Richard Tracey

He creates lovely soundtracks - that is how I describe his music. The production is top notch.

Ken - I am glad you have found Jon Hopkins, his music is really good. New album coming out soon as well. Cheers R

I’ve done the ones I know about.

It's not meant to be a dance track, but I am still tweaking the drums on this one, so I will see what I can do.

No, I don’t think anyone should get anything for free, unless the other person is giving it away. The big record companies already fleece the musicians and songwriters without people stealing music. I still support as much as I can - buying CD’s etc and on BandCamp. FB already make more than enough money from normal advertising, but to want to take more from the people that helped make it so huge, is just wrong. This is the kind of act that can lead to a rebellion and they might find one.

No-one ever said it was going to be easy.......

Well you will be glad to know that anyone organisation on earth sees the public as 'consumers', they need to, that is how they make their money. God, the Police even now refer to everyone they deal with as customers and that includes the bad people as well. It is the way of the world now, Society has changed and not for the better. Facebook gave us something for free and they used advertising to make money. They now want people who have an interest in promoting something needing to pay to get views. That is why a lot of small businesses are pleading with people to like and share, as not everyone gets to see their posts. They get so many freebies and then they need to pay to be seen by a lot more. FB is too big now. But, it is all going to come down soon. The public in particular, while they still use it, don't like it very much and if something better, or similar comes along, you could see a lot of people leaving. Welcome to the new land - it is both great and shit at the same time.

I think you might get your wish with Facebook. They are in decline (not too fast though, but it’s happening). The changes they have implemented have annoyed enough people that they are speaking out and Zuckerburg has been getting asked a lot of tough questions recently. For me, they think they are above the law. No-one is above the law. If you get asked to provide information by a law authority you should hand that over if there is a crime involved. They refuse to do this in a lot of cases citing data protection. This is not some private organisation’s emails, this is a social media product where we as consumers post about stuff. It is public domain (yes, I know you can changed to private), but once you post it is technically in the public domain, someone can get to it if they really want. Facebook try and own everything you post. Why, why should they own a picture of one of my daughters I have posted. They pulled everyone in and then changed the rules once they realised 90% of people couldn’t be bothered leaving as they like talking to their friends. I have Facebook, don’t use it a lot and certainly try and limit what I post. I use Twitter more nowadays, it suits my goals when it comes to doing music and getting it out there. I would have to pay Facebook for the privilege - twitter nope.

This is a track I started this morning. A bit different from my normal stuff. It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would post it just now and let you hear how it sounds so far. This is probably about an hour of tinkering with it to get it to this stage. Cheers

A lot better John. Nice work.

Yeah, we have something similar when they start High School, although they have introduced the option to learn an instrument (they choose) at Primary School. I think with the advent of YouTube, it is so much easier for them to learn on their own. Their minds are like sponges. As for the clicking thing, you are right, they need to persevere and not give up because they don’t pick something up with seconds of trying.

Well she is learning piano and does the national youth choir and voice at school. Her music teacher allows her to practice the piano instead of doing what they are as he has identified this is the best use of her time and encourages it, so that is good. I am trying to get her to appreciate all music and take an interest and hopefully she will want to start making her own someday. I have the setup for it, so she might as well get the use of it.

To be honest, I don’t think you are the kind of person they are aiming for. They are going for the younger demographic with these films and songs. My daughter is singing part of the “This Is Me’ song in their High School concert soon. It shows who is picking up on this music. She even wants to see the film. Well her mum can take her as it’s not my idea of a good trip to the cinema.