Rare Birds: Women bass players and drummers

All-women bands are a rare thing. Within all-women bands, there are two particularly rare birds: drummers and bass players.  Female vocalists and guitarists are everywhere, but women over age 25 who can play bass?  Nuh-uh.  

The band I’m in is all women over age 40. We gig regularly with originals and covers, and as we go along we try to encourage women to pursue their dreams, musical or otherwise. Occasionally I see a glimmer of hope on craigslist or local music posts as young women in their teens- to early-20s post that they play bass or drums and are looking for bands to play in…a developing  trend? 

I feel rather pioneer-y in this way; that maybe we can be role models for those coming up after us, that women of any age can be musicians, too. In the meanwhile we sure could use a good female bass player over age 25 in the Dallas area.



An Open Letter to the Music Industry.

An open letter from the co-founders of the Restoring Music Foundation.

There is more music available than ever.  The ability for anyone to easily produce music at low cost coupled with an increase in available distribution channels, makes scarcity and control of music a thing of the past.  This is compounded by the proliferation of online piracy, that has made a significant dent in the revenues of the music business over the past decade.  Competing with “free” music is a challenge.  This has resulted in a devaluing of music, which has affected every stakeholder in the supply chain, from the record company to the musician.  This devaluation is the central reason for the Restoring Music Foundation.

In 2009 we defined the economic crisis with the help of our wonderful network of music industry supporters.  We want to personally thank all of you that pitched in your opinions and helped us ask the big questions.  The campaign was a massive success and it was all because of you.  We hope you will continue to stay involved in the ongoing Restoring Music Dialogue.  Thanks again!

Here at The Restoring Music Foundation, our goal is to create and implement solutions to the crisis and in turn, create an economically sustainable road map for the restoration of the music industry.

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Indie Musicians: Do you know what Mastering Is? If you think you know the answer please read on>>

A common question I get is, “So what is CD Mastering and how is it different from mixing?” By the time you’ve finished recording and mixing, you feel like you’re finished. I know, I went to Juilliard and have been a musician all my life. However, where you leave off as a musician is where the professional mastering engineer begins. Mastering creates the experience the listener will have with your music. That is why mastering has become so important from a first time indie performer to a major label artist. Creating a great experience for your listener is going to help you sell more records, get more professional acclaim and land you better reviews! So it’s not just about you anymore – mastering is your first step launching your music into the world. Here’s the why:

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Rock The Biz - Sneak Preview livestream today 08.00 pm (CET)

Rock The Biz - the documentary about the new music business in Europe - can bee seen first and live on http://www.peoplezapping.com/places/rockthebiz at 08.00 pm (CET)

The movie has english subtitles

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A Sustainable Future in Music? Bet your sweet a*** there is!

Look don’t get me wrong and please don’t think I’m moaning! that’s exactly what I want to have a say about. I am either losing it big time (possible!) or just need to get a bit more of the positive in the Music Think Tank space…..

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The Bandcamp bandwagon

Bandcamp’s goal is to make online transactions easier, from all points of view. But what good is it to make a transaction easy if the thing you’re selling is hard to find?

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The Perceived Value of Music

An opinion about the value of music today, and what factors are contributing as to why music is at this value. Finally, what artists and labels have to do about it.

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Improving the Vitality of a Music Community through Community-Based Education Models

The new musical business has created a democratized landscape whose positive effects allows fans access to more music than ever before and place the power to build musical careers squarely as the responsibility of the artist. There are negative effects though and a major one is that the incredible amount of available information makes navigating this landscape tedious and difficult. Without a roadmap it can be a fast track to obscurity as new models emerge and die rapidly. Musicians looking to successfully harness the power of this new business must dedicate a considerable amount of resources to current and actionable career building education. Contributing to this problem are that tips, tricks and skills accrued by successful musicians seems to be passed on in an oral tradition fashion, a high fidelity transmission of information but applied only as a one-to-one or a one-to-few model. Finally, very few effective non-institutionalized locations exist where musicians can share their knowledge and experience and help other bands develop their careers.

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Online Music Marketing: 38 Metrics and 7 Tools To Measure ROI

Using the Internet to market and promote your music is one of the most affordable ways to establish and build a following. The abundance of free tools and music-based social networks has made music marketing more accessible than ever for musicians around the globe. Rather than investing boatloads of cash into advertising, PR, and radio promotion, instead musicians invest their time. Through social networking and direct-to-fan engagement musicians can achieve remarkable results with online marketing.

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We've come a 'Long' Way: Why More Is Better and Why You Need to Find a Niche Retail Outlet

This post is an edited excerpt from a longer-form version that can be found at my official blog, in reference to what I learned from reading The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and how it set forth some business strategies for my company FIXT and our online niche store - the FiXT Store. The part I want to share here with you is the advice I outlined for how to take some of the principles from The Long Tail and apply it to the indie musician.

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How The World Discovers New Music

The days of walking into Wall Mart or Target on new release Tuesday are long gone for me. I used to enjoy standing in the isle of my favorite music store, looking at cover art and buying a fourteen dollar piece of plastic. Not anymore. I’ve realized that there is a more cost effective and environmentally friendly way to discover new music…and I’m not alone.

Everyone has their own methods of finding digital downloads.Its a new day and if you are not aware of the possible processes of new music discovery, you’re CD’s are dead in the water. I figured that sharing my normal routine will shed some light on how you can position your work to be found. I encourage you all to try my method and contribute your own in the comments section.

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Musician Poem

To help with my thoughts and understanding

To get through each day with free abandon

I strummed a mortal chord

Which flowed like a meandering fjord

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Free Music: Response to Reddit

On December 28th, 2009 Music Without Labels & Beat-Play asked the public (using reddit), “What needs to happen in order for music to become free and the artist still get paid?” This is a very controversial topic right now seeing as piracy is one of the leading issues in the music industry today. Here is what some of the social media world and redditters had to say about this topic:

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The invention of the Toolbox, and how it can save Music

What came first, the toolbox or the tool? This is not a trick question, it’s obviously the tool, and we have proof. However, with the emergence of more tools, and more applications for these tools, it became apparent that another tool, a tool’s tool, was needed: the Toolbox.

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