Musicadium Blog

We here at Musicadium know that it is the job of the artist to CREATE and PERFORM, but it is vitally important that you are aware of what is going on in the industry and the tools that will help you navigate the trappings of the industry.

I do a lot of reading here in the office - blogs, industry websites and e-mails, so here is a helpful guide to some of the cooler things on the web to help you and your band.  If you can think of any others that are great and make your industry experience just that little bit easier, feel free to comment them here!

Here are a few websites that may make your day and get you thinking about the next step (or few steps) in your music career/pathway.

HypeBot

Hypebot is an industry news and information site.  There is a large focus on the digital world on HypeBot, but all aspects of the music industry are covered here.  News on how Music-related stocks is listed here, as well as information about helpful websites and tools.  It is pretty much the website I check EVERYDAY for the latest in industry news. They can also be followed on twitter - @hypebot.

MySpace

MySpace personal profiles may seem a little 2006 right now, but the MySpace Music Profiles are still the best way for people to experience your band’s music and to discover bands you may be able to tour with.  It’s an EPK and a social media website all in one.  You will need a little experience with HTML to get the most out of MySpace.

Facebook

Facebook is the social networking giant at the moment.  Facebook and Twitter seem to be the one-two punch for bands at the moment.  (Actually, truth be told, the ultimate street fighter combo for bands is very much: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and a well-written blog, hosted on WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr or other blogsite.)  Facebook have Pages for all sorts of artists and businesses - very easy to share your band’s content with all of your friends and people can be “fans” of your band.  If you would like to know more about how to use and set up a Facebook Page for your band, check out our blog article on it, How to use Facebook for your b(r)and.

Twitter

Twitter is the emerging underground phenomonon - Musicadium’s twitter is @musicadium, follow us! - Twitter is a “micro-blogging” (accessible from the web and most mobile services) service that basically gives you 140 characters to “tweet” about anything you want.  Twitter really does lend itself to tweeting for a particular purpose - though definitely about making direct sales.  It does not lend itself to tweeting about mundane aspects of life - i.e. “I am on the bus.” “Just got off the bus.”  Look at @thegrates for a great example of how to use twitter as a band.  Check out all of the great twitter applications like tweetdeck and twitpic.  This is a fantastic article about how to use Twitter as a band - read it and get tweeting!

Digital Music News

Digital Music News is the other website I use to see what is going on with the financial side of the digital music industry.  Digital Music news has a lot of information about how large companies who are floated on the stock market are doing, as well as company mergers and bankruptcies.  It is a very interesting website to observe what is happening in the industry on a wider scale.

Audiolife

Audiolife is currently only available in the United States, but it will more widely available very soon.

Basically, Audiolife is a press-on-demand service who provides users with an online store via a widget to sell MP3s, Physical CDs and T-shirts and Hoodies that you can set the price and sell direct from Audiolife.  They set a minimum price (which is their cut) and you make the profit from the sale.  No more upfront fees for buying thousands of products and having them sit around in boxes in your garage.

whothehell

Who The Bloody Hell are They? is the best Australian music discovery site there is, bar none.

Every few days there are reviews of bands’ music who you may or may not hae heard of, but regardless, this is surely one of the best quality filters available to you.  It’s amazing how many tastemakers must read the site, because the bands featured almost without fail, go on to do some really great stuff.  Who the Hell are basically all over it before everyone else.

PressPlay

PressPlay Media is a Music Marketing company based in Brisbane Queensland, Australia.  Pressplay seeks out the best talent from around the world in an Independent market and provides a way for their songs to be licensed. They are a “boutique” agency, keeping their service personal. Pressplay Media connects Music Owners with Music Users. In doing so, they provide a means of licensing music whereby the Music Owner has no loss of ownership and the Music User is guaranteed a great song!

APRA

The Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) collects and distributes licence fees for the public performance and communication of their members’ musical works. The Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) collects and distributes mechanical royalties for the reproduction of their members’ musical works.

Hopefully this has been helpful.  Please leave a comment and leave details of other helpful websites - obviously this isn’t all of them!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 5:53 pm and is filed under General, Useful Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.