Coldwave Blog - Music Tips For Independent Artists

By Valerie Melina Post originally from SymBlog As a musician today, it is important to be involved in social media websites and apps.  However, keeping track of your accounts can become tedious and confusing.  Below are a couple different methods for keeping it all organized. Method 1 This is probably the easier one of the two: Combine. Nowadays, different social media websites and apps allow you to sync your accounts.  For example, when you make a post on Instagram, the app will give you the option to share it on a range of other social media website, like Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.  This now commonplace feature enables you to share the same information across many different websites, saving you time and energy. By setting up your differnet social media accounts to sync, you can increase your consistency of information and connect with more fans at once.  Posting regularly is also important for maintaining followers.  Depending on your sched...

A Guest Post by Rajiv Agarwal & Crowd Audio Post originally from MusicClout . It’s always exciting to hit upon a song idea which can be the next big sensation. But translating that idea into a song or an album can be a daunting task, especially if music production is new for you. In this article we will demystify the process of creating songs from scratch. A song starts with either a catchy melody or a set of powerful lyrics. Then music is added to the song, the song is given a structure and then it is recorded and goes for final post production. Let us look at each of these processes in detail. 1. Tune/melody: The basic starting point is the tune or the melody you have in your mind. To give an example of melody- think of your favorite song. Now just hum the song, without any words.That’s right- the bare humming, without any music or a word is called the melody of the song. It might sound very basic, but it is the heart of the song. The melo...

Deadline:   June 3, 2016 Release Date: To Be Announced Artist(s):  ElectroWeb Genre(s): Electro House, Complextro Label: Ehtraxx Here at the EH Midia headquarters we are always looking for ways to help artists get their music and career to the next level, everything we do is based on this main motto, from exclusive promo tools to remix contests with great prizes... we'll always support artists that, somehow, support us. From time to time, if you are subscribed to our newsletters, you may get (within other stuff) remix requests from artists signed with our record labels. It's really not a big deal, when it comes to what you have to do to get those remix requests.. just make sure you are subscribed, but in any case, contact us and we'll be glad to help you with any possible issues. Now, we want you to remix the track "Virus" by ElectroWeb. This request is OPEN to ALL subscribers of our newsletter. To request the stems, use this contact form , and...

Post originally from Power Publicity . By Lauren Gill Street team marketing is a form of guerilla marketing that is used to raise awareness of your music among your target fans. Street teams were heavily used by hip hop labels to promote their albums. Labels hired reps to hang up poster and flyers to let people in the streets know about their new releases. Today, many people find out about new music online from their peers. You can adapt this old-school tactic of street team marketing to form your own digital street team. A digital street team can help you spark conversations about your music and generate a buzz. Here are some tips on building a digital street team: Find people with influence Your digital street team members function as your endorsers and must have a strong influence among your target audience. Having a strong influence is not just having a large amount of followers on social media. An influencer has a large following and the power to sway people’s tho...

A Guest Post by Think Like A Label Originally from MusicClout We here at Think Like a Label are firm believers in education and encouraging artists like you to use your musical talents to create useful careers that will support you for most of your lives.  There is a difference between being a musician and being in a band.  Here are some practical and intelligent ways to get you started on a path to creating a healthy and financially supportive music career for yourself. This article is written by our amazing new assistant editor, Chris Parsons.  If you have any questions for him, his contact info is on the staff page of this site.  We’re here for you! By today’s standards, it is easy to be a struggling musician; unfortunately selling music isn’t where the money can be made nowadays, but rather performing live, and for large audiences, is found to emphasize success (especially monetarily). But there are definitely ways for you to exploit your talents and h...

Been a while since we last spoke about our new promo system and the whole situation that made us move forward with a new promo partner, I've created this post with the purpose to share with you news and concernings about the new system we've implemented. As you may remember for quite a while we where using a promo system we have developed and was based on 3 services, provided by partners, they were: e-mail management by Mailchimp, online forms by Jotform and file storage by Dropbox. Unfortunately Jotform decided to change their whole subscription plans, from a submission based plan they have changed their system to a submission and form view based plan, this way we've been limited by them, not only for form submissions, but also form views, that means that once we have reached a particular number of form views they would disable ALL of our forms, including the ones we were using in our promo system. To prevent further issues (and headaches) we have decided to find ano...

Post originally from MusicClout No one ever said that being a musician was going to be easy. Yes, playing music makes you happy and you are passionate and talented but making a career out of music takes a lot of hard work and perseverance.  So feeling doubtful and pessimistic about where you are headed with your music career is natural. However, it is important to hang on to all the positive thinking you were doing when you first decided to pursue music! Positive thinking at its root involves holding positive expectancies for one’s future. This is important mostly because it has implications for behavior. Expectations about the consequences of your actions motivate you to keep trying or to simply give up. If you expect that all of your efforts will one day pay off, you’ll keep working hard and giving it your all. When those negative thoughts start seeping in, your efforts reflect that and in an industry as competitive as music do you really have time for that? So now that y...

A deadline was set: March 18, 2016 Here at the EH Midia headquarters we are always looking for ways to help artists get their music and career to the next level, from exclusive promo tools to remix contests with great prizes, everything we do is based on this main motto. From time to time, if you are subscribed to our newsletters, you may get (within other stuff) remix requests from artists signed with our record labels. It's really not a big deal, when it comes to what you have to do to get those remix requests.. all you have to do is make sure you are subscribed, but in any case,  contact us  and we'll be glad to help you with any possible issues. For now, we want you to remix one (or both, if you want so) of the following tracks. To request the stems,  use this contact form , and to send your finished remix, use this  demo submission form . We are looking forward to your remix, have fun working on it. ;)

Deadline:   May 20, 2016 Release Date:  To Be Announced Artist(s):  Oliver Pederson Genre(s):  Dubstep Label:  B-SidEhtraxx Here at the EH Midia headquarters we are always looking for ways to help artists get their music and career to the next level, everything we do is based on this main motto, from exclusive promo tools to remix contests with great prizes... we'll always support artists that, somehow, support us. From time to time, if you are subscribed to our newsletters, you may get (within other stuff) remix requests from artists signed with our record labels. It's really not a big deal, when it comes to what you have to do to get those remix requests.. just make sure you are subscribed, but in any case, contact us and we'll be glad to help you with any possible issues. For now, we want you to remix the track "Silent Mountain" by Oliver Pederson. This request is ONLY for signed artists, that means that just artists already releasing wit...

A Guest Post by  Derek Sivers  Post originally from  MusicClout You know that feeling you have after a big meal? Where you're so full that you really actively don't want anything more? Ever wonder what that would feel like in other parts of your life? We do so many things for the attention, to feel important or praised. But what if you had so much attention and so much praise that you couldn't possibly want any more? What would you do then? What would you stop doing? We do so many things for the money. It's so deeply built into our culture that it takes a real effort to realize it's the reason behind so many of our actions. But what if you had so much money that you couldn't possibly want any more? What would you do then? What would you stop doing? And then… If you stopped doing all these things you're just doing for the money, or the attention, what's left? Who are you, if you don't do these things? Many of my friends are touring mus...

By Jorge Brea Post originally from the  SymBlog Symphonic strives to stay at the forefront of new trends, formats and changes within all creative industries, which is why we were extremely excited by the launch and success of Native Instruments’ new STEM format, which is revolutionizing the way that DJs mix music on the fly. Wanting to play a key role in the continued growth and popularity of STEMS, we are happy to announce our partnership with  Dubseed , the first social marketplace devoted to Native Instruments’ new STEM format. Dubseed was founded shortly following the launch of STEMS, as a platform for producers and DJs from all genres to share and explore the new format. The platform quickly attracted a community of early adopters, and grew to facilitate the largest collection of free STEM content online. As Dubseed gains momentum, they remain true to their core principles by opening new and direct revenue opportunities to all artists. Our short-term goals thr...

By Jorge Brea Originally from the  SymBlog As YouTube and SoundCloud continue to strive to protect rights holders and their repertoire via fingerprinting, whitelisting, etc., many independent artists will unfortunately be hit with copyright-related strikes from major record labels, publishing societies, and others that don’t see the value in monetizing a different version of their original song or an independent remixing their material for promotional uses. The reason for this is that much of the mindset of these brands is to continue to bring any attention toward the original artist and rights holder, and we agree in a sense. However, as a company that works primarily with independent artists, we continue to see the same problem of independent artists and record labels being hit with copyright strikes and takedowns for simply doing promotional remixes that are not being monetized. In terms of YouTube, when a copyright strike occurs, it affects the channel in terms of any ...

Deadline:   May 13, 2016 Release Date:  To Be Announced Artist(s):  ElectroWeb Genre(s):  Electro House, Complextro Label:  Ehtraxx Here at the EH Midia headquarters we are always looking for ways to help artists get their music and career to the next level, everything we do is based on this main motto, from exclusive promo tools to remix contests with great prizes... we'll always support artists that, somehow, support us. From time to time, if you are subscribed to our newsletters, you may get (within other stuff) remix requests from artists signed with our record labels. It's really not a big deal, when it comes to what you have to do to get those remix requests.. all you have to do is make sure you are subscribed, but in any case, contact us and we'll be glad to help you with any possible issues. For now, we want you to remix the track "To Go Insane" by ElectroWeb. This request is ONLY for signed artists, that means that just artists alre...

A Guest Post by  Symphonic Distribution Originally from  MusicClout Licensing music is a much more involved process than just selling music. On your part as the content creator, it requires education, knowledge of copyright and publishing basics, extreme organization, and some annoying but highly important prep work that will set you up for potential success. Before you begin your venture into this exciting part of the music industry, read our 5 crucial tips below. 1. Make sure your music actually SOUNDS good. What the heck qualifies music as sounding good? This has absolutely nothing to do with subjective tastes in music. We mean that in the most general sense, the music must be well-produced music with high-quality instruments (whether acoustic or electronic) and high-quality sound design. Heads up: Not all music is licensing-friendly. Music that gets licensed for the medium & large tier opportunities hits mainstream audiences. Music that hits mainst...

A guest post by Johnny Dwinell of  Daredevil Production Originally from  MusicClout ( ATTENTION , a quick note from the EH Midia staff before you start the reading: Some information below doesn't fit when we're talking about electronic dance music oriented tunes, but there are a few things you can apply to your own experience) This week Kelly and I got the call to produce new record for an artist on a NY label.  It was a rush project as they wanted it “in the can” by 1st week of December in time to ship for Christmas.  Mostly the songs were already chosen, however at the last minute the label decided they wanted to add 2 more songs to the project. We put out the word amongst the writing community here that we needed songs quickly as we were planning on cutting in under a week.  Usually this song request process manifests itself in the form of a “Tip Sheet” of some sort.  The tip sheet will dictate the kind of songs styles and lyrics styles th...

A guest post by Johnny Dwinell of  Daredevil Production Originally from  MusicClout So Kelly and I are at a private party with Anthony Orio & friends and we end up in a conversation over beers and cigars about artist development and the damage that happens when artists and/or songwriters get their lucky break too early.  What if you get the opportunity of a lifetime to take a big step towards your dream and you’re not developed enough, ill prepared, or worse, searching only for fame?  In short, what if the label says YES?!?! That’s right, I said it.  What if the record label or publishing company says “yes”?  Are you ready? Do you know where you’re going artistically? Are you prepared to fight for your vision or will you be lost in the crowd with your hat in your hand? Do you understand the hustle of the business and how to operate intelligently within it so you can capitalize on the coming momentum? The NFL has classes that...

Post by Eliezer Hofstaetter, head of EH Midia and the labels it represents. So, why exactly would you need a form builder? I'm not here to tell you why you should, I'll explain you how are you wasting time and work you could save by using forms. First of all, when it comes to a form builder the first thing you may think is using them for online polls, contact forms and subscription forms, right? Yes, it definitely works for that, as we all know, sometimes the internet is an hostile territory, where your pages and e-mail addresses are constant victims of spams and hacks, so, how to prevent people from subscribing you to infinite e-mail lists without you knowing it? Bingo, contact forms, you just hide your e-mail addresses and you include a few fields asking stuff like name, e-mail address, maybe a phone number and some other stuff, and that's all. There is really no need for (and I actually don't recommend) you to share your e-mail addresses on the internet where l...

A Guest Post by  Symphonic Distribution Originally from  MusicClout There are some fundamental things that you as an artist have to understand to make your art go from a hobby to a career. First and foremost, if you are trying to make your music your career, you have to be able to view it in two forms: art and business–there is no other way. If you can’t do that, you need to re-evaluate what you’re trying to accomplish. Now that we’re past that, let’s discuss your music career as a business and how you should be investing in it. Treat it like a Business There are some different ways to view this depending on the size of the artist, but for now we will just focus on the smaller independent artist who is just getting started. As revolting as it may seem to your artistic side,  try to view your music as a start-up company  and your fans as potential investors. What makes someone invest their money in a start up company? The direct reflection you as the ...

Did you know that there is more to music than playing live shows and selling? Royalty collection is a complex business, but as an independent artist, knowing your rights and what kinds of royalties you may be earning is crucial to maximizing your income. Music Publishing is the business of collecting royalties for the usages of songwriters’ musical compositions. EH Midia offers a worldwide Publishing Administration service to make one of the most complicated aspects of the music industry simple. Check out our top 5 reasons on it’s importance. 1. You have money waiting to be collected. Collection societies around the world collect money from your music every time your tracks are played in digital stores, played in a streaming website, performances and more. If you don’t have a Publishing Deal, you will never see these royalties, and if left unclaimed, these funds will be allocated elsewhere. 2. You keep ownership of your music. EH Midia’s Publishing Administration serv...

Blog post originally from  MusicClout How do you develop a career on the technical side of music recording? How do you sustain your career once you’ve “gotten out of the gate” so to speak? In roughly 7 minutes this article aims to put you on better footing when it comes to endearing yourself as a budding music technician. I recently attended the A.E.S convention in Los Angeles. The A.E.S conventions are the largest conventions in the United States (& Elsewhere) for Audio Engineers (you know, those guys/gals that record and mix your favorite singles, albums and concerts). As a professional audio engineer this is one of the best opportunities to network, attend workshops, get the lowdown on the latest & greatest gear, as well as, just immerse yourself in “all audio all the time” over a 3 day period. There are a plethora of workshops offered, and you can’t attend them all. One of the most popular workshops to attend for young professionals is the “Careers in Pro Au...