Location: York, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

Member since: July 24, 2010

Tracks in portfolio on MusicRevolution.com: 57 (click here to hear all tracks) http://www.musicrevolution.com/search?artist=314

Background—

Michael Crowther is an award-winning composer / multi-instrumentalist specializing in a wide variety of instrumental styles renowned for his dramatic and emotional qualities. Coming from a musical family, Michael began playing music at the age of four and is proficient on several different instruments. With an extensive catalog of unique original compositions in a broad array of moods, his music has been used in feature films, television and various multi-media productions. Michael’s music encompasses a variety of genres including new age, classical, electronica, acoustic, jazz, world, lush orchestral compositions, cinematic soundscapes and romantic themes.

High Profile projects or clients you have worked for?

NBC Sports, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Nissan, PBS

Primary instrument?—Favorite music-making piece of gear or software you currently use?

I mostly use keyboards for composing, but also incorporate a wide variety of instruments including electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, mandolin, bass guitar, assorted percussion, drums and various world instruments. I play all of the instruments on my productions.

Piece of gear or software you wished you owned?

A Steinway grand piano

Film score or song you admire? Why?

Lately, I’ve been listening to the score for “Finding Neverland” composed by Jan A.P. Kaczmarek and starring Johnny Depp. It has a great blend of classical and new age styles that creates a wonderful fantasy-like atmosphere. Really great piano work as well.

If you had a time machine and could record or perform once with any artist, who would it be?

Henry Mancini. He was a huge influence on my composing and inspired me to keep reaching to be prolific and compose in many different styles.

Moment you first knew you would be a musician?

I was just born into it. I come from a musical family and started playing music when I was 5 years old. I began performing in bars and nightclubs when I was 11.

Advice you would give to a younger family member interested in a music career?

Study a wide variety of styles and practice like crazy to get your chops sharp. If seeking a film career, be versatile composing in many styles and record 60 and 30-second versions of your tracks. On the technical side, learn the latest gear and software needed to build your own studio and become as independent as possible. On the business end, learn everything you can about music marketing, publishing, licensing and join a Performance Rights Organization like ASCAP or BMI. Also sign up with Sound Exchange for online royalties. There’s much more to it, but this is a basic start. Most of all, if you really believe in your work, don’t ever give up no matter how many years it takes to start generating income from your music. Perseverance and positive thinking will always win out. Stay focused.

Five songs or albums you’d take with you on a desert island?

–“Finding Neverland” Soundtrack

– “Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone”

– Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells”

– Return to Forever “Romantic Warrior”

– The Beatles “Abbey Road”

If you could master another instrument, what would it be?

The violin. I believe it is the most expressive instrument other than the human voice.

Favorite time of day to work in your studio?

Early morning.

Some of your favorite tracks that you would want us to feature in the blog.

When The Moon Beckons  http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=12547

Alley Cat  http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=12503

Ghosts In The Twilight 30sec http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?rackid=44494

House Of Marionettes  http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=12283

Silly Comedy http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=44429

We thank Michael for sharing some of his musical background with us and for contributing his tracks to MusicRevolution.com, the Royalty-Free Music Marketplace. Michael’s music is anything but stock music. This is unique indie music. If you need new age, classical, electronica, acoustic, jazz, world, lush orchestral compositions, cinematic soundscapes and romantic themes, give Michael’s music a listen.

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Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a royalty-free music marketplace with nearly 28,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of professional musicians. MusicRevolution.com also provides custom music production and custom music streams. The entire MusicRevolution.com production music library is available for third-party distribution and bulk licensing for background music for retail, restaurants and businesses, and for other commercial applications. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

Comedy (from the Greek: kōmōidía), in the modern meaning of the term, is any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film and stand-up comedy, according to Wikipedia. Our royalty-free music library includes comedy, humorous, funny, quirky, amusing music, slapstick music and more. We thought that we would highlight some of the royalty-free comedy music on MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) that could be used for a variety of applications including film / movies, documentaries, TV and radio commercials, online video ads, corporate videos, web videos, trade show videos, animations and cartoons. It is often said that laughter is the best medicine. If that is the case, then we have some great “medicine” in the MusicRevolution.com production music library!

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “comedy” yields over 2,200 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=comedy&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=34&y=11

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “funny” yields 300 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=funny&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=60&y=8

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “humor” yields over 150 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=humor&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=40&y=6

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “quirky” yields nearly 500 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=quirky&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=36&y=10

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “slapstick” yields the following the royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=slapstick&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=36&y=3

MusicRevolution.com also has a number of CDs, available in both physical CD and download CD formats, with hand-selected royalty-free music tracks.  We have a great collection of royalty-free comedy music on “Comedy, Vol. 1” –

http://www.musicrevolution.com/cd_details/comedy_vol_1/ .

Stock comedy music doesn’t necessarily mean the slapstick, Looney Tunes style of mimicking every onscreen action with a musical change (although this royalty-free music CD has that too). It can also mean a steady, quirky beat and nothing more (got that too). It can also mean a slow, funeral march underscoring a despondent Woody Allen character after being dumped by yet another stunningly, beautiful actress. This is a fun collection of royalty-free comedy tracks that are really worth checking out.

With nearly 28,000 tracks of royalty-free music online in our production music library, MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) has some of the best royalty-free music available anywhere.

___________________________________________

Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a royalty-free music marketplace with nearly 28,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of professional musicians. MusicRevolution.com also provides custom music production and custom music streams. The entire MusicRevolution.com production music library is available for third-party distribution and bulk licensing for background music for retail, restaurants and businesses, and for other commercial applications. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

With Christmas just over five weeks away, we thought that we would highlight some of the excellent royalty-free music on MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) that could be used for Christmas and the Holiday season for your media projects and for background music. We have a wide selection of royalty-free Christmas music. A search on MusicRevolution.com for “Christmas” yields over 650 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=christmas&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=39&y=9

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “xmas” yields over 100 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=xmas&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=59&y=8

If you are looking for a royalty-free Jingle Bells music track, a search for “Jingle Bells” yields 67 different royalty-free versions of the classic public domain music Holiday track—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=jingle+bells&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=51&y=13

If you are looking for a royalty-free Silent Night music track, a search for “Silent Night” yields 36 different royalty-free versions of this classic public domain music Holiday track—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=silent+night&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=44&y=9

If you are looking for a royalty-free The First Noel music track, a search for “The First Noel” yields 17 different royalty-free versions of this classic public domain music Holiday track—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=The+First+Noel&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=51&y=16

If you are looking for a royalty-free O Come All Ye Faithful music track, a search for “O Come All Ye Faithful” yields seven different royalty-free versions of the classic public domain music Holiday track—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=O+Come+All+Ye+Faithful+&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=43&y=10

A search for “holiday” yields over 2,000 royalty-free Holiday music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=holiday&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=42&y=10

A search for “New Year” yields the following royalty-free production music tracks, including 12 different royalty-free versions of “Auld Lang Syne” —

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=Auld+Lang+Syne&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=51&y=8

Holiday, Vol. 1

MusicRevolution.com also has a Holiday CD, “Holiday Vol. 1” (available in both physical and download CD format) with 10 hand-selected royalty-free music tracks for Christmas and theHolidayseason for your projects and for background music –

http://www.musicrevolution.com/cd_details/holiday_vol_1/

And for Christmas and Holiday background music for your business, office, retail establishment or restaurant, MusicRevolution.com’s Internet Music Stream offers a playlist that provides a continuous stream of great Holiday music http://www.musicrevolution.com/music_streams

With over 27,000 tracks of royalty-free production music online, there are many other possible music choices for your Christmas, Holiday or New Year’s media production, background music or any other project on MusicRevolution.com. MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) has some of the best royalty-free music available anywhere.

___________________________________________

Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com https://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace with over 27,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of professional musicians. MusicRevolution.com also provides custom music production and custom music streams. The entire MusicRevolution.com production music library is available for third-party distribution and bulk licensing for background music for retail, restaurants and businesses, and for other commercial applications. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

ShootingPeople.org recently published an article that discusses the chicken-or-egg question as to what a composer should create first – the lyrics or the music? I love posing this question to music-lovers at parties. My friend Stacey swears 80% of the listening population hears lyrics first whereas I couldn’t tell you the words to songs I have passionately loved for 30 years if you held a gun to my head.

Billy Joel reportedly always wrote his music first, then labored through what he called the “Chinese puzzle” of fitting words into his melodies. My friend Barry* spent years in a band who’s lead singer notoriously waited until the night before the recording sessions to finalize lyrics to songs…songs the band had been rehearsing for months.

Personally, I’ve found the most success with being a “lyrics first” guy. That’s because when the words are poetic enough, they’ll tell you what the rhythm of the song should be. I learned this after trying a technique taught by Julie Cameron, author of  The Artist’s Way. Cameron’s technique has enabled me to write lyrics under ad agency deadlines, in time for band rehearsal and even for a couple of girlfriends (not at the same time). And I honestly think of myself as a “chord changes” guy; not a lyrics guy. Here’s how it works:

They’re called “morning pages”. They are based on the idea that a “golden vein” of creativity exists inside you that is constantly being blocked by a gaggle of ghosts in your head saying you suck.

The key to silencing those ghosts is following three very hard, but simply rules. They are:

1) Fill three pages of single space notebook paper in pencil with words. Any words. No one will read it. It will suck. That’s ok. Let it flow.

2) Do not stop the pencil. Do not stop the pencil. Do. Not. Stop. The. Pencil. By not stopping the pencil you effectively neuter the voices in your head that want to correct grammar, complain about the topic, fix typos, and say how much better Stephen King would have done it.

3) When you’re through, go back with a highlighter and mark any “nuggets” that jump out at you – either because they seem to have their own inherent rhythm or they’re particularly profound. 

Here’s an excerpt from my own morning pages from a few years ago. It’s totally stream of consciousness and I honestly no clue who the hell I was talking to. But the sentences at the end not only rhyme with each other, but the random Willy Wonka reference at the end could be super-catchy in a song verse.

 “…What you do for them is for me what you sing to them is from my child and I’ve told you once before and smiled while you walked the other way I’m like Willy Wonka standing in your way…”

The first part of all that is nonsensical. But when I tap out a steady beat on the table and mutter that Willy Wonka lyric out loud to the rhythm..it feels like a song is being born.

It’s hard for me to tell you with certainty how many times you’ll do morning pages before these kinds of kernels emerge. But I can promise you that aiming for the three page mark without stopping the pencil (did I mention how important that is?) will definitely produce results that make you say, “Where did that come from?”.  And possibly schedule time with a therapist.

There’s a lot going on side of you, dear songwriter. It’s your job to scrape it out, present it to the world and pray it resonates with people somehow. That’s what artists do.

*Some names have been changed to protect privacy. 

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Mike Bielenberg is a professional musician and co-founder of http://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace with over 25,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of musicians mbielenberg@musicrevolution.com.

Location: Liverpool, England

Member since: August 31, 2013

Tracks in portfolio on MusicRevolution.com: 42 (click here to hear all tracks) http://www.musicrevolution.com/search?artist=75838

Background—

Graham Trust is an independent musician from Liverpool, England. Graham’s music can best be described as bright, catchy vocal pop / rock songs with profound lyrical content.

Musical education–

My Dad was a church organist and choirmaster, so I was born into a musical household. I joined his choir as an 8 year old, and he taught me how to sing with a pleasing tone, how to breathe properly, how to phrase and how to enunciate – all vital tools in a singer’s arsenal. I know that my love of vocal harmonies came from that choir. I could hear how all the parts sung by the sopranos, altos, tenors and basses interacted. Of course, when I started to compose and sing my own music, I disregarded a great deal of what I’d learned at church. You can’t sing like a boy soprano in a rock band and get away with it…….….well, maybe you can if you’re Brian Wilson.

Despite my dad’s best efforts, I never did learn to read or write music. I am very glad of that because I don’t have a set of rules telling me “You can’t do that”. As my songs develop, they just go anywhere they want to go.  I suppose I’ve learned everything I know just by listening to how others do it. I was fortunate to have a rock music loving big sister who introduced me to all the greats – The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, T.Rex, Jethro Tull….the list is endless. If you can’t learn from that lot, there’s no hope for you as a songwriter.

I taught myself to play on a dusty old Spanish guitar my dad bought for himself, but didn’t take up. I found I could play passable imitations of my boyhood heroes – The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers and other early punk bands. I bought chord books and then the sheet music of The Beatles and Bowie and many others. You learn an awful lot about how pop songs are constructed that way, and you learn a whole catalogue of new tricks and chords to incorporate in your own work.

The important thing is to keep listening, keep learning, keep playing and keep writing. Once you take your foot off the gas, it’s hard to get back up to speed.

Advice you’d give a younger person interested in a music career–

I could condense my advice down to one word “PRACTICE”. So many people pick up a musical instrument for the first time and put it down again a few minutes later, dismayed that they can’t play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix or the piano like Rick Wakeman. It takes dedication. You’ve got to put in the hours because it’s not easy. The Beatles were a highly accomplished band, but even they felt the need to practice each song ad nauseam in the studio before they committed anything to tape. Even after all that practice, they would often record 30 or more takes of a track before they were satisfied. If even the most talented of people have to practice hard to get things right, then you will have to practice even harder. Usain Bolt didn’t just turn up at the Olympics and win the 100 metres. That took years of accumulated hard work and constant PRACTICE. It’s the same in every field of human activity; you only get out what you put in.

3 albums you would take with you to a desert island–

The Beatles – Revolver– For me this is a far better album of songs than their Sergeant Pepper’s.  Revolver just about beats Abbey Road into second place. The Beatles had begun experimenting with new recording techniques on Rubber Soul, but Revolver was the album where they really let themselves go for the first time. You won’t find too many better opening album tracks than George Harrison’s ‘Taxman’. McCartney provided two of his sweetest sad songs – ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘For No one’ as well as the outstanding and upbeat ‘Got to get you into my life’; while Lennon threw off the shackles of conventional song writing for the first time. Listen to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘She Said She Said’ for proof of that. This was 1966. People wouldn’t have known what had hit them. However, it’s the high quality of all the songs from start to finish which makes Revolver the best of the best.

David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust– This is another album straight out of left field. It’s extraordinary to find that this is the follow up album to the brilliantly sophisticated Hunk Dory. You might have expected Bowie to have gone further down the road of grand orchestration, but he went right back (almost) to basics with a classic guitar, bass and drums rock band line up. Basic is not a word you can apply to any song that Bowie writes.  The darkly existential lyrical themes suggest the life knowledge of a man twice his age. ‘Rock n Roll Suicide’ and ‘Five  Years’ provided the album’s outstanding upliftingly bleak moments; while ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Starman’ introduce some poppy light relief. However, everything song, from start to finish is a masterpiece within itself.

Producer, Ken Scott, captured the energy and virtuosity of a band at the top of its game. Here you had a genius singer / songwriter accompanied by the great all round musician Mick Ronson, who could play the keys just as well as Rick Wakeman, but also played guitar as well as any man who ever lived, but it’s his guitar work which really drives this album. Ronson, the bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick Woodmansey had played with each other for many years and were as tight a rhythm section as you can ever hope to come across.

The Very Best of The Vow– I’m hoping not to get marooned too soon on that desert island. I need a couple more years before I can get this one finished. The Vow has produced 2 albums so far – 2012’s ‘For a Dreamer’ and 2013’s ‘Bluer than you’. I’m hoping to complete another album in 2014 and, from the total of 36 songs, produce a compilation album of 14 or 15 of the best tracks. I only hope that other people will enjoy it as much as I will. If any of my songs gets compared favourably against the likes of Bowie or The Beatles, then all my work will have been worthwhile, and I will die on my island a happy man!

Some of your favorite tracks that you would want us to feature–

‘Spacedust’ http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=42904

“Bluer Than You” http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=42978

“Wintertime” http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?trackid=42989

We thank Graham for sharing some of his musical background with us and for contributing his tracks to MusicRevolution.com, the Royalty-Free Music Marketplace. Graham Trust and The Vow’s music is anything but stock music. This is unique indie music. If you need catchy pop or rock tracks with vocals, give Graham’s music a listen.

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Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a royalty-free music marketplace with over 26,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of professional musicians. MusicRevolution.com also provides custom music production and custom music streams. The entire MusicRevolution.com production music library is available for third-party distribution and bulk licensing for background music for retail, restaurants and businesses, and for other commercial applications. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

MusicRevolution.com has over 26,000 tracks of high-quality, royalty-free music online. MusicRevolution.com also offers a variety of royalty-free music subscriptions that are a great value. For limited time, buy a 1-Year Complete Subscription (regularly $699.99 for up to 50 downloads) for only $599.99 and Save $100. That’s less than $12 for any track in our production music library. Tracks can be downloaded in either WAV or MP3 format.

Check out our subscriptions today at http://www.musicrevolution.com/subs_options.  This special offer to Save $100 expires November 30, 2013.

With a variety of royalty-free music subscriptions and over 26,000 tracks online, MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) has some of the best royalty-free music available anywhere.

______________________________________________________________________________

Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a royalty-free music marketplace with over 26,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of professional musicians. MusicRevolution.com also provides custom music production and custom music streams. The entire MusicRevolution.com production music library is available for third-party distribution and bulk licensing for background music for retail, restaurants and businesses, and for other commercial applications. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. With the U.S. Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2013, less than a month away, we wanted to highlight some of the royalty-free music on MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) that could be used for your Thanksgiving media projects and for background music during this holiday. We have some excellent royalty-free Thanksgiving music. A search on MusicRevolution.com for “Thanksgiving” yields 12 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=thanksgiving&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=23&y=9

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “thanks” yields nearly 40 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=thanks&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=45&y=8

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “thankful” yields the following 30 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=thankful&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=43&y=12

Thanksgiving is a time to gather with family and friends and reflect on the things that we are thankful for. A search for “reflection” yields over 150 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=reflection&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=38&y=12

A search for “reflective” yields almost 500 royalty-free production music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=reflective&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=42&y=15

MusicRevolution.com also has a royalty-free music CD, “Acoustic Guitar, Vol. 1” (available in both physical and download CD format) with a number of hand-selected royalty-free music tracks perfect for your Thanksgiving projects and for background music –

http://www.musicrevolution.com/cd_details/acoustic_guitar_vol_1/

And for Thanksgiving background music for your business, office, retail establishment or restaurant, MusicRevolution.com’s Internet Music Stream offers an “Acoustic Vibes” playlist that provides a continuous stream of soothing music perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday http://www.musicrevolution.com/music_streams

With over 26,000 tracks of royalty-free music online in our production music library, there are many other possible choices for your Thanksgiving production, background music or any other project on MusicRevolution.com.  MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) has some of the best royalty-free music available anywhere.

___________________________________________

Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a royalty-free music marketplace with over 26,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of professional musicians. MusicRevolution.com also provides custom music production and custom music streams. The entire MusicRevolution.com production music library is available for third-party distribution and bulk licensing for background music for retail, restaurants and businesses, and for other commercial applications. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

In my last two blogs I outlined my strategy and motivation behind producing a single called “Poopy Diaper”, which will be released on YouTube in early January. In a nutshell, my overall goal has been to create a song that permeates culture and therefore generates meaningful performance royalties for my family. At a time when  “What Does the Fox Say?” is the most talked-about song around the water cooler, I have no compunction about creating an anthem that parents use to taunt their potty-training 2-year olds.

Today I’ll outline how the actual song was written and demoed.

I’m a lyrics-first kind-of-guy. That’s not because I’m one of those people who hear lyrics first when listening to a song. In fact, quite the opposite. It is because writing lyrics is a weakness of mine and so, as my 11-year old does with his homework, I start with the hardest part.

I’ll talk more about the process of writing lyrics in a later blog, but for this article I’ll just say that the philosophical challenge was determining the perspective of the performer. What about the poopy diaper? I am, of course, walking a fine line in terms of what a listener can handle. I have been in bands with people who delight in describing their bowel movements. They think it’s hilarious. I can’t handle it. So for this song I took the high road and imagined a child who felt proud of something they had produced. And to extend the metaphor even further, I imagined a child who was “bursting” at the chance to express something – an emotion or an attitude- they had been bottling up inside. Once I had this viewpoint figured out, the ground was fully…eh…fertilized for double-entendres. It become a blast to write these words.

Click here to download the original lyrics to “Poopy Diaper” as a PDF

Once the lyrics were written, my next step was to demo the song for my team members so they could have a reference for my vision. It’s embarrassing to admit this to a community of recording studio professionals, but it had been years since I had sat down at a digital audio workstation with the goal of producing a track. I won’t bore you with my resume as a Cubase (yes, Cubase) power user back in the day. But there I was sitting in for the first time in front of this rig:

Axiom 61 MIDI controller, Apple Logic 8 running on a Mac Powerbook with Komplete 7 sample library installed, Digidesign MBox2

But there was nothing to worry about. It was stunning how intuitive Logic was to my needs. 95% of the keyboard parts I laid down in that demo session are still on the final track. It literally felt like the software read my mind and always stayed two steps of ahead of me. “I wish I had something here that sounds like… (scrolling through presets)…yep..that’s it.”

Not once did I have to fuss with getting delay effect tempos to match, cross-fading wave forms into each other, restructuring file paths, fishing for a better reverb or any of those headaches that used to keep me up nights. It was kind of insane. I now understand why my church musician buddies say “Logic is where you write. Pro Tools is where you mix.”

In my next installment of this series, I’ll talk about the team of amazing musicians I recruited for this project and what special skills and talents they brought to the production. Stay tuned.

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Mike Bielenberg is a professional musician and co-founder of http://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace with over 25,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of musicians mbielenberg@musicrevolution.com.

Veterans’ Day is an annual United States holiday honoring military veterans. We salute the men and women who have served our country to protect us. With Veterans’ Day, November 11, 2013, just a few weeks away, we thought that we would highlight some of the royalty-free music on MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) that would be appropriate for your Veterans’ Day production or for background music on Veterans’ Day. We have some outstanding royalty-free Veterans’ Day music.

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “patriotic” yields the following 56 royalty-free music tracks-

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=patriotic&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=42&y=11

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “memorial” yields the following 12 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=memorial&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=55&y=9

A search on MusicRevolution for “honor” yields the following 45 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=honor&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=44&y=8

A while back we had a customer request for royalty-free music that would be suitable for a war memorial for fallen soldiers. Here are some of the royalty-free music tracks that were submitted for that request—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=track+request+46&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=21&y=9

With over 26,000 tracks of royalty-free music online in our production music library, there are many other possible music choices for your Veterans’ Day production or any other media project on MusicRevolution.com. MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) has some of the best royalty-free music available anywhere.

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Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a royalty-free music marketplace with over 26,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music and custom music from a online community of professional musicians. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.

Rock music is a musical genre or style that began as “rock and roll” in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s in the United States and then in the United Kingdom. Rock, which is generally focused on the electric guitar, was influenced by rhythm and blues, country and folk, among other genres.  Our production music library contains heavy rock, pop rock, soft rock, vintage rock, blues, southern rock, psychedelic rock and more. We thought that we would highlight some of the outstanding royalty-free rock music on MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) that could be used for a broad range of purposes including film / movies, documentaries, TV and radio commercials, online video ads, corporate videos, web videos, trade show videos, background music and on hold music. We have a great selection of royalty-free rock music for your media projects.

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “rock” yields nearly 5,000 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=rock&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=36&y=4

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “pop rock” yields over 200 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=pop+rock&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=52&y=13

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “electric guitar” yields over 6,000 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=electric+guitar&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=27&y=13

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “metal” yields over 300 royalty-free music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=metal&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=53&y=10

A search on MusicRevolution.com for “heavy metal” yields the following 84 royalty-free production music tracks—

http://www.musicrevolution.com/search/?keyword=heavy+metal&application=0&mood=0&genre=0&instrument=0&influence=&vocals=1&results=20&x=43&y=11

MusicRevolution.com also has a number of CDs, available in both physical CD and download CD formats, with hand-selected royalty-free music tracks.  We created an outstanding collection of royalty-free rock music on “Rock, Vol. 1” –

http://www.musicrevolution.com/cd_details/rock_vol_1/ .

This is a great compilation of heavy rock, pop rock, soft rock, vintage rock, blues, southern rock, and psychedelic rock. The guitars on this royalty-free music CD scream, weep, seduce, lull and comfort. Experience the best royalty-free music our guitar-based composers have conceived to complete your media project. This is a collection of royalty-free rock tracks that are worth checking out.

With over 26,000 tracks of royalty-free music online in our production music library, MusicRevolution.com (www.musicrevolution.com) has some of the best royalty-free music available anywhere.

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Chris Cardell is the co-founder of MusicRevolution.com http://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace with over 26,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, advertisers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music and custom music from an online community of professional musicians. Cardell has been involved with digital content and E-Commerce since the mid-1990’s.