Here’s A Tax Loophole Just Songwriters

Guest post from Soundfly’s Flypaper. This article originally appeared on the Royalty Exchange Blog

Most of us songwriters have no idea that there’s a special tax loophole created just for us. For some artists, this change cuts our taxes right in half.

In 2006, Congress lowered the tax rate for songwriters who sell a part of their catalogs. It did this by reclassifying income from the sale of a catalog as “capital gains” instead of “ordinary income.”

Don’t worry, we’re not going to go full tax accountant on you. Here’s the simple explanation of what this means.

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How To Stay In Love With The Craft Of Songwriting

This post by Caleb J. Murphy originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog. 

I hate songwriting when things aren’t flowing.

Okay, that’s not totally true. I always love the craft of songwriting, but I get super frustrated when nothing is showing up even though I am. When I’ve been working on a song for months or even years and it’s not finished, I feel like giving up.

So to help you (and me) stay in love with the craft of songwriting, here are some things you can do.

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Creating A Band Website: A Complete Checklist

This post by Melanie Kealey originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog. 

Is your band or solo career getting to the point that you want to book more shows? You might need an EPK that’s easy for press to grab information from. Or maybe you just want a space on the web to call your own?

Let’s be honest, your specialty is writing music and performing it, not building a website. You sit down, ready to begin, then feel completely lost about where to start.

Does the idea of creating a band website make your eyes glaze over? We’ve made a handy checklist to help you through it. So let’s get started!

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How To Create An Attractive Stage Setup For Your Next Country Music Concert

The attractiveness of your stage depends on your target audience. You want to design something that will appeal to your audience and fit within your venue requirements. Here are some of the factors that you should take under advisement for your next country music concert.

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Songwriting Workflow: What A Month Of Daily Releases Taught Me

Guest post by Martin Fowler. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper

Every year, the shortest month comes around, and at the forefront of my mind is the plethora of songwriting challenges which permeate the internet at large. Some of my favorite artists have famously committed their time in this dreary month (at least here in New York) to hunker down and dedicate serious hours to composing new material.

Every year I think of how outlandish an undertaking that month must be for each of these artists, taking tens or hundreds of hours to build a whole new world, and create the kind of consistency in their day-to-day life, even in the shortest month of the year, to get it done. And every year I’m shocked at how many actually come out the other side with a whole new body of work!

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Tips For Writing A Music Resume Which Will Get You Results

Guest post by Chloe Bennet 

Music industry absolutely requires you to have a professional, engaging and well formatted resume to get the job hunt success that you are looking for. Music is a field in which there is a fluid collection of skills which you need to be able to demonstrate you have on paper, and not all of them are that simple to explain. It can be a daunting task trying to go about proving your suitability for a music firm through the resume, especially if having a good resume is a pre-requisite to earning yourself an interview.

So, with that all said, here are some methods for writing a great music resume.

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Email Lists for Musicians – Where The Heck To Start!

Did you know that email marketing is the top way to get people to move from being fans to fans who actually buy your music? 

It’s true!

Email marketing has come a long way since the early days of AOL and it is the perfect things for musicians to incorporate into their music strategy. Emails can help you build deep relationships between you and your fans. They can help you launch a new album with massive sales. And they don’t have to be a standard newsletter of tour dates. 

So how the heck do you start if you’ve never thought about having one before? 

Let’s chat about where to start with email marketing, how to get people to sign up, and what to send those new fans.

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How To Get Started In Music Publishing

Have you ever heard someone say I’m signed to BMI, ASCAP or SESAC so I’m set for publishing?

Registering with a performance rights organization (aka PRO) is an important step to collecting your publishing royalties, but there are three major types of additional publishing royalties that you are probably not collecting if your only step to collecting your publishing royalties has been affiliating with a PRO.

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How To Develop A Context For Your Music

Guest post by Ayla Smith. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper

Online audiences are a powerful engine. When people listen online, they can easily share your music far and wide. Getting discovered is not dependent on someone walking into a record store, and it’s easy to find out who’s listening and where they’re from so you can maximize your impact. But too often, a song alone is not enough to tell your full story. 

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8 Inner Game Tips For Modern Artist Development

Along my journey into the souls optimal development and unfoldment I’ve come to realize how important your inner game is.

The difference between a good inner game and bad one are the difference between getting and nailing that next opportunity-or not. 

Having a good inner game is mission critical to the true success and freedom that you desire and deserve for your music career.

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How Professional Musicians Can Manage And Limit Expenses When On Tour

Touring as a musician can be incredibly costly. Lodging, transportation and dining expenses all can add up extraordinarily quickly. If you’re a professional musician who wants to keep your touring costs reasonable and low, however, there are various things you can try. Going on a tour comfortably as a musician doesn’t have to break the bank.

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How To Make A Living As A Singer

It’s every singer’s dream to have a career doing what they love, but the odds of becoming famous are, quite literally - one in a million.

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Five Reasons To Learn Music Production For The Benefit Of Your Band

Playing music in a band isn’t all about writing and playing songs live (at least not anymore). In 2018, you must be ahead of the curve and be proactive with your content. Social media, graphic design, video production, and even music production should all be fields you become familiar with.

The more content production you can keep “in-house” the better off your band will be. Music production, specifically, is a great skill to have if recording and technology are your strong-suites. In this article, I’ll explain why you should learn music production and recording to help further your band’s career. 

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How Eli Lev Created A Fan-Generated Music Video (For Less Than $300)

Ariel here from Cyber PR. For the past year, we have been working on artist development and PR for Washington D.C. based singer-songwriter Eli Lev. Eli has just released a video that makes me so happy when I watch it. It so wonderfully expresses who he is in the world and who he is to his fans, so I wanted  to share it here. Eli and I hope that this video inspires other artists to create crowd sourced videos and social moments to share.

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