Articles
Vocal Health Basics – How to Properly Care for Your Voice
by Keith Hatschek, Business Forum, Fast Forward
It seems that hardly a month goes by where a top singer isn’t forced to interrupt a tour, take a break, or undergo a medical procedure due to problems with their voice. Vocal health is often taken for granted, but once problems develop, they can stop a singer dead in his or her tracks, and in some cases require surgery and a lengthy post-surgery period of rest and recovery.
While we don’t normally think of singers as world-class athletes, some medical professionals are making the case that the demands put on one’s voice when singing one to three hours a night is as intense as those made by an Olympic marathon runner on his body. Additional factors such as nutrition, smoking, drug use, noisy environments, and proper voice training (or the lack of it) all play a role in a singer’s ability to hit the stage night after night and perform at their best.
Like many health-related issues, prevention is much easier and less expensive than having to undergo surgery, so it’s important to understand how to keep your voice in good health.
Read the entire article HERE.
Catholic Music Projects
by Joe McIndoe, eHow Contributor
Since the early years of the Catholic church, music has played a role in worship and tradition. As the religion evolved over the centuries, so did its music. From the medieval era to the Renaissance, from the Baroque period to the present day, music and Catholicism have had an intertwined history. There are a number of Catholic music projects you can do to help highlight this link.
Listening Exercise
1. Compile a short collection of pieces of Catholic music. This can include classical Viennese pieces, Renaissance polyphony, modern-day Catholic rock bands and more. Select a variety of eras and genres. Play the recordings without identifying the composer, time period or any other feature, and guess (or have students guess, if you are teaching a class) from which era the music comes. Discuss what musical and religious features distinguish the different varieties of Catholic music.
Catholic Hymns
2. Like many religions, Catholicism incorporates music directly into its worship services. Mass attendees sing hymns that extol a religious idea or doctrine, represent in lyrics and music stories from the Bible, or express the emotions that people of faith often feel during worship services. Construct a project around Catholic hymns. Select several hymns and analyze them for their significance to the faith, based on lyrics, melody, rhythm, history and other features. Examine what the words express and how musical text relates to biblical text.
A History of Catholic Music
3. One project could involve textual or visual representations of Catholic music through the ages. This would be a good complement to the listening exercises and could demonstrate, in words and pictures, how music has remained an important part of the Catholic tradition. For example, you could construct a visual timeline from the founding of Catholicism to the present, or design a poster featuring major Catholic musicians and musical works. The project should give an informative overview of the evolution of Catholic music.
Audio-Visual Projects
4. Use digital technology to create fun, informative audio-visual projects documenting Catholic music. Create a short film or computer slide presentation with pictures, bullet points and text about some aspect of Catholic music. It can focus on a musical style, a particular composer or even a single influential piece.
LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
eHow.com
Sacred Music in Crisis
by Carmen Elena Villa, Zenit News Agency
ROME, JAN. 19, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci, who served for over 40 years as director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, says that although sacred music is currently in crisis, there are signs of hope.
He was a child prodigy, having composed his first Mass at age 12; his best known Mass is the "Misa Jubilei," written in the Holy Year 1950.
The prelate, now 93 years old, was one of the new cardinals created in the Nov. 20 consistory.
ZENIT spoke with the cardinal about his years as director of the choir, and his views on sacred music at this time.
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Read Full Article Here.
How To Run Your Own DIY College Radio Campaign
by Disc Makers
Excerpted from Disc Makers' free guide, Getting Radio Airplay. Click here to request yours today.
If you've got a great new release that you really believe can get some serious college radio play, but you just don't have the budget to hire a professional radio promoter, don't let that stop you! With a good plan and time dedicated to the task, you can be your very own radio promoter. Here are the steps to get it done:
Read the full article here.
Home Recording Shopping Guide
by Keith Hatschek
At the end of each year, I enjoy discovering what's new in the area of home recording technology to pass on tips for your home-recording holiday purchases. This year, I spoke with Michael Groh of San Francisco-based pro audio dealer Cutting Edge Audio Group to learn about the gear and gadgets he has been recommending for his home recording clients.
LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Read full article on Blog.Discmakers.com
Hot Links! How Hyperlinks Can Make Your Music Easier to Find Online
by CD Baby
Did you know that the hyperlinks you create can boost your search engine ranking and improve your web presence? It's true! Using relevant link text when you link back to your website, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. will boost and broaden the search ranking of the page you are linking to. These keyword-studded "back links" will make it easier for your fans to find your web pages in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing because these pages will rank better in search results. And it only takes a few seconds to turn a boring “click here” link into a search engine optimized one.
Now most musicians are at least somewhat experienced in authoring text links (also known as anchor links, hot links or hyperlinks). Often these links read something like:
Click Here!
Follow me on Twitter
CLICK TO BUY MY ALBUM
While these kinds of links get the job done, with a little forethought and descriptive link text, you can increase your visibility in search engines every time you create a new link. Doing this will help you gain more fans, sell more music, and advance your efforts towards total world domination. The trick is to make links that use relevant keywords. Use words that describe your music. Forget "Click Here!" (That’s so 1990's). Try "Visit my swank dub-fusion website for lovers" instead. Just be sure that your link text accurately describes your music.
How it Works
Let's say you put the following link on your blog: "Discover Party Pants' dramatic power-ballad on MySpace." And lets assume this link goes directly to the Party Pants MySpace page. In effect, you’re telling Google and other search engines that the terms "power-ballad," "dramatic," and "Party Pants" are all relevant search terms for the Party Pants MySpace page. You’re also telling Google that somebody cares enough about this page to link to it. Believe it or not, there are a lot of lonely web pages out there that have never been linked to. Now if you were to sprinkle thousands of links like this all over the web on popular sites, it would technically be possible for someone to type "power-ballad" into Google and get the Party Pants’ MySpace page as the number one result. Woo-who! You’ve suddenly become the most popular power-balladeers on Google.
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Read full article on Blog.Discmakers.com
Irish court rules in favour of ISPs in piracy case
by BBC.co.uk
Irish court rules in favour of ISPs in piracy case The decision is being hailed as a victory for internet service providers The High Court in Ireland has ruled that laws cutting off internet users who have illegally downloaded content cannot be enforced in the country.
It is a victory for Irish internet service provider UPC which took the legal action against copyright owners, including EMI and Sony.
But it will be a blow to the music and film industry, which wants the strict rules as a deterrent against piracy.
It is likely to have a knock-on effect to similar policies in other countries.
Lobbying government
Mr Justice Peter Charleton said in his judgement that illegal file-sharing was "destructive of an important native industry".
But he added that there were no laws in Ireland to allow the disconnection of pirates from the net and that any attempts to do so could be in breach of European legislation.
UPC said in a statement that it "does not condone piracy and has always taken a strong stance against illegal activity on its network".
"Our whole premise and defense focused on the mere conduit principal which provides that an internet service provider cannot be held liable for content transmitted across its network," the statement added.
The Irish Recorded Music Association (Irma) is considering its next move.
"The judge was very clear he wanted to rule in his favour but couldn't because the legislation wasn't in place," Lindsey Holmes, a spokeswoman for Irma told the BBC.
"The committee is meeting today. There is a couple of options - to appeal to the Supreme Court or to lobby government to change the legislation," she added.
In May, Ireland's biggest net firm Eircom began the process of implementing a 'three strikes and you're out' policy, sending warning letters to those identified as illegal file-sharers.
Although it has threatened to cut off internet access for persistent pirates it has not yet done so and it is not clear how this latest ruling will affect its campaign.
France is pursuing a similar 'three strikes and you are out' policy.
In the UK, the Digital Economy Act makes provision for similar policies although there are no current plans to cut people off.
Mark Mulligan, an analyst with research firm Forrester, thinks it is unlikely to happen in the UK.
"I don't think we will see three strikes imposed from the state," he said.
"Although the legislation is framed, there is still so much of it that is vague. The implementation will be down to ISPs, content providers and Ofcom and is likely to be watered down," he said.
In private agreements with copyright holders, several law firms have begun writing to thousands of people identified as illegal file-sharers asking them to pay a fine or face court.
In September it emerged that activisits had targeted some of these firms and posted lists of those accused on the web
ACS:Law had the names and addresses of more than 5,000 people, alongside the pornographic films they were accused of downloading, published on the web.
It faces fines of up to £500,000 for the data breach.
LINKS FOR THIS ARTICLE:
Original article on BBC
What Do You Really Think About the Piracy Issue?
by Chris Robley
Some folks in this over-saturated industry equate music piracy with free promotion, reciting the popular soundbite that "obscurity is a greater danger than theft" (Think of BitTorrent pitching their new Artists Pilot Program as a way to "amp up your audience"). Others regard free file-sharing (particularly the illegal kind) as high treason against the sacred art of music. As with most polarizing debates, the truth and best solutions probably live somewhere in-between the extremes.
In defense of those crying foul, shouldn't talent and craft be rewarded for its own sake? After all, you don't expect to hire a contractor to remodel your kitchen and then give him 2 beer tickets as payment. You wouldn't dream of asking some local kid in your neighborhood to mow your lawn for free.
No. You pay them for their service and then enjoy the fruits of their labor, just like when you buy an album or MP3. You've paid the artist (and their label, manager, & distributor), and now you can listen to their work at your leisure. And yet I hear at almost every gig, "Hey man, I love your new album! I listen to it all the time." But when I enthusiastically ask them where they got it from, inevitably they say 1) a torrent site or 2) they burned/ripped/transferred it from a friend.
Even worse, they're ignorant to the fact that their explanation might offend me.
After all, I've spent my own money, time, and talent to make the music this person is now enjoying for free.
Read the full article here.
11 Reasons Why A CD is An Indie Artist's Best Friend
by Andre Calihanna
The news surrounding the music industry might make you wonder if anyone is buying CDs any more. Major-label CD sales are down – downloads are up. As an independent artist, do you really need to make CDs?
There are many factors to consider, and what is true for major-label artists does not often translate to independents. As a matter of fact, amidst the declining major-label CD sales, Disc Makers has seen continued growth in new CD jobs ordered. It speaks to the fact that one revenue model does not fit all markets, and the ingredients for success for a major-label artist vs. an independent are simply not the same.
I know… of course Disc Makers is going to tell you to keep making CDs. Yes, we are a CD manufacturing company, and that gives us a particular stake in the subject. It also gives us a front-line view of what the demands of the market and our client base are. Here are a few things to consider.
1. CDs are an integral part of the indie revenue stream.
Getting paid good money by a club or promoter to play a show isn’t always an easy prospect. And even if you do get a decent fee to play, your merch table and CD sales HAVE to be exploited to buffer your income (if not to double or triple it). So if you’re on the road, even for a weekend jaunt, you need to have something tangible to sell to help increase your take at every gig.
Download cards can and should be sold, but your new fan can’t stick a download card in their CD player to give it a listen on the ride home. Having other things to sell – merch, posters, and stickers – is necessary, too, but your CD is the main course on that meal ticket.
Remember:
- Up to 75% (or more) of music revenues come from CD sales. You don’t want to cut off that much revenue potential.
- You make more money selling CDs at gigs or on CD Baby than selling downloads on somewhere like iTunes. A CD costs you between $.90 and $1.50 to manufacture. Sold at $15, that’s over $13 per unit.
2. CDs legitimize you.
What major music artist doesn’t have a CD? Physical product, e.g. CDs, demonstrate that you as an artist are committed to your career. Giving a music business professional a professionally produced CD is the fastest way to get them to listen to you and take you seriously. Giving a potential fan a CD (or selling one, of course), is the fastest way to converting them to your tribe. Don’t make people work to hear your music!
3. No connectivity required.
A CD is ready to go. Take them home, pop ‘em in your car’s CD player, a computer, a boom box at a party… CD players are everywhere. There’s no web connectivity necessary, no searching around a website – just plug and play. Plus, you can add bonus material, videos, and enhancements to make your CD an all-inclusive multimedia experience. And the fact is, some customers just don’t do downloads. You’ll lose a sale if you don’t have a CD for them. Even your grandmother knows how to use a CD.
4. Permanence (no crashing computers and lost data).
Your music is virtually permanent on a CD. Hard drives crash and MP3 players die, it’s a sad fact of life. But if you have a disc with the content on it, your message or album is not lost. And of course, if you own a CD, you can easily rip MP3s for storage or use with your favorite media player and still have the disc as a backup and for use with your stereo, car, etc.
5. A CD tells a story.
The artwork in your CD package helps further illustrate your album’s artistic statement. A great looking CD and your specific choice of packaging say something about you and can help you further connect with your listening audience. Plus, listeners experience the track sequence, pacing, and breadth of your work exactly as you intended. Singles certainly have their place and can spark interest in your act, but albums are the only way for you to create a thematic and sonic statement of where you as an artist are at the time the disc is recorded and released.
Not to mention the fact that after spending months (or years) composing, refining, rehearsing, recording, mixing, and mastering, there’s a real sense of accomplishment in having something to physically embody the sweat, money, and tears that went into the work you’ve created. Digital files are a great way to deliver tunes, but nothing beats having a CD to represent the completion of your artistic efforts.
6. A CD gives you something to promote.
Any independent artist who tours knows that the majority of CDs they sell are sold from the stage. Think of it as a fan-building and fan-nurturing tool. It’s one of those moments where a fan, or soon-to-be-a-fan, craves immediate gratification and a remembrance of the event. CDs are the best format for live sales. It’s an instant data transfer – you just hand over the disc. And even more than this being an “impulse” buy, it’s truly a matter of you creating a demand and being there to supply the goods immediately.
As a matter of fact, you should consider the act of pitching your merch and CDs from the stage or your merch table as an invitation for your audience and fans to have a direct and personal interaction with you. There is an art to the pitch, and those who take the time to create an interesting approach sell more CDs and gather more mailing list names for future promotions. If your invitation to meet you at the merchandise table includes a drawing for a free CD, then your CD sales could go up 25%-50% and you’ll collect nearly 100% of your audience’s contact information. That’s easy, low cost marketing that will pay off for years to come. Want to really personalize the experience? You can sign a CD. Try that with a download.
7. Shopping your music? CDs are the way to go.
CDs remain the preferred format if you’re shopping your music for film, TV, multimedia, gaming, or licensing opportunities. An overwhelming number of music editors and journalists prefer a physical CD and press kit when being pitched an emerging – or even an established – artist. Radio stations utilize CDs in their selection of music for airplay. If you choose not to press CDs, your chances for success and exposure on the radio are virtually non-existent.
8. Strength in numbers.
While many artists now feel no need to court major labels to achieve success, if you do want a label’s attention, CD sales are the most important metric they’ll consider. The same is true for managers and booking agents. If you prove you can move product, you’ve got a good chance at impressing those folks.
9. CDs sound better than MP3s.
CDs sound better than an MP3 download, because they’re not compressed like an MP3 file.
10. It makes a swell gift, too.
Want to reward members of your fan club and street team? There’s no better way than giving them a limited-edition CD with music recorded and packaged especially for them.
11. What’s true for majors isn’t true for indies.
The majors are selling fewer CDs, it’s true. But you are not a major-label artist. To sell downloads in significant quantities, you need people actively seeking your music to buy. This requires a large and established fan base, and/or a popular hit single, and/or a tremendous amount of money spent on promotion, and/or a significant buzz on the web. As an indie artist, you may not have any of these things yet, you’re still building your name and awareness about yourself and your music. Chances are you’re giving away songs through digital distribution to promote yourself.
As an indie, you rely on hand-to-hand music sales, personal contact at gigs, something tangible you can hand to someone as soon as you’ve sparked an interest in your act. Nothing does that like a CD.
Read more: To CD or Not To CD… — Echoes - Insight for Independent Artists Blog.discmakers.com.
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Blog.discmakers.com
10 Things To Do For Your Next Release
by Jason Feehan and Randy Chertkow
Originally published in the July issue of Electronic Musician.
It’s easier than ever to release your music to the world. And there is now a wealth of online services that will help you promote, distribute, and share your music. But even though musicians can release material whenever they want – and many fans are happy with the idea that they can download singles – the press, fans, radio stations, podcasts, and even digital distribution stores still ask the same question: “When’s your next album coming out?”
Of course, an album in today’s music world is more than just a physical object. It’s a concept that helps promote your music; it gives everyone something to focus on. Having an album enables events such as a record-release party, gives you a story to tell to help get you reviewed or mentioned in the media, provides you with a group of songs for sale in a digital music store, and gives you something tangible to sell fans after a live show.
No matter what you plan to do with your album, you want to put out the strongest product you can. While many articles in EM delve into the recording and mixing aspects, here we’ll focus on what happens after the mixing is done, but before you actually release your project. We’ve put together a list of steps – presented roughly in the order you’re likely to deal with them during the process – that will help make your album release successful.
10. Put Your Best Song on Track 1
There’s more music out in the world than ever, which means that musicians have to fight even harder for the 30 seconds of consideration that they get from any media outlet, radio programming director, or reviewer that gets their album. In a recent interview in EM, Bob Boilen, the music reviewer for NPR’s All Songs Considered, said that the show receives 200 to 300 CDs per week. Their review method: toss the press release in the recycle bin, slot the disc in the player, and listen to track one. If that doesn’t grab them, they put it on the giveaway pile and move on to the next disc.
Don’t lose the opportunity to reach far more people by leading with a weak track. The rest of the music on the CD won’t matter if no one hears it. Although the actual sequencing of the song order for your CD will likely happen during mastering (see step 8), it’s something you want to decide on before that point.
9. Get ISRCs for Each of Your Tracks
Your songs may make it onto webcasts, ringtones, and all kinds of other electronic distribution methods. Because of this, before you distribute your music to anyone, get an International Standard Recording Code (ISRC) for each of your tracks. This is an international serial number that will uniquely identify each song and can be digitally embedded in the disc subcode (you can do this with many 2-track editors and some CD-burning applications, or your mastering engineer can do this for you) or even into the ID3 tag of an MP3 file. The ISRC code is widely used in digital commerce sites and by collecting societies, so it may affect the royalties that you get for your music.
Note that you need an ISRC for each track separately. In fact, if you have multiple versions of the same song, each of those tracks should get its own ISRC code, as well. ISRC codes are included FREE with Mastering Services from the SoundLAB at Disc Makers or when getting Digital Distribution from CD Baby.
8. Get the Album Mastered
Many musicians are tempted to save money by skipping the critical mastering process before sending their music off to be reviewed, played on the radio, or replicated 1,000 times. Don’t make that mistake. Mastering is a critical and very specialized process, and it is best done by an experienced engineer with the right gear in an acoustically treated studio. Evening out volume between tracks, smoothing out EQ, adding compression and limiting, and getting the benefit of an experienced pair of ears with a fresh perspective on your project is key. It will add that critical polish to your album and help it stand out from the crowd. Listeners and reviewers will look negatively on problems such as jarring volume changes between songs, too much bass, or overly bright or dull mixes, and these problems can’t easily (or cheaply) be fixed once the CD is made and the songs have been put up for sale at digital music stores. To learn more about Mastering services, visit the new SoundLAB website to see and hear all of the ways our mastering experts can make sure your music is ready for commercial release.
7. Legally Protect the Music
Although U.S. copyright law doesn’t require that a work must be registered with the government to get copyright protection, you can get statutory benefits, such as the ability to recover your legal costs if you prevail in a lawsuit, if you register it within a few months of publication. For musicians, that publish date is usually when a CD is released. Take a little time before the album is released to register both the music (form PA) and the recording itself (form SR) with the U.S. Copyright Office as a collection so you get the full benefit of registration as it is more cost-effective to register them as a whole than each song separately.
Also, before the album release, register the songs with a Performance Rights Organization (PRO) and the sound recording with SoundExchange so that if it’s played and picked up in their surveys, you can get paid for it. If you wait until after it’s been released, you might miss out on their surveys if it’s played.
6. Obtain a Bar Code
Although getting a bar code sounds like a trivial commercial step, it’s more important than some musicians think. Music sales are tracked within the United States through Nielsen Soundscan, which uses the bar code as the unique identifier for the album. Without it, the album sales won’t be counted. Also, some musicians forget that bar codes are also part of the album art. They usually need to be obtained ahead of time or it slows the entire process down while waiting for it. Click here for more information on obtaining a Bar Code.
5. Choose an Appropriate Method for Making Your CDs
When you’re ready to make CDs, there are lots of options for manufacturing them. To choose the right one, estimate how many CDs you’ll need for each of these categories: CD sales at live shows, physical CD sales online, PR campaigns, free CD giveaways, college or commercial radio campaigns, and CD review campaigns. Each of these can affect the size of your run, as well as help you determine the quality of disc that you’ll want. If you need a rough guide, just assume that you’ll need at least 100 for each of the aforementioned uses.
Once you know how many and what you’re going to do with them, you can choose the best method for you. Consider one of these options:
- Make It Yourself. You can always use your own computer to burn CDs and print covers and liner notes. This method is certainly easy for demos but very time-consuming. (Think of using scissors to cut perfectly square fold-outs for the CD case 20 times in a row.) Also, it usually results in a low-quality product that is not appropriate for PR campaigns, radio, and CD reviews. It costs approximately $2 per disc if you buy in bulk, use color ink for your cover, and buy empty jewel cases. These prices get closer to $3 to $3.50 if you get a printer that can print on the CD itself and you use higher-quality paper for the insert.
- Buy a Duplication Machine. If you need to be able to make a large number of CDs on demand, bulk-duplication machines may be an option. These machines will usually both duplicate CDs and print reasonable-quality images on the CD face itself. On average, a decent machine costs approximately $1,200; the lower-priced ones aren’t worth buying as they don’t last as long. Figuring in the insert, the toner, CDs, CD case, etc., your cost is around $1.80 per CD once you’ve paid for the machine. This option is probably best if you need to be able to handle a lot of different CD runs on short notice. If you have just a few albums, you’re usually better off going with one of the other methods.
- Duplicate It. There are two major methods that are often confused for making a large number of CD copies: replication and duplication. The latter is for short runs between 100 and 500 CDs. It creates CD-Rs that don’t last as long as replicated CDs do (although they’ll usually last a couple of years or so), and they don’t play in some of the very oldest CD players. The final product looks just as good as a replicated disc, however, because it’s usually made using the same printer for the insert and on-disc images. The result is perfectly good for publicity, music reviews, and submitting to radio stations. The cost per CD is typically between $4 and $5 if you add in the shipping costs to get the discs delivered to you.
- Replicate It. Replicating CDs involves making copies from a glass master disc, and creates the highest-quality product. Most CD manufacturers don’t even offer replication unless you’re going to make 1,000 copies or more (Disc Makers offers replication at quantities of 300). Although this method has the highest up-front costs, it also has the lowest cost per CD with the best result. The prices are usually around $1 to $2.50 for each disc after shipping costs are figured in.
4. Clear the Rights
When you hire a CD manufacturer to duplicate or replicate your CD, the company will ask you to sign a form that you’ve cleared the rights to the music on the disc and the art on the disc and inserts. As always with copyright law, this is more complicated than it seems. If you want to do it right, you need to spend a little time tracking down the info and clearing the rights.
For cover songs, you are required to pay a mechanical royalty for every single copy of the music that you make. This royalty is due when you make a copy, regardless of what you do with the music: sell it, give it away, or even just leave it in your basement. This is why CD houses are required to ask about clearance when they make your discs rather than when you sell them. To clear the rights, start by going to Limelight or Harry Fox. Otherwise, you’ll have to contact the copyright owner directly. Click here for more information on clearing your cover songs.
There are only two pieces of good news about this process. First of all, the maximum rate is capped by law, currently at 9.1¢ per copy. Second, cover songs usually are a great way to get people interested in your music as people search for them in popular online music stores. A purchase of a cover that you recorded can turn into a purchase of your entire album.
For any art that you don’t create yourself, you’ll have to negotiate separately with the owner. Often forgotten is that photographers own any photographs they take unless you hired them under a “work for hire” contract. If you don’t have such a contract, it might be necessary to pay the photographer for the use of his/her work in your album.
3. Proof Your Discs
It’s embarrassing if you have discs made that have text mistakes on them. There is no reason for such errors to get through. The best way to avoid such a problem is to get a proof copy from the CD manufacturer and hand it to as many people as possible. Although it’s tempting to skip this step because it usually costs extra, it’s worth it.
No matter how much checking you do on your computer screen before you submit it, there’s something about having a physical proof that forces you to truly look at every word. You will also get a chance to see the alignment of all of your images and the overall effect of the art. These types of mistakes are the kind that can lead to the music being ignored, no matter how good it is.
2. Make Sure Track Names Automatically Come Up In Music Players
When you pop a CD into iTunes or other computer-based music players, the track and artist names usually come up. This makes it easy for listeners to know what they’re hearing, and it is used for the titles in MP3 files when people rip the CD. But for new CDs, all that comes up are generic titles such as Track 1 and no artist name. Fortunately, this is something that you can fix yourself before you send it out to anyone.
The track information is stored in two services: Gracenote MusicID and FreeDB. Both do the same thing: They get a fingerprint of the CD (based on the combination of length and order of the songs) and compare it to their databases. If they have an entry, the track names come up. If they don’t, you will need to fill the track information out yourself, and then use the Submit button in your player. For example, in iTunes, choose Advanced/ Submit CD Track Names after typing in the names, which submits the information to the services. [Note: Disc Makers' Mega Distribution Bundle includes registry with Gracenote and AllMusic.com.]
1. Build In Appropriate Lead Time for Publicity and Promotion
Although some musicians like to release their album the instant that they get it in their hands, that can sometimes interfere with a coordinated media campaign. If you are planning to promote your disc through traditional media (newspapers, magazines, and radio), new media (blogs, podcasts, and websites), and social media (MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter), you need to build in the right lead time to coordinate these campaigns.
Traditional media outlets typically need lead times of three months to schedule their articles. They expect press releases and sometimes require a lot of callbacks to get their attention, which can be time-consuming. If you plan a traditional media campaign to have articles coming out around the same time you release the album, have your discs in hand and ready to go before you even start the campaign.
For social media, it’s best to make it an ongoing communication through the entire process. New media needs just a week or so of lead time for news about a release show. And for the album release itself, you should approach them just before or just after release to announce the news.
As for social media, it’s best to make it an ongoing communication through the entire process – including during the album’s recording – so that your fans feel connected to you and your latest work. By the time the album comes out, they’ll be excited to see the final product. Putting together a street team and finding ways to get them involved is a great way to keep the excitement going while you build up to a release party.
Fade Out
Imagine you’re a music reviewer holding two CDs in your hand: One is a burned CD in a sleeve with magic marker written all over it, and the other is a professional-looking replicated CD. Better still, once the professional-looking CD is played, it’s mastered and the band’s name and song titles automatically pop up in your music player. Which would you pay attention to? Which artist do you think put in the time to want to be reviewed? Considering that most artists only put out a handful of albums, it’s worth the effort to follow through on all of these steps. After all, your music is worth it.
Read more: Countdown to Your Album — Echoes - Insight for Independent Artists Countdown to your album.
Russ Rentler in Haiti
by Russ Rentler
In 1996 I made my first medical mission trip to Port-Au-Prince Haiti with my evangelical church. The sights, sounds and smells were overwhelming and I developed a pretty good case of Aristide's Revenge while there. The roosters crowed all-night long and the sounds of the barking dogs and my grumbling stomach kept me up most of the night. The poverty of this country was beyond anything I had ever seen or heard of and I felt completely useless not having modern diagnostic equipment, a laboratory, electricity or clean running water . I looked out the window at the mountains of Haiti as we taxied away on our return to the states and thought "I will never come back here again."
God has a way of changing our plans and making them His. Shortly after I returned home from my first trip He worked in my heart and I knew I had to go back to Haiti again. But I never dreamed how many times I would go back down there! Two weeks ago, I returned from Port-Au-Prince Haiti for my 15th trip in as many years with the support of St Joseph the Worker Parish in Orefield and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Doylestown, PA. We are now working with a Catholic parish, Sts. Simon and Jude, where we started a new medical mission 2 years ago. Five years ago my wife and I returned to the Catholic faith we were baptized into, but that is yet another story! (see my story at www.crossedthetiber.com.)
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Only a few hours from the richest nation in the world, the needs in Haiti are tremendous and this has been compounded by the recent earthquake. The majority of patients we see have never seen a doctor and we have one very short week to provide the general medical needs of a parish of several hundred families, as well as others in the area who hear about the "blanc medikal" and hurriedly line up to get into the clinic. Through the generous donations of multiple parishes and individuals in the states we take about 1400 lbs of medications, equivalent to a small portable Rite Aid Pharmacy.
With the grace of God and good translators provided by a Catholic mission in PAP, we attempt to hear the multiple complaints of soft-spoken humble Haitians who have just a few minutes to tell us of their many maladies. There is a fair chance they are also complaining for other family members but we gladly give them as much medicine as we can to match the symptoms and findings we are presented with.
Despite the grinding poverty in this completely devastated country, the beauty of Haiti lies in its people and their tremendous faith in the God they trust to provide all their needs. After 15 years I can tell you I never met a Haitian who didn’t put his faith in Jesus trusting Him, literally, for his daily bread. I have always felt that I get much more out of going to Haiti than I could ever give in return. Surely there is no other place in the world that one can be closer to Christ than in His poorest children. "Whatsoever you do for the least of these, that you do unto me."
I would like to end this story with a line from my song for our Haitian brothers and sisters, Jewel of the Caribbean.
"You still are that Jewel and that shining you can’t lose
And you got something they can’t take away,
I don’t think that I deserve to tie your shoes
Until I’ve walked a mile in your shadows."
Feel free to download this song and pray for the Haitian people as you listen to it.
Click Here.
Thank you and God bless you.
Russ Rentler, M.D.
Catholic Rock Music - Part One: Catholic Rock on the Road
by Hugh van der Linden
Just a couple of miles from the Pacific Ocean, in the parking lot of Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, a dirty white "short bus" that has been converted into a camper-van rests silently against the solid blue backdrop of the summer sky. Its dashboard is strewn with maps, sunglasses, plastic water-bottles, and gum wrappers. It looks like a teenage boy's bedroom on wheels. Hitched to the back of the van is a large white trailer with its tailgate down. In silence, a handful of scruffy young men wearing t-shirts and jeans, and sporting a few tattoos roll amplifiers, speaker cabinets, and racks of lights out the back of the road-weary trailer. Five hours before they will perform for a crowd of enthusiastic teenagers, they do the thankless, back-breaking work of setting up their own stage and sound system.
Like so many young rock bands, The Thirsting is "on the road" trying to get their music out there. They sleep in their van, eat at truck stops, drive for hours on end, set up their own gear, and play for whoever will listen. It's not an easy life, but they're passionate about what they do. And what they do is play rock n' roll...Catholic rock n' roll.
In the small world of Catholic rock music, the "Do It Yourself (DIY)" philosophy is not an alternative to working with a large record label or publishing company, it's the only option for most artists. If they want people to hear their music, then they must handle every facet of the artistic process themselves. They produce their own recordings, book their own gigs, and market and sell their own merchandise. There is no record label, no manager, no agent, and no publicist. If they don't do it themselves, it doesn't get done. "Booking our gigs is a lot of hard work," Josh Olson, the guitarist for The Thirsting explains, "phone calls, and emails. A lot of it has been us sitting by the phones. One thing we've been doing recently is compiling a big data base of all the dioceses, and youth leaders all across the country. And so we try to call them and get events booked that way." This is a common situation for most Catholic rock artists. Mike BeLoud of the LA-based band Rise makes it clear that every aspect of touring, not just booking gigs, is usually left up to the artist. "We have generally paid for all our own travel," he states, "including our trip to Germany (for World Youth Day 2005). Occasionally, a promoter will offer a small stipend for travel, but mostly we take care of our own logistics."
David Vogel, an award winning Catholic artist, also survives without the help of a booking agent or manager. He matter-of-factly declares, "I have slept in the back seat of my car, on the tour bus, outside on the ground, hotels, motels, guest houses, in churches, church rectories, a wing off a convent, homeless shelters, even under a bridge." It certainly isn't the glamorous life of many secular performers as portrayed on MTV. There are definitely no all-night parties with groupies, no expensive hotel penthouses, and no stretch limousines to take artists to their gigs. On the contrary, the Catholic rock artist lives a humble, no-frills life receiving little recognition for all their hard work. A few make enough money from their ministry to support a modest life style. However, most Catholic artists must work full-time day jobs in order to pay their bills because their music just doesn't generate enough income.
Although the financial rewards are usually minimal, and the work is hard, most Catholic artists find themselves playing for very appreciative audiences no matter what the situation. The Thirsting said that in the past three years, they have played about 200 shows. Mostly churches, retreats, youth rallies, and Christian music festivals (like the Joshua Fest in Quincy, CA, or Common Ground at Ester Short Park in Vancouver). Kyle Heimann of the group Popple says, "We are on the road for 2 months straight every summer playing at camps, and a good chunk of the weekends the rest of the year. Weve played at retreats, conferences, youth rallies, camps, Mass, parish picnics, parties, youth nights, praise and worship events, and adoration. In 2009 we played 110 days, and with travel it was 150 days (on the road). We have played in Mexico, France, and all over the country (USA)."
By far, the largest and highest-profile concert event for Catholic rock artists to perform at is the International World Youth Day Celebration (WYD). This event is held in a different international city every two or three years, and is scheduled for Madrid, Spain in 2011. It attracts hundreds of thousands of teens from all over the world, and is also internationally televised. Artists such as Critical Mass, Rise, and Tom Booth have all had the opportunity to perform at this event over the past several years. WYD is an unbelievable chance for any artist to share their music with a young international audience. Surprisingly, even for an event of this magnitude, the performers receive little or no money. Furthermore, they are not allowed to sell any of their merchandise at WYD, and typically have to arrange for all their own travel, and housing accommodations. David Vogel performed at WYD 2008 in Sydney, Australia, but 
not before enduring enormous trials for months leading up to the event. He was badly injured in a severe motorcycle accident, his house was burglarized, and his band quit on him. Yet, he was so determined to play at WYD 2008 that he borrowed money against his home, and sold most of his belongings to cover the cost of the trip to Sydney.
Enduring hardships is just part of the experience. Touring is a labor of love, especially for Catholic bands that cannot turn to a tour manager, or record company to help out when they hit bumps along the way. "One time, in the middle of a spring tour of the South-west," explains Dan Oberreuter, lead singer for The Thirsting, "we were in Flagstaff, Arizona and our bus broke down. It was really cold, about 20 degrees out and there was a blizzard ahead of us. That kind of sucked because we were supposed to have a concert in Amarillo, but our bus broke down before we got there. In hindsight, we think it was probably God protecting us from the blizzard."
The band Rise has also seen their fair share of touring disasters. They say, "We often consider ourselves as the 'Spinal Tap' of Catholic Music! We can write a book about the disasters and funny things that have happened to us, from traveling across the country at our own expense to perform at what was billed as a huge arena gig, but only about 6 people showed up in a venue that could have held 10,000...to Mike's 'exploding' suitcase at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany!"
There are also many unexpected rewards for the brave artists who venture out on the road. As they perform in small towns and large cities across the globe, they come in contact with many different people. It's not unusual for them to find that when they arrive at a town to perform, their music has preceded them and already touched individuals in that community. They often find that while they are ministering to their audiences with their songs, God is ministering to them as well. A beautiful example of this is retold by the members of The Thirsting: "One tour, we roll up to Dinuba, California, and this guy comes up and greets us. We're like, 'who is this guy? Is he part of the Church or what?' He goes, 'Do you know who I am?' We say, 'No.' He says, 'Well, I know who you guys are. I've been waiting for you guys for a week.' Turns out, he's a homeless guy in the area that had heard about us coming. He hasn't had a roof over his head for 15 years. He had our concert poster on his shopping cart, and he's a member of the parish there. He took us to the church. Everybody knew him. He helped us set up. He was just a fun guy to talk with, and hang out with. He wouldn't accept a food offering. He said, 'You guys need it more.' He was the first one to greet us and the last one to see us go when we left. He gave Josh a gift: a (sweet) watch. He was the least among us...Jesus among us."
Whether it is receiving a warm reception from an ecstatic young crowd who are witnessing their first rock concert ever, or enduring the critical comments of elderly parishioners about the evils of rock music, Catholic artists have to keep a positive attitude. Without that they would never last. They must be passionate about their music, as well as their faith. They must be firmly grounded in the belief that what they do truly matters, and playing their music for others is their calling. In regards to Catholic artist who are on the road playing their music, Tom Booth may sum it up best when he explains, "Generally speaking, these are people who have been profoundly touched by the grace of God, and feel pushed to go out and tell the world the good news. Mostly, it is work for the gospel; meeting people, listening to their stories, praying with them, giving advice and asking advice. The music is a small part of the overall picture. It is ministry, not music performance."
