Indie Musician Tips
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- Written by: admin
- Category: Indie Musician Tips
In today’s online culture a lot of musical performances end up on YouTube or other social media. Unfortunately, most of these posts are by people who do not own the rights to the performances. In many cases the musicians are partial rights owners and posting without their permission is against social media company policies as well as copyright laws. There are of course fair use exceptions, but they often do not apply. If the band members are not your employees it is best to ask for written permission before posting anything publicly!
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- Written by: Karoly Kiss
- Category: Indie Musician Tips
I often like to refer to football when speaking about this topic. Imagine trying to win a game without knowing what the rules are; no matter how good of an athlete you may be, the odds of winning are next to none. Many musicians attempt a similar scenario by preparing themselves musically but not understanding “the rules of the game”. If not every day at least every week read a legal article, a sample contract, federal, state or local laws that pertain to your business. It may not pay off immediately but there will most likely come a day when this knowledge will make the difference between failure and success.
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- Written by: Karoly Kiss
- Category: Indie Musician Tips
Engineers in the studio have near perfectly controlled environments in which to precisely hear frequencies, volume, stereo placement and other qualities of the mix they are creating. Their equipment is state of the art and often they have seemingly unlimited time to create the perfect mix. The perfect mix, within the parameters that are required for a commercial release. A narrow dynamic range, lows that need to also have mids so they can be heard on smaller speakers, etc.
A live mix, on the other hand, is tailored for a specific room, speaker system and event. It does not have to be compressed to make sure it’s still heard at low volumes. It can have a bass sound in the lowest of lows, and still come through clearly. The band can be twice as loud in the chorus as in the verse creating an energy that is simply impossible in a commercial mix.
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- Written by: Karoly Kiss
- Category: Indie Musician Tips
An artist website is as essential today as it has ever been. Musicians tend to rely on social media more and more but it’s important to understand that their purpose is to make them money, not you, the artist. A well built website will keep the focus on you and not lead visitors to other artists or advertisers. It will lead them to where you want them to go: your online store, a show, your music, etc. Facebook and Instagram are still a great way to interact with fans , venues and other artists but they should not replace a well crafted site.