Seeking NYC Musician Interns with Music on iTunes!

Since posting my ad for technical interns, I’m also happy to announce that I also have unpaid internships available for musicians who have music available on iTunes.

In exchange for playing the occasional gig or open mic with us, we’ll help you sell your tunes, so this internship will have a direct benefit for YOU!

I’m currently working on a book and online course to teach musicians how to actually make money with their music via iTunes, Amazon, etc, and I need musicians to work these strategies as a supportive and collaborative MASTERMIND GROUP.

Musician Interns Needed for Pop/Rock/Soul Band:

Guitarist – Electric and acoustic
Pianist/Keyboardist
Bassist – Electric and/or upright bass
Drummer and/or Percussionist

Other instrumentalists are encouraged to apply if they or their band currently has music available online via Digital Distribution (iTunes, Rhapsody, iLike, Amazon, etc)

We often host and/or attend music biz networking events, so interns may also be asked to attend to help out with the door, or sell merch. You’re also welcome to network and meet others in the industry while you’re there.

To apply for any of these positions, please send an email with “Musician Intern” in the subject line to moxiemaven64{at}gmail[com] with links to your blog/website, MySpace page, or anywhere we can hear your music online. Please DO NOT SEND MUSIC ATTACHMENTS.

We’re a fun, energetic, hard-working, and, not to forget, Equal Opportunity Employer. We look forward to working with you!

Carla Lynne Hall
Moxie Entertainment
http://RockStarLifeLessons.com

Photo: Rock Star T-shirt from Chop Shop Designs

Musicians Lunch NYC ~ Saturday, May 9th at 1pm

Lunch & Learn

Musicians Lunch NYC is back, and scheduled for this Saturday, May 9th at 1pm!

Musician’s Lunch is a luncheon event to bring together musicians who are interested in learning about the latest trends in music marketing and ideas for promotion over a meal. The cost is $25 in NYC, and you pay for your own lunch. In addition to the fun we’ll be having, each lunch attendee in NYC will also get a free music marketing strategy guide! If you have your heart set on sitting next next to me, that spot goes to the first musician who offers to buy my lunch!

I love talking about music, I love breaking down marketing strategies, and I love eating out. This project is right up my alley, and I plan to do as many musician lunches as I can fit in this year. If you don’t live in NYC or London, and you’re interested in participating, leave me a comment below, and we’ll see if we can find a way to visit your town. After this, I’ll be heading next to New Orleans for a Musicians Lunch on May 23rd!

If you’re interested in learning the latest music marketing techniques successful musicians use to build a buzz, grow their audience, and sell more CDs, visit Musician’s Lunch!

Click here to book your seat via PayPal

To a Mother Concerned About File Sharing

Today’s post is inspired by a letter received from the Musician Wages website. A few music bloggers, including myself, are chiming in today for a group blogging event.

I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.

He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.

But tell me what you think – as artists out there having your work “shared,” are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.

Thanks,
Valerie

Hi Valerie-

First of all, let me commend you for supporting your son’s desire to be a musician, in addition to expressing your concern about the potential consequences of file sharing. Supportive parents for musicians are not a dime a dozen – thank you!

As Dave Hahn and Cameron Mizell from Musician Wages have mentioned, listening to lots of music is quite important for musicians. As a Studio Music & Jazz (and Music Industry) major at University of Miami, I had the benefit of a large music library where the students were required to listen to well-known, more established musicians in order to learn from them. Some of my favorite memories were from times spent at a library table with headphones, sharing vinyl albums with other students. But I also know that this musical education experience is not the norm for most aspiring musicians. And for the price I’ve paid (and continue to pay 😉 ) for my education, I probably could have purchased that music at the store. If file sharing had existed then, I probably would have participated.

The music industry is currently in a state of transition and confusion. The “old school” music business model provided that a record label would pay recording artists an advance to live on, and pay for marketing, distribution, and other promotion costs. The artist was then expected to sell enough “product” to recoup those expenses back before the label would give the artist more money. With this enormous overhead, only a small percentage of artists could actually recoup those expenses, so most labels would have a handful of Superstars (such as a Whitney Houston or Celine Dion), a few up & coming “baby bands” that were poised to break through the Billboard charts “with a bullet”, and a number of indie bands that most people have never heard of, but are big in their hometown or region. Many of those indie bands were unable to break through on a major scale. Furthermore, those indie bands were often dropped, disillusioned, and in debt.

Today’s “new school” music business model actually came to power because of digital file sharing. Previously, record labels had the advantage because they could control the distribution of their artists’ albums through stores, record clubs, etc. Today’s technology now enables music to be shared online with one person (or many) with a single click. While this is very convenient for the music consumer, this new way of distributing music enables those indie bands to actually make a living from selling music – without a record label. What a concept!! The downside is that these indie bands are not receiving an advance, so they’re on their own to raise money to record and go on tour. The upside is that the overhead for indie bands is now much lower, so they can actually make a profit from their music, or at least break even. Amazing!

As an indie musician, I also understand the importance of file sharing as a promotional tool. Without a traditional record label promotion machine behind me, one of my indie music promotion tools is giving away lots of free mp3s. An advantage that indie artists have is that recording costs are lower, thanks to home recording studios. We can offer alternate versions of tunes as free mp3s, and build our fanbase. Before we can sell our mp3s, people have to know that our music exists in the first place.

So in my mind, after creating good music, music marketing is Job #1. As CD Baby’s founder Derek Sivers warns musicians, “Obscurity is your real enemy. Fight obscurity until you’re a household name, then piracy will be more of a problem than obscurity.” There will always be piracy in the music industry, but I couldn’t honestly say that I’ve been a victim of thousands of people stealing my mp3s. But even if that were the case, I could live with that because that would also mean that a number of people are buying those mp3s as well. When you’re hot, you’re hot, and I don’t think you can have one side without the other.

Having said all that, I hope that recording and touring is something that your son may try himself one day. I heartily recommend it actually, because as an indie artist myself, there’s nothing like reviewing your sales stats, and knowing that you’ve made money from your music. And there’s no better way to understand and appreciate the business of music than to do it yourself. I wish you and your son the best.

Thank you for reading.

Carla Lynne Hall aka “The DIY Diva”

Me with Cameron Mizell and Dave Hahn from MusicianWages.com

How to Record an MP3 Holiday Song with a Laptop: Quick & Dirty Style!

When you want to record a “quick and dirty” holiday MP3 for your fans, the first thing you need to do is look at the means that are already and easily available to you. If you have the time, of course you can always write a song, and then upload it with whatever technology you have around you. If you have the creativity and the means to make a video like Space Zombie Christmas, knock yourself out! My HP laptop has a Sound Recorder option available in the Accessories section, so at the very least, I could record an a capella track if I wanted.

But I wanted to do something a little more than that, so I decided on getting a Karaoke track from iTunes for 99 cents. For weddings or other gigs where I had to use a background track, I used to go to Colony Records in NYC and buy an entire Karaoke CD for $30. Mind you, I would only need one instrumental track out of twenty,
which would be a bit of waste. Through a tip I learned from an opera singer, turns out that you can buy ONLY the track you want for $1.00 at iTunes. Very cool.

It’s also important for me to mention that these holiday tracks are for PROMO ONLY, and will not be for sale. That would be a violation of the copyright of the Karaoke Band’s recording, which is a BIG NO-NO! If I get any cease and desist letters, I’ll remove the songs with the quickness, so get your holiday MP3s now!

My first step was to choose the song. I started by entering “christmas karaoke” into the iTunes search.

Then I tried searching for specific songs, such as entering “12 days of christmas karaoke”

By checking the “popularity” column, I can get an idea of which karaoke tracks are the less cheesy ones. I also click to hear samples myself, to make sure that the particular version is in the right tempo and key. For these kinds of recordings, there are no vocal overdubs, so choose a song that you know particularly well (or practice the mess out of it!)

So I purchased “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” from iTunes. To record the song, I played the song, using iTunes.

By placing a headphone mic between my voice and my laptop speakers, I experimented with the distances in order to get a decent live “mix” recorded by my laptop’s Sound Recorder.

After finally recording a take that I liked, I played it back in my iPod headphones. The track sounded okay, but it felt like something was missing, as if the song was stuck inside the track, and the holiday joy didn’t quite come across.

Then I remembered that I had purchased an iPod voice memo gadget ages ago, also known as the Belkin TuneTalk Stereo. I had yet to use it, but now seemed like a good opportunity to figure it out!

By adding this gadget to my iPod, I’m now a bit more dangerous!

Here’s my new and improved recording set-up

It took a few tries to get the recording together from a technical standpoint. I had to trigger iTunes to play the track with my right hand, and record the vocals using my left hand on the iPod. And I had to remember to click all the gadgets in the correct order.

This time I liked the live sound of the recording a lot. I sang a few more versions until I was finally satisfied enough to relieve my neighbors of the misery caused by hearing the same Christmas song over and over at 2am in the morning. Then I burned the track to a CD.

Since the CD contains a .WAV file, I then had to rip it into MP3 form. Since I still don’t know how to do that using a computer, I used my secret weapon: my standalone KLH CDR-2000 MP3 Recorder.

I placed the CD-Rom with the .WAV file on the left side, and a blank CD-Rom on the right side.

Then I clicked the buttons that convert the .wav file to into MP3: Voila! The MP3 is ready!

After the MP3 was burned to a CD-Rom, I then saved it to my hard drive, and uploaded it to my You Send It account so I could share it with you lovely people.

Enjoy my holiday MP3s below!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Please Come Home For Christmas

###

Like any good Rock Star, I blame this on my publicist.

As you may have heard, Ariel Hyatt is holding her first Holiday Fundraiser. So like a good girl, I set up my blog to support my fave charity, Songs of Love. And I think I’m all set, right? That is, until I get the email from Ariel, saying something to the effect of,

“Send me a holiday song so I can promote you!”

“Just like that, record a holiday song? Ha!” I think to myself. But when your publicist assigns a task like that, I know damn well that she is offering an opportunity here. And I love opportunities. So I challenged myself with the question: With little resources, how can I record a holiday promo song???? And this blog post was the answer. For those of you on Twitter who requested the specific how-to’s that I used, I hope these tips help you too! In all honesty, I’m flattered that you even asked 😉

I hate when musicians apologize onstage before they even start playing, so I will not apologize for any recording imperfections, glaring or otherwise. Enjoy my tracks for the love offered.

Happy Holidays!

Vote for Tone Box Digital in WIRED Magazine’s Small Biz Contest

Tone Box Digital, the online music label run by Jason Bradford, has made it to the TOP 5 finalists of WIRED Magazine’s Small Business Contest, and I want to help him WIN.

In my opinion Jason’s nomination is awesome for a couple of reasons: A) Tone Box Digital is the only music company listed, and B) Tone Box Digital is the “smallest” company of the five finalists. While it’s an honor for Tone Box to even be nominated, I would like to help him win the whole enchilada. By rallying the die-hard indie music fans, I know we can do this.

Why?

1. A win for Tone Box Digital would not just be for him alone, but for any indie artist that dares to go up against a major label artist.

2. Tone Box Digital is a company that helps indie artists market and sell their music, and if he wins, indie artists will also win because it is further proof that indie musicians can make a living from their music.

3. PLUS, it would just be really cool!

I recently interviewed Jason, who’s also a musician, and l was impressed with his mission to empower the artists on his label, Tone Box Digital. If you believe in indie music, please go to Wired.com’s Small Biz contest page and vote for Tone Box Digital. It only takes a click. Voting ends December 31, 2008 at 12:00am.

ALSO – Jason has also started a group on Facebook for the fans of Tone Box Digital. If 200 voters join his group, he will give away a $30 gift card to a lucky winner! Says Jason:

Here’s The Deal:
I’ll be selecting one random winner to receive a $30 gift card from Amazon, iTunes or Starbucks– Your Choice!!! All you have to do is tell me where you posted the info! Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, your blog, your website— that’s it! Just pass it on!!!

Use the wall to tell me where you posted it and you are entered to win!!!

If you believe in indie music, vote for Tone Box Digital by December 31st, and help empower indie musicians everywhere!

Tone Box Digital Intro from jason bradford on Vimeo.

To learn more about Jason Bradford and Tone Box Digital, read the Rock Star Life Lessons interview!

Video test: Supernova

I have been in video edit mode for the past week and a half, and here’s a sneak peek of the first video, Supernova. This show took place in 2005 in NYC’s Cutting Room. For any of you Sex and the City fans, Cutting Room is owned by Chris Noth, aka “Mr. Big.”

Music Marketing Machine Coming to NYC in July!

I’m happy to announce my upcoming 4-week “Music Marketing Machine” course in New York City.

Equal parts lecture, Master Mind group, networking meeting, and supportive community, my Music Marketing Machine course is an “incubator style” workshop designed to teach singers, producers, rappers, and bands how to market themselves, build their fanbase, and sell their music – without a traditional record deal.

At no extra charge, all participants will receive a Music Marketing Machine Workbook for designing their own individualized marketing strategy. At the end of the four weeks, you’ll have an individualized music marketing plan – created by you, just for you!

Where: Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP 21), 18 West 18th Street, New York City

Dates: Wednesdays: July 16, 23, 30, August 6, 2008

Time: 7-10pm

How much: The regular price of enrollment is $200.00 per person. If you register now, you can take advantage of the “Early Bird” rate, which guarantees your spot in the course for only $125 ~ a 20% discount

“Carla, thank you so much for your insights – you really have inspired me to get into music on a professional basis.” Emma Wolfin

Register using the PayPal button or email me at moxiemusic [AT] hotmail [DOT] com. You can also find more info on the dedicated Music Marketing machine course page.

Sign up now!

CNN.com: “Because nobody at Sony has yet received the memo that music retail was killed by the music download”

I can’t help it. I love bashing the traditional record industry. When will they get that digital killed the album star?

In The Marquee Blog, CNN.com’s Matt West recently reviewed Sony BMG’s Platinum MusicPass, credit card-like digital albums that allow music buyers to purchase music in non-disc form, log on to a Web site and download MP3 files to their digital players. Long story short, he writes an awesome rant, which thrills me to no end:

 “Apparently the company now wants to me to go to a retail store to pick up something that I could just as easily do without ever leaving my home.

This bothers me on so many levels. First, I should mention that I live in Los Angeles, where driving is considered a blood sport. Now, thanks to MusicPass, I can not only take my life in my own hands in order to get music on my computer — I’m also contributing unnecessary carbon emissions and smog to the atmosphere.”

You can read the rest of his review here, but I’ll include his scathing send-off:

“Thanks for trying, Sony. I’ll just stack the rest of these cards over here next to this pile of MiniDiscs and Betamax tapes.”

And the underdogs dance with glee!!!

Now I’m a Video Uploading Fool!

I’m still new to WordPress, and as user-friendly as this blog application is supposed to be, there’s still much I don’t know how to do yet (hence, my copy of WordPress for Dummies). Over the weekend though, I heard through the grapevine that a recent acquaintance was disappointed that I had no music videos of my own in the video tab. Instead of telling me directly, he told my friend who, of course, told me.

First I got mad, but then I realized that this was needed feedback, and there’s no point in getting pissed at information that can actually help in the long run. And honestly, who knows how many other people I don’t know visited this blog and thought the same thing? In the end, I took the feedback as a compliment that the person liked my blog enough to be disappointed that there wasn’t more video content as promised. So I got the lesson, and I’m grateful. So thank you, Disappointed Visitor. You gave me the nudge I needed to get off my ass and figure this stuff out!

And as you noticed from my Jennifer Lopez embedded video, I finally figured out how to upload videos. And now that I know, I can finally upload my own music videos!!

But before I do that, I have to share one more video that MySpace’s Tom featured on his profile. It features a young aspiring musician performing his version of “Hey Jude” by The Beatles.

korean baby singing hey jude

You know you love it!!!

New Supernova Review in Feminist Review!!!

Have I mentioned yet that I’ve hired the fabulous PR team at Ariel Publicity? I’m in the middle of my first three month campaign, and in addition to getting songs from my Supernova CD added to internet radio and podcasts, I’ve also been getting CD reviews. The reviews are now coming in, and this one from Feminist Review is pretty awesome:

“First, they should try to get the Top 40-friendly “Supernova” (or its “Reprise”) onto as many radio playlists as possible, and maybe even pony up the money for a well-edited music video to promote the single. The twang and vocal stylization of “Long Distance Love” could work on radio stations with a more traditional county and western format. The soul-stirring “My First Child,” the uber-passionate “My Body’s Keeper,” or the sweepingly romantic “Fallin’” would all boost record sales as follow-up singles. (Incidentally, the seamless arrangement of the horns, organ, and Hall’s voice on “Fallin’” had me hitting the “repeat” button several times.) And “Lucy and Ethel”, a bittersweet ode to female friendship, can be included on the soundtrack of a tear-jerking chick flick.”

What great adjectives this writer uses: “Soul-stirring”, “Uber-passionate”, “Sweepingly romantic”! WOW!!!!!!

And this is only a small part of this great review, although I’ve included my favorite parts here. To read the rest of this insightful review, check out Feminist Review here.

I am surprised at how much the country twang elements were highlighted in this review, to the point where the funkier/pop songs seemed, in the reviewers opinion, out of place in comparison. While Supernova definitely has a bit of country to it (for example the pedal steel featured on “Long Distance Love”), I’m not sure if this CD really defines me as a country artist, as the reviewer believes. Still, I love hearing how my work is received, and I’m grateful for the time taken to listen to Supernova and write an opinion.

Love and thanks to Ariel, Christina, and Stefan at Ariel Publicity for all their attention and hard work. Keep the reviews comin’!!!