Jarome Matthew’s Blog

Are you a musician / artist?

I’m wondering if you can spend a minute to help me help artists like you.
I am trying to gather some anonymous research data from artists on what is an affordable amount of money per month for them to spend to obtain assistance towards a successful music career.

I have been in the process of trying to restructure my company, Pro Soul to be able to assist artists. We are exploring various monthly subscription based packages that will provide artists with consulting, services, and resources they need to develop a strong healthy career and fan base depending on what they need and can afford.

All you have to do to assist and state your opinion is fill out 2 short polls:

www.prosoul.com/poll.html

Pro Soul’s new mission is twofold: To provide music fans with great music by diverse International artists and to affordably assist artists in developing their career in a changing music industry to build a strong, long lasting audience they have a close relationship with that will create financial rewards that far surpass those possible with simple CD sales.

The new music industry is drastically changing, moving away from major record corporations and back to independent artists, moving away from physical product to digital media. Economics will bring in $4.8 billion in revenue from digital downloads in the US alone in 2012.
I blogged about the changes in the music industry more here:
the-end-of-the-music-industry-as-we-know-it

In this receding tide, Pro Soul’s aim is to assist artists to clear the path of discovery and purchase of music by enabling artists to more easily connect with their fans, and enable fans to purchase and access music more easily than they ever have before.

Pro Soul will consult artists with information provided by the worlds most knowledgeable experts in the future of the music industry, and provide virtually every aspect of what an artist will need in their career, performing those duties the artist does not want to take on themselves. We will provide the latest innovative techniques and services that have been proven to work to bring paying, dedicated fans to artists.

Key individual behind Pro Soul will be myself founder, music producer, audio engineer, and composer for over 17 years, Jarome Matthew. I achieved early acclaim with gold dance tracks on top 40 radio and a number of major label compilations in the early 1990’s and now produce and consults artists internationally and teach these things at a local college.

Although expenses and financial goals will be important in the first year, focus will be on assisting clients to become successful in generating enough new fans for them to see the signs of a successful long term career in the industry.

Right now all of this is just an idea developing. Based on the results of the poll and other research and consulting I am doing, and financial analysis, hopefully this will all be a great asset to artists and help me finally achieve my dream of really being able to help them.

Visit again to keep updated on how it’s going.

Over the last 3 years I have been producing an album that is quite different than what I usually do by the very talented composer, pianist, and singer, Elika Mahony.
I have blogged last year about some of the challenges of producing an album like this, and about how intense a project like this can become.
With it’s combination of electronic elements with piano, live cello, guitar, and flute and other exotic live instruments such as Persian santur, nay flute, and Chinese erhu, I have to say that this album, called ‘Fire And Gold’ is not only the most diverse and elaborate production I have worked on, but one of the most expensive. But it has done extremely well, selling over a thousand copies shortly after release thanks to Elika’s innovative music promotion techniques worldwide. You can listen here.

For those who are familiar with the musical styles I usually produce, the classical and new age overtones of this spiritually inspired Baha’i album on the theme of tests and difficulties of life may not be your thing. But you will most likely still be able to appreciate Elika’s sweet voice and elegant melodies.

Elika is also using some of the latest online music promotion techniques such as selling electronic versions of her songs online by donation, and offering discounts for multiple CD orders. One of her fan’s have even created a music video for one of the songs, This Is Faith.