Availability of digital music downloads directly from the Internet to the hard drives of PC’s has raised the issue of music piracy. There are thousands of web sites providing free music download services. There are legal music download web sites whereby they allow you to download songs when you pay a minimal charge in return. You can compare these web sites and find which allows you to download music at the most competitive rates.

You might find the difference amidst diverse music download programs with the stimulate of file sharing programs. The question is that really these music download programs are free or not? a lot of of these music download programs have lots of ad wares, spy wares and pop-ups that you should be cautious of. The difference amidst file sharing and free file sharing program is that with the payment you make. Programs like MP3 advance, mp3 music subscription offer you with technical support, security from popup, spy wares, privacy protection and money back incase you are not happy with the program.

Because of illegal copying of music files and sales in the market a lot of music businesses have brought law suits but still a lot of file sharing program allows users to be anonymous. people are confused as to the legacy of free music downloads. They still think that which place of the website allows downloading and burning of free music. Is file sharing legal and after downloading are they at any risk? Therefore, you ought to avoid divergent file sharing programs like P2P, KaZaa, Limeware which allows free downloads but violate copyright laws. The downloads are tunes from the compact disc  put on the Web by people not having rights from the company or authorized music company.

Historically, record labels have based everything on CD  sales. The idea of MySpace Music is innovative as they realized that they need to move into a new area of business. The Web and the ease of illegal file sharing have long broken the business to consumer relationship. Rather than fighting against the trend, the industry has decided to take advantage of the easy accessibility of the Web to move to the B to B model of marketing. MySpace is a very large social networking website with over 120 million users who go Online al the majority everyday to check on friend updates and music. The new MySpace Music has already made millionaire deals with McDonald’s and Toyota Motors who want to advertise on the website since so a lot of users check on artist’s updates unending ly.

As mentioned, the business to consumer relationship broke down a few years back when a lot of individuals began downloading music from the Internet rather than paying for CD’s. Record Labels accused these users of theft and a lot of cases have led to trials. In order to create a new relationship, record labels are focusing on consumer emotions to promote profits. The accessibility to videos, podcasts, music and games via Internet makes it possible for consumers to create a more individual relationship with their preferred artists. Rapper T.I. began sending videos in which he talks to his fans about what he is currently working on. Other artists let fans ask them questions, which they will reply to via private or public messages on the web.

Whether these strategies will work or not is uncertain, but at least the industry is innovating. Actually, they’re trying to innovate. It’s a reality that most of these innovations are started from garages and build all the way to multi-billion dollar operations. Now,how is it possible that the record companies with billions of dollars of resources can’t get a handle on innovation?

Innovation has always been directly proportionate with vary. The traditional business model of the music industry and their unwillingness to vary has caused them to lose their competitive edge in the market, thus forfeiting billions of dollars to innovations such as Itunes. Therefore, the music industry has partnered with MySpace.com to make a better worth proposition for the consumer offer ing them a means of communication, social interaction and alternate forms of music media such as ring tones and pod casts. Itunes have established this worth proposition for the consumer by offer ing them music previews of their preferred musicians and purchase of their the majority preferred songs instead of the whole album. The music industry is additionally trying to follow in the footsteps of the movie industry by energeticly promoting merchandising. These endeavors are too late as the 21st Century market still proves to us that going against a trend is al the majority always unprofitable for businesses. The music industry must focus on their current operations and allocate their resources to creating new innovations for distributing their music to the masses rather than being followers of past- preferred technologies and trends. Only then, they will be able to succeed competing against rival technology businesses and recover some of the profits they have lost in the past decade.

We cannot deny the truth that Web Marketing plays a very big role in leveraging innovation. It provides the means of wide casting your message to millions of users and consumers with the click of a button. All you need to know is how to click.

Shooting yourself, however, might actually be quite fun and an exciting experience. Let’s get to the good stuff then!

1) Preparation is King!

In all film and video production planning is what saves you time and money. How much you prepare can make the difference amidst success and failure.

One of the 1st things all of us were taught in film school has been Murphy’s law – “Everything that might go wrong, will go wrong!”

Just make sure you go down this list and make sure you plan ahead of time.

2) Your idea and script

You need to 1st know what you are going to shoot. Brainstorm pointers and see what you want to go with.

This is going to form the basics of your planning. You may select to ignore this step, at your peril.

3) Choose your director and crew

Somebody must take the responsibility for the production. As much as everybody would like to have a go, it is not really a good approach. Let one individual take charge.

A full crew listing is beyond the scope of this article but for a standard production have at least one person on the camera. I wouldn’t advice you to rent professional lights if you’re inexperienced get one person to be in charge of that.

If you have an individual who is nice with design and make up, that’s wonderful a s well

A runner is someone who standard ally does everything else as necessitated at a given time.

If employing a professional music video production company is not an option, you obvious ly want to do it on your own.

In the second part of this series all of us take a look at what all of us need to do on the actual shoot.

4) Location! Location! Location!

Where you pick to shoot the video amounts to more than 50 % of how your video is going to look. Some of the factors to consider are:

*are you getting it for free?

• how long the will location be available to you?

• whether or not you will need lights

• the overall appearance of the location – it does not have to be “nice” in the traditional sense of the word but it has to be interesting.

Location is so important that on professional shoots a location scout is paid just to find the right places for filming.

5) Getting the shots

It is always best to plan your shots ahead of time or even make a storyboard. A storyboard is simple a group of drawings that represent what shots and camera angles you will be using.

They can be easy stick drawings, just to  guide the director and the lights/camera crew.

One of the perfect ways you may shoot is;

• get a “ wide  shot” of the whole scene, 1st ;

• and then move in closer and closer with your camera for the other shots.

Afterwards you could also get little details such as the drummer’s hands with the sticks or the guitar select against the strings.

6) Working together

Shooting a music video can be really intensive. ofttimes conflicts could arise.

It’s important that everybody knows what their job is on the performance. It’s always perfect not to interfere with others’ work. Even if you think they’re not doing things the way you believe they ought to.

When everybody is having fun and enjoying themselves it will show in the  last product. And your audiences will find pleasure in it even more.

7) Editing your video

many people advocate using free software like Windows Movie Maker. personal ly, I think you would find it a very painful process.

One role they fill is handling all the music contacts. These music contacts include venue owners, agents, labels, A&R,  promoters and a lot of other professionals in the music industry. The manager can additionally handle marketing, promoting, tours, budgeting and booking shows. A manager can have to wear a lot of hats so it is vital to select someone who is reliable and trustworthy.

When searching for a manager, there are many questions you ought to ask yourself before  set tling on one specific person. 1. first, does this manager typically handle your type of or field of music? If you’re an India artist, then make sure this manager is prepared to deal with the field of independent music. Are they more into hip hop while you have a more alternative rock feel? It’s necessary to select a manager that specializes in your type of. 2. Trust your instincts and ask yourself how trustworthy they feel following meeting with them. Are they just tooting their personal horn or are they the real deal? 3. How are their references? Ask or call around to other music contacts to see what they say.

Hearsay is vital in the music industry, believe it or not. 4. How experienced are they? If they are just beginning their career then how well connected are they? But then again, they might put more quest into your band If they have something to prove. Make a list of the pros and cons of each. 5.

Do you know anybody else that has worked with them? Locate out how ethical they are. You don’t want to butt heads with your manager over ethics in the music industry. 6. What style of management are they? Are they go-getters or laid back? Talk to other performers who have worked with them, if possible. 7. Keep in mind that managers oftentimes work for a percentage of what you make. Try to avoid a manager that asks for a salary. Having a benefit d and honest relationship with your manager is crucial. You want to be on the same page as your manager whether you do independent music or are signed. Make sure your manager is making the proper music contacts and truly believes in you. After all, you don’t want to work with, for or beside someone who does not have your perfect interests in mind.

As a gentle reminder to artists as well as their potential customers, I am sharing my personal favorite reasons why I find pleasure in having my own label, and why music lovers should consciously choose to buy music from independent labels.

1. Indie performers might freely express their passion and unique skill. They might express their own personal stories, follow their own instincts, and not have to follow orders from major label executives as to what they must create. From the customer’s perspective, by exploring radio stations and other sources of independent music, they too are now free to make their own decisions as to what is hot and what is not.

2.  Many of the common music distributors only offer music from major labels, and rarely do they give anything for free, no matter how many albums you download or cds you buy. An independent performer is free to be unique and generous in his sales methods. For the consumer, this could mean getting bulk discounts, coupon offers and appreciation for their repeat purchases.

3. The independent artist can communicate directly with the customer, so Web sales does not have to feel like an isolating experience for the artist.  Many times the thrill of receiving an email directly from the artist can turn an independent label music purchaser into a devout fan.

4. Niche marketing is all the buzz these days, and nowhere is it more successful than in independent music. As an independent artist, you are free to create your own unique niche and, in the process, reach more ideal fans. As an individual who buys music from an independent label, you could find it easier to discover the music that defines and expresses YOU as well.

5. By buying from independent labels, customers and artists might share the love. think of it this way, here is one scenario. A music lover makes a purchase. The independent artist has total control over what is communicated in the thank-you message. The customer might write back. The artist might quote the customer in his blog, the customer basks in the glory of the individual mention and shares it with all his companions on his Facebook page. Backlinks abound. Try that when you purchase from a major label.

6. Everybody feels more authentic. A MySpace.com page is more authentic than a billboard. A blog is more authentic than a press release. As an independent performer you might replace business communications with the real you, and your fans might comment on your webpage and get a direct response from you with their name on it.

7. At a time when a lot of music stores are closing their doors, customers could find their preferred independent performer’s music by purchasing it directly from the artist. Musicians with a well defined niche and loyal, avid audiences could remain untouched by the ups and downs of the retail music industry.

8. An independent musician may develop his own website presence based on his own unique individual ity and style. audiences may hang out in a place where they may listen to new music clips, socialize, watch video performances, buy music, and share and build upon each other’s excitement. Everything is in one place, and they may discover a new musician or song, leave their comments, bookmark the website, make a purchase, and make new friends, all at the same time.

9. Musicians get a bigger cut from the sale of their music. This can seem evident, but if customers can see the portions their preferred performers receive from major labels, they would make more endeavor to guide independent performers, and buy from independent labels.

10. Indie artists might performer together to help each other and further their personal causes, in companies such as Association of Indie Musicians, or Rock n Roll the Net, only two examples. Major record labels a number of times limit what their artists might do or not do. Consumers might not only help the music they love, they might affiliate themselves with causes they believe in.

There are of course other reasons to buy music from independent artists, but this is a exceptional list to keep both artists and music lovers energized and aware.

Back in the day, the record label would finance artist’s project up front in the form of an advance. The advance ofttimes amounted to a loan which the performer had to repay. The record label would finance the recording, distribution and promotion of the performer project and then “recoup” the resources following the project started selling. Although it seems fair on the surface, the record label would charge the performer for much more than what the record label provide d. The record label would not only bill the performer for the things mentioned above, but they would deduct performer royalties for damaged wonderful s, record club discounts and a wealth of other expenses. In addition the record label would take these deductions from the performers’ gross earnings.

Although the record label would allow an musician to audit the record company’s books, a lot of performers did not conduct any audits. performers were generally afraid of angering the record labels by asking the record labels to show the expenses and deductions in writing. This justifiable fear kept artist’s in their place – under the record labels’ control.

Today with digital technology, the power is shifting into the hands of the artist

There’s a new trend in the music business that has record labels sweating in the boardroom. This new trend is called “Do It Yourself” (D.I.Y.). With Digital Technology anyone might start a record label and have a personal studio on their PC. There are a number of free or (very inexpensive) studio recording software applications that allow an artist to record and hand out their personal material in the absence of the advocate or control of any other record label.

An musician may conveniently  promote  and sell their CD’s and MP3’s Internet at thousands of Internet website s. In addition there are many new Internet hosting services that allow an musician to have a website dedicated to promoting their and selling their music to the rising Internet community.

There are 100’s of performers making a living selling their music Web. Think about it, if you sold 20,000 CD’s Web at $10, you’d earn $200,000. If you sold 20,000 for a record label you’d be in debt and you’d face the risk of being dropped from the record label.

By recording, distributing, promoting and selling your music yourself, you control your destiny. Today an musician could control their costs, track their deductions and not live in fear of any record company.

Today, with digital technology, the only thing that is holding you back from experiencing a life of infecting your audiences with your music is you. With the Internet anybody at all could get their music out into cyberspace, get some recognition and make some resources.

- Will you become rich? -

Getting rich is a possibility in the digital market place. The Artic Monkeys sold 360,000 copies in one week by using the Internet to market their music. If you do the math, Assuming that they charged, $10 per CD, times 360,000 that’s 3,600,000 – three million six hundred thousand dollars! Getting rich is a possibility in the digital age.

Let’s face it. Every musician and performer may use a little more money. It does not matter what genre you are in. You know that having a little extra money may endorse you. It does not matter why you sing or play. You may use a some extra money, to make whatever you are doing today even better tomorrow.

Alternative rockers are generally frustrated with lack of mainstream media attention. Alternative rockers generally feel insulted and abused by business record labels. Alternative rockers know that there are a lot of individuals in the world who appreciate their type of music. Using Web submission web sites allow the alternative rocker to connect with listeners on-line and off-line.

In the past, performers and performers needed a record company to pay for everything (studio time, CD  dulication, promotion etc.). Today, it’s up to the alternative rocker to get his or her music heard. The Good thing is that it doesn’t cost many money to make your music dreams come true. All you have to do is follow these steps to succeed in the music biz.

Step one, start a record label. It’s remarkably easy and affordable to start a record label. Plus, there are many reasons to start your own record label prefer ; filing taxes at the business level, getting tax breaks that businesses are allowed by the government, becomming a member of RIAA and many more

Step two, build your personal studio. Again this is a  surprisingly easy and inexpensive step to take to succeed in the music biz. Some perks of owning a personal recording studio is that you can; take your time to develop your sound, you can make changes that will improve your songs in the absence of having to pay thousands of dollars to a professional studio and you can master your music in minutes.

Step three, learn where and how to  promote  your music. In the past you necessitated to get your music heard on the radio or on a video channel to get enough exposure to make any resources selling your music. Today if you can read this article, you can  promote  your music over the Internet and expose your music to millions of individuals.

Step four, build your fan base. Building a fan base used to require you to get massive exposure on TV or radio and then enbark on unlimited tours to  promote  your compact disc. After all at work and investment, you’d be doing well to have a fan base of a couple thousand audiences. Today you may  promote  your music on a lot of of the Peer to Peer web sites sprouting up like ; myspace, msnspaces, isound and a lot of more and reach millions. Plus you may build a fan base of 100’s of thousands. If you need proof of this fact just go to myspace.com and check out the top musician and see how a lot of companions (fans) the top musician have.

Step Five, convert your listeners into customers. Having many listeners who do not purchase your music is honestly a was te of time. listeners do fill the ego, but If they do not purchase your music, they aren’t filling your bank account. without making money in the music biz, you won’t get respect or the recognition that matters. You will have to learn the steps to getting listeners purchasing massive amounts of your music to really succeed in the music biz.

The nice thing is all the steps above are simple to do but there can be lots work involved if you do not take the correct steps.

Historically, record labels have based everything on CD  sales. The idea of MySpace Music is innovative as they realized that they need to move into a new area of business. The Internet and the ease of illegal file sharing have long broken the business to consumer relationship. Rather than fighting against the trend, the industry has decided to take advantage of the simple accessibility of the Internet to move to the B to B model of marketing. MySpace is a very big social networking web site with over 120 million users who go Web al the majority everyday to check on friend updates and music. The new MySpace Music has already made millionaire deals with McDonald’s and Toyota Motors who want to advertise on the web site since so many users check on artist’s updates constant ly.

As mentioned, the business to consumer relationship broke down several years back when many individuals began downloading music from the Internet rather than paying for compact disc’s. Record Labels accused these users of theft and many cases have led to trials. In order to establish a new relationship, record labels are focusing on consumer emotions to increase profits. The accessibility to videos, podcasts, music and games via Internet makes it possible for consumers to establish a more individual relationship with their preferred artists. Rapper T.I. began sending videos in which he talks to his audiences about what he is currently working on. Other artists let audiences ask them questions, which they will reply to via private or public messages on the web.

Whether these strategies will work or not is uncertain, but at least the industry is innovating. Actually, they’re trying to innovate. It’s a reality that most of these innovations are started from garages and build all the way to multi-billion dollar operations. So,how is it possible that the record businesses with billions of dollars of resources can’t get a handle on innovation?

Innovation has always been directly proportionate with change. The traditional business model of the music industry and their unwillingness to change has caused them to lose their competitive edge in the market, thus forfeiting billions of dollars to innovations such as Itunes. Therefore, the music industry has partnered with MySpace.com to make a better worth proposition for the consumer offer ing them a means of communication, social interaction and alternate forms of music media such as ring tones and pod casts. Itunes have established this worth proposition for the consumer by offer ing them music previews of their favorite performers and purchase of their most favorite tunes instead of the whole album. The music industry is likewise trying to follow in the footsteps of the movie industry by aggressively promoting merchandising. The resolutions are too late as the 21st Century market still proves to us that going against a trend is al most always unprofitable for organizations. The music industry must focus on their current operations and allocate their resources to creating new innovations for distributing their music to the masses rather than being followers of past- favorite technologies and trends. Only then, they will be able to succeed competing against rival technology organizations and recover some of the profits they have lost in the past decade.

We cannot deny the truth that Web Marketing plays a large role in leveraging innovation. It offers the means of wide casting your message to millions of users and consumers with the click of a button. All you need to know is how to click.

think of your career as a business. Have you assembled your business plan? How do you plan to market? What is your mission statement? Are you going to start your own record label to be distributed by a major, or are you going to use the full service resources of a major label? These are all important issues that you’ve to have in order to really succeed in the music biz. A music biz plan helps you resolve these issues well in advance.

A lot of recording artists enter the music biz with one ample goal “to make it”. The artists see themselves on a ample stage in front of thousands of screaming audiences, but usually that is as far as the getting prepared goes. artists rarely conduct the getting prepared that it takes to succeed in the music biz.

I have yet to speak to an musician who has a business plan. In my experience if you don’t have a business plan, then you should n’t plan on being in business. A nice business plan will cover your business and legal structure, your marketing model, financial projections, goals, benchmarks and finally what you’ll do following the your career is over.

I have met many recording artists who treat the music biz prefer a glorified hobby. They usually don’t have business cards, a web site or in many cases, a valid email address.  A lot of more artists don’t have the marketing structure in place that will allow them to get the attention from listeners or record labels. Do not forget that the music biz is all business. If you treat your music career as a hobby then you may as well just performance your music for friends and family members and be content with people pretending to take you significant ly.

Getting attention and interest from record labels is simple if you are on the radar.  A lot of Artist and Repertoire Representatives (A&R Reps) agree that if an artist is making it happen on for themselves (by selling a couple thousand compact disc’s Local/Regional ly or selling out a 2,000 seat Club ) they will get on the major label radar. You can’t get on the radar of the record labels (or your fans ) if you are flying by the seat of your pants and living on a prayer.