Dear Coffeehouse: Please Fix Your Music Situation!
Having played my fair share of coffeehouses in the past 7 years, lets just say I have a laundry list of what makes a coffeehouse venue a good concert space, and an even longer list of what makes a bad one. And though this website is specifically for musicians, we really felt it was necessary [...]
How Do I Score Reviews of my CD Before the Release?
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 [...]
An Interview with Allison Weiss
The first time I came across Allison Weiss’ myspace page, I knew she was a musician after my own heart. Grassrootsy first covered her back in July in a feature on Kickstarter. And after reading more about Weiss, it was apparent that she is one of the hardest working independent artists you will ever come [...]
Improvising…Because We're In a Recession, Yo! (Cutting Costs Without Cutting Corners #2)
A friend of mine is super cheap! She likes to make butterred popcorn by coating raw kernals with butter, putting them in a brown lunchbag, sealing the bag, and sticking it in the microwave. I think its funny but give it a try and tell me if it works So…in light of coming up with alternative methods, here are [...]
DON’T DO THIS: 10 Things You Should Never Do When Promoting Your Music
DONT… Spam others people’s walls with your event, video or website. We wouldn’t put this down as #1 if it weren’t still happening…alot! Now there’s a difference between telling a few people and posting the link on 100 fans walls in one day. Don’t use other people’s Facebook accounts like their your bulletin board. Post [...]
How to Avoid Becoming “That Person” on Facebook
I admit, this post comes out of a bit of frustration. If you’re like me and you have over 1000 fans or followers on Facebook, then that means you’re getting daily Facebook invites, messages, and notifications from a who slew of people about a whole slew of things you could care less about. And even [...]
Starting a Music Series
Have you ever wanted to start a music series – a Coffeehouse series up the street from your house, a regular singer-songwriter night residency with your favorite venue, or maybe a ticketed house show that’s known for quality music, good food and company? Fall is a really good time to do this. I recently had [...]
Why Won't People Come to My Shows?
I dunno… But lets try and figure it out. In last month’s Grassrotsy Reader’s Poll, many of you said you’re biggest frustration as an artist is getting people to come out to your shows. I half expected the most popular answer to be money-related so I was definitely surprised. If you think about it though, fans = money. In other words, if [...]
Making the Best of a Bad Situation
Having just played a couple shows in the last week where thing didn’t go 100% as expected, I thought I’d write this post. Here are some ways to make the best of a bad situation: When there are only 5 people in the audience Obviously your promoting did not pay off. This has happened [...]
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 [...]
Planning Ahead – The Key to a Successful Show
I’m currently working on a trip to Baltimore so the idea of planning and thinking ahead is fresh in my mind. I’m thinking on average that shows are booked anywhere between 3 weeks - 2 months in advance (on the local level). Assuming that this is true, how are you going to promote your show. First, its important [...]
Helping Yourself #2
This is a continuation to “Helping Yourself #1. Check back tomorrow for the 3rd installment. As previously mentioned, this post is centered around a recent blog by CDBaby guru Derek Sivers. The blog was called “Nobody’s Going to Help You. Does that encourage you or discourage you?“ Read it is you havea chance. The post [...]
