When it comes to the role of the manager in the studio, the first question to ask is: should managers be in the studio at all?

At the end of the day, it depends on whether the artist is comfortable with their presence. Forgetting the manager’s professional role for a moment, an artist’s good performance in the studio depends on many factors and that includes whether they feel comfortable expressing their creativity in front of those certain individuals they’re with at the time. This is a personal matter, not a professional one.

I think it’s important that you do feel comfortable to be yourself around your manager. If it’s an awkward relationship like the one you might have with your accountant or lawyer, they might not be the best fit for your band. Read More …

When you’re submitting files to AudioJungle, take your time and think each element of your submission through.

If a buyer was looking for an audio file like yours, what would they look for? Does your description provide any compelling reason to listen to your file?

A file with a title like “song” or a scant description isn’t going to do well, and the reviewers aren’t going to spend their precious time coming up with new ways to help you market your work just because you didn’t. Spend time thinking about how your file needs to look to viewers to turn them into buyers.

Don’t submit carelessly. Your goal here is to make some money from your music, so put some effort into the submission itself and remember that people read before they listen.

At the most basic level, the role of the musician in the studio is to deliver a performance of high quality that can be released to the world (or at the very least, be turned into something that can be released).

But the studio can be a daunting place for many musicians, and as a performer there’s a fair bit of pressure on you to, well… perform. Here’s some advice to help you get a grip on your role in the studio and how to make the session productive, effective and comfortable. Read More …

You may have noticed that after many months, the Featured Collection at In the Jungle has changed. We’ve got a new featured collection, and this time the focus is on the genre of funk. If you submitted a file to the funk section in the last few weeks, it might be in this pack.

If you didn’t get a chance to check out the Music Packs collection before it was replaced, you can still find it here. And while you’re exploring, take the time to check out the great audio files in the new Best of Funk collection.

It’s time for another competition, and we’ve got yet another great prize for you—but this time, we’ve designed a fun challenge that you’ll have to take part in for a shot to win!

Before we get into the challenge, let’s take a look at the prize: a Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro with Pro Tools LE. From Digidesign’s product page:

The Digidesign® Mbox® 2 Pro is a portable, high-definition audio/MIDI production system that delivers truly professional sound quality. Packing an impressive variety of connection options into a compact interface, Mbox 2 Pro puts powerful multitrack recording and mixing capabilities into your hands, so you can create wherever inspiration strikes. Mbox 2 Pro also includes award-winning, industry-standard Pro Tools LE™ software, over 50 effects and instrument plug-ins, and the Pro Tools Ignition Pack — a collection of powerful tools to get you started creating right away.

This is the best Mbox on the market. You’re drooling, right? Here’s how to win this thing. Read More …

The producer, whose role we discussed last week, usually has a henchman that we call the studio engineer. In some cases, particularly those cases where the budget is limited or the producer likes to be involved in all aspects of the production, the one person fulfills both roles.

If we separate the two roles and look solely at the engineer, their role is much less “big picture”-oriented and rarely involves any of the headology (yeah, I know, I read too much Pratchett) and hand-holding that the producer needs to carry out with the artist. The engineer is about the details: setting up the mics in the right spot, dialing in the EQ and compression settings on that nice Avalon pre-amp in the rack, and pushing the record button. Read More …

In last week’s quick tip we talked about the importance of simply promoting your portfolio page to sell more audio stock. It doesn’t matter how you get started, so long as you get out there and get people clicking your portfolio link.

But promotion is a fine art, and the simplest and most effective way to increase the effectiveness of even the most basic promotions is to know your target market and sell to them. Selling microstock to a road engineer isn’t likely to work. Sell microstock to those who actually need it: electro musicians who need samples, corporate multimedia types and podcasters who need jingles, and so on.

Take a look at your portfolio and ask yourself, realistically, who would want to buy your audio and for what purposes. Then you know who to target your titles, copy and promotional efforts towards.

The producer has a job that consists of many roles. Some of them happen in the studio, and some of them don’t. I’m going to spend a few articles talking about the various roles in the studio and what to expect from those fulfilling them. These aren’t going to be job descriptions; we’re going to look at the interactions that take place in the studio environment and how to make the most of them.

In this article, we will talk about the responsibilities of the producer and the headology of the role, how to do a good job as a producer in terms of the interactions with the others in this studio environment. Read More …

Having trouble getting anyone to buy your audio files? Perhaps you just want to sell a few more than you have been for a little more pocket money. For most AudioJungle authors with flatlining sales figures, the solution is simply to start promoting your portfolio. If you do nothing but upload your files and sit back and wait for the money to pour in, nothing will happen, yet the failure to promote is the most common reason that new AudioJungle authors don’t sell any audio.

Become active in the forums, leave comments on the blog and let visitors to your own website know about your AudioJungle portfolio. The more visitors checking out your portfolio page, the more likely your sales will increase. There’s a fine art to marketing and promotion, but the first step is to simply get your name, and your link, out there.

As you may have seen in our latest newsletter, it’s coming up on our birthday in just two days - yep back on August 21st 2006 FlashDen was born!

As they say, it’s always better to give than to receive, so we’re going to celebrate with a week of giving! All authors on FlashDen, AudioJungle and (the upcoming) ThemeForest will automatically earn 50% commisisons all week long regardless of their exclusivity or sales count. So if you’re going to make some big sales, that’s the week to do it in!

It’s our way of saying a big thank you to the authors that make these sites as brilliant as they are! We hope to keep improving and building on them long into the future! I wonder what we’ll be announcing in our twentieth birthday

The Exact Dates & Times:

Start = 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time)
End = 27 Aug 2008 23:59:59 AEST
Rate for everyone, exclusive and non-exclusive during the period = 50%.

Happy Birthday!