Symphonic Distribution is a digital content distributor and services provider aimed at providing the best in content delivery, customer service, marketing, education, distribution, licensing and more for music industry artists, managers, and record labels across the globe. Symphonic Distribution is ran by experienced music producers, label owners, and artists thriving in providing the highest level of service. Their mission is to provide you with the best services to improve brand performance. In addition to their comprehensive service list, they provide individual brands to better help a record label or artist grow. Symphonic is also accredited by the Better Business Bureau to further satisfy their clients and partners.  Below are some new highlights Symphonic has introduced recently that show just how much they have to offer.

SymSTREAM is the brand new iPhone / iPod Touch application created by Symphonic Distribution.  Being one of the only distributors in the world to have an iPhone / iPod Touch application, Symphonic Distribution has further diversified itself with new and evolving technologies aimed.  The tool also will serve as a new marketing initiative for artists and record labels distributed by Symphonic Distribution.  SymSTREAM allows you to preview some of the great music we receive each and every week!  If you are at the gym or simply want to listen to new, creative, and innovative music, download SymSTREAM for FREE at the APP Store today. More details in their BLOG

Rolling out in the first part of 2010, Symphonic is updating their client area with a new royalties portal. A second phase of the portal is coming soon that will add detailed stats and sales figures. This will give you a lot of insight on what is selling and what you need to market more in that quarter. This new content portal will bring a new level of self service and convenience to getting your tracks out to digital stores. You will be able to deliver releases to them and have full control as if YOU are the distributor!  This will also allow you more control at any time of your releases, eliminate errors, expedite release delivery, and just simplify the process in general. These updates will really make Symphonic your go-to site for digital distribution.

Being all about customer service, it should be obvious that they care about their clients. They strive to make every step you need to take as simple as possible, include free marketing plans and education with many different resources to make you shine! For example, they can distribute releases to promo pools worldwide, have many internal labels available to release your unsigned material and even have an Artist Connect- where they send unaffiliated artist’s demos to 600+ labels across the globe for potential licensing.

It’s a worthwhile trip to their website, so don’t hesitate to see what you can get into. Sign up for their newsletter to be in the know of their success and see how you can connect with other artists, labels or engineers. Check out their blog to see the Release, Label and Artist of the week.

http://symphonicdistribution.com/
http://symintranet.com/blog/
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SYMPHONICDISTRIBUTION
WWW.TWITTER.COM/SYMPHONICDIST
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/SYMPHONICDISTRIBUTION

Your an artist (band/DJ/Producer- whatever) out there on your own, trying to take hold of the sea of potential fans in the world. There is an incredible amount of time, tools, and logistics that go into making an artist successful. What does success mean in this new industry? Success when your an independent artist can really be what you want it to be. Focus on smaller successes that go toward your ultimate success goal. Your small successes should be based on obtainable goals you set on a regular basis. So how do you achieve that? Well that is not an easy question to answer and I don’t think there is really a formula per say, but most importantly you need to build a team.

A large reason the “label” exists (besides the obvious financing side of things) is to be your team in doing everything you are NOT good at. So what do you do if your an independent artist without (or with very little) label support. You can’t, and shouldn’t do everything yourself, but the awesome thing is that we live in a time where we have thousands of people completely capable and hungry to BE YOUR TEAM, without taking a huge cut of your sales. The pay for service age is now, it is reality, and it rocks. You can have a 300 hour work week by simply leveraging other peoples time and resources. If you have 3 people working on different tasks, you effectively created 3 times the man hours at the same time. and you now have 3 times as much free time to work on other aspects of your band. Call it DIY… with help. DIY, keep the rights to your music, and make a lot more in the long run. I know that financing is a huge factor and I will get into that later. Ideally you can end up making more and spending less without a label backing you. Now there is a time and a place for a label to step in and I am not saying that you should spit in their face- but more so saying that you may find more freedom and success by going it alone and growing your band like a brand and a business.

The Advantages of Outsourcing
Your musical act is a business and you need employees to run it. Outsourcing is just a means for you to have freelance employees doing the stuff you are not good at and just don’t have the time for. Again this goes back to what I was saying earlier about leveraging other peoples time and skills to your advantage. for each talented person you bring into your team you open up a whole new network of skills and contacts to further your brand (see how we are already moving away from your band and into your brand). When you sell someone a brand you build loyalty. You want to live the lifestyle of furthering your brand, that is what gives you a chance at success. Build it through squeezing the juices of the talent you have on your team. Once you build your ongoing relationship with the person they should need very little direction to complete the tasks. Just like an entrepreneur, you need to spend your time wisely and leverage everyone else’s. In the end, you still did the core of the design work and you can promote it as such.

Outsourcing Ideas
(Endless, however I included some ideas)
- Graphic Design
- Web/blog/social media development (this is a big one when it comes to branding)
- Email campains
- Press releases
- Press Kits
- Viral Marketing
- Styling and costuming
- Professional Photography and videography (but always have your flip cam ready… it is big right now)
- Music Videos
- Video Flyers
- Social Networking
- Merchandise production (manufacturing of or coordinating with manufacturers)
- Digital Distribution (getting your digital content out in the world and managing it)
- Physical product production (CD/DVD/USB Stick manufacturing)
- Physical marketing production (printing stuff like posters, flyers, etc)
- Online retail fulfillment (shipping stuff sold on your site or keeping online retailers like Amazon stocked up)
- Customer service (dealing with merch returns from your site and dealing filtering fan concerns that don’t need your personal attention)
- Storage (storing all of your goods and keeping track of it)
- Street team management (both paid guerilla marketers and your fan based street team)
- Administration (like scheduling meetings, book keeping, accounting, etc)
- Booking
- Tour Management (either having someone help you plan a tour, or hiring someone to run your tour on the road with you)
- Travel booking (Travel Agents are phenomenal at saving you money and helping you with the logistics of group travel… Expedia, not so much)
- Anything else you think you need help with

What You Shouldn’t Outsource
YOU
You need to personally communicate with your fans, you need to create the music, you need to be the personality and you need to live your brand. Mold your team with your brand, don’t let your team mold you. Because so much of your time is going to be spent face to face (or computer to computer) with your fans. If you don’t totally own your brand your fans will see right through it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a stylist help you with your look or get advice from your team on aspects of your act, but the foundation of what your brand is needs to come from the core beliefs you stem from. Your focus should be on living your life through your artistic persona. Connect with your fans hearts by becoming a part of their lives. You should be out mingling with potential fans even at shows your not playing at. Build that personal relationship with your core fan base and they will fund and nurture your upward success. In most cases it is really best that the updates being written on your social networks like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter should be the members of the band.

The Disadvantages
The main disadvantage to going it alone and doing a lot of outsourcing is you are personally spending the money on overhead to get the work done. But is that totally a disadvantage? When you are tied to a label or using companies that take a large percentage of your retail, you end up making very little. If you keep your day job, be a rock star on a budget, and outsource a lot of the stuff that takes up your time you will hopefully have enough left over to get by until your music is able to sustain you full time. If you are able to pay for a lot of the things a label would, you are going to recoup the costs much quicker then if you were trying to recoup the labels money. Focus on how to make your music make money through your brand (clothing, widgets, CD’s, downloads, etc) and recoup your own expenses with more control over what you spend it on and how you pay yourself back. When you are using your own hard earned cash you really have the burning desire to make things happen and toss out the things that don’t work.

Another disadvantage is the fact that outsourcing a bunch of tasks to a bunch of different people on your team ends up taking a lot of management time. You have to deal with the administration of making sure all of your vendors are paid on time. If you are not rock solid at managing people, time, and money you may need to pass this along to your artist management (usually for a percentage of your earnings) or outsource the outsourcing with a project manager!

The Project Manager
I consider a Project Manager to be different than your typical manager. A Project Manager can work with your personal or business manager to act as the traffic controller for whatever task is at hand. A Project Manager works for a flat or hourly rate rather then a percentage base. This will allow you to only pay someone when you need something done and may actually cost you less then percentage based payment in the long run. If you are a new artist you may not have the ability to hire a manager. A lot of new artists may use a friend or a fan to act as their manager and if this is the case an experienced project manager will help them to make sure you get the best deals and use the right people. If your project manager is part of a multi-service company (A company that provides a grouping of products and services in different areas like our company does) the only you may be paying the person with is giving the company your ongoing business which doesn’t cost you anything because you needed it anyways.

A project manager can be an advocate who makes sure your best interests are always in mind. If you are totally starting from the ground up, you may be able to get consultation from them to make sure the business side of your brand doesn’t lag behind the creative side (ie, do you have a business licence, resale certificate, and business checking account to keep the tax man happy and make sure you are making the most of your profit margins). If you have an artist manager they probably have already done this for you, but if you don’t, be sure to ask your project manager. You can get stuck with a lot of trial and error when trying to build your team off of craigslist or offshore bidding sites. If your using a project manager, they can act as a filter in reviewing who is a good choice for a service or often times, if your using a company for your project manager, they may offer the services in house or have tested and trusted freelancers on hand. When it comes to dealing with designers, developers, manufacturers, etc a client can sometimes feel like they are speaking another language. A good project manager will take what you, the client, wants as an end result and be able to communicate that to the vendors effectively, get feedback and translate that back to something you understand. In the case of using a multi-services company for your project manager may be an added bonus (aka free) to services you were planing on using anyways. In that case a huge time saver is knowing that for all of the different types of products and services you need to run your brand, you only need to cut a check to one vendor. As long as what you are getting is competitively priced (and it should be if you are packaging together groups of tasks) knowing all you have to do is shoot an email to one person and your job is done, is pretty incredible.

No matter who you choose to use as a project manager, it should be someone that has a desire to become part of your artistic family. A good project manager will, after time, know what you want and need without you having to say it. They will be a friend and a sort-of mentor at the same time. A good project manager will maximize all of the advantages of the outsourcing model and minimize any disadvantages.

Using outsourcing as a method to build your band as a brand can help you maximize your creative control by possibly not needing to sign with a label. It can also take the things your not good at and make it look like you are (your fans aren’t going to know or care). Building your brand like a business with a team of people working for you can lead you to greater success. Building that team through freelancers, project managers, and multi-service comapanies allows you to save a lot of time and money, work on other things, and NOT require you to hire a full time staff or sign away huge chunks of your royalties and profits. Making music can be a fun and rewarding business which has never been easier to be independent and still make a mark in the music world.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or criticism I want to hear them. Post on the comments or send me an email to me personally and any feedback I get I will be sure to add into this blog.

WMC 2010 DJ Spin-Off

The WMC 2010 DJ Spin-Off will be held on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 (Beat Matching) and Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 (Scratching) at The Eden Roc Beach Resort & Spa Ocean Garden Poolside with celebrity hosts and judges and DJs from all over the world mixing and scratching their way to the top. Because of the exponential growth and success of the WMC DJ Spin-Off, we had to split the competition into two days!!! Celebrity judges will decide who has what it takes to own first place. If you are a DJ who thinks you can put up some weight, a label head scouting new talent, or a fan of DJ competitions, join us for the WMC DJ Spin-Off where you can truly witness the Art of the DJ.

Prizes to be provided by leading audio and apparel manufacturers.

ENTRY DEADLINE: Friday, February 26, 2010

DOWNLOAD THE WMC 2010 DJ SPIN-OFF APPLICATION FORM

Guidelines for entry:

• All entries must include a completed application, entry fee ($25.00),
bio, and demo (CD or Tape format).

• DJs may enter both Beat Mixing + Scratching competitions.

• Demo’s must be no longer than 5 minutes in length and must be
reflective of the DJs prospective performance.

• Submissions are subject to approval.

• Demo material submitted will become the property of WMC
and will not be returned.

• No submissions will be reviewed after the deadline.
No last minute entries or substitutes are allowed.

• All judges’ decisions are final.

• DJs must bring their own headphones to the competition.

Send to:

Winter Music Conference
3450 NE 12th Terrace,
Fort Lauderdale , FL 33334
ATTN: DJ Spin-Off
For any additional inquiries email: info@wintermusicconference.com

MTV Games is hoping to goose sales of its flagging “Rock Band” series with a new service Tuesday that lets average users upload and sell videogame versions of their own music.

The service, known as the Rock Band Network Store, may offer a few minutes of fame to rudimentary garage bands by allowing millions of game players to access their music.

But given the technical know-how needed to format a song for the game—which may require users to hire a pricey third-party developer—the service could wind up serving mostly as a promotional platform for established acts with deeper pockets, rather than the typical shower singer.

“Rock Band” and its rival, “Guitar Hero,” are two of the most successful videogame franchises to debut in recent years. But sales of both titles have slowed significantly in the past year, with combined sales in 2009 of $224 million, according to an estimate from Wedbush Morgan Securities—less than 50% their level in 2008.

Until now, most of the music available for play on either game has consisted of a limited number of songs, mostly by major acts like Nirvana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beatles.

With the new service, unknown bands are seeing their chance to get in on the act. But popular groups not quite big enough to make the “Rock Band” playlist are also preparing material for the do-it-yourself upload store, including Creed and Evanescence, each of which has sold tens of millions of albums in the past decade.

“We expected this to be an initiative that would appeal to unsigned artists,” says Paul DeGooyer, MTV’s senior vice president for electronic games and music. “What was surprising to us was how many artists with hit records have offered themselves up.”

The Rock Band network has been running in a private, invitation-only testing mode since September. For now, it is to be available only to users of the Xbox 360, made by MicrosoftCorp., which was also MTV Games’ partner in building the Rock Band Network. MTV is part ofViacom Inc. The network eventually is to be made accessible to users of other game systems, like Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3.

Preparing a song is complicated, and involves preparing an array of specialized digital sound files, lyrics, transcriptions and even instructions for virtual camera angles, lighting and choreography for the animated characters that perform the music within the game itself.

It has already spawned a cottage industry of companies offering to format recordings, for fees that can get steep. These contractors, with names like Rhythm Authors LLC and RockGamer Studios, typically charge $500 per minute of music.

Other costs involved in creating a song include the purchase of an Xbox 360 console, “Rock Band” game discs and instruments, as well as a subscription to an online Microsoft game-development “community” that costs about $99 a year.

Rock Band Network lets users set prices anywhere from 99 cents to $2.99 a song. The company retains 70% of the sale price, with the rest going to the user. Given the figures, musicians must be fairly confident they’ll sell real numbers of songs to justify their investment.

Sub Pop, a prominent independent record label, is paying various contractors to prepare 25 songs that it plans to upload to the store—all of them by acts among the label’s most commercially successful.

Those include the Shins, whose 2007 album “Wincing the Night Away” reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album-sales chart; comedy-music duo Flight of the Conchords; and indie-rock stalwarts like Mudhoney, Sleater-Kinney and the Postal Service.

Sub Pop was the original record label of Nirvana, but much of that band’s catalog is already available for “Rock Band.”

The label is treating the undertaking as a serious creative endeavor. It hired a prominent record producer, Phil Ek, to mix the music before delivering it to the contractors who format it for the game.

“At $3 apiece nobody’s looking to ‘Rock Band’ as a discovery tool,” predicts Tony Kiewel, head of artists-and-repertoire at Sub Pop. “That’s not going to happen,” he says.

From: WSJ.com

It’s 2010 and time to start thinking about the annual festivals that will benefit YOU. All around us we hear that this is the year to make a big push and get heard- we want to help with that. As a Musician, Label or Entertainment/Media business, it’s pretty important to attend at least one music festival a year. SXSW and WMC are two of the big starters that are coming up fast. We’re hoping to enlighten you on how important it is to prepare, not just show up. There are so many ways to conquer a festival- high rollin’ networker, party animal, on the cheap or go with the flow. Whatever reason you’re going, there’s a way to be prepared and Eternite Media would like to be your go-to source for exploring your options and fulfilling the promotional decisions you make.

It is important to get your marketing and promotional plan started early.  When you work with us, you will be covered in every area that you need, and even more than you thought. Eternite Media offers design and printing solutions for simple business cards, intricate flyers, logos or branding for your entire realm of products. We are able to replicate or duplicate your CD and DVD with basic black print or full color thermal. Paper printing options like digi-paks, one page inserts or full booklets can work in a package with a jewel case or even a clear poly sleeve. Merchandise is also a classic advertisement for your brand’s success, including T-shirts, buttons or stickers- all of which are a constant reminder of you to all your fans. We can put together whatever you need- any propaganda materials big or small and can even ship it directly to your accommodations.

CD Duplication Promo Packages

Opener
(basic package)

- Silver Duplicated CDR

- Black Thermal Text Print On Disc

- White Paper Sleeve

100: $81.00 (Normally $108.00)

250: $202.50 (Normally $270.00)

500: $345.00 (Normally $460.00)

Resident
(mid package)

- White Duplicated CDR

- Full Color Thermal Print On Disc

- 1 Panel 4/4 (Full Color) Paper Insert

- Clear Poly Sleeve

100: $156.60 (Normally $174.00)

250: $380.25 (Normally $422.50)

500: $621.00 (Normally $690.00)

Headliner
(premium package)

- Replicated (manufactured) CD

- Full Color Offset Print On Disc

- Full Color 5″ Jacket

- Wafer Seal

500: $589.00 (Normally $660.00)

1000: $746.00 (Normally $840.00)

2500: $1617.50 (Normally $1825.00)

(DVD packages available upon request)

BONUS WMC/SXSW Specials:

25% off select Printing services
Promote your shows, get the word out about your new release, or just build your fan base! Take advantage of high quality printing services for business cards, flyers, stickers, 2″ buttons and banners.

40% off all Merchandise
Make a statement and toss out t-shirts during your shows or help pay for your trip by selling screen printed merch. Either way your fans will do the advertising for you to build your name recognition and it’s a great way to increase your profit margin. Screen printed shirts, hoodies, hats and more. We offer apparel from American Apparel, Hanes, Gildan, and other top brands.

We are super excited about all the cool stuff you will be ready to hit your fans with this year! Don’t waste any time and drop us a line at info@eternitemedia.com or 323-284-4733 to order.

Stay connected on our Twitter, Facebook and MySpace for resources, blogs, and suggestions on making the most out of your festival experience at SXSW or WMC.

]]> http://www.eternitemedia.com/blog/announcements/be-prepared-for-south-by-southwest-and-winter-music-conference/feed/ 0 http://www.eternitemedia.com/blog/streetpromotion/promotion-101-why-you-should-hand-out-flyers-at-gigs/ http://www.eternitemedia.com/blog/streetpromotion/promotion-101-why-you-should-hand-out-flyers-at-gigs/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:16:00 +0000 admin http://www.eternitemedia.com/blog/?p=169

Our friends at Symphonic Distribution posted a great article from the recordunion.com blog that goes along great with our current topic of promoting. With South By South West and Winter Music Conference fast approaching this is a must read article. As always we are here to help you build your weapons of mass promotion so give us a shout to help you get your game plan together.

Promotion 101:Why you should hand out flyers at gigs

Performing live is one of the great joys of being a musician. However, it is important to think of a gig not just as a way of entertaining an audience for a little while and having fun, but as an opportunity to market yourself and reach out to new fans. Handing out a simple flyer is one important step for getting the most out of your live performances.

The Point

Promotion is all about developing relationships with listeners. During and after a successful live performance you are in a good position to move from a superficial and temporary relationship with potential fans, to a deeper long term one. This is up to you. Providing they can even remember your name, only a small percentage of the audience will take it upon themselves to find you online and listen more to your music. Make it easy for them. Hand out flyers.

What to communicate

A flyer can contain a single piece of information, or lots of information. It can be elaborately designed, or just a simple piece of paper with a bit of text on it. The key is that it gives the recipient more info about you and a way to access your music. Depending on your existing marketing strategy, here are a few things you might consider putting on your flyer:

•    Online locations: Your link to MySpace, Facebook, Imeem etc. or just your website

•    Where to access your music: Communicating that your music is available for free streaming on services such as Spotify or Deezer is a great way to increase the appreciation for your music. Before people buy your music, its best they can listen to it over and over and make it part of their music repertoire. Streaming services have the added bonus if sharability and peer recommendation.

•    Mailing list: “Keep updated! Sign up to our mailing list and receive a free track” is a good way to incentivize people to sign up to your mailing list. Once on your list, they are in the loop and you can further develop your relationship with them.

Tips

•    Maximize the effect of your flyers by thinking about when you hand them out. One method is to announce before the last song that flyers are being handed out, and getting some friends to hand them out in the crowd.

•    Alternatively, do it yourself. Straight after a gig, move around the crowd and hand out the flyers. This gives you the opportunity to converse with listeners, receive compliments and answer questions.

•    Be creative on what you put on your flyer. Hosting a merch give away or another kind of competition? Advertise in on your flyers and you may find more participants.

From: Record Union’s Blog Via: Symphonic Distribution’s Blog

Ryan Farish

Grammy nominated, 2008 GMA Dove Award Winning songwriter/producer/composer Ryan Farish, first launched his music career on the first generation mp3.com, where his music quickly took to the masses obtaining a whopping 1,800,000+ downloads of his trademark, electronic-jazz-world music.

Los Angeles music Industry magazine, “Music Connection” refers to Ryan Farish as a “Download King”.

Ryan’s national debut album, Beautiful (Dist by Capitol/EMI), quickly climbed to 10 on the Billboard Top New Age chart, and also ranked 1 on Music Choice’s Soundscapes Digital Music channel. Ryan’s sophomore record, From the Sky, smashed the New Age charts again, hitting 3 on the Billboard chart only five weeks after its release, and was the second most downloaded Jazz album on iTunes for two consecutive weeks! Ryan’s song from that album, “Living Water” was even featured by iTunes, as the “Discovery Download of the Week”.

Ryan’s music has been featured on The Weather Channel’s Local on the 8’s; he also composed the theme music for their prime time TV show, Storm Stories; and most recently was featured along with Jazz Superstars Chick Corea, Dav Koz, Najee, and Jeff Lorber, to name a few on the 1 Top Billboard Chartting Jazz compliation, “The Weather Channel Presents:Smooth Jazz” (Midas/EMI). Other honorable mentions to Ryan’s music credit, have been having his music used as part of the Freedom Towers documentary in NYC, Access Hollywood, Universal Music Publishing, Red Cross, Lifetime Network, Sony, Columbia Tri Star Pictures, just to name a few.

Ryan’s unique sound, and inherent ability to communicate through music, has touched thousands of lives, and entered the homes of millions across the world.

Christianity Today.com says: “Ryan Farish is something of an instrumental music superstar.”

Ryan’s latest release, “Spirit- A Ryan Farish Christmas” is available through iTunes and Amazon.com. It reached Amazon’s top 100 album list within the first week! Read the official Press Release.

For Immediate Release, Dec 9, 2009. Los Angeles, CA.

Ryan Farish, releases his first ever Holiday/Christmas album, “Spirit – A Ryan Farish Christmas”.

Farish, who is both recognized around the world for his signature voice on the piano as a recording artist, and for his unique touch to music production, has finally reached out with his first Christmas offering, “Spirit – A Ryan Farish Christmas”.

Ryan’s music has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands, and entered the homes of millions via his extensive work as a composer. Many learned of Ryan Farish’s music via the Youtube video “Remember Me”, which ranks as one of the most viewed videos of all time, at 28,000,000 plus. Additionally, Farish’s music is heard daily on hit shows like 20/20, “What Not to Wear”, the Sopranos, The Weather Channel, Speed Channel, Discovery Channel, MTV and VH1, just to name a few.

The Weather Channel recently credited Ryan Farish on their new music website, saying “Ryan Farish has been a Weather Channel music staple for over a decade. His music has been an integral part in giving The Weather Channel a musical identity. This artist can’t be roped into any one genre unless you just create a genre called “Great Music” and in that genre he is one of the best.”

Ryan’s music has been selected as “Discovery Download” of the week by Apple’s iTunes, and has been downloaded millions of times via multiple sites like mp3.com, iTunes, Amazon.com, Rhapsody, and ryanfarish.com. With all of Ryan Farish’s music reaching the masses, Farish just signed a deal to have his signature sound piped into the air, literally… putting his music into the on air flight entertainment systems to all the worlds major airlines, like Delta, Virgin, American, etc. 30 in total.

“Spirit – A Ryan Farish Christmas” now enters Farish’s discography, and Farish along with his label RYTONE Entertainment invite you to enjoy the sounds of the season, in a new and refreshing way, with “Spirit – A Ryan Farish Christmas”.

We caught up with Ryan for a quick interview

What avenues of the music industry are you involved in, besides your mainstream albums?
I am also involved as a composer, producer, and publisher.

How did you get involved in composing work? Did companies find you or did you reach out to them? And how does your composing differ from the music you make personally?
My composing originally was just my Artist Albums, the exposure I recieved on the first gen mp3.com led to companies all around the world contacting us to license my songs. This then, eventually led to me getting contracts to compose custom music, in various genres from Theme songs to hit TV shows like “Storm Stories”, to Major motion Pictures for Companies like SONY, Columbia Tri Star, Universal, Capitol/EMI. etc.

What’s your favorite part of producing music? What gets you into the new piece of work as you make it?
My favorite part, is when I start to feel that the idea is developing into something that in a way is its own thing… its all about communication to me, and serving the listener… anything that I create that has those qualities, becomes a song, and once I feel a song is coming through, I can hardly keep up with recording the notes, as they come.

What is your favorite digital download store to sell your music on and why?
iTunes. They have a very simple, clean interface which is great for suggesting new music (Genius). They are the largest music retailer now, and so exposure on iTunes today, is like being on a wall display in Best Buy from years past. Truly, we are living in exciting times to be artists.

What are your career or music goals for 2010?
Tour, tour, tour!

Do you have a favorite piece of equipment that you use to make your music, such as a keyboard, program or outboard gear?
Yes. My Mac. After that, I love working with Apple Logic 9. Its an incredible program, that inspires songs and creativity.

Are you actively marketing yourself to increase your fan base? If so, what are the tools you use to do so? (social networking, advertising, website)
No, actually, and we probably should look into that .We are not involved in any marketing campaings, never have actually, although I do take time to maintain myspace and facebook pages, a little tweet here and there too.

What does your album Spirit mean to you?
Its very special to me, I had wanted to do a Christmas album, for many years, but I didn’t want to do it until I knew that I had something to bring, to these timeless classic songs, which mean so much to many of us. I wanted to wait until I completely had defined the “RF” sound, and could then offer that, to these classic songs which mean so much to many of us.

Stay connected with Ryan on Twitter, Facebook and Myspace
www.ryanfarish.com
Ryan Farish on iTunes

Pack of Blank CD-R’s: $25… Sharpie: $1… An unprofessional disc that is unexciting and doesn’t make the listen excited to hear what’s on it… WORTHLESS

When you put out a demo CD the music you pour into it is a work of art so why shouldn’t the disc be a work of art too! Let’s face it, a sharpie CD just sucks. You potentially ruin the presentation of your product by scribbling the info on it.

Why even make a CD when you could just put an MP3 on your myspace page or on blogs? Well that is pretty passive… Any artist with a decent fan base is likely to tell you that getting something personal and physical into the hands of their fans is an absolute necessity. I go more into depth in this blog on the subject and I will be expanding more on the need to get out on the streets to sell yourself as a brand in upcoming blogs.

The saying “first impressions are everything” hold true even when it comes to a simple demo. I guarantee you If I put a sharpie CD and a basic black thermal text printed disc side by side, anyone would take the thermal disc over the sharpie disc. Same goes with black text versus full color. You get what you pay for when it comes to the wow factor, so you should make a small investment into marketing yourself and have a good quality presentation. In pretty much all of our day to day activities here at Eternite Media (whether it be marketing campaigns, equipment purchases, even sales) we are always looking at our ROI or Return On Investment. Basically, how successful is the results of the investment we put into something, be it time, money, labor, etc. A lot of times it is hard to measure that return when it comes to the actual impression we have made on people. The same is true about your demo CD’s. In a sense, if you get that person to sign up for your mailing list or you see them at your next show, you will know that you have made a good return on that investment. It is up to you to decide if stepping up your demos to professional duplication is a worthwhile investment for your personal goals. Be sure not to forget that your time is money, and often times the added value of quality duplication plus the time you save from creating copies yourself is a much better choice.

That being said, I am in no way attempting to say anyone is less of an artist if they don’t have their demos done with a duplication company. Your content should be your number one priority and is the one thing that truly matters. My goal is to get you thinking about whether stepping up your investment on your discs is a worthwhile expense.

I feel so strongly that I have to decided to offer anyone who has not done work with us in the past an amazing opportunity. Send me up to 10 of your sharpie CD’s and I will send you back the same amount back with our black thermal printed CD’s and your music on it, plus a sample of our full color thermal printed discs. If you have a sticker label or inkjet printed CD I will send you our Full Color thermal discs with your music on it plus a sample of our black text thermal printed discs.
A few details…
-Only new customers who have not ordered disc products from us in the past can participate

-You will need to cover the postage out to Los Angeles and we will take care of the return

-We can transcribe your sharpie CD to black text (we will use a font of our choice)

-If we are sending you full color discs you will need to provide us with your own artwork

-Your content must follow our intellectual property rights policy and terms of services, which we can send you through email
Please contact us at info@eternitemedia.com or 323-284-4733 for full details and to get your free discs. We would love to show you what we can do, and even work with your budget.

I am really excited to offer this and I wish I could do it all the time, but this is only valid for a very limited time- so tell your friends, and get in contact with us today before it is too late!

Ryan Powell
President
Eternite Media, LLC

San Francisco Police Department officers have added a controversial tactic to their aggressive raids on house parties (see “Fun under siege,” 4/22/09): they’re seizing laptop computers from DJs at the events.

While SFPD officials deny the laptop seizures is a new policy, they admit it has been condoned by Police Chief George Gascón, who took over in August and last month told the Guardian’s editorial board he wants to make the SFPD more transparent and accountable to the public (see “New coach, new approach,” 10/14/09).

“The police chief is aware that officers are being proactive in gathering evidence,” Sgt. Lyn Tomioka told the Guardian when asked about a string of laptop seizures by undercover cops over the last 10 months, most of them in cases in which the DJs weren’t even charged with a crime. (read the whole article here)

This is a new world now. In the past officers have confiscated audio equipment as evidence for underground events but now DJ’s need to be extra careful. In the future I have a feeling this could be common practice around the country as a scare tactic to DJ’s. It is important to back-up your laptop before events and I feel that if this does become common practice, and you are playing an underground event, that you need to have a laptop JUST for DJing. Keep anything and everything of personal value off the laptop and be sure that you have a complicated password on it to keep the man from snooping.

What concerns me is that there is always the possibility of a DJ not being aware that an event is fully permitted. DJ’s are hired and I would be hard pressed to believe that they are legally obligated to insure the event has it’s paperwork in line. If you play underground events often and use a laptop it may be a good idea to seek the advice of an attorney on what your legal rights are. If I was put in this situation I would probably demand that I be charged with a crime before allowing the officer to seize my personal property. It would be good to tell the officer that you were hired for the event and are not affiliated with the promoter or venue owner and therefore should not have my personal property taken. It probably won’t work, so be sure to ask the officer for his identification, get his badge number and name and immediately go to the police station to file a complaint. If he refuses call 911 and report that someone claiming to be an officer is refusing to produce identification and you need help. Do anything you can to make the taking of your property difficult but within your legal rights.

A laptop to a DJ is just like a drum set to a drummer. It is the tool of their self expression and as such should be respecting as a freedom of speech. There are some people who are concerned that the RIAA is behind the laptop seizures as part of a larger scale attack on performance rights. I see both sides of the fence on this issue, but I also know that most of our friends who are DJ’s play music given to them BY the artists to play as promotion.

Stay safe out there, have fun playing and keep your head down.

Fawn is an award winning ASCAP singer/songwriter, whose song “Wish U Love” is currently climbing the Billboard Charts. A month ago she entered the Billboard Hot dance Break-out Charts at #5.  In her first week she entered the Billboard dance charts as the 2^nd highest add of the week, 2^nd only to Depeche Mode.  Another song released around the same time, “Come Back Particles Mix” is a popular favorite on Beatport with producer Jake Benson. Her voice and songs have been heard on numerous TV shows, CD Compilations, commercials and films such as The Natalee Holloway Story, Ugly Betty, Nip/Tuck, Dead End Falls, Ford, Mazda, Pontiac, Barbie, Ponds, Target, Guiding Light, Lavazza Coffee, The Young and The Restless, 1-800-Missing with Vivica A. Fox and Witchblade, among others.

Out of 560,000 songs and 41,000 albums, with 10,000 judges on board, Fawn won the JPF Music Award for “Best Dance Song 2009″ with her song “Wish U Love” which was #2 only to Madonna, on the dance/house Masterbeat charts with Producers Chad Jack and Tim Letteer. She also won for “Best Dance Album 2009″ – “Body, Soul and Mind.” Her song ‘Oneday,’ produced by BT, Brian Transeau (Film Composer for Monster), has raised over 5 million for people with HIV/AIDS. She was recently seen on the TV/Film Panel for the 2009 Winter Music Conference in Miami and the Lifetime TV Series “How to Look Good Naked” with Carson Kressley with her sister Grae. She has also appeared on a variety of TV shows, including Paula Abdul’s reality TV show “Hey Paula,” E.T. The Insider, TMZ, Good Morning America, American Idol, Regis and Kelly, KTLA, FOX 11 News, 944 and many others.

She has released 3 albums (2 with partner Vincent Covello, Body Soul and Mind) and 3 singles on Stonedef Records and has been on several compilation albums. She has worked with recording artists Meredith Brooks, Paula Cole, BT, QD3, Ed Townsend, Lalah Hathaway, Club Nuveau’s Val Watson, and has shared the stage with a variety of artists such as Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Right Said Fred, Dionne Warwick, Carl Anderson, David Pomeranz, Thelma Houston, Chrisse Hynde, Pepper Mashay, James Torme’ and War’s Howard E. Scott. Fawn has also worked with an array of other celebrities, including Pamela Anderson, Jay Leno, Eva Longoria, Joan Rivers, Kevin Costner, Darryl Hannah, Tommy Lee, Martin Lawrence, Magic Johnson, Jermaine Dupri, Rae Dawn Chong, Hulk Hogan, Catherine Oxenberg, Florence Henderson, Jay Leno, James Callahan, Erik Estrada, John Amos, David Marshall Grant and Alexandra Paul and others appearing with them in film, TV and benefits for several worthy charities.

Fawn sings in almost every language and in a variety of styles. She has sung for a variety of world-renowned conductors, including Paul Salamunovich, Jean Berger and Duane Wolfe for various projects and is currently working on a new music project with Dresden and Johnston, Allister Whitehead, Chad Jack, Jake Benson and TRL.  Fawn is currently recording two albums in the style of Electro and Chill Out.

In her free time she enjoys mentoring children and adults alike, helping them become acquainted with and prolific in piano, voice and songwriting. She believes that a gift is as important as what you do with it, so she spends a few hours a month working with people of all ages, dealing with different issues. She has been known to incorporate her wolf hybrid, “Wolfadeaus” and other rescue animals to aid in the healing process of hurting people of all ages. Her belief is that there is “no such thing as a ‘problem’ person or child, only a problem in understanding”. Wolf dogs Wolfadeaus and Dakota can be seen in Fawn’s “Wish U Love” music video, airing on the LOGO channel and other outlets.

Fawn has a direct and honest approach in her music and her life. She continually lends her support, time and heart, performing for benefits involving AIDS, Cancer, Animal Rescue, Special Olympics, and many other important causes. She explains, “There is no distinction or difference in the heart of humanity…we are all equally significant. The more candles you light in the world, the brighter it becomes.” Multi-talented, and naturally charismatic, Fawn loves the adventure in taking risks and as a gifted and versatile singer/songwriter, she also composes music in all genres. She says, “Beethoven once wrote, ‘into the heart it has sprung, into the heart it shall penetrate’…I believe and strive in this endeavor.”

“Be who you’re born to be and be a light in the world”
-Fawn

www.songirlsezshow.zoomshare.com

Fawn @ MySpace • Facebook •  Twitter