Jeeni Blog

Helping the next generation of talent to build a global fanbase

Two Ways Home ‘Waiting on Luck’ Single Review

/ By Doug Phillips
Two Ways Home ‘Waiting on Luck’ Single Review

This UK-based alt-country songwriting pair sets a new standard of warmth and bliss with their newest rock-tinged single, ‘Waiting on Luck’. 

Two Ways Home consists of Lewis and Isi both contributing instrumental and vocal roles into the sweet, harmonious compositions that they write together. Having been a part of Jeeni for a while now, this wholesome, multi-genre duo has blessed many of Jeeni’s channels with their fun, easy-listening tunes including folk, country, rock and americana. Check out their showcase on Jeeni here: https://jeeni.com/showcase/two-ways-home/

Interestingly, this new single opens with a chorus; an increasingly rare structural choice. The section is heard stripped back, with just Lewis and Isi harmonising and a basic acoustic guitar accompanying them both. By displaying arguably, the most vital structural section of contemporary music first thing, it makes the listener instantly familiar with the chorus even if this is the first time that they’ve heard the track. That means that when the part is heard at full power, it is a total delight due to the listener subconsciously desperate to hear the part again. This decision can lead to a confusing and peculiar feeling in a song’s structure, however on ‘Waiting on Luck’, this device is heard at its most effective. 

As is the typical way with country music, this single is exceptionally mixed and mastered, especially in regard to the layered vocals sitting in the mix with all other instruments so effortlessly. The singing from both members is so warm, and rich, thanks to the obvious synergy that they hold in their performative relationship. The introduction of some harder, more rock-styled sounds like distorted guitar and rolling, tom-heavy drum beats work perfectly with the country foundation that they laid down in the opening moments of this track. 

Lewis and Isi’s understanding of song structures and musicianship holds their pieces together and really pushes their music to higher levels and this understanding is heard best in ‘Waiting on Luck’. Check out the new single from Two Ways Home’s showcase on Jeeni: https://jeeni.com/showcase/two-ways-home/

How can Jeeni support artists like Two Way Home?  

JEENI is a multi-channel platform for original entertainment on demand. We’re a direct service between creatives and the global audience. 

• We give creatives, independent artists and performers a showcase for their talent and services. And they keep 100% of everything they make.  
• We empower our audience and reward them every step of the way.  
• We promise to treat our members ethically, fairly, honestly and with respect.  
• Access to artist liaison and a supportive marketing team. 

05
Jun

How to Build Your Own Playlist

In our previous blog called, "Top Ten Tips on How to Promote your Music Independently" http://bit.ly/2W2nCJ5 we suggested you get yourself PLAYLISTED. Maybe we should have said, Build your own Playlist and then get yourself Playlisted. So what is the difference? Building your own PLAYLIST is an easy way to boost the promotion of your own music, so why not give it a go. The video is 3 minutes long so I have taken the highlight. (Approx. 60 second read time) Start by creating your own public playlist filled with great music, and include your own tracks too. With a small amount of work you you could get a few hundred followers, it'll still help your chance of landing on other, bigger playlists. With a lot of work and fun, you could build your playlist to have thousands or even millions of followers over time. Discover Weekly algorithm takes EVERY playlist into account, no matter how small. The algorithms behind Discover Weekly find users who have built playlists featuring the songs and artists you love. It then goes through songs that a number of your kindred spirits have added to playlists but you haven't heard, knowing there is a good chance you might like them too.Ideally, you want to be uploading & submitting your tracks to playlists weeks in advance of your release. For example Spotify alone get 20,000 new tracks every day. Make sure you get your tags rights so you can be featured automatically and help the editors find you. No guarantee, but you need to start somewhere. Share your music on your own social media platforms to get on a playlist, stay on a playlist and grow your fanbase. Drive traffic from off platform, that means share your links everywhere. Post them on your socials, website and other channels. You can only submit one track per release, so if you're releasing an album or an EP, have a good think about which track is most likely to get picked by a playlist. Pitch your music to independent curators, if you are not sure how to do this, keep a eye out for our next blog. Try not to disheartened if you do not get thousands of followers straightaway, keep choosing music you love and keep adding to your playlist, be true to yourself, only add your favorite tracks and have some fun. Check out our new community of facebook, called: Unsigned Artist Community and join today. http://bit.ly/2Q45ri8 https://vimeo.com/396927442

05
Jun

How to grow your Facebook group.

Times are moving fast when it comes to social media, in particular the use of community groups to target your audiences with event, streaming and watch-parties going live every second of the day all around the globe. All of a sudden it feels like everyone except me is an expert at creating successful Facebook groups, so I decided I would take some time to try and unpick why are Facebook groups so successful. Had the groups been going for years and grown their members organically? Did they have large budgets and were they spending loads of money on Ads? Were they all marketing experts? Did they engage large teams of enthusiastic influencers?  To my surprise I found that in most instances these assumptions were just not the case. Rock The Lock Down, founded by Lucy Pardoe & Ollie Hughes, is a great example, with over 887,000 members in less than 6 weeks. I finally had to admit I was missing the critical ingredients for a successful campaign.  I only watched a selection of YouTube Videos, so not exhaustive, and I will watch some more tomorrow, but in the meantime to save you time, these were my key take-aways. 1. Make sure you take extra time to set up the group correctly, with an accurate, yet brief description. Check to make sure you have completed all sections, not just the about, which is the mistake I made. 2. Get as many people as possible to like your landing page, so that you can invite all of those people to your community group. Really simple and easy to use, but Facebook only allow you invite 50-100 in one day to stop you spamming. Which is what I also did!! 3. Make the group public, as you want as many members as possible to grow and contribute to organic growth.  4. Create as many discussions and engage with all your members as often as you can, be as helpful as possible, share and like and answer their questions. Be a guru, be supportive, open, honest and kind.   5. Use a bot to run competitions, contests, have freebies and giveaways , looping the bot back to join the group. 6. Join other relevant groups, share those groups and contribute as much knowledge and wisdom as you can helping members in those groups. It’s all about genuine and engaging conversation. Write guest posts and contribute wherever you can. Share and reuse your work on different sites, saving time and money. Keep the content helpful and meaningful. Cross-promote as often as you can and contact group's admin to share your group. 7. Test, test and trial Facebook ads that are targeted and specific, making sure you have set up demographics and location settings.  8. Create an exciting and interesting email campaign to support engagement from existing and new customer databases. 9. Interlink and entwine your groups posts and comments on You Tube and use back-links to improve your SEO. 10. Remember groups are for genuine enthusiasts who love music, or food, travel etc, and members do not want to see any information that is not relevant to what they love. At the end of the day this is all about them after all! In the meantime, please feel free to invite friends to our Independent Musicians and Performers Group and we will soon be at 2,000 members.

06
Jun

DO YOU WANT TO DANCE?

 By Sammy Venn, Jeeni's Official Writer Columnist and Blogger. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com Come and join in... Plato said that music and rhythm find a way into your soul; that’s so true! I love music and have an eclectic taste that I think most can’t comprehend. The plethora of suggestions I get is wonderful, so it works for me, as my knowledge of music becomes far more expansive that way. I discovered Fip radio about a couple of months ago. It’s a French radio station; genius in that I can listen to a myriad of tunes and not turn it off or down because of adverts or news that makes me feel sad - it’s all in French! So not only am I picking up a language I adore, my collection of music is expanding. Music really feeds my soul, I thought it might be a fun idea to create a “Musicians and Performers Group" playlist I can create on Jenni for us all to listen too. So please, please add your favourite songs below so we can all share in the delight that music brings to our mind, body and spirit...Many people don’t know this but listening to music is not just something that brings joy, it can also improve your health in a variety of ways and scientists have proven that through many researches. Read on to find how music can make your life more awesome. By Eevee G 1. Helps you sleep better Music contributes for a healthy sleep. Researchers have found that classical music can help us deal with Insomnia, especially college students. This is definitely a healthier and much cheaper fix for your sleeping disorder than taking pills. 2. Fights stress It is no surprise that listening to music helps relieve stress off your shoulders. Studies have found that music stimulates biochemical stress reducers which helps us feel more relaxed. 3. Helps you get in touch with yourself As it puts us in a better mood, music helps us get in touch with our emotions, a 2013 study suggests. The participants marked “self-awareness” as one of the most important advantages of music. 4. It relieves pain Music has the ability to decrease the intensity of the pain. It activates sensory pathways that fight pain pathways and takes a person’s attention away from the pain. 5. Fights anxiety When we are feeling anxious, listening to music can help us fight it as it has the same effect on the brain as a massage has on the body. 6. Acts as a motivator for bikers and runners. College students conducted a research and proved that the people who rode stationary bicycles were able to work harder while they were listening to fast music compared to those who weren’t listening to any music during the experiment. If you are like me and prefer running, listening to your favorite songs can help you beat your personal records and even strengthen your endurance. Long story short, music helps you perform better during your workouts and also makes them a lot more enjoyable. 7. Helps you recover faster after a workout. It’s proven that your body recovers faster after a hard workout when you are listening to your favorite music 8. Fights sadness Researchers have found that music can successfully fight symptoms of depression but the genre is very important. Classical and meditation music can boost your mood when you are feeling down,  but listening to heavy metal or techno music won’t help that much with chasing away the bad thoughts. 9. Helps the function of the blood vessels Science has proven that the emotions that people have while listening to music contribute to healthier functions of blood vessels. As music makes you feel happier, it boosts the blood flow in your blood vessels. 10. Helps with stroke recovery A Finnish study found that if stroke patients listened to music for 2 hours a day, they recover faster. Not only their moods improve, but also their verbal abilities and attention span, too. 11. Improves performance in high-pressure experiences Fast music can help you fight stress before a high-pressure experience- an important game, for example. Researches have proven that listening to fast music just before a basketball game helped player relieve the stress and perform better. 12. Makes you mindful while you eat Playing some music in the background is proven to help people slow down and enjoy their feeding process. This makes them more aware of what they are consuming and really tasting the food rather than eating quickly which leaves them feeling hungry and dissatisfied with the meal. 13. Improves cognitive functions Playing background music while working on tasks that need your mental focus can boost your performance. A research has found that music can boost one’s cognitive abilities, but only if it has the same effect on the emotional state. 14. Music can get you into a state similar to meditation Slow music can have effect on the speed of your brainwaves which makes them similar to someone who is in a meditative or hypnotic state. This can have a healing effect as it eases the symptoms of PMS and behavioral issues. 15. Eases patients going through a surgery A research discovered that when patients are played music just before a cardiovascular surgery, they start feeling less worried. Moreover, music reduces the stress after the surgery if it is played while the patients are resting in their beds. It doesn’t matter what the music of your choice is. Click HERE to visit or return to jeeni.com