Durham Enviro Stars

Music nowadays seems to be one of the most popular hobbies that the youngsters are indulging in. For some, it may be just a pure form of entertainment or a way of living, whereas for the others, it can be a serious escape from their stressful lives. They use music as a medium of conveying their suppressed emotions. Not too surprisingly, it makes them really into music.

Because of the different influences that the youth are exposed into, they are easily acquiring the curiosity of engaging into learning music. It may not exactly be reading musical notes and the other formal stuff regarding such, but at least, something highly relevant to it like playing musical instruments or simply singing.

Before, people, specially the youth, viewed Music, a subject in their primary and secondary schooling, as a conservative and boring one. With lots of different bits and pieces that should be memorized and understood without knowing their use and purpose, music then had been a vague and dull form of school activity to do.

Perhaps, the reason is that they relate music with “church” where they usually hear the hymns and praises when they were kids. They thought music should be solemnly expressed all the time.

As these young people aged up, they began to realize how interesting music could be far from what they used to perceive. From all the different genres and styles, they found a match. I am truly glad to say that finally, they are now fascinated with music learning as well as music teaching.

Many are aware that music centers began to spring suddenly nowadays. People look for formal lessons and their aim is, of course, to learn music. They also want to develop the talents they believe they are blessed with.

Music teaching is definitely an issue when talking about learning music. Aside from being considered as something pretty difficult and tedious, many believe that it requires lots of effort, patience, and passion in doing so.

The internet changed the face of the music world, storming in like a hurricane and leaving devastation in its wake. Some argue that the music industry should have seen it coming and adapted sooner, while others say it was a slight touch of arrogance, believing that their business model could not be affected.

Below is a look at how two of the main players in the industry have been affected, positively or negatively, with the introduction of the World Wide Web, and how the internet changed their once so lucrative business model.

(1) Record Company

The internet changed and immensely altered the way in which music is marketed, sold, distributed, and shared. It is a completely different environment to the one that existed 20 years ago.

Technological advancements have meant the death knell for the beloved “CD” with sales of this format diminishing steadily. This means that music downloads (the majority of which are illegal) are here to stay.

Music piracy is the unrelenting challenge facing the music industry today, a problem which they have to face head-on in order to survive.

Technologies such as CD-R’s and peer-to-peer file sharing have made life simply impossible for the record labels. The internet changed the speed at which music files can be moved and transferred between people, making it a hopeless case with regards to policing for the music industry at large.

(2) Music Store

The music retailing landscape has utterly been transformed with the advent of the internet. The local independent music stores have been virtually wiped out, leaving behind the big retail chains and supermarkets, to fight it out amongst themselves for the physical market.

The internet changed the business of the traditional music retailer, and was instrumental in the widespread popularity of a new player into the market, namely iTunes.

Today this new entrant has a compete monopoly on the digital music market, accounting for 70% of worldwide online digital music sales, and thus making it the largest legal music retailer overall.

Andrew Romelle Young, know primarily by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American rapper, record producer, record executive and actor. He is the current CEO and founder of Aftermath Entertainment and former co-owner of Death Row Records, having produced albums for and also overseeing the careers of many rappers signed to these labels, including Snoop Dog, 50 Cent, and Eminem. Dr. Dre mixtapes directly influenced his rise to fame, and assisted in popularizing West Cost G-funk, which would have never been possible before.

In hip hop’s early days, the music only existed in live form. Consequently, the music was forced to be spread via live tapes of these shows and parties. Collected and traded by fans, and popularized with mixtape downloads and mixtape torrents online, these tapes became the exclusive way to get the latest tracks and freestyles of an artist by the mid-1990′s.

Rap mixtapes have played a key role in supplementing the promotions and marketing endeavors of record companies, and are employed by major acts with the full support of their labels. Hip hop mixtapes are most often given out live shows, sold on the street, or though independent dealers and mail order. It is no surprise that Dr. Dre mixtapes are numerous on the market today, and include exclusives, rarities, freestyles, and remixes all on one CD.

A few of the most popular Dr. Dre mixtapes are The Pretox, Mick Boogie, Aftermath Exclusive and DJ Exclusive, The Chronicles of Dr. Dre and The West is Back. Though these rap tapes often have much lower production value than a studio album, they are still just as popular. These compilations proved that creativity can be achieved outside of the studio.

There are steps you should take to make you stand above all the other musicians who are auditioning. If you are really serious about becoming a member of the band, don’t even think about going to an audition without doing your homework first. After all, you don’t think you’re the only one they’re asking to come in and jam, do you?

This is going to sound so obvious but you’d be surprised how many musicians do not do this – Google the band and each of its band members. Even if you ask them for (or they give you) their MySpace URL, don’t limit your research to that.

Learn all you can about the band. Do they have a Facebook Page? Check it out. How about a Twitter account? Check it out. Is their music played on Jango or Pandora? Go see what the fans write about them on the “comment” page. Google the band name. Do they come up? By doing this exercise you’ll know if the band puts any effort into marketing itself. If it doesn’t, you’ll want to make a note to ask in the audition how they promote themselves and how they build their fan base.

When you Google the individuals in the band, you may learn something about their history. For example, is the drummer in multiple bands? If so, what is his commitment to this band? There isn’t a right or wrong answer to the question, it just depends on how it meshes with your goals. If your ultimate goal is to tour 300 days a year, a drummer who is in two or three other bands won’t be able to do that.

If the band member’s name appears to be a fairly common name then add “+ musician” to your search to help narrow it down to results about the individual you’re looking for.

So your garage band is ready for more than YouTube and it’s time to do professional recording and photo sessions to get a solid image for touring that booking agents can use in promotion. That’ means it’s time to work on your band style as well as your music

So how do you up your image and style ante without using a lot of money?

The local Savers thrift store is a treasure trove of good, vintage, stylish clothes that can stretch the visual appeal of the band while also stretching the budget.

Your local vintage shops and thrift stores can have fun, funky, stylish clothes that are inexpensive with plenty of wear still in them. This can be a great place to start for clothes and make a little wardrobe budget go far. Consider incorporating a thrift store run in each of the cities that you play in for greater diversity.

The next style option is to partner with a fashion design student. The fashion design student gets their designs in front of the public or in photos and you get something original to wear to help define the personal style of the band. To find these fashion students visit the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise website or your local community college and university. The fashion department is usually cataloged under the art department. Popular indie music fashion designer Angela Johnson came out of the FIDM school and also teaches at a local community college in Arizona. The style talent is around you, you just need to tap into it.

Social media sites are perfect for finding new style talent also. There are several meetup.com fashion groups, and of course Facebook is full of fashionistas also, just post a request and see what type of style trade you can make.

Your hairstyles can be a signature part of the band and music you become known for. You never know when big rocker hair is going to come back in style, so best get prepared now. Whether you need a cut,color,perm or weave, these services are best left to the professionals.