GarageSpin

Why Remixes Help Promote Your Music & Five Tips to Get DJ’s Interested

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[Note from Mike: Have you gotten any DJs to remix your song lately?  Me neither. Marcus Taylor of TheMusiciansGuide.co.uk smacks us with some key reasons why we should, and some tips on how to do it.  Pretty interesting stuff.  (His site is actually full of such wisdom, as well as band resources — worth checking out.)  Take it away, Marcus.]

Why would you want your song remixed?

While it’s often considered best marketing practice to zone in as much as possible on marketing to your target audience (ie. Promote your music to people who are most likely to become a fan) in reality this theory shoots itself in the foot. I, and many of my peers on this planet are not fans of a single genre, but a range of genres in various environments. Remixes are great for promoting your music for one reason – they help you to reach another artist’s audience.  Similarly to collaborating, or producing a cover song, remixes allow you to gain full attention of the DJ’s audience – which is often not solely made up of fans of that DJ’s genre.

For example, take a DJ that regularly remixes music from non-electronic genres such as DJ Tiesto, his remixes of Imogen Heap, Tegan and Sara, The Killers, and Chris Burns helped those artists create enourmous hype around their releases. In fact, I bought Tegan and Sara’s album after listening to the Tiesto remix – and they’re an acoustic act. Remixes help you to reach new and diverse audiences with your music that you might have otherwise missed.

How do you get your song remixed?

So how can you go about getting a remix? Here are five tips to encourage DJ’s to remix your music that I learnt from a) being a DJ looking for music to remix and b) trying to hire DJ’s to remix releases by artist’s that I used to manage.

1. Offer a remix pack to make your song easy and accessible to remix

When a DJ wants to remix a song they need the individual files that make up the orginal version in separate tracks, sometimes you can get away with just an instrumental version of the song but that approach is very limiting. Put an easily downloadable ‘DJ remix pack’ on your website that contains all of the separate files in wav format along with a document that outlines the key, tempo, and any other details relevant to the remixer. By making the DJ’s life easier you will massively increase the likelihood of getting a remix. [Read more…]

How to Move Your MySpace Friends to Facebook

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MySpace is in trouble.  And potentially, so are your Myspace profile and Myspace friendships.  It’s time to move your Myspace friends to Facebook.

If you’ve invested any time, energy, or funds into building a network of friends and fans for a Myspace profile, that can be somewhat alarming.  Granted, MySpace will probably still be around for a while, but the constant bugs, the insane navigation, the banner ad cornucopia, and the now 47% smaller workforce maintaining the site, don’t lend a lot of confidence in the likelihood of site improvement over time.

Import Myspace Friends to Facebook

Yeah right, I wish.  Things are never quite so easy.  You can only indirectly plead with your MySpace friends to find you and “Like” you in Facebook.  Fortunately, Myspace offers several ways to help you jump ship, which I describe below.  If you’re like me, it’s been a long, long time since you’ve used any of Myspace’s functionality, and some guidance will help.

Ask Your Myspace Friends to Move to Facebook via Myspace Email

The best way to get a Myspace friend to connect with you in Facebook is to send them a Myspace email asking them to do so.  It’s a little tedious, since you can only email a maximum of 20 friends simultaneously, and have to enter each email address individually, but it’s the best way to reach your most important fans.  (Not recommended for all 50,000 of your friends, you spammer, you.)

Here’s how:

  1. Log into (or Login to?) your Myspace profile
  2. At the very top of the page, move your mouse over the phrase “My Stuff” (located next to “Discover”)
  3. At the far right side of the pop-up module, click on the “Compose” link under “Mail” [Read more…]

12 Bands to Check Out in 2011

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[It’s Guest Post time.  There is so much incredible new music hitting Pandora/Last.fm/Jango/Spotify stations, I’m dizzy.  Here to offer some steadying guidance is music super-enthusiast C. Loren Bishop with a guest post calling out just a few bands worth checking out this year.  Know of more bands we should check out?  Add it to the comments section.  Take it away, CLB.]

Each year, several hot music groups go from relative obscurity to musical stardom. So far, quite a few have been noticed as break-out bands to watch in 2011. If you’ve missed any of the groups on this list, look for their videos online – YouTube or the VLC media player can help you watch videos no matter which format was used to create the file. Whichever way you do it, make sure you check out these artists.

1. Wild Beasts
This art-rock band features glam renditions of songs similar to Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes with attention-grabbing tempo changes and glistening guitar leads. However, the most noticeable part of this English band’s sound is the shrill, falsetto voice of Hayden Thorpe that’s perfectly accompanied by the deeper tenor of bassist Tom Fleming. Check out: “All the King’s Men.”

2. Empire Of The Sun
This glam duo has been attracting dedicated fans with their over-the-top shows and outer-space themes. Who wouldn’t love their superhero names? With Emperor Steele and Lord Littlemore taking center stage, the audience is guaranteed a thrill. Don’t miss the title track “Walking on a Dream.”

3. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
Once a cult figure, Ariel Pink is now recording with a real band, a real producer, and in a real studio. As the world has discovered Ariel, expect this band’s popularity to grow. Check out the song (and album cover) “Round and Round.” [Read more…]

Launched a "Random Band Resources" Page

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I’m launching a much-delayed “Random Band Resources” page containing important links to cool things for bands and fans alike.

It is NOT an all-encompassing index of every music resource a musician or fan needs to know about.  It’s simply a list I’ll add to whenever I feel like it.  Hopefully someone somewhere will find some use out of it.  Or even better, add to it by dropping me a line.

Some history.  A long, long time ago, I started a “Band Resources” page.  We’re talking years ago.  Much like my music projects, I never published it, because it was incomplete, unfinished, unrefined, and not “ready”.  And of course, that’s silly, because what project or content ever really is?  The audience for any content is dynamic, ever-changing, ever-adapting, ever-morphing.  So, I finally just decided to publish what I had today, as incomplete as it may be.

Here’s to hoping you enjoy some random resources for music peeps.  Drop me a line if you think of something that should be added.

Paying for Music Placement with Tadcast

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Hurah!  The Payola playingfield has been leveled a smidgeon more.

Joining the ranks of Jango, Last.fm, and Songza, Tadcast launched a brilliant twist by enabling musicians to pay for placement in video by paying on an per listen or per click (if someone clicks on your band link after seeing a video) basis.

Their video does a decent job of explaining how it works, so I’ll just paste the ol’ ditty here:


How Tadcast Helps Musicians! from Tadcast on Vimeo.

If you give this a try, please share your experiences! I may myself, as I get closer to completing an album…

Guest Post: CD Sales – How to Network Your Way to Success

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Today’s post was randomly written by Larry Mitchell (though I doubt he’s the actual offer) of Mixonic, a CD duplication service based in San Francisco.  It was sent to me out of the blue by some made-up Public Relations rep named Katie.  Normally, I ignore such requests, but the article was decent enough, so I’m “allowing” it, with some grammar corrections (at least 20 commas added, for example) and my own cynical comments added for your and my enjoyment :).  (Some companies pay for something like this…I guess my being a musician makes me a sucker for non-paying gigs…)

Without further ado — take it away, Larry!


Custom Media Made EasyA completed music CD is something to be proud of. Go ahead and shout about it. [Mike:  Woohoo!  Oh wait…I haven’t finished my CD yet.  Shoot.] No one but you knows the work that went into its making, and no one but you can work to assure its success in the music marketplace. One of the ways to market and sell your CD is through Social Networking. Many people use social networks such as Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter to keep in touch with their friends, but these meeting places are excellent tools for sales as well.

The key to success with marketing your CDs on Social Networks is to avoid overkill. [Mike: I’m not sure that’s the “KEY” to success, but it’s certainly a potential downfall.] You never want to flood your friends with your sales pitches. You have to be discreet, innovative, even funny at times, to get their interest and make your pitch as a part of the normal course of who you are; a musician with a CD for sale.  [Mike:  That’s all we are…CD salesmen?  Ouch.  Someone shoot me, please.] [Read more…]

Josh Ritter's "Making a Life in Music" – Good Stuff

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My friend Jay just introduced me to Josh Ritter’s blog, Book of Jubilations.  In it, Josh just started a multi-post series he calls Making a Life in Music.  Every musician and band should at least read the first post, which looks at the reasons WHY we create music.  It’s deep (don’t read if you have a headache) and beautifully written; I’ll likely return for future re-reads.  Latter posts are more practical, but equally well-written — you can see the common DNA shared by his writing style and song lyrics.

I feel a little more like an artist again, having read his work.  And that says a lot, when so much of my life takes place in a maze of squarish cubicles.  :)

Song Project Time & Calling Myself Out

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For the first time in a very looong time, I have the house to myself.  Though I love and miss my family, I’d be lying if I were to say I’m not a little excited by the prospect of free time.  Here’s to getting a solid song draft finished this weekend.

In fact, I’m calling myself out.  I WILL have a song draft finished this weekend.  Ya hear that, blogosphere??  The song, no matter WHAT state it’s in, no matter how much it makes my ears bleed from the pain, WILL be posted no later than Sunday at (arbitrarily) 5:00 PM EST for you to enjoy or destroy.

There.  Just writing that feels good.  Pressure-driven deadlines do wonders for me…  Wish me luck.

WordPress Upgrade + 1and1 Hosting = Pain

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WARNING:  Boring post alert.  Please ignore.

I finally upgraded from WordPress 2.7 to 3.01 (thanks, Jesse!), and my site stopped working. Fortunately, the solution was pretty simple, and best explained over at Berkhamsted, which I found through a simple Google search.  And that’s great, because I was seriously considering moving my web hosting from 1and1 to HostGator, DreamHost, BlueHost, or something similar.

1and1. is dirt cheap.  Domains are $10, and that includes private domain registration.  The same package will usually cost between $15 and $25 at other hosting companies.  However, others seem to be much better at hosting WordPress-powered sites.  For now, anyway, I’ll be sticking to the Walmart of webhosting.

I am very, very relieved.  Now back to music stuff…

Nimbit's Instant Band Site WordPress Plugin

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band site plugin for wordpressWell, any band that still doesn’t have a website shouldn’t have too much more of an excuse to delay.  Nimbit (which apparently stands for “New Ideas for Music Business and Internet Technology”…phew, quite a mouthful)  just created a FREE WordPress plugin called Instant Band Site that offers pretty much all of the most important functionality a band might need.  A few of the features include:

  • Storefront for downloads and merchandise
  • Photo album page
  • Email list sign-up functionality
  • Music player
  • A bunch of other pages, plugins, widgets ‘n’ goodies…

Some of the drag-n-drop content modules don’t look as aesthetic as the could be.  If you use too many in the sidebar, for example, it gets packed with quite a lot of text (which is even apparent in the “Developer’s Walkthrough” video).  But otherwise, the key content pages/modules are solid.  The Storefront Page looks especially good, and I’m actually considering using it  for GarageSpin at a later date, when I have more finished music available.

Bands still need to 1) have a webhost (which costs something), and 2) install WordPress (which is free).  “Pro” (non-free) versions of the plugin do even more.  Definitely worth considering if you’re amping up your site to sell directly to fans, especially if you’re looking to spend more time on music, and less on blog-tweaking.  Kudos to Nimbit for a solid offering.

You can check out more info on the free plugin here: Nimbit’s Instant Band Site plugin.