Posts Tagged ‘DIY’
Pledge Music: your music and “sharing the ability to share”
We invited Benji Rogers, founder of Pledge Music, to share some advice for musicians looking to promote their music DIY style online.
Benji: All day long my inbox, my twitter feed & my facebook feed seems to be a stream of songs that I can have for cheap of for free. I don’t want free stuff I want great stuff, and the way in which it reaches me is perhaps the most important factor in this.
3 Online Tools for DIY Musicians
Here are three tools that can help encourage fan engagement, manage your music online and help you easily promote your band on Facebook. In no particular order of preference – Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Root Music
Pay-to-promote schemes prey on aspiring amateurs
Although ultimately immeasurable, there are several million music artists worldwide with an online presence, each competing for attention. As many of those artists will know, there is a growing industry of companies that profit from unsigned, aspiring amateurs, some with noble, altruistic intentions and others making empty promises in order to exploit the hunger for musical success.
Artists that promote themselves online face stiff competition
We received a message of support from a musician who only promotes his music online. In our reply, we asked him the question:
“Does the Internet make it easier for an unsigned artist to develop their career?”
Dan: In this day and age we have access to an unprecedented amount of information thanks to the Internet. Millions of sites are now available for musicians to take control of their careers on a global scale. I have had people from over 50 different countries visit my site, a pretty decent feat given that I am unable to tour (something I would sorely love to do with all my music). Can this actually help a band grow economically and are there any drawbacks?
Tunited: UK based independent music community platform
Tunited is a UK based music platform, dreamed up by Midge Ure. Bringing together various elements of services like Drowned in Sound, Bandcentral and MySpace, the site will be part shop, part social network, designed for both for listeners and artists. The creators are placing a strong emphasis on ethics and independent music culture, equating it to a ‘fairtrade iTunes’.
Quality puts artists ahead of the pack, say merch men
It is important to this campaign that we get opinions from different areas of the the music world, so we asked Neil Cocker, of merchandising service Dizzyjam, the question: “Have you noticed bands becoming more creative with merchandise in the Internet age?” Neil: You’re all sick of hearing about how the music industry’s dying, right? Everyone has been banging that drum for ages now.
New services aim to empower artists
BandCentral has launched, aiming to provide bands, managers and labels with an easily manageable online toolset. The service is designed to centralise processes such as mailing databases, merchandising and touring.
On May 5, NME announced the launch of NME Breakthrough, a community platform akin to MySpace that has been developed by Webjam.
US musicians see innovations in DIY and DTF tools
There are a number of services in the US that are acting as partners to artists who prefer Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and and Direct-To-Fan (DTF) models. Some of these companies and entrepreneurial individuals are pioneering innovative methods of distribution and marketing, primarily through the internet.
DIY artist relies on fans for a ‘middle-class’ living
A former computer programmer, Jonathan Coulton, is one of the artists successfully implementing the DIY music model online.
It would be easy to look at a band like us, The Floe, and believe that we had it all sorted. However, it has not been handed to us on a plate …
