For professional reasons I prefer not to inform the source but I can assure that the text bellow was extracted from a document considered as an important guide inside at least one music recording big company.
I have to apologize in advance for my English mistakes because the copy that I have is in Portuguese and I had to translate it. But I suppose that is possible to “catch the idea” .
(And probably I have to hide myself and wait for the flying stones)
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… 90 % (or more) of demonstration CDs have beautiful songs, wonderful musicians, amazing recording, perfect mixing, not so bad mastering and zero commercial value…
… the important thing is to catch the “commercial hook” of the song and use it as your music production guide line……
… a few rules:
From recording schedule to final mastering, if you’re involved in the process but you’re not the musical producer, ask him about the work to do.
If you are the musical producer instruct everybody to ask you and try to follow the guideline bellow.
1) … think in a “single production” way. There is no radio station that will play one CD from the beginning to the end….
2) Just start your work after clearly identify your “song sales power” Can be the lyrics or some part of, can be a specific riff, can be some vocal or instrument “identity” ……
3) Record a guide track giving the best quality and emphasis as possible to the “commercial hook” …
4) …record everything but your commercial hook.
5) Record carefully the song important part…
6) … during the mixing and mastering phases your main concern must have to protect the important part from the “artistic and creative” point of view of the musicians, mixer “pilots”, mastering engineers, friends, etc…….
7) You’re creating a product… Don’t forget.: You have to follow one schedule and you have a final product release date otherwise we will miss your “time to market”…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sounds like a a hit list…not flames from me. The record companies don’t care about the songs from an artistic point of view and with few exceptions never have. They look for anything they can sell for a profit.
They also look for anything that might take away sales, sign 'em and shelve them. They don’t want some copycat lowering sales of a known big seller by flooding the market with sound-alikes.
Yep, that list sounds logical from the record companies point of view.
Hi Phoo
I totally agree with you. But I also suppose that N has 2 kinds of users.
the hobbyists (for instance myself)
the guys that are producing some demonstration material to show to recording companies (for instance my kids).
In this way I think that know the industry point of view maybe should be helpful.
90 % (or more) of demonstration CDs have beautiful songs, wonderful musicians, amazing recording, perfect mixing, not so bad mastering and zero commercial value…
... the important thing is to catch the “commercial hook” of the song and use it as your music production guide line…
Fully agree with that. You just had to download just about anything from mp3.com back in the day - great production, songs with no hook (mine included).
Harvey Gurst (or maybe mixerman, can't remember):
Words To Live By In The Studio
WHERE'S THE "HOOK"? That's the part of the song you mostly remember, either a catchy phrase, or melody, or both. It can even be an unusual instrument. Most hit songs have a "hook". All time great lyric hook? Probably Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild". All time great melody hook? Hendrix "Purple Haze".
GET TO THE "HOOK" IN UNDER ONE MINUTE If you want to be a star, don't waste your time setting up a long, complicated intro to a song. Get to the heart of the song quickly. Consider the examples listed above. When you're doing your stage show, then you can do the long version. A record executive will give you about 12 seconds of his time. If you spend two minutes just getting into the song, you haven't got a chance.
IS IT "RADIO-FRIENDLY"? Is it the kind of music you're likely to hear on the radio? If a radio station won't touch it, chances are a record exec won't either.
IS IT TOO LONG? Again, leave the long version for the stage show. Tell your story in 3 to 3½ minutes. (This isn't a hard and fast rule, but if you're gonna take 6 minutes to say what you want to say, it better be important stuff that people want to hear.)
http://www.itn.is/~ofheyrn/frod.htm
Willy.
... the important thing is to catch the “commercial hook” of the song and use it as your music production guide line…
Fully agree with that. You just had to download just about anything from mp3.com back in the day - great production, songs with no hook (mine included).
Harvey Gurst (or maybe mixerman, can't remember):
Words To Live By In The Studio
WHERE'S THE "HOOK"? That's the part of the song you mostly remember, either a catchy phrase, or melody, or both. It can even be an unusual instrument. Most hit songs have a "hook". All time great lyric hook? Probably Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild". All time great melody hook? Hendrix "Purple Haze".
GET TO THE "HOOK" IN UNDER ONE MINUTE If you want to be a star, don't waste your time setting up a long, complicated intro to a song. Get to the heart of the song quickly. Consider the examples listed above. When you're doing your stage show, then you can do the long version. A record executive will give you about 12 seconds of his time. If you spend two minutes just getting into the song, you haven't got a chance.
IS IT "RADIO-FRIENDLY"? Is it the kind of music you're likely to hear on the radio? If a radio station won't touch it, chances are a record exec won't either.
IS IT TOO LONG? Again, leave the long version for the stage show. Tell your story in 3 to 3½ minutes. (This isn't a hard and fast rule, but if you're gonna take 6 minutes to say what you want to say, it better be important stuff that people want to hear.)
http://www.itn.is/~ofheyrn/frod.htm
Willy.