Category: This & That

English · This & That

FindStream: Interview with Alexey Fomichev, CEO of Balakam

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What is FindStream and how has it come into existence?

Behind FindStream were a few people madly in love with music & new technologies, desperate for making the world, i.e the web, a better place, and driven by the idea of creating a smart search system to locate all live media streams on air on the web. As a result of their efforts, the most comprehensive base of FM & Internet streaming radio stations has been built. And alongside to spotting the majority of all radio broadcasts, this team developed an algorithm to scan the music content inside the stream, thus knowing for a fact what is playing any minute on any station broadcasting from any part of the world. This is how FindStream has come into being.

How does it work?

Today, FindStream acts as radio airplay broadcast monitoring service which tracks radio airplay of songs on more than 30 000 radio stations.

Monitored panel includes terrestrial radio streams, as well as big and small independently broadcasted Internet-only radio stations from 73 countries worldwide. This meticulously crafted mix provides for an efficient detection and reporting of millions of titles played on the radio thusbuilding all-round picture of ever-changing music world.

What makes the technology special?

Music data & their intelligent analysis form the core of the FindStream technological know-how. Our expertise is based on a system of automatic live radio stream search that crawls the web and performs careful analysis of found streams. The ability to normalize music meta data inside the stream, quickly generate airplay report on any artist or even build a profound analytical forecast based on the broadcasting history makes the technology behind FindStream almost incomparable.

Due to constant monitoring of web broadcasting sources and database growth FindStream easily spots even newly appeared music content & opens up a new source for music search & discovery.

What are the benefits of using FindStream?

As a monitoring service, FindStream is about empowering musicians by offering them a smart tool to track, rank, and better promote music using by far the most popular source for music consumption – broadcast radio.

There are many aspects to FindStream that make it appealing to music pros, like an ever-expanding database, variety of monitored stations & reported parameters. This profound exploration of radio landscape allows us to built up an unparalleled music discovery & recommendation engine that rests on the opinion of thousands savvy music pros – radio DJ & programming directors.

With all the power that streaming platforms offers in terms of music discovery & recommendation, average music fans still have a very distinct feel to a professionally curated music experience provided by radio DJs. Their extensive music knowledge & ability to carefully piece tracks together bring out an amazing user experience that not a single even the most sophisticated algorithm can deliver.

How can it help musicians with their radio performances?

Broadcast radio is still by far the most popular audio platform, and clear understanding of the radio music world & your place there is vital for luring the audience & succeeding in a highly challenging music industry. And this is where FindStream comes in very handy.

Apart from handling real-time monitoring of regional copyright distribution across the global radios & tracking royalties due for each broadcasted title, FindStream gives musicians an exciting marketing tool that easily measures & analyzes their current popularity on the radio waves, spot the most active broadcasters & recommends the best way to improve the artist’s presence on the radio, plan concerts & marketing campaigns.

How do you want FindStream to develop? What are the future plans?

We at FindStream are very passionate about highlighting the diversity & quality of broadcast radio content, and we are looking at ways to showcase the benefits of thoughtful curation of perfect playlists as opposed to technologically created algorithm streaming services provide.  We also plan to expand our monitored panel to cover all radio stations on the globe, so as not a single airplay is hidden.

Music isn’t just about job — it’s an important part of our life. And our goal is to turn FindStream into a single source of radio trends & music discovery, a tool for music pros to action the data & make the best of radio performance. A tall order, though for us it’s one worth delivering on.

by Sara Shirazi

English · This & That

Confession #3: Perfectionism Is For Underachievers

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Perfectionism is a funny word. You’d expect it to be black and white, hard and fast – it’s either perfect or it’s not, right? But the concept is so subjective it’s really become a gray area.

Okay, let’s take a step back here. First, before starting anything I think it’s important to identify what you’re trying to do and what’s important to you. If you’re making a song/album, is the public perception of you and your music important to you, or is your own personal perception of the song more important? Which brings me to the ultimate question – what will bring you the most happiness?

Seriously ask yourself that question. For me, it’s the enjoyment on other people’s faces when they hear the track for the first time. That uninhibited joy, the pure excitement. Face beaming kind of stuff! :)

Sure, I want to be happy with a track, but not to the point that it costs me the above goal. If, in my aim to make the perfect track (from my point of view) I am unable to complete and distribute 2 or 3 other good songs that people would enjoy, I have effectively lost.

The funny thing is, when those same people tell me what a great song it is, I believe it too. Not because I get brainwashed into thinking so, but because it’s simply the truth. If you are constantly looking at things from your perspective you are only getting a portion of the truth. As much as you thinkyou know better, it is actually your perspective that is the least objective and the least true.

Think about it. You are your own worst enemy. You constantly criticise your own work where others don’t. Now switch roles – think of a time when you had to give feedback on another friend’s song, art, design, cooking, or whatever. For this exercise, let’s think of a close friend, i.e. someone where you wouldn’t feel the need to “sugar-coat” things. Did you genuinely like the song, art, design or cooking? Did you speak the truth? If that person is a perfectionist more often than not they “considered” your opinion but did their own thing anyway – maybe they continued re-working the song or maybe they simply left it as is but looked upon this creation with less-than-satisfied eyes and failed to do anything with it. Sound like you sometimes? Me too.

This was a biig wake-up call for me and I am by no means free of this sin yet. I have spent many days/months/years either re-working something that was already good to start with and never releasing the song at all because it just wasn’t perfect in my eyes. Well guess what, I simply wasted all that time where I could’ve gained some exposure with the song that I had whilst having the time to continue to work on another couple good songs.

What’s more, if it’s a good product people will speak the truth. We all need affirmation. Affirmation breeds positivity, keeps us motivated and keeps us moving forward. (for my article on “How to stay motivated” click here).

On the contrary, I could work on a song until its “perfect” in my books, but I may have destroyed the very thing that actually made the song perfect to everyone else (Remember music is not all about the instruments and you can overwork it).

So in the best case, perfectionism will delay the finalisation and release of your artwork, delay your exposure and delay the enjoyment on receiving positive feedback. It will also drive you mad!

In the absolute worst case, you will end up over-working something that was already perfect, not get the affirmation you so eagerly thirst for and end up defeated and unmotivated.

Perfectionism is not efficient! Strive for excellence, not perfectionism. And if your friends tell you its good, its good. Cash that cheque and move on!

Sean David is a self-established music entrepreneur, singer/songwriter and journalist.  

English · This & That

Confession #1: It’s Not About The Instruments

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What? Music is not about the instruments?

Um, riiight. Is this guy smoking something? Not at all!  Let me explain.

Music is created by instruments, sure. No one can deny that fact. An instrument is an instrument because of the role played in creating the song. A strum of a guitar chord, the bashing of the snare drum and the human voice are all musical instruments by definition. Hell, even a ping pong ball can be an instrument (cue Enrique!).

So instruments are required to make music, yes. But music is still not really about the instruments.

Let’s use an analogy: A car is a function of the engine, gears, exhaust, wheels, tires, chassis, fuel tank, etc. Is the car about the engine, gears, exhaust? Some would argue yes, but really the answer is no. The car is not about the engine, gears, exhaust and those other things; it’s about what that car can dowith the engine, gears, exhaust, etc. For a standard car it can take you from A to B. A slightly more high-end car could take you from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds or allow you to venture off-road (e.g. a 4×4).  Hopefully you can see how this all translates to music.

As a musician, I’m a guitarist first and foremost, and being a guitarist I of course have huge appreciation for good guitaring, a great lick, riff or solo. But my excitement is not because he played a B, C#, D over an A chord or whatever. It’s not the technicalities or music theory that excites me, it’s thefeeling that he generates with those notes that makes me giddy!

There are a range of minimalistic artists/bands out there today, and a specific New Zealander comes to mind, the super-talented Lorde.

Now the instruments in her songs aren’t going to wow you. You’re not going to bow down at the incredible, impossible-to-replicate instrumentation. No, you’re going to bow down to the gift of using few, well placed instruments to generate a feel that resonates with people all across the globe.

This feel aspect is at the core of every instrument. The feel of a I chord is considerably different from the feel of a IV or V chord. The feel of a major chord is remarkably different to the feel of a minor or diminished chord. The feel generated from the sound of a mandolin is totally different to the feel created by a grand piano. Often we lose sight of this, and the need to demonstrate technique and skill clouds the importance of generating feel.

I have developed quite a wide taste in music over the last few years. I equally enjoy the above mentioned artist’s music as well as more guitar-driven artists. At the core, it’s always about feel.

One of my absolute favourite bands, Alter Bridge, is technically brilliant. Marc Tremonti has won guitarist of the year more than once over and yet if he didn’t create feel, energy and excitement, there would be nothing to hold my interest. Maybe I’d admire his technical playing ability, but I certainly wouldn’t have pre-ordered their latest album if I didn’t feel something in their music.

My encouragement to you is to think about the feel you’re trying to create the next time you write a song. Think about it again when recording and mixing. The original feeling can quickly get clouded by lead guitar after lead guitar after lead guitar, just because “it sounds cool”. It can get clouded by a bad mix. Get new opinions or take a break and listen again with fresh ears. If something is not adding to the feel, remove it. More is not always more.

Sean David is a self-established music entrepreneur, singer/songwriter and journalist.