Today's post is from How To License Your Music.com's resident producer, Gary Gray.  Take it away Gary....

Here we are, almost in 2018, listening to music through iPhones and laptops. I think viewpoints that scoff at how "cheap" music sounds on laptops and iPhones are missing the point.

To begin, let me go back to one day when I was on the beach on a hot humid summer afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio - on Lake Erie. It was 1969. The moon landing had just happened.

"Get Back" by the Beatles, featuring Billy Preston, "Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet" by Henry Mancini and his Orchestra, and "In The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans filled the airwaves.

Fast forward. Some people in 2017 scoff and spit on the idea of music coming out of an iPhone, as if that scenario is something new, and as if that technology somehow severs the tie between the intention of the artist and the listener.

Well, let's take a closer look here. 1969. Millions upon millions of small transistor radios were sold and in the hands of people all over the world. And hundreds of those transistor radios spotted the beach that I was running up and down as a 9 year-old kid, playing catch with a football with a friend. The iPhone scenario is not something new. Believe me.

I was seriously into music already by that age. And I'll never forget the moment I stopped dead in my tracks when the songs above emanated from - a transistor radio, right across from the concession stand at the beach. The music played away on that radio, lying right there on a large beach towel near my feet. The reason I stopped dead in my tracks was because I got chills listening to those songs. The technology of a small speaker does not, in my opinion, and never will, diminish in any way, the listening experience for a music fan. In fact, I remember being amazed as to how much emotion was coming through that speaker.

You see, I believe that the spiritual intention of a great songwriter, when coupled with a great arranger, producer and engineer -- completely and 100% transcends the "limitations" (there are none really) of a small speaker. My proof? That small transistor radio, being a carrier wave of genius songwriters, producers and engineers, moved me emotionally to the point where I got chills. Back in those days many producers and engineers checked their mixes through small speakers called Auratone speakers. They were affectionately known as Horrortone speakers. Lol! Listen to “Stairway To Heaven” on your smart phone – chills all the way.

I know some people who LOVE listening to songs on their iPhones.

There are two philosophies when it comes to translating mixes to various systems.

1. Mix in the studio for large speakers, and however it sounds on the small speakers and other systems is however it sounds.

2. Mix in the studio for large speakers AND mix for small speakers (the secret is to mix through small speakers) and make both sound amazing.

I belong to the second school of thought, and many songwriters, producers and engineers do.

One additional bonus gained by adhering to philosophy #2 above, is that many music supervisors, publishers and music industry executives will hear your music for the first time on a smart phone or a laptop. And some do so on purpose, looking for the same thing I felt when I was 9 years-old.

There are exact, specific techniques, tips and tricks I teach my students to get their mixes sounding great -- both on large expensive systems, and on smaller systems. 

People who scoff at the "limitations" of small speakers and how it's "ruining the music industry" are fascinating people to study. Go listen to that same person talk about their family, their husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend, their job, their boss. In my opinion, from my observations, these people are either:

A.   Negative people or

B. Positive people who have been brought down by negative people, parroting what negative people are spreading, without actually stopping to consider what they are saying, without them actually researching the subject for themselves and not caring what other people say or think, but having the courage to communicate and share their own observations with confidence.

To which school of thought do you belong?