5 Music Questions We Want Answered in 2013

Here are five questions we have for the music industry this year:

1. Will consumers take to Sonos?

A careful marketing campaign where promotional copies of the state of the art audio hardware were sent to key influencer’s means people are raving about Sonos. Sonos is music hardware that streams your digital music with HiFi sound and has no sound loss over wireless. It reminds us of the buzz surrounding Spotify when it first appeared in Europe. Bob Lefsetz talked about wirelessly connecting his system, then we heard Howard Stern’s producer Gary Dell’Abate eschewing it’s merits. With the economy back on the upswing and people buying homes again, upwardly mobile music fans now have the money to bring their homes into the musical 21st century. Will Sonos catch on or will an old stalwart like a Bose or Sony or Apple TV-like system beat them for the win?

2. Will the synchronicity of the internet and your car catch on?

Yes, we know that you can hook your smartphone up to your radio but we are talking about seamless integration here folks. Ford was on to something with Sync, but it’s reviews are mixed and overall user-friendliness is questionable. When you can drive your car and dial up your favorite Pandora stations or Spotify list, does that mean terrestrial radio is shaking in its boots? Probably not, but with distracted driving at an all time high, and laws coming into place, successful integration is desirable. We’ll see if it catches on more in  2013.

3.  Will Apple step into the streaming game?

It is frequently mentioned in business that the first person to the game is not always the victor. Many have noticed the trends that digital paid downloads are on the downtrend while streaming is on the up and up. There is no doubt that Apple will step into the streaming game but could it be this year? Right now we’ve got Spotify and Google Play — has your life changed as much as ours by syncing a Spotify starred playlist to an iPad so you can listen to two gigs of music on an airplane? So will Apple take the Spotify format and enter the streaming world? Only time will tell…

4. Will YouTube reign supreme?

YouTube continues to be the number one destination for people to listen to music. Just over 5 years ago, what if we told you people would listen to music more on an online video site called YouTube than on radio, MTV and CDs combined? It’s incredible — now we have Psy and his one billion plus video views. When Spotify does not have a live version we switch to YouTube and vise versa. It certainly SEEMS like YouTube is not going anywhere for a while.

5. Are DJs the new rock star?

We have all seen the numbers. Will EDM continue to rule the live market? It’s Electronic HUGE for live music sales, especially in 2012. The bigger players in the concert industry like Live Nation have even taken notice. But some fans are questioning…check out this article, Is America killing EDM?

There you have it music fans! Do you want these questions answered as well? Or are there some we missed? Write your predictions in the comments.

-LAMA Staff

Sean Halley Music Producer Quick Tip – “EQ Usage”

Sean Halley has been actively making a living in some musical or musically technical form since he began playing live club gigs at 17. Years where he played 280+ gigs were not uncommon, in addition to the full-time studio life that began professionally in college. In addition to writing and performing music for himself, he has also spent a lifetime on “both sides of the glass”.

In this quick tip Sean gives a lesson on “EQ Usage” :

Sean has produced a large number of indie pop and singer/songwriter records, sometimes playing all of the instruments but live drums. these projects range in genre from drop B metal and roots country, to torch pop and hip hop, with nearly everything in between (but he hasn’t done a zydeco project yet. anyone do zydeco?).  Sean is the Chair of the Music Producer department at LAMA.

For more great videos, tips and highlights from LA Music Academy alumni and instructors, subscribe to our YouTube channel here: http://youtube.com/LAmusicacademy

-LAMA Staff

Hearing Your Instructor On YouTube!

Today we had an interesting experience. Like you and many other folks, we do a lot of our music listening on YouTube. We were in the mood for some Frank Zappa and a track in particular called  “Camarillo Brillo” off the 1973 LP Over-Nite Sensation. After listening to the studio version several times we moved on to a live one. We found one from May 8th 1974. After several times playing it we went back and read through the comments and discovered that the drummer on this tour and version was none other than LAMA’s own Ralph Humphrey! Ralph is the Drum Departmant chair and a wonderful instructor. Next time we see Ralph in the hall, we’re going to corner him and get some stories about his time playing with Frank!

-LAMA Staff

Sean Halley Music Producer Quick Tip – “Guitar Intonation”

Sean Halley has been actively making a living in some musical or musically technical form since he began playing live club gigs at 17. Years where he played 280+ gigs were not uncommon, in addition to the full-time studio life that began professionally in college. In addition to writing and performing music for himself, he has also spent a lifetime on “both sides of the glass”.

In this quick tip Sean gives a lesson on “Guitar Intonation” :

Sean has produced a large number of indie pop and singer/songwriter records, sometimes playing all of the instruments but live drums. these projects range in genre from drop B metal and roots country, to torch pop and hip hop, with nearly everything in between (but he hasn’t done a zydeco project yet. anyone do zydeco?).  Sean is the Chair of the Music Producer department at LAMA.

For more great videos, tips and highlights from LA Music Academy alumni and instructors, subscribe to our YouTube channel here: http://youtube.com/LAmusicacademy

-LAMA Staff

YouTube Facts and Stats

Thinking of uploading your music, instructional tips or performances to a YouTube channel? We’ve got some new facts and figures for YouTube, originally posted over at consultant Jeff Bullas’s blog, to share with you in this infographic below. Jeff highlights some key facts too:

• 3rd most visited website according to Alexa
• 2 billion views per day
• It handles 10% of the internet’s traffic
• Average YouTube user spends 900 seconds per day
• 44% of YouTube’s users are aged between 12 and 34
• Over 829,000 videos are uploaded every day
• Average video duration is 2 minutes 46 seconds

Have you used YouTube to communicate with your audience or to reach new fans? Let us know your experiences in the comments below:

-LAMA Staff

5 Random Music Videos That We Love

We love YouTube. There has never been a better time for watching great videos. There has also never been a bigger distraction from getting things done! Despite the busy life at LAMA, we all deserve a bit of time to chill and enjoy random, amazing music videos.

GENE SIMMONS AND PAUL STANLEY OF KISS BICKER DURING INTERVIEW – You can cut through the tension between these two with a knife. Could the rumors be true that they don’t speak at all anymore? It wouldn’t surprise us from this video.

KIRK HAMMET OF METALLICA (UNINTENTIONALLY) KICKS A LITTLE GIRL ON STAGE – Ouch! That has to hurt. Nobody ever said Rock N’ Roll was safe! Don’t let your children near a Metallica stage.

THE LONELY ISLAND PERFORM “I’M ON A BOAT” – Frank Zappa famously said that humor belongs in music. We couldn’t agree more! This song always makes us giggle and we love the cameo by T-Pain!

FASTEST GUITAR SHREDDING EVER? – The jury is still out – but the guy definitely has some chops! What say you?

SLAYER MOSH PIT DURING “RAINING BLOOD” – Do we really need a reason to post this?

Hope you enjoy these videos. We might make this a weekly occurrence!

What are your favorite music videos or music-related videos?

-LAMA Staff

The Music Industry in 2012

Is it just us or has the music industry been in a transitional period for the last decade? It must have been Napster that started this tumultuous period. We went from $20 CDs at Tower Records to .99 cent songs over Itunes and free albums and even CATALOGS using illegal means. Ignore all the doomsayers and lets look positively towards the new year and some things we are excited about. As you recover from your break at LAMA over the holidays, it’s important to brush up with the latest happenings on the business side of things.

WILL STREAMING FULFILL IT’S PROMISES?

For the last few years industry insiders have been heaping praise on streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, and Google Music as being possible game changers. A way to have all the music available   – while offering users premium features to pay for the music they listen to. Supporters pointed to Europe and how Spotify took the world by storm there. The cold hard reality is that labels are realizing there will never be a replacement for the CD when it comes to profit. Metal label Century Media Records famously pulled their artists catalogs from Spotify earlier this year citing that the pricing plans just don’t make sense. Perhaps 2012 will be the year that the artists and labels finally admit to themselves that the profits of the mid 90s are gone forever and keeping music from streaming services is only going to hurt them.

WHAT ROLE WILL YOUTUBE PLAY?

YouTube went from the website to watch cute kittens and silly children to the #1 destination for people to discover, listen, and watch music of all kinds. Radio and MTV don’t even come close to the amount of music being consumed on YouTube on a daily basis. A significant shift came with the VEVO alliance with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. Fans hate the ads but the labels and artists love the revenue. It will be interesting to see how YouTube moves into the new year, look for more Live “special” broadcasts such as they did with Coachella this year. Now that Google+ and Google Music are here look for the Google owned YouTube to get more and more compatible with these two services.

WHAT WILL THE CONCERT INDUSTRY BE LIKE?

The live entertainment landscape has been a paradox for a while. For some artists like U2 and Roger Waters it is the best of times while for other less lucky artists it is the worst of times. For the first half of 2011 Pollstar reported that earnings increased 11% but that probably doesn’t tell the whole tale. With the rise of Groupons, Goldstar, and the internet in general, there have been some embarrassing discounted ticket mishaps with tickets for some big name acts practically being given away. Legacy acts such as Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles learned that fans are getting fed up with their constant returns to their cities and aren’t as willing to pay those expensive service charges to hear the same show they saw last year. On the indie level smaller clubs are having a hard time bringing people in to hear unheard bands when they have to compete with the internet, Playstation, TV, and every other cheaper form of entertainment.

SOCIAL NETWORKING ROLE?

Facebook already aligned with Spotify – but do you really want to see a feed of every song your friend is listening to? We are guilty of finding quite a few new bands just by seeing what YouTube videos our friends post on their wall. There has long been talk about a dedicated music social media service – but it seems that it is more likely the social media music impact will come from one of the pre-existing services. We are very excited to watch Google+ grow and how music will fit into it – especially with their new Google Music service which has some big names attached to it.

WILL THE INTERNET BREAK A BAND?

Were not talking about your Rebecca Black — so bad its good type novelty act or an Animal Collective ultra cool hipster act — nor are we referring to those with 5 minutes of fame. We are talking about the internet version of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. A band that has immense pop appeal but also artistic merit. One might try to say Lady Gaga broke on the net – however we would argue she is a hybrid between old wave (MTV, Radio) and new wave (social media, on-line video). We wonder if 2012 will be the year a band breaks completely independently through the internet.

There you have it musicians! The different things music-wise we are looking towards in 2012. Did we leave anything out? Do we have it wrong? Let us know! Have a great break and an even better 2012.

-LAMA Staff

5 Tips: Discover New Music

Sometimes it’s good for us to step outside our comfort levels and discover and listen to fresh music. Even with all the new sites and services out there, that’s easier said than done. Here are some tips to help you discover new tunes today:

1) Radio While Driving

Most of the time when we are driving we are cursing traffic, talking on the bluetooth or shuffling favorite songs on the Ipod. Don’t forget, every car is equipped with a free device that transmits plenty of music; the radio! Turn on that puppy and hit the scan button and in about ten minutes time you should have heard a diverse mix of musical genres. Use a site like http://radio-locator.com/ to find stations in different genres and cities and devote your time listening to some new programming. Never tried jazz? Listen to the different jazz stations from all around the U.S. and you’ll hear a lot of different mixes and opinions about the music you’re hearing.

2) Mixtapes
This is another blast from the past – back in the pre-digital revolution friends and lovers would make each other cassette “mix tapes” with a batch of music the listener might never have heard before. Nowadays people use Itunes and burn a CD or put it on a USB drive. There are even online services that let you create a digital mixtape and send it to a friend. We personally prefer a hard copy of a mixtape – something about being able to hold it in your hand makes it better. Challenge your friends to put songs on your mix that stretch your musical sensibilities!

3) Online Music Services
There are literally hundreds of online streaming music services now that can help you expand your musical taste. From Pandora to Slacker to Spotify (which just added a radio section) you can tap into boundless amounts of music at anytime. Go on Pandora and pick an artist you have never heard of and use that as your “seed” artist to take you on your new musical journey. The jam band Phish launched Live Phish Radio in 2003 and you can stream it through Itunes 24 hours a day or even on your smartphone. iTunes has scores of free radio stations and podcasts available to help you discover new sounds. Use your smartphone apps like Shazam if you hear unfamiliar music that you want identified…the Shazam results will list all the ways to find that band’s music online and also offers tools to share the music you just heard with your online friends.

4) Live Music
Sometimes you need to hear a particular music genre live before you can open your ears to it. Jazz music for many is an acquired taste but nothing will get you hooked faster than attending a jazz club or themed/genre-specific night. Blues not your thing? Find a blues club! If you are a LAMA student, you’ll be exposed to so many live concerts on and off campus each week — take advantage of these opportunities to help open your ears to new and exciting music!

5) YouTube
When we first stumbled onto YouTube, we were amused for hours with cute kitten videos and hilarious pranks caught on cell phone cameras. Very quickly a YouTube revolution took place and YouTube became the go-to place on-line for music listening. Whether it was official music videos, fan made music videos, or even just the audio of hard to find tracks set to a black background, YouTube became a top online destination for listening to music. What an ideal way to get turned onto new artists! Ask for suggestions from friends or just enter a genre or artist you are unfamiliar with in the search box. Make sure to look for “playlists” which will keep the music going after each song ends.

What if you discover a musical gem that had escaped you prior? What if this discovery helps your playing by working a new style into how you perform on your instrument? We all have our favorite artists and genres but part of our musical journey is leaving the comfort zones and listening to new material from different genres. Where do you find your new music?

-LAMA Staff