Bjorn Lynne's news archive

Worms, Worms and more Worms

2011-08-26T22:52:00.000+02:00

From time to time I'm asked about music that I composed for the many different "Worms" games from 1995 until 2006 when I worked as a composer of video games for Team17 Software.

To keep this music from "dying out" I've now made a lot of it - maybe not all of it, but everything that I still had on backups and that I could make sense of, arrange and present in nice and tidy way, and that sounded ok as music in its own right, outside the scope of the game.

I invested a huge amount of creative effort in all that Worms music through the years, so it's with pleasure that I'm able to present it on my website now, so that the music can "live on" and be heard by fans of the games, and the music itself.

The music is available in FLAC (lossless audio) or MP3 (256-kbps) from the Bjorn Lynne Download Shop.

2010-12-19T19:08:00.000+01:00

Just a kind of demo video for the music track "Digital Concepts" by Bjorn Lynne (c) 2010.

I made this track in a couple of days in November 2010. It's nothing big or important, just a sort of electronic groove/tech or whatever you would call it, with some piano leads and a little bit of electric guitar strings here and there.

The music has not yet been released on CD, but the track is available to license for use in commercial and non-commercial projects, video/film, games/YouTube, multimedia/Flash/websites etc. If you want to use this track in any project such as this, you can buy the track from www.Shockwave-Sound.com and that purchase includes a License to use the track for such projects. It's "Royalty-Free" music, so you don't pay any royalties based on sales, views, anything like that. Just a one-time license fee.

White Fields track and video

2010-12-01T08:59:00.000+01:00

It's the first of December 2010 - Winter has come to southern Norway, and I felt inspired to write and record this little music track which I called "White Fields". It's nothing big or important, just a little track with some synth washes, a chilled rhythm and some clean electric guitar licks with lots of reverb.

The photos are all taken by me, most of them yesterday, but a couple are from last winter, and they are all from around my neighbourhood, where I live, here in a small town called Stavern, about 100 km south of Oslo.

Well, I hope you'll enjoy it. Feel free to share it, spread this video link, etc. etc.

If you would like to license this music track for use in your own project, be it a game, video, YouTube, film, multimedia, any kind of project at all, then you can buy a license from www.Shockwave-Sound.com (search for "White Fields" in the search field there) and you get a license to legally use the track in your own media.

Get a free Bjorn Lynne CD !

2010-11-13T15:32:00.001+01:00

Dear friends,

Today I'm announcing a new promotion in which you can earn yourself a completely free, autographed, Bjorn Lynne CD or DVD, just by writing an article about one of my web services / online stores that I'm trying to promote online. In short terms, you will write something online, an article or blog post, about a somehow relevant subject, and in that article or blog post, you will link to one or both of my two sites: Shockwave-Sound.com (Royalty-Free Music, Stock Music), and/or 1SoundFX.com (Buy and download sound effect files). And in return for you writing about one/both of my services and linking to it/them, thus helping to create a "buzz" about these sites, I will show my appreciation by sending you a free Bjorn Lynne CD - autographed - as a completely free gift from me to you.

To read all the details and requirements, please check this page.

Thanks for reading!

New music track "Outback Ramble"

2010-11-08T14:56:00.000+01:00

This is just a video I put together to put some images to my latest music composition: "Outback Ramble". I felt that this music went well together with scenes of nature, forest, outdoors and relaxing natural scenes, so I used stock footage from Redwood National Forest, which I have licensed from FootageFirm.com.

The music was composed, recorded and produced over two days in early November 2010 in my home studio. There are about 4 layers of my acoustic guitar and the rest is programmed. At about 10 seconds in you can see a photo that shows how I set up the guitar recording. I have two microphones placed about 30 cm from each other and record those two mic's left/right for a nice, natural stereo sound on the guitar. The two microphones aren't identical, but in my opinion, they don't have to be. The guitar I'm using is a Crafter "jumbo body" acoustic that I bought about 15 years ago; I like the sound of it. It has built-in pickups and a jack plug, but I never use it. I don't like the sound of acoustic guitar recorded with built-in pickups. In my experience, it sounds "tinny", compressed and unnatural. For me, the best way to record an acoustic guitar is always with two microphones placed in front of the guitar. If you want a more "distant", roomier sound, you simply sit further from the microphones. If you want a really "up-close" sound, it's a no-brainer, you simply move up and sit really close to the microphones. :-)

Well, I hope you like the track. If you would like to license this track for use in a project of your own, you can buy a license from www.Shockwave-Sound.com (just search for the track title "Outback Ramble" there). Or if you are interested in hearing more of my music for just personal listening, please see my personal website www.LynneMusic.com . You can also buy my CD's from iTunes or from www.cdbaby.com/group/bjornlynne

Thanks for listening!

Bjorn Lynne
November 2010

Ice Planet video

2010-10-15T16:05:00.000+02:00

Using my music for a school, hobby or non-profit project?

2010-10-12T09:34:00.000+02:00

Today I received a message from a guy who wanted to know if he could use one of my free MP3 download tracks in his school video project. It's completely non-profit and he was going to give me proper credits for the music etc. of course. And when the video was finished, he was going to upload it to YouTube so that I, and everybody else, could see the finished video there. So he wanted to know if he could use my music for free, for this purpose.

I get this type of questions quite regularly, so I wanted to share the answer here, in case somebody else are interested in knowing how I look at this issue:

Answer from Bjorn:

Hi, thanks for your email.

I'm totally okay with you using my music (for free) for a school project. That's no problem. But when you start talking about distributing the video via YouTube, it's not so simple any more. YouTube use may seem "non commercial" to you, but YouTube use is in fact highly commercial and very widely distributed. When you upload a video to YouTube, you are giving YouTube all rights to all content in that video, and that includes the music. It will be distributed on the world's most visited website, and YouTube can do anything else they like with the video, and with the music that's used in it. And basically I'm not willing to allow that to happen without me getting a license payment. The music can be licensed for YouTube use for $29.95 (even less for shorter versions of the track), from Shockwave-Sound.com. I hope this sounds reasonable.

If you take away the YouTube distribution and use the music only for your actual school project, you can do that free of charge. No problem.

- Bjorn Lynne

Some new music from Bjorn Lynne

2010-10-09T22:13:00.000+02:00

Hi people !

It's been a while since I posted anything on this blog. I have been guilty of neglecting this blog a little bit, I think partially because I've started to use my Facebook profile page to just post little messages, quick news etc. I don't know, for some reason it kind of feels that I need to have some kind of big important news, before I'll make a new post on my email newsletter mailing list or on this blog. So, if you're interested in quick, non-important news from me, feel free to hook me up as a friend on Facebook.

By the way, here is a recent photo of me and my daughter. I hadn't posted any new photos of myself for years, so just to connect a bit better, I decided to put this photo here, to show you guys what I, and my little girl, look like in 2010. :-)

New music tracks

These days, when I compose new music tracks, the purpose is mostly to license them out through my stock music (royalty-free music) catalogue. I don't think so much in terms of "albums" or "CD's" any more. It's more about adding the new tracks to my ever growing collection of "library music" - in other words, music that can be licensed for use in games, videos, film, websites, multimedia etc.

None of these tracks are available to buy on any Bjorn Lynne CD yet, but some of them may appear on future Bjorn Lynne CD releases, who knows...

First up is Ice Planet - I guess you could say that this is a track in the old-school electronic style of music like in my early years (1988-1995?). The track is quite long and has a very synth / fantasy / scifi sound and it's a little bit similar in style to the music I used to make on the Amiga and Protracker, all those years ago. In fact, back in 1992 or so I made a track on Amiga called "Father Nature" and in this track, Ice Planet, the main theme from that old 1992 track Father Nature makes a visit. :-)

Next out is Spectral Waves where I've also tried to go for a sort of "cold", "icy" sound but with a bit more "tech" feel to it:

Then we have Dreamy Days where I wanted to go for a sort of "friendly, light pop" sound because in my experience, this type of music is quite often licensed for use in commercials, corporate video, video presentations and other multimedia presentations:

The next track, Synchro Express, I guess is a little bit back to the old-school electronic / techno style, but not really too hard techno. Kind of like the music we used to make on the Amiga back in the day. :-) Again, I find that this kind of music is regularly licensed for use in casual video games, on-screen presentations and animations of various types etc., so I wanted to create a track that could be a success within a stock music catalogue and be licensed many times to customers making various forms of multimedia:

And last out today is a new track that I literally finished this morning, it's called Fantasy Exploration #2 and it's pretty much directly made to be used within fantasy games, adventure games, RPG games and similar productions. The music is not too light, not too dark, not too loud, not too quiet, not too sad, not too happy, and otherwise I guess fairly "neutral" :-) It's made with the purpose of just creating a general background atmosphere / mood while exploring new lands and new areas in adventure / fantasy games. The track plays for 7 minutes and contains no repetition at all during this time, so you can play this track in a loop (for example, within a game) for quite a long time without it becoming too repetitive:

And yes, if you guessed from the "#2" in the title of this track, you may have guessed that I have in fact previously made a "Fantasy Exploration #1", and you would be correct. :-) That track is also available.

If you or somebody you know should be interested in licensing any of these tracks for use in YouTube videos, games, websites, multimedia etc., then just go to www.Shockwave-Sound.com where you can buy a license for $29.95 (less for shortened versions) and for that money you get to download the track, and you get a license document that proves your right to exploit that music track commercially and in-public, and to distribute the track within your own creation (video, film, game, etc.). Take note though, that the license does not give you a right to distribute the music by itself, as music. It only gives you a right to use the music within some kind of project like a film, game, animation etc., and then to distribute that final product. I hope you all understand the difference between that, and simply re-distributing the music itself.

Thanks for reading!

- Bjorn (October 9, 2010)

Why so hugely different prices for Bjorn Lynne music?

2010-07-24T11:36:00.001+02:00

Today I received an email from a person who'd heard my music "Under the Sea" in a YouTube video and he had searched around a bit and found that this music track was available for about $8 (it's a whole single-track album of 60 minutes) from some places, but also available for $49.95 from another site. So he wrote to the "expensive" site (Shockwave-Sound.com) and asked why we were selling something for $49.95 when the same thing was available elsewhere for $8?

I found out about Bjorn Lynne's Under the Sea song via a video made of World of Warcraft (involving an underwater scene). I found it quite beautiful. The person that made the video told a commenter which song it was and linked here:

http://www.shockwave-sound.com/track_search.php?track=Under+the+Sea

Surprised at the $49.95 price tag for the 60 minute version, I did some searching and found the same 60 minute track on the composer's own website for only $8.00. Quite a price difference I just thought you'd like to know about the incredible price differential and how easy it was to find the $8.00 version:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q="Under+the+Sea"+bjorn+lynne
Thanks for reading.

My answer:

Thanks very much for your email. My name is Bjorn Lynne and I'm the composer of the music track you heard (and many others).

The difference in pricing is because of totally different rights you get with your purchase. To purchase the track just to listen to it, the price is around $8. It can be bought from my own personal website www.lynnemusic.com and other places like CDBaby, etc.

If you buy the track at www.Shockwave-Sound.com for $49.95 you get more than just the rights to listen to it. You get the rights to use this music in a public or commercial project. With this purchase, you don't just get the music download, you also get a License Document with your name and address on it, and this document shows that you have the rights to use this music within your own project, such as a film, Youtube film, DVD/game, broadcast, theater play, telephone on-hold music, etc. etc. (You can see all the rights you get, by looking at our License page: http://www.shockwave-sound.com/license.html) And you don't have to pay me (the composer) ANY royalties for this type of use. That's what you get for the one-time $49.95 purchase, and that's why we say that this site (Shockwave-Sound.com) is selling royalty-free music.

That's a huge difference from the $8.00 purchase which only gives you the rights to listen to the music on your personal music system.

- Bjorn

Scandinavian people love their holidays

2010-07-20T13:33:00.001+02:00

Through my website www.Shockwave-Sound.com which sells music licenses for use of music in media projects, I'm able to see various "sales trends" throughout the year. I have customers from all over the world, including USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, Europe/EU, and Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland) etc. etc.

One statistical phenomenon that really stands out to me is that during the summer period (say, late June until mid August), nearly ALL sales to Scandinavian customers dry up completely, whereas the sales to the rest of the world continues more or less as normal.

My typical customer is a person who works in an office, perhaps a small business. It would seem to me that whilst most of the world's offices continue more or less as per normal through the summer holiday period, Scandinavian people simply aren't working during the summer. To Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finnish people, holidays are sacred!

Personally I work straight through summer, but that's just one of the realities of being all alone in a one-man company in a hard marketplace. My business simply couldn't survive just shutting down for 2 months. If nothing else, they'd be nobody here to answer customer emails or do the accounting. That's clearly not acceptable.

I have to say that sometimes I envy people who just work 8-16 in an office and don't have any responsibility to the business as a whole (or even work in the public sector). They can take their 8 weeks of holiday and really relax without a worry in the world. And us (them) Scandinavians really know how to do that!

Have a great summer! :-)

My track "Mission Incredible" used in arcade dance game

2010-07-17T12:32:00.000+02:00

Just some cool news, that my music track Mission Incredible has been used in the new hardware dance game "Pump It Up Pro 2" for arcade halls. (See picture). :-)

New track 'Spectral Waves'

2010-07-01T12:06:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

Summer is here and I'm spending my time between working on my music licensing business, playing tennis, going on trips with my family, and working on some new music. Yesterday I finished a new track that I called "Spectral Waves". It can now be heard on my Facebook profile, under the "My Band" tab.

(For those who don't wish to use Facebook, the tracks can also be heard on my profile at ReverbNation.)

I'm pretty excited to be taking part in a real tennis tournament for the first time (it's about time, at the ripe age of 43!) :-) I'm going to play both in the singles 40+ and the in the doubles 40+ in Norway's largest tennis tournament, next week. I'll definitely get knocked out in the first round, but I'm thinking like this: HALF of all the players are knocked out in the first round. So there's no shame in that. :-).

That's all from me for now. I hope you'll like the new track "Spectral Waves". BTW, if you want to hear some other mixes/edits/versions of it (such as a "Minimalist Mix" etc. then you can hear those at http://www.shockwave-sound.com/track/7874

Update and a YouTube video

2010-06-04T09:17:00.001+02:00

Hi all,

Sorry for not having written anything on this blog for a while. I've been busy with my music licensing business, signing up new music for publishing through my stock music company, and also working on some music on my own. Below is a video of me, working on a new sort of Chill-house track. The video shows me working out the bass line, recording a guitar melody, plus a couple of little "odd bits" where I play some "stick" by hitting a plastic jar with a pencil and I work in a cool little chair squeak sound into the rhythm/beat pattern. I hope you'll like it - it's just a bit of fun. :-)

BTW, the track ended up being titled "Hotel Brasil", many thanks the great title suggestion by Juan Carlos Pastor Segura who is connected with me at Facebook and suggested the title there.

Relaxation Music Series now available on CD

2010-04-01T12:55:00.001+02:00

Dear friends,

As some of you may know, over the last several years I've produced a series of 7 different one-hour, continuous Ambient Relaxation Music recordings. Each one plays for a full 60 minutes continuous, relaxing music and they have got some great reviews and feedback.

Until now, these have been Download-Only products, but I've had several people asking me to release these on physical CD's too, and I'm happy to say that they are now available on physical CD, from my personal CD-shop.

They are $12 each on CD, or you can get all 7 for the price of 6. (Look under "Money-saving bundles" on the CD-shop page).

They can also still be downloaded for $8 each (MP3, 256-kbps) or $10 each (Lossless FLAC), from my download-shop

That’s all from me this time. :-)

All the best,
Bjorn Lynne

A little rant about CD shipping prices

2010-01-05T16:10:00.006+01:00

As someone who has been selling my music on CD's by mail-order since 1991, I think it's finally time for me to write a few words on my frustrations with the ever increasing Postage prices. :-(

I don't know if Norway have the highest postage prices prices in the world, but it would certainly seem that way to me. Every year for as long as I can remember (and sometimes twice a year) the Norwegian postal service have increased their prices, to the point where it now costs the absolutely ridiculous amount of -- wait for it -- about US$ 12.75 !!! in stamps, to send ONE CD to USA and other non-European countries. Yes, you read it right. For a small packet with a weight between 100 grammes and 350 grammes, I now have to put 70 NOK (US$ 12.75) in stamps on the package. And that's only the actual stamps. I haven't included the bubble-wrap envelope which is another $1 approx when purchased in bulk. Plus maybe $0.25 in labels, ink, stickers that are needed on the envelope.

So really, when a customer orders a CD on my website for $15, I actually have to pay about $14.00 to ship the CD out to the customer! Stupid, or what??

And this is for completely normal, NON-registered, NON-tracked, bog standard air-mail postal delivery. Want "Registered" service? That's another 180 NOK (US$ 32,75) on top of the normal postage cost!

Unfortunately, one normal CD in a regular jewel case, with a small bubble-wrap envelope, comes to just over 100 grammes in weight. Now, if you put 3 CDs in the package, it's just under 350 grammes, so a shipment of 3 CD's costs the same amount as 1 CD, as they are both in the "100-350 grammes" weight class.

But if you come up to 4 CD's, then you are up to the weight class "350 - 1,000 grammes" which costs an incredible 160 NOK = US$ 29.10! Again, that's completely normal, standard, non-registered postal service. And again, that does not include any bubble-wrap envelope or anything else. It's only for the actual stamps I have to put on the package.

Now. Of course, before I can even send the CD to you, I have to get the CD's sent to me first, from the CD-factory. I can probably get this done, with shipping costs and import duties, for around US$ 2.50 per disc.

All in all, this means that by the time I've had ONE compact disc sent to me from the factory, and sent to one customer in USA who wants to buy my CD, we have spent a total of approximately US$ 16.50 in shipping and shipping-related costs.

And of course, that does not include the actual cost of manufacturing the disc in the first place!

My friends, this is some of the reason why I'm trying to get away from the physical disc, the CD, and trying to sell my music as downloads instead. From my download-shop I can sell you a FLAC download of almost all of my albums for $12 per album. FLAC files are completely lossless; they have exactly the same sound quality as the physical CD. Or if you prefer MP3 downloads, I sell my albums at $10 per album, and that's for high quality, 256-kbps MP3 files. All album downloads (both FLAC and MP3) contain high resolution graphic files of the cover images, so those who want to "build" themselves a real CD at home can do so by printing out the cover artwork and mounting it in a jewel case.

It's with a heavy heart that I've had to once again increase the postage costs that are added to the shopping cart total when you shop for CD's in the CD-shop on my website. You may not like it when it says: One CD: $15. Shipping: $11.90. This may seem high to you, but the fact is, after Paypal have taken about 5% of the amount before paying it to me, that's not even close to paying for the actual costs involved with shipping out that CD.

I will continue to offer my albums as CD's, for as long as I have stock. But really, the writing is on the wall for the whole "physical products in the post" as far as music sales are going.

I had a little chat with someone about my frustrations over the postage costs, and she said "It just goes to show that vital services like this shouldn't be privatized. Because where there are private shareholders, there are people who want to make as much profit as possible, and that means prices will go up". She may have a point, but I don't entirely agree. I don't think the problem with the Norwegian postal service is the fact that they are privately owned. I think the problem is that they have NO competition. Private ownership and private business ventures must always be followed by competition. If there is no competition, they can do whatever they like and the customers just have to take it. Either way, I believe a State owned postal service wouldn't be any better. Perhaps it would be a little bit cheaper, but I believe the only way to a better and more affordable postal service would be competition.

One thing is for sure: The way it is now, people do anything to avoid having to send something by post.

Ok, this rant turned out a little longer than I had planned, but it felt good to get it off my chest. The real reason I wanted to write this was to explain to you that when you see $15 for one CD and $11.90 for shipping charges in my CD-shop, that's not out of greed on my part. In fact, I make a loss on those $11.90. It costs me considerably more than that to ship out the CD; at least to non-European countries.

Thanks for listening! :-)

- Bjorn

Couple of new music tracks and various news

2009-11-18T09:43:00.004+01:00

Dear friends,

Just a little update from Bjorn Lynne....

Nanoteknika and Crystal Horizon:

My two new CD albums have been very well received -- thank you so much to those who have ordered it. I’m getting a lot of great feedback through Facebook and email. If you have an opinion on these albums, please feel free to write your own little review (anything from 3 words to 30 pages welcome!) and submit to me by email and I’ll post your review on my website.

New tracks:

Fantasy Exploration #1: Made for the purpose of using in background for fantasy games, TV/Travel, etc. and licensing out as stock music. You can hear this track on the mp3 page of my personal website: www.lynnemusic.com/mp3.html

Hi Speed Berliner: This is very unusual for me; I wanted to make a sort of hardcore techno track which I haven’t really done since about 1996 when I made the music for the "X2" PlayStation game. This track was not made for any Bjorn Lynne CD or anything like that, but for licensing to media producers, Flash producers, animators, etc. as stock music. You can hear the track (albeit with a "preview" voiceover) at www.shockwave-sound.com/track/7050

As you can tell, I like to play around and have fun with various music styles, even though the music is a million miles away from what I would call my "musical heartland". :-)

Twitter:

I’d like to connect with as many as possible of you through Twitter.. I’m at www.twitter.com/BjornLynne . In the words of that old Genesis song: "I will follow you, if you follow me..." ;-)

Facebook:

If you’d like to connect at Facebook, you can find me at www.facebook.com/bjornlynne

Sound/Music for Nintendo DS games

Since I started my music publishing company and run www.Shockwave-Sound.com the royalty-free stock music website, I don’t really tend to work much on games any more, but there is one games development company that I still work for a little bit now and then, and right now I’m working on music and sound-fx for a Nintendo DS game. I can’t share any more details yet due to Non-Disclosure etc

On a personal note, my wife and I have just bought a piece of land here in Stavern, Norway. We were pretty lucky and managed to grab hold of what is probably the largest piece of land still available for development here in this small town. We’re now embarking on the long and costly affair of building "our dream house". Should be lots of fun, and lots of work!

Well, I guess that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

All the best,
- Bjorn Lynne

New track, "Fantasy Exploration #1"

2009-11-12T21:27:00.000+01:00

I composed a new music track, "Fantasy Exploration #1", which you should be able to hear in the Flash player below... The purpose of this track was to make it available for licensing for use in media such as games, video/film, exhibitions, installations, etc.

With this track I've tried to create a track that would be a nice background for exploring new areas and mystical lands. I've deliberately tried to make it non-emotional, not too sad, not too happy, not too light, not too dark, not too exciting, not too boring, not too spooky, not too light... :-) Just middle of the road, all the way! But still with a little bit of mysticism. I hope you'll enjoy it. If you want to license the track for use in media, you can find it at www.Shockwave-Sound.com

- Bjorn

Get your own Flash MP3 Player

My two new CD's now available as MP3 or FLAC downloads

2009-10-21T09:58:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

The "pre-ordering" period for my two new CD's "Crystal Horizon" and "Nanoteknika" is now over. In total, exactly 100 Crystal Horizon and 97 Nanoteknika CD's were pre-ordered. Many thanks for your support!

All pre-ordered CD's have been shipped out. If you haven't already received yours, it's right around the corner.

The two CD's can now be purchased as download albums, in high quality MP3 (256-kbps) or in Lossless FLAC format. The purchase also includes high-res cover artwork images - with cut and crop marks and everything - so you can print the artwork and make yourself a CD-cover for the album, if you want to. The whole album is $10.00 as MP3 or $12.00 as FLAC. They can be purchased from my download shop, where payment is done through 2Checkout. 2Checkout accepts all major credit cards, and Paypal.

It is still possible to buy the physical CD's as well! These can be purchased for $15.00 from my CD-shop.

For those who have already received your CD's, I hope you enjoy them. :-)

All the best,
- Bjorn

Now taking pre-orders for two new Bjørn Lynne CD's

2009-10-03T22:15:00.000+02:00

Dear readers,

I'm very happy to say that today I have opened the pre-ordering for my TWO new CD albums, "Crystal Horizon" and "Nanoteknika", both of which will be released later this month (probably around the 25th of October).

Many of you are asking about buying autographed CD's, and I have decided to do it like this: All copies of this CD that are pre-ordered before the actual release date will be autographed by me and shipped out to you by me, personally. As soon as the CD's are actually manufactured, I will autograph, pack and ship out all pre-ordered CD's personally. After the actual release customers will have the CD shipped to them directly from the manufacturing plant - NOT by me personally. Therefore it is only possible to get it autographed if you pre-order it before the actual release date - which is tentatively set for October 25th. This goes for both of the two new CD's.

The two new albums will also be available to buy as high quality MP3 and lossless FLAC downloads, with high-res cover artwork, directly from my site. But only from the same day when I actually start sending out pre-ordered CD's to customers.

Over the coming weeks and months, the CD's should also eventually make their way up on other services like iTunes, CDBaby, Payplay.fm etc. But this will take a good number of weeks from the release date.

Crystal Horizon and Nanoteknika are both $15.00 each as physical CD's. They can be pre-ordered right now from the Bjorn Lynne CD-shop.

The download versions (with high-res printable cover artwork) will cost US$ 10.00 each in 256-kbps MP3 files, or US$ 12.00 each in lossless FLAC format.

You can listen to previews of all the tracks on by "Crystal Horizon" and "Nanoteknika" on the web pages for each of the albums. I hope you'll enjoy them. :-)

All the best,
Bjorn Lynne, www.lynnemusic.com

New Bjorn Lynne album(s) on the Horizon....

2009-09-23T12:59:00.001+02:00

oday, I got this email from Robert Kriger: "Is there a way that I can purchase some of your latest creations that have not made into an album yet such as solar winds, Funkwah, perpetual flux, Koloss, etc… I have been a great fan of yours since 1998, and have pretty much all your albums. keep up the good work! By way, please tell your friend Jogeir Liljedahl that his album out of silence is phenomenal and I can't wait to hear new material from him."

I thought that this kind of deserved a real answer, not just to Robert, but to other people reading this...

The situation is: I’ve actually got a lot of music more or less ready for release on new Bjorn Lynne CD’s. I think I have enough material for at least two CD’s. The only thing that’s kind of keeping me from releasing this new material on CD’s is that I need to “collate” it. I need to go through the material and choose what to use and what to leave out. Also, choose which tracks to use together on one CD to make it either one or two more or less cohesive albums, rather than just a totally random collection of tunes of all styles and moods. Also, I need to put it all together as gapless albums (I like to make gapless albums) :-) And not least, I have to try to come up with some cover artwork / CD cover design/layout, all that. It’s these things that have been holding me back somewhat for the past 6 months or so.

But…. After I got your email, I got a little “kick in the behind” and I will actually try to pull myself together a little bit and get this done. Most likely I’ll release one album of only my own stuff (electronic, spacey, melodic), and another album with more upbeat/driving stuff, together with my friend Adam Skorupa. (We’ve released one album together in the past).

Please keep watching my website and my newsletter for updates soon!

Question about using music in a film

2009-07-11T14:12:00.002+02:00

Question from Kacpar Królak:

I got a question. If I buy one of your present/future tracks. May I use them in one of my movies? "Under cover of darkness" suits well to my idea for a vampire movie :-)

Answer from Bjorn Lynne:

Hi Kacper,

You can buy my tracks in two different ways:

You can buy my tracks cheap like $1 per track or less, from places like CDBaby.com, iTunes, Payplay.fm etc. You pay very little for the track, but the track is then only for personal listening. The same is the case if you buy one of my CD's for around $12 etc.

The other way you can buy my music is to buy it from www.Shockwave-Sound.com. Here you pay a lot more per track (about $15-30 for one music track), and here you are buying a license for using the music in media and in-public. So you get to download the music, and you also get the legal rights to use the track in your movie, or whatever other media you want.

So... the answer is yes. If you buy my music from www.Shockwave-Sound.com you can use the music in a movie etc. But if you buy it very cheap from some place like iTunes.com etc., then you can only use the music for personal listening.

Of course, I very much appreciate ALL support I get from people who buy my music, whether it's from iTunes, Shockwave-Sound.com, my own personal CD-shop, or anywhere else.

- Bjorn

New sound effects site launched by Bjorn Lynne

2009-05-19T09:42:00.005+02:00

Dear visitors, readers,

I'm happy to announce today the launch of my new website, www.1SoundFX.com. This is a brand new site that I've been thinking about developing for years, and I've finally got around to doing it. Today the site is taking live orders for the first time.

1Soundfx.com is, quite simply, a site to obtain sound effect files from. Even though the site is now live with approx. 10,000 sound effect files online, I'm in this for the long haul, and I plan to keep developing the site and the sound effects catalog for years and years.

I know from experience that it takes a long time to make a site successful in the long run. I started my royalty-free music website Shockwave-Sound.com back in April of 2000, now more than 9 years ago, and this site is a huge success today with more than 3,000 unique visitors each day and doing a lot of business. Over time, I want to do the same thing with 1SoundFX.com

So, what's so great about 1Soundfx.com? :-) It's a quick and convenient site with a huge sound effects library that will keep growing for years and years. Customers can easily and quickly buy sound effect files and then download the purchased files any time they want to from within their user account. Customers can buy larger amounts of "Credits" before buying sound files, thus saving up to 40% off stated prices. Once a file is purchased, you can download your sound file as well as a printable tax invoice from within your account area.

Contributors are welcome to participate with their own professional quality sound files. See "Contributors" at the bottom of www.1SoundFX.com for details.

And finally, each week there are 5 new professional sound effect files to download completely free from the "Free downloads" section inside your Account area.

Welcome one and all, to 1Soundfx.com !

All the best,
- Bjorn

Help me name this track!

2009-03-26T22:18:00.005+01:00

Hello folks,

I've been working on a new music track over the past few days, and the result can be heard below (this is a 95% finished version, a few minor tweaks may still be done...). My problem is that I can't think of a name for this track! So I'm asking you people to help me name it.

Additionally, I have two slightly different versions. The first version (Drums type 1) has some rather electronic/spacey drums whereas the second version (Drums type 2) has a slightly more organic/live style drum track. Please be sure to let me know which one you prefer!

This track was produced with two guitars (one electric and one acoustic) and the rest is 100% software. No hardware synths were used for any sounds. The main the soft-synths used are Novation V-Station, IK Multimedia Sonik Synth 2, Spectrasonics Atmosphere, Pentagon and SONAR's built-in "DropZone" synth.

Type your title suggestions in as "Comments" to this blog post, or post them on my Facebook wall (My Facebook profile is here), or even email your suggestions to me -- just as long as I get to see your track name suggestions, I'll be happy! :-)

On an entirely different subject, I have an update regarding my CD "Dreamstate" from 1995. This CD is now completely sold out from my own personal stocks. They have 16 copies in stock at CDBaby.com. Those are the last 16 copies ever. No more copies will be made of this CD will be made. When those 16 last copies are sold from CDBaby.com, the album will become a "download only" album forever.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading! Here is the Flash player with the two versions of the new "As of yet untitled" track:

Various news and new music from Bjorn Lynne

2009-01-31T23:04:00.005+01:00

Dear friends around the world,

It's been a long time since I posted any real news about my music and upcoming releases, and I'm sorry about that. Trust me, I haven't been lazying around. :-) I have been very busy with various music licensing deals, my music publishing company Lynne Publishing and, of course, I've been producing some new music.

Although I have no specific plans for a new album release just yet, I'm starting to build up a good number of tracks in at least two different genres: (1) Progressive electronica, like Colony, The Void, Beneath Another Sky, and (2) Upbeat, melodic, techno-trance, more like the Amiga-scene music with a lot of patterns, sequences, synth lines and arpeggios.

Below you can hear my latest creations. I used a long time on "Solar Winds" and this is the style of music that will be on my next "progressive electronic" album. "Koloss" will probably also be on that album. If anybody has any suggestions for album title, or suggestions for album cover artwork, please send them to me. I'd love to see/hear your suggestions.

"Perpetual Flux" is an example of my more demo-scene like music of which I also hope to release an album this year. I've already posted a few other tracks in this style earlier, including "Supersymmetry" and "Tempest Drive". I have about 7 or 8 tracks in this style that I'm satisfied with... and one or two that I'm not really that satisfied with and will probably be "shelved".

"Funkwah" is something I started and finished in a single day. It was meant as a light hearted escape from my larger musical projects. It's just a little tune, made for licensing through my stock music library. It won't be on any album.

Either way, I hope you'll enjoy my latest creations. I spend a lot of time with "admin" these days but I do still enjoy composing and producing music. I'm now almost entirely software-based, having got rid of a lot of my outboard music studio equipment. I'm now working almost exclusively with my RME Fireface 400 Firewire sound card, SONAR v7, three guitars and bass guitar, a bunch of software plug-ins and, of course, my trusty old Kurzweil K2500 keyboard which I'll never get rid of. They'll have to pry it from my cold, stiff hands... :-)

I have a couple of holidays coming up. Next weekend I'll be in Manchester UK with a couple of mates to visit pubs, a football game and a stand-up comedy show. A real boys weekend. :-) Then a couple of weeks after that I'm off to the Canary Islands (off the coast of Africa) for two weeks with my wife and daughter. It's good to get a break from the long, dark Norwegian winter.

As ever, thanks for taking the time to read this and to listen to my creations. I hope you're enjoying them. I'm very much looking forward to being able to announce a new CD (or even two!) some time in 2009.

All the best,
- Bjorn

PS: Hook up with me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Bjrn_Lynne/503781394

Bjorn Lynne launches series of one-hour Ambient music albums

2009-01-31T22:20:00.003+01:00

Dear friends,

From time to time over the past few years, I have been composing and producing a long, continuous album of ambient/relaxation music. This has been done partly to provide a music track for my "Nature Sound Series", which is a series of hour-long nature sound recordings (slow waves, rainfall, forest ambience, etc).

For the first time, this music is now available without the nature sounds -- as pure ambient music albums.

There are 6 albums available, and each one plays just over 60 minutes continuously. Each album is made as a single, long track. However, each long track is not simply a bunch of repeated notes and lines over and over again. Each one contains a fair bit of variation and exploration of various ambient moods.

The titles are as follows -- follow the links to hear a 10-minutes sample of each album.

Should you be interested in these albums, they are available to download in MP3 ($8 each) or in lossless FLAC format ($10 each) from the Bjorn Lynne download-shop.

Nature Sound Series:

As I mentioned, these same musical recordings are also available mixed with sounds of nature. They go under the artist name Nature Sound Series (which is another of my pseudonyms). The Nature Sound Series CD's are not available to buy through my personal website, but they can be bought through CDBaby.com, both as physical CD's or as MP3 downloads. Specifically, you'll find the Nature Sound Series CD's here:

All the best,
- Bjorn

All Bjorn Lynne & Divinorum albums now available as FLAC downloads

2009-01-31T22:05:00.002+01:00

Hello folks,

I have to say "due to popular demand" -- which means that more than 2 persons have asked me about it! ;-) -- I have now made nearly all my albums available to purchase and dowload instantly as lossless FLAC files from my download-shop. They are also still available as MP3 downloads. Both versions (FLAC/MP3) also include high-res images from the cover artwork, so if you want to print your own CD cover and make yourself a real CD that way, you can do that. The FLAC versions cost $2 more than the MP3 versions.

Albums now available as FLAC/MP3 downloads:

Bjorn Lynne: "Irish & Celtic Instrumentals"
Bjorn Lynne: "Quiet Places"
Bjorn Lynne & Adam Skorupa: "Undercover"
Bjorn Lynne: "Beneath Another Sky"
Bjorn Lynne: "Soothe"
Bjorn Lynne feat. Eco-Mcz: "Statement"
Bjorn Lynne: "Return to Witchwood"
Bjorn Lynne: "Colony"
Bjorn Lynne: "The Gods Awaken"
Bjorn Lynne: "Accelerator"
Bjorn Lynne: "Wolves of the Gods"
Bjorn Lynne: "Revive"
Bjorn Lynne: "Wizard of the Winds"
Bjorn Lynne: "Decade"
Bjorn Lynne: "The Void"
Bjorn Lynne: "Witchwood"
Bjorn Lynne: "Dreamstate"
Bjorn Lynne: "Montage"
Bjorn Lynne & Seppo Hurme: "Hobbits & Spaceships"
Bjorn Lynne Relaxation Music Series: "Amazon Evening"
Bjorn Lynne Relaxation Music Series: "Under the Sea"
Bjorn Lynne Relaxation Music Series: "Tranquil Landscapes"
Bjorn Lynne Relaxation Music Series: "Image Reflections"
Bjorn Lynne Relaxation Music Series: "Endless Oceans"
Bjorn Lynne Relaxation Music Series: "A Journey Within"
Divinorum: "Power Liquids"
Divinorum: "Talisman"
Divinorum: "Isms"
Jogeir Liljedahl: "Out of Silence"
Jogeir Liljedahl: "The Wanderer"
Bjorn Lynne: "Worms World Party - Original soundtrack"
Bjorn Lynne: "Worms Armageddon - Original soundtrack"
Bjorn Lynne: "Phoenix - Deep Space Resurrection"
Bjorn Lynne: "Worms 2 - Original soundtrack"

For more information or to purchase any of these albums in FLAC or MP3, please go to the Bjorn Lynne download-shop.

Buy 2, Get 1 free - on all Bjorn Lynne & Divinorum CD's until end of 2008 !

2008-12-12T14:58:00.003+01:00

Dear friends,

I'd like to tempt you with a special limited-time offer on my music CD's. From now until the end of the year, I'm giving away one extra CD completely free, for every 2 CD's purchased from my personal CD-shop: http://www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html

I ship CD's all over the world, and although admittedly, the postal service is quite expensive from here, it works out to a really great deal if you buy 2 and get 1 free. You can also buy 4 and get 2 free. Or buy 6 and get 3 free... and so on.

Why not use this as an opportunity to grab some unique Christmas presents, for yourself or for your friends and family?

The offer is for ALL CD's listed on this page: http://www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html and the offer is good until December 31st at 23:59 your time.

If you have any questions or just a friendly word or two :-) Feel free to email me any time at the address posted at my contact page (Please note that my old/previous email address bjorn@lynnemusic.com is no longer in use).

If you don't hear from me again before the Christmas & New Year holidays -- let me take this opportunity to thank you all for listening to my music throughout the year, and to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I have plans for two new album releases in the new year! But first -- I'd like to sell some of the CD's I already have here, so come on, use this opportunity to get yourself a deal! :-)

All the best,

- Bjorn Lynne

Three new music tracks

2008-11-16T14:00:00.005+01:00

Dear friends,

I have composed and produced three new music tracks since the last time I posted something here. You can hear the tracks below. They are all in totally different styles, so I hope you'll enjoy at least one of them. :-)

I like to work with different styles of music, this way and that -- I always have.

The first track listed below is China Temple Morning which started as a simple arpeggiated bell pattern which just sort of "happened" on my keyboard the other day. I've purchased a new software synth called Omnisphere from Spectraconics and I'm using it for several of the sounds in this track. This track was finished very quickly; I did it all in one day from 08:30 until about 23:00. :-)

The next one is Blue Sky which is just a "nice and easy" sort of instrumental soft-pop track, or pop/ambient crossover. I wanted to make something that would be good as background use for media, video, film, presentations, etc. mostly with the idea of licensing it through my stock music library. I try to combine synthesized sounds with acoustic guitar for a softer feel. In the last part, a subtle electric guitar also comes in. I never use "plug-ins" for these kinds of guitar parts, because I find it takes me a lot longer to fiddle with the settings to get it to sound close to a guitar sound, than it takes me to simply pick up the guitar and play it into a microphone. Much quicker. :-)

The third track Tempest Drive is quite similar in style to some other "upbeat electronica" tracks that I've been making over the past few months. It's not exactly techno, not exactly trance, but something like energetic electronica, I guess. In this track I'm using some sounds from the Top Production Samples CDROM that I made and published myself, a few years ago. I still find myself using sounds from that CDROM from time to time. I know the sounds well and keep coming back to them. Also present here are some other synth sample loops and three instances of the software synth plug in z3ta+.

Anyway, the tracks can be heard in the player below. I hope you'll enjoy them, and like all my other tracks, they can be licensed for Royalty-free use in media production through my music library website, www.Shockwave-Sound.com

All the best,
- Bjorn

New email address for Bjorn Lynne

2008-10-30T15:33:00.002+01:00

After using the address bjorn@lynnemusic.com for about 8-10 years, and having the address posted publicly on the web site for most of that time, this address now receives as much as 2,000+ spams each day. Even with pretty hard spam filtering, some of it is coming through to my email inbox and is quite an annoyance... so, it's with a heavy heart that I have to let go of this email address.

My NEW email address is:

I'm trying to thwart the spammers a bit by posting it like this, instead of in plain text.

Asian-pacific domains -- scam or genuine?

2008-10-30T15:22:00.002+01:00

Today I received a rather interesting email from a Chinese domain name registration company. The company wrote to me and claimed that "(company x)" had applied to register the Asian-pacific versions of the domain names to which I own the .com domain.

Specifically, I own shockwave-sound.com and the claim was that (company x) had applied to register the domains shockwave-sound.cn, .com.cn, .asia., .hk.cn and .tw.cn. Additionally, they said, (company x) had also applied to register the "internet brand name" shockwave-sound.

The email went on to say that, as the owner of shockwave-sound.com, I had the right to "dispute" the attempted registrations by quickly registering these Asian-pacific domains myself. I could do this through this company, and that would effectively put a stop to (company x) being able to register these domains.

I answered back that I was obviously interested in protecting the Asian-pacific versions of my domain name and also this "internet brand name" which, I have to admit, I've never heard of before.

The Chinese domain registration company then sent me a registration form in which they are inviting me to register shockwave-sound.cn, .com.cn, .asia, .hk.cn, .tw.cn for $30 for 1 year, and also to register my "internet brand name" shockwave-sound, for $100 per 1 year. They are saying that I can fill in the form and register the domain names with them within 5 days, to ensure that (company x) does not take these domains and take the "internet brand name" shockwave-sound.

The way I see it, there are two possibilities: (1) This is a genuinely helpul company who want to help international domain owners make sure that their brands/domains are not registered to some dubious/competitive company who wants to "take" their domain names and their "internet brand name", OR, (2) this is a very sneaky ploy by a Domain Registration company to sell me .cn, .hk etc. domains, perhaps at a overblown price, that they they would not normally be able to sell to me because, well I just wouldn't normally be interested.

Does anyone have any comments or suggestions?

Help me sell my music and make a few bucks doing it

2008-10-20T17:11:00.002+02:00

As many of you will know, my music work in the last few years have been more and more aimed towards selling music tracks for commercial use, not so much for personal-listening use. Like most other musicians, I started noticing around the year 2000 that it was getting more and more difficult to sell CDs to “consumers” (i.e. to individual people who buy the music just to listen to it), so I started to venture into the world of “music for professional use” (i.e. selling it to people and companies who want to use the music in a media project).

I’ve had some success with this over the years and I now have a music catalogue consisting of about 3,000 music tracks – that includes my own compositions as well as tracks by other musicians that I work with. These are sold through my site www.Shockwave-Sound.com and for the 8 ½ years that this site has been online now, it has enjoyed a steady increase in traffic and sales.

Anyway, to my point. I would like to invite you to help me to promote this web site, and in the process, make a 10% commission on any sales that you generate. The system is simple, like other Affiliate programs. You make a link from your website (or from your Blog or even from your Facebook page etc.) using a unique link code that I give you. If somebody clicks on that link, my site knows that the user came from your link. If this person ends up making a purchase, you will be paid 10% of the purchase sum. Even if the user doesn’t place an order right away, but comes back to my site any time within 7 days, you will make the 10%.

So…. If you are interested in helping me to sell my music to commercial users more often, and make a 10% earning while doing it, then please respond to this email and let me know. I will make a unique link for you to put on your web site.

Please email me at the following address for your unique web link. (I'm sorry I have to hide the address in a graphic like this, but it's necessary, to thwart the spammers' web bots)...:

New music track: "Let's Go" in MIDI & MP3

2008-10-20T17:06:00.001+02:00

Hi folks,

I just wanted to send a little note to say that I’ve posted a new General MIDI track on my web site. The track is called “Let’s Go” and I guess you could say it’s kind of “game music pop”. :)

General MIDI isn’t exactly “cutting edge” technology any more, but there’s a surprising number of people still listening to and enjoying MIDI tracks. These days, mostly when I add a new General MIDI music track, it’s because I’ve already composed the tracks using “real” instruments and it’s then a reasonably quick job for me to make a General MIDI version of the same composition. So anyway, you can hear the new MIDI track now, it’s called “Let’s Go” and can be heard at my MIDI Music page.

Should you wish to hear the same track in it’s original form with guitar etc., you can hear it at http://www.myspace.com/bjornlynne (it’s one of the tracks featured in the music player on that page).

It's nothing big or groundbreaking, but I hope you'll enjoy it. :-)

- Bjorn

An article about YouTube Safe Music

2008-10-09T22:24:00.002+02:00

I wrote an article for Shockwave-Sound.com about how to properly credit music use in YouTube videos and how this relates to performance royalties. Should you be interested in reading it, head on over to this page at Shockwave-Sound.com.

Letter from Era Scarecrow regarding "Dissolve" and "d" tracks on the Divinorum: Talisman CD

2008-10-06T14:00:00.002+02:00

Talisman Track 11 - 'd'. Is that only suppose to have about 1 minute (out of 3+) of music and the remainder sounds rather blank... i noticed when i ripped it, that it's a 3 minute song but only took up a tiny amount of space, and i can't hear anything on it. hmm...

- Ryan, aka Era Scarecrow

Hi Ryan,

It's done like that on purpose. I wanted to give the album a long, fluttering, gradually dissolving end, as if dissolving into fragments floating off into space. Really, those two tracks were first done as a single one track called "Dissolved". I then decided to put a track marker about 2/3rds into the track, just where the track started to get really "dissolved" or "disappearing" if you will. So I divided "Dissolved" into two tracks: "Dissolve" and "d" in an attempt to be a little bit clever. :-)

- Bjorn

Two new Electronica tracks from Bjorn Lynne

2008-09-12T13:31:00.003+02:00

Hi folks,

Over the past few weeks I have been somewhat "electronically minded" and have produced two new House/Trance/Electronica tracks which I hope you'll enjoy. Much of the inspiration comes from reading a little bit about the grand science experiment they have been carrying out lately with the Large Hadron Collider, in an attempt to recreate some of the cosmic conditions surrounding the Big Bang, the very start of our universe. It's incredibly mind boggling stuff, and I find it all pretty fascinating. Anyway, these two tracks were produced with these experiments in mind.

You can hear the two tracks below Feel free to let me know what you think by using the "comment" feature below.

As always, these tracks are available to license for use in commercial media, through my stock music licensing web site, www.shockwave-sound.com.

Perhaps the tracks will also be on a future Bjorn Lynne album release -- we'll see. Either way, I hope you'll enjoy them.

- Bjørn

A note about my "Statement" CD

2008-09-12T13:00:00.001+02:00

The Bjorn Lynne feat. Eco-Mcz CD, Statement (2004) is now completely sold-out from my own personal CD stocks.

There are a few copies left in stock at CDBaby.com. Those are the last CDs in existence for this album. When those are sold out from CDBaby.com, this album will be download-only from then on.

I just wanted to mention this in case there are any collectors who want to get their hands on this CD before it becomes unavailable forever.

New Jogeir Liljedahl album released today

2008-08-27T10:30:00.004+02:00

Hello folks,

I'm writing to let you know that my good friend and long-time fellow Amiga-scene musician Jogeir Liljedahl has released his second album, Out of Silence, today. As with his previous album The Wanderer, I was privileged to be trusted with the publishing/release, so the album is now for sale, exclusively, from the LynneMusic Download Shop.

The album features 11 new tracks from Jogeir, with a total playing time of 1 hour 3 minutes and with guest contributions from Chris Hülsbeck and Fabian Del Priore.

This is a download only release. The album can be purchased as MP3 files (256-kbps) for $10 or as Lossless FLAC files for $12. Both packages include high-resolution cover artwork with full 4-page booklet and inlay tray. The artwork comes as printable PDF files, so if you would like to make your own CD for your collection, you can print the artwork, burn the music to CD, and you have a fully official, legal, original CD.

The album will be made available on iTunes, PayPlay.fm and other such download shops, but it takes several weeks to get an album made public in those places, so for now it is only available in the LynneMusic Download Shop.

The album has an official page from which you can listen to the first 1 1/2 minutes from each track.

Jogeir and myself both very much hope that you will enjoy his new album. He worked on it, on and off, for an incredible period of 9 years. :-).

His previous album "The Wanderer" from 1999 is still available both as a physical CD and as an MP3 or FLAC download.

A couple of new rock tracks by Bjorn Lynne

2008-08-25T21:40:00.003+02:00

It's been a while since I posted any new music. But here I am, back with a couple of new tracks. :-) This time I've tried to work more towards Rock than Electronica, and I've produced the two tracks below. Actually, I haven't done them all by myself.

The first track, Cruise Control, was made together with my old friend Arndt Kubosch. First, I made the "A" part. Then Arndt made the "B" part, and then we both made the "C" part together. We play about 50/50 of the guitar each, and I play the bass guitar and did the programming, production, etc. I've tried to keep this track "neat" and tidy with a minimum of reverb, delay and the such, which I've probably used a bit too much of in the past. :-). I've made two different mixes of the track. I'd be interested in hearing which one you like best, so please use the "comment" function below, if you have an opionion on that.

The other track, Slam Dunk, is much more energetic and heavier. This one I made almost all by myself. I just got some help from a Polish guy called Olek, to some of the faster guitar solos. I enjoyed making this track. The biggest challenge was the "B" part, for which I tried a lot of different things and threw away a lot of different ideas, before I finally ended on the one heard here.

Both tracks were made primarily for licensing to commercial users, for film, media, games, film trailers, sports video and things like that. If you'd like to license either of these tracks for use in any kind of project, you can buy a royalty-free license from Shockwave-Sound.com.

Well, I hope you'll enjoy the tracks. I have no idea what style/mood my next tracks will be in. :-)

Thanks for listening!

Bjorn Lynne
August 25, 2008

General update from Bjorn Lynne

2008-08-25T21:26:00.004+02:00

Hey everybody,

I'm sorry about the long time of silence from me. It's been a long and nice summer here in Norway. I spent quite a bit of time outside with my daughter, who is now almost 8. Some of you will remember me posting about it on my newsletter mailing list when she was born. :-)

I have been working quite hard with my music publishing company, Lynne Publishing, which is now a publisher not only for my own Bjorn Lynne music, but also for a few other artists; Dan Gautreau, Dan Phillipson, Jeremy Sherman, Arjun Sen and Adolfo Marques (although only one track so far by the latter). This music isn't being published for personal use or for sale on CD's. Instead, we publish the music only for use in films, games and other commercial and non-commercial media. Our main website for this is Shockwave-Sound.com, but we also make the music available through some other sites.

I've also been working on my ever growing library of high definition sound effects. Again, this is for use by media developers, film makers and game creators, for use in their project. The library now sports some 3,000 sound effects, and all the new stuff we've added is available in High Definition audio, 24bit 48khz.

New Jogeir Liljedahl album coming

Many of you will be happy to hear that my good friend and long-time fellow Amiga scene musician, Jogeir Liljedahl (aka Noiseless, aka JL), is ready to release a new music album. His previous album "The Wanderer" was released back in 1999 and has sold well. His new album, to be titled Out of Silence comes a full 9 years after his previous effort, and this album will be released, right here at LynneMusic.com, as a download-only album. It will be available to buy both in lossless FLAC format and in MP3 format. The download will include the full album cover in high-resolution PDF files, so those who want to make themselves a real CD with cover and everything can burn a CD and print a cover from the supplied artwork files.

We hope to release the album in the next couple of weeks. Jogeir is just laying the finishing touches on a couple of the tracks, and writing some liner notes for the inside of the cover artwork. Keep your eyes on this site for updates.

Two new Electronica tracks from Bjorn Lynne

2008-06-03T11:27:00.005+02:00

Hi friends and web visitors...

I just wanted to post a little update with some new music from the Stavern seaside studio... Over the past 3-4 weeks I have created these two Electronica tracks. I guess they fit mostly under my "Divinorum" pseudonym, or perhaps somewhere inbetween my Divinorum name and my Bjorn Lynne name.

The two tracks were created mostly for inclusion into my royalty-free music library, and can be licensed for use in media projects, from http://www.shockwave-sound.com

You can hear the tracks (two "mixes" of each) by clicking Play in the Flash player below. I hope you'll enjoy these two tracks Comments welcome!

- Bjorn Lynne, June 2008

New web site with useful information about Stock Music (Royalty Free Music)

2008-05-22T10:50:00.002+02:00

Hello everyone,

Today I have set live a new web site that I have created, ProductionMusic.info. This is a site with useful information for anybody considering using royalty-free music (aka Stock Music, Library Music, etc) in their projects. The site explains the roles of performance royalty organizations and how they apply to using production music from a music library in any commercial or non-commercial project.

There is a lot of confusion about the term "royalty free" (especially when it turns out that some royalty-free music DOES involve paying royalties to a third party, a royalty collection society), but this site attempts to shed some light on these issues and explain in detail what music you can use for what purpose, without paying any royalties at all (i.e. completely royalty free music).

I hope that http://www.productionmusic.info can be of some use to some of you. Thanks for reading!

Free MIDI music for use on web sites and other projects

2008-05-22T10:13:00.002+02:00

Hi all,

I realize that this is a bit of a departure (okay, a complete departure) from my previous statements about my MIDI music and use of it on personal web sites. Previously I've asked that everybody who wants to use my MIDI music tracks in ANY project, for-profit or not, had to buy a license for it.

However, I've had a good think about this and realized that a good web link can actually have as much value to me, as the license fee itself. Therefore, as of today, I'm declaring that all my free MIDI files may be used in any personal and non-profit web site, game, media presentation and other project, without paying any fee. The only "payment" I ask for is a working web-link to my business web site, http://www.shockwave-sound.com. That site is a professional music library / stock music service that I run, and it's important to me that there are as many sites as possible that link to it. Therefore, every link to it counts and I'm willing to let you use my MIDI tracks on your site, in return for a working link to http://www.shockwave-sound.com

To see my list of MIDI tracks available, go to http://www.lynnemusic.com/midi.html

Thanks for reading.

Kind regards,
--
Bjorn Lynne (composer)

Norwegian site about royalty-free music

2008-05-08T10:11:00.002+02:00

Hello people,

I just wanted to mention quickly that today I have launched a new website in Norwegian language for Norwegian media production professionals looking for royalty-free music. The site is www.AvgiftsFri.no and it explains the use of partly royalty free and fully royalty free music in Norway, and how it relates to TONO (Norway's composers royalty collection organisation) and Ncb (Nordic Copyright Bureau).

I'm sorry that this is of course completely irrelevant for non-Norwegian people, but it should be a useful resource for people working in film production and other media production in Norway. I hope some of you will find the site valuable and useful.

High Resolution, 24-bit , 48-khz Sound-FX series from Lynne Publishing

2008-05-05T10:51:00.004+02:00

Hello everyone,

Over the past several months I have been working on developing a high resolution, high definition sound-fx library. These days most video editing and media editing suites operate at 24-bit, 48-khz resolution, however the vast majority of sound effects available from commercial sound libraries are still at standard CD-resolution, 16-bit, 44.1 khz.

Check out the sounds at Shockwave-Sound.com

In fact, we have nearly all of these sounds in 24-bit 96-khz, but "only" 48-khz files are available to the general public at this time, because this is the resolution at which most professional media editors are now working.

The library contains somewhere around 1,000 sound files so far, spanning several categories of sounds from spacey whooshes, swipes and zooms, to high performance cars and motorcycles, everyday household sounds, footsteps, nature sounds (rivers & streams, ocean, forest), traffic sounds / city noise and more, billiard sounds, horror sounds, office / work sounds, industry & machinery sounds and much more.

The sounds were recorded and edited by myself Bjorn Lynne (in Norway), Christos Panayides (in Cypros) and Ric Viers (in USA) and published by / copyrighted to my company, Lynne Publishing.

We plan to keep adding to this collection of sound effects in 24 bit 48 khz over many years ahead. If you are a sound recordist yourself and you are interested in recording sound effects on-location for us, we may be interested in buying the sounds from you. Please get in touch with Lynne Publishing if you would like to talk about this.

Check the high definition sounds at Shockwave-Sound.com

Irish & Music Instrumentals now available from iTunes

2008-04-09T11:40:00.005+02:00

Dear friends,

I just wanted to mention that my latest album "Irish & Celtic Instrumentals" is now available to buy from iTunes and PayPlay.fm. It's also making it's way to many other download shops as we speak, including MSN Music, Amazon.com, Coke Music, RealRhapsody and many more.

Here's a link to this album on iTunes
And here's a link to this album on PayPlay.fm

More music news to follow soon...

New Bjorn Lynne CD: "Irish & Celtic Instrumentals"

2008-03-31T12:40:00.006+02:00

Dear friends,

I'm very happy and excited to announce the release of my new CD, "Irish & Celtic Instrumentals", today. The CD features 12 tracks of Irish & Celtic tracks that I have arranged, produced and recorded with a little help from some musician friends.

The origins of this CD goes back to the late summer of 2007 when I was lucky enough to spend some quality time along the southern shores of Ireland, a truly beautiful and inspiring place. I came back to my home in Norway full of ideas and inspiration, and I set to work on producing this collection of traditional Irish/Celtic music, arranged produced in the way that I would want these tracks to sound like. :-)

It's not the first time I've used Irish & Celtic influences in my music of course. Many of my previous albums, such as "Witchwood", "Return to Witchwood", "Wolves of the Gods", and others all feature more or less obvious Celtic influences here and there. So for me it felt right to do a sort of "homeage" to some traditional Celtic / Irish music, recorded and produced with "The Bjørn Lynne sound".

When I started working on this project, I decided early on that there would be no shortcuts, no easy outs. No "half-arsed" solutions using a computer plug-in when I could be using the real live instrument etc. So as it ended up, this album is actually my most "acoustic" album ever. There isn't a single "electronic" sound on the entire CD which, I guess, is pretty weird since I started my carreer very much as what I would call an "electronic music composer".

I still very much love electronic music and I will definitely return once more to my electronic music heartland for my next album release. But I have to say, for this album, that it really did pay off to use all live instruments and leave all electronics out of this project. When the temptation was to just use a plug-in and get it done quickly and cheaply, I thought, no, not this time. No shortcuts! The real thing, or nothing. :-)

I don't mean to suggest that no computer was used for producing this album because, as always, I used Cakewalk SONAR Studio Edition v6 to produce this music and everything was recorded directly to hard disk in 24-bit 48-khz. I also used some samples, including "spoons", some drums, Irish Bodhran and electric piano. What I meant to say is that there are no real electronic sounds (synth sounds) used on this album.

Besides various acoustic type samples, I myself played guitars (acoustic & electric), piano (acoustic & electric), tambourine, shakers, djembe drums, and sang live various "vocal pads" (not sung words or lyrics, only "ahh" style vocal instrumentation). My friend Steinar Borvik played various flutes (Irish flute, penny whistle, tin whistle, orchestral flute, recorder), Nicolae Bogdan played live accordion and violin and Jeremy Sherman played dobro and slide guitar.

When it was time to put together the final CD master of this album, I got the idea to include -- as a bonus -- an "underscore version" of each track. An "underscore version" is simply a version where the main/lead instruments are removed, leaving only the background music. This can be an interesting thing to listen to in it's own right. Once you remove the main/lead instruments from a piece of music, you're left with a whole new perspective on the music -- in fact, a whole new "insight" into how it was all put together. So these bonus tracks were included especially for those of you who would like to hear these tracks "from another angle", and get a little glimpse of what goes on "under the lid" of each track. So, tracks 1-12 are the actual main tracks on the CD; whereas tracks 13-24 are all the same tracks again, without the lead instruments. This pressed the CD right up to the very technical limit of how much music you can put on a CD -- about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

CD track listing:

Lovely Leitrim
The Bonny Boy
Scarborough Fair
The Jolly Beggar
Danny Boy
The Rose of Tralee
Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore
Whiskey in the Jar
In Dublin's Fair City (aka Cockles and Mussels)
Amazing Grace
The Riddle Song
Greensleeves

13-24: All tracks again, underscore versions.

You can hear about the first 1 1/2 minutes of each track, on the official page for this CD: Irish & Celtic Instrumentals.

I truly hope many of you will enjoy this CD. You can buy the album now either as a physical CD from my own personal CD shop , or from CDBaby, or you can buy it as a download (320-kbps MP3 files, with high-res cover artwork files included for printing your own cover), from my own personal download-shop.

To encourage you to order this CD early, I will personally autograph - in Gold ink - all copies of this CD ordered from my own personal CD-shop, in the first two weeks of release (that means, within April 15, 2007).

The album will also soon be avaiable from iTunes, PayPlay.fm and many other music download shops. (Takes a few weeks to make it up on those sites).

One last note... the photos in the CD-cover are from my own trip to Ireland; although the actual photos were taken by my friend Kent Fonager -- he had a better camera than me. Kent is one of the guys whom I visited these places with.

Thanks for reading!

- Bjørn Lynne, March 31, 2008

Some rare and deleted items for sale

2008-03-27T17:17:00.003+01:00

Some limited CD’s for sale:

There are some CD’s that are noted on my site as being “sold out” and have been so for ages. But after some serious tidying and some returns of unsold stock from some people who aren’t distributing my CD’s any more, I have the following for sale. These aren’t actually available to buy through my web shop, because I have such limited quantities of them. If you want to buy any of these, email me. First come, first served. These are all rare, limited products...

Amiga: Immortal 3 double-CD – I have two copies. Both are brand new, but one of them has had the plastic wrapping removed for scanning. Never played. Price: $20 each plus actual shipping cost.

Bjorn Lynne: Witchwood – These were completely sold out, but three copies were returned from Soundoo in Belgium when they closed down. So I have those three copies only. Price: $15 each plus actual shipping cost.

DesertPlanet: Asteroid Hopper (See http://www.lynnemusic.com/desertplanet-asteroid_hopper.html)
I have ONE copy. The cover/case is slightly damaged. Price $10 plus actual shipping cost.

CyberLogic 1, 2, and 3: See:

http://www.fusecon.com/products/scenecds/clogik1.shtml
http://www.discogs.com/release/15122
http://www.discogs.com/release/15123

These three are HIGHLY sought-after very limited edition rare items. I have ONE of each. They are used, but handled carefully and in great shape. Price: $15 each plus actual postage.

Opportunity Vol. 1: Various artists from the demo-scene (including myself). See: http://www.synsoniq.de/productdetails.php?pid=76&searchtext=opportunity
I have ONE copy, again, used but in very good condition. Price: $15 plus actual postage.

Bjorn Lynne & Seppo Hurme – Hobbits & Spaceships ORIGINAL PRESSING 1992:
The very first CD to come out of the demo-scene. 2000 copies were pressed. For years, I thought they were all gone, but lo and behold, I found TWO at the bottom of a box. They are brand new, never been played. These are quite rare, so: $30 each, plus actual postage.

Bjorn Lynne (as. Dr.Awesome): X2 – Original pressing 1996

Pretty much the same situation with these. They have been sold out for years, but I found TWO copies. They are brand new, never been played. $15 each, plus actual postage.

Divinorum: “Talisman” – limited Oriental release

In 1998 I got a deal with an Indian music company to release and distribute my CD “Talisman” (done under my electronica pseudonym ‘Divinorum’). These CD’s were ONLY sold in India and Malaysia, no other countries. I have FOUR copies, brand new, in plastic wrapping. These are very rare, so: $30 each, plus actual postage.

Jesper Kyd – Hitman 2 Soundtrack

I have ONE copy of this limited release. It’s brand new and still in it’s shrink-wrapping, but the jewel case is slightly busted in one corner. You can just replace the jewel case and it’s as new. This is pretty limited and much asked for, so: $30 plus actual shipping cost. I have only ONE.

Bjorn Lynne – The Void, original 1997 pressing

The original mastered pressing of this CD has been sold out for many years, although I have still been selling a “re-issue” with slightly different cover etc. and I’m still selling that re-issue. However, I have THREE copies of the original first pressing from 1997, released on the UK record label Cyclops. One is brand new and still in its plastic wrapping. The other two are used, but they are nicely kept and in good shape. Price: $15 each plus actual shipping cost.

Bjorn Lynne – Revive, original 2000 pressing

It’s pretty much the same situation with this. The original version of this CD has been sold out for many years, although I have still been selling a “re-issue” with slightly different cover etc. and I’m still selling that re-issue. However, I have TWO copies of the original first pressing from 2000, released on the UK record label Cyclops. They are opened, but they are nicely kept and in good shape. Price: $15 each plus actual shipping cost.

Bjorn Lynne – Accelerator

I don’t actually have any copies at all of this CD, but I would like to say that the LAST 10 COPIES of this are now for sale at CDbaby.com – on this page: http://cdbaby.com/cd/bjornlynne01 . When CDBaby have sold these last 10 copies, this disc will not be available any more, and will be a collectors item like the others, so... maybe it’s a good time to hurry up and get one. :-)

Well... I hope this little garage sale of rare treasures will be of interest to some of you. :-) Should you wish to buy any of these CD’s, please email me and I will put the CD’s aside for you.

Add me as a friend on Facebook and MySpace

2008-03-26T19:53:00.006+01:00

If anybody reading this would like to add Bjorn Lynne to your friend on Facebook or MySpace, please follow these links:

Bjorn Lynne on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=503781394
Bjorn Lynne on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/bjornlynne

It may take some days before I respond to the friend request, but that's just because I don't have enough time to log in there every day. So don't take that personally. :-)

- Bjorn

A photo I took today from my balcony

2008-03-04T22:56:00.004+01:00

I'm really not going to turn this into a "photo blog" (I promise!) but I took this photo today and I thought I'd post it here, just this once. I took the photo from the balcony on my house here in Stavern, looking out at the "Larvik Fjord" where, twice a day, the boat "Petter Wessel" comes in. This boat travels daily between Larvik, Norway and Hirtshals, Denmark. The sun is setting, giving the ship a red-ish ting, and the dramatic skies in the background work as a kind of nice frame. I hope you'll like this photo. :-)

New Bjorn Lynne album, "Quiet Places"

2008-01-25T00:12:00.000+01:00

Dear friends,

I hope you are all well and ready for some new music from this northern corner of the world.

I mentioned a while ago that I would probably be releasing two new albums this year; one with quiet, reflective, ambient music -- and another one with more upbeat, melodic electronica.

My ambient CD, "Quiet Places" is now available to purchase as a downloadable album from my own download shop and will soon also be available to buy as a physical CD, through my own personal CD-shop as well as through CDBaby. (The CD's are being produced at the time of writing this).

This album, Quiet Places, has been composed and produced over a period of more than 2 years. I didn't want to hurry it or push it. I worked on it only when the feeling came over me and I really felt like I wanted to work on it. The music on this CD is made for quiet reflection, maybe for some personal time. The inspiration for the music has come from taking some quiet walks in the beautiful and rather desolate nature which is available to me, here in my home in Norway. Far from being "all pretty", the album also has it's odd, bittersweet, and introspective moments.

The CD contains a number of photos, all taken from the area around where I live (max. 1 km from my house), in Stavern, Norway, where all of this music was "born". I wanted to include the photos because I felt that they somehow represent the source of the music. I also took all the photos myself.

I have made low-fi previews of the entire album, start to finish, available to listen online on my site. Just go to the dedicated page for this CD: http://www.lynnemusic.com/quietplaces.html and you can listen as much as you want (low sound quality, though).

I will write again when the actual physical CD is available to purchase. For now, it's only available as a purchased download in 320-kbps MP3-files (no protection/DRM) from my own download shop, and this purchase also includes high-res image files of all the cover artwork, so that you can print the cover yourself and burn a CD.

The actual physical CD will be available to purchase from my shop within a week or so. This time I have ordered only 150 physical CD's to be stocked here at my home in Norway, and all the rest to be stocked at CDBaby in USA. The reason is that the physical CD's cost SO much to ship. It's almost pointless to sell my physical CD's from here, due to the shipping cost. I pay about $2 per CD to have them shipped from the factory to my home in Norway, and then it costs me about $12 in stamps to send a single CD to USA. Plus about $1 for a padded envelope. So for each physical CD sold from my personal CD-shop here in Norway, I have shipping costs of about $15. I charge $7.90 in shipping when someody orders a CD on my web site -- which means I take a loss of about $7 in shipping when I sell a CD from here.

This is why, this time I will have only 150 copies here at my own personal shop, and all of these will be autographed. After these 150 are sold out, the physical CD will be available from CDBaby in USA, and from many different music download services such as iTunes, PayPlay and many more.

But at the time of writing this, "Quiet Places" is only available from my download shop: http://www.lynnemusic.com/downloadshop.html

I hope that (some of you at least) will enjoy this little outing into "quiet music for reflection and personal time" which I have made for you all. Some of you may have heard some of the tracks before, as I've had them posted on my web site -- such as Kaleidoscope, Solnatt, and Waiting.

If you buy the album, whether it be as a download or as a CD, I would very much appreciate it if you could go to the dedicated page for "Quiet Places" and write your own review of it. The review doesn't have to be so artistic, long, or well written. Just a few words about whether you enjoyed it or not, and why. This helps other people to make up their minds on whether to buy the album.

Letter from Alastair Jamieson-lane - use of MIDI files for project

2007-11-26T14:19:00.000+01:00

Hey Bjorn

I am amateur Java program just fooling around with a little Platform game. I'd really like to use a couple of your midi tunes for background music, but am not sure if the game would be considered "at home listening" or "any kind of project" and am not sure if I'd have to buy a liscense. Thought I'd ask your permission and see what you say about it. Great music man, keep it up!

- Alastair

Hi Alastair,

Thanks for your email. So long as the game is just for fooling around between yourself and your friends/family, you may use my MIDI’s for free.

If the game is going to be distributed in any way, i.e. available for download (even free download), then you need a license to use my MIDI’s. (License costs $29.95 per track and can be purchased from http://www.shockwave-sound.com).

I hope this helps.

- Bjorn

A sign of life from the depths....

2007-11-02T10:34:00.000+01:00

Dear friends around the world,

* Hello and little update
* $10 for all Bjorn Lynne CD's until Christmas

Hello and little update
-----------------------

I'm very sorry that it's been so long since I wrote anything to this list. I think, the last time I wrote, I was about to set off for my first ever visit to the US. Since then, so much has happened, unfortunately not a whole lot of it has been about my "Bjorn Lynne CD's" in the traditional sense.

It's been two years now, since I quit my day-job as a musician/sound guy for the video game company Team17, and set out trying to make a living "on my own" as a one-man music provider and music company. I'm happy to be able to say that things have gone really well for me. My company Lynne Publishing is now a fully-fledged record company with 4 artists signed (myself included) plus several more artists "co-operating" non-exclusively. I don't really concentrate on selling CD's to consumers in the traditional record company way -- instead, I concentrate on licensing our music to companies, for use within their projects such as games, film, TV/broadcast, etc. Not only are we making a lot of money from direct sales of licenses, but as a secondary effect we are also getting our music used a lot in TV, film, games, broadcasts, websites, etc -- which is a lot of fun.

To have taken a chance, jumped off my day-job and "made it" on my own, now making 4-5 times as much as I did as an employee, feels extremely satisfying. :-)

As you can imagine, in the midsts of this success with the music licensing business, other things have unfortunately suffered, and one of those things is the composing and recording of my own "personal" music which is just made for releasing Bjorn Lynne CD's and selling them to a few hundred fans.

I still do plan to release another CD -- hopefully in 2008. I have written 3 tracks for my next album (one of them being over 14 minutes long), and I will return to this project at some point in the near future. So let's just see what happens.

My visit to New York and New Jersey this summer was wonderful, although too short. Of course I couldn't leave my "work head" completely behind, so I brought with me a portable recorder, and I recorded a collection of "Sounds of New York City", which can now be seen on my music/sound licensing web site Shockwave-Sound.com, more specifically on this page, in case you want to have a quick listen to them. :-): http://www.shockwave-sound.com/genre/95.html

Only a few weeks after returning from the U.S. I also went on a trip to Ireland -- to the very south end of the country, a small place called Skibbereen, where I spent a week relaxing and doing fun stuff with a group of friends (including Andrew "Nightshade/Crusaders" Barnabas and Adam "Skorpic" Skorupa). As you can see from this photo, among other things, we went fishing. :-)

$10 for all Bjorn Lynne CD's until Christmas
---------------------------------------------

I want to give a little extra boost to my CD sales before Christmas (the idea being that some of you might buy them as Christmas gifts for yourselves or friends/family), so I'm happy to announce that all my CD's are only $10 each from my personal CD-shop: http://www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html between now and Christmas.

(Normal price is $16.99 per CD)

CD's ordered from this page are packed and sent out by me personally, so if you would like to have your CD's autographed, just send me an email about it, at the same time as placing your order.

I guess that's it for now. Thanks very much for reading and have a wonderful weekend.

All the best,
--
Bjorn Lynne

www.lynnemusic.com
www.shockwave-sound.com

Older Bjorn Lynne CD goes for $200 on eBay

2007-10-30T11:44:00.000+01:00

Hi folks,

This month, my old CD "Alien Breed 3D Soundtrack" went for EUR 145.00 (That's about 200 US$) on the German eBay site -- check it out here.

I found this to be quite interesting and of course, very satisfying for me as a musician. :-)

Maybe some of the CD's that I'm currently selling in my CDshop will also be able to get such collectible prices, some time in the future. :-)

- Bjorn

Two new tracks I've made for music library licensing

2007-07-25T18:43:00.001+02:00

Hello friends,

By the time you read this, I will probably be on my way for an 11-days trip to USA, where I will be staying in the New York / New Jersey area until August 6th. The trip is a combination of a little bit of work, a little bit of vacation / tourist time, and a little bit horse related, because my wife is really big-time into horses, and next weekend is the weekend for the big horse trotting race, "Hambletonian". Believe it or not, we own a 1/120th stake in one of the favorite horses to win it -- Donato Hanover.

Anyway, enough of that. Before I leave, I wanted all you guys to know that I haven't been lazying around here, but have in fact been working on two new "pop" like tracks which are not meant for release on any Bjorn Lynne CD, but have been composed and produced purely for licensing through music libraries (including my own royalty-free music library site, Shockwave-Sound.com.

The two tracks were created and produced right here in my room (in fact, on the same PC as I'm typing on now) :-). The saxophone in "Jazzy Chill" was played by my friend Steinar Borvik.

Here are the two tracks in reduced sound quality (should be good enough to hear what they're like). I hope you'll enjoy them. If anybody should be interested in licensing these tracks for use in any kind of media (TV, web site, multimedia, slideshow, anything), then you can buy a license for that at www.shockwave-sound.com

Okay, I'm off "stateside" for the next 11 days and will write again when I return. :-)

All the best,
- Bjorn

Bjorn Lynne music for Flintstones & Home Alone

2007-07-24T18:05:00.000+02:00

Just a quick note, people, to say that you can now hear my music in the two new PlayStation 2 games, "The Flintstones: Bedrock Racing" and "Home Alone".

So if you get a chance to play one of these, crank up the volume. ;-)

Letter from Dave Lundy - Music Purchasing

2007-07-11T13:09:00.001+02:00

Hey Bjorn,

Longtime fan here. I've gotten every one of your albums since Hobbits, way back when. I actually still have my old MOD music files from back in the day. Brings back memories...

Anyhow, I'm wanting to purchase "Undercover" and future albums, but I want to help you out as much as I can. While I love having physical CDs to listen to, I understand that you've got a high overhead on making them. What would be the most beneficial (for you) way to purchase your music? I want to keep you in business, bro. You're a great talent and I'd hate to see that go away.

Thanks again for the great tunes! Take care...

Dave

Answer from Bjorn:

Hi David,

Thank you so much for your email and for your support. I appreciate it -- not only that you want to buy my music, but also for thinking about me and how much I get out of each type of sale.

My answer is that really, the amounts I get from different types of sales, don't really differ that much from each other.

If you buy my physical CD at CDBaby.com I get $12.99 (CDbaby takes $4), minus the approx. $2 it cost me to have the CD made, and about $0.50 it cost me to send the CD to CDBaby. So I guess a profit of about $10.

If you buy it as a download from iTunes, then iTunes pays CDBaby about $6.30 or so, and CDBaby only takes 9% of this, so after Paypal fees (when CDBaby pays me by Paypal) I'm left with about $5.50 or so.

If you buy it as a physical CD from my own personal CD-shop www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html , you pay $16.99 for the CD and $7.90 for postage. Some feel that the $7.90 I take in postage is a little bit too much, but postage out of Norway is very expensive, and in actual fact, the true postage cost for me to send one CD from Norway to USA is about $11. So I actually lose a little bit over $3 in postage, even when I take $7.90 in postage from the customer. So in this case, I take $16.99 for the CD, out of which Paypal takes about 4%, minus the $3 I lose on shipping, minus the approx. $2 it cost me to have the CD made, minus the $1 approx it cost me to have the CD shipped to me from the place where it was made -- leaving me perhaps with a profit of about $10 or so.

If you buy the CD as a downloadable CD from my own personal download-shop (www.lynnemusic.com/downloadshop.html) then you pay $11.99 and you pay through 2checkout.com who takes 5.5% plus they "skim" about 2% on the currency exchange rate when they pay the monthly payment to me -- so I'm left with a profit of around $11.

So, as you can see from all this, really there are several ways to buy my CD's that more or less work out at just about the same profit for me. Frankly, if it's a matter of a dollar or two, I'd rather my customers actually have the physical CD if that is what they prefer. :-)

The bottom line is, whatever way you choose to buy my music, I very much appreciate it, and for me it's more important that you buy it in the way that gives you the most pleasure, even if I should make a couple of dollars or less, one way or the other. :-)

Thanks again!

- Bjorn

Voyager: New Surround Music track for free download

2007-07-05T11:56:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,

Today I have uploaded a new free surround music track to my web site, which can be downloaded in WMA (Windows Media Audio v10) and in AC3 (Dolby Digital) 5.1 surround format. The track is a 14-minute "typical Bjorn Lynne style" :-) spacey synth-rock thing with added guitars. I hope you'll enjoy it.

The track also features a guest guitar solo towards the end, by my friend Marc Pattison . Everything else was played by me.

You need a 5.1 surround setup to play the WMA or AC3 versions. You'll get the best listening experience by downloading the WMA file (it sounds better than the AC3), downloading Windows Media Player v10 or higher, and sitting in the center of the surround speaker setup while listening.

The AC3 file can be downloaded and burned to DVD for use in regular home DVD-players, using a DVD authoring program such as Sony Media DVD Architect or another similar program. That way, you can listen from your DVD-player.

To download the Surround Music version of Voyager, go to my free surround music page.

I also created a 5.1 surround setup test file, because I have a feeling that a lot of people have 5.1 surround speaker setups, but haven't connected it correctly or set up the software correctly to play it. So you can download the test file which will play a voice in each speaker, saying "front left", "front right" and so on -- so you can check that you have your speakers connected and setup correctly. This is also available in WMA and AC3 format from my free surround music page.

I already know that I'll probably get some complaints from those of you who don't have a surround speaker setup :-), so I've also created a normal stereo version and made it playable from the below Flash player. No surround setup needed for that.

I hope you'll enjoy this track! It will be featured on my next Bjorn Lynne synth-rock style CD release, hopefully sometime this year or early next year.

If you have comments etc., please use the "comment" feature in this blog. Thank you!

- Bjorn Lynne

Have yourselves some free MP3 ringtones

2007-06-24T14:21:00.000+02:00

I know a lot of independent musicians these days are trying to make a bit of an income by selling their tracks as ringtones for mobile phones / cellphones, and selling these tones for small amounts like $2.99 each or whatever.

I have instead decided to give away some of my music for use as ringtones, completely free. To be honest, it just gives me a kick to think that somebody might actually have my music playing from their phone when it rings. :-). It's not that I don't want to sell my music, but if people are going to buy something, I'd rather they buy my CD's, not a 30-second ringtone.

Some old Bjorn Lynne favorites like "12th Warrior", "Space Deliria" and "Secret World" are now available to download as MP3 and upload to your phone. Just go to www.lynnemusic.com/ringtones.html . I hope you'll enjoy them.

All the best,
- Bjørn Lynne

PayPlay.fm - a good place to buy my music - for US customers

2007-06-24T13:49:00.000+02:00

(Update January 2008: In the text below it says that PayPlay is only available to people in the USA, but I've been told that Payplay has since also set up so that Non-US customers can use them too).

All of my CD's are now available for U.S. customers to buy through a new digital music shop called PayPlay.fm

At PayPlay.fm U.S. customers can choose to buy the music as unsecured, regular MP3 files for $.088 per track or $8.88 per whole CD, or a little bit cheaper ($0.77 / $7.77) for secured WMA (Windows Media Audio) files. Either way, I get about $0.58 per track sold, or $5.80 per whole CD. This is actually a very good artist payment. (For example, it's a lot - LOT more than I got when my CD's were released by a real record company and sold in the shops).

PayPlay.fm is a no-nonsense place, with no software to install, and they have a very attractive web site, with extra options such as cover printing and more. In short, I feel it's exactly what a music download shop should be. No nonsense, great for the customer, and very fair payments to the musicians. Well done, PayPlay.fm! The only drawback is that they only sell to customers in the U.S. (for now, anyway), which is a pity. [Thanks to Björn in Sweden who informed me that only U.S. customers can use PayPlay.fm].

Here are links to each of my CD's at PayPlay.fm:

Bjorn Lynne CD's:

Divinorum CD's:
(Divinorum is my pseudonym when working with trance/electronica/techno music)

My Nature Sound Series (One-hour nature sound recordings, available either with or without Ambient Music composed by me):

CD's by my friends:

Two new Ambient music tracks - your feedback welcome

2007-06-14T20:59:00.000+02:00

Hello friends,

Over the past week or so, I have composed two new Ambient music pieces. I plan to release an Ambient CD some time before the end of this year. So far I have about 8 tracks completed, I'm going to make maybe 5-6 more of them. (EDIT: I wanted to add here, that I haven't actually made 8 tracks in the past week or so.. I've only made two new ones in the last week. The other 5 or 6 have been composed over a period of more than 2 years, one here and one there). :-)

Anyway, here are the two most recent Ambient works. I could use some input/comments/feedback from all of you, because for one of the tracks, "Ambient 2", I can't think of a good title, and for the other one, "Kaleidoscope", the title is perfect but I have two different versions and I can't decide which one to use!

Let's start with "Ambient 2". I know exactly what I'm trying to "visualize" with this track, but I just can't find the word(s) for it. Something slightly odd, maybe creepy, slow flowing mud, a feeling of experiencing time in a slowed-down state. If any of you have good titles that come to you while listening to this track, please use the "Comment" feature below to let me know! You can hear the track by clicking on it in the Flash player below.

Next up is the track "Kaleidoscope". A Kaleidoscope is one of those toys we had as children, it looks like a little telescope. You look into it and twist the end of it, and different beautiful patterns, colors and shapes appear inside (See pic on the left). :-)

For this track I decided to use NO quantization, but to record everything straight in and leave it exactly as recorded, with no tweaking. I made one version without any drums, and another version with an extremely simple drum track. Even the drums were "recorded" by actually playing the drum notes on my keyboard, and then left untouched, unquantized. I wanted it to be imperfect and "feel live".

I can't decide whether I like the version without drums, or the version with the simple drum track. Again, any feedback, comments, votes would be very welcome. Use the "comment" field below to have your say. All input is appreciated. Thank you!

Here is the Flash Player where you can hear the tracks:

BTW, I am now working on two new albums. One with Ambient music in this style, and another album with more synth/space-rock type music like some of my previous albums. I hope to have at least this ambient album released before the end of this year. Maybe the other one, too, if I can get enough time to work on the music.

Thanks for reading!

- Bjorn Lynne

"Undercover" now available as a CD

2007-06-04T13:40:00.000+02:00

“Undercover” now available on CD

I’m happy to announce that Undercover is now available as a CD!

“Undercover” is a 14-track album that I have made together with my friend from the Amiga/PC demo-scene, Adam Skorupa, aka Skorpic. The music is in “Spy/Thriller/Crime soundtrack” style.

The CD was “pre-released” in my download-shop about 2 weeks ago. As of today, it is also available as a physical CD, from two different places:

From myself, in Norway: www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html
and from CDBaby in USA: www.cdbaby.com/cd/lynneskorupa

World wide shipping available both places.

I have to mention that this CD was not glass-mastered and duplicated in an industrial CD pressing plant. It was made in 300 copies at a “short-run” CD duplication company where they use big CD-copier machines to copy from the original master CD-R. So it’s neither a fully industrial CD, nor a home-made CD... but something in between, I suppose.

The album will arrive in a few weeks at iTunes and other downloadable services – but if you wish to buy it as a downloadable album already now, you can of course do so from http://www.lynnemusic.com/downloadshop.html right now.

To listen to the whole album online, just go to www.lynnemusic.com/cdshop.html and click on the “Undercover” album cover.

Update on other musical things....

I’m working on a long(ish) track for my next forthcoming solo album. I think I’m going to call the track “Voyager”, because it appears to me that every electronic music composer or band has to make a track called “Voyager” at some point in their career ... and I have yet to do so! :-) I’m trying out different ideas and throwing away quite a lot of stuff that isn’t working the way I’d like it to. :-) I’ll try to keep you updated.

As usual, I’m also working on my royalty-free music licensing site, www.shockwave-sound.com, which is how I make most of my income now. My music gets licensed from that page an average of 25 times every single day, and after years of this, it makes thousands of productions that use my music. Most of these productions I have never seen or heard. When somebody buys a license from www.shockwave-sound.com, I don’t actually ask the customer exactly what he’s going to use the music for. I just tell the customer what he/she can and can’t use the music for. So it’s kind of weird to think that my music is being used in thousands of different productions all over the world, and 99.5% of them I never get to see or hear about. A couple of times I have “stumbled across” my music while switching channels on the TV. :-)

"Work in Progress" -- first signs of life for new album

2007-05-16T12:57:00.000+02:00

Over the past few weeks, I have started to build up some inspiration and ideas for what will eventually be my next solo album!

I'm really quite excited about it. For a long time now, I have been working with other people, working on my music licensing business, working on various side projects and actually, well, watching TV!

But now something in me has begun to stir up some new music. I decided to just let things start to take shape naturally, and it seems to me that the album is going in the general direction of my other melodic sci-fi synth rock albums, i.e. like "The Void", "Dreamstate", "Colony" and "Beneath Another Sky".

So far I have composed the framework for two different tracks. They are not finished yet, but below are a couple of sneak preview tasters! Yesterday I was in a pro recording studio with a drummer and we recorded live acoustic drums for one of the tracks; tentatively titled "Temp-6"

Both tracks written so far tick in at about 6 minutes. Below are about a minute-and-a-half clips from the beginning of each track. The one called "Temp 6" has acoustic drums; the one called "Arpeg 2" has programmed drums for now.

I really need great sounding Song Titles for these two tracks, so if you have any suggestions for track names, please use the "Comment" function on this blog to make your suggestions!

MP3 preview: Temp 6
MP3 preview: Arpeg 2

I might put up one of these tracks in full-length version a little later on, when one of them is actually finished. :)

- Bjorn

Undercover - the CD by Bjorn Lynne & Adam Skorupa

2007-05-15T15:52:00.000+02:00

Undercover is a 14-track CD composed and produced by Bjorn Lynne together with his good friend and musical collaborator, Adam Skorupa (also known to some as "Skorpic" from the Amiga / PC demo scene, or from his electronica band Aural Planet).

Undercover is released today as a download purchase from the Bjorn Lynne download shop! Here you can buy the album as an instant download, in true CD-quality, 256-kbps unprotected MP3-files. Also included with the purchase are High Res cover artwork images, so you can print the cover yourself and make yourself a real CD to put in your CD collection.

The album will be released as a physical CD in about 2 weeks from now, and then released on iTunes and many other music download sites, about 2-4 weeks after that. At the time of writing this (May 15, 2007), it is only available through the Bjorn Lynne download shop.

The music is inspired by Spy movies, Crime thrillers and international crime/spy action flicks. To hear the entire album through a neat Flash music player, visit the web page for the Undercover CD.

Should you be interested in licensing music from Undercover to use in your project, you can buy a royalty-free license from Shockwave-Sound.Com

Comments about the CD or the download-shop welcome any time! :-) Thanks for listening.

Music for sea life video

2007-04-16T13:39:00.000+02:00

Josh Jensen and Liz Harlin of Undersea Productions have released a double DVD-video entitled Marine Life of Fiji and Tonga, containing my music.

This detailed and beautiful 288-minute video is an encyclopedic reference guide to tropical fish and other sea life -- except that instead of being a book full of pictures, it's a video with stunning real-life film footage of each fish and species. This was a nice project to be made part of! Check out the video clip here.

Two new releases in the Bjorn Lynne download-shop

2007-04-12T23:21:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,

I’m happy to announce two new Bjorn Lynne music releases which are available exclusively though the Bjorn Lynne download-shop:

The way it works is: You add an album to your shopping cart, pay with a credit card, and then download the whole album immediately, in true CD-quality (256-kbps) unprotected mp3 files. The download link is displayed right in your browser after payment, and in addition, the link is also sent out to your email address.

Tropical Ocean Surf - With ambient music

This is a new CD that I have made as part of my “Nature Sound Series”. The CD contains ambient / relaxing / floating music mixed with the calming, soothing sounds of slow ocean waves coming in on a tropical island beach.

The CD contains one very long track that plays for more than 1 hour uninterrupted. The download also contains hi-res album artwork, so you can print the cover artwork with a color printer, burn the audio track to a CD, and that way you can make yourself a real CD if you want.

This CD will become available as a physical CD from CDBaby.com in a few weeks, but for now it is only available to buy from the Bjorn Lynne download-shop. Price: $8.99

Click here to read more about it or listen to a preview

Click here to go to the Bjorn Lynne download-shop and buy it now

Bjorn Lynne: Wacky Races

This is a collection of 11 tracks in “video game music style” that I produced in 2005. Until now, these tracks have only been available to industry professionals (music licensing for games and media), but now I’ve decided to release it as a game music CD, exclusively through the Bjorn Lynne download-shop.

To download the whole album as 256-kbps mp3 files: US$ 7.99

Click here to read more about it or listen to previews

Click here to go to the Bjorn Lynne download-shop and buy it now

Selling stolen music

2007-02-14T11:40:00.000+01:00

Today while more or less randomly browing the web, I came across another musician's web site. I started listening to the music tracks that he offers on his web site, and was completely gobsmacked to find MY track "The Next Step" posted on his web site under the name "Highlander".

As many of you will know, I composed the track "The Next Step" in 2002 and released it on CD in 2003 on my album "Power Liquids". This guy had simply taken the track straight from the CD, changed it's name, and posted it on his web site as his own music.

I can only assume that all the other music on his web site has also been stolen from other musicians.

What's wrong with some people? Have they NO shame? Has the internet become so big and so complex now, that people like this think that they can just steal what they want and SELL it -- because the chance of being found out amongs millions of other musicians, is so low?

It has to be said that when I confronted this guy about it, he removed the track from his web site, so in this particular case, the problem has been solved. But it's got to make me wonder; how many other "musicians" out there are selling my music as their own?

I mean, there's stealing and there's stealing. There's the guy who downloads my music album from some pirate or peer-to-peer network, to listen to it himself. I don't like it obviously, because afterall I'm trying to make a living on my music. But I'm willing to forgive this to some degree.

But when somebody starts SELLING my music, credited to themselves, that's when things get serious and it's time to involve lawyers.

Special Christmas offer on Bjorn Lynne CDs

2006-11-09T13:14:00.000+01:00

Dear folks....

As many of you may already know, every year in time for Christmas, I like to make a little bit of extra effort with my CD sales, to encourage you good people to buy my CDs as Christmas presents for friends and relatives! I mean, it’s already a great idea for a Christmas present. A CD delivered directly from the composer, autographed, and perhaps with a special Christmas greeting or message to the person you’re giving it to. I dare say it’s a little bit more interesting as a gift, than just picking a CD from the “top 10” list at the local record store! :-)

So between now and Christmas, I am offering a completely free extra CD of your choice for anybody who orders 2 or more CDs from my CD-shop.

Offer stands from November 9 until December 25, 2006. To take advantage of the offer, you simply place an order in my CD-shop for two or more CDs. Then email bjorn@lynnemusic.com and let me know which extra CD you would like me to add to your order.

Also, all CDs shipped out in this period will be autographed.

To place an order, proceed to the CD-shop...

Soundtrack for film "Ingebjørg Olavsdatter"

2006-11-02T15:42:00.000+01:00

Hey good people,

I have completed the soundtrack for the Norwegian drama-documentary film, "Ingebjørg Olavsdatter". In the end, the music score contained 25 music cues, all of which I composed and produced during a period of about 6 weeks.

Due to limitations in time and budget, the music was produced primarily with electronics and guitar, but I tried to create a soundtrack that fits this type of working environments. I hope I managed to achieve a reasonable result. Towards the end of the project, all electronic flute was then replaced with live flute, played by a local professional studio musician called Steinar Borvik.

The film is published by DAMM publishing and will be available from November 20, 2006.

Besides the music cue numbers that the pieces used in the film, I have also given the different music pieces "names" that are more or less relevant to the scene in the film for which they were created. Here you can download almost all of the music from the film in preview quality mp3 files. I hope you'll enjoy them.

(Please keep in mind that this music is under copyright and may not be used for any project, commercial or non-commmercial, without a valid Music License issued by Bjorn Lynne / Lynne Publishing. Downloading here is for personal listening only. Thank you.)

Ingebjørg Olavsdatter: Main Theme
Ingebjørg Olavsdatter: Pergament
Ingebjørg Olavsdatter: Fairywind
Ingebjørg Olavsdatter: Love Promise
Dark Ages: Battle Echoes
Dark Ages: Death Moon
Dark Ages: Hall of the King
Dark Ages: Meeting
Dark Ages: Place of Tragedy
Dark Ages: Prayer Hour
Dark Ages: Premonition
Dark Ages: Shadows in Time
Dark Ages: The Forest
Dark Ages: The Plague
Dark Ages: The Shadow
Dark Ages: The Threat
Dark Ages: Undertow

I hope you enjoy listening to these tracks, although I have to admit most of them are pretty dark.

VSampler 3 - a very nice piece of music software

2006-10-15T17:34:00.000+02:00

I recently finished composing and producing the music for a film, and throughout the whole project (25 music cues of varying lengths), there was one piece of audio software that kept on shining and was so useful for me, that I felt I wanted to write some words about it in my blog: VSampler 3.

VSampler 3 is a software replacement for an outboard/hardware sampler. I have a very nice hardware sampler -- an E-Mu E5000 Ultra with two ROM-boards fitted (i.e. 1000 preset sounds) in addition to 128 MB of sample RAM, a built-in harddisk, external SCSI CDROM drive and the whole shebang. This is a pretty powerful piece of sampling machinery for which I paid a couple of thousand dollars or more -- but the fact is, with VSampler 3 installed on my PC, I didn't even feel the need to switch on my hardware sampler once during the composing and production of this film soundtrack. At a tiny fraction of the cost, VSampler 3 is -- for me -- so fast, powerful, intuitive, stable and easy to use, that it has made my expensive hardware sampler completely redundant -- and very soon up for sale!

I know it must probably sound like I've been paid by the creators of VSampler to write this. I haven't, though :-). I simply used this software so much in my latest project, and it was such a joy to work with, that I kept thinking the software deserves more attention than it seems to be getting.

I have worked with other software samplers, notably Native Instruments Kontakt, but I feel VSampler 3 is much more straightforward, much more logically laid out, much easier to find your way around (especially if you are used to working with hardware samplers), and not to mention... it's a lot cheaper.

VSampler 3 can import samples and sample banks from lots of different formats, including Akai, Kontakt, Wav/AIFF, Sf2 (Soundfont), Gigastudio, Halion, DLS, Battery, Recycle REX, and other formats. Or, one of my favourite uses -- simply drag and drop a WAV file from the Windows explorer onto VSampler, and it automatically creates a "default" instrument from that sample.

Adding volume envelopes, filters, effects, LFO's etc. to the sounds is so simple that if you're already used to using a few other pieces of audio software, you can just dive in and do all of this without even reading a single line of instructions. It's just so intuitive, straightforward and clear.

There are lots of other, heavier features like Beat Slicing, built-in synthesizer features, remote control and automation etc., but let's face it, 99.9% of the time, you just want to quickly build (or load) an instrument or set of samples, add some volume envelope and maybe a filter, and start playing. This whole process is done, literally, in about 5 seconds in VSampler.

One really great way of working with VSampler that I have developed is that I have used Nero Burning ROM to create "image files" of all my Akai sample CDs. These "image files" are typically about 600 MB each and each one is simply a "mirror" file of the Akai CD it was copied from. These image files can be "mounted" on the system using Nero ImageDrive. By simply double-clicking on one of these image-files, that causes that Akai CD to be "virtually inserted" into a CDROM drive on the PC. You can then click on the "Akai" button on the VSampler 3 import page, and it displays all the programs that are on that Akai disc. So if, say, I want to load a sound from my "Drum Tools" Akai-CD, I don't have to find the actual CD and put it into the PC. I simply double-click on the image file of that CD, and the PC "thinks" that the CD has been inserted. I then click the "Akai" button in VSampler 3, and swish, all the programs from the Drum Tools CD is displayed, ready to import one or several of the programs into VSampler. So really, swapping between several different Akai sample CDs and loading samples into VSampler is just a matter of a couple of mouse clicks and takes less than 10 seconds!

One other thing I have to mention is the "anti crash" safety net. If you drive VSampler very heavily and perhaps there is a read-error on an Akai disc, at the same time it's receiving masses of MIDI signals and you're changing screens like mad, then a crash might occur -- just like in any other Windows program. However, VSampler doesn't actually crash! It pops up an error message window which will say something about the error (cryptic stuff, not for you or I to understand). The pop-up window gives you the option to Copy this information to the Windows clipboard, so that you might send it to VSampler tech support. You can then "clear" the pop-up window, and return to work! Amazing. At this point, though, I felt it was probably a good idea to save everything and re-start the audio program (not the whole PC), to avoid any potentially worse problems.

The way I got introduced to VSampler was quite a while back, when a version of it came for free with the Cakewalk SONAR music arrangement and recording software that I use for all my composing/productions. I have to admit, VSampler was just "lying there" on my harddrive for a long time before I really started using it. I just didn't think it would be that good.

I have since upgraded to the latest version, and I use VSampler 3 as a virtual instrument (a DXi plugin) in SONAR v5. I'm planning to upgrade to SONAR 6 in the near future.

This probably sounds like one big long advertisement for VSampler by now, but actually nobody asked me or encouraged me to write any of this. I've just never had that much good use for a piece of software this cheap, ever.

I'm now going to sell my hardware sampler and for anybody who are looking for a powerful, yet very simple and easy to use, software sampler, I can strongly recommend that you take a look at VSampler 3.

Free Nature Sound: Relaxing Mountain Stream, with Ambient Music

2006-09-22T20:23:00.000+02:00

I have just finished creating another one of my one hour nature soundscape with ambient music productions (the sixth in the series). Just to spread some good vibes, I would like to give this creation to all my listeners free. The free version is in "near CD quality" 128-kbps mp3 file. A higher quality version, true CD-quality 256 kbps, can be purchased for $8.99 and can be downloaded instantly after purchase.

This one is titled Relaxing Mountain Stream and it contains the sound of a small brook peacefully running down a mountainside, mixed with one full hour of ambient music composed and produced by me. The sound recording was done on location in Norway and the music was composed in my studio over a period of about 2 weeks. I hope you'll enjoy it!

You can find this release, along with the 5 others in my Nature Sound Series, here. (Free download from product page).

Composing music for the film "Ingebjørg Olavsdatter"

2006-09-19T09:25:00.000+02:00

Hello folks... sorry it's been a while since I posted anything on my blog. I'm currently composing music for the Norwegian film project, "Ingebjørg Olavsdatter". This is a part dramatized historical documentary film directed by Magnus Bjørneby.

It's a feature length film, and I only have about a month to compose all the music for it, and I'm combining this with (as always) putting a lot of work into my royalty-free music licensing business, www.shockwave-sound.com. So you could say that I'm busy as usual. :-)

The film is based on the true story of Ingebjørn Olavsdatter, who by more or less of a coincidence got caught up in a power struggle for the throne of Norway, around the year 1350 shortly after the Black Plague wiped out about a third of Norway's population. It's a full feature length film, combining dramatized scenes (i.e. actors and dialogue etc.) with historical insights and interviews. It's really quite interesting, and I'm enjoying the chance to compose and produce the music for it. The film is scheduled for release on DVD in the late fall of 2006.

Here is a short example of the film music I have done so far, in low-quality mp3 format. Click here to download mp3.

My music on The History Channel

2006-07-24T17:11:00.000+02:00

The History Channel UK has used my music quite a lot lately. You can now hear my music in the following programmes on The History Channel:

THE MASTER: Samurai Sword Master
The samurai were the members of the military class, the Japanese warriors. Their importance and influence grew during the Heian Period (794-1185) when the powerful landowners hired them for the protection of their properties.

THE MASTER: Master Of Castles
Famed architect James of St George perfected the art of castle building. Military experts and architectural historians analyse what made these castles so formidable.

And also; MASTER Gun Maker - for which I can't find any further details.

Napster made me rich!

2006-07-24T16:57:00.000+02:00

I found this a bit funny, so I thought I'd post it. :-) I regularly get royalty statements from PRS (Performance Rights Society) for some small sums of performance/broadcast royalties when my music has been used in TV programmes or played in public places, etc.

I got this statement today, which inlcluded a payment of £0.01 from Napster. I'm rich!! :-) This is the proof that Napster really is great for musicians.

The only downside is... with me living in Norway and being in a high tax-class, half of the money goes to paying tax. :-) -- which leaves me with the stunning amount of £0.005 to spend.

(Click image for larger version)

New hour of ambient relaxation music, set to Rain ambience

2006-06-12T14:42:00.000+02:00

Dear Friends,

I’m writing with news of a new “private” music/sound release. I say “private” because it’s not really a big official release like my CD “Beneath Another Sky” etc.

This is a one-hour uninterrupted piece of ambient/relaxation music, set to the sound of falling rain. I’ve called it “Relaxing Rain Ambience”.

I started this project by recording the rainfall in a nearby woodland area. On listening to it, I felt that the rain sound didn’t get “rich” enough, so on a different day I also recorded the sound of another heavier rainfall and this time I recorded it right outside my house. This gave a better sound because water was trickling down the walls and onto the rocks and cement, as well as trickling down the gutter with a nice clucking sound.

I mixed the two sounds (the one from the woodland and the one from outside my house) together and I felt it gave a pretty nice rich rain sound. Strangely, as if by some weird coincidence, the two one-hour rain recordings kind of seem to follow each other in intensity. When the “woodland rain” picks up the intensity, the “home rain” does the same thing – even though they were recorded on two separate days.

Once I had the full hour of rain sound, I started listening to it for long periods of time, and whilst listening to it I started to play with musical ideas that I felt came naturally and went well together with the rain. After a few weeks I arranged some of these musical ideas into long piece of ambient relaxation music that plays for a full one hour, with very little repetition.

I then mixed the music and the rain together, resulting in a kind of peaceful, refreshing, ambient music hour. It’s meant for scene-setting, relaxing, rest and recovery, and to help concentrate while working. It’s not really meant for “intense listening”.

Anyway, I hope you’ll take the time to listen to the 3-minute preview file that I have created. This release is only available to buy as a download, from my music download shop. It costs US$ 8.99. If you buy it, you get the full one-hour mp3 file (256 kbps) and hi-res printable cover artwork.

The price US$ 8.99 is for personal use / home listening only, and can be purchased from my music download shop.

If you want to license this audio for commercial or in-public use (such as in a spa, relaxation centre, treatment/massage clinic, in a shop, on TV etc.), you can also buy it from www.shockwave-sound.com for $19.95. This price then includes a license to use the music commercially and in public.

“Relaxing Rain Ambience” is the 5th in a series of “relaxation music set to nature sound” recordings that I have created over the past few years. The other four are: “Relaxing Amazon Evening”, “Relaxing Seaside Ambience”, “Relaxing Campfire Ambience” and “Relaxing Forest Ambience”. All are available at $8.99 each from www.lynnepublishing.com/downloadshop.html

Thanks for reading!
- Bjorn

Bjorn Lynne download-shop, with many unique releases

2006-06-05T14:06:00.000+02:00

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to announce the re-opening of my music download shop! It has been open for a couple of weeks already, but I wanted to hold off the actual announcement for a while, until a few orders had come in – so I could be sure that everything worked okay before I made the big announcement.

All albums are sold as big .zip files containing the music tracks as 256-kbps mp3 files, and with hi-res, printable cover artwork included, so you can print the cover and make your own CD to put in your shelf.

I already know that some of you are going to write to me and ask why I don’t offer the music in a lossless format instead, such as FLAC. The answer is that I already tried that. I had a music download shop with FLAC files before, and nobody bought anything. FLAC is good, but it’s not widely known, and most people just prefer mp3. The mp3’s I sell now are in a very high bit-rate of 256 kbps, and as the composer and producer of the music on sale, I have never once been able hear the difference between the original master recording and the 256-kbps mp3 files. So they are as good as lossless audo files.

The mp3 files are not protected in any way. Instead, I leave it up to you, to act responsibly and not share the files with anybody else.

Download album prices are $5 cheaper than the physical CD price. Plus, of course, you save more than that by not having to pay anything for CD-shipping.

Previously unreleased and rare albums also available in download-shop

In the new download-shop you can of course buy all my CDs. But more than that, you can also buy all the sold-out CDs which haven’t been on sale for a long time, and some previously unreleased “rare” items like my “Urban Darkness” CD of dark ambient music, my early demo-tape from 1991 and my series of one-hour nature soundscapes with relaxation music.

Payments by 2checkout or PayPal

In the new download-shop you can order in two ways:

2checkout. The first way is to use the “add to cart” links and pay through 2checkout. You pay 2checkout with a credit card, as when the payment is processed, you are automatically presented with a link to download the product(s). Additionally, the link is sent to you by email as well.
Paypal. If you prefer to pay through Paypal, you should simply add up the cost of what you want to purchase, go to Paypal and choose “send money”. Send the money to my Paypal address: bjorn@lynnemusic.com , and include information on the payment, about which product(s) you are ordering. I will personally email you the download links within 24 hours (usually much faster).

Currently available albums in the Bjorn Lynne download-shop:

Bjorn Lynne “Beneath Another Sky” CD (2006)
Bjorn Lynne “Soothe” CD (2004)
Bjorn Lynne feat Eco-Mcz “Statement” CD (2004)
Bjorn Lynne “Return to Witchwood” CD (2003)
Bjorn Lynne “Colony” CD (2002)
Bjorn Lynne “The Gods Awaken” CD (2001)
Bjorn Lynne “Accelerator” CD (2001)
Bjorn Lynne “Revive” CD (2000)
Bjorn Lynne “Wolves of the Gods” CD (1999)
Bjorn Lynne “Wizard of the Winds” CD (1998)
Bjorn Lynne (as Dr.Awesome) “Decade” CD (1997)
Bjorn Lynne “The Void” CD (1997)
Bjorn Lynne “Witchwood” CD (1996)
Bjorn Lynne “Dreamstate” CD (1995)
Bjorn Lynne “Montage” CD (1994)
Bjorn Lynne “Hobbits & Spaceships” CD (1992)

Bjorn Lynne (as Divinorum): “Power Liquids” CD (2003)
Bjorn Lynne (as Divinorum): “Talisman” (2000)
Bjorn Lynne (as Divinorum): “Isms” (1999)

Bjorn Lynne: “Relaxing Amazon Evening – with ambient/exotic music” (2006)
Bjorn Lynne: “Relaxing Seaside Ambience – with gentle piano & flute music” (2005)
Bjorn Lynne: “Relaxing Campfire Ambience – with gentle guitar music” (2004)
Bjorn Lynne: “Relaxing Forest Ambience – with gentle piano music” (2003)
Bjorn Lynne: “Urban Darkness” (2001)
Bjorn Lynne: “Worms Armageddon Soundtrack” (1999)
Bjorn Lynne: “Phoenix: Deep Space Resurrection” (1999)
Bjorn Lynne: “Worms 2 – Original Soundtrack” (1998)
Bjorn Lynne: “Pig Detective – Original Soundtrack” (1997)
Bjorn Lynne: “Seven Kingdoms II – The Frythan Wars” (1998)
Bjorn Lynne: “Seven Kingdoms – Original Soundtrack” (1997)
Bjorn Lynne: “Alien Breed 3D – Original Soundtrack” (1995)
Bjorn Lynne: “Brave New Virtual World” (1993)
Bjorn Lynne: “Demo-Tape 1” (1991)

To visit the Bjorn Lynne download-shop: http://www.lynnepublishing.com/downloadshop.html

New Bjorn Lynne CD released today - Beneath Another Sky !

2006-05-08T13:35:00.000+02:00

Today, May 8th 2006, I am very proud and excited to announce the release of my new album: Beneath Another Sky !

I have been working on this CD, in between other projects, since about October 2002. That's 3 and a half years. I have done many other projects in the meantime, but I have always had this album at
the very front of my mind, and kept all my best "real Bjorn Lynne music" for this album.

The CD contains 12 tracks and plays for 1 hour, 19 minutes and 21 seconds. That's pretty much exactly as much as is technically possible to fit onto an audio-CD. The music is instrumental, highly dynamic and melodic. There is some voice on the CD, but it is only used in an "instrumental" sense -- i.e. chanting, pad-chorus, etc.

I feel that on this CD I have created the music that is my real "musical heartland". Some of you may feel familiar with the style and mood, some elements of which can be recognized from my CDs such as Colony, Revive, Dreamstate, The Void and Talisman. It's electronic music, but with some elements of live/real instruments, and with an emphasis on dynamics, excitement, atmosphere and adventure -- and most of all, melody.

Having worked very hard on this album and put up all the money for the production and manufacturing out of my own personal pocket, I obviously hope very strongly that enough people will support the music and actually buy the CD, for me to be able to call it a successful project. If you are one of those who have been browsing my web site for years and downloaded all the free music I have offered through this web site through the years, this is the moment that I could really use your support. By buying the CD, you are taking a very important part in the whole project and you can be sure that you will get value for your money

As of right now, the CD is only available to buy through my personal CD-shop. Over the coming weeks and months, the CD will slowly make its way into various other stores, such as ArtistLaunch.com, CDBaby.com, iMusicStage.com, Soundoo.com and also to legal music download sites such as iTunes, MSN Music and others.

All copies sold through my personal CD-shop in the first three weeks of release, will be individually numbered and autographed in Gold ink!

In an attempt to make it even more attractive to order this CD from my own personal web site right now, I am individually numbering and autographic, in Gold ink, all copies of this CD that are ordered from Bjorn's CD-shop within June 1, 2006.

To the left here you can see a scan of the actual CD-cover for copy #001, which will go to the first paying customer.

I really feel that this is one of my best CDs, and I hope you will enjoy it too. If you want to hear some examples of the music on the CD, you can download two tracks, "Starfield" and "Secret World" from my ArtistLaunch page.

One final word about this CD: Inside the CD-booklet you will find a password to access a restricted area of this web site, where you can download 3 more bonus tracks, in addition to the 12 tracks on the CD.

All the best,
- Bjorn Lynne

Download music from Worms Open Warfare

2006-04-20T18:40:00.000+02:00

Sony and THQ have released the Team17 Software developed game "Worms Open Warfare" for Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, for which I composed and produced the music (ingame music and menu music), and composed/produced all the music and sound effects for the FMV-sequences.

With kind permission from Team17 Software, I have been allowed to give away two in-game music tracks for your free personal enjoyment. You can now download the "Hawaii Level" and the "Hell Level" tracks from my page on SoundLift. I hope you'll enjoy them. :-)

Lions Gate Films chooses Bjorn Lynne music for Blu-Ray menus

2006-04-17T20:21:00.000+02:00

Lions Gate Films will be using my music for the menu-systems on all titles in their first batch of movie releases on the new Blu-Ray format, which includes such titles as "Lord of War", "Crash", "Terminator 2", "The Punisher" and "Saw".

Lions Gate Films have licensed my music track called "Leisure Class" which I composed a few years back. The track will be playing on the setup/menu systems on all these films as well as others. They purchased the license from my music licensing web site, www.shockwave-sound.com. You can hear a preview of "Leisure Class" by going to www.shockwave-sound.com and searching for the song title.

Blu-Ray is the new high-definition video format for home video. In the very early days, Blu-Ray players will be expensive (as DVD was at first), but Blu-Ray will also be playable on Sony PlayStation 3 which is likely to be, in the early days at least, by far the cheapest way of playing Blu-Ray discs.

Lion's Gate Films is one of 754 companies and persons who purchased royalty-free music and sound effects from Shockwave-Sound.com during the month of March 2006.

Music for Nintendo DS game "Worms Open Warfare"

2006-04-11T15:05:00.000+02:00

Team17 Software and THQ have released the game "Worms Open Warfare" on the Nintendo DS. I composed the music for this NDS game and delivered it with Nintendo DS music replayer code.

The music was first composed as real studio recordings with external synthesizers, guitars, and studio gear. These original versions were used on the Sony PSP version of the game. I then painstakingly converted the music to Fasttracker XM Mod format. The music was then converted to a special Nintendo DS music format by my programmer associates. Together, were were able to deliver the music, music player code and get everything playing in-game.

Make sure you give this fun game a try, if you have a Nintendo DS. :-)

Music used by BBC World Service

2006-04-03T18:11:00.000+02:00

I'm happy to say that I have provided some of my music for the BBC again -- this time it's for the "Portugese for Africa" programme, which is part of BBC World Service.

Lemmings for PSP released

2006-03-13T11:02:00.000+01:00

Sony have released "Lemmings" for the PSP, which I worked on. The in-game music was made by Tim Follin, but I worked on the sound design, creating some of the sound effects. I also made all the music and sound effects for the FMV-sequences.

Meanwhile, my new CD album "Beneath Another Sky" has been mastered and is ready for release, I'm just waiting for the artist to finish the cover artwork, so I can release it.

From 19th March till 4th of April I'm going away on a much needed holiday (somewhere warm and sunny) :-) to play with my daughter and take life easy for a while with my family. I will aim to release the new CD as soon as possible after that.

Finishing new CD proved "too much" for PC

2006-02-27T16:31:00.000+01:00

As of two days ago, I officially finished 100% the music for my next CD, which I have been working on, between other projects, since about November 2002. I'm now only waiting for the artist to finish the cover artwork, and then the CD can be sent off for duplication/manufacturing. It should be released in a few weeks.

No sooner had I announced the happy news on my newsletter mailing list, when suddenly my PC spontaneously rebooted. Being an Athlon user, I've seen it before. It hasn't happened to me in several months now, but I'm used to this kind of behaviour from an Athlon based system -- when the CPU overheats, it leads to spontaneous reboots. Time to brush off the fans and make sure the cooling is working as it should.

However, this time as the system was booting up again, I couldn't help noticing a strange, "burned" kind of smell. I was just about to shout downstairs to ask if anything was left on the stove in the kitchen, when the PC switched off completely and I realized the smell -- and indeed the smoke! -- was coming from my PC. I guess the overheating went a little further than usual this time!

The PC is obviously completely dead. It refuses to even think about starting up. I opened it up and removed all non-essentials (graphics card, sound cards, scsi card, hard disks, optical drives). Now when I hit the power button, the CPU fan does a few pathetic rounds and then shuts back down after less than a second. It's quite simply dead.

I think it's kind of romantic. The PC has been pushed very hard during these last few weeks as I have been working hard to finish the new album and pretty much been pushing the PC for all it's worth. It did the job, I finished the album 100%, the master CD was burned, and then it died. Maybe I should dedicate the album to the memory of my extremely hard working PC, which gave it's life to the creation of this CD. :-)

I have ordered a new CPU and Mainboard and will rebuild a new PC keeping my other bits (RAM, storage, cards, etc.). I'm now typing this on a laptop that I just happened to buy last week. Maybe I had a "sixth sense" of some sort, telling me that the end was coming for my PC.

The photo shows the corpse of my dear old PC, waiting for a new spine and a new brain (mainboard and CPU) that I can use to re-build it.

PS: The working title for the CD has always been "Beneath Another Sky", but I've now just learned that there is another album already called that, so I might go for a different title. I was thinking about maybe "Beneath a Different Sky", or "Beneath a Distant Sky". Other suggestions welcome. :-)

- Bjorn

The "other" Divinorum

2006-02-22T10:57:00.000+01:00

It has come to my attention that another music artist has started calling himself Divinorum, and apparently also published a CD ("Lemon Flavored Kiss") using the Divinorum name.

As you can probably imagine, as the musician behind the original Divinorum, I'm not really happy about it. I mean, it's not like it was difficult to find out that there was already a music act called Divinorum. My use of the name Divinorum has been plastered all over the internet since 1998, and all this guy had to do (or even his record company) was to type "Divinorum" into any search engine or even just try www.divinorum.com and it would have taken them to my Divinorum project.

Here are some of the things that make me pretty confident that I have the right to the name Divinorum as it applies to a music group:

I released the first official Divinorum release already in 1998 on a compilation-CD from Boom! Records
I released the first Divinorum full-length album as a fully commercial release on DanceStreet Records in 1998
I have released 3 full-length Divinorum albums and Divinorum has been present on minimum 10 compilation-CDs from various record labels all over the world.
As 'Divinorum' I was "featured artist of the month" in Keyboard Magazine.
I've had the site www.divinorum.com since about 1999
By typing "Divinorum" into any search engine, or into iTunes music store, will take you to my Divinorum CDs.

When you decide to start using an artist name for your music, it's probably a good idea to spend 30 seconds on trying to find out if there is already another artist that's called the same thing. I'm sorry that the "other" Divinorum didn't do this. It could have saved us some of the confusion.

- Bjorn Lynne, aka Divinorum since 1998.

Collectable Bjorn Lynne CD fetches nice profit on eBay

2006-02-15T20:38:00.000+01:00

In the same way that it's kind of a disheartening for any musician to see his own CDs sold cheap in the "bargain bin" (ahem, or so I've heard) ;-), it's equally encouraging and, well, actually quite brilliant, for any musician to see his CDs fetching "collectable" style prices second-hand.

Recently a used copy of my CD "Phoenix - Deep Space Resurrection" (released 1997, now sold out) fetched a very handsome EUR 45,50 (approx. 55 US$) on the German eBay site.

I guess that's good news if you are one of the 1,000 who has this CD, or any other of my CDs which are now sold out. It's obviously also very cool for me. :-) Many thanks to Jan Zottmann for spotting this and telling me about it.

- Bjorn

A note about my sold-out CDs

2006-02-14T15:11:00.000+01:00

Through the years I have released a lot of CD-albums. A few of these are now sold out, and will not be re-pressed. From time to time, people ask me whether there is any possibility at all, of obtaining a copy of these CDs.

In reply, I usually make people this offer: If you buy any two (or more) CDs from my own personal CD-shop, I will make a CD-R copy of the sold-out CD that you were interested in. I write on the CD-R "authorised copy" and put my signature on it. This CD is then included for you free of charge and sent along with the two (or more) CDs that you ordered.

So I would just like to make it official, that this is an offer that's open to everybody. If there's a sold-out CD of mine that you want to obtain, simply order 2 or more CDs from my CD-shop, send me an email and ask me for a CD-R copy of the sold-out CD, and I will take care of that for you. :-). Cool, eh?

The sold-out CDs are:

My shop becomes Scandinavian distributor for AniMusic DVD series

2006-01-24T15:32:00.000+01:00

My online / mail-order shop www.PlasmaDesign.no has become the official Scandinavian distributor of the incredible AniMusic computer animation DVD series.

Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish customers can now for the first time obtain these amazing DVD's "locally".

If you haven't seen or heard about the AniMusic DVD series before, follow this link to have a look/listen!

New film-music mp3 download & streaming track

2006-01-17T16:10:00.000+01:00

I have created a new music track called "Solnatt" and made it available for free mp3 download and streaming (free for personal listening / home use only), from http://www.soundlift.com/bjornlynne. It's a kind of ambient film music style. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Custom music production for Alpine Aero Support GmbH

2005-12-28T12:37:00.000+01:00

Earlier this month I composed and produced a custom made music track for the Aircraft parts and support company, Alpine Air Support GmbH. The track was electronic/ambient and futuristic. With kind permission from Alpine, here is a sound clip.

Sound effects for Flash game "Squirrel Escape"

2005-12-28T12:32:00.000+01:00

I made the sound-effects for the cute little game, "Squirrel Escape"

Music for a photo exhibition

2005-12-12T20:34:00.000+01:00

I have been asked by the photographer Svenn Dvergastein to compose and produce music for a photo exhibition that will be held in the summer 2006 in my home town, Stavern, Norway. I will compose about 40-50 minutes of music, mainly ambient, experimental and semi-orchestral, that will be playing non-stop throughout the exhibition.

The photo exhibition will be held at the historic site Fredriksvern Verft, which was built around 1750 and originally used as a military site and shipyard. The site hasn't been used for any military purpose for a long time. Today it serves as a cultural/historic center and hosts numerous art exhibitions, concerts and events, especially throughout the summer.

The photo exhibition featuring my music will be located in what was originally the prison in the main guard building. It will be showing from June till August 2006. If you're in the area, make sure you stop by! :-)

Here's a photo from Fredriksvern Verft. (This photo isn't part of the exhibition, it's just a photo from the site where it will take place. Photo courtesy of nasjonalefestningverk.no)

Photos from my home town, Stavern

2005-12-09T20:15:00.000+01:00

I just thought I'd share these two rather nice photos of my home town, Stavern, in Norway. The photos were taken mid-afternoon in early December, 2005. I love this town. It's a very quiet and sleepy place all autumn and winter, but totally buzzing with tourists and boat life all summer. Here's what Stavern is like on a chilly December day:

New online shop for Plasma-TV related products

2005-11-17T13:09:00.000+01:00

Today I have started a new Scandinavian-only shop (online and postal order only) for Plasma- and LCD-TV related products.

We don't sell the TVs themselves, we sell DVDs with weird and wonderful content especially made for Plasma/LCD-TVs. This includes DVD's with calming, slowly floating skies, DVD's with exotic and beautiful aquariums, DVD's with rotating classic art paintings, modern animated art, a crackling fireplace, a window with a view to an exotic pacific island, etc.

The place is: http://www.PlasmaDesign.no

The shop is located in Norway and sells products to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. If you are Scandinvian, be sure to go there and check it out! It's me, personally, that handles the shop on a day-to-day basis. :-)

- Bjorn

Sound effects for PSP game "Lemmings"

2005-11-16T09:49:00.000+01:00

I'm working on the sound effects for the Sony PSP game "Lemmings" which will be released soon from Sony. It's a real treat for me, because I remember playing the original "Lemmings" game on Amiga back in the old days.

- Bjorn

Music, sound-fx and voiceover for PC game "Zombieball"

2005-10-29T22:25:00.000+02:00

Through my music licensing business, I delivered the music, and professional voice over recordings (not the sound effects) for the PC game "Zombieball" by Wildsnake Software.

The in-game music is composed partly by me, partly by my friend Adam Skorupa. I also arranged the voice recordings with my friend Dan Gold who is a full time pro voiceover actor. I then prepared all the files for use in-game.

First bits of info about my next CD

2005-10-25T18:37:00.000+02:00

I have finished my music and sound design work for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS game, "Worms", which is due to come out later this year. So now I have some time available to work on my next CD, which I'm now excited to be able to share the first fragments of information about. :-)

The CD cover will look like this (subject to possible change), and the CD title will be "Beneath Another Sky". As you can probably pick up from the title, the music style will be melodic, electronic music, with a slighly "exotic" twist, with styles and rhythms from far-away earthly places blended with spacey, melodic synth-music similar to my "Colony" or "Dreamstate" CDs.

So far, the following tracks are ready (again, all titles subject to possible change) ;-): "Starfield", "Beneath Another Sky", "Savannah", "Ang Kahora", "Secret World", "Spacefolds", "Dreams of Glory". More to follow.

Time permitting, I aim to finish the CD by late 2005 or very early 2006.

Choosing your burning speed when creating an Audio-CD

2005-10-19T16:40:00.000+02:00

Today, in response to a problem that often comes up with customers at my stock music site, I wrote this little article about choosing your burning speed when creating CD-Audio discs.

General update from Bjorn

2005-10-08T13:25:00.000+02:00

Hi all! Thanks for reading my blog, here's a general update on my music, future projects, etc.

As many of you know, I relocated to Norway this summer after spending more than 10 years in the UK. I was afraid I wasn't going to have enough work after my relocation, but in fact the opposite has been the case. I have been so busy working on "music to order" that I've hardly had time for working on my own personal music project. In one way it's frustrating. I have so many musical ideas in my head, so many things I want to do. I want to finish my next CD, which is about 70% ready but let's face it -- the first music for that CD was written already back in 2002! Now I have to compose and produce maybe 3 or 4 more tracks for it, and then I plan to release it as a self-published CD, like I did with Colony, Return to Witchwood, etc.

Over the years, as my economic responsibilities have grown, I've had to face the fact that I have to do the regular paid audio jobs before I can have fun and do my own CDs. The fact of the matter is that I've never really made much money on my CDs. In most cases I've just covered the costs and earned a very small profit -- certainly not economically "worth it" for the months and years of work that go into producing a CD worth of music. So my solo albums has always been something I've done, not for the money, but for the enjoyment of it, and for the feedback from fans who buy them and support me. But I've always had as a minimum requirement that the costs are covered. If ever the time comes when I can't even recouperate my costs involved with making a CD, then I'm just packing it in. I hope that doesn't happen. :-)

I have just finished a work contract for the in-game music for the game "Worms" on Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Right now I'm working on the synchronized music and sound effects for some funny cartoon "FMV" (full motion video) sequences for the same game. I plan to finish that in about 3 weeks from now.

In between I have also been doing some smaller contracts, producing General MIDI sound effects and music for a game company called Gamesys, who work a lot in online games and mobile games. Have you ever tried creating a "ball rolling" sound effect with General MIDI?! Let me tell you, it's no fun! :-). Additionally I have just delivered some voiceover (vocal recordings with pro voice actor) to Wildsnake Software for one of their upcoming games.

As always, I am using a lot of time maintaining, upgrading and accounting for my online royalty-free music site. (www.shockwave-sound.com). This is currently taking about half of my time. The rest of the time I am working on these contracted game music jobs, and finding very little time (okay, no time) to work on my "personal" music and my next CD. It's almost at the point where I wish I had a few weeks or months without any paid contract jobs, so that I could realize some of the many musical ideas and urges I have to write my own stuff and finish my next CD. Maybe after I finish my current jobs, eh?

In addition to finishing my current CD, I also want to start work on a planned CD with "classic" electronic music, more old-school retro electronica like Tangerine Dream, based on a lot of repeated sequences and ambient, pulsating synthesizers etc. This is something that I'm really feeling a strong urge to work with at the moment, so hopefully I can start to work on a CD with that kind of stuff... I just have to finish my current CD first! (And then see if anybody wants to buy it) ;-)

Well, thanks for reading, keep your eyes on my blog for future updates, and if you would like to be notified when my next CD is released, please make sure that you join my mailing list.

All the best,
- Bjorn

Music for puzzle game "Lost City of Gold"

2005-09-19T21:33:00.000+02:00

You can now hear some of my music in the game "Lost City of Gold" from Anarchy Enterprises.

Hilton Hotels and Bjorn Lynne's music

2005-09-10T08:15:00.000+02:00

Hilton Hotel Corporation is using my music track "Silk Skies" in a corporate benefits enrollment program. The music will be distributed to 320 hotels in addition to corporate, sales and reservation offices throughout the U.S.

Music downloads from my "Worms 4 Mayhem" soundtrack

2005-09-02T14:12:00.000+02:00

Earlier this year I composed and produced the music for the video game "Worms 4: Mayhem". Here are some music downloads from the game soundtrack!

Worms 4 Mayhem - title tune
Worms 4 Mayhem - background ambience "Prehistoric 1"
Worms 4 Mayhem - background ambience "Camelot 2"
Worms 4 Mayhem - background ambience "Arabian 2"
(There are 12 of these background ambience tracks in the game... only 3 here, sorry)
Worms 4 Mayhem - Sudden Death mode
Worms 4 Mayhem - Little victory tune

Hope you'll enjoy them. :-)

- Bjørn

Bjorn Lynne's news archive

Worms, Worms and more Worms

White Fields track and video

Get a free Bjorn Lynne CD !

New music track "Outback Ramble"

Ice Planet video

Using my music for a school, hobby or non-profit project?

Some new music from Bjorn Lynne

Why so hugely different prices for Bjorn Lynne music?

Scandinavian people love their holidays

My track "Mission Incredible" used in arcade dance game

New track 'Spectral Waves'

Update and a YouTube video

Relaxation Music Series now available on CD

A little rant about CD shipping prices

Couple of new music tracks and various news

New track, "Fantasy Exploration #1"

My two new CD's now available as MP3 or FLAC downloads

Now taking pre-orders for two new Bjørn Lynne CD's

New Bjorn Lynne album(s) on the Horizon....

Question about using music in a film

New sound effects site launched by Bjorn Lynne

Help me name this track!

Various news and new music from Bjorn Lynne

Bjorn Lynne launches series of one-hour Ambient music albums

All Bjorn Lynne & Divinorum albums now available as FLAC downloads

Buy 2, Get 1 free - on all Bjorn Lynne & Divinorum CD's until end of 2008 !

Three new music tracks

New email address for Bjorn Lynne

Asian-pacific domains -- scam or genuine?

Help me sell my music and make a few bucks doing it

New music track: "Let's Go" in MIDI & MP3

An article about YouTube Safe Music

Letter from Era Scarecrow regarding "Dissolve" and "d" tracks on the Divinorum: Talisman CD

Two new Electronica tracks from Bjorn Lynne

A note about my "Statement" CD

New Jogeir Liljedahl album released today

A couple of new rock tracks by Bjorn Lynne

General update from Bjorn Lynne

Two new Electronica tracks from Bjorn Lynne

New web site with useful information about Stock Music (Royalty Free Music)

Free MIDI music for use on web sites and other projects

Norwegian site about royalty-free music

High Resolution, 24-bit , 48-khz Sound-FX series from Lynne Publishing

Irish & Music Instrumentals now available from iTunes

New Bjorn Lynne CD: "Irish & Celtic Instrumentals"

Some rare and deleted items for sale

Add me as a friend on Facebook and MySpace

A photo I took today from my balcony

New Bjorn Lynne album, "Quiet Places"

Letter from Alastair Jamieson-lane - use of MIDI files for project

A sign of life from the depths....

Older Bjorn Lynne CD goes for $200 on eBay

Two new tracks I've made for music library licensing

Bjorn Lynne music for Flintstones & Home Alone

Letter from Dave Lundy - Music Purchasing

Voyager: New Surround Music track for free download

Have yourselves some free MP3 ringtones

PayPlay.fm - a good place to buy my music - for US customers

Two new Ambient music tracks - your feedback welcome

"Undercover" now available as a CD

"Work in Progress" -- first signs of life for new album

Undercover - the CD by Bjorn Lynne & Adam Skorupa

Music for sea life video

Two new releases in the Bjorn Lynne download-shop

Selling stolen music

Special Christmas offer on Bjorn Lynne CDs

Soundtrack for film "Ingebjørg Olavsdatter"

VSampler 3 - a *very* nice piece of music software

Free Nature Sound: Relaxing Mountain Stream, with Ambient Music

Composing music for the film "Ingebjørg Olavsdatter"

My music on The History Channel

Napster made me rich!

New hour of ambient relaxation music, set to Rain ambience

Bjorn Lynne download-shop, with many unique releases

New Bjorn Lynne CD released today - Beneath Another Sky !

Download music from Worms Open Warfare

Lions Gate Films chooses Bjorn Lynne music for Blu-Ray menus

Music for Nintendo DS game "Worms Open Warfare"

Music used by BBC World Service

VSampler 3 - a very nice piece of music software