Top 5 Tunes About Wealth And Money

Relationships, heartbreaks, and love may be the most observable theme in the music charts today but you cannot deny that money comes next.

Whether you like listening to songs about the pains of fortune or the joys of owning material things, there seems to be no shortage of songs about money. In fact, Jay-Z’s new record label “Magna Carta Holy Grail” stressed his insistence on continuing to rap about his wealth.

With that said here are the tunes that prove how complex and well-documented money is…

1. She Works Hard For The Money by Donna Summer

From the Queen of Disco herself – the late Donna Summer’s “She Works Hard For The Money” swiftly became one of her signature songs.

2. Mo Money Mo Problems by The Notorious B.I.G. ft. Mase & Puff Daddy

Life After Death album’s lead single is one of the first songs that come to people’s mind when talking about money-related lyrics. The catchy chorus says a lot about the difficulties faced by Biggie after he began growing his wealth.

“I don’t know what, they want from me
It’s like the more money we come across,
the more problems we see”

3. Taxman by The Beatles

A timeless dedication to the United Kingdom’s government taxation, “Taxman” came about when the band realized that it was losing a bulk of its earnings due to the supertax that Harold Wilson had introduced.

4. Like Money by Wonder Girls ft. Akon

“Like Money” is a song that mashes both love and money as a theme. In its first week, the song debuted at number 11 in South Korea. By the end of August 2012, its popularity soared to about 583,737 downloads in south Korea alone.

5. Bills by LunchMoney Lewis

Exuding elements of hip-hop, ragtag, and jazz, this hit is the debut single of the American rapper called LunchMoney Lewis. It is about a man who is overwhelmed about his debts and bills that he has to work harder everyday in order to make sure that they all survive.

I have to admit, I cannot get enough of this song!

Sources: 1, 2, 3, & 4

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Learn To Play A Musical Instrument For Free In 5 Ways

There is something extraordinary about being able to learn a new skill or achieve something new on your own, especially if you started from scratch. For instance, self-made millionaires are so admirable that we want to know their secret to success.

If you aspire to become a self-taught musician, look no further because this article will give five ways to achieve your dream. Start by finding the right instrument for you. The instrument that you shall choose must dictate the type of music you like or must resonate the type of music you visualize recreating.

1. EXPLORING THE WORLD OF MUSIC

If you want to explore the world of music, it is a good idea to start with the history first. Annenberg Learner’s Exploring the World of Music consists of a series of half-hour videos that examine topics such as sound, melody, harmony, music memory, music composers, and so on.

The featured artists perform music from Bosnia to India and Ireland to West Africa. Learn even more with the related printable materials that are available on the website for free.

2. ONLINE MUSIC THEORY GAME

With its simplistic lessons and user-friendly interface, a beginner can truly appreciate the “Online Music Theory Game”. Online Music Theory Game offers a myriad of lessons on multiple instruments such as keyboard and guitar. Its lessons include the discussion of the music fundamentals such as note duration, major and minor scales, and key signatures.

Try browsing through the lessons, here.

3. SELFTAUGHTGUITARLESSONS.COM

If you are eyeing on the sleek guitar as your instrument of choice, SelfTaughtGuitarLessons.com is a good place to start because it covers everything from the basics including how to purchase your first guitar and what its parts are. Little by little, you will be able to learn the chords and scales with the informative articles and videos. A glossary that includes the musicians’ lingo is just an added bonus of the site.

4. PLAYPERFECT MUSIC PRACTICE SOFTWARE

PlayPerfect Music Practice Software allows you to practice musical pieces by setting its speed, tempo, and visual cues. Notes display a change of color as you play and you can practice playing with or without the metronome. You can use it for any instruments such as violin, guitar, piano, cello, bass, flute, or saxophone. It is available to download for free on your Windows 7, 8, 10, Vista, and XP.

5. YOUTUBE

YouTube, a video-sharing website, is not limited to the cute cat or provocative music videos. It stores a lot of tutorials too! Simply type the musical instrument you want to play on the search tab and put the word “tutorial for beginners” beside it and click enter. Now, you will see a screen full of tutorial videos you can choose from.

Here are just some of them:

a. Flute Tutorials

b. Violin Tutorials

c. Piano Tutorials

Image Credits: pixabay.com (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Image Credits: pixabay.com (License: CC0 Public Domain)

Have fun learning! 🙂

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4 Incredibly Premium Websites For Free Music Downloads

Music is something that transcends over the generations. And, if you were a passionate music listener, you would want to download songs legally to support the artists, labels, and distributors.Thankfully, the Internet has made it possible by hosting premium websites that allow you to legally stream and download songs.

Although most of the no-cost songs are by independent or rising musicians that does not mean that it sounds bad! With a myriad of genres and music collections, I am sure that you will find a song that hits your taste.

1. MP3.COM

Kicking it off with the veteran on the list, MP3.com was first established on 1997. It is one of the most popular websites that offer free music sharing services, especially for the independent artists who want to share their works. With years of experience, it has a good collection of songs from pop, jazz, metal, country, and so much more.

2. AMAZON.COM

An established household name, Amazon proves its efficiency by offering a comprehensive list of over 46,000 songs. To make your searching experience easier, Amazon has classified the free tunes by genres, by artists, and by ratings. Simply navigate your mouse here to get started.

3. PUREVOLUME.COM

Since 2003, PureVolume is dedicated to bring new music from several rising artists. Acting as a networking platform, PureVolume allows both artists and listeners to create music profiles and discuss musical tastes. All the song downloads are legal and majority of it is free but there are some premium songs that users can buy.

4. JAMENDO.COM

Over 400,000 songs from more than 40,000 artists awaits you at Jamendo. With that vast amount of collection, it has been one of the biggest repositories of free music to date. You do not have to waste loads of time to find music that pleases your ears because you can quickly browse through by popularity, genre, most played, or most downloaded. The greatest thing about Jamendo is that it allows unlimited downloads of free MP3s and unlimited listening with the in-page music player.

Image Credits: epSos .de via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Image Credits: epSos .de via Flickr with Creative Commons License

Sources: 1 & 2

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6 Free Music Streaming Services in Singapore

For those of us that are music lovers, buying all those new albums or new tracks on iTunes can really add up over the years! Also, you may not always have your entire song library backed up with you wherever you may go. Free music streaming services therefore fill that void, allowing us to easily find the music we want to listen to, regardless of where we are or what device we are using. Most of the below services come with a free and paid subscription version.

1) Spotify

Spotify Logo
Spotify, which finally came to Singapore in 2013, is one of the most popular free music streaming services in the world. Available online or on smart phones, you can access millions of songs easily.

Spotify comes in free and ad-free premium versions.

2) Grooveshark

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Grooveshark is another popular streaming service based in the US, boasting 15 million tracks, and a free and paid subscription model.

3) Deezer

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Deezer is a music streaming service that boasts over 35 million tracks that comes in a web version and also for your smart devices. For M1 subscribers, you may want to take advantage of the partnership offer between M1 and Deezer that allows you to get the premium subscription at a lower rate.

4) Soundcloud

Soundcloud
Frequently used by indie or new and upcoming artists, Soundcloud can sometimes be the only place where you can find high quality versions of tracks uploaded by smaller artists. Soundcloud also allows you to comment at any point of time in the song, so when you listen to one of the tracks, you can see the comments of other users in realtime as they listen to the song.

5) 8tracks

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8tracks is for lovers of mixtapes and anyone who wants to share their custom playlists with their friends. 8tracks is widely used as anyone can create and share mixtapes of 8 tracks or more easily online. This is a good way for you to discover new music that your friends are listening to, and you can easily search the site for any mixtape that matches your current mood. Just put it on and forget about it, and enjoy the music!

8tracks is availabe online and has free apps for Android/iphone.

6) Youtube

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Lastly, although not a service specifically dedicated to streaming music, you can often find quite a few songs uploaded on Youtube through the official channels for the artists. The crucial difference is that on Youtube, you are able to watch the music video for the song as well, enhancing your auditory experience. Perhaps more importantly for Asian music lovers, it can often be difficult to find free streaming music for Asian music such as Cpop or Kpop or Jpop – and you might have more luck on Youtube than the other more western dominated music streaming services.

There are many other good streaming services that come in paid versions only. One that you should perhaps take note of is KKBox, which caters specifically to the Asian market.

Hopefully through these tips, you’ll be able to save money purchasing songs and put some of that money towards going to concerts instead!

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