With the help of BMI’s Nina Pacent, I’ve put together a list of ten things for you to examine when critiquing your songs, in order to make them both lyrically and melodically stronger. The Lyric 1. Do you have a strong opening line? The opening line of your song is the first and best chance to engage your listener in the story you’re about to tell.  Strong opening lines explain […]

Why you should be putting out more music Gone are the days when you’d record and release a new album every three or four years, throw all your promotional eggs into that one basket, tour non-stop for two years, and then repeat. Everything has changed, from the consumption habits of music fans to the costs and processes of music production. Nowadays — especially in the independent music world — the […]

Payola, in one form or another, is as old as the music business: Labels pay radio stations to broadcast their music, producers pay DJs to spin their records in the club, and promoters ask live bands to pay-to-play at their event. And it’s always been a hot topic amongst musicians. So if you’re an artist, should you ever have to pay-to-play? Here are two ways to look at it: Why You Shouldn’t […]

In an era of significantly shorter attention spans and increasingly distracted listeners, we, as songwriters, have an even greater responsibility to grab our audience as quickly as possible. The first place to do this is the song’s intro. The following tips will help hook your listeners into your song right away. 1. Keep your intro short and to the point I was backstage at a music conference a few years […]

First impressions are lasting impressions. Your actions on a daily basis reflect how you are perceived as an artist. Often you are seen before your music is heard. There are common tactics that are perceived as ‘amateur’… in other words, the artists that are really out there killing it and making a living from their music (whether on an indie or major level) aren’t going about promo in this way […]

Independent artists have never had access to so many customers. A single distributor can get an artist’s music into digital services around the world. U.S. artists were getting Spotify royalties before the service was available stateside. Now they’re getting royalties from Deezer, Bloom.fm and other services not yet available in the States. Since distributors have added their catalogs to YouTube, independent artists can reach listeners through the world’s most popular […]

Many of the writers whose songs I listen to at my workshops work long and hard on their lyrics, striving to find unique, fresh ways to tell their stories and express their concepts. But they sometimes forget that we’re not writing poems, but songs—and if we hope to create songs that resonate with listeners, our lyrics need to be delivered on the wings of outstanding, memorable melodies. It’s often easier […]

Apple’s place atop the music retail food chain gives it an incredible amount of influence. So it’s no surprise that iTunes has 13 entries in this year’s Maximum Exposure survey. The store had a 41% share of the U.S. record business in 2012, according to Billboard’s calculations, and it has a 63% share of digital sales, according to NPD Group. The relatively limited number of ways to reach fans through […]

Music PR mistakes you can avoid next time you approach the media [This article was written by guest contributor Dmitri Vietze, CEO/founder of StoryAmp.com, and publicist of 16 years.] You spent a big investment of dollars and time, took all of your learnings from rehearsals and performing on stage, absorbed everything you could from your mentors and inspirations and produced the best recording of your career. Maybe you even borrowed money from […]

20% of industry-wide music sales take place in the last six weeks of the year. 30% of music sales on CD Baby happen during that same period. And yet most independent musicians let the holiday season slip by without doing a few simple things that could make a big difference in their own music sales. I get it; there’s a lot going on — and really, all you want to do is […]