Curious, is there a particular time of the year or season that yields the most album sales? Or better yet, ticket sales for shows?
Curious about the music industry? Find out stuff.
- Thread starter BonsaiK
- Start date
Recommended Videos
You were talking about production on metal albums earlier in the thread, and how they are too often mixed too much into the low end. Could you possibly give some examples on what albums you thought did this right?
I really like music, but I also really like technology. So I'm trying to find majors that combine those two interests so I have a general idea of what I want to do. I've already seen audio engineering, but apparently there aren't very many jobs for that.
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
Ticket sales, not really. The same crowd that wants to see Metallica in April usually also wants to see them in August. There's a bit of a spike in summer but that's only because more gigs get booked - summer is a better time to put on festivals and outdoor gigs logistically (less chance of rain to ruin things) not because punters wouldn't go and see their favourite band in the winter anyway.Ham_authority95 said:
Album sales, around Christmas, because that's when people tend to buy more random shit for their friends and family on the hope of "he might like this". That's why all those Greatest Hits compilations tend to come out around the Oct-Nov-Dec period, as do things like X-Factor/Idol winners etc. In fact bands who already have a Greatest Hits album out will often have another, slightly different Greatest Hits compilation issued just to capitalise on that, if the record company thinks a newly packaged one has a good chance of selling. There's quite a few bands out there (especially popular older ones) with far more Greatest Hits albums than actual "career" albums because the record companies keep doing this.
Anthrax's "Persistence Of Time" springs to mind as an excellent example of how to mix a metal record properly so it is crunchy and pounding but also clear and high-quality. Everything sounds ballsy yet nothing sounds cluttered, hidden or mushy. If you want to analyse metal production, get that record because they did everything right.mistergobbles said:
I was also really impressed with Darkthrone's "A Blaze In The Northern Sky", belive it or not. Even though it's absolutely lo-fi as fuck, the drum sound on that record is absolutely mighty, probably because all the guitars and vocals are right in the upper register thus giving the drums room to breathe with some decent low end. Even more impressed that this album came out at a time when the weedy "And Justice For All" kick drum sound was being heavily mimicked, so it was going heavily against the grain at the time. To me, the quality of that album is the true reason for the Norwegian Black Metal explosion, not any of that church-burning bullshit.
Well there aren't a lot of jobs in music tech across the board. That doesn't mean that it's not worth going for. If you want to go for it, what you'll need to succeed in that field besides the knowledge is the ability to get along with all types of people, and a strong work ethic - that will take you everywhere.FinalHeart95 said:
Let's look at just one potential career, which is live mixing. I've seen so many local gigs where the mixer sets up the mix and then walks away to have a cigarette or buy a drink, then after the first song the band need something like more vocals in the foldback or some feedback removed and the mixer guy isn't even behind the board to fix it up. Many people have the knowledge and ability to mix bands, but few have the willingness to sit there behind the desk for the whole show and make sure the band sounds exceptional, plus stay sober in an environment where everybody else is drinking and doing drugs, and not piss people off with ego trips or whatever. That's why most mixers doing local gigs are crap - the few who are any good at it get noticed and find themselves doing bigger things.
Audio engineering also represents a really good self-employment opportunity if you've got the capital and space to build a studio. Studios that charge reasonable rates and aren't run by douchebags are always in high demand. You need to be a really patient, genuinely nice guy to do this kind of work, because you'll be stuck in a room with sometimes really unpleasant people for very, very long stretches of time, with them potentially bossing you around a lot. It can get pretty unpleasant, but the money is excellent if you can get a reputation as s good engineer going. The better engineers in the world have people travel from different countries just for the privilege of recording with them.
I don't live in the UK, so you've got me here. If you live there you'd probably have more idea than me. I've heard about things like all the Mersey Beat revivalists coming from Liverpool, all the trip-hop coming from Bristol etc, but I don't have any "inside" information here that you couldn't get from a magazine. I can say though that as a general rule if you're not in a city at least as big as Belfast then you probably should consider moving if you want to be part of any kind of music scene. Sorry to be basically unhelpful.Squarez said:
Oh, and what did you specifically mean by "government jobs"? Stuff like being a secretary to a court, delivering mail, etc etc?BonsaiK said:
Yeah, postal work is one. Courts is another. Also working for places like the tax office, welfare organisations, housing trusts, government-owned utilities, any government department really. The work can be shitty and soul-destroying depending on what you get, but government jobs tend to pay better and have more generous leave/holiday systems than private industry. A lot of them will also be quite understanding if you want to take 12 months of unpaid leave at the drop of a hat to go and tour, and will often hold your job for you until you get back.Ham_authority95 said:
they made a good point
I've never seen them live. I must confess I don't really like their music and they were already quite successful before I started working in the industry so there would be no reason for me to go and check them out.Shivarage said:
I think I met one of those guys once at some industry party thing ages ago but for the life of me I can't remember which one, I guess because I'm not really a fan the incident didn't stick in my head. I could be thinking of another band though.
It's really not important, to be honest. If you have relative pitch, know the sounds of all the different musical intervals, and you know your vocal range, then you don't even need perfect pitch for anything, ever. Sing the lowest note that you can sing comfortably without straining, then find out what note that is using an instrument. Now, as soon as you hear any other note, you can compare it to the note you just sung and provided you know relative pitch and how your different intervals sound you can figure out what that note is.Shivarage said:
Most people who have perfect pitch are born with it. However some people who don't have it are able to develop it just because they play their instrument a lot, and those people only have perfect pitch on that instrument. For instance a guitarist who plays a lot of metal will recognise the sound of drop-D tuning immediately, but make them listen to a violin concerto and they won't know the pitches there. Some vocalists also develop perfect pitch simply because they know the muscle feeling when certain notes are hit, that's a bit like the example in the first paragraph but that only works for vocals and it only works when you are singing, not when you're listening to a recording (unless you're singing along).
I'm aware that there are courses that teach perfect pitch, and they do it by relating each of the notes to a colour, and apparently that helps somehow. I've never done those courses but I'd be surprised if they had a 100% success rate, I don't see how using colour for pitch would be any different to the current musical system of using a letter for pitch.