Skype pt 3 by Austin Crane

We asked Taylor some questions about the songs and beats he has created. Taylor has made six songs, and over two hundred remixes.  I had the second set of questions to ask Taylor and I started off by asking “Have you had any live performances?” He replied,” not really”.  Taylor explained to us that his hardest song to produce was “Nicki Manaj.” He got his inspiration from a very popular rap artist named Lil Wayne. He doesn’t sell all of his songs because he wants others to get a preview of his music before they buy. He made it clear that as a future artist you must have patience and a lot of time. We all look forward to hearing more of T-Bizzle and B-Teezy in the future.

Skype pt 2 by Jeff Koester

On Friday, December 10th, my web design class asked Taylor Bickford some questions about his rapping career. Taylor thinks that studing copyright infringments is a very important skill so that you can stay out of legal trouble. Marcus and Taylor write their lyrics freestyle, but it takes them a couple hours. Taylor says he likes to include explicit and clean versions of the songs to connect with a variety of all people. He wants to get a studio when he's older, but rapping is just for fun now. Taylor suggests that future rappers need to have time and patience. (and Audacity.)

Skype pt 1 by Tom Karnik

I did the set of questions in the "Initial Interests" section. They consisted of seven questions.

• How did the idea come about to make these songs and record them? Taylor responded with the answer of Marcus freestyling in his free time and he thought he should be heard so he can become famous.
• What programs did you use to edit your songs? Audacity.
• Out of the songs you sold, what was your portion of proceeds? He said that he gets 91 percent and he splits it with Marcus.
• How much do you have to fork out to do this - software, memberships, etc.? Audacity is free. He had to pay for a bar code for his songs. He paid $9.95 for the fee of putting it on iTunes. 
• What special equipment do you have? Musical and technology wise. He responded with a microphone and headphones.
• Where did you get all of your equipment? He bought the headphone and microphone at Wal-mart.
• How did you get your music on iTunes? We didn't get a chance to finish this question because of poor internet, but he had to use a distributor. 

Introduction to Skype Session with Taylor Bickford and Marcus Garvin

Introduction by Marcus Garvin:
After mentioning how much money my friend Taylor and I made off our song titled Nicki Minaj on iTunes (the iTunes link sends you to our song so you can listen to it), my teacher believed it would be interesting for the staff and students to find out how we came up with the idea, and the steps all the way to final production, which was putting it on iTunes.

On Friday, we Skyped with Taylor from his location in Alamosa, Colorado. There were about 20 people who attended the session including our Web Design class. Due to our terrible internet connection, some of his answers were distorted, and all hope was lost, but then I came to save the day and answered the question I could. Taylor is the producer of our songs, so I couldn't answer all of the questions that had to do with what programs we use and such, but when it came to how we come up with our lyrics and what beats we use, I definitely had an answer.

Taylor and I created the song over the summer before he went to college. He is now a freshman in college and I am a senior in high school. It was one of our summer projects in the small town of Peetz to pass time. We had no idea that over 300 people would like our song and buy it. We didn't it do it for the money, just so many people wanted it, that all they'd have to do is spend a dollar on iTunes and they'd have it. It beat the alternate option of burning about 100 CDs with just that one song on it to make everyone happy.
The song took over 14 hours to make, but it was our first song, so we had to figure out the process. It now only takes us about 5 or 6 hours, which is still a long time, but drastically shorter compared to 14 hours. The song was a great experience to make and produce. I hope anyone that bought it doesn't think it was a waste of money, because we spent a lot of time and energy in making it sound perfect.

The next 3 entries to this blog will be the questions and answers posted by our Web Design class. Enjoy our blog. (: