Income
How Much You Should Be Charging For Merch
I was just at a show last night at the Echo in east LA. A band from Philly was the 2nd of 3 acts. The other two were local, but this Philly band was who we were there to see. I went with a manager friend of mine who had been following these guys for a few years. There was a prett...
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Why You Shouldn’t Promote Your Music On iTunes
We all know recorded music sales are dying. It's a Titanic size plank that sales have been marching down for years, but eventually they'll fall off. But we're not there yet. Last year, Americans bought 257 million albums – an 11% drop from 2013. That's still a hefty number, but...
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No Deal Is What It Is
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...
Community
How To Easily Rent Gear On The Road
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...
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How To Make Money From Your Music On An Ongoing Basis
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...
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How To Get Songs Placed On TV And In Movies
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...
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Why I Hate Downloading Music
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...
Booking
8 Ways To Get The Best Deal For The Gig
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...
Income
Yes, You Need T-Shirts
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...
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Free Bird! (Covers vs. Originals)
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...
Latest News
A New Kind of Record Label
This week, Ari is joined by Ankit Desai, CEO of SNAFU Records, and Mira Howard, head of SNAFU's Song Fund.