Last year marked my 20th year releasing electronic music as an artist.
I started dabbling with electronic music and made my first tracks already back in 1996. But I started releasing music to the public in the following year. Back then I was using tracker software to make music and I ran a tracker scene label called Rebound. We released more than 100 tracks as free downloads within a timespan of about 4 years.
There’s a request I keep getting regularly. It comes in different shapes and forms but the gist is always the same. Here’s an example of an email I received:
“I began with the program Logic pro X. But i have a problem: I want to get some plug ins for this program, i’d like to get it for free, because buying it is too expensive for me at the moment,
so i like to download it, but it’s so hard to find it…
I need the following plug ins:
[followed by a list of paid plugins]”
Now, ethics aside, there is something quite big at play here that I want to address. Something that is especially difficult to understand when you’re first starting out in music. (more…)
I recently listened to an excellent audio biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (grab it free with Audible trial here). It was extremely inspiring and thought provoking to say the least.
Besides teaching me a lot about history, it got me thinking about the parallels between Mozart’s days and ours. Of course, musical styles and the tools of making music have since evolved to something completely different. But there’s a lot of common ground underneath when it comes to conducting the craft itself.
(more…)Welcome! This article has recently been updated and moved to here.
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Thank you.
Updated: 2022-03-17
Click, click, click… Ever experienced the panic when your hard drive starts making that sound? I have. And of course I didn’t have a proper backup strategy in place.
For a long time I had trouble keeping up with making backups. Finally I figured out the solution: I needed to automate it.
It’s been 8 years now since that day. Things have worked out really well since I decided to implement a proper backup strategy for my small business.
Beyond the day to day aspects of running a small business, my entire life’s work sits on my hard drives. It would be terrible to lose that.
There are several types of risks I wanted to protect my data against.
I’ve had several hard drives fail in the past. It’s crucial to understand that all mechanical drives will fail at some point. It’s only a question of when. Even brand new drives as well as SSD ones can fail.
Even though I think I’m pretty well aware and protected against such things, it makes sense to prepare against ransomware, malware and hacking.
I will mention here that as part of my ransomware backup strategy, I’m also using Nord VPN which hides my traffic and provides protection against threats.
These would include things like fires, power surges and flooding. I’m doing what I reasonably can to prevent these things, but again – you never know.
Unfortunately, computers are prime targets for theft and burglaries. While I am taking measures to not become an easy target, you can never rule out the possibility of crime.
Besides covering the risks mentioned above, there are three main requirements I wanted my backup strategy to meet.
In the past I’ve dealt with backups manually. Eventually I realised it’s busywork that I could easily automate.
Not only that. An automated backup process is far superior in frequency and consistency.
Everything backup related needs to be automated and require little to no maintenance. It relieves me from having to remember to do it manually. One less thing to worry about.
The only way to cover for physical disasters or theft is to have a second backup off-site. This is where cloud backup comes in.
What if I accidentally deleted something? My automated backup system would mirror that change.
Or maybe at some point I want to return to an earlier version of a project or a file?
I needed a solution that incorporates version history.
I decided to implement the 3-2-1 backup strategy. Many think it’s the best backup strategy for small business and personal use alike, because it’s straightforward and affordable but still covers a lot of ground.
The idea is to have three copies of your data:
The 3-2-1 method is a best practice backup strategy that is widely recommended. It’s not perfect, but it gets you a long way with a very modest investment. It’s a good option for small business backup strategy.
I ended up with a data backup strategy that consists of two components:
I researched lots of different options for cloud backup. I ended up choosing Backblaze. Their service is one of the cheapest but still has great features for a cloud backup strategy.
Backblaze features in a nutshell:
If you need a more advanced solution, there’s Backblaze Business. With it you can do Veeam, NAS, server and computer backups with centrally managed admin and extended version history.
I have now been using Backblaze for 8 years without any issues. It gives me great peace of mind. I don’t have to think about it at all – it just works and my backups are always up to date.
You can read my full article about Backblaze here.
I always have projects to work on and deadlines to meet. I don’t want to risk any downtime.
A bootable clone backup ensures that if my main drive fails, I can simply boot up from the clone and continue working.
I decided to use the Get Backup Pro software to create a clone of my main drive. Get Backup Pro comes with the Setapp software bundle which I’m already using for all kinds of tasks in my small business (check it out, it’s pretty great). If you wanted to buy it separately, it’s $19.99.
The initial creation of the clone takes some time. After that, the daily backing up happens quickly. Get Backup Pro uses incremental backups (it only updates what has changed).
I’m quite happy with this backup solution. It protects me against ransomware, physical disasters, theft as well as my own mistakes.
The combination of Backblaze and Get Backup Pro is very cost effective (not to mention I get the 200+ other apps that come with Get Backup Pro in Setapp).
For additional security, I’m using Nord VPN to hide my traffic and threat protection.
You don’t have to adapt this strategy as it is. Whether you’re just looking for a cloud backup strategy or a comprehensive backup strategy for a small business, you can consider these elements as a part of your solution.
How are you dealing with backups? Any tips, ideas or further thoughts? Let me know in the comments.
The fourth installment of the iconic Platinum Breakz album series on Metalheadz is out now. I’m happy and proud to be a part of it and wanted to celebrate the release by doing something a little bit special. I wanted to bring you guys some knowledge straight from the trenches.
So I took to it and spoke to many of the artists featured on the album. I asked them to share advice on things they find useful in their music creation process. It goes without saying these guys are all at the top of their game so I was as interested as anyone else about picking some brains! In this article I will also expand and share some further thoughts of my own on each topic. Let’s see what they’re saying…