Seven Steps To Consider When Building A Music Teaching Website

If you really want to grow your teaching business, then you should really get a website.

Unless you are a really established teacher with a full timetable who relies on word of mouth and referrals, then you simply need a professional looking site to promote your business.

Here are a several things to think about…

1) Decide whether you want a site which keeps your playing career separate, or connect everything together

This first point is crucial and you shouldn’t rush this decision. If you have a busy performing schedule, then you might prefer a separate ‘teaching’ website.

Let me explain.

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Have you been following the YouTube debacle?

Are you aware of all the news surrounding YouTube lately? Are you fed up of being beholden to massive corporations that really only support major coporations? Well, we are aware of all of this and have decided to invest a considerable amount of money into providing a site which is planned to have all the features of Youtube and more. Furthermore, as we do not have any preferntial royalty agreements in place with major labels etc it means that we can pay you upto 1.5p per stream! 

So how does that sound? Like it? Come and join us www.videscape.com

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Get Rid of Your Ineffective DJ Promotion for Good

Back when I started promoting my own music, I had a serious identity crisis.

When you me met in “real life,” I’d be super interested in what type of music you liked, what kind of places you like to go, where you’ve been and maybe who you’re sleeping with. I’d be a quirky, smart assy and even sometimes borderline obnoxious and just a ham in general.

I’d say funny things like, “my ma’s vagina” when people would ask me where I’m from. I’d usually be on the dance floor before or after a DJ set getting down to whom ever was playing at the time.

But back when I started promoting my own DJing or my own music, I showed NONE of this. I thought I would do what other people where doing when they shared people their music. I told myself, “Well, I can’t be the real me online cuz I’ll turn away so many people. I don’t want to miss any chance I have at a new fan!”

Sound familiar?

Especially when you’re first getting started.  I know this because I walked in those shoes.

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3 Best Business Practices For Indie Artists

At a time when digital media is becoming commoditized, it’s increasingly important to rely on tried and true business practices to sustain a music career. Just as loyal customers are the lifeblood of small businesses, loyal fans are the lifeblood of indie artists.

1. Build relationships. Strong relationships with fans are gold. Engage them on an intimate and personal level. Drive them to web services that give you full control over communication with them, such as email lists or your own website.

2. Exceed expectations. Surprise your audience with the unexpected to create loyal fans. They don’t have to be expensive or big things. Send a picture of a hand-written thank you note. Give an extra reward to crowdfunders. Publicly thank a fan for a contribution. Get creative and have fun with it.

3. Cross-sell and up-sell. Music is just one of your products. Continually search for new things to sell that align with what you stand for.  Don’t be shy about promoting them. If you truly believe in the product, it won’t be a problem.

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Moving Instruments: A Nightmare No Longer

Everyone’s heard of those horror stories of moving with a piano and it accidentally falling on someone and crushing them? What? That never actually happens? Well, even if it doesn’t happen it can still be a nightmare to move with larger instruments such as pianos and drums. Here are some helpful tips on packing for a move when you have large musical instruments:

Wrap Properly

When instruments are wrapped improperly it can cause major damage that can end up costing you more than your entire move, depending on what kind of instrument it is and how much damage is done. Make sure that instruments with strings such as cellos, harps, and guitars that the strings are loosened lightly and then wrapped in bubble wrap, taped up, and put into their case. Once the instrument is inside the case, make sure that if there’s lots of free room to use crumpled paper to fill it in a bit.

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Hey YouTube! 750 indies have signed the Fair Digital Deals Declaration

The 32 pages long YouTube horror story

Some time ago I happened to read the long, horrible contract that YouTube asked indie labels to sign for launching their new premium streaming service. A copy of the leaked contract is here but I guess you won’t go far: their legal patois is unintelligible to a normal human being.

The contract is not only horrible to read: it is also greatly unfair toward indies. So indies promptly replied by taking off content from YouTube (Adele was said to be missing although I was much more concerned about XX and Anna Calvi).

Indies’ next bold move

Now it seems that indies have taken another move toward the Cupertino’s giant: more than 750 of them have signed the Fair Digital Deals Declaration (and notwithstanding the longish hashtag #fairdigitaldeal4artists, they quickly created a buzz on twitter), an initiative launched by the WIN- Worldwide independent network, that represents the interests of independent labels.

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"It's Not Just About The Music…"

“It’s not just about the music- the music is the foundation and the platform but to make that music heard it is so much more. A great song is kind of the beginning. Even most the songs on the radio- I would say it’s half great songs and half good songs put out by great artists- people would rather hear the okay or good songs by the artists that they love and stand behind and the movement they follow rather than great songs by people that they don’t care about.”

“It’s all about the moment and the experience, you have to give people something they can remember- maybe it’s doing something in your set that’s a little bit different that they can’t get with anyone else. You have to give them exclusive content; it’s the same business model for almost anything. Why do people wanna buy this when they can buy that? What does your product have that the other products in the same exact market don’t? What’s different? Music is the same thing.”

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Online Music Marketing Strategies for Indie Musicians

These days online music marketing is one of the most widely used forms of advertising and marketing used by musicians. But oddly enough most musicians do not have a plan in place as to how they plan on marketing their music. Most consists of random twitter and facebook posts, but have no strategy in place. I’m going to touch on a few things you can do right now to improve your music marketing. So here are 4 basic strategies you can put in place right now to take your online music marketing to the next level. 

1. Master a Few Proven Strategies Instead of Being “Good” at Several

Every day there is a new social website popping up. And many artists run to that new site and post all their information and where does it go? Nowhere. It is better to become a master of a few than to be good at many. For instance the three that I like to focus my time on is Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They all integrate extremely well, and so I can maximize my efforts. I also like to use a program called Hootsuite, because I can make several posts at once without ever going to a social page.

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5 Tips for Finding Your Online Voice

No matter the style of content you find most effective with your fans – blogging, tweeting, videos, photos, Vines, etc. – one thing remains certain: You must be consistent in your voice in order to build long-term connections with your fans.

This voice will become the building blocks for your brand both online and off, and will ultimately become the way your existing fans, new fans and the community at large identify with you as a unique presence. In other words, finding an online voice that best suits you is the first step to ensuring you are, to paraphrase Seth Godin, remarkable and not invisible.

Though there are a seemingly infinite number of ways to arrive at your own voice, here are five tips to help you focus in on what may come to define your voice later on:

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How to Get a Digital Single Deal with Sony

  If you produce your own music, you can enter two original songs for a chance to win a digital single deal with Sony Music UK!  

          It doesn’t matter if you’re a singer-songwriter, in a band, or a DJ—the winning act will receive an all expenses paid trip to London for 6 nights, with the same label that’s home to Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, Calvin Har

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Indie Artists: "The Times They Are A-Changin'"

There are different mindsets on owning music today than there were forty years ago. Don’t blame that on anyone in particular. Blame society as a whole. Try to change it and you’ll waste time.

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How Music Affects Teens

Music is something that each individual has his or her own particular assessment about. Diverse individuals have distinctive taste, and different sorts of music have numerous methods for leaving an effect on somebody. It might be unwinding, maddening, calming, empowering, and a lot of people more.

There are such a large number of sorts of music out there today. Rap, pop, shake, nation, outside the box, elective, no-nonsense are a portion of the rich sorts on the planet. Music conveys either great or unfortunate messages that have enormous effects on how individuals act. Individuals generally get to be companions with other people who have a same taste in music as whatever is left of the individuals they home base with, or it might be the other way around. Individuals may not have any desire to take up with individuals who have distinctive tastes in music on the grounds that they’ll contend about what they think is better yet its simply their own particular assessments.

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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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