People in the music industry work hard at their craft because working hard at music, art or any of the creative endeavors is fun.  If you have to work (and just about everyone has to) you should consider an activity where you can have serious fun while working.  Doesn't that seem ideal?  Work at what you like!
     One of the difficulties with this choice is that you may make less than stellar progress in salary and "position" advancement in this field.  It will take more work and more commitment to make it in the music industry than is required for many professions. The thing to do is to decide what is important to you in a career path and to evaluate the amount of work that it could take to state out success in the music industry.  Once you have examined the fun and the necessary work of the music industry and decided the fun is worth the work, Cornbread (our Music Business Editor) will say to you: Welcome to the first day of the rest of your music career... In this issue cornbread examines the pros and cons Inside The Music Biz.
     If you are looking for a career in the music industry, you'll probably sooner or later become "independent" where you are recording with different clients in different studios.  "Standard" jobs in  the industry are not where the most opportunities or the biggest opportunities appear in the music biz.  The independent engineer, producer or studio owner is likely to make a lot better living this this entertainment-driven industry.  Responding to the demand of providing training as an independent engineer or producer, Recording Institute of Detroit has the programs necessary for entering the field as an independent.  I explain it in the article Independent Engineer Training. 
     Part of any successful recording engineer training program in interning.  In this issue we get an account from a RID graduate doing an internship, what he is learning and doing along with my evaluation of how he's doing.  It's all there in this issue's article, An Interning Example.
     Developing Artist Productions provides an article this month about the origin of rap music.  This historical article is by DAP's rhythm drumming master consultant, Muruga Booker.  See the Inside The Rap article.
     This wouldn't be an issue without recording techniques articles  We went back in the vaults to dust of three in depth articles, The Hardest Term In  Audio, Adding Bass Clarity, and The Best Indicator In Audio.
     The Motorcity is the fourth largest recording center in the USA, largely due to to the Influence of Motown Records in the sixties.  I had the privilege of being part of the engineering staff when they were in their prime and I like to tell stories about these experiences.  In our Motown Recording Heritage article I recount bitterly clod winter experiences with one of the greatest vocal groups of all time, the Four Tops.  The article is called Iced In Tops.
    We're constant working on giving you better issues with less mistakes.  Please let me know if you find something in this issue that doesn't work for you.  Use the customer service link below to report problems or juyst to check in about how REQ is working for you. 

     Good Recording,  
     Bob