What The Hell Series Archives

What The Hell Are Master Rights?

February 19, 2018 by Aaron

ari herstand, ascap, bmi, making money, master rights, moses avalon, music, music business, music revenue, publishing, royalties, sesac, socan, songwriting

Master rights – What the hell are they? Several times I’ve seen some form of this question come up on Facebook, and the replies people get are usually hazy, conflated or inaccurate. So here I’m going to attempt to explain this as simply and completely as I can, and at the end, I’ll link you to some other very good explanations and resources. Be warned, even this is super simplified, but I hope it helps.

One way this gets asked a lot is something like “If my friend has master rights on my song how does he/she make backend income from it if it is played publicly or released and sold on iTunes, Spotify, etc.”

(Shortcut answer: YOU pay them…read on for why…)

Most of the time, when people talk about this, they conflate or confuse terms like “backend” and “royalty”, and what things like “master rights holder” or “song” actually mean. So in order to really understand who owes who what, we need to go through a few steps to clear things up.

STEP 1 – Clear up the revenue streams

First let’s make it clear what revenue streams there are in music.

Think of this like a tree with two huge branches:

Branch 1: WRITER income. This could also be called PUBLISHING or SONGWRITING. This is paid to the OWNERS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (songs), aka writers and/or their representatives (aka publishers).
Branch 2: MASTER income. Aka RECORDING, or ARTIST/PERFORMER income. This is paid to the OWNERS OF A RECORDING.

Master rights versus publishing rights revenue tree.

It is vitally important to understand the distinction between those two streams of income. At no point and in no way do these two streams of income cross. If you are both a performer and a writer, you need to separate these identities in your head, because they are not the same. The easiest way to keep this straight is to tell yourself (from a business point of view) that WRITERS DO NOT PERFORM, AND PERFORMERS DO NOT WRITE. Keep those two entities separate in your head forevermore (even though obviously a person might do both, and most of us do).

STEP 2 – Fully define the branches

Let’s go a little deeper into each branch.

Branch 1 – Writing/publishing.

Writing. This branch is for the owners of intellectual property. Songs. A song is defined as lyrics and melody (or just melody), and it exists as a conceptual thing. We can make something physical that represents a song, like a piece of sheet music, or a lead sheet, or a tab sheet with lyrics, or a recording. None of those media of communicating the song are the song. The song is the melody and lyric. Drums are not the song. A bass line is not the song. A recording is not the song.

When you register your song with your Performing Rights Organization (or PRO), (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, SOCAN, etc), you are registering this intellectual property, NOT THE RECORDING.

When we discuss this branch, we need to understand it as one branch. PUBLISHING simply means that a songwriter has chosen to transfer a piece of that branch (usually half) to another entity in exchange for the service of exposure and representation, and sometimes administration. A publisher may or may not own the copyright to a song, but they are given control, and they become a SECOND entity inserted in this branch. From here on out we will refer to the COMBINATION of songwriter/publisher as “song owners”, because this isn’t really an article about the relationship between songwriters and publishers.

There are several ways song owners can make money, and these are all governed by the copyright law. They can be broken up into two basic categories: Fees paid directly to the song owner by another entity, and fees paid by entities to performing rights organizations, which are then distributed to song owners.

FEES PAID DIRECTLY TO SONG OWNERS:

Sync licensing. If a visual content producer uses a song in a video production, they are required to negotiate that use with the owners of that copyright (regardless of who recorded the version of the song they use). This is paid BY THE CONTENT PRODUCER TO THE SONG OWNER, BEFORE THE PRODUCTION AIRS. This is an UP FRONT fee, and ownership of the song in question stays with the song owner.

CONFUSION WARNING

This is NOT THE SAME FEE as is paid to the owners of the recording. Even if you are the owner of the recording and the song, and you license a track, and you get paid a single fee, you NEED TO REMEMBER THAT THAT IS ACTUALLY TWO FEES. If there’s nothing in the license paperwork that defines the two fees, consider them equal. So if you get $1000, $500 of that is master usage, and $500 is for the song. This may affect who YOU owe and how much (more on that below).

Work-for-hire composition

An entity (such as a film production or even just a regular person) can hire a songwriter to write a song specifically for them, and pay a (hopefully higher) fee to now own that composition or use it exclusively (or not!). This is paid BY THE CONTENT PRODUCER OR OTHER ENTITY TO THE COMPOSER. This is an UP FRONT fee, and ownership of the song MAY go to the content producer/person/client.

Mechanical royalties

This is one that gets people pretty confused, but if you remember that from a business perspective the writer of a song is NOT THE SAME ENTITY as a performer, then it gets much easier. Mechanical rights simply means this: If a business or person wants to RECORD and sell a SONG on some recorded media, they must pay the songwriter a fee, PER UNIT CREATED (NOT per unit sold), and that fee is defined by law.

That fee structure varies based on media, but it’s about 9.1 cents per copy in most cases. Go HERE for more detail on those fees. This means that if a performer records a cover song, they owe the song owner mechanicals. This also means that if an performer signs to a label and records a song, the label owes the song owner mechanicals. This ALSO means that if YOU record your FRIEND’S song, YOU OWE YOUR FRIEND MECHANICALS, unless your friend specifically WAVES that right for you, in writing. I suppose this also means that if YOU write a song and record it, you owe yourself mechanicals!

Oh, and now streaming services owe mechanicals to song owners. It’s easier to get that money if you employ a publishing administrator to track it down.

CONFUSION WARNING

Mechanicals are NOT paid to owners of recordings, and they are NOT paid by distributors or radio stations. Mechanical royalties are ONE SPECIFIC thing. They’re a fee owed to SONG OWNERS by RECORDING OWNERS and now streaming services, and they’re paid by the owners of recordings to the owners of songs, or their representatives.

HERE is a resource explaining more about how mechanicals work and here is another and here is one more.

FEES PAID TO PROs AND THEN DISTRIBUTED TO SONGWRITERS:

Radio, television or venue performance. If a business, such as a radio station, online radio station, television show or other entity (like an ice rink or a bar) uses a song by playing it on a show, broadcasting it in their store, using it on their boombox while they massage people, etc, they owe the songwriter PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES. The rates are dictated by law, and these royalties are paid BY THE BUSINESS TO PERFORMING RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS. Performing rights organizations (PROs) police the usage of SONGS (NOT RECORDINGS), collect money, and pay money to songwriters.

CONFUSION WARNING

This is another a place where many people conflate or confuse things. Notice above that there is a crossover. If a video content producer (for example a television show) wants to use a song, they must FIRST NEGOTIATE PERMISSION AND FEE FROM THE SONGWRITER. That is income stream 1 above. Then, AFTER BROADCAST, THEY MUST TRACK USAGE, REPORT TO AND PAY THE PERFORMING RIGHTS ORGANIZATION. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME REVENUE STREAMS. In other words, visual content producers pay twice.

CONFUSION WARNING

“Backend”. The PRO revenue mentioned before is often referred to as “backend royalties”. This is accurate, but it shouldn’t be confused with another POTENTIAL revenue stream: “backend” profit sharing that COULD happen if you struck a deal with a content producer that says they must also pay a portion of their revenue from the production (eg: movie).

This kind of deal is rare in TV, rare in big movies, but it’s something you might see, say on a smaller movie production that doesn’t have a big up front budget. Neither of these should be confused with “backend” money you might pay to a fellow master rights holder or a fellow songwriter, after you’re paid for something. The only thing “backend” actually means is that there’s something owed AFTER money is made by a thing. If you were to make me a burger that I intend to resell, and I don’t pay you for it, but instead share the money I make by reselling it, you’d be making your money on the “backend”.

Live performance. If a band, performing artist, symphony or other performing entity performs a song in a live setting, they owe the songwriter a fee that’s defined by law. This fee is paid BY THE PERFORMING ENTITY (BAND) TO A PERFORMING RIGHTS ORGANIZATION.

NOTE: This is a simplified list, and the basic structure that I use to understand how to do business. It is by no means complete and thorough. The actual royalty structure PROs use is incredibly complex, for one, and there are other possible streams like sheet music publication, etc.

Branch 2 – Recording/master rights

This is the branch for owners of recordings. If you are an independent musician making recordings in your house or a studio, you own those recordings. If you’re an artist on a label, your label owns the recordings. The rights given to the owners of recordings (“master rights”) and the ways they can get paid are vastly different than for the owners of songs.

CONFUSION WARNING

“Master rights holders” are not the owners of songs. They are the owners of RECORDINGS. RECORDINGS ARE NOT SONGS. Similarly, the MEDIA used to STORE a recording is not a recording.

Here are the ways recording owners get paid:

Sales

A customer can buy a copy of the recording. Money is paid directly to the recording owner or their representative (like a retail store or a distributor). Included in this are CD sales, vinyl record sales (or any other physical medium), or download sales. If a customer buys a downloadable mp3 from your website, this is a record sale. If a customer buys a download from iTunes, this is a record sale.

Note: whoever makes a sale now owes every other “master rights holder” their share. Example: Mike and I record a song and sign a contract saying Mike has 50% of the master rights and I have 50% of the master rights. I sell a CD for $10 to Brenda. Now I owe Mike $5. Brenda does NOT have to find Mike and pay him $5.

Similarly, if I send the song to a digital distributor such as CD Baby, and they deliver the song to Spotify, iTunes, etc., I will receive payments from CD Baby for streams and downloads, which they have collected from the digital retailers. *I* owe Mike 50% of that money. It’s up to ME to pay Mike, not CD Baby, and NOT SPOTIFY, ITUNES, ETC. *ME*. If I have more than just that song out there, I will receive relatively complex statements detailing which songs made money and how much. IT’S MY RESPONSIBILITY TO TRACK THAT AND PAY MIKE. And remember, we owe the song owners their mechanical royalties if we plan to sell CDs or downloads, unless they’ve waived that right.

CONFUSION WARNING

Streaming is not the same thing as downloading. This is still a confusing and contested area for everyone, because streaming didn’t exist when the laws that govern music were written. However, streaming is sometimes considered “performance”, which means that song owners may be paid money for, say, Spotify streams, by PROs. This has NOTHING TO DO WITH MASTER RIGHTS. Now that we’re in branch 2, we really don’t care about this. If you’re paid something by your distributor, you owe your fellow MASTER RIGHTS HOLDERS their share, and if you look at your statement, you’ll see that this will include streams as well as downloads.

Master Use Fees

This is the counterpart to sync licensing, and is sometimes referred to with that same term. This is separate and distinct from sync fees owed to song owners for licensing. When a content producer wishes to use a recording, they must negotiate and pay a fee to BOTH the song owner AND the owner of the recording. As I mentioned above, if you are both, be SURE to think of this as TWO SEPARATE FEES. Similar to record sales, if you have partners who own a percentage of your master rights, YOU owe THEM when you’re paid a license fee.

Master Use Fee Examples

Warner Brothers and wants to use Mike’s and my song for a movie. They pay us $1000 for the MASTER USE FEE. I now owe Mike $500. (If Mike’s in the room, maybe they pay him directly. But if I collect the whole $1000, I owe him.) Remember: if Mike and I ALSO own the SONG, there’s another fee to negotiate. So if Warner Brothers says “$1000 is all you get, both for the song and the recording”, that’s actually TWO FEES. Now I actually got paid $500 for the song and $500 for the recording. Now I owe Mike $250 for the song license, and $250 for the recording. Why does this matter? Because Mike might not have written the song. *I* might not have written the song. The song sync fee may not be the same as the master use fee. On and on.

A more complicated example…

It could look more like this: George, Linda and I write a song. We decide to split that 3 ways. Mike and I record the song. We split the master 2 ways. Warner Brothers decides the song itself is worth $1500 and the master is worth $500. They pay me for everything. I receive $2000. Now I owe George and Linda each $500 ($1500 split three ways), I owe Mike $250 ($500 split two ways), and I keep $750 ($500 for writing and $250 for master use). If I were to (wrongly) divide the whole pot in 4, I would pay Mike too much, and myself too little! How generous! But in another scenario I might end up paying someone too LITTLE. Then there’s trouble.

Notice that the list here is short. There are basically two ways to make money from a recording: master use fees and sales. Until very recently, there was no mechanism for the owners of recordings to collect money based on things like radio or online performance.

HOWEVER – Now there are new royalties for master rights holders…

This includes streaming royalties, neighboring rights (in some countries), and digital performance royalties. Check this article out for more on these.

In the U.S., one organization, SoundExchange, tracks and collects these monies on behalf of the owners of recordings (EDIT: and now, some full service companies like CD Baby will interface with SoundExchange on your behalf).

Branch — 3??

Well, there really is no branch three. But there are of course many new ways to make money with music, both directly and indirectly. Merch sales are not new, but Patreon is, as are other subscription services where fans pay for special access, YouTube revenue, video downloads, etc. These are all streams which really aren’t part of song OR recording revenue, but they’re related to your career, and you’d be wise make it clear in writing who gets what from THESE potential sources as well.

Resources

Books – I recommend all of these highly, and I wish you would read them cover to cover

How To Make It In The New Music Business, by Ari Herstand

The Musician’s Guide To Licensing Music, by Darren Wilsey and Daylle Deanna Schwartz

Confessions Of A Record Producer, by Moses Avalon

Web Links – for another take or deeper information

Ari’s Take – Ari is very thorough – Click here for his “what is Sound Exchange…” article. It’s similar in topic to this one, and really good.

Here is another pretty good post about this topic from Digital Music News.

The Harry Fox Agency, if you’d like to dig even deeper on mechanicals.

An article by Ari Herstand on legally releasing cover tunes.

BMI’s royalty explanation. Read this thoroughly to really dig down into how BMI pays. The other PROs have similar documents and play by similar rules.

What the hell is a Moog?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

Musical Instruments, What The Hell Series

analog, analog synth, electronic, moog, music, robert moog, switched on bach, synthesizer

OMG! A Moog! Is…a synthesizer. You see one pictured here. Moog is actually pronounced “Mohg” – hey MOE-g! But many people say “mooooog” – like a cow with a g. Incorrectly. Just so you know 🙂

Third Option isn’t Moog-centric per se, but it’s a key component in the history of electronic music.

The Moog synth – or series of synths, was invented by a cat named Robert Moog, who, well, you also see pictured above.

There’s a lot of technical, complicated ways to describe a Moog synthesizer, and instruments like it, but for the lay person I think it can best be described like this: It looks like an old telephone operator’s console, where you can plug different wires all around (called patching, which is why the telephone operator would say “I’ll patch you through” and is also why when a musician refers to a certain setting on a synthesizer, they refer call it a “patch”), and end up making a sound kind of like this.

Yeah I know. But you can see it being cool right? Sure you can. This is where “synthesis” and any kind of electronic music was born. Now when you just have the big ‘ol patch module and it’s just constantly buzzing, there’s not too much use for that. But attach something like a keyboard, which was an arbitrary choice btw, and you can now tell it to stop and start and change the pitch and stuff and wam! You can make stuff like this.

Or this: Switched On Bach which was done all on Moog synths. This was incredibly fascinating back in the day, trust me. I remember this being one of the first CDs my parents got when a CD player finally came into our house.

The point, mainly, is when you hear someone talk about a Moog, and you think “WTF?”, just know that it is a synthesizer, kind of the father of synthesizers, and that it sounds like a big ass buzzsaw unless you do something cool, in which case it can sound like a lot of cool stuff, like changing the pitch, whether you’re dealing with a sine wave or a sawtooth wave (what the HELL?), changing the attack, the release, modulation, etc etc etc!! Also know that it’s an ANALOG synthesizer (ooh I just thought of my next “what the hell?”), which is different than a DIGITAL synthesizer (oh the what the hell’s are piling up). Analog synthesizers came first. They use actual electrical signal to make noise, as opposed to using 1s and 0s to communicate to (or from) a computer chip how to make noise.

We’ll talk about those soon, I promise. 🙂 (or do I?)

— Aaron

What the hell is a TR-808 (and TR-909)?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

Musical Instruments, What The Hell Series

dance music, drum machine, electronic music, hip-hop, music production, musical instruments, roland, synthesizer, tr-808, tr-909, tr808, tr909

Hi! I promised I’d talk about the TR808 and TR909 drum machines…oh – yes what the hell is a tr-808 (and tr-909)? They are drum machines. They are old school drums machines by Roland.

Above is the TR-808 and here is a TR-909:

TR-909

I love to quote Wikipedia, so here’s paragraph 1 on the TR-808:

The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer (a.k.a. the “808”) was one of the first programmable drum machines (“TR” standing for Transistor Rhythm). Introduced by the Roland Corporation in the early 1980s, it was originally manufactured for use as a tool for studio musicians to create demos. Like earlier Roland drum machines, it does not sound very much like a real drum kit. However, the TR-808 cost US$1,195 upon its release, which was considerably more affordable than digital sampling machines such as the US$5,000 Linn LM-1.

These actual machines are sort of rare these days, but samples and software that make that exact sound are not – you’ve heard the 808 everywhere. When you listen to dance music that has the big booming kick drum every beat, that’s usually some derivation of the 808. Especially when you get the booooooooooommmmm kick that has a long decay – that’s usually an 808 sample. The snare on the 808 is equally distinctive – it’s a tiny little crappy snare sound that gets used a lot in hip-hop even to this day. It’s not used to sound big but more…I dunno – clean and cute?

Here’s the most basic, classic 808 sound in action:

Recognize those sounds, don’t ya? 🙂

The TR-909 came around in 1984 and was an upgrade from the 808. It was the first drum machine to implement MIDI and the sound was supposedly an upgrade, but to me, it’s just different. In the 909, some of the sounds are actually samples as opposed to synthesized sounds (the hi-hats mostly).

This site has a whole bunch of songs that used the TR-909 (or its samples). This Daft Punk song is a pretty straight forward use:

The basic kick drum sound in the 909 is much tighter with a brighter attack, so I always tend to go for that sample more than the 808. The snare is much much thicker as well.

Today pretty much any synth or software with drum sounds will have sounds that emulate the TR-808 at least, and usually both. Usually they’re not billed as samples from the machines, but it’s a pretty distinctive sound. In general MIDI, patch 137 (Synth Set 1) is pretty much the TR-808 and patch 138 (Synth Set 2) is pretty much the TR-909. In some synths, there’s a drum kit called “Analog” which is basically the TR-808.

I notice the 808 snare is used quite a lot in recent hip-hop. In fact I’m amazed how much. Here’s a beat from the aptly named “808 Mafia”:

All 808 baby.

And here’s one that’s surprising that it’s surprising, because of how much we’ve all heard it:

Yep – Marvin Gay! 🙂 Thanks to FlavorWire for reminding me of that one!

So – you see – when I mention the TR-808 or TR-909, I’m basically talking about quintessential electronic drums, which we’ve all heard a LOT of. At this point, we’ve all heard the TR-808 and 909s as much as real drum kits.

Ok! I hope you enjoyed THAT. And yes, Third Option has used these sounds plenty 🙂 Especially the kick drums…

— Aaron

What the hell is trance music?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

Music Genres, What The Hell Series

dj, electronic music, electronic music genres, paul van dyk, tiesto, trance music, uplifting trance

HI! Aaron here again, still investigating genres. This time I thought we’d check out trance music. Here’s an example of a pretty typical (although creative for the genre) trance song:

First thing I notice – a spiritual transcendent energy. Sawtooth synths that are more melodic than techno or house. You’re in the same ballpark, with BPM’s at 120-140bpm, 4/4 time signatures and of course, the 808 kick on every beat. The snare is even more de-emphasized, but it’s still there. Usually an 808 or a 909 clap sound (I’ll talk about what an 808 and 909 is tomorrow, how about?). There’s usually another 808 snare that does some filling too. And, at times, the snare is out.

But I think the most important defining factor about trance is the sawtooth synth with the super transcendent melodies. Trance is DEFINITELY for taking you to another place, which of course is often enhanced with drugs. Trance songs don’t usually have an A-B-A-B verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure – trance tracks just sort of build and build, and go and go and go. There will usually be a drop or two where the track goes down to nearly nothing. You can literally do this repeating for hours and hours and if you’re mixing it live, all you have to do is follow the feeling (or drop when you need to catch your breath 😉 ).

Let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:

Trance is a genre of electronic music that developed during the 1990s in Germany.[5] It is characterized by a tempo lying between 125 to mid 140 beats per minute (BPM),[5] repeating melodic phrases,[5] and a musical form that distinctly builds tension and elements throughout a track often culminating in 1 to 2 “peaks” or “drops.”[5] Although trance is a genre of its own, it liberally incorporates influences from other electronic music styles such as techno,[3] house,[1] pop,[3] chill-out[3] classical music,[3][4] tech house, ambient and film music.[4]

I just said that! 😉

Let’s take a look at some “early” trance type stuff – Paul Van Dyke is often credited as being one of the first…

Ahh – yes – you can hear the connection between that mix and the newer Tiesto stuff. But as usually happens, things become bigger and more aggressive as they evolve…

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia that definitely connects Third Option to trance:

Rapid arpeggios and minor keys are common features of Trance, the latter being almost universal.

We’ve never used a major key in any Third Option production – ever. 🙂 And as I go through tracks, I do hear trance elements in Third Option stuff…observe:

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://www.nquit.com/sounds/ThirdOption/CultOfNice/03ThirdOptionPossibility.mp3″] Possibility – wait until 2:38…

I love Urban Dictionary’s first definition:

A euphoric electronic dance music genre that’s the love child of classical music, house & techno. In essence classical music for the dancefloor or ‘the next generation of classical music’.

And wait for it…another quote from Wikipedia:

Uplifting trance is also known as “anthem trance”, “epic trance”,[3] “stadium trance”, or “euphoric trance”,[5] and has been strongly influenced by classical music both in the 1990s[3] and at present…

Remember when I said Third Option has always been referred to as “techno/classical fusion”? That’s because what we do is use classical style melody and structure (classical music doesn’t adhere to pop song structure, as you probably know)…so…are we…”uplifting trance?”…or just simply trance because we try to do euphoric classical music using new technology?

The thing is, again, even though that fits us very well…I don’t think you can put us in the “trance” category really… and that’s part of the point of this series of genre investigations, I think. Like I said in “what the hell is techno music“, there’s an un languagable thing, which eventually just comes down to listening and knowing, it either is or it isn’t…

Ok…I need to keep this short…but I hope you’re enjoying these investigations. I’ll explain what the hell a TR808 and TR909 is tomorrow, I think, and then we can get into some other more esoteric genres. We’ll never get done with electronic music, but hopefully we’ll get somewhere.

If you want our free downloads, they’re up at thirdoptionmusic.com/free-music and of course, email me at thirdoption @ nquit . com to discuss anything! 🙂

— Aaron

What the hell is house music?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

Music Genres, What The Hell Series

deep house, dj, electro house, house, house music, techno

Aaron again – I’m back researching genres. Today I thought I’d look into House music. One thing to note is that all genres that are considered “electronic”, and also hip-hop for the most part, come out of limitation. What I mean is, electronic genres generally developed as responses to NOT having the resources (financial, equipment or human) to present live music on stage with “real” instruments. While the inventors of synthesizers were making weirdo music because they were interested in what new sounds and methods could create, in the trenches, people were making music any way they could, and synthesizers and sampling (including cutting and beat matching with vinyl records) were ways a person could creatively create music without a band at their disposal. Pause loop tapes are another example of this kind of ingenuity.

A pause loop tape is simply a beat made by dubbing a section from a cassette another another cassette, then pausing the new cassette just at the right spot, then rewinding the other cassette to play back the section, thus extending a section, for example if a popular song has just drums for a few bars. This is the same concept as vinyl cutting, only pause loop beats can’t really be done in real time. But for the generation JUST after the first generation of DJs, this was what made sense (I happen to be in that generation – and I made TONS of pause-loop hip-hop.)

So – because the methods, the reason for the methods, and the group of people are generally the same, *I* consider EVERY electronic genre hip-hop. Many would disagree though, because hip-hop is really a culture, not a kind of music. But, since the culture really is connected, it’s really all the same stuff. However, hip-hop and EDM grew from the same place and separated…one did not grow from the other.

What made me think of this is that one of the first things Wikipedia had to say about House is that it was similar to disco. Ah ha! The first hip-hop also grew from disco and funk (in fact the first hip-hop bands were actually bands – eg: Sugar Hill Gang). And really, each of those genres grew into basically the synthesized equivalent of its predecessor. (That could be why in my solo act, I keep going more toward live instrumentation).

So – house music.

Quoting Wikipedia again:

House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in Chicago, circa 1984. House music quickly spread to other American cities like Detroit, New York City, and Newark – all of which developed their own regional scenes. In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America, and Australia.[17]

If you remember in my techno post, I quoted Wikipedia as saying “In Detroit techno resulted from the melding of African American music including Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz with electronic music by artists such as…”…and I also mentioned it came about in the mid to late 80’s.

That’s interesting, because I would have thought of house as a subset of techno. Turns out no. Although I also long thought of “techno” as a catchall term.

Ok – so what does it sound like?

Wikipedia claims this song:

“On And On”, by Jesse Saunders is “often cited as the first Chicago house record”. First thing I notice is that bass sound. That sound, which is often the “synth bass 1” or “synth bass 2″ sound in synthesizer setups (in general MIDI it’s patch 40, Synth Bass 2), sounds very characteristic of house to me. We use a version of it in The Instant:

[sc_embed_player fileurl=”http://www.nquit.com/sounds/ThirdOption/TheFourHardEdgesOfWar/samples/08TheInstantSample.mp3”] (you’ll have to get about a minute in to hear it)

Here it is again in the classic hit, Pump Up The Volume, by Marrs:

The other thing you hear a lot of in house is the use of the TR-909 or TR-808 snare drum sample. That’s that cheesy 8 bit snare sound you hear in Pump Up The Volume. Third Option doesn’t tend to use that sound.

The other common thing in house is it’s super repetitive, a little bit minimal compared to disco or techno, and a lot of times, again, is instrumental. The time signature, again, is always 4/4, and the tempos are typically between 120-140 (or so), like techno. In other words it’s music for dancing. Specifically for being in a club and dancing and going into a trance (although trance music is something else 😉 ).

So, like techno and almost all EDM (unless it’s downtempo or chill), house is usually heavy on bass, has the kick drum hitting on every beat (ooon tss oon tss oon tss oon tss) and any creativity in rhythm is generally left to the hats or clavs – high small sounds. Notice though, that a GOOD club mix is actually not too bass heavy in the way it’s mixed – that’s because a club will have massive woofers – you don’t want to overdo it. But you do want it to thump. So electronic dance music, house included, doesn’t generally consist of, say an acoustic guitar and a singer without drums 🙂

I would say that’s the first and most basic qualifier for hip-hop music, too. DRUMS are the most important element (aside from the rapper…clearly rappers are gods and should be respected as such – and rapper/singers…well…. 😉 😉 ).

Ok now that I’m done talking smack… let me know what genre we should explore next – or if you haven’t done it, grab the latest Third Option free download at thirdoptionmusic.com/free-music and see if you can figure out what the hell Third Option is 🙂

Until the next time!

— Aaron from Third Option

***EDIT
I had to go back and include this: Chris Lake/Chris Lorenzo, “The Calling” this is where house is now. SO different. I’d call this deep house which is a sub-genre…although some might argue there. 🙂

What the hell is techno music?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

Music Genres, What The Hell Series

juan atkins, kraftwerk, techno, techno music, techno music history

Aaron here. We’ve been researching genres lately. It may be obvious, but it helps to be able to “pigeonhole” your music as much as possible so you can find the people who will really be into you. With us it’s not easy! Everything we come across sounds nothing like us, even though if we look at the elements, it looks like we match. But the whole is more than the sum of its parts in music.

So we thought we’d go through some genres and post a little about them, as a way to help us find our niche, and to share the info we gain, and to make new friends in the process…

So – Third Option has long been called “techno/classical/poetry fusion”. So let’s look at “techno”.

The Wikipedia definition of techno begins like this:

Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno in reference to a specific genre of music was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built.

In Detroit techno resulted from the melding of African American music including Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz with electronic music by artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, and Yellow Magic Orchestra.[6] Added to this is the influence of futuristic and fictional themes[7] relevant to life in American late capitalist society, with Alvin Toffler’s book The Third Wave being a notable point of reference.

Sounds about right. But what does it really sound like? Well Wikipedia’s got an example of very early Juan Atkins techno:

That sounds right to me, but it actually sounds like some of the old hip-hop/breakdance music I used to jam to as a kid…like this one:

Whodini’s “The Freaks Come Out At Night”, which is classified as “hip-hop/electro”.

Omg that’s nothing like Third Option! Hmm…perhaps the instruments used don’t define the genre? Because indeed, we use very similar techniques…

Ok well techno didn’t just come from Detroit – it also came from Germany, and everybody who talks about techno talks about Kraftwerk. Here’s some early Kraftwerk:

I used to LOVE this jam! It was on the SAME mix tape as The Freaks Come Out At Night. 🙂 Wikipedia calls this song “electronic”.

But that still doesn’t sound like Third Option…but you know what, it doesn’t sound like modern techno either. Here’s somebody’s mix set of what sounds more like modern techno to me:

Hmm. That’s closer. But still…let’s see – Wisegeek says techno “emphasizes rhythm and utilizes advancements in music technology and production”…they say more of course, but if that was all you had to go on, this would define EVERY SINGLE GENRE OF MUSIC.

AYE YAI YAI! Let’s cut to the chase here. Music genre, like many things, is something that is very easy to see and hear. We can say “that sounds like that” and “that is not like that” very easily. And if we’re trained we can describe things. For example, we can say that techno music is pretty much always in the 120 BPM to 140 BPM tempo range, whereas hip-hop is almost always between 80-100. We can say that pretty much every kick drum in techno is some version of a TR-808 sample. We can say that techno usually consists of the use of synthesizer patches like sawtooth and square waves. We can say that it usually consists (nowadays) of “transcendant, rising melody” and almost never consists of a whole lot of vocals outside of sample snippets. But exceptions to these rules exist everywhere, and really, you can’t successfully describe what it is. You just know. It either is or it isn’t.

Is “techno” a catchall term? According to a lot of folks, no, it isn’t. I think of it as a catchall..but perhaps it’s not. Certainly the few examples here fit together pretty well. It either is or it isn’t…

So…is we or isn’t we? If you want to help us figure it out, travel over to thirdoptionmusic.com, grab the free download there, and email us at thirdoption @ nquit . com – and suggest a genre! 🙂

We’ll continue this genre journey later…

— Aaron

What The Hell Is Electronic Music?

February 8, 2016 by Aaron

Music Genres, What The Hell Series

dj, electronic music, electronic music genres, house, max matthews, moby, synthesizers, techno, trance, turntablism

Hi! Ok so we’re mirroring some stuff that was on Third Option’s site here – because if it’s relevant both places, why not have it both places? 🙂

I probably should have started this “series” with this question – what the hell is electronic music? It seems like an obvious answer – it’s – uhm – electronic? And it’s music?

But it’s actually a deep thing and one of those esoteric things if you think a little on it. It’s like asking “what is technology?” – mostly we think of technology like smart phones or other electronical new fangled gadgets. But technology really just means “a capability given by the practical application of knowledge” (Merriam-Webster). That means an ape using a stick to capture termites to eat is technology.

Similarly with electronic music, how do you define it? Well Wikipedia says “Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production”. Yes. But actually, EVERY SINGLE RECORDING YOU EVER HEARD employs “electronics” in its production. So when you start out and you want to become an “electronic musician” you’re really just setting out to learn to record. All the technologies are the same as in rock, hip-hop, or even flat out acoustic music (when you make recordings of it). Even deeper than that, acoustics are the same science, sound is sound, and so on.

But – you have to admit, although TECHNICALLY “electronic music” means basically any damn thing other than a live performance with only acoustic instruments and vocals – in practice it means something else. No one refers to a rock band with a live drum set and guitars as “electronic music”. And no one really refers to hip-hop as “electronic music” although it REALLY actually is.

What is it then? Is it dance music? Not necessarily. Is it bloops and bleeps? Also, not necessarily. What it is is, music that is created with mostly synthesizers or computers, and even when performed live, utilizes mostly synthesizers and/or computers. Would turntablism count as “electronic music”? No not really, but turntablism and electronic music go hand in hand, because really what “electronic music” means is playing machines as instruments. That’s not even fully right…it’s more like…playing music with stuff that’s not the traditional thing…so it’s not playing guitars or drums or violins or pianos…it’s making turntables create a beat by sampling pieces of stuff…or programming a computer to create sounds that are musical…or…wait…playing synthesizer keyboards? Or…guitars live? Wait…it’s all jumbled up!

That’s because music is music, kid. Still – just like with techno or house or trance – you know when something is “electronic music”, even when you can’t accurately describe it with words. Pearl Jam is NOT electronic music. Limp Biskit and Bon Jovi, although both chock full of the use of synthesizers are NOT electronic music. Moby IS electronic music, even though he plays a live damn bass on stage.

Confusing. But not. Here’s an incredible, overwhelmingly long list of electronic music genres. My god!

I’ve been going through some of them, to try and more accurately describe (and target) Third Option. There’s a long list, and maybe one will fit! Or not. The reason there are SO many genres is because people come along and do something that doesn’t fit. A few people will usually copy the trendsetters, and then somebody names that style. That happens really quickly now.

Still, if you go back in time, you start to see that the pioneers of “electronic music” are also the pioneers of “recording” and really there’s not as big a separation between them and “traditional” musicians as you might think. I’ve had the privilege of hearing Max Matthews play quite a mean violin! (Check out that link – Max Matthews was one of the originals – basically invented digital audio. You can thank him for the CD – and he was an accomplished musician.)

So what the hell is electronic music? I couldn’t tell ya, but I think you’ll know it when you hear it 😉

Maybe Third Option will just invent its own genre. What do you think? Why don’t you send us an idea or two at thirdoption @ nquit.com 🙂

More to come…

— Aaron