Income
How To Get Songs Placed On TV And In Movies
Last weekend at the ASCAP Music Expo at the Loews Hollywood Hotel I attended the Music Supervisor panel containing 5 music supervisors who actively place music in film and television.Over the course of my career, I've had about 30 TV placements (20 in the last year from my new re...
Income
Why I Hate Downloading Music
I'm sitting in on trumpet with another band at a gig tomorrow. The bassist (and head 'chart maker') just sent the horn section a Dropbox link to the charts and mp3s as a refresher to listen to before the gig.I clicked the mp3 link hoping it would open a player and I could just pl...
Booking
8 Ways To Get The Best Deal For The Gig
We're nearing the holidays and musicians have been asking me what rates they should pitch to buyers who request their services. Be it a corporate holiday party, rotunda in the mall or a corner in a restaurant. This is an entire business in it of itself. I have friends, well, one...
Income
Yes, You Need T-Shirts
I outlined in Double Your Income...No Really why merch is so important and how it can directly lead to you becoming a full time musician. It's the way every one of my tours is financially successful. I should say that again. The reason I'm one of the few musicians who has made ev...
Income
CD Baby Pro vs. TuneCore Publishing (The Full Report)
DISCLAIMER - This is NOT a post about CD Baby or Tunecore's distribution services. This is strictly about their admin publishing services. HOWEVER I did a full report on their distribution services here. Read on to learn about music publishing and compare services.This report was...
Income
Free Bird! (Covers vs. Originals)
Scott Palahniuk wrote in (via the Request a Topic below) and asked about cover songs and how an opener should order their set. And Ian J wrote in asking: 'they ask you to play for three hours, but having that much original material is hard. Is it singer/songwriter suicide to sing...
Income
Copyright Your Song or GLEE Will Steal It
I know basic US music copyright law. I mean, I'm no lawyer, but I studied it in college and just spent a couple hours on the US Copyright website to brush up. Technically as soon as you put your song in a fixed form (paper, cd, digital counts - performing it does not) then it's c...
Income
How I Made $13,544 In A Month (on Kickstarter)
You may have heard the Amanda Palmer story on how she made $19,000 in 10 hours (3 years before her $1.2 million Kickstarter) on Twitter. Or maybe you haven't, but it's quite impressive. But the thing that always bugs me about these stories - especially when they're titled 'Indie...
Income
Buy My Music Dammit (Spotify vs iTunes)
**The biggest news story in the music world last week was David Lowery's response letter to the NPR intern Emily White about the moral implications to not purchase music. This has been a massive debate ever since Napster hit over a decade ago. My post below was written before Low...
Income
How To Double Your (Merch) Income… No Really
When you're on tour, merch is your #1 income generator. This can't be stressed enough. Believe it. Bands stress over their guarantees and door splits and turnouts. If you want to survive financially with your music you must understand the importance of merch sales and approach it...
Latest News
Austin Powers Music Supervisor and KCRW DJ Chris Douridas
You probably know Chris Douridas from Los Angeles' iconic, trend-setting radio station KCRW. He was the host of Morning...
Politics
Musicians Will Receive Assistance Under the Stimulus Package
Late last night/early this morning, Trump administration officials and top Democrats finalized an agreement on a nearly $2 trillion rescue package which will include provisions that help musicians, freelancers and other gig workers. As the New York Times reports: “At the insist...
Podcasts
Lauv’s 4 Billion Streams, Top 40 Hit, Without a Label
This episode comes to you from Foundation Management's offices in Brooklyn, New York, which is Lauv's management company. I sat down with Emma MacDonald,...
Podcasts
Andy Grammer on Songwriting, Fear and Persistence
Welcome to episode number one of the New Music Business podcast! This interview with Andy Grammer was recorded...
Podcasts
Euphoria Music Supervisor Jen Malone Gives a Sh*t
Today's episode is with superstar music supervisor Jen Malone. She has placed music and worked on Euphoria, Atlanta,...