October 28, 2019 Picture this: You’ve just spent some quality time finishing a new track and it’s brilliant.
You’re super pumped for other people to hear it and can’t wait to send it to people for feedback, maybe get a preview up on Soundcloud or even get it released on Spotify etc.
Stop.
Before you do anything with the track, you need to wait.
February 12, 2019 In January 2019 I was asked to present a talk on how to release your own music to a group of people in Riga, Latvia.
It was the first time I’d done anything live, with regard to self-releasing, but I took up the challenge and wanted to fit as much information into the talk as possible.
Turns out, I went overboard and spoke for almost TWO HOURS on the topic! I had so many stories, tips and things I wanted to discuss.
Anyway, I re-recorded the presentation here, and was more concise and a little faster. I managed to get the presentation down to a little over an hour.
March 20, 2018 The web is a flutter with news and panicked updates on the decline of Facebook media reach. They saw organic reach drop 52% in 2016 and engagement for brands drop by over 20% from January to August in 2017. Add to that declarations of “Organic reach on Facebook is dead” from this year (2018) and you can see why anybody who’s not pumping copious amounts of cash into the platform’s paid reach and advertising system is wasting their time.
January 23, 2018 As a music producer, artist or musician (especially if you’re starting out) you’re probably wondering how it’s possible to take your passion and push it so you’re able to do it full-time, without having to worry about how you’re going to pay rent. How to make money from music?!
January 4, 2018 I ask everyone who joins my email list at HTSR what the single, biggest, most important thing that they are worried about or trying to do when they are making or releasing music, and here’s a selection of responses (these are actual quotes):
Advice, Fans tagged Advice, Building Fanbase, Fans, fanbase, music success September 27, 2017 For anyone who hasn’t worked their way through my free course “Getting Started With Self Releasing Music” I’d like to simplify the process of going from having a few tracks made, right through to releasing your music and seeing it on iTunes, Spotify and everywhere else.
This process will be more suited to electronic musicians, although could feasibly apply to bands and solo artists too. This is going to be a very simplified process, but should help those who don’t know about it, understand things better.
Advice, DIY, Promotion, Publishing tagged Distribution, EP, Mastering, Music, PR, album art, electronic music, promotion, publishing August 30, 2017 Everybody wants to get feedback on their music, especially when they’re just getting to grips with their production career.
One of the most disheartening things to get back when you send off a track is ‘not for me’. It’s vague, useless as feedback and at best shows a lack of interest.
Granted, not everybody has time to give you feedback, and you’ll probably find many people opt to write nothing at all, over a cursory ‘not for me’, assuming that lack of feedback is better than vague disinterest and an off-hand comment.
October 16, 2016 About 10 years ago, a pretty awful music producer was sitting in his parents spare-room on his computer trying to make sense of Ableton Live, and the world of record labels, sales and music production.
That producer was me, and there are a few things I wish somebody had told me back then.
I’ve come a fair distance since those days, but many of the things I wish I’d been told are still as true today, so I’d like to cover a few for you.
Advice tagged DIY, Marketing, music marketing, music release, publishing February 29, 2016 What elements might you say make up the perfect record label?
If you could have a label which did everything right, both internally and externally, what would it look like? How would it perform? What composite parts would form the basis?
I think to nail down such a tall order, you have to consider at least three key points of view. In order of importance they are…
February 12, 2016 Part and parcel of getting your music out there into the world is ensuring that you can be found in all the right stores.
I say “right” because, not everybody will want full coverage in every store, and appropriateness of certain services or platforms will be down to your judgement but generally most artists will likely want to get their music onto many of the key online stores and streaming platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Shazam and so on.
There are a few ways of doing this.
January 28, 2016 A handy list of ideas for possible bonus content you might like to include when you package and put together your own release, or your label’s releases.
October 2, 2015 Music appreciation is subjective. We all know this, and it’s one of the reasons why you can spend endless nights debating with your friends over whether the latest Flying Lotus release is really better than his production work with Thundercat or whether there is artistic merit in the Cloud Rap niche and how it might do better to integrate some of the sounds of drum & bass.
It’s rare to find someone who likes *exactly* the same kind of music as you, especially once you start delving a little deeper than “yeah, I guess I like to listen to all sorts of stuff”.
