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Steve Ison
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4/15/2013 2:34:11 PM
How did you get started/Whats your story sharing your music on the internet ?
Just been inspired by Toms blog - and what a strange thing it is we take for granted sharing our music with the whole world - and how that is so inexorably linked for me - and i'd imagine for most of you - with developing as a creative musician..
Its such a powerful thing 'cos the irresistable riise of the internet has been mirrored nearly exactly with the ever increasing ease and affordability of recording technology..
I remember getting my first computer in 2001 with internet dial-up connection and the intense excitement of finding a site called mp3.com where artists from all over the world shared their songs
I'd got my first digital 8 track maybe 5 years previously - so had recorded a few songs i liked enough to share..
Considering i'd only played these songs to maybe 8 people previously - it felt like a whole universe of possibilities opening up, as suddenly there were 100s of people listening to my music..
Being far more shy and introverted then - i found something quite comforting in the impersonality of sharing music that way..I mean its not like you were ever seeing the person face to face - or they'd feel obliged to tell you out of the blue your music sucked
I remember there was this incredible buzz of expectation in the air then..Like it was the gold rush and we artists were among the pioneers..
So many had the feeling they were gonna be big stars and make a living from selling their music then
Tho of course that never happened lol
So mp3.com folded and i made my way to a place caled Garageband.com..Maybe 2003
A site where success was based on blind 'peer-peer' reviews where one song was pitted against another in 1000s of battles in a multitude of genres
'Success' there meant winning your battles =progressing thru the rounds to try and get to the top of the charts..
The more reviews you gave -the more songs you were able to upload..
Altho initially shocking,the brutal honesty and savagery of alot of the reviews i got actually really toughened me up to the point where nothing anyone could say about my music online would phase me anymore really
So i'm grateful for that experience in a way..
I also 'met' Steve April there thru pm correspondence - and we began an incredibly fertile creative collab over 2 or 3 years ..He wrote a stack of cool lyrics - and i tried my best to write a tune and record as many as i possibly could....
Often 2 or 3 a week..
The experience helped me develop as a songwriter so much.It was the first time i'd written to someone elses lyrics- and the process opened up alot of doorways in my imagination..Exploring different styles/song-structures and freeing me up so much musically as a songwriter..
Garageband went the same way as mp3.com - and so i arrived at IAC in about 2006...
A place bursting with intelligent. conversation from vibrant personalities,interspersed with creative/playful/annoying trolling in equal measures - all wrapped up in those fabulous epic looking stations-the best on the internet then - and now..
Altho i got into a big argument with the then site owners about the tracks they decided should make up 'The Big 50'..
So now i spread my time )roughly) between the time-drain Facebook- a songwriters site called musesmuse.com and here- which is still a mighty cool place to be..
Who knows what the future holds tho ?
So whats your story ?
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Richard Scotti
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4/15/2013 6:45:42 PM
Since necessity is the mother of invention, my need to create music and the rising cost of studio time caused me to exploit the invention of a new and inexpensive way of getting my songs recorded. For many years I only recorded in studios with either session players or my own band. Then I managed my own recording studio which was good for recording my songs for free but customers we're increasingly turning to home recording solutions and I simply couldn't pay the rent which was also on the rise. It was great while it lasted.
Two inch tape was the only game in town until DAWs and software changed everything. It was a true revolution. Suddenly anyone could afford to record professionally (or close to it) at home with just a computer and some modest gear. I sold the studio and worked free lance in various other studios as a producer while recoding my own songs at home. I play most of the instruments as well. It was great but selling hard copy CD's of my work was expensive and fruitless. After you've sold a CD to every family member, friend and colleague, where do you go from there? It was a dead end as far as getting mass exposure.
Then the next revolution began ~ the online revolution. A friend of mine was a member of IAC and he suggested I give it a whirl. Previously I was on Myspace and was not a happy camper there. But when I put my songs on IAC, it literally changed my life. I know it sounds sappy but it is what it is! I never knew the impact my music could have on so many people from so many different places and walks of life.
The planets just seemed to line up in the most elegant way possible. I received so much validation and inspiration as well as making many new friends. I'll never forget the first time a song of mine was added to a station ~ by Ray Porter!
Needless to say, it helps that the site is so well designed and user friendly as well
as just plain great to look at! The members and staff are also very cool!
The rest is history, as they say! Joining IAC was the boost of confidence that I needed. Suddenly, my music was reaching people all over the world and even stranger ~ they we're diggin' it! I was finally connecting to people outside my limited bubble. It continues to boggle my mind. Now when I write I'll not writing in a vacuum any more. I'm writing for an audience and I'm more prolific now than ever before. People are listening and appreciating what I'm doing that's all I ever wanted.
I've made some good business contacts and I have several irons in the fire which I'm very excited about. Long live IAC!
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Tom O'Brien
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4/15/2013 9:42:49 PM
I've always been decades behind technology-wise. I still use a hand-held cassette recorder when I'm writing, I just got a cell phone last year (reluctantly), and most of the recording I did was when I visited Bob. He used to have one of those Tascam 4tracks and it was state of the art home recording. Then he went digital in the 90's, recording on a Roland VS-1680 16 track studio. Bob was well-established at IAC way before I got on board. He was always saying it would be cool to have the same recording setup so we could work on stuff at a distance.
So Bob found me a VS-1880 18 track studio on eBay and I got it for around $350. BUT, it turns out that our two machines were incompatible. So I bought the exact same model as his and he sort of taught me how to use it over the phone. I eventually figured out the basics, though I'm still finding out new things. "That Used to Be Me" was the first song I wrote specifically to record. I was having a blast. My production was pretty darned poor, but I was able to arrange, and that was a new skill that I am still working at. I also recorded some songs I'd written in previous years.
And then Bob casually one day mentions IAC one day and the Pipeline and all of a sudden people I never would meet any other way are talking about music - about MY music - in such a way that I feel understood - most everything I write is pretty personal, but there's nothing better than a real good audience. Being heard here totally stoked my songwriting fire! I couldn't write or record fast enough. It was kind of a ridiculous pace, I wasn't really spending a lot of time recording, I just wanted to put the music out there - I still do. Don't we all? Passionately? We all want to be heard. You might think you want fortune and fame, but what you really want is to be heard. And though we all question the numbers, we ARE being heard, if even by a few.
I've only deleted a handful of songs since I started in about 2008, I think, so all the poorly-produced things are still up and they still get listened to by someone. I'm currently working with Bob on new recordings of some of those older songs I like so well.
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Chandra Moon
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4/16/2013 1:22:26 PM
What I did was when I first started writing songs and singing them incredibly badly was put them on My Space because it was the only place I'd heard of for music. Remarkably, I started getting loads of comments including awful ones. I had a drummer friend and we put up some truly dreadful versions of my songs. However, that bit of interest and encouragement helped get me on track.
I don't use Myspace now except I have my IAC player on it but I love the interaction of the internet. I started through blogging actually and have met quite a lot of lovely people in real life from that initial internet place.
The first album I ever sold was to a blog reader in Singapore - I'll never forget the feeling of packing up that CD and posting it off the other side of the world! Since then it's a wonderful feeling know people hear my music literally all over the world either from the CD on on sites like this one. Hurray for the internet - especially for people like me who only do live performances occasionally!
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Zeeza
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4/16/2013 1:40:03 PM
In 1997 I had herd that this new tech mp3 stuff was rolling around. I wrote "mp3.com" in my browser and OH LA LA! I saw an upload sign and the exitement never stopped. It was the start of the music revolution. Message boards so tight with people it broke down one day. Artist posting songs, rants, ideas, cartoons, jokes and lyrics. We wrote songs together, wars of words, battles of bands, charts and pay for play! At some point I had over 500,000 downloads and sold CDs and plays. In those days, the internet was just all new, wild and free. Those who were part of those days will know what I'm *talking* about. I like this place because they've been good to me. I love IAC!
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Bob Elliott
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4/16/2013 2:41:13 PM
I've been recording stuff since I was about 8. Inevitable that I'd put recordings on line. Really I need to put my stuff a lot more places. I don't even know the places. I have it here.
As for how I got here, Scott brought me here, and then he ( like many others I enjoyed) disappeared. Poof.
Remember that one gal that seemed so creative and nice to everyone but somehow got in some bash up or another and was sent packing? We need more of those.
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Steve Ison
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4/19/2013 2:23:43 PM
Great to read everyone's stories here
Nice one guys
Bob..Is it Anjuli of Crack*a*jack crow/Gaslight District you're talking about ?
If its her - she wasn't booted off but had a very bad run-in with raymond porter and chose to leave..
Yeh -would be absoloutly fantastic if she came back here tho...
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