Live Music Blog

The reality of depression and suicide has inspired artists to take part in the PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR, a music tour committed to reducing the stigma associated with mental health as well as making the access to help and hope for all safe and without fear.

Houston-based art rockers Blue October will headline the inaugural PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR–where impassioned artists join together to raise awareness and funds for depression and suicide prevention–and Atlanta-based hip-hop artist and producer B.o.B will open on the trek.

The PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR marks the first-ever tour solely benefiting suicide prevention in history. The month-long trek will launch Thursday, October 22nd at the Music Farm in Charleston, SC and wrap up with a two-night stand at Stubbs in Austin, TX November 20 and 21. See the full PUTP tour itinerary below; tickets are on sale now. To purchase, visit: http://www.putp.org and http://www.blueoctoberfan.com/pickupthephone/.

The PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR will launch with a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Wednesday, October 21 at 10:00 AM. Justin Furstenfeld, the lead singer of Blue October, will be on hand to speak and perform an acoustic set before members of Congress as well as supporters of the tour partners 1-800 SUICIDE, PostSecret and TWLOHA.

Justin–who has struggled with bi-polar disorder most of his life–will be calling on Congress to fund both creative writing and art therapy programs as alternative options for mental health. The press conference will also urge Congress to fully fund the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act which provides the funding behind the majority of the suicide prevention programs in the United States today. The press conference is open to all on a first-come first-served basis, to RSVP, email TWLOHA: PUTP@TWLOHA.com.

The PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR is created through a partnership between the non-profit organization To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), the largest charity on MySpace and Facebook: Postsecret.com; Synclive.com; and 1-800 SUICIDE The National Hopeline Network.

Through 1-800 SUICIDE–which provides a life-saving service that is private and confidential for people in need–callers are routed directly to the closest crisis center in their immediate area so that quick referrals to behavioral health services and other supports can be offered. Since 1998, 1-800-SUICIDE has received over 3.6 million calls and rescued more than 4,000 individuals who had already initiated suicide plans.

The spokesperson for the PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR 2009, Justin Furstenfeld personally understands the struggles those who are affected by mental health issues face on a daily basis. “It has taken 20 years to have the chance to do a tour focusing on mental health issues which have been a daily battle for me for most of my life,” explains Justin.

“It’s great to finally be a part of a positive, progressive-thinking tour for an important cause which will make a direct impact and help people in desperate situations that need it the most.” In a strange turn of events in his own life, Justin worked at a mental hospital one day and, after suffering a breakdown, became a patient in a hospital the next.

Justin–who has taken medication for the condition since he was a teenager–now teaches creative writing at a mental hospital to young adults affected by mental health issues, self-abuse issues and sexual abuse. Through personal experiences and music, Justin challenges young minds to channel their emotions and anger into creative writing and art versus taking their frustrations out on themselves or the world around them.

He performs his art around the world, sending a message of hope to thousands who know and trust his message because he fights the same battles they fight every day. Justin is living proof that if you reach out and allow yourself to be helped you can lead a beautiful life filled with love, family and career.

“In moments of bravery and confusion and honesty, people turn to 1-800-SUICIDE–over three million of them,” points out Jamie Tworkowski, founder of To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA).

“The folks at the Hopeline Centers have been answering those calls for ten years, picking up the phone when it’s mattered most. Now to help those who will not pick up the phone, together with 1-800-SUICIDE we are launching the first 24×7 online emotional support network called AliveIM!, which will soon be available at www.suicide.net.”

To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA)–a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide–exists to encourage, inform and inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

Since 2006, TWLOHA has responded to over 100,000 messages from people in over 40 different countries and have invested over half a million dollars directly into treatment and recovery, including $50,000 to help fund the AliveIM! support network.

In another innovative move, the tour has partnered with Synclive.com to air live performances from the artists via the Internet as well as provide an immediate online confidential connection for fans in need. Synclive.com will create an essential connection for concertgoers in crisis who are unable to approach a booth at the show in-person either for direct help or to volunteer for the online counseling program.

Formed in Houston in 1995, the rock five–piece Blue October have released five studio albums and sold over 2 million albums. The group released their fifth studio album Approaching Normal (Universal Motown), the follow-up to their 1.3 million-selling Foiled album; it spawned the hit “Hate Me,” which reached #2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, followed by “Into the Ocean,” a # 1 video on VH1 about a the metaphorical contemplation of suicide itself.

Approaching Normal debuted at # 13 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart in March 2009 and produced two top singles: “Dirt Room,” which rocketed to #6 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart marking the group’s third Top Ten singl, and “Say It.”

Blue October is Justin Furstenfeld (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jeremy Furstenfeld (drums, percussion), Ryan Delahoussaye (violin/viola, mandolin, piano, backing vocals), C.B. Hudson (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Noveskey (bass guitar, backing vocals). Due to their hard-won and loyal fanbase, the group now tours all over the world. Check out www.blueoctober.com and www.myspace.com/blueoctober.

Hailing from Atlanta, B.o.B. also known as Bobby Ray is a hotly-tipped hip-hop artist and producer who will release his debut album The Adventures of Bobby Ray via T.I.’s label Grand Hustle (Atlantic Records) in 2009. B.o.B. appeared on the covers of XXL and Vibe magazines as was hailed as part of “Hip-Hop’s class of ‘09” (XXL, 12/08). B.o.B describes his music as a fusion of influences ranging from 80’s, techno, rock, funk and du-wop. Check out www.bobatl.com and www.myspace.com/bobatl.

Recently, acclaimed actor James Earl Jones recorded a Public Service announcement for the PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR; click here to view: http://www.preventsuicide.us/hopeline-new/index.html.

Following are the confirmed dates for the PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR 2009:

DATE CITY VENUE

10/21 Washington, DC Capitol Hill – PUTP Press Conference

10/22 Charleston, SC Music Farm (no B.o.B.)

10/23 Charlotte, NC Fillmore

10/24 Hilton Head, SC Shoreline Ballroom

10/25 Atlanta, GA 99X (Blue October radio show)

10/27 Jacksonville, FL Freebird Live

10/28 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Revolution

10/30 Orlando, FL House of Blues

10/31 Tampa, FL The Ritz (Ybor City)

11/01 Columbia, SC Headliners

11/02 WASHINGTON, DC 9:30 Club

11/05 Rochester, NY Water Street

11/06 Boston , MA Reason to Live Tenth Anniversary Concert

11/07 Napa, CA Hot AC (Blue October radio show)

11/10 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion

11/12 Chicago, IL House of Blues

11/13 Detroit, MI Royal Oak

11/14 Kalamazoo, MI State Theater

11/15 Cleveland, OH House of Blues

11/17 COLUMBIA, MO Blue Note

11/18 Tulsa, OK Cain’s

11/20 Austin, TX Stubb’s

11/21 Austin, TX Stubb’s

Partners for the first-ever PICK UP THE PHONE TOUR 2009 include:

1-800-SUICIDE – National Hopeline Network

About the National Hopeline Network 1-800 SUICIDE (784-2433) and the Kristin Brooks Hope Center (KBHC):
After losing his wife, Kristin Brooks to suicide in 1998, Reese Butler founded the Kristin Brooks Hope Center (KBHC), which created the National Hopeline Network 1-800 SUICIDE.

In 2000, Reese gained the support of the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and obtained more than seven million dollars to expand and support the National Hopeline Network which is comprised of 200 community crisis centers in 48 states.

Callers in crisis to 1800-SUICIDE are routed to the closest crisis center in their immediate area so that quick referrals to behavioral health services and other supports can be offered. Since 1998, 1-800-SUICIDE has received more than 3 million calls and rescued more than 4,000 individuals who had already initiated suicide plans. www.hopeline.com

About To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA):

In 2006, Jamie Tworkowski wrote a story, a glimpse into a friend’s life and her first steps to recovery from drug addiction, self-injury, and depression. The story, titled To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA), and t-shirts Tworkowski printed to help pay for his friend’s recovery, started a movement, not only within his local Orlando, FL community, but one that was swiftly embraced by people everywhere.

Realizing a strong need to bring these mental health issues to light, Jamie created TWLOHA–a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide–and enlisted bands such as Paramore, Thrice, Anberlin, Switchfoot, Bayside, The Almost to spread TWLOHA’s message.

Jamie and TWLOHA joined national and international touring bands spreading their message of hope before bands took the stage each night. In August 2007, MySpace awarded TWLOHA the winner of their “Impact Award” for “Community Building,” TWLOHA garnered the most votes in the history of the Impact Awards.

To Write Love on Her Arms began with one broken girl, one painful night; addiction, depression, self-injury. It is the realization of what life can be when people commit to meeting a need. “A friend of mine told me there is no such thing as suicide prevention. This is an attempt to prove him wrong, to say that love can change a life. We can hold back the darkness. Rescue is possible,” says Tworkowski. www.twloha.com

About Synclive.Com:

Synclive.com is a highly interactive music and entertainment Internet community that allows users to broadcast their live performances, as they happen, over the Internet to a worldwide audience. Synclive.com is currently reaching 127 countries with over 1 million video views a month. Shows can be broadcast from anywhere, at anytime. Synclive.com offers artists a tremendous promotional platform for worldwide exposure.

It is a great way to promote new music, a new tour, new merchandise, and stay intimately connected with your fans. Shows are streamed live, recorded and stored at the artist’s discretion for future on demand viewing. Our most used tool is the embedded player which allows an artist’s live and on demand shows to be placed on all of their websites so fans can watch the show in the artist’s environment. Synclive.com is free for artists, fans, and venues to use and is open to all genres of music and live entertainment. www.synclive.com

About PostSecret.com:

Called “the most trusted stranger in America,” Frank Warren is the sole founder and curator of the PostSecret Project: A collection of nearly 500,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards mailed anonymously from around the world, displaying the soulful secrets we never voice.

The PostSecret.com site now receives more than 1,000,000 visitors every week. In 2005, the All-American Rejects approached Warren about using images of actual PostSecret images in their “Dirty Little Secret” music video. They offered Warren $1,000, but Warren instead asked them to donate $2,000 to 1800-SUICIDE where Warren is a volunteer.

The donation was made and the music video became one of the most requested on MTV. The National Mental Health Association presented Warren with an award for his work in raising public awareness of Suicide. The PostSecret project has now raised over $210,000 for 1800-SUICIDE. PostSecret was awarded the December 2008 “Myspace Impact Award” and donated 100% of the proceeds to 1-800 SUICIDE. Look for the new PostScret book titled Confessions on Life, Death and God due out October 6. www.postsecret.com

For more information about the PUTP tour, visit:

• www.putp.org
• www.hopeline.com
• ww.twloha.com
• www.synclive.com
• www.postsecret.com

Even if you’re currently sleeping on your buddy’s couch, you can encourage your performer with little or no money. ( You’ll need a computer and Web access)

Free music marketing (as the name suggests) does not cost money, but it will take some time, creative and determination. Ready?

1. Get an Email Account. Free email accounts are available from Gmail, Hotmail or a lot of other web-based email businesses. Simply go to their homepage and sign up for an account, and you’ll be up and going in minutes.

2. Get a MySpace.com Page. You could get the band a MySpace.com website for free. There you could furthermore load up some of your tunes, photos, etc. Once you’ve your website up email all your friends and fans to come check it out and add them to your friend list. You could then contact them all at once to announce future shows, song releases, etc.

3. Get Something to Sell. You can’t make any money if you don’t have anything to sell. When you’re playing gigs, even free ones could make you money by selling stuff to the listeners. Ensure you’ve copies of your music on compact disc or a flash drive to sell. You could additionally sell merchandise with your band’s name and logo on it. You could do this Internet for free by session ting up a virtual storefront at CaféPress.com. They’ll give you a little store front website and show how your logo looks on multiple items you select. Once someone buys the stuff, they handle all the billing and shipping and send you a check.

4. Get a Sponsor. No, not an AA sponsor! I mean a business sponsor who will give your performer money to encourage their company. Start off by looking for “Angel” sponsors. These might be parents, grandparents or friends of the family who have a little extra money to invest in your career. Then look to companies who would value from advertising to the audiences you’ll be playing to. Auto dealers, clothing stores, soft drink or beer distributors, are also a wonderful prospects. Show them that their money will be going directly into the creation of the marketing materials, and not the performer beer fund! By way of example, you put their logo with yours on T-shirts, flyers, posters, banners, etc., in ex change for them paying for the fee of creating those pieces.

5. Alert The Media. Contact Local/Regional radio and television station and provide to play any on or off air parties or parties they’re having. You could or could not get paid this time, but having your name on the minds and lips of the Local/Regional movers and shakers could only advocate your career. With a little work you could market your music for free and keep all the rewards yourself. individuals are doing this right now, and so could you. You just need to pick up a few marketing tips, tricks and techniques prefer the pros use.

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

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!

It is a safe bet that, since the arrival of cognitive human beings on this earth, music has, in some form had a serious effect on their lives. The first sounds, other than speech, were probably produced by hitting something; wood, stone or hide; and ancient individualss must have appreciated the sounds of the world around them; of water, weather and animals; and were the sounds of a rippling stream or a gushing waterfall music to their ears? And when they stood at the seashore did the crashing waves and the suck of the tides move them in some way?

There is something deep within our psyche, which reacts and ‘ recall s’ music. It is more than probable that sounds relating to music and rhythm came long before sounds relating to communication and speech. Today, this theory can be tested by noting a baby’s reaction to a lullaby as compared to speech. If you’re lucky, humming can soothe the the majority fractious child and even send them to sleep! Music, in the form of rhythm was used by a lot of peoples as a way of sending messages to out of sight recipients; contemplate the jungle drums of Africa or the Alpine horn, the Aboriginal didgeridoo or the use of bells as a warning of attack.

The days of learning our lessons by rote have, mostly, disappeared. This is because it has, rightly, been recognised that all of us don’t necessarily absorb the content of what all of us repeat over and over again. But, as an aid to memory, music still has its uses. tunes all of us have learnt in childhood may be recalled far later in life than mere words. Music is a well known and much used therapy in illnesses that involve memory loss; Stroke, Alzheimers etc; and not only as a recall aid but likewise as a re-learning tool. Speech therapists use music extensively when trying to educate stroke victims how to speak again. The rhythm and melody of a familiar tune will generally ‘trigger’ a positive response, when no amount of visual stimuli has an effect.

And then there is the cohesive quality of music; from the singing of a country’s National Anthem to a football crowds chant; from carol singers to brass bands. Musical participation has been used in every walk of life. The chain gangs of America’s Deep South would use music to get through the day and establish a rhythm to mundane physical labour. Sailors would pull a hawser or’sheet’ in unison while singing a familiar ‘hornpipe’ or reel; The amazing gospel sounds that poured from the wooden churches of the Southern states black population were a potent community tool to  encourage  and celebrate their culture; a lucky offshoot was the inspiration of much of our modern rhythm and blues. Nowadays factories all over the world use ‘piped‘ music to soothe the workers; if you’re doing a humdrum task music can make the time go faster.

When we think about it music isn’t just a pleasant pastime that’s either passively listened to or actively produced. It has a much deeper, more fundamental purpose. Our reactions to outside events may be completely altered by music. It may make us happy, sad, frightened, elated, thoughtful . . . the list of feelings it engenders are as long as their number. And words are not important to create this ambience; for instance, how would silent movies have worked in the absence of the music? Those Keystone Cops in the absence of the frenetic piano plinkity plonk; the doe eyed heroines in the absence of the sobbing strings; the very large sweeping epics in the absence of full orchestral back up? They just wouldn’t have worked. Nowadays, with the proliferation of world music, we listen to and enjoy music in many divergent languages, in the absence of necessarily understanding a word the singers say; much as opera was once listened to as the fashionable ‘world’ music of its day; just another example of the emotive power of music.

Now,it’s fair to say that music has an innate basis in our evolutionary makeup. we have probably used it since homo sapiens 1st walked the earth. Other animals do use sounds in their day to day living (frogs croak, dogs howl, sheep bleat etc.) but, with the possible exception of birds, we are the only species to enjoy making melody out of sound. We have utilised every viable tool, from the human voice to electronic tones, to establish ever more varied compositions. Wouldn’t it be intriguing to discover how soon into our evolution the power and beauty of the human voice has been appreciated? As the centuries have passed musicians have been, rightly, feted for their skill to move us with song, melody and rhythm. Once musicians were revered as priests, interpreting the sounds of the gods. Nowadays we are more pragmatic; but we still need that harmony in our lives; even if it’s only our cellular telephone  ringtone!

We have all heard the stories of performers “making it on MySpace”. Well, while there are a few genuine success stories out there, I am here to tell you that music marketing on the Web is in no way as easy as simply throwing up a MySpace.com page, adding a bunch of friends and calling it a career.

While MySpace has a lot of rewards for performers I would actually go as far as to say that MySpace doesn’t really matter. If you already have a wonderful MySpace campaign going then great, keep doing what works. Nonetheless, if you’re about to release an album or you’ve recently released one only to see disappointing solutions, then I’m going to suggest that you completely rethink your music marketing strategy.

In a nut shell, I have found these to be the components of a successful music marketing campaign.

1. The Mailing List: Focus on building your mailing list. Establish a mailing list on every piece of Internet real estate that you have.

2. Traffic: Do whatever it takes to send as much traffic as possible to that mailing list sign up form. Use MySpace, Fac electronic book, post in forums, flyers, stickers, emails, pay if you have to, just do what ever it takes. The more traffic, the more sign ups, the more albums sold.

3. Communicate with your audiences Don’t sell to your audiences, communicate with them. Let them get to know you by sending out fun and valuable emails. Do this as a lot of the time as you could without being too annoying. Once they trust you it is ok to  encourage  your album but do so with respect for their time and intelligence.

Music marketing is an art form in its own right. These are just several simple tips to developing a successful music marketing campaign. With a little bit of know how effort on your part you ought to start to see an increase in album sales in no time.

New repositionable vinyl stickers provide performers some amazing new promotional tools.
Promoting your band with vinyl stickers is a new way to get people talking. Vinyl stickers may be custom made with your band logo or life size photos of your band in action and of the band members.
What’s this new vinyl sticker material called? FotoSticks. Repositionable and reusable vinyl stickers that won’t harm walls. You can stick them up just about anywhere and then take them down and move them somewhere else. If the y get dirty, just has been h them off with warm water.
You can give away free and inexpensive smaller vinyl stickers while selling life size stickers to establish a promotion that funds itself.
Here are a few promotional ideas:
* Give away small vinyl stickers of your band’s logo at the door
* Sell life size wall stickers of your band in action and the members along with very big stickers of your band logo.
* Find out where agents live and plaster their neighborhood bulletin boards and store windows (with permission, of course)
* Place them in jewel cases
* Put them on fan’s cars during a gig
Here are some more detailed promo ideas…
The band Brew
Thanks to Mike Larrabee for this idea, it is great. Do you have a local micro-brewery? See about getting a few cases of beer in the absence of front labels. Then establish your own label and order the design as a FotoStick. You can put them on the bottles and your audiences can buy a beer and get a free promotional sticker that may be re-stuck anywhere they prefer.
Steal This Sticker
Put your band stickers on bulletin boards, windows and anywhere else you dare. people can simply peel them off and use them again anywhere they want. They won’t harm walls or windows.
Artist Co-Promotion
Find a nice performer or two and have a monthly promotion that includes a limited run of only a specified amount of stickers featuring a certain artist. When they are gone, that’s it, they are no longer available. Do this each month and you can  promote  collecting band memorabilia and establish some buzz.
Bar Graffiti
Put your band stickers all over the bar or club you’re playing in and let the audiences know that they can peel them off and keep them.
Photos of audiences with band Members
At each show have one of the roadies take pictures of your audiences with their favorite band members. Collect their addresses and then send them some FotoSticks a few weeks later to remind them of the night. You may be sure that they will show their friends and family. Since they are repositionable, they can put them on their notebooks or laptops to show around and then put them on their wall once they are done bragging.
Summary
Repositionable vinyl stickers are new and they get people talking. Not only are they a way to get your band image known, they establish a buzz just because they are novel. So, don’t hesitate, be the first band to show this new promotional tool to your audiences. It’s an inexpensive way to get the word out. Plus, if you sell the larger six and seven foot wall size stickers it can pay for itself and you can even profit from it in more ways than one.
FotoStick is a 5 mil vinyl material that has a sticky back that may be moved and removed in the absence of harming the surface they are placed upon. Un prefer static cling, traditional stickers and custom magnets, FotoSticks are tough, durable and more versatile. They’re prefer stickers but they may be used and re-used over and over again. They’re prefer magnets except that they stick on al the majority any smooth surface. They are inexpensive and you can establish one custom sticker to one hundred thousand affordably. Stay up to date with new trends by reading the FotoStick Blog

In a decidedly short time, Myspace.com has become the hottest music promotional tool available to anyone. Here are the 7 rules of successful MySpace.com music promotion.
1. Get a myspace.com music page.
Getting a myspace.com music page is free so there is no reason not to have one.
2. Make sure your page is user friendly.
There are many would-be music business professionals who have MySpace.com pages take too long to load. If your MySpace.com page loads too slow, you can be losing potential audiences. Mega bandwidth graphics and images will pr event your page from loading promptly. Your MySpace.com page ought to take no longer than 20 – 30 seconds to load.
many artists on MySpace.com use layouts that emphasize their creativity but are a nightmare to navigate. Refrain from using dancing cursor’s, raining text, and distracting images on your MySpace.com music pages.
Other MySpace.com artists have about me blurbs that go on forever. Keep about me blurbs short (no more than 1000 words), if people want to know more about you, they will ask.
3. Have your music on your MySpace.com page.
Don’t put someone else’s music on your MySpace.com page unless you were involved in the creation of the music. How can you be located if your music isn’t on your page?
4. Reach out for friends.
Networking on MySpace.com is one of the the majority influential tools you can use to build your fan-base. Take advantage of the opportunity to reach people with prefer interests. Never ignore or decline a friend request. You never know who can help your career.
5. Treat your friends prefer friends.
Common courtesy applies on MySpace.com just as in real life. Be willing to thank your friends for adding you as a friend. Respond to friend’s emails (if appropriate). Never post your ad as a comment on someone ’s MySpace.com page in the absence of acknowledging them. Limit the size of your “ad comments”.
6.  promote  yourself in appropriate ways.
Noteworthy career benchmarks, or new music added to your page are nice reasons to  promote  yourself on myspace. List your show dates on your page and use bulletins to let people know where you’re performing. Limit the number of bulletins you post. Posting irrelevant bulletins, or posting bulletins too usually, will force your friends to ignore you.
Let people know about your myspace.com page. Putting your unique myspace.com address on your web site and business cards will make it convenient for you to build your network and fan base faster.
7. provide ways for people to purchase your music from your MySpace.com page.
If you sell your music anywhere Web make sure there is a direct link from your MySpace.com page to the location where people can buy your music.
Follow our rules and you’ll have fun and make many friends on Myspace.