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January 30, 2006
5 Sure Fire Ways To Get Radio Play For Your “Independent” Music!
You have to find radio airplay time if you’re going to be heard and we’re not just talking the local college campus. The trick is called promotion. Now that doesn’t mean you just put your press kit in an envelope with a demo and hope they take pity on you. Perhaps you call a station and they give you the standard pitch of, “Send it and if we like it we’ll put you in rotation.” After a few months of never hearing your music, you automatically think you’re not worthy.
First, don’t buy that. You’re one of hundreds, maybe even thousands depending on your city. Your disc will probably end up in the trash or, for more enterprising DJ's, on Ebay in a one-cent CD sale. If you want to be heard and make potential sales, you have to stand out from the crowd, and in this jewel of an article, I’ll show you Five(5) Knock ‘em Dead Ways to Do Just That!:
#1 - Get your CD into the right hands. The intern that’s too busy to getting coffee or typing up a report for the station manager isn’t going to be the one making the airplay decision. So find out who the head honcho is in that department and touch base with them. If the club you’re playing at charges an admission or you have a show coming up offer to send the stations tickets to give away to listeners. Now keep in mind you can’t give the tickets to the staff, since that’s illegal and called payola, but you can offer free giveaway items to your potential audience.
#2 - If you’ve got one station in your pocket, then drop names. Let them know that WABC is playing your music and it’s getting a great response.
#3 - Make genuine friends in the business. If you’ve got a disc jockey that’s got you in rotation and really likes your sound, get to know them. Find out why they enjoy it and see if they’ve gotten any responses from listeners. If they haven’t, ask if perhaps they might Q & A their callers about your music so you get a feel for your target audience. It’s not a bad idea to ask them for a testimonial or quote if they’re well known in your area if you know them personally. People help people. That’s a fact so if you treat your area disc jockeys like a living and breathing human and not dollar signs, that’s a foot in the door. Another good source is club owners. If they play your music and the fans go nuts ask them to say a few words about your sound that you can pass along to prospective stations, but be sure to sit down for a drink with them. Ask them about the picture of him and the woman and two kids behind the Magic Kingdom. Don’t be fake, but be genuinely interested.
#4 - Network. Find out if someone you know (or someone they know) has connections to the music stations. Remember six degrees of separation - you’re only six people away from knowing anyone on the planet and yes that includes station managers, concert promoters and record execs. The trick is it takes a great deal of work and time, but if you’re serious, it’s well worth it.
#5 - Go local, state, national. Don’t think you’re going to skip your local and state stations and be the next Matchbox Twenty. It doesn’t work that way. Start small and then get big.
Making contacts and getting names can be tough, that’s why you should start with a tested and proven music industry resource like The Industry Yellow Pages - Music Industry Contact Directory at http://www.TheIndustryYellowPages.com
The TIYP is helpful and loaded with contacts you can start using immediately without doing all the legwork yourself.
About the Author:
This article was written by Ty Cohen, the music industry's most recognizable voice! Ty is the C.E.O of Platinum Millennium Publishing, Platinum Millennium Records as well as owner of www.MusicContracts101.com and www.MusicIndustrySuccess.com . Some of his work includes: books, directories, mini-courses and software programs including the titles: "How to Make a Fortune in the Music Industry by Doing it Yourself" and "How to Make $500,000.00 "or More" A Year in the Music Industry by Doing it Yourself". For nearly a decade, Ty Cohen's Get Amplified! Newsletter and series of Free Music Industry Success “Mini Courses” has helped over 40,000 independent musicians, singers, rappers, composers, record label owners, producers, managers, agents and others reach their music business goals. Using a unique combination of tested and proven music business success resources, which includes a series of books, directories, software programs, videos, seminars and newsletters, our goal is to educate and empower musical individuals just like you with the tools needed to succeed! To find out more about Ty Cohen, his services, products and how he may be able to help you succeed in the music industry go to http://www.MusicIndustrySuccess.com and sign up for his free limited edition music industry success 10-part “Mini-Course”, it will work wonders for you and best of all, it’s FREE, but EXTREMELY VALUABLE!
independent music independent musician music business
January 19, 2006
CoverScout: Mac iTunes Cover Art Search Program
Freshly released, CoverScout 1.0 provides a clean, simple way to search and grab album artwork for your iTunes music library. The non-registered version only shows 10 albums, for $8 you can register and have the whole enchilada.
I gave it a try and it worked well, searching Google and Amazon for images, then clicking "Set" to apply the artwork, which is embedded into the song files. Thumbs up.
cd cover design cd design cddesign coverart iTunes album art
January 13, 2006
Album Art in Windows Media Player: Now and Later
NOW
Here's a good article about managing album cover art in Windows Media Player. It discusses viewing album art in the full-mode player, retrieving album art from the internet, replacing incorrect cover art and creating your own.
LATER
Next generation Windows Media Player 11 for Microsoft's Vista OS has had quite an overhaul from previous WMP versions (see pic below). Most notably is it's tight integration with URGE, MTV Network's upcoming digital music service. You will be able to view your library by cover art and create "stacks" for custom organization. WMP 11 will automatically retrieve cover art from the internet, probably from the URGE service.
MORE INFO
Windows Media Player 11 preview info
Video from CNET showing WMP 11 in action
Windows Media Player cover art album art
January 11, 2006
Automatically embedding album cover art into iTunes song files
iCoverArt is a utility for Windows that automates the task of adding cover art to an existing iTunes library of songs. The screenshot below is from the Maximized Software website, developers of iCoverArt.
iCoverArt is for Windows and requires iTunes 4.5 or later. The latest version (1.1) adds the ability to delete cover art already embedded in song files. It can be fully registered for the bargain price of $5.
cd design cover art iTunes album art
January 06, 2006
Album cover designer spotlight: Winston Smith
Winston Smith is an artist who arguably created an entire design genre. His cover designs for The Dead Kennedys, Green Day and others have really defined the rebellious cut-and-paste montage look so commonly associated with punk rock. Green Day's Insomniac cover and The Dead Kennedys 'bladed' logo are his most notable design works.
Smith has completed more than 30 cd cover designs since 1980, but his work also includes major magazine illustrations, posters and compilation books of his art. He uses no computers to create his designs. His tools are old magazines, catalogs, a razor knife and glue - which he uses to create art with biting social commentary. So well composed are the designs that they sometimes appear to be a painting. He seems most fond of using images from the 1950s, mashed-up and combined in a way to turn the innocent, happy feeling of the original pictures into rebellious, authority-questioning, psychedelic collages.
Sometimes humorous, always thought provoking, Winston Smith's art represents a milestone in the realm of cover design.
Winston Smith cd cover designer
January 03, 2006
52 Controversial Album Cover Designs
Quixote over at rateyourmusic.com has put together a list of album cover designs that caused a stir when they were released, going all the way back to the mid 1950s. A short description of each controversy is also included, and how a design compromise was reached (or not!).
check it out: Shock & Awe (Banned Cover Art)
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