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I’d like to share 4 steps to help you pitch your songs more effectively and get your songs licensed more efficiently.

Step 1. Gather your songs from all those that are now recorded and available for purchase on CD or purchase by download, and organize them according to category. For instance: Love songs, ballads, songs of loss, uplifting songs, travel songs, work songs, songs for weddings or special occasions, patriotic songs, holiday songs, songs of triumph and victory, spiritual songs, etc.

Step 2. Now further organize those again into categories for tempo such as hard driving, upbeat, slow, medium, quiet and mellow. Add further information like, predominant instrumentation on each song such as soft strings, electric guitar, heavy drums, horns, piano, etc. I think you get the idea.

Step 3. Create a new page on your site with a new link button on the navigation bar. Give it a title compatible with your site and marketing style, but one that specifically invites and calls out to those who might be searching for songs. Some possible titles might be, Songs for Your Project, Songs by Category, Songs for Pitching, Your Project-My Song, Publisher’s Paradise, Producer’s Paradise or Record These Songs, etc.

Step 4. Design your web page with the various categories of songs, with links to streaming audio for immediate listening, (don’t make them wait for the download), a link to the lyrics for reading while listening and a link to your licensing policy, publishing and performing rights information and contact information to the appropriate person who would be making any deals on your behalf or directly to you.

Now your website is making it easy for those looking for songs to record, or for a project needing songs. They know that you have them available on your site. If they are looking for a specific type of song, they can find it quickly without having to listen through all of your material. You have helped them zoom in on a potential song just right for their project. They can easily determine the category, the tempo, read the words, get all the necessary deal-making information they need to use your song.

Put your website to work for you as your song-pitcher 24/7. Now, I invite you to learn more about this and other topics important to your career development and to sign up for free weekly audio Biz Booster Hot Tip! Every Monday you’ll get another valuable strategy and technique that you can put to use immediately. You’ll find helpful books, career development seminars and information on booking tours, the music business and performing arts. It’s all waiting for you at http://www.performingbiz.com

Article Source: http://vadj.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Why Independent Artists Fail at Music Promotion

It gets increasingly harder and consequently more expensive to promote music as an independent artist each year, by the year, regardless of whether those efforts are online or not. Until you cross the chasm to reach a success level where your popularity, music and finances catch up to each other, you are more likely to rely on a limited amount of information to determine the value of your music career. For example if you are a music artist with a fan base of 100, it is easy to believe that 80 people out of 100 think you are destined for worldwide success. This is a limited window of honesty that can cripple your efforts to reach a wider audience that spans beyond the local market to reach worldwide audiences.

Without a more concrete and easy-proof system in place, you can continue to create music that no one cares about and no one buys except the people in that window of 100. In order to broaden the listening audience it is important to understand their world view in three phases:

• How they viewed music in the past
• How they view music in the present
• How they “think” they will view music in the future

You should know that to reach mass audiences “nowadays” that they probably prefer to download your music easily, because it’s faster and they are not restricted to listen to your music where a CD player is present. This mis-understanding is an ignored flaw that results in a sharp line to failure. You can better judge almost everything you do to promote and further your career if you consider these two world views:

People with money don’t care what’s real to you… unless its presented in a way that is appealing and sensible to them.

No one in the hospital is going to suddenly panic and die if they don’t hear your music.

People with money are, have been, and will be used to buying music that sounds MAJOR… because 9/10 it invariably sounds better.

Why?

People who buy music, aren’t exposed to indie music as much as major music. Major music is like the GOD of music because its EVERYWHERE all at the same time… in someone else’s car down the street, at a store, in the mall, in a bathroom, on someone else’s iPod, on the radio, you see it on someone’s shirt, you hear people singing in walking down the street… and this is what creates an environment where… if you don’t sound major you don’t follow trends; its likely that it will be harder to get those music consumers to buy your music.

You can’t sell someone something they don’t want, or something they’re not familiar with. Period. I don’t care what you sell.

From strippers to music to houses and cars. People only buy things that solve their problems (permanent or not) AND they buy what they truly want.

Just look at the fact that we live in a world where NOBODY gives a damn about how healthy it is to eat organic food, people want what they’re used to. McDonald’s doesn’t get 23 million dollars in the bank because it tries to give people what’s healthy… it gives them what they want, fat and heart clogs included.

Why doesn’t originality sell? And why shouldn’t an artist make music that’s real to them?

ORIGINALITY is extremely important and yes you have to balance originality with trends… but there is a line between doing whats original to the point where its unenjoyable and doing what is most likely to sell. That’s another hard part of this particular business.

Because again, the people who worked their ass off this week in the office dealing with Bob and Sally have to deal with the fact that they got $200 taken out in taxes. So they’re not going to buy music just for the hell of it. Especially not when they can download it using Bit Torrent for free. The people, who ACTUALLY buy it and not DOWNLOAD it, will buy it if its music they are used to hearing AND what they WANT.

I love Herbie Hancock… he just got a super huge Grammy award but the majority of America isn’t blogging about him. They blog about Britney and her nipples or her panties (or not).

The majority of people don’t wake up in the morning looking for NEW JOBS… they go where they know they’re going to get a check. The majority of people don’t wake up searching for new MUSIC. They trust radio (declining) and friends to provide them with music that’s familiar and hot. The majority of people don’t wake up in the morning trying out different toothpastes everyday… they use what they know.

Human psychology suggests that people LIKE what they know. We hang around people who are like us, we buy things that are popular, we eat things that are the norm. They don’t really care about originality if its unfamiliar with them and they can’t relate to it.

So yes! You can be successful in a major way, still be original, but only if you can create something that people want.

THAT is where trends are extremely useful. Song keys, tempos, vocal styles, recording techniques, phrases, melodic motifs, chord progressions, reverb styles, compressor uses, 808 drums, synth sounds, etc. are trends that will never go away… and most chart topping songs have similar characteristics.

Besides… most everything we are familiar with uses a trend. Oh in the gum department… its teeth whitening. In fashion, its big 70s and 80s styled frames. In computers its dual processors. In cars its USB and voice activation. In TV its Hi-Def. In movies its shock factor & humor. On TV its 1 hour episodes instead of 30 minutes. In music… its the 80s sound, its the urban sound, its multi-genres. If you’re rock, you’re pop. If you’re pop, you’re urban. If you’re R&B, you’re hip-hop.

This is simple and its centered around the fact that you’re dealing with people who probably don’t want to PAY for the music in the first place and secondly, you had better create something that they can believe in, experience, and relate to.

Perhaps originality comes second to familiarity… for most music consumers.

Why won’t Record Labels put out an artist just because they’re on the roster?

Commerce. You can look at the billboard charts and tell that releasing a certain artist right now is probably not going to work. Especially when you have artists who dominate the entire scene with an album or song that everybody’s going crazy for. Every record label tries to do whats right for their survival and bank account at the same time. Record Labels are entities, but they operate much like humans do. There are bills that need to be paid and there is little time for experimentation with artists who have already proven they won’t sell that much, or based on statistics, prove that they will not sell that much.

So who CARES if you get signed. Doesn’t mean you’ll get released. Most record labels have more artists than they can manage… but to them each artist represents a specific financial forecast. You can BET that they have a net worth assigned to each artist, and if they think that it makes more sense to release artist A than artist B… then that’s what they do. That’s what they will continue to do… until about 6 years from now when everyone gets screwed and it all crashes all over again like it did in 2004.

Why do you have to cater to 10-18 year olds?

You don’t. You just have to decide who you are and what you want to do. What you want to start out doing and what you want to end up doing. Popular music is played everywhere… in clubs, in restaurants, in stores, you can’t deny it. People who listen and/or create country music are more exposed to pop/rock than they are exposed to country. You don’t walk into the mall and hear a lot of country… unless its mixed with… pop.

You have to decide if you want to:

a) make music that’s unfamiliar and work hard enough to get people to become familiar with it and then sell records or
b) make music thats familiar, increase popularity, and sell records faster/easier/better.

You can chose to side with the labels, be with the indies who achieve major label success, or be an indie whose totally organic and is more concerned with the art form than commercial appeal.

So if you want to sell something, at the same rate that major labels sell it, then you have to find a way to get consumers to LIKE you. Whether its unoriginal or not… the people who swipe their card aren’t critics, they don’t care whether you’re major or indie so much… that’s something that only us “music insiders” care about…

Why don’t record labels invest in artists who surpass the trends?

Record Labels do the best they can. They aren’t TRYING to fail, they’re just stupid when it comes to many things. But as the years go by, the pressure increases as does the competition to put out music that will sell and that can be marketed. It doesn’t make sense for record labels to run a development farm like they used to. They’re not going to spend 5 years babysitting artists trying to see which artist will turn out to be a golden egg. The likelihood of another pop icon like Beyonce’ coming along is slim, and she did most of her artist development by herself. Her dad quit his job to make that happen… that whole family went through turmoil just to get where they are today; and that was oh about a decade ago.

So what’s the bottom line?

The superstar formula HAS always revolved around hard work and creativity… Who cares what genre of music you make, the pool of listeners is relative to the genre. The Beatles? They have one of the most popular songs in history called “Yesterday” it’s been performed over seven million times… took them a year to even write that song, and it didn’t even GO mainstream at first. But that song has the record for being one of the most recorded COVER songs in history. The Jacksons? Everybody knows that they for damn sure worked their asses off. Beyonce? None of Beyonce’s success just landed in her lap. Britney Spears? Yeah this woman has been in the public spotlight since she was a kid, she’s been trained to BE the attention, GET attention, and KEEP attention.

Again, you’re not competing against people who haphazardly became successful. You’re competing against people like Miley Cyrus, people who are born into super stardom… or people who are willing to move clear across the country just to work with a producer who will give them the perfect sound. IF you aren’t willing to make those kind of sacrifices… then you’re handicapping yourself, I don’t care how you look at it.

You’re competing against people who don’t have ANY connections at all, but will spend a solid year to whip themselves into shape and go through hell JUST to put together a 7 song package that can be shopped to majors. You’re competing against people who DON’T CARE how long it takes until they get it right. And those are the most dangerous types.

I can type sentences all day and all night long. I could give history lessons all day long. But the bottom line is that yes connections are great… yes you should be original. Yes you should use trends… but the only thing that matters FIRST is if you have DAMN good music. And can you REPEAT it enough times to satisfy the appetite of people who are used to hearing DAMN Good music. Does your Myspace page have 3 songs that sound as good as the top 100 songs on Billboard?

If you want music industry contacts buy the A&R registry – it will cost you maybe $60 bucks. Its worth it. But even if you had Clive Davis’ #… what would you do with it? Which song are you SO confident in, that’d you’d be willing to bet your entire DREAM on it?!
It takes an ungodly amount of work to produce and create damn good music… on this kind of level.

Unless your music sounds MAJOR, no matter how original you are, then you’re already fighting an uphill battle. If it isn’t crisp, easy to listen to, flawless, and perfect… I say START OVER.
Music Superstar Formula is something I have fought with, I’ve cried over it, I’ve kicked, I’ve screamed, I’ve been just a few fries short of a happy meal sometimes… but you won’t see it until its right… because in the BIG LEAGUE… there is no 2nd chance. By the time you screw up and try again, something new and better has already come along.

If you ever get ONE chance, treat it like it IS your last simply because it COSTS too much to get people to give a damn about YOU or YOUR music. If they don’t pay attention to you, they’re not going to pay a penny for you.

Written by Howard Britt

Article Source: http://www.musicindustryschool.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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Those who work in the healthcare industry have irregular work schedule; they often work at nights and they also have long shifts (12 hours or longer). Consequently, traditional classroom style education is not the best option to them, if they want to farther their education. However, they have a very viable option now, online education; online education allows them to study wherever they want and whenever they want, which is a great fit to nurses and doctors.

The current obstacle for the non-broadcasted events is that most bands and musicians do not have the required funds or promotional know how to finance these services. It will be up to companies who are willing to sponsor live shows to invite independent bands to perform. The bands would let there fans know when the event is being broadcast. The advertising content can be included on the set of the gigs making it easy to utilize the bands website as a place for the fans to view the broadcast with minimal coding and web design work. If a company sets up the sponsorship right, they could invite many different bands from all over the world to supply pre-recorded live shows that can be rebroadcast online. Their products and branding would be seen on many different websites by a focused audience without much financial outlay. For this to happen though, requires a third party to connect the bands with the companies. Most bands would jump at the chance of having their music broadcast over the internet even if the opening splash screen was sponsored by a brand of beer they didn’t drink.

It’s common for bands to have a strong following in their local community or their country of origin which adds even more power to a successful focused advertising campaign. By providing the link between the sponsors and the bands, webvideo4u opens up a whole new area of online marketing and band promotion. The band can keep their fans happy, and hopefully sell some CDs along the way.

Written by Adi Gaskell

Article Source: http://www.panload.com

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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1 – Availability
To be able to promote your work you need to get your treasure out there for an audience to listen to. The channels are many. The most important once are: Myspace, YouTube and Last.fm. Create an account and fire away. Don’t forget to make it possible for users to download your songs. People want to listen to you on their iPods and DJs can play your tunes at clubs. There’s no reason to make it hard for people to fall in love with you.

2 – Networking
This is where you are building a fan base and separating yourself from the ones that is satisfied by just “being out there”. It’s easy put a song on a music service like Myspace. The tricky and time consuming part is to use the “web 2.0 features” in them to socialize with your fans. But it’s totally worth it. Creating and building your network is the best way to invest your time. Use the available tools to treat your friends with loads of care and respect. If your good at it your friends will become fans and they’ll help you spread your music to their friends.

If you’re fortune enough to have a returning fans it is a good idea to create a dedicated network of your own. With the web service Ning you can create a “micro Facebook” of your own with walls, apps, players etc for your fans to play and communicate with. By creating a dedicating meeting place your fans will also start doing your job and providing news, live clips etc.

3 – Pushing it
You are fortune to live and work in an era where everybody can be a music journalist. Specialized mp3 blogs and fanzines is everywhere. Your specific niche is represented by some and are attracting followers that will like what you do. Find out who is publishing your kind of music. Probably it’s the same sites you’re hanging at. If you don’t know who to contact about your new release go to Hype Machine and search for an artist that sounds like you. Viola, you’ll be displayed to a handful of blogs that might be interesting.

Bill Whiters said in an interview that “it takes longer to reach peoples feelings then it takes to arouse them”. This is where good marketing and communication with your fans comes in. With a growing amount of fans it’s easy to concentrate on quantity to the extent that one loses focus on quality. Never forget that a small group of 5 fans might be as important as 500 friends. An aroused fans will keep telling everybody they meet about how brilliant you are and provide them with all possible reasons to see your next live show. Kevin Kelly make good points of dedicated “true” fans.

If your music is good and you’re treating your fans good you have come a long way to some sort of musical success. As it turns out I’ve come across 5 of 6 bands on my music label thru words of friends mouths.

Article Source: http://www.digitalrenaissance.se

For more education on careers in the music industry, check out: www.Music-Career-Guide.com

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