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RECORDING AND LICENSING OUR MUSIC
You may record and/or license our music for various uses, some of which are outlined here:
CD/DVD/CASSETTE/VINYL: You may obtain a license to record any song or songs offered via this site for your own project. Fees are based upon the statutory copyright rates for sound recordings as identified by the Harry Fox Agency (www.harryfox.com), which is the primary mechanical licensing agency in the United States.
PERMANENT DIGITAL DOWNLOADS: You may obtain a license to record and release permanent digital downloads. Fees are based upon the statutory copyright rates for sound recordings as identified by the Harry Fox Agency (www.harryfox.com), which is the primary mechanical licensing agency in the United States.
VIDEOS/GAMES: You may license any recorded song from this site or obtain a license to re-record a song for your video, ad campaign, or vedeo game.
FILM/TV/AD CAMPAIGNS: You may license any recorded song from this site or obtain a license to re-record a song for your film, video or ad campaign.
SAMPLING/REMIXES: You may license any song on this site for sampling or remixes.
INTERNET SITES/PODCASTS: Send us a proposal of what you want to do and we'll consider it!
TELEPHONE MUSIC ON HOLD/RINGTONES: We offer compilations for music-on-hold.
NOT-FOR-PROFITS: Send us your proposal for consideration.
PUBLIC PERFORMANCES: Like our songs so much that you want to include them in your live public performances? That's great! Please let us know.
RADIO PROGRAMMERS: Of course we would like you to play our songs. Ask for a copy. Internet radio programmers can download radio-ready MP3s of some of our songs at our Airplay Direct site at www.airplaydirect.com/music/Aspire2Music
LICENSING PAYMENTS: We use PayPal. Simple, easy, secure.
All songs presented on this site are wholly owned by the authors/publishers who have 100% authority to license their songs. Anyone licensing a song from this site will not have to worry about clearances or copyright infringements - we wrote them - we own them!
SONGS FOR CHARITY
Do you need a special song for a charity? We'll custom write a song just for you. Contact us for information.
Member The Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP), NYC Chapter
RECORDING ORIGINAL SONGS IS NOT ONLY IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CAREER, IT IS A REQUIREMENT FOR ALL SERIOUS ARTISTS.
CREATING AN EMPATHY PATHWAY: Why Recording Original Songs is Necessary for Your Career
Introduction: Crowds enthusiastically responding to your take of “I Hope You Dance,” “Jesus Take The Wheel,” “Crazy” or “I Like It, I Love It,” “I’m Movin’ On,” “Lovesick Blues” …
You may think, why not record my favorite artists’ songs? After all, they’ll show people, and especially industry people, that I have the range of this artist, the power of that artist, the attitude of the newest artists …
While all of those statements may be true, there is catch: Country fans who are listening to you are responding to the emotional investment that they already have in a hit song that you are singing and the attachment that they already feel for the original artist. Since they already love the song, unless you really botch it, they’ll probably love your version, too. Unless your version is a radical departure from the original, singing cover songs only really proves that the fans still love the song and that you did a good enough job of it for them to not turn off to you. That’s why it is critical to record and perform original songs if you are serious about developing a career as an artist.
And that is also a reason why music industry professionals want to hear you sing original songs, one that they’ve never heard, either. They want to know what you sound like with no help from a hit song and an established recording artist. Frankly, what music industry professionals want to discover is if you have discovered your voice.
YOUR VOICE
Do you have a “voice”? Have you discovered your “core being” as an artist? Does your uniqueness shine through when you record and perform? Your recordings and performances of original songs are the platform upon which you will demonstrate to music industry professionals, venue bookers, DJs and, ultimately, fans that you have - or have not - discovered and are developing your own, unique voice as an artist, and that you are not just another one of thousands of talented “singers.” To move from a talented singer to an artist, your voice, vocalizations, performance style, and recording skills must include all of the following important elements:
Style: Do you sound very different with every song that you sing? Does your style vary with the style of the song? Or, is there a common “you-ness,” a stylistic thread that you weave through every song that makes it yours and that is recognizable from song to song, regardless of topic, tempo, or attitude? Are you confident that with every song you chose to sing, listeners would be able to immediately identify that song as a “(Your Name)” song? If not, then you have not arrived upon your own, unique style.
A common and normal developmental process for young singers (in terms of singing, not biological age) is to mimic other great artists’ styles, so that they end up sounding a little bit like one singer on an up-tempo, another on a ballad, and yet another on a mid-tempo pop tune. In order to be considered seriously as a recording artist, you must move past the mimicking stage into crafting your own unique style.
Recording and performing original songs will help you to arrive at your own style because you will not be so strongly influenced, be it consciously or unconsciously, by the original recording artist of a cover song. Original songs are the blank canvass upon which you can work out your own sound, style, and approach to singing and performing songs.
Delivery: Are you confident in your delivery, or do you shine in ballads but fall short when singing mid-tempo or up-tempo songs? Have you learned to master the recording studio environment? Delivering different types of songs consistently in both the recording environment and performance state are critically important to becoming an artist. We all enjoying doing things that we’re good at, and as an artist, doing what you’re good is not only enjoyable but also necessary for success. However, you can’t record an entire album of “country-lite” pop songs or emotionally draining ballads. And, an audience will tire of hearing the same old thing, be it live or recorded.
As with style, recording and performing a variety of original songs will show you clearly what you’re good at and what you’re not so good at because you won’t be unduly influenced by what you’re “hearing” in your mind: the original artist’s voice, inflection, style and emoting. With original songs, you will be faced with your own voice, reducing other voices in how you hear yourself sing. Discover what you’re real strengths are, foster those strengths, but work to strengthen your weaknesses.
Personality: Are you developing a body of work that establishes your personality as an artist or are your song choices all over the place? If I were to listen to all of the songs you have recorded and tried to create your personality from the lyrics, melodies, arrangements and attitudes of those songs, would I come up with a distinct personality or a mild case of schizophrenia? If you think about why so many of the recording artists from the ‘50s – early ‘70s made and continue to make such a strong impression on us, one standout reason is their artistic personality is intimately integrated into everything they did, recorded, presented, performed, said, looked, and acted.
That is your goal, too: integrating your personality, life-style, worldview, emotions, and beliefs with your song choices, vocalizations, song arrangements, stage presentation, etc. It’s a lot of work, focus, decision-making, and attention to detail. Recording and performing lots of original songs will help you to tune in to yourself, to “tune your ear” to hear what adds to your artistic personality and what songs detract from your artistic personality, without the background interference of your favorite artists songs. You want to record and performyour songs in order to establish your artistic personality.
EMPATHY PATHWAY
Are you able to create an “empathy pathway” with your voice and song choices that connects with listeners and encourage them to open themselves up to you emotionally, permitting you to take them on an emotional journey with your songs? Think of some of the masters of Country Music. They create what I call “empathy pathways” with their audiences that foster lifelong devotion from their fans because the artists and their songs are believable to their audiences, and their audiences hear the artists’ lives in their songs.
Don’t think that fans are hearing their own lives in an artists’ songs. They’re not. What happens, if the artist is effective, is the audience feels an emotional connection with the artist, which permits the fans to believe what is being sung by the artist to be true and that the songs represent a real experience in the artist’s life. Once the fans believe what an artist sings, the fans can then relate to what the artist saying the songs, and say to themselves, “I know just how you feel because I’ve felt that way, too.” And that is what is meant by empathy. Empathy is your goal as an artist. Without empathy between you and your fans, you are just another talented singer.
How do you develop an empathy pathway? By doing all of the things I’ve discussed above, and by creating your own, unique bond with fans. And, you guessed it! You do that by recording and performing original songs.
Anne Freeman, President
Aspire 2 Music
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