PERSONALISED ONLINE RADIO

Here is a review of 4 slightly different websites that each offer a personalised listening experience where you can choose to be exposed to new music that suits your listening tastes.

The reviews are for Pandora, The Hype Machine, Last FM and Fine Tune.

Read the reviews here.


[Resources http://www.watchmojo.com/music/blog/?p=818]

PASSING THE AUDITION

You find an ad for a band who require the services of someone just like you. You contact them, things go well and they invite you to an audition. You could just turn up and play of course, or you could take a look at these 16 tips on increasing your chances of winning the band audition and turn up prepared.

Auditioning For A Band?

[Resource http://www.mediatricks.com/how-to-audition/auditioning-for-a-band/]

MUSIC INDUSTRY FACES FUTURE

As more and more singers and recording artists enjoy the freedom of being independent and having control over their music and its distribution, what does the future hold for the majors.

Boston based Entertainment and media lawyer George Tobia talks here about challenges faced by the music industry. Will lawyers become the new 'major record companies'?

[Resource http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070209005343&newsLang=en]

SONG FOR AUSTRALIA

This is fantastic! I came across this story and I thought it worthy of a mention for it's unique and inspiring story.

Manjit Boparai was a teacher and author from India before emigrating to Australia in 1988. He moved his family to Brisbane in the mid 1990's and took a job as a taxi driver.

With the opportunity to tell overseas visitors riding in his cab, what a great and diverse country Australia really is, Manjit decided to write a song so he could play it to his cab riding audience.

The song Manjit wrote in 2003, "Song Australia" was on high rotation in his Brisbane taxi until March 2005 when Manjit's cab picked up film maker Faramarz K-Rahber. Manjit told Faramarz of his dream to make a Bollywood music video and between them they set out to make it happen.

Working with Australia's SBS television Manjit and Faramarz produced a documentary and music video showing off Australia and its wonderful multi cultural population.

Read the lyrics to "Song Australia" here.

Manjit's website for "Song Australia" is here.

As an independent musician there are some excellent lessons here on marketing and never giving up on your dreams.



[Resource http://www.music-videos.duncans.tv/2007/song-for-australia/]

BARENAKED MARKETING

For Canadian band Barenaked Ladies, the decision to go 'green' is proving popular with their younger environmentally conscious fans.

The band tour in bio diesel buses and trucks, use bio degradable cups, real plates and even have a plan for recycling their old guitar strings.

This independent band who were formerly signed to a major label now have greater creative and marketing scope as an indie band including recycling their music.

Read here, all about the new environmentally friendly incentives and marketing tricks of the men who are Barenaked Ladies.



[Resource http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/lifestyle/story.html?id=060932e6-76cb-45d4-b941-f6661d62be08]

GET PAID FOR PRACTICING

Here's an article I came across that tells you how you can do just that. Get paid for practicing. It was written from the personal experience of Kevin Brown, a saxophone player who has spent the last 36 of his 40 playing years, getting paid to practice.

This is well worth a read for some ideas. Read it here.

[Resource http://geoffandwen.com/blind/newsarticle.asp?u_id=17473]

MUSIC BUSINESS RADIO WANTS YOUR DEMO

Music Business Radio does a podcast show each week. They play and review 6 or 7 songs in each weekly episode to a worldwide audience as well as industry guests.

They accept music of all genres and you can send your Cd to:

Tuned In Broadcasting
ATTN: Music Business Radio
1310 Clinton St. Suite 200
Nashville, TN 37203

You can subscribe to the free podcast here


[Resource http://www.indiemusician.com/music_business/2007/02/music_business_.html]

ITUNES - SELLING SONGS TO SUCKERS!

Here's an article in response to the Steve Jobs article "Thoughts On Music".

Read here why this writer thinks Steve's latest comments are correct but not the issue. This writer feels that those who are buying songs from the iTunes music store, are suckers.

[Resource http://media.seekingalpha.com/article/26283]

STEVE'S THOUGHTS ON MUSIC

Read what Steve Jobs has to say on DRM (Digital Rights Management) from Apple's "Hot News" section.

Here's a small sample (below) taken from the article "Thoughts On Music"

"Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices."

[Resource http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/]

STRUMMING TO A DIFFERENT BEAT

Color your guitar playing by ditching the plectrum and trying pick-hand techniques.

At Reasons To Ditch Your Guitar Pick you'll find a bundle of tricks and techniques that will open up a 'tool box' of new sounds to give your recordings and live performances a twist.

For those looking for more guitar info, be sure to take a look at Guitarz-For-Ever which is packed with all things guitar related.

[Resource http://guitar-tips.musikal-instruments.com/guitar-tips/reasons-to-ditch-your-guitar-pick/]

CRACKING THE US AND EUROPEAN MARKET

Here's an article from the Google group "Australian Music News And Reviews Group". There's a bit of a chat with successful singer songwriter John Butler of the John Butler Trio about the challenges of cracking the US and European market.

Despite spending the last seven years trying to get the attention of the huge American market, the John Butler Trio are only now starting to get recognition and their hard work is paying off. The John Butler Trio can now look forward to knowing within the next tour or two they will break even financially before they leave Australia.

If you're thinking of taking your music, live to the US or European markets, expect a far larger audience, a diverse and unpredictable musical appetite.

You can read this article here.


[Resource http://groups.google.com/group/australian-music-news-and-reviews-group/browse_thread/thread/6dfb1eccc3f4b520/8c93428daeb48315?q=australian+music&rnum=10#8c93428daeb48315]

HOME SWEET HOME STUDIO

If you've ever dreamt of building your own professional home recording studio you'll know there's a lot of decisions to make. Like what equipment are you going to buy for one.

Here's a story from the Seattle Times that how a musician couple built their dream studio, what equipment they chose and how they sourced it to fit their budget.

Read about it here.

[Resource http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2003551767_homestudio03.html]

BRING THE BAND HOME

A while back I made a post to this blog that talked about an alternative to performing your music in pubs and clubs. "A Stay At Home Gig" was about a US concept offering the musician and the audience an intimate and unique live music experience.

Another US based organisation, House Concerts provide links to dozens of houses in 38 states where audience are sure to be appreciative and you'll get your music heard.

I also hinted that the 'home gigs' idea may provide a hidden audience and a legitimate way for a band/artist to find new audiences.

People may choose to stay at home for a gig because of transport or location issues, family commitments or just a desire to avoid a pub type of environment. These types of gigs seem to be getting quite a lot of community support.

House Concerts Australia is an Australian concept offering a similar type of live music opportunity. They not entirely new in Australia, singer Deborah Conway did a series of home concerts in 2004 to promote her Cd 'Summertown'. And some good advice from Deborah Conway for independent artists selling Cd's "...it's really up to artists to find new and imaginative ways of getting there music out there".

For some tips on how you can do a house concerts take a look at House Concerts. PS It's a different website to House Concerts mentioned above.


[Resource http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/band-in-the-backyard/2007/01/30/1169919330426.html]

WATCH AND LEARN

Here's how a band clocked up nearly ten million watches on YouTube. Although this video has only been up at YouTube for four months it has so far been viewed an incredible 9,880,273 times.

This is a perfect example of how a band can harness the amazing power of social networking and teamed it with a unique idea (ie. the video).

With marketing ideas like this, Sick Puppies are sure to be huge. Who wouldn't love to have a video that is viewed by so many people. This really is mind blowing stuff!!




In case you are missing the big sharp point, here's what makes this video such a hit.

1. A unique, true and inspiring story
2. A good song
3. Some marketing

The brilliant thing about this marketing tool is that you only really need an idea and ideas are everywhere and they're free and unlimited. You have the same potential to come up with an original idea of your own and create your own video with the potential for millions of views. You can give your songs the kind of mass marketing previously available only to the major record labels and their marketing teams.

P.S You may have noticed that this video was shot in Pitt Street Mall, Sydney, Australia. Proof that sometimes you don't need to travel to far off distant shores to find a good story.



[Resource http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4]

MUSIC AT MARKET PRICES

Here's a unique way of selling your music. Amie Street is aiming to make independent music easier and more affordable for consumers to discover. The unique factor with this website is that the prices are set by market forces.

Your music starts off by being offered for free then depending on how many people download it, the price increases as the song becomes more popular to a maximum of USD.98 (98 cents).

Along with a social networking style of promotion where members are rewarded for 'discovering' new songs before they go popular, Amie Street promote artists by interviewing and posting their videos as well as organising showcase concerts in New York.

Artists featured on Amie Street retain full ownership of their work and receive 70% of every sale after a USD5 covering bandwidth, storage and transactions costs.



[Resource http://www.springwise.com/]

HOW TO BE A VIRAL VIDEO STAR

More than 70 million videos are watched on YouTube daily. The question is, how do you get your video to stand out in the crowd.

One way is to rise up the YouTube charts by getting yourself in the top 100 videos. Firstly, you have to have a unique video, something funny, quirky, interesting or clever would help. Next, you have to upload your video, tag it with relevant subjects then create your audience.

Want to know what works and what doesn't? For some ideas and tips go this article "The experts' tips on how to become a YouTube Viral video star" and you'll get some ideas including a tip from a spokesman for YouTube. Like other forms of successful social marketing, it works the most effectively by you being active in a community.



[Resource http://www.presstelegram.com/entertainment/ci_5118793]

PHONE A FRIEND

The immense popularity of social networking is still considered a puzzling phenomenon for some. Now with companies like Boost Mobile (Hookt) and MySpace (Helio), cellular phones are becoming another popular way of social networking by attracting people to join a chat room where they can search for new friends to communicate to via text message. Its growing popularity is looking like taking social networking, blogging and uploading videos and photos mobile.

Click here to read how a Los Angeles based photographer and actress uses Helio and MySpace mobile social networking tools to regularly contact and market to her 4000 strong list of 'friends'.

[Resource http://www.courant.com/technology/hc-businessoflife0130.artjan30,0,5269658.story?track=rss]

SELL YOUR MUSIC AT MYSPACE

SnoCap, MySpace and Merlin are working together to launch an initiative that would allow artists to sell their music directly from MySpace.

Merlin, a new force in the music industry, is billing itself as the "fifth major" in the music industry.

Read entire article here.

[Resource http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/01/22/snocap-merlin-partner-to-let-indies-sell-music-on-myspace/]

HOME DEMO RECORDING

Here's a few time saving tricks and techniques to get your home demo recording sounding good. This article is written by Frank Fuchs, a former staff songwriter for Sony music and EMI music.

Home Demo Recording

[Resource http://www.hoodhype.com/blog/?p=55]

BUILD YOUR OWN HOME RECORDING STUDIO

There are many options for setting up a home recording studio and even more choice of equipment and software.

If you're a little confused as to where to start the best things would be to ask yourself these 2 questions. What purpose are wanting a studio for? Is it to record demos, gigs, rehearsals or Cd releases. Next, you need to decide what your budget is. Shop around and don't be afraid to ask questions or for a demonstration. Your overall budget and recording requirements will dictate where the money should be spent and on what type of equipment.

At a basic level you'll need, a device to record the sound to, monitors to hear what you've recorded and possibly a microphone. For some more ideas on setting up a recording studio have a look at "Building A Home Recording Studio".

[Resource http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/128125/building_a_home_recording_studio.html]