Other Musical Blogs

A friend of mine is big into metal.
She has started up a blog on her Thoughts of the metal music scene in Edmonton Alberta.

Lots of cool things she covers and talks about. From some of the shows to venues for great shows.

As well as many other related things. Very interesting and a great read.

Head here  http://randommetalmusings.blogspot.ca/ and check it out!

Stage It

Well over the last month I have been trying out a new to me kind of setup. I have been doing a few live webcast shows. basically I used a site that lets you stream live and text chat in real time. It was very exciting at first and the thoughts we endless on how it could go and be a big help to artists and bands that can not get to all the place fans would like them to come to.

I used a web site called www.stageit.com they have a great set up to get you going quickly. A very easy layout lets you see upcoming shows, artist information, who's been online and the likes. There are tips and tricks for the artists and bands to read through if you need some help and ideas. You can set show prices, get tips, offer rewards for tips.
Lots of easy to use features through out the artist side, like quick links to promote your shows directly to Twitter and Facebook. They also provide a page of reports for each show that you play.
They run each show based on tokens. These tokens are credits you buy so that you can get a ticket to a show and use for leaving tips. Each token is worth $0.10, so 10 tokens would be a whole Dollar. The artists and bands can set ticket prices for each show they do. You can have as low as pay what you want to say 100 tokens for a ticket. This is where the site helps the artist and themselves going.

There is a split on the tokens/ credits at the end of each show with the artist getting the bigger share. They use part of what they make from your show to pay for the credit card fees and the paypal fees they incur for transaction on the site.

They help you get rolling in about 5 to 10 minutes. You build you band profile, add a photo or 2, store links, web site links, they even ask you for your YouTube link. And the great idea to use your YouTube for a quick promo video to help push your shows.

This could be a very powerful tool in between your regular shows to help keep connected to fans.

I had a great time trying it out. All I needed was a webcam hooked up to my computer. No fancy anything. I did put up a background to help the overall look while I was playing.

Over all I think it is a very good site and tool for any performing act.

The only thing i had problems with was getting people to come and watch. That is not the fault of www.stageit.com , more me not being pushy enough through my online networks.

Give it a shot. Let me know what you think and how it has worked for you.

Or have you tried a similar site to www.stageit.com?

Live on Line

So Tomorrow evening I will be playing live once again on line.
I'll be hitting the digital stage about 8:05 pm local time to do a quick little show. I'll be playing 3 to 4 of my songs.

This is the link to the live show.

http://www.stageit.com/kevin_frey/tuesday_night_busking_from_home_3/25862

It is very easy to get going.

Here is a quick run down from Stageit.com

Here's how it works according to the Stageit folks: Go to [ http://www.stageit.com/kevin_frey/tuesday_night_busking_from_home_3/25862 ], click signup to set up an account and then click the BUY button.You will then have an opportunity to purchase credits (which Stageit calls "Notes" ; 10 Notes = $1.00). Notes allow you to pay for tickets to see shows and to tip performers during the show. This show is "Pay What You Can," which means you can pay whatever you can afford (minimum 1 Note). Once you have Notes, they can be used for any show!

See you on the stage!

Very simple. Great place to see some very good acts.
Hoe to see you there!

Things On My Mind

So with social media and what seems like a million and one new web sites, apps, videos, on line what ever you can think of, a person could go mad.
You set up a site and get things rolling, then promote it on line spend more and more trying to get people to listen, like, share, watch, and hopefully buy your music.
You set goals, you plan, re plan, change plans, make phone calls, book shows, fliers fliers and more fliers.
When is too much too much? You know, The burn out you get trying to hustle you shows, web site, facebook, iTunes, youTube channel, and your music.
What about the T shirts and CD? Didn't even start on that ... what now?
Well one of the most effective things you can do is start out with a simple band logo. Something clean simple and that says every thing about your music as you can in one quick flash. Sadly that that seems to be our ever shrinking attention span in this digital world.
Old fashioned hard work, hands one, one to one, in person interactions are what will make things happen.
 Some times, like I am in now, no matter how many phone calls or emails you send you just can not catch a break and line up a gig.
So what do you do when you hit a wall like this?
Start planning your own shows in or at nontraditional locations. At different times, with other groups or artist.
Hey, why not even plan on on line web cast shows.

When you are looking at odd places to play the best bet is go out with a hand full of demo CD's, a business card, a one page sheet with a quick write up on your act and even throw that on the back of a band promo photo printed off on a 8 X 10 page.
With all of these in Tow for setting up shows the most important things you need are very simple.

1. Act or artist name on every thing.
2. Contact name and phone numbers, email
3. Web site addresses (keep it simple 3 should be more then enough)
4. A quick list of your last shows. A simple list of place, date, time and if you have how many people came out (draw).
5. Always smile and say thank you! no matter the out come.

When you can go out and meet face to face you will get better response from Booker's, bar owners, venue coordinators and any one else that is a gate keeper to a place you want to play. It shows a more professional attitude and you just handed over more information to get you the show then and phone call or email will get you. The person you deal with or talk to will have something to go over, listen to, and have in hand or site on their desk to remind them you are serious. 

Its just like looking for a job. Your promo kit is your resume. Make it look good. Get it in their hands. Smile and be thankful of every ones time. 

Also one thing to think about if you get that show right then and there do you ask right of way if they know of any other places that are looking for bands to play? That is a hard one you never know they may see it as taking business away from them down the road. 

At the end of your show make sure you thank the person who let you in to play, and ask if you can come back again in the near future. Always good to try and play the same place a few times, you start building regular fans easier if they know where you are on a regular basis.

Any How things to think about. Things to try.

you may have a better spin on some of these.

Drop a line if you have something you could add to this!

Keep on Rockin!

   

Been way too long.

Life as we all know can get busy and complicated.
I've been away from this blog for a bit too long.

So what have I been up too.
Well I've played a few open mic nights, played a few shows, played a few battle of the bands, and set up a very quick fund raiser show on the May long weekend.

The battle of the bands I took part in was fun. I met a bunch of people and made a few very good contacts. One of those contacts was with a private studio owner. It was cool we've been chatting a bunch here and there. I got in for a quick session and recorded 2 of my songs. So i now have 4 songs done solo, one voice and one acoustic guitar. I am hoping I can get back there soon and pin down 2 more songs. The 4 i have done are up on my reverbnation web site / page. you can check them out here www.reverbnation.com/kevinfrey  You can also find one of them up on iTunes. Plus I have a second one on iTunes and half of each sale of that one is going to a Youth shelter group in my area.

The fund raiser show was kind of neat. I opened the show and had a good friend Jenessa Dawn play second, Followed by local country duo The Command Sisters, and local rockers REND Finished it off.
With only having about 4 days to get every thing in place I had a little help from The Town of Stony Plain, they let us use a great out door stage. The stage Hosts for the last number of year the Blueberry Bluegrass festival.
The sound gear was lent to us by Music Center Canada in Spruce Grove. Many thanks to Allen for helping us out and lending his banner for us to show he helped.

So not to sure what else to say right now. I don't want to bore the snot out of any one. I will try like mad to keep a bit more up to date on things.

Almost forgot, Been tinkering with live web casts. have done 3 shows so far and the only disappointment I have so far is trying to get people to stop in and watch for the 15 minute mini shows I've been doing. I'll be back at it for one more on Tuesday the 23 of July 2013. In the evening about 8 pm local time. Here is the direct link to the show information http://www.stageit.com/kevin_frey/tuesday_night_busking_from_home_3/25862
You can sign up and log in for free. I will be doing my show for the first while as basically free. Pay what you can and there will also be a tip jar if you think I'm doing good. (don't let them know I said this ... but they give you a hand full of tokens to start with) The tokens on the site is what you can buy tickets with or leave tips with for each act you watch. I'll try and do up a review on stageit.com as soon as I can and after I've gotten a better feel for the site.

Keep on Rockin!
Have a great Weekend!

Been Thinking

So I know its been a while since I last posted anything here on the way of promoting a band. Life has had me busy.
I am working on a few different things these days. one of the ideas I have floating around in my head is a quick guide to promoting your band. Kind of like a great big check list of things to do and things to think about.
I am going to try and get something up for the beginning of the new year. I am going to try and cover as many things as I can, keep it reasonably simple and try and give you as many cost effective tips as I can.
Sort of a Promote your band on a shoe string budget kind of deal.

In the mean time I am getting geared up for another battle of the bands and trying to stash away a bit of money so I can get back into a studio to record a few more songs.
If your wondering one song is up and running on CD baby, iTunes, amazon mp3, and a handful of other sites. You can also find it now on soundcloud. My Way To You by Kevin Frey

I've also been working on some side projects, one of them is painting. I set up a quick blog and started posting pictures of my painting on www.thepainthabbit.blogspot.com
The little paintings are reasonably quick to do and I have started taking them to the odd show as a very different kind of merch to sell. All one of a kind and signed. There are also a few pencil drawing in the mix too. Just one more outlet for ideas to flow. who knows I might end up painting an album cover.
Why not add this as a merchandise idea to you sales table?

For now have fun and Kepp on Rockin!
Cheers,
Kevin

My Music

I nearly forgot to say something about this.

In July I signed up on CD baby and set out for digital distribution of my first single.
I have up for sale the song "My Way To You"

So far the sales have been slow, I can't lie. But I have not been pushing it to hard yet. Just a little bit on my personal facebook page to friends and family.

So here it is This song is up on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazonmp3 and a bunch of others that CD Baby deals with for you.

By The way this is the store widget that you can get from CD Baby. You can tinker with it some to make it look the way you want it to.

Tickets

So with a show coming up and a handfull of tickets, it got me thinking. As an indie artist what are the best ways to sell tickets?

I'm banging my head on the wall trying to move tickets for a show. I've Tweeted, I've set up an event on facebook, i've talked to friends, I have tried many things. Fliers, random chats, really anything I can think of.

I have not found a sure fire way to do it yet. I have even set up a free pair to give away for the first comment on one of my music pages. Nothing.

Why is this so?
Am I being a pest?
Not talking it up enough?
Talking too much?

Not really sure.

So, what are the best ways you use to move tickets.
How does one set up a sure fire plan to sell tickets like hot cakes?

I know one of the golden rules of Social media is to not over do the tweets and updates, or you will get filed to teh side as a spammer.
Is it time of day? or what you say that counts?

I would love some insite from other artists on what they do, what works for them, and what does not work.

So put on your thinking caps and drop me you thoughts.

Cheers!

A question poll

Question of the day #2

The ever burning question of building an email list and fan base is one that is hard to define.
There are hundreds of ways to gather names and emails. The question is what works best?

So tell me and the every one what has worked best for you?

• Simple sign up sheet at gigs/shows with your merch
• On line sign ups on your web site
• Offers like one free down load when you join
• begging?

Give us your ideas and what has worked best for you.
Maybe someone has a sure fire way that no one else has tried before.

Drop us a line here in the comments and we'll see who has the best ideas.

Cheers!

Recording Day

Well today should be a fun day. I am heading to the studio to do a little recording. See what we can get done in a short window of time.
I have way too many songs that I would like to try and get recorded, But today if I can get 2 or maybe 3 songs I will be really happy.

I'm heading in to Two Bodies of Water recording Studio in the West end of Edmonton, Alberta. I will get a good first time run at being in a real studio versus my home set up.
I met with the Big guy there a few weeks ago but have not had the time and funds in place to go full out for a few days. So I am going to try out a solo acoustic treatment of a hand full of my songs. See what it comes out like.

Hopefully over the next while I can do this a few times and get enough songs done up for an EP.

I will let you all know how it goes.

Have a great Day!
Cheers!

A quick Poll.

Question of the day #1

What does your band do to get people out to shows?

Do you do something different like:

• Offer a free drink with your show poster
• Offer a free drink with the hand bill
• Offer tickets to your on line fans for a pre show discount
• Do a random draw from your email list for a pair of tickets to the next show
• Offer free down load of a song

I would love to hear your ideas and share some of the success everyone has had with getting more people to the shows.

Local Bands

Should Be A Great Time!

Local Bands

Videos - Part 2

I've come back to this idea again with another take or angle on it.
My thought being that lots of people love seeing behind the senses. Why else would they put out takes, bloopers, and gag reels on movie DVDs and an extra? Everyone loves to see what happens when they are making that movie.

So this thought falls into that idea loosely. Why not video record a rehearsal and share some of it? why not share a little of your usual day to day with every fan of yours? Its easy enough to do now a days with all the gadgets and how connected everyone is with the Internet. You can easily set up a computer or a lap top or a digital camera or two for some interesting views. Just get ready in your rehearsal space and hit record.

Once you have a bunch of stuff caught on cam put it together as a few short videos and share. You would be very surprised at how many people will stop and watch. using a couple of cameras you can splice together back and forth to ad some interest as well. If your jam session runs real long your can easily make a few videos out of it.
This is one more way to connect with fans and friends. It give a great behind the sense look at what you do. Often it helps make your fans a little more passionate about your music. It also helps drive them to your live shows, because they have seen you putting in the time and they often can't wait to be standing stage side to see you first hand.

You could even kick this idea up a notch or two. There are many online streaming services now. Set up a time and a date and stream live for an hour or so. You can set it up as a free viewing for your fans. You could also offer the free viewing of a live stream to anyone who joins your mailing list or fan club. Or you could go even deeper into it and set up one of your live shows for streaming so the far away fans can get an idea of your live show as well. it could again be a free thing to your fans, or you could also set it up as a payed streaming event with one of the many web sites that are starting to offer this service.
Yo could end up making a few extra bucks from a live performance.

As far as streaming live, I have yet to try it out. I know there are a bunch of sites offering this now and they should be easy to find. I would look at the different options to find one that is going to work best. As well finding out what you might need to do this and what any costs might be.
I will be looking into this a little deeper to see what is offered on line for this and what costs there might be.
Let me know if you have tried this out. Did it work well? How was your experiance with setting it up? What would you recommend for doing a live stream? Tips and pointers?
Or have you watched your favorite band live on line either putting on a show or in rehearsal?
Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Keep on Rockin'!
Cheers

Local Bands

The Elzy Lay Band
March 17 2012 (Saturday - St. Paddy's Day)
Live at:

Eddie Shorts Bar And Grill
10713 124 St NW, Edmonton, AB

10:00 pm only $5.00 at the door!

Should be a face melting good time!

Videos

Ok so, you have your band web site, maybe photos and a professionally done video. What happens when your in between shows and you have some good traffic to your site?

You want people to keep coming back to your site right?
Why not make a few home made acoustic versions of a few of your songs and put them up on your site over a week or two.
Cost? Ok, I know what your thinking that's a lot of money and time. Well it doesn't have to be.
All you really need is a camera on your computer or laptop and an acoustic guitar. Maybe a few other hand instruments if more then one of you are going to be in the quick video.

This is next to free to do. I don't like breaking the bank for simple things that I can share quickly with people. It also give people a bit more on your site to see and keep them on your pages a little bit longer.

He is a sample of a quick one I did at home one evening.

Quick and simple and if the sound is ok and looks ok put it up. It will give your fans a little extra to come back and look forward to when your not out playing live.

This will also help them feel a little more like you are right there playing that song just for them.

This is just one more simple idea and way your friends and fans can keep engaged with you and your music.

Keep on Rockin!

Cheers!

Its been a while

Well its been a while since I had time or any thoughts about this blog. Time to start working on it.

Not sure how many people are interested in what I am doing, but I'll just keep plugging a long.

So I am going to be doing a few more things on pushing a indie band a long. I have been doing a bunch of reading and testing of a few things over the last while. I'm going to start doing a few reviews of books that can help a new artist, share some ideas on promoting a band, and sharing in some of the things that have worked for me and some that have not.

I also have a second blog going about my ups and down with my own music that I have started. It is at www.kevinfreyband.blogspot.com

I hope that some of the things I cover help and give you some ideas as well. I would like to share with anyone who needs some ideas.

I hope you will join me as I plug along.

Contests

Contests

I've been digging around and found an interesting one running right now. EMI Records (Canada) has a contest going right now and artists can win a single produced and marketed by EMI. I thought I would put a few up there and see what happens, you never know right.

You can always get feed back from contests. look for them all over the place. just make sure your not giving away the farm and all your rights to the song or songs you enter. It would suck if you had a hit song and never see a penny from it because you gave it away.

Have fun and always be on the look out for any way you can get you music out there. you never know what can happen.

Updateing and rebuilding

So, It has been a while since last posting and I will be working on doing things a bit different here. In the next few weeks I will start posting about local gigs in the area. Song and maybe video of the week / month. Tips on anything I can think of like promoting you music, places to advertise your music, I might add a feature like a how to play this song on guitar. Any who knows maybe have a few other things up the the sleeve.

Have a great weekend.