Coldwave Blog - Music Tips For Independent Artists

A Guest Post by Symphonic Distribution Originally taken from MusicClout If there is one thing we have learned in running and growing Symphonic Distribution is that we MUST follow up in order to get things done. As strange as it may sound, we have even gone to lengths of CC:ing ourselves in emails so it’s more efficient for us to follow up to multiple items at once. We’re in the Music Service industry and our job is to give our clients the best service possible. Our clients ask us for something and we do whatever we can to accommodate that request. We reach out if we have to and if we hear nothing then we do what we must and that is we simply follow up. So you are a record label and you want to do what you can to grow your brand, releases, artists, etc. Well, It’s important to put out quality product (this you know and we have already discussed that before as we always include it in our documentation). It’s also known that we have continuously said that for record labels to ...

Blog post originally from the   SymphonicBlog This post originally appeared on Sonicbids By Amy Sciaretto Despite mountains of easy-to-find evidence to the contrary, musicians still have some serious delusions about the music industry and how to “make it.” To quote the amazing Dicky Barrett of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones – because what he says is #truth – “If it was an overnight success, it was one long, hard, sleepless night.” If that still hasn’t penetrated your skull, well, here are three more specific delusions musicians still have about the biz, and each one revolves around the idea that overnight successes are a serious myth . 1. Talent is enough to bring you success Talent is the most important thing. You have to have it. Without it, you have nothing, really. But you also need to hone that talent, sharpen your skills, and develop and fine-tune all other ancillary elements of band-dom . You need to rehearse – daily. You need to tour in a crappy, smelly van that h...

A Guest Post by Brian Hazard of Passive Promotion Originally from   MusicClout “Garbage in, garbage out” is a common saying among mastering engineers. The quality of the source material limits the quality of the final product. Most of my clients have no problem following my simple  preparation instructions , but they stop there. They figure once each mix sounds as good as they can get it, they’re done. In fact, there’s a higher level of refinement that pays huge dividends. I’ll break it down in this mastering engineer’s guide to final mixdown. 1. Choose a reference. Find a major label track with the tonal balance you’re looking for – ideally something that hasn’t been totally decimated in mastering, since you’ll be comparing it to your unmastered tracks. If you followed my earlier advice on using a reference during the mixing process, you’ll want to use the same track here. 2. Load in your tracks . I’m assuming that you’ve already rendered all the tracks for your rel...

Blog post originally from MusicClout In today’s ultra-competitive and sometimes oversaturated music industry, it is important for independent bands and artists to not only go out and perform in order to gain fans, but to also understand and relate with these people. Knowing who your audience is and what they are all about can help you connect with them on a deeper level in order to gain truly devoted followers of you and your music. These things are necessary in order to independently take your act to the next level! As an independent musician, your fans are your greatest asset. Learning about them any way possible can turn them from a casual fan to someone who buys your merchandise and attends all of your shows. One of the first things you should ask yourself is “Where do my fans (or potential fans) hang out? What is their ‘scene’? What other bands do they listen to and where do those bands play?” Knowing this will enable you to book shows and events in the right parts of town....

Blog post originally from Music Clout By Robin Yukiko Whether we admit it or not, music exists to serve a need. We may write for ourselves, but if we want strangers to listen, we must address that need. No one needs to hear you croon about your latest breakup, but maybe someone with a broken heart needs to hear his own feelings through music. Why do you listen to music? To relax To fall asleep To wake up To study/work to To party To dance To feel To cry To forget To remember To be validated or understood To get pumped up To work out To drown out noise To get in a romantic mood To sing along to To be educated When someone says that music is non-essential to human survival, remember this list (and the many other ways we use music)! Now, why does anyone need YOUR music? The next time you are trying to get someone to listen to your song, figure out which need it might be filling and approach it that way. The world has had enough ...

This guide was created by me (Coldbeat), using parts and information available at our distributors (Symphonic Distribution) page help desk . It was important to me to share this information as a blog post/ article because it will answer a lot of questions, which I get very often from artists, both signed and not signed with us. in addition, it's important to mention that the information available here may be different from the information you'll find on the Symphonic Help Desk page , that's because our deadlines and thresholds are different, the reason is quite simple, in order to pay artists, we have to get paid and we need extra time to process the information once we get it. Now let's see the basics and how it works. 1. When do I get paid? Coldwave Records pays artists on a quarterly basis. We receive the reports from our distributor within 35-45 days after a quarter ends, we start processing the information we receive after that and it may take 45-90 days...

Blog post originally from the SymphonicBlog This post originally appeared on DarrenCooper.com . By Darren Cooper In today’s industry one of the biggest obstacles independent musicians face is figuring out the best way to do music marketing. What tools should be used? Is Facebook or Twitter better? How can they get people to stop and take interest in what they’re doing? All are great questions, but I would go as far to say that best thing you can do as an independent musician is stop marketing your music! I remember walking up to my dorm room when my friend from down the hall busted out of his door and came running towards me. “Have you heard this?,” he asked, as he wildly shook a CD in my face. “What is it?,” I said in return, simply because his excitement was somewhat contagious. “Ummm…their called Sugar Ross or Cigar Row or something like that. I don’t know exactly, but you have to listen to them!” The band he was trying to pronounce was Sigur Rós , an Icelandic post-rock ban...