Ari Herstand

I’ve played about 30-40 house concerts over the past 7 years or so. They are some of my favorite shows I’ve ever done. Now, I’ve played everywhere from bars, theaters, festivals, colleges, clubs and arenas. You name it, I’ve probably played some kind of venue similar to i...

Photo by Abbyshoot PhotographyVery often, people like to try to bring me down and diminish my standing based on their metrics of success. Today I popped over to Amazon because a friend told me my book was still the #1 Best Seller in the Performing Arts Industry category (!!) - 6...

Last night I performed at what's now become ground zero for the LA singer/songwriter scene: Monday Monday.The Monday Monday series at The Hotel Cafe was originally started by singer/songwriter/FOH mixing extraordinaire Joel Eckels at Room 5 in January of 2013 (after filling the p...

I just left the studio last week where we finished the final tracking for my new funk project's debut record. For the past 8 months or so I have been working on this record on and off. My producer, co-front person and I tracked (mixed and mastered) one song to figure out if we we...

A friend of mine with a good following in LA just told me how she showed up to her show last night only to find out that the venue had cancelled it without her knowledge. Another touring artist I know discovered just two days before her LA stop that the promoter had a miscommunic...

I get it. It’s so annoying every time a new social site pops up or updates their platform and then you have to completely relearn it (or start to lean in). The DIY world was a hell of a lot simpler when there was just one social network that mattered: Myspace. But those years...

I bet you didn't realize that most cover videos on YouTube are illegal. Unless the artist worked with a Multi Channel Network (MCN) that had an agreement with the publisher, the only way the cover video could be legally monetized (uh, earn money from ads) was if the publisher hap...

Vanessa Wheeler at El Cid | Photo by Hannah Verbeuren Last Monday I judged an open mic contest at El Cid in Silverlake. There were 22 acts who signed up in advance of the night (many curated by El Cid's booker Michael McCarthy). I'd never been to El Cid before and was pleasantly...

It only took Twitter about 10 years, but they have finally opened up account verification to the non-elites. In the past, the only way to get a Twitter account verified was to know someone at Twitter. Seriously. I once asked a musician with the magical blue verified check mark ne...

I want to clear up a few things after yesterday's 9 Times It's OK To Ask Musicians To Play For Free bombshell. 99% of you got it was sarcasm. But for the 1%, heyyyyoooo! I got your emails. And also, I posted it to Digital Music News to reach the broader music community - namely...