Looking back on last year, Envato had a pretty big 2008 by any measure. We jumped from 4 sites to 13, a million monthly visitors to 5 million, and while our team began the year numbering 12, we ended it totalling 55 talented reviewers, editors, managers, developers, writers and support staff. With such a crazy year in the rearview mirror, it is with no small excitement that I can say that 2009 is going to make 2008 pale in comparison. And today I’m here to make a huge announcement for all the authors of our marketplaces, give beta invites for a major new site, and give sneak previews for some of our Envato plans!
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Last week’s article, 5 Ways to Notate Your Music, talked about the importance of music notation to musicians and composers. The article mentioned that reading music is a skill that is well worth learning. In response, reader Jon commented, “I definitely want to read and write music fluently.” So for Jon and the rest of us who have made a New Year’s resolution to learn to read (and write) music, here are seven websites that can help.
I’ve only included lessons that can be done online without needing to download or subscribe to anything, where the training is free of charge, and the sites don’t overwhelm you with ads. Learning to read music involves both knowledge and skill. While reference sites about learning to read music are valuable, I’ve also included some sites with tutorials and exercises where you can practice and improve our reading skills. (more…)
You have a new tune in your head and don’t want to lose it. What do you do? You’re thinking hard about how to structure your new masterpiece, and want to preserve your ideas. How do you keep track of them? You’re noodling on your piano, and have come up with a new bassline. What is the most effective way of passing that on to the bass player?
People have been notating music for four thousand years now, and it’s all we have of music that was written before recording was invented. Today it remains an essential tool for every musician, and the ability to read and write some sort of notation is a skill well worth learning. (more…)
I had the opportunity to speak to local guitar guru Ryan Bennett this week about his pet hate: amp myths. Ryan keeps coming across guitar players who are sold the wrong stuff. “I feel angry – not angry but disbelief – about what goes on. I get passionate about my music!”
Ryan explains, “A music shop sold some cheap Marshall stacks to some musos I know. After a year of gigging they realized they could have spent their money better. Don’t trust everything a music shop tells you.”
Ryan is a guitarist and bass player who has been playing for eleven years, and gigging for eight. He loves playing rock, and is music director for a church. His guitar gear includes: (more…)
We here at Envato have just launched AETUTS.com, a tutorial blog covering Adobe After Effects, headed up by editor Lloyd Alvarez. AETUTS joins the two out of four existing TUTS+ sites in providing free education on Adobe Creative Suite products — PSDTUTS and VECTORTUTS — as well as the broader NETTUTS and AUDIOTUTS.
The TUTS+ network is consistently growing and it’s great fun to watch. Every day we attract new readers and we seem to be launching a new tutorial site as frequently as we change underwear around here.
Okay, that’s a little exagerrated, depending on your point of view, but I’m just sayin’ the tutorial sites are doing well. Get outta here and have a read of AETUTS.
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration. Edison, who wrote those words in 1932, should know. According to Jane Stanley and Paul Witney, the joint 1997 winners of the 2MBS-FM Young Composers Award, the same can be said about composing music.
For today’s composers, perspiration may involve theme development, notation, sequencing and recording, playing, rehearsing, public relations, recruiting new band members, dealing with fan mail, previewing hundreds of sound fonts, and learning to operate new equipment and software. Productivity is the art of doing all of this in an effective and sufficiently organized manner. And productivity is where AirSet steps in to help. It’s also where many creative geniuses need help. (more…)
Yesterday authors should have received an email informing them that there will be a change in payouts effective from the 1st of January 2008. The email notice said the following:
New earnings payment system
As of January 15th 2009, you will be provided with a new feature allowing you to automatically withdraw your final earnings balance for the month.
For example: If you select this option on January 16th, then a withdraw request will be automatically submitted for your total earnings balance up until January 31st at 11:59:59pm.
For those members who like to withdraw their maximum earning each month this tool will be extremely useful – no more missing the payment request cutoff by mistake!
The original withdraw system will also remain in place, allowing you to continue to withdraw specific amounts from your earnings balance.
New payment date
As of January 2009 all of the months earning payments will be issued on the 15th of following month *. For example, all earning withdraw requests from January 1st to January 31st will be paid out on February 15th *.
- December withdrawal request processed on 1st January
- January withdrawal request processed on 15th February*
- February withdrawal request processed on 15th March*
This new payment system will save authors time and will allow Envato to continue to make timely monthly payouts to a variety of account types. Thank you for your understanding while we make this transition and for your continued support.
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*If the 15th falls on a weekend or public holiday, the payment will be made on the following business day Australian Standard Time (no exceptions).
We apologize for any inconvenience while we make this transition to the new payout date. Recent site growth and increased incidences of attempted fraud have made it necessary to implement increased payment processing time. Please direct any questions, concerns or comments to this thread where they will be reviewed and answered by staff.
Again, thank you for your understanding and support.
If you’re going to record your guitar, you might as well get the best sound out of it. While good strings won’t make a bad guitar sound amazing, bad strings can totally ruin the sound of a good guitar. There are techniques for making your strings retain their brightness longer, and the way you hit those strings can make a major difference to the sound you get.
Below are 50 hacks that will help you get more from your guitar strings. Some of the tips are contradictory, because there’s no accounting for taste. Different people, and different songs, may benefit from different approaches. (more…)
Just this week, we added VideoHive to our family of marketplaces. It wasn’t so long ago that we launched ThemeForest and all the sites are growing really well, so we’re pleased to offer video authors a place to sell and those in need of stock video a place to buy. Go check it out for yourself.
This week has been good to us, apparently, because just a couple of days ago we crossed the 100,000 member mark. The 100,000th member has been awarded with some Marketplaces credit to have some fun with. Since then we’ve already pushed through to 101,610 members and we’re incredibly happy with the way things are growing.
I think we should all mark this occasion with a cold beer! 
Songbird turned 1.0 this week, and aims to do to iTunes what Firefox did to Internet Explorer. That is, it aims to take the basic design of something closed and proprietary, and turn it into something open and extensible and fun. Songbird aims to give the power back to the people.
Appearing in February 2006, Songbird is five years younger than Apple’s iTunes, and does not yet match it feature for feature. iPod support, album artwork, podcast support and stability are considered beta features and need improving. CD ripping, watching folders for changes and video support are all still coming.
However, Songbird’s unique features make it a great media player in the Web 2.0 world. It is a flexible tool that belongs in the toolkit of any musician who explores new music online. In particular, the way it works with music-related websites and blogs greatly interests me. Songbird has completely changed the way I think about discovering and playing music online. (more…)
