Tagged: diy

Caught the end of these guys the other week when they supported Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Finally got round to tracking them down and man, they do kill. Pop Singles kinda sound like Geoffrey O'Connor and classic local stuff like Go Betweens. They are great song writers - quite intricate at times, but, in [...]

This guest post is by Bob Baker and Kendra Wright of www.TheBuzzFactor.com Every artist should be using online video as part of their promotional toolkit. That means you must set up a YouTube account (also known as a "channel") if you haven't done so already. And once in place, your channel must feature new videos on a regular basis. Why? Because video allows you to connect with fans and potential fans in ways that other forms of media can't [...]

CD Baby artists released 61,339 new albums (34,379 digtal only) and were paid $41.7 million for both new and catalog titles in 2011. Much like the broader music industry, iTune's accounted for a whopping 77.4% of all digital sales and CD sales continued to slide. INFOGRAPHIC: click on image to enlarge

PledgeMusic is a unique web service for indie musicians and labels that, in my opinion, faces a bit of an identity crisis. When I recently spoke with founder Benji Rogers , he maintained that they are not a fan funding company, though most musicians perceive them as one. I am sympathetic. Yet given that fan funding is a key tool in PledgeMusic's album campaigns , the problem is not in being mislabeled; but rather that there isn't an easy label that encompasses all that they actually offer. [...]

OneSheet has added an iTunes sales widget to the options available to users of its musician and entertainment web site creation tool. Founder Brenden Mulligan also announced major additions to the company's management team including veterans of Digg, Columbia Records, RootMusic, MySpace, Warner/Chappell and Groupon. Onnesheet 's key exectuive appoints and their biographies. David Andreone - Industry Relations Anderone most recently served as GM of MySpace Records, where he worked in tandem with label partners Interscope and [...]

Hypebot readers know Zoe Keating for her outspoken views on Spotify . But her 1.3 million fans on Twitter are much more interested in the avant cellist's latest creations. Before Keating left for Midem and her role as artist ambassador, we traded emails that offer a look inside her d.i.y career. In the beginning was d.i.y. a choice, or were labels interested? When I first started out solo, I gigged around San Francisco [...]

Guest post by Brian Thompson of Thorny Bleeder . I was browsing the music thread on Reddit and stumbled upon Drew Smith , an independent artist from Hamilton, Ontario. What caught my eye was the following headline, which had me incredibly intrigued: "So my brother outsourced his new music video to Bangalore, India. This is what he got back." Was I intrigued? Big time. [...]

With the realization setting in that stopping SOPA was just the beginning rather than the end of an ongoing struggle, calls are being raised to take proactive rather than reactive responses to such legislation. Rip. Mix. Make. is a creative campaign supporting fair use of creative work in remix videos that represents one proactive approach to issues of copyright. The campaign calls for comments to the Copyright Office regarding creative exemptions to the Digital Rights Management provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright [...]

The Pareto Principle , more commonly also known as the 80–20 rule , states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In business for example, 80% of a company's profits tend to come from 20% of their customers, 80% of sales are made by 20% of the sales staff, and so on. For today's music artist, this rule of thumb applies in a more indirect way in regards to how they should properly communicate with their audience. If you're only using your social media assets [...]

A lot of elements go into a successful Kickstarter campaign. Spanish Prisoners combine a unique request, funding the purchase of a low-budget tour van, with unique offerings, songs recorded in the van along with other goodies from their upcoming trip to SXSW . Of course, the music needs to appeal to listeners and the pitch video needs to communicate effectively. You'll have to decide for yourself but I think Spanish Prisoners have put together a campaign that has a solid chance of success though they've only reached about $2000 of their $5000 goal. [...]

The Civil Wars , with Grammy nominations in Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album , are an indie success story built on live performance, social media and music licensing. The February debut of their first album, Barton Hollow , gave them a #1 on Billboard's Digital Albums chart and the CD is currently #73 on Amazon's Top 100 in Music a year later. But even without the Grammy nomination, which obviously boosted album sales, The Civil Wars show you can do well by combining what are now well-established approaches to marketing and revenue generation. [...]

Like whatever a blackwitchmoth is and might suggest, we're pretty sure that once "Lovecraft" finds its simple and straightforward diy groove, you're latched on this new swag for the next 2:30. BLACKWITCHMOTH - Lovecraft BLACKWITCHMOTH ( Soundcloud ) Rating 8

A variety of record albums related to the Occupy Movement are set for release including "Occupy This Album " from Music For Occupy with a star-studded list of participants, "Folk the Banks" from the newly formed Occupation Records in London and media claims that Bruce Springsteen's newest work is the voice of the movement though the songs were mostly written before it existed. These releases could bring renewed attention to a movement which has lost much of its early hold on the [...]

In response to yesterday's post " Warner Music Orders YouTube Takedown Of Slow Motion Crochet Video With No Music ", successful d.i.y. artist Zoe Keating shared her own experiences identifying and claiming videos YouTube videos. "I can't actually claim the soundtrack of any video on my own," says Keating "It is only done by the Google bots automatically when a 3rd party uploads a video." "I actually signed up for Content ID to track all the videos that ALREADY have my [...]

A Kickstarter campaign for a documentary about the cassette subculture received a variety of coverage in late 2011 and is now back in the news as they countdown to its last day on Saturday. A variety of blogs are spreading the word that the makers of CASSETTE: A Documentary needs your support to meet their campaign goal of $25,000. If you want to help spread the word about the cassette revival with documentary evidence or just think it sounds like a cool idea, now's your opportunity to help out. [...]

This guest post is by Gavin Castleton , a songwriter and producer from Portland, OR. 1. Promote "Buy Now" links on album pages and next to individual tracks. 2. Allow artists to edit their own profiles. 3. Display links to artists' websites, FB pages, twitter profiles, etc. [...]

TXTBK's CHVяCH XV BяXK3N 7ANGvAG3 and Bummer Bliss radio present: A Guest Mix by BEN TUNDRA of TUNDRA DUBS ALL VINYL ALL PUNK 7pm Pacific / 10pm EST on BUMMER BLISS RADIO http://bummerbit.com/bummerbit -radio-streaming-247/ IRC Chat http://bummerbit.com/622-2/ 102 minute, all vinyl hardcore punk mix airs on Sunday(TONIGHT) JAN 22nd. "I've spent the last several weeks putting

At the time of writing, Enter Shikari are currently no.1 in the UK album charts with their third album, A Flash Flood Of Colour . NUMBER BLEEDIN' 1. That's right, the odds are that come 7pm tonight, Enter Shikari will have just scored their first no.1 record. True, there are still several hours to go before this week's chart results are "official", and yes, the cynics among us have pointed out that January is traditionally a time of such low record sales that the numbers you need to sell in order to [...]

Artist Growth , a sophisticated set of cloud-based artist management tool s that also utilizes specialized apps for mobile devices, has officially launched. Created by Nashville based musicians turned entrepreneurs Matt Urmy and Jonathan Sexton, Artist Growth's proprietary technology integrates finances, calendars, inventory, contacts, social media and mentoring resources within a single cloud-interface. At its core, Artist Growth is a software platform that provides artists with streamlined career management tools that track daily business activities and coordinate projects,all in one place. [...]

After writing about 88tc88 and the potential for outside acts to develop an audience in China , I heard from Aaron Gibson , a DIY'er in every sense of the word, who has performed in China and is planning a return visit. Aaron provides insights into going it alone and his experience of reaching crowds of enthusiastic locals outside of major East Coast cities echo those shared by Jack Doom of Corrupt Absolute , a band that has made multiple low-budget tours of China. [...]