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EDITORIAL

Gigs et alt

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Happy New Year

Dear Soundsurfers,

Just a quick reminder to use the gig calendar. I know NUMB is having a gig in London on March 20th at the Metropolitan Hotel. Keep posting please.

Thanks!

 Happy 2008 to all Soundsurfers!

We wish all Soundsurfers a very happy and healthy 2008. May your musical dreams come true and may we hear a lot of good tunes from Soundsurf artists.

Many thanks for the responses to my last editorial. My wish still stands: if you have some spare time to dedicate to Soundsurf please let me know, I will find a role for you to fill in. We need your support!

Best wishes,

Ralf

Hi all,
Some of you might have heard the Soundsurf adverts on radio Galaxy Yorkshire. We were running them for several weeks and experienced a spike in hits and purchases. It would be great if we could run them forever but as you can imagine they are very expensive.

Since then the hits have subsided somehow and we will have to devise a new advertising strategy to promote your music. Since we don't have the funds to do a lot of commercial adverts (we are being financed by our own private income), we will try and focus on some more cost effective methods. Since we run this website next to our day jobs it would be great if you would give us a hand promoting Soundsurf. Or maybe you know someone who has a few spare hours which he could dedicate to Soundsurf. We have some great advertising material and would be very happy to send you some to promote the site. Just get in touch via email to ralf@soundsurf.com.
Best wishes,
Ralf 
Dear Soundsurf users  We would like your opinion, please.  As Soundsurf user, you are our most valuable resource when it comes to finding out what we are doing wrong and, hopefully, what we are doing right. We would always be grateful for your feedback. Please let us have your thoughts by emailing tellus@soundsurf.com.  Soundsurf has now been operating for several months and we have spent much time and effort improving the site to make it even easier to use.  For example:  - only recently, the Soundsurf radio was installed, which continually streams a random selection of Soundsurf music;  - we have improved the gigs calendar, which should prove a useful nation-wide calendar for gigs;  - we have also marketed the research pages to recording studios which should make it a useful resource if you are looking for a studio - if your studio is not on the site, please do add it!  Your Soundsurf crew will soon be rolling out further changes – to start with we will be offering marketing materials for gigs. All the details will be in our next editorial.  Happy soundsurfing!  Toby  On behalf of All at Your Soundsurf Crew

My journey of life with Music  Having grown up in the Far East, you would think that my experience with music is different from that in the west.  It is a very important medium for us to appreciate life in such a powerful and wonderful way.   I have been introduced to music from the very early age.  It was part of my culture and tradition to have music in every walk of life; as an expression of happiness during wedding celebrations, as a patriotic spirit building during school assembly, as a means of calming babies to sleep. Even my father who was a soldier – not the typical music lover you would think – loved Abba and was performing traditional dances as part of his professional duties as soldier. I cannot imagine myself without music; life would not have been so colourful.  Memories of certain stages of my childhood are somehow linked to different songs.  When I listen to a specific song, it will suddenly refresh my memories to an event in my life.  It is so powerful to me that it can easily change my mood; it could also increase my level of concentration.  I still remember at school, I used to listen to heavy metal rock when I needed to memorise facts and figures.  It’s strange but it works for me.  When I was feeling down, I just turned on the radio and listened to songs to cheer me up instantly.  I still remember when I lost my sister; it was the sadest moment in my life.  It took me a while to get back on my feet, music definitely helped my inner healing process and soothed the pain. Technology moves very fast and I remember the first walkman that I got.  I could not believe that I could listen to music that I like everywhere and whenever I wanted. Writing down my thoughts now, I realise that maybe my experience from music in our culture is not that different from the one in the west. Maybe our dances are performed differently and maybe our music may sound strange for ears not used to it – but take the same experience of music as a companion in all life situations and change the pitch a bit and it may be exactly your experience – even though you were raised 10,000 miles from where I am from. So my conclusion is that music is universal – the pitch of the songs maybe different, but music is the salt of life for every human being. To all artists and surfers Happy Soundsurfing! 

Norlan

 

Wilberforce 2007

200 years ago Britain abolished slavery and took positive action to prevent international slave trade. What has that to do with music? Somehow it seems that all suffering has some influence on music (half of the songs around deal with personal or communal suffering and injustice, be it about a lost lover or the tragic story of a people). A touching example is Bob Marley's Redemption Song:

Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

But there is also something 'closer to home' to it - we have a song on Soundsurf that was written and recorded for a CD called 'Songs of Slavery', as part of the celebration for Willam Wilberforce in Hull. The song writer and performer is PURE CLIMATE's Nick Stubbs. Most of us here at Soundsurf are from Hull and naturally the current William WIlberforce celebrations are very close to our heart - as a Hull MP at the time and as the main lobbyist for the abolishment of slavery he is our hero! Have a look at www.wilberforce2007.com, the website set up especially for this year's celebrations .

 

Welcome to the new Soundsurf editorial

From now on one of the Soundsurf team will write this editorial on a regular basis. If you have got something to say which you think might be interesting for others in the Soundsurf community why don't you write to hello@soundsurf.co.uk and we'll include it in the editorial!

Cover versions on Soundsurf

For those unfamiliar with what a cover version is, here the Dictionary.com description: 'A cover version is a recording of a song by a singer, instrumentalist, or group other than the original performer or composer.'

The organisation which safeguards the rights of the original performers and composers is the MCPS-PRS Alliance. The latter sells licenses to music download sites like Soundsurf and Soundsurf is buying one. From now on Soundsurf is counting the downloads and 'streams' to adhere to the conditions of the MCPS-PRS Alliance.

So what does that mean in plain English? Artists can upload cover versions. So if you feel like singing Jimmy Cliff's 'Many Rivers To Cross' - just go ahead and do it! And if it's good, upload it to Soundsurf, but make sure you tick 'cover version' during the upload process - that helps us count... 


Soundsurf Radio

Our webdesigners are still working at it. Sorry it takes so long. They had some problems with servers or so. Let's hope it'll be up and running soon so we can all listen to streaming Soundsurf music!

Ideas

Should you have any ideas how to improve Soundsurf please email us! hello@soundsurf.co.uk

Ralf D M Schumacher
Soundsurf