What the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act means to the working musician
Changes included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could have a meaningful impact for working musicians — some will keep money in your pocket, others won’t. Read the post.
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The essential studio gear for your home studio
If you’ve outfitted space in your home for the purpose of recording music, step two is amassing the gear for the task at hand. Here’s a checklist for things you might already have, need immediately, and can put off until later. Read the post.
Is it time to sell your music on USB drives?
While CDs and vinyl records are a major revenue source for indie musicians, custom USB drives are the latest merch table draw when it comes to physical product music sales. Read the post.
Work For Hire agreements: The producer’s perspective
If you’re hiring musicians (or other contributors) to work on a music project, these tips from a music industry lawyer can help you navigate a Work For Hire agreement. Read the post.
Writing lyrics with depth
If you are interested in writing lyrics with depth, you need a deep artistic well to draw from. All output requires input, and as a lyricist, I recommend you begin with words. Read the post.
Supercharge your music with the flat-six chord
Borrowed chords (chords “borrowed” from a key’s parallel minor) are commonly used in music influenced by the blues, including rock, jazz, R&B, even country and folk. Today we’ll focus on the flat-six chord. Read the post.
The Star-Spangled Banner: how to sing it right
A performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” can be a powerful musical experience when done right and a national embarrassment if things go wrong. Consider this advice if you’re ever called to perform it. Read the post.
Five things to do before pitching your music to Spotify playlists
Getting your music on Spotify playlists can be difficult. Let’s start at the beginning and focus on the things you should have in place before you even start pitching your tracks. Read More.
Are you writing for an audience of one, or one million? Mailbox Money, Part 4
If you’re hoping to land a cut, there’s one listener who definitely must connect with your song: the artist you’re pitching to. That’s your first listener, the one who will hear it before the masses. Read More.
Sixth chords can add subtle complexity to your songs
Sixth chords have an inherent lack of identity and purpose that can be riveting — a sixth chord can provide ambiguity, set curiously dark moods, and add a layer of complexity to your music. Read More.
Three easy fixes to improve your guitar tone when recording
There are several spots on a guitar that resonate and produce unpleasant ringing overtones. These tricks will stop these unwanted vibrations from sabotaging your guitar tone. Read the post.
The song pitch: 9 tips for getting your songs heard by major artists
We spoke to a music industry veteran to get 10 tips on how to perfect your song pitch and maximize your chances of major artists hearing – and possibly recording – one of your original songs. Read More.
Commit important choices to audio: Prepping for an audio mix, Part II
There’s plenty you can do to set your mixing engineer up for success. Ken Lewis recommends committing important production choices to audio before sending your tracks off for an audio mix. Read More.
Prepping for an audio mix: Get your session, tracks, and notes in order
Here are some tips for prepping for an audio mix from multi-Grammy Award winner and Audio School Online creator, Ken Lewis. Read More.
Music trends in 2018: hip hop, music streaming, and live concerts
As the music industry continues to evolve, I’ve identified three music trends to keep an eye on in 2018 that are helping to reshape popular music. Read More.