Music Revolution 2010 "Fight's commenced! Get to fightin' or get away!" - Wyatt Earp

Hey all you music revolutionaries, this is your call to action. I’ve been telling you since January that this is our year to shine; the year we will take control of the music world and claim what is ours. It’s time to step up to the plate and make things happen so now it’s time to get organized. So, here’s the plan and your mission, should you choose to accept it. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments section as well because I want to know you are all in this with me.

Mission One: We need to band together.

As the new face of music, it is absolutely necessary that we present a solid front to the world. We are independent musicians, recording artists, labels and record stores. We are the new music industry. As such, we need to start acting like a team. Let’s see some collaborative efforts to get some new music out there and in front of the fans.

To do this, build a network of other music revolutionaries and start helping each other. I know at least a dozen readers on this blog who are struggling to get noticed. Guys. cooperate. If you read a comment that you like on here, don’t be afraid to speak up and say ” Hey, I like the way you think. Want to exchange back links to our websites?”

Most of the folks on here are still working their way up the ladder and they want to spread the word about their band just as bad as you do. Now if band A is popular in their home town and band B is popular in their home town, that’s about as far as they each get. But if each of them posts the link for the other on their site, they have each reached a new town. As the phrase goes, rinse and repeat. Your music could quickly spread around the world.

Another part of working together is showing the support for each others projects. A few posts back, I told you all about Kickstarter.com and the post received an awesome response. Many of you said you were going to give the service a try. Now is the time for the rest of us to support you and get our own projects going as well. If you have a project going, be sure to tell us in the comments section so we can show you our support and remember to return the favor when our turn comes up. Even if you can’t financially afford to contribute to each and every project posted, showing support by sharing the links with other people is still helping. Do your part.

Other ways we can support each other include sharing studio time and equipment to save everyone a little money. If you have an invitation to perform and you can’t fit it into your schedule, offer it to a fellow indie musician. Did you get invited to perform at an indie concert along with another band from your area but neither of you can afford the trip, travel together and split the expenses. Working together is the key to making the wheels of Music Revolution 2010 turn.

Okay, now that we are helping each other, let’s not forget the folks that have helped us. The independent recording labels and record stores need to be part of the collaboration as well. Without these guys, many indie acts wouldn’t have ever got much notice. If you are working with a good indie label that has given you a fair chance, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. Stick with them and make sure they are successful as well. Did an indie record store by your whole first press of your first album? Show them that independent artists remember their friends and go back to them with the second album.

We may be independent but we all still need to be able to rely on each other if we are going to take the control of the music world away from the big boy commercial recording industry. Commercial record labels are dying. Just about every week, we read of a new victim. Don’t let it start happening to your favorite indie labels and record stores.

Okay, you have your first mission. It’s time for action. Like the quote from Wyatt Earp in the movie, Tombstone, “Fight’s commenced! Get to fightin’ or get away!”, we can’t stay sitting on the sidelines any longer.

If we choose to accept the need to band together and do what we have to do, we can make progress in our fight to make independent music the new face of the music world. What will you do now? Are you ready for the revolution? Leave a comment here and let us all know who you are and what you want to see happen this year.

Okay folks, in today’s post, we are going to take things a little different direction. Over the past few posts, we discussed plans for promoting your music and getting a recording contract. In this post, I want to discuss something you might find a little odd… the question of whether or not you actually need a label.

We all know the long standing Mecca of the music world has been the recording contract. In the world of music, getting the contract signed on the dotted line has been seen as the epitome of success. When a recording label signs an artist, most of us would concede that the recording artist has been successful. I’m not questioning that.

What I want to put up as a question is do you really need to be signed by a recording label to be a success in the world of music? A decade ago, the answer would have been an obvious yes but with the new order of music, times are beginning to change. The shift of the music worlds axis to the digital realm is opening new doors for today’s recording artists. This apocalyptic change is making it easier than ever for the new recording artist to get their big break in the music world.

With the invention of the digital download and home recording studios, the need for a recording label is diminishing. As an independent recording artist, you can now record, produce and sell your music from the comfort of your home studio. This advance means you may not need to have a recording label contract to be successful as a musician.

The various avenues for music success sans label include selling your music directly to your fans from your home recording studio and indie record store, online digital download sales, direct sales to media industries like film and television, sales to the video game industry and many other creative ideas for getting your music in front of the public. With a bit of talent, some shameless self promotion and some know how, the unknown musician can be the next big thing in a relatively short period of time.

　
As indie music has risen to popularity and begins to overthrow the traditional music industry, I predict we will see a lot more bands rise to fame without the extra baggage of a traditional record label. In my opinion, this is a wonderful thing because it eliminates a lot of the things that are problems in the music world right now. For instance, a band that decides to pioneer their own sound and style without being signed by a label will have a much longer rope when it comes to creativity and new developments in music. Traditional labels are notorious for censorship and molding bands to meet their professional image for the sake of marketing. Without these constraints, we may see some truly unique sounds start to develop over the next few years.

Another thing this shift in the power may allow is a better way to meet our fans needs. With the RIAA breathing down peoples necks about file sharing and piracy at the beck and call of the traditional recording labels, a lot of fans are getting turned off by the music industry. When an indie label or no label band makes the scene and says “Hey guys. Go ahead and download our latest album. It’s cool.”, the fans start to see that the indie music world functions differently. That means more fans for us as the big boy music industries are locking their doors and boarding up the windows. I’m all for that idea folks and I am telling you, this is the way we are going to get there.

　
What do you think? We’re all in this together so I need to know what you think when I throw these ideas out there. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Maybe you just don’t care about this topic and want me to write about something else? Let me know by leaving a comment, PLEASE. It’s important for the team at MusicBizCenter.com to know what you want to learn or read about so, please, show us the love and leave a comment here.

As we discussed in the last post, my conversation with Larry the other day about his interview with Magdalen Graal and her online promotion leading to 10,000 downloads in a single month motivated me to work on finding things to help us all build a bigger online presence so more of us could see that kind of success. In the last post, we discussed using social media to do this but you can’t just stop with social media. In this post, I’m going to share why you need a band website to give you online and real world credibility as a musician. I’m also going to tell you about some special things we at MusicBizCenter.com have arranged for our readers to help you along. As always, if you have something to say, a promotion idea that works or a question, please be sure to leave a comment here because we want to know what you think.

Ok, we all know we need to have an online presence. We have joined every social media site and social network from Facebook to YouTube. Our Twitter account is humming along with 20,000 followers and our MySpace account is proudly screaming to the world that we are musicians. What next? You need a band website. Why? Several reasons actually.

One of the biggest reasons you need a band website is credibility. You wouldn’t buy a gold watch from the guy standing on the corner or a VCR out of the back of a pick up truck. Why? Because without a storefront of some kind, these characters don’t have any credibility. They may be perfectly honest individuals trying to sell you a perfectly legal product but without that credibility, your street smarts kick in and you say “Hey, something’s not right with this picture.” Your instinct tells you if it doesn’t look like a business, there is something you can’t trust in the deal. Guess what? Music fans around the world are people just like you and I. They have seen scams and cons. They know that the hot girl in the picture on a MySpace profile probably isn’t the girl they are talking to and she might even be a man. They have earned their street smarts too. If you don’t provide credibility to your band, then you have condemned it to failure.

Even with all the fakes and cons on the Internet, people still have a few things they trust. One of those things is the real website. If you have a band website that says thisismyband.com , that .com at the end of your name give you some credibility on the web. When linked to your online profiles in the social media and social networking sites, it gives them a little more credibility too. Free websites are great but they are like a social media site profile. Everyone can get one and they aren’t really believable. As a band, you are trying to create a business, trying to sell your music. Investing a few dollars to create a real website give your band the edge that can make your band appear more like a business and give you the credibility your fans are looking for. From your website, you can make new connections in the music world, sell CD’s and merchandise and find new fans. I’m saying it again folks… YOU NEED A BAND WEBSITE!

So what do we need on our band websites? Well, obviously, we need music. After all, that’s why we have fans. Downloads or streaming, the music needs to be available for your fans and prospective fans to enjoy. Video is also great. Did someone capture your last performance on their digital camcorder? Upload it to your site and share it with your fans and those who might be thinking about checking out your next show could turn into attendees really fast.

Pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words… It’s also worth a lot of traffic. Your websites will flourish if you keep plenty of eye candy on hand for your visitors. People love to see the pictures of the bands they listen too. It provides a sense of connection. The band is no longer some disembodied voice pumping through the speakers but it has a face. That face also adds to your credibility.

Contact information is also important. When your site is up and running, you will find you start seeing your name appear in places you never dreamed of. That’s because the Internet is a global tool. It is everywhere. You may find CD requests and offers of gigs start rolling in from all sorts of places. That’s why you need your contact information on the page. If they don’t know how to find you, they can’t buy your merchandise or invite you to be the main band at their local fair. If you build it, they will come. If you don’t put your contact information in there, you will never know they were there.

Okay, are you psyched up now? You know you want to be a success in the music world. You know you need a band website. But wait, how do I get that website? I’m a musician, not a tech geek.

Well, here at MusicBizCenter.com, we understood a lot of you might feel that way so we worked out a deal with some tech geeks we know. Over at OpenDoorOnTheNet.com , they have a web hosting server. We talked with them and said, “Hey guys, we got a bunch of great readers who are trying to be a success in the music world and need some online promotion. Can you help us out?” So they mulled it over and came back with a few ideas. First, they have some new web hosting specials, specifically for our readers, called MusicBizCenter Special #1 and MusicBizCenter Special #2, where you can get your band website hosted today for as low as $5 a month. Then, they said “Hey, do you think they might need some help building their sites?” and we were quick to say yes because we’re not tech geeks either. So they let us know that they have a team on hand to help you design and build your websites at a very low cost as well. Just email their support team and tell them you heard about it here and they will be in contact to help you create the band website you want and need.

You’re on your way. I can see there will be many of you for Larry to interview about your 10,000 download months soon. Let’s make sure he’s so busy he has to raise the number to 20,000.

P.S. Hey Guys, You know we love bringing you useful information about the subjects you want to know about but we’re not mind readers. If you could take the time to leave us a comment, it would be greatly appreciated. Peace, Mike