British Telecom’s refusal to take hard steps against online offenders carrying out illegal downloads has brought a barrage of complaints against it from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The BPI alleges that BT has failed to curb piracy and has actually facilitated around 100,000 illegal downloads without taking any restrictive or punitive action against defaulters. The BPI has flayed BT for turning a blind eye to the issue.

The accusation comes after BT made known its disagreement with Lord Mandelson’s allowance for temporary disabling of internet accounts of users who download illegal files habitually. The telecom giant stated that this would amount to disproportionate punishment. The BPI claims that it has over 100,000 IP addresses of or unauthorised file sharers who happen to be BT customers. The addresses have been made known to BT but action has not been taken yet, claims the BPI.

Speaking about the issue, BPI CEO Geoff Taylor took to task the telecom major, saying that a company of such stature should not be hesitating to restrict forcefully any misuse of its services even if it means inconvenience or disruption of service to customers.

Reacting to the accusation, BT spokespersons confirmed that letters had been sent to nearly a 1,000 alleged offenders, but further investigation needs to be done that may prove to be highly intrusive. BT also clarified that customers may have been using file sharing applications for perfectly legitimate activities like game playing.

BT has recently clarified to Your Money Government that if it implements plans to combat online piracy, the broadband bills (click to compare broadband prices) of subscribers could witness a rise of £24 in a year.

Those of you who have been reading my articles for some time now know that I believe improvisation to be the cornerstone of musical creativity. Why? Because without the ability to just play, we become stifled and the “real” music that is within each of us withers and dies.

Now, if you’re a writer, you have lots of support in this area. There are books, (many, many books) that explore the topic of freewriting to its fullest. There are plenty of exercises and advice from professionals in the field. There are even classes designed to “free the writer within.”

But what about music? Where can the aspiring piano improviser go to get help and advice on this topic? Traditionally, they would turn to Jazz - a word synonymous with improvisation. Jazz is a big believer in learning scales and chords. In fact, there are 1000’s of scales and 1000’s of chords to learn. This can be a turn-off for the beginning student who simply wants to dive in and express through music.

Learning how to improvise need not be difficult. There are only 2 things required:

1. The ability to trust your intuition

2. Knowledge of a few chords

Learning a few chords is the easy part. The part that gives more students problems than anything else is getting over perfectionism and the fear of making “mistakes.”

I remember when I first started playing the piano. I wanted very badly to “create” something. Little did I know that by wanting so badly to create, I was blocking the creative impulse. You see, we must learn to play first!! Very hard for many adults because they want to make something “worthy” of performance. If they only would ease up a little and relax and not worry so much about what was coming out of them, then they would begin to experience the joy of improvisation.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

In this article we’re going to try to explain just what it is
that makes a musical a musical and go over the more technical
aspects of the form.

By technical definition, musical theater is a form of theater
that combines music, songs, dancing and spoken dialogue. It is
actually closely related to opera, while purposely avoiding many
of the conventions of opera in order to have a more general
appeal.

The musical components of a musical is called the score. The
sung lines are called lyrics as opposed to plain spoken dialogue
which is simply called dialogue. Usually the person writing the
lyrics to the musical is not the same person who has written the
actual story. An example of this would be “Wicked” where the
songs were written by Stephen Schwartz, the script by Winnie
Holzman and the book that it came from by Gregory Maguire. This
is not uncommon in musical theater.

A musical can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours
long. The average running time for a modern musical is about two
and a half hours with an intermission about half way through the
play. Some musicals however do run straight through if they
aren’t too long. The intermissions, when they are present, are
about ten to fifteen minutes long. An average musical will have
about twenty to thirty songs. Some will be very short pieces and
others can be quite long. Most musicals usually start with an
overture which highlights several of the songs that will be
heard throughout the play and set the mood for what is about to
come. Some musicals, like “Tommy” can be sung through from
beginning to end, which can really blur the fine line between a
musical and an opera. As a matter of fact, Tommy is actually
considered a rock opera more than it is considered a musical.

Usually the highlights and most dramatic moments of a musical
are done in song. The reason is because these are the moments
that the creators want you to remember the most and it is much
easier to remember a well done three or four minute song than it
is to remember three or four minutes of spoken dialogue. If the
emotion that needs to be conveyed is too strong even for song
then in those cases dance is added to or even put in place of
singing. A perfect example of this is the fight scene in “West
Side Story” which was done entirely in dance.

Finding a balance between spoken dialogue and song is not easy.
On top of that the writers must be careful to write songs for
each character that actually fits the character. For example, a
character who is an evil villain is not going to sing songs
about being happy and in love.

Also, it is difficult to establish the drama in a musical
because a five minute song has fewer words in it than five
minutes of spoken dialogue. When an hour and a half of your
musical is actual music, this makes it very important that the
writers make very good use of the lyrics for each song as this
will be the vehicle for telling most of the story.

Musical theater is a truly unique and wonderful form of
entertainment. If you haven’t had the pleasure of going to see a
modern day musical or even a revival of an old musical, you owe
it to yourself to do so. It is an experience you will not soon
forget.

Models, Music Artist, Photographers and Entertainers

I am hoping you are creating online visibility strategies to help you increase your presence, gain a fan base, get work and eventually turn all these into revenue.

Back in the day it was very difficult to market people unless you had a big marketing budget. But now with the Internet you can market yourself to create revenue before you become a famous model, actress, musician, hip hop star, personality or fashion photographer
.
Many of you know me as Trent Partridge (Radar my basketball name) the photographer. But I have a dark side (Darth Vader) Trent the Internet Marketing Consultant. One tough task I have is getting words ranked in the top 20 in Google, Yahoo and MSN. Search Engine Optimization takes a lot of work because search engines are always changing their algorithms. But I do have over 5000 words ranked in the top 20 in the search engines. I also have had over a million screensavers downloaded(viral marketing) and handle $50,000 plus a month in pay per click advertising. Pay Per Clicks are the advertisement in text on the right side of the search engines. I am also completing a book called Internet Marketing for Models, Music Artist, Photographers and Entertainers.

I create long term Internet Marketing Solutions for companies and individuals.

I do get mad at my entertainment buddies who do not try to work their own website, MySpace or Yahoo Group. These 3 different type of website can create great opportunities.

First you have to recognize that you must gain a fan base. Do not have users come by your website and not try to grasp their email address in some capacity. Offer a newsletter, free exclusive pictures, screensavers, wallpapers, ringtones, memberships or an autographed picture giveaway.

Go to Walgreen’s or CVS and print a few pictures for under 30 cents. Then have a free autographed picture giveaway. For under 75 cents(mail) you can gain fans that can be worth way more than that in the long run. Big companies like Dell, Wal-Mart and Amazon use a cost per customer acquisition formula to figure the cost to gain a customer. We know that if you mail 3 autographed pictures to fans(future customers) at 75 cents you have the ability to have an incredible low low low customer acquisition cost.

Remember this formula Fan = Customer = Revenue. While the castings, touring and gigs are not happening and you are at home chillin jump on the net and get fans.

If you are model, music artist, photographer right now and are not planning to sell a calendar DVD, t-shirts, hats, autographed pictures, CDs, a CD of Pictures, ringtones etc.. then you need to rethink your strategy. These are very basic ways to earn income. I am not saying it will cover your mortgage, car payment and health Insurance, but any money helps even the richest man would say that.
I often trade services with entertainers to help them and myself create better product or content to sell.

Please use the Internet as a tool to gain customers. Do not put a website up and think that casting agents, A&Rs, directors and your friends come to it alone. Users love to see people who are talented and enjoy viewing beautiful models. Pictures. So take advantage of the looks or talent that your were born with to generate money.

Feel free to contact me at anytime. I am the man when it comes to marketing. I have bought to many programs and tested every theory, postulate and hypothesis in the online marketing field. Once my book is published Internet Marketing for Models, Music Artist, Photographers and Entertainers, the world will know who is one of the top Internet Marketers in the industry.

Always contact me if you want to create a synergistic relationship. I am always working with models and artist to help move their careers and mine. If you don’t mind next time I will tell you how to get your own name ranked in the search engines and a few link strategies

Trent Partridge
Media55.com

Trent Partridge is an Internet Marketer/Photographer/Music Producer and CEO of Media55.com.
His Internet marketing techniques include SEO, PPC, article, blog, link management, viral, desktop and screensavers.
He is writing a book called ‘Internet Marketing for Models, Music Artist and Entertainers’
He shoots photography in Miami and producers R&B and Hip hop tracks.
Contact at trentpart@gmail.com