For more information about collecting all the royalties you’re owed from streaming sites like Spotify and Rdio, read our article “Are You Getting Paid Everything You’re Owed from Spotify?“

To make sure you’re getting paid all the publishing royalties you’re owed from streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, and YouTube, sign up for CD Baby Pro today.

The post How CD Baby Pro Collects Music Publishing Royalties from Spotify [INFOGRAPHIC] appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Sound boring? Well, I suppose it’s only going to be as boring as your Twitter usage.

If you’re engaging your fans effectively on Twitter, they’ll love watching a short (under a minute) Vizify summary of your activity.

So — if you’ve been active on Twitter for a while and you’re sharing interesting content about your musical life, take 60 seconds and create a fun Zizify video. 

 Here’s how it works:

1. Click the “Make Mine” button on THIS PAGE.

2. Type in your email address and verify that Vizify can access your Twitter information.

3. Wait a few seconds while Vizify prepares your video.

4. Watch the preview by clicking “play.”

5. Edit or continue!

If you like what you see, you can click the green “continue” button to share your video on your social media profiles. If you want to make changes, click the blue “edit” button.

Here’s my Vizify video as an example:

The edit menu will look like this:

Any of those frames can be selected, and you’ll be able to choose alternate photos, videos, tweets, etc. in order to create the video you want.

Once you’re finished, share on Twitter (and anywhere else you want) — and make sure to notify the other Twitter users who are featured in your video (or use the auto-mention function when sharing directly from Vizify).

If you really want to get crazy, you can create a Vizify profile that pulls information from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more.  Check it out HERE — and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

For more information about how to promote your music with short videos, check out our free guide:

The post Music Promotion Tip: Create a Vizify Video of Your Twitter Activity appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Google’s new streaming service may be a mouthful to say — “Google Play Music All Access” — but it’s making music discovery, streaming, storage, and sharing extremely simple for Android users.

If you’re a CD Baby artists who’s already selling your music on Google Play Music — and IF you’ve set your distribution level to “Download and Streaming Sites” — we’ll make sure your music is also available for streaming through their All Access service.

If your distribution level is set at “Download Services,” your music will ONLY be available for purchase through Google Play Music, but NOT available for streaming through Google Play Music All Access. To check your distribution level settings, click HERE.

How does Google Play Music All Access work?

The post Get Your Music on Google Play Music All Access appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Planning a successful music tour from start to finish

[This article was written by guest contributor Kristine St-Pierre.]

Do it yourself (DIY): the act of doing or creating something without the aid of experts or professionals.

The post How to Book Your Own Tour: Tips for the DIY Musician appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

How bands should deal with negative press

Without naming names, I’d like to tell you a story about something that unfolded yesterday on Facebook.

A certain band got a somewhat unfavorable review from a local publication. The band members’ feelings, understandably, were hurt; they’d worked hard writing, rehearsing, recording, and mixing an album they were proud of — and they expected the whole world to love it too. One music critic, however, didn’t love it. And it was his job to say so in print.

While we’ve argued in the past that posting a link to a negative review on social media can be a good way for bands to blow off steam (and let your FANS do the trash-talking), this band went and did something we would never recommend; they did the trash-talking themselves, insulting the ears, taste, and discernment of that critic, and concluding with an F-bomb aimed at the publication.

It backfired. People came to the defense of the critic and called the band out for seeming both insecure and insensitive. On top of that, the band pretty much ruined their chances of that publication ever printing a nice word about them in the future.

Thankfully the band deleted the post later in the day (and hopefully apologized to both the writer and the magazine).

Anyway, I’m not writing this to beat up on the anonymous band. They seemed to have already learned from their mistake. And besides, we’ve all wanted to respond to bad reviews in this way. But there ARE more productive things to do in the face of negative criticism.

Here are a few things to remember about bad reviews

1. Bad reviews can be a learning experience —

One of my early bands got a review that really stung. For a couple weeks I put up my proud defenses, saying to myself, “Ah, well they just didn’t GET it!” But ya know what? Some of their criticisms were dead-on — and I eventually realized it. The next time around I didn’t make the same mistakes. This brings us to….

2. Bad Reviews hurt, so just go ahead and hurt —

I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel the sting. Someone just said your precious baby was ugly. Let yourself get angry or sad or whatever. Just don’t lash out at the critic. And after the wound has healed a little, you can check out that baby with fresh eyes. Maybe it IS ugly. OR maybe the critic just didn’t like you, but thousands of other people will! Which brings us to…

3. Always remember that you’re not going to be some folks’ cup of tea —

Mathematically speaking, most people that hear your music will probably be indifferent to it, somewhat enjoy it, or somewhat dislike it. Your most loyal fans and your crazy haters are going to be in the extremes on either side of that wide middle-ground. So don’t be upset if most music critics don’t think you’re the reincarnation of Mozart.

4. Bad reviews can boost your website’s SEO power —

Think about it; if a highly-trafficked online magazine or blog reviews your music, when they link to YOUR site in the review it’s going to help your own SEO power. And as your site moves up in the Google results, no one has to know that it was a downer review which boosted your search ranking.

5. Remember your manners —

It makes good business sense to stay quiet — or at least polite — when you get a bad review. If you retaliate (like the band mentioned above), you run the risk of being blacklisted by that publication. And that reputation might follow you elsewhere too.

6. You’ll seem cool and confident by staying calm —

You’re the best band in the world, right? Well the best band in the world wouldn’t be phased by one bad review from a paper in… what town was it in anyway? Oh yeah, right. We couldn’t care less. Because we’re on tour right now and having so much fun. Are you coming to the show tonight?

———————–

I’ve known some artists who’ve gotten very negative reviews from certain magazines, only to get glowing press from the same publication for their followup release. That probably wouldn’t have happened had they sent back a nasty letter or blown up on Facebook about it. They stayed calm (outwardly, at least) and kept on!

How’ve you responded to negative press? Let us know in the comments section below.

To read about how to get GOOD press for your music, check out our free guide:

[Thumbs down image from Shutterstock.]

The post So You Got a Bad Review — Welcome to the Club! appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Get more exposure and sell more music!

Our friends at The Indie Bible have enabled thousands of independent artists to make a living doing what they love for the past 14 years. From country to hip-hop, gospel to heavy metal, folk to experimental, and everything in between, they have helped THOUSANDS of independent artists reach success!

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* 500 Digital Websites where you can UPLOAD your music.

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* 32,000 Music Venues, Festivals and Booking Agents.

* Plus 190 cutting edge ARTICLES that will help bring your career to a whole new level.

The ULTIMATE INDIE BUNDLE can help you get your music reviewed and your songs played on the radio around the world, and it can also help you to book gigs throughout the United States and Canada.

Best of all, because you’re a CD Baby member, you can get all of it for only $59.95, a savings of $280!

The post Save $280 on the Ultimate Indie Bundle (4 of the Best Music Industry Directories) appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Ahhh… the college gig.  If you are fortunate to book a gig on a college campus you are rewarded with a guaranteed paycheck to play in front of a youthful group, with the opportunity to increase your exposure and the chance of getting rebooked sometime in the future. That’s as long as your show is a hit. However, if you poke around on the web enough, undoubtedly you will start to uncover stories of people who played college shows to only a small amount of people, and thus, largely considered the gig a bust. Yet there are others who play on the college circuit to packed houses each and every gig. So what gives?  Why does one equally skilled or popular band have a large turnout, while others fail woefully? 

For starters, a little insight into how the college market works may help

You get hired by the folks at the college — so not working well with those people may be your first and biggest mistake.  Here is some food for thought: you cannot rely on the school to promote your act! 

Remember that you’re dealing with students who work in the campus activities department part-time.  They are not professional event planners, and for the most part, are learning the proverbial ropes themselves. Although they may be well-intentioned, their ability to successfully promote your event is questionable. Therefore we can make the case that effective promotion falls squarely on your shoulders.

So let’s take a look at some tactics you can use to help promote your act on campus

Feel free to use it any way you want.

1. Posters! And yes more posters!  Puts lots of them around campus. Of course it isn’t likely you will do this yourself.  If you can, great — but in all likelihood this will be done by the campus staff. Before your event, mail a bunch to the campus staff and ask them to hang them up around campus, especially in high focus areas.  A few noteworthy items about the posters:

* If you are sponsored by an alcoholic beverage company, make sure that you have two separate sets of posters printed; one for alcohol acceptable events and one for non-alcoholic events. Promoting alcohol on a college campus is a big No-No. The student activities office, heck colleges and universities in general, are very RISK AVERSE (read that again), so anything “of questionable content” will be disallowed.

* When the posters are printed make sure to leave a blank area (white space) at the bottom. The space should be at least 3-4 inches high so the students can write the dates of your appearance in the space provided.

* It’s ok to go low-tech on campus, so no need for investing a lot of money in expensive, elaborate, posters. If you are tight on funds you can even go so far as to have your info printed, in large letters, on an 8 ½ by 11 piece of paper.  Think “poor-man’s poster.”  And yes, in case you’re wondering, this has been done before, successfully.

2. If possible, make sure your appearance on campus coincides with important dates on campus.  For example, orientation week, spring fling, recognition day (or month), homecoming, “fill in the blank” event, etc.

Colleges tend to book events that correspond to special days on campus.   So promote your act as someone who caters to the “theme of the week.”

3. Market to specific groups or clubs on campus.  Email those departments and personally invite them to attend your event. By way of example, visit the school’s website; look up Fraternities, Sororities, First Year Students, RA’s (residence halls), Peer Groups, Student Leaders, Student Government, and Athletic Teams since they are all great candidates.

4. Depending on your niche (speaker, novelty, band),  you might be able to make the program mandatory, since some schools mandate that students must attend certain events. This is a blessing and a curse.  Students are not too fond of required events, but if your program is a hit you can increase your exposure in a positive way.

5. Do your best to have your event happen around Orientation or Welcome Week. This time frame is prime time since the first week of the semester is jam packed with events. Tip: MARKET yourself as a Welcome Week, Orientation event act, etc. Schools tend to book acts that cater to themed-events.

6. If the budget is tight in the Student Activities office, call other departments to see if they would be willing to share expenses. For instance, have Student Activities and the Greek Life departments share the costs. FYI: college departments quite often collaborate to bring acts to campus.

7. Place table tents or small displays on each table in the cafeteria.

8. Advertise in the campus paper and/ or run an ad on the campus radio station. Better yet, have the campus radio station interview you prior to the event.

9. Make the event open to the public.

10. Call the local and campus newspaper (or blog); invite them to run a press release promoting your event.

11. Invite other schools to attend. Or promote your act on nearby campuses if possible.

12. Don’t be afraid to invite faculty, school employees for a fun night out.  Encourage them to bring family members as well.

13. Some schools offer students extra (class) credit for attending events. Check with the Student Activities office to see if this is applicable and what procedures are required.

14. Send an email to all campus RA’s. Ask them to bring the people in their hall to the event. Promote the event as a study-break.

15. If you can afford it, or work it into the event budget, provide pizza, snacks or some other freebie as a way to entice people.

16. If you have T-shirts printed, send a bunch to campus before the event and ask people to wear them. Think of it as turning people into walking billboards.

17. Ask the staff in the Campus Activities office if students are eligible for reward points if the campus offers point based accreditation, or an incentive system. Note: this is different from #13.

18. Social Media is also another highly viable option. Be sure to ask the school to promote your act on their website, link to any You Tube content, etc.  Subsequently professors often have Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. If you are feeling brave, hit them up and ask them to bring the class.

19. Get your event posted on the event calendar for the school. Despite being a no-brainer, this is often overlooked.

20. Use a pre-event (ethical) email guerilla-tactic.  This strategy alone is worth it to the point we’re going to dedicate a few paragraphs to it.

An email strategy worth its weight in gold

Now let’s take a moment and build on the last point from the list.

Using a pre-event promotional campaign can vastly increase the number of attendees. When you play it right you can pack the house. In turn, the Student Activities office will adore you since you have played a big hand in helping them achieve their goal of hosting successful events.

Giving them ready-made material will score major points.  Bear in mind that schools will not give out the email addresses of students. They will, however, forward email on your behalf.

Below are some sample pre-event emails you can use for promoting your event. The campaign should begin three weeks prior to the event.

* Email 1 | Three weeks prior- On MM/DD/YY a great up-and-coming or well-known [BAND, SPEAKER, MAGICIAN] will be on campus.  The event will occur in [EVENT VENUE].  Visit [YOUR WEBSITE HERE] for more information.

* Email 2 | Two weeks prior- In two weeks, don’t miss this awesome event! [BAND, SPEAKER, MAGICIAN] will be visiting our campus for one night, make sure to come out and join the fun.  Visit [YOUR WEBSITE HERE] for more information.

* Email 3 | Week of the event- Coming this [DAY OF THE WEEK] [BAND, SPEAKER, MAGICIAN] will be on campus.  The first 50 students will receive free [PROMOTIONAL ITEMS HERE].  Don’t miss out!!!!

If you’ve read this far you’ve earned a bonus. The bonus is the real secret to getting college gigs — declassified. It’s one that has been used successfully by many acts in the past, yet is so often overlooked.

The “secret sauce” is… (drum roll please) … to make sure your act is interactive. Campuses favor acts that have a high degree of interactivity.  If you look at some of the most successful acts on the circuit, especially speakers (since they use this tactic like you wouldn’t believe), you’ll notice they all engage their audience. This is what sells on the college market.

So let’s conclude by tying this all together. If you want to book college gigs, sell campus buyers on the idea that your act engages with the audience. After you book the event, use the promotional strategies outlined in the first part of the article. Give the campus staff everything they will need to make things easy for them! Rinse and repeat as often as you can.

One closing thought — schools run in tight circles and will often refer acts to other campuses. The more turn-key you can make everything, the more love you will get. In the end everything will become a self-perpetuating cycle.  Enjoy!

BIO 

Dave McCubbin has been on the collegiate circuit for the past several years.

If you are interested in learning the nitty-gritty details about the collegiate market, a completely free eBook is available at Gig Razor; a website dedicated to the collegiate entertainment market.

For more free information about making money as a touring musician, download our free guide:

The post So, You’ve Landed a College Gig… Now What? appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Summer’s coming, and whether you’re hitting the road for a tour, planning some hometown shows, or just playing your friend’s BBQ, you’re bound to be surrounded by potential fans.

Want to make sure everyone goes home with your music? Swap out the hand-stamp at the entrance with a stack of CD Baby download wristbands, and everyone will head home wearing a code  (along with your full-color album art and info) that gives them a free download of your latest album or single.

Through the end of June, you can pick up these unique promo items at a 50% discount and start slappin’ ‘em on every wrist you see. Just use promo code WRISTBAND at checkout and you’ll get half off your purchase (through June 30th).

Ready to enter the promotional apparel market? Click here to use download wristbands at your next concert. 

Here are some ways to promote your music with customized download wristbands

* Give away download wristbands at your album release party. Sometimes bands decide to give away “free” copies of their new CD to everyone who pays the cover charge at their album release party. With download wristbands, you can do a similar thing at a fraction of the cost.

* Use download wristbands to release one single every month. While you’re building up to your album launch, you can give fans a taste of the record-in-progress by giving out or selling download wristbands for each new single — one per month.

* Promote a festival or compilation album with download wristbands. Create a comp-album for larger events that feature multiple bands’ music — and you’ll all be helping one another gain new fans.

Use coupon code WRISTBAND at checkout and get 50% off your next order of download wristbands. 

The post Save 50% on Download Wristbands appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

iTunes Radio will employ iTunes’ existing “Genius” feature (which analyzes your listening habits and the tracks in your music library to offer custom recommendations) — but it will take the “Genius” technology to the next level, accessing iTunes’ entire catalog of over 26 million tracks.

iTunes Radio will behave similarly to Pandora, allowing you to create customized stations, then serving up tracks it thinks you’ll enjoy. Like Pandora, iTunes Radio will ask you for feedback (in the form of a thumbs up or down), and provide a link to a music store (umm… iTunes!) to purchase a download. It will also allow you to skip songs.

The service will be free for folk in the US (with ads), though subscribers to iTunes Match will be able to hear iTunes Radio without advertisements.

Lastly, if you’re a CD Baby artist currently on selling iTunes, you can trust that CD Baby is doing everything possible to make sure you don’t miss out on this opportunity. (More details as we get them). 

What do you think? Will iTunes Radio be a “Pandora-killer?” Will you use it? How will this change the way artists promote their music? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Apple Announces iTunes Radio, a Pandora-like Music Streaming Service appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.

Paul Resnikoff from Digital Music News summarizes those expectations in his article “The 7 Attributes of Younger Music Fans.”

Check out Paul’s article for the full details — but if you want bullet-points, here they are…

Millennial music fans:

1. probably won’t “buy” your music — because they think music should be free. But if they DO buy your music, it’s a gesture of extreme support and gratitude.

2. crave  “intimate glimpses into the mundane daily activities of their favorite celebrities,” according to MTV’s Allison Hillhouse.

3. want to feel involved in the creation, branding, and taste-making process.

4. need frequent interaction on a number of social platforms.

5. prefer “zero distance” between artist and fan. They want constant access — and intimate details.

6. are fond of shuffle-mode listening, playlists, and a diverse array of artists and genres.

7. don’t care about artists “selling out.” According to the study, they “understand that the system of getting free music/streaming means artists have to make their money somewhere.”

 ————

If you’re a Millennial, does this description fit? If you’re not a Millennial, how do you feel about the expectations of younger fans? Let us know in the comments section below.

[Image of music listener from Shutterstock.]

The post What Do Your Younger Music Fans Want from You? appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.