Live Musician Central

Frank - Ready To Rock

   With gas prices taking a huge chunk of change out of all of our pockets, bands are looking for ways to stay in touch with their audience. Today I’m going to talk a bit about streaming a live concert online for all your fans to enjoy.

  The easiest way that I’ve found to do this is with a great Internet streaming service called Shoutcast. It’s a music stream that you can listen to with either Winamp or iTunes. You can check it out at www.shoutcast.com and it’s very easy to set up. Here are 3 links on how to set everything up: Read more »

Gas Price Chat

   Let’s face it, gas prices are taking a heavy toll on every industry in the U.S.. Musicians are no better off than any other travelling worker. I’ve been reading about a lot of music groups having to turn down gigs just because the amount of travel involved made it impossible to make any profit on a gig.

   The problem we face in terms of gas prices is all the equipment we have to haul. That makes it pretty much impossible for a band to carpool together. In my band it takes 4 vehicles to get everything to a show. Most of our gigs are within 45 miles of our house but one of our members always has to travel 100 miles or more to get to a gig. Needless to say, gas costs really add up when you’re having to travel that far.

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   I like being comfortable. I’m the most comfortable in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I have to tell you that I don’t like wearing costumes and I hate dressing up. So for a long time I just wore jeans and a t-shirt onstage. Then I started opening for other bands and I really began to notice how cool they looked creating a look for when they played onstage.  I remember thinking once at a gig that the band that opened for us just looked cooler than we did. They just seemed a lot more hip even though musically we blew them away. The real bummer was, the crowd was louder for that band than for us.   Read more »

   We’ve all been there. The band has been together for months, you have 25 songs learned and you’re itching to get out and play. The problem is you’re stuck rehearsing and you don’t have enough songs to play a 4 hour club date. Well guess what, you do have enough songs to play a party. Even better it’s a party that you’re going to throw. Read more »

    When I finally got out of high school and first started doing club gigs a good musician friend of mine gave me a book. I read it cover to cover and it has proved to be a valuable resource even after all these years. That book is no longer in print but I want to suggest another book that just released its 3rd edition in 2007. Read more »