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Today I found a free ebook “How to Become Popular on YouTube without any Talent. I’m about half way done with this book and so far its full of good practical hands on knowledge. You can check out it here
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I just found out about a new FREE resource for musicians called Gig Donkey. Here are some of the features:
I’ve got a video at the bottom of the post. If you try it out come back and let us know what you think of it?
Dave’s Birthday Kindle
Dave turns 45 this month and the old man’s eye sight isn’t what it used to be. Chip in at www.musicianscooler.com/birthday and help him get a kindle (so he can read music business books and share the information right here). Rumor has it there are surprises for those who donate..
Next week I’m turning 45 (2/8/2010). I still feel I’m young at heart, and I want to be that way until I’m too old to change. The bad news is my eyes are not being so kind. I love to read, and a lot of the material for this show comes from books, etc. So this birthday I really want a Kindle, they are kind of pricy, but I heard where the Rock and Roll Geek was sent to England by his audience, so it would be cool if we could get me something I could read. If you can help at all, it would be greatly appreciated.
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If you are trying to find members for your band you can keep visiting sites like Craig’s List, or you can go there once, and subscribe to the site VIA RSS. It’s so cool. this video will show you how.
For more tips an insights into starting a band check ou my book “Get your band out of the basement” at www.musicianlibrary.com If you are new to Craig’s list, you can get going in the right direction with the book Craig’s List Traffic.
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Today we have the return of “multi-link Monday” We are talking
www.artistdata.com is a great tool that allows you to put your schedule in one place and have it posted all over the Internet like myspace, facebook, sonicbids, fanbridge, and more. Check it out at www.artistdata.com (free with a more advance version for a small free).
www.musformation.com is a website that is basically 11 websites crammed into one site. It’s update aroudn 20 times a day. If you want recording tips, marketing tips, music news, its all there.
www.bandmetrics.com is a great tool to see how much people are talking about you on the Internet
musicscout.com is NOT a great site. when I tried it on my droid phone, I get an error. Great first impression.
Music “one two three” by Artificial Intelligence in Texas
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You might remember Fantasy Island. Every week you would hear “Smiles everyone smiles.” Well I started the new year with Buddy Guy at the House of Blues in Cleveland (front row). Buddy is 72 years old (ish) and has won 5 grammys, and is in the rock and roll hall of fame. He has inspired Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan to name just a few. I had never seen him before.
He blew me away. One of the best thing about Buddy and his band is the SMILE on stage. They have FUN. That fun and smiles spills into the audience and that feeds the band.
I also talk about how I quit the band I just joined, and some tips on planning 2010.
Music: Someone Else is Slippin in By Buddy Guy from Buddy’s Baddest Great Hits Collection
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When it comes to starting a band, you need to have a clear picture for those people you are recruiting. With this in mind, you should be able to explain the style of music you want to play. You should have at leas t 10 songs selected that you want to play. This way people can clearly see the style of music you want to play.
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It’s Thanksgiving and people are now in the mindset to buy stuff. People call tomorrow “Black Friday” and its one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Stores have crazy sales, and people line up at 3 in the morning to get in. It’s crazy.
You can do the same thing. I wrote about this in a previous blog post
Two Artist that are thinking outside the box are Anne Roos who is a celtic Harpist and author of the book “The Musician’s Guide to Brides” (great book by the way). She loves E-cards. She happen to notice that one ecard company uses instrumental music. She contacted them about using her music. They liked her music so much they have hired her to do some exclusive music for their cards.
John Solitro who is a solo guitarist/vocalist who just got paid a NICE amount of cash to play a YOGA session. He played an hour and walked out with a wallet full.
He was also looking for ways to make his press kit stand out. Well most people come up with a “one size fits all” press kit to hand out to bookers and club owners. If you’re just playing locally now, you can take your computer and make them personalized. Instead of “To Whom it May concern” start off with the person’s name. Then point out how you checked out their club, and what you liked about it. This shows you have done your homework. You could go to the club and take pictures and work that into the press kit. It shows that you did some homework.
There are more tips about making a press kit in my book “Get Your Band Out of the Basement.” and in the “Black Friday” theme you can get the book for $7.99 now through the end of the month (A savings of $5.00). This applies for both the ebook, or the unabridged audio book (both available for immediate download).
I’ve mentioned in the past, that one of the things you should be trying to do at a gig is to have fun. After all, who doesn’t like fun? There are people who field questions from the crowd. I was in a band that would grab women out of the audience to sing backup on “Leave your hat on.” This became a staple of our show, and women would want to be part of the “choir.” It was a chance to be silly, loose, etc. It was an invitation to have fun.
Sometimes, we’re not sure what to try. To this I say, “It’s time to think outside the box.” This video points out how when people have a choice of “easy vs fun” people will choose fun.
Everything is going to the phone in the future. I think a phone number for texting is just as important if not more important than an email address (I never delete a text message before reading it – not so much for e-mail).
With this in mind, you don’t have to pay some programmer a ton of cash to have your own iPhone application for your band. A company called Mobbase makes it easy and affordable. It’s free to set up. You don’t even have to enter a credit card number until you’ve designed your app and decided that you want to launch it for your fans. Then it’s 20 bucks to launch and $15 a month.
So what can you do with an iPhone app for your band? You can keep your schedule (along with directions) in their face, your music, add a store to sell your stuff, keep a blog, send your youtube clips right to their phone and more.
MobBase app is highly customizable and can have your unique image, look, and feel — you pick and choose the content you offer to fans, arrange the features however you like, upload background and button images, and select color themes. And, because MobBase is built on an advanced content management system, it’s easy to add, manage and update content and design in real-time, whenever the mood strikes.
For more information and to start making your app, click here (www.mobbase.com )
MobBase app is highly customizable and can have your unique image, look, and feel — you pick and choose the content you offer to fans, arrange the features however you like, upload background and button images, and select color themes. And, because MobBase is built on an advanced content management system, it’s easy to add, manage and update content and design in real-time, whenever the mood strikes.
For more information and to start making your app, click here www.mobbase.com
