Learning to take a helping hand in music

Guest post by Mahea Lee. This article originally appeared on Soundfly’s Flypaper

The following post is part of our new column, Poorly-Guarded Secrets from the Soundfly Mentors’ Guide. Written by mentor and VP of Learning & Curriculum Development Mahea Lee, this series is intended to assist, inspire, and offer a peek into the types of discussions we have behind-the-scenes here at Soundfly. 

Even the most productive and organized among us are burdened by the weight of low-priority tasks that we push aside to focus on more urgent matters. They gnaw at the back of our minds like yellowing wallpaper or tell-tale hearts. I know that’s pretty melodramatic, but you get the idea.

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How to Promote An Album | 6 Tips to Get Your Band Noticed

The process of promoting an album should always begin before the recording of your first session. During concerts, you test and determine the songs your audience love the most. A solid campaign before release can help build excitement for your album release, develop your target audience, and turn occasional fans into real fans. Through music, people can be brought together uniquely.

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Designing a site for your band: 7 tips

Your band needs a web presence these days. Without one, your fans won’t know where to get the latest 411 on your upcoming shows and album releases. 

However, many artists’ pages leave a lot to be desired. You need to tailor your colors and layout to optimize the user experience and promote sales. Here are seven tips to keep in mind when designing a site for your band. 

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How to cultivate your stage persona: 10 Tips

Whether you’re a musician in a band, you’re a solo performer or you’re doing something entirely unconventional with your performance, whatever it is, cultivating a stage persona and having a presence that matches the work you’re doing is an important part of reaching your audience effectively. 

One of the beautiful things about stage presence is that everyone is unique and has something to offer, and that includes you. From your fashion sense to your interactions with the audience, your stage presence is your unique means of communication with your audience. 

While, of course, your work should speak for itself, there’s no harm in using other tools to assist you in that pursuit. No matter where you stand in the band or where you are on your journey, here are ten tips that will help you improve your stage presence.

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10 Hard & Awful Truths About Being an Independent Artist (And What You Can Do About It)

For independent artists, the road to stardom is not always red-carpeted and bathed in the spotlight. Obstacles and challenges can unnerve even the most determined indie artist. However, knowing what you can do about these ten hard and awful truths about being an independent artist can ensure a smoother and more successful journey.

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The ‘Blues Hammer’ Syndrome

Studying musical cultures from around the world (or even from our own backyard) is a voyage of discovery. It activates our curiosity and challenges our notion of what defines music. We become more receptive to new ways of hearing and, in turn, we respond by setting out to learn this new music. Most of the time, we do this by imitating our idols. This could be, for example, learning a guitar solo note-by-note. Unfortunately, this approach can also quickly lead to a very bad and common habit; one that I like to call the “Blues Hammer Syndrome.” The syndrome leads to a lack of authenticity, hinders your musical development, and demonstrates a lack of respect for musical heritage.

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Is Playlist Streaming Hurting The Artist?

Since streaming became the new norm, overtaking CD sales and now paid downloads of artists music, it’s now become more evident how streaming and music playlists are actually hurting artists and devaluing who’s behind the music.

But does anyone care?

I wish I could say they do, but it seems that every time someone say’s ‘Playlist’, artists are jumping on board to add themselves to one or more of the millions of playlists that exist only to be added to the needle in the haystack.

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Making Music Careers More Accessible For Parents

The music industry is a demanding field, no matter which area of it you are employed in. There are thousands of people who are striving to carve out a place in the industry, which makes jobs that pay a reasonable wage highly competitive. Oftentimes, this means putting your personal life on the back burner and focusing on work for quite a while.

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How To Submit To Music Blogs, Magazines And Radio And Get Heard

How To Submit To Music Blogs, Magazines and Radio and Get Heard… It’s extremely annoying and very unprofessional trying to get the attention of music blogs and radio when the artist is private messaging or has an automated message saying, ‘Yo, check out my music’. Not is it unprofessional, but it shows that you do not have the respect for others, including artists’ or place any effort into wanting to have your music really listened to as this is seen as being lazy…. ….It is obvious to every station and blog site when an artist has not really had a look at the site or station to understand or know what it’s about and what the protocol is.

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Is The Proliferation Of Indie Streaming Platforms Hurting Unsigned Artists?

When major streaming platforms are fighting to build a monopoly on the music business, one which will allow them to dictate how the general public should consume music and basically who should be listened to, helped by AI algorithms that are heavily biased towards big artists from contractual and financial ties to their labels, for unsigned artists the deal is impossibly bad and will continue to be, so it might be argued that this is a clear case for alternative/independent solutions.

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Dirty Money And The Starving Artist

As artists, we need to value our work, be proud enough to put a fair price to it, as fans and art lovers, we need to respect the artists we love and support their work for what it’s really worth. It’s a matter of respect.

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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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10 Rock Bands That Disappeared Thanks To Problems With Alcohol And Drugs

Highly-successful rock ‘n’ roll musicians may have literally “partied like rock stars” by popping pills, smoking marijuana, and binge-drinking while snorting cocaine. 

In these cases, drug rehab could have helped address the problem, and they could have been given a better chance. 

Here are 10 rock ‘n’ roll bands that went downhill because of substance abuse. 

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8th Music+Sound Awards Open For 2019 Global Entries

The Music+Sound Awards are back for another year, globally celebrating music and sound in film, TV and advertising.  Submissions can now be made, up until 29th March, via the Awards’ site www.masawards.com 

Anyone who has worked, in any capacity, on a project they feel has been significantly enhanced by the music or sound is invited to enter. 

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