katieohalloranMar-05-2010 11:27am
Quick Tip: Distribute Song Files with Drop.io
These days, most of the people you’ll be pitching your work to prefer being sent links to music rather than MP3 files. However, if they like what they hear, they’ll likely want to have it for permanent download so they can listen to it and/or play it for colleagues more readily. And there are a few people who want to be sent files in the first place.
If someone only wants a few files, you can simply send them via email. But if someone wants an entire album (a common request from music writers who are reviewing you), it can be easier and quicker for everyone if a file sharing service is used.
So, I’m here to bring one such service to your attention: Drop.io.
It was recently used to send me an album download, and it’s one of the best options I’ve seen. You can easily make a full album (along with the cover artwork) available for download in zip format. (For album downloads, I find that zip format is often favored by recipients since it automatically creates a folder of properly-sequenced tracks — fast and organized.) If the download is only meant for certain people (industry people, for example), you can opt to password protect it, an option that’s not given by many other services. If, on the other hand, you want to give an album or song(s) away to fans for free, you can also use this service, but opt to make the download public. However, in the later case, you might want to consider an option like Bandcamp.
The Dropio site should cover all the information you need to get set up, but here’s the introductory video to get you started:
An Expanded List of Music Licensing Companies
Head on over to the Indie Music Tech blog and check out their list of the current online music licensing companies. I can’t endorse any service in particular, and frankly I’ve heard mixed reports about how helpful these websites really are. But, I figured I’d send the information your way and let you decide for yourselves: An Expanded List of Music Licensing Companies.
At least check them out, compare, solidify your understanding of how licensing works (can I suggest some helpful Artists House Videos for that? Keyword: Licensing), and feel free to report back with what you discover…
Music Power Network Launches YouTube Channel
Music Power Network (MPN) is the brainchild of Dave Kusek, Vice President at the Berklee College of Music, instructor of Berklee’s online course The Future of Music and the Music Business, author of The Future of Music, and all-around music business expert.
It was announced yesterday that MPN will be making some of its educational videos accessible for free via its new YouTube channel.
This message from Dave not only directs you to the channel, but offers a brief rundown of what MPN is all about:
Hi Everyone
We are starting a YouTube channel to show new videos from Music Power
Network.
Please check it out at:
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MPN/9881476a43/6e26431ac9/1b9e986442
MPN is an online service for music business people and music and
artist managers creating the future of the industry. MPN provides
online music business lessons, exclusive video interviews and advice,
career and business planning tools and thousands of specially selected
resources designed to help you achieve success in this ever changing
industry. MPN gives you the tools, expertise and guidance to help you
get organized and take your music career to the next level. Learn from
industry experts, set your goals and realize your vision.
Feel free to share, embed, copy, forward, quote, or anything else.
To wet your appetite, here’s a great little video in which experts from several different fields offer their insights. Standout moments include EA Games executive Steve Schnur discussing the music selection process for video games, Derek Sivers discussing what you need to have in place to realistically attract booking agents, and music educator/artist manager Jeff Dorenfield discussing the need to go digital with your press kits.
Random Rules For Ideas Worth Spreading
This blog post is merely here to point you to another blog: Seth Godin’s “Random Rules For Ideas Worth Spreading”. Everything Seth writes is thought-provoking, but this post in particular struck me as valuable to those of you who need some help getting ‘unstuck’. Here are a couple points that rang especially true to me:
- Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you’re stalling. You don’t wait for inspiration, you command it to appear.
- Avoid powerful people. Great ideas aren’t anointed, they spread through a groundswell of support.
- Figure out how long your idea will take to spread, and multiply by 4.
- Seek out apostles, not partners. People who benefit from spreading your idea, not people who need to own it.
- Try not to confuse confidence with delusion.
For the rest, visit Seth’s blog: “Random Rules For Ideas Worth Spreading”
Here’s to ideas worth spreading!
Grammys: That’s Not MY Music Industry
I’ve been subscribed to Jason’s blog for awhile now and generally find that his point of view parallels mine…Namely, that we live in an empowering and exciting time for artists of all genres who aim to build a sustainable career rather than luck into fortune. I routinely find that any negative forecasts or panic within the industry these days do not apply to 99.9% of us. In this guest post, Jason talks about his experience watching this year’s Grammy awards…another symbol of an outdated and broken system that the masses will unfortunately associate with the music business (but we know to be anything but).
By Jason Parker of OneWorkingMusician.com
Watching the Grammy Awards tonight I was struck with one thought: they might call that the Music Industry, but that has nothing to do with what I do as a working musician. I have been a professional musician for 15 years, and it’s been my sole job for 9 of those years. But whatever that was on the TV tonight, that’s not even close to my world.
And you know what? Rather than that thought being depressing it is actually quite liberating. Just when I started to get upset about the things I was seeing I realized that the only reason for it to upset me is if it effects me, which it doesn’t. All that pomp and circumstance, all the tuxes and evening gowns, all the money that went into the production, all the out-of-tune and/or lip-synched performances, all the celebrity presenters – that’s a reflection of a completely different world than the one in which I live and work. Once I realized that I actually found myself happy for Taylor Swift when she won Record of the Year. She was the one winner tonight that seemed genuinely surprised and pleased to win. You go girl!
Like most musicians I know, I did at one time have fantasies of someday winning a Grammy. I will admit that when I was a kid I would practice my acceptance speech in front of the mirror in my bedroom, thanking my family and my as-yet-unknown record label. But I long ago gave up those fantasies, and I can honestly say that I wouldn’t change much about my music industry.
Sure, it’d be cool to have my music heard and appreciated by a larger audience. And to make a little more money than I do now. I’d love to have a savings account and a health-care plan that’s not the least expensive one I could find. I hope to one day buy a house.
But what’s great about my music industry at this moment in time is that all of those things are up to me 100%. No longer do I have to hope for a manager to take notice of me and a PR firm to help spread the word so that a major record label would take a gamble on me and loan me a ridiculous sum of money that I’ll never be able to pay back so that I can make an album that will hopefully get noticed by Rolling Stone and played on the radio and then sell millions of copies just so I can eat for a few years until the next guy like me comes along and takes my place.
Those days are over. Now, I can make the music I want to make, find people all over the world who appreciate it and are willing to support me, and live a comfortable and…wait for it…sustainable life as a musician.
That’s my music industry. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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