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

   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!

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

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.

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

Gig Report – Bonne Nuit Live Online Concert

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’!

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

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

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

Madonna - Top Of The Promotional Heap

   Ask any musician that you know if they would like to make a living playing music full time in a live band or even as a studio musician and I’m pretty sure their answer will always be an emphatic “yes”. Every guitarist I know dreams of making their living playing guitar. The thing is, great musicians are a dime a dozen. You can find excellent musicians living on every block. So how come so few of them are doing any professional playing?

   The answer is incredibly simple, it’s because they have failed at self promotion. So how do you self promote? Again, the answer is a simple one. All you have to do is get out of your practice room and go talk to people! Musicians are notorious for staying in their own little world and dreaming about making a living playing music. All it takes to get out there and make it playing music is to get speaking to anyone and everyone that can possibly help you in your quest.

   So where can you find people that will help you with your quest to play professionally? The first place is your local music store. Get down there and start talking to the salespeople. Find out who the top players in your area are. Try to find out where you can meet the best players and highest level musicians in your area. Maybe they come into the local music store regularly. If so, see if you can find a time to talk to them while they’re at the store.   

   Another thing to do is go out and see live bands play. You may be able to talk to some members of the top bands in your area. See if you can get their business card or contact information and ask if it’s okay for you to call or e-mail them with some questions. Try to set up a time to talk with them on the phone or see if they will let you visit with them before a rehearsal.

   When you get a chance to meet and talk to the best bands and musicians in your area make sure you’re ready with some good questions for them. Here are some sample questions for you to ask them:

• How long have you been playing?
• Do you play music for a living?
• How often do you play?
• How do you find gigs?
• Do you know anyone that is looking for musicians or would like to start a live band?
• Ask about their best experience as a musician.
• Ask about their worst experience as a musician.

   Let them answer your questions and pay attention when they’re talking to you. You can find out more about the music industry from asking intelligent questions of working musicians than you will find out anywhere else. You need to be able to communicate if you’re going to play music professionally and this is how you start doing that. Everyone likes to talk about themselves and if you’re willing to take the time to ask relevant questions and listen, you’re going to create a rapport with the upper level musicians that can help you in your quest.

   Finally, make sure you have your own contact info handy. You’ll want a contact phone number and a website address. Your website can be as simple as a MySpace or Facebook page that lists your skills, experience and a few sound demo’s of your playing. Make sure you give your info out to people that can help you in your quest to play professionally. Over time, as you build your relationship with the other local musicians, you can get contacts for their booking agents as well as personal agents and managers that can help you on your way in your music career.

   So how can you make it as  a professional musician? Get out and talk to people! I’m telling you, the reason Madonna, U2, The Beatles and Coldplay have made it huge isn’t because they’re the most talented musicians. It’s because they got out and they talked to people until they found someone that could help them. You may be the best, fastest, most talented guitarist in the world but unless you get out and find someone that can help get you out of your practice studio you’ll only be the greatest guitarist in your house.

   The next step after meeting some musicians is to get out and start your own live band. Keep reading Live Musician Central for ideas about starting a live band and making your live band better.

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

How To Make It As A Professional Musician

Download Live Band Performance Contract

   How much should your live band be paid when you play a gig? That’s a very delicate question and the answer is going to be different for pretty much every gig you play. Some clubs pay a standard $350 per night. Some will give you a percentage of the door receipts. Some clubs pay less and some pay a lot more. The thing that you have to remember is that gig payment is always negotiable and it’s up to you to agree to a fee before you play the gig.

   The most important thing to remember when booking a gig is to negotiate payment in advance of the gig. Try to reduce any variables the venue may throw at you. If the venue tells you “we’ll decide on payment after we see how many people show up”  then that is a great big red flag and you should seriously consider not playing that venue. Don’t agree to any stipulations such as “payment based on food and drink sales”. Even payment based on door receipts is tricky because most clubs won’t let you audit their door receipts. The best thing to do when you’re booking your gig is to get all the payment details right up front.   

   The ideal situation is to decide on a nightly fee and then have a written contract that specifies how much your live band will be paid. The contract should then be signed by both the booking agent for the venue and a representative of your band. This simple act of securing a signed contract in advance will solve a multitude of problems when it comes time to collect your fee from the venue.

   The contract should include basic things like the actual time your live band will start and end the show. The number and duration of all band breaks. If you’re travelling and the venue has offered to cover your accommodations your contract should cover items such as lodging, transportation and meals. The contract should also cover potential problems such as gig cancellation or unforeseen disasters.   

   I have used this basic Live Band Performance Contract <–click to download  for years and it has served it’s purpose very well. As you can see, all the most important aspects of booking a gig are present in the live band performance contract. Filling this contract out and getting is signed will help you protect your live band at every gig you play.

   The sad reality is, a lot of gigs are booked with a verbal agreement and a handshake. That’s not too bad if you’re booking return gigs to a club and you already have a signed contract from your first gig. You can always refer back to the contract you secured during your first gig at a venue if you have problems during return bookings. Still, there will be clubs and venues that will only ever book you with a verbal agreement and a handshake.

   So what can you do to protect your live band when you book a gig with only a verbal agreement as to how much your band will be paid for the gig? The best you can do is play the gig in good faith and see if the venue lives up to their end of the agreement. If they don’t, your only recourse is to never play that venue again. I can tell you from experience that clubs and venue’s that don’t pay their bands a good, honest fee will not have quality bands for very long. A club cannot survive without good bands that are willing to play there. So the clubs basically sign their own death sentence when they fail to pay their bands.

   What you don’t want to do is bash the venue online or even do too much bashing around your local music scene. It’s okay to tell your story but it’s enough to say “We booked the gig, they said they would pay us X amount of dollars and they didn’t.”. Word will get around and before long, that venue will not be able to book bands anymore.

   I hope this helps you in securing payment for all your hard work playing in your live band. It’s always an adventure out there, just remember to keep a cool head and know that the clubs will get good bands if they pay well and no bands if they screw the bands over. Make sure you download the Live Band Performance Contract and use it!

Get the full experience at www.livemusiciancentral.com

Negotiating Gig Payment For Your Live Band – Get A Signed Contract

In Stereo Sings 3-Part Harmony

   One thing I’ve found from all my years of playing in a live band is that things are constantly changing. The type and quality of equipment is always changing. The current popular songs are always changing. Your live band has to constantly change as well just to keep up with everything else. Believe me, the best way to let your band die is to refuse to change.

   One of the biggest problems I see in live bands is they become unwilling to change to fit the their ever changing environment. The biggest reason for this is because of plain old laziness. It takes work to keep your band up to date and relevant. The biggest mistake that bands make is an unwillingness to change their set list. You really need to get rid of songs that you’ve been playing forever and start learning some new songs. Your song list should be constantly added to and changed up at gigs.  

   I’m not saying you should quit playing the songs that are guaranteed to fill the floor with people everytime you play them. But you should be willing to learn new songs and maybe swap out a classic song that you’ve been playing for a while with a classic that is new for the band. Your fans will appreciate hearing you do some new music instead of seeing the same show they saw from you last year. A key thing you have to be aware of is if you’re bored playing a song, your audience is bored of hearing you play it. Learn some new music!!

   As for guiding your live band’s evolution let me tell you a little bit about my bands. When I started my band “In Stereo” we wanted to play lots of electronic, sequenced dance music. We got two girl lead singers and proceeded to get out and play that type of music. Things went well and we got a lot of gigs but over time the gigs became fewer and there began to be tensions in the band.

   This led to a change in the band. I knew that I wanted to move away from the electronic dance stuff and play more dance rock and rock-n-roll. So when the girls decided to leave we rebuilt the band with guys that wanted to play more rock. We continued to play and the gigs picked up again and we became more popular than ever. I was able to help guide the evolution of In Stereo by having a clear, defined goal of what I wanted to do with that band and it payed off very well.

   Now let me tell you about my original band “Shufflin’ Noah“. Shufflin’ Noah started out as an all original band which incorporated multiple songwriters and singers. All the songwriters would bring completed songs to rehearsal and the band would learn them. We played a lot of gigs, recorded an album and had a great time doing it.

   After a while, the enthusiasm wore off and we retired to the studio. Songwriting became a lot more fun as we learned to create music together as a group. We have evolved into an amazing jam band and have taken improvisation to a level we never dreamed possible. It’s been a very organic evolution and has not been planned. The downside is, we don’t play out very much and that’s a drag because we have a ton of music that deserves to be heard. Hopefully, soon, you’ll see Shufflin’ Noah on the stage again.

   My point in all this is that it’s very important to let your band evolve. To succeed, you must allow your live band to change and grow. If it’s not then you need to force a change, such as learning new songs.  It’s always better if you have an idea of what you would like to evolve into and have a plan to market that evolution so you can keep playing your live gigs. Rock on people!! -Matt-

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Dealing With Change And Guiding Your Live Band’s Evolution

Visit Matt Rushton's MySpace Page

   There are so many ways for live musicians to reach our audience today that there’s really no excuse not to be using some of them. Today I’m going to discuss using the social networking sites out there for marketing you, your band and your music. I’m talking about using MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with your fans as well as other musicians and bands. There are a lot of social networking sites and some that are dedicated strictly to music and musicians but I’m going to focus on Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.

   Of those three big social networking sites the one that caters the best to musicians and bands is MySpace. MySpace allows you to create a musician specific profile about you or your band and upload your own original music for playback on your profile page. You can also allow people to download your songs for free. The big advantage to MySpace is you get a unique URL that incorporates your name, or a version of it in the URL. For example, my MySpace URL is http://www.myspace.com/mattrushtonmusic . It’s fairly short and it has my name in it. MySpace will also let anyone in the world visit your page and view the content. It’s an easy and free way to set up an internet presence for your band. You can present all essential information that will help you to market your band on your MySpace page such as a band bio, demo songs, contact information, song lists and pricing information. You can also post pictures and videos of your band. If you only have one band page on the web, it should be a MySpace page.

   Another advantage of MySpace is the ability to add people as friends to your Friend Space. By linking to friends on MySpace you create a contact list that will allow you to instantly send messages to all of them informing of upcoming shows or new music releases. This is marketing at it’s finest and is a huge step in making sure that your fanbase is up to date with news about your band. If you can keep people updated on your shows you’ll be able to keep a crowd coming to see you when you play.

   That brings me to Facebook. Facebook is a social networking site that is really geared towards creating an intimate private community feel. Facebook will not allow you to make your profile public to all users. For people to be able to see your profile you must “Friend” them before they can view your profile. Once you’ve added a user as a friend they can see your full profile. For a band on Facebook, the main marketing goal is simply to connect with your fans. Facebook is very easy and fast to set up and the updates you put on your profile are instantly transmitted to everyone on your friends list. Your band can use Facebook to inform people of how your latest band practice went, how your recording session is going or the general band mood. It’s also perfect for announcing upcoming gigs as it will allow you to send out custom invitations to everyone on your friends list. You can even request a reply so you can get a feel for how many people will be attending your shows.

   Finally there’s the LinkedIn network. LinkedInis primarily a business networking site. Professionals from all over the world list their education and work experience. They can write recommendations for other professionals and receive recommendations as well. It’s a way for companies to find new employees and for people looking to make career changes to find work. For a band, the LinkedIn network is a great way to connect with other bands and musicians. LinkedIn is also an excellent place to meet booking agents and live event promoters. If you take some time with LinkedIn, you may be able to make a business contact that can help market your band in ways you may have never even considered.

   So there you have it, if you’re not using the online social networking sites you’re really behind the times. Get your band on the web and I’m sure that some opportunities will open up for you. Follow the links below to get started.

MySpace

Facebook

LinkedIn

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Market Your Band With Social Networking