I’m running out of greetings to start off with so this week it’ll be a simple “Hi, hello.” So, 7^th blogpost. This week I want to talk about my own opinions on what this blogpost is themed on. The internet and music. I don’t think I’ve really touched on my own feelings on the subject directly.

So, generally speaking 3.2 billion people have access to the internet with 1/3 of the entire earth’s population on social media. Yeah, a lot of people. So, imagine the opportunity this presents to a young budding artist that wants to be the next big thing. I think this all stems from the Internet’s nature of accessibility. I say nature because currently having access to the Internet is considered a human right in society, especially when it comes to education. But if we talk specifics then the Internet provides a myriad of platforms that can enable a new artists career. I’m talking about Soundcloud, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Spotify, iTunes, YouTube the list could go on.

For the past dozen weeks, I’ve been conducting research on the effects of the internet on music promotion and the results of said research have basically reinforced my original opinions. Digital revenue accounts for 50% of Global sales for music in 2016 and its forecast to go even higher in 2017. Now when you think about it, this really isn’t surprising. Streaming services have popped up out of nowhere and are being used globally in the millions. YouTube is being used by some of the biggest labels as launch platforms for songs as well as Twitter for announcements. The entire music industry is evolving into a digital market.

But the ones who benefit off this movement the most is the ones who aren’t making money of their music career… yet. It’s like I mentioned, artists have all these opportunities to get noticed. In the past the ways of marketing yourself was through physical means of playing live shows and handing out mixtapes. While those methods are still present the Internet turns those past methods on their head by making it possible for artists to generate their own spotlight as opposed to looking for an already existing one to stand in. It all became independent. Take Chance The Rapper for example. He’s won three Grammys without selling a single album. He makes all his revenue from touring, merchandise and streaming and he hasn’t signed to any labels in a feat to have total control over his music. His is a success story that large executives are keeping an eye on and what is inspiring a new generation of artists.

If Chance can do it then why can’t anyone else. Artists are now able to organically build their audience entirely on their own and then further create a management team for themselves without ever being bound by any contracts. For me it’s a whole new barrel of fish where the fish are starting to jump of the barrel and land in the ocean. As long as the Internet remains free and accessible then the possibilities of progression are endless. If Vine can create a community of content creators who all live in the same apartment complex why can’t music?

Until Next time, stay tuned

Aloha ohana, how are we feeling today? We feeling good? I’m feeling good. This week I want to delve into a world of music production that is rarely highlighted or appreciated in the eyes of the public. “Remixing” by definition means to mix again and this is what happens when a song is remixed. Tracks from the song are rearranged to alter the balance of the song and new elements are added that add the remixing artists flavour to the original mix. Some songs are altered so much that the song can become barely recognisable from the original. Remixing songs is how a lot of artists in the electronic scene establish a fan base and then become famous in the mainstream.

Remixing in music has been around since the 70’s and 80’s where hip hop pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa would take samples from other songs and mix them together live on a turntable. This practice is prominent in modern hip hop as well with Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole using samples from Motown tracks and other sources of inspiration in their tracks. J. Cole even sampled George W. Bush.

I listen to both hip hop and electronic music religiously which has made me notice a specific difference in the remix culture of both genres. Hip hop and rap music builds on top of a track that has been sampled whereas electronic music builds around a track that has been sampled. In my opinion, the difference in the arrangement styles stems from the internet’s hold of modern electronic music.

In one of my past posts I detailed the history and significance of Soundcloud and how it provided a platform for anybody to post music. With the introduction of powerful music software, anybody could now make music without any prior knowledge of music theory. These artists with no prior music experience would take songs that they like and add their own flair to it. They would then post it onto online platforms such as Soundcloud and people would stumble upon the music. As artists got better with production and sampling the quality of remixes rose. Artists started taking note and labels started holding competitions for publicity using remixes as a forefront to reach out to new audiences. Artists such as Kygo started of strictly making remixes and he was discovered for the quality of the remixes he made. Some of his most famous works are remixes of Ed Sheeran, Marvin Gaye and Ellie Goulding. My favourite one being his remix of The Weeknd’s “Often”. Kygo was even commissioned by Coldplay to remix their song Midnight.

Some remixes even generate more noise than the original song. Off the top of my head I’ve listened to Hippie Sabotages remix of Tove Lo’s “Habits” than I have the original song. R. Kelly’s classic anthem Ignition (Remix) is titled that way because? Yes, that’s right, it’s a remix of his own song Ignition which is actually a groovy song on its own with the classic R. Kelly bounce.

In my opinion, the only reason remixes aren’t coming out to the forefront of popular music is because of copyright laws. However, there are steps forward being made for the recognition of remixes with the establishment of the Remix awards in 2016. Hopefully soon the art of remixing will become more known and appreciated publicly.

Until next time, stay tuned.

Salutations, to all. This week I kinda just want to have more of a conversation than anything. I feel like the past 4 blogs I’ve done all have this tone of an “article” more than anything and my last post, while enjoyable to write and research, was a little stretch from the main theme of this blog. So, I want to just try out a shift in structure or tone and see how it works out.

So, this week I’m going to run through an interesting point from an interview I conducted recently with Ffion Williams, a budding recording artist based in Singapore who I used to go to School with. I wanted to get her opinions on social media, streaming sites and the internet in general with regards to the music business especially for someone who is trying to break out onto the scene and contrast that with what I’ve heard and feel regarding the same topics.

The point I want to bring up from the interview is a mix of opinions regarding Spotify. I personally use Spotify on a daily basis and pay a monthly fee for the premium option to remove ads from my playback. I’ve not really thought about how the artist on the other end of the line is affected by my purchase. Ffion talked about how Spotify (Singapore) is actually very hands on with pushing and promoting new artists and has helped her the most so far in her career. They place new artists onto playlists that are then circled around the Spotify community. While she’s based in Singapore, Taiwan is the country with the most first-time listeners. Spotify have also brought her into their Singapore offices for some press as well as networking with other artists that are featured on the same playlists.

I love how Spotify is helping new artists in furthering their horizons considering how some big name, established artists have quite a bone to pick with them. It’s quite a contrast when you see people like Taylor Swift pull their music off the streaming platform for monetary reasons however it’s not like their arguments aren’t invalid. Each artist has their own reasons however the line is drawn when it comes to the cash-money. Some artists want to convey the point that they think streaming platforms devalue their music since users have the option to cherry pick songs from an album as opposed to listening to the whole thing. This argument is also applied to other platforms such as iTunes that let you purchase individual songs. Garth Brooks is very vocal about this viewpoint. Others have their minds fixated on the word “purchase”. For artists to make any significant revenue from streaming services their songs require an absurd number of listens which can only be consistently obtained by names such as Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran. If any revenue is made, then artists only receive a small cut of it since their record label while bite off a bigger chunk than a Bull Shark. Spotify have repeatedly stated that 70% of their revenue is being actively flowed back into the music industry so maybe some of this hatred of Spotify is misdirected.

For me, I believe artists should be rewarded fairly for their own creative expressions but I am also that person who only listens to 2 – 3 songs per artists. There are only three albums in my life that I have repeatedly listened to and I’ve only purchased a digital copy of one of them. If I have to purchase an entire album to put one song into a personal playlist then I’m just not going to listen to that song (Illegal downloading is bad, kids). If artists want to pull all their music from streaming platforms so be it. They will always have fans who will follow the music.

Until next time, stay tuned.