Category Archives: Music

Choosing A Musical Instrument For Your Child

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Many parents want to encourage their children to learn to play a musical instrument, to encourage their musical development.

The first instrument is often a music keyboard. These are reasonably priced and stimulate an interest in music even in very young children. Ask your school music teacher for advice, because some of the very low cost keyboards are very limited. The higher priced keyboards play notes softer if they are hit less hard, more like a piano.

Your child may enjoy the sound of a particluar instrument. This can be a major motivational factor, so it is a good idea to go with the child’s ideas, at least initially. Many children change the instrument they play in the first few years of their music education.

Many children may find it easier to play woodwind instruments like a clarinet than brass instruments like trumpets and trombones. Woodwind instruments do not require the lip vibrations that brass players need.

Most children’s choice of instrument is a matter of chance. It depends on what instrument is favored by visiting music tutors.

There are more professional violinists than players of any other instrument. This is one reason parents often encourage their children to take up the violin. Buying a violin is a tricky business.

You can buy a violin for less than 70 dollars on the Internet. Should you buy it? Never.

A violin is not just a pair of shoes. Shoes are designed to be used and thrown away when they wears out. A well-made violin will last for hundreds of years. The 70 dollar violin above should just be thrown away. Buying one for your child is a waste of 70 dollars.

If your child is taking up the violin, or any instrument, it might be an idea to rent rather than buy, until you see how your child takes to the instrument. That is the point at which you should consider buying.

Buy the best instrument you can afford. Price is definitely linked with tonal quality. Listen to a range of violins, pianos or trumpets being played by the musician in the retailers. You will notice differences between the different instruments. Always buy a musical instrument you and your child like the sound from. Musical training will attune the child’s ear to any deficiency in the instrument you buy, and this will detract from the pleasure he or she gains from playing it.

Choosing a Music Subscription Service

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If “legally” filling up your MP3 player with gigabytes of music for less than the retail price of a single album interests you, then it is time to choose a music subscription service.  Digital music is an emerging market with three major players enticing thousands of people to give up pirating their music and actually paying for it.

When taken into consideration that people have been stealing music long before the advent of the MP3 file, which made pirating music a widespread epidemic, why now are people all of a sudden going straight?  So many, that 2005 was the first year legal downloads of music exceeded illegal downloads on P2P sites.  Thank Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo Music Unlimited for finally offering a model that makes sense.  Instead of buying songs or albums, they offer subscribers the ability to rent their entire collection of over 1 million tracks for a low monthly fee.  Buying thousands of tracks on Apple’s iTunes would cost thousands of dollars, where you can easily download 10,000 or more songs to your MP3 player through a music subscription service for as low as $4.99 a month.
    
Aside from the cost savings, renting music has more advantages over buying.  For one, it is convenient.  Imaging having over 1 million full length high quality songs at your fingertips, so whether you want to listen to your favorite song, something different on an impulse, or are just curious about an emerging artist, you can have it all.  On top of that, you don’t have to worry about slow downloads, poor audio quality, corrupt or infected files.

Convinced? So which music subscription service is right for you?

While they are all pretty comparable, Rhapsody is probably the cream of the crop.  They offer the most streamlined interface and the best jukebox functionality, all accessible from any PC connected to the web.  Artist bios, radio stations (which allow you to skip songs), and advanced playlist features are all integrated into the interface.  For $14.99 a month, this is a great value.  Subscribers also have the option to download songs for 89 cents a track.

Napster also has an attractive interface with advanced playlist features and a massive catalog of music that is continually growing.  It has a few nice personalization features, but transferring songs to an MP3 player can be more difficult with Napster than the alternatives.  For $14.95 a month and 99 cent tracks, it is still a great value.

Yahoo Music Unlimited is the least expensive option, charging only $4.99 a month and just 79 cent tracks.  It includes a nice jukebox, radio stations (which allow you to skip songs), and can integrate with the popular Yahoo Messenger client.  If the appealing price outweighs a lack of extras like artist bios and a few bugs here and there, then Yahoo is probably the way to go.

With digital music sales soaring, it is a safe bet that all three of these music subscription services will flourish and continue to develop even more features, grow their already extensive catalogs, and convert more and more pirates into renters.

CD Label Makers

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The CD label market is on an upward swing since the explosion of computer awareness and release of user-friendly printing software on the market. People are eagerly switching to easy and innovative ways of CD labeling, and companies are investing money in research to come up with even faster and more user-savvy labeling options. The CD label makers are also cashing in on the increasing laser and ink jet label market.

Many methods are used to commercially label the CDs. Out of these, screen, offset, pad and flexographic printing are widely used. These involve large-scale processes used to label a huge quantity of CDs carrying the same pattern, or in the instance where exact matches of shades are required.

A number of CD labeling software programs available in the market enable you to use only a specific brand of paper. Using some innovative labelers like the Audio Label CD labeler, you can print your CD with any kind of paper. Similarly, there are CD label makers present in the industry which arrange the text of the label in such a way that it fits into the space you want, so the text never goes ‘off track’. This is particularly useful when you want to add a large track list and you can have the pleasure of admiring a neat label every time you use the machine.

Clip art is a rage with many businesses, and CD label makers are increasingly adding the art gallery in CD label machines. Users can quickly browse through the given images and insert the choicest figures and impressions on the labels.

Before placing your order with a commercial CD label maker, find out about his equipment and the technology he uses. Ask for some past references and ensure his shipment time. If you are ordering labels from some overseas suppliers you will have to calculate the costs involved in imports plus the time consumed in the delivery of your CD labels.