Smart touring means covering as many live markets as possible with the smallest amount of overhead. Being able to perform in cities a short distance away from each other saves your band transport costs, time, and energy. On major tours, small cities and college towns are often overlooked in states with big cultural epicenters, but…
The music scene is a tricky place to navigate. It often feels like you can’t get anywhere without knowing the right people and that your fate is entirely in someone else’s hands. But many of the “gatekeepers” are actually there to help you, and knowing who to talk to at the right moment can mean the difference between booking…
May 16, 2015. That’s the day I graduate and enter the real world. I chose a path of music, one that most would say is not the safest in terms of job security and money. But looking out on my future, pushing my way into an industry everyone says is dying, I can’t help but…
Japan is one of the best places to share your music. If you weren’t already planning your tour there when this article popped up, you might as well start now! I just got off the plane not three hours ago, and looking back it was the best tour of my life. Let me share with…
Perhaps inspired by the recent rash of high-profile copyright cases, a bunch of our favorite music blogs have lately been providing interesting tips for legally recording and performing covers of other musician’s songs. Unlike the more complicated forms of musical imitation involved in those lawsuits, covering a song is actually quite straightforward. A “cover” is a new performance of…
A couple weeks ago I got an email out of the blue from Sophie Chernin of Brooklyn band Madam West. Little did I know at the time that I was just part of her daily ritual—send one press email, one booking email, and one studio or engineer email every day. In fact, the more I…
The music world is up in arms. In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s what happened: Last week a jury decided that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had violated the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” with their hit song “Blurred Lines”. The song made $16.67 million dollars, so the songwriters…
We recently sat down with the one and only Dustin Nelson, Marketing Director at New York City’s (Le) Poisson Rouge. He shared with us a ton of good tips and tools that an artist can use to get a booker’s attention, as well as what not to do. Check it out! You can find this…
By Michael Corcoran Michael Corcoran is the CEO of musicSUBMIT, a music publicity service for DIY artists. This article was reblogged from musicSUBMIT’s tumblr, you can read the original here. Last month the CD Baby DIY Musician blog posted “Do traditional tours still make sense for independent artists” by guest blogger Jason Schellhardt. The blog post states that…
You may have read about YouTube music video stars Pomplamoose exposing their tour earnings for all the world to see and comment on, via their blog. If you haven’t, its quite worth the read, so head over here to check it out. The surprising detail, which has since become a viral topic of conversation among indie…
