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The Right Recording Studio for Your Music

By NationWide Source - Jan 16, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Make no mistake: finding the right recording studio for your band is vital to coming out of a recording session with something that you are proud of. When choosing a studio, there are many variables to consider. Here is a primer for finding the right recording studio for your band:

Equipment

The equipment at recording studios can vary greatly. Go with a studio that has the support you need. If you need AutoTune and various Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers tricks and effects to get the sound you’re looking for, but you’re holed up in some spare room with just a microphone and a stool, you probably didn’t choose wisely. Learn what equipment is needed to get your desired sound, and find studios with that equipment.

Ambiance

Don’t let anyone rush you into a session before you have had time to get inside, examine, and get a feel for the studio. Musicians are sensitive to subtle and subjective things. If you have a bad feeling about a studio’s vibe, don’t ignore that. It may be a perfectly fine studio… but not right for you.

Proximity

When looking for good recording studios, consider how easy it is for you to get there. Famous musicians may travel far and wide to record their albums, but is this something you can afford to do? If you don’t have the funds or time for travel, find the best studio in your area that you can easily get to. If the best fit for you is far away and you can travel, ask the studio for recommendations or options on places to stay.

Reputation

Another factor to consider in finding an amazing recording studio is word-of-mouth recommendations. When interacting with others, especially fellow musicians, mention recording studios. You might be at a concert, talking with random friends, or even on a music message board when you discover your perfect recording studio.

Resources

There are a lot of great resources for finding recording studios and the best part is you don’t have to scavenge all over unfamiliar urban territory and dead ends to do so. Online resources like Studio Referral Service, The Jam Stop, and Indie Music Digest are just three of the many websites that can help you find the best recording studios for your particular needs.

If you have used a recording studio, how did you pick the right one? If you used an online source to find it, would you recommend the source to other artists?

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Music and Social Media: Facebook

By NationWide Source - Jan 16, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

There are many social media platforms through which you can promote your music. By far, the most popular is Facebook. To reach that potential fan base, you need a Facebook page.

Developing a strong fan base and promoting your music is more complicated than simply adding a slew of friends and strangers to your profile. If you want to see your number of fans grow to it’s full potential, then you need to correctly use Facebook to promote your band. These tips will help get you there:

Create a Fan Page

This gives fans (friends, family, and strangers alike) a central place to go for information, and lets you keep your personal life off separate from your music career. Since it gives a unified front, it’s especially helpful when your act consists of more than one member. It also lets you track your posts’ exposure rates, share special offers, or create events. Be sure to brand it with your logos, album artwork, or band pictures, and keep it up to date.

Catch Fans’ Eyes

A picture will capture the audience’s attention much quicker than a lengthy piece of text ever could. If you have a story, promotion, or announcement, glam it up with an relevant, quality image.

Keep It Brief

Don’t post chapters of your memoir to Facebook. Fans will tire of reading lengthy posts and begin ignoring you. Try to keep posts to a few lines, or put the lengthy content on your band’s website and link to it with a brief description.

Stay Active

Don’t invest your entire day into posting on your band’s page; in fact, doing so may actually get you deleted. You should post regularly, though. Also, be sure to check in and respond to your fans’ comments. Since popular posts with high activity are more likely to show up in news feeds’ (thanks to Facebook’s algorithms), responding to comments in a timely manner ensures that your posts are showing up in fans’ news feeds. It will also show your fans how much you appreciate them.

Pay Attention To Geography

If you’re touring, geo-targeting is a great way to get your info in front of relevant audiences. Use the names of cities or regions near your tour locations to ensure that your posts get to the right audience.

Great bands play at great venues, and in the world of social media, Facebook is one of the greatest. Don’t let your band miss out on the incredible marketing opportunity Facebook offers.

Do you use Facebook to promote your music and connect with fans? What are your favorite features? Are there any drawbacks?

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The Why and How of Music Licensing

By NationWide Source - Jan 16, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Your first big check as an indie musician likely won’t come from a platinum debut album. If it does, congratulations! However, you can still experience the satisfying results of getting paid for your music if you license your music properly.

Many artists shy away from the music licensing issue; it may seem a bit complex, and honestly, you’d rather work on your next great hit than rustle through paperwork. Still, it’s worth learning more about the subject so you can protect your work and reap the benefits of licensing your music.

You technically own the copyright of a song as soon as you write down the lyrics and music and/or record the song. That said, the easy access enabled by modern technology makes registering your music critical. Doing so provides grounds for defending your copyright in court if someone uses your work without permission. Registering your music also ensures that you get paid for agreed uses of your song by any radio station, television commercial, independent movie, and so on.

You can license your music through the U.S. Copyright Office by opening an account with them on their website. You then fill out a Form CO and upload your music (thus submitting it to the Library of Congress), or you can opt to mail both portions in. It takes from six months to a year for your registration to be processed, but your license holds as soon as you submit the information.

Using a performing rights organization such as BMI, ASCAP, or SESAC to license music has become increasingly popular due to their ease of use and the opportunities they offer. These organizations also take an active stance in tracking down usage of your registered works to make sure that you get paid. ASCAP charges a one-time fee while BMI does not; SESAC does not charge any fees, but you can only join by invite. Research each of these companies thoroughly before signing up with one; you can only join one.

The powers that be are making the music licensing process easier than it was before. Now that you know the benefits, put this on your “to-do in the immediate future” list. If you already knew of the benefits, hopefully now you are persuaded to stop procrastinating and start getting your just dues for your hard work.

Click here to read more about licensing and royalties.

Have you licensed your music before? If so, is there insight on the process that you’d like to share with other artists? Do you use a performing rights organization? If so, which one? Are you waiting to license your music? If so, what’s holding you back?

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Merch Sales: Helpful Tips for Increasing Them

Increase Your Merchandise Sales at Gigs

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

As any poor, aspiring musician knows, a great way to make money as an independent and unsigned artist is by selling your merchandise. It can be shirts, CDs, stickers, or anything you think you can sell, as long as you sell enough of it. Regardless of how talented or professional you are, you won’t make money if you don’t learn how to sell.

Shane Blay—guitarist for the band Oh, Sleeper—wrote a post (referenced here) a while ago regarding how important merch sales are. To put things bluntly, he said that if you’re in an actively-performing band, the little money you make comes from direct merchandise sales… not from the gig, or retail sales, or royalties. In an ideal world, your talent would be enough to earn you a living in music. Sadly, the business world, including the music industry, doesn’t usually work that way.

Selling merchandise goes beyond padding your pocket, though. It can help promote your band. If people wear your shirts or talk about your CDs, others will wonder about your music and, hopefully, give it a listen. If they like what they hear, there’s a new fan. Selling merch spreads your music.

Here are a few helpful tips for improving your band’s merch sales:

Bring Your Product With You.

Don’t show up empty-handed. It’s hard to sell what you don’t have, and it’s hard to sell after the fact. The fans at your gig are a captive and eager audience. Take advantage of that opportunity.

Bundle Your Product.

Offer a shirt and CD combo. Some people may buy a shirt simply because they like the design, while others might be after your CD. However, if you give them incentive to buy both, you have the potential to both make more money and spread your music.

Have Appealing, Professional Merchandise.

It really makes a difference. DIY or cheap merch can do in a pinch (such as while waiting on shipment) and might be better than nothing, but when it’s directly competing against quality product, your sales will probably suffer (we’re speaking from personal experience here). Don’t wait until the week of the gig to take stock of your inventory; plan ahead and give yourself time to restock if levels are low.

While no artist wants money to be the main focus of their music career, learning how to sell your merchandise is essential to supporting your art and continuing on your path.

How heavily do you rely on merchandise sales? What tips do you have for boosting merchandise sales?

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3 Ways to Market Your Next Gig

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A gig is a gig, but a gig with a cash-spending, dancing crowd is a gig that makes everyone happy. This includes the venue, the fans, and you, the hard-working advertising wizard who also happens to be a musician. So what makes the difference between a gig and a good gig? Music marketing. Here are some tried and true methods to filling the venue:

Fliers, Promo CDs, and Awareness

It may seem basic or outdated, but fliers are important. What are the demographics that (you expect to) attend your shows? Go to the stores, coffee shops, hookah lounges, restaurants, and bars that your adoring fans would likely frequent. Leave fliers (well-designed, legible, and informative) on their community boards, or ask if the shop would play a promotional CD. Be sure to leave cards with your website on them. Genuinely get to know their patrons and mention your gig.

Find and use every resource in your area that has a schedule of local events. Local entertainment magazines and websites are an obvious resource. If your target market is the newspaper reading crowd, get your gig listed in the classifieds.

Social Media

Certainly you’re going to take advantage of your social media accounts. Use the Facebook event function to inform your fans and encourage them to invite their friends. You could also use Facebook ads, which could be a beneficial investment depending on the type of gig. If your target crowd is on Twitter, give them 140 characters on why your band will rock their face off two weeks from Friday at 9. (Hint: you can share a pic of your event poster.) The point is, these are free tools that you can use. So do it!

In-Person Self-Promotion

Word of mouth advertising is the best that it gets. Attend similar shows in the area and strike up conversations with those around you, then slyly mention that you have a gig coming up. (Just don’t burn bridges with those performing at these shows.) Another solid word of mouth option is to play at an open mic night (or two). This is a good way to showcase your music for a few minutes. Tell the crowd that, if they like what they hear, to come ask you about your next gig. (Just don’t burn bridges with the open mic venue.)

What marketing strategies do you use to promote your gigs?

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Recording Music: Essential Equipment for a Home Studio

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The music industry is constantly changing. One of the more recent changes is the ability to produce high-quality recordings without using a multi-room million-dollar studio. Equipment for a home recording studio can be very reasonably priced. Check out these core pieces you’ll need to get started:

A Computer

When choosing which computer, answer these questions: do you need to be able to do mobile recording? Do you want to use an Apple-based or PC-based DAW? Your answers will determine whether you check out laptops versus desktops, Macs or PCs. This will be an expensive piece, so choose wisely.

Digital Audio Workstation

Once you have a computer, you need to choose which Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) you want. This program collects all the audio recordings, hosts and translates the midi into instruments, and mixes the recording sessions. Pro Tools ($699) and Logic Pro X ($199) are two of the most popular, but there are many that are close behind, such as Cubase ($499), Studio One ($99-$399), and an excellent free program called Reaper.

Interface

You’ll need an interface for the analog (microphone) to digital (1s and 0s) conversion. If you plan on recording drums or multiple instruments at once, look at interfaces with at least 8-channels. Presonus’ FireStudio Project ($399) is reliable and recommended. If you are doing a lot of programming and only recording one instrument at a time, you should look at 2-channel interfaces, which run about $100.

Microphones

There are a million microphones to choose from. For a good and flexible option, consider a large cap condenser. It can be used to record vocals, acoustic guitars, guitar cabs, and more. Two examples are Sterling ST-51 ($99) and Studio Projects C1 (used for $120).

Headphones and Monitors

Finally, to listen back and mix what you’ve put together, you’ll need either headphones or mixing monitors. If you can’t get both, choose the headphones, as they can also be used to allow people to listen to click tracks or previously recorded tracks while recording.

Starting a home recording studio can be expensive, or it can be as simple and inexpensive as the core pieces listed above. You can save further money by buying used instead of new. Either way, if you set up a quality studio and have the skills to back up the equipment, you could make your money back by offering your studio services to other musicians.

Weighing the pros and cons of creating a home recording studio? Read more here. Have you already set up a home recording studio? What is your favorite essential equipment?

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Copyright Your Music: The Why and How

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

So, you’d like to register your band’s songs as intellectual property? This is a good idea, especially if your songs are good enough that people might want to use (or steal) them. Copyrighting your music is a simple and effective process for protecting your babies.

Why Copyright Your Music?

The copyright on your music protects you if somebody steals your idea and passes it off as their own. Should this happen, it is your responsibility to file a law suit; you can use your copyright registration to prove that you are the intellectual owner of the music.

A Copyrighting Fairytale

There’s a fairytale about copyrighting that goes something like this: Mail a copy of the CD to yourself before it’s available to the public. Then, if copyright issues arise, you can in court submit the post office’s date stamp on the package as proof that you are the original creator… all for the cost of one stamp!

While this is certainly clever, it’s also flawed. Just because you mail something doesn’t make it yours, and it is possible that you switched the contents of the package at a later date. In short, this method is ineffective at protecting yourself. So, what can you do? Go through the official channel.

How to Copyright Music

The cost of copyrighting an entire CD through the U.S. Copyright Office is just $35 (if done electronically). Processing the copyright application online immediately creates a time stamp, and it is a faster method of registration.You can also submit your application through the mail, but you’ll have to scrape up another $30; physical applications cost $65. While this is more than the cost of a stamp, it’s still enough of a bargain that most musicians can afford to do it.

The good news is that you can copyrighting several songs in a submission, as long as they are being registered to the same individual or group of individuals. You can copyright songs individually (if you really want to, or if the members of your band want each song’s copyright registered to the individual who wrote it), but each submission costs $35. While the most cost-effective way of copyrighting music is to wait until you have several songs or a whole album ready to submit, doing so can leave your songs unprotected in the meantime.

The decisions about whether or not to copyright, and when to do so, are those you’ll have to make at some point in your music career.

Have you already done this? Did you copyright each song separately as they were ready, or did you copyright several at once? If you haven’t copyrighted your music, what is holding you back?

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Make Money Selling Your Music

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The music industry is changing quickly and unpredictably, which leaves musicians in a familiar situation: living paycheck to paycheck. Fortunately, in the age of the internet, there are many ways to make money from your music. Follow these tips to get started:

Book Live Performances

Although there’s no such thing as a steady income for a musician, getting a regular gig is the next best thing. Finding a bar, club, restaurant, or other venue that regularly advertises live music is a reliable and surprisingly-easy way to earn money and gain new fans. Develop a press kit and email it or, better yet, hand deliver it to different venues around town. Most venue owners are primarily looking for reliable musical talent that draws a crowd. Generally, the better you are at bringing and entertaining a crowd, the better you will be paid.

Go Online

Digital services like iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon (among hundreds of others) are the new-age record stores. iTunes alone has sold over 25 billion songs. These sites are where the ever-growing computer-savvy masses browse and purchase music. Submitting your music to the dozens of online music sales platforms individually can be time consuming, but distributors can help streamline the process. Also, selling music directly from your website usually results in a higher profit margin for you.

Sidenote: listing your music on these sites doesn’t guarantee sales; you still have to get fans there.

CDs Are Still Cool

Despite the increase in streaming and digital sales, people are still buying physical CDs. They, along with other merchandise (t-shirts, posters, CDs, vinyl records) sales, are popular souvenirs for concert-goers. So, take care of business onstage, then man the merch table after the show to network with fans and sell your music.

Music Licensing

Could you imagine your original song in a video game soundtrack? Do you have a piece that would fit into a film score or television commercial? You might consider licensing, then. Nearly every industry uses music, most frequently for marketing purposes. If you have specific uses in mind, find the “music supervisor” of the show or outlet and contact them directly. Or, reach out to local advertising firms or independent filmmakers. Have a stellar 30 seconds of your selected song ready to win them over.

Keep finding places to perform your music, and keep your online presence strong on sites like Facebook, SoundCloud, and Bandcamp. If your music is impressive enough, the money will follow.

The most effective method for making music will vary for each musician. Which method works best for you?

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Music and Royalties: What You Should Know

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

When Vanilla Ice ripped off the Queen/David Bowie classic “Under Pressure” for his 1990 single “Ice Ice Baby,” there was an outrage. Vanilla Ice tried to tell Queen and David Bowie that his bass line was a little bit different from theirs, but many—fellow musicians, fans, critics—disagreed. Fast forward to today, when thousands of musicians upload cover songs to YouTube. It seems that we’re constantly repeating Vanilla Ice’s mistake… but we really shouldn’t.

To avoid a similar debacle, you might want to brush up on your understanding of licensing and royalties.

Who Gets Royalties?

In terms of music licensing, the original creator is paid royalties by the person wanting to use the music. The price of using it can vary depending on the song, the creator, and the intended use.

Getting Permission

If you are considering sampling anyone else’s work, you are responsible for getting permission first. Don’t count on your lack of superstar status to protect you. If you don’t obtain permission, you can face serious trouble. There is nothing more devastating than pouring your time, money, and heart into a song only to find out that you can’t use it because you didn’t obtain permission first.

Ask the Right People

With remakes and cover versions floating around, be sure that you get permission from the original creator. Either search online or pull out the original recording’s CD/album and check the liner notes. Then, reach out to the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) or EMI. These are two principal players in music licensing, and most professional artists work with them. These groups can tell you what’s required to get the rights to sample, cover, or otherwise use this song.

Flipping the Tables

If you have original content, you have the option of licensing it for use and being paid royalties. There are hundreds of sites that can work with you on this. American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP) or EMI are both great sites to start researching this process.

Now that you know more about music licensing and royalties, head out and make your music with confidence, knowing that you’ve taken the steps to protect yourself.

Have you licensed your music for others to use? How did the process go for you? Do you have advice for those considering licensing their music? On the other side, have you paid to use someone else’s work?

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Increase Your Exposure: Streaming Music

By NationWide Source - Jan 15, 2014 Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

A confession: I like physical media. I back up sessions on hard drives. I have an extensive CD collection. When I’m near a record player, you can bet it will be in use. That said, I’m not stuck in the past. I’ve grown quite fond of backing up to cloud drives, and as a consumer I often use music-streaming sites like Spotify.

As a professional artist, you have to keep up on industry trends to get your music out there. You could have the best songs and the tightest band, but if no one hears your songs, none of that will matter.

One of the biggest trends right now is streaming music. If you’re not familiar with it, here’s a quick overview:

When you sell your music, whether in physical distribution or in online sales and downloads, you get the profits and the consumer keeps the music. Streaming is different; the most common sites are closer to traditional radio play, just online and tailored to each listener. Listeners use a service, free or paid, to access the music but do not own the music. This means that they can listen to the artists and songs they like, discover related artists, retain valuable hard drive space, and not spend (much) money on music.

If you want access to these listeners, you must make your songs available on these streaming sites. On the plus side, there is usually a small amount of money paid to the you each time someone streams your song. While the profits from streaming services are not as ideal as album sales, the streaming services can offer increased exposure. As a user of streaming sites, I often check out similar artists suggested by the service. Some services automatically play similar artists. If these listeners like your music, they might regularly listen to you (more money) or might look up where to buy your music and do so (more money).

The major streaming outlets right now are Spotify, Pandora, and ReverbNation. There have been and will be others; be sure to keep updated on which is rising or falling in popularity.

If you’re still a fan of physical media and live performances like I am, that’s great. There’s still an audience for that, but it’s no longer the whole story. Now that you know about streaming music, you can decide whether or not this type of music distribution is a good fit for you.

Have you put your music on a streaming service? Has doing so resulted in increased sales or fans? Which service would you recommend?

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