May 12, 2008

Technical Skills for the Modern Musician

This show originates at http://www.musicianscooler.com

As I play with more and more musicians I’m surprised at how many don’t have ANY knowledge of some of the "Technical" stuff that you can use to marketing your music. Today I talk about making an mp3 from a CD. When you’re music is in MP3 format you can email a song to people. Here is an example:

Typically you would give everyone a CD at practice, and maybe spend some time listening to the CD. Why not turn the CD into MP3’s and email the songs ahead of time to the band members. Then people can decide if they like the song or not. This means instead of making practice a "listening party" it now turns into a productive time or put the songs together that you learned at home.

However to do this you need to know how to take a CD and "turn" it into an mp3. To do this we will use iTunes. Why iTunes? This program is free and it works on both a Mac and a PC. Here are some steps:

CREATING AN MP3 IN iTUNES
Click on the Edit menu and choose Preferences
Click on the Advanced tab.
Click on the General tab and you will see where this file will be saved. This is important if you are going to email it to someone. You need to know where to find it on your computer (so take note).
Click on the Importing tab
Choose the option for MP3 encoding at 128 Kbps.
Click on OK.

When you put in your CD, it won’t recognize your music (but it would recognize someone on a major label). When it appears it will show as "Audio CD." RIGHT CLICK on the Audio CD and choose Get Info.
Enter your name, the title of the CD, the genre and year. Now iTunes has information about the CD but not the tracks.
Click on your first track, and then RIGHT CLICK and choose Get Info. Here you can enter the name of track 1. Click the NEXT button to move to the next song (where you would enter the name of the song). Repeat until you’re done with all the tracks. That’s it. Now your music is in a digital format. You can email to people, or you can burn just certain tracks to a CD.

FROM THE GROUP
EMUSIC PROMOTION - GET MY BOOK FOR FREE
If you go to www.emusic.com/musicnews and sign up, then send me a screen shot of your account at emusic, I will send you a copy of my book "Get your band out of the basement and keep them out of the asylum" (available at www.musicianlibrary.com
 

FREE TAB PROGRAM
Dallas Millward writes, "Love the show, been listening since show 183… and have downloaded all the old shows" and says we might want to check out http://www.power-tab.net/guitar.php as its FREE.  This is in regards to last week’s show about putting out sheet music, and other ways to make money.

20 Things That Bars Do
Simon Windisch http://shedmusicuk.com told us about this hillarious post 20 Things that Venues do at http://acapella.harmony-central.com/archive/index.php/t-1634374.html

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May 5, 2008

Another Way to Make Money With Your Music

This show originates at www.musicianscooler.com

Sponsors: Get your own .com domain name for $6.95 a year using Godaddy Promotional Code "cooler3" also try cooler1, and cooler2 on other great services from www.godaddy.com

GET DAVE’S BOOK FOR FREE.
Go to www.emusic.com/musicnews and send Dave the confirmation email. He will send you a link to his book Get Your Band Out of the Basement - and Keep them out of the asylum. (Available at www.musicianlibrary.com )

MATTHEW EBEL HOUSE CONCERT - AT MY HOUSE
See Matthew Ebel at "My House" for $10 on May 16th. BUY YOUR TICKETS
Buy Matthew’s new album "Goodbye Planet Earth. "

FROM THE GROUP
Les from http://detroit.insomniaradio.net and http://www.zaldor.com enjoyed the Shannon Curfman interview in last week’s episode. Check out his Flickr photos

Kevin from www.kevindoucet.com points out how cool Beau Hall had a glitch on his site. Beu said to take his music for free. See how Beau is giving it away for free at http://www.beaurocks.com/beau2

BRIAN STEPHENS RUTURNS! - THE MUSIC PRO SHOW IS BACK ON THE AIR
Check out Brian’s great Podcasts The Music Pro Show and Brian Stephens TV. Everything (along with his book) is at www.brianstephens.com

TALES FROM THE ROAD "Pop Tart Napalm"
A fun story of Accidental Vanilli and pop tarts from Hell courtesy of Jeff Martinez of www.myspace.com/jeffmartinezbassist and www.BornInWinter.com

TIP SHEET UPDATE from Paul at www.mesasand.com
My Next Hit is gone, but Paul points out that you can get this service from Broadjam using the Primo Mob service and their "Transmit: service. Check it out at broadjam.com

MAKING MONEY WITH YOUR MUSIC BY SELLING SHEET MUSIC
Pete Huttlinger is selling tabs of his music on his site. This makes sense as guitar players want to know how Pete is pulling of his phenomenal playing. I looked into this and there are a few programs that make it easy to convert your music to "tab" or sheet music. This was inspired by www.petehutlinger.com who is a mind boggling musician

Guitar Pro 5 $49 Geared towards a guitarist, but also prints out a "Standard" staff.

Finale PrintMusic 2007 ($69)

MakeMusic! Finale PrintMusic 2008 Music Notation Software ($79)

Then you could use a free program at www.primopdf.com that allows you to make anything into a pdf and sell it to your musician fans. This would work for Christian artist (so an artist might cover your song in church), if you have songs for children a school or day care may buy it so the children can sign it

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April 28, 2008

Shannon Curfman - Music Vs Music Business

This show originates at www.musicianscooler.com

Sponsors: Get your own .com domain name at www.godaddy.com by using the promotional code "cooler3"

This week we interview Shannon Curfman

SHANNON CURFMAN
shannon_curfman.png
She had a major label deal by the age of 14. The label try to take this bluesy, soulful rocker and turn her into Britney Spears. Well Shannon would have none of that.

The experience left her leaving the music business for a short period, but now she’s back and better than ever and on her own label (and loving it).

I found Shannon’s new album at emusic.com where you can get 35 free songs for signing up for a free trial. If you don’t like it, you can cancel and keep the songs. Best of all, the songs are DRM free so you can burn them to a CD or throw them on an ipod (or other mp3 player) with NO RESTRICTIONS. Go to

www.emusic.com/musicnews

For more information about Shannon go to

www.shannoncurfman.com
www.myspace.com/shannoncurfman
www.myspace.com/shannongcurfmanrocks
Shannon on YouTube

 

Shannon Curfman - Big Guitar Loud Suspicions 

Shannon Curfman - Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions

Shannong Curfman - Fast Lane Addiction

Shannon Curfman - Fast Lane Addiction

Music - "Another" from the Album "Fast Lane Addiction" (get this album with your 35 free songs at www.emusic.com/musicnews )

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April 21, 2008

Driving Traffic To Your Band’s Website

This show originates at www.musicianscooler.com a site featuring free Music Marketing tips. This is show #193.

Sponsors: Get your own .com domain name using the Godaddy promotional code " cooler3 " at www.godaddy.com

Today we are talking about some very easy ways to drive some traffic to your website

EASY WAYS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BAND’S WEBSITE
In my book Get Your Band Out of the Basement (and keep them out of the asylum) I mention how putting pictures of our fans on our website (RELIGIOUSLY) TRIPPLED our website traffic. People knew that if I took their picture it would appear on our website the next day.

Be sure to have your website address in your signature. As this is the last thing in your email, it gets more clicks than many of the items in the middle of your email.

Also why not use your expertise of (insert your instrument) at answers.yahoo.com (and be sure to have your website address in your signature).

Another "answer" based website is www.fluther.com Why not go answer some questions about your instrument (for example guitar).

If you are looking for message boards where you can find your target listeners check out http://www.boardtracker.com/

FROM THE GROUP
mio_c230.jpg

Dave King gives us a review of the Mio C230, and says he’s used a Garmin, and except for the voice being more like a computer, he really liked it and it’s only $126! 

 

TALES FROM THE ROAD
Marc Gunn
of www.marcgunn.com and www.bardscrier.com tells us a story of bloody noses,  (not once but TWICE).

Other Sites Mentioned
Get 35 Free MP3s at www.emusic.com/emusic totally DRM free, burn them, throw them on your ipod.
Weekly Web Tools Podcast www.weeklywebtools.com
Marc Gunn on the Cooler Episode #62 (Niche Marketing) and Episode #63 (Pricing Your CD).

MUSIC
Kitty Martin
from the soon to be released "Whiskers from the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers" available at www.catdrinkingsongs.com 

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April 14, 2008

Who Wants Exposure?

I have been working with the people at www.podcampohio.com and when I went to make a promo, I noticed that nobody had written any songs about Podcamps. These are FREE conventions that teach people how to podcast all over the world. Its a great networking resource for podcasters. I’m surprised nobody has written a "generic" Podcamp theme. Then you could take that theme and customize it for each podcamp.

For a list of all the podcamps and their schedules see www.podcamp.org

Realize this is like a "Program Directors" meetup. Why not make a great impression with Podcasters by taking some time to write a quick theme. This may be the ice then introduces you to them, and then you can show them your OTHER music.

Paul from www.mesasand.com talks about www.mynexthit.com (free pitching service) make its eay to pitch your songs, and there isn’t much of a lead system. Hit online version is the professional version of mynexthitonline.com  www.myhitonline.com there are different fees based on membership from 60-700.

NEW MUSIC BUSINESS BLOG
www.musicthinktank.com Has some of the biggest names in music combining on the same blog. COOL!

MUSIC
Burned from RedFX from the Podsafe Music Network at music.podshow.com find the band at www.redfxmusic.com

SUPPORT THIS SHOW
Subscribe to the Show in iTunes at www.musicianscooler.com/itunes

Buy Dave’s Book "Get Your Band Out of the Basement and Keep Them Out of the Asylum" available at www.musicianlibrary.com

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April 7, 2008

The No Fluff Episode

This show originates from www.musicianscooler.com and is brought to you by Godaddy.com where you can use a promotional code " cooler3 " and get .com domain name for $6.95 a year. Also get 35 free songs at www.emusic.com/musicnews (even works with an iPod !)

Todays show is the shortest musicians cooler podcast ever. I had a very long and hard weekend. Instead of finding some "filler" I just produced a quick 10 minutes podcast featuring more tips from Paul Bordenkircher from www.mesasand.com who gives a review of Row Fax 

I also talk about how my first experience with a GPS unit was just awesome. If you are touring or branching out into cities that you are unfamiliar with, then you need one of these units. The costs have come down now as newer (more featured) versions come out. The one I was using my brother picked up for about $180 bucks. While not cheap, the time and hassle it saved was huge. These are getting cheaper and cheaper (around 150 bucks at amazon.com

SUPPORT THIS SHOW

Dave’s Book "Get Your band out of the Basement and keep them out of the asylum" available at www.musicianlibrary.com

Subscribe and write of a review of the Musicians Cooler podcast at www.musicianscooler.com/itunes

Need to go shopping, start at www.supportthisshow.com

 

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April 1, 2008

Making Your Own Opportunities

This show originates at www.musicianscooler.com and is sponsored by Godaddy where you can use the Godaddy promotional code cooler3 to get your own .com domain name for $6.95 a year.

Today we talk with Matthew Fogle who has strung together a tour of Laundromats. He said it wasn’t an easy sell because it thinking "outside the box." He has performed two of these and he seems to think things are going well. They do not pay, and all the pay is from CD sales and tips. For more information about Matthew go to www.matthewfoglemusic.com and www.mfotb.com for information about his CD.

Think about this. He has an audience that CAN’T LEAVE. You will have a true opportunity to bond with the audience in an intimate area, and hopefully have that translate into CD sales. The tour will cover 17 dates and 6 states. It took persistence as many of the owners of the Laundromats were not actually at the Laundromat and he had to repeated chase them down. However, when he got in contact with some of them, they loved the idea.

I think if he put up flyers enough in advance you may have people scheduling their laundry day when they knew that they wouldn’t have to sit there and watch reruns of Judge Judy. He has only done two of these gigs but will let us know how it goes when he’s finished.

As for gear, he’s just brining in a powered speaker. He doesn’t need much. In some cases he can get away with just him and a guitar. He says he just wants the CD out there, so he is selling them for $5 (where some people sell them for 10 or $15).

Music
Until I See the Sun by Matthew Fogle for more information go to www.mfotb.com

Business Car Tip
Howard from www.hotcards.com let me know how musicians are getting business designed to just give free downloads away. While many musicians will use their business cards are the traditional contact tool. According to Howard, more and more people are using both sides of the business card. One is used for "free stuff" and the front is used for the traditional contact information. You can get 1000 full color business cards for 60 bucks.

Looking to fill up your ipod? Check out www.emusic.com/musicnews and get 35 songs for free. Try the service for 14 days, if you don’t like it you can cancel and keep the songs.

We have a quick preview of the Music News Podcast (www.musicnewspodcast.net ) which is a podcast about the Morons in the Music Business.

SUPPORT THIS SHOW
Get Dave’s Book Get your band out of the basement - and keep them out of the asylum available at www.musicianlibrary.com

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March 23, 2008

Maybe Its Your Attitude…

You may know David Hooper from his blog at http://www.musicmarketing.com/, or his podcast at www.musicbusinessradio.com but today I’ve brough him on the show to talk about your attitude. Dave is out of Nashville and he has dealt with many musicians through his business ventures and he has found that many of the successful musicians share the same attitude. It turns out that they share many of the traits of the "Law of Attraction" and what many people are now calling "The Secret."

askbelievereceive.jpgDave has written a number of books on the Law of Attraction including Law of Attraction - How to Attract Money, Love, and Happiness, Law of Attraction Workbook - A 6-Step Plan to Attract Money, Love, and Happiness
 The Great Secret of Gratitude: Why Being Grateful Will Change Your Life,

and his newest book Ask, Believe, Receive - 7 Days to Increased Wealth, Better Relationships, and a Life You Love

If you are new to the law of attraction then Dave’s books are quick and to the point, and an easy read (and easy on the wallet as you can pick up some of these titles used for $7).

We also get another installment from Paul Bordenkircher at www.mesasand.com on tip sheets and submitting your music for consideration in movies, radio, commercials, management, and more.

Thanks for listening, and you can sign up for additional information in our newsletter at www.musicianscooler.com

Next week I will be releasing my own book on the the Law of Attraction.


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