What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- TuneWiki Hits Nokia Store, Integrates With FlyScreen
- PiL Launch Reunion Tour
- Interscope Records Becomes First Label in History to Sweep the Top Four Spots on Billboard
- Formula That Can ID Music Industry Payola Developed
- Morrissey Apologizes for Swords "Disaster", Disses Back Catalogue
- Mat Arluck of Sweet Cobra, Horace Pinker (1969-2009)
- The Beastie Boys '84 Public Access Debut
- R.I.P. Ryan Adams & the Cardinals Bassist Chris Feinstein
What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- Openness? Transparency? Not When Biden Gets To Hang With Entertainment Industry Lobbyists: Press Kicked Out
- "New" and unreleased Elliott Smith song - "Cecilia/Amanda"
- Ke$ha Sheds Some Light On 'Fireflies' By Pranking Owl City
- Vevo: One Week Later
- Vimeo Sued By Capitol Records Over Lip Dubs
- YouTube's Top Music Videos Of 2009
REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.
It is no secret that online radio is one of the best ways to find new music you may like. As a result, this is also one of the best ways to get your music heard by people who may potentially like it. Through the powerful recommendation engines that online radio outlets offer, you are able to target people who would potentially like your music, like you weren't able to just a few short years ago. Jango is one of the most popular online radio stations and with their Airplay feature you can choose artists who you are similar to, along with a variety of other features and find exactly the type of fans you would like to have listen to your music. Follow me to the jump and I will guide you through some tricks that will make putting your music on Jango even easier. 
One of those small little tricks that gets lost on many bands that are going the DIY route is a simple little trick that saves a few bucks and makes life easier. Odds are you are uploading your music to the net via TuneCore or another site like it they are going to be giving you a UPC code for your release. Time and time again I have seen artists not realize that you can indeed use the same code on your CD/LP and not pay for a new code. Simply go to a site like this one, copy and paste in the UPC TuneCore gave you and save the PNG file it gives you and drop it into your album layout! Easy! Washed Out - Belong (Music Video) from Blake Salzman on Vimeo.
What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.- Weezer January 2010 tour dates likely to be rescheduled
- The "Big Four" tour actually happening!
- Lil Wayne's Jail Term Begins 2/9
- James Mercer and Danger Mouse Announce Broken Bells Album
- Karen O Nominated for Golden Globe, Grammy for Wild Things Music
If you watch the above video you are probably as impressed as we are. TourSavant is a web service that will make your life on the read much easier in what looks to be an easy to use interface. If you don't feel like watching the video here are some of the features:
- Auto Tour Router - tell us where you want to start, how long to go and let our system set up a nice tour for you and hand pick the venues best for you. You can contact venues with a click of the mouse right from the Tour Planning screen to make it easy.
- Loadable Mastercard - get your free loadable personalized mastercard from TourSavant and get discounts at over 18,000 Gas stations in the USA. Up to 35% off 8000 hotels coming early 2010. Track you band's spending and manage your band's money with this tool. Using this card alone could easily MAKE YOUR MEMBERSHIP VIRTUALLY FREE.
- Ranked and Band Rated Venue Database we have data on approximately 16,000 venues in North America with rankings and ratings from bands like you to help make it smarter for you.
- Virtual Road Manager - 24/7 Access to an experienced and helpful road manager by phone, email or text to help you solve your issues on the road with our TS PRO package
- Free Gigs tonight! - sign up and get a text when you have an off
night and a venue in your area needs a band for a slot. over 20,000
venues involved.
- Gear Insurance / replacement - we are working on a next level insurance product to make sure your 3 weeks of fun and fame aren't cut short when your one amp is stolen the 2nd night out.
While this speech focuses on his book, much of this is very wise advice that can be applied to the music industry.
TopSpin's blog has up another fantastic post today about a new project from members of everyones favorite aged indie rockers The Pixies, called The Everybody. The group did the smart thing and teamed up with TopSpin to create a iTunes LP that can be downloaded through a TopSpin store. Sites like Your Digital Record and others will enable you to deliver a cool user experience to your fans. The Everybody even made it so that their fans can mix one of the songs albums. iTunes LP's are the new Enhanced CD?
In more news of the playing field being evened between DIY artists and the Indie and Major labels TuneCore will now be enabling it's customers to obtain what the labels have had for a while - ad based revenue sharing on streams from Myspace. Any news in this regard is great news but we aren't quite wetting our pants over this one, seeing as Myspace's traffic isn't what it used to be and the CPM for ads of this kind isn't exactly great. This can be an amazing step for those few bands who do get streams in the millions before they are even signed (ugh Brokencyde) in being able to help sustain their living and getting paid what is due to them.
To get yourself paid in this manner you will need to opt in via TuneCore and add the service like you would any store. The service is rumored to launch later this week.
To get yourself paid in this manner you will need to opt in via TuneCore and add the service like you would any store. The service is rumored to launch later this week.
What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- One Of The 32 Million With A RockYou Account? You May Want To Change All Your Passwords. Like Now.
- Courtney Love Loses Custody of Frances Bean
- 4 More Tips for Using Google Wave on Your First Project
- ASCAP Now Demanding License From Venues That Let People Play Guitar Hero
REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.
Much of the focus of this site and a hot topic in the New Music Industry is the ideas of super fans and why we should cater to them. But is there a consequence for marketing almost exclusively to these music geek and ignoring some of the casual fans? Jeremy Scholsberg thinks so. He has an interesting article with some points you may not have considered yet today over at Music Think Tank. We respectfully disagree with a number of these consequences, but keeping the casual listener in mind is an interesting point to consider. What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- About that LBO, Continued: Terra Now Suing Citibank Over EMI Deal
- Torrent site Demonoid is finally back after 3 months
- Pandora Planning To Hit The Road With In-Car Access
- WordPress Makes Blogging On The Fly Easier, Integrates With Twitter API
- Drummer Found Dead in Brooklyn Apartment
- Lala chief could steer iTunes away from downloads
- Lou Reed Launches iPhone App That Has Nothing to Do With Lou Reed
- Weezer's Rivers Cuomo Discharged From Hospital, Headed Home
- John Frusciante Has Left Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Coachella 2010 dates, pre-sale & layaway announced
- Emo Labs Raises $1.5 Million For Invisible Speaker Technology
- Apple Launches Redesign of the App Store
- New Buddyhead Gossip
- Behringer Take over Midas and Klark Teknik
- The Google Phone: This changes everything (mostly)
REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.
As much as we talk about about blogs and websites being the place to focus on for press, it is not the only place that can give you big bumps in traffic and sales. Even though it may not be as cool and esteemed as the blogs, having your local area or state paper write your band up can see giant spikes in plays and album sales. We have been watching traffic numbers and are shocked at the huge traffic bumps artists that we work with get whenever receiving these spots. Just because the world is in constant buzz of print dying, it does not mean the corpse does not still have some power.
If you want to pursue this method of getting press it can be as easy as watching the papers articles and writing down the names of writers who would potentially cover you and send press packs to their attention. Go old school and work on some print press.
If you want to pursue this method of getting press it can be as easy as watching the papers articles and writing down the names of writers who would potentially cover you and send press packs to their attention. Go old school and work on some print press.
If you were one the unfortunate souls who bought into using SnoCap to sell your music on Myspace, you just got a really odd shaped sword dug into you by the recent purchase of iMeem by Myspace. When Myspace purchased iMeem they did not purchase the liability of having to pay out to SnoCap customers which leaves all of the customers waiting to get paid to stand behind big boys like the banks and creditors. Rough! To get the full story head to Wired.
Not our strongest week of content to say the least! It seems the whole music industry is out Xmas shopping because not much is happening. See you guys next week for a ton of Top Ten lists and a year in review!- Public Enemy's Fan Funding Is A Joke? How They Could Have Done It Better
- 10 Things You Should Know About Recording Vocals For Beginners
- You Should Have A Dynamic Pricing Strategy For Your Next Release
- RockBand Launches Creators Site So Unsigned/Indie Bands Can Make Their Own Rockband Songs
- Obituary Of A Theory: You Need To Record Drums First
- VeVo Has Launched! So What Happens Over There Aside From Slow Service?
- Billy Corgan Embraces Free, But Does This Work For An Artist In His Position?
- Band Tips: Have A Video Of Live Show Footage
- SilentEar EarPlugs Are A Cheap Great Sounding Solution To Protect Your Hearing
- Myspace Has Killed iMeem, At Least That Is One Less Profile You Need To Update!
- Microphone Fail
- #FollowFriday @FakeBobLefsetz
- Use Facebook Event Invites To Tell Your Friends When Your Music Is Being Released
What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- Who would you like for Bonnaroo 2010?
- Tegan And Sara, Metric among Lilith Fair performers
- Pabst Smear? The AV Club's Year in Band Names...
- TVOTR's Tunde Adebimpe, Michel Gondry Draw Their Best David Bowie
- Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch is "feeling fine" after cancer battle, talks album release
- How Billboard's Decade-End Charts Are Compiled
- Art of Dying sign to Reprise
- Upon A Burning Body have signed to Sumerian Records
- Panic Records signs At Half-Mast and Iron Rain
- Michael Warren signed to Atlantic Records
What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- Apple Stole Lala From Google, and Things Are Just Getting Ugly [Unconfirmed]
- Vevo CEO confirms it's all about business
- Paul Westerberg signs with Bug Music
- Karen O Snags Grammy Nod After Miley Cyrus is Disqualified
- Gun Battle In Times Square: When Hawking CDs Kills
- The Top Ten Viral Videos Of 2009 (Are Mostly Music Videos)
- CrunchPad Federal Lawsuit Filed; Some Additional Thoughts
- R.I.P. Flight Of The Conchords
Earlier this year we all got very excited that Public Enemy would be using the website SellABand to try to raise $250K to fund their new record. Unfortunately, in the last 2 months they have only made about $70K, while some of the music punditry is pointing at this to say that this is not a viable model and that this is stupid idea in the economy we are in, I don't think that is the proper analysis and instead this failure (so far) lies in the structure of how they tiered the funding.
For one, they did not need $250K to just record their new record, this is 2009 and countless cutting edge producers would love to work with the classic group. If effort was put in to find a cutting edge crew of producers the album could be recorded for far less and would probably benefit the recorded output greatly.
The other problem is that the group has not done it's best to raise awareness. Crowdfunding is still new in the public eye's and though this endeavor may have been written up in many major music publications, it takes time to get the public to understand what is going on. The group should take the funds they raise and record singles, putting them out there and making sure the public understands these were funded through SellABand. This will raise awareness, something I have not seen done in this project.
If PE are indeed capturing the glory days of their sound and making a great record like they used to, I along with many other people who clocked thousands of hours listening to their material will be happy to fund them getting back into the game. Crowdfunding still needs some PR work and structuring, in order for people to believe in this new purchasing model you are going to have to "show them the money" before they believe it is real. In time if fans get used to this being a viable means to support great music they will be more likely to fund projects and grant trust that the product will be good. Until then you need to lure them in with enticement and proof that it is a venture worth funding.
For one, they did not need $250K to just record their new record, this is 2009 and countless cutting edge producers would love to work with the classic group. If effort was put in to find a cutting edge crew of producers the album could be recorded for far less and would probably benefit the recorded output greatly.
The other problem is that the group has not done it's best to raise awareness. Crowdfunding is still new in the public eye's and though this endeavor may have been written up in many major music publications, it takes time to get the public to understand what is going on. The group should take the funds they raise and record singles, putting them out there and making sure the public understands these were funded through SellABand. This will raise awareness, something I have not seen done in this project.
If PE are indeed capturing the glory days of their sound and making a great record like they used to, I along with many other people who clocked thousands of hours listening to their material will be happy to fund them getting back into the game. Crowdfunding still needs some PR work and structuring, in order for people to believe in this new purchasing model you are going to have to "show them the money" before they believe it is real. In time if fans get used to this being a viable means to support great music they will be more likely to fund projects and grant trust that the product will be good. Until then you need to lure them in with enticement and proof that it is a venture worth funding.
Usually we reserve this space for people who are doing something to show you how to use Twitter right. This time we just need to laugh at the genius of someone who has nailed the hyperbole and blow-hard nonsense of everyone's favorite music industry troll, Bob Lefsetz . FakeBobLefsetz is by far one of the best satire Twitter feeds I have ever seen and with tweets like this one I hope you are close to the toilet:
"Sure @Iancr likes music enough. PT Barnum liked clowns too. Has he ever dressed a mannequin like Bonnie Rait & sobbed w. it in the dark?"
Earlier this week we told you about Thesis a way to customize your WordPress blog. Upon further investigation we also found a WP theme made specifically for bands and musicians and it looks to be a good looking design. Backstage will enable you to do many of the functions that a band needs while gaining access to the many features of WordPress. Check it out!
You have probably been seeing it, just as I have. Musicians are now starting to catch on to the bright idea of announcing when they are putting up new songs with Facebook even invitations. Announcing this can be a great way to drum up support and get your "friends" to help you out and check out your new music. While this may seem spammy, these people are your friends right? Not just some asshole you met in a bar and talked with for 5 minutes only to wake up to a friend request... No matter what, all the kids are doing it and it is another way to get your music spread around the Interwebs.
What we are reading on the Internet that may be of interest to you or potentially melt your brain with it's stupidity.
- How Lala and the Web Will Make iTunes Even More Powerful
- Billboard Sold, Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Are Shuttered
- The White Stripes craft incredibly awesome Under Great White Northern Lights box set
- Sonic Youth Working on Soundtrack, Live DVD, New Album
- Lil Wayne's Rebirth Pushed Back. Again.
- White Stripes to Release Live Box Set
REMINDER: Each of those buttons up top will make this site show articles written only on that particular subject or you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds.
Most Popular Posts
Guide To Getting Your Band Somewhere
Esssential Music Business Knowledge
Esssential Songwriting Knowledge
Esssential Recording Knowledge
Recent Op-Eds
Esssential Knowledge for Vocalists
Essential Pro Tools Tips
Esssential Knowledge for Drummers
Esssential Knowledge for Guitarists
Blog Roll
