SongPlacements.com

Song Placements Rob Michaels CD Release Party This Sat.

2010-04-14T10:52:00.000-07:00

Come down to the Roxy on the Sunset Strip this Saturday and help Rob Michaels celebrate his CD release party!!

Song Placements - Song Placements Wants to Meet You In Person

2010-03-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

Attention Los Angeles Based Artists...and those visiting the city as well...

SONG PLACEMENTS WANTS TO MEET YOU IN PERSON!

If you would like to set up an in house meeting with our top A&R rep for LA Music Marketing to have your music evaluated and considered for possible placement submission opportunities, please call directly at 323.982.7338 and tell them you are responding to this bulletin. Looking forward to hearing your sound.

Song Placements - Be a Fly on the Wall at MySpace. Employees Speak Out!

2010-03-16T17:33:00.000-07:00

Since the go-to spot for every up and coming musician is the Myspace, I thought I'd grant you fly on the wall access at the myspace HQ for one day. Techcrunch has the dirt on the internal crumbling going down at Myspace.com from the perspective of 3 anonymous employees. What each employee reveals is a bit shocking, but after about a minute of mentally pretending to sift through the many pages of myspace music seems to be about right. Internally, Myspace sucks, and it's ever-so apparent on the outside. The eye witness accounts state there's lots of yelling and confusion going on behind the scenes and one employee even compared it to a poorly run enterprise development shop than an Internet company. I think the only thing holding Myspace together right now is the independent musicians back muscles (they should pay us!). We can only take so much weight, before it's time for a lighter load. Facebook Fan Pages anyone?

Song Placements - Invite Your Fans Into Your Reality

2010-03-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Fact #1 - Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine next to Google.
Fact #2 - Many people search for music on Youtube and other online video websites.

Now that you know these two facts, the renegade producer suggests there is no better reason for you to develop a business strategy which includes online music video distribution. What type of videos are we talking about here? Not everyone has the money to shoot a MTV style music video, let alone a couple for Youtube. Don't stress, the idea is more about inviting your fans into your life and less about wowing them with your fancy videos. Clips from the audio, backstage, with members of your tribe at shows or even while having breakfast will work just fine! Having content that can visually engage your fans while you're not on the stage can help strengthen your brand. Time is obviously a factor in single handidly dominating all of the social video sites so you can check out web tools such as TubeMogul, which group distributes your videos to many video sharing sites at once, but first... you gotta create some content.

Song Placements - Song of the Week

2010-03-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Week 11 - Nicole Garcia (Violin) & Merrill Collins (Grand Piano) - Everybody's Everybody

Song Placements - Members Monday

2010-03-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

2 x Song Placements @ the House of Blues

On March 20th not one, but two Members Andy Frasco and Connie Lim are scheduled to perform at the world renowned House Of Blues' foundation room. Connie, fueled by the spirits of Nina Simone, Bjork and Feist, stirs up an earthy blend of blues-based and electronica driven pop. Her songs weave through lush lyrics, leaving space for her melodies to soar and conjure up your emotions. Andy, hails from the suburbs of West Los Angeles and has shared the stage with such acts as John Mayer, Katie Herzig, Butch Walker, The Flobots, Spill Canvas, Suburban Legends, Nural, Ryan Gillmor, Tyler Hilton, Berlin, and many others.

Connie Lim Hits the stage at 10PM, followed by Andy Frasco at 11PM. Support your fellow artists and go and check them out! It's well worth it. I promise.

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-03-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - Alicia's Keys For Softwares Sake
How nice of Alicia Keys to lend Alicia's Keys to the rest of the music community. Grammy award winner Alicia keys has teamed up with KONTAKT to release new software that recreates Alicia Keys' personal grand piano with outstanding authenticity and playability

Song Placements - The Perfect Practice Plan
Do you practice perfectly? I certainly know I don't. If you're anything like me you might need a little push in the right direction.

Song Placements - Suspend Vocal Technique Momentarily
Have You heard those songs when it sounds like the vocalist is whisper-singing and wondered "man how do they do that?". It's not quite singing and its definitely not a full blown whisper, its actually a technique that a lot of Pop vocalists keep in their bag of tricks.

Song Placements - The Grateful Dead Knew a Thing or Two About Business
Some great music business lessons can be learned, not from the suits in the industry, radio or the high powered new media businesses but from "a group of stoners who somehow managed to get it right" -The Grateful Dead.

Song Placements - Are You Taking The Time To Develop
Malcolm Gladwell, author of the book Outliers, is pretty adamant about his 10,000 hour rule. The rule states that in order to master any craft 10,000 + hours of practice must be accumulated and getting in that many hours of practice can take 10 years or more.

Song Placements - Taking Marketing Cues from Aphex Twin
Richard James AKA Aphex Twin is a british electronic musician described by the Guardian newspaper as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music". Find out Why.

Song Placements - Song of the Week
Week 9 - Tracing Days - Monochrome

Song Placements - Members Monday
Jeff Peterson Finds Success on Soundclick.com

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It
See what you missed last week!

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog!

2010-03-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hey tired of checking our blog only to see that it hasn't been updated yet? Try following our blog, and let the updates come to you. If you're already a Blogspot member then locate our followers section in the top right and select follow. If you are not a Blogspot member then add our blog to your RSS feed reader. Save yourself some time and follow our blog today!

Song Placements - Radio, the Machine that Just Wont Die

2010-03-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

The Nydailynews says that radio is not supposed to be here right now. First, the TV was supposed to kill the radio by changing it from an audio to a visual medium, that didn't work so much. Then MTV was supposed to be the radio killer by "promoting a product that sucked the magic out of songs by pre-empting the listener's imagination" - again the radio withstood the test of time. To be fair MTV's claim was that television and radio could work together, promoting and enhancing the other, and that's exactly what happened. iPods, and social media are the disruptive technologies now but something tells me that many other mediums will kick the bucket before our good ol friend the radio lays its head to rest.

Song Placements - Artists Enslaved By Radio

2010-03-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

The techdirt blog goes for the jugular of John Conyers, not the same dude from the terminator movies, but one of the RIAAs biggest backers forcing radio stations to pay to promote music. It all started when John delivered a speech at an event put on by the recording industry lobbyists. Conyers made the analogy that the lack of a performance right mandatory fee for radio stations was comparable to slavery and indentured servitude. Really John? Techdirt sheds some light on the practices of labels paying off radio stations to spin records fully knowing the momentum that radio promotion can lend to a project. Techdirt goes on to say that songs on the radio are advertisements. What kind of industry gets congress to force broadcasters to pay to run their advertisements? Traditionally the labels had no qualms with radio stations acting as their main promotional engine, so why now? Could this really just be an excuse for labels unwilling to actually do something to properly capitalize on free promo? As artists, who's arguments are more valid the RIAAs or the broadcasters, do you actually view the radio as slavery?

Song Placements - Who's to Blame?

2010-03-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Failing is inevitable. It is impossible to go through life without failing but it is the way that you view failure is what makes the difference between the successful and unsuccessful. The Practice of Practice blog has a really good piece on attribution theory. When you fail, where does the cause of the blame lie? Is it external or internal? Is the cause unchanging over time or something that changes? And can it be controlled? It turns out that successful people in all fields tend to see causes as internal. As in, there's no excuse for failure.

Song Placements - Myspace Musics Advertising Plan Revealed

2010-03-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for Myspaces audio ads? Regardless if you're ready or not they're on the way. Myspace has teamed up with internet radio advertising agency TargetSpot to find the right balance between music and advertising that will keep listeners and attract investors. Basically the strategy -Short audio ads to refrain from ticking us off and increase overall value by making more money from yet more advertising spots. As the exclusive audio sales rep for Myspace Music, Target spot, which represents a network of both internet radio providers and some of the largest radio groups has doubled in reach from 20 million unique monthly listeners to as many as 40 million. Target Spots plan for those of us who still find ourselves on myspace from time to time is to have a "sensitivity to the space" and ensure a good user experience. I hope this solves all of Myspaces problems, so that they can focus on their next task, helping the musicians of it's myspace music service.

Song Placements - The Difference Between Theory and Practice

2010-03-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

“The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference and in practice, there is.” (practiceofpracitceblog) As a musician you can't always have your instrument in hand, especially if music is only your part time gig. But being instrument-less doesn't mean that you can't practice. It's called mental practice and it's the best use of your time ever, especially if you hate your job. For example, Jonathon Harnum, a blogger and music educator gives examples of mentally practicing scale fingerings and softly singing the solfege syllables that went along with them, all while making sure little kids didn't drown. Mental practice is a good way to give your chops a rest but to continue making progress.

Song Placements - Artists, the New Public Servants

2010-03-09T17:58:00.000-08:00

Arlene Goldbard wants the government to help artists help the government. Arlene, a writer and a social activist suggests some compelling ideas about how artists can help the economy recover but also states that in order to help spark the economic recovery we have to first spark the recovery of our culture. Arlene firmly insists that there is no better group positioned to help us do that than the most creative of our society, the artists. She reasons that government initiates that put artists' and musicians' gifts at the service of schools, communities, hospitals and prisons are a good investment that have worked once before in the 1950's to spurn recovery. I was completely with her up until the prison part. Anyways, follow the link to check out the video and if these are ideas that you support then there is a petition in the comments to support Art & The Public Purpose: A New Framework, that you should definitely take a look at.

Song Placements - Practicing Silence In Your Routine

2010-03-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

Just because you're making noise on your instrument doesn't mean you're getting better on your instrument. Silence is golden because it provides the perfect setting to reflect, to gather, to refocus. Silence in your practice routines should be equal to the amount of time actually spent practicing your instrument, meaning that everytime you play a passage it should be followed by slient analysis. The howtopractice blog has a list of questions that you should be actively asking yourself during your silent time, you know, to get you thinking about the intricacies of what you're playing so your hands will perform when you absolutely need them to.

Song Placements - Song of the Week

2010-03-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Week 10 - Patrick Leonard - Begin the Beginning

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-03-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - ISP - Internet Service Publisher?
The labels have done it!!!!! They have successfully identified another losing way to "make money" in the digital era...

Song Placements - Facebook Doesn't Want to See Abbey Go
It turns out FB isn't just for your nosy peers, it can actually be used to rally the troops and scare the bejesus out of the record labels...

Song Placements - Getting Paid for Your Music Was So Half a Decade Ago
In a galaxy far far away where copyright has vanished, music belongs to noone and artists are forced to make money indirectly from their music only one sacred guide can accurately provide insight for music-survival...

Song Placements - Date Your Fans
Indie Music Promotion blogger Bob Baker has a problem, you see, he views marketing like dating, so please don't be surprised when you get that heavy-breathing sales call asking if your wearing any scantily clad clothing...

Song Placements - The De-Evolution Shows Us How to Evolve Like Real Pros
Does your music career feel stagnant? Fans not excited about your music as they used to be? Maybe your fans need something new, something out of the ordinary, something unexpected...

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog!
Hey tired of checking our blog only to see that it hasn't been updated yet? Try following our blog, and let the updates come to you.

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It
See what you missed last week!

Song Placements - Alicia's Keys For Softwares Sake.

2010-03-04T15:09:00.000-08:00

How nice of Alicia Keys to lend Alicia's Keys to the rest of the music community. Grammy award winner Alicia keys has teamed up with KONTAKT to release new software that recreates Alicia Keys' personal grand piano with outstanding authenticity and playability. Now musicians can use Alicia's acclaimed signature piano sound in their own music production, live performance and recreational playing. Using vintage microphones, high-end outboard studio gear and two years worth of meticulous key sampling, Alicia's custom Yamah "C3 Neo" can now be passed down through the community instead of being selfishly hoarded away in some fancy million dollar studio. Next up, Elvis' Guitar.

Song Placements - The Perfect Practice Plan

2010-03-04T13:13:00.000-08:00

Do you practice perfectly? I certainly know I don't. If you're anything like me you might need a little push in the right direction. The howtopractice blog advises you not to open your music and bash your way through it but instead break your practice up into many tiny tasks that you can aim to improve -only then will you see rapid results. The best part of this post is the colorful chart of "perfect practice" that holds your hand through the 5 steps of mastering your pieces. Save the chart to your computer or hand draw it in your practice notebook if you have to. Once you have begun practicing with this colorful piece of wisdom don't be shy to scribble the answers to each of the 5 questions out. Seeing is believing. Plus, writing it down always seems to mentally reinforce ideas. Toodle-loo.

Song Placements - Suspend Vocal Technique Momentarily

2010-03-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

Have You heard those songs when it sounds like the vocalist is whisper-singing and wondered "man how do they do that?". It's not quite singing and its definitely not a full blown whisper, its actually a technique that a lot of Pop vocalists keep in their bag of tricks. Vocal Coach Judy Rodman has some bad news for you wannabes, the trick can either be executed expertly or unfortunately rather poorly. I'm guessing the poor one sounds like somebody choking on a rice grain. To find out more about executing like an expert and delivering vocals with authentic emotion rather than just "singing" head over Judy's blog and check out a couple videos.

Song Placements - The Grateful Dead Knew a Thing or Two About Business.

2010-03-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Some great music business lessons can be learned, not from the suits in the industry, radio or the high powered new media businesses but from "a group of stoners who somehow managed to get it right" -The Grateful Dead. Comparing their business model to that of the Radio Industry's, Inside music media has published some new-media lessons that could be learned from this group, one of the most profitable bands of all time. Let these points be laser sketched into your brain (if you simply can't remember them).

1. Your fans are the key to your ultimate success, but not all your fans. As with every musician you have different levels of fans, cater only to your most loyalist fans because their the ones who are going to purchase your music.

2. Get a team together. Organize your team consisting of the band, road crew, management and other organization members and periodically rotate the final decision makers. Your not the only one with good ideas on how to run things.

3. Give it away until they buy it. Some things in life are uncontrollable (death, natural disasters and file sharing fall into this category) don't try to fight against it. Rather, embrace it and exploit it for your own benefit. The grateful dead exemplified this by not having an hernia upon the realization that their fans were taping their shows. Instead they used it to increase demand and drive the sales of other revenue streams. The same way that humanity doesn't fight against death but instead uses it to make the quality of life better is the same way that musicians should approach the death of the CD. Just because the CD has to die, doesn't mean that your career has to go to.

Song Placements - Are You Taking The Time To Develop

2010-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the book Outliers, is pretty adamant about his 10,000 hour rule. The rule states that in order to master any craft 10,000 + hours of practice must be accumulated and getting in that many hours of practice can take 10 years or more. Basically, you gotta put in your work. The music promotion blog has a great piece on Steve Martin that really attests to the decade journey that one must take to become a celebrity over night. Like many others before and after him, the rocky beginnings of Steve's career was pretty much all the preparation time he needed to hone his skills and perfect his talents. By the time Steve was propelled into great public awareness he was a well oiled machine, ready to deliver the goods. Television (tell-a-lie to your vision), particularly shows like American Idol, are very good at trivializing the years of work that some of our greatest icons have put in to achieve icon status. Record Labels have even been fooled, forgoing artists development for newly signed artists (We've seen how well that works) and favoring of a more gambling type of approach. Their bet on a small percentage of artists to make up for a large percent of failures is exactly what happens when your not prepared, you must rely on chance to provide the returns you need to survive. If you could Imagine for one moment, getting hired for an entry-level position and within a week promoted to CEO of the company, needless to say, that company's going to fail. You don't become the CEO overnight, thats something that takes years of preparation, failures and eventually success! I guess the point that I'm trying to make is this, if you want to increase your chance of success, not being "signed" but actually achieving icon status (being remembered for the many things you've done, not just the first thing) then you have to sleep in that car, perform in front of an audience of empty chairs, bounce from label to label and ultimately fail a couple times. When God finally taps you on the shoulder and says "its go time my child", those 10,000 hours are very kindly going to help you outshine all of the other fakers not even half-way through their 10,000 hour mark. Master your craft and it will show, put in the time and you will be rewarded.

Song Placements - Taking Marketing Cues from Aphex Twin

2010-03-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

Richard James AKA Aphex Twin is a british electronic musician described by the Guardian newspaper as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music" (wikipedia). Known for his outlandish marketing efforts Aphex's '99 release, Windowlicker, went the extra length of embedding his "demonic" face directly into the audio of track #2 (often referred to as "Equation"). It works by analyzing the audio with a spectrograph (note-to-self: keep a spectrograph conveniently stacked by my CD collection) which then decodes the audio and plots it in a frequency/time format. Pretty cool if you ask me! If you're interested in doing some outrageous marketing for your next release then you just might have stumbled across the holy grail, just make sure your fans know what to look out for, and how to look out for it.

Song Placements - Song of the Week

2010-03-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

Week 9 - Tracing Days - Monochrome

Song Placements - Members Monday

2010-03-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

Jeff Peterson Finds Success on Soundclick.com

Songplacements.com member Jeff Petersons is blowing up the internet music charts right now with his songs Nothing happens and Catch Your Eye. Catch Your Eye topped the Soundclick.com Internet music charts february 5th while Nothing happens is fresh off the #1 spot. Head over to his SC page to take a listen to his chart topping songs and support the indie movement. Keep moving forward Jeff we're excited for your music!

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-02-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - ISP - Internet Service Publisher?

2010-02-25T16:27:00.000-08:00

The labels have done it!!!!! They have successfully identified another losing way to "make money" in the digital era. Their ingenious method? Why not try to get the hundreds of Internet Service Providers to agree to charge a monthly fee, on top of your internet bill, to license all the music exchanged through their servers. I don't know why this wasn't thought of before, because it's insanely brilliant. By now I hope you can feel the sarcasm rising from the computer screen. First of all, don't the labels know that it's next to impossible to get hundreds of companies to agree on a decision that really only helps one group win? And who in the heck wants more monthly fees - not I!!!! As part artist and part consumer my message to the labels is this - stop fighting against the people 'cause eventually the people gon win. Help us get our music more easily to more consumers without stealing from us and one day you might wake up check your balance sheet and realize you're at positive cash flow again.

Song Placements - Facebook Doesn't Want to See Abbey Go

2010-02-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

It turns out FB isn't just for your nosy peers, it can actually be used to rally the troops and scare the bejesus out of the record labels. Thousands of facebookers are joining forces to help keep the Abbey Road a working recording studio. The legendary Abbey Road was recently understood to be up for sale due to financial difficulties at the private equity company Terra Firma, which is also home to EMI, which is also home to the Beatles and Pink Floyd. That's until your old buddies from college found out about the blasphemy and quickly spread the word via the Facebook group feature and an online petition. Apparently Facebook was yelling way too loud because EMI wasted no time in releasing a statement vowing not to sell the studio. Even better the property was listed as Grade II status (basically untouchable for life) by Culture Minister Margaret Hodge for its historical merit as it had “produced some of the very best music in the world,” according to English Heritage, the group that moved to get it listed in the first place. Indie artists can now breathe a sigh of relief, as the opportunity to knock a hit album out in this legendary studio is still very much alive. This is great news and all, but did we forget that EMI is on its death bed? What happens if EMI goes under? Wouldn't the studio benefit from owners that were actually making money? I'm just saying...

Song Placements - Getting Paid for Your Music Was So Half a Decade Ago

2010-02-24T15:32:00.000-08:00

In a galaxy far far away where copyright has vanished, music belongs to noone and artists are forced to make money indirectly from their music only one sacred guide can accurately provide insight for music-survival - The future of Music: Manifest for the Digital Music Revolution by David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard! This half-decade-old book about technology is causing quite a stir on its views of digital copyright and music monetization. The Future of Music Media has a partial review of the book which is scrutinized through the biased eye of the music publisher. Some juicy tidbits to come out of this book are Kuseks and Leonhards view that "musicians must give freely"? I don't know exactly what they mean by this, but i'm pretty sure that they are suggesting that artists should always be making music for the love, and that love will lead to fulfillment, when and how though? I guess your gonna have to read the book to find out. Oddly, All this copyright talk didn't stop the boys Kusek and Leonhard from copy-writing their book, and that's not even something that can be easily downloaded...yet. What's your view on the monetization of music? Does Scott G really care, as much as he makes it seems, about the future and value of the artist? or could he really be panicking about the future and value of his job?

Song Placements - Date Your Fans

2010-02-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Indie Music Promotion blogger Bob Baker has a problem, you see, he views marketing like dating, so please don't be surprised when you get that heavy-breathing sales call asking if your wearing any scantily clad clothing (Bad Joke?). All humor aside, Bob Baker just might be making a little sense here. Humans are creatures that act, react and feed off relationships, if we can start treating our fans a little more romantically then maybe we'll have fans that are more engaged with our music and hopefully longer lasting artist-fan relationships - til death do us part. Outlined are Bob Bakers 5 keys to romancing your fans:

1. Don't settle for just anyone -- search for your music fan soul mates
2. Get to know your fans first
3. Don't forget foreplay
(update: Protect your gear, Wrap it up -even though this has nothing to do with the article it just seems like it should be step 3.5)
4. Be a great music lover
5. Ask for another date

Hit the jump to get a more in-depth explanation of each key! And remember to bookmark this article you'll never know when you'll have to revisit the Kama Sutra of music marketing.

Song Placements - The De-Evolution Shows Us How to Evolve Like Real Pros

2010-02-23T15:53:00.000-08:00

Does your music career feel stagnant? Fans not excited about your music as they used to be? Maybe your fans need something new, something out of the ordinary, something unexpected. Maybe its time you thought about re-branding your indie alter ego. Thats exactly what the band Devo just did, do you remember them? Devo, who are no strangers to wacky marketing recently got together to bring back out the incredibly ridic insanely visionary cone hats from their 1980 hit "whip it" but this time the suits were white and the hats were blue. Devo, known for pushing the creative envelope in music, are at it again, experimenting with ideas such as crowd sourcing their new look and feel to embracing social media with the marketing-speak parody video on their site. So far, the re-branding seems to be working with Devo snagging key performances at the 2010 winter olympics and commanding various blog debate. Exploiting your brand is everything in todays music industry; cure fans who have lost interest by taking your brand under the knife to breathe a little life into your new projects.

Song Placements - Poll of the Week

2010-02-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

As an independent musician how do you access new music? Be honessst :)

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-02-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - The Key to Opening Closed Doors in the Industry

Song Placements - Digital Music Sales Slow Down for Record Labels

Song Placements - The Military Musician

Song Placements - My-advertising-Space.com

Song Placements - Practice to Simplify

Song Placements - Preparing the Pre Mastering

Song Placements - Bonnaroo Lineup Announced via Talking Bird

Song Placements - Song of the Week

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog!

2010-02-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - Are The Record Labels Biting the Hand that Feeds Them?

2010-02-18T13:06:00.000-08:00

Radio broadcasters around the country are growing increasingly concerned about the long-standing relationship held with the music industry. Not only are broadcasters subject to payments totaling hundreds of millions of dollars annually to groups like BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, which goes to compensate songwriters and music publishers (thank god!) but now the record labels are demanding an additional "tax" on local radio stations for every song played. The music industry must really be in desperation mode to intentionally put a strain on the over 80 year mutually beneficial relationship that previously had radio promote record labels and artists and generate millions of dollars in music, hospitality, small-business and merchandise sales. Free local radio reaches 236 million listeners/week but record labels seem to not really give a hoot about free promo, pay up or shut down. Mafioso-style.

Song Placements - Empower Yourself

2010-02-18T12:06:00.000-08:00

The Music Power Network (MPN), which is the brainchild of Dave Kusek, (some big instructor at Berklee) credited for being an all-around future music business expert, is coming to a YouTube Channel near you! The MPN will be making some of its educational videos accessible for free via the YouTube to help you achieve success in this ever changing industry. Subscribe to the network if online music-business lessons and advice are your forte. Also be sure to check out the Songplacements Youtube channel, send us links to your songs (twitter.com/songplacements or jsongplacementsk@gmail.com) and we'll add them to our playlists for others to see.

Song Placements - Please Read Before Recording

2010-02-18T10:42:00.000-08:00

Are you getting ready to go back in the studio to knock out the final vocals of your latest project? If the answer is yes, then you might want to take some last moments to study up on things such as posture, breath support, jaw tightness and keeping critique out of the vocal booth. Why? Cause with time being money and all nothing sucks more than being in the booth with an itchy throat, bad takes, the pressure at max and having no clue what to do to regroup and get back in the zone.

Song Placements - Is Myspace Now Officially a Joke?

2010-02-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

The Hitler meme videos that have been floating around the Youtubes picking on helpless victims to parody, just struck again!! This time the new subtitles to the dramatic scene of Hitler's final meltdown are about the firing of Myspace CEO Owen Van Natta after just 9 months on the job. The video is speculated to have been an inside job and repeatedly mentions News Corp Digital Chief Jon Miller and newly promoted co-presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones. Man, Myspace is falling apart over there.

Song Placements - Goal, Grow, Action - 3 Keys to a Connected Following

2010-02-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

If the name Ian Rogers doesn't ring a bell it will soon. Ian Rogers is the CEO of Topsin media, a music client that analyzes how your brand is doing online. The data that his company collects suggests that the campaigns that take the shape of a snowball have a much better chance of showing a return on investment. As someone candidly pointed out in the comments -this is the traditional definition of artist development. Ian goes on to list 3 strategies by the name of goal, grow and action that every success seeking musicians should follow:

1. Goal: Have more fans tomorrow than you had yesterday
2. Grow fan connections as well as dollars. Everyday should mean more email addresses, twitter followers, Facebook fans, and MySpace friends and of course more dollars.
3. Action: Do something small weekly, something big monthly

This seems to directly coincide with yesterdays post about growing your following virally. This can only mean one thing!!!! It must be true.

Song Placements - Protect Your Gear, Wrap it Up

2010-02-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

All that studio equipment you're plunking your hard earned cash into deserves to be protected. Nothing shows just how much you don't use your fancy mixers, keyboards and drum machines like a mass congregation of dust. CompuCover is a company that makes custom-fit covers for your gear. They've been in business since 1979 so you don't have to worry about them vanishing into thin air when you need a replacement and as and added bonus, they're cheaper than the dirt gathered between your Tritons keys. One custom CompuCover sleeve will set you back a cool $16.95 in comparison to the $50-70 price tag the competition boasts. The CompuCover covers traditionally only came in black nylon but have since extended their offerings to a variety of colors and even an outdoor canvas cover material which may prove ideal for touring.

Song Placements - Disconnected Followers Defeat The Whole Purpose

2010-02-16T16:20:00.000-08:00

Growing your brand on the internet is similar to growing a tree in your back yard, it's time consuming and needs to be continually nurtured over a period time. You might not be able to see your tree growing but one day your gonna look outside and have a thick trunk where a small little seed once was. The internet is an intimidating place when growing your brand as a musician. Many artists and bands have already racked up hundreds if not hundreds of thousands of fans, followers, Myspace plays and Youtube views and as a new musician trying to establish yourself online there's nothing you want more than to turn your 100 devoted followers into as many followers as possible, you know, to play catch up. Well marketing blogger Seth Godin says not to get caught up in the hype. Many of these followers are are faux with no real connection to the message. Some experiment's are finding that 200,000 followers are only leading to 25 click-throughs. Twenty-five, yikes! This is primarily due to the following not being grown virally but with strong marketing tactics. Conversely, according to Seths helpful little graph, if you grow your 100 fans like the delicate seedlings that they are it doesn't take long before your true fanbase overtakes the faux disconnected user base and you have a strong sturdy woody online presence.

Song Placements - Song of the Week

2010-02-15T16:10:00.000-08:00

Week 7 - Jacqueline Rose - Never Me

Song Placements - Members Monday

2010-02-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

There is something nostalgic in his tone that no matter where he is Andy Frasco seems right at home. From the suburbs of West Los Angeles, the 22 year old blues musician has a drive that could steer him straight to the moon with enough energy left over to do a little dance once he’s made it. Frasco has shared the stage with such acts as John Mayer, Katie Herzig, Butch Walker, The Flobots, Spill Canvas, Suburban Legends, Nural, Ryan Gillmor, Tyler Hilton, Berlin, and many others with more yet to come. This year Andy Frasco plans to continue touring the country and blazing a path which will someday carry him home.

Show your support and check out the grand unveiling of his new HD music video on Youtube. It's crispy crispy clear.

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-02-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog!

Song Placements - From the Information Superhighway to the Abbey Road

Song Placements - 10 Huge Tips for Breaking into the Composing Game

Song Placements - The Indie SoundScan

Song Placements - Napsters Impact a Decade Later

Song Placements - Learning Musical Notes in a Flash

Song Placements - The Grammy's Aren't MY Music Industry

Song Placement - Just Incase You Missed It

Song Placements - The Key to Opening Closed Doors in the Industry

2010-02-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

Eric Beall hit it out of the park this time with his incredible article walking you through just exactly how you would make a connection on the other side of the big record label doors. His advice involves selling your music with the same tenacity and determination that goes into creating your music. Eric offers advice for walking-around unsolicited mail policies -with the drop of a name, direction for who to actually approach with your recorded material, finding the people who's tastes are suited to your music and always looking for the alternative way into a project. This article does such a good job of explaining how to get your music heard by label reps that i'm sure you will start applying this knowledge right away! I know i am.

Song Placements - Digital Music Sales Slow Down for Record Labels

2010-02-11T14:00:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting one. Remember when the record labels were on Apples heels for control over a more flexible pricing structure, one that would see prices determined on the hype of a release rather than the 0.99 cent standard synonymous with the Apple brand? Well ever since Apple conceded in allowing labels to increase popular tracks from .99 cents to $1.29 digital revenue has slowed. Warner saw an 8 percent growth in the holiday quarter verses 20 percent the year before while digital album downloads grew 5 percent in december, down 10 percent in the sept quarter and 11 percent in the june quarter. Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman seemed optimistic though saying that the price change has been a "net positive" for warner, but agreed that a 30 percent price increase during a recession probably wasn't the best move. No duh. Surprisingly CDs still remain the top-selling format, with 65 percent of overall sales.

Song Placements - The Military Musician

2010-02-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

You hear about members of your family, friends, friends-of-friends enlisting in the military everyday you see the recruiting commercials and from time to time you can see them on CNN in the background. But helping your country isn't just about fighting, you can play for your country too. One opportunity that is never widely publicized is the military path for the working musician. Each branch of the United States military-Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard-employs several full time music ensembles and the savvymusician has a solid rundown on a couple of these ensembles complete with the opportunities available and the pros and cons of undertaking such opportunities. Inspire the troops!

Song Placements - My-advertising-Space.com

2010-02-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Myspace is back at it again, trying to fix things. Ever since they dropped the ball on their no-money making music service, myspace music, they've been at listeners throats with all the advertising they can muscle up. First there was that annoying thing that started happening when trying to get a decent session out of an artists myspace player. I vivdly remember a picture of lil wayne popping up and stopping the music every time i tried to enjoy a couple songs in succession -thats annoying and if I'm annoyed then you the MySpace artist trying to get your music heard should be really annoyed. Now there's word of experimentation with more "30 second audio ads that must play before users can listen to free streaming music". Isn't myspace bogged down enough with bad user html and full page million dollar advertisements? I guess my biggest worry is that more ads will just decrease the number of listeners trying to get an enjoyable experience from the myspace music player. Not good for independent artists.

Song Placements - Practice to Simplify

2010-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Occasionally every instrument playing musician stumbles across a difficult bar or two during practice that at first seems impossible to play correctly. The how to practice guide goes over the essence of simplification, and how it is applied in music. Music simplification is a method of practice that visually breaks music notation down to its simplest parts so that difficult measure may be understood and grasped much more easily. The 7 step example covers removing dynamics and other markings, getting rid of tricky notes, holding repeated notes and eventually putting it all back together. Simplification is a technique thats meant to increase your sight reading ability by allowing you to learn tricky sections more quickly and easily. Of course this post doesn't do the method justice without the pretty pictures.

Song Placements - Preparing the Pre Mastering

2010-02-09T17:23:00.000-08:00

Last week we saw a lot of interest in our mastering explained article. Some readers even took the conversation to the comments to express their mastering knowledge for the sake of education. This week we thought we would bring you the prequel of mastering explained, preparing your songs for the mastering process. These tips are in no way a DIY guide for getting your songs to maximum killer quality. Mastering should be done by the master, mixing should be done by the professional, let these tips serve only as a guideline for being able to participate in the conversation with whomever you've enlisted to take your recording to the next level. That being said, here's a quick rundown of the 8 points to consider in the mixing process before taking your songs to the master. Live by them.

1. No limiting or mastering plug-ins on your mix buss.
2. Give yourself -3 to -6 db of headroom.
3. Record at the highest bit rate possible.
4. Don’t add dither.
5. Clean up your tracks.
6. Relax on the reverb.
7. Send songs as WAV or AIFF files, not MP3s.
8. Never mix and master at the same place.

head over to the musicproducersforum to learn more about each of these 8 steps and why they are important when considering the best quality possible for your songs. We encourage you to add some rules to this list via the comments if you feel some important pre-mastering rules have been omitted. Thanks!

Song Placements - Bonnaroo Lineup Announced via Talking Bird

2010-02-09T16:01:00.000-08:00

The Bonnaroo music + arts festival has employed some impressive marketing to get the hype out about its 2010 lineup. How impressive? Well lets just say they've been slowly rolling out the 2010 roster with the help of their MySpace page and an animated cuckoo clock that reveals another act every 6 minutes or so. During the course of the day artists will also be making their own announcements through the Bonnaroo cuckoo. Acts that have mystically appeared from the mouth of the cuckoo include: Cross Canadian Ragweed, John Foogerty, Medeski Martin & Wood, Weezer, The Flaming Lips with Stardeath and Wite Dwarfs perfroming The Dark Side of the Moon and the Avett Brothers. Head over to the Bonnaroo MySpace page to watch the timely rollouts and see just how long you can wait in-between announcements before your ADD kicks in and forces you to destroy your monitor.

Song Placements - Song of the Week

2010-02-08T11:30:00.000-08:00

Week 6 - The Outline - Swinging Away

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-02-05T10:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - Get Famous Enough and Fans could Actually be on Tour to See You!

Song Placements - Digital Music Meets Home Theater

Song Placements - Don't go it Alone, Wait for Backup

Song Placements - This Year Re-Evaluate the Reasons You Create

Song Placements - The Ass Kicker

Song Placements - Money Owed that Noone Knowed

Song Placements - Mastering Explained

Song Placements - The Power Path and Performance Vocal Technique

Song Placements - The Industry's gone Live

Song Placements - Members Monday

Song Placements - Poll of the Week

Song Placements - Song of the Week

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog!

2010-02-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - From the Information Superhighway to the Abbey Road

2010-02-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of the legendary Abby Road Studios? If your not familiar, tons of great albums have come from Abby Roads including albums from Radiohead, Muse the Zombies and now the Grammy nominated Panic At The Disco. (Interesting fact of the day) Panic At The Disco grew their own audience by distributing their music through the internet and eventually that online buzz lead to their discovery. The band recently shot a beautiful documentary from the legendary studio complete with some great live recording and some interesting insights and discussions with the band. Hit the jump to check out Part 1 of the documentary and get ready to feel inspired! This could be your band soon.

Song Placements - 10 Huge Tips for Breaking into the Composing Game

2010-02-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

There is no magic bullet, i repeat, there is no magic bullet to getting a foot into the composing industry, but what you might be able to find is a healthy formula that when applied - just makes sense.
www.scorecastonline.com has posted 10 huge tips on getting into the composing game and since TV and Film is a large part of our business we feel that these tips could definitely help you land more placements. Every tip provides extreme value but I'll leave you with tip number 9, which i consider to be the most important factor in your formula of success. Don't give up your dreams.

Song Placements - The Indie SoundScan

2010-02-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

Measurement is the key to success and in the recording industry this measurement is called (insert intimidating music here) - THE SOUNDSCAN. Fortunately, I've never had to judge my artistic worth based off the Soundscan, but for those of us lucky and unlucky enough to under go this system of tracking it can be a psychological torment, sucking the creativity and positivity right out of a project. Happily we have a new form of measurement that shifts from pessimism to optimism. READ MORE

Song Placements - Napsters Impact a Decade Later

2010-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

If you watched the Grammy Awards Sunday night then you probably witnessed the Academy's plea to US music consumers, encouraging the purchase of "great" music. Cnn Money took a 10 year look at the RIAA's 8 billion dollar decline, the free music movement and most importantly, the label anti-christ, Napster. According to music analyst Songal Gandhi the RIAA had a 4 year gap between their win over Napster and the birth of iTunes to really monetize on consumers behavior and nip the "free music expectation" in the bud, unfortunately for them, they were fast asleep.

Song Placements - Learning Musical Notes in a Flash

2010-02-02T16:32:00.000-08:00

As musicians, have we put much thought about the ways in which we will pass down or knowledge of music to our children? It always surprises me when i look at a piece of music and realize that this is a language not everybody knows how to speak. There are many acronyms and mnemonics that help facilitate the learning of an instrument but they don't encourage the instant note recognition that flash cards do. Try out these simple flash card naming and timing games with your little ones and you just might find your overall musical skills increase as a result!

Song Placements - The Grammy's Aren't MY Music Industry

2010-02-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

I can honestly say that watching well over 2 hours of the 2010 Grammy broadcast (thank you justin .tv) actually made me feel a little bit out of touch with todays mainstream music. Gone, was the incredible feeling of wanting to be apart of the celebration, replaced with skepticism and doubt. I couldn't help but feel like every airing minute, the Grammys were trying to convince me of something. Perhaps they were trying to convince me that they still have money to blow on a night full of elaborate duets, where spectacle overshadows out-of-tune auto-tuned performances. Whatever it was, it seemed to me like the Grammys were doing a bit too much, for a bit too long? Some musicians walked away from sundays Celebration feeling liberated, while others were left disappointed and speechless. Even Trent Reznor of the Nine Inch Nails chimned in on sunday evenings events nicely in one tweet "Grammy asshole weekend in LA. Yuck..." What was your take on Sundays Grammys? We'd love to hear.

Song Placement - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-01-29T22:00:00.000-08:00

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog

Song Placements - The IPhone is now officially Prosumer Gear

Song Placements - Is Fan Funding the New Advance?

Song Placements - Traditionally I Wouldn't Post This

Song Placements - $2 Could Improve Your Speakers Monitoring Quality

Songplacements - Country Music Hall of Famer Carl Smith Passes Away

SongPlacements- Never Think of Potential Revenue Streams Again!!!

Song Placements - Are You Living Life Happy Healthy & Wealthy?

Song Placements - Grammy Winning Producer/Engineer Speaks in NY Tonight

Songplacements.com - The Life and Death of Myspace Records

Songplacements - Poll of the Day

Songplacements.com - First In-House Performance of 2010

Songplacements.com - Members Monday

Songplacements - Just Incase You Missed It

Get Famous Enough and Fans could Actually be on Tour to See You!

2010-01-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

Matin Contempree is the driving force behind the concept of Rock and Pop tours, which gives music fans the opportunity to tour locations, clubs, venues and studios where music legends have created moments in history. The very first tour, the 'Good Vibrations Tour of Los Angeles' is kicking off in April (2010). Offered is "the chance to delve behind the music industry: to hear the music live, taste the excitement and experience the iconic locations and famous venues where rock and pop history was created and still lives on". But the real question that everyone wants to know is, will there be groupies for the fans? is so, i might be going on tour next year!

Song Placements - Digital Music Meets Home Theater

2010-01-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

You just made a new CD, your goal: get your single to into as many itunes playlists as possible. Getting into digital playlists such as iTunes could be the same as getting your newly released CD into Walmart (and other retailers). No longer is digital music confined to the iPod or computer, the AirStream now gives you a comfortable way to access your iTunes music library from your home theater system, all without lugging your desktop (and it's cords) from your cramped corner office. If this is the source component of the future then digital music just made a new best friend. The AirStream WM-10, which is billed as a 21st century, wireless digital audio source component, can easily be configured to your traditional audio/home theatre system, and produce sound quality that is as good or better than that produced by high-end CD players. READ MORE

Song Placements - Don't go it Alone, Wait for Backup

2010-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

The machinery of culture is constantly changing and i hate to say it but that means as a creator of music you gotta be constantly changing too. To help soften the blow of the many more cultural changes down the road, try surrounding yourself with a real social network of musicians and partners that may be able to understand certain shifts faster or more easily than yourself. In the industry this is called "a team" and could be a good first step in battling the market changes of the future. Round up the troops.

Song Placements - This Year Re-Evaluate the Reasons You Create

2010-01-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

Do you make music for the money or because you love to create? I personally create music because at birth a micro chip was genetically implanted into my skull, and since then music and i have shared a special bond (at least i think thats what happened). I actually feel that monetizing your music can kind-of hurt the art, especially If you adopt the notion that the reason you create is all about the money. You start to think of your music strictly as business and then somewhere along the lines the emotion dies. I would be lying if i said that i didn't want to make more money from the music i create (money makes the world go round) but it's also a firm belief of mine that if you do something for the love and you are truly blessed with god given talent, then the money will fall in line with the love and the love will never be perverted. At least in a perfect world.

And they lived happily ever after. The end.

Song Placements - The Ass Kicker

2010-01-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

Do you want a little more kick on your records? The "MXL A-55 Kicker" which is also a visual reference to the phrase "ass kicker" is a dynamic mic intended for use on kick drums. The mic has been making a lot of noise (or should i say picking up a lot of noise) since its release last year. The recordinghacks website has a little break down of the mic, which boasts features such as the lowest mic sensitivity ever seen, tailored EQ and as an added bonus, you get to walk into guitar center asking for a mic with the name "ass kicker", how great is that. If you know any other menacing names of recording gear, drop 'em in the comments. We'd love to hear.

Song Placements - Money Owed that Noone Knowed.

2010-01-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

Are you a member of SoundExchange? Actually, let me rephrase, do you have songs on myspace? If you do then head over to SoundExchange and grab yourself a membership. SoundExchange is a non-profit performance rights organization that collects statutory royalties from satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), internet radio and other streaming platforms. Myspace recently teamed up with SoundExchange to help identify the more than 25,000 major, indie and unsigned artists who are registered with myspace but not with SoundExchange. Collectively there's about $14 mill in royalties sitting in a SoundExchange bank-account, with your name on it, claim your share.

Song Placements - Mastering Explained

2010-01-26T17:33:00.000-08:00

For those who are still convinced that "mixing and mastering" is one word; mastering professional Adrian Carr of ACMastering recently posted a good article explaining mastering in fairly simple terms . One thing that really helped me to understand mastering back when it was just a big question-mark, was the main differences in file type used by each technique. When mastering a song your are working off the exported two-track of the final mix (that Wav or Aiff file all your hard work went into), while with mixing you are working specifically with each individual track laid during the making of your song (Your song is still on the sequencer at this point). This includes each individual voice, instrument or sound effect that has it's own unique track (as my engineering friend, Kiel would say - Working with Each. Individual. Sound. Separately). Seeing as it made sense to me, i hope it - if even a little, made sense to you :)

Song Placements - The Power Path and Performance Vocal Technique

2010-01-26T17:00:00.000-08:00

Power, Path and Performance is a three pronged approach that if maximized could give artists more voice than they could ever need. The approach which centers around breath, open throat and authentic communication of message are three synergetic areas that when mastered can prove to be a dangerous weapon in your industry tool bag. Judy Rodman who created this technique goes into some detail on her blog about the origin of her method and the major issues that can arise each of the three vocal areas READ MORE

Song Placements - The Industry's gone Live

2010-01-26T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've been saying it for sometime now; playing shows is everything in the future of music. It was important in the past, because it strengthened the personal relationship between artists and their fans, but its even more important now because its going to be the primary way for artists to actually make fans and sell them things. Looking to get a deal? Play shows. Want more exposure? Play shows. Wanna gain experience? Play shows. Do you want to be successful? Play...you guessed it. Small shows, big shows, paid shows, free shows, street shows (I found one of my favorite bands at a street performance), house shows, showwws period. Live Nation and Ticketmaster look like they've got it all figured it out with their monopoly merger finally judge approved. One single entity is now capable of managing the revenues from artists end-end: artist management, bookings, venue ownership, tickets, merchandising, and recording all within the Live Nation Entertainment Inc. scope. Recorded music revenue in the US is on a decline, and i for one haven't reeally bought a cd for awhile, but what i have had is growing urge for a heine and a kick-ass live performance. Where are all the live shows at?

Song Placements - Members Monday

2010-01-25T22:30:00.000-08:00

Marc Wymore - Ready to See His Music Make a Difference with his Newest Song Fall for You.

On November 29, 2009, Four uniformed police officers were shot and killed in a bloody Sunday morning attack at a Lakewood, WA coffee shop called Forza. Weeks later over 20,000 attended a memorial service at the Tacoma Dome. The murder left 4 widowed and 9 children without a parent. A few days later, Marc wrote the song "Fall For You" and brought together an ensemble of musicians/producers/engineers to help record it. CCI Solutions donated 2000 cds to be manufactured and sold for $5 each with all proceeds going to the families, and KING 5 News headlined the story. If you've been touched by this senseless act of murder and want to help, you can pick up a CD at any of the 23 participating Forza coffee shops and Nordstrom shopping centers. So far over 1500 albums have been sold and thousands of Youtube downloads have been amassed.

Song Placements - Poll of the Week

2010-01-25T14:30:00.000-08:00

When is the average working part of your day? This is the time that you spend checking your social, writing and responding to emails, entering contests, learning about your industry etc.

Song Placements - Song of the Week

2010-01-25T12:30:00.000-08:00

Week 5: Ronnie Lewis Jr. - Feels Like Angels

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Songplacements - Studio Singing Tips and Tricks

SongPlacements.com - The Taliban Suppresses Human Emotion By Banning Music

Songplacements.com - Avoid Being Labeled as Spam

Song Placements - Get Scouted By Your Peers

Songplacements.com - NARAS can do for YOU

SongPlacements.com - Grooveshark, Bad for Labels, Good For Indie's

The Leveling - Moore's law of Music

SongPlacements.com - Ion Music Keyboard Dock for the iPhone

SongPlacements.com - Indie Producers Embrace Live Performance

songplacements.com - Focus is Power and Power is Focus

Songplacements - IMA Nominates SP Member for Best Concept Album

Song Placements - Song of the Week

Songplacements.com - Poll of the Day

SongPlacements.com - Lands Placement at Sundance 2010

Song Placements - Just Incase You Missed It

Song Placements - Save Time, Follow Our Blog

2010-01-21T14:00:00.001-08:00

Song Placements - The IPhone is now officially Prosumer Gear

2010-01-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

The iPhone has been getting it's fair share of prosumer love lately. Last week we touched on the Ion Music Keyboard Dock for the iPhone, and now this week Akai, famous for its line of MPCs, has released the 25 key, 3 engine, virtual analogue iPK25 keyboard controller/sythstation for the iPhone and iPod touch. The iPK25 is complete with a mixer, 8 voice polyphany for drum and synth and can also be used as a stand alone midi controller for the software of your choice. The iPhone is slowly coming to the aid of the indie music community, and with the iPK25 dropping, i'm guessing it's only the beginning. Hit the jump to see the controller in action.

Song Placements - Is Fan Funding the New Advance?

2010-01-21T12:00:00.000-08:00

Long gone are the days of million dollar advances. Today only a fraction of a fraction of that number is needed to finance and promote a new project. Just take a look at the NYC rock band Kill The Alarm, who recently rose $15,000 in 6 weeks by tapping into their social network and email lists. If fan funding is something that peaks your interest then you might want to take a deeper look at Kickstarter.com - my humble advice, establish a network first.

Song Placements - Traditionally I Wouldn't Post This

2010-01-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

Don't let previously defined genres and cast-in-stone nay-sayers hold you back from your freedom of expression and achieving your vision. The africanabc blog has a general post on tradition that one would say could easily parallel to the music biz.

Song Placements - $2 Could Improve Your Speakers Monitoring Quality

2010-01-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

The midrange and tweeter cabinets on B&W Nautilus speakers are shaped like teardrops for reasons other than fashion. In fact, containing the driver inside a sphere that is pulled back to a point rather than a typical wide baffle box provides significant sound quality benefits. READ MORE

Songplacements - Country Music Hall of Famer Carl Smith Passes Away

2010-01-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

Master honky-tonk stylist Carl Smith, the dashing “Country Gentleman” who was among the most successful Nashville-based artists of the 1950s, died Saturday, Jan. 16 at his home in Franklin. The Country Music Hall of Famer, who gained notoriety after Radio exposure on WSM and his tours with Hank Williams and others, was 82. He will be missed, RIP.

SongPlacements- Never Think of Potential Revenue Streams Again!!!

2010-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

David Sherbow, music business visionary has a complete outline of ALL POTENTIAL ARTIST REVENUE STREAMS. The list covers publishing, digital sales, merchandise, live performances, sponsorships, endorsements, fan clubs etc. It'd be great if this list could actually link to articles that explain how to work the revenue of each stream. Hopefully we'll see this in the "All Potential Artist Rev Streams 2.0".

Song Placements - Are You Living Life Happy Healthy & Wealthy?

2010-01-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

I'm sure by now you've probably been hit with a countless barrage of goal-setting blogs and resolution-maintaining news clippings since the 2010 ball dropped; I know i have. The truth is though, through all of the holiday "inspiration" and countless twitter updates, nothing has really struck a chord with me like the HAPPY HEALTHY WEALTHY game. READ MORE to find out how you can play.

Song Placements - Grammy Winning Producer/Engineer Speaks in NY Tonight

2010-01-19T15:40:00.000-08:00

Grammy winning music producer Steve Lillywhite is providing music professionals the opportunity to gain insight and hear about his career path, and ongoing journey through his long career. The evenings' interview is followed by a question-and-answer period that could prove to be a much more satisfying experience live than read from a website. If your a producer or engineer in the NY area then this might be worth checking out. It all goes down this evening from 630pm to 830pm and is free to Recording Academy members and $30.00 for everyone else. Keep me posted if anyone is able to attend, i would love to get the inside scoop.

Songplacements.com - The Life and Death of Myspace Records

2010-01-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

Myspace Records started in 2005 as a way for the media giant to sign artists directly from the social networking site. 5 years and many failed attempts later, Myspace Records has officially closed the doors and fizzled away, back to the 1s and 0s in which it was conceived. Does the failure of Myspace records cement the fact that it is no longer economically feasible for traditional methods of CD recording and distribution? What do you think?

Songplacements - Poll of the Day

2010-01-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

Pick Your Favorite

Songplacements.com - First In-House Performance of 2010

2010-01-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

The Andy Frasco Band came through the Songplacements HQ to deliver the first in-house performance of 2010! Hit the jump to hear the audio.

If your interested in playing for our staff, contact your songplacements rep.

Songplacements.com - Members Monday

2010-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Johnny Rodgers Nightlife Winner
Tue, Jan. 12 2010
Johnny Rodgers was announced as the winner of Nightlife's Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist and will be featured in the awards ceremony and performance at NYC's Town Hall. Christine Ebersole, Michael Feinstein and Cheyenne Jackson are also among the winners of the 2010 Nightlife Awards, to be presented Monday, January 25 at 7pm at Town Hall. Bruce Vilanch will host the ceremony.
Rodgers, who tied with co-winner Baby Jane Dexter for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist, will join other winners in performing in lieu of acceptance speeches. Christine Ebersol won for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist in a Major Engagement, and Feinstein and Jackson, winners as Outstanding Cabaret Duo or Group in a Major Engagement, will also perform at the ceremony. Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, who will be honored as Outstanding Cabaret Duo or Group. Other winners in the cabaret categories include Gretchen Reinhagen (Outstanding Cabaret Comedy or Characterization) and Anne Steele (Outstanding Piano Bar Entertainer). The Nightlife Awards also honor jazz and comedy and these winners include Kurt Elling, Sheila Jordan, Hank Jones, Bad Plus, Louis CK, John Mulaney and the duo, Slovin and Allen. In addition to news of the 2010 Nightlife Award winners, it's been announced that previous nightlife award winners John Piazzarelli and Jessica Molaskey will perform alongside the previously announced James Barbour, Jim Caruso, Jeffry Denman, Tovah Feldshuh, Howard Fishman, Nellie McKay, Marc Kudisch, and Noah Racey & the NY Tap Ensemble.

For the latest on Johnny Rodgers, including his selection by Jazz at Lincoln Centerand the US State Dept for their Rhythm Road Music Ambassador tour, visit www.johnnyrodgers.com .

Learn More About Members Monday

Songplacements - Just Incase You Missed It

2010-01-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

SongPlacements.com - Save Time...Follow Our Blog

Songplacements.com - Myspace Dodges Payment to Imeem Artists

Song Placements - Sample Some of This Knowledge

Songplacements - On the Street, Words Just Don't Cut It

Songplacements - Use the Unconventional to Strengthen the Conventional

Songplacements.com - 31 Gift Ideas for Musicians This Christmas

Song Placements - The Internet and Digital Music Tag-Team Car Radio

Songplacements.com - Pretending not to Know Only Hurts the Pretender

Songplacements.com - Four Major Label Heads Take a Deep Look into the State of the Industry

Songplacements.com - Poll of the Day

Song Placements: Song of the Week

Songplacements - Just Incase You Missed It

Songplacements - Studio Singing Tips and Tricks

2010-01-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

If you're used to singing with your instrument in hand, how do you protect your voice when your studio session is set up to only record voice for the day? Vocal Coach, Judy Rodman suggests "pretending" that your instrument is still there. Johnny Cash's studio tech used to take the strings out of his guitar and give it to him to hold while singing because his producer noticed that he sang better when attached to his guitar. It all goes back to muscle memory.

SongPlacements.com - The Taliban Suppresses Human Emotion By Banning Music

2010-01-14T11:00:00.000-08:00

Suite101.com has deduced that there is human emotions in music, thanks guys i would have never guessed. The article did go on to reveal a little something that may have come as a surprise to the rest of us however, did you know that the Taliban banned music in their band (too many great opportunities to say banned), hit the jump if you want to find out a little more about the history of music by professors in cognitive science and ethnomusicologists.

Songplacements.com - Avoid Being Labeled as Spam

2010-01-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

I've talked about using iTunes Imixes to help increase exposure to your music, but thats not the end all. Eleetmusic has a couple more ways in which you can subtly get users to recognize your music as talent rather than spam.

Song Placements - Get Scouted By Your Peers

2010-01-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Musicscout.com could help your band get discovered during one of your killer performances. Musicscout is an App that has just been released for the android and iPhone market that enables music enthusiasts to express their thoughts and sentiments about the band they're currently watching. Now all you gotta do is convince all of your fans to download the App and give you a great rating everywhere you go. READ MORE

Songplacements.com - NARAS can do for YOU

2010-01-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

If the name NARAS doesn't ring a bell then maybe the GRAMMYS does. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is responsible for Music's Biggest Night, but the organization is also noteable for helping members receive additional benefits such as networking and exclusive behind the scenes opportunities. Read More to find out how becoming a NARAS member has it's perks. BTW the membership is only 100 dollars, that's pretty damn good!

SongPlacements.com - Grooveshark, Bad for Labels, Good For Indie's

2010-01-13T09:46:00.000-08:00

Grooveshark is a music streaming service that is accessed through your browser, and is driven by users who upload their record collections. Currently Universal has initiated legal action against the service for failing to pay royalties, which is bad news for the shark. The good news comes to indie musicians looking to capitalize on increased exposure. Since it is a free service to access, indie bands can upload their music to the service in hopes of extending their fan base. Users who wish to purchase your music can also be referred to Amazon or Itunes. In 2010 have your music in more places.

The Leveling - Moore's law of Music

2010-01-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

The leveling is a theory that has been going on since the beginning of mankind. As technology becomes cheaper to produce, eventually we will all gain access to the same tools. No longer will those with the most resources have the most opportunity. In the music/creative world, the first moment of leveling occured with the advent of ProTools (Digital Studios), then TuneCore (Digital Distribution) and finally Social Media (Digital Promotion). Today more musicians have access to the same ingredients, how will your recipe stand out. READ MORE

SongPlacements.com - Ion Music Keyboard Dock for the iPhone

2010-01-12T17:30:00.000-08:00

There's an App for everything these days and soon there's going to be hardware for every app, are you intrigued yet? Ion has just released this beautiful 25-key MIDI keyboard, that is confirmed to be open to application developers. Would you be interested in hooking your iPhone up to a midi keyboard or will nothing replace the satisfaction of plugging your keyboard into a mac and using your favorite software studio.

SongPlacements.com - Indie Producers Embrace Live Performance

2010-01-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

Many bands are now using protools to record themselves, foregoing the traditional producer. But that doesn't mean that independent production studios should close down shop, instead many small working studios are starting to rely on the live scene for some additional income and increased references. The bottom-line, diversify your production skills and your studio might be getting more business in the non-touring-season than you originally planned for.

songplacements.com - Focus is Power and Power is Focus

2010-01-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

If you were a little shy of completing your goals for 2009 then maybe refining your focus should be the mission for 2010. Multitasking is known to be good for doing many things at once, but generally sub-par results are achieved. Pick one thing that you want to improve this year, break it down into manageable chunks and find out how a narrowed focus can put you way ahead of your fellow multitaskers.

Songplacements - IMA Nominates SP Member for Best Concept Album

2010-01-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Congratulations go out to Songplacement member Julianna Raye who has been nominated for best concept album at the Independent Music Awards. Follow the link to cast your vote for her and help support independent music!

Song Placements wishes you the very best this year!

2010-01-06T14:35:00.000-08:00