Your album release (and post-release) If you’re sitting down to tackle making an album, there’s a lot to think about; from clearing the rights for your cover songs to converting the cover art to the right format.
These issues can trip you up, or cause the album to take a lot longer than you’d expect. Randy Chertkow and Jason Feehan, authors of The Indie Band Survival Guide, have revised our popular Planning Your Album From Beginning To End guide. The guide delivers on its title, providing a road map to help new musicians and seasoned veterans navigate the process of rehearsing, recording, and manufacturing an album; preparing and producing an album release event; and handling the post-release activities you’ll be engaging in to fully promote your new album.
Here’s an excerpt from the revised guide, which you can download for free right now! Preparing your music for music licensing. Music licensing is a very lucrative business with no shortage of placement opportunities.
9 things you should never do on stage. This post on music performance tips was adapted from an article on Music Industry How To.
Reprinted with permission. How To Promote Your Mixtape So People Actually Listen To Your Music - Blog. Six social media platforms you should consider using - Disc Makers. A few weeks ago we profiled the six biggest social media platforms to help differentiate them and highlight the relevance and importance of each as it relates to your digital strategy.
But, as you are aware, the social media landscape is huge. And even more, it is a landscape that is growing and changing every day. In this, our second social media review, we’re going to dive into a few “niche” social media platforms. Though many of them have significantly fewer users than Facebook or Twitter, each can play a critical role in effective branding, marketing, and fan engagement for independent musicians all over the world.
Used properly, you could very likely find more engaged followers on Google+ or Vine than you will on Twitter or YouTube. So let’s dive in and take a look at what makes each of these social media platforms unique. Google+ 1. 2. 3. LinkedIn 1. 2. 3. Reddit 1. 2. 3. Vine 1. 2. Build a superfan base one video at a time. This lesson comes from Ben Sword, founder of Music Marketing Classroom, with an excerpt from the “Superfan Building” module of their training.
Click here for the whole shebang. If you’ve done any research about music marketing, you’ve probably heard a lot of people telling you you need to be on social media “engaging” with your fans. Sounds good, but what does that mean? Good question! Music-marketing-101. Copyright Basics: Exclusive rights, licensing lingo, and more - Disc Makers. So you’ve written a new song.
It may have the potential to be a hit, but one thing is certain: it makes sense to properly protect your song if you hope to profit from its recording and public performance. How do music copyrights work? What is required to have ownership of your song’s copyright? Why should you register it with the Library of Congress? What are some of the common music licenses that generate income for songwriters?
Building a presence with online music marketing. Two years ago, singer/songwriter Michael Shoup started 12South Music to help his artist friends with music publishing.
Today, 12South Music creates websites, videos, and marketing plans tailored to the artist based on genre, demographics, and all the things that make a music artist unique. I spoke with Michael to get some insights and specific examples of what he means when he talks about a holistic approach to online music marketing. You operate under the assertion that artists should look at their online presence as a holistic entity. What do you mean by that exactly? I’m sure you guys get this, when people call you up and they want CDs – they know they want CDs, but that’s about as far as it’s been thought through.
Tax tips for the working musician ¬– Disc Makers. As April 15th rolls around, thousands of working musicians will be scrambling to get their receipts organized as they prepare last year’s tax returns.
For most anyone making money with music, the onus is on you to make the most of the various deductions that can be taken on your federal and state income taxes. CD release tips. So you’ve put your blood, sweat, time, and money into making your brand new CD.
Now what? Intro to music licenses. Music Licensing can be quite confusing, and while there are different types of licenses, I’d like to focus the three I feel are most vital to us as composers, producers, and artists: blanket license, sync license, and master license.
Terms to pay attention to throughout this post: Licensee – person/client in need of music or who work is licensed to. Licensor – creator, rights holder of the music/work. How To Write A Compelling Artist Bio. How to build an audience on YouTube. If you’ve ever posted a music video or any content on YouTube and wondered how to get more people to view it, there are recommended ways to build an audience on YouTube over time. YouTube publishes a series of “Playbooks” that incorporate a mix of strategies, actions, and ways to measure the results of your efforts that any working musician can take advantage of, assuming you are willing to dedicate time to learning the ins and outs of audience building on the platform. Many musicians make the mistake of simply thinking that YouTube provides a free distribution channel for content and little else.
Getting started The best place to start learning is the YouTube “Creator Playbook” (CP), currently at Version 4, updated regularly with new ideas from YouTube’s community of users. (Note the link in the lower right corner of the page to download the book as a PDF). Using icons The CP authors have provided some handy visual elements that accompany each best practice they cover. Going viral.