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New Musformation Coming Soon!

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Hey Everyone!
Sorry for the lack of posts. Our CMS has basically shut down on us and we are unable to post. Never fear, we have moved all our posts to WordPress and approved a new design and lots of awesome new stuff. Sorry for the lack of posts but it takes 2-4 hours to get each one to post these days but in the next two weeks you will see a new Musformation and tons of exciting news!

Make It Interesting With A Visual Element

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Most of us spend our teenage years dreaming of playing arenas and getting to do cool things like blow up a Tyranosaurus Rex on stage, shoot lasers through your legs during a guitar solo and project images of frogs being blown up like a Jodorwosky film. OK maybe those were my teenage dreams but we still want to do something looks totally awesome on stage. The good news is you don't have to wait untill you get to the arenas to do something cool on stage. The bad news is it just takes a little bit of effort. Here are some ideas of how you can easily add some cool visuals to your live show for cheap.
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Last week we talked about the importance of getting your tourdates on Songkick since they aggregate concert dates to countless outlets, increasing fan awareness of when you are touring. Today they announced a partnership with Soundcloud so that you can now see your dates on your Soundcloud page! Read more here.

Geo-Target For Better Show Promotions

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We all know that raising awareness for your shows is one of the best ways to get a big turnout. But when you have a national fanbase, annoying your fans about the big local show can be a quick way to get your messages ignored. So, what is the solution to the fact that you want to increase your show turn out without annoying your fans who live nowhere near your upcoming shows? Geo-Targeting! Follow me to the jump and I will explain further.
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We, know, we know, we know. Our comments system has always sucked. We now have our comments through the service Disqus. Which means commenting will be easy and fast from here on out! Enjoy and sorry it took so long!
MOB Song kick.pngOne of the most important parts of getting fans out to shows is to make sure they know you are coming to town. One of the most under utilized tools for this is to link your Songkick profile. By linking this page fans can sign up to get updates when ever you are in town for the duration of your career. This insures they will be aware of when you come around. Songkick shares concert listings with Bandcamp, Yahoo, YouTube, Hype Machine, BBC, Mobile Roadie, etc., so more people can find out about your gigs. If your gigs aren't showing up on Songkick learn how to make them do so here.


Tourbinder To Launch At SXSW

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Tourbinder Intro from Tourbinder on Vimeo.

Tourbinder is an ultra-cool service that finds bands fans via their social networks and routes a tour through the cities where they have the most fans. It helps bands book, budget, and manage the best tours possible.

Turn Used Gift Cards Into Guitar Picks

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DSC05114.JPG Let's be honest gift cards can be quite an annoyance. You may also have countless Dropcards laying around from a past album that is no longer in demand. There is now a cool service that will turn your used cards into Guitar picks. The possibilities are endless! (via The NJ Underground)
The above video shows GigsWiz in action, showing how the service can help bands sell more concert tickets through social media.

Better Than The Van Relaunches

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Better Than The Van an awesome database for places to stay on tour has updated it's service!
Some of the new features include:
Bands Can:
- Find free places to stay on tour
- Search and connect with other bands touring to the same cities or  
towns
- Directly connect with established and DIY venues
- Make new fans/friends with music-minded people in other cities

Music Fans Can:
- Host touring bands and other music fans
- Create a "Venue" page to easily connect w/ bands &  host shows
- Automatically be notified when bands are touring near them
- Discover new bands and help them connect the dots
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Intuit's Go Payment allows you to take credit card payments at the merch table. The alternative to Square (and don't forget CDBaby's credit card machine) offer bands a cheap and easy way to up their merch sales. Read all about it on Tech Crunch. (via Nick Vivid on The Musformation DIY Music Business Tactics Facebook Group)
Musformation DIY group.pngYesterday, we talked about how Facebook Groups are the new messageboards. We figured we would put our money where are mouths are and start one for Musformation! You can now join The Musformation DIY Music Business Tactics Group by clicking that link. Hopefully it will grow into a great community to get your music business thoughts answered.

Google Voice Number Porting Explained

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For all of you who love Google Voice features but dreaded getting a new number, breathe a sigh of relief! This video explains it all!

Singer Smacks Guitarist For Awful Solo

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An Inforgraphic On How Kickstarter Works

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This great infographic is a great way to get your head around the amazing Kickstarter service. It is brought to you by the great people at Zippycart who you should surely check out.
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One of the coolest things to happen to DIY bands recently is the partnering of Bandcamp and Songkick to bring concert listings to Bandcamp's album pages. If for some reason your show listings are not automatically being added to your Bandcamp page Songkick has posted an explanation of how to manually add them.

What's The Deal With Merch Price Matching?

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merch.JPGAlternative Press has a great look at the ups and downs of a practice that is bumming out more and more groups with each day that passes. Merch price matching insures that opening bands are not able to sell their merch for cheaper than the headliners so they do not have an advantage to sell more merch, 
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The call can come kind of quick. All of a sudden your group is starting to play larger venues and they want a stage plot so that things run smooth. When it comes to stage plots venues and soundguys like to see you have it in a standard format. In the above picture you can double click and download one I recently had to make for one of MusforMGMT's groups. Adapt it to personal preferences and you should be good to go.

Welcome to Tourbinder from Aaron Marks on Vimeo.

Tourbinder is a new beta startup that seeks to help book and administrate tours in a easier way. The above video explains some of their cool new features. Keep a lookout for their upcoming launch.

The Ins And Outs Of Tethering Your Laptop

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ev-do-speed-measurements-and-tethering-tether-small.jpgWhen you are on tour Internet access can be extremely useful in an emergency. One way to get that access is by tethering your laptop. Lifehacker has a great guide to the ins and outs of tethering your laptop that can come in very handy on the road. Check it here.
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Concert tracking services are some of the coolest recent technologies to happen to the live music experiences. With that said many bands neglect their presence on them. Despite the fact that you may wonder how many people who use them, the important thing to remember about who uses them is that they are huge live music fans who are always looking to go and see shows. MakeUseOf has a great list of these types of services that you should check to be sure your concert dates are always listen on so that your fans will know you are coming to town. Check it here.

Constructing Better Live Sets Through Graphs

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Keeping the energy up at your gig is a crucial part of playing live. Over on The Evolver blog they have a great article that shows how many popular groups maintain energy levels at their shows. They profile groups like Duran Duran and Wilco and show how their sets are constructed and how they subsequently affect the audience's reaction.
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Eventbrite is one of the best resources for people putting on a DIY show and wanting to keep an organized way of selling tickets etc. They now have an iPhone App that will scan barcodes making it so you can ticket your event just like the professional venues do. Read more here.
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It is no secret that online radio is one of the best ways to promote your music. With services like Pandora, Last.FM, Jango, Blip.FM and other services not only can you get your music before the ears of listeners who like the type of music you make, but you can also get paid for your plays as you begin to dominate the online radio airwaves.






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