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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Branding by Association

Branding by association or Association branding simply means aligning your brand with products, places, and things that relate to or complement your brand. It almost plays into the popular saying that your parents used to tell you “you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with” or something like that. Brand association can effectively build your brands identity, and help your audience, tribe, or fans really get a personal feel for what your brand represents.

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Top 5 Rules To Making Money Doing Music

1) Shows, Shows, Shows

Although this seems obvious enough, many artists miss the fact that performances are critical in earning a living. Even in the prime of the music industry, an artists’ performance income was their main income. And once a week at the same local bar is not going to cut it. Remember the basic rules of sales we all learned in 9th grade…Supply & Demand. If you are in too much supply to one little area, the demand will decrease. Spread your shows out, or at least switch which side of town you perform on.

2) Get Online

If you’ve been doing this long enough, you remember the days of printing up flyers, posters, stickers, sampler CD’s, and anything else you could think of to promote your music. Then you had to go out yourself and pass all that stuff out. Even living in major markets with millions of people, it was time consuming, took lots of money, and you would only actually get to a fraction of those people. Now, with the aid of the internet, you can reach millions of people, in just a few days, with almost no money. The weeks it took to successfully connect with a few hundred people can now be done in a few hours with a few well placed key strokes. It is a utility that can not be overlooked!

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How to Record an Album in 7 Days

We, as modern musicians, are spoilt. We can have anything we want in a snap. Instruments from Abbey Road, snap. Ultra high resolution Pro-Tools recording, snap. Performing an entire set using only a mobile phone, snap.

So, when anyone can record a song, why are so few people recording quality albums?

Because they require focus.

When you have 50 unfinished tracks floating around, how can you pick 10 to fit together into an album? A good album isn’t simply a collection of songs thrown together, often they are written and recorded during the same sessions. Unlike single songs, albums require a focus on the bigger picture. How will the songs sound next to each other? What order would they work best in? Do all the tracks belong on there?

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Book Your Own Tour (Introduction)

Most musicians have one common goal – to go on tour playing their music.

In the past, an artist was signed by a label and toured to promote their latest album. This worked when people bought records distributed through local retailers. In today’s digital atmosphere, however, the old model has been reversed – an artist releases an album to promote their tour.

This past summer, I completed a highly successful first tour in Poland as the band leader of the Jazz 3. The tour was built from the ground up by myself and partner Aleksandra Baldych.

I’ve decided to start a series of articles discussing the process while simultaneously chronicling our next project as it unfolds – booking a winter tour for the band this December in the US.

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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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Where the Music Industry Went Wrong: Why Indie Musicians Are Struggling to Sell Their Music

There are three reasons why local, indie musicians are not achieving the levels of success they desire in the music industry. In this article, I will give a short overview of these three reasons and the role the music industry has played. If you are an indie artist and you are struggling to sell your music, if you are struggling to get promotion and publicity, then it is probably because of at least one of these three reasons.

Three Reasons why most indie musicians are struggling to sell their music:
Reason # 1. Indie musicians have forgotten or are not aware of, the true value and power of music.

Reason # 2. Indie musicians do not communicate the value of their music or they do so poorly. This reason aims at how musicians market and promote their music. This reason also explains why most musicians are not able to network effectively at industry events and get the attention of music executives and the press. I will discuss this reason in a later article in this series.

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The Breakdown on iTunes Ping: What it means for Artists and How it compares to Cloud-Based Services

In Apple’s Keynote last week, they launched a much needed upgrade to iTunes that includes social integration.

Much like current sites Rdio and Last.fm, iTunes is finally getting a social overhaul that will transform iTunes into a music discovery social network called Ping. You can now “follow” your friends to see what they are listening to and share recommendations - all without leaving iTunes.

Initial reports indicate that Ping only displays data for albums purchased, NOT listening data. If true, this is a big disappointment from Apple’s latest social endeavor. If Ping only displays what albums your friends purchase off the iTunes store, they are missing out on a huge a

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Songwriter & Producer workshop

Hello my name is William i have managed songwriters and producers for over twenty years i came across this site while looking for ways to promote my event, if anyone has ideals on how to promote a music seminar please share with me, I’m hosting a Songwriter & Producer workshop in Universal City California Sat. Oct. 9, at 2pm our class will give attendees the skills for creating hit songs and the winning mentality you need to make it to the finish line, we will be sharing our secrets for success my team has one Grammy and two nominations we have worked with Timbaland,  50 CENT, Flo Ryda, Jennifer Lopez and many more we have sold over fifty-million records world wide and it hasn’t been easy for more info copy and paste the link.

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4 Steps to Film and TV Placement

Since getting my music licensed on TV, films and ads, I often get asked for advice on how I did it. The first thing I will say is that there is no “easy button” and no magic publisher. It requires a lot of hard work and single-mindedness.

Still reading?… ok :)

Step 1: Lay the Groundwork

After being a songwriter for a many years (while being a comedian for a living!) it was only two years ago that I decided that my next “job” was going to be getting my music licensed. I was already a prolific writer and had learned how to record my own songs in my own style at home (and still learning everyday). If it was to be my job, then I was going to work hard and do whatever it took, all day everyday (around kid’s pick-ups, housework, etc).

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New in the business? Forget money from the normal sources!

I run Wonderland Records, a independent record label in Sweden, and I have now been in this amazing (in both positive and negative ways) business for about 5 years.

Just wanted to post a general recommendation for you who are new to this business and maybe even some of you who have been in the business longer and feel that you are getting stuck.

-Try your outmost to get the money you need to keep going from other things than “the business”. Never expect the revenue from iTunes, music streaming services, live shows, merch and CD sales to cover more than the costs you have for them.

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iDream Studios New Recording Model Executive Interview

iDream Studios executives, DJ Parker, Founder and Chief Visionary and Barrie Holley, Founder and CEO answer music industry questions about their new music recording model.
 
Thank you for being here today gentlemen. We are very interested in your new music recording model and hear that it is going to revolutionize the music industry as we know it and help independent artists build strong recording businesses.

1. The name iDream is interesting.  How did you come up with that name?

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new App takes Radiohead/NIN innovations a step further

My name is Kurt Dahl, I’m a drummer in Vancouver rock band One Bad Son. I invented something 2 years ago that is now a free iPhone App.

The App lets you the listener customize your own version of my band’s song ‘Rustbucket’, based on different pre-recorded parts of the song that we’ve done in studio. For example, do you want the regular or alternate lyrics in the verse? or more cowbell in the chorus? the live or regular bridge?

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How NOT to Social Network

Myspace, as a medium for social networking, is useless. The signal to noise ratio has plummeted so low that there is essentially no point in trying to reach fans through MySpace. It’s all comment spam, automatic “friending” programs, and bots. Most myspace comment boards look like this:

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