Coldwave Blog - Music Tips For Independent Artists

Article originally from MusicClout.com With all the changes that have been going on in the music industry over the past decade, one of the biggest and most lucrative has been the rise of music licensing.  It is now very common to hear your favorite song not only on the radio, but on tv shows, commercials, and video games as well. This can only be great news for artists and musicians whose goal is to share their music with as many people as possible.  Despite all this, there are still some musicians who feel that licensing your music is similar to “selling out” to corporations.  So we’re going to discuss a few of the benefits of having your music licensed. The number one most important benefit of licensing your music is exposure, exposure, exposure!  One of the main reasons people write and record their music is so that others can listen to and enjoy it.  Sure, some people may be in it just for the money, but any band or singer who’s played a great show w...

Selling merchandise is one of the best ways for generating income for your band, and as a matter of fact, it may be the only source of income that you as an artist can make that you can easily control. If you are a touring act, selling merch is often times your livelihood, providing money for food, and gas to get to the next gig. Following these easy tips will help you sell more items at your shows, and will help you get off the road-dog diet of gas station hot dogs and beef jerky. The most important thing when selling your band’s merchandise is the location of the merch booth/table and also having a trusted friends run the booth during the show. Visibility is crucial at whatever venue you are playing. Hopefully, if the venue has a designated area, it is in a well-lit and easily accessible area of the club. Ideally, you want to be set near the door or near the stage. If the venue doesn’t have a good spot, see if you can work with them, or come up with a creative i...

A Guest Post by Sahpreem A. King Originally from MusicClout Every now and again, I like to write about a few mistakes I see artists make on a regular basis. It wouldn’t be so bad if the mistakes were isolated incidents, but they are becoming a bad habit. I believe that part of the reason’s artists continually make the same mistakes is because they are merely mimicking other artists who have bad habits, they lack of music business knowledge, and they are too arrogant to think beyond their limited understanding of marketing and promotions. If you follow me on the music blogs and in the trade magazines, you will notice a theme within my writing. If you are just being introduced to the mind of Sahpreem A. King you will find that although, I am a bit abrasive, the goal of my writing is to literally knock artists from off of their high horses and show them the grand view of the music industry and thusly the world. My teachings are about educational empowerment, motivati...

How Does An Independent Artist Stay Relevant While Creating New Music? By Andy Lykens - Sept 18th 2012 How often does a band you love come out with new music? If your answer is “typically once a year” you win the prize (which is getting to read the rest of this article). Last night at a happy hour with some clients I had the unique opportunity to chat with Wise Girl (an independent artist) and the CEO of Melody Robot (and freelance ad agency producer) at the same time. It was great. I love picking their brains to see how the two different sides think and bouncing ideas off of them to see how they resonate. Looking to successful businesses and marketing campaigns can help eschew old music industry models to advance independent music. Lately my big thing is product cycle. If you’re an avid Apple fan you really look forward to June, September, and January. Why? Because these are typically the big refresh dates for Apple products. If you watch Breaking Bad on TV chances are you...

By Robin Yukiko - Sept 13, 2013 Post from MusicClout Everyday, artists sabotage their music career on social media. We’ve all seen it happen to others, yet people still fall into this trap. Someone I barely know recently posted on my band page, "Gotta do it! Shameless self-promoting!" and then pasted his website. No introduction, no greeting. Though this is not the first time someone has promoted themselves on my page, I was left feeling icky, like someone discovered my door was unlocked and just walked into my house. Since I can't delete posts from my phone, I settled for replying, "No you don't," and deleted the whole thing when I got home. Was my response out of line? Surely, you have to shamelessly promote at people in order to get heard, right? He was just doing what we all have to do, right? That’s how it’s done these days, right? Wrong. This impersonal tactic is the equivalent of attaching a badly written flyer to some...