Can I Let You In On A Little Secret Internet? I Dont Really Like Recording.dont Get Me Wrong I Love Records

can i let you in on a little secret internet? i dont really like recording. dont get me wrong i love records and i love making music but there is something so definite about recording that i find slightly overwhelming. its hard when you have been living with an unfinished idea for months, sometimes even years. its been going round your head in so many different permutations and then you are given an opportunity to crystallize it forever, knowing that it will always exist for people even after you die. you will never be able to change it again, that thought itself can be quite intimidating. knowing what to add to a song to make it better and not worse is a very delicate thing. so when we started making this record i promised myself that i wouldnt listen to the songs during playback. i wanted this whole process to remain fresh for me as it could be. it was only when i was alone in the studio this weekend trying out vocal ideas that i was able to take stock of where we are at right now in the process. im so glad that i did not immerse myself in the music like i have done previously. this way i was able to hear things that i have never heard before, things that inspired me in different ways. i realise now that it is the best feeling to be able to be able to experience your own music in the way that strangers will experience it. although recording is definetly the most challenging part of the process, at times it can also be the most magical. kele

There will come a point where you think you’re ready for a record deal, a manager or a publishing deal (or that other much touted ‘new model’ deal with some music related company). You’ll want to get yourself heard by the right people so what better way to do it than to send out a demo right?

Record labels, managers et al get hundreds of thousands of demos, and if this is the route you want to take then there are some things that you will need to take into account if you want to make your demo stand out from the rest and be given more than a second glance.

It’s going to take a lot of hard work and luck but if you make sure that you take notice of the following points, then you’ll be on the right track.

In this article, note that wherever I talk about a demo, I mean either a physical CD mailed to someone or a link to a MySpace page or band website where all the relevant information can be found and songs listened to. I’ll make distinctions where necessary.

Record Store Day produced explosive sales gains at indie stores, that helped the U.S. industry slightly outpace the prior week's album sales.  For the week ending April 22, indie stores posted a whopping 26.6% gain in album sales to 528,000 units from 417,000 for the prior week ending April 15, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That gain of 111,000 units was responsible for almost all of the U.S. industry's overall gain of 113,000 units over the prior week with album sales growing to 5.72 million from 5.61 million units.

Continue Reading

“It stepped hip-hop up a notch,” Nas says of the Coachella stunt.

Read more.