Make your own song

For the longest time, the whole music recording industry was dominated by four major labels, eating up to 70 percent of the whole music sales. As of 2005, independent labels only share 28.4 percent of total market sales share. However, with the advent of Internet piracy and file-swapping, sales of these labels, even the four giants, continue to decline for eight years now. This has posed a big challenge to the musicians and record labels as they used to rely on CD sales to make money from music.

Because of this very unfortunate reality, musicians opt for the now common and widespread 360 contracts. In a 360 contract, record labels gain sales percentages not just on record sales, but also on all activities of the artists, which would include endorsements, concerts, and soundtrack deals. Apparently, 360 deals are very beneficial to budding artists as record labels act more of a manager who takes care of the career of the said artists. The record label commits to promote the artists for a long haul and supports them to find new opportunities. It is really difficult to search for open doors and windows when one is just starting out a career in music. With the experience and wide client base of record labels, it would be much easier to establish one’s name in the music scene. So if you are planning to enter the music industry and succeed in the long run, consider partnering up with a major label now.

When an artist is on tour, most of his days are spent on the road, crossing one territory to another. For practicality purposes, he or she is prompted to use a camper van or a motor home to transport him to the next tour stop. A camper van is typically built like a real house with living area, dining room, a bathroom, and bedroom—on wheels. It is also equipped with amenities found inside a normal house. Additional frills would include a satellite dish for television and Internet connections, waste water tanks, and a secondary wall called awning, attached to the exterior of the vehicle. Even customized ones have Jacuzzi and bathtubs inside so the artist would still feel that he is staying inside a high-class hotel.

For a busy artist, it is advantageous to stay inside a camper van since he does not have to move his things in and out of the different hotel rooms that he and the crew have to stay. Also it provides a better protection from the prying eyes of the paparazzi and die-hard fans that tend to follow the celebrities’ whereabouts. Also, using a camper van to travel lessens the tension and pressure on the part of the artist and he gets to know the production crew as he gets to spend more time with them during the whole road trip. The best treat that the artist gets is having to enjoy the scenery around that he do not normally see when travelling via aeroplanes and private jets.

Hiring the wrong person due to a hastened recruitment process can actually jeopardize sales and profits of your music store business. Yes, it is not easy to find the perfect employee but let not this be the reason for you to settle with what the labour market has to offer. All the more, you should not lower your standards just to have anyone watch over your store. So what makes a perfect music store employee? Read on. A good employee must have a good balance of both technical skills and attitude. First, he must have a commendable orientation with the products and services that you music store offers. Since customers tend to ask many questions about the instruments, he must have a good grasp of everything so that he can answer all the queries thrown to him by the inquisitive customers.

Excellent customer service is one of the valued aspect of every business nowadays so your employee should have good customer relationship skills. He must be friendly and able to deal with diverse types of personalities. Even if he becomes drained at the late hours of his shift, he must be able to exhibit the same treatment to every single customer that visits your store. He must be proactive and willing to provide solutions to the issues addressed by the buyers. There is an employee who works only for the money and gives you only mediocre performance. There is also another who takes his jobs seriously and even goes the extra mile just to make a customer very satisfied. It might be hard to find the latter, but at the end of the day, you will realise that he is worth the investment. So take your time; do not make premature hiring decisions.

Leasing a commercial space to put up a music store can be expensive. For those who want to put up their own music store business, they must not neglect the importance of a strategic store location that has established market traffic. Selecting a good music store location can help improve your sales and profits at the end of the day.

In choosing where to put up your store, determine which market you are going to serve. Is your music targeted to the young or to the young at heart? Be it a purely demographic or psychographic segmentation, it is important that you know where your target market abound so that you can serve them in that area. For example, if you are exclusively selling musical instruments that fit very young artists aged 12 and below, your store must be located at a place near a belt of private and international schools or a music school for children. On the other hand, if you are selling records of alternative bands, hip-hop artists, or Classical geniuses, then a mall space would be most appropriate for your music store business. Remember that various spaces are rented out at different rates. The most expensive ones are those located inside the mall or if not, those with human traffic and parking lot. Landlords and property owners also implement regulations and bylaws that should be followed by the tenants. It is therefore imperative that you check out on all rules set by the property owners so that you would not have any problem in the future.

Music therapy is one of the new avenues of improving a human’s well-being. In this type of rehabilitation, music is used to maintain or mend the psychological, mental, spiritual, physical and social health of the person by either listening to music or playing any musical instruments. Typically, those who avail of music therapy sessions have emotional instability, low self-esteem, and slow ailment recovery.

As it is one type of expressive therapies, music therapy lives by the principle that people can heal with the use of creative expression solely supported by their imagination. Moreover, music therapy concentrates on the process of making music that is why during some sessions, a trained music therapist plays piano or any musical instrument rather than letting the patients listen to prerecorded music. Another form of music therapy would encourage patients to play their instruments, to compose a song, or to write lyrics for songs—all aimed to let patients convey their innermost thoughts through composition and melody. Different studies have shown that music therapy can facilitate mental and bodily functions of a person. For instance, if a patient listens to a song with a fast beat, the brain reacts and become in sync with the beat. The effect, thereafter, is a sharper and more responsive mind. While a happy tempo results to a positive state of mind, a slower one promotes calmness and harmony, totally relaxing the patient. This improves heat rate and breathing responses as the patient’s stress is slowly eliminated with music. Indeed, music and its related forms is one of today’s most important tools in lessening depression and other associated mental illnesses.