Music & Fashion Pt Deux

In our last blog about Music & Fashion, we highlighted how these two elements can come together to make a powerful force in the entertainment and fashion industries. You can take that on and allow yourself as an indie artist to be a part of that force. Today, music artists are setting the latest fashion trends. Consumers are being inspired by what today’s hottest artists are wearing on red carpets, interviews, appearances, concerts, and even on their social media during random outings. Some wardrobe choices are only meant for the stage however, fans are constantly wondering, “What are they wearing? How can I get it?” This blog can go for up & coming fashion moguls as well. You want your clothes to have more exposure in your industry, team up with a great artist to help build that brand. Gain their fans as future customers.

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Rap Promo Files: A Story From The Road

I’ve been working with a very talented independent rapper from the midwest for about nine months now. We’ve been building his following and fanbase up from nothing. This artist has several investors who pooled together the budget for a proper run - and a lot of the time was spent preparing this artist for the “industry” and the shenanigans these fcukboys try to pull.

He’s been on and off the road since November, working very hard to win over new fans and spread his music. Sometimes he has to bring his kids with him, other times I have to stop him from attacking certain “industry” people who are obvious scammers. But for the most part he’s been doing a great job building his brand.

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Teamwork In The Music Industry

One individual can never be allowed to undermine or destroy a successful business. If a player isn’t happy and wants to leave – they should be allowed to continue their career elsewhere. Each team needs players who will benefit the team as a whole – this benefits the business as well – because the team IS a business.

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The Ultimate Gig Booking Guide | Phosphene Productions

Booking regular shows is an essential part of being a musician when expecting to be heard by the public, and a question we here at Phosphene Productions get asked a lot about. Though everyone has their own technique when it comes to finding the perfect show, many artists new to the scene should devise a “template” to work by and to keep yourself organized when contacting so many different people.

Our goal in this article is to give you a sort of template to use when beginning to develop your own booking strategy, and by the end you should have all the necessary information to kick off your gig.

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The Bass Music Awards - 2013 Highlight

The Bass Music Awards has been widely acclaimed by industry sources. Voting was open to the public for a 3 week period, seeing thousands of members of the public having their say by voting for their favourite DJ’s, labels, events, tracks, videos and producers from the nomination lists that was compiled by an industry affiliated panel of Bass Music connoisseur’s.

BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra presenter DJ Target was the host for the ‘industry only’ video shoot held at a secret London based venue which saw a selection of winning and nominated artists gather. The artists interviewed on the day included: Andy C, Jakwob, Gorgon City, Hannah Wants, Sigma, David Boomah, Tigerlight, Dub Police artists, The Others, Variations, the Circus Records Crew, Rednek and Xilent.

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How Bands Can Break Into New Markets

One way to grow your music’s reach is to break into new markets. This could be taken a number of ways: new geographical areas (cities, states, countries, etc.) or simply new audiences in general (by demographic, interest, psychographic, etc). Before you try and expand your reach through new markets, it’s important to take a few things into consideration:

• Return on Investment: What is the cost or effort required to break into this market? Is the return on investment worthwhile or would you be better off using those resources to grow an existing market?

• Goals: What kind of role will this market play in your S.M.A.R.T.E.R Goals?

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An Honest Review of the All-New Sonicbids EPK System

Today, I was checking out a Sonicbids EPK that was emailed to me. Much to my surprise, the layout for a Sonicbids artist profile completely changed – there was no quick bio, music player on top, or a useful set of links (press, stage plot, etc.). Instead, I found a Pinterest-like layout with navigational tiles. I thought it was just some lame option that the artist chose, but decided to check using my own band’s profile.

This is what I found:

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The Coffee House Sessions

Coffee House Sessions is a new music initiative, exposing the hottest in upcoming UK music talent to the student market via daytime performances in University coffee shops around the country: http://youtu.be/CZRp_MoTqhM. 

With a carefully designed touring circuit taking place in 40 universities, Coffee House Sessions holds acoustic performances at two different campuses a day over a ten day period and provides promotion for the showcased artists through student media outlets such as student newspapers, student radio and student TV at each university.

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How to be Featured on Music Blogs

At NoisePorn.com, we pride ourselves on featuring little-known, talented artists just launching their music careers, alongside their established counterparts. We love getting emails from artists who don’t have 1 million, 50,000, or even 1,000 Likes on Facebook. Discovering new talent for us is typically more exciting than just another release from a legendary artist.

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Artist or Project Management?

I have been pondering a lot lately on the concept of “artist management” in the proper sense of the word, or at least what the industry is experiencing.  As the music industry evolved, the role of the artist manager must deal with changes in order to evolve as well.
 
The image of the manager who dictates the directions to take and strategies to use is an image that I think is outdated. “Manager” is rather an ally that is part of the project where the artist must look at his career as a multi-phase project (the concept of releasing an album and make its marketing is in itself a project phase). The “manager” must become a manager of this project.
 
The role of the project manager, according PMI (Project Management Institute), is “a person assigned by the performing organization [eg artist] to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.” Already, this definition changes the role’s dynamics. In this optics, the “Manager” is no longer responsible for the artist but instead responsible to lead the team to achieve the defined objectives. Lead and manage are two distinct concepts.  You lead the artist and manage the project.
 
It therefore becomes important to talk about the maturity of the artist since an artist starting in the industry will not necessarily have the skills to run a business and have the vision for it. In this scenario, it is important that the two components (artist + manager) have some experience to manage a project (project manager) and for the artist to head a performing organization… [To be continued]

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These are my first steps with this theory that I shall explore with you.  In the next few months, I will elaborate and analyze these two worlds - project management as described by PMI (Project Management Institute) and the music industry.

Holy Grail Of Song Pitching

Imagine if you hand over your best songs to a “robot” publisher who would submit your material to industry professionals and song placements from all around the world, even while you sleep.

This robot would submit to placements that meet your requirements, he would only submit to real (industry lookikng) opportunities and he wouldn’t demand any royalties.

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Music Insurance: Is It Worth It?

Musical equipment theft is actually something that is extremely common. Unfortunately, it’s something that many musicians encounter and even some of the musical greats have found that their equipment or instruments have gone missing.

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What Bands Should Know About the Myspace Relaunch

If you haven’t received a notice or saw the posts, Myspace has relaunched with an all-new look. I found my email invitation in the spam folder. So what does this star-studded relaunch mean for musicians?

Probably nothing.

Myspace has tried multiple times to resurrect itself, though it was unsuccessful each time. We’ll see if Justin Timberlake and loads of money can make it work this time.

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Feed The Arts Introduces TIME Funding

FEED THE ARTS INTRODUCES TIME FUNDING WEBSITE FOR THE ARTS
ENTERTAINMENT SERVICE PROVIDERS BENEFIT AND BUILD THEIR BUSINESS WHILE HELPING ARTISTS

NEW YORK, NY (June 4, 2013)—

Feedthearts.com is forever changing the way art is funded by introducing its patent pending TIME FUNDING Model.  Time Funding is a cross between crowd funding and virtual rewards programs allowing fans to donate time instead of money.  Their time is what helps Artists get funded and allows funding of Creative Arts projects with fans earning virtual currency we call ?Helping Hands?.  Helping Hands are then turned around through an advertising revenue share and giving that currency to artists projects posted on the site.  This revolutionary model eliminates the risk of previous crowd funding and traditional funding models.

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