Tag Archives | releasing albums.

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 [...]

12 July 2011

Should you put your music on Spotify?

Now is a great time to be an independent musician, you can post videos on Youtube, communicate with fans on Twitter and list your gigs on Live Unsigned. Another useful way to spread the word is Spotify, a streaming service for music available in the UK, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden and soon [...]

26 May 2011

What do A&R people really want?

Increasingly record labels are taking less chances with the artists they sign. At the recent Great Escape music conference we got a chance to talk to a major label A & R person and ask them about some of the things they are looking for. One of the most important things to note is that [...]

20 May 2011

10 lessons DIY artists can learn from Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa was an artist that people either loved or hated. A brilliant guitarist, composer, satirist and band leader Zappa’s career extended from the 60′s to his tragically early death in 1993. An original thinker way ahead of his time, by the end of his career Zappa owned his own masters and released a vast amount [...]

12 May 2011

How often should you put out new music?

Many bands are starting to abandon the traditional method of releasing an album and some singles every few years. Artists as diverse as Kanye West, Jonathan Coulton and Radiohead have all chosen to abandon or vary the usual release schedules. Doing things differently gets fans talking especially when tied in with live events (listed on [...]

21 April 2011

Planning a DIY album release (part 2)

In the second part of our post on planning an album release we look at the final few months before the album comes out:     2 months before the release: Work out and allocate your advertising budget and place ads. Remember to focus on a small niche audience, ideally of a few thousand people. [...]