14: Treat Fellow Artists As Colleagues Rather Than Competition

I’ve seen this positive, collaborative attitude pay off handsomely. A while back, I started filming artist-on-artist interviews and have met with everyone from Girl in a Coma, Amanda Palmer, Late of the Pier, The Raveonettes, Semiprecious Weapons, Aqualung, Roxy Epoxy, and 20+ more so far this year. My videos were later licensed by Viacom and played on the LOGO channel. I just posted a Raveonettes interview on my You Tube channel to honor their new album release. It was played on MTV and I got a personal thank you from them. Since I’m writing a solo album now, I’m really cherishing all the fellow artists I’ve treated as my colleagues rather than my competition. Create colleagues and community rather than cattiness and competition.

- Derek Nicoletto

http://www.dereknicoletto.com

25: Create Relationships With All Types of Media Makers

Learn the difference between persistence and insistence. Insistence is trying to jam a square peg in a round hole (like badgering a music supervisor for Mad Men to put your hip-hop track on the show - it doesn’t fit, so stop it). Polite, informed, persistence lets the gatekeepers know you think you are worth placement in their shows, but have a respect for their busy and pressure-laden jobs. If you are submitting to a show, make sure you’ve seen it! Make sure you heard the radio program to see if your music fits.

- Derek Nicoletto

http://www.tellingontrixie.com/music

35: Create Solidly Crafted, Well-Produced, Mastered Broadcast-Quality Songs

Well-produced music will attract more listeners and media makers. People want to be associated with quality. So even if you are ridiculously talented, if you didn’t spend the time or money have your album properly produced, mixed and mastered it will be stopped at the door. You have to be willing to go into debt or come up with a creative way to raise funds to have your music fine-tuned in post production. It’s a step that should not be overlooked. 

  - Derek Nicoletto

Update on October 30, 2009 by ACMastering

You can record in your garage but when it comes to mastering (and yes you need to get your CD Mastered)  leave it to a pro.  Who wants a thousand CD’s with problems in sound or that don’t play properly?  

A fresh set of professional ears will do your CD wonders!  Your fans will love you all the more.

Sound Your Best,

Adrian Carr

ACMastering

68: Scratch The Back That Scratches Yours Online: Give Thanks!

Many of the Billboard Maximum 100 “opportunities” and placements are the results of years of favors, legal agreements, negotiating and bargaining tactics, and just plain historical relationships from the labels and commercial outlets. They have little to do with the artist. I maintain all of my bands networking sites as well as my own blog www.dereknicoletto.com,

Youtube channel www.youtube.com/dereknicolett and http://twitter.com/dereknicoletto. My band and my music has been placed on 11 television shows, countless podcasts, radio programs, publications and video programs. For every single placement, I either re-posted the feature on a site, sent a tweet about it or let my fans know in some way. Most importantly, I said “Thank You.”

- Derek Nicoletto

78: Record a Cover For Coverville - One of iTunes’s Highest Rated Podcasts

I love Coverville – it’s a great podcast b/c it’s bands covering other bands and it has a devoted listener base. Brian (Coverville’s host and producer) has been very kind to me and helped me promote my cover of “Baby Got Back.” This is the kind of track that would never fly on radio…..

- Jonathan Coulton

http://www.jonathancoulton.com

I was a fan of Coverville, one of iTunes’s highest rated podcasts. When I submitted our version of “Mad About You,” I referenced other bands who had placed rougher, minor chord arrangements to sugary pop-songs; also noting this arrangement was in the minority of his submissions. A lot of what Brian gets seemed to be slower acoustic versions of popular songs, so I knew ours stood out. I think we formed a relationship because he sensed I knew a little about his job, and noted how my song would complement his programming. Ultimately, he featured our song as the title track in one of his podcasts. When the video was made, I thought, “Brian might like this” and brought it to his attention, he posted it on Coverville’s front page. We got tons of YouTube hits from his placement of that video on his site, which doubled the exposure “Mad About You” had gotten from the original podcast http://www.coverville.com

 - Derek Nicoletto

http://www.tellingontrixie.com/music