Post Graduation

Sell or Give It Away

Sell or Give it Away from Darwin Sutton on Vimeo.

Worst Interview Ever

Tutorial on Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"

Suttonvlog1 from Darwin Sutton on Vimeo.

Podcast, Satellite, Terrestrial radio

Which do you prefer?

Entrepreneur vs employee

Entrepreneurship vs being an employee in audio is being discuss.

Rap to Rock, Rock to Rap

       This is one topic I love discussing, I'm not going to talk about what genre is better because quite frankly that's silly because it's opinion based. This is a topic that could lead to arguments and I always find myself feeling obligated to defend hip-hop music. Over the years, I have gained a huge appreciation for rock music. What I want to touch on is how I became to love both genres. 

       Growing up in predominantly black neighborhoods, made me look at rock & roll music a lot differently than I do now. When you grow up in a household and come up in neighborhoods that only listen to hip-hop & R&B, one could understand why someone like me was lost when somebody mentioned rock music. Which I was lost for many years, but always enjoyed the music. I would hear rock & roll when watching movies or commercial and thought to myself, that was a cool tune, but not really anyone I could discuss it with because that wasn't their cup of tea. Fast forward to now, I do my homework on rock music all the time, to the point that when I hear a song I like I have to find out who that particular artist is.

       Hip-hop & R&B is my introduction to loving music the way I do. That's why I always feel the need to defend it. Let me preference my comments by saying I do enjoy some of the hip-hop songs they play on the radio, but I think the majority of the people that don't like hip-hop probably stems from the music with no substance they put on the radio. So sometimes I could sort of understand where their coming from. That's why I always challenge the doubters to listen to a particular brand of hip-hop sometimes even giving them an artist to search. Truth be told, hip-hop introduced me and other fans to a lot of rock songs by sampling them. There are plenty of people today that hear Aerosmith's Dream on and still think it's Eminem's song which he sampled on his song Dream For The Moment. I think rap shows it's appreciation to rock all the time by the endless sampling. Rock & roll did the same thing with blues.

       I'm one of those people who feel like you could appreciate at least one song from each genre, from rap to country. I'm pretty open minded about most genres and willing to give any song a try. So you can understand why I get annoyed by people who just shun rap like it's just filth, which a lot of it is if you're looking in the wrong places. The same could be said for people who don't have an appreciation for rock and what it takes to learn a instrument. Saying all of this, I do understand there are people who don't care about music as much as I do, but for the ones that do, I challenge to unlock the door to close mind.

    

Death of Music Sales podcast

Discussing some of the reasons behind declining record sales.

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Terrestrial, Satellite, or Podcast Radio

       Terrestrial, satellite, or podcast? I ask this question wondering what people preferred. Each entity has its own purpose, but I wanted to know the reason why you would rather pay for satellite over terrestrial radio? or would you? Are you a podcast junkie because of all the different content you can get from it?

       I'm still undecided what I prefer because they each really serve a purpose; well at least in my eyes. Let take terrestrial radio, Its free so you can't compete with it from a price standpoint, but it's where you go to know the latest hits and sound in music. I find myself from time to time turning on the radio to see what people are listening to, only to be mainly disappointed in what I'm hearing. It's not always the actually music I'm disappointed in, sometimes It's the way these radio stations keep a few songs in rotation and not caring about being instrumental in trying to break new artist or just good records. That's because the machine aka major record label is backing most of the songs that's in heavy rotation. I find myself turning right to sports talk when I turn on the radio being that I'm a huge sports fan. These sports show on terrestrial radio for the most part are usually discussion about the local teams. So if you wanted to hear more national content, these other outlet can become useful as well. Especially satellite radio.

       Satellite radio is what I lean more towards because it offers the same content as terrestrial and more. The one thing about satellite that keeps me going back to terrestrial is that it doesn't keep you informed with local news or music, whenever the local stations decide to play local music. Sirius/XM Satellite radio offers one thing or person that no one else can offer. That is Howard Stern, which has a huge following and I'm one of those people who listens to every show. At one point I told myself when Stern retires I'm done with satellite radio, which runs me about $9.99 a month. I still find myself bouncing back and forth because they have such a huge variety of music to choose from, new content or old. Plus it's more likely to hear music you haven't heard before on Sirius/XM. Satellite has sports shows as well. Usually when I listen to sports on satellite it's usually ESPN radio which is free. Satellite still has its purpose because it has everything from music to sports to CNN and news outlets like that all on one app. It prevents you from going app to app.

       Podcast shows really starting to become popular and useful. I must admit I don't listen to a lot of podcast shows that's not sports related but I am familiar with some of them and I know how they work. I use podcast shows like audio DVRs because if I happen to miss a show, more than likely a sports show, I can always go to iTunes and download it for free. One big plus about podcasts are anybody can start one, if you feel like there's something missing in that world, you could create your own show to fill that gap. Anything that you're into there's probably a podcast with that specific content.

        You really can't go wrong with anyone of these options, but I do know people put out there that think terrestrial radio is going to soon be extinct, but local radio stations still has things to offer. With satellite being the one that cost, people tend to going against satellite, but $10 is not that steep of a price, especially for all the content. Podcast is a cool way to search for all types of content. As of right now I still think all of these options are necessary.

Entrepreneur vs. Employee

       I wanted to touch more on life after school, as one day I will be faced with the harsh reality of graduation. When that day finally arrives I would like to be completely prepared for it. Weighing the options between becoming a freelancer or working for a company, well that song plays in my head all the time. Truthfully, I know what I'm leaning towards because it might not be my choice. I could possibly be forced into a life of independence because of the lack of experience, plus the shortage of audio jobs.

       The one thing about going in business for yourself is that most people are not built for it. I'm not really sure if that's how I want to start my career, but I've always been a whatever it takes guy. Having good interactive skills is a good quality to have if you want to go into business for yourself, which I believe I have. Going this route of standing on my own of course is going to be challenging, but it will also build character and bring something out of a person that they possibly didn't know was in them. Being able to build on relationships with different people or artist, depending on what you're doing, could be beneficial in the long run because you're doing every side of the business. Of course there will be learning curves but, if you stick to your plan and believe in what you're doing, nothing can derail your plans. One big down fall for going into business for yourself is you may not have the funds to buy the type of equipment a big studio will have if you wanted to be a studio engineer.

       Working for a studio and not necessarily for yourself could have its perks being that you'll probably have most of what you need in the studio at your disposal. Working for a studio whether big or small would be extremely beneficial so you can understand how things are ran in an already up and running establishment. Going into business for yourself could hurt initially because you may not have guys around who's been in the business and could mentor you. I hear instructors say all the time, they learned more outside of school than in school. That being said school can only prepare you so much before you reach your real classroom...the real world. Having an employer that already has relationships with certain artist could help you out because of the possibility of you working with that artist.

       I guess it all depends on the person and what he or she wants to do and how they want to start of in the industry. I feel both presents pros and cons, it's all about choosing the one suit you best. Either way the table turn it's going to be incredibly challenging being that there are no shortage of audio guys as we always hear.

        As far as myself is concerned I would rather start off being employed by a studio just to gained that experience of being in a big setting outside of school. I would always be able to do freelance work on the side so that option would always be there for me. The person I am, having the thirst for knowledge like I do, I would want to be around someone so I could pick their brain as much as possible.  That being said I'm looking to do some freelance work before I graduate.

Who's the Innovator?

       So this past week in class we went over the percentage of jobs in audio across the country. The numbers wasn't all that shocking being that California and New York led in the employment category. It can humble you in a sense, because of how much money we think audio engineers gross while doing a job you can see yourself enjoying. What this map, that broke down the jobs location plus the wages, told us was it's not as good as you think in the audio world. As far as myself is concerned, I never thought the audio world was that glamorous in the first place, it was just something I wanted to be around. 

        The high profile jobs usually come from the creators or innovators. What do I mean, you ask? Basically what I'm saying is, I think you would have to stand out from a creativity standpoint or just get lucky. When you see a Rick Rubin or a Butch Vig you see guys who's doing more than just hit the record button. These are audio guys with creativity, with their production and ideas plus entrepreneurship. So, you would have to ask yourself are you ready to think out the box. Are you ready to be a innovator not a imitator? That's how you really become in the upper echelon of your field. With a little under two years to go until I graduate, my future is constantly on my mind. Freelance work is what we might have to go to so we can stay up on our craft along with making a little money.

        Being from Michigan, it's clear that we are not a hot bed for audio jobs. Although I would love to stay here in my home state, it's looking more and more like that might not be the case, especially if I was to go into post production work. Maybe being a innovator could land you in a state you ultimately want to move to. From the graphic we seen in class the audio jobs are spread out, but not in our favor. The wages are higher in New York and California, but I cant help but think that wouldn't be a significant difference being that the cost of living is much higher in these two states so it evens everything out. If you love being in the audio field, money should be a factor but not a hug factor. When people in my life ask me, hey Darwin how much money is in that field? I've always responded with; it doesn't matter as long as I have a job I love doing. Even going as far as saying I would take my current pay from my current job in the audio field. I might be stretching it but you get the point.

        My goal is being able to work wherever I want, but I know early on that wouldn't be the case. That's why starting yesterday, I'm figuring out ways to bring something different to the forefront and being a INNOVATOR.

Death of Music Sales

                
        What are some of the major causes to the decline in music sales today? There are a multitude of things to explore. Is it the poor quality of music? Could piracy be the leading cause? One things for sure, something different is going on being that record sales for this past week just hit an all-time low. I'm sure there are people who think they know exactly why the sales are the way they are today, hell I might be one of them. One thing I know for sure is that I'm very worried about today's sales.
        
         So I hear a lot people out there thinking that it's the quality of today's music. Mainly you would hear this from people about 45 years old or older. Me personally, I've always hated that way of thinking because everyone and I mean everyone always think their era of music is the best music ever made. So the sales being down or not doesn’t matter because they would come up with that same conclusion, their era was the best. Let me take that "everyone thinks their era is the best," statement back if I may. I don’t necessarily think that way, I explore a lot of music from the past and I can definitely see why the older generation would think the music from their time was the best. Even if that was the case, it still shouldn't affect music sales because I don’t think most kids to young adults are listening to music from their parents childhood. So bottom line I think this argument is ridiculous.
         
          One of biggest issues of this time in technology is piracy or at least I think so. Piracy doesn't just stop with the music industry. The movie industry as well is having big issues with piracy or bootlegging is what most call it. With piracy better as prevalent as it is today, I don’t think one could deny that it has had a direct impact on the music industry and has for years.

          I think we all know someone who specializes in bootlegging or who is known for that, think about how many people have access to a $15 CD for just $5. We can't expect everyone to make noble decisions. That being said, I'm not going to lie and say I've never purchased a bootleg CD, but what I will say is I've never felt right about it. Being a big fan of music and one who creates music always made me feel really bad because I wouldn’t want my product bootlegged. If a person who feels bad would buy bootlegs, just imagine all the purchases from people who couldn't care less. Now it's even easier to download music online, you could simply download off of YouTube. To think that piracy isn't the cause for low record sales is just being blind to the facts.


        Maybe kids today aren't that interested in music as my generation and generation before was. Just think about all the other things they can do now. Computers and gaming systems are significantly more advanced now than 15 years ago. I've always used music to get me through a bad day, along with writing music, which was and still is very therapeutic for me. A lot of young teens today would probably rather shoot people up in Call of Duty or play RPG games on their computer. Not sure how much this has affect on music sales, but it does make sense to explore.
       
        Music sales declining could be simply a lack of record stores. Think about all the record stores that you would drive by or walk by in your youth, if you're my age. I had a record store a couple of blocks from where I grew up that would sale records before the actual release date, which made me even more excited about that record coming out. Yeah I know what you're thinking, there's no need for record stores when we can download the content in our own homes, true.

       When I was a teen going to the mall, I wouldn’t have the intention to go buy a record, but walking by one seeing a promo for a CD in the window sucked me into the record store. While being online you would still have to search for the music. I'm not saying I think this is the cause of declining sales, just think it makes sense to explore.
       
      Who truly know why the music biz is declining, but as a die hard music lover and someone who would love to be in the industry. This is issue has me very worried about the future