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When they arrived in the 1970s, video games were a completely new form of entertainment. They dazzled with cutting-edge graphics and memorable theme songs, sound effects and scores. At first, people fed quarters into machines at arcades, playing Pong and Pac-Man, each game’s music providing an uptempo accompaniment as players traversed level after exciting level. Then came the advent of home consoles, which brought games into living rooms and dens everywhere.

Video games have given us many memorable characters and songs — think Mario and Luigi, with their indelible opening refrain and accompanying sewer music. One composer, Yasunori Mitsuda, worked so hard on the intricate theme for the famed 1995 title Chrono Trigger that he had to be hospitalized with stomach ulcers!

Like many of us, I’ve spent lots of happy hours with a controller in my hands trying to up my scores and achieve gaming victory. Here are my personal top 10 favorite video game themes and soundtrack scores.

From the moment human beings started banging on logs and humming along, music has been a part of our daily existence, a constant accompaniment to so much of what we do in our everyday lives.

Music is like a hearth — something people can gather around, listen to and discuss. Artists have built entire careers because they know how to invigorate a crowd. Indeed, music is an incredible source of entertainment, joy and wonder.

But it can also be so much more. Music can actually be used to improve our lives. Here are six ways it can do just that.

This year, vinyl aficionados will honor the 14th annual Record Store Day on July 17th. During these events, customers are treated to special new releases, deals and, often, in-store performances as well.

Ever wonder what it takes to run a record store? In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into what goes into buying and selling vinyl.

For over a decade, music has been a central part of my personal and professional life. I’ve interviewed and written about hundreds of artists, from Lady Gaga to the next up-and-coming guitar player. What’s more, my wife is a radio DJ who receives song submissions for the airwaves on an almost hourly basis. So when it comes to the scope and landscape of the music industry, I’ve seen how much of the sausage is made.

I never, ever thought I’d play in a band. Or perform on stage for anyone. I never thought my time spent musing alone would extend past the four walls of my bedroom.

In the long run, maybe that’s what helped make it all happen.

I got my first guitar, a six-string acoustic, when I was a freshman in college. A few months beforehand, I’d seen a songwriter on TV, accompanying himself on guitar as he performed a Beatles song on the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. I watched as thousands in the audience were enraptured. “I need to learn how to do that,” I thought.

As described in Part 1 of this two-part series, being a musician today often means you’re also a small business owner, requiring that you undertake hours of promotion, marketing and administrative work to get a leg up.

In Part 1, we provided tips for getting your music played on the radio, placed in TV spots, featured online and in livestreams, as well as offering some common-sense approaches for getting publicity and finding a manager.

In this installment, we’ll talk about how to distribute your music (including getting it pressed on vinyl) and land it on prestigious playlists, along with getting exposure on social media. Last, but by no means least, we’ll discuss how you can protect your work and advance your career by finding a qualified entertainment attorney.

Horns have been used throughout history, for everything from battles to birthday parties. Rudimentary horns were made from many different materials, including wood, clay and even human bone. Examples date back to 1500 B.C. in Egypt, China and Scandinavia. The Moche people of ancient Peru painted images of trumpets as far back as 300 A.D. In the ancient Greek and Roman eras, metallic trumpets were used for marching in wartime. Eventually, almost all European royalty had trumpet bands that played military fanfares, although it wasn’t until the seventeenth century that the trumpet came to be used in musical ensembles.