TuneCorner

Ministry Contest Winners Announced: Deadly Apples & Voltergeist

 After weeks spent listening closely to every track sent for consideration, Paul Barker (Ministry producer, co-writer, engineer, and bass player) has selected both Deadly Apples and Voltergeist to be on the companion album of FIX - THE MINISTRY MOVIE. The album tracklist will include bands like Tool and Soundgarden.

Your Constituents Are Your Allies

By George Howard

We hear the near-constant drumbeat of the importance of direct-to-fan marketing from virtually every corner of the record business.  The sentiment is undeniably correct.  Eliminating middlemen, and their accompanying transaction costs, is certainly good practice in any type of business.  There is, however, something not quite right with respect to current thinking around direct-to-fan marketing.  In short, if all we’re doing with D2F is eliminating the middleman, we are only improving efficiency within an inherently flawed system; we’re still “marketing at” people instead of “marketing with” them. 

As Hugh MacLeod correctly states, “If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people, they’d punch you in the face.” What’s right about this statement is that we know when we’re being “marketed at,” and we don’t like it. 

Seattle Skyline Selected by Owl City

Congratulations to Seattle Skyline, whose song “Under the Aurora” was selected to receive a review from Owl City’s Adam Young!

Here’s a message from Adam to all of the talented artists who sent in their music for consideration…

 Dearest friends,

Right now I am by myself in a hotel room in Atlanta, absolutely blown away by how many wonderful submissions came in for the Owl City Tunecore promo. My expectations were put to SHAME and I found myself wishing my own record had been worked on by some of you! Your submissions were tremendously inspiring and after a long haul of writing/producing/mixing myself, I needed that encouragement. So thank you! There were so many gems, I can't even describe how immensely hard it was for me to choose a winner!

To check out Seattle Skyline’s winning song, click here.

TuneCore Experience Music: Free Music Samplers

Download Free Experience Music samplers showcasing 2010 songs from TuneCore Artists.

Click on the the 8 different genres from Rock to Country below to download.

Pop

Experience Music: A TuneCore 2010 Pop Sampler

If You're a Bird - The Scene Aesthetic, Tap The Phone - Francis and the Lights, There Is Only Time - Waves on Waves, How Do We Know - Katie Costello, Static Waves (Feat. Katie Herzig) - Andrew Belle, Dreams Like Oceans - Meg & Dia, The Beat - Ben Rector, Replaceable - My Dear Disco, Party On - Blood on the Dance Floor, Combat Chitchat - nickasaur!, Magic - Rabbit!, Came Out of a Lady - Rubblebucket, Probably True - Young Romans, Worth Waiting For - Beckah Shae, Gravity - Lucy Schwartz

20 Essentials for New Artists

by Chris Castle and Amy E. Mitchell

You’ve decided to form a band. Let’s get your business in order. What are the most important things you can do to make sure that you don’t trip yourselves up down the road?

SoundCheck: Holiday Music

What has sold? What is the best cover song?

SoundCheck: Are 360 Deals Good for Artists?

Are you signed with a label or music marketing company? What deals work for you

The New Report Card

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by George Howard, Read more articles at Artists House Music or follow George on twitter @gah650

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I still wake up on Wednesdays with a little shudder. You see, Wednesdays are (and, I guess, always will be) Soundscan days. Back when there was still a record business, you got your report card every Wednesday morning. I remember so well hauling my pale ass out of bed and logging in to SS (SoundScan). 90% of the time, this was immediately followed by an "ugh." The numbers were rarely what you wanted them to be (for more on SS’s continued irrelevance, read this).

Numbers indelibly etched in my brain, off to the office I’d go. I’d review the radio and press reports from the indies, and check on internal press and radio reports. Ugh. Ugh.

Wednesdays sucked!

Tips to Sell More Music Online: Blog Promotion

 MP3 Blogs can cause significant music and gig ticket sales There are currently tens of thousands of MP3 Blogs with more springing up each day. If the MP3 blog community embraces your band, you could potentially have thousands of them talking about you and providing MP3s of your songs to hundreds of thousands of music fans. What better way to get the word out than by a real grass roots campaign of music fans talking about you because they love what you do. With the Internet, they have a vehicle to communicate with the world.

Social Tips for promoting your tour

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Todd Hansen is Co-Founder of Better Than The Van, music's home for hospitality.

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It’s time for tour! Just getting to this point takes a ton of work and doesn’t happen for every band on the planet. You’ve got some shows booked (hopefully) and maybe more on the way. You’ve got your merch ready to sling and of course your band is crazy-tight and ready to kill it. Now it’s time to gas up the van, head out and let the cards fall where they may. Right? Wrong. You’ve got more work to do.