If you have a Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and more, and you are tired of logging in to each one separately to post, Ping.fm might be for you.

Here is a great roundtable discussion that took place on NPR! The topic of the discussion was “The Role of the Record Label” and features a roundtable of executives from popular indie labels like Matador.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/2009/11/roundtable_discussion_the_role_1.html

You may or may not know but this blog is directed at beginner to intermediate musicians and bands that are just starting out. If you are in that situation, one term that you should be aware of is “pay to play.” Pay to play is a phrase that describes any scenario where your band gets booked for a gig but has to pay for having the gig. Sometimes you may be in a pay to play situation and not know it.

For instance, a common pay to play scenario is you get booked for a gig where the venue or promoter requires you to sell a certain number of pre-sale tickets. The booker hands you, say, 30 tickets, and says, “Just sell these and we’re good. We’ll settle up the day of  the show.” Sweet! Your band has a gig! Wait just a second, though. This is pay to play. Sure you didn’t have to pay anything to get the gig OR the pre-sale tickets, but what will happen is captured in that phrase, “We’ll settle up the day of the show.” When you get there on the day of the show, the booker says, “OK and from you I need the money for 30 tickets.” You pay him and play. That is pay to play. You, the band, paid the booker before the show.

Only you can decide if a pay to play scenario is right for your band, but, in general, this is a detrimental practice for bands. The venue or promoter is placing the cost risk for the show on the band. Struggling young bands already have enough on their plates without this risk being added.

Tips is a series of blogs dealing with the little things that make a big difference.

For those with a copy of Microsoft Word, it can be frustrating and even impossible to get a flyer printed on 1/4 page sections of a standard 8.5 x 11″ sheet of paper. Here’s the best way we know how.

1. Get your full size flyer together in a single image file.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tunecore is offering free PDF copies of its “Music Industry Survival Manuals.”

Included are the following titles:

1. How to market, promote, and make money from your music while keeping your rights
2. Music publishing and copyright: cover songs
3. Mastering
4. Vinyl 101
5. Mixing
6. Copyright
7. Tips to sell more music online.

You can find these at the Tunecore Music Industry Survival Manual page.

In case you missed these posts, let me mention them again. I am working on making an indexed page where they can reside. Oddly enough the post on the Maxon tube screamer is the most visited of all our posts.

• Maxon OD808 = Ibanez Tube Screamer 808
  A post on how these pedals are the same, but you will save a chunk of change going with the Maxon.
• How to add a header image to your myspace
  It’s easier than it seems, though you could spend days looking for the myspace code for it.
• Downloadable tab files
• Sell your CD at your local record shop
  How to distribute an album yourself!
• The right way to grow your friends list on Myspace
  A downloadable PDF we put together that details some methods for (legally) adding tons of friends and keeping them up to date on all your shows.

I know. That is a bold claim isn’t it? The “right way?” Well whether it is or isn’t, I know my method of adding friends on myspace has been and continues to be successful for my band, so I have written it all up in an easy to print PDF for you to download. This tutorial includes plenty of screen shots and I hope it is helpful!

Adding Friends on Myspace

OK so you went through the long process of recording a demo, EP, or even a full length on your own. Now what do you do?

Well assuming you don’t skip the process of duplication where you get 100, 500, 1000 or more copies of your CD ready to sell, you probably want to get your CD out there.

The first place to start is at your local record shop. Go in and ask them if they sell CDs on consignment. This means that you provide them with a small number of copies of your CD, and they put it on the shelves for a period of time and sell it. At the end of that time, they can request more copies from you and pay you for what did sell.

Sometimes you don’t even have to call. In Seattle, I went to a couple of the locally-owned record shops’ web sites and found the information I needed regarding consignment, either directly on the page, or just through email.

One thing, though, you are still responsible for promoting your release!