The PR Payoff

The ‘Entry Level’ for musicians is saturated with music school dropouts and the proud owners of Bandcamp domains (but not much else). The best way to set yourself apart and break into junior management is to invest in a PR campaign. While the word “invest” has most likely made you cringe a little, it a necessary evil if you want music to be your full time job. In the meantime, you are your bandmates should spend 6 months to a year focused on working the most lucrative jobs you can find, even if it means pushing your music to the sidelines a little bit. Earn and save as much money as possible and when the time comes, launch your career with a professionally strategized PR campaign to give yourself the best chance for success. 

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Facebook Videos

When it comes to releases videos, YouTube is not the only show in town. Depending on how engaged you are with social media, you may or may not realize that Facebook also offers a video platform. While its service doesn’t carry the same notoriety, if you were going to post your YouTube video on Facebook anyway (which you obviously were), this may be a more direct way of going about it. 

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Tips For Sponsorship

One of the best and relatively new ways to for an artist to breakthrough into notoriety is gaining sponsorship from companies (i.e., Red Bull, Converse) trying to get a foothold in the music industry.  Just a few or the benefits you stand to gain are spots on festival showcases such as SXSW, a song or two’s worth of pop-up studio time, and of course free national/international publicity. However, the number one thing that stands between you and an opportunity like this is knowing how to approach these companies appropriately.

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Leave Them Wanting More (...But Make Them Pay In Advance)

There is a new platform for music sharing weaseling its way onto the social media landscape. Spawnsong allowed musicians to share 'teasers' of brand new material to get the potential fan engage in your music by showing them a glimpse of your creative process. Not only does it offer a way to gain the best kind of fan, but it also applies a proven marketing and advertising principle to the world of unsigned bands. Most people tend to decide whether or not they are interested in a product within the first few seconds of a commercial, and tend towards a similar decision-making process when it comes to new music. Of course we are also reminded of the adage: “Leave them wanting more.” If you can grab a listener with a 30-second clip, they’ll have the opportunity to buy the work-in-progress, pre-order the upcoming release and will be waiting on the edge of their seats in the meantime. If you can really get them hooked, they may even be inclined to check out your previous work and pick up something to hold them over. The idea is still be being developed but a preliminary version of the website is up and worth taking a look at.

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You're Doing It Wrong...

Anyone who has anything to say about the state of the music industry today, particularly the Indie sector, is likely to mention the benefits of social media. The problem is that potential "weapon" one might have - whether its for a band, an athlete, a politician, or just a literal weapon - has the potential for backfiring, and this is exactly what happens when most Indie musicians login to Facebook or Twitter.

Despite seeing little or no results from posting "Check our new album" three times a week for six months, most bands continue to do so. This is a somewhat of a curious tactic considering the fact that seeing ads for the Gap eight times a day hasn't worked on them or their friends so why do they think it will work for their music? There's got. To be. A better. WAY!

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Practice Makes Perfect (or Better)

Some musicians will cringe at the thought of going over the same songs week after week during rehearsal. Some bands are terrified of straying from their routine, living in fear of hitting a wrong note on stage or seeming amateurish to people who haven't heard them before. Intuitively, it may not seem possible to "screw up" a rehearsal but if your band is described by either of these extremes, that is exactly what you're doing. Yes, you need discipline because you don't want to be too sloppy on stage if a last minute gig comes up but you also need to be making forward progress and trying new things.  Each rehearsal should consist of at least a warm-up of some kind, a run through your set (exactly as you would play it on stage, leg kicks, banter and all) and some amount of time devoted to developing new material.

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In Defense of Streaming

Lately, it seems like the discussion relative to streaming services has been all ‘doom and gloom’. With all the talk of lowballed, undelivered, nonexistent royalties, streaming has become synonymous with the infamous artist exploitation of the 50s and 60s. However, ‘scam’ or not, these services still provide a powerful platform for emerging artists, even if they don’t provide powerful income.

First of all, even if you are not taking advantage of the services, your potential fans are. The best way to gain new fans is to meet them 95% of the way, since they are not likely to go looking for you.

They also provide an avenue to work around the stranglehold that major label have (or used to have) on distribution. Additionally, streaming analytic features provide information invaluable to future decision-making.

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'Search & Employ'

If you’re a songwriter who, for whatever reason, find yourself without a band, you might be uncertain of how to advance your career. Maybe you have a hard time working with others, maybe you live inside a tree deep in the woods of Montana, maybe you had a band but slept with somebody’s girlfriend/boyfriend, or maybe you’re just not interested in the band concept. Nonetheless, you probably want your music to have a fuller sound than it does at the open-mics you frequent, but aren’t sure how to accomplish this. The answer to this is simple; session (or ‘studio’) musicians.

If you’re adequate and comfortable with all of the instruments you want represented on your demo, it may be tempting to play all of the parts yourself. Some musicians have definitely had significant success with this (sound-wise, not necessarily financially). If you really want to do this, a home recording might be the best format for experimentation. But if you’re paying for studio time, session musicians are probably the way to go. The simplest reason is because they’re more experienced. They can work faster, take direction better than your friends ever would, and may even have something crucial to add to your song(s). To read more, click the link below:   

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'OK Computer', Let's Get Famous

It’s no secret that the landscape of the music industry is changing drastically. Case and point; I have probably already started several entries in the past month or so with an almost identical sentence. The change that’s probably most beneficial to musicians is the development of home recording technology. It’s easy to get excited about this technology when you first obtain a program but there are a number of steps you should take to make the most of your time and the money you spent on the program or legal risk you took by downloading it.

A great place to start is with a good microphone. It doesn’t need to be the one Radiohead uses but it helps to think about it like your audience. If the audience is good, attentive and interested, you’ll have a good show and make a good impression. If the audience is drunk and have ears full of who-knows-what, the results will be discouraging. Other details to concern your self with in this vein are microphone placement and eliminating background noise.

Another good tip is not to be sloppy. Make sure you’re in tune, the recording levels are right and mind your mistakes. Not everything can be ‘fixed later’ (during mixing/post-production) stage. In fact, most things can’t. Mixing and post-production can make what you’ve recorded sound as good as possible but it can’t change what you’ve recorded. For more tips, click the link below:

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"Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad"…But One Of Three Is Enough

Although the recent financial success of DIY artists is cause for hope in the record industry (or something like it), there is no set formula for achieving this. This is because though there are many outlets at your disposal, the reality is that most of them aren’t going to work. Three of the most popular platforms are YouTube, touring and syncing placements.

YouTube is probably the cheapest form of music distribution around with costs ranging from none to almost none, an ideal spectrum for any musician who stands nothing to lose but seems to be gaining even less. Life on the road can be hard but the contemporary benefits of this approach include the ease of promotion through social networking and the rise of ‘house shows’ who generally won’t take a cut and are much more accepting of unknown artists, cutting out the cost and frustration of dealing with club owners who have profit margins on the brain rather than music. Syncing placements can be pricey as it often involves paying professionals make it happen and market properly, but the gains can be much more substantial.

There are plenty examples of artists who have succeeded at all three, but if you’re not there yet the odds are against you. The best advice if you’re a truly DIY artist (i.e., broke) is to pick the one you feel most comfortable in and focus your efforts there. For a comprehensive guide to these platforms and making this choice, click the link below:

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'A Walk On The Wild Side' Earns A Click On Your Website

Have you ever been to a music festival like Coachella or South By Southwest? Try to think about how many bands played and how many you actually saw. Maybe you went into the festival with a comprehensive list of what bands you wanted to see, when they were playing, where and so forth. I’m willing to bet you didn’t cover much more than half of your list. Why? There are a lot of f****** bands out there. Maybe you wore yourself out watching The Walkmen and Andrew Bird just wasn’t appealing enough. Is there anything Andrew Bird could have done to command your attention? Yes! But this isn’t just good advice for Andrew Bird, it’s a good strategy for you too. 

If established musicians have a hard time commanding attention, imagine how many bands out there are in the same boat as you. If you want to make it to the next level, it is absolutely imperative that you take action to set yourself apart from the crowd. One way is with impressive visuals. The bridges between the five senses are exceptionally powerful. Have you ever smelled something in your fridge and spent an hours to figure out what it is? The same can work here. If someone is captivated by an image, they will be curious to know where it’s coming from and hopefully, they won’t just throw you out like expired yogurt. Another good way is by giving people what they already want, but in a way they didn’t know they wanted it. Record a cover of a popular song but do something to make it your own. Anything you can think of really, different arrangement, different instrumentation, different genre. It will make people curious about what else you can do. A third way to stand out is to make a statement, preferably something controversial. You’re not going to win over everyone so don’t waste your energy. Get excited about an issue, a school of thought, something. Like minded people will be drawn to you and they’re excitement for what they believe will translate to excitement for your songs. To read more, click the link below.  

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