with individuals already in your field. For session singers and jingle singers, you will want to form authentic relationships with singers already in the field involved in session work. Your relationship might entail vocal coaching or just a plain friendship keeping in mind, that while you want to succeed in becoming a mainstream session singer, that the individual you have developed a friendship with is worth more than your goal. In other words, its not what you can do for me, but I want to be your friend with or without the session work help. Inclosing, develop a general game plan, set your goals, make all creative material including your demo center around those goals, utilize the best possible players, with only one or two players where budget is slim and develop authentic relationships with individuals already in the field.

Mr Gauger is a former talent booking agent with the William Morris Agency and founder of http://www.ReelMusician.com You may contact the author at tgauger@reelmusician.com. Free e-books The Jingle Singers Guide, and Secrets To Great Song Demos, may be downloaded at http://www.ReelMusician.com

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rhapsody music part iii rhapsody for free

Rhapsody Music Part III: Rhapsody For FreeWriten by Patrick C. Martinez

In this article you will discover how to get Rhapsody for free. As I have mentioned in two prior articles, I gave you an insight as to how Rhapsody works and what it consists of. I promised in my most recent article that there were certain benefits that Rhapsody had, one of them being the cost of subscribing to their program. In fact the cost is so low that you can even get access to Rhapsody indefinitely for free. However, even of you decide to get a paid subscription, the cost is still considerably lower than that of iTunes and even Walmart downloads.

Rhapsody, currently owned by RealNetworks, is currently the world's leader in legal subscription music services with about 550,000 listeners, a young company but steadily growing. You will find that it is streets ahead of the free peer to peer music downloads services that were existent in the early 2000's. With that please note Rhapsody is NOT a peer-to-peer music service. Even though potentially you can get Rhapsody for free, it is a legal music downloads service that has acquired rights from the four major record labels and thousands of independent labels to provide music for you, the music fan.

How has it become number one? I covered some of the benefits of Rhapsody in two prior articles, but one big reason why there are more members for Rhapsody than any other music downloads service is due to, without a doubt, the low cost of the service.

Rhapsody is a paid subscription service, allowing access to over 120 radio stations and 1.3 million music tracks for only $9.99 per month.

You can download free rhapsody music, however. The focus of this article will be regarding how to get Rhapsody for free, indefinitely. There is more detail on how to download free rhapsody that you can read here.

When you initially obtain a subscription to Rhapsody you are given unlimited access to 1.3 million tracks and 120 radio stations for a 14-day trial.

Now after the trial you may do one of three things:

1) Keep the Unlimited Rhapsody service and pay a low fee of $9.99 per month - this value can be lower if you pay let's say for an entire quarter or year in advance, such as what I have with my Rhapsody subscription.

2) You can upgrade to Rhapsody To Go. This is a portable version of Rhapsody that allows you to listen or download songs to a compatible mp3 player (sorry, no iPods). This subscription is $14.99 per month.

3) You can keep getting Rhapsody for free indefinitely, provided you downgrade to Rhapsody 25. This unique service allows you to access 25 song plays per month and 25 premium radio stations per month. The 25 song plays can be split into let's say 25 different songs of one play each, or 1 song with 25 plays, or any combination in between.

For example, if you want to check out the biggest 25 songs of the month, all you have to do is click on the songs you want to listen to and boom, they will start playing with streaming quality that no other music service can compare to (trust me, I know Ive tested this versus other services). Anyhow, this latter version is the ONLY way in the world that you can get access to free LEGAL music downloads. iTunes does not offer this - they force you to pay $0.99 per track.

Even if you went with the unlimited version and pay $9.99 per month, and listen to 1000 songs per month, you would have to pay $990 to do the same thing with iTunes, and $880 for Walmart! Now where's the fun in that?

I found it rather easy to join, and found it very easy to implement changes in the service in regards to the plan I wish to use. I am pretty sure that you will find it just as easy if you want to cancel your subscription, downgrade and get Rhapsody for free using Rhapsody 25, or, like me, keep paying for a great unlimited service.

The choice is up to you to get Rhapsody for free or not, but as Napoleon Hill once said, Life is a checkerboard, playing against time. If you neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision.

So make your decision and start saving money now! You can read more for additional information on getting Rhapsody for free.

Until then (or after then) happy music downloading!

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