MadMimi is an marketing email creation and delivery service that allows you to manage the email list of your fans.  This quick tutorial will walk through how to set-up an account, import your emails, and send a promotion.

Steps

1. Go to MadMimi.com and click on any one of the “sign up” links
2. Choose the free plan with up to 100 contacts.  But what if I have more, shouldn’t I get a paying plan, you ask?  Well, because you want to test it out and make sure it’s something you’ll actually use and then just upgrade to a paying when you’re ready.  See, we know how commitment-phobic you are!
3. Give them your info, username, password and the like.

Continue Reading

Everybody has their own ritual for starting to play music.  Lighting up, plugging in, rocking out.  But I’ve thought of some things to think about to keep the music flowing, and not getting stale.  I’ve been in bands before where the music doesn’t get better because people have fallen into a pattern and “hearing” the music in only one way.  And it takes a lot longer to get tighter as a band if the people in the band don’t learn to play together, which is what makes live music different and more exciting than canned music.

But rehearsing a band has its’ own challenges and skills that must be learned.  Here are some ideas.

Continue Reading

Finding other musicians to start a band can be difficult.  Musicians all have unique sensibilities and different playing styles and personalities, proficiency levels, drug habits, etc, etc.  But what if you are trying to find people to play with and start a band with?  What are some of the avenues to try out?  How do you go about it once you meet?  How about starting out?  Here are some more ideas…

Continue Reading

There are probably a million ways to rehearse your band and your music for your gig.  Every musicians’ art is personal and emotional and presentable to the public in a very unique way.  In addition, what might play well in a town like New York City, might not play at all in another part of the country and under different music scenes and audiences.

I have been playing in the New York City scene for a decade or so, and I have noticed some issues to consider for this particular music scene and I feel that some bands could improve their chances of highlighting their art if they rehearsed in a way to consider some of the factors in playing a live show.  Here are some thoughts on the preparing for the gig.  Please post comments below if there are other strategies that you have encountered.

THE MUSIC

The main event.  People come out to hear your music, so be sure that the music is rehearsed and tight.  Be sure that the accents in the music are together and that the music has dynamics.  Or if it doesn’t have dynamics, Continue Reading

I have met many musicians who were otherwise very good performers, thoughtful songwriters, and great band leaders who none the less really weren’t that great at tuning their guitars. I guess that it is no surprise since most people first learn how to tune their guitars in the comfort and quiet of their own home, but once they are thrown into a live playing situation, then all kinds of other issues with sound sometimes get in the way of setting up a good sounding instrument. If this is your first time tuning a guitar or have been doing it a while, we’ll go over some things to keep in mind for tuning your guitar.

TUNING YOUR GUITAR… with a guitar tuner

The easiest way to tune a guitar, and probably the most common among people just starting out is to buy a guitar tuner and plug it in and follow the blinking lights to perfect in-tune-ness. If you have an electric guitar, or using the tuners built in mic if you have an acoustic guitar.

1. Turn on your tuner, and plug it into your electric guitar and turn up the volume knobs on the guitar itself. … Or hold the built in mic near the soundhole of your acoustic guitar.

Continue Reading

Ba Rock Obama Fundraiser in Greenpoint NYC

A few weeks ago, my band AM, played this fundraiser for Barack Obama’s campaign. It was basically a hipster neighborhood event in Williamsburg/Greenpoint in NYC where they got a bunch of bars together to host a bunch of indie bands. One ticket got you a bracelet that allowed you to go to any bar that was hosting this thing and see all the music that was being made. It was called Ba-Rock Brooklyn.

So, it was pretty cool to meet all the bands there that night, and to my surprise (since I am a pessimist when it comes to people showing up at shows), there were a lot of people out that night and everyone raised $2500 for Barack. Not bad for a neighborhood thing.

I realized that part of the success of these kinds of nights is the “Music scene” aspect of it all. It works better to ask your audience to go to an event where they will be able to hear lots of different musics than just hear your band. So, the draw is “Come see a night of local indie music”, rather than “Come see my band”. A slightly different Continue Reading

Steps

Setting up a network is fast and easy.  Figuring out which features make sense for you, and moving or linking to any other content you have on the web, might take a while but is something you can do in phases and complete over time.  Here’s what to do:

1. Go to Ning.com and choose a name for your network, probably just your band’s name or your name.
2. Sign up for an account — you’ll use this login for when you make changes or want to make more social networks for your other projects.
3. Describe your network, add a tagline, keywords, etc.  Make the network public so that anyone can join and they don’t need an invite.  (You wouldn’t be that snobby

Continue Reading

When you make and share music you are creating a community. It may be a big audience at a show, or a small group of friends blasting your tunes in the high school parking lot. In collecting an audience you are often bringing together people who have more in common then just an appreciation for your art, like the way they dress or the other music they listen to.

The promise behind Social Networking on the web is that it allows people to parallel   what goes on in “Meatspace” in virtual form. Ning.com is a site that helps your fans    connect with each other and keep up with your artistic endeavors.

Overview

Ning makes it super simple to create and customize a brand new social network. It allows you to go beyond the simple profile that the Facebooks and MySpaces of the world allow. Your fans can even create groups within your Continue Reading