Musicians are primarily gig workers. They string together numerous gigs to create a full-time income. When something like the recent coronavirus outbreak threatens musicians’ livelihood (i.e. live performances being cancelled), it’s wise to have other ways to earn income. (more…)
Recently, I was having a discussion with a friend about the pay for artists’ and musicians’ services. My friend was perhaps half joking/half serious about having me perform at an event for her work. In a half joking response I said, “Sure, if the price is right.” (more…)
While being a musician involves writing, rehearsing, recording, and performing your music, that makes up about 20% of what needs to get done in order to thrive as a professional musician. (more…)
If you perform as a solo singer-songwriter with guitar and/or piano, or if you have a small band, you are likely looking for gigs at local venues such as coffee houses, church and community music centers, and restaurants or bookstores with live music. (more…)
You’re in a band, which means you have no money. Ah, the eternal joke…but it’s true, of course. Those expensive instruments you bought certainly weren’t free. The thousand-watt amp that the neighbors constantly complain about was not purchased at a Wal-Mart for a low, low price. And instead of going to law school, or learning to be an investment banker, you spent your formative years learning how to play “Stairway to Heaven” without messing it up. (more…)
Today we come to the final article on DIY DVD production. If my first two articles didn’t scare you away – congratulations! You’re an official DIY badass, or perhaps slightly delusional. In either case, you now have excellent video and audio from your event. It went off without a hitch – all your fans have been talking for weeks about the giant rotating drum kit and the chorus of belly dancers that accompanied you on your hit single. You’ve extracted all your audio and video files. You’ve got backups of the backups, and you’re ready to put your DVD together. So, now what?
In our last article, we talked about the video aspect of creating a live DVD for your band. Now we’re going to talk about something that hopefully all of you musicians out there have experience with – audio! Today we’ll be talking about how to capture the amazing live audio to complement your amazing live video!
All right all you insatiable DIYers out there, I’m about to hit you with the ULTIMATE in DIY projects for your band. No, not a mechanical fire-breathing dragon. No, not an automatic autotune machine for your singer. I am, of course, talking about the ultimate in luxury items for your merch booth – the LIVE DVD.
Manners. Etiquette. Remember those things your mother tried to teach you? “No, honey, that’s the SALAD fork.” Turns out they’re actually pretty important in the real world.
(more…)
I had a wonderful opportunity to sit down with Roy Elkins, CEO of BroadJam.com (one of the internet’s leading sites for artists to submit their music for consideration of placement in TV, movies, commercials, etc.).
(more…)