Stay Creative On-The-Go

Any creative person knows that inspiration doesn’t wait until you have time to cultivate it. A good idea for a chord change or a bridge doesn’t care if there’s a guitar or a dishtowel in your hand, whether you’re sitting at your computer or in traffic. This is what makes mobile technology such a breakthrough for songwriters. There are a number of apps out there that allow you access to synthesized instruments. Some even have sequencing capabilities to bring your more complex ideas to life and make helpful suggestions so you’re not nagged by a ‘missing-something’ while you’re trying to make it out of rush hour in one piece.

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Don't Let It Get You Down

Every musician, successful or not, has played a bad show at some point and more likely than not, will play another one sometime in the near future. I’m not talking about gigs when you and/or your bandmates get too drunk or not drunk enough. Sometimes it can be completely out of your control and someone else has booked you a bad or inappropriate venue, or maybe you booked yourself the gig out of ignorance or lack of options. However it winds up happening, nobody likes looking out on a crowd of disinterested oddballs who resent you for being loud and trying to make them pay a cover to get into their favorite bar. But the thing you should remember is, that you never know who might be out there among the sea of disgruntled patrons and might be discretely enjoying the show.  

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"I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends" (But Probably Not With Jack White)

One of the keys to establishing a strong fan base (who you can sell things to) is forming/simulating a close relationship with them. For example, your band’s Facebook or Twitter page is one of the few places you can tell the world what you ate for lunch without inviting them to hate you at the same time. Unless you’re touring deep in the jungles of Southern Asia, there’s a good chance some of your fans have the same taste in sandwiches. Crowdfunding is a great platform because you not only get and album or tour funded, but you engage fans directly and they can claim (to their friends) partial responsibility for your project once it’s completed and everyone loves it. Up and coming Vermont garage rockers Happy Jawbone Family Band have a note on their website: “Want to be a real BONEHEAD? Join our fan club!” and go on to instruct fans to send drawing, poems or “pictures of stuff (they) like” and in return send them cassettes of unreleased demos, handmade mini-pillows in the shape of jawbones and other knick-knacks. This time-intensive but creative and very personable move helped get them a rather glowing write-up in SPIN. The bottom line is if you’re sincere, authentic, and creative when reaching out to your fans, they will reach back in a big way. 

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121 Mistakes You May Have Already Made and Probably Plan to Make Again

Rock and Roll is often associated with freedom and the breaking of rules. This is not only an inaccurate association, but may be dooming your possibly for a future in the industry. While writing, it's easy to get wrapped up in the narrative method on conveying information. However, sometimes it's more effective to work in the potent combination of concise sentences strategically paired with numbers - also known as a List. Here 121 "Don't"s if you want a future in the music industry.

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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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The Results Are In...

All of the music industry's measurable results from last year are in and the good new is, I was right...a lot. It's still somewhat of a mixed bag for amateur musicians but frankly, that's par for the course. A company called "Next Big Sound" performs analytics on this like YouTube views, Facebook "Likes" and other forms of non-currency measurements of success. According to them, the main-est of the mainstream dominate pretty heavily in all fields which should be no surprise to anyone. But the interesting thing (something I've been right about) is that streaming services seem to be the places they promised to be; platforms for lesser knowns to gather speed. YouTube, though still dominated by the mainstream, there is still room for undiscovered artists to go viral with a song recorded in their bedroom. Although no social media platform or streaming services has made up for the money/potential money lost in the industry's flux, it seems that we're on the right track.

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