21 Dos And Don’ts Of Band Website Design

This post was written by Allison Sharpe and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog.

The band is getting along. Songs are great. Gigs calendar is filling up. Now you just need to get people to notice you and you’ll be good to go. But where do you start?

If you focus your efforts on Facebook or Twitter, your music is likely to get lost in a sea of political rants and fur baby videos. The best way to keep fans focused on you is through your own custom website.

A website puts the focus on you and your music. It’s easy to build a website, but how do you know if you did it right? Let’s take a look and the most common ways band win and lose with their website.

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What's The Best Environment To Practice Music In?

Learning to play a musical instrument is both a challenging and rewarding hobby. Whether you favor the violin, saxophone, or guitar, becoming a master with your chosen instrument takes years of diligent practice. Therefore, creating the perfect environment to practice your art is important if you want your talent to truly flourish. Whether you live in a large home or a small apartment, it’s possible to create a suitable space for practicing music with a few simple steps.

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3 Power Steps To Success In The Music Industry

Any aspiring musician is looking to get the most out of their career. A lot of the times, however, approaching the music industry is daunting to say the least. There is a quote by Hunter S. Thompson – “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” How exactly do we go about achieving success in such a doubtful industry?

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Top 10 Home Studio Mistakes And How To Fix Them [Infographic]

A lot of home studio owners come from backgrounds totally outside the music industry. 

We have a passion, a dream, a need to rebel maybe, and addiction to cool gear, a need to get away from ‘life’. 

There is a reason from everybody to want to create music or just be involved somehow even if the background or education or lack thereof might say otherwise. I’m totally on that train.

This train, however, leaves room for a lot of mistakes, learning by experimenting and grabbing bits and pieces over time.

So, let’s speed things up and cut down on some of the mistakes that might creep up in your home studio.

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How To Advertise Your Music On Facebook

This post was written by Lisa Occhino and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

Having a Facebook fan page for your music has so many benefits besides displaying your “like” count to the world. Some advantages of fan pages over personal pages are rather obvious — such as separating your personal and professional life, having no fan limit (versus the 5,000 friend cap on personal pages), using Insights to get key metrics about your fans, and getting taken more seriously as an artist overall.

But for any musician who’s trying to get more fans and figure out how to better engage their audience, Facebook Ads Manager is invaluable.

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Crowdfunding Your Album: 11 Dos & Don'ts

This post was written by Justin Ralph and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog.

Over the past few posts, I’ve covered how to decide if you’re ready to record an album, tips for writing songs, and how to handle the pre-production of your recording. Today I want to talk about one of the most popular ways to fund production for your album - crowdfunding.

When I decided to record an album this year, I knew I was going to use crowdfunding to raise money. I was fairly certain I would be successful with it based on the pool of people I could reach, and I liked the idea of my fans being engaged in the entire process of recording.

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Gumption, Ambition And The Music Business

I’ve been lucky enough to run several successful businesses. VNUE, along with its partner DiscLive, has grown to be the global leader in recording live concerts and releasing them in high quality to fans on limited edition CD sets and USB drives, immediately after their performance. We’ve worked with venues and artists all over the world, from Father John Misty and The Pixies to Blondie and 3 Doors Down. I also own and founded both RockHouse Live venues in the great city of Memphis, offering live entertainment every single night (as well as some killer grub).

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[Case Study] How Derek Webb Sells Out House Concerts

This post was written by Wes Walls and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog.

When Derek Webb decided to grow his artist income by performing house concerts, he turned to Bandzoogle’s website and marketing tools to book up his tour schedule and sell out his shows. 

He sets aside every second weekend in his calendar and fills them with as many shows as he can fit, earning up to $1000 per event.  We’ll show you how he does it.

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4 Pieces Of Equipment Every Entrepreneur Needs When Building A Music Venue

Opening your own music venue will be a great entrepreneurial venture that will allow you to explore your love for the performing arts. Having the right equipment can help make your venue successful and keep large crowds continuously coming through the doors. Here are four pieces of equipment that you will want to have when building your music venue.

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7 Essential Clauses In An Artist Management Deal

This post by Canadian entertainment lawyer Byron Pascoe originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

One of the most important relationships in music is between the artist and his or her manager.

The manager’s specific role will depend on the manager and band, but generally the manager advises and directs the artist in connection with all matters relating to the artist’s professional career in the entertainment industry.

That’s pretty broad. As such, it’s important that the artist and manager are on the same page about the manager’s role, and also about their collective goals, and expectations of each other.

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Simple And Fast Invoice Generator For Bands And Musicians

As a working musician, boring ol’ admin can most definitely be thought of as a job for tomorrow. However, having worked as a band leader for many years, I quickly found that creating professional quotes, contracts and invoices was a must if you want to appeal to high-end clients with increasingly higher expectations (and budgets).

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5 False Claims About The Music Industry That Hurt Your Music Career

Want to grow a successful career in music much more quickly? Don’t accept these false claims about the music business:

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9 Ways To Get More Fans On Your Mailing List

This post was written by Lisa Occhino and originally appeared on the Bandzoogle Blog

If you do some quick research on how to get more music fans, you’ll find plenty of suggestions for getting your name out there and getting heard. But once you’ve captured someone’s attention, how do you keep it?

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Got Gear Or Skills? Here Are 8 Other Ways To Make Money With Them [Infographic]

If you haven’t made it big with your music yet but you’ve picked up some gear and some skills why not put them to other uses? Using the resources you already have you could create an additional income stream. Sure, it will take a bit of extra work but it can also help you make connections in the industry.

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