Well, just got back from the ASCAP Expo and as usual, this was one of the best and most informative shows of the year for Broadjam. Not only did we get to see great speakers and panelists, but hundreds of our members came by our booth to say hello. We really appreciate all of the Broadjam artists who take the time to say hi and provide us with great feedback.

I was on a panel with Patrick Faucher from Nimbit.com and Kyra from Markyr.com. Lots of good information was shared. Here are some key points to remember when marketing your band on the web:

1.) Pick a few of the social networks and work them. Don’t try to be everywhere until you get a handle on managing two or three. As you know, it can be a lot of work to try and keep up. Twitter can also be a very valuable tool. Note: to become a Broadjam follower on Twitter, here is the link.

2.) Pick a few key words for your band and try and include them as much as possible when describing your band. These should include your band name, band members names, key songs and your musical genre. Make sure these key words appear on your home page and throughout your web pages; this will make it easier for the search engines to find you.

3.) Keep your site and blogs fresh and updated at least once a week. This lets the search engines know that your content is not stagnant and your site is active.

4.) Get links to your website from all of your social network profiles, including Broadjam, Myspace and Facebook. The more links to your site, the more relevant you become to the search engines.

For those who attended, thanks again for stopping by. For those who didn’t, please put the ASCAP Expo on your schedule for next year. We believe it is the most informative event of the year for songwriters and artists.

- Roy

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.
- Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971)

Let a good visual be an introduction to your aural art. We see a lot of new members (and even some seasoned ones) posting songs and making connection requests, but they have no photo associated with their artist profile. While it certainly isn’t a requirement, the artist profile photo can go a long way in the promotion of your music. Not only is the artist or band photo a staple of the music industry, it is also a legitimate way to augment and color your music for potential fans.

A few basic tips to get you started:

• Find a friend with a good digital camera – they’ll want to use it!
• Film costs no longer exist, and it only take one good shot. So, take 40 or 50 shots and at least one should make the grade.
• Unless you’re a lighting tech, use natural light.
• everyone looks good in black and white. When in doubt, drain the color .
• Don’t have Photoshop? Try a free photo editor.

Our Broadjam artist profile photo of the day:

UPDATE: this giveaway contest is now closed. Look for Broadjam member voting here to determine a winner soon!

Here’s another opportunity to win free gear in a Giveaway Blog. We’ve got a Shure Microphone and USB signal adapter – Model SM57+X2u USB Digital Bundle. The ’57 is an “industry standard” microphone and is considered one of the most universal mics in the world. It is doubtful that there is a major recording studio that doesn’t have at least one. And, this package includes a nifty USB interface.

The legendary SM57 cardioid dynamic instrument microphone is now available with the X2u XLR-to-USB Signal Adapter, which features built-in headphone monitoring with zero latency, and easy controls to balance microphone and playback audio. Digitally record wherever and whenever your computer takes you – just plug and play for better-than-CD quality instrument reproduction.

How do you win the Shure SM57+X2u USB Digital Bundle? Simple! Add a comment telling us what features stand out, and how you would use this product. We’ll take comments for three weeks, and then narrow down the comments and have you, our members, select a winner. You just need to be a registered Broadjam member to participate. If you don’t have an account sign up today!

UPDATE: this giveaway contest is now closed. Look for Broadjam member voting here to determine a winner soon!

Did you know that Broadjam offers web hosting? We provide two types of hosting services: Templated Hosting, if you want a website that’s pre-designed and easy to use, and Do-It-Yourself Hosting, if you want to do your own web development. One of the benefits of our Primo Mob membership is that it includes web hosting in the price of the membership.

Examples of Broadjam templates

We are currently upgrading the Broadjam hosting servers. As this upgrade is performed in the next couple of days, there may be minor issues with syncing and inaccurate hard drive space reports. This is nothing permanent and will be smoothed out quickly. If you have any issues, contact customerservice@broadjam.com for assistance.

Do you have shows coming up? Are you releasing a new CD? Write a new song? Let everyone know what’s going on in your musical world and leave a comment on the Broadjam Announcement Blog. Let the community know about upcoming shows, album releases, or any other musical happening.

It’s simple: just leave a comment on this blog post and let all of Broadjam know what’s up.

Not a member? Sign up here.

When Broadjam artists upload songs, we are offered several ways to “tag” them. Adding these bits of information can be useful in many ways, but one of the most important is that the tagging function help fans and other artists to find the songs later on. The Broadjam search engine uses them to return results when someone is looking for a particular attribute in a song. Often, by way of its labeling, people have interest drawn to a song that shows up in a list or through a Broadjam Connection. Music supervisors and other opportunity providers also use the metadata to search for songs. So, it behooves us to take time and make sure songs are tagged accurately.

For example, the “classical” tag is not the same as “classic rock” tag, and there is a decided difference in flavor between a “folk” song and a “country” song. Also, keep in mind that, while many artists hear the nuances of multiple styles of music in a given song, the average listener does not. It doesn’t make sense to apply every possible tag and have fans or other artists come away disappointed by one of our songs because it didn’t meet their expectations.

So, bottom line, what is being said here? For our own good, we artists should tag accurately. We at Broadjam want to encourage you, the artists, to market your songs to the widest audience, and accurate tagging is as much a part of that as anything!

UPDATE: this giveaway is closed. Look for voting to begin soon!

We have another opportunity to win free gear in a Giveaway Blog. Full Compass and Digidesign are giving away one Digidesign® Mbox 2 Pro. The Mbox® 2 Pro is a portable, high-definition audio/MIDI production system that delivers truly professional sound quality. Packing an impressive variety of connection options into a compact interface, Mbox 2 Pro puts powerful multitrack recording and mixing capabilities into your hands, so you can create wherever inspiration strikes. Mbox 2 Pro also includes award-winning, industry-standard Pro Tools LE™ software, over 70 effects and instrument plug-ins. Check out the Mbox 2 Pro product page at Full Compass to get the complete list of features.

If you are not familiar with the Mbox or Pro Tools, it is a piece of gear that will allow you to record your music digitally right on your computer, then take the recorded tracks and mix them down to a final stereo mix. The Pro Tools software includes some great plug-ins that allows you to change various aspects of your recorded tracks (reverb, multiple EQs, and other great effects). This enables a musician to have complete control over their recording, and because it is a digital recording, give them the freedom to try new things and undo it again and again. Pro Tools is an industry standard; it is used everywhere from home studios to the largest pro studios, so it is definitely a program you will come across at some point in your music career.

How do you win the Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro? Simple! Add a comment telling us what features stand out, and how you would use this product. We’ll take comments for one month, and then narrow down the comments and have you, our members, select a winner. You just need to be a registered Broadjam member to participate. If you don’t have an account sign up today!

Special thanks to Full Compass and Digidesign for providing the gear for this giveaway. Full Compass is a national leader in Professional Audio, Professional Video, A/V and Lighting sales and rentals for more than 30 years. Check them out the next time you are shopping for new gear.

Thanks,

The Broadjam Team

UPDATE: this giveaway is closed. Look for voting to begin soon!

Here’s something you may not know: the Broadjam Pro Services group manages all the online voting for the Academy of Country Music Awards. To that end, members of our staff attend the award ceremony in Las Vegas to deliver the results, which remain secret until they are opened on stage. Of course, no one is complaining about this requirement, as the show is a fantastic experience chock full of music. Broadjam is proud to have completed our 6th year of managing the vote for the ACM!

Date With A Publisher winners and publishers

We also held our annual Date With a Publisher event in Las Vegas, which pairs contest winning songwriters with publishers, providing an opportunity for valuable feedback from industry veterans and insiders. It was a great opportunity for John Visconti, Kati Mac, Marc Kuchneri, Out of Ether, and Andy Taylor to get face time with these respected music publishers.

Contest winners attended the ACM Awards show with us. Following the show, our staffers and guests were invited to the ACM All Star Jam as an added bonus. We experienced some great country jamming, including Sugarland, The Oak Ridge Boys, Emerson Drive, Taylor Swift, and many more. A good time was had by all.

ACM All Star Jam

We have a team in Las Vegas this weekend for the Date With A Publisher Contest. The winners of this contest get to meet with music industry publishers to present their music to them for consideration. The Broadjam members who won this opportunity are:

– Marc Kuchner
– John Visconti
– Andy Taylor
– James Russell (Out of Ether)
– Kati Mac

The Academy of Country Music is also having their awards ceremony this weekend, and we’re excited to be attending the awards show along with the contest winners!