How do you listen to music?

My blogs are often creative & technical centric. They often revolve around concerns of the musician, industry, and technology of music.

Today, and hopefully more often in the future, i'm focusing on the listener. For this blog, i have twelve questions i'm curious about. Don't over-think the answers, just answer them however you see fit.


1- What was the last thing you listened to? I don't care if it was a fluke or a song you listen to every day. I want to know the last song that you specifically listened to.

2- In the past week or so, what are the 3 artists you find yourself listening to most often?

3- Arrange your iTunes (or media player of choice) by play-count. What are some of the artists at the top of the list?

4- Where do you find the music you listen to?

5- Do you actively seek out new music or do you wait for recommendations from reliable sources?

6- How often and where do you listen to music?

7- If you're under 21, how often do you go to see live music, and where do you go?

8- Do you mostly go to see big name acts, or “lesser known”/local artists?

9- What do you think is a reasonable price to pay at the door for a show?

10- How large is your music collection?

11- Do your friends listen to the same music as you?

12- In general, what do you think about music, the music industry, and musicians?


And to be fair, i'll answer the questions so that everyone knows where i'm at.

1- The last thing i listened to is a recently mixed down version of one of my new tracks. I'm actually listening to it right now.

2- Aside from all the time i hear my own music in production & post production, I just loaded my iPod with an 80s heavy playlist. That happens. I have an unhealthy relationship with 80s music.

3- Bill Withers, Wyclef, Peter Gabriel, Prince, A Tribe Called Quest, Whale, Etta James, Tori Amos, Talking Heads, Sade, Skream, Nina Simone, Al Green, Chacka Khan, Tina Turner, Outkast,
Otis Redding

4- A lot of what i find i've discovered through my musical training. Either in studying music, from other musicians, or from friends, who are usually involved in music. There was a portion of my life where i'd find new music while in altered states of reality from friends who enjoyed the same type of recreations.

5- If i wasn't so involved in making music, i would actively seek out new and exciting music. But, since i spend the entirety of my time making music and listening to and learning from the classics, i rarely have time to search out on my own. Therefor, most of what i find come recommended to me.

6- Music is on almost all the time in my world. Wether i'm making it, practicing, playing live, driving, eating, cleaning the house, working on the computer, at work, doing live sound... pretty much, any time, anywhere i have control of filling the silence with music, i do.

7- I'm over 21, but i almost never go to shows unless i'm playing or doing sound. The thing about being a music professional is A)I usually can't afford to got to shows unless i'm comped. And B)I'm usually working on the weekend at shows.

8- When i do go, i usually see local or lesser name acts. I have a rule about paying more than $6 for a show, and maybe – maybe – maybe $15 for a touring act that i love... if i have the extra money. (No, i'm not cheap, just poor)

9- I think $5 is a reasonable price. I'd prefer not to pay at all. I'd also prefer not to charge for my own shows and just take a split of the bar or a guarantee from the venue, but that's another story.

10- Surprisingly, only 30 Gigs. But that goes back to me tending towards creating music, not consuming, for better or for worse.

11- I have a peculiar and broad reaching range of music. There's plenty in there that different friends can relate to, and a lot they can't. How much overlap and the style of the music depends on the person. So, for the most part, no.

12- I'm going to plead the 5th on this question... for now.

This week's song is Binaural Gesticulation. Binaural Beats are 'hidden' in this song. They only really work (if they actually work at all is to be disputed) with good isolating headphones (not crappy little earbuds) so that each ear gets a direct injection of the different frequencies, causing your brain to create the inaudible super-sub frequency and then sync up to it.

True or false, headphones or not, i just think it causes a cool disorienting effect. Enjoy.

Also, if anyone knows of a way to convert a specific frequency of light to its corresponding color (ie: i put in the frequency and the program spits out the specific color onto the screen or in hex,) please let me know. It will help me greatly.

And for anyone using Reason to make music, i posted a tutorial on YouTube on How to get True Stereo Effects from the effects units that sum the stereo input signals. It's not the most difficult tutorial, but it definitely can be useful, especially to help clean up some of your mixes.

<3 Noise!

Prophetnoise full length: Godless Music for a Free Mind CDBaby and iTunes.
Prophetnoise EP Orange & Silver on CDBaby and iTunes
Prophetnoise on iLike
Prophetnoise on Facebook
Prophetnoise on Myspace