Ari Herstand

**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...

Being the opener for a more established act can be one of the best ways to make new fans. I can pinpoint specific opening gigs where I gained a large amount of fans who are still incredibly supportive to this day. I love opening slots for more established acts because I get to wi...

I desperately wanted to get my song 'Last Day' on Grey's Anatomy because I thought it was just perfect for the show. So I researched who the music supervision company for the show was and discovered they had a blog. I read up on the blog and found that one of the music supervisor...

Once you have a show confirmed you should send one final email that includes all of the necessary details. This acts like a contract. Most venues with capacities under 600 don't typically work with contracts - especially when booking directly with the artist. Even if they do work...

Musicians are traditionally lazy. That's where all the statistics that you'll never 'make it' come from. It's all the lazy musicians who say they want it but will never put in the work necessary to make it, so they won't. You will absolutely make it...

It's not cool to your dude friends to fret over your image but it is almost as important as your sound. If you look like an idiot on stage half of your audience will think that you sound like one (and the other half may not care, but you just lost half your audience before your f...

One of my friends, let's call him Tom, is in a fairly successful band (especially in his local city). Tom couldn't get the radio DJ of the local show to reply to his emails or play his band on the radio show and Tom felt he deserved to get played. After about 5 emails, instead of...

The biggest question I get asked is 'how do I get started.' The easiest answer is 'with your friends.' Even rock stars started by playing shows in front of their friends at their local club. At your earliest shows you're not going to have 'fans,' you're going to have friends comi...

When I was first getting started in Minneapolis I took note of other local bands who were somewhat successful locally. I was not yet. I sent these bands emails to the extent of 'Saw your show last night. Love your sound. If you ever need an opener hit me up.' As you may expect I...

The music industry is one of the harshest, most demanding, unsupportive, emotionally exhaustive and flat out difficult fields you could enter. But the payoff is... well you know.You have to have thick skin to survive in this industry. People say this pretty much for any creative...