Marina Star's Debut Music Video: "Shattered Dreams"

Skyelab Music Group is proud to present Marina Style as our featured artist of the month with her debut music video for “Shattered Dreams.” After recording with Arty Skye, Marina and the Skyelab Marketing Department decided that next step would be to show the artist’s talents and beauty through the visual art form of a music video. We assembled a team of professionals consisting of a director, producer, editor, director of photography, choreographer, costume designer and makeup artist to create a sultry yet elegant video on par with the professional standards of Skyelab quality.

“Shattered Dreams” was created for two primary objectives. The first purpose is to gain exposure and build an online presence through major websites including YouTube and Vimeo. With the initial buzz propelling Marina’s momentum, “Shattered Dreams” will hopefully find its way into areas outside of online consumption including dance clubs, bars, organized events and venues. This in turn will direct attention back towards Marina’s other material, and her music career a whole. The second purpose is to be able to validate Marina to the dance music industry as a serious and viable recording artist with all bases covered. Armed with great material and professional quality recordings, a broadcast quality music video that displays her dancing abilities and an enticing image, Marina now has an opportune advantage for record label, management and agency attention. With budgets depleting, the music industry is taking less risks on unknown and undeveloped artists. This music video gives Marina great leverage when dealing with the music industry.

Many artists have taken advantage of video sharing communities in the current digital landscape. As a relatively unknown band, OK Go propelled themselves from obscurity to becoming a viral YouTube phenomenon with their quirky, low-budget video for "A Million Ways." Artists including Imogen Heap, Weezer and countless others have found creative ways to use the power of visual arts to promote their music.

4 Music Production Tips To Use Now!!!

By Arty Skye

A LITTLE KNOWLEDGE...
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing! I've experienced this many times in my life and my mom’s recent explanation of her computer problems echoed the sentiment once again. She figured out that her Microsoft Excite was eating her Java. Hmmm, so I guess that explains why her Yahoo Id# wasn't working as her Ebay password? LOL! Her solution to solving those problems is too scary to relate here.

This same reasoning is apparently practiced when I see a "one size fits all" solution for making music. I've produced thousands of songs through the years, and while I have certain habits and ways of organizing my work, every single song gives birth to it's own path of evolution. While technology marches on and the advanced features in music software offer some great starting points in terms of templates and channel strip settings, they should rarely be used as is.

THERE AND BACK
Last year we produced a few songs for a young rock band and helped them establish a unique sound and identity. We focused on the strong points that set them apart from the crowd and avoided the areas where they were weak. The result was a powerful set of songs which helped them land a record deal with a big independent label, which I'll avoid mentioning here. This record label had their own in house recording studios, so they brought the boys in to record the album. The group wasn't crazy about the music producer they were assigned to, but in an effort not to make waves and go with the flow, they went with it.

After a few weeks, we were told that the record label loved the production that SkyeLab had done on the previous songs and were going to use those existing productions for the album. Naturally we were pleased and offered to help in any way we could. The group had already begun recording the remaining six songs for the album. But apparently, the recording process and the production quality wasn't up to SkyeLab standards and veered too far from the sound we created on the first set of songs.

So the group came back and asked us to finish the music production on the songs they recorded with the independent label. The label and recording studio was very cooperative (as we all should be) and provided us with Logic files for all the songs. But that being said, the tracks were a nightmare!
The timing was off all over the place, the drums sounded like they had a blanket over them and a good deal of the vocals needed to be redone. How did they even let the stuff out of the recording studio like that?

Well I certainly had my work cut out for me here. The first thing I had to do was to figure out the timing issues. I had worked with the singer before so I knew that there was no way that he sang that out of time. As I investigated, I discovered that some of the vocals and guitars were copied and pasted from other parts of the track, but they were pasted a few ticks off beat. Also, on some of the tracks, the engineer had used multiple plug-ins that caused delays because of the processing time or the settings on the plug-ins. The drums were gated heavily, but not properly, so the gates were inadvertently opening and closing at all the wrong times, which was wreaking havoc on the groove!

GET ON THE BUS!
As I began systematically correcting these issues, I also noticed something else that was very disturbing to my sense of creativity and common sense. There were an enormous amount of plug-ins on everything! It seems that the engineer just pulled up stock templates of channel strip settings for whatever the instrument was that he was using. While in some circumstances these may be good starting points, they MUST be customized for your specific sound. Volume, equalization and effects are all relative within the context of the song's specific direction and are different for every song. One size certainly does NOT fit all when it comes to music production and/or engineering. And by the engineer not utilizing a bus/aux structure, the enormous amount of processing power he was using just bogged down the computer and caused it to operate very sluggishly.

Which brings me back to my point. This limited knowledge and inexperience of the label's engineer/producer led him to believe that the programmers at Logic Audio already did all the work for him. All he needed to do for a great vocal sound, was to call up the "Ambient Vocals" channel strip settings on all 10 vocal tracks and he'd have the perfect vocal sound! Wrong!

While this isn't the forum to go into a detailed article about engineering, I will offer these guidelines which I hope will improve the overall sound quality of your recordings.

4 GUIDELINES TO IMPROVING YOUR MUSIC PRODUCTIONS

1. Listen First! One More Time, LISTEN FIRST!
This may sound self evident, but you'd be amazed by how many engineers and musicians don't follow this rule. Don't start adding plug-ins until you know what needs to be done. Putting a compressor on a vocal because you always do it, or it's one of the channel strip plug-ins for "Unbelievable Vocal Sound" is like pulling out a hammer to fix a leaky faucet. Suppose the vocal was over compressed while it was being recorded? Your solution is now to compress more? I can give you 20 more examples, but the point is "LISTEN FIRST!"

2. Busses and Aux Sends Are Your Friend
Carried over from the old days of analog recording, we used Aux sends (often labeled as "busses" now in the music programs) to add reverb, delay and chorusing to various tracks in the mix. Rarely would we ever patch a reverb unit across a channel because we wanted a little reverb on the guitar. And if we operated like that, we'd need about 10 reverb units just for the drums! So learn to assign a lot of your common effects to Aux sends. It will save processing power, make it easier to control the mix and allow the instruments to "live in the same room" (when you want them to).

3. Copy and Paste Correctly For Pete's Sake!
Too common a problem here. If you're cutting and pasting graphically, set your grid to "Bar" mode so that the material doesn't get pasted a few ticks off beat. If you're entering the time in bars, beats and ticks, make sure to stay on point. Do whatever you have to but make sure it's in time!

4. Don't Rely on Stock Settings
I'm sure that a number of you reading this article will rush to your computer and say "wow, I didn't know I had all these stock channel strip settings. Let's start using them!". Sometimes they are wonderful and can give you nice effects, like a ping-pong, phased delay with a distorted telephone voice. But even when that works, always refer back to "Rule#1. Listen First!" Can the high pass filter be adjusted to add more body? Is the feedback on the delay too long? Is the distortion too severe and making the voice un-intelligible? Listen, decide what must be done and then make your moves!

These are just some very basic guidelines but I suggest that everyone with a home studio, looking to make a more professional sounding recording go a little deeper than just scratching the surface. As for my mom, I was told that her Java now needs some more Flash and then her Google can start checking for colds and viruses again. Can't wait to see how she does it!

Sonic Bids Contest Winner Announced!

This month has been exciting for the Skyelab marketing department with the culmination of our highly anticipated Sonicbids Marketing Campaign Competition.

Since 2000, Sonicbids has become the industry standard in sending and receiving Electronic Press Kits (EPK) between artists and concert promoters, talent buyers, festivals, agencies, record labels, management companies, film/TV music supervisors, media firms and more. With over 30,000 bands and 3,000 partners, Sonicbids has grown to become the premiere destination for artists and opportunity to find each other.

Choosing a winner for the contest was no easy task for us. The process began with a strong partnership and strategy between Skyelab and Sonicbids earlier this summer. After careful planning, we decided to offer the winner of the contest a free 5-week marketing campaign (an $875+ value), with the hopes of finding a great artist to be able to market. Internationally open to all genres and styles of music, the Skyelab Music Group Marketing Campaign Competition launched our promoter drop box at the end of May. Both Skyelab and Sonicbids expected about 50 submissions during the course of the contest from June to August. We were shocked to see the overwhelming response, in which we had nearly 50 submissions in the first week alone!

As the weeks went by, we continued to get new submissions in our EPK inbox. Artists of all genres from all corners of the planet submitted their material to us. From country singers in Texas to New York hip-hop, British electro-dance to Australian indie rock (and everything in between), it became clear to us that regardless of style, location or career development, ALL artists need marketing!

Realizing the high global demand for our third-party music marketing service, Sonicbids featured Skyelab and our competition on their front page alongside other prominent contests including major summer festival performance slots such as Warped Tour and Bonnaroo. This in turn increased submissions even further. By the end of the contest, we received close to 200 artists’ EPKs in our promoter drop box.

After the submission deadline, we closed the drop box and began to extensively review and research each and every artist, one song at a time. Qualification for this final round was based on one simple yet defining question: how can we effectively market the artist? If we were able to come up with a concrete answer to this question, the artist moved on to our final round. An interesting thing to note; our finalists were just as eclectic in style, region and popularity relative to the submissions as a whole.

We visited and revisited the final round artists’ EPKs relentlessly by listening to material, reading bios and press, noting visual themes, watching videos, pulling up past and present tour schedules, analyzing online presence, observing fan feedback and more. The more we researched, the more we liked each artist and the harder it became to pick a winner. Four weeks, countless debates and a hundred coffee cups later, we were able to announce our winner:

Skyelab Music Group and Sonicbids would like to congratulate Leaves as the winners of the Skyelab Music Group Marketing Campaign Competition!

Leaves is a four-piece indie rock band from Iceland, with a unique sound that rivals Coldplay and Sigur Ros. Armored with an awesome new album and a devoted following, Skyelab and Leaves will utilize all of our resources, knowledge and skills to build a marketing plan that will give them the opportunity to keep progressing with their careers forward by meeting their short and long term goals.

For the other artists that made it as far as they did but ultimately did not win, I thank them on behalf of Skyelab Music Group for their submission, patience and belief in our services. I would also like to thank Sonicbids for all of their help in making this possible. Though it was a LOT of work on our part, we certainly had a blast with this whole contest. I wish every artist the best of luck with their careers, and I encourage each and every one of them to keep up the good work and keep great music alive!

4 Music Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

1. Too general of an artist description:
Many artists tend to categorize themselves as simply "pop" or "rock." "Rock" can mean anything from acoustic to death metal. Music fans have specific tastes, and want specific classifications to make it easier for them to discover your music. At the same time, you should refrain from over-analyzing your style. A lot of artists feel that they defy traditional genres, and end up calling themselves something along the lines of “a blend of hardcore punk rock and garage band jam rock with a jazzy bluesy R&B vibe.” You may think that this will appeal to a broad audience, but the reality is that nobody, including fans of punk, jam, jazz, blues and R&B will find this to be enticing.
I know its hard to compare yourself to another artist, but this is the best way to describe yourself when you are a relatively unknown artist, looking to grow their fanbase. If you draw similarities to an established artist, you can work off of the fans they have already collected and expose yourself to a larger, targeted market.
One of the best artist descriptions I have seen was for a progressive rock band from Denver, who described themselves as “Kurt Cobain on acid.” This sort of description gives potential fans a general direction of what to expect, and lures them in to the mystery of what Kurt Cobain on acid would sound like.


2. Passive networking:
Just because you have set up a basic MySpace account, does not mean fans will magically appear before you. Just because your song is available for sale on iTunes, does not mean strangers will buy it, even if it is just 99 cents. You have to be pro-active about promoting yourself and your product. Don’t assume that because your product is available people will consume it. Making your song available for purchase is only one of many steps that will lead to sales. Spreading awareness of your song, pushing it to the right crowd, creating incentives to buy the song and other promotional tactics are essential to creating a successful and lucrative career in music.
The power of the internet has allowed us all to become globally distributed recording artists. That does not mean we are all making careers off of our music. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t in today’s digital music industry is the amount of time and energy that is put into active promotion.

3. Ignoring your web presence:
So you’ve started to get a little attention and grow a core fan base. Your marketing and promotion efforts are far from over. In fact, the more popular you get, the more work you will have to put in. In order to keep traffic flowing to your site, you must keep the material on it to be fresh and ever-changing. Whether your web presence revolves around your own website URL of “bandname.com,” or your official website is your MySpace page, constantly updating the content is crucial to keep your fans attention. Updates can be anything from blogging, to adding videos, to even adding new songs. There is a band that had greatly increased their web traffic by posting a new song every day for a full year (365 days, 365 songs!) on their site.

With so much content all over the internet these days, there is evermore competition for the attention of fans. If you have a website that you do not update, fans will have no reason return to your site, and you will eventually lose them to other artists’ pages. As long as you keep your fans engaged and keep the momentum of their attention going, they will make it a routine to revisit your site, and thus revisit your career.

4. Inconsistency:
One of the key aspects that I stress for an artist marketing campaign is branding. The reason why an artist like Britney Spears is so popular is because Britney, and every aspect of her career, is a brand. Just like people associate Volvo with safety or McDonalds with “I’m Lovin’ It,” Britney’s brand relies on the same notion of consistency. Currently, Britney’s latest album is called “Circus.” Every aspect fueling her current career revolves around this circus theme. Her album cover and MySpace layout are the same circus images. Her first single off of the album, entitled “Circus,” is lyrically based on the metaphor of being a ringleader in a circus. The music video is shot in a circus setting, and shows her as a circus performer. Her major tour in support of the album is called the “Circus Tour,” with the stage set up in the manner of a circus. You get the point.
The reason why branding is so important is because music fans need repetition in order to have you stick in their heads. With so much music out there today, fans are exposed to countless new artists on a daily basis. The only way you will achieve recognition from them is if you pound their head into the ground with familiar visual images and themes. Even a superstar like Britney Spears relies heavily on consistency within her brand, because recognition is still important to her.
Very few of us are on Britney’s career level. However, we must all incorporate consistency within our own brands. If you have a logo, use that same logo everywhere you put your name. If your MySpace page has a black background with green glitter, use the same color theme for all of your other social networks, in addition to printed show flyers, album covers, business cards, shirts, stickers and anywhere else that you are present, both physically and digitally. Eventually, a potential fan will say “I’ve seen these guys before” and remember you. If you constantly change your look, you will never brand yourself to the public sphere.

American Idol (on Fox TV) is truly a phenomenon!

It’s in its 8th year and it just keeps picking up steam. We are fascinated by the thought that a singer can go from sheer obscurity to international fame and fortune inside of one TV season of American Idol. And we the people get to decide who that Idol is going to be by voting for our favorite contestants, week after week.

American Idol is wonderful for the music industry because it seems that it’s the only area that is really generating any excitement these days. Years ago, we had musical “trends and movements” that, like them or hate them, generated sales and brought money into the music industry. So Bravo to American Idol for keeping the torch burning for the music industry (even though American Idol's real success is in the TV industry).

American Idol is also fantastic for giving thousands of dedicated singers out there the opportunity to shoot for the stars! The serious ones will practice continuously for months before the audition. Even if they don’t pass the audition stage, (which just might mean they’re not TV worthy) they’ve benefited from the practice. And the singers that get into the later rounds of American Idol have instant celebrity status and are often sought out by record labels. We love it here at Skyelab Music!

So you ask, with all this good, what’s this about American Idol being dangerous for a singer? It's only dangerous is the singer takes away the wrong beliefs about the music industry and what it takes to be successful. And unfortunately, it seems that many have!




Myth #1
Success happens overnight.

The first danger is the misconception that success in the music industry happens just that fast. Success in American Idol is by far the rare, rare exception. Singers start to believe that this is the path to take to become successful, and if it isn’t by way of American Idol, they’ll find other contests that will propel them to fame and fortune overnight.

This is like believing the path to financial success comes from buying the winning lottery ticket. While of course this is true for the lucky few, most people realize that this is no way to plan for your future. So as a singer, don’t count on the short term score. Hone your craft and plan for long term success.




Myth #2

Anyone can be a singer.

We’ve all seen the American Idol auditions where a so called “singer” comes in and starts howling a song in no apparent key. Where do they get the idea that they’re singers? Is it from family and friends? They’re no friends if they let you embarrass yourself on national TV without first being honest about your lack of singing ability.



And do you see how the judges are laughing? Are we to feel bad because now the “singer” is crying because this was their dream? Sorry, no pity here. Why don’t people realize that really becoming a singer requires years of hard work? You don’t wake up one day and decide you’re a gifted piano player or a surgeon, so why a singer? This annoys me to no end. When a person decides 3 months before the American Idol auditions that they want to become famous, and that singing is the easiest way to do it, they insult the craft and everyone who has worked hard for years to attain a certain level of skill.




Myth #3

National fame and fortune is the only way to have a career in music

While this is what everyone wants of course, there are many other opportunities for singers who have talent, a passion for music and work hard NOW towards constantly improving their vocals skills. (Notice here that I said that they WORK HARD NOW, not that they are willing to work hard if they are chosen) There are independent labels, self releases, and numerous other ways to make a living doing what you love most, even if you never become a household name.




Myth #4

You either have it or you don’t

So many people seem to think that singing is something that either you’re born with, or not. So the American Idol auditions have so many people thinking that maybe they have what it takes, like they’re holding a raffle ticket that may be called. Once again, it doesn’t work that way. You might be born with a beautiful tone to your voice and you may love singing and have a unique approach. But without years of hard work to develop your talent, it will be worth nothing! The same thing applies to any career and every successful person in any walk of life. Is there an athlete on the planet that can compete on a professional level without the grueling workout schedule their competitors endure? No, talent alone is just the beginning. Then comes the hard work.

MYTHS and UNTRUTHS SURROUNDING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY...

Myth #1 Someone will discover you without a great recording..

Yes, we've all heard the stories of some waitress being discovered while waiting on a record label executive. Or a singer being discovered in some small bar in Texas, or Oklahoma, etc. Yes, these things have happened and will continue to. But if that's what you're waiting for, you have a much better chance of winning the lottery. Good luck!

This way is fantasy land and is for dreamers only.

Myth #2 If you email and call enough people, someone will give you a chance...

Why should they? What you don't realize is that companies get literally thousands of emails everyday with people telling their stories about how they love singing and it's their dream. Yet, they have no recording, no music up on the internet, no live performances and the only step they've taken in their musical careers is to email companies asking for a shot. Sorry, but that's not the way it works. If you don't believe in yourself enough to invest in getting a good recording made, don't expect anyone else to believe in you.

Again, this road is for dreamers only.

Myth #3 You don't need a great sounding music demo, any demo will be fine...

Wrong!!! The music demo/master is how you portray yourself to the world. The internet is flooded with good music, so what's makes you think that a poor recording will stand out against so many great recordings? It won't! You want to constantly increase your chances of becoming successful, so if possible, get a great sounding music demo/master recording, produced by music industry pros. This will portray you in the best light possible and put your unique talent front and center.

Myth #4 If you have a computer, you can get a program and do you own music demos...

Do you really believe that a program is all there is to producing great sounding music? Think of all the programs you have in your computer. They are tools, just like a music program is. Having a word processor doesn't make you a writer, and having a drill doesn't make you a carpenter. But really knowing how to use them properly is what makes the difference between a pro and an amateur. While this might be the right road for a very very small segment, most singers will find that their limited music production skills aren't even close to the high quality level of their vocal talent that took years to develop. Also, professional music producers will direct and guide the singer during the recording process to deliver her/his best vocal performance. The music producer can come up with vocal harmonies, background vocal ideas, ad libs and whatever else is necessary, including voice processing and pro editing techniques. An experienced engineer in a professional studio with thousands of dollars worth of equipment and hi end microphones will give you the polished sound that will set you above the rest of the crowd. So, do you want a professionally produced recording, or a home demo? Which one will help you build more fans?

Myth #5 You should send your music demo out to record companies in order to get signed...

This is a biggie, because a few short years ago, this was absolutely true. This was the way it was done, though the odds were still astronomical.(that's a whole 'nother article-too long to cover here) But to understand this now, you have to understand how the internet has changed the music industry forever. Ask yourself this question. If YOU were given a job as A&R over at Sony, and you had to sign an act and make them successful in 6 months or you would lose your job, what would you do? Let's say you have 1000 CDs in 2 HUGE boxes in your office, and you know from past experience that at least 95% will be garbage (home recordings, lousy songs, can't hear the vocals, etc). Would you spend your time listening to those CDs, or would you head straight to the internet and see where the buzz is? Which artists are winning contests and climbing the indy charts? Which artists have 5000 downloads of their songs and doing sold out shows? Which artists have 20,000 people on myspace and built up a huge fan base that constantly sings their praises on the forums? Wouldn't it be smarter and more profitable to sign an act like that, which already has so much going for them? Absolutely, and that's why it's crucial today to BRING YOURSELF TO THE MARKETPLACE AND MAKE SOME NOISE!

Myth#6 The record company will develop you as an artist...

Record companies are looking for artists that have already developed themselves to a certain level, and this is now mostly done in the music production stage of the process. When the artist finally gets into the Internet Marketplace, they should have already established a unique sound and image that represents who they are. Again, that's where having an experienced music producer and a team of music industry professionals working on your behalf can really benefit you.

Myth#7 If you get a record deal, you'll be rich...

Sorry to break it to you, but a record deal itself usually doesn't mean you'll get rich. If you are fortunate enough to get signed by a major label, realize that this is only the beginning. Many artists are signed but never record, some record but are never released, some are released with no real push or backing by the company and many flop and are dropped by the labels, even though they may have sales in the hundreds of thousands. The last estimate I recently saw said that an artist that goes GOLD (sales of 500,000) stands to make only around $47,000! This is why so many major artists are choosing NOT to resign with their record companies, but instead, to release their new CDs independently. An independent artist selling 15,000 of their own CDs can "theoretically" make twice the amount of money as the signed artist selling 500,000 copies! (there are exceptions to this and every other point)

There are now more opportunities for singers and artists than ever before in history! The artists that succeed will be the ones that wanted it more, and were willing to sacrifice more in order to achieve success. You have to get yourself into the "game"! And of course, once you're in the "GAME", the talented ones will rise to the top!