There are music fans. Then there are music fans. I’m talking about the fans who love to collect music memorabilia. If you’re looking for, say, a signed album cover from Michael Jackson or you want an original poster from Woodstock signed by The Grateful Dead, you may want to check out the new American Royal Arts Catalog for 2010.
American Royal Arts is a company that sells entertainment art and has been around since the 80’s. It was started by Jerry Gladstone who realized the marketability of music icons around the world. After all, music is part of everyone’s life and just about every famous musician has a legion of fans in every country around the world.
Here is a video that talks more about American Royal Arts…
Anytime a musician passes away, there is always a spike in sales for that person’s memorabilia. The following Jerry Gladstone video showcases some of Michael Jackson’s memorabilia. It also talks about how ARA determines whether or not a signed art piece, album cover, or photograph is authentic…
And if, by chance, you are an Eric Clapton fan, here is another Jerry Gladstone video that highlights Lee Dickson, the guitar tech for Eric Clapton, showing memorabilia for sale through American Royal Arts…
As someone who has spent the last decade online trying to keep up all the “cool things” that people do when they’re online, I’m still amazed at all the latest advancements in technology. If you have a question about any subject, all you have to do is search online for your answer. And when it comes to music, all the answers are right at your fingertips.
And now that we have Twitter, the possibilities are endless.
If you’ve been hiding in a cave or don’t spend anytime at all on the internet, you probably don’t know about Twitter, a site that has become a rapidly-growing social networking and communication tool for millions of people around the world.
Last year I briefly mentioned Twitter in a post titled, The Internet: A Musician’s Good Friend, in which I offered a couple marketing tips for musicians.
I was one of those people who resisted joining Twitter because everyone was saying “all the cool people are doing it”. But seriously, all the cool people are tweeting nowadays. Check out The Pitchfork Guide to Musicians on Twitter.
I could go on and on about how wonderful Twitter is, but it’s up to you to check it out and see for yourself.
Ty Cohen of The Music Biz Center put together a series of videos that tells us what Twitter is all about and how you can use Twitter to market your music. For those of you who are just starting out on Twitter, check out this video…
Sure, it would be nice to have an iPod. Everyone and their grandma seems to have one. It’s the “cool” thing to have, right?
However, as I look at the various options available in terms of getting music, I think there are many other services that are more economical.
For instance, there’s Rhapsody.com. Personally, I like the idea of paying a monthly membership fee and having access to unlimited songs. Even if you don’t want to sign up for a membership, Rhapsody does offer high quality mp3’s to download.
Rhapsody has two types of memberships:
Rhapsody To Go – You can load a Rhapsody-compatible portable player and take your music with you in addition to listening to music on your PC or web browser.
Rhapsody Unlimited – You can listen to unlimited music on your PC or browser and burn CD’s with Rhapsody’s software.
What I like about Rhapsody is that I can burn music to CD’s to play in my car. I also like that they have a 14-day free trial so you can test out the service and see if you like it. They even have a Facebook application, so you can create a playlist for your Facebook profile and share your favorite music with friends.
What I would love to see Rhapsody create is a Blackberry application for phones or even some kind of feature to download songs to phones.
What I love about the internet is that I get to meet people from everywhere around the world – people I would probably would have never met otherwise. I can usually find at least one thing in common with someone – and usually it’s music. Because I listen to and appreciate all types of music, I can get into long discussions about a certain era of music.
One musical person who I’ve “met” recently is David Lindberg, who blogs over at Davy’s Locker. Dave is a musician who creates easy-listening music – the kind of music you can just relax to…The kind of music that just makes you feel good! I used to consider it “elevator” music that I could fall asleep to, but as I get older I tend to seek out music that is soothing and calming. You can listen to David’s music over at his MySpace page.
Yes, the internet is a musician’s good friend. You just never know who you may meet online. It could be that person who helps you get your music out to the whole wide world!
Looking for a free way to market your music online?
I am constantly amazed by all the technology that we have at our fingertips – literally. The amount of people that are logging onto the internet on a daily basis is in the millions, if not billions, and there are so many resources out there that can help musicians get the word out about their music.
Well, the other day I spent most of the day listening to different shows over at BlogTalk Radio and noticed that there were quite a few music-related shows being hosted there. Click here to see the list of music shows at BlogTalk Radio.
A light bulb came on in my head…What if No Song Unsung had a music show that played music from independent bands and musicians? Perhaps this could be something that could be done in the future (I have so much on my plate at the moment!) But it’s definitely something for you to think about if you want to get more exposure as an artist. What better way than BlogTalk Radio? It’s absolutely free to start your own show! Seriously, it can’t get any better than that!
Back in the day if you wanted to create quality, professional sounding music, you had to dish out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to a studio that would make the music for you. Even creating your own sheet music was a process. However, with all the technology and computers available today, you can have your own music notation program. If you’ve always dreamed of being a songwriter, you can now create music and music CDs easily and seamlessly with music software.
Finale is a company that offers several products that will suit your music notation needs:
Finale 2008 – provides full MIDI capabilities
Finale Allegro – a low-cost alternative to Finale 2008 that leaves out the detailed options
PrintMusic- create sheet music up to 24 staves
SongWriter – create and print quality sheet music
NotePad – free notation software where users can click notes onto staves
Viewer – free software that lets you view, play, transpose, and print digital sheet music
Did you know that Finale was used in Academy Award®-winning films such as:
* Ratatouille
* Michael Clayton
* Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
* Elizabeth: The Golden Age
* The Golden Compass
Finale is a company that offers several products that will suit your music notation needs: