Live Music Blog

If you are clueless on how to sell your music Online you came to the right place. You’ll find answers on what you need to get started.

Build your own performer website

If you want to have credibility you need to have your own performer website. Register one as soon as possible; alternatively an individual else will. I know one performer who achieved major success and now has to fight because somebody else owns the domain name.

It will likewise be easier to build your own mailing list. If you ever tried placing a sign-up form on your MySpace profile, you know what I mean. There is an annoying message that comes up whenever a person tries to join your list.

The message is basic ally a warning that’s supposed to protect MySpace.com users form getting their password stolen. Even though they mean well, it could really hurt your sign-up rate.

For cheap domain names go to GoDaddy.com. I use them myself.

If You Sell Your Music On-line – Do It On iTunes

Tunecore.com is a service that will get your music not only on iTunes but on all other major Internet music stores as well.

It doesn’t cost exceedingly much to performance up and is exceedingly easy to use.

You ought to additionally list your music on CD Baby.net. This website is the number one place to  promote  your CD  Online. CD  Baby gets a immense number of visitors every month who are looking for new music to buy.

Promote your music.

Do not just sign up for these services. You need to energeticly  promote  yourself if you want to succeed Online. If all you do is to wait for something to happen you’ll could end up substantially disappointed.

You must truly devote yourself to succeeding if you want to make a living from your music.

New performers looking to book concert and establish contacts often start looking for a manager to handle the business aspects of their music. This is especially the case in cities with big music scenes, like New York, Los Angeles and Austin.

Before diving into such a relationship, however, performers should consider the pros and cons. Bands could determine that they do not need a manager. On the other hand, few performers could exist without any management. Realistically, the option a lot of the time lies among employing an outside manager and taking on certain vital responsibilities yourself.

The primary advantage of hiring a manager is that it allows artists to focus on the creative facets of the music, in the absence of being distracted or burdened by business details. On occasion, when creative individuals take on business responsibilities, their outlook on the creative process may change as a result.

By way of example, If the guitar player takes on promotional responsibilities, he may start infusing his newfound marketing drive into the song-writing process, and try to manufacturer a “ big hit” to win the favor of industry executives. Depending on the band’s goals, this may or may not be a positive development.

The central disadvantage of employing an outside manager is that it will cost money. Typically, manager will charge somewhere in the neighborhood of 15  percent of re Clubs. Musicians ought to make sure that a manager only charges fees on re Club he or she has personal ly generated. If musicians may handle the majority managerial aspects themselves – booking shows, keeping track of money, ordering merchandise – they may decide against employing a manager.

Alternatively, you could select to take on some of these responsibilities, while hiring a manager to handle other responsibilities. In this case, you could try to negotiate a decrease management fee. Generally speaking, musicians should pay for a manager If they’re “profiting” from the relationship.

Musicians who handle their personal affairs get a excellent sense of satisfaction from booking their personal shows.  Additionally,  it’s important to gain a ground-level understanding of how the music business works. In many cases, artists handle their personal affairs until they reach a certain level of success, and then look for a professional manager. Still, in deciding whether or not to hire a manager, artists should think realistically about how self-motivated and responsible they are.

Marketing is a mythisized science, even within business circles. In artistic circles, marketing is again and again seen as a tool that Dick Dastardley and Mutley would use in the cartoon “Wacky Races“.  Many performers say that when a skill less artist becomes successful, it was all down to the question of marketing.

A long way from being a tool that a con performer would use, marketing really has  surprisingly little to do with the skill or quality of a performer or artist. When marketing is done well, it points to a Venues not otherwise explored in the music market, which many times end up providing less skill ed artists.

So the optimum way to make an alliance between talent and marketing is by losing the prejudice and undoing the myths about marketing. After all, in the music market, marketing acts in a positive way, as in any other type of market (financial, commercial etc.).

Actually the adaptations are not all that difficult, if we understand that to work a band or an artist, we need to have a company, which needs to be successful in the market, as a company. For your music company to be successful, it needs to generate profit.

Creating a new performer is the same as launching a new commercial product onto the market, eminently much in the same way as that product you buy in your Regional supermarket. The talent is there, for whoever wishes to admire and enjoy, but it’s correctly packaged and  promote d to the right target public.

You need to learn the 1st musical notes (formally in a music school, or by studying sheet music) so that later on you may start to produce your own harmonious melodies. In the same way, you need to learn the “notes” of marketing before you may produce a “harmonious melody” in your music company. The “harmony” in your music company is secure ing satisfactory financial solutions which justify the  profoundly existence of the company.

The CD – the artists dream.

I’ve always wondered about this one. If I take out a CD, took away its plastic packaging, took away the paper and actually took away the CD  what do I have?

If a person said just music, wonderful you would be right.

If you look at things wisely and just sell the music rather than the compact disc, you would reduce the amount of time spent to reproduce the thing, reduce the hours and wages that take to create one, reduce the amount of resources on shipping/ storage/ marketing/ selling to shops.

So the biggest wonder of my time at present is this:

Why do we charge $12 for an album download?

As a side note- my own little gripe Why do all of us buy electronic books that are double the cost of print books and take less time and endeavor to create and procure?

So with all what we know, is it a wonder then why individuals pirate stuff (especially when CDs degrade/ scratch over time)?

I think the decent folk out there will buy something for what they thought the album is worth. The most famous example is Radiohead who said their fans could buy and download their new album at any price they wish.

It averaged out at $5.

I had respect for Radiohead. They done something different, at least they tried to fix a problem that the music industry isn’t prepared to tackle properly.

Unfortunately they released the album in the shops as well, fleece your audiences…nice style Radiohead…[growl]

But instead of thinking, wow, this is great, we have figured out what people are willing to pay, so lets do something about this. Downloading websites are still offer ing downloads at over $10.

I went over to compact disc Baby, nice basic website... most downloads $12.

And if you want to buy a CD…$12.

However, I believe that the compact disc  is going to die.. It has to.

compact disc Baby also realise that, and have released HostBaby for performers.

But artists have not realised the fact yet.

And neither have record companies. Assuming that they did then all of their music would be up for download at $5 a shot ( CD  presses, performers, shipping- all gone and prices reduce d). It would not put an end to stealing fully, but it would heavily dent it.

likewise add something else to the download- a bonus pdf, a picture performance, a discount for other downloads, a free private members web site ( like the e-book industry does).

Nonetheless it would additionally dent the record shops, and put people out of work in CD  presses. But unfortunately it’s vary. I think people would still buy music CD s, but as time passes- this decrease s.

On the other hand- how cool would it be to go into a record shop with a flash drive and download an album?

However change is needed.

And it’s the record organizations fault that all of us have not done anything about this mess yet. Unfortunately they will panic and fully try downloads in the future, but by then it will be too late. Virtually all performers would have found out about downloading and the record organizations will downsize. Would they be needed in the future? I doubt it, could be to organize large shows and tours…but why else would you need one?

Bleak picture, but true…we live in a “now” society that utilises downloads. Only a few years ago all of us never had any real film footage website s. A few years ago there has been no iTunes. A few years ago there has been no Blogs or Podcasts.

Offer CDs and downloads. But when the time comes, kill the CD  and just offer downloads. You’ll be ahead of that CD  goal by a mile.

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!

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.