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[spotistar]

I published “Spotify Promotion Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make — Spotistar” on @Medium https://ift.tt/38C1tVP

[spotistar]

The old walls that used to separate artists and audiences have crumbled by the wayside completely thanks to social media and other modern means of communication.

Obviously, as an artist ,you’re going to want to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to get the word out about your music. Your music is going to build your fan base – but if you’re serious about creating a community that connects with you as an artist much more deeply you have to be willing to go the extra mile.

Today’s fans are looking for a lot more than just a catchy beat and a fun hook. They are looking for artists that they really feel a connection with.

Your music lays the foundation for the connection you have with your audience but there’s a lot more you’ll need to do to really fit together these pieces of the puzzle. You’ll want to find as many ways as you can to reach out to your community, getting them excited about you as an artist and not just excited every time you release new tracks.

Here are five things you want to start doing ASAP to hit the ground running!

Tell them the story behind your music

Artists that open up to their fans about how they create their music – the motivations that go into every recording session, the stories behind every writing session, and how the music actually gets made – create a much deeper connection with their fans than those that only connect on a superficial level.

You don’t necessarily have to have all kinds of “deep meanings” behind your music to generate this kind of connection with this type of storytelling. Anything about the creative side of the music industry is going to be gobbled up by those looking to connect with you – and these moments of candor will go a long way towards separating you from the rest of the pack.

Here are some ideas for you to think about :

Tell what’s your song or album about?

Exactly where were you when you made it and when did you create it?

What does the song or album mean to you?

How did you evolve as an artist throughout the creation?

Once more, these are just some general suggestions to consider. Use them as a beginning point, if you are feeling stuck.

Use them to examine your project from all the angles and find the ideas that will strengthen your promotion whenever you release it.

Let your fans behind the scenes

Behind-the-scenes footage, photos, and stories are always fun, interesting, and exciting – and you’d be hard-pressed to find fans of any artist or of any art that aren’t looking for a sneak peek behind the curtain.

People really love to see how their favorite things are actually made, the process behind how the finished product gets put together, and the interesting little stories and insights into everything that goes into putting together something of this creative magnitude.

These little miniature documentary shots can go a long way towards deepening that connection between you and your fans.

Open up about your influences

Passionate fans are always interested in tracing the lineage of their favorite artists, diving deep into the artists that influenced them – and the artists that helped to make them into the musicians that they are today.

Not only is this going to be a fun way to open up to your fans about who you are musically and how you got there, but it’s also going to be a fun way to get a little bit of extra exposure to the artists that helped influence you (particularly if they are otherwise a little bit obscure).

Musical artists have been taking advantage of this tactic to do real deep dives into some pretty otherwise obscure physical artists, songs, or albums. Even just a quick video of you breaking down why you love a particular song or how it influenced or continues to influence the music you make will help deepen the connection that your fans feel they have with you – especially if they are just as influenced by this music as you were!

Shine a light on your other creative outlets

Even the most obsessive musical artists on the planet look for other ways to express their creativity, usually with pet passion projects that might not be getting the kind of attention from your fans that your music is.

A great way to open up this relationship is to share these kinds of interests, these kinds of projects, and these kinds of passions and get your community involved. Sharing information about your favorite music outside of your own, your favorite books, your favorite hobbies, and your interests is always going to round out your character and show your fans who you really are. It sure beats them feeling as though they only ever indirect with the “artist” and not the person behind the artistry.

Connect and collaborate

A huge piece of the puzzle today is finding artists to connect with and collaborate with, opening up your sound and doing interesting projects with artists that may not be perfectly in line with the genre of music you are used to doing.

These kinds of crossover projects always add a lot of excitement, and not only will they open up new channels of connection between you and your community but they also get you a lot more active in your own music industry and open up doors that might not have been opened up before.

Do not make the mistake of thinking of connecting and collaborating as some kind of networking endeavor, however. Way too many artists go down this road and completely obliterate the goodwill they were hoping to generate with fellow artists and with their community, sinking their battleship much faster than they would have thought possible.

Organic collaborations that just kind of “click” can be fun, exciting, and something that gets your community really jacked up.

Express yourself

At the end of the day, it’s all about finding ways to really express yourself, to really share who you are as a person and as an artist, and to find ways to get your community more and more excited – and more passionate – about you, your music, and your sound.

Today’s communication tools and social media have completely leveled the playing field for the music industry in a way that just wasn’t ever possible before. Take advantage of all that leverage to build and grow the kind of musical following you’ve dreamed of with the help of the inside information we shared above!

Read more about music promotion: 

newartistmodel.com/promote-your-music/

musicindustryhowto.com/6-top-ways-to-promote-your-music-that-actually-work/

disciplemedia.com/building-your-community/build-a-fanbase-complete-guide/

[spotistar]

It’s a major mistake to confine music theory to the classroom and lock it behind the realm of academics.

Sure, you might not hear all that many legendary songwriters talking about music theory as it is taught in classrooms today as the genesis of their inspiration – but that’s because a lot of these creative types want you to think more about the wizardry of their exceptional talents rather than the foundational skills they developed through the same music theory exercises we share below.

No matter the kind of music that you are writing for – everything from classical opera to death metal and everything in between – these music theory exercises are going to dramatically elevate your ability to compose better, more impactful, and more meaningful songs.

By focusing on these fundamental basics you will be able to bring something new and exciting to the table, leveraging real skills to go along with your talent and ability to take your songwriting over the top.

Far too many artists consider music theory nothing more than “textbook songwriting”, a pathway to cookie-cutter compositions, or a distillation of the magic of songwriting that turns this into something much more formulaic.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Instead, think of music theory and the exercises we share in this quick guide as just another tool in your musical production toolbox. You will be able to leverage these assets when your back is against the wall, when you have hit a creative drought (and every artist does), or when you need to put a new twist on something that just doesn’t seem to be coming together organically.

If these seven tips and tricks below will help you take things to the next level, that’s for sure!

Let’s get right to it!

Leverage musical chord extensions to color your sound

Even if you have already perfectly mastered the fundamental chord progression in the world of music, and maybe are even starting to get a little bit bored with the “old school” methodology, throwing him a couple of extra sixths, sevenths, and ninths can take things to entirely new levels – changing of your sound in fun, energetic, and profound ways you might not have been able to otherwise.

A great way to think of these new musical chord extensions is to consider them extra “color” – extra mood – for the more basic chord progressions, you’re probably working with. These are the kinds of spices you want to sprinkle in for a little bit of extra flavor, punching things when the time is right.

Fiddle around with different modes

Plenty of people think of “modes” as nothing more than a stuffed shirt music theory term peddled by those that live in the classroom rather than on stage or in the recording booth, but that’s really nothing more than a fancier term for scales.

The very first major scale that you played for your music teacher when you are just getting started – almost always over and over (and over and over) again – was nothing more than a “mode”.

All theory will tell you that there are seven music modes that bring a different feel and a different flavor to your songwriting, and tinkering with different modes for the kind of music you are creating can unleash a lot of interesting permutations that might not have come about organically.

Fool around with these modes until you find something that excites you and then dive right in.

Try obscure time signatures

A lot of great songwriters started out with relatively basic, straightforward, and almost ho-hum songs when they were hitting the ground running but really took things to the next level – and really made their own mark in the world of music – by messing about with more obscure or off-the-wall time signatures.

The most radio-friendly music in the world is written in a conventional time signature of 4/4 or sometimes 3/4. And while those signatures definitely get the job done (if they didn’t, most popular music wouldn’t use them) you might start to feel your creativity yet stifled if you stick to the same kind of signature.

5/4 time signatures can break you out this rut, and Radiohead illustrates this more often than almost anybody else out there.

Pink Floyd took things to the next level by running a 7/4 time signature for MONEY, and while you might not have the same kind of musical chops that this legendary rock band has (who does, really) use it as inspiration to take your own music to the next level as well.

Develop a new tonal pathway with the Circle of Fifths

If you feel like you are stuck in a never-ending loop of the same chord progressions running around over and over and over again it might be time to start tinkering with a new tonal pathway through the help of the Circle of Fifths.

This handy little visual guide has helped a lot of music theory students break out of creative droughts, visualizing exactly how to try something new musically and tonality without having to throw everything in the trash and start from scratch.

Not only will you be able to see exactly where you land right now with the help of this cool little tool, but you’re also going to be able to see different avenues and offshoots – new tonal pathways – that are connected to the sound you’re creating already, pathways that might not have been immediately apparent before.

Simplify, simplify, simplify

While a lot of rookie songwriters and musical artists are looking to throw just as many ingredients into a new pot of soup as possible when cooking up a song, top-tier professionals – some of the best songwriters in history – are a lot more interested in pulling as much out of their music as humanly possible, so long as they don’t pull out any more than absolutely necessary.

Your major and minor musical cords are going to be the bread and butter of most of your songwriting, but branching off of these basic chords will open up new avenues of creativity while dramatically simplifying the production process as well. Diminished and augmented cords can change something standard into something really special without you having to pour all kinds of “glitter” on your music to get the same kind of impact.

Just see how The Beach Boys were able to use diminished cords and GOD ONLY KNOWS to take things to the next level. They certainly were not using autotune or other musical examples of sleight-of-hand so popular today to get these kinds of results!

Write your music like a thriller

No, not necessarily like the song THRILLER. Instead, you should be using the same kind of toolset that thriller novelists and screenwriters use to add a lot of suspension and anticipation to your music.

It should come as no surprise to any artist that you will be able to add quite a bit of drama into your music (and a lot of creativity) by throwing in a little bit of anticipation and a little bit of suspension every now and again.

Anticipations are basically non-chord tones that will inevitably resolve into a chord, whereas suspensions are tones that remain from the previous chord played. Like salt and pepper, you want to use them a little bit sparingly in your music, but just like salt and pepper they’ll add a lot more flavor to your music and you might have thought otherwise.

Again, Radiohead knocks this out of the park with their song EXIT MUSIC.

Use Roman Numeral analysis to see the forest for the trees

By giving each of your individual cords their own individual Roman Numeral you can look at your entire song in a big picture kind of way that you might not have been able to vote for, quickly diagnosing what works and what doesn’t just based off of this visual indicator – without even having to hear your song being played in the first place.

It’s a quick way to diagnose your songs without a lot of heavy lifting and an easy way to figure out interconnected relationships between each of your musical cords without a lot of time wasted in the studio or tinkering around on your instruments.

At the end of the day, music theory doesn’t have to put you to sleep but can instead be a powerful tool in your artist’s toolbox to get the very most out of your music, your sound, and your creativity.

Try these tips out the next time you sit down to write!

  References

  7 Music Theory Exercises to Kick Start Your Songwriting

The 5 Best Daily Exercises a Songwriter Can Do

http://bit.ly/2D4Nda5 http://bit.ly/2VwsmDN

The post Take Your Songwriting to the Next Level with These Music Theory Exercises appeared first on Spotistar.

[spotistar]

I published “6 Benefits Of Learning A New Instrument — Spotistar” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2VaYL2f

[spotistar]

I published “How To Avoid The Dreaded Muddy Sound In Your Music” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2FDfw0T

[spotistar]

I published “Music publishing is easy with our guide” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2U6bPsv

[spotistar]

I published “How To Get More Soundcloud Plays” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2WdKhin

[spotistar]

The old walls that used to separate artists and audiences have crumbled by the wayside completely thanks to social media and other modern means of communication.

Obviously, as an artist ,you’re going to want to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to get the word out about your music. Your music is going to build your fan base – but if you’re serious about creating a community that connects with you as an artist much more deeply you have to be willing to go the extra mile.

Today’s fans are looking for a lot more than just a catchy beat and a fun hook. They are looking for artists that they really feel a connection with.

Your music lays the foundation for the connection you have with your audience but there’s a lot more you’ll need to do to really fit together these pieces of the puzzle. You’ll want to find as many ways as you can to reach out to your community, getting them excited about you as an artist and not just excited every time you release new tracks.

Here are five things you want to start doing ASAP to hit the ground running!

Tell them the story behind your music

Artists that open up to their fans about how they create their music – the motivations that go into every recording session, the stories behind every writing session, and how the music actually gets made – create a much deeper connection with their fans than those that only connect on a superficial level.

You don’t necessarily have to have all kinds of “deep meanings” behind your music to generate this kind of connection with this type of storytelling. Anything about the creative side of the music industry is going to be gobbled up by those looking to connect with you – and these moments of candor will go a long way towards separating you from the rest of the pack.

Here are some ideas for you to think about :

Tell what’s your song or album about?

Exactly where were you when you made it and when did you create it?

What does the song or album mean to you?

How did you evolve as an artist throughout the creation?

Once more, these are just some general suggestions to consider. Use them as a beginning point, if you are feeling stuck.

Use them to examine your project from all the angles and find the ideas that will strengthen your promotion whenever you release it.

Let your fans behind the scenes

Behind-the-scenes footage, photos, and stories are always fun, interesting, and exciting – and you’d be hard-pressed to find fans of any artist or of any art that aren’t looking for a sneak peek behind the curtain.

People really love to see how their favorite things are actually made, the process behind how the finished product gets put together, and the interesting little stories and insights into everything that goes into putting together something of this creative magnitude.

These little miniature documentary shots can go a long way towards deepening that connection between you and your fans.

Open up about your influences

Passionate fans are always interested in tracing the lineage of their favorite artists, diving deep into the artists that influenced them – and the artists that helped to make them into the musicians that they are today.

Not only is this going to be a fun way to open up to your fans about who you are musically and how you got there, but it’s also going to be a fun way to get a little bit of extra exposure to the artists that helped influence you (particularly if they are otherwise a little bit obscure).

Musical artists have been taking advantage of this tactic to do real deep dives into some pretty otherwise obscure physical artists, songs, or albums. Even just a quick video of you breaking down why you love a particular song or how it influenced or continues to influence the music you make will help deepen the connection that your fans feel they have with you – especially if they are just as influenced by this music as you were!

Shine a light on your other creative outlets

Even the most obsessive musical artists on the planet look for other ways to express their creativity, usually with pet passion projects that might not be getting the kind of attention from your fans that your music is.

A great way to open up this relationship is to share these kinds of interests, these kinds of projects, and these kinds of passions and get your community involved. Sharing information about your favorite music outside of your own, your favorite books, your favorite hobbies, and your interests is always going to round out your character and show your fans who you really are. It sure beats them feeling as though they only ever indirect with the “artist” and not the person behind the artistry.

Connect and collaborate

A huge piece of the puzzle today is finding artists to connect with and collaborate with, opening up your sound and doing interesting projects with artists that may not be perfectly in line with the genre of music you are used to doing.

These kinds of crossover projects always add a lot of excitement, and not only will they open up new channels of connection between you and your community but they also get you a lot more active in your own music industry and open up doors that might not have been opened up before.

Do not make the mistake of thinking of connecting and collaborating as some kind of networking endeavor, however. Way too many artists go down this road and completely obliterate the goodwill they were hoping to generate with fellow artists and with their community, sinking their battleship much faster than they would have thought possible.

Organic collaborations that just kind of “click” can be fun, exciting, and something that gets your community really jacked up.

Express yourself

At the end of the day, it’s all about finding ways to really express yourself, to really share who you are as a person and as an artist, and to find ways to get your community more and more excited – and more passionate – about you, your music, and your sound.

Today’s communication tools and social media have completely leveled the playing field for the music industry in a way that just wasn’t ever possible before. Take advantage of all that leverage to build and grow the kind of musical following you’ve dreamed of with the help of the inside information we shared above!

Read more about music promotion: 

newartistmodel.com/promote-your-music/

musicindustryhowto.com/6-top-ways-to-promote-your-music-that-actually-work/

disciplemedia.com/building-your-community/build-a-fanbase-complete-guide/

The post Five Key Things You Need to Be Sharing with Your Fans (Besides Your Music) appeared first on Spotistar.

[spotistar]

I published “How to Get More SoundCloud Followers” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2UDFypM

[spotistar]

I published “Choose the Right Mastering Style for Your Mix” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2TFtFTY

[spotistar]

Choose the Right Mastering Style for Your Mix

Mastering is a critical step to completing your track. You want the master to enhance the qualities of the mix and to make it the best it can be. The mix and master style have to be matched together to get the best results so the music is the musical vision you originally intended it to be. You may have a question about what style to pick to get the perfect master which we will address so your mix sounds the best it can be. LANDR AI can help you achieve this.

  Mastering Styles

  A mastering style is an aesthetic approach that you take when processing your mix. From the earliest days of music, mastering has been performed to some degree or another to get the best sound possible. In today’s; music things are more diverse than ever before as we often want to mix and match styles to get your own unique feel. You may want to mix vintage tones, for example, but still maintain a more modern edge. You need to adapt mastering to different mixing philosophies as you want your style to fit it but you still want to preserve what you have created. LANDR AI can help you create the style you want. Here are some styles to think about:

Warm

ANDR lead audio engineer Al Isler explains that a warm style as an intimate high end that is softer. There is a full low and midbass. Your tracks will have more weight to them with this style. You can fill out a harsh or a mix that is a bit thin.

Balanced

This style has a fuller low-end which isn’t too weighed down and it’s articulate as well as clear on the high end. This is a nice default option when you’re not sure which one you might want.

Open

In this style, the mid-range scoop is targeted so you have more liveliness and openness in your mix. It is articulate and clear and the low end is punchy and solid. If you have faster tempo tracks this one is good as it produces a nice modern sound to the track.

  Creating the Right mastering Track for the Mix

  Once you have a style in mind, you’re set to pick the right approach to the master. Some points to keep mind:

What do you need the master to do?

Do you need more air and punch or do you want the sonic signature to be warmed and smooth?

What master would be most beneficial to the track and the way you mix it?

Try to decide exactly what you want so you can make your vision come to life. You need to listen critically to the music to make the right decisions about it.

  Pick the Mix Character

  You need to know what is going into the mix as well as what will be coming out. To pick the right style you have to know what type of mix you’ll be sending to the AI which will be doing the mastering. You should identify the mix characteristics by using mix referencing. For example, if you’re looking at a track that used 70s rock, you have to keep in mind the style of that era a sit will have an influence on the style that you pick through the LANDR AI. As you compare you should listen to:

The contour or the EQ

The dynamics

The frequency and the level range of the various elements

You should compare the mixes to determine the differences between each one. Take the information you gain from your comparisons to make decisions about the master you intend to create. For example, the mix could have a lot of high ends which you might not need for your modern style. You may have lows that are too gentle which need to be reinforced somewhat. Take the time to do comparisons to get the best master possible.

  Try Different Styles

  Once you have a sense of what you want for your mix. You can try the different mastering styles and see how these work with the track you have. The style needs to emphasize the parts you want from the production. Think about the EQ, compression, loudness and how the mastering process will impact them. You can use volume matching to match the levels of the mastered track with your original to make the best decision about the mastering process.

  Conclusion

The style you pick should be a reflection of your own personal style. When mastering and picking a style make it a reflection of your own personality. You want your own personal touches on the work you create to bring the entire project to life. Use the mastering styles provided by LANDR as it uses advanced AI to help you create the master. These will help you create the final product the best tracks possible.

The post Choose the Right Mastering Style for Your Mix appeared first on Spotistar.

[spotistar]

I published “How to Get More SoundCloud Followers” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2TDAhSM

[spotistar]

I published “Should you Buy SoundCloud Plays and Followers?” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2VVNmn9

[spotistar]

I published “Top 5 Apps To Make Music On Your Phone” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2HmzRIZ

[spotistar]

I published “Do you want to Improve your Spotify streaming chances? Here’s how!” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2HjguRk

[spotistar]

Most musicians start by learning other people’s material but as they start to progress in their skills, they want to write their own songs. Many musicians don’t know how to start writing songs so this guide will help you write your first songs or make your current songs or song ideas even better.

  Find a Good Tone

The first place to start is to simply find a great tone that you like. This could come from your sensitizer, guitar, bass, or anything else that you’re using as an instrument. Try to do something with your music gear that you haven’t done before and look for a tone that is appealing to you. This could come from the arrangement of effects, some different preset on your gear, and so on. You’re looking for a tone that you like and one that will inspire you to write something. Try to change your gear up in a way that you haven’t used it before and then look for the ones that are locked inside. You may have equipment that has a wide variety of tones so you can choose one that you like and then go from there.

  The Song Structure

There are many different ways to create a song structure. By planning out your song prior to writing it will give you a guide of how to proceed. for example, a common song will have a verse, chorus, verse, and so on. As you write your song, you may find that the song structure is going to change so you should change it along with how you feel the song should be. As long as you have some sort of plan for your song it’s going to make it easier for you to write it. You may start by writing a simple chorus and then write the verses around that chorus.

  The Hook

Songs often start from a vocal hook or a groove. You have a melody that is very singable or catchy and this becomes the focal point of the song. The most memorable songs in existence have a very catchy hook or melody that makes them a listenable and enjoyable. Even if you don’t have the best of lyrics in the world a great hook can make the song stand out.

  The Groove

Try to get a drum groove into your digital audio workstation or use a Looper pedal to create a nice rhythm. A solid drum track can give you the beat that you need to create your song and it can be a source of inspiration. You can create the groove and then put a melody on top of this just to start to flush out the song. Once you have a groove and a solid melody you can start to improvise over this to improve the song even more.

  The Harmony

Once you have an idea for a song, Try to plug some chords into the song and work on different chord progressions. Different chords put together have different feelings and different keys also have different feelings. Try the song in different keys and see how it sounds to you. The song might sound good in major but sounds even better in a minor key. don’t be afraid to experiment with your chords in to try something that you haven’t used before to see how it sounds in your song. Just by changing a chord slightly you can get a very different feel for it. Sometimes even the slightest change in a chord can yield excellent results.

  Lyric First

There is no set rule that you have to start with music first. You could simply write a lyric and then try to improvise over this lyric with some chords, a melody, and so on. Sometimes the best songs will come with a simple line or even a few words that you can expand upon as you start to write the song. You may not even have the best lyrics in the world but as you start writing, you can begin to expand upon your initial idea to create something amazing.

  Riffs

A riff is a short melodic phrase that can be very catchy. Some of the best music in the world has very catchy riffs that everyone knows and can repeat easily. These short riffs are what can make a simple song amazing. You can create one using any instrument and this can become a focal point of the song and become one of the most memorable parts of the song especially if it is paired with a good lyric.

  Summary

The first step in starting a song is to actually get started. You don’t have to create the song all at once, it can come together over time. Don’t be afraid to begin to write songs and the more you write songs the easier it will become for you. Try various approaches to writing your songs and don’t be afraid to experiment.

The post How to Start a Song appeared first on Spotistar.

[spotistar]

I published “Should you Buy SoundCloud Plays and Followers?” on @Medium https://ift.tt/2T6Hryy