Social Networking in 1 Minute
Here are a few things that seriously only take 1 minute, but will ultimately make a load of difference. A little invite never hurt anyone Each time someone adds you as a friend on facebook or myspace, send them a link and invite them to join your FB music group or fan page. You can [...]
Social Media: How Much Is Too Much? PART1
Are you pushing your fans away by your use of social media? Today’s post comes from contributing writer Barbarie Jolie who writes for online classes. Here is Part 1. Check back on Monday for the second half. ______________________________________________________________________________ As a musician in the midst of the current technological and social media craze, you have everything to gain [...]
The Wonderful World of Widgets
What’s the easiest way to increase traffic to your sites? Widgets. Don’t know what a widget is? Check out this post from back in February: Creating Content – Giving People Something to Talk About #2. I think we all often underestimate the power of little, seemingly insignificant things. Many people haven’t seen the value of incorporating [...]
An Interview with JD Eicher & The Goodnights
JD Eicher & The Goodnights You can usually tell when an artist or a band takes themselves seriously…because it shows, not only in how they perform, but also in how they represent themselves. JD Eicher & The Goodnights fit the profile. They’re a pop/rock group with members based out of Youngstown, Ohio and and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I’ve [...]
10 Things I Learned from my 10-day Tour
Ok, so it was an 11-day tour, but 10 sounds better. 1. Think Locally. You don’t have to put 5 hours of driving between every show. That’s lame. Put show 1, 2, or 3 hours apart. You’ll minimize your driving and have more time to lay low in between gigs. Just because you’re on tour [...]
Is Myspace Dead? Well…
Ok, there are a rumors that Myspace is dead. And yea…I sorta believe that. But, it’s important to remember that people will go where the information is. A website is a website. Many artists are still treating Myspace as their official site…and for good reason. Myspace is fully customizable and I truly believe this is [...]
Mailing Lists & Social Networking
Think of Your Mailing List as a Gateway Drug. If you’ve read Grassrootsy for any amount of time, you know we stress the importance of having a mailing list at your shows. Well, given the rise of Facebook and Twitter among musicians, your mailing list might not be the most important way to communicate with [...]
An Interview With Koji
My favorite way to run into the artists who get featured on Grassrootsy, is to split a show with them. An artist’s true colors shine through their stage performance, interaction with their audience, and reflection of how much value they put on their music. I recently did a show with Andrew Koji Shiraki, a Harrisburg, [...]
Stop Talking So Much!
Social networking is like having a conversation; and the best tweeters and bloggers have found a happy medium between marketing themselves while engaging in dialogue with their audience. Here are some tips on how to achieve this balance… Listen more than you talk No one wants to be part of a conversation where they don’t get to say [...]
Innovative Advertising – Some Things To Consider Trying
Oh advertising! Is it really worth it as a musician? Well, it depends. Where are you advertings? What are you advertising? And do you have money? Of course you want to try to get as much free publicity as possible. If you can do it for free, definitely go for that option! When you do [...]
An Interview With Brianna Lane
Folk/Americana artist Brianna Lane is an independent musician based out of Minneapolis, MN. She’s the author of three self-released, full-length albums and tours full time. She’s opened for several National touring acts including Dar Williams and The Weepies. Brianna is one of the few artist I know who has had success with acquiring patrons (i.e. individuals and organization who fund [...]
Incredible Resources You’ve Never Heard About #1
In the last month, some new and interesting websites have been passed on to me so I thought I’d do a post on new and underrated music resources for independent artists. If you are aware of other resources please post them in comments…and give Grassrootsy readers a short description of what the they’re all about [...]
Stand-out Artists and What We Can Learn from Them #2
To read the first post in this series, visit Stand-out Artists and What We Can Learn from Them #1 Artist #1: Wisdm O.N.E Wisdm O.N.E. If you keep in mind the fact that your music travels much faster than you do, it will hopefully make you think twice about how much emphasis you put on the production [...]
A Couple Things Every Artist Should Have – PART 2
Kate Gaffney To read the first blog in this series visit: A Couple Things Every Artist Should Have #1 A GOOD BIO Just like a good press release, a good bio should be written in 3rd person. The idea of being personal is great, but you should have some place online where people can go to [...]
Making the Best of a Good Situation
Promoting yourself is like adding links to a chain. When one opportunity is over, make sure it has the potential to lead to another. Today’s post is all about capitalizing on a good thing. As I mentioned in the Just Do It post, when something good (or big) happens, you can’t just stop there. You have [...]
Jumping the Gun – Booking for the Spring and Summer
It’s the end of February…the perfect time to begin booking for the Spring. February has always been a busy month for me as this is the time I start planning my April shows. And April has always been the busiest performance month for me b/c bookers are finally taking advantage of the good weather and trying [...]
An Interview with The Lost Sea
The Lost Sea is an indie folk/rock band based out of Pittsburgh PA. They currently receive over 600 song plays daily on their myspace and last week they were ranked #1 on ReverbNation’s folk charts. Go TLS! So i thought I’d email frontman Sean Atkins to get some ideas on how they spend time promoting themselves. Here are [...]
Random Tips & Tricks #1
Here are some random things that can help you. Not everyone likes Myspace I personally think trying to be on every social networking site is a waste of time, but also am starting to realize that not everybody likes myspace. They’re crazy! So try to be on at least 1 or two other [...]
Perception is Reality
It took me a while to figure out what my first write-up for this blog would be. But I’m going to start with something that will probably tie together any subject matter covered in this blog. Perception is Reality. I should preface this by saying that you wont be reading anything extremely profound but just some things [...]
