Tag: music

English · Interviews

MUZU.tv – What Can The Music Video Distribution Platform Do For You?

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muzu homepage

What is MUZU.TV and how has it come into existence?

MUZU TV (http://www.muzu.tv) is a fully licenced music video distribution platform. We enable Labels, Artists and content producers to create a channel and promote and monetise their videos across the MUZU multi platform network. MUZU’s network covers 22 territories of North America, Central Europe, Latin America and Australasia on desktop, mobile, smart TV and Xbox.

MUZU TV was founded back in 2007 on the back of the issues that Youtube unearthed with copyright. the vision was to support all copyright holders to provide them with a platform and video players to protect their rights and earn revenue from video views, which at the time Youtube was not doing. In 2014 we have over 200,000 licenced video clips being watched by over 11m users and we work with the Major and Indie labels to deliver activity for both new releases and their video archives.

For Music Fans MUZU is a place to watch music videos, build playlists and share content with your friends across the web. By registering you can access your channel and playlists on your PC, Mobile phone, tablet, Smart TV and X Box console. You can sign up to our newsletter to be sent weekly updates on new music and artist promotions as well as follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get daily updates. MUZU is just music and entertainment video focussed where as sites like Youtube have everything and you dont get a ‘pure’ music experience.

How does it work?

Content owners just need to set up a channel on MUZU to get started and upload their videos https://www.muzu.tv/join/?type=industry

Once the content is live they can share it themselves through artist websites and social media pages and contact MUZU for submission for editorial to be featured in New Releases, Our Picks and Iconic features. By uploading videos the content is also automatically distributed through the MUZU network so it is searchable on our parnter websites like Last.FM, Metacafe and NME and our Smart TV and Xbox apps.

MUZU is a premium ad funded business model so content owners earn 50% of the net ad revenue generated from video views wherever the video is watched. Our business model is syndication so premium ads travel with the content.

Our ethos is to work with artists and labels to drive reach and scale around key impact dates for releases and tours and we have a number of promotions that we offer to help promote content: from video premieres, to artist interviews, featured playlists and competitions. By working together to share this activity you drive fan engagement, music discovery and video views which will turn into ad revenue

For Music Fans we recently relaunched our site with new playlist making tools. DJ Mode allows you to continously watch music videos while browsing for more content to put in your playlist. There is also a great recommendations engine working to provide users with music discovery with an auto populate feature. Fans can also enjoy the promotions we set up with labels for new music and competitions.

What are the benefits of using MUZU?

MUZU benefits in many ways: it protects copyright and monetises content; we automatically distribute your content to a network of sites; We enable activity as we want to share new music with our users through our editorial voice that supports established and emerging artists. Labels are able to promote their artists within a music community and share their videos using MUZU players across their networks.

How can it help people who are a part of the music industry, for instance artists and bands?

MUZU is an independent video network. We work with labels to offer additional reach and monetisation to their video content outside of Youtube.com. Most views to Youtube powered videos happen on Youtube via Organic search through Google or as recommendations in the platform. If labels want to get artists featured on the Youtube homepage they need to buy advertising campaigns. They may also find that monetisation off Youtube does not provide premium rates when they share their content across social media

MUZU helps labels and Artists by giving them a music community to promote their content to. It gives them a premiium monetised player to share their content and we offer marketing initiatives to Labels to give them homepage editorial and social media support to give them the incentive to share their videos in our player to drive more views. We enhance the existing activity that Youtube generates naturally and labels can benefit greatly to help drive more activity and conversations for new releases.

How do you want MUZU.TV to develop? What are the future plans?

MUZU is developing alongside the ever evolving digital world. We have new Console apps in production as well as bespoke iOS and Android Apps. Watch this space in 2015

For more information on MUZU go to http://www.muzu.tv

​Follow MUZUTV on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/muzutv​

Follow MUZUTV on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/muzutv

Email us info@muzu.tv

by Sara Shirazi

English · This & That

Confession #3: Perfectionism Is For Underachievers

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Yahoo

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.