That being said, it’s a breath of fresh air for me when I come across some truly unique merchandise. Take, for example, Get Busy Committee, a recently formed group consisting of underground hip hop stalwarts Apathy and Ryu. While they’re certainly talented, I’m not a particularly huge fan of either artist, and normally wouldn’t think twice about them. But after seeing the custom 2GB Uzi-shaped USB flash drive that comes packaged with their CD, I certainly won’t forget about them. I might even buy the album.

With so many musicians out there trying to make a living, having some unique, memorable merchandise behind you can really help to stand out and gain exposure.

When I was working in radio, I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many CDs I would receive every day. It was overwhelming, and I hate to say it, but a lot of those CDs never made it to the player. I’m sorry, but blank Memorex CDs adorned with names like the “Gwop Gettas” and “Big Dawg Billionaires” written in sharpie just didn’t seem worth my time.

However, when I received something unique, like a logo-emblazoned flash drive, messenger bag, lighter, etc., it immediately set that artist apart from the rest, and prompted me to give them a listen. Years later, I’m still using that flash drive, I’m still carrying that bag around with me for all to see, and, if it hadn’t ran out of gas, I’d still be using that lighter. I’m not saying unique merchandise was the only thing that prompted me to consider an artist, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking traditional merch like t-shirts (I own and wear more band shirts than the number of years I’ve been alive), but there are so many different directions you can take merchandise nowadays. Kanye has his own Nikes, Public Enemy has a line of action figures, Z-Trip sells his own slipmats, my roommate shoots whiskey out of 2Pac shot glasses. As I write this, my Sonic Youth coffee mug is sitting on a coaster made to look like Homicide’s 1998 CD-single “Neva Say.” Hell, my friends’ band even has their own condoms.

Some of these aforementioned items may fall more into the realm of sponsorships, and some may be a little more expensive than a struggling artist can afford to produce. And of course there’s no guarantee that merchandise will help your career at all. But my point is that getting creative with your merch gives you the potential to reach and appeal to an audience outside of your fan base, let alone within.

(1) Evolve
There are always the exceptions (see: Rolling Stones), but if you want a long career in music, you’ll need to continually challenge yourself to think differently than you have in the past. MJ re-invented himself through time and it was a huge reason why he was able to appeal to such a wide spectrum of people. He started with the Motown soul and R&B, danced his way through Disco with “Off the Wall,” added some rock here or there (‘Beat It’, ‘Dirty Diana’), then started trying some Gospel (Man in the Mirror, Will You Be There?). If that wasn’t enough, he beat-boxed his way through Dangerous and HIStory, the Blood on the Dance Floor featured some pretty awesome mixes for you DJs out there, and to top it off, he crooned some serious slow jams on “Invincible”(Example: ‘Butterflies’ – released over 8 years ago and still sounds like something Justin Timberlake would release tomorrow.)  With all the changes and genre bending, the most accurate way to classify Michael Jackson’s music was just “Pop” — because Popular was just about the only consistent thing.

(2) Embrace the latest innovations
Most of MJs career was before social media and all the bells and whistles of the internet, but the media that was available to him, Michael owned it, namely the music video.  No one needs to mention how innovative and cutting edge the music video for ‘Thriller’ was when a music video was a fledgling form of media, but let’s not forget just the cool stuff he did as the medium grew.  MJ holds the Guinness Book of World Records for Longest Music Video (and if you want to watch the whole thing, you can here), the morphing faces in ‘Black or White’ still look awesome, and if you haven’t watched it in a while, watch ‘Scream’ again: the video was released in 1995 (that’s over 14 year ago, folks) and doesn’t even look dated. And yes, MJ and Janet had a 7 million dollar budget, but think about the sophisticated and fairly affordable tools you can get online or at Best Buy, or the free tools you have online ready for download. And there’s always the local college, library or community center to get in touch with to see if there are any tools available for your use in case you’re not 100% ready to invest all that technology has to offer.

(3) Sometimes, you have to be a shrewd businessman
Michael may have sung and danced his way up the ladder, but he wasn’t messing around. In 1980, he secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37 percent of wholesale album profit. He partnered with the likes of Pepsi (although, admittedly another big love in my life besides MJ is Diet Coke) and along the way, he purchased the Beatles catalog. What can musicians learn here? 1) Read your contracts and negotiate to make sure you are protected and getting the most out of your talents and ideas, 2) don’t be afraid from the exposure a consumer brand can offer, and 3) whenever possible, make some good investments.

(4) Find your sequined glove.
By this, I mean go ahead and be a little flashy and demand some attention. Remember, you’re in show business – so it’s okay to be ‘showy.’ Don’t go outside your personality, but the last thing you want to do is hide it. Flashy can be via your clothing, or if that doesn’t feel right, do something creative to your album artwork or do a crazy Youtube video series. In business it’s called marketing, and if you want your name out there and want to get noticed, sometimes you have to be a little different.

(5) Give back.
Okay, I get it: you’re not a big MJ fan. That’s okay. But let me ask you this: are you a fan helping the planet and say, feeding hungry children in Africa? Well, then you and Michael still have something in common. When he wasn’t winning Grammys, wowing the world with his crazy dance moves, or unfortunately fighting off lawsuits, MJ was truly trying to make the world just a little bit better. Did you know that the Millennium-Issue of the “Guinness Book Of Records” named Michael as the Pop Star who supports the most charity organizations? His humanitarian awards started around May 14, 1984, when Michael was invited to the White House to receive an award from President Ronald Reagan for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse, but if you want to get a good idea of everything he’s done, check out the list created for the debated House Resolution 600.  Remember: giving back doesn’t have to mean money. It’s easy. Go volunteer together somewhere and post some photos to your website to share with your fans; not only will you have done something good for your community, you may inspire someone else who admires you to do the same.

Finally, a note from the author: It’s sappy and corny and I’ve talked about Micheal Jackson on-end since his death. But this is the first time I’ve actually written anything about him since and I just want to say: Michael Jackson, you made the world better in so many ways and will continue to do so with your legacy–I love the King of Pop!

Many songwriters have asked me what makes a winning song. As VP of development of USA Songwriting Competition for the past 14 years, I have heard winning songs years through the years, and I think a winning song should be creative in both music composition as well as the lyric composition. A good example is the top winning song of 2008 competition “Home” written by Jordan Zevon, Jordan Summers and Morty Coyle. Musically, it displays surprises in Chord changes and the lyrics about coming home are not the clichés of what you hear on radio. It didn’t hurt the song that chorus was catchy.

Another example is the winning song of the country category in 2007 “I Can Live Without You,” written by Mary Danna and Troy Verges. One would think the song is about someone who doesn’t want to live with another. However, there is a twist at the end of the sentence in the chorus “But I just don’t want to.” They have taken a love and heartache song and given a “surprising twist” in the end. Also, the bridge was short, surprising and also emotionally high (with the melody hitting a high note at the end) and yet sad. That song still remains a favorite at the USA Songwriting Competition.

I have heard submissions where songwriters try to write the derivative songs that were number one on the charts at one time and end up being awkward. One case was a songwriter who took the entire track of Jennifer Lopez’s song “If You Had My Love” and wrote a similar melody to the background music, even the melodic line’s rhythm was similar. The chorus even copied the melody of the original song. Our judges thought the song had been plagiarized, let alone not being creative as the judges left the room singing to the Jennifer Lopez song instead. Needless to say, that song didn’t win.

I realized an interesting fact that the top winning songs of the past two years have been a three-way collaboration. The winning song last year was written by three songwriters and so was the year before (”Where the Music Takes You,” written by Ari Gold, Joe Hogue “JOJOHO” and Sean Petersen). That song also hit top 10 on the Billboard Charts after winning the competition. “Where the Music Takes You” was unique, it had no intro, the vocals start as soon as the music plays. The chorus was so catchy that the judges left the song singing to it.

Speaking of catchy, the winning song in 2004 was written by five songwriters (”My Three Wishes,” written by Patrice Pike, Wayne Sutton, Sean Phillips and Darrell Phillips). The opening hook in the chorus of the Alternative song “My Three Wishes” was accented in an off beat way that would draw the listener to want to hear more. You can tell that the song took extra effort and creativity.

A song may sound nice to listen to but please note that a lot of work is being done to the song: musically, lyrically, artistically and more. Cher’s biggest hit “Believe” was written not by one but six songwriters! Paul Barry, Matt Gray, Brian Higgins, Stuart McLellan, Timothy Powell, and Steven Torch wrote that hit number one in 23 different countries. Where would Cher be without this great hit song like this?

Alright, is your band the first thing that comes up in the search results? Is it on the first page?

Anyone looking for info about your band, be it a fan or a promoter, will probably start with a Google search (and if you’re lucky, they might even spell your band’s name correctly). If they can’t find you easily in the search results, you’re missing out on new fans and gigs.

If your band isn’t coming up, what can you do?

No Results – If Google can’t find anything on your band, you’re actually not in bad shape. All you need to do is put more stuff online and Google will index it. Start with a website, MySpace page, Last.fm profile, Sonicbids EPK etc. and you should start to see some better results.

Confused with someone or something else – If searching for your band brings up something else with the same name what you’ll need to do is become more popular online and generate more content than the thing you’re competing with. For example, Franz Ferdinand the band has much more content online than the Archduke they named themselves after.

Another band with the same name – This might only be a problem if the other band is more popular online than you. If the other band isn’t active anymore they’ll be easier to surpass on Google, although if they were using the name before you and have it trademarked, it could lead to some legal trouble.   If the other band is still gigging and putting out records, a final solution will require a bit more diplomacy and a trademark attorney. I’m not going to get into trademark law here, but if you’re interested in learning more Donald Passman’s ‘All you need to know about the Music Business‘ has a good chapter on trademarks and band names.

Simpler Solutions
If you’d rather not get involved with trademark disputes at this point, there are two simple ways to deal with having a band name that’s confused with other things.

1) Change your name – Changing your name to avoid confusion is nothing new. 50 years before Google was invented Ray Robinson changed his name to Ray Charles because of boxer Sugar Ray Robinson saying in his autobiography “I figured two Ray Robinsons might be one too many.”

If you’re still a relatively new band or you think that your name is holding you back, simply pick a new name. Just make sure to do some research on Google beforehand so you know that no one else is using it.

2) Don’t worry about it – Truth be told, I was in a Frank Zappa cover band called The Brain Police and there were 2 other bands that went by the same name. A 60’s psychedelic band was using the name before anyone in my band was even born and a “stoner rock band” from Iceland was also going by The Brain Police. Being a cover band, we weren’t trying to sell records so it wasn’t a big deal that someone else came up in iTunes and fellow Zappa fans had no trouble finding our shows since we’d circumvent Google confusion by posting info about our band and our shows on Zappa message boards reaching out to potential fans instead of waiting for them to come to us.

As long as you’re aware of where your band ranks in Google you can take some steps to make it easier for people to find you.  If you’ve got any tips on making your band stand out in search results share them in the comments.

One of the most interesting parts so far is reading about how Stax songwriters analyzed Motown songs and then used the formulas they discovered to churn out their own hits.

“David Porter figured out the lyric structure for ‘Don’t Look Back‘ and it applied to a number of Motown hits.  He deduced that they all had an opening that laid out the scenario, followed that with a bit of action, and then some sort of denouncement.  All were in first person, and none of them ended with complete resolution.” (page 91)

The first song that David Porter wrote using that formula (with Isaac Hayes as a writing partner) was ‘Hold on I’m Coming‘.

Whats your take on the Motown formula?

This article was written by Ben Priceat Sweetwater. We’ve publishing an entire series of articles in the Lounge from Sweetwater. Keep your eyes peeled and check back often! And now for some motivation.

Equalization – or EQ, if you prefer – was created in the early days of telephony to counteract the frequency loss in the signal when it was sent over long transmission lines. Broadcast and studio engineers adopted the technology as a creative tool for adjusting the timbre or sound quality in reproduced sounds.

There are tons of resources out there for understanding the technical side of EQ, so I won’t get into that side of it here. In this article, I want to get into a more esoteric topic: microphone placement as EQ. Yes, before you reach for the EQ in your desk, rack, or DAW, try moving that microphone around. The relationship of mic placement to sound source offers unlimited variances in tonality and frequency response.

Take, for example, miking a guitar amp. Grab your trusty mic (Shure SM57, Royer R-121, Sennheiser MD 441, Beyerdynamic M160, et al.) and put it right up on the center of the dust cap. Pretty bright sound. Move it out toward the edge of the cone, half inch by half inch; you’ll find the sound gets progressively less bright, or warmer, or duller – choose whatever term works for you. Now take that mic and place it at a 45-degree angle and do the same thing – a parallel universe of different tones. With both techniques, pull the mic farther away from the amp in small steps and soon you’ll have a whole 3-dimensional matrix of tones at your disposal. Don’t forget that in addition to mic placement as EQ, different microphones act as their own EQ as well. Each mic, and sometimes even different versions of the same mic, will have its own inherent sound. If the midrange response of the beloved SM57 is a little too uneven for you, try a mic with a smoother midrange.

There are so many options here, you might feel like you’re lost as to what sound to use. Don’t fret – choose the sound that works for the song. It doesn’t matter how amazing the tone is when it’s soloed, it matters how the part sounds in context with the rest of the mix. One thing that confounded me in my early days of engineering was how all the huge sounds I worked so hard on sounded awful in the mix. The problem is, when all the sounds are big and grandiose there is no room for everything to fit in. Remember, when we’re mixing a song, we’re working within an artifice. No group of musicians (acoustic or electronic) naturally come out of a pair of speakers, so we use dynamics processing and time-based effects to shape the music and create a cohesive presentation. It’s basically suspension of belief on the part of the listener. Small and big, close and far, bright and dull, left and right, stereo and mono, and on and on.

What I’ve learned is that not every sound in a mix can, or should, be huge. Each sound should integrate into the song as the artist and producer intend. Often small sounds work better in conjunction with big sounds. It’s really about that contrast – we need context to understand what we’re hearing. And this is another point; to my ears, balancing the instruments of a mix is almost an extension of EQ. It’s about relationships within the song. If the bass is playing the appropriate part with the right sound, you probably don’t need a ton of low end in the guitars, which will sound bigger in the mix because the bass will act as an extension at the bottom end. The more you understand which sounds work well in a mix, the better you’ll get at choosing the appropriate mic placement at the beginning.

In my early days as an engineer I found myself EQing sounds with some pretty heavy-handed boosts and cuts. As I’ve gained experience over the years, I find myself EQing less and less. Lately, generally speaking, when I grab an EQ I’m doing only a few dBs of boost or cut and often with a fairly broad bandwidth. Sure, sometimes you need that notch EQ to eliminate particular nastiness in a sound. When I made the jump from a primarily analog-based setup to a digital one I found myself using a lot of narrow-bandwidth EQs and the resulting sound was much more uneven and pinched. At the time I felt like the precision was exactly what I was looking for but I soon realized I was quite unhappy with the results. When you look at EQ curves from the classic EQs out there (Pultec, Neve, Trident, etc.) you’ll see fairly broad bandwidth curves and often you’ll see fixed frequency points. These classic EQs were designed so well that a combination of mic placement and those fixed frequencies really was enough to get you where you needed to be in terms of tone. With all the options and programmability we have with digital EQs, try some broad strokes to color the sound as opposed to very narrow EQ curves. You may find the results to be more musical – and musicality is what we’re after, right?

Of course, sometimes a sound “happens” through EQing and you should not be afraid to crank up (or down!) the EQ when necessary. One thing I try to keep in mind is the need to find the right sound for the project or song at hand. Doing this leads to unique sounds as opposed to making sounds that are just like some other record. Boring.

There are rules, but there are no rules. If it sounds good, it is good, at least until you’ve trained and developed your ear further and you hear better, meaning more critically. Not quite the masterful summation I had in mind, but I don’t really have any trite, cute ways to wrap this up. So disengage your EQ and go move that mic around. Let me know what you think.

Ben Price has over ten years experience as a professional engineer, producer, studio manager, and musician. He’s currently signed to a small record label and working in sales at Sweetwater in addition to working as a freelance recording engineer. He can be reached at 1-800-222-4700 ext. 1329 or ben_price@sweetwater.com.

This article was written by Forrest Powell at Sweetwater. We’ve publishing an entire series of articles in the Lounge from Sweetwater. Keep your eyes peeled and check back often! And now for some motivation.

I’ll start off citing a source, surely to some of my readers’ chagrin: I was at church today (I even saw a dude from work there). While I was there, this great pastor mentioned something stirring and brilliant that coincides with my attitude toward music:

“The word ‘amateur’ was never intended to define a second-rate person.”

It’s a common misconception of our audiences and our age that “pro” is somehow inherently superior to “amateur. I think of all the musicians out there, working hard and playing hard and not getting paid, and I just have to grit my teeth, because many musicians who DO get paid churn out emotionless pig-fodder. Pigs will eat anything, and it seems that so long as radio or the “professionals” can polish a turd, they will never have to go hungry.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not out to disparage the mainstream recording community. Quite the contrary; recording is one of the best ways to safely deliver your music to the ears of music lovers like me or decision-makers like A&R reps. But what I would raise a little caution flag about is this: don’t get caught up in bureaucracy just because you want your deserving music to “succeed.” The obsession with “making it” can destroy not just the band or the musician, but the very music itself. Do you really want to change what you sound like because the people who buy over-compressed monotonous pop-jingles won’t buy your record?

Do you like your music?

I’ve gotta say, I love mine. It’s almost a relationship of its own; even if inspiration comes and goes as she pleases, music is forever there.

That said, sometimes I’ve got to wonder if we musicians and recording guys are as committed to the music right now as some of our predecessors were. In this industry, it’s really hard to keep a die-hard, passionate focus on one thing, and somehow marketing and survival have developed the irritating ability to outweigh care for art and craft.

This is where success in the bigger picture doesn’t just mean making lots of money. In fact, I don’t think it has anything to do with money at all, unless you want to invite something in to muck up your priorities and cheapen the deep potential of your music. I was on the Wii Internet last night and read about this sport in Japan called “yabusame,” which is basically archery on horseback. At first glance it seems impractical because the bow is taller than the man, and there’s this ceremonial garb, etc. But in the “Blue like Jazz” mentality, you don’t really understand something until you see someone who loves what they are doing and are lost in it. The guys on horseback are not involved because it’s practical, they are involved because for them, it’s spiritual. Music is just that, and for me, getting lost in the mystery of perfecting a song can make me drool on my guitar because I get so focused.

Referring to people as “professionals” means that they make a living at something, just to be clear. I remember my first visit to Austin, Texas for SXSW, and the key emotion was this: inferiority. I was frontman for a 4-piece rock band, and everyone else just seemed to have their act together in a way we did not. Professionally mastered CDs with full-color 8-page booklets, 10-foot banners, the logo on the kick drum, that sort of thing. It was easily worth the drive and the price of admission, but there was this intimidation factor present that I think most of us probably recognize, even if you’ve never been on-stage with a bigger band. It made me pause, reconsider.

The worry is this: I am (or we are) not gonna “make it.”

To counter this reaction, let me drop a quote: “Nobody ever made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” Thanks, Edmund Burke.

Music is not just a spectator sport. It’s a universal language and I am sad to say that many people seem to die with their music still in them. You and I are not that type. We don’t just need to listen, we need to be involved in the living, breathing conversation of music. We need to play. We need to rock.

So they’ve never heard of you before…have you heard of them? A consumer is just that; don’t weigh your hopes on those thin shoulders, or you might just hang your musical hat up and resign creative art with the economy. Success is yours to define.

And to bring this full circle, that’s why I am all about “amateurs” at the moment.

An amateur is simply a person who does something because they love it, not because they are getting paid for it.

Professionals built the Titanic. Amateurs made the ark.

Don’t die with your music inside of you. Even if everyone else thinks you’re crazier than Noah, please…for the love of something greater than yourself that is inside of you, build it and they will come.

BIO

Forrest Powell is an amateur musician, amateur recording engineer, and professional sales engineer at Sweetwater. He can be reached at 1-800-222-4700 ext. 1235 or forrest_powell@sweetwater.com.