Live Music Archive

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

Organizing your music files is an necessary skill to learn. Once your collection is wonderful ly sorted out, you will be able to find the songs you want promptly and easily. So session aside some time and read through the following tips I’ve come up with.

1. Start Subfolders – The single the majority necessary tip for organizing your music files is to produce subfolders in your hard drive. Do not ever leave your MP3 files in one large folder called C:My Music. Start subfolders prefer C:My MusicClassical, C:My MusicPop and C:My MusicSoundtracks.

2. Ensure your ID3 Tags Are Correct – ID3 tags are used to store vital information about MP3 files. Things prefer 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 wonderful software program for editing ID3 tags is TagScanner.

3. Invest in Good Music Management Software – There are a few wonderful pieces of software out there for managing music files. Two good ones come to mind. The 1st is MediaMonkey and the second is MusicMatch Jukebox. Both programs offer 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 have been downloading music using P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing programs prefer KaZaa, you’ll incredibly prefer ly get music files which have strange names prefer 56_HeyjAck.mp3. My advice: Get your files from legal sources prefer On-line music services iTunes or Napster and you’ll avoid this problem.

5. Establish Good Playlists – Most software music player (e.g. Winamp) will allow you to produce playlists. For instance, say you are in the mood for rock songs, you might point to your folder called C:Music Rock n Roll and produce a playlist from that folder. Save the playlist following it’s created. When you next feel like listening to those songs, all you need to do is load that playlist instead of trawling through your hard drive and folders.

6. Get A Huge Hard Drive – I recognize that this sounds a little crazy – but running out of disk space may 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 is a decidedly bad idea to store, say, 8,000 files in Hard Drive A and 2,000 files in Hard Drive B. Very messy. It is better to seller them all in one hard disk. So get your hands on the biggest hard drive you may find.

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

The very very ultimate   goal of most artists who use MySpace.com is to attract a record label. Earning a contract to record an album can be a artist way into the music business. But what can you do to attract record labels? Creating a profile page and uploading music is a nice start, but by no means is it the end of your marketing endeavor s. Following you will find a few ideas on attracting a record label and getting them to take notice of your skill.

Music Marketing Tip#1: Upload a Variety of tunes

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

Music Marketing Tip#2: Fuel the Fan Fires

Record labels conduct searches on MySpace everyday looking for skill ed musicians. One way to get them to avoid on your profile page is by showing them you have a strong fan base. The more people who visit your website, the more popular your page becomes there. Use the marketing tools available in order to capture fan interest.

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

Establish a buzz on MySpace.com by attracting more listeners to your page. Join MySpace.com forums, list upcoming gatherings, and advertise your page on fliers, business cards, and other marketing materials as this will prompt listeners who have seen your live shows to visit and download your tunes.

Music Marketing Tip#3: Contacting Record Labels

Locating information about record labels is simple because of the Web. Instead of sending a copy of your latest compact disc  or a few of your tunes, you can send record labels the link to your MySpace profile page. Music executives will appreciate this much more than strange pieces of mail showing up at their offices. Sending a quick email with your contact information can be enough to get you noticed. Research record organizations to see which ones cater to your type of, and which ones accept email from musicians.

Music Marketing Tip#4: Selling Your Album on MySpace

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

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

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

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

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

Where do all these dreams hide?

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

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

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

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

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

Save your sentiments for your music.

Now testimonials have got a wonderful reputation, generally…well see for yourself, this is one individuals view of this actual article:

Wow, I did not realise how simple it may be to implement this music marketing technique! R.G, Chicago.

What is the problem with this? Well for one, it is made up. I just done it. And two…who on earth is R.G?

Now this is what I automatically think about when I go through any web site, be it musical or not. The problem comes in the fact that the majority testimonials are just too distant.

Sure people could put a Internet address down and even a picture. It does actually advocate a very big amount. It makes you less distant, and now more reliable. Still, all of us are now in the 21st Century and our selling techniques ought to really keep up with the technology on offer.

The technology? That’s Flash. Now I’ve said in the past that a Web site should not be made out of Flash…with the primary reason being the search engines won’t select it up. But Flash is such a simple tool that it must be integrated into our Web sites for us to stand a slightest chance of selling anything.

So what do we need to do?

1st up is to actually embed Flash into our web sites so that it’s simple to work, like ably free, looks wonderful, simple to  set up and more than anything…fool proof for the user.

Now I’ve searched high and low for a flash player that meets those demands (I could not tell you how a lot of I’ve downloaded), and I’ve found one. Now I think that it’s a traversty that this software has not been shouted about.

You need a player- MP3 or Video (which may be found at this address: www.jeroenwijering.com. All you need to do is download either a movie player, or an MP3 player, upload the numerous players components to your website, upload an MP3 or Flash movie file (FLV), then tell the wizard (which may be found at this address: http://www.jeroenwijering.com/extras/wizard.html) where everything is stored. It will automatically give you the code. You copy and then paste it in to the source section of your HTML where you want the player…and thats it.

Simple.

As a side note: You see all of us should do everything ourselves so that all of us are not reliant on any other service. Youtube has a habit of stopping videos overnight, their quality is poor and it looks prefer all of us are cheap. Sure use YouTube for traffic generation and generating leads, but I wouldn’t use it to sell on my web site – it is not professional specifically if you are selling DVDs or software. Doubts will go into customers minds about your products quality…and the sale will walk away. There are additionally dedicated movie web sites that charge per month…but all of us want to decrease our resources output. So what do all of us do?

So the optimum way is to be clever at the start and buy a Web hosting package that’s cheap yet plentiful. Just be careful about your monthly bandwidth. Many hosting businesses now offer incredible bandwidth solutions/ month so you should not worry about that. I’m with Superb Internet Hosting who give me bandwidth of 750GB/ month…which is more than ample and at a normal hosting price. I don’t need specific video hosting, poor quality free hosting and I don’t need to pay anymore cash…bargain!

Anyway what do we actually do with our Flash players?

Ahh, I’m glad that you asked. Now this is what your competition are not doing. You see you may record customers reactions to your music (especially at a performance ) and place these as testimonials.

Promote shows by recording previous concert s/ performances. Then question some of the goers before and following to see what they think? Promise them a free ticket, T-Shirt, compact disc  etc for their trouble. If you get some bad reviews (which can happen), edit them out.

If you’re friendly with your testimonial makers, why not get them to do a short piece on your stuff? Only a handful (literally) of web sites have done this. Completely novel- they have interviewed buyers of the product to see what they think. Now that “nobody testimonial” has become a a person. It doesn’t matter now who they are. How convincing is that style of testimonial? It generates thousands of sales weekly for some web site s.

You should be using the Flash players to play your music (please no lower d quality or 1 minute play versions). Now I have better my sales by well over 100 % by doing this technique. Throughout my texts I have placed an MP3. So instead of having a bulk amount of MP3s in one place – where they may readily be forgotten, I have placed them throughout and leveraged the same  set of MP3s to a better advantage.

The Flash players ought to be used to interview your group or yourself. Because the Internet is so faceless, adding a “face” to your web site boosts your credibility ten-fold. If you are the head of the company/ web site, have you on your sales pages stating what you are actually selling- pointing out rewards to the customer, backing up your text.

If you don’t prefer what you look prefer, the Flash players should be used to play your voice to endorse and direct individuals into making the proper decision.

Got a video or DVD? Flash player it at a reasonable size and quality to demonstrate what you have. Sales will increase with a demo of what you have.

Always remember though, that some people do not want to sit down and listen to you stating what you can be done. They want to see what can be done… that is the difference. If you performance the guitar…Flash player yourself playing a certain specific style on one page and another style on another page. Therefore if I want to know how to make Flamenco music I do not want to see loads of other styles before you get to mine. Don’t speak the specific style, just performance it (and make it sound cool, vibrant and listenable).

So as you can see, there are a very large amount of scope for Flash players and they should be right up there with your top music marketing strategies.

Music is major part of our everyday life. Music also has a long, complex and captivating history. It could predate language, and most certainly predates the written word. It’s found in every known human culture, both past and present, varying wildly between certain periods and locations on the globe. The music of every culture is influenced by all other aspect of that culture, such as social and economic organization, climate, and access to technology.

The development of human music occurred against the backdrop of natural sounds prefer the lapping of ocean waves, the rippling of river water, the singing of birds and sounds created by other animals. Prehistoric music, more commonly referred to as primitive music, is the name given to all music produced by preliterate cultures, beginning somewhere in wonderfully late geological history.

The prehistoric period is considered to have ended with the creation of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. “Ancient music” is the term given to the music that followed. This music has been produced by various early cultures, particularly Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians and citizens of the Muslim world, as well as Asiatic cultures.

Following ancient music, came “early” music which is a  surprisingly general term referring to music in the European classical tradition from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, until the end of the Baroque period in the 18th Century. Music within this enormous time span has been extremely diverse, encompassing multiple cultural traditions throughout a expansive  geographic region. What unified these a lot of cultures in the Middle Ages has been the Roman Catholic Church, and its music served as a focal point for music development for the first centuries of this period.

The Medieval period (from the 9th to the 14th Centuries) was rich in musical history as attested by the artistic renditions of instruments, writings about music, and other historical references. The only collection of music which has survived from pre-900 AD to the present is the liturgical music of the Catholic Church, the largest part of which is called the Gregorian chants.

Renaissance music followed the medieval era, but the beginning of Renaissance music is not as evident ly marked as the start of the Renaissance in the other arts, and began, not in Italy, but in northern Europe specifically central France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The invention of the printing press had an immense influence on the dissemination of musical styles and by the 15th century, composers and singers from these Low Countries begin to spread over all of Europe.

Baroque music became quite popular following 1600, and instrumental music became dominant. Although strong religious musical traditions continued, secular music came to the forefront with the development of the sonata, the performance o and performance o grosso. In Baroque music the keyboard, particularly the harpsichord, is the dominant instrument. The three the majority outstanding composers of this period are J.S. Bach, G. F. Handel and A. Vivaldi.

The early Classical period was ushered in by the Mannheim School which exerted a profound influence on Joseph Haydn, and through him, on nearly all subsequent European music. Wolfgang Mozart was the central figure of this period and his phenomenal and varied output defines our perception of the Classical era.

Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were transitional composers who led Europe into the Romantic period with their expansion of the existing genre s, forms and even uses of music. During this Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional. By the late 19th century, there has been a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestras, and in the role of gigs as part of a rapidly increasing urban society. Strauss, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Wagner comprised a influential group of Romantic composers. A prominent feature of late 19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by figures like Dvorak, and Sibelius.

The 20th Century saw a music revolution as radio gained popularity world wide and new media and technologies were created to record, capture, reproduce and distribute music. Because music has been no longer limited to performance venues and venue s, it became possible for music musicians to obtain fame and fortune quite speedily.

And music became more mobile with the use of headsets, compact disc  players, and iPods. Music of the 20th Century brought a new freedom and expansive  experimentation with styles and forms that challenged the accepted rules of earlier musical periods. Heavy metal music and rap entered the picture and joined hip-hop, jazz, country/western, ballads, folk, acid rock, Christian rock and a variety of other genres to create today’s fascinating world of music.

Ideally each page of your web site ought to serve a specific purpose. The primary purpose of the sales page for your cd is to sell the cd.

If have a page with Google Adsense, the primary purpose is to generate money by to get people to click on the advertisement. If its not an vital part of the process, don’t load up the page with unnecessary things like animations or sounds. This will only distract visitors from achieving the task laid out for them, ie. buying your product.

Following are some pointers to include in your website and the primary purpose of each.

1) Main Page – The main pages is a general landing page to funnel visitors to varying areas of your website. Create a clear and easy navigation process linked to the other pages of your website. *If you use Javascript for navigation, place text link at the bottom. This ensures that search engines will be able to spider your website properly. You could furthermore use this page to feature your cd, music samples and other offer s.

2) Order Page(s) – Start a sales letter for each item that your are selling. Tomorrow we will go over some copywriting tips to build a successful order page.

3) Press Releases – This section is where visitors might read 3rd party articles published about you, growing your credibility and exposure.

4) Contact Information – This is so individuals can get a hold of you to book shows, ask questions about products, collaborations, interviews or other opportunities (you never know). Include as much contact information as possible, like your phone, cell, mailing address, email etc.

5) Privacy Policy – Complies with privacy laws if your are collecting any of information about your customers/visitors. This also stimulates to build trust and individuals will give their information more freely. Here’s a link to a privacy policy generator. http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml

6) Electronic Press Kit – This is where you refer the media to conveniently download an information package about you. Here is some tips on what you may include:

*Biography

*Demo tunes

*Pictures

*Reviews/Testimonials

*Sideshow Of Photos

*Video or Film Footage (Windows Media or Quicktime format)

Establish a biography with pictures in .pdf format and make it available for download. You might use the Writer program contained in the free Open Office Suite http://www.openoffice.org to do this. Open then program type (or paste) in your biography and insert pictures. When your done go to File > Export As PDF.

7) Lyrics – Allows fans to get more familiar with your music. additionally adds content to your web site which will get select ed up by the search engines if it has an incoming link form your central page or somewhere else.

Biography – On your bio page sections listeners read about you and see your pictures. A sideshow of your photos at times adds a good touch.

9) Concert Listings/News – Keep your audiences and website visitors updated with the latest news about your performance s/shows, interviews, appearances ond other topics of interest.

With the major labels focusing on quick returns rather than performer development and the arrival of downloading music Internet, the traditional record company/artist relationship has become blurred to the point of being obsolete.

Nowadays, being independent has real advantages.

How a lot of times have you heard or read somewhere that the Internet has differ d the face of the music industry forever? I would love a dollar for everytime I heard it.

Still, it is true and there are a number of reasons for this. Two that spring into mind are that:

1. A traditional record company/artist relationship is optional and not a necessity. You might do your all music sales and performer promotion Internet cutting out all of the ‘middle people ‘.

2. websites could turn an artist with a Regional fans into an artist with an international fans. As the Web isn’t ‘owned’ by any one entity the playing field is a lot more even.

To me, being an independent musician means that you are the one driving the bus and being in control over your own affairs.

A lot of talent ed artists and performing songwriters around the world are at this eminently moment waiting for that knock at the door, the opportunity to ‘get found ‘. What is prefer ly to happen is that they will invest their creative lives being eminently disappointed.

If you’re reading this and feel that this is you, consider this…

Where do you think you would be if you managed your career yourself rather than wait for an individual (or some company) to do it for you?

There are a lot of websites out in cyberspace that are there to advocate you take control over your career by spreading practical information about band promotion and the independent music business as a whole, take advantage of these websites and go to as a lot of as you can

Embrace independence today and gain control over your own musical affairs.

(For the purpose of this article I’m going to make a couple of assumptions before I go any further. They are that you’ve a little bit of vocal or musical instrument knowledge and that you also have a fledgling network of friends and contacts)

Starting up a performer is a eminently exhilarating time in a artists life. There’s a fine balance of nervous anticipation and the fear of the unknown that follows the whole process.

A band has a varying dynamic than working as a solo artist. There are other individuals involved, other personal ities, other strengths and weaknesses in character and abilities and because of this it’s really vital that you have several things worked out before you start looking for band members.

1. Have a good idea of your own strengths and weaknesses

The band members that you want to get will need to be around the same level of competence as you are. The main reason for this is that you may all grow together rather than have one or two musicians carrying anyone else. This kind of player imbalance causes doubt in the group and doubt is one of the major killers of bands.

2. Know beforehand how the band is going to be run

Is the band going to be run by you or the whole group? The individual ity types of the performers that you choose will need to be agreeable to the way the band is going to be run.

3. What instrumentation is the performer having in its lineup?

This is mainly determined by the type(s) of music that you want to performance but having an idea of what musicians you’re looking for will be of exceptional help.

It’s now time to hunt down some performer members

4. Ask your network of companions and/or contacts

This is always a nice place to start. Ask anybody at all that you know or come into contact with. If you do not have much of a circle of companions and/or contacts this will be a exceptional occasion to wide n it. This is one of the reasons why networking in the industry is so vital, for occasions such as this.

Having a musician referred to you has a much better opening  of working than one that comes from an advertisement. This leads me onto my next point.

5. Post an advertisement

Having said that I’ve had made some exceptional contacts from musicians enquiring from a ‘muso wanted’ ad. The key to effective ads is that they need to be concise, to the point, not too lengthy and put in places where musicians are truly prefer ly to see it and read it prefer in a music shop, a Local/Regional music magazine or a music classifieds web site.

A sample ‘ performer wanted‘ advertisement may read something prefer this:

BASS PLAYER WANTED

To join folk/rock band

Influences include

Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Counting Crows

Some experience prefer red

Own gear and transport essential

Interested?? Give me a call

Corey – (put home and/or cellular phone  number here)

As you may see, the ad is apparent in its intention.

It apparent ly states the musician wanted, the kind of music the band is playing, what the music may sound prefer and that the band has some experience behind it. Make sure you’ve a apparent contact name and phone numbers (if you want to include an email address as well that is cool).

Don’t put in stuff like ‘work waiting‘ or ‘no time has been ters please’. You might judge those sort of things yourself when an interested performer contacts you.

Once you have done that the waiting game begins.

Virtually all individuals would say the 1st thing to do is to find a name for the band. Lets start from there s club we??

The auditions are over, you’ve found your bass player and you all seem to get along really well. The excitement is in the air and you’ve had your first band bonding celebration.

Now its time to start your musical journey together.

Personally, I think that locating a performer name is THE hardest decision that the performer will ever have to make and and so one of the most important decisions as well.

A band name is a  surprisingly vital part of the bands identity. It is the 1st point of contact a punter has with the band.

I cannot recall how a lot of times people have raved about a band to me but cannot tell me the name when I ask them. Right there is the was ted opening  for a band. It frustrates me no end.

This is a best example of how extremely vital a performer name is.

The performer name is the 1st thing that a punter will recall. They will not address the performer by the names of the individuals in it when they talk to their companions (unless they are personal companions of yours) they’ll address the performer by its name.

The perfect way to find a band name is through sheer persistance. Locating a band name that is agreeable by anyone isn’t an easy task.

Here are some performer name get together suggestions:

1. Get every member to write down their personal list of potential band names

This can be the 1st task that the performer might do collectively. session a date for the 1st performer meeting and between now and then do that task.

2. Make brainstorming band names the topic of your first ever band meeting

When anybody at all gets together put all of the lists out on the table and go through each one keeping to one side the names that’strike a chord’ (sorry about the pun) with all of you and getting rid of the rest.

As a group try brainstorming some ideas. This is a amazing way to start formulating what the band is all about, what its image is etc, etc.

3. Establish a competition among all your friends /family/anyone else via email

This is a wonderful way to start compiling the beginnings of your bands email list. List all of your companions /family/anyone else that you want to include and their email addresses and compile them all into one mailing group. Send out an email outlining the competition and be ready for the ideas to come flooding in.

It is important to have a cut off date for the competition (perhaps by your first band meeting) and to have a prize on offer. Of course the prize is totally up to you.

Make sure that when you do find a performer name that you announce it through your email group. You’ve just started email promotion of your band.

Whatever you do have fun with the process and don’t let the quest to find a band name override the other things that you have to do such as writing songs and locating rehearsal space.

I guarantee that once you’ve agreed on a performer name you’ll all collectively breathe a immense sigh of relief. The hardest part of the journey has been achieved.

Here is could the most vital music industry tip you will ever receive:

Join up and subscribe to every indie music industry and DIY band promotion email list, newsletter and source that you can get your hands on and read everything that you receive.

I mean it when I say that too much information is much better than not enough, if what you have joined up or subscribed to isn’t giving you the information that you need then you may just opt out and un-subscribe.

Most websites that offer these things have the integrity to do as you ask.

Read what you receive, make notes, ask yourself if it is relavent for you and the place you are living in, integrate the information into your knowledge base.

The only way to capture this knowledge is by research, and the Internet is the perfect place to research anything.

Researching on the Web though will only give you general (but  nonetheless  exceedingly necessary ) indie music business knowledge. The real power comes from knowing your Local scene and turning into active in it.

Here are some ways that you may do this:

1. Create reading the music magazines in your area. Local street press is an invaluable tool in letting you know what is going on in the Local industry. Generally these magazines have features/interviews with Local bands, a concert  drive ( exceptional for targeting where to play), industry news and so on.

2. Go and see some Local/Regional bands. Check out your competition (I mean that as a figure of speech the the majority important thing about a Healthy indie music business is the community that builds from the music and the people who play it), introduce yourself, get out there amongst it all and immerse yourself in the vibe. Get familiar with the places these bands play at and know who to talk to when it is your turn to play there.

3. If the re are music associations where you live, join them. Anything that aids indie music on an association level seek it out and join up. If it costs resources to do that then do it (generally its not an expensive exercise). Joining these types of associations instantly gives you a sense of community and solidarity. also the amount of information you will secure about your Local/Regional area will be huge.

4. If the se Regional companies have web sites then bookmark them.

Need I say more on this topic. Most web sites for offline organizations offer more to On-line users of their services. It pays to be an active On-line user. One advantage that comes to mind is the fact that you’re able to participate in forums and messageboards which, in time will become convincing DIY marketing tools for you.

You got to start somewhere and the best place to start is with your own Regional area. As you expand your knowledge base you’ll work out ways to further your career and hopefully a snowball effect will start.

Once it stars, HANG ON!