Musicadium Blog

1. DON’T say you sound like Nirvana, The Chilli Peppers or The Beatles. I promise you, no matter how good you are, you are only going to be a letdown if you use those bands as yardsticks.

2. DON’T refer to your band as ‘incendiary’. That word is to be used by others to describe you only. (Unless you are Jimi Hendrix, in which case, use away).

3. DON’T spell d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y with an ‘a’ (definately is not a word).

4. DON’T muck around with cursive text and loopy fonts. You want people reading what you wrote, not guessing.

5. DON’T talk about the last bands you used to be in. Unless of course you were in Bloc Party or The Midnight Juggernauts. A press release from a band you don’t know becomes very irrelevant, very quickly when it starts talking about a bunch of other bands you don’t know.

6. DON’T over do the in-jokes.

7. DON’T use words like ‘best’, ‘coolest’, ‘hottest’ in relation to your talents.

Recording an album is a costly, time-consuming process. For independent artists, it represents perhaps the single biggest expense. And when you’re on a limited budget, every dollar to recording means one dollar less to your touring/new instrument/2 minute noodle budget.

Some enterprising artists are avoiding the recording roadblock in the most ingenious way: getting their fans to pay for it. Not only does this lighten the burden on the artist, it builds rapport between the artist and the fans. How good will your fans feel when, as
a collective, they can proudly say – if it wasn’t for us, this album would never have been made.

Have a look here and here for some good examples.

Can you think of a more creative, meaningful, productive way to engage your fans?

When Elvis first emerged, his promoter told everyone he was ‘The White Man Who Sings Like A Black Man’.

Eminem was ‘The First Great White Rapper’. (No, Vanilla Ice doesn’t count).

The Spice Girls represented ‘Girl Power’.

Chances are, you don’t want to be Elvis, Eminem or The Spice Girls.

But you can learn a lesson about the power of simple, memorable branding from these examples. When you hear a description so short and distinct, you never forget it.

On the other hand, if your description is along the lines of, ‘the band from Ulladulla who sounds a bit like Cog’, you have no hope of sticking in anyone’s mind.

How are you going to make your band stand out if you only have one line to do it?

Welcome to the Musicadium Blog.

Think of this blog as an indie musician’s toolkit.

Through it, musicians can learn, improve, and ultimately make the most of their talents.

We will post here regularly with marketing tips, interviews, artist and industry profiles, how-tos, never-dos and guest posts from experts worldwide.

Please feel free to comment with your own tips and suggestions or contact me directly: nick at musicadium dot com

The Bedroom Philosopher
http://www.myspace.com/thebedroomphilosopher

Scott Edgar and The Universe
http://www.myspace.com/scottedgarandtheuniverse

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In this week’s blog, Musicadium interview’s CRASH. CRASH was born Mike Beever in 1969 in the north of England. At a very early age he is introduced to music through his father, a church organist and his mother a keen ‘New Seekers’ fan!

He develops an interest in uplifting and soaring music through his love of the great composers in particular J.S Bach, Handel, Mozart and Beethoven but it is when he comes ear to ear with film and music that the potent mix strikes a chord.

Throughout his teenage years he begins a love affair with sound synthesis aquiring his first synths at age 14 and going on to start experimenting with sound and recording throughout these years. (more…)