Posted: Jul 20, 2015

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written Aly Keller, an avid pianist, musicologist, and marketing analyst, as featured on Grassrootsy.com.

"Turns out, musicians often do make that decision [medical debt or a musical career]. Last year, 43% of them lacked insurance. And this is in the post-ACA (“Obamacare”) environment where health insurance has never been more accessible to employer-less freelancers. But is health insurance something you really want to go without?"

Posted: Jul 13, 2015

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Cristof Ensslin, cellist/manager of The Wilhelm Brothers, folk rock with cello infusion from Asheville, NC.

"Are you booking for an indie band? Have you ever come across a venue mentioning you ought not to play another show within a certain radius and timespan? Chances are, you have." But what if you could play multiple shows in the same town in the same week and the venue could also benefit...

Posted: Jul 6, 2015

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by Brandon Waardenburg, founder of Apparatus (an artist accelerator providing music advice and coaching to independent artists and DIY musicians) as well as a musician, songwriter, "musicpreneur" and consultant.

"The luster of performing can die pretty quickly when it becomes old...Truthfully, any activity can turn into a grind no matter how intentional we are about keeping focused..." Here are some signs that you are on the right track.

Posted: Jun 30, 2015

Category: Social Media

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**Guest post written by Frederic Sahyouni of SplashFlood, a mobile app that rewards musicians for their talent.

"So you started a new band or a new solo music project and, as you absolutely must, you want to set up your online presence on all the typical social media platforms available...Here is a list of things you should and should not do in order to kickstart your social media presence on Twitter..."

Posted: Jun 22, 2015

Category: Music Streaming

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**Guest post written by Megan Liscomb, originally posted on TakeLessons.com.

"Online streaming is changing the face of the music industry, for artists and fans alike. Recently, Apple announced their entry into the streaming game via their new music streaming service Apple Music, due out June 30.

So what does Apple Music mean for you? Whether you're looking at the service as an artist or as a music fan, here's what Apple Music has to offer..."

Posted: Jun 15, 2015

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.

"In the third of a three-part video series, Rocket to the Stars' Wade Sutton continues examining how artists can improve their speaking skills when on stage performing at live shows!" Sentence structure is key...

Posted: Jun 8, 2015

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.

"In the second of a three-part video series, Rocket to the Stars' Wade Sutton continues examining how artists can improve their speaking skills when on stage performing at live shows!"

Posted: Jun 1, 2015

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.

"Finding a comfort zone while speaking to audiences between songs is something that has been problematic for MANY singers...So I spent a large portion of time over the past year ­and ­a ­half exploring this very issue and looking for ways artists can improve at this extremely important, yet often neglected, skill..."

Posted: May 26, 2015

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by Ashley E. Norton, a Colorado based nomad, currently touring across the country with her Indie duo, Whitherward.

"I've been a professional singer-songwriter for about 10 years now...and I've been screwed over many times...I moved to Music City 5 years ago to hire a team of people to do the behind-the-scenes work I was so tired of doing my fucking self. Like many of us, I wanted to solely focus on my craft. This, is the only mistake I've ever made..."

Posted: May 18, 2015

Category: Social Media

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**Guest post written by Melinda Lewis of ScatterRadio.

"The evolution from simply surfing the internet on a computer to consuming content on mobile phones has put a growing emphasis on social media. And, the pressure to be “good” at social media has never been stronger...Your audience may be inundated with the same messages from different people and the quest to stand out oftentimes seems like an uphill battle. Instead of focusing on the quantity, cultivate quality..."

Posted: May 11, 2015

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by Hugh Mcintyre via the DIY Musician Blog, originally posted on the SonicBids Blog.

"These days, everybody’s email inboxes are fuller than ever, and people are becoming more and more selective about what newsletters they sign up for. Here are six tips that could help you..."

Posted: May 4, 2015

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by Carlos Castillo of Schwilly Family Musicians - music marketing strategist, web designer, live performance recordist, international road-tripper, lap steel player, and Captain of the Schwilly Family.

""Don't rely on the promoters. As long as you put on a killer show and have killer merch, you'll always have enough gas to make it to the next stop"...The bottom line is that if you want to be a professional musician, you should have a solid merch setup and promote it effectively at your gigs. Because it might be the only money you make that night..."

Posted: Apr 27, 2015

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Joy Ike, creator of Grassrootsy.com and Independent Musician, as featured on Grassrootsy.com.

"...we thought it would be important to talk about the different types of shows out there and give you a comprehensive understanding of the types of shows you should be taking at certain stages in your career depending on what city you are in and depending on the timing. Yea, that’s a mouthful, but stick with us and you*ll get what we mean..."

Posted: Apr 20, 2015

Category: The Musician Business

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**Guest post written by Deuce Ellis, Buffalo-born and Brooklyn-raised rap renegade. Originally posted by Cyber PR.

"Here’s My Guest Blog After Attending the #YourMusic Seminar; maybe this whole thing is easier than you think…First things first, let’s demolish whatever train of thought you may have. Demolish it. Let’s destroy and rebuild..."

Posted: Apr 13, 2015

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by BeTH isBell, host of The Flower Power Hour and the New Releases show on KMUD, an FM station in Northern California.

"1. We have a music library at the station where we label and file all CDs, and vinyl records, that we receive from artists, labels, and distributors. What I've noticed is that CDs in jewel cases or digipaks with the artist and album name on spine get pulled for airplay 5x-10x more frequently than CDs in slim cases or sleeves where the artist/album name, and sometimes, the CD itself can't be seen hiding on the shelf squeezed between the CDs in jewel cases. Truth..."

Posted: Apr 7, 2015

Category: Social Media

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**Guest post written by Andrew Jones of Checkered Owl Media.

"FB events [are great. They] get you all the details and can be a perfect way to get show info; HOWEVER, there is one kind of invite that becomes REALLY tiresome: Invites to shows that are nowhere near me..."

Posted: Mar 30, 2015

Category: Merch

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**Guest post written by Ari Herstand. It originally appeared on Ari's Take.

Posted: Mar 23, 2015

Category: Live Performance

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**Guest post written by Paula Tolly, one half of the Boca Raton based Americana duo 33 Years.

"My band recently did a gig where, just after the first song, a note was delivered onto the stage...“Turn it down a few notches, please.” Really? It’s Saturday night and this is only the FIRST song. (sigh) So I ask you, ‘what would you do?’ At first, this seems like a pretty easy question, right. But think - there you are in your first set and how do you really want to deal with this negative feedback?"

Posted: Mar 16, 2015

Category: Copyright

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**Guest post written by Yannick Illunga of The Jazz Spotlight, as featured on The Jazz Spotlight.

Posted: Mar 9, 2015

Category: Online Presence

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**Guest post written by Wade Sutton of Rocket to the Stars.

"The problem is a vast majority of biographies on websites are written by either the artist or the individual hired to construct the website. And when you take into consideration that the best web bios are the ones that combine elements of both journalism and marketing, well, you can see why problems arise...So what can you do to make YOUR biography better should you choose to attempt to write it on your own?"

Posted: Mar 3, 2015

Category: Online Presence

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**Guest Post from Dave Cool, from Bandzoogle.com.

Posted: Feb 23, 2015

Category: Sponsorship

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**Guest post written by Anelka Argiro, VP of Brand Partnerships for Wind Up Records.

A good song just isn't enough [to break through the clutter] these days...Enter your new best friend -- brand partnerships.

Posted: Feb 17, 2015

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by Joy Ike, creator of Grassrootsy.com and Independent Musician, as featured on Grassrootsy.com.

"QUESTION: My name is Jefrey, writing from NYC...Just wanted to ask a quick question - do you consistently see results with the direct to fan marketing with getting emails-for-mp3’s via a squeeze page?"

Posted: Feb 9, 2015

Category: Career Goals

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**Guest post from the DIY Musician Blog.

"Jerry Seinfeld is arguably one of the most successful comedians of our time...So how did he do it? The answer is actually much simpler than you may think and it’s a proven method to helping you effectively smash any goal you set for 2015."

Posted: Feb 2, 2015

Category: Promotion

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**Guest post written by Phil Johnson, as featured in his blog, Big Whiz Bang!

This is the continuation of last week's post "33 Gig Promotion Strategies (And Which Ones Actually Work!) - Part 1", but rather than focusing on Offline Promotion, Phil talks about his online promotional efforts and their successes/failures.