Final Video: Gk's Second Performance At Youmedia

This is the Second time I performed at you media. You can tell when watching it that I had a lot to learn about stage presence.

Music Distribution 101: Making The Internet Work For You

With all of the emerging social networks and technological internet advantages happening through the power of the internet, i may be hard to manage them all. Well thanks to the technology at IFTTT, we are now able to automate our social media and social services, and make the internet "work for you".

IFTTT is a web-based service that allows users to create chains of simple conditional statements, called "recipes", which are triggered based on changes to other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, and Craigslist. IFTTT is an abbreviation of "If This Then That". An example "recipe" might consist of sending an e-mail message if the IFTTT user tweets using a certain hashtag. Or, if the user is tagged by someone on Facebook, then that photo will be added to the user's cloud-based photo archive. IFTTT was created by Linden Tibbets, Jesse Tane, and Alexander Tibbets in San Francisco, California. IFTTT was launched in September 7, 2011. Today, IFTTT recipes are widely used and shared by its users. In addition to its web-based application, IFTTT for iPhone was launched on July 10, 2013 and contained three channels: iOS Photos, Reminders and Contacts. An iPad version with iOS notification support was later introduced on April 3, 2014. Later that month, on April 24, 2014, IFTTT released an Android version of the app. On February 19, 2015, IFTTT renamed their original application to IF and released a new suite of apps called Do. The Do apps allow users to create customizable shortcut applications and actions. Linden Tibbets also announced that IFTTT users are now "cooking" about 20 million "recipes" each day.

Newest Video Shot By Us

How Social Media Is Shaping The Way We Consume

There is no question that social media has brought fans closer to their favorite recording artists. Facebook lets users like artists and Twitter lets users follow and even communicate with them, but now it is even reshaping the landscape of music.


Not only are social networks allowing musicians to bring fans closer to their lives, artists are even using social platforms to promote and distribute their music.

Spotify, the largest and fastest growing social network for music, has made great strides to add services to create a better user experience. Other than being able to listen to a large library of songs, including new release albums, users can follow artists and, as of recently, listen to the music that they are currently listening to. Musicians build playlists of their favorite songs, much like users, and their fans are able to listen along and are updated when new songs are added.

In a recent campaign, Spotify invited users to stream “Wish You Were Here”, the first Pink Floyd track on the network, one million times to unlock their full catalogue of music. The campaign was so strong that the full catalogue, including their multi-platinum albums The Dark Side of The Moon and The Wall, was released in less than four days.

Pandora, another social music powerhouse, is also taking part in creating a unique user experience. With the release of their new service, Pandora Premiers, users are able to listen to full-length albums weeks before they are released. Not only is this taking music discovery to another level, but it is also allowing users to sample new music to assist in the decision of whether or not they will purchase upon release. The new service allows for repeated listens of tracks in any order, which has never been offered by the platform before.

The development and progression of the digital world is definitely shaping the way we consume content. The question is, how will you use it to your own advantage.

Have You Heard About That Youtube Licensing Deal?

The deal, announced on the YouTube blog, will more thoroughly compensate producers and artists for the use of their music in user-generated work on the video-sharing site, YouTube said.

Publishers that have signed on include BMG Rights Management, Christian Copyright Solutions, ABKCO Music, Inc., Songs Music Publishing, Words & Music, Copyright Administration, Music Services, Reservoir Media Management, and Songs of Virtual. They represent artists like Adele, Cee Lo Green, Foo Fighters, The Rolling Stones, and Sam Cooke, YouTube said.

The deal will result in "more of the great music you all love on YouTube, and more opportunities for artists to make money," Elizabeth Moody, head of YouTube Music's strategic partner development, wrote on the blog.

It also means that the next time you upload a video with your favorite song in the background, YouTube's Content ID systemmight not void the audio track, or remove the entire video from the site. The Content ID system, an audio and video matching tool, now gives content owners the option to leave the copyrighted material online, and even place money-making ads alongside it.

YouTube's recent contracts, in addition to asimilar agreement last year with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and Harry Fox Agency, will allow the company to monetize almost all user-generated YouTube videos that feature music.

Google has come under fire from content owners and industry groups for facilitating piracy via its search engine and YouTube. Google has been working to combat the problem, saying last year that it had made "considerable progress," on the matter, but not everyone is convinced.

Blogging 101: Monetizing Your Blog

No matter which group you’re in, making money with a blog—whether it’s a hobby blog or a business blog—is possible. It’s not a get rich quick ordeal, but if you do it right, you could make enough to support your family and more.

One of the most common ways bloggers make money is through placing ads on their site. There are two popular types of ads:

CPC/PPC Ads: Cost per click (also called pay per click) ads are usually banners that you place in your content or sidebar. Each time a reader clicks on the ad, you’re paid for that click.
CPM Ads: CPM Ads, or “cost per 1,000 impressions,” are ads that pay you a fixed amount of money based on how many people view your ad.
Perhaps the most popular network for placing these types of ads is Google AdSense. With this program, you don’t need to be in direct contact with advertisers; you simply place the banner on your site, Google chooses ads relevant to your content, and your viewers click on the ads. There are countless similar programs available if you find that AdSense doesn’t work for you, such as Chitika, Infolinks, and Media.net.

Working with advertising networks isn’t your only option when it comes to selling ads. If you end up with enough traffic, advertisers may come directly to you and ask you to place their ad on your site. You can also contact advertisers yourself. The biggest difference from the abovementioned option is that there’s no middle man, which means you can set your own ad rates.

Selling private ads can come in the form of banners, buttons, or links. You can even make money writing sponsorship posts where you write about or give a review of an advertiser’s product or service. Another option is to write an underwritten post or series, which is where you can write about any topic, but the advertiser pays for a “Brought to you by” mention in the content.

The ways you make money with this can vary. For instance, you might charge a one-time fee for a link within a post. If you’re hosting banner ads, you might charge your partner monthly.

I hope this info is helpful and can aid in your blogs as well. Happy monetizing!

My Mama Car

My first real project at this school

Blog Background: Andrew Barber

Andrew Barber deals almost exclusively with young men who have come into money. Some are newly rich; some started poor and worked their way to comfortable; and others, arguably his bread and butter, are not wealthy yet but stand to make a chunk of change. Some, he finds, and some come to him. Six years ago, he was a rap-obsessed 20-something from Indiana, selling advertising in Chicago for the FX network, hoping someday to work his way into a record company A&R job, developing established artists and looking for new sounds. But he had zero contacts in the music business, never mind in the cloistered world of hip-hop. Now, at 32, Barber is editor of Fake Shore Drive, the website he created in 2007 devoted to Chicago rap. Barber is the contact now. At a glance, Fake Shore Drive is basically a music blog, a compendium of local rap news, a smidge of criticism and assorted music videos and lists (“The 30 Best Young Chop Beats of 2012”). But it's also the first place Chicago rappers go to leak new music, send mixtapes and test new beats. While the site has been locally popular for years, the past 12 months have been especially good to Barber: He became MTV's Midwest correspondent. He landed a spot on the regional board for the Grammy Awards. Then came Barber's list of “10 New Chicago Rappers to Watch Out For,” written for Complex magazine and posted to Fake Shore. It came out in February 2012; by December, nine of the 10 rappers were signed to major labels. As Andrew Barber continues to rise to the top, Fakeshore Drive will be continuing to grow.

Artist Insight: Interview with The Boy Illinois

Here is a interview that I did with The Boy Illinois. Enjoy!

Blogging 101: Starting a music blog

Over the past few years, music blogging has been changing as much as the music industry itself. As a whole, consumers are starting to look at music differently, and signs of this are evident on the Internet more obviously than anywhere else. Just three years ago, things looked a lot different and getting started as a music blogger was a lot easier. These days things are more complicated, there's a lot more competition, and the rules are constantly becoming more confusing. Still, if you want to start a music blog in 2015, I'd encourage you to give it a shot. Just make sure you know what you're doing.There is a very low barrier to entry when it comes to starting a music blog. Anyone with a computer and Internet access can figure it out, and the cost of creating and maintaining a blog is as little as you want it to be. Bad news is this low barrier to entry means that the competition is high. Anyone can start a music blog, therefore everyone starts a music blog.Think about ways to create value without just relying on new songs and videos. If you despise lists, write your opinions, do interviews, or tell stories. Posting songs also needs to become a routine. You have to keep an eye out for anything new or interesting. You need to put some care and attention into every single post, because that post could be the first impression a new reader is getting of your site. 

The First Time I Performed @ Youmedia

I decided to take a break from audiomack to share this video. This is a video of one of my first performances ever. This was filmed at you media @the harold washington library.

Getting Starting With AudioMack: Features and Functions

Audiomack has some amazing features, some of which include: Top Songs, Top Albums, Top Playlists, and other trending music. There, you can view all the latest singles and albums from your favorite artists (if they made the cut). Top Playlists allow you to see what users have the best playlists, and allows you to quickly sift through songs to find good content. I like the trending feature most because it allows me to stay up to date and relevant on the newest songs depending on what genre you select  (and have something to talk about with friends). One other feature that i like about Audiomack is the ability to view your track statistics. Although other sites have the ability to track statistics, I just overall like the option to be able to do it in general. Being able to track statistics in my opinion is key to success of an artist, allowing them to accurately measure things like marketing plans and strategies you may be doing. Overall, i thing Audiomack is (if not the best) one of the best media displaying apps on the internet. Their simple layout allows for easy navigating through the site, and allows artists and consumers to find content more easily. In my later posts, I will talk about the "My Profile" page and discuss some of the important things you can access and modify within the page. I hope the things i put on this post can hopefully inform and help you through your own journey on AudioMack. Until Next time. - G.K. Harmony

Getting Started With AudioMack: What Is AudioMack?

AudioMack is a music distribution website specifically tailored to help artists showcase and distribute their music. It was created by four music lovers who collectively have over 30 years of digital music and media experience. They came up with the idea for AudioMack after becoming sick and tired of downloading music from shady and illegal sites that often crash after getting too much traffic. So once they noticed that some of the file sharing and promo song release websites are a pain in the ass to use, they figured it had to be another way. So they created a platform that really simplified and enhanced the process of releasing music to the public. AudioMack is 100% free with no download caps, is simple and fast to upload music on, and is organized in a clean, intuitive, and professional layout.
I personally think AudioMack is a very efficient way to put music online. I think one of the main reasons I am attracted to it, other than its very elegant and simplistic design, is the fact that there is no cap on songs. I think being able to express yourself freely as an artist is key to growth and progression, and I personally don't think that you can set parameters on that. I would like my fans to feel like they have grown with me through my songs, and being able to upload all of my content (and not just my newest content) is a vital part in allowing to do so.

Getting Started With AudioMack: Creating An Account

The Advantages of Digital Distribution

As many of you know, the internet has provide us as entertainers, many advantages. In this post I will be discussing some of the many advantages of online music distribution.

Online distribution allows your music to reach a virtually endless fanbase, more than ever before at the push of a button. If that doesn't catch your attention, then how about the fact that it cost virtually nothing to physical distribution. You don't have any cd's to press or packages to make. There are no mailing costs for supplies or manage stock. All you have to do is upload one copy of your project with a digital distributor and you then have infinite copies of your music anywhere in the world you need it, as long as theres an internet connection, which isn't pretty uncommon these days.

Even though there is the fact that some people will find other ways to get your music without paying, it is still worth it in the long run. You get to keep a way bigger portion of your sales, not having to deal with the corporate record label structure of sales, and you'll end up making a bigger profit.

The internet is has become a pretty inescapable thing, and it would be really not worth your while to ignore it. Even if you think some of your fans may take it and upload it to a torrent site, which will probably happen at some point or another, it may be most likely well worth the risk.

Music & Technology : The New Age of Exposure

Hey, my name is Shakari Granberry and i am the creator of Music Central, a place where we bring together all things music and entertainment. I created this blog to give more insight on music distribution and entertainment. We give artist knowledge and tips on where and how to put their music and videos online. With all of these different media and social media outlets to choose from, sometime we may find ourselves overwhelmed with a bombardment of different ways to do things. Though Music Central, we plan to make getting your music out as simple as sipping a cup of tea.

Do you remember the days. Waking up out of the bed thinking about how you couldn't wait to just go outside and play with friends. What about music? Do you remember the days when you had to put your phone up to the car speaker just to record your ringtone? I remember those days, and in our more current days, its kind've hard to imagine living a life like that again with all the technological advances we've had since then. We've got smartphones, super fast internet, HD tablets, and countless other things as the list goes on and on. No matter how you look at it, technology is shaping the way we live. We are being immerse in it at a very fast pace. Especially when it comes to music. The many different ways we can distribute our music to the world seems endless, as opposed the last 10 years. As I continue this blog, you will begin to find out just how technology has shaped our life in terms music and entertainment. Hope to see you in the posts ahead.

- G.K. Harmony