MIX

CREATE YOUR SOUND 

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 Objective

MIX is a collaborative website for the community of musicians and artists of any genre and style. Making songs has always been a collaborative art, the objective of this website is to keep this in existence but spread it over the world through the use of modern technologies. MIX is a website on which the musical and the vocal sides of the projects meet and collaborate on making a final piece.

MIX allows independent producers to upload their music safely and securely (unable to be downloaded without permission). Artist who like this music will be able to audition and get in contact with the producer and this person will be able to decide if they want to collaborate on the project and automatically receive credit and recognition for both parties. MIX allows the selling of the final product as well.

After both the producer and the artist have agreed that the project is finished, MIX has a special publishing function integrated which allows the creators to publish it for free or sell it on their profile pages. There will also be a ‘featured’ or ‘popular’ list for the general and genre specific pages.

1.2 Goals

Create a safe and fair collaborating interactive world for independent and beginning artist and producers over the world. MIX will allow persons to create projects and songs which they would not have been able to create on their own. MIX wants to create musical friendships and relationships between talents all over the world and allow for the flow of musical knowledge to spread throughout countries and cultures.

1.3 Target Audience

MIX is targeted towards independent and beginning artists who do not have the resources to create full musical projects or compositions on their own. It, however, is available to anyone and thus allows for experiences artists and producers to access the material as well.

Attract mostly young artists, ages 18+

1.4 Problem

Plenty of independent and starting artists and producers are having a hard time getting their hands on the other side of the collaborative art of making music, wether its artists looking for music and a composer/producer, or a composer/producer looking for artists. Not everybody has the resources to afford musical equipment nor the musical training to fulfill their true potential and showcase their talents.

1.5 Solution

The problem, as stated above, is best to be solved using the power of the Internet and its networking abilities. Making associates and acquainting yourself with others around the world has never been easier. MIX wants to use this power and incorporate with music, which has always been a collaborative action and could easily be enforced using the Internet. MIX will also expose the members to the steps which need to be taken to create a track from conception to releasing.

2. PROPOSED CONCEPT

2.1 Overview

MIX is a website which focussed on the interactive creation of music between two parties. Generally in popular music their is a musical part and a vocal part to a song, and these are the two parties which MIX is focussed upon. A member of MIX will sign up and create a profile, this can be the ‘Artist’ or the ‘Producer’. The member will then upload information such as: ‘name’, ‘bio’, ‘age’, ‘origin’, ‘residence’, ‘influences’, ‘sounds-like (comparisons)’. The member will also upload a musical biography of any musical work the person has done in the past. Through the use of the MIX search engine, the member will then start looking for collaborations and create tracks and ultimately relationships for a musical career.

i. TRACK POTENTIALS

After a track has been created and has gone through all the required procedures, the duo will receive the track and will be able to use it and publish it. Partnership with publishers and record companies (specifically A&R’s) would be ideal to propel popular tracks to greater heights. MIX wants the tracks to sonically reach their full potential, thus the members have the option to master the tracks to make them compatible with modern standards. This could be done through partnerships with websites like Landr, which is a website in which anyone could master their tracks in a certain style they want. The Landr process uses certain algorithms to make the tracks louder and fuller based on its digital wireframe, so this does not include the professional human ear or touch which would obviously make the tracks sound even better. Professional master engineers can charge thousands of dollars, however, and for the purpose of MIX this is not the favorable way for independent or beginning artist who do not have these resources. The creators do have receive the track in .WAV, .AIFF, and .mp3 form, so if they decide to get it mastered professionally, they will have the option to.

ii. ROYALTIES

When a track has been finished and the creators want to release it, MIX members have to option to license the track and thus receive royalties from it through the action of ‘plays’. Plays are simply the amount of time the track has been played on any platform (Radio, iTunes, Spotify, etc.). The tracks thus have to be copy-written, which can be done through the MIX website. MIX members, when signing up, will automatically go through the process of becoming a member of eCO (electronic Copyright Office).

In order to become a member of MIX, the artists and producers need to be members of BMI, which is the Broadcast Music Inc. (http://www.bmi.com). “BMI supports its songwriters, composers and publishers by taking care of an important aspect of their careers – getting paid. BMI supports businesses and organizations that play music publicly by offering blanket music licenses that permit them to play nearly 12 million musical works. Both relationships save each time and money.” – BMI. Joining BMI is free, and in order to receive any payment through royalties by plays, the MIX members need to be BMI members in order for the payments to be legally distributed, processed, and regulated.

3. BACKGROUND

Now a days many people who want to be artists and do not have the musical training to actually make the music themselves, go on Youtube or Soundcloud and download an instrumental of a song they like or an original instrumental made by an independent producer or artist. On the flip side, there are many producers and musicians who want to get their name out there and try to find artist to put vocals on their music. A lot of these people do not have the connections or resources to find people who they think would be the right match for the music. Also plenty of independent producers and musicians put their music on Youtube or Soundcloud and have their music downloaded by numbers of people who use the music without giving credit or any name recognition.

IDEAS ON HOW TO FIND THE MUSIC

BASIC

• Firstly narrow down results by selection of a basic genre first: ‘Blues’, ‘Brass & Military’, ‘Children’s’, ‘Classical’, ‘Country’, ‘Electronic’, ‘Funk’, ’Folk’, ‘Hip-Hop’, ‘Jazz’, ‘Latin’, ‘Pop’, ‘Reggae’, ‘R&B’, ‘Rock’, ‘Soul’.
• Based on the basic genre selected, chose sub-genre.

HASHTAG

• When music is uploaded, the producer has the option to add hashtags linked to the particular project that relate to the style. These hashtags will describe what the music sounds like or is related to, whether its: style of production, another song, another artist, genre, sub-genre, etc.
• Artist looking for music has the option to type in search terms, if these match to the hashtags a producer puts, the website pulls up these compositions, (the more related terms, the higher on the list).

RELATED MUSIC

• If artist has found a musical composition they like they will have other options to chose related to this particular composition (based on hashtags and similar searches). Possibly ‘related searches’ on the side of the screen.
• Artist can visit profile of producer, which contains all the music of the producer. On the profile there is a section which shows which other artists the producer has worked with and related producers based on the ‘Community’ function.