Music Merchandising (merch.)

What's the first thing you think of when you think of music/band/artist merch?

 

???

WHY TO ARTISTS SELL MERCH?

It is a welcomed revenue stream! Cash from the merch desk is also very useful on tour when you need to pay for petrol and PD's (Per Diem aka daily allowance for expenses). Believe it or not, fans do want to support and merch money usually goes direct to the artist so it's a nice way that they can connect.

Interesting merch offers have also really helped keep some musician's afloat during COVID as they haven't been able to play live.

The more merch you sell, the more of a visual presence you have too. The Swell Maps had a resurgence of interest in them after Evan Dando wore one of their T-Shirts on his album cover.

Important points to consider:

BRANDING - you need to keep your branding consistent. Use the same logo so that fans identify with it and, if it is to promote a specific album, replicate the artwork in your merch. Many acts have a whole new range of merch for each tour to cement the branding if the album.

AUDIENCE - know your audience! You need to offer merch that they will actually buy. Think about your genre too - is there anything specific that you think would work?

LIMITED EDITION - limited edition items always sell well.  People love collecting things and making something limited edition can add both monetary and aesthetic value to it. With so many mass produced things being too readily available, perhaps something more unique can be quite special.

It all depends on your vibe and your audience though - it's worth seeing what similar artists do but still try to remain faithful to your own brand/ethos.

It's not all about band T-shirts and CDs though. Examples of innovative merchandising in music:

• Bjork released Biophilia as an app and a film with some really interesting art work 

• British Sea Power sell Kendle Mint Cake amongst other things

• Iron Maiden started to brew their own beer even!

DIY - what can you make yourself? What can your friends help you make?

Have a look at some of these weird and wonderful EXAMPLES

There are some good ideas on dittomusic too.

TASK: Think what merch might work for you and how it would aid communication about you and your 'brand'. What would be the most effective and why?

http://www.onestopbandshop.co.uk/

http://www.awesomemerchandise.com/

[there are loads more!]

Theme, figure and motif

Listen to these pieces - do you know what they are from and what they represent?







Composers use melodic techniques to reel us in and emphasise certain points in films or help us to recognise characters.

Theme - a melody that is associated with a character or idea i.e The Imperial March, ET flying theme, Hedwig's theme....when we hear them in the film, we know that the focus is on that character.

Thinking of the techniques we have already covered, what techniques in each of those themes make them so effective?

We have already looked at Figure and Motif:

Figure - a short phrase, usually in the background, that is repeated.

Motif - a small section of a phrase that acts as a melody - often forming part of a longer theme.

What is happening melodically in the Jaws score?



The opening two notes in the Jaws score act as all three. It is a theme because we hear them and know Jaws is lurking about, a figure as it's just two notes that are repeated and it also develops into a fuller melody (motif).

TASK: compose a theme (melody line, no beats or loops please!) for one of the following fictional characters:

• a heroic pirate
• an alien
• an evil child
• a bird or a plane

Think about the techniques we have looked at (see previous posts if you need reminding) and choose appropriate instruments. The theme should be 8-16 bars long.

Secret Cinema

Cinema has come a long way since the early silent film of Charlie Chaplin, however, it is still all about storytelling.  In today's digital world, storytelling has evolved and audiences are wanting to be a part of an experience more than ever before, rather than sitting on a seat watching a performance to be 'entertained'.

Secret Cinema provide this experience and their audience keep the secret.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              



You can see examples HERE

Bugsy Malone
Lawrence of Arabia

TASK:

Choose a film that you know really well and think how you would produce it as a secret cinema event. Copy this table onto your blog and label the post 'film music'.

FILM:	ARRIVAL OF AUDIENCE
ACTED SCENES:	LOCATION:
LIVE MUSIC:	INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS:
OTHER:

After presenting your ideas to the class, individually post your plan to your blog and label it 'film project'

Songwriting reflection

In your writing groups, you need to discuss where you are with your songs and make sure that you have shared all recordings, notes and parts etc.

Go to your blog and make sure that you have labelled all posts to do with this class with 'songwriting'.

[if you haven't already done so, please go to 'layout' on your blog (left hand menu) and then 'add gadget'. Scroll down to 'labels'. Save arrangement. We will now be able to see your labels and you will be able to direct us to labelled post by clicking on 'view blog' then the label you want. When you submit the URL we will see just those posts]

For your assignment, you should address the following points:

a) How did you find working in a small group of relatively new to you musicians-

• What did you find difficult?
• Did any thing surprise you? 
• What did you enjoy about it?

b) How did you approach writing collectively- 

• Was there an obvious leader?
• Did you feel that everybody got to contribute?
• Were there limitations due to social distancing?
• How did you decide how you would work together?

c) What did you learn from the process-

• What will you take from this experience?
• How do you think this relates to working as a songwriter professionally?
• What did you learn about your peers and yourself?

When you submit, please submit as a google doc and a link to your songwriting posts.

Sound collage

 Sound collage means overlaying different, unrelated sounds and creating something new.

TASK:

Open a new bandlab project and import some audio (or loops) to tracks.

Cut them up and move them around to create a sound collage.

Add panning and FX.

Export as a WAV or mp3 and submit to classroom

Arts Funding criteria and Fan-funding reward systems

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crysmatthews/changemakers-0?ref=section-music-view-more-discovery-p1 

https://prsfoundation.com/

Bernard Hermann - compositional techniques

 

The techniques discussed are:

• Using child-like sounds (celeste, music box, glockenspiel...)
• Contrary motion & Glissando- mimicking camera style
• Short melodies - fitted with the fast cutting technique of the film
• The new use of dissonant harmony
• Using very few notes but putting them together in different ways - this was an early example of minimalism

Consonance & Dissonance:

One of the ways to create unease is to use DISSONANT HARMONY. A good explanation of this can be found on www.harmony.org.uk:

"Consonance and Dissonance

The way consonance and dissonance are treated is central to the way the whole of Western Music works and is the first concept to understand in the study of voice leading. It works on the assumption that consonant sounds are combinations of notes (intervals) that sound pleasant or melodious together whereas dissonant intervals sound harsh or unpleasant together.

Another way to express this is to say that consonant intervals create a feeling of stability whereas dissonant intervals create a feeling of instability that needs to be resolved. It is important to say that ideas of what constitutes consonance and dissonance have varied to some extent over time and vary from individual to individual. Also, it is important to say that most people perceive not just a simple binary division but a spectrum of consonance and dissonance varying from the most consonant intervals to the most dissonant intervals. The grouping below allows for this, to some extent, starting with the most consonant and ending with the most dissonant.

In 16th century polyphony, all musical intervals, involving two notes (within a span of an octave) are classified as consonant or dissonant according to the following list:

You will need to understand the naming and sounds of the musical intervals and the concept of "inversion" of intervals in order to follow this. Please refer to the books and website on basic theory in the bibliography"

Consonant music sounds 'nice' to the ear whereas dissonant music sounds un-nerving and less pleasant.

TASK: open a new bandlab project and experiment with these techniques. Using any pitched instrument, play a C and then the next semitone up at the same time (Csharp) - this is a minor second - is it consonant or dissonant? What about a C and a D? What about C and Dsharp (C and 3 semitones higher)? This is a minor third. Try this all the way back up to the C up an octave.

Please see the rest of the documentary (to the end from where we stopped) - we are creating Hermann style music tomorrow in Logic.

The notation of intervals if you are interested:

Funding proposal- budgeting

 Whatever your project and whatever the funding route, you will need to prepare a budget. Here is a template (you will need to make a copy of it to be able to edit).

Things to budget for might include:

Rehearsal space hire

Equipment

Session musicians

Physical CD/vinyl manufacture

Merch 

Creation of artwork

Music video

Social media paid ads

Please make sure that you budget using UK examples and think about what you might be able to create yourself - don't forget to pay yourself in this!

If you are applying for Arts funding then you need to make sure that the duns you are looking at offers the amount you need.

If you are doing crowdfunding then you need to set the amount you need as your target.

Some useful links to get you started:

https://www.discmanufacturingservices.com/

https://www.short-run.co.uk/

https://www.awesomemerchandise.com/

Brixton Hill rehearsal rooms

Bush recording studios

Foley 1

 What is a foley artist?

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-foley-artist/

ACTIVITY: Watch a clip from a film or TV show and really pay attention to the diegetic sound (sound that you can see the source of on screen). Make a list of three on your blog and think about how they may have been created using foley. Look around you and see if you can find anything to re-create those sounds. We will demonstrate them when we come back.

BANDLAB TASK: https://edu.bandlab.com/classroom/band7350729551823117/foley-sounds-f70f3d80

Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone wrote soundtracks for 'Spaghetti Western' films.  His compositional style is easily recognisable by these elements:

Ostinato - he often uses a short repeated figure

Human voice - whistles and wordless singing are used a lot

Call and response - short motifs are used as call and response and are frequently repeated

Simple chords - the chords are consonant and simple and the melodies are also simple, often using triad arpeggios. (notes 1, 3 and 5 of a scale)

Silence and foley/musique concrete - there are moments where all music drops out and he often uses non-musical sounds such as whips and bells as rhythms

Electric guitar - Morricone was an early user of the electric guitar in film music in the 1960s

https://flypaper.soundfly.com/write/5-compositional-elements-that-define-the-music-of-ennio-morricone/

These are illustrated to great effect here:




Task1: complete the quiz on classroom whilst listening to the sounds from the above clip.

Task 2: Download some suitable sounds from freesound.org and upload these to your drive. Use these to create a short piece of underscore in the style of Morricone that would be suitable for a Western and upload the mp3 to classroom to the library music assignment. Keep it simple!

There is a documentary here:

Genres/musical movements by decade

The Funding Proposal - which funding route?

Which funding type is most suitable?

ARTS FUNDING
What are your funding?

Does your idea involve another art form or other people?

How much will it cost?
Which funding source is suitable?
How does your project meet their eligibility criteria?
How will funding this project develop your career?
How, if at all, will the project benefit others?


FAN FUNDING
What are you funding?
How long will it take you?
How much will you need?
What will your funders get in return?

Music in film

Where does the sound in film come from? http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm

Music plays a huge part in our understanding of a scene in a film and how we react emotionally. There are different types of sound in film:

Score - specifically composed music for the film, often matching up with the onscreen action (ie Harry Potter)
Soundtrack - pre-existing music that is chosen to use in the film, accompanying scenes (ie Pulp Fiction)






TASK:
Open two windows and go to YouTube in both. On the first window, find a clip from a film you really like. What is the music like? How does it affect the scene? 

Then find song in other window (or a movie scene with no dialogue). Mute the clip in the first window and what the scene now with the music playing from the second window.

Find a few examples of this and post them on your blog.

Silent Film

1895-1929 – there was no sound synchronised as this wasn't yet possible.

Film industry was in America, France, Germany and Italy but the First World War destroyed the European industry.

Roundhay Garden Scene 1888, the first known celluloid film recorded.

Many film s had ‘intertitles’ which explained the action.

Music was always a major element – it was performed on a piano, guitar, organ or ‘mighty wurlitzer’ when special effects were needed.  Some theatres even had orchestras.  The music was either improvised or made up of classical repertory pieces. The cinema was the largest employer of musicians.

When ‘talkies’ came about, there was a decline in musicians’ being employed and a decline in the quality and popularly of film while people got used to it.

Neil Brand has collected some documents relating to how musicians worked in the cinema and uploaded them to his website HERE

TASK: - CREATE A MUSIC CUE SHEET FOR THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY. Add this to your blog and label it 'film music'. TEMPLATE (you will need t make a copy of this. You can then copy and paste it to your blog or add a link to your drive on your blog)




http://www.troxy.co.uk/troxy_history/the-troxy-wurlitzer/

http://www.minimamusic.co.uk/

http://www.cinematicorchestra.com/

http://silentlondon.co.uk/

Film Music Quiz & intro to project

Where does the sound in film come from? http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm

Music plays a huge part in our understanding of a scene in a film and how we react emotionally. There are different types of sound in film:

Score - specifically composed music for the film, often matching up with the onscreen action (ie Harry Potter)
Soundtrack - pre-existing music that is chosen to use in the film, accompanying scenes (ie Pulp Fiction)






TASK:
Open two windows and go to YouTube in both. On the first window, find a clip from a film you really like. What is the music like? How does it affect the scene? 

Then find song in other window (or a movie scene with no dialogue). Mute the clip in the first window and what the scene now with the music playing from the second window.

Find a few examples of this and post them on your blog.

If you are stuck, here are some to get you started...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtRGeyznv7k - Clockwork Orange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfzXqwvtoEE - Pink Panther

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22lNU5jXM4 - Psycho

Listening list - songwriting devices