Derek Sivers: how to call attention to your music

Me and Derek Sivers are like that! (makes gesture) He gave me some great advice and I'm sharing it with you:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Derek Sivers / CD Baby <cdbaby@cdbaby.com>
Date: Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:55 AM
Subject: Mike - how to call attention to your music
To: atwell.mike@gmail.com


Hi Mike -

Please bookmark this link that I think is important for every musician to have:

http://sivers.org/pdf/DerekSivers.pdf

In a quick light-hearted read, you will learn:
* how to call attention to your music
* how to get in Rolling Stone or play the biggest club in town
* why persistence is polite
* how to sell an average of 5 CDs per order
* why marketing costs nothing
* how two curious words can turn your career around
* the biggest mistake most musicians make

This is my best advice to help every musician sell more music, win more fans, and have the music business open its doors for you.

I kept everything intentionally non-genre-specific, so the same tips apply to country, klezmer, and classical.

I'm always trying to make it easier for musicians to make a living making music, so I hope this helps.

--
Derek Sivers, CD Baby, HostBaby
http://sivers.org http://cdbaby.com http://hostbaby.com

P.S.  It's free to copy forever, so please save it, share it, print it, or quote it on your own site.

~ Mike Atwell
Web Producer
arborActive Web Services
http://www.arboractive.com

On Time Management...

"I don't need time. I need a deadline." - Duke Ellington

You want to get something done?

Tell 20 people you are going to do it and let them hold you accountable!

We tend to pace ourselves according to our deadlines.

"I don't need time. I need a deadline."

Online Resource for Music Marketing

Hey everyone,
Bob Baker's website http://www.bob-baker.com/ is devoted to the DIY musician. There are a bunch of other links that focus on various aspects of the DIY Market. I subscribe to the podcast, as well (find it at iTunes: 'the buzz factor'). Also, check out his eBook on MySpace Music Marketing Strategies. I really appreciate his encouraging "you can do it" tone. Always just the 'kick in the pants' that I need to move forward.

But wait...there's more...
Attached is an eBook you'll find interesting. Call it creative thinking 101...

99%20Purple%20Cows (The author encourages sharing it with others)

Be blessed! Cory

Guerrilla Music Marketing on Last.fm : recommend your music

Here's a great example of taking your music to the people!

Yeah, I'm on Last.fm and I got this music recommendation out of the blue.

Maggot Brain's strategy: Invite everyone you can to listen to your music and ... give it away

It creates a buzz!

A site like last.fm lets you recommend music to others who like that style.

If nothing else it gets the music out there!

~ Mike Atwell
Web Producer
arborActive Web Services
www.arboractive.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Last.fm <no-reply@mailer.last.fm>
Date: Fri, May 16, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Subject: Maggot__Brain sent you a recommendation
To: atwell.mike@gmail.com


Hi watertower2100,

Maggot__Brain at Last.fm wants to recommend this album to you:

Maggot Brain - Second Chance
http://www.last.fm/music/Maggot+Brain/Second+Chance

Personal message:
Let us recommend you an Stoner/ Grunge/ Hard Rock Band. We hope you like it, if
so, you can DOWNLOAD. Please TAG it

Thanks,
Maggot__Brain

P.S. Here's what I'm listening to:
http://www.last.fm/user/Maggot__Brain/

----------- End Forwarded Message ------------

FYI: mp3 Quality Settings

Hey there,

Ever wonder what Bitrate you should choose when creating an mp3 copy of your CDs?

the bottom line: if you want quality over economy, go with the Variable bitrate

Constant Bitrate (CBR)
This is the default encoding mode, and also the most basic. In this mode, the bitrate will be the same for the whole file. It means that each part of your mp3 file will be using the same number of bits. The musical passage beeing a difficult one to encode or an easy one, the encoder will use the same bitrate, so the quality of your mp3 is variable. Complex parts will be of a lower quality than the easiest ones. The main advantage is that the final files size won't change and can be accurately predicted.

Average Bitrate (ABR)
In this mode, you choose the encoder will maintain an average bitrate while using higher bitrates for the parts of your music that need more bits. The result will be of higher quality than CBR encoding but the average file size will remain predictible, so this mode is highly recommended over CBR. This encoding mode is similar to what is referred as vbr in AAC or Liquid Audio (2 other compression technologies).

Variable bitrate (VBR)
In this mode, you choose the desired quality on a sqale from 9 (lowest quality/biggest distortion) to 0 (highest quality/lowest distortion). Then encoder tries to maintain the given quality in the whole file by choosing the optimal number of bits to spend for each part of your music. The main advantage is that you are able to specify the quality level that you want to reach, but the inconvenient is that the final file size is totally unpredictable.

~ Mike Atwell
Web Producer
arborActive Web Services
www.arboractive.com