Ari Herstand

There's a lot of legal mumbo jumbo that goes along with obtaining the rights to get music in a podcast. Dealing with mechanical licenses, public performance licenses, direct licenses, on and on. Oh and if you overlay the music with talking, it's a SEPARATE license!Way too confusi...

Rebecca CrabI just played a new songwriter series billed as #songwritersundays at The Fox and Hounds in Studio City, CA. They have built up quite a supportive crowd of musicians and music lovers for this Sunday series. Without fail, every Sunday the place is packed with an audien...

I was just invited to Like a Musician's Facebook Page from a friend. I clicked through and decided to give it a look. I started browsing around, but found no reason to give it a Like for one simple reason: there was no easy way to listen to the music! No Music tab, no featured vi...

I just got back from a nice trip to the Midwest for a couple weddings and a camping trip with Dad. It was a nice break from LA and I was reminded what nature looks like when it's not starved for water. While in Madison this past weekend we decided to grab dinner at the beautiful...

If you missed the memo, Instagram is hot. Everyone thought that when Facebook bought it for a billion dollars three years ago that it would lose its cool factor and the kids would leave. Everyone couldn't have been more wrong. With more than 300 million active monthly users, it h...

With recorded music revenue in shambles as the transition from digital downloads to streaming takes place, one area where artists can still make some good money is from licensing. Placements. Sync. Whatever you want to call it, there is money to be made getting your music on TV s...

I'm sitting at home listening to bands I love who broke up before the world realized their brilliance. I knew it. The local scene knew it. Some even had major record deals. Some got their album out to the world. And some were 'shelved' until they broke up. See, signing to a major...

1) Wait To Be DiscoveredIf you want a career in music you have to MAKE your career in music. You can't wait for 'the powers that be' to come swoop you up and turn you into a star. You must put in the work. No one wants to work with someone with a great recording but absolutely no...

You know how everyone comes up to you after your shows and they tell you how great you were? That feels nice doesn't it. I sure love it. But how many of them are being genuine or just being good friends? Because I remember talking to a drummer buddy of mine who was so excited aft...

I'll admit it. I'm horrible when it comes to email. I have a contact form on Ari's Take which I was pretty good at keeping up with when I launched the site 3 years ago. But now I'm about 6 month behind on responses. Yikes. Even my personal email I get backed up on - to the point...