Most massive musicians make most of their money outside of music.

The “Self Branding” revolution is well and truly underway, with popular musicians marketing their image more so than their music in so many ways.

But which of these musical entrepreneurs are working the hardest?   Which pop-star players are raking in the cash for something other than their catchy hooks?   And How?

Take a look in the top 10 musical entrepreneurs…

10. Gene Simmons

As well as the literally thousands of licensed KISS merchandise products, Gene Simmons has tried his hand at reality tv, a (now discontinued) men’s interest magazine “Gene Simmons’ Tongue”, Simmons Records and the clothing line “Moneybag”.

9. Dr Dre

His Headphone line “Beats by Dr. Dre” as well as the upcoming “Aftermath Cognac and Vodka” prove that this producer is more than a musician – though the majority of his money still seems to come from his productions.   He’s also made several movie and TV appearances to supplement his income, as well as directing music videos.

8. Justin Timberlake

Justin’s endorsement with 3 restaurants, his “William Rast” clothing line, endorsements with sony products, a Givenchy fragrance, the Audi A1 and Callaway golf products as well as buying and redeveloping a golf course in his home town show that Justin is more than just the pretty face of boy band pop.

He’s also done work with Saturday Night Live, that McDonalds advert and his MTV reality series “The Phone”.

7. Jennifer Lopez

J.Lo is one of the biggest female entrepreneurs in the pop music world.   Producing the reality show “DanceLife” and the series TLC which followed the launch of one of her many fragrances lie among her accomplishments in the TV world.   She has her “JLO by Jennifer Lopez” clothing line, her Cuban restaurant, her production company “Nuyorican Productions” and is also a spokesperson for “Lux” shampoo in Japan.

6. Paul McCartney

One of the few musicians who can claim to be a billionaire – in 2009 he was worth $1.2 billion (£750 million).   With his company MPL Communications, he owns 25,000 copyrights which earn him a significant amount, but MPL also acts as an umbrella company for several other companies – for the majority publishing companies he’s acquired, but what he lacks in versatility, he makes up for in… uh… money.

5. Pharrel Williams

Apart from being one of the most versatile men in popular music, swapping from laid-back RnB collaborations to heavy rock tracks with his band N.E.R.D., he’s ventured into clothing with his line “A Bathing Ape”, then cre2ating another brand; “Billionaire Boys Club” and to complete the ensemble “Ice Cream Footwear”, which he advertised in the song “Drop it like it’s Hot”.

He’s also worked on furniture, perhaps a slightly obscure venture for a millionaire pop star, but I suppose he might need a sit down after all that hard work in the studio!

4. Travis Barker

The drummer from Punk Rock band “Blink 182″ almost has more ventures than tattoos.   He founded the “Famous Stars and Straps” clothing brand which is absolutely huge with the alternative crowd.   He also has a stake in two other clothing labels, “Rogue Status” and “DTA”.

He has his own label – “LaSalle Records”, a restaurant – “Wahoo’s Fish Taco” and has developed his own shoe for DC Shoes.   Then he tops all this off with his own line of drumming gear, sponsored by Zildjian.

Then there’s the reality TV show he was on – “Meet the Barkers”.   Definitely one of the most entrepreneurial rock stars in this list!

3. Britney Spears

Britney hasn’t done to bad for herself – apart from her massive world tours, her record-breaking fragrances have added hundreds of millions of dollars to her net worth.   She is also one of many artists to collaborate with Pepsi in advertisements, earning her hundreds of millions again.

Then there was her movie venture “Crossroads”, her doll and her video game, as well as the reality series “Britney and Kevin: Chaotic”.   Not bad for a little girl from Louisiana!

2. 50 Cent

Ol’ Curtis Jackson sure knows how to diversify – from his Video Games “50 Cent: Bulletproof” and “50 Cent: Blood on the Sand” to his “G-Unit Sneakers” line with Reebok, he’s been exploring other earning avenues than just CDs and downloads!

Then there was the famous deal with Glaceau, where he worked with them to create the “Vitamin Water” drink, then Coca-cola bought Glaceau for $4.1 billion, netting Fiddy a healthy sum.

More recently he’s made a body spray called “Pure 50 RGX” with Right Guard, as well as releasing his own condom line – “Magic Stick Condoms”.   He always was a subtle one.

Oh, and we can’t forget his movie career, starring in his semi-autobiographical film “Get Rich or Die Tryin’”, or his book imprint “G-Unit Books”, for the gangsta that also enjoys literature, or his reality TV show “50 Cent: The Money and the Power”…

1. P Diddy

Sean Combs has had an amazing career as an entrepreneur.   After founding “Bad Boy Records” and signing The Notorious B.I.G. to the top, he then began his music career – meaning he was an entrepreneur first, then a pop star.   After a while he starred in the film “Made” and later in “Monster’s Ball”.

His own reality TV show “Making the Band”, his clothing line “Sean John”, his men’s perfume, his starring in a Macy’s commercial, his restaurant chain – “Justin’s” (named after his son), his affiliation with the “Ciroc” brand of Vodka and purchasing the “Enyce” clothing line all add to his immense financial empire.

Diddy is not afraid to take risks – that’s what makes him such an interesting and versatile entrepreneur.   Even though him and his companies have on occasion hit some serious criticism from the media, he’s always pulled through and turned it into something positive – when it came out that his clothing brand wasn’t treating workers well, he installed air conditioning, water purification and let them create a union – something completely unprecedented in Honduras, where the factories were based.   Great publicity and a great example of turning a crisis into an opportunity.   That’s why he’s at the number one spot.

How often have you heard a song on the radio and heard a song you like… only to hear someone else singing over the top of it?

Recycling hits has become an increasingly popular past time for producers and here are 5 of the biggest hits that sampled other big hits!

5. Rihanna – SOS
Sampled: Soft Cell – Tainted Love

How many of the people listening to Rihanna’s huge hit know it was lifted from 1980s English synth pop duo “Soft Cell”’s number 1 charting hit “Tainted Love” – itself a cover of a song by Gloria Jones. The original was written by “Ed Cobb” in 1964 – it’s gone from motown to electro pop to… uh… even electro-er pop?

4. Jason Derulo – Whatcha Say
Sampled: Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek

Jason Derulo’s debut hit the number 1 spot in America, but that was in no small part attributed by many to the heavy sampling of Imogen Heap’s minimalistic “Hide and Seek”.

3. Jay-Z – Izzo (H.O.V.A)
Sampled: Jackson 5 – I want you back

The song that brought the words “Shizzle” and “Sheezy” to wannabe gangsters the world over samples the hit from the king of pop’s original band. While this version discusses Jay’s career as a drug dealer in earlier life, the original was slightly more upbeat story.

Incidentally, this was produced by Kanye West – a guy who has a tendency to heavily sample other hits to make even bigger hits as we’ll soon see…

2. Eminem – Stan
Sampled: Dido – Thank You

Eminem’s critically acclaimed song “Stan”, a song about a disturbed and scarily obsessive fan was made considerably more accessible by the addition of Dido’s verse lyrics from her song “Thank You”.

Stan became a number 1 before Thank You became a massive hit, making this one of the few songs to become a hit after the song that sampled it!

1. Kanye West – Stronger
Sampled: Daft Punk – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Kanye struck it big, going from rap megastar to pop megastar with his smash hit “Stronger”, which sampled Daft Punk and even featured them in the video.

However, Daft Punk can’t exactly talk since they sampled “Cola Bottle Baby” by Edwin Birdsong for their song – so this is actually a sample of a sample, clearly meaning it should be at number one on this list.

My band’s live performance can be watched here: http://redbullbedroomjam.com/band/videos/renegades-feat-feeder-you-and-what-army

The featured artist “DJ Sumara” can be listened to here: http://soundcloud.com/krisumara/kris-sumara-breeze

Video Text:

Hi!   I’m Dave from boyinaband.com!

First things first, I should start with an apology – due to a combination of things, including having to go to Japan last-minute (incidentally – Flybe lost my baggage both there and back.   I’d advise against using them.   Japan airlines, on the other hand, gave me free slippers.   Most useful thing on an 11 hour flight EVER.) and some seriously exciting opportunities for my band, I was unable to do the 7 day song in February.   I’m going to make it up to you guys though – I’ve got some cool news to give you, as well as confirming what genre the next 7 day song will be!

So let’s start with a bit of a Recap – in February, the main boyinaband-ish things that happened are:

- Releasing the first Axe-Fx Tutorial
- Me going to Japan!
- Gaining 500 new subscribers in one month!
- My band You and What Army getting through to the next round of the Red Bull Bedroom Jam (Thanks to you guys!)
- Doing my first one-to-one skype tutoring sessions!

Axe Fx tutorial

As I mentioned in last week’s update, I’ve teamed up with the German axe-fx distributors G66.eu and am putting together a series of tutorials instructing you on the use of the best guitar amp sim I’ve ever had the pleasure of djenting through.

The first tutorial is up now, explaining the very basics of setting up a patch, but I’m in the process of getting a better camera so the picture quality will be much higher, but it shouldn’t be too long before the next videos in the series are up for you to check out!

Japan

Well I tried looking for electronic music gear in the technology capital of the world, but other than a massive advert for Korg above about 3 guitar shops that contained no synths, it was decidedly devoid of the stuff in the places I looked.   But it wasn’t all bad – I went to the Pokemon center while I was there and bought some Lapras Jam.

For those who don’t approve of such geek-like behaviour, just pretend I said something complimentary about your sporting team of choice instead.

Stats time!

the YouTube has jumped up by 500 subscribers in a single month; considering from december to february was a growth of 700, that’s almost double the amount.   Things are really growing here at boyinaband!   Hi to all you new guys – you can expect some new stuff soon; more on that later!

boyinaband.com also broke the 1700 visitors in a day mark in February – which is frickin’ sweet!

The band update!

A few weeks ago I posted a quick request asking you guys to all check out my band on the “red bull bedroom jam” competition and rate us – thanks to all you guys, we won the first round of the competition and played a live gig from my house!   That automatically puts us in with a chance of playing a bunch of massive festivals, so many thanks for that!   You can check out the re-run of the live gig by clicking the link in the description if you’re on youtube, or the link below if you’re on boyinaband.com.

http://redbullbedroomjam.com/band/videos/renegades-feat-feeder-you-and-what-army

In other news, we’re finishing the legal stuff off with a manager we’ve found who is frickin’ awesome – she’s already sorting us out with working with an agent who gets gigs for bands like trivium and bullet for my valentine – big stuff.   It’s seriously exciting, I’m planning on shopping for my rock star shades soon.

Also, as promised last time I’ve got a sound clip from the new EP for you to check out – this is a clip from the unreleased and shiny new song “Nebula” *plays*

I used the Axe-Fx on the guitar.   Compare the quality of that to the quality on the tracks currently on our myspace and you’ll see there’s a frickin’ huge difference.   I’m learning loads by mixing so many songs – that just proves that a great way to learn to be a better producer is to experiment and make as many songs as you possibly can!

One-to-one skype tutoring!

It felt a bit weird at first, but once the novelty of it being a video conference lesson wears off it was just natural – teaching over the internet has become unprecidentedly easy now and I’ve begun lessons with several of you guys – if you’re interested in learning something specific, have a look at the “one-to-one teaching” page under “services” on boyinaband.com for more info send me an e-mail through the “contact” page and we’ll sort something out.

Okay, so that’s February out the way, March will entail…

- A new 7 day song (And I’ll be revealing which genre!)
- More Axe-Fx Tutorials
- The release of You and What Army’s new EP!
- Applying for funding for boyinaband!

7 Day Song

Okay, so the results of the poll on boyinaband.com are in – there were literally only 5 votes in it, but the winner for the 7 day song is “Bassline” – with Psytrance seriously close behind, followed by hardstyle, dirty south, IDM and chilling at the back there was ambient.   I guess the ambient fans were too busy sinking into some massive pads to get voting.

So yeah, I’ll be getting some dirty bass synths and cheesy vocals together in time for this month’s 7 day song!   If you have any bassline songs you’d recommend I check out, post them in a comment, preferably with a link, and I’ll see if I can get some inspiration from them for the kinds of synths to use!

Axe-Fx Tutorials

I’ll be grabbing that new camera and getting some HD videos direct to your internets this month!   I’m thinking about venturing into explaining some of the effects units on offer next.

The End of the Beginning

As you’ll no doubt have surmised from the red bull bedroom jam video, the new YAWA EP is coming out on March 26th.   I’m going to be mixing my ass off (hopefully not literally) in the next couple of weeks to get the thing put together.   Man, with that and the 7 day song, I’m going to be so sick of electronic music by the end of this month that I’m pretty sure I’ll just switch to country music.   …It’d be interesting to try and make a country music song in Reason.

Funding!

I’ve nearly finished putting together the business plan to send off to funding bodies and apply to get money to help take boyinaband to the next level.

If (Actually, let’s be positive and say “When”) the funding arrives, I’ll be getting another guy in on the boyinaband team to do the video editing and that kinda thing – my friend Adam from dudeinadrama.com (he makes a bunch of video tutorials on video effects and software, you should check it out if you have an interest in special effects!) – which means I’ll be free to make more videos!

If you are, for some reason, well-versed in which funding bodies to approach for creative businesses, send me an e-mail or drop me a comment – since I’m going to have to learn that from scratch… man, I wish someone would make a tutorial for it on youtube…

So by April I should be able to tell you about how the funding applications are going!   Exciting times.

Featured artist:

This month’s featured artist from the boyinaband.com forum is DJ Sumara who had some seriously nice uplifting trance I couldn’t help but lie back and enjoy.  My favourite one is the track “Breeze” which you can find on soundcloud at the link in the description in youtube or below if you’re on boyinaband.com.   That lead synth at the start just makes me think of flying through the clouds under the summer sun… but not with flybe.   Never again with flybe.

http://soundcloud.com/krisumara/kris-sumara-breeze

If you want to be the featured artist next month and promote your tunes to over 3000 boyinaband subscribers, head over to the boyinaband.com forum at the oh-so-surprising url www.boyinaband.com/forum and post your music in the “Share your music” section.

As always, make sure you share your opinions on other people’s songs as well, otherwise you won’t be eligible!   I want to encourage friendly constructive criticism

That’s it from me in February 2010 – Hope you enjoy the videos coming up in the next month, and I’ll see you all again for another monthly update at the end of March!   Cheers for watching and have a nice day!

Have you ever compared your mix to a charting single and thought to yourself “How come my mix isn’t that professional sounding?   What have they got that I haven’t?”

Well, apart from the money to pay highly experienced studio engineers to assist them, here’s what else some of the most popular professional producers in the business use to make their hits…

A quick note: Most producers tend to be notoriously defensive about their gear, so these lists are not by any means the entirety of their production suite!

Dr Dre’s Studio Equipment:

5 MPC 3000’s
Pro Tools
ARP String Ensemble
Rhodes
Clavinet

Dre’s Production style remains firmly in the old school; he uses 5 MPCs to lay down the beats (he has 5 because he can’t be doing with changing the disk when he needs different sounds!) which go straight into Pro Tools.

Perhaps surprisingly, he uses a lot of live instrumentation on his productions – even re-recording parts instead of sampling them, as well as some authentic analog synths.

Timbaland’s Studio Equipment:

Korg Triton
Yamaha Motif 7
Ensoniq ASR-10
Yamaha NS10s
Neumann U 87 mic
UREI 1176 compressor
Neve 1076 preamp
Digidesign Pro Tools
Various VSTi software synths

Timbaland is big on his keyboards, getting a considerable amount of his sound from the Triton and Motif 7.

Obviously not one to skimp when it comes to vocals, he combines the £2000 Neumann U87 with his similarly wallet-busting compressor and preamp choices into a crisp, well-produced vocal tracking combo!

Tiesto’s studio Equipment

Andromeda A6
Waldorf Microwave XT
Novation Supernova rack
Access Virus XL
Korg Karma

Tiesto is clearly one who enjoys his hardware synths!   Drawing from all over the place, from the analog Andromeda A6 to the digitized Korg Karma, he’s not afraid to experiment with both sides of the electronic music spectrum!

Pendulum’s studio Equipment

Prophet 10
Z3TA
Alesis Andromeda A6
OSCar
Steinberg Nuendo 4
Mitchell & Todd active monitors
Roll Music stereo compressor

Rob Swire of Pendulum experiments with VSTs, analog synths, vintage synths, digital synths and live instrumentation.   This is one versatile studio setup!   Using the OSCar for dirty basses and soaring leads, A6 and prophet for pads and recording their own drum sounds, they have carved out their sound from a plethora of sources.

Apparently a massive part of their sound is the Roll Music Stereo Compressor, which beefs up their sound considerably!

So as 2009 fades into memory, those of us who feel the need for tradition are looking for some resolutions to follow in the New Year!

Here are 5 suggestions for resolutions that will help improve your productions in 2010…

1. Always take time to EQ correctly

Have you ever found your mixes too muddy or too thin? Taking a long time to go through each layer of the mix and cut out the overlapping frequencies can give each section some space in the mix.

Try concentrating on making the kicks and snares prominent, and then cut the other synths, samples and instruments around that, making sure they don’t have too much harmonic content in the same frequency areas as the main percussion.

2. Try out some new synths and samples.

It can be really easy to fall into a habit of using the same synths and samples all the time (just ask Benny Benassi). Spice things up by trying out some new and exciting samples or spending some time creating a brand new synth effect – making your tracks will feel fresh and fun again!

3. Do some research into music theory.

While some of you might already know the basics, a lot of producers aren’t familiar with music theory – have a quick Google and see what you can find, maybe even take up piano lessons (or other instruments if you’d prefer – you can get MIDI flutes, guitars and even saxophones to record your synth parts with!) and you’ll start to understand why your riffs invoke certain feelings in the listener!

4. Attempt a new genre of music.

This can be a fantastic way to learn a lot of new techniques in a short space of time. Have you not tried out Dubstep yet? Or are you yet to try out some older genres like techno and trance? Give them a try and you’re sure to learn something as you produce!

5. Experiment with new mastering techniques on your tracks.

It’s such a shame that so many producers spend all that time mixing a track only to not master it properly! Make it your resolution to try out some new techniques with mastering the final mix and see if you can polish your tracks up to that professional level!

Things like multi-band compression, harmonic exciters and brick-wall limiters are all plug-ins you might want to try!

So whatever you manage to eat less chocolate, exercise more and manage to kick the habit or not, make sure you give your production ability the attention it deserves!

2009 has been a big year for electronic and computer music.

Have a think back and remember all the things that have changed in your workflow since the year began – all the plug-ins, the new services and even brand new pieces of must-have software.

But what have been the biggest things this year to hit the electronic music scene? Let’s take a look at the Top 5 things to happen to Electronic Music in 2009…

5. DJ Hero

Whatever your opinion of DJ Hero, there is no denying that, much like Guitar Hero before it, it will open its music scene of choice to a massive new audience.

The combination of Pop, Dance and Hip Hop music has thoroughly brought Electronic music to the gaming masses, solidifying a sense of interest in production and, perhaps more importantly, performance of the genre in a whole new generation.

This could have massive repercussions on the electronic music scene – a huge influx of people buying DJ gear as they realise their calling in life requires a mixer and some headphones perhaps? Or a slew of punters rushing to find tutorials on producing music, so that they can be on the sequel?

We’ll have to wait and see!

4. Spotify

Spotify technically launched in October 2008, but in 2009 it went online for free registration rather than invite-only. This resulted in people being able to get a scarily large library of music for absolutely nothing.

This is a huge thing for all music producers – being able to get their music out with a new and exciting platform… or looking out for the newest way to get exploited by a large company. Either way it’s something big.

3. Accurate Pitch Bending

Going into the more technical side of things now, Pitch bending has quite thoroughly evolved.

Gone are the days of chipmunk-style vocals; technological advances this year have allowed us to pitch up several octaves whilst still retaining the natural sound on the vocals, preserving the punch of the percussion or the grit of the guitars.

Scooter will be crying into their pitch-bending plug-in.

2. Flexible Time Stretching

Not only has pitch bending undergone a revolution, time stretching has followed suit, with DAWs now allowing sounds to be stretched beyond recognition… without them actually being beyond recognition.

Software such as Propellerhead’s “Record” and Logic Pro 9 has made it an industry standard that audio can now be manipulated just as easily as MIDI, without tempo being an issue any more.

Hell, some DAWs allow you to not even record to a click track and then can automatically put you in time! Maybe talent would be a thing of the past if it were not for the need to stay in tune…

1. Melodyne DNA

…Or did I speak too soon? Melodyne deserve the top spot thoroughly – they have created software that can analyse an entire song, show you all the notes within it, then allow you to manipulate those notes.

Think of the uses for synth-creation and sample manipulation – being able to grab and change that harmonic overtone in a synth sound without having to spend years EQ-ing a patch to perfection.

This also has massive repercussions elsewhere – remixing will be changed forever; chordal instruments can be pitch (and time) corrected as easily as vocals now, and robots will take over the world.

Okay, perhaps that’s a slight overstatement, but with so many seemingly sci-fi technological advances happening in such a short space of time, it’s easy to lose track of what’s real and what’s not.

If 2009 has shown us anything, there are certainly some changes coming to the music world in the future; that’s for sure.

Music is an intrinsic part of the Christmas spirit.   Carols are sung pretty much the world over and anyone who’s been shopping during December in the past 50 years is sure to relate sleigh bells to a specific month of the year.

But these are old stereotypes – in the past few decades, many songs have been written which are now engrained into the psyche of the public.   How do they do it?   When did this obsession with Christmas pop music begin?

Let’s have a look…

Popular Christmas Music

Popular artists have been making festive music for years and years now, from Paul McCartney to Gwen Stefani.   They don’t have to be religious; In fact, popular Christmas music tends not to be religious, rather focusing on fictional fat men, gift-giving and nasally-outstanding reindeer to attract a wider audience.

Some so-called Christmas music doesn’t even relate directly to Christmas, but have been adopted by the public.   This list includes the massive “Winter Wonderland”, “Let it Snow” and “Jingle Bells”, which was originally written for Thanksgiving!

But while music that sings about Christmas is certainly festive, one undeniably large element of Christmas music is the…

Christmas Number One

This is a pretty much exclusively British phenomenon – where every year, the position of number one in the charts is even more prized than normal during the week before Christmas day.   Quite possibly because the winning single will sell a considerable amount more.   The songs for the most part aren’t anything to do with Christmas, instead either being a huge hit around the time or a novelty song such as “Mr Blobby”.

That said, Band Aid has been the biggest selling Christmas number one with “Do they know it’s Christmas?” after selling over 3.5 million copies with all of the proceeds being donated to charity.

Charity plays a big part in Christmas number ones, with several incarnations of Band Aid, as well as Queen’s second entry into the Christmas number one position with “Bohemian Rhapsody” racking up millions for various charities.

Another method that people are introduced to Christmas music is…

Christmas Movie Soundtracks

A large number of songs have been initially popularised by movies.   “White Christmas” in the movie of the same name, “Holly Jolly Christmas” in an animated special “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Let it Snow!” in “Die Hard” and “Jingle Bell Rock” in “Lethal Weapon” for some examples.

But it’s not just movies that popularise Christmas songs – let’s go back to some of…

The Bigger Christmas Pop Hits

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest hits and see their story.

Slade – Merry Xmas Everybody

This track saved the band Slade – after their drummer, Don Powell, was involved in a car crash, the band was on tenuous ground, but after grouping together and pushing through Powell’s short-term memory loss they wrote Merry Xmas Everybody as the first song they’d recorded layer-by-layer in the studio as opposed to live.

So it was that Slade went on to make horrendous amounts of money and the British Public was “treated” to Noddy Holder’s scream of “IT’S CHRIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAS!” every year since.

Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmastime

As the other Beatles John and George had tried their hand at festive singles, Paul didn’t want to be left out and created his massive hit “Wonderful Christmastime”.   Incidentally, the synth riff was played on a Prophet-5, one of the most popular synths of the time.

Wham! – Last Christmas

The Pop duo Wham! brought out their hit “Last Christmas” for an expected battle for Christmas number one against “Frankie goes to Hollywood”.   However, the “Band Aid” project which Wham! was a part of took the top spot.   It became the biggest selling single ever to not reach the number one spot with over a million sales.

How much money?

So with all this popularity and coveting of the number one position, how much do these songwriters and performers make?   Well, it’s difficult to say, but apparently 1/3 of the money the music industry makes is during the run up to Christmas.

One example I could find was the tune “I’ll be Home for Christmas”, which apparently is number 9 in ASCAP’s “Most performed holiday songs” list.   In 2002-2003, it earned over $18,000 in royalties for the composer.   Not bad considering it was written in 1943!

The Bing Crosby version of “White Christmas” is the biggest selling single of all time, with the Guinness book of records attributing over 100 million sales to it.   It was initially a poor seller, but has been so consistent in the charts ever since that it’s taken the all-time top spot.

So if you’re looking to make some serious money in music, perhaps you should start thinking about what your Christmas hit should be!

So now the rush for the number one chart spot at prime selling time is over, it seems a good time to look back and see what other songs made it to number one over the Christmas period…

10. Tom Jones – Green Green Grass of Home
Sales: 1.2 Million
Date: 1966

A Country song that Tom Jones covered and brought up to Christmas number one, breaking The Beatles’ 3-year run of consecutive Christmas number ones.

9. Whitney Houston – I will always love you
Sales: 1.36 Million
Date: 1992

The second cover in this list, Whitney covered Dolly Parton’s song “I Will Always Love You” and spent 14 weeks at the number 1 spot on the billboard singles chart.

8. Beatles – We Can Work It Out/ Day Tripper
Sales: 1.39 Million
Date: 1965

The world’s first double A-sided single was also a Christmas number one.   The Beatles’ third successive Christmas number one.

7. Beatles – I Feel Fine
Sales: 1.41 Million
Date: 1964

A riffy rock song took the top spot in ‘64 when Lennon reworked a riff from “Eight Days a Week” into a smash hit.

6. Human League – Don’t You Want Me
Sales: 1.43 Million
Date: 1981

The first electronic track to hit this list, the 80s British synthpop group The Human League took the top spot and the single remains their most commercially successful release.

5. Beatles – I Want To Hold Your Hand
Sales: 1.75 Million
Date: 1963

This was the first Beatles song to use a 4 track recorder and to be produced in Stereo.   It was also their first number 1 in America and began the British invasion of the US music charts.

4. Boney M – Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord
Sales: 1.79 Million
Date: 1978

The first song in the list to be related to Christmas, Boney M brought their interpretation of Harry Belafonte’s 1956 hit to the masses with an upbeat pop track that was recorded just a month before it hit the number 1 spot!

3. Wings – Mull of Kintyre
Sales: 2.05 Million
Date: 1977

The first single to be classified “Rhodium” (after “Platinum”), Paul McCartney’s tribute to the place in Scotland that he lived and recorded was the biggest selling single of all time.

2. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody
Sales: 2.1 Million
Date: 1975/1991

Freddy Mercury wrote Queen’s Magnum Opus as something a bit different, with an unusual “mock opera” format that didn’t have any specific chorus.   The public loved it, however, and it shot straight to number one in 1975 and again after Mercury’s Death in 1991.

1. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
Sales: 3.55 Million
Date: 1984

The biggest selling Christmas number 1 ever, Bob Geldof’s brainchild to raise money for famine in Ethiopia brought together some of the biggest selling British and Irish musicians of the time.   From George Michael to Bono, Sting, Kool and the Gang, Status Quo and Boy George among others, the single outsold every other song in the chart put together.   Quite an accolade!

Special Mention: In 2009, Rage against the Machine was the first artist to get in the christmas number one spot through downloads alone with the backing of a facebook group who decided they’d had enough of the X-factor contestants taking the chart year after year.

The “Killing in the Name” campaign was supported by celebrities such as Dave Grohl, Sir Paul McCartney (who actually appeared on the X Factor as well) and the band Muse, as well as comedians Stephen Fry and Bill Bailey.

Just goes to show what you can do with the Internet!

So you’ve just got a new sample pack and you’re looking to do some interesting stuff with them.   Here are 10 suggestions to help you make the most out of your samples…

1. Stutter – Cut up your samples into tiny little pieces and place them next to each other.   Try it with a snare, cutting a 1/32 long slice and repeating it to create a brand new, glitchy, stuttery snare!

2. Filter - Try an extreme high pass above 3khz on a clicky kick drum to turn it into a hi hat, or a band pass on a snare to create some really unusual mid-range electro-percussion!   Filtering opens up a massive range of new sounds.

3. Drastically EQ - Emphasizing usually less prominent frequencies can change the focus of a sample so it sounds entirely different.

4. Cut – Cut a sample short to make it tighter, cut out little sections to give a more interesting, stutter-like effect or even cut out quiet parts of the sample, normalize them and use them as entirely new percussive samples!

5. Distort - Pretty self explanatory, you can seriously change a sample’s tone with some distortion.   It can make it hit harder whilst still maintaining the characteristics of the sound if you’re careful with how much you apply!

6. Layer – Put samples on top of each other to create new ones, really useful for making massive snares.

7. Compress – Make samples much punchier with compression, or add heavy multi band compression to make them feel bigger and give them a completely different tone!

8. Reverse - Not just for build ups; reversed samples, when cut short, can make for some interesting percussion!

9. Pitch Change - Turn your hi hat into a bass drum or your bass drum into a multi-sampled synth! (You can make a great Venga Boys style synth with a hardcore Gabba kick drum pitch shifted!)

10. Slow/Speed up – Get some massive, heavy explosive sounds by slowing a kick drum, or some really sharp Jungley snares from speeding up slower, Hip-Hoppier ones!

This one is an absolute beginners tutorial to get you started with the Axe

Thanks to G66.eu for sponsoring it!

Click here to go to the tutorial!