Income

The thing you start to learn the longer you're in this business is no one really knows anything. They think they do. They pretend they have all the answers. But no one really knows.People have their personal experiences. If they became successful by doing it one way, they'll clai...

It's a common problem in the touring music community. Touring Band X amp breaks down before their show in Minneapolis. They scramble to seek out rental companies, but none exist. So the band calls the venue to ask for suggestions. The venue calls local musicians in town they thin...

Last month I profiled Jeff Price's Audiam on Digital Music News and how he looks to fix YouTube's royalty system. That's all well and good, but even if things worked perfectly in the YouTube royalty world, creators still rely on viewers to click ads. Then for those ads to generat...

Last weekend at the ASCAP Music Expo at the Loews Hollywood Hotel I attended the Music Supervisor panel containing 5 music supervisors who actively place music in film and television.Over the course of my career, I've had about 30 TV placements (20 in the last year from my new re...

I'm sitting in on trumpet with another band at a gig tomorrow. The bassist (and head 'chart maker') just sent the horn section a Dropbox link to the charts and mp3s as a refresher to listen to before the gig.I clicked the mp3 link hoping it would open a player and I could just pl...

We're nearing the holidays and musicians have been asking me what rates they should pitch to buyers who request their services. Be it a corporate holiday party, rotunda in the mall or a corner in a restaurant. This is an entire business in it of itself. I have friends, well, one...

I outlined in Double Your Income...No Really why merch is so important and how it can directly lead to you becoming a full time musician. It's the way every one of my tours is financially successful. I should say that again. The reason I'm one of the few musicians who has made ev...

Scott Palahniuk wrote in (via the Request a Topic below) and asked about cover songs and how an opener should order their set. And Ian J wrote in asking: 'they ask you to play for three hours, but having that much original material is hard. Is it singer/songwriter suicide to sing...

I know basic US music copyright law. I mean, I'm no lawyer, but I studied it in college and just spent a couple hours on the US Copyright website to brush up. Technically as soon as you put your song in a fixed form (paper, cd, digital counts - performing it does not) then it's c...

You may have heard the Amanda Palmer story on how she made $19,000 in 10 hours (3 years before her $1.2 million Kickstarter) on Twitter. Or maybe you haven't, but it's quite impressive. But the thing that always bugs me about these stories - especially when they're titled 'Indie...