Tag Archives | marketing

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 [...]

04 February 2012

How much does it cost to “make it” in music?

On the Time magazine website there is an article by an obscure indie rock band called Two Lights talking about how expensive it is to become a rock star. It is always a bad idea to complain in public. GQ called them “Hapless poster-bros for self-importance…full of whiny self-entitlement” and across the web people are ridiculing [...]

09 December 2011

Over 25? Are you too old to become a full time musician?

At a recent music industry event a well known music industry manager said that he wouldn’t even consider working with an act unless they were “under 25, good looking and ready to sign to a major label in 6 months”. Many people within the music industry are the same. But when you look at how [...]

20 September 2011

When does your band need a booking agent?

Booking gigs is a lot of work, especially when you are doing everything yourself in the early days of your career. What many bands look for is a booking agent (booking agents work with promoters to put together the line ups at gigs). Many musicians start to look for a booking agent early on, however [...]

23 August 2011

10 lessons DIY musicians can learn from Radiohead

Being an innovator in the music industry is never easy, but Radiohead have managed it both musically and in terms of their engagement with fans and labels. When the band started in the mid 80′s there was no Youtube, no Live Unsigned to post gigs on and no Twitter. Now you can do most of the [...]

12 August 2011

How to promote your music using online forums

Online forums aren’t cool and they are not the most obvious place to promote your music. You are probably better off focusing on social media, blogs and listings on Live Unsigned initially. But Forums do have some things going for them, they are where the really keen, evangelical fans hang out. The super fans. The fans [...]

21 July 2011

9 things bands do that waste time

DIY musicians rarely find themselves with any spare time, they need to focus on the important things that will build you an audience. Important tasks like listing your gigs on Live Unsigned, talking to fans, sending messages to your mailing list, dealing with the industry and booking gigs are more than enough to keep you [...]

30 June 2011

How to promote your music using QR codes

You see QR (Quick Response) codes in lots of places now, from supermarkets to posters to signs to business cards. This is an example of a QR code for Live Unsigned‘s front page. If you’ve not seen them before they are the checkered boxes with a complicated pattern and they are becoming more and more common. You scan them [...]