The Top 10 Lists

Happy Thanksgiving to all those of you who celebrate it. I'm going to use today to look backwards a little at some of the lists that I've posted over the last year. There's a lot more than I was aware of, so determining the top 10 was next to impossible, so here are simply 10 lists that I liked from the past year.

The 6 Top Earning Dead Musicians In 2012

5 Ways To Take The Pulse Of Your Fans

Check D's 5 Tips For Music Industry Survival

3 Common Mistakes Made By Independent Musicians

The 3 Pillars Of A Successful Brand

8 Reasons For A Bad Band Picture

7 Tips For A Great Newsletter

10 Great Music Marketing Ideas

7 Tips From The Advertising Giants

13 Questions To Ask About Your Publishing Contract

Considering that I do about 260 posts a year, there are probably another 20 or so that could've been included in this list, and perhaps you'll see some more during the upcoming Christmas holiday. In the meantime, enjoy these, and email me with your favorite.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

3 Common Mistakes Made By Independant Musicians

CD Baby's DIY Musician blog always has a lot of good tidbits for those still struggling in the musical trenches, which I know is most of you. You can read this entire article regarding the "3 Most Common Mistakes Made By Independant Musicians," but I'll summarize the major points made in the article about the 3 mistakes here with my spin.

1. You don't monetize your live shows. If you're just starting out, you need the stage time to get tight so this point won't matter, but if you've been playing for a while and have built at least a small fanbase, it's time take advantage. Make sure that you have something to sell, either T-shirts, hats, CDs, flash drives with your music, but make it affordable. The money is cool, but the free advertising by the fans is better.

 2. Don't focus on getting signed. First of all, why would you want to in this day and age? Second of all, even if you do, your best bet is to develop as big an audience as you can. Remember the following because it's really true: Labels don't sign you for your music, they sign you for your audience. They really don't care how good you are, but if you have a line around the block, they'll come knocking at your door and you won't need to contact them. 

3. Treat your music like a business. Why do you think they call it the "music business"? You have to have fun with your music or it's not worth doing, but you have to consider the business of what you're doing as well. There are loads of places to get advice on this, but since you're reading this, check out the archives of this blog for lots of business tips. It's also a good idea to watch this Henry Rollins video over on my Big Picture Production Blog for some inspiration.

There's my take on the DIY article, but you should check out the original post as well as it looks at the 3 points from a different angle.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.