What Every Singer Should FearAuthor: Ty Showers

The audience is loud and abuzz with excitement. Lights swirl around the stage and audience. Low volume downtempo music is pumped through the speakers as a prelude to the music about to be heard.

The band is heard behind tall curtains tuning up in preparation for the opening. The audience screams with anticipation of the curtains rising. Then, the band starts. They are playing a popular song and the lead singer and background vocals are right in sync with the band. The audience is stirred and applauding in anticipation to the curtain rising. The curtain rises, and there is the band. The audience screams!

Vocals are in complete sync with the music. Throughout the audience sparse impressions of the vocal arrangement can be heard. Everyone is grooving and happy.

There is no lead singer visible, and there are no background singers visible. However, the stage is covered with dancers gyrating to the beat, band members playing their respective instruments and visibly suspicious is a keyboard player, playing notes that seem to be in concert with the lead and background vocals.

- - -

The above scenario sounds like science fiction - a band and no singers, though singers are heard. We may not be too far off in seeing this scenario unfold. Software manufacturers are busily creating software that sings (not speaks) the words that are typed and played via MIDI.

I for one can’t wait for this day to arrive, especially as one who can’t sing. I fully support jazz, r&b, downtempo, electronic and urban musicians, especially those with talent but can’t sing. I know how difficult it is to find a gifted singer who doesn’t have an ego. If this sounds like I’m bitter because I can’t sing, you’re right! I don’t know if you’ve noticed the past decade how musicians seem to be an extinct species, especially on stage. You usually have singers, dancers but no musicians. Granted, this depends upon genre, but even some genres that you never think this could happen to, it's happening. Often times there is a single person with a keyboard playing full jazz ensembles or full symphonies.

Audio and MIDI loops have just about extinguished talented musicians. Anyone with GarageBand or Sonar can create a pretty nice sounding groove. And worse of all, no one cares how the song is made. If it has a nice groove, the making of it is irrelevant.

This is why the creation of the virtual singer is on my wish list. Because if musicians have to be relegated to the background, and symphonies to pits, so should singers.

This would also be a good way to weed out poor singers, because they would be in competition with software. Poor singers who use software to manipulate their voice to be in tune with the music wouldn’t be needed. The software would sing and there would be no need for tuning thus reducing the production work load.

And most importantly, the egos of singers can be placed in check. Most musicians say, if only I can sing. Well soon they will be saying, if only I could afford singing software.

About the Author:

Ty Showers is the creator of Taliferro Music. A starter label dedicated to supporting talented but under capitalized artists.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - What Every Singer Should Fear

You may already know that I revived my interest in music in May 2008.

Since then, I have had so much fun creating and producing music of all kinds. It's a great hobby. I have taken baby steps, getting my feet wet in the various realms of music.

Some of the baby steps:
- First I needed to practice and re-acquire the dexterity (on the keyboard and bass) I had when I was younger - still in progress.
- Learn which software and hardware tools to use in order to create a finished musical work.
- Learn about copyrighting and registering music.
- Learn how to query radio stations and generate air play.
- Study Music Marketing. (At first, I created compilations with all types of musical genres in the same release. I had jazz, R&B, ambient, electronic on the same album. I don't think people appreciated this mix).

Being on Imeem for almost a year, I have also learned that there are quite a few talented musicians that yearn to be heard. Unfortunately, they all seem to want to fly solo. Well, there's one thing I've learned in the corporate world, you can't do everything yourself.

A thought occurred to me one day, how can I apply what I've learned to help out other artists - and myself?

I came up with this concept called a Starter Label. Just like the notion of a starter home, the starter label is a place where artists can land for awhile, where they can receive maximum exposure to help propel them to a larger label.

The starter label's main focus is to give artists maximum exposure on the Internet but will not charge artists. Plus, select a hand full of artists, that reflect a razor sharp focus.

This may or may not be a good idea. Don't know yet, but I plan to give it a shot. So, I've started with some simple webpages as proof of concept and located a few artists to promote. One page describes the mission of the starter label. Other pages are for all the genres of the label's focus so far: electronic, ambient, r&b, jazz, chillout/downtempo and - to come - urban.

If nothing comes of it, at least it's a good place to stream different types of music.

Musicians have very few resources for getting their music heard on a large stage. Grace Cabezas provided such a stage for musicians and now she's no longer on 88.9 in Miami. What's up with that? For 5 years Grace hosted this show, and now the show is non-existent. Did a shortage of musicians to interview just occur?

If this was a station management decision, it is a very poor decision. What are these Program Directors be thinking?

I also noticed that quite a few of the shows I watch online (I don't have a TV) will no longer be on next season. My favorite show, "Boston Legal" is retiring. "Private Practice" I heard is canceled, and a few of other shows I watch. I'm glad I don't have a TV - especially paying for TV.

When I watch a video on Hulu the advertisements are a minor annoyance, however I realize the ads are allowing me to watch the video.

I've belong to an affiliate program for years and have an affiliate account but have never used it. In an effort to try an produce quality music and at the same time monetize it without turning off a listener or fan, I decided to try and apply some adds to my streaming music, blog and website - taking the Hulu approach.

Not too many that it turns off a reader or listener, but just enough to create a balance with earning and site aesthetics.

Well, in order to monetize the blog and music you have to have traffic. I don't know if the things I'm doing will generate traffic, but I'll keep you in know. What I have noticed though is that when you perform a search on anything, the search results tend to favor keywords in the URL. For example, if I do a search on music, music.com, music.mp3.com, etc. are more apt to be in the top of the results.

Since I've gotten back into music, I have been asked to collaborate countless times. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked to collaborate, well, I'd have almost a dollar.

The issue is either:

* They ask to collaborate, I say OK and I never hear from them again (I guess I'm calling their bluff)
* They ask to collaborate and are so slow to respond

Don't they know I'm trying to put out an album every 30 days?

I was talking to a friend of mine, and she said that a local band here took a year and a half to put out an album. 1 1/2 years! One and half years working on the same 12-16 songs. Is it really supposed to be that hard. Especially if that's your job. I'm putting out an album a month - doing it part time.

I suspect the time issue may be in the music collaboration.

Often times when I converse with people, especially in email, the receiver is offended, confused or both. They seem to read into words, meanings that are not intended. No matter how nice of an email or how nicely I speak to an individual, conflict will ensue.

Must be in my DNA.

I'm a firm believer in being direct and don't bullshit around an issue or explanation. I must admit that I do not have these issues with people of similar ethnicity as myself. Say what you mean and mean what you say - unless the intent is to hurt someone's feelings. This was pretty common when I was growing up.

WHENEVER there is a non-black person I'm conversing with, you can bet, misinterpretation is imminent.

I wrote Native Instruments technical support, and they responded with, they didn't understand my questions or they could tell I was new by the type of questions I was asking, or they implied I didn't read the manual (even though I did not mention anything about a manual).

I posted a question to the Cakewalk forum and the response didn't match the question. Another post said the question was unclear.

I worked on a software consulting project recently and I needed to ask questions to understand the problem and provide a solution. The expectation of me was, through some supreme power, understand the problem by looking at some pictures and come up with a solution.

I try to be as succinct as possible with clear descriptions - to the point. However communication from non-blacks is often vague or clouded with unnecessary words, drawn out explanations where you have to read between the lines.

This is a why I love creating music! With music, you create, distribute it, and let people interpret it. It may or may not be offensive or mis-interpreted, but as the creator the onus has been put on the listener, your job is done.

I wish I could communicate this way.

I'm just curious to know, if I'm the only one this happens to? When communication with someone of a different ethnic background, do you feel like you're speaking another language?

9 times out 10 I have to repeat my last name and spell it. S H O W E R S. This really pisses me off! How can you misunderstand Showers.

Any advice or similar stories greatly appreciated.

I'm taking a break from writing about my "releasing an album every 30 days" adventure, to give a special thanks to George Bush and all the people who voted for George Bush's second term.

Why am I thanking George Bush and all of his supporters?

George Bush did such an unbelievably horrible job, that he made it possible for a non-white person to become President of the United States.

Sure it helps a lot that Obama appears to be a great man and is smart and has a competent campaign staff. But if George Bush had done just an adequate job as President, even with all of Obama's positives, I doubt very seriously he would have had a shot at the Presidency.

George Bush messed up so badly, that 45% of white people, wanted to elect a black man. That's pretty astonishing.

So thank you George Bush and all supporters for electing him to a second term, thus giving an educated man from my hometown Chicago, the Presidency of the United States.

_______________________________________________________________

If you look at how people voted in this election, people voted against their own interest. Which is amazing to me. How so? Well, look closely at the election map. The concentration of wealth, could be argued are in the blue states. Where as, I don't think of Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Louisiana, etc. as financial capitals (not to say there are no rich people there, they're just not in abundance).

Obama's platform wanted to help poorer states, but how did they vote? They voted primarily for McCain.

On the other hand Obama wants to take money from over $200,000 annual income crowd which are mostly in the blue states.

Just something to think about.

So I have this great music. What now? Well "Public Relations" is a free or mostly cheap way to let people know what you're up to. It's not an advertisement, it's more like a Bulletin, an announcement of something special. A new release, a change in a relationship. It's a way of letting the world know what's going on with you or your company. You issue this announcement through a press release. You can circulate the press release in a couple of ways.

Submit your press release to companies like pr.com or prweb.com and the subscribers to these services review your press releases to see if they are news worthy. Meaning, if they should feature your story in their publication.

You can also send your press release to editors and writers directly to see if they may be interested in your story.

A more expensive approach is to have your press release pushed to editors via a wire service.


The one thing I keep hearing over and over again is that you have to be consistent in your PR effort. Don't expect a lot of attention for a single press release. You have to build a rapport and let people become familiar with who you are and your offerings. Since I'm putting out an album every month, I have been submitting press releases to pr.com and prweb.com each month to annouce the new release and its availability on iTunes and Amazon.

It wasn't until the 3rd press release (or 3rd album release) that somebody contacted me. A DJ from Portugal wanted me to send him a CD to play on the radio. Well since I'm doing everything digital, I didn't have a CD - but that's another story.

As I experiment with press releases, I'll write more about the impact they may or may not have on my music. PR is just part of marketing and should be included in the overall marketing strategy.

Read this - http://www.imeem.com/groups/14CuLVwf/forums/z78x5wV7/PECvP1WK/lastfm_allows_you_to_get_heard/

If you haven't done so, watch the youtube video about the Central Bank.

Very important, if you like your money. Search on "Zeitgeist - The Movie: Federal Reserve" or click link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dmPchuXIXQ