September 22, 2008
Dancing with the Stars Must Die
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This show originates at www.musicianscooler.com
Dancing with the Stars is Going to Make Me Gauge My Eyes Out
I was at a club this weekend and the band was playing some old 60’s tunes. They launch into Journey to the Center of your mind by Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, and a couple gets up to do their “Cross Country Ballrom Dancing” routine. This included lots of posing, and (of course) a dip at the end. This has to stop.
Cool MySpace Widget
I was over at www.jimmiebratcher.com when I was he was using some social networking widget called “Gydget.”
You can find it at http://www.gydget.com/home/bands This seems to really boost alot of intereactivity at myspace and facebook, etc. You can sell tickets, ringtones, music and more while you add “top fans” to your widget. From what I’ve seen it’s free.
Cover Band Tips
I saw a band this weekend called Cosmic Candy. They were really talented and did a great job of paying attention to their fans (as in playing requests immediately when people request them). They also took the song “Funky Town” and made it their own. On the other hand their website promotes their myspace page (www.myspace.com/thecosmiccandyband ) their website is www.cosmiccandy.org I went over there and found it odd that there was no “about the band” that says:
1. Who they are
2. Who they sound like
3. Who is in the band
Remember if someone is looking for a member of the band it won’t work if they are not listed on their website.
Also, if you list where you are playing (and you SHOULD), put the club’s address. This way people can use sites like mapquest, and google maps and get directions. Make it easy for your fans to find you. The other thing I noticed is there was no contact name on the business card (I realize this means anyone can pass out cards). Business cards are cheap if someone quits and you have to make new cards, its not going to kill you (and you can use those in the event you run out).
Survey Question: Cover bands, Are there songs you thought were going to go over (and didn’t) and songs you thought might lay an egg and instead went over like gangbusters.
Let me know 888-563-3228 (or email me at musicianscooler “at” gmail “dot” com)
Matthew Ebel Launches Membership Site
I talked about this in a previous episode that one way musicians can make money is by having a “Fan site.” Matthew Ebel is doing this exact thing with memberships starting at $5 a month going up to $15 a month. You can read about all the bonus material he will be giving away at www.matthewebel.net I believe he is using the Amember membership script to pull this off. Amember is around $179 for the script. If you interested in membership scripts check out this list of membership sites at Weekly Web Tools
Tunecore Get Your Music Into iTunes
It appears Tunecore.com now has a deal with guitar center that gets your music into iTunes (you keep all the royalties). Thanks to Marcus Couch of the The Scene Zine Hard Rock Podcast.
Music “Green Bananas” from the news album “Electric Rev” courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network
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Filed under PODCAST by Dave Jackson
Comments on Dancing with the Stars Must Die »
Thanks for the article. As a guitarist and musician I’ve never been into being a ’starving artist’ whether it be playing on the street for change, playing gigs at insane hours for ‘beer money’ or selling a few cds. There are lots of people who think music should be free. If that’s the case you need to make money on the ‘experience’ whether that be shows (hard to make money unless you’re really popular) or selling ‘access’ to your knowledge/skills. Musicians who don’t want to teach could do it to get access to ‘behind the scenes’ material.
In my case I started a membership site to teach guitar online that has 3 membership levels. One for access to the courses (currently four) with video lessons and access to the forums, one level that allow members to submit videos of themselves and get feedback, and the highest for access to live monthly video webinars. I use Extreme Member (aff) which is based on wordpress.
I originally looked at using moodle, amember, affiliate pro, vbulletin and aweber but extreme member has all of that and it’s better integrated.
Hey there! Thanks so much for telling people about my new subscription service! Yes, I’m definitely using AMember. It’s got a lot of rough edges, but it’s working for me so far. I could still use someone with programming skills to fix some parts of it, but it wasn’t that hard to set this site up.
Thanks again, Dave, I really appreciate the feature!
Pax,
Matthew
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http://matthewebel.com
http://matthewebel.net
Leave DWTS alone. It’s a great show! I wish you the best of luck in recovering your gouged out eyes, because it’s not going anywhere! How can you hate Derek and Karina???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkaTp1UIVE0