fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
How to win pitches
Tags: Pitching, Agency, Clients, Winning Pitches, Pitch

Be selective

However many you’re going for. Go for half and spend twice as much time on each. The ones you win will be a better match.

Give substance

You can’t solve every problem in a pitch so focus on one key area where you know you can make the most impact and show true consideration. Demonstrate the detail you will go into when appointed.

You’ll usually be speaking to a few different people. Some of them will be excited by your brilliant ideas. Some of them need to tick boxes and avoid being fired for making the wrong choice. Speak to them all.

Make it about them

They don’t give a shit about you. They want the best result and you’re just a vehicle to this. Start with them and finish with you. We go as far as having a slide saying ‘and if you want to know a bit more about us’ towards the very end of the deck to satisfy the box tickers.

Make their ideas better

Take an element of the brief and bring it to life. They’re probably not designers so if you mock up one of their suggestions and add a bit of motion they’re going to think you’re gods gift because you’re already making their idea a reality.

Tell a story

We’re people, we love stories. It might be the story of your process, or it could be the story of how their company and your agency fell in love and walked into the successful sunset together, had lots of little retainer babies and lived happily ever after. Give it a beginning, middle and end and make sure you follow the natural rhythm of the pitch.

Be yourself

I’ve seen other people do amazing pitches and have tried to emulate them. Don’t. Do. It.

Do what’s natural to you otherwise it’ll come across as fake.

…but be different (this is important)

Try and go first or last. Don’t let them leave without remembering you.

Role play, sing a song, read a poem. Run a mini discovery workshop to give them a sense of what’s to come, put their logo in Spark AR and send them a link so they can try it out live. You could even make a video of you making a website in the style of one of their videos (we won this one). It has to be relevant but think of any way that’s not just presenting a slide deck.

Maybe don’t dress up as Italian stereotypes when you have to walk across London at 11am on a Monday morning to pitch Bunga Bunga restaurant (we didn’t win this).

Send them a package before with instructions not to open until the pitch then tell them to open it on slide 5. Or even slide 11!

Run a mini quiz to show that you care about their answers, will listen and work as a partnership. We sometimes ask them to identify a brand just by a colour palette, a typeface or a tagline. By stating that this is what you want to achieve you’re already positioning them next to the big brands that you’ve used as examples. Get them involved as much as you can.

Open up a dialog.

Keep the tempo high.

Win more.

Jacob

Jacob Beckett| Founder| Vitamin London
Our Take on Tech Trends| Fifth LLC.
By: Fifth Llc.
Tags: Agency, Tech Trends, Technology

Well, it’s time already. We are quite opinionated about building future-ready solutions for business problems.

As a development agency, we have a unique view on technology. Our clients often come to us with a vision or an idea for a product, and they then rely on us to advise them on what’s possible. We’ve worked with hundreds of tech entrepreneurs over the years, co-creating solutions for intriguing and often challenging problems.

But for us, it’s not just about innovation in technology. We are also pretty proud of the social, environmental, and financial impact we helped create to make a world a better place.

For example, we created better automated systems for secure infrastructures with Siemplify. We also enabled expanded access to healthcare during Covid-19 pandemic with Lensbox. We even helped dramatically reduce waste in the fashion supply chain with Swatchbook.

So why join the Medium community now?

After using Medium to learn and read about our industry’s experience, we decided to join the conversation by sharing our thoughts on technology trends, collaboration and leadership for distributed global teams, and entrepreneurship.

We believe that our work with the global community of tech entrepreneurs, investors, and developers, keeps us at the forefront of technology trends. We have also seen many ideas come to fruition, succeed, or fail. We recognize that technology is just one piece of the recipe, alongside leadership, funding, team culture, market readiness, and feature roadmap. Over time, we learned a lot of related lessons that we bring in our relationships with our clients, and we want to share them with the world at large.

Finally, we believe that tech entrepreneurship has the capacity to solve some of the most urgent social and environmental issues facing our global community, and we want to enable as many entrepreneurs as possible. Even if we won’t get to build those products, we still want to see them built. That’s why we are happy to share what we learned along the way.

So join us, drop us a line at hello@fifth-llc.com, or comment below. Let’s change the world together!

About Fifth LLC.

FIFTH is an exceptional team of 35+ developers, designers and a new generation of scientists. The three co-founders with backgrounds in quantum physics, molecular physics, astrophysics, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence met at a university 9 years ago. They bonded over their shared love of technology and a keen sense of its business applications, starting a team that has built over 200 digital products to date.

We live and work in beautiful Armenia, and our clients hail from the Silicon Valley, Europe and Hong Kong. What we all have in common is the drive to elevate our clients’ business to the next level and create them loyal fans in the process. We build rich, interactive, fully integrated digital products that delight the users and are easy to update and maintain.
Pushing a Student in Front of a School Board Meeting Isn’t Student Voice; It’s Working for Adults
By: Charles Cole
Tags: School Board, Agency, Education, Student Voice, Oakland

What does real student voice look like? Like, for real student voice. I’m not talking about forcing kids to come attend a board meeting, and making them stay up past their bedtime just to read from a card that an adult wrote for them with the promise of pizza.

Let that baby go to bed!

I mean seriously, when is the last time we really met young people where they were and fully engaged them? Again, not talking about where we inject our political leanings on them — I’m looking at both the anti-reformer and reformer crowd here.

I’m talking about actually sitting down, asking questions, listening and then offering the support they are asking for.

The antiquated model of “lifting student voice” is children working to serve adults and we need to completely flip that.

A kid being paraded at a school board meeting = a kid working for adults. A kid being displayed front and center for a funder = a kid working for adults. We need to fix the equation. An adult listening and supporting what students say and what students show us through their actions = adults working for kids.

Imagine if we thought of empowering student voice as an opportunity to instill leadership. In a report recently published by the organization I founded, Energy Convertors, we found that students want to be authentically engaged around education.

We surveyed 446 Oakland students, and here is what they had to say about student voice and adult relationships. Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/ec-communityreport2021

What if we built a capacity for leadership in our students and then we just followed them?

How do we do this? I’m talking about spending time in their classes, learning about how they get to school, better understanding what they like to do and we document it. The things that students need become evident quite quickly when we truly elevate their voices. Doesn’t that seem more authentic? Doesn’t that feel different than when we, the adults, have already chosen the issue we want them to focus on?

Young people often have a lot say, we just struggle to hear them a lot of the time. If the way we’ve committed to helping students has no trace of their actual voices, then we are missing quite a few valuable opportunities.

Let’s look at doing things differently in service of young people. We, as adult education leaders should be listening to what students need and then we work for them. Let’s actually work for kids.

This article is updated from an original version of this post that appeared on HuffPost as Building Student Voice — A Third Way Approach.
Top 10 React Hook Libraries
By: Piumi Liyana Gunawardhana
Tags: JavaScript, Hooks, Front End Development, React, React Hook

Top 10 React Hook Libraries

React Hooks are a function type that allows you to hook into React state and lifecycle features. This feature was first introduced on React 16.8 update, and since then, it has become an essential part of any React application.

So, as web developers, we should know the best method for implementing React Hooks, and this article will discuss the top 10 React Hook libraries that can be easily used in your next React project.

One thing to keep in mind when using React hooks is that they are composable. That means you should think of them as reusable stateful-logic building blocks that can be used to compose new larger and more complex hooks — just as you would with UI components.

For example, the following hook, use-jokes is a composition of two other hooks, use-local-jokes and use-remote-jokes . It fetches tech jokes from a remote API and manages these jokes in the local storage.

As you can see, these hooks are all exported as independent components. Making them available for reuse/collaboration in other Bit workspaces. Having the two functionalities separated as two independent React hooks, making them far more reusable and composable.
How To Write Better Functional Components in React
By: Bikash Paneru
Tags: JavaScript, Programming, React, Software Development, React Hook

1. Memoize Complex Data

Let’s take a look at the following React component called SortedListView :

This component takes an array of items, sorts them according to the comparison function provided, and displays them. However, this sorting operation could take a large amount of time if the number of items is large or the comparison function is complicated. This could end up becoming a bottleneck because the component will re-sort the items on each re-render even if the items array or the comparisonFunc does not change, but some other prop or the state changes.

This is just an example use case. Sorting large, complicated data in the frontend should be a rare occurrence. But, we can make this more CPU-efficient by memoizing the sorting operation and re-sorting only when the items array changes.

Update:

Memoizing can also help prevent unnecessary re-renders when objects generated in a parent component have to be passed to a child component (More on this in #2). However, for components under our own control, we can always prevent unnecessary re-renders. We can do this by avoiding passing key value objects to the dependency array of useEffect and other similar hooks and instead passing primitive values. To see a benchmark of the actual performance gains and performance trade-offs of useMemo , please take a look at the following link.

Memoization can easily be accomplished with the useMemo Hook:
useCallback Might Be What You Meant By useRef & useEffect
By: Vitali Zaidman
Tags: React Hook, React, JavaScript

Caveat: the ref function is guaranteed to be called on mounts and unmounts of elements, even on the first mount, and even if the unmount is as a result of the parent element unmounting. Caveat2: Make sure to wrap ref callbacks with useCallback . Without it, if you cause a render from the ref callback, the ref callback will be triggered again with null , potentially leading to an endless loop, because of React internals. To play with this, try removing useCallback from the sandbox above and see this other sandbox.

This pattern can be used in several more ways:

useState

Since useState is a function that is consistent between renders, it can also be used as a ref .

In this case, the whole node will be saved in its own state.

As a state, when it changes, it would trigger a re-render and the state can be safely used in the render’s results and as a useEffect dependency:

useStateRef

Accessing the DOM is expensive, so we want to do this as little as possible.

If you don’t need the whole node like in the previous hook, you better save only part of it on a state:

As you can see we access the DOM only when the element to which we pass ref is mounted and only save clientHeight in this stage.

useRefWithCallback

But sometimes, for the sake of performance, you can do without triggering re-renders on mounts and unmounts of the element that you use it’s ref .

The following hook doesn't save the node on the state. Instead of using state, it responds to mounts and unmounts directly, so it doesn’t trigger any re-renders.
React Hooks for the first time — simple as possible
By: Yaron Galperin
Tags: Web Development, Front End Development, React, React Hook, Reactjs

What is the motivation behind it?

There are some problems which react tried to solve.

Before version 16.8, when using react classes the separation of concern was a little bit violated, why? because when components were built, the logic was splitted or gathered inside three main functions:

componentDidMount

componentDidUpdate

componentWillUnmount

with hooks, we can actually use a couple of functions that are doing exactly one action without mixing things.

for example:

Using useEffect a couple of times, one for fetching data, other for set loader, etc…

Moreover, a lot of developers found it hard to understand the context of ‘this’ inside the class, so by creating the hooks, no more class component was needed (still can use it).

Another reason, the ability to share logic between components.

When using classes, it is hard to share logic and reuse lifecycle functions.

With the help of hooks, we are now able to do so.

for example:

using a custom hook for fetching data from the server, like user info.

Let's move to some basic examples 😎
React-Create a show more/less button
By: Chayanit Mccormick
Tags: React, Usestate Hook, React Hook, Usestate, Reactjs

When I read something on websites and saw a show more/less button, I thought it was a good feature because it makes everything on the website look more clean. So I would like to share an easy way to insert a show more/less button by using React- State Hook.

Create React App component and add React, {useState} Create const showMore and setShowMore as follow:

const [showMore, setShowMore] = useState(false);

3. Create condition and the button where you want to show text as follow:

In this case, it means if showMore is true, it will show the text. If showMore is false, only 250 characters will be shown. Here is how to use substring function: substring(indexStart, indexEnd) . You can check more information on how to use the function in this link MDN.

<h6>

{showMore ? text : `${text.substring(0, 250)}`}

<button className="btn">Show more</button>

</h6>

4. Set onClick function to setShowMore(!showMore). When the user clicks it will alternate between hiding and showing the text.

<button className="btn" onClick={() => setShowMore(!showMore)}>Show more</button>

5. Now the button works and will expand and contract. The next step is to change the button’s wording to Show more/Show less. By adding a condition in the button as follow:

{showMore ? "Show less" : "Show more"}

Here is the final code. It’s easy, isn’t it?

Finally when we click show more, the text will be shown and the button will be changed to Show less.
What Are React Hooks
By: Jake Peterson
Tags: React Hook, React

Until about a year ago the only way to use state in React was in a class component. As you most likely know state is where we can store valuable data about the component. This can be extremely useful because state is also dynamic and can be constantly updated. Thankfully React released version 16.8 which came with hooks. Hooks allow us to access state and other react features all in functional components.

The Need For Hooks

React has higher order components which means the data in the state of a parent component is only passed down, and even at that you still have to render props in the child component to display this information. You also have to wrap your components correctly to make sure the data is flowing correctly, you get the point… it can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. With hooks, you can share the logic stored in state with other components without having to worry about component hierarchy. You also can split the component and its logic into more manageable functional components and you get rid of “this” which is a can of worms for another blog.

Examples of Hooks

useState: Similar to this.setState, a function which creates a local state that is preserved even through re-renders.

useEffect: Similar to componentDidMount, componentDidUpdate, and componentWillUnmount, except all in one. React will run these effects after the component is rendered.

Rules of Hooks

As you can see hooks can be extremely useful and save a lot of time but they also have some rules you must follow.

Don’t call hooks in javascript functions only call them in functional components or custom hooks.

Always call hooks at the top of your functional component, never inside nested functions, loops, or conditions. This will make sure your hooks are called the same way every time the component renders.

In a future blog I would like to cover the syntax of these hooks and how to actually apply them in your code… as well as how to build your own hooks.

Sources:
React Hooks: A Functional Component’s Super Power
By: Karina Guerra
Tags: React Hook, Learning To Code, React, JavaScript

React Hooks: A Functional Component’s Super Power

React Hooks: A Class Component Worse Nightmare?

Today we are going to talk about React Hooks. About two year ago, React v16.8 introduced us to the game changing concept of React Hooks. Basically, React Hooks allows you to use state and other React features without writing a single class component. That’s a big deal!

When I first learned about React, I was immediately taught about the differences between Functional Components and Class Components. If our component needed to deal with state, I was told to make a class components because Functional Components did not have access to state or lifecycle methods. React Hooks changes that.

Why use Hooks?

Without Hooks, React faces three major problems:

1. Wrapper Hell

Wrapper hell refers to the the chaotic hierarchy of components that can happen in a complex React project. In React we learn about patterns such as “Render Props” and “Higher-Order Components”. Render props refers to the share of data between two components by using a prop that has a function as a value. Higher-Order Components are custom components that wrap another component in itself.

Because of complex patterns like these the organization and flow of stateful logic can get confusing and thus we get “wrapper hell”:
React app with authentication with hooks and redux-toolkit.
Tags: Redux Toolkit, React Hook, Reactjs

I was inspired to write this article when I saw the redux-toolkit https://redux-toolkit.js.org/ and how we can use it to reduce the effort of writing lot of many lines of codes for action and constants in redux.

The application will have a basic authentication from a mock api and listing of data from https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/. The article will cover how to implement React in Typescript , how to wire redux-toolkit and hooks in a React application.

Initially create a login form and on submit , call the function/actions in the slice.

Here is a sample slice for login. The beauty and simplicity of redux-toolkit is we don’t need any separate files for action , enums and reducers. Everything can come from a single authentication slice.

User listing from external API — https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users.Intially create a user listing template using ANTD and its interface.

Now create a user slice where we have the function to call the external API’s and update the state of the application. Bind the corresponding user slice to the central store of the application

Here is the GitHub link for the reference code — https://github.com/jkrrishac/redux-toolkit-hooks-authentication
How to Use useRef Hook in React
By: Alex Zambrano
Tags: Web Development, JavaScript, Hooks, React, React Hook

How to Use useRef Hook in React

A quick explanation about the useRef hook in React.

This article provides a clear, practical explanation of the useRef hook in React. It explains a topic that sometimes causes a bit of confusion to developers, especially to React beginners.

The hook of useRef if you don’t have a clear idea of how this hook works? When do you have to use it? this article will be beneficial to you.

useRef Hook

The useRef is a function that can take an argument and return an object with a property current with its assigned value on it.

What If I want to change that value? Just write as follows val.current = “bar" and the value will change because useRef is mutable, which means that it can be assigned, with any value, including nodes and DOM elements.

Now the value var.current has changed, but the component will still be the same this is because useRef doesn’t re-render the component but let’s print the value of var.current .

The value has changed but is not reflected in the component. This is a handy feature because we can change the values of the component or properties in the DOM elements without re-rendering the component.

Access elements in the DOM

The most common way to use useRef is to access the DOM elements. The way to do this is to add a property ref in the DOM element.

By doing this, we can access the element with val.current and change their properties in the same way that is getting an element of the document with getElementById .

In the code above, I add a button that on click event, triggers a function that changes the text to ‘Hola Mundo’ and the background to red.

It works perfectly and without re-render the element.

Conclusions
Why react hooks shouldn’t be called conditionally
By: Sachindra Ragul
Tags: JavaScript, React, React Hook, State Management, Reactjs

React Hooks Mental Model

State management in react hooks behaves like arrays . State lives one level outside of react components being rendered.

If we conditionally call hooks, it messes with the order of the arrays.

For example :

let componentNotMounted = true; function RenderFunctionComponent() {

let initValue;



if(componentNotMounted){

[initValue] = useState(20);

componentNotMounted = false;

}

const [stockValue, setStockValue] = useState(initValue);

const [isBlogPost, setIsBlogPost] = useState(false); return (

<Button onClick={() => setStockValue(25)}>{stockValue}</Button>

);

}

In the above snippet, on state update there is no setter function associated with the first setter array. Hence the initial value passed in the first render is still present. This is why we don’t use hooks conditionally within react.

Hence if we change the order of use calls based on conditions, there will be mismatch between the state value and their corresponding setter functions on subsequent renders
Science and Story-telling
By: Tharan Suresh
Tags: Storytelling, Science Communication, Narrative

Imagine watching a two-hour long movie that initially sets the stage for the story and then, the major twist in the plot follows. Finally, the plot concludes and all the loose ends come together. What a nail-biter, you think. Believe it or not, this is exactly what science needs too. A story makes science more exciting and relatable. Let us talk about a famous framework that is used for science communication, inspired from none other than Hollywood movies!

Let’s start with John Campbell’s Monomyth, a framework used for narratives. It is a cyclical narrative where the hero starts his journey from the ordinary world, which is also a non-narrative world, then encounters a problem midway through his journey. This marks the transition from the ordinary world to a special world, which is also the beginning of the narrative world. The hero eventually finds a solution to the problem and enters the ordinary world as a resolution is now obtained. This ends the story. Key features of such a narrative is a single protagonist who also solves the problem in the narrative. The story has a linear timeline, where a causality is established for every timestep in the story. Now imagine using such an engaging narrative for science communication, where you communicate science through characters and an interesting plot.

The ABT framework is used in science communication for building a narrative. The ‘A’ stands for ‘AND’, where you describe the past and the current knowledge that exists in science. This is the knowledge that has been agreed upon by the majority and known to many. Then we introduce the ‘B’ that stands for ‘BUT’, which is the contradiction or the gap between the known and the unknown. This is where the story enters the special world of narrative and peaks. Drama and anticipation builds up. Finally we introduce the last element of the framework ‘T’ that stands for ‘THEREFORE’. Here the story describes how the problems are addressed and a resolution is achieved.

This way of communicating science is much better than a series of ‘ANDs’ , which ends up becoming boring and the audience loses interest. This helps us realize that science and storytelling go hand in hand. Next time we want to develop content for a science communication piece, we know where to get inspiration from! (HINT : Hollywood and Bollywood Movies)
Importance of Narrative in Science Communication
By: Tharan Suresh
Tags: Storytelling, Science Communication, Narrative, Education, Science

Science communication is the need of the hour as it is crucial for informed decision making, policy-making and updating one’s beliefs. Given its importance, science communicators must ensure that science reaches wide audiences. Conveying facts as it appears in a science textbook in a popular science magazine or talking to the general public may not successfully influence people. What is required is a story, with a narrative that is so alluring that it highly grabs the attention of the general audience.

Science, to a general audience is highly unrelatable and out of context. Hardly does it provide immediate solutions to problems they might be facing. Then why should they bother reading or listening to it? This is where having a highly engaging narrative becomes important. Firstly, a narrative creates a dramatic effect that makes the audience attend to it. Further, it creates anticipation. Anticipation is crucial to build excitement and eagerness to learn new information. Narration also helps visualize and imagine the content, which once again is important to build an audience for science.

A narrative in science communication ensures that the audience get content that they can relate to. An important aspect of a narrative is the unfolding of the storyline and what the characters do in the story. When the audience travels with the story, they experience it. The purpose of the story makes more sense and is relatable. Having a narrative in science communication changes the frame of reference from extrinsic factors to oneself. Here, the general audience can place themselves in the shoes of the characters and extract the importance of the communicated content.

Having a narrative in science should eventually become the new normal. School textbooks must change from facts presented in a bulleted format to intriguing, fascinating, and curiosity inducing stories. Schools can consider adopting these principles of science communication in classrooms to make science entertaining and engaging!
Which social channel is right for your music?
By: Amber Horsburgh
Tags: Music Business, Social Media Marketing, Music Marketing, Deep Cut, Music Strategy

Deep Cuts Diagnosis pinpoints the right social channel for your music project. When you answer the 12 questions you’re given a recommendation of the best social channel for your audience and your goals, as well as marketing tips you can action today to snowball your socials. The whole process takes less than 3 mins. Take the test here.

I write about music marketing via my weekly newsletter, Deep Cuts [Subscribe]. Get daily tips on Instagram @deepcuts.co.

Social media is a part of the job of being an artist. Since we’re all at home, the internet is the primary connection point between artists and their fans — and social media is the intermediary.

This can be powerful for audience growth however, it’s taxing on the artist.

If you’re just one person it doesn’t seem like there’s enough hours in the day to be an artist and entertainer on social media. If you’re working in the studio all day then turning around to make a bunch of memes is not how most think about decompressing.

Unfortunately, social media comes with the job of being an artist.

If you’re wondering how to juggle it all, know these 2 things:

You do not need to be on every platform all the time. Quality and consistency of content will put you on a growth trajectory faster than trying to be on every channel all the time. Focus on one channel, master it then move on to the next channel if/when your resources allow Carefully consider your focus channel. Do not choose the platform that everyone else is doing, make sure you pick the channel that can support your goals.

How to choose the right social channel for your music:

The best social channel will be the bullseye between:

➤ Where your audience is. This can be your existing audience or a new target audience you wish to expand to

Hip-Hop/Rap music accounted for more than 50% of of all trending music in 2020, according to TikTok’s Annual Music Report.

➤ Influence of the channel within the specific subculture your music exists in. Electronic music works better on Twitch than say, rock. More than half of all trending music on TikTok in 2020 was Hip-Hop. The type of music you make will impact which channel is best for you.

➤ Your resources and the connection with your artistic preferences will influence how you set yourself up for success. How you can execute longform vs. shortform video, images, words and audio are all careful considerations. As is your commitment to posting frequency.
How to brand my band
By: Amber Horsburgh
Tags: Music Business, Music Marketing, Music, Music Branding, Spotify Marketing

Why branding raises your artist profile

Before we even start on the how-to’s, I wanna get really clear on why it’s important to brand your band. You’ve spent so long creating music and you want to give it its best shot at success once it’s out. Branding is the first step once you’ve finished mixing.

1) Branding provides contextual cues to hook new listeners, which builds your audience

Today’s music discovery ecosystem lacks storytelling. Streaming services — your first line of defense for gaining exposure and from lo-fi hip-hop producers to classical artists to new audiences, the discovery process is essentially a spreadsheet.

E.g.: when I scroll through my Discover Weekly Spotify playlist that’s updated each week with recommendations their algorithm believes I’d like, as a consumer, my prompt to encourage me to listen to a new song is my ability to recognize their name. The environment is devoid of hints that tell me what a song or an artist is about, why I should listen to them why I should care.

Branding, specifically visuals do the heavy lifting. Visuals add the much-required layer of context to the sounds the listener hears, taking the audible message of the song and creating imagery that conveys its emotion and message. This in turn provides a stronger affiliation to the artist and song.

2) Branding makes marketing more efficient by relying on high impact assets

A neurobiological study by Munroe-Lopezfound audible vs. visual memory discrepancy occurs because the pathways of encoding for auditory and visual memories are different. Visual memory has a direct path for storage, auditory memory must make multiple synaptic stops for memory can be stored. The anatomical pathway for auditory memory being more direct makes recall and recognition stronger. The straight line on top shows the route for visual memory, the curved line below is the path for auditory input to reach the brain cortex. (Source: Individual differences in visual and auditory memory, ARTHUR R. JENSEN. What Do We Remember Better — What We See or What We Hear?

Our visual memory is more powerful than our audible memory. When people see a song, not just hear it, their ability to recall the song is stronger so promoting music with visuals will enhance the memorability of your project, thus helping you stand out from the 39,999 other songs uploaded to Spotify every day.

Secondarily, social media are visual platforms that depend on visuals that stand out. Strong visuals will make people care by striking a stronger connection with new and existing fans.
Black Book x Chris Lake x Emanate Remix Winners!
Tags: Music Business, Remix Comp, Emanate, Chris Lake, Music Production

Black Book x Chris Lake x Emanate Remix Winners!

Chapter closed!

Another strong battle is over and it feels like the talent we uncover is getting more and more impressive each time. It’s always exciting hearing all the entries and different takes that get submitted for these competitions.

As always, first and foremost: a HUGE THANKS TO EVERYONE that took the time to participate. We know it took a little longer to get a result, as Chris said… These are unique times, and it’s been surprisingly busy for him.

Before getting on with it and just to rejig the memory, here is what was up for grabs.

The top remixes will be reviewed by Black Book for inclusion in an official remix pack on Lake’s legendary Black Book Records across digital stores.

Grand Prize

Mentor Q&A with Chris Lake

Black Book merch pack

Emanate “Pro-Connect” subscription (1 year)

Runner up #1

Emanate “Pro-Connect” subscription (1 year) + Black Book merch pack

Runner up #2

Emanate “Pro-Connect” subscription (1 year) + Black Book merch pack

Anyways… Drum Roll…..

SHOUT OUT TO THE TOP 10

Chris was so impressed by the number of high-quality submissions. Here is a tip of his hat to the following folks who entered.

Big ups and congrats for getting an honourable mention.

Favell — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-favell-remix

Trees of childhood — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-toc-remix

Molly Otto — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-molly-otto-remix

Ender — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-ender-remix

Laminar — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-laminar-remix

Koog — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-out-the-lights-koog-remix

Andy Leech — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-andy-leech-remix

David Herrlich — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-david-herrlich-remix

Kratex — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-kratex-remix

Morpheo & White Sheep — https://emanate.live/remix-chris-lake/turn-off-the-lights-morpheo--white-sheep-remix

Runner up #2

OMBRO

https://www.instagram.com/ombromusic/

Runner up #1

Trypbox & Metro Kiss

Grand Prize

Massaya Junior

https://www.instagram.com/masayajunior/

Thanks again to everyone who participated, we’ll see you for the next one!
Music Legend Harvey Mason jr. Joins UREEQA as Board Advisor
Tags: Nft, Music Business, Nft Collectibles, Music, Crypto

Music Legend Harvey Mason jr. Joins UREEQA as Board Advisor UREEQA Jul 23·3 min read

UREEQA, a blockchain-based platform for protecting, managing and monetizing creative work, announced today the onboarding of music and entertainment legend Harvey Mason jr. as a Board Advisor. UREEQA strives to modernize the systems currently in place for copyright, patent, industrial design, and trademark law by minting validated NFTs that represent creative rights. With Mason jr.’s expertise in the creative and business sectors of the music industry, UREEQA will be able to further ensure the success of music Creators.

Mason jr. is an award-winning music and film producer as well as an established entrepreneur, bringing expert analysis and insight to helping Creators on the platform. He has worked with various world-renowned artists including Michael Jackson, Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and many others in writing and producing iconic music. Mason jr., the CEO of the Recording Academy (which oversees the GRAMMY Awards), will serve in a personal capacity as an Advisor to UREEQA. He is an active advocate for musicians and other Creators with his recent efforts being dedicated to giving back to the industry and the Creators following in his footsteps.

“I love that UREEQA is getting out ahead to figure out how this technology can benefit Creators. We’ve been caught off guard before as an industry when technology has presented us with opportunities to see how it was going to affect our business,” said Mason jr. “With this role at UREEQA, I’m able to use both sides of what I do — the Creator side and the business side — to try and figure out what is next for Creators and what is next for digital and the technology of consumption and distribution.”

“At this stage in his extraordinary career, Harvey Mason jr. will provide UREEQA with guidance and expertise from a wide variety of critical perspectives,” said Harsch Khandelwal, CEO of UREEQA. “We look forward to consulting with him to better relate to the Creators on our platform, but also to gain further insight on the industry in general. He’s a giant in his field, and we are thrilled that he has decided to join our squad.”

Mason jr. joins UREEQA’s Board Advisors Michael Sheresky and Ramses IsHak of United Talent Agency, as well as officialCommunity CEO Kevin Leflar and former SOCAN VP Janice Scott.

Please visit the official UREEQA website, join their Telegram group and follow their Twitter.
What is a music publishing administration deal?
By: Taylor Hange
Tags: Songwriter, Music Business, Music Industry, Music, Music Publishing

A publishing administration deal is an agreement between a songwriter and a company for publishing royalties to be collected on behalf of the songwriter in exchange for a percentage fee kept by the company.

The agreement is a partnership that allows a company to work on the songwriter’s behalf to collect any and all publishing royalties agreed upon. Publishing royalties are divided into two categories: performance and mechanical.

Depending on the agreement, the company will collect one or both types of publishing royalties in exchange for a percentage which they will keep as a fee for the service. Typically the revenue split is somewhere around 80% to the songwriter and 20% to the company. This is negotiable though and can be anything the writer and the company agree upon.

A songwriter is owed publishing royalties based on the percentage splits he owns on songs he’s worked on. Most songwriters know how to register and collect the writer’s share of their performance royalties from ASCAP or BMI, but collecting mechanical royalties is a little more difficult and tedious.

Mechanicals for physical sales and digital downloads are collected from the record label that released the song. A writer or company must register as a vendor with the record label in order to be paid these mechanicals.

Mechanicals generated by songs streamed on music streaming services, called ‘streaming mechanicals,’ are collected by registering works with Harry Fox Agency (HFA).

Streaming mechanicals from YouTube generated from the ad revenue are collected by registering works in YouTube’s Content ID database.

Publishing administration companies ‘administer’ these processes for a songwriter so all publishing royalties are collected and maximized.

The difference between a publishing administration deal and a traditional publishing deal is the songwriter retains ownership of his publishing rights in an admin deal.

This is important because publishing rights are a songwriter’s most valuable assets — these assets generate royalties for as long as a song streams or plays in public, which can be years or decades.
Vybe Lets You Discover Music & Interact With People That Have Similar Music Taste
By: Tech News
Tags: Music Business, Social Media, Music, Apps, Social

One of our new favorite social networks connects users via music.

What is Vybe?

A social platform for you to connect with other people around the country based on your taste in music. It’s one of the best music social apps for people that like to find new music, share their taste, and build meaningful connections with music lovers.

Standout Features:

Easy to use and user-friendly

Social platform for connecting through music

Find music and build meaningful connections

A scrollable feed populated by countless users and Top 5s

Activity feed for seeing daily updates and content shared by your connections

Send messages and songs to connections in real time

Customize your profile with daily mood, favorite genres, photos and switch Top 5s at any time

Real-time notifications to keep you updated on content and profile activity

Uniqueness: High

Usefulness: High

Potential of going viral: High

IMPORTANT INFO

Compatibility: IOS 13.0 or later

Developer: Succeed Software LLC

Official Website: Vybe

App Store Download Link: Vybe
Album Highlights: New Releases by Low and Andrew W.K. Out Now
By: Rui Alves
Tags: Music Business, Culture, Album Review, Music, Review

Andrew W.K. —’ God Is Partying’

Andrew W.K. is a man of many talents. He has been around the music business for two decades since his seminal album I Get Wet.

W.K.’s sixth album, God Is Partying, is far away from his musical punk-related past. The musician now ventures into Alternative Metal and Industrial landscapes.

The first single, released back in February, “Babalon,” promised a lot of good things coming from W.K’s new album. The song is a magnificent old-school metal anthem with an epic tone that immediately stands out as one of the best rock and heavy songs from 2021 so far.

Source: YouTube

Then, “Everybody Sins” came out July 14 and confirmed how we were going deeper into a more obscure and organic sound that indeed seems to “get darker by the hour.”

Fans of Napalm Death get ready for some nostalgic recoil coming from AWK pulsating bass, heavy drumming, and some crunchy old-school riffing mixed with that hair-metal vibe.

Andrew’s vocals are breathtaking and have that ominous and overwhelming DIO’s aftertaste.

Source: YouTube

The latest single, “Stay True To Your Heart,” goes even deeper into synth-metal, and we get an ethereal ballad.

I’m listening to the entire album while writing this piece, and I can assure you that this promises to be one of the best albums of 2021.
Moozicore Official Update 03 September 2021
Tags: Music Business, SaaS, Music, Startup, Moozicore

Our goal here is to present Moozicore directly to the venues’ customers. Such a form of marketing increases awareness of the product and builds reputation - the more often you see a logo, the more likely you are to buy the product or service it represents. Mind you, it is a very subtle way of exposure in an age of ads bombarding our every sense. It is simple, yet effective.

The buy-back schedule

We would like to inform our MZG investors that the MZG token buy-back process is scheduled to take place over a few months after the launch, as agreed upon before. The buy-back, combined with the product already on the market, will provide a significant boost to the MZG token value.

Investing time in improvements

We are aware that with each decision to postpone the launch we put your patience to the test. Though we consider this decision to be the right one, we owe you an apology for making you wait a little longer.

This extra time is needed to improve several indispensable features of the platform, both on the level of the web panel and the mobile app. There are complex components that need to be taken into account, which constitute the integral part of the whole system.

We strive to create a product that will satisfy even the most demanding users, which sometimes means taking the necessary effort and time to tweak and polish it. We trust that once the launch happens, you will deem our decision justified.

Because of the travel ban imposed on EU citizens, we are not able to carry out direct selling for now. We keep up to date on the official information concerning the travel ban and hope to start sales meetings as soon as it is possible.

Stay tuned for next updates.

Moozicore Team
Becoming the First Ever Audio Metaverse Artist: Daichi Hayakawa at Sky Stage
By: Charlotte Blondeel
Tags: Metaverse, Music Business, Socialaudio, Audio

Becoming the First Ever Audio Metaverse Artist: Daichi Hayakawa at Sky Stage Charlotte Blondeel Follow Sep 9 · 2 min read

Daichi Hayakawa, music producer and music AI engineer

On August 8, 2021, Doki Doki launched the Sky Stage music festival series in an augmented audio space created in the virtual sky of Tokyo.

One of the performing artists that night was musician and producer Daichi Hayakawa, an engineer who has also been a music producer for over 15 years, writing songs for numerous musicians, including Every Little Thing and Nakajima Ai. Now, Hayakawa is focusing on creating an AI that can write music on its own, utlizing deep learning.

The Doki Doki team sat down with him to talk about his first experience with the audio metaverse.

“There are still endless undiscovered possibilities in the scape of sound without having to rely on visual information and I think Audio Metaverse opens the door to that world.”

What did you think when you first heard of “Audio Metaverse”?

“I heard of Metaverse before and thought of it as a very timely thing, but since the word ‘audio’ was involved, I felt that there was a connection to me and my work. So I thought I should give it a try.”

You were one of the first artists to perform at the first edition of Sky Stage. What was your impression performing in an augmented audio space?

“Sky Stage was my first attempt at performing in the Audio Metaverse, so I mostly experimented with different sounds and compositions. It definitely was an exciting experience and I’m already thinking about what I can try out next time.”

What are your expectations for the future of Audio Metaverse?

“There are still endless undiscovered possibilities in the scape of sound without having to rely on visual information and I think Audio Metaverse opens the door to that world.”

“We’re all so used to consuming music and oftentimes see it as something that is connected to a certain space. I hope with this product that music can become something purely emotional for every listener.”