How To Download Youtube Videos For Free?


How To Download Youtube Videos For Free?

Entertainment is the lifeblood of creativity, imagination, and fun in life. No one can deny the fact that listening to good music, watching entertaining and informative movies, and learning new skills online can help people grow in their respective fields. YouTube is among the best streaming platforms that have enabled people to achieve all these goals. However, many people don’t have 24/7 access to the internet and can only use it at specific timings. How can they make the most out of their limited internet access? Downloading youtube videos when they are online can help them stay informed and entertained even if they’re offline. This article shows how anyone can download youtube videos for free, so keep reading!

Use Your Smartphone

Portability and ease of use are the two biggest reasons why people use smartphones. And most internet users prefer using their mobiles to watch videos online. However, as mentioned earlier, limited internet access is why many people can’t make the most out of their online time. A youtube downloader app can help them download videos for offline infotainment. SaveFrom offers a great smartphone app that allows smartphone users to download videos on their mobiles. These are some of the amazing features of the SaveFrom android app:

 

  • This app is available free of cost. 
  • You can download any video in all the available formats. 
  • You can download videos from YouTube and various websites with it. 
  • Using this app, you can manage all the videos you have downloaded. 
  • SaveFrom android app doesn’t put a watermark on the download videos. 
  • This app features a background downloading option for seamless productivity.

On Your Desktop 

Even with all the superior features of using smartphones, desktop PCs and laptops are still the No.1 priority of power users. Watching videos is always better on a bigger screen, and this is why movie lovers prefer laptops/PCs over smartphones. But the limited access to the internet can even limit desktop users from enjoying infotainment when they are offline. Desktop users can download the SaveFrom helper app to easily download videos from youtube and all popular platforms. This app is 100% free and doesn’t feature any subscription plans as well. Using this app, you can ensure that you are connected to the world of entertainment even when you’re not using the internet. 

From Your Browser

People running low on storage space may not want to install the desktop client of SaveFrom video downloader. The best solution for such people is to use the browser extension of the SaveFrom website. SaveFrom is the most-trusted platform for downloading videos because it supports all major platforms and lets the user download videos in all available formats. After adding this desktop extension, you will see a “Download” button on all the supported websites. You can click on the button to download your desired video within seconds (depending on your internet speed) without installing any app. 

Follow these steps to get the “Download” button on YouTube and various other websites:

 

  • Visit the Google Web Store. 
  • Install the Chameleon Extension in your browser. 
  • Now visit the Opera add ons website and add the “SaveFrom.net Helper” extension. 

Boom! Now you will see a “Download” button on the supported websites to quickly save your desired videos. 

Download Instagram Videos

Instagram has been the Torch-bearer for years in the fashion and entertainment industry. Most people follow celebs and influencers on this platform to stay in touch with the latest in fashion. However, like YouTube and other mainstream services, you can’t download videos from Instagram by default. But you can download instagram video on both your desktop and mobile devices by using the methods mentioned above. 

 

How To Download Youtube Videos For Free?

 What Games Have the Best Soundtracks?

By Hrvoje Milakovic

What Games Have the Best Soundtracks?

image of game controller
Image Rafael Javier

Videogames are an essential part of modern pop culture. They are much more than just a source of fun. They have become a lucrative business, but a lot of modern video games are, in a certain way, forms of art. The stories are immense, the visual design’s quality is movie-like and if we include the music, some video games truly become memorable artistic experiences. Today, we are going to talk about the latter, as we are going to give you a list of the 10 best video game soundtracks ever. We are going to be diverse in our choices, as our main goal will be to bring you the best soundtracks and not the games themselves. Enjoy!

1. Super Mario Bros.

We start off our list with a timeless classic, the famous Super Mario Bros. video game, which is even today, when the design has evolved to, for that time, incomprehensible levels, a true classic among video games. The 8-bit music is one of the most recognizable scores ever and there’s no older gamer that has not, at least once, heard this brilliant, quirky and fun melody. The legacy of Super Mario is also evident and this soundtrack is undoubtedly a piece of history.

2. Pokémon Red and Green (or Blue)

Nintendo has yet another title (or titles in this case) on our list, and they are the first two Pokémon   games that appeared on the GameBoy handheld console. The legacy of the Pokémon franchise is something that needs no introduction, but along with the whole franchise, the music of the first pair of games is also something that defined a whole generation of gamers and is instantly recognizable by fans around the world. These 8-bit pieces are so memorable that they have been remastered, remixed and reworked several times, including the versions used in the Pokémon Go video game.

3. Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage

Now we move on to the PlayStation and its timeless classic – Spyro the Dragon. Spyro is likewise a franchise that has defined not just a generation of gamers, but also the whole PlayStation console, alongside Crash Bandicoot. As for the soundtrack, we have chosen the soundtrack for the second game, although each of the first three games deserves a spot on our list. Spyro 2 was a great game and it had a very innovative and magical soundtrack that perfectly fit each of its levels, and that is why we have listed it here.

4. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

We are not sure that there is a gamer that does not know about Crash Bandicoot, the quirky, yet highly entertaining titular character of a whole series of video games that certainly defined the PlayStation as a console. Like with Spyro, Crash’s legacy is undeniable and it is without a doubt one of the best and most memorable franchises in the history of video games. The soundtrack for the third game featured many recognizable and fun compositions that perfectly fit the game’s quirky nature and that is why we have decided to list it here.

5. God of War

It is difficult to find a game that has done so much for the PlayStation as God of War and its sequels. The story of the rise and fall of Kratos and the Olympian gods is one of the best stories ever written for a video game, and with the recent universe shift – as Kratos and his son explore the Norse realms – the future of the franchise is guaranteed. Although the “Greek games” had great music as well, the most recent God of War has such an amazing score that we could not avoid it.

6. Nier: Automata

Now, Yoko Taro’s original Nier game wasn’t a hit initially, but it became a cult classic. In fact, it became such a big cult classic that it received a sequel, Nier: Automata, a game that instantly became one of the best games of its generation. Taro’s deep, melancholic stories intertwined with tragic subplots have captivated fans around the world, and his characters are beloved even today. Still, one of the most important aspects of the series is Keiichi Okabe’s brilliant music, both for Nier and Automata, which has received numerous awards, as well as being credited as one of the best in history.

7. Batman: Arkham City

The Arkham series is certainly going to go down in history as the best superhero video game franchise ever, with Arkham City being, by far, the best superhero video game ever made. This series has done so much for the evolution of Batman’s character that we’d need a whole article to list everything. This is why we have opted for the soundtrack, which was absolutely great and which, we think, deserves a mention on the list.

8. Death Stranding

Another recent hit, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding doesn’t just eerily echo a darker version of our current, pandemic-stricken society, it also features one of the best stories we’ve seen in years. Along with the great design, Death Stranding is a true modern classic, whose soundtrack brilliantly complemented the game’s story and crucial moments, and that is why we are listing it here.

9. Ico

Thinking about Fumito Ueda’s trilogy – Ico, The Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian – we cannot ignore the fact that these truly magical stories have done a lot for the development of video game narration. All three games are true classics that need to be played, but we have opted for Ico when the music is concerned, as its simple, yet mesmerizing soundtrack is the most special among the three.

10. Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Okay, this last one is a humorous one, but we have decided to congratulate the designers of Sackboy’s most recent, PlayStation 5 adventure by honoring its soundtrack on our list. The original compositions are quite befitting of the game, but the true surprises start pouring in when you see how the levels are beautifully designed to fit the songs of David Bowie, Bruno Mars, Madonna, a-ha, Frank Sinatra and others, which is why we have listed it on here.

And that’s it for today. Although there are many more brilliant soundtracks, we think that our choices are among the best. We have chosen the most memorable and most influential soundtracks, compositions that have had a larger cultural impact, as well as being recognized around the world. We do hope that you have enjoyed our list and that you are going to enjoy listening to these soundtracks. Also, don’t forget to follow us for more of the same and see you next time!

What Games Have the Best Soundtracks?

Breaking The Video Game Music Industry


 

 

Breaking the Video Game Music Industry

Video Games Industry

Breaking the music industry is not an easy thing to do and the harsh reality is that few musicians, however talented, will headline stadium shows, no matter how good they are.

 

That is not to say there is no career in music though; from session musicians through to film and TV, there are opportunities to create music for a living. One ever-expanding industry, which can provide a great opportunity for music makers, is the video game industry. We’ve already examined this briefly in our article  Video Game Voices Giving Life to the Game, but we have now got practical tips on how to break into the industry.

 

Before you start, you must be aware of how many different levels of video game music there are these days. The epic, sprawling plains of Red Dead Redemption 2 have soundtracks comprising of many hours of music, changing with the environment, the time of day and the mission the player is competing on. On the other hand, mobile games such as puzzlers and slot machines draw more from shorter, looped tracks, which came to define the 8-bit generation of gaming. In between, there is a hybrid too, a selection of games that need themed music that are reactionary, but also simpler to compose. Many of today’s slot games are often inspired by pop culture with Foxy Games having titles based on films including Beauty and the Beast and Jokerzier. Just like the films, these slot games make use of music and often that ties into the themes they use as their basis and provide challenges in setting scenes without being too complex. It is a vast world, across different devices, titles, genres and styles which offers an opportunity for everyone and anyone with the right talent.

 

How does a budding musician go about getting into the video game industry?

A college degree isn’t necessarily required to become a video game composer, but you would certainly need an understanding of traditional music scoring techniques, with orchestration and composition high priorities, but also a grasp of more game-specific areas such as sequencing and spotting areas within a title which requires changes of mood.

 

A firm understanding of the video game industry is absolutely essential. If you were to work on a classic console title, you’d need to adapt your approach to creating music, working in blocks that can interconnect with each other, but that are also undefined in length, to fit with the gamers’ experiences. It would also help to cultivate contacts in the industry, network online and understand what stages of development games are currently in, so you know what to pitch.

 

In terms of practical skills, any aspiring composer would need to have a basic understanding of recording software such as Logic and Protools. You may want to find a niche too; are you someone who composes big, orchestral tracks suited to the expansive open worlds created on consoles, or are you more comfortable with shorter, looped jingles that act as a backdrop to mobile puzzlers, slot machines and basic platform titles?

 

The main key is being enthusiastic about both areas, music and gaming. Brian Schmidt is a renowned composer of video game music and has been for over three decades, and he explains how the only reason he got the job was that he was good at the pinball game he played as part of his first interview. By combining his two passions, he has managed to forge a career many young people just starting out would be proud to have.

 

Be passionate, be prepared to freelance and be aware of what is happening in the gaming world. Be ready to network extensively and most of all be prepared to play games. Taking those skills forward might allow you to hear your piece of music on the next huge title to break on consoles.

Breaking the Video Game Music Industry

General Tips For DIY Music Making


 

Musician

It’s no big secret that DIY music making has exploded during the first half of 2020. Even RnB superstar Kali Uchis recorded her four-track To Feel Alive EP by building a makeshift studio in her bedroom. British pop sensation Charli XCX did the same thing when she wrote and recorded How I’m Feeling Now, a new album that was produced entirely while she was in lockdown in her Los Angeles home. If you’re planning your own quarantine-birthed single or EP, here are some of the things you should keep in mind.

 

Make Music With Whatever Equipment You Have

While having high-end studio equipment can yield better results, you don’t need the best equipment to actually start recording music. If you have a laptop or a phone, then you already have access to the many free or cheap apps that you can use to record and mix tracks to your liking. If you have just one instrument you know how to use at home, you’re already better off than many wannabe DIY recording artists. Adapting to the bare minimum will be part of your journey as a studio musician. This is not only good for your recording skills, it will also inevitably influence the way you write and perform songs.

 

Acoustic Treatment & Soundproofing

Making the most of whatever equipment you have will be easier with soundproofing and acoustic treatment. British science writer Chris Woodford explains that there are many ways to prevent outside noises from leaking into your recordings. This includes noise reduction techniques such as absorption and dampening, both of which are also key principles in the proper acoustic treatment of your recording space. Whatever studio space you have right now will determine your need in terms of acoustic panels, bass traps, diffusers, or their DIY counterparts like thick blankets. If you’re serious about recording, learn the science of acoustics and soundproofing.

 

Look To Invest In The Right Home Studio Equipment

Making do with what you have, whether in terms of acoustics, soundproofing, or studio equipment, is a fun and highly productive challenge for any DIY musician. At the same time, if you do have some money to spend invest in studio equipment that will improve the quality of your recordings. Also take note that some studio equipment is designed for recording specific types of music. The AKG C451 B is the latest model in a line of microphones that has been integral in defining the sound of recorded acoustic guitar for decades. Meanwhile, the Neumann U47 is more suited for vocal work, and has been used to record many prominent hits. Which one will be most useful for the type of music you want to record? Consider this before making any significant purchase for your home studio.

 

Get Constructive Feedback From Fellow Musicians

Now comes the hard part. If you want to get better at recording your own music, you have to be open to getting honest feedback from your fellow musicians. Sites like Drooble Song Reviews can make this process much faster and easier. You can also opt for getting feedback from musicians that you already know and trust, and maybe in turn do the same for them. Constructive criticism of your work is a crucial part of improvement. The better you can accept and work on criticism, the faster you can grow as a DIY recording artist.

 

Exclusively produced for musictalks.xyz

Produced by: JBobb

General Tips For DIY Music Making

 Tapping Into a Popular Industry Helped Artists Reach New Heights


 

Hip Hop Band

How Tapping Into a Popular Industry Helped Artists Reach New Heights

Over the last few decades musicians who have tapped into popular industries, trends, and current events have been able to speak to their audience on a level that is aligned with their interests and passions. Similarly, our ‘How To Submit to Music Blogs, Magazines, and Radio, and Get Heard’ article  discussed several tips on how aspiring musicians can tap into a larger audience base and get their music heard. Here, we’d like to go over a few examples of how tapping into pop culture aspects has generally helped artists reach new heights.

The Gospel of Kanye

Case in point, Kanye West’s latest gospel album Jesus is King has been a controversial release, and despite mixed reviews, it has proven quite effective at generating buzz about the recently converted rapper. Many are calling his born-again Christianity nothing more than prosperity gospel for the rich that’s more about Kanye and his money rather than religion. Others focus solely on his new gospel music and have given Jesus is King generally favorable reviews. Whether a publicity stunt or a true intention to spread the gospel through his music, no publicity is bad publicity when you’re constantly the talk of the town.

 

From Gucci to Adidas

Run-DMC’s My Adidas, released in 1985 announced hip-hop’s infatuation with fashion and featured a subject that’s still very popular today – the classic Adidas sneaker. Since then, Run-DMC seemed to have started a trend that quickly caught on with rap and hip hop artists featuring clothing brands in their music which had huge appeal in popular culture. High Snobiety points out how hip-hop artist Chamillionaire has had some excellent beats in his storied career and seems to have been obsesses with Gucci as the song Gucci & Fendi was featured on his Mixtape Messiah 7 album. It was part of a collection of 61 tracks over three CDs released in 2004. It went to become the longest and most bought mixtape in Texas history.

 

A Solid Poker Face

Since the early 2000s poker has been a popular topic, especially with the poker boom that began in 2003. But even long before, AC/DC’s The Jack in 1975 and Aerosmith’s Deuces Are Wild released in 1994 popularized the poker phenomenon. More recently, songs like Lady Gaga’s Poker Face, released in 2008 came at the height of the poker craze of the last decade. Even today poker remains a popular game.  The World Series of Poker celebrated 50 years this past July underscoring the popularity of the game.

New platforms and new sites continue to crop up and in the span of 20 years, poker has gone from a niche industry to a revolutionary phenomenon in its prime. This is due to the rise of social media which has brought the game to a wider audience and allowed new apps like PPPoker to thrive. PPPoker’s numerous Twitter hashtags alone show how the platform is becoming more popular with people across the world. And it is this popularity that musicians are able to tap into to find new audiences – especially generations brought up on online gaming and social media hashtags.

 

A new musician should take the above examples on board when creating new content. By associating yourself with a brand, movement, or even a popular game you can reach out and connect to a much wider audience base.

 

 

Tapping Into a Popular Industry Helped Artists Reach New Heights

 How To Name Your Band and Why It’s Important

 


How To Name Your Band and Why It’s Important

Indie Band

How to name your band and why it’s important.

Naming your band can be a rather tedious task for most, but for some, your band name may have come with ease through something that means something to perhaps one person or possibly more members of the band.

However, just because your band name has come with no real effort and may have a specific meaning that only you and your band understand, this does not mean it’s a great name.

Too often do I see names that are hard to pronounce, let alone spell regardless of their meaning.

To be quite honest, no-one cares about the meaning of your band name, and if you need to explain your name or spell it to anyone, then remove it from the list.

On the other hand, some bands try way too hard to create or try to be ‘Clever’, naming their band, resulting in something that is almost as useless as Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious (or however it’s spelt)

People don’t and won’t, consistently move backward and forward from either email, or other sites to check the spelling if they are searching for you on the net. Furthermore, they will not be able to remember it well if they would actually like to find you and hear your music. All they will remember is that it was a weird name beginning with a certain letter perhaps.

When choosing your band name, make it a joint effort with other members of your band.

Make it something that suits your music and sound.

What do I mean by this?

Let’s say you’re Jazz band. You wouldn’t name your band something heavy or hard, like, ‘Metal Blowtorch’ (example only)

This would be best suited to a heavy metal band.

Some tips in helping you find a great simple name is to combine the name of something familiar with a feeling, object or doing word.

Here are a few examples:

Winter Chill

Falling Stars

Popping Candy

Crystal Magic

Ruby Roses

Sapphire Sunflowers

Lithium Summer

Throttle Velocity

Heavy Rain

Beating Drum

The Blue Notes

No Problem

The Next Big Thing

Gentle Men

Rubber Dollies

Band Aides

You could go beyond and mix and match the list and elaborate.

Example:  Magic Sunflowers, Lithium Candy, Falling Summer etc.

 

If you like the meaning of a word, but it just doesn’t cut what represents you, then simply google the ‘another word for ……’ to see what else you could substitute.

 

Go through pictures on the net, and get some ideas, you never know how something so simple can spark new ideas.

 

When you think about great movie titles, you will notice they are usually two to three words and very simple.

For example: Morning Wars, Blade Runner, The Dark Knight, The Matrix, Fight Club…

Great simple successful band name examples also contain two to three words and are very simple.

For example: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Smashing Pumpkins, Panic at the disco…

Try to select a few names, then check if it’s legally available, check domain names availability, social media handles should entail the exact band name for every social media channel. If an exact match is not available on a specific social media channel, DO NOT add a number or extra characters. Add an underscore between the words. This way no-one has to try and remember your different handles for various social media platforms.

 

Good luck with your new band name.

How To Name Your Band and Why It’s Important

What Is Concert Crowdfunding and Do You Need it?

 


Is Playlist Streaming Hurting the Artist?

Music Concert

What is concert crowdfunding and do you need it?

Over 90% of artists remain undiscovered. That means they don’t have a large following, barely get any traction on social media, are doing without a manager or a booking agent. How do they book gigs then? Well, most of them hassle for gigs on their own – trying to book performances as opening acts for bigger artists, arrange with bars and smaller venues to perform solo nights on the less busy days of the week, as well as join various festivals, themed events, and other multiple-artist shows.

To hold a concert on your own, you don’t necessarily need to have a manager, a concert promoter or a booking agent. Yes, all of these people can take on a huge chunk of work when it comes to concert promotion and selling tickets, but they also take an average of 15% cut of all profits.

Whether you want to put on more shows because your fans ask you to, you want to earn some money on ticket and merch sales or boost your resume, you can organize them on your own without taking any financial risks of booking a venue or making travel arrangements and not selling enough tickets to cover all production and accompanying costs.

What is concert crowdfunding

Crowdfunding On LaptopConcert crowdfunding is a simple concept based off the classic crowdfunding model that has become increasingly popular in recent years. As more and more people use the internet to buy and sell products, using crowdfunding websites has become a more approachable way to raise funding for projects, ideas, and, yes, music. Admittedly, most music projects funded via the model are albums and not shows, but a few festivals have tried the crowdfunding model and concerts are also gaining traction.

Concert crowdfunding is essentially your fans, supporters and music lovers pre-ordering a concert from you. That means that you calculate full event budget, plan preliminary location and theme, and start a campaign to see if enough people want to attend and are ready to buy tickets at the price that will cover the event budget.

When it comes to crowdfunding platforms, there are a few ways you can go – a professional concert-specific toolset in Show4me Music Interaction Network or general-purpose crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. These services are free to use and successful campaigns are charged service fee upon payout. Kickstarter and Indiegogo deduct fee from the final raised amount, while Show4me with their concert-specific toolset makes the process easier by adding the fee on top of the show budget that you enter in the built-in campaign calculator.

Once you raise the amount of money you need to hold your concert, you can withdraw the money and start producing your show. If your campaign does not raise enough funds, all contributions are refunded to all backers of your show.

Concert crowdfunding is a great model for up-and-coming or independent musicians to explore the market and gauge the demand for their shows. Unlike traditional show ticket sales, pre-selling tickets via concert crowdfunding does not require you to have a booked venue, established concert date or any upfront expenses before you even know if the show you are planning is going to be an in-demand endeavour.

Concert crowdfunding can also be used by agents and concert promoters as a way to add more dates to an underbooked tour – if a band or a musician happen to have an extra day that they can perform on, due to unexpected schedule changes for example, their team can start a crowdfunding campaign to see if they can fill the gap with another show, this time, with all the tickets sold out before the planning even commences.

Do you need to crowdfund your concert?

Well, unless you have a sold-out world tour running into 2021, you should probably consider concert crowdfunding at least as an experiment as it’s sure to add some interest to your fan interaction and give them something to root for and talk about.

Singer On StageDepending on your fanbase and where you are in your music career, you can start with a small intimate event for 10, 20 or 30 people at your local bar or hangout spot and pre-sell tickets via a crowdfunding campaign to meet your show budget and feel comfortable putting on a show where you don’t depend on ticket sales at the door.

Or you can come up with an out-of-the-box idea for an extravagant event on some fancy rooftop, in the middle of a vineyard, on a yacht or a bridge, and try to pre-sell tickets via crowdfunding. Events like these can be risky in terms of ticket cost (it can run high due to increased production costs) and/or remote location or bizarre theme.

Even if you have a booking agent and a concert promoter working with you, they might not love any creative and ‘out there’ ideas as they can be either a huge success or totally bomb. Even the venue itself can be reluctant to host your event on a busy night as they can’t be sure the show will be packed and staying busy throughout the weekend is crucial for most trendy places to stay relevant. Concert crowdfunding solves all of these problems.

More ways to use concert crowdfunding

Final thoughts

Is experimental show funding for you? Well, I can tell you all the pros and cons, as I did above, but it’s for you to know what fits you and your music lifestyle. And, many of us know from experience, trying something out is a much better indicator of whether we enjoy something or not, rather than just thinking about it, so I guess the answer is not whether you should try crowdfunding a concert in 2020, but which one;)

Author: Mary Ivanova, website: show4me.com

What is Concert Crowdfunding and Do You Need It?

 

Is Playlist Streaming Hurting the Artist?

 


Is Playlist Streaming Hurting the Artist?

Girl With HeadphonesSince streaming became the new norm, overtaking CD sales and now paid downloads of artists music, it’s now become more evident how streaming and music playlists are actually hurting artists and devaluing who’s behind the music.

But does anyone care?

I wish I could say they do, but it seems that every time someone say’s Playlist’, artists are jumping on board to add themselves to one or more of the millions of playlists that exist only to be added to the needle in the haystack.

 

While I’m not totally against the playlist, the only real value of getting onto a playlist is that it’s another form of promotion for the artist. However, unless you’re making it on playlists such as ‘Discover Weekly’ and the likes of, or even those who go to the extra effort of promoting their playlists, the unknown artists are again just hurling themselves out to the 1 million playlist followers in the “HOPE” they are either listened to, discovered or streamed thousands of times to be heard, noticed and perhaps earn a few measly dollars in return for months or even years of work.

 

Am I the only one, who still doesn’t get this so called ‘Common Sense’. Or is it the case of the herd just following what everyone else is doing?

 

Let’s face it, to stand up and out as an artist, your song has to be better than good. Otherwise you’re just another artist/musician in a list of songs played in amongst other artists whom the average listener may like the sound of, but for the life of them, couldn’t even tell you the name of the artist. (Unless, as mentioned before, you do stand out from the crowd encouraging the listener to actually ‘make an effort’ to find out who the artist is)

 

Playlists are great for…well, having a playlist to listen to of course, but my concern as stated above goes beyond the devaluated artist and musician. It reduces conversation, opinions and discussion. It simply becomes a one-dimensional tool that does not involve point of views about the music, education and discussion…you know, the social aspect music used to be known for. When people used to go out and see a band/artist, when they used to listen to radio conversation about a song or artist, when people could read and respond to an article about an artist.

The unfortunate aspect about social media is that if anyone voices an opinion in a constructive way, then many take offence, reducing the art of real conversation, therefore not really helping an artist or anyone in that matter. We have become far too sensitive for honest discussion with those who disagree or simply not like what they hear or read as the need to block others or make threats.

Artists who don’t succeed on making it on a so-called radio show or online blog site, fail to keep up with those shows or sites in finding out why? They do not follow or gracefully accept tips to improve, learn more from those sites who offer advice and freebies, instead, they just keep moving to find a place that will accept them, often resulting in a playlist.

 

The other end of the scale comes down to the effort required by an artist to do what’s necessary to be included on a radio show or blog site, placing them in the ‘to hard’ basket.

 

There’s a great saying, which reminds me to follow my intent;

|  ‘Do What’s Right, Not What Is Easy’.

I usually like to think outside that box, and often see where the masses gravitate and ask why? I would look at the world population of over 7 billion people with one million plus listening to playlists. For those who are in radio or online magazines, you would be excused for thinking playlists and streaming are killing us.

Sure, the radio, blog/magazine may have their own playlists along with their online presence, simply to provide for those in the one million demographic, but let’s not forget about the 6.9 billion other people.

 

If blogs and radio are seeing the word ‘Playlist’ and ‘Streaming’ everywhere, then why not find a different audience who appreciate the music and the artists behind the music.

 

If you are in radio, or an online blog, I would stay; artists will ask themselves after a few short years, ‘why did I only focus all my energies on the playlist’? Everything moves in circles.

 

Time will tell, and to me, the most important aspect of music is not just the music, but the connection. Otherwise you are an artist who is just hurled in with the masses who come and go like every other artist on a playlist.

After all, my intent when Music Talks started, was to help artists stand out from the crowd, and I’ll do my best to continue to do so.

   how to be an excellent SINGER


 

SingerThere  are several things you can do to be a good vocalist. One of one of the most vital points to do, is to engage an excellent singing teacher. However, locating a good vocal singing teacher can be at sometimes be complicated.

Many vocal singing teachers actually invent their very own vocal singing system and also methods to educate their pupils. Each method as well as vocal singing strategy will usually consist of vocal workouts, singing techniques, abilities and ideas.

To add to the complication, there are several books and details, as well as occasionally false information you can discover in the collections, music shops and also online. One of the most frustrating point is that most of these products as well as books, feature contradictory info.

With so much information, you could be learning vocal singing techniques that conflict with each other and this could be extremely damaging to your singing support system as well as occasionally, the damage done may be irreparable.

Numerous amazing singing professionals were damaged because of learning incorrect vocal singing strategies.

Take a look at babies. They breathe naturally with their diaphragm and they can toss their powerful voices throughout an area when they cry to get your attention. Exactly how can they project their voice so naturally?

This is due to the fact that nature has actually given us the all-natural singing system to sing well and also powerfully. It is when we adopt bad vocal habits as we got older that the all-natural capabilities to be a great vocalist is lost and needs to be rekindled by great and appropriate vocal exercises as well as singing ideas.

One challenge to good singing, is to incorporate straight forward yet powerful singing strategies with solid and real emotions. Effective feelings can break down a voice that is not trained with solid vocal singing skills as well as methods as a foundation. Good vocal singing strategies is the structure to build the psychological aspect of singing.

As an example, if you pour out all of your emotions in a song, you will understand that something does not seem right in the singing sound you produced. Take note of your internal feelings and you will recognise what appears appropriate or incorrect.

Effective singing requires not just the will and ability to share your feelings in a track, yet additionally the appropriate singing strategy as well as abilities.

Since emotions are transported via your singing support system, your system needs to be fully established for the feeling to come via powerfully as well as convincingly.

To become a good vocalist, you should build your voice and also the support system that creates that voice. With a great mastery of your voice mechanism, your own vocal singing style and analysis of songs will certainly be much more effective and boosted. You do not have to be too concerned in the early stages, regarding seeming like a copy of various other excellent vocalists when you perform.

Yes, there are born voices, but there are no birthed artists. Every single vocalist must establish his/her own specific abilities to be an exceptional artist.

“It is not simply exactly how great a singing voice you have.

It is what you can do with your specific singing resources that is the essence of a great vocalist.”

Having singing lessons or online singing lessons and finding a good singing teacher either with online singing lessons to help you hone your vocal singing skills to excellence is necessary if you intend to be an excellent singer.

Chris Leon presented a show which featured a special about vocals, training and recording, where several singers including myself talked about their singing and gave worthwhile tips to help other singers. You can listen here. 

Other singers who appear on Chris’s Show are Duffy and Bird Verity White and Alex White.

Chris Leon: https://www.mixcloud.com/yourmusicradio/

Duffy and Bird: https://duffyandbird.uk/

Verity White: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/veritywhite/reclaim-set-fire

During the past 35 years I have also trained at the Conservatorium Of Music, Jazz College and contemporary singing as well as performing and recording. Through this long path, I have found ways in which you can benefit greatly with a combination of great technique and finding your own voice and style with different ways you can sing.  You can find more info on my course here. 

READ MORE ON “Sing It” with Tracey Arbon

AND READ “Why You Need A Vocal Producer”

https://shop.musictalks.xyz/sing-it-singing-lessons/

Singing Lessons Package

#Just How To Be An Excellent VocalistJust How To Be An Excellent Vocalist 

 

How to Choose A Website/builder and Host For Indie Artists


 

 How to Choose A Website/builder and Host For Indie Artists

 

Website

When it comes to choosing a website for your music it can be quite complexing at the beginning. From choosing a trustworthy host, a theme or even domain all come into play.

 

From my experience, there has been quite a few hosts and trials which I’ve tried and tested and it wasn’t until Music Talks grew to an extent, I tried to implement idea’s and found it was very difficult to do so, resulting in the move to a different host and re-building the entire site again.

Now, many would say, “why couldn’t you just upload the FTP file across”.  Simply because it was not at all possible.

Why You Need A Website

But let’s get back to the easier solutions for an indie artist. An artist should have at least a basic website as their base. This should be their space, their place, their own little piece of the net in which they own to send fans and business personnel.

Your website should feature your latest music, all your social media links which are easy to see, a newsletter subscription, contact details, pictures of you, and video if you have any.

These are the basics and should be kept up to date!

You can even have a private portal for PR purposes only so you can include your latest music and PR release for download to radio, management or other business industry professionals.

 

WIX/WEEBLY

The easiest and cheapest solution without having your own domain name as a stand-alone domain name, is either Wix or Weebly. (you can have your name in the URL, but it will be set up as a sub-domain) This means that your name will be at the beginning of the URL and end with either Wix or Weebly. (See Example here: https://traceyarbon.wixsite.com/musictalks-xyz-old/home)

 

Wix or Weebly providers require little to no coding experience and provide a drag and drop builder. Once you learn and know where everything is, it is quite easy and very fast to just get in there and do what you need; well at least that’s the aim of it, and should be that way.

I did find by using Wix, that it took quite a long time to upload pictures and quite often during my experience in the editor, the site editor would freeze. (however, this could be due to the fact that the site just became too big and I was on it every day.)  

Wix only offers the plugins they have on offer and nothing outside, unless you have coding skills. And I did find that by using Wix, the SEO was affected. I believe this is also the case with Weebly.

However, it is very good for a simple site for artists at very little cost.

If you do like to purchase your own domain name, I would suggest not to purchase from Wix itself. Wix is locked in with  Network Solutions, which means, should you wish to re-locate your domain with a different host, you are unable to transfer your domain immediately. If you do wish to transfer your domain, it takes 60 days, which will mean your site will be offline for that period of time. You can point your domain to your new host if you do not wish to take 2 months off the web. 

The other disadvantage is with Wix, is that you cannot download your FTP, which consists of all of your content. This means your blogs, pictures etc. can not be downloaded all at once in one file. You have to copy and paste every single article into your new site or onto a word document and be super organized.

You can download your pictures one at a time.

So, if you plan on building your site into a huge blog site or E-commerce site, I would not suggest Wix.

However, I do stress that it is perfect for the simple few pages of an artist for their music, gig dates, have a base place for fans or business personnel and to sell your music directly from Wix. You will need a Paypal account set up for this as well.

If you do want to purchase your domain, I would recommend Namecheap, Bluehost or Go Daddy. There are quite a few to choose from.

Namecheap and Go Daddy also have website builders available for free as well, with hosting at very good rates and support is average.

 

To Upgrade to one of the premium packages for Wix, which allows your own domain, begin at $10usd a month but does not give much bandwidth or any e-commerce features, nor your own email.  Email accounts need to be purchased separately and can be done through Wix, but is a G-Suite email account.

You can see what they have on offer here. https://www.wix.com/upgrade/website

A domain name alone will cost you around $15USD a year from a separate host if you choose to purchase this outside of Wix.

laptop

 

WORDPRESS

The other options are WordPress. So many options will have your head spinning,

However, to build a simple site for an artist, you can set this up with a simple WordPress theme for free.

You will need hosting and purchase your own domain name. Using WordPress has so many options available and it is nice and fast.

The down side of WordPress, is if you are always needing to add content on a daily basis it can take a bit longer, and you need to be on top of understanding more about certain aspects of how a site works. But hey, with so many using it around the world, it can’t be too hard.

If you are using WordPress for a large site, you need to keep an eye on your plugins and their updates, as they can break your site. Word press hosts also usually have unlimited email accounts and sub-domains included in their plans. Shared hosting is the normal option and is absolutely fine to use for sites that are not huge businesses. 

 

SQUARESPACE

Other options are Squarespace,  which looks amazing, but I think are quite expensive after looking into it, but super easy to use, fast, have great themes and looks to be able to do it all. However, you will need to pay for all the bells and whistles.

 

For a simple artist website, you would be looking at paying approx. $23USD a month if paid annually on the Basic Commerce package, which includes a checkout page should you wish to sell merchandise. Squarespace does not include emails either and needs to be purchased in addition to paying for hosting.

 

BANDZOOGLE

Bandzoogle looks like a fantastic option for artists and if you are looking at paying a little bit and get a lot, then this looks to be perfect. Prices here: https://bandzoogle.com/pricing

Bandzoogle don’t require coding skills. Email account is not included and to be paid annually in addition to hosting fees.

I could keep going, but it really does depend on how much you can afford to pay, and what you need on your site.

My recommendations from my own personal experience with website builders – in order from Free to paid purely for independent artists are:

 

  1. Wix/Weebly – https://www.wix.com (free version)
  2. Bandzooglehttps://bandzoogle.com
  3. Squarespace – https://www.squarespace.com
  4. Namecheap – https://www.namecheap.com 

 

Two other platforms/hosts with domain and easy building platform which I have not used, but also look good are:

 https://www.jimdo.com

https://www.site123.com/

 

Other Recommendations

When looking at hosts check/ask what their uptime/speed is.

If you wish to become familiar with WordPress, expect to learn and take the time to work it out.

Recommended hosts for use with WordPress are:

 

  1. Namecheap – https://www.namecheap.com
  2. Hostgator – https://www.hostgator.com
  3. Hostpapa – https://www.hostpapa.com  (very good support)

 

Again, it does depend how much control you want over your site. As you will see, many sites with builders do not include your own emails and have to be purchased separately, so the cost can add up.

When using word press, as mentioned above, you will only need to pay for the hosting, any paid plugins (but there are many for free), and if the host does not offer a SSL certificate (which is recommended), you will need to pay for that. Check the hosting packages and what it includes. Word Press can end up being the cheapest option, but requires a bit more work.

If you want to save money and have your own domain with emails and subdomains, I would highly recommend using WordPress. You can also update and change themes. You are in full control.

Hope I haven’t confused you.

Three Ways to Advance Your Music Career


 

Becoming a professional musician is a long journey that takes a lot of different skills. While creating quality music is the foundation, being able to promote the songs you created is critical. There are many online tools that promise to help you along the way, but it takes resourcefulness and dedication to pave your way to success. 

We recently came across Drooble – a market network for musicians, where artists monetize their music skills, purchase useful services and receive genuine feedback for their songs. This is our short list of three things we consider worth checking out if you want to boost your music career:

Drooble

 

  • Become part of a strong music community

Strong music communities are often the launch pads of many successful artists. Just think of Seattle and the grunge music or the Deep South and blues music. Numerous opportunities arise each time you treat someone as a potential collaborator, rather than a competitor. And while nowadays you are more likely to become part of an online music community, the same principles apply. Usually the most active members of the community will be the first to hear your new songs or demos, introduce you to industry professionals or give you a recommendation for your next gear purchase. Music communities is where you find loyal supporters for your music and connections to grow your career.

 

Drooble is a global community of independent musicians that stimulates collaboration and engagement. Music creators are rewarded with a virtual currency called Karma for participating in discussions and giving feedback to others. Once earned, the points can be spent on various promotion tools which are normally paid with money on other music platforms. Today Drooble has over 70,000 independent artists actively exchanging ideas, sharing experience and supporting each other.


1. Get honest feedback for your songs from fellow artists

No matter if you’re an established artist or a rising one, sometimes you spend so much time on a song that you stop hearing it properly. That’s when a pair of fresh ears can be really helpful, especially if they belong to a fellow musician. Constructive music feedback is one of the best ways to evaluate what you need to further improve on your finished song or work in progress. 

Drooble Song Reviews service provides musicians with written general impressions and recommendations for improvement, along with various emotional and analytical responses

for the track they have submitted. Artists can also get deeper insights into key areas like production, songwriting and audience analytics. All organized in a beautiful song report . Such service helps musicians get creative motivation and understand how their music is perceived.

 

  • Make a strong first impression with industry professionals

 

Electronic Press Kit is the best way to create a powerful 

impression with venuеs, labels, promoters, journalists and other industry representatives. It’s а professional music resume  containing all your content including discography, photos, videos, bio, upcoming gigs, testimonials, downloadable assets and more

Drooble’s Professional EPK turns your artistry into a masterpiece! Get your content presented in a cutting edge design web page that is easy to create and effortless to edit. Maintaining an up to date EPK is a prerequisite for getting more opportunities for gigs, endorsements and PR publications.

 

 

Boosting your career requires dedication and constant improvement. But if you take the right steps – success will follow. Now go explore what a music community can do for you, get your songs reviewed and build your professional music resume. Take these three steps and the next will unfold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Guest Post Melina Krumova/Drooble https://www.drooble.com Melina

 

Why You’re Not Getting Engagement – let me entertain you


 

monkey playing guitar

 I often see artists who just post and push their new album or EP and not much more. Let me ask you a question. If an EP/album cover from an artist you have never heard of, continually pushed their picture of the cover in front of you, would it be enough for you to go and take a look and listen? 

Have you scrolled through your Facebook feed and engaged or watched something funny and entertaining? 

So given the fact that so many musicians/artists are mainly posting their music, don’t you think that the average person would just scroll past it, knowing it’s the same kind of content which is being posted day in and day out? 

Lets look at business, perhaps a business that sells a product. If you hadn’t heard of that product and they just posted a picture up and an explanation of what it is, would it be enough for you to engage in? However, if you saw a video of this product in action, showing you exactly what this product does, and it interests you, would you check it out and would think about it for a while. 

Now lets take a look at some of those highly engaging stories we see on Facebook quite often, you know the ones that have a moving slide like video with the story attached. The ones where the first line captures your attention leaving you sitting there wanting more, knowing more about this person and the story, and if you found yourself watching the whole thing, you then find yourself sharing it. Am I right? 

So, what other content can you create as an artist to create interest? Lets just put our latest music release aside for a moment and focus on the ‘SOCIAL’ aspect of social media. 

As an artist you want to be known and seen preferably by those people who like and buy the major artists. You want to be able to jump up and down and say, ‘hey, look at me’, my music is just as good. Will they stop at your post of you music not really knowing who you are. Or do they stop at an engaging story that perhaps sparks their attention? 

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the marketing term, ‘Content is king’, but I’m here to tell you, it is the content that will bring them to you,…… or not. 

I mentioned in one other article that video is or actually already has taken over as opposed to a stand alone picture. So what does an artist do? You can read that post here.

Firstly, get your Instagram stories and Snap Chat going and create stories of what you do behind the scenes, this could be going out for a walk, being stranded in a carpark and having to get your car towed away, (that was me only last week) posting you decorating your Christmas tree etc. It can be anything, but not just your music.

People like to be entertained and they like to see different things, they like a ‘SHOW’, so put on a show. 

Use every possible opportunity to create content. (It doesn’t have to be with an expensive camera, your phone will do the job just fine.)

Birthday’s, Christmas, Easter and what ever other celebration is going on within your country or globally, create your own unique content around it. 

If you don’t celebrate Christmas, then perhaps other places around the world would like to know what you do, what do celebrate? 

Incorporate some Christmas cheer with recording a Christmas carol with your own spin on it, and place it up on YouTube and share it around on your social media channels, record your story of you buying your Christmas presents or video, and have your own music just playing in the background while you talk to people.

Now don’t you think that people are more likely to comment or say something about the really ugly fairy you placed on top of your tree? They would be more likely to comment and engage. 

Share your story about your life on a video with the captions and photo’s of those life events as it brings people to the current time in your life. What you think is not relevant, others find fascinating. An interesting theory which I believe is similar to, ‘What is one man’s trash, is another man’s treasure’. 

There are so many ways you can create content and use that to engage people outside your current circle and to help build your audience. See what the popular hashtag is going on twitter for the day, and find something you can post and record around that hashtag to create more engagement. 

On  Facebook, try a boosted post to a similar artist to yourself, even if you don’t like that artist, their audience may very well be yours too. But don’t post your music to begin with, post your story, post something that creates interest in which people can relate to. Funny, sad or interesting. 

Scale yourself up, then on approximately the 5th post, post your music, but not an EP cover or a still.

Create an engaging video 

When posting to Facebook, remember to place any ads with your correct objective. Do you want people to engage, or do you want to create lot of video views? 

People don’t still quite understand why use the video views objective, when the video views objective doesn’t get the engagement…..I’ll tell you.

Video views are there to help you create your target audience and to be able to save all the people who watched your video, whether they liked and commented on it, or not. 

Your following ads and posts can then be re-targeted back to those who watched your first ad. 

I hope this very small explanation and ideas has helped demystify a few things for you.

There is a whole lot more as well, so start thinking outside the box and start entertaining people.

You can find more information about video, the tools and apps to use in our ‘Essential Indie Guide’ and take a look at what we can help you with to make your video content stand out with ‘Professional Video Animation’ Here. 

See more detail and examples on our ‘Services’ page here.

 

 

How to submit to music blogs, magazines and radio, and get  heard


 

Rolling Stone Mockup MagazineBefore you go ahead and pump your music out to the world, take a good look at what you are offering.

Is your website up to date?

Do you have your social media accounts looking good with links that work?

In less than three lines, can you explain who you are, or have your latest most relevant music linked to all your socials?

These are only the starting points, but think about first impressions.

Make sure that when you upload anything on your YouTube channel that your sound is exceptional, not confused with music production.

  • If you have made a live performance video sitting in your living room sharing your most loved latest piece of art, before you even begin, be sure you are set up correctly. Grab a laptop and plug in a microphone directly into your music program, (i.e. Logic, Protools, Cubase, Garageband) to enable you a clearer sound.

Learn how to import your video and sound into a video/movie-making platform and sync it correctly.(iMovie is fine)  Make it be seen that you have at least gone to some effort to be considered and somewhat serious about your music career.

  • Whatever you do, when you are asked for links to your channels from blogs and music magazines, please make sure there is something to hear and available to see.

Do not send anything with a blank page. If you don’t have anything on your YouTube channel to show, do not send that link in. After all, blogs have asked for those links to see you and hear your music.

  • How hard is it to find your latest songs or any of your music for that matter?

If we are having to poke around your website trying to find some music, I guarantee you won’t have anyone else surfing around your site with frustration building and wanting to spend anymore time on your site trying to find what you most love doing. YOUR MUSIC

It’s extremely annoying and very unprofessional trying to get the attention of music blogs and radio when the artist is private messaging or has an automated message saying, ‘Yo, check out my music’. Not is it unprofessional, but it shows that you do not have the respect for others, including artsits’ or place any effort into wanting to have your music really listened to as this is seen as being lazy.

What makes you think those who are running blogs and radio have the time to CHECK you out in amongst those artists who have taken the time and effort to actually email and submit anything. After all, consider the amount of time it takes to sort through all the music from submissions alone.

And you want the blogs and radio to poke around trying to find your music? 

Please research the blog and radio station you are submitting to. This means find out the style and genre radio are playing, the format, special events etc. Each radio station is different too, and each blog and music website is also different. We all have our own ways of doing things which make us unique from each other. After all, artists don’t like to be placed in a box and neither do publicatons, radio and websites.  

Go to the actual website or radio site/station and find out if they have a #NewMusicFriday, or as in the case of Music Talks, we have a set format and if you were to notice and simply check out the pages, you will find explanations on the top of the pages informing you what its all about. 

Do the same for radio and follow their protocols and procedures for a chance to be played. If the station plays mainly country music then why are you sending your rap mixtape? 

This is obvious to every station and blog site when an artist has not really had a look at the site or station to understand or know what it’s about and what the protocol is. 

Never assume anything…

And now to shake things completely upside down…..

If you have a great production yet your singing and music is so off key to the point of where melody cannot be recognised, please don’t send that link as your proudest masterpiece.

Think about how to submit….

If blogs don’t have a sign up form where you only have to insert answers (as with Music Talks) read what is required. Send them exactly what they are asking, (but not the blank YouTube channels and pages) If you don’t have certain things that are required and/or asked of, send something that shows you in the best possible light and let them know.

When sending press releases, bios, photo’s and tracks, word doc. files are fine, but for web, it is best to send jpg. files that are NOT huge!

For several reasons.

  1. Large photo files slow down sites

  2. Quite often they will not post on social media from the sites due to the enormous size.

There are many online sites which you can change the size of your photo’s.

http://webresizer.com/ and https://tinyjpg.com/  are just two of many.

Another really great way to send information is via dropbox or Google Drive with links with your word doc. and photo’s.

Word documents are preferable to PDF.

All the information, which is placed on websites still have to be copied and adjusted and this is much easier done with word documents.

Look at other really great avenues to help administer your package as well, such as LinkTree. https://linktr.ee/

This is a fantastic tool to use for many reasons, and I strongly suggest you take a look, as it does more than just provide your package to blogs, magazines and radio.

Last of all, see what other independent artists are doing and be honest with yourself. Be aware of what else is going on around you and what others are submitting.

Blogs and radio prefer not to play or have music placed on their sites that don’t cut the mustard.

Remember, this is also a reflection of the site and station playing and promoting music to people who want to find great music!

If you haven’t heard back from a blog or music magazine, don’t take it personally. They are either super busy trying to get back to those who sent music to them back a month ago.

If you’re music gets them super excited, you will hear from them very quickly.

I guess this also say’s two things which you need to keep in mind.

  1. If you don’t hear from them straight away, then maybe your music or track that you submitted needs work. It doesn’t mean for you to give up. It simply means, be objective at your music. What’s so unique about YOUR music and WHY should everyone hear YOURS? Ask yourself these questions when you’re about to record your track first. And don’t try and fix it in the mix.

  2. If you never hear from them, then your music needs work.

Keep in mind, music blogs, radio and magazines go through hundreds of emails a day with submissions. The one’s that stand out are the ones that are considered.

The emails that are friendly and professional with a howdy, how are you, and especially if our first name is in it, we think, cool, they know who runs this place, they have done their research or seen who interacts on social media. We then read them first. Funny about that. Why I hear you say???…it just shows us that you mean business and say’s a lot about who you are.

These tips among many more will be coming out shortly are now available in our brand new ‘Essential Indie Guide’ with real tips to guide artists with what goes on and what it entails to get your music heard.

This is now available in our shop at https://shop.musictalks.xyz/shop/ebooks/the-essential-indie-guide/

 

   Fail to Succeed and Stop Rushing Your Music!


 

RapperWhy is it so many talented artists don’t see the light? Why do so many artists release so much music without thought or learning more of what is required outside of the music.

As mentioned in various music tips on Music Talks I still fail to see so many artists not taking up opportunities to learn. Instead, they are releasing one single, EP or Album after another in the hope it sticks.

Firstly, lets eliminate the word ‘Hope’. ‘Hope’ won’t get you anywhere.

Music is just the beginning in this business. Key word; ‘Business’.

Before any artist plans to release anything, are they thinking about what happens after?

Let just say that an artist knows exactly which direction they’re heading; i.e. Rap with a twist of country. Sounds weird, sure, but this first point I’m making is how will your music separate you from the rest.

What’s your plan of attack, who is your audience and how will they learn about you?

Any plan of any musical release should encompass the strategy of how you are going to find new fans and expand. This should be sort through social media interaction well and truly before you release. (daily videos of you or your band, vlogging your journey etc.)

A marketing strategy should also be well and truly sort.

In fact, the average amount of time to put in place the whole package, (plan & strategy) and to work on it towards the release of your brand-new EP or Album could/should take anywhere from 3-6 months. Some may even take longer depending of the intention to tour.

Keeping in mind, some of the larger radio stations are eight weeks ahead of programming music into their playlists.

So why are artists just pumping out music as if they are feeding a flock of chickens?

Sure, the internet is a fast-paced environment, but you can’t allow that to dictate the quality of your music which becomes detrimental to how you are seen as a credible artist.

As mentioned above, there are very few artists who seem to take the time out to learn. To slow it down a notch and get their heads around things they don’t understand. I often hear artists say, ‘Oh, I don’t know how to do that’…well, learn.

Read and get as many ideas as you can. Think outside the box. There are no hard and fast rules as to how to market yourself, so think up something original and test it out on Instagram. Do all the testing before you release, but please, do not try and get attention to your music via social media to blogs and radio. So many are just too busy getting through the emails of the artists who have actually taken the time and effort out to email. So of course, we notice those who say they are serious and those who don’t take an extra step to make more effort than a social media shout out or pm.

Make mistakes, make a lot of mistakes and don’t worry about some old school hard-head believing making mistakes in public is a big fat ‘No No’.

Just do it! (my favourite saying btw) Stop thinking and procrastinating and do it!

If there are FREE eBooks on offer, grab them and learn. They’re not full of BS, and even if there are things in there that don’t quite gel, take what does, and keep moving to learn and try.

Listen!

Listen to podcasts from experienced artists and business people who have succeeded and how they did it.. Listen to people who are doing it day in and day out. The people who are receiving hundreds of emails from PR, managers, labels and other artists about their music. What we see on a daily basis, what stands out, what doesn’t and what we see artists doing every single day.

Why listen to us? Because some of us pay very close attention to our stats, analytics and what the audiences are listening to, what they respond to well and what gets them excited.

After all, don’t you want to get an audience excited and to spread the word about your music?

Succeed and stop rushing your music!

 

How Do Indie Music Blogs and Radio Survive? A Harsh Reality


 

Apocalypse Over the past few years I’ve watched many indie music blogs and independent radio come and go like the wind.

We often hear about supporting the artists, which is exactly what these independent platforms do. The people behind the indie platforms sacrifice their health, families, lifestyle and quite often go into debt struggling to pay for the necessary costs associated with running such platforms.

MusicTalks recently ran a poll on twitter which asked the question; 

‘What would you do if all the independently run blogs and radio disappeared? Who would you get to place your new releases, interviews etc. up?’

The response was an astounding 71% saying they would use social media and ads with 76% of those saying that they were willing to pay for ads.

This leaves me thinking; do artists really know how to create funnels, put in the amount of money it requires to gain attention?

It requires one person 17 times to see a product/artist/music (whatever it may be) before they actually click on an ad. Artists and businesses not only need to create trust with an audience, build their profiles and brands, but to constantly create engaging content that people can relate to. And even then, more often than not, this requires more time and cash.

Why do artists need to create more content? There’s a term in marketing called, ‘Banner Blindness’, sure it still exists, but now it’s ‘Video Blindness’. You need to cut through the noise and this has been mentioned in so many posts, articles and free eBooks which has been written as well as suggested on how to do this.

So, are artists willing to give their hard-earned cash to the big corporations that suck the life out of you unless you really know what you are doing?

Marketing agency’s charge businesses an enormous amount of money just to get their product seen. In a phone call to a marketing agency, they had quoted $10K to set up and run Facebook ads.

I thought this was an exorbitant amount, but since doing this for quite a while, I can see how this can add up to the $10K mark.

Sure, there are many people selling their idea’s, hacks and tools all over the net, but you first need to spend that money to get those tools, and even then, you realise you need to do more. More often than not, these lead to upgrades and click baits which you find yourself passing over more money, let alone the time and effort to learn how to do it properly. (these tools and idea’s I’ve given free with Music Talks eBooks)

Trust me, I know, I’ve paid for so many that ultimately at the end of the day, it all comes back to money and the amount of money that needs to be invested to make an impact can be substantial.

That being said, sure, there are hacks; but you have to keep hacking just like the indie blogs do for years every single day. Not to mention the amount of money just to place funnels and ads on social media platforms.

Over the past few years Music Talks has spent over $5K in ads and in total over $35K and counting just on Music Talks alone.

This is where so many miss the point.

The indie blogs and radio that haven’t bottomed out within 2 years have spent most of their lives pushing their platforms to gain the audience, audiences which are targeted to steer people to their platforms for the indie artists to be seen and heard.

So many artists think that it’s the blogs and radio that owe them and that the artists are entitled. Why do the blogs and radio owe the artists? After all, how many artists themselves would build platforms to help promote other artists other than themselves? (other than a handful I know of, including myself)

These indie blogs are exactly that, indie, meaning independent. That means that they are not supported financially by anyone. Some blogs have ads from google, (which don’t help at all & are becoming extinct), some blogs ask for donations or crowdfunded when times get tough, some try to sell things to help keep their blogs running and some make the tough decision to close down altogether. (BTW, we do have The Store that appeals to everyone outside of the music scene as well, which was created to help fund Music Talks)

Running a blog or music website is so much more than what people often think, and it’s until people set up and start running one, they then realise what a mammoth task it really is. (just like anything is until you begin an endeavour)

After 30+ years as a singer, I can honestly say that it’s far easier writing and singing than it is running a blog.

e.g.: The hours for the past 3.5 years, the full run down of costs, sacrifices made with family, unpaid bills, no oven, no lights working rooms, major plumbing issues and sacrificing health needs and food are just a small example of cutting back and lifestyle choices made to enable supporting independent artists, including borrowing money from kids bank accounts etc.

This is just a picture of what it takes to make something work. This is an honest straight down the line black and white picture.

The typical response from the majority is ‘I can’t afford it’. 

As in any business or anyone with a passion, those people who are serious will never say they can’t afford it when it comes to their business. They will always try to find a way.

If you’re an artist, and really do want to succeed, you need to do what’s right, not what is easy.

As in any business, you need to look at your lifestyle choices and cut back to put into what you believe is your true passion, wants and needs.

Instead of a holiday that costs money, go camping, eliminate going out to dinner, (a luxury for my family), instead of buying alcohol each week, cut back etc. you get the point.

Going out on long trips across town in the car is thought about carefully and only made unless It’s a necessary trip not to waste petrol.

The picture and perceived success of others making it look so easy, is quite often that; a perception. What looks easy on the outside, is often around the clock work behind the scenes.

Unless the indie blogs and radio don’t get any financial support, you will continue to see them fold and the ever-growing presence of large corporations holding the key in attempts to monopolise the whole industry while you continue to see the extinction of the indie blogs and radio.  

Independents are similar to small business and need support to help them to continue to support the artists. They have already done and continue to do all the hard work it would take an artist to do working 24/7 sacrificing everything in the meantime. The indie scene, fans and artists collectively are much larger than the majors, so why aren’t we working on improving this? 

Let’s also keep in mind, the longer a blog or station is around, the more support they receive, the larger it grows and builds its audience, the more the indie artists are seen.

If they kept running and can do so for more than 5 years, the chances of the independent music scene of breaking through to the people who are not aware of indie music is so much greater.

It’s until then, that if the indie music community (including Public Relations) unites and realises that if we all work together as a team, there is enormous potential for independent music to be in a position where each and every indie artist will be recognised and heard by more than the fans. Musician

Music Talks recently introduced paid packages for feature artists due to this very reason of only covering the expenses, non-profit.

There were two reasons this was done. The obvious one mentioned, but also because I saw so many artists pay PR and marketing companies to get their music out there, with PR companies making huge profits from passing them on to the blogs and radio that actually promote them.

This left me thinking how much effect does the PR in itself actually have?

Music Talks latest analytics is over 20,000 visits a month and growing, with 54% Male and 46% Female, 34.6% in the 25-34 age group, 23% in 35-44 age group etc.

This is because Music Talks pushes out to more than social media, trying to respond to everyone on email and replies back personally, the use of other platforms to help get the word out about indie artists, including the stories being submitted to over 800+ other arts & culture blogs and so much more.

Music Talks also have PR packages now available for artists with the top package still being much cheaper than many PR agencies which includes contacting radio and other blogs with press releases that are absolutely guaranteed to get the artists story or press release to over400 other sites, (which provides the list of the sites with direct links to their articles for each site) as well as content creation and so much more with the cost of these packages only covering the costs of the applications needed to enable Music Talks to offer high quality content and submission fees for press distribution and not time.

When artists spend a massive amount of money on PR, what is that money buying them?

Sure, it is very difficult to keep track of every radio station who decides to play your track, and not too many will tag you either, so you are not to know.

My point here is that PR companies are charging artists an enormous amount for basic things, which of course includes their time, and yes, we all need to live; but who supports the blogs and radio who are putting in so much of their own time and finances to publish  what the PR agencies are sending the blogs and radio?

Of course, I’d be totally stupid not to mention we have a donation button located all aroundMusic Talks. But do you assume people are donating? 

In three years, only ONE person has actually used the donate button on Music Talks, yet there are over 20K visits a month…?? Is there any value in Music Talks and other indie blogs? Do artists and fans find value and  enjoy reading and hearing about new indie artists and their music?

I guess this question was answered with a resounding NO, with the latest poll conducted on Twitter giving a clear picture of the naivety and truth about how artists think about the importance of such platforms not realising who and what’s being mentioned via countless people watching for the next big thing.

A classic example of “who else watches” indie blogs was when I was asked by the casting producer of an American TV talent show aired on the Fox network to find and send him artists who I think may be suitable for the show, among many others, who I know is watching who is next on Music Talks.

It will be a huge blow for the small percentage of artists who do support and really appreciate what the indie blogs and radio do.

With hundreds of emails every single day, promoting artists, and costing at least over $500 a month from a pension (yes, I did say pension) and trying to support a family of four on just one pension is rather a difficult feat. Could you do that?

Everyone needs to survive.

If you really want to do something with your life, and I believe you will do it, please don’t take advantage of others in the process and please do not think that anyone is entitled.

 

The Royalties You’re Entitled to and How To Get Them


 

Man Playing Guitar in Studio

The Royalties You’re Entitled to and How To Get Them

The big picture. There’s really no business-like show business. Yet below I have outlined the issue.

You maintain putting on the show, yet you’re not managing the business. If you resemble much of the young artists coming-up in the game, you possibly do not have a strong understanding on the music Industries many guidelines as well as laws. You might have reviewed a write-up right here or there, or perhaps grabbed a book or more regarding the music company, but chances are that unless you’re a legal representative you probably didn’t comprehend it.

Below I’ve outlined a few points to assist you add a little business to your program.

Let’s face it, the music business is a well-oiled machine developed to do something, which is to make money.

Throughout your profession you will observe that at every corner you turn there is someone who is waiting to take advantage of your talent as well as success. No matter just how big you might become, you will certainly never ever be able to totally get rid of the intermediary. Go ahead and mess up your face if you want, yet if you believe you can delete every person and middleman to help you get to where you need to be, shut your eyes and go back to La-La-Land, ’cause my friend, you’re still dreaming.

Even when you come to be a Hip Jump mogul like Russell Simmons or P-Diddy, you still have answer to another person, and they are typically making even more money after that you are.  There are unfortunately so many financial inequalities of the music business. So without further hold-up, let’s talk about earning money …

Get Your Money Right

Since we have actually established other individuals and/or potentially streaming platforms, corporations etc. are going to be making money off of your skills, allows us to concentrate on just how you can begin to get your beak wet as well. So often it seems from what I’m hearing, that so many people believe the world owes them. More often than not, artists feel that if they have poured every cent, their heart and soul into their music, that everything else should just come to them. Ranging from free help, promotion, marketing, publishing their music and making money from it. So many are not willing to get into that important role of taking on the responsibility of themselves as a product of this machine. After music has been written and recorded, this is only the beginning. Now how are you to make your money from your music?

Publishing is fairly a tough subject; I will explain it as basic as humanly possible. Take a seat class and listen.

Publishing is money gained from the songs that you have actually written. This cash originates from two separates sources.

Source # 1: Mechanical Royalties- This is the money that record companies pay to the publisher for songs that have actually been mechanically recorded.

Resource # 2: Public Performance Royalties permits others to utilize your music in various mediums such as; radio, TV, movies, and so on

You’re not entitled to every cent of the money if you are signed with a publishing or record company, just a part of it. Let me discuss.

All money made from music publishing is simply referred to as Publishing Royalties. Publishing royalties are broken down right into two different shares; publisher share as well as writers share. Consider the shares as a pie with two halves; the publishers side represents 50% of the pie and the writers share stands for 50% of the pie, as well as with each other they stand for 100% of Music Publishing Earnings.

The publisher is the party that gathers both shares and then pays the writer’s share to the writer or writers of the song. The publisher is the one who controls the copyright of the tune. This implies that they have the legal rights to do with it as they please, such as licensing (renting) it out for motion pictures, or sheet music. Likewise, granting permission to other vocalists to re-record it. At some point, you as a songwriter are going to have to take care of publishing on some level, whether you decide to self-publish or not. The primary advantage to self-publishing is that you are the single controller of your copyrights, yet unless you have the moment, energy, and sources to do what a publisher does, you better find out to play “Let’s Negotiate.”

What a Publisher can do for you, the Songwriter 

– Copyright your tracks so your butt is covered around the globe.

– See to it your tunes are used in every conceivable tool, such as: radio, computer game, downloadable ring-tones, movies, etc.

– Hook up production and distribution bargains for music publications and sheet music of your tracks.

– Register your songs with debt collectors like APRA, PPCA, SOUNDEXCHANGE, BMI, ASCAP, SEASAC, and the Harry Fox Agency.

– Secure you from copyright infringers attempting to swipe your material by tasting, file-sharing, as well as bootlegging.

– Develop as well as Promote you as a writer.

– Discussing licensing bargains on your behalf

One option is to set-up a co-publishing contract with a major publisher; by doing this you will certainly ensure that points will be done correctly, without you losing your mind while doing so. There are far way too many sorts of publishing agreements to get into information, but you need to always accept the deal you can live with. Believe long-lasting and also your loan will expand, believe temporary as well as the following song you compose may be one for Food Stamps.Music Manuscript

The Relevance Of Getting Songs Licensed

There are musicians out there playing every type of music ever made as well as once they generate a sound that catches on, every person in the market attempts to copy it. For this reason it is essential that every artist knows about the process for getting their songs certified. This indicates they have the copyrights to the songs they have created. If that music is to be made use of by someone else for advertising or in a motion picture they need to acquire approval and also normally pay royalties so as to get that consent.

Let me create a scenario. – A musician who plays the violin. He discovers a competition of interest to him where he is required to compose an opus for a junk food restaurant. They wanted the material for a future advertising campaign. He wins $500 for his songs keeping that competition, but it was just after the reality that he understood he ought to have had that songs licensed.

The fast food dining establishment succeeds from the advertising project using his music. They also offered it to another business so they could use in a movie. The musician produced the songs however he never ever was entitled to a cent for making use of his track afterwards $500 prize due to the licensing needs.-

You require to keep these songs licensing rights in mind when you are accessing songs you don’t truly own from the net or other source. Even if you make a CD for your close friend from CD’s or downloads, you do not own that and is a form of piracy. This is since the songs market and also the artists aren’t obtaining their royalties for that music, so essentially you are stealing from them.

The expense of legal fees to look after charges of infringing on the songs licensing legal rights of someone are also expensive to take lightly. There are likewise fines and also jail time that could be attached to any sentence you get, as a result of such charges. It is lawful to download as well as share music that is found without a certificate.

Many new bands permit this in the hopes that their tunes will certainly get discovered. They have absolutely nothing to lose by you accessing their products due to the fact that they have not been supplied a recording deal yet. However, this also makes it harder for music overall and can devalue music as a whole, giving the illusion to fans and people who do not truly understand the nature of the business believing they are entitled to music for free. This is partially why it is difficult to convince people that music is worthy of more than a freebie, just like a painting. If someone saw a painting they would like, the artist doesn’t give it away for free.

So as an independent musician, singer and/or songwriter, the choice is really up to you to know what you’re entitled to and what work needs to be done before your music is released.

From the outset, make sure you have filled in all necessary forms and documents required with your country’s relevant organization.

In addition to the two types of royalties as listed above, keep in mind, there are also performance royalties, sync licensing/synchronization royalties and print royalties.

A list of some of these organizations are available for download here.

Be sure that the organization covers usage for your music that is also played in café’s, restaurants, shopping centres etc. Such as PPCA in Australia.

In addition to these society’s, there are also other bodies which will help to cover your music being played, for example on internet radio.

SoundExchange – Internet Radio

To help get your music onto TV, Film and Commercials there are many places which you can register, such as  Music Gateway.

As the music industry evolves with technology, there are also other types of royalties which will also evolve, so be sure to keep up to date with your country’s organization.

Hope this helps and don’t forget to write great songs!

The Royalties You’re Entitled to and How To Get Them

No whining, no excuses, no stopping your way to success


 

SignHow many times have you blamed circumstances and make justifications for not being successful? 

People who make a decision to start a business, grow a company, sign up for the olympics etc. all have similar traits in their mindset to succeed. No matter what. No matter the setbacks, the time it takes and the amount of blood, sweat and tears. And the same should apply if you want to be successful as an artist. 

You can develop lots of justifications for not achieving success however absolutely nothing will change.

Blaming makes you seem like a victim with no power or control over your life or fate.

Blaming and also making justifications will ruin your power and also vigor and leaving you with a feeling of frustration and anxiety.

Your life will not change until you take 100% responsibility of your life and be accountable for your actions.

Surrender all excuses and quit any type of condemns.

Quit condemning your parents, education, close friends, spouse, coworkers, boss, weather condition, country, government, … and so on

. If you proceed blaming and also making justifications then congratulations … You will certainly fall short!!!!

” 99% of all failures come from people who have a routine of making excuses” – George Washington Carver.

Inscribe the above quote in your mind. You just fail when you surrender and loose perseverance. You will surrender by beginning at fault, as well as make justifications, however, consistency is the key.

But if you take 100% obligation of your life, you will try again and again up until you achieve what you desire. Due to the fact that just you can obtain the right results and also, you will waste your time by blaming conditions.

If you are not encouraged, then before I prove it to you, lets agree on this:.

” At least act as if you are 100% responsible”.

If you don’t think that you are 100% responsible of your life which every little thing happens to you, results from your decisions, as well as actions, then at least act AS IF you are.

This will reduce your degree of blaming, boost your opportunities of success and also supply you with self-confidence in on your own as well as capabilities.

If you want an evidence that you are 100% liable after that allows, go over the following formula;

Back to your math classes …

E+R =O.

Occasion + Reaction = End result.

Your outcome just depends upon your response to a certain occasion or situation. You have no control over events or scenarios. You just have control over yourself and your actions. You shed your control a long time ago due to myths like “no body can alter conditions”,”external factors identify your destiny” and all similar to that you have discovered in the past.

Now forget your past and concentrate on complying with these two options:.

1. You can blame your circumstances and also make excuses, however you will certainly not get to anything you desire.

2. You can change your reactions to a particular event until you get what you desire. This will certainly make all the difference.

Gain control of your thinking, decisions, activities, reactions, and so on and you get on your achievement course.

Take 100% obligation of your life. You have control over your thoughts and activities. So, don’t release your supreme power.

And also pursue success.

You can make a distinction. 

No Whining, NoNo Whining, No Excuses, No Stopping Your Way To Success  Excuses, No Stopping Your Way To Success   

Below’s some guideline for success: 

– no whining     
– no justifications
– no giving up

– be accountable

– no excuses

If you will certainly simply get these few things out of your life TODAY, your life will certainly change immediately for the better.

Why?

If you stop whimpering, stop making excuses and also quit quitting, you will certainly accept obligation for your thoughts and also actions, and you will certainly be compensated with the goals you intend to attain. Guess who makes this happen?
That’s right — you do. No other person, just you. You choose on your own, the outcomes in your life. 

Certain, points might not occur quickly when you want them to, that’s childlike to expect.
You will find that all points pertain to you when you are really all set to obtain them … and not a minute prior to.

Indeed, there will certainly be people who want to tear you down and also try to block your progression (you’ll discover to maneuver around them).

So decide RIGHT NOW to live by this basic expression …

” Outcomes, not justifications.”

Write it down on a little piece of paper and also put it where you can see it when you work.
( go on, obtain some paper and pen currently and also do it … do it now).
Did you do it?
No? … why not?– (write down why not).

Yes? … congratulations– you simply obtained RESULTS!

What does your image say about you as an artist?


 

Angel

You are about to release new music. You have invested months and even years establishing yourself, as well as examining your target market. After what appeared like infinity, you are lastly all set to present your creation to the masses. The special day arrived; you jumped out of bed excited and very early prepared to flaunt your greatest smile to every person who can be found. By the end of the first week you notice that despite the fact many people like a post or two, check out the music (maybe), yet there’s no real interaction, comments or no-one has seemed to really notice let alone buy it. Currently this gave you something to think seriously. What could perhaps be wrong with your music? You’re music may be incredible, possibly a hit, but no-one’s listening,  but there can be something extremely incorrect with your advertising method.

When people are searching for services, music or products to make use of, they generally opt for ones that they are familiar with or have actually long utilised and been a fan of. In this manner, they can be certain that they are only listening to artists that are most familiar to them.

So for a company owner, an artist, or someone trying to sell a service that is simply starting up in their business or market, it is essential to make a great first impression. Certain, you can do this by using price cuts and also other special deals. You can even place a big banner, ads and whatever else you may think of to get attention before your music is about to release, announcing your new music. However when are not able to provide the right image you might too consider concealing in your den as well as assess what you need to boost in your marketing approach.

But then again you might be doing the best strategy and using the right marketing method.

However have you taken a look at your image and branding? That’s exactly what I’m assuming. You could have forgotten the most vital part of your product– your style. Logo designs, branding and image frequently tantamount to a persons whole image, for this reason, whether it is hip, elegant, fascinating or dull, it is important to create your brand and image that gives the ideal effect to the fans. It does not truly matter if you, your good friends or workers like or does not like your image. What is very important is the perception that it provides to potential fans.

A great brand and image must stand for photo appealingly and also effectively. It needs to likewise be functional and practical as complicated images, logo’s and designs commonly leave consumers overwhelmed and wondering what is actually being sold or offered. Remember that less is always more. Therefore, an easy logo, brand and strong image will certainly more than likely increase your numbers and views. Absolutely a vibrant as well as over-designed logo design will certainly capture even more interest however no business achieves success based only on their logo design. So an easy adaptable logo design, simple branding is most likely to attract potential fans. 

A mix of art, scientific research and psychology typically develops a great image. A designer and image stylist should know this. Keep in mind that a poor brand and image can destroy your photo but a good one can immediately create name recognition as well as can improve credibility to go hand in hand with your music.

So, Do you Need An Image Specialist or Stylist

Do you have low self-confidence? Do you have an idea of the image you want to portray but not sure how or where to find what you need? Then you require an image professional.

An image specialist or stylist is kind of like your “fairy godmother” due to the fact that this expert might simply be what you require to transform you as an artist. In order for this person to do their work, you have to tell them how you see yourself, play them your music and be open to their tips.

If fashion is your problem, you will have to at least place all your old performing clothes in a box, lock it, and perhaps throw away the key. Better yet, throw them away. Normally, that is most likely to cost you some cash, so prepare to buy, or put in order who you are as a private member of your community/society and who you are as an artist. Are they the same person? Or do you see yourself as a completely different person to what you actually wear today, yet unable to obtain the desired outcomes as to who you really feel you are, weather you’re an artist or not. 

For those who have bad communication skills, an image consultant can also help by mentoring you to giving some points prior to you opening your mouth. He or she can tell you to listen to what others are saying so you recognise just how to react to them, express your message in a positive method as opposed to supplying it in a critical way as well as making use of easy words to express your factor.

So where can you locate an image specialist?

Fortunately, a great deal of people are doing this so you won’t have a problem seeking a trained expert. You can look for a person in the newspaper, in posters as well as online.

When you have their name and also contact number, you schedule a visit to see if you will certainly be able to work well with this individual. You need to additionally ask how much they charge, how much time they have been in business as well as a couple of previous clients so you can ask how well he or she offered them help in the past.

After doing a background check, you can already pick which among the picture experts around you wish to work with.

The image consultant does not need to be with every day in order for you to enhance. He or she will be around on a regular basis until such time that things get better so such check outs will certainly decrease to possibly once or twice in a year. Or simply help you piece together your image as an artist. They will also be able to help you with your image for your photo shoots, and make suggestions on your image for TV, Video and live performances. 

If the suggestions from your stylist/image consultant have provided has a made a remarkable effect on your life, after that, you owe everything to this person. The only thing to do currently is continue on coping with what was handed down to you so this will have the ability to stick to you for the long-term.

Image consultants or stylists do not only benefit specific customers and artists because they also represent huge companies. 

The vital thing is that these professionals have the ability to transform the assumption of the public towards you as an artist.

An image/stylist professional could be the answer to your whole look and be the defining factor of your overall package as an artist. You just have to locate them since they will not be the ones knocking at your door as well as asking if you need help.

It works vice versa.

 

why You need to fail & how to stand out in the crowd


 

Hands above water

How many emails do you get in your inbox with so much advice on how to succeed?

How many times have you tried something based on the advice given from your emails on how to release an EP/single/album, distribution to ‘X’ number of online stores, how to get your music on radio and blogs, what the particular source it suggests; and on it goes.

If you’re a beginner, I guess you will need some guidance on some of these points, but at the end of the day, you have an EP/single or album distributed to every online store, you’ve reached out to radio and blogs, you’ve had some cool photos and an awesome video and last of all, you’ve splashed your new music out on social media while you check every day what’s going on.?

No-one’s commented, no-one’s listened and no-one seems to really care.

Mainly because the last line is probably closer to the truth than what you would probably admit to or dis gruntingly want to admit to.

You can keep reading the ‘How to’s’ and become overwhelmed with it all not really knowing where you went wrong.

First of all, you didn’t go wrong. You have done everything that’s suggested, you’ve worked hard…..but maybe the reality of it, is that you need to work harder. You also won’t know until you’ve found the issues after making countless mistakes. Remember; mistakes are a good thing!

Lets get to it and find out what more you can do, but first, I need to clear something up before I proceed.

Your music MUST be cutting edge. Not average, not good, but outstanding.

Outstanding means these typical points most A&R, managers, labels even blogs listen for:

  • If the first 30 secs don’t grab anyone, then it’s unlikely to grab an audience

  • If your music is out of tune and out of time….don’t do it.

  • The beat and melody will usually always come first. Eg: If someone has their radio on and it’s at low volume, the first thing that sparks attention would be the beat and the melody. They would then turn it up to hear more….with great vocals and lyrics on top of that gaining interest and excitement. People who are general listeners of music will not crank up a song plucked out of an online store or Spotify if:  Firstly they don’t know it, and secondly if they don’t like it.

You have to get people’s attention first.

  • If your singing doesn’t resonate with the listener and you’re not getting it across, (meaning people don’t understand it) and you’re out of tune dramatically, forget it.

  • Production is very much dependent on the style of music you record and is also a personal aspect, regardless if it’s a full-on orchestra or just guitar and vocal. But the quality of the sound MUST be good.

This is why there are various sites that offer ratings and feedback from PEOPLE. They comment on what they don’t like (if you’re lucky) or just give you a thumbs down if they don’t like it. These give you a great indication on whether the track will be received well. These are the general listeners ears.

Having said all that, what happens when you still have a killer song that seems to get sucked down the gurgler? The common and very natural thing to do with most artists, is to pick yourself up and go again at another song…another track. This time, you will just somehow make it better with perhaps production?? A stronger song?? Better Vocals?? Maybe it was the mix? Maybe the mastering didn’t cut?

Not sure how many artists actually take the time out to listen to other established artists and even successful business people, but you really need to be doing this if you are a serious artist.

Listen to their past experiences and mistakes, hear what they are saying and how long it’s taken them to get a track going for example. But whatever you do, don’t expect it to happen overnight. (hence why I do these podcasts with people who are and have been successful….these are for you!)

Do you know why majority of artists don’t happen overnight? It’s because it takes time for them to build their audience. Please don’t come back at me saying that artists the likes of Ed Sheeran made it quickly because it wasn’t the case. Not only that, major artists are major because they have large record labels with a machine behind them. (I’ve mentioned this many times before in previous e-books and blog posts)

If you do plan to release an EP/Single or Album, know that JUST releasing with your video and great photo’s, having it up on blogs, radio and social media, quite often won’t be enough to cut through.

Suddenly another new track and/or artist is here, just another out of the thousands each week releasing new music.

(Hope that puts things into perspective a little.)

The KEY!

You need to get in front of people BEFORE the release. You need to get on social media, twitch, perform acoustically on twitch, Facebook video live, Periscope live, twitter live, Instagram live, Busker etc.

You need to post things about you that IS NOT music related.

Let people know who you are, what else you do…but don’t hit them with “HEY….LISTEN TO MY NEW SONG….I KNOW YOU DON’T HAVE A CLUE WHO I AM, BUT I’M JUMPING UP AND DOWN FOR YOU TO STOP AT MY POST AND LISTEN TO MY MUSIC”……Arrrrrr, right….along with every other post before you and after you.

Quite a while ago I put together a part one and part two e-book on how to create great video content, there were even tips in the books saying similar things to what I have done so in this blog post.

There was a reason to why I put this together.

That reason is because; there are not many other emails or other online music sites giving the real deal about how to really get out there, and that video is key along with your plan and your strategy. (Yes…..yet another free e-book with a complete plan and strategy which outlines all the bits in-between that others do not even delve into)

You will notice, if you haven’t already, that if you have been lucky enough to recieve all my free e-books, you will then know how to piece together great content for your plan and strategy.

If not, you can still find them either by joining, or through our store or shop. 

So many artists will send me messages asking me HOW to do something……I then know they either don’t know about this page on tips, or don’t have or read the free e-books.

 You have to put the work in yourself on social media too!

I’ve been very fortunate to have guidance from a team of expert marketers, business people and entrepreneurs; we all see and know how business works….but I rarely see this with artists.

At the end of day…you need:

  • An exceptional song

  • A Plan

  • Your Strategy

  • Lots of content (in various formats)

  • Lots on interaction

  • And a new way to share YOU on social media

If you do want any of the Free E-books you can join to one of our first ones.

Here are some links for the one’s via Facebook Messenger:

If you would like to know how to piece together your plan and strategy and other information to help you understand what is needed as an artist, we have our 60 page Indie Essential Guide which includes more in detail. Please know, that you need to do these things in order to see a difference in your audience growth and success. INDIE MUSIC GUIDE

All the e-books I have put together from scratch FOR THE ARTISTS to help them. (and no, I’m not mad, just still a little puzzled why so many expect to get all the answers in a few lines via a PM)

 

Why Some indie music artists will make it and others won’t


Musicians Falling

I have written quite a lot about social media, marketing and other related tips for artists, but I am still surprised at how many artists do not go to the effort of putting the tips in place.          There is a reason for tips, and that is to learn more to create better engagement and to build your profile and audience.                                         The one thing artists need to remember, is that it really doesn’t happen overnight. However, it will happen faster if you just put aside some time each week to perfect your overall presence.

​The very first thing, which I have mentioned some time back, is to make sure ALL of your social media pages have the same images. This is your brand and this makes it easier for people to find you. When people are looking for you on other platforms, they are looking for what is familiar to them.

 

  • When you have several social media accounts, try to have the same (if you can) name on all your accounts. Preferably your name as the artist. Not some stupid and difficult name that means nothing, hard to remember, or we can’t even spell easily.

  • I’ve mentioned about posting your music up previously, but I still see artists constantly just posting their music, and worse still, you haven’t told us anything about the music? Is it new, is it a new video to a previously released single? Where did you record it? Who produced it? What’s it about? Does it grab your attention?

  • If you are trying to build your fan base, it’s not going to happen if you are just posting up links to your music. People do like to be entertained. Less people are now clicking over to listen to music, so you need to build a relationship with them first.

  • Engage in other social media posts, not only that, be active and make comments on blog sites; get involved. Don’t be lazy and think by posting anything quickly will actually get you anywhere. Put some thought behind it.

  • If you had a blog, how nice would it be to get some comments? Keep this in mind when you’re reading other peoples blogs and posts. They too would love some comments, and you know what?….they will remember you as an active player.

  • Before you post up all your music, and only your music, show your audience who you are. What did you do on the weekend? Do you have a sense of humour? What’s your views on other topics other than music? (preferably not politics) Let your audience get to know who you are first. You will be more inclined to build relationships with your audience, and they will be more inclined then to listen to your music.

  • Be nice. Some people find it hard to be nice, I know. But if you don’t want to get blocked or lose fans, think twice before you press that post button.

  • DO NOT send those PM’s saying‘I have new music for you to check out’, to busy blogs…please. 🙏🏼 It just tells us one thing about you. You’re lazy.

Ok, so that may seem a little harsh, but really. What do you think it tells the people running busy blog sites? Ok, I’ll tell you.

When there are other artists going to the effort of reading actual blog sites and checking out radio sites to take the time out to email those sites, it tells us that, “hey, they made an effort”, Cool…then we open the email…and we’re either really loving it, or our jaw drops. Why?

The difference between an email with just a link and no introduction as to who you are, no information, no social media links to even see you, no hello…means goodbye.

Then there’s the Hi there, and some actual effort into spending a few minutes into your email is the difference in being heard and not.

  • Whatever you do, DO NOT play the follow and unfollow game. This is the worst! Just tells people you are not interested, really.

  • Have you ever heard a song or noticed a band or artist and thought to yourself, what a crap song, how did they get all the attention it did? Then you find a song that rocks your socks and think, this needs to be heard. Why hasn’t this artist been noticed?

The simple truth (generally) is that it is obvious to blogs, media and radio who is active and works hard. These artists, despite them perhaps not quite having an exceptional song, may only have a mediocre track, but is noticed because they are emailing, socialising, putting themselves out there, commenting and creating a following by getting involved. They are sharing other interests and engaging others. They are welcoming their community while building it.

Then there’s the artist who has unbelievable music who doesn’t communicate and only tells people when they have new music coming out and that’s it. Despite if that artist has gone to the effort of paying PR to distribute their music. They still need to make the most of it and get involved. It’s so unfortunate when this happens.

I have time and time again, tried to contact incredible musicians and artists asking if they would like to be featured, or asked if they could send their press release, chasing them up, only to get no response, no email back. Artists who are perhaps not aware that their music has been placed; blogs and radio would go to the effort in trying to reach out to them and tag them, and still no response. Not even recognition. After several times of trying to reach out to artists who have incredible music, they really only have themselves to blame in not responding or at least recognising the effort made to help them out. After all, they could have been asked for an exclusive interview.This is why so many great artists and great music goes down the gurgler and sucked in by those deep dark cracks never to be heard. 

While this all may seem a little rough for some, it is the unfortunate reality of what goes on, on a daily basis.

So, if you are a serious artist and want to be noticed, then get it together and treat your music like you would any other business. Get out there and do what you can to show others you are serious and worthy.

Oh, and one last point. Please, check to see if all your links are working on your website and social media pages.

There’s nothing worse (than the follow/unfollow game) than when we want to actually check out who you are, click on your link to be greeted with Sorry, this page isn’t available. The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed’.

Why Some Indie Music Artists Will Make It And Others Won’t