Happy New Year! So, what’s going on? What do you have planned for this year? I’ll tell you what I’ve got in the works: Last year, many of the posts on this site were concerned with what NOT to do. It only seemed necessary considering all the bad advice I was seeing out there that [...]

***Note: This post is about standard live performances and does not address playing on TV, radio, and in the media.

Not all shows are created equal. Some shows are better than others for an indie act and some shows are worse. Understanding the difference between them and the role that they all play can make a huge difference in how you approach booking and playing live.

The 5 types of shows are (in order of importance):

• Type 1 – A Large Audience of Fans of Your Genre – Opening for a larger act, a festival show, an event or party related to your genre (record label, media, etc.), any show with a larger than normal crowd size made up of fans of your type of music
• Type  2 – A Small Audience of Fans of Your Genre – A show with one or more bands of the same genre, a party within’ the local scene, any show with a smaller crowd made up in fans of your type of music
• Type  3 – A Large General Audience – An event that draws a large crowd with no specific musical preferences (charity events, events for organizations, etc.), public showcases in high traffic areas, opening for larger acts of differing musical styles, publicized talent shows or battle of the bands competitions, any larger crowd made up of the general public or people that aren’t specifically into your type of music
• Type  4 – A Small General Audience – Random club gigs, house parties, public showcases in low traffic areas, any show with a smaller crowd not there for your music specifically
• Type  5 – An Empty Room – pretty much how it sounds. The type of show where the room is empty and you’re playing for the bartender and the bouncer.

Obviously, type 1 and 2 shows are the most important if your looking to promote your music and build a fan base. Nothing you can do on a regular basis will help you as much as playing type 1 and 2 shows.

Type 3, 4 and 5 shows also have benefits that should not be ignored. All shows, regardless of the size and makeup of the crowd, add to your experience as a live performer. Even playing to an empty room provides the opportunity to practice your music in a live setting – you just need to play the show as if you were playing for a larger audience. Type 3 and 4 shows give you an opportunity to try to win over an adverse crowd with your music, showmanship and charisma, which can help you dramatically when you play type 1 and 2 shows.

Another benefit of playing all types of shows is exposure. Most shows get publicized in some way. Having your name out there for the public to see plants the seeds for future encounters. For instance, if someone reads your name in the upcoming shows list at a local club and then sees you listed in the line up of a music festival or hears your name mentioned in passing conversation at some later date, they may not remember where they’ve heard of you before, just that they have heard of you. Getting into people’s heads like this increases the chances that they’ll give you an honest listen.

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Not all shows are created equal. Some shows are better than others for an indie act and some shows are worse. Understanding the difference between them and the role that they all play can make a huge difference in how you approach booking and playing live.

The question:

“How do I start a career as a singer?”

The answer given:

“Put videos of yourself singing popular songs on YouTube so you’ll come up when people search for that song.”

I’ve come across exchanges like this several times over the past few days while answering questions on Yahoo! Answers. The scary part of this exchange is that it’s all too common and the YouTube answer is often chosen as the”Best Answer”.

Frightening.

The Real Impact of the Internet on Music

Over the past several years the Internet has been called everything from the killer of the indie musician to the savior of the indie musician. The promise of reaching the entire planet has worked it’s way into the minds of artists of every medium as being the shortcut to super-stardom.

The only problem – it’s never really delivered on that promise.

A few years ago, when this blog first started, MySpace was the musicians’ obsession of choice. Thanks to Tila Tequila making headlines by getting a million friends and launching a questionable music career, wannabe and professional musicians alike clamored to duplicate her success – and failing to do so.

Other one-shot gimmicks come and go and still people keep biting.

These days it seems to be the Justin Bieber/YouTube technique from above. Believing the whole “if it worked for him, it can work for me” adage, people seem to think they have a shot of duplicating these results. Poor, poor kids.

The thing people fail to realize is that internet gimmicks only work when no one’s ever done it before. Once it’s been done, people figure out how it was done and try it for themselves, thus destroying the uniqueness of the idea and crowding the field past the point of it working again.

So, You Can’t Get Fans Online?

Actually, the Internet does offer plenty of opportunity to gain fans, but there’s just one catch…

…there’s not much YOU can do to make it happen.

The truth is, the only way to get fans online is to get fans offline that will go online and talk about you (aka, a good old fashioned, organic viral movement).

People listen to their friends when they say “buy this record,” or “see this band.” They consider the advice of strangers when they advocate for an artist. It’s called ‘social proof’ and it’s the only thing that can open up a fan to your music.

When you tell people that your music is good and that they should check it out, or buy your record, they ignore you. Why? Because that’s what all musicians do; they expect it, they expect not to believe it and because of this belief, they ignore it.

What You Need to Do Online

The main thing that you need to keep in mind about what you do online when it comes to your music is this – be there for people to find you.

You’re goal online should be to use the web to keep fans once you have them. The internet was developed as a research and communication tool, so you need to set your self up so that people can use it that way to find out about you and your music.

To do this you need to:

• Get a website No matter what you do online, a site is an absolute necessity. No online profile, fan page or social networking site can replace having a fully functioning website. This is your home on the web. Social networking and profile based sites come and go, and then only constant is having your own site.
• That Said, Sign Up For All The Social Networking and Profile Based Sites These sites exist for a reason – people use them. While some site become obsessions and others may fall out of favor, as MySpace has over the years, people do use them to manage their lives and keep track of their interests. Again, be there to be found.
• Interact With Your Fans Whether it’s on your site, via e-mail, on a social networking site, in a forum or on Twitter try to interact with your fans as often as possible. Besides simply being a nice thing to do, it also keeps you fresh in their minds.
• Update, Update, Update Keep the content flowing. Keep your upcoming shows lists current on your site and all your profiles. Put up blog posts. Tweet. Add regular news updates about everything from the production and release of your new album to special shows and lineup changes. The more you update, the more your fans see activity -and the more they see activity, the more heat you generate… And the more attention you get.

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The question: “How do I start a career as a singer?” The answer given: “Put videos of yourself singing popular songs on YouTube so you’ll come up when people search for that song.” I’ve come across exchanges like this several times over the past few days while answering questions on Yahoo! Answers. The scary part [...]

It’s a false belief that you must tour nationally as a new band in order to make a name for yourself. While it’s true that you will end up having to tour nationally at some point, it can actually be counter-productive to attempt a national tour without laying the groundwork in you local area first. These are the reasons why:

1. You Can Play More Shows Because It’s Easier (And Cheaper) If you’re playing locally you can load up your gear, play the show, pack up your gear and head home. If you’re familiar with the area there’s no worries about directions. There’s no hotel bills, or worrying about the gear being stolen. It’s just a matter of showing up and playing. The simplicity and low cost of local shows make it possible to play more often – which is essential if you want to build a following.
2. It’s Easier to Get Fans Locally Part of getting fans for your music is getting your name (and music) out there as much as possible so you can open people up to it. It’s much easier to get noticed in a place that you’re present in often than it is to get your name mentioned by people when you’re not around.
3. Nothing Attracts a Crowd Like a Crowd If you’re like most bands starting out, you’re probably playing to a crowd that’s mostly comprised of your friends. When you book right – which means that you’re playing with at least one other band of the same genre as yours – then you’ll also be playing for the friends of the other band(s). These like-minded strangers don’t know whether these people that are there to see you are you’re your friends or not. Seeing a crowd cheer for a band they don’t know is a demonstration of social proof that will open people up to the idea that you might be worth listening to, liking and following.
4. Local Fans Are Online Too With social networking being what it is today, people tend to talk about what they’re up to. This is especially true when it comes to music. They tweet and status update about what they’re listening to and whom they’re going to see. They blog about bands they’re into. They discuss music in forums. They use social bookmarking to keep track of what they like. What’s great is that these communications go out to their entire networks of friends and followers. So, an easier to win local fan can start the buzz that a harder-to-reach, national fan can tap into.
5. It’s Easier to Enter a Local Scene Than it is to Enter a National Scene If you contact a local band that plays the same type of music that you play, and has the same type of fan that you’re looking to win over, you have a good chance of making a connection that can help you both. Try this with a national act and you’ll probably not find the same success unless you can bring something to the table. The fact is, when you’re just starting out, a local network of bands in the same genre – a local scene – is one of the most powerful tools you can have in building a fan base.
6. A Big Fish From a Small Pond is Easier to Find in a Vast Ocean With an established local fan base that’s behind you, both online and off, and the local media coverage, airplay and recognition that comes with it, you can more easily make the transition to a regional act, and then a national act because you’ve laid the groundwork and built credibility. When someone types your name into a search engine, you actually have third party content (more social proof) that comes up instead of just your website and whatever music site profiles you’ve set up.

As you can see, staying local is not only easier, it’s a more realistic approach to making a name for yourself. Trying to go national prematurely is much harder, much more costly and takes a lot more time than getting things off to a good start locally. Going out as an unknown into the larger world can set you up for disappointment and grind you down quicker than anything.

Don’t Fall Into That Trap

You can’t let yourself fall into the trap of believing that you’re not really doing it if you’re still a local act. Just be patient, play as often as you can, with as many similar bands as you can and work on building an organic following. You’ll dramatically increase your chances of getting where you want to be if you do.

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It’s a false belief that you must tour nationally as a new band in order to make a name for yourself. While it’s true that you will end up having to tour nationally at some point, it can actually be counter-productive to attempt a national tour without laying the groundwork in you local area first. [...]

It’s been discussed on this blog in a few prior posts, but I thought it needed one of it’s own.

Indie musicians seem to wonder why they aren’t selling more music. They put in the time, effort and money to make a record, put that record out, tell everyone and their mother about the release – and at the end of the day, disappointment.

What’s The Deal?

The fact is there is a common belief among musicians that whatever they put out is worthy of public consumption. The failure of widespread acceptance, therefore, must be because of some type of problem with ‘the system’. The boogieman of the moment is piracy, but old villains like music media and evil and out-of-touch record companies still get their fair share of blame.

These excuses really only have a marginal effect on album sales success. Sure it’s easy to blame outside forces, but in reality you have to look at the core issue to find out what’s really going on.

So, What’s The Real Reason Indie Artists Can’t Sell Records?

[Read More...]

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This process is for musicians that are serious about selling records – it is not, by any means, easy. It does, however, help to solve some of the problems that many musicians encounter when they release a record:

* It allows you to test your music with the people you’re hoping will buy it
* It ensures that you’re spending your recording budget wisely, only paying to record songs that are in demand
* It improves your chances of selling more records at the release by creating a mailing list to announce when your record is coming out.
* From an artistic standpoint, it let’s you get all of your music out to the public in a cost effective way while giving your fans an incentive to stay interested

The following is a response to How to Write a Great Song from David Hooper’s MusicMarketing.com From everything I’ve seen it’s not making a single song great, it’s about writing enough songs to get to the great ones. I mean, if you believe in 80/20 rule (which I do) then you know that 80% of [...]

Hey all! I’m still working on getting all the kinks worked out for the official re-launch of RockStar Machine, but I figured that I’d post something for this great article I just read by Michael Ventre on the Today Show’s site – Would Beatles make it in today’s music world?. While the article itself does [...]

You may have noticed that the site’s changed a bit… alright, so it’s completely different. This is it. It’s the new site! But, I have to warn you that while it’s up, I haven’t officially relaunched yet. I know what you’re thinking, but it’s complicated. You see, I had a lot of really good stuff [...]

MusicianWages.com, Music Careers at About.com and KnowtheMusicBiz.com have organized a group blogging event for today, April 16th.  The event is based around a concerned mother’s situation regard her son’s downloading of songs through file sharing. Music blogger, like myself are encouraged to write a post addressing the concerns of this woman nammed Valerie.  Here’s the [...]

Beginning a musical career can be difficult if you do not know how to break into the mainstream industry. Everyone has dreams and yours are no less important, but unless you know the right people to contact or the best businesses to approach, you could be left floundering in one spot, unable to move forward [...]