We’ve done a lousy job at blogging or updating our site lately…
This is partly due to some staff changes and our work with pioneering new strategies for our new and existing artists, but primarily, it’s because of a number of  large developments that Pro Soul Alliance hasn’t shared much about… until now!

After doing some work in China over the last few years, Pro Soul has been working on setting up a world class studio in Beijing over the last year. This is not only a massive undertaking, but a very challenging one in China, as the standards, resources, and experience in this area are still quite limited.
We are excited to announce that after many months of design, construction, development and adjustment, Pro Soul Studios Beijing is now completed and we have begun using it already!

Here’s a photo of the control room:

Here’s the recording booth. It’s professionally built to completely isolated from outside sound, and is large enough to fit a full live band:

Since the studio is in a renovated traditional Chinese courtyard building, we were determined to keep the feeling that was originally there, which was quite a challenge acoustically as there is a lot of glass including a glass roof! But whatever wasn’t perfected in design, we were able to compensate with sophisticated hardware/software system that corrects anomalies and imperfections in the room for my monitors.

This has allowed us to create what we feel is one of the most unique studios in China if not the world!

Everyone who has visited say this new studio is not only unique, but inspiring, both Chinese and foreign artists, so we are very pleased. Take a look:

outside, front entrance:

inside before construction:

studio entrance door:

stylish and comfortable, rear of control room:

Recording booth:

Producer, founder of Pro Soul Alliance, Jarome Matthew:

All the equipment has been imported into China for the best possible quality, no fakes or imitations! Just the real thing, Apple, Neve, JoeMeek, Neumann, AKG, Sennheiser, RME, Mackie, Alesis, Tannoy with Mogami cabling and Neutrik connectors all the way! This is driven by Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic with Waves, Audio Ease, Spectrasonics, Native Instruments, East West software to name a few.

Many of these are recent additions to Producer Jarome Matthew‘s existing range of classic analog and cutting edge digital equipment, making this new studio in Beijing the most powerful, highest quality studio he has worked with in 20 years as a music producer, composer and audio engineer.
We’ve put a huge amount of time, trouble and great expense to make this one of the best, top quality music and sound design studios in Beijing.

It wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of many wonderful friends and clients in China, you know who you are, Thank you so much!

More exciting news and developments for Pro Soul Alliance in 2012, keep an eye on us!

All the best for 2012 for you and your work.

Recently we posted some statistics for social networking in China that showed some staggering numbers demanding musicians not overlook the potential of these resources.

Let’s look at some of the top sites used in China for social networking.

China’s Twitter equivalent, Sina got smart after the first 2 Twitter knock offs got shut down and automatically censors ‘micro blogs’. It has now outdone Twitter only 6 momths after launching with over a million users.

Youku.com is China’s leading Internet video website with 30 million unique viewers a day, and 200 million a month according to Nielsen and iResearch. (That’s right, per day!)
Striving to be more than just a Chinese youtube clone, Youku also features professionally produced content.
Check out Pro Soul artist Elika Mahony on youku.

The largest Internet service portal is Tencent, with 1 billion accounts (485 million active users). In 2009, its revenues surpassed $1.5 billion, 90% of which came from digital goods and games and 10% from ads. Tencent is the most important Internet company in China and the third largest in world, after Google and Microsoft. Tencent’s social network Qzone has 310 million users. Their IM service, QQ, has 50 million concurrent users. China’s answer to Facebook, Renren has 200 million users, 55 million of whom are mobile. Another popular social network, Kaixin001 has 75 million users. The numbers are overwhelming for some marketers – a scale that is hard to imagine.

Another interesting statistic is that 40% of Chinese Web users are creators, compared with 21% of Americans, this is far too great of a market to ignore, marketers and corporations are finding creative ways to circumvent any restrictions when it comes to music marketing.

According to Forbes’ Russell Flannery ~ China Wealth, Aug. 10 2010 article Hard Pickin’ Into China’s Growing Music Industry, Mr. Flannery acknowledges that “China is a growing yet difficult market for the music industry.” He references Abigail Washburn a 30-year-old Nashville folk singer and banjo player, who’s toured with Steve Martin’s bluegrass band and enjoyed successful albums and tours on her own. With some success in the US, the artist now calls China home, and has felt the music industry in China to be welcoming but challenging at times. But she says that “In some ways, it feels like Beijing and Shanghai are ahead of the States, because they’ve actually skipped over CDs and record labels. They just do direct to consumer sales (artist to fans), which is where it needs to go in the U.S.”

Flannery’s interview with Abigail Washburn, supports the 176 million Chinese connecting via social networking system (SNS) with their “real” friends and online networks is where consumers talk about products, services and music.
These interactive online message boards are the heart of social media in China, representing a vibrant online market.

In future, Pro Soul plan on exploring more about how these social networking resources can be used effectively for promoting music virally, a significantly different approach to how it is done in the west.
We also plan to look at the part mobile phones play in this, a huge part of social culture in Asia.