In addition to being a Product Manager here at Sonicbids I also play drums in a few bands.  One of them is a power pop group called Oranjuly.  We recently played a showcase at Millennium Music Conference (MMC) in Harrisburg, PA.  I thought it might be helpful to outline a few of the things we did to make our showcase a success.  There’s a lot to read to here so why don’t you listen to a few Oranjuly songs while you get through the rest of this post ; )

(more…)

Thanks for our friends from MusicNomad.com for supplying the following words of advice:
===========

Music Blogs are the new A&R scouts for new music. Music Fans and Record Labels use influential music blogs to filter out and find new music. Some Music Blogs write about popular music and give reviews, gossip and MP3’s, but the most influential ones are usually written by one blogger who writes about music he loves and does not follow the mainstream music scene. Music readers on these sites go there because they have the same musical tastes of those bloggers and want to discover cool new music. As a result if your band is lucky enough to be positively reviewed on a site it can bring you new fans to your shows and your websites.

Well how do these Bloggers find new music to write about? They go to record stores (yes there are still a few around) and ask the clerks what is new and cool. They ask friends and check out lots of live shows. The last way is they almost all take submissions and on their site where they explain how to submit your music. The challenge is most bloggers have no time to listen to everything sent in so the chances of them listening to your MP3 and getting put on their blog are slim.

However, we at MusicNomad have heard from music bloggers themselves on the do’s and don’ts for submitting your music. (more…)

I’m a pretty cheap guy. This doesn’t seem to help much in the dating scene, but can quite useful as a musician — instruments cost hundreds of dollars a piece and unless you’ve reached a certain level of success, it’s difficult to pay that back quickly, if at all. So, when starting out you’ll want to minimize your costs as much as possible while gradually increasing your presence both locally and (inter)nationally. I’ve found quite a few ways to do so, and thought I’d share them. Obviously the possibilities are endless, so feel free to comment here and share your ideas as well.

a) Take advantage of friends and students
Hiring big names for collaborations is great for quick exposure, but if you’re short on cash, there are alternatives. Friends, local contacts and students are great ones for several reasons:

1) They (in most cases) know you already, so you can form a personal relationship in addition to a professional one
2) They may even be more motivated to help out (students in particular – see below)
3) They are less expensive to hire

If you have a brother who’s a marketing genius, for instance, perhaps try to get him on board to help you with marketing your project and creating your brand.
(more…)

Enter Your Music Video Into The International Songwriting Competition (ISC)

Entering your music video into the International Songwriting Competition is easy – it’s just a click away on Sonicbids. If you’re looking for exposure for your music, this is an excellent opportunity to get your video into the hands of the people who make the decisions at MTV, VH1, and record labels. ISC accepts videos of original songs only. Videos can be any style, including live performance. All genres of music are accepted. There are two ways to enter your video on Sonicbids: either upload it to your Sonicbids Supersonic EPK or put on the entry form the URL where it can be viewed (you don’t even need to upload it!).

ISC awards over $150,000 in cash and prizes, including a $25,000 cash prize to the Overall Grand Prize winner – the largest cash Grand Prize in any songwriting competition.
(more…)

If you’ve ever thought that getting your music played on the radio was the end-all be-all of the music business, you would have been right several years ago. When radio was at its peak, it meant absolutely everything to be on the radio. In today’s industry, we’ve seen the radio’s presence diminish, but this does not mean that it can’t be a helpful tool for getting your music out there. Yes, it may still be difficult to get your tunes on one of the major radio stations in your area, but college radio is a great way to make your first appearance on the airwaves.

Many college radio stations are always eager to add emerging artists, especially if you’re from the area. Almost all major colleges and universities have radio stations at this point, and each station is filled with shows spanning almost every genre imaginable. College students are always eager to help out a local band, and when there isn’t a specific show playing, you can always just get added to their regular rotation. Try getting in touch with your local college radio stations to see if they would be interested in featuring your music. Here’s a site that I found after some quick browsing that might help you get started.

Just these past few weeks, I’ve seen several local artists gain quite a bit of recognition around their respective areas (in this case, Boston) because they have been featured on college radio. (more…)

I remember when my favorite band of 2007, Quintus, released an EP.  At the time and the ripe, naive age of 20 I remember wondering to myself, “What the heck is an EP?” And soon after, I started noticing tons of other bands releasing EPs.

So where did the EP come from, who/what made it popular, and more importantly, what can it do for you–the independent musician?

Before the EP was introduced in the early 1950s, music was mostly released as the 45 rpm vinyl single or the 33 rpm vinyl LP album. Then in 1952, RCA released the “Extended Play” 45 as a competitor to the LP. The EP was still playable by the standard 45 rpm equipment, but used narrower grooves to achieve 7.5 min of playing time per side, and containing about 4-6 tracks total.

Record companies used the EP as a promotional tool to release an artist’s just-cut tracks to generate interest in an upcoming album, and also to package several radio hits onto one vinyl record for a cheaper price.
(more…)

Okay, let me start off with a little disclaimer. I know Panos already commented on our beloved King of Pop, and as a huge fan (yes, I bought tickets and was willing to cross an ocean to see him last July and now have tickets to the midnight premiere of This Is It) I know I’m a little biased. I also know that not all musicians have any desire to reach commercial fame. Regardless of all the above facts, I think there are some good tips we can all learn from the late Michael Jackson. I’ll try not be too biased about how much I love him… oh who am I kidding? Why bother?

(1) Evolve
There are always the exceptions (see: Rolling Stones), but if you want a long career in music, you’ll need to continually challenge yourself to think differently than you have in the past. MJ re-invented himself through time and it was a huge reason why he was able to appeal to such a wide spectrum of people. He started with the Motown soul and R&B, danced his way through Disco with “Off the Wall,” added some rock here or there (‘Beat It’, ‘Dirty Diana’), then started trying some Gospel (Man in the Mirror, Will You Be There?). If that wasn’t enough, he beat-boxed his way through Dangerous and HIStory, the Blood on the Dance Floor featured some pretty awesome mixes for you DJs out there, and to top it off, he crooned some serious slow jams on “Invincible”(Example: ‘Butterflies’ – released over 8 years ago and still sounds like something Justin Timberlake would release tomorrow.)  With all the changes and genre bending, the most accurate way to classify Michael Jackson’s music was just “Pop” — because Popular was just about the only consistent thing. (more…)