name	Owl City
landscape	Yes
background	group_or_band
alias	Adam Young
genre	Electronica, Synthpop
origin	Owatonna, Minnesota, United States
years active	2007–present
label	Universal Republic
associated acts	Sky Sailing, Swimming With Dolphins, Matt Thiessen, Lights, Breanne Düren
website
current members	Adam Young }}

Owl City is an American electronica musical project by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young formed in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. Young created the project while experimenting with music in his parents' basement. Like many musicians who achieved success in the late 2000s, Owl City developed a following on the social networking site Myspace before signing with Universal Republic in 2008.

After two independent releases, Owl City gained mainstream popularity with the 2009 major label debut album ''Ocean Eyes'', which spawned the quadruple-platinum hit single "Fireflies". The album was certified Platinum in the United States in April 2010.

In 2011, Owl City released his third studio album, ''All Things Bright and Beautiful''.

Early years (2007–2009)

Suffering from insomnia while working loading Coca-Cola trucks in his hometown Owatonna, Minnesota, Young turned to composing music. He began uploading songs recorded in his parents' basement to Myspace. He started to receive favorable attention for his music and then helped cultivate this nascent fanbase by being an open and accessible web presence, responding to any messages he received and constantly posting blogs. His manager Steve Burksy later highlighted the significance of Young's engaging online manner in building his following saying: "People feel like they know him, like they've got a direct connection to him because of how he approaches his connection with them online." Through a deal with the digital aggregator CD Baby, he then started making the songs available for sale through iTunes. In 2007, Owl City released an EP titled ''Of June'', followed by the 2008 release of the album ''Maybe I'm Dreaming''. ''Of June'' reached No. 15 on the ''Billboard'' Electronic Albums chart, and ''Maybe I'm Dreaming'' peaked on the same chart at No. 13.

The viral phenomenon that was building through Myspace caught the attention of Universal Republic presidents Avery and Monte Lipman who approached Young with a view to signing the artist. Republic recommended Young partner up with 27-year-old manager Steve Bursky of Foundations Artist Management and the two began working together in late 2008. When later asked by HitQuarters why the label chose him for a major label act given his relative inexperience, Burksy said:

"I think they saw Owl City as representing the future of our business. This idea of a kid in a tiny town in rural U.S. being able to make songs in his basement that sound like Top 40 radio could never have happened ten years ago. By hiring a young management company who understands the business circa 2011 over a seasoned industry vet, who might not understand the online spaces well, showed a lot of understanding of where this kid was going to end up having success."

Owl City's label deal with Universal Republic was finally confirmed in February 2009. According to Bursky there was initially some disagreement about the direction Owl City should follow, telling HitQuarters: "They were ready to send him into the studio with big producers and polish him up to try to become this thing that he wasn't. But we put our foot down and said, 'Look, the reason you signed this kid is because it’s working. Whatever it is about him - his music, his interaction with his fans, his brilliance in the online space - these things are connecting with people, and as soon as you change that you lose what’s special about this artist.' To their credit, they really listened and they got it."

''Ocean Eyes'' (2009–2010)

''Ocean Eyes'', Owl City's third full-length album and major label debut, was released on iTunes on July 14, 2009, with the physical release following on July 28, 2009. The album debuted at No. 27 on the Billboard 200. Owl City has released three official singles from this album: "Umbrella Beach", "Vanilla Twilight" and "Fireflies". "Fireflies" topped the US and Canadian charts. ''Ocean Eyes'' reached the top ten on the US album charts, topped the US electronic charts, and also reached Amazon MP3's top 10 most downloaded album list. By April 2010, it was certified Platinum in the United States. On January 24, 2010, Owl City reached the No. 1 spot in the UK Top 40 Singles chart with "Fireflies". The song "Tidal Wave" also received significant airplay on Christian music radio stations. On January 2, 2011, it was revealed "Fireflies" was the 20th most downloaded song of all time in the UK.

Young is joined by Breanne Düren on several tracks; the most noted being "The Saltwater Room". Owl City's live band consists of Breanne Düren (background vocals/keyboards), Casey Brown (drums), Laura Musten (violin), Hannah Schroeder (cello), and Daniel Jorgensen (vibes).

Relient K vocalist Matt Thiessen has toured and collaborated with Owl City on several tracks, including "Fireflies", where Matt can be heard providing the backup vocals. Young also produced Relient K's song "Terminals".

"Fireflies" was released as a free download on the game ''Tap Tap Revenge 3'' by Tapulous. Prior to the July 14, 2009 internet release of ''Ocean Eyes'', and the "Fireflies" single, Steve Hoover was hired as a director for a music video for "Fireflies". The video was to have had an exclusive premiere on MySpace, but had been leaked onto YouTube and Dailymotion hours earlier. "Fireflies" became a big sleeper hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States for the week ending November 7, 2009.

Owl City is featured on ''Soundtrack 90210'' with a song titled "Sunburn", which was released on October 13, 2009. Owl City has toured with The Scene Aesthetic, Lights, John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Brooke Waggoner. He was also guest featured in the soundtrack to Tim Burton's ''Alice in Wonderland'' with a song entitled "The Technicolor Phase" that had already been featured in his debut album.

In 2010, Young revealed a new musical project known as Sky Sailing, which moved away from his usual electronica genre of music and introduced acoustic guitar and piano accompaniments into his work. The unrefined tracks were recorded in the summer of 2007 before he began making music as Owl City. His first album under this new project is entitled ''An Airplane Carried Me to Bed'', and was released July 13, 2010 via iTunes.

In May 2010, Adam Young collaborated with high-profile British electronic composer, producer, musician, and songwriter Nick Bracegirdle. Under his Chicane alias, Bracegirdle released the single "Middledistancerunner" on August 1, 2010 featuring Adam Young on vocals. This is the first single from the fourth Chicane album ''Giants''. He also worked with famed Dutch producer Armin van Buuren, appearing on a track called 'Youtopia' from the van Buuren album ''Mirage'' on September 10, 2010.

On September 21, 2010 "To the Sky" was officially released via iTunes on the soundtrack for Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole.

On October 25, 2010, Young released a cover version of the praise and worship song "In Christ Alone" as a streaming mp3 on his website,

On November 13, 2010, a new album was also released for one of his other musical projects, "Windsor Airlift", called "Flight" on iTunes.

On November 23, 2010, a new Christmas single called "Peppermint Winter" was released. A preview had been released the previous week on Facebook.

''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' (2010–2011)

Production on Young's third studio album began around mid-2010, with Young being announced as the executive producer of the album.

On October 18, 2010 Young wrote an entry on his blog regarding his third studio album, saying that the album was nearing completion.

In February 2011, the title of the album was announced to be ''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' and that the album would be released on May 17. However, on April 6, Young released a statement on his website, along with lengthy previews of four of his songs (Dreams Don't Turn to Dust, Alligator Sky Featuring Shawn Chrystopher, Galaxies, and Deer in the Headlights), that the release date for ''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' would be pushed back to June 14.

On March 22, Alligator Sky was released as the lead single from the album on ''iTunes''.

In Late March and Early April, tickets went on sale for The All Things Bright and Beautiful World Tour, and All Things Bright and Beautiful became available for preorder.

On April 19, Galaxies was released as the second single from the album.

On May 6, the music video for Alligator Sky was released. Young discussed the concept in a making-of video posted on Owl City's VEVO account, "The concept is basically about these two guys who are leaving Earth. Rather than it being this very dark post-apocalyptic vibe, it's very optimistic, and so it's like people are excited to leave earth."

On May 23, Deer in the Headlights, the third single from the album, was released on iTunes.

On June 14, All Things Bright and Beautiful was released on iTunes. Although only a few days prior on May 20, almost all of the album leaked onto the internet.

On June 30, the music video for 'Deer in the Headlights' was released. It features Young driving through the night in the DMC DeLorean featured in the Back to the Future trilogy and Canadian musician Lights makes a cameo appearance in the video.

On July 19, "Lonely Lullaby" was released as a single on iTunes, which was previously available only to Owl City Galaxy members.

Young was interviewed in the August issue of Cliché Magazine. He also appeared on the cover of the magazine and the issue also featured some of Young's very own art work.

On July 21, at the Club Nokia concert in Los Angeles, Young announced that the concert was being filming for a Live DVD to be released by the holiday season.

On November 28, the music video for "Youtopia", by Armin van Buuren Featuring Adam Young, was released on YouTube.

Fourth Studio Album (2011-Present)

In Young's final tour dates of 2011, he said that he had begun the recording process of his fourth studio album. He also performed a new song entitled "I Hope You Think of Me".

On January 2, 2012, Young wrote an entry on his blog regarding his fourth studio album. Young said that he would be collaborating with more producers and songwriters, also saying that his new record "Marks a flying leap in this direction". Young expects the album to be released around late Summer to Fall 2012.

Musical styles and influences

Owl City's music is described as indietronica and synthpop and is often described as belonging under the broad "alternative music" label. Young has stated that he is inspired by disco and European electronic music, as well as instrumental genres such as drone, ambient, and post-rock. He cites his biggest influences as Johnathon Ford of Unwed Sailor and Thomas Newman. Young also incorporates a large amount of his Christian faith into his music, since he is a vocal Christian. Young's faith is evident on the new album, "All Things Bright and Beautiful", especially in "Galaxies". Explaining why the faith-filled song was added to the mix, he said, "I feel like if I were ever to hide the fact that that’s what’s so important to me, it would be a crime, that I should probably be put in jail for that."

Owl City also has been compared to The Postal Service, often critically, for his combination of fuzzy synths, ironic lyrics and use of female guest singers. Pitchfork.com goes far enough to say that "The surprise No. 1 single in the country, Owl City's 'Fireflies,' jacks the Postal Service in such a bald-faced, obvious manner that getting into specifics feels redundant at best and tacky at worst." In response to the suggestion that his work is derivative, Adam Young suggested in a 2009 interview with The New York Times that ''Ocean Eyes'' is perhaps the "next chapter" after American band The Postal Service: "The Postal Service released a record in 2003, and that was it. There was really nothing to compare it to until some one else came along and wrote the next chapter. Maybe that's this record. Maybe that's this band."

Other projects

Young also produces music under a wide variety of other projects, which include Port Blue, Dolphin Park, Windsor Airlift, Insect Airport, Seagull Orchestra, Novel, Aquarium, Sky Sailing, and Swimming with Dolphins. Most of these projects were started before Owl City propelled Young to fame. Many of these projects were formed alongside some friends, including Austin Tofte of Swimming with Dolphins.

Young was featured on the track "All About Us" by He Is We released on August 29, 2011, on iTunes. He was also featured on the track "First Noel" on TobyMac's album ''Christmas in Diverse City'' released October 4, 2011.

Band members

;Current members

Adam Young – lead vocals, programming, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, guitars, bass guitar, drums, percussion, vibraphone, accordion

;Current touring members While Young writes, composes, records, and produces all of Owl City's music, during live performances he is accompanied by a group of supporting musicians:

Breanne Düren – keyboards, backing vocals

Daniel Jorgensen – guitar, vibraphone

Laura Musten – violin

Hannah Schroeder – cello

Casey Brown – drums

Concert tours

Discography

;Extended Plays

''Of June'' (2007)

;Studio albums

''Maybe I'm Dreaming'' (2008)

''Ocean Eyes'' (2009)

''All Things Bright and Beautiful'' (2011)

''Untitled Fourth Studio Album'' (2012)

References

External links

Owl City Official Website

Category:Musical groups from Minnesota Category:American indie rock groups Category:American New Wave musical groups Category:Electronic music groups from Minnesota

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Name	Robert Kiyosaki
Birth date	April 08, 1947
Birth place	Hilo, Hawaii, United States
Occupation	Investor, Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Spouse	Kim Kiyosaki
Website	}}

Robert Toru Kiyosaki, born April 8, 1947) is an American investor, businessman, self-help author and motivational speaker. Kiyosaki is best known for his ''Rich Dad Poor Dad'' series of motivational books and other material published under the Rich Dad brand. He has written 15 books which have combined sales of over 26 million copies. Although beginning as a self-publisher, he was subsequently published by Warner Books, a division of Hachette Book Group USA. His new books appear under the Rich Dad Press imprint. Three of his books, ''Rich Dad Poor Dad'', ''Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant'', and ''Rich Dad's Guide to Investing'', have been on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously on ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''USA Today'' and the ''New York Times''. ''Rich Kid Smart Kid'' was published in 2001, with the intent to help parents teach their children financial concepts. He has created three "Cashflow" board and software games for adults and children and has a series of "Rich Dad" CDs and disks.

Personal life

A fourth-generation Japanese American, Kiyosaki was born and raised in Hawaii. He is the son of the late educator Ralph H. Kiyosaki (1919–1991). After graduating from Hilo High School, he attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York, graduating with the class of 1969 as a deck officer. He later served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter gunship pilot during the Vietnam War, where he was awarded the Air Medal.

Kiyosaki left the Marine Corps in 1975 and got a job selling copy machines for the Xerox Corporation. In 1977, Kiyosaki started a company that brought to market the first nylon and Velcro "surfer" wallets. The company was moderately successful at first but eventually went bankrupt. In the early 1980s, Kiyosaki started a business that licensed T-shirts for Heavy metal rock bands. In 1997, he launched Cashflow Technologies, Inc. which owns and operates the ''Rich Dad'' and ''Cashflow'' brands.

Family

He is married to Kim Kiyosaki. He has one sister, Emi Kiyosaki, a Tibetan Buddhist nun known by the name Ven. Tenzin Kacho. He has co-authored one book with her.

Teachings

A large part of Kiyosaki's teachings focus on generating passive income by means of investment opportunities, such as real estate and businesses, with the ultimate goal of being able to support oneself by such investments alone. In tandem with this, Kiyosaki defines "assets" as things that generate cash inflow, such as rental properties or businesses—and "liabilities" as things that use cash, such as houses, cars, and so on. Kiyosaki also argues that financial leverage is critically important in becoming rich.

Kiyosaki stresses financial literacy as the means to obtaining wealth. He says that life skills are often best learned through experience and that there are important lessons not taught in school. He says that formal education is primarily for those seeking to be employees or self-employed individuals, and that this is an "Industrial Age idea." And according to Kiyosaki, in order to obtain financial freedom, one must be either a business owner or an investor, generating passive income.

Kiyosaki often refers to "The CASHFLOW Quadrant," a conceptual tool which he developed to categorize the four major ways income is earned. Depicted in a diagram, this concept entails four groupings, split with two crossed lines (one vertical and one horizontal). In each of the four groups there is a letter representing a way in which an individual may earn income. The letters are as follows.

E: Employee — Working for someone else.

S: Self-employed or Small business owner — Where a person owns his own job and is his own boss.

B: Business owner — A person owns a business to make money; typically where the owner's physical presence is not required.

I: Investor — Investing money in order to receive a larger income in the future.

Books

Kiyosaki is best known for his book ''Rich Dad, Poor Dad''. Kiyosaki followed with ''Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant'' and ''Rich Dad's Guide to Investing''. He has now had at least a dozen books published, including:

''Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom (2000)''

''Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!'' (2000)

''Rich Kid, Smart Kid'' (2001)

''Rich Dad's Prophecy'' (2002)

''Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich'' (2002)

''Rich Dad's Guide to Becoming Rich...Without Cutting Up Your Credit Cards'' (2003)

''Rich Dad's Who Took My Money: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins!'' (2004)

''Rich Dad's Who Took My Money?: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins!'' (2004)

''The Business School'' (2005)

''Before You Quit Your Job'' (2005)

''Why We Want You To Be Rich'' (2007, with Donald Trump)

''Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money'' (2008)

''Conspiracy Of The Rich'' (2009)

''The Real Book of Real Estate: Real Experts. Real Stories. Real Life.'' (2009)

''Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education'' (2011)

''Midas Touch'' (2011, with Donald Trump)

Games

Kiyosaki stresses the value of games, particularly ''Monopoly'', as tools for learning basic financial strategies such as "trade four green houses for one red hotel." Kiyosaki has created several games to reinforce the information in his book

Appearances

Several local stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), including WTTW of Chicago, KAET of Phoenix, KOCE of Orange County, California, WLIW of the New York/New Jersey area, and WGBH of Boston, have featured Kiyosaki during fund-raising drives. During this television special, ''Rich Dad's Guide to Wealth with Robert Kiyosaki'', he provides viewers with financial education, as opposed to academic or professional education.

Kiyosaki has been seen giving financial advice on various network television news channels.

This speech was the subject of a CNN story.

Financial advice

Mutual funds

Kiyosaki wrote in one column that investors in any mutual fund with a 2.5% annual fee would, over a long time period, surrender 80% of the earnings to the fund. Kiyosaki expanded on his criticism of mutual funds in another column by stating they are for "losers." Despite the fact that most mutual funds actually charged less than 1.1%. He has drawn much criticism for comparing investing in mutual funds to playing the lottery, and for discouraging 401(k) investing, contrary to the advice of most professional financial advisers. In contrast to these statements, Kiyosaki wrote in his book ''Prophecy'' that while mutual funds are not great investments, they remain one of the few acceptable investment vehicles available to those who will not educate themselves financially.

Kiyosaki's criticisms are supported by the founder of the mutual fund Vanguard, John C. Bogle. In a ''Frontline'' episode titled "401(k)s: The New Retirement Plan, For Better or Worse", Bogle stated that management fees and trading costs gobble up approximately 2.5% of an investor's annual returns and approximately 80% of an investor's long term gains. He says management costs reduce the value of a $1,000 investment over 65 years from approximately $140,000 at 8% compounded annually to a mere $30,000 at 5.5% compounded annually. Bogle's solution is to utilize index funds, which charge as little as 0.09%, to substantially reduce or eliminate management fees.

Criticism and controversy

Kiyosaki's books and teachings have been criticized for focusing on anecdotes and containing little in the way of concrete advice on how readers should proceed. Kiyosaki responds that his material is meant to be more of a motivational tool to get readers thinking about money rather than a step-by-step guide to wealth. He also says the books are supposed to be "interesting" to people, which precludes involving a lot of technical material.

ABC ran a 20/20 segment on May 19, 2006 in which Kiyosaki was to advise three entrepreneurs on how to make money. They were given $1000 and 20 days to try to make the most money possible. One earned a return of 24%, the second earned a return of 54% and gave it all to charity, and the third lost 100% because she invested in machines that could not be delivered in 20 days. The contestants alleged that Kiyosaki never gave concrete advice. "All he [Kiyosaki] does is, I guess, is open your mind to the possibility. He doesn't tell you how to do it." Kiyosaki responded that failure is important to learning. At the end, 20/20 asks, "Does anyone really need 18 books to learn to fail?"

The Wall Street Journal criticized ''Why We Want You To Be Rich'' by Kiyosaki and Trump as did Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

There are also those who claim that some of the things he teaches are incorrect, and based on false claims including those working for Robert Kiyosaki.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation consumer affairs program Marketplace ran an investigative piece on Kiyosaki's questionable business practices on Jan 29, 2010. It includes interviews with Kiyosaki.

Partial bibliography

''If You Want to Be Rich & Happy: Don't Go to School? : Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself and Your Children'' (1992). ISBN 0-944031-38-2.

''Rich Dad Poor Dad - What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!'' (first published in 1997) Warner Business Books. ISBN 0-446-67745-0.

''CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom'' (2000). ISBN 0-446-67747-7.

''Rich Dad's Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in, That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!'' (2000). ISBN 0-446-67746-9.

''The Business School for People Who Like Helping People'' (March, 2001). ISBN 9-992-26742-9 - endorses multi-level marketing

''Rich Dad's Rich Kid, Smart Kid: Giving Your Children a Financial Headstart'' (2001). ISBN 0-446-67748-5.

''Rich Dad's Retire Young, Retire Rich'' (2002). ISBN 0-446-67843-0.

''Rich Dad's Prophecy: Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History Is Still Coming… and How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit from It!'' (October, 2002). Warner Books, Incorporated. ISBN 0-641-62241-4.

''Rich Dad's The Business School: For People Who Like Helping People'' (2003) ISBN 9-796-86729-X.

''You Can Choose to be Rich'' (2003) 12-CD Audio series with three books.

''Rich Dad's Who Took My Money?: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins!'' (May 1, 2004)ISBN 0-446-69182-8.

''Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens: The Secrets About Money--That You Don't Learn in School!'' (2004) ISBN 0-446-69321-9.

''Rich Dad's Before You Quit Your Job : 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business'' (2005). ISBN 0-446-69637-4.

''Rich Dad's Escape from the Rat Race - Comic for children'' (2005)

''Rich Dad's Increase Your Financial IQ: Get Smarter with Your Money'' (2008). ISBN 0-446-50936-1.

''Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money'' (September 21, 2009). ISBN 0446559806 (free online edition)

''The Real Book of Real Estate: Real Experts. Real Stories. Real Life.'' (May, 2010). ISBN 1-458-77250-0.

''Midas Touch'' (November, 2011), by Donald J. Trump & Robert T. Kiyosaki. ISBN 1-612-68095-X.

Notes

References

External links

''Hawaii Business Magazine'' June 2002 cover story on Kiyosaki

Why the Rich Get Richer Robert Kiyosaki's regular column at Yahoo! Finance

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:American business writers Category:American finance and investment writers Category:American military personnel of the Vietnam War Category:American businesspeople Category:American investors Category:Businesspeople in real estate Category:American motivational speakers Category:American motivational writers Category:American self-help writers Category:People from Hilo, Hawaii Category:Writers from Hawaii Category:Businesspeople from Hawaii Category:Stock traders Category:Currency traders Category:American writers of Japanese descent Category:United States naval aviators Category:United States Marine Corps officers Category:Recipients of the Air Medal Category:United States Merchant Marine Academy alumni Category:American military personnel of Japanese descent Category:People associated with Direct Sales

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