Recently, there has been wide controversy since posters for the upcoming Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration have been banned by Transport for London, which oversees the London Underground.
When asked about the scandal by Rolling Stone, Lou Reed posed the question, “What would Andy Warhol or Jean Michel Basquait say of this type of frivolous censorship?”
The cover is of a mannequin, limbless. The mannequin has a very human expression on its face. The music for the album is inspired by plays of German expressionist Frank Wedekind. There have further been reports that Reed’s powerfully poetic lyrics had moved Metallic’s singer and guitarist to tears.’’
The album is set to release on Halloween.
References:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/posters-for-lou-reed-metallica-album-banned-in-london-20110920
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/metallica-and-lou-reed-announce-album-title-20110823
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Biophilia: UPDATE
Björk’s new album, Biophilia, is a new innovative way to listen to music. She has taken the music experience and made it interactive and, at times, educational. For the iPad/iPhone, the album is interactive. You play games and some of the things you do in the game can alter the music. The prices are the same as if you were buying a song or album on iTunes. This is a great way to get people interested in an album and a good way to follow current trends.
Björk’s most recent application is for her song “Moon”. “Moon” is a music sequencer that was initially inspired by the similarities between the cycles of the moon and cycles in music. It has an “instrument-mode” where you can change the pitch of audio in the song.
Björk continues to push the boundaries of the music industry. This could help create an entire new trend and could eventually be the new big advancement in music. Not only has Björk created an application and studio album but her website is interactive and the album features custom-made instruments, and she has incorporated education into her music now.
We are certainly in a time where the best way to grow is to be as innovative as possible.
Björk’s most recent application is for her song “Moon”. “Moon” is a music sequencer that was initially inspired by the similarities between the cycles of the moon and cycles in music. It has an “instrument-mode” where you can change the pitch of audio in the song.
Björk continues to push the boundaries of the music industry. This could help create an entire new trend and could eventually be the new big advancement in music. Not only has Björk created an application and studio album but her website is interactive and the album features custom-made instruments, and she has incorporated education into her music now.
We are certainly in a time where the best way to grow is to be as innovative as possible.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Learnings
I learned a lot from David Lavinsky and Theo Afkoudias, which I will be able to apply to my business.
After what learned from David, I saw that it is imperative to have the right marketing and sales strategy. We plan to use many forms of marketing, including undercover marketing. We will create mobile ads that will appear in other applications. We also plan on our first application to also be promoted by the artists that create music for it. This will create a strong word of mouth.
We also understand how important it is to communicate. We want our consumers to know our message and follow our innovation.
We will look at our competitors and reverse engineer their success and apply it to SabreSound. We believe it is important to understand our competition and learn whatever we can from them.
We are always thinking ahead and are constantly planning our next move. We would like to always be a few steps ahead of our competitions and with a smart staff and a good consumer bass, we can achieve success.
After what learned from David, I saw that it is imperative to have the right marketing and sales strategy. We plan to use many forms of marketing, including undercover marketing. We will create mobile ads that will appear in other applications. We also plan on our first application to also be promoted by the artists that create music for it. This will create a strong word of mouth.
We also understand how important it is to communicate. We want our consumers to know our message and follow our innovation.
We will look at our competitors and reverse engineer their success and apply it to SabreSound. We believe it is important to understand our competition and learn whatever we can from them.
We are always thinking ahead and are constantly planning our next move. We would like to always be a few steps ahead of our competitions and with a smart staff and a good consumer bass, we can achieve success.
Friday, August 5, 2011
A Proper Plan
David Lavinsky
President, Growthink
Growthink is a company that has created over two thousand successful business plans. They have worked with a number of different clients since they began in 1999. Each of Groupthink’s clients have continued on to become incredibly successful, raising more than $2.5 billion in funding.
David begins naming two reasons why companies create business plans. He sates that the first is to “determine the optimum strategy and game plan to grow their business.” Of course, the second is to raise money.
He discusses that most business plans actually fail to raise money, stating that venture capitalist fund less than 1% of the business plans they see, while Angel investors only fun about 11%. With the state that the economy is in, it is becoming harder and harder to raise money for your business. He shows that most business fails within 5-10 years and only 3.9% actually make it to one million dollars while only .6% make it five million.
However, some companies continue to thrive due to their strong business plans. Growthink has five attributes that separate successful business plans from others.
Growthink’s Five Attributes:
1. The Right Overall Value Proposition
• It is imperative offer a product and/or service that consumers actually want
2. The Right Marketing and Sales Strategy
• Marketing and Sales plans must be incredibly detailed
3. The Right Business Model
• According to a study at MIT, your business model takes priority over your industry
• Think of all the possibilities
4. Action Plans Developed from Reverse Engineering Success
• Think about where you would like to be in the future, five years from now.
o Where will your business be?
• Revenue, Profit, Sales, etc.
o Reverse Engineer
5. Communicate Brilliantly
• You need to effectively communicate
• Any strategy is useless if it is not understandable
• Think about your audience and who you are marketing towards
Theo Afkoudias
Theo states that Strategy is the backbone of the business plan; but, before you can have a good strategy you need to do a good analysis of yourself and your business and even an external analysis: competitors, industry, market, etc.
Resources:
http://www.growthink.com/businessplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aydy3Pv-rCM
President, Growthink
Growthink is a company that has created over two thousand successful business plans. They have worked with a number of different clients since they began in 1999. Each of Groupthink’s clients have continued on to become incredibly successful, raising more than $2.5 billion in funding.
David begins naming two reasons why companies create business plans. He sates that the first is to “determine the optimum strategy and game plan to grow their business.” Of course, the second is to raise money.
He discusses that most business plans actually fail to raise money, stating that venture capitalist fund less than 1% of the business plans they see, while Angel investors only fun about 11%. With the state that the economy is in, it is becoming harder and harder to raise money for your business. He shows that most business fails within 5-10 years and only 3.9% actually make it to one million dollars while only .6% make it five million.
However, some companies continue to thrive due to their strong business plans. Growthink has five attributes that separate successful business plans from others.
Growthink’s Five Attributes:
1. The Right Overall Value Proposition
• It is imperative offer a product and/or service that consumers actually want
2. The Right Marketing and Sales Strategy
• Marketing and Sales plans must be incredibly detailed
3. The Right Business Model
• According to a study at MIT, your business model takes priority over your industry
• Think of all the possibilities
4. Action Plans Developed from Reverse Engineering Success
• Think about where you would like to be in the future, five years from now.
o Where will your business be?
• Revenue, Profit, Sales, etc.
o Reverse Engineer
5. Communicate Brilliantly
• You need to effectively communicate
• Any strategy is useless if it is not understandable
• Think about your audience and who you are marketing towards
Theo Afkoudias
Theo states that Strategy is the backbone of the business plan; but, before you can have a good strategy you need to do a good analysis of yourself and your business and even an external analysis: competitors, industry, market, etc.
Resources:
http://www.growthink.com/businessplan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aydy3Pv-rCM
Friday, July 22, 2011
Björk and the Biophiliacs
Good morning, Biophiliacs!
Now I’m sure you’ve all gone to iTunes and downloaded the latest Björk single: “Cosmogony (Serban Ghenea Mix)”. Setting the mood with a vocal build and emotionally bending horns, Björk shows a new side of her upcoming album Biophilia. Melodically, this song warms your heart. It reminds you of laying the grass as a child and staring at the sky, pondering what is beyond the stars. Björk revives her childlike curiosity by pondering the history of the universe in the lyrics of “Cosmogony”.
The Biophilia [due in September] application itself will be free for purchase. The app is said to be more than a “half-galactic, half-fractal” malleable menu screen. Every song in the album is tied to a star. Currently, the only song and light able to be explored is Biophilia’s first single “Crystalline”. However, the full album will be out in September and will be $10.99, which is really the same price as any album and you get more for your money and learn a little something.
The “Crystalline” app allows you to manipulate a growing sphere of crystals down a hallway and by tilting the iPhone you are able to collect crystals from the wall. The sing itself is a beautiful, minimalistic composition with an intense ending. On top of that, being able to use it in an iPad/iPhone application form is the kind of innovation that we need today.
For our Biophiliacs stuck in the 20th century, do not fear: the album will see a conventional release as well. To pour a little more maple on your waffle, Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has directed the music video for “Crystalline” which will be released on YouTube next week. However, we’re all waiting to be able to listen and play with Björk’s track “Virus”.
References:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2011/07/biophilia_bjork_releasing_the.php?page=2
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Biophilia: Update
As I have mentioned in a previous post, Björk is moving forward towards the ultimate release of Biophilia. The first app to be released was meant to start building hype. It was called “Solar System”, teaching users facts about our solar system. Recently, Björk released the first official single, “Crystalline”. A video of Björk driving in her car while listening to “Crystalline” on the stereo was posted a couple weeks back which created a lot of hype for the single’s release. The use of YouTube videos & webisodes is a great digital marketing tactic.
For those of you who are just now hearing about, Björk’s highly anticipated new album, Biophilia, it will be released through the iPad (after collaborations with Apple) and through standard album distribution too. So one could buy it through either formation (although, the iPad version will be quite fun for those with an open mind and idle hands). The iPad version makes the album interactive and even educational at certain point. The album will focus on themes of cell-life, outer space, the infinity of the universe, and many other mind-opening concepts.
Biophilia will be made up of ten apps, housed in one “mother” app. Each app correlates with a different track on the album. You will be able to interactive with the theme of the song and even make a new version of them. We may finally be looking at the birth of the future of music.
Right now it seems that the main form of marketing that will take place is a three-year educational tour where Björk will perform Biophilia [in other words a tour], along with various performances at the Manchester International Festival. Björk & co. have continued to post YouTube videos on the Björk Facebook page, continuing the generation of hype for Biophilia. Unfortunately, it seems that things move a little bit slow as this is all very new territory for Apple and Björk: interactive music. It seems that both parties are dedicated to making the application perfect. However, from what all sources are saying, Biophilia will be groundbreaking and hopefully will “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to music. Of course, now the wheel has Bluetooth and a Touch-Screen.
References
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Controversy in the Music Industry
Pirating Music
The piracy of digital music has had a major effect on the music industry. The RIAA (Recording Arts industry of America) says the term piracy is “benign” and that it does not proper describe the effect music theft has on all of the people working behind the scene to help create and produce that music. These key people that get wronged by piracy include audio engineers, producers, publishers, audio engineers, recording artists, songwriters, etc.
The RIAA reminds us even though illegally downloading one song does not feel wrong or seem like it would have much of an impact; however, the millions of people illegally downloading, without the appropriate people getting their cut, is absolutely devastating to the industry.
Many bands right now are giving free streaming through their websites, Soundcloud, Internet radio and other forms of music networking. Although piracy is becoming less and less of a problem, it still continues to have an impact on the industry.
Sources:
Sampling
Sampling may seem like a fun and unique art form. However, this bends that line between creative licensing and copyright laws and could become problematic. Part of the problem with Sampling is that sometimes the artist that is sampled does not see any kind of royalties, for example: Kanye West & Justice. When sampling becomes a copyright issue, the common defense is that the sample was not used substantially and is unrecognizable to the standard consumer.
Sources:
Copyright Infringement
On January 15, 1971, George Harrison released “My Sweet Lord”. It was in the number one stop for five weeks and again in 2002 for one week. Unfortunately, things began to go sour when the song “He’s so Fine” by the Chiffons (1962) was moved to the Bright Tunes Music Corporation in ‘71. On February 10, 1971, Bright Tunes decided to sue George Harrison. They managed to reach of settlement of $148,000 but it never reached execution. The case continued. The attorneys of Bright Tunes wanted 75% of royalties and the copyrights to “My Sweet Lord”. The judge did not believe that Harrison purposefully plagiarized the song (they were essentially the same with minor differences). He was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” and he had to pay $587,000, which was paid in 1981.
Sources:
Thursday, April 14, 2011
LSD for Sale!
I would like to discuss a very important songwriter. His name is one we all know and could never forget. He had been making music from 1957 until he was murdered in 1980. He was best known as one of the primary songwriters for the legendary and revolutionary band best known as The Beatles. His name was John Lennon.
It was recently released that John Lennon’s original handwritten lyrics for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” would be put up for auction. On Wednesday, April 13th, it was expected that the lyric sheet would sell for over $200,000 next month at a sale in Beverly Hills.
The contents of the lyric sheet are:
1. The opening lyrics of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
2. A sketch of four people in a room with curtains draped over the window.
This song is very memorable to me. I’ve heard it millions of time since I was a child. The opening notes always bring a calm over me. Sometimes I like to think of it as a lullaby for adults.
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was released in 1967 on the classic album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Everyone, including the media and listeners, believed the song was a transparent metaphor for LSD [better known as acid]. Part of this belief was derived from the song’s title “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”; however, on many occasions, John Lennon claimed that they notion was false, though he and The Beatles were known to experiment with psychedelic drugs recreationally. He claimed that he initially did not notice the sequence of the letters when the song was written/released. However, this is still in debate. Many continue to believe the song is about LSD due to it’s mesmerizing melody and wildly creative lyrics.
According to Lennon and others, the muse for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was John’s son Julian. When we was a child, he drew a picture of one of his classmates. Her name was Lucy. Julian showed his drawing to his father and stated, “That’s Lucy in the Sky with diamonds”.
The classic song was noted as one of the most popular songs in Rolling Stone magazine. It ranked as no. 1 on the list of 500 greatest albums of all time.
In 2007, Lucy Vodden (originally O’Donnell) spoke out and revealed that she was the initial inspiration for the song. Unfortunately, she passed in 2009.
“The draft ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ lyrics will be sold at an auction scheduled for May 14 and 15 at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.”
Now, if only I can muster up $200,000...
Sources:
http://www.billboard.com/#/news/john-lennon-s-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-1005133172.story
Friday, April 1, 2011
Björk: The Infinity of Innovation
On March 17, 2011, renowned Icelandic singer, Björk Guðmundsdótti, announced her upcoming album entitled Biophilia. This is her first album since 2007’s masterpiece Volta. She will be release the album in an interesting format: as an app.
This is certainly not the first time that Björk has been innovative. She always keeps an open mind and tries new sounds and new formats with her music. She does this on each of her albums. She first went solo in 1992 after The Sugarcubes broke up. She transitioned from her more rock aesthetic to the Dance sound of her debut album, Debut, in 1993. She released her second studio album in 1995 entitled Post. She began moving into a more electronic style. After this she embraced the use of beats and strings, which helped great one of her most memorable albums Homogenic in 1997. Some of the album’s good reviews came from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke who would eventually become one of her many collaborators.
In her 2001 follow up, Vespertine, she added chamber orchestras, choirs, close-mic vocals, and new themes to her repertoire. In 2004 she created her most innovative album, Medúlla. During the album’s production, Björk decided that the album needed to be completely vocal based. She enlisted the vocal skills of hip-hop beatboxer Rahzel and many other talented artists including throat singer Tagaq. This has been her most innovative album to day. Three years later, she released Volta: her most recent album. She began experimenting with African beats and a new colorful tribal image. The album featured collaborates Antony Hegarty (“The Dull Flame of Desire”) and famous producer Timbaland.
Her seventh studio album, Biophilia, is still incomplete. It has been recorded on the iPad and is planned to be releases as a number of applications. It is going to be the world’s first app based album. Björk has been collaborating with Apple. Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Green Hornet) is the director of this project. Björk has described it as “encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows”. Some of the album’s material will debut at her summer concerts at the Manchester International Festival.
Some of the music of Biophilia has already appeared in an iPad app called “Solar System” (developed by Touch Press, Faber and Faber and written by Marcus Chown). It is an eBook that contains 3D interactive objects, movies, diagrams and animations. It is all based upon real life scientific data. It contains images from NASA, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency.
I have always said that it was a matter of time until someone releases an app album. It all has to start with one person making the initiative and Björk (with the help of Apple) has stepped up to the future of music.
References:
http://consequenceofsound.net/2011/03/bjork-readies-ipad-album-biophilia/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/mar/18/bjork-albarn-manchester-international-festival
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bjoerk-to-debut-new-biophilia-songs-at-residency-in-england-20110317
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2011/01/bjork-song-used-in-solar-system-ipad-app.html
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Interview: Chris Limbrick
Today we will be discussing something a little different than our usual topics.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Limbrick this week. Chris is a Full Sail alumnus who is currently making a living creating websites for various business owners throughout the East Coast. He has made a number of websites now. He says that he has had some “wonderful clients” including various Orlando nightclubs, print companies out of New Jersey, and other small businesses throughout the East Coast. He even did the website for a Historical Collection Center in Virginia that focuses on archives from the Civil War.
When Chris has a potential client who wants a new website he finds out what they are looking for and what the website needs to focus on. They brainstorm together. Chris always has creative input on the websites and likes to add extras that are useful to the client such as social media icons, audio widgets, sliding banners, etc.
The negotiation comes in at pricing. Some clients are accepting of the starting price and some need it adjusted for their budget. What Chris does to make sure he makes profit is learn what their budget is and negotiate the website from there. Chris does a great job and getting a client to buy as much as possible. He likes to show his clients a mock version of their site without all the extras and explains to his clients why they are important. This way they spend more money on the extras and get a better website at the same time. This is a great example of using objective criteria to your advantage.
Another tactic of Chris’s is the dangerous “free meal”. He likes to buy the client’s beverage or meal when they go out for a lunch meeting.
Mr. Limbrick’s people skills and negotiation tactics are what help make his business a success.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Changes & Opportunities
There have been some changes in the development of music; however, along with change can come opportunity. Today we’re going to discuss the demise of Activision’s Guitar Hero, new opportunities, and we’ll take a look at a fun interactive video.
Recently, there was a formal statement that Guitar Hero games would no longer be created by Activision. To put it simply, they felt it was getting redundant and often wondered, “What’s next?” More Rockband games may continue to be created and will sell well due to its reputation but it won’t change the fact that the market has gotten repetitive and uncreative as they allow you to buy more and more songs. The only thing to look forward to is motion censor control, which seems inevitable at this point.
Here is an example of what motion censor controlled music could be like:
Despite the demise of Guitar Hero, there is an opportunity here to try something new – maybe Activision could begin designing apps for the iPhone or iPad (as they have been leaders in interactive music for the last few years). I believe that a lot of these game/audio/video companies need to explore the world of apps and innovative interactivity.
Now, let’s get interactive…
Though I normally talk about music being interactive, here is an interactive music video by the Arcade Fire (Grammy Winners, Album of the Year).
In the past we have looked at videos where you can adjust the music but this is a video where you simply adjust the video. Interactive Music Videos can become a whole new market on its own (especially with the help of the iPad/iPhone). It remains surprising why more videos like this are not produced. However, as more interesting entertainment is demanded, more interactive audio/video will be produced. These fun music videos and customizable songs are the beginning of something new.
Sites:
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Your Handy Dandy… Music Platform!
As I’ve mentioned over and over again, interactive music is the something that is continuing to grow in interest and will be a huge for of music in the not so distant future (thanks to smart phones, the iPad, etc.).
I recently read a small article where The Echo Nest encourages people to create interactive music application… however, what they creates is on a whole other level that what I usually talk about. In fact, it blew me away.
The Echo Nest creates interactive music applications, amongst other things. They recently created a music platform that has a large number of abilities and is all around the ultimate music tool. To put it simply, it breaks down music piece by piece.
A little bit about their business:
They are funded by Angel investors (three of which are co-founders of MIT Media Lab), Argos Management and Commonwealth Capital Ventures.
The Echo Nest has won the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant four times – a big accomplishment for a small cause.
Here is exactly what this music platform does (automatically):
It constantly analyzed music – everything from audio to blogs, reviews, etc. It wants to know exactly how the world sees every artist, their albums, and their music.
It listens to the music – it breaks down everything about the song: tempo, instrumentation, time signatures, accents, harmony, keys. It learns how to understand all the simple ways that musicians talk about these song attributes.
It learns about all the trends – it analyzes the internet user’s “music behavior”. It learns who is talking about what artists and what songs have been downloaded and streamed. It distinctly knows what fans think.
In completely honesty, this is absolute genius by my opinion. Every musician wants a tool that can break down every song and tell you everything you want to know about it. However, the only downside here is how much gathered information is too much? Echo Nest needs to make sure they are maintaining people’s privacy. That always becomes something of controversy.
…but when all is said and done, this is a major advancement and another step forward into an innovative future.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
AES: Audio Engineering Society
We're taking a different turn today and we're going to focus more on the Audio Industry, recent news, and primarily discussing Game Audio.
There are usually two options if you pursue a career in Game Audio. You can either be an Audio Programmer or a Sound Designer. Most of these jobs are found through studio websites, Game Industry forums, and the all-powerful networking. As a Programmer, it is often necessary to have a Bachelors degree but as a Sound Designer, you may not need a degree at all (though it helps). With Sound Design, you start as an intern (like in any studio) and work your way up.
Today, I will be speaking about the Audio Engineering Society. A couple months ago they had completed their elections for the new 2010-2011 officers, with Jan Abildgaard Pedersen being elected President.
Now, there are a lot of different sections to my industry: different people doing different things. The Music Industry is taking a lot of hits right now, primarily because of illegal downloading. They have been doing more marketing through live music and merchandise, along with the help of iTunes’ bonus tracks and pre-order packages. However, at the same time, the Game Industry is thriving and because of this the Game Audio Industry is thriving.
Quality audio for video games is a must. There was a time when 8-bit, computer generated audio was acceptable but we are in the 21st century and you can’t play “Call of Duty: Black Ops” or “Halo: Reach” with 8-bit audio (however, some bloggers believe there could still be a use for low-bit audio for phones, Wi-Fi, etc.). Games today have full quality, lossless audio and pay well to those who design it.
After reading a blog about the Game Audio/Music Composition industry, I learned quite a bit about finding work and the two career paths that one can take.
In New York, a couple years ago, the AES’ 127th convention was held. They discussed the latest achievements in Game Audio and Music Composition through a number of various workshops. Also, there was a lot of attention that focused on interactive music [something that I’ve been known to have interest in].
Monday, January 10, 2011
The Fall... or The Future?
On December 25, 2010, The Fall was released over the internet. The Fall is a full length album recorded by the Gorillaz. Why is this album so important? Because it is the first full length album to be recorded and released by a mainstream artist.
The Fall is a fifteen track album that was recorded while the Gorillaz were on tour. Damon Albarn (founder) recorded the album with the use of twenty applications. A number of songs were named after the cities in which they had been recorded in.
The importance of this is that it continue to prove my point. There was a time when touring was part of the year and recording was the rest. Now that has changed. The two can go hand in hand. With the use of the iPad, anyone is able to write music whenever they want.
It had been predicted that more and more known artists will begin to experiment with the iPad and use it as part of their recording process. We will see how this new & fast way of making music will progress over the coming years. The iPad will most likely be the way that we get a lot of things done: not just recording albums.
The iPad is not nearly as developed and evolved as it is meant to be, but it has already begun to change the way we live our lives.
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