Hey! Me again. Last post I swore I'd get these write-ups done before judging NGUAC/NGADM. That did not happen, because life did. I'm drafting this quick, but here's the dates.

Should be every Friday dropping at balls o'clock (00:00 server time), except the last one which falls on a Thursday because I scheduled them all in one go and that's as far as it let me lol.

The licenses are green, and without further ado, here's the oldies but goodies. Links will be added in as they drop!

August 23rd - Dancing With A Stranger (Sam Smith, 2019)

Genre: Pop-metal ballad, little on the atmospheric side

Remastered, de-essed, and novellized (I kid). I finally got around to writing the backstory, the making of, the memoirs and the dedications for this beauty, because this is the one that started it all, the song that marked me actually starting to do covers, songs in Russian, and even originals!

But don't get me started because I didn't write a whole spiel to spoil it before release day. ;)

August 30th - I Want You To Know (Selena Gomez, 2019)

Genre: Pop-metal, with a sprinkle of dance synths and blazing keys

Number two in a long list of things I never thought I'd do. I don't remember exactly when I wrote this, but I do remember the covid restrictions, lots of yellow gatorade, putting off my homework, and a girlfriend I had who went to the college not far from base and was over the moon that A, I wore a uniform (totally hot right), and B, I spoke Russian (hot to some people I guess?)

Whatever, I'm proud of it. Proud enough to drop cash to properly distribute it instead of waiting for a takedown over on YT.

September 6, 2024 - Little Dreams (Ellie Goulding, 2020)

Genre: Metal, or at least rock, c'mon. Like, as Dancefloor is the poppy version of regular DnB

Finally something English, at least I'm sure there's someone out there that thinks that, lol, but I feel like an old lady looking through her high school yearbooks. Which reminds me, I should take more pictures.

We got this one in two flavors as you'll see. If you're not a metal head, or you just like Russian, stay tuned. ;)

Ps: Here's a reminder to myself that 4 years ago, these pants were black. Now they're... not.

September 13 - Ne Ver Ne Boysia (t.A.T.u. 2023)

Genre: Eurodance, Early 2000s Euro Dance Pop

I should name this Friday the 13th for extra tensions, but I won't. XD

An English translation of a famous song you probably never knew didn't actually have a proper English version. Translated as literally as humanly possible, because accuracy MATTERS. To me at least. Also it got 15k+ views on YT so it must have been cool, right? Right?!

I debated on properly releasing this for a long time after fighting with YouTube's copyright algorithms, and not just on this track.

See, even royalty free samples get snagged in the new system, because it isn't programmed to recognize old sample CDs; it's programmed to recognize copyrighted works, whether or not they were based on royalty free samples.

That's ONE of the problems I had. Another one ten times more worrisome is that not only does the copyright detector borg flag samples, it's been updated to flag chord progressions, rhythms, and even melodies. So you can and will be forked and fleeced for doing a cover, whether it's good, bad, shockingly imaginative, or we-have-that-song-at-home simple.

Used to be, you could outrageously change the speed, pitch, timbre, and even genre OR gender for your cover to get around the algorithm. Now, that doesn't even work. That method is officially outdated. You can thank slowed and reverb, nightcore spammers.

But I'm getting off track. This in concert plus the fact that I sung this through vocal AIs really discouraged me from getting a cover license -- much like having to pay for cover licenses or potentially have my channel shut down and potentially getting sued discouraged me from ever submitting covers in the past (especially when "real musicians" said covers were the lazy bastard's way to fame, not real art or tribute).

I can only wonder how much harder it is for a would be Bieber or T-Swift building their career on other platforms to get off the ground today with bots chafing at the bit to auto-delete their creations, threatening them with legal action, and on the off chance they're being nice transferring all the funds raised from their hard work directly into some fat cat's pocket.

Patreon, ko-fi, and other artist-support networks are invaluable these days. New producers, take note. And get yourself some licenses. You never know when the rich man will try to shoot you down. Easy song license for the win.

September 19th - Little Dreams (Ellie Goulding, Jan 2024)

Genre: Eurodance of the early 2000s

And that ALMOST catches us up to modern times, lol. I had the same problem with this release as the last one. And I'm shocked, honestly, because I thought for sure this one would have no issues, except maybe a few drum loops that Shapavalov/Galoyan used in multiple works of theirs, as producers that day and age tended to do with sample CDs.

This one was almost a research project of sorts, like the one before it, for EVERYTHING that made up t.A.T.u's sound, to see if I could take that and apply it to a song that I knew by then by heart. I told y'all, I love this damn song. It's apparently the gift that keeps on giving, so much so that I feel compelled to keep buying licenses for it. Did you know that you have to pay for a license for every cover version you do of a song? I didn't, until the other day.

Anyway, basically the same story as the last song, but this one is translated into Russian. Was a smash hit across the ocean and I wanted to bring it here, because my NG fam deserves more than just the crumbs!

Additional Plans, Updates, and Hypotheticals

In due time, all of these should be available on Spotify, Apple, etc. Different stores distro at different times, and scheduling them doesn't always work right, for covers at least because the licenses have to come back.

I've got a remix of Can You See the Clouds Divide waiting on approval for release. Anxiously, chafing at the bit waiting.

I really want to release MEMORY on here as will. One of these days I'll get around to it. Writing up essentially double promos for all these has me wanting to rest on my meat haunches and find a donut.

Fall Away has been remastered -- and by that I mean I didn't fix the weird space of the vocal mix, but the EQ and compression have been re-dressed, and it sounds a lot better now. (@SkankyMojo what do you think?)

As I'm writing this I realized I've been listening to that on repeat for half an hour. Oops. And it's late as hell. I should probably sleep.

So, uh, love you guys, see you on the 24th with the next Music Producer Freebie Mag!

Shoutout to my beloved supporters: @MATRVG, @MariogD, @Cyberdevil, and @JimmyTheCaterpillar.

PS, I haven't gotten around to my mail yet due to the usual combo of ADHD and RL responsibilities. I have one or two commissions to do, competition judging, but I do have most of the week off work and the house to myself to get around to that soon! I'm patting myself on the back that I managed to do at least one extra thing off my to-do list that I said was a MAYBE, not a definite. We're getting them personal goals in, haha.

Ok, now it's really late -- so bye for real now!