I Fight Dragons has been selling music on custom USB drives for years with notable success. Here are some tips from Brian Mazzaferri on how to make the most of the venture. Read the post.
Whatever your next music project is — be it an album, tour, video, single, or anything else — the first step is always planning. These four steps will get you off on the right foot. Read the post.
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.
An input list should include every instrument, DI, and vocal that’s part of your stage set-up. Here are some tips to help you put together an effective input list with minimal headache. Read More.
Think you’ve told your live sound engineer everything he needs to know for your big gig? Don’t forget these important details. Read More.
A well-crafted stage plot – customized to the lineup and tech needs of your band – can go a long way towards setting yourself up for success once you hit the stage, especially for a multi-band event. Read More.
From playing shows to selling CDs and merch to finding time for self care, life on the road requires a balance between your personal, public, and business life. The Accidentals share some #TourLife hacks with us. Read More.
While the life of a musician often depends on nighttime activity, you can increase creativity, stamina, and your general health by getting the sleep your body needs. Read More.
Here are some practical tips to help you deal when stars (and germs) align to make you sick for the gig you’ve been looking forward to play. Read more.
Playing music gigs in Canada just got easier thanks to a new law, but crossing the border with your instrument still requires preparation and organization. If you’re planning a trip to play music gigs in Canada, here’s some advice and a few online resources to help make your border crossing smooth and easy. Read more.
When playing international music gigs, singers and flutists have it easy. Drummers, guitarists, bassists, and keyboard players, on the other hand, have to figure out more creative solutions to manage their gear. If your music-making equipment is larger and more cumbersome than a standard airplane carry-on, how do you ensure that, when you take the stage miles away from home, you have the gear you need to a give a performance that you can be proud of? Read more.
Whether you’re driving north from the east coast to play a coffee shop in Montreal, bringing your electro-pop act to a string of clubs in Tokyo and Thailand, or presenting a midnight set at a jazz festival in Germany, performing music gigs abroad can be an incredibly rewarding and cool experience — but one that brings its own set of challenges. Here are tips from seasoned musical world travelers to help you make your international music gigs run as smooth as possible. Read more.
The most important thing to do when dealing with money is to make sure to write EVERYTHING down. A good way to keep tabs is to put all the info in Excel. We divide it into date, gas, food, lodging, salary (how much we pay our musicians), pay (from the venue), CD sales, t-shirts, tips, extra. At the end of each day we total it up. There are two main ways to make money as a band: 1) Guarantees/door/bar percentage, and 2) Selling merchandise. Read more.
Many people have asked us how we transformed our band into a sustainable business, touring 250 days a year. We’ve created a series of videos to help explain what we’ve learned over the past few years in the hopes that it will help you learn how to get gigs and get more good bands out on the road. We’ll explain how to book music gigs that are well attended and pay guarantees, promote your shows, make extra money, build a following, and describe who wants to take your money (and why you shouldn’t let them). Read more.
Nearly every touring musician has at least one story about load-in or breakdown gone awry — that emotionally scarring gig where the venue promised a full drum kit but only delivered a broken snare drum, the festival slot when you expected fifteen minutes to set up but only got fifteen seconds, or that sickening post-gig moment when you realized your vintage Les Paul had grown legs and walked out of the club, all by itself. Read more.