Smart Links 101

The following includes sections from a blog written by Music Fibre – an online music industry directory and blog posting tips, tutorials and useful information for anyone working in the music industry. In this blog, they have delved into the world of Smart Links. This may be something you are already familiar with, or you may never have heard of them; either way, this blog will tell you what they are, why you need them and how you can use them to drive more sales of your music.

What Are Smart Links For Music And Why Should I Use Them?

The internet has made the world a very small place. Even if you are making beats in your bedroom or recording from your mates shed, your fans can be anywhere in the world.

Smart links will help you make sure that when they find your music, they are taken to the right music download or streaming site and can shop in the right language and currency. A smart link can offer your fans a choice of store or you can automatically direct them based on their location or device (e.g you may wish to send iPhone users directly to iTunes.)

It’s not just about making sure the shopping experience is good for your customers, it’s also an opportunity to track and monitor your fans. You can find out which stores they like best, find out where in the world your fans are and keep track of your marketing. The advanced analytics that smart links offer let you see exactly how your fans are discovering your music. If you have ever wanted to know if your Facebook campaign is working or if you should stick to Twitter, this will help you find out.

How Smart Links Can Save You Time

Smart Links save a huge amount of time. To get started you simply enter one link to your music in one store. The smart link provider will scan other stores for the same release and you then decide which stores to show on your landing page. When promoting your music you simply share one link instead of having to enter details for Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, Beatport etc.

What Do Smart Links Look Like?

Help For Bands is aware of the ins and outs of Smart Links because Horus Music use them for their marketing campaigns. These are created for the artist to post and makes it easier for fans to access the artist’s music.

They also make it easier for publications to talk about the artist and their music. By having a smart link ready to go, a publication will find it easier to integrate into anything they write. Overall, it makes it much easier for anyone to listen to an artist’s music on their preferred platform. The easier the process is, the more likely someone is to listen to the music on offer.

Below, you can see an image that shows how the smart links work in the Soundplate Records website:

 

Want To Create Your Own Smart Links?

There are several providers that can help you create smart links for your music. These include SmartURL, LinkRedirector, LinkFire and Hive amongst others. The best part is, they are free to use! If you want to make it easier for fans to listen to your music, Smart Links are the way forwards!

You can see the original blog post by Music Fibre here: http://musicfibre.com/smart-links-music-101/

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Royalties Vs. Joint Venture

Every artist knows what royalties are by now. But there are so many different ways to get paid for your music. The term that gets lost in the list is Joint Venture. Not many people use this anymore.  But when you’re having a lot of success and a big income, this might be it.

What is a joint venture?

This is just the same as an label deal, except the artist doesn’t get paid any royalties for his contribution. Now, before you panic and try to click away, this doesn’t mean the artist doesn’t get anything. So, hold your horses and read a little further.

This deals is meant for a band or artist with a lot of income in their music. This way, all the costs and expenses (like marketing and distribution) get taken from the income and the income will be split 50/50. This is how it works in most cases, but it depends on whether or not the label is in a good mood when signing the deal.

Royalties Vs. Joint Venture

So, is more more advantageous than the other? There is no definitive way of knowing. Our advice is that if you have a lot of success, you can get a joint venture (meaning you’d be the next Taylor Swift). This way, you can earn more of your money back. But you can lose a lot with it too if you’re not ready for this deal in your professional career.

With an ‘ok’ success and a decent income, we advise you choose royalty payments. In a joint venture you get charged more costs than under a royalty agreement. This can both be good an bad.

Royalties get paid ‘per unit’, this gets lost to joint venture and its easy to see that you can get more out of an joint venture. Of course, after all the expenses are deducted from the profit.

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Advice for Lyricists: Part Three – Getting People to Listen

So, you’ve understood the writing process and have even started writing your lyrics. Now you need to get people to listen to you, find out more in part 3 of our advice for lyricists series.

As hard as it can be, learning to accept criticism can be the most helpful thing you do. It is the first step in getting people to listen to your music. Although family and friends may want to spare your feelings, they are a good place to start, especially if one of them is particularly musical, creative or you just trust their honest opinion. It might not always be easy, but criticism isn’t always negative or personal and it’s a very simple way to learn and grow as an artist. Nobody says you have to take all (or any!) of their advice on board but putting fresh eyes on your work can give you new perspectives and will give you things to consider.

What Am I Writing For?

Before you can decide where to share your music and/or lyrics it might be important to work out who and what you are writing for. Are you writing for yourself or to sell to others? Are you wanting to make a career out of lyric writing or is it a hobby? What genre/s are you writing for?

Some genres of music lend themselves more to performance, some to public environments and some to individual listening. You should consider these when you begin to think about sharing or selling your lyrics, compositions or music.

Finding People to Work With

If you are looking for people to work with, whether it’s co-writers, performers, or producers, there are many places to look.

If you’re at university, even if you aren’t studying a music related subject, you’re in luck; universities are breeding grounds for creative types. Once you get talking to people it’s likely you’ll find someone that play instruments, are writers themselves, or are studying music in some shape or form.

The same goes for the workplace, although it maybe less likely to find these creative types if you don’t already work in the creative industries, it’s still worth having the conversation! You never know what people do in their spare time, or if not them personally, they may know people who could help you.

Social media is perhaps one of the easiest ways to get your name out there. You could make posts on your own social media pages promoting yourself or asking around for other musicians. Of course there are also websites that specifically cater to ‘musicians finding musicians’ that will be specific to your local area.

It may be useful to look out for music industry networking events. They are a chance to meet with other like minded people and other musicians, you never know where it could lead.

The main take-away from this should be to talk. Keep people in the loop about what you’re working on, what you’re looking for, get your name out there so people know to think about you.

Recording a Demo

It’s easier than ever to record your own demo without spending a ton of money. Firstly, you need to choose where you a going to record. Are you going to book a studio or are you recording at home? If you are recording at home, you may need to consider what equipment you will need and what the acoustics are going to be like.

The next thing to think about is how are you going to be recording and/or producing your track. You can choose to record a live demo; with all instruments and vocals being recorded in one take. Or you can choose multi-track recording, with each instrument being recorded independently. Again, this may depend on what exactly you are producing. You could also use MIDI instruments rather than live instruments and then record a vocals over the top.

After recording, your track needs to be mixed. You may want to get someone to help you with this if you aren’t used to mixing but as it’s a demo a rough mix is fine, so don’t feel like you have to spend a lot of money on it. You can then master your track. Nobody expects a demo to be perfect, it just needs to showcase your potential.

Soundcloud, YouTube etc.

When you have your finished demo, its time to share it, which is very easy to do. There are so many platforms online now where you can share music for free – SoundCloud and YouTube as well as social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and even LinkedIn.

The main thing to consider when sharing your work in this way is intellectual property protection. Once your content is online pretty much anyone can access it so be sure to cover yourself. This is where copyright comes in.

Copyright

Copyright allows, by law, an original work to be considered a property that is owned by somebody. Copyright happens automatically once the ‘product’ is created so it is not necessary to register (except in the U.S where there is a registration process). Intellectual property protection comes in many forms (copyrights, patents, trademarks etc.) which must be made tangible in order to be protected. It is important to have proof of ownership. One way to do this is to post a copy of your recording, composition or lyrics etc. to yourself, keep the envelope sealed.

As a copyright owner you hold the right to copy, distribute, rent, lend, perform, show, communicate/broadcast and adapt your work.

Selling Your Lyrics

Music publishers are responsible for ensuring that songwriters and composers are paid for commercial use of their compositions. As a songwriter or composer, you can assign your copyright to a publisher, who will then license, safeguard and monitor the composition, and collect royalties and distribute them back to the songwriter/composer. Publishers also deal with synchronisation, so that the composition may be used for television and film.

If you are interested in music publishing see our sister company Anara Publishing.

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Top 25 Fingerstyle Guitar Players

I’m not sure it’s possible to definitively say who are THE best 25 fingerstyle guitar players in the world.  But I’m gonna try.

Here are the top 25 fingerstyle guitar players, presented in alphabetical order.  I couldn’t bring myself to try to rank them. In fact, I’m not sure that’s even possible.  But even with that disclaimer, it’s very likely that you may disagree, want to add or subtract a player.  If that’s the case, please:

Add other worthy players to the comments below so that the list is truly complete. Thanks!

Here We Go…

Chet Atkins (1924 – 2001)

One of the “Great Ones” of fingerstyle guitar, Atkins took “Travis picking” (see Merle Travis further down the list) and turned it into an entire genre of country-based, jazz-flavored, fingerstyle genius. Chet Atkins is often quoted as a prime inspiration by contemporary players, particularly Tommy Emmanuel.

There’s a lot of material to choose from when listening to Chet, but a popular song to start with is “Windy and Warm”.

More info on Chet Atkins >>

Pierre Bensusan

A French-Algerian guitarist wielding DADGAD in a dazzling display of modern fingerstyle guitar. While his playing throughout his career has spanned a variety of formats, his recent solo acoustic playing has won awards and made it’s way into soundtracks.

To get a sense of his style, listen to “So Long Michael“, a tribute to Michael Hedges (see list below) upon his passing.

More info on Pierre Bensusan >>

Antoine Dufour

The Montreal-based guitarist – who won the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Championships – deftly navigates pop covers like Coldplay’s “Talk” and original compositions like “These Moments“, and has the hippest website of the bunch.  This guy’s the real deal.

More info on Antoine Dufour >>

Tommy Emmanuel

The man himself!  Tommy Emmanuel is an Australian fingerpicker who has dominated the fingerstyle guitar scene in recent years thanks to a combination of impeccable Chet Atkins style playing, high energy stage presence, great songwriting, and good old fashioned Aussie personality.  His TED talk probably helped, too.

Check him out playing “Classical Gas” (over 12million views!).

More info on Tommy Emmanuel >>

Ed Gerhard

Ed Gerhard is an exceptional fingerstyle player on steel string acoustic, dobro, and weissenborn.  I have to admit, while he plays some great steel string tunes, I fell in love with his playing thanks to this weissenborn tune.

More about Ed Gerhard >>

Jon Gomm

This British phenom is widely known for his “Passionflower” YouTube video, where he somehow combines harmonics, over-the-neck fretboard work, percussive slapping, singing, AND using tuners to change note values mid-riff…and manages to make it sounds like a compelling song.  Crazy.  By the way, how did he know this song is up first in my current Spotify playlist?

More about Jon Gomm >>

Calum Graham

A young player coming out of Canada who has already gotten the attention of the fingerstyle community with tunes like “Tabula Rasa“.  He’s already had the chance to work with movie soundtracks, the Olympics, and Antoine Dufour.  Pretty amazing.  You can sign up for some Skype lessons on his site (more info here).

More about Calum Graham >>

Alex de Grassi

Alex de Grassi has been producing groundbreaking acoustic fingerstyle guitar work since the late 70’s.  His work with the Windham Hill label produced fingerstyle classics like “Turning“.  And his impeccable playing has even been documented into a teaching method for fingerstyle guitar: The Alex De Grassi Fingerstyle Guitar Method.  A true legend.

More about Alex de Grassi >>

Michael Hedges

Michael Hedges is widely acknowledged as the consummate fingerstyle guitarist.  His avante garde approach to acoustic guitar broke out in the late 80’s, paving the way for thousands of guitarists after him to employ new techniques to the instrument.  His definitive album is Aerial Boundaries, on Windham Hill Recordings.  Check out the popular track, “Ragamuffin“.  (Like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the thing to remember is that, while you’ve heard stuff like from other players, he did it first.  He was the guy that made the other guys go, “Hmm.  You mean we can do that?”)

More on Michael Hedges >>

Maneli Jamal

An eclectic player who combines a variety of tonalities and techniques.  Check out his tune, Lucid Drawl, and you’ll sense the scope of his playing.  Inspiring.

More info on Maneli Jamal >>

Sungha Jung

Sungha Jung is a South Korean guitarist widely hailed as a guitar prodigy.  His cover of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” theme song has over 52million Youtube views (as of this writing).  A composer and instrumentalist, Jung is largely self-taught.

More info on Sungha Jung >>

Phil Keaggy

I’ve got a soft spot for Phil Keaggy because I grew up listening to him.  His career started with electric guitar, songwriting, and fronting a band in Cleveland, Ohio.  Yet the second half of his career has focused on fingerstyle guitar playing (which is kind of amazing seeing as he’s missing part of his middle finger on his right hand).  His contributions to solo acoustic guitar, including the use of loopers, e-Bows, and avante garde technology, are often overlooked due to his pre-YouTube aesthetic and off-the-grid personality.

More on Phil Keaggy >>

Kaki King

Kaki King goes her own way.  Just check out her latest video, “The Neck is a Bridge to the Body“.  She walks the line between popularity (she’s been on Letterman and recorded a soundtrack for Into The Wild) and off-the-beaten-path artistry (just scroll past the first few tunes under her name in Spotify).  What makes her compelling is her incredible mastery of the acoustic guitar, and her willingness to challenge how it’s played.  You can actually get a video lesson series from King if you want to explore her style.

More on Kaki King >>

Thomas Leeb

Thomas Leeb is an Austrian-born guitarist, now living in California, who takes percussive acoustic guitar playing to the next level.  Check out his album, “Desert Pirate”, and specifically his rendition of “No Woman No Cry” to put yourself on that fine line between inspiration and jealousy.

More on Thomas Leeb >>

Adrian Legg

Adrian Legg spent a number of years as a guitar technician, wrote for guitar publications, helped design and launch acoustic guitar amps, AND is a genre-bending, technically acute composer and performer.  It’s almost too much for one man.

More on Adrian Legg >>

Andy McKee

Andy McKee came to popular renown through his astounding YouTube videos.  A young American player on the CandyRat Records label, McKee has consistently delivered good-natured, prodigy-level acoustic guitar playing in recent years.  Often cited, along with Tommy Emmanuel, at the top of “favorite fingerstyle guitar player” lists.  There’s lots of songs to check out from McKee, but his cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule The World” is a personal favorite of mine.

More about Andy Mckee >>

Igor Presnyakov

Igor Presnyakov is a Russian, classically-trained guitarist who also came to fame on YouTube.  Despite having a long career in Russia and then in the Netherlands, YouTube became his launch vehicle to a wider audience in 2007.  Despite having dozens of videos with millions of views each, his albums are few and relatively recent.  Check out his cover of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It“.

More about Igor Presnyakov >>

Adam Rafferty

Performer, composer, teacher – Adam Rafferty is an American guitarist specializing in “funky fingerstyle”.  If you read his excellent blog, you’ll quickly discover he’s a fan of groove, melody, and connecting with the audience.  He also runs an online fingerstyle guitar school called Study With Adam.  Check out his tune, “Affirmation“, from his most recent album, “Play Pretty for the People”.

More on Adam Rafferty >>

Jerry Reed

The man could do it all.  He was an actor, singer, songwriter, and, of course, guitarist.  His playing style spanned everything from bluegrass to jazz.  He’s perhaps best known for songs like “East Bound and Down“, but was equally a sensitive fingerstyle player, like on this version of “Georgia On My Mind“.

More about Jerry Reed >>

Don Ross

Don Ross is a Canadian fingerstyle guitar player and two-time winner of the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas.  An incredible player as well as a generally nice guy, you can catch a series of video lessons of him teaching fingerstyle playing from the ground up.  He does a lot of great originals as well as covers like this one of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley.

More about Don Ross >>

Martin Taylor

Martin Taylor, MBE is a British jazz musician who has had a long career working both solo and with groups.  His early playing was with Stéphane Grappelli doing gypsy jazz.  His most recent work has been in solo/small ensemble fingerstyle guitar, like on his duet album with Tommy Emmanuel.  You can even catch his online video lesson series over at ArtistWorks.

More about Martin Taylor >>

Merle Travis

One of the greats.  His name defines one of the key techniques of fingerstyle guitar:  Travis picking (the thumb striking alternating bass strings in order to mimic a bass player).  His career covered so much material, it’s impossible to sum up in a few short sentences, but his playing, his friendship with Chet Atkins, and his popular songs make him one of the “godfathers” of fingerstyle guitar playing. Check out Travis rocking this tune, “Cannonball Rag”, with nothing but a thumbpick and his index finger.

More about Merle Travis >>

Doc Watson

American Grammy-winning guitarist who profoundly influenced bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and more when he came on the scene in the 60’s.  His genius wasn’t just on guitar, but he played banjo, harmonica, and sang.

Check out “Walk On Boy”.  You’re welcome.

More about Doc Watson >>

Honorable Mention:

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson made his name as the consummate electric guitarist with his Grammy Award wining album, “Ah Via Musicom”.  You’ve inevitably heard the key track on that album, “Cliffs of Dover”, somewhere, somehow, I guarantee.  He’s an honorable mention here because his albums have always included a sprinkling of acoustic fingerstyle guitar.  More recently, he’s also released an album entirely in this genre – EJ.

My favorite tune, though, is still “Song For George”.

More about Eric Johnson >>

Rodrigo y Gabriela

Well, this isn’t a person.  It’s actually two of them.  But they freaking rock.  They’re cover of Metallica’s “Orion” (yes, that one) always blows my mind.

Again, you’re welcome.

More about Rodrigo y Gabriela >>

 

Have suggestions for more players?  Add them in the comments below!

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Advice for Lyricists: Part Two – Once You’ve Started Writing

So, you’ve found the inspiration and you’re ready to write (see part one). Great! Now what? There are a lot of factors that go into writing a song, many of which are down to personal style and preference but your choices and decisions during the writing process all affect the end product so it’s worth knowing some of the basics!

Avoiding Clichés (Or How to Make Them Work for You)

Songs are interpreted in many ways and if you want to make your meaning clear you may fall into the trap of clichés. In fact, this may have the opposite effect, by using clichés you run the risk of your song losing not only it’s effectiveness, but its meaning too. A way of avoiding these clichés is to flip them completely on their head by changing an aspect of the line so it has a completely different meaning. For example, take an idiom such as ‘water under the bridge’ find the opposite of water, perhaps fire, so that it becomes ‘fire under the bridge’, which switches the meaning and then brings up connotations of a bad break up, a fight etc.

Another example would be taking ‘wearing your heart on your sleeve’ and altering it be something such as ‘wearing your heart under your coat’, for example, which has completely the opposite meaning. This way you give a nod to the original cliché so your meaning is clear but also can create double meanings and avoid the lyrics sounding too contrived.

Clichés can also be used ironically, this depends on the phrasing of the line and the surrounding lyrics. This can create a kind of self-aware humour within your lyrics.

This idea of clichés doesn’t just apply to the lyrics but also to the phrasing and structure. Don’t feel pressured to conform to standards of song and rhyme structure and don’t force rhymes just because you think it should! It will sound forced if it is and this will ruin the flow of the song.

Structure

Below we will be listing the typical definitions of song elements but this does not mean that you cannot use them differently.

• Introduction – The section at the beginning of a song generally before the lyrics start.

• Verse – Usually recognisable due its melodic repetition although the lyrics usually differ. Typically uses rhyme in an AABB or ABAB format. This is where you can be more wordy and detailed, verses can tell a story.

• Pre-Chorus – A transitional section between verse and chorus which can create a build up to the chorus.

• Chorus / Refrain – A repeating section heard throughout the song that contains the hook and the main idea / theme of the song. This is where you want to keep the lyrics more simple. A refrain may also refer to a shorter repeated passage (such as ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ in basically every pop song ever).

• Bridge – A contrasting and transitional section of the song which breaks up the repetitive pattern of a song.

• Middle Eight – Named so because it is typically eight bars long, a type of bridge that has different characteristics to the rest of the song.

• Outro / Coda – A way of ending the song, how the song winds down or fades out etc.

• Interlude – Defined usually as a break or a gap, in music an interlude can be part of a song or a whole song that is part of an album (‘Interlude’ on My Chemical Romance’s album ‘Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge’).

• Instrumental Break / Solo – Pretty self explanatory; similar to an interlude but may be longer and more involved. Can be a showcase of a certain instrument and can tell a story. As with an interlude, it can be part of a track or a whole track itself.

We find it best not to force it. Let the words come first and then arrange it because, let’s be honest, that’s the fun part. Also don’t be afraid to stray from the norm, let it happen naturally.

Making it Scan

Making words ‘scan’ in a song is making them fit well in the melody. There should not be any awkward jumps, gaps or change in tempo due to the amount of words in a line. This can be the most difficult part of writing a song. It doesn’t matter how great the line is on paper if you cram a load of words in and it doesn’t scan it will not sound good.

If you can’t bare to part with your words, you may be able to change the melody to fit. Sometimes it is best to compromise; changes that you make don’t just affect that one line but also the surrounding lines.

Repetition

Sometimes known as an ‘earworm’, a catchy song is usually created through the use of repetition. There have even been studies on it which should tell you how effective it is! Quite simply, the repeated exposure to a line or melodic phrase will make it more likely to stick in someone’s head.

This kind of repetition is usually the hook which is usually found within the chorus. There is no hard and fast rule and nothing is stopping you from having multiple repetitions or hooks within the song if you wanted.

You could run into issues, however, if the song is overly repetitive. Eventually, if something is repeated too often people will just stop listening. So finding that middle ground is important.

Finding the Hook

The effectiveness of the hook will be shown in how recognisable your track is. There are a lot of factors to aid the recognisability of your song, but a main one is the hook.

In order to create a hook here are some things to consider: Keep it simple. Make it rhyme. Make it repeat. Try to sum up the song in one line and use that to create your hook.

How Genre and Style Affect Your Writing

If you want to write a punchy, memorable, upbeat song then you probably want to keep the lines short and the words simple. Whereas, if you’re writing a ballad, you can afford to be wordier. It is slow and lingering and therefore you can use longer lines and words with more syllables.

Genre is also important, punk for example, is very reliant on it’s topic, usually the theming is quite political. Again, you don’t necessarily have to stick to these ideas completely but it helps if you are aiming for a certain feel.

Your Motivation

Your style may also be affected by your motivation for writing. If you are a primarily a writer and you are wanting to make a career out of writing for other artists, then this doesn’t mean that you can’t write from personal experience but that it may be useful to practise writing to a brief. This also gives you the opportunity write for a variety of different genres and styles.

If you are primarily a musician and a performer and are writing for your own use, then it may be useful be more aware of the style and feel that you are creating for yourself through your song writing. If you have a vision you can completely mould this creation from lyrics, music and sound.

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Read Full Article Here: https://www.helpforbands.co.uk/advice-lyricists-started-writing/