Luckily, there is a happy medium I have found to work by providing me with a

plethora of beats and instrumentals that fit the mood of the kinds of songs I

like to write (mostly dark, twisted lyrics with dark humor or stories).

Google is a want to-be rapper’s best friend. By using the search engines,

I have been able to stumble upon a few sites promising beats that work

with my style. Take some time to look for “instrumentals”, “beats”, and

long-tail keywords such as “how to create songs at home” to really

zero in on what you want, which is: AFFORDABLE beats that get your head

nodding and your creative juices flowing.

Now, what’s really in is all this southside, “dirty dirty” crunk beats, etc.

This may be your thing, but because the rap market is so saturated,

you have to stand out, both lyrically and conceptually. That is why

it is soo important to focus on gathering your beats from only ONE or

TWO producers. This will give you more of a unified sound. When you

go all over the net looking for “free” this and “free” that, you are asking

for a discombobulated demo or street album that will come off as

unprofessional and corny.

There are a lot of guys out there selling their beats. How do you know if

they are any good, or worth the price? Look for producers who are selling

LOTS of beats but who aren’t just GIVING them away. The problem with

free beats is that EVERYONE and their momma is using them. Instead,

get quality beats, preferably for a ONE-TIME fee so you have all the

time you need to remix them, alter them, speed them up, slow them down,

etc. without worrying about buying more or paying some monthly

subscription.

And finally, DO your research. Always remember that writing and performing

is where the real money is at, so keep honing your craft. Focus on keeping

those heads ringing and you will soon be blinging, playa!

Source by Ben Rosario

The post How to Find the Tightest Beats for Home-Studio Rappers and Producers appeared first on ENFEW.

Before we can judge how good the kit is we need to decide what criteria we must judge it against. I believe that the most effective way to judge a guitar set is by evaluating its overall quality (including sound and build quality), its affordability and its playability. My reasoning being this is simple, the perfect guitar needs to make learning the instrument easier, ever guitarist worth his salt will tell you that some 6-strings are easier to learn on than others. This is especially true when talking about acoustics. Similarly, the perfect beginner’s guitar also needs to provide excellent quality at an affordable price, seen as thought most beginners will be unwilling to invest too much money into their first instrument.

I believe the Yamaha F310 guitar kit hits all these points and delivers and extra something too. The first thing that stands out about this pack is that it is one of the only guitar kits on the market that provides an award winning instrument. The F310 acoustic is actually one of the bestselling guitars in history and has been awarded the ‘Best Guitar in Class’ award by the Music Retailers’ Association, on account of the guitars excellent tone and playability. This Yamaha acoustic is notorious for its incredibly authentic, bright acoustic sound. The voice of this instrument can easily project across a room full of people. Another great thing about the Yamaha F310 is that because its action is so low, barre chords and strings bends are a lot easier to pull off, this will seriously increase the time it takes beginners to learn the instrument.

Apart from the guitar, the F310 guitar kit also contains a whole range of different musical accessories. The pack includes an electronic tuner, spare set of strings, guitar strap and an Instant Guitar DVD, all for less than £100! Considering that the total estimated value of all the things included in the F310 guitar pack is more than £160 it becomes quite clear that this kit definitely goes along way for your money.

In conclusion, the F310 Yamaha guitar kit combines affordability, playability and quality in a way that no similar set can match. Make no mistake about it; this pack is the best deal you will ever find.

Source by Edward Cottam

The post The Best Guitar Kit Around appeared first on ENFEW.

To take the pulse of the song and determine its number of beats per minute (BPM), count these downbeats for fifteen seconds and then multiply by four. Very slow swing songs have around 70 BPM and very fast ones have upwards of 200 BPM. The swing songs that I personally enjoy dancing to the most, average about 125 BPM which coincidentally approximates my optimum cardio-training heart rate when I exercise. Notice that these downbeats differ from the upbeats that occur on the “2” count, the “4” count, the “6” count or the “8” count. In the St. Louis Imperial style East Coast Swing, we begin stepping on any of the music’s downbeats; however, this is not true of all styles of dance. In the Cha-Cha, for instance, dancers begin stepping after any of the music’s upbeats.

Beats per minute became common terminology in popular music during the disco era because of its usefulness to DJs; and it remains important in dance music today because both our style of dance and our footwork rhythms are determined by the tempo of the music! The original or classic style of Imperial Swing, which is danced “in the round,” is performed to music with a faster tempo (130-185 BPM) using primarily the slower single step and double step footwork rhythms. Today’s contemporary style of Imperial Swing, which is danced within a slot, is a combination of both East Coast Swing (135-175 BPM) and West Coast Swing (75-115 BPM). Dancers perform this popular, “slot-bop” hybrid to music with a slower tempo (100-135 BPM), and they use primarily the faster, triple step footwork rhythms. Remember, the terms are music timing (or tempo) and footwork rhythms (or steps) but not vice versa!

The “time signatures” of different music styles tell dancers how many beats there are to a measure, and which note represents that beat. Swing music uses 4/4 timing; that is, there are 4 beats to a measure (4/4) and the quarter note gets the beat (4/4). For example, on the 1 and 2 count of your six-count, triple step footwork, the “1” is an eighth note (or a half-beat) and the “and of 1” is an eighth note (or a half-beat). Together they add up to a quarter note or 1 beat; and the “2” count is a quarter note or 1 beat. On the 3 and 4 count, the “3” is an eighth note (or a half-beat), and the “and of 3” is an eighth note (or a half-beat). Together they add up to a quarter note or 1 beat; and the “4” count is a quarter note or 1 beat. These 2 beats bring the cumulative total up to 4 beats or one measure.

Finally, on the 5 – 6 breakstep, the “5” count is a quarter note (or 1 beat) and the “6” count is a quarter note (or 1 beat). These final two 2 counts bring the total up to six beats or one and a half measures. To summarize this footwork count, dancers take eight steps in six beats of the music. The 1st and 3rd beats are the downbeats (or base beats) and the 2nd and 4th beats are the upbeats. In East Coast Swing the accents* are on the 1st and 3rd beats (counts); however, in West Coast Swing the accents are on the 2nd and 4th beats. Good dancers let the music tell them what to do with their feet. If they begin their footwork on any of the song’s downbeats, and then end it on the sixth (or eighth) beat, then they are dancing in time with the music and finishing their steps when they are supposed to. As Skippy Blair, the renowned swing dance teacher, author and recipient of the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame Award, tells her students: “please don’t tell me how long to hold the beat; just tell me what the count is, so I can place my feet!

*Note: Skippy Blair’s: “Elements of Music and Timing” defines an accent as a firm sound or move on one particular note or count.

Source by Skip Culver

The post Beats Per Minute and Beats Per Measure – The Two Important BPMs of Every Song! appeared first on ENFEW.

The Ibanez AEB Series offers a variety of acoustic electric basses with different sound appeals for the player. Some will describe it as punchy low end sound that sounds good with or without amplifiers. It is made of high quality mahogany with Fishman Sonicore Pickups and Shape Shifter Preamps also by Ibanez.

For those with classic tastes, the AEB10 is made of quality spruce and mahogany. It can also be available in a natural finish or a dark violin sunburst finish depending on preference. The built in 3-band tone and shape control will add to the deep bottom sound.

The Ibanez EWB20 WNENT Acoustic Bass comes in a Cordia top, back and sides with a mahogany neck. The fretboard is made out of rosewood with D’ Addario compatible strings.

One of the most expensive in their line of acoustic electric basses, the Ibanez SR5005E Prestige 5-String has a beautiful, sleek mahogany body with a wenge neck, top and back.

Ibanez also has a series of semi acoustic electric guitars found in their Artcore series. The Ibanez AFB200BS Semi Acoustic Bass Guitar is made of up maple from top to back and sides and bound rosewood inlay and bridge.

When it comes to basses, Ibanez is definitely at the front of the line and doesn’t disappoint.

Source by Matthew A Roberts

The post Ibanez Acoustic Bass Guitar – The Core of Ibanez appeared first on ENFEW.

Eminem, prior to becoming one of the biggest selling and most popular hip-hop artists of all time, was a highly accomplished freestyler.

Here’s a list of what I believe to be some of Eminem’s best freestyle lyrics!

“It’s only fair to warn I was born with a set of horns

And metaphors attached to my damn umbilical cord

The warlord of rap that’ll bash you with a 2×4 board

And smash into your Honda Accord with a 4-door Ford

But I’m more toward dropping an a capella

To chop a fella to mozzarella worse than a helicopter propeller!”

What makes this so good is his multi-syllabic rhyme schemes and the imagery to go with it. Not only does it rhyme and flow perfectly, but the hilarious imagery inside of the line conjures up an incredibly funny image inside of one’s head.

This Eminem freestyle is from The Wake Up Show with Planet Asia.

“Crews die from an overdosage of excessive flavor

Aggressive nature got me stickin’ you for your Progressive pager

Spectacular, battle rap manufacturer

Stole your mama’s Acura, wrecked it and sold it back to her”

Even in his early years Eminem was as comical as ever. The reason this particular verse is one of his best freestyles is the multi-syllabic nature of each bar. For instance, instead of only rhyming ‘flavor’ with ‘pager’, which is relatively basic at face value, he rhymes ‘excessive flavor’ with ‘Progressive pager.’ This rhyme scheme (as they are referred to in rap circles) is incredibly impressive due to the amount of syllables in the line, as well as how similar sounding the words are. Instead of saying something simple, he takes a 5-syllable phrase and rhymes it with yet another 5-syllable phrase, displaying an unrivaled skill.

“My music is soothing, but it’s also been proven

That it can put you in the mood to jump out of your car while it’s moving

You’ve been waiting on this moment

My sermon is like an omen, I’m servin’, I’m Eric Sermon

I saw the window was open and I jumped through it”

This is more recent than the previous 2 and was released on a Kay Slay mixtape over the “Love Me” beat by Obie Trice. The way he flows these lyrics are a notch above anybody else in the game. It’s one thing to simply write clever lyrics, but it’s a completely different talent to actually rap them. And the specific reason Eminem will go down as one of the best ever is due to his amazing ability to juggle both of these talents at once. Not only do these rhymes contain clever, yet subtle hip hop references, but they’re flowed in a way that very few can mimic.

This is just a sample of the genius seen in each and every Eminem verse.

Source by Charles Gould

The post Eminem’s Best Freestyles! appeared first on ENFEW.

There are more than 75 million videos on YouTube, for instance, and when these videos go viral they register millions of views per video. And while many authors know how to use YouTube to share videos with family and friends, very few understand how to harness the power of YouTube to earn money, market themselves, connect with customers, grow their business and sell more books.

I am using YouTube in every way possible for all my clients. I truly see opportunities for every type of client I represent including, authors, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and even charities.

In fact, I used YouTube to help Angel Acres Horse Haven Rescue make it to the “Top 10” in a $1 Million shelter makeover contest sponsored by Zootoo, a web site for animal and pet lovers. As part of their effort, I asked Mike Ball who, along with being an award-winning columnist, is an accomplished musician, if he would be willing to write and record a song that could be used in an online video and for public service announcements. That emotional song with the photos of horses helped Angel Acres in their online voting campaign.

Another client, Mr. Duey, a school teacher who uses music to teach kids math, science and history, is also having great success with his video. Called “Mr. Duey Fractions” it’s featured on Teacher Tube which is like YouTube but it’s for teachers, parents and students. The “Fractions” video we promoted is now one of the top ten all time most viewed videos on TeacherTube with 567,000 views. You know you are hot stuff when the kids in your school ask a teacher for an autograph! The exposure has led to CD sales, media coverage and other exciting opportunities Mr. Duey and the label Kaas Records. As I am writing this Mr. Duey is finishing filming a new series of videos which tie in his musical talent with a new “book type” product… cant’ tell you what it is but it came about as direct result of the that video!

Another very successful application for YouTube videos is through video book trailers as part of a book marketing campaign. In an effort to obtain book publicity for my author clients we’ll create a book trailer about the book. A book trailer is like a movie trailer in that it allows someone to preview a book both visually and via audio. A video book trailer brings the book to life and gives the potential reader a sneak peak at the contents. We’ll then post that book trailer on YouTube and… here’s the best part… we add it to more than 41 additional video sites online for even greater exposure.

One of the big benefits of a book trailer is how is improves search engine ranking for an author’s main web site, providing you carefully select traffic driving key words and titles.

How can a book trailer help? A couple months ago we landed a terrific article for one of my authors in The Patriot Ledger outside of Boston. First, they ran a photo of the author holding his book. They mentioned the upcoming book signings I asked him to arrange after we had this story confirmed so he could capitalize on the PR.

The Ledger also included a link and screen shot of the book trailer video we produced for YouTube. The best part? ABC-TV CH-7 of Boston then saw the article and book trailer, realized it was a good visual story and came out to the author’s house and shot their own story! It really proves my point that “PR Begets PR, the More You Get, the More You Get!”

An example of book trailers we’ve created can be viewed at Westwind Communications YouTube Channel at: [http://www.youtube.com/thebookpublicist]

There are a lot of ins and outs when it comes to YouTube. If you are serious about using it then I suggest you buy a new book How to Make Money With YouTube, by Brad and Debra Schepp. In this insightful guide the authors unveil specific steps to harness YouTube’s power to turn a profit. The Schepps offer in-depth, easy to understand instructions on everything from shooting and uploading videos to fundraising and marketing, to building buzz, and how to get your videos noticed.

They also draw on one infamous company’s humorous “Will it Blend?” video that brought thousands of new customers to its website. You’ve probably seen it. A guy in a lab coat blends everything from food to iPhones in their blender demonstrating how powerful the blender really is. The book is filled with valuable advice and practical tips to allow readers to maximize their earning potential on YouTube.

One of the most valuable features of How To Make Money With YouTube are real-life success stories from video marketers who used the site to launch successful consulting businesses. A featured success story is from my own firm about Mr. Duey mentioned above. The bottom line: Get a book video trailer created and get it on YouTube right away and use it to promote your book online. You can’t go wrong.

-END-

Source by Scott Lorenz

The post Should Authors Use YouTube For Book Marketing? appeared first on ENFEW.

Taylor is a unique artist. A big part of her appeal is that she writes and performs very personal songs that many girls her age relate to. They relate so much that many of her fans want to meet her, hang out with her, or know her better. It is safe to say that Taylor is aware of this and reciprocates by making herself one of the most approachable stars in history. Taylor holds meet and greets, talks to her fans in airports and even invites fans backstage. So naturally, most of her fans want to be close to her when she performs. But how does one get great seats for sold out concerts such as this? First let’s look at how tickets work.

You wait until the day the tickets are released, you go online ready to get great seats but sadly your tickets are way up in the nosebleed section. Why can’t you get good tickets?

This is roughly how it works. Ticketmaster is usually the host for Taylor Swift tours. The host reserves a large number of tickets for media representatives, news people, fan club promotions and credit card pre-sales. So right from the start, many of the best seats just aren’t available. If the host at some point feels they have reserved too many tickets, they may release a lot of tickets later at what is known as a “ticket drop”. Next the hosts software starts selling tickets with the main objective of selling out the show. Therefore it is not going to release the best seats first. Especially if you are only looking for one or two seats. So with all of this, I’m sure you can see how difficult it is to get good seats for a super hot concert. Fortunately, there is still a way to get great seats. The best way to get great concert tickets for Taylor Swift or any other popular artist, is through a ticket broker.

Ticket brokers are often mislabeled as “scalpers”, but that is far from the truth. It is true that buying through a ticket broker will probably cost you more than face value of the ticket, but sometimes it is not that much more. The ticket broker is in effect a middleman between a seller and a buyer. The broker doesn’t set the price, the seller does. The broker adds a percentage for themselves for the transaction, and for other services they provide. The most important service they provide is to make sure that the tickets being sold are genuine. This is very important.

I do not suggest buying tickets from an online auction, or from an individual on Twitter. That is far too risky. The ticket broker uses technology to make sure you get authentic tickets. The best procedure is to check a ticket broker a number of times, to find the best deals. I’ve seen Taylor tickets for less than forty dollars, of course if you are able to pay more, you can find great seats very near the stage. The ticket broker lets you look through the venues sections and pick seats anywhere you find desirable. Another important benefit from any good broker is the guarantee. The better brokers back up your purchase with a guarantee, many times more than the original purchase price. Some will even intercede at the box office if you have a problem.

Another quick tip is that once you have purchased tickets from the broker, keep them in a safe place. Be sure not to wrinkle or fold your tickets as this can cause problems at the box office.

Another great thing about Taylor Swift is that she plays from several spots in the audience. This creates an interesting ticket situation. If you find out that Taylor is performing from a particular section, you can use the ticket broker to get seats there. These are seats that will be less expensive, but could turn out to be excellent seats right near Taylor.

Any Taylor Swift Tour is an unforgettable memory for any fan. By researching, and working with a respectable ticket broker, you have the opportunity to get great tickets to an amazing concert event.

Source by Arthur Sinclair

The post Taylor Swift – How to Get Great Tickets Closer to Taylor appeared first on ENFEW.

With that in mind, take Randy Newman and connect him to Tom Paxton. Then add Loudon Wainwright with Phil Ochs, and your solution would sound something like Biff Rose.

Not much has been heard of the piano playing folk songwriter Biff Rose since he received some acclaim in the late Sixties, after the release of his first album Children of Light. That record, quite influential in spite of unremarkable chart success, hit the store shelves in 1968.

David Bowie was one of the biggest stars to pay tribute to him, as he quoted Biff Rose in one the early albums. The Bowie song “Fill Your Heart”, just one of the many gems on the Hunky Dory album, is a cover version of a tune composed by Rose.

Rose had gone to Hollywood as a writer for comedian George Carlin in the Sixties, deciding soon after to become a recording artist. That decision brought about the debut album Children of Light, now fifty years old.

It is a smorgasbord of musical styles, blending ragtime with Vaudeville while also incorporating folk and classical. Lyrically, however, is where the album really stands out.

Most of the themes are left-leaning, as might be expected from a man who was en,edged in the hippie culture of the West Coast in the Late Sixties. The titles themselves indicate as much, especially “Communist Sympathizer” and “Colorblind Blues.”

On the latter, which was recorded live at the Troubadour in Hollywood, Rose exhibits his characteristic wit.

“Black power, blue power, green power, purple, thanks a lot. At the end of the rainbow there is pot,” he quips. “And I hear it’s gold.”

He parodies capitalism in “American Waltz”, on which Rose’s deft ragtime piano is backed by marching drums.

“The spirit of giving through selling and buying,” he says of the Christmas holiday in the United States. “Cars shaped like bullets with people inside.”

His humor is also apparent on “Ballad of Cliches” and “Ain’t No New Day”, but he proves just as gifted when it comes to serious tunes. “Son in Moon” offers a pointed reflection about man’s abuse of the earth, and “To Baby” serves as a love ode to someone special.

The highlight, however, is the title track, which contains some of Rose’s best piano playing as well as his most memorable lyrics.

“The man who’s afraid will have all kinds of answers, law and order, law and order, we need more law and order,” Rose snarls, perhaps as a stab at the political leaders at the time.

In April of 1969 Rose performed that song on The Smothers Brothers, appearing in the same episode as Ike and Tina Turner. A few months later on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand he sang “Spaced Out” and “I’ve Got You Covered”, the two tracks that are combined to close out the album.

Next came a memorable appearance on the Hugh Hefner weekly variety show, Playboy After Dark. Rose performed the title track before giving way to a future superstar, a twenty year old girl named Linda Rondstadt.

Not much was heard from Rose in the late Seventies, when he nearly disappeared from the music business. In 2018, though, folks hungry for nostalgia should celebrate his debut album’s fiftieth anniversary by digging out this treasure of eleven songs.

Source by Doug Poe

The post Happy Fiftieth Birthday To The Biff Rose Album Children Of Light, A Forgotten Treasure appeared first on ENFEW.

Before the electric guitar, there was America’s beloved acoustic guitar. It greatly changed music in that it allowed musicians alternatives to the mandolin and banjos. The acoustic guitar is a huge asset for songwriters because of its portability, which allowed musicians to write or perform their music almost anywhere.

When the electric was first built in the 1930’s, it was met with strong resistance. Critics actually believed that the sounds would not be appealing to music lovers and they didn’t believe the electric guitar would make it off the assembly line. Even the original creator couldn’t have imagined the impact that the electric guitar would have on the music industry. No one in those days could have. The very first electric to be manufactured and sold to the general public was built by the Electro String Company in 1931. These guitars were actually made from cast aluminum, and people actually referred to them as “frying pans”, which prompted the Gibson Guitar Corporation to create their ES-150 guitar. These guitars quickly became popular and this particular Gibson guitar became one of Gibson’s best sellers, ever. And when artists began to realize that the electric gave them the flexibility to create their own musical style, it started to change the sound of music.

The invention of the electric was a huge asset to concert halls. Before it, concert halls we’re smaller, accommodating smaller crowds. This was because the acoustic guitars’ sound was hard to hear from a distance. It allowed venues to expand because the sound could be amplified, allowing much more people to hear the concerts from a greater distance. Concerts started to change forever. Now, instead of a musician playing for a few hundred people, they were playing for a few thousand. And today, musicians are performing for a few hundred thousand fans and selling out every single seat!

Electrics have evolved from the original production. There are additional pickups on the modern guitars that allow artists to create unique, individual music styles. No guitar has been able to capture the emotions of a song or its musician like the electric guitar. What makes the guitar able to do this is that it can be amplified. You can’t have one without an amplifier. When used alone, it doesn’t create the mood changing sounds that the amplifier does. The electric guitar and amplifier go hand in hand. The amplifier to the electric guitar is the bread to the butter in the music industry.

No one can truly evaluate the way music has changed over the last several years. Great music has the power to change lives. Music expresses what simple words alone cannot. The electric guitar expresses the feelings that words cannot. The sounds of the electric guitar are electrifying (no pun intended). It has created some of the best performances ever. It has become the very definition of rock and roll. It will continue to revolutionize music for generations to come.

Source by Peter Sax Smith

The post How the Electric Guitar Revolutionized the Music Industry appeared first on ENFEW.

People and Hospitality: Warm People and Hospitality is a usual Indian phenomenon but what makes Rajasthan’s warmth unmatched is its consistency complemented by an above average amount of destination knowledge – at and across every element and level of a tour, from consultation till departure. Here, a tourist can expect his/her driver to be skilled not only behind the wheels but also well versed in the great Rajasthani heritage of art, crafts, architecture, folks, cuisines et al. Drivers, the men who make or break the experience, have, thankfully, been making the moods and memories sweet for Ashoka Holidays’ guests from around the world in the last 15 years of tailor-making of tours across India. Simply put, Babu, Chain, Gopi and Hanuman are Ashoka Holidays’ drivers’ names that lay peppered across guests’ testimonials for good reasons.

A first timer coming to Rajasthan for only its deserts and camel is certainly underestimating this largest Indian state in terms of size and perhaps the richest when it comes to a living culture and heritage. Rajasthan’s range and diversity of touristic attractions is stuffed in and around its interesting Geography dominated by the Great Indian Thar Desert and the Aravali range. Very much like its huge platter, the Rajasthani Thali, brimming with delicacies overwhelming even a renowned foodie. One needs an unending appetite to explore Rajasthan fully. Objectively put offers:

• Fairs and Festivals: Out of the 9 festivals that ashokaholidays have on their website to sell 5 are from Rajasthan. This gives a good idea of the attraction most wanted the world over. Out of the many fairs and festival the few that well-known are Pushkar Camel fair, Jaisalmer Desert festival, Bikaner Camel Festival, Elephant Festival.
• Wildlife Heritage – Rajasthan is not all desert. World’s most popular Tiger territory, the Ranthambore National park, is a major tourist draw here; the wetland of Bharatpur or Keoladeo Ghana National park is a bird’s paradise and rightly recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage site.
• Architecture: The loose sand of Rajasthan, interestingly, is the place from where rises the Indian sub-continent’s many a rugged time-tested awe-inspiring forts and palaces. Ahead of the forts, dominating the skyscapes, there are Havelis with frescoes, heavenly Palaces and god-carved Temples. Watch out for the forts of Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Chittorgarh and Kumbhalgarh; Palaces of Jaipur and Udaipur; Havelis of Shekhawati and Jaisalmer; Temples at Ranakpur, Mount Abu (Dilwara) and Osiyan
• Multi-cuisine kitchen: An overwhelming array of cuisine with pure ghee overflowing and served with warmth that you’ll end up ‘overfed’. Dal bati, misi roti etc are frequents. For non-veg taste buds there are yummy Sulas (chicken, pheasant, mutton, or fish) as the drooling tongues of many a eaters say whom this pure-veg writer accompanied till various eatries.
• Folk Music, Songs, Dances and Folklores: No dance festival in India is complete without a presentation from Rajasthan. The folk artistes set free can rock anyone! A visit to any festival or fair of Rajasthan can get one a glimpse of whirling kalbeliya dance (snake dance), ghoomar, chari, gair dance etc.
• Colorful Arts and crafts: You’re at the best place and article if you were looking forworld famous gems and jewelries and enameling (minakari) and lapidary (kundankari) technique; Miniature Rajasthani Paintings; Tie-and Dye (bandhani); leather work; blue pottery; stone and sculpture work and so on. The list is endless. Shoppers know it. Jaipur, the State Capital, see a lot of tourists only on a shopping spree with a wish to buy whole of Rajasthan.

There is more than one way to see a thing. So is the case with Rajasthan. Explore Rajasthan with any or all of these amazing experiences:

• Overland Safari: Rajasthan can boasts of the best road connectivity in any touristic state in India. It is an average 5-6 hrs of drives from one destination to the next. And the experience gets amazing when one cuts across the rural Rajasthan alongside its highways. See the sandscapes en route Jaisalmer to Bikaner or Jaisalmer to Jodhpur; village life is gets more pronounce from Bikaner to Mandawa and it gets refreshingly green around kumbhalgarh-Udaipur-Ranakpur circuit. And with a hospitable driver at your service the overland drives of Rajasthan are a smooth sailing. Only hiccups come with numerous photo opportunities, herd of sheep or cattle crossing the road and curious village kids waving hi and bye!
• Luxury Trains: out of six luxurious most trains of India two crisscrosses the vast desolate and lively expanse of Rajasthan. One is Palace-On-Wheels which is India’s oldest luxury train and rated amongst top five luxury trains of the world and the second one is Royal Rajasthan On Wheels which is the latest in the fleet added during January 2009
• Desert Safari: Experiencing desert on a camel expedition in a moonlit night is an experience of a lifetime. You need no more words on this. Come join the caravan at Sam Sand Dunes, Jaisalmer!
• Ballooning and Zipping: Bored of overland exploration. Try going foot-free. First option, go aloft in a hot-air-balloon and have a bird’s eye view of Jaipur, Neemrana, Pushkar, Udaipur and Ranthambore. Second option is much more thrilling. Go zipping turtle between battlements, hill forts and ridge tops located at Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur and Neemrana Fort Palace near Delhi.

Source by Kamal Sarawgi

The post Rajasthan Travel – Best of Hospitality and Attractions appeared first on ENFEW.

Kipling stayed at Erskine House in Lorne, where, according to the poem he had a wonderful time in contrast to when he stayed at Lorne Lodge, an English boarding house where he and his sister Trix lived while their parents were working in India. Kipling was treated abysmally by his landlady Mrs Holloway so that memory was one of horror. Luckily, as expressed in his poem The Flowers it does seem that the Lorne in Australia with its sandy beach and clear blue waters on Louttit Bay compensated in some way for his unhappy childhood at the Lorne Lodge in England.

Nowadays, Lorne is used as the location for schoolies week because of its great beaches and laid back atmosphere. It is one of the most popular tourist spots in the region and has a number of great cafes and unique shops along the main street.

Former lead singer of the Australian band Goanna, Shane Howard, who lived for a long time in Torquay on the Surf Coast region of the Great Ocean Road sings about the road in the song Flesh And Blood and also in his song Razor’s Edge. Torquay is the surfing capital of the region and even if you don’t surf, is a great holiday spot to visit for individuals, couples, and families alike.

Another contemporary musician of international fame, Xavier Rudd draws heavily on the many influences of the surfing culture of Torquay. A committed environmentalist he is a one-man-band/multi-instrumentalist who plays guitars, Yidaki (didgeridoo), Weissenborn slide guitars, stomp box, harmonica, and percussion. Rudd has had a number of top-selling albums both in Australia and overseas where his barefooted-playing style has won him a legion of fans, many of them like Rudd himself, keen surfers and defenders of the environment. Rudd grew up near Bells Beach, emmortalised for its minor part in the surf film with Keanu Reeves, Point Break. He drew on that surfing lifestyle when he wrote the soundtrack for Matthew McConaughey’s movie Surfer Dude which starred Woody Harrelson and Willie Nelson.

Bells Beach today is the where the annual Rip Curl Pro surfing competition is held. Thousands of surfers and supporters of surfers flock to the region to see who will become the winner. For aspiring surfers, local companies offer surfing lessons and tips, and sell world-renowned surf gear by local entrepreneurs Rip Curl, Billabong, and Quiksilver.

Yet another artist inspired by the region is Jeff Raglus. Jeff has won fame as both a musician and as one of the design artists behind yet another summer clothing range called Mambo. He has also held many exhibitions of his own work in galleries in the region.

Mike Brady, famed for a song now synonymous with Australian Rules Football – Up There Cazaly, wrote an album of songs to coincide with the 75th Anniversary of the Great Ocean Road. Brady was quoted as saying he wrote most of his material whilst staying in his “Great Ocean Road hideaway near Lorne” which is ironic as his first sight of Australia was as a young boy emigrating by ship from England was Cape Otway on the Great Ocean Road.

Indeed, many people have been inspired by the area. Camping sites dot the Otways so that if you are into making your own music, some natural sounds from the rainforest adds something unique to all compositions.

English playwright Sheila Dewey wrote about Eva Carmichael and her cabin boy Tom Pearce and the ordeal they survived when their ship, the Loch Ard, sank in treacherous seas along the Great Ocean Road. They were the only two survivors. The play ran successfully in London theatres before it was recently transformed into a movie script and is currently attracting the interest of Hollywood producers.

The romantic story is set around the Twelve Apostles and recently when one of the bridges fell down, the two remaining stacks were named Tom and Eva after the two survivors. Take your camera for a fantastic picture of rugged waves, sheer cliffs, and gorgeous surrounds. You can virtually feel the romance here, especially at sunset.

It is easy to see how poets, playwrights, and pop stars can be taken in by the unparalleled beauty, charm, romance and sheer magnificence of the Great Ocean Road as it is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular regions in the world.

So, if you ever get the chance to go to Australia, make sure the Great Ocean Road is on your list of places to visit!

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Source by Tracy Roth-Rotsas

The post The Great Ocean Road – An Inspiration For Poets, Playwrights, and Pop Stars appeared first on ENFEW.

1) Get Your Sound Right Before Recording.

Try to perfect your overall sound before you record your songs. This minimizes the need for post-recording editing. You also want to make sure you use a good pair of headphones and listen carefully to the input stream coming from the microphones you use. You may need to use a mixer to adjust the frequencies. Also, you will want to be careful not to use too much reverb, because you don’t want your input to sound muffled.

2) Learn the Capabilities of Your Recoding Equipment and Software One At a Time, and Try Reading Your Manual.

This will help you avoid getting overwhelmed by all of the technical terms you may not bee too familiar with. You will also get a better understanding of how to use your recording equipment and software, so you can get the most out of your recording experience…and produce better recordings. Also, don’t forget to read your manual. Although you may tend to toss your manual aside, you’ll be surprised with what you can learn with your manual. Reading a manual can really speed up your learning curve, so you can begin producing your own music in no time!

3) Finish Your Songs!

If you are like many musicians, you’ll find that you have your hard drive full of “beginnings”, “openings” and first-halves of songs that you have never finished. You may work on it for a while, then you run out of ideas, or you get bored with it and start working on a new song instead. This is very common, but it is not a great thing to do.

Be disciplined and finish your songs, even if you seem to have lost interest in them. You should hold off on working on a new song until you completely finish your song. Worse case scenario, if you have a great idea for another song, jot down some notes or do a brief sound recording, then come back to it AFTER you finish the song you’ve been working on. If you don’t do this, you are setting yourself up to have several unfinished songs…therefore making it extraordinarily difficult if not impossible for you to reach your creative potential.

4) ALWAYS Create a Backup Copy of Your Music!

The last thing you want to do is create a masterpiece, then lose it all because your system crashes. ALWAYS create a backup copy of your music recordings. Things happen like power outages, hard drive crashes etc. Don’t let these misfortunes rob the world of your unique music creativity. ALWAYS backup your music!

To learn more tips about producing your music at home, visit this URL: http://www.indie-musicnetwork.com/recordmusic.html

Source by Traci Crowley

The post Produce Your Music At Home – 4 Tips for Producing Your Music at Home appeared first on ENFEW.

The popularity of PSP games is soaring day by day. There are various websites that let you download free games and other PSP stuff like wallpapers, movies, themes and music. Once you start to download free PSP games, you will get a variety of options. Browse for different websites that offer free PSP game downloads. To get free downloads, you need to pay the monthly membership and download fee. The PSP console is undoubtedly the best gaming device because of its astounding gaming abilities. If you are looking forward to saving money, find a website by searching on the internet and download free PSP games. Though you will have to pay upfront, you would get a big selection of games at a much faster download speed. Moreover, you can also save your hard earned money. These websites give you access to various PSP files like movies, themes, musicals and much more.

Take the membership of a website and download good quality games online which can be cheap. You can get thousands of free music download websites over the internet. If you are not sure that they are safe or really free, you can check for the pop ups which can be adwares. You can get many websites that offer free games to download. But they allow you to download a number of games per week, month or year. The PSP games are well-known for being able to play video games, music and lots more. There are websites that offer free games downloads and have tons of pop-ups. So you need to take care that your computer does not get infected by spywares and adwares.

The amazing gadget, PSP gaming device offers an enjoyable gaming experience. You need to know where you can get cheap PSP video games. Of course, you would like to buy and play the latest PSP games. If you purchase those games online, you may have to spend a fortune to download the latest games. But with just a minimal one time fee, you can get access to unlimited download of games. So, it is true that you can buy cheap PSP games online. Find action games, sports games, puzzles games in addition to movies, music, TV shows, themes, etc. It has become the best selling gaming device and people are appreciating it all over the world. The “free PSP downloads” would sound good but there are few things you need to keep in mind before you click on the “download” button. You need to be careful before you download something as there are websites that spread viruses and spywares which may damage your computer.

Keep your PSP loaded with the newest games so that you don’t have to get bored anytime. After signing up a website for getting free downloads, you can download music movies, free PSP video games with high download speed.

The Sony PlayStation Portable gaming system has become well accepted by the people. The advanced gaming capabilities give you an exciting gaming experience. The best part is you can easily access the newly released games and movies. The ease of use and fast download speed makes it easy to download PSP games. The popular games include Sims, Harry Porter, Armored Core, etc. Always check that you have chosen full money back guarantee option with the PSP download service. So if you are not fully satisfied, you can quickly have your money refunded.

Source by Jacob Marshal

The post Cheap PSP Games – Most Popular Video Games appeared first on ENFEW.

These days electronic keyboards are used to produce music. Musical keyboards have a long history and they are not new to the music world. There are various kinds available; you just need to choose the one which will be perfect for you. You will also find many different brands to choose from.

Using a keyboard is a great way to learn music, if you are really interested in music you must get one. They are quite easy to play if you learn seriously and once you start, it becomes very addictive. There are many models available. Each differs in their shape, size and price.

Top end keyboards have extra features and they are priced higher than their counterparts. They also allow you to produce sounds of different musical instruments, and this is one of the better features. You can play the sound of a guitar as well as the piano, and other wonderful sounds can be produced on these modern keyboards.

Some of them also come with the option of composing and saving your own music. To buy a musical keyboard you can visit music stores selling musical instruments or you can find them easily on the internet. There are a lot of websites that will sell you great keyboards at a very reasonable price. If you are really fond of music and want to learn how to play the keyboard but do not have enough cash for a new model, then you can try out auction sites for used models and pick up a bargain.

Source by Mike Shaw

The post Interesting Facts About Musical Keyboards and Where to Buy Them appeared first on ENFEW.

The revelation truths expounded from the Song of Solomon has life-changing principles for our lives. Susan Tang has spoken clearly and boldly on issues of motives in serving the Lord and the need to do His will. This is a book for everyone who wants to understand the deepest meaning of God’s love which is the essence of any relationship especially in marriage. It helps us to define the standard of real love and its obligations.

Her message in this book is that God calls us to Himself alone. To fall in love with the Master and to find fulfillment in him as we respond to His demands of love will move us into maturity. We are not to live superficially but allow God to move us to where He wants us to be, find our security in Him and not in our ministry, profession, people or things.

The Demands of Love is of great encouragement. God uses the love story in Song of Solomon to depict His love relationship with the church. The love between a bride and a bridegroom is the freshest and the sweetest of all love; that is the way our relationship with the Lord is to be – fresh and sweet at all times. God gave us His best and He deserves the best in return.

Source by Elsa Shally

The post Book Review: The Demands Of Love By Susan Tang appeared first on ENFEW.

Every voice is different. Settings that help the voice of the top-selling artist to be at the top of the charts, might do nothing to help your voice. In fact, such settings might even harm it. Keep that in mind as you read advices regarding frequency numbers, etc.

Your voice is unique. And what is unique, has to be treated as such. That’s why opinions about microphones vary so much. I will say this though – the better the vocal recordings, the easier it is to mix them properly.

1. Equipment

Let’s say you take a picture of a sunset over Paris with an old, two megapixel camera. It’s going to be a great picture nonetheless. But if you try to make a poster out of it, you’ll end up with a blurry, pixelated mess. What the pixels and camera quality are to your eyes, bits and studio equipment are to your ears.

Expensive, high end studio equipment can indeed give you a sense of what makes it expensive, or to put it correctly, what makes it different. Using it is a good way to train your ears. But never suppose that quality lies in the price, because like I said, every voice is unique and just because something is expensive doesn’t mean it makes your voice sound better. With that said, if you ever have the chance to record with different studio equipment, different mics, different workstations etc., please do so! It will give you the opportunity to consider the best arrangement for your voice.

2. Environment

Keep recording sessions dry. You can add every reverb, and every room ambience you can think of with just a few clicks, but it is almost impossible to remove recorded room ambience from your signal. So, do everything possible to keep your room dry. If you have a booth, you are probably in a good situation. If you don’t have one, try to build one (it’s easier than you think-just Google “vocal booth selfmade” to get some inspiration). If you don’t have time or the money for it (you don’t need a lot), at least try to separate your recording area from the rest of your room in some way.

3. Panning and Track Numbers

Everybody has a different approach to panning and the number of vocal tracks that are necessary. I’ll just tell you my opinion.

The lead vocals for verses are usually placed in the center. If you want to give your listener a certain intimacy, it’s always better to use only one vocal track. It just keeps your mix clear and it makes the listening experience better. I’m not a fan of doubling the entire verse. With all the subtle differences between the two takes – including the consonants that never get matched up perfectly – it just makes your vocals sound messy. If you want a clear lead vocal, only use one track.

The next thing I would do is record two tracks in which you double certain parts of the verse. Pan them both in opposite directions (15 to 40), and reduce their volume. You have to hear a difference between the doubled part and the part without doubles, but don’t make it that obvious. Just so that it gives your vocals and the meaning of what is being said in certain parts more power. Doubling is quite common in all kinds of music, especially in rap music. If you are singing, rather than rapping, be careful when doubling because it can make your vocals sound too artificial and too pop-ish. On the other hand, if you are going for that pop sound, doubling might be a great tool for you!

In the chorus, you can record two vocal tracks and pan them between 30 to 60 – one to the left, one to the right. Another option would be to record a third track, which is placed in the center, but not as loud as the lead vocals in your verses.

Some people record one lead track and double it (copy and paste it) and edit them differently (EQ, compressor, pitch, etc.) This can be another great tool to make your vocals sound different in certain parts of the song, just like the panning advices I mentioned above. Try it out and see how you like it.

4. Equalizing Vocals

At first, add a low cut filter on every vocal track. It’s quite common to raise the frequencies from 2 kHz and up for female vocals, and 3 kHz and up for male vocals. Frequencies between 6 and 8 kHz are very sensitive because this is the place where the S sounds are at home. Be careful here. What sounds good and clear on your studio monitors, might feel like needle-sticks to your ear when listening with earphones. Always double- and triple-check your mix on different playback devices like monitors, headphones, earphones, etc.

If the S is too sharp, reduce it. You can either add a native de-esser in your DAW by applying a dynamic equalizer, or by manually reducing every S in your vocal recording. The latter is the most time-consuming, but gives you the most control. Keep in mind that equalizers and de-essers don’t recognize consonants, they recognize frequencies. And some consonants might share the same frequencies as the S. So only apply native de-essers with caution.

5. Reverb

When adding reverb, keep in mind that the lead vocals should usually be just that – leading. So, adding too much reverb is disadvantageous. Only use small room reverbs. You shouldn’t even recognize the reverb, except when it’s gone. It also depends on the instrumental. If there’s a lot going on in your instrumental already, a big reverb would probably be too much for the song. Yet if your instrumental has much room/space, reverb on vocals can be very effective.

6. Breathing Sounds

Of course, your vocal recordings will include breathing sounds. Whether the presence of such breathing sounds should be strong or weak is a question of personal taste. In my opinion, they are extremely important. That doesn’t mean they should be extremely loud though. It means you should edit them separately and with great care.

If a breath is too loud, then reduce its volume. If it is too long, then replace it with a good breath from the same take or from another one. If a breath makes a certain part feel too hectic, then remove it. If it feels like a breath is missing, add one.

These adjustments can improve the flow of your recordings and make your individual takes feel more cohesive. They can also be used as a kind of glue to stick two consecutive takes together to make them feel like they were recorded at once!

But: Don’t double them, and don’t cut them. Always fade in and fade out.

7. Consonants

If you have recorded one lead vocal track and two doubling tracks for a phrase such as, “I’m looking at the mist,” you mind encounter a rattling noise at the end, because the three T’s of “mist” will not appear at the exact same time. You can either move them closer together, so the rattling sound disappears, or you can remove two of them. Fade out the tracks you removed the consonant from to avoid unwanted cutting sounds.

8. Breaks

Many people avoid breaks because they want to finish their project or they don’t believe breaks are necessary. But human senses get accustomed to both good and bad stimulations. You might not recognize something in a room, if you just came in from the sun, but once your eyes adjust, you will notice all sort of things you had missed. When you enter a restaurant, you might perceive good smells, but after you have been sitting at your table for a while, your perception of those smells vanishes. The same thing happens with your ears. If you have been mixing vocals for a couple of hours, you might think they sound good and clear, but the next day, you might just feel ashamed at how muddy they sound.

Take short breaks, if that is all the time you can afford. Taking longer breaks – in which you change your environment – is better. And before you perform your final mix, set your project aside for a couple of days. It’ll give you fresh ears when you resume. At least try it once. Afterward, I think you’ll be pleased that you didn’t release your music without a two-day break.

That’s it for now. Try to apply some of this the information and see how it fits. Consider thes
e advices and numbers as a point of reference, but always let your ears decide! Experiment, have fun, and do what YOU like!

Source by Matt W

The post 8 Tips on How to Make Vocals in Music Recordings Sound Professional appeared first on ENFEW.

Your primary skill as a songwriter is to pick the right notes and right chords to go with the right words and right song title and write them into a song.

You write a song for whom?

Firstly, for the end listener. The person who will actually emotionally and financially buy the song, either through buying a CD or record or buying a live performance of the song.

Secondly, for the record company, who will turn a song into a product (like a record or CD) that can be delivered to the end user through radio or retail stores.

Thirdly, for radio programmers, who decide what their listeners will listen to.

Fourthly, for the performer of the song who has to provide a performance that the record company will want to capture and the radio station will want to play.

Now you could argue for more people to be added to this list or for this list to be reordered. But essentially these are the people for whom a recording songwriter writes.

So, now you know who to write for, how to become a songwriter for these listeners is the key question.

What key skills do you need to become a songwriter?

As a songwriter you must know how to write lyrics, how to write melody, how to write chords and how to write your song as a lead sheet. As a song owner and seller you must also know how to select the song to demo and how to record a compelling demo.

Put another way, as a songwriter, you are a lyric writer, a melody writer, a chord writer and a lead sheet writer. That is, to be considered a songwriter, you must write in these four dimensions.

You could be a solo songwriter like Billy Joel and Bob Dylan do all four things yourself. Or you could be part of a partnership like Lennon-McCartney or Holland-Dozier-Holland and specialise in either a lyric or music role or move between the roles, depending on the song.

Writing lyrics

So, how to become a lyric writer is one of the sub questions of the big question: how to become a songwriter.

The key skill is the ability to be able to tell a story rather than just throw words or rhymes together. One of your key lyric skills is to be able to create song titles and then write your lyric around that.

There are various conventions about loading your chorus up with your title lines and using your verse and bridge to support that line. In addition you need to learn to write your story within conventional forms.

Fortunately, there are loads of resources both on and offline that can teach you how to write lyrics. Naturally, to become a lyric writer you need to write habitually and exercise your skills daily.

The challenge of melody

Unfortunately there is not as much resource around that can support you in becoming a melody writer. Whereas there is a sound lyric writing literature available to songwriters, no comparable literature exists for melody writing skills.

Much of what passes for melody writing advice lives is often the twins of superstition and obscure theory in drag, neither of which actually tells the melody writer how to choose the best notes for their melody. Nor teach them how to become a songwriter.

The two main melodic skills you need are the concepts of contour and span. Contour means melodic direction and shape and whether any given note is at a higher, lower or same pitch as the previous one.

Jack Perricone identifies four contour shapes in his book entitled Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs (Berklee Guide).

There are in fact hundreds of contours, depending on how many notes there are in your melodic phrase. These contours can effectively show you how to become a songwriter. At the moment there is only one melodywriting site online that educates songwriters about these melodic goldmines.

Span is also important to your melodies and ensures that you write for ordinary people who will sing and hum your melodies as they wash their car or vacuum their house or console themselves. Attention to span means you will write for your fans, not for virtuoso singers who never buy or sing pop music generally, let alone yours.

Anyone seriously wanting to know how to become a songwriter will not neglect melodic span.

Chords and harmony

Fortunately one area where songwriters are relatively well served is in the chord writing area. There is no shortage of stuff that teaches you scales, chords and chord progressions. Compared to learning lyric writing and melody writing, learning scales and chords is straight ahead, like learning a yellow pages directory.

The more songs you write, the more you realise how secondary chords and voicings are when you are dealing with the absolute core of songwriting: deciding which notes go best with which words.

Scales and chords are not useful at this time. They are very important however after you have selected the notes and words for your song and it’s time for an arranger and a producer to arrange your notes and words into voices and sounds that your fans will love.

Nevertheless, choosing the right chord for your melody is an important part of how to become a songwriter.

So in becoming a songwriter you are becoming a lyric writer, a melody writer and a chord writer. But as important as these skills are, the most important skill has not been mentioned yet.

Rhythm to song is like oxygen to life

A key part of how to become a songwriter is how to become a talker, reader, writer and player of rhythm.

While we can think of rhythm as being a separate concept (and there are good reasons for this view) it is so embedded in lyric, melody and harmony, that you need to understand how rhythm integrates each aspect as well as how it separates from each too.

Words consist of meaning and rhythm. Melody consists of pitch and rhythm. Harmony consists of simultaneous sound and rhythm. Rhythm consists of rhythm and timbre. There is no escaping the importance of rhythm and understanding, talking, reading, writing and playing rhythm is a key part of how to become a songwriter.

Again, like melody, the news is not so hot here.

Ethnomusicologists report on many cultures around the world who have rich, verbal languages for counting and talking rhythm. Musicians of South India are rich in this regard. Musicians of the west are not so blessed. Which slows our rhythm education down a bit. And hamstrings us as songwriters if we do not overcome this handicap.

Fortunately with the emergence of rhythmeggio–which is like the solfeggio for rhythm—songwriters now have a simple to learn language that allows them to talk, read and write rhythm like their first language.

And speed up their understanding of how to become a songwriter and their ability to write an acceptable number of songs to acceptable levels a lot quicker than they otherwise would.

How to become a songwriter in summary

So the keys aspects of successfully knowing how to become a songwriters lie in becoming proficient at writing lyric, at writing melody, at writing chords which in turn is accelerated by your ability to talk, read and write rhythm.

These are the skills that allow you to pick the right notes and right chords to go with your words and song title and so earn you the right to call yourself a songwriter.

Source by Taura Eruera

The post How To Become A Songwriter appeared first on ENFEW.

Don’t Show Any Of Your Fans Anything But Your Best Work

There are literally millions of videos on YouTube and the rest of the internet, and it is beyond easy for your content to get lost in the shuffle of pre-existing material out there. If you want people to get excited about your work and fully understand how to sell a screenplay, you need to, as the old song famously says, “give them something to talk about.” Make sure your treat your fans the way you would treat industry insiders, and you may be surprised at how far you get.

Don’t Show Anyone In The Industry Anything But Your Best Work

This should by all accounts be a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how often this is overlooked by writers who are new to the industry and do not yet know how to sell a screenplay. Remember, you only get exactly one chance to make a first impression, and to be frank, this industry has a long memory and a very small tolerance for foolishness, so if you have the opportunity to put a foot forward in the door somewhere, make 100% certain that it’s your best one.

Don’t Pressure People – Let Them Come To You

This is by far the simplest one of the tips that will be listed here in terms of understanding how to sell a screenplay. Once you’ve given them the script, treat the situation as if you were trying to date the person. There’s a fine line between being passionate and being clingy, and you want to be sure you stay on the former side of it so that you can successfully manage to sell a screenplay.

Source by John Halas

The post How to Sell A Screenplay – It’s What You Know and Who You Know! appeared first on ENFEW.

Since your intention is to sell your own music online, the following are several things to help you get started.

Create good quality music and then prepare them for free digital music distribution on MP3, CD and more. You could also create a video to use as promotional material. You should pay close attention to sound quality, because you don’t want to give people below average audio quality. Copyright your songs. Naturally, you have to own music before you are able to sell them. This is why it’s important to get copyright for your songs. Visit the copyright office or check the websites for requirements that will allow you to get this process done easily.

Promote the music on forums, social networks or from your own site. Internet marketing can be fast and easy, so take full advantage of social networking websites, blogs and forums. With good promotions online, you are guaranteed to sell a lot of music. One of the effective ways to sell your music on the internet is to give sample or demos for people to listen in order to buy the full CD.

Make use of online stores such as eBay and Amazon to sell your music. You can sell this on CD or as a downloadable. It’s also possible to sell your music on sites that enable the independent musicians to sell their songs. Promotion will also be important, so you want good materials to ensure that you are selling music regularly.

Establish your own musical style, sound and image. Singers sell no just because of their singing abilities and voice, but image or overall package will make a difference. As a result, before you even start to think about selling your music, its best to come with an overall package that is sellable. In addition ensure that practice a lot before distributing the final CD.

Source by Mark Bogdanovic

The post Free Digital Music Distribution appeared first on ENFEW.

The K-Pop clothing and accessories are quite popular among teenagers. All school going girls and boys just feel so connected to these artists and songs that they want to own T-shirts and accessories representing their names and songs. The craziness associated with these pop bands among teenagers can only be understood by another fan only. These fans want to purchase clothing and accessories of their favorite artists like Jimin or Suga.

These T-shirts and all other accessories are becoming popular day by day and their demand has gone up quite quickly. There are many online clothing stores solely dedicated to these K-Pop culture. Their all clothing has been manufactured representing the Korean Pop culture and features the most favorite bands for the customers.

What are the benefits of buying them online?

• The online stores surely understand the craziness associated with these K-Pop songs and artists. That is why they manufacture and supply you the T-shirts and accessories with names of your dearest artists inscribed/printed on them. These online sites never question your fondness towards your ideal. Right?
• The standard online shopping sites deliver the best products at best process. The prices of the products are kept at a reasonable rate than any other physical store of your locality so that no individual would be disappointed.
• The quality of the products purchased from the standard online store will be of great quality. They will be color fats and non- shrinkable. At the same time, they will make you look great with your favorite star’s name written on your clothes. Isn’t it?
• These online stores supply these T-shirts and other related items at the shortest time possible. These items can be sent not only to local areas, but out of that region too. Therefore, a fan living far from the place can also order and wear their favorite stars T-shirts or caps. The courier services can be trusted well.

What problems can you face while purchasing these clothing from a physical store?

• The shop usually says the product is out-of-stock either due to shortage or fast sale.
• The desired artist’s T-shirts could be out of stock. Suppose you want a Jimin T-shirt, but they want to give you some other artist’s item. It is so irritating.
• The other problems could be higher prices, low quality of the product and bad behavior of the staff. It could possibly be anything.

There are few people and organization that understands your fondness and love towards your ideal and favorite artists of K-Pop culture. There are definitely some clothing sellers who genuinely want to cater to your love towards your favorite artists.

Source by Shalini Mittal

The post Are You Crazy for K-Pop Clothing and Accessories? appeared first on ENFEW.

An incredible artist with exceptional music talent as both a singer and songwriter is it any wonder that he once again holds the title of entertainer of the year from the Academy of Country Music. He is a good-looking man who writes songs with meaningful lyrics that so many ordinary people can relate to and he has a charismatic stage presence. When Kenny goes on tour tickets to a concert will sell out quickly and he has a global adoring fan base.

Kenny has recorded more than a dozen albums and more than 30 Top Ten singles many of which have reached number one. He has celebrated the sale of more than 25 million albums and God knows where he keeps all his awards because he has had nearly 100 nominations and more than 20 awards during his career.

His first Billboard Number One single “She’s Got It All” from his “I Will Stand” album released in 1997 spent three weeks at the top of the country charts and 1999 saw his first platinum-selling album, “Everywhere We Go”. Both of these were just the beginning of a long and successful career brimming with accolades from fans and the music industry alike.

Kenny has performed at venues across the country from The Gillette Stadium; Massachusetts to the White House regularly with sell out concerts and successful high-grossing tours.

Kenny’s personal life has not always been quite so successful as his music career with a brief marriage to actress Renee Zellweger in May 2005, followed by an announcement for a pending annulment as early as September 2005 the couple finalized the annulment in December 2005. Chesney has apparently been dating Amy Colley a former Miss Tennessee USA since August this year, 2008.

Did I say Kenny Chesney is hot in more ways than one? If you are a fan looking for pictures of the man himself you will find websites devoted to pictures of Kenny in a myriad of situations, attractive outfits and appealing poses for the camera and his adoring fans. You can also get access to his discography, biography tour dates and other information from different websites. If you are looking for memorabilia or merchandising there are numerous avenues available on the Internet to buy and collect Kenny Chesney merchandising and memorabilia.

Most importantly if you are really interested in Kenny or you are already a fan then I am sure you would agree that as far as Kenny Chesney goes nothing beats a live concert and an extensive collection of the music from the man himself.

Source by John Thomson

The post Kenny Chesney – A Legend of Country Music appeared first on ENFEW.

Reading also keeps your brain healthy. A man needs a good friend. A book is as like as friend. Book reading is good time pass in the traveling. He never feels bored. He feels happy in the reading. Reading gives the kind of pleasure. Some books we read simple for pleasure and amusement for example, good novels and books of imagination must have their place in every body’s reading.

Generally we read this type of books for the knowledge and refreshment:

Navalkatha,

Short Stories,

Drama, Essay – Article,

Poems,

Vivechan,

Biography,

Travel,

Health,

Inspirational,

Palmistry,

Translations,

Vastusashtra,

General Knowledge,

English Education,

Dictionary,

Sex Education,

Gujarati Education,

Female Related,

Comics,

Child Care.

There are few authors whose books are very popular and best seller now a days.

Kaajal Oza Vaidya: Kaajal Oza Vaidya is a new age writer. She is very famous in all age group of readers. There are 25 books of Kaajal Oza Vaidy’s has been released. She has written 23 Novels (Navalkatha), Lekhsangrah, Navlika, Letters, Poems.Some are very famous like Krishnayan, Vahli Astha, Ekbijane Gamta Rahie, Maunraag, Tara Chaherani Lagolag and Yog Viyog.

Tarak Mehta: Tarak Mehta is very famous author now a days.Still he is a age of 80 but his writing is like 20’s. His Tarak Mehta Na Undha Chashma is very popular book.Serial Tarak Mehata ka Ulta Chashma is telecast on SAB TV which is full of humor.This All are all time hits of Tarak Mehta, Bagicha Ni Halvi Hawa Ma, Action Replay Part 1&2, Jethalal No Jekpot, Tarak Mehta No Tapudo, Tarak Mehtana Undha Chashma and many more…

Zavechand Meghani: Zavechand Meghani was a very wellknown author.He wrote over 100 of different types of books,19 biography,4 drama books,14 Novels,9 Poetry,10 Short Stories,11 Folk Songs,13 Falk Tals,13 Others.His Saurashtrani Rasdhar is very good book.

Gunvant Shah: Gunvant Shah Born in Rander (Surat) on March 12, 1937; was educated in Surat and Baroda.He was Worked as Lecturer and Reader in the M. S. University of Baroda, Visiting Professor to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (U.S.A.) HeWrites lyrical essays, poetry, novels in Gujarati. Published many books literary and educational.His famous books are Tahuko, Ghandhi Na Chashma, Krishna Mari Drashtie etc…

If you are looking for Gujarati Books at the affordable price then you are at the right place. Our online shop has collection of all Gujarati books and English book.

Source by Bharat Peripleko

The post Best Seller Gujarati Books appeared first on ENFEW.

In the past year, JLS have been signed to Epic Records, supported Lemar on his 2009 spring tour, performed alongside Dizzee Rascal, Calvin Harris and The Saturdays at T4 On The Beach, and — in between all this — managed to record their highly anticipated, self-titled, debut album, which today reached number one in the album chart, beating the likes of Robbie Williams and Snow Patrol! Although JLS came second on X-Factor, some may argue they have achieved more than rival Alexandra Burke, who won the competition.

So what’s next for the band? With a performance on Children In Need this Friday, and leading T4’s Stars Of 2009 on the 29th, JLS are keeping busy. With an ever-growing fan base behind them, JLS are hot property right now, and their recent come-back performance on X-Factor was a huge success. Their 2010 tour kicks off at the end of January, and tickets are selling in their thousands, so it doesn’t look like JLS will be gone anytime soon.

Source by Matt Tutt

The post Whats Next For the Hugely Popular JLS Boyband From X-Factor? appeared first on ENFEW.

*Article updated for 2015*

TuneCore Review 2015 – The Good Stuff

First, artists receive 100% of net gain on all sales. If you’re selling a lot of music, this is definitely a lucrative aspect for you.

Second, you get a TuneCore Media player for the specific purpose of promoting your single/album release. This means you can share it on social media sites, your website, blog, etc.

Third, you’ll receive weekly trend reports from iTunes plus official music sales reports from all stores selling your songs. This is critical if you want to have an effective marketing plan.

Fourth, lacking cover art? No problem – TuneCore will make it for you.

Fifth, TuneCore is partnered with all the big digital companies like iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon MP3, Simfy & Deezer.

Sixth, TuneCore will collect publishing royalties for you, including mechanicals and public performance rights for a one-time payment of $75.00. (TuneCore’s cut of your publishing royalties is 10%, but you keep sole ownership of your songs).

Important Extras: Ringtone Distribution and something that is absolutely critical – 24 hour Customer Service Response because inevitably something will go wrong.

TuneCore Review 2015 – The Not-so Good Stuff

First, they don’t provide UPC barcodes for your tunes; this means you won’t be able to rank on “top” sales charts by Billboard and other music news publishers.

Second, TuceCore charges a yearly fee as long as you sell your music through them. For example, you pay $49.99 per album for every year TuneCore distributes it.

Third, TuneCore will only distribute your music digitally – no physical sales. This may not be such a big deal depending on how your fans consume music.

Fourth, there aren’t many extras compared to CD Baby.

TuneCore Review – Pricing

Type of Sale (All Digital): Single Album

You Get: 100% Net Sales*

TuneCore’s Cut: $29.99 first year; $49.99 every year thereafter (this is for every album you upload)

Type of Sale: Single Song

You Get: 100% Net Sales*

TuneCore’s Cut: $9.99 first year and every year thereafter

Type of Sale: Single Ringtone

You Get: 100% Net Sales*

TuneCore’s Cut: $19.99 first year and every year thereafter

Extra: Publishing Administration

You Get: 90% of Royalties**

TuneCore’s cut: $75 one-time fee; TuneCore takes 10% of all publishing license fees, including mechanical and public performance royalties

*Keep in mind, you receive 100% of Net Sales. The digital distributors that TuneCore is partnered with take their cut first. For example, iTunes gets roughly 30¢ per $1.00 song sold. This means your take would be 70¢. Note that this rule applies to all music distributors.

**TuneCore provides some perks in addition to your 90%. If you have music being distributed by other companies like Ditto Music, you can still register your copyright through TuneCore. The one-time service fee covers all songs you may compose in the future. Also, TuneCore collects royalties worldwide.

Source by Harrison Welshimer

The post TuneCore Review 2013: The Good and the Bad appeared first on ENFEW.

Off the Wall established Jackson as a star in his own right (apart from the Jackson Five.) It included two #1 singles “Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” & “Rock with You” and has sold over 7 million copies to date in the United States alone.

His next album, 1982’s Thriller, established Jackson as a true superstar. In fact Jackson was so “big” during this time that probably the only valid comparisons as far as level of fame can be made with Elvis Presley in the 1950s and The Beatles in the 1960s.

Thriller went on to be the biggest selling studio album in world history and it still holds that title today. Thriller was more than just an album, it was a phenomenon and it was known for more than it’s music. The music videos made for the album changed the medium forever. In particular the groundbreaking “Thriller” video is likely the most famous video ever made and many still consider it to be the greatest achievement in music video history.

At this point Michael Jackson was the biggest pop star in the world. But over the next 27 years (until his untimely tragic death on June 25, 2009) he released only four studio albums: 1987’s Bad, 1991’s Dangerous, 1995’s HIStory, and 2001’s Invincible.

So was Michael really so “unproductive” during these 27 years or was he holding back a lot of recorded material? There are rumors that the latter is true. In fact, earlier this year it was reported that Jackson has over 100 songs recorded that have yet to be released and that he purposely set aside to only be released following his death.

Is that true? I don’t know. But if it is it gives MJ fans something to look forward to. Even though the “King of Pop” is gone, he may still have more music to share with us after all. 

Source by Jackson Weinheimer

The post Michael Jackson Only Released Six Studio Albums in the 30 Years From 1979 Through 2009 appeared first on ENFEW.

Here are several thoughts, questions and suggestions that will help you find the best ways to get your fans to buy your music and attend your shows:

1. Visits to your website or social network page are not equal to fans. Stick around long enough and you’ll amass visitors organically. ‘Friends’ are also not the same as real fans if they have never even listened to your music. Find and cater to those people in the masses who really love you and your music — the ones who actually mention individual songs or who reply to your comments. You may want to work to get a few people to spend a lot of money each, rather than a lot of people trickling in a few cents here and there. It will add up quickly.
2. There is an enormous amount of competition out there. What are you doing to keep people on your website or social network page long enough to make that crucial buying decision? 30- or 60-second samples of your songs often won’t do the trick. Stagnant pictures are often not enough. However, videos of you performing, being interviewed, living life off stage, for example, are all ways to keep people glued to your page or website. Interesting blogs, contests etc. can also do the trick. Engage your visitors long enough to move them from casual onlooker to dedicated fan.
3. Who you know who your fans really are? Do they have money? Is it disposable income? Some demographics are not as wealthy as others, especially when the economy is depressed. Be sure you are marketing yourself to people who have the money to spend on both downloads and show tickets.
4. Do you cater to a demographic that buys music online? Some demographics are known to purchase a lot of music online, while others still prefer CDs. Some purchase a lot of ring tones, while others do not. Know your fans and their buying habits.
5. Do you make it easy for your fans to purchase your music? Is there a link on every one of your social network pages and on your website to purchase music on the spot, or do they have hunt to try to find your music on another website to buy it?
6. Where are your most ardent fans? If you know this, you can set up your tours to coincide with where your largest and most dedicated fan bases are. You can learn this with surveys and other fan-tracking widgets. Be sure to collect zip codes when your fans sign up for your newsletter, so that you can specifically market to them when you’re going to be performing in their region.
7. People can listen to music for free all day long. Many are used to not paying for it. So, are you giving them a reason to buy your music? For example, does buying your music enter them in a contest for a grand prize? If they order your CD can they buy an autographed picture, or a t-shirt for 1/2 price? How about offering a couple of free downloads if they buy your CD. You need to convince them that it is worth both their time and money to take their credit card out and spend their hard earned money on your music. Always give them more value than they are paying for!
8. Are you building relationships with your fans, or are they just numbers to you? Do you have a newsletter that you send out monthly to your fans? Do they know more about you than just what you sound like? Are your communications robot-like, or do you actually carry on a dialogue with your fans? Do you have candid videos or photos or is everything ‘professional’? Fans want to get to know you. They want to feel like an ‘insider’ — a real friend — not just another email address.
9. Are you touring? People love to buy music from acts that they have seen. They buy a reminder of the experience. Touring helps you create a buzz! This is especially true if you perform a lot in just a few select regions rather than scattered all over. By returning to regions every few months, you give your new fans a chance to show off their ‘find’ and bring their friends to see you. The cycle repeats itself each time you return, to the point where eventually you have enough fans in each area to move up to bigger and higher-paying venues!
10. Are you giving people reasons to buy now rather than later? For example, can you offer a limited pressing of a CD? An example would be, “We are only selling 500 copies of this CD with this cover and an autographed insert.” There’s a reason why infomercials have that famous line… “Order in the next 10 minutes and you’ll also get___”
11. Is your music priced to sell? Would you rather sell 5,000 CDs at $10 each and make $50,000, or 1000 CDs at $15 and make $15,000? Do you want 200 people to buy a $10 ticket to your show to clear $2,000, or 50 people to buy a $25 ticket to clear $1,250? Remember that 200 fans at a show will enable you to sell 4 times the CDs and merchandise after the show! Know what your fans are willing and able to pay.
12. Are you creating anticipation in advance for your new music, or are you just putting it out there when the recording is done? Are you counting on your ‘friends’ to return to your site on their own to see if you’re released new music, or are you driving them there to hear something they’ve been anxiously waiting for? Are you feeding them ‘sneak peaks’ of your newest music? There is a reason why you see commercials for movies that won’t be in theaters for another month. It’s all about building the excitement and anticipation.

The bottom line is that there are thousands of independent musicians trying to sell their music to the same people you are. Your job is to give your fans a reason to buy your music and merchandise instead of or in addition to someone else’s. Get creative. Engage them enough that they want to take something with them when they leave your gig or website!

By VinnyRibas

Source by Vinny Ribas

The post Selling More Music – 12 Ways to Convert Fans Into Buyers appeared first on ENFEW.

If you know that piece of trivia, congratulations! It was the song, High Hopes in the movie, Hole in the Head (not the most famous movie, I admit). The song became more poplar after Frank Sinatra recorded it in 1961.

In the wake of today’s turbulence, the lyrics seem banal:

Next time you’re found, with your chin on the ground,

There a lot to be learned, so look a – round.

Just what makes that little old ant

Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant?

Anyone knows an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant,

But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes…

And ant probably can’t move a rubber tree plant by itself, but if it kept hopeful enough, it’s probability of success increases, because with a hopeful attitude, inspiration has a place to strike. And with hope, resiliency reigns. Without it, despair can paralyze and slow down effective solutions to a standstill.

High hopes may seem like a myth when we look around today at all the suffering, de-fragmentation, unhappiness, and outright fear, terror, and paranoia. Yet, brain research continues to amass data that hopeful people are more effective problem solvers. What’s more, it is very clear that what we pay attention to grows. And conversely, what we fail to give our attention to, shrinks. If we focus on our hope, our hope grows. If we are awash in despair…well, that, of course, washes out our hope.

Are we seeing our son’s strengths or are we overwhelmed by his lack of motivation? If we don’t pay attention to his strengths, those surely won’t grow and the “problem” of motivation will surely increase. Are we noticing our daughter’s thoughtfulness or do we always comment on her grumpiness? That’s the way to make the grumpiness grow. The human brain isn’t a whimsical device that acts randomly. No, it acts according to a finely-tuned set of principles. And one of those major principles is that the focus of our attention span, to a large degree, creates the reality we experience. This is not New Age mumbo jumbo, although new-agers have capitalized on this fascinating aspect of our brain’s operating system. There has been much academic research on the subject. In fact, Appreciative Inquiry, one of the cornerstones of the PCI coaching model is a process methodology that stems from this research. Appreciative Inquiry itself has been researched to work powerfully because it applies strategies with the human brain’s propensities in mind.

The fact is hope will increase, if we pay attention to hopeful occurrences. Pretty soon, there are more hopeful things to talk about and our talk is filled with more hope. With more hope in front of us, we spot it in others and in our world more often and more quickly. Before we know it, the negative things are shrinking from lack of attention and the positives have increased-almost as if by magic! Of course, then we become more hopeful…the upward spiral continues…more good things happen.

Our world challenges us greatly to shift our attention to the hopeful, to what brings and enhances life. And I believe it affects our parenting profoundly. How can we stay focused on hope, on the positive, and on what is working in our daily lives with our children?

Here are five considerations for hopeful parenting in troubling times.

In his research, CR Synder (The Psychology of Hope, The Free Press, 1994) found these important indicators:

1. Hopeful parents know how to get what they want. They are determined and enjoy being enterprising and flexible, especially during difficult times. Determination can be found in having a clear vision of what we want for our children and our families. Determination means having the mental energy and the physical stamina to stay with a challenge long enough for an effective solution to transpire. If we give up, we can be sure to be defeated. Your self-care goes a long way to helping you stay determined when the going gets rough. Pay attention to the signs of when you feel like giving up. Instead think of what you can give to yourself and to your children that will focus on your internal strengths and enhance your perseverance.

2. Hopeful parents listen well. Listening and paying close attention to our children’s strengths increases our flexibility to change courses if our parenting strategy is not getting the results that we seek. Often we can learn from our kids what is needed once we follow our instincts and answer this question from our integrity: What will bring more life to this situation? As we observe our children from this perspective, we may find ourselves suddenly noticing lots of things that we can do to give them a sense of accomplishment, so they appreciate their talents in the moment and look forward to their future with hope.

3. The children view hopeful parents as successful. It seems that hopeful parents demonstrate their autonomy by feeling successful. This definition of success is not the definition that seems to be the one our world cares about-big house, big car, lots of money, etc. Rather success is measured as “Having a high self-esteem and positive images of themselves.” This affects children on many levels-positive parents with high self-esteem grow hopeful, happy, and confident children with high self-esteem!

4. Hopeful parents comfort well. When things get worrisome or really tough, hopeful parents comfort the children and act in supportive ways during high-stress situations. Being there emotionally is a characteristic of parents who are more hopeful. They do not let negative energies affect their ability to be present and available to their children. They are able to keep negativity at bay so that the children don’t translate it as: “There’s no time for me.” Parents laden with anxiety cannot be receptive to children’s emotional needs. Hopeful parents instill trust and openness in the parent-child communication process, keeping those doors open, even during adolescence!

5. Hopeful parents support children’s autonomy and competence. This does not mean anything goes. What is does mean is that by focusing on what the child does well every day, over time, the parent builds a strong sense of self in the child. With that comes the conviction in the child of his/her talents and skills. In the words of one of the children in Synder’s research: “The biggest thing I remember about my parents is that they taught me to do things for myself. But, I always knew they were there for me if I got in a jam…If I did foul up something, they would talk with me and not at me.”

It seems that the bottom-line for high-hopes parenting is that it can help keep us our best selves, even during difficult times, and bring out the best in our children.

Then anything is possible… for us, our children…even our world.

Copyright Gloria DeGaetano, 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Source by Gloria DeGaetano

The post Are You a High Hopes Parent? How Your Positive Thinking Affects Your Child appeared first on ENFEW.

It is no exaggeration to place some of our best loved birds in the category of endangered, where once they were in abundance and were taken very much for granted.

As I study the golden hues of the oriole and the amazing detail displayed within these miniature works of art, it becomes ever more apparent to me that the artist loves his subject.

James Stewart was the major contributing artist for the ‘Naturalist Library’ compiled by William Jardine during the Victorian era, producing over 1000 illustrations for the collection.

I know times have changed, but surely, the beauty of these birds can still be appreciated, by any culture and any place. They give a glimpse, a flash of color, as they fly past us. They do not belong to anyone and speak of the freedom that we all crave, as they dart in and out of our lives.

In the past, birds such as the Oriole, Swallows, and Red backed shrikes and the like were welcome regular visitors to our shores. Numbers have been dropping over recent years, which most had blamed on climate change and destruction of natural habitat. However, it appears, that something else, more sinister is taking place across vast stretches of Europe.

National Geographic published an article earlier in the year, about the traumatic experiences that migrating birds currently suffer while travelling across Europe.

It was heart breaking to read how certain countries view these beautiful birds as pests, food or sport.

This has always been the case to some extent however, with the use of new technologies and very sophisticated hunting techniques, some of Europe’s most beloved birds are facing an uncertain future.

Flying for thousands of miles, often without food and minimal rest, these birds heroically heed the call to mate in warmer climes. Throughout history, they have undoubtedly become subject to some culling and predators, as one might expect, but what they are suffering now is without mercy for even their existence as a species.

Now, we hear of mobile playing mating calls, being used to trap and kill huge numbers of these migrating birds. Using the most awful and cruel methods of capture, such as lime sticks and nets, these birds are then disposed of in a variety of ways.

Viewed as mere ‘visitors’ these stunning, vulnerable birds are subjected to barbaric deaths at the hands of man, for greed and sport.

Surely things will change, when these countries realise that these creatures are no longer in abundance, but are a rare visitor, they are once again glad to see. At least this is how I hope things will be, after all, it is hard to imagine these creatures being driven to the point of extinction for no good reason.

And so, while we have a terrible wait on our hands, while we wish our little travelling companions well, we also hope they can learn quickly to avoid these death traps and come home to where they are loved.

Source by Valerie L Holburn

The post The Last Song Birds – Migration of Our Most Loved Species Takes a Sinister Twist appeared first on ENFEW.

This report is about an equally quiet revolution that has massive repercussions for the publishing industry, and reveals how ordinary people – some not even writers in the traditional sense of the word – can propel themselves into a new world of prosperity. And I will show you how one person used this to create six figure incomes from publishing, (believe it or not), a nine page document.

A survey published by Readers Digest some five years ago revealed that 72% of people felt they ‘had a book inside them’, and the massive success of J. K. Rowling (real name, Joanne Murray) has prompted many to try their hand at writing for profit.

In many ways this is mirrored by the music industry. Every day thousands, if not millions of young hopefuls write and perform songs they hope will one day be a big hit, and thanks to a quiet but spectacular revolution in the music industry, more of these new songs are successful than ever before in history.

To see how the Internet Publishing Revolution will affect you, let me show you how its equivalent has already affected the music industry.

For over a hundred years, the Producers dominated the music industry. These companies were household names – EMI, Columbia Records, HMV, Decca, Virgin, CBS, BMG to name but a few, and the only chance of success any aspiring songwriter had lay in getting noticed by a record producer who would accept and promote their work.

And for most of that hundred years, music production was mechanical – vinyl records followed by cassettes and CDs. Then the force of an Internet revolution hit the music industry full in the face.

First, the MP3 file was invented by the German company Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft. In 1997, Tomislav Uzelac of AMP was the first to integrate player-software into Windows and in 1999 a company calledSubPopbecame the first to distribute music tracks in MP3 format. (Info courtesy of About.com – inventors.)

Music had suddenly gone digital.

The real breakthrough came in October 2001 when Apple released the iPod, a refined DAP (Digital Audio Player). DAPs were invented by the British inventor Kane Kramer. Other DAPs had preceded the iPod but Apple has long been associated with design excellence, not to mention that indefinable quality known as ‘cool’. The iPod took off.

What did these developments do to the traditional music industry, particularly music shops? It decimated it almost overnight. Sales of traditional CDs have collapsed worldwide and what’s left are sold on internet sites. The traditional local music store has either gone completely or diversified into gaming and accessories. On 7th January 2011, the Guardian newspaper wrote:

“In many US cities it’s difficult to find a record store. The last US HMV closed five years ago, Tower Records stopped trading soon after, and the last Virgin Megastore finally closed its doors 18 months ago. You may find a CD section in consumer electronic stores such as Best Buy or at Walmart, but the selection doesn’t stray far beyond the top 40.”

And yet, this massive sea change, whilst hammering producers and retailers, released an avalanche of new talent who could now record and produce their own music in their own bedrooms using little more than a good microphone and a laptop. The massive power of social networking on the Internet using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can now propel new talent (or the lack of it!) into the public eye without the need to go near a producer. At the height of the industry’s crisis, well-known rock bands and individuals simply forced labels to renegotiate their contracts.

“Musicians can self-publish if they like, selling their own tunes off their own websites. This has meant that top performers make unbelievable sums – far more than their counterparts in 1969. The Carpenters used to have to beg for money for a new car, while their albums sold millions. Now, because they can guarantee the big audiences, all that money the label used to take, the musicians get. So tens of millions flow their way. If you have any doubt, look at the private jets and helicopters owned and flown by the lead drummer for Pink Floyd. Or about any rapper on late night MTV. It would make a corporate CEO envious.” (Adam Hartung – thephoenixprinciple.com)

This is what the Internet music revolution did: It moved most of the income away from a small number of record producers directly into the hands of musicians.

Now let’s look at publishing, because what happened to the music industry is being repeated there. Let’s start with the technology first – the written equivalent of the MP3 file and DAP player.

In 1473 Thomas Caxton printed the first book produced in the English language using the revolutionary new printing press. With regard to the production of books, newspapers and magazines, very little has changed. It’s a hugely un-green industry. Lip service is paid to using sustainable forestry but even if that were entirely true, the process is extremely invasive, akin to ripping the heart out of mother earth and waiting for it to re-grow. Many of the chemicals and bleaches used are less than pleasant and until recently, the carbon powder used for the production of inks was regarded as a toxic carcinogen. Something has got to change.

Ironically, readers of books are often people with conscience and have an intellectual leaning to being kind to the environment. I say ironically because a few of them are less than impressed with the idea of getting rid of traditional books in favour of the publishing version of the iPod – the eBook Reader.

When the iPod first came out, its slogan was, ‘1000 tunes in your pocket.’ I cannot imagine how many CDs it would take to replace the songs on the average iPod but I am prepared to wager that the total cost to the environment of creating those physical CDs is vastly more than one iPod.

The eBook reader (eReader) is the book lover’s equivalent of the music lover’s iPod. ‘1000 books in your pocket.’ The equivalent of the MP3 file is undoubtedly Adobe’s PDF (Portable Document File). Every computer has Adobe’s PDF Reader installed because nearly every computer program now has its manual reproduced in this format. Why? Because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to stick a 200-page manual onto a CD than it is to rip down and process half a forest.

To be fair to those who still prefer paper books, there are a number of things about eReaders that are not as good as printed material.

First, the technology behind eReaders is still being developed. E-Ink screens still lack contrast and, like the first Ford automobile, you can have any colour you like as long as it’s black. Colour screens are still in development unless you pick on an iPad which doubles as an eBook reader although it is still a computer at heart. And yet, the day of an eBook reader that is just as good as the printed version is not far off. It may yet be that the iPad becomes the new eReader of popular choice or that Amazon’s Kindle will take the flag. We shall see.

Another annoyance is DRM or Digital Rights Management. Quite understandably, this is to prevent people file sharing and breaching copyright. It is still a major problem with music downloads and DVDs. The problem is that it seems every eReader producer has their own system, involving downloading software to your computer and endless messing about with their limited book titles and not being able to download someone else’s. Forests will fall until someone makes it simple to just buy an eBook online.

Nevertheless, the writing is on the wall for paper publishing. Newspapers like The Times are going on-line and require subscriptions to see today’s news. More and more books have digital versions. And to be perfectly frank, if it wasn’t for the sheer size of the w
hole printing industry, any half-green government would put an immediate quota, and tax, on anything so destructive to the environment. If fact the opposite holds true for eBooks, which are seriously green and yet are all taxed at the full rate of Vat.

Although the eReader equivalent of the iPod is still in the making, the day of the digital book is firmly here and will only increase while traditional bookshops are closing down at a rate of two a week.

The power of information publishing

While this sounds ominous from the point of view of conventional booksellers and publishers, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to authors, or what I prefer to call, ‘creators of written digital products.’ Like the musicians in the iPod revolution, the power (and the money) has moved away from the big publication houses into the ranks of the writers. And in the same way that one, fairly short pop single can change the fortunes of a new musician almost overnight, so can a small written equivalent change the fortune of even the most elementary of writers, if they know what to do.

In the days of Beethoven and Wagner, composers didn’t write two-minute hit singles; they wrote symphonies – the musical equivalent of a large novel. Today, very few musicians compose long works. They compose singles. Singles are quick to create and are popular. They may go on to produce an album but this will invariably be a compilation of singles. Gone are the great symphony composers of old. Modern music is short, often short-lived but also very profitable.

This distinction is not so clear in publishing. Today, if I say I am a writer, the assumption is that I write novels. Not so. I am an information publisher, and that is about as far from novel writing as Wagner’s Die Walküre is from Turn My Swag On by Alexa Goddard.

It must also be said that the commercial mindset of the modern musician is far more advanced than that of the modern writer. Most writers would rival Thomas Caxton for still being in the dark ages.

The modern song writer is very commercially minded, very savvy about the fact that music makes money, and takes pains to write music that is in demand. By contrast the average aspiring writer hasn’t a clue about what is selling. They write the book they want to write and then spend years trying to find someone to publish it. Sometimes they strike lucky. Most times not. A writer with a bit of commercial nous would at least look at the New York Times Best Seller list and create something in the same genre. But that would still be wrong unless you want to lock yourself away for three years. Terrestrial book writing is still about writing modern symphonies, not pop songs. To make money publishing on the Internet we need to look at the written equivalent of pop.

The modern and soon to be successful song writer no longer sends a private recording of his new hit single to a music producer in the hope of catching his ear. There is a new process and it is this:

First, he or she will have the commercial sense to look at the kind of music that is most popular and put together all the synthesisers and gizmos necessary to create a sound that is modern. The days of three guys with acoustic guitars and a drum set trying to copy The Shadows are long gone.

Next, they will create their song. It will be short, sweet and as highly polished as they can make it.

Next, they will have their own website. It will look smart and also contain lots of free ‘songlets’ with a video of them singing their latest creation. Their video, also home made, can still look professional using modern, inexpensive video editing software.

Next, they will use the power of the Internet to promote their work. To do this they will do a combination of two things – viral marketing and joint ventures. No longer do they need to kowtow to music producers. In the old days getting publicity was hugely expensive. Today anyone can have their 15 minutes of fame simply by doing something dumb on YouTube. Viral marketing (one person telling two others who each tell two others and so on) does the rest. Today, modern songwriters have become self-publishers, which is arguably the only area where publishing is ahead of the music game.

Self-publishers are people who write and publish their own work. It’s not new. Mark Twain self-published some of his own works. So did William Blake, Stephen King, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Byron, E.E. Cummings, Alexander Dumas, T.S. Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Hardy, Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, Edgar Allen Poe, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, George Bernard Shaw, Shelley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thoreau, Leo Tolstoi, Walt Whitman, and Virginia Woolf. So if you decide to self publish you’ll be in good company. The question is what should you write?

The fact is that the Internet publishing revolution is about to become a new phenomenon for self-publishers. It actually has little to do with eReaders and the like. It’s a far bigger game that most websites haven’t quite grasped, traditional writers haven’t grasped at all, and the average person thinks they cannot do because they don’t think they’re writers. But that’s exactly the point. Writers do not succeed on the Internet. It’s the average person who makes money because they’re not loaded down with all the baggage that writers have about their art. It’s not writers who make money on the Internet, it’s product developers, in particular – ‘creators of written digital products’ otherwise known as eBook/eReport writers.

Let me show you how to make money on the Internet, almost overnight, and then give you an example. Please read this carefully because it’s pure gold.

Most people have no idea how big some websites are on the Internet. It’s difficult to tell unless they tell you. In 2003 I spotted a website called eDiets.com and on its pages it mentioned it had nearly 14 million subscribers to its bi-weekly on-line newsletter. That meant that twice a week, this website sent an email to 14 million people.

Now suppose the proprietor of this mega-site phoned me up and said, “Hey, Phil baby. How’s it hangin'”, or something like that and asked me to prepare a ‘special’ report, not much longer than this one, about dieting – say – Top Ten Dieting Secrets. He suggested I put it together with a one-page website. But he wasn’t going to pay me for this, at least not directly. What he would do is endorse and publicise my report to 14 million people in his next newsletter. I could charge what I liked for the report and he would take 60% of sales. Is this a good deal?

Let’s work it out. Suppose I charged only ten dollars and he’s going to recommend it to 14 million people who already listen to what he writes so I don’t need to do any advertising. Let’s assume only 1% (140,000) buy the book. That’s total sales of 1,400,000 dollars of which I keep 40% which is just over half a million dollars.

Half a million dollars for a 12 page eBook? Does this sound like a good deal? I think so.

Of course, I did say that Hiram E. Cattlerustler Jnr. phoned me up to make this offer and that’s not going to happen. But what we can do is prepare the project and put the deal to him, after all, it’s worth 840,000 dollars to him alone and all he has to do is send out an email that he was going to send out anyway. It’s a no-brainer and not bad for a day’s work.

Okay, this is a top of the range example and the potential is actually higher than this. I would personally consider a 1% response to be very poor. My average is 20% but on smaller sites. It’s still good money though. And the number of websites is unlimited.

The Internet publishing revolution is this new power to act as an information provider to millions of people at virtually no cost using existing websites as bookshops. It’s easier than writing music and requires very little investment. There is no stock, no printing, no risk and a complete win-win situation for everyone concern
ed.

To give people a clue about potential I often cite this story. Several years ago I got a kidney stone. A quick search on Dr. Internet revealed a guy offering a home grown solution to certain types of kidney stones. Basically he was selling a simple report giving his plan with a full refund guarantee. I examined the site very carefully and made enquiries with several knowledgeable American friends who are ‘in the know’. Estimates of income vary, but my personal view, having had some success myself, is that Kidney Stone Man made himself at least one hundred grand.

When I downloaded his book it was only nine pages long. Did this matter? No. His solution was sound and I have no complaints.

My first book was launched in 2004 at a price of nearly $20. It’s not a good example of a simple first attempt because it was a real book, and therefore quite detailed. Nevertheless, I used exactly the same marketing techniques used by new musicians and the result to date is at least 100,000 downloads despite that fact I have hardly done any promotion beyond the first week of launch. I still receive cheques every week.

A friend of mine in Manchester recently made himself over £30,000 in less than seven weeks doing this.

The new power of Internet publishing – the fact that millions of websites can now act as bookstores – is probably one of the powerful entrepreneurial movements since the World Wide Web was invented. The digital music revolution has lead the way, but the potential of digital books is staggering. I believe that never before in history has it become easier for the average person to achieve incomes on a par with major executives of large corporations. Never before has fame and riches been so simple to achieve.

That’s if you want fame, of course. Unlike music where you have to perform, you can write eBooks quite anonymously. You can become the least known, most successful writer in town. And you don’t even have to be writer!

Phil Gosling

Source by Angus H Ryan

The post How to Make Money Writing Books – The Internet Publishing Revolution appeared first on ENFEW.

Give em the Pickle – Bob Farrell’s classic program focuses on the motivational side of service. Farrell wit and wisdom sparkle throughout the program as he explains how great service was the hallmark of his ice cream shop empire in the 1970s. Give em the Pickle was his service battle cry. A simple phrase that means that you need to give your customers that extra special service – something beyond the normal like free pickles with their order or singing the birthday song to children on that special day. This customer service video is still the best-selling program on the market, used by thousands of service trainers through the world. Farrell keeps the information general enough to be used in any sector of the business world.

The Guest – The original Guest and now The Guest – Second Edition are both available as a package purchase for the same price. The Guest is one of the best-selling programs in the history of corporate training. The extremely well produced program uses the analogy of welcoming and taking care of a guest in your home while you are at work. The basic skills associated with the treatment of guests in your home crosses over nicely with the customer service skills needed in the workplace. Through a variety of well-acted scenarios, The Guest shows extraordinary service in a comedic before and after style. The “before” scenarios are hilarious. The Guest is a must have for any customer service trainer.

Remember Me – Third Edition – Remember Me is a hilarious look at the plight of the customer. He takes a lot of abuse without fighting back, but in the end he has the last say – he just takes his business elsewhere. Through a variety of funny bad service scenarios, Remember me demonstrates why service is so important for a business. Without the customer there is no business.

So Help Me? – So Help Me comes with a manager version, employee version or both. The solid service program has an excellent variety of service vignettes that competently displays the basics of good service. This is a high-level program with excellent production values, acting and content. If you need a solid, nuts and bolts program on service that covers the essentials your employees need to know, then So Help Me is an excellent selection.

Actions and Attitudes – This customer service video made specifically for retail covers the basics of service with a start and stop vignette style. An affable host takes employees through a variety of retail scenarios in different environments. The common-sense style combines basics with a variety of insights specific to retail environments.

Who Cares – Who Cares is another solid nuts and bolts service program. If you are looking for a basic service skills video with good acting and production values, then you will have success with this service video. The wide variety of scenarios will provide a solid base of customer service skills for your employees.

The Difficult Guest – This follow-up to the Guest focuses on difficult customer service situations and how to solve them with the same hilarious scenarios, great acting and extremely high-level production values as the original guest. A great follow-up to train on specific difficult service problems that occur on a daily basis in every workplace, The Difficult Guest is a must-have.

Any of these customer service videos will provide your organization with a great service training tool to be used for years to come. They all come with a complete training program to go along with the video to make the training process as easy as possible.

Source by Charlie Bentson King

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