wire to the ear

Here is a special photo set from my friend Tim Xavier’s mastering studio. He cuts vinyl with his unique Scully/Westrex 3D IIa cutter. There are only a few places in the world like this left. Due to Tim’s overwhelming success in his field especially with dance music this studio and his dog Sigmund recently moved from Brooklyn to Berlin. Some of his clients include Ritchie Hawtin, KiddazFM, Complete Distribution, Zuvuya Recordings and many more.

In the studio, Tim cuts on a Scully/Westrex 3DIIA cutter that is outfitted with a high powered magnet, and uses a Manley Massive Passive Tube EQ for equalizing. The Scully lathe has been modified with a Vinylium pitch computer (Stuka) for spacing grooves, which allows him to cut more time per side at a louder volume. (please see prices section for time constraints). - manmademastering.com

To enjoy the full photo set from Manmade Mastering LLC on flickr: click here

I’ve been impressed with how well Beatport has been doing. It really is a strong contender for electronic music downloads. The web interface, designed with help from Native Instruments is snazzy. The Beatportplayer is a great way for artists with music for sale on Beatport to spread there songs on multiple websites. The company also really knows how to market itself with an affiliate program and Beatportal.com. If your a full on shopper at Beatport the Beatport SYNC player with Traktor mixing abilities is also a worthy download.

Sales from my own record label have been strong on Beatport only second to iTunes. Beatport has a good financial reporting web interface for labels called Baseware. Inside Baseware you have some good analytics, charts and info to reach your own personal account manager at Beatport.

So today Beatsource has launched. It’s exactly like Beatport but for Hip Hop and Urban music. If your producing this kind of music I suggest getting in early on. There is one section of Beatsource that has me very excited: Genres -> Old School.

In the 1980s I spent a good amount of time recording Mr. Magic and DJ Red Alert’s radio shows off Kiss and WBLS. I used my giant Conion boombox (the photo is my actual Conion in my father’s office) to record to cassettes. I have about 1000 tapes in storage but since they are all mixes I am still looking for complete versions of many of the songs. Just Ice, Mantronix, TLA Rock are some of the artists that come to mind. I will be a regular visitor at Beatsource. What I find most interesting is as I type this the #1 song on Beatsource is Jam on It by Nucleaus!

I’m sure this is not the first time the RIAA has done this, but now that the company is under constant scrutiny by the net press we see a clear view of who these people really represent. Apparently the going rate for today’s artist is 13% and the RIAA is arguing in negotiations currently happening it should be lowered to 9%.

What the hell is going on here? 9%? For the person who created the music and lyrics? When we are talking about music sales aren’t we talking about the selling the music and lyrics?

Yes, the RIAA doesn’t think the record companies are making enough and that musicians are clearly making too much. I mean, they get 13% now. Like they deserve 13% for writing and creating the music that people are paying for. Hogwash! Someone had to, you know, encode it. That’s worth at least 40%. And hey, these shoes don’t shine themselves! So they’re pushing to get that rate cut down to a shameful 9%, giving artists even less of a slice of the pie than before. - gizmodo.com

If your a musician you need to stay independent. There really is little reason to get into bed with any major label. If your music is great and you promote yourself online aggressively, fans will find you and over the long tail you will make your money. You don’t even have to give Apple or Amazon a cut if you don’t want. Install your own online store like the Easybe.com or WP e-Commerce store.

photo credit: sandrino

If you’re a small digital record label or an artist selling your music directly to fans you’re probably on a limited budget. Certainly you can’t afford a graphic designer to create all your album covers. Everyone should have some basic knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator but knowing those programs won’t give you visual flare or a sense of style.

iStockphoto.com is the most popular royalty free stock photography and illustration online store. They host over 2.5 million images from 40,000 contributors. Images are quite inexpensive ranging from about $1 for a photo to $10 for a complex illustration. What’s terrific for independent musicians and small label owners is you can use these images for album covers.

You can search images by colors, keywords or contributor. You can create Lightboxes which are basically folders of images you want to remember. Once I know an album’s subject I will go to iStockphoto.com and over a weeks time throw related images into a Lightbox for it.

The site is also a social network with populated forums. You can follow other members’ choices or contributions. There are blogs and you can make your own blog posts too. There is a section under each image for a rating and review. Other niceties include a Free Vector each month and tutorials scattered around the site.

There are some caveats you need to be aware of. You will need to purchase an extended license if you want to use the album cover on a T-shirt, sticker or something similar where the image itself is the main show. An extended license does cost much more. Be aware that unless you purchase the extended exclusive license the image you choose can also be sold and used by other people.

As musicians, we can appreciate skill and craft it takes to create good visual art. I know we are all capable of putting an album cover together but why not let real artists with experience handle it for you? Today it’s an affordable option.

Sometimes in life you have to wait. I was reminded of that on Friday when I showed up to record some voice overs for a mobile phone company. It turned out my appointment at 4pm was also twenty other people’s exact time slot and they were only recording one at a time! Normally, I would have walked, but I spotted the cover of a book that looked interesting on the table in the waiting room.

“Making Tracks: Unique Recording Studio Environments” is a 208 page hard cover coffee book with photos of one of a kind, unusual recording studios. We are not talking bedroom studios. These are multi-million dollar facilities on beaches, mountains, vineyards, etc…

The Interviews are great, discussing how people arrived at the designs, what the use of the space is about, personal journeys, and more. I highly recommend this book and have enjoyed reading it.” - Tape Op Magazine

Unlike so many of the available studio coffee table books, Making Tracks has that high quality, hard cover, colorful coffee table style quality, with tons of photography and in-depth interviews with each subject. This book is very easy to pick up when you have five minutes to kill, or sit with for a good hour.” - Pro Sound News

I own a few coffee table books including Supercade and Digital Retro which I also recommend. One good thing about the “Making Tracks….” is it’s from 2006 and you can get it at Amazon for $32. Highly recommended.

Once you start getting serious about music as a career it’s important to understand that the music business is a legal business. One of the first steps you should take is hire someone who understands contracts, royalties and publishing. They should specialize in the music industry. You can read some books like the always recommended “All You Need To Know About the Music Business” However, nothing beats having someone with many years of experience on your side. Sometimes you can find someone who will only take a percent of the profits you make from deals they work on. More likely you will pay a monthly or quarterly fee. What you need to understand is they will make you more money in the end.

So what are some of the things your business manager will do for you? First, they can be the contact between you and other labels. In some circumstances this can be really useful especially when talking money. For example my business manager Deborah Aldea got me a 3 times larger publishing deal advance with Strengholt Music Group than I thought I would get. Her years of experience at Sony, Virgin and Polygram told her what price she could get for me. Here is a list from her company Sound Move Management’s website of some other the things they offer:

Contracts & Negotiations
Execution of Agreements
Licensing
Royalties (collection, administration & generation)
Publishing
P&D Deals
Sync rights
Digital Download Distribution
Merchandising Deals
Accounting
Tax matters
Liaison with Record Companies, Publishers

If your an artist who is dealing with any of these things don’t let your “partners” get the best from you. Have your contracts, license requests and deal looked it by someone who knows what they are talking about. Nine out of ten times when I send Deborah something to look at she makes several revisions before we can agree on a deal. That says that most labels or whomever when they send you a contract that contract is swayed in their favor. Even worse some contracts will not protect you against certain liabilities (indemnification). Lastly, it’s good to have a second or third person remind you of extras you may want laid out in writing. For example: artwork approval, free copies, a certain level of promotions, etc…

There are many music management professionals but if you want a place to start feel free to contact Deborah: Soundmovela@aol.com Tell her I sent you!

photo credit: kylemac

The dynamic between artist and fan has changed in recent years. It used to be if you were an artist you wanted to seem out of reach, high on a pedestal from your followers. However, today fans want a personal relationship with you. It’s not good enough to give them a monthly or even weekly update. They want to know what your doing right now! One of the best tools to give a window into your life is Twitter.

So what is Twitter? To start head to Twitter.com and sign up for an account (it’s free). Click on Profile and give yourself an avatar. Next under where it says “What are you doing?” type up to 140 text characters. In a way it’s like a mini-blog letting the world know what’s going on with you at that moment. These moments you enter are called Tweets.

If you have friends on Twitter you can follow them and vice-versa. Besides the archive of all your own Tweets you can also see a master timeline which shows your Tweet and your friends Tweets.

Now comes what I think it the best part. Click to www.twitter.com/badges and create a widget that displays your Twitter updates on any web page you place it. This is great because you only have to put your Tweets in one place but instantly wherever you have badges your updates will show.

I have Things to Come Records studio Twitter badges on my MySpace page (www.myspace.com/oliverchesler), Facebook page and artist website (thehorrorist.thingstocome.com). If you notice they all look different because you can customize the badges to fit any site. If you notice on my artist web site’s studio page my Tweets are not even in a widget but customized into the look of the page itself using CSS. You can also have your Tweets injected into a Wordpress blog as posts using Alex King’s Twitter Tools.

If you find going to a web page to input your Tweets cumbersome and your on a Mac try Icon Factory’s very nice program Twitterific. There is also a nifty Dashboard Widget called Twidget. I am sure there are Windows Twitter applications too. There are also methods of sending Tweets by email and Instant Messenger clients.

Lastly, I’d like to point out that Twitter has some competition. Google has a similar service called Jaiku and Kevin Rose and the Digg crew run Pownce. Unfortunately they are all incompatible. Come and follow my record label on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thingstocome

I’m currently living in Berlin, Germany. It’s a non violent place to live and I always feel safe. However, theft and petty crime is rampant. A few months ago our storage space in the cellar was robbed. Last year my wife’s bicycle was stolen from our courtyard. What about recording studios here in Berlin? Unfortunately, I hear about a new robbery every few weeks. In the Prenzlauer Berg studio building complex I am in Jazzanova and Tobi Neuman’s studios were hit. Just last week Richie Hawtin’s custom Xone DJ Mixer was stolen when the Minus office was broken into. In Kreuzberg my friend Rob Wolf recently opened a project studio in a newly renovated building and already there were two robberies reported.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a Berlin specific problem. In 1996 my studio was robbed in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. They stole almost everything including my underwear! The only things they didn’t take were my DAT tapes and my Electrocomp-101. Those were the two most valuable things I owned so I consider myself lucky. In the end it worked out for me because it forced me to move into Manhattan were I was much happier.

So what can you do? Nothing can stop thieves if they really want to get in but you can do a lot to deter them. Here are some ideas.

Secure your door. Make sure your door is metal or have an aluminum plate added to weak wood doors. Have at least two strong locks with key hole tampering shields. Have a deadbolt going into vertically into the floor 3-4 inches. Have a peep hole put into Read “Secure your recording studio from thieves.”

It’s hard to be writing in any publication concerning audio and not comment about this week’s events. Radiohead shocked the industry by announcing it’s new album In Rainbows was available to download for any price you think it’s worth (including free). They also let us know they are no longer bound contractually by EMI. They broke another convention by not giving radio stations a single to hype before the album release.

Besides paying (if you so choose) for the digital download super fans can purchase a box set for £40 that contains a CD, 2x 12″ vinyl and a bonus CD with some photos and artwork. Interestingly, the NYTimes.com reports: “And Radiohead plans to release “In Rainbows” as an old-fashioned CD no later than January, though it has not determined if it will return to a major label to do so.”.

It seems like Radiohead has made a smart move and covered all their bases. They look like heroes for dropping EMI and giving their music away for free. They also did it first and such are receiving lots of attention. They have a plan to make some money and even a fall back to the traditional CD on a major label if things don’t work out.

Trent Reznor, Jamiroquai and Oasis all said they have similar plans. Somewhat related Madonna turned down an offer from Warner Music Group to go with concert promoter Live Nation Inc.

But wait a minute. Deep breath. What does this really mean? At first I was actually angry. I thought “Great, a bunch of rich people are giving away what I need to sell to make a Read “What if music should be free?”