From Musicians To Music Festival Organizers

In todays musical economy, youre lucky to be a band thats invited to join a music festival lineup. Festivals are blowing up in terms of popularity, so much so that nearly every major music festival in 2011 saw record attendance. To be on one of those bills could do a lot for your career, but to create an entire festival? Thats just crazy talk. Or is it? One band has been doing just that for 12 years.

Horror Rap duo Insane Clown Posse has unarguably the largest cult following of any similar sounding act in the entire country. The reasons for that are many, but its safe to say the fact that they have their own annual festival where fans (Juggalos) can meet up every year goes a long way in solidifying those fans loyalty. Of course, Im talking about the Gathering of the Juggalos!

Producing a Music Festival

Theres nothing easy about producing a music festival, especially one as involved as Gathering of the Juggalos. Location, artists, security, vendors, permits, scheduling, promotion, insurance, and stage setup are just some things that have to be taken into consideration by curators like Insane Clown Posse in planning. And if you dont sell as many tickets as you need to in order to make a profit, it can be a very expensive loss.

Insane Clown Posse hosted their first Gathering of the Juggalos music festival in 2000 after several years of talk and planning surrounding the event. Its hugely successful today, but even a band as large as Insane Clown Posse had to fight and endure trial and error over the years to bring Gathering of the Juggalos to its current level of success.

Music vs. Events

Of course, the artists playing the festival will be the most important selling point to potential festival-goers. This years Gathering of the Juggalos festival was loaded with talented horror rap acts, and enough Juggalos to satisfy your social desires until Insane Clown Posses next Gathering of the Juggalos festival rolls around. But what makes the Gathering more original than any other music festival around the country isnt the music; its the on-site activities.

Its essential that there are more activities on hand than those related to music. Insane Clown Posse knows their fans might get tired of non-stop music for four straight days, so they came up with the idea to provide them with fresh activities seen at no other music festival. While these events may only be attractive to the Insane Clown Posse fan demographic, they provide some great insight on the ingenuity needed to make fans happy at music festivals.

Helicopter Rides at Gathering of the Juggalos

To start, there are helicopter rides at the Gathering of the Juggalos. Why? Why not is a better question. For a little bit of money, customers already at Insane Clown Posses festival can take a ride in the helicopter and tour the festival grounds from birds eye view.

Artist Seminars

There are meet and greets or autograph signings at a lot of major music festivals, but very few offer attendees the opportunity to sit in on a seminar conducted by your favorite artists. The guys in Insane Clown Posse always make sure they release as much news about their careers as possible at their artist seminars.

Juggalo Championship Wrestling

Insane Clown Posse, their Juggalo followers, and everyone else somehow connected to the Psychopathic Records family have been immersed in the wrestling scene since it all began. Gathering of the Juggalos just wouldnt be Gathering of the Juggalos without Juggalo Championship Wrestling on hand!

Those events are all given, but some others that take place at the yearly festival are mud / oil wrestling and the Ms. Juggalette contest! It might not be your typical beauty pageant, but some lucky lady will still be headed home with the title of Ms. Juggalette at the end of the weekend!

Over the years, Insane Clown Posse has mastered the art of creating a festival thats pleasing to die hard music fans and the more casual customers who also enjoy alternate activities not related to music at all. This balance must be achieved if you ever wish to host your own music festival some day!

Licensing Music An Intelligent Step Towards Your Musical Career Goal

The music industry is flourishing in recent times and hence most of the individuals choose this field to gain fame and earn money. If you observe the current musical products that are being launched in the market, you will come across the fact that most of these musical pieces have either been copied from some other source or the older songs have been remixed to make a new version. Music licensing company acts as a medium through which the producers get a chance to choose an original product from wide array of symphonies. The artists who publish their products in the music libraries organized by these companies go for licensing music to assure the film makers that these pieces belong to them and nobody else.

When this remixing technique first came into existence, the listeners liked them a lot. But changing the old slow songs into hip hop type of music by remixing them, gradually became the trend of the music industry. The audiences who liked these products earlier started taking it in a negative way and the experts began to give negative comments. This, in turn, made it essential for the producers of multiple entertainment products to search for some original opus in the libraries offered by the music licensing company. These are the creations of commoners who struggle to become a renowned star in the music industry. These unknown artists, however, go for licensing music process before they publish their original musical pieces on the libraries.

The talented music artists always try to compose something unique. If you are among these composers, then always opt for licensing music process. Having a license and possessing a copyright ensures that the musical piece belongs to you. Nobody else will have the right to claim it as his own. Even if someone does, you can litigate him in a lawsuit. But, even if your music gets copied and presented as someone else’s creation, you would never be able to litigate the person in the court if you do not have a license for that creation. Thus, as soon as you create a composition, you must, first of all obtain a copyright on it. Music licensing company is the best source to help you in doing so.

The present group of audiences is smart enough to notice the defects of the entertainment industry. This is the reason that drives the producers of entertainment products towards the music licensing company. Once the unknown artists obtain a license for their lyrics or compositions, they publish it in the music libraries online. These are the sites that are visited very often by the film makers or TV commercial makers. Whenever any unique collection is required, the producers select the composition based on what their product sequence demands. Licensing music helps the artists obtain a license for their product and the producers use it on their behalf in case they place the composition of the same musician in their product.

Licensing music not only gives an opportunity to the producers to use the creation of someone else in their entertainment product, but also helps the budding artists in paving their path towards a successful musical career. Music licensing company, however, does not only help the film producers, but also the makers of TV commercials, websites, video games, etc. where music plays an important role.

Running An Underground Death Metal Music Record Label

My first injection of Extreme Metal Music was back in 1985, i was 13 and a Metallica – “Ride The Lighning” cassette crossed my paths (Yes back then that was considered Extreme). I remember being at home alone with my crappy old “Ghetto Blaster” (that ‘ate tapes’) and fascinated at the cool “Electric Chair” cover art, it was at that moment within the first 30 seconds of “Fight Fire with fire” that my life would no doubt be set down a new path and Extreme Death Metal Music would be my fate. I remember being blown-away and scared shitless at the same time. The shear aggression and speed of the music was unlike anything i had ever heard (remember this was 1984 and i was 13 and Def Leppard was about the heaviest i had ever heard) and it was that very song that forever changed my life (thanx James) and led me to investigate this style of music even more. Bands like Slayer, Venom, Possessed and Death became the metal music that “Got me thru the day”

Well, the year is now 2008 and even though Metallica’s “Ride The Lighning” is still one of my top 20 favorite albums of all time, Extreme Metal Music is like drugs, one is too many and a thousand is not enough. The need for faster, heavier, more brutal and intense music dosages becomes the addiction. In today’s world of Extreme Metal Music – Metallica would probably be considered choir boys.

I guess it’s time to talk about what this article is actually about… running an underground Death Metal Record Label. First off, running an underground death metal label like this usually means running it from your parents basement, or if your a grown man who just can’t seem to grow up, your running it from your own basement and are constantly having to remind your wife, “would you rather me be here at home with you wasting all our money, or at the strip clubs wasting all our money). Truth be told probably 90% of Death Metal Record Labels that exist do it for the pure love of the music and do it on top of working 40 – 50 hours a week doing something that actually makes money, and to those who continue to do it while investing their own money and risking their marriages and relationships i raise my Corona and “Cheers You!”… But that’s just what Extreme Metal does to people, there is a devotion to it, there is just this undeniable force that encapsulates you… it’s likebeing in a gang… a really large gang!

I work for a small record label CDN Records, a basement run 2 person operation managing over 2000 Extreme titles in the genres of Death Metal, Brutal Death Metal, Melodic Death metal, Grindcore, Goregrind, Black Metal, Thrash Metal and more. The other person involved again and actually the one who started the label, a grown man like myself in his late 30’s obsessed with metal music in it’s most extreme form and probably the biggest “Death” (the band) fan you will ever meet. He started the label over 15 years ago, originally called “Civilian Death Network”, but after 9-11 it was apparent that we needed to change the name, hence (CDN Records). The label started out mostly as a “Tape Trading” network trading various Death metal bands demos with other Death Metal music fans around the world, and back then without the internet and low-cost’s of producing cd’s the cost involved could bankrupt most people. Most of us doing this tape trading stuff usually spent every last extra penny we had, we begged borrowed and stole just so we could pay for postage.But with the advent of the internet and the ability to manufacture “CD’s” cheap the label was able to evolve into a full-blown record label, signing and releasingbands.

Currently we have over 15 of our own titles, and what we do is trade our titles with other Extreme Labels around the world which increases our distro catalogue. It’s a great system, and its probably the only form a music in the world (that i know of) that operates like this… again reminding me of the bond and devotion to Extreme Music us “Metalheads” have. It’s like there is no competition between all Underground metal labels, we work together to create an even larger network. Its and even better deal for alot of the bands in the Death Metal, Extreme Music genre. We have taken bands who would never have been able to get their music on a cd let alone shipped out and into the hands of metalheads around the world… and that’s a great feeling and what fuels us to keep going.

Although, we first do this for the love of Death Metal music, we definitely work very hard at trying to get “Death Metal Music” to pay the bills. How much better could it get? promoting the music you love and making a living do it…

Tips for staring your own Death Metal Record label:
1. Find a band that you really like and has already recorded their own full-length cd (This saves you money)
2. Sign the band to a simple distribution deal, you press 1000 copies and give the band a few hundred copies (most death metal bands will jump at the chance for this)
3. Get yourself a simple web site and the ability to sell your product online.
4. Spend countless hours surfing the internet looking for other small Extreme Death Metal labels… create a long list
5. Contact all the labels you found online and ask if they do “Trades”, usually trades are based on a point system you’ll figure that out quick.
6. Most labels will trade 3-5 copies to start, trade with 100 labels you now have 300-500 titles to add to your web sites online catalogue
7. Don not take more than 10 copies of any one title… 3-5 at most
8. Promote online, Promote Online, Promote online… forums, blogs, myspace etc etc.
9. Repeat steps 1 thru 7 once you have no more of the original 1000 cd’s you pressed, of the cd traded well press the same release, if you struggled
to get other labels to take it on trade, search for a new band and try again.
10. You will be very lucky to sell more than a few thousand copies of any 1 Extreme Death metal cd, Grindcore cd or Black Metal CD (unless you happy to get lucky enough to sign the next Cannibal Corpse or Cradle of Filth) release so don’t get frustrated, the key is to
build your online catalogue with 1000’s of titles to chose from and enjoy the fact that you are now promoting and selling 100’s of Extreme Metal bands.

For all you Death Metal, Brutal Death metal, Melodic Death metal, Grindcore, Goregrind, Black Metal and Thrash Metal needs, stop on by www.cdnrecords.com

Reuge Music Boxes – Factor You Must To Judge Before You Purchase

Antique music boxes are wonderful collectable stuff, although buying them requires plenty of information and preparation. At times you can get genuine materials that would make every collector proud, also sometimes antique music boxes are sold for greatly other than they really worth. Get the information what to look for as trying to find an antique music box.

Very first thing you should to worry about is if the music box in a operational condition or does it require repairs. Of course it is much easier to buy a functioning music box, but you will pay more for it. If the box is absolutely not working, don’t get discouraged. Music box is a delicate mechanism that can be easily scratched, but most damages typically should be repaired as well. You can in fact locate very good deals buying dented antique music boxes and repairing them.

Sorts of antique music boxes

There are two variations of aged music boxes – disc music boxes and cylinder music boxes. Cylinder boxes appeared on the market in the mid of 19th century, a bit behind music watches. Majority of them were created in Switzerland, therefore many people describe them Swiss boxes. They have been very rare and exclusive objects. Some cylinder music boxes were made in Czechoslovakia and France.

After that disc music boxes came to the market. They are inexpensive to manufacture, that considerably affected the charge and made them very admired things. Foremost company to circulate disc music boxes was Symphonion. Other popular models of antique music boxes are Polyphon and Regina.

Quite attractive items are antique music jewelry boxes. As these might be used to save your jewelry, it could be a great pleasure to wide open your music box frequently and to listen a beautiful tune.

How much would it expense to fix an antique music box?

In fact, fairly a lot. The challenge is that those who know how to do a excellent task repairing ancient music boxes are not easy to find. There can be not many experts. Another tricky might be parts, the majority of them have to be handmade. Setting up an antique music box would require getting numerous items often as well as comb work, cylinder repining, dampers, governors and mainsprings. So be ready to pay much more for the fix of your antique box. However on the positive part, once the music box is repaired, its charge will dramatically raise.

How To Produce Music Like Dr Dre

Dr. Dre started his career with the World Class Wrecking Crew in the late 80s. Soon this Compton breed producer became the poster boy for gangster rap music. Dre would receive heavy criticism for the misogyny and violence surrounding his music, but there was one thing his critics could not deny, his music production. The success of NWA, Ice Cube, Eminem, The Chronic and 50 Cent all became proof positive of Dr Dres sonic touch. This is why he is considered one of the most influential music producers.

Many new producers are trying to emulate his sound. Here a couple of key points to produce music like Dr . Dre.

Dr . Dres production never veers away from the traditional four on the floor time signature. This Time signature is used in most dance records. Take For instance 5o cents get rich or die trying album, each song starts with a thick bass drum and the same time signature.

Whats also unique about Dr Dres production is the timing of the snare. Unlike most producers, his snares are played slightly offset. This is critical in creating the California laid-back Hip hop that has made him one of the most sought after producers.

When producing Music like Dr.Dre start with the right instruments. The legendary producer uses standard instruments found in old funk records. Rhythm and Strat guitars are woven to create the bounce of the track. Horns are also a favorite of the producers. Staccato horns, in particular, are used to create suspense and build the music. Another favored instrument is the Chorus Piano. Dr. Dre uses this in his production to complement the bassline.

Creating Music like Dr. Dre take time and skill to master. Be patience and persistent and soon you will also produce a stable of work to influence the next generation