Perfect your sales pitch if you want results
For years, my biggest challenge was getting a reply to the multitude of emails I wrote. I’ve since perfected my sales pitch so that 100 percent of the emails I send get a response. Read More.
Author: Cheryl B. Engelhardt
Crowdfunding success is a process, not a fluke
My methodical and logical ways of working at my music career don’t account for “fluke.” I quantify everything. I even have an 8-step process for writing emails. Inspiration, luck, coincidence, and fate, are all concepts I dismiss, claiming that really we have the power to create exactly what we want, with the help of a few key tools. Read more.
Set goals for your vocal lessons
So you’ve decided to take voice lessons and you’re anxious about your first lesson, wondering what to expect and how to prepare. Here’s the good news: this isn’t an audition! Take a deep breath (you’ll be doing a lot of that in your singing lessons), and focus on these seven tips to prepare for your first voice lesson. Read more.
Simple travel tips for musicians (and everyone else)
Traveling can bring excitement to your life, and it can bring stress and upheaval, as well. Even when I’m not touring for my music, when I head to the hills for a month, I know how to make all systems go with as little as possible. Here are four simple travel tips to help you endure life on the road without feeling like roadkill. Read more.
Make your music photos tell your story
Music photography is just another way to help you communicate with the world. When your music photos support your lyrics, music, website, tweets, emails, or releases to complete who you are and help convey your message as an artist AND your artist brand, then they are doing their job! Follow these few guidelines to get your next photo shoot to be a true snapshot of you. Read more.
Ditch the pre-show performance jitters
We all know practice makes perfect, but sometimes perfect isn’t enough to calm performance jitters, cool sweaty palms, and relax the nerves. So whether you’re heading out to perform for some big festival crowds, going solo for the first time, or just want to get a grip on your performance, here are a few tips to take on – before you step on stage. Read more.
Don’t Be Afraid of Your Own Crazy Ideas
I’ve come up with so many borderline crazy ideas, like doing an intimate show in a hot air balloon and auditioning for movies just to offer my film scoring skills. Many (nearly all) of these ideas did NOT make it off the ground, and I had to stop looking at those as failures. But thinking of crazy ideas to get results can get tiring… until one works. Read more.
Make the Most of a Music Internship
Most anyone can offer a music internship, or participate in one. If you are a composer, a singer-songwriter, a member of a band, etc., and have a bunch of stuff that you keep putting off: like making posters, booking a tour, or reaching out to licensing companies, you have a lot to gain from having an intern. On the flip side, no matter how old you are or what your experience level, if you’re looking to dive deeper into the music biz, you could benefit from being an intern. Read more.
Who Influences Your Music Most?
You know that question people ask musicians “who influences you most”? Well, I’ve never been able to answer it. For a while I thought I’d just list what music I grew up listening to, as that must have made an impact on my writing style. Later, I started listing musicians whose music I currently am into because I must be trying to be more like them if I am a fan, right? Read more.
How to get your music video viewed 1,000 times in one day
Music promotion isn’t just about amazing content, it’s about how you share it. Let’s assume you have high quality content, like a music video posted on YouTube that you just spent weeks pouring your heart and soul into, and it hasn’t quite gone viral yet. How can you boost views, downloads, and likes without bugging the heck out of your fans or spending a gazillion dollars on ads? Read more.
Saving Money While Touring
Traveling to play music gigs is expensive. Being on the road also takes a lot of planning, time, energy, and day-of alertness for travel plans to be flawlessly executed. Whether touring around your favorite regions of the globe or traveling to a far off city for a music conference, there are a few tricks and tips that can help make your travels go smoothly, and keep your bank account afloat at the same time. Read more.
Writing Jingles – The Process Explained
Today, a typical jingle is only part of advertising music content. You will also hear underscores, or music created specifically for the video. You may also recognize a favorite song, or discover a new band to like in the thirty seconds that an iPod ad plays, or hear a cool rendition of a favorite old tune. As long as it’s memorable, musical, and arcs the same way the story of the ad arcs, you’ve got yourself some ad music. In this article, I am going to focus on the process of creating new music (either an underscore or a jingle) for an ad. Read more.
My Anti-Resolution to Ditch the One Big Goal
New Year’s Resolutions — they’re created with the best intentions. To do better, live better, be better. They hang over our heads, guilt us into temporary action, and for 92% of Americans, they’re a distant memory by Valentine’s Day. These resolutions tend to be vague goals with no real measurable result, like "lose weight," "fall in love," or "be a better friend," and they can get in the way of the one thing that can bring us what we want: a commitment to a purpose. Read more.
Why you want a music video
Music videos never seemed like something I should pursue. I never understood how they could translate into sales or revenue, and I certainly didn’t know how to come up with an idea that wasn’t a literal translation of my lyrics – “all I have to say is I love you” only invokes an image of two people running at each other in slow-mo, arms open for an embrace… cheese city. Read more.
Thoughts on Writer’s Block From One Songwriter to Another
You may not think it’s possible to write on demand. You may or may not believe you have a muse that sits in the back of your room when you are feeling the creative flow, and is on a lunch break when you’re not. Trust me, I’ve gone through all the possibilities of why I often feel like a magnet drawn to my piano and writer’s pad, and why at other times, I’d rather crawl into bed, clean my bathroom for the third time, or do my taxes before sitting at that bench with a pencil in hand. What gives? Don’t I have any control of this? Read more.