Live Music Blog

Simple determinations to get yourself known for free…

I read an article in a well known magazine the other day and found that they were advising artists to invest out 100’s in advertising expenses to get themselves known. True.

Is there another way?

Well yes, there is. What we have useful to us all is the Internet. This excellent medium is so underrated it is unbelieveable.

The key to getting yourself known is to spread yourself all over the Internet. Pretend that the Internet is a slice of bread, a bagel….hmm…yum.

Sorry, stay with me, you need to follow this one. If you bought some really good spread, costing $100 and you only spread one quarter of the bagel (this expensive food doesn’t go far). Now you have only one bite, only one and a random one at that, so you randomly bite into the bagel, more than like ly you will have much less opportunity of being found than if you spent less money on a similar spread and used all of it, all over the bagel.

Now this is what happens everytime someone logs onto the Internet. You’ve one shot, you’re being targeted roughly by random and too much resources spent in one area is a substantially bad idea. So what do you do?

Well, the primary thing is not to invest any money if possible. If you’ve music to hand out then do that. Sign up to all the MP3 hosting websites that you could find, there are so a lot of now on the Internet that they’re free and provide some cool incentives ( prefer unlimited bandwidth, hard rive space and such prefer ). The more you apply to, the more prefer ly that you are not going to be missed by anyone.

This technique additionally lowers the possibility of your paid website being shut down, having any failures in the future, or being ranked less in the search engines (with so much competition this is a high possibility).

Phase two, make sure that you have your own website. On each paid website put a link back to your own website, this then increases your PR rate with the search engines and increases your link status (roughly: more links in the higher you rate). additionally you obtain free traffic for a lot of years from these website s.

Make your homepage appealing, offer ing blogs and newsletters, even “guides and DIY articles“. Why? Well once an individual comes to your website and goes away the prefer lihood of them returning is decidedly low, and then you have lost them. This is why the newsletters and blogs are so necessary, they keep the one-time visitor coming back for check-ups to YOUR website, without them trying to find you again (very unlikly).

One thing that I might never understand when I am searching through MP3 hosting websites is “why do individuals give a range of their work on one page?” All fair and well, and much kudos for doing so, but I think that this is a has been te of Internet real-estate. Your website ought to be targeted, your name ought to be targeted. I am into Techno etc, so it’s rare that I will hunt out jazz songs. But this is what I find when I go onto a techno artists website. My tip would be to call yourself something divergent for each type of that you do. For instance : disc jockey Harsh for your electronic music, Earthly for your New Age music, The Fields for your Country and Western music…you get the idea.

Having a separate name for each of your styles will then target 2-3 (or however a lot of genres you do) times more visitors- a possible 100-200  percent increase in visitor downloads. But again, you would link each website to each other just in case. You would even make up separate websites for each genre anyway. Virtually all people in the artist world do this. For instance : Les Rythmes Digitales who made “Jacques your body (make me sweat)”- a cool techno song, and Stuart Price are one of the same. Who’s Stuart Price? Madonnas new producer under his real name. The KLF, The Physicians in the Tardis, and The Justified Acients of MuMu (no joke) are all one of the same.

Diversify yourself to get yourself known, apply to everywhere that you could and keep on adding wonderful music.

Are you a performer, singer, songwriter or musician thats wondering how you can make resources with your Independent music before you even get a record deal? Well if you have, you are reading the write article. In this series I’m going to share with you a couple of ways you can make resources with your music and your likewise going to learn several strategies to advocate you make even more resources with your Independent music.

Let me start off by telling you that the best way to make resources with your Indie music is by selling it directly to your listeners instead of trying to get distribution into the music stores or selling on iTunes (by the way, you’ll want to get distribution and sell on iTunes), I’m just saying selling direct to listeners is better and you get more resources doing it this way (which is necessary, right?).

So now you are wondering, How do I sell straight to the audiences? Its not prefer you have your own store, right? Well, here is a hint, its staring you in the face right now…. that is right, the Internet ! The Internet is the most important way to make resources with your Independent music! Here are several reasons why the Internet is such a great vehicle to use to sell your Independent music.

1. You have a group of people who’ll instantly buy your compact disc  when released

2. You might have your compact discs selling with al most no endeavor on your part, just collect the resources and ship the compact disc.

3. You get more bang for your buck, advertising and marketing wise.

4. You may have other people sell your CD  for you and only pay them when they sell the CD s!

How great is that! Those are just a few of the great things about selling your music Online using the Web. By the way, you do not even have to have a complete compact disc  yet in order to this. Of course it would be better if you did have a whole compact disc, but what Im, saying is that you could sell the singles as you complete them.

To find out what you need to get started selling your CD  On-line, check my other article titled What You Need to Make Money With Your Independent Music On-line. Till next time.

What’s everybody’s favorite radio station?

Answer — W.I.I.F.M.

What’s In It For Me? What do they get by being your fan? Your client? Your Media individuals are going to want to know why they ought to book you. audiences want to know why they ought to continue help ing you and buying your discs. Your booking agents want to know why they ought to continue to find performances for your band. The optimum way to keep them hooked is to tell them What’s in it for them.

Virtually all individuals are inundated with massive amounts of information. In order to keep them tuned in to your message is to

1) remind them you exist and

2) to Keep it tell them what they’re going to get.

The majority of individuals in this world are motivated by two things: Fear and Greed. Fear of losing something and the Greed of gaining something. The trick is to keep it short and sweet and above all simple. K.I.S.S. Keep It simple Stupid.

You will have a different message for your fans. Possibly more entertaining, light hearted, fun. Your Agents are going to want to hear something professional, responsible, business- like. Your Media and Press contacts will want to hear a new twist, public relations, something anybody can use to reach the expansive st readership.

Here’s another way to keep your reader interested: Use the word “You” instead of “I”.

For example: “I can really get a lot of people to your club if I can get booked there next month” doesn’t work as well as “Your fans will be on their feet and screaming for more when you book our popular band now selling out rooms thru out the Midwest.”

Yet another idea would be, “I’llget a brand new DVD out in the mail tomorrow” may be vary d to “You’ll be receiving your free DVD as soon as you fax back your info.”

These may be just semantics but when you start using them, you will see an increase in your responses. This will establish momentum. When you start getting more calls, u will eventually get more performances. amazing shows will bring in more listeners which will get you better performer bookings from the agents. may you see it?

When you start finding better shows, two things will happen. You will be able to charge more on every show and you will be getting so a lot of concert able to turn down work.

We’ve all been around the block once or twice in the absence of our Mommies here. Or as the saying goes “You can not Dazzle me with Brilliance nor Baffle me with Bull”. Cut to the chase. Give it to me straight. Please don’t think that I am really going to believe you’re ready to take the music world by storm if you’re playing pool clubs and coffee shops. Keep it real. Base your articles and publicity material in the Real World. You and I are not going to fall for B.S. What makes you think anyone out there is any diverse? Tell it like it is. Just add a little sizzle to the steak. Keep your marketing and press statements exhilarating and entertaining. all of us are in the business of fun.

Feel free to be a little wild and outlandish. It’s okay. people won’t mind. We’re in an industry where people are looking for an escape. Let them have it to take their minds off of things. It keeps us in business. Just keep it real. Take your picture with a donkey for promo. Just do not be the donkey.

Commit to at least six months to any marketing campaign

Do not think you are going to hit a homerun every time. Build slowly and look to just get on base. A walk is as good as a hit. You need to give yourself time to find out what works. Once you do, then do that over and over. Just be sure to try as many varying marketing pieces as you could afford. Try postcards and Google Ad Words at the same time. See which one works better. Change your message to fit varying demographics and target markets. Use your creativity to get their attention. There has been a performer that sent me their promo. I had about 50 artists sending me stuff for this festival and I opened theirs’ 1st because it has been not like all the other packets I has been getting.

It has been kind of lumpy. Inside has been a Nerf Ball with the band’s name on it. Only it has been really small and when you got it wet it got really big. all of us were whipping this thing around the office and throwing it at each others’ heads. One time all of us named the band after the promotional item all of us had in stock. It has been a refrigerator magnet made of knotted ropes in the shape of the letter ‘Y’. So all of us called the band “Why Knot”. A bottle of aspirin inside and envelope could accent your chance headline that could something along the lines of, “Did that final band you hire give anyone a headache?”

Be sure to stay within the bounds of the law and there is no limit to what your fertile imagination could come up with to hook them. These suggestions for booking performances and creating better paying music career are found in the breakthrough new book available at our Web site. Just look at the link below. There you will find a step by step formula for creating music performances.

We’d love it if you check it out. Either way, I certainly hope you thought of ways you could find performances that pay the the majority money doing what you love – making music.

Contemporary media perpetuates all the old styles so that what has popular now is what has been popular 30 years ago. If you’re old enough and were around in the 60’s, you’d remember that the 30’s seemed to be an era where the music and styles contrasted greatly with the 60’s. Today in 2008 we hear much of the same that has been around in the 70’s as well as all the other eras including now’s contemporary music. This is thanks to the modern day varieties of music media that we have now. can be this surplus of variety is what prompts the “search for meaning in modern music“.

Electronic amplification has made the contemporary sound of electric guitars and drums dominate the sounds of today. computer recording with its click tracks and loops has likewise played a large part in the contemporary sound. The computer software “Band in a Box” and the like lets you build a song with pre-recorded loops and then copyright it as something original. personal ly, as a classically trained pianist and working performer, I don’t like these facets of modern day music.

If you’re a performer, what has most vital is to be creative as an individual whatever it is you do. Create. Then share what you create. If you make a living at it, this influences how you create, but produce just the same. If you just listen to music, you’ll obvious ly listen to what you want to, and you could find a greater variety to pick from than ever before.

Personally, I have produced 3 CD’s. The first one has been original tunes produced in a studio. My original premise for it has been to win a lover back to me. Then it became an resolution to make nice recordings of my non-commercial styled tunes that additionally involved the new (and married) love in my life. I have made living in music, mostly in academia (community college) and community theater shows and gatherings and wedding s. My other two CD’s are piano solo. One is classical and one is Christmas tunes. None are commercial successes, but I make some money from the recordings from downloads all over the world.

Therefore I’m trying to make money in other ways. And so I’m writing this article!

You can find my recordings at davidstahl.com and cdbaby.com/davidstahl

As I sit here writing, I could hear in the background my kids humming and singing while they play. My four year old son is trying to make up his own rhyming lyrics to a melody he’s made up on the piano and my six year old daughter is reading the lyrics for a song she is practicing for a concert.

Music has had such an impact on our lives. And I know it comes mostly from the simple task of playing kid’s music during our day. Together all of us listen, sing along, dance and even read the lyrics.

For babies and young kids music is a great way to learn language and new vocabulary. And they love it. I’ve never met a young child that does not love music.

Listening to music with your kids may establish a stimulating atmosphere for your home. Different music can be used to evoke varying moods and can be used to establish varying environments in your home.

When my children were babies, I used to performance calm classical music before bedtime. Even now all of us performance classical music when they do art (or when I need a some peace and quiet). At other times all of us use livelier music to  encourage  creative movement, development of rhythm, dancing and singing along with. I do not think all of us might survive a long car ride in the absence of one of our favorite cds.

I’ve also found music considerably beneficial for their education. Through music, kids (and adults a prefer ) are able to more effortlessly memorize facts. tunes can be used to learn phonics rules, math facts, lifestyle skills and so much more. all of us now try to find music that teaches about topics the kids are interested in. And I find myself having the opening  to relearn a lot of subjects including Spanish.

Early exposure to a variety of musical styles may endorse develop a life long appreciation of music. When your kids are young, you as the parent have the chance to influence positively the music that the family purchases. You may introduce a lot of different styles and topics before their peers take over in later years.

The most important value of music is that it allows us as a family members to invest quality time together. Music is an entertaining alternative to television. With music playing in the background all of us can still have conversations, read or do other activities. For some strange reason my kids seem to quarrel less when their music is playing. We’ll generally sing along to lively songs while all of us fold the laundry and tidy up. Music can be played while all of us bake cookies or craft. Un like excessive television which might every now and then distract from our time together, music is something that all of us can all share together, expands our home life and encourages family members time.

Nowadays there are so many exceptional kid’s artists and variety of albums to select from. It might al the majority be overwhelming. Fortunately, the Web now allows us the luxury of being able to easily search for music, learn about the artist, read reviews and listen to samples of their work. The following select websites listed below will give you a exceptional start. Good luck, have fun together and allow your child to grow up loving music!

Every few years an individual rediscovers the blues. Pop music, that stuff you hear on the majority commercial radio stations, is a business. The idea is to make lots of money by selling music like it was toothpaste. You find something everybody likes and then have competitive products that are a little diverse but all standard ally do the same thing and even though they taste a little diverse not enough diverse to disturb anyone. That’s pop music.

Now and again the public gets pretty tired of the same old stuff and pop music needs a little kick in the pants. Rediscovering some old form of American music the majority people have forgotten about and bring it out as the next new thing often does the trick. It might be Country or Jazz or Bluegrass, but quite often it is the Blues.

The difference between pop music and type of music like the Blues is that there is a much smaller audiences for the type of music, but that audiences is always truly loyal, keeping it going while others ignore it. Blues, being the truly root of all roots music, is an clear option to secure inspiration from when things are getting a little stale and it’s always there in the background just waiting to be found.

In the 1st half of the twentieth century much of the most popular music has been Blues based or at least heavily influenced by it. From Big band Swing to Jazz to even Country music, Blues played an important part in their developments.

There were many so-called “Blues Revivals” in the final half of the twentieth century. The the majority recent large one was in the mid 1980’s when there was a sudden explosion of new Blues societies and festivals all around the United States. When these revivals happen it again and again means that the loyal fan base of the music is better by the addition of individuals who come from other type ofs who grow to see similarities betwixt what they like and the Blues. again and again times it’s these new folks who determine the direction the music will take in order for it to reach a broad er fans.

The the majority famous example of this has been the birth of Rock and Roll. By the mid 1950’s Blues music had lost much of its original black audiences, which had moved on to Rythm & Blues and early Soul. What seemed like something new has been just a mixing bag of styles taken from Country, Swing, and mostly from Jump Blues and R& B. This is pretty much how all new musical styles come about. When you mix up a bunch of stuff in a pot and cook it awhile, the soup you end up with has tastes from all its ingredients, but there is always one flavor that stands out. Blues is again and again that rich flavor.

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s another less apparent revival took place with the popularity of Folk Music. This is an frequently neglected but exceedingly vital revival because it has been a time of rediscovery and reconnection with the old guard Blues artists. Young Folk performers were the ones who researched the old country Blues and actually sought out and re discovered a lot of of the old Blues performers. They learned from those originators, wrote about them, got them performing again, and taught others what they had learned through books, tapes, and nowadays videos. They truly “Kept the Blues alive” in every sense of the words.

In the mid 1960’s Blues made an even greater impact on Pop Music when both American and British artists discovered the power of electric Blues through second generation Blues men such as Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf. Rock and Roll and Roll became just Rock and Roll when lead guitar styles based on Blues improvisations came to the forefront. The Blues this time has been the grittier sounding Delta style. Rock and Roll became harder sounding with Blues as it’s base. That has never gone away.

There was another small Blues revival at the end of the 1970’s when the Blues Brothers made Blues hip again. That revival created careers for some new young players and brought some of the old Blues guys back out on the road. It was the availability of all these varied acts that made the revival of the mid 1980’s possible.

Blues has always been a bit of a secret ingredient in pop music and even pop culture. It’s used to revive careers and sell blue jeans. Every once in awhile it gets pretty cool again. Unfortunately, since something being cool is a short-term state of mind, Blues music has again begun to drift into the type of music status with a diminishing fans. Though there are still a lot of Blues Festivals, they tend to lean toward Rock and Roll Blues, leaving the true Blues lover longing for another shot of more traditional stuff. Don’t worry, Blues never really goes away. It’ll be back.

Guerilla Marketing is the use of unconventional marketing techniques intended to get maximum solutions from minimal source s, which let’s face it; the majority independent artists have minimal source s. Today, guerrilla marketing is a non-traditional, low-cost, and highly effective marketing endeavor, which when used properly can reap many rewards for the diligent user.

So what might you do to use guerrilla marketing to advocate further your music career? The first piece of recommendation I might give you is to think outside the box. Do not do what anyone else is doing. Here area few pointers to get you started:

• Use podcasts to expansive cast your music, advocating to expose your music to many people who may have never heard it before. Make sure that you plug your website and where they may purchase your products.

• Why not go to your Regional library and see If they’ll allow you to do a free performance there in ex vary for a percentage of your sales of product following your show. Libraries are in dire need of funds.

• Still another easy and free way to get your name out there and seen is to write reviews on every product your own, have used, read or heard. Then post the reviews on places like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Make sure to put a small two or three sentence bio at the end of each review that has the name of any compact disc  projects you have done. You cannot post your URL there; they will delete your bio. When you post your reviews, put your vanity email address inside your “real name.” While those web sites won’t allow you to post your URL, if your URL is part of your “real name,” they do not say a word. Check out amazon.com and look for one of my reviews.

Don’t use a real email address or you will end up with many spam. Why is this an necessary step? Because people will read your reviews and you get your name out there. Virtually all consumers are Web savvy and Assuming that they’re interested in you, will check you out.

Go after your audiences with fervor and diligence, but think outside the box to get the determinations you desire and the exposure for your music that you need.

The secret to marketing music successfully Web is to 1st get organized. Develop a music business plan that outlines how a lot of much money you need to generate in sales, how a lot of albums you will need to sell to reach your goals and how much money you could justify investing to market your music. Assuming you are on a limited budget I have outlined a few easy strategies you could use to  promote  your performer or music Web.

1. Optimize Your website : Virtually all artists receive dozens, even hundred of visitors every day to their website. But the reality is that most people do not buy albums after only one visit. Do whatever it takes to get people to sign up to your mailing list so that you could continue to communicate with them, capture familiarity and very ultimate  ly sell them your album at some point down the line.

2. My Space Marketing: My Space is exceptional but it is not to be relied upon as your sole means of marketing your music successfully. However, be sure to send out regular bulletins promoting special offers and gatherings. As much as you can, try to drive individuals back to your official website where you may get them to sign up your mailing list.

3. Forum Marketing. Find a number of active music forums that allow signature links. Create a signature that encourages your band. Go into these forums as a lot of the time as possible and add worth to the discussions. The more individuals worth what you have to say, the more likely they’re to click through to your band’s Web site.

Music marketing is an art form in its own right. These are just several easy suggestions to marketing your music successfully on the Internet. With a little bit of know how and a bit of hard work you ought to start to see an increase in album sales in no time.

If you’re a digital music fan, you probably have problems organizing your music file collection. For me, I used to have 100’s of MP3 files lumped in one folder in my hard drive. could you imagine the pain I had to go through to find one specific tune to listen to?

Organizing your music files is an vital skill to learn. Once your collection is wonderful ly sorted out, you will be able to find the songs you want quickly and easily. So performance aside some time and read through the following suggestions I have come up with.

1. Establish Sub folders – The single the majority important tip for organizing your music files is to establish sub folders in your hard drive. Do not ever leave your MP3 files in one large folder called C:My Music. Establish sub folders prefer C:My Music Classical, C:My Music Pop and C:My Music Soundtracks.

2. Ensure your ID3 Tags Are Correct – ID3 tags are used to store vital information about MP3 files. Things like the song title, artist, album are kept and will be displayed by your MP3 player. Take the time to properly edit these tags – a lot of MP3 files you download have the ID3 tag information all wrong. A nice software program for editing ID3 tags is TagScanner.

3. Invest in Good Music Management Software – There are several wonderful pieces of software out there for managing music files. Two good ones come to mind. The 1st is Media Monkey and the second is Music Match Jukebox. Both programs provide wonderful music management features like an integrated music player, CD  burning features and ID3 tag renaming.

4. Get Your Music Files from Legal Sources – If you’ve been downloading music using P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing programs prefer KaZaa, you will substantially prefer ly get music files which have strange names prefer 56_HeyjAck.mp3. My advice: Get your files from legal sources prefer Web music services iTunes or Napster and you will avoid this problem.

5. Establish Good Play lists – Virtually all software music player (e.g. Win amp) will allow you to establish play lists. For example, say you’re in the mood for rock songs, you could point to your folder called C:Music Rock and establish a play list from that folder. Save the play list after it is created. When you next feel prefer listening to those songs, all you need to do is load that play list instead of trawling through your hard drive and folders.

6. Get A Huge Hard Drive – I know that this sounds a little crazy – but running out of disk space can and will ruin your well-organized music collection. Make sure you have enough hard disk space to seller your music files. Say you have 10,000 music files that you absolutely must retain and listen to. It’s a very bad idea to store, say, 8,000 files in Hard Drive A and 2,000 files in Hard Drive B. Very messy. It’s better to seller them all in one hard disk. So get your hands on the biggest hard drive you can find.

I hope this post stimulates you to organize your music collection a little better. I know it takes resolution, but once your music collection is properly cataloged, listening to your music collection will be a much more pleasant experience. So do not hesitate – get organized now!

The highest quality goal of most musicians who use My Space.com is to attract a record label. Earning a contract to record an album can be a musician way into the music business. But what can you do to attract record labels? Creating a profile page and uploading music is a wonderful start, but by no means is it the end of your marketing quest s. Below you will find a few ideas on attracting a record label and getting them to take notice of your skill.

Music Marketing Tip#1: Upload a Variety of songs

Just because you have to list the genre of music you perform does not mean you have to upload songs that only reflect that type of ! Show record labels and audiences that you have other musical interests by uploading songs that are different from one another. This will show you r range, ability to attract audiences from other type of s, which boosts your marketability, and prove to record labels you’re value investing in.

Music Marketing Tip#2: Fuel the Fan Fires

Record labels conduct searches on My Space everyday looking for skill ed artists. One way to get them to avoid on your profile page is by showing them you have a strong fan base. The more individuals who visit your web site, the more popular your page becomes there. Use the marketing tools available in order to gain fan interest.

Record labels want to sign those who are already experienced in working crowds during shows and who have a strong On-line presence because it makes promoting the music much easier. Having a strong fan base will make selling records and make promoting performance tours and other public appearances much easier.

Establish a buzz on My Space by attracting more audiences to your page. Join My Space forums, list upcoming events, and advertise your page on fliers, business cards, and other marketing materials as this will prompt audiences who have seen your live shows to visit and download your songs.

Music Marketing Tip#3: Contacting Record Labels

Finding information about record labels is easy because of the Internet. Instead of sending a copy of your latest CD  or several of your tunes, you may send record labels the link to your My Space profile page. Music executives will appreciate this much more than strange pieces of mail showing up at their offices. Sending a quick email with your contact information may be enough to get you noticed. Research record businesses to see which ones cater to your genre, and which ones accept email from musicians.

Music Marketing Tip#4: Selling Your Album on My Space

If you release an album on your own, sell it in order to generate buzz and furthermore catch the attention of record labels. Being able to show record labels that you are a professional performer who’s passionate about music will session you apart from the rest.

Attracting record labels will require you to remain diligent about marketing your music on MySpace. Uploading songs, using marketing tools such as blogs, video, and photos will help record labels get a better idea of what your sound. Use these marketing tools and others provide ed and go showcase your musical skill s.

It is the dream of al the majority every adolescent to have their personal rock band, establish new sounds, reach success and everything else that all of this may bring. Screaming listeners, respect, autographs, tours, luxury hotels, glamour etc…

Now,on one of those sunny days, all of us wake up from this sweet dream and, without the notion that all this time has passed by so hastily, we’re adults, living our “normal” lives, earning just enough bread to get by, doing what our parents always wanted us to do.

I know a doctor who still dreams of having a diverse life, a life that will excite him… once he confided in me that he would gladly ex change everything that he’d built, if he may have the occasion to go back to what he loved perfect, music (he was a guitarist in a heavy metal band).

Where do all these dreams hide?

Now you’ve your own company, or that job, which in societys’ eyes is respectable, in a nice company, and you decide not to let the old flame die. You decide to have a bit of fun and return to “waging a bet” in the music industry.

For you to be started as a performer, or manager of a band, you’ll need abilities in business, buying, sales, market research, man management, delegation of tasks and be fashion conscious.

All these actions together make up marketing in the world of music.

For this project, just prefer in any other business, you will need to designate a quantity which you’re prepared to invest. Treat music prefer any other commercial adventure in your life. Never as a profitable hobby.

A Budget and Business Plan (with a target public defined) are vital, just as in a “conventional company“. This way you will not fall into the trap of making emotional decisions, taking your attention away from your real objective.

Save your sentiments for your music.