What Are You Listening To?
It’s summer time and the days are beautiful here in the Bay Area. Not long ago I had some friends over my house and the coolest thing happen. We chatted in the living room and listened to all kinds of music for hours. It was so freshing. Occasionally people would talk about something they liked in a song and then we’d all just listen with a tasty beverage in our hand. It was then that people begin talking about other music that they were into. I love it.
So I thought I’d ask you what you are listening to these days? What’s in the ipod? Anything we should check out?
Come on and share!
Things You Should Never Say If You Are An Opening Act
I have been to a number of shows this last year where I have heard similar phrases come from different opening acts. Sadly enough, the performances of each band were not that great either. I won’t mention what bands they were. Opening acts are a crap shoot and everyone knows that but often I find that a crowd can be pleasantly surprised and welcoming to an opening act if the right ingredients are present.
After leaving those shows I came up with my own things that opening acts should never say:
1. This is our first time playing in a big crowd.
Even if it is we really don’t need to know that and believe me we’ll all be able to figure that out by the time you’re done with your set.
2. How are you guys doing out there?
People usually don’t mind answering that if it is the headliner asking it but if you are opening, stick to playing your music!
3. “Hello San Fransisco (or whatever city you are playing at)!”
Just Don’t. You’re not U2!
4. Is this mic on?
Nothing says “opener” more than this. Believe me the engineer in the back of the room should be able to unmute the channel and get you on your way. By the way, if your mic is apparently muted why ask if it’s on? It obviously isn’t. Just move on and rock your tunes. Things will get going.
5. We love you guys!
Hey it’s cool to share your innermost feelings with your fans and this one probably isn’t as major as the other 4 but still this can be awkward and probably more funny than anything else. Especially if you are an opening act and most of the people out in the audience are there to see someone else. You may want to restrain yourself from using the L word. BTW we love you too.
On the flipside, I have seen a number of fantastic opening acts who all seem to share this in common: they let their music do the talking, they played well, and they thanked the crowd and the headliners in the end and moved along. In those cases the audience acted favorably and well no one got hurt. 
The fans will remember you for this and most importantly may even buy your CD.
Vocal Technique 101
You probably don’t think about it all that much but if you are a singer than your voice is your instrument and just like any other instrument it needs to be cared for. It’s amazing how many singers I know (including myself at times) who don’t really do much to care for their voice. A guitarist works on scales and technique everyday as do drummers and other musicians. A singer is no different. Raw talent, in the end is still just raw talent unless it is refined, developed and cared for. Let’s talk about one way singers can care for their voice using a very fundamental technique a practice older than music itself. Relaxation.
How To Create A Podcast
Podcasting has become the most modern overvalued Internet technology. Whether it lives up to its publicity remains to be seen, but given that it’s based on RSS and the simplicity with which you can create a podcast, there’s a good chance that it will have legs.
You can make your podcast by following the below steps:
Create your audio content. The content can be whatever thing you like, including audio books, music, “radio” type shows, interviews, or even sermon. There’s no procedure for creating the audio content. Actually, one of the beauties of podcasting is that your shows can be something that you want them to be. By now there are all sorts of podcasts.
What platform or application you use to record the audio is also not an issue. One option to think about is Audacity. Its open source, cross-platform let’s you mix together multiple audio files.
Now save your finished audio show at utmost possible excellence in the native format of your audio application. That way you can go back and change it or reutilize it and you’ll have a good quality version.
Convert the file to MP3 format. Once you have made your audio content up to your satisfaction, you have to save it in MP3 format. MP3 is the actually the standard format for podcasts. Try to stick with MP3 untill and unless you’ve got a very good cause for using another format. Using no matter what but MP3 will mean that some users may not be able to use your podcast.
Publish your MP3 – You have to save your MP3 files to your web server, and check them with any MP3 player.
Create your podcast newsfeed – Podcast feeds are RSS files that illustrate your podcast, all along with information for every show. An RSS file is a text file that helps to link your MP3 file.
You can make use of any text editor to make an RSS news feed. On the other hand, mainly podcasters use blogging programs or other applications to automatically create newsfeeds.
Now publish your podcast news feed by transferring your podcast RSS files to your webserver.
Now you can easily check your podcast and advertise it.
Use The Internet To Promote Your Band
The last few posts have been aimed at helping musicians understand how the Internet is great for making residual income by selling music online in both physical and digital form and how the music industry is changing making it easier than ever to sell music online. In this post I’d like to briefly discuss Promoting music on the Internet and why it is an absolute must. The goal is to do your art full time and make a descent living from it. Promotion and marketing is going to be key but it doesn’t have to be expensive.
