When artists achieve a certain level of success, they no longer need to work as hard to build anticipation for their releases. Their fans are already hanging on to every social media post waiting for new material. For the rest of us, life is a little harder. It takes a long time and a lot…
You would think you’d know it when you’re a good singer or instrumentalist. But what shows like American Idol and The Voice have demonstrated time and again is that some people think they’re great performers but are in fact terrible. And, sure, some have even made a career out of it – like William Hung….
There are lots of places for artists to get exposure online. There are the obvious social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and the obvious music streaming/buying platforms (Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Spotify, etc.) These platforms allow you to build an online presence for fans to connect with, and for the most part, these platforms are free to…
These days, it seems like everyone and their dog has social media. And in fact, there are way too many Instagram accounts dedicated to people’s dogs for my liking. What does this mean for the artist? The musician? Do you need to be on every social media platform? How do you cut through the noise…
Learning to take care of your voice is not always easy. Like most things in life, it requires patience and practice. However, if you want to become a professional singer, you need to learn how to do it. You can lose your voice, and it can be devastating. It can take months to make a…
A lot of musicians ask me how many social media sites they should be on. The answer is simple – you should not do more than you can do well. For instance, if you’re doing well on Facebook and Twitter, but the moment you begin posting to Instagram your results on Facebook and Twitter begin…
As artists, we are always trying to get our fans to do stuff; buy merch, share our content, tell friends about the music, pre-order our album, and so on. The problem is, people are bombarded with these requests. Everybody is trying to make money off of the content they create. Even my favorite nerdy meme…
Facebook likes, Instagram followers, Spotify plays – what do these things have in common? Artists want them. Artists feel like they need them to be recognized in the industry. Fair enough. There is a lot of pressure to play a numbers game. So long as artists want these things, there will be shady services out…
I think many musicians dream of one day hearing their music in a commercial, TV show, video game or movie. I know I think about it from time to time. Some musicians call this “selling out”. But licensing your music is one of the most viable opportunities available and could even be your ticket to…
Teaching guitar can be a rewarding way to make money and can turn into a long-term career for some musicians. One of the interesting things about teaching guitar is that you don’t necessarily need to be an expert guitarist to teach – you simply need to be able to teach effectively. It’s about communicating and…
A portable recorder can come in handy in a lot of situations. Maybe you’d like to record your practice sessions and listen back to how things went. Perhaps you’d like to record a podcast or capture audio notes as ideas come to you. Or, maybe you need to capture some live audio to go along…
As you practice your vocal technique, you will become a better vocalist. You’ll learn to sing with better intonation, learn to emote well and save your voice from harm. If you’re a singer (or a rapper for that matter) you should be working on your technique! Once you get on stage, however, there is more…
Distributing your music to popular streaming platforms may not get you many streams unless you’ve already got a large fan base. That’s where playlists come in. By getting your song featured on a popular Spotify playlist, you can instantly boost your play count and start earning a greater income from streaming. But this is easier…
I’ve long felt that the term “professional musician” has a lot of pressure and expectation tied up in it. Many young musicians put a lot of pressure on themselves to be professional musicians who make all of their money playing music. This is one interpretation of being a professional musician (and it’s a nice place…
Everybody knows how important visual content is when creating a brand for your music. Pictures, videos, graphics, posters – they all affect the way people perceive you. Creating a visual aesthetic that you feel inspired by is a challenge. You want to puts your best foot forward, and create a brand that you can stick…