Category Archives: Friday Faves

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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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!)

Friday Faves 03-22-13 – Pre-Order Edition

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[PSA: If you don’t want to read this all now, clicking on the Share button at the end of the post now gives you the option of sending it to your Kindle account!]

A couple of items I have pre-ordered or am in line get that might be of interest:

Automatic (I wonder how much they paid to get that domain name?!) is (pre) selling a small device that plugs into the link to your car’s computer (the one your mechanic uses to  diagnose why your Check Engine light is on) and connects to an app on your smartphone (iOS or Android) via Bluetooth. Combining the data from your car computer and GPS service on your phone it says it will

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Friday Faves 02-15-13

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Firstly, some sad news for sewing and knitting folks in the Boston area: the venerable Windsor Button shop is closing its last remaining store, on Temple Pl. in downtown Boston, due to lease non-renewal. Read about it here, and stop by to pick up sale items as they liquidate their inventory.

Secondly, some more sad news that can be helped: the “fiercely independent” bookstore Longfellow Books in Portland ME suffered massive water damage during last week’s storm due to frozen pipes in the building over their store. You can help them out by buying ebooks from their website, gift certificates (which give them cash now and you/your giftees books later), and/or donating directly. See this letter from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance for more information.

Thirdly, you may recall that I recently recommended a Kickstarter project by ThinkMusicTechnology for an iPad app with musical note handwriting recognition for creating scores. They’ve now canceled the KS project as it wasn’t going to reach their (very ambitious) goal despite much interest. But they are looking for other funding resources and still plan to develop the app – so if you are interested, sign up for their mailing list at their website.