September 1st, 2010
Doing live shows is an important part of anyone’s music career, it’s a great way of meeting your fans face to face and allowing them a different kind of contact with you. It’s also a great place to make CD sales and build up life long fans, as if you impress with a performance you’ve got a lot of power at that moment.
A problem many musicians face however is being able to get gigs to perform at. If you’ve never performed at a show before, what proof have you got to show venues you’re worth hiring? Thankfully there are ways around that, which is what I’m going to share with you in this article. May I say though, if you’ve never done a show before and are nervous about the whole thing, check out our post on dealing with gig nerves. There’s some good tips in there about getting shows to practice your live performances too, so have a look. But anyway, here are how to get your band booked (Also works for solo musicians).
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Tags: how to get gigs for your band, live performances
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August 21st, 2010
Since the death of MySpace (It is official, right?) everyone’s been looking for a MySpace replacement. Not only that, but everyone who knows a bit about web design and is into music is trying to create the next big thing. I regularly get emails from people trying to get us to cover their new music website, but most don’t offer enough to make it worth mentioning. A couple of days ago however, I was contacted by a representative from NME, a popular music magazine in the UK. They told me NME had started up a new “online space for budding musicians to showcase their talent” and that I should check it out. While it sounded like any other email I’d get sent about these sites, I decided to check it out due to it having such a large name behind it. Check out the short video below to see what it’s all about and I’ll see you on the other side:
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August 15th, 2010
Please Note: While this is a music website, this guide can be used by anyone wanting to make a profitable website fast. Please skip the below intro if you want to get straight introduction building your own website.
Today we’re going to be looking at how you can set up your very own successful music website. Whether you’re a solo musician or part of a ten man band, you NEED a website. We’ve talked about this previously in the topic ‘Why All Musicians Need A “.com” Website‘, but for those of you that missed that we’ll explain again.
Having your own website centralises your fan base. While other websites like Facebook and Twitter are useful to have and gain interest from, they aren’t a place where you can communicate with your fans on all levels. Instead, they should be used as tools to get your fans back to your website and sign up to your mailing list (We’ll talk about why this should be your main aim later on).
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Tags: How Do You Make A Website, How To Build Your Own Website
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August 6th, 2010
Getting your music career to take off can be a timely process. You have to work your way up through the ranks, proving yourself to possess the skills and talent required to be a success along the way. Most people don’t get signed by a major record label as soon as they post their first video on YouTube, and it can often be a good while till you start getting the recognition and sales you deserve. Because of this, it’s essential you don’t make that process any slower then it has to be. Working efficiently will mean you achieve your goals a lot quicker, and often save money on the way. Here are five tips that will allow you to be more efficient in your independent music career.
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Tags: Achieving Success, Networking, Recording Studio
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July 30th, 2010
It seems like less and less people are succeeding with their music career. And I know the meaning of the word success can mean different things to different people, but lots of talented musicians simply aren’t reaching their full potential. Have you ever seen an act so talented you couldn’t work out why they hadn’t done more? Or seen a band that outshone their mainstream alternatives yet haven’t been swooped up by a label?
While there are many reasons a musician may not reach their full potential, there is one reason that continues to hold back many a talented musician: The lack of the right mentality!
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July 22nd, 2010
Mailing lists (Aka newsletters) are one of the most under used tools by independent musicians. Though they’re one of the most powerful ways to making money and keep in contact with fans, very few independent musicians use them and are therefore losing out on a lot of money. Major labels have been using newsletter and mailing lists for years to effectively communicate with fans and make sales, but no one’s really told the ‘little guy’ why ‘the money’s in the list’. In this article we’ll be looking at what mailing lists are, why they’re so effective at keeping you connected with fans and making you money, the different types of email marketing services there are (And which is best for you), and finally how to build your own money making list.
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Tags: Email Marketing, How To, Mailing List
Posted in Music Discussion | 3 Comments »
July 17th, 2010
Public speaking is seen to be a fate worse then death for some. The process of standing in front of a room full of people delivering a speech can make even the most bubbly person shake from head to toe. If you want to take your music career to the next level however, most likely you will have to speak in public at some point. And not only will you have to speak, but you’ll also have to perform your music and get on an elevated stage so everyone can see you CLEARLY. Sound fun? Well actually, it can be once you get used to it! Some people truly believe performing live to fans and connecting with them in person is one of the best parts of being a musician. If you’re one of the people who suffer from gig nerves or performance nerves however, we’ve created a guide to minimizing pre-performance nerves, and getting you comfortable with performing shows once and for all…
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Tags: Gigs, Nerves, Ultimate Guides
Posted in Music Discussion | 2 Comments »
July 11th, 2010
Today we thought we’d look at some of the best methods of promotion available on a budget. We know many independent musicians don’t have a huge budget, so any type of promotion would ideally need to be cheap or free. They’d also need to be easy to implement and easily integrated with other types of promotion. With that in mind, we’ve come up with some of the best ways to promote your music on a budget. But the best part? All of these types of promotion have been proven to work!
While the following list has many useful ideas, you don’t have to use all of them when it comes to your promotional campaign. You may instead want to focus your efforts on doing a few of them well if you have a limited amount of time or resources. So read on and see what types of promotion are best for you…
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Tags: Music On A Budget, Music Promotion
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July 5th, 2010
Like many musicians, I’m sure at some point you’ve dreamed about making it big. To have unlimited adoring fans, enough money to live the life you’ve always wanted, and to carry on doing what you enjoy; making the music you love! This is a natural dream for all starting out musicians, though it’s not always as easy as that…
In all honesty, only a very small percentage of people make a worthwhile wage from their music. The majority of musicians unfortunately don’t break even, spending money pressing up CDs that don’t end up selling. I’m not saying that their CDs aren’t worth buying (Although some of them probably aren’t), a lot of people just don’t know what to do once they have their music on the shelves. Humans aren’t naturally sales people after all…
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Tags: Achieving Success
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July 1st, 2010
Welcome to the third and final part of the ‘How To Make A Mixtape’ series. This series was started because we kept receiving mixtape related questions. After replying to a few of those questions individually, we decided to create a series of posts where people could get all the answers they need instantly. So far in this series we’ve answered beginner questions like “What is a mixtape”, to more popular questions such as “Can you use other people’s beats on your mixtape” and “How do you make your mixtape stand out from the crowd”. In this final part, we’ll be look at some questions you’ll need to ask yourself when pricing your mixtape, releasing your mixtape, and promoting your mixtape.
While there’s some very useful information in this topic, our previous topics on the subject provide info on the earlier steps on making the ultimate mixtape. So if you haven’t already done so, you may want to check our previous posts before reading this one:
- How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part One, and
- How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part Two.
If you’ve already read those we can move forward…
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Tags: How To, Mixtapes, Music Distribution, Music Promotion, Selling Your Music
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How Independent Should A Independent Musician Be?
How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part 2