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 ArtistServer  Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 7:16:09 PM
How to run a Remix Project
A Remix Project is a Great Way to Promote Yourself and Your MusicIf you are interested in running remix projects, the following should help you get started and get the most out of your remix project. AritstServer.com now offers a means to run your own remix projects. This feature provides you a set of tools to manage participants, a site the promote the project, and easy to use admin tools to manage the details of your project, like start and stop dates, terms, and sign-up management. What is a Remix? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix - A remix is an alternative version of a song, different from the original version. A remixer uses audio mixing to compose an alternate master recording of a song, adding or subtracting elements, or simply changing the equalization, dynamics, pitch, tempo, playing time, or almost any other aspect of the various musical components. Some remixes involve substantial changes to the arrangement of a recorded work, but many are subtle, such as creating a "vocal up" version of an album cut that emphasizes the lead singer's voice. A song may be remixed to give a song that was not popular a second chance at radio and club play, or to alter a song to suit a specific music genre or radio format. Remixes should not be confused with edits, which usually involve shortening a final stereo master for marketing purposes.Remix Projects Even if you aren't creating electronic music, running a remix project or simply allowing others to remix your music is a great way to promote your music and yourself as a band/artist. You may feel that your music isn't 'remixable,' but chances are, it is, remixing works across all genres. There are many ways a remix project can function, but the most common is as follows. You write a song and record it, then you take the separate tracks from the recording and save them as WAV files, or convert them to high bit rate mp3 files. Be sure to not include effects, you'll want to make these files 'dry.' You now have a 'sample pack' which you can zip up w/ a 'ReadMe' file inside that contains copyright info and any rules about the project. Next, you upload the zipped up samples to a Web site, then get ready to do some promotion. After a period of time, you can select a winner, or just let the project play out for years. After the remix project is over, you should keep it online with all the songs. This way the project can continue to serve as a promotional tool for not only you, but also the artists who participate. Preparing a Song for a Remix Project While it is possible for people to take a completed/mixed song, lift their own samples from it, and create a remix, this isn't really remixing, it's sampling. In order to 're-mix,' an artist/producer needs access to the raw elements that were used to create the song (or anything else being remixed). The following is some information to help you prepare those raw elements so the remix artists have quality material to work with. The basics of samples:
Remix Sample Pack Preparation Tips:
Once you have your sample packs ready, you'll need a place to store them online. Below is a list of file hosting services, with the top two being the best choices. The reason they are the best is because your files do not expire, they have URLs, they are easy to use, and the download process is painless. While ArtistServer provides music and remix project hosting, we do not host your sample files. We do provide an easy way to add download links to your files and providing them to participants.
Before you start, you should have a plan or reason for your remix project. Is this a new release you are promoting? Maybe the launch of a new collective? Possibly you are looking to get B-sides created for a 12in release? Or, maybe you just want to dive in to the whole remix, mashup and sample scene. Whatever the reason, your project may not go anywhere unless you actively promote it and have a plan. Web promotion ideas and methods is a whole different discussion, so we'll leave that out for now. Before you do the promotion, setup your Remix project page or site. Artists with upgraded accounts at ArtistServer.com can create these in the My Account area of the site, under Music Projects. This would be a good time to work out the 'terms and conditions' for our project. Be sure to define how the remix artist can use their remix, for example: can they post it online or on P2P networks, can they put it on their own CD, what will the copyright or Creative Commons license be for the remixes. Are there any rules as to how the remixes should be titled (some artists want their name in the song title). Don't try to dictate too much control though, you'll find that having these people promoting their own remixes creates another wave of promotion for you, possibly bigger than the one you created. At ArtistServer, we provide a general set of terms and conditions for you to start with, feel free to modify them how you like. Once you have your promotion plan, the sample packs, and maybe even some banner ads created for your project, you'll be ready to announce the project on forums, blogs, your site, places that allow news releases posted about independent music, and fliers in your local clubs and appropriate stores. You'll want to include a link to your remix project Web page, so be sure to create your project before printing fliers. Contest Option: Some people run their projects as contests, where they'll pick the top 3, or the 'best one,' and present the artist with some prize. This is a great way to stimulate interest in your project if artists haven't heard of you. When there's no direct outcome for a project, you may find it difficult to attract remix artists. If this is your case, then a contest might be the only thing that will get your project off the ground, you could even offer a gift certificate from a site like amazon.com. ArtistServer provides a means to select any number of winners for your remix project. Keep Promoting: As the remixes come in, post comments, give feedback, and get the conversation going. Once you have a few on the site, you can do a second round of promotions at all the sites you first announced the project at. Let people know that there are some cool remixes to be heard, that the project is still in progress, and that it's not too late to give it a try. When doing your promotional runs, be sure to monitor the threads on the forums you post at and reply to everyone so they see that you aren't a spammer. Many people get this part wrong, they forget to communicate with people and simple spam the Web with information about their project. Concluding the Remix Project: At this final stage, you can either leave the project open, or you can close the project, so no others can sign up. From here, you could do a few cool things, like release a remix album, promoting the remixes on an online station, sending out a Cdr of the project to your radio stations that support independent music, creating a CD using an online service like Mixonic.com or CafePress.com, or do another round of promoting, presenting the 'best of' to people. Getting remixed is fun, it shines a new light on your music, it creates connections between people and genres, and it's an excellent way to promote your music and yourself as an artist/band. Enjoy, and keep in mind, these aren't rules, these are suggestions and ideas you can use to help ensure you have a successful remix project. Feel free to ask questions and post your own tips. 
ArtistServer
remix
remixing
samples
Sunday, Sep 28, 2008 7:55:41 PM
My Lovely Wife Lou is Pregnant
I'm so very pleased to announce that Lovely Wife Lou is pregnant! Finally, we had one good egg and were ready to have it fertilized and see if that would work. Not taking any chances, we went with a procedure (ICSI) where they select the specific sperm, and fertilize the egg with it. Days later, they called and it worked! Next, Lou was implanted with the fertilized egg, placing it in the ideal location. Two weeks later, we found out she was pregnant! Today, we are nearing the end of the 1st trimester and doing well. This photo is of the fertilization at 5 cells, and the next 5 are ultrasounds. The fertilization photo is approximately 1hr before it was implanted. Photo here.
embryo
fertilization
ArtistServer Friday, Dec 14, 2007 8:14:43 AM
ArtistServer News and a new site: FreeMusicLicensing.com Hi all, it's been awhile since I've posted any news about ArtistServer, so here we go...1. As you can see, the forums have slowed down again over the holiday season. This seems to happen every year, and usually picks back up near the end of January. 2. We now host 7,600 mp3s! While we did not get to the 10,000 I was hoping for, we've definately grown this year and have attracted many new artists with great material. 3. WTF is with the Video section at ArtistServer? Well - unfortunately, the situation isn't looking good. I had signed up with VideoEgg to be a site that uses their video hosting services. They have this amazing upload tool that will convert video from files, your cam, even your digital video camera. I have it 'working' in the Admin area, I even added genres/categories, a comment and rating system, send to friend option, and a means to add the videos to your favorites... It's all done. So what's the problem? The problem, is that I've emailed VideoEgg 3 times now to two different email addresses to request an approval for the integration, and they haven't replied. The video section is 'done' - it's ready to go live - it would take me 2 minutes to turn it on for the public... but, if VideoEgg never replies, the video section can't open. I'm not sure what their deal is - maybe they changed their policies, maybe they are having troubles staying in business - who knows. I'm looking for alternate solutions, but so far, nothing out there works like Video Egg (free integration and video hosting). The only services I've found would have a fee, and since ArtistServer doesn't generate enough revenue to cover the audio streaming, I can't afford to add to that and cover the video hosting fees too. I'm going to try and contact them for another week or two, if nothing comes of it, I'll remove the "Video" button from the site's main menu. I'm sorry this hasn't worked out. 4. What about some good news? Yes! I always have some good news for you :) As you know, one of my main goals with ArtistServer is to help all of you gain more exposure. I want your music to be heard - I want people to email their friends and point them to your music - I want your music on peoples MP3 players - and... I want your music to be used in places where commercial music has traditionally been used. What I'm getting at hear, is that there's a LOT of music that is licensed for all kinds of productions, including: company demos, commercials, personal videos, wedding videos, presentations, films/videos, flash websites, and more. Ever since the Creative Commons Licensing options were released on the world, we've had a set of license options which actually 'define' how a piece of work can be used. If you had not noticed, we use Creative Commons Licensing on the music and the photos here at ArtistServer (but you can pick the vague 'copyright' option still). Each of these different license options defines a different type of 'use scenario' - for example - one of them allows for use if you give credit, but you can't use the work in a commercial manner. Another license requires credit, but does allow commercial uses, etc. So, now we have this big catalog of music - and there's this big population of people who want to use music in their productions - the goal, is to bring both parties together so they can mutally benefit. We could expect that population to find us by searching at ArtstiServer, and they can, but I'm about to make things MUCH easier for these people... I'm launching a site designed specifically for people who are looking for Creative Commons/Free music to use in their productions. The site is about 2/3 done and is in 'beta' - you can browse to it here: http://www.freemusiclicensing.com/ This is my first site coded/designed in Flex, so it's been a bit of a learning experience :) The site is not complete - the popup artist info dialog isn't working yet, and the side panel information needs to be added. BUT - the search, streaming and downloading work. Once the site is done, I'll work a bit on the promotion of the site and see if we can get some press. I'm not sure when the site will be 100% done, as I'm having to learn a new language to code the site, but I hope to have it completed next month. This opportunity is open to everyone - but I hope that if you appreciate this, that you'll consider upgrading your account - we NEED PAYING MEMBERS! ;) Certainly, the music here is worth money - and it is your choice to make your music available for free use or not. If you are concerned about your music - sign into the site and check your songs and see what license you've selected. When you edit a song, the license 'wizard' is at the bottom of the screen. Don't be afraid of giving your music away - each song you release becomes an agent working for you - promoting you and your music. If you don't believe this, we can look at it from another angle - several artists from our own community are/were featured on the "Making of the Matrix" DVD - which sold quite a few copies... and each artist was paid something insanely low, like $100 - in the end, what has more value, the exposure, or the $100? Just think if you were one of those artists - and you had decided you wouldn't take less than $250 - you would have missed out on all that exposure. By all means - each deal stands on it's own, and if you 'can' get paid, perfect! If you can't make much but can get exposure... see the value in the exposure. In closing, I just wanted to say Happy Holidays to all of you, to say thank you to all those who have been with us all these years, and to say welcome to those who have recently started using the site. Thank you for being a part of this, and Happy New Years to everyone. :) - Gideon / ArtistServer Admin ========================================== For those wanting more info on Creative Commons licensing: http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/meet-the-licenses
ArtistServer
Creative Commons
music
Mobile - Web - Media Tuesday, Sep 18, 2007 1:38:07 PM
AritstServer and ToneThis Serve Up Indie Ringtones
ToneThis is a desktop application for delivering personalized and third-party content to your phone. Unlike traditional content stores (ringtones, wallpapers, videos, games), ToneThis sits on your desktop enabling you the freedom to select and personalize your own content for delivery to your cellphone. ToneThis desktop software allows you to create MP3 ringtones, truetones, realtones, cellphone wallpaper and mobile video ringtones using your CD, MP3, WAV, iTunes, image (JPEG, GIF, BMP), and video (AVI, MPEG) collection. Create an unlimited number of cellphone ringtones, wallpapers, and videos. Access to mobile music, image, and video content. Access to mobile games. Almost all US/Canada/EU/AU carriers supported.
For an overview of ToneThis, watch this interview and demo with Raj Singh, founder of ToneThis: ArtistServer has partnered with ToneThis to provide music with Creative Commons licensing and currently loads as the default content provider when you launch ToneThis. The mp3 used in the demo is by an artist on ArtistServer - very cool! Check out the screenshot below:
The ToneThis panel also provides an 'artist' view, which lists artists who have music with the proper Creative Commons license. Only artists with upgraded accounts are listed. ArtistServer also supports ToneThis as a ringtone transfer method for the ringtones artists upload with their songs. When using the ToneThis transfer method, the mp3 will first be downloaded to your local copy of ToneThis, then you send it to your phone. While the final download step is similar to what ArtistServer already offers, ToneThis has gone several steps further by providing detailed support for mobile networks around the world, and for 100's of phones.
ArtistServer
mobile
ringtones
ToneThis
Mobile - Web - Media Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007 6:44:17 PM
Running LightTPD and PHP on Windows
While I honestly feel ColdFusion is a great platform for Web Applications, it turns out there's some things it's not so great at, one of which is serving of a lot of files, and in my case, it's the streaming and downloading of mp3s. ColdFusion has a max thread count setting, and if you are serving an mp3 file via CFContent (to hide the file's location, and handle tracking it's use), this max number becomes a serious limitation.
This has now become a problem because ArtistServer is seeing more traffic and more listeners, which means more streaming and downloads. We've started hitting that max thread count, and need to move the mp3 streaming and downloading to another solution. My goals for the new solution include:
From the lighttpd Web site: http://www.lighttpd.net/ For my specific case, I now have a test server setup with lighttPD and PHP, and have started working on a translation of my file serving/streaming/tracking code. Once I have the code up and running, I can start testing on linux server and consider removing Windows from the equation. Making a platform change would provide even better performance and a higher number of concurrent users. Why not do it now? Because I'm new to PHP and don't want to change all the elements at once. After I gain a comfort level with PHP, I can start working with it on linux. Windows + LightTPD + PHP
This information is offered for free and does not imply any responsibility nor consultation. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer, but I think the best thing to do is to post to the lighttpd forums. Good luck in your developments, I'll post again once I have made some progress.
ColdFusion
lighttpd
PHP
Windows
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