Indie Music Adventures

My band has never really been good at working the tip jar.  I don’t know if it’s just that we’re too lazy, or too unorganized or what, but this article by Scott Andrew is a great outline for making the tip jar work for you.

Ever asked yourself this question?  Here’s a great article online that goes into thatexact answer.  Find out the truths and the myths here.  Warning, this is a long article with a lot of detail.  Here’s a little snippet:

The point is this: regardless of how wonderful a talent your are, the commissions you pay a booking [...]

Producer Steve Albini, famous for his work with bands like Nirvana, the Breeders, and Helmet among others, gives us a breakdown of what a major label signing often looks like.  He uses real world money figures to show where the money actually goes in a major label deal.  The interview/article is a little graphic, but [...]

Joe Taylor at Spinme.com has posted a reality check for bands on his blog.  It seems the glory days of music at the forefront of entertainment options is over.  As musicians, we are now competing more with video games, cable TV, and the internet as entertainment sources.  Joe refers to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in saying [...]

Bob Baker recently had a blog featuring some legal resources online for musicans.  As my band gets deeper into the industry, these kinds of resources are invaluable.  I have collected a few more resources that I’d like to add to his list:

Barely Legal Radio - A radio show hosted by 12 year entertainment law veteran [...]

SSL (the famous Solid State Logic company) has released a free VST version of their Listen Mic Compressor for PCs.  It’s receiving high regards from the folks at Cakewalk, and apparently the Mac community has been loving it for a while.  You can get more info and download it here: http://www.solid-state-logic.com/news/lmc1_pc.html
Have fun!

Every day I check the headlines of Reuters Music and liveDaily.com’s music news.  I can’t believe how often they’re announcing tours from “classic” rock bands.  Today, for example, are announcements for Steve Miller, Earth, Wind and Fire, and of course more Rolling Stones news.  There seem to be at least as many of these tours [...]

Joe Taylor from SpinMe.com made note of former O-Town member Ashley Parker Angel’s struggles as documented on MTVs new show There and Back. It’s kind of sad that MTV can build a whole show’s premise on the phenomenon of going to the top in the music industry and crashing back down to be in more [...]

I found an important article on MusicDish.com about making first impressions in the industry. If you’re like us and you’re finally really confident about your songwriting, live show, and promo/demo package and you’re ready to release it to the industry, this article written by John Foxworthy, called “An Introduction to Introductions” is essential reading for [...]

Since computer software based recording has become cheap enough for every indie band to use, I’m sure many unsigned bands are creating their own studios as opposed to paying someone to do the recording for them.
The biggest advantage I find in doing this is that you don’t have any time constraints. You can do retakes [...]