This last few weeks I ran across SEVERAL trends for 2008 in the music industry and just thought I would share. Very interesting as you know this is the way the music business would eventually head but WOW, so many areas to consider. We even have a few discussions going at New Media Hire.

Below I have tried to compile them:

* Viral Videos: Takes a lot of creativity but this can be an incredible vehicle than can get an artist know from a few hundred to a few million in just a week.

* Self Promotion: More artists will take control of their own promotional needs by implementing their own ideal of what their brand is.

* Digital Related Sales: From ring tones and downloads and artist sites, who really purchases CD’s.

* Free Music: This is way to give you a taste of the music but some free music is already paid for via advertisers or a combination of sponsors so listeners are gained.

* Online PR: As print media is shrinking the online readership is massively GROWING.

* Wireless, Wireless, Wireless: Make it as easy and painless to access and download that even novice can handle it.

* Niches: Genres are cool BUT if you like a song you like it! Some music you just can’t put in a category.

* Blogs: Artist blogs or those that blog about music. The more your name gets out there the more interest there is.

* Marketing: Nothing beats in your face marketing that you can’t seem to avoid.

* Getting Fans Involved: Letting the fan base feel like they are actively involved in your music! Naming a song, voting on what is on a release album etc.

* Social media technologies: People tend to talk about and share their experiences and favorite music and where they got it from. Artists have been discovered just from their social media sites.

One that I didn’t see that could very well go with another growing digital industry trend is the use of certain music incorporated in to video games! Love the game, love the song! They do this an extent but could definitely be more targeted.

Check out some new media related jobs in the music industry and take part in these trends.

New Media Hire

Niche job board for the new media and digital media industry.

Downloading music can often be a really annoying experience. When you are lucky enough to actually find what you are looking for, it’s often incomplete or a really poor quality. That’s not even considering the websites that let you download for free, for the results there often turn out even worse. Tracks may be mislabeled and you may think that you are downloading one type of music to only get an unwelcome surprise instead.  For types of music which aren’t considered “mainstream,” finding the right music can be something of a nightmare.

Hardstyle music is a perfect example of an interesting type of music which isn’t “mainstream.” This music, born out of influences from trance and rave, isn’t a type of music that most people could immediately identify. It’s not something played on the radio and as a result, it’s hard to find anything Hardstyle unless you know where to look.

Where Is The Best Place To Find Hardstyle?

You would typically come across Hardstyle music in club settings, where different DJs who specialize in Hardstyle will play their latest tracks. This music, largely electronic, offers intense beats which people love to dance to, making Hardstyle incredibly popular at raves and other types of clubs. All over the world, Hardstyle music can be found in young, hip, fresh party scenes.

Although every Hardstyle artist will lay tracks which vary based on their own personal set of talent and taste, most Hardstyle music tracks will feature anywhere between 140 to 160 beats per minute. This music will establish an environment which encourages people to get up and move their bodies, making Hardstyle popular with energetic types who love a good party setting. These fans will often later want to build a collection of their favorite Hardstyle music, only to find that they are left without many resources to do so.

This is the case, unless those people visit hardstyle, one of the best locations on the Internet to find a wide database of the hottest Hardstyle tracks. All of the music found on this website will come from the hottest Hardstyle DJs from all over the world.  If you are looking to find the best tracks from either well-established or up-and-coming DJs, you should be able to do this through the website.

Who Are Some Of These Hottest DJs?

No matter if you are just getting into Hardstyle or if you have long been a fan of Hardstyle music, you are going to want to find tracks that you are going to be happy with. The DJs which have multiple tracks featured on hardstyle can often provide the best listening experiences. Artists as varied as Frontliner, Tala, Geck-o, Black Hammer, Andrew Fields, Cubanito, and many more can all be found in the catalog of Hardstyle music.

Tracks from locations as far apart as The Netherlands, South Africa, Australia, Belgium, and The UK are available for downloading. You can not only find some of your favorite Hardstyle music through this website, but you can be exposed to new tracks that you may never have come across otherwise. The website may quickly become your biggest friend, as your favorite music rapidly becomes more available to you!

Music trends used to simply be confined to differing genres, but more and more musicians and singers are turning into one-man (or woman) industries with sideline projects bearing their name or influence, from perfumes to nightclubs to vanity film projects. However, the biggest sign that an artist has made it is their own fashion label.

With Madonna recently in the spotlight for her own Material Girl label, artists’ fashion ranges have never been a more necessary sign of achievement. However, this is not a new phenomenon and many pop stars are now simply jumping on very well established band wagon.

Urban clothing has accommodated hip hop artists’ fashion input for a number of years with numerous well known faces pioneering huge fashion houses in their own right. Some are well known and documented, naming their range with their own moniker, while others are more modest, running the company for the sake of the fashion as opposed to another attempt at self-promotion.

For instance, Jay-Z’s clothing range Rocawear Clothing was formed in 1995 before he had even released a single album and has been run with the same ethos as it was started despite his rise to prominence. He has been quoted as saying that his brands are an extension of himself, and with urban clothing being all about individuality and personal reflection, this gives Rocawear clothing credibility that other stars’ lines might lack.

The trend of famous names creating their own clothing empire seems to have moved on, like all fashions do, to incorporate artists from any genre. But it remains the R&B artists who seem to actually be able to connect to their intended audience and not simply look like a gimmick. Ironically, urban clothing has never been about brand names and this just makes it all the more impressive.

The worlds of music and fashion have long gone hand in glove, whether it’s the clothes performers wear in music videos, costume changes at live events or the soundtrack to catwalk fashion shows. There are many reasons why music and fashion tend to go together, from helping define a social group to the simple fact that people who enjoy similar music tend to share similar values in other areas of life. That’s not to underestimate the active role that modern music trends can play in shaping fashion choices of the younger generation.

Thanks to music television and mp3 players bringing music into more areas of life, today’s music scene is more diverse and vibrant than ever, meaning young people have a wide range of options when choosing their favourite sounds. Nor is the music climate as divisive as it once was, especially looking back to the heyday of the mods and rockers in the 1960s, where a tailor-made suit or leather jacket would define which define which army you served under on the fashion battles on Brighton Pier.

Today’s music culture is not so rigidly black and white, but there can still be a gulf between social groups that is inevitably traced back to music. One of the genres where this is most prominent is the world of hip hop, which has a long association with designer sports brands stretching back to Run DMC promoting Adidas in the 1980s. While schoolboys aren’t likely to go out in search of expensive ‘bling’ to demonstrate their wealth, many still seek to define their image through designer sportswear labels – a fashion style that hasn’t been confined to the playing fields for a very long time.

Another music-related fashion that has evolved over time and still prominent in boys clothes is goth culture, very loosely defined as incorporating everything from heavy metal fashion to fetish clothing. While high school punk fans would no doubt object to such an establishment term as ‘fashion’ to describe their piercings and waxed hair, goth subculture is an enduring phenomenon that can often provide a welcoming environment for kids who feel alienated from other aspects of the modern world, seeking solace in an all-encompassing music and fashion choice.

While not everyone you see in the street can be immediately pinned down to a music preference, many still wear their music choices on their sleeves as a way to define themselves in the world.