Panic Girl RMX Cometition - This is the WINNER

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:13:10 +0200

Finally, the wait is over! First of all, thanks very much to everybody who contributed and bared with us through a pretty long time of chosing a winner. We received more than 70 very good remixes for Panic Girl's "Midnight" and believe, it was not easy to decide.

But now we can happily announce that we have found one! Panic Girl herself feels flattered: "I am really happy and thankful about each remix which was submitted. We did listen to all mixes over and over again but now are very happy with the outcome!!!"

AND THE WINNER IS...

Panic Girl - "Midnight" SONE Remix

Panic Girl - "Midnight" - Sone Remix by shadybrain

Sone amazed us by his creative blend of electro as well as dubstel vibes and his creative work on the vocals! His remix can easily get a whole club going mad! The tune will be released on the vinyl and digital version of the Panic Girl Remix EP together with remixes by dBridge, Phace, Duo Infernale, as well as Skyence.

As we received so many good mixes, we want to let you know who else made it into our Top-Selection (in random order):

Panic Girl - Midnight (Mark Carpenter Remix) by mark_uk

Panic Girl - Midnight (HYX Remix) by HYX

Panic Girl - Midnight (J.Nitrous Remix) by J.Nitrous

Panic Girl - Midnight (Drillcut remix) by Drillcut

Panic Girl Midnight ARTIK REMIX AIM=ARTIKMUSIC@AIMCOM by Artik

Panic Girl - Midnight (Deft's Sunday Night Remix) by Deft

Panic Girl – Midnight (o.p.a.c) by o.p.a.c

Panic Girl - Midnight (Dunproofin' Remix) by dunproofin

Many, many thanks again to each remixer! You made our heads nod for hours!

The competition is brought to you in teamwork with:

Panic Girl Remixes - More than 70 mixes to choose from

admin — Sat, 01 May 2010 07:57:23 +0200

After one month, the Panic Girl Remix Competition is over. We received more than 70 mixes from various countries, multiple genres, etc... Many thanks to each and everyone who contributed!!!

Panic Girl, Audioporncentral, and shadybrain will choose the winner very soon but what is your favourite?

Please listen and leave us a comment!

Panic Girl "Midnight" Remix Competition Panic Girl "Midnight" Remix Competition

REMIX COMPETITION: Panic Girl "Midnight"

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:38:53 +0200

.shadybrain and audioporncentral.com proudly present:

PANIC GIRL "MIDNIGHT" REMIX COMPETITION

This is your chance to prove your production skills and showcase them

to the world! shadybrain and audioporncentral.com are calling all producers to remix Panic Girl's "Midnight", the intro tune of her recently published "Burn And Rise" EP.

The winner's tune will be released on the digital version of the official "Burn And Rise - The Remixes" EP which will also feature top-notch artists like dBridge, Phace, Duo Infernale, as well as Skyence.

Here are the rules:

1. The remixes can be any genre but must be original (no mashups)

2. All remixes must be submitted to our remix competition soundcloud group (link below)

3. Deadline for all participants is April, 28th 2010

4. The winner will be chosen by Panic Girl, shadybrain, and Simon Iddol (APC)

We wish you good luck!!! And of course, don't forget to FOLLOW shadybrain on soundcloud anyway...

Download the original tune and all samples / stems:

Panic Girl Remix Competition by shadybrain

Submit your remix to the Panic Girl Remix Competition Group:

Listen to other remixes posted in the group:

Panic Girl "Midnight" Remix Competition

The competition is brought to you in teamwork with:

INTERVIEW: A word with Troels Knudsen aka Pyro

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:59:48 +0200

Most of you will know Troels under his alias Pyro as he is one of the most successful Drum and Bass artists to emerge out of Scandinavia. He was co-founder and label manager of Nerve Recordings, played countless gigs from small clubs to the Roskilde festival, and released numerous tunes on different labels. Also, he was one of the pioneers of so called Techno-Drum and Bass, pushing stylistic boundaries with his very unique style. Without a doubt Troels' "new" musical career under his real name Troels Knudsen will soon get some spotlight, too, as he got busy with producing flawless Techhouse. He has been with shadybrain since the establishment of the label in 2004 and now returns with his 4/4 debut, the "7down EP". Time for us to sit down with him to talk about Drum and Bass, Techno, and his future plans.

When did you start to produce music and what did inspire you?

I started making music at 14, back then it was cheesy eurodance and happy hardcore, but generally I've always been attracted to music with a lot of energy and have listened to stuff across the board.

You come from Copenhagen. Please tell us more about the city and the electronic music scene.

Copenhagen is a very busy place now as far as electronic music goes. It's not Berlin or anything but house, dubstep, tech house and minimal get a good deal of attention and there are so many events now that it's getting a bit crowded. There's never been much of a tolerance for harder styles, which is a bit frustrating, but you can find almost anything here if you look hard enough.

You have been involved in Drum and Bass since a long time. What would you rate as your biggest successes?

Its hard to point out specific moments, but I know a lot of people heard of me because my 'End of an Era' track that Pendulum used to play. Also my ghost in the shell bootleg 'ghost whisper' and recently my collaboration 'antharas' with Kantyze & Proket on Obscene recordings.

How do you see the state of the Drum and Bass scene right now?

Musically I'm much more into it then I have been for a long time. There's a more mature vibe coming through at the moment, where previously I was getting frustrated with trends that seemed to aim at much younger crowds, which is part of why I've been going to other styles.

Where do you think is it going? Both, stylewise and economical?

The financial side of drum'n'bass is not doing all that great atm, but i guess that's the same with all music right now. I think something needs to change drastically before things get better. Musically i think its pretty healthy, there's something for everyone pretty much. I just wish people would stop compressing their tunes to hell and back :(

These days, you are releasing your first Techno tunes. Did you switch styles or is this just a sidekick?

It's hard to say at the moment. I dont think I'll ever stop doing dnb (not for a long time at least) but I do want to make more space for other styles and techno is getting a lot of it at the moment. This EP came into being kind of by accident and I've taken a very different and more relaxed approach to it then my dnb, which has been very refreshing.

Which artists do you favor in the Techno scene and how do you describe your own style?

I generally think its all good in techno right now. There are really good producers all over the spectrum. I loooove detroit techno artists like Jeff Mills and Robert Hood right now, but also have a big soft spot for people like Stephan Bodzin and Huntermann, also very infatuated with the sound coming out of Ostgut Ton. For the harder stuff I really dig Radial, Exium, Bas Mooy, Grovskopa, Surgeon and gritty stuff like that. I dont really think I've totally shaped my sound yet. I'm planning to use another alias for more progressive techno (probably Ctrls) and I'll be doing more musical, and i guess more accessible, stuff under my real name.

You are one of the inventors of so called techno-dnb. Do you think techno and dnb have much in common?

That's a difficult question because drum'n'bass changed so much. I think drum'n'bass as we know it today is very techno influenced. I know a lot of the first drum'n'bass producers took inspiration from the detroit styles but i still the uk hardcore/rave influence has stayed the dominant one. If you were to generalise I think that principally they have very little in common at the moment. Techno (the way i see it) is more about being groovy and hypnotic and drum'n'bass takes a more energetic approach. They're both very versatile genres so I guess that's the closest thing to an answer I can give.

What gear do you use for production?

I use a pc running ableton live and feeding a pair of adam p33a. I generally stick to the live plugins and i use a lot of freeware, but am also a big fan of synths like Sylenth1 and Surge and plugins from companies like sonalksis, voxengo and psp.

You have been producing tunes for shadybrain since day one. How do you see the label and it's vision?

Shadybrain was the first serious MP3 label that I knew of. It struck me as a very forward thinking attitude so I was in. I think overall it's a label with very serious business and quality control ethics so I'm happy to be involved.

What can we expect from you in the future?

Lots of stuff in the works! Definitely a lot more techno and general 4/4. I've got a deep/chicago house project called Bodytrak and we just got signed to an established label so I'll be busy doing that for a while. As mentioned earlier there's my fiercer techo alias, Ctrls, and I'm just finnishing off the first tunes for that. Drum'n'bass wise I've got a lot of releases coming up inc an ep on Digital Venom, 12s on Venom Inc and KSS Black (with a Sect collab), the earlier mentioned Obscene release and a remix i'm very excited about (watch this space). Finally I've teamed up with Peter Candy (of legendary psytrance outfit koxbox) and we're preparing a project called Trope which will be more live PA orientated. Basically my brain's about to explode haha.

Also Check:

Troels Knudsen "7down EP" - SHBDT002 + FREE TUNE

Troels Knudsen "Artist Showcase Mix"

THE FUTURE OF MUSIC PART 2 - TWO FACTS ABOUT SELLING MUSIC ONLINE

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:18:29 +0200

Like I already described in Part 1, the current situation of the music business is far from being easy. So, what can we do about it? Stick our heads in the sand or try to keep all music off the internet? Hell no! The solution is neither to copy protect musical content by using DRM nor to hunt down and sue users who illegally download or copy MP3s. I think the way labels or artists have to go to successfully sell their tunes online is way different. Again, face the fact: There is always going to be piracy. The conclusion is to accept this and deal with it instead of wasting time and money fighting an endless battle you have to accept all changes happening to media reception right now. Here are two important facts which I think are an essential base for successfully selling music online:

1. Get rid of the enemy (in your head)

Peer 2 Peer users are often condemned as the ones guilty for the miserable situation the media industry finds itself in at the moment. But is this true? I do not think so. New studies reveal a different and not really surprising fact:

P2P Users spend more money on media than “normal” users.

A study, Frank N. Magid Assosiates and Vuze published in June 2009 clearly shows, that P2P users do spent (a lot of) more money on DVDs (34% more), cinema tickets (34% more), and DVD rentals (24% more) than the average non-P2P user. They also have a crush on tech-gadgets like smartphones and home cinema systems. Last but not least P2P users seem to be very well connected through social networks (55% more) and very willing to share their opinions on media and technology (52% vs 41%). This makes them opinion leaders and VERY helpful to spread the word. I think, these figures can be easily transferred to the music industry. I hope someone will do a study on that soon.

Conclusion 1: P2P users are not only spending more money on traditional media than others, they also are willing to spread their opinions being well connected to social networks, etc… Well, isn’t that the PERFECT target group?

2. Tread your customers and artists like friends

Now that we got rid of the enemy it is plain to see that we’re all friends here. Great! And how do we tread friends? Good! We do not want to accuse them of stealing right after they stepped inside invited for a party! We do not offer them a preview cake and we do not make presents which they are not allowed to bring home. Meaning: If you want users to have a good opinion about your offer, make it as comfortable as possible for them to find, listen, and buy your music. A good proof how efficient this strategy works is the study:

“Magnatune – A voluntary-based model for online music”

It was done by the American label Magnatune accomplished together with Tobias Regner (University Jena) and Javier Barria (Imperial College London) in 2005. Magnatune is a digital label which offers it’s users full length streams for preview purposes as well as a variable price model. Also, they encourage their customers to send the purchased tunes to their friends, all under their claim “We are not evil”. Like shadybrain, they also share their income 50/50 with their artists. The outcome of the study proves Magnatune right. They do not only sell their music - users even tend to spend even more money voluntarily than they have to. Regner and Barria state: “Our model explains the behaviour of Magnatune consumers who consistently pay more than the requested minimum price and even pay more on average than the recommended/default price. We conclude that reputation effects cannot play a role in this environment. Therefore, social preferences are the likely motivation of the consumers that make voluntary payments.” Great, huh?

Meanwhile sales have dropped at Magnatune, too, as you can read here but I don’t believe it is a result of their user friendly politics but more of the long-tail oriented content they offer. The new subscription model they use might serve them well hopefully.

Conclusion 2: Tread your customers good and they will be good to you. Offer as much as you can, full length previews, DRM free MP3s, encourage users to spread the word and last but not least be transparent and fair to both, your users as well as your artists.

Final Conclusion: Well, pirates and P2P networks are always going to be there, so labels as well as artists have to find clever ways to make friends within the former enemies. It is all about being a well prepared competitor to the freebies and to offer a superb quality, a good service, and last but not least: TRUST. This is the only way to act in the future of the music business.

I hope, this could give you a little impression on how a successfull business model for labels and artists might look like. Of course, this is only the beginning. I will give more detailed insights on further steps to take in the next part.

THE FUTURE OF MUSIC PART 1 - MP3 KILLED THE RADIO STAR?

admin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:27 +0200

Well, how to start... This is not only the first article in this Blog but also a very complicated and emotional topic. I guess anyone in the music business, no matter if major or independent, artist or producer, even a record collector as well as a top40 listener, is asking himself where the current development of dropping cd/vinyl sales (and industry players whining about not having much money left) will lead to?

And guess what: Nobody knows! Not Warner, neither Sony, and even Trent Raznor of the Nine Inch Nails - who usually has a lot to say about the future of music - doesnt have a clue (But check our this cool article about the future of music promotion for newcomer artists anyway: http://snurl.com/qktzl )

Please be aware that I in no way can find solutions or even cover the whole complexity of the current situation. All I want to do is share some thoughts which I think are interesting. Some of them of course, will be applied to the strategy of shadybrain.

We have some Facts:

1. Piracy (not MP3s) IS hurting the music industry

2. It affects both, the major AND the independent labels

3. The major industry tries to get rid of this problem by hunting down illegal downloads

4. Meanwhile the MP3 industry is developing well but not covering the loss made in the traditional markets

5. Without enough income for their music artists can't produce their art in a sufficient way

6. Nobody knows what to do...

CHANGE - THEY DID NOT BELIEVE

It is no secret (the music industry literally bangs on a big bell here) that the majors have lost huge amount of money from music sales since the start of Napster back in 1998. The reason is: The big companies have been sleeping on the possibilities of distributing music on the internet and the so called pirates, in this case Napster, have just been faster in using this "new" technology. Before the industry could react, people all over the world adapted to the new given possibilities and realized, that music is available fast and free! Nice1! Just look at these figures, showing the album sales from the year 2001 up to 2012:

Source: http://www.sourban.net

It's going down. Of course, piracy is not the only reason for this but a major one and if anyone now states: "Well, the major music industry has deserved to die as they are putting out shit anyway, ripping off artists, killing subcultures, etc, etc" he might have a point but - this decline in sales also hurts Indie labels and last but not least artists themselves. Oh, no whining here though. We all can't turn back time or technological progress, so lets face it, things have changed. Like Canadian media-scientist Marshall McLuhan said: "The Medium is the message", meaning that if there is a change of the medium there is always another, often sociological change happening among the way. So, welcome MP3, here is change!

How did the industry react to that change? Described in two words: TOO SLOW! One of the first real alternatives to illegal leeching was iTunes, which had it's U.S. launch in 2003, it's Europe launch in 2004 ( I mean c'mon, that is 5 years after Napster was launched and 2 years after it was shut down). iTunes seemed to work well, as it sold relevant amounts but still, although Napster was history, it had serious competitors like Kazaa, Audiogalaxy, IRC, etc... And these competitors had a thrilling offer: Music there did not cost a cent. One thing is amazing though, especially for Apple. By inventing iTunes they followed an old marketing strategy which was actually the reason why the whole music industry was invented: They used music as a marketing tool to sell hardware. Of course this hardware is (in the case of Apple) the iPod. Millions of iPods later Steve Jobs was fine off, the music industry was not. All the millions of digital sales did not (and still do not) cover the loss in the traditional physical market (see graph above).

DAVID vs GOLIATH

Who is who?

The result of the sleepy and I must say not really innovative moving of the music industry is a war. A war against piracy, but let's be honest, it's a war against users which affects everybody. Even Mr. Doe, who always buys his MP3s legal and afterwards has to deal with awfull DRMs (copy protections) which limit him in dealing with his paid musical property. Big headlines which have been seen on newspapers and websites recently the following:

"The Pirate Bay trial: guilty verdict" The Guardian, April 17th 09

"French net piracy bill signed off" BBC News, May 13th 09

"Despite Winning $675,000, RIAA Fears Defendant is File Sharing" Wired, Sept 1st 09

As we learn from just these three headlines piracy is a hot topic these days. Governments try to block certain content, trials shut down websites, and users like Tenenbaum have to pay 22.500 $ for a single song, they have illegaly downloaded. Do you think this strategy of war sounds promising? Well, I don't. Besides these tactics do not appear too sympathic in the first place, I think the fight against pirates is like Don Quijote's fight against windmills. Like expressed through the picture above we have a fight like the one between David and Goliath. But these days it is a question of "who is who"? It is likely, that the pirates are the new Goliath (is this Goliath evil then?), as it seems impossible to get hold of them, of technology, of progress. The point is: There is no stopping filesharing.

FAITH NO MORE?

Now, if there is no point in fighting piracy, what do we (the labels, the artists) do now? Fact is, that a certain amount of music industry is needed if we want to have good music in the future. Some say that all music should be for free and just be used as a promo tool for concerts, which actually would provide the amount of money artists need to survive. But what about artists who do not perform? And what about artists who do not sell out the O2 arenas in London or Berlin? What about artists, who are not superstars like Radiohead and would not make any money if they put their album up the web and let users decide what to pay for it? No, we do need the income from music sales in any case. And I do think that the medium MP3 in combination with the internet offers a perfect solution for both, superstar artists, independent artists, and newcomers!

I will provide answers and ideas in Part2 - Following Soon!

First

admin — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:15:54 +0200

Hello you!

So, this is the first post in the shadybrain blog. It is planned to be a place where we share our views about music and the music business as well as various other things which we think are of interest. This blog is not bound to the shadybrain label or it's releases. It is a space which will be used to share our world with you! So, keep on checking to find out what we are really about.

Best,

Chris