Team Robespierre are a buoyant Brooklyn band that brings the party every night out. The band has been a steam engine for press and positive buzz recently so Musformation decided to catch up with them during a break from recording their new album. Known for their insane live antics and infectious sound, TR has garnered praise from Pitchfork, Spin, Village Voice and Oh My Rockness, among others. Find out what keeps this band going and what advice they can give you after the jump.
While we will be busy on the blog and won't be able to make it, Martin Atkins is on tour this month and although he isn't stopping in NYC, he will make an appearance in Rochester at the Water Street Music Hall at 7PM this Thursday. On this tour Martin will be doing his a presentation on the music touring industry and discussing many of the ideas from his extensive Tour:Smart. . Having met the man, the myth, the legend, we can promise that Martin will be funny, irreverent and certainly leave you with plenty of new ideas. RSVP here.
We have been linking you to many reasons why you should oppose the Live Nation/ Ticketmaster merger that the DOJ is considering. These thieves will not only be supressing your music career but also continuing the rape of your wallet at their concerts if this merger goes through. This is the last week to get your voice heard through the DOJ by emailing them at antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov. Please read these articles if you want more info or email them and tell them that these companies have not shown that they act in good faith of their customers interests.
Seeing as the music biz is pretty much shutdown till 2010 we will be doing very limited updates till the new year. In the meantime we will be working on some amazing new tweaks to Musformation for 2010. As always please enjoy our Table of Contents and if you want to stay in touch with us you can can follow our individual RSS or Twitter feeds. Happy Holidays!
P.S. If you see things looking funny with our web design in the next week or so please pardon our appearance, we are tweaking many things on the site before the new year.
P.S. If you see things looking funny with our web design in the next week or so please pardon our appearance, we are tweaking many things on the site before the new year.
With an Augmented Reality feature and a search of the GasBuddy database you can save more dough on your way to practice and gigs. Get it here.
As I have said before, opposing the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger is one of the most important things you can do for your music career. As much as I would hope you all trust me on this or from the dozen articles I have written detailing the disgusting practices these two companies indulge in, you should read for yourself why these two MUST be stopped. To do that head over to TicketDisaster.org a new site that will tell you why you NEED to oppose this merger for the sake of your future concert going and your music career. After you read it please do at least one of the following three things.- Email the DOJ and tell them you oppose this merger.
- Retweet this to spread the word to your friends so that we can make sure this merger does not happen.
- Post the link of the site to your Facebook friends and email everyone you can. We only have til 1/8 to get our voices and heard and boy do they need to be heard!
It is no secret that online radio is one of the best ways to find new music you may like. As a result, this is also one of the best ways to get your music heard by people who may potentially like it. Through the powerful recommendation engines that online radio outlets offer, you are able to target people who would potentially like your music, like you weren't able to just a few short years ago. Jango is one of the most popular online radio stations and with their Airplay feature you can choose artists who you are similar to, along with a variety of other features and find exactly the type of fans you would like to have listen to your music. Follow me to the jump and I will guide you through some tricks that will make putting your music on Jango even easier. If you watch the above video you are probably as impressed as we are. TourSavant is a web service that will make your life on the read much easier in what looks to be an easy to use interface. If you don't feel like watching the video here are some of the features:
- Auto Tour Router - tell us where you want to start, how long to go and let our system set up a nice tour for you and hand pick the venues best for you. You can contact venues with a click of the mouse right from the Tour Planning screen to make it easy.
- Loadable Mastercard - get your free loadable personalized mastercard from TourSavant and get discounts at over 18,000 Gas stations in the USA. Up to 35% off 8000 hotels coming early 2010. Track you band's spending and manage your band's money with this tool. Using this card alone could easily MAKE YOUR MEMBERSHIP VIRTUALLY FREE.
- Ranked and Band Rated Venue Database we have data on approximately 16,000 venues in North America with rankings and ratings from bands like you to help make it smarter for you.
- Virtual Road Manager - 24/7 Access to an experienced and helpful road manager by phone, email or text to help you solve your issues on the road with our TS PRO package
- Free Gigs tonight! - sign up and get a text when you have an off
night and a venue in your area needs a band for a slot. over 20,000
venues involved.
- Gear Insurance / replacement - we are working on a next level insurance product to make sure your 3 weeks of fun and fame aren't cut short when your one amp is stolen the 2nd night out.
Not our strongest week of content to say the least! It seems the whole music industry is out Xmas shopping because not much is happening. See you guys next week for a ton of Top Ten lists and a year in review!- Public Enemy's Fan Funding Is A Joke? How They Could Have Done It Better
- 10 Things You Should Know About Recording Vocals For Beginners
- You Should Have A Dynamic Pricing Strategy For Your Next Release
- RockBand Launches Creators Site So Unsigned/Indie Bands Can Make Their Own Rockband Songs
- Obituary Of A Theory: You Need To Record Drums First
- VeVo Has Launched! So What Happens Over There Aside From Slow Service?
- Billy Corgan Embraces Free, But Does This Work For An Artist In His Position?
- Band Tips: Have A Video Of Live Show Footage
- SilentEar EarPlugs Are A Cheap Great Sounding Solution To Protect Your Hearing
- Myspace Has Killed iMeem, At Least That Is One Less Profile You Need To Update!
- Microphone Fail
- #FollowFriday @FakeBobLefsetz
- Use Facebook Event Invites To Tell Your Friends When Your Music Is Being Released
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a moving picture is worth a million. If you're trying to get better gigs and get people excited to come out and see your shows having a video of live footage is incredibly valuable. If you have a show/song recorded with good live audio then use it, but if not there are other options. Recently my band recorded a show where we had some great raw footage but the audio wasn't so hot. We decided to splice the footage together to make a highlight reel video and used the audio for one of our singles as the soundtrack. It might be a good idea to try and mix in some crowd shots to show that you can indeed draw a crowd and that they do react well to your music. When trying to get bands to play with you or get better shows booked you'll separate yourself from 90% of the other bands just by having something to show. If a live setting is where your band really comes to life, having some video of one of your shows can be more important than some fancy video you paid a ton of money for.
Smashing Magazine has consistently posted some amazing advice on how to deal with clients successfully that is not the usual drivel. Today, they keep up that strong work with one of the hardest qualms anyone in the music business goes through - how to tell your client that they are wrong. Whether you are a producer or manager or just about anyone in this business you could definitely learn something from this great advice.
Getting good cheap earplugs is a pain. Trying to find a pair of Cheap reusable plugs that are easy to replace is one of the biggest pains someone can go through as a musician. SilentEar make an inexpensive Earplug that a friend was kind enough to let me try at a show this weekend and I was blown away! Not only were these earplugs comfortable (I hate putting things in my ears and at work I always use over the ear protection) but they sounded great. Check em out!
- WhosTalking Is Another Great Site To Search The Internet For Talk About You
- The Future Of Both Your Mailing List And Selling Merch - Square!
- Know Your Twitter Followers To Open Up Doors For Your Music!
- Using PayPal Or Bandcamp? Make Sure You Set Up Micro Payments To Make More $$
- Music Distributors Fees Compared In Chart Form
- The String Cleaner Will Do Just That For Your Guitar Or Bass!
- Chester French Show How To Sell CDs Out On the Street After A Show
- Getting Signed: Be Too Proud To Beg
- How U.S. Immigration Policies May Change Music
- Social Network Strategy - Be Present But Don't Link
- Is PumpAudio A Scam?
- DIYGigs.com Aims To Be A Directory For Touring Bands
- Get Fresh Tells Lesser Known Bands How To Book A Tour With Guarantees
- A Thorough Dissection Of The iTunes LP
- The New Recording Studio Must Have - The USB Wall Charger!
- Venuology Is A Site Based On Musicians Reviewing Venues
- Crowdsourcing Battle Of The Bands/Label Site The Banded Has Launched
Alex at Get Fresh has taken on the awesome task of answering any question someone may have about the music industry. This is fortunate for the world of music since he honed his knowledge playing in the popular indie band Paulson. Today he has taken on the task of writing an amazingly informative article on how to book a tour with guarantees even though no one knows who in the hell you are. Check out a great read.
Yesterday we ran a critique of DIYGigs.com and sure enough we got pointed in the direction Venuology who answered many of our qualms with DIYGigs. The site aims to be directory of reviews of venues so that musicians can get some leverage as to whether they should deal with a venue or not. Right now it is in beta and only available in NYC but take a look and contribute and help them grow into a nationwide directory.
DIYGigs is a recently launched directory of venues across America. They offer a listing of venues on a map, with contact info and commentary. I took the site for a spin this morning and did find a few flaws, most of the venues in my area were either closed or far from a place a DIY band would want to play and were instead the scummy hole in the wall pay-to-play type venues. The site offers a thumbs up or down which I also find to be dangerous since I hear bands trash venues for many stupid reasons such as the fact that they don't book their particular type of music. Having a more Yelp like interface may help the comments since people can add stars and interesting commentary as opposed to just a black and white commentary. That said it is the early days and this resource could turn out to be great in time, give them a visit and some suggestions in hopes of turning it into a great resource for the community.
If you are a musician who plays out with a variety of different acts, odds are that you need to learn cover songs from time to time. If this is the case it sometimes pains you to even think that you may have to buy one of these songs on iTunes to learn it. In steps ListenToYouTube a tool that will extract only the audio from a YouTube and turn it into a MP3. Now you no longer need to buy Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" and have the shame of having it in your iPod.
As you can see from the above illustration The String Cleaner is a unique device that will clean all of your strings at once! By getting rid of the gunk on your strings you are able to preserve that fresh new string tons for much longer! For $19.99 this seems like an awesome tool, check it out here!
Getting to the airport and finding out that you are paying more for your baggage fees than your airline ticket is one of the saddest things about being a traveling musician. Thankfully, the site Luggage Limits will help you avoid this plague and check out what your fees will be looking like before you arrive to find a world of pain. Check them out here.(via Lifehacker)
It looks like the retirement of Nine Inch Nails was true! The band is now selling much of their gear on eBay. Take a look at this page to watch for some awesome gear (in black, of course) going up for auction right now!
Some boohoo news for touring musicians, the amount of international acts on American soil will drastically decline in the upcoming months; and U.S. groups will be trimmed from international rosters as well. Thanks new U.S. immigration policies......you guys are the best! Read about the new immigration procedures and the trickle down effect here.
A 3 day week so there wasn't a lot for us to tell you about. If you get motivated during this 4 day weekend we always suggest checking out our Table Of Contents and reading through some old articles!- The Time Is Now To Write Your The DOJ And Oppose The TicketMaster/Live Nation Merger
- Give Away Something Unique To Get More Email Addresses!
- Apple Unveils Directions On How To Make An iTunes LP And iTunes Extras!
- How To Replace Myspace's Crappy Player With Bandcamp's Awesome One
- The Downside Of DIY - The Good Cop/Bad Cop Need For A Manager
- Op-Ed: Has The Industries Collective Support For Spotify Already Enabled A Monopoly Before US Launch?
- Spotify Responds To The Lady GaGa Accusation And More On Their Royalty Rates
- Google Analytics Adds Intelligence To Tell You When Traffic Is Peaking
- Van Robberies Are Running Wild - WATCH OUT!
- Ask For A Room With A View Of Your Van When Staying At Hotels
- Get Fresh Gives You 7 Tips To Keep Your Van From Being Stolen
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