Musicadium Blog

So iTunes is the digital downloads industry. That much is certain.

There has been much speculation recently about who holds the No.2 spot.

USA Today’s announcement that “Amazon is No. 2 in digital music sales since opening nearly six months ago.”

emusic CEO David Pakman immediately shot back claiming emusic was “selling more than 7,000,000 songs a month” and that with respect to Amazon mp3, emusic was “still on top, and will continue to be so”.

Now, SpiralFrog has staked its claim to the No. 3 spot on the basis of its 850,000 registered users. Other players like Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo Music and Amie St have not yet weighed into the debate.

With Amazon mp3 refusing to release figures and no independent arbiter, there is little certainty beyond the fact that iTunes dominates.

For artists, the message is clear - so long as you are on iTunes, emusic and Amazon mp3, you can be confident you covering the most important digital ground.

At Musicadium, we get a lot of requests for assistance with MySpace. Below we have posted some of the top questions we get from clients.Hopefully thee will help you get you started on your way of making MySpace - your space.
How do I become a featured artist on MySpace?

Please send MySpace an email stating you are interested in becoming a featured artist and they will have a representative contact you.

How do I add color, graphics, & sound to my Profile page?

Adding color, graphics and sound to your MySpace profile page is easy and requires only a basic knowledge of HTML (the programming language used to create web pages on the Internet). Simply go to “Edit Profile” and enter the desired HTML coding where appropriate.If you do not know HTML, you can reach out and make a new friend by asking someone who has color, graphics, and/or sound on their Profile page how they did it. Musicadium strongly suggests you add your iTunes link HTML in your MySpace. See our article for more help Make a link to your album on iTunes.

How do I add a song from a Myspace artist to my profile? How do I remove it?

Adding a song is easy. Visit Myspace Music (http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music) and find a song you want to add. If the artist has given permission to share the music, you’ll see an “Add” link next to the song. Click “Add” and the song will play on your profile! Only one song can be added to your profile at one time.If you want to change songs, simply find another song and click “Add.”

To remove the song, go to Home >> Edit Profile >> Profile Songs and click “Delete.”

More Help

These and more MySpace help FAQ’s can be found at MySpace’s Help area http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq or contact them at http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.contact

Being great fans of Ranger (they played at our launch party!) we are profiling Cam from Ranger this week.

Q. What styles and influences are on your latest album?

Styles and influences accumulate over time ..is very hard to pinpoint anyone
in particular.

Q. What inspires you? What makes you wake up and think “wow that really
matters?”, what makes you want to write songs that make people sit down and
think?

Random acts inspire.I try not to think about anything and sometimes and only
sometimes an idea will come.Try to hard and there usually crap.

Q. How did you come up with your band name?

Saw it on the side of a truck.

Q. What’s your favourite song to play?

Wise up.

Q. How long of you been playing your instruments/singing and did you
take lessons?

Been playing guitar since i was eight !Yes had an amazing guitar teacher for
5 years in high school .Taught me how to teach myself! Been singing for two
years.

Q. Any new influences that you will be drawing into your next release?

Whatever happens.

Q. What’s your favourite colour?

Blue

Q. What kind of instruments do you use?

I use guitars . I fucking love guitars!

Q. Why did you choose Musicadium to digitally distribute your music?

Cos Nick is a cool man with a plan. I like people who put it on the line. Musicadium
does that!

Q. Do you have a day/square job as well as music? If so what is it?

Composing music for film and TV.

Q. When did you first know that creating music was for you?

Still not sure.( or just really bad memory)

Q. The best thing about being an artist is?

sleeping

Q. What are you listening to right now?

arcade fire, band of horses, Lee Dorsey.

Q. When will be releasing your next album?

later in year maybe.

Q.
How did you get exposure?

Too long in the sun.

In late January, we posted about the importance of finding True Fans.

We wrote that true fans would do three things: come and see you play live, buy what you produced (CDs, merch) and tell their friends about you.

Earlier this month, the excellent Kevin Kelly from Wired Magazine from took things one step further in his post ‘1,000 True Fans’.  In his post, Kelly argues that creatives, including musicians, need 1,000 True Fans to make what they do a living.

“Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.”

The article is a must-read not just for musicians but for anyone trying to make art and cultivate a grassroots following.

Choosing an album cover is a critical part of the process of releasing an album. A good album cover can entice listeners in and add atmosphere and context to the music. Sure, in a world of file sharing, the album cover might be less crucial but music in its live and recorded formats still has en enormous visual element.

On that note, it is with pleasure that Musicadium counts down its top 5 BEST and top 5 WORST album covers of all time.

Enjoy.

We have written previously here about the value of a good myspace page.

A good myspace page is essential, have no doubt. But new research by Yahoo has revealed that music fans are heading to Wikipedia to find out about bands more than they are heading to myspace.

According to the study: “after searching for a band name music fans head to a band’s Wikipedia page, searching there twice as often as they go to the band’s MySpace page.”

So what does that mean for you?

Simple: cover all bases. Have a great myspace and a comprehensive wikipedia entry. That way everyone’s happy.

Seth Godin proivides some fascinating insights on The Future of The Music Business:

“People don’t listen to companies, they listen to people … And, there is something magical about the connection between one person and another person … There is a large number of people who want to be led. There is a large number of people who want to connect. There is a large number of people who want to join a tribe.”

Are you using your True Fans to create a tribe?

You know those cool little logos that are links to your album on iTunes? Well you create them by yourself using the ITunes Link Maker.

The logo looks like this:

The iTunes Link Maker is an online tool that you can use to generate links to any artist, song or album available on the iTunes Music Store.

How do I incorporate the link into my web page?

The link can be treated just like any other link within a web page, MySpace, Facebook, email signature etc. Use the code to get the word out about you!

iTunes Link Maker

Go to http://www.apple.com/itunes/linkmaker/ to start publicing your release on iTunes!

Want to know more, go to the Apple FAQ page http://www.apple.com/itunes/linkmaker/faq/