Xposure Music aims to remedy this common industry barrier with their services designed to “unlock a new front door” into a career in the music business. Artists can join Xposure Music and submit their songs to a spread of industry professionals who set up prices for their various services or areas of expertise. Artists can pay for specialized feedback (written or video), or, set up a live call with an industry executive. There are also unpaid services available, like submitting your music for free without a guaranteed response.

Some of the famous names attached to Xposure Music include: Polo Molina (founder of Grassroots Music and manager of the Black Eyed Peas); Kate Loesch (director of A&R at Capitol records); Nick Jarjour (Global Head of Song Management at Hipgnosis); Spencer LeBoff (director of A&R at BMG); Steve Aoki’s team; and Jake Broido (A&R at Atlantic Records). Rest assured, Xposure Music won’t take any cut of any artist’s future revenue, just 25% of the sales made through the site itself.

Ultimately, Xposure aims to provide an individualized experience for each artist, essentially offering them a fast pass to the front of the music industry line. By giving artists a direct line to leaders in the music industry, you’re giving them a chance to get heard without having to rely on a lucky algorithm.

“We wanted to make sure artists got specific, detailed responses that could help them improve their craft and move their careers forward. For example, a UMG A&R exec gave one of our artist beta testers a five-minute video full of advice,” says co-founder Gregory Walfish. Alongside partner Ryan Garber, the two aim to give all artists in the industry an opportunity to get their music in the hands of any high level executive they can imagine.

Learn more (and sign up!) at xposuremusic.com.

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Before choosing a new violin string, it’s important to consider the level of skills in playing the instrument. There are violin strings for professionals, and there are specially made for beginners. So how do you find the perfect strings for your new violin?

Choosing a Quality Violin String

If you’re a beginner in playing violin, the type of string you use will have a huge effect in creating the sound. For instance, type, tension, and gauge of the strings have an impact on dramatic and subtle changes made. So you really need to find the right strings that matches the quality of sound you want to create.

Below are some helpful tips to make sure you get the best violin strings as a beginner:

Understand the different types of violin strings.

The three main types of strings are synthetic, steel, and gut; they all differ in maintenance requirements and tonal quality. The gut core is made from the intestine of sheep and some metal like copper. The steel core is ideal for greater stability. And the synthetic core is the most popular for violinists, it’s made of perlon or nylon.

Know the tension and gauge.

String gauge is the width while tension is responsive quality and projection. If you use a wide gauge, you get louder sound. But if you choose a thin gauge, you will produce less tension and projection.

Determine your musical preference.

Before you even buy a violin string, know what type or style of music you want to play. If you know your genre, it’s easier to find the right type of strings. Steel strings produce brilliant tones while synthetic strings create more classical sounds.

High-Quality Violin Strings You Can Use

There are plenty of options for you to choose from in terms of the best violin strings on the market today. But the following are great choices you can try:

D’Addario Prelude. This violin string set is 4/4 scale and perfect for medium tension.

Super Sensitive. This violin string set is 4/4 scale and is the most affordable for students and beginners.

Cecilio. This offers four packs of steel 4/4 scale strings ideal for new violinists.

Your teacher can give you the best advice when it comes to buying the best violin strings. And when you are already familiar with the violin and the effects of the string you use, you can upgrade to a better one.

The post Best Violin Strings for Beginners first appeared on buffaBLOG.

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With so many options, it’s always best to do your research. Although the musical world is expansive and varied, there are some universal buying tricks that can be used on many instruments. The following article will divulge four aforementioned tips and tricks for buying your first instrument!

1. Consider a Trial Run

When perusing possible instrument choices, it may help to test possible candidates by playing them. You wouldn’t want to buy a drum set only to discover you don’t like the wiring on the snare drum! By testing out possibilities, you allow your musical intuition and compatibility to factor into the decision.

Most stores will allow you to try out the equipment. However, if you are buying online, you won’t be allowed this option. You can circumvent this hiccup by renting the desired instrument. Through rental programs, you can access the product without making a lasting commitment. For a small monthly fee, you can take part in a ‘trial run’. This allows you to sample different brands without an excessive monetary commitment.

Thus, if you want to find your perfect instrument, make certain to play the field a bit. Try out the devices that excite you and don’t settle for anything less than perfection. You’re going to be with your instrument for a long time, so you’re allowed to test your compatibility before you commit.

2. Buy within Your Own Range of Expertise

For your first instrument, you’ll want to purchase to your skill level. Although it may be tempting to buy an elegant baby grand piano, you don’t really need it — especially if you’re just practicing arpeggios! Although the expert level equipment is flashier, it also comes with excess features that can be challenging and difficult. The best thing to do is to keep it simple.

Look for something that will fulfill your educational purposes while still posing a challenge in the future. This could be a weighted keyboard, 5-piece drum set, acoustic guitar, or any other beginner’s instrument. By buying within your ability, you can grow with the instrument instead of being overwhelmed by it. At the end of the day, you’re learning a new skill; you must first walk before you can run!

3. Look Beyond the Price

One of the most important tips is to not let price be a deciding factor. An instrument is an investment. As with all investments, it’s best to search for something high-quality and long-lasting— regardless of price.

Although the cheapest option may seem like the most cost-efficient choice, poor craftsmanship can lead to damage and costly repairs. You may find yourself needing to replace the instrument sooner than expected.

For example, should you buy a low-cost drum set, the durability of the structure will be compromised. The skin on snare drum can become so uneven that the sound will be rendered unrecognizable. You’ll find yourself replacing many of your snare drum heads with regularity. This will not only cost you monetarily, but it will also rob you of precious time that you could be practicing!

Thus, you save yourself money, time, and energy by valuing quality over affordability.

4. There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Research

With such a large plethora of options, it’s best to arm yourself with as much research as possible. Make certain that you are taking advantage of the many websites devoted to your instrument. There are a plethora of sites that offer comprehensive reviews and recommendations for smart musical purchases. From keyboard aficionados to experts on snare drums, these resources are prepared to help you make the best and most informed choice.

The post 5 Expert Tips for Buying Your First Instrument first appeared on buffaBLOG.

Just when you thought Buffalo’s strong year of shows couldn’t get any better, the Town Ballroom announced that Cincinnati by way of Brooklyn indie heroes The National will be hitting it up December 11. On tour in support of their latest album Sleep Well Beast, they’ll will be in town to play a benefit show for Buffalo String Works, a rapidly growing organization on the West Side dedicated to providing music instruction to low income, refugee and immigrant kids K through 8th grade. Tickets go on sale Friday at noon and will be $60 a pop, with a two ticket limit.

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It’s not just the casino-owners, even the players are aware of the impact of music on their gambles! Many create their own customised playlists for specific purposes – to cheer up, to focus or to relax. Let’s learn more about how music influences gambling at online off-line casinos, like https://casinos-enligne.fr/.

How offline casinos select their music?

Both offline and online casinos select their music very carefully. It’s meant to perform two basic functions – to please the visitors by creating just the right mood and to make them want to play more.

The traditional casinos normally play various kinds of music in the background, and perform appropriate sound zoning in different gaming rooms.

Mostly it’s the lounge music, and people barely notice how the tracks keep changing from time to time. You’ll never hear any pauses or skips, just a constant musical stream that relaxes the guests and evokes the desire to play. However, this type of music is normally heard in halls hosting the card and roulette games.

The areas with slot machines sound completely different! You constantly hear joyful and live music in those places. Every slot machine at the Winning Ball Competition plays out the pay-out melody every now and then, creating a feeling of luck! People get influenced by such positive melodies and often can’t refrain from indulging in another spin! VIP halls on the other hand are properly soundproofed, and host a wide range of automatic machines with all kinds of music.

About music in online casinos

Every machine in an online casino features its own specific soundtrack. In the earlier times, when the online slots had just made their first appearance, their music used to be more or less the same as that played in real slot machines – cheerful and positive, creating a feeling of luck. However, online casinos’ music has evolved a great deal over the past one decade, and has taken an altogether new direction. Composers are hired to write music based on specific scales suiting the needs of the casino, in accordance with the slot machines’ and the games’ themes. But it’s mostly unobtrusive and pleasant, yet stimulating and positive. Jackpots and huge wins always have their own special tunes, pushing you to go further and spin again! The rules and regulation for music on gamling sites have changed over the years and no one knows this more than sites like bestuscasinos.org/legal/nevada/ . Many online casinos get their music flagged and removed these days.

In fact, you can find plenty of music-themed slots at online casinos like 666casino these days, based on numbers of famous musicians/bands like Motorhead, Megadeth, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Guns N Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead and many others.

Conclusion

All in all, music plays a critical role in operations of all major off-line and online casinos of today. I know I wont be found to pay by mobile casino out over and over again if it doesn’t have a catchy tune. It’s an integral aspect of these offline/online establishments, something you can’t separate from them. Of course, you can play in mute mode online; but music is always there; waiting to be heard!

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This is actually pretty cool for fans of artists and groups from past decades. Sure, it can be kind of sad to catch a group past its prime, but it’s equally awesome to see your favorite artists long after you thought you’d have the chance catch them again. This summer, there are a number of pretty big ‘90s bands out on tour, and it just so happens that acclaimed Buffalo boys Goo Goo Dolls are part of the group. Here’s a look at a few tours you might want to glance at for the final weeks of summer.

Goo Goo Dolls

By this point A lot of people may associate Goo Goo Dolls with the early-2000s. But it was actually in the late-‘90s that the group really made it big time and produced most of its hits. Lead singer John Rzeznik wrote “Iris,” arguably the group’s biggest song ever, for the film City Of Angels, and in 1998 the album Dizzy Up The Girl was released. That album went triple platinum and secured Goo Goo Dolls as bona fide ‘90s rock stars.

Like a lot of bands from the era, Goo Goo Dolls has continued to release music with mixed success, though the album Let Love In certainly did alright. Now they’re still plugging along playing mid-sized venues, but it definitely sounds like one of the happier tours for an aging group. In a recent interview long time bassist Robby Takac articulated that Goo Goo Dolls are still at it because, as he put it, they “still care about each other” and want to be together. Maybe this is the message they were looking to send titling this summer’s EP You Should Be Happy.

Guns N’ Roses

While a lot of us associate Guns N’ Roses with the classic rock era, they actually did a lot of their work in the early-‘90s, and may belong to that decade every bit as much as they do to the ‘80s. At any rate, they sometimes seem older than they actually are, but they’ve been back in full force for a while now. In fact, Guns N’ Roses have been all over the place. They released an online game in early 2016, and soon thereafter rocked Coachella with a reunion show. That was the beginning of a tour that’s still going on this summer.

The tour is called “Not In This Lifetime,” and it’s been a hit pretty much everywhere it’s gone. Playing their past hits and catering to a massive fan base that’s largely watched its favorite types of groups drop off one by one, Guns N’ Roses are still able to sell out large concert venues and stadiums, and have been doing just that. They’re approaching an international portion of the tour, but have a few more North American shows later this summer.

Third Eye Blind

Perhaps the consummate late-‘90s rock sound for a lot of music fans was the pop-infused debut album from Third Eye Blind. Featuring hits like “Semi-Charmed Life,” “How’s It Going To Be,” and “Graduate,” it launched the band to superstardom, and while there’s been some turmoil in the group over the years (as tends to be the case), they’re still going strong. Of the bands we’re discussing here, Third Eye Blind may actually have the most promising new material. The late-2017 EP We Are Drugs isn’t catapulting them to the top of the charts, but it’s not half bad.

The group has been on a fun-filled 20th anniversary tour this summer, and has recently announced a fall continuation. The summer shows came under the banner of the Summer Gods Tour, with the upcoming shows to be called the Fall Of The Summer Gods Tour. It sounds like they’re having a good time out on the road, and if you catch a show you’ll find they haven’t lost their sound.

The post Goo Goo Dolls One Of Several ’90s Bands On Tour This Summer first appeared on buffaBLOG.

Ticket prices range based on the event, but if you are looking to attend multiple shows over multiple days, it might make more sense to buy our all-access pass for $20, which will save you some money in the long-term.

Full Schedule:

Thursday, June 15th @ Mohawk Place | 8pm | $7
Hundred Plus Club, dreambeaches, Sammus, God Save the Queen

Thursday, June 15th @ Nietzsche’s | 8pm | $5
Rust Belt Brigade, Wren Williams & Sons of Luther, Stress Dolls, Cannon the Brave, Award Show, Ryan Howze

Friday, June 16th @ Mohawk Place | 5:30pm | $7 
Griffin!, Kerry Fey, qwelis, Jack, Big Fred, Humble Braggers, Nylon Otters, Bold Folly, Dean Chatham

Friday, June 16th @ Nietzsche’s | 9pm | $5
SHEDS, Total Yuppies, Cooler, Feverbox, Ian McCuen, Dance Yrself Clean

Friday, June 16th @ DBGB’s | 9pm | $5
Matthew Danger Lippman, SMUG, M.A.G.S.

Friday, June 16th @ Milkie’s | 8pm | $5
K.Rob, Rap & Destroy, Mad Dukez, Short Moscato, MileHighMuzik

Saturday, June 17th @ Mohawk Place | 7pm | $7
Johnny & The Man Kids, The Gennies, Kissing is a Crime, Suburbs, Gillian, Younger Then

Saturday, June 17th @ Nietzsche’s | 9pm | $5
New Masons, Telempathy, Bearhunter, The Leones, Dogs in Stereo, Lesionread

Saturday, June 17th @ DBGB’s | 9pm | $5
The Eaves, Ugly Sun, Made Violent

Saturday, June 17th @ Milkie’s | 8pm | $5
Small Smalls, Dead Lounge, White shade, Into the Wake, Filthy Gorgeous

Saturday, June 17th @ Dreamland | 7:30pm | $5
Coral Collapse, Deadwolf, Buffalo Sex Change, Passed Out

Sunday, June 18th @ Mohawk Place | 7pm | $5
Planet Three, Major Arcana, A Relative Term, The Etchings

E-mail herdfest@gmail.com in the meantime if you have any questions. See you June 15th!

The post Just Announced: Herd Fest 2017 first appeared on buffaBLOG.

Herd Fest 2016 had over a thousand attendees, 14 showcases, and about 70 acts playing live over the course of the festival. This year we plan on expanding our showcases and centralizing venue locations. If you are interested in sponsoring the festival or have any proposals to make this event sweeter, e-mail herdfest@gmail.com.

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In comes Lazlo Hollyfeld. The long time experimental rockers, fresh off tackling Radiohead’s In Rainbows and then some this spring and summer, will next take on the catalog of DFA heavyweights LCD Soundsystem on Friday, October 28th at Mohawk Place.

The legendary dance-punk group triumphantly returned to the festival stages this year, and with a new album in the works, it seemed hitting for the Buffalo band to dive into James Murphy and crew’s collection of tracks.

Joining the Lazlo crew will be tribute band Girl Jeans. Led by Humble Braggers’ Tom Burtless, the fresh-to-the-scene cover group will cover all of your favorite emo/screamo/scenester hits of the past.

Tickets are currently on sale for $10 pre-sale (you can purchase here, or RSVP on Facebook here for updates), or $15 at the door. Might want to buy ahead of time though. This event is expected to sell out.

The post Just Announced: Lazlo Hollyfeld & Friends Play LCD Soundsystem first appeared on buffaBLOG.