4 Materials To Use When Constructing Your Home Recording Studio

Many bedroom recording studios these days consist of nothing more than a laptop, headphones, various connectors, audio peripherals, and software applications, but this is mostly for electronic dance music production and editing. A more comprehensive home recording studio that can handle analog recording and full instrumental sessions will require proper soundproofing and acoustics, which means that you will need the following construction materials.

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Garage Band: 5 Unique Places to Have Band Practice

Almost every band, whether famous or just starting out, understands the struggle of finding and maintaining adequate rehearsal space. When the money and relationships necessary for a band to thrive are all but non-existent, a little creativity may help the band stay afloat.

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DIY Exists, You Just Don't Know What It Is: You CAN Do It All Yourself by Mary Lemanski

When I read Kyle Williams’ article, “DIY Musician Debunked: Of Course You Don’t Do It All Yourself” here on Music Think Tank last week, I could not understand why such an irresponsible piece of writing was getting so much attention when the author obviously did absolutely no research on what DIY is, it’s history, or the collective aspect of the DIY philosophy.  

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Post-Show Procedures: 8 Things Every Band Should Do After the Performance

Do you have a post-show plan? Is there a set of procedures that you work on after each performance? Or, does your band simply work on the next upcoming event – the next show, the next rehearsal, time in the studio, etc.?

In almost every professional endeavor, there is some kind of routine or review period to measure performance or follow-up with customers:

• In sports, the coach diligently sits down with the entire team to review footage of the previous game. Team member celebrate successes and most importantly, look for areas of improvement.

• In corporate business, the board of directors and executive staff look over stock performance and make decisions to keep their shareholders satisfied.

• In the arts, performers carefully review each element of the show to see what delighted audiences and what could use work.

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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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WHY MUSIC IS FOOD (By Piers Faccini)

A few days ago, the English songwriter Piers Faccini - with whom I work closely as a digital marketer - published a great post on his website about his new status as an ‘artist-running-a-label’. In this text, Piers makes a smart parallel between small farmers and musicians who have both had to adapt to a market that has taken a radical turn over the last few years.

His words have all the more resonance considering the current debate concerning streaming royalties and it also shows how important it is for independent artists to be able to develop their own eco-system thanks to the Internet.

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The One (and Only) Thing A DJ Should Ask For In Return For DJ Mixes

You’re creating boatloads of amazing mixes - yippee! So, it’s only natural that for every piece of music you deliver people should automatically make people want to come to your gigs or buy your latest release …right?

Errrr..wrong.

One singular piece of music isn’t going to translate into an immediate purchase or attendance to your event.

But, I have good news.

Building trust and BFF-worthy relationships with people so that they do backflips of joy when you make an offer is something you can do.

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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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ICONventional Music Service

ICONventional aims to give rising artists a chance to be noticed while making it easier for listeners to discover new music. Our online service relies on user participation, both through submissions of great music and support for the artists.

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(I) Submitting materials: artist one-sheets and college radio promotion.

This is part 1 of an article written from the perspective of a program director/MD focusing on the creation and submission of materials for college radio – as a radio promotion company, and independently – though many of these points can be extrapolated and applied to areas both inside and outside of the music industry.

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25 Digital Media Resources For Musicians

You might want to consider listening to what these people have to say. Many of them are industry professionals that have hands on experience that they’d like to share. Others are people who know about the industry and what it takes to be a part of it. It is important to educate yourself no matter what profession you choose. So before you embark on your next gig or take any other steps towards furthering your career in music take a look at these articles.

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How PROs Collect & Distribute Royalties (Part.1)

Authors, composers and publishers have the right, but not the obligation, to register with Performing Rights Organizations (a.k.a Collection Societies, internationally) for the collection of royalties.
The primary function of PROs is the intermediation between copyright holders and entities who wish to use their music publicly (ex. a business establishment that broadcasts background music).

They can take the role of your lobbyist, your “agents”, and most importantly, your royalty collectors.

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Is it Possible to Build a Portable Recording Studio For Less Than £250?

When pro audio gear reached the masses seven or eight years ago, the ‘home studio’ dream was born for tens of thousands of musicians all around the world. A couple of years later many of the leading manufacturers of recording gear such as Mackie and Motu started catering to the nomadic musicians and the touring artist with portable gear. 

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SongTrust: “We need more people to pay attention to their publishing”

Songtrust is a music publishing organization that helps indie artists and working songwriters register their songs with agencies around the world while collecting royalties for radio play, television play, online play and other sources.

For a flat yearly fee of $50 for a solo act and $100 for a band, Songtrust will register 15 songs, create exposure for sync licensing opportunities, collect on U.S. and Canada royalties, while the artists keeps 100% of their copyrights and royalties. I first heard about Songtrust a few weeks ago, as I started to notice that they are doing some pretty heavy online campaigning with banners on just about every music related website on the web. So, curious me decided to reach out to them via email and I was able to have a brief interview with Songtrust’s Marketing Manager James Aviaz.

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