A talented sound engineer can hear things in a track you can barely distinguish, and watching them work will only help to make you a better listener.

When choosing a recording studio there are a few things to look out for which will help determine the one you ultimately choose.

Price

While you should never choose a recording studio on price alone, it’s smart to start your search by looking at studio rates and seeing if they fit into your overall budget. You don’t want to blow your budget on an expensive studio, leaving you with only one half-finished recording by the time your money runs out.

At the same time you don’t want to choose the cheapest studio, because although this will give you the greatest recording time possible, it’s more than likely that the person recording you is not very experienced or knowledgeable (in which case you’d be better off recording in a home studio).

The Room

When you’ve figured out your budget and narrowed down some studios in your area. It’s time to take a tour. Never book a studio without first going for a tour of it.

Take a few minutes to look at the space and decide how you feel in it. Is this a room where you feel in?

Make sure you get the full tour, including the control room, the live room and any overdub rooms, as well as the various facilities the recording studio might have.

Can you envision yourself, and your music being made, here?

The Gear

While an experienced engineer can coax great sounds out of even the worst gear, more often then not, these same engineers will have spent a good deal of their time hunting down vintage equipment to make their sound even better.

Make sure to take into account the available equipment in the recording studio. Is it a cheap computer with a protools rig, or does the studio offer many different recording formats and microphone options.

Does the studio include piano’s, guitars and other instruments for your use, or are you required to bring everything yourself? Find out before hand so that you aren’t surprised when you go to record your piano piece, only to find that the studio doesn’t actually have a working piano in it.

The People

When you go on a tour of the recording studio, try to set up a meeting with the producer and engineer to discuss your project. It’s important to get to know these people and get a feel for their style before you start working with them.

A recording can quickly go downhill if the producer and artists have totally different visions for the music.

Get to know the people making your recording. Do you feel comfortable with them? Will you be able to spend hours at a time working with them? Do they seem knowlegeable? Are they excited or eager to work with you? Have they worked on any music similar to yours?

You’re working relationship with the producer and engineer is a huge factor when determining the overall success of your recording.

While recording at a professional studio may not be right for you at this time, it’s something that all musicians need to experience. At the very least so you can compare the end result to the home recordings you’ve been making.

Have you ever recorded music in a professional studio? What was your experience?

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Image by: Iain Mullan

It must be adaptable, keeping in mind factors like the audience, the venue, and time limit.

A perfect set list should have an ebb and flow.

Songs should follow each other in some sort of meaningful progression that enhances the audiences’ enjoyment of the show.

There are a few major factors to think about when trying to create a perfect set list.

The Venue

Think about the venue you will be playing in. Is it a coffee shop or stadium? Grungy rock bar or wedding hall?

The type of venue should determine your volume levels as well as your song choice. In small, intimate venues, lean more towards acoustic-based songs with a laid back vibe, while cavernous clubs need a mix of loud songs with a beat.

Your Audience

Although you generally want to play on bills with other bands that fit your genre, sometimes this is out of your control. Check out which other bands the promoter has booked before leaving for the show.

The music of the other bands will give you an idea of the audience you will be playing to.

So, who makes up the audience?

If you’re playing a show with a set of hard rock bands, you’d want to stick with your hardest songs, while if it’s a folk night, you might consider stripping it down and matching the style of the show.

Vibe

Do you want to create a night of music that starts off with a bang and then ebbs and flows? Or do you start off the night acoustically and work up to a huge spectacle ending?

Maybe you want huge impacts for your intro and ending, with a breather in the middle of the set in the form of a slower, quieter song or two.

It’s really up to you at this point.

Similar, to a album tracklist, your set list needs to create maximum impact, without any lulls or chance for the audience to become disinterested.

Participation

Perhaps you want to maximize your audience participation. In that case, the perfect set list might be one where the audience calls the shots.

Enable fans to use your website to vote for setlist songs, or just have people call out a song they want to hear sometime during the show.

This is a great way to get the audience involved and make the show a memorable one.

Collaboration

Perhaps the best set list for a specific night involves an encore between you and one of the artists you’re on tour with.

This is usually a great way to end the show with a bang as well as create meaningful relationships with other musicians while on the road.

This is by no means a be-all end-all list. There are plenty of other things to consider which might affect the perfect set list.

How do you create your perfect set list?

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Photo by: jayRaz

However, that’s not always the case.

In fact, that saying used to be repeated as “Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one“.

Now that, I think, is more like it.

While, you want to be a master at your music, obviously, there are many other areas of expertise which you can learn about that will help your music career progress.

Whenever you find yourself with some free time, pick a few of the following skills to become proficient at. You don’t need to master them, but having a working knowledge of many of these can help your music career in many different ways.

Web Coding

This is a big one. Your website is your hub. The place where you broadcast your music and brand to the world, and where your fans should come to congregate.

Learning intermediate levels of web design layout, HTML and CSS coding will be a great benefit to you, and a huge money saver.

Getting professionally designed websites can be expensive, if you can customize a WordPress layout on your own, while still making it look one of a kind, you are already on your way.

Photography

Take a photography class and learn the basics.

While you might want to splurge on a professional photographer for your main press photos, this is still a great skill to have for everything from taking great pictures on tour, to constant content for you website.

Graphic Design

Get a copy of Photoshop, or similar design software, and learn the basics. This will help you with everything from general design sense, to poster layouts, cd artwork, and more.

An understanding of the different file types is also a great advantage when you are dealing with print houses and trying to get artwork printed at a certain quality.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t hire professionals. However, you can’t afford professionals all the time, so buy their services when it really counts, and do what you can on your own the other times.

Writing

Learn to write. This is an important one.

Improved writing skills will help you with everything from biography writing and blogger email requests to song lyrics and engaging tour stories for your fans.

Video Editing

With the dominance of YouTube and the rise of videosongs as an art-form, it would be a good idea to get your hands on some video editing software, and learn how to use it.

This can help you with everything from editing together your own videos to creating tour stories and live videos of you on the road.

This is just a small portion of the skills that will help out your music career. It goes on much longer than this.

But, don’t be overwhelmed by this list. Pick one skill that vaguely interests you and take it from there.

Grab a book from the library, or read a blog on the subject and get started. It’s always my philosophy to learn as much as you can, while you can. You can watch TV later.

What other areas of expertise do you think would help your music career?

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Image by: Chris Riebschlager

In most cases you will have a much more interested audience and the opportunity to make more money than a traditional venue would pay you.

When playing a house show there are a few important things that will ensure it goes over well and gives you a chance to be invited back.

Be Respectful

This is not a dive-bar, it’s a persons home. Remember that.

Don’t scratch up the host’s walls while setting up your equipment or leave beer stains on their floor. These are personal spaces, no matter the size of the home. So treat them like you would your own place.

Learn To Adapt

The secret to playing a great house show is your ability to play to the room. In most cases you will be playing on a floor, maybe in a living room or a basement. with a few dozen people in front of you. This isn’t the place to break out the Marshall stack and 32 piece drum kit.

Retool your songs so that you can easily go from playing loud to soft without having the song suffer.

If you can master this, you can play anywhere!

Read The Crowd

If people are there to relax and hear some music while sipping on a glass of wine, notice that. Play quieter acoustic songs that fit the vibe.

On the other hand, if this show is a celebration, turn up the volume and get people dancing.

Reading the vibe and atmosphere at house shows are important. Are you playing:

• A quiet living room show?
• A giant backyard shindig?
• Or a college frat-house?

Each location requires a different performance on your part in order to make the best possible musical impact.

Involve The Audience

Since house shows by nature are usually intimate venues, be prepared to interact with the crowd to keep things flowing smoothly. Try to come up with some interesting anecdotes before hand about your songs, especially if you have trouble making things up on the spot.

You could also consider having some audience participation during your set. It will make the night much more memorable to everyone at the show and might even persuade a few of them to come see you again at the next house show.

Again, read the crowd. Would they be into this kind of thing?

Mingle

This is a small gathering of people. Don’t show up, play, and then leave. Take the time to meet everyone, and collect a few email addresses for your mailing list. Have a small informal area set up to sell CDs and other merchandise.

People at house shows are usually much more receptive to buying merch, especially after you break the ice and talk to them personally.

Thank The Host

Lastly, make sure to thank the host for organizing the event and make it clear that you would love to do something like this again in the future.

Create a database of all the successful house shows you’ve played, so that you can contact the hosts the next time you are playing near their area.

House parties are a great source for alternative venues and offer you the possibility of  making some good money.

But, most importantly, they give you direct access to your audience and the chance to make some real relationships with people, hopefully converting them into lifelong fans.

What are some of your house show experiences?

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Image by: David

Not everyone is inherently witty, or naturally outgoing.

Beyond sharing links, promoting others and sometimes yourself, what else can you do to keep fans engaged and not wondering whether to “unlike” you?

You can start motivating your fans by sending out a call to action. These are any actions that get your fan-base actively involved towards a goal of your choosing.

Facebook and Twitter are both networks where calls to action will work effectively.

Try out some of the following and see what works with your fan-base.

1. Checklists

Come up with a weekly checklist for fans that involves watching a video, commenting on a blog post, listening to a song on your Bandcamp page and sharing that song with two other people.

2. Mix Tapes

Ask your fans to create song mixes which include some of your songs as well as other artists they like. Encourage fans to upload their mixes to iTunes or as torrents on popular file sharing sites. Pick your favourite mix and feature it on your website.

3. Recommendations

Get fans to help you increase your fan-base by asking them to recommend your music to friends with similar tastes. Set a goal to reach a certain number of new email subscribers or Facebook fans. If that goal is reached have a reward ready to give out–like releasing a free download of a new song.

4. Photo Submissions

Ask fans to take pictures on your next tour and to submit their favourite photos. You can feature the submissions as an ongoing fan photo series on your website or social networks.

5. Remix Competitions

Allow fans to create remixes or mash-ups of your music. Post the top 10 on your website and have fans vote on their favourite.

6. Ask Your Fans

Include your fans in the planning of your next tour. If you don’t already know the cities of people on your mailing list, get your fans to complete a survey, to give you a better picture of where your fans are located and what cities are best to tour.

These are just a few ideas, and there are endless more. Calls to action don’t always need to be elaborate either.

Simple actions are effective too. You could ask your fans to:

• review your music on iTunes
• download a new song
• enter a contest
• tag themselves in Facebook photos

Simple calls to action break up the routine of your status updates and give your fan-base the satisfaction of completing a task to help you out. On the other hand, more elaborate actions should be rewarded with prizes like exclusive music, concert tickets and prizes.

If you’ve run out of ideas, take a look at what other artists are doing.

Search around for artists on Facebook and Twitter and see how they interact with their fans. If you find an artist whose fans are motivated and engaged, try to figure out what calls to action they use and whether a similar one would help engage your own fans.

Always remember to have an endgoal in mind with any action you want your fans to participate in.

That could be:

• driving traffic to your website
• increasing your follower counts
• collecting email addresses for your mailing list

And many more…

What calls to action do you use to motivate your fans?

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Image by: Lisamarie Babik

It will regularly bring in more money than the gig itself and can mean the difference between a tour that makes money or loses it.

Yet, merch tables are too often an afterthought for the majority of musicians. After-all, It’s just another hassle that no one wants to take responsibility for.

The next time you’re at a show, take a look around. You can often judge a musician’s professionalism and career trajectory by the state of their merch table.

With that in mind, here are some easy tips to help you improve the effectiveness of your own merch table and help bring in more money when you’re on the road.

1. Never Leave Your Table Unattended

This rule is simple, yet most acts fail at this one. If there is no at the table when someone comes to browse, you’re not going to make a sale.

Always have your merch table attended during the show–including when you’re on stage. Call on your girlfriend, boyfriend, mom, sister, or a friend to come to the gig and help out. Never leave it unattended for any reason!

If you’re on tour and don’t have any friends in the area, call up the promoter and ask if they have a reliable merch person that you can hire for the night. It doesn’t cost much, and it won’t hurt to ask.

2. High Traffic Location

When you walk into the venue, scout out the best possible location for your merch table. Try to place it in a high traffic location where people are flowing in and out. Somewhere near the venue entrance would work.

Too many bands place their merch table in hidden corners, or where their equipment is stashed so they can keep an eye on everything over the course of the night.

This has a direct impact on the amount of sales you will get during any given gig.

3. Make Your Merch Table Stand Out

Music venues are often dark and dingy, so combat this problem by purchasing some small lights and a power bar to light up your table.

This will help attract people to your table and have the added effect of illuminating your merch, so fans can actually see the colours and designs of your t-shirts.

Be careful not to get too carried away with this. Flashing Christmas lights or blinding white bulbs will probably repel more people than they attract. Create a mood, yet, keep it subtle.

4. Display Your Prices

Some people don’t mind piping up and inquiring about prices. But others (like myself) are lurkers. We want to see what the merch table has to offer, and how much it all costs, without having to ask anyone.

Make sure every item on your merch table is clearly priced and make the font size legible from a few feet away.

There are hundreds of other little ways to improve your merch table and turn it into an effective money maker at gigs.

What other tips do you have to improve a merch table?

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Image by: Sirkullay

Sometimes, it can feel draining, or like your time could be better spent elsewhere.

Like anything, you get what you put into it in the first place.

If you’re afraid or hesitant to communicate with your fans on Twitter because you just don’t think you have enough to say, here are a few ideas which can be used repeatedly in order to keep your Twitter feed interesting.

Tour Stories

Life on the road is an irresistible tale full of wonder and mystique to people who aren’t musicians (of course we the musicians know that this isn’t usually the case).

Yet, exciting things do happen occasionally. So keep your fans interested by regaling them with stories of your past and present tours and anything noteworthy that happens along the way.

Inside the Studio

The sheer notion that music is made here makes the recording studio awe inspiring for those who never get to step foot in one. When you’re in the studio share pictures, videos, and updates of what’s going on whenever you’re recording new tracks.

Introduce all the characters (producers, engineers, interns, other musicians, etc.) and make your audience feel like they are right there with you.

When Inspiration Hits…

If inspiration has hit for a new song, tweet about the experience after you finish writing it. Remember, tweet when it’s comfortable to you. Don’t drop everything and send a tweet during the middle of writing a song if it’s going to hinder your creative process.

Always follow your own path and do what feels right.

What works for others won’t necessarily work for you. Experiment with different methods and share what you feel comfortable with.

Backstage

Tweet from backstage before the show starts. Make your content more interesting by snapping pictures of the dressing room or rider if you have one.

Similarly, send a tweet after the show is over letting your tweeps know how it all went down.

Were there any memorable moments that happened on stage that night?

What’s on your iPod?

Sometimes, it’s great to share what it is that you’re listening to.

You’ll have the double effect of tweeting good content and sending some traffic over to other artists that you enjoy. Promoting other musicians is never a bad thing!

Try a few of these ideas, and see how it goes. Along the way you can always tweet about your new music, upcoming shows, and whatever else you have coming up. Just make sure that it’s not all about you.

Always, remember that the mere fact that you are a musician, is interesting to a lot of people.

You’re already interesting, just convince yourself of it now.

These are just a few of the ideas to get your started. I’d love to hear in  your comments below, other ways to keep your fans engaged through Twitter.

What do you tweet about?

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Original image by: pieter

Here are a few simple ideas to help market your music offline. But don’t rely on only these, be sure to have regular brainstorming sessions and see what other ideas you can come up with.

Traditional Press

While newspapers are on the way out, they still have an aura of credibility that some music blogs seem to lack.

Start small. Get in contact with your local paper and try to get into the weekly entertainment listings. Once that’s done, try emailing the relevant entertainment reporter about doing a piece on your band.

Keep in mind that this will only work if you have just released a new CD, gone on an exciting tour while representing your hometown, won some kind of national competition, or are playing a large charity show.

The key here is to have something newsworthy to sell the editor.

If you don’t get any bites, be persistent.

A spread on an influential paper could be a good conversation starter when trying to convince a festival promoter to book your act.

Download Cards

Download cards are great little items, perfect for handing out at your shows. Keep a stack on your merch table for anyone to grab.

They also work great while on tour. Before your show, scour the city and hand out cards to anyone willing to accept one.

It’s a great way to get your name out in a new city and you might just convince a few people to come to the show or download your music and check you out.

Free CD’s

If you think spending the money on download cards is a bit of a waste, then why not do the same method but handing out free CD samplers instead.

This can be a new EP you just released, or a handful of your best songs on one handy CD. It’s best to give these out at shows or festivals.

Always keep your location in mind. At music conferences  and conventions you might have better luck giving away download cards, as people don’t want to get bogged down carrying to much stuff.

Business Cards

The lowly, outdated business card is still a great way to spread the word about your music and it goes a long way to get you hired for more gigs.

When you find yourself playing gigs for payment opportunities, be sure to have plenty of cards available for the interested people in attendance.

People love to discover hot new talent and refer others who are looking for accomplished musicians. Business cards are easy to pass on to a friend and can be a direct influence on getting hired for private gigs.

Postering

While the benefits of this can be debated, postering in a city and around a venue is at least going to get your name around a bit more. But don’t just settle with that, try to be creative. Come up with a compelling design, or even do the atypical…

Instead of one hundred 8 x 11 posters, spend your money on a few giant posters and place them in high traffic areas around town. I’m willing to bet that the larger posters with an eye-catching design will get you much more attention then the lowly 8×11, which most people walk right past.

The next time you’re out walking downtown, check out how many other indie musicians have billboard sized posters.

Even though some of these ideas are dated, they can still be effective in getting your image and brand out into the world and in front of an audience.

And these are just a few of the ways to market your music in the offline world. There are countless others.

Try a few out and see if they have any noticeable effects.

Do you think offline marketing is still effective? What atypical ideas have you used to market your music offline?

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Image by: Ben

Advice is being thrown at you from all directions and all kinds of “experts”.

But, it’s important to realize that many musicians who’ve had success marketing themselves online have done so in completely opposite ways.

Whatever methods you choose, make sure it is something that works for you and your fan-base.

Here are just a few ideas to get you started.

Offer Free Downloads

One of the best ways to get people immediately listening to your music is by allowing them to download some of it for free and listen to it on their own time.

Give away a new single, an EP, or even a whole album.

Doing this allows people who are hearing you for the first time, to decide if your music is a good fit for them. If they like what the hear, they may just stick around.

Create Compelling Video

Don’t just focus on creating audio. You should be creating compelling video as well during your creative periods.

Sites like YouTube are great hubs for artists to display their live performances, music videos, tales from the road and more, in order to keep fans engaged.

Remember to create shareable content in order to help your videos spread to even larger audiences.

Leave Blog Comments

Leaving relevant blog comments around the web is a great way to encourage some links back to your own website. It’s also a great way to make new connections with music bloggers and industry types.

Get into the habit of visiting your favourite music blogs or music marketing websites and leave thoughtful and insightful comments. This can go a long way into developing your network within the industry and increasing your rapport with music bloggers.

A blogger who sees you repeatedly participating on their site may be more likely to write about you when your new music is released.

Targeted Facebook Ad Campaign

If you’d like to get into advertising your new album or tour, Facebook offers a great range of tools to customize ads directly to potential fans. Their ad software is simple to use and easily customizable to get the best results for your goals. Make sure  you pinpoint who exactly your target audience is, in order to make your ads the most effective.

Write Guest Posts

Writing your own guest posts can be a great way to get some large traffic spikes to your website and convert potential new fans.

To do this, contact blogs that you regularly read and participate in and ask the blogger if they would be interested in a guest post from you.

In your initial email, be sure to pitch a few ideas that have and why your post would be relevant to that particular blog and it’s readers.

There are countless more ways to market yourself online.

Brush up on your music marketing tactics by reading some of the music marketing blogs available online, or head to your local library and check out the numerous books on the subject.

Try to come up with some of your own ideas, or look at other artists marketing campaigns to find out what works for you.

When you think you’ve found a marketing method that works for your music, be sure to implement it and track the results.

What methods have you used to market your music online?

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Image by: aless&ro

You may be concentrating on playing your instrument well, or singing in tune. Or maybe even trying to prevent something from going wrong on stage while you play.

Nobody ever said playing music for a living was easy.

Here’s one more thing you should be thinking about during your performances.

Audience response.

When I gig, I always try to judge the audience response and keep that in the back of my mind. Pay close attention to times when you receive an overwhelmingly positive response, as well as the times you hear only crickets.

As soon as your set is done, note the audiences response to each individual song, as well as the entire set. It helps if you have something handy to capture your thoughts.

Over the span of a few shows, you will have a good indicator of audience response that can help better your live show and answer the following questions.

Are you playing in the right kind of venue for your genre?

If you continuously have a low overall level of audience response and engagement you might want to take a close look at the venue and decide if it really is the right space for your music.

Playing in venues that are too small, too large, or just not the right vibe, will take away from the audiences overall experience of your show.

Your favourite venue when you were in your high school punk band may no longer be the greatest place to play if your new band is anything but punk, no matter how much the promoter loves you.

Are you playing to the right audience?

When being placed on a bill with other bands, be aware of the genres booked and how your music fits in to this theme.

Sometimes a promoter just wants to fill a space, and eager musicians are willing to fill that role without asking if the show is a good fit.

Your pop-rock act won’t go over too well if the audience is there to see death-metal bands.

Do people like your songs?

See if you can determine a certain song that receives less applause than your others.

What was the reason for this?

Is it a weak song that needs to be cut from the set? Or, do you just need to improve the ending?

Your new song you thought was great might be a flop. Don’t take it personally. Instead, write a new song!

Does your set list flow?

Listening to audience response can really help you shape your setlists and improve your overall live show.

Were people quiet and bored at the beginning of your set? Did you lose them somewhere near the middle? Or, did you just run out of steam at the end?

Determine your most popular songs and spread them throughout your setlist to make the flow of your show more appealing to the audience.

If you find that the audience response at your shows is lacking, than use the list above to see what the problem could be.

It’s helpful to always keep an open mind and experiment with different setlists to figure out what connects with your audience.

Which of your gigs had the best (or worst) audience response? Why?

“Picture one hand clapping, and picture half that sound, there’s a reason that I hate that town.” ~ Joel Plaskett

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Image by: Pete Prodoehl