It’s always exciting to see an artist take control of their careers and move with the professionalism that has Major Labels scratching their heads wondering where they missed the boat.

Whitehouse, with a blend of English and Spanish lyricism, is finding their way into a major arena of publicity. With a unique blend of influences crossing over classical, rock, and classic rock styles.

Although they are no strangers to worldwide publicity (a variety of music publications and air-play around the world), they have taken more affirmative action by securing a television spot with "The Shield". 

The Shield is played on the FX network in the US and other networks Internationally.  The show has recieved wide recognition for it’s controversial portrayal of corruption in the Los Angeles police  department.  With several Emmy nominations, and the contributions of extended roles from notable film actors such as Glenn Close and Forest Whitaker,  it provides a great publicity opportunity for the band.

Whitehouse’s current release, "Games", features 14 tracks and includes the televised song, "Cuentan que el". The CD, "Games", is available at Music Forte today.

For more information and booking, be sure to visit the Whitehouse Official Website.

Whitehouse are:
José Amigo - lead vocals,guitars
Stephan Simon - lead & acoustic guitars,vocals
Jerry Loeffler - basses,vocals
Raimund Breitfeld - drums,percussion,vocals
whitehouse-music.com
myspace.com/whitehousemusic

Management:
Black Mountain Productions Inc.
Henderson, NV 89009
blackmountainproductions.com

Congratulations!  You have found the completely unbiased review of Brett Manning’s Singing Success program.  You may have found our review because you want to learn to sing better.  Music Forte is a social network of musicians and music fans, and there has been a lot of talk about Brett’s vocal techniques.  Do they really work?

We decided to dive in and find out if it was all hype or a revolution to vocal lessons and media instruction.  It wasn’t enough to just buy one copy and listen through it.  So we purchased TEN copies of his program and distributed to singers of different levels.  The singers have been members of Music Forte for quite some time and were selected based on their diversity in vocal levels and ranges.  Five men and five women were selected to help us with our review.

After three months of training with this program, we’ve found some surprising discoveries.  But it wouldn’t be as interesting unless we can first answer the question, "Who is Brett Manning"?

 If you are like our candidates who trialed Brett’s Singing Success program, it is likely that you have never heard of him. However, it is quite likely that you have heard of some of his students:

• Keith Urban - Grammy-nominated artist and CMA Male Vocalist of the Year (2 years straight)!
• Mark Kibble - Member of Take 6 and 10-time Grammy Award Winner
• Wes Hampton - Gaither Vocal Band
• And many more successful vocalists!

Although Brett may be responsible for helping many singers into stardom, his claim to fame might not be in his own vocal abilities (which are quite astounding), rather in his ear for hearing and understanding the human voice and his prolific ability in explaining how and why certain exercises are going to help singers achieve a greater range, flexibility, and confidence in their vocal abilities.  In fact, Brett spent many years of frustration with various vocal coaches as he developed a keen sense of controlling and improving his own voice.  Now his talent is being used to help singers tap into a potential they never believed existed in their own voices.

For a private lesson with Brett, you would need to be prepared to put down over $200 for just one hour.  And if you’re not already living in Nashville, you would have some travel expenses to take care of.  Luckily for our own students, they were able to receive media lessons through Brett’s Singing Success program, that were just as personal.  In fact all ten of our students agreed that Brett was able to address a variety of concerns that they felt were very personal to their own vocal chords.  In other words, his vocal techniques and training are incredibly versatile in that they help a great deal of common problems without leaving anyone behind.

 Here are just some of the things that our trial students claimed as a benefit of the program:

• Increased vocal range
• Less effort with a fuller sound
• Greater vocal flexibility for riffs and runs
• Seamless blending between vocal breaks
• Renewed enthusiasm towards singing
• A whole new repertoire of songs they could never pull off before

 Listen to what Country Singer, Taylor Pey, had to say about Brett’s course!

It’s no surprise that Music Forte gives Singing Success a 5-star rating.  After three months of traning with the video, our trial candidates are still using his workouts every day to continually improve their voices.

The fact that the vocal techniques Brett teaches can be used over and over again without expiring or without allowing the student to feel as if there is nothing more to gain is a terrific testimonial to its continuous benefits.

Additionally, a few of our students even went on to set up a personal phone consultation that is offered with the program.

The program comes with a workbook, videos, and cds, all of which cover excercises that will benefit singers of all levels.

If you want to learn to sing, or improve your vocal skills, Brett covers a variety of styles and techniques that we’re certain will help you in a multitude of ways.  After scouring the Internet, we found that we were not the only ones to agree with the success of the program. 

Brett’s program is available from his Singing Success website.  We urge you to take a look!

If you are reading this now, you might have received our email update that mentioned a free gift.  Keep reading, and we’ll explain to you just how you can claim that.

We’re working hard to improve our storefront for you. Not only are we planning to increase our product offering, but more importantly, we will improve on the service and website functionality that our customers expect.

We’ve always valued customer feedback. In fact, a letter that we received from a Mr. Hite back in January, prompted us to make several upgrades that you may or may not be aware of.

Since that time, we have implemented online tracking of all US orders. We also generate automated email to provide you with those tracking numbers. We’ve lowered our shipping costs, increased our inventory to over 300,000 product titles and most recently we have changed our warehouse to utilize a shipping fulfillment team that will ensure all orders can be delivered much faster than we’ve ever been able to.

So what’s next? In approximately two weeks, we will be unveiling a completely unique new storefront. We want to build it specifically to your tastes. That is why we are asking for your feedback now, and in return we have a special gift for you!

We’ve provided two special coupons that you can take advantage of from now until July 10. We’re letting you know before anybody else, because it is a limited time offer and only valid while inventory still exists. You can either receive 10% off your total purchase order. Or if you prefer, we will send you a free book of Manuscript paper.

There is no purchase limit to receive either of the gifts!

The manuscript paper contains 32 pages of 6 large staves per page. The book is 81/2 x 81/2 and includes a music notation guide that is great for students and educators.

We invite you to take advantage of this offer today by shopping at Music Forte. Your coupon codes are available here!

Please remember to leave us any feedback you might have by using the "Leave A Reply" link below, or you may send it to support@musicforte.com. We appreciate your feedback very much, and we’ll be collectively utilizing your suggestions and comments for the redesign of our new storefront.

We’re just two weeks away! We’ll let you know as soon as it is finished in approximately two weeks, so that you can see how we followed your suggestions. Of course, if you do not want us to notify you, you may unsubscribe. Please refer to the link at the bottom of this email.

Thanks again for shopping at Music Forte.

Not too long ago, I paid a visit to the SBA (Small Business Administration) department in my area.  They provide free consultation services.  We discussed the typical eCommerce website and sales conversions. 

Before I tell you what I learned, I think that it is important to note that the information I received was not based off of a person’s opinion.  The consultation they provide is based upon resources and pools of data that they have collected throughout the US for years. To get right to the point, it is simply accurate information.

With that said, the average sales conversion ratio for an eCommerce website that is well-designed, and selling products between $10-$50 is less than 4%.  Wow!  Imagine that.  I have several friends that are building their business online, and many of them don’t even receive 100 unique visits in a day.  Imagine if their customers are not happy with that website’s functionality?  Or maybe they just aren’t pushing the sale.  It is easy to create distractions when developing an eCommerce website.  Most sole-proprieterships don’t have the money for an eCommerce solution that works well, and as a result, those sites may perform at less than 0.1%. 

That is a tough business. It almost sounds depressing.  However, with a bit of work each day to improve your storefront, you will obviously increase your traffic and sales.  It may be an enduring process, it might even be fun.  The important thing is to keep going.  There are hundreds of strategies that can help you build traffic and improve your conversion ratio.

One of the features that Music Forte has implemented is a coupon offering.  The coupons help our customers, Music Forte, and anyone operating an eCommerce site. How?

• Our customers save more money. 
• Music Forte increases brand awareness.
• You are providing additional "buyer incentive" for your products.

This strategy is used widely among a variety of  large and small businesses.

If you feel that Music Forte’s product line may be of interest to your website visitors, we encourage you to get your personalized coupon today.  Just send an email to Music Forte’s support team and tell us that you’d like a coupon.

We’ll send you the instructions back for implementing it.  Your customers can print the coupon for future use, or simply store their coupon code on their computer.

Claim your Music Forte coupon and start increasing ‘buyer incentive’ today!

Check Out These Creative Recipes for a Successful Performance by Meredith Music.

Each cookbook contains a stimulating collection of unique concepts on teaching and conducting written by 57 of today’s most outstanding music educators. Problem solving tips, philosophical concepts, ensemble-building skills, and thought-provoking ideas are all assembled in each easy-to-read collection. An ideal source of exciting strategies for all levels of performance ensembles. Check out the following cookbook collection at only $24.95 each!

• The Music Director’s Cookbook
• The Brass Player’s Cookbook
• The Choral Director’s Cookbook
• The String Teacher’s Cookbook
• The Woodwind Player’s Cookbook

Order onlin today or you can call our E-Z Order Line at (888) 659-2867.

If you are using wordpress, please feel free to use either of our two themes.  They are incredibly easy to install.  Just download and upload (obviously some of the in-between steps have been skipped) but in a nutshell, I think it was stated just right.

The themes are available here:
http://www.musicforte.com/info/wordpress-themes/

Screenshots are available. They both have a music-based them so that they are practical for bands, music e-commerce, radio, or just music chat.  So why aren’t we using them?  I suppose it loses appeal that way.  These are unique for you and we hope you’ll find them to your liking.

When Billy Joel wrote "Only the Good Die Young", it was at first banned by many radio stations.  It was a controversial song to the Church, and the religious forces did everything they could do prevent it from receiving any air-play.  Of course, what happened was all the young kids caught wind that they weren’t allowed to listen to it, and so they all ran out to buy it, and it became a number one hit.

On a different note, we recently received a CD that I can easily classify as the worst album submission ever.  The artist, classified his music as "Classical".  He even stated a variety of great composers as his influences.  He sent in a CDR.  I don’t have any complaints about that.  A lot of artists have sent CD-Rs, and a lot of those artists sell them as well.  I only point it out, because it is bewildering what the artist (in this case) is trying to achieve.  Apart from the fact that their is horrible marketing presentation, the music itself can only be heard as some sort of morbid fascination.

What the artist describes as Classical Guitar Solos, are actually 5 or 6 tracks of almost identical music which simply plays a diatonic scale with no metric system.  It’s something you would have to hear to appreciate how awful it is.  And even for those who are into modern art, this would be the equivalent of rubbing feces onto a canvas to make a picture of nothing.

Strangely the whole thing makes me angry. Do you think Music Forte should decline and refund music that sucks without a doubt? I am certain that it is impossible for this artist to not know how bad his CD is, and it almost makes me wonder if he’s laughing in the background as if he’s pulled off a some sort of joke.  Maybe it would be equally funny to set up a new genre called "s**t" and simply place it there all by itself.

So there is my review of the artist I have so far decided not to mention.  I hope for his sake that their is another motivation behind this "CD release".  With that said, I wonder if everyone wants to rush out and hear it now. Hopefully you have something better to do with your time.  Apparently, It was enough to compel me to write about it.

Many of you may have noticed changes to your product URLs.  This is done primarily to make the URL more search engine friendly.  Even though many of the product names we currently promote are already on the first page of Google, it looks a lot cleaner to have a URL that doesn’t end with long tag lines such as product_id=48472&cat=43&you-get-the-idea…

What you’ll find now are clean URLs similar to the following cd/748/your-band-name/  Of course "your-band-name" would be substituted.  This new format has been applied to CDs, Mp3, DVDs, and everything else our product line includes.

So what happens with the old URLs?  They redirect in the way that Search Engines like.  A 301 redirect is useful, as you won’t lose page rank, and it avoids creating duplicate title tags which could penalize your listings.  Most of all, if anybody happens to use the old URL, they’ll have no trouble being brought to the correct new page.

No, this is not big news.  It’s just a tid-bit from "Behind The Curtains".

You just joined Music Forte.  You have some media files you’d like to sell.  So now what?  This is a question that many artists have not asked themselves. 

With the thousands of existing social networks around these days, it is easy to jump on board just to state that you’re on the passenger list, and then jump ship.  Hopefully, you’ll take a thorough look around first.  If you are pressed for time and worried about missing the next boat, there is ONE thing in particular we think you should know about - Music Forte’s widget code. 

What is a widget?

In short, "widget code" refers to some copy-and-paste code that you take from Music Forte and upload to  your own website or other social network sites.  You’ll find this code when you log in to Music Forte and click on "My Promotions > Widget Code". 

This code has been an incredible help to many of the artists who register at Music Forte because it provides you (the artist) with 100% profit of your digital sales.  You heard that correctly; Music Forte does not take a cut out of your digital distribution! 

Customize that widget!

There are not too many boundaries here.  We have plenty of  "skins" (styles) that you can use so that your personal media player will fit the look of any site.  They come in all shapes and sizes, and have their own unique features. 
However, before you can customize the widget you will need to have at least one song uploaded.  What good is a media player without any media?

Give it a test drive

I can’t stress this enough.  Once you have the code on any of your other sites, try it out.  Make sure that it is working the way you intended.  Is the sales button leading your visitors to your digital sales page, or the CD sales page?  Is your album cover art displaying as your music plays.  There are many features that you are able to customize  and you should ensure that they are working the way you planned. 

Artists who use our code on active sites, are receiving sales every single day with the code.  If you choose to promote your digital sales, that money goes straight to your PayPal account (free to setup and available worldwide) providing instant delivery of media content, and instant money to your account.

OK Now what?

That depends on how ambitous you are.  Some artists kick back and focus their attention elsewhere while passively earning money from Music Forte’s media player code.  Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.  By all means focus where you need to.  The setup described above is aimed to take a minimal amount of your time, while providing hands free sales; meaning that you’ll be able to work without having to worry about constant maintenance and follow-up procedures.  Or you can make this a part of your more intensive promotions.  Artists who work it hard-core, are not just working to bring attention to this media player; they are also bringing attention to their entire website (where the media player happens to exists), which in turn, allows them to showcase all of their talents and products.

That’s great, but how does it work on the customers end?

The purchasing process is a breeze.  Customers simply click on the "buy" icon, or your cover-art image that appears on your media player.  If it is directing them to digital sales, they’ll be able to preview and check mark all the songs that they want to purchase.  All customers receive an email receipt with download links that expire.  If that customer is registered at Music Forte, they will have an area in their account where the download is permanently saved for their convenience.  Music is delivered instantly and easily and requires no work from the artist.  If you are using PayPal, the transaction information is saved in your sales history, so that you can email your new customers follow-up promotion and information about your music!

Try Music Forte’s widget code today, and let us know how it is working for you.  We’ll take the good and bad feedback and publish it here, with a link to your own website!   The back-links from our blog will be a help to the site you are focusing on, and your feedback will be a help to us, to ensure that we continue to move in a direction that is helpful to the artists.