[Air Piano]

Yes, but how does sign language sound on this? Could be a whole new genre -- lyrics performed in sign language and resulting melodies.

[A Couple Of Good Videos On Songwriting]

Nice find; thanks for sharing.

[The Four Elements Of The Music Business]

35 years of experience boiled down to several bullet points is very nice simplification. Looking forward to more discussion on this topic.

I understand point 2 on presentation, although for community discussion artists often post works in progress and solicit comment. I would hate to suggest to people not to post anything that is not already polished and complete

[Who Are These Music Reports Guys And Why Are They...]

Have a look at this article on Musician Wages; be sure to read through the comments, because they actually answered more of my questions about Compulsory Licensing

Also this info on the Music Reports site

I have received a "Notice of Intention To Obtain A Compulsory License". What is this about?

A Notice of Intention to Obtain a Compulsory License for Making and Distributing Phonorecords ("NOI") is a legal notice which invokes the compulsory license to make and distribute mechanical reproductions of musical works pursuant to the Copyright Act's Section 115 (17 U.S.C. 115). Music Reports has been retained by a number of clients to invoke the compulsory license for their services by sending these NOIs and then to account to music publishers for those services. The NOI notifies you that the client designated as "Licensee" on the form intends to use your musical works in their service.

[What Have You Learnt From X Factor / American Idol Etc?]

The entertainment value of these type of performance contest shows IS that hope though, right? That "if someone will just listen, just notice then they'll see that I'm really special!" That's why people watch, to see if there IS a Cinderella story here, or if there is a train wreck to be seen.

Few make it to popular success, but the fact that anyone does means it is possible, and the ones with the 'do or die' attitude at least are sticking with their dream. We want to believe; that is what drives the audiences for these shows.

[Musings On The Computer As A Composition Tool]

I enjoyed this post. I am trying to be careful to keep everything -- in sets -- notation variants, Aria instrument & mix settings, and in some cases accompaniment ideas all saved to the new variant name. I 'lost' the original notation to some songs to a harddrive crash and only have the mp3 available, so that drives my thinking on how much to save.

I agree I have sometimes been surprised coming back to a tune after a bit how much I enjoyed it. When writing & editing I see that it is easy to 'zone in' and hear specific parts of the composition.