Author Archives: BettyW

Tips During A Disaster

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All of us in or near Boston are still shaken by the horrible bombing at the Marathon this week. It’s unfortunately true that you cannot predict when participating in a normal public activity will suddenly turn into an emergency – though short of being in a location of overt civil or political unrest the actual chances of it happening to you are far less than the incessant media coverage makes you think.

But if you do find yourself caught up in a dangerous public emergency, here are some things to keep in mind:

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Friday Tidbits -04-12-13

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I’m offline much of this weekend (starting today) going to Ladies Rock Camp, so here is a selection of tidbits previously posted to my Facebook Page as they didn’t turn into full blog posts:

Quick iPhone tip  If you need to charge up your iPhone while away from your computer and lacking a direct outlet plug, before plugging into another person’s computer make sure to do this: open iTunes on the computer, go to Preferences -> Devices and enable the checkbox for “Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.” Why? so that things like your voice memos don’t get transferred to their computer!

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Review – Video House Concerts Beta Site

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Last weekend I got to check out VideoHouseConcerts.com, which is a new business designed to allow performers to host a web-streamed concert from their home, studio, or any place with a good internet connection. Why is this any better than using one of the other available streaming services, such as Ustream or Google+ Hangouts? Video House Concerts provides some features not currently available to non-commercial users of those services:

• VHC sells tickets at several different access levels so that you can generate income

• The VHC concert experience allows for in-concert interaction with the performer, via text interaction or actual video & audio interaction for VIP ticket holders.

Sounds good  – so how was the actual experience? Read on…

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Friday Faves (Free-Cheap Edition) 03-05-13

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Free Music Business Book

I’ve just started reading an ebook, The Six-Figure Musician. So far it seems filled with good points about what you need to do to “make it” as a professional musician (spoiler: mostly, work really hard at what you decide you want to do). It is available as a free PDF download from the author’s site (and geek kudos to him for getting the domain name “musicianbook.com”!), or you can buy it on Amazon for Kindle for $4.99:

Free Facebook Newsfeed Optimization

I’m testing a 30-day free trial of a Facebook posting service. PostRocket analyzes the fan engagement data you see at the top of your band/business/etc. Facebook Page and uses a proprietary algorithm to decide when to make posts to the page that maximize your fans’ interaction with them.

To do this you set up several posts in advance and they post those at the times they deem best. And since recent research shows that pictures get more attention than just verbal posts they help to turn the latter into pictures from the site being linked, and let you apply some Instagram-like photo filters and add text into the image.

I didn’t have to give them a credit card to get the free trial, and even after 30 days they have an ongoing free option (which limits your account to managing 3 Pages, and does not give you as much analysis of your posts’ performance).

Pay What You Will Music Downloads

First, if you haven’t seen Amanda Palmer‘s recent TED talk The Art Of Asking  I recommend you do so.

Palmer’s message is that there is no shame in asking your fans to support you, and that while it’s impossible to force people to pay for music they generally will give you money and/or other kinds of support if you give them the opportunity to offer it.

So keep your eye out for performers who offer their music for whatever you are willing to pay. Usually there is an option to stream the music first so you can get an idea about whether you like it –  if you do please consider the time, efforts, cost of musical gear, cost of music lessons, nights spent playing in bars for little or no pay while honing their chops, etc. as you decide what amount to give them for their download.

If you are a starving artist/musician/un-or-underemployed whatever: don’t feel guilty if you can’t toss a lot into their virtual hat – but DO drop them a note about liking the music, and tell your friends about it.

Here are a few musicians with pay-what-you-will downloads:

Amanda Palmer – Theatre Is Evil

Walter Sickert & The Army Of Broken Toys – Soft Time Traveler (just released!)

Jaggery – Private Violence

Ginger Ibex – The Rusty Goat Sessions (disclosure: this is one of my bands!)

Ginger Ibex – Firefly (our 2009 album – following my own advice and just made download PWYW!)