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18 April 2013

What is your band’s Elevator Pitch?

What happens when someone asks: “What does you band sound like?” This is never an easy question to answer, it’s the question most musicians dread. Everyone likes to think their band is unique and special but often people need to get a rough idea of what sort of music you perform. Sometimes you only get seconds [...]

24 July 2012

Black Flag’s Henry Rollins on how he found success as a musician.

We’ve mentioned Black Flag on this blog before. This video is about how Henry Rollins (Black Flag’s best known singer) joined the band. Through hard work, focus, discipline and a lucky break he achieved success as a musician. He’s also acted in hollywood movies, started his own publishing company and become a successful spoken word artist. [...]

05 July 2012

Why do people go to gigs by unsigned and obscure bands?

Who are those people who go to see bands at “unsigned nights”? It is very rarely someone who happens to be passing by a venue and just pops in (especially if there is an admission fee). So who will be at your first few gigs? Friends and family of your band members – Phone them, [...]

12 June 2012

How do you plan the perfect CD release gig?

If you’ve spent months writing and recording your new CD (let alone doing all the artwork and other stuff) you’ll want the CD release gig to be perfect. It needs to be an event that people will get excited about, something special and remarkable. How do you do that? Here are some ideas: List it [...]

18 May 2012

How did Amanda Palmer raise over half a million dollars from her fans in under a week?

Well known social media user and musician Amanda Palmer recently started a campaign using Kickstarter.

02 May 2012

What separates the bands that make it from the ones that don’t?

The very idea of “making it” in music has changed in the last few years. Previously the only way of making a living from music (outside of covers and more esoteric pursuits) was to sign to a label. Now many musicians make a living from a small number of fans, artists like Steve Lawson to [...]

09 April 2012

How do you get influential people interested in your music?

When you see bands with thousands of Facebook likes or Twitter followers it can seem really intimidating and it is easy to feel that as a new artist you will never be able to build that kind of audience. Building a fan base takes time and most people with lots of fans and followers don’t [...]

10 March 2012

How do musicians really earn a living?

It used to be relatively simple to work out how successful musicians got paid, you signed to a record label, put out an album and toured in support of it. If you made a profit after paying back your advance and all associated costs you got paid. This is called recouping (most bands failed to [...]

02 March 2012

How can your band benefit from piracy?

Many musicians are looking to stop piracy but some bands are finding ways to use free music, illegal downloading and so called “piracy” to grow their audience. In a recent interview on Forbes.com Joy Williams from successful indie band The Civil Wars said: “Sure, piracy has its drawbacks, but it also has positives, we’ve had [...]

24 February 2012

How do you define success as a musician?

As a musician you often feel that what you are doing with your musical career doesn’t compare to what others are achieving. Other bands often seem to gain fans more quickly, get better gigs and get more attention from the press. It’s very easy to lose your motivation.  One thing to bear in mind is [...]