The U.K. newspaper The Independent recently ran a piece focusing on the wide range of independent artists that have opted to start their own labels.
For new artists, signing with a peer-run label has a lot of advantages. They probably won’t receive anything upfront to help pay the rent, but new signees to these boutique firms get to reap the fruits of the industry connections and the tacit endorsement from the label’s famous head.
But aside from the fact that pretty much every record label is losing money right now, that most artists have zero business sense, and that getting a label off the ground often involves a great deal of investment, why would any artist want to run a label again? [click to continue…]
Getting an artist to blog consistently is like forcing a math geek to run wind sprints in gym class. No one wants extra homework when they are on tour performing or writing music; it’s an admin duty, and the artist wants to focus on creative.
But blogging and having a social media presence are an integral part of any rising artist’s career. To get ahead in the music industry these days, it’s not necessarily who you know. It’s how well you navigate and spread yourself across networks like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and more. So what should an artist who’s too busy/unfamiliar/lazy to crank out regular posts do?
Find someone else to do it. [click to continue…]
You’d never think of it off the top of your head, but a lot of really big musicians have sung the Folger’s jingle. Aretha Franklin covered it once. So did Randy Travis. Same with Johnny Cash.
The jingle didn’t do much for those artists’ careers, but ten musicians are hoping their version of the long-running song, “The Best Part of Waking Up,” can jump-start theirs.
Folger’s coffee brand has created a contest for unknowns to perform their popular jingle, and those interested submitted one-minute videos for consideration. These were narrowed down to the ten now posted on their site, which fans can vote on, with the top five promised an audition for Kara DioGuardi in New York.
We’re not particularly interested in who wins and loses, but this is a great chance to discuss the Do’s and Don’t's of presenting yourself to potential new audiences. [click to continue…]
If you’re one of the biggest rock bands of a bygone era and your return to the limelight is at a chili cook-off, that may be a sign you should’ve retired to Florida a while ago. Or if your summer tour only hits towns like Maryland Heights, MO and Bonner Springs, KS, perhaps it’s time to donate your drums to a rock museum and volunteer for the kids.
But some bands just won’t quit, which is why Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains will co-headline the rock radio station DC101′s 31st Annual Chili Cook-Off to benefit the National Kidney Foundation, and why the Offspring are teaming up with 311 for Unity Tour 2010, an 18-stop trek that consists mostly of stops in Nowheresville, USA. [click to continue…]
