john

Hey Basstell Nice to meet you. Welcome to Songstuff! What sort of vocal training are you doing? cheers John

Hey Gang I’m a big Bowie fan and I’m really looking forward to seeing this new documentary… What about you? Anyone else planning to go see it? Anyone seen it? Cheers John

Another popular format, that allows you to easily create a ton of content, is a mix between reaction videos and analysis videos. Just like instruction videos there is educational content, with engagement driven by follower suggestions, and you get to discover a load of new artists and new music alongside the older more familiar music. The fact that you have “first listens” on camera is the reaction element. It is a very popular up and coming format that largely qualifies as fair use if you stop start rewind etc to avoid continual playing for more than a song section. Like VoiceX says, just my two cents… but this is partly what I mean about adapting to the modern marketplace, although this is out with the role as an artist or writer. Drop a link to your channel and I’ll check it out and see if we can help you somehow.

Sorry. I know that discussing this is not why you made this post. It’s a subject I am passionate about. I don’t think it’s about fixing anything, or putting it back the way it was. You are right in that. It’s not about anyone challenging the establishment. For most it is about adapting to the changes that have already happened. Anyhoo, I’ll leave it there. It’s not my topic, I don’t want to do your head in any more than I might have already!

Hey Daltrey! Welcome to Songstuff. Good to have you with us.

The Songstuff Channel on YouTube Help us to help independent artists, songwriters and musicians! Please subscribe to our channel, and please share our post and/or trailer in case you know any musicians that would be interested in our community or benefit from our site, and of course like and comment on the trailer!

Hey A - Where are you with your music and your music career just now? B - What are your goals for your music, where would you like to get to with your music? How do you plan to move from A to B? Cheers John

Sure, no problem. As long as we undercut each other in the pursuit of success, and collectively we seem unable to do anything else, the old music industry will cherry pick only a handful each year to make money. Ok, if you want to be in a wedding band you can make money, but the idea of residual income is all but meaningless to the majority of artists and songwriters. A venue or booker offers you crap money/bad terms/low percentage to play an event. They know that even if you turn it down some other artist else will be desperate enough that they will take the low pay and play the gig to get the exposure. Someone will always take that hand. So the next time the venue or booker offers you less, and maybe now you are desperate enough to take it. Eventually they are offering no money, or even asking for money from artists to play. It happens. The same works on any deal artists or writers are offered. They all know that artists and writers are so desperate to increase their reach, to meet new listeners, that they consistently undercut each other. This drives the market rate down until artists are giving it away. Even if they don’t necessarily ask for money, it costs the artists to pull a show together (rehearsal space, gear, recording time etc). Effectively the businesses around the music industry, from platforms like Apple Music, Google Play, Spotify, to the advertisers on their platforms, the venues, the merch companies, the distributors etc all know that they will make money off the back of the artist’s or songwriter’s work, and that while they might or might not get their profits squeezed, they will squeeze the artist or songwriter down until the artist or writer is the only entity not making money off of their music. Those that once protected the artists and writers as assets gave in, settled for less and less profit, and used those lower profits to justify worse and worse contract terms. It isn’t just the pros or signed artists. Even in indie land there were plenty semi-pro and amateur artists (even some pros) giving way their music for free in the hope of growing their fanbase (usually because they don’t know how to grow their fanbase or have confidence that they can.) Now it is the standard for indie music. Of course, the vast majority of those willing to work for nothing earn their living via a day job. They have the luxury of being able to give away their work for nothing and still be able to feed their family. They often don’t realise the damage they inflict on professional music, don’t care or they believe that they are powerless to effect change and so go with the flow. They may say they do it for lofty ideals of “art for free” but I notice those that do often have good, high paying jobs! The public has learned to expect free or very, very cheap music. They value music less than their parents or grandparents did. The net effect is poorer music, cheaper recordings and a smaller professional industry with less and less professionals able to earn a crust. So much in the way of skills and talent has walked away to find other careers. Less session musicians. Less studios. Less producers. Less labels with less signed labels, less publishers, smaller rosters. Smaller productions. It’s been somewhat of a perfect storm. There are ways still to make a living, but you have to be actively creative, learning the business of music, internet leveraging multiple streams, monetising what businesses cannot take away from artists or otherwise steal. For a while that was live performances, but that is changing too. The truth is there is a way forward but artists and songwriters need to evolve, at every level in the industry, because other industries are busy pocketing the money that artists and songwriters and a load of other music professionals used to. We can sit around and complain that the old ways don’t work, look for someone else to solve the problems for us, or use our creativity for more than just making music. Once upon a time artists needed labels and songwriters needed publishers… and while there is still room for a small percentage that will work that way, the new industry demands that we are better educated and more resourceful. More self employed than we ever were. I will add this. It doesn’t matter if you want to charge for your music or not. If you would like to have an audience for your music, you still have to know who makes up your audience, how to reach them, how to get them to hear your music a few times with an open enough mind to give your music a chance. You have to know how and when to engage them to encourage them to listen to more of your music and keep coming back for more. Ideally you need to reliably reach them without breaking the bank. Luckily all these skills can be learned. All this is needed to grow an audience online, or in the real world, giving your music away for free, or somehow earning from it directly or indirectly. I do know if you can earn from it you can have a higher budget for your music overall. It’s also better to evolve and still be enthusiastic that to be resigned or bitter. Resigned and bitter doesn’t put food on tables or put a roof over our heads either. One of these days I won’t get on a soapbox lol 😝

It wasn’t so much his inaction at 78, so much as the music industry has been changing in pretty large steps since the mid 90s, if not before. While we might not have seen the damage from digital piracy going quite so badly, or then stood by and watched Google take an active roll in the piracy debate when settling with PROs, industry bodies, labels and publishers as Google owned YouTube which had a massive bill pending… such that the deal that let so many internet businesses off the hook simultaneously started the kill off of the music industry, followed by the rise of talent shows, the 2008 global crash and ongoing evolution of the internet, underpinned by national governments repeatedly throwing entertainments industries under the bus in favour of the internet industry… it’s been one event after another up to and including law changes, Covid, and now a looming global financial crash. He was a much younger man when this all started. About 51 by my reckoning. I just mean there have been many, many signs. That doesn’t mean I would be happy leaving the guy going homeless. However, I know for a fact he is not the only guy rendered homeless by changes in the music industry. That has been happening for a long time. One ex-writer for Songstuff, long term community member, a friend, now passed, ran a label & publishers with 18 jazz artists on the roster. He was also a respected lyricist. The changes wrought in the industry by 2008 had already seen him first working 3 jobs to keep the label afloat. He lost the label, lost his house, saw him living in his car. Of course he was too proud to tell anyone until he had been in that situation for some time. The stress affected both him and his wife. They both had numerous resulting health problems. They had no insurance by then. It wasn’t a nice way to go. The reason I say all that is really, sympathy and charity might well be a safety net of sorts, but complacency would see us all destitute. None of us can afford it. When it comes to income, having multiple strings to our bows is a good idea. We have to learn to pay attention to, and to read the signs. One if the key lessons for musicians, especially professionals, is that they need multiple income streams. They need to look at other ways of monetising their music and earning from their fanbase. I think you are right @Danger Man, the days of reliably earning from songwriting alone are gone. The chances of 360 deals are low. The chances of long term earnings of any scale, a passive income from songs, is pretty low. Sync rights are the only income stream remotely earning previous fees, and many production companies now use cheap library music and one time fees. They even remove bespoke music from established movies and tv series in favour of re-releasing using such library tracks. Just like every other income stream from music, musicians repeatedly undercut each other for their “chance to progress” and kill the income stream. A race to the bottom. Time after time. Merch is going that way too. If you are already a name you might make money from live, but it is getting harder to get to that point. Many venues try to push play for free or pay to play on the little guy. Now, post Covid, many venues are shutting. Different strategies work for different areas and levels of the music industry. The old ways just do not work. Ok, aspects of them do. Lessons can be learned. Yet, as long as musicians remain eager to put themselves first at all costs, other industries will keep taking all the ground we keep being prepared to cede. As long as we keep acting entirely as individuals the value of music and musicians will continue to plummet. Sad but true.

Cause wise it sounds like a bit of a mix of reasons. Lack of action on his part, a change in buying habits, several industry changes etc. I know so many post 2008 that suffered significant income loss on top of losses due to piracy wars and eventual settlement between PROs and major internet companies, plus law changes and lack of law changes that consistently favoured internet businesses. It left so many songwriters in the dust with many contracts worth cents on the dollar.

Hey Shawna! Welcome to Songstuff As Greg said… are you looking for songs to sing? Do you write your own? A bit of both? What experience do you have as a singer? :)

Hey Martin, Welcome to Songstuff! What’s your background Martin? You said you are an enthusiast… I wasn’t sure if you meant you work professionally as an audio/mix engineer and you are generally a music enthusiast or if you are a hobbyist across the board? :) Cheers John

Hi Katrina Welcome to Songstuff I’m looking forward to hearing you sing. 🎤

Hey 5 years old as a video, and only just discovering this trio….

Very true

As Jarkko was using Jimi licks and arrangement I was guessing imitation was a keen motivator. I do however agree, it’s tough to match. You are effectively competing in a sound like Jimi contest with Jimi… we are all gonna lose that one. Often better to focus on a more original cover to reduce comparisons, if you are doing it as an official release. Doing a cover based on imitation is almost always going to result in a “nice try, but…” type comparison. If you try to do an original interpretation you are more likely to get listeners looking passed Jimi to hear you as you, not you the lesser Jimi (as we all would be)

Yep, I am pretty sure it’s on John Wesley Harding, which came out in the mid/late 60s, maybe 67 or 68. iirc Hendrix released it on Electric Ladyland within 5 or 6 months of Dylan’s first release. The Hendrix version was so popular it well outstripped the Dylan version, and the true compliment was that Dylan incorporated many aspects of Jimi’s cover back into the original for live performances of the song. I’m a big Hendrix fan and I am a fan of 60’s Dylan (his vocals deteriorated to a point of pain outstripping pleasure). My uncle runs a Dylan fanzine and I was a big fan of the 60s folk revival in USA and UK so I was always pretty aware of Dylan. @Jarkko you did pretty good with the guitar parts. Nice to see you working on the detail. It sounded a few bpm slower, though I guess it depends on the version. It might be just lacking that energy that Jimi infused his tracks with. Part of that energy came from his sound. It always felt like he was wrestling with his guitar, like it was a barely contained wild cat. The tameness of your sound robs it of that vital energy. I used to gig a Marshall 1959HW handwired plexi head with master volume conversion and full stack 4x12 angled and straight cabinets. The sound of those EL34 valves is pretty distinctive. It was a beast but such a joy to play. Of course a lot of the sound was in his modded strat itself and his effects chain. These days you can buy a cheap modelled amp and fx set up. They do lack that special face melting element, but for the price and for a Hendrix enthusiast they are pretty damn good. Vocal wise a little bit of work could really help you move it up a few notches . The emphasis on parts of some words, especially in the latter half of lines would make a big difference. You generally sing in tune, it’s just attention to detail that will raise your performance up a few clicks. All that said, you should be proud of your performance. I’m just picking areas that could be improved to try and help you develop. Good stuff

Sad news. The end of an era.

Hey TTBM welcome to Songstuff! Some brilliant influences there, so I am really looking forward to hearing your music. Dive in and have some fun

Oh good, that must be new!

It can be switched to display in the latest version, but I don’t think there is a global switch, just the per channel option

Hey Greg I think swearing can work really well in songs if used sparingly and with good reason. When used cheaply with little reason it comes over as gratuitous. I remember a song sung by a band supporting my band where the first and last word in every line in the chorus was “f*ck’, or a variant of it. The reason I remember it was the singer was getting off on it and it was utterly pointless. It dominated everything else about the song, and it made the singer sound like a bit of a d*ck. I don’t remember the melody, the subject, anything of the song except that the singer swore a lot. My point being it got them noticed for the wrong reasons and the only thing that was truly memorable was that the singer was obsessed with swearing! Used sparingly swear words can convey a wealth of meaning and a depth of meaning. To achieve the same effect without using swear words would take considerably more words. Cheers John

I use Presonus Sphere. At $15 per month for Studio One Professional, plus all Presonus’ other software and sound libraries, and a basic collaboration space it is really a no-brainer.

There are doubts for different reasons. Quite a few, I found, such as “How does this compare to…” and “Is it good enough…” are all about being in competition with other artists and producers. It’s true that we might all be in competition on some level, but for me that is not really my personal battle. If anything, firstly I compete against myself. Only then do I compare myself to others, and it really isn’t a competitive feeling I get. I am the only one doing “me”.

Hey Time to upgrade? I have Komplete Ultimate 13. I like to keep up to date and Komplete has had some interesting new synths etc added over the last year. Pricing will be better during Black Friday period. It always is. They always run a bunch of offers that are hard to resist. It is expensive keeping up, but very worthwhile. Still, there’s no sense paying out money I don’t have to. To be honest there are a bunch of other VSTs that come up for renewal over the next few months. Are you planning to get Komplete 14? Is there any of the synths you are really looking forward to getting? Cheers John