Mentoring for the Modern Musician: The Disc Makers interview
Disc Makers has always been committed to being a one-stop shop that provides varied and excellent service to the modern musician. Read More.
DIY
A new release strategy for a new music economy
Indie artist Megan Slankard is finding success in the new music economy through the fan-support platform of Patreon – reducing risk and rewarding trust among her steadily growing fan base. Read More.
DIY, but don’t do it alone
The DIY concept has been evangelized, refuted, and defended as the way to achieve success in music. No matter what your opinion is regarding the do-it-yourself ethos, there is one thing that should be universally accepted: do-it-yourself doesn’t mean you are a one person machine. Read more.
Making Community Leaders of DIY Musicians – the mission of PeaceTones
PeaceTones is an on-the-ground initiative with a mission to economically and legally empower musicians in developing countries. Musicians were chosen because they have the ability, more than most any other profession, to cut through socio-economic boundaries and really speak to a population. The idea is if we work with musicians and get some of these ideas in their heads – making everyone accountable before the law and ideas of justice and equality – if these are topics musicians consciously advocate for, the reach within a community would be exponential.
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Indie Touring Strategy: Getting Out on the Road
What are the realities of touring for an independent artist today? How do you set up your gigs? Does touring make financial sense? What should you hope to gain from going on any tour? These are just some of the questions you might – and should – be asking yourself if you plan to take your show on the road.
Megan Slankard is traveling through rural Wisconsin, where cell coverage can be spotty, as a part of a three-month, 75-date tour to promote her latest album, A Token of the Wreckage. Read more…
A&R and the Shifting Major Label Landscape
If you talk about mergers and acquisitions, there’s a philosophical shift that happened, where the big euphemism became branding. Sometime in the mid-2000s, branding became a business and an approach. It became a noun and a verb. When that shift happened, bands started to think of themselves as businesses, and labels started to look at bands as businesses just as they were looking into buying smaller labels that had a niche and could provide them acts that had a sales base and a fan base and could give them credibility with an audience that you can’t have as a major label because you serve every kind of consumer. Read more…
Harness your fanpower
Street teams are a great way to spread the word about your music to potential fans. They can effectively generate a buzz for your CD before you even release it. Think about it. Which might pique your interest more, an advertisement for an act you don’t know, or fans enthusiastically telling you why they love an artist? Enthusiasm is contagious. Hiring street teams often doesn’t get the same bang. Fans are happy to help when asked to, and they’ll go to many lengths if you show appreciation for their efforts. Read more.