I am a music producer. I enjoy listening to music all of the time, and I absolutely love internet radio websites that allow you to listen to music for free, such as Pandora or Slacker; and even though those sites are free to us, the listener, those sites are certainly paid for and supported by the ads that are played periodically while you and I enjoy.
Now, while I tend to frequent the internet radio sites just to hear an unedited, continuous stream of music that I ultimately control, I also tend to listen frequently so that I can hear what's new and what's hot in the streets. I have discovered a plethora of new music just by listening to sites like Pandora or Slacker on a daily basis, and for sure, keeping up with the hottest new music and staying current has helped me to stay on top of my A game with my own music productions.
What Does This Have to do With Anything?
Now, you may be asking yourself, "What does listening to internet radio stations have to do with absolutely anything concerning making beats?" Well, listening to those sites on a frequent basis has a number of things to do with making beats, things such as follows:
Internet radio stations do not tend to follow a preset format like your traditional broadcast stations, meaning that you won't typically hear the same 5 songs every hour on the hour. Instead, you pick the artists that you like, and you'll continuously hear songs from that artist, and songs from other artists that are either associated with the artist that you chose, or within the same genre of music. Now, if you like a particular artist, more than likely you will like the style of music that they do, and you will probably like to incorporate some of that style and flavor into your own productions.
Less Interruption, More Focus
Therefore, if you're listening to these artists on internet radio, in an uninhibited manner, you will be better able to listen and tune into what is going on within the music, and you will also see that most of these artists and producers, regardless of who you listen to, they generally follow a pattern, or a formula of sorts within their music and productions. If you're a newbie to making beats or music production, I encourage you to take a thorough listen to any of the internet radio sites, pick an artist that you really like, and then sit down and listen.
You will then see that their sound and instrument selection is generally the same, the topics that they sing or rap about are generally the same, the song arrangements are generally the same. If you do this for about an hour or two, you will have the formula necessary to make radio ready, chart topping music and beats at your disposal. Trust me, this works!
Helps you to Keep Your Stacks on Deck
And it saves you money as well, because singles on itunes will typically run you about $.99 - 1.29. And again, the radio broadcast stations are filled with everything that you've already heard before a thousand times over. So if you don't already have an itunes playlist loaded with thousands of songs, I believe that listening to internet radio would be the next best thing to get your beat making study on. I have used this technique for years, and it has worked very well for my production needs. Try it out for yourself!
Christian Tisby is a 7 year veteran music producer, who proudly advocates the use of software music production tools and gear. Software production gear greatly benefits any producer, whether newbie or seasoned, allow technology to work in your favor! Visit my website http://www.betterbeatsahead.com/ for more information.
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