Amazon.com Widgets Tourformation, a Division of Musformation | Daily Musician's News, Tips, Gear, Business & Gossip
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The blog Indie Launchpad has up a great article on the possibilities that open up to your group when you have more than one Flipcam amongst your band members. Some great advice.

Everyone wants to get more shows and at the least better ones. The really awesome tour booking widget company Live Music Machine just launched their blog and they dish some great advice on what you can be doing to increase your live presence.
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Often times big opportunities come up fast for your group. If you are in need of a super fast turnaround on postcards to advertise your next show or perhaps business cards to show off the URL to download your music for free, the company NextDayFlyers can do you a world of good, with a cheap price. 

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One of the most powerful but annoying and painful things a group needs to do is open a notebook and get fans to sign up for their mailing list. While copying these emails into a computer can be one of the worst parts of being a group. One of the little things that can make this practice even more powerful is to write down the zipcode of the venue you acquired the email address at. This can help to make your next show at the venue more of a success by using your mailing list provider's geo-targeting feature. Don't be lazy and get a zip code to keep growing your fanbase!

A Look At The TC Helicon Pro

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If you are looking to easily increase your merch sales an easy way to it is to get a credit card reader. Square is one of the readers in that game and they have just released a commercial to show how easy it is to use their service to square up and charge people for anything. A very cool tool that will help many groups. 
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When going to shows, you still see some groups doing the tired, old practice of handing out free CDs to people in the audience. One way you can stop spending money on duplication, and carrying a bulky CD to shows. Get Dropbox along with their mobile App and send the people you meet your music right on the spot via the App. To do this simply drop your music in a folder on your Dropbox and when you strike up a conversation with someone get their email and share the folder your music is in and they will now be able to download it when they get home. A great way to socialize and make sure people think of your music when they are in front of their computer.
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If you are a DIY group that is making money, chances are you are doing a lot of transactions through PayPal. If this is the case you're life just got a lot easier if you own an iPhone. PayPal will now allow you to take picture of checks you receive and deposit them into your PayPal account. This means no more driving around looking for your band when you get checks from the road. Read more here.
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Marty Frascogna is an entertainment attorney who specializes in indie level musicians, international expansion, along with international marketing and promotions.  He is also one of the authors for the much anticipated book series- "How to Market and Promote Music."  The first released in the series is: How to Market and Promote Music in SWEDEN- which is available HERE (along with info on upcoming titles).  We recently had a good chat with Marty and he gave some wonderful advice on the great adventure of international touring.   
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Go to nearly any merchandise site that does shirts/stickers for musicians and you'll almost always see the option for a "rush service" (naturally, at a much higher price).  Why is this?  Because every band needs merch and many are slack on getting it ready before shows/tours.  Getting good quality merch and selling it at a decent price is already a difficult task, but adding on extra fees for overnight delivery and "rush fees" from graphics company is certainly not going to help.  Passing along a steeper price to your fans is usually going to make you come off like an asshole and almost always result in fewer sales.  Check your stock and assess your needs early so that you're not scrambling around right before shows and cutting a huge hole in your profits by paying unnecessary fees.  Especially at a time when merch is one of the best ways for bands to actually turn a profit, don't let your slack behavior ruin a potential cash cow.  
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Many bands live show is made by fans knowing the material and singing along. One way to get that to happen is to alert your fans on your various social networks that all the songs you play play live will be in your MySpace and Facebook players. This can alert fans to take some time and do their homework to get to know your material before they come out to see you.

SplitGigs is a social network that allows you to find groups similar to you who would be worth splitting a gig with. This can be a powerful tool so that you are no longer playing shows with groups who have nothing in common with you. Sign up with their site and start making your gigs more worthwhile.
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Having a merch person who is friendly and really sells what you got can help keep your wallet thick and your group out on the road. The difference between a lazy merch person and a proactive one can reap merch sold, which leads to free advertising and new fans as other people hear your group. If the merch person is proactive getting people to sign to your mailing list it can be the difference between increased show turnouts and diminishing returns. Giving the person selling your merch a percentage of what is sold can keep them being proactive and get them to make sure they do a good job every night of the tour. Give an incentive to perform better and you will see a better job done for a repetitive and boring job.
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Motel 6 has a promotion going right now where if you submit your song and get fans to vote you to the top you can win free lodging. A great chance to cut down on tour expenses. Find out more here.
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With the discussion going around the Internet of Better Then The Van's relaunch we thought now would be a good time to point out two of our favorite tricks for finding some place to stay on the road.

The first is to socialize with the other bands, friendships and bonds are easily built with local bands when you stay with them. Not only do you have a place to stay but this often leads to lasting relationships that help both groups. If there are no locals on the show, asking for help help from the stage can often net a good result as well. Be social!

How To Track A Stolen Laptop With Prey

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Let's face it laptops have become musical instruments and their theft is a common occourance. Lifehacker has a great article on how you can use a free App called Prey to track it down if you are unfortunate enough to have someone walj with your musical creation tool.
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Many bands often post where they are going to be playing each night of tour. While this is smart, it is smart to also give a 2 day notice to your fans since it will give them time to plan to go to the show. The smart fellas in You, Me And Everyone We Know do this nearly daily and it would be wise for you to do on tour as well.

Better Than The Van To Relaunch

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Every touring band needs somewhere to stay and Better Than The Van is a great resource to figure that problem out. They are about to relaunch their service and we cannot wait to see what they do!

10 Internet Resources For Booking Gigs

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Indie Music Tech has a fantastic list of the many online resources that can help you get better gigs. Getting to know these resources can make the job of booking gigs far easier. Get to know what is available.
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Eating on the road is obviously not one of the most enjoyable parts of touring. Nevermind if you are a real foodie you can come to really miss having an amazing meal. Thankfully esteemed chef James Toland is offering touring bands a free meal in his new restaurant in Chicago, which goes by the name of Gabba Gabba Hey. Check out more details below and let us know how it is.

"Gabba Gabba Hey will unofficially offer touring band members visiting the city, free dinner! (The booze you have to pay for.) The key word there is touring! You have to have a gig in town that week to qualify. Cutting a record with Steve Albini for 2 months will not get you a free dinner every night, Frank! So what about local bands gigging you ask? That is entirely up to my discretion if I like your band and you are willing to let me sit in with you"

Next Big Sound Launches Premium Service

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At The New Music Seminar this year we got a chance to look at Next Big Sound's premier offering. The amazing looking interface offers a smooth looking look at nearly every data point you could think of about your music. We all know that the more data you have the better you can spend your marketing budget. With a 14 day trial and packages ranging from $10-65 a month this is sure to become an essential tool for any active group. Check out the long list of their features 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.






It all comes down to this. As you come down to entering the studio and then recording your songs you are now tasked with one of the most difficult balancing acts ever known to man (ok... well maybe to musicians). We have written countless articles on how to avoid many of the pitfalls many musicians fall into when they go to capture their material. Read on and make something great for us all to hear.









With everyday, as the gatekeepers die and the major labels lose power it becomes more and more about just having a great song. This being the case you better start brushing up on your skills! We have assembled a lot of advice and tools for you to use to write better songs on the other side of this link.






When trying to break your music out of your circle of friends and out to the whole world, you are inevitably going to have to take on the hat of doing some publicity for your own music. As you begin to take on this large task there is numerous bits of advice that you may have overlooked on how to do this effectively. We have assembled numerous articles on how to take over the world of music and get it out there.






Now that you actually have songs recorded you need to get them out to the world to be heard. With every day that passes more and more amazing tools become available for artists to do this without the help of a label. We keep an up to date guide of everything you could ever want to know about what you should do in order to make the right choice on how to get your music out to the world.






Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, YouTube all become more and more important everyday (well maybe not Myspace, but contrary to much chatter it is still important to know the most up to date ways to make Myspace feed your other pages). We keep musicians up to date with the most current ways to use all of these social networks to promote your music. If you are not reading our guides to social networks you are missing out on the crucial knowledge of how to promote your music with the most up to date techniques.






What separates the winners and losers is how well you handle playing live and then getting your show on the road. Playing live and touring may seem easy but there are countless pitfalls that one can encounted over time. We show you all the new tricks of the trade as well as wise advice that has been passed down over the years.






Managing a group of people and keeping everyone on the same page and motivated is one of the biggest make or break factors of any sucessful group. There are many emerging tools that can make this easier and we sort through them, all the while dispensing valuable advice on how to deal with your members with minimal chaos.






Getting covered by blogs is fast becoming one of the things that everyone wants to figure out. Sadly, there is not a lot of information out there on how to do just this. We have quite a few articles with the techniques we use to get the bands we work with on to some of the top blogs out there.