The Blog
A Look Inside A London Musician's Life: Vicky Sometani
Vicky Sometani, Singer/Songwriter
Vicky is a singer/songwriter from the US. She spent many years living in NYC, working and writing music, but hadn't ever shared or released any music. She moved to London after falling in love and began performing her songs for the first time in years. Since then she has been featured in several live sessions including London Live, Laid Bare, and Sofar Sounds – and has been working on her debut EP. 'My Music' is a rhythmic blend of blues, soul, and jazz, with captivating lyrics and dynamic vocals.
We're Giving Away 10 Free Videos!
UPDATE: This competition has now closed.
We hit a big milestone this week - 200,000 videos have been made using Rotor. That's huge! Seems like a good reason to celebrate. So, we’re giving away 10 free videos to one lucky person!
We built Rotor to make great videos achievable for everyone – for the winner, we’re making it free too!
The Rising Importance of YouTube for Musicians
There is no doubt, YouTube is now THE destination for music.
In the leading global markets (excluding China), Youtube aggregates more music streams than all of the other streaming services combined! 46% of music streaming is down to YouTube, while 45% is accounted for by the combination of streams from all of the paid and free audio streaming services together.
YouTube is also one of the top social platforms. 85% of teenagers use YouTube, compared to 50% saying they use Facebook. That’s just how many USE these platforms, but what platforms do they use most often? Well, turns out it’s YouTube and Snapchat. From an industry point of view, video streaming revenues in the UK grew by 16% in 2017 – so expect more videos to start appearing.
YouTube is both the destination for music and the social network where the next generations are gathering. And now, YouTube has launched YouTube Music, their dedicated music service which will have a series of new charts based on popular songs, videos, and artists.
There will be a ‘Trending’ chart in addition to a ‘Top Songs’ and ‘Top Artists’ chart.The ‘Trending’ chart will be updated multiple times per day and will highlight the most viewed new music on the platform. ‘Top Songs’ will gather data from different versions of a song that include music videos, lyrics videos, and user-uploaded videos. It will prioritise recently uploaded content, so that videos that have been around a while don’t bubble up older tracks. ‘Top Artists’ charts will count up plays from an artist’s entire catalogue including remixes, collaborations, live versions, lyrics videos, and official videos. The more views you can get, the better.
There are now some very solid reasons to create multiple types of video content for every track, and to create multiple versions of those tracks – just don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of volume.
A Guide to the Best Music Production Software
It’s one thing to get your music onto streaming platforms and into people’s speakers, but it’s another entirely to produce it from scratch using music making software.
If you’re looking to lay down your musical ideas into tangible, fully-formed tracks, you’ll need the right music software to develop your concepts and bring your vision to fruition. With plenty of choice out there, and a whole host of options and variety, finding exactly what you need can be difficult.
Each music recording service will offer something different, and no choice is necessarily the ‘correct’ one. It’s all about your budget, preferences, needs, skill level and ability, as each has a unique interface with separate features. From simple beat making to creating the next EDM anthem, every piece of software will offer something different.
We’ve put together a guide to the best Music Production software available, whether that be free, trial-based or a fully paid-for product. Read on to find out which is the right choice for you.
Should You Approach Your Music as a Business?
The music industry has changed an unprecedented degree in the last several decades. With the explosion of the internet, social media, streaming and visual content, making music and earning a living doing so is now more business-focused than ever.
Should musicians approach their craft with a more corporate mentality? We’ve considered and explored the reasons why musicians need to think more like businesses.