Concert Venues

Live Music!-“Live music.” That common saying may contain some truth, but these days the word “live” is having less and less to do with music. For many people, a dj is their form of live music. Despite what dj’s would like to have you believe, musicians make excellent entertainment.

In the first place, people enjoy human performance. Many musicians like great athletes are multi-talented. They will croon on the tenor saxophone right to your soul, then turn around and chunk out a funky rhythm on a Fender Stratocaster. Can a dj play a turntable behind his head or with his teeth? Professional musicians love to sing and groove on just about any style of music from a Frank Sinatra to Outkast. They especially enjoy playing when the audience is responding to their performance.

In the second place, musicians are students of the arts. Musicians do not merely “push buttons.” They’ve had years of practice in their homes, and they do their thing on stage. Unlike dj’s musicians do not try to sing over or add other loud or strange noises to program music. Once a song starts it flows to the end and in the unfortunate event of a power shortage musicians can continue to entertain acoustically until power is restored. Even non-professional musicians usually understand “the show must go on” concept.

Lastly, one of the most attractive features of bands as entertainment is the affinity between them and their audience. Watching a great drummer is never boring because they’re constantly moving…feeling. An animated solo violinist playing an old wooden Stradivarius violin has a much greater chance of reaching into your soul and stirring your emotions than a dj with an array of magnetic speakers and digital amplifiers no matter how great his system sounds. It’s an apple trying to be an orange. It’s the difference between human blood and electricity.

Contrary to popular opinion, bands can be affordable. Just like with a dj, finding a band well in advance and securing them with a low down payment, the price can be negotiated to avoid costly or inadequate entertainment. Bands will even throw in a free cocktail hour or an extra half hour at the end to secure a date! Many bands are now offering “dj time.” This is when the musician hat comes off and the dj hat is put on to play the Techno, House, Hip-Hop, etc…Genres of today. People who have small parties should appreciate these characteristics of bands. However, many people who have large parties opt to have bands because they love the musician personality. In many ways, musicians are the ideal entertainers.

Indie Music online revolution according to CFTA-Once you begin to think about it, you realize that it was bound to happen. A place on the Web where creative independent artists all over the world can take their music form the street corner to the world’s stage without loosing their street corner autonomy.

The Indie music online revolution started with mp3.com the humble David fighting the RIAA-Goliath for the little artist, that ended up transforming into another commercial RIAA-like model. It continued with the successful CDBaby model of a CD store for independent artists, followed by the MySpace model that took things a step further by offering irresistible hosting allowing every independent artist to have good web presence with music streaming and links to wherever the artist’s CD are sold.

We have entered a new era where web presence is common in availability and cost as much as stereo systems are in our living room. This is where CFTA or CDs-FROM-THE-ARTIST dot com comes in. The mission and premise behind CFTA is simple: We have all these independent artists each with her/his own web site, audio music clips to listen to and CDs for sale. Now we need to harness the tremendous power that lies in gathering these isolated artists on the web in one place where they can be easily discovered by music lovers world wide.

CFTA is about creating and providing a single place where every independent artist with web presence that is ready to market her/him self can be found by music lovers anywhere in the world quickly and easily. CFTA is more of an artists and music lovers co-op than a commercial entity that exists to make money from both artists and fans. It was created and is run by artists and music lovers with the mission to harness the latest and best web technology that can be utilized and transformed together with some labor of love into free services for Indie artists and their fans. Sort of like a cool urban club that lets artist come on stage for free.

CFTA free services include:

* CD listing with CD cover picture, CD information and all relevant links to the artist.

* Audio streaming Quick Listen for each CD.

* A complete private Tunes Download Store with direct payments to the artist’s account.

* Site global search tool for easy finding and navigation.

* Ability for music fans to register Customer Feedback following a CD purchase.

* Community eGroup for fans and artists to communicate and interact.

* Site information blog with readers comments on CFTA issues.

* Tools for music lovers to recommend new undiscovered artists.

* Free, anonymous browsing for anyone with no accounts or passwords.

Music Online Glossary – When Music, Music Careers and PCs Collide-The Internet has proven to be where music can be discovered, reviewed, discussed, shared, and purchased. Musicians know this and get online to upload their music and become a part of the world wide music machine process. They come on the Web at every age, at every experience level – musically and computer savvy. From youngsters starting out to seasoned musicians just learning where the computer on switch is, the workings of being on a computer can be overwhelming with everything else they have going on in their lives.

The Web also allows musicians access to music knowledge. Artists will come across difficult terminology and phrases that they do not understand. Compiled in the following mini glossary are music business, digital, organizations, record biz lingo, computer terms and basic need-to-know info. Hopefully, something listed here will help you navigate music online a bit easier, and so you know, this glossary is an excerpt of an extensive list found on Artistopia.

A&R – Artist and Repertoire, aka talent scouts: a record company liaison whose duties may include to find, select and develop the music artist, band and/or songwriter.

Affiliate Program – a way to earn income by linking your Web site to another site, depending on the action taken by the visitor.

ASCAP – American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers which licenses and distributes royalties to it’s members’ copyrighted works.

Bandwidth – has nothing to do with the size of a band but is a measure of the amount of information (data) that can be sent over a network connection in a given period of time. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits per second.

Bitrate – The number of kilobits per second of data in your audio file. The bitrate you choose when creating an MP3 file determines the size and quality of the resulting MP3. The highest commonly available bitrate is 320 kbps and the higher the bitrate, the closer the encoding is to the original source of music.

Blanket License – allows the user to perform any or all, in part or all, of the songs in the ASCAP repertory. What a warm and cozy license.

Business Manager – an artist or band manager that specializes in the financial matters, including planning, investing, income, taxes, decisions and contracts.

Buzz – to get people talking about a new artist, band, song or album, creating intense excitement and/or rumors.

Clause – a chubby fellow in a red suit is Claus: in a record contract, there might be certain limitations, specifications, or modifications that stipulate the final outcome of that contract.

Concert Promoter – with duties including ticketing, PR, marketing, and booking, this agency or agent responsibilities are for concert event promotion.

Content – to make the Search Engines happy and have pages rank well in a search result, a good quantity of well written text aligning with the site’s keywords and theme updated regularly is a Webmaster’s steak and potatoes.

Cookie – no, not chocolate chip, but a piece of software that records info about your visit to a Web site, then holds the info until the server requests it.

Copyright – a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information, in our case artistic properties, the songs and sound recordings.

Derivative Work – a new work based on or resulting from one or more preceding works.

Digital Licensing – the use of copyrighted music compositions including downloads, on demand streaming, limited use downloads and CD burning.

Distributor – the agency or agent that handles the sales and shipment of the music (records, CDs) to the marketplace or basically, gets the product to the consumers.

Domain Name – a sign post on the Internet, it is a unique name that identifies an Internet site.

DRM – Digital Rights Management is a technology that protects a piece of intellectual digital property such as a music, video, or text file.

Encoding – the process of converting audio to or from a compressed format like MP3 or WMA.

Exclusive Rights – under copyright law, the privileges that only a copyright owner has with respect to the copyrighted work.

Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) – a file format for audio data compression that does not remove information from the audio stream, as MP3, AAC, and Vorbis do.

Grammy Awards – an award ceremony for all genres presented by the Recording Academy for outstanding achievements in the recording industry: a gold megaphone for your mantel.

Groupie – what’s the point of being an act without groupies? Overly enthusiastic fans with much love to offer.

HTML – HyperText Markup Language, programming language for the world wide web. A web browser interprets the code written and displays it for a web page and web sites. Some very basic knowledge of HTML may help on some sites.

Hook – a pirate: a music phrase, a passage, an idea – something (catchy and/or repetitive) that makes the song stand out and be more appealing and remembered.

Hype – sensational and extreme promotion of a person, idea or product.

Indie – an independent artist or band that desires to do-it-all-themselves and/or not affiliated with a larger record label.

Intern – usually a college student job at a record label in a no or low paying position, more of an apprenticeship learning the ropes and gaining business experience.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) – how and who connects your computer or network to the Internet, whether dialup, DSL, Cable, T1 or T3.

Master Recording License – pertains to the recording of a performance itself, which are usually controlled by the record label.

Mastering – the final stage and preparation in a recording before weapons of mass duplication, includes the consistency of audio levels and quality perfecting.

Mechanical License – the use of copyrighted musical compositions for use on CDs, cassettes, record albums.

Music Contracts – all the various bits of paperwork used in the music business, always read the “fine print” to the many contracts – recording, management, finders fee, general release contracts. When the contracts come in – time to get an Entertainment Attorney.

Music Industry – all things pertaining and related to the business of music, dominated by the Big Four major labels: Sony BMG, Warner, Universal and EMI.

Music Publisher – provides services such as marketing, pitching and promoting works written by songwriters. Deals with the commercial exploitation of music catalogs and songs.

Press Kit – aka media kit, a prepackaged set of promotional materials for a music artist or band for distribution including song samples, bio, historical info, photos and contact information.

Producer – duties include: controlling the recording session, guidance of the artist(s), coaching, organizing, scheduling of production resources and budgets, as well as supervising the process of recording, mixing and mastering.

Publishing Royalties – income paid to the writer of a song.

RIAA – Recording Industry Association of America, the organization that represents the interests of record labels and producers in the USA.

Ripping – means to take an audio CD and record it to a computer in an uncompressed file format (wav). Digital audio extraction from one media form to a hard disk.

Roadie – the road crew that travels with a band on tour. These hard working individuals do everything but the performance, are technicians, do the set up and take down, security, bodyguards, pyrotechnics, and lighting.

Sampling Rate – the number of samples taken per second when digitizing sound. The higher the number, the better the quality of the digital reproduction.

SoundExchange – an independent, nonprofit performance rights organization that collects and distributes digital performance royalties for recording artists and record labels when their sound recordings are performed on digital cable, satellite TV music, internet and satellite radio.

Sound Recording – the copyright of the recording itself (what you hear, the entire production) as distinguished from the copyright of the song (words and music owned by the songwriter or publisher).

Synchronization License – aka “synch” license, allows the user to reproduce a musical composition “in connection with” or “in timed relation with” a visual image, motion picture, video, advertising commercial – from the copyright owner of the music.

Talent Agent – or booking agent, the representative of the music artist(s) that sets up the live performances.

Vanity Label – a celebrity recording artist is given a label within a label and runs under the umbrella of the parent label.

Bluegrass Music Online-You don’t have to live in Kentucky to hear Bluegrass music. There may be festivals and such in various places around the country, but for the music lover, they want to hear the music that they love all of the time. There is just something so happy about Bluegrass music and it holds on to some of the roots that many of us have in this country. It is a true form of music that has existed for hundreds of years and continues to bring joy to people all of the time. That is why many look for Bluegrass music online in order to get their fix.

As stated before, Bluegrass music doesn’t necessarily turn up just anywhere. There are festivals and the such in the Appalachian Mountains and the surrounding foothills where individuals can come together and share their love of Bluegrass. Other than that there isn’t much else. The radio doesn’t even play that much Bluegrass, so an individual has to take matters into their own hands. This usually means purchasing Bluegrass music online so it can be played whenever.

There are a number of websites that sell all types of music online. This can be through sites that sell CDs or those sites that allow music downloads. For those who wish to build their collection, they may choose to go with the CD because they can take them anywhere. Yes, music can usually be burned to a CD once it has been downloaded to a computer from a legitimate download site, but there is nothing like having the real thing to add to your collection rather than a disk that has been written on by a Sharpee. Through purchasing music online, you are able to have pictures of the bands, copies of lyrics, and the track list so that you don’t have to research all of that information yourself. It may not be too much a task for you, especially if you love your music. However, you should experience the various albums in order to be introduced to Bluegrass music that you have never heard before.

And what’s better is the fact that there are plenty of affordable albums to buy so that you can get your dose of Bluegrass. It is a true art form when it comes to music and can take any individual back to the days when there was no internet, there was no television, and there was no radio. There were just a bunch of people gathering around and enjoying music in its most original form. That is why you should purchase Bluegrass music online so you can experience that intense form of originality. There is just no other way for you to experience it.

Online Music Surging-I enjoy downloading music to my computer and portable digital music player. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I was at a music retailer. I’m a convert. I prefer listening to music samples on the Internet and buying only the songs that I want and not wanting to buy an entire disc where I may like only a few song tracks. This is the reason why iPods from Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) have grown exponentially in popularity to the current cult status. A friend of mine received a 30GB iPod for Christmas and trust me you have never seen someone so excited.

A 30GB iPod can hold up to 7,500 CD quality songs. That is impressive. Apple is a trendsetter in my estimation. From its MAC to the iPod, CEO Steve Jobs has a keen knack for trends. These portable music devices have so much memory because he probably expects a massive shift to CD burning and downloadable music. Apple’s iTunes Music Store is booming.

Just last week, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry released its research into the digital music industry and the results were not a surprise. Just like how online DVD movies have dominated the video rental market, dominated by Netflix Inc. (NFLX), and pushing incumbent Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) to the sidelines, the exponential growth of the online music business has been on an explosive upward path.

According to the research, sales of digital music globally increased by over 300% in 2005 to $1.1 billion. The research said digital music accounts for about 6% of total music sales, up from very little two years back.

The competition in the industry is fierce and expected to ramp up going forward. This could lead to consolidation in the industry down the road and result in lower prices. We could see the bigger and more established players taking out the smaller up and comers.

Besides Apple, there are a slew of online music sites. Probably the most well known is Napster Inc. (NAPS). Napster reported it has over 500,000 subscribers but has yet to turn a profit and is not expected for the time being. But the company has minimal debt and a whopping $128 million or $2.91 per share in cash. Given that the current share price is 3.08, this implies you are paying a mere $0.17 for the company’s asset and potential. This is pretty good and enticing for speculators, but then Napster must deliver profits. Napster could be the dark horse in the digital music business.

Growth Of Online Music Shopping-The internet is fast becoming the place to do everything, whether it is buying products on sites such as eBay, looking for information on online encyclopaedias like Wikipedia, or meeting new people on sites such as My Space . But as more sites are introduced, people have more and more to choose from and their patience gets shorter and shorter.

When the world wide web started it was an art to find the information you were looking for. You would spend hours digging through pages on sites trying to find the information you want, but them days are long gone. The back button is now the most used button on browsers because if people see a site that cannot show them straight away what they are looking for then they will go back out to Google , Yahoo or MSN and find a site that will.

The key is to have an appealing landing page that really grabs attention. Keep your content catchy and to the point. People are not interested in reading pages upon pages of detail.
The internet is seen by a lot of people as the place to go to get a bargain. There are less overhead costs than buying from a company who have to rent out a department store or pay lots of staff to sit by the phones, process orders etc. So consumers rightly expect these lower costs to transcend down to the sell price of items. Would you now consider booking flights on the phone? The answer for the majority of people is no!

So as more and more people migrate from phone and fax ordering to online ordering, the more businesses invest in eCommerce. The result is an increasingly competitive market, so as well as thinking about SEO, web designers should be asking themselves do I have content appealing enough to avoid the back button?

Music for Women to Listen to Before a Date-The perfect solution to putting you in the mood is simple: music. Depending on your musical taste there is a song out there that can work as an excellent overture to what you hope will be a fantastic evening.

Start with some vintage numbers and a good bubble bath. As you soak amid rose scented foam sing along with the Andrews Sisters as they croon the classic Rum and Coca-cola. Next dry off as you sing Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again. The violins will lift up your spirits and the familiarity of the song will make you want to seize on to Dolly’s hopeful energy.

Norah Jones award winning CD, Come Away With Me, is a soothing blend of songs that whisper the promise of romance. Her alluring voice will help calm any sudden date jitters that begin to creep up. Piggyback Norah’s CD with anything from the Diana Krall collection. Diana has a way of hushing the rest of the intrusive sounds of the world. Fade out the sound of traffic outside of your bedroom window and float away on her delicate melodies. This is perfect scented candle music.

Bridging the gap between soothing music and songs to strut to is the break out star, Jem. Jem’s songs have been featured lately as the soundtrack to romance in many hit movies and television series. Her single Come on Closer will give you some growl as you ponder what dress to wear and what to wear underneath. Try out her stunning remake of the classic, Maybe I’m Amazed. The quiet sweetness will make you want to be amazed by your date.

International pop stars, the Scissor Sisters, are experts at creating songs that will have you dancing around your bedroom. Take Your Mama is not just a toe tapper. It is a get up out of your chair and dance song. Playing some of your favorite dance music from yesteryear is another way to calm your nerves. It’s difficult to stay in a suspended state of anxiety of the Spice Girls are blasting on your boom box.

Now that you are dressed, or at least know what to wear, it is time to set your mind back on romance. Al Green is your man now. Play the classics Tired of Being Alone back to back with Here I Am (Come and Take Me) and think about wearing your red lipstick. Belle and Sebastian’s If She Wants Me is another song that is sure to put a twinkle in your eye.

Don’t be afraid to forgo contemporary music altogether. Some of the best pre date songs don’t come with a flashy music video. Bach’s Cantata number 156 is a breathtaking song full of romance and hope. Try a Windham Hill Sampler of classics for a perfect blend of soaring songs.

Why Listen to Music on the Computer-When I was a young lad growing up way back in the 60’s and 70’s, I often used to think how wonderful it would be to be able to custom make my own albums. A bunch of your all-time favorite songs grouped together in once place. It was possible to record tracks from the radio, or from tape to tape and LPs (Long players on vinyl disc, now replaced by CD’s), but it was a laborious process and not really the ideal solution. Additionally, there were often just a few songs you liked on an album, so couldn’t justify buying say 20 hits for 3 favorites. Well, that’s all changed now that we can listen to music on the computer.

The wonderful thing about the internet is the opportunity it gives to search through the musical archives of time and find just about any artist from any era that you please. It really is that easy to both download and listen to music on the computer. Some of the modern PC’s have great sound systems too, so it’s not necessary to burn music to disk and play it in the ole Hi-fi. Yes, the internet is certainly a convenience that’s for sure. I’m actually in the process of collecting my all time favorites and it’s exciting to hear some of these artists and tracks after such a long time.

It’s often said that people stop trying out new things once they hit their mid 30’s and that includes food and music. This is why us olds keep going on about the songs of days gone by and disregard many new sounds, no matter how great they are. For people like me, the internet offers a wonderful opportunity to collect and listen to the nostalgic notes of the past. As I work at the PC daily, I get the opportunity to listen to music on the computer all the time and this includes the radio. In fact, I’m working in South Asia at the time of writing and it’s just great to be able to tune into my favorite radio station back home.

What about you, do you listen to music on the computer? If not, then maybe it’s time you got plugged in. Technology has come such a long way in recent years that the once humble PC has become not only a workstation but an entertainment center too. Yes, that’s right, movies and music videos are all possible from the click of a mouse.

Sometimes, when I’m tuned into the radio, a song will be played from years back that I’d totally forgotten about, but it’s a song that brings back many fond memories of that time. No problems! I just login to my favorite musical download website like ITunes or Napster, and for a tiny fee, I’ve just added another nostalgic noise to my ever growing archive in an instant.

But here’s a tip. If you are going to start collecting dozens or even hundreds of tunes to you PC, don’t forget to back them up externally too. What could be worse that your entire music collection disappearing with a hard drive failure? It’s great to collect and listen to music on the computer, but it’s wise to save copies outside of the PC too. Happy listening!

Listen to Hip Hop Music – Hip Hop Music Can Take Some Getting Used To-Hip hop music has become quite the phenomenon in the music industry. We see rappers on television all the time. Hip hop artists such as: Ne-Yo, Kanye West, Fifty Cent, and Lil Wayne have become a part of our country’s music culture.

Why do we listen to hip hop music? We listen to this kind of music because it pumps us up. This genre of music has great beats and rhythms. People dance to the songs at clubs and parties all the time. This type of music is known for causing people to have a great time together.

Some people listen to this genre of music to get in touch with their feelings. Some hip hop lyrics speak to people because they have gone through similar experiences. Many listeners have a favorite song that when they play it, it gets their adrenaline pumping and their moods change from negative to positive.

Hip hop music is a huge part of the African American culture. Many African Americans listen to hip hop music because the majority of hip hop artists are African American and listeners can identify with the hip hop artists that they listen to and see on the television.

Many hip hop songs tell a story. They allow everyone to identify with the daily struggles that we all face on a daily basis. Such topics include: poverty, violence, teen pregnancy, and crime. These topics are talked about a lot in today’s society especially since the economy has been in a slump for over three years.

Hip hop music allows listeners to listen to music that will help them escape their daily lives. We all want to have fun and be carefree even if it’s just because we are listening to hip hop music.

You should listen to hip hop music but you should not allow children to listen to songs that have profanity in them or deal with adult situations. Hip hop music is not for every kind of listener but people should at least listen to a few songs before dismissing the genre of music. You should try something at least once before saying that you do not like it.

Hip hop music can take some getting used to. The best time to listen to hip hop music is when you are stuck in traffic or having a frustrating day. The music just instantly puts a smile on your face. Hip hop music brings out the creative side of many music artists, some of the lyrics sound like lines from a poem or journal entry. Hopefully, you will give hip hop music a try; it is very inspirational and at times can be very uplifting. Everyone needs some sunshine and fun in their lives and hip hop music can be a great outlet to accomplish this.

Some Awesome Music To Listen To-People can now find more and more ways to find great music to listen to, and the options for how they can listen to that music are growing. The Internet is teeming with great music, which is the same stuff that is available in your local music store. Before the Internet, you had to purchase your favorite music from a music store, and quite often, you had to buy the whole album. After a few years, singles were released, but there was no guarantee that you can get the single you are after.

Nowadays, you are able to download music to listen to on a variety of different sites. You can choose the exact song you want without purchasing the entire album, but you still have to pay for it. You can choose a random variety of songs and download them to your computer. Then you simply have to burn the songs to a CD or download them into your MP3 player. Modern technology has given us more ways to get great music to listen to.

You can also store your music right in your computer. If you are craving for some music to listen to, you can listen to them through one of the many music players on your computer. You can use Windows Media Player, Real Player, or QuickTime. On the recent computer models, you don’t even need any kind of media player, you simply pop in the CD and a control panel will pop up.

If you own an older computer model, it is advisable that you listen to music when you are not doing anything else on your computer. When you open your media player, and choose your music to listen to, everything else on your old computer will drag. This may also cause your music to skip and stutter. This normally doesn’t occur with newer computers. If your music is skipping, or your computer is lagging, it usually means that you are doing too much at once.

Don’t forget that the music store is still an option when you are choosing music to listen to. It can be very easy to get your music online, but it can be also fun to buy an album. You may be interested on a single song from an album, but you haven’t heard the rest. You may find that there are many songs on that CD that you will also like. There is just something special about the experience of browsing through a music store and finding something amazing.