Seven Top Reasons Why Everyone Loves Music
By Mark Maxwell
Music is a universal language. It inspires common human feelings and bridges gaps
between cultures that spoken languages cannot. It brings people together and creates
universal community.
Music inspires and evokes emotion in a healthy way. It touches our emotional being and
evokes moods and feelings that are sometimes difficult to express. It can change a difficult
mood and make it happy or excited; it can change a light mood and take it deeper and more
profound.
Music enhances learning and makes it more enjoyable. It is scientifically proven that music
enhances brain functioning. Playing music uses many brain functions simultaneously:
motor control, imagination, hearing, sight, memory, etc.
Music creates ambiance. You can use music in any environment to enhance and augment
what is already there. Consider the difference between a party with music and one without,
or a sporting event, or a movie, or a romantic restaurant, or driving in your car...
Music is spiritual. Music is of the spirit and inspirational to the spirit. All religions use music
to help express spiritual values, and all religions use music to uplift the spirit.
Music sparks the imagination. It invokes mental imagery and inner scenery that opens the
mind to amazing insight and spans the distance between the stars.
Music is a simple pleasure. All it takes is your ears and your imagination.
I believe that at the center of the phenomenon of the magic that music creates is the
spiritual aspect. Music is a gift from God, a sacred expression of the Universal Life Force
Energy that creates us all.
Mark Maxwell is a saxophonist and recording artist living in California. His 17 self-produced and self-promoted
CDs have sold over a half a million copies. His music can be found at Romantic Sax Music.
Article Source
Court Orders Million-pound Payout in Meat Loaf Logo Row
A US Court has ordered Sony Music to pay nearly two and a half pounds to a small record
company. The music company was charged with missing the record company’s logo off
Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell album.
The decision follows a 1998 settlement in which Sony decided to include the Cleveland
International logo on future copies of the record. But over a year later, Sony‘s failure to add
the logo landed them back in court.
Cleveland founder Steve Popovich argued that he had worked too hard for and made them
too much money to get robbed now. Sony claimed the logo omission was a mistake that
was eventually corrected.
According to court documents, Sony claimed that Mr Popovich had fabricated the logo
agreement. The records also show that Bat Out of Hell, which was originally released in
1979, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
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Animation by Andy Keaveney
What is animation? To this there probably is no single answer.
For instance animation can be seen in many different aspects from 2D drawings moving
around and performing actions on screen to 3D rendering that we see in many movies and
video games that we play today.
One form of animation that we all know of but which sadly, is dying out is ‘stop motion
animation.’ This is involves taking an armature (model) of a character, moving a part of it
and then taking a still photo shots of it onto a computer. Repeat the process and then play
back all the shots you have taken on a computer. You will see that your armature performs
the action you intended it to do. However, this method of animation takes lots of patience
and is very time consuming.
Back in the days of 2D Animation and Walt Disney, animation had to be drawn out by hand.
All of Disney’s animated shorts and movies were all drawn out scene by scene by many
artists and could take many years to complete. But as the years went by computers took
over and they helped animators finish their work a lot quicker.
The main type of animation that we use today is 3D. Many 3D software programs such as
3D Studio Max and Maya are used in video games and even Hollywood movies. In the 3d
world, you can create models and render out actions in real time, make it all seem very real
and capture the audience.
My favourite style of animation is 2D. That’s because I like to draw out my characters and
make models of them. I also find stop motion is easier than working on a 3D model. And it
helps because I like to feel free as well as bring a little bit of humour to my animated shorts.
Note: Andrew Keaveney is an animation student at Salford University. He is Currently in his
3rd and final year but his portfolio is aleady taking shape Contact:akeaveney@hotmail.com
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Potpourri
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Sprint and Plies agree File Sharing Networks Deal
Sprint has reportedly agreed to embed its logo on copies of tracks from
Atlantic Records hip-hop artist Plies. The move would make it the first
company to underwrite a song to be distributed on file-sharing networks,
The initiative will see Sprint and Atlantic Records joining forces with Artist
Direct's Media Defender division which knowledgeable sources indicate will
push 16 million Plies song files embedded with the Sprint logo onto peer-to-
peer networks over a three-month period. The talk in the industry is that this
could net a substantial six-figure fee that would be divided between Media
Defender, Atlantic Records, Plies and his publishing company.
According to Artist Direct CEO Jon Diamond, the initiative serves a triple
purpose. Apart from generating advertising income for record labels it will
curtail piracy and allow brands to work with key artists to reach a desired
demographic.
Diamond declined to identify Plies as the artist associated with the Sprint deal
but he revealed that the label and artist will be announced in two weeks. At
the same time he hinted that Media Defender is in talks with a number of
major artists and brands and similar deals will be announced shortly.
Snoop Dogg in -Journey with Me….
MTV Australia has launched campaign aimed at clearing the way Snoop Dogg
to be welcome in Australia again.
Snoop Dogg was billed to host the Australian MTV Music Awards in April, but
Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews denied the rapper's visa because of his
legal woes and previous criminal convictions in the United States.
Now in a new marketing pitch the network has produced a series of shorts to
promote the rapper Down under. Titled ‘Journey with Me as I Become a Citizen
Down Under’ the series will run this month on all of the pay channels that carry
MTV in Australia. The shorts will feature footage of Snoop Dogg filmed during
a previous visit to the country.
The spots feature the rapper on various Australian beaches, and purchasing
a home in Sydney's exclusive Vaucluse residential area where he urges
everyone to "get the girls ready ... and put on the barbecue." The series will
also feature Australian singer/actress Sophie Monk and a fictional lawyer
named "Bob Hardcastle," who argues that Snoop Dogg should be allowed into
the country.
Sales of Singles Online Climb in UK
Downloadable singles recorded the strongest movement in the music industry
in the UK for the first half of the year.
According to the UK Record Labels Association, the BPI, 90 percent of singles
sold in the country between January and June were sold online or via mobile
phones. But while the singles sales grew, sales of physical CD albums
declined. The BPI report shows a dip of 10 per cent in over the counter sales
during the first half of the year.
CD album sales fell to just under 58 million units during the first six months.
Overall, combined (physical and digital) albums declined to around 60 million
units in the first six months as against over 65 million units in the first half 2006.
Meantime the chairman of the Music Publishers Association has called on
rights holders to come together and protect their works in the growing digital
environment.
Paul Curran told the association’s annual general meeting the fact that audio-
visual exploitation is rising rapidly, raises new questions about blanket licensing
in the new environment and about the synchronization rights in content on
MySpace and YouTube
MPA CEO Stephen Navin referred to what he described as a complex structure
of the digital business and blasted consumers who he said, ‘think that music is
somehow free. “While we've seen the year-on-year decline of the recording
industry, we've seen the rise of user-generated content and we need to find
ways to synchronize those rights.” He said he was now more convinced that
there was a need for closer co-operation between publishers, users, the public
and the government. “We must” he concluded “continue to erect strong
bridges of communications with the BPI."
Recording Breaking Pink, Kylie Up for
Helpmann Awards Down Under
Recording breaking ticket sales have made Kylie Minogue and Pink strong
contenders among the nominees for the annual Australian Helpmann Awards.
Pink sold 307,000 tickets for 35 shows of her "I'm Not Dead!" tour and set a
new record for the biggest arena tour Down Under by a female artist.
She beat the previous record 215,000 set by Kylie, with her 2006 "Showgirl
Homecoming"
Pink's tour is nominated in the best international contemporary concert
category, while Kylie is nominated in the best performance in Australian
contemporary concert category. Pink (Michael Coppel Presents) is pitted
against the likes of Robbie Williams' "Close Encounters" (Chugg
Entertainment) and Lou Reed's "Berlin" (Arts At St. Anne's, Sydney Festival).
Kylie (Frontier Touring Company) locks horns with Olivia Newton-John with the
Sydney Symphony (promoted by Sydney Symphony) and singer-songwriter
Damien Leith and "Australian Idol"
Winners will be announced at the ceremony on Aug. 6 at the Capitol Theatre in
Sydney,
Fireball Creams European Club Charts
Caribbean soca star Fireball, started July at the top the European Club Music
Charts. His success follows the release of a reworked version of his 2007
carnival hit single "What I Want," in France.
Marketed across Europe by French music producer Bob Sinclar as Bob Sinclar
presents, Fireball the Carnival hi,t features an opening rap from Jamaican
dancehall artiste Fahrenheit. ‘What I Want’ is also riding ahead of Hip Hop
stars 50 Cent's "Straight to the Bank" and Ne-Yo's "Because of You" on the
European charts. Fahrenheit is best known as Jamaican dancehall star Sean
Paul's back up singer.
Fireball is only the second soca artiste from Trinidad and Tobago to have a
number one single in Europe. He joins Stafford "Sugar Daddy" Samuel who
reached number one in the UK, France and Belgium with his single "Sweet
Soca" in 2003.
Reggae Rhythms for Nokia 5200
VP Records has teamed up with Nokia to introduce the Nokia 5200 that has
features that promote reggae music.
Yolan Sanders of the Jamaica VP office has confirmed that new red and white
Nokia 5200 is embedded with music, music wallpaper, music videos, and ring
tones from Morgan Heritage, Tanya Stephens, Richie Spice, and Wayne
Wonder." Morgan Heritage recently released Full Circle, their 7th album, Tanya
Stephens is best known for hits such as Rebelution and Gangsta Blues and
Richie Spice’s latest is the Streets to Africa.
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