Video Helps You To Book More Gigs

I was reading about David Nevue, the pianist, who writes for the musicbizacademy.com website. He said that he does house concerts. I was looking at his website. One of the things he did was video tape one of his concerts. He then loaded each song that he performed, as individual videos that you could click on on his website. I am sure that this generates more interest in his house concerts. Some of the videos show him telling a little story about the reason or the story behind the songs.

As a matter of fact, I just remembered that I went to my friend’s house concert that was really “off the chain” great!. Her name is Raven Williams. I wonder if she has her performances up anywhere on the web. She held a concert at her house and invited people over…she created this little impromptu stage that looked great on video with shimmering curtains and performed with just a couple of acoustic players including a guitarist and a conga player. It was such an intimate experience…and the people she invited were real cool too.

I am going to do the same thing when I do my next house concert. I’ll post it up. When I do, let me know what you think. Have any of you already done this with some of your concert footage?

Music Mama – How to Be A Successful Indie Artist and a Mom

There are so many of my friends now, who are singers, songwriters, and musicians who are also mothers of young children. We all talk about continuing to make our livelihood with our passions for music, but how do we juggle the working in the music business without the long days, months, or even years on the road, away from our kids?

Many of us are turning to our local markets for tour dates, and performing on the weekends, taping our shows, then airing the performances via YouTube. We also connect the video to our individual websites. So, our fans that we have developed around the globe can still get a taste of our live performances. Here are some of the steps these Music Mamas are taking to keep their dreams alive and still be great moms.

1. Scheduling productive tasks and Every Day iInclude some “me” time in there mommies.
2. Write your 30-60-90 day, 1-3-5 year goals.
3. Perform at least once a month.
4. Build a website to showcase your music. If you can do it yourself use www.homestead.com or www.vistaprint.com on top of your myspace page.
5. Start a blog about you and your music. Sign up for www.thenicheblogger.com to learn how.
6. Video tape your performances or your recording in the studio and post on YouTube and your website.
7. Sell your music online using www.Tunecore.com and www.CdBaby.com
8. Read and sing to your children almost every night.
9. Include a date night each week with your significant other.
10. Always be your authentic self and don’t overwhelm yourself. You can still take baby steps to reach that milestone.
Tags: Authentic Self, Baby Steps, Dreams, Globe, Homestead, Indie Artist, Live Performances, Livelihood, Local Markets, Mama, Milestone, Mom, Music Business, Musicians, Passions, Productive Tasks, Showcase, Singers, Singers Songwriters, Songwriters, Tour Dates, Video Tape, Youtube
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Music Marketing Help – Create Your Own Music College Internship

Who wouldn’t love to work with a music act, especially if you are a college student and might be able to get school credit for it? Setting up a college internship program to get your music out there not only benefits you, but also add valuable real world experience to the resume of the college student. You get semi-free labor and the college intern gets an experience of a lifetime.

If you want to set up the college internship in a way where the student gets credit you need to contact the college, whether it is a junior college, or local public or private university. Let them know that you have a music company called, “your company Productions” or something like that, and that you are offering a summer, fall, spring, winter, internship, whatever the semester is that you’re offering the internship. They may say you have to send them a profile on the company, which you will have already gotten together, and a description of the internship. Some schools charge a fee to be listed under their internship programs and some require that they are paid. sometimes the pay required is so low you are ok with it.

You can also post your internship on craigslist.com for free, or entertainmentcareers.com for a fee. You’ll start getting calls, so you need to set up interviews.

You may require that the interns have their own cars and car insurance, their own laptops and cell phones that they bring to your location.

You can have your interns do internet research, keep your blogging up to date, get on the phones and confirm your shows, have them in the crowd collecting information from your fans to be placed on your email list, or get out and do some street promotion for you. They can also video tape your performances or shoot photos of the shows that you can add to your website. Whatever you have them do, make it interesting, insightful and fun. You’ve gotta spend some quality time with them. When they first come into your office, you should have a routine that they do when they come in on a daily basis, and do some initial training. You may have them calling radio stations to try to get airplay for your music….give them a script to use and practice it with them before they get started. Give them a phone list and a log so that you know what they have completed so another intern get started where they left off.

Interns can hand out fliers for your upcoming shows at different venues where your fans and potential fans hang out. They can do all sorts of things that help you promote your music and help them learn how promotion and marketing works in the music business right now. With your help, they can gain incredible exposure to the music business and may be the next CEO of a huge entertainment company.

Typically, at the end of the internship – which if it is unpaid, usually ends at the end of the semester – the interns have to write a paper regarding their experience, and turn it in to get the college credit.

6 Tips To Promote Your Music Like a CEO

Do you want to be able to quit your day job and focus on your music full time? There is a way to do it but you have to put on that business hat of yours. I know that is sometimes hard for those of us who are artists, but we can truly experience the freedom to live our dreams on our terms if we also make a living off of our talents. The internet has given us an outlet to share with the world our music, but we can also focus on our local fan base, too, through some of tools that are offered online. Here are a few tips to help you promote yourself or your band and sell more CDs.

1. Learn How to Write Good Songs. You can learn so much by listening to hits and song writing abilities of artists that have come before you. You may want to take a lesson or two in song composition if you get stumped on how to pull something together.

2. Make Sure Your Music Sounds Professional. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on studio time nowadays to make professional sounding recordings. With pro tools your music can be produced in a home studio and sometimes sounds just as thick as the majors. Make sure your fans are able to buy your music and its levels sound as clear and crisp as the other music they have on their MP3 or CD players.

3. Perform, Perform, Perform. Get on the phones, get out to the clubs, talk to booking agents or whatever hook-up you have and book your shows. You have got to get out there to make a name for yourself. Don’t forget to video tape your performances so that you can have some material to place up on your acts website (not just MySpace…a little about this later…)

4. Promote and Make Sales During Shows. Have someone close to you go around during your show and have a sign up sheet where fans can placetheir info on your email marketing list. Also make sure you have a merchandise table set up so that fans can buy your music at the show. Look into investing in a credit card swiper, or if you are really selling a lot of merchandise, an electronic wireless credit card swiper so you can take credit cards at your shows and sell a ton of stuff…CDs, T-Shirts, Hats, Bags, buttons. You’ve gotta diversify. If you sit at the table after the show, you’ve gotta have photos to autograph…make sure you are nice, too.

5. Use the Heck Outta The Internet. You have to set up your own website with your own domain name…www.youract.com, not just a myspace page. You will get more sales that way. Some people just want to go directly to you. Have a box on your site where fans can sign up for email notices for your next performance. Also, make sure there is a way to buy your music on your website. www.cdbaby.com, and www.tunecore.com, are independent music distributors that set up mini websites for you for about $35. you input all the information about your music and they upload the audio for you. They sell your CD for a fee but can also set you up on ITunes and for individual song downloads and more. Load your vidoes to YouTube.com. Maybe set up a Facebook page or be a Twitter Tweeter, so that your fans can know what you are up to. Start a blog about the act and all of your adventures in the music industry and more.

6. Whatever you do be consistent. Set up a routine on when you are going to get the word out on your performances and send an email every Tuesday maybe. Update your status daily on Twitter or Facebook. Try to perform at least Twice a month or more. Announce when you put up a new video on You Tube…

After doing these things you should be on your way to building your following, so that you can make a living doing what you love…making and performing good music. If you have any other tips let us know in the comments below…