Further reading - 10 great books about music marketing

It's that lot at MicControl again - they just know how to make a great post and get everyone chiming in.

Jon Ostrow wrote that educating yourself is the key to success - in anything. He's right of course and he and I (and a host of others) are out there giving advice to try and help with that.

But there are some cracking books that you ought to pick up and read. He began a list of 10, but others have joined in and there are now over 40 mentioned in the comments. I've read a lot of them but will be buying a load that I haven't.

Maybe you should too.

Educating yourself is the key to understanding how you should work, how your fans will work and how the industry works as a collective. It is a necessary step in your progression to look at what others have found to work, or in some cases what have not worked, so you can formulate a proper strategy. No matter what aspects of your music career you are strategizing, it is crucial to not only look at what works for bands and artists, but what also has worked for companies and brands in other industries.  

While there are a seemingly endless amount of excellent and highly-recommended blogs to do just that, sometimes it's good to refer to an expert, by picking up a book, shutting out the rest of the world (both digital and physical included) and soak up all of the knowledge you can.

Read the recommended list here.

 

Two key elements to make you a great live performer

Tom Jackson is widely held to be a unique coach for artists in the music industry - I don't know of another who preaches perfecting the art of the live performance like he does.

And he's done it for some major artists - he is the real deal.

At the core of what he teaches is that you NEED to work on your live performance. For most, it isn't natural. And, the more you do to study and work on it, the better you'll get.

Every band I've ever worked with gets better over time - you can see the process - but he shortens the learning curve.

He sells his teaching at his site - Tom Jackson's On Stage - it's not cheap!

But, he has a YouTube channel where there's loads of stuff for free!

Here's the two clips that stuck out for me - Taking charge on stage & Filling the gaps!

And the second one: But, also, click through to his channel here and have a look at the whole lot if you can find the time - it'll pay dividends.

100 New Years resolutions for musicians

Jon at Mic Control has pulled together this post with contributions from loads of musician advice bloggers.

It's great. The bloggers have come up with 50 resolutions - easy to implement real world ideas that will give your career a boost - and contributors have added the rest.

He wants everyone to join in and add their ideas - including you.

I've added mine - too long-winded as usual! - so Jon would appreciate it if you went and added yours too.

Of course, this is a great resource of ideas that will help any aspiring artist move their game on.

Read and add to the list of resolutions here.

 

Best 0f 2010 - most innovative music start-ups

This is my last daily post of 2010 - and what better way to round up than Chris Bracco's look at the best music industry start-ups of the year.

Chris's blog has had some of the most informative posts of the year and this is no exception - a look at a bunch of new companies that every diy musician needs to at least know about and hopefully get the chance to use.

The end of the year is approaching rapidly, and a lot has happened in the music industry over the past twelve months! There have been many incredible albums released this year, some of which surprised the public and even became nominated for Grammy awards.

You see all of these “best of/worst of” lists pop up around this time every year, but personally I’m bored of the formula. This year, I’d like to compile a list of the most unique, interesting, and innovative music technology companies, regardless of whether they managed to generate any revenues for the year.

 

So without further ado, I present to you what I believe are the most unique music technology companies of 2010 (in no particular order)

Read the post here.

Thanks for the support in 2010 - we'll be back in 2011!

Indie Band Survival Guide Interview

Interview with the founders of IndieGuide.com on HypeBot.

Go and read it here and look forward to part 2.

My only comment is that if they can hold down serious day jobs (see what they do in the piece), write 2 books, run their site AND record 18 albums and tour, then why does the average diy musician complain that they can't get anything done? More effort required - these guys are an inspiration.

51 wide-ranging bits of advice for your music career

This is a great list of tips that is written by a musician actively engaged in the creation of great music and the use of modern direct to fan methods to get it heard.

He's at the coalface doing it and his tips are right on the money.

Read them here.

5 tips for independent musicians

A bit of an old video, shot and posted by Andrew Dubber - who knows what he's talking about.

Martin Atkins has seen and done it all and knows more than most about music marketing - from both sides of the fence, as both a working artist, and a respected expert.

Watch the video and learn.

Martin Atkins from Andrew Dubber on Vimeo.

Improve your songwriting - this is key

We are always getting asked by people how they can become better songwriters.

At least they understand that the ability to write a great song is a key skill and they want to improve to give themselves the best shot possible.

There are loads of ways - study, find collaborators who are more advanced than you (Craig's List, facebook, MySpace), go to seminars etc. We'll be looking at this in a lot more detail on the main Make It In Music site after the imminent relaunch.

One way is to go and network with expert songwriters at meet-ups or conferences. You'll learn from them as they speak but you'll also get to meet other aspiring writers and can hook yourself up with some sessions or teaching.

People overlook the development of this core skill - don't be one of them.

If you live in the UK, there is a great event that does just this coming up on 25th - 27th October. My pick is the Tuesday 26th day as there are talks by seriously successful songwriters. And it's only £10 a day!

Events like these can give you the break your carer needs.

Check out SongFest here.

AIM website has wealth of high qulaity training and information for Indie artists

We have been members of UK agency, AIM (the Association of Independent Music) for years. One of our many hats has been as a small group of independent record labels over the years. AIM is the UK trade body that gives such labels a voice, so membership is de rigeur.

But they just relaunched their website yesterday. It is full of awesome musician resources. Yes, you have to join or buy their information piecemeal (and I don't get paid for recommending it!) but it is put together by very serious knowledgeable people and I recommend it 100%. Much, much better than most eBooks or musician training (other than ours!) that you'll find on the web.

For example, their 600 page -The AIM Guide to Survival and Success in the Music Business - is probably the best £11.75 you could ever spend.

They also cover music news and run training events. If you're in the UK you'd be mad not to check them out and if you're anywhere esle then 90% of their info is just as useful.

Visit the AIM site here.