Recording MP3 Music for the Internet is in some ways the same as recording for commercial CDs, but in other ways it is quite different. The Fidelity for the MP3 Recordings does not have to be as good as the fidelity for the Commercial CD Market. However, all the rest is the same. In order to get a "Hit," for the internet, or the commercial music world of CDs, one must have a certain energy, a certain freshness, and Artistic Creativeness that grabs the listeners. And believe me it is difficult to know when you have a recording that people will love, and one that is a Ho Hum Recording that the audience will not want at all, no matter how well you might perform on the recording.

To me the most creative music is spontaneous. All the artistic ability you have comes out when you are totally spontaneous. A planned Music Art is often something that the audience at large will not care for at all. But then once in a while your most highly planned music turns out to be what the music lovers want, so it’s not totally predictable what will sell, and what will not sell.

As strange as this may sound, it sometimes seems like the hits are accidents, that they just happen, and we don’t really know why they happened, and are hits. Though the Recording Companies have Producers that seem to have a knack for Producing Hits, even they, cannot always predict what will be a hit and what will not be a hit. In some ways, what makes a hit is a mystery that cannot fully be defined.

In even a home studio, the mixing can be as creative as the performance itself. But no Producer can take bad music and turn it into a hit. The basic hit must be in the music itself, or the producers efforts in the mix are totally wasted.

However, a good Producer, can take basically creative, fresh, and energetic music, and do wonders with it. In the Modern Day Recording World, much more time is taken in refining, editing, the music than is taken in the Recording of the Music itself. If an individual musician, or band, paid for the mixing time, the editing time, the refining time, done on a CD that hits the Billboard Top 40 Charts, they would be paying for that studio time the rest of their life.

So an MP3 Internet Artist is smart to have a good home studio, then find someone who can do the Producing, or at least the editing and refining of the recorded music, for if they went into a studio at even $40.00 an hours, the final mix would suffer greatly because no one could afford the studio time to really refine the music once it has been laid down, or recorded.

One can actually Record a MP3 Internet Hit on their home computer, with an inexpensive Sound Card and Multi Track Program. Of course the better the equipment is, the better the final product is going to sound. But in MP3 Internet Music, one can get a hit without having the most expensive home studio. This makes it very nice for the Music Artists who are doing the recording.

Recorded Music must have a different arrangement than live music. When people listen live, they are often Drunk, or drinking heavily, and in a group situation where they intend to enjoy the music. When people listen to a recording, they are effectively listening as a solo with their full attention on the music alone, so the music must carry itself completely. So what works for a live band in a bar or concert, often does not work on a recording. Most musicians that have never recorded do not understand this, that is why a good band needs a producer who knows what recorded music should sound like.

Bands need to practice at playing on recordings. The first recording that a band gets may not be worth listening to. Most Commercially successful recording artists don’t sound like much on their very first CD, or maybe their first three CDs. This is just the way it is.

The Big Recording Companies have Professionals who work with Bands that are signed. The Professionals work with the newly signed artists until they get hits, or it is decided that the band is not capable of recording music that will become hits, and in that case, the band is dropped.

So the bands that Record for the internet need to work at getting arrangements that will be good for Recorded Music, and they must work at developing their music skills so they are Good Recording Artists, in addition to being good live musicians. This takes time, and much studio playing. Getting a Recording that will go over well on the internet does not happen without effort.

So if you have written some songs, and are successful playing for live audiences, give it a shot. Record your music for the Internet. You might make it big. Whether you make it big with your Internet Music or not, recording for the internet is an experience that expands you as a musician, or as a band.

By Robert Lee Johnson: "The Guitar Man"
http://www.mp3.com/theguitarman

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