Category: music industry

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Seven Ways Music Defines Your Personality

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Written by Ronal Ross

music-personality

Everybody loves listening to music. There are a lot of genres, like classical, indie, hip-hop, rap etc. & this list keeps on increasing as new genres are being discovered. Have you ever wondered, why do you like some specific types of music genres? In fact, this plays an important role in everybody’s lifestyle.  Researchers have performed social and psychological experiments which relate the music you listen to with your personality. Here are seven ways through which music defines your personality.

  1. EDM

Let’s first talk about the genre which has been currently ruling over the Internet, Electronic Dance Music or EDM in short. People simply love EDM, as you might have guessed by looking at the huge number of crowds at concerts. Fans of the genre are generally very outgoing & love socializing with others. The beats coming from the DJ’s Table are easy to catch & dance especially when your favourite DJ is on the house!

  1. Classical Music

Classical Music instils a sense of peace & calmness on the listener’s mind. Therefore, people who listen to classical music are generally very calm, peace loving individuals who also carry a sense of pride & high self-esteem. The fans of the genre are quite intelligent & smart. Due to their calm mind, they tend to be quite creative & over thinkers, who do not act hastily.

  1. Hip-Hop

If you have ever seen a hip-hop music video, you might be able to guess the personality type. Hip-Hop fans are quite energetic individuals, pretty much similar to that of the singer on screen. They love to dance on the rhythm and instead of playing the music through headphones, they want to share & experience it with others. They have a high self-esteem & are generally extroverts. They also have a tendency to speak whatever comes up in their mind, just like the rappers.

  1. Country Music

Country Music attracts a quite specific type of crowd. The music is quite upbeat which makes it very easy to dance on, even if you have never danced before. The instruments create a good physical connection with its listeners. Fans of the genre are extroverts, outgoing and very hardworking. They also tend to be conservative but happy individuals who do not let negative emotions get to them. Bongo drum, a common country music instrument is good for starters, here’s a review of bongo drums to get you started.

  1. Jazz & Blues

The fans of this genre share a similar trait to that of classical music listeners. They are generally open-minded individuals with a knack for creativity. They tend to dwell deep into the lyrics & try to feel what the singer is trying to convey. The fans are deep thinkers & very self-reflective. Being introverted is a general trait that is common for fans of the genre, however this also helps shape their personality by unlocking more creative talent.

  1. Pop music

Fans of this game one easy-going individuals who do not like too much stress and hard work. They do not possess much creative skills, but have a pretty unique personality which makes them stand out from the crowd. Their personality is backed up by their extroverted nature & their ability to blurt out whatever comes in their mind. The fans are simple & pretty straightforward.

  1. Metal

This may be surprising, but fans of the metal genre aren’t exactly extroverts. Instead most of the fans are introverted in nature & are very gentle & kind people. They tend to exhibit creative tendencies. The fans are also quite emotional & self-reflective. When they listen, they try to be a part of the song they are listening to and feel connected to the singer.

 

This concludes this list. However, there are even more music genres which can be associated with your personality, but if I began writing about each & every one of them, the article will be too long and boring to read. Therefore, that’s it for now.

 

Author Bio:

Ronal Ross is a passionate blogger who writes regularly at LoudBeats.org. He likes listening to music and playing musical instruments in his free time.

a&r · music business · music industry · Music2Deal.com

A&R Consultancy Package

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Written by Richard Rogers (Music2Deal UK representative)

A&R is a beautiful profession to be involved with and I always maintain it is an art form and a science……. seriously. I even wrote that quote in the 2018 book, “Depeche Mode: Violator – The Ultimate A&R Guide” which former Warner/Chappell and Island MD Richard Manners concurred with me on. In 2020, an A&R person is now more valuable than ever. Why? Because now every artist needs an A&R person to ensure the artist is 2 steps ahead of the vast competition. The main problem is everybody can make a record now and record/produce it in their bedroom. This means the number of artists around the world has escalated above all proportions because with a fairly inexpensive piece of equipment and a pair of headphones everyone can attempt to be a star! The trouble is the number of would be stars has spread in number like the common cold and record companies receive more submissions than ever before.

As Invisible Hands Records (a UK record company) owner and MD Charles Kennedy said to me a couple of years ago ‘Because there are so many artists out there now doing DIY music, everything is so watered down and even worse most of it is unlistenable. I’ll rarely sign up new artists now, i’ll just rely on catalogue artists such as The Jam, Hugh Cornwell, Emerson, Lake & Palmer etc who are already signed to my company’.

Kennedy was right, everybody knows somebody who has a new single out now on Spotify!!! So how can you make yourself stand out from the rest of the crowd? Who is going to go through your songs and choose your best song for you so at least you have a chance in the industry? Who can recommend the right record labels, the perfect publisher, the correct manager, a killer remixer or the deft producer you require for your act? Yup it’s the much maligned A&R man. He’s still out there but in diminishing numbers sadly as algo rhythms and reduced A&R Departments take control but he’s the man that can still recommend changing the structure or the arrangement within a song or telling the bass player not to play quite so many notes on the track.

A&R

The problem is everybody would like an A&R man for free. Last month (February 2020) I had two cases in question. Firstly a guy that owned a small record label in the States asked me to find a number of record companies worldwide to license and distribute his artists for him and he offered to pay a small percentage for the best deal I could find financially. You’ll note the best deal financially (ie the most money) as opposed to the best deal for the artist in regards to percentages, even though this would mean more money for myself as the ‘deal finder’. I refused to take the offer on as this was not strictly A&R work in my view and I felt the principles to his search for money above all else to the detriment of the artist was thoroughly wrong.

Let’s use an example, if a ‘deal finder’ found for a US record label, 2 potential partners in Germany and the most cash upfront from one was €120k for a years deal but the royalty percentage was minimal and another offered only €50k but fantastic royalty percentage terms and add ons and a better deal overall then the US label might go for the higher cash upfront which would not be to the benefit of the artist. In addition the ‘deal finder’ we will assume is being paid a percentage of the total deal (say 10% for arguments sake). Which is the ‘deal finder’ likely to then offer to the US label, the €120k deal or the €50k deal? Of course the ‘deal finder’ would pretend the ‘artist beneficial’ €50k deal never existed in the first place and there was only the €120k deal available on the table. The record company man goes home with €108k and the ‘deal finder’ takes €12k, his 10% of the €120k and both are happy. What about the artist? I felt that this ‘deal find’ was not the job of an A&R man really as that’s the job of a lawyer in conjunction with the record company, the artist and the artist manager. It’s 2020 and guys this is still happening! Artists – be aware.

The second situation arose of a central European singer who I believed from an A&R capacity, desperately required her vocals to be re-recorded because her English phonetics were, to be kind ‘poor’ on a nevertheless brilliant song she had co-written. She decided the vocals were good enough, took offense at my suggestion she re-record them, refused to pay an A&R fee and never got to find out her song had been entered into a major song competition and subsequently had been accepted and shortlisted for a final with a minimum Yen 350,000 payout (approx €2900). True, not huge money but better than a kick in the leg.

I see these situations month in, month out, so I decided as I do a lot of work with Music2deal to set up an independent A&R Consultancy to help out artists, songwriters, singers, managers etc. Anyone signed up to Music2deal with a paying membership gets a reduction of 20% off a consultancy and those on a free membership with Music2deal get 10% off. Don’t worry, i’ll still do the free Music2deal A&R Essentials series, the A&R tips and help in the blogs, newsletters and on the A&R Forum but the consultancy will be much more intensive.

There are 5 levels of consultancy starting with just a simple single hourly rate which I can assure you that you will recoup the cost back immediately with two pieces of advice on production and mastering alone.

That’s it really, a bit of useful advice for artists to be ultimately aware of those people in the industry that may not have your interest at heart. And yes, it’s mixed in with a bit of self promotion for myself which in 16 years i’ve never done at music2deal. I thought this was worth it though to stop artists being screwed over.

Please let us know in this forum if this has ever happened to you or an artist you know and finally, here’s a request. I’m looking to bring in A&R people in different music styles and genres to expand the consultancy across the musical board so if you are an A&R man or know an A&R person then please get in touch so together we can help artists from being taken for a ride, sometimes without them even knowing.

Richard Rogers – March 2020

 

Links:

Richard Rogers on Music2Deal

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a&r · music business · music industry · music industry interview · Music2Deal.com · This & That

A&R Topics – What format do you give an A&R man your music these days?

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Written by Richard Rogers (Music2Deal UK representative)

richard

 

Whilst I was over in MIDEM this year I received as an A&R man a number of different packages from artists as always. However, it is 2019 not 1999 and things have changed drastically in the last few years let alone 20 years. I remember once going to MIDEM and received so many CD’s that I had to buy extra luggage just to get them back to the UK! Those were the days and from an A&R perspective i’m personally glad they are gone. But what about the artist, should they be making special packages just for A&R or is that outdated?

 

My personal thoughts are that if you want to stand out from the crowd and get your music heard then you need to think out of the box and do things a little differently.

 

At this MIDEM I received a lot of flyers and cards saying login to this or sign in to that to hear our music and call me old fashioned but they went straight to the bottom of the pile of artists music to undertake to listen too. Why? I hear you ask. Well in truth I find it a bit lazy from the artists point of view. If they value their product (horrible word for music – apologies) then they need to show it off from a lofty height and show off their hard worked music. Take care of your packaging so in other words take care of the format you send to A&R. After all, if the artist has taken the bold and financially high risk of getting themselves over to Cannes with flights, accommodation and MIDEM entry then it shows they are serious about their music so why not come up with something better than a flyer.

 

Some people did use their initiative. Gary Whyte at Music Sync Tank who is one of our Music2deal members came along with memory sticks with a whole shebang of different tracks and was the perfect selling mechanism and it fits perfectly into your back pocket too. One gripe, there was no contact information on the stick at all apart from a semi faded logo saying ‘music sync tank’. All it needed was a mobile number, email address or website address and people could get in contact with Gary. Make it easy for people to find you. It might sound silly but it is so important to get the small details sorted out otherwise how can you get hold of Gary’s excellent music?

 

Meanwhile American singer Kim Cameron also bought along an MP3 stick but in the shape of a credit card which was quite ingenious and made me want to play the whole album.

 

Spanish act A Permanent Shadow turned up with CDs for their new album Songs of Loss which is a cracking little album in places but again another major problem, no information on the CD in regards website address, email or mobile numbers! Instead there is contact info for their legal team which I found frankly a bit weird and off putting.

 

Same with the Canadian artist, the lovely Monte Madder who presented me with a Skydive CD but it had no contact information on it whatsoever. Was it a promo CD or a fully fledged 6 track EP as the styles of the music were so different? It confuses people! It certainly makes you think, do these artists actually want to be signed up? Even more annoying is when I saw her live she was very good too.

 

Over the four days of MIDEM, I received about 15 CDs, 2 memory sticks, 2 MP3 cards (same thing really), 3 vinyls and about 60 to 70 flyers or cards sending me links to the artists tracks on their website, on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Amazon etc.

 

By the way, the vinyls were from two French and one Portuguese artist and one of the French 7 inch singles was on beautiful coloured vinyl. Mind you the song was nothing to write home about but that’s not the point. The point is, of these 90 to 100 artists who got played first? Yup the most visually pleasing followed by those that thought out of the box a little.

 

What do you think? Should it matter what format the A&R gets to hear the music? Do you have any unusual or novel ways to send or sell your music? What is the best format you have ever seen another artist sell themselves through?

 

I’m looking forward to your views and thoughts so please reply on the A&R Topics group on Music2Deal.

 

Richard Rogers

 

Links:

Richard Rogers on Music2Deal

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