Mega Music Talent

Posts Tagged ‘band’

Review
“‘an excellent traditional scale book’ Music Teacher”

Contains all the scales and arpeggios required for Grades 1-8. An accompanying table sets out the requirements by grade. Gives recommended minimum speeds and notes on the new forms of articulation required.

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In actuality the principles of marketing a band and getting to the point of making actual money from shows don’t really differ that much from running a business. Just so happens that this business is music.

You probably heard the old saying that goes something like “build it and they will come”. Maybe can tell it’s an old saying because in today’s world it should read “build it, MARKET IT… and they will come”. Don’t believe me? I’m sure you know very talented people you have come across that made incredible music in their basement that never made it out of their house. It is like they’re waiting for somebody to come to their house and say “I was just passing through the neighborhood with a briefcase full of money and wanted to see if you have a great song available”. It is not going to happen, but there are things you can do to get your music marketed and we will be discussing this in the following article.

Let’s first establish what we are looking to do. What we need to do is promote the band while at the same time making some money or at least not losing too much on the marketing costs, all this while making sure that our efforts will be rewarded if done right.

Traditional Marketing

Here we have buttons, t-shirts, stickers and any other solid tangible goods that represents the band/artist. Obviously CDs enter the picture and so do DVDs. With Zazzle and other similar services you can sell your merchandise without ever seeing it or stocking it. You simply create your design online and when it sells they will print your design onto the shirt and ship it out. The quality is very good, but as with anything that helps make your life a bit easier, it takes from your profits.

These things will earn you back money while promoting your music/band. After all, some dude dressed with your t-shirt is like having a walking billboard. Here are some rules to keep in mind:

1.       Easy to read, clear and relatively big logo. If you ‘re into twisted letters and squiggly lines you would do well to stay away from that. It doesn’t mean that your design has to be bland and boring, but stay away from stuff that you need to spend time and effort to discern.  If you’ve ever seen a shirt for a black metal band you’ll know what I mean. You want the masses to be able to read your name fast and easy. Same goes for logos. McDonalds has the yellow arches. Nike, Adidas and Mercedes are well known for their logos. Note the logos are based on simple forms/graphics.

2.       Make sure to put your contact info on everything. The more contact details the better. A phone nr is really great and so is an e-mail address. I know some things, like t-shirts for example, do not lend themselves easily to this end, but there’s no reason why the webpage cannot be present on absolutely everything.

3.       Entice people to give you their e-mail address in any way shape or form possible so that you can start to build your e-mail list.

Non-Traditional

Here are some ideas for non-traditional marketing that will give you the most bang for your buck.

1.       Clubcards or postcards. Now, before you run out and do these yourself try to find a sponsorship to pay for them. Here’s how it works: Find a business that is somehow tied into the scene you’re trying to reach. If, for example, you’re a band/artist, a tattoo parlor or a fashionable clothing shop might do the trick. You can get five thousand cards made for about 200 bucks. Pitch the idea as five thousand cards distributed as promo at your show for two hundred, with your band on one side and their business on the other. Don’t say stuff like you’re offering the back of the card, because in all reality the card has NO back, it has two faces. They get five thousand cards printed and distributed to people that are in their market and you get your card FREE! Works out for everybody.

2.       If you know other active bands or artists putting out albums then work together and place little footers on each other’s posters.  Your poster will feature a small footer with releases /gigs of five other artists let’s say… Each of those artists will in turn feature a small footer of your release/gig on their poster. You reach 5 times more people on average without any extra expense.

3.       Sometimes sponsorships may be a bit hard to come by until you get a footing in your market. Sponsors look for bands/artists with a following. However, if you’ve started to build a following then you can definitely try to approach companies for a sponsorship. Offer space on all your promotional materials as well as advertising for the sponsor at your gigs.

Good luck and I hope this article has given you some ideas about how to market your band.

With lots of experience from producing to playing alternative rock music and managing artists, Stan Oldman has always been thoroughly involved in the music business. The current nyc band he manages is RED i CLAN. http://www.rediclan.com

Article Source: http://bb-articles.com

At the height of folk music, when American youth began regarding the genre as the optimal way to express defiance against an older generation, Robert Zimmerman plugged in.

Dylan “going electric” is one of those historic cultural moments that everyone uses to define the ’60s. It was the ultimate expression of an individual, someone who wasn’t just willing to rebel against the mainstream, but willing to rebel against the counter-culture as well. Not everyone was happy about his parting with the softer, more peaceful sounds of folk, but Dylan had simply made the next logical choice in an artist career that was only interested in finding new, better tools for expression.

Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, MN in 1941. He was a talented performer as a boy and as a teenager, and would go on to study art in college. He would perform in coffeehouses under his infamous stage name, borrowing Dylan Thomas’ first name for his surname. In the early ’60s, Dylan was quickly making a name for himself in New York’s bohemian circles. In 1962, he released his debut album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. When Peter, Paul and Mary covered his classic song “Blowin’ in the Wind,” it gave him recognition that spread like wildfire. His music’s literate qualities and the winding, labyrinthine nature of his lyrics made him popular among both critics as well as fans. Today, many of his songs are considered untouchable classics from this period.

With albums like Another Side of Bob Dylan and Bringing It All Back Home, Dylan continued to evolve his sound. “Like a Rolling Stone” became a defining single for him, summing up the sense of frustration that was building among the hippie youth. People were questioning social mores and what was expected of them by their society. With all the experimenting going on, it made perfect sense that Dylan’s song would reflect the prevalent soul-searching the younger generation of Americans was doing.

In 1966, Dylan released Blonde on Blonde, a double-disc album that is still considered one of his best. Later that year, however, tragedy would strike. While riding his motorcycle, Dylan would crash and suffering a concussion, as well as damaging his neck vertebrae. The accident would take a permanent toll, changing his voice as well as his personality. He became more reclusive, spending more time with his family and recording more at home.

That didn’t deter him from producing great work. Always a fan of the blues and country, Dylan’s music would continue to explore those genres and find new stories to tell through them. Today, Dylan is considered an elder statesman of rock ‘n’ roll, and has had an undeniable influence on the artists of today. They repay the inspiration he’s given them through homage and respect for his work.

There are plenty of fans that still love him, as well. Bob Dylan tickets are hard to come by, and are often snapped up easily.

This article was written by Andrew Good and sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com/. StubHub sells http://www.stubhub.com/bob-dylan-tickets/ as well as sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and more to just about any event in the world.

Tony Bennett is going to try and squeeze all of the grinches out by Christmastime. It’s not really the grinches’ fault though. There are those un-payable mortgages, mounting student loans, layoffs galore and the prickly pear at the grocery store has doubled its price. So in the end, what suffers? The gifts, the toys, the big stuffed Elmo dolls and giant-jumbo sized packages of candy-canes. And the ham, what about the melt in your mouth honey-baked ham? Are we going to turn in droves to Subway sandwiches, or worse, start stockpiling cans of Spam?

Bloomingdales is against spam, and against record profit losses for that matter. The executives at the giant retail company have decided that there is only one man that can save Christmas, and he’s got a twinkling smile and cloudy white hair. Is it Saint Nick, you ask? Oh no… his stocks fell weeks ago. This jolly old man exudes Christmas warmth with his new holiday jingles found on A Swingin’ Christmas. Tony Bennett will perform when the holiday windows at Bloomingdales in New York City are introduced. Bennett stands as the centerpiece for Bloomingdales’ campaign to save Christmas, which they are marketing with the slogan, “Oh What Fun.” Will the promotion work? Will Tony Bennett be able to raise spirits and inject a little holiday joy into our bloodstreams? It’s still too early to tell, but Bloomingdales is certainly willing to take the bet.

Tony Bennett won the hearts of Americans after he found success in the 1950s and 1960s with his catchy renditions of pop music and jazz songs. Fans remember well songs like “Rags to Riches,” “Stranger in Paradise” and of course the unforgettable “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” Even through tough times, Bennett soldiered on, never once giving up on his adoring fans. He experienced a lull in sales when rock music became the preferred genre but staged an elaborate comeback in the 1980s with an unexpected audience: the younger crowd. His popularity kept rising on through the 1990s and 2000s. Today the talented big band singer has fans that span generations. A pair of tickets will allow you to enjoy a concert by a performer, whose success on the stage has enveloped decades.

Now, Bennett is being called upon once again. He is expected to rally the Christmas shopping base and inspire customers to come out in droves. The economy points to a pathetic holiday season, with many dejected Americans turning to a bottle of whiskey for warmth rather than the fireplace. But, in a statement Bennett gave to the New York Times, he claimed, “One thing about the holidays: no matter what happens, the holidays soften everybody.”

That is the sentiment that the execs at Bloomingdales want to believe in, and there certainly must be a bit of truth in Bennett’s beliefs. Sometimes after a painful thrashing on the stock markets, with weather storms on the horizon, and after weeks of eating into the cans of stockpiled Spams, Americans want to celebrate the holidays right: sitting by the fire, opening giant stuffed Elmos, smelling the savory hints of a honey-baked ham and listening to a classic Tony Bennett record.

This article was written by Alexa Evans and is sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com/. StubHub sells http://www.stubhub.com/tony-bennett-tickets/, as well as many other kinds of sports tickets, concert tickets, special events tickets and theater tickets.

Recent news out Brisbane is that the bassist from the rock group Good Charlotte was taken to the hospital on November third, after falling off of the stage only minutes after the show started. Apparently the rock musician seriously wounded his ankle after jumping around onstage, which could have led to a misstep that provoked the fall. Paul Thomas, however, was apparently not deterred and continued to play throughout the duration of the concert by sitting in a chair with a large ice-pack strapped to the effected ankle. There were reportedly no broken bones, which hopefully means a quick heal for the performer who is still scheduled to continue touring with Good Charlotte.

Good Charlotte is a well-known American pop-punk band that hails from Waldorf, Maryland. They first formed in 1996 and have been playing to sold out crowds since then. The band took their name from a children’s book called Good Charlotte: The Girls of Good Day Orphanage, and they have thus far released four albums in total. Their most memorable record was 2002′s multi-platinum seller The Young and the Hopeless, which spawned the singles “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” “The Anthem” and “Girls and Boys.” Their popularity has grown exponentially and as a result Good Charlotte tickets are some of the hottest items in the modern day music industry.

The band is fronted by identical twin brothers Joel and Benji Madden, and the other members include Billy Martin, Paul Thomas and Dean Butterworth. Together all of these talented musicians create a sound that is both unique and interesting to all of their listeners. Fans around the world were tuning in to the sounds of punk and buying their own Good Charlotte tickets.

Good Charlotte started out by playing at clubs and small venues and soon caught the attention of post-grunge band Lit. They also started touring with legendary punk rockers Blink 182 and eventually signed with Epic Records in 1999. The following year, they released their self-titled debut album. Their single titled “Little Things” ended up being very successful on the radio and it eventually peaked at the number 23 spot on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. Two other singles immediately followed, those being “The Motivation Proclamation” and “Festival Song.” “The Motivation Proclamation” was the most successful single released from the album, peaking at number 65 on the U.S. Hot 100.

Their 2002 album The Young and the Hopeless significantly marked the band’s emergence into mainstream popularity. Their breakthrough single titled “Lifestyles of the Rick and Famous” topped both pop and rock charts around the globe. Several other singles from that record include: “The Anthem,” “Girls and Boys,” “The Young and the Hopeless” and “Hold On.”

Good Charlotte is not just any other punk band to emerge on the music scene. They are talented and determined to make their mark on the punk rock scene and are admired by many other bands in the same genre. Fans hope that Paul Thomas will recover quickly and be able to continue on this exciting tour without any further mishaps.

This article was written by Alexa Evans and is sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com/. StubHub sells http://www.stubhub.com/good-charlotte-tickets/, as well as many other kinds of sports tickets, concert tickets, special events tickets and theater tickets.

For years now, Barry Manilow’s easy listening has provided fodder for comedians looking for a fast and easy punch line. His music is mellow, pleasing adult contemporary, a genre infamous for lacking personality. But it’s also immensely popular across the country, and has earned Manilow the reputation of being one of America’s most successful adult contemporary artists in history.

What’s often overlooked – largely because no one bothers to listen to his music before judging him – is the fact that Manilow’s career proved him to be a versatile artist who was willing to explore beyond standard easy-listening pop.

Manilow was born Barry Pincus in Brooklyn in 1943. He adopted his mother’s surname after his father left the family when he was only two. From an early age, he displayed a talent for music, and eventually went to the Juilliard School of Music. He scraped together a living by working on ad jingles after graduating, finally catching a break by becoming Bette Midler’s pianist in the early ’70s. His work with Midler earned him exposure and eventually a record deal. His 1973 debut, Barry Manilow I, was all but ignored. His follow-up, 1974′s Barry Manilow II, earned him notoriety for his first smash single, “Mandy.” From that day forward, Manilow would begin to establish a reputation as a writer of moving, if sometimes overly sentimental, romantic ballads. Not missing a beat, Manilow released a third record, Trying to Get the Feeling, in 1975, scoring another hit with the single “I Write the Songs.”

Numerous hits would follow, and the mid- to late-’70s would become a high point in Manilow’s career. His 1977 double-disc live album, Live, went to the top of the charts. Even Now, another release, was one of several that turned triple-platinum. He also released “Copacabana,” a song that he’s still known for to this day.

By the turn of the decade, Manilow began to fall out of favor with the general public. They seemed to be growing tired of the slightly bombastic, syrupy ballads he was known for. He began to slip in the charts, but that didn’t end his career. He had his touring act to fall back on. Besides that, his loss of an adult contemporary audience freed him to pursue new directions. He began experimenting with jazzier songs in 1984′s 2:00 A.M. Paradise Cafe. The genres of swing and jazz-pop became staples in this work during the ’80s. In the ’90s, Manilow turned his attention toward a stage musical based on his song “Copacabana,” which was in turn based on an infamous club of the same name. The musical was highly successful, touring across America and the U.K. and bringing Manilow’s music to a new generation of fans.

Though today he’s largely forgotten as a leftover from the ’70s pop scene, the massive number of Barry Manilow tickets that are sold each year is a testament to the popularity this artists still enjoys.

This article was written by Andrew Good and sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com/. StubHub sells http://www.stubhub.com/barry-manilow-tickets/ as well as sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and more to just about any event in the world.

Fans of Arcade Fire can rest assured that their favorite Canadian indie-rock band is not going anywhere. However there is news that several band members, as well as ex-band members, have various other musical projects under their belts. One spin-off is Team B, which spawned the hits “On My Mind,” “No Purchase Necessary” and “Mystery Man.” The other group that is attracting attention is Clues, which debuted at last year’s Pop Montreal festival. They also have a hit song called “Perfect Fit,” which has been attracting attention among Arcade Fire fans.

The indie rock band from Canada is one of many musical groups to come out of the scenic country to the north of the United States. And so long as they keep playing the soulful and heartfelt tunes that they continue to write, we shall not complain.

Arcade Fire was founded in 2003 by husband and wife Win Butler and Regine Chassagne. Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Time Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara are all also members of the band, and the group went on to record the album, Funeral, in 2004 and later in 2007, Neon Bible. Funeral is the more somber of the releases with the name of the album collectively thought of after the deaths of several of the bandmates relatives during the recording. Neon Bible has gained even more critical acclaim with the smash hits; “Intervention” and “Keep the Car Running.” With several hits and hot albums, The Arcade Fire tickets were becoming fast selling commodities in the music market.

With each band member contributing a musical instrument to every song, the live performances are enthralling, and the sound that emerges is one of diverse backgrounds and upbeat lyrics to match. The variety of sounds that occur throughout the performances are thanks to the guitar, drums, bass guitar, piano, violin, cello, double bass, keyboard, French horn, harp and mandolin. Talented? There is no doubt.

It is perhaps a growing occurrence that the emerging bands of today are more original, unique and filled with lyrics that actually epitomize the lives and thoughts of the everyday populace rather than just the glitz and glamour that is associated with Hollywood pop stars. It is refreshing to see this change, and it is even more encouraging to see the throngs of fans that flock to these hip young concerts. The boys and girls who practiced in the neighborhood garage and held late night jam sessions are proving to be the new role models of today, and the world couldn’t be more proud.

Arcade Fire has released two hit albums; they have been well received in North America and in Europe. They play at venues of all capacities and are constantly besting themselves with each new live performance. Their music is on the radio and in Ipods across the country, and now its time for you to tune in. Even if you missed their most recent tour, you can surely catch them the next time that they appear on the road.

This article was written by Alexa Evans and is sponsored by http://www.stubhub.com/. StubHub sells http://www.stubhub.com/the-arcade-fire-tickets/, as well as many other kinds of sports tickets, concert tickets, special events tickets and theater tickets.