May 19, 2003
Helping you write your best songs with a focus on the benefits of innovative songwriting software, tools, resources and programs.
From Songwriting
Software Plus
May, 2003
The Online Community Advancing Songwriters' Careers: Tonos
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| Contents: |
Hi,
First up; Editor's Note (from the laptop of Robert Curtis)
Followed by Items:
1. Tonos Expands Membership Features
And Benefits
2. Create And Sell Your Own CDs At No Cost To You (Brand New)
3. This Month's Notable Quote
Editor's Note:
This month I'm happy to tell you about a new way you can get copies of your self produced CDs made to order as they're sold at no cost to you and I'll also highlight some excellent new benefits of belonging to Tonos. Please see the respective articles below.
Subscriber Note: This newsletter is best viewed as an HTML file (formatted with colors, etc.). Please consider switching your preferences in your email program to allow HTML files for the best viewing if you currently only accept text.
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| Item 1 |
Tonos Expands Membership
Features And Benefits
Tonos is the online destination uniting songwriters and music makers around the world with each other and the music industry. It was founded by music heavyweights Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, Carole Bayer-Sager and David Foster.
Tonos is a site designed for you to easily hook up with other songwriters and to be afforded opportunities to submit your songs and or your act directly to the music industry per various periodic project opportunities.
Recently Tonos added a number of benefits to it's membership subscription that you may find useful in the promotion and development of your songwriting career.
New Features Include Ability To Load Your Lyrics Along With Your MP3s
Posting your lyrics along with your loaded songs is now a standard feature of a Tonos membership. This can convey a lot about your writing style as well as making clear what is being sung ;-)
Written lyrics by virtue of how they're laid out on a page can demonstrate the structure of your song like is it verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse or verse-verse-bridge-verse for example and what the rhyme scheme is among other things.
Your song craft writing style is good way to show your lyrical skills away from the music and may spark the interest of another writer concerning a possible collaboration.
Other New Benefits
As is elaborated upon below Tonos offers you the ability to submit your material to various music industry opportunities and now your submissions are recorded for you to review whom you've pitched to and when.
You also will now have the ability to upgrade your membership which will allow you to submit more than one song at a time for various song opportunities.
Here's A Closer Look At All The Other Benefits Belonging To Tonos Gives To Your Songwriting Career
For starters you get your own promotional web page for other members to see and in fact for anyone you refer to see it. The page is pre-formatted so all you have to do is enter you information like your name, style of music, bio, picture and some songs.
This tonosPRO site is called your tonosPRO Profile or if you like, your own songwriting website.
To
see an actual live tonosPRO site take a look at Songwriting Software Plus'
Robert Curtis' tonosPRO profile by clicking
here.
Consider
your tonosPRO Profile to be the hub of your entire tonos experience. It's where
other musicians, fans and talent scouts will first hear your music, see your
photo and read about your career.
The real key is to use all the functionality of your Profile to maximize
it's advantages, specifically:
- Upload up to 10 MP3s to give people a complete picture of your talent
- Upload your photo so visitors can see the person behind the music
- Continually update your bio with career developments, such as new tracks you've uploaded and your career goals
- Use your personalized url to market your music and career (click here for the example of Robert Curtis, i.e. his personal url (website address) to share with anyone is www.tonos.com/robertcurtis, accordingly for you it would be www.tonos.com/yourname). Consider your Profile at Tonos to be your own songwriting marketing website. Drive industry talent scouts and fans directly to you within the greater Tonos site
- You can also seek out feedback from others with your own personalized message board in your Profile
- All music from tonosPRO Profiles are immediately eligible for inclusion on the weekly Tonos Radio program, and talent scouts and Tonos Hitmakers are constantly scouring Profiles just like yours!!
Get Access To The Biggest Names In The Music Industry With The A&R Drop Box
The latest feature to the Tonos site is one that's unbelievable at first glance, but true nonetheless. You can now submit your songs to the biggest names in the music industry, aside from the formidable Tonos roster of Hitmakers and Founders.
With A&R Drop Box, you're able to submit one track each month for consideration, and Tonos A&R (in conjunction with our illustrious Hitmakers) will be compiling the best tracks on CDs each and every month. These compilations, including bio information on all those featured tonosPRO members, will then be sent to these legendary A&R execs for possible deals!!
Get Access To Ongoing Regular Exclusive Industry Opportunities
You can always submit your material to the widely-acclaimed Tonos Industry Opportunities. The competition from your fellow members is stiff, but this is where you get the real chance to have your songs considered for use in blockbuster films, major television series or maybe even the chance to get discovered by major artists who are looking to fill band spots.
There's
also loads of fun contests with prizes, including mentoring sessions with major
producers and songwriters. Let Tonos kick down those industry doors for you!!
Join In The Innovative Groundbreaking Tonos Studio
Working in the groundbreaking Tonos Studio allows you to play around with new musical ideas, push the boundaries of where you see yourself as a creative artist, and to meet other talented musicians, songwriters and producers who are just as enthusiastic about collaborating as you are.
Imagine combining a hard rock riff with a hip-hop groove or maybe adding a nasty guitar solo to someone's pop composition. It's all about experimentation. Just ask Paul McCartney about the openness the Beatles showed to new ideas in the studio. They effectively changed history by not conforming to the expected!
Elton John and his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin met after answering the same "Talent Wanted" ad back in 1967 and 35 years later they remain the most successful and enduring songwriting partnership in pop music history.
Getting started is as easy as uploading a music track, a rough demo of a song, or maybe just some lyrical ideas. Then you merely post a "want ad" that lets the entire Tonos Community know what you're looking for. This could be an ad for a vocalist to help make your demo sound as good as it can be or maybe you need a great keyboard player to add some textures to the overall soundscape. With the Tonos Studio, it's really that easy!
That's all you need to do to start creating music! You never know who you're
going to meet in the Tonos Studio or what exciting musical dimension can be
found to propel you to an entirely new level of accomplishment. But one thing
is for sure, you'll never find out unless you throw open the doors and really
get enthusiastic about sharing the sheer joy of musical discovery with other
musicians!!
Have Access To Expert Advice
Further your business knowledge as well as your creative expression by reading tips and advice from the pros who've made it.
This isn't just space-filler, these articles are put together to help you understand the music industry and to help you push that creative envelope. Put this inspiration and knowledge to work and you're guaranteed to see improvement in all that you do in your career.
Enjoy Four Great Ways To Communicate With Other Members
As part of this network of hungry musicians, songwriters and producers, you'll
only get the full experience by participating in this great musical community
and communicating with others. Your tonosPRO Membership gives you four ways
to do this:
- T-mail, the site-wide email system, allows you to engage in private discussions with individual members. Your T-mail account can be accessed through your Profile, Studio Projects and the My Tonos page.
- If you want to get a feel for the thoughts and feelings of the Tonos Community at large, you can read and post on the Message Boards which are only available to tonosPRO members. Discuss music with other musicians, discuss collaboration, discuss anything at all!!
- If you like what you see and hear in someone's Tonos Profile, you can post them a message right on their personal Profile Forum.
- Interested in someone's Project in the Tonos Studio or want to share ideas with the Project Owner, you can do so by posting your thoughts on their personal Project Forum.
To Sum It All Up
Tonos was built by musicians and songwriters for musicians and songwriters and whether you want to access industry talent scouts and exclusive Industry Opportunities or to showcase your music, work and record with other musicians, while learning about the music biz and getting creative tips, this a great place to get involved with the process.
Your involvement within the Tonos Community can move your career forward in ways that you may have only previously imagined.
And all this can be yours for less than ten bucks a month!
Get started with this great online community and advance your music career by simply clicking here.
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| Item 2 |
Create And Sell Your Own CDs At No Cost To You
This is not a gimmick. It's just a new service by a smart and proactive company on the net taking advantage of today's software technology to create a win win solution for songwriters.
As a songwriter you may not have the intention of wanting to put out your own CD, almost as though you were an artist, but frankly it's considered one of the best ways to promote your songs particularly in addition to and or supportive of live performances of your songs.
Simplify The CD Duplication Process And Marketing And Distribution Of Your CDs
You may already be aware of this and may have produced your own cd or even more than one but like everything there is a cost involved in putting together copies of your CDs and selling your CDs.
Accordingly, you may have felt that the cost to produce several copies of your own cd was prohibitive or just a little too much on your budget.
Well now with CafePress.com, you can sell copies of your professional quality Audio CDs with no inventory or setup costs and do it all online with the provided free store. CafePress creates your CD when one is ordered and takes a cut of the purchase price.
Create Everything You Need For Free In This Integrated Process
You provide your songs either by mailing in a copy of your master CD or uploading your MP3s. You also get to create how your label will look and you get full color direct printing onto your CDs (no labels!).
Your packaging options include jewel case with full color inserts or envelope. And in your free store your CDs are further promoted by allowing you to have streaming audio samples of your songs in your CafePress.com store.
Money is made by you setting your own retail price over the CafePress.com base price and keeping the difference, they send you a check for your sales.
CafePress CD prices are: Standard 20-99 100-249 250-499 500+ CD with Paper Sleeve $4.99 $4.49 $3.99 $3.49 $2.99 CD with Jewel Case and Inserts $8.99 $8.49 $7.99 $7.49 $6.99 Selling through CafePress.com is FREE. There are no preprinting, setup or inventory fees.
Click here to check it out further and even start selling your CDs today.
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| Notable Quote: |
"Where I was born and
where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where
I have been that should be of interest." -- Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986;
American artist famous for her paintings & drawings, teacher of art
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| Information & Credits |
Songwriting Software Express
is published monthly by Songwriting
Software Plus: Robert Curtis, Editor.
You can send your feedback to feedback@songwriting-software.com.
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