Ari Herstand

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...

Not two hours after I posted my Should You Pay To Play article, I happened to received this email from an LA 'promoter.'Here is how our conversation went...T's response:Ari. This is an EXCELLENT post. There's definitely a stigma associated with pay to play. But respectfully, I dr...

I live in LA. I've only been here 3 years, but in that time I've met many excellent musicians in town all talented enough to explode at any moment. The sad reality is, in a town so saturated with incredible musicians, the cream isn't necessarily rising to the top as quickly as it...

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...

I've never had a manager. Don't take this as I never wanted one. I made it the goal of 2008 to find a manager. I didn't find one that year (but I did open for Ben Folds). I didn't find one in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and I'm still self managing my career myself (and have managed ot...

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...

...unless you know how to leverage it. I got a few questions this past week about my take on singing contest shows (from Request a Topic form below). I touched on it in You Should Try Out For American Idol, but I'm going to go a bit deeper.+You Should Try Out For American IdolLet...

The most popular 'myth' to debunk these days by talking heads in the biz is that it's not about who you know. Everyone will say 'just be great - you don't need connections!' Bull. It IS about who you know. I can't tell you how many opportunities I've gotten just because this frie...

Musicians who know musicians know that most of them are always broke. Like Ramen broke. PB&J broke. Rice and beans BROKE.You know who doesn't know that musicians are broke? Non-musicians. And let's keep it that way.+Who Is Ari?Music lovers (your fans) don't want to hear how you a...

The simple answer is: alienate your audience. This is exactly what Michelle Shocked did last Sunday at Yoshi's in San Francisco.Shocked had built a career over 30 years of activist folk music that targeted a progressive, LGBT friendly crowd.Then, in a moment, she did the equivale...