Band News 30/11/2008

Yesterday wasn´t the best possible day for our band:
- Our show in Bucharest was just "pleasant(12/26.)" and that´s because club didn´t pay our rider! So...thank you very much Screwdriver . (Rock) club, we will never play in your club again! I will remember this and next time we will try to find some other club from Bucharest who can pay our rider! :(
- We did our video for "Broken Dreams" yesterday, but somehow everything went wrong. I don´t know what happened: N. Lyytikäinen was going to be film director of our video and she was there, but game decided that I should be director, I really don´t know why and now our video is worse than it could have been.
- Our rock ranking has gone down again, it´s 259. now.

YouTube 30/11/2008

Well, yesterday I was so busy, that I didn´t have time to post any videos here, but I already had theme ready: goth music and when I´m talking about goth music I usually mean gothic rock! You can thank finnish tv about that idea, last week they had goth music special (I think you can still watch that show from internet at least today, but I don´t know if it works outside of Finland) in tv-program called "Musiikki-tv." So all these bands will have at least some influences in their music or style from goth music.

Cure: A Forest - Live in Japan 1984. This is one of my favorite songs ever!
Lords of The New Church: Russian Roulette
...and Sisters of Mercy deserves 2 songs now:
Sisters of Mercy: This Corrosion
Sisters of Mercy: Temple of Love - TOTP2 show 1992
Bauhaus: In the Flat Field
Well and let´s give this finnish band 2 videos too:
69 Eyes: Gothic Girl
69 Eyeys: Brandon Lee
Fields of The Nephilim: Moonchild

More music than usually, but that´s just because I didn´t post anything here yesterday and there were so many songs I would have liked to include here. Maybe someday there will be part 2....

Bianca´s Diary 29/11/2009

**********************************
Bucarest castle open for gypsies
and friends. Just take a bit garlic
with you. Strangers will be
kicked out. Do not forget to pick
up your items before leaving!

Now I got a drug addiction of 11%
to rise my health for the video movie,
I'm on my way to rehab !
**********************************

Happy Birthday little Lara
All my best wishes for your
1st year and you already
walk. Mum and Dad loves you!

************************************

Rocky Roads 28/11/2008

Again we got something new for you today. We have now rights to publish Rocky Roads comic here every week. Of course you can find it from Popmundo´s It´s Pop magazine, but now you can also find it from here. Thank you one more time Björn Apelen! The best comic of Popmundo world is now here! Also there´s another special comic from Björn, which you can always find from bottom part of this blog. This is different comic and will always be updated automatically when Björn does new one! These comics are not about Popmundo. They are based on music related news from real world.

....and don´t forget to check Björn´s website! You can find all older comics from there.

Bianca´s Diary 28/11/2008

**********************************

What a joy Matti is here.
I got a little sunshine overnight.
52 cm high and 3,6 kg.

************************************

YouTube 28/11/2008

Today is really special day for me and Bianca. From Bianca´s diary: The joy, the joy... Today I got the cutest little son! So we have now son in Popmundo World! This is my first baby in Popmundo, so I´m really happy! :) Actually now I should list some party songs, because that is something I would like to do now, but I just want to listen to some beautiful songs again, because this is so beautiful day. These songs are here, because they got nice melodies, words of these songs really don´t have anything to do with today.
Scorpions: Send Me An Angel (I was trying to find that official video, but YouTube keeps saying:"This video is not available in your country.)
Cinderella: Don´t Know What You Got Till It´s Gone - live
Xandria: Eversleeping
Nightwish: Sleeping Sun

Well...maybe one party song!
Kiss: Rock n Roll All Night

Bianca´s Diary 27/11/2008

**********************************
Oooooh!!! Labour pains! It is time!
OFF TO THE HOSPITAL!!! Can someone please call an ambulance?!
): Oh I am really not in the mood
to get through this **** again and I
am far away from my lovely midwife, I
expected a vampiric baby to be born
in Bucarest. Just give me a bottle
of vodka.

How silly is this programme, I am
on stage with labour pains?

**************************************

YouTube 27/11/2008

Tonight I thought I will continue with bands from UK. It seems that most of music that I like come from UK or Finland. So here´s some nice songs from UK:
Duran Duran: Come Undone
Quireboys: Hey You
New Model Army: No Rest - Live 1985

Well, there has been at least 9 songs from UK this week, so it really shows how much I love music from there!

Band News 27/11/2008

Our Vilnius gig last night was "good(13/26)." It could have been "sweet(14/26)", but when I booked that gig I forget one thing, which I should always remember to check: how much is amount of electricity, which club can give for a band. That club didn´t have enough electricity for all of our stage equipment, so we lost couple of stars and got worse review than we could have gotten, if we could have used all our equipment. Most clubs have enough electricity, but you should always remember to check how much your band´s stage equipment needs electricity and can club provide it.

Now some stats about our record sales:

We are Not Angels(Full lenght album)
- release date: 22.10.2008, review: 4 stars
- copies sold last week: 11,982. Income for us: 111,433€
- copies sold until today: 135,108. Income for us: 1,256,504€

Raining(single)
- release date: 01.10.2008, review: 4 stars
- copies sold last week: 2265. Income for us: 4915€
- copies sold until today: 694,234. Income for us: 1,506,488€

Carola Landvogt(single)
- release date: 05.08.2008, review: 4 stars
- copies sold last week: 294. Income for us: 638€
- copies sold until today: 649,486. Income for us: 1,409,385€

Devil Woman(single)
- release date: 17.06.2008, review: 4 stars
- copies sold last week: 76. Income for us: 160€
- copies sold until today: 803,395. Income for us: 1,687,130€

Dead Rockstar(Full Length album)
- release date: 22.04.2008, review: 4 stars
- copies sold last week: 0
- copies sold until today: 336,874. Income for us: 3,031,866€

I Never Sleep(single)
- release date: 18.03.2008, review: 5 stars!
- copies sold last week: 0
- copies sold until today: 791,930. Income for us: 1,663,053€

Midnight Rock(single)
- release date: 29.01.2008, review: 4 stars
- copies sold last week: 0
- copies sold until today: 291,241. Income for us: 611,606€

Icehockey(single)
- release date: 17.10.2007, review: 2 stars
- copies sold last week: 0
- copies sold until today: 4,207. Income for us: 8,098€

Brandy and Beer(single)
- release date: 02.05.2007, review: 2 stars
- copies sold last week: 0
- copies sold until today: 450. Income for us: 866€

So last week we sold 14,617 records and earned 117,146 euros from those records.
Until today we have sold 3,706,925 records and earned 26,174,996 euros.

These stats might be boring for everyone except me, but I just wanted to count them, because I wanted to know how many records we have sold together and how much money we have made(where did all that money went???) I promise not to do this counting every week so this blog doesn´t get too boring, but maybe I should count these figures once/6 months.

...and as you can see you can really learn to play Popmundo, if you just spend some time with this. I started as solo artist, getting 2 stars reviews and selling almost no records. Then I found something very important for me: I found SNGU, which has helped me more than anything in this game. I got lot of friends from game and started to write with couple of them. Before that I had just been playing this game alone. Those new friends and SNGU gave me enough tips and self-assurance, so I started to learn how to play Popmundo and now you can see some of those results from our stats....

YouTube 26/11/2008

Tonight I thought, that I will show everyone how well violin can be used in rock bands. I just love that instrument! Normally it´s not part of rock bands, but some use it and use it really well as you can see, if you check these links.
Couple of songs from Levellers, which is really energetic, specially as live band.
Levellers: Liberty Song
Levellers: 15 Years
Levellers: Riverflow

Bianca´s Diary 26/11/2008

It is deserted in the streets
of Tallinn only some blood spot
remember the massacre.

Is somebody infected by the
zombie virus so pm me. If
I am in a good mood I might
cure you. No fear, I have
an appointment at the
dentist soon.

to all my friends:
Have a nice day

Will be teaching a skill
to Moriah and I forgot
to whom I had to teach
pharm. Then I should
really focus on my music
career.

Band News 25/11/2008

- Our gig last night in Tallinn was "Sweet(14/26.) Congratulations for us! :) We played following tracks for the first time: "Babyblues" song made by Bianca, "Broken Dreams" and "Sad Paradise."
- Our rock ranking is now going up again and it´s 238.

YouTube 25/11/2008

It´s "Day of the Death" in Popmundo world, so I will post some "zombie" songs:

The Cramps: Zombie Dance
The Cranberries: Zombie - live
Zombie Ghost Train: R.I.P.
The Misfits: Astro Zombies

I don´t personally like this "Day of the Death" part in this game, but I guess some younger players might like. I like these bands, but somehow hunting zombies in game, which should be about music is not what I personally want to do.

Bianca´s Adventures 25/11/2008

Lurking in the shadows

Night is all around. No one can see me,
Lurking in the shadows.

Stealthy as a cat, silent as a bat
Lurking in the shadows.

A scent floats by, rousing my hunger.
A movement, a pounce, out of the shadows, onto the prey.

It's in me, it fills me, it satifies me.

Bianca´s Diary 24/11/2008

Warning:
to all my friends the creatures
of the night, the immortals without
a soul!
I saw zombie hunters around
with their weapons charged.
Don't let you get you!

so so zombie hunters can be infected
by zombie virus - evil grin!
(will only cure my personal friends
and gypsies depending on my mood)

YouTube 24/11/2008

I begin this morning again with The Gathering and some My Dying Bride....so more slow songs:
The Gathering: In Motion II - from their Live DVD called "A Sound Relief" (2005)
My Dying Bride: For You
My Dying Bride: She is The Dark
Doom or be Doomed - someone´s compilation of some doom bands, beautiful songs!

Read more >> Options >>

Bianca´s Adventures 23/11/2008

My Norvegian adventure in English-German

Tromsoe adventure a real flog
----------------------------
I was supposed to catch a bat to boost one single hard rock song on stage. As I finally arrived to hell all bats flew away scared of my presence. I came back from an health decreasing 8 hours journey with empty hands.

Enter a weathered wooden door at Prostnet bus station and you will find yourself on the highway to hell. A rocky area at a precipice. The sparkling blue of the Fjord in the depths.
...
Life away from city is good for me. Look my abs are getting toned!
): I am pregnant short before delivery and I feel only a pain in my tighs and ass

I could really use a bite to eat... this hunger is killing me
): Tachsi's coffee saved my life. Thank you!

A horse named Sherazade sniffed at me
): No snuggling... only my horse nibbled at my ear

After an ardous journey through lands little known, I arrived in Prostneset
): What a delusion, no vampires, no devil

(Written by Bianca Leanza)

All for one, one for all

Pink Poison died together
with Jann XXX and resurrected
as Black Nightshade.

The decision to join Trevor's
band took me a while but since
you are my best penpal in here
I think I own you that and it
is also best for Pink Poison
who played medicore concerts
after more then a year in
popworld. I am looking forward
to rock with you Pekka and
Trevor. We will be big rockstars.

Bianca Leanza

Band News 23/11/2008

Well, something happening tonight:
- Our second gig together will be tonight here in Helsinki.
- Our rock ranking is goind down! :( I don´t why, but it´s now 248. Maybe we would need that new single to get ranking going up again. Gigs have been good lately....
- Well, it seems that it isn´t good idea to eat oyesters so much anymore. Me and Bianca both had our mood going down after eating them so much.

Something I did yesterday:
- I recorded 1 track with "Lauren of the Land" yesterday. Track is called "One Two Three." I produced it and played also some guitar. :)

YouTube 23/11/2008

This is something I was listening yesterday evening from cd:
Suede: The Asphalt World
Poisonblack: The Days Between - (from their new album "A Dead Heavy Day") - just audio and picture of band.
Sentenced: Sun Won´t Shine (from their live DVD "Buried Alive")

AND this is really the most beutiful song of all these, just listen it to the end, because it´s about 10 minutes long and has really many various parts, you even have to listen about 5 minutes until one of the most beautiful vocal parts in whole world begins:
The Gathering: Sand & Mercury (If you are lazy and just want to listen that vocal part, follow this link, but it´s live performance, so vocals aren´t so good! (That cd version is so much better!) Gathering´s cds called "Mandylion" and "Nighttime Birds" are something that everyone who likes to listen to atmospheric metal with women vocals should buy! Nowadays The Gathering is more pop band than metal, but 10 years ago when those records were made they still had their metallic guitars with them. They started with male vocalist, this is song from their first album.

Band News 22/11/2008

- Our first gig together last night was "Sweet(14/26)," so we are good!!!! :) I also think that Pekka got his first 3 star show last night. Congratulations!
....and we will be even better soon. We just have to learn how to play our instruments! :)
- Our new single is now ready to be released. We just have to do video for that.

Something new here!

We have now new band and there will be also something new here. I thought that I will start to add some of my favorite YouTube videos here everyday. Just couple of songs/day. I don´t know if somebody will watch those, but it will be interesting for me to collect them all here and maybe someone can sometimes find some new music. I think I can say that I have broad taste in music....I can listen to everything from 80´s hits to black metal, so there should be something for everyone. Of course you will notice that I have my favorite bands!

Also our new member Bianca Leanza has promised that she will write something here about Bianca´s adventures. We will see what we get here!?!?!

YouTube 22/11/2008

Couple of songs today:
Hanoi Rocks: A Day Late, A Dollar Short (Live 2004, Ankkarock, Vantaa, Finland)
Pink: So What (Official Video)
Sandra: various songs mixed together.

Band News 21/11/2008

Really important and BIG news tonight:
- There is no more band called "Jann XXX." This blog will continue, because there´s some part of our band´s history and couple of nice articles about Popmundo.
- Also Bianca Leanza´s band called "Pink Poison" died last night.
- Bianca is my best friend in this game, so I think we can really have good band together!
- Our band´s new name is "Black Nightshade." Black Nightshade is poisonous plant, so we thought that it could be good name for rock band.

....and now rest of our band´s news:
- Tonight we´re going to record a-side of our next single here in Stockholm.
- Rock ranking tonight: 225.
- Our FIRST gig tonight together!!!!!!!! :)
- I produced track called "Gabba Gabba" for band called "Lauren of the Land."

Band News 19/11/2008

- Leo Reema is now out of our band. I´m really sorry, but we need active members in our band, not someone who even hasn´t logged in for almost 2 weeks! Also we would need to get our new single and video ready, but it´s impossible to do those if we´re missing one member all the time.
- Well....maybe we will find a new member very soon.... :)

Band News 17/11/2008

- Our rock ranking is still going up: it´s now 227!
- Waiting to get our new single out, I just need to do that 1 song.... :)
- ....and after couple of weeks I can start to do our videos myself....

I can´t Sleep....too many ideas. :)

I Couldn´t sleep, so I will have to write something now about our future plans.

So I will just write some finnish now, otherwise I couldn´t write anything very well. :)

...and this is in finnish, but I will try to translate this later:
..............................................................................................
Meidän Bändille:

Trevor...elikkä minä:
- Seuraava tehtävä ois saada tuo meidän sinkun a-puoli valmiiksi, joten yritän keskittyä nyt siihe. Kunhan se on valmis, niin alan opettelemaan "Valokuvauksen perusteet" ja sen jälkeen ois vuorossa: "Filmien tuottaminen," jotta olisi ainakin yks tyyppi aina valmiina tekemään meille mahd. hyvän videon.

Leo: Leon tehtävä ois saada ensin tuo rumpujen soitto haltuun, hyvää rumpalia ollaankin etsitty jo pitkäään....ja kuntoilu on varmaankin tärkein ominaisuus pitää hyvänä, jotta keikat sujuu. "Näyttelemisen perusteet" pitäs saada kanssa 5 tähteen, jotta saadaan tehtyä sitten se mahd. hyvä video.

Toivomus ois kanssa, että kerran päivässä kerkeäisit sitten näilläkin sivuilla käydä, jotta aika ei menisi hukkaan. 5-15 min....ihan sen verran vaan, jotta oot oikeassa paikassa tekemässä oikeita juttuja oikeaan aikaan. :) Eihän tuo tietty onnistu edes multa aina: kukaan ei voi olla täällä 24/7/365. :) Varsinkin kun nyt on tuo P.Amerikan kiertua menossa, niin se on entistä vaikeampaa. No kohta ollaan taas Euroopassa.

Pekka: oot kokoajan oppinut lisää ja lisää tästä pelistä ja hyvin menee. Seuraavaksi pitäs kanssa opetella "Näyttelemisen perusteet" 5 tähteen. Sen jälkeen voit ihan itse päättää, minkä haluat toiseksi soittimeksi: Piano, syntikat vaiko akustinen kitara?

....videot, kukaan ei vielä tunnu tietävän kuinka tärkeä osa tästä tulee tässä pelissä, mutta yritetään nyt kuitenkin tehdä niin hyvä kun voidaan.

Biisien nauhottaminen on jo aika helppoa: kunhan nauhotuksen alussa saa syötyä ostereita, niin paljon, että hahmon fiilis on 100%, niin lopputuloksen pitäs olla 21/26!. Varmaankaan ei keretä nauhottataan tuota uutta biisiä nimeltään "Broken Dreams(...ja tää biisi on muistona TAAS edesmenneelle Hanoi Rocksille)" ennenkun päästään takas Eurooppaan ja löydetään paras mahdollinen studio.

Siitä biisien tekemisestä muuten vielä pari juttua: hahmon "Health" pitäs olla 100% kun alkaa tekemään uutta biisiä ja parhaat biisit syntyy kuulemma hotellissa tai jossain kämpässä. Sama sääntö koskee myös sen biisien teon lopettamista. Ja meidän keikkasettiin ei sovi biisit, jotka on alle tuon 21/26.....

Tää juttu on nyt kirjoitettu pikkusen väsyneenä, joten sori, jos tänne tuli jotain virheitä. Yritän parennella ja ehkä kääntää tämän myös enkuksi kunhan on vähän virkeämpi olo. :) Mikäli jollain on jotain lisättävää, niin mielellään otan lisäyksiä vastaan! Pitäs olla läppäri, niin vois tuossa nopeammin lisäillä juttuja sitä mukaan kun niitä mieleen tulee. Ei vaan nukuta, joten tällänen näpyttely ois just omiaan tällä hetketkellä....

....ja kysymyksiä saa laittaa, mikäli jokin mieltä askarruttaa???
-----------------------------------------------------------
And something in english:

Our plans:
- We got 1 song ready for our new single and we will soon record another one & video....
- ....and who cares about our blog, maybe I should just write finnish.

Band News 09/11/2008

Everything is going great! We recorded b-side for our next single here in L.A. and our rock ranking is still going up. It´s now 248!!!! I also helped Bianca Leanza to
record new single, I hope it will be great too!

The basic of a Musical Career and SNGU by A. Tachtsi

Thank you Annette for giving me this article here.... :)

THE BASICS OF A MUSICAL CAREER and SNGU

by Annette Tachtsi

The way that goes up in the charts is a crooked one. If you do the right moves at the right time, you'll overtake even the fastest, one by one. But I find it useful to state the first rule now "Be patient. This is a marathon, not a sprint."

I should say in advance that this article contains both known facts and my inferences depending on my own experiences and observations. The latter of course shouldn’t be taken as facts, please consider them only as hypotheses and things that should be verified by your own experiences. Trial and error is the best way to learn.

Although the target of this guideline is the beginners, it may also help you to remind some points you may be overlooking. It is a pretty long article, I won’t blame you if you get bored reading it :) But you know how it is; once you start an idea leads another.

Your Musical Career:

To start a musical career you should either create an artist or join a band. As soon as you feel ready, you should create your artist and start touring around the world with your band. Some prefer to skill up first and then start the world tour, but the sooner the better. Your artist can not gain fame without regular shows. Make a tour plan to include all the cities in 56 days; a Popyear. Until you learn to manage your health and mood, it would be acceptable to give a show every 2 or 3 days. Do not visit a city more than once in 56 days; it won't help your fame further.

The skills that should be learned and improved as soon as possible are;

1) The skill related to your genre

2) Basic Yoga or Basic Martial Arts (to be able to manage your health & mood)

To improve the skill related to your genre is of crucial importance. It will help

a) Practicing fully and faster your songs

b) Making better records

c) Doing better the genre events in your shows

I will be mentioning the importance of these three things later on.

You will have to choose two stage roles for yourself (like lead singer / bas guitarist) and improve the related skills. You should give priority to the first stage role you choose, after the last tweaks its importance is greater than the secondary role. When composing your songs you should include your stage roles as dominant instruments of the song. If you are a crowded band, it's better to add the first stage roles of the members as the dominant instruments you choose while composing. Do not use instruments other than your stage roles on your songs; it will decrease the performance you’ll get from the song on your shows.

Give your newbie and experience points to your IQ and Musical Talent. Do not waste them on improving your mood and health. The better your IQ is, the faster you learn and teach skills. The better your musical talent is, the better you compose songs and record tracks. When these two are maxed (my advice is increasing your IQ first), then you may want to use your XP’s on other attributes. I would recommend increasing your charms after these, but it's your choice. You can raise your looks with plastic surgeries in the future when you have enough money. The XP’s can also be used to improve skill or compose songs. But their effect is lower than one update you spend on these. Once all your attributes are perfect, you will be using your XP’s for composing or improving a skill. An XP’s effect is higher when spend on the first * of a skill and decreases gradually. So it’s a good idea to use them for the first 2*s. They don’t work above 5*s. The only way to go beyond 5* you will have to teach the related skill, which will be mentioned later on.

The most important thing in your shows is the quality of your songs. Without being able to compose high quality songs, you won't be able to raise much your show ratings. You should improve basic lyrics and basic composing skills to be able to compose better songs. Adding one or two advanced composing skills (composing crowd-pleasers, composing floor fillers etc.) to these is believed to be helpful in composing good songs. It is also believed that using the same subgenre on every song will hurt the quality of the songs you compose next, that’s why people prefer to skill up in two advanced composing skills. I am not sure of this though, it may be a superstition.

The popularity of the song you play on your shows affects its rating. Once you start playing a fresh song, its rating will be rising in time as its popularity rises and starts to decrease as the song wears. When the popularity bar is read, it’s time to replace this song with a new one.

You will have to cover songs until you are able to fill your repertoire with your own songs. Remember, the 3*s you get from your own song is better than 3*s you get from a cover. But, you have to use them for a while to start your musical career as soon as possible. It’s not a shame to cover songs; even the best musicians you see around once did this. Besides you won’t be able to compose high quality songs at the very beginning, so the best way is to use covers.

The quality and the popularity of the cover song you add to your repertoire determine the performance you get from it on your shows. But don't fill your repertoire with high popularity songs, their popularity will be decreasing soon. Try to choose the high quality songs from top bands’ newly released singles, their popularity will be raising soon. However you may want to add also a couple of songs having high popularity to use as encores. You may check radio charts for this. When your artist power bar gets to 100%, you can use it to full the practice of all the songs in your repertoire. But until then, you will have to do long jamming sessions. Once you fully practice all the songs in your repertoire, then it will be enough to jam every 2-3 days. Actually while I have been writing this article a new tweak came which made the practice of the songs longer so most probably it would be enough to jam once a week from now on.

Another thing that you should pay attention while choosing the covers you'll use is the dominant instruments used in them. Try to choose the songs that have or include your own stage roles as dominant instruments; it may not be easy to find high quality songs having only your stage roles as dominant instruments but at least try.

How to design a show:

Add 8 - 14 songs to your play list. The # of events you use shouldn’t be more than the songs on the play list. If you have, say 10 songs in your play list then use at most 12 events. 10 songs - 10 events or 10 songs - 11 events will be a good choice. If you use more, than the system will give you a penalty and say you haven't played enough songs on the show. The common belief is it's better to align your set list in a one event-one song or two events-two songs order in order to keep the audience pleasure high. When you play 13 songs, the system message says that you played enough songs on the show, but I haven't observed a big benefit of it. If you are using covers it will be easier to put 13 songs but when it comes to your own songs, playing 10 songs of your own is better than playing 10 songs + 3 covers.

It is announced that the new system gives a bonus to your show performance if you use genre events. At the beginning using generic events would be beneficiary for you, since there are some that don't require specific skills. Basic Showmanship skill will help you doing these events better. As you raise your skills, use all of the events of your own genre. This will make 6 events, you’ll need to add 6 more events to them (depending on the # of songs you play as mentioned before). If you have another genre skill, I advise to use this genre’s events. This is not a proven fact but I believe the effect of them are like genre events => other genre events > generic events. The system may be working in two ways, whether genre events are slightly rated higher (which is not visible all the time, you see there 3*s but it may be getting 3.5*s) or the effect of the rating a genre event gets helps further in the final performance.

Another recent tweak made the stage events that require 2 skills to be rated higher compared to the events that require one skill. It makes sense, since you will have to work harder to get a higher rating from a one-skill event. And also crowded bands are now rated lower compared to soloists in stage events.

There are not absolute facts in this thing, you will have to try many different set lists like a puzzle until you find the one that best fits your current skills and keep going to revise it as you continue to improve different skills. Check their ratings after every show and be sure to order both the songs and events from worst to best. Cranking up the volume near the end of the show is a good idea, but don’t forget to wear your ear plugs :) If not, this will end up with tinnitus which will hurt your health a little. The spectacular stage entrance also is one of the events you may want to use; it gets good rating when playing at high ambition.

The system will allow you to add encores after you leave the stage if the audience pleasure is high enough. The lower your city fame is, the higher your chance to do 2 - 3 encores is. Don't be shy; give the audience what they want. The most important thing is, your next encore should be better than your previous one (quality and the popularity step in here.) If the originality of the song you choose as an encore is too low, there is a chance that the audience doesn’t like it.

Boosted Shows:

Boosted shows raise your show rating 1 to 2 levels. You need to have some fuel on your artist power bar to be able to do it. Your power bar’s percentage rises a little every day, and after better shows it fills up faster. Your first single and album helps a lot too.

There are two ways to boost a show:

1) Setting performance ambition to Boosted: It gives a general boost on your show. It needs 100% filled power bar.

2) Boosting audience mood as a special event on your show: It is a stage event that can be added to your set list. A percentage above 50% or so would be enough to do it. If you have a nearly full power bar you will be able to use it in two consecutive shows. It’s better to place this event near the end of your show, it’s a 6* event. The best way is to place it in between your encores if you play two or after your last encore if the audience still chants for more. As you start getting 6*s from your encores I guess it doesn’t differ much whether you place it before or after them. It is something that should be tested.

It’s a good idea to save your option of boosting a show to a competition you may win.

Song Writing:

As stated earlier, whether you like it or not, you will have to compose songs. First to release singles and albums, this will be mentioned later on, and second for good shows. The importance of your musicality and the related skills has been mentioned earlier. Another thing that you should pay attention is your health and mood while starting a new song and while composing. The common belief is that the engine takes them as parameters while you start a new song. People also believe that the place where you get your update affects the song’s quality. The Popmundo help section says it’s a good idea to stay at a home or at a hotel while composing. The only thing I can tell as a fact is that you get higher progress on the bars when you compose at home or at a hotel. Other things are hypotheses but you won’t lose anything if you start the song with high health and mood, especially health.

You may want to get some seeds to improve the quality of your songs. You may get them by busking, partying all night at a club or by horoscopes. Busking hurts both health and mood and partying all night hurts health.

You need some *s in basic astrology skill in order to use zodiacs. Or your friends may produce some horoscopes for you. Once you get “It’s a good time for songwriting” notice, there is a chance that you get a seed at the 24^th, 48^th or 72^nd hour after if you are composing. I also believe whether you get a seed or not, getting that notification from a horoscope may be improving the quality of the song you are composing. It doesn’t have a negative effect definitely so do it.

Seeds improve the quality but hurt the originality of the songs. The originality of the song comes to play if you will use them as encores. The higher, the better. Try to use the seeds while they are fresh. Their quality and hence the effect they may give drops in time.

Stage Skills:

After you are done with the genre skill, instrument skills and composing skills, I recommend giving priority to the following ones (I assume you’ll have 5* basic manners after completing the Mother/Newbie Tour)

- Basic Showmanship: It will help you in generic events. Its effect has lessened but it’s still an important skill

- Basic Sex Appeal: It definitely helps you on stage.

Basic Makeup will also increase your stage performance, it helps increasing your looks before your shows. The common belief is Basic Fashion, Basic Dancing and Basic Modeling are the other skills that have a general influence on the stage performance. But I think improving these 3 skills can be postponed at a later time. I think checking your genre events and start improving the skills they require is more important.

Stage Equipment:

Buying stage equipment will enhance your show performance up to 2 levels. I recommend to wait until you buy a tour bus big enough to get 4* stage equipment. A rating below 4* won’t help much. You will need at least a Noisy Old Lorry to be able to put 5* stage equipment in. You will have to renew your equipment when they wear.

There are other combinations but here is a list of 5* equipment:

1 Stroboscope 800W

10 Loudspeaker 2000W 20,000W

4 Subwoofer 2000W 8,000W

2 Thunder Stormer 4000W 8,000W

2 Bubble Machine 250W 500W

2 Foam Cannon 2000W 4,000W

1 Backdrop with Band Logo - Supersize (Black) 3,000W

5 Supersize Rack 7500W 37,500W

1 Projector with canvas 500W

1 Plasmascreen 500W

2 Smoke Machine 500W 1,000W

1 Advanced Light Control System 3,000W

1 Deluxe Sound Mixing Table 2,000W

4 Large Monitor Speaker 2,000W

Total: 90,800W

Be sure to book your shows at clubs with a power capacity equal to or higher than your stage equipment’s.

Artist Crew:

As soon as you can afford one, hire a publicist. He will help you increasing your market shares. You will need a roadie per 10K watt of your stage equipment. So if you have a 5* stage equipment you will need to hire 10 of them. Personal assistants are believed to help decreasing the health loss you get after your shows. So it’s a good idea to hire one as soon as possible.

Complete others in time as your artist have enough cash. Try to keep their mood on perfect with weekly bonuses.

Riders:

Add all as they keep unlocked. Contact with club owners or CEO’s to agree on paying them. Non paid riders will hurt your show rating.

Competitions & Hype:

Hype is the bar near your band’s name on the rankings and it is filled as you participate and win competitions where you compete with at least 10 bands. If there are less than 10 bands that completed the competition it serves nothing. Winning competitions also further help your city fames. There are 3 types of competitions classified on the # of bands playing

Local Showdown: 10 – 20 Bands

National Competition: 20 - 30 Bands

World Championship: More than 30 Bands

The hype that you get when you win a world championship is bigger than that of a national competition and the same is true for national competitions and local showdowns.

So what is hype? Why do I need to win competitions? Hype helps you rise among your competitors, but its effect is temporary, I mean it is consumed to keep you where you are or to move you up, you will need to refuel it to get advantage of it.

Do not join competitions until you have high enough show performance.

Records & Singles & Albums:

You should have a contract to be able to release any singles / full length albums. You should give importance to the references of the record company you’ll choose, check out the current bands signed with their studios. The share you have on the contract is of secondary importance compared to the experience of the company you choose. A share around 55-65% is reasonable. Don’t jump on high share contract offers.

You won't be able to sell singles in cities where you have less than dreadful fame. And you may only raise your city fames by touring. When you have dreadful fame in 4-5 cities, it's time for you to release your first single. And when the first one is released, you should continue to release one every 4 weeks. The best time to release singles is the 22nd and the 50th days of the Popo year. 50th day of the year is the Christmas week and the album sales are boosted this day. Although Santa Claus won't be running around that much anymore as he used to do in the past (before they tweaked the Christmas sales was 50% boosted), they say that there will continue to be a slight bonus, which I guess is in between 5-10% depending on what I observed after the first sales the tweak went live.

In order to be able to release singles and full length albums, you have to record your tracks. Make sure that the practice of the song is 100% and choose the best studio your artist can afford. Your record company will be providing you discounts on their studios depending on your contract. You will most probably using them for free. The genre strength of the studio is not as important as the quality of the locale. If you can find a high quality studio with a strong genre strength of your own genre, of course that is preferable.

Another important factor that affects the final quality of the record is your mood at the end of the session. Use plates of oysters or fancy meal to fill your mood bar temporarily. Low health may be hurting it also.

It is very important to find a record producer to be present in the studio while recording your track. You may find 5* & 10* record producers list on the forums and may ask them helping you out. There are also studios that provide 10* record producers, but they are usually expensive; you may be able to use them after your artist has enough cash. They are usually located at crowded cities and you will recognize them by their names like “XX 10 Record Producer”.

Now it's possible to invite producers to the recording sessions, but it's enough for him / her to be present at the studio before the end of the record session. The recording system is tweaked recently to make the related genre skill of the producer to be important. So if you are a crowded band, it will be a good choice to make one of your band mates to have the production skill. If the producer is not a band mate it’s better not to invite the producer if he/she doesn’t have at least 5* in your genre skill. My observations are for now this system doesn't work properly, which I hope will be fixed up soon. Then I will come back and revise this part :)

Another thing that you should pay attention while releasing your single is to ensure that your songs have higher popularity compared to their fame in the release time. A popularity around 15% - 20% (be careful I'm talking about fresh songs, I mean the songs whose popularity is rising not decreasing) will be best for your sales. You may raise the popularity of your songs in 2 ways

1) Playing them at your shows (Play the songs to approximately 40-50K audience)

2) Releasing videos

3) Both

Depending on your contract, your record company will pay the costs of one or two of the videos you filmed. (How to film a video will be mentioned later on). A good video will raise the popularity of your songs to around 15-20% in 4-5 days. An above average video used to give 5% 3% 2% 2% 1% popularity rise consecutively per day during the 5 days after it is released. After the video tweak these percentages are a bit lower. I will note them and revise this part in the future.

Trial and error and observation are the best ways to find the best popularity / fame ratio that should be used. And also contact your record company; they will give you some good advice about it.

Last thing I should add about the videos is the common belief is releasing a video for the A side of your single will also slightly help your single sales. You may release two videos as well but this wont help further with the sales. It will only help raising the song’s popularity. And videos also help your songs to enter the radio charts (don’t worry I’ll mention the radio charts just after this topic), since the popularity of the song is a parameter here with its quality. Talk to your record company if you want to release a second video, the usual practice is your first video’s releasing cost is paid by your record company.

The subgenre (the one you are selecting after your genre while adding your songs to your repertoire) of the tracks released on singles affects your market segment popularity. Check out the current subgenre popularities of your genre from the community section and use the popular ones for your singles. You may want to use other subgenres for the additional tracks in your albums to raise your low market segment popularities.

Be sure to send your single a reasonable time before the time you want it to be released. Contact your record company about this issue. In the beginning 10 days would be enough to order enough copies but as your fame grows, you will need more than 3 weeks for that.

Albums:

The full length albums should be released every 4 months. Release one as soon as you have 8-12 songs recorded. You need at least 8 songs but releasing the album with 12 songs will be the best. You will already be composing 8 songs during 4 months to release a single once in a month. You should add 4 new songs to these. This will also help you keeping your repertoire fresh.

The quality of the tracks in the albums has a crucial importance. The popularity is not a parameter here but the fame is.

Releasing singles and albums is very important to rise in the lists. Especially releasing albums on time is almost a must if you want to play to the top.

Finally, whether it’s a single or an album, you shouldn’t release it before the specified time, i.e. you should wait 4 weeks to release your next single and 2 months to release your next album. The only exception to that are multiple releases. Some bands prefer to release multiple singles at a time in order to release all their tracks with singles (remember you should release an album every 2 months and add 4 additional tracks to the ones you released with singles which are practically not used in singles) to ensure all of their tracks are played on radios.

Radio Charts:

Only tracks that are released on singles are played on radios. And your tracks that are played on the radios affect your ranking. I mentioned earlier that some people prefer to do multiple releases to ensure all of their tracks enter the radio charts. The quality and the popularity are the criteria that determine whether a song will be played on radios or not and its ranking. On the other hand, videos help your tracks to be picked up since they raise the popularity. This is the idea behind releasing videos for both of your songs in the single. But the quality of the videos you release is important for your career (in what way? not know yet), i.e. you will have to spend your updates on rehearsing the scenes. So you need to specify a strategy here.

Filming a Video:

You will want to find a director while filming your video. It will help the quality. If you can not find one, choose bus stations or airports of the crowded cities, it’s highly probable that there is someone with the required skills there who will automatically be assigned as a director at the end of the session. Just as the record producers tweak, now it’s important that the one directing your video has your genre skill. Again, if you are a crowded band, you may assign one of your band mates to become a record producer and another one a video director.

And the new tweaks made it almost a must to rehearse videos you film if you are a successful band. Unrehearsed videos will hurt your artist and won't help you much. I still don’t know in which way they will hurt cause I haven’t released any crappy videos nor I saw someone doing it, I even don’t know whether this implementation has been made yet cause they said in the community “In a couple of weeks it will also be bad for your career to release crappy music videos” a couple of weeks ago.

You should set your priority rehearsing scenes and select the scene you want to rehearse afterwards. Do not forget to select the scene if you don’t want to lose updates. Try to stay at home while rehearsing scenes; you may use Youth Hostels (check English General Forum Thread # 721962.1) while rehearsing during the tour. Cause you get 9% rise in your practice bar when you get the update at an apartment and 6% rise per update everywhere else.

Improving your Basic Acting skill will help you to get better performance on the videos. This skill also helps some of the events you use on your shows, so it is on my “To Improve” list.

Media Coverage:

This is a new concept introduced during the last tweak storm. You will have to spend a portion of your updates to talk to media to increase your coverage in cities you visit which will play an important role in your single sales. Again, since this is a new tweak not in effect yet, I will come back and revise its effect on single sales afterwards. Basic Media Manipulation skill will bring some benefit while talking to media and the band leader should be talking to media more often. There are also other advanced skills that will be helpful, which I suppose are not effective yet.

You will have to make a good plan on how much of your updates you’ll spend on talking to media depending on your strategy. If you are a beginner, my advice is to give your priority to improve skills and compose songs for a world tour or two. You are never done with skills, there are always new ones to improve but when you are done with basic ones and your band’s fame starts to grow, then you should use some of your updates to talk to the media if you want strong sales, which I think you would want since I guess you are eager enough to be successful that you have read this article until here and still survive.

Artist Cash:

Do not withdraw it. You will need every cent in the very beginning. Save them to be able to buy a tour bus, it will make things a lot easier while traveling. You will most probably be able to buy one near the end of your first tour around the world. Until then you will have to hitchhike, all you need to do is to go to a travel route and set your priority to hitchhike until someone takes you. Or if you are a vip member you can use your personal cars to travel which is a vip feature unfortunately. Do not prefer bicycles though :)

Teaching:

After you have 5* in basic skills, and want to go further on your career, teaching skills will be very helpful. You can only teach your 5* skills. Basic teaching and advanced pedagogy are the skills that you should have and improve in order to teach effectively. With 5* in both, you will get 10% rise per update while teaching an apprentice and 6% rise in both while teaching two apprentices at a time (assuming you’ll have perfect IQ until then). Every EUREKA brings a 25% progress in your skill until 8*. After that the progress decreases to 20% and 10%. The exact figures are as follows;

5.25-5.50-5.75-6.00

6.25-6.50-6.75-7.00

7.25-7.50-7.75-7.95

8.15-8.35-8.55-8.65-8.75-8.85-8.95

9.05-9.10- and so on (5% progress between 9^th & 10^th *s)

This is the case for teaching 1 or 2 apprentices at a time. If you teach 3 apprentices at the same time you would get 20% after 5*. I recommend not to teach more than 2 apprentices at a time.

Extra stars in basic teaching and advanced pedagogy will increase the percentage you get per apprentice per update. The 10% rise will remain the same if you teach one apprentice. You may go up to 10% progress per apprentice per update while teaching 2 apprentices at a time if you have 10* in both of these skills. Not necessarily 10*s but having more than 6*s in these skills will also increase the 6% you get per update.

What to Teach?

Well actually it depends whether you are a solo or you are the member of a crowded band. Whether you are a solo or not extra *s in the skills that I stated as important at the beginning is beneficiary; i.e. the genre skill and the stage roles. Extra stars in the genre skill will help you better performing in the recordings and having better ratings while doing genre events. Extra stars in the stage roles will help you better perform your repertoire and will increase your personal rating on the shows.

The benefits of extra stars in composing skills are controversial. Since the songwriting system it self is random, or seems to be random, this issue is still on darkness. Some claims it helps the final quality of the song, others claim it has an effect on how fast you compose.

If you are a crowded band, it may be helpful that one of your band mates has extra *s in record production. And it is a good idea to share the show events and add some extra stars to the skills they require.

Stark Naked Gypsy University:

If you are reading this article, either you are a part of this great community, or you just heard about it and decided to check out the website. With Kris’s words, the founder of SNGU, it is “A group of traveling musicians that roam Popmundo”. Yes we are touring around the world endlessly with our friends always by our side.

Joining us is a good way to start your musical career. Besides the fact touring alone is not that fun, SNGU will help you advance on your musical career. You will have the opportunity to tour and learn/teach at the same time. You will absolutely find some good people willing to help you out and will make a lot of great friends. You will find good mentors for some further advices on your career. There are record producers and video directors among us who are gladly helping you with your recordings and videos. Ah and lovely doctors who will be curing you when you are infected and alchemists brewing your herbs.

After sitting on my ass in LA for more than 100 days totally blind, I joined SNGU and at the same time started my musical career and I am part of it for almost a real year. I believe sharing my experiences will give you some hints and help you decide what your target in this game is. So what did I gain?

- First of all, good mentors to ask my questions when I needed help and great bands inspiring me for my own success

- A lot of fun to keep touring without break, which you know is a must if you want your artist to gain fame

- Masters who were teaching me during the tour and apprentices to teach when I become a master. And also some underground skillsthat can only be learned from a master

- A good and reliable contract with Naked Gypsy Studios, which also helped to record my tracks in Naked Gypsy studios of perfect quality for free. There is one almost in every city. It is important when you are not able to afford the rent with your artist cash.

- 5* record producers and 5* video directors among gypsy friends who gladly helped me recording my tracks and filming my videos

- And of course great friendships.

Now when I turn and look at back, I am regretful that I haven’t heard about SNGU sooner. So yes, if you are still wandering out there, you should just come and check the life with us.

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I tried to cover the basics of a musical career. There may be some details I skipped unintentionally. I will try to keep up to date this guideline as new tweaks come.

DO READ the Popmundo help section, it's full of useful information. Try to follow the forums, you may always find some further hints no matter how much you know.

As a last note let me give a personal advice, always ask questions but do not take answers as absolute facts, try to experience and observe things on your own and do not fear exploring different solutions. Creativity is always the key to differentiation.

My special thanks to;

Kris, to whom I owe many of the things I know and who helped on this article as an editor and publisher,

And Danny Keene (R.I.P) who used to gladly share his valuable knowledge

Popmundo Tips

Annette Tachtsi has written a great article about Popmundo, you can find it from here.

Band News 04/11/2008

So much has happened since I wrote anything here....

- I kicked all our members out of band couple of weeks ago. I was just too tired and frustrated, because those members just weren´t active enough. I thought that I should continue as solo artist, but then:
- Pekka came back from holiday and he is now our new bass player and we got another new finnish member now. Leo will start to play drums as soon as he has learned to play those. So our whole band is now finnish and that should help us....my english isn´t really great, so it´s much easier to just write finnish with other band members.
- We released our new album and it has sold 62 216 copies after 2 weeks = 578 609 euros for our band. Our last single "Raining" has now sold 671 263 copies = 1 456 641 euros for us!
- Our rock ranking is really going up now and we are number 263 now!
- I hope we can start recording our new single soon....