I hate this question. It’s one we’ve been trying to avoid on Grassrootsy for a while because it’s a hard one to answer and I’m kinda biased. WHAT IS SPOTIFY First we’re not going to blindly assume that everyone reading this post knows what Spotify is. It’s a music streaming service that sells access to [...]
We recently got this question from one of our readers, and in light of last week’s post, You’re Talented. How Come You’re Still Broke?, we thought it was the perfect time to respond. Q: As an independent artist starting out, I just released a CD and have no significant budget. What should one consider being successful? [...]
THE ARTIST: Universal Beat Union (Pittsburgh, PA) THE QUESTION: I just discovered your blog a few days ago and have been absorbing your advice like a dry sponge! Great stuff! I’ve especially been focused on your booking articles. My band played 5 shows last year and we want to at least double that for this year. We’ve [...]
THE ARTIST: Acoustic for Autism THE QUESTION: I was curious if you had any tips to help promote a non-profit benefit project that has no budget for marketing? I’ve grown our twitter to almost 4,700 followers and we have 1000 likes on Facebook. But that doesn’t equate to downloads/purchases. We donate 100% of net proceeds to non-profits [...]
Over recent years there has been an evident power shift from label to artist, and its time to realize that is won’t be shifting back any time soon. Due to technological advances, individual artists have been given the power to produce and promote their music free of charge. In addition, record labels themselves are struggling due to the massive [...]
Balloon Ride Fantasy How do you decide on a domain name? This might sound like a silly question, but the name you decide on carries alot of weight for your career and how accessible you are. Here are a few easy tips for choosing a domain name. 1. make it as predictable as possible [...]
Today’s post is by UK-based music distribution company Fame Factor. If you didnt know what an A&R representative did before reading this post, you won’t have any excuse in a few minutes. ________________________________________ A&R stands for: Artists and Repertoire. An A&R Rep “in it’s truest form is somebody that has an ear that can discover [...]
THE ARTIST: Anonymous THE QUESTION: I have a situation on my hands that I really could use some advice on. A co-owner of a new local company came to a gig of ours last night. He said he still had to talk with his partner but said he was interested in us. First question is [...]
THE ARTIST: Michael Gaither (Santa Cruz, CA) THE QUESTION: I’m finishing my third CD. I recently posted my first two records using the Bandcamp widget, so I posted full songs. Im curious: do you have any thoughts, pro or con, about posting full length songs? In a way this just seems more honest. Plus, clips only can [...]
So you’ve sent us alot of questions in the past few months. Even though we regularly answer them for our Ask Grassrootsy segment, we thought we’d give short answers to some of the ones that have been lingering for quite a while. Here goes… Question by ~Blues Love & Trouble (Dallas, TX) Do you have resources/packagesfor DIY [...]
This question is the average local artist’s biggest dilemma. You don’t want to dilute your show turnouts, but you do want to play out as much as possible to get as much exposure as possible. So how do you do this while ensuring that each show is good, well-attended, and worth it. Here are some [...]
Today’s post is a continuation of ”What Do Working Musicians Do About Health Insurance??? PART 1” Thanks to Ellen Cherry and Chubby Carrier for contributing some really insightful information on how necessary it is to have health insurance. ellen cherry (Baltimore, MD) I’ve lived without health insurance for 6 of the last 7 years as a [...]
Jenny & Tyler are a husband and wife duo based out of Nashville, TN. Most of our contributors for this feature have been solo artists due to the fact that it’s easier to keep the overhead down when you’re covering expenses for just one person. But the words of these two are especially needed as [...]
THE ARTIST: The Beggar Folk (Lancaster, PA) THE QUESTION: We’re trying to figure out how much to charge for our CD release show and we’re throwing around some ideas. We considered $5 to get in and CDs are $5…or $10 to get in and everyone gets a free CD. Any other ideas or lessons from [...]
So here’s the second installment of ”Ask Grassrootsy”. If you have questions, be sure to send them in. Today’s Ask Grassrootsy question is something I’m sure most artist wonder about… THE BAND: Natalie John THE QUESTION: I am working on promoting my first original jazz music album. I’d love to score some reviews of [...]
