Archive for July, 2010

Is This The Number One Reason Musicians Fail?

Friday, July 30th, 2010
Failing Poor Musician

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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How To Get Your First Profitable Mailing List Up And Running

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Mailing List Companies

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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Dealing With Gig Nerves And Performance Nerves, The Ultimate Guide

Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Gig nerves and performance nerves

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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The Best Ways To Promote Your Music On A Budget

Sunday, July 11th, 2010
How to promote your music on a budget

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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Can You Make A Full Time Living As An Independent Musician?

Monday, July 5th, 2010
Earn a full time living with music

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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How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part 3

Thursday, July 1st, 2010
How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part 3

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, from how to make a mixtape, to more complex and specific ones on pricing and releaseing your mixtape. 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. These posts becase the “How To Make A Mixtape” series, one of which you’re reading now. 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 of how to make a mixtape 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 “how to make a mixtape” posts before reading this one:

Other How To Make A Mixtape Parts

  1. How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part One, and
  2. How To Make A Mixtape, The Ultimate Guide Part Two.

If you’ve already read those How To Make A Mixtape guides, we can move forward…
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