As you well know, the final exam for our Music Production module consists of remixing a song in your favourite style. With every class we explain how this exercise is designed to prepare for real-life situations, and we urge everyone to take it very seriously.

Well, we hope you were listening because here you have a good chance to win £500 (which is quite a realistic sum to charge for a remix at this moment in time), plus a studio session to mix and polish your work, and of course fame and a commercial release.

Pasted below all the details you need to enter (and win) the competition: go on, make us proud.

Opening in cinemas on 24th April, Shifty is a sharply scripted, witty, urban thriller from writer/director Eran Creevy and stars Daniel Mays (Atonement) and Riz Ahmed (TV’s Britz and Dead Set). Set on the outskirts of London, the film follows themes of friendship and loyalty over the course of 24 hours in the life of a young drug dealer, the charismatic "Shifty".

To underscore (no pun intended) the relationship between music and celluloid, Indaba has partnered with the film’s soundtrack producers, Molly Nyman and Harry Escott. The writing duo have been composing music together since 2001. Over the years, their work has been featured in high-profile TV dramas and documentaries, theatre, and feature films such as Hard Candy, Deep Water, and A Might Heart.

Now Indaba is offering you a chance to re-imagine a song from Shifty. We’re giving you stems and challenging you to score a film. We encourage you to check out the trailer for Shifty above. We’re looking for remixes in a wide range of styles. From hip-hop to classical and from techno to jazz, the choice is absolutely yours!

The producer of the best track will win £500 and time in a studio to polish their track with a professional producer. Ten Runners-Up will receive a signed copy of the Shifty Soundtrack!

To enter the contest visit http://www.indabamusic.com/contests/show/shifty

Shifty is released on 24th April, visit www.shiftyfilm.com for more information

Ha! The exciting world of internet. Just as we were really almost maybe thinkig of possibly taking in to consideration the idea of – one of these days – subscribing to Spotify Premium, something new comes about confusing our tiny little minds.

Visit Grooveshark > the interface is clean, elegant, and very fast, you don't need to download anything (unlike spotify), you can start listen to any song without having to register, and if you register (it's free) you can save your playlists (like spotify).

The most interesting aspect of Grooveshark is their liberal approach to copyright: rather than spend years arranging complex licensing deals with every record label on the planet, they are going for a VERY brave and fairly suicidal approach: they have uploaded every song you can think of (yes, including the Beatles) and then prepared a statemet to the effect that if you recognise a song of yours on their website you can either ask to have it taken offline or accept some money. It is a massive gamble, because even if the whole world decided to accept their payment terms, Grooveshark wouldn't have enough money to pay for any of it: the advertising on the website is minimal and the whole thing is more of a proof of concept than anything else.

Their interface is easily the best we've ever seen on the web, but will this be enough to generate enough interest before they are taken off the net? Our advice is to enjoy it while it last.

Thanks to Gil Inacio for the link to GrooveShark

Send your links, comments and suggestions to info@londonschoolofsound.co.uk

Hours of pointless fun, go to http://www.ronwinter.tv/drums.html and be amazed at how many things you will not do today, because you are playing with your computer's keyboard.

Hint: use the tab key to select the robot, so you can trigger it with the spacebar (you will need to trigger it at the start of every bar) while you jam with the other keys.

The courses on Electronic Music Production and Foundations of Sound Engineering are half full.

Mixing and Mastering is scheduled for the second half of August but we are planning a single weekend Mastering Workshop at the end of July.

Call for info or to reserve a place.

For more details on the courses on offer see http://www.londonschoolofsound.co.uk/Summer_Courses_at_London_School_of_Sound.php