It’s pretty easy to become a content provider for iTunes and other digital distribution services. You usually just have to fill out an application and wait to be accepted into the program. But it can be a challenge to manage all your sales avenues. That’s why I’m recommending you give TuneCore a try for your music distribution.  

   TuneCoregives a single easy interface to upload your music and then select the distribution channels you want to utilize for your music. Your options for distributing your music are extremely varied and proven at selling music. You can choose online stores such as iTunes, AmazonMP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster, Amie Street and others. Or you can try more groundbreaking avenues such as making your song available to buy and play on the Rock Band video game.

   If you’re currently streaming your original songs on MySpace you’ll be able to get paid through TuneCore each time your songs get streamed on MySpace. TuneCore will also give you access to record labels such as Island Def Jam, Interscope, Republic and Motown Records.

   Do you have a physical CD completed and ready to distribute? TuneCore can also get your CD’s into over 200 Guitar Center stores across the country. This will put your CD right alongside U2, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and Jimi Hendrix. You’ll also get physical CD distribution through Amazon.com.

   Along with all these great services you’ll get the following items free as well:

• Free digital cover art
• Free CD artwork for Amazon’s Disc On Demand store
• Free streaming music widgets for your website
• Free barcodes, UPC’s, and TuneCore song identifiers (TCSI)

   You can get started using all of the TuneCore services with just a single song. The cost to upload one song and get started on your musical distribution is $9.99. For all these great available services it’s really a no-brainer to at least give TuneCore a try. The best thing of all is TuneCore doesn’t take any of your royalties. You get to keep 100% of all your sales royalties from the services you choose to distribute through.  Just click on the banner below to get started selling your music today!

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

TuneCore Resources For Music Distribution

Matt and Tom Have A Goal Of Playing As Many Gigs As Possible

   One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in my live band is getting a group of musicians together that all share the same goals. There are a lot of musicians out there but not all of them want to play in bars. Some musicians just want to jam and don’t want to play any live gigs at all, ever. If your band is going to succeed you really need to have common goals.

   The first thing you need to discuss before you even decide on what type of songs you want to play is where and when you will play gigs. This will determine your song selection as well as whether or not the individual band members are willing to commit to certain types of gigs. Too many bands dive right into learning songs which is always the first goal of any band. Let’s talk about that first goal of learning songs for minute.  

   When you first get a group of musicians together it makes sense to have a common goal of being able to play songs together. If you have a musician that only wants to jam and not learn the songs, it’s easy to get rid of them right at the beginning. There’s no time wasted on a musician that doesn’t want to learn the songs right from the beginning. It’s fun learning to play the songs and being able to play them well. It’s a time investment to reach this goal and depending on how many songs you learn as well as how quickly you learn them the investment in time can be huge.

    The next logical step to take is to be out playing gigs. This is where a lot of bands start to have problems. If a band member suddenly says “I want to play gigs but I won’t play in bars” even though everyone else in the band is fine with playing bars, it can put a huge strain on the band. Especially because you’ve already invested all that time into learning the songs. I’ve been in bands where one member won’t play on Sundays or won’t play anywhere but his basement. It can cause your band to instantly start having trouble. That’s why I recommend the first discussion you have as a band is where and when you will be playing gigs.

   Another common problem I’ve seen sink live bands is touring. If everyone in the band wants to tour but one person can’t because they are working full time to support a family, it makes touring almost impossible. You can make it work, but it takes extra coordination and advance planning. That’s why it needs to be discussed well in advance of the opportunity to tour. I’ve seen the big problems happen when it comes to financing time in a major recording studio to record your band’s first album. You may have a member that refuses to chip in any money for the recording project.

   But it doesn’t have to be that way. Remember way back before you started learning any songs as a band? That’s the time to discuss the evolution of the band and decide on a set of specific goals that you want to reach. That’s the time to discuss things like where you want to play gigs as well as what types of gigs you will and won’t play. Before you learn the songs is the time to discuss touring options. It’s also the time to discuss when you will record your first album and how you plan to finance it.

   A sample set of goals could look like this:

1. Learn or write 30 songs in 3 months
2. Start playing gigs anywhere we can get them (excluding Sunday and Christmas)
3. After 1 year do a mini-tour of the surrounding states
4. Immediatly after tour, enter studio and record album financed with gig earnings with additional costs split equally by all band members

   These are simple goals to lay out in advance and it’s an easy way to weed out band members that aren’t committed to making the band successful. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming and setting high goals. You may never make it to that tour and album recording but at least you’ll have a goal to be working on instead of being stuck playing the same 3 gigs over and over!

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

Band Members Must Have Common Goals

   There’s a service called Tune Core that let you manage all of your songs from a single interface. All you have to do is sign up, upload your singles or albums along with liner notes and album art, and your music will be delivered to iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazon MP3, Napster and others for distribution. You will get 100% of the royalties from all of your music sales.

   So what does it cost to upload your music for worldwide distribution? It’s only $9.99 per single and for albums it’s less than $50. That’s an incredible deal for taking the hassle out of contacting all the online distributors individually to try and get your music approved, uploaded and listed.

   There’s another interesting aspect to distributing through TuneCore. If you’ve recorded any covers of popular songs, you can also upload those for sale and distribution. You’ll get any royalties paid for you cover versions as well.

   It’s as easy as it gets to simply upload from your computer to TuneCore and then let them get it distributed for a single low fee. They won’t take any of your royalties which is excellent for artists. Here are some links to get you going with TuneCore!
Get Your Music on iTunes for as Low as $9.99 at TuneCore
Sell Your Album Online with TuneCore

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

Get Your Music Distributed On iTunes And Amazon.mp3

   I’ve had a lot of listeners complaining that the Shoutcast Mini Player has been crashing browsers and computers. So today I’m going to write a tutorial on how to listen to Shoutcast Radio streams using either Winamp or iTunes.   

   The first step is to download and install either iTunes or Winamp on your computer. If you have an Apple iPod, iPhone or iPad you will most likely already have iTunes installed on your machine and you can use it to listen to Shoutcast Radio streams. Click the links below to download your player of choice.

• Download iTunes
• Download Winamp

After downloading, simply run the downloaded file to install.

How to connect to a Shoutcast Radio stream using iTunes

1.) Go to www.shoutcast.com and click on the link that says “Change Default Player Settings”.

Change Default Player Settings

2.) Then select the button for “I want to listen using my own media player (Winamp, Windows Media, iTunes, etc)

3.) Click Save

4.) Go to www.shoutcast.com and type in the name of the station you’re looking for in the Search box. In this example we will be connecting to Bonne Nuit Live.

Search For Your Shoutcast Station

5.) When Shoutcast finds your station (Bonne Nuit Live) you want to Right-Click the button that says “Tune In” and select “Copy Shortcut”.

6.) Open iTunes and click on the “Advanced” tab, then select “Open Audio Stream”.

7.) Right click on “Open Audio Stream” box and paste the copied shortcut.

8.) Then select “OK” and you will now be listening to your Shoutcast stream in iTunes!

How To Connect To A Shoutcast Stream Using Winamp

1.) Start Winamp and click on the Browser tab.

1.) In the address bar type  www.shoutcast.com to go to Shoutcast.

2.) Click on the link that says “Change Default Player Settings”.

Chande Default Player Settings

3.) Then select the button for “I want to listen using my own media player (Winamp, Windows Media, iTunes, etc)

4.) Click Save

5.) On the Shoutcast page loaded in the Winamp browser, type the name of the station you want in the Search box.

Search For Your Shoutcast Station

6.) When Shoutcast finds your station, simply click “Tune In” to listen to your channel!

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How To Listen To A Shoutcast Stream With Winamp Or iTunes

Bonne Nuit Is A Band Featuring Live Musician Central Author - Matt Rushton and his sons Erik, Austin and Skyler

   This past weekend my latest live band, Bonne Nuit, performed a live online concert. First of all let me tell you a little bit about Bonne Nuit. It’s a band that features myself, Matt Rushton, on lead guitar and vocals. I’m also playing with my 3 oldest sons, Erik on guitar and vocals, Austin on Bass Guitar and Skyler on drums. Their ages are 18, 15 and 14 respectively. So as you can see, we don’t play in any bars.

   Bonne Nuit plays primarily current rock hits such as Kings Of Leon -Sex On Fire. We also do a couple classic rock numbers and a couple of originals. We’ve been learning songs and rehearsing for about 3 months now and we finally have enough material to do about a 1.5 hour show. So we decided we’d follow my own advice given earlier on Live Musician Central and broadcast a live online concert.   

   The great thing about doing a live online concert is the fact that you don’t have to haul any equipment out of your practice studio provided you have a good Internet connection in your practice studio. We do have a good Internet connection so we set up a computer running a Shoutcast server in tandem with Winamp. Then we marketed the gig using social networking. We primarily used Facebook for marketing by setting up an event and inviting all our friends. Feel free to check out the Bonne Nuit Facebook page and become a fan.

   Everything felt like a normal gig in terms of prepartion and pre-show jitters. We didn’t have to do a lot of setup other than making sure we had an audio feed from the board going to the computer that was broadcasting our Shoutcast stream. We started broadcasting the stream an hour before the show by playing music on a Zune HD intermixed with promo’s we had recorded earlier announcing the name of the stream channel, the band and showtime. We also used Live Musician Central Chat to allow our audience to logon and interact with the band while we were doing the show.

   It was really cool to see people start to hook up to our Shoutcast stream and join the chat room! When the showtime came, we unplugged the Zune and plugged in our board and we were live. I have been a radio D.J. and doing the live online concert was quite similar to being a D.J. in the sense that you have to keep talking if you’re not playing. Having dead air while you tune or fix problems is a no-no when people can’t see what you’re doing. So we did a lot of talking along with a lot of playing.

   We only had enough bandwidth on our connection to support 40 connections to our server and we ended up getting 12 external computers connected at one time. There were multiple people listening on some of the connections so we figure we played to about 20-25 people. Not a huge gig but not bad for an inaugural show. It was really fun to interact with everyone that signed on. Having the live chat room going at the same time was really a great thing.

   The listeners were asking questions about the band, making requests and giving us some pretty good praise on the quality of our show. It was so cool to be a part of a new medium for live music! We played very well, the mix sounded excellent and the band performed without any problems at all. There were some technical problems with the Shoutcast mini-player.

   If you go to shoutcast.com you can listen to stations with the built-in mini-player. Some of our listeners reported problems with freezing and browser crashes using the mini-player. The listeners that were using Winamp or iTunes had no problems at all. When we broadcast again we will most likely write a good tutorial or two about using Winamp or iTunes to listen to the show.

   Overall, it was a total blast to play the live online concert. The interaction with our audience was really fun in a cyberspace sort of way. It was a little strange not being able to hear cheering or jeering at the end of each song. We did miss having the audience in the same room with us but it was still a fascinating and fun experience. We are going to put on another live online concert soon and we hope it will get an even bigger response.

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Gig Report – Bonne Nuit Live Online Concert

Shakira Performs At The 2007 Grammy Awards

   The Grammy awards are coming up this Sunday January 31, 2010. They’ll be shown on CBS at 8PM ET/PT and just like last year, I’m sure they’ll disappoint. Every year I watch the Grammy’s and then vow that I’ll never watch them again. Let’s face it, since music distribution has gone so heavily digital and hit songs are basically just hits in a certain niche, the Grammy’s just don’t hold the same allure as they used to have. I guess an indication of all the niche markets is the fact that there are over 100 categories for for Grammy awards. So if you’re into rock and roll, you should get about 10 minutes of enjoyment out of the Grammy awards.

   I guess it’s just how the music industry is that everything is categorized and marketed to a certain audience. The Grammy’s, after all, is as much a celebration of targeted marketing as it is a celebration of musical creativity. The Record Of The Year category is loaded with the top sellers for 2010. But great albums like “It’s Blitz!” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are crammed into their own niche. So congratulations Lady Gaga, you have been marketed very well this year. Good luck winning the Grammy for your silly song “Poker Face”.   

   Since this is Live Musician Central, I’m mainly focusing on the live performances that will be featured at this years Grammy awards. The Grammy’s are interesting because the live performers are not always live. It’s kind of a game we play when watching the Grammy awards to see who is lip synching and who is really singing live. The following acts are slated to perform live at the 2010 Grammy Awards:

• Dave Matthews Band
• Green Day
• Lady Gaga
• Pink
• Zac Brown Band
• Beyonce’
• Black Eyed Peas
• Lady Antebellum
• Maxwell
• Taylor Swift
• Bon Jovi
• Mary J. Blige
• Andrea Bocelli
• Green Day

That’s at least a partial list and I’m sure there will be a few surprises too. So I ask myself, do I really want to see any of these performers live? I’d kind of like to see Kings Of Leon simply because I enjoyed their latest album so much. I’d also like to see the kid who calls himsefl Owl City perform just to see if he can play live as opposed to cranking out tunes in his bedroom.

   Still, the Grammy’s should be entertaining for a while simply because someone may do something crazy. Maybe we’ll have another Kanye moment or something. I’m sure I’ll make my usual vow when it’s all over and swear that I’ll never watch the Grammy’s again. For now, download some of the Grammy Nominees music and get prepared for another show.

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

Grammy Awards 2010 Preview

Full Tip Jar? Spread The Wealth Around

One of the most important things to have when you play in a live band is places to play. Without having a club or venue to play in we couldn’t really call our band a “live band”. It would just be a band that gets together to play for each other and although that’s fun for a while, the real fun is playing in front of an audience at a venue.

   I’m sure you know there is a lot of competition between bands to get into the places that feature live music. Even if you have a regular gig you can rest assured that there’s another band ready to step in and take that gig if your band can’t fulfill it. Most clubs have several bands on a regular rotation and there are many other bands trying to get their foot in the door and get booked too. Today I’m going to talk about a very simple way to set your band apart from the other bands that are playing in the same clubs as you.  

   Most clubs will have a different band in every weekend with bands being on a four to six week rotation. What you need to remember is that the people who work at the club full time get to see every band that comes through the place. I’m talking about the door personnel, bartenders, bouncers and waitresses. These people are there every night and get to watch all the bands as well as see how the audience reacts to the bands.

   This puts them in a very powerful position with management because they have firsthand knowledge of how well each band is doing in the club. If management wants to know how the weekend went, they’re not going to ask the band, they’re going to ask the bartenders and waitresses. These are the people that the management trusts for opinions and their opinion can go a long way toward your band keeping a gig and getting re-booked.

   Which brings me to this crucial point, it’s in your best interest to slip some cash to the bartenders and waitresses in all the clubs you play. In the clubs where I play, the band always gets free drinks. These drinks are either served by the bartender or one of the waitresses. It’s going to build a lot of good will with these people if you slip them a few bucks for their effort. Believe me, most bands are far too cheap to do this simple gesture. I can tell you, if you tip your bartenders and waitresses they will remember it and they’ll remember your band!

   It’s just good business on your band’s part to slip a little something to the people working in the club while your band plays. If you have a tip jar and it’s a good night, slip some tip money to the bartenders and waitresses and let them know it was a good night. If you spread the wealth around they’re going to want your band back and that means steady gigs for your live band. When management asks how the night went, the bartenders and waitresses are going to let them know your band did well.

   I know it’s tough playing in a band and making hardly any money at all but remember that everyone around you is struggling too. Give a little money to the people that are working around your band and it will help take your band farther than the bands that aren’t doing this. Good luck out there, and keep rockin’!

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Tipping The Bartenders And Waitresses

The Concert Was Free, But I Bet Jimi Got Paid

   The current economic conditions have been especially tough on live bands. Gigs just seem to be drying up and disappearing altogether. There is very fierce competition between bands to get the gigs that are still available. Sadly, this has led to many bands lowering their gig rates simply to get any bookings at all. So what should you do when it becomes a matter of money that is the final deal breaker between you and another band getting a gig?

   That’s a very tricky question to answer because lowering your rates will not only hurt your band, but it will hurt every band that plays at the club you lower your rates to play in. The biggest problem with lowering your bands going rate is that the new, lower rate will become the accepted pay standard for your band every time you play in that club. The club owner can then use your lower rates as leverage against other bands to get them to drop their prices as well. So as you can see, it hurts all of your local bands if you undercut everyone in pricing just to get a gig.   

   The ideal situation would be to have every band in your area stick to their guns on pricing and make sure that nobody lowers their prices. The sad thing is, bands are all too willing to do anything to get a gig right now. That means you’re going to have to do some price slashing to stay competitive getting gigs.

   The best thing you can do is get a signed contract when negotiating gig payment that states that you are giving the club or venue a one-time discount on your booking prices. Make sure it’s written down that on future bookings, standard gig fees will apply. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to be able to charge your regular prices next time you play the venue. It does mean that if the economy rebounds and gigs become plentiful again, that you will easily be able to get your prices back up to a profitable level.

   It’s a sad thing to have to lower your live bands gig rates just to be able to keep playing paying gigs. Especially when bands are paid so little already. Remember, the best thing that can happen is for all local bands to stay on the same page when deciding gig rates. Don’t be afraid to ask around and see what other bands are charging to play out. By communicating with other bands, you should be able to give the club owners a token drop in gig rates without dropping them too much. It’s better to knock off $50 than $100 and if all the bands are only giving a $50 break to club owners, it’s going to help all live bands stay viable.

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

Lowering Your Live Band Rates To Get A Gig

   The rumors are running wild in all the fan forums with speculations on everything from a new tour, a new album or a new box set just in time for Christmas. I put the most credence in the box set speculation simply because of the fact that they’ve created a brand new website called acdcbacktracks.com which is showing a video clip of some classic Bon Scott footage.    

   Why is a box set good for all fans of AC/DC? Because you usually get lots of rarities, videos and remastered tracks in a box set. AC/DC rarely does anything small so I bet this box set is going to be packed with good stuff and a tour will follow. No matter what the announcement, the whole countown timer with special website is a fantastic marketing ploy. All of us that play in bands can take a lesson from this kind of top level marketing. My advice to all AC/DC fans is to watch the websites and find out for yourself what this exciting new announcement is going to be!

   In the meantime, enjoy a classic video of AC/DC with Bon Scott on the Australian TV show “Bandstand”. This video was shot on Feb. 21st 1976 and features some Australian hotties dancing around the band. You gotta love 70′s fashion, take me back to grade school baby!!

1976 – AC/DC – It’s A Long Way To The Top – Television Performance

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AC/DC Countdown To What?

Famous Booking Agents - Creative Artists Agency

   One of the greatest challenges for any live band is finding and booking regular paying gigs. It can take more time to get out and book your own gigs than it takes to practice and get your band in shape to play gigs. That’s why live bands secure the services of booking agents to help find and schedule gigs.   

   The first thing you need to do is find a booking agent that can get your band booked into the places you want to play. The best way to do this is to visit a few clubs and try to speak to someone about who is booking bands for that club. Ask them if they use a specific booking agent to book bands for their club. You can usually get contact numbers for local booking agents this way.

   Another way to find good booking agents is to talk to other bands that play in the clubs you’re interested in. Ask them what booking agent they’re using and you should be able to get some good contacts that way as well. You can also check the Entertainment section in the Yellow Pages of your local phonebook.

   After you have some numbers, start calling the booking agents. Remember to act professionally and have all your contact information handy when you’re speaking to the booking agent. Be sure you have some Demo CD’s of your band to give to the booking agent. Even better, direct them to your website which should have music demos, pictures and even live videos of your band performing.

   An agent that is interested in booking your band will usually get back to you right away after your initial contact. Make sure you have a calender handy and that you know in advance what dates your band is available to play. You don’t want to have to tell the booking agent “I’ll call you back after I check with the guys” when they offer you gig dates.

   A single booking agent usually books for several different places. At first, they’ll most likely schedule you in some of their smaller venues to make sure your band can handle the gigs they book. After you prove yourself at a few smaller gigs the agent will begin to book you at larger and more prestigious gigs. It’s a process that will pay off big time in the end if you find a good booking agent.

   There are a couple more things to remember when working with a booking agent. Booking agents will usually take a percentage of your earnings as payment for booking the gig for you. This is how they get paid for doing all the legwork it takes to secure gigs for your band. Most agents charge between 10%-15% of what your band will be paid for the gig.

   Agents will usually have you sign a contract specifying where you’ll be playing, the dates you’ll be playing, how much you will be paid and how much you will pay the booking agent. This is part of the business and it’s something you will have to do to work with a booking agent. Just make sure you read the contract and don’t sign anything binding beyond that single gig. You don’t want to sign a contract that gives that particular booking agent exclusive rights to your band in perpetuity.

   There is one major matter of etiquette when working with a booking agent. I’ve heard bands complain that an agent booked them into a club but the band scheduled return dates on their own so they didn’t feel it necessary to pay the agent for those return dates. This is unethical and will get you blacklisted among the local booking agents. Any gig at that club which comes as a direct result of the original gig the booking agent booked for you is a gig that you should pay your agent a booking fee for.

   Finally, make sure the agent knows that you are not exclusively tied to one individual booking agent. You want to be sure that if you book your own gigs without the agents help that there will be no fees paid to the booking agent. This will also allow you to use multiple booking agents for an even wider selection of gigs.

   Booking agents are a very necessary part of finding gigs for your live band. Generally, they make your life much easier and can even become a good friend of the band. Make sure you treat them fairly and you will get better gigs from them as well.

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

How To Find And Work With A Booking Agent For Your Live Band