To say Ronan Chris Murphy has had a varied and interesting career would be classic understatement. As a musician, he’s shared stages with The Flaming Lips and the Henry Rollins Band; as a producer and engineer he’s worked with King Crimson, Tony Levin, The California Guitar Trio and members of Tool, Ministry and Weezer. Ronan [...]
If you’re a hardcore DIY-er you can always use this handy screen printing tutorial to make your own shirts in your basement. Hit up the local thrift and resale shops for vintage-looking tees and have at it. Nothing says “limited-edition” like a hand-screened shirt.
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If I could start my music career over, I’d do t-shirts first, before I even had a CD.
I’m not kidding. If you’re anything like me, you probably started playing shows long before you had a CD to sell. You were playing cafes and clubs, performing for your friends and working on your material. And [...]
A friend and I did a show last week at a coffeeshop and forgot to put out a tip jar. I mean, we completely forgot. I was pretty upset because I’d violated one of my own personal Rules Of Performing: don’t forget the tip jar.
It might not seem like a big deal, but to many [...]
Apparently there are some lines even the most strapped-for-cash indie bands won’t cross.
Case in point: the ad agency for GM’s Hummer SUV is happy to offer upwards of $50,000 in exchange for using songs in Hummer ads, if only they could find a band to take the money:
GM’s brand of luxury SUVs may be one [...]
A little something for your webmaster…
Even if you don’t care to read through the entire text of Steve Krug’s excellent book on website usability Don’t Make Me Think!, you should at the very least read this one free sample chapter which summarizes the three “facts of life” of how people use websites.
In the past five [...]
I love this stuff: Beatnik Turtle’s indie band survival guide:
We found, when we started out years ago, that there weren’t enough bands that shared what they’d learned. The information that we found useful was scattered in different magazines, books, and all over the Internet. After doing all of that research, and going through the inevitable [...]
John Richards of KEXP 90.3 FM in Seattle, a bellwether of the indie music movement, shares his thoughts on how to get radio airplay. ‘Nuff said.
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Science confirms what we musicians know in our hearts, even if we don’t want to believe it: the social influence of peers affects your taste in music. Researchers at Columbia University observed that listeners who could see what music their fellow study participants were downloading more often chose to download it themselves.
“People are faced [...]
This article has been around for awhile but the information is still valid: Working With An Agent.
The point is this: regardless of how wonderful a talent your are, the commissions you pay a booking agent must be able to not only cover the agent’s expenses related to their representing you, but must provide some [...]
