Biz: Tour Preparation Checklist

OMG you’re going on tour? Congrats! It can be one of the best experiences of your life. However, if your tour isn’t managed correctly, that show in Austin, TX, that you’ve been looking forward to all these months might not happen. Have you changed your oil? Can your van make it the entire distance of the tour without breaking down? Have you confirmed ALL of your dates with the booking agent AND club manager? These are all things we’ll be covering in this article.

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Chico Hamilton 90th Birthday Nine Twenty 2011 Interview With Jon Hammond HammondCast

Chico Hamilton 90th Birthday Nine Twenty 2011 Interview With Jon Hammond HammondCast *LISTEN TO AUDIO: Chico Hamilton Interview With Jon Hammond http://www.archive.org/details/JonHammondChicoHamiltononHammondCastKYOURadio Chico Hamilton center with Anita O’Day, Gerald Wilson, Dr. Billy Taylor, James Moody, Dave Brubeck at top in New York - photo by Jon Hammond

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Entropic Strategies for Music Marketing : navigating the noise

While Entropic Strategist may merely be my own word to describe the style of scatter-storm marketing I use for myself and other artists, it’s a style that was proven in the business and startup world many times over long before the Wild West of the Music Industry we have today.

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New Tool to Help Unsigned Musicians Book UK Gigs Unveiled

GigSwell, a new tool to help unsigned musicians book UK gigs has been released. The free resource lists details of live music venues, events and promoters, and includes a variety of booking information for each in order to help artists identify suitable places to perform.

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Cover songs... The calling card of the indie artist (Our example: Only Girl Rihanna )

It’s an ever changing landscape for the independent musician or label (or for the majors for that matter)
Cover songs have become crucial in the marketing plan of any savvy indie musician and here’s why…

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Comparing Song Pitching Services

I wanted to know which song pitching services worked best for musicians and have created a simple to understand comparison chart. This Blog post looks at my experience with early pitching companies and my thoughts for the future.

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The Danger Behind DAWs: How to write a killer tune without a computer

…no matter how much we wish it wasn’t the case, computers are completely useless at generating content. Where is the ‘compose Platinum selling LP’ key command in Logic? Where’s the ‘improve my bassline’ command in Cubase? Where’s the ‘choose correct tempo’ option in Ableton? They don’t exist. These are creative decisions that only a human can make.So how should we work? Here’s a different kind of compositional process a lot of DAW users have forgot…

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Building a Side Project with Mathieu Santos

It’s not uncommon for musicians to let the itch for further artistic exploration get the best of them. Some try out a different role in their current band, others go a step further and create their own side/solo project. The latter was the case with Ra Ra Riot’s Mathieu Santos. A founding member of the group and its bassist since 2006, Santos has come to be known as one of the most innovative bassists in all of the indie rock world. But that peer admiration wasn’t enough — Mathieu wanted to pursue a new creative outlet and did so by branching out on his own as a multi-instrumentalist. The result is Massachusetts 2010, Santos’ eclectic, colorful debut album released on August 2nd via Barsuk.

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Arkade.com announces major upgrade

arkade.com launches major upgrade

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Context, Differentiation, and the Human Mind: A Q&A with ReverbNation's Jed Carlson

When you ask a lot of bands “What’s your music like?” they say, “You just have to listen to it.” That’s the low-end of the spectrum for a good band story.  We asked ReverbNation COO Jed Carlson: How helpful is it to a band’s success if they have a good story? This is what he had to say:

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Digital audio workstation back up strategies for musicians

I think most of us have been there, one day your computer simply does not switch on or it switches off in the middle of a session and will come back on. Fact is when it comes to computers and especially their hard drives it is a case of when, not if, the hard drive is going to break. A hard disk drive is made of spinning plates and this requires a motor, this motor has a finite number of mechanical spins before it stops spinning.As such back ups make a lot of sense, the man hours that are lost when a computer breaks can be colossal. Not to mention the potential loss of a lot of work and creative ideas which could hold significant monetary and personal value. There are a number of solutions available. There are 2 things you need to back up on a typical digital audio workstation computer.  Audio data, your recordings and samples, these files are constantly being increased in number. Then we have the system drive which holds your operating system and software installations. For this I recommend 1 of 2 methods,  software cloning/imaging of the drive or hardware cloning.

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Enter To Win 100 MOO Business Cards from MusicianWages.com

MusicianWages.com is happy to announce our first give-away! Three of our readers will each win a set of 100 MOO.com business cards. For a chance to win, visit MusicianWages.com and answer this question: If you could have a line from any song on the back of your business card, what would it be? To submit your answer, visit: http://www.musicianwages.com/news/give-away-100-moo-business-cards-for-3-lucky-readers/

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Heads Up: new online Music & Culture magazine with print aesthetic

EyeSeeSound, three DIYers with a love of music and culture, have relaunched www.eyeseesound.tv as an online Music and Culture magazine with the format and aesthetic of print magazines.

Focussing on independent and DIY bands and artists the magazine, Heads Up, offers an opportunity for music and culture lovers to discover new bands, short films, animations, artists, photographers and designers through a stylish and innovative approach to website design and functionality.

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Amy Lavere Is Someone You Should See (if you like music)

On August 10, I went to a show to take some photos. I was not thrilled about it but I had agreed to do it for the Mapanare website (my site). The show was at a great little live venue in Chicago but the lighting there makes it tough even on a really good photographer (which I am not). I intended to take some shots and head for the door. I didn’t mention I had to be up at 6 a.m. the next day.

I stayed for thw whole show. Amy Lavere was the artist.

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