So, in addition to being a superbly failed indie musician, I’m also a tv editor during the daytime. And I have been looking into other ways that musicians can make money in the future, as music as a commodity is everywhere. I use stock music everyday when I cut pieces into tv shows, and I feel that it might be a good way to at least pick up some coins until the touring money comes in. Or the T-shirt business fashion money comes in. Either way, it’s an interesting thing to get involved in to compose for TV. Sometimes the pay is good, if you’re good and sought after, and sometimes the pay is exploitative because there are always people trying to get in the door. Continue Reading

Just keeping up with music news these days keeping an eye on Live Nation and its’ attempt to take over major acts. It’s always interesting to me to keep up with music business to see how the record labels value certain acts. While I believe that Live Nation takes a cut of the touring revenue of big acts that it signs, it looks like Universal Music Group is looking to capitalize on switching old catalog to “the digital age”.

Is there really still money in this? … Continue Reading

On the topic of finding alternative ways to tour, here is a radio news piece from Soundcheck at WNYC New York, about DIY tours where people perform in living rooms from town to town.

Listen to “Rocking the House”

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2008/02/21#

New ways to expand your audience…Pretty interesting.

Now, BrokeDownVan is all for musicians getting compensated for their work — when appropriate. But in this age of bits and bytes the old way of looking at intellectual property is no longer relevant.

Check out this ridiculousness: Universal Music tried to have a video on YouTube taken down because it shows a, “toddler learning to walk with the Prince song ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ blaring in the background.” Aparently the Big Labels send thousands of these requests a year and most of the time the target just removes the offending video and slinks away.

Well, this time the mom refused to pull it, and decided to smack the label with Continue Reading

Google maps is the best!

As it gets harder and harder to tour for a small act, with gas prices and lodging and every other thing you need to go on tour costing all kinds of money, people are finding alternative ways to go on tour. People use myspace and facebook to connect with their fans and crash at peoples’ places. A few years ago, the band that I was playing in booked small tours where we rented a van and booked some bigger shows that paid some money, and then used that money to stay in motels and peoples’ houses. The amount of telephone planning and mapping and logistics took a good chunk of time and energy. One of the things that I’ve recently discovered, and maybe because I’m not as computer literate as my partner Craig, is using Google Maps to map and plan tours. You can create a customized map to mark Continue Reading

Steps

It takes only a couple of minutes to get a basic site, but give yourself more time customize your store and write good product descriptions.

1. Sign up for a PayPal account - You’ll need the email associated with your PayPal account when signing up for bigcartel.
2. Sign up for a bigcartel account - Fill out the sign-up form and choose “Band” as the “Store type”.
3. Products - Login, click on the “Products” tab at the top, and click “Add product”. Fill out the form and move on to your next product.
4. Design - click on the “Design” tab and then “Basics” to add your logo (”Header image”) and change the colors as your see fit. If your techish, change to “css” and go to town. If you have a paying account,

Continue Reading

One of the quickest ways to start selling your music and merchandise on the web is to sign up with a site that provides a simple Ecommerce store. There are a lot of them out there that have varying levels of functionality, customization, and cost. This review will cover one of those sites: bigcartel.

Overview

Bigcartel bills itself as providing “Simple Stores for DIY Rockstars” and they do a good job at providing the basics of an Ecommerce store. When you’re ready to start selling your CDs, T-shirts, or other merchandise to your fans, you can simply sign up, create your own store, and start raking in the cash. In addition to bands, they also specialize in stores for record labels, and clothing companies.

What you’re really signing up for is an easy to use product catalog and shopping cart. It’s something that will guide your fans through your inventory (albums, songs, merch) Continue Reading

In caveman times, if there was someone that could beat on a rock in a particular way and please people in a particular way, Neanderthals would surely hand over their prized skins and … I don’t know what Neanderthals traded in, but they would have handed them over. The product was scarce, thereby creating demand. Prices were high in dinosaur days. Today, we consume music in so many ways. On tv, on radio, while shopping in the mall, in the elevator, and on, and on….. In fact, here is a list of free streaming music sites from mashable:

http://mashable.com/2008/07/09/streaming-music-sites/

Since free product is plenty, demand for music product must be less, right?. So, it seems Continue Reading