Tag Archives: cheap

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

Posted on by

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 Tidbits – 02-22-13

Posted on by

In addition to the formal articles I post here, I also have a What Betty Knows Facebook Page where I sometimes post quick tips that don’t warrant writing an entire blog entry. So occasionally I will round those up and post here for future reference:

Continue reading →

Quick Tip – Buying Coin Batteries

Posted on by

I went to Walgreens last weekend to buy two LR44 batteries (the ones about the size of a thick aspirin) for a cat laser toy. Looking through the wall o’ batteries I found them – at $5.29 each!

I thought that was rather excessive, so instead I looked around to find the display of cheap book lights that run on LR44s. And since it was stocking stuffer time, I found a whole endcap of such items. So for $5 I bought TWO new keychain lasers that ran on three LR44s AND came with three more spares, a total of twelve batteries for $5!

For future reference, American Science and Surpus sells 10 LR44s (AKA AG13) for $1.95, plus other coin batteries (e.g., CR2016 and CR2032).

Quick Shopping Tip For Smartphone Users

Posted on by

If you are a smartphone user who will need to choose between warm hands and using your touchscreen phone outside during the winter, stop by your nearest Five Below store. They have stretch knit gloves with conductive tips on both thumbs and index fingers for only $3! I tested them and the conductive material worked well with my iPhone’s screen.