How To Find People That Will Listen To Your Music

Do you ever get this strange feeling that someone is watching you? Maybe I’m crazy (don’t answer that), but I do. I hope they don’t watch me too closely because that’ll get weird very fast. I’ll have to scare them away by walking out to the van in suspenders and a buckwheat hat “HEY YALL HOW YALL DOIN” *van screeches away* The other day I was thinking about getting some hot wings. And sure enough, Facebook gave me coupons to Wingstop. HOW DID YOU EVEN KNOW ME SO WELL FACEBOOK THAT’S A…

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What question do YOU have about creating success in today's music industry?

What questions do you have as you pave your path in the music industry?

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Fans To Add Social Music Game To Indie Artist Facebook Pages

Doing things changes things. Let’s do something about real indie music discovery on Facebook. Let’s enable every indie artist to have their own “Candy Crush” kind of Facebook game that focuses fans and their friends on playing the artist’s music?

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Old Men to Pre-Teen Girls. Where Music Has Been And Where It's Going.

Let’s set some ground rules for music innovation to take place. Instead of swinging around in the dark hoping to hit something, let’s remember what happened before this moment.

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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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MuzicNotez Management & PR

The internet has opened doors to promotional opportunities for artists worldwide. The problem with that is it’s created a much more competitive market, and you need to stand out from the crowd. Ultimately your music sells itself, and without the talent you won’t succeed. But even the most talented musicians don’t necesarily succeed in the industry today (or in the past). That’s where management comes in, however most managers charge a fortune and take a cut of your money. A lot of indie artists just manage themselves today, which is a full time job if you want to succeed. When you have another full time job, your band, and managing your band, that can be extremely diffecult. Plus it takes away from your true passion, the music. As musicians ourselves, and with years in the industry, this is why we offer management unlike any other.

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Stevie Wonder and Barack Obama say your music isn't good enough to just have people show up at a gig.

Have you heard of Stevie Wonder? Have you heard of Barack Obama? If you knew that a free Stevie Wonder concert was being staged at your local University would you go? Would you at the very least tell someone else about it? Is this too many questions to start an article with?

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INDIE MAG Launches a Campaign to Develop a Funding Platform for Independent Musicians

Publishing with a conscience
INDIE MAG is on a mission to create a funding platform to support artist development by funneling profits from the magazine back into the global indie music community. The INDIE MAG team is raising funds on Indiegogo to establish the magazine as a social enterprise and to develop an infrastructure for the distribution of the sales profits through a grant process. Profits generated through sales from the issues will be funneled back into the independent music community. The goal of this undertaking is to provide artists with an opportunity to seek financial support simply on the merit of their ideas and their musically inspired vision for themselves and the world. INDIE MAG has teamed up with Wear Your Music©, the guitar string bracelet charity project, to offer a range of rewards in exchange for contributions to The INDIE MAG Project.

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Indie Artist Music Services? Where, What, and WHY!

For those of you who have already embraced the DIY duties of the new music industry, the concept of music hosting sites for Indie Artists is not an unfamiliar one. 

I’m sure you’ve heard about dozens of NEXT big site you NEED to be on, music marketing wiz bang widgets, and yet another indie music service you need to be using…

The PROBLEM most people have is WHICH ones to be on, and then of course why and how does it benefit you… And i mean… In the real world. I get how it theoretically works.

Well there are tons of options, and exactly WHY you should be on a site certainly depends on a strategy for doing so, where that reason would be spelled out and clear.

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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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Episode 7: The Music Biz Weekly Podcast E-Commerce Solutions For Bands

Here we go folks, another edition of our weekly podcast featuring Brian Thompson from Thorny Bleeder and Michael Brandvold from Michael Brandvold Marketing.

This week’s topic? E-Commerce Solutions for Bands. 

We discuss everything from getting your music up on iTunes and the Amazon MP3 Store, in addition to options on how to handle your merchandise sales and email marketing campaigns.

What platforms are you using to sell your band’s music and merch?

Be sure to follow Brian on Twitter here and Michael on Twitter here.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and share your own tips and tricks with us!

Brian Thompson

Thorny Bleeder

Electric Vans And Touring: Can You Afford 2 Cents Per Mile?

There are many large businesses taking advantage of 2 cents per mile with the use of electric vehicles, that is not a typo, one of the electric vehicle industries greatest bonuses is price per mile. The new electric vehicle industry will endevour to help bands of the future, but why are they not ready for us independents just yet? Simply put, due to the huge upfront costs of an electric van, you actually can not afford 2 cents per mile.

You may or may not as a musician have thought about these new propulsion methods. I am talking about electric vehicles, which are actually not so ‘new’. In the early 1900’s there were more electric cars registered on the roads of America then there were petrol cars. What does this mean today? Well with technology being trickled out to the possible consumers as slowly as possible it could mean a resurgence of the electric vehicle 100 years after they where first driven on the roads of America and beyond. What does this have to do with you your probably thinking. Electric vans are a part of this not so new technology which your band could utilize.

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YAWMA Uses Facebook to Launch New Marketplace for Independent Music and Games

YAWMA, an online community and marketplace, launched today.  The service allows users to discover, download and share high-quality independently produced digital content through Facebook and earn cash rewards for their participation. YAWMA launched with both independent music and game content.

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Indie Vs. Major: Which Record Label Contract Is Right For You?

A look at the pros and cons of both indie and major record label contracts as well as some of the common, yet most confusing terms used throughout the contracts

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