#dylan ledford

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Global Business Environment

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The Real Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument Draft #1

 Dylan Ledford

EN1150

10/20/2014

Professor Vanderlinde

National American University

Lp3.2 Assignment: Draft #1

Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument

                                                    Abstract

Learning music is one of the most essential skills to learn on the planet. Writing music is much better for people than playing video games, because it creates neural networks in the human brain, and helps musicians to open up other parts of their brains, or possibly a large part of their brain. Research data points out that there is a ratio of 27:8:8. 27 people choose music over 8 people choosing video games, and 8 people choosing both. The majority of the world knows that music is better for your health than playing video games. Music is proven to heal people and build better characters than video game players. Instead of playing video games on the computer, why not further your education in music production and convert the gaming computer into a recording studio. There are many benefits of playing a musical instrument ranging from skills to confidence, to money, songs and fame. Performing music live on stage in the spotlight is enlightening, and thus creates a better life for people. All of the attention that successful musicians get is a large portion of the global market. They are ranking in a high level of attention while making good money. There are so many instruments to choose from, and our voices are musical instruments. Music is perhaps the best life-style possible.

     Keywords: Music, Learning Music, Music Production, Music Performance, Song-Writing, Money, Fame, Health, Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument

     Constructive music is more than just strumming nickel and copper strings connected to platforms of mahogany or spruce wood, because it transcends your brain into another gear and everyone miraculously learns life values and ethics because of it. Picking up a guitar and writing a song is so much more fun than sitting on a computer and playing video games all day. If you want to sit on a computer, consider moving into the Music Production life-style. Books such as “Pro Tools 10 Advanced Music Production Techniques” by Robert Campbell and “Pro Tools 101 -An Introduction to Pro Tools 10” by Frank D. Cook are beyond just typically interesting manuals to the creative part of music. That being said, recording, mixing and editing music is a beautiful auditory universal aspect of itself. Electronics are actually bad for your health though, and it is proven through healing remedies by Judy Hall, who explains that TVs and computers are toxic in her Definitive Guide to Gems and Crystals “The Crystal Bible (vol. 1-3).” On the other hand, no one in this day and age is going to be able to survive in this world without computers. Although, that is not my point, the beauty of creating music is another mystery of its own. Therefore, everyone on planet earth should depend on music to guide them to their greatest and highest self. To write a good song, is to write a master piece. They require meaningful lyrics, remembering the lyrics, singing along to chords, fast and correct key changes, a good voice, fast and tech-savvy hands, overall confidence and good health. A general to extensive education of music business is important to consider in the “song-writing life-style,” because there is a global market for being a musician. Consider playing shows all around the world for millions of fans in a short period of time, and selling millions of albums. Specifically, this sounds like the best life-style in the world. Who could argue that it isn’t? What would you rather play for the rest of your life, music or video games?

     Learning music instead of learning video games creates a better life for a child because they feel more valuable as they get older. Playing video games typically has nothing to show for, while playing music has so much to show for, and this is one reason why musicians perform live on stages. A poll on Game Spot “video games vs. music” proves that music is better than gaming at a ratio of 27:8. Back to Judy Hall, she explains that electromagnetic smog from computers is bad for the brain, eyes and cells of the human body. Music, on the other hand, is healthy for your mind, body and soul because self-expression is a great value that creates self-confidence. Performing music is a workout of itself while being active with singing, strumming, picking and chord changes, or drumming. Musicians tend to move around a lot and sweat while they are on stage, thus creating even more of a masterpiece while jumping around alive; after all, their souls shine as bright as light through darkness. In contrast, the human body, mind and soul concerning technology is both despised and loveed among people. For instance, Judy Hall writes about blockages and energy that are released through technology that causes stress, disease and death. So, if you want to make your musical area more stress free from computers, consider obtaining a certain geode or gemstone that will dispose of electromagnetic stress. For example, if someone were to tape a quartz crystal to the fuel line of their car, they are likely to save gas and energy. Keep in mind that electronics cause internal and external stress from electrical wave forms that cause people to get sick. The human body, mind and soul crave creativity through expression, such as song-writing, thus it is a much better way of life. “You are what you eat.”

     Did you know that playing a musical instrument creates strong neural networks in the human brain? For example, everyone has heard a song playing on the radio that triggers past memories which make us happy, sad or blissful. Through muscle memory, the human brain learns from hands on experiences such as playing music and painting. This is a very interesting concept because it can be very complex at a higher degree, yet simple and easy for some folks. Ways to keep your neural networks flowing are examples such as writing, reading, singing and playing a musical instrument. “Play Acoustic Guitar in Minutes” is a great guitar-learning book by Andrew DuBrock for beginners who do not have as much self-esteem as advanced music learners. It teaches easy chords, basic fingerpicking, strumming, patterns, chord progressions and more. This is one of the better guitar-learning books because it teaches in chapters, yet the book is three-to-four times longer than the basic guitar-learning books. People who play music are likely to learn much about music and adapt their brain to it through neural network learning and communication within it. Similarly, writing at long periods of time creates flow in the brain with neural networks, thus people can access this advantage of flow by learning music through neural networks in the brain, just like writing. Playing musical instruments also has a high-impact on neural networks in the brain and releases dopamine in the brain. This is common sense. For example, when a person picks up a musical instrument and starts to play it, they instantly have fun. This is also common sense, because people who play music enjoy playing music. So, performing music is great for keeping a good mood, high self-confidence and appreciation toward ourselves. Levels of high self-satisfaction leads to better lives and higher self-esteem. Every time a musician performs live on stage, they are applauded by an audience. Thus, “Getting Gigs!” is a book written by Mark W. Curran who explains how to get gigs! Technically, he has spent over 40 years touring and playing shows around the world. He talks about the book being a survival guide for musicians and singers, and how to “book better paying jobs with or without an agent.”

     The benefits of playing a musical instrument statistics are helpful for expanding the mind and higher-self. Especially, if we compare and contrast the strengths that playing guitar builds in the hands to video games, and the benefits of playing video games. Yes it is common sense that playing video games expands the mind, but it is even more common sense that playing guitar opens different parts of the human brain that excel posture, hand, eye and ear coordination through memory, and this is all learned through the mind, not a computer screen. The acoustic guitar is a six-string instrument that most musician singer-songwriters sing along to while playing. If it hasn’t clicked yet, it might be best to remember that playing the guitar is a progressive way of life, just like playing any other instrument. Mike Christiansen teaches a book about guitar chord progressions, thus music being progressive in form and nature. On the other hand, playing piano extensively builds ear, hand, foot and eye coordination. The visual piano is the structure of every instrument, for each piano key resembles a note corresponding to other instruments’ notes. Singing and playing piano at the same time is complex. Issac Slade, singer-pianist of the band “The Fray” from Denver, Colorado does an amazing job at writing complex music, for singing and playing piano is technical in its form. Drummer, Michael Wisdom from the band “The Digital Wild” from Austin, Texas has a powerful beat and rhythmically approach through his drum playing. In fact, he easily switches from indie-rock beats in his songs, over to hip-hop-RnB beats like there is no challenge for him. The cool thing about The Digital Wild is that they combined indie-rock with hip-hop, and they are the first to do it. Real drummers can make a beat out of any every day activity such as tapping their hand or foot, and psychologically, they become better time keepers. Last, singing with vocal chords expresses awareness of thy self and teaches us to appreciate ourselves and our health. Thus, especially singers should be healthy and express themselves as healers, not drunks and drug addicts. Suppose a singer’s voice might sound horrible from smoking every day for 30+ years. It is possible to heal the throat chakra with herbs and roots such as throat tea and ginger. 

     The creativity of playing a musical instrument has a shine on the personality of a musician. Being creative helps an individual become satisfied and content with their life. It is amazing what music artists can create from their tools and effort, such as the book “You can teach yourself guitar by ear” by Christiansen. Some people believe that playing a musical instrument is the golden key to life because is expresses our vessel and reflects light through our souls. Performing on stage under the spotlights are beautiful memories that humans shine through. Musicians get paid high-amounts of money more now than before, and it is easier to get paid through self-promotion such as the video uploader Youtube, which extends globally. Bobby Owsinski talks about this in his awesome up-to-date book “Social Media Promotion for Musicians: The Manual for Marketing Yourself, Your Band, and Your Music Online.” Music in general has a mathematical structure with a universally unlimited range of options. Chords, scales, intervals, and notes are musically written and interpreted. Gigs, social media, money and fun describe the life-style of being a musician. Art in general has its own mathematical and intelligent structure through the color spectrum, size and medium, which is similar to the musical structure. Painting is similar to music; for example, a person could create their album cover by painting it themselves, photographing it, and then printing and pressing it. Music created a revolution of recruited musicians, and since the early days to modern times, musicians learned a revolutionary way of life. Living the musician lifestyle is far from boring, but it does own its challenges. The gypsy life is similar to the fact that they travel around the world on a regular basis. Yet the business lifestyle has to take its part in it, because succeeding as a musician requires an income. Dr. Stephen Marcone talks about branding, fan bases, contracts, touring, merchandise, web use, marketing entrepreneurship, trademarks, etc. in his book “Managing Your Band.” “Music, money and success” is another useful book, written by Jeffrey and Todd Brabec who explain knowledge of musical success in depth. Living the modern lifestyle that most adults live is boring. Musicians thrive on their success, and the real ones easily live for it. The earliest musicians used different sections of their brains while composing and constructing their music. Consider the right-hand left-brain movement. So, Beethoven was a genius and created music as complex symphonies, and Mozart used almost his entire brain to create and compose his music. Pop culture in many genres has create a vast majority of title and subtitle levels of musicians in their careers. Some great examples are: of a very famous pop-singer Lilly Allen, famous pop-rock band Third Eye Blind, very famous pop- singer Katy Perry, famous pop-punk band Blink 182, very famous pop-rock-alternative band Oasis, and new rising famous pop-indie-rock-RnB-hip-hop band The Digital Wild. That being said, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and Austin are the places that musicians are most successful. In fact, The Digital Wild are gaining their fans and fame through Austin and other toured states they have hit. They are quickly becoming a success.

     After all, the human brain creates beautiful masterpieces creatively through music when the neural networks in the brain contribute to muscle memory techniques. The creativity of playing music is an outstanding form of art, and our modern and historical musicians recently evolved society through pop-art culture while extending the musical lifestyle. Every beginner musician who is interested in learning music should follow up on the sources that are available for them, whether it be a library or online data base, there is a lot of useful information and facts about learning music. Evidence proves that music is changing the world in a better way, day by day, hour by hour, beat by beat.

                                               References

Bergland, C. (2013, December 11). Why Do the Songs from Your Past Evoke Such VividMemories? Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201312/why-do-the-songs-your-past-evoke-such-vivid-memories.

Brabec, J., & Brabec, T. (2011). Music Money Success 7th Edition. ; The Insider's Guide to Making Money in the Music Business. (7th ed.). New York/London/Paris/Sydney/Copenhagen/Berlin/Tokyo/Madrid: Schirmer Trade Books.

Campbell, R. (2011). Pro Tools 10 advanced music production techniques. Boston, Mass.: Cengage Learning.

Christiansen, M. (1998). Guide to guitar chord progressions. Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Christiansesn, M. (1994). You can teach yourself guitar by ear. Pacific MO: Mel Bay Publications.

Cook, F. (2011). Pro Tools 101 an introduction to Pro Tools 10. Boston, Mass.: Cengage Learning.

Curran, M.W. (2004). Getting gigs!: The musician's and singer's survival guide to booking better paying jobs : With or without an agent (2nd ed.). Simi Valley, California: NMD Books.

DuBrock, A. (2014). Play acoustic guitar in minutes. Cheltenham, Victoria, Australia: Hal Leonard Corporation.

Hall, J. (2013). The crystal bible (2nd ed., Vol. 1). United States: Walking Stick Press.

Marcone, S. . (2010). Managing your band: Artist management : The ultimate responsibility (5th ed.). Wayne, NJ: HiMarks Publishing.

Owsinski, B. (2013). Social media promotion for musicians: The manual for marketing yourself, your band and your music online. Burbank, CA: Bobby Owsinski Media Group.

Video games vs. music (poll). (2008, November 1). Retrieved from http://www.gamespot.com/forums/offtopic-discussion-314159273/video-games-vs music-poll-26648387/.

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New Product Launch Review

   Technically, I went over my forecasted sales (1,999,998), and reached a high amount of 2,400,000 actual sales. This is really nice to see that the new Wave Audio product is a success in Music2Go. Therefore, I reached my sales objective that I was hoping to reach, because my total marketing contribution is now $208m. These reports will have a significant effect on my decisions going forward because there are many options to choose from and many reports to that have information available for purchase. Under the product contribution report, my new product has a contribution after product expenses amount of $91,826,136, and it seems to be a very good success. Also, I have tripled the advertising and sales promotion costs to reach out to more consumers for a possible higher sales growth in the year ahead. Sales of the new product  have reached their growth stage because the product is of higher quality than the product from the standard segment. Compared to the competing brands of MP3 players, my company is winning. The product launch when to plan well because my sales have reached a nice growth. So, I am really trying to determine my possibilities in Music2Go, for a better outcome each year ahead. The pricing strategy for the new MP3 player was successful because I placed the price at the highest price possible for the launch. Competitor prices must have been lower that the price I set mine at, because the quality is of high value. If I could go back and change any aspect of this new product, I would not change anything about it because I seemed to have had a success from my product strategy. Going forward, I am contributing to more sales promotion, market reports, unit costs, and advertising. Yet, I believe that these concepts will help increase sales for a short and temporary period of time before sales decline. Around the time that sales decline, I will l ower my contribution of sales promotion, marketing reports, unit costs, and advertising. Last, when sales decline, I will introduce either: A) a new technical product, or B) upgrade the original sports segment product for moderate to increased sales. Eventually, the goals is to have as many products available for sale, because it is best to have width and depth when it comes to products. In other words, marketers so keep releasing new products in new segments to keep a sales increase at a higher rate than their opponents. For example, Apple Co. keeps releasing new computers through out the years since their business has been active. If they keep updating their products and releasing a wide range of products, they will always be leaders in the computer industry by creating the best machines on the planet. After all, my plan is similar to Apple’s plan because I am going to keep releasing music, and promoting it on the market.

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Marketing Strategy Report, Before and After

     Alternatively, the segment that I launched is called “Wave Audio;” therefore, I launched the product into the Sports segment, because the new segment gives an option to choose between Sports and Youth, and I found the tech-savvy Sports segment more fun to my first approach of launching a new product. The amount of sales in my forecast for the new Sports segment has 2,000,000 units, and the 2018 forecast increased largely due to the tech-savvy new product being wanted. The price I set the new MP3 player is the highest price it can go, with the lowest retail margin. Since it is a high-quality product, it deserves a high amount of cost value. Technically, I played around with numbers on the calculator until it seemed to be the right price. In the advertising mix, I spent about all of the money I could on my budget for the advertising mix and set the most percent to magazines and newspapers, and then TV and radio. More people are reached through magazines and newspapers than TV and radio. Typically, I keep the retail margin low to get as much money as possible per unit product, depending on the segment. The numbers in the forecast results explain a marketing contribution of $108,826,150 which is at a variance of 313%. The percent of sales are to be at 28%. Because of launching a new product and trying to be tech-savvy at it, I’ve tried to use my brain better at calculating estimation of total marketing contribution. My plan is to keep the product growing and upgrading; also, to limit the dumping waste amount of older products. It is appropriate to save as much money as possible, and keep high-quality products updated and in-line. My uncertainty lies within the question concerning how many sales will actually be made, due to the high cost amount of the product. This new product fits with my overall marketing strategy because it is guaranteeing a success rate due to the free ability to test out large fake amounts of cash to play it. It’s a fun, repetitive game of playing with fake money and learning how to estimate costs.

     I’m really curious as opposed to how people take out business loans and afford to pay for their businesses. There has to be a way to look into stocks and other forms of capitalism and duplicating your money to become a billionaire. Ever since I was a young child, I always dreamed of being a billionaire. Through checking the reports and calculating costs, it must determine the amount of money an investment may be making in a year period of time. Companies probably plan their marketing contribution all year long, and spend all year developing marketing strategies to multiply their money as quick as possible, while creating the best results in consumers, and filling their needs.

References

(Unknown). Music2Go Intro Players Manual (Revision C). Smartsims. Retrieved from http://ftp1.smartsims.com/versions/nau/manuals/m2gPlayersManual.pdf

The firm that I created is called Grapevine Music 1.0, and my current product is the Sonic 1mp3 player. Grapevine Music is currently serving the Standard Segment, and I seem to be winning against my competitors by a total marketing contribution of $43,434,330. There are atotal of five firms in my market who I am competing against. Currently, my business is spendinga total of $7,600,000 on advertising. The annual marketing budget for me to spend is$25,224,000 with an available $724,000 available left over to spend after a total of $25,724,000.The current sales revenue for the last year (2015) is $93,632,181 with a marketing share of$18,124,100 toward product marketing and firm marketing which is found in the IndustryBenchmark Report under reports. The amount of units that my firm has currently sold is 1,390,852 with a total of 1,617,700 units ordered for the 2015 Product Contribution. I did satisfy all of the available demand because I still have units left over. On the other hand, it would be nice to have sold more units because of the Max Possible Sales of units being 1,418,669. The retail price on my product is $99, costs of goods sold is $55,634,080 with a retail margin of 32%,and a gross unit margin of 41%.

     Each segment is sensitive to price, advertising, distribution, and product development in theirown unique and specific way by reaching out to different groups of people. Considering price sensitivity, the standard segment has high price sensitivity, while the youth segment has medium price sensitivity, and the sports segment has low price sensitivity. Advertising for the standardsegment has medium sensitivity, while the youth segment has medium sensitivity to advertising,and the sports segment has low sensitivity to advertising. The standard segment has high sensitivity to distribution, while the youth segment has medium sensitivity to distribution, and the sports segment has medium sensitivity to distribution. The product development of the standard segment specification preferences change slowly, while the youth segment product development changes moderately, quickly due to being a fashionable segment, and the sports segment product development changes quickly due to technology demands of sports segment consumers. The standard market is the largest market with minimal growth, the youth market is the small with high growth as the market excels, and the sports market is the smallest with moderate growth as the market excels. The price of the standard segment is medium ($85-$95) with high price sensitivity, the youth segment is competitively priced ($55-$65) with medium price sensitivity, and the sports segment is high priced ($100-$135) with low price sensitivity.

The media channel that is most important for the standard segment is the newspaper andmagazines, while the media channel that is most important for the youth segment is TV andradio, and the media channel that is most important for the sports segment is magazines and newspaper. In the future, I expect each segment to grow significantly because of the populationgrowth of the earth’s revolution.

     For my product strategy, I intend to be a high volume/low cost manufacturer, because of mydesire to sell my music (personally). Considering that I am a musician, I intend to enter the standard segment, the youth segment, and the sports segment as soon as possible. In my opinion, I feel that the youth segment is very important in the music industry, so I plan to enter that segment first, but in Music2Go, we have to start with the standard segment. In Music2Go, I plan to enter all segments as soon as possible because the more markets that I enter, the more sales contribution I will achieve. My strategy is to stock as many products as possible, but starting with lower product stocks at first, finally leading to higher product stocks after higher advertising and promotional activities for the retail margins. The positioning and differential advantage I came up with is to be “cool” and encouraging to the segments in the music industry and reaching out to as many children and teenagers as possible. The quality is important in music because the best music gets the most hits on radio stations and television, which eventually leads to the most sales potential. My music is original, but I have to keep in mind the “trend” analysis. The price of my product should be fairly low, the promotion price will be extremely high because music is promoted in all ways unless I get signed to a record label and they pay for it, and the distribution is going to be high priced because of the high amount of geographical segment locations for many areas, which includes all of the fifty U.S. states and other countries and continents in the world. In other words, I eventually plan to reach out to all of them. The product specifications to position my products (CDs, t-shirts, stickers, posters, mugs, etc.) requires the cost and time of song-writing, song-recording, CD mastering, and CD and merchandise screen printing. This will probably be a high cost on my budget, but a considerably low cost compared to the product specifications of computers and technical advancement distribution. Being a successful musician requires quality and quantity of the written and recorded songs which are eventually produced into markets.

     A tactic that I have come up with is to create as many units as possible and promote them, and advertise them. It is also a really smart idea to ship as many products to distributors for high retail margins to build market share, and then gradually reduce them because when a product is new, it is more likely to sell fast within a short period of time. Eventually,the product will notsell as much as before because a large portion of people have already spent money and boughtthe product, so there isn’t as many people who “haven’t purchased the item.”

References

(Unknown). Music2Go Intro Players Manual (Revision C). Smartsims. Retrieved from http://ftp1.smartsims.com/versions/nau/manuals/m2gPlayersManual.pdf

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An original newer song written while I was in Boise, Idaho.  This will be on the next album.

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