Archive | February, 2011

28 February 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Kirche Von Unten

KVU has a history as a community that stretches back to 24 June 1987, a date celebrated annually in their summer festival. Typically enough, with the organised chaos that surrounds non-hierarchical venture like this, I’ve not been able to determine how long they’ve had their present form as a well organised, cheap and popular venue. [...]

25 February 2011

When will the band start making money?

Many musicians refuse to do anything unless they are paid. This is completely understandable if you are playing covers, doing sessions or TV work etc. However if you are looking to build an audience this approach will slow you down. Ian from Topspin Media (who has worked with David Byrne, Moby etc) recently said: “Our [...]

22 February 2011

When do you need a manager?

A lot of artists are looking to get someone else to take over the business side of things allowing them get on with the music. Often they want a manager to “take them to the next level”, but this isn’t really how it works. It is useful to have a manager in the sense of [...]

21 February 2011

Tunebreaker – New Music Award Launched

Tunebreaker.co is a new site that seeks to connect musicians with fans, and also raise money for the charity Warchild.   The site allows you to discover new artists and listen to them via their players on the relevant social media platforms. You can vote for artists to win the TuneBreaker New Music Award (with [...]

17 February 2011

Using an email list to connect with fans

A lot of people will tell you that its all about social networking now but one thing we have learned in the last few years from sites like Bebo and Myspace is that these networks have a limited life span. An email list is still a very important way for bands to stay in touch [...]

15 February 2011

Be the best in a field of one

Now is a wonderful time to be a musician, there are so many tools and sites for musicians. The only problem is that when everyone has access to the same tools its hard to get heard when everyone is shouting at each other via social networks. What ends up happening is bands promoting their music [...]

11 February 2011

What should bands blog about?

Everyone tells bands they need a blog, but its not always obvious what to write about. The blog should be your opportunity to engage with the fans and develop your relationship with them.  Keyword your blogs correctly and write about things others are interested in. A great blog post will come up in search results [...]

10 February 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Arcanoa

Our ongoing tour of the squat or ex-squat venues of Berlin continues with Arcanoa. Arcanoa existed as a squat for around ten years, but was shut down in 1998: the current venue was opened up in a bar nearby by refugees from the squat, bringing what equipment they could salvage. Its promotional tagline is ‘the [...]

08 February 2011

Squats with live music in Berlin – Supamolly

Next up in our series on Squats, we visit Supamolly. Supamolly (or Supamolli) is a major Berlin squat that has been open since the early 90s. As well as providing a home to all kinds of interesting people, it also sports a theatre, a bar, and a venue which hosts a regular comedy night and [...]

07 February 2011

When should you quit your day job?

A lot of us want to be full time musicians, doing what we love all the time. However keeping your day job is often vital as the money and other benefits are really useful for musicians. Here are a few reasons to keep your day job, at least for a while: You have complete artistic [...]