Point Blank and Pioneer at BPM 2010

Point Blank had a fantastic time at the recent BPM 2010 show promoting our new DJ course in partnership with technology giants Pioneer. The show was a buzzing hive of activity with thuds, bleeps and tweaks emanating from every corner, and professional and amateur DJs coming together to coo over the latest batch of impressive technological advancements.

This included Pioneer's latest series of CDJs, the 2000s, 900s and 350s which are revolutionising the way DJs perform and prepare for their sets. Having set the industry standard for clubs for well over a decade, Pioneer look set to continue this dominance of the DJ market with these new digitally enabled CD decks. Any ambitious DJ would be wise to swot up on the capabilities of these players as more and more clubs around the world install them into their set up.
On our Weekend Pioneer Course you have the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of how to DJ using the CDJ 350 and Rekordbox software. Aimed at beginners, the classes consist of small groups with CDJs and a mixer for each student. Substantial discounts are available on the Pioneer gear too if you buy combined with this Point Blank course!

Check out Pioneer’s interview with the Point Blank DJ tutor Mr Bristow at the show in the player below (skip to 4mins 46)

And remember, once you know your way around the 1s and 2s, the best Point Blank DJ students get the opportunity to play at Camden's legendary Bar Vinyl where we host our weekly DJ night, Ambideckstrous in association with DJ Magazine Management. You could be the next star signed to their DJ agency!

Make Your Career in Music a Reality

If you regularly read this blog, we can safely assume that you love music, it is your passion and it would be a dream to make a living out of it somehow. But the reality is that it is not easy to make ends meet as an up and coming musician simply by selling music and playing gigs. Being a talented musician is rarely enough these days, you need entrepreneurial skills and a business minded outlook if you are going to maximise your earning power.

At Point Blank we recognise the importance of this for those who are aiming for a career in the music industry, which is why we have developed the Music Business Course as a core module of the 2 year Diploma. To supplement the concepts and theories taught on this module, we want to lend a further helping hand by inviting you to join our affiliate program, one of the many alternative revenue streams out there to be exploited.

Affiliate programs are common throughout the Internet and offer website owners an additional way to profit from their websites. Affiliates generate traffic and sales for commercial websites and in return receive a commission payment.

So if you run a website or blog you could be earning up to £70+ for every person that clicks through from your site and ends up booking a Point Blank course! The program is open to anyone, whether you have studied at Point Blank or not and the commission is applicable up to 90 days after the person’s first visit via your link.

How Does It Work?
When you join our affiliate program, you will be supplied with a range of banners and textual links that you place within your site. When a user clicks on one of your links, they will be brought to our website and their activity will be tracked by our affiliate software. You will earn a commission based on your commission type.

You will then be able to login 24 hours a day to check your sales, traffic, account balance and see how your banners are performing.

So if you do own a website or blog there is really nothing to lose!

Head over to www.pointblankonline.net/affiliate to sign up and start earning now!

Student Remixes Released on Tutor's Label

Point Blank tutor Danny J Lewis recently offered up his track ME2U to anyone who wanted to have a go at a remix with the best ones to be released on his Enzyme Black imprint. He got a healthy response from willing producers resulting in a great package of Danny’s original version plus seven hot remixes. This included versions by Point Blank students Hans Berg, and Logistix who completed the Deep and Soulful Pro Prodcuer Course and the Remix Pro Producer Course.

Danny talks about the interesting way this idea came about and what he thinks of the final results in an interview on Niall Redmond’s Digital Groove show on Irish radio channel, RTE Pulse. You can listen to that and preview the tracks from the release over at his soundcloud page.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to win a FREE COURSE

If you follow our tweets, and blog posts you will probably have realised that we LOVE giving you opportunities to win things and this month is no different!

We are running the YouTube subscriber competition again and the lucky winner will receive a free music production course at Point Blank! All you have to do is subscribe to our YouTube channel and you'll be automatically entered into the prize draw.

The winner will be able to choose a 4 week Pro Producer course online or attend one of our London based weekend courses - for free!

All YouTube subscribers are treated to our exciting series of free weekly tutorials. Taken from our acclaimed range of 4 week genre based music production courses, each tutorial reveals music production techniques as used by the pro’s. The current series is:

How to Write a Song: A series of 5 in-depth tutorials featuring professional songwriter Jony Rockstar (who has worked with Sugababes, Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys) recording a track with singer Ms D in the studio and editing it in Logic 9.

In addition we will be uploading a series of monthly celebrity masterclasses and Q & A sessions including:

Tommy D (Jay Z, Kanye West, Kylie Minogue)
Ben Westbeech (Strictly Rhythm, Brownswood Recordings)
Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams, Katie Melua)
Paul Epworth (Kate Nash, Florence & The Machine, Bloc Party)

And there are plenty more exciting videos to come...

To enter into the Point Blank prize draw, subscribe to our YouTube channel here.

Then email us at nick@pointblanklondon.com with your YouTube user name, the closing date for the competition is the Friday 5^th November, so get subscribing now for your chance to win!

(Please note that this competition is for new subscribers only)

FREE Online Live Stream Pro Producer Masterclass - Groove Clinic

Exciting times prevail at Point Blank as we prepare to step into the growing realm of live internet broadcasting. That’s right, we are giving you the opportunity to watch as a pro producer guides you through popular music production techniques live on screen.

We know that not everyone can make it to our college in London so for all you music-makers worldwide, this is as close to being in the studio with our team of pro producers ...as you can get!

The first broadcast is scheduled for Thursday 7th October through our new Point Blank Livestream channel and will be on the topic 'beats and groove'.

For a short period only the broadcasts will be FREE and OPEN TO ALL – ie. you do not need to be a Point Blank student to watch.

For those that enrol at Point Blank Online you will have access to an even deeper level of 1-2-1 interaction. In the private forum and weekly web chats, students are able to pose questions directly to their tutor and classmates. On top of that, our system of Direct Video Response™ allows you to upload your projects each week and receive a personalised feedback video analysing your track with an instructional voice over, revealing tips and tricks to take your music to the next level.

So be sure to tune in to Point Blank at 6pm UK time (5pm GMT), Thursday 7th October for an exclusive taster of the music production courses at Point Blank Online.

1 Year Diploma Students Get Free Online Resources

Previously available as a part-time only qualification, the 1 Year Diploma is full-time and comes with as much practice time as you can handle in Point Blank’s state-of–the-art studios. As well as access to the Point Blank studio facilities 7 days a week, students on the Intensive Diploma course now gain unprecedented access to a range of online resources from the online music production school, content which retails for £3225 but which is free for Intensive diploma students: Logic Beginners, Logic Intermediate, Sound Design, Art of Mixing and Songwriting.

This is Point Blank's flagship product for those hungry to learn - fast!

Songwriting Competition with Jony Rockstar

Songwriting is a tricky old game to get into; not only does it take a lot of talent to write a song, but you also need valuable contacts if you want to get writing for the top artists. To celebrate the launch of our new Songwriting Course, us here at Point Blank have set up a pretty swanky competition and are offering you the chance to bag some prizes that will give you a kickstart in your songwriting career.

Using a host of tracks and stems provided by renowned top songwriter, Jony Rockstar (who has written and produced for top ten artists including Sugababes, Amy Winehouse and Alicia Keys), you can write a song of your own over the backing track, arrange the parts in whatever order you want and remix before the laying down the vocals; the song is your oyster, so to speak, and you're free to be as creative as you wish.

So if you fit the bill of lacking the industry contacts and possess the talent to write amazing music then this competition is a tailored fit.

Jony himself will be listening over each and every track to decide who will get the chance to spend a day with him in the studio... oh, did we forget to mention that? Furthermore, the winner will also receive a free place on the Songwriting Course, taught by Jony Rockstar, as well as a yearlong free subscription to Soundcloud and the opportunity to have your music signed to Point Blank publishing.

Deadline for track submissions is 1st November so you have plenty of time to knuckle down, write a song and impress Jony with your talent. Backing tracks and stems can be heard below, but for full details and guidelines on how to enter the competition click HERE.








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