Accidentally Like A Martyr: music

Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Networking For Independent Musicians

If you are an independent musician, then I know that coming up with great music promotion ideas is one of your main goals. Gone are the days where rappers, musicians and artists have to rely solely on record deals to make the big bucks, in fact who the heck wants to right? With the rise of "The New Music Industry" the possibilities of success are literally limitless.

One of the most effective ways to market yourself and your music is through social networking sites as well as having your own website. But, the trick is driving traffic to those sites and social network profile pages. Fortunately, through the use of search engine optimization, this is not an impossible music task and if you (and other band members) are covering all bases, so to speak, then S.E.O. is verging on unnecessary. Using strategically placed words, phrases and title tags throughout your site will definitely help you to achieve these results. Get your link out there. Post it on your MySpace page, your Twitter profile pages, your friend's pages and exchange it with others.

Another way to achieve this is by placing your music for sale on sites that cater to independent artists trying to maximize their online exposure. For example sites like CDBaby, TuneCore and Even Amazon are great for this. My favourite, however, (for digital downloads) is Bandcamp. No up-front cost & YOU name the price of your album or single. I highly recommend checking Bandcamp out. These sites list your CDs for sale and end up giving you a pretty fat chunk of the profits. This is a relatively new music promotion idea but quite a few artists are reaping the benefits. Remember, this is in addition to offering your music for sale on your own site.

When making your CDs, include a barcode on the package. This way, you can offer local music stores the opportunity to sell your album. Local music stores tend to be particularly favorable to Indie musicians from their area. In addition to music stores, contact non music stores and retail outlets as well. I know one band in our area that has their music for sale in Starbucks and they sell a good amount of music ever day. So be creative with this stuff, independent music promotion doesn't have to be difficult, you just need creativity and the drive to succeed.

Whist talking of things creative, I jumped into the deep end of mobile music apps. They took a lot less know-how than I expected and helped push my name up the Google search page no end. Once I had as many varied apps (and not always music-based) that I thought sufficient, I was unsure of 'how' to market them. His advice was simple. Begin with making free apps visible in as many places as possible, remembering to tell folks that there was an expiry date. Shortly before the 'free' apps had served their purpose, I launched and promoted my 'paid apps' in the same way that I do with my music. Due to the nature of the mobile work, the initial sales of paid downloads is a drop in the ocean. It's the content that lies within the app. Music, blogs, news, photo's, video, etc.

You should also look into getting a Facebook 'Page' page if you don't already have one. Facebook Pages are a powerful tool for unsigned artists and independent music promotion. You gain maximum exposure and it will cost you absolutely nothing at all. You can't beat that!

Another crucial thing to do is to simply include your web address on every piece of material that goes out. This will ensure people get the word out about your site. Your website will be your connection to the world around you. Keep it current and up to date, no matter what. The easiest way that I find is to keep my site 'dynamic' by having a blog. Keep it interesting and constantly changing. No one wants to constantly visit a boring site that always has the same images, info and music on it.

I made light of it at the beginning of this article, but if your ultimate goal is to get signed then with hard work and dedication it will happen, but you have to show the labels that you are serious. Implement the above techniques into your online music promotion routine and you will be on the track to raking in profits and hopefully fame and fortune! Keep in mind that you are always learning. Don't be afraid to seek help for problem areas but most importantly, stay extremely positive!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Selling Your Music For Production

All through the improvements that have impacted the music industry, a very important factor that has always been consistent is music for production. This usually has, and can remain, just about the most desired markets for composers as well as musicians. Music for production is very important to a production's success. Each and every film, TV show and also corporate video requires music to lift their final product... they usually have and will be always. Record labels could only get you so far, but bringing a tune in a TV show may gather its returns for a long time.

Production music libraries in many cases are requested by composers and musicians about how precisely to publish their very own music for production. An excellent library should be available to a stable circulation of fresh material from both experienced or veterans and new musicians. Who knows what undiscovered talent is waiting around in the wings! While all of us devote most time of our day online, connected to our email and the world wide web, it's very easy to deliver out an MP3 with a link to a site to browse around. Yet, a bit of work in your production can surely significantly help. Posting a demo CD featuring your very best work, with all clearly branded might have longer desk pile life than an email that's very easy to delete and tag as spam. The majority of production music libraries hold the greatest submissions on hand, generally organized by genre, for upcoming projects. Do not be blown away to listen to back from a library one year after, when they eventually comprehend they do need an album of mariachi rock music for production.

For some music libraries, composer agreements are made on a work-for-hire basis. The library will have the masters and copyrights, and will keep 100% ownership of publishing shares. But, the composer is eligible to take part in all writer performance royalties. Agreements may change among various music for production libraries, although many work on a work-for-hire basis to be able to support the type of music for production libraries as a one stop licensing shop.

Publishing indie music for production is actually a the same process. But, the management contracts differs from exclusive to non-exclusive deals, varying term period and publishing share splits. Many music supervisors, who be given a continuous stream of submitted music for production, highlight the value of exclusive agreements. It's within their greatest interest, as well as your best interest as a composer/musician/artist, to do business with just one company to try to sell your music. By doing this, all parties included are clear in terms of the prices and true ownership/representative of the music in use. You do not wish to contend against yourself and also have the music supervisor settle for a less expensive license fee. You may be losing out on well-deserved license earnings!

Thus, just what occurs when all the parties agreed and your music is used in a TV show such as Grey's Anatomy or Fringe? Hopefully you are a registered writer with either of the US Performing Rights Organizations (PROs), namely ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. These PROs are every author as well as publishers' very best friend. These people are responsible to keep sending you those royalty checks each quarter, yet most importantly, they help safeguard your rights as a composer and publisher.

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Friday, November 25, 2011

Music Business And Managers

Motorhead Live at Reds, Edmonton, May, 2005

Image via WikipediaFor the purpose of this entry I am referring largely to independent rock bands who are performing on a regular basis. Hopefully, musicians working outside of this scope may find parts of this blog financially beneficial.

Most artists and bands want to achieve success in the music business, for instance earning enough from travelling and playing their beloved instrument to quitting their day job. Good administration is almost always necessary to achieve any measure of success in this tough business. Many musicians are intelligent and resourceful, and certainly have the capacity to manage their own affairs, but the artist that can handle all this and progress in his art without losing focus and/or sanity is rare.

The basic question is when do you need a manager?

The simple answer is....when you have something to manage. This sounds pretty obvious but it is the most

accurate answer I can give. Many artists and bands tend to seek business administration far too early in their careers, but others wait too long. Some artists and bands look for management to take over every aspect of the band's business so they can just "show up and play...". Even if the manager could do it all, bands must understand that the success or failure is solely the band's responsibility. Not the manager's.

The main reason an artist or band tends to seek a manager is because they want to be playing regular gigs as well as get extensive media attention to help promote the artist and their music. From the very first day, a good manager will be driven by an artist or band's achievements, which may be as simple as having a great song written or access to a decent PA or an opportunity to perform for an A&R scout. Any "successful" regional act will tell you that practicing and playing are only a very small part of the job of being in a band; meeting club owners, networking with other bands, and studying the music industry are just a few of many responsibilities. Remember, it's called the music business for a reason.

If you or your band is lucky enough to have a close friend outside the band with respect for the band and

music, some computer skills, motivation to succeed, and basic business knowledge, you're in luck!

Most up-and-coming bands aren't in the financial position to pay a manager or even pay their rent for that matter, so be sure to respect the free labour you're receiving for what it is. Once your band is has established itself and written some material to perform live, utilize your resources to record a good demo tape, write a band biography, and have some professional pictures made. Basically, a killer press kit. Then, use those tools to help create some business to manage!

When you know you're ready for a manager and haven't got the full time to focus your attention on playing as well as your administration duties, its essential to find the perfect manager.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Why Sell Out Your Music Career?

Many independent musicians are known for their anti-corporate stance. It's not surprising then that the concept of "marketing" leaves a sour taste in many independent artists' mouths. The fact is though, there are ways to build your fan base and increase people's interest in and awareness of your music - without selling out. If you are an independent music maker, here are a few ways you can do some marketing without going corporate.

First, if your mindset is completely anti-marketing, you really need to change your tune. Marketing and administration does not have to equal selling out or going corporate. Finding ways to expose your ideas and creations through your songs and music to more people - marketing - shows that you believe in what you are doing.

Just stop and think about it for a moment. Doesn't what you create mean enough to you that you want to share it with other people? If not, why are you even pursuing music at all? Once you stop equating marketing and administration with these negative connotations, you can finally move on and start finding ways to promote your band that are still in-line with your ideals as an independent artist.

For starters, remember that your fans are not only your target market, but also your best promoters. Many independent musicians avoid pursuing marketing and administration because they think it means having to constantly deal with the media, promoters, record labels and other corporate types to help get the word out. If you're not comfortable with that, just skip it and go straight to the people who already are your best advertisers - your fan base. Provide them with ways to spread the word about you and your music. They will do the best job at it - and for free. Think about marketing in terms of your fans spreading their passion about you and the word loses even more of it's negative stereotype, doesn't it?

With that in mind, increasing your marketing simply becomes a matter of increasing your fan base. What could be better than that? Make sure to find out what it is about your music that attracts the fans you already have. Make sure you can describe your style of music quickly and clearly. With these tools it becomes even easier to find others who would also be interested in your music and your message. Reach out to them.

As you can see, independent music marketing doesn't need to be a dirty concept. Once you see it in terms of sharing who you are with even more people who will get pleasure from what you create, you can start using it to your advantage. Best of all you can do this using methods that don't require selling out or forgetting about your roots.

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Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Phone Don't Ring....

At the risk of sounding patronising, which I'm not (I save that for 'real life'), most people who listen to music and have no connection with musicians don't give any thought as to how a song actually comes to fruition. I certainly didn't until my early teens. I am speaking mainly of my own recording experience over the last two or so years.

I have been asked by countless people where a song comes from plenty of times & it's such a broad question that any number of perfectly reasonable answers could be given. My answer has been the same ever since I began writing. It usually stems from a line of an overheard conversation or, more commonly, when I'm sitting out the back thinking of nothing in particular.

This is the embryo of the song. It may only be a few seconds in length but it's more than enough to run with. I get particularly enthused if a part of a bass-line enters me. It's a cakewalk once that foundation is there. Words have always come easily to me, infact I've never spent more than 20 minutes sitting with a pen & paper writing lyrics.

This doesn't mean that they come instantly. I may have been sitting on a notion for days, weeks or months. Finding words to rhyme & make sense have never been much trouble either. I DO pay particular attention to phrasing, emphasising particular words & even half-speaking some. Let's face it, a song is a story put to music. Bob Dylan & the late Warren Zevon are the best two for this by light years that I have encountered.

Sometimes my songs are from personal experience but I often swap from singing in the first person to singing in the second person. I often swap the gender of the subject of a song. Why? I have no idea. I guess it's just how a song was meant to leave me. I'm rather fond of the notion that pieces of music are floating around everywhere and every now & again 'converge' within someone who is able to convey them.

Once written and firmly entrenched in my head, the next step is to record it. To do so, one must have instruments, recording equipment, a place to record & the time to do it. I've had a small mixing desk & all of the necessary instruments for many years. One also has to know how to operate the recording equipment. Initially this is very time-consuming but after a while one gets the hang of what frequency will suit what vocal best or what guitar effect will suit a particular song best. My effects are very limited as I prefer that 'pub sound' so I can literally mix blindfolded....but not quite.

Once the song is recorded to the standard that I'm happy enough with, the next thing to do is to get it onto the internet. One needs a computer for this and some know-how about converting sound files. Again, more expense and time.

I've heard many songwriters prattle on about the weeks of torment & anguish that they subjected themselves to in order to 'capture' a song. Firstly, a song isn't there to be captured. It's either there or it isn't. Deliberately subjecting oneself to torment and anguish for the sake of a 3 or 4 minute song is either lunacy or a lie.

Due to the life that I've led I have plenty of horrific memories to draw on if I wanted to go down that road. I do throw snippets in now & again but always ensure the song has an upbeat & though-provoking message.

So, to the casual listener, every song that you hear on the radio or on your iPod or wherever has an awful lot more go into it than the few minutes that you hear.

Every single song can't possibly have a price put on it. One download of 99c nowhere NEAR reflects the time and money spent on even making that song available to you to purchase. The fact that it has been made available for you to purchase instantly would have been laughed at not so long ago.

Irrespective of how quickly the internet can make this option possible, the fact remains that the songwriter & recording artist still has to put the same amount of time, money & effort in to getting their songs to the public. Google has recently made this process even faster for the listener to access music. I have a very wary eye on this 'revelation' and where it's going to leave the small-time independent artists.

This leaves many a musician the dilemma of how to price their music. Had my surname been Dylan I imagine I'd be selling an unfathomable amount of material at much higher prices. As it stands my surname is Findlay & I make every effort possible to make my material not only easily accessible but also as affordable as possible. Only recently I have made my commercial releases available as physical downloads at 'audiolife' at more than competitive prices.

Gone are the days of me making many every single song streamable or free to download. Stats showed that people were streaming my material....a lot...which I was for quite some time more than pleased about, but the spiel by the distributors that this leads to sales never rang true to me. I was right and I'm not the only independent musician to have gone through these motions. I have no qualms with my material being streamed....but only to a point.

My songs are as important & as personal to me as any 'major' musician. I may not recall the entire lyrics of all of my songs but I can give you an in-depth description of what each song is about, why it was written & what it means to me.