Finding Fans In New Places

Most musicians know the general way to make fans - find people who like the kind of music you play. Common sense, right? But what happens when you've hit up all the venues that play your genre, exhausted all the "I love Rock N Roll" groups on Facebook and connected to everyone who has "rock" listed in music interests?

Here's are some examples from a Music Think Tank article writen by Simon Tam.

Using “social” apps such as Foursquare or Yelp: 

You’re probably familiar with the concept of “checking in” to places but have you thought about creating a band account so that fans can follow you on tour? What about writing reviews of restaurants, bars, or venues? Your band could create “lists” of favorite places on each site. You can even take things a step further with this:

For example, my band is passionate about food, especially Asian food. So we collected everyone’s favorite restaurants and wrote simple reviews/recommendations for them and I created an Asian Food Guide that fans could download. In addition, we created window decals for each of the restaurants  to display at their restaurant and sent them a letter for display so that people would see they were selected by our band for being one of our favorite places in the city. These same places also posted the guide on their websites so their customers could download our restaurant guide. We also worked with some of the restaurants to give discounts to our fans who mentioned the guide too. It didn’t cost us much but it did lead to several thousand downloads of the food guide and many new, unexpected fans as a result!

Using something that you are passionate about:

 If you’re active in your community, chances are that at some point, you will be asked by someone to donate your time to perform for a fundraising event or charity. However, you could always take a proactive approach in finding causes that are close to home. Use sites like Charity Navigator or VolunteerMatch to find an organization, then contact them about volunteer opportunities or performing. But don’t just perform at a fundraiser, find ways to get more active.. and get more publicity - donate a portion of merchandise sales to the fundraiser, or offer free mp3's to people who donate. You can also sign your band up as a fundraising team (especially for events like March of Dimes, Relay For Life, etc.) so that your band’s name/story can be shared with all fundraising participants. 

Are you an expert?:

Speaking of passions, if you are an expert on something, consider writing Op-Ed letters representing your band (if there are related events). You can also sign up for Help a Reporter Out (HARO)  as a potential source that reporters can contact when they are writing an articles. HARO sends emails out three times per day and you have to be exceptionally quick in responding, but you can get some new/interesting publicity for your music. Best of all, this service is free!

For example, last year, Travel & Leisure Magazine had an article on America’s Worst Drivers. When the reporter was looking for sources, I responded as a touring musician with some crazy road stories who could comment on that. It was quick, fun, and I landed some immediate publicity for my band through Travel & Leisure, as well as weather.com, Hufftington Post, MSNBC, and other places that cited the article.

Click Here for the original article

Best Computers for Musicians

In today's industry, it's almost essential to be able to mix and edit all your own tracks at home. Hey, it's gets pricey having to rent out studios and pay someone to mix your tracks for you! There are only, you know, thousands upon thousands of computer and tablets out there nowadays, so how do you know which one will be best for your music needs? Well, Nicky Elkins, staff writer for BBGeeks & AndGeeks, composed this list of the best laptops and tablets for musicians. So before you drop all that money on recording, maybe consider getting one of these and do it yourself! In the long run, you'll probably be saving a ton of money!

Professional M Series by MusicXPC

The Professional M Series laptop was designed specifically for music production and editing. The computer comes with an Intel Core i7 Mobile Quad-Core Processor, giving you enough power to run your recording and editing software. It comes with a 500 GB hard drive, which can be upgraded to 750 GB, giving you more storage for your songs. The laptop comes with internal memory that varies depending on the model you get; it comes with 4GB, 8GB, or 16B. Of course, if that still isn't enough storage, you can always get an external hard drive. The M Series comes with 5.1 Realtek ALC662 HD sound with Intel's High Definition Audio, and is lightweight and portable. The M Series also runs Windows 7 operating system and has multiple inputs and outputs, such as USB, HDMI, and a Multi-Card reader. This is a great laptop that can be used not only for your music production, but for everyday tasks as well.

Thinkpad W530 by Lenovo

The Thinkpad W530 is a powerful machine that can help you create the perfect sound. This laptop has a second generation Intel i7 processor and runs Windows 7 operating system. Depending on the model you get, this laptop can come with up to a 1TB hard drive, or up to a 180GB Intel solid sate drive (SSD). Thisultrabook weighs almost 6 lbs, so you can easily travel with it. The W530 is a fast computer with RapidBoot and InstantResume, and comes with Dolby Home Theater v4 audio for a quality sound. It has several different inputs and outputs, as well as a Multi-Burner/DVD CD Multi-Rec optical drive. This is a fast and powerful machine that can handle several types of production software.

iMac by Apple

The iMac can be a great addition to any sound recording studio. Like the others, it comes with an Intel i7 Core Processor and you can add up to 16GB of DDR3 Memory, or you can opt to get a 256GB SSD. The iMac is an all-in-one desktop computer that has no tower. It comes with many connections on the back of the monitor, like the audio line out, and the optical digital audio line input. Using this desktop keeps your cords to a minimum by using Bluetooth wireless connections for your magic mouse or track pad and keyboard. You can even hook up portable, wireless speakers for a clearer sound. The iMac has enough power for industry standard music production and editing software, as well as video editing and production programs.

Motorola Xoom

Many musicians don't normally think about tablets when it comes to their productions, but the Motorola Xoom is a very powerful contender when it comes to portable music production. The Motorola Xoom uses the Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Android operating system. It has an ARM 1GHZ Dual Core Processor and up to 32GB of internal storage. For a tablet, the Xoom has quality audio and supports most of the popular audio file types. While there is no CD drive, there are many connections that you can use to download or transfer music. There are many apps on the Android market that can be a quick fix to audio production on the go. This tablet is a good option for the traveling musician who can't carry a ton of equipment.

Eee Slate by Asus

The Eee Slate seems to be the best of both worlds when it comes to portable computing. It has an Intel Dual-Core i5 Processor as well as 4GB of internal memory. The Slate runs Windows 7 which can run software intended for desktops as well as some apps for sound production. Currently though, the Eee Slate doesn't have a lot of touch screen applications it can use. It comes with an HD Audio CODEC and stereo speakers. The tablet has many inputs and outputs for USB, HDMI, and audio connections. It comes with a stylus, Bluetooth keyboard, and the option to use a USB mouse, letting you use it as a laptop if you need to. This is a very useful device for someone who wants the operating power and capabilities of a laptop, but wants something portable like a tablet. The Eee Slate has plenty of RAM and storage options letting you run quality audio software.

Click Here for the original article 

Making A Highly Profitable and Sustainable Music Career

The goal for most musicians is to be able to make living off their music career. For some people who do it solely for artistic expression and not for the money, then you can stay at your regular 9-5 and be miserable and get no where with your career.

For everyone else, this is a great article I found on Music Think Tank about how to make a living by being a musician. So if you think you have it in you, read on to see the common mistakes people make and learn how to correct them! But check out the original article because it has a ton more info in it!

1. Not Taking The Time To Identify Your Market
One of the most common mistakes made by musicians is that they spend the time to create an album, increase their musical skills, or work in another area of the music industry, but when it comes time to receive the payoff for their hard work, they have great difficulty making any money. This happens because they have not taken the time to build a database of customers who are ready and willing to pay for the value that the musician is offering. 

2.Not Having Solid Goals And Ways To Reach Them
To earn a good living in the music industry, you MUST develop a specific plan for how you will reach your goals. If you merely fantasize about making a lot of money, this is not enough to make this goal a reality. Rather than fantasizing, start working toward what you want to achieve by asking yourself the following questions:

1. What is your desired yearly income from your music career?
2. What are the sources of musical income that will make the amount in question 1 possible?
3. What action must you take to set up these sources of income? (Read this article on music industry career development to find out more on this subject.)
4. How many ways can you ADD VALUE to your interactions with people in the music business? (Think of every possibility!)
5. How many ways can you eliminate risk for other people in the music business

After you have figured out your answers for each question above, you must focus on making every action you take in your music career go toward achieving the exact goals you have made for yourself.

3.Thinking That Popularity = Making A Lot Of Money In The Music Industry

Fact is, the majority of musicians who are ‘making it’ in the music industry are NOT rock stars. Being part of a popular band does not mean that you will be earning a great living. The truth is that some musicians (who are very popular) still work side jobs just to get by. By understanding this, you will be able to push ‘fame’ aside in order to focus on the most effective ways to work toward your goal of making a good living in music. Of course it is possible to both be famous AND make a lot of money in the music industry, however it is most important at this point to focus your efforts on the appropriate aspects of your goal.

4.Not Taking The Time To Set Up Various Music Related Sources Of Income
It is common for musicians to treat their music career in the same manner that they have treated any other job that they have had. They expect a single paycheck at the end of an established period of time from doing a “single” activity. Unfortunately, this approach will NOT help you to achieve financial success in the music business. In order to make a good living in your music career, you must stop thinking from the mindset of obtaining a single sum of money as your main goal. Instead, you must work to build many different sources of musical income that go into your bank account on an ongoing, residual basis. By taking this approach, it becomes much easier to make a lot of money from music. In fact, musicians who use this method with save themselves time as well (because they do not have to continually work to get a paycheck). This enables them to have more freedom to pursue things such as writing music, touring and performing, or recording in the studio. In the end, it is important to have income coming in from both your active efforts and your past efforts that you already took the time to set up (that continue to make you money). Additionally, by approaching your music career in this manner, you will feel much more stable since you will not be dependent on any single source of income to pay your bills

5.Not Consistently Providing Additional Value To Other People In The Music Industry
 If you don’t want to blend in with the crowd and go unnoticed, you will need to gain the upper hand on your music competition by creating value that far exceeds that of what most musicians are able to offer. This does NOT simply mean working on developing your music skills! Developing truly high value in your music career deals with many different aspects of your personal mindset, emotional stability under stress, and ability to work very hard on a consistent basis. If you want to make a lot of money in your music career, you will need to make it 110% clear that you are the number one choice when someone in the music industry must choose between you and your competitors. In fact, this must be TOTALLY clear before anyone has even listened to one second of your music!

This may seem like a simple concept as you are reading it right now. However, as simple as it may be, almost all musicians DO NOT build their music careers by acting on this basic principle. To find out how prepared you are to use this idea in your won music career, fill out this assessment on creating value as a musician. By increasing your potential to create value (for all people involved) during any music related activity, you will be able to quickly earn a lot of money in the music business.



Click Here for the original article

How to Develop a Hardcore Fan Base

Every musician needs one thing to be successful (and no it's not necessarily talent because, let's face it, we all know some big-name musicians that are pretty talent-less!). Musicians need fans! Fans are the key to a successful music career! They're the ones that pay to come see you, follow you to all your shows, and buy your merchandise. They keep your 'business' running! The 1,000 True Fans Theory states that you only need 1,000 true fans to be a successful musician.

"A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans." 

As the theory suggests, if every true fan spends about $100 on your band in a year, that's $100,000. Of course, a real true fan will be spending more than that, but even after some general expenses, that's a nice chunk of money to live off of! So, how do you get true fans? Here are some tips from a fellow musician!

• Always Over-Deliver: Always take the time to get to know your fans: online, via social media or email, and especially at the show. Turn your fans into friends. When people order merch from you or book you for a show, over-deliver by doing more than promised.

• Get Creative: Find new, fun ways to surprise your fans. For example, when my band is on tour, we’ll buy postcards throughout our tour and randomly pick people on our mailing list to send them to. Everyone sends a personal message about the tour, draws a little doodle, etc. We’ll often find photos of the postcards tagging us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter and know that we just made someone’s day.

• Get to Know the Mavens: Malcolm Gladwell writes about how things go viral in his book, The Tipping Point. One of the key concepts is getting the social “mavens” (or leaders/influencers) on board with what you’re doing. These are the trendsetters, the people who are hip to what’s cool. Think about your target audience and who influences them. Music blogs? Skateboarding icons? Guitar gurus? YouTube cover artists? If you get these folks on board, they’ll help you spread your music in no time.

• Consistency, Consistency, Consistency: When you start something, you have to consistently follow up on it or it’ll fall through. When people sign up on your email list at a show, get them into your database ASAP, then write them and thank them for coming to the show. If you have a mailing list, send out a newsletter on a regular basis. If you are on social media, update on a regular basis. Don’t spam them with an overwhelming amount of updates, just be consistent so that they know to expect you and can depend on your updates for show announcements, new music, or other fun things.

• Think Telephone, Not Megaphone: Who do you pay more attention to, the guy standing on a street corner yelling into a megaphone and holding up signs or your friend on the telephone? Think of your e-newsletter and social media as a phone, a prompt for a two-way conversation and not simply as an information/propaganda service.

Click Here for original article

Advice For Entering the Music Industry

Arny Schorr is president of  S'more Entertainment, a company this compiles sound and video clips from old TV shows and movies and makes them easily accessible. He recorded this video that has advice for anyone looking to break into the music industry. His biggest piece of advice?

It's who you know! Get out there and network, and get your name familiar in the industry!
He also has some great advice about being professional and working hard. It's worth a look!

Click Here for the video

Alternate Ways Musicians Can Make Money

Unfortunately, record sales are no longer the primary means for a musicians to make money these days - but that doesn't mean you can't still be making money as a musician! This is an article from Steve Knopper at Rolling Stone magazine that gives musicians alternative ideas for make money. Here's just a few, but check out the original article to see some others!

1. Merchandise: Great if your fans are the teeny-bopper type who have their parents paying for everything, or the classic rockers like Iron Maiden whose brand never really goes out of style. And there's so many options nowadays for items to throw your logo onto, so why not give it a shot!

2. Movie and TV Licensing: CDs and publishing royalties may not be paying out, but licensing for things like movies, commericials, and TV shows can help you out of if you can land it! Rumor has it Green Day made hundreds of thousands licensing their song "99 Revolutions" to the new movie The Campaign with Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakis.

3. Perfume/Fashion: It's all the rage! A hit for some big name singers like Beyonce, Jessica Simpson or Jennifer Lopez, though not always a great way to go. As Adam Levine of Maroon 5 stated (before his cologne release) ""I know there's a stigma attached to it, a stigma that I fully understand because I, too, hate the idea of a celebrity fragrance, absolutely, 100 per cent. [But] I kind of thought to myself, 'Well, I'm interested in fashion and there's a lot of things about it that could be really cool if done properly.'"

4. Kickstarter:  Kickstarter is a great site where people will help fund your projects, but the downside is if you don't already have a large fanbase, it's going to be a lot harder to raise the money. 

5. YouTube: It's estimated videos can make up to $1,500 per 1 million hits on YouTube. Music duo Karmin racked up a good amount of money by making viral pop song covers that grossed over 178 Millions views. It earned them enough money to sign with a major record label and start selling their music for real.

Some more reasonable than others, but still worth it to check some of them out!



Click Here for the original article

‘Women Who Rock’ traveling exhibit comes to the National Museum of Women in the Arts

The most memorable items in the “Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power” exhibit at theNational Museum of Women in the Arts aren’t the sequined, barely there or beehived looks of Britney Spears, Cher and the B-52’s. They aren’t the Gibson L-5 guitar of country artist Mother Maybelle Carter, or the Epiphone electric of rocker Joan Jett.

It’s not just aggressive semiotics or evocative instruments that most move visitors. It’s everyday tools and quotes that tell stories of a get-out-the-house-and-hit-it work ethic. It’s the 1963 Lesley Gore (“You Don’t Own Me”) suitcase that looks like a makeup case but was a gift from Quincy Jones to carry her musical scores. Or the Lady Gaga quote that reads, “They can’t scare me, if I scare them first.”

These are places in the exhibit that are powerful as expressions of how the music is made and packaged, and how it’s negotiated — not merely with record industry executives, such as Aretha Franklin’s notes from a contract meeting with Clive Davis — but even more urgently with the culture.

It’s Loretta Lynn’s photo, apple-pie sweet, on the cover of her 1975 birth control anthem, “The Pill.”

The exhibit, which first opened at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, features more than 250 artifacts from 70 artists, plus an additional 10 artists who are included in brief performance bios. Meredith Rutledge-Borger, assistant curator for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, says the idea came from Cyndi Lauper, who was visiting the museum and kept asking, “Where are the women?”

“We’re talking about women as engines of creativity and change in popular music,” Rutledge-Borger said. For example, the names Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson conjure up the seminal lonely bluesman, “but those guys didn’t record until well after people like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith had million-selling records.”

The exhibit spans eight eras, from “Suffragettes to Juke-Joint Mamas: The Foremothers/Roots of Rock,” about blues and country singers of the 1920s, to “Ladies First: The ’90s and the New Millennium,” as the “the era of the riot grrrl, the rapper and Lilith Fair” reshaped ideas of feminism and empowerment.

The names of women virtually forgotten or never heard of bubble up throughout. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who in the 1930s and ’40s played gospel in public and blues behind folks’ backs, married her third husband at a Washington baseball stadium in 1951 and followed the ceremony with a concert performance. Her windmill guitar style predated that of rock guitarist Pete Townshend by 20 years.

In 1964, Goldie and the Gingerbreads, with lead singer Genya “Goldie” Zelkowitz,” became the first all-female rock band signed by a major record label after Atlantic head Ahmet Ertegun saw them perform at an Andy Warhol party.

There’s a fur stole owned by Billie Holiday, who was born poor and died poor but had a brief moment of soaring richness in between.

"There’s a lady in the city/


And she thinks she loves them all/

There’s the one who’s thinking of her?

There’s the one who sometimes calls”

The lyrics and outfits and handwritten notes add up to a feeling of triumph — a fierce assertion by women determined to make their way in the music world. But putting it together presented myriad challenges.


“A lot of people have a problem with women being included because rock and roll has traditionally been a boys club,” Rutledge-Borger said. “They’ll say Donna Summer is not rock and roll, Faith Hill is not rock and roll, or Carrie Underwood. My response is this is all music that shares roots with rock and roll. It’s a branch of the big tree.”

Some of the challenges came from the artists. Curators were unable to secure items from Beyonce and Mary J. Blige, who appear only by video. And, as with any marginalized group, there was a central tension: Are we lady rockers or just rockers? There were strong feelings about being ghettoized, Rutledge-Borger said. “I had to talk them down. I really did,” she said. “I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Kim Deal, and I told her, ‘I understand where you’re coming from.’ ” Deal, a member of the late-’80s, early-’90s alternative band the Pixies, wound up sending a bass guitar, a poster and backstage passes for the exhibit.

Lady Gaga wore a dress made of raw meat to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards as part of a protest against the military policy of don’t ask, don’t tell. She wanted the dress to decay as part of the display, but Rutledge-Borger said she was able to persuade Gaga’s people that it was a bad idea. They got the chemically preserved dress instead.

On a back wall, a quote by Lynn reads, “How do you measure your value?” And playing on continuous loop, performance videos by Madonna give way to Queen Latifah and Janis Joplin.

In another video, punk rocker Patti Smith, aged and cigarette-smoke-hardened, prepares to sing “Because the Night.” She is defiantly unpretty in a way that gives her edge and power and beauty and a backstory too elusive for words, but immediately understood when she picks up the rock guitar.

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What and When To Post On Facebook/Twitter

Working in the "music biz" you have to know how to market yourself to your target audience to get and keep their attention. Some people may be afraid to post too often because they may feel like their bombarding their followers with too much too often. Other musicians might not know what to post if they don't have an upcoming gig or CD being released. Well put your worries to rest! Bob Baker, a well-known name to the music industry, create this short video to help out with musicians who may be stumped. I've highlighted they key tips below, but check out the video for yourself!


I'm don't want to 'burn out' my followers! How often should I post?
They key is remembering that not everyone is going to see every post a soon as you post it! So post regularly and often. Daily, if not multiple times a day. And don't be afraid to repeat yourself here there if you have something important going on. The week of a gig post about it a couple times during the week to ensure people have seen it and will be more likely to show up. If you have a CD being released, don't be afraid to post that a few times either!


I don't have any gigs coming up! What should I post about?
If you don't have any immediate thing to post about what your band is up to, then move to things that your fans will be interested in hearing about. Maybe you went to a sweet concert recently and met some cool people while you were there, or maybe your band has just been in the studio practicing. 

You could also find things that are genre-related. Have a blues band? Post some old videos of Buddy Guy. Rock band? Maybe the Stones are having (another) farewell show you could post about. The more you post about happenings in your genre, the more your name will be associated with it and help you become more known in the field.


Chris "Seth" Jackson, of http://howtorunaband.com/, also had some great tips! He wrote:

* working on new music during rehearsal
* funny joke a band member just said
* Provide updates during your show. Not just about your band. Be a "micro-journalist" on Twitter. 
* Record your shows, but spread out the recordings over a period of time instead of showing everything at once.
* Candid photos of the band rehearsing or having fun or being goofballs. 
* Ask fans to provide a caption for a photo


Click Here for the original article/video here