Do you have any news? Tell us about upcoming shows, CD releases, new websites or anything else you have going on.

Last week, we asked you to post questions on the Broadjam Blog for a chance to have them answered by Dave Codr, a music industry pioneer and an indie promoter. Bloggers posted many great questions, and Dave has given his insight into several of them.

Dave responds to these questions:

What genre of music should I pursue


A note from Dave:

“Thanks everyone for sending in your questions! Broadjam has arranged for me to answer questions from artists like you once a month. If you’re reading this and you have a question of your own, send it in for our next round.

If you’re thirsty for more industry knowledge, I invite you to visit the music industry insider section of our website. We have assembled a number of articles there specifically written for independent artists and musicians. No login or registration required. http://www.musicphonebook.com/theinsider

Dave needs your questions! He’ll be answering more of your inquiries next month, so please leave a question below.

Posted by Kennybeck
on 7/21/2007
What are the first three steps, on the web, you would use to maximize your promotion of some new product?



Dave’s Answer:

Kennybeck,


That’s a really open ended question. It depends on what you’re promoting, who you’re target market is, waht your price points are etc. Any promotion you put together, whether on the internet or in the real world, it needs to be customized to waht you’re doing. I speak to a number of musicians who seem to think that the same techniques that worked for one artists will work for them. Different genre’s fans have different interests. Jam band fans are more likely to want to support a show in the park than a club show. Blues fans are typically an older demographic, so you don’t want to have it at an all ages venue or a “tree hugger” park. Planning a blues review at a high end venue would be a great idea. Inviting hippies to a high end venue would be a terrible idea. And vise versa.


I’m not 100% sure what you mean by product. Cd? LP? EP? T-shirt? Hoodie? Promotional campaign? Etc etc.


Look for websites that are going to carry a viewership of people that are interested in your product. See if there is any sort of trade or co-op opportunity available. See if they have a newsletter that they can throw you into. Start a fan list of your own if you haven’t already. For the band I manage the first step I would take would be to send out a newsletter to all of the fans on our mailing list. The next step again depends on what you’re trying to promote.


I’m sorry I can’t get more specific, but without knowing more details I really can’t give you examples of what to do. If you want to write back with a more specific question, I’d be apply to look at it next month.


Good luck,


Dave

Dave needs your questions! He’ll be answering more of your inquiries next month, so please leave a question below.

Posted by jamal
on 7/19/2007
My question as a sonngwriter ?
what gonera of music should i pursue do to the fact that record sales are down ? Who’s sellin more records these days ? R&B Artist , Pop , Contempoprary ? Whatever’s sellin the most that’s what i’m going with as a songwriter !


Dave’s Answer:

Jamal,


If your goal is to fail, you are on the path to success! NEVER ever under any circumstances tailor your music to whatever you think is the current hot trend. By the time you figure out how to properly mesh with that style, that fad is long gone. If all you are doing is trying to write music to try to please other people, I can guarantee you a lot of disappointment.


My advice to you is to write the style of music that resonates within you. Write what you feel, write what works for you. Today’s fad is tomorrow’s Britney Spears.


Good luck,


Dave


PS – Not to be critical, but if you’re going to reach out to someone in the industry, take the time to make sure to spell check and put a little bit of time into it. I understand what you meant to say and what your question was, however you got dangerously close to calling genre gonorrhea. Although some music may have similar qualities to venereal diseases, it is probably not a comparison you want to bring to their attention. If it doesn’t look like its important enough for you to spell properly or use proper punctuation, they may not think it’s important enough to respond to your email. You’re a professional musician, make sure your correspondence reflect that. Image is everything.

Dave needs your questions! He’ll be answering more of your inquiries next month, so please leave a question below.

David Codr, the creator of the Independent Artist Registry and publisher of the Music Phone Book, has produced and promoted over 1,000 concerts, working with acts as diverse as Dave Matthews to Notorious BIG.

He has also managed a number of regional and nationally touring bands, logged countless hours as a producer and was the talent buyer for several premier live music venues on the West Coast.

Dave was one of the pioneers of “Guerilla Promotion” for independent artists and bands and most of his techniques are still widely used by industry insiders.

Now, Dave is ready to answer Broadjam members’ questions about the music business.

Leave a question on the Broadjam Blog for a chance to have it answered by Dave. Check back next week to see if he answers your question. We will post his replies to select questions on the Broadjam Blog next Monday, September 24.

Do you have any news? Tell us about upcoming shows, CD releases, new websites or anything else you have going on.

Broadjam Primo MoB members receive email hosting as part of their membership. Here are some tips for how to use this email.

Saving Your E-mail
When recording songs and other media you’re always told to backup your data. Everyone nods his or her head in agreement but, for some reason, we don’t do it. Then the impossible happens. Your computer crashes and you lose all of your recordings. Back to square one.

Well, the same rule applies for e-mail. It’s very important to save your e-mails to your computer or to an external hard drive or to a CD/DVD just in case the impossible becomes a reality. Once a month or every few days you should save your e-mail and other vital data to your computer or to a CD/DVD. This is a very common process with any business, because as well all know computers and hardware do fail. Stay one step ahead of the game and backup your e-mail and other important data.

Viewing more than 25 e-mails at a time
Login to your webmail account and click the Options button located on the left side of the page. Then click the Mail button from the list of options Under the Other Options section click the Mail Box and Folder Display Options button. Change the Messages per page in the mailbox view to the number of emails you wish to see at one time. Click save Options to save your changes.

Customizing your Horde Display Options
Login to your Horde account and click on the Options button. Then click on the Global Options. To begin customizing your Horde display click on the Display Options button. Here you can change the color of Horde, how often you want horde to refresh the screen, and what application you want Horde to load first like

Do you have any news? Tell us about upcoming shows, CD releases, new websites or anything else you have going on.