This month’s artist spotlight is the newest addition to the Last Stop Booking roster: Splintered In Her Head. Splintered in Her Head is an electro rock band from Portland, OR. Fans of The Cure, Depeche Mode, and The Church will love them at first listen, but the band is solidly 21st century, sprinkling dark glam DNA on fresh songwriting … Read more
Time spent in preparation can save you a lot of time later in execution. One of the biggest hurdles that most artists struggle with is booking: finding places to play, booking their tour, knowing who to contact, etc. This is a time-saving tip that you can apply, starting today. Do you have a database of … Read more
I love this meme. I can still hear the AOL sound clip in my mind saying “You’ve Got Mail!” Back then, email was such a phenomenon (especially through AOL), that a film plot with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan was built around the concept. Not long after, email became so common and inundated with spam that … Read more
I’ve spent a lot of time talking about what sponsors are looking for as well as making the pitch but I thought I’d take some time to talk about what sponsors are not looking for. Maybe this will help you avoid the pitfalls that most artists walk right into when trying to get a new sponsor for their record, … Read more
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by John Lee Dumas of Entrepreneur on Fire. He was launching a new podcast series called “The Great Business Experiment: Kickstarter.” It featured interviews with ten successful Kickstarter campaigns to talk about what worked, what was learned, and what can be done for the future. All 10 … Read more
While I was on Twitter, I saw some misinformation being posted through an RT on the CD Baby account. A merch company argued that musicians should order merchandise before Dec. 31st so they could write off the expenses in 2012 while selling the goods in 2013. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter because you’ll be taxed on your earnings for 2013 … Read more
When looking at the top search terms for my blog today, I noticed several searches about “unsolicited music demos” and even “What is an unsolicited music demo?” So let’s talk about them and how to make them work for you: What is an unsolicited demo? If you look under the FAQ’s or contact information of … Read more
Do you have a tour or one-off show coming up? Let’s talk about how to promote it. Now, I understand that there are many debates on where the responsibility of promoting lies (some argue the venue/promoter, some argue the artist). Those debates aside, let me say this: the time and money that goes into strategically … Read more
Recently, I received an email with two commonly asked questions about sponsorship that I’d like to address: 1) How much can you ask from a sponsor?2) My project costs X dollars, should I mention that in my pitch? In my book, I talk about a new way of looking at sponsorship: a partnership. Approaching a business … Read more
When it comes to touring, I find more musicians focused with the “How,” “When,” and “Where” aspects but not enough of the “Why.” Of course, touring can be an incredibly important step in most artists’ careers but you should definitely take some time out to create solid goals and a definitive strategy before you decide … Read more