Live Music Archive

New artists looking to book concert and produce contacts a lot of the time start looking for a manager to handle the business aspects of their music. This is specifically the case in cities with big music scenes, like New York, Los Angeles and Austin.

Before diving into such a relationship, however, musicians ought to contemplate the pros and cons. Bands could determine that they don’t need a manager. On the other hand, few performers could exist without any management. Realistically, the choice again and again lies amidst engaging an outside manager and taking on certain vital responsibilities yourself.

The main advantage of engaging a manager is that it allows musicians to focus on the creative facets of the music, in the absence of being distracted or burdened by business details. At times, when creative people take on business responsibilities, their outlook on the creative process might change as a result.

For 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 “ ample 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 hiring an outside manager is that it will fee resources. Typically, manager will charge somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 % 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 performers can handle most managerial facets themselves – booking shows, keeping track of resources, ordering merchandise – they can decide against hiring a manager.

Alternatively, you can choose to take on some of these responsibilities, while employing a manager to handle other responsibilities. In this case, you can try to negotiate a reduce management fee. Generally speaking, artists ought to pay for a manager If they are “profiting” from the relationship.

Musicians who handle their own affairs get a wonderful sense of satisfaction from booking their own shows.  Also,  it is vital to secure a ground-level understanding of how the music industry works. In many cases, performers handle their own affairs until they reach a certain level of success, and then look for a professional manager. However, in deciding whether or not to hire a manager, performers ought to think realistically about how self-motivated and responsible they are.

Marketing is a mythisized science, even within business circles. In artistic circles, marketing is ofttimes seen as a tool that Dick Dastardley and Mutley would use in the cartoon “Wacky Races“.  A lot of musicians say that when a skill less performer becomes successful, it has been all down to the question of marketing.

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

So the best way to make an alliance amidst 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 kind of market (financial, commercial etc.).

Actually the adaptations are not all that c venue enging, 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, considerably much in the same way as that product you buy in your Local supermarket. The skill 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 first musical notes (formally in a music school, or by studying sheet music) so that later on you might start to create your own harmonious melodies. In the same way, you need to learn the “notes” of marketing before you might create a “harmonious melody” in your music company. The “harmony” in your music company is obtain ing satisfactory financial determinations which justify the unusually existence of the company.

The compact disc – the performers dream.

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

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

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

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

Why do all of us charge $12 for an album download?

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

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

I think the decent folk out there will buy something for what they thought the album is worth. The the majority famous example is Radiohead who said their audiences 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 varying, at least they tried to fix a problem that the music business isn’t prepared to tackle properly.

Unfortunately they released the album in the shops as well, fleece your fans…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 web sites are still offer ing downloads at over $10.

I went over to compact disc Baby, good standard website… most downloads $12.

And if you want to buy a CD…$12.

Nonetheless, I believe that the CD  is going to die.. It has to.

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

But artists haven’t 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 decrease d). It would not put an end to piracy fully, but it would heavily dent it.

also add something else to the download- a bonus pdf, a picture  set, a discount for other downloads, a free private members website ( prefer the electronic book industry does).

Nonetheless it would additionally dent the record shops, and put people out of work in compact disc  presses. But unfortunately it’s vary. I think people would still buy music compact disc 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?

Still differ is needed.

And it’s the record organizations fault that we haven’t 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. Most performers would have found out about downloading and the record organizations will downsize. Would they be necessitated in the future? I doubt it, may be to organize large performances 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 we never had any real film footage website s. A few years ago there was no iTunes. A few years ago there was no Blogs or Podcasts.

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

Simple solutions to get yourself known for free…

I read an article in a well known magazine the other day and found that they were advising performers to invest out hundreds 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 Web. This exceptional 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 wonderful spread, costing $100 and you only spread one quarter of the bagel (this expensive food does not 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 prefer 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 Web. You’ve one shot, you’re being targeted roughly by random and too much resources spent in one area is a remarkably bad idea. So what do you do?

Well, the primary thing is not to spend any resources if possible. If you’ve music to give out then do that. Sign up to all the MP3 hosting web sites that you may find, there are so a lot of now on the Web that they’re free and provide some cool incentives ( like unlimited bandwidth, hardrive space and such like ). The more you apply to, the more like ly that you’re not going to be missed by anyone.

This technique likewise lowers the possibility of your paid web site 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’ve your own website. On each paid website put a link back to your own website, this then boosts your Public Relations rate with the search engines and boosts your link status (roughly: more links in the higher you rate). also you gain 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 someone comes to your website and goes away the like lihood of them returning is unusually low, and then you have lost them. This is why the newsletters and blogs are so vital, they keep the one-time visitor coming back for check-ups to YOUR website, in the absence of them trying to find you again (very unlikly).

One thing that I may never understand when I am searching through MP3 hosting web sites 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 Web real-estate. Your web site ought to be targeted, your name ought to be targeted. I am into Techno etc, so it is rare that I will hunt out jazz tunes. But this is what I find when I go onto a techno artists web site. My tip would be to call yourself something diverse for each type of that you do. For instance : deejay 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 many type ofs you do) times more visitors- a possible 100-200  percent increase in visitor downloads. But again, you would link each web site to each other just in case. You would even make up separate web sites for each type of anyway. Most 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 is 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 all over the place that you could and keep on adding wonderful music.

Are you a artist, singer, songwriter or artist 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 am going to share with you a couple of ways you can make resources with your music and your also going to learn a few strategies to stimulate you make even more resources with your Independent music.

Let me start off by telling you that the perfect way to make money with your Indie music is by selling it directly to your audiences instead of trying to get distribution into the music stores or selling on iTunes (by the way, you will want to get distribution and sell on iTunes), I am just saying selling direct to audiences is better and you get more money doing it this way (which is vital, right?).

So now you’re wondering, How do I sell straight to the listeners? It’s not like you’ve 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 exceptional vehicle to use to sell your Independent music.

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

2. You could have your CDs selling with al the majority no effort on your part, just collect the resources and ship the CD.

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

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

How wonderful is that! Those are just several of the wonderful things about selling your music Web 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 might sell the singles as you complete them.

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

What is everybody’s preferred 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 people are going to want to know why they ought to book you. audiences want to know why they ought to continue assist ing you and buying your discs. Your booking agents want to know why they ought to continue to find shows for your band. The perfect way to keep them hooked is to tell them What’s in it for them.

Many people 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 easy. K.I.S.S. Keep It easy Stupid.

You will have a divergent message for your audiences. Possibly more entertaining, light hearted, fun. Your Agents are going to want to hear something professional, responsible, business- prefer. Your Media and Press contacts will want to hear a new twist, public relations, something anybody at all could use to reach the wide st readership.

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

For example: “I could really get many people to your club if I could get booked there next month” does not 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.”

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

These can be just semantics but when you start using them, you will see an increase in your responses. This will create momentum. When you start getting more calls, u will eventually get more gigs. excellent performances will bring in more listeners which will get you better band bookings from the agents. can you see it?

When you start locating better gigs, two things will happen. You will be able to charge more on every performance and you’ll be getting so a lot of concert able to turn down work.

We have all been around the block once or twice in the absence of our Mommies here. Or as the saying goes “You might not Dazzle me with Brilliance nor Baffle me with Bull“. Cut to the chase. Give it to me straight. Please do not think that I’m really going to believe you are ready to take the music world by storm if you are playing pool halls 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 different? Tell it prefer it is. Just add a little sizzle to the steak. Keep your marketing and press statements rousing and entertaining. we are in the business of fun.

Feel free to be a little wild and outlandish. It’s okay. individuals will not mind. We’re in an industry where individuals 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 don’t be the donkey.

Commit to at least six(6) months to any marketing campaign

Do not think you’re going to hit a homerun every time. Build slowly and look to just get on base. A walk is as wonderful 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 might 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 bands sending me stuff for this festival and I opened theirs’ 1st because it has been not prefer all the other packets I has been getting.

It was kind of lumpy. Inside was a Nerf Ball with the band’s name on it. Only it was 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 performer following the promotional item all of us had in stock. It was a refrigerator magnet made of knotted ropes in the shape of the letter ‘Y’. So all of us called the performer “Why Knot”. A bottle of aspirin inside and envelope might accent your opportunity headline that might something along the lines of, “Did that last performer you hire give anybody 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 pointers 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’ll 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 might find gigs that pay the most resources doing what you love – making music.

Contemporary media perpetuates all the old styles so that what’s popular now is what has been popular 30 years ago. If you are 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. PC recording with its click tracks and loops has additionally played a big part in the contemporary sound. The PC software “Band in a Box” and the like lets you build a song with pre-recorded loops and then copyright it as something original. individual ly, as a classically trained pianist and working performer, I do not like these facets of modern day music.

If you’re a artist, what’s the majority 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 will undeniable ly listen to what you want to, and you might find a greater variety to select from than ever before.

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

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

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

As I sit here writing, I might 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 performance.

Music has had such an impact on our lives. And I know it comes mostly from the easy task of playing kids’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 exceptional way to learn language and new vocabulary. And they love it. I have never met a young child that doesn’t love music.

Listening to music with your children could produce a stimulating atmosphere for your home. Different music can be used to evoke different moods and can be used to produce different environments in your home.

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

I’ve likewise found music uncommonly beneficial for their education. Through music, children (and adults a like ) are able to more easily memorize facts. songs can be used to learn phonics rules, math facts, lifestyle skills and so much more. we now try to find music that teaches about topics the children are interested in. And I find myself having the chance to relearn a lot of subjects including Spanish.

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

The biggest worth of music is that it allows us as a family to spend quality time together. Music is an entertaining alternative to TV. With music playing in the background all of us can still have conversations, read or do other activities. For some strange reason my children seem to quarrel less when their music is playing. We’ll again and again sing along to lively tunes 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 TV which could every now and then distract from our time together, music is something that all of us can all share together, enhances our home life and promotes family time.

Nowadays there are so many excellent children’s artists and variety of albums to pick from. It may al the majority be overwhelming. Fortunately, the Internet now allows us the luxury of being able to conveniently search for music, learn about the artist, read reviews and listen to samples of their work. The following pick web sites listed below will give you a excellent 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 resources by selling music prefer it has been toothpaste. You find something everybody prefers and then have competitive products that are a little divergent but all basic ally do the same thing and even though they taste a little divergent not enough divergent to bother anyone. That is 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 individuals have forgotten about and bring it out as the next new thing usually does the trick. It may be Country or Jazz or Bluegrass, but quite usually it’s the Blues.

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

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

There were a lot of so-called “Blues Revivals” in the last 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 USA. When these revivals happen it again and again means that the loyal fan base of the music is expanded by the addition of individuals who come from other type ofs who grow to see similarities between what they like and the Blues. again and again times it is these new folks who determine the direction the music will take in order for it to reach a broad er listeners.

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 listeners, which had moved on to Rythm & Blues (R&B) and early Soul. What seemed prefer 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 ofttimes that rich flavor.

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s another less evident revival took place with the popularity of Folk Music. This is an again and again neglected but wonderfully necessary revival because it has been a time of rediscovery and reconnection with the old guard Blues musicians. Young Folk performers were the ones who researched the old country Blues and actually sought out and re discovered many 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 located the power of electric Blues through second generation Bluesmen such as Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf. Rock and Roll became just Rock when lead guitar styles based on Blues improvisations came to the forefront. The Blues this time has been the grittier sounding Delta style. Rock 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 is 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 genre music status with a diminishing fans. Though there are still many 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 results from minimal resource s, which let’s face it; the majority independent musicians have minimal resource s. Today, guerrilla marketing is a non-traditional, low-cost, and highly effective marketing resolution, which when used properly might reap a lot of rewards for the diligent user.

So what might you do to use guerrilla marketing to stimulate further your music career? The 1st piece of recommenndation I might give you is to think outside the box. Don’t do what anyone else is doing. Here area few ideas to get you started:

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

• Why not go to your Local library and see Assuming that they’ll allow you to do a free concert there in ex change for a percentage of your sales of product following your show. Libraries are in dire need of funds.

• An additional 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.

Ensure to put a small two or three sentence bio at the end of each review that has the name of any CD  projects you have done. You can’t post your URL there; they’ll 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 don’t say a word. Check out amazon.com and look for one of my reviews.

Do not use a real email address or you’ll end up with a lot of spam. Why’s this an necessary step? Because people will read your reviews and you get your name out there. Many consumers are Internet 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 results you desire and the exposure for your music that you need.

The secret to marketing music successfully Web is to first get organized. Develop a music business plan that outlines how many much resources you need to generate in sales, how many albums you’ll need to sell to reach your goals and how much resources you can justify invest ing to market your music. Assuming you are on a limited budget I have outlined a few easy strategies you can use to  promote  your performer or music Web.

1. Optimize Your web site : Most artists receive dozens, even hundred of visitors every day to their web site. But the reality is that most individuals do not buy albums after only one visit. Do whatever it takes to get individuals to sign up to your mailing list so that you may continue to communicate with them, obtain familiarity and best ly sell them your album at some point down the line.

2. MySpace.com Marketing: MySpace.com is amazing 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 provides and get togethers. As much as you can, try to drive people back to your official web site 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 promotes your band. Go into these forums as usually as possible and add value to the discussions. The more people value what you have to say, the more prefer ly they are to click through to your band’s Web site.

Music marketing is an art form in its own right. These are just several easy tips to marketing your music successfully on the Web. 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.