[This article was written by Ari Herstand and originally appeared on Ari's Take.] I get a lot of questions about press. Of course everyone wants a 5 star album review in Rolling Stone or an 8.7 in Pitchfork, but you have to be realistic about your...
"As many of you are aware, I was involved in an incident last night. While supporting another band, at their show, I was involved in an altercation with some unknown people. While defending myself, I was stabbed. I was hospitalized and have been released. I...
If you write original songs then you stand to earn music publishing revenue, most of it in the form of mechanical royalties, performance royalties, and sync licensing fees. That’s right, someone owes you money every time your music is played on the radio, streamed online, performed in a...
Like many aspects of the music industry, effective publicity is about teamwork and good communication. There are many great music publicists out there (and many more not-so-great ones) who’ll work independent releases, but that doesn’t mean just any publicist will do. You’ve got to find the...
Indie musicians are earning more and more money from the usage of their music on YouTube. Every quarter, the amount of YouTube ad revenue that CD Baby pays to artists grows impressively. The giant video streaming platform has already become the go-to destination for younger music fans, and...
Actor/Comedian Tracy Morgan returns home and makes first public appearance since the limo bush crash in New Jersey. CHECK OUT VIDEO CLIP BELOW: ...
1. You Don’t Have Fans: Sometimes, an artist uploads a video on his YouTube channel of him playing an acoustic version of one of his songs. That channel has two subscribers, the artist has 300 Likes on Facebook, and barely 100 Twitter followers. The artist then...
Brooklyn heavy metal band Unlocking the Truth has signed a 1.7 million dollar record contract with Sony. The band, comprised of three 8th graders, first made waves in Times Square and their performances quickly went viral. Read more from the Gothamist: The band, made up of guitarist Malcolm...
Rich Juzwiak wants to buy a song by Elle Varner — but can’t. Right now the single is only available on SoundCloud until some future date when, presumably, the full album will be released on iTunes, Amazon, etc. Rich is pissed. He thinks Elle is behaving according to an...
During an interview regarding his Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign for his film "The Sweet Blood of Jesus", Spike Lee skillfully corrects the female Bloomberg host (who tries to paint a negative picture of how he should instead stop his crowdfunding campaign) by putting her into her...
When it comes to building your music career, Social Media is a zero-sum game. Your fans should only like one band: your band. There’s simply not enough social media to go around. As an artist, you must either conquer social media outright or leave nothing behind but scorched earth. Here’s how. Some important...
[This post was written by guest contributor Dave Kusek of New Artist Model.] In the past, there was only one way to release an album. You spend months – or even years – writing and recording an album, you build up to the release date with a...
I’ve been hearing from a lot of bands who’ve had it with Facebook. These groups have spent years (and lots of money) using the platform to build a community of 1,000 or 10,000 or 50,000 Facebook followers. Now Facebook wants them to pay more money in order to...
“I’ve been teaching and researching marketing for a couple of decades,” says music marketing expert Bob Baker, “and there’s one thing I know with certainty: Most creative people are uncomfortable, confused or downright disdainful about marketing.“ In the video clip above, Bob shows you how...