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I'm doing a quick Midwest tour at the end of the month and I want to meet the Ari's Take crowd! I've hosted a couple meetups before my shows in LA and they went really well. Lots of people exchanged business cards and made connections. Past meetups have included entertainment law...

It's a common problem in the touring music community. Touring Band X amp breaks down before their show in Minneapolis. They scramble to seek out rental companies, but none exist. So the band calls the venue to ask for suggestions. The venue calls local musicians in town they thin...

The last Ari's Take meetup before my record release show was awesome. I met a bunch of very cool, dedicated musicians. I got a few fantastic CDs from them too. It gave me an idea. For this next meet up, Thursday July 24th at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood (preceding my show of cours...

From left: Margaret Gregory, Alejandro Manzano, Tyler Ward, Mike Falzone, David Choi, Meghan Tonjes, Peter HollensI originally wrote this for Digital Music NewsThis past weekend in Anaheim, CA was the world's largest gathering of YouTube lovers. Nearly 19,000 people attended the...

Fill up your business card pocket protector containers. Unwrap your CDs. Update your email signatures.The first Ari's Take meetup has arrived!I'd been planning on holding some form of gathering of minds in the physical world for sometime now after many reader requests. As much as...

For you Twitter beginners please read Why You Have No Twitter Followers first. That will give you the basics of Twitter and will catch you up to speed to understand this piece.For the rest of us though, let's get into this debate.Over the years, I've had many Twitter friends, er,...

Musicians hate the word 'networking.' It feels contrived and dishonest. Marketers and entrepreneurs love the word and the act. These people are constantly out meeting new people and... wait for it... networking.So why do musicians hate it so much, but traditional entrepreneurs lo...

I get a lot of questions from bands about how to get their numbers up on social media sites. After a 2 minute scan of their sites I completely understand why their numbers aren't higher (and it's not because they suck - many of these bands are actually great). It's because they d...

Everyone watch Amanda Palmer's brilliant Ted talk. I'll wait the 13 minutes.Ok, now that you're in tears and are just as inspired as I am, let's take something away from this.No musician in the world is a better asker, connector, motivator or promoter, in my opinion, than Amanda...

I lived in Minneapolis for 7 years. Other than making great friends, becoming a supportive member of the music community and my overall love for the city itself, it wasn't the right music scene for my style of music. Meaning, there were very few other artists making music within...